Warped in this place as it may be, an eternity was still a long time, but even it will pass eventually. After her eternity of grief, Applejack laid unmoving from her spot, save for her trembling breaths and the occasional hiccup. Sniffling, she still let her tears flow down her cheeks, nowhere near dry, but at least she was no longer crying out to the nothingness.
No way home…
No way home…
The words continued to whisper to her, plaguing her and threatening to rend the remnants of her sanity asunder, and try as she might Applejack could not find the mental capacity to exorcize them from her damaged psyche.
No way home…
What was she to do now?
The mare spent another eternity motionless, and she would have spent countless more had something not caught her eye just then. Through her blurry vision, Applejack thought she could see the barest hint of a dim orange glow through the fog. She weakly raised her head, and hazily confirmed that there was indeed something out there. Sitting straight up at last, joints creaking and muscles aching from disuse, the mare wiped her ancient tears off her face and squinted her bloodshot eyes to make out the anomalous light. As perpetually darkened as the forest was, the light was hardly visible through the fog but it was just bright enough to tell her that this was something… different. She had not noticed anything like this during her previous excursion through the woods, so it was little wonder why the mare decided to finally stand up, briefly stretched her neglected limbs, and begrudgingly proceeded in the direction of the glow.
No way home…
After all, what else could she do now?
Hollowly, the mare stumbled her way towards the light, akin to a lighthouse hailing a lost ship to safe harbor. As she drew closer, the light grew brighter, more distinct. At the same time, her ears twitched and she heard—heard! She actually heard!—something she had not experienced in a very, very long time. It was something so precious, so universal Applejack could immediately connect with it regardless of how foreign it was to her now.
Music.
Its melody began to fill the void within her being left behind by the ravaging touch of utter despair and hopelessness. It soothed her like a mother would comfort her child, beckoning her to approach it and find it, all the while expelling the cursed whispers (no way home!) from her mind. The sound of it threatened to bring tears—this time, not of grief, but joy—to her eyes, but she managed to hold them back and persevered. How could there be music in this dead place? How could there be something so beautiful, so alive here? So excited she was she quickly banished such questions, and the earth pony could not help but speed up into a gentle trot, then into an outright gallop as she drew nearer to the source. The light grew ever brighter with every step she took, its orange brilliance a welcome change to the darkness she had grown all too accustomed to, and the music could be heard more clearly. Dodging trees left and right, she faintly realized she wore the memory of a smile upon her weary face. She heard one last, almost inaudible whisper in her mind before it was purged altogether.
No…
Way…
H…
Finally, the light and music almost too powerful to bear, Applejack gave one last burst of speed and emerged from some dense shrubbery and into a wide clearing at the same time the deafening music unexpectedly slowed and softened, but did not stop. The first thing the mare noticed was the enormous bonfire laying in the middle of it all, hypnotizing, dancing, reaching high towards the heavens and the Moon above, and radiating such intense heat she could feel it all the way from the edge of the glade. The Moon seemed oddly benign here, almost benevolent as it showered a stream of gentle moonlight into the clearing.
The second thing she noticed were the throng of ponies all in front of her, gathered in a loose circle around the towering fire. A motley bunch, they were. Mares and stallions, fillies and colts, of all colors and ages, from all tribes. Earth ponies, pegasi, unicorns—there was no discrimination here. They seemed to come from all walks of life. Paupers and beggars, dressed in threadbare rags that barely concealed their starving frames. Decorated soldiers in dented and well-worn armor. Scholars in robes signifying high rank in prestigious academia. Royalty and nobles garbed in the finest silks and adorned with the most precious jewelry. It was clear that any sense of social hierarchy strangely did not exist here.
Right now, though, they were staring intently at the intruder, although their faces were blank and their bodies continued swaying to a gentle melody that was played everywhere but by nopony present. They did nothing else, nothing to indicate they would take any action towards her. Eerie as it was, the scene did beg the question: what were they doing before she arrived? Despite the warmth of the blazing fire, she shuddered as a chill went down her spine. In any case, Applejack did not know whether to feel immense relief at finally seeing other ponies after so long alone, or to feel utterly terrified at what they would do. If anything, it was downright creepy with the way they simply looked at her, not doing anything more.
Suddenly, a couple of them stepped forward and started walking—no, lumbering, but still swaying—towards her. Not knowing what else to do, Applejack stood apprehensively, waiting with bated breath and resisting the primal urge to flee, and watched as the couple of ponies took step after unhurried step, bringing themselves agonizingly closer to her. When they stood before her at last, Applejack took a closer look at the pair.
A mare and a stallion, both earth ponies, both strongly built. The way they carried themselves together hinted they knew each other. Family? They were clearly laborers of some sort, perhaps farmers? Something flashed across their blank faces… recognition? Odd. They had never met before. So then, why did Applejack feel something stir within her soul at that very moment, as well?
One of them, the stallion, reached a hoof out towards her. Confused, Applejack considered raising her own hoof for a hoofbump, but then realized that the stallion before her was not asking for a greeting; he was pointing, not quite at her, but rather at… her hat? Even more confused now, Applejack took off her beloved Stetson and tentatively held it towards him. In response, the stallion merely nodded slowly. Still puzzled, Applejack looked at the stallion, then at her hat, then at the mare beside him, then her hat again, back and forth, as the tugging at her heart intensified, the pangs of recognition growing too strong to ignore. Unbidden memories from times long past began surfacing in her mind. Her brow furrowed in concentration. Where had she seen them before? She felt the strong but gentle (and caring?) hoof of the stallion against her chin, raising her head up. Their eyes met at last, and Applejack noticed the stallion in front of her also had green eyes, the same shade as hers.
It was at that moment that Applejack understood. She had known these two ponies before, a long time ago, and had not seen them since she was but a little filly. She mouthed something to the ponies in front of her, to see if they knew as well, and with a single, sullen nod of their heads, the truth rang in her mind, as clear as the tolling of the mourning bells on the day of their funeral.
But if she was here in this place with them, then…
The music abruptly picked up, faster and livelier now, no longer a continuous hum appropriate for an interlude, but something more befitting of a Dance.
And Dance, the ponies did!
All around the fire they Danced!
No longer swaying, they Danced!
Even as the two ponies before her joined the Dance, Applejack remained rooted to the spot, totally numbed by her revelation. The two then extended a helping hoof towards the catatonic mare, and she could only dumbly stare at it for a while before accepting. They slowly led her towards the center of the clearing, towards the fire, gracefully Dancing all the while, hooves stamping to the beat, twirling their bodies this way and that. Everypony was completely engrossed in the music, which only continued to build up. The ponies all around watched on even as they Danced in perfect unison, giddy in anticipation as gleeful, twisted expressions spread across their visages. Applejack finally regained her mental faculties and gasped as she realized where she was being led. She tried to resist, tried and tried she did, yet her hooves kept moving of their own accord.
Faster and faster they Danced!
Applejack was let go, but instead of turning tail and escaping, to her horror she continued to willfully approach the immense flame, one slow, steady step after another. The remnants of rational and conscious thought screamed at her to just run away and never look back, but the rest of her fractured mind refused, wanting, yearning for her to simply give in and accept her long-overdue fate. Closer and closer to the fire, the music grew louder and faster, almost a cacophony, overwhelming even the thundering of the mare’s panicking heart…
And the Dance grew ever more frantic, ever more passionate!
Mere hoof-lengths away from the tickling flames, the extreme heat already singing her, Applejack stole a despairing glance back at the two ponies, wondering if they would charge in and pull her back, but they did no such thing—as they Danced, they gave but a small twitching of the lips, reminiscent of a loving smile, as Applejack’s body leapt into the inferno.
Applejack burned.
Yet it did not hurt.
She thought she was screaming.
She was not sure, though.
Hair and fur turned to ash.
Her skin was seared off.
Her blood boiled away.
Her flesh was stripped away from the bones.
Even as their own flesh began to rot away into nothing, leaving behind skeletal grins and rattling bones, the ponies around the fire howled and cackled in celebration, while the Moon overhead laughed heartily in thorough amusement.
All the while, they never stopped Dancing.
The fire finally relinquished its hold, and the bones of once-Applejack staggered out from the eternally burning coals.
She paused for only the briefest of moments, before at long last she, too, Danced.
Danced they did, and Dance they would, forevermore.