Please Open The Door

by naturalbornderpy


Visitor Two

VISITOR TWO

 

In the hours that passed before the next visitor, Applejack sat in the darkly lit kitchen and took a single bite of an apple. She was sure it tasted as good as they always had, but at the moment she couldn’t enjoy its flavor. Still, it was at least something to do.
                
As Apple Bloom entered, she set the half-eaten apple aside.
                
“Who were you talking to, sis? Earlier, near the door?”
                
Her sister’s eyes were dry and red; eyes that stared at her longingly.
                
Big sisters were supposed to make everything better, Applejack knew. No matter the situation.
                
“I was…” Applejack said carefully. “I wasn’t talking to anyone, Apple Bloom. Only myself. But I’m glad you’re awake. Here, you should eat something.”

Apple Bloom sat on the chair opposite, only her head above the table.
                
“I’m not all that hungry, Applejack. I’m so worried about everyone else. Why haven’t they come yet? Why hasn’t anyone come to get us yet? You think they’re okay out there?”
                
Applejack nodded. “I’m sure they’re fine, Apple Bloom. All fine. But I want you to eat something, anyways—at least a little bit.”
                
Reluctantly, Apple Bloom took a small bite from her apple, chewing it thoroughly before swallowing. Two bites were all she managed. “I told you, sis, I’m really not hungry right now.”
                
Applejack didn’t feel like pushing the matter, given everything else happening. “All right. But later, you and I’ll eat something a little better. I’m sure a few of these cans have something all right inside. Now…” She hesitated. “Now, you and I need to have a talk.”
                
Apple Bloom looked uneasy. “About what?”
                
“About Changelings. And about how they can take the appearance of anyone at any time, if given the chance.”
                
Apple Bloom mouth began to tremble. “Please don’t say you’re a changeling, Applejack! Please, oh please don’t—”

Her eyes started to water as Applejack came around to wrap her in her legs. She said to her, “That’s not what I’m saying at all, so don’t you go thinking that. You and me stuck together all the way home, so you know I’m not one of them. But that doesn’t stop them from trying to fool us if they think they can.”

She rubbed her sister’s head and soon her shakes abated.

“That’s why if anyone tries talking to you while we’re inside—whatever they might say—I want you to tell me first. They might pretend to be someone they’re not, and we can’t take no chances. At the moment we’re safe, and we need to stay that way.”

Apple Bloom nodded into her shoulder. “I wanted to help them. Really, I did. But I couldn’t do anything and now I feel like such a coward, Applejack. We left them all and now we’re okay, but we don’t know about the rest. I just feel so bad about it. Do you still love me, Applejack, even though I left them when I could have helped?”

Applejack hugged her tighter. “Of course I do. I love you more than you could imagine. You and I did what we had to do. If we would’ve stayed, we never would have gotten out of there.” She pushed her sister away to wipe at her tears. “Us sisters need to stick together, don’t we?” She smiled for her sister.

Applejack grabbed the two half-eaten apples from the table to set atop the rest. “You sure you’re not hungry?”

Apple Bloom shook her head. “Not now.” She paused. “You think we should go look for them? Big Mac and Granny and the others? They might be out there looking for us.”

Applejack steeled herself, the words the fake Twilight told her still sitting in her head. “I wouldn’t dare risk it; not with you here and that fog out there. It’s too dangerous right now. And, at the moment, we don’t know much about anything.”

Just from her eyes, she could tell her sister had another dozen questions on the mind. Not wanting to overburden her with dark details, she tried for something more cheerful.

Applejack sat at the table again. “You remember that time Big Mac tried to fill that Canterlot order all by himself, because you and I got a case of the flu?”

Apple Bloom brightened and nodded, smiling faintly.

Applejack leaned back in her chair, the images freshly painted in her mind. “You and I were so sick we could barely get out of bed. We ended up sharing one, too. All the while Granny gave us all the soup and juice we could take. Best of all, right outside our window we got to watch Big Mac haul bucket after bucket full of apples to the cart, again and again, getting madder and madder.”

Apple Bloom added, “He should have gotten some help.”

Applejack agreed. “Don’t I know it. But remember, we told him to hire someone for the day. But, like he tends to be, he said ‘Nope’ and that was all there was to it. Plus, I really wasn’t in much of a mood to fight him, stuck in bed and all.”

While stranded in bed, her and her sister played through every game they had in the house, every few minutes peering back out the window while Big Mac cursed to himself using that limited vocabulary of his. As much as she wanted to pity the poor fool, she instead giggled like a little filly alongside her sister.

She chuckled. “And then when he finished, Big Mac went to bed and didn’t wake up ‘til a solid day later. The look on his face when we told him that… .”

Apple Bloom laughed and so did Applejack. Such an odd sound in that deathly quiet home. Then Applejack once again wondered if she’d truly seen Big Mac for the last time, and all at once she wanted to fall to the floor and curl into a ball.

But for her sister, she would hold on.
 

***

 

“Hello!”
                
Someone was banging on the door.
                
“Is someone in there? Please! I need help! Hello?”
                
It was a male voice that Applejack didn’t recognize, panicked and terrified, and worst of all, loud.
                
Sitting across the table, Apple Bloom started to tremble again. “Applejack, what should we do?”
                
Applejack scooted out her chair. “You stay right here and let me talk to ‘em. Maybe we can get some answers about what’s happening out there.”
                
Taking a breath, she left the kitchen and went to the crack in the window again, shutting a single eye. On her porch stood a male pegasus, his hooves clicking against the wood. His head never stopped turning from side to side. One of his wings had been badly clipped and blood smeared his light blue feathers, dried and brown.
                
He banged on the door again. “I know you’re in there! I heard something move!”
                
Applejack told him coolly, “Yeah, you might be right about that. Someone’s in here. So now that you know that, you can hush up about it now.”
                
The pegasus shot towards her voice, looking for whoever had just spoke. Having extinguished the candles in the living room some time ago, Applejack didn’t think he’d be able to see anything inside.
                
He said urgently, “Please, let me in. There are hundreds of them and they could be anywhere right now. They could grab me and take me like the rest—everyone that’s been outside so far.”
                
Applejack chewed on her tongue. “What’s happening out there?”
                
“You were there. I remember your hat. The mayor was Chrysalis in disguise. She had every one of her drones ready to attack as many as they could.” He glanced around again, spraying bits of sweat from his mane. “I made it out, but not before a few of them tore up my wing and tried to chew on the rest of me. What are you waiting for? For Celestia’s sake, open the damn door!”
                
“I thought I told you to hush up.”
                
The pegasus opened his mouth to say more, then rethought of it. He closed his eyes and took a breath, silently quivering. “You have no idea what they’ll do to me if—”
                
Applejack cut in, “Why is there that fog all around? We’ve never had it that thick before.”
                
He answered quickly, “It started just after the town hall attack. It spread out and blanketed everything. That’s how they’re grabbing everyone; easier to nab them in the fog and less of a chance for them to find shelter or others. I’m only lucky I found you like I did. I would have flown to Cloudsdale or someplace nice and far away, but the wing…”
                
Applejack nodded, suddenly cold. Her next question stuck to her tongue like sandpaper.
                
“What happened to Twilight Sparkle? Is she dead?”
                
“I don’t know.”
                
“The rest of the Elements—Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash and—”
                
I know who they are!” he shouted.
                
“Well? Do you know what happened to them?”
                
He ran a hoof through his sweat soaked mane. “I don’t know that, either. How could I? I escaped that death trap of a meeting and wandered around for hours, hiding where I could when I heard that damn buzzing sound in the air.” He leaned closer to the window, until his breath fogged up the glass. “I heard ponies screaming for help. I wanted to help them—really, I did—but it would have been too late. They find you and they swarm you and they leave nothing behind. Not even bones. I thought they’d at least keep them alive to… gather love or whatever I heard they eat, but now I think they’re going right for the heart—as in eating pony’s hearts right out of their chests. Please, just open the door and let me in.”
                
Applejack said softly, “I can’t do that.”
                
“Why in Tartarus not?”
                
“Because they’ve tried to trick me before using a friend. And now I think they might be doing it all over again.”
                
He banged a hoof against the window. “I’m not a changeling!”
                
“You also forget that I don’t know you. To me, you’re a stranger. And, I’m sorry to say, but there are more important ponies that I need to keep safe. If you want to, you can stay in the barn or anywhere in the fields, if you think it might help. But I can’t let you in—that’s something I won’t risk.”
                
He tapped against the window again. “If I was a changeling, why would I pick some nobody? Wouldn’t I come as someone you knew? You’re scared, I understand, I’m nobody to you. But you need to trust me when I tell you I’m not a changeling. Please!”
                
She said thickly, “I already told you. If you want, you can—”
                
Then came a timid voice from behind her.

“Why won’t you let him in, Applejack?”

She turned and found Apple Bloom staring up to her, concerned and saddened.

Applejack knelt down beside her and placed a leg over her shoulder. “Because he might be one of them, Apple Bloom. And if I let him in and it turns out I’m right, then it’ll either try to hurt us or I’ll have to use my pickaxe on the thing. Neither of those are things I wanna see happen.”

“But what happens if you’re wrong? What happens if he’s telling the truth?”

Applejack turned away from her. The question she had been asked one she’d already pondered. It was a cold question, and its very existence chilled her heart. The worst part of all was that she already knew the answer to it.

She told her sister, “Then I live with it, little sis. Same as how I’ll live having left all those hurt and trapped ponies in that hall. My friends… Big Mac and Granny…” She blinked away some tears and pulled her sister close. “I knew it was bad, but more than anything I had to get you away from there. If… if we would have tried to help, we would have died or been taken along with the rest. I couldn’t let that happen.”

She wiped her eyes and went back to the window. Peering out, she saw the pegasus had left and the thick fog surrounding their small home still swirling in all directions.

She told her sister again, “I’ll live with whatever I gotta do to keep us safe.”