Apple Bloom's eyes shot open, the filly wide awake though she had been sleeping soundly but a moment ago. Had she heard something? Her gaze swept the darkness, but no light managed to trickle in past the curtains. It must be an overcast night, she figured. No moonlight to provide even the—
There. The sound again. A creak on the roof? It never creaked like that. Was something up there? Could it be a manticore? A changeling? Some sort of strange bipedal creature with hardly any hair? She stared at the spot from which she thought the sound had come, as if by doing so, she could somehow see through the solid wood of her ceiling to whatever lay beyond.
For a minute she lay so, barely daring to breath, her ears panning from side to side trying to pick up any additional sound. When it came, it came not from above, but a soft screech along the window pane. Apple Bloom turned toward the new sound, her breath coming in short gasps, the covers tightly clenched.
"Please don't be a monster," she chanted softly to herself over and over. It was on the thirtieth iteration, or possibly the fortieth, as she had quite lost count by that point, that the door to her room was flung open, sending the filly scrambling to the far side of the bed.
"Rise an' shine, sis!" Applejack yelled as she burst into the room. "Y'all need to be gettin' an early start if yer tah finish the silo today!" She noticed her sister was already awake and clapped her on the shoulder. "Ah, good, you're already awake."
"Wait, what? A silo? Why in Celestia's cerulean caelum would we need a silo fer?"
"Cae-what? What does that even mean? That isn't some sort of highfalutin swear word now, is it?" Applejack cocked her head.
"Miss Cheerilee has been teachin' us all about how Celestia controls the sun at school." Apple Bloom prepared herself to recite the lesson, all the facts she'd carefully memorized the night before for the quiz on Monday. "It means—"
Applejack cut her off. "As long as it isn't swearing, it don't matter no how anyway." She rubbed her sister's head affectionately. "Now, up and at them. Daylight's a burning." She looked at the curtains, from behind which there was still not even a glimmer of light. "Well, it will be soon enough anyway."
"But, Applejack, Ah thought we weren't going to build a silo. You said yerself that apples need a cellar, not a silo, and so there's no reason for us to get one."
"That was before. You know how all the farms are getting silos?" Applejack asked. Apple Bloom nodded. "Well, now Ah hear even the townsfolk have them." At her sister's look of disbelief, Applejack shrugged. "It's true. Ah was at the Rich's yesterday, talking some business with Mr. Rich and they had a silo. Strangest silo I've ever seen, all lit up with blinking lights and such. But if town folk are building then, how will it look if we're the only farm that doesn't have one?"
"We'd look like ponies who—" Apple Bloom started, only to have Applejack cut her off before she could finish explaining that they'd look like ponies who didn't need a silo.
"That's right." Applejack nodded her head. "It'll look like Sweet Apple Acres can't afford no silo like a proper farm. And who'd want to buy apples from a farm that's doing that poorly? So, you see, we need a silo. And since you did such a good job on fixing up yer clubhouse, Ah figured you'd be able to build us a silo while Ah prune the south orchard."
"But…" Apple Bloom started to protest, even as her mind started contemplating what she would need to build a halfway decent silo. "But, Applejack, we don't have enough lumber tah build a big building with. We used up the last of ours when we had our monthly barn rebuilding."
"Your brother had a thought about that. When we got to talking last night, he suggested usin' the wood from the ol' mill."
The mention of the mill was enough to send shivers down Apple Bloom's spine. She hated going near place. It always reminded her of the setting of that one movie she and her friends had snuck in to see that one time. They hadn't gotten to see much of it, before their screams of terror had given them away and they'd been tossed out with a stern word from the usher, but she'd seen enough to know that places like the mill were where bad things happened. And not just in movies, because it was right near there that… She left the thought uncompleted, pulling the covers tighter around herself.
"Now, Ah know you don't like going there," Applejack said, "what with that classmate of yours drowning near there and all, but trust me when I tell you that you've got nothing to fear. It's just an old, empty, partially collapsed building in the middle of a bunch of spooky trees where nopony hardly ever goes. Nothing to be scared of at all."
Apple Bloom trudged forward, straining against the harness that attached her to the wagon. The road to the old mill was not in good shape. Years of disuse had seen to that. The heavy amount of rain the previous week hadn't helped matters either. Her feet were wet, and she was miserable. Still, she trudged on. She had a task to complete, and Apples did not shy away from a bit of hard work.
Around her, the landscape changed. Whereas before the grass had been green, the trees reaching toward the sky with broad canopies, now everything was devoid of cheerful color. Brown was the order of the day, and that which was not brown was grey. Not a nice light grey, such as the coat of Ponyville's mail mare, but a dark grey, a grey that promised ickiness, slime, and other unpleasant things.
She really hated this place.
Catching sight of the river, she stopped. "Don't think of it, Apple Bloom. Just don't think about her."
But it was too late. At the mere site of the river, the memories returned. That day that had seemed pleasant enough. She, her friends, and others of her class swimming in this very river, just half a mile downstream. And then the sight of that filly. It hadn't been like the movies at all. No screaming, no thrashing. Just silence. And those eyes. So much fear. And then the filly was gone, sunk beneath the waves.
The guilt she had felt afterwards. Like she should have done something. That she should have know the filly was in trouble. That she should have made a greater effort to be the filly's friend, as if that would have changed everything. Even though she hadn't really liked the filly that much, she thought.
Yes, she really hated this place.
She tore her eyes away from the river, focusing instead on the path ahead. She just had to get this over with. The past couldn't hurt her. She'd just go to the mill, get the necessary lumber, and rush back. She could do this.
Her ears perked up at the sound of a snap, and she swung her head around toward the sound.
"Is somepony there?" she called out. "Applejack?" Maybe her sister had finished the pruning early and was coming to lend a hoof? Or her brother… "Big Mac?"
Nopony responded, though a flock of birds burst into flight at the sudden noise, nearly causing Apple Bloom to leap into the air as well.
"Just birds. Just stupid birds," she muttered to herself. "Nothing to be afraid of, Apple Bloom. Nopony here but you. Just you and your memories."
Ahead, she could see the mill and the zap apple orchard beyond. She'd much rather be there, even if Timber Wolves were sometimes around and lightning might crackle and pop. At least it felt alive. It had color. The mill, well, it was drab, dark, dismal. If there was an opposite of life, the mill encompassed that opposite. It was death and decay.
She sighed, gathering up her courage. "The sooner I get this started, the sooner I'll be done," she said.
She took a step forward, then another, and after the third, it had shifted from individual steps to walking. Reaching the front of the old mill, she stopped. Quickly, she slipped out of the harness. Looking up, she appraised the quality of the wood.
It wasn't good, but it could be worse, she decided. A lot of it was too far gone, but there were enough parts for her to work with. She wouldn't want to live in what she built from it, or work within it, for that matter, but for a purely decorative piece, it would suffice. She turned to the wagon and flipped open her toolbox, taking out the crowbar.
A cold gust of wind made her shiver, and she sniffed the air. Her nose scrunched and she snorted, trying to get the hair out of her nostrils. The smell was wrong somehow. The decay of rotting wood. The fetid stench from the still water. The slight hint of jasmine.
"Jasmine?" she asked, taking another sniff. This time, only the smell of decay was there, the hint of flower gone. She looked over at the mill again. "I've got to get out here as quickly as possible, before this place drives me insane."
She picked up the crowbar and got to work.
"There. That should be enough to at least finish the framin'," she muttered to herself. She glanced around. She tried to convince herself it was just to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything, but deep within, she knew that wasn't the case. She just knew something was here, something that didn't want her here.
All while she had worked she had sensed the presence. And once, when the floor had broken beneath her, leaving her legs dangling as she struggled to pull herself up, she could have sworn her hooves came in contact with something, but when she'd looked afterwards, there'd been nothing there, just a pile of boxes five feet below. It was just her imagination. That's what she'd told herself over and over. But the feeling that something was there, watching, waiting, just wouldn't go away.
"I'm going now!" she called out.
She froze, her ears straining. She could have sworn she heard something. A laughter that was almost familiar. She struggled to place it, then it came to her.
"D-Diamond?" she asked. She heard nothing, yet she sensed that somewhere, the laughing continued. "This isn't funny. Just stop it, okay?" she called out. "Just leave me alone!"
She rapidly hooked herself up to the wagon and started back toward the barn, as fast as she could pull the wagon without spilling its contents. It was only once she was back amongst the apple trees that her pace slowed, and not until she arrived at the spot she planned to build the silo that she began to truly feel at ease once more.
Pulling the lumber off the wagon, she began her work. In no time, she had the lowest parts of the framework in place. The rhythmic hammer, the quick calculations of how much support would be needed, what beam went where did much to calm her mind. She liked this, she realized. Why, she could almost imagine herself doing this her entire life. A strange feeling of calm, of purpose, gathered around her, just out of reach, coming closer. This was it, she knew. The moment when her life would change. Her heart started to race, and she would have moved to greet the feeling, to leap into its metaphorical arms, had she but known which way to leap.
*NUCLEAR LAUNCH DETECTED*
And just like that, with those strange words, it was gone.
"Huh? What in tarnation does that mean?" Apple Bloom asked. She looked around curiously, saw nothing of interest, and shrugged. Guess it was just another one of those weird things that tended to happen in Ponyville. She made a note to bring it up to her sister later, after she finished with the framing. Taking her hammer in mouth, she drove a nail into place with several rapid blows, the sensation beginning to gather again.
The sky lit up in a brilliant flash of light, and Apple Bloom threw her forelegs in front of her face, trying to shield her eyes. The movement shifted the ladder, and she tried desperately to regain her balance. Legs windmilling, she plummeted to the ground.
She dropped the hammer from her mouth, the handle now sporting a deep set of imprints of her teeth. "Ouch," she said. Rubbing her head, she slowly sat up and looked toward where the light had come from. A giant rainbow-colored, mushroom-shaped cloud rose over what had been the zap apple orchard. The cheerful colors were strangely at odds with the cloud's menacing appearance.
Apple Bloom's mouth dropped open in shock at the magnitude of the explosion. What could have caused such a thing? And what did this mean for the zap apples? Could even a single tree have survived? No, she realized, as she sat there still in shock, a single tear trickling down one cheek. They were gone. All of them. There would be no making jam with Granny Smith this year.
Off in the distance, the air shimmered as a pink filly faded into view.
"Booya! How you like them apples?" Diamond Tiara yelled with glee as she lowered the targeting device.
Sure, it had taken her an entire year of saving her allowance to have enough money to build the silo and buy the stealth suit. She'd even had to resort to using a cheap knock-off perfume. And then yesterday, the building had finally been completed. Of course, nopony had thought to mention to her that she'd need to wait still longer for the stupid thing to build a missile. Probably assumed she'd read the instruction manual or something, but seriously, who reads those? So it hadn't been ready until this morning, and then she'd had to wait until nopony was near the orchard before she could finally launch.
But it had all been worth it. She giggled happily. So very worth it. Those accursed zap apple trees were gone.
Make her dress up as a bunny and prance around like a fool Apple, did they? Well, not this year. Not ever again.