Why are ya askin' me ta talk 'bout this? Doesn't everypony already know? It...it might help if Ah talk 'bout it some like Ah did with Applejack? Oh-...-okay.
My name is Applebloom. Ah'm an earth pony filly from Ponyville, and one night Ah almost died. No. That ain't the whole of it. Ah was still a filly when Ah came out of the Everfree ... But Ah part of me that made me a foal was gone.
The Princess said that me bein' innocent meant that truth thingamajiggy wouldn't work on me, but she was wrong… after that night... there ain't nothin' innocent 'bout me no more.
Wanted ta tag along with Miss Twilight after Crusadin', just ta say hello ta Zecora, and it's always an adventure in the Everfree...even after...even after me and my friends nearly got caught by that Cockatrice, we ain't never been scared of the Everfree.
Now Ah almost wish Ah had been.
Zecora's a great friend. Sometimes Ah imagine bein' her apprentice like Miss Twilight is to Princess Celestia, drawing stripes on mahself, wearin' that jewelry she does, becomin' a shaman, er, witch doctor, er, whatever she is. She's fun ta learn from. But when she said we best not stay long in Everfree that night of nights, me and Miss Twilight didn't ask big questions.
Road out of Everfree was blocked by a bunch of fallen trees, don't know how that happened, it was like Everfree itself didn't want ta let us go.
Miss Twilight was busy cleanin' our way out, Ah saw this gray filly with an orange mane and a magnifying glass cutie mark. She ran when Ah spotted her.
Ah wondered what another filly was doin' in the Everfree, Ah followed, Ah didn't think it would be that far.
Sunnytown. Everypony's an Earth Pony. Everypony's blank flanks. Even the big ponies. Right in the middle of Everfree. Nopony has a clue what a cutie mark is.
Gray Hoof. Roneo and Starlet. Gladstone. Threeleaf. They were all so nice.
Ah even helped Roneo find his very-special-somepony gift to Starlet.
Mitta. Crying in her house. Sayin' this had happened over and over.
Ah didn't know what she meant then, but Ah've got a feelin' now.
Ah even helped Roneo find his gift to Starlet.
The gray filly runnin' off again. Ah thought she was leadin' me. Ah was wrong.
House locked. Findin' the key at the bottom of the well. Crank from Mitta's house(that Roneo had been blocking).
Inside.
No sign of 'er. Nothin' in the house at all except...except ...
T-thanks for the ten minute break. Ah, Ah think Ah'm good to go now.
Miss Twilight says there's no such thing as ghosts, no such thing as zombies, no such thing as curses.
At least Ah didn't believe in curses neither. Twilight said they were all just pretend and fake.
There was nothin' pretend nor fake 'bout what Ah saw: an' what Ah keep seein' in mah nightmares. In that house's fireplace.
Ah couldn't even tell what it was at first.
The fireplace...it had...it was the … the skeleton of a foal inside. Just a size bigger than me...
It was her.
It was wrong. It was so wrong.
Even in Everfree...this shouldn't happen...this couldn't happen, it was all wrong!
Ah ran away, out of that cabin, back into the rest of Sunnytown ...
It was ruins. It looked like it had been for centuries.
It was all crazy.
Creepy voices, soundin' like the towns folk. Sayin' 'she' was gonna ruin the party, that 'she' had 'the mark' and she was 'cursed.'
Threeleaf, she, she came out of the ground, blackened bones and glowing red eyes.
They said they were gonna 'protect me'. Ah'd been taught just cause somepony looks strange or nasty, doesn't mean they are nasty. Maybe this was a big misunderstanding?... Ah was so scared, Ah couldn't make heads or tails of nothin'!
Threeleaf just sat there, lookin' at me. She never once tried to grab me or chase me. Ah reached ta touch 'er.
It flashed before mah eyes as clear as if it was right in my face! Me, mah body all black, 'You'll never become like her, now you are protected, forever,' them all whisperin', all the warmth, all the life gone right of me!
Ah pulled my hoof back, and Ah ran and kept runnin', them zombies comin' out of the ground.
Roneo and Starlet...askin' me ta stay. Just...askin'. It was awful. First Seein' em so happy together, and now seein' like this ...
Mitta, not as rotten as the others. Sayin' she could have protected 'her' and didn't...that even dead the others didn't understand...that they all deserved this. Tellin' me...TA RUN FER MAH LIFE!!!
Comin' out of the ground, Ah don't know if they were other victims, the Sunnytown ponies, just skeletons or what but Ah didn't know or care! Ah just had to run run run RUUUUUUUUN!!!!!!
...
...
...
S-sorry fer makin' ya stop again...it...for a while there...Ah was...Ah thought Ah'd ...
Ah found some glowin' hoof marks, it was so dark, they were all Ah could see ...
An' Ah met 'er, the filly from before, Ah met Ruby of Sunnytown...she said she was sorry for accidentally leadin' me ta town...she said she was just curious...Ah didn't blame 'er.
She said she finally understood what her cutie mark meant, that she was good at findin' stuff, and she'd find me a way out of this mess as...as the other Sunnytown ponies...the zombies...all around...all around us...closer...closer...STAY BACK!
Big ball of light from Miss Twilight. Ruby, the zombies, the monsters, all gone. Like they'd never been there.
Twilight didn't know what happened, she only knew she didn't know what was here and it was best not to find out. We ran out of the Everfree.
Ah didn't tell 'er, Ah didn't tell anypony. They'd think Ah imagined it, or that Ah saw somethin' and just thought it was ghosts, zombies, and curses.
Ah didn't tell Applejack what my nightmares were that kept wakin' me up.
Ah tried not ta think about it.
Ah've never asked Zecora how she knew about Sunnytown, or what she knew. Ah didn't talk ta anypony.
There. Scootaloo told ya what happened on...on the day Discord turned me into...into one of them...risin' and fallin' outta the ground, grinnin' even though Ah didn't want ta ...
One part of me sayin' now Ah could be friends with Mitta and Ruby no problem, and the rest of me screamin' ...wantin' ta get away from everypony so Ah wouldn't hurt'em.
...
Trip to Canterlot. Look inta the truth with Applejack. Only a tiny glimpse compared ta what she got.
And Applejack, makin' me tell what happened. Applejack telln' me Ah was a brave pony. What was brave about runnin' away? But she told me that Ah could have just sat there and panicked, but Ah still had brains enough ta run. "That's a different kind of brave." She told me.
Can...can we stop now please? We can? Thank you kindly. That...that was really, really tirin'. Ah really don't like ta think about that.
One last question? Ah'd really... okay...Ah guess.
...
Ah made two new friends that night, and that was the only reason Ah never convinced myself it was all just my imagination.
Ah just wish Mitta and Ruby could be free of that awful place.
Can Ah, can Ah got ta bed now please? Ah...Ah got chores in the mornin' an'...thank ya kindly...just...if ya see Ruby and Mitta tell'em...tell'em that Ah'll always be their friend ...
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*HUGS*
In my fanon, maybe this is why Apple Bloom's destiny is to bring life to places that have never been alive.
Kind of an introspection chapter ? Make me wonder where the there interviewers are ?
5322778
This chapter's interview takes place during the second season.
5322765
VERY INTERESTING!!!
5322801 okay, it made me realize we haven't see them yet in this season. (Or maybe I miss something )
5322804
Apple Bloom has in the show revealed talents for construction, plant growth and potion-making. That means that she can learn the skill set required to open new farmland, which is what her name also implies (and that's why I have Apple Bloom the Elder, her great-great-grandmother, be a pioneer as well, though she Moses-like doesn't get to enter the Promised Land of Ponyville). In my Twelfth Equestriad Interview future, with the Ponies expanding into space, Apple Bloom pioneers a Lunar colony and plays roles in helping to found other colonies on other worlds.
Without the threat from the Shadows, and the help from the Paradise Entity, technological progress would be slower -- probably along the order of an advance to a Late Industrial civilization (such as America in the 1950's) during Apple Bloom's lifetime. In other words, widespread motorization and mass communications. Apple Bloom's talents would in that case have been used to found sprawling agribusiness farms on previous waste or marginal farming territories. In either case, she'd be extending the spread of Pony agriculture into previously more barren territories.
Though if Apple Bloom is as long-lived as Granny Smith, or even longer-lived with more advanced medical technology, she might live to see the start of Pony spaceflight as an old mare, even without the crash-start of the Shadow Wars.
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Very deep view. I imagine she'd end up having to buy land from rock farmers.
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Though, admittedly, Dashie would make an awesome Draconequus ...
5322952
No she didn't.
Crusaders 10K, where RD is turned into the draconequus of APATHY, and she and the other mane six it's spelled out are no longer brainwashed just hopelessly corrupt, and need to be eliminated for the good of the world.
5322952
In case it wasn't clear I hate that webcomic.
A Lost Episode? How delightfully unexpected! Play by Play time!
Poor Applebloom must have suffered some serious Break The Cutie from that incident if this si leading where I think it is.
Amusingly enough, I can imagine you like that. I think Zecora might find the idea amusing, but may want to wait until you mellow out a bit.
In a sense, yes.
I figured as much.
For now.
Even to normal ponies that would be jarring, heck to us it's jarring, so to a regular earth pony filly? It's downright cruel to make her see that.
Scariest things in life are the ones we can relate to, or feel similar, or might happen to us, in this case, the corpse isn't much bigger than her.
Creepy...
Unless you're armed, that is standard procedure for zombies.
You're lucky you could, or else you might never have made it out.
When it's this kind of stuff, not knowing or wanting too is the best solution.
I knew what Discord did to her was particularly horrific, but, wow, just, wow.
Reminds me of when Mufasa said he's only brave when he has to be, brave can be facing down 7 changelings alone, or simply not freezing up and panicking, but running like Hell was on your heels, not too inacurate now that I think about it.
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If I do it'll definitely take ages, it won't have the same feel since it's a story I already know, but, maybe I can pick up things I didn't before and be able to appreciate how things have improved since Season 0. Oh well.
5323323
Yep. 'Lost episode' it Lunacove suggested I write it for those who never played story of the blanks.
Thank you so much for your play by play! Again, it feels like a big reward.
No game for this chapter just... urgh... for a little pixel game it sure did a hell of a good job bein' creepy.
It had a sense of atmosphere that...was just astounding for what it was.
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Pinkie Pie hugs her foals as they shivered from viewing the incredibly creepy game hidden as an easter egg on the game disc.
"There there dears, it's okay, mommy's here."
How's that?
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The truth shall begin to be revealed next chapter. Get ready for one starling revelation.
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Again. EPIC WORK HERE!
5323632
Like I said, I mainly do them for fun, but if I can make someone happy, it's a pleasant bonus.
I did enjoy the psychological horror of this story, especially the audio adaptation.
Speaking of which, there is one particularly story based on this that I consider one of my favorites called "the Battle of the Blanks".
It's a pretty LONG story, so I suggest you read it on you free time.
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Thank you.