Perfect Harmony

by Bloodwing

Traumatized

Perfect Harmony – Traumatized

The screams of pain and possibly agony were echoing loud through the orchard and somepony was simply bound to wake up to this cacophony of terror. Apple Bloom happened to have a shallow sleep tonight, so after the first screams her eyes shot open and the filly’s ears perked up, carefully listening to her surroundings. For a while there was dead silence and Apple Bloom could swear that it was only her imagination. At least she wished it was. However the moment in which Damian threw his trusty knife at Clean Street proved the screams of agony to be reality.

“AAAAAAHH!”

Yet another inhuman (or inpony) scream made Apple Bloom shudder in fear and put the bed cloth over her head. She was trembling slightly inside her newly made fortress.

“W-What if it’s some kind of a monster?”

She whispered to no pony in particular, scared of the idea. The scream was so unreal and full of primal rage, that she simply couldn’t believe it was somePONY, more like someTHING. The filly stayed under the bed cloth for a good few minutes, until an idea struck her mind. A crazy one that is:

“If Ah’m the first tah find that monster… Maybe Ah could catch It!”

She giggled, somehow immediately forgetting the previous fear she felt. The thought of getting Monster Hunter Cutie Mark was simply too tempting for Apple Bloom.

“Cutie Mark Crusaders Monster hunters!”

She whispered excited, then went out of her bed cloth fortress and jumped down on the floor. Determination in her eyes, the little filly nodded to herself. Of course she couldn’t simply get out of the house, if her sister was to catch her she would be in mighty lot of trouble. Instead Apple Bloom decided in favor of stealth and deception, as she arranged her pillows and put the bed clothes over them, so that they looked like a filly, blissfully asleep. She smiled, content with the results and slowly and as quietly as possible opened the door to her room with slight squeak of old hinges. Taking a quick look to the left and right of the corridor, she couldn’t spot a thing. Apple Bloom only heard loud snoring of her brother from the room on the opposite side of her own. She put one hoof down, the wooden floor making a slight creaking sound. For a while she expected half of the house to wake up, but fortune seemed to be on her side. Continues snoring of her brother only proved that. The filly began her slow trot through the corridor, little hoofs making close to no sound. She arrived at the stairs leading down to the main room, slight concern visible on her face. This could be challenging as the stairs tended to creak the worst.

“Challenge accepted…”

She thought somewhat unsure of herself but nevertheless proceeded to go down the stairs that groaned, creaked and squeaked like mad. This made her stop every step to make sure no pony was woke up. The painfully long walk down stairs finally ended after few minutes. Apple Bloom thought that it took ages though. Proud of herself and somewhat happier, the filly quickly approached a chest next to the entrance, not caring about discretion much at this point. It was improbable for somepony to wake up now, when they didn’t during the old stairs phase. She quickly opened the chest to retrieve two items. First was an oil lamp, that will disperse the darkness somewhat, and the second was a lasso line. Sure she couldn’t throw it as good as her sister did, but she was learning, and what she already knew would help her nevertheless. Content with all she took, Apple Bloom lit the oil lamp and slowly got out of the house. She quickly realized two things… First it was freezing outside, and she quickly began to shiver, second she had no idea where exactly the scream came from. The filly however wasn’t about to give up that easily.

“Horseapples!”

She swore and her brows furrowed as she tried to remember where the scream has come from.

“Ah think it was… east?”

She thought as she turned her head in the direction. A shiver came down her spine as in the middle of the night, the orchard looked menacing. Somehow she felt the temperature around her to fall even lower. Her heart was beating fast, she could feel cold sweat dripping from her forehead. The filly stared in the direction for a while, unsure if going there alone is really a good idea.

“But Ah might get mah cutie mark…”

The argument in favor of venturing into darkness was compelling to say the least. Steadily and slowly the filly started to trot towards the looming darkness, not even exactly sure where she should look for the monster. She simply decided to go to the end of the orchard and then turn left. She had a hunch that she will find something there. The oil lamp wasn’t giving off much light, so often Apple Bloom had to stop and check her surroundings. At first it was somewhat thrilling, but after a while she was slowly starting to believe that the scream was only her imagination. All the trees looked the same, no footprints, hoofprints or pawprints anywhere, no signs of anything related to a monster whatsoever… No animal tracks or sounds either…

“Why is it so silent?”

She asked herself. Usually even during night there was some occasional bird chirping, bug buzzing and many more wildernesses sounds. Tonight however was different, the silence was unnerving, disturbing even. After Apple Bloom realized that, moving through the orchard became harder, as fear built up inside the filly. Each sound, crack of wood or rustle of leaves, made her jump startled. The pitch black darkness seemed to eat away at the light from the oil lamp making the whole adventure less appealing and more horrifying. She finally reached the east end of the Orchard and in front of her was the border between wilderness and the Acres. She sighed somewhat relieved that she didn’t find anything.

“Ah’m going back home… Ah’ll hunt the monster tomorrow, when it’s not as dark…”

She explained her retreat to sate her pride. She wasn’t about to admit that she was going back because she was scared. She took a sharp turn and prepared to get back the same way she came here, that is until the light illuminated something else. She turned her head to the left and saw the shape of… something. Her heart started to beat like crazy, adrenaline reaching all-time high. The shape however didn’t move nor did it make any sounds, it was simply there. Curiosity taking over her dread the filly made a determined face and stepped forward illuminating the shape wholly. Some say that exposing a child this young to the horrors of reality, the dark side of life, can change the child’s mind drastically - break it, never to be recomposed again, cause trauma that will stay with the young person till the end of her or his life. Theory tends to sometimes reflect practice poorly, this however was not the case. Apple Bloom’s monster hunt ended in tragedy as she was the first to discover something new in Equestria, something so wickedly worse than the worst this land had to offer. Something that couldn’t possibly originate from Equestria but had to come from a much darker realm. There in front of the filly laid a corpse, leaning against an apple tree. Four uneven stab wounds in its chest, dried blood all around them. Its head was turned to the filly, slumped inertly, drops of red liquid still dripping from its open mouth. Its eyes were bloodshot, some vessels burst from the initial choking. An expression of terror and hopelessness frozen on its face. A small puddle of red liquid formed around Green Runner’s body, apples were thrown about and submerged in the puddle next to the corpse. Apple Bloom froze, her eyes widened, she started to shiver involuntarily as her eyes were locked on the horrifying image. The filly didn’t scream nor did she move, her mind shut down from the shock and terror she felt, leaving only a husk. Her eyes became glassed over and empty as she slumped down to the ground losing consciousness.

---

The night passed quickly, when the first rays of sun gently stroke Sweet Apple Acres and a rooster crowed announcing the beginning of another day the Apple family begun to slowly wake up and prepare for their daily routine. As usual Applejack was the first to open her eyes. She rubbed them with her hoofs to get rid of the remnants of sleep and yawned soon after that.

“Time tah get up…”

Said Applejack to herself as she jumped from her bed to the wooden floor with and audible clack. She quickly grabbed her indispensable hat, putting it on her head and took a quick look at her reflection in the mirror. Deciding that everything looked well and dandy she proceeded to the room next to her own, to wake up her younger sister. She stopped in front of her sister’s room giving the door a few knocks

“Apple Bloom! Wake up sugar cube, time for yer lasso training!”

Silence was the only response she got. AJ slowly opened the door and started to walk towards her sister’s bed, on which a familiar shape laid under the cover.

“Ah know ye would like tah sleep some more, but it’s not the way we do things ‘round…”

AJ didn’t finish as she uncovered the familiar shape, only to see some pillows arranged to look like a filly.

“...'ere... Dang it!”

Applejack turned around and ran downstairs as quickly as possible.

“Where could that little trickster run off tah?”

Asked AJ herself as she went out of the house. Fresh breeze gently stroke her mane, also bringing a smell of fresh apples and some bakery goods. The wind was coming from Ponyville then. AJ smiled a little bit remembering all the adventures and happy moments she had with her friends. Life sure was great. Her smile was quickly wiped off and replaced with a grimace when the wind changed direction, coming from the east this time. Stench of decay and rot forced its way into her nostrils. She almost threw up then, but covered her nose with her hoof just in time

“What in tarnation?!”

She turned around momentarily forgetting that her sister has run off. She dismissed it thinking that Apple Bloom was probably looking for a way to get her cutie mark with her friends… again… She’ll be mad at her later. Meanwhile the stench became a priority.

“What could smell like that… yuk…”

Said AJ making a sour face and begun to trot south. After a few minutes she took a sniff with her nose trying to pinpoint where the smell was coming from. Immediately she regretted her decision as putrid stench hit her senses hard. She shook her head and begun to breath with her mouth again, thanks to this little sacrifice however she was able to tell that the smell was coming from the left. She turned around and begun to slowly make her way through the trees and some shrubs that grew here and there. After a while she finally arrived in a clearing… What happened next showed AJ that there are things more horrible than her worst nightmares. First she saw the corpse, and immediately took a step back, eyes wide, expression of fright and shock forming on her face, that is until she saw Apple Bloom laying next to the corpse, unconscious.

“APPLE BLOOM!”

AJ screamed terrified as she quickly made her way to her little sister. Shaking from the amount of adrenaline her organism was producing the mare gently touched her sister and tried to wake her up delicately.

“Apple… Bloom?”

No response. Applejack shook her sister harder, which resulted in… no reaction whatsoever. Panic slowly overtaking her senses, Applejack made one rational decision and shouted as loud as she could

“HELP! HEEEELP!”

And help indeed arrived.

A/N: Took me a while... Well sorry 'bout that but I have a new job that requires most of my time :P However I'm not swamped for now, so will be updating more regularly.

Comments

[Chill Mists(Chilly)]

Applebloom?

[Bloodwing]

917746 Weeell, had to traumatize someone Don't worry though I have special plan just for Apple Bloom. One two I see you, three four there's some blood on your floor (that was out of the context... Have to say something crazy/random now and then to keep my... Image)

[Chill Mists(Chilly)]

917769 So long as nothing bad happens to Fluttershy I'm happy.

[csabijoo]

917769So long as nothing bad happens to pinkie iam here

[Bloodwing]

917782
918323
Hey, don't limit my unstable creativity! I had to take some pink pills just to write like a normal person! Nah but really Pinkie is a special kind of character, she will get special treatment... very special treatment... Bwahahaha!

[csabijoo]

918361oh will you turn her to evil side then

[Bloodwing]

918365
Well... yes and no... You shall see!

[csabijoo]

918390aha oke as long shes not dead then its oke

[Nommirga]

Hooray for showing an innocent mind the brutal reality of such a horrific death all in an instant!

[Bloodwing]

924906
I say a Dark story is not truly Dark when there are no heavily traumatized characters! So I humbly deliver the proper elements Also I like to crush innocent minds... It's a hobby