• Published 6th Apr 2015
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Ponyville Police Department - Omega6047



Policeman and his dog are trying to survive in pony society.

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32. Story Of The Apple

--Chapter 32--
Story Of The Apple

Her eyes opened. For a brief second she looked at the ceiling above her head, before quickly closing her eyes again as soon as she noticed the sunlight that poured into her room through the window. She turned her head away from the light but didn’t open her eyes again. It was winter after all. School was closed, and there was nothing to harvest in the orchard. Who could blame her for wanting to sleep in a little?

She covered her head with the blanket and tried to fall asleep again.

She didn’t want to go out now. Compared to the warmness of her bed, the rest of the room felt like a freezer to her. Winter was not her favorite season to say the least. She was impatiently waiting for the Winter Wrap-Up. She will gladly help in getting rid of all the snow that covered the orchard where she played with her friends.

It wasn't long before something woke her up again though. She heard a sound from below, as if something heavy was drooped on the floor. She let out a groan. Her brother must have snuck out to have a snack before everyone else wakes up. If he touches my cookies again, I’ll pee on his bed. She made a threat in thought as she forced her sleepy body out of the bed. Then, trying to be as quiet as her legs would let her to be, she walked out of her room and headed downstairs.

But something wasn’t right. She couldn’t hear her brother eating as she should by now. She only heard somepony’s steps. “Mom?” She asked as she looked down from the stairs. Her mother was there. Carrying a bag in her mouth and a saddlebag on her hips.

She turned around after hearing her daughter’s voice. “A-Applejack?” She quietly asked in surprise. “W-What are you doing here? You should be asleep.” Something was strange in her voice. As if she didn’t want her to see this.

The young pony walked downstairs. “I heard something fall. I thought Big Mac tried to steal my cookies again so I came to defend them!” She said proudly.

“Yes, that’s very good, but could you not speak so loudly? You’ll wake up Granny and Big Mac.” The filly nodded. She was about to ask what’s going on, why is she carrying her things outside, but something stopped her.

“Sunny, you alright in there?” Somepony came through the door.

No, that wasn't a pony.

Ponies are not 1,5 meter high mountains of muscle. Ponies are not covered in white feathers. Ponies don't have claws big enough to grab her head and squash it with no problems. Ponies don't have scars like the one on his face. Ponies don't have eyes red as blood that seem to slowly drain life from you by merely looking at you. Ponies don't scare her like he does. That wasn't a pony. That was a griffon. Not just any griffon. One that moved into the town some time ago. One that scares half of the town to death with his mere appearance and the other half with his voice. And one that visits her mother whenever her father is away.

She didn't understand why, but when she accidently saw them hugging, her mother told her to not tell anyone about this. She probably wouldn't listen anyways and told her friends in school, if not for the look the griffon gave her. Never before has she felt blood in her veins freeze and heart stop out of fear.

This wasn't the only time she felt like that. Since then, the griffon who's name she didn't even know, made her whole body shake in fear by just being in the same room. She was sure that if she was ever alone with him, her heart wouldn't make it. But despite this, she always thought that she should be brave enough to befriend him, or at least act normal around him. She never manager to do it though. No matter how she prepared herself, how many times she told herself that he didn't do anything bad to her, all it took for her bravery to vanish was one look at him or one word that came out of his beak.

Now was of course not exception. Her legs started shaking the moment she heard his voice and she stopped moving towards her mother. She was sure that she even made a step back. When she saw his white head though, she found herself unable to move at all. His pure white feathers made his seem like Princess Celestia, but that was only a lie. When Princess walked through the crowd, she was a friend to everyone. She was kind, and everypony was kind in return.

But this griffon was not like that at all. He was nopony's friend. He wasn't their enemy either. Nopony was brave enough to be one.

"Oh, yes, everything's fine." Her mother responded and approached the giant. They talked for a bit, but Applejack couldn't hear them. They weren't talking silently, she was just too busy trying to calm down. She noticed her mother briefly looking back at her, which calmed her down enough to realize that she was walking out of the house.

The filly wanted to run after her, but she couldn’t. The griffon was still looking at her through the door. He was smiling.

Eventually, he disappeared, closing the door behind. Applejack quickly run into the kitchen, jumping on the chair next to the window and looking through it. She saw as her mother loads the bags she carried onto a cart in front of their house. She then jumped into it as the griffon started to lift the cart with his mighty wings.

Her mother didn’t look at her again, unlike the griffon, who for some reason couldn’t stop smiling at her. She wasn’t sure why, but somehow she knew that this was the last time she saw her mother.


It’s been over a year since their mother left. She wrote a few letters to their dad, but he never showed them to either her or Big Mac. He just cried and drunk until he passed out. In fact, he was drinking now. That’s why she and her brother have closed themselves in little Applebloom’s room.

Granny Smith have told them to do this when they see that daddy drinks. That or go outside and play with friends.

They couldn’t do that now, as it was raining outside. All they could do was to sit silently and wait for the storm to stop. Both the one outside and one that was going on downstairs, where their granny was screaming with daddy.

They’ve heard them yell like that often. Especially when daddy was drinking. Sometimes there were broken bottles to clean up, sometimes daddy would fall asleep, and sometimes one of the two would end up with a bruise or two, sometimes both. But there was always screaming. Neither of them could understand what either of them was talking about. They could only keep their little sister calm.

Now they were sitting on the floor, playing a board game they brought. Applebloom was asleep, not bothered by the yelling of her father and grandmother. “Hey, Big Mac…” She said quietly. “Why mommy left?” She asked the question she’s been asking over and over since the day she saw her leave. Her daddy would start crying every time she mentioned her mother, Granny would get mad and call that griffon many bad names, and her brother stayed quiet. Like he did now.


Another months passed. It was summer now, and the sunlight was lighting up her room like is did the day her mother left. Just like back then, she struggled against the sunlight, only to succumb to its rays and get up once she heard a noise. This wasn’t coming from the inside of their house, it was from the outside. She walked over to the window and looked through it.

She saw her daddy next to the swing that he made for her when mommy was still here. He had his head down and wasn’t moving. He looked sad, so she thought she should go and at least try to cheer him up. A loud yawn escaped her mouth as she walked out of her room. She looked through the open door of Applebloom’s room. She was sleeping as usually. The filly found herself standing and just looking at her little sister’s small breaths as she cutely cuddled with her plushy.

She sighed. It was sad for her that Applebloom will likely never see her mommy again. And it’s not like she has spent much time with her to begin with. She left when Applebloom was only few months old.

Applejack herself has finally got it into her head that mommy is not coming back. That she left for good.

With another sigh, Applejack quietly closed the door and walked away.

Downstairs, she saw bottles of beer and other things. Not a surprising sight for her. She saw them lying around the house ever since her father started drinking. What was surprising however, was the fact that they were not empty. Normally she would collect empty bottles almost every morning, it was rare for even one to be full, let alone all of them. The usual smell of alcohol wasn’t present either. It seemed like her father wasn’t drinking at all last night.

She decided not to ask about it though. She already learned not to ask him about her mother and alcohol.

She left the house and looked at her father. He still wasn’t moving, and it looked like he was sitting on her swing. But that couldn’t be right, her swing was right next to him, empty. She saw a second rope wrapped around the tree branch. Maybe he made another one for us to play. Is he finally getting over mommy leaving? She asked herself with hope. “Dad?” She called out to him.

He didn’t answer.

Newspaper under his corpse answered for him


It wasn’t even a month since she found out. The truth that made her father hang himself. That her mother isn’t coming back no matter what. That she’s dead. And that the griffon who took her away did this.

The guards didn’t catch him, though. They couldn’t find him.

Nopony knew where he was.

She wasn’t even allowed to go see her mother’s funeral. Her granny said she shouldn’t, so she had Mr. Fiscal - the old guard from town - take care of her and all of her siblings while she went to Manehattan by herself. Applejack didn’t like that arrangement at all.

That's why she escaped.

She grabbed some food for the ride and took a train to manehattan. And when she was in the train she thought a lot. And all of her thoughts were focused on the griffon who took her parents away. The guards couldn’t find him so there was one thing she was sure of.

If they can’t do it, she will.

She will find him. And she will make him answer for what he did.

She will go say goodbye to her mother and then… then she will find her killer and… And then what? She asked herself. What will she do once she finds him? What can she do? She’s just a little filly, and he’s a big scary griffon.

He’ll kill her. She will die when she finds him.

No… I can’t think like that. I’ll tell the guards when I find him. Yes, that’s what I should do.


It was night, when she walked into the graveyard. It was raining for an hour now, but she couldn’t hide from it anywhere. Granny was staying overnight at aunt and uncle’s Orange house, and they were the only family she knew around here. She also couldn’t go to the funeral. She couldn’t risk her granny, or anyone seeing her. That’s why she came at night.

It’s scary here. She admitted, but didn’t let that bother her. The moon was giving off enough light to see despite it being the night. She looked up at the silver orb with black mare on it that shone between the rain clouds in the sky. She remembered the stories her granny told her. Stories about the mare on the moon. There were many of versions of the legend. Some said that the mare was sent there as a punishment for her bad deeds, others that she hid there from something.

Those stories were good memories, but she didn’t care about that now. She had something else to do. The grave her mother was within was in the back of the graveyard. She knew this because even though she couldn’t participate in the funeral, she was looking from afar. She still didn’t know where it was exactly, but at least she won’t have to search the whole graveyard.

There was one thing that shouldn’t be there though. There was somepony in the graveyard. There should be no one here but her. The graveyard is closed at those hours. She had to jump over the fence to get in.

She closed in, hiding behind the gravestones. “Damn it, I hoped she would have something nice with her. With so many ponies going to that funeral I thought she was some kind of big deal.” She heard a voice and looked from behind the gravestone. There were two shapes there. One was a griffon, but not the one she was looking for, he was small and had black feathers and the other was a mule. “Well, at least we found some good loot from others already.” The mule said.

“Yeah, we sure did.” The griffon sounded young compared to the mule. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner that ponies hide so much stuff in graves? I thought they just burn bodies like we do back in home.”

“Yeah, they’re strange like that. They even sewed this one together. What a waste of time, it’s not like she’s going to give a damn, so why bother with it?”

“I dunno. Looks kind of scary though. What do you think happened to her?”

“Don’t know, don’t care. She only had an earring on her and that’s all I care about now.” The mule looked at the golden earring on his hoof. “Should be worth a few bits, I guess.” He tossed it into a bag on his side. “Well, take your bag and let’s burry her again. I need to get home before my wife wakes up.” The younger griffon listened to him and grabbed the bag that was lying on the ground.

They were about to leave but… they didn’t.

They couldn’t.

Something was in their way.

“Sorry pal, this is our loot. And if anyone asks, you didn’t see us here, get it?” The griffon grabbed a knife after mule finished speaking.

Applejack couldn’t tell who the figure was as it had a hood on, but she was sure of one thing. She saw it pulling out a sword before jumping forward. The griffon was first to fall. The sword cut through his neck after first swing and the second cut both of his claws off. As the griffon fell on the ground, choking on his own blood, the hooded figure turned towards the mule, who still didn’t wrap his head around the situation he was in.

It was at this moment that a lightning stroke. The blue flash of light lit up the cloaked figure’s face and…

…and Applejack’s heart stopped.

Under the hood she saw the very white griffon she came to find. Nothing changed about him. His mere presence was enough to give her a heart attack, but now that his face was dyed with blood and twisted into a sick, bloodthirsty grin, her mind went completely blank with fear.

She didn’t scream though. Not until blood of the mule that was cut in half splashed against her face. Unaware of what she was doing and blinded by panic, she turned around and tried to run away. She only managed to make few steps though. Something stopped her. She felt a grip on her head and just like that she felt that this is the end. She will die here.

“Ha! Look who’s here! Isn’t that the one of this whore’s brats!” The griffon lifted her and turned her head towards him. He was smiling as if he was a child who just got the best present of his life. “Came to see your mommy didn’t you? Well, come on, I’m here for the same reason, so let’s go together.” He threw her towards the grave the two thieves that now lie dead in pools of their blood have opened.

She landed right next to the hole and the moment her face looked down she screamed as if she saw the devil himself. Her mother was there. Held together with stitches and with body brutalized to a point that she was barely able to tell that it was her mother to begin with. She had no eyes, in their place were to black holes. On her back were long lines, some deep enough to show bones and her hooves were broken in more places then she could count. She closed her eyes to not look at this, but just as she tried to run again, she felt the griffon's claw grab her head again.

"Oh, come on. You don't want to make your mommy sad, do you?" He forced her eyes open with two claws as he pointed her head to down into the grave. "Actually, let's give her some more company." His claw pinned her to the muddy ground, almost breaking her skull in a result. He still kept her eyes opened when he was throwing the dead griffon and mule down into the grave. "Hmm... you know, she was always the social type. She could use some more company... Hmm..." She suddenly found herself falling down into a the grave.

She landed right next to the mule's head. She didn't know if this was her imagination playing with her or something else, but she saw his eyes twitch. Another scream rang from her mouth. And another attempt to run away failed. She tried to climb out of the grave, but she couldn't. The earth was too muddy and she just couldn't get a hold on anything.

She didn't stop though. Her mind was so blinded with fear and panic that she didn't even hear as the griffon standing above her laughs. Not until he reached down and pulled her up by the hair. "Now listen to me little whore." He said in voice so cold it froze her tears in an instant. "You will not die today. You will live and go back to your home. And once you're there, you're going to wait for me to come back. Because one day, I will come to kill you. Not just you though. I'll kill your brother. Your sister. And everyone I find there. You will watch them all die the way this slut did. And that's when you will die."

He threw her back into the grave and walked away.

Applejack was scared. But not for her life, she accepted death the moment she heard his cold voice. She was afraid for her family.

He said he will come back and kill them.

He said he will kill all of them.

Her brother. Her sister. Her granny.

They were all in danger. And it was her fault. She came here even though granny said not to. She just stood there as her mother left. She didn't save her father when he took his life. And he's going to kill everyone she loves. But...

But...

But...

But...

But... she will not let him.

She will not let him touch them.

She will protect them.

She will protect her family at all cost.

She is Apple after all.

And as Apple, she has to protect her family.

That's her duty.






And with that thought in mind. An apple appeared on her flank.

Author's Note:

Little known fact: this is the first chapter in which I didn't use a single polish word.


Quote of the day: "Misery's not exactly hard to find, you know? And everyone gets their share eventually."
~Yuuji Kazami


Song of a day: Slipknot - Dead Memories