Pony POV Series Pearls 'Lost Episode'
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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As I put it in some of my stories, losing one's innocence isn't about the experience of sex. It's about the experience of betrayal. Apple Bloom, of course, is still a virgin, and probably will be for many years to come (by my chronology she's 11 at the time of "Story of the Blanks". But she knows viscerally that not all stories have happy endings, now -- that reality can betray one.
To take the example from Trinity we were discussing in e-mail, Sweetie Finemare was pretty darn innocent when she was a teenager, and she was still pretty darn innocent after her unorthodox use of a laboratory with Rich Greentree at age 17. Her great loss of innocence came at 21, when she realized that there was only one way to relieve Rich's suffering, and had to do it. Up until Rich got cancer, she viewed her life pretty much as a real-world version of a pulp adventure series, with her in the role of the Science Hero, and Rich as her loving, loyal sidekick.
Hmm ... Wrong Genre Savvy?
(Incidentally, we see Rich Greentree filtered through Sweetie's very biased perceptions -- he's not as perfect as she thinks -- but he is a genuinely good and loyal and loving stallion).
That is so cute -- and true-to-life, too. The show makes it plain that Zecora is one of Apple Bloom's role-models.
That is the most suspicious and unexplained event in the videogame, because it's a major real-world alteration and it does not take place in Sunnytown proper. The implication is terrifying -- that the zone of corruption is spreading.
The sad thing is that they probably were pretty nice, in life. Except for this one teeney little delusion ...
This has to be one of the major secondary horrors in Apple Bloom's memory. By all the incredibly soppy and wonderful Equestrian cultural rules of love, that should have meant happy endings all around. But there were no happy endings, for anypony save Apple Bloom -- and only by the standards of Survival Horror. Apple Bloom got to live.
Would Hurt a Child is key to the horror. And the fact that Apple Bloom strongly sympathized and to some extent identified with Ruby. She was being given what could be seen as a grim prophecy regarding her OWN FUTURE.
Applejack was right. If Apple Bloom had frozen in fear, she would have died -- and she had no way to defeat the denizens of Sunny Town.
IMO, that sums up why Apple Bloom is an awesomely good character.
5417534 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.
That is the most suspicious and unexplained event in the videogame, because it's a major real-world alteration and it does not take place in Sunnytown proper. The implication is terrifying -- that the zone of corruption is spreading.
It might be that the Sunnytowners want some fresh company. And I still think this is one creepy and well-done chapter. Poor Apple Bloom! At least she got away, physically at any rate, and (as we've been shown) she can try to save the Sunnytown ponies from their horrid fate. Or at least make sure nopony else ends up there.
Well, that was...draining. Well, at least it was shortish. Though, it doesn't REALLY show the growth AB experienced. At least, not in plain. Just a lot of different kinds of bravery, losing innocence and the like, but not as much on her knowing what it means to be growing up.
When Story of the Blanks was first mentioned in this series, I had to look it up on Wiki. You tell this story very faithfully, however, based solely on what I read here, not what I looked up prior, I would still be confused as to why Ruby met her gruesome fate and why the town was cursed because of it.
Applebloom >> Apple Bloom
____________
Zombies suck.
It might help.
Ah, the Sunnytown incident.
I see.
It might have been a good thing, yes.
Hehe.
Well, perhaps this encounter was fated?
Boy were you wrong.
Oh they do, they just want to kill anyone who has one who comes into town, most likely due to them thinking that it's the start of another Cutie Pox outbreak that killed most of the original Sunnytown inhabitants.
For now.
Oh?
Dead wrong.
Considering the poor filly just saw a corpse, I'm not surprised she was horrified.
Most curses may be fake, but this curse is very real.
Very wrong.
It had been,
Oh dear, now comes to worst part...
Understandable.
A terrible fate for sure, those ponies deserve what came to them, however, you do not, you've done nothing to deserve being under the Blank Curse.
I can only imagine.
Good idea.
It's OK.
I like this.
Nice work Twilight!
Yeah, best she not find out.
Most likely.
...
Yeah, Discord is a monster.
I see...
And your sister is right, you were very brave Applebloom.
Understandable.
Maybe it would have been best if it were just your imagination.
I know what you mean, Ruby didn't do anything, and is just staying there so she can try ad help them get over the curse so that they can pass on, and Mitta is so full of guilt and self blame that it's dragging her down, to the point where she can't pass on either.
I will Applebloom. I will.
This is no longer in Season 8, it's in Season 2. Fix this.
(Well, this was an interesting chapter, having no intention of playing Story of the Blanks, I like this chapter because it helps a bit with the immersion factor, explaining all this stuff. This is one of the few chapters of the Pony POV series I've only had to do one play-by-play comment for, and I suspect that come next chapter, I'm going to be going back to doing 2. Oh well, here's to my next play by play, in the meantime, this is ShadowLDrago, signing off.)
It was you who originally got me into "Story of the Blanks," which is why Sunny Town is part of my fanon. I even have a My Little Fluttershy story planned, Dead of Winter, in which Fluttershy actually meets (and befriends) Three Leaf. My thought on Three Leaf (if you remember that fragment of Dawn of the Blanks I showed you) is that before she became an insane revenant, she was her herd's herbalist and healer, and she loved Nature very much. Rather like Fluttershy in some ways.
Of course, Three Leaf isn't the safest Pony to befriend. Because her friends wouldn't be friendly to Fluttershy at all. Normally, neither would Three Leaf -- it's just that there's a Kindred Spirits (in Three Leaf's case, perhaps half-literally) sort of connection between them.
Ah, now for Blooms pov on her little adventure.
It truly is sad those two are stuck in Sunny Town. They were nice.
9142686
Heart warming isn't it?
8136085
I imagine the whole town was nice until paranoia and fear took over. Legacy of the cutie pox.
6162960
Wouldn't mind reading more of it. And thank you!
How did those story plans go?
5536358
Zombies suck only if they're jerks.
5438916
What edits would you suggest?
5419829
I wrote this chapter because I was asked several times to include a Pony POV account of Story of the Blanks.
5418154
Or it could have been just incredibly horrible bad luck. I hope including story of the blanks ADDED to the story rather than distracting from it.
5640072
And the moment that episode aired, it was forever tied to Story of the Blanks.
Due to the graphics style, I ironically couldn't tell what it was!
I appreciate that I remembered (or one of my editors did) to actually write Apple Bloom stressed out from having to talk about this and having to stop.
Pity RPs are now forbidden on FiM (unfairly and draconically).
5417534
Indeed, and there was a fanfic with Apple Bloom fully embraces being Zecora's apprentice.
Hopefully it was just bad chance.
And she had no clue what it was when she saw it!
Irony.
EXACTLY!!!!
THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR COMMENTS! I LOVE THEM! And I love your company!
Ah, so she did see something when she looked. And that explains Luna's words in that chapter as well.
I imagine not even Zecora knows what is really going on at Sunny Town. Afterall, imagine what a village that freaked out at a Cutie Mark would do at the sight of a zebra.
Some people might think it was one of the ponies of the town that caused the fallen logs. But to be honest, I almost feel like the idea that the Everfree itself willed those trees to fall makes more sense. The place has always seemed strange and unnatural, with the show still having no explanation as to why(and I think it never will). But perhaps the purpose for that blockade was not malicious intent, but to get Apple Bloom to find the town? To make the town's existence known once more after a thousand years, so that perhaps Apple Bloom, or someone they told the story to, could finally help put an end to the curse once and for all?
Either way, it would seem that this chapter takes place shortly after Applejack's Season 1 chapter(not the events themselves, but Apple Bloom is telling the story to ??? after having come back from that trip to Canterlot.) When I get around to making my epub, I will probably put this chapter around that point. I might also add some of the other loose canon Day of Discord stuff there apparently is that I haven't read yet.
A good chapter, and a good summary of the game.