The farmhouse was easy to see, even at night. And not because of my newly gifted eyesight. It was just on fire.
It’s amazing how much smoke a burning structure can produce. Academically this made sense to me – in the burning process a home or a family is converted into an equivalent mass of hot gasses mixed with microscopic particles of soot. All that material has to go somewhere, after all. My old library had filled the sky with smoke when it burned, and it had rained down enough ash to stain the rest of the town gray for days.
A charnel, billowing tower rose from Sweet Apple Acres, lit from beneath by a sickly, inconsistent orange glow. Embers drifted from the conflagration in waving streams, joining the stars and outshining them for brief moments before going dark.
I wasn’t a fast flyer back then. Not really, not compared with Rainbow Dash or any other natural-born pegasus. But when I saw the smoke rising from Sweet Apple Acres, and the bright burning light at its base, and when I smelled the sickly sweet acrid scent of applewood ash, I flew faster than I’ve ever flown in my life. I think I might have given Rainbow a run for her money; my heart would have exploded if I’d had to fly more than the bare mile between my castle and the edge of the orchard. But even at that insane speed it took too long; an eternity passed while I flew, and in every one of those moments my mind was fixed horribly on the image of my friend and her family trapped in the burning house, entombed beneath fallen timbers, screaming, dying inch-by-inch as the flames travelled up their coats and into their—
The whipping leaves and branches of the orchard broke through my fears. I crashed through the trees and skidded to a stop at the patio. Even a dozen feet away the raging fire shriveled the hairs of my coat, and I stumbled away, my wings up to shelter my face. My lips cracked. I took in a deep breath to call for my friend and choked on the searing air. I doubled over, hacking, and would have collapsed if a pair of strong hooves hadn’t grabbed me and dragged me back. I fought weakly, but I had no strength left.
“Stop!” a deep voice shouted right in my ear. I felt the shape of the word on his lips more than I heard it over the roaring fire. “There’s nopony in there! There’s nopony to save!”
I stumbled out of his grip. Big Mac stood behind me, his red coat streaked with sweat. He wasn’t hurt that I could see – no burns or missing hair or streaks of soot in mane. He was probably in better shape than I was, and that realization knocked my senses for a loop.
“What… Are you okay?” I asked. “Is everypony okay? Where is Apple Bloom! Is she okay?!”
“She’s fine! She and Granny are fine!” He gestured at the fence behind him, and I followed to see the Apple matriarch leaning against the rails, her knees shaking and her white mane down from its normal bun for sleep. Her lips were set in a grim line, and she held a struggling Apple Bloom against her chest.
The panic in my heart eased a bit, but then it burst back into the fore. Applejack! Where was Applejack? I spun back toward the fire. The heat pouring out of it struck my face like a hammer. I didn’t know any spells to put out fires but I could tear the ruins apart better than anypony. My horn flushed with light and power, and I reached out to the flames with my magic to—
Big Mac’s teeth closed on my tail and yanked me back before I could do anything stupid. “Stop! She ain’t in there either! Nopony’s in there. Just… just let it burn.”
I fell on my haunches. My dock stung from the tug, and I’d probably lost a few tail hairs, but I barely felt it. “We can save it! We can get the fire brigade, or, or I can get some water!” There was a cow pond on the Apple property. Lifting water was tough – it tried to drip through the magic field – but surely there was enough there to put this blaze out. I tried to orient myself to the rest of the orchard, but so much was wrong: the fire, the darkness, the tower of smoke overhead concealing the stars. I barely knew which direction the town was in.
A new feeling began to creep into my heart, replacing the shock and the fear and the adrenaline. Helplessness. I was one of the most powerful ponies in Equestria, but I could not unburn a house. My eyes, already watering from the searing air and fumes, blinded by the brilliance of the fire, began to run with a stream of tears.
Granny said something. Even just a few feet away, she was drowned out by the roaring blaze. But Apple Bloom stopped struggling and slumped against the fence with her. Big Mac gave me another look, then walked over to them and draped a hoof over his little sister’s withers.
For all the terrible heat of the fire washing over us, I felt cold. Nopony to hold the Princess of Friendship, a voice sneered in the back of my head.
I sat there, trembling, wishing Starlight Glimmer or anypony else would come.
Starlight arrived with the fire brigade. By the time they reached us it was clear the house was a lost cause. Rather than turn their hoses on it, they aimed them at the nearby trees and barn, to keep them from catching fire as well. Starlight followed them around at first, but soon she realized she was just getting in the way, and she trotted over toward us. Big Mac had a few quiet words with her, then pointed at me.
She sat beside me. The dry, seared grass crunched beneath her rump. She pawed at it with her hooves for a moment, then pulled me into a half-embrace with her leg.
“You okay? You’re not hurt, are you?”
I shook my head. “No. I’m fine. Everypony’s fine.”
“Well, that’s what matters. Things can be replaced, but ponies can’t. That’s, uh, that’s how the saying goes, right?”
“Yeah.” I swallowed. My throat burned from an hour of breathing the hot air and harsh fumes. “It’s wrong, though. Things can’t all be replaced. Sometimes when there’s a fire...” I waved my hoof in a nonsense gesture. “Things are gone forever.”
I hadn’t cried over the memory of my tree and all the things I lost in it for years. Sometimes entire weeks went by and I wouldn’t even think of it. And lately, when I did remember the warm, living wood and the enormous canopy that rustled in the breeze at all hours, I just smiled. But for an instant, sitting there with Starlight and watching the Apple family home vanish, a pang of loss so fresh I could taste it like blood stabbed through my heart. In that moment I would have given back everything – the wings, the castle, even the Elements themselves – just to have my tree again.
I must’ve made some sound, because Starlight squeezed me tighter. I buried my face in her mane and took a breath, desperate to smell something other than smoke, but her scent of bed linens and sweat and candle wicks was obliterated by the fire.
I guess she didn’t know what to say, because she just held me. I tuned out everything else – the crackle of breaking wood, the fire brigade, the clamor as more ponies from the town arrived to help in any way they could. I focused on the beat of Starlight’s heart and tried to forget my old home all over again.
She didn’t mind the snotty mess I was making of her mane, which just showed how much better of a friend she was than I deserved. But after a minute she jerked and pulled away. I looked up and wiped my eyes with my fetlock.
“What?” I had to cough out the word.
Starlight didn’t respond. She just motioned with her muzzle off toward the orchard.
Huh. I squinted at the shadows. My eyes were irritated from the fumes, but even so I could see an orange shape sitting among the trees. An orange shape with a stetson hat and wings.
Starlight didn’t object as I stood. I started at a walk, but by the time I reached Applejack I was galloping, panting all over again.
She watched me approach and gave me a little nod. “Princess.”
“Applejack!” I gasped and spent a few second catching my breath. “Oh, it’s good to see you. You’re not hurt, are you? Big Mac said everypony was okay but I didn’t see you and the fire was just so big and—”
“I’m fine.” She rolled her shoulders. The tips of her new pinions dragged on the grass. Mine had done that at first as well, until Rainbow Dash showed me the proper way to hold them when sitting. “Everything’s fine. No need to get all worked up.”
“But…” I swallowed and started over. “Look, I know how hard this is. I know exactly what you’re feeling. And the important thing to remember is that we’re all here for you. We’ll find a place… no, with me! You can all stay in the castle! And we’ll build a new house out here, just as good as the old! I bet we could have it done by the Running of the Leaves if we start tomorrow!”
“Eh.” She shrugged again. “I’ll pass.”
I stared at her. It took several seconds to process that. “What?”
“I’ll pass. The others might take you up on it, though. ‘Specially Apple Bloom.”
“What…” I fumbled for words. “What about you?”
“I’ll be fine.” She looked up at the sky. The tower of smoke had flattened, forming a pall that drifted slowly east. The faint light of the sun, still below the horizon, painted its edges rose. “I’m feeling great, in fact.”
“You’re in shock,” I said. It made sense. I should’ve seen it right away. For a pony like Applejack, losing her family home must’ve been an even more terrible blow than the loss of my old library. “Look, don’t… just remember that we’re here for you, okay? I know how you feel.”
“Yeah?” She cocked her head. “How do I feel, Twilight?”
“Lost.” I closed my eyes, and for a moment I was back in Ponyville, the memory as fresh in my mind as the day it happened. The charred bark turned to dust as I walked on it. Millions of pages covered the square, some still smoldering, others little more than ash. The great hollow walls still stood, but blasted and lifeless. “Lost. Adrift. Like the only anchor you had is suddenly gone, and there’s nothing to stop you from just floating away.”
Applejack nodded slowly as I spoke. “Yeah. That’s about right.” She took a long breath, then smiled. “It’s wonderful.”
The world seemed to recede from me. Like I was watching it through a window. Sounds were muffled. My heart faltered. It took me a minute to speak.
“No.” I shook my head. “No. Applejack, tell me you didn’t…”
“I had to, sugar. It’s just like you said. Like the anchor is suddenly gone.” She took a deep breath, let it out, and smiled. “Amazing what a little kerosene can do, huh? Best choice I ever made.”
My heart returned, pounding now. My breath shuddered in my chest. I started to judge the distance between us and how fast I could cross it. “You could’ve hurt somepony. Your own family! You could have killed them!”
“Naw.” She flicked her hoof. “I got them out first. Told ‘em all I loved them, all that sappy stuff. Then I started it.”
“I could have you arrested. I-I should have you arrested!”
“I reckon you could.” Applejack looked me up and down. “Well?”
My horn glowed again. It would be so easy – as strong as Applejack might be, she was still just an earth pony. I could hold her down. I could carry her to the jail myself. And if she struggled, I could hurt her. It would be as easy as tearing the wings off a fly.
I squeezed my eyes shut. My horn flickered and died. This wasn’t her fault – this was all Discord’s doing. He was the one we had to punish. Applejack was a victim just as much as anypony else.
“Hm.” Applejack grunted, and I heard a quiet rustle on the grass in front of me. I opened my eyes to see her stetson lying there. “Give that to Apple Bloom for me, ‘kay?”
I didn’t answer. Perhaps Applejack didn’t expect one, because she didn’t wait. She turned, flapped her still-clumsy wings, and rose into the night.
Applejack nodded slowly as I spoke. “Yeah. That’s about right.” She took a long breath, then smiled. “It’s wonderful.”
Well, now we're cooking with gas.
Excuse me,
WHAT.
Ok, now I'm shook. Applejack just took a 180 in attitude. I've never seen her this cold or uncaring about her family. What in the world is going on? Her family needs that barn and house. Look, yay, you're free, but what will your family do now?
I'm so confused.
9560744
They'll be fine. Or not. Not really her concern anymore.
9559589
So really, the question is, what's the tipping point? When does the theme change from "Twilight is trying to tell other ponies how they should feel" to "Twilight is upset and concerned, but everypony is blowing her off"? Or maybe there isn't a tipping point, maybe both are true at once.
...
Isn't that an interesting thought? This just put the first-person perspective in a whole new light.
This is indeed distressing to see. As I said, Applejack discarded every obligation she ever felt. She doesn't appear to have emotional ties to anything anymore. Not her home, her family... even Twilight is just "Princess" to her at first.
The good news is that this is demonstrable, tangible support for Twilight's argument. The bad news is that that doesn't matter if they can't find Discord. And it's probably downhill from here.
9560729
No, with kerosene. Weren't you paying attention?
9560744
Honestly, this isn't the first time she's run off and abandoned them. Or the second.
9560760
And now I'm thinking of the season premiere again. Thank you so much.
I am so confused.
I'm glad people are enjoying the story so far. Act III starts tomorrow, and chapters will be published on the weekend too.
9556867
I'm very inclined to agree with you here.
9560760
I feel like this qualifies as a tipping point.
So. I suppose that if anything good is going to come out of this disaster is that, as 9560766 pointed out, Twilight is probably going to have a much easier time than before in convincing others that they're actually dealing with something they should worry about.
Then again, by this point it may be too late to resolve this before any other major disasters happen. By the time major incidents start to happen in a crisis, the point when things could still be resolved quietly has typically been passed for a while.
9560744
That's the point. Applejack dreamed of being free -- absolutely free. Free from everything holding her down or limiting her choices. When you think about it, duty, love and empathy are some of the most restricting things of all -- to be absolutely, completely free you must care about nobody but yourself.
Of course this is nothing like Applejack. Applejack would never do something like this just to be free -- but now dreams are changing reality, and one of her dreams rewrote her entirely and put a completely different personality in place of the old one. I suppose one could argue that Applejack effectively stopped existing one night and a different Applejack came into being.
You know, AJ, if you really wanted to break those bonds, the orchard is still standing...
9560813
Is it nothing like Applejack, or is it nothing like who we think Applejack is? How can we really know what people are in their dreams?
9560815
That would take, like, waaay too much kerosene. Have to wait 'til late summer for something that ambitious!
Besides apple trees are fun to nap in.
So, here's what I currently think is going on here:
Discord gave everypony the ability to change themselves in dreams. To be whoever, whatever, they want to be.
Seems really simple.
Except that, when sleeping, large parts of the brain are essentially shut down.
So Applejack, born into a family business, always working on a job she did not entirely choose for herself, having to look after a little sister because her parents are gone. She dreams she wants to be free.
Normally, while awake, she would realize that she values these things more than what they cost her. But not while asleep. So, in the weird state that is the sleeping mind, she thinks that:
A - She wants to be free
B - There are parts of herself that keep her from being free
C - yayy wings. Wings are flight and freedom.
So, her sleeping mind decides to alter the parts of herself that keep her back, not recognising that these are the very things that her waking mind values over the freedoms they keep her from attaining. Her sense of duty, her diligence, a large part of her love for her family and farm.
And having rewritten these parts, possibly erased them in their entirety, she can no longer fathom how she would ever want them back, even while awake.
It feels like Applejack has died, and some non-Applejack entity has taken her place. We all change of course, I’m a totally different creature than the newborn baby I once was, and every day is the first day of the rest of my life, but. It’s the speed of this change that makes it a quantitatively different thing, there’s not enough of a bridge between the old and the new to tie them together. It’s a subtle difference, to subtle to go to war over, but the diffrence between life and death is subtle at the sub-cellular level too. Discord might have killed the idea of what a pony even is, without any of them even noticing!
There’s also the creeping uncertainty that this is purely Applejacks dream at work. What do Twilights dreams of sacrifice and rejection have to do with today’s events?
9560823
I bolded that part, because I think it's a really great encapsulation of how I've come to think about dreams. And, as you noted, in a story where dreams start to come true, it really raises some questions about who we really are.
People have commented that AJ would never do something like this. Family is too important to her. And that's true! But when AJ is dreaming, maybe the parts of her brain responsible for discipline, hard work, and caring about her family... well, maybe they aren't as influential. Maybe that's why all of us dream of doing things we would never do in real life.
I hope you're enjoying things so far. If so, I think you'll like the future chapters.
9560836
Definitely enjoying it so far. Besides the story itself,
I'm especially enjoying trying to figure out what the changes the ponies are going through say about the characters. I think I have most of them figured out, but some, especially Twilight herself, are a bit more of a puzzle
9560818
Hmm. That's a good point.
I could say then that this is nothing like the person Applejack presented herself as -- or alternatively nothing like the person we've seen her try to mold herself into.
I remember reading somewhere that our lives are spent in a constant struggle between the person we are and the person we want to be -- that in a way we define ourselves by working against parts of ourselves that we do not like or approve and by trying to mold ourselves into what we consider to be better people. This new Applejack is... probably nothing like what the old Applejack wanted herself to be when she considered what things she valued or wanted... which now that I think of it cycles back to Starlight's question about which is the real self: the self that does a bad thing or the penitent self afterwards.
Liking the story a lot so far, but I'm kind of unclear how the beginning connects (other than the obvious cause/effect). Discord seemed to be talking about messing with the contents/subject of dreams and eliminating their patterns, but instead everything happening is because dreams are leaking into the real world; how is this related to his stated goals? Did he mess up again? Is he not around because something happened to him?
9560818
I feel like who we choose to be is more what we are than what we might think about doing.
9560872
True! Burning down her home was definitely a choice AJ made. The dreams didn't do that. Discord didn't make her do that. She may have been changed, made "free," but ultimately she still had agency over what she did with that freedom.
It seems she came to the conclusion that she couldn't be truly free while still being anchored by so many obligations.
Minor spoiler, probably obvious: AJ is the first pony to have completed their change.
9560884
I guess I'm still not sure how far reaching the effects of the spell are.
Hey, how far do these dreams alter other people around the one having a dream, when they're having their own dreams? Unless that's a spoiler, of course.
9560891
I feel free answering this without a spoiler tag: they don't at all! Each pony changes themselves and nopony else. What they do with those changes may affect other ponies, however, as we saw with AJ.
Wow, Twilight's a complete pushover, huh? Bet one could get away with genocide as long as your her friend, at least in this story.
This story has got to be one of the most interesting that I've read. It's just drawn me in . . .
This chapter felt hollow.
Compared to what has come before, What has been built up, and worked at. This feels like you went and pissed on the legs of the readers with a cheeky grin at them for reading to this point.
I stepped back at this chapter, because it felt so off for twilight and AJ both, the only person here that remotely seemed fitting to the context was Starlight and Big Mac.
Whatever, It is already written from things. And we can expect this from each of the folks when you aim higher with the stream.
I'm starting to think the "dreams" we're talking about here aren't regular nighttime dreams. That is, they're not brain-sorting-random-things-out-while-we-sleep dreams; more like, "what have you always dreamed of becoming?" Maybe that's why Luna was unconcerned: Discord wasn't messing with her kind of dreaming. The "dreams" he's helped give shape to are daydreams, fantasies, wishes.
Wonder how localized the effects are? Wonder if Celestia and Luna are excluded? Wonder if Discord remembered to add a limit so that nopony could dream "I always wanted to be more powerful than Discord"?
*Alondro gives another of his patented shit-eating grins* So, my detractors, may I proceed with the hentai gore molestation of Discord, as you see I clearly knew where this was going and was prepared to administer proper punishment for the mind-rapes he's caused?
Man, I totally saw this coming. The signs were all there. The way she shifted when talking to Twilight. The fact she grew wings in the first place.
9560911 This is clearly a horror story, despite the lack of tag.
In pony horror, the friends of the perpetrator are incapable of doing anything. They simply stand there in shock as the murderer of whatever strolls away.
Actually, that's an old cliché of many horror stories with the villain being someone known to the protagonist.
On that note, I'd been expecting a horror tag for some time now. Drama doesn't quite cover this scale of mind manipulation and escalating devastation.
9560884 Did she really? That may be your intent, but what I see here is a person UTTERLY detached from absolutely every personality trait she has ever had previously.
As a previous comment of mine noted: FAMILY AND THE FARM are so intrinsic to AJs nature, were you to show this scene to the mare in the show, I think she'd die from shock. She doesn't feel bound to it, she loves it as part of herself. And, think about it another way: she didn't just up and leave. She DESTROYED everything. Not just HER possessions, but theirs as well. In an act of absolute selfish callousness, she's left her family with nothing.
Now, need I explain how this makes AJ suddenly a sociopath?
To put it another way, it'd be as if I suddenly found myself hating plants because of dreams. That's not a natural change. That's the erasure of one of my key interests.
Is it truly a free 'choice' when one's mind has been effectively rewritten by chaos magic twisting their dreams? Discord hasn't set them free at all. Their dreams are now more monotonous than ever. Rather than random things from night to night, it's clearly all focused upon a single repetitive theme driving them all slowly insane. This is an act more in keeping with Discord when he was still a villain. And something that would have made him a truly demonic and chilling villain at that.
9561168
Eh, it feels more freaky than horror-ish. And regardless of tropes, its a bit detaching to watch/read.
9560813 And what happens when this abstract and undefined notion of 'freedom' tells AJ that being a living organism binds her to the mortal coil?
You see, I see things to their ultimate endpoints. That's how pick out logical fallacy.
[quoteMaybe that's why all of us dream of doing things we would never do in real life.]Really now? Interesting. More evidence of how unique a being I am.
Never once in all the recalled dreams I've had over the decades have I ever dreamed of something I would never do if I had the ability.
Make of that what you will...
9561181 Just wait. This is going to become more horrifying as time goes on.
9561176
Thank you for writing this. It very aptly hits the nail with sledgehammer.
Well...that was expected but still hit hard. I didn't think Applejack would go that far.
It really shows you that there is a reason why dreams and reality are very much distinct. When we dream we are uninhibited from our repsonsibilites and duties in the real world even if those responsibilities are very much core to our character and something we value.
9561196
Detachment from reality is not really horrifying, its just bizarre. If reality can be detached like so, you'll find that really it just sums up to the threads unwinding and reweaving themselves. It's practically just one universe turning into another with new rules in play. The changes aren't horrifying, because they are within the bounds of the new logic of the new world. In this case, it's the dreamworld and the real world melding into a new one.
9561101
I sorry you feel like I'm being disrespectful. That was never my intent. When I'm writing, my goal is almost always to challenge my readers, not insult them. I certainly don't think of myself as a 'cheeky' person, either. I tend to have a strong dislike of people who think of themselves that way.
When I was writing Archetypist, one of the challenges that popped up was how to include Applejack. How would she fit into a world where dreams started to modify reality? And my first few stabs at the question fell along predictable lines... she might dream she was a tree and start growing roots, or maybe she dreamed of the Acres as a timeless place untouched by modernity, turning it into a faerie circle where nopony ever aged and nothing ever changed. And those would have both been squarely within what we know of her character.
But the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if that wasn't selling Applejack short. Sure, everything we know about her is apple apples apples, family family family, work work work. The show pounds it into us every episode she appears. Readers below say in their comments that they can't imagine an Applejack any different. They are intrinsic to her nature.
And that's true. But the central question of The Archetypist, mentioned back in that first chapter is "Who are we really?" Is it the person we live as, or is it the person in our dreams?
So I started asking myself, what would a pony like Applejack really dream about? Would she really just dream about bucking apple trees or her family or working hard? I can only speak for myself, but I dream about things other than my daily life. I assume other people do, too.
So, just maybe, Applejack dreams that she doesn't have to worry about the farm. That she doesn't have to buck apples. That she doesn't need to be the glue that holds the Apple family together. That maybe she can just let go of those things, and the world will continue spinning, and she will be free.
Anyway, I've already rambled on. I can't say I'm sorry the story doesn't appeal to you, because no story can appeal to everyone. But I am certainly sorry if you feel like I disrespected you as a reader. That was never my intention and never will be.
9561442
I'm not going to mince words.
I do like the story. And I generally do love your approach to writing, both original characters, and those of established nature. You have an enjoyable style to me.
However, this chapter. You hand the biggest idiot ball to twilight right at the end, to everyone that it is an immediate and near perfect disconnect to read. The most apt term I can use here would be Dump Shock if you are familiar with it.
And it is why I used the terms I did.
AJ is not freeing herself, she is condemning everyone around her that once mattered. They are no longer people to her. They are things.
That is psychopathic behavior. I had no issue subjectively in my views to changing to wishing to leave. It is another to take everything and destroy it that belongs to more than just you. And why the starting sentence here.
And it feels like you do this for a very poor man's shock value at best. The utter lowball. And I do see you as a good writer.
That is why I said what I did. Why I felt that way, and said what I said. Because this chapter right at the end, feels like a giant slap to the face.
I'm waiting for the white knights to descend and rip at tear me apart for replying what I did at start. I'm shocked they haven't yet.
9561572
I'm not sure what white knights are or why they would feel the need to tear you apart, but I'm very pleased that the comments on this story and to other posters so far have been polite and respectful. I hope they stay that way.
I admit I'm a bit confused why you think I'm handing Twilight the idiot ball in this chapter. I do that in my comedies sometimes, because it's interesting to see how far I can get a character to run with absurd behavior, but I don't think I've done it here. Twilight is waking up in the middle of the night, responding to a traumatic event, having to relive one of her own worst experiences, and suddenly being confronted with the realization that her friend, who she thought she knew so well (and, let's be honest, so simply, because Applejack is nothing if not a simple pony), doing something so unexpected, so shocking, that it leaves her numb. I don't know how else Twilight could have reacted there.
I use the word shock there, though I think in a different sense than you do. While shock can be done cheaply, I don't think I've been negligent in setting up this chapter. People noted in previous chapters that AJ seemed to be heading down this path. And, if I may add, we've even seen in the show itself that 'twisted' versions of Applejack behave in quite radically different ways than she normally would (both the version of her twisted by Discord in his first appearance, and much later in Chrysalis's deformed versions of the Mane 6).
(Edit: I've had several author friends, including my two editors whom I respect deeply as writers and consider more skilled than I, if they thought this chapter was inappropriate or a cheap blow. While they said it was painful and hard-hitting, none felt that I was taking unearned liberties. Obviously ever reader is different and all opinions need to be weighed fairly, but I value their opinions very highly and have to give them considerable weight.)
If you want to keep reading, that is of course your prerogative. But if you found this chapter shocking (in a bad way) and insulting, I might suggest that we just agree this story isn't for you, and stop here.
9561598
I did mis-speak in that sense for twilight in the previous statement. I will correct.
As for other aspects, I am willing to talk on this in a civil manner. I said my blunt feeling on the matter in the initial reply to chapter 13.
If you want to be blunt, okay. Or use the diplomatic neutral tone here, okay, fine too. Not going to lash again either way.
In either case, you were polite in telling me where to go in civil tones. Which is a refreshing change of pace.
I am trying to correct one matter, of shock, that does need clarification.
With the way you write, it is very easy to read and visualize the scene you create akin to a state of Flow. Dump Shock is the disorientation somebody gets when they are in flow, and its broken. And that is what happened here. So you can see the context in which I used the term.
Simply, AJ stops being aj the moment you put her on screen. Alondro puts this far better than I. He explains why in good detail, what you chose to break in doing what you did here. I'm just the one that's opening up for the equivalent punching bag by being cruder on it. But trying to raise the same point in equivalence.
She's torched the homes of three ponies, who did nothing to stop her, who lies convincingly to them, and they didn't try to stop her when she starts the fire or pours the kerosene for the house. Those that know what it is, what it does. Convinces them to. From happy s1 dash to someone that would have no issue potentially killing someone if they 'chained' her again.
You list days from previous chapter, but have in the day this happens rarity interact and not notice this kind of thing with her and interaction.
That's the disconnect, and the idiot ball.
That is why it feels like you did what I originally posted.
This is horror and dark, not drama. Which would have been a nice tag setup to know going in, as to reasonably expect what those stories mean. I wouldn't have blinked seeing that on dark/horror.
Drama is a far different beast.
I feel like there might be a few things some of my fellow commenters might be overlooking.
One thing some have noted is that the 'new' or 'changed' Applejack is so radically different to 'old' Applejack that we have no choice but to see her as either a new, different entity detached from 'old' or 'real' Applejack or under foreign (i.e. Discord's) influence.
As has also been noted, radical shifts in a person are in fact natural, but only as gradual developments, e.g. from infancy to maturity, which is not given when a pony goes to sleep as one person but wakes up as a completely different person.
The thing that might be overlooked here are the dreams themselves. Who is to say that the gradual development, the small realizations, the tiny transmutations that mark the 'natural' change of a personality did not take place here. Such might be the case for Applejack.
In fact, we do see Applejack slowly undergoing the change even in the waking world.
In Chapter 9 we see her first selling apples, then realizing that this isn't part of who she wants to be, and then stopping to do so, which is the first step of detaching herself from the farm.
In Chapter 10, after another night of dreams, we learn that Applejack has stopped bucking apples, another step away from the farm. Days (and nights!) have passed since then.
We have seen the start of rapid, but gradual and continuous change. Now that we are presented with the possible endpoint of the change, why should we assume that a discontinuity has occurred?
In other words, Applejack's transformation only seems radical and sudden to us because we (and Twilight, whose perspective we use) have not observed her every step of the way.
Just like Twilight, some have cast blame on Discord, citing him as the source of the changes and thus responsible. We know that Applejack dreamt of being free, and we know that it were those dreams that changed her.
There are two possible avenues of involvement for Discord here.
One is that he directs the dreams and the changes they caused, in which case we would have full culpability.
The other is that he merely changed the rules of dreaming by allowing dreaming ponies to change themselves through their dreams. In this case, he is about as responsible for the fire in the farm as the Wright brothers are for the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
I believe that all we have seen so far points towards the latter case.
We saw the toiling labourer dream of being free from the yoke of her duties.
We saw the faithful student dream of keener (in)sight by virtue of the illumination of her beloved teacher.
We saw the aspirant artist dream of exquisite beauty found from diligent work.
All these things seem, to me, so plain and boring, so obvious from the nature of the dreamer, that it seems very implausible to me that this is the doing of Discord. He is more imaginative than that.
In short, Discord may have opened the door, but everything else is just what the ponies are doing to themselves, and the changes wrought, though made possible through Discord, are wrought by the ones changing themselves.
9561439 When the changes cause practically everyone to go mad, yes it is horrifying.
They're all becoming outlandishly obsessed with this single repeating theme in their individual dreams. They're not even dreaming naturally, as only those who are quite mad with OCD dream virtually the same thing every single night.
Turning everyone sociopathic and masochistic seems to me unlikely to result in anything less than devastation.
9561743
I dunno....the change in behaviour is the strange part, but its not really scary as it falls in with the logic of the scenario presented.
It is like saying Sherlock Holmes, House, CSI, or NCIS are horror stories. And we know that isn't the case.
Other examples include Doctor Who, Criminal Minds, Bones, Castle, and Scooby Doo.
9561854
Halloween also follows it's own internal logic, and it's a horror movie.
Also, Doctor Who and sometimes the better incarnations of Scoo y Doo can also fall in Horror.
The standard definition:
Of schizophrenia usually includes some talk about the inability to distinguish fantasy from reality. Of course, in Equestria, reality's always been a bit more fluid than it is in our world, and with Discord empowering the voices that whisper in the back of everypony's head, I'm finding this to be quite the interesting look at our characters descending into their various psychoses. I'm hoping, though, that we'll get to see what's happening to somewhere along the line...?
Mike