• Published 27th Dec 2012
  • 4,660 Views, 403 Comments

Ghosts of Whitetail Wood - Biochi



Applebloom continues to seek out her special talent and finds more than she has bargained for.

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Grogar, Grogar, Grogar.

Twilight woke from the dreamless sleep of unconsciousness as the full moon shone brilliant white light in her eyes. The orb of night was hanging at its apex and was so bright that it smothered all the nearby stars with its glory. “Luna,” she croaked in a voice husky from abuse.

“Try again,” said a rumbling basso, while chuckling. “But aim lower this time.”

“Oh, Tarturus,” the purple mare swore, turning her aching head to bring Grogar’s bulk into view.

The giant ram tisked her. “A bit of an over-correction there. Perhaps you're still a bit addled from yet another brush with death?”

“I’m not addled,” the mare growled defiantly while pondering the etymology of the phrase ‘to get one’s goat.’ “I’m fine,” she insisted while struggling to her hooves. Halfway through levering herself upright all of her muscles seized in a massive cramp. Whimpering, she collapsed in a heap of twitching limbs.

An eyebrow quirked on the ancient and scarred face. The facial gesture was eloquent.

“I’m...fine.” Twilight insisted through grit teeth.

“You shouldn’t be,” Grogar countered, his tone particularly inscrutable.

Twilight panted from her prone position, assessing her physical condition. “Ok, I’m not fine. I hurt everywhere."

“Comparatively speaking, ‘just a unicorn,’ you are fine.”

“I got lucky. Maybe the revenants didn’t know I was magically exhausted. They must have thought my barrier would have held them back.” Twilight’s irritation with the god rose at the use of his favorite nickname for her. She had described herself as ‘just a unicorn’ to Grogar back when he was a captive in Tartarus. The annoying god used the term as often as he could with her, usually with a smirk or a chuckle.

“Ah yes, luck. That must be it.” He answered, smirking again.

“Shut up and give me a hoof,” the unicorn said, dismissing his line of implication.

The great ram leaned over, bringing the tip of one of his great curling horns within Twilight’s reach. She grabbed onto it with a forelimb and then Grogar straightened his posture, pulling the mare up to her shaking hind legs. In the pause while Twilight tried to catch both her breath and her balance Grogar spoke again. “If you keep on surviving fatal encounters, ‘just a unicorn,’ people will eventually begin to doubt your mortality. You should be more careful.”

Twilight glared at the dimly-glowing eye socket looming just inches from her muzzle. “And why exactly do you care since...Oh, let me try to remember,” she added sarcastically. “Yeah, you were one of those ‘fatal encounters’.”

“Yes, Twilight Sparkle. I, a god, killed you and yet you stand here...living.”

A chill passed through the mare and the fur on the back of her neck stood. For some reason, Grogar using her full name just then was worse than any nickname. “Please let me down,” she said quietly, unnerved.

“Of course, Y-,” the ram cut himself off and smiled again. “...Miss Twilight.” Grogar gently bent a knee, bringing her forelimbs within reach of the ground. Carefully, she pulled back her limb from his horn and stood on her own, knees shaking like a foal. The god remained bent on one knee for an odd moment too long, as if bowing before her. Twilight’s disquiet grew into dread observing the genuflection.

“Oh, these ancient knees. It takes me so very long to rise again.” Grogar said, apparently to himself while rising to his own hooves.

Twilight’s mind grabbed onto the plausible explanation like a drowning mare would grab onto a life-ring. Anything to dismiss the possibility of Grogar kneeling before her. “After all,” she told herself, “I’m just a...

Grogar chuckled softly to himself for no apparent reason and Twilight vowed to research mind-shielding spells at her earliest opportunity.

Desperate for another topic of conversation she looked around at her surroundings. They were in a clearing surrounded by trees on every side. In the bright moonlight the bark was painted silver and the leaves glinted obsidian. “Where in Hades are we?”

“On an Apple farm,” he answered, making sure the capitalization was audible. "The white, fussy one told Rainbow Dash where you went and she brought the bunch of you back here after your misadventure," he added.

Twilight groaned at the pun but stopped as felt a stab of pain in her heart. “Luna,” she thought, “I’ll never get to hear those terrible jokes anymore.

With another use of an eloquent eyebrow, Grogar asked her what was the matter.

Oh, no. I am not talking about that with him,” she said to herself. She sprang at the nearest alternate topic at hoof, “Apple...Apple Bloom! Is she ok?”

“Your friends were disturbed but not mourning a dead child. I presume she yet survives.”

“We need to go to her,” said the mare.

“Is that the child with the gift?” Grogar confirmed.

“I don’t think she feels very gifted right now,” Twilight muttered.

“Few who truly are think so.”

The empty sockets within the old god’s face felt as if they were somehow boring into Twilight’s soul. The unicorn shuddered and turned away, unable to bear their crimson gaze. She picked a direction at random, waking simply to gain some distance from the horrible ram. A few minutes later she arrived at the Apple’s barn. Grogar was there waiting beside the double doors and looking as pleased as a well-fed cat.

--------------------------------------------------------

Apple Bloom woke screaming as rot encrusted hooves pinned her down as the smell of decay filled her lungs.

“-Bloom! Apple Bloom! Its me! You’re safe!” Applejack’s voice cut through the horror as she realized the limbs that held her were whole, orange, and single hooved.

The filly blinked as the familiar confines of her own room came into view. She looked up and saw her sister’s face, gray and pinched with worry. Her hat was missing and blond hair hung limply around Applejack’s shoulders. What disturbed Apple Bloom the most, however, was her sister’s eyes. The filly saw fear and concern therein but she also saw two emotions she didn’t expect to find there, guilt and some powerful form of need or want.

“You’re safe now, safe,” her sister said again. The mare scooped Apple Bloom up into her arms and squeezed the filly in a crushing hug. Applejack kept repeating that last word, as if chanting the phrase would make it somehow more real. Apple Bloom allowed herself to fall into the embrace, searching for comfort from the hot beating heart of the living mare surrounding her. Several minutes passed like this, tears ebbing and flowing as various memories floated by.

“Sis, its ok now. You can let go,” Apple Bloom eventually told her sister. Applejack shook her head while continuing her chant. “Applejack, please, let me go.”

Applejack stopped her chant, “I ain’t ever letting you go, not ever.”

“Applejack!” the filly whined while pushing at her sister’s chest with a hoof. The pair came apart abruptly, each rocking back on the bed. Apple Bloom regained her balance and looked at her sister again; the comparison that came to her young mind was to wilted winter apples pulled from the cellar in early spring. She had never seen her sister act this way before and it scared her.

The stricken mare finally looked up from her hooves and met Apple Bloom’s eyes. “I know I’m a horrible mother, AB. I know I’ve done you wrong and I’m sorry. You deserve better than the like of me to be your mom but we’re family and I’m begging you to give me another chance. Whatever your talent, whatever you want to grow up to be, I want to be here for you if you’ll let me. Please, stay with us.” Applejack turned her tear-soaked face away from the filly, shame bowing her shoulders. “Or, if you really can’t stand to be here with me, I’ll help you find somewhere safe to live. You don’t have to run away like that again.”

Apple Bloom grew more and more uncomfortable as her sister talked. She could tell that Applejack meant every word but it seemed that her sister had thought she was running away for good. “Sis,” Applejack winced when Apple Bloom said the word, “I know you do the best you can. I know it’s been hard for you, raising me like I was your own. I wasn’t running away, not like that.” Applejack looked up from the bedspread, a cautious hope touching her features. The filly continued, “Me and Sweetie were only going off to Whitetail to show everyone that I wasn’t a dangerous freak.” The foal’s face fell, “That didn’t work out so well.”

Applejack reached out raised Apple Bloom’s chin. "You ain’t no freak and I won’t tolerate anyone saying that about you, not you, not anypony.” To Apple Bloom, the mare looked like she wanted to say more but stopped herself.

Apple Bloom nodded in response.

Applejack nodded back. “Now, I gotta ask, why did you go and get Sweetie to bring along? Why her and not Scoots?”

“I didn’t,” the filly answered. “She came out here after Rarity told her we weren't allowed to be friends no more. That’s why we had to show everyone that I wasn’t dangerous.” Apple Bloom’s bottom lip began to tremble again

Applejack’s lips went thin and pale over her teeth. “Oh, we’re just gonna have to see about that,” the mare growled in a tone that made Apple Bloom’s eyes widen in alarm. “You ok to walk?”

“I guess so, why?” the filly answered, uncertain.

“We’re going over to the barn, that’s where everyone’s meeting.” Applejack replied.

Apple Bloom sat silent for a moment and then asked, with fear tinging her voice, “Even Twilight?”

“If she can she will be,” Applejack answered. “Saving the two of you took everything that poor mare had. Knocked her clean out. When Grogar arrived he took one look at her and dragged her off into the orchards. I suppose he's doing some sort of magic cure thingie.”

Apple Bloom eyed her sister apprehensively. It wasn't like her sister to leave out details like a new pair of wings, a doubling in size, and the aegis of a god. Maybe she had been seeing things, exhausted and terrified. “I hope she’s...better.”

With things once again settled, Applejack helped her daughter down from the bed. The filly was still shaky from her ordeal so the elder walked alongside the filly, providing her entire side to lean against for balance. Out in the yard, Apple Bloom caught Applejack staring at her with that needful look once again.

“What?” the younger asked, driving straight to the point.

Applejack started, as if caught in some kind of shameful act. “ I, um, uh...nothing?”

Apple Bloom stopped walking and looked her sister in the eye.

The farmer eventually broke down under the steely gaze. “I, ah, well, I realized that you’d grown an inch and that I hadn’t noticed it before now. Between that and yer cutie mark, I, ah, guess I ought to get used to thinking of you as a young mare instead of a filly.”

The ‘young mare’ could tell that her sister had spoken the truth but had left something terribly important unsaid. Apple Bloom narrowed her eyes in suspicion and said, “Whatever it really is, you’re gonna tell me eventually. Aren’t you?”

Applejack looked scared of her, an impossibility just two days ago. It disturbed Apple Bloom deeply. Her sister replied in a whisper, “Yeah, I will. I promise. Soon.”

“You better,” was Apple Bloom’s rejoinder as she released her sister from eye-contact and passed into the barn.

Lanterns were already lit within the large space. In the middle of the barn, looking small and pale, were Rarity and Sweetie Bell. Apple Bloom shouted her best-friend’s name and galloped towards her, excited to see that the filly had survived the adventure more or less unharmed.

Sweetie’s eyes widened with fear as she saw Apple Bloom and she took a pair of fumbling steps backwards at seeing the earth pony’s charge. Apple Bloom’s gait faltered as she stopped a few meters away from the pair of unicorns. The smaller now mostly hidden behind the larger.

“Sweetie?” Apple Bloom asked, praying for any explanation besides the obvious.

“Um, hi, Apple Bloom,” the white filly answered with a voice high and tight with terror.

“Sweetie, I’m real sorry things didn’t go like we planned,” Apple Bloom apologized, hoping for forgiveness and acceptance.

“‘Didn’t go as planned’?” quoted the older unicorn. “You nearly killed both her and Twilight with your...display of talent.”

The words hurt Apple Bloom like a kick to the side. “Please, I’m sorry. I’ll never do anything like that again,” the filly begged Rarity.

“Hold on there a sec, AB,” the elder Apple had entered the barn and the conversation. “You ain’t got all the apologizing to do today.”

“Certainly, you don’t mean moi,” said the unicorn while portraying the very essence of wounded innocence..

Applejack laid out her case. “You going to tell me you didn't forbid your little sis from being friends with Apple Bloom?"

The unicorn harrumphed, "I have no need to deny that and I think that this," Rarity paused as she searched for an appropriate term, "fiasco shows that I was completely justified in my concerns."

"Well, as soon as your back was turned Sweetie Bell galloped straight here and told my...Apple Bloom what you said." Applejack was beginning to grow visibly angry. "If you hadn't acted so ham-hocked they wouldn't of ran off in the middle of the night!"

"Your...sister,” Rarity smiled sharply as the subtle pause had its intended effect on the farm-pony, “is a hazard. I’ve put up with her bad influence on Sweetie up to this point but I just cannot tolerate this any more. Mud and tree-sap are one thing but ghosts and zombies are altogether another.”

“The only reason Apple Bloom took such a chance was because of your meddling. The way I see it, you nearly got my sister killed.”

Apple Bloom tuned out the adults as they descended into bickering. Looking over to Sweetie Belle she tried to smile apologetically to her. The unicorn’s look in return was a blend of fear, guilt, and shame.

“I’m sorry,” Sweetie Belle mouthed and Apple Bloom’s face fell.

With a dull boom, the wide double-doors to the barn swung open. Half again as tall as a pony, the great shaggy ram raised his head after presumably opening the doors with a slight push from his massive curling horns. This wasn’t the first time Apple Bloom had met the ancient god. After returning to the living world Grogar had held court in her family’s pasture for several weeks. Despite her familiarity with him, his bulk intimidated her and she fell back a step.

Grogar took a few steps into the barn, the bells strewn about him jingling softly. “So, who is the child here?” he rumbled.

Applebloom’s mouth fell open. She heard his words and knew how the others were supposed to hear them but there was something in the way the corner of his eye crinkled...he was telling a joke. Her mouth opened and shut as she understood the jab the ram had taken at her sister's and Rarity's expense. She was torn between laughing, telling the two targets that he was laughing at them, or defending her sister. She was saved from having to choose as her attention was drawn to Twilight Sparkle, looking even more haunted than her sister, lurking in the shadow of the monstrous goat. Apple Bloom squinted, trying to see as hard as possible but there was no sign of a pair of wings or any other markers of divinity.

“What do you mean? You've met Apple Bloom before,” Applejack obliviously replied.

“Grogar,” Twilight invoked the god’s name as a warning. Apple Bloom was pleased to see that someone besides herself could sense the old goat’s meaning.

Grogar turned his head to look back over his shoulder at the unicorn ruining his fun. “Fine.” Turning back to the barn’s occupants his voice rumbled over them, “Apple Bloom, come to me.”

She reluctantly shuffled up to the goat, head bowed even though she didn't really think of him as a god.

“No, meet my gaze,” he ordered.

Her lips pursed and she sighed, then she raised her head. She noted that the glowing red vacancy was not at bright as it was when the ram had left their farm some months ago. She also saw that none of the scars on his face were fresh burns. The scars weren't likely to fade but at least the burning had stopped.

As she assessed him, she felt herself being stripped bare underneath his eyeless sight. “What does he see?” she wondered to herself. She was surprised to find that she was more curious about the nature of the god’s vision than by what he found within her. “Why have I stopped caring? What does that mean?

Grogar nodded, interrupting the filly’s musings. “I’ll take her,” he declared.

“Good,” said Rarity.

“That’s it?” Applejack asked at the same time.

The two mares resumed glaring at each other. The resumption of their argument was derailed by Grogar stepping deeper into the room, approaching Rarity and eventually forcing the white mare back as he entered her personal space. This maneuver left Sweetie Bell standing alone before the god.

“I am taking your friend away, little one,” he said to her.

In a shaking voice she replied, “I know.”

“She will not come back the same,” Grogar continued

Sweetie nodded, tears collecting in her eyes.

“But when she comes back, she’ll still be your friend.”

The tears ran freely now, coursing down her white cheeks and gathering at her shaking chin.

“Go say good-bye,” he said, more like giving permission than ordering.

Released by these words Sweetie Belle shot across the barn and tackled her friend so hard her father, the retired hoof-ball player would have beamed with pride. “I’m sorry,” both of the fillies cried while embracing. This was followed by several declarations of unending filial love and the terrible missing of each other to come.

Applejack watched the two friends' farewell with growing pain in her heart. Turning to Grogar she asked, "You're gonna bring her back to me, right?"

"No," was the goat's answer.

Panic began to swell within Applejack, "Wha-"

Grogar interrupted her. "If she comes back, it'll be she who 'brings' herself home. She won't be mine or yours anymore. She'll be her own."

Applejack had no idea how to feel about the ram's statement.

Grogar turned his attention back to the fillies. There confessions had degenerated to simply holding each other and snuffling quietly. “Apple Bloom, come along. It is time.”

Twilight stepped into the path of the goat, blocking his exit. “Um, Grogar. I was wondering if I could accompany the two of you, if only for a little while. As you know, I’m studying all forms of magic and necro-”

“No,” Grogar interrupted.

“But this sort of magic hasn't been studied using any of the modern-”

“No,” again he interrupted her. “This magic isn’t for you or your kind.”

“But-”

“No. Now move,” the god insisted.

Twilight did but with obvious poor grace. She looked as if she were wracking her brain in an attempt to muster an argument that would convince the great ram. Apple Bloom watched all this play out with fascination.

“Come.” he said again once the way was clear.

Apple Bloom gave Sweetie Belle one last squeeze and then let go.

Sweetie nodded while whipping her eyes. “See you soon,” she said.

“As soon as I can,” was Apple Bloom’s reply. Then the moment ended and she came alongside her new mentor as they walked out the barn door together. The full moon was bright but the light from the barn’s lanterns threw their shadows out before them the contrast in size made the filly shiver.

Apple Bloom looked back over her shoulder at those she was leaving behind. Three mares and a filly stood silhouetted by the lantern-light, shadow versions of themselves reaching out towards her. On the ground she could see the distinctive outline of her sister’s Stetson, Rarity’s horn, and Twilight’s wings. She blinked, the shadow image of wings remained and her step faltered.

“Um, Grogar?” the filly asked.

“I know, keep walking,” he answered, apparently unfazed.

“But, Twilight...she has,” Apple Bloom tried to explain as the ram must be mistaken as to her meaning.

I know. And far more importantly, she doesn't. Not yet.” Grogar kept walking, forcing the filly to follow him into the night.

Author's Note:

He's Baaaaaaaak