A yellow shooting star shot across the universe. The cry of a young filly faded away, but no one heard her. It only became silent as it landed on the dusty ground of the grey rock orbiting her home planet.
Apple Bloom, there she lay; her face covered in moon dust. Her big eyes widened as she realized what had happened. “What have I done wrong?” she gasped. Then she picked herself up and screamed the question again out loud, “WHAT HAVE I DONE WRONG?”
Her echo reverberated over the barren landscape. The sky was black, the ground was grey. She had never seen such a wasteland before, but it was easy to guess where she was. It wasn't a dream; it was real.
There had been a fight against this monster. Her friends and the bearers of the six elements were there. It happened so fast, the next moment she was blinded by a light and then she flew through the clouds, through the sky up to here.
Apple Bloom lay on her back and cried loudly. Everything above her was pitch black.
After she had finished crying, she got up again and wiped her face. That made it even dirtier. She saw her world before her with her big, beady eyes; a big blue ball with a white atmosphere and green spots that she recognized as continents.
“My world is really beautiful,” she thought. The light in her eyes trembled at this view. When she realized that she was just a little pony born on this planet, she had to shed another tear.
She looked back again at the bleak landscape. Stones and rocks were lying all around. If she could only give a sign that she was here. Maybe the others knew that and were looking for ways to save her. Apple Bloom saw no reason for this banishment. She just stood by; it was an accident. But how did that even happen?
Apple Bloom trotted ahead with lowered eyes. It didn't matter where she went. The Trabant was big, and all the rocks were scattered far into the horizon. She saw round and square formations, others with different colours. The moon rock shone under Celestia's sun.
The little foal decided to build something from these rocks. She had always been creative, because that proved her Cutie-Mark. She stacked stones on top of each other, built walls and thought hard about how she could move a heavy boulder. She dug some sand out from under this boulder and so it moved a little.
After some time, Apple Bloom finally had the rock where she intended to have it. But it didn't have the right shape yet. She took another pointed stone to carefully chop off the edges.
Much later she had chiseled a large cube out of it. The surface was still a little rough, but it was just the way she wanted it.
Time passed, and Apple Bloom continued to build. At some point she felt tired, not knowing how long she had been working on her projects. Time here was different. She yawned heartily and looked at her work with satisfaction. Much was still incomplete, but it was already taking shape.
She sat down next to the cube and curled up. Then she wrapped her tail around her hooves. Sadly, she looked once more at her home planet. She wondered if Applejack was getting things started. She would not be able to sit still. She probably stared up at the moon and wondered how she was doing. Apple Bloom promised her that an answer would come soon. Then she closed her tired young eyes.
When she woke up, she noticed that the planet in front of her was moving. But it was actually the moon. There was a cobalt blue magical glow over the landscape; much like a unicorn that made things levitate. Her half-finished building project glowed beautifully. Bright spots of light were swarming around like fireflies. Apple Bloom's mouth was open. She walked towards the rising planet and saw something amazing.
On the continent shone Equestria, there were millions of lights; unicorn lights. They shone brightly and apparently formed a symbol. It was their cutie mark. Apple Bloom's legs shook. “They know… They know that I’m here.”
Her tears came back. All of Equestria stood behind her. Even though the lights were so far away, they warmed her heart. She clasped her breast and watched the spectacle for a long time.
At some point the lights disappeared because the ponies went to sleep. But one light was still on. It was in the Ponyville area. Apple Bloom knew who it was. She closed her eyes and thought of the farm, of her family. The golden light continued to shine in her thoughts, although it was also slow but surely fading.
She opened her eyes and this time she was very determined to continue working on her construction project. She want to finish it. But then she saw a shining figure with orange hair. She smiled at the little foal. Apple Bloom couldn't believe it. This pony looked familiar to her. She knew her from the family albums, and she was carried by this pony when she was a baby foal.
“Mom,” Apple Bloom held its breath. There was actually her mother, Pear Butter, standing in the middle of her half-finished farm.
“Is it really you?” Her breathing quickened, a thousand and one questions rushed through her mind.
As she stood right in front of her, Pear Butter gave her a hug. It felt so real, warm and comforting. “Oh, my little Apple Bloom, I'm so proud of you.”
The filly pressed her head against the chest. Many tears were rolling down her cheeks. “Mother, I... How can it be? Were you banished here, too?” she asked and looked up to her.
But Pear Butter just smiled and stroked her cheek, wiping away the tears. Then she said in her soft voice, “I am always with you. You have grown so big already. If only your father could see you.”
“Dad? Where is he?” snorted Apple Bloom.
“He's with the others,” she said, looking over the moon farm that Apple Bloom had built. She was done. The barn there was all white. From the fields grew strong white trees with silver leaves and golden apples.
“Here!” Her mother gave her one of these apples. Apple Bloom was amazed. Her eyes were gleaming in the light.
“You built it all yourself, a new kind of apple from your farm. You named it Moon Apple," said Pear Butter.
Apple Bloom bit the apple. It was hard, but her teeth were strong enough "Hmm... Tastes like..." She chewed a little. "Like a sweet apple pie!"
Pear Butter smiled at her daughter and kissed her on the forehead. The foal squealed with happiness. She had her own farm. Her parents were back and she had discovered a new kind of apple. It all originated on this moon. Together they walked through the plantation of the moon apple trees.
Like every afternoon Apple Bloom wandered through the trees. The golden apples on the branches shone like festive decorations. Her mother accompanied her and always gave a joyful smile. Happy and carefree she forgot the time.
They sat down by a tree. Apple Bloom consumed another golden moon apple while Pear Butter played her something on the guitar. The sun shone through the silver leaves and painted shady spots on the grey earth.
The little foal tried to remember the last time she had seen her mother. It had been a very long time. One day, both parents were suddenly gone, and everyone else was deeply sad.
She was about to bite into another apple. Then suddenly she saw a white figure scurrying through the trees. “Mom, did you see that?”
Pear Butter stopped playing. "What, my dear?"
“There!” She pointed between the tree trunks as she saw it again. She jumped up to chase it.
“Be careful,” Her mother shouted after her.
Apple Bloom ran far ahead to a glade where the figure stopped. It was a night-blue pony with a shiny mane and blue streaks. It turned around startled when she noticed the foal. She was about her age and an alicorn.
Apple Bloom gasped in wonderment, “Who are you and what are you doing here?”
The foal tilted her head as if she had asked a trick question. But then she smiled. “My name is Selene! What's yours?”
“I'm Apple Bloom, the farmer here,” she replied and walked towards the new pony to inspect it. “Are you a princess?”
The young alicorn suddenly looked at her brightly and shouted, “Wanna play?”
“I’d love to,” Apple Bloom replied, looking around. “I have to tell my mother that I'm here.”
Selene looked surprised. But then Pear Butter appeared behind the bushes. Apple Bloom turned around. “Mom, look, I found a playmate!”
Pear Butter beamed, “That's lovely!”
“Her name is Selene! Can we play?”
“Of course, my dear! But please come back in time for supper!” she called and walked back to the farm.
“I will!” she squealed in delight and turned back to Selene. But she was gone. Apple Bloom looked around in wonder, tilting her head back and forth.
She was about to call for her when the alicorn jumped up behind a bush and poked her on the nose. “Gotcha!”
Apple Bloom laughed and ran after her. The foals dashed through the plantation like lightning. They romped and jumped around under the branches. Apple Bloom had never felt so happy.
At some point they found the border of the plantation. Outside they found the wide emptiness and Apple Bloom suddenly remembered where she actually was. With a heavy heart she sat down and breathed deeply. The lunar landscape was without colors. The light was blindingly bright, but on the horizon she saw a dark stripe that seemed to spread out slowly. “What am I doing here?” Apple Bloom asked aloud.
Selene sat down next to her and asked, “Everything okay? You look a little pale.”
“I was banished here... without purpose,” Apple Bloom sadly explained.
“Oooh,” Selene gasped when she realized. “That's sad.”
“Have you been banished here too?” she asked Selene.
The alicorn curled her lips thoughtfully and replied finally muffled, "I have been here since I can think, searching for a meaning behind it all. What is my purpose?"
Apple Bloom looked at her flank and noticed that Selene didn't have a cutie mark yet. “Oh, I can help you with that!” she said enthusiastically.
Selene looked at her with both surprise and curiosity. “Really? How?”
Apple Bloom smiled proudly. "I can show you. What do you like to do most, which you're good at?"
“I love to play! Especially hide-and-seek!”
Apple Bloom giggled, which also made Selene smile. "Well, I don't know if playing is a special talent, but we can try it."
They walked back through the plantation, laughed and played a little more. Then she heard her mother calling. “Apple Bloom, time for dinner!”
The foal accelerated the steps. Eager to see, what might be there for dinner. Selene followed her a little hesitantly.
Pear Butter was standing next to the white barn waiting for them. At her side stood a big yellow stallion, which resembled Apple Bloom's coat and mane colour. Apple Bloom leapt overjoyed and cheered, “Daddy!”
Bright Mac welcomed his youngest daughter and lifted her onto her back. “Well, my little girl? How was your trip?” He put his hat on her head, which was a little too big for her.
Selene went to her parents. She wanted to say something, but closed her mouth right away. Apple Bloom jumped from Bright Mac and offered her hoof to the alicorn. “We would love it if you would join us for dinner tonight!”
Selene smiled tiredly and accepted the offer with thanks. They entered the barn together. Everything here was carved from smooth stone. Finely carved tables and benches stood at the corner. The table was set. A gilded candlestick stood in the middle, surrounded by biscuits made of moon apples. Moon apple pies, moon apple strudels and candied moon apples. Apple Bloom was already very hungry and sat down and offered her friend a seat. “Come sit with me. So we can eat together.”
Selene stepped forward to the foal insecure. She looked at the food on the table questioningly; then her gaze wandered back to Apple Bloom. “Uh, can I be honest with you?”
“Is something wrong?” asked Apple Bloom, and gradually Selene’s gaze made her nervous.
“The food is not real!” said the alicorn muffled.
Apple Bloom must have misheard it. “What are you talking about?” asked the filly and took a serving in her hoof. She bit it with relish, and it tasted wonderful.
“Look! Taffts wondpferfoll!” she smacked. But Selene already looked disgusted when she saw Apple Bloom eating.
“No, stop!” she gasped.
Apple Bloom wiped her mouth and looked at her anxiously one more time. Selene stared at her with big eyes, as if she had foreseen a great misfortune.
“Ask my parents, maybe they can offer you something else tasty!”
"NO!" yelled Selene. A shock wave burst out from her horn, hurling the food off the table. Moon apples fell to the ground and shattered. Apple Bloom squealed and held her hooves up to her face. The eyes of the little Alicorn foal glowed briefly.
Apple Bloom looked stunned at the mess, “Look what you did! What if my mother sees this?”
At that moment Pear Butter also came by and looked at the dining room in wonder. “What happened here?”
“Stop it!” Selene growled. Apple Bloom turned to her again and bowed her head. “None of this is real! You're just playing, but this game isn't funny anymore! This is just broken!”
“Mom! I'm sorry, I don't know what's got into her!” cried Apple Bloom to Pear Butter.
Selene looked up angrily. “Your parents aren’t real either! You’re here alone! You've always been alone! You're just imagining it!”
A short flash of lightning flared up and showed for a short time how everything really was. They stood in a rough, hollow cube. The moon apples flashed as gray balls. Apple Bloom squeezed their eyes together and everything returned to normal.
“No! That's not true! How can you say such a thing?” Apple Bloom huffed and jumped to her. “Take that back!”
Selene flared up in insult. “Why should I when I speak the truth?”
Small drops formed under Apple Bloom's eyes. “Then... Then you're just mean,” she sobbed. She ran out of the barn crying.
The little foal ran and cried. She screamed loudly because she just didn't want to hear the words that Selene had said to her. Her parents, her plantation, she wanted to keep it all. The moon apple trees showed their true form in the blink of an eye. Dark rocks that she had piled up as columns.
Her parents appeared behind the fictitious trees. Just assembled replicas built from moon rocks.
In sheer panic, she fell over her own hooves. She lost her pink ribbon. But she stood up and just kept running without turning around. She wanted to return home, to her farm in Equestria, with Applejack and the others. The foal missed her friends and the more she missed them, the more the illusions became blurred. Columns surrounded her that had once been trees in her imagination.
She slowed her pace and sat down exhausted. Suddenly she had to cough and spit out a pile of sand. Not even what she had eaten was real.
She was hungry; she was starving and was getting weaker and weaker. Whimpering, she crawled a few inches away. Then she noticed a smooth black floor. She looked up. Everywhere stood alicorn statues without heads or wings. They were images of Princess Celestia. Someone had taken out the anger on them.
Apple Bloom realized she was behind the black stripe she had seen before when she was sitting with Selene at the border of the plantation; a dark side that the moon never showed.
A dark shadow appeared before her. Two black legs stepped forward. Dark wings spread out and the cool gaze of a mare scowled at her. Apple Bloom recognized this appearance and she couldn't believe it. It was just too unreal. “Nightmare Moon?” she quivered.
“Not really!” croaked the mare and walked towards the foal. “You see what she left behind, an echo of her past.”
Apple Bloom stared at the dark mare with big, horrified eyes. Nightmare Moon bent over her like a predator and bared her long fangs. “I am her wrath! A nightmare of nightmares! Nightmare Moon had to release a part of it; otherwise, she might have destroyed herself!”
She strutted past the foal and fired a black beam at one of the statues. The stone head of Celestia’s image shattered. Apple Bloom squeaked and buried her face. Then she was suddenly lifted and pressed hard against a column. Nightmare Moon gazed at her with wild, furious eyes. “But it pleases me to scare a frail creature like you. Yes, now you shall fear for your life forever and ever!”
“TRY ME!” shouted a powerful voice. Apple Bloom looked past the dark mare, which also turned her head.
Selene stepped over the threshold to the dark side with glowing eyes. Her white, glowing mane waved majestically. Although she was very small in contrast to Nightmare Moon, her appearance was of considerable size. The angry nightmare laughed mockingly, “Ah, Selene, weak patron. Don't think you stand a chance against me.”
“Put her down,” Selene threatened. Her horn flared up.
Nightmare Moon grunted and dropped Apple Bloom on the floor. Then she walked menacingly towards the little Alicorn foal. “You think you can outdo me? Little worm! I'll crush you under my hooves!”
She threw her head back to fire a thick blast against Selene. She immediately built up a white shield, but Nightmare's force was too strong. She was pushed back. Selene yelled, “Apple Bloom, she's too strong! Please, have faith in your imagination...”
“But they are only illusions... you said that yourself...” she gasped and felt the sudden stomachache of her enormous hunger.
Selene fought and pleaded with her, "I noticed it too late. You have a strong mind. Never underestimate your hopes and dreams. They are bound to the past, present and future. You imagined a farm with your parents. I understand... I understand everything now!" Sweat and tears ran down her face.
Even Apple Bloom came to cry and closed their eyes. She called her parents again from the memories. Mom, Dad! Please help my friend and me!
Nightmare Moon turned her head and shot her wrathful beam against Apple Bloom. But then two golden lights appeared, catching the dreaming foal and carrying her away from danger.
Apple Bloom floated right next to Selene. By her side appeared Pear Butter and Bright Mac. They shone brightly and faced the nightmare with iron determination. Selene's eyes blazed, she raised her head and a white light lance shone out of her horn.
Nightmare Moon did not hesitate and fired, and Selene released her light. Darkness met brightness. Apple Bloom was blinded by the clash. She narrowed her eyes and thought of her friends, her siblings and her parents.
Selene screamed with all her might. The brightness gained strength. Nightmare Moon raved, “How can this be? Why do I lose against two foals? Nooooo! Noooo...”
She was swallowed by the light. Her dark body disintegrated. Only her eyes left behind a baffled look before they too burst like a bubble.
Selene slumped on Apple Bloom's lap. Panting, she looked up and grinned at the emaciated foal with tired eyes, “We beat her! All thanks to your help!”
"Yes, we chased her away," Apple Bloom laughed weakly.
All of a sudden, small light dots rose from Selene's body. She slowly dissolved. Apple Bloom's breathe trembled when she noticed this. She touched her face, which turned paler and paler. “Selene, what's happening to you?”
“I guess my purpose has been fulfilled,” she said, looking down at her flank. Apple Bloom also looked, but Selene had become so transparent that she couldn’t see it anymore.
Apple Bloom started to cry loudly, “No, please! Don't leave me! You are the only friend in this place! I am banished and all alone!”
Selene lifted her hoof and stroked her cheeks, wiping away the tears. "Oh, little Apple Bloom... It's all right. But I have to go. I'll think of you always."
After these words she disappeared once and for all. The sparkling remains glided from Apple Bloom's hooves into black infinity. She just sat there and watched the end of her friend in dismay.
Then she felt again those unbearable stomach pains. As if she had been hit in the belly, she buckled. Her eyes were soaked with tears. She struck the sand so that the dust was whirled up. Finally, she found the air to cry out loud. She was alone, and she understood that an illusion, not even her parents, could save her.
And as she wailed loudly; a lament that no one heard, the planet rose before her. Her shrunken eyes shivered before this beauty, which she will soon see one last time.
Then she closed her eyes and accepted her inevitable fate.
A purple circle formed directly in front of the sick foal. Two ponies came out of the hole. A big shadow and a smaller one stood frozen in front of the misery.
“There she is! Oh, Apple Bloom! My little Apple Bloom!” Applejack ran up to her, panting and holding her. She barely moved. The orange pony pressed her head against the foal's chest to listen to her heartbeat.
Bu-bum…
Applejack sobbed, "Oh, this mean, nasty fate. It was all ma fault, Ah’m so sorry, sugar cube.
Bu-bum…
A thin, pale yellow hoof touched her cheek. “Mom?”
Applejack looked at her startled when she said that. “No... No, Apple Bloom! Don’t go to them yet! You still have so much to do, and I'm gonna make it up to you! Ah promise!"
She pulled herself up and lifted her little sister over her shoulder. "You will live, you will..."
She stumbled over the rope that had been tied around her waist and led to the circle. A cobalt blue levitation caught the farmer's fall.
“Slow down, she's been here way too long and we're not a second too late.”
A large shadow leaned over the filly. The blue leg touched her gently on the head. “Rest my dear Apple Bloom. You're coming home and shall be healed.”
Applejack sniffed and wiped another tear. “Ah don't know how to thank you, Princess Luna.”
“No need to thank me. It was my duty. Walk quickly through the portal, the Unicorn's power will soon be gone.”
Applejack trotted ahead and turned around again. "And what about you? If th spell goes away, then you're..."
“Give me just a minute. I have to deal with something.”
Without words, Applejack jumped into the light along with Apple Bloom.
Luna stepped over the dusty surface. Her gloomy look was directed at two figures. A mare and a stallion stood there as if they were waiting. The princess raised her wings and said, "Guardian spirits. I release you from your duties." She stomped on the ground.
Apple Bloom's parents bowed before her and turned into two bright lights. Then they soared into the heights of the vast universe and flew to the golden horizon of the planet.
Luna turned around and saw several columns sticking out of the ground. In between stood a stone block shaped like a small house. When she had been exiled here for a thousand years, these structures had not existed before. Yet somehow it all seemed so familiar.
It suddenly came back to her. Her eyes widened in astonishment. Nostalgically she looked at her flank, where the dark spot with the crescent moon adorned her.
"Good evening, Selene," she said with a smile and left the moon.
