king of leaves
“Now now, sugarcube. You gotta get to bed now if you’re gonna have enough energy for tomorrow.”
Apple Bloom pouted, folding her forelegs across her chest. “C’mon sis, just read me one more story?”
Applejack chuckled, low and warm like the distant rolling of thunder. “Alright. But I ain’t gonna keep you up for too long, y’hear?” She turned to the bookshelf, pulling out a faded purple book with a battered cover. “Now this here is called The King of Leaves.
“Once upon a time there was a beautiful queen who lived in a fabulous kingdom. She was a fair and just ruler, loved and valued by her subjects, and under her careful watch the kingdom was rich and well-fed.
“The queen had a daughter that she loved dearly, more than anythin’ else in the world. The queen’s daughter was young and eager, with eyes wider than any dinner plate at the royal palace. She had a penchant for explorin’, and it was said that there wasn’t a thing in the world that could keep her from a good adventure…
“For better or for worse.”
The roosters weren’t crowing when Applejack woke up.
She shot up in her bed, tossing off the quilt that Granny Smith had made last winter, and whipped her head towards the window in a panic. The sun had already risen, and its golden beams were stretching out towards her. “Aw, consarnit!” she swore, leaping from her bed. “Did the timberwolves get to them again? Mac! You up?”
There was no reply.
“Must be up already… What time is it?!” Applejack snapped her hat onto her head and tore down the stairs, mentally running through the list of chores she had to do.
She paused at the front door, glancing into the kitchen. The blinds were strangely drawn, casting dark eerie shadows across the room. Her ear twitched as she detected a faint dripping noise, but she quickly realized it was coming from the sink.
“Aw, consarn it.” Applejack went over to it and fiddled with the knob, yanking on it several times. The faucet continued to drip and Applejack let out a huff of air. “Gonna have to get a wrench and deal with it later.” Shooting daggers at her faulty plumbing, Applejack trotted out of the kitchen and stepped onto the porch.
But before her hooves hit the ground, her blood ran cold.
“Wha-- Mac?!”
Several steps ahead of her, on the path to the orchard, Big Macintosh was floating.
His massive body was suspended several feet in the air, back facing the ground and head tilted backwards. Her brother was dangling as if he were a puppet on a string, his legs splayed out at odd angles.
“Mac!”
He didn’t reply. Applejack ran closer, eyes wide as they soaked in the scene. A wagon full of fruits lay below him, tossed on its side. Apples rolled around beneath her hooves, bobbing up and down in shallow puddles as she skidded to a halt, looking up at him.
Big Mac’s eyes were wide open, staring yet empty. His pupils didn’t move or dilate, and even the sunlight didn’t seem to change their hue. Applejack narrowed her eyes and realized that he wasn’t completely still: his body was moving slightly and his mane was fluttering in the wind. He bobbed up and down like a bottle at sea.
“Mac!” She called up to him but he didn’t react. His eyes remained trained on the sky, his face twisted in some strange sullen expression. “Mac, can y’hear me? Come on, say somethin’... Please, say somethin’!”
The only response was the rustling of the leaves from the orchard.
Applejack shuddered, pacing in a small circle. The puddles beneath her hooves were icy, but even the sting of the cold water didn’t seem to penetrate the numbness that had overtaken her. She glanced again into the orchard and paused, suddenly mesmerized by the shifting of the branches and leaves. Even as she stood in the shadow of her brother floating several feet above her, something about those rhythmic miniscule motions transfixed her. It took a great deal of effort to pull herself away from the hypnotic patterns they made and to refocus.
She inhaled deeply, trying to stem the anxiety building in her body. “Okay, calm down AJ. There’s gotta be…gotta be a reason for this. Maybe he picked up some magical artifact or somethin’. Or some rotten villain’s at work again… yeah, that might be it.”
Applejack cleared her throat and glanced up at her brother. “ I… I dunno if you can hear me, but I’ll get to the bottom of this!” Applejack shouted, trying to will her heart rate back to normal. Whatever was going on, she could fix it. “I’ll… I’ll find Twilight. And the girls. We’ll fix this, together. I’ll fix it.”
Applejack turned and headed for the town. But she had only taken a few steps before she froze again. “Oh, sweet Celestia…”
Miles above Ponyville, where no earth ponies had the business of being, floated dozens of rigid, motionless ponies.
“Applejack?”
Applejack blinked, refocusing on the book in her lap. “Sorry, sugarcube. I just… drifted off for a second. Where were we?” She cleared her throat, locating the next section of the story as water continued to hammer against the window. “Right. But all wasn’t perfect in the kingdom. Nearby there was another world, one ruled by the King of Leaves. The King of Leaves was a cruel ruler, and rumors of the horrors he inflicted on his subjects reached far and wide across the land.
“The Queen heard these rumors, and was afraid. She feared that one day the King of Leaves would try and take away her beautiful daughter, the only light left in the world. And so she raised an army to defend her kingdom. She trained alongside her soldiers to learn all forms of combat.
“Because nothing would take her daughter away.”
Applejack had long given up on trying to control her racing heart. It was beating furiously, and blood pounded in her ears and thudded in her veins. Anxiety gnawed at her, and every couple of steps she couldn’t help but look up at the sky.
But it was clear that the floating ponies weren’t just pegasi lounging around. Their limbs were rigid and protruded at strange angles, and their empty, dead eyes looked nothing like the warm, welcoming ones she had known for years. Those around the outskirts of town were floating at various heights, some to the point where their features were almost indecipherable.
Their faces were turned up to the sky, mouths open and barely moving, just like Big Mac had been.
Several times on her trip Applejack had stopped to fight back tears, heaving in deep breaths and wiping her eyes clear. Her stomach churned as her mind echoed a single question: What could have caused this?”
As she drew closer to the town, another anomaly quickly became apparent: the small, isolated puddles had become a virtual river. It had started at her fetlocks but by now it was up to her knees, and Applejack could only hope that it wouldn’t get any higher.
She paused at the threshold of the Farmer’s Market. Stalls lined the streets, and groceries and goods floated past like the wreckage of a doomed ship. As she carried on down the road, she saw some of the merchants bumping up against the roofs of their stalls, their reflections shimmering in the water below.
Applejack couldn’t help herself. She paused by the flower stand and glanced inside.
A pony with a red mane floated high above the register, head leaning back and dangling as limp as one of the wilted flowers that drifted past in the water.
“Roseluck?” Applejack asked, not expecting a response but half-hoping anyway.
As anticipated, Roseluck did not reply.
Applejack swallowed hard and turned away from the stand with a sigh. She paused as her eyes drifted over the flower stand. Several bouquets had become undone, and the flowers were now suspended in the air.
“This… this ain’t telekinesis,” Applejack realized. “When Twilight does it there’s a field of magic around them… ain’t there?”
Cautiously, she reached out to caress a flower. Its petals were cold and metallic, nothing like the soft and spiky kind that Roseluck usually grew.
Applejack batted at the flower, trying to knock it down. It spun in a circle and instead seemed to float higher. With a frustrated growl, Applejack tugged on her hat and turned back to the town’s center.
It was a strangely unsettling feeling, being on the ground while everyone else was in the air. Almost as if they were right and she was in the wrong.
Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Applejack snarled under her breath. “Now, quit it with that nonsense. You find Twilight, and all of this will be fixed.”
“Now at first, the Queen’s subjects thought this was ridiculous. They didn’t see the King of Leaves as a big deal. They thought that maybe the Queen was just paranoid, but she disagreed. Was it so wrong to want to keep her daughter safe?”
“Applejack?” Apple Bloom poked her head up from beneath her covers as rain beat down against the window. “I… I don’t think I like this story.”
“Aw, nonsense. There ain’t nothin’ to be scared about. It’s just a story,” Applejack said, patting her sister on the shoulder.
“Are you sure?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Find Twilight. Find Twilight. Find Twilight.” Applejack repeated the phrase under her breath, keeping her eyes as low as she could without bumping into anything. “Just find Twilight and this will all be over.”
The water was up to her shoulders now. If it got any higher she would have to start swimming.
But beneath the sound of her own voice, Applejack almost thought she could hear another whisper.
She squeezed her eyes shut, raising her own internal voice to drown it out. Just find Twilight, find your friends, it’ll be okay. You’ll save Equestria again. You’ve faced far worse.
To keep herself busy, Applejack had gone through a mental checklist of any enemies that could have been responsible. She had called Discord’s name and threatened to invoke Fluttershy’s wrath on him but he hadn’t shown himself. Cozy Glow was unlikely, and while Tirek or Chrysalis were possibilities, neither had ever exhibited any abilities capable of something like this. Not even Sombra had come anywhere close. Even then, this strange event bore none of the markings of their magic. Whichever villain this was, it certainly wasn’t one they had encountered before.
Applejack paused again as she caught sight of several colored forms in the water ahead of her. She gulped, heart racing, and tugged at her hat. Quietly, she fought back the urge to look up: there was nothing worth seeing up there.
There was the hint of a gasp from above, and Applejack’s heart leapt. Against her better judgement she looked up.
She wished she hadn’t.
Floating far above her in a circle were five distressingly familiar ponies. Rainbow, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and…
“... Twilight.”
She didn’t reply. Her mane billowed slightly in the wind.
Applejack began to cry.
“And then one day the worst happened. The Queen’s daughter disappeared.”
“Applejack?”
“The Queen was distraught, unconsolable. She knew in her heart that the King of Leaves was responsible. But no one would believe her. They shied away, refusing to rally to her cries. And so she decided that if she had to fight the King herself, she would. Nothing would keep her from her daughter.”
“Applejack?”
“Because she was the Queen. She was powerful. She was strong. She was unstoppable. Nothing would keep her away from the thing most important to her.”
“Applejack, please--”
“Even if she had to fight the world itself.”
“G-get it together.” Applejack hissed, swiping at her eyes. “Consarn it, Applejack, get it together.”
Her tears slid from her cheeks and were lost in the ocean around her legs. Through her bleary eyes, she looked up at her friends.
“You’re in this alone, but that don’t mean it’s over,” Applejack whispered.
“... natural.”
She froze, glancing up again. “Twilight?!”
Twilight didn’t move, but Applejack could hear her voice carrying from somewhere.
“... flooding. Everfree. Nowhere. Nothing…”
Applejack leapt to her hooves with a gasp, sending drops of water flying about. “Twilight! Where are you?”
She looked up with eyes full of hope, but her look quickly turned to despair when she noticed something: Rainbow’s head was level with the nearby lamppost a few minutes ago. Now, her entire body was the same height as the town hall’s weather vane.
Applejack glanced to her right, noticing the stone fountain adorning the town’s center protruding from the water. She climbed it hastily as Twilight’s voice continued to fill the town.
“Nothing. Never ending. Sometimes.”
As she reached the top, she looked at Rainbow again. Her chest was now the same level as the lamppost’s peak, confirming her fears: they were indeed floating higher.
“Wait! Please!” Applejack cried, extending a hoof towards her friends. She slipped and her chin hit the side of the fountain. She felt a cold sensation wash over her and she realized that the water was rising. “W-Wait!”
There was no reply.
“Applejack, please. You have to listen to me,” Apple Bloom sobbed.
“The Queen ventured for hours and hours, searching every corner of her kingdom for the King of Leaves. She spent the time dreaming of what she would do to him when she found him. How dare he take something so bright and pure from her life? How dare he drive a nail into the world, and laugh as it slowly bled away before him?”
“Please, Applejack, stop.”
The book trembled in her hooves. A drop of red hit the page, but Applejack didn’t stop reading. “She felt betrayed. Betrayed that her friends wouldn’t help her, and betrayed that they would leave her alone and shun her.”
The candlelight in the room flickered as the rain pounded on the window.
“She would find him. She would kill him. She had to. She had to. She had to.”
“Applejack!”
The window shattered into a million tiny pieces and the water rushed in. The water hissed as it hit the pages, dissolving the words and fraying away at the edges. “No!” Applejack cried, holding it above her head. “I gotta keep reading! I gotta!”
“Applejack!”
Turning around, Applejack looked desperately for her sister. “Sis? Where are you?”
She only saw the hint of a face before it vanished beneath the waters.
“A storm, Applejack.” Twilight’s voice returned with venom. Applejack glanced up to see her friends above her, eyes turned down towards her while glowing white with emptiness. “Flash flooding from the Everfree.”
“No, I gotta… I gotta…” the book had disintegrated from her hooves. “There’s gotta be someone to beat,” Applejack whispered. “There’s gotta be something to do. Some…. Some stupid villian to put down. Someone has to be responsible!”
Twilight’s hoof reached for her. “You need to let go. I’m sorry, but you need to let go.”
Applejack was tempted to reach for it. But she hesitated, even as the water rose up to her chin.
Her face hardened. “I can’t.”
Twilight floated higher and higher and higher, until she was just a tiny purple dot on the horizon.
Applejack looked down at the pulped remains of a book beneath her hooves as the storm raged around her.
“There is no King of Leaves.”
“But...there has to be,” Applejack said.
“But there isn’t,” Apple Bloom replied. “It was an accident. A natural disaster.”
Shaking her head, Applejack frowned. “But… I can’t accept that. There has to be somethin’ I can do.”
Apple Bloom reached out and put a hoof on her shoulder. “There isn’t,” she whispered softly, the hint of tears in her own eyes. “I’m truly, truly sorry.”
Applejack began to turn the page, but her hoof couldn’t grip the corner. It shook and trembled violently, fighting off her attempts to control it. “Twilight,” she whispered, “does… does it get easier?”
“I can’t say that it does,” Apple Bloom answered. “It will hurt, but you need to let go. Please, Applejack. Let us help you.”
“I can’t,” Applejack answered. The book slid away from her lap and hit the floor with a thud. “I miss her too much. And y’all keep floating away from me. And I just can’t catch you.”
Even as tears began to trail down her cheek, Applejack slowly stood up. She slid onto the bed, leaning over and kissing Apple Bloom on the forehead. She raised the sheets up to her chin and gently lay down, pressing her head above her sister’s and hugging her tightly. “I ain’t ever gonna let go.”
There was a flash of lightning.
Big Macintosh stood in the doorway, his expression one of stunned disbelief and tear streaks staining his cheeks.
Twilight was behind him, as were her friends. Their words were mumbled and tired, mixed with grief and love and general exhaustion.
The bed was empty now. But Applejack didn’t care.
“I ain’t ever gonna let you go. Ever.”