Night has fallen upon the deserted lands of the southern regions of Equestria. The distant mountains were black as charcoal, the sandy floor below became silver, and the sky was dotted with millions of stars on a dark blue hue with the glowing white moon for company. Applejack, now seated at the center of a lone plateau, speaks to herself as she looks up into the night sky. “The stars sure look pretty tonight. I guess I can come back home with a little bit of a reward. Well, if I even return home… Where’s the Ghost Pony now if he’s so helpful, I’m practically dyin’ out here.” She looks down and examines herself once more. With the light emitting from her lantern, the orange mare can clearly see the disgusting scars on her knees, the infected bite mark on her belly, and all the dust and grime caught in her fur. “Yep, this is pretty much what my feelings look like, hurt, gross, sick, tired, havin’ a bad headache…”

“Applejack…” A familiar voice whispers in her ear.

Applejack’s head snaps back up and looks around for the origin of the voice. “Who’s that?”

“Don’t be silly, you know it’s me. Hehehe…”

“Pinkie? How the hay did you get here? And where are you?”

“I’m hiding, come and find me! Hehehe…” Listening to the voice, Applejack gets up onto her hooves, picks up the lamp in her mouth, and searches around the top of the plateau for her friend.

“I don’t see you anywhere.”

“Want me to give you a hint? Hehehe…”

“Sure.”

“I’m at the bottom of the mountain…”

“That’s a bit obvious…” Applejack gallops to the nearest edge of the cliff and looks down the face of the ledge. At the bottom, a small black figure appears in her hazy image. “Is that you?” Seemingly out of nowhere, the rock below Applejack’s front hooves crumbles and falls down the cliff. Screaming, Applejack leaps back from the collapse, dropping the lamp just short of the crumble. “Pinkie, are you okay?!”

Another voice soon calls out into her ears, “Applejack…”

With the new voice entering her mind and Applejack’s splitting headache, the memory of Pinkie Pie seems to vanish. “Rainbow Dash?”

“Want to do something awesome with me?”

“Sure, but I’m not sure where you are.”

“Trust me, I’m at the bottom. Just jump down from the cliff and I’ll catch you…”  Applejack looks over the edge of the cliff again to see a different dark figure on top of the new rumble.

“Are you sure you’ll catch me?”

“Yeah, it’ll be so awesome! Come on…”

“Okay, here goes nothing…”

“Applejack…” A third unknown voice echoes.

“Fluttershy?”

“Would you kindly jump off from the cliff to help free my animal friends from the rocks below? Please…”

“Wait, I don’t remember seeing any animals down there. Wait, what happened to Pinkie?”

Another voice speaks to her, “Applejack…”

“Rarity?”

“Would you be such an ever great friend and search for gems. I sense there are a ton of them at the bottom of the cliff…”

“Hold on just a minute,” Applejack slowly backs away from the ledge as her mind strains to understand what’s going on. “Where are all you ponies, and why do you all want me to go over that cliff?”

“Applejack…”

“Oh for Pete’s sake… What do you want Twilight?”

“Look at the stars…” Applejack follows the voice’s orders and looks up, somewhat glad that it wasn’t a request to go over the edge. “Legends say that each of those stars is a soul that has moved on to whatever awaits after death…”

“So, this doesn’t answer my questions, I want answers now!”

“See those two stars next to each other? You know who they are…”

“What sick game is this? What are you and the other four of the lot up to?”

“There can be a third one with them…”

“Stop it!”

“Just go over the cliff…”

“I, said, ENOU-” But before she could finish her statement, her back right hoof accidently stamps onto the laying lamp, shattering the glass and setting the fire loose on her hoof. A sharp blood-curling scream exits Applejack’s mouth as both sharp surges of pain and slow agonizing torture flood her body and mind. The orange Earth pony yanks her flaming back hoof from the broken lantern and attempts to put the fire out. As she’s frantically brushing her hoof against the sand below, she feels the glass shards now embedded in her flesh moving around and cutting even deeper into her, adding more pain. Out of instinct, the mare then pulls out the last water bottle and pours all of its contents onto the flames. Eventually, all the fire is extinguished, leaving Applejack in near complete darkness, with only the moon to barely illuminate anything several metres ahead of her. The pain in her hoof still lingers as well as her other injuries, only made worse as she continues to stand. The mare flops to her side, only to relieve a fraction of a percent of the agony. Now without a flame for heat and light, darkness and cold winds soon wash over the plateau and the weakened body of Applejack. Whimpering and crying of the torture, Applejack continues to lay there for what seems to be minutes, only for the five uncanny voices to soon return.

“Find me…”

“Do it…”

“Go to them…”

“Find your treasure…”

“Join them…”

“I’m lost…”

“I want to do it…”

“I want them…”

“They are my treasure…”

“I want to be with them…”

“Jump…”

“Jump…”

“Jump…”

“Jump…”

“Jump…”

“I am in pain…”

“I have failed…”

“I could not save them…”

“They are now under…”

“I must go to them…”

“End this game…”

“Go with your gut…”

“Go with them…”

“There is no hope here…”

“Join your-”

“AAAAAGH!!!” Applejack hollers. As quick as her destroyed body can go, Applejack springs up to her hooves, dropping the hat in the process, and charges towards the cliff edge. Although the aching in her body is escalating dramatically, she does not care anymore and speedily limps onward. However, upon having her front hooves now halfway over the edge, the orange mare stops and looks down. What was once a silver sand floor with rocks that have recently fallen, has now turned into a black abyss with no bottom.

“Tired…”

“Depressed…”

“Sick…”

“Lost…”

“Alone…”

“No, I don’t have to listen!”

“You must…”

“You have no choice…”

“You cannot avoid this…”

“You cannot avoid us…”

“You cannot avoid them…”

“Shut up!” In a fit of rage and mixed emotions, the young mare begins to violently bash her head into the sand and rock, trying to get rid of her ghostly friends’ voices.

“We can not…”

“You know us…”

“We know you…”

“You know you…”

“You are you…”

“Grrrrrrr!” After a minute of hitting her head, high pitched ringing starts to fill in whatever silence Applejack could hear, only making the uncanny voices for intolerable. A warm yet cold thick liquid runs from her numb forehead down her face and drips from her chin. She knew what it was by its mere metallic taste as some seems through her lips and onto her tongue. She looks over the edge again, this time seeing a pair of figures that seem to be hovering in the darkness. “What is this?”

“You know what this is…”

“You know who they are…”

“They are waiting for you…”

“There is nothing here…”

“Go to them…”

“No, no, no! These be mind games!”

“These are not…”

“Listen to them…”

“They are calling…”

“You can hear them…”

“They are real…”

“No!”

“Applejack…” An older stallion’s voice echoes from the abyss.

“Applejack…” A slightly younger mare’s voice calls out.

“Is it?”

“Come to us…”

“Jump into our hooves…”

“I-I can’t!”

“That’s right, you can’t…”

“You didn’t…”

“You are the reason…”

“You caused this…”

“No, I didn’t mean to!” Tears start to pour from Applejack’s eyes and mix into the red goo dripping from her face. Images and faces from the deepest parts of her memory flash before her eyes as the voices become more aggressive in tone.

“You did this…”

“You killed us…”

“No! Please!” The voices begin to grow violent as the desert sky surrounding her turns pitch black with the mountains.

“You murdered us!”

“You murdered us!”

“I didn’t murder you, it was an accident!” At this point, the only things Applejack could see with her watery eyes were the two figures in the abyss and darkness.

“Butcher!”

“Slaughterer!”

“NO!”

All seven of the voices then join together to form a demonic character, roaring from every angle form Applejack’s dying body, “End it all! Jump! End it all! Jump! End it all! Jump! End it all! Jump! End it all! Jump! End it all! Jump! End it all! Jump!”

Then, just as Applejack’s about to snap, an eight voice faintly whispers in her ear, a voice sounding just like her own, “Do it…”

“Fine...” Applejack miserably replies in a fit of crying. In a single swift motion, the orange mare leaps forward and begins her fall into the abyss. However, just as it seems that there was no return, something from the ledge bites her in the back of the neck. At first, Applejack believes that it’s another snake or monster that seeks to torture her in the desert once more. To her surprise however, it is not a sharp bite, or even a painful one, but it feels like that of a mother picking up her child. Her fall comes to an abrupt fault as the thing holding her in place bites firmly into the thicker flesh of Applejack. “Who-who is this?”

“…” The mysterious savior doesn’t speak, but rather, gives a very warm snort. Slowly, Applejack finds herself being pulled up by the unknown pony as well as growing uncontrollably tired. From the absolute torture her body and mind have gone through, she surprised herself by how long she’s lasted up to this point. As her eyelids grow heavy and begin to blink, the normal world of the desert soon returns from the darkness. The silver sands, the stars in the sky, and even the moon return to her vision. The ringing in her ears as well as the echoes of the voices cease to exist as the mare slowly drifts to sleep. As her back makes contact to the surface of the plateau, she is already fast asleep. “Idiot mare…”