Apple Bloom checked the built-in light meter on Sweetie Belle's porcelain coat and then knocked the shutter speed up to one-five-hundredths of a second.

"Alright, go," she commanded, keeping her eye to the camera.

Sweetie Belle let out a war cry and launched into a full speed gallop, thundering across the boards of the old boat dock. Right at the end, she leapt through the air as far as she could. Apple Bloom took the photo of her stretched out in flight just before plummeting into the pond with a big splash.

Sweetie giggled when she surfaced and flung her wet mane out of her eyes. "Did you get it?"

"Sure did. Ah hope it's in focus though."

The two were without Scootaloo for the afternoon. She was off with Rumble, either at Sugar Cube Corner or making out in the woods behind the school. Sweetie and Apple Bloom never really talked about their relationship but things were noticeably lacking when Scootaloo skipped out on them. Even though the dynamic was different when Rumble tagged along with the Crusaders, they still much preferred it to being without them or even having a mentally aloof Scootaloo thinking about her coltfriend every five minutes.

Apple Bloom slunk up as close as she could to a pair of ducks resting on the shoreline to capture a photo of them eyeing her suspiciously.

"C'mon," chided Sweetie Belle, bobbing up and down frustratedly. "Put the camera down and get in."

"Uh, okay." Apple Bloom approached her lifeguard brother who laid sleepily under a big tree, perfectly content with just doing nothing for a while.

"Watch mah camera, Big Mac."

"Eeyup," he mumbled absently.

She set the device down carefully on a tuft of grass and then ran down the dock to cannonball next to Sweetie Belle.

---

~~~

"I'm a duck," proclaimed Sweetie Belle before burying her face in the popcorn bowl. She lifted her head and with a blank expression on her face began frantically chattering her teeth like a duck bill, sending popcorn crumbs flying to the clubhouse floor.

"Yer makin' a mess," groaned Apple Bloom. Then she snapped a picture of Sweetie Belle's ridiculous face, blinding her with the flash.

"Wait," mumbled Sweetie, before cramming more popcorn in her mouth. She stretched out on her side atop her sleeping bag, propping her head up with one hoof. "Photo me like one of your kirin girls.” She ran a hoof down her own frame and made her best attempt at a sultry expression with cheeks bulging and popcorn cascading from her open mouth.

Apple Bloom chortled at the juxtaposition of serious and ludicrous.

"I think it's called 'photograph,' snorted Scootaloo in amusement.

"I know," coughed Sweetie, struggling to swallow the popcorn.

"Is that class actually fun?" asked Scootaloo.

"Photography? Yeah. You shoulda tried it. Doesn't Rumble like it?"

"Yeah, he does. I'm not really artistic though and I don’t have a camera."

"Looks too complicated for me," added Sweetie Belle, staring at the, meaningless to her, alphanumeric mishmash of dials at Apple Bloom’s hooves.

"I'm getting sleepy," yawned Scootaloo, settling into her sleeping bag. "Who has a new ghost story?"

"I do," blurted Sweetie Belle excitedly. "They say there's this old wishing well out in the Everfree-"

"I said a new ghost story," grumbled Scootaloo. "Apple Bloom?" she enquired hopefully.

"Ah know one," she replied, puting her camera down. "Have y'all ever heard the story of the Half Foal?"

The other two shook their heads with breathless anticipation.

"This happened a long time ago, well, before we were born, anyway. There used to be a mare that lived in Ponyville named Sunshine Daisy. Her life was ordinary. She would always go into the Everfree Forest to pick rare flowers and then sell them in the market. One mornin' she woke up after pickin' flowers the day before and started feelin' sick. She had sharp pains in her belly that wouldn't go away."

"Eventually she went to the hospital. They did all these tests on her and found out she was pregnant. She had no idea. Sunshine wasn't married or even in a relationship."

"You can have a foal without being married," interjected Scootaloo.

"Yeah, Ah… Ah know," stammered Apple Bloom.

"Wait, you can?" asked Sweetie Belle.

The other two looked at her.

"Yeah, that's what my parents did," Scootaloo replied.

"Anyway," grunted Apple Bloom, "if she knew who or what was the father, she never told anypony. The baby inside her grew real fast and painful-like in a way no one had ever seen. The doctor looked at pictures of it but couldn't say if it was a boy, a girl or even a pony at all."

Scootaloo and Sweetie looked at each other in slack jawed amazement.

When it was time for the baby to come, Sunshine went to the hospital. When she was givin' birth, ponies said they heard her screams from the other side a Ponyville. When the hospital workers finally saw the baby, they were struck dumb with shock. The new foal wasn't a pony, at least not completely. It was half pony and half… somethin' else. What do ya even say ta someone when their baby looks like that?"

"Well, what did it look like?" spat Scootaloo in alarm.

"Ah'll get to that part. The nurse swaddled the newborn Half Foal as best she could and tried to hoof it ta Sunshine but she took one look at it and let out a scream, scooting far away on the bed. 'No,' she cried, shaking her head. 'Ah don't want it! Ah don't want it!' The baby made a terrible shriek at her rejection. The hospital ponies didn't know what to do. Nothin' like this had ever happened before. They put the Half Foal in the nursery with the rest of the babies, tryin’ ta get the both of 'em to calm down."

"Sweetie Belle's eyes widened in terror. "No."

"They left Sunshine in her room but when no one was lookin', she ran from the hospital. No one ever heard from Sunshine again. After some time, the nurse came back to the nursery. No one really knows what happened in that nursery but when the alarm was finally sounded, they had a room fulla screamin' babies and a dead nurse with a missin' face."

"Holy crap," whispered Scootaloo.

"Workers searched the room when they found two empty cribs. They quickly found the Half Foal dragging a crying baby into the corner. It dropped the foal when they approached and scuttled up the wall, into a vent. That's how it got out."

"Then what happened?" whimpered Sweetie Belle, scrunching down into her sleeping bag.

"It got away. It's still out there somewhere but bigger now. Some ponies who have seen the grown Half Foal say it kind of resembles a bat pony but real wrong. Its' limbs are lanky like a spider's. It's pale and looks sickly and boney with glassy eyes that don't even seem to see at all. Its twisted webbed wings don't work right so it crawls up trees or on the ground with its hook-like hooves. Others who've seen it, reported that it bears features of a dragon or even a manticore. Though the descriptions vary, everyone who sees it agrees that the Half Foal is an unnatural abomination and shouldn't be."

"It stalks through the woods and sometimes comes into town on cool nights like this. Sometimes you can hear it cryin' as it wanders, searchin' fer its parents, but more specifically, the mother who rejected it. It hates mares more than anythin' but it also steals unattended foals; they say it's outta jealousy fer havin' a mother."

"Is that story real?" asked Sweetie Belle, now almost completely hidden within her sleeping bag.

"Ah guess," shrugged Apple Bloom.

"That story was messed up. Where did you hear it?" asked Scootaloo.

The question was simple but Apple Bloom was completely flummoxed. She didn't remember hearing it from anyone else. She didn't make it up herself, either previously or in the moment. It just suddenly appeared in her mind like she'd found a story book on a shelf and started reading. She screwed up her face in bewilderment. "Ah… Ah don't know."

---

In the late afternoon on Monday, Apple Bloom finished loading her cart with wood from a dead apple tree in the orchard. Big Mac had already split it into economical pieces ready for loading in a stove or fireplace. The two of them decided it was her job to move and stack the logs best she could for sale. They already had about eight cords rounded up behind the barn. Two of them were moved completely by her, about one a week at twenty pieces per trip.

The cart wheels squeaked and shimmied on the lumpy soil as she plodded along with the camera swaying from her neck. She was about half way back when she noticed something strange laying on the ground in her path. When she got closer, she realized that it was a rather deflated-looking dead squirrel. She pulled to a stop right in front of it.

"Uh-oh, little squirrel. What happened to ya?" she mumbled flippantly. She looked down and became immediately captivated by the spot where one of the eyes of the creature used to be. It was now just an open socket stuffed with wriggling maggots.

Apple Bloom didn't quite understand how but the sight struck her as awe inspiring. She unhitched herself from the wagon for a closer look. Something about death being a springboard for new life was indescribably beautiful. She breathlessly snapped a closeup photo of the larval eruption and then noticed the rest of the body. The whole side of the squirrel was undulating strangely. She stared, mesmerized by the phenomenon. Beneath the flesh was a hidden sea of writhing fly larvae. The movement was naturally soothing to her like a heart beating or waves on the ocean. Apple Bloom couldn't look away. She glued the viewfinder to her eye and began snapping photo after photo until the roll was full.

---

Apple Bloom sat on her bed in the light of her lamp, shuffling through her little box of negatives. She paused on each image, gestating like an art critic in front of a new painting. Seeing each photo, even just as a negative, gave her a hit of dopamine followed by a mental escape into a fantastical reverie. She couldn't wait to start printing photos. She'd decorate her whole room with them. Well, some of them she should probably just keep in the box for her own eyes.

Her fantasies were broken up by Winona growling on the floor again. "Winona, shush," she commanded but instead, her dog broke into a barking fit.

Apple Bloom rolled to the side of the bed to look down at her dog. "Winona!" She was still barking. She followed her gaze to the corner of the room near the door. Inexplicably, Winona was adamant that there was something there. Apple Bloom snatched the flash from her bedside stand and attached it to her camera. She looked through the viewfinder at the corner and focused the best she could in the dim light. Then she pressed the shutter button.

In the split second that the harsh light illuminated the room, Apple Bloom saw a shadow, the clear dark outline of a pony that wasn't there cast on the wall by the door. She gasped as chills ran down her spine. She hid under the covers clutching her camera. Winona's Barking subsided into a growl and then a whine, giving the filly little comfort.

Apple Bloom shivered under her quilt, wanting to scream for her siblings to come make sure it was gone but she was too afraid to move or make a sound at all. She simply laid there paralyzed in silence for hours until sleep finally overcame her and the oil lamp burned out.

---

Apple Bloom wobbled sleepily down the stairs and into the kitchen. She wasn't sure how much sleep she got but it was definitely not enough. She slumped in front of the same bowl of weekday morning grits and sighed mournfully.

"Applejack, there was somethin' in mah room last night," moaned the filly without touching her food.

"Rats again?" wondered Applejack aloud, setting a stack of clean dishes in the cupboard.

"No, it was… a shadow that looked like a pony. It was like a ghost er somethin'. Ah only saw it fer a second but it was there and it scared me somethin' awful."

"Everythin' looks weird in the dark, sugar cube," offered her sister without turning around.

Apple Bloom's forehead creased in frustration. "But there wasn't…" She paused, mulling over how to explain what she saw in a way that couldn't be so easily dismissed as a product of her imagination. "Well, Winona was barkin' at it," she argued. Just then she heard a collar jingle and her eyes went to the doorway where her pet entered the room. It gave her an idea. Apple Bloom patted her flank to beckon the dog over.

"Oh, Ah guess Ah did hear her barkin' last night."

"Yeah. She thought there was somethin' there and Ah saw it."

Apple Bloom quickly sloshed half of her bowl of grits on the floor where Winona happily began lapping it up.

"Well did the shadow do anythin'?"

"No," she replied, continuing to spoon dollops of grits over the side of the table to the awaiting dog.

"Well then it's either just a shadow or a friendly ghost…"

Apple Bloom stopped abruptly as her sister turned around and smiled at her near empty bowl.

"Grits taste better this mornin'? Ah added butter fer ya. Can't do it every day but it's a nice suprise sometimes."

"Oh, uh yeah, Ah noticed. Thanks, Applejack." She smiled nervously as her older sister patted her on the head.

Next Chapter: Dark Room Estimated time remaining: 59 Minutes