After a long night of huddling in the cold on the edge of a field, near the Bucephalus Brook, Sweetie Belle felt the faint warmth of the morning Sun as it dawned over the land. Ponyville was still dark, thanks to Dawn Hill and the mountains of the Everfree. The filly, small enough to crawl through the bushes like a fox, found another one of those fox holes, crawled into it, curled up, and finally fell asleep. She wandered around all night from spot to spot along the brook, begging for Princess Luna to come to her, but no response from the Princess of the night.
But as the exhausted filly slept, she got the response she was looking for. But it was neither Luna or Celestia.

The familiar torrent of nightmares- visions, memories, ponies’ screams, death and destruction assaulted her mind while she slept, muttering, crying, and twitching about, begging to the air around her for the torment to stop.
She found herself running out in an open plain, following a bunch of other frightened foals. They shouted to one another. Somepony bucked up, and those flesheating mutant pegasi were swooping in on them. She felt sharp teeth bite down on her little flank and screamed bloody murder. She was yanked from the ground by her flank and lifted higher and higher into the air.

There was a violent impact, and Sweetie fell fast. Before she hit the ground head first, a magical field caught her, and she blacked out.

The next scene was almost too hazy for the little filly to comprehend: Unicorn mares were standing over her, a massive bright light in the center, glaring down on her like the Sun itself. She couldn’t make out what the frantic mares were saying to each other. She felt needle pricks on her pasterns*, and saw them lather some thick blue cream over her wounds, which now seemed to cover her body. Sweetie tried to move only to discover in a nasty jolt of pain that her hind hooves were both broken. Before she blacked out again, these unicorns standing over stuck a tube into her mouth, and she tasted the sweet scent of those honey tulips she used to sniff and eat…
“Sweetie Belle!” hissed the stern voice of a mare.

Sweetie opened her eyes, and found herself in a very unfamiliar place. She was in a dark room, with plain wooden walls, lit by candles mounted to them. The mare standing over was nopony she knew, then with a jarring surprise, Sweetie Belle realized this mare standing over her, nuzzling her face looked just like her.
Tears welled up in Sweetie’s eyes and she started sobbing.
“Shhh,” the mare cooed, calming her. “It’s okay, you’re safe. Nopony’s going to hurt you.”

“Owww.” Sweetie groaned as she tried to move.

“Try not to move,” the mare urged her, “you’ll rip your stitches. Please rest,” she said, kissing Sweetie Belle on the forehead. “Breathe deeply. You’re with me, we’re safe. No Pegasi to be afraid of.”

Somehow knowing what she was talking about, Sweetie Belle nodded. The mare got up and went to the kitchen. It was a small house , built almost like a human Cossack cottage. The kitchen was around the corner, but Sweetie Belle heard a kettle on the stove whistling. Boiling water poured into a cup, and this mare humming. A few minutes later, she returned with the drink.

She propped Sweetie to a sitting position in her bed and hoofed her the glass. A lid was on it with a straw, as if Sweetie was a baby foal.

“It’s your Auntie Sora’s lady slipper tea. It will help you relax. Drink,” the mare ordered.
Sweetie Belle obeyed and her eyes went wide as she tasted the hot concoction. It seemed very bitter and nothing like she tasted before, then the bit of honey kicked in and she began to swallow the gulps. She finished off the tea as expected and the mare eased her back into her bed.

“Shhh, now you can sleep,” the mare said, stroking Sweetie’s forehead. Sweetie Belle closed her eyes, felt the tears stop and her throat unswell. Completely pacified by the lady slipper tea, Sweetie Belle fell fast asleep.

When she woke up next, Sweetie Belle just layed in her bed, and stared up at the plainwood ceiling. Daylight filled the room, and through the window she could see, a large green hedge blocked much else of a view. She heard activity in the kitchen, and assumed adult Sweetie Belle was making more tea or something.

Sweetie struggled to get up and look at the bed- which was just a huge pad covered with old blankets, and saw the huge pony imprint where big Sweetie Belle must’ve slept next to her.

When she finally felt coherent, she wondered, Where the hay am I?
The door to the outside opened and the door chime dinged.

“Hello, may I- Oh Sora, thank the Light its you,” big Sweetie Belle gasped in relief.
“Good morning, Aura Belle, how are you?”
“I’m…I’m alright. There’ve been no problems here.”

“Aye, good to hear. Say, you’ve never been to our city before. What do you think of the sun lamp above?”
“It’s magnicient. The illusionary spells are wonderful. I never would’ve known we’re underground.”

“We have to be, dear. Nopony dares build anything on the ground lest they want a visit from the Pegasi. And how is your filly? What’s her name?”

“It’s Sweetie Belle. She’s my sister.”
“Ah, right,” the hoarsely-voiced Sora mare grunted. “She got through the night all fine?”

“Yes, she woke up with a fright around 22°, and I gave her some of that lady slipper tea, I hope you don’t mind. It really helped her.

“You think she’ll recover?” Aura Belle asked anxiously.
“She had better recover,” Sora warned, “Or else they’ll put her down.”
Sweetie gasped, and also heard a gasp from Aura.
“No, please. I already lost my entire family. I don’t want to lose little Sweetie too!”

“It’s up to nature now. If she can’t recover by the time the doctor comes to see her, she’ll be taken away. We can’t allow for death and disease from those wretched Pegasi to kill us all!”

There were more hushed anxious words, and the conversation of the two mares shifted to earth ponies.
“I heard some earth ponies down by the market talking about fighting alongside the Pegasi. They think we’ll just enslave them…”

“Those fools! What makes them think they’ll fare any better with the Pegasi than us? Once we’d all be eradicated, the Pegasi would then just feed them to their mutant monsters! Between you and me, Aura Belle, even if we did force each and every single one of them simple minded mud ponies to do our bidding, they’d still be much better off with us than those Pegasi. They’re deluded beyond their minds if they think they have a chance with the Pegasi or even on their own for Light’s sakes. We have all seen the destruction those Pegasi have sent onto us, and any earth pony who tried to join them was slaughtered! Think about it Aura Belle, you know what I’m telling you! Your village was raided and sacked by earth ponies hoping to win the favor of the Pegasi. And guess what, after they destroyed your villages, the Pegasi slaughtered those mud ponies to no end!”
Sweetie Belle couldn’t keep up with the conversation and drifted back to sleep.

“Sweetie Belle,” hissed the voice of Aura Belle.
Sweetie Belle grunted as she squirmed and rolled about in her leafed foxhole. She felt a hoof nudging her shoulder.
“It’s time to get up,” Aura Belle said gently but with an edge of sternness.

“Wha-?” Sweetie Belle turned around and looked at Aura Belle- an apparition whom the morning Sun pierced right through and glared right into the filly’s eyes.
Sweetie Belle turned her head from the sun then scrambled to her hooves. This shit is getting real, she thought. She climbed out of the foxhole and felt the early morning breeze on her body and shivered slightly. Now not facing the sun, Sweetie turned to face the ghost. She knew full well she was back in the real world, some spot outside of Ponyville. She laid her eyes on Aura Belle, and she gasped.

Aura Belle looked strikingly different than in the dream. Now she was taller, and covered in the scars from past lacerations and burns. Her mane was torn, and she looked emancipated, as if she hadn’t eaten in weeks. Her emerald eyes looked more sullen, and overall she looked like nothing of the loving mare she met in the dream she just had.

“Who...who…or…what…are you?” Sweetie Belle asked, not sure if she should be afraid. But she wasn’t surprised.
“I am what I am. I am the spirit of your ancestor Aura Belle. The spellbook brought me to you in this world which you live. I had a young filly sister. Her name was also Sweetie Belle. You must’ve relived the torment that filly endured during her brief life. She was sadly put down. She was infected after being attacked and bitten by those mutant Pegasus freaks. You…you saw the last night she lived. The following morning, she turned much worse, and had to be destroyed….”
Tears welled up in the apparition mare’s eyes, and dripped downward, but faded before hitting the soil.
“How…how can I forgive them for destroying my only family?” Aura Belle cried.
Sweetie said nothing. She felt frightened more than anything.

“I’ll never forgive those pegasi, nor will I forgive the earth ponies who sided with them, attacked our village, and sent us fleeing into the plains….” Aura snarled with stricken fury.

Sweetie Belle opened her mouth- but Aura snapped at her. The filly took a few steps back.
“Do not let those earth ponies wreak their savage destruction, Sweetie Belle!” she almost shouted at her.
Sweetie just stared at her, almost dumbstruck. “….who?”
“Those Apples over there!” Aura Belle pointed a ghostly hoof in the direction of Ponyville and Sweet Apple Acres.
“I know what they did to you, Sweetie. I know all of your memories, and so do they!”

“…who is they? And how do I-“

“The spellbook connects you to us. Your ancestors. The dead. We fought and died at the hooves of those pegasi and earth ponies. But before we went out forever, hundreds-no, thousands of spellbooks like the one you found were created. They were to connect us to unicorns of future times, and inform them of their history and empower them with the powers to fight those who would destroy us. The spellbooks are controlled by very powerful unicorn mages and sorcerers who are masters in the arts of time and space. They tracked your spellbook for many of thousands of years.”

“Wait,” Sweetie Belle asked in disbelief, “Where are these super all powerfulest mages?”

“They’re…they’re in the past. Dead to you, but alive because of this link through the spellbook. They are lords of the dead and living, of all unicorns who ever lived, and will live. They struggle to keep the unicorn race from being annihilated, either in life or spirit. The earth ponies and Pegasi tried to kill us all, and Princess Celestia steals the dead, leaving what, nothing?!”

Sweetie said nothing. She found it hard to believe this twisted tale she was hearing. Aura Belle continued talking:
“We found Twilight Sparkle, lurking in the Everfree, and we broadcast a signal, alerting her to the presence of the spellbook. For so many dark millennia, nopony has ever even found these spellbooks. Celestia tried to use nature to cover them up and bury them forever. We thought Twilight would join us, be fulfilled by the powers bestowed onto her and connect to her long lost fellow unicorns.

“But that coward worked tirelessly to keep us from reaching her, and she tried to lock the spellbook away, and send it off to Celestia. Through the book, its masters watched everything. If Twilight Sparkle lived in our time, she’d be scorched to ash for her cowardice and treason!”
Sweetie Belle’s ears almost heart from Aura Belle’s ghastly shouting.

“…can anypony hear you?”

“No, Sweetie, just you. I’ve cast a spell on you so that nothing we say is heard by other ponies around here.”
“Oh,” Sweetie murmured. Right now, she didn’t feel any bit like the badass who magically blew up Fluttershy’s prized birds last night, who wanted to take out Sweet Apple Acres-
“But you,” Aura Belle interrupted, “You know what those Apple ponies do to unicorns. You took the spellbook, and helped us break out of Twilight Sparkle’s spell, and opened yourself to us! We want you to destroy the Apple farm, and every single mud pony that walks that cursed land.”

“…excuse me, but who?”

“The masters of the spellbook, my dear,” Aura Belle continued talking desperately, “And be not afraid, I might not be with you, which…I’d want if the spellbook masters- those sorcerers and mages would let me. I want to see this world. See for myself if not every earth pony and Pegasus is out to slaughter us all.”

Sweetie Belle shook her head. “N’uh ‘uh. It’s just the Apples.”

More of Sweetie Belle’s memories flashed through Aura Belle’s mind as she read the terrified filly’s mind. “N-Nimbuscait. I want you to avenge us, and take out Nimbuscait!”

Before Aura Belle could rant any further, she suddenly froze still, then resumed speaking in a calmer manner.
“The spellbook masters…they called to me. I don’t want to go back. They should let us spirits reside this land as if we were living ponies. But…” the apparition sighed, “There’s work to be done, Sweetie. Go forth to the farm, and they- er I mean the spellbook’s masters, will guide you. They will fill you with all the power you will need to take our revenge, and wipe those Apples from the face of Equestria! And you will go to the unicorns in this town, and have no fear, our power will strike out at them, and make them fight on our behalf! Now go!”

Before the terrified filly could respond, she felt the changes within and that ultimate seething fury return to her.

“You will always be connected to us, Sweetie Belle” a ghostly stallion’s voice growled. ”And you will never be alone. Let us guide you, and use you as our weapon, as our peacemaker!

And then all went silent. The taunting voices that would drive the little filly insane vanished, and so too did the ghost of Aura Belle. All was silent except for the croaking of frogs in the brook, crickets and bugs in the bushes, and the morning songbirds.
The morning wind blew past her, and she looked in the direction of town. No longer the old Sweetie Belle, but the soon-to-be slaughterer of Apples and takers of vengeance in the name of unicorns everywhere and everywhen.

The filly began trotting towards town, but planned to take a wide route around Ponyville, past the train tracks, to the farm. In her mind, she’d start the show by blowing up all the blood apple orchards. She was fully knowledgeable about the demented fruit now.

Little did the filly know as she discreetly made her way through the farm fields and trails, she was actually under the control of those spellbook masters Aura Belle told her about. She mistook their commands as her own thoughts and desires.
Either way, the time it took for Sweetie Belle to make it to the outer fringe of the blood apple orchards, and where those Apple Jagers lived (they’ll be the first to die), it would very likely be the end of the Sweet Apple era.

Meanwhile at Sweet Apple Acres, ponies carried out their business, and in the morning before she went to the guard house, Applejack bossed and ordered them around. Most ponies, including Applegem Frost Apple, and Sangshine Blood Apple had no idea their clocks were counting down to their damnation.
Applebloom, Big Macintosh, and Doc and Heal had no idea the clocks were ticking towards their salvation.

Author's Notes:

As Sweetie Belle makes her way to the outer fringes of Sweet Apple Acres, the time has run out for Applejack and her crusade against unicorns. Will she be able to protect her family and farm? Will Twilight Sparkle and company escape from the guardhouse? Can she find the culprit who stole her spellbook before she blows up Ponyville?

EDIT: don't worry this isn't over.