Art by: http://appletailquinn.deviantart.com/art/MLP-FIM-Story-of-The-Blanks-251120802
Enjoy!
Apple Bloom was staring up into the night sky over Sunny Town. That vision had taken a lot longer than the last one and she wasn't sure how long she had been out of it. Nopony seemed to care that the little filly had just been lying there on her back in the grass. As she sat up, Apple Bloom lifted the ruby up again turning it over. Three Leaf had warned her to stop meddling, but now she had a clear path to take. So what was she going to do? Apple Bloom imagined how her friends Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo would react if they had been in her place. In her mind she heard them scream out,
"Cutie Mark Crusader Detectives! Yay!"
Apple Bloom smiled to herself, that's just what she'd do! She'd dig deeper and unravel this mystery. Surely somepony in this town would give her a straight answer eventually, and how much trouble would she honestly get into?
~~~
"Oh my goodness, you found it! You found my gem stone!" Roneo leapt to his hooves as he spotted the ruby in Apple Bloom's mouth. She placed it by his outstretched hooves.
"Yea, here, ya can have it back."
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Roneo praised Apple Bloom, grabbed the gemstone in his mouth and galloped over to Starlet immediately. The white mare looked overjoyed just to be in the stallion's presence. Apple Bloom clearly heard her shout of joy even from this distance as Roneo presented his gift to her. The pair crossed their necks against one another, embracing. Apple Bloom smiled at the two knowingly. Now that she had successfully delivered the lost gift, she wondered what she should do next. Apple Bloom was just about to leave when a sound caught her attention. A weak sobbing noise was coming from inside the house Roneo had been sitting in front of. Apple Bloom looked around to make sure nopony was watching and slipped inside without a second thought.
The door clicked shut as Apple Bloom stepped into her new surroundings. This new place, unlike the party outside, was dimly lit and was very unkempt. Boxes of various sizes were stacked up around the walls, sheets were draped over most of the furnishings and the whole house lay still. Apple Bloom took a few more steps inside, straining to hear anything.
"Hello?" She called out to the empty house.
... sniff ... uuhhh mmmhhh ... ... sniff ...
In the utter silence of the house Apple Bloom could clearly hear the weak whimpering coming from above. Spotting some stairs near the back wall she made her way up to the next floor. As Apple Bloom peeked over the stairs she found the upper floor held only one long hallway. At the end sat a single door, a shadow moved behind the threshold. Apple Bloom trotted down the hall, leaving small hoof prints in the dust on the floor. Grime covered picture frames and paintings were the only décor of the hallway as Apple Bloom reached the end. She wasn't scared but her heart rate was rising, the spirit of discovery driving her forward. She knocked on the door, the shadow behind it suddenly freezing up at the sound. She listened and waited, and waited, and waited. No response from the other side. Apple Bloom knocked again, and was startled by the sudden yell that came from the other side.
"GO AWAY!"
Apple Bloom recovered from her shock and faced the door again. "No! Ah' ain't leavin' till you talk to me!" Apple Bloom yelled back.
"I don't have anything to say to monsters like you! Leave me alone, you're all cursed and evil ponies!"
"AH HA! I knew somethin' bad must have happened here!" Apple Bloom announced this more to herself rather than the stranger behind the door. She beamed in triumph as all her snooping was validated. The thing behind the door had fallen deathly quiet, but judging by its shadow it had pressed itself against the door.
"You don't sound like anypony from outside." The voice sounded much calmer than before.
"That's cause ah ain't." Apple Bloom called back.
The door swung open lightning fast as a pair of grey hooves snatched Apple Bloom up. Before she could even comprehend what happened, Apple Bloom was dragged inside the room and the door shut behind her. The sudden and unexpected shift scared the little filly and she opened her mouth to scream. She was swiftly silenced by the same hoof that had pulled her in. Through muffled protest Apple Bloom beheld her captor: A grey mare with a deep maroon mane. Her eyes held a look of both surprise and worry, but were swollen and sagged. It made her look utterly exhausted. Though Apple Bloom had never met this pony before, she couldn't shake a sense of familiarity about her. The room they were in was a bedroom holding only a twin bed and a bench before a vanity. The mare leaned in close and looked Apple Bloom square in the eyes. The two sat there for what seemed like an eternity before the grey pony broke the silence.
"What do you think you're doing here?" The grey mare's eyes narrowed as she released Apple Bloom from her grip.
"Ah, um...wait, what?" The question threw Apple Bloom's train of thought leaving her to babble an incoherent response. The grey mare clutched Apple Bloom by her shoulders.
"What...Are...You...Doing here?!" her voice was growing stern and angry.
"Ah'm lookin' fer answers about this town. Ah' came here followin' somepony out there in the woods. Who the hay are you anyway?" Apple Bloom barked out her answers, throwing questions right back at the mare. This caused her to release again, shock now the only emotion on her face.
"You...followed somepony?" The mare trailed off, a strange look on her face. She sat there in silence for a moment, her eyes scanning Apple Bloom up and down then darting to the window and back. Apple Bloom was watching her, trying to figure out where she knew this pony from. The mare spoke again cautiously.
"Who exactly did you follow here?"
"Some pony with a golden blonde mane. She had a grey coat like yours but her eyes were all golden and glowey too." Apple Bloom simply blurted out the answer, not thinking about it.
"So, she's the one who led you here..." The mare stood up and walked toward the window. She didn't speak further, simply staring outside. Apple Bloom wasn't sure how to react and was still trying to nail down just who this pony was. She starting thinking about the memories, recalling the past she'd already glimpsed. The mare spoke again to her, this time with a quiver in her voice "S-so, do you know who I am?" Apple Bloom thought back to the first encounter in the Joak fields, and then it hit her.
"Yer Mitta aren't ya?"
The mare crumpled at this, her legs quivering as her shoulders shrank forward. In one fluid motion Mitta collapsed to the floor in a torrent of sobs. This took Apple Bloom completely by surprise as she ran forward to Mitta's side.
"Oh ma'h gosh, please stop cryin'! Ah' didn't mean ta' upset you!" Apple Bloom pleaded with Mitta through her blubbering, rushing to her side.
"It's not fair! It's just not fair!" Mitta managed to speak through her sobs.
"What ain't fair?"
"All of this! The same thing happening again and again and again, it never ends!"
Apple Bloom had no idea what to do. Mitta continued to lie there and cry, each sob making Apple Bloom's heart ache for her more and more. With no other options available Apple Bloom did the only thing she could think of. She wrapped her fore-legs around Mitta's neck and hugged her. Mitta took a deep breath, surprised at the sudden embrace. Apple Bloom felt Mitta try to push her off but she couldn't muster the strength. It was strange, though Mitta looked like any normal pony to Apple Bloom her coat and skin felt icy cold and oddly soft. Finally Mitta's sobs slowed to a weak whimper as Apple Bloom released her.
"Why?" Mitta asked through her tears, "Why would you even come here?"
"Ah' don't know, I guess it was just curiosity." Apple Bloom admitted. Mitta's eyes had finally dried and she stared at Apple Bloom. She just sat there and stared, like she was looking into her very soul. "What the hay happened to this place? Why are you locked up in here, an' why did you start cryin' just then?" Apple Bloom never broke eye contact with Mitta as she asked the questions. Mitta remained quiet, a sliver of a tear dripping from her eye again.
"Please...please don't make me. It's too hard to tell, this whole ordeal is my burden just as much as those monsters outside." When Mitta finally spoke again, her voice was weak.
"Please Mitta, ya can tell me. I want to know!"
"No, you shouldn't, I can't..."
"You don't have to be alone in all this. Ah' know others outside these woods, ah' can bring 'em here and we can help ya." Apple Bloom tried to offer her comfort.
"NO!" Mitta practically leapt onto the little filly, pressing her face against Apple Bloom's in utter terror. "Whatever you do, don't lead anypony else here, they'll be lost to this town just as we are!" Mitta suddenly shrunk back from her own warning, acting like she had just said something taboo. Apple Bloom countered by getting right back in her face.
"Y'all keep sayin' stuff like monsters an' curses an' losing ponies to the town. What does all that mean? Why can't ah' have an explanation!?"
Mitta regarded the little filly and took a moment to think. To Apple Bloom it looked like the very thought of explaining things hurt her. With a heavy sigh Mitta took a seat once more.
"First, before I tell you what I can, why did she bring you here?" Mitta asked.
"Do ya' mean the other pony with the blonde mane?"
"Yes. Why you? Why now? She knows bringing anypony here puts them at risk, so why?"
"I dunno!" Apple Bloom shrugged; if this was some kind of trick question she wasn't doing a good job figuring it out. Mitta took another deep breath.
"This whole problem started with her, on that horrible night." Mitta began to explain.
"What night?"
"This night, the night of the town's founding anniversary. This town's been here much longer than you could imagine, and it's all from the curse."
"Ok, so what's that?" Apple Bloom's question made Mitta stop talking. She took a deep breath and looked to be fighting back a few tears. Apple Bloom tried to keep her going, "Did something bad happen?"
"Yes...something bad. Something very very bad and the forest didn't like it." Mitta stopped again and closed her eyes, her face drooping.
"Hold yer horses, the forest didn't like it? Ah' don't get it." Apple Bloom said, puzzled.
"It's always been an old legend that the Ever Free Forest exists as it does because it has its own special kind of magic right? Even when our town was founded near its edge we couldn't have possibly known how far its influence stretched."
"Whoa, are you telling me this town wasn't originally in Ever Free?" Apple Bloom asked excitedly. Mitta nodded.
"We weren't the only town either. We had a sister settlement about a few day's trot to the north as well."
"Is that town still there too? Did they believe in curse marks?" Mitta took another deep breath as Apple Bloom asked more questions.
"Curse marks...Yes, that's where the whole rumor started. The ponies of this town were scared, something awful happened to that neighboring town. It all had to do with the curse marks."
"But they ain't curses, they ain't even called curse marks, they're cutie marks!" Apple Bloom protested.
"Cutie marks? Hmm, I've never heard them called that before, but I'd be inclined to believe it. Those marks seemed no more a curse than the bow on your head to me. But you see, our town used to trade and interact quite a bit with our sister village, and then one day that all just stopped. No pony came or went from there anymore, and the villagers here started getting worried. The council sent a small group to investigate, but all they found were ruins. The scouts asked outside travelers if they had heard what happened, and each time they got nearly the same story.
It always starts with somepony in town getting a mark on their flanks. They started performing amazing feats and skills related to the picture. Then they got another, and another and another. Each mark made them do more crazy and death-defying feats but caused great damage to the town and its residents. Worse of all, the marks started spreading to other ponies and soon everyone was covered head to hoof in the terrible things. As the story goes, they worked and performed themselves all to death, completely destroying the town in the process." Mitta halted her explanation, rubbing her eyes again with a hoof. Apple Bloom simply sat there wide-eyed at the story.
"Our council members were horrified by the story, and so they made sure everyone in town knew about the curse marks. They made everypony fear them greatly, made sure no pony would end up with a mark on them, lest they be punished."
"But so, what happened when somepony did get a mark?" Apple Bloom questioned.
"That really doesn't matter." Mitta dodged Apple Bloom's question, staring at the floor somberly. "Just, because of what happened and because of our digressions, because of our stupidity and fear...we angered the magics of nature itself. The forest came alive with rage and destructive forces, and her fate that night was the flame that sparked it all."
"So then what kind of curse do y'all have now?" Apple Bloom was having trouble following all this at once. The question made Mitta raise her head and open her eyes, this time pointing Apple Bloom toward the window as she got to her own hooves.
"Surely you can take some guesses little one. You've been amongst the...others out there, the ones who brought this all on us. Can't you see the patterns?" Mitta waited as Apple Bloom looked outside. She saw all the party ponies eating and drinking and having fun. Starlet and Roneo were nuzzling near the well and she also spotted Grey Hoof dancing near an old record player. As far as she could tell nothing looked to out of the ordinary.
"Ah'm sorry but, what am I lookin' fer exactly?" Apple Bloom asked for a hint.
"Time," Mitta raised her voice in frustration, "Time is non-existent in this town. This party has been going on for hours right? Ponies have been eating and drinking all night right, so how come the tables are still as they were when you arrived? All the candles on the cakes haven't even lost a drop of wax yet! You surely have talked with some of them haven't you?"
"Well yeah." Apple Bloom responded.
"And what did you think about them?" Mitta pried.
"Well, most of their answers felt kind of rehearsed. Like they knew what ah' was gonna ask before ah' asked it."
"Almost like they're empty inside?"
"Yeah, kind of like that!"
"That's because they are! Those ponies out there, they've all had their souls stolen, taken by the curse of the Ever Free Forest. This party never ends because this curse has stolen the life of this town. We are all cursed into everlasting limbo here, reliving our last night again and again and again. Your hours pass by to us like seconds, whole years merely days; a never ending torture."
"But how can everything in the town look so normal then? If y'all have been here for so long shouldn't everthin' be crumbling and rotten? And if this is all true, how do you still have a memory?" Mitta froze up at Apple Bloom's question, her face looking scared. She bit her lower lip and turned her gaze toward the door.
"There's something else at work that keeps this town untouched by time little one, an evil working in the darkness. I simply can't...tell you..." Mitta seemed to be choking on her words near the end, almost as if trying to explain further would hurt her.
"Wait, but then if you are cursed like the others how do you have a memory, you don't seem hollow inside?" Apple Bloom pried further. Mitta looked like she turned paler than she already was.
"I...I...I really don't know." Tears began to well in Mitta's eyes as she talked, "I don't know why I still have my memory. For some reason the curse didn't take my mind like it did the others. Maybe it's my own personal hell, my punishment for failing to protect her." Mitta looked like she was about to start sobbing again, but Apple Bloom kept pressing.
"Please, can't ya tell me more?"
"No, I can't. I simply can't. Please, for the sake of your friends and family, just leave." Mitta stood and began to shoo Apple Bloom toward the door, tears beginning to fall from her eyes.
"HEY! Wait a minute Ah'm not done here ah' still got more questions!" Apple Bloom protested as she was pushed out into the hallway.
"No little filly, no more questions. You don't want to know the truth lurking behind this town's façade. Just leave. Run home, never look back, and leave us to our well deserved fates." With that, Mitta slammed the door shut in Apple Bloom's face. Apple Bloom could hear a loud slump behind the door as Mitta's sobs began again. She angrily stopped a hoof on the floor in protest sending a cloud of dust floating into the air.
"Achoaguh caugh augh!" Apple Bloom coughed and wheezed for air as she stepped out of the dust cloud. She stopped near an old photo frame just as her nose began to tingle.
"ACHOOO!"
In one massive sneeze Apple Bloom blew every bit of dust clean off the frame. Sniffling and wiping her nose with her hoof she looked up at the picture she had revealed. It was a photograph of two fillies, maybe only a few years older than Apple Bloom herself. Both were grey, but each had a different mane color, one red and one golden blonde. Apple Bloom immediately recognized the pair; it was Mitta and her mystery pony friend. They looked so happy in the picture, clearly they had to have been best friends. Apple Bloom stood on tippy-hooves to try and get a better look at the photo. Without warning the blonde mare's eyes suddenly lit up with light, sending Apple Bloom falling to the floor.
