alicornparty | THE WORST FEARS MEME

In the end the apples had never spoken and, without that, the miracle had never happened.

Jappleack's sister was still gone, irretrievable and locked away forever now, leaving Jappleack with nothing but regret for her treatment of Apple Bloom and no way to ever right it. All that there was or could be was the rolling waves of grief and regret in the wake of the tragedy.

No where to find comfort either, at least not beyond Sweet Apple Acres and her family. Everyone else was like they'd always been, like she had been: selfish, obnoxious, and happily willing to shout her down if she ever approached any of them to try to talk about her grief and regret. Gotta go, Jappleack. Shut up, Jappleack. No one cares, Jappleack. Stuck and absorbed in themselves and their own petty wants, not yet jarred out of it like Japple had herself.

Without her transportation to the actual Equestria, Jappleack was left simply broken, not reforged. The usually boisterous and proud pony was replaced with someone quiet and reserved, rarely talking and even then not much or beyond a whisper. Her fear, this time not overcome into bravery but acquiescing into timidity, kept her rooted to Sweet Apple Acres, never venturing much further than the groves of the farm when she did bother to go outside. Often just sitting and staring out into nothing.

Sometimes, as now, just sitting and staring out over the town and wondering what could have been.

Somehow, Kyouko found herself in a strange Equestria. There was little she recognized about this place; everything was a loud and often ugly parody of itself. She recognized a single pony amid the chaos: the orange one sitting in Apple Acres.

She approached her friend and sat down next to her. "Weird place. This where ya live, huh?"

Jappleack doesn't say anything, not at first, and doesn't so much turn to face Kyouko as much as jump a little from her sitting position and stare at her. No one comes to talk to her on Sweet Apple Acres; it's always just Big Mac or Granny Smith, her family the only other ones who care, who ever cared. She looks at Kyouko with surprise, then a little bit of fear.

"I-can I help you?" The tone, the words, are all wrong, not fitting Jappleack at all. Far too quiet, too subordinate, to be Japple. Nor is there any sign of recognition although....Jappleack can't help but think she's met this girl before. Though she pushes it out of her mind quickly.

Kyouko frowns. Jappleack's very, very different. It's somewhat startling. "Well... yeah. Jappleack?" She waves her paw in front of the pony's face. "Hey, c'mon. What gives? Ya... feelin' all right?"

Ya feelin' all right?

That question might have been the one thing that could set her off. Get the usual feelings of anger and hurt flowing again. For a moment, she thinks of snapping at this bear - this...bear that's oddly familiar and she doesn't know why - but thinks better of it. She shouldn't. The bear doesn't deserve it, although who heard of talking bears before, let alone talking bears obsessed with getting in your business.

Instead, Jappleack shakes her head and, getting up on her hooves, starts to slowly try and walk away.

"I'm fine. ....Please. If you don't mind? Leave me alone."

"I do." Not gonna leave a friend like this. Instead, she flops down next to Jappleack and digs a package of crackers out of her hoodie. She rips the small bundle open with her teeth and chews on one.

"Everythin's a lot dif'rnt here. Dunno how ya stand it."

"I stand it okay."

She says that, but the words are weak. Jappleack isn't sitting back down quite yet, but just staring at Kyouko, a small, sad frown plastered on her face.

"You learn to, I guess. Or go crazy. I were you, I'd get the hell out of here when you could....Kyouko?"

She doesn't know how she knows that name. It sure as shit isn't a name you hear around here. But she knows it somehow, and somehow, she knows it fits.

"Dunno how I got here. Dunno how ta get back." But Kyouko's heart skips a beat when Jappleack mentions her name.

"C'mon. We gotta get ya outta here, too. This place en't good for ya. Somethin' in th'air, maybe."

Jappleack's eyes widen a little bit, and she backs away from Kyouko, shaking her head in fear. It's so unlike her it's almost comical, if it wasn't for how sincere the reaction is.

"No I-I can't leave! This is all I have left!"

She trembles a little. So much of her would like to leave, maybe go to some magical place and just run. But that's a fantasy, a fairy tale. Things like that don't actually happen. Even if...if in some part of her, sometimes....she thinks she can imagine something like it.

But that's just fantasy.

"Just just leave me alone! Stop it and get out of here, alright?!"

And finally, Kyouko understands that something has gone horribly wrong. She's not sure what, but that's the look of trauma in Jappleack's eyes. This isn't the Jappleack she knew. It's almost like she's an entirely different pony.

"Okay. Okay." She swallows the crumbs and takes out another cracker. "Geez. Calm down. S'not like I know how ta leave here anyway." She pats the ground next to her again. "Not gonna take ya anywhere. Just wanna talk."

Talk. It's been so long since she's had anyone other than family to talk to. Part of her doesn't really trust it, not at the moment. Everyone else just wants to beat her down. Doesn't care about what she has to say, just wants her to shut the hell up and smile and say stupid sassy, obnoxious shit like the rest of them.

She looks at Kyouko for a moment, before relenting and taking a seat.

"You wanna talk about what?"

"I wanna know what happened ta ya." She holds out the cracker package, still half-full. "Just wanna talk. Can't a coupla friends talk?"

She tries to project a sense of casualness about her, but really she's watching Jappleack's every move. Trying to figure out what to do. If she can help.

"What happened?"

She's confused. Beyond confused, as if expecting someone to actually ask or care was alien to her. She looks down at the ground for a moment, shaking her head.

"I...It...It doesn't matter. You don't need to worry about it."

She'll just be told to shut up or get chided for it when she starts to talk anyway.

"Too late." She scowls. "Dunno how many times ya've been there for one pony or th'other, but part o'th'deal is ya don' get ta just suffer alone for doin' that."

She takes one of the crackers out of the package and places it in Jappleack's empty hoof. "There. Start chewin' on that. Ya remembered my name, maybe there's other stuff ya remember, too, huh?"

"Been there for one pony or another..."

Jappleack just looks at the cracker for a moment, staring at it as she tears up slightly, the tears falling on the cracker and dampening it, if just a little. For a moment, she can...see. See others she's met, and that she's helped, and she-

She can't take it. She grimaces, frowns in anger, before turning on Kyouko.

"I was never there for anyone else! Not a goddamn one! Not for anyone who mattered, and not for her! I-I...I was always awful to her! Because, I..."

Because...she never knew why she was so awful to Apple Bloom. Because she was angry at her for some petty reason? Because she thought the abuse might help her fit in with her 'friends', with their quirks and behaviors?

She didn't know any more. She guesses it didn't matter.

"And then...when I could tell her I loved her, she...she..."

She drops the cracker to the ground, crushing it under her hoof and working it into the dirt, tears freely hitting the ground around it.

"Why are you torturing me? What did I do?"

She hisses the words through clenched teeth, trying to resist bawling.

Jappleack's in a horrible state, and for a time, Kyouko can only stare, open-mouthed. It's JA's final action that finally snaps her out of her stupor. She suddenly grabs Jappleack by the neck.

"I told ya not ta waste food," she snarls. "Ya know what that is, what tha' means ta me." It's just a cracker. It's food Kyouko wouldn't have had when she was starving. It's food Kyouko wouldn't have given unless she trusted JA absolutely.

She breathes hard, still holding Jappleack. "An' ya gotta snap outta this or 'm gonna start hittin'. Cause yer one o'th'best ponies I know in Equestria, an' I don' give a damn wha ya think ya did, but s'not worth doin' whatever yer doin' ta yerself now."

It's shocking just how easily Japple let's Kyouko grab and pull her towards her. She at least tops her crying as Kyouko reprimands her, though it's hard to tell if anything gets through to her.

"My sister is dead," she finally chokes out, "She's dead. He killed her. And then I-I..."

She pauses, her brow furrowing. And then she did what? Came back her, crying and deteriorating, and that's it?

That's not right. Sure feels like it, but it isn't. Apple Bloom died, and she mourned, and then-and then-

"Then the apples spoke to me..."

Edited 2014-10-31 17:46 (UTC)

"And then wha' happened?" Kyouko's got her confused. Maybe she's on the right track. With her other paw, she pokes down at the muddy mess Jappleack's made from the remains of the sludge. One or two pieces of cracker stick out of it, and Kyouko picks both of them up and eats them. It's not the best tasting cracker ever, but she's not going to let it go to waste.

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caneattheseapples - 2014-10-31 17:58 (UTC) - Expand

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kuukai - 2014-10-31 18:31 (UTC) - Expand

Discord lopes calmly through the streets of this Other Ponyville, completely ignoring everyone and everything around him. Well, maybe not completely. It's been a little while since ponies ran screaming in terror from him.

But after cackling, chasing a few around, and snapping his jaws at a few tail-tips, he loses interest pretty fast. If he wanted to terrorize imaginary ponies in a magically-created mind construct, he can do it by himself. Sombra, pffft. So instead the draconequus casually starts bounding towards Sweet Apple Acres, singing loudly

It just comes out as dueling banjo music.

It is too early in the day for banjo music like that, so Jappleack immediately knows that something is up. Jappleack's ears perk up, just a bit, as she looks out towards where the music is coming from.

And then her blood runs cold and she feels like she could vomit her own heart out.

For a moment, she just sits there, trembling. There's so many thoughts racing through her head, so many possible reactions that she's overloaded with information on how to react. She just sits and stares, and stares, and stares.

And then she's running to the shed where they keep some of the smaller farm equipment. And she's pulling out the wood axe.

And then, still screaming, she's running right at Discord.

"I WILL CUT YOU APART MOFO!!"

Her voice is high, shrill, dangerously so, and she's barely looking where she's swinging this crazy ass axe. Doesn't matter.

She's either going to get horribly murdered or get her a piece of this son of a bitch, as far as she can tell. Either way it works out for her.

Edited 2014-10-31 17:05 (UTC)

Jappleack must have rolled a natural 20, because she cuts Discord into several neat pieces with very little struggle. The whole affair is surprisingly bloodless.

The body parts lay limp on the ground, and his head is definitely not watching her to see what she'll do next (and possibly repressing giggles). Super dead. Yep. Good job! You won!

It's kind of surprising how easily she takes him apart. In fact, it's so easy that there's no real reward to it. No feeling of satisfaction, as she look at his oddly cleanly cut apart body.

No. She hasn't won. And she never will.

She howls, lifting the axe up again and, this time, bringing the blunt side of the head down at Discords face. And lifting it up and bringing it down again. And again. Stop smiling at her, you asshole. She'll rearrange that when she bashes your face into being non-recognizable.

Goodness. Normally he wouldn't be concerned about the rules, but they do have a rating to keep to here, don't they? Discord's canny enough to know not to upset the network.

Also, this doesn't appear to be working the way he thought it might. You know, kill the monster, escape the death trap, all the sort of thing? Very narrative-driven. There's a congratulatory sound as a text box pops up nearby:

ACHIEVEMENT: CHAOS KILLER

And then Discord's disembodied voice says, "If you're quite done now? Loathe as I am to say it, I think we're simply going to have to have a heart-to-heart." Ohhhh, just go in after her, Discord. It'll be safest for you. You won't run into any trouble, Discord. Twilight owes him one after this.

It's a good thing Discord spoke up, otherwise Jappleack would have been...no content, but willing to roll with hitting him in the face over and over again. She wheels around at the sound of his voice, clutching the axe close to her.

"I don't want to talk!" the scream is born out of fear as much as anger. "I wan you dead! I want you gone and to just leave me alone!"

"I really don't want to carry you out of Sombra's dungeon," Discord's voice replies, his body remaining where it is. "And I'm quite certain I'd have to, so I think you're just going to have to come on out of here yourself. You make an excellent Jack Horseance, but you're no Daring Do. Honestly, Jappleack, I thought the trap was obvious!"

But whatever, it doesn't matter now. He likes her well enough that he probably would have come to do this even without everyone else's insistence, but Twilight is the one who suggested he should maybe NOT use his powers to forcibly drag her out of her. Shame.

"If you'd like to continue with the pinata thing, though, I really don't mind. You know, I met your Fluttershy just down the way?" There's a pause, before he says in a surprisingly genuine manner, "Your Equestria is terrible."