As Apple Bloom lay on the blighted ground of the desolate marketplace and wept into her sister’s lightly charred and forgotten leather hat, her flank remained completely bare. When the last of her tears were shed, she lifted the leather hat with her hoof and placed it on top of her head.
Deciding it was time to do what she was instructed, Apple Bloom nudged open one of her plain brown saddlebags. She dug through it and finally found a small vial filled with a murky purple liquid. Apple Bloom popped off the cork and sighed slightly.
“Well, Twi, Ah hope you were right. Here goes nothin’,” Apple Bloom muttered to herself before chugging down the entirety of the bottle. She shot up on all four hooves and started coughing. Her eyes stung and her vision swam, blurry dark spots obscuring the edges of her sight. Her stomach desperately wanted to expel the vile liquid, but this was impossible. Apple Bloom knew for a fact that, due to their anatomy, ponies are not able to vomit. At least, they’re not supposed to.
Apple Bloom instead settled for collapsing onto the ground and shuddering uncontrollably. Fortunately, it only took a few moments for the agony to subside as quickly as it had arrived. There was still a pulsing pressure on the back of her skull, but she managed to shakily recollect herself.
As she turned to walk away, Apple Bloom gave the broken-down apple cart one last long look. She shook her head and began to walk away from the town square and went down a wide city street that stretched for miles. She wasn’t exactly sure what was compelling her to go down that street. It was exceedingly large to accommodate for massive amounts of traveling ponies. Hundreds of happy ponies blissfully doing their day’s activities. However, when it was only being used by one filly, it was incredibly lonely. Aside from the occasional pile of debris, it was completely barren.
The road itself was composed of shattered dusty cobblestone. The building wreckage that lined the street, while broken and burned, stood tall. The blackened house frames seemed to loom over the maturing filly. They towered over her and seemed to bear down upon her, making Apple Bloom shrink a little.
Apple Bloom gulped as she felt beads of sweat roll down the back of her neck. Environments like this always tended to put her on edge. A cold wind picked up, stinging against Apple Bloom’s face. She grimaced slightly and looked into the direction the wind was blowing.
To her dismay, Apple Bloom found an enormous sea of pale white fog rushing to meet her. Within moments, the fog surrounded Apple Bloom and blanketed the landscape. The fog itself was incredibly thick and Apple Bloom had trouble seeing more than a meter ahead of her nose. Regardless, she pushed on. She wasn’t sure she was still heading in the right direction or even where she was going, but she was determined to get there.
