“There’s a river here,” said mayor Merciful. He pointed to a blanket of kudzu that stretched from the outskirts of the town of West Holdfast all the way to the forest. “Runs all the way down the valley to Mutsu Apple’s cabin.”

Applejack squinted. The vines obliterated everything in their path. Neither tree nor stone could withstand them. “I don’t see any river,” she said.

“Oh, it’s there. Trust me. Don’t go walking around by yourself, miss Applejack. You plant a hoof where it don’t belong, you think it’s solid ground, and then all of a sudden you fall into who-knows what.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Applejack said. She turned to face the mayor. “I’d like to speak to the victims, if they’re willing.”

The mayor nodded grimly. He motioned for her to follow, and together they walked back towards town. Applejack spared a final glance over her shoulder. The mayor said they saw lights in the woods at night, but how could that be? The vines seemed so thick not even light could slip through.

---

The foal was still trembling. He was slight for his age. So many foals in these parts were.

Applejack took out a shiny red apple from her bag and offered it to him. The foal took it without meeting her eyes and brushed it against his overalls before taking a bite.

“Do that stitching yourself?” Applejack asked, pointing to a patch on one of the overall knees. The foal nodded. “Who taught you that?”

“Gramma,” the foal replied in a wavering voice.

“That’s good stitch work. Got a cutie mark?”

“Mhm. Not in stitching—in geology.”

“I know a couple ponies with rocks for marks. You’re in good company.”

The foal didn’t seem to know what to do with that, so he went back to nibblign on his apple.

“Can you tell me what happened that night?” Applejack asked.

The foal took a long time to reply, working a piece of apple skin from one side of his mouth to the other. Finally, just when it seemed she would get no answer, he said, “It’s a rite. Every foal’s gotta do it, or they’re a chicken.”

“Do what?”

“Do the cabin run. You gotta go along the ridge—there’s a trail ‘neath the vines, you just gotta know where to look—and you get to the cabin, and you gotta run up and touch it. And you gotta be real quiet, or else Mutsu Apple will hear you and eat you.”

“Ponies don’t eat ponies,” Applejack said.

“Mutsu Apple ain’t a pony,” the foal replied. His eyes flashed up, then back down to the half-eaten apple. “Begging your pardon. I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry.”

“Apology accepted.” Applejack knelt beside the foal. “You and your friends should come up with a new pasttime that doesn’t involve badgering other ponies. Especially ones that just want to be left alone.”

The foal frowned. “If she wants to be left alone, why’d she do what she did?”

Applejack got no more useful information from the foal. She gave him a second apple for his time and sent him on his way. In the company of mayor Merciful, she muttered, “What kinda foul rumors are these ponies telling each other?”

“They’re not rumors,” the mayor said. “They’re history.” He motioned to a nearby wood-paneled building that served as town hall. “Let me show you.”

---

Mayor Merciful had done his homework. Four ancient books bound in kudzu leather were spread across his desk. A single overhead fall rotated lazily, pushing the pages slightly as the mayor cracked the first book open.

“I just want to start by saying the sins of father are not the sins of the foal. That goes double for second aunts once removed.”

“But...” Applejack raised an eyebrow.

“But Mutsu Apple’s been, well, a bad apple. For a very long time. Because what she did was an accident, she was never formally prosecuted, but—”

“But you and the other townsfolk made sure she paid.”

The mayor tilted his head. He spun a book around and pointed to a page. “This is the town clinic’s leger. See a pattern?”

Applejack let her hoof drift along the page. A list of names twenty long had all been admitted on the same date. The cause of admittance was also the same: sudden onset blindness.

“It was her mash that poisoned all those poor ponies. And let’s not forget that twenty ponies is ten percent of this entire town.”

“That’s a calamity, and I’m very sorry that happened.”

“If you mean that, then help us.

Applejack sighed. Her hoof rapped against the wood table. “I’m sorry, but I just don’t know what you want me to do here.”

“Talk to her. Figure out what she’s up to.”

“What she’s up to? Besides trying to eek out a living in the margins you and your folk pushed her to?”

The mayor prickled. “You talk to any other foal in town and they’ll tell you the same story. Talk to the millers, the blacksmiths, any night owl and tavern-goer. They’ll tell you the same thing. There’s lights in those woods nearly every night, and Mutsu Apple’s the only pony in there. She’s up to something.”

“I don’t think it’s right of me to—”

“You’re her kin, aren’t you? You’re both Apples. She’ll trust you.” The mayor closed the book and gave Applejack a pleading look. “I get it. I’m just some stranger asking you to do something that smells funny to you. If you won’t do it for us, do it for her. She’ll be happy to have some family to visit her. She doesn’t get visitors."

“Aside from the foals banging on her walls at night.”

The mayor’s stare grew hard. The overhead fan squeaked uncomfortably. “I can show you the way to her cabin. Whatever you do after that is up to you.”

After a long pause, Applejack nodded. “I’ll do it on the condition you discipline the foals. They’ll stop this game of banging around her property.”

The mayor held out his hoof. “Deal.”

---

True to mayor Merciful’s word, there was a river leading into the woods. Applejack followed the kudzu-choked trail beside it until she reached Mutsu’s shack. The shack stood in a sunsoaked clearing. Its walls were perfectly camouflaged by wave upon wave of kudzu. Applejack would have missed it entirely were it not for the complex twisting mass of bright copper pipes spilling out one side.

“Hello?” she called. Birds caw’d at the sound of her voice. “Mutsu? I’m Applejack. I’m your second niece, once removed. I’m from Ponyville. I...” She grimaced. She felt watched, but she also felt like she was speaking into the void. If a tree falls in the forest and nopony’s there to hear it... she thought. “I came to check up on you. See how you're doing.”

For a long time, only the bugs replied. Then, from inside the cabin, there came a faint clatter of pots and pans. The walls shook slightly on their stone foundations. Wood floorboards let out a mighty creak. The door flung open. Birds took flight in terror.

“Kin!”

What emerged from the cabin was not immediately identifiable as a pony. It more resembled a floating tangle of unwashed laundry with hair. From where one might presume a face to be sprouted a cherry wood pipe. A hoof emerged from the mass and swept some of the fabric away. An ancient weathered face, grey and wrinkled as if carved from petrified wood, emerged. The face grinned. “You came!”

Applejack was uncertain what to do. Should she hug? Shake hooves? Eventually she settled on tipping her hat. “Name’s Applejack. I—”

“I heard, yes.” The pony smiled a nearly-toothless smile. She reminded Applejack of Granny Smith. “Come in, come in! Would you like something to drink?”

Applejack’s mind went back to the mayor’s words—twenty poisoned, blinded permanently. “I’ll pass, thank you. I actually brought a few apples from my orchard.”

Mutsu squealed in delight. “Those will bubble up real nice. Bring them in.”

Inside, Mutsu deposited the gifted apples into a nearby vat. Despite Applejack’s insistence, she brought out a tea set and put some water on to boil. “I’ve been waiting for a visit for so long—not from you specifically, my dear, but an apple can only ever fall under the shade of its tree.” She sipped the tea and didn’t die. That made Applejack feel safe enough to sip hers. “I’ve been so lonely.”

Applejack rubbed the back of her neck. “I’ve heard.”

“Aah.” Mutsu’s face darkened slightly. “So you’ve been to town.”

“They wrote me asking to come. They’re concerned about you living all by yourself.”

Mutsu let out a crackling laugh. “Don’t patronize me while you’re enjoying my hospitality. I can guess what they told you.”

“I’m not taking sides. I have an agenda here, and that’s to make sure you’re doing okay. You’re an Apple, and that means we take care of each other.”

“What have they told you?”

“Foals’ tales mostly. I won’t waste my time on them.”

“Do they still say I eat foals?”

Applejack cringed. “They say they’re seeing lights in the woods.”

“Well, I live in the woods. Would they prefer I pick my way through this dangerous underbrush in the dark?” Before Applejack could answer, Mutsu continued, “They’d like that—little old Mutsu falls into the valley and dies. They’d throw a holiday.”

“They’re just concerned for you.”

Mutsu rose with alarming speed for such an old pony. “They drove me here. They wanted to kill me, but oooh, I was too tough to kill. Now they settle on pestering me to death. A million cuts, and all of them bleed.” She began to grow animated. “And you took their side, didn’t you?”

“I’m not taking anyone’s side.”

“Liar.” Mutsu hissed the word, spittle flying from her mouth. She leaned across the table to say something barbed but stopped herself on a dime. Her eyes twinkled with sudden light. “I’m sorry child. I’ve been a bad host. I’ve hurt your feelings and insulted your character. What kind of Apple am I?”

“It’s okay.”

“You know why they chased me out?”

Applejack nodded. “The moonshine.”

“Yes, my moonshine.” Her cloudy eyes grew distant. “I’ll never forgive myself for what I did to those poor ponies. It was supposed to be a harvest festival.” She stretched out her hoof to grasp Applejack’s. “Look what I sowed.”

Her face lightened. “But the past is the past. We must look towards the future. I’ve actually been working on something new. A new mash. A new formula.” She tugged Applejacks’ arm like a filly would. “May I show you?”

---

In the back of the cabin stood the still. It was a twisted Frankenstein abomination of several steel traps, copper kettles, and glass tubes. The output was an oak wood cask banded with iron bars. A fire burned furiously under the main still. A steady stream of distilled spirit dripped into the cask.

“This will be my greatest batch yet,” Mutsu announced.

Applejack’s nose twitched. “Pungant.”

“Can I tell you something?” Mutsu leaned in close. “It’s actually a gift for the town. An apology of sorts.”

Applejack walked over to the cask and looked inside. The barrel was practically full of spirits that glowed pale white. The waning afternoon light only made the glow more noticable. “I don’t know if they’ll take kindly to that sort of apology, given the circumstances.”

“They will if you deliver it for me.”

“Uh, Mutsu—I don’t—”

“You must.” Mutsu was at her side in an instant, grabbing her foreleg, pulling her close. “It’s the only way. They’d never accept it if I delivered it. You understand, don’t you?”

“I guess—but even if I give it to them, they still wouldn’t drink it.”

A grin split Mutsu’s face. “It’s not for drinking.” She pulled out a metal ladle and spooned a nip of spirit out of the cask. She carefully lowered the ladle beside the fire. After a moment’s wait, a spark leapt to the spirit. An ear-rattling pop filled the air. The spirit combusted with the power of a firework.

“Holy Applesauce!” Applejack leapt away. “That’s dangerous!”

Mutsu shoved the ladle into the coals. “That’s what they deserve.”

Applejack’s face twisted in horror. “You can’t mean... Mutsu, no. You can’t hurt them.”

“With this much moonshine, none of them will feel a thing.” Her cloudy eyes danced in their sockets. “I’ll be free from their judgement. Free from my sins! I’ll be free.”

Applejack put her hoof down. “I won’t help you with this.”

Mutsu’s smile darkened. “So you’re taking their side. Over your own kin.”

“This ain’t about kin. This is murder you’re proposing.”

From the bottom of Mutsu’s throat came a low, devilish cackle. Slowly, she withdrew the red-hot ladle from the fire and pointed it at Applejack. Applejack turned to run away only to be tackled by Mutsu. Moving with the agility of a mare half her age, she put the ladle to Applejack’s throat. Fur curled and blackened.

“Time for you to help the family,” Mutsu said.

---

Mutsu tied Applejack to a cart. Then, to the cart, she tied the cask of fire moonshine. Into the cask she inserted a long fuse. She touched one end of the fuse to the red-hot ladle to light it. It hissed like a venomous snake.

“Off you go!” Mutsu said, her voice back to her chipper elderly twang. “Don’t want to keep the town waiting now.”

As Applejack staggered down the kudzu-choked trail, she contemplated throwing herself off the edge of the ridge. The moonshine, and her, and the forest, would go up in flames, but the town would survive.

No, she decided. She had to live. She could stop this without a loss of life.

She tried backing the cart up to the water’s edge and dipping the burning end of the fuse into the water. But the fuse burned with alchemical magic, and couldn’t be put out. Despierately, she kicked and rocked the cart until the cask came loose. A few braids of rope bound it to the cart, however, and it would not budge.

---

In the town of West Holdfast, the locals heard the shouts and gathered by the trail to the woods. When Applejack emerged, they recoiled in surprise like they had seen a ghost.

“What is this?” mayor Merciful asked. “Is that—”

“Foals!” Applejack cried. “I need the foals. Fast.” Her eyes darted to the quickly-dwindling fuse. “I need to know what’s the quickest path down into the valley.” The foals shied back, cowed by the intensity of Applejack’s voice. All except for the one foal she’d fed before—the one she’d spoken to.

“I know the way down to the valley,” he said. “It’s not an easy hike.”

“We’re not gonna hike.” To the mayor, she said, “Arm everypony with shovels and axes. And make a bucket brigade. We’re about to get rid of all this dang kudzu.”

---

Mutsu waited on her rocking chair, her wrinkled ears pointed up at the sky in anticipation.

Then, an explosion ripped the world asunder.

She didn’t see it but rather felt it, a wave of pressure peeling her face back into a wicked smile. Her howl of delight split the shattered air.

Then, a few minutes later, something else came she was not anticipating: smoke.

Smoke rising from the valley, away from the town. Confusion turned to foul rage. She spat and kicked the dirt and cursed the name Applejack.

From the valley far below the town of West Holdfast, a fire tore towards Mutsu’s cabin.