Listen up fillies, let me tell you a tale.

It’s probably one you’ve all heard before,

Of foolish little foals and silly little schemes

And the dangers they sought to explore.


One little filly, we’ll call her Apple Sprout

Set off to the forest one day.

Time and again she had been told

The forest was no place to play.


Wicked thorns and terrible beasts

She laughed in the face of such fear.

Disregarding her mother’s words,

“Surely, nothing like that will appear.”



A wonderful world bared before her,

New things to see all around.

Glorious beauty and blissful frolicking

Unaware of what lurked below ground.


That spooky sound? It’s just a bird.

The empty whispers go unheard.

“I’m in danger? That’s just absurd.”

And still she marched onward.


Darkness fell, the light grew dim

Thoughts of home came to her mind.

But all too late for at this hour

Out comes The One Who Walks Behind.


Her hoofbeats echo,

One clop a smidge too late.

Apple’s heart begins to race

But she’d already sealed her fate.


For when you enter the forest, children,

You brand your destiny. 

No cutie mark comes from this trek,

No special skill, just penalty.


She quickened her pace, broke into a dash

What was it she stepped in, that made such a splash?

A twist and a turn, and she stops with a crash.

But just out of sight it follows.


The shadows, filled with mocking eyes;

Their laughter breaks the air.

But Apple Sprout cares not for them

For what’s behind cannot be there.


No matter how she turns her head, 

she cannot see its shape.

The whispers in her mind are clear

There will be no escape.


A light at the end of the tunnel:

The edge of the forest, at last!

Home was in sight, finally free

The danger had surely passed.


A sense of dread still followed her

But she knew her nerves were shot.

Her mother scolded her and sent her to bed,

For she had ignored what was taught.


That night a voice spoke in her dreams

“I walk behind, forevermore.

My eyes are yours and all you see

Rip, tear; naught left but gore.”


When she woke, her family was gone

Nothing left but tragic mess.

This was to be her future now

All because she dared transgress.


No help could she seek, stuck all alone.

Steeped in tragedy, barely grown.

Sole survivor of an empty throne.

No where to go but back to the woods.


They say she wanders to this day,

Eternal partner still behind her.

And if you dare to meet her gaze,

Your bones go through the grinder.


The lesson here, what you must learn

It is not brave to be too bold.

It’s simple, look; you already know:

The best medicine’s doing what you’re told.