The Death of Loyalty

“Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.”- Sigmund Freud

Applejack head hurt. It was normal for her to now wake up with a hangover and not remember what happened the day before. Her family knew now to stay away from her while she was drunk. The last time they tried to stop her, Applebloom was thrown across the room and now had a limp in her right leg because of it.

It wasn’t her fault. She was trying to forget the deaths of her friends.

Her day started now with her stumbling out of bed and almost breaking her mirror.

“Applebloom? Ya up yet?”

Applebloom limped in her sister’s room. Her eyes showed that she had lost her childlike innocence in the month since the killer came to light. “What do you want?”

“Just to see how y’all are.”

“Funny how ya ask now. When this happened,” she waved her leg weakly. “you sure as hell didn't ask how I was when you threw me across the room.”

“Well, you see, I was drunk.”

Applebloom laughed coldly. “You’ve been drunk for the last month. Everypony in town knows it.”

Applejack was worried. She sure didn’t remember the last month. But, wasn’t she supposed to forget the deaths of her friends? It hurt too much to think about the pain that accompanied the memories. She had always been a mare that used liquor to forget  her problems. The deaths of her parents, Discord, the wedding, Flim and Flam almost taking the farm, her own failure as a rodeo pony.

These events had made her dependent on the stuff.

“Oh Celestia, what am I?” Applejack sobbed, finally she realized that she had a problem.

Granny Smith yelled from the downstairs. “Yer an alcoholic, AJ.”

She decided that tomorrow she was going to apologize to her family for her behavior. Today was just the beginning of her work. “All right. I’m gonna go help Big Mac with the farm once again.”

It was just another day in Equestria.

***

“Sorry AJ, ya can’t help.” Big Mac said straight to her face. Now that Cheerilee and him were going steady, he was actually using full sentences.

“Why? Ah’ve been working on this farm for years! Why can’t ah help y’all?” Applejack said furiously.

“Well, since you hurt Applebloom we’ve all been kinda talking about what to do with you. We’ve decided that we won’t kick you out, but you need a new job.”

“What? I have no real skills but farming.”

Big Mac rubbed his head to both come up with an idea and stop a migraine from forming. “I heard there’s an opening in the police force. Try there first.”

Applejack walked away slowly looking longingly back at her home. “Ah guess not everything can be the same anymore.”

***

Applejack looked up at the sign. The name was familiar to her. It couldn’t be.

“What in tarnation? Inkie and Blinkie Pie: Private Investigators?”

Applejack was worried, if Pinkie’s sisters were like her...it would be dangerous. She walked and was surprised. They were normal. They didn’t attack her with parties or sweets or anything. They just sat there.

“Hello, ah’m Applejack and ah heard ya girls have a job opening.”

A light gray mare with a dark grey mane spoke up first. “Hello, I am Inkie Pie and my sister over there,” A mare with a grey coat and a light gray mane waved to Applejack. “Is Blinkie Pie.”

“Well, nice to meet y’all. I never heard Pinkie had sisters. She never told us about you girls. Well, maybe my sister said something about it. Hmm?” Applejack was lost in her own thoughts until Inkie cleared her throat.

“Uh, yeah we don’t like talking about our sister. We all got separated when our parents died from a robbery. We were all put into the orphanage. Us two were picked up first because we were normal. Our sister, on the other hand, nobody wanted because she was too hyperactive.”

“That’s just Pinkie.”

“Yes, it was. But we feared that her personality would change because of the trauma. She always was a emotional filly. And then this happened.”

Pinkie’s sisters looked sadly down at the floor. Applejack did the only thing she thought was appropriate, she hugged the sad ponies.

“That’s all in the past. There is nothing you gals can do to change it. You have to move on and pick yourself up and continue living. That’s what she would have wanted you to do. Remember her as you have, a happy filly that always wanted people to smile. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“Thanks Applejack. We needed that.” The two mares said together.

“No problem, now who wants some coffee and talk about my new position in the police.”

“Uh, there are no police in Ponyville, just us. The city never thought it’s idyllic peace would be broken. Therefore, they never needed one. Now with the increase in crime for no apparent reason, they hired us to control it.”

Applejack was dumbfounded. “Wait, so just you two have been the police force? We need to make an official force! What do we do if something bad happens again? Let’s go talk to Mayor Mare about this.”

Applejack dragged the mares out of the building and began heading towards Town Hall.

One Hour Later

Applejack was ecstatic. With the help of Inkie and Blinkie, they had shown Mayor Mare that the town needed an actual police force. Finally after a long meeting she agreed to send money and recruits to the Private Investigators, no the police force.

Applejack was now the sergeant of the police. Inkie, because of her age, was the captain and Blinkie was the lieutenant.  Not bad for a day on the job. If only she had done this sooner, she felt great.

No longer was Applejack a farmer, she was of a select few. She was the law and she was ready to protect the town at whatever the cost.

She just had one rule: Honesty is the best policy or else I force it out of you.