It was just another relaxing afternoon in Equestria. In one place in particular, the winds were blowing at just the right temperature, and insects could be heard buzzing from somewhere deep within the vicinity. Applejack was resting in the shadows of one of her apple trees, alongside several different barrels that had been filled to capacity with fruit from all over the orchard. The apple farmer always took a few minutes to enjoy a job well done before hauling that day's workload back into the barn where her younger sister would then clean and inspect the fruit.
As she sat there under the tree, what was supposed to be a five minute break had turned into ten. Afterwards, her body still wouldn't budge so the ten minute break ended up turning into thirty. At some point, she closed her eyes one final time before going still for a few hours. Today had been far more taxing than usual for the young mare. She and Big Mac had gotten to work early due to reports in the paper that said that Ponyville was scheduled for heavy rainfall today. The two had decided to buck a few hundred Trees before the ground became soft and muddy.
Applejack's wakeup call came in the form of tiny droplets of water that had fallen from the tree and splashed onto the back of her neck, followed by a faint barking from somewhere in the distance that likely belonged to her dog. She sure must have worn herself out; the storm was getting ready to kick up. Good thing that she got up when she did.
One yawn and a big stretch later and Applejack was back onto her hooves. "Winona! Hey girl, where are ya'?" She could make out more barking coming from somewhere to her left. Before long, she was able to spot the Border Collie running around with something in her mouth. "Winona!" she called again, this time a bit louder. The Dog tossed whatever it was that she was playing with into a nearby bush and happily bolted towards her master. "Good girl," she said while petting Winona. "By the way, what was that thing you were runnin' around with jus' now?"
Winona tilted her head to the side and gave Applejack a look that said, "I don't know what you're talking about!" The apple farmer arched a single eyebrow before making her way over to where her dog was playing moments prior. The Collie followed close behind with a guilty whine. Upon reaching her destination, she peeked inside the bushes and gasped in shock. There was no way that what she was seeing was real. She doubled back over to Winona who continued to whine like a naughty foal who'd just been caught sneaking extra sweets while nopony was around. Applejack peered inside once more. Yup, it was official; her eyes weren't playing tricks on her. Inside the bushes, covered in dirt, blood, insects, and dog drool, was Angel, Fluttershy's pet rabbit. Winona must have mauled the poor thing to death sometime between apple bucking and taking her nap.
xxxx
Applejack paced back and forth across the kitchen floor. She'd decided to place his body inside a small cardboard box until she could figure out what to do with him. This was bad … this was very, very, bad. If Fluttershy wasn't helping the others out with saving Equestria from a random crisis then most of her time was spent tending to her Animals; Angel more so than the others. It wouldn't be long before that pegasus noticed that he was missing. Oh Celestia, what if she came to Sweet Apple Acres and asked if she'd seen the little rabbit? Applejack was a terrible liar, she'd see right through her! After all, there was a reason why she was chosen to represent Honesty.
"That mare'll be crushed if she finds out bout this! Oh, what do ah' do now?! If only Ah'd been watchin' Winona! What am Ah' supposed to tell'er?! 'Oh, sorry sugar cube. Mah' dog murdered the poor critter while Ah' wasn't watchin'. You can have'em back if ya' wan't though. He's sittin' in that there box in the middle of the Kitchen.'" The earth pony slammed her face against the wall in frustration. Oh, what do Ah' do … what do Ah' do?
Immediately following the roar of a thunderbolt outside, the apple farmer had an epiphany. "Wait just a darn minute … maybe she don't have tah' know bout' what happened. Maybe there's a way Ah' can get through this without havin' tah' lie!" The gears were slowly beginning to turn as she rubbed her chin. As her plan began to formulate a smile began to spread across her features. "That's it! Fluttershy is supposed tah' be hangin' out with Rarity tonight! All Ah' gotta do is wait till nightfall, sneak inside her cottage, drop Angel in his cage, and then get the hay outta there before she gets back! That way, she'll think that he died of natural causes!"
"If ya' keep talkin' tah' yer'self like that, ponies e'l start tah' think that yer' elevator don't quite reach the top floor," Granny Smith shouted from her rocking-chair in the other room.
Applejack's face turned from orange into a few shades of crimson as she carried Angel upstairs and into the bathroom. She approached the sink, pushed the metal center downward, and then filled it with soap and warm water. First things first, Angel needed to be cleaned off. The plan wouldn't work if he still looked like a murder victim. Once the dirt and grime had been washed away, followed by a quick once-over from a blow-dryer, Angel looked good as new. Thankfully, Winona's bite marks were almost completely unnoticeable. Nopony would even notice until they already knew that the marks were there to begin with.
Applejack placed Angel back inside the box and looked outside of her bedroom window. Soon this would all be over with and she could get back to scolding Winona about killing other animals, especially when they happen to belong to one of her best friends.
xxxx
The time to initiate the final sequence in her plan drew near. There was supposed to be a "New Moon" on that night, meaning that Equestria would be engulfed in pitch black. The orange orange mare thought back to the short conversation she had when she bumped into Rarity in the town square yesterday. If she remembered correctly, the pale unicorn had said that she was scheduled to meet the timid pegasus outside the Ponyville Theater at around 9:00 for the showing of some new Romantic Comedy.
Applejack sat in her room silently watching as the clock ticked by. At a quarter to nine she slipped on a dark leathery outfit, adorned with dark wrappings which served to conceal everything from the muzzle down to her neck. Fastened onto her back in dark straps was a tiny and somewhat flattened down box which contained the precious cargo. She slid open the window and jumped out, using a large pile of hay to help cushion the fall. After climbing out and dusting herself off, she checked to make sure that Angel was okay. Yup, he still looked alright. Next she looked around to make sure that nopony had seen her. 'Alright, so far so good.'
The rest of her journey was spent creeping towards Fluttershy's cottage, with the occasional glance in random directions to make sure that nopony was following her. She sighed with relief upon reaching her destination. She then checked her watch to see how much time she had left. It was difficult to make out in the darkness, but it looked like it said that it was about 10:23. Excellent. If Fluttershy was supposed to be meeting up with Rarity at 9:00, then the movie probably wouldn't end until 10:30; and since it was still about a half hour walk from the center of Ponyville to Fluttershy's, Applejack surmised that the butter colored pegasus probably wouldn't be getting back in until sometime after 11:00.
She began to feel a little hot under the collar as she made her way over to the front door. 'Oh, why does this feel so wrong? Probably cuz' Ah'm about to break inside mah' best friend's home and dump the corpse of her dead friend in its cage.' Her hooves began to tremble as she reached inside of a hidden pocket within her shirt and pulled out a lockpick and then started to fiddle with the lock.
"HIYA SIS!"
Applejack screamed and nearly jumped out of her own skin. She swerved around faster than lightning and gasped when she saw none other than Applebloom; the filly was laughing her little head off. The apple farmer clutched her chest while sucking down heavy gasps for air. "Dag-nabbit, AB! What the hay er'ya doin' here?! More importantly, why aint'cha in bed asleep right now?!"
"Well, Ah' was outside feedin' Winona her dinner when Ah' heard somethin' weird. Sure enough, it was just you. It looked like you were about tah' do somethin' cool, so Ah' decided tah' tag along! So what's the plan? We gonna' go break in Fluttershy's place an act like ghosts when she gets back? Oh, Ah' bet I could get mah' cutie mark in scarin' ponies! Oh, oh, oh, an' what's inside that box yer' carryin'?"
This couldn't be happening … everything was going so perfectly up to now! Applejack facehoofed and shook her head. "Look, Applebloom, this isn't a game! Now keep quiet an' wait here till I get back out!"
"Aww, no fair! You always get to go out and have fun while Ah'm stuck doin' homework er'somethin'!" she whined while stomping her hooves in the dirt.
"SHHH! It's the middle of the night! Keep it down!" hushed Applejack. "Look, we'll talk about this tomorrow mornin', now do what yer' big sis tells ya!"
"Hmph, fine …" the young filly mumbled under her breath. "Tryin' to go out an' have fun with mah' big sis, but nooo! It's always, 'Oh it's too dangerous!' or, 'This is for grown-ups not little fillies!'"
xxxx
The cottage, by some strange miracle, turned out to be even darker than it was outside. On multiple occasions Applejack made a mistake and tripped over her own hooves. After several uncomfortable minutes of stumbling about in the dark, the orange mare had managed to locate Fluttershy's bedroom. All she had to do now was find Angel's cage and then run for freedom! Unbeknownst to Applejack, the gods had other plans. Seconds after finding the bedroom, a voice was heard outside. "Oh … uh … hi Applebloom."
There was no way in Tartarus that that was –
"Oh, hi Ms. Fluttershy! Where've ya' been all night long?"
"Crap crap crap Crap Crap crap craaaaaaaaaaaaaap!" Applejack ran about desperately looking for the cage while hoping against hope that her sister could stall Fluttershy long enough.
xxxx
"Oh … well … I was at the theater with Rarity. We were watching this new movie when these stallions started … well," Fluttershy started to blush a little. "They were flirting with Rarity and said something inappropriate. Rarity got angry and we ended up getting kicked from the movie. But … well, what are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be -"
"Uh, ya'know," shouted Applebloom, "There are a lot of words that rhyme with cheese! Agrees! Appease! At ease! Aw geeze! Abductees! Then there's this funny one that Ah' learned in Ms. Cheerilee's class called, Alzheimer's disease! And those'er only the A's! Wait till Ah' get to the B's! Hey, bees! That rhymes too!"
"Uh, that's nice and all, but I'd greatly appreciate it if you could move over so I can get inside my -"
"Hey look!" Applebloom shouted while pointing off into the distance, "There's a squirrel about to fall from that tree!"
The pegasus's protective instincts kicked in, causing her to go airborne with one flap of her wings. "Where?!"
"Uhh … over … that way?" The filly pointed towards a random tree to her right.
The uncertainty didn't go unnoticed by the mare who then looked back at Applebloom with a suspicious glance.
Meanwhile, back inside the cottage, Applejack had just tripped over something hard, silver, shiny, and … wait a minute … if she squinted hard enough, that almost looked like – "HA! Found it!" Applejack shouted. In the next instant that followed, she realized what a colossal mistake she'd just made.
xxxx
"Uh, did you just hear something from inside my cottage?"
"Uhh … no?"
"Okay," Fluttershy descended back onto the ground. "Well, I'll just go in and check to make sure now."
"Wait!" Applebloom shouted moments before the pink maned pony could put her hoof on the knob.
Fluttershy gave an irritated sigh before turning back around. "What is it Applebloom?"
"Oh … oh the heat …" the filly raised a single hoof to her head and collapsed onto the dirt.
Fluttershy gasped in shock and flew over to her best friend's younger sister. "Applebloom, are you okay?!"
On the inside she couldn't help but smile in triumph. It would appear that all those years of watching Sweetie Belle do impersonations of Ms. Rarity when she tried to pick up Stallions were finally beginning to pay off. "Oh, Ah' think Ah'm alright. Ah' don't really know what happened. One minute Ah felt light headed and then all of a sudden, wait a minute, I don't even remember how Ah' got here! Ah'm lost an'mah head hurts! Ah' think Ah' need CPR er'somethin!"
Fluttershy started to blush again and laughed nervously. "Uh, w-well, maybe I should just -"
Out of the corner of her eye, Applebloom saw her sister climb through a window and signal for her to head back home.
"NevermindAh'mfinethankyakindly, bye!" Applebloom leaped back onto her hooves and ran off as fast as she could, leaving behind a more than a little confused Element of Kindness.
Epilogue
The sun rose high over Sweet Apple Acres the next morning. Just the like the day before, the summer heat beat down on Applejack without mercy. Again, she found herself too exhausted to carry the baskets back over into the barn. Before dozing off, she considered the possibility of asking Big Mac to take care of it for her. She still hadn't recovered from what happened last night.
The apple farmer jumped in alarm after she woke up from her nap. Standing a few inches away was none other than Fluttershy, who quickly apologized for scaring her.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, but I didn't want to wake you up either."
"Oh don't worry bout' a thing sugar cube!" All Applejack could do was laugh and smile in order to mask her nervousness. Did Fluttershy find out that she had broken into her cottage last night?
"Well, I just came here to check on Applebloom. I found her in front of my cottage last night and she was acting a little … strange."
The apple farmer mentally relaxed a little. "Oh that silly little filly! That was probably one of her weird attempts at gettin'er cutie mark!" She got back on her hooves, did a little stretch and walked away in an attempt to drop the conversation, but Fluttershy followed.
"Well, actually, there was something else that I wanted to talk to you about."
Darn … busted.
"Oh … uh … what about?"
"Well, there was a death in the family."
"Really?! Ah' didn't know nothin' Ah' swear! That's too bad! Who died?!"
Fluttershy paused for a minute and thought about asking why her friend was acting so jumpy. She began to wonder if a mental illness ran through the Apple family. That would explain everything. Oh, that poor mare. She should just hurry and get to the point so that Applejack could rest.
"It was Angel. I guess it was just his time," Fluttershy wiped away a single tear using her left wing. Applejack was about to come clean right then and there but stopped herself after what Fluttershy said next. "I'm actually over it now. I meant to come tell you and the girls all about it three days ago, but I only told Rarity. Actually, that's why she invited me to go with her to the movies last night. It was to help cheer me up."
One blink … two blinks … three blinks … four. "Wait, wha-?"
"Yeah I know, but that isn't what's bothering me right now. Two days after he died, somepony dug him up, cleaned him off, broke inside my cottage, and then put him back inside his cage while I was out with Rarity. So then I re-buried Angel, but when I checked his grave again this morning, somepony had dug him up again." She leaned in close to Applejack's ear and whispered. "I think somepony's trying to pull a prank on me." The pegasus slowly began to shake her head. "It's not funny… that's going too far for a joke. So if you ever find out who's doing this, can you please let me know?" Fluttershy then flew off towards the direction of her cottage.
Applejack just sat there, completely dumbfounded for the next few minutes. Then she heard it again, Winona's barking. The dog happily ran past her, once again, with something dangling out of her mouth.