Secret

Applejack lay in her bed. She rolled back and forth, fidgeting around in her sleep. Suddenly, she gasped and her eyes shot open. Cold sweat trickled down her face as she rubbed her forehead.

“Just a bad dream,” she told herself.

Early morning sunlight came in through the windows. The brightness stung a bit. After taking a moment to rub the grogginess out of her eyes, Applejack jumped out of bed. It wasn’t like her to wake up after Celestia raised the sun; Big Mac would already be outside waiting for her.

She walked down the hallway and stopped at Applebloom’s bedroom. Cracking the door open, Applejack checked to see if her sister was awake yet. If Applejack wasn’t already fully alert, the sound of Applebloom’s snoring would have been more than enough of an alarm.

Applejack knocked loudly on the door. “Applebloom, time to get up! You got school soon!”

Waking up mid-snore, Applebloom looked around until she found her clock. “It’s too early. Just five more minutes.” Applebloom plunked her head back on her pillow and closed her eyes.

“Now, Applebloom. Get yer butt downstairs. I don’t want you skippin’ breakfast again and bein’ too hungry all day.”

Applebloom threw off her sheets, fell out of bed, and literally dragged herself across the room, groaning all the while. When she reached the door, she stood up and looked at her sister. She tried to make a slightly angry expression but only managed to look tired.

“Aren't you forgetting somethin’?” Applejack asked.

Applebloom raised her eyebrows and remained silent.

Applejack gestured to the bed. “Make yer bed first. Then come downstairs and get somethin’ to eat.”

Applejack walked away, leaving her groaning sister to finish her task. Only a few steps down the hallway, a faint, sweet smell tickled AJ’s nostrils. She smiled, savoring the aroma as it grew stronger. A pitter-patter of hooves came from behind. Applejack turned to look only to be knocked over by the passing yellow blur that was Applebloom racing downstairs. AJ picked herself up and ran down after her sister.

Applebloom sat at the kitchen table as Granny Smith placed a big plate of pancakes smothered in syrup in front of her. The filly wasted no time digging in. Applejack joined her sister at the table.

“Oh, you’re up, Applejack,” Granny said bringing over another plate of pancakes. “It’ not like you to be up after Applebloom. Mac’s already out in the field. Here, eat something before going out.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Applejack said looking at the food in front of her.

Granny went back to cooking. Applejack took a bite of her pancakes and chewed slowly as she stared off to the side. Applebloom was nearly halfway through her stack of pancakes already.

Thoughts of her nightmare began swarming in Applejack’s head. “Hey, Applebloom.”

“Hmm?” Applebloom said, her mouth full of pancake.

“You ever have a dream, like a really bad one that felt real?”

Applebloom gulped down her breakfast. “Oh, I had a dream last night. Miss Cheerilee was a giant orange that was rollin’ around crushing buildings. But she didn’t mean to. Sweetie, Scootaloo, and me had to use our special talents to save the day! Then there was something about giant hearts behind us and ‘once again the day is saved’ or something…

“Oh, Scootaloo and Sweetie, I forgot! I’m supposed to meet them before school this morning.” Applebloom quickly wiped her face with a napkin and ran for the door. “Thanks for breakfast, Granny.”

Applejack frowned and held her head up with one of her hooves as she watched her sister run outside. She sighed and took another bite of food.

“Heh heh,” Granny chuckled, walking over and taking a seat with her own plate of food. “I remember when you were just a little filly, you’d have dreams that scared the color right out of your coat. Why, you’d come running right up to me and try to hide between my legs. I’d pick you right up and gently rock you back to sleep.”

“I did that?”

“Sure did. You were just the cutest little thing. You really do take after your father.”

Applejack smiled. Truth be told, some part of her wanted to relive hiding behind her grandmother.

Granny Smith glanced up at a clock. “Oh, look at the time. You best be getting out there to help your brother. Gotta get the apples to market soon; you don’t want to end up with a bad spot because all the others were taken.”

“Right,” Applejack said sounding almost dejected.

Big Mac bucked one more apple tree. The apples promptly fell neatly into buckets lying on the ground. Mac grabbed one of the buckets with his teeth and dragged it over to a nearby cart. With one big heave, the bucket full of apples was loaded and ready for transport.

Big Mac sighed and wiped a bead of sweat off his forehead. This line of work meant constant labor. It was difficult, but Mac liked it that way. Some might call him a workaholic, but he really wouldn’t even know what to do with himself if he wasn’t working. He was certainly a simple pony with simple needs and he had everything he ever needed or wanted.

He turned back for the other buckets but stopped when a bright color in the distance caught his eye. It turned into a blur and disappeared behind a tree before he could make out who or what it was. Mac stretched his neck from one side to the other to see if he could spot it but all he saw were trees. Maybe it was just his imagination.

“Hey, Big Mac,” Applejack called from behind sounding less than enthusiastic.

Mac turned to his sister. “Morning.”

“Looks like we’re just about ready to go, huh?” Applejack walked to the buckets of apples and gripped one in her teeth. “Here, let me get these last buckets.”

There was a slight melancholy hidden in Applejack’s words. The average pony would never have noticed, but Bic Mac was her older brother. He knew something was bothering her, even if she didn’t want to say what. As much as he wanted to help, it wasn’t his place to pry. If AJ wanted to talk about it, she’d talk about it.

Mac grabbed the other end of the bucket and helped lift it into the cart.

Applejack furrowed her brow and looked up at her brother. “I can do this ya know.”

Mac stared back at his sister and remained silent for a moment. With his unwavering gaze that showed no sign of pity or sorrow or contempt or anything other than his normal, caring eyes, Mac responded simply with an, “Eeyup.”

Applejack relaxed her shoulders as she sighed and walked to the last bucket. “Fine. Whatever. Let’s just get going.”

The siblings loaded the rest of the produce into the cart. Applejack strapped Mac into the harness, Big Macintosh was the heavy lifter of the family after all. As they made their way through the trees, Applejack caught something in her peripheral vision, something bright and out of place, but when she looked there was nothing there. She shook it off and kept pace with her brother.

Pinkie Pie clung to the back of one of the apple trees. She only just managed to duck out of the way in time to not be spotted. After a moment, she glanced around the tree at Applejack and Big Mac only to see them walking away.

“Shoot!” Pinkie whispered to herself. “Missed my chance. I’ll have to wait until he’s alone.”

With near perfect stealth, Pinkie crouched down and silently dashed a few trees closer before hiding again. She let the apple siblings get farther away before repeating the process as she stalked her prey.

The stand was all set. Applejack and Big Mac hadn’t arrived too late and were able to get a decent spot in the open market. Plenty of apples were divided up by type and placed around their booth in a display. All there was to do now was wait. AJ rested her head down against the wooden tabletop and let her eyes droop slightly. The last of the other vendors were setting up their booths; it wouldn’t be long before ponies came to shop.

Mac stood dutifully beside his sister. Something was definitely up with her this morning. As much as Mac wished he could help, he wasn’t really one to strike up a conversation. Besides, talking about personal problems in such a public place didn’t seem right. He sighed only loud enough for him to hear. If he could help at all, it would have to wait.

Pinkie Pie sat on top of a building in the distance and watched the Apple siblings through binoculars, keeping a close eye on Big Macintosh in particular. All she needed was a distraction or something that would separate the two, then she’d have her chance to swoop in.

Time past and Pinkie waited and waited. AJ and Mac started selling apples. And selling more apples. And selling more apples…

“Geez it’s like that’s all they do or something!” Pinkie said to herself, growing somewhat irritated.

Finally Pinkie spotted a familiar, yellow, pegasus trotting through the market. When the pegasus stopped to talk to Applejack, Pinkie saw her moment.

“Come back again,” Applejack said to one of her customers as he walked away. A smile had found its way onto Applejack’s face at some point. Working had that effect on her; even if it was only temporary, she felt better.

Big Mac kept himself busy bagging apples to replenish the bagfuls his sister sold. Though his face didn’t express it, he was happy to see AJ smiling. A little work and interaction with customers was all she needed, right? It always helped Mac when he was having a bad day.

Applejack saw Fluttershy walking in the distance. Fluttershy was looking around a bit frantically at the stalls and towards the sky like she lost something and wasn’t sure where she’d find it. AJ waved her friend over and Fluttershy came right up to the apple stand.

“Mornin’, Fluttershy. Whatcha up to?”

“Good morning, Applejack,” Fluttershy said as calmly as she could. “I’m actually looking for Rainbow Dash. You haven’t seen her by any chance have you?”

Applejack stroked her chin as she thought for a moment. “She came by the farm a couple days ago. She hasn’t been around since.”

Fluttershy frowned and glanced down. “Ohh.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Well, I’ve been asking and nopony knows where she is. It– it’s like she just disappeared.”

Applejacks eyebrows shot up. She remembered how Dash was talking about missing ponies during a few of their talks. Dash was, of course, always loyal and always worried about her friends. What was really bothering Dash was a nagging feeling that one her her friends could be the next one to vanish.

AJ shook off her thoughts and returned to a normal expression. “I’m sure she’s fine. Wouldn’t she be practicing some trick or other about now?”

“Well, maybe. But she always has somepony there to watch her practice. Nopony has seen her and she hasn’t been to work in days.”

Applejack rubbed the back of her neck. “Well, who saw her last?”

“Hmm… When did you say you last saw her?”

“Two days.”

“Nopony else has seen her for at least three.” Fluttershy squirmed and had a worried look on her face. “Ohh, I just don’t know what to do. Rainbow always goes to Pinkie Pie after her talks with you, but Pinkie hasn’t seen Dash in three days.”

Applejack’s face contorted like she was suspicious of something as she put a hoof to her chin. “Pinkie Pie huh?” AJ turned her head and finally noticed the absence of a certain brother of hers. “Hey, where’d Big Mac go?”

Pinkie Pie ducked and weaved as fast as she could around buildings and ponies as she raced toward the market. Fluttershy was just about to reach Applejack and if their conversation was long enough and distracting enough, Pinkie would have her chance.

Pinkie slowed down when she got close and hid behind a building. After a few deep breaths to regain her composure, she peeked around the corner. There, just a short distance away, was Applejack, Big Mac, and now Fluttershy.

“Mornin’, Fluttershy,” Applejack said.

Big Mac realized his sister was about to get into a friendly conversation; it wasn’t his place to eavesdrop so he took a few steps back, turned away, and busied himself with whatever work he could think to do.

As he took a mental inventory of the apples, Mac heard a somewhat loud, ‘Psst!’ He looked back at Applejack but she definitely wasn’t the source. Another, ‘Psssssst!’ came and Mac finally saw a pink hoof waving at him from behind a house. He raised an eyebrow and went to investigate.

Pinkie pulled Big Mac around the corner, hoping that neither Applejack nor Fluttershy saw her. She smiled wide, looking up at Mac who only stared back with his usual poker face.

Pinkie leaned in close and whispered, “I have something to show you. Follow me.”

Big Macintosh stood still instead of following Pinkie’s lead. He let out a low, “Hmm,” and glanced back to Applejack as if to say he was too busy right now to go along with any of Pinkie’s crazy antics.

Understanding what he meant, Pinkie looked at him with pleading eyes. “Please? It won’t take long. Just come with me.” Pinkie grabbed one of Mac’s forelegs and struggled to pull the heavy stallion with her but made no progress.

Mac debated in his head for a moment. Whatever it was Pinkie wanted to show him it must have been important, at least to her. AJ was more than capable of running the stand all alone, though he didn’t want to simply leave her all of a sudden.

“Alright,” Mac said finally, turning back to the apple stand. “I’ll just go let AJ know.”

“No!” Pinkie said, getting between Mac and his path. “She, uh, can’t know yet! In fact, we should hurry before she notices anything.”

Mac gave another low, “Hmm.” This time to show annoyance. Though with Pinkie being so insistent, he could hardly resist and went along.

“Hey, where’d Big Mac go?” Applejack asked.

Fluttershy looked around and caught a glimpse of the red stallion’s tail-end around the corner of a building. “Is that him over there?”

AJ looked just in time to see her brother’s tail-end walk away. “What in the world?” she asked quietly to herself before taking a few steps closer.

“Um, Applejack?” Fluttershy asked, gesturing to a couple of waiting customers.

AJ thought for a moment. There was no way her brother would just walk off without saying anything; something was definitely up. Then again, she couldn’t just wander off and leave the stand. Then an idea came to her.

“Fluttershy, watch the stand for me.”

“What?!”

“It’s easy, just give ‘em the apples they want and take their money. The prices are written right there.” Applejack quickly walked off to find her brother. “I’ll be back quicker than a barefoot jackrabbit on a dirt road in August.”

Fluttershy looked at the impatient customers and smiled nervously.

Applejack rushed around the corner and spotted Big Mac in the distance. She started after him but stopped and hid behind a bail of hay when she noticed Pinkie leading the way. Something was going on. If Pinkie took the time to lure Mac away without Applejack noticing, that meant she was trying to keep something secret.

AJ could have run right up and confronted them directly, but she figured they wouldn’t tell her anything. It would be better if she simply followed them. She did her best to stay out of sight but remain close enough that she wouldn’t lose them. Pinkie and Mac were talking about something, though Applejack couldn’t hear what.

They didn’t go very far before arriving at Sugarcube Corner. Instead of going inside though, Pinkie led Mac around to the back. Applejack raised an eyebrow and rushed over. Peering around the corner, she saw them standing in front of a bulkhead that led into Sugarcube Corner’s basement. The bulkhead doors were shut tight and locked with a padlock.

AJ ducked back when Pinkie started looking around like she was making sure they were alone. When Applejack looked again, Pinkie was shuffling around in her mane until she finally pulled out a key and proceeded to unlock the doors.

“Applejack? What are you doing down there?” a voice called.

Both Pinkie and Applejack jumped. Pinkie pushed Big Mac around to the side, trying to hide him. She fiddled with the lock in a panic, trying to close it again.

Applejack looked up to see Mrs. Cake hanging some laundry two floors up. She ignored Mrs. Cake and marched over to Pinkie. “What’s goin’ on here, Pinkie?”

Pinkie finally managed to secure the lock and held the key out of sight. “Nothing! Nothing at all!”

“Oh really? Then what’s that behind ya?” AJ said, her head bobbing from side to side, trying to see Pinkie’s back.

Pinkie mirrored Applejack’s movement and blocked her vision. AJ tried squirming her way around her friend, but Pinkie was relentless. Gritting her teeth, Applejack grabbed Pinkie and tried physically moving her. After a brief back-and-forth, Applejack stood triumphant. But the key was gone.

Applejack grunted in frustration. “Alright, just what are you up to? Spill!”

“Nothing!”

“Then why is your basement locked?” AJ said as she started toward the locked entrance.

Pinkie quickly jumped on top of the bulkhead doors to act as an extra barrier. “No! You can’t go in!

“And why not?”

“It’s… uh… not your turn!”

AJ glared at Pinkie. Pinkie only smiled as innocently as possible, which was, in fact, pretty innocent-looking with her big, adorable eyes and glimmering teeth.

Applejack refused to let Pinkie’s happy exterior fool her; something definitely smelled fishy. She took a few steps away from Pinkie and looked around the corner for her brother. Mac was long gone.

“Where is he?”

Pinkie held her smile in place as if her face were frozen and spoke through her teeth. “Where’s who?”

The conversation was going nowhere. It was obvious that Applejack would get nothing out of Pinkie.

“Fine,” AJ muttered, backing away. “If that’s how you want to play it…”

Pinkie held her expression as she watched Applejack disappear around the corner of the building. Finally, when it was safe, Pinkie relaxed and breathed a heavy sigh of relief. She perked back up and smiled wide when AJ suddenly poked her head back around the building. Pinkie watched once more as her friend slowly disappeared around the corner.

Rainbow Dash coughed as she awoke. She shifted her muscles as much as she could, which wasn’t very much at all. Her limbs, wings, and torso were all tied up tightly with ropes; she hung from a wall like an ornament.

Dash slowly opened her eyes to, once again, see the darkness of the room she was in. She wasn’t sure exactly where she was or exactly how she had gotten there, but she knew she had been stuck there for a while. Days at least, she figured. Though, without any sunlight or clocks, it was impossible to know for sure.

All her senses were useless. She couldn’t feel around for anything. She couldn’t see beyond her snout. She couldn’t hear anything. Oh, Celestia! She couldn’t hear anything! There was another pony in there with her when she passed out last time! She couldn’t even hear any breathing beyond her own! What happened to him!?

Just thinking about it made her want to cry. But her eyes were already dry from hours of sobbing.

A door opened to Dash’s right and a pony walked in. The brief bit of light from outside, soft though it was, stung Dash’s eyes. She shut them, wincing from the pain. The pony that entered made her way down the wooden stairs and paused for a moment. A candle lit up, providing only minimal light.

Dash watched silently as the mare walked across the room and inspected what looked like a body on the floor. After a moment, the mare started to drag the body toward the door.

Dash could only watch on in horror. She tried to speak, but her voice only came out weak and dry. “Apple… jack…”

The mare stopped and turned towards Dash. She walked closer until Dash could clearly make out her orange coat and blond mane. The only thing missing was her stetson.

“So you’re awake,” AJ said, standing on her hind legs and getting right in Dash’s face. “Don’t you worry, I’ll be right back. Just takin’ out the trash.” There was no emotion on Applejack’s face or in her voice; it was as if none of this phased her and she was just going through the motions at this point.

Applejack walked back to the body and spoke before dragging it again. “Pinkie’s up to somethin’. I’m sure of it. She must be on to me. You and I are gonna have a little talk about that when I get back.”

Applejack was out the door before Dash could say anything more. Dash’s breath quickened. She started sniffling and panting. At this point, she wanted the tears to start falling, but there were no tears left in her eyes.