Appleskin
It was a beautiful day in Equestria, the sun was shining its warm rays down and the sweet scent of apple pie wafted on the warm breeze. Rarity was putting the final touches on a dress she had made for Applejack. Applejack wanted an apple themed dress (how original Rarity thought) for the upcoming Apple Fair in Canterlot in a few days. It was always hard to make a dress that suited Applejack and that was down to the fact that she never wanted anything to girly. The dress had to be perfect, no room for any sort of error.
She had stayed up for nights making the dress as perfect as it could be and now her mane was all frazzled and her fur messy, but that didn’t matter because she was doing it for one of her best friends. Applejack had become a close friend over the years so it stood to reason that everything had to be perfect. What made the dress making even more stressful was the fact that Hoity Toity would be there to judge dresses made by other fashion designers from all over Equestria, so the stakes were high if she wanted to impress him.
It was finished. And what a gorgeous beauty it was!
“Oh Applejack, I just know you’re going to love this dress!” Rarity said to herself.
She took the dress over to Sweet Apple Acres. The journey there was perilous. There were so many ways the dress could get ruined. Tripping and dropping it in the dirt. Somepony accidentally trampling it. She would have to be extremely careful not to harm this beautiful piece of art.
Rarity finally arrived at Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack walked over to her.
“Hey ya’ll Rarity, have you finished mah costume?” Applejack asked her.
“Yes dear I have and it is magnificent! I’ve worked for days trying to make it just perfect so as to match your style Applejack, but I think I have captured your essence just perfectly!” Rarity replied showing Applejack the dress.
Rarity watched Applejack’s reaction carefully. As she eyed the dress up and down, Rarity could see a hint of
disappointment in her face.
“You don’t like it do you?” sighed Rarity.
“No no, ah do, ah love it!” Applejack’s face contorted as she tried to hide the fact that she didn’t like the dress.
Rarity felt a feeling welling up inside her. A feeling she had never felt before. What was it? A mixture of dread, hate, anger. Applejack had thrown her hard spent efforts back in her face! She didn’t care, She never cared about fashion! She didn’t give a buck! She had never felt this way before, she couldn’t believe she was thinking like this. It made her sick to the stomach. How could she be thinking like this. But she couldn’t get over the fact that she had been up for almost a week straight designing and sewing the dress together and now, now… she couldn’t bear it. The feelings, the anger and rage built up until she thought she couldn’t hold it much longer, and then something snapped. Somewhere deep down inside, a part of her sanity crumbled like her hope that Applejack would accept the dress. And then it was over. The feelings subsided and everything was back to normal. Well, not quite normal.
“Rarity, are ya’ll alright?” Applejack inquired looking a bit worried.
“Oh yes. YES! I’m just fine! Its okay Applejack, there are still a few more days and I can easily fix up this dress before then, oh yes everything is fine!” she said with a little mad laugh.
Rarity turned around and walked quickly back to her boutique.
“Applejack doesn’t like her dress. The one I spent days creating. The one I spent days sewing, stitching, designing! Well if she doesn’t like it, I’ll make her like it!” Rarity mumbled to herself on the way back.
Applejack couldn’t sleep. She had a bad feeling about Rarity. She couldn’t get over the look on Rarity’s face as she digested Applejack’s reaction to the dress. Something hadn’t seemed right as she left, she seemed…different. She tossed and turned trying to get comfortable and get some sleep.
A floor board creaked behind her and before she could do anything a hoof placed itself quietly but firmly over her mouth.
“You WILL like it!” a soft menacing voice whispered into her ear.
Applejack struggled to push it off but there was considerable strength in that arm. She pushed harder and broke free but as she scrambled out of her bed, she got caught in her blankets, banged her head on the floor and everything went black.
When Applejack came to, she found herself in Rarity’s boutique. The moon shone brightly through an open window and onto her face and a slight breeze made the curtains flap quietly. She tried to move but she was tied…no…nailed down to a bench. Suddenly the harsh pain hit her. It throbbed in her hooves like knifes needling their way under her skin. Applejack tried to move but every time she did the nails cut deeper and deeper into her legs, causing her to wince and a small trail of blood to drizzle down her hooves and onto the floor. She tried to call out through the pain but she couldn’t. Her mouth was stuck shut and she couldn’t open it. It was her mouth…her…mouth. Panic rose in Applejack, she tried to open her mouth but tightly sewn stitches prevented her from doing so. Although calling for help was useless she still screamed and screamed. She screamed as loud as she could but the only result was a muffled cry and a hoarse throat. Tears welled in her eyes as the realization came over her.
“Oh darling, I’m so sorry to keep you waiting, I was just putting SweetieBelle to bed. I hope you don’t mind me bringing you down here so late but you simply MUST try this dress I made for you.”
Applejack craned her neck as far as she could and saw Rarity entering the room out of the corner of her eye. Her hair was frazzled, messed up, splotches of dirt and mud clung to her fur. Rarity would never let this happen to herself, something was wrong with her. Blood shot eyes peered at her through the half light, filled with malice and dementia.
Applejack struggled again to free herself but the nails only cut deeper into her.
“Don’t struggle dear, you’ll only make things harder for yourself” Rarity told her calmly,” Now where did I put that dress?”
Rarity walked over to one of her mannequins and took the dress off of it. Applejack saw it was the one that Rarity had shown her earlier. Placing the dress carefully next to Applejack, Rarity opened a draw and pulled out something that glinted in the moon light.
The scalpel slowly came down to her eyelevel. Applejack tried moving away from the blade but she couldn’t. Sensing her distress at seeing the scalpel, Rarity decided to play a little game with her.
“Oh, what a dear little scalpel this is. It’s a shame I didn’t have time to sharpen it earlier,” Rarity said teasingly to Applejack, inspecting the tool, ”I hope it won’t ruin the new dress I’m making, and this one will look just. Like. You.”
She brought the blade back down again close to Applejacks throat and began running it ever so softly against her neck hairs. As she began to slowly apply pressure she could feel Applejack squirming, trying to keep as far away from the knife as possible, her eyes, wide with fear and panic, following the knife back and forth as Rarity played it across her neck.
“Don’t be frightened Applejack dear, he only wants to play with you,” she said softly in her ear, “He’s harmless really. You know what his favourite game is? You don’t? Well I’ll tell you. It’s the cutting of the skin, oh yes! What a wonderful feeling it is as you first apply a small amount of pressure, not too much but just enough to stretch the skin tightly, as you push harder you can begin to feel the skin giving way, and then through it goes, the slow tear through the soft and delicate sinew underneath.”
Rarity applied a more pressure to the scalpel against Applejacks neck.
“Its quite simple really, all you have to do is PUSH!" And with that the blade found its way into Applejack’s neck. A small drizzle of blood trickled across her throat and pooled next to her face.
But she wasn’t dead, nor was she going to die. Yet. Rarity wanted her alive as much as Applejack wanted to live. Rarity slowly brought the knife down Applejack’s body, slicing the flesh carefully. Applejack could feel the skin splitting and tearing as the small knife cut the flesh down her stomach revealing the muscles and tendons underneath. Her organs popped out as the tension the skin held was released. She wanted to scream with pain and anguish but nothing came out, nothing except a muffled, strangled gurgle. Rarity brought the knife down and around between Applejacks legs. She pulled it out and examined the cut.
“Ah yes, I see my cutting skills haven’t failed me, I can still slice anything I need.” Rarity said quietly to herself.
Using her magic, Rarity slowly rolled the skin back, carefully as so not to rip it.
Applejack could feel the pain as her skin was pulled back. Pain like a roaring lion barely kept at bay by the adrenalin filling her body. The sinews snapped as the flesh peeled off. She could feel nothing but blind anguish. Her body writhed as the skin was pulled off, contorting with nothing but raw and merciless never ending pain. She couldn’t believe this was happening! Rarity would never do something like this! It must be a nightmare. She rode wave after wave of unending anguish, and then it all became too much and she blacked out.
When Applejack came to, she was outside the town hall. The sun was just coming up. She felt cold and stiff. Last night...was it a dream, or was it all real? It couldn’t have been, Rarity would never do that, would she? Her throat felt hoarse and her mouth sore. Her body felt numb and strange. As she got giddily to her feet something scratched at her ear. She lifted a hoof to brush it off but it wouldn't go away. Applejack tugged at it confused, but the moment she did a jarring pain struck her shoulder. Craning her neck round she saw the most disturbing sight she ever had. Her skin...her brilliant orange fur that shone in the light was replaced with a hideous mound of bloody red meat. It was a gruesome sight. Applejack threw up all over her hooves, only, now that she looked closely, they weren't really hooves at all. Just meaty, bony stubs. And the thing scratching her ear, she recognised that all too well. The dress. It was the dress that Rarity had made for her. It had to come off, it was had to, but every time she tried to tug it off, more pain ripped through her body. The dress was sewn to her muscles. Her skin gone, replaced by a now hideous, bloodied dress. Somepony screamed. Applejack looked up quickly and saw that Roseluck had fainted at the sight of the gruesome pony and fallen on the ground. She rushed over to help Roseluck but just as she was about to reach her she was knocked over by a powerful force. Regaining her balance she looked around and saw that Twilight had stopped her. She looked scared and there was a small crowd around her now.
"GET AWAY FROM HER WHATEVER YOU ARE!!" Twilight yelled at Applejack.
Applejack tried to reply but all that came out was a dry gurgling howl.
"What is it?" a pony in the crowd had asked.
"I don't know, I haven't seen anything like this in any of my books before!" Twilight replied.
Applejack tried to say something, anything but got the same result as before.
"Well do something!" another pony called out.
Twilight cast a spell on Applejack and she fell to her knees, unconscious.
She woke up under the cool shade of a large tree somewhere in the Everfree Forest. Applejack tried to get up but found her legs were to weak. Her throat was still sore and now it was dry from lack of water. She saw something move in the shadows. It came out into the soft light drifting between the emerald leaves. It was her, an exact mirror image, except, this one had skin. This thing whatever it was looked EXACTLY like her. The mirror Applejack slowly walked towards her and looked down at her with intense blue eyes.
"Hey y'all" said Rarity's voice softly.
