Element of Dishonor
Applejack lay in her tree hammock, enjoying the peace of nature. She had just hung up the hammock, using the fabric of some poor mare's tent. Last night was fun, she had destroyed that family. She let her eyelids rest, and thought about it.
~~~~~
Applejack silently stalked the tent in front of her. She laid stiff as a board in the brush of the jungle's outskirts. The residents of the tent had a small fire going, and a cockatrice was rotating on a spit over the fire. The smell of meat cooking led her to this place, this family must have thought they were far away enough from any other ponies. A pale blue unicorn stallion sat at the fire, monitoring the area for any predictors that would try and take his kill. A small chunk of stone was fused within the tip of his short brown tail, showing that he had only cast a mere glance at the creature before he slit its throat and used his knife to gouge its eyeballs out. He turned to the cockatrice and decided it was ready for his family. He removed the spit from over top the flame, and laid out the bird. Applejack shifted to her side, groping at the large knife that lay beside her. From what she could tell, the only weapon that opposed her was the father's hunting knife, which stood no chance against the sharpened machete. As she twisted to grab the knife, her spine popped, letting off the smallest crack you could imagine. But with the silence off the night looming across the land, the noise seemed to be amplified ten fold.
The father shot up out out of his relaxed position like lightning.
"Who's there?" He called as he searched the perimeter of his sitting area. He carefully investigated every inhabitable spot, until he came only mere inches from Applejack. She was shaking, trying to plan out an ambush, but it was too late to think anything out thoroughly. She took hold of her knife, and launched into his face, blade slicing in every direction, separating skin and slicing arteries. Only a small yelp escaped his lips before Applejack thrust her knife into his throat. His eyes widened and his horn illuminated for one last time. His body tensed and rose, then went completely limp. He gurgled and blood seeped from his lips and trickled into the grass, leaving evidence of her victory. She placed hoof on his chest and ripped her knife out with her mouth, sending a splatter of blood in every direction. A thick glob landed on the side of the opaque tent. She leaped into the brush on the opposite side, and waited. It was her bet that the mother would come outside and tell the child inside to stay put. Dumbass.
As she predicted, a small, shaky looking earth pony came out of the tent with a club in her mouth. Applejack chucked a small stone across from her, and it landed with a thud over in the brush in front of her where she previously sat, and where the mare's probable husband lay dead. The petite mare whipped her head around and slowly crept to where the stone landed. She stepped in a puddle of crimson blood as she approached the area of suspicion. She dropped her club in the pool and stared wide eyed and open mouthed at her husband's corpse. She collapsed and wailed, forgetting the amount danger she was in. With the mare distracted, Applejack trotted over to their tent, ripped the back open with her knife and pulled apart the fabric until she could get hold of the foal inside. The purple foal shrieked and backed up against the tent. Applejack reached inside and grabbed the filly, holding her in the hostage position, the knife against her throat. She flailed and kicked at Applejack, who just chuckled. She looked up to see the mare directly in front of her with the blood stained club. She was smart enough not to hit, knowing AJ would slit the throat of the little mare.
"P-Please! I'll do anything, anything, just let her go! She's just a filly!" The mother shrieked, bawling and sputtering.
Applejack thought for a moment. "Fine." She set the child down, and yanked her face so she was eye level with the filly, and spoke,"Now you listen here filly, i want you to take the rope over there by the fire, and bring it to me. Now."
The filly shook and wept, but nodded and went over to get the rope. She put it in her mouth, then brought it over to Applejack, who ripped it from her mouth. She turned to the mother and smiled.
"Alright Mommy, here's what's gonna happen. You're going to tie this filly to a tree over in the brush, not out of eyesight, then you're gonna come back here and show me where your valuables and food are. If you comply, ya'll both live. If you don't, however, I'll just leave it to your imagination to guess."
The mother nodded furiously and grabbed both the rope and her filly, whispering kind words to the child as she lead her to a tree. Applejack turned to the camp sight, investigating what was there. Nothing obvious, but everypony had a secret. She turned back to the mare, and saw she was coming back to the sight, her foal tied well to the tree. AJ pulled out her machete as a reminder that she was not messing around..
The mother pointed to a hole in a nearby tree. "All of our food is in there. Food's all we have."Applejack nodded, that was all most families had, and it was a blessing to have. She turned to the mare.
"Thank you for complying. I won't be needin' you, or your filly." Applejack stated plainly, and withdrew her knife. The mother gasped and ran for her daughter. Applejack squinted her eyes for better aim, then launched the knife into the air, sending it directly in between the mare's shoulder blades. She gasped and collapsed, trying to reach for her back in a futile attempt to pull out the knife. Applejack trotted to her and brought her hoof down on the knife handle, sending the remaining four inches of rusty steel through the mother's chest. The mother yelled and screamed for her child as the filly struggled in the knots of the rope. She then yanked the knife out of the mother in one jagged motion, and left her there to bleed out next to her child.
She had the taken everything at the camp and ate almost the whole cockatrice, leaving the skin and organs around the filly, so a hungry timber wolf might find her and make use of her rich meat.
~~~~
Applejack sighed and was satisfied with her work, gaining food, a hammock, a hunting knife, and even some matches from her raid. Suddenly, she sat up with a jolt, realizing as she fondled through her memories of her previous night, that she had lied. She had murdered, stolen, vandalized, and destroyed, but this was the very first time that she had ever broken her unspoken oath to never tell a lie, and what had happened because of it? She gained more than she lost.
Maybe I should have started lying earlier
