Applejack stared out at the barren countryside. The field was so dead that there were no signs of the crops that had once been there. All that was left was just dust and rocks, as well as an old scarecrow.
Behind her was the apple orchard, which had nothing but rotten apples hanging off the branches. The remains of their fallen brethren lay splattered on the ground below.
It hadn’t always been this way. Once this had been a wonderful farm with bountiful crops and apple trees covered with juicy apples.
However, after one night that all changed.
Applejack remembered waking up that night, the scent of smoke pungent in the air. The farm mare looked out her window to see the barn consumed in flames. To make matters worse, those fiery tongues licked the area around the barn as it tried to spread beyond the confines of the building.
The farm pony ran past Applebloom’s room. Since the fire was far enough away Applejack didn’t bother to check in on her sister, certain that she would be safe.
She had rushed down the stairs towards the front door where she saw Big Mac running to the fire with a bucket. Granny Smith merely watched from the porch as the barn went up in flames.
She had already made a phone call alerting the Ponyville Fire Department to the fire. They would be there soon. All the apple family needed to do was make sure the fire didn’t grow out of control.
The orange mare grabbed a bucket, filled it with water and joined her brother in putting out the flames. It was then that they both heard a terrible scream.
“HELP! HELP!”
It was Applebloom! She must have been doing something out in the barn when it caught fire. Why had she been out here?
“APPLEBLOOM!” Applejack yelled.
She tried looking into the flames for her little sister but the smoke stung her eyes, making it difficult for her to see. After a few seconds Applejack was able to spot Applebloom, who was now lying on the floor of the barn, unconscious.
“She's in there!” Applejack yelled. But before she could run in to save her sister, Big Mac pushed her aside and dashed into the burning barn.
When she hadn’t been looking, Big Mac had poured a bucket of water on himself in order to keep from getting his coat singed.
Big Mac ran through the burning barn cautiously, trying to avoid the hungry flames. In his attempt to save his sister, the strong stallion shoved burning boards aside as if they were small bales of hay. Within seconds he stood next to his little sister.
Applejack watched as her brother scooped Applebloom up in his hooves and placed her on his back. The farm mare breathed a sigh of relief.
Then the roof of the barn collapsed. Big Mac looked up in surprise as the burning wood came crashing down on top of him and his sister. Both were crushed under its tremendous weight.
“NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Applejack screamed.
A part of her wanted to dive into the wreckage to search for her family, to try to save them, but the rational part of her mind told her that it wouldn’t matter. They were already dead.
Applejack just sat there watching as the barn burned. She was still just sitting there when the Ponyville Fire Department arrived and put out the fire.
The fire department reported that there had been two causalities in the fire. The bodies of Big Macintosh and young Applebloom were pulled from the rubble. Their bodies were no longer recognizable due to the severe burns that had covered their bodies.
Two days after the fire Granny Smith became ill and died of cardiac arrest. The doctors believed that the elderly mare must have died from the grief of losing her family.
A funeral was held for the three Apple family members the following day.
Mourning the sudden loss of her family, Applejack had neglected some of the chores around the farm. As a result the crops withered and died. The apples became spoiled and rotten to the point that not even fruit bats would eat them.
She tried to walk around town, but soon she began to loathe the pitiful looks the other ponies were giving her. Even her friends gave her sad looks.
So she quit coming to town, preferring to stay around the farm.
Her friends were either too embarrassed to help her or were so busy with their own things that they didn’t have time to visit their poor friend, leaving Applejack alone with her thoughts.
At times she would wander through the house and talk to the souls of her dead family. At first it was just something she did to pass the time, but as the weeks went by the images of her lost family began to walk through the house.
She would see Granny Smith sleeping in her rocking chair, or Applebloom running down the stairs. They would talk with her and at times things seemed like they were back to normal.
However, deep down the orange pony knew her family was gone.
Despite seeing her beloved family around the house, there were times she wanted to be alone. So she went out into the dead corn field and began to talk with the Scarecrow. She had given him the name Brimstone.
They would tell all sorts of wonderful stories about Applejack’s adventures, back when her friends would hang out with her. She would even talk to the scarecrow about how much she missed her family.
Brimstone liked to talk too. However, most of his stories revolved around crows and crops.
Occasionally the scarecrow would talk about something else, like a stallion that was always smiling, but Applejack merely brushed it off as rubbish. After all, aside from Pinkie Pie, anypony else who smiled all the time would really hurt their face.
A week later the fire department mentioned on the news that there was evidence at the scene of the fire indicating that it had not been an accident.
Arson.
“Who could have done this? Why did they do this?” Applejack would say as she cried herself to sleep.
The question began to haunt her thoughts more as days went by. Even the hallucinations of her family began asking her those questions.
Why her family? Who would want to harm them?
However, while there was no answer in sight, she did have a few ideas as to who was responsible.
Recently, the Flim Flam brothers had once again tried to cheat the Apple family out of a portion of their farm with one of their inventions. But could they really be so low as to try to burn down the farm to gain ownership of it?
Well, they had once used Applejack’s element to sell “Miracle Tonic,” so she wouldn’t put it past them.
However, there wasn’t enough evidence supporting this theory, so Applejack decided to dismiss it.
Then the hallucinations begged her to answer the questions, and as they cried out for vengeance their bodies began to look more and more like their corpses.
She had a rotting Granny Smith rocking in her chair on the porch. A silhouette of a broad stallion looking over the dead apple orchard. When the Stallion turned to look at her Applejack saw that it was missing its lower jaw. Sometimes she even saw Applebloom running around the wreckage of the barn or playing near the tree house.
Last night Applejack had woken up to see the burnt body of Applebloom hanging over her bed, her burning eyes piercing Applejack’s soul.
“Av… en… ge Us… s!”
She had ran out of the house after seeing that and fallen asleep by the tractor.
The following morning, Applejack checked the mail and found a letter from the Flim Flam twins. It read as follows:
Dear Applejack,
We are sorry to hear about the loss of your family. We offer our condolences.
However, we hope we can help you in these troubling times. Recently, we have noticed that the quality of your farmland has diminished as of late and would like to help.
With the aid of a few extra hands, we believe the conditions of your farm could be improved, and we have the manpower to help.
The only payment we would require is to have 10% ownership of the future profits coming from your farm. Of course you would have to pay the workers as well, but seeing as you would own 90% that wouldn’t be too difficult.
However, please do take your time in making your decision. We understand your loss and hope that this could be a way for us to apologize for all the troubles we have caused you and your family in the past.
We will be looking forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Flim and Flam
After reading the letter, the theory that those two twins may have been responsible came back to Applejack.
Perhaps this was why they burned the barn down, to force her into selling 10% of the farm to them. It might start off as 10%, but as time went on they may very well find ways to increase it. It was a rather intriguing scheme that could work to their advantage.
She then decided to ask Brimstone about the questions that had been plaguing her.
“Why would anyone want to harm my family?” Applejack asked.
“I may have the answer.” Brimstone replied, “The night of the fire I saw something really strange.”
“What was it?” Applejack asked, listening intently to what the scarecrow had to say.
“Well, I was just standing here when I watched a strange mare with a strange hat come onto the farm.” Brimstone spoke, “It was too dark to make out any details, but I remember seeing her standing below Applebloom’s window. Later, the filly came out of the house and the two of them walked into the barn. A few minutes later the building was ablaze.”
“Why hadn’t you told me this before?” Applejack asked.
“Because before we believed the fire had been an accident.” Brimstone replied, “However, I am not finished. While you and Big Macintosh were trying to put out the fire, I saw the strange mare again with a group of three other ponies. The group left shortly after the barn collapsed.”
“Could the Flim Flam brothers have been responsible for the fire?” Applejack asked.
“Perhaps.” Brimstone answered, “I wouldn’t put it past them.”
“Why would they want to hurt Applebloom?” Applejack asked, “She was only a filly, and she hadn’t even had her cutie mark yet.”
“Because by hurting your sister they could force your family into this deal.” Brimstone replied, “Now with the rest of your family out of the way it is only that much easier.”
Applejack was looking over the remains of her farm, pondering what Brimstone had said, when Twilight Sparkle walked up to her. The Alicorn was a little nervous; after all, if it wasn’t for her royal duties she would have been able to comfort her friend more.
“Hey Applejack,” the Alicorn spoke, “sorry I haven’t been around to help you, but Celestia and I have been trying to… well… catch someone, so to speak.”
The farm pony didn’t respond, merely continuing to look out into the distance.
“Applejack?”
“I will make them pay!” Applejack said, gritting her teeth.
“Who?” Twilight asked, “make who pay?”
“The ones responsible fer all this!” Applejack yelled, “they took everything from me, and for that they must pay!”
Twilight stepped back. This wasn’t like Applejack. This wasn’t like Applejack at all.
“But Applejack, do you know who they are?” Twilight asked.
Applejack shrugged, “does it matter? Once I find them, I'll make them suffer for what they did.”
The farm mare was oblivious as her friend took flight and flew away. Applejack walked over to Brimstone.
“I will find them and I will burn them,” Applejack continued, “I’ll burn them and use their bodies as fertilizer for the new crops I'll grow. As for anyone who stands in my way… well… I guess they can burn too.”
Flam woke up to the scent of gas. Had Flim left the oven on, or was there a gas leak? Flam wasn’t sure, but he figured it would be wise to leave the house and have the fire department check on it.
The yellow sales pony descended the steps to the main floor, only to see, to his horror, the body of his brother in a bloody mess on the floor.
“Flim!” Flam kneeled beside the body of his twin brother, “what happened to you? Please, wake up!”
Flim’s body was covered with blood from a large gash on his forehead. Something hard had been used to cause the injury.
Flam let out a sigh of relief when his brother’s eyes opened. Then he noticed what he was pointing to.
One of the windows was open, and outside was the figure of a pony whose features were hidden in shadow. The only thing discernible about the figure with the strange cowboy hat the pony wore.
“Are you responsible for this?” Flam yelled. In response, the figure let out a maniacal laugh. Something about the laugh was familiar to sales pony, but he wasn’t sure how.
Then to Flam’s horror, the figure pulled out a lighter and sparked a flame. With all the gas inside, the house would go up in flames, with both him and Flim being in the center of it.
“No!” Flam yelled, before the figure threw the lighter in through the window.
Flam didn’t live very long after that; however, as he began to die he wondered who this pony was and why she had killed him and his brother.
Then he recognized the hat.
Why was Applejack doing this? Flam and his brother had sought to make amends for the wrongs they had committed against the Apple family. They had hoped to do so while the family was still alive, but due to the recent accident this was no longer possible.
The Flim Flam brothers had hoped they could bury the hatchet by helping the last member of the Apple family get back on her feet, and now here she was watching them burn.
“Applejack… why?”
Applejack watched as the house belonging to the Flim Flam brothers went up in flames.
She would have a few minutes before a neighbor called the fire department, giving her plenty of time to calmly walk away from the smoldering building.
When she had walked a few miles down the road she pulled off her gloves and threw them into a trash bin. Tomorrow was garbage day, so Applejack was certain that the evidence would be disposed of.
There was no evidence linking her back to the fire. The lighter she had used was one she had bought in another town with the intention of disposing of it this way.
This meant the police wouldn’t be able to catch her. Nor would the rest of the arsonists responsible for her family’s death know that it was her coming after them.
Two down. Two to go.
Author's Note
As I stated in the description this was done as an art trade. So if the person who I did the trade for wants more then I will expand upon this. However until then this is it.
However feel free to offer me constructive suggestions. That way when I do end up expanding upon it I will have a better idea which way I should go with it.
