The dull purple glow of the large glass vat illuminated Princess Twilight Sparkle’s face in quite the sinister, muted light. Deep, consuming shadows outlined various parts of her features, accentuating her lifeless logical mind to shine glaringly through a set of unblinking eyes that never once glanced away from the pony-shape suspended within a thick transparent ooze.
Among the ooze, the figure within was surrounded by small, round objects that slowly crept around the motionless form, avoiding the array of wires snaking in and out of its flesh more notably from the orifices of the face and nether regions.
Twilight Sparkle’s personal laboratory was located far away from the prying eyes of Canterlot, built under the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters in secret. There was no safer place in all of Equestria to house her own personal experiments, while her ‘official’ work was developed and tested within a secure, fully staffed scientific facility under her direct command at Canterlot Palace’s long abandoned underground dungeons.
For the good of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle was given anything she desired pertaining to her research and development programme with full blessing of both of the Princesses, given that she adhere to Equestrian Law. There was nothing she could take from the royal coffers.
Thus, she had thrown Equestria into a new age of scientific wonder and it was all thanks to her diligent research in the Magic of Friendship, the discovery of the Elements of Harmony and its subsequent manipulation of its energies that her own ascension to royalty was assured.
From it, came power.
Strength.
Victory.
But it was not enough.
Single-handedly she had revolutionized Equestrian life and now Twilight Sparkle was not entirely sure her mentor was indeed all that omnipotent as she once used to believe. After all, if she was indeed as all powerful and intelligent as everypony believed her to be, then why has she not yet bettered Equestrian culture with inventions and scientific theory like she has?
“Equestria needs a new leader. One to guide it into a new age. Where the sky is never the limit. Where the stars is nothing more than the next stage of Equestrian colonization.” Twilight Sparkle muttered to herself, her horn illuminated as she used her magic to manipulate the small, black crystalline constructs within the vat of transparent ooze, forcing two to dematerialize at the molecular level upon contact with the red raw flesh and to assimilate into the cells. “Who knew that the Elements of Harmony required conduits to access their full potential. I should had foreseen this; but it never occurred to me... who knows what power the Elements truly hold. I do have my theories…”
A slow smile slithered to Twilight’s lips. “Who would had thought that two of the Bearers were in fact in such close proximity to each other for so long… considering the odds of that occurring, I have to say I am quite lucky to get my hands on both of you, though granted, you are very lucky to be alive,” Twilight mused, regarding the skinless pony within the vat, “isn't that right, Fluttershy?”
________________________________________
Big Macintosh stared through the veil of glass shielding him from the mare on the other side. His eyes were bloodshot with tears and laden with a sadness no pony ought to had been put through in any lifetime.
In the span of six months he had lost not only his little sister; the victim of a serial killer that left barely nothing left to mourn, but to then only several weeks later bury his granny, who had died suddenly and peacefully in her sleep, more than likely due to the heartache of losing not just Applebloom, but Applejack as well.
But what pained Big Macintosh more so, was to see his only surviving relative being treated like the monster that had so cruelly taken away Applebloom from this mortal coil.
Applejack sat in an isolation booth in the visitors area of Canterlot’s Hospital for the Clinically Insane high security ward, a frail shadow of her former self.
The mare he remembered was once toned muscle across an elegant earth pony form; fashioned from years upon years of apple bucking with her face displaying her bright emerald eyes; so full of life, joy and laughter… now all he could see was a withered creature with slither of flesh over bone that could barely possess the power to buck over an empty barrel, let alone shake the apples from a tree, while her eyes were reduced to nothing more than half lidded pools of muted green, dazed and drugged, lost in their constant and incessant wander of her bleak, white surroundings.
He had been sitting there for ten minutes straight and she yet had looked upon him for more than a second.
“Sis… talk to me.”
Upon no reply, Big Macintosh resisted a sob, lifting a hoof up to rest against the window pane, leaning against it as he did so in hopes his gesture of affection would stir something from Applejack. “Big brother is here. Ah miss you. Th’ farm has not been th’ same with you.”
After little to no response still, he desperately he tried to catch Applejack’s attention; moving his face in front of her ever searching eyes, but failed to do even that.
Whatever it was she was looking for, Applejack evidently was far more concerned in finding it than recognizing her brother’s existence.
“Ya’ll get better. Ah promise. The docs will do their job and make ya better.”
“Y-ya’ll sure?” Came a dry whisper from Applejack’s barely moving lips.
Quickly, Big Macintosh perked up at the sound of his sister’s voice and pressed himself closer to the glass, a smile growing on his lips. “Ah’m right here, an’ Ah’m goin’ nowhere. You are all Ah have left, AJ, so ya’ll have to get better. Ya’ll strong an’ as part of the Apple family we can get through this together.”
Applejack slowly turned her head and locked her eyes upon the empty space besides her head. “... really?” Her dry, cracked lips broke into a little smile.
“Ayep, Ah promise.”
“Ah love you too, sugar.” Applejack turned her smile towards Big Macintosh. “Ah’ve got some good news, big brother.”
Clearly confused, Big Macintosh suspiciously looked up through the booth to the movement of an orderly that had just come into view, noting his suddenly tense demeanor. Ignoring the large stallion, he returned his attention to his sister. “What’s tha’?”
Without warning Applejack surged out of her chair, throwing herself into the window head first with enough force to split open a wound on the mare’s forehead, smearing a red streak across the surface as she writhed against it, thrashing her hooves against the glass, screaming like a banshee.
Startled, Big Macintosh scrambled away from the window in a gasp, taking note of the single crack that had formed on the window during the initial impact. Quickly he pressed forward close to the glass, concern etched on his features as the orderly smashed a hoof to an unseen panic button, sending sirens to scream out around them.
“Applejack!”
Big Macintosh shrank back only in horror as his sister’s blood stained face turned to him, her emerald eyes wide with the pupils pin pricked, grinning savagely as her frizzled unkempt mane chaotically framed her manic features.
“S-sis…” Big Mac watched, sobbing uncontrollably as several orderlies stormed into Applejack’s booth and pressed her up tightly against the window, holding her firmly against the pane while they administered a tranquilizer that was injected straight into her rump.
“We’re all gonna have one big party!” Applejack howled, barely resisting against her captors, fully accepting their overbearing presence upon her, keeping her eyes locked onto her big brother as they awaited for the drugs to incapacitate her. “They’ll all come to our party! Ah, Pinkie Promise! Ah Pinkie Promise! An’ no one ever dares break a Pinkie Promise! No one! No… one…”
As the the drugs fully impacted her system, Applejack’s body fully relaxed, her words drifting away as well as her consciousness with one final giggle of words.
"Ah, love ya too..."
________________________________________
"This is session twenty-two. Good morning, Pinkie Pie… oh? What is it you are drawing? Can I see?”
“Oh, it’s just a picture of my family. That’s Limestone, Marble, Maud, Mama and Papa. Normally I would like to use a pencil but I am not allowed anything sharp ever since that one time that meanie nurse tried sticking a needle in me without asking first. I mean, some ponies can be really rude you know?”
“She was only trying to help, Pinkie Pie.”
“Oh well… she got the point… tehehe!”
“Yes… it is a very pretty drawing, Pinkie Pie. Would you… like me to get you more stationary? Art is such a good method of expressing yourself, especially your emotions. That is… if you want to draw more?”
“Oh that would be super duper great! Thanks, Fluttershy! You know what? I like you compared to all those other meanies, so guess what?”
“What’s that, Pinkie Pie?”
“Just because you are such a nice pony and always come to visit me with such a great big happy smile that warms my tiny little heart, I think I’ll kill you last before leaving here.”
“Pinkie Pie! How could you say such a thing? Such thoughts are very, very bad and it won’t help you any if you keep entertaining them. Remember what I said on our first session? Providing I can see improvements both off the record and on, I should be able to grant you better accommodations and even a chance of parole. Besides, friends don’t really talk like that to other friends.”
“You’re right. I’m SO sorry… sometimes my mouth just runs away with me—which would be weird because lips don’t have legs—but I am trying Fluttershy, I really am! It’s just whenever I think of Applejack, I just… I just…”
“If it is okay with you, Pinkie Pie, could I ask why she invokes such an… um… reaction?”
“She betrayed me.”
“Betrayed you? How?”
“She’s a liar… she said we would always be friend… that we were close friends… but she lied to me.”
“In our previous sessions, you said you loved Applejack... do you still love her even though she wronged you?”
“I do! I mean I DID! But then she had to go and roll around in the hay with that tomboyish, stupid, big stupid headed Rainbow Dash!”
“Pinkie Pie, can I be honest with you? As a friend.”
“Of course you can! We’re friends and friends talk freely to one another. Soooo, shoot!”
“Are you sure you, um, weren’t just jealous of them?”
“What? Me? Nooooo. Why would I be jealous?”
“Pinkie Pie, I know it must hurt, but maybe all of your recent aggression stems from—”
“The fact that I didn't get the chance to stick my tongue deep into that scrumptious apple pie? The fact that someone else came along and stole it from the window shelf before me? The fact that she was one of those that testified along with HER to put me here? The fact the mare I loved more than life itself watched me get dragged away not with tears in her eyes but with the look of betrayal smothered all over her face?! The fact that I was one the one that took away her SMILE?!”
“Pinkie Pie I—”
“I have no idea what you are talking about! I’m a happy little camper that would never think such bad things! Silly filly… but I Pinkie Promise one thing, Fluttershy. Something I completely, totally and utterly promise to happen.”
“W-what’s that?”
“Applejack will love me… and when I get out of here, Fluttershy? I will make her crazy about me. Then, when she loves me? We’ll throw one big party where everypony is invited… a party that lasts forever with just the two of us, where the streamers are intestines and the cake is made from the finest cuts of meat! We’ll play pin the head on the pony and—”
“I’m, um, going to end the session.”
"Awwwww! But I was getting to the good part!"
CLICK.
Author's Note
Like, hate, flame, etc, it is all good.
“Unbelieveable… there was enough quetiapine in that shot to subdue two ponies,” muttered the gruff voice of a stallion from beyond the metal door of Applejack’s dimly lit cell, “is she even awake? She has been staring at the ceiling for the last hour without blinking for a damn second.”
“Yeah,” came a sympathetically intoned voice of a mare, trying her best not to speak too loud, “not to mention she has not been eating well. She’s lost one quarter of her body weight since her arrival and there seems to be no signs of improvement. I’m beginning to think we’re administering the wrong treatment. If we’re not careful we may have to put her on an intravenous just to get the right amount nutrients into her body.”
“Who’s assigned to her anyway?”
“Somepony called Nurse Redheart. Apparently she is some kind of leading medical adviser at some other facility for Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
“Why would the Princess assign somepony from a different facility for some run of the mill crazy?”
“What? You don’t know?”
“...know about what?”
“The patient and her little sister was a captive of Pinkamena Diane Pie—u"
"Wait a minute, the same mare that murdered and, ate, her victims?"
"She escaped royal custody; from a maximum security facility for the criminally insane at that about a month ago. This poor mare was the only one left alive at the scene. When they found her she was covered head to hoof in blood... I can’t imagine what it was she went through.”
“By Discord’s beard… she was a survivor of that monster? She’s incredibly lucky. What else do you know?”
“I don’t know much about it other than what I just told you. What I do know is she left that ordeal without a scratch on her, but I believe the damage is something I don’t think any kind of medicine will ever be able to fix.”
"What happened to Pinkamena?"
"I heard—now I am not sure this is true, but our patient here? She killed that crazy mare with her own hooves. Bashed her brains in, or so the rumors go."
"No way..."
Teary and glazed emerald eyes slithered away from the crack in the ceiling above her head towards the heavy iron door and the iron barred, open porthole, which displayed the obscured faces of two ponies Applejack could only assume to whom the voices belonged.
The moment Applejack met eye contact, the porthole was slammed shut and a scurry of hooves and hushed incoherent whispers disappeared down the hallway, leaving the mare to the complete serenity of her cell.
Applejack felt as if her body was being suspended in midair, her mind afloat through a haze of ambiguity, unsure if she were entirely awake or lost within a dream. Yet despite this sensation, her limbs were anchored to the gurney all thanks to a series of leather shackles pinning her down via three separate places along the limb, while a thick central strap was drawn tight around her mid-section to completely restrict her movements.
Her dry and chapped lips parted for a sigh, her tongue almost sticking to the roof of her mouth as dehydration had long settled in, which was one of the many minor side effects her calm inducing anti-psychotic tranquilizer that was forced upon her.
Finally, with a subtle turn of her head, Applejack finally acknowledged the blood soaked, crazed pink mare standing at her bedside looking down upon her with the saddest of frowns, causing Applejack’s tears to loosen from the corners of her eyes and to slip down the side of her head, soaking into the sprayed strands of her mane.
“Don’t look so down, Applejack,” Pinkie Pie tilted her head, “I’m right here besides you.”
“Where’s… ya smile?” Applejack inquired in a drowsy rasp of concern.
Pinkie Pie drew close to Applejack’s prone figure, snaking a foreleg under Applejack’s head to pull her into a comforting embrace while her other hoof worked to smooth the unkempt golden mane from those forlorn emerald eyes.
“Shhh, it’s okay. I’m just concerned about my little apple being all cooped up in such a dark place, surrounded by big meanies that’s all. You can't exactly grow indoors, can you? We need you outside! Where alllllllllllll the fun is~”
“Ah’ve missed you, sugar” Applejack turned her muzzle to press her nose against Pinkie’s fur, inhaling the faint metallic scent of blood, “ya’ll smell good… comforting... Ah wish Ah could smell this more often...”
The pink mare drew from Applejack to inspect the mare’s face, then with a giggle, she leaned in and snaked a tongue out to lick around Applejack’s parched lips to moisten them before smiling brightly down at her.
“Mmmm~tasty! Even though you've been in here for a few weeks now Applejack, you still taste and smell like a freshly picked apple from your orchards… speaking of which, what happened? I thought you were going to invite Big Mac to our super secret, invite only party? I know he was on the other side of a screen and you had like a bajillon ponies trying to hold you down and all, but that ain’t good enough! You have to try harder otherwise nopony will be coming to our party! And that'd be a shame.”
“Ah’m sorry sugar, Ah couldn't quite get to him to ask him properly… Ah’ll do better next time; Ah’ll invite him for sure, Ah did Pinkie Promise." Applejack looked back up at Pinkie Pie, distressed she had disappointed her in any way whatsoever. "Please don’ be upset with me.”
“I would never be upset with you, silly filly!” Pinkie Pie grinned maliciously. “But don’t forget if you fail your Pinkie Promise you have to—”
“Slit mah throat, an’ hope to die, stick a cupcake in my eye~” Applejack and Pinkie Pie chanted together, both pausing a beat after they did so, all just so they could share yet another intimate giggle between them before their lips crashed together in a deep, loving kiss that neither wanted to part from.
Each seeking to dominate the other's tongue.
With every wrestle of lips and a sloppy, wet pop between each gasp, the kiss grew in its ferocity as the mares growled and snarled like timberwolves until the sudden heavy clunk of the cell door’s deadbolt unlocking drew Applejack’s head away from Pinkie and towards the source, acknowledging the entrance of a white earth pony wearing a stethoscope about her neck with an innocent smile into her cell.
“Hello, Applejack, I see your medication is starting to wear off. How are you feeling?”
Nurse Redheart gave the small isolation cell a once over and more pointedly her patient’s restraints, just to make sure the mare was securely fastened to the gurney. As she approached the bedside, she gave each leather shackle a small tug just to confirm and test their stability.
“Ah feel like Ah’ve done eights rounds in a rodeo. Ah’m mighty thirsty.” Applejack settled her head back onto the pillowless bed, still feeling like her body was entirely not her own to command.
“That’s just a side effect of the drug,” Nurse Redheart took a step back as she took a hoof to place the bell of the stethoscope against Applejack’s chest, “have you felt anything else other than drowsiness since you have started coming round? Palpitations, anxiety, temporary loss of vision in one or both eyes?”
“N-no, jus’ feelin’ a touch tired, that’s all.”
“That’s fine. However, if you do start experiencing anything like that within the next few hours please contact a member of staff immediately. The dosage we gave you was fairly strong considering how severe your episode was during time with your brother.”
Applejack’s ears flattened against her head as she drew her eyes away to stare at the wall. “He must hate me.”
Nurse Redheart shook her head, exposing her most warmest of smiles and friendliest of tones. “Don’t say such things, Applejack. He is your brother and he loves you very much. He knows the trauma has left you… vulnerable. But don’t worry, we will cure this illness all in due to time, providing of course we work together to beat it. I simply cannot cure you, Applejack. You must be willing to allow it to happen as well. We must cast aside negative thoughts and think only upon the positive, which we can start by eating a full meal.”
Nodding, Applejack smiled towards Redheart. “Sure, Ah’ll do anything to return to my family. Ah don’ want to be here for the rest of my days… Ah want a normal life.”
Nurse Redheard gave her patient quite the scolding expression. “First off, you have not eaten a suitable amount of nutrients since being admitted. You are far under the average weight for a female earth pony of your age, so I expect you to stick to my dietary regime until you have reached your preferred weight and are eating healthily. I am also going to give you a course of medication with a low dosage of amisulpride, which should help with any such depression you may be experiencing until we can accurately diagnose you and offer a better treatment. Now, while I am here I would like for you to answer a few questions...”
Applejack was not quite paying attention to Redheart, even though she was practically gazing over the mare’s shoulder; though she did nod a touch at Redheart's pause, as if instinctively knowing that she was supposed to respond in some manner.
What had got her attention was the floating red balloon hovering above Redheart’s flank with a red string holding it in place, the end linked directly to a strand of the mare’s pink tail, as if it was a part of her.
But what grabbed Applejack the most was not the fact the balloon existed and the other pony had not noticed it, but what was written upon it.
A number.
#4
“Applejack?”
“Wha? Ah’m... ah'm sorry, Nurse Redheart, Ah’m still not quite with it.” Applejack smiled weakly up at the mare’s concerned expression.
“Perhaps I should wait until the morning until you are fully recovered. I will send in an orderly to escort you to your room via wheelchair, since I am sure you will be unable to get there under your own power. Now, go straight to sleep when you return. Another nurse will be with you by tonight to give you your new medication.”
Nurse Redheart turned to depart, though was stilled by a slight giggle. With a raising brow, Redheart regarded Applejack with a confused blink.
“Is something the matter?”
Applejack shook her head, restraining a smile. “Ah, it’s nothing. Ah felt suddenly giggly. Might be the medication.”
“... the orderly will be with you shortly. If you want to talk about anything, ask an orderly or a nurse and I will come straight to you.” With those parting words, Nurse Redheart left, leaving Applejack nibbling on her lower lip as yet another giggle threatened to spill out of her at the sight of the red balloon following on after the pony.
Still smiling despite her excessive gnawing, Applejack glanced to the corner of her eyes to once again note Pinkie Pie’s existence.
"How good are you at baking, Applejack?" Pinkie Pie inquired with a toothy, blood stained grin. "Because I have such a great idea for a recipe that is simply to die for."
Applejack snorted, her body quaking as she broke out into laughter. "Tha' was a terrible joke!"
"I know." Pinkie's unblinking, wide eyes turned to the closed cell door, a knowing smirk smothered across her face. "I know."
Author's Note
*Places on his specially designed vest*
Like, hate, flame, whatever is good.
I noted some errors and I am sure people are going to point them out to me. I'll change as quick as I spot them. Either way I'm wearing body armor so...
