Revenge is Family Business

Applejack spent the next few days calming her family over Big Mac's disappearance and reassuring them that he told her that he might be out for a few days. Initially, she had some remorse for lying to her own family, but since they didn't expect her to do exactly that they actually believed her rather easy. So, in the end, a combination of trust amongst family and the fact that no pony could even imagine the embodiment of honesty to tell a lie helped Applejack to convince her family that Mac would be back in few days.

In the meantime, she worked on a faked farewell letter to help her settle the issue. Due to the fact earth ponies used their mouths to write, they didn’t really have a neat writing and so it was anything but easy to distinguish the author of a letter by anything else than his signature and his speech pattern. Applejack could copy both things fairly easy, since she knew her brother better than anypony else.

A full week after Big Macintosh was seen last, Applejack presented her handiwork to her family. She had planned this whole situation in detail. The night before she had placed a little bit of chili powder inside the briefcase and hid the prepared letter under her Stetson. When Derpy finally showed up to deliver the mail for the day, Applejack made sure to be the one to get it. After the grey pegasus was gone, she took out her faked letter, ripped it open and pretended to read it. After that, she grabbed the chili and rubbed a little bit of it into her eyes to make them tear up. Finally, with teary eyes and a pained expression, she went back in and presented it with a slight whimper to her family.

Apple Bloom grabbed the piece of paper from her older sister with a confused look on her face. She never had seen Applejack crying before, but as soon as she read the first few sentences of the letter tears flooded her eyes too.

She took a few moments to calm herself down before she started to read Big Mac’s last message to his family out aloud.

“AJ, Apple Bloom, Granny,

I’m terribly sorry for what I’ve done but I can’t go on like this any longer. For the last few months I visited Mom’s and Dad’s graves more than usual, most of the time I went there all by myself. I kind of wanted to make a cut, but I never really could.

A few weeks ago, I came to the conclusion that I could never put a closure to this while I’m at Sweet Apple Acres. Furthermore, I have found a really special mare. I haven’t told you at the time I’m writing this letter, but I’m pretty sure I will tell you about her before you will get to read it. I hope the fact that I’m not alone right now will help you a little bit in this time.

Granny, I’m thankful for everything you did, you made me the stallion I am and I will never forget you. I will continue to work with apples, so rest assured, I’m not throwing the family tradition out the window. I will always love you.

AJ, I’m sorry that I put the entirety of Sweet Apple Acres on your shoulders with this, but you have the best of friends and I’m sure they will help you. Don’t be too proud to accept their help. I think you will be fine without me, you’re a strong mare now and you don’t need your big brother watching over you anymore.

Apple Bloom, I’m as sorry as I am sad that I can’t be around when you get your cutie mark, but I think I already know what your special talent is and I’m sure you will get a wonderful cutie mark. Don’t give AJ to hard of a time with your crusader friends, she will need your support now.

Don’t bother searching for me, I had plenty of time to think about and plan for this, I don’t think you’ll find me. And even if you manage to track me down, I won’t come back, I need this fresh start, far away from Sweet Apple Acres.

I wish you all the best of luck, good bye,
Big Macintosh”

Apple Bloom threw herself at her older sister and burst into tears after the last words of her big brother had faded away. Granny Smith went to her rocking chair and sat there in quiet acceptance of the message of her grandson.

Meanwhile, Applejack’s spice induced tears managed to mask the fact that she was rather relieved that her biggest lie yet managed to trick the ponies closest to her. Her plan for Celestia was not done yet and she didn’t meant to deal with anypony sniffing around because of a vanished Big Mac all the while.

A few days after Applejack had presented the faked farewell letter to her family, Princess Luna’s death was publicly announced by both Twilight Sparkle and Princess Cadence. They also announced a great funeral at Canterlot to honor the princess of the night and to put her to her final rest.

Princess Celestia herself was not seen since her sister’s disappearance, some ponies even started to doubt that she herself was still alive. Maybe the other two princesses had taken over the duties of the two sisters. Darker rumors even suspected that Cadence and Twilight overthrew the former diarchs of Equestria.

These rumors weren’t discussed in public of course, they were whispered in dark cellars and alleys. Nevertheless, slowly but surely, fear took hold of the hearts of ponies all over the land.

Within the next few days thousands upon thousands of ponies made their way to Canterlot to attend the royal funeral.

Every pony whose dreams where ever visited by the night princess came to bow before her one last time.

Foals begged their parents to go to Canterlot to say goodbye to the princess which brought them Nightmare Night.

The pegasi of Cloudsdale decided that they would make the city itself shed tears for the dead princess and so, until the funeral was over, the greatest pegasi city cried rain onto the land.

For the ponies closest to Luna it was almost painful to watch this much love. All the younger of the two sisters ever desired was the love and admiration of her subjects. She once rebelled against Celestia because she felt unloved by the masses, but now, virtually everypony in all of Equestria cried because of her loss. She was loved by them, more than she would ever know.

Twilight and her friends escorted Princess Celestia back to Canterlot and volunteered to take care of everything regarding the funeral. Cadence, Fluttershy and Twilight stayed with the princess every waking moment and made sure she always had somepony to talk to. All the while Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Shining Armor took care that the funeral of Princess Luna was fitting. Even though it was a tragic cause, the ceremony would be worthy of the one and only princess of the night.

Rarity had resumed her relations with Fancy Pants to get her fashion idea to be the talk of the town in less than two days. When the funeral came, everypony had taken her plea to heart and wore dresses in dark blue colors, with Princess Luna’s cutie mark on them, in her honor. It was almost as if the whole city was populated by smaller lookalikes of the night princess. Meanwhile, Rarity wore a simple black dress with a veil to hide her teary eyes. While normally she would have tried to be the prettiest mare in the city for virtually any other occasion, this time, she preferred not to be the center of attention. This was Luna’s day and hers alone.

Rainbow Dash personally flew to Cloudsdale and talked to Spitfire and the other Wonderbolts. She had set her mind on the idea that they had to carry the coffin through the city. After all, they were the best flyers Equestria had to offer and only the best were good enough the princess. Rainbow Dash herself marched behind the coffin. Her head was bowed deep in one last gesture humility towards one of the few ponies she recognized as more awesome than she was herself.

Shining Armor had, for the time of the funeral, resumed his position as captain of the royal guard and drilled Luna’s personal night guard for days until they did everything in unison. He had an image of the perfect guard of honor in mind and he didn’t give in before he had formed them into exactly that image. They marched in front of the coffin, faces like stone and steely gazes, just like Luna herself when she protected her subjects from any harm.

Pinkie Pie had taken care of fitting music for the whole city of Canterlot. Her hair laid flat and her eyes were filled with tears. On every corner was a small band playing a sad tune. This was not the kind of party she liked, but it was probably the most important one she was ever involved in. If it would bring Princess Luna back, Pinkie wouldn’t have thrown a party ever again. Sadly, this was out of the question, she only could do her best to show the spirit of the princess how much everypony would miss her.

Applejack was placed in charge of the food and she gave everything she could to make the buffet for Luna’s funeral the best it could be. Salads, pies, snacks, niblets and many other things were prepared and she tested everything. If something was not absolutely perfect she disposed it personally.

What nopony else knew however was the fact that the taste of the food had to be as good as possible because of more sinister reasons. Applejack had brought everything that was left of the special poison she had mixed and had planned on adding it to everything she made. But to mask the slightly bitter flavor of the poison, the treats needed to have a more intense taste than usual and had to be incredibly good. Every time she accomplished this balance in one of her goods, she was one step closer to her revenge.

At first, she had a few concerns about how to get Celestia to eat the poisoned food, but she eventually decided to keep it simple and added it to every treat that would be served. Of course, like this a few guests also would bite the dust, but she couldn’t turn back now. Besides, after the murder of two princesses, what much difference would it make if she had a few dead nobles more or less to answer for?