Revenge is Family Business

Princess Luna was put to rest in the gardens of Canterlot Castle, with only a small marble plaque marking the exact location of the empty coffin. A huge line of ponies waited outside the gardens to say one last goodbye to the princess. Many of them had rather personal reasons, most were once visited by the princess in their dreams when they hit a crucial point in their lives.

The first to say her farewell was obviously Celestia herself. Nopony had ever seen her like this, her eyes were red from constant crying, her mane had lost its ethereal quality and even her coat was not bright white anymore, but rather a dull grey. For the first time in her life Celestia felt truly old and fragile.

Twilight and her friends were the next to say their goodbyes. Each of them approached the grave separately and shared one last moment with their friend.

Twilight herself only bowed wordlessly before the gravestone.

Fluttershy hid her expression behind her mane, but quiet sobs and dropping tears spoke more than her face ever could.

Rainbow Dash saluted in front of the grave and a single tear rolled down her cheek.

Pinkie Pie sat on her haunches with the saddest face she ever had. “Goodbye Princess Luna. I will bring you some candy on Nightmare Night, I Pinkie Promise.”

Rarity smiled sadly under her veil and nodded towards the city and all the ponies which wore Lunas colors and cutie mark. “I hope you like it.”

Applejack was the last to step towards Luna’s gravestone. She took off her Stetson and spoke in a very low voice. “You don’t have to wait very long, your sister will join you before this day comes to an end.” When a slight smile attempted to creep onto her lips and threatened to blow her cover, Applejack hid her face behind her hat and pretended to cry slightly. But aside from acted sadness, there was only dark glee in her heart, fueled by Celestia’s pain.

Princess Celestia was brought back inside the castle by Twilight and her friends. All but Applejack took care of the princess and helped her to get herself ready for the funeral reception. The orange farm pony however had to excuse herself to take care of the buffet, a few things still needed to be taken care of before the private farewell celebration for Luna’s closest friends could be held.

The main problem Applejack needed to address was the fact that Celestia had cut down the guest list for the reception quite a bit. Just this morning she declared in her royal court that only Princess Cadence, her husband Shining Armor, Princess Twilight Sparkle, the former bearers of the Elements of Harmony and she herself would be allowed at this celebration. Of course, Canterlot’s royalty was shocked and protested, but a single shout with her royal Canterlot voice made quite clear that there would be no discussion about that, and that the sun princess had quite the bad temper these days.

So, in the end, Applejack was forced to adjust the selection of treats. She needed to make new one.s which weren’t poisoned, so her friends wouldn’t die with the princess. Second priority on her list was to get rid of the majority of the other food, so nopony who didn’t deserve it would poison themselves accidentally. But her friends came first.

After several hours of baking Applejack was done. She had prepared an almost completely new buffet for the private reception, all the while fending of several dozen ponies who almost begged for some of the leftovers. She was exhausted, but happy with her work, this would lead to Celestia’s demise and she would have a front row seat to watch the show.

Applejack made her way back to her room and sprawled herself on the couch to get a few minutes of rest before she needed to get ready for the special event.

A slight knock on the door managed to creep into Applejack’s consciousness and started to wake her up. A few additional knocks later she managed to open one eye and looked grudgingly towards the door. Another knock finally forced a deep grunt out of her throat, caused her to rise up to take a look and maybe yell at the pony who insisted on ending her well-earned rest.

When Applejack finally opened the door a royal guard stood in front of her, the face stern like a statue and a hoof already raised to knock again. “Yeah, what do you want?”

The guard lowered his hoof and cleared his throat. “Since you didn’t show up for princess Luna’s funeral reception, Princess Celestia was worried you might have fallen asleep after preparing the food. She send me to look for you Miss Applejack.”

Applejack’s eyes widened slightly. “So, what time is it exactly?”

The guard didn’t show even the slightest emotion, neither in his face nor his voice. “It is a few minutes to five, Miss. The princess and the other guests are waiting since almost one hour.”

Applejack gulped and scratched the back of her head. “I will be there in a few seconds.”

A nod was all the reaction the guard could manage before the door to Applejack’s room slammed shut in his face.

While the guard himself retreated in a rather relaxed pace, the orange farm pony almost turned into a whirlwind of haste to get herself ready. Applejack not only needed to make herself presentable, but also needed to do it fast. Rarity had instructed all of her friends on how to properly dress and style for an event like this, so she was practically obligated to dress up and play along.

She first groomed her mane and tale, then she got rid of the dark circles under her eyes, after that she had to rebind the ribbons in her hair and finally needed to dust of her Stetson. Although, this was just the minimal program Rarity had her instructed to do, it was a pain in the flank for her. At least she could look forward to getting back at Celestia for what she did to her parents and, at least in her opinion, that made up for quite a lot of trouble.

Applejack arrived at Celestia’s private chambers a few minutes after the guard had awoken her. She calmed herself, put on an apologetic expression and knocked.

Twilight’s magical aura enveloped the door and slowly opened it, allowing Applejack to enter the room. She turned her head towards Princess Celestia and slightly bowed. “I’m sorry for getting late, I fell asleep after I finished up the treats.”

Celestia looked at her with slightly reddened eyes and smiled weakly. “There is no need to apologize Applejack. It must have been a great deal of work and we all understand that you were tired.”

Rainbow Dash pointed one hoof towards a barrel of Sweet Apple Acres’ best cider. “Yeah, but can you imagine how hard it was to not touch anything?”

Rarity cleared her throat. “But, as we all, Rainbow managed to keep her hooves to herself and wait for you. Although I have to admit that it all looks and smells magnificent. You have truly outdone yourself.”

Celestia chuckled briefly. “The self-control of your friends is impressive, although Twilight was adamant that she had to cast a force field around the cider-barrel.”

As if to emphasize Celestia’s statement, Rainbow’s hoof, that had attempted a sneak attack on the cider, met a solid pink shield that enveloped the barrel. A few of the others chuckled, meanwhile Rainbow Dash could only grunt at the field.

Applejack walked up to her friend and put a foreleg around her shoulders. “Rainbow, someday, we really need to have a talk about cider misuse.”

Twilight tapped her hoof on the table to get the attention of her friends. “Ok everypony, get a seat.”

Without further ado, everypony sat down at the big round table in the middle of the chamber.

Celestia cleared her throat and rose to her hooves. “I want to thank all of you, my little ponies. You did wonderful organizing the celebrations and without your help I would not have been able to make the festivities worthy of Luna’s remembrance.”

She turned her head towards Cadence, Fluttershy and Twilight. “I thank you for helping me and taking care of me while I, admittedly, was little more than a crying mess. You supported me in the hardest time of my considerably long life, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

Her eyes switched to Rarity and a gentle smile brightened her muzzle. “Rarity, you did a wonderful job in making the citizens of Canterlot show their affection for Luna. I know many of them only did it because you pulled some strings and not because they wanted to honor Luna’s memory. But she would have loved it, I thank you for that.”

Next, Celestias gaze fell upon Rainbow Dash. “I was moved by your display at the parade Rainbow Dash. We all know that you are a very proud pony, and rightfully so, but this only made your gesture all the more important. Luna would be honored.”

The eyes of the sun princess turned their look onto Shining Armor. “I know the night guard was in desperate need of a proper way to see off its princess. You provided a parade that was a perfect and worthy image of Luna’s more martial side. You did wonderful Shining Armor.”

Celestia turned her faint smile at Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie, the music and decorations were great. I’m very sorry that I had to bother you with a festival that does contradict your special talent as much as this did, but I thank you so much more because of that.”

Finally, the princess addressed Applejack. “And last but not least, I thank you Applejack. I’m sorry that I had changed the plans for today on such a short notice, but I felt that a small gathering of Luna’s closest friends would be more to her liking, Especially when compared to a great formal reception with lots of nobles whom she never knew, much less liked.”

Celestia’s golden magic enveloped a large number of different cakes, niblets, treats and the barrel of cider and levitated everything over from the serving cabinet nearby to the center of the table they were sitting on. “And now, let’s eat and remember Luna for all the good things she brought to us and the happy times we had together. For this is how she will live on in our memories, as a lucky pony with friends who loved her sincerely.”

Up until this point Applejack didn’t really know what it was, but something bothered her. At first she thought it was Celestia’s sentimental speech, but now it dawned on her. The food was wrong. She knew everything she had made for this event and many of the things in front of her weren’t prepared for her friends. The kitchen staff must have messed up the food intended for the funeral reception with what had to be disposed.

Applejack could tell that more than half of the things present on the table were prepared with varying amounts of her special poison. One bite of the wrong treat would surely kill her friends.

While Celestia’s magic grabbed a few knives and started to slice the different cakes, Twilight levitated a first slice onto everypony’s plate. Of course they had picked Celestia’s favorite cake to start. A layered chocolate cake with whipped cream and more poison in it than most of the other cakes combined.

Applejack would have smashed the cake, thrown it out of the window or even had eaten it all by herself, just so save her friends. All ponies in this room were about to kill themselves with only one bite of cake and she had to watch it, she had to watch her friends die. But when she saved them, she would have also saved Celestia. She had sworn to kill the murderer of her parents, but if she blew her cover she would never get a second chance. She would be sentenced for the murder of Princess Luna, as well as the attempted murder of three more princesses and five of the greatest heroes Equestria had.

Everypony grabbed their forks. This was the last moment. If she spoke up now, everything could be prevented. Her friends could live. Her friends, all of them as close as her family, could survive her treachery.

Applejack was paralyzed by her contradicting thoughts and emotions.

When Fluttershy was the first to stick a bit of cake into her mouth, something snapped inside her head. The others did as Fluttershy did and seemed to enjoy the cake. All the while, Applejack started a suppressed giggle, focusing her eyes on Celestia herself.

With every bite her victim took, the laughter from Applejack became a bit louder and harder to keep in check. Finally, after Celestia had almost eaten up her whole slice of cake, Applejack burst into manic laughter and fell onto her back.

All eyes were pinned on her as she rolled around on the floor, laughing. After a few moments, Twilight approached her with a worried look. “Applejack? Are you ok?”

The laughter stopped and an orange face, with a wide toothy grin plastered onto it, shot up. “I’m perfectly fine Twilight. Why shouldn’t I be?”

Twilight took a step backwards as her friend stood back up, still grinning like a mad mare. “Well, your laughter sounded reeeeeeeeeeally creepy.”

“And frightening.” added Fluttershy from her hiding spot behind her mane.

Applejack pointed a hoof at the cake. “Well, I kind of turned into the evilest mare in Equestrian history with that thing.”

Celestia cocked an eyebrow. “That’s just a cake. What do you mean by…?”

Without a warning Rarity grimaced and collapsed on the table with a high pitched scream of pain.

Rainbow was at her side in the blink of an eye. “What is going on here?”

Before Applejack could answer Shining Armor grunted, attempted to step back from the cake and fell onto his side.

Celestia gazed at Applejack. “What is going on? What have you done?”

Rainbow Dash was the next to collapse while holding her belly with a pained expression.

Applejack just kept pointing at the cake. “Poison!” She giggled a few moments. “I poisoned this cake with a very special family recipe.”

Twilight’s eyes widened in shock as she started to grasp the situation, but she and Cadence where the next to succumb to horrific belly cramps. Even being alicorns could not save them.

Cadence pressed herself against her husband, desperately seeking comfort where she always had found it before. Twilight on the other hoof could only stare at her friend with disbelief and pain.

After that, it took only a few more moment until only Applejack, who hadn’t eaten anything, and Celestia were still up on their hooves. The princess wore an angry expression as she fought against the intense pain in her stomach. “Are you also the one responsible for my sister’s death?”

Applejack first nodded vigorously, but then suddenly switched to shaking her head. “Yes. No. Kind of. I don’t know actually. You may not have known, but my brother and your sister, they had a thing going on. He met her at last year’s Summer Wrap-Up Hoedown and she, kind of, fell for him at first sight. And since we already had your death planned, we took the opportunity to let you feel a little of the pain we had. We agreed on killing her, but the act itself was only on Big Mac. I don’t know what he did, but I think we can agree that he did an excellent job.”

Intense pain shot through Celestia’s body and she had to sit down on her haunches to avoid falling over. “Why? I don’t understand why you needed to do this.”

In the blink of an eye Applejack’s expression switched from cheerful to outright angry. “Ohhhhhhhhh, you don’t remember? You don’t remember how your guards came to Sweet Apple Acres a few years ago? You don’t remember how they arrested our parents and dragged them away? And you certainly don’t remember how their dead bodies were found a few days later? They were not just executed, no. The belly of my mother was cut wide open and a few animals from the Everfree had already taken more than one or two bites out of her. And my father, he wasn’t quite as lucky as mom. Your guards impaled him, several times actually and, according to the doctor, it might have taken him a few hours to finally die like this. At least, they managed to take a few of your minions with them, maybe they even scared them off. Anyway, we found a few of your dead guards around our parents, their bodies left to rot by their own comrades.”

Celestia fell silent for a moment, contemplating over the story she just heard. After a few minutes, a slight smile creeped onto her face and a pained chuckle escaped her muzzle. “You have no idea haven’t you?”

Applejack’s angry stare turned into a confused one. “You need to be more specific Sunbutt. Of what do I have no idea?”

Celestia chuckled slightly. “Why I had your parents arrested, of course.”

Applejack looked at her with a sceptical expression before she finally shrugged. “It’s not that I really care about your reasons and they don’t hold any meaning, because you are dead anyway. So, go on, entertain me with your little story.”

An especially violent coughing fit hit the princess and it took her a few minutes till she was able to continue. “Did you ever ask yourself how the Apple family was able to establish an almost equestria-wide absolute monopoly in anything apple related? Granted, your family has a history of farming apples and most of your special talents are related to apples as well, but these two things also apply to other apple farmers. So, how do you think did your family manage to either put other orchards out of business or to outright absorb them?”

Applejack sat down on her haunches and watched the princess with a puzzled look. “You do know that, even though many orchards nowadays are under control of a member of the apple family, we aren’t one big company, right? We normally don’t interfere with each other, but we are far from cooperating on a national scale. Buuuuuut, you got me curious, continue.”

Celestia nodded and resumed her tale. “Nowadays the apples are only loosely tied together, but when your parents were alive things where a little different. In fact, your parents were the heads of the whole Apple family. After they inherited Sweet Apple Acres from your grandmother, they started to establish cooperations between different branches of the Apple family. In less than two years, they united the whole family under themselves and transformed them into an economic superpower inside Equestria itself. This was the first time they attracted my attention.”

The orange farm pony shrugged. “So what? Are you telling me you were jealous of them and plotted to take them down because of that? Big companies exist all over the place. Heck, Sweet Apple Acres still supplies almost every apple in the heartland of Equestria.”

Princess Celestia smiled as she laid down on her stomach and tucked her forelegs under her chest. “True, and if they only proceeded like this I wouldn’t had any need to interfere with them. But after they united the Apples, they started to get gready. They hired thugs to sabotage other farms, poisoned the deliveries of their competitors, stole cartloads of apples from other farmers to sell them as their own and even went as far as to kill ponies who opposed them. They created a syndicate that controlled virtually every apple in Equestria, and they were expanding. I couldn’t let this go unpunished.”

Applejack’s angry look returned “I don’t believe you.”

She rose to her hooves and screamed at the princess. “I knew my parents, they were good ponies and would never do anything like that.”

A few deep breaths brought her temper back under control. “To me this sounds more like you feared what they had build up and killed them because of that.”

Celestia shook her head “I would never kill anypony. There never was something like the death penalty in Equestria and there never will be. Even when we had to march to war I never lead an army or took a live, Luna always was the one that dealt with the fighting. She was the fearsome of us, I always had the privilege to be the diplomatic sister. Luna’s sacrifice of being the ferocious warrior and defender of Equestria, allowed me to be the gentle and motherly ruler of all ponies.”

Applejack threw a serious look at Celestia. “So? How died my parents, if not by the hooves of your guards and according to your order?”

The princess toppled over to her side and drew a few ragged breaths. “As I said, … they seized some cruel methods to get to their goals. Hence, as always, what goes around, … comes around. My guards were ordered to get them and bring them to me. Unfortunately, … a few former competitors of them got wind of it and ambushed my guards near the Everfree Forest. … Only two of my guards survived and when they made it back to Canterlot, there was not much left to do. The Apple family … scattered across Equestria, although they largely remained in control of their property, … nopony ever again tried to unite them. Most of them simply feared that they … would be killed, like your parents.”

Applejack took her Stetson into her hooves and watched it for several minutes before she faced Celestia’s tired look once more. “That’s impossible. I would have heard something like that. Big Mac and I would have seen something, we were there.”

Celestia closed her eyes and her voice started to sound faint. “You never overheard a … conversation that might sound suspicious in … retrospect? You never saw anypony … trembling in fear when your parents talked … to them? You never heard your parents talk about strange … things you didn’t understand at the … time?”

Applejack’s eyes widened as she searched her memories involuntarily. There were bits and pieces everywhere. Once a Stallion with a strange accent begged her parents for mercy about something she couldn’t remember exactly. Another time an old mare screamed at them at the market for doing something to her son. She was grabbed by Braeburns father and was never seen again. They discussed a few times who they would deal with in the next season, although they never specified what sort of dealing they were planning to do.

More and more pieces of evidence clicked into place inside her head. This couldn’t be true. Her parents were good ponies. They never hurt anypony. They never stole. They never yelled at their children. They were good parents, great parents, the best parents. No, this couldn’t be true, they would have never done anything like that.

Applejack yelled at Celestia’s almost unconscious form. “You are lying! We are an honest family! No Apple would ever lie or steal or kill!”

Twilight lifted her head and tried to focus on her friend, even though her eyes were already dull and she was unable to see any more than light and dark forms. “But you did. You lied to us and you poisoned us.”

Tears shot into Applejack’s eyes and she glanced at everypony in the room.

Pinkie Pie’s mane was flat and her chest wasn’t moving, all the energy once stored inside her was gone.

Fluttershy sobbed quietly while her forelegs were wrapped around her barrel. She occasionally mumbled names of a few of her critter friends, begging them to help her.

Rainbow Dash attempted to stand up, always toppling over. Her expression one of anger, but her eyes, filled to the brim with tears of physical and mental pain, betrayed her.

Rarity’s expression was one of calm acceptance. She had stopped breathing a few minutes ago, but even in death she kept her ladylike behaviour.

Shining Armor and Princess Cadence were wrapped in each others embrace, their faces graced by faint smiles. It seemed that they found some comfort in the fact that they were able to die together with their loved one.

Celestia was still breathing, her face was peaceful. It was strange to see an immortal being that calm in the face of death. She seemed like an incredible burden was taken off of her.

Twilight was the last one Applejack looked at. Her eyes looked like that of a blind mare. She had succumbed to the pain and was laying on her side, but her expression was begging. Not begging for mercy though, she was begging for everything being just a bad dream. She begged that Applejack, once called, the loyalest of friends and the most dependable of ponies, hadn’t done this.

A few moments later Twilight’s head lowered to the floor and her breathing stopped.

Applejack started to back off, shaking her head.

Rainbow Dash was the next to succumbed to the poison. She stopped her attempt to get back to her hooves and glared at her friend, whom she held responsible for this. Suddenly, her eyes rolled back into her head and her whole form seemed to collapse.

Tears streamed down Applejack’s face and she tried to distance herself even further from the scene in front of her. When she found herself in the corner of the room, unable to back up anymore, she was forced to take in the whole picture of what she had done.

Applejack grabbed her Stetson, a gift from her father, and threw in on the ground. “See what I did for you? I hope you are proud of that. A stupid promise to you made me kill all off my friends.”

She glared furiously at the hat. After a few moments she rose a hoof, trampled the last keepsake of her father and started crying vigorously.