Under the Apple Trees

by IIcolour_Spectrum

Rating: mature
Tags: Tragedy, Twilight Sparkle, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Sad, Applejack, Original Character, Rainbow Dash
Length: 19131

Terrible things are happening in Ponyville, and it seems any help that may arrive will be too late.

Terrible things are happening in Ponyville, and it seems that any help that may arrive will be too late to save anypony.

This is a horror story, but I aim to create horror and suspense through means other than senseless gore. I believe that focusing on tension rather than brutality creates a gripping effect.

Original Story, Ideas and Writing by IIcolour Spectrum

Ideas and Editing by fairytalepirate

Published 2011-11-23 10:19:59 UTC
Last updated 2011-11-23 00:20:55 UTC

(FULL STORY)

WARNING!
This fan fiction is long, very grimdark, and contains a large amount of gore and brutality.
HIGHLY recommended you do not read this if you have any of the following;
an inability to stomach violence, extreme emotional attachment to the cast of the show,
a strong dislike for storylines, or homework that has to be done by tomorrow.
It also helps to have watched the show.

Enjoy…

SIDENOTE: Please refrain from posting any spoliers! Thanks!

It was an extremely dark night at Sweet Apple Acres, even though Luna had raised the moon; the clouds had been piled on so thick that no pony could be certain. A storm was scheduled, but for some reason the weather refused to respond to the actions of the pegasus ponies. As she looked out of the window, Applejack could barely see ten feet outside. She didn’t like it, this much darkness was simply unnerving to her, but she didn’t leave the window yet. She hadn’t been able to find her sister or her friends either, as they were exploring some unknown location of the house.
Meanwhile down the cellar, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were whispering so that Applejack couldn’t find them and ruin their fun by sending them off to bed. Scootaloo noticed a large wooden chest with iron supports sitting in the corner. “Hey Applebloom! What’s this?” She whispered to her friend.
Applebloom and Sweetie Belle trotted over to see what Scootaloo had found. “I dunno Scootaloo. I’ve never actually seen it before.” Applebloom replied.
Scootaloo was confused. “How haven’t you seen this before? It’s huge!” She stated, exaggerating slightly on the size. She tried to lift the lid, only to realise that it was locked.
“Maybe Applejack can help us open it?” Sweetie Belle suggested.
Scootaloo rolled her eyes at the suggestion. “Sweetie Belle, we’re down here to hide from Applejack. What good would it do to go and find her?”
Applebloom shook her head. “I have to agree with Sweetie Belle. I mean, it’s getting’ kinda late as it is and I’m tired. Might as well try to find out before we go to bed.”
The tiny pegasus sighed. “Fine…” she said as she walked to the stairs out of the cellar.
Applebloom found Applejack still by the window and approached her. Applejack heard her footsteps and turned around quickly and started talking first. “Applebloom! Where’ve you been?”
Applebloom didn’t want to reveal the location of her hiding place so soon, but decided that she couldn’t ask about the chest if she didn’t. “I was in the cellar, and we saw this big chest in the corner-“
Her sister cut her off. “You didn’t drink anything down there did ya?” she asked.
Scootaloo quickly answered for her friends. “Oh no Applejack, we haven’t had anything since dinner!”
Applebloom decided to finish her question before she was interrupted again. “Ya wouldn’t know what’s in the chest down there would ya?”
Applejack thought about it for a moment trying to remember what chest she was talking about. “Oh yeah, that chest? It hasn’t been opened since your Great, Great, Great Grandfather locked it about 90 years ago. But we haven’t had the key for years now. I have no clue what’s in it.” Applejack realised that they were all still up at this time of night. “Anyway, you fillies have to go to bed now…”
The Cutie Mark Crusaders looked sad. “Awwww…” they all said in sync as they went upstairs to the bedroom where they would be sleeping.
Later that night Scootaloo woke up to sound of footsteps on the roof right outside of the window.
She woke up her friends, insisting that she heard something.
“Ugh. Scootaloo, I was having a real nice dream before you shook me.” Applebloom whispered.
“No, seriously! Just listen.” She whispered back.
They all heard the sound of footsteps again. Scootaloo jumped out of bed and looked out the window, unable to see anything because of the extreme darkness.
"You see anything?” Sweetie Belle asked her pegasus friend.
Scootaloo climbed back into bed. “Nah, it was too dark outside.”
Sweetie Belle looked over to Applebloom and chuckled. “Maybe it’s your Great, Great, Great Grandfather coming back to tell us what’s inside.”
“I wish… What d’ya think is in in anyway?” She replied.
While the little fillies were discussing all sorts of ideas a silhouette appeared at the window, appearing to listen in. Scootaloo turned around to look at the window but narrowly missed seeing the silhouette, who had moved out of view.

“APPLEBLOOM!” Applejack unhappily shouted from down the stairs. Applebloom woke up and realised it was daytime now. Applejack called out again, this time Applebloom could hear she was closer. The door opened and a very agitated Applejack stood in the doorway.
Applebloom tried to feign a smile, hoping to get out of whatever trouble she was in.
“Did you three break into the chest last night?”
Scootaloo sat up in the bed. “Someone opened it? What was in it?” she excitedly asked.
Applejack still not any happier, looked accusingly as the trio. “Well I wouldn’t know. Someone stole it!”
Sweetie Belle spoke up this time. “But Applejack! We didn’t steal anything!” All of the other Cutie Mark Crusaders nodded in agreement.
“Alright fine, but I’m gonna search this room for anything unusual okay?”
Applebloom agreed confidently. “Okay then, sis. But you won’t find anything!”
The Cutie Mark Crusaders headed downstairs and snuck into the cellar to investigate. The chest had not been opened, instead a plank of wood off of the front was pulled off, and the contents removed from there. Applebloom turned over the plank of wood on the floor and saw that something had been carved into it.
“It has begun?” Applebloom asked no pony in particular. “And what’s this star all about?” She asked, pointing to a seven pointed star that was carved in the wood next to the words.
“I dunno.” Scootaloo said. “I just want to know how they even got in here.”

Applejack sat on her sister’s bed looking out of the window at the Apple Orchards. The soil the trees were planted in was becoming infertile, and she didn’t know why. No fertilisers have worked well enough to save the trees. Harvest rates per tree were at an all-time low for Sweet Apple Acres and only half the trees were even producing fruit. She took off her hat an opened a hidden pocket inside, pulling out a key. The one lie she had been able to tell was about the key. Granny Smith said that the chest’s contents must be protected. It was to be opened only when the farm had begun to fail drastically. Applejack was thinking about opening the chest today but of course someone stole what was in it. No pony knew what was even in the chest, so why would they bother? It didn’t look expensive, wasn’t that heavy and was old. Replacing the key back into her hat, she decided not to fret over it, and to instead take her sister and her friends to school, and then seek Twilight’s help on the matter.

It was around noon and Applejack had finally made it to Twilight’s house. She knocked, waiting patiently for an answer. Twilight opened the door and noticed her friend standing there in the doorway, looking slightly upset.
“Applejack! Hi! Hey umm, you wouldn’t have happened to see Snips or Snails today by any chance?”
Applejack rubbed her head with her hoof in thought. “No, I can’t say I have. Why?”
Twilight started to look worried. “Cherilee said that she hasn’t seen them today for the first time in over a year.”
The orange pony put her hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “Don’t you worry over it Twilight. They’ll both be okay.” She looked shyly at her friend. “But I may have gotten myself a tiny problem.”
She told Twilight everything that had happened to her recently before asking what she should do.
“Applejack, you know that I know less about farming than you do, but if you want I could try to find a spell to fix your land!” Twilight said while smiling.
Applejack was unsure. She knew that she had rejected Twilight’s magical assistance on the farm before, but she didn’t want to seem ungrateful either. “Well… Okay, if you insist!” she replied unsurely.
Twilight happily smiled back to her friend.
“Thanks Twilight! I really appreciate it!” Applejack called back as she started running down the road, heading back to the farm.

When she returned to the farm the first thing she saw was a large dirt-brown stallion with short grey hair and a medium sized beard standing at the door to the house. Applejack’s first thought was that he was the thief and she was about to accuse him when she realised that the thief wouldn’t show up at her door, especially not so soon since robbing her. She trotted over to greet him with a friendly voice. “Howdy! What can I do ya for?”
The mysterious middle-aged pony did not move, instead he continued to stare straight at the door. “Are you Applejack?” He asked slowly, in a very serious tone.
Applejack was growing nervous by the stallion’s calm and collected voice, but nonetheless she managed to confirm this for him. The unknown pony turned his head to face her.
“And do you know who I am?” He asked, winking at her.
She immediately recognised the large stallion from the portrait in the hallway. This was her Great, Great Grandfather; Old Man Apple.
Applejack took a few steps backwards in disbelief. Old Man Apple had passed away 91 years ago when he was 65! He looked as if he was about 50 years of age; how old he had been when he had the portrait made.
Applejack was sceptic. “If this isn’t some kind of sick joke, then how is this possible?”
Old Man Apple smiled and laughed. “Applejack… Do you believe in ghosts?” And on that note, he walked through the closed door without opening or breaking it.
Applejack shook her head vigorously. “I knew dinner tasted kind of weird…”
She then opened the door and walked through like any normal living pony would.

Later that night the Apple Family had all sat down around the dinner table to eat, but not one them had even thought of touching their food. They are all too interested in Old Man Apple’s ghost to eat. He began asking about what happened to the broken chest and quickly explained that he could help the family out with their predicament. “I may be dead, but it doesn’t mean I can’t handle my tools!” he laughed. He begins to tell them about how he intends on helping to get the apple farm back to full health in no time and he demanded that the family just takes it easy inside the house until the farm is up and running again.

After dinner had finished, Old Man Apple stood up and left to go get started on fixing up the apple orchards. He trotted out of the house and over to the locked shed out by the edges of the farm near the border into the Everfree Forest. He walks through the locked door and turns on the lights in the shed before closing the thick blinds on the windows.

Spike was awoken by a knock at the door, only to find a distressed Cherilee, looking around very nervously.
“Spike, have you seen Snips and Snails? They didn’t even show up to school yesterday!” She said fearfully.
Spike, still rubbing his eyes from having only just awoken shakes his head “They’ll be fine, don’t worry. Maybe they accidentally forgot they had to go to school.”
Cherilee still looked on edge and was dancing nervously from hoof to hoof.
“If Twilight and I see them, we’ll let you know okay?” he told her, desperate to get back to comfort of his bed so he could catch up on the sleep that was stolen from him.
Cherilee left, and Spike was about to settle back into his bed when he hears Twilight let out a bloodcurdling scream, then the sound of vomiting followed by extreme amounts of sobbing, pausing only to feebly attempt to catch her breath.
“Twilight!” Spike exclaims, fear in his voice.
He rushed up the stairs only to see a horrified looking Twilight in the corner of the room with blood on her left rear hoof, vomit near the bed and a large lump that was obscured by the sheets.
“Twilight! What, ha- happened?” Spike asked horrified. What could it have possibly been for her to get blood on her hoof and to cause her to vomit? Twilight didn’t respond and continued to look traumatised.
Spike moved over to the bed cautiously and reached for the covers when Twilight screamed out at him. “NO SPIKE! DON’T LOOK!”
Spike, still extremely curious and concerned as to how bad it could have been ignores her and raises the covers only to find the brutally severed and bloody head of Snails, with both of his eyes gouged out, the horn broken off and a seven pointed start hacked roughly into his forehead.
Spike did not say anything, but simply dropped the sheets down, took many steps backward and passed out.
After what felt to be weeks, Twilight decided that she had to do something. She weakly got up, washed off her bloodied hoof and carried Spike away from the horrific scene in her bedroom. Once she was cleaned up, she picked up her passed out friend and left the house with tears streaming down her eyes. She hastily locked the door, and not knowing who else to turn to, she went to the pony she knew would be strong enough to handle the shocking news the best.

Rainbow Dash was resting on a cloud under the warm sun in the middle of Ponyville. Twilight had walked through Ponyville looking for her, and everypony that saw her could see that something was extremely wrong. Twilight called out to Rainbow and woke her. “Rainbow?” She asked, her voice breaking as she tried to hold her composure. “Can you follow me so we talk? In private?” She feebly requested. Rainbow jumped down from her cloud and followed her into the alley way to help.
“What’s wrong with Spike?” She asked with an obvious lack of concern.
Twilight began to unwillingly recall the events of that morning in her mind. She started to tear up again but quickly became unfocused and stopped herself from visualising the horrific appearance of Snail’s brutally mutilated head.
Rainbow noticed something was seriously wrong, so she put a hoof around her shoulder. “Hey Twi, what’s happened?” she asked in a soft and clearly worried tone.
Twilight took a deep breath before speaking. “Did you know that Snails had disappeared?”

Rainbow curiously raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, he’s fine though right?”
Twilight swallows and begins to slowly talk. ”I found him dead…” She began to cry. “In my bed when I woke up.”
Rainbow, unsure how to react just sat down, leaving her arm around Twilight and just looked ahead blankly at the wall, trying to process what she had just heard.
“But…” She starts. Rainbow knew there was evil in the world; she had helped to defeat Nightmare Moon and Discord. But for someone to kill a young colt and place the body in another pony’s bed… Something clicked in Rainbow and she suddenly jumped in in anger and swore to kill whoever was responsible. Twilight just looked at Rainbow in disbelief. Her friend had just gone from total shock into a state of unsatisfiable rage. Rainbow calmed down slightly, but still fuming about what evil had just happened.
“Twilight? Do you need me to remove the body?” Rainbow asks, trying to be brave for her friend’s sake.
“Rainbow, I won’t ever be able sleep there again, and even you wouldn’t be able to handle the sight of it.”
“No, I could! I can do it! For you!” Rainbow protested.
“Trust me. The state that… his body is in… would traumatise you just as much as it did to me...” she replied, kicking the dirt.
Rainbow desperately wanted to help her friend, and she started thinking. “I know! You could use that spell so you can walk on clouds, and then you can come stay with me! You know. Safety in numbers?” Rainbow suggested, trying to cheer her friend up. Twilight just nodded, and followed Rainbow back to her house so that she could try to get some sleep.

Spike saw images of Snails’ decapitated head as he woke from his hazy dream. Spike woke up so terrified by what he thought his mind had created that he started screaming before he realised where he was. He was lying on Rainbow’s couch in her living room. Confused, he got up and noticed Twilight and Rainbow looking over to him from the dining room. Spike walked up to Twilight and went to tell her about what he thought was just a bad dream. “Whew. What a nightmare.” He started.
Twilight quickly interrupted him. “Well, if it was that bad, it’s probably best you don’t tell us!” She said with a feigned laugh.
Spike grumbled and walked off; disappointed that he couldn’t share his scary story. When he thought about it afterwards, he wasn’t so sure he wanted to share it.
Rainbow looked seriously worried now, not only for her Twilight, but for her dragon friend as well. “You can’t just keep Spike in the dark.” She told Twilight once spike had left the room. “He will find out soon enough!”
Twilight buried her face in her hooves. “Its better if he doesn’t know for as long as possible.”
Rainbow wasn’t too sure that Twilight was thinking straight, so she decided she’ll bring it up again in the morning after she had gotten some sleep.
Twilight looked up at her friend. “We need to write a letter to Princess Celestia and get Spike to send it. But we cannot let him read it.”
She nodded to show that she agreed with Twilight. “Hey were did Spike even go?” She asked.
Twilight faced the hallway Spike had gone down. “SPIKE?” She called.
No response. Spike had already disappeared.

Over at Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack was looking out of the window over to Old Man Apple, heading over the field to the old locked shed. “I wonder what he actually does in there…” she asked herself, before deciding not to worry about such things and went off to talk to Applebloom.
Old Man Apple trotted over to the shed and walked inside. The room was dark, with an old, splintered wooden floor, thick stone walls, with one dim light in the middle of the ceiling. There were blood stains in the corner of the room, and also to be found inside, were 3 ponies, all hog-tied and gagged on the floor, as well as one small purple dragon, tied in the same fashion. He looked at the ponies and observed their appearances. There was a Pony at the age of about 30, with a light blue coat and short dark red hair. Another pony was a bit younger, lime green with a brilliant and vibrant purple mane. The last pony was a light cream colour with a regular brown mane.
“Hello ponies!” Old Man Apple happily greeted his captives. “And we also have a dragon too! I’ve never worked on a dragon before… How exciting!” he laughed. “Well this isn’t very organised is it?” he said, noticing the ponies spread out on the floor in a random fashion. The ponies simply looked back at him with fear in their eyes. He re-arranged his subjects so they were in a circle, looking at one another.
“Who should we start with first?” He asked while moving around the circle slowly. He stopped at the blue pony and thought pensively.
“Okay, lucky you! You get to go first, isn’t that thrilling?” He exclaimed while smiling with a deceptively friendly grin. He removed the gag from the blue pony’s mouth and she screamed out for help.
Old Man Apple laughed, between each chuckle saying “Help?” He sighed and shook his head for a second. “These walls are thick enough so that you won’t be heard… Everything about this room is soundproof!” he began.
The pony’s eyes widened in horror, and through the fear she managed to speak. “Why a- are you do- doing this?”
“Oh well you see… I like apples. But hey, don’t we all? They’re good for you! But the apple trees around here are dying, so no more apples… This saddens me.” He stopped to think for a second before continuing on. “No, it angers me. And wouldn’t you happen to know it, but bodies are just the most amazing fertilisers!”
Everyone was shocked. Even though they had a fairly good idea that they were going to get hurt by this maniac, they never imagined he was going to go that far!
Old Man Apple went over to the workbench and picked up a leather bag. He opened it up and pulled out a hammer and 4 large old nails. The blue pony was breathing heavily as she hastily got up and tried to run to Celestia knows where, but Old Man Apple quick as a flash threw the hammer at her body, knocking her face down. When she hit the hard wooden floor she was winded and begun coughing. She pathetically tried to stand up again but to no avail.
“Oh I was wondering why you were all so quiet!” Old Man Apple exclaimed and walked over to ungag the other ponies and spike. When he took off Spikes gag, the dragon breathed fire straight into his face out of desperation. The fire went through him however and didn’t even leave the tiniest mark.
Old Man Apple looked astonished, but unharmed. “And that is why I never dealt with dragons… they are so rude” he said while shaking his head completely unaffected.
He walked back over to the blue pony, still coughing on the ground and held a nail over the joint connecting her arm to her hoof. He then proceeded to hammer it through her arm and into the floor as well in one foul swoop. All of the captives shouted at the sight of the nail sinking into the blue pony’s flesh, and she let out a terrible shriek as the nail wedged itself between her bones. Blood seeped out of the wound where it had been driven in and she began to cry. He continued to hammer the remaining three nails into the pony’s arms and legs, all with similar reactions. The captives tried to close their eyes and hide from it all, but they were unable to move their arms from behind their backs to block their ears, and hearing the lone screams without any vision to anticipate them made the experience so much worse. Old Man Apple reached into his leather satchel again and begun talking.
“You wanna know how I found out that ponies were good fertilisers?” he asked, not really caring for or even expecting a response. As he pulled out a large kitchen knife which scraped against some other wicked metal object he continued with his story. “You see when I bought the farm, it was just empty land, cost me a fortune. Had to borrow some money to be able to buy it and the seeds I needed.” He casually walked over to the crying, bleeding pony nailed to the floor and stood above her watching her. Her hooves were blood-soaked and she was writhing in pain which only seemed to agitate where the nails had pierced her, causing her further pain. He continued on. “But the seeds wouldn’t grow well, the land wasn’t fertile enough. It had been quite a while since I borrowed the money and my debt was too much. I went to the stallion I owed money to so that I could explain my predicament.” Old Man Apple kneeled down and slowly started to cut deep lines down the helpless pony’s back with the knife, causing more macabre screams to be heard by no one but the other captives and Old Man Apple.
The loud screaming didn’t faze him; he just persisted with cutting lines down her back and simply talked louder to combat the squeals. “But he didn’t like the idea of me not paying him. Not at all…” He stopped cutting lines down her back for a moment and watched, absorbed as the blood oozed out of the lines like a slow red fountain. He turned to look at spike, whose face was a depiction of pure horror. He pointed the knife at him in a non-threatening way as he told the story. “He hit me he did. Was a bit rude. I can’t stand rude people. So do you know what I did?” He paused for effect with the only sound being the soft sobbing of the dying pony behind him. “This” he said as he stabbed the pony behind him in the back of the neck, causing her to yelp sharply as the blade cut through her larynx, filling her throat with blood. Old Man Apple stabbed the knife back into her lifeless body and left it there as he approached the green pony with the flowing purple mane. She started to sob out of the fear from not knowing what was about to happen as he leaned down and drew another, much larger knife from his satchel. He explained his story further. “Well not quite to that extent, but I still killed him.” He rolled the green pony over and looked right into her bright blue eyes. “I was soft back then and I panicked. Buried the body in the apple orchard.” He stabbed the knife into the skin under her nose and began to cut the skin around the mouth away to reveal the teeth. As the blade sunk into the green pony’s upper lip she jerked back and squealed, causing him to cut a jagged line through the flesh. He ignored his little mistake, pulled out the knife and simply tried again, this time holding her head still. “And the next morning, wouldn’t you know it… A bright red apple! It was a miracle!” He continued to tell his story as he cut away the pony’s upper lip, again talking loud enough to be heard over the bloodcurdling screams from the pony as her face was being defiled. “I realised what had to be done to feed my family. You know, because they were more important to me than a couple of random ponies off the street.” He finished cutting off the pony’s lower lips, tossed them aside and turned back to his tools. “So at first I just drugged them and killed them quickly. But it got boring and expensive. And let’s be honest. Who doesn’t enjoy some fun with their work?” Old Man Apple took out a pair of old pliers and his current victim began to cry and struggle, but to no avail. He clamped the pliers onto one of her exposed, blood stained teeth and held the pliers there as her breathing increased and she whined, anticipating the imminent anguish. “Then I started doing this.” He said as he ripped the tooth out of her mouth, bringing a part of her gum out with it. The pain was so horrifically intense that she vomited out a mixture of her stomach acids and blood that had spewed out from the gaping hole where her tooth used to be. She shrieked out in pain, a kind of pain that most ponies wouldn’t be able to imagine in their lifetime. “And let me tell you, this never gets old” he said as he repeated the process for the next tooth. The pony had begun to choke on her own blood, spluttering and coughing as her body naturally resisted the urge to simply accept death. This was too much for Spike, who himself had just vomited and passed out from shock. Old Man Apple stopped pulling teeth for a moment and looked at Spike. “Awww, is our little dragon tired?” he started. “Maybe we should move on then…”
Old Man Apple smashed the pliers into the forehead of the choking pony, cracking her skull and killing her immediately. He chucked the bloodstained pliers over to the side, reached into his satchel and withdrew a long, thin blade and approached the semi-conscious dragon. The last living pony was crying and breathing heavily, some of the blue pony’s blood splattered onto her cream coat. She was trying desperately to become forgotten.
Old Man Apple looked over to her and added in a reassuring voice, “Oh don’t fret dear, I won’t forget that you’re next!” He showed a warm and friendly smile as he added “No need to worry about missing out on the fun!”
He turned back to Spike and sunk the blade through his soft underbelly and into his stomach. He regained full consciousness as the adrenaline rushed through his body and he felt the full sting of the blade focused on his ruptured stomach. He screamed like he had never done before. He roared with agony as he felt Old Man Apple use the blade to start cutting off his skin. “You know dragon hide is fairly expensive!” he told Spike. “And I know of a pony who just loves to get her hooves on some expensive materials to use!” Emphasising the word ‘love’. He worked the blade up to Spike’s throat slowly as he continued to taunt him while watching him squirm and shout at the pain. Adding emphasis on ‘love’ again he added; “And I believe that you love her, and what a nice present you’ll be giving to her! I’m sure she’ll love it.” He happily stated as he slowly pulled the knife out from under Spike’s skin, cutting the soft exposed flesh underneath.
Spike was barely clutching onto what little life was remaining in him and he managed to force out a very desperate and pleading “No” followed by one more statement. “Please don’t do this to her!”
Old Man Apple placed the knife on the soft skin at his throat. “Oh I’m going to.” He swiped it across quickly, spraying more blood onto the cream coated pony who sat there frozen in fear.
“I’m going to for Tr-“
But that was all Spike got to hear, for he was already dead.

Rarity had just awoken from a peaceful sleep. She got up to get ready to work on her newest dress design, which was one of her favourites she had made so far. She went to the kitchen to prepare some breakfast for herself when she heard the doorbell. She opens the door to see a parcel on the ground with the words ‘To Rarity. I got you something! Love Spike.’ Rarity picked up the box and looked at it and sighed. As she took the box over to the table she started talking to herself. “Another parcel from Spike? I don’t want to hurt his feelings but I don’t feel that way about him.” She put down the box and went to continue preparing a quick breakfast. “I know I probably shouldn’t but I wish something would happen so that he stops sending me these.” She finished making the food and went to sit down at the table. “Ugh there’s a bit of a smell to it. When will he learn that I do not like these smelly sorts of things… whatever it is…”
Rarity curiously pulled off the tape holding the lid down and opened the box.
When she looked inside the box she saw something that truly horrified her. Inside the box was purple dragon skin, bloodied on the edges, but intact and very well cut off. As she noticed the blood that had also stained the inside of the thick box, Rarity realised that what was inside the box was quite literally the skin off of Spike’s back.
She let out a piercing scream, shut the box and started to back away from it and towards the door. Throwing it open while screaming and crying, she bolted straight out of the door and headed for the mayor’s office as reporting it to the authorities was the only thing she could think to do.

The doors on the mayor’s office flew open and Rarity ran in, tears streaming down her face. She cried out and told the receptionist through the tears that she had to see the mayor immediately. The receptionist did not like the idea of a pony demanding to see the mayor without any previous bookings, whether they were clearly emotionally distressed or not.
She handed Rarity a tissue and scratched her head before responding. “I’m sorry lady, but you can’t just come in here and demand to see the mayor, tears or not.”
Rarity felt like she had just been kicked in the stomach. She began stuttering. “B-b-b-but I-I’m clearly In D-d-distress!” she cried desperately while still holding the tissue.
The mayor walked out from behind a door trying to find out what all the commotion was about.
Rarity looked right over to the mayor with her bloodshot eyes and ran up to her and fell on her knees to beg her. “Please mayor! Some- Something has t-to be done!” Rarity bawled.
The mayor was still as surprised and confused as ever.
Rarity continued. “Sp- Spike! Somepony ki- ki- k-“ She was unable to force out the words she needed to, as to her, saying them aloud would have confirmed the truth in her mind and deleted all chance of him being alive and well.
The mayor was now extremely worried and pointed to a stack of paper and a pen that was on the receptionist’s desk. She handed the paper and pen to Rarity, who was able to scrawl onto the paper one deeply troubling message.
‘Spike has been killed.’
As the mayor read out the scribbled words on the paper, her jaw dropped and she was unable to say anything. She had not seen the part of Spike’s remains that Rarity had first hand and was not as affected as such. But she still kneeled down to comfort Rarity.
Rarity had begun to cry without any tears left to shed. The mayor stood up, turned to her receptionist and ordered for a Public Service Announcement to be put out warning everypony not to trust any strangers, and to be extremely careful.
“What horrors have hit Ponyville?” The mayor asked no pony in particular. “No pony is safe… We need somepony to get to the bottom of who has done this.”
The receptionist looked concerned. “Mayor, it will take days for us to find an investigator up to this job. How many more will have died by then?”
The mayor had an extremely serious and dark look on her face as she said her next two words.
“Too many…”

Rainbow was flying around in the sky, determined to practice her new tricks, but barely able to put any heart into the task at all. Snails was dead, and assumedly Snips would be too. Worst yet, Spike was missing and not only did that prevent her and Twilight from sending a message to Princess Celestia for help, but Rainbow knew he would probably be have been dead by know as well.
Rainbow had suddenly lost what little motivation to fly that she had left and simply landed on the grass near the central statue and sat there with her head down. Looking around the town square she saw the tiniest number of ponies that she had ever seen there. Ever since the PSA was posted, barely anypony had left the safety of their homes. Not that staying inside would help. Her house was in the sky, was securely locked and Spike was still taken from her and Twilight.
She looked down with tears in her eyes as she scrunched her face up in anger and punched the ground.
“Why?” She yelled out as she punched the ground once more before beginning to cry aloud.
An older brown stallion with a small satchel walked up to her while she was crying, but he did not share the same sadness as Rainbow did.
“My poor dear,” he started. “What’s the matter?”
Rainbow continued staring at the ground as she answered. “People are disappearing… And they are dying…” She paused to catch her breath. All of a sudden she stood up and flew in the air slightly, filled with rage. “AND THERE’S NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT IT!” She shouted at the top of her voice.
The old brown stallion smiled happily and looked up to her. “Now, now. There isn’t nothing you can do about it…”
Rainbow folded her wings and landed on the ground again. “How so?” She asked intrigued.
“Well let me tell you a story to explain this.” The old stallion started. “I like apples. But hey, don’t we all? They’re good for you!” He pulled out a bottle and a dirty cloth and poured a small amount of the liquid onto the cloth.
Rainbow saw what was happening here. She begun to step back nervously but the stallion was stepping forward at the same time.
The stallion put the bottle back into the bag and held the cloth out. “But the apple trees around here are dying, so no more apples… This saddens me.”
Rainbow suddenly leapt forward to kick him right the chest but went straight through him, almost as if he wasn’t there.
The stallion turned around and shook his head. “You always were hot headed Rainbow Dash. Some would consider it rude.” He shook out the contents of the bag, dropping the bottle out again along with a large kitchen knife. “I can’t stand rude people.” He said as he chucked aside the cloth and the empty bag so he could pick up the knife.
Rainbow was scared. Ghosts weren’t real. Twilight had told her a hundred times. But everything about this guy screamed unnatural. Rainbow went to fly away but some strange invisible force was holding her wings down.
The stallion laughed. “You think I’d let you fly away? You can try to run though. I need the exercise.” He said malevolently.
But Rainbow had a different idea in mind. “I must have missed you last time.” She started and she placed her hooves solidly on the ground.
The old stallion was surprised and he stopped moving and raised an eye brow.
“I WON’T MISS NOW!” She shouted as she charged her attacker.
He quickly reacted and thrust the knife straight at Rainbow’s chest, but she had seen it coming. Quick as a flash she dodged to the side, but not fast enough. The knife sunk into the flesh of her arm, scraping against the bone. She screamed out in pain and turned away.
The old stallion had lost hold of the knife when she spun away and was now unarmed. “Oh well. Not to worry!” He cheerfully stated as he turned around to pick up the cloth again.
Rainbow was bleeding and the knife was still in her arm. She was backing away in pain quietly when she heard something from the old stallion.
“No! Where is it?” He said angrily as he looked around the cloth.
Rainbow realised that the stallion had nothing to attack her with. No knives, no cloths soaked in a strange potion. And she took advantage of this moment and ran.
The old stallion didn’t bother giving chase and vowed to get her one day aloud, something Rainbow would not soon forget.

Rainbow had been able to fly, and flew as fast as she could to Fluttershy’s house. She knew that Fluttershy would be horrified at the sight of her with a knife lodged in her arm so Rainbow stopped on her way there to rip it out. Rainbow felt the blade scratch the bone and cut the skin on her arm again as she pulled it out and tossed it aside. She hobbled up to her friend’s door as quickly as she could and knocked frantically. Fluttershy open to door to see Rainbow clutching a bloodied arm.
Fluttershy squeaked in shock and begun to speak a hundred words per minute. “Oh my gosh! Rainbow Dash what happened? Are you okay? Get inside! Oh my gosh! I’ll go get bandages!”
Rainbow, trying to act as strong as she could around her friend to keep up appearances pushed through the pain. “I’m fine Fluttershy, just need some bandages.”
Fluttershy returned and speedily wrapped the bandages around Rainbow’s arm tightly to stop the flow of the blood. “Rainbow what happened?” She asked with distinct concern in her voice.
“Trust me Fluttershy it was nothing. I just got in a bit of a fight.” She replied trying to soften up the story for her easily terrified friend.
Fluttershy gasped and started speaking very fast once more. “You were fighting? Why were you fighting? Oh I’m just so glad you’re okay. Is it over now? Yes it must be its all good.”
Rainbow, despite being grateful was already fed up with Fluttershy’s constant flow of pointless questions and statements. “Fluttershy! Stop worrying so much! I’m fine now, and that’s what matters.”
Speaking a normal speed again and looking embarrassed she replied. “Oh… um… yes…”
Rainbow stood up, cringing at the throbbing pain in her arm. “But he’s still after me. I’m not sure when he’ll come for me next but I’m not going to put you in any danger Fluttershy. I’m going to keep on moving around so he won’t be able to track me down easily.”
Fluttershy was very scared for her friend and didn’t want her to go, but knew she was right. “Okay… Just be careful Rainbow!”
Rainbow smiled at her and flew off, out the door.
Fluttershy went to close the door when suddenly an old brown stallion appeared in the door way. She jumped back in shock and bit down on her lower lip.
The stallion took one step closer to Fluttershy and started to speak. “You wouldn’t happen to know if Rainbow Dash was here would you?” He asked with a very serious look on his face.
Fluttershy wanted to lie and say that she wasn’t but she was sure that this stallion actually knew already. “Umm, no. I mean, Yes. She was here, Ummm…” She said looking nervous. Feigning a big smile she finished off her answer. “But she just left!”
The stallion continued to stare intently at Fluttershy as she held the fake smile. Suddenly the stallion showed an inherently unnerving warm and friendly smile back to her. “Okay, thanks for the help!” He happily stated as he left.
Fluttershy waited until he was halfway down the path before running at the door and slamming it shut and locking every door and window in the house.

Word had gotten out that Rainbow had survived an attack from an old brown stallion’s ghost, and it had even made it into the newspapers. However no one really believed it. Five more ponies had been reported as missing since the death of Spike and Twilight had not left Rainbows house and had not seen the news either. She was completely oblivious to anything that was happening outside, as Rainbow did not want to be the one to break the news to her.
At the gate to the Sweet Apple Acres farm stood Old Man Apple, waiting for the newspaper. A much younger lighter brown Pegasus was delivering the mail to the farm when he saw the old stallion out the front.
The young stallion laughed, because he noticed how the older stallion fit the same description as the ‘ghost’ in the news. “Hey old man. You seen this? Some Pegasus pony said she was attacked by a ghost that was described just like you!”
Old Man Apple laughed at the thought of it. “Give it a few more years and I might be a ghost!” he joked.
The young pegasus laughed at his joke and continued talking. “I don’t believe that story anyway. There’s no such thing as ghosts.”
Old Man Apple agreed with him and then asked a favour. “I know it’s a tad bit random… But would you mind telling me if this milk smells off?” He said while taking out a small bottle and a cloth. He proceeded to pour a little bit of the liquid onto the cloth as he continued. “My nose isn’t so great at this age, and a nice young stallion like you could help me out here.”
The young stallion decided that it would just take one quick sniff to help the older man out, so he agreed.
But all it takes is one sniff, and the pegasus had passed out.
Old Man apple opened up his bag and put the cloth and the bottle away. He then took out a rope and a rolled up empty fertiliser bag. He tied the passed out stallion’s arms and legs together behind his back and put him in the fertiliser bag. He took out a match and set fire to the newspapers that the stallion had brought so that the Apple Family wouldn’t find them, and then he dragged what appeared to simply be a bag of fertiliser back to the old locked shed.

The pegasus woke up to the sight of a dark room. He tried to stand up but realised he was tied up. He went to scream but realised he had been gagged. Looking around the room he saw 2 other ponies, blood stains on the wooden floor, some pieces of flesh on the ground and even a tooth. He started sweating. ‘I’m just a newspaper boy! Why is this happening to me?’ He thought. He noticed that one of the ponies was white with a messed up blue mane. Her eyes were wide open and staring into his. The pegasus could tell that she was as scared as he was. He also noticed another pony; this one was a unicorn who was a light pink colour with a boyish mint green mane.
Suddenly the door opened and Old Man Apple walked into the room with a large cauldron with wood in it. He shut the door behind him, turned on the light and positioned the cauldron at the back of the room, under a tap where the wooden floor transitioned into concrete.
He proceeded to fill the cauldron with water and start a fire on the concrete below the cauldron using the wood. He turned around to face the terrified ponies and smiled. “Hello ponies! Look what we have here. A nice assortment. We’ve got a regular pony, a unicorn… and my personal favourite, the pegasus pony.” He said while showing his trademark friendly attitude.
Well let’s get started with the Unicorn shall we? He ungagged the three ponies and they all screamed for help. “Did you know that everypony tries to do that?” he laughed. He walked up to the unicorn, bound on the floor and held onto her horn. “Now, now. Horns are dangerous. It might be a bit sharp. Let’s remove that shall we?” Placing one hoof on the base of her head and one on the horn, he snapped it off. She cried at the slight amount of pain caused by this action. Old Man Apple laughed at her. “You think that’s what pain feels like?” He started to sharpen the broken off horn in his hoof with a blade as he continued. “I guess I’ll have to re-educate you. Gosh. I never considered myself much of a teacher. Do tell me if I am a good one!”
The unicorn shook her head and pleaded with him, but he ignored everything she tried. He held the horn over her shoulder, in line with her arm and stabbed it in as hard as he could, the pressure causing blood to spray out of wound as he forced it further down her arm. She howled in anguish as she felt her own horn slide down her arm and under her skin. “So did you learn about real pain today? Did I teach you well?” he asked her.
The unicorn was crying but she knew it would be best to go along with what he said. “Yes sir, you have… taught me…” She struggled to force back the agony to bring out the last three words. “Well about pain…” she managed to shout out.
Old Man Apple shook his head slowly. “Tsk, Tsk, Tsk. That was a trick question. You obviously lied, because that was not real pain. Let me demonstrate.”
He took a strong potato peeler and a rope from his bag before starting to talk to the horrified earth pony. “You there, you were a good friend of hers yes? If you hold her down, then you can live. If you don’t, she will live but you die.” He untied the earth pony, who immediately out of fear for her own life held her friend down.
The twisted old stallion smiled wryly and turned back to the pinned down unicorn and began to taunt her. “Now this, my dear, is real pain. Being betrayed by your friends because they’d rather live than sacrifice themselves to let you live. She is allowing me to do this to you.” He said as he placed the potato peeler on the unicorn’s skin. She started screaming and begging her friend to help her, but her earth pony friend was too determined to survive to listen. Old Man Apple started peeling the helpless unicorn’s skin away using the potato peeler. She writhed in pain as the old stallion reminded her friend to keep holding her down. Her blood ran out from where the skin was sliced away and down to her friend’s hooves that held her down. Her friend was crying heavily but continuing to hold her down. The pegasus could only watch in the horror of what was happening. Minutes passed, and the poor unicorn was still being held down and peeled alive, the peeler working at her exposed muscle and skin. She was screaming and squirming, pathetically trying to get away from her tormentor as the blade of the peeler ripped apart her hide, cutting everything underneath at the same time. Old Man Apple stopped peeling her for and took out a hammer. His victim was on the verge of death when she saw the blunt object, and she couldn’t help but smile with relief. She longed for death by now. She wanted it all to end. But Old Man Apple saw the smile and changed his plan. He turned to the earth pony and started lecturing her. “You know it wasn’t very nice to help me skin your friend like that. That deserves a punishment.”
“WHAT? NO YOU CAN’T YOU SAID THAT-“ she started yelling before being interrupted.
“I said that you can live. I didn’t specify how long for though.” He told her as he hit her with in the stomach with the hammer. She was taken aback by the blow and was unable to move. Old Man Apple picked her up and threw her head first in the cauldron of boiling hot water. She naturally opened her mouth to screech at the water searing her flesh, letting the boiling water fill her mouth causing her to gag and swallow. The boiling water began to burn her insides and well as her flesh on the outside. When she tried to get out however, she cut her arms on the sharp and jagged lip of the cauldron. If she attempted to climb out of the cauldron, she would tear her flesh on the spikes, but the longer she stayed in the cauldron the worse the burns on her skin got. The water was also starting to pull off her skin as the heat worked away at it, and it seared her exposed muscle. As she screamed out in horror, her peeled and bloodied unicorn friend had to watch, as she had too little energy to look away. She hated her friend for sacrificing someone else, more specifically; her, in order to save her own selfish hide, but she still wouldn’t have wished the current torture she was in upon her. While she watched her friend boil alive, the unicorn’s body had been pushed to its limit and she finally died.
This was all too much for the young pegasus. He finally managed to untie himself and he ran for the door. As he was desperately trying to unlock it Old Man Apple stood up and grabbed him, dragging him to the floor.
“Boy that door won’t open without a key. So you couldn’t even leave if I let you try.” He said staring into the young stallion’s eyes, while listening to the screams of the boiling pony as she continued to try and climb out of the red hot, serrated-edged cauldron.
“I died 91 years ago at the age of 65 when I got careless and left a pony untied with a blade lying on the floor. Stabbed me in the back. And then when they couldn’t get out, they died of starvation. No one actually knew where I went to either. But even then, not a single living soul knew that I did this. Don’t you think that with all my experience, I’d know how to keep this quiet?”
The earth pony had tried to knock the cauldron over to escape her watery hell, but with no success as the cauldron was supported at the base. Old Man Apple looked angrily into the young pegasus’ eyes until the screaming died away as the pony did. He proceeded to take a knife from the leather satchel and a red hot melon bowler that was resting in the fire under the cauldron. He walked over to the young stallion in the corner and looked at him. The stallion had the look of a defeated man, unable to bring themselves to try to fight anymore. But he’d still feel the pain.
Old Man Apple took the Melon Bowler and slid it under the young stallion’s eyelids and scooped them out, burning the inside of his skull as the fiery heated bowler pressed against the soft muscle around the eye. He took the left one first, and then the right one. He screamed out as he felt his eyes get ripped from his head as his face burned away and his vision died. He didn’t know what was about to happen until it did. The next thing he felt was a knife cut horizontally across his abdomen, and again across his chest. The pain was immense, and he could feel the blood pouring out. While Old Man Apple cut a vertical line connecting the two horizontal lines blood ran out of his eye sockets and into the stallion’s mouth. He spluttered and coughed as it entered it mouth, all while shouting in agony as he felt two flaps being cut into his skin. His torturer opened up the flaps and started breaking off his ribs. Taking a long and bloodied rib in his hoof, Old Man Apple smiled wickedly. “Tell me boy… Does this kill you?” He asked before stabbing the stallion in his exposed heart with the rib he had broken off.
And for the first time for quite a while, the shed was silent.

More news had emerged, confirming that spike was in fact deceased and that 3 other ponies had gone missing, feared to possess the same fate. Rainbow sat on her chair, conflicted. She had to break the news of Spike’s death to Twilight soon; like she had said herself. You can’t keep somepony in the dark forever. Besides, if one of her own best friends had gone missing and was dead, she’d want to know so she could stop worrying and start grieving. But Rainbow also knew that she herself had been devastated by Spike’s death, and she only really knew him as a friend. To Twilight, he was more like the brother that she never had.
Rainbow thought about it and went to go see Applejack for advice. She would probably be the best pony to ask for help right now. Rainbow wrote a note that she was going to go see Applejack and placed it on the table so that Twilight will know where she is if she needs her.

Twilight awoke in Rainbow’s house after a long sleep. She hadn’t seen Spike in days. She was just starting to get anxious again almost immediately after waking up, when suddenly, she rolled over and felt something gooey on her back hoof. She lifted the quilt to see what it was. When she raised it up she saw Snails’ decapitated body, with her leg attached seamlessly onto the neck where his head should have been. She screamed and jumped out of bed, landing on the hard floor, and when she looked back, she wasn’t attached to Snails anymore, but instead Snails was standing upright on top of bed, still without a head. And then his body started moving slowly towards her. She screamed again and started to breathe heavily as she ran for the door. She quickly looked behind her to see where the animated body of Snails was only to see that he was no longer there, but the walls now had blood running down them, spelling the words ‘Snips Snails Spike’ repeated all the way down. Twilight begun to hyperventilate and decided she needed to get out of the room. She turned to the door once more only to find the handle had completely disappeared. Out of panic, she hit the door hard with her hoof and it fell apart into sawdust. Unfazed, she ran out into the hallway only to find bloody hoof prints on the floor all the way up and down the hall. She turned back to the bedroom only to find the doorway was now replaced by solid wall. Confused by what was happening she started backing away from what used to be a door way and bumped into the wall behind her. Surprised by the unexpected contact, she shouted and turned around to see the wall with lips now painted on it. They started taunting and talking to her in her own voice.
“You were too weak to protect spike… If you hadn’t been so absorbed in Snails’ decapitated head, Spike would still be alive”
Twilight started shaking her head and yelling back at the wall. “NO! Spike isn’t dead. He can’t be…” she took a very deep breath, and finished by stamping for foot and screaming out loud. “HE CAN’T BE!”
The lips on the wall started repeating “You were too weak…” over and over. Twilight charged straight at the wall in an attempt to silence the lips, but instead ran through the solid wall without damaging it and to somehow appear at the entrance of the library where she usually lived. She turned around and the tree that the library was built in begun twisting into a face, one that resembled that of Cherilee.
“You knew that they were dead…” it sung joyfully. “You even woke up with one of their heads.” It continued on, starting to rhyme.
Twilight turned and ran from the tree, but the voice still followed her as close as ever.
“And then you left your friend…”
“To die alone, to suffer their end.”
As Twilight ran through Ponyville, everypony she saw was alive but headless at the same time. They all started following her and joining in on singing the same four lines of the tree’s creepily merry song.

“You knew that they were dead!”
“You even woke up with one of their heads.”
“And then you left your friend,”
“To die alone, to suffer their end.”

Twilight was getting frustrated at everyone who was chanting and singing. She stopped running and turned to face the undead ponies. “STOP IT! I DIDN’T LEAVE SPIKE TO DIE!” She sobbed as they circled her, skipping and singing. From the middle of the crowd emerged a completely intact and concerned Pinkie Pie.
“Twilight? Come on, I’ll get you out of here!” She said dragging Twilight through the crowd of singing and dancing headless ponies, and into Sugarcube Corner.
Twilight sighed with relief as Pinkie shut the door blocking out the sound of the singing. “Thanks Pinkie.”
“Oh it was no problem!” She replied happily. “Besides that song was annoying!” Laughed Pinkie. “I got my own one for you!”
Twilight’s esteem dropped further yet again. “Oh no… Not you too…”
Pinkie laughed and started to skip around Twilight while singing her own rendition of the tree’s song.

“Ding dong, the kids are dead!”
“Which dead Kids? The ones without their heads!”
“Ding dong, your best friend is also dead…”

Twilight couldn’t take it anymore and ran back outside to hear the mobs of decapitated ponies start singing Pinkie’s version of the song instead.
Twilight’s overwhelming depression turned into pure hatred as she pounced on the nearest undead pony and started punching them in the stomach until they had stopped moving almost entirely. Twilight looked at the blood on her hoof and waited for the song to finish its round before delivered one more blow to the chest of the headless pony. As soon as the blow connected, Twilight’s target stopped moving completely and all of the other undead ponies stopped singing, instead slowly sinking into the dirt.
Twilight blinked and had reappeared in the real dining room of Rainbow’s house kneeling over a broken pot plant that was in place of the headless pony she had just killed, and there was dirt on her hoof in place of the blood.
Twilight cautiously went up to the bathroom to wash the dirt off of her hoof. She then looked at herself in the mirror. “I’m going insane…” She said nervously, laughing at the same time.
And then she fell to the floor crying.

Rainbow landed at the gate to Sweet Apple Acres, but something seemed different to her. The first thing she noticed was ash, rubbed into the dirt track. She decided to just ignore it and walk over to the house, as she was still recovering from her encounter with the ghost the other day, and she was getting tired. However, her arm was still sore from being stabbed, so she only had 3 hooves to walk on. As she approached she looked to her right and saw somepony that looked familiar, but they were too far away to be recognised. She decided not to think about that either and just get on with the task at hand. She limped up to the door and knocked with her good arm, almost instantly realising her mistake as her weight became rested on her sore arm. Rainbow let out a small growl at the sharp pain as she lifted the sore arm off of the ground and put her good one down for balance.
Applejack opened the door and was about to greet her friend but noticed that Rainbow had a bandage wrapped tightly around her arm. “Rainbow! What’s happened to you?” She asked with concern in her voice.
“Oh, this?” Rainbow asked holding up her arm. “It’s- It’s nothing.”
“Well… If you say so.” She replied unsurely. “So why‘d ya come over here then?” Applejack asked as she brought Rainbow inside.
“You seem… Happy?” Rainbow said, looking at Applejack with suspicion showing in her eyes.
“Well, why wouldn’t I be? The farm’s growin’ again, the apples we get for every tree is better than ever before!” She responded excitedly.
Rainbow didn’t understand. How could Applejack not know? Then she remembered something she had seen. “Applejack, have you gotten the newspaper recently?”
Applejack stopped walking for a moment to think. “Come to think of it, No I haven’t. Huh. That sure is strange alright.” Applejack passed it off without much care.
Rainbow was suspicious of Applejack. She may have been the element of honesty, but she hasn’t exactly lied yet. “Okay Applejack. I need to talk to you… In private…”
She stopped moving again. “Should I be worried?” she asked jokingly.
Rainbow stared at her feet but didn’t reply.
Applejack got her answer simply from her lack of response. She should definitely be worried. “Right this way, Rainbow. We’ll talk in my room okay?”
Applejack shut the door and locked it so no one could come in. Rainbow wasn’t too comfortable with the door locked because no one could get out either and she didn’t fully trust Applejack right now.
“What’s happened Rainbow?” She asked as she climbed onto the bed.
“Well Applejack… Ponies have been disappearing from Ponyville.” Rainbow began.
If she wasn’t worried now, Applejack was definitely concerned now.
“And three… have turned up…” Rainbow had been practicing saying this sentence the entire way over but still found it incredibly difficult to come out with.
“Yes?” Applejack said, holding onto the bed tightly, anticipating something terrible.
Rainbow swallowed and brought up the courage to tell her. Turning her to look directly into Applejack’s eyes she finished her sentence. “… Dead.”
Applejack took off her hat and held it against her chest while she thought about this.
While Applejack was trying to comprehend what she had just heard Rainbow continued. “Spike was one of them.” She said softly as she stamped her hoof on the floor.
Applejack now had tears rapidly forming in her eyes.
“I still haven’t let Twilight find out for sure, but I’m pretty sure she’s confirmed her own suspicions of it.” Rainbow stated.
The pair sat there in silence for a moment, until Rainbow asked the originally intended question.
“What do I do Applejack? You’re the only pony I know that can help.”
Applejack jumped off of the bed and opened the door while thinking and grieving her friend’s death quietly. Rainbow started following her out and then saw something that made her heart skip a beat as soon as she saw it.
Positioned right outside the door in the hallway the Portrait of Old Man Apple, who Rainbow recognised from when he tried to kill her. It also occurred to her that the stallion she saw off in the distance was him as well.
The sadness in her heart was instantly replaced by fear. “Applejack!? Does this guy live here!?” she yelled.
Applejack was shocked by this sudden change of mood. “Ummm yeah he does… why?”
Rainbow ran back into Applejack’s bedroom and looked out of the window, over to the distant shed where Old Man Apple was leaving. “Oh no. Not enough time to explain fully. Applejack, he’s a ghost.” She stated. “See this?” She asked pointing to her bandaged arm. “This is where he stabbed me.”
Applejack was taken by shock. “What!?” she exclaimed.
Rainbow nodded and continued. “He said he was going to come back for me… I think he’s the one that killed Spike…” As soon as she said Spike’s name tears began to form in her eyes.
“I- I need to go right now.” She said as she opened Applejack’s bedroom window and flew out, hovering outside for a moment. “Are you sure you’ll be okay Applejack?”
“I umm… Yeah, I think I can talk some sense into him…” She replied, clearly unsure of herself. “GO!” she whispered harshly.
Rainbow flew away from Sweet Apple Acres as fast as she could and Applejack closed the window.
She swallowed and just stood there for a moment. Could Old Man Apple really have killed Spike? And even so what was she going to say. Applejack became extremely nervous. It didn’t matter now. She had to stop Old Man Apple from hurting anyone else.
And with that she forced back the fear and went downstairs.

Twilight was walking through a crowd of ponies, all of whom were completely white, with no differences in the slightest. They did not even possess a cutie mark. They all walked at the same speed and only in straight lines, never falling out of order. She was surrounded by rows of grey buildings, all windowless towers with a single door at the entrance. Each tower was the same size as the next. The grass on the ground was not lush, but it was not dead either. Every blade of grass was the same size and distance apart, and when someone flattened it, it would re-position itself to be on the exact same angle as every other blade. Every tree was perfectly symmetrical from almost every side. Nothing was uneven, everything was just perfectly average. Twilight was the only one out of place in this world, but no one said anything. They just ignored her, not even moving their eyes towards her in the slightest.
“Hello? Can you hear me?” she asked one of the ponies, only to receive no reply as was expected. “Of course not.” Twilight was not distressed however. She just simply accepted it for what it is. While she was walking down the street, something out of the ordinary happened, but Twilight was the only pony that it seemed to faze.
A door appeared out of nowhere, opened and Rainbow Dash walked through. When the door closed it disappeared.
“Ahh. Rainbow Dash. My most true ally.” Twilight stated in a very emotionless way.
Rainbow looked around the foyer of her house. “Ummm, hi Twilight…” she started nervously.
Twilight actually stood alone in the dead centre of the room, surrounded by nothing. The entire room was perfectly symmetrical. Nothing was even a millimetre out of symmetry. Rainbow wasn’t quite sure as to why Twilight was standing in the middle of the room, unblinking when she had walked in. In fact, Twilight was still yet to move or blink. Rainbow was uneasy.
“So Rainbow Dash. Why have you decided to come to me?” She said, without moving any part of her body apart from her mouth. Twilight’s fringe cast a shadow down over her eyes hiding everything about where she was looking, but Rainbow was sure she could feel Twilight staring directly at her.
“Uhhh…” she began uneasily. Rainbow noticed that she had started to sway from side to side out the edginess she felt from Twilight remaining statue like.
“Rainbow Dash. Whatever you have to say will not make me mad.” Twilight started.
Rainbow sighed with relief when she heard those words, although not quite sure why she had done so. She was about to continue talking when Twilight stepped forward and started talking first.
“Being mad at something is a form of showing emotion. Emotions are a weakness, Rainbow Dash. Ponies may seem like they are some kind of unique beings, but only those who have discarded all of their weaknesses are truly unique.” Twilight was yet to blink for the entire time she had talked.
“Everypony has their strengths and weaknesses. These might change with each different pony, but everypony who is like this can be exploited and defeated in a second.”
Rainbow took a step back, but at the exact same time Twilight took a step forward. They were the exact same distance away.
“Earlier today, I was shown that sadness is a mere weakness. I was a pathetic pony, on the floor crying over natural matters that could not be changed anyway. I was vulnerable. If somepony was to attack me, I would be defenceless, in the same way that getting mad at something tends to make you not think about what is happening at the time. You become open to attacks.”
Had Rainbow been able to see Twilight’s eyes she might have been a little less anxious. “Twilight? Are you saying… Nothing I can say, will affect you?”
Twilight simply nodded once to confirm this.
Rainbow had seen this as an opportunity to reveal the secret she’d been holding back for a while, although probably not the best time. Out of desperation, she took it. “Spike… was confirmed to be dead…” she said.
Twilight simply said nothing. No tears dropped out from under the shadows of her eyes. She was emotionally dead. “Spike was weak and disobedient.”
Rainbow was shocked at what she had just heard. Twilight not just a single day ago was an emotion wreck. Was it actually possible that she felt no sorrow for this news?
“He had a major weakness. He was curious, not wanting knowledge for power, but wanting knowledge for the sake of knowing. If he had not had this weakness, he never would have been lured into the clutches of whoever killed him.”
Rainbow could not believe that this was her friend she had begun to tear up and get angry. “Twilight! You’re not like this! Stop!” Rainbow took a step forward and noticed that twilight had taken a step back. She had again backed off to be at the exact same distance as she was before.
Twilight started analysing Rainbow. “Rainbow Dash. You have a soft spot for who you call friends, and as a direct result, you are upset over Spike’s death. This causes you to become angry. Would you like to know how I could use these observations against you? I hope you take this as knowledge used for power. It would be a shame to have a fool for an ally.”
Rainbow was getting agitated. “Ally? I’m not even your friend anymore?”
Twilight kept her calm and begun to taunt her. “No. You never have been. Spike never was. I’m glad he’s dead.”
Rainbow was becoming very annoyed and begun to grow a hate for her old friend because of what she was saying to her.
“He only dragged me down. Like my weaknesses.”
She was fed up with all of the talk of weaknesses. Rainbow flew right at Twilight but suddenly felt a hoof on her chin and another at the back of her head. She was taken by surprise and stopped moving as she realised what had just happened.
Twilight let go of her unharmed head as she whispered “And now you’re dead.” into her ear.
Rainbow was not in fact dead, but had Twilight intended to kill her, she would have been.
“I knew you would charge me if I talked about approving of Spike’s death. You couldn’t take it. You wanted to attack me. By judging your weaknesses I knew the perfect time to step aside and grab your head. No one can do this to me, for I have removed my weaknesses. You should work on this to become a much more powerful ally” Twilight finally moved her body, turned around and walked towards the stairs.
Rainbow, seeing the reasoning in twilight’s philosophy tried to hide her anger. “So I’m still only an ally as opposed to a friend?”
Twilight stopped moving to answer. “A friend is someone who you will always foolishly trust and help. An ally is someone who will help to boost you higher. Friends can betray, only for you to forgive them and get back on with your life. An ally is someone who cannot afford to betray you.”
Rainbow sat down and thought about everything Twilight had just said. It made perfect sense, but no sane person could actually do such a thing to themselves. To remove your emotions meant you had to essentially remove your soul. Twilight needed help. But now was not the time. Rainbow had to get Twilight to help her defeat the ghost if anyone could do it, the emotionless Twilight could. But at the cost of whose lives? Rainbow went after Twilight to get ask for her help.

Applejack went downstairs to confront her Great, Great Grandfather. She had been walking slowly so that she could have more time to think out her plan. So that she could make sure she remained calm when talking to him about it. Time had seemed to slow for applejack as she made her way to where Old Man Apple was talking to the rest of the family. She poked her head around the corner to the dining room to talk to him when she saw something that horrified her.
Old Man Apple was holding a sharp knife above Applebloom’s head.
“NO STOP!” She cried out, but it was too late. He had already brought down the knife.
But nothing had happened.
He turned around and looked at her curiously. “Stop what?” he asked as Applebloom leaned forward over to table to get a better view of Applejack.
Applejack then noticed that Old Man Apple’s knife was resting in an apple pie. She sighed with relief before continuing on. “Hey Great, Great Grandpa? Can I see you outside for a moment?” She asked.
As Old Man Apple followed Applejack outside Applebloom had a confused look on her face.
“Y’all know what that was all about?” she asked.
“Eenope” replied Big Mac as he shovelled more apple pie into his mouth.

Outside of the house Old Man Apple smiled to Applejack. “So what did you need?”
Applejack’s long time spent planning on how to keep calm while talking to a cold blooded killer all suddenly fell through when she saw his friendly smile.
“You killed Spike didn’t you!” she shouted, but just quiet enough to not have been heard by the family inside.
Old Man Apple instantly dropped the smile. He turned and walked further away from the house. Applejack was too irritated to think about the dangers of following him further from the house, so she just stormed after him.
“How could you k-“ she started, but Old Man Apple silenced her by covering her mouth with his hoof.
Applejack realised her mistake of following him out into the paddock, and fear showed in her eyes.
“Listen to me you ungrateful foal… I came to fix your farm, so you don’t end up out of a job!” There was a burning rage building in him. Applejack couldn’t bring herself to back away from him, but he had soon removed his hoof from her mouth, but Applejack did not scream for help.
“And how… the hay does killin' people… help fix the farm!?” she shouted at him angrily.
Old Man Apple looked straight into her eyes. “Fertiliser.”
Applejack immediately felt her stomach lurch when she heard that.
“What I do, I do it for not only you, but the entire Apple Family! And family comes first.” he started. “And I do this for the family. So you don’t have to worry about any danger to you, your grandma, your brother or your sister.”
Applejack was still feeling ill and was unsatisfied with his twisted attitude. “What about our friends!? I would count them as family!”
Old Man Apple shook his head. “Blood is thicker than water. Much thicker. Blood keeps you alive.”
She still wouldn’t have a word of it. “You also need water to survive!”
“Blood can supply water.” He said grimly. But then he laughed and added “Especially when you use blood as a metaphor for family and water for friends!”
Applejack didn’t laugh. Even if she found his weak humour funny she wouldn’t have laughed.
Old Man Apple looked at her before coming to a conclusion. “Look, I don’t wish to cause a rift in the family, and I can see this is hurting you…”
Applejack let her anger slide for a moment, but then it re-ignited as she realised he couldn’t take back what he had already done. “That still doesn’t change what you did!”
“I’ll stop hurting the family then…” He stated with a serious expression painted on his face.
Applejack scanned his expression for any sign of lies, but could not see any. Although unhappy, she accepted this as being the best she would get from him, and went badly inside, feeling defeated.

Rainbow knocked on Twilight’s door and waited for a response. She did not get one, but still fought off the urge to open the door. This new Twilight was completely unpredictable and she did not want to risk entering her room without permission. Especially not after Twilight had told her that “An ally is someone who cannot afford to betray you.”
Many minutes passed and the door was finally opened.
Twilight looked slightly surprised, but it was barely noticeable. “Good. Either you are patient, or it is important. What do you need from me?” she asked.
Rainbow was confident that she could convince Twilight to help. “Well, Applejack’s Great, Great Grandfather turns out to be the killer that we are looking for, I was wondering if you-“
Twilight held up a hoof for silence. “Rainbow Dash. Where did you get the impression that I would be looking for this killer?”
Rainbow quickly improvised. “Well seeing as I am, like you said, your most trusted ally, and seeing as this killer has a vendetta against me I thought you might want to eliminate the risk of losing an ally.”
Twilight looked at her for a moment while Rainbow tried her best to hide all emotions.
“You showed over-confidence and slight traces of fear.” Twilight calmly stated.
Rainbow’s head dropped, but she quickly picked it up back up before Twilight could comment on her showing sadness.
Twilight continued. “But you did tell the truth. You are my most trusted ally, and you do have a killer on your tail. So we shall take care of this...”
Rainbow hid her excitement well, but it was deadened by Twilight’s next words.
“… In the morning.”
Rainbow decided that not arguing would be in her best interests. And walked down the hallway to her own bedroom.
“And I would not try to open my door tonight if I were you.” Twilight called down the hallway, before shutting her door and arming a trap.

Applejack woke to the sound of the rooster crowing in the morning, light was shining in the window and she couldn’t see too easily. She sat upright in her bed and was rubbing her eyes when she heard a faint glugging sound. She opened her eyes to see Old Man Apple looking over her while holding a small bottle and a cloth soaked it a strange liquid.
“I no longer accept you as part of the family…” He stated as he shoved the cloth under Applejack’s nose. She barely had time to open her mouth, let alone cry for help before she was knocked out cold.

Applejack woke up in a dark room hogtied on a hard wooden floor. The room had a slight smell of sweat and bile. She looked around the room to see another young earth pony, about the same age as her, with a dark bluish grey coat and a blond mane, combed over to one side of her face. She was hogtied as well.
Another pony that she saw was a pegasus stallion who had a turquoise coat with a spiked up dark green mane and yellow eyes. She noticed that he was hogtied too. The last pony she noticed was a unicorn with a similar orange coat as her and light blue hair who was unsurprisingly, hogtied. Luckily for Applejack, she did not recognise any of these ponies in the dark room. Applejack was scared; she tried really hard to remember the last thing that happened to her. And then it all hit her at once. Old Man Apple said he would stop hurting the family, and before she passed out that morning, he said he didn’t count her as family anymore. The other ponies were all scared, but they actually didn’t know what was going to happen. Applejack shut her eyes and tried to ignore the other ponies’ presence. But every time she shut her eyes the only thing she could think of is how everyone in the room, including her would end up being used as fertiliser for the farm.
And for the first time in months, the strong-willed pony was defeated, and she cried.
Suddenly the door flung open and light flooded the room. A silhouette of a stallion stood in the doorway and reached for a switch. The door shut with a bang and Old Man Apple got into removing the gags. The first one he removed was Applejack’s.
As soon as Applejack could make a sound, the old stallion was prepared for a loud cry for help. Instead Applejack simply lied on the floor not making a sound. Old Man Apple was actually disappointed with this.
“Normally this is when you scream for help.” He said with a puzzled look on his face. Leaning in closer to Applejack he continued. “Why aren’t you screaming…”
She was mentally broken down and had lost her will to fight, but that wasn’t the reason she didn’t scream. “Because… Because I never heard any screaming in all the times I had passed this here shed.”
Old Man Apple smiled wryly. He changed his smile to be a friendlier one when he turned around to ungag the other ponies. None of the ponies bothered to scream for help as he removed their gags. This displeased him so he decided he’d have to get extra screams out today.
Looking around the room for things to work with he saw a sturdy metal pole across the ceiling, some chains, two small blocks of wood and the holes from when he had nailed a pony to the floor.
He grinned and ran to his satchel and pulled out a hammer and two nails. He threw two lengths of chain over the metal pole so that they hung down from the ceiling. Applejack had no idea what he was planning on doing. And as she thought about it, she realised that Old Man Apple spent a lot of time in the shed, there had to be some reason for all that time spent in here.
Old Man Apple places a box under the chains, lifted the turquoise pegasus up on the box and took a nail and a hammer. The feisty pegasus started to yell at him now as the other ponies watched horrified. The old stallion took a nail and positioned it where the pegasus’ wing joined with his back, then held a block of wood behind it with the same hoof.
“No… No, NO NO NO!!!” the pegasus begun to yell as he felt the point against the skin and bone in his wing. Applejack saw what was about to happen and shut her eyes tight.
The old stallion drew back the hammer and smashed it forward, puncturing the skin and digging through the bone. The Pegasus’ cried out as the nail started splitting the bone in his wing and tearing a hole in his skin. After seven strong and excruciating hits with the hammer, the nail had punctured the skin, bone and dug into the wood on the other side. That nail would not be easy to pull out again. The Pegasus started to beg and plead with his torturer.
“PLEASE! I’ll GIVE YOU ANYTHING!” He sobbed.
Old Man Apple was about to hammer in another nail on the other wing when he heard this. “Anything?”
“YES! ANYTHING, JUST DON’T HAMMER IN THAT NAIL!” Begged the pegasus.
Old Man Apple stopped to think for a moment, before continuing with hammering in the second nail. His victim thrashed about in an attempt to get away from his tormentor but the old stallion simply laughed as the pegasus was unable to move a single hoof, thanks to the tight bonds.
The wicked old stallion took a pair of pliers and bent the nails down to form hooks that protruded from his victim’s wounds. As he bent the exposed nails the young stallion screamed out again. Applejack couldn’t bear to have her eyes shut anymore; it gave her no way to anticipate the horrible shrieks of agony. She opened her eyes just in time to see Old Man Apple use the hook nails to hook up the pegasus to the chains hanging from the ceiling. As soon as he let go, the pegasus felt his body weight being pulled by gravity down to the floor, but the chains held his wings in position. The skin was slowly starting to tear and his wings were essentially being pulled off at an incredibly slow rate. He screamed and remained as still as possible, as every time he moved the more intense the pain got. The ponies’ torturer then positioned an upright knife underneath the pegasus so that when his wings were ripped from his body, he would become impaled, but not killed by the blade.
“Well while we wait for that process to finish we should try to save some time, so let’s get to work on you!” he said energetically, directing his attention to the unicorn. He took some wire from his satchel and held it out in front of the poor unicorn. Applejack could hardly see the wire it was that thin.
Suddenly, Old Man Apple had an ingenious idea! “When you think about it, I could fertilise more trees if I spread you out more!” He exclaimed while listening to the screaming from the pegasus in the background.
“Have you eaten today?” He asked the unicorn, who fearing the worst, nodded frantically. “Oh.”
“I don’t know how you did that, you’ve been here since yesterday!” he cackled. “Well anyway, you’re supposed to floss after eating.” Stated the twisted stallion as her threaded the razor sharp wire between the unicorn’s teeth.
Applejack’s stomach had taken enough, she vomited on the floor next to her and started coughing.
Old Man Apple ignored it and continued playing dentist, slicing the wire up through his victim’s gum, causing blood to run down both ends of the wire. He repeated the process for at least another ten teeth, merrily whistling a tune while the orange pony squealed louder and louder every time.
Suddenly there was a loud sickening snap, followed by the sound of the pegasus falling onto the blade, which pierced into his spine, severing the spinal cord and wedging itself between the vertebrae. As the blade pierced the pegasus’ back, he started coughing. His voice was so sore from screaming for so long that he could barely force out any more of them. The old stallion laughed at the success at his new torture device. “I must say, the sound of those wings tearing off? One of the most satisfying sounds I’ve heard for quite some time!” Sighing from all the excitement, he started turning around to the orange unicorn. “Now back to cleaning up those-“ He cut himself off when he noticed that his unicorn was dead at his feet. “What, gone after only one trick? That wasn’t very fun.”
Instead of worrying about the dead unicorn he became more focused on finishing off his pegasus.
“One warning with razor wire. Keep it away from throats.” He said to the crying pegasus as he wrapped it around his throat. Old Man Apple pulled the wire’s ends away from each other with such force that it sliced a ring around the turquoise stallion’s throat and took his head clean off.
Applejack and the earth pony looked into each other’s eyes fearfully, as if to say their final goodbyes.
“So who do we start on now?” The psychotic ghost stallion asked.

Rainbow Dash and Twilight started galloping towards Sweet Apple Acres to get completely destroy the ghost that had their heart set on killing Rainbow.
Only there was one problem with that statement. There are no such things as ghosts.
“Rainbow Dash, for the last time. It is not a ghost.” Twilight told her ally.
“Well if it isn’t a ghost, what is it?” Rainbow questioned.
Twilight smiled. She knew Rainbow would ask that. So she stayed up the night before working out what it could actually be.
“An illusion.”
“As in like, something you see and think is real?” She Responded. “Then how has it been killing ponies?”
Twilight shook her head and laughed. “Telekinetic magic to hold the weapons. Remember when it stopped chasing you when it lost the knife? It had nothing to attack did it?” Twilight was grinning at the idea.
Rainbow Dash noticed Twilight’s grin. That was an emotion! Could her friend still be somewhere in the prison of her mind? Then she realised the practicality of what Twilight had just said. “That actually makes sense…”
Twilight started running a bit faster. “Of course it does! It’s genius! What I want to know is who, and why chooses Applejack’s Great, Great Grandfather…”
Rainbow was amazed at how much stamina Twilight had gained since she lost her sanity, but she decided it would be best to bring something else up so that she didn’t end up saying something she would regret. “So how are going to take care of the illusion? I mean the tools could still attack right?”
Twilight didn’t reply to that question, instead asking a completely different one of her own. “Rainbow Dash, How long until we arrive there?”
Rainbow wasn’t happy about having her legitimate question being blatantly ignored, but answered Twilight regardless. “At this rate, I’d say probably 5 minutes.”
All of a sudden Twilight dropped to normal walking speed. Rainbow, confused as all hell stopped and ran back to where she had dropped back to.
Twilight spoke before Rainbow had even managed to think of her sentence. “We have time to get there. Save your energy.”
Rainbow knew that time might be one of the last things that they have, but was unable to think of any reason as to why they had to be there as soon as possible.
‘At this rate we’ll be there in 20 minutes.’ She thought to herself as she trotted alongside Twilight.

Old Man Apple pointed at the bluish grey pony, back to Applejack and back to the bluish grey pony, repeating this process for a minute, stopping when the minute was up.
His hoof stopped over the bluish grey pony and when she realised that she had been picked, her face scrunched up and she started to cry in fear.
Applejack didn’t actually know whether to be glad or upset. On the bright side, she would get to live longer. On the downside, she had to endure hearing the torture be executed on yet another pony.
Old Man Apple took out two knives, a needle, and a thread. He walked up to the ripped off pegasus wings, stepping on the dead body that the wings belonged to so that he could get a boost in height in order to reach them. Taking them down and using the hammer to rip out the Nails he started making small talk.
“What’s your name young pony?” he asked the bluish grey earth pony. She nervously looked around the room.
“Dawn…” she replied through the tears.
“Have you ever wanted to fly Dawn?” He asked Dawn, who was too absorbed by fear to see where her torturer was going with his question. Applejack made the connection between the needle, thread, ripped off wings and wishes about flying and started shaking her head at Dawn, desperately trying to get the message across to her.
“I, I guess?” She responded, not trying to upset her torturer and risk being put through inexplicable levels of pain.
“Good!” He exclaims. He takes a needle and threads it, and starts to sew the wing onto dawn’s left side, stabbing her violently with the needle and wriggling it around as he attempts to bring it back out of her flesh. Dawn saw what she has brought upon herself and started to scream and cry. Blood seeped out from her side where the wing was being sewn on as she felt the rough thread slide through her skin, rubbing against it and pulling on the muscle.
“You see Dawn, you should be grateful for what you have. Some ponies in this world are just so sick in the head. And so what if you can’t fly?” Old Man Apple began to sew on the other wing onto her, causing her to squirm on the floor as she tried to free her hooves from their bonds.
“I know a certain someone who wouldn’t even be here if they were grateful for the gifts I gave them.” He said, looking over at Applejack. “But soon they won’t be here anymore.” The old stallion added. “Come to think of it, neither will you!” He said while laughing maniacally.
He had finished sewing the wings to Dawn’s regular Earth Pony body. Blood streaked down her sides from where the needle had punctured and torn her soft flesh.
“Well are you ready to fly Dawn?” He asked her with a warm and friendly tone as he picked her up and held her above his head.
Dawn shouted for help, begged him not to do anything and looked at Applejack with pleading eyes before she is thrown directly at the solid stone wall. She barrel rolled in mid-air and collided with the wall side on, snapping the wing and ripping it, along with a good portion of her skin clean off. As Old Man Apple walked over to her, blood oozed out of her side and onto the dusty stone wall.
“Sorry Dawn. It seems you are just not used to flying yet!” He said maliciously. “Let’s take that other one off then.” He announced as he picked up a large, sharpened knife.
Applejack couldn’t stand it any longer. “Kill me instead and let her go!” She yelled.
Old Man Apple stopped and looked at her. “Oh I couldn’t. Dawn and I are having so much fun!” He walked back over to the shivering pony lying on the floor and started to hack away the skin where the wing was sewed on. He dug the knife in half way, not finishing completely cutting around the wing before tossing the knife aside. He turns to Applejack and laughed. “Knives can get boring sometimes.”
He slowly tore off the sewed on wing and a large strip of flesh got pulled off along with it. He simply pulled slower, laughing as Dawn shrieked in anguish. Dawn was now missing a lot of the skin on her sides and was bleeding profusely onto the floor. She was barely alive when Old Man Apple placed his rear hoof on her head and stomped down, snapping her neck.
He tossed the ripped off wing aside and walked over to Applejack.
“I must say being a ghost is pretty good. Your hooves get to stay nice and clean. But then again I’m not actually a ghost am I? More of an old friend whose life you helped to ruin!”
He walked off the retrieve the bloodied knife from the floor, but as he turned his back, the door flung open and Twilight strutted in, unfazed by the sight of the mutilated ponies on the floor and the smell of death and bile. Rainbow Dash was not so unaffected and she ran outside to vomit.
“How did you get in!?” Old Man Apple roared at Twilight.
She smiled. “You never locked the door…”
And with a flash of brilliant white light the illusion of Old Man Apple disappeared.

Rainbow entered the room again, still feeling sick, but having recovered from the initial shock was able to grin and bear it.
While Twilight started searching the room for anything interesting, Rainbow helped drag Applejack outside of the torture shed.
“Applejack, are you sure you’re going to be fine?” Rainbow asked her.
“I’m sure. But it’s not over yet.” Applejack replied.
Rainbow raised an eyebrow at what Applejack just said.
“Old Man Apple said he wasn’t a ghost, and more…” She paused to catch her breath. “And more of an old friend…”
Rainbow was thinking about that statement when Twilight called out to her. She went in to see why she was called back into the hell hole. Inside, Twilight was standing in front of an opened concrete hatch.
Rainbow looked in to see a dark tunnel that led to Celestia knows where. “I guess we gotta go down there…”
Twilight nodded, keeping her eyes in the shadow of her fringe. “Leave Applejack here. She’s too weak to come along.”
Rainbow was about to protest but she considers the logic behind what Twilight had just said. After nodding once, she runs outside to tell her friend to stay where she was. “Applejack? Twilight and I are going to follow this dark tunnel. We think It’ll lead us to this ‘old friend’ you were talking about.”
Applejack sat upright. “No way! You can’t go down there! Rainbow you could die!”
Rainbow swallowed her nervousness. “If I don’t try, more ponies than me and going to die. And more than enough ponies have already died this week”
Applejack simply said nothing and looked at Rainbow with tears in her eyes. Rainbow hugged her before running off to join Twilight in the dark tunnel to go and meet their ‘old friend’ for the last time.

Twilight was displeased with Rainbow’s obvious ‘friendship’ with Applejack, but she was far from angry. “Rainbow Dash, you’ve been letting emotions get the better of you. By taking so long to say goodbye to Applejack you’ve given who ever we will face at the end of the tunnel more time to prepare for us. You are becoming weak again. There is a distinct difference between the weak and the strong. The weak all die.”
Rainbow had never been a fan of being called weak, but tried to supress her annoyance. “Not everyone who has emotions died early.”
Twilight started talking to her in a grim voice. “Of course they did, don’t fool yourself. Life is a war against itself. Often the weak in this life find enjoyment in eating foods that are bad for you. They are too absorbed in the simple pleasures of this life to realise that by eating and unbalanced diet, they are only killing themselves quicker. I for one am going to outlive every single one of the mortals in Ponyville.”
Rainbow failed to comprehend this. “How are you sure you’ll survive that long?”
“Maintain a healthy diet, think quick and smart, have limited trust, powerful allies and most importantly; Exploit weaknesses to kill your enemies.”
She was beginning to strongly dislike this new Twilight, but it was important she didn’t bring it up until they finished the current job.
Twilight had caught on though. “You don’t like me Rainbow Dash.”
She froze. Rainbow knew what this new Twilight was capable of. The sights of the mutilated ponies had been too much for Rainbow and were sure to haunt her dreams for the longest part of her life. These same sights left Twilight completely unaffected. But Twilight stopped moving and continued talking.
“But we are allies, not friends. And that is why you are safe… Until you cross me.” They both started walking through the dark tunnel again, only this time in silence.
Eventually the silence was broken as Twilight prepared her ally for what they would be facing, up ahead. “Remember, who we are going to meet up here is probably without weaknesses. But it is a two against one fight, we should have the upper hand…” She stopped as she said the last word, spun around and was face to face with Rainbow.
Twilight was showing signs of anger in her eyes as she finished. “Provided that you keep down your emotions…” She turned around again and noticed that she was approaching a door.
She turned back around to Rainbow, signalled for her to get down on the floor. Both ponies were lying flat on their stomachs in the dirt tunnel when Twilight cast a spell to knock the door completely off of its hinges.
When she did and blade dropped down from above the door and an arrow shot out from the back of the room, landing a mere foot behind Rainbow, making her flinch. Twilight, satisfied that she set off the traps entered the room.
Rainbow followed her in the stone hallway. Along the sides were rows of shelves with plaques on them. On every one of these plaques was the name of someone in Ponyville, with a few exclusions. Rainbow found her name, along with Applejacks, Twilights and Rarity’s. Then she saw a round figure on the shelves ahead. It was dark and she couldn’t quite make out what the figure was, but then she read the plaque. ‘Spike’
Rainbow took a step back in horror as she noticed that mounted on the shelf above the plaque was the severed head of Spike, with a seven point start hacked into his forehead. She ran over to another shelf on the other side to see the heads of Snips and Snails, both with their horns cracked off and a seven point star hacked into their heads. There were at least 15 heads throughout the room, and she felt sick again. Twilight had noticed this as well, but had taken something very different from the sight.
“They have a weakness.” Twilight smiled. She began to chuckle with excitement “They are malicious and cocky.” She composed herself again and continued walking down the hallway to the last door. ‘Yeah, well so are you…’ Rainbow thought to herself.
Twilight stood in front of the door with Rainbow at her side. They were about to open the door when they heard a voice neither of them had heard for almost a year, or maybe more.
“Come in!” The voice laughed from behind the door. “The Great and Powerful Trixie will see you now…”

Rainbow kicked open the door while standing outside of the doorway, expecting an attack to be sent flying out of it as soon as it opened. ‘Trixie?’ Rainbow thought to herself. Trixie had been a pain in the past but she had no idea she’d be capable of this. Twilight, while also taking cover behind the doorway was listening intently at the silence.
Trixie had barely begun to talk again when Twilight had pinpointed her location and cast a spell on that area, throwing her to the ground with a thud. “Oof.”
Rainbow and Twilight walked into the room now, confident that Trixie was unable to attack them.
Trixie was on the floor, wearing her star covered cloak and hat, cackling psychotically.
Rainbow was unable to resist the urge any longer. She kicked her in the face and started screaming at her.
“WHY!?” Rainbow had fire in her heart; she longed to avenge everyone who had died for Trixie’s trophy shelf.
Trixie continued laughing on the floor before composing herself to speak. Twilight had let her hold on her go seeing that she was unarmed. It seemed Twilight was definitely becoming cocky too.
“Well Rainbow…” Trixie started as she brushed the dirt off of her. “It all started when you tried to test the Great and Powerful Trixie.” Trixie straightened her hat and held her head high. “If it wasn’t for your attempts to put the Great and Powerful Trixie out of business, poor Snips and Snails never would have brought the Ursa to town. When she left, a lot of the ponies in Ponyville were spreading the word of what happened. She was completely out of business. Everywhere the Great and Powerful Trixie went, she was mocked. She could not afford to feed herself, so she had resorted to becoming a common thief.”
Rainbow was not yet feeling any of the sympathy that Trixie was trying to dig out of her, so she just continued talking.
“But the rumours grew! The ponies across Equestria were shouting about how the Great and Powerful Trixie had set an Ursa Minor onto Ponyville, because she didn’t like them! And they caught on and became accepted as fact. The Great and Powerful Trixie was a criminal, wanted for attempted mass murder.”
Twilight began mocking Trixie out of an old hate that had been re-ignited. “Yet you still cling to calling yourself ‘the Great and Powerful Trixie’?” She laughed.
Trixie brushed it off and persisted with her story. “And then she decided to do some research. She found out the names of everypony that helped to spread this rumour that put a bounty on her head. You’ve seen the list. It’s just outside the door.”
Rainbow realised that although unknowingly, over half of the ponies in Ponyville had helped to cause the rumour to spread. “But, they didn’t know it would go this far!” growled Rainbow.
Trixie laughed and started walking over to a desk with a book on it. “Oh they knew what might happen. Everyone on that list had said something about the Great and Powerful Trixie that contributed to the rumour.”
Twilight was not interested in the rumour. “What gave you the idea of a ghost illusion?”
Trixie held up a book and threw it to Twilight. “The journal of Old Man Apple… Everything that the Great and Powerful Trixie did, he had done in the past. She found it when she broke into the Apple Family’s house. She thought the chest would contain gold or something with monetary value. But it had something better. The ultimate plan for revenge!”
Rainbow couldn’t actually believe that Trixie was copying someone. Old Man Apple really did these things to existing ponies once.
“Unfortunately, it appears the Great and Powerful Trixie was not as experienced as him, she often slipped up. But that’s why she used the illusion. Everypony would be so focused on trying to kill something that didn’t exist, that she would eventually slaughter them all.”
Rainbow saw one flaw in the plan. “What happens when you finished? You’d definitely be wanted then.”
Trixie had a wide grin on her face. “Do you know who’s on the end of the list Rainbow?” Trixie begun laughing and she threw her arms in air as she announced the last pony on her list. “Why, The Great and Powerful Trixie of course!”
Trixie was completely insane. She was going to kill everyone else and then torture herself to death.
Rainbow was burning with rage at the stupidity of Trixie’s plan. “You know who’s at the top on my list?” She yelled.
Trixie smiled and started laughed insanely.
Twilight did not bother to assist her ally, instead decided to sit back and point out her flaws in her attack to herself.
Rainbow charged right at Trixie and anticipated her uppercut. Grabbing her hoof with both of her own she flipped Trixie over her head and slammed her into the floor. Twilight was surprised and Trixie simply laughed as Rainbow continued to attack her. Rainbow raised her hoof and brought it straight down into Trixie’s face. Trixie didn’t even fight back anymore, just took the beating and laughed the entire time.
Rainbow picked up Trixie by the cloak and held her in the air. “This is for everypony that you killed!” she screamed with tears welling up in her eyes before she punched Trixie twice, straight in the mouth and breaking several teeth. Trixie swallowed the teeth and started coughing as one got lodged in her throat. Between coughs, she continued to laugh. Twilight was surprised as to how well her ally was doing in her emotion filled retaliation.
Rainbow was crying as she screamed her next words. “AND THIS ONE’S FOR SPIKE!”
She threw Trixie higher in the air, performed a half spin, and kicked her with her force of both of her back legs. Trixie flew into a cabinet and fell down to the ground. The tooth in her throat was now dislodged and lips were smeared with blood. The cabinet behind her started cracking. “My turn.” Said Trixie as she slowly stood up, but it was too late. By the time she was standing, the draw on the cabinet broke and all of her knives contained within fell out on to her. She barely had time to start screaming before a long silver blade had pierced through the back of her skull and protruded through her eye. At least another six knives had soon stabbed into her body, many more pounded her with their hilts. Blood poured out of her wounds and vitreous fluid seeped out of her split eye and down the blade through her head.
Rainbow had killed somepony. Somepony that she hated and who deserved to die, but she still felt hollow inside. She had blood on her hooves from when she punched Trixie in the mouth. Twilight saw her ally’s distress and put a hoof on her shoulder. She grabbed the journal of Old Man Apple and helped bring Rainbow back through the tunnel.

Twilight emerged from the tunnel, greeted by the sight of the massacred ponies spread out across the blood and bile stained floor. Twilight finally felt the effects of the torture room; her stomach heaved and begged to empty. She held back the urge, ran outside and put Rainbow onto the floor who just sat there looking at the grass, before running around the corner to vomit. Applejack was no longer outside, but Twilight assumed she had run back to the farm. She backed away and sat down in front of Rainbow. Twilight had been going mad from the distress of the idea that she hadn’t been around to protect Spike, and that she had somehow contributed to his death. ‘If I don’t help my ally,’ Twilight was thinking before she cut herself off mid-thought. ‘If I don’t help my friend, she could go insane like I did.’
She trotted over to her friend and sat down next to her, putting her arms around Rainbow and letting her cry onto her shoulder.
An hour passed, and Twilight had just sat with her friend, comforting her in an attempt to help her hold on to the sanity that was ever so slowly slipping away. Rainbow cried until she had no more tears left. Twilight brought her over to Applejack’s house right nearby and knocked on the door.
Applejack opened the door, and looked at Twilight and Rainbow. It was clear that a little part of them had died, and as Rainbow and Twilight looked back at Applejack, they noticed the same.
If they were going to get through the trauma with their sanity intact, they would have to stick together.