Doctor Jekyll and Mister Shyde

Applejack groaned and gazed up at the ceiling. How long have I been here? she wondered. She tried to remember how her life was before Keres, but she could only come up with blurry pictures. Stuff that should have been familiar like Granny's pie, Apple Bloom's smile, and Big Mac's trademark 'Eeyup' were fuzzy and distant.

She knew why she couldn't remember as clearly as she should. It was Keres. It was always Keres. She was manipulating her.

Applejack glanced over at the point where the chain was attached to the wall. After cutting her hair, Keres had chained her back up while she left with the package.

It bothered her, but she was not only hungry, but she was craving some more of that Pegasus pie. Applejack shook her head and held her hooves up to her temples. Keres is manipulating you. What you are doing and thinking is wrong. She repeated this to herself, desperately trying to drive Keres' voice from her head.

But no matter how often she reminded herself that she was being manipulated, Keres' voice slipped in. Her cold tone seemed to numb those thoughts again and again without fail.

How long is this going to last? she asked herself. How long will I last here? The mental image of herself finally and completely submitting to Keres scared her, but she knew that that was what Keres was waiting for.
She also knew that what Keres was doing was wrong, but she had no idea how long she would last. While Keres was here, she didn't think she'd last long at all.

As if on cue, the front door opened, accompanied by slow, methodical hoofsteps. Applejack simultaneously felt both fear and anticipation as the thing that controlled her friend's body trotted through the doorway.

"Applejack! I am so glad to see you. You know, I just wasn't sure that you were going to stay."

Applejack cocked her head. "What do ya mean ya weren't sure Ah was gonna stay?"

Keres smiled and walked over to the chain. She simply held up the metal collar that was clearly not fastened around Applejack's neck. The farm mare rubbed her neck, which suddenly felt very naked and exposed. She gazed up at the shining collar and started unconsciously reaching for it. She didn't know why, but she wanted it. She needed it.

The buttery pony raised an eyebrow, but only watched with increasing interest. However, as soon as Applejack's extended hoof brushed against the cold metal, her trance was broken. She yanked her leg back, silently wondering what magic Keres had put on her.

Keres had chained her up... hadn't she? Now that she attempted to think back, she couldn't remember whether she had or hadn't. Applejack shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, but that did nothing to clear the fog in her mind.

Why couldn't she think logically? She looked up in Keres' eyes again, not quite understanding what was happening to her. The pegasus gazed back at her with cold, emotionless eyes. Applejack shivered.

Keres smirked and draped a wing over Applejack's back. She led the confused mare down to the kitchen and sat her down at the table. The orange pony was still craving Scootaloo pie, so she decided that she wouldn't hesitate this time. When Keres put a plate of pie down at her spot, she would just dive in. When she put down a plate of... carrots?

Applejack stared down at the baby carrots in front of her in confusion. "Wha- what happened to the pie?"

Keres waved a hoof dismissively. "It was all eaten. Surely you remember that both of us ate all of it. Why? Did you want more of it?" Applejack dropped her gaze until she was staring intently at her hooves, not willing to answer. "It's okay if you liked it. I am flattered, but I can't make more unless I have all the ingredients. And, right now, I'm missing the most important one. However, if you really want more pie, I suppose I could send you out to gather the last ingredient. It's your choice."

Applejack slowly looked up, realization dawning. Before Keres, she would have emphatically said no. After Keres... she was toying with the idea of actually luring somepony there and killing them for a pie.

Yet, there was a small voice in the back of her mind that urged her to resist, that reminded her that Keres was evil.

"Ah... Ah choose..."

Rainbow Dash lay in her hospital bed. She was completely spent from crying so much that she couldn't do much except lie there. She knew that Keres was just trying to make her life miserable. And it was working. Why didn't she take me? I should have been there, not Applejack.

At the thought of the honest farmpony, Rainbow sat up and gazed once again into the box that still lay on her bed. It should have been me.

Her entire body shook as she started crying once more, still mourning Applejack's death.

Twilight knocked on the door. "Rainbow Dash? Are you alright?"

After receiving no response, she slowly pushed the door until she could slip in.

Rainbow had stopped wailing a while ago, but she was still crying. Tears dripped off her face, absorbing into the golden hair that had belonged to her best friend.

Twilight cautiously approached her friend until she was standing right next to her hospital bed. She pulled Rainbow Dash into a tight hug and the pegasus fell limply into the embrace.

"How - hic! - could sh- she do this?" She sniffled into Twilight's shoulder, the lavender fur already growing darker from her tears.

Twilight said nothing; she simply ran her hoof through her friend's unruly mane, hoping to soothe her. Using her telekinesis, she picked up the gift box and moved it out of sight.

Rainbow Dash sighed quietly as she melted into the alicorn's embrace. She had poured so much energy into mourning for her friend that she was exhausted.

Twilight waited until the bedridden mare's breathing slowed, showing that she had finally fallen asleep. She gently laid Rainbow's head on her pillow and, grabbing the package in her magic, tiphoofed out of the room.

Once the hospital door clicked shut, Twilight dashed out of the building as fast as she could. As she flew to the Castle of Friendship, she made calculations in her head. She was pretty sure that the heart was too small to belong to Applejack, but she needed to test her theory.

She threw the crystal door open and bolted into the castle library. Back when she first moved into the castle, she had sectioned one corner of the library off, making it into her study/experiment area. She knew that she would not be disturbed while she was in there; she had coated the area in soundproof magic.

"Where is it?" She muttered as she rummaged through her stuff. "Aha!"

She lifted up her microscope. It had been a birthday gift from Princess Cadence years ago, but Twilight had never been so glad to see it.

Hopefully, in studying the heart, she could prove that Applejack was still alive.