It was a bright and sunny day in Ponyville. The sky was clear, the birds were chirping, everypony was simply getting on with their day, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. And then there was a shriek.
"Fluttershy? What's wrong?" called Twilight. She and her friends were on their way to pick up Applejack from the farm so they could go to town to see Horn Wars, a series Rainbow Dash followed devotedly. She was a fan of the action and fighting scenes, although Twilight reminded her that regular unicorns didn't use their horns as swords as depicted in the movie.
"Oh darling, I'm sure she's fine. Probably just got startled by one of the animals," Rarity said, clearly in no rush to step hoof into the barn portion of Sweet Apple Acres. She'd just had a hooficure done yesterday at the spa and didn't plan on going back until the next week.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "I don't know about you guys, but any good friend would actually go and make sure everything's okay." Puffing out her chest, Rainbow Dash sped past them into the barn. "Which is why I'm going!" she said as she passed. "Fluttershy, I'm coming!"
"Oooh, are they playing hide and seek? I want to play too! Wait for me, Rainbow Dash!" cried Pinkie Pie as she took off after the pegasus.
The two unicorns left behind looked at each other for a moment and burst out laughing. They walked at a comfortable pace, matching their stride to one another. However, both their ears perked as they heard a second panicked cry, followed by a gasp that could be heard all the way from outside the barn. Whatever their friends had seen, it was much more than they had expected. Twilight and Rarity dashed toward the voices. "What is it, Rainbow Dash?" Twilight cried as she burst through the barn house doors with Rarity trailing her closely. She felt a strange uneasiness in her chest, something that usually happened when there was a major threat or situation in Equestria. Shaking her head, Twilight prayed to Celestia that she was wrong for once.
Upon entering, Twilight could immediately tell something about the air in the barn was off. It was damp, and strangely enough, carried an unnatural scent, slightly metallic if she had to guess. Why doesn't it smell like apples? The first thing she saw was her three friends all standing on different sides of the dim environment, looks of utter shock on their faces. She cocked her head to the side, wondering just what the commotion was. She scanned the room one direction at a time. The ceiling was fine, if not a little dusty; the dark brown wooden walls seemed ordinary; the floor wa--
And then she saw it.
Twilight blinked. She rubbed her eyes, which were clearly failing her. The scene in front of her seemed so real, but she was certain it had to be a dream. A horrible, horrible dream. But deep down inside, Twilight knew she couldn't wake up from reality. The choked sobs from Rarity confirmed it all: the Apple family was dead, brutally murdered. "Oh Celestia, what will I do?" she whispered, falling to the dirty floor in defeat. She could barely will herself to look at the slaughtered ponies in front of her, but it was her duty to Equestria. To Applejack. To friendship.
The room was deathly silent, save for the occasional sob from Rarity or Fluttershy. Twilight glanced at each of her friends to see how they were coping; Pinkie Pie was frozen in place, unable to tear her eyes away from the sight; Fluttershy had flattened herself to the ground and covered her eyes, tears leaking from between her hooves; Rainbow Dash was doing her best to put on a brave face, but she faltered and turned around, unable to hide her grief as she sobbed openly. Twilight took a deep breath, begging herself to stay strong just for a moment. She had to see what happened.
Every Apple family member's body lay on the ground in a pool of blood, which Twilight suspected was each their own. Taking a closer look at the first body, she could see Granny Smith had multiple stab wounds to the flank, each one puncturing very deep. One of them almost reached the floor on the other side, and Twilight retched in disgust, hyperventilating as she tried to call her nerves. She then moved on to Big Mac. His once bright red face was completely blue from lack of oxygen, his lifeless green eyes bulging from their sockets. There were also some scores across his flank, as though somepony had slash him after choking him.Twilight had no doubt he had been strangled, and she shivered at the thought of his terrifying final moments.
Twilight felt her heart break in two again as she lay eyes on Apple Bloom. The filly lay face down in the dirt, and her neck was twisted at a disgustingly unnatural angle. There were slash marks across her flank, and Twilight realized in horror that what she thought was a stream of blood from Apple Bloom's body was actually her severed tail torn into ragged pieces on the ground.
Twilight steeled herself and prepared to lay her eyes on Applejack, but she turned away so quickly that she felt something pop unnaturally in her neck, pain shooting up her spine. I have to do this for the Apples. Even on first glance, it was clear that Applejack had suffered the most gruesome injuries of all. Her head was separated cleanly from her neck, and all her legs suffered the same fate, only bloody stumps remaining on the corpse. Her dead eyes were wide and her mouth was open in a silent final plea for help. The entire front layer of the mare's flank had nearly been cut off and gashed with some sort of sick marking, completely defacing her cutie mark beyond recognition.
Twilight could only hope they had all been quick deaths without
suffering, but it was unlikely given the horrific nature of the crimes. Twilight looked around. It all felt surreal. The sound of her name being called snapped her back into focus.
"Twilight, we've gotta find who did this," Rainbow Dash said quietly. She was mourning, but her face was twisted in anger. She reached a hoof out to Applejack, but Twilight blocked it with her magic.
"I'm sorry, Rainbow Dash. Please don't," she whispered. "I agree. We need to find out who did this, or else they might strike again, and next time..." She trailed off, not wanting to voice her fears, though the implication of her silence was just as heavy.
The friends all exchanged a solemn look, nodding to each other, some more certain than others. "I'm sorry, everypony," said Twilight. "Let's all head back to the Friendship Castle so we can figure out what to do next."
Rainbow Dash eyed her suspiciously. "What about the movie!?"
"Yes darling, as much as I hate to admit it, I would much rather go see Horn Wars with Rainbow Dash," chimed in Rarity.
Twilight's eyes grew wide. "Are you two even taking this seriously? Applejack and her family are dead!"
"Well perhaps she deserved it," said Rarity, inspecting her raised hoof for imperfections. "Perhaps she took her honesty too far this time." A collective gasp rang out in the room. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy hugged each other, watching helplessly from the sideline as the tension between their friends grew.
"Rarity... What are you saying?" If Twilight didn't know better, she would have thought... No, Rarity would never do that.
"Yeah!" Rainbow Dash flew in front of the fancy mare and jabbed a hoof in her chest. "Do you know what happened?"
Rarity snarled, causing Rainbow Dash to back up. "Do I know what happened? DO I KNOW? OF COURSE I KNOW!" She gestured toward the four dead ponies. "It's rather simple, dears. I killed them."
"No..." Twilight whispered, falling to the ground. "Why?"
"Why? WHY? I'll tell you why," Rarity said calmly, spitting on Applejack's corpse. "Applejack choice of attire was so utterly unfashionable, and I offered to help her become stylish, free of charge like a good friend. And do you know what she said? She said, "Ah appreciate it Rarity, but ah'm doing just fine", and I couldn't stand being friends with such an unfashionable pony, so I did the only thing I could to make my world beautiful again!"
"Oh, I get it!" said Rainbow Dash, jabbing Rarity in the shoulder playfully. "Well what are we waiting for then? Let's go to the movies!" The group of friends all nodded in agreement and went on their merry way to see Horn Wars. It turned out to be an even better movie than they thought and they all lived happily ever after
