Applejack’s Dilemma
Author’s Note: Here’s another great story that we totally didn’t just pull out of our butts. Nope, not at all... Please don’t think this is a realistic assessment of our true writing talents. WE SPEAK IN THE ROYAL WE! Come equipped with many emoticons to express the wtf-ery that this will invoke. ~GNO
It was another sunny day in Sweet Apple Acres. The sun rose over the orchards, casting a beautiful glow on the apple trees as it turned from night to day. The bright glow hit the red paint of the barn, in which Applejack stood in a somber manner, eyes fixed on a small cardboard box on a table.
Tears poured out of her green eyes as she stared at the cardboard box that had many colors and words on it. They were the words that were the cause of her strife. She hadn’t realized what she had done until it was too late to change what she had done.
This was horrible... terrible... this wasn’t just anything, like fights with Rainbow Dash or sibling rivalry, or even stealing something from the merchant stalls. This... this was murder. She couldn’t believe that she had actually done it! She had actually taken the- No. She couldn’t think about it. It was too painful.
It was hard to even fathom that she had done this, to someone so close to her, she could hear the cries of, “Why?! How could you do this to us?!” that had at the time fallen on deaf ears. She didn’t know what had overcome her as she devoured them. More tears fell, the sun that was rising glistening on the tear coming from her eye.
The tear slipped down her cheek and fell through the air, almost in slow-motion as grisly images of the crime she had committed seemed to flash inside it. The small drop of salty despair crashed against the barn’s floor, soon followed by a watery cascade of its brethren.
Brethren. How dare she even think the word? Just a mere few minutes ago she had devoured ones who she had once considered her brethren. “It’s not mah fault,” She mutters to herself, slowly starting to rock back and forth, “Ah was just so hungry, there weren’t anything else to eat in the gosh-darn cupboard.”
Still... she knew that there was no righting the wrongs she had committed. COUNTLESS wrongs. The whole b- No. No! Applejack turned her head away, trying to hold the tears that threatened to explode from behind her eyelids. She gulped, managing to blink back the ocean of sadness, if only for a little while. It wouldn’t last long. Soon the very recent past would return to haunt her.
She couldn’t hold it in anymore, images of how much she had enjoyed it haunted her behind her eyelids. She had savoured the taste. She continued to mutter to herself, tears pouring down her face. What would everypony think about her after they find out the horrors that had just recently transpired. She may even be banished to the mooooooooooon by the powerful Princess Celestia. She had to hide the evidence, she couldn’t let her life be destroyed by a mistake.
Yes... yes... the evidence. The evidence on the table right before her. Applejack whipped around, her back to the table, and with a swift buck the cardboard box was flying through the air, dented and nearly destroyed. She dashed to its side, bringing a hoof down on it in a quick death strike of mercy, ending its suffering then and there. She picked up the box by one of the flaps and flung the doomed thing into the cellar.
It clattered down the stairs, each thud ringing heavily in Applejack’s ears. Maybe it would help if she never saw the box again never again was reminded of what she had just done. She fell to her knees, her head hanging in shame, it was terrible to do what she had just done, but it was even worse to cover it up like she was doing, but she knew she had no choice, she needed support right now, the last thing she needed was to have everyone turn on her, like she knew they would.
Applejack breathed heavily, adrenaline pumping through her veins, not giving her a chance to contemplate what she had done. She rested for a moment in a sort of restless peace, before the barn door slammed open and Applebloom stood there, in all her Cutie Mark Crusader glory. “HEY, SIS!” She shouted, rearing onto her hind legs. “Ya done eatin’ them Applejacks yet? Ya been down here fer an hour and Big Mac’s missin’ yer help out in tha orchard! I hope yah didn’t eat them all, they’re mah favorite to eat in the mornin’!”
Applejack stopped, her vision clouding first in confusion and then in rage. “What... Ya mean... YOU THINK EATIN’ THESE THINGS IS NORMAL?!” She screeched. Apple Bloom was alive and well... before Applejack unleashed her unearthly fire nation powers upon the poor filly, “HOW DARE YAH?! HOW DARE YAH EAT MAH BRETHREN?!”
Her little sister now nothing more than ashes floating in the light breeze, Applejack dashed out of the barn, tears streaming down her eyes. “This can’t be... Ah’m a monster! Ah’m a monster! First them... and now Apple Bloom! Ah can’t be stopped!” She needed help, and quick. Who better than Twilight Sparkle? She was a psychologist.... right? “And a trusted friend, she’d never betray meh....” She took off to the tree library and knocked on the door.
“Yes, Applejack?” Twilight asked, “Are you alright?” She frowned in concern, noticing the panicked way that her friend was breathing. “What happened to you, Applejack?”
Applejack stopped for a moment. “... Ah... Ah’ll explain everythin’. May ah please step inside fer a moment?” Twilight nodded and stepped aside, and Applejack entered her treehouse-library. “Well, ah’m here on account of... What’s that on yer table there?”
“Oh, that?” Twilight said, turning around and looking at the table, “Oh that’s just my breakfast cereal, I love apple jacks.”
Applejack’s eyes widened and her heart seemed to stop for a moment. “No... NO! It CAN’T BE!” She screeched, rising onto her hind legs. “All mah friends are betrayin’ me! NO!” She roared, fire spraying from her mouth in a flurry of fire nation. Soon Twilight had joined Applebloom, floating on the breeze through an open window.
It was like this with everyone she went to desperately for help, she couldn’t run away from reminders of not only her cannibalism but the deaths of everyone she had done by way of fire nation. Was there no one to stop her? Was there anyone who knew of her pain and her guilt?
Suddenly the fires she had caused were quenched as a large wave washed over them, a beautiful pony with shimmering black hair with purple streaks in them and eyes like blue limpid tears kind of like Amy Lee from Evanescence (AN: If you don’t know who they are get the HELL out of here!), “I am Ebony Da’arkpony Demenfilly Raven Way! And I am here to tell you that after I was forced to kill Darko by the Bark Lord I felt your pain, I understand you, become gothic with me and we will heal together!”
“SWEET MOTHER O’ CELESTIA!” Screamed Applejack. She lunged from the sheets of her bed, screaming like a banshee. “Ah... what a horrible dream. ‘Specially that last part.” She rose and stood at the bedside, taking a moment to stretch out before walking down to the breakfast table.
Waiting for her there was a big, shiny Mcintosh apple. Swiping it off of the table without thinking, she devoured it in a few huge bites. Pausing to look at the spent apple core in front of her, she gulped.
“Sweet Celestia... WHAT HAVE AH DONE?!”
THE END! Or is it?!
