Sitting down where Ponyville once stood, a colossal, towering, and ominous factory loomed over the land. At one gate, all unicorn employees came to work, staring ahead without a thought. At another gate, came a group of various species of ponies with cameras smiling and joking with one another. And behind the factory, large carriages pulled by diamond dogs parked and loaded their cargo; a mixture of uniform unmarked black boxes and wooden crates marked "Apples." The Dimond Dogs, in a panic to pack up, dropped one of the black boxes. They quickly panicked and checked to make sure the lid was not open. After a quick sigh of relief, they packed the black box away like the rest.
This was the Sparkle Apple Factory. Making Apple Cider, Apple cakes, and other Apple products for about seven years now!
To a casual tourist, it may seem ominous, but it's nothing to worry about. You go in through the second gate, get to take some pictures as you watch them make the cyder, then leave. It's only when you start to think logically that something seems off. For example, despite how humungous the factory was, you only seemed to look around half the first floor. The second was that if you saw the shipments, you would wonder why none were labeled "Sugar" or "cinnamon" or something like that. If you were paying close attention, you would even realize you were short a few tourists coming out than going in. Perhaps if you had one good eye, you would even notice the Apple Cider being made on the tour was a slightly lighter shade of yellow than the one you would buy at a store.
But perceptive ponies like that tend to be missing from the count on the way out.
The factory was founded by its three founders: Twilight Sparkle, and Flim and Flam brothers. At first, the Cider never sold too well and was even criticized for its horrible taste. It looked like the company would close in the first year of opening. However, luck soon came to the company. The horrible taste of the cider seemed to come from Flim and Flam's employment, as after they went missing the quality of the product improved substantially.
In the third year of success, back when the company was one small shop in Ponyville, a small set of ponies were hired to help run the growing business; The fabulous Rarity was hired as a marketing guru; the bombastic Rainbow Dash was hired to help with delivering more important shipments; the meek Fluttershy was hired to... Sweet Apple Acres was soon bought by Twilight when they began to have financial troubles. Finally, the wacky Pinkie Pie was hired to work as Twilight's personal entertainer.
You can tell who stayed on Twilight's good side by where they are now in the company about four years later.
The Apple Family still works like all hell to get Twilight Apples and other ingredients, but now that there are more farms, they can have days off. Rainbow Dash, shortly after being let go from the company, became a hermit before disappearing. Rarity works as the CEO of a second factory that also doubles as a casino. Fluttershy came into work one day and has not been seen again since. Pinkie Pie, similarly, came into work one day, only to vanish without a trace.
A few new hires are Twilight's three underlings; Trixie Lulamoon, Starlight Glimmer, and Minuette. All three of them are planning to become CEOs of their own companies one day. Or in the event of Twilight's death, the owner of the whole company. The three of them were part of a larger group of twelve, but one by one the group was picked away as they learned more and more of what they were expected to do. Trixie is the most fearful; Starlight is the quietest, and Minuette is very mixed... yet ALL of them are complacent. Today, Trixie and Starlight are over at Rarity's factory to get more perspective on their future. Minuette was told to stay behind as punishment for trying to quit.
Twilight sat in her office in a large comfy chair in front of her desk. A very dark, yet cozy room at the very top of the factory with books, globes, and boxes of Apple Cider all around. Two large bookshelves stood behind her, stuffed to the brim. To her left was a glass wall of a window that viewed Canterlot. The clouds were a lot less gray near her old home. In Front of her was a large wooden door fully locked up.
Twilight took a sip of cider from her tea cup.
She went all out; sporting a beautiful purple suit made from rare silk as a gift from Rarity a long time ago. Her hair was the same as ever, only now with a diamond-encrusted pink kanzashi pined at the top. Her eyelids had bags and her eyes looked lifeless.
Twilight took another sip.
She had been hearing from security all day as they tried to keep things down. Luckily, if her prediction is right, they should be able to keep the recipe safe. Sadly, if Twilight is right, then it will be time for one of her three students to rise up and take on the company much sooner than anticipated.
Twilight took another sip. Her cup was starting to empty.
She looked over to an old photo, she and four other ponies sat in front of an Apple Cider store. The yellow, blue, and white ones looked very happy, while the pink one could barely stay still. Next to it is another photo of Twilight; She is at her first farm shaking hooves with an orange pony clearly faking her smile. The yellow one can be seen in the corner saying something to a dog. Finally, a picture of Celestia and Twilight reuniting just before being replaced. Twilight remembers how sad Celestia was over her sister and how easy it was to get that changeling to work for her. Now she can get ingredients from Canterlot with the help of her bug friends. This is the last photo all of her "friends" appear in. Rarity looked nice in her dress that night.
Twilight tried to take another sip and found the cider was almost finished.
Twilight wonders about how her life could have been if she had made it into Celestia's school... perhaps she would not be in this situation. She tried to picture scenarios where she got to meet her "friends" but can't think of any reason she would have gone to Ponyville. This thought led her to think about how happy things were that first year they all came together... they all were so oblivious, and she wished it could have stayed that way... that they could have stayed real friends... Twilight let a small smirk cast on her face for only a second.
She tried to take one last sip, but the tea was already gone. No more tea... no more cider.
She could hear the clopping of wet hooves walking up to her door from outside the office. From a business perspective, this was great. Down at the bottom of the factory, all of the ingredients were being loaded for shipment to Rarity's factory without any hiccups. From a survival perspective, Twilight only stared at the door.
Without a word, a loud buzzing noise was heard. Funny, Twilight kind of regretted inventing the buzzsaw at that moment as the locks were cut down one by one until the door swung open.
At first, the pony in front of her was unrecognizable. Her crimson-stained hooves and soaked hair drooping to the ground made her look feral. Even still, Twilight smiled for a second before she saw the carnage behind her. Guards were torn to shreds by the pony, and the bottom half of Minuette lay next to a broken sword with her cutie mark on the handle.
"Pitty" Twilight spoke with a raspy voice, "I liked her."
The pony did not say a word. They were expecting Twilight to do something, anything other than just sit there. A shock so grand the crimson-stained buzzsaw fell to the ground.
"What... what is this?" The pony asked in a shaky voice.
"Ah, you see, to get here you would have needed to kill not just my best guards, but also take down multiple layers of security and at least in this case one of my very own students. I designed all of this so well, that even I could not get past the second layer. If anypony EVER got up here, then I have no chance of beating them... it is a shame I could not have died to a unicorn, but I am a little happy it's you Pinkie."
Pinkie Pie looked shocked, enraged, and a little prideful at the odd compliment. She had expected to fight Twilgit to the death with her saw... and yet Twilight is just going to let her win? She could feel something was wrong, but up to this point, Pinkie Pie was blinded by revenge and failed to think of anything other than killing Twilight.
Pinkie Pie walked inside. Calmly, she walked up to Twilight and tried to think; What now? She felt she could find a more suitable punishment than just a Buzzsaw now that Twilight was just surrendering... but what if it was some kind of trick... no... Pinkie could always tell when Twilight was lying. This ability was how she realized Twilight knew more about Fluttershy's disappearance than she let on.
She could tell Twilight was just going to let her do whatever she wanted.
"Okay then..." Pinkie spoke with confidence. "Here is what I want... I want to hurt you as slowly and painfully as possible but I don't want you dead yet. After the pain you're gonna feel, I'm going to drag you down to the bottom of this lifeless facility while you're still at least alive enough to know what's coming up next. I'm going to put you through everything you put her through... You put Fluttershy through after she found out... I'm going to put you on the preparation station... and I'm going to laugh as I watch you scream while you're being torn to shreds by that cider machine. After that, I want to spread out the message to all of Equestria about how you make your cider."
Twilight did not flinch. "Very well. I have a knife in my desk." Pinkie stared at her, but Twilight had stopped caring the moment Pinkie's attack on the factory began. If her death meant as many shipments of apples and faceless ingredients to Rarity as possible, then let it be lone and painful.
Pinkie had already grabbed the knife by the time Twilight had decided on her last words.
"I still care about you." She said, almost like an epiphany had hesitantly entered her mind.
Pinkie looked at her target with watery eyes but did not cry. Twilight did not deserve sympathy for the pain she has caused... and yet, in a brief moment of weakness, Pinkie gave Twilight a sudden and passionate kiss. Twilight was caught off guard and almost said something before Pinkie, reluctantly, gave one last message to Twilight.
"I know how you feel right now... I hate that I still care too..." Pinkie said, not letting a single tear escape her eyes... before placing the knife to the blank spot on Twilight that a cutie mark should normally be at.
Author's Note
I DO NOT SHIP TWILIGHT AND PINKIE PIE!!!
They kissed in my dream before Pinkie killed Twilight, so I added some of that romance into the story.
I REPEAT, I DO NOT SHIP TWILIGHT AND PINKIE PIE!!!
