Hell On Wheels

Proof read by: GummyTheAlligator and Shinola

Blood Apple

"Another one down, five more to go. There's no need to rush perfection. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show."

"Rainbow... I'm so sorry, I shouldda stopped you." Applejack was no longer able to contain her composure and immediately started sobbing. However, her tears were not of pure sadness, but hatred as well.

"GrrrrrrrrrrrAAAAHHHHHHH!" She broke into a full gallop and ran as fast she could, hoping to catch up to the two responsible for her friends' murder. Her body was no longer in control, as it was overpowered by her emotions. She didn't feel the dust in her eyes, she knew that Rainbow won’t ever come back, but had to do something about all this anger she contained. She didn't even notice the pink pony in front of her.

"Oh! Oh! Applejack! What's--" Pinkie Pie was unable to finish her question before she was knocked to the ground with a furious pony standing over her.

"Ouch! Jeez Louise AJ, that hurt, what was that for?" Pinkie was confused as to why her best friend just knocked her to the ground. Instead of getting a verbal answer, she received a physical one. Applejack began stomping on her with her hooves, blinded by her rage.

"Applejack?! What are you doing?!" Twilight was horrified at what she saw. At that moment, Applejack, completely exhausted, collapsed. The last thing she saw was a sobbing pink pony.

Through the darkness, came a familiar voice, it was faint, but clear. Suddenly, the blackness surrounding Applejack began filling with a mixture of brown, orange, red, and yellow. The breeze was cool and made her shiver, but then the voice called to her again.

"Applejack... Applejack? Hey, don't tell me you're tired already, we’ve got a race to finish! The leaves won’t fall by themselves you know!" She blinked her eyes a few times to make sure she wasn't seeing things, but to her amazement, standing before her was a beautiful cyan pegasus pony with a brilliant rainbow mane.

"C'mon, earning the iron pony title won’t mean as much to me if you were sleeping the whole race!" Rainbow Dash said with a confident smirk.

"Oh? Who said ah was gunna let y'all just win the title? I'm not givin' up that easy! After all, everypony will agree that I'm the iron pony."

"Well, prove it. Ahahahaha!" Rainbow Dash's laughter got softer as she got farther away.

"I'm commin' for ya Rainbow!" Applejack dashed off and was soon alongside her friend.

They were almost at the finish line when something suddenly stopped Applejack dead in her tracks. Something didn't feel right.
"AJ, whatcha stopping for? We got a race to finish!" Rainbow Dash complained.

"Now hold on, something 'aint right here. I don't know what to make of it, but I have this terrible feelin' that none of this is real."

"What the hay are you talking about? Of course I'm real. Oh you and your jokes, hahaha." Rainbow Dash laughed.

"I'm being serious! You can't be real because you... you..." Her memories began rushing through her mind so fast, it made Rainbow Dash seem like a snail.

"You died! YOU WERE KILLED BY... BY..." She said trying to fight back her tears. Rainbow Dash approached the confused pony and put a hoof on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes with an assuring look and said,
"Applejack, I was hoping that we could just spend some more time together, I like you a lot, you're awesome." Applejack was now biting her lip trying to hold back her tears,
"But sometimes, things just happen and now I need you to do something for me. I need you to wake up and go back to the others, they're worried about you. Besides, they still probably don't know what happened yet, so please, tell them so you can move on as soon as possible."

"NO! I don't wanna wake up! If waking up means I have to leave you behind, why would I do that? You're my friend and friends stick with each other no matter what!" Applejack could no longer hold back her emotions and tears began flowing down her cheeks.

"Hey, hey. C'mon, remember? Faithful and strong? You got to be strong Applejack, for me. You have to understand, this is not real. Please, do this for me!" Those words faded as Rainbow Dash began to drift farther and farther away into a sea of darkness.

She awoke to see three ponies staring down at her. She was in Twilight's house.

"R... Rarity? Twi'? Pinkie?" She said, exhausted from her previous ordeal. "WHERE'S RAINBOW DASH?!" She sat up and immediately began searching around the room.

"Applejack, please be a dear and calm down, you mustn't strain yourself. You've probably been through a lot in the past few hours and we'd like you to fill us in on what you know."

"Applejack, are you alright? Well, no, I guess you're not, after that run in you had with Pinkie Pie." Twilight stuttered, choosing her words carefully.

"Well, duh, of course she's not alright! I mean, it's totally not like you to just crash into ponies like a madmare." Pinkie Pie said in her usual cheery attitude.

"Pinkie, what happened? Ah remember seein' you but that's about it."

"Oh my dearie, do you honestly not remember anything at all? My, you knocked Pinkie Pie to the ground and began stomping on her!"

"Oh mah gawsh! Pinkie, I'm so sorry! I guess I was so angry that I just couldn't control myself."

"Angry at what?" Pinkie asked curiously.

"Oh, ah guess you don't know yet. I think it's best if ah show y'all what I'm talkin' about." She got out of bed and began heading for the door. The other three ponies just stood there, trying to take in everything that just happened.

"Well, y'all commin' or what?" Applejack said in a strict, demanding attitude.
Applejack was looking down at the ground the whole way to Sweet Apple Acres. No words were said, even Pinkie felt the change in the atmosphere and decided walking would be more appropriate that hopping. Upon arriving at the porch to Applejack's house, they were greeted by an unusually gloomy Apple Bloom, "Y'all here to check in on Fluttershy? She's in the house with Granny Smith. We found her passed out by a barrel about two hours ago. Sis, you don't happen to know what's in the barrel do you?" She asked.

"Ah reckon ah do. However, this 'aint somethin' for you to be a part of, jus' go back inside and look after Fluttershy for me."

"But I..."

"AH SAID GO BACK INSIDE RIGHT NOW!" She roared. Everypony was shocked. Applejack has never been this angry with her sister before, they all got the chills as for what they were about to see was very serious.

"O...okay..." Apple Bloom didn't cry, but just looked down in disbelief as she walked off to the house, still not comprehending her sisters' situation.

"Alright, here she is." Applejack had no emotion on her face.

"She? Who are we talking about?" Twilight was obviously confused.

"Dear, I believe she's talking about the contents of the barrel and how this somehow relates to Rainbow Dash."

"Could yer attention to detail be anymore spot on?" Applejack sneered. Before any extra remarks were made, Applejack popped open the lid on the barrel to reveal a crimson red liquid.

"Applejack, where's Rainbow Dash?" Twilight said, now more confused than ever before.

"Twi' this is Rainbow Dash, or at least what's left of her! It was the work of those two salesponies from a couple days ago. THEY KILLED HER!" The expression on her face went from blank, to extreme anger, "now, I'm going to settle this! I will avenge her. I will find those two ponies and kill them! Now how 'bout the rest of y'all? You gonna help me?" Nopony said a word, they were trying to make sense of all the information that had just been given to them.

"I want to cry, but I just can't, I don't know why, but I think that something is telling me that this isn't the time, at least not until we stop the Flim Flam brothers." Twilight said, "I will, friends stick with each other to the very end! I need to write this to the princess as soon as possible."

"Yea, you do that, but make sure to tell the princess that ah am the one pony that gets to personally deliver my own justice first."

"I understand, after all, you've been hit the hardest out of everyone here."

"Well, I'd absolutely hate to get my hooves dirty, but I'd, trot right through a mud puddle if it means helping out my friends."

"What about you Pinkie? You gonna help?" Applejack asked.

"Sorry Mr. And Mrs. Cake, but I think a different number just came up. I'm in!"
With that said, the ponies went their separate ways to get some rest for the journey they were about to embark on. Applejack didn't want to break Fluttershy's already weakened spirit, but she felt that the yellow pony had a right to know. She walked into the house and was greeted by Big Mac.

"Is Fluttershy upstairs?"

"Eeyup."

"Is she still asleep?"

"Eenope."

"Thanks, I'm just gonna head on up to check on her, alright?"

"Eeyup."

She walked up the stairs and into her room to see Fluttershy lying in her bed. She quickly noticed Applejack and asked, "Applejack, oh, I just had the most terrifying nightmare, I dreamed that Rainbow Dash had been in some sort of terrible accident!" These words hurt Applejack because she now knew the condition that her friend was in.
"Fluttershy, listen, I'm sorry I can't put this any lighter, but, " Applejack paused, "Rainbow Dash is dead, I'm sorry that I'm so blunt, but I'm too exhausted to come up with more words." With that said, Fluttershy immediately passed out again, obviously this is too much for the delicate pony to handle.
"Perhaps ah should just leave you here and fill ya in when this is all over, sugar cube." Applejack said as she tucked Fluttershy in and fell asleep on the floor beside the bed. She had a big day ahead of her and she needed all the energy she could get if they are to be successful. She dreamed of nothing.

"Ugh... what a nightmare," Flim awoke to the rushing wind against his face, "Flam, I just had the most horrific dream! I dreamed that we ran into that orange pony from back in Trottingham and you... you..." Flim began shuddering as he couldn't repeat what he saw in his dream.
"Made him into cider?" Flam said finishing his brothers' sentence.

Flim froze up, it felt like he was in a full body cast, he feared that what he saw wasn't just a dream.

"H... how did you know that?" Flam stayed silent and kept his eyes on the road ahead of them.

"HOW DID YOU KNOW?!" Flim was now furious as this is when he'll start finally getting some answers, but at the same time, he wasn't sure if he wanted to be right.

Flam responded with more silence.

"ANSWER THE QUESTION! HOW DID YOU KNOW!" Flim already knew the answer, but he wanted to hear the exact words, "BECAUSE I KILLED HIM THAT'S WHY! YES! I DID IT!" This outburst broke Flam's concentration and stopped powering the machine, causing it to come to a screeching halt.

"Why? Why would you do such a thing?" Flim asked in disbelief.

"The voice told me to do it, if I didn't do it, I'd... we'd..." Flam stuttered.

"What the heck are you talking about?"

"Something has been talking to me since we left Ponyville, it's told me that everyone is against us. I'm telling you I had no choice, I HAD to do it!"

Flim was left speechless as his own brother, who been his only family for as long as he could remember, become insane. He quickly considered the possibility of reporting him to the Canterlot Royal Guard, but Flim couldn't do that to his own brother, no matter what he did.

"Flim, it's my turn to do the talking, now listen to me." Flam's attitude went from scared and confused to assertive and calm in an instant. "Now, the whole world is against us, that much is certain, but now comes the real question. What are we going to do about it? We both know that there are hundreds of ponies out there that mean to destroy us." Flim was left speechless as he had no idea that things had gone this far south for the both of them.
"So, what you're saying is that we have to get them, before they get us?" Flim replied.

"Yes, it's the only way, so, I'm only going to ask you once, are you my brother or are you just another pony that is trying to destroy me?" At that very instant, it felt like all time had stopped. It had become dead silent, the only thing Flim could hear was his heartbeat. Flim knew that he had to do the right thing for his brother.

"I... I..." Flim's heart stopped and began to sweat, "I'm... your brother."

"Indeed you are, and since you know what must be done, shall we continue to Appleloosa for the much needed repairs? After all, if we are to make the perfect cider, we need the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 to be able to match our level of expectations."
Flim's heart was skipping beats. He still felt uneasy about his decision, but at the same time, he felt that what he did was right. He couldn't bring himself to betray his own brother, even if it means getting his hands dirty.
"Yes, now, what exactly became of that rainbow pegasus?" He felt his nerves calming with each passing moment. Maybe this isn't so bad, only time will tell.