One and her friends are always happy. The other two do not know of the first's secret. For that doesn't matter, though. The third was gone with her sister, leaving the other two to play by themselves.
Fun was what they were having. Playing in their tree house, nicknamed as their clubhouse. Running around on it they should not have done. For the poor filly, the second of the trio, tripped and fell over the edge.
The damage was minor, she could have been saved. She was conscious, just without breath. The first didn't know of this. The first spoke to her, but she didn't reply. The first was scared out of her wildest dreams.
The first was worried; she thought her friend was unconscious. Afraid that she would get in trouble if anypony found out about her friend, she panicked. The first big rock she saw was carried up the steps of the clubhouse. The first pushed it off the edge. She couldn't help but glimpse at her friend, seeing her eyes cracking open.
"No!"
Crack. The rock smashed into her friend's skull.
Sad and depressed was the first. She had just killed her best friend. The blood slowly poured out of the deceased filly's mouth, and down her lifeless face.The first couldn't do anything but stare, frozen with remorse. Regret. It shouldn't have ended like this.
She was as scared as she was sad. It was the fist time she had killed anypony she loved. She ran down to the yellow-bodied corpse.
"I'm so sorry, Applebloom. Please, forgive me..." the first spoke aloud as she placed a hoof on the corpse's chest. It didn't expand for breath. She was trying her hardest to hold back tears, yet still, she couldn't help but let out a few sobs.
After she finally pulled herself together she went to the hind legs of her deceased friend. She laid her against the wall. She sighed deeply as she bucked the knife out of the sheath on her leg.
"Sleep tight, Applebloom. We'll see you again someday..." she told her deceased friend's corpse as she pushed the knife into the bottom of Applebloom's neck and slowly slid it down the chest and stomach, being very cautious of where she cut. She stopped and pulled the knife out of the flesh and muscle once she reached the split of Applebloom's legs. She cut two more incisions on the bottom of the stomach and the top of the chest to make an I shape. Once she pulled away the skin, she saw her best friend's organs and skeleton.
She kept a slow, steady pace as she started cutting out the internal organs in her friend's lifeless body. Heart, lungs, liver, all were either cut or ripped out of the corpse. Every action the first performed felt like a new broken bone in her spine, but she couldn't stop the cutting, yanking, or the crying.
She reached the knife into the hole in Applebloom's chest and used it as a wedge to help pry every bone out of the body. Everything was silent, except for the occasion scrape or cracking of bone. The fear and sorrow disappeared. She started pulling out as many bones as possible out at a time. She kept pulling, yanking, and prying, all until meat, eyes, brain, and skull were the only solids left in the body.
The knife peeled off any remaining meat still on the inside of the skin and pulled it out as she cut it off. The fractured skull was a challenge. She kept pulling harder, causing the eyes to roll back into Applebloom's head. With one final jerk, the optic nerve snapped, causing the eyes to fall onto the wooden floor and causing the teeth to break off the skull with several loud cracks. She pulled the skull and brain out as she opened up the mouth.
"Never speak of this to anypony." the first said with a giggle as she cut out the tongue and teeth of her deceased friend. The only thing left of Applebloom was skin, mane, and tail.
The first was now grinning, with her iris now a blood-red color. She looked up, away from the body for the first time in an hour or more, only to see herself. She wasn't looking into a mirror, though. She looked at herself and her two friends in a drawing.
The three fillies in the drawing appeared to dance and laugh and sing around in the picture. All the fun times they had, and will never have again. Adventures, crusades, and games. All are now merely memories of the past.
The first's eyes turned back to the normal lavender color and she put Applebloom's skin around herself like it was a coat. She then sat and leaned against the wall, crying at all the memories and thoughts.
There were loud hoof-steps coming up from the steps of the clubhouse.
"Scootaloo?" the voice from outside asked.
The first didn't respond, but merely continued crying.
"Scootaloo, are you alright?" the voice, which was now a darkened silhouette of a pony standing in the doorway, asked the filly.
Scootaloo opened her eyes and looked up at the pony.
"Scootaloo, what happened? Come on, I'll take you back home and we can talk about it." the pink pony stepped into the clubhouse, making her pink colors able to be seen. Scootaloo stayed silent, tears still rolling down her cheeks, as Pinkamena walked closer to her. Pinkamena noticed the skin Scootaloo was wearing and let out a sigh.
"You'll be okay, Scootaloo. You'll get over the feeling of killing your best friend soon." Pinkamena said as she pulled Scootaloo off the ground and took Applebloom's skin off her.
