Professional cooking

The second the door opened, the rest of the ponies gathered at the table turned their heads nervously towards the kitchen. They saw Twilight and Rarity coming out with a huge platter hovering between them, and on that platter, in sphynx position and with her eyes closed, was lying Applejack. It was a little uncomfortable to them seeing her on this platter, steaming hot and with her back dripping with sauce, and despite her different coloration, they still had a hard time believing that now she was a stuffed roast and not the pony they always knew.

"Dinner is served!", Rarity tried to sound as casual as possible while Twilight was carefully setting their dinner on the table, and then the two unicorns took their seats among others. There they were, finally assembled together for their feast, with Twilight taking the head of the table, Pinkie and Dash on the left, Rarity and Fluttershy on the right, and Applejack in the center, on the table. Decorated with all that fancy garnish and served on a silver platter, she looked almost as elegant as when attending the Grand Gallopping Gala, except this time it wasn't her apples that would be served to eat. However, none of the participants were able to make any move, not really knowing how to act in this awkward situation.

"Tee-hee!", Pinkie finally broke the silence, "She has a carrot sticking out of her..."

"Pinkie, have some respect for Applejack!", Twilight scolded her, "It wasn't easy for her to make that decision!"

The pink pony fell silent in shame, and the others just kept sitting still without word, looking awkwardly at each other and at the roast on the table that used to be their friend just few hours ago. They knew they had to do this, but the idea of eating one of their friends for dinner kind of creeped them out, even though the pleasant aroma coming from the hot roast was really teasing. It was especially difficult for Fluttershy, who knew that if it wasn't for Applejack's heroism, it would have been her on that platter now. Finally, Twilight Sparkle decided to make the first step.

"Listen, everypony", she spoke up, raising from her chair, "I know it's not easy for any of us to do what we are about to do, but we have to remember that this is how Applejack wanted it to be. She only took this sacrifice to save our beloved land, and it wouldn't be fair to her if we backed out now. You should have seen how much effort she made back in that kitchen to make sure she'd be as tasty for us as possible, I'm pretty sure she would be happy to know that we enjoyed this dinner like nothing we have ever eaten before. Let's do it for Applejack. I'll take the first bite if it will make it easier for you", she smiled gently.

The knife and the fork on Twilight's plate lifted with her magic. She stuck the fork in AJ's sirloin and started cutting off a slice. The knife made a scraping sound when going through the crispy skin, and then started diving smoothly through the hot, juicy meat, and Twilight hated that smoothness. When the slice of meat was cut free and put on the plate, however, she noticed with a relief that seeing it separately made it easier to think of it not as eating Applejack but eating a roast. She cut herself a small piece of her slice for a start and slowly lifted the fork to her mouth.

"I hope Celestia will forgive me this", she said to herself while putting the aromatic meat in her mouth. She started chewing slowly, trying not to think too much about what she was doing... and then, to her surprise, she realized that she absolutely loved the taste! Not only was the meat itself top-notch, but the condiments Applejack had picked really did give her an excellent flavor. Of all the times she had tried meat dishes of different cuisines to learn about foreign cultures, she had never had anything nearly as delicious. She swallowed her bite and turned to her friends.

"Hey everypony, it's really great!", she said excitedly while already cutting herself another bite, "Go ahead and take a slice, you won't regret!"

The other ponies were a little surprised, but encouraged by their friend, they slowly started cutting off pieces of roast for themselves and trying it with grimaces on their faces. One by one, each of them responded to the taste the same way as Twilight, and immediately started chowing down like crazy. Only Fluttershy tried sheepishly to put a cherry tomato on her plate.

"Fluttershy, eat your meat!", Twilight commanded her sternly. The yellow pegasus squaked pathetically, but did as her friend said and cut herself a piece of loin. It took her the longest to finally put the meat in her mouth, but after chewing tearfully for few seconds, she started consuming as eagerly as everypony else, if not even more.

"I do have to say", Rarity remarked, savouring a piece of shank, "All those years of physical work on the farm did pay off, her meat is simply divine!"

By this time, any reservations anypony had just few minutes ago were gone, and everypony was actively participating in the feast, cutting themselves slice after slice of the unique meat that owed its quality both to lifelong excercise of Applejack's muscle tissue and her excellent help with  preparations. At one point, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were even fighting over the last piece of the round, which turned out to be the tastiest. One plate after another, the roast on the table was slowly becoming less resembling of a former pony and more of a generic meat dish, while the participants kept placing new slices on their plates and pouring them with gravy, often with lots of  stuffing on the side, which, just like Applejack had predicted, everypony loved.

The feast went on for quite some time, during which the five ponies ate every last piece of meat, and Pinkie ate literally everything (including, to everypony's disgust, even tail and mane), until all that was left on the platter was a pile of greasy bones. By this time, everypony was so stuffed that they all felt sick, but they still had Equestria to save.

"Well, girls", Twilight gasped heavily, "I guess now that our little dinner is over, we can finally set off to the gates of Tartarus"

"Too bad it's already all gone, I wish there was more" Rainbow Dash said while picking her teeth, and then she turned to Rarity, "Hey Rarity, how about you volunteer for the second course?", she snickered.

"Very funny, Rainbow Dash, very funny!", the white unicorn gave her a deadpan look.

The ponies slowly climbed off their chairs, deciding to clean the mess after themselves before they leave. After few rounds of taking the plates to the kitchen and cleaning the table, they already felt a little better, just enough to gather by the exit to the garden grounds, ready to go on their epic adventure.

"Alright, everypony", Twilight announced after dumping the bones in the waste bin and putting the dirty platter in the sink, "It's time for us to start our journey before it's too late for Equestria. I know it won't be easy, but we..."

She suddenly stopped, feeling something inside her stomach. It was her body reminding her that it wasn't used to ingesting so much animal tissue. She clutched her belly, bending with grimace and hearing gurgling noises coming from the inside. Before long, the noises were coming from everyone's bellies, and they started moaning and making grimaces, too. And then, Twilight felt an exploding sensation going all the way down her digestive tract. At this moment, her entire conciousness was focused on only one need, and from the look on everypony else's faces, she realized they were all thinking about the same thing. Without hesitating a second, not wanting to give each other any chances, they all started racing desperately towards the toilet.