"Ah! Ow!" Applejack screamed, as fire and wood fell all around her.

Then a burning log fell. She was squished by it, like a grape. No, more like a tomato. Her legs flew across the room and one struck Big Mac in the face. He recoiled, as blood splattered across his torso.

"Applejack, nerrr!!!" he wailed, at the sight of her mangled and twisted body.

Applejack was dead.

Big Mac, knowing there was no way out, did the only thing left to do. He sat down and cried.

...

The day after the incident with Rainbow Dash and Applejack, authorities showed up at the scene. Investigators looked into how the fire was started, police asked around town about anything strange they had seen, and a full scale inquiry was under way. Nobody asked where Granny Smith or Applebloom or any of the other family members were. I guess nobody really cares about them.

Rainbow Dash didn't feel any shame or guilt. No one knew what she had done. Her other pony friends had been shooed off the premises before she had started the fire. No one even had a clue.

Without a care in the world, Rainbow Dash found herself strutting down the streets of Ponyville. As usual, she had no idea what to do with her day. She thought about causing some trouble with Pinkie Pie, or Twilight Sparkle, but dismissed the idea. She was feeling too classy at the moment. Hanging out with ponies of that nature would be too demeaning.

So who would she spend the day with? Well Rarity of course! If she wanted to spend the day with a snooty, pretentious pony, there was no other option.

...

Knock, knock, knock

Rainbow Dash straightened up and held her head high as Rarity answered the door.

"Why, Rainbow Dash, how good to see you," Rarity graciously said. "Why don't you come in?"

Rainbow Dash accepted the invitation and stepped over the threshold.

"You sure have done a lot with the place, since last I was here," Rainbow Dash commented.

"Oh yes," Rarity said, "I've been redecorating and designing constantly. It's just what I do to pass the time, I guess..."

Rainbow Dash sat down at the kitchen table while Rarity busied herself, getting refreshments and snacks out.

"Would you like some tea?," Rarity called, from around the corner. "Or maybe something a little stronger. I've got a couple of bottles from the old Winyard left."

Rarity continued running around the large kitchen, grabbing various items and bottles and foods.

"1296, very good year!" she continued. "Almost as old as I am!"

She chuckled and ran down a hallway, looking for who-knows-what.

"It was laid down by my father!" she called from somewhere in the house. "What say we open one, eh?"

"Just tea, thank you," Rainbow Dash called after her. She wasn't feeling very inclined for anything too pretentious. She had already had two scoops of Chai Tea and Chocolate Ginger Cookies ice cream before she left home.

Rarity came back in the kitchen with assorted snooty foods.

"I can make you some eggs, if you'd like," she said, turning to Rainbow Dash.

"Just tea, thank you," Rainbow Dash repeated.

Rarity sat down at the table with Rainbow Dash. "You don't mind if I eat, do you?" she said with a mouthful of bread.

"No, no, not at all," Rainbow Dash replied.

Suddenly a banging came from the door.

"Rarity! We know you're in there!" came the call.

Rarity froze up against a wall. "It's the Clopville Ponies! They're after the dress I promised them." She waited a moment, hoping the visitors would leave. "I'm not at home," Rarity whispered to Rainbow Dash.

"Ah ha!" yelled one of the ponies at the door, who had looked through a window and seen Rarity. "Let us in!" She said angrily.

Rarity went to the door and let the two ponies in. One was a male and one was female. They were both very old and Rainbow Dash immediately did not like them.

"Where's that dress we ordered for our granddaughter three weeks ago!" the old hag asked Rarity.

"It's in the back," she replied, patiently. "I just need to finish up a few things with it and it'll be ready to go. I promise to have it to you within the week."

"That's not good enough!" The old man said, throwing an ax into a map on the wall. "We need it now!"

Rainbow Dash sat at the table, confused. She watched as more discussion went on between the ponies. She didn't understand why Rarity didn't just tell them to leave, instead of standing there and arguing. The Clopville Ponies were getting very annoying.

"Okay fine," Rarity finally said. "I'll go and finish it now, just wait here."

Rarity headed into a room further into her house. Rainbow Dash got up and followed quickly, not wanting to be left in a room alone with the the rude ponies. They arrived in a room full of sewing machines, scraps of cloth, and unfinished pieces of clothing.

"Wow, Rarity," Rainbow Dash said, "you sure have been working a lot."

"Oh yes," she said, over her shoulder, while she started sewing some pieces together on the dress she needed to finish, "I find myself working a lot more these days. I can't seem to focus on one thing, though. I start a project and halfway through start another one. That's why I haven't finished these customers' dress yet."

Rainbow Dash wandered around the room, looking at different outfits and projects. The sewing machine whirred and Rarity worked. Dash was admiring a particularly interesting outfit when Rarity asked for the tape measure on the desk. Rainbow Dash, eager to help, trotted quickly towards the tape measure, but slipped on a lazily thrown away banana peel. She fell hard on her back. However, the floor was littered with other debris and she landed on an inconveniently placed glass. It shattered and almost all the shards went into Rainbow Dash's back.

"Rainbow Dash!" Rarity cried, as she turned around, "What happened?"

Rainbow Dash was writhing on the ground, which made her condition even worse. As she moved she pushed the glass further in.

Rarity was shocked and wasn't paying attention to the sewing machine. Without knowing it, she pressed the pedal all the way down and the machine whipped the needle and thread up and down violently. Then Rainbow Dash kicked out, accidentally. Her foot collided with Rarity's hip and pushed her forward, into the sewing machine.

She screamed the loudest she had ever screamed. The needle went up her hoof and attached it to the dress. Then as she fell forward further it moved up her foreleg. The needle ripped through her flesh, attaching more and more of the dress to her.

Then both Rainbow Dash and Rarity blacked out from pain.

The scene was a bloody mess when the Clopville Ponies arrived. The screaming had scared them and they went to find out what happened. They stood in the door way, watching as blood spread on the floor from Rainbow Dash's wounds. Rarity lay on the table with the sewing machine stopped. Her foot had come off the pedal when she blacked out.

"My god," the old ponies gasped. They ran as fast as they could with their arthritis to the phone. The older gentleman made it first and called 911.

"911, what's your emergency?" the voice on the phone said.

"We're at the home of Rarity, the unicorn," he said. "there's been an accident in the sewing room and we need help right away."

"All right, we're sending help now."

"Thank you," he said, and hung up. "Well," he said, turning to his wife, "what a day this has been."

She tried to respond but found she couldn't. She felt as if there was a great weight on her chest. Her heart hurt tremendously. She fell to the ground, unconscious.

"No!" the old pony yelled, dropping to her side.

EMT's burst through the door and one came to the side of the unconscious pony. He tried to start chest compressions, but the man pushed him off of her. He yelled in the face of his wife, "You brought them here to kill me!" He said this referring to the medics.

"Let her go, old man!" the EMT shouted.

He remained on top of his wife, choking her.

"Let. Her. Go." the other man repeated.

He stood up, turning to face the medic. A menacing look was in his eyes. "You turned her against me!" he shouted.

"You have done that yourself."

"You will not take her from me!" he shouted, as the EMT again tried to get near her.

"Your anger and your lust for power have already done that," came the reply.

"Don't lecture me, I see through the lies of the hospitals. I do not fear the home remedies as you do!"

The old man turned around and walked away a few steps. The EMT again neared the old woman, checking her pulse.

"I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new empire!" The old man ranted.

"Your new empire?" the EMT said, incredulously.

"Don't make me kill you," said the old man, darkly.

"Old man, my allegience is to the hospital, to democracy!"

"If you're not with me... Then you're my enemy."

The EMT paused. "Only a home-birthist deals in absolutes. I will do what I must." He then got out his defibrillator.

"You will try," the old man said.

...

Minutes later, the old pony lay on the ground, restrained. The EMT proceeded with helping the old woman and getting her onto a gurney and into the ambulance. The old man was taken into the hospital too, and after a few scans, they discovered tumors in his arms and legs. Unfortunately they had to be amputated.

Author's Note

After re-reading this chapter, I decided I should give you some more information on Rarity in my MLP universe. I got lazy and didn't include this in the actual chapter like I had planned, but Rarity was making all those references to being distracted and tired all time because she was secretly in a relationship with Big Mac. She had been making dresses and redecorating all the time ("Oh yes," she said, over her shoulder, while she started sewing some pieces together on the dress she needed to finish, "I find myself working a lot more these days. I can't seem to focus on one thing, though. I start a project and halfway through start another one. That's why I haven't finished these customers' dress yet.") because she is so distraught over thinking Big Mac died in the fire at Applejack's. A lot of the time, she thought it was her fault he "died" because she didn't stay there and confront him after learning of his infidelity with Applejack. She figured that because she allowed herself to be ushered away by Rainbow Dash she wasn't there to save him from the fire she didn't know was going to be lit. This made her feel all the more guilty and angry because she had wishing for him to have some kind of horrible punishment as she walked away from Sweet Apple Acres.

So Rarity thought it was her fault Big Mac died, leading her to become sleep-deprived, nervous, guilty, anxious, and depressed.

*The More You Know*