First Perjury, A Feast of Liars
“Sometimes a lie is easier to take.”
These words wobbled harshly in Applejack’s mind. Lying was the worst sin. It did not only hurt the others, it was also a direct blow to one’s soul. Everypony knew it, didn’t they?
Self-convincing was an uneasy job for Applejack. She was troubled and queasy, something was weighting on her heart like a drag of lead.
This day, Discord really had his hold on her spirit. She lied, unwillingly though, but she lied! And this nasty experience had drained every bit of strength out of her body. She was desperately tired. Yet, sleep was reticent to numb her mind and conduct her toward happier horizons.
Applejack stared vacantly at the ceiling, biting her tongue with anxiousness.
Stretching under the blanket, hiding her eyes under her pillows, she squeezed her head between her hooves. She, as the Element of Honesty was insanely brewing over the reason of her bitter confusion. She had lied… And she had begged for everypony’s forgiveness, which was definitely all. The case was now closed. Any additional issue was null and void!
So… Why was this bemusing impression remaining, seeded in her mind like ill-weed? This maddening feeling that lying had been an impressive and enriching experience; something that she had been forbidden to enjoy for so long.
She plunged her head under her couch. Punching her temples as she was squeezing apples out, she tried to make these thoughts fade away.
So many moons had passed by since she had made up her ultimate lie. How many years had withered and turned to ashes since? She was twenty-three years old, and the last time she remembered having told one went back when she was still a foal, eighteen years ago.
This day, being a petty liar for an hour had been so exciting… so arousing she wanted to keep going. She was begging to preserve this numbing power within her, the one to hide and modify facts of which she had been the slave for so long.
Yet, it was clearly out of question. She could not… she would not let herself be assaulted by such chaotic wishes once more. Honesty was a true load. She kept repeating she had to be strong and to stand still.
“Yah don’t want to face them,” she whispered, still buried under her feather stuffed pillow.
“Face who big sis’?” Apple Bloom’s voice erupted in the room, startling her sister.
Applejack jumped out of surprise. Applejack quivered, how could her hoofsteps be so silent?
This interrogation was quickly chased by a far more frightening question… how long had she been staring at her?
“Nopony at all,” Applejack lied in a hurry.
A drop of sweat rolled heavily on her forehead, tickling her fur all the way down. Her eyes suddenly widened. She understood what she had just done. She cursed herself for her stupidest overreaction. She bit her bottom lip.
Apple Bloom was struck. She stepped back with shakes in her hooves. Had her sister lied? No, it was as absurd as chocolate-milk rain… which, strangely enough, had happened not long ago under Discord’s short rule over Equestria.
An awkward silence blossomed between the two mares. Apple Bloom was avoiding her big sister’s gaze.
“Apple Bloom,” A gentle voice swiftly flew between her big sister and her. “Could yah go back to sleep? Yah had a rough journey today.”
Apple Bloom gulped back the gag aching in her throat. Applejack’s eyes were horridly widened, bloodshed. She was staring at her with two yellow hawk-eyes, as if she was scanning her. Apple Bloom closed the door when she left. She had broken eye-contact and the courage to give a look at her big sister’s had died in the womb… The withering glare of her sister remained a long period, printed on her retina.
Once she was alone, Applejack released the pressure she had contained in front of Apple Bloom. Deep beneath her chest, down in her heart, the heavy aching cracked. But to her most torturing disappointment, the anxiety never left.
Something heavy slammed on the walls of her room, echoing roughly in her ears. She crooked under her bed linens.
Her hooves shook. The shivers amplified in crescendo. She chewed the tips of her tongue between her teeth. Stress was crawling back under her skin like wild-fire on paper. Her eyes went watery.
“They are coming…” She whispered in a terrified awe.
Heart and soul she wanted to shrink and disappear. She pleaded Celestia to turn invisible and fly away from this room. From this chamber she felt trapped in like a mouse in cat’s paws. She glanced out of from beneath her makeshift couch cover. She focused on the window with narrowed and wet eyes. The wind was blowing outside with an eerie strength. The branch of an apple tree was grating intermittently on the window. Sometimes a violent blow made its tip crash onto the glass frame.
Applejack let out a sigh of relief. She wiped her sudden burst of sweat off her face.
“Hello Applejack.” A fawning voice hissed out of nowhere.
The so-called pony chocked on the terror which brutally rushed her bosom. In fits and starts she looked in every corner of her dark room. Mist formed around Applejack’s muzzle. The temperature dropped violently, blowing away the meek flame of the candle dwelling on her bedside table. The room was empty and dark.
Alone and surrounded by the unknown, Applejack caught sights of a tiny sliver of dark smoke weaving on the wooden floor. With shivers, she buried herself again as the weird shape bounced onto her bed, rising up towards the same level as her eyes.
“Liar,” The voice reminded with an invisible smirk. “That’s the only thing you are.”
“I ain’t a liar, yah stupid black cloud!”
“Oh, really?”
The black mist solidified and split into four creatures known to appear in places of death and shadow. Four sinister looking crows were staring in Applejack’s direction with withering glares. Three of them were wearing a coat of black feathers swimming with dark unsettling vapours. Their piercing and incriminating eyes were casting a light blue gleam. The last crow was… different.
"There were only three of you last time," Applejack hissed, a look of surprise briefly slid on her face.
The last bird was albino. Its pearly white plumage contrasted with its pitted, blood red eyes and his black filthy stooges.
“We had a deal Applejack!” The first crow cackled slowly… regaled by listening at its own pronunciation. “Do you remember what the catch was?”
Yes, she remembered...
It happened eighteen years ago, right in the middle of an everlasting day of summer. The unbearable heat had been beating down mares and stallions in Ponyville, ravaging Equestria’s fauna and flora as well and impeding any attempt to work. The harshness of the season had been historical. Everypony had to lie low, waiting in awe the end of this ordeal.
The Apple Family had greatly suffered from this summer. For it had not been just the dryness they had to contend with… the Apples had to fight daily a threat much more oppressing.
Eating up the seeds, devastating the fields and making the Apple Acres unfit for harvesting; these ugly black creatures had put a damper on the Apple Family's mental and financial situation. A curse had seemingly been casted upon the household; this true one who had founded Ponyville years ago.
Each morning, Granny Smith started her “hunt”.
Waving her rake over her head, holding it with her mouth and a hoof, she chased each of these evil birds resting carelessly on her fields. Even flung away, they kept coming back, cawing and laughing at this pitiful pony who was wasting day after day her strength and breath.
This situation had been worsening. Granny Smith clearly knew she was about to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire. But what was really bothering her was Big Macintosh and Applejack… She had to make sure they were going well while their parents were far away overseas, bound to fulfil their duty with distant relatives.
But could she? They will soon starve as the stocks would run empty.
It was during this dreadful period that Granny Smith had started aging rapidly. Each morning she could stare at the wrinkles blooming onto her features, reflected by her mirror. Exhaust could be seen under her eyes as dark rings slowly set up in. She was on her last legs.
…The Crows…
They will manage to kill her someday… her and her grandchildren. And this was clearly not acceptable.
On their own, Big MacIntosh and Applejack could read the fatigue on their granny’s face. But what could they do too? They were knee-high… And the crows numbered in the hundreds if not thousands, all glancing at the barn every day Celestia made.
The two foals had sent their grievances to Canterlot, no answers ever came back. A princess surely had much more important matters to deal with than two foals.
One day, a withered Granny Smith fainted on the tiles of the kitchen. Big Mac tried to wake her up. Getting no response he rushed toward the town, calling out loudly for any help. It was the last time Applejack saw her big brother this agitated, shaken. This might have him immunized to whatever life would throw at him in the future.
Applejack, still too young to understand well the stakes shook her granny with her hooves, poking her cheeks in a vain attempt to get a reflex answer. Tears burst out and dropped heavily on the ground as she heard her grandmother’s breath, rasping and hissing as the air flowed into her lungs.
Tears gave way to anger, anger to rage. Applejack ran out of the barn and headed straight away to the orchards.
“Do you remember?” The ghoslty crow asked, snapping its beak next to Applejack’s eardrum.
Her ear whizzed as the bird’s voice echoed in her head.
“It’s time…” It sniggered with an awful tone. “You’ve run short of your credits…”
The pony stumbled and fell on her side. She could not consider the option as a truth.
“No!” She yielded, an expression of horror petrifying her eyes.
The crows glared at themselves, surprised by this sudden refusal. Their murderous stares fixed Applejack. They began laughing cynically.
“No? But you’ve got no choices in this story. We made a pact, remember? And there is nowhere you can run and hide from the Feast.”
Applejack was standing in the middle of the fields. The overwhelming cawing of the massive swarm of crows reverberated on the trunks of the dying apple trees. Perched on each branch, root and recess of the ground, pecking the last seeds left, they were paying no attention to the young foal. All gathered in this place, they hid the last remains of green leaves still glued to the withered tips of the trees. The trunks were now sporting the crows as a cruel mare would carry a scarf of black feathers.
Applejack’s lips quivered as something crumbled down in her chest. Her sole motivation was the hatred and the rage melting in her heart at the moment. She wanted to explode.
“Why? Why are yah so mean to us?” She cried out.
Her tears dropped on the dried dirt. She sobbed as she got no reaction.
“What do yah want in the end?” She erupted in a second attempt.
The crows still gave no answer to that pathetic, hiccupping creature lying on the ground. That tiny foal who had her hooves folded under her belly.
Yet, one of the birds of ill omen separated from its siblings and flew toward Applejack. The crow landed on her shoulder.
Applejack gasped, utterly afraid. She shivered as her stare crossed the one of the carrion feeder.
“Scared?” It cawed, tilting his head to the right.
The crow had talked! It had talked with a pony’s voice. She screamed, expelling every ounce of air from her lungs.
Applejack jumped out of terror and took shelter under a tree. The carnivorous birds erupted in joyful yet hurtful laughter. Each of these death-looking beings began to gather, making fun of the pitiful form hidden under a dead trunk. She was nothing but a laughing stock… a doormat.
The sniggers, laughs and rictuses were unbearable. Applejack cringed, shrinking under her wooden cover.
Applejack shrieked. A vivid pain had sprout in her left ear. The hopping crow had just pecked it. Shaking from tips to tail, she looked at the black bird with her red watery eyes.
“Afraid?” It laughed again.
“N… No! I ain’t.”
The cawing around the trunk harshly stopped. A heavy silence settled in between the filly and the assembly. Applejack’s ears buzzed from this sudden change of atmosphere.
She risked a glance out of her shelter. The crows had not flown away. They were staying still, silent as tombs, waiting…
“Liar,” The nearest crow whispered.
The murmur gained in momentum, each crow repeating it again and again, gaining in intensity until one common cry havoc was filling the clearing. What her ears let her comprehend ravaged the young pony. She stopped trying to held back her tears and let her deeply buried terror exuded from her body. She sobbed.
“Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar!” The crows kept howling around her.
“Stop! Please… I just want yah to go. Do whatever yah want but go away… please,” she whined in fear and sorrow.
The crow which pecked Applejack’s ear cocked its head to the side.
“You want to trade? Liars don’t trade with the liar,” its voice said with small cries, as if the crow could not take upon long sentences.
“I don’t understand,” Applejack sobbed.
“We make the appointments. Do you want to deal with us?” The crow repeated.
“I guess…” Applejack replied, wiping off her tears. “Would y’all go away?”
“Maybe or not… It depends on you… or not.”
Applejack bloodshot eyes winced bizarrely. Were they playing with her? Absurd weaved unnoticeably in the discussion.
“What do y’all want from me?”
“How old are you?”
She made marks on the ground, trying to count with her basic foal’s knowledge.
“F… five,” Applejack hesitated.
“The liars would grant you five lies to go through over your lifespan. If not used, they remain and we won’t chase you down and bring you to the carnival… but,” – The crows smiled –. “…if you run out of your credits, the Feast of Liars will await your return.”
Applejack’s features liquefied in terror. How could a crow possibly smile?
“What? What feast? I don’t understand,” Applejack muttered with wide opened eyes.
“You don’t have to. Swear to the Feast and we’ll leave your home forever… or at least, until the Liars call you out,” The bird hopped happily. “Or until you liar, summon us up.”
A long silence settled in the clearing. The crow’s last strangely formulated sentence died in the air.
“I… I… swear,” Applejack stuttered.
“Splendid and sumptuous!” the crow crackled.
The laughter came back from the limbo. Each crow opened their wings, giving life to panic in Applejack’s mind, the apple tree looked alive for a mere second. They flew away in a black and monstrous insect-like swarm.
Only one remained, its voice was unsettling, prompt to spread awe.
“Remember Applejack, five credits were given to you until the Feast brings you back. There will be no negotiation,” it paused. “Enjoy your lifespan!”
The crow melted in a black mist and faded in the air.
“How do you know my name?”
“She remembered!” The crows cawed out loud, grinning.
The look on Applejack’s face betrayed her hidden thoughts.
“Yer said five… not four, I haven’t said the fifth!” Applejack raged.
“Shut up Applejack, don’t try to teach the Liars how to lie!” The white crow spat at her accuser.
“But…”
“The feast of Liars awaits your return Applejack. And we do think you’ve already lied too much in one day.”
“I wasn’t me! Ah… I… Ah was forced to lie so many times. I could not control myself! Discord…”
Applejack mumbled a flow of made up excuses.
“So you’re saying that you’ve exceeded your limit, that you’ve spilled your credit? Isn't that what you are saying?”
If crows had been able to, the ones standing in the room would have had their faces distorted with disgusting grins of amusement. In a kind of way, Pinkie would have been absolutely jealous. The talking crow kept playing sadistically with Applejack.
“Haven’t you just said you’ve only said four lies? But that means you lied to us deliberately!”
The smiling liars had tricked the stuttering one. Applejack was bemused, and witnessing her mistake she felt her heart shattered down in her chest.
“Come Applejack,” The crow spoke with a gentle voice, contrasting with the tone he had used until now. “Don’t make the Feast wait.”
The white crow weaved, “You lost, like every liar in the end.”
In the end, it had been great delight to drive this pony insane.
The three black crows transformed into dark smoke and plunged towards Applejack. Lurking on her left hoof and crawling up on her skin, the fume was blackening and cementing Applejack’s fur on its way. The mist started attacking her shoulder with vicious force.
Lying terrorized, motionless and soundless Applejack stopped sobbing… She closed her eyes. To be honest, she had lost, and there was no way to escape the fate in the end.
A war cry broke the grieving scene.
Apple Bloom jumped onto the bed, striking the white crow with a heavy hoof and breaking the mist apart with her tail. Applejack’s leg regained its former colour and corporeality. With bloody eyes, the white bird changed into a thick mist and melted with its stooges.
“Remember Applejack, only one left. It’s… a gift from us. There will be no more, no less. And then, you will have nowhere to go. Nopony to stand between you and us.”
The mist seeped through the cracks of the window and disappeared in the night. The coldness of the room vanished in a second.
Apple Bloom turned over her panicked sister. The bed sheets were wet with sweat and tears. Applejack was stunned, petrified…
“Applejack… Applejack?!”
Her sister snapped out of her stoic position. She mumbled Apple Bloom’s name and hugged her, tearfully, gritting her teeth with pain.
“Applejack, who were they?”
Applejack took a long breath in, still shaking. Her belly was aching with anxiousness.
“Sit on my hind legs…” She hissed with difficulty. “Can yah keep a secret, Pinkie-Pie Promise?”
“Of course I can.” Apple Bloom replied with pride, sticking her hoof into her right eye.
“Well…” Applejack started half-heartedly. “Here is the story of honesty… A dark and cursed path I took a long time ago. Because Honesty can hurt. Because Honesty is absolute. And because Honesty ain’t caring about moral.”
She unfolded the whole plot, black tears rolling down her face.
ϗ Ω ϗ
The whole scene starts slowing down and freezes. Bit by bit it fades away as you find yourself back in front of the fire, still cracking. You’re lying down, a drop of drool slides on your lips. You sit on your laps.
“Aaaah…”, the mare by the fire’s voice whistles in your ears. “The crows, always doing their business with a slight cynicism and nimble hooves.”
You jump in fear. Her voice has seemed disincarnated for a transient moment.
She giggles, “Or nimble-feathers in their case.”
Her laugh is heart-shaking. You cannot tell if she sides with the crows or not. She makes fun of your dangling mouth, of the fear in your eyes.
She takes you hand in her hooves and closes your fingers.
You felt something horrid tickling your skin in the palm of your hand. You open it. A small white feather dwells inside. You look at the storyteller. She has already turned back to the fire, a new drink in her hand.
“Who knows,” she announces solemnly. “The crows can visit whoever they want.”
Her heavy stares set upon you. It grasps your soul like an enchantress looking inside a vision orb. She smiles.
“Have you any kind of remorse for the lies you told? Did you hurt somebody? Somepony? Sort your past and look as far as you can.”
Her smirk changes into laughter… the same laughter that the crows have. Her glasses glow.
“Here comes the next story.”
Your hand tightened on the feather as you watch her throwing again the whisky in the fire, unleashing a rising tide of glowing particles. You feel the same sparkles than earlier penetrate your spirit. Your mind feels dull…
You fall into the blackness.