Beep… Beep… Beep…
Twilight regained consciousness to the faint sound of a magical heart monitor. She listened to the rhythmic beeping, and could feel her pulse thrumming in her head. Strangely, the sounds from the monitor did not match the thumping heartbeats in her chest. Her sight had not yet been restored, but she could ascertain that her limbs were not laying naturally. In addition, her head felt heavier than her hooves, and her chest heaved with each breath. Unimaginable pain came in waves with her strained breathing, as if her need for oxygen was never quite satiated, and the rest of her body suffered for it. The agony was so expansive, that Twilight couldn’t help but moan and whimper as the world slowly came back into focus.
“Oh. You’re awake?” A voice asked, coming from a short distance away, though its tone was devoid of concern, and resembled more indifference.
More senses slowly eased into reality as Twilight shifted her weight against a cold, unforgiving hardwood floor. She couldn’t yet muster the strength to move her limbs, so she focused on regaining her sight instead. She blinked a few times, and squinted, trying to find the source of the strange voice. Shapes and colors formed into recognizable objects, aided by the daylight that was pouring in from a window. The room was familiar, and foreign all at once. Under a thin layer of dust, Twilight spotted a stetson hat that was neatly hanging on a hook on the wall. Nearby was a lasso, and a bookshelf used to store many trophies and ribbons. Other notable pieces of furniture in the room included a small bedside table near the door, an old green armchair in the center of the room, and a modest little bed.
Twilight had an inkling in the back of her mind that the bed in this room was somehow out of place. Perhaps it was because she could see the old grooves in the hardwood where the bed posts had once stood, or maybe because she was acutely aware of whose room this used to be, and it looked different in her dim memories. Regardless, the bed now resided against the wall adjacent to the door. Twilight assumed this was due to the various pieces of magical, medical equipment that surrounded it.
Even from the floor, Twilight could tell that somepony occupied that bed. The magical monitor she heard was attached to this pony, not her. Half a dozen hanging fluid bags, with tubes, were also connected to the pony hidden under the sheets. The contents of those bags remained a mystery. The pony themselves looked frail and sickly. They were laying on their back, eyes closed with a mask secured over their snout for oxygen flow. A thick, red blanket and apple-patterned bed sheets had been carefully, and lovingly, wrapped around them. This pony fit so snuggly in their place, that it seemed like they had remained this way for some time. Once Twilight’s sight had fully returned, she could also identify brittle blonde hair, and a cream-colored coat. No, not cream, it was orange, but it was so pale she had mistaken it for something lighter. There was only one pony this could have been: Applejack.
The sound of gentle hoofsteps and squeaking wheels caused Twilight to snap her head to the left side of the room. A yellow-coated, red-maned pony came from the bedroom doorway, holding a new bag of liquid that would replace an empty one in the medical equipment nearby. The pony’s mane, once held back by a bright pink bow, was now limp and hanging loose down her back. She had bags under her eyes and an indifferent frown on her lips. She seemed to ignore Twilight as she both walked and trundled towards Applejack. The pony was attached to a unique device. It had been built for this particular mare by Twilight years ago. It consisted of a pair of wheels, and a strong strap for a pony's waist, connected to one another by two interlocking metal bars. The pony’s back legs dangled freely above the ground, as those wheels acted in lieu of hind quarters. Twilight instantly recognized the pony. After all, she was her faithful assistant for half a decade.
“Apple Bloom? Is that…? G-get away from her! She’s dangerous!” Twilight said, her voice cracking with panic.
Apple Bloom chuckled once mockingly under her breath. She continued to ignore the princess as she carefully swapped the medical bags. Twilight wasn’t sure what was going on, but she didn’t like her growing feeling of trepidation. She finally attempted to move her hooves, but found them bound together; hogtied with thick, scratchy rope. Twilight tried her wings next, but the same rope had been wound too-tightly around her midsection, rendering them useless. Igniting her horn was her third attempt for freedom, but try as she might, no magic responded. Out of options, Twilight began thrashing to liberate herself.
“What is this? What’s going on? Let me out, Apple Bloom!” Twilight pleaded, her dry mouth and desperation caused the words in her throat to be painful when spoken.
“Which question do ya want me to answer first? What is this? It’s rope, dumbass. What’s going on? Well, I imagine you’re tryin’ ta get yer magic to work but it ain’t, is it? Remember that potion lesson you taught me about the ingredient called the ‘Powerless Poppy’? Ya know, the one they use to disable unicorn magic temporarily? Ya might find a fair few of them flowers planted around the place these days, or even their powder scattered here and there. I’m surprised you don’t taste the excess around your mouth.” Apple Bloom answered, her tone still reflected little, if any, emotion.
Twilight’s eyes widened as she tentatively reached her tongue out to check her lips. She did indeed feel some kind of powdery residue lingering there. Her mind was racing, grasping for any kind of logical explanation. When she settled on the only one that made sense, she frantically pleaded with Apple Bloom again.
“Apple Bloom, I know you want to believe that Applejack is still in there, somewhere, but clearly she’s dangerous! She’ll kill us all, you have to let me out of here so I can get you to safety!”
Apple Bloom paused mid-way through discarding the empty liquid bag. She looked at Twilight with a bemused and bewildered expression, almost as if she was seeing the alicorn’s stupidity for the first time. Suddenly, she burst into laughter. The idea was just so absurd, she couldn’t help herself.
“You think Applejack did that to ya? This mare, right here, did all that?” Apple Bloom asked confoundedly as she gestured to the sickly mare in the bed.
Twilight couldn’t answer that question, still searching the recesses of her mind for some clarity. Nevertheless, no explanation presented itself.
“I’d ask if the cure makes a mare an idiot, but AJ didn’t exhibit any signs.” Apple Bloom added.
“W-what?” Twilight whispered, frightened confusion stamped on her face.
Apple Bloom sighed loudly, exaggerating the noise to exemplify her impatience.
“I thought it’d be fun to mess with yer head for a bit, but it’s actually just kinda annoying. Why don’t I cut to the chase?” She offered, taking the green armchair from AJ’s bedside, and pulling it slowly towards Twilight. The scrape of the chair grating against the wooden floor sent a twinge of pain through Twilight's head, worsening the migraine she had already been suffering. She flattened her ears as the earth pony teen pulled the chair into place. Eventually, it came to rest in front of, and facing, Twilight. Apple Bloom then calmly unlatched the device’s belt from around her waist, and hoisted herself into the chair, resting the contraption nearby. Apple Bloom looked like a parent ready to tell their foals a bedtime story.
“Want me to start at the beginning or just answer your stupid questions?”
To say that Twilight was perplexed would be an understatement. She couldn’t yet mentally grasp the situation, and the questions in the forefront of her mind grew too numerous to sort through. After a few beats of silence, Apple Bloom interjected.
“Okay then, I’ll just start at the beginning.”
Apple Bloom leaned back in her chair and smiled smugly, like an old pony fondly reminiscing about a happy memory.
“I guess I’d say this tale starts a few years back. Granny had just passed from the grief of everything, and the strain of taking care of me ‘n Mac. Mac was a damned fool for gettin’ that heat stroke, and an even bigger one for waitin’ so long to get it taken care of. His mind and his kidneys were never the same. Of course, it didn’t help that I was laid up the way I was, unable to get outta bed. You can’t imagine what it was like for an old pony to have to take care of the grandchildren who shoulda been takin’ care of her. I don’t have to tell you what happened when she passed. Mac moved to Starlight’s old village cuz he found some unicorn mare willing ‘nough to take care of ‘im. Didn’t know then why you insisted on takin’ me in, though. I know now it was from the guilt of everything YOU had caused. I can still remember waiting for weeks for a letter from Mac asking me to come live with him ‘n his new marefriend. I had this contraption thingy now, so I wouldn’t be an invalid anymore… why wouldn’t he want me back? We were all each other had. That never happened, though. He’d lost AJ, then Granny… and Celestia help ‘im he tried with me, but everypony has their limits. I never got confirmation, but I know it was you that convinced ‘im to let me stay with you instead. He probably thought he was doin’ what was best for me…still hurt, though.” Apple Bloom briefly hesitated, bitterly clenching her teeth at the memory of her big brother’s abandonment. “Instead, while I was waitin’ on that letter that would never come, I intercepted a delivery at the castle. You remember, all them letters and packages from Pinkie Pie being sent back? Couldn’t figure why they’d come to us, nor who the hell would reject Pinkie like that. I’ll admit, I was curious. There was a note on top, said it was from the head prison guard in Canterlot sending you all the mail for ‘the prisoner’ like you requested. Odd, I thought. What prisoner would Pinkie Pie be sending cookies to? I brushed it off and forgot all about it… until a couple of years ago.”
“Ya see, one day, I was workin’ on my potions when I heard you talkin’ to Starlight. Ya’ll must not have known I was in the throne room close by. She was getting real smart with you ‘bout you going to Canterlot to ‘maybe visit her’ again. Couldn’t imagine who she was talkin’ ‘bout at first, but then them letters came to mind. They’d said Canterlot prison. Got me wondering, ya know? So, I brewed a mighty good sleep aid, drugged you, Starlight, and Spike, and went on a little excursion to Canterlot.”
“Apple Bloom…” Twilight whispered, horrified. She couldn’t believe the pony she had taken in, and raised like her own sister, would do something so callous.
“Oh it weren’t no more than a couple hours is all! I wouldn’t have to have done it if ya’ll didn’t hover around me so goddamn much. You were a worse worry wart than Applejack was.”
Twilight grimly recalled the paranoia of letting Apple Bloom out of the castle in her contraption. She was worried about what might happen if she fell, or if something jammed the wheels and Apple Bloom would get stuck. Perhaps Twilight could have been a little more lenient with her restrictions and concerns, but still.
“I’ll cut a long story short and just say that I found out your dirty, fucked up secret.” Apple Bloom said, her tone notably dark now. “That first time, I couldn’t do more than just catch a glimpse. I was unprepared, ya know? So I came back here and, well, I cried for days trying to make sense of it all.”
Twilight remembered that too, and could never get the truth out of Apple Bloom about what was wrong.
“Spike’s the one I eventually told the truth to. He didn’t believe me, ‘til I showed him. Guess you’d let me out of the castle if I had a little dragon chaperone, huh?”
“Spike…” Twilight whispered, extremely hurt. She hadn’t heard that name in over a year, and still didn’t understand why he had suddenly wanted to spend time in the dragon lands. She had previously chalked it up to teenage rebellion, or perhaps that cliche ‘year to travel and find yourself’.
“Yup. He was pretty hurt. He helped me snoop through your things when you weren’t looking, and we found all them notes you took about the Sleepless Potion. We found out that Applejack was the murderer because of your magic.” Apple Bloom emphasized. She didn’t wait for Twilight to come up with excuses, she just continued. “He was so disgusted, he left. I don’t blame ‘im, I almost did too.”
Twilight was enveloped in memories and anguish. Spike, the dragon she had nursed from birth, and raised like a brother, or even a son… could he truly hate her? In Twilight’s rationale, the decision to keep him in the dark about Applejack was done to spare him from the weight of the guilt that she and her friends had to bear. Finding out through Apple Bloom would turn Twilight’s selfless action into a selfish one. Twilight devolved into soft, heartbroken sobs. Spike hadn’t even given her the chance to explain herself. How could some-creature she loved and cared for so deeply, spurn a chance to make things right again between them? How could he have just left? Previous to this moment, there was no reality in Twilight’s mind that could compel Spike to abandon her as he did. The mental anguish greatly outweighed her physical pain.
“Eventually, I honed my skills makin’ them potions so I could drug the guards and go visit my sister. She told me that you implied that I died that night, not just broke my spine. If I didn’t hate ya before, I certainly did then.
“We came up with a plan to get her outta there. Well, I did... AJ didn’t really think it ‘right’ at first. She said I needed ta ‘move on’. Well, movin’ on could mean gettin’ out and running away too. Right?” Apple Bloom glanced over her shoulder at the motionless Applejack with underlying bitterness. “But it was one thing to drug the guards. It’s another thing to have a prisoner go missin’ altogether. We knew we’d need to account for you gettin’ notified, and potentially all of Equestria out lookin’ for her. Still, we eventually got everything all figured out. Every. Single. Detail. We were gonna make our way to Appaloosa so Braeburn could get us a cart to git out of Equestria altogether. You’ve been preaching friendship so much, there weren’t many places left that didn’t know about the ‘Princess of Friendship’ and her friends. We woulda found somewhere though. Everything was fine until… that damned guard hadn’t been late to work that night…”
Apple Bloom paused, her voice cracking as she recounted their plan derailing. She could still hear the unicorn stallion shouting at them and chasing them down the hall.
“Applejack got hurt. She got hurt savin’ me.” She spoke softly, offering no other explanation as she wiped a rogue tear from her cheek. “Hit her head real hard… she never woke up.” Apple Bloom thought she couldn’t feel a worse pain than that night seven years ago, until now. It was more than just opening an old wound, it was exacerbating it. It festered under the surface as she gripped the armchair, trying to suppress her tears. “I had to change plans last minute, so I brought ‘er here. I was just gonna nurse her back to health, but the longer I waited, the more the plan fell apart. All I wanted was just to escape and hide with my sister. But ya know: ‘Sometimes ya can’t have what ya want, it’s just how life goes.’”
It felt like a millennia since those very words were told to a young Apple Bloom by a potion-suffering AJ. It was the morning after the zap apple harvest, the first time she noticed something amiss in her sister. Apple Bloom would never forget the wild look in Applejack’s eye as she feverishly stirred pots of zap apple jam while simultaneously filling jars in the over-crowded kitchen. That naive little filly couldn’t understand the gravity of the situation at the time, nor how true those words would come to be.
“You did all of this three days ago?!” Twilight asked, gobsmacked.
Apple Bloom’s disposition changed again, trading her sniffles for a smile that eventually turned into a dry chuckle.
“Three days? Try three weeks.”
Twilight blanked. How was that possible? The note she received from Canterlot said AJ had gone missing two days prior. Had Apple Bloom somehow altered the guards perception of time? Had she somehow delayed the letter?
“I see that stupid look on your face, so lemme help your itty bitty brain riddle it out. Ya see, from what I gathered, the Sleepless Potion makes time all fucky for its victims.”
Twilight’s stomach dropped.
“The Sleepless Potion? How… how could you… WHEN?”
“Well, you were one hell of a potions teacher, and it was easy enough to follow yer notes. Oh, by the way, a magic lock don’t work well against acid, just thought you should know.”
Twilight paused her frenzied train of thought when she heard that. Apple Bloom was the reason the lock was broken?
“Thing is, I was a might smarter than ya’ll were about it. I actually studied and perfected the potion before I used it. I knew when to do it, too. Celestia and Luna were off on that ‘friendship summit’ thing YOU came up with, so we could ‘make friends’ with every creature else on this damned planet. I think you did it ‘cuz you don’t like them coming to Commemoration, huh? It’s just another reminder that you failed as a friend in front of yer precious teacher. They’re still gone, I believe. I Guess the llamas don’t wanna play nice after all.”
Twilight couldn’t look Apple Bloom in the eye when she riddled out the princess’s absence. It was as if Apple Bloom could see past Twilight’s eyes and right into her core, where her insecurities and failures overrode logic and common sense. How much heartache could have been prevented if she hadn’t been too ashamed to face Celestia and Luna? Apple Bloom didn’t seem to notice, or care, that Twilight was shying away from her, she just continued on.
It was perfect for me, though. I figured out that when the old recipe is turned into a gaseous form, the side effects don't show up right away. I released it in the castle when you and yer friends were planning that stupid memorial.”
“MY FRIENDS?!” Twilight screamed, snapping out of her shame in a blink of an eye. The thought that Apple Bloom’s twisted scheme could extend beyond her hadn’t crossed the princess’s mind, and now an entirely new and horrific reality was unfolding before her.
“Oh yeah. Pinkie’s the one who sent the letters, so it weren’t hard to deduce that they all knew. Why’d you think Spike was so hurt? You trusted them, and not him. Every single one of ‘em was just fine and dandy knowing my sister was rotting away in a cell for crimes she weren’t responsible for. Pretty damn fittin’ if ya’ll experience what ya put my sister away for, so you could see fer yerselves what happens to ya. I expected a shit show, and none of y'all disappointed.”
No, it couldn’t be true. It just couldn’t be possible. Twilight had slept, she was sure of it! She had to have slept… right?
Reality was slow to settle, but it trickled in bit by bit, and things started to make sense. Twilight remembered feeling ill, though not violently. It must have been due to the dilution of the gaseous state that kept her from being too sick all at once. At the time, she had also rationalized that her lingering fatigue had come from the anxiety of planning the memorial. Nausea, fatigue, irritability, manic episodes…not a single one of them would have believed their unusual behavior was anything except the manifestation of stress.
“Since we’re going in order, let’s start with Dash.” Apple Bloom said, folding her hooves and getting comfortable. “Weren’t a mystery why her manic state would manifest as Wonderbolt nonsense. She probably thought she was some goddamn prodigy-record-breaker or something. Cuz of all that exertion, she’s the only one who had shit happen the night before Commemoration.”
Twilight perked up at that statement. Hadn’t Starlight died that night? She was sure of it, she had been working on her speech…
“Can ya stop making dumb faces and let me finish?! I’ll get to you, I promise.” Apple Bloom remarked in exasperation. “Where was I? Oh, Dash, right. It’s mighty convenient that when yer cured, ya get yer memories back eventually. She said she raced Soarin, they crashed, and she fought ‘AJ’ in the orchard. ‘Course, she didn’t know at the time that it wasn’t an apple orchard, but a cherry one, and the only other pony down there was Soarin. He tried calming her down, and she killed ‘im. ”
“Wait… Rainbow is ALIVE?” Twilight stammered, focusing on the wrong thing yet again. Apple Bloom ignored her comment and continued on.
“It was still early on in her exposure, so she was somewhat coherent that things weren't as they seemed. I'm sure that PTSD didn't mix with the potion well, though. After she killed Soarin, she wandered off alone. Some ponies found Soarin's body the next mornin’ and got so freaked out, they canceled Commemoration.”
“What?”
“Yup. Soon as I heard Dash had gone missin’, and a pony was dead, I knew the rest of ya’ll wouldn’t be far behind. Unlike with her, I made sure I was around for everypony else's eventual break. I also promised the Mayor I would tell ya about Soarin and the cancellation. Ponies just figured you were mournin’ when you didn’t say nothing. Frankly, Mayor Mare was kinda shocked to see me since I usually boycott Ponyville around this time of year. I don’t live under your roof, or your rules anymore, so ya can’t force me to go. In fact, I’ve secretly spent the past couple of Commemorations with Applejack. You know, the reason for your disgusting cover-up holiday.”
Even though Apple Bloom spoke with conviction, Twilight was still convinced this was all an elaborate lie. There was just no way any of it could be true. Hanging onto that hope was the only thing keeping Twilight quiet, and somewhat sane.
“First things first, I was the one who intercepted the note about AJ’s escape. I was gonna wait until I was sure you were ready before I gave Starlight that letter, but I got impatient. Revenge stirs around inside ya like an angry critter bitin’ and clawin’ to get out. Lucky fer me, my timin’ ended up bein’ just right anyways. You were stressed out juuuust enough to break. Seems you didn’t even know I was there. 'Course, you’re the one who can fill in those blanks. What happened when Starlight showed you that letter?”
Twilight immediately recalled that first prickly tendril of dread that encompassed her chest, and the frantic events that followed. If Apple Bloom was to be believed, then AJ was never in her lab at all, which meant that she had destroyed it for nothing. But that couldn’t be true, could it? And hadn’t AJ so clearly slaughtered Starlight?
“She was just here!”
Words echoed in Twilight’s mind, words that she did not remember Starlight saying, but somehow felt familiar.
“She was just here! She ambushed me!”
Terrifying pieces were falling into place: Starlight barricading her door with magic out of fear, Twilight blasting in, Starlight looking frantic…
“I tried to barricade my door but she got through! You don't think she's here to replace me, do ya??”
“Replace me, do ya?!”
Those words… She recalled them coming from Applejack. Twilight’s breaths quickened as her body began to shake. More and more images replaced memories, truths replaced delusions. Twilight jolting towards Starlight with a shard of mirror, Starlight confused and trying to run away…
“It’s okay. I didn’t expect you to tell me anyways. I was there for the last bit, though. It looked like Starlight would win out with that dresser of hers, but you were quicker. Ya slit her throat before she could drop it on ya.” Apple Bloom said, ending the prolonged silence.
The sharp pain. She had passed out… hadn’t she?
“How could Starlight hurt me if she had already died?” Twilight asked, not realizing she had spoken it out loud.
“She was levitatin’ a dresser above yer head when you killed her. Once she died, it dropped. Simple as that. You laid there on the ground for a long while and I considered curin’ ya right then and there, seeing how you’d already killed ‘n all. Thing is, you were the first one I could observe up close! You used to always harp on me ‘bout takin’ extensive notes on my potion experiments. Isn’t knowledge the TRUE power, Twilight?” Apple Bloom asked, adding a dark enthusiasm to the question just to torment her former teacher.
“No. No, I immediately came here, to the orchard! I know I did!” Twilight insisted. It was that moment, in that unbridled panic, that Apple Bloom could finally confirm that Twilight had accepted her explanations as truths.
“Yeah, I bet you did.” Apple Bloom said with a shrug. “Cuz you eventually staggered up, covered in Starlight’s blood, and zapped yerself away. You went missin’ too. I was kinda pissed off that I couldn't see what ya were gonna do next, though. I figured for the rest of ya’ll, I’d cure ‘em when they’d done something unforgivable, rather than have five morons bumblin’ around my family’s orchard. I told ya, the potion fucks with your sense of time.”
Twilight felt an uncanny and well-timed grumble in her stomach. She could faintly taste apples on her tongue and more images flashed in her mind. Twilight recalled wandering aimlessly, unable to distinguish one grove of trees from another. An endless sea of apples was her unrelenting prison. The maze of their paths offered no guidance. She recalled teleporting on occasion, but with no clear thought of where to appear, and ending up in places with more unfamiliar apple trees each time. The only reason the alicorn did not perish was by eating the unkept apples in their gnarled branches. Dim memories presented themselves of Twilight lingering at specific, yet inconsequential trees, for hours on end. She recalled seeing slight movement in these trees, and her eyes fixated on them, waiting for that movement to morph into Applejack. She couldn’t let her guard down, after all. The AJ in her mind was enhanced with a great magic of Twilight’s own making. On the rare occasion that she could pull her attention away from one tree to another, her hooves wandered in endless circles. She had seen hoofprints in grassless soil patches and believed them to be Applejack’s tracks. She realized in this moment, she’d been following her own hoofsteps. Twilight now knew that finding the farmhouse at all must have been sheer coincidence.
"Next, it was Pinkie Pie." Apple Bloom recounted. "I think it was… five days after Dash went missin’ that she finally broke. She’d made so many desserts she was baking everypony outta house and home. The Cakes probably didn’t know what to make of it, truth be told. I got to the bakery, with the cure, when the place was already engulfed in flames. Pound was screaming about Pinkie killin’ his momma, and his daddy still bein’ inside. ‘Course by then, they couldn’t save him. Pumpkin's lucky she got out in time. They’re in Manehattan right now, I think. Living with some distant relative or something. Pinkie’s got some real bad burns to heal up from before she can face the Princesses, though.”
“Pinkie…” Twilight whispered woefully. She wished she could tell Apple Bloom to stop, but she just had to know what had happened to her friends.
"But what about Rarity? And Fluttershy!?"
“Yup, they succumbed too, in that order, actually." Apple Bloom started again. “Rarity lasted about a week, and ended up killin’ Sweetie; wrote ‘Guilty’ all over the walls in ‘er blood. At least we could agree on that part. Her guilt, that is. Afterwards, she spilled her guts out to me about dern near everything. Did ya know she was there that night seven years ago, and could’ve prevented all of this? I was a bit sad she was already rottin’ away in Town Hall’s holding cell when she confessed. Had I known that earlier, things mighta gone a little different.”
“But… Sweetie Belle was your friend!” Twilight protested, as if there would be some kind of logic to snap Apple Bloom out of this cold, calculated callousness.
“She ain’t my friend.” Apple Bloom spat. “She ‘n Scootaloo abandoned me, you oughta know that! Scoots claimed it was too difficult to ‘see me like this’, and Sweetie eventually blamed ME for what happened. Fuck ‘em both ‘s far as I care.”
Who was this monster, and how could she be wearing Apple Bloom’s skin? Twilight had done everything she could think to do for this young mare. She was a shoulder to cry on, a guiding hoof in her academic pursuits. She encouraged Apple Bloom to expand her horizons and rise above her pain. Where exactly had she failed her?
“Last, but not least: Fluttershy.” Apple Bloom said with a sigh, getting a little tired from the long-winded narrative, but still secretly reveling in it. “She broke about two weeks in, and had been starving her animals for Celestia knows how long. Before she started babbling all nonsense-like, she mentioned running into Angel, and snapping his neck on accident. Her critters retaliated, but o‘course that just led to more critter death. It’s funny, cuz all things considered, her crimes were the least… well, damnin'. Strange thing though, I cured Fluttershy, but that didn’t stop her from babblin’ nonsense and flailing about. It didn’t make sense! But, she ended up in the looney bin anyway.”
“Fluttershy’s in the mental hospital?” Twilight whispered, feeling a pang in her chest for her friend.
“Yup. Gonna stay there most like. Who knows, the others might join her, depending on how their trials go.” Apple Bloom added. She readjusted in the chair before continuing on.
“I gotta admit, it’s been a mighty interestin’ few weeks. Since you and the princesses weren’t around to investigate the new deaths and disappearances, the Canterlot guard had to come pokin’ about. Obviously they were gonna check Sweet Apple Acres. I’d already taken care of their memories from the escape, so it was just a matter of convincin’ ‘em that I hadn’t seen AJ about. That didn’t always work though, so I was making potions double-time to throw ‘em off our scent. Thank Luna guards is stupid, and their pea-brains are susceptible to magical potions. But I got worried that while I was busy watchin’ yer friends and waitin’ for them to break, that somepony would poke around where they ought not. So, I planted them flowers and set some traps around the farm. Besides, I was killin’ two birds with one stone knowin’ that eventually you ‘n Dash would stumble about these parts. Kinda crazy it was at the same time, huh? Dash is in Town Hall right now with Rarity, waitin’ on the Princesses. I think ponies wanted to find you first, hopin’ you’d riddle out why yer friends had gone so nutso. Gonna be interestin’ to see what they say when they find yer body instead.”
Had Apple Bloom just said what she thought she said? Twilight’s blood ran cold, and a deafening thumping in her head increased with every rapid heart beat.
“A-Apple Bloom, p-please…” Twilight couldn’t think of the right way to beg for her life. This wasn’t her little student, assistant, and protege. This was a monster pretending to be Apple Bloom, and monsters were difficult to appeal to.
“I considered lettin’ you live like the others, and gettin’ put away for life, but I don’t trust the princesses not to go easy on ya. They just seem like the type to pull some stupid loophole shit and set you free somewhere. True, you’d have to live with the guilt, but that just ain’t good enough for me. No, while you draw breath, I can’t find peace.” Apple Bloom finished, relieved the explanations had finally ended.
“It wasn’t my fault! I warned Applejack about possible side effects, but she took it anyway! I know I should have gone to the orchard with her and shake the trees myself but… but the princesses needed me. The drought was more important than some zap apples, or so I thought! I was wrong, okay? Wrong! But I’M not the one who murdered ponies for revenge! I’m not the one who tried to hurt her friends and loved ones. I’m not the one who crippled you!” Twilight shouted, throwing every piece of logic she had left at Apple Bloom, hoping something would stick.
Apple Bloom didn’t respond. She calmly reattached her device around her waist and walked to the side of the room previously obscured by medical equipment. An old, dirt-encrusted shovel was then slowly brought into sight, clutched firmly in Apple Bloom’s hoof. It wasn’t the shovel, Rainbow Dash had disposed of that ages ago, but it was fitting enough. She glanced down at her target, a firm-set grimace on her face.
“I don’t care. You betrayed her. You left her to rot, thinkin’ ya’ll could just sweep it under the rug and forget it. You threw her away like she was nothing! Funny how friendship don’t mean shit without honesty, huh?”
“Apple Bloom, listen to me I--” Twilight Sparkle’s plea was interrupted mid sentence when the pony wielding the shovel hit her hard across the face, knocking her out cold.
Apple Bloom methodically locked her wheels into place, then casually placed the sharpened blade of the shovel to the ropes that bound Twilight’s hooves. It took a little bit of time, and elbow grease, but eventually, the spade of the shovel cut her ropes. Twilight’s body flopped flatly onto the floor, making her into an easier target. Apple Bloom paused for only a second before she lifted her shovel above the alicorn’s body. There was no going back.
With a grunt of effort, the shovel came down hard and pierced the fur of Twilight’s torso. Soonafter, Apple Bloom pried it up, and thrust it down again. This time, the blade made contact with the alicorn’s left forehoof. The third strike nicked the stomach. Apple Bloom wasn’t the greatest at aiming, seeing how each thrust was supposed to pierce Twilight’s heart, but she was still surprised she hadn’t drawn much blood in her first few attempts. By the fourth thrust, Apple Bloom punctured an organ, and blood finally began to flow in surges. Apple Bloom’s movements went from calculated, to crazed. She screamed and sobbed as all of her bitterness and anger was funneled into the bloodied mare. That uncontrollable shake… It prevented her from keeping a proper grip on the shovel. After a final thrust, Apple Bloom’s assault ended. The shovel escaped her grasp, tumbling haphazardly onto the crimson and violet mass. She glanced in slight disbelief at what she had done. The blood spattered and stained on her sunny coat.
Apple Bloom’s heart was pounding in her chest as she stood motionless and loomed over the lump that used to be Twilight Sparkle. After a few minutes, she blinked rapidly to snap herself back to reality. She’d told Twilight that she’d perfected the Sleepless Potion, but the foolish princess hadn’t asked her what that meant. Changing some ingredients here and there, and microdosing her own exposure, had kept the earth pony awake since the beginning of her vengeful quest. She couldn’t afford to sleep and have Princess Luna stumble upon her dreams; all of which centered around her anticipated actions. The princess hadn’t found Applejack’s dreams either, and Apple Bloom was convinced it was because of a dreamless potion she had been slowly feeding into Applejack’s sleeping body. It couldn’t possibly be anything else, even if the magical monitor that showed brain activity had been consistently silent. No, there was a potion to fix just about everything, she would just have to work harder.
Apple Bloom took a slow breath to compose herself. She briefly left the room to find a wash basin. Apple Bloom soaked a rag in some warm water and carefully cleaned any visible droplets of blood from her fur and mane. Once she had finished, she returned to Applejack’s room and eyed the pony remains waiting for her there. She knew she ought to dispose of the body the way she had planned. The trouble was, her frenzied attack had completely sapped Apple Bloom of energy. Melting skin, tissue, and bone in a specially mixed acidic vat of potion would have to wait. It seemed ponies wouldn’t be finding a body after all. Apple Bloom’s hooves dragged on the floor as she walked and wheeled towards her sister’s bed. She gently pressed a latch on the contraption around her waist, freeing her from it as she awkwardly climbed into the bed, positioning herself beside her sister. Apple Bloom snuggled AJ from atop the covers, burying her face in her mane as she had done so many times as a filly.
“You can wake up, Applejack… Please wake up.” She whispered softly and lovingly to her big sis.
“You were right. I shoulda listened to ya… I’m sorry. I just couldn’t let it go.”