//------------------------------// // Chapter Four: Lies are Hard to Forgive // Story: Of Insanity and Discovery // by anonymous_brony //------------------------------// Of Insanity and Discovery Ch. 4 Scootaloo couldn't take it anymore and sobs of absolute misery began to run down her neck. You can imagine how those made me feel, my childhood hero braking down into tears in my hooves. I could feel my heart starting to swell up in my chest and the pain of watching her entering my eyes. I started to cry as well. Now I am not a wimpy stallion, I have cried on occasion, but only in times of pure grief. For instance my best friend, a nice mare with a better sense for hidden treasure on an excavation site than I. (I'm not boasting but that means she was very good at what she did.) She died in an accident involving a new excavation site, a ditch, and a drunkard in the driving seat. Many tears were shed that day. "Please ma'am, tell me what happened next." I whispered in her ear, trying to be professional and calm. "All, (gasp) all right…" Scootaloo reached up to rub away the tears that were openly streaming down her face. "A- as I was saying (sniff) Pinkie got shot and Trixie turned to Applejack and said…" "Well Applejack now that that's done will you be so kind as to tell me where in Canterlot the rebellion is hiding?" "Now you just hold on one bloomin' minute there Trixie." Applejack answered, surprise and betrayal entering her eyes. Being the element of honesty she wasn't used to lies, or liars. "You said that if I got you Pinkie Pie than you would tell me where y'all have been keepin' Granny Smith!" "Please Applejack, The Great and Powerful Trixie always keeps her word. I just want a little information that's all." Scootaloo could see the look of disgust that had spread over Applejacks face. "You have two choices here, apple bucker. You either tell me where the rebellion is or you will never know what has happened to dear old granny. Her life is in your… powerful, hooves." "So what your tellin' me is that, ah kill my sister and brother, or I kill me granny?" Tears started to freely flow as her mind connected the dots. "If ah speak or ah don't speak, ah still kill somepony." "Yes, what a shame. So who will it be? The mare that raised you? Or the siblings that you grew up with, it must be so hard for you." Mocking compassion layered her words as they were spoken. "I'm so sorry that you have to make this choice." "No you an't, you bucking imperialist!" Applejack screamed, giving into the rage that had been building up in her. "Now Apple, yelling won't get us anywhere. And you'd better make your mind up soon or else granny might just meet a, well, not so untimely death." "Stop this Trixie." "What? I'm merely stating fact. Besides, the clock is ticking." Scootaloo sat there, behind her tree, watching as Trixie's cruel word dug them selves deeper and deeper into Applejack mind causing more indecision than one would have thought possible. Anger, hatred, misery and pain are all things that crossed Applejacks face as Trixie continued talking. "You know what? If you tell me where their hiding in Canterlot, I'll just punish them and incarcerate them. You won't have one pony's blood on your hooves." Applejack had been grasping at straws, trying to find a way to keep her family alive in her desperation. And Trixie had just given her the smallest straw avalible. "So what you're sayin' is that if ah tell you, you won't kill any of my family?" A look desperate pleading crossing her face. "The Great and Powerful Trixie promises that they will merely be imprisoned and punished for their crimes. Now, where are they?" Trixie had Applejack in the sole of her hoof, and she knew it. "There are a set of tunnels under the Canterlot castle, Twi was trapped down there by the changeling queen and she thought that it would be the perfect place for the rebels to stay since no pony knew 'bout them." "Clever, thank you traitor. Looks like you just gave us what we were looking for. You know what the punishment for a traitor is right?" The look of fear and horror crossed Applejacks face as Trixie added the last word in her painful and cliché speech. "Death." With a flourish Trixie brought the sniper rife off her back with her blue magical aura and smashed the butt of the rifle directly into Applejack's head. "Now Applejack, don't think I went against my word." Trixie knelt down beside the writhing form on the ground. "your granny… you'll see her very soon." Applejack froze on the ground, her eyes locked on the monster before her. "You killed Granny Smith?" Her words held an icy texture that made Trixie slightly uneasy. But she soon got over it. "Yes, your point?" Trixie said, her cockiness back to its normal, irritating self. "Well now ah might just have to give you some visitin' hours with her." Applejack slowly stood, the left side of her head bleeding due to the impact with Trixie's gun butt. Trixie was taken aback. She had known that Applejack was strong, but that blow should have killed her! "What was it that Pinkie used to say… A hop, skip, and jump?" "What are babbling about now?" "A hop." Applejack leapt at Trixie. "A skip." Applejack threw her front right leg into Trixie's abdomen. "And Jump." Applejack twisted in mid air and bucked Trixie in the side. In the hopes of blocking the coming on slot of attacks, Trixie had created a small magical shield to surround her self, Trixie is a very talented mare in the art of magic and she had worked incredibly hard to train herself after the frustrating and humiliating encounter with Twilight Sparkle. It had worked, she was now very powerful, not Twilight, but still powerful. Trixie had been able to block the blow to her abdomen , but the bucking was far too much for her skill to handle. Her shield broke and the force from the blow had sent her sprawling. Applejack walked over to the fallen officer, looking down at the broken form before her, she couldn't bring herself to finish the act, she couldn't kill somepony. Even if that pony had killed countless times, including the broken form of a once pink energetic pony that still lay to her side. "No… Trixie didn't kill ya Pinkie. Ah killed ya, ah killed you for somepony that was already dead!" Quiet sobs started to fill the air as Applejack remembered times they had spent. As fillies they had met up on the streets of Ponyville, both having lost ponies that were dear to them. Each of them were able to find companionship through the other. They grew up together and over time Applejack found Pinkie Pie the job at Sugar Cube Corner. In exchange Pinkie had given Applejack a hat, a hat that she had worn from that day on. They were both present at the death of their dear friend Rarity, and they had worked together in raising her son. Or they did, until he had moved away at the young age thirteen to go to Canterlot. They had shared times, both good and bad, but now she was dead, dead by Applejack's own hooves and she couldn't bare it. Looking down at that cold, now empty body, the memories of time gone by was just too painful for her to bear. She looked away. Her tears were now reaching their highest point and she collapsed as her tears became a racking sob, but slowly the sobs decreased until there was just a hollow breathing, and even that started to slow. Applejack was dying. The extra push from the adrenalin having ended, she could no longer fight off the pain from Trixie's blow. Scootaloo ran out into the clearing, her tiny wings pushing her faster that any normal earth pony could run. She had already seen one of the ponies that had been dear to her die and she couldn't stand another. "Applejack… You can't die on me, not now, not after Pinkie left me… I can't survive like this, the pain is… Applejack!" "Howdy squirt." The words were so soft Scootaloo could tell she didn't have much longer. "O-only Rainbow Dash can call me that..." "Huh, Rainbow… Say howdy to her for me will ya?" "Okay…" Was Scootaloo's quite response. She just couldn't remind Applejack of Rainbow's death, not now. "Good-By ya little rascal." Applejack's eyes rolled back into her head and she was lost to the winds. Not only Pinkie Pie now… but Applejack as well. Scootaloo rose to her feet, and with fury in her eyes turned to the place Trixie had fallen. Only to find that she wasn't there. It was then that something snapped in her, and she swore on the deaths of both Pinkie Pie and Applejack. That she would kill, The Great and Powerful Trixie.