Author's note: As usual, I was going very long on this chapter, and trying to fit too much in. I ended up opting to split what I had intended to be chapter 2 into chapters 2 and 3, but this has an unfortunate side effect: This chapter is almost entirely gore-free. If you're only here for the gore, then sorry, you'll just have to muddle through it, occasionally I need some plot. I assure you the next chapter will make up for it in spades.
It was a typical morning for Applejack. She woke with the sun, as she did every day, prepared for the hard work of the hours ahead. She tied back her hair and put on her trusty hat, before carefully but quickly remaking her bed, a habit she had unintentionally picked up from Rarity. This being the extent of her usual morning ritual, with but a quick glance in the mirror she was satisfied and ready to toil.
But she remembered that this typical day for her would be an atypical one for her sister, and instead set herself to the usually-difficult task of waking the tired filly up. The upper floor of the Apple family farmhouse was an old, creaky structure with a cacophonous life of its own, and every morning it surprised her that hers and Big Macintosh's morning routines weren't noisy enough to wake up Apple Bloom.
She knocked softly on the filly's bedroom door. Not hearing a response, she opened it and poked in her head, expecting to find Apple Bloom still sleeping. She was surprised to find that her sister wasn't there at all. What was even more surprising, however, was that the pink bow which almost always adorned the younger's head was currently adorning a bedpost, unmade sheets strewn around it. “Apple Bloom must've been pretty excited to forget that,” she said to the empty air, before carefully plucking the adornment from its improper perch.
Concluding that a detour to return the bow would not significantly hinder her work for the day, she trotted down the stairs and nearly escaped the farmhouse altogether, but for a conspicuous “ahem” behind her. Turning, she found that Big Macintosh was at the breakfast table.
The large workhorse was capable of significant communication with his eldest sister without needing to utter a word. His stance and demeanor spoke volumes. “Breakfast first,” it said, “then you can go find Apple Bloom.”
Applejack smiled and relented. Carefully setting the bow on the back of an empty chair, she fetched several of the apple pancakes that her brother had prepared and a small glass of apple juice.
“Thanks, Mac.”
He simply nodded in return, still working his way slowly through his own meal.
They finished their meals and set forth to their tasks.
“Ah'll be back to help y'all once Ah've got Apple Bloom her bow,” Applejack said plainly. Once again carefully plucking the article from its position, she left without awaiting a reply.
“Eey–“
His sisters both gone, Big Macintosh chuckled to himself, then left for the orchards.
Ponyville was quiet, with only the morning birds and a few early-rising ponies interrupting the calm silence. Applejack smiled and nodded in response to the occasional cheerful hello, but didn’t break her gait. She soon was passing the town’s central library, paying little attention to anything but her simple chore.
“Hi Applejack!”
Again, she simply smiled and nodded at the voice.
“I see you’re looking for Apple Bloom.”
This finally stopped her. She looked aside to see Twilight Sparkle, still sitting in front of the library, watching Equestria pass by. Applejack crossed her eyes, trying to indicate the bow carefully clasped between her teeth without needing to speak.
Twilight was amused by her usually-talkative friend’s silence, and imitated it. She tilted her head in the direction Apple Bloom had left, igniting the ground before them in a bright fuchsia glow. The earth pony raised an eyebrow, confused, causing the unicorn to lose her concentration in laughter. The glow sputtered and vanished.
“Twi can be a mite strange sometimes,” Applejack thought, “but Ah suppose she means well.”
She had only began trotting in the indicated direction when she was nearly struck by a buzzing blur of blue and orange and magenta and purple, which itself was nearly struck by a galloping blur of white and pink. Both came to a rather clumsy halt, but all three remained unharmed.
As the dust settled, Sweetie Belle broke the silence with a laugh. “Scootaloo, watch where you’re going!”
The filly in question seemed unconcerned. “Oh, hi Applejack! Wanna see–”
Applejack finally released the bow from her teeth, holding it carefully in a hoof, to scold the little pegasus.
“Y’all oughta be more careful with that scooter, ye could kill somepony!”
Scootaloo frowned and stared at the dirt path. “Sorry, Applejack.”
“Yeah. Sorry, Applejack,” Sweetie Belle echoed.
With the two quivering frowns and sad sets of eyes before her, the farmpony couldn’t help but smile. “OK, y’all’re forgiven. Now where’s mah little sis?”
Both fillies instantly lifted from their funk, and the scooting one looked around.
“She was just here with us … sorry, Idonno where she went!”
“Alright, Ah’ll check the carriage stand then. See y’all later.”
Applejack returned the bow to its previous grip and cantered away.
“Bye!” the fillies cried cheerfully after her.
Applejack scrunched her nose and furrowed her brow, in part because she couldn’t find her little sister, and in part because the smell of this place was foul, an unsettling mix of rust, death and pine. Although farming had its share of unpleasant odors, this one was unique.
Turning her head, she shuddered and forced closed her eyes, then looked away. She’d seen animals butchered by prey, even had her own livestock taken at times, but the unrecognizable pile of dismembered meat and bones before her was different. The savagery of it was unlike anything she had seen.
It was only after daring a second glance that she noticed a shock of exposed red hair, and realized the truth of what was before her. Her world span around her, she dropped the precious bow, nausea began to overtake her. Partially-digested apple pancakes, along with an equal amount of stomach acid and bile, soon graced the otherwise-clean wooden planks of the carriage stand, but their cause was long gone, galloping towards the center of Ponyville.
Tears were building and the path before her seemed to twist cruelly, mocking her faltering legs and churning stomach. But she was compelled to find somepony. She was compelled to find a pony to help.
She had not yet allowed her mind to acknowledge that nopony could.
“Twilight! Twilight!”
Applejack screamed through the tears, her voice wavering and cracking until it degraded into a sob. Twilight Sparkle needed no explanation to see that something terrible had happened.
“Spike, stay here.”
The baby dragon was still asleep, making the demand moot, but it had nonetheless been sufficient to indicate that Applejack should lead the way. Soon they were both galloping, waves of concern keeping the less-athletic unicorn up to pace. The houses, shops and waking residents of Ponyville were a blur as they quickly reached their destination.
Applejack fell to the ground, prone, breathing heavily, green eyes fixated on the artifact of her terror. Tears came slowly but steadily, wetting the fur of her cheeks in a dark path.
It took Twilight a moment to process the scene. When she did, the severity of it gripped her spine, sending sharp waves of tense pain through her. She stood agape, staring, unable to find words and unable to speak them if she could. Her mind blank and her body numb, she was, to all relevant intents and purposes, paralyzed.
The ruckus they caused running through town had attracted some attention, and that attention had transitively attracted more attention. A small crowd was forming; they kept their distance and hushed their voices, but their presence seared through the woebegone earth pony. She didn’t know why they infuriated her so, but she said nothing, could say nothing.
Slowly but surely, much of Ponyville was arriving, and it wasn’t long before they were joined by Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, and each began to grapple with what had occurred.
Fluttershy held her head in her hooves, sobbing openly, until she too fell to the grass, tears mixing with morning dew. Rarity, carefully maintaining a composed disposition, stood by her, trying to comfort the fragile pegasus to no avail. The tailor’s own thoughts were to her sister, and how this catastrophe would affect her family, but for the sake of the others she remained emotionally reserved.
Pinkie Pie just stared. She didn’t cry, she said nothing, she didn’t so much as twitch. Her wide eyes were devoid of joy, a sickening facsimile of their usual lustre. Her typical exuberant smile was replaced by a pained grimace. Her expression did poor service to the turmoil that wrenched her viscera, threatening to expel her unhealthy breakfast of cupcakes and pie.
Rainbow Dash looked over the rest pensively, as if trying to choose the appropriate expression for the scene. Finding no plurality, her demeanor turned to confusion and nervousness, and continued as such uncorrected.
By the time the others had arrived, Twilight Sparkle had rectified her attitude and attempted to join Rarity in being stoic and composed. Her legs failed her, however, trembling uncontrollably under her weight.
This display continued for quite some time, nopony willing to voluntarily end the loathsome wordlessness.
The crowd was growing, their murmurs feeling like a roar over the reticent group. Pegasi hovered above, trying to see what was going on while still maintaining a respectful distance. Rainbow, still not finding the correct expression, was the first of the six to speak.
“Do you think a wild animal could’ve–”
Her inquiry was cut short by the uncharacteristic shout of Fluttershy. The suggestion shook the sensitive pegasus to her core, both insulting and terrifying the animal caregiver of Ponyville.
“No! I … they couldn’t … n–no!”
Her eyes were bloodshot, her cheeks now flush with rage as well as moist with tears.
She backed away, pushing herself painfully along the grass and dirt. Her shout diminished into a choked plea.
“No! No!”
The tears were coming once again, her voice interrupted by frequent sobs.
“N–no! No!”
Finally she fled, galloping away as fast as her legs would allow, pushing through the group which silently parted to grant her passage. As was often the case for Fluttershy, she didn’t think to fly.
Rainbow felt the heat emanating from Rarity’s wrathful glare, but it was mercifully short-lived. Rarity was soon off as well, trailing her emotionally fragile friend.
Twilight shook her head. She had a powerful, though unwanted, ability to command the attention of everypony, and that ability was now asserting itself. She glared into the group, her gaze moving from pair to pair of awaiting eyes. Swallowing hard, she prepared herself for a difficult announcement.
She spoke loudly. Firmly. Without quaver or break. “No. This was no unfortunate accident.”
Her eyes swept over the crowd once more as she drew a deep breath and gathered her nerves.
“This was murder.”
She continued to stare into the group for a long moment. The reaction was not as she expected. Ponies cocked their heads and raised their eyebrows, whispered amongst themselves. Twilight soon realized that the term was only familiar to her due to her lessons in history; no murder had been committed in Equestria in hundreds of years. Her phlegmatic disposition vanished in an instant as she tried falteringly to explain the concept.
“She … somepony killed … somepony intentionally ended Apple Bloom’s life.”
It was perhaps the most awkward description of a crime in Equestria’s history, but it elicited the expected response. All eyes widened with shock and terror, gasps rose intermittently as ponies realized the severity of what had occurred. All were still fixated on the unicorn.
Twilight, however, had nothing left to say. She shuffled uncomfortably, trying to dispel and disband the group.
“We … well, we need to figure out who did this. But, uh, right now I think maybe Applejack needs to be left alone.”
The murmurs began again, concern turning to shock, shock turning to fear. But the group nonetheless dispersed, returning towards town in stunned clusters.
Twilight left with them, and Rainbow Dash was glad to leave with her.
“This is bad, Twilight. Really, really bad. Isn’t it?”
Twilight sighed, “This event may have odious consequences for all of Equestria, Rainbow.”
“Um, yeah. That.” Rainbow looked at the plain dirt road and flexed her wings uncomfortably while keeping her slow walking pace alongside Twilight. She felt trapped; her natural instinct in a tense situation was to fly, but she held back that urge. “We’ll find the pony that did this, won’t we?”
The reply was hesitant, unsure. “I hope so.”
Only Applejack and Pinkie Pie remained, the latter still transfixed by her own horror. The former had run out of tears, run out of emotion. She was exhausted, desperately trying to hold back her mind from piecing together the consequences of this day.
“Have ye ever held a wake, Pinkie?”
Rarity stood on her family’s porch, carefully examining each line and knot of the front door of her childhood home. She had maintained her composure all morning, but the looming conversation she was to have with her sister drained her of all fortitude. She couldn’t so much as bring herself to knock.
She didn’t need to, however, as the door swung open by another pony’s volition. In her excitement, Sweetie Belle didn’t even notice her older sister, bumping her head into an ivory shoulder before she stopped.
She stared up at Rarity for a moment, addled, before gathering her wits into a bright grin.
“Hiya sis!”
Seeing the little filly’s cheery demeanor tore at the couturier’s core. She fought back tears and put her mind to remaining sedate for the moments ahead.
“Sweetie Belle, we need to talk. Something terrible has happened.”
They talked in Sweetie Belle’s cluttered bedroom, sitting together on her overly-ornate four poster bed, a gift from the older. Not one to miss details, Rarity of course noticed her sister’s new cutie mark, but determined that there would be a better time to discuss it. Upon hearing the news, the younger screamed, then cried, then just held her sister. They held a sad embrace for a seeming eternity, until Rarity’s coat was soaked with the filly’s tears. Rarity swayed her sister back and forth and hushed her in motherly tones, allowing her time to release. Emotions being exhausting, eventually she fell asleep in her sister’s forelegs, tears still gently streaming down her cheeks.
Sweetie Belle was impressed by her own performance. Rarity was none the wiser.
The wake was scheduled for the following Sunday, four days’ time. Ponyville was quiet but for the chittering of unburdened animals; Ponies went about their daily routine with rarely more than a nod to acknowledge others’ existence. Even the unexpected and hushed, but nonetheless regal, arrival of Princess Celestia did little to raise the town’s shattered spirits.
The princess’ stay, which lasted only a few hours, was held entirely in closed conference with her prized pupil and the mayor. Rainbow Dash’s attempts to draw information out of the steadfast royal guards met with resounding failure, leaving the nature of the meeting a mystery, though of course everypony had their guesses. She left as silently as she had arrived, leaving only puzzlement in her wake.
Nopony dared question Twilight or the mayor on the nature of their royal encounter. And so the days dragged by.
It was a small affair, only the nearby members of the Apple family and their close friends were invited. Held outdoors in one of the well-groomed clearings that dotted Sweet Apple Acres’ many hectares, the blissfully cool day (provided courtesy of Rainbow Dash) helped quell the tumultuous emotions of the present ponies.
Having been informed that wakes are a “joyous affair,” in which one “celebrates life instead of fixating on death,” Pinkie Pie had made a concerted effort to make the event no less mirthful than any party she threw. Balloons and streamers were certainly unusual for this type of gathering, but in a way that only Pinkie could, she made them cohere with the rest of the atmosphere.
Five round tables were arranged in a semicircle, each with an apple-red tablecloth and a bouquet of black balloons rising from the center. Four were surrounded by members of the Apple family. Their moods ranged from somber to sorrowful but none, to Pinkie’s dismay, showed any cheer. The fifth was occupied by the four bearers of the Elements of Harmony who were neither family members nor party planners, and the two Cutie Mark Crusaders who remained in Equestria. Aside from Scootaloo, their dispositions mirrored those of the family.
Some of the elder members of the Apple family grumbled, perturbed by the unintended but obvious segregation of earth ponies from unicorns and pegasi. This perceived insult did little to improve the general mood, and the unfortunate planner couldn’t so much as recognize it, let alone rectify it.
The wake was not going well, and nopony was more aware of this fact than Pinkie Pie, who moved from table to table in a fruitless attempt to lighten the mood. Her own cheery demeanor was a thin facade, albeit one she had much experience maintaining.
The table containing the nearest members of the Apple family was, oddly, the least morose present. They discussed the good times, and had a veritable bounty of good times to discuss. Applejack told anecdotes of her sister’s truncated fillyhood; Big Macintosh nodded along, adding the occasional “eeyup;” Granny Smith just sat, drinking tea and trying to keep everypony in check. The scene was practiced. Familiar. The similarity to the wake of Apple Bloom’s and Applejack’s parents left a bitter taste in their mouths, which they were all countering with stories of sweeter times.
All eyes carefully avoided the centerpiece of this arrangement. Although it was oft the topic of their melancholy conversation, none were willing to actually set their gaze upon it. A small, well-polished black coffin sat on a simple oak table. Inside were the remains of Apple Bloom; although the body was arranged as well as could be expected, its ghastly condition had necessitated a closed-casket proceedings. Still, its very presence eroded at the minds of everypony present, even as they tried desperately to ignore it.
All but one pony, that is. One pony was rendered incapable of so much as acknowledging its existence.
“You throw the best parties, Pinkie! This is so much fun!”
“Do you think she understands what’s going on?” Rarity whispered softly into Twilight’s ear.
“I’m concerned, Rarity,” she whispered just as softly in reply, “I don’t think she’s even realized … about Apple Bloom.”
“Did you see her Cutie Mark?”
“You don’t think she could be …”
“Frankly, I think she’s delusional.”
Rarity’s candid tone surprised Twilight, but she nonetheless nodded in agreement. “Do you think we should do something?”
“I … I don’t really know. What do you think?”
“I’ve heard that breaking somepony’s fantasy can do irreparable damage to their psyche.”
“But surely we must do something!”
Twilight shook her head. “We should find somepony more qualified.”
Rarity reluctantly agreed, and the pair continued to discuss the situation, soon involving their pegasus allies as well. As sad as Scootaloo’s condition was, it was a welcome distraction from the actual purpose of the event.
When the ersatz party was finally ended, only Applejack and Pinkie Pie remained, once again unexpectedly in the sole company of each other. Pinkie cleaned, distressed over what she perceived to be a dismal failure of a party. Applejack had finally allowed her manner to break, crying weakly into a disobliging tablecloth as she sipped slowly at a cup of apple tea.
“I’m sorry, Applejack. I really tried hard, but … well, I’m sorry.”
Applejack responded with a small, sad smile, “No, Pinkie. Ye did fine. Ye did good. Ah shouldn’t a’ put it on ye.”
Applejack continued to drink her tea. Pinkie continued to clean in silence, but noticed something she hadn’t before. Applejack’s usual simple apple-red hairband had been replaced by an uncharacteristically feminine accoutrement.
A pink bow.