//------------------------------//
// Rest in Pieces 
// Story: Applejack: Stare Master Extraordinaire 
// by Indeliblink 
//------------------------------//

Applejack hardly noticed Rainbow Dash's arrival until the pegasus was right beside her, flying along at a pace that matched her own leisurely trot. "So, what's the sitch?"

Without diverting her gaze from the cottage ahead, she replied dully, "I'm tellin' her about Chewy, hopefully without havin' ta show her the body." Or what's left of it, at least.

Rainbow nodded. "Good idea. Ol' Chewy wasn't in too good of shape last I saw him."

"...Right."

"Listen, AJ, you need to be kinda... delicate." Rainbow ignored the farmer's deadpan glare and continued. "Seriously, Flutters cares for her animals, like, a lot. As much as she cares for us, even." Rainbow shivered. "Imagine telling Fluttershy that one of us had died."

Applejack did imagine it, and it wasn't pretty. "Okay, I see yer point," she muttered, her ears lowering slightly.

"Just think of a way to break the news without killing her, hey?"

"I'm more worried about her killing me."

"Naw, I've known Fluttershy for years," Rainbow insisted, waving a forehoof dismissively. "She's not the type to kill anypony."

"Even for this?" Applejack raised an eyebrow. "Are ya sure?"

Rainbow paused, thinking about it a bit more. She frowned after a moment, rubbing her forehooves together. "I'm reasonably sure."





Applejack, now sans one blue pegasus, raised her hoof to knock on Fluttershy's door for the second time that day. Okay, she reminded herself, tell her, then apologize, then hug or whatever, and then leave and find somethin' to do with these bird pieces. She blanched, her hoof smacking back down on the stone porch. What a thing to say... Chewy, wherever you are now, ah hope you're gettin' a real good laugh outta this. She finally lifted her hoof again, this time with much more effort, and knocked quietly.

In less than a second, the door was flung open and Applejack was dragged inside, a yellow pegasus immediately barraging her with panicked questions.

"Did you find him? Is he safe? Where is he? Can--" Applejack gently held a hoof over her mouth, silencing her.

"Look, Fluttershy, we..." She gulped. "We gotta talk."

"Oh..." Fluttershy looked disappointed and more than a little put-out at the sudden change of subject, but remained attentive nonetheless.

"I... found Chewy." Applejack cringed at the pegasus's delighted squeal.

"You did?!" Fluttershy nearly tackled her before she noticed Applejack's somber demeanor. "What's wrong?"

"Y'see, I actually kinda knew where he was... the whole time." She could already sense Fluttershy's confusion and inevitable question, so she explained further. "The truth is, uh... oh, geez, I really didn't wanna have to tell ya this..." Fluttershy's eyes were filled with a sudden trace of fear, as if she knew exactly what the orange pony was about to say next. Applejack put a consoling hoof on her shoulder. "...He... He died, sugarcube."

Fluttershy's eyes filled with tears, and Applejack had to look away. "W-w-what...?"

"I'm real sorry, Fluttershy..." She shook her head and sighed sadly. "I'm sorry like you wouldn't believe."

"H-how?" Came a soft whimper from beside her. "How did he die?"

"Fluttershy... I..." Although the incident had been quite the strange one, and even though she knew she wasn't truly at fault (at least, she hoped she wasn't), she still felt some responsibility for Chewy's fate. "It was my fault," she admitted firmly, meeting her friend's gaze.

A hint of betrayal crept onto Fluttershy's face at these words; Applejack felt stung. Fluttershy was neither a pony to betray her friends nor be betrayed by them, and this conversation could easily escalate out of control if the farmpony didn't control it carefully. "Wha... What do you mean, it was your fault?" Fluttershy demanded, her voice rising.

"Listen, I'm not entirely sure myself how it happened, but..." Fluttershy appeared even more dissatisfied with this remark, and Applejack rushed to climb out of this hole she'd slowly dug herself into. "But, Fluttershy, it was an accident!"

She was getting desperate as Fluttershy took a tiny step backwards in shock. "Y-You... You actually did...?"

"Fluttershy, I didn't mean to do it!" Applejack pleaded, grabbing the mare's shoulders. "I swear! You gotta believe me!" Fluttershy was still hesitant, sniffling softly. "Please!"

A slow nod made her nearly scream in relief. "Okay," she sobbed, "I-I believe you."

"Thank you," Applejack whispered, squeezing her shoulder softly. She took a few slow breaths, allowing Fluttershy to wipe her eyes. "It means a lot to me, Shy."

"You're welcome." Fluttershy brushed her mane out of her eyes, revealing the wet redness clouding them. "S-so, what happened, exactly?"

"Well, I really don't know..." Applejack rubbed the back of her head, frowning at the floor. "I was just standin' there, lookin' at him, and he was lookin' at me... and then for some reason, he just... went."

"Went... where?"

Applejack shuffled her hooves awkwardly. "Ehm... to the big birdhouse in the sky?" She offered, and the pegasus winced.

"Oh, yes, right... there." A long pause followed, and before long, she finally murmured, "Thank you for telling me, Applejack."

"S'only right that I do."

The cottage lapsed into an awkward silence, one which Applejack quickly found immensely uncomfortable. I guess that's that...

"Well," Fluttershy's timid voice cut through the silence, as well as her thoughts. She wrung her hooves together, trying to word her question delicately. "D-do you... have... him?"

Aw, rats.

"Ehh... well, I--uhh..."

"Please, Applejack. I have to see Chewbacca... one last time." Applejack could respect the mare's dedication and loyalty, as well as her desire for closure... but this was a special case. A very special case. She was fairly certain that the pegasus she knew wouldn't be able to handle seeing the results of a day's worth of her carrying around a dead body. Especially not after what Pinkie's whisk had done... or rather, undone.

"Sugarcube, I really don't--"

"Applejack." She flinched at that; Fluttershy's stern voice was a clear indicator that her protective nature would be soon to kick in, and the farmpony knew that she did not want to be on the receiving end of The Stare.

"Yer not gonna like it," she sighed, finally giving in as Fluttershy's eyes narrowed in irritation. "Okay, okay. Just... brace yourself."

"It..." Fluttershy relaxed, scuffing the floor with her hoof. Applejack was just trying to look out for her feelings, after all. Perhaps she was being a little too demanding. "I-I'll be okay, Applejack. I've had this sort of thing happen before." She wiped her eyes once more, calling to mind several previous memories of private funerals for her dearest and most loyal friends. She had never been rendered incapable of caring for their remains, though, and she wouldn't allow herself to be now. What kind of caretaker would she be if she didn't take care of her animals when they themselves no longer could?

Sparing her one last worried glance, Applejack carefully removed her hat and dumped the disembodied pieces of Chewy into her friend's outstretched hooves, plucking a few stray feathers from the inside of her hat for good measure. Fluttershy merely gaped, her eyes transfixed on the body parts falling one-by-one into her care. Applejack watched her for a reaction, noticing after a few seconds that she was no longer breathing.

"Fluttershy?" She whispered gently, stepping closer. The pegasus didn't respond, her stunned gaze never flickering from her curled hooves. "Are ya gonna be okay?"

She vaguely came to notice a faint, high pitched shriek that emanated from Fluttershy's slightly-opened mouth, and she bowed her head in sympathy. "Fluttershy, I'm so sorry..."

The shrieking gradually loudened into a shrill wail, and Fluttershy's muzzle tinted an odd shade of green.

"Uhm..." Applejack cautiously laid a hoof on the mare's shoulder. "Girl, you... don't look so good."

Fluttershy gave a small spasm as her eyes rolled back in her head, and her legs gave out from under her, sending her limp body crashing to the floor.

Applejack was at her side in an instant, shaking her frantically. "Fluttershy! Shy, wake up! Answer me, sugar!" She patted the yellow pony's pale cheeks a few times, but Fluttershy never showed any signs of regaining consciousness. With an exhausted groan, Applejack plunked down on her rear and waited, suddenly feeling strangely exposed. It was almost as if there were dozens of ponies observing her, analyzing her every move...

She jerked her head to the side, catching the suspicious gazes of several of the resident animals. Looking around, she realized that practically every animal in the house was staring straight at her, and she felt an uneasy flutter in her stomach.

"Uhm..." The farmer forced what she hoped was a friendly smile onto her face and weakly waved a hoof in greeting. "Howdy?"





Six ponies gathered in a small enclosed field some distance behind Fluttershy's cottage, surrounded on all sides by a small crowd of animals. In front of them was mounted a modest tombstone with a tiny, precisely engraved inscription:





Chewbacca

In loving memory





Applejack tore her guilty gaze from the grave and looked at Fluttershy; the pegasus seemed to inch away from her, not meeting her eyes. She had been avoiding her ever since she came to and remembered the confession Applejack had hit her with. It had been days, and the farmer was beginning to worry that she would never truly be forgiven. Letting out a small sigh, she resumed staring hollowly at the reminder of that devilish little bird that had somehow caused all this madness.

Rainbow Dash and Twilight exchanged an unnerved glance, feeling wholly unwelcome in the heavy atmosphere. What right had they to be here after defiling the corpse of honor? They nodded awkwardly to each other, lowering their eyes to the ground.

Rarity and Pinkie Pie stood at the edges of the small huddle. While Pinkie appeared genuinely sympathetic, Rarity could not bring herself to say the same. The unfamiliar attention from the dozens of depressed animals seemed to leech the life out of her, and her eyes darted around the clearing constantly. If Fluttershy hadn't expressly asked her to stay, she would have had no objections to fleeing the scene and avoiding the band of woodland creatures entirely.

The area was silent, save for the faint calls of some grieving birds perched in the trees around them. Rainbow fidgeted, her hooves making a whisper as they ruffled the grass. She groaned absently, immediately being shushed by Twilight, and took a few deep breaths.

After what felt like an eternity, a soft voice spoke, just barely reaching the ears of those located on the outside of the tight circle. "Chewy, you were a wonderful bird and we'll all miss you." Fluttershy silently stepped forward and rested her muzzle on top of the stone, tears dripping off her face and soaking it a darker grey. "We love you and we hope you... e-enjoy yourself... up t-there." Her friends found themselves bowing their heads as she squeezed the stone tighter, and she soon let go and backed away. Rarity wrapped a leg around the mare's shoulders as she was led away from the grave, the small procession trailing behind.

Once they arrived back at the cottage, Fluttershy sat down on the couch, not saying a word. Applejack sat beside her, almost afraid to even try making her feel better. She looked fragile.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, noting the small twitch of an ear she received in response. "Ah dunno how many times I've got to say it, but ah'll keep right on sayin' it until you forgive me. I'm not about to let you drop this friendship in the dust just 'cause of some freak accident, understand?"

"I forgave you," Fluttershy reminded her. "I'm just sad."

"Ya've been avoidin' me like the plague, girl..." Applejack studied her own hooves, wearing a downtrodden expression on her face. "Ya won't even look at me anymore..."

Fluttershy carefully slid her eyes to the side, taking in just how depressed her friend had become. She scolded herself, feeling her hooves shake. She wasn't supposed to make her friends sad! She was supposed to be kind and understanding, not hold their mistakes over their heads! Applejack probably felt worse than she did right now, and she didn't wish that burden on anypony. Especially not Applejack.

"I'm sorry," she breathed, scooting a little closer to the orange pony. "I shouldn't have been so cold to you. I-I've just been thinking a lot... well, overthinking is more like it, actually."

"Ya don't have to apologize to me. I'm the one who caused this whole mess, ain't I?"

"No." Fluttershy patted her on the back of the neck, feeling her relax under her reassuring touch. "It was something else, and whatever it was wasn't your fault."

Applejack looked about ready to cry, and she pulled the brim of her hat over her eyes. "T-Thanks, Fluttershy," she murmured thickly.

She noticed a lavender hoof under the leather covering her face and lifted her hat to find Twilight standing in front of them. "Twi," she acknowledged the alicorn with a nod.

Twilight didn't respond for a moment, staring Applejack in the eyes long enough to make her feel extremely uncomfortable. "There's still something bothering me," she muttered at last. "Why did this happen? How did you suddenly gain the power to kill birds just by staring at them?"

Applejack sighed. "We've been over this, Twilight, I don't know--"

"I know that," Twilight interrupted, rubbing her face. "It still doesn't satisfy my curiosity, though."

"Maybe..." Fluttershy tried quietly, prompting the two mares to look at her. "Maybe it was something else?"

"What else could it have been? Was he unhealthy?"

"Well, no..." Fluttershy clicked her hooves together. "But... Maybe it actually wasn't Applejack who caused it. I don't think it was her fault."

"Well, you're right about that; no matter what, Applejack isn't at fault here." Twilight nodded in agreement. "It was a terrible accident, and that's a fact."

"Oh, of course," Fluttershy replied. "I mean, my Stare just kind of showed up out of the blue, and I have no idea why my anger caused me to, um, get it. But, well... maybe it wasn't the Stare at all?" She looked at Twilight beseechingly, almost pleading for her to alleviate Applejack's guilt. "Maybe Applejack had nothing to do with it?"

Applejack turned to look at Twilight, her ears perking up hopefully. The alicorn rubbed her chin, considering the supernatural forces that had, until this point, been the only reasonable cause for a young bird's untimely death. "True, it is kind of odd to gain this sort of ability without any sort of trigger," she conceded. "Well, I suppose there are other equally-ridiculous possibilities. Perhaps... Fluttershy, being so adept with animals, I know you'd have recognized any type of known disease Chewy could have picked up." Fluttershy nodded. "Is it possible that he could have contracted some unknown fatal disease? Could its symptoms have been hidden to the point it was undetectable?"

Fluttershy's ears twitched at the unnerving thought. "Well, yes, it's possible..."

Twilight's eyes widened excitedly, and she pressed on with this newfound route to a solution. "Perhaps it discreetly weakened his cardiovascular system, leaving him susceptible to other, more dangerous events. And the sight of Applejack, a stranger, may have been just the thing to startle his abnormally weakened heart into a cardiac arrest!"

The other ponies wore disbelieving expressions, and she calmed herself down with a light blush on her cheeks. "Um, sorry. Got a little carried away. But still, that could have been it!"

Fluttershy slowly nodded. "Yes, that could have been it. It's a bit of a long shot..." She looked at Applejack, who was still going over the idea in her head. "...but I like that explanation better than the one that makes Applejack feel like a monster."

"But ah am, don't ya see?" Applejack shouted, shaking her head angrily. "Even if what Twi says is right, ah still get made out as the one who came in an' scared him to death!"

"Anypony who isn't Fluttershy would have scared him to death," Twilight corrected her. "If you hadn't shown up, somepony else would have come to visit Fluttershy and the same thing would have happened. You're no more to blame than any of them."

"Fine, that's all well and good," Applejack snapped, "but how d'ya explain what happened to me, huh? I got all stiff, and I couldn't breathe, and..." She gulped, replaying the event in her mind's eye. "And he was just starin' at me with those beady lil' eyes."

Fluttershy looked at her in surprise. "You didn't tell me all that!"

"It was creepy." The farmpony shivered.

"Chewy dressed up as a cockatrice for Nightmare Night two years ago!" Fluttershy gasped. "He became quite good at it. He was probably so frightened that he accidentally used the cockatrice-Stare on you!"

Applejack made a face. "Then why wasn't I turned to stone, an' all that?"

"Applejack, you silly pony," Fluttershy giggled. "He's not actually a cockatrice. He can't do that."

After a long moment, Applejack shook her head. "You're just makin' this up to make me feel better. I still think it was me who killed Chewy with the Stare, even if I didn't mean to."

"You don't know that," Twilight quickly interrupted. "In my honest opinion, the new disease truly is much more probable than what we've been thinking about your 'Stare'. From the start, we've been basing our opinions on an event that very well may have been a coincidence, and I'm willing to believe that that's exactly what your perceived role in this was: a coincidence."

Seeing Applejack was still unconvinced, she sighed in annoyance. She really had to get Applejack to lose the chip on her shoulder. "If you really had the power to kill birds with the Stare, why is it only just coming up now? And why only birds? Why only Chewy? Surely you've looked at least one other bird in the eyes since then."

Applejack lowered her eyes to the ground, nodding reluctantly. She had, as a matter of fact, met eyes with another bird at the funeral. Nothing out of the ordinary had occurred, save for the bird's wings twitching uneasily as it quickly looked away.

"You weren't sucked into its hypnotic gaze?"

"Nope."

"No difficulty breathing? No other odd physiological reactions?"

"Nope."

"And the bird didn't die, did it?"

"Nope."

"Well, there you go." Twilight placed a hoof on Applejack's face and raised the farmpony's skeptical gaze to meet her own. "Look, the thing is, we'll never truly know what happened. Chewy couldn't have told us, even if he was still alive, and the whole thing happened out of nowhere. But this is about the most plausible explanation we're going to get, and I think we'll all feel better if we accept it, rather than allowing you to blame yourself for an even more unlikely possibility."

"But it's still ridiculous!" Applejack yelled, throwing her hooves into the air. "And it ain't makin' me feel any better."

"As ridiculous as you suddenly gaining the power to kill one specific bird by shooting death rays out of your eyes?"

"...Well, maybe a little better." Twilight smirked, and Applejack finally broke out in a grin. "Eh, you're probably right. Thanks, Twi."

"Hi, girls," Pinkie Pie said, sounding a bit less cheerful than was usual. She plopped down on the other side of Fluttershy, giving the pegasus a tight hug. "I'm really sorry about Chewy, Fluttershy."

"It's alright, Pinkie," Fluttershy replied, a small smile appearing on her muzzle. "He's in a better place now." Her smile quickly fell, however, and Pinkie nudged her with an elbow.

"Well, I made you something to cheer you up!" She reached behind her and revealed a small box, holding it out before Fluttershy. Applejack peeked over her shoulder curiously, the alluring scent from whatever was inside quickly expanding throughout the room. The farmpony licked her lips, eyeing the box hungrily.

"What'd ya make, Pinks? Sure does smell good." Pinkie grinned and popped open the top, revealing a piping-hot pastry with layers of crusts on top that were browned in such a fashion that they perfectly emulated the shape of a bird. Applejack felt her stomach lurch, remembering her recent visit to Sugarcube Corner and the pie Pinkie had almost made.

"Oh my, that looks wonderful, Pinkie!" Fluttershy beamed. "Thank you so much!"

Well, at least she's lookin' a tad better, Applejack reasoned.

"Awesome, I just knew you'd love it!" Pinkie looked past her at Applejack. "How 'bout you, AJ? Want some pie? It's apple!" She sang, wiggling the box tantalizingly under her nose.

"Heheh, nah," Applejack chuckled nervously and leaned away, much to both ponies' surprise. "Ah seem to have lost my appetite."