//------------------------------// // A Day Of Ruin // Story: A Few Years At Sunset // by Swordguy00 //------------------------------// The next day as Applejack awoke and came down for breakfast. She raced down the stairs and flew past her brother. "Now hold on there girl," Granny Smith stepped in front of the front door, looking stern and ready to push back if her granddaughter tried anything . "You're not gunna go work till you eat." "Applejack," Came Applebloom's voice from behind. "You're so small, what happened?" She cried, seeking answers too numerous to fathom. "Happy accident with Twilight and her magic is all." She explained as her sister circled her. She then let out a blood curdling scream, which made Granny Smith, and Applejack both go wide eyed with fright. "What is it, parasprites? Is my tail not brushed?" "You don't have your cutie mark, which means you can be a crusader!" Applebloom squealed with delight at the prospect of her sister joining the club. "Well it's only temporary; I'll be back to ma normal self in a day or so." Applejack ruffled her sister's mane as they both trotted to the breakfast table. Where they were greeted to a glorious spread, as it was Big Mac's turn to make the morning meal and he always made a little too much. There were hardboiled eggs, toast with marmalade, pancakes and applesauce with fresh orange juice. "Big Mac you have done it again. This looks amazing'." Applejack proclaimed. A few minutes later Applejack and Big Macintosh were off to bucking the apple orchard. Granny had settled on making lunch for the two of them early, so that it’d be ready by the time they had finished their first few hours of work. Suddenly she heard several loud cracks in a row. "AJ stop!" Came Big Mac's voice full of distress, Granny looked out the window to what was causing the normally calm stallion to have such an outburst. Applejack had bucked nearly seventeen apple trees in the last two minutes but had shaken them so hard that the leaves fell from the trees as well as the apples. "Oh darn it all!" Granny Smith exclaimed as she ran out of the house and after Applejack. Taking in a deep breath Granny Smith yelled her granddaughter's name. The filly turned timidly and walked over, and as she came to her senses and looked at her handiwork, she knew she was in deep trouble. "Look at this girl, you've made a fine mess, do you know what happens to apple trees that don't have any leaves in season?" Granny said sharply her brow furrowed. "They can't get the nutrients they need from the sun and can't produce fruit." Applejack recited, knowing what it meant for their harvest as well she hung her head. "I don't know what happened, I’m sorry." Applejack knew it wouldn't make the situation go away. "You can start by cleaning up the leaves. Maybe that'll put your head on straight." Granny then went back in the house. AJ dragged her hooves solemnly as she went over to her brother. "Sorry, I messed up good huh?" "Yep." was all Big Macintosh had to say before he trotted off to finish bucking the tree he had begun working on. "Now remember Pinkie, this cake needs to be ready by tomorrow night… It's Pound and Pumpkin's 1st birthday and we want it to be big and special!" Mrs. Cake told her star baker, giddy with excitement. Mr. Cake then popped his head through the swinging door his wife held open while she spoke. "And to make sure it's extra surprising; we don't want to know what sort of cake you'll make." Mr. Cake then got back to the register, a line of a few ponies waiting to get their orders filled. "Ohhhh… I'm excited, are you excited dear?" Mrs. Cake tapped the floor with her hooves, barely able to contain herself. "Oh yes! It's going to be so much fun to make; I won't let my favorite niece and nephew down!" She shrilled with exuberance. Mrs. Cake then exited the kitchen with a mild giggle. And Pinkie Pie got to work. Immediately spinning to each side of the room, Weighing her options at to what sort of cake to make On the walls were numerous types of chocolates crèmes and frostings tons of every kind of hard and soft candy. In her head she went over a dozen recipes that she could make in a timely manner. "hmm, chocolate mouse? Too rich for babies we don't want tummy aches at a party do we?" Pinkie though and thought of qualities that'd be suitable, but also something clever to reflect each of them. "Something simple to make and easy to chew huh?" Pinkie Pie had a spark of inspiration. "Pumpkin… pound. THAT'S IT! Pumpkin Pound Cake!" Immediately she raced at a blinding speed to the spice rack. "Pumpkin spice…" She surveyed the shelf and as she found it, just above the honey on the next shelf down with the creams and sweeteners. She then found a hunger she had not felt in years. A deep longing that had been buried and suppressed… she quickly ignored it and got back on task. "Let's see the vanilla extract is here." "Pinkie." Her name was called in a hushed whisper. She turned around with a start. "Hello?" Pinkie called. "Over here… next to the caramel sauce." "Well that's just silly that would make you the…" The pink pony trailed off as she slowly backed away from the sweet filled shelves. For there was the chocolate sauce bottle moving around on a skinny pair of legs. "Oh look at that." Pinkie Pie laughed hysterically. "It's walking!" As the bottle spoke, its flip-open cap closed and opened rapidly. "You know Pinkie, you've been working so hard. Why don't you sit for a moment, have a snack?" The bottle mused sweetly. Pinkie Pie then felt that hunger deep inside once, the absolute need to eat without end, anything… everything. "Oh I couldn't do that, Mr. and Mrs. Cake pay for supplying the bakery with-" Pinky was interrupted as a small bag was flung off the shelf she took one look at the bag and bit her lip. "Chocolate chips." she said with a delicious sigh. "Just a few, you deserve it." Pinkie Pie then reached over and got a small 3 ounce sauce bowl and plopped it down on the table. "Just a few." Pinkie Pie repeated to herself as a kind of promise that she would maintain her composure. Though as soon as she tipped a handful into the bowl, it spilled and overflowed onto the table. "Oh that's alright... you could eat those too, you wouldn't want to waste any would you?" Pinky could feel her knees buckle at the suggestion. "No." She agreed with the hallucination’s suggestion, but at the same time pleaded with herself to stop. "Dear Celestia, no." she said weakly, sounding more and more like Fluttershy every second. She then nibbling each of the chocolate drops one by one taking minutes to let each one melt completely before eating another. "They’re all yours, Pinkie Pie." Said the voice, now disembodied from the bottle, it seemed to bounced off the walls, in a raspy seductive tone, egging her on. Which seem to trigger something fearful in the young pony and she began eating like her life depended on it. She devoured the entire bag of chocolate chips in a single mouthful, "Mine, it's all mine!" She screamed as she raced over to the shelf she was at before and chugged a 12-ounce bottle of maple syrup and about a pound of pecans. She then went for the fridge that was on the opposite wall containing assorted fresh fruits for decorating the cakes and pastries. She was now breathing with an almost dog-like pant as her eyes twitched in sugar-induced spasms in random directions looking for a new target independent of where Pinky's true focus was. Pinkie hesitated for the briefest of moments, trying to focus on the tummy ache that now consumed her and now radiated to every muscle, to gain control of herself. anything to keep from this almost feral feeling. "The fruit won't be good for very long Pinky, the Cakes will inevitably buy more as the weeks wear on, you'd be doing them a favor by getting rid of it all," The voice taunted. She opened the fridge and saw the glory of her find… melons of every type, fruits from Saddle Arabia she had a hard pronouncing, berries as pink as her own coat and some just as plump as she was beginning to feel. Without a moment's hesitation ate everything down to the last blueberry. Twenty minutes later, the stores of powdered sugar were contaminated with the juices of all the fruit, the crushed nuts a total of twenty pounds of cashews walnuts and almonds, were gone. The next few hours became a blur of ice cream and caramel apples. Pinky awoke in a daze, just in time to see Twilight walk through the door. She tried to cover her face to avoid her friends gaze, but found that she somehow couldn’t, she also noticed the crick in her neck from her head being pushed to the side. Am I taller? "PINKY PIE?" The pink earth pony had become a literal ball of sugar and now was a diameter of about ten feet. "Pie, where?" was all Pinky could utter, as she couldn't move on account of her legs had become comically stubby. "Twilight?" Pinky then began to cry. "I didn't mean to, the chocolate bottle made me do it." Twilight remembered Pinky Pie's story of her family life before her cutie mark, her loneliness and solitude on the rock farm drove her to eat irregularly large meals, unable to stop, the reason she remained skinny however was that she was able to do it once or twice a year on account of the farm’s money troubles. "It's okay, you're going to be fine, we just have to get you out of here." Twilight then began to wonder if any of her other friends were having trouble as worse as this. Then she heard Rarity's voice ring in her ears. "Somepony help!" Twilight then turned wide-eyed towards the source of Rarity's yelling.