All That Remains
The dull purple glow of the large glass vat illuminated Princess Twilight Sparkle’s face in quite the sinister, muted light. Deep, consuming shadows outlined various parts of her features, accentuating her lifeless logical mind to shine glaringly through a set of unblinking eyes that never once glanced away from the pony-shape suspended within a thick transparent ooze.
Among the ooze, the figure within was surrounded by small, round objects that slowly crept around the motionless form, avoiding the array of wires snaking in and out of its flesh more notably from the orifices of the face and nether regions.
Twilight Sparkle’s personal laboratory was located far away from the prying eyes of Canterlot, built under the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters in secret. There was no safer place in all of Equestria to house her own personal experiments, while her ‘official’ work was developed and tested within a secure, fully staffed scientific facility under her direct command at Canterlot Palace’s long abandoned underground dungeons.
For the good of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle was given anything she desired pertaining to her research and development programme with full blessing of both of the Princesses, given that she adhere to Equestrian Law. There was nothing she could take from the royal coffers.
Thus, she had thrown Equestria into a new age of scientific wonder and it was all thanks to her diligent research in the Magic of Friendship, the discovery of the Elements of Harmony and its subsequent manipulation of its energies that her own ascension to royalty was assured.
From it, came power.
Strength.
Victory.
But it was not enough.
Single-handedly she had revolutionized Equestrian life and now Twilight Sparkle was not entirely sure her mentor was indeed all that omnipotent as she once used to believe. After all, if she was indeed as all powerful and intelligent as everypony believed her to be, then why has she not yet bettered Equestrian culture with inventions and scientific theory like she has?
“Equestria needs a new leader. One to guide it into a new age. Where the sky is never the limit. Where the stars is nothing more than the next stage of Equestrian colonization.” Twilight Sparkle muttered to herself, her horn illuminated as she used her magic to manipulate the small, black crystalline constructs within the vat of transparent ooze, forcing two to dematerialize at the molecular level upon contact with the red raw flesh and to assimilate into the cells. “Who knew that the Elements of Harmony required conduits to access their full potential. I should had foreseen this; but it never occurred to me... who knows what power the Elements truly hold. I do have my theories…”
A slow smile slithered to Twilight’s lips. “Who would had thought that two of the Bearers were in fact in such close proximity to each other for so long… considering the odds of that occurring, I have to say I am quite lucky to get my hands on both of you, though granted, you are very lucky to be alive,” Twilight mused, regarding the skinless pony within the vat, “isn't that right, Fluttershy?”
________________________________________
Big Macintosh stared through the veil of glass shielding him from the mare on the other side. His eyes were bloodshot with tears and laden with a sadness no pony ought to had been put through in any lifetime.
In the span of six months he had lost not only his little sister; the victim of a serial killer that left barely nothing left to mourn, but to then only several weeks later bury his granny, who had died suddenly and peacefully in her sleep, more than likely due to the heartache of losing not just Applebloom, but Applejack as well.
But what pained Big Macintosh more so, was to see his only surviving relative being treated like the monster that had so cruelly taken away Applebloom from this mortal coil.
Applejack sat in an isolation booth in the visitors area of Canterlot’s Hospital for the Clinically Insane high security ward, a frail shadow of her former self.
The mare he remembered was once toned muscle across an elegant earth pony form; fashioned from years upon years of apple bucking with her face displaying her bright emerald eyes; so full of life, joy and laughter… now all he could see was a withered creature with slither of flesh over bone that could barely possess the power to buck over an empty barrel, let alone shake the apples from a tree, while her eyes were reduced to nothing more than half lidded pools of muted green, dazed and drugged, lost in their constant and incessant wander of her bleak, white surroundings.
He had been sitting there for ten minutes straight and she yet had looked upon him for more than a second.
“Sis… talk to me.”
Upon no reply, Big Macintosh resisted a sob, lifting a hoof up to rest against the window pane, leaning against it as he did so in hopes his gesture of affection would stir something from Applejack. “Big brother is here. Ah miss you. Th’ farm has not been th’ same with you.”
After little to no response still, he desperately he tried to catch Applejack’s attention; moving his face in front of her ever searching eyes, but failed to do even that.
Whatever it was she was looking for, Applejack evidently was far more concerned in finding it than recognizing her brother’s existence.
“Ya’ll get better. Ah promise. The docs will do their job and make ya better.”
“Y-ya’ll sure?” Came a dry whisper from Applejack’s barely moving lips.
Quickly, Big Macintosh perked up at the sound of his sister’s voice and pressed himself closer to the glass, a smile growing on his lips. “Ah’m right here, an’ Ah’m goin’ nowhere. You are all Ah have left, AJ, so ya’ll have to get better. Ya’ll strong an’ as part of the Apple family we can get through this together.”
Applejack slowly turned her head and locked her eyes upon the empty space besides her head. “... really?” Her dry, cracked lips broke into a little smile.
“Ayep, Ah promise.”
“Ah love you too, sugar.” Applejack turned her smile towards Big Macintosh. “Ah’ve got some good news, big brother.”
Clearly confused, Big Macintosh suspiciously looked up through the booth to the movement of an orderly that had just come into view, noting his suddenly tense demeanor. Ignoring the large stallion, he returned his attention to his sister. “What’s tha’?”
Without warning Applejack surged out of her chair, throwing herself into the window head first with enough force to split open a wound on the mare’s forehead, smearing a red streak across the surface as she writhed against it, thrashing her hooves against the glass, screaming like a banshee.
Startled, Big Macintosh scrambled away from the window in a gasp, taking note of the single crack that had formed on the window during the initial impact. Quickly he pressed forward close to the glass, concern etched on his features as the orderly smashed a hoof to an unseen panic button, sending sirens to scream out around them.
“Applejack!”
Big Macintosh shrank back only in horror as his sister’s blood stained face turned to him, her emerald eyes wide with the pupils pin pricked, grinning savagely as her frizzled unkempt mane chaotically framed her manic features.
“S-sis…” Big Mac watched, sobbing uncontrollably as several orderlies stormed into Applejack’s booth and pressed her up tightly against the window, holding her firmly against the pane while they administered a tranquilizer that was injected straight into her rump.
“We’re all gonna have one big party!” Applejack howled, barely resisting against her captors, fully accepting their overbearing presence upon her, keeping her eyes locked onto her big brother as they awaited for the drugs to incapacitate her. “They’ll all come to our party! Ah, Pinkie Promise! Ah Pinkie Promise! An’ no one ever dares break a Pinkie Promise! No one! No… one…”
As the the drugs fully impacted her system, Applejack’s body fully relaxed, her words drifting away as well as her consciousness with one final giggle of words.
"Ah, love ya too..."
________________________________________
"This is session twenty-two. Good morning, Pinkie Pie… oh? What is it you are drawing? Can I see?”
“Oh, it’s just a picture of my family. That’s Limestone, Marble, Maud, Mama and Papa. Normally I would like to use a pencil but I am not allowed anything sharp ever since that one time that meanie nurse tried sticking a needle in me without asking first. I mean, some ponies can be really rude you know?”
“She was only trying to help, Pinkie Pie.”
“Oh well… she got the point… tehehe!”
“Yes… it is a very pretty drawing, Pinkie Pie. Would you… like me to get you more stationary? Art is such a good method of expressing yourself, especially your emotions. That is… if you want to draw more?”
“Oh that would be super duper great! Thanks, Fluttershy! You know what? I like you compared to all those other meanies, so guess what?”
“What’s that, Pinkie Pie?”
“Just because you are such a nice pony and always come to visit me with such a great big happy smile that warms my tiny little heart, I think I’ll kill you last before leaving here.”
“Pinkie Pie! How could you say such a thing? Such thoughts are very, very bad and it won’t help you any if you keep entertaining them. Remember what I said on our first session? Providing I can see improvements both off the record and on, I should be able to grant you better accommodations and even a chance of parole. Besides, friends don’t really talk like that to other friends.”
“You’re right. I’m SO sorry… sometimes my mouth just runs away with me—which would be weird because lips don’t have legs—but I am trying Fluttershy, I really am! It’s just whenever I think of Applejack, I just… I just…”
“If it is okay with you, Pinkie Pie, could I ask why she invokes such an… um… reaction?”
“She betrayed me.”
“Betrayed you? How?”
“She’s a liar… she said we would always be friend… that we were close friends… but she lied to me.”
“In our previous sessions, you said you loved Applejack... do you still love her even though she wronged you?”
“I do! I mean I DID! But then she had to go and roll around in the hay with that tomboyish, stupid, big stupid headed Rainbow Dash!”
“Pinkie Pie, can I be honest with you? As a friend.”
“Of course you can! We’re friends and friends talk freely to one another. Soooo, shoot!”
“Are you sure you, um, weren’t just jealous of them?”
“What? Me? Nooooo. Why would I be jealous?”
“Pinkie Pie, I know it must hurt, but maybe all of your recent aggression stems from—”
“The fact that I didn't get the chance to stick my tongue deep into that scrumptious apple pie? The fact that someone else came along and stole it from the window shelf before me? The fact that she was one of those that testified along with HER to put me here? The fact the mare I loved more than life itself watched me get dragged away not with tears in her eyes but with the look of betrayal smothered all over her face?! The fact that I was one the one that took away her SMILE?!”
“Pinkie Pie I—”
“I have no idea what you are talking about! I’m a happy little camper that would never think such bad things! Silly filly… but I Pinkie Promise one thing, Fluttershy. Something I completely, totally and utterly promise to happen.”
“W-what’s that?”
“Applejack will love me… and when I get out of here, Fluttershy? I will make her crazy about me. Then, when she loves me? We’ll throw one big party where everypony is invited… a party that lasts forever with just the two of us, where the streamers are intestines and the cake is made from the finest cuts of meat! We’ll play pin the head on the pony and—”
“I’m, um, going to end the session.”
"Awwwww! But I was getting to the good part!"
CLICK.