Chapter II
Fluttershy slowly opened her eyes only to find darkness. She turned her head to look around the room, but still could only see blackness. Shifting her head side to side more her acutely aware of the pain in her head. Her head had not hurt this much since the morning after her twenty-first birthday, when her inexperience with alcohol and urging from her friends (mostly Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie) had caused her to consume more spiked punch and cider than her body could handle. Straining her eyes, Fluttershy also became aware that she could not actually open her right eye, which was throbbing and sore. Her one good eye gradually became accustomed to the dark, allowing her to see the silhouette of a pony standing some feet from her.
"Good mornin', sugar cube," came Applejack's voice. Fluttershy cringed and shut her eyes as the sudden light brought pain to her eye and head. Falling back onto a wall, Fluttershy allowed the throbbing in her head to ease before slowly opening her good eye again. Applejack eating a sandwich was the first thing she saw. Fluttershy tried to walk closer to her, but a tug at her right leg prevented her from moving more than a few feet forward. Confused, Fluttershy looked back to see a chain around her leg, the other end connected to the wall. Looking back to Applejack, Fluttershy said in confusion,
"What?"
Applejack swallowed another bite of sandwich and chuckled a bit before responding.
"Quite a predicament you're in, sugar cube." Applejack took another bite of her sandwich, chewed a moment, and swallowed before continuing.
"You and that dang Pinkie Pie thought lighting off a bunch of fireworks near an apple orchard would be a good idea, huh?"
"Applejack...we didn't mean to...I became surprised and dropped my sparkler...it wasn't Pinkie's fault at all...I'm super sorry...surely I can fix -"
"Damn right ya gonna help fix dis...though...not the way you thinkin'," interrupted Applejack, her voice beginning with anger and ending with a chuckle. The twisted grin and manic look in Applejack's eyes worried Fluttershy as the orange mare took another bite of her sandwich. After swallowing, Applejack continued,
"Do you have any idea how much damage you and Pinkie did last night...no?...nearly the whole orchard went up in smoke and is just ashes on the ground!"
Fluttershy gasped. "Applejack...I am so sorry...surely Twilight can use her magic to do-"
"NO! Even if it was that simple, Ah ain't gonna let that smug little Canterlot brat show up the Smith family again...accepting her 'help' harvesting the apples when Big Mac was injured and with the cider challenge against those darn Flim Flam brothers was out of necessarily...but her high falutin magic cannot regrow apple trees...at least, not ones like Sweet Apple Acres...an apple's tale isn't quite as nice as the story of hard work and determination Granny Smith told Apple Bloom's class...but it is pretty easy once you get to know it...and guess what, sugar cube, ya git to be an important helper!" Applejack said.
A door opened, and entered Big Mac. Applejack laid what remained of her sandwich on a nearby table and picked up a short knife before walking over to Fluttershy. For her part, Fluttershy ran to the corner as far as she could before the shackle around her leg pulled. Despite knowing her own weakness, Fluttershy still impotently tugged as hard as she could to try to escape.
"Big Mac, ya hold her own nice and still, ya hear," said Applejack as she stood over Fluttershy.
"Eeyup," Big Mac answered as he grabbed Fluttershy, holding down her squirming legs. Fluttershy's squeals became louder and came in shorter intervals as the knife neared her flesh. Shutting her eyes, Fluttershy braced herself for the worse as the knife was about to penetrate her skin. She could feel the sting of the cold blade invade her body before exiting again. After a moment of expecting more invasions of flesh, Fluttershy worked up the courage to open her eye and look down. Just above her navel was an incision about an inch long. Applejack was returning, holding something. A second later, an apple seed dropped from Applejack's hoof into the incision. The seed in her new orifice did not hurt, per se; rather, the sensation was more odd than anything. Applejack bent over the wound, needle and thread in hoof. Carefully, Applejack sewed the incision shut. Although the knife and needle entering and exiting her skin did hurt, Fluttershy was relieved that, apparently, this was the extent of the torture Applejack was going to perform on her.
Is...is that it? My head feels worse than my stomach.
Big Mac released Fluttershy as Applejack walked back to the table and continued eating her sandwich. Big Mac soon left the room, leaving the two mares again. Fluttershy stood up and just watch Applejack in confusion a few moments. Eventually, Fluttershy noticed how hungry she was...that was not unexpected...after all, she was not sure how long she had been out, but the last time she ate had to have been a while ago. No, what was unusual was just how good Applejack's sandwich smelled. How the smell made Fluttershy's mouth water. Her hunger feeding her courage, Fluttershy timidly asked,
"Um...Applejack...I'm...I'm kinda hungry...and your sandwich looks so good."
Applejack swallowed the bit of sandwich in her mouth and smiled. "So, the cravings are beginnin' already? Ah heard mares ate funny things when they had a seed in they belly, like pickles and ice cream...alright...Ah've gotta sandwich for ya." With that, Applejack laid her own sandwich down and brought a plate with a sandwich to Fluttershy. Grabbing the sandwich immediately, Fluttershy bit greedily into it, taking a big mouth full to chew. Swallowing, Fluttershy could help help but compliment Applejack on the delicious sandwich.
"The meat is so sweet," she noted. Applejack's smile just grew.
"Nice ta see ya enjoying dat PLT," Applejack said.
Raising an eyebrow after swallowing the current bite in her mouth, Fluttershy said, "Don't you mean 'BLT'?"
"Nah, PLT," Applejack said shortly.
With a mouth full of sandwich...she knew how rude it was to talk with food in her mouth, but she just couldn't help herself...Fluttershy asked, "What does 'PLT' stand for?"
Applejack laughed and walked over to a door behind her. Her laughter reaching manic levels as she placed her hoof on the handle, she cried, "Pinkie, lettuce, and tomato!" before opening the door wide opening, revealing a bloodied room with Pinkie's carcass hanging from a meat hook, her flank meat missing and her abdomen opened, revealing her innards. At this sight, Fluttershy dropped her sandwich and spat out the mush in her mouth.
"Pinkie! Applejack...How...how could you?" Fluttershy managed to get out through her shock.
Applejack rubbed the back of her head. "Well...turns out bucking a pony in da face ain't the healthiest thang...she was dead when Ah checked on her...as Rainbow Dash would say, 'guess Ah over did it a little'...and we need some sweet fertiliser to make sweet apples...so this kinda kills two birds with one stone..."
Not fully understanding what Applejack was saying...not really caring, since it was oblivious to her Applejack was completely out of her mind...Fluttershy, in the most soothing voice she could muster, began,
"Applejack...I understand you were very upset, which you had every right to be, and got a bit carried away. Listen, I...I never really liked Pinkie that much. All time causing some commotion when I just want a quiet life, and her life passion is so frivolous...parties...almost as petty as Rarity's fashion...I told them both that after I had those assertive seminars from Iron Will that one time. This...this could be our little secret. Pinkie died in an accident...she's all time doing something foolish...I'll even back you up...she jumped out of a tree or something...I don't know...we'll figure something out."
Applejack frowned and shook her head. "Well, now Ah can see why you ain't the Element of Loyalty. That makes this a bit less morally ambiguous. Just a couple of counter points...first, even if Ah didn't need to regrow the apple orchard, Pinkie and her Pinkie sense makes her dying in an accident kinda hard to believe...Ah'll give Twilight one thing, she is one smart pony...she'd find holes in any story we cooked up about an 'accident'...and besides, Ah need to regrow those apple trees...and ya need to eat dat sweet meat."
Fluttershy just threw her head into the air. After a few moments, despite her stomach turning at the idea of eating her friend...she was hungry again. Not a hunger of her own, she observed, but more a hunger from another placed into her...the need to satisfy another's hunger...she couldn't really explain it to herself, but suddenly the sandwich on the ground made her mouth water again.
No...no...it is Pinkie, for Celestia's shake!...but her meat is so sweet...and I am so hungry...
Reluctantly, Fluttershy grabbed the sandwich from the floor and slowly ate it.
"That a girl, Fluttershy!" cheered Applejack. "How 'bout some sausage?"
With that, Applejack reached into Pinkie's innards and removed her small intestine. Rinsing out the excrement from them, Applejack laid the intestine aside as she took a meat clever and removed what remained of Pinkie's internal organs and brought them to a meat grinder. Stuffing the organs into the top and turned the crank, curvy strings of ground meat exiting the bottom. Then Applejack sprinkled some herbs and spices on the ground meat before twisting the intestine into cases and stuffing meat into each link.
"He he, laws are like sausages...the less you see 'em being made...the more ya respect 'em," Applejack chuckled to herself.
Applejack then walked over with the sausage links to a stove at the side of the room and began frying the sausage in a cast iron skillet. The smell from the cooking both made Fluttershy's stomach turn and her mouth water. Her mind was horrified at the reality of cannibalising one of her friends, while her body craved the sweet meat. After a few moments Applejack approached Fluttershy, carrying a plate of the pink sausage.
"Eat up!" said Applejack as she laid the plate before Fluttershy. Fluttershy's mind made one last attempt to maintain her morality, and sanity, before being overcome by her carnal hunger as her hooves picked up the sausage links one by one and her teeth chewed the remains of the pink party pony. Soon nothing was left on the plate except some excess grease. The hunger was still not satisfied.
"See ya liked that," noted Applejack, munching of a sausage link she had saved for herself. "Pinkie was so sweet...both figuratively and literally speaking. That pony ate so many sweets, it's a wonder she didn't get diabetes. Now we gotta find some sour pony for the sour apples...and Ah think Ah've got just the pony..."
