Cupcakes and Souls

It was another warm, spring day at Sweet Apple Acres. The sun started to melt into the room of none other than Applejack, a resident farm pony. Soft shadows filled the room, contrasting with the delicate light that had invaded through the open window. The air was warm and comfortable, the soft tendrils of a summer breeze wrapped around the orange pony's shoulders, engulfing her in a pleasant feeling as she started to come back to the land of the living.

Applejack yawned loudly as she snuggled further into her comfortable bed. The last thing she wanted to do was get out, but duty called. As slowly as she could manage, she hauled herself out from under the covers and swung her legs around so that she was in a sitting position. Her long hair flowed beneath her shoulders, and her bangs drooped down in front of her eyes. She let out a huff of breath, blowing the annoying strands out of her vision.

She let her front feet fall to the floor, making a loud clop sound as the limbs impacted with the wooden floor. Applejack repeated the same process with her back legs, and soon she was standing on all fours. Giving her head a sharp jerk, she shook herself to clear what was left of any early morning sleepiness. Cursing under her breath, she stopped and plodded out the door of her bedroom.

The halls on this floor was quiet, save for Granny Smith's snoring that came from the room two doors to the left of her. Rolling her eyes good naturedly, she made her way to the small bathroom the Apple family shared. As she opened the door, the rusted hinges creaked loudly, making her cringe. Cursing again, she pushed it gently open, revealing the contents that were inside the aged restroom.

The room held a small toilet, a bathtub, and a sink with a mirror. All three looked like they had been through hell and back twice, but they still worked like they had just been bought and installed yesterday. Like wise ponies once said, Applejack thought to herself, don't fix what ain't broke. And so she didn't.

Walking up to the aged mirror she looked at her reflection. If she was being honest, which she was very good at, if she said so herself, she looked like she got mauled by a griffon and a dragon, one after the other. However, this was what she always looked like when she woke up, so she paid it no mind. Yawning again, she stared into her emerald eyes, the tired depths looking straight at her. Her orange coat gleamed in both the small light that was perched in the middle of the ceiling, and the sunlight streaming through the open curtain. As she got to her mane, she frowned.

Her locks were unkempt and wild. Sighing, she grabbed a brush and gave it a quick onceover, just combing through it enough so it didn't look like a rat's nest, but that wasn't really saying much. The only thing was it wasn't the same blond hue her hair always had.

It was a bright red color.

Groaning, she crouched down and pulled open a drawer that was underneath the sink. She stuck her hoof into it and felt around. She felt all kinds of things that made her skin crawl, like Granny's old dentures, but her hoof finally rested on a large bottle. Grappling her prize, she pulled it out and red the bright label.

"Aloe and Lotus' Hair Care: Bright Blond"

Opening the bottle cap, she grabbed a small towel that she had hung there previously, just in case of this kind of emergency. She swiped it and laid it on the sink. Grabbing the bottle again, she squirted some onto her hooves and with a slosh, placed it on her head.

"Celestia damn it…every buckin' time…" she grumbled under her breath, taking care to make sure nobody heard her.

After a few minutes of rubbing the dye into her roots, she washed her hooves, took the towel and placed it on her head, folding her hair into a messy turban.

"Applejack?" she heard a tired voice call out.

Frantically, she checked to see if any of her hair was out of place. Luckily that wasn't the case. She quickly turned on her heels and held the dye behind her back. There in the doorway was her little sister Applebloom.

"Howdy there, Applebloom. What are y'all doing up this early," she asked quickly, plastering on a large, fake grin,

"Early? This is th' time Ah usually wake up," Applebloom answered, a bit puzzled by her sisters' question.

Applejack's mind raced. "Oh buck, what should Ah say?" Finally she came up with a less than satisfactory answer.

"Sorry, Applebloom. Ah musta forgot, ya know, so early in the, uh, mornin'," Applejack explained lamely, smiling from ear to ear, trying to be convincing enough. Luckily for Applejack, Applebloom was young and tired, and that seemed to be her saving grace, as Applebloom shrugged and walked back to her room.

Applejack stayed in that position until she heard, "Teel me when ya come out o' th' bathroom!" and a loud slamming noise. Finally, she let her tense muscles relax and exhaled noisily. Note to self, remember to close the door.

Turning to the mirror again, she let loose her turban and looked at her hair. It was a bright blond color, or to be more precise, her normal color to everypony in Ponyville.

"Too darn close," she chastised herself inwardly.

Carefully putting the dye-stained towel in the laundry chute, she gave her hair a few quick strokes with a brush, put her mane and tail in their usual pony-tales, looked out the door cautiously one last time, and walked quickly back to her bedroom. Trotting across the floor to the hanger where her prized Stetson lay, she put it on her head, and headed downstairs.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It was like every other day in Ponyville. Everypony in town, at some point or another, waved or said hello to her, and, being the pony that she was, Applejack waved and smiled back. It wasn't like she thought it was annoying or anything of the sort. She genuinely liked everypony that the rural, little town had to offer, she was just in a hurry. Applejack had something important to do. Her destination? Sugarcube Corner.

The happy place was right in front of her after a few minutes. In the doorway of the entrance of the bakery was her friend Pinkie Pie. Predictably, the party pony was bouncing up and down in excitement, or maybe from being Pinkie Pie. She chose the latter.

"Applejack! I'm SOOOO excited that you're finally here! Now we can start-" Her sentence was put on hold by an orange hoof shoved into her mouth.

"Thanks, Pinkie, but let's save this fer inside," Applejack sighed, giving a wink.
Pinkie seemed to get it. Even from the barrier or Applejack's hoof, she was still smiling. She nodded enthusiastically. Applejack removed her hoof from the pink pony's mouth steadily.

"Come on in!" Pinkie invited warmly, turning around and hopping inside Sugarcube Corner.

The atmosphere was like it always was. Cheerful, almost euphoric. The place was buzzing with ponies of all ages, genders, shapes, and sizes. As the two ponies made their merry way down to the basement however, all of that was obliterated by the dank smell of rotting flesh.

Applejack raised an eyebrow, but wasn't otherwise phased by the strange occurrence. "Ah see you've been workin' hard," she noted.

"Oh yeah! That number system sure was handy. Boy, it was getting a bit hard to keep up with all those ponies, with them coming and going all the time. Luckily, I had you to fix that. Oh, speaking of ponies coming and going, you know Gilda?" Pinkie asked, turning to look at her companion.

"You mean that griffon Rainbow Dash hung out with?"

"The very same! Yeah, caught her right before she left town! I had to wait a little bit, but, boy was it worth it! Those cupcakes were some of the greatest I've made!" Pinkie said happily, turning back around and resuming the trek further into the bowels of Sugarcube Corner.

"Glad ta hear it, Pinkie."

"Oof!"

"Oh, look, we're 'ere," Applejack commented as Pinkie ran into the door accidentally. Once the pink pony got off the ground, she opened the door and the two ponies walked inside. The clops of their hooves could be heard as Applejack made her way to a barren table at the end of room and Pinkie turned on the light. It was a small room, but the walls were pitch black and lined with a sound-proofing material. Even though they were deep underground and nopony upstairs could hear them, they would rather be safe than sorry. After turning on the light, Pinkie locked the door and bounced to the other end of the table where Applejack was.

They nodded once and from under the table, Applejack got a rather large, black box. Plopping the box on the table, she removed the lid, and peered inside.

"Ready?" she asked the party pony.

"Ready," was the reply.

Applejack smirked, and the stuck her hoof in the velvet-lined box. Swishing her hoof around for a few minutes (for dramatic effect), an audible *SHWOOSH* could be heard as Applejack drew her hoof from the box holding a small slip of paper.

"Who is it, who is it?" Pinkie Pie asked excitedly.

Applejack, not wanting to keep her friend waiting any longer, unveiled the contents of the paper to both of them. To their surprise, and somewhat dismay, they knew this number very well. Needless to say, it wasn't exactly what they were expecting.

Applejack and Pinkie looked at each other, and on some telepathic note, they both said the one word that was on both of their minds.

"Buck."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Applejack and Pinkie walked from the basement exchanging both concerns and encouragement of their most recently picked number. It wasn't gonna be hard, she could be easily replaced, they could probably come up with enough excuses to make the recent disappearance last. Shouldn't be too hard, they figured.

They both said their goodbyes as Pinkie once again went back to the counter with the Cakes and Applejack went out the front door and back into town. As she walked, a shadow zoomed past her. It just so happened to be Rainbow Dash, who was probably practicing one of her tricks, as per usual. The pegasus caught sight of her, waved, and zoomed back up into the sky.

Applejack waved back.

"Guess we're all gonna taste the rainbow now."