Apple Jack jolts up in bed suddenly awoken by the farms local rooster. The early dawns sunlight fills her room. She puts on her hat and heads down into the kitchen, joining both her siblings at the table. She wiggles around excitedly, noticing Apple Bloom doing the same.
" What have you got goin' on today, sugarcube? " Apple Jack asks her younger sister.
Apple Bloom practically lights up at this excitedly spilling out her plans for the day. " Well, Me and Miss Pinkie Pie were gonna do some more baking today! Recently Derpy has been helping us out, It's been so much fun! I'm real excited about what we could be baking today. Knowing Miss Pinkie it might be more cupcakes" Apple bloom giggles.
" You sure have been hangin' out there a lot here lately." Apple Jack comments.
" Its just too much fun there, Big sis!!" Apple Bloom exclaims.
Apple Jack laughs as Granny smith sets a plate of pancakes on the table and joins them. " That's Pinkie Pie for you, everything is fun when she's around. Bring me back a cupcake will you?" Apple Jack asks, only to be met with a nod from Apple Bloom who had already started filling her mouth with Granny's pancakes.
" Remember to stay safe out there, Apple Bloom. With all these disappearances of ponies and such..." Apple Jack warns her sister who continues to scarf down pancakes.
" Oh yes AJ! I know!" Apple bloom gulps as she gets up, putting her plate in the sink and rushes out.
" Go there and back, Okay?" Apple Jack yells out to her already gone sister.
Granny smirks slyly. " She'll be just fine, dear. " Says Granny rubbing Apple jack on the back.
" I hope your right. We're really not the ones responsible for the missing ponies here? " Apple Jack asks.
" Oh no dear." Granny Smith assures. " We've made sure to outsource for some of our product. We collect meat from all over Equestria. Anywhere but the ponies in this town." Granny smith says as she starts cleaning off the table from their quick breakfast. " I have a feeling of who is up to the disappearances here, but she'll get caught in her own time. "
" Then how do you know Apple Bloom will be safe? " Apple Jack asked unsurely.
" I just know. Don't worry about it." Granny Smith assured. She motions for Apple Jack to follow her. They go into the side house with Big Mac entering as well. He then pushes aside a large shelf up against a wall to reveal an old wooden door with a big padlock. Granny unlocks the door and opens it revealing a staircase that leads into pitch black darkness. The ponies walk down the stairs with the sound of the door being locked back behind them. Apple Jack reaches the bottom of the stairs and feels cold damp dirt underneath her hooves. " I can't see anything." She exclaims. Just then she hears a click and the hall is illuminated by torches along the wall, only to reveal just how long the hall is.
"Oh boy.." Apple Jack chuckles. " We better start walkin'....where exactly are we headed?"
Granny smith starts down the hallway " Were goin' to the real farm!"
The rest of the walk goes silently, until they come upon another locked door. Only this time the door was a heavy steel. Granny smith opens the door letting the sun shine onto Apple Jack as she steps out of the hall. Hearing Granny lock the door back.
"This is what I like to call The Hole. I bet you can see why." Granny smith says gesturing to the land in front of them. Surrounded by tall dirt walls, only to be continued by an even taller stone wall. "There's no way out of here " Granny states. " And that's the best part about it!"
Apple Jack notices all the ponies imprisoned here. All confined to a heavy ball and chain. Pegasus's with their wings chained together. Unicorns...With horns broken off. The ponies really were trapped here. All the ponies were working, tending small farms and working water wells. Some ponies just standing around moping, crying. Hay beds were scattered about the flat land. In the middle of The Hole stood a large wooden shed. Apple Jack felt compelled to go towards it only to be pulled away with Granny Smith, leaving Big Mac to guard the Steel door. Granny and AJ walk around the premises, Granny greeting the captive ponies as they walked by.
" Do these ponies know why they are even here?" Apple Jack whispers.
" Of course not. " Granny Smith replies. " That would cause them to panic even more than they already are just being held prisoner."
" Why are there farms here?" Apple jack asks, Which Granny quickly replies " Everypony has got to eat....even the livestock." Granny says, whispering the word livestock." What would i do if they all starved to death. I wouldn't have any product for a while. That wouldn't be good for business." The word Livestock lingers in Apple Jacks mind. A dirty thought popping into her head.
" Do we...Do we breed them like livestock?" Apple Jack asks in a barely audible whisper.
Granny smith stumbles. Shocked at the question. " Don't you be worryin' about that. Lets just focus at the task at hand now." Granny smith replies quickly as she continues to trot about the land. Apple Jack feels the eyes of the captive ponies on her. Apple Jack couldn't help but feel uneasy. Did these ponies really not know? Surely they must know. They should know, and Apple Jack wanted to be the one to tell them. AJ and Granny trot up to a Purple pony with short Blue hair, who quickly gets very nervous.
" Well good mornin' dear. What'd you say your name was again?" Granny smith cheerfully expressed towards the anxious pony.
" Uhm, My names Lavender Haze..." She replied
"Well ain't that nice." Granny cooed " Would you come and follow me and my granddaughter here?" Lavender Haze nodded and followed Granny Smith and Apple Jack towards the shed to which also had to be unlocked. The three mares step inside. Apple Jack waves sheepishly at Lavender Haze as she starts to glance around the room, hearing a locking sound behind her. As her eyes lay fixed in fear on a exam table in the center of the room she is met with the prick of a needle in her abdomen, quickly followed with a heavy feeling of drowsiness. As Lavender Haze collapses to the floor, Granny Smith orders Apple Jack to place her on the table.
" Make sure to get her on her back. We want access to her belly." Granny explains. " and lock her limbs into place with these. " Granny points to metal cuffs attached to the table. Once Apple Jack has her positioned correctly and locked into place she lets Granny know she's finished. " Now wasn't that easy!" Granny exclaims attending to some tools and instruments on another table.
"Now to make things stay quiet I like to preform a small surgery. " Granny starts. She cuts into Lavender Haze's throat with a scalpel. Blood spurting out from the incision onto Granny's face.
" What are you doin' Granny!?" Apple Jack shouts. Only to be met with a loud shush from Granny Smith.
" Were gonna cut her open. When she wakes up she's gonna get all loud and screamin' and hollerin' if I don't do this." Granny insists. " I'm removing her Larynx, so she won't be able to make any sound. "
" You like to keep them awake?" Apple Jack asks Inquisitively
Granny Smith removes Lavender Haze's Larynx, tossing it to the floor. " I feel its just more fun that way. They usually don't stay awake for too long anyway, So i don't bother with it." This made Apple Jack excited. Lavender was going to see what we were doing to her. She would see that she was going to die and how she was going to die.
" We've got to remove all her organs from her body, so first we've got to cut her open." Granny pulls a bucket towards the exam table and then handed a scalpel to Apple Jack. " I'm sure you can handle this. You'll just cut her right down the center." Granny motioned where to cut. As Apple Jack hesitated with the scalpel gently pressed into the purple pony's hide, her eyes opened. Apple Jack saw this and started to cut down the chest towards the abdomen watching Lavenders face contort in pain, clearly trying to scream as the blood from her throat started to bubble and spill onto the table and staining her hide. Apple Jack giggled. She made a small but, deep cut on the pony's arm. Again watching Lavender's face contort and tears stream down her face.
"Now, now, don't cut her all up, You'll ruin up our portions. " Granny exclaimed as Apple Jack began to slice at the pony once again. Apple Jack did not know what this feeling inside her was, but it made her insides warm and she craved more. The look of pain on this pony's face was all Apple Jack could think about. She thought of other ways she could bring pain to the pony...mentally and physically. Granny Smith starts to remove organs out of Lavender Haze and drops them into the bucket. Apple Jack joining removing her Intestines, thinking of how much they reminded her of her own lasso.
" Well now my dear." Granny soothingly expresses towards the purple pony, " It's finally time for you to go, you're free from this place now. Your sacrifice will not go unappreciated. " Lavender Haze weakly continues to struggle in her binds
"You might even feed a whole family in need !" Apple Jack states excitedly while continuing to empty out the pony's insides while she starts to struggle even more with urgency.
"Now Apple Jack! No need to scare her!" Granny insists.
Apple jack chuckles. " Granny, I'm pretty sure she's been scared the moment we've stepped in this shed. Plus she deserves to know where her sacrifice is going!"
" Well, I spose yer right" Granny says as she pulls out Lavender Hazes last organ, Her heart. Apple Jack watches the last breath leave Lavender's lips. Lamenting the loss of her pain filled expressions.
" This bucket of organs will go to the pigs, they'll eat anything you know. I'll have Big Mac come for it later."
" Why can't we take it now and save a trip down that long ass hallway?" Apple Jack asked.
"Well for starters, we ain't done here yet. We still have to dismember, skin and strip the meat off this ones bones. Then we gotta cut up the meat and package it by weight using this scale here." Which Granny points at. The two start by sawing off the dead pony's limbs, setting them to the side for now. " And like I said, I don't want to scare any ponies here even more than they already are."
" But Granny, Don't they deserve to know? If we tell them their livestock and their only purpose is to die and be sold as meat won't they just feel even more hopeless and not even try to escape? It doesn't seem like there is any way out other than that steel door and dying in this wooden shed!" Apple Jack exclaims as she rips out pieces of the carcass' ribcage.
" You need to be gentle, Apple Jack dear.." Granny smith said quietly. " I think the ponies here are going through enough, But i suppose they do have a right to know. I'll let you tell them, but only if they are inside this shed." Said Granny Smith as she removed the pony's head from her body, taking it to the corner of the room. She opened a trap door, releasing a foul smell into the air. Apple Jack walked over and peered down into the hole, sniffing in the horrendous smell with a very deep breath. Down inside the hole were hundreds, maybe thousands what what looked to be pony heads, in all stages of decay, some so old the skull bone itself had started rotting away . Granny Smith tossed the head in the hole and letting the door shut, wafting one last layer of stench. Apple Jack strangely already missing the smell once it was gone.
Once Granny and Apple Jack had finished packaging and cleaning themselves up they went to leave the shed. " Go ahead and grab the bucket, I'll just have Big Mac come back for the meat." Granny sighed out. Apple Jack grabbed the bucket with her mouth and they both stepped out of the shed, Granny making sure to lock it back. Apple Jack was then rushed toward the door by Granny Smith. Apple Jack took one last glance at all the ponies before the steel door was shut and locked and they had to make their way back up toward the house. Apple Jack was excited to come back and help out here some more she thought as they walked the long hall, and she wanted to come back very soon.