Sweetie grunted in frustration as she used her magic to take the ace bandage off of Mr. Cake’s leg. He had come to the hospital with a sprained ankle. As part of her school’s job fair, Sweetie had chosen to volunteer there. She hoped to earn a cutie mark in medicine, where she could use her intelligence to become a doctor and help ponies.

Yet there were many tasks she was deemed unable to practice or even learn, and Sweetie had ended up changing bed sheets and tending to minor injuries. It was so dull that she often lost focus and did simple tasks wrong, causing the nurses to give her a hard time.

“Sorry, let me try that again,” Sweetie said.

“Don’t worry, I think you’re doing great,” Mr. Cake replied.

Sweetie focused and started at the hoof, winding the bandage around his ankle and up his leg. She wanted it to be perfect, without a single crease. Perhaps then they’d let her do something cooler like draw blood, or watch from behind the special one-way glass during surgery.

After several spirals around his leg, she pinned it in place. “There, that looks good!” She picked at it a little more. “Go ahead and stand up and try it.”

Mr. Cake got up and took a few steps. It hurt much less now that it had the extra support. “Thanks, Sweetie.”

“You're welcome!” She smiled and watched him trot out into the waiting room and head home.

Sweetie was feeling good about herself, until she walked out towards the break room to write down a few notes in her journal. She was halfway there when Nurse Redheart caught her.

“Sweetie, dear, can I have a word with you?” she said.

With a loud moan, Sweetie turned around. “Yeah, what’d I do wrong this time?”

Redheart smiled and walked closer so she could talk soft enough other ponies wouldn’t overhear. “I’m not trying to pick on you, just helping you learn about medicine.”

“Okay.”

She gestured towards the room. “You need to use a larger bandage and layer it twice, not three times. You also forgot to document it on his chart, and you didn’t clean up the room.”

“What? You told me I can’t write on their charts!” Sweetie’s voice cracked.

“Yes, but you can if I tell you to.”

“Ugh, fine, then why am I still doing all the boring stuff? I’ve memorized every bone in the body. I’ve read books on everything from sutures to drawing blood! When I volunteered here I wasn’t expecting to be taking out the trash!”

Redheart knelt down. “Sweetie, these are all important parts of the job. It isn’t all about being a fancy doctor, or using a defibrillator to restart somepony’s heart. Look, I really like you and I know you’re smart enough to be a great nurse or doctor. However, your attitude this week had been rather well. . . rude. If you don’t behave, I’ll have to fail you on your class project.”

“What?!” Sweetie glanced at her in anger, a few sparks escaping her horn, betraying her charged emotions. “You’d fail me? But I really think I could get a cutie mark in medicine! You guys just keep making me do stuff that’s beneath even an Earth pony!”

She gasped, taking a step back. “Sweetie Belle! I will not have that kind of language in my hospital!”

Sweetie took a couple deep breaths, a plan already forming in her head. “You’re right. Sorry, I’ve just been trying for so long to get a cutie mark, and now all the nurses hate me.” She began to sniffle, letting her eyes water up.

“Look.” Redheart resumed her place, kneeling to be at Sweetie’s eye level. “Don’t worry about the other nurses or doctors. They’re just jealous of you, okay? I want you to just take the next couple days off and just relax. Don’t worry, I won’t fail you for making mistakes, only if you speak ill of the staff again. Go play with your friends, and when you feel better I’ll teach you how to do a cast.”

“Okay.” Sweetie faked a smile and hugged her. “Thanks. I just want to finish my last thirty minutes today so I can say bye to Derpy and see how her wing is doing.”

“That sounds good. Thanks for understanding,” she replied.

She waited for Redheart to leave, then headed down the hallway in a separate direction. “Kicking me off the job, always treating me like a filly. . . Every book I’ve read says ninety percent of fillies and colts have a cutie mark by this age! I’m tired of waiting, it’s time to get even with those nurses and show them that I can be helpful.”

Sweetie glanced around, then used her magic to key in the code she had stolen to enter the medication room. She had studied the common prescriptions, and knew which patients belonged to which nurses. It would be easy to make a few benign “exchanges” to embarrass them all. Everypony makes mistakes, maybe when they realized that they would stop picking on her.

She closed the door quietly and went over to the medication cart. Opening the drawers she began to carefully peel open the small single-dose packages on some of the meds. She swapped some of the tylenol for viagra. Then she switched out the chewable aspirin with nitroglycerin. Using her magic, she was able to reseal the packages.

Sweetie looked over at the locker the class three medications were in. She bit her lip, knowing it was a tad riskier, but smiled when she saw the keys to it sitting on the table.

So much for keeping the narcotics in a double-locked case.

She opened up the narcotics locker, finding a few tablets of valium to switch out with some motrin. There were a few more meds she swapped, before deciding to quit while she was ahead. This would surely cause quite the uproar. Sweetie would come to the rescue, identifying the symptoms of the patients and helping the doctors cure them all. She’d have to get a cutie mark for sure!

Sweetie shut the lockbox, put the keys back, and closed the medication cart. She looked at the clock. In just over fifteen minutes the nurses would come to pass out the evening dose of medications with dinner. She hurried out of the room and went to visit Derpy until the fireworks started.

Babs Seed sighed in relief as the train pulled into Ponyville’s train station. She’d never been one to get excited, yet there was something about this town that lifted her spirits. There was no such thing as abusive fathers here. In fact, her three closest friends had wound up coming from this town. Scootaloo, Sweetie, and Apple Bloom accepted Babs, even when she treated them all poorly.

She had never made many friends. Most ponies avoided her, having heard of her reputation, and her habits had nearly led her to become friends with the local bullies. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had seemed like good ponies, before their whining and constant narcissism started to sicken her. Even though her list of friends sported few names, she was better off leaving those two off of it.

Applejack and Apple Bloom were waiting at the train station. They were smiling, yet Babs could see something was off with her friend. Her smile seemed forced, and as a filly who spent most of her life lying to others and reading their facial expressions, she knew it. Babs walked to the door of her cabin and put her saddlebags on. She took a deep breath, then put on her best smile.

Trotting quickly to the door, she jumped off the train and went over to her older cousin, and now sole-guardian. “Heya guys, how’s it goin’?”

“Great, ah’m so glad y’all chose to come live with us after that terrible business in Manehatten,” Applejack said.

“Yeah, the Cutie Mark Crusaders are back together!” Apple Bloom said. She strained herself to sound cheery, and it seemed to be fooling Applejack.

“My sis hasn’t stopped talkin’ about how great it is to have ya back,” Applejack explained.

“Well, I’m glad to be here with ponies that love me,” Babs answered. “Can we head to the farm? It was a long train ride.”

“Of course!” Applejack turned around and started walking away. Apple Bloom and Babs followed at a distance. “Why, Pinkie’s already got a whole surprise party planned for ya. Oops, well, ah guess it ain’t much of a surprise now. Ah reckon with you bein’ plum tuckered out, it’s only fair you know what she’s got in store for ya.”

“Hey, Bloom, you okay?” Babs asked.

“Huh? Yeah, of course.” She continued to smile, but her gaze remained on the ground.

“I, uh. . . heard about your puppy in a letter from your sis, before I came down here. It sounds terrible, but I’ve never had a pet so I don’t really know.”

“Yeah.”

Babs bit her lip in frustration. She could read Apple Bloom like a book, yet couldn’t understand emotion well enough to know what the proper reply is. Usually ponies would say stuff like “sorry for your loss”, but that seemed rather hollow to Babs. Until she had more to go on, she’d just keep an eye on Apple Bloom.

“Well, if I can cheer you up just tell me how. We’re sisters now, so I’m not gonna let anything bad happen to you.”

“Thanks, that’s really nice.” Apple Bloom looked Babs in the eye and smiled. “I mean, it’s so great to have you here and have a new sis’. I just have had a lot on my mind.”

Babs nodded, having made some progress. Hopefully, she would be able to become closer friends with Apple Bloom and put her history behind her. The lawyer in Manehatten had expunged Babs’ juvenile record, believing it was Babs’ best chance at getting a clean start. While Babs had no ambitions of being a good little filly, it was important now more than ever to act like it and make sure that other ponies believed she was one. There was no better way to blend in than to be one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

“—a room with Apple Bloom, but ah did get ya separate beds. Now ah know there’s the time difference, so we won’t be wakin’ ya up at six ‘til next week. You’ll have to do chores and pull your weight, though—”

Babs interrupted Applejack, whispering softly to Apple Bloom. “She’s been talking the whole time?”

“Yeah, I just ignore her. She loves to be a good big sister. Took her nearly an hour to explain to me what ‘first base’ is.”

“You mean kissin’?” Babs asked.

“I hadn’t heard of it before.” Apple Bloom chuckled. “The look on her face was priceless though when I told her Featherweight invited me to home base.”

Babs laughed and shook her head. “You’re something else. It’s too bad nopony in Manehatten was this cool, or I might have had a few friends there.”

“I’m sure you had some friends.”

She thought back to a pegasus named Swift. He had a crush on Babs, often willingly giving up his lunch money to her. Perhaps he had been her friend, and Babs just hadn’t realized it.

“I guess so.”

They continued walking towards the farm as Applejack explained, in great detail, what Babs’ life on the farm would be like.

“Well, I hope that wing gets better soon, Ms. Derpy,” Sweetie said.

“Oh, I’m sure it will! You’re much nicer than the nurses around here. Honestly, a sweet little filly who checks on me every day and changes the bandages to scratch those itches on my wing? I feel like you’re spoiling me,” Derpy explained.

“You’ve always treated me like an adult, you know? I hate when people see me and say ‘oh there’s a little kid, isn’t she cute? Let’s give her something fun for little kids to do!’ I’m sixteen, I’m practically an adult! I’ve read every single book Twilight’s let me check out. She says I’m smarter than most of the adults she knows!”

Derpy reached out of her bed and lifted Sweetie’s chin up. “Now, Sweetie, don’t let them get you down. People will always treat you different. They see what they want to see. Most want to see me as a clutz because of my lazy eye, and they want to see you as a little child. However, we both know we’re more than that. We can’t let others define who we are in life.”

Sweetie nodded. “Thanks, you always know just how to cheer me up.”

There was a loud knock on the door and a nurse came in, carrying a medicine cup and some water in her levitation. Sweetie realized Derpy must need some tylenol for her wing pain.

“Hello, Derpy. I brought your medicine, let me help you take it,” the nurse said.

“No thanks, Sweetie here can do it,” Derpy said. “She’s my personal nurse.”

Sweetie was still staring intently at the medicine cup. “Huh? Oh yeah,” she laughed. “I’ve got it!” She grabbed the medicine cup in her magic and floated it towards Derpy. She then deliberately tripped, dropping the pills onto the floor where they clattered against the wall.

“Ugh, Sweetie, you’re such a clutz,” the nurse said.

“Sorry,” Sweetie responded.

“It’s okay, I’m not really feeling like I need any more painkillers. Thank you anyway,” Derpy said.

“Whatever,” the nurse replied. She shook her head and left the room.

After she was gone, Derpy looked over at Sweetie. “What’s wrong? You did that on purpose.”

“What? No I didn’t!” Sweetie furrowed her brow.

“Come now, we both know you’re not that clumsy. Is something going on between you and that nurse?”

Sweetie sighed. “I trust you, Derpy. They’ve been treating me bad, like I’ve been telling you, but look at this.” She levitated up one of the pills. “Tylenol is blue on one side, and red on the other. This one is blue on both sides.” She flipped the pill over. “She was going to give you the wrong medicine.”

Derpy’s eyes went wide in shock. “Wow, and you knew all that just from looking? Why didn’t you tell her?”

She glanced at the floor and flicked the pill in the trash. “They never listen, they just tell me I’m wrong and they know better because they have a degree and I’m just a filly.”

Derpy was about to reply when the overhead speaker came on. “Doctor Stable to the ER. Doctor Stable to the ER.”

“What’s that?” Derpy asked.

“I don’t know, but I’ll go check.” She turned away from Derpy and smirked. Right now, the patients would be experiencing strange but non-lethal side effects, and the nurses would get knocked down a peg.

Sweetie hurried out into the ER. The first patient she came across was an elderly stallion who had come in with some chest pain. They figured it was just sore muscles in his ribcage, also known as costochondritis. His nurse had probably given him tylenol for it, which was actually viagra. Sure enough, he was pitching a large tent under his bedsheet.

She chuckled softly, then noticed the crash cart had been pulled out. She gulped, trotting into the room and getting lost in the crowd of nurses and orderlies. His blood pressure had tanked to sixty over forty, causing him to pass out. Sweetie recalled viagra dilates all the blood vessels. She knew a little epinephrine to constrict the vessels would have him right as rain.

On the other side of the room was a patient that had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Instead of his baby aspirin, he’d been given nitroglycerin and had similarly crashed, with a very low blood pressure.

Shit, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, Sweetie thought. She could still help them out, however.

Sweetie ran up to the first patient, pushing her way through the crowd. “Look, he has an erection! I bet he got the wrong medicine!”

“Hush, filly, get out of here,” a nurse barked. One of the orderlies spun Sweetie around with his foreleg and pushed her away.

“But I’m trying to help! You gave him the wrong medicine!” She was ignored and moved over to the other patient. She pushed her way to the head of the second patient’s bed. “He has fluid overload,” Sweetie shouted. “We need to give him some diuretics and vasoconstrictors!”

The orderlies laughed and the head nurse turned to her. “You’re not a doctor, get lost. This is no time for your help.”

Nurse Redheart walked up, gently scooping Sweetie up with her magic and carrying her out of the room. She set her down outside. “Sweetie, I know you want to help. I’m impressed at how much you’ve memorized, but unfortunately for legal reasons we can’t let you help with this. Twilight just checked in for a neck ache, why don’t you go check on her?”

“But I know how to fix this!” Sweetie pleaded.

“So do I, but nurses and especially fillies are not allowed to prescribe medications.”

“But you can give cardiac meds in a code blu—”

“Code Blue Code Blue, Emergency Room, first floor, room four and five! Code Blue, Emergency Room, first floor, room four and five!”

“Sweetie, I have work to do. If you come back in the trauma bay, I’m failing you,” Redheart said. She turned and ran back into the room to help the two ponies that had received the wrong meds.

The waiting room wasn’t far away, and Sweetie went out to it, muttering under her breath. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. I thought I picked the perfect medicines to switch! And now when I try to save the day, they don’t even care! I bet nopony would even notice if I killed myself. Rarity would probably have Pinkie throw her a party, and Mom and Dad are so busy with ‘work’ I bet they wouldn’t notice for weeks!”

Sweetie felt sparks of magic flying out of her horn, as was common among adolescent fillies when they became emotional. “This is so bucking stupid!” she screamed. Now that she was in the waiting room, there were a few townsponies and a receptionist looking at her. “Can’t you all see how smart I am?! I just want to help and find my special talent!”

She stomped her hoof, spotting Twilight in the triage room, talking to a confused orderly. Twilight was laughing giddily and levitating various medical tools around the room.

“You all hate me and nobody even cares about me! I’m sick of it!” Sweetie screamed.

Twilight glanced over at Sweetie, sensing the growing magic in the air. She dropped the stethoscope and otoscope she was floating around. “Oh, this is gonna be good!” She stumbled out of her chair, laughing, and crawled to the doorway to watch.

Sweetie’s hairs were standing on-end and loose objects—pens, bits, magazines—were starting to float off the floor. She was having a classical magic overload, the kind of overload another unicorn could easily stop.

Unfortunately, the only unicorn who could help had just been given motrin in the triage room, and Sweetie had swapped the motrin for valium.

“It’s not fair!” Sweetie screamed. She stomped her hoof down, only this time it did more than clop against the tile. Her horn erupted in a wave of magic, expanding in all directions at once.

The floor tiles cracked and splintered, while the overhead lights exploded. The chairs, magazines, and nearby ponies were blown back as if by a strong gust of wind. There was a deafening screech as the electric grid throughout the building shut down, plunging the hospital into darkness.

Sweetie collapsed from exhaustion, crying softly on the tile floor.

“Again! Again!” Twilight laughed and slammed a hoof on the ground. “That was awesome!”

The orderly was trying to help Twilight stand up, not realizing he’d just drugged the mare. The town’s ponies were slowly getting up, and leaving.

Sweetie glanced around, her vision blurred from the tears. She began to realize what had happened, that her magic had overloaded. Despite her obvious despair, nopony came to help her, and her role model Twilight was laughing at her.

Just when she thought it couldn’t get any worse, Sweetie finally got a break. She heard wings flapping, and was scooped up by two grey arms. She looked up, seeing that Derpy had come to check on her when the power had gone out. Sweetie nuzzled into her chest, sobbing, as the pegasus ignored the pain in her wing to give Sweetie the attention she so desperately needed.

Scootaloo was tired and sweaty from constantly doing the same flying drills over and over. It had been a week since Dash had left town, and she knew Babs was moving in with Apple Bloom today, and that the welcome party started in thirty minutes. Scootaloo was excited to show everypony her flying, and spent every single day this week working on it.

She'd been doing sprints, wing-ups, and hovering drills until she was seeing stars, but she could definitely tell her flying was improving. The pegasus was able to fly further and a little higher, and she had taken to flying from rooftop to rooftop, imagining herself as the mysterious hero Mare-Do-Well. Except, in Scootaloo's version of past events, it was Dash who was the mysterious caped crusader.

“The nefarious Dr. Evil had to have hidden Spitfire and Dash on one of these rooftops. I have to save them!” Scootaloo smiled, then jumped off the roof, flying across town square. She started to lose altitude because she was flapping her wings too fast. Focusing on smooth, even down strokes, she managed to gain altitude just in time to land on the far roof.

“Dash isn’t here either. . . I’ll have to fly to Sweet Apple Acres!” Scootaloo continued to fly from roof to roof, hearing a few ponies cheer her on from the ground. She missed Dash, but the town’s ponies had been really nice to her since Dash left. Still, there was no substitute for Dash. Scootaloo felt lost without her, and really looked forward to the CMC getting together. She was going to suggest a sleepover.

When Scootaloo reached the edge of town, she stretched her sore wings. It was a couple hundred yards to the apple orchard, and she had never flown that far without a break. Scootaloo knew that Dash believed in her, so she lowered herself and prepared to jump.

“You think you can tie up Dash and Spitfire, and hide them across a giant chasm? Well, I’m going to fly across and save them, Dr. Evil!”

Scootaloo jumped off the roof, catching a small updraft and gliding into the distance. She focused on her technique, realizing she must be almost halfway there by now. Her wings were aching, the small muscles not used to this level of exertion. Still, she grit her teeth and continued on. Dash told her that the only way for muscles to grow was to push your limits.

She worked through the pain and exhaustion, gaining enough altitude to fly over the apple trees in the orchard. Thought she was only twenty feet up, for her it felt like two thousand feet.

By the time she landed outside the Apple family barn, her back muscles were beginning to cramp in protest. She stretched her wings a little before folding them up and heading inside. Scootaloo’s face sported a smile that stretched from ear to ear, instantly drawing the attention of Pinkie Pie.

“That’s the spirit, Scootaloo! I just love seeing such happy ponies.” Pinkie pulled out a cupcake with cyan blue frosting.

“Thanks, Pinkie, but I’m on a diet to help my wings grow,” Scootaloo explained.

“I know, silly filly, this cupcake has two servings of protein powder in it, from lentil beans and other legumes!”

“Oh wow, thanks!” Scootaloo took the cupcake and bit into it, expecting it to taste a bit like a salad. Instead, she tasted the familiar sugar substitute that was often put in diet sodas. For a protein based cupcake, it was actually really good.

“Well, you better get ready to jump out and surprise Babs.”

Scootaloo looked around and saw everypony ducking behind a bale of hay. “Oh, of course.” She walked around looking for Sweetie. Fluttershy was behind a bale of hay with Gummy and Angel.

She recalled how Dash had asked her to look after Tank while she was gone. Scootaloo understood a turtle couldn’t live in Cloudsdale, and had happily agreed to it. She knew Dash would be disappointed to find out Scootaloo wasn’t taking Tank to Pinkie’s parties.

Behind another bale of hay sat Twilight, giggling softly. She seemed more happy and relaxed than normal, a fact Rarity had noticed. She sat next to Twilight with an eyebrow raised, trying to figure out why she seemed so talkative.

At last, Scootaloo found Sweetie behind a bale of hay in the corner. “Hey, how’s it going?”

“Pfft, the usual.”

“What’s wrong?” Scootaloo asked.

Sweetie glared at her. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Shh, here they come everypony!” Pinkie shouted.

Scootaloo decided to ask about Sweetie’s mood later. She crouched down until the barn doors opened up. Pinkie fired her party cannon, spreading confetti throughout the air. “Surprise!” everypony shouted.

Babs, Apple Bloom, and Applejack stood in the doorway. Of the three, Babs was the only one who didn’t look surprised. She smiled and trotted into the room.

“Thanks, Pinkie,” Babs said.

“Aww, I thought I had you for sure this time,” Pinkie stated.

“Applejack told me about the party.” Babs smirked.

“Aww, AJ! You know how much I wanted to surprise Babs!”

“Sorry, Pinkie, it just slipped out. Besides, the filly’s mighty tired,” Applejack replied.

Babs and Apple Bloom walked over to their friends. Scootaloo was excited to have the whole gang back together and jumped out, hugging Babs. “It’s so great to see you!”

She bit back her witty remark, pleased that somepony was actually excited to see her—Even if said pony was currently hugging her and buzzing like a gnat. “Thanks, Scootaloo.”

“This job fair week sucks,” Scootaloo explained. “I haven’t had any time to hang out or go crusading, and they wouldn’t let me intern for the weather team until I can fly better.”

“Aren’t you having fun as a florist?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Yeah. . .” She sighed, thinking back to how she had helped her mother Rose out at the store this week. “Flowers are great and all, but I really wanted to learn to bust clouds.”

“You think you have it bad?” Sweetie said. “I got kicked out of the hospital for having a ‘magical overload’! I tried everything I could to get them to treat me like an adult, and prove I knew what I was doing! And after all that, it was Derpy and not my parents or Rarity that took the time to make me feel better.”

“Perhaps you should act like an adult, and not a whiny foal, then you’ll be treated like an adult. As for your pet chicken here, I’m sure she’ll fly one day if you build a big enough slingshot,” Diamond Tiara said.

“Who invited you two here?” Babs asked. She glared at Diamond and Silver Spoon, who seemed oblivious to the hatred in her eyes.

“It’s a welcoming party, duh. We thought you deserved another chance to make the right choice of who your friends are.”

“I’m fine with my choice.”

“Really?” Diamond glanced over to Silver, who still stood by her side. “Well maybe you haven’t heard. Apple Bloom killed her puppy, Scootaloo is such a bad flier that Dash abandoned her, and Sweetie caused ponies to die at the hospital!”

“That’s not true!” Sweetie shouted, stomping her hoof. A couple sparks escaped her horn, causing her to flinch in pain. It was still highly sensitive from the discharge earlier. “The backup generators came on.”

Babs took a step forward to stand between Sweetie and Diamond. “You two, get lost now before I do something you’ll regret.”

“Pfft, what a mindless brute. Come on, Diamond,” Silver said. “My mother should be done with dinner by now.”

“Goodbye, blank flanks,” Diamond taunted.

As they walked away, Babs fought to keep her expression neutral. The two reminded her of her father and mother. One, always bullying others for personal amusement, and the other, blindly following. It had taught Babs that if you want something, you have to take it. Otherwise, everything you value will be taken from you.

“I can’t believe you three are still letting her bully you,” Babs said.

“Well, we’ve tried everything. Cheerilee will suspend them for a day sometimes, but mostly the adults say they’re just fillies being fillies,” Scootaloo explained.

“Well I don’t care for it. You are my friends and nopony messes with me or my friends.” Babs looked behind her. “Hey, where’d Apple Bloom go?” Babs asked.

“I didn’t see her leave,” Sweetie stated. “Should we go find her?”

“Nah, you two stay and enjoy the party. I’ll find her and bring her back.” Babs smiled, then snuck out of the barn.

Apple Bloom spun around, bucking the apple tree. A dozen apples fell off from the force. She was getting stronger every month, and apple bucking proved a good way to reduce stress. It also helped to imagine the tree was Diamond Tiara.

She spun around and bucked it again, causing a squirrel to fall from the branches and land on the ground. It shook its head, dazed, and Apple Bloom poked it with her hoof. “Hey, you okay?”

The squirrel saw who it was, and promptly bit her leg just above the hoof. It turned to run, and Apple Bloom slammed her hoof down against its tail. “That wasn’t very nice!”

She saw the squirrel spin around to bite her again. With her other hoof, she smacked it in the head and pinned it to the ground. “What’s your problem?!”

The squirrel started wiggling around under her hooves, squeaking and pleading for her to let go.

“Are you—crying? What do you think I’m going to do? Kill—” Apple Bloom paused at the revelation. “Kill you? You’ve been spying on me?”

The squirrel shook its head no. It made some squeaks that might pass as speech to Fluttershy, but Apple Bloom possessed no such talent.

“I’ve got enough going on around here without you nosy fucking critters spying on me!” She pushed her left forehoof down into the squirrel’s neck, causing it to choke as its air was cut off. “Do you think I enjoy doing this? Do you think this makes me happy?!”

The squirrel’s mouth opened and closed wordlessly a few times. Its eyes were beginning to bulge out. No sooner had the squirrel gone limp, Apple Bloom let go and began to cry.

She sat down, feeling guilty at how good that made her feel. Deep down, she wished she was strong enough to beat up Diamond, to feel that same power over her tormentor as Apple Bloom felt over these squirrels.

Yet her sister’s long talks had ingrained in her a sense of right and wrong. Apple Bloom knew nothing she could do would bring Lucky back, and that no amount of dead squirrels, however enjoyable, would change things.

“S-sorry, squirrel. I’m sorry. I’m a bad pony,” Apple Bloom explained. “I just—”

“You have nothing to be sorry about,” Babs said.

Apple Bloom spun around in shock, her eyes wide. Babs was standing next to the tree, staring at her and the dead squirrel. “It’s not what you think!”

“Oh, it’s exactly what I think, but I’m proud of you.”

“Please don’t—wait, what?” Apple Bloom said.

Babs smiled, nodding at the squirrel. “It’s just a worthless squirrel. Besides, it felt good, didn’t it?”

“Yes, but—”

“No buts. Tell me what it feels like,” Babs said.

Apple Bloom sat there, slightly unnerved by how calm Babs was. “Applejack says it’s wrong to hurt ponies, or animals.”

“Applejack isn’t here, is she? Besides, I’ve seen how Diamond treats you. I bet you were imagining the squirrel was her. Tell me how it felt.”

She gulped, wondering if somehow Babs actually knew her darkest thoughts. “It was—only a few squirrels so far! I feel kinda nervous at first, you know? Maybe the squirrel will get away, and Fluttershy would find out. I don’t want to get in trouble, but it feels good!”

“Would it surprise you to know I’ve never felt ‘good’ in my life?”

“Of course you have! You always are smiling and having fun around me. Don’t let what your father did in Manehatten ruin your life,” Apple Bloom pleaded.

“It’s a lie. I could care less about him, or Diamond, or that squirrel. My father taught me a valuable lesson. I could either take what I want like he did, or be taken by others like my mother was. I thought after what I did in Manehatten I’d feel something. Instead I feel the same—there was no rush, no thrill, just a calculated plan.”

Apple Bloom glanced around nervously. “What are you talking about?”

“The thrill of the kill, what’s it feel like? I’m getting tired of this touchy feely crap so speed it up.”

She nodded, then glanced at the squirrel. “It um. . . there’s adrenaline and anger and I get so worked up. I realize I am in control, I have all the power. It feels wonderful, like I’m invincible, and nothing can go wrong. Then the squirrel looks at me, and I can see it in its eyes. It gives up hope, it knows it is powerless, then it begs. It begs me because it knows I am in full control. Last, I look in its eyes as it stops moving, and its life fades away and I feel. . . better. Like a huge weight is lifted off my chest. But after that I feel guilty. I shouldn’t feel good for hurting things!”

Babs was nodding her head and smirking. “You have to do whatever it takes to be happy. Don’t let anyone take that from you or tell you it’s wrong.”

“So, you’re not gonna tell on me?” Apple Bloom asked.

“No, I don’t see anything wrong here. However, I have a feeling this rabbit may feel different.” Babs leaned over, picking up a white rabbit in her teeth and flinging it towards Apple Bloom. “You know him?”

Apple Bloom instantly recognized the rabbit before her. “Angel?!”

Angel looked up at her, his cheeks stained by tears. He squealed and started to drag himself over to her using his arms.

“I caught him spying on you while you killed that squirrel. He tried to run back to the party too. He belongs to that pony that can talk to animals, right?” Babs asked.

“Yeah, but we can’t hurt Angel!” Apple Bloom stated.

“Too late. I had to break his legs to keep him from running off and ratting you out.”

She reached down, rolling Angel onto his back. He weakly protested, and Apple Bloom saw his two hind legs. They were swollen and had turned purple where Babs had snapped the bones.

“No, we have to take him back. Fluttershy will understand!”

“Yes, she will. She’ll understand you’ve been killing squirrels, and I broke his legs,” Babs said.

“This is different, I can’t—”

“You can, and you will. If you don’t, I’ll just kill him and blame it all on you. I’d really hate to do that, but it hasn’t stopped me before.”

Apple Bloom gasped and looked at Babs in horror. “You can’t be serious, that’s horrible!”

“Got a problem with it? We can go tell Applejack how you’re spending your free time. Who would she believe, the filly murdering Fluttershy’s animals or a traumatized victim of child abuse?”

She could tell by Babs’ expression this wasn’t a joke. Babs was always calm and collected, always calculating. “No—I just. . . please, I don’t want anything else to go wrong in my life. You’re my sister now, can’t we be happy?”

“Yes, we can. I’d never hurt you as long as you’re my sister. We have to stick together because the adults don’t understand what it’s like for us.”

“Promise?” Apple Bloom wiped a tear from her cheek.

“Of course I promise! We’re sisters now, and sisters stick together. I promise you that you’ll never have a reason to cry again if you stick with me.”

She looked down at Angel. “It’s okay, I’ll make it fast.”

Angel’s eyes went wide and he rolled himself back over, moaning from the pain. He started to drag himself away from Apple Bloom.

“It’s okay. You’ll feel better, I promise,” Babs said.

Apple Bloom reached down, pinning Angel to his belly against the ground. Angel weakly squirmed and tried to wiggle out from under her body weight. Apple Bloom glanced up at Babs.

“Look at him! Weak, pathetic, powerless to stop you. You are in control and you have all the power. He can’t bully you or hurt you, he’s so scared he can’t even beg!” Babs walked a few steps closer to them to get a better view. “He’s worthless, like so many animals and even ponies! I bet you’d love to have Diamond under your hoof like that.”

“But I—I’d never hurt a pony,” Apple Bloom said.

“You’re not hurting a pony, you’re hurting a rabbit and imagining it’s Diamond. Go ahead, tell Diamond here how you really feel.”

Apple Bloom rolled Angel onto his back, keeping her hoof pushed against his belly. He looked at her in horror, clawing at her hooves. “A-Ang—I mean, Diamond, I hate you! You’re a bully and it’s bad enough you pick on me, but Scootaloo and Sweetie too! They’re such nice fillies and you. . . you’re a spoiled brat!”

Angel was crying, looking up at her. He clasped his hands together, gesturing a silent prayer.

“You’re evil and I hate you!” Apple Bloom grabbed Angel’s head and twisted it, yanking him off the ground. There was a snapping sound as his spine was severed, and his body went limp.

Apple Bloom was grinning ear to ear, and dropped his limp corpse to the ground. Babs watched in silence, feeling an odd warmth inside herself. She caught her own smile forming and for a brief moment could have sworn she felt something. Happiness? Adrenaline? Babs thought. Whatever it is, I liked it.

Babs continued to watch, enjoying every moment that she lived out through Apple Bloom. She waited quietly until Apple Bloom had finished burying Angel and the squirrel. As she brushed the dirt off her hooves, Babs went over and hugged her.

“I’m proud of you, sis. Nopony is going to bully us anymore, or tell us what we do is wrong,” Babs stated.

Apple Bloom sniffled, her joyful adrenaline giving way to a familiar guilt. Yet today the guilt was much less than usual, because she had a new sister who understood her, and accepted her for who she was. She hugged Babs back tighter.

“Thank you, sis.”

Author's Notes:

v1.1
+The11thWonder