“Babs? Are ya okay?” Apple Bloom asked.

Babs only lowered her head, focusing on the food in front of her completely. Technically, she could answer that yes, she was okay. She hadn’t eaten so well in almost three years, she had a cutie mark that looked very similar to Daring Do’s one, and she was what most ponies considered the best age of their lives – nineteen, a magical number joining the innocence of a teenager with all the privileges coming with adulthood.

Yet, nothing was okay. Babs was anything but innocent. Just twenty four hours before, she’d received an official document stating that she was now free to leave the boot camp near Appleloosa where she’d spent almost three years for assault, robbery, and possession of an unregistered firearm.

It could be worse. Her lawyer, a young idealist called Twinkie Defense who’d decided to help her for free proved that she hadn’t known what Lightning Dust – Equestria’s most wanted criminal – had done with the submachine gun Babs had tried to dispose of, saving her from prison. However, the lawyer didn’t know that the deeds Babs had been sentenced for were only a tip of an iceberg. In fact, those who knew were either dead or decided to keep their mouths shut.

“Babs?” Apple Bloom looked at her cousin unsurely.

“Yes, I’m okay,” Babs lied. My cutie mark should be in lying, she thought. Who knows, maybe the one I got is also a lie? A compass on her flank had appeared in the boot camp, when she managed to find it after she’d gotten lost in the desert with a couple of other “guests.” Babs thought that she was just lucky. She shrugged and took a large slice of an apple pie.

“What are ya gonna do now?” Apple Bloom asked. “Are ya gonna come back to Manehattan?”

Manehattan. That name brought memories. Fantastic days when she didn’t have to worry about anything, hanging out with her friends and robbing those who were stupid enough to go out at night. Nightcap… Babs started to wonder what happened to her. Then she shuddered when she remembered White Dove and a couple of griffons, who were probably still lying somewhere in the cemetery not far away from the old warehouse. Tears welled in Babs’ eyes when she remembered what had happened just a few days later when the members of a local mafia kidnapped her.

“Maybe,” she replied, trying to remain calm. “I guess I’ll stay here for a couple of days…”

“Applejack will be happy,” Apple Bloom said. “She’s not the same since… Ya know, first she’d almost lost me, then ya… And then Granny died…”

Babs could help but sob. She’d learned about Granny Smith’s death a couple of months after it happened. She was told that it was the post’s fault, but she knew that the guards were carefully checking every letter. Especially, when a young criminal was making trouble.

“I’ll go for a walk…” Babs said, rising from her chair. “I’ll be back by the evening.”

“Maybe Ah’ll go with ya?” Apple Bloom asked.

“No, thanks…” Babs said. “I wanna be alone for a moment… Maybe I’ll go and visit Granny…”

“Oh… Okay…” Apple Bloom muttered and started to collect the dishes from the table.

Babs trotted to the door and left the house. She looked back at it and sighed, walking down the path leading to Ponyville.

Unneeded. Nopony in the Apple family told her that, but she was unneeded. Her whole family was ashamed of her.

At first she wanted to stay in Appleloosa, with her cousin Braeburn. He didn’t even recognise her. Sure, they lived on opposite sides of Equestria and seen each other only during family reunions. Sure, he’d last seen her when she was eleven. But for Babs, it was like a stab in the heart. She turned around and ran to the railway station.

When she was leaving the camp, the guards gave her some money for a ticket. She chose to go to Ponyville, to her favourite cousin. And there she was – Apple Bloom gave her food and told her that Applejack and Big Macintosh were soon going to be back from the orchard, but Babs could feel that something between them changed. She felt that she was no longer Apple Bloom’s favourite cousin. She was met with cold distance, like someone with an infectious disease. Truly, she was a bad apple.

She lowered her head, letting tears fall on the path. Her mane was hiding most of her face, so she could cry freely, not worrying about the others.

“Hello Babs! You didn’t say that you were back! How are you? Have you already visited Apple Bloom? Are you–”

“Pinkie Pie,” said Babs slowly, looking into Pinkie’s eyes. “I swear, if you make a surprise ‘Babs is back from the boot camp’ party, I’ll kick ya to the next Friday…”

Pinkie Pie stopped mid-jump and stood in front of Babs, her mane flattening slightly. “Well, if you don’t want…” she said. “You look sad…”

“Thanks for tellin’ me that,” Babs muttered. “I didn’t know what happened to me…”

“It doesn’t have to be a party,” Pinkie Pie said. “If you want to talk…”

“Maybe later, okay?” Babs sighed. “I stayed at Sweet Apple Acres.”

“Okay,” Pinkie said, her mane going back to its usual state. “I have to go! I’m preparing a ‘You’re not crazy anymore’ party for Diamond Tiara and–“

“Wait!” Babs exclaimed. “Diamond Tiara is here?”

“Yes!” Pinkie Pie replied. “She just came back to Ponyville… Three days ago? I think so… It was when I ate those blue cupcakes and I felt a bit funny, so it had to be three days ago… Or maybe it was–“

“Okay, I get it,” Babs muttered. “See ya, Pinkie…”

She trotted down the path which soon changed into a street. She looked around. Ponyville was almost the same as she remembered it. Some of the houses had new roofs or fences, but the atmosphere was friendly as usual. Well, maybe not as friendly… Babs thought when she saw Lyra and Bon Bon sitting on a bench in front of their house. Lyra probably hadn’t noticed her, but Bon Bon was eyeing her curiously. Babs saw that another mare, pink with yellow mane and cherries as her cutie mark, was sitting with them.

“…another little brat comes here…” Babs heard her when she was walking next to the house. “Soon this town will be full of criminals.”

Babs stopped mid-step and turned to the pink mare who paused. “Cherry Berry, I suppose?” she asked innocently. “I was just wonderin’ how’s your cousin…”

“Shut up!” Cherry Berry shouted. “We don’t want you here…”

“Don’t worry, I only came to see DJ Pon3’s grave,” Babs deadpanned. “Maybe ya know her? What was the name of that crazy pisshead who killed her? I think I know… Berry Pu–“ She dodged a flower pot flying in her direction, followed by a stream of abuse. “I’ll surely tell my mother what ya think about her…” Babs muttered, running away from the mare, who was now standing at the fence, waving her hoof at her.

In a much better mood, Babs trotted to the park. There weren’t too many ponies there, even though the weather was sunny. Autumn was about to start; the first red leaves were falling from the trees. Babs walked through the grass, inhaling deeply. Both Manehattan and the boot camp had something in common – she was always surrounded by other ponies there. Here, she was finally alone.

Almost alone. She was just going to the bridge, when she saw a pink silhouette of a pony lying on a bench, looking at the sky. Or maybe she was sleeping? Babs wasn’t sure. She trotted to the pony, stood above her, and blew mane from her eyes.

The pink pony – young mare around Babs’ age – opened her eyes, startled. She shuddered when she saw Babs and tried to shrink herself.

“What’s goin’ on?” Babs asked. “Ya killed somepony or what?”

The mare let out a whimper and made a move as if she wanted to run away.

Babs chuckled. “Chill out, Diamond,” she said. “Frankly, I don’t give a fuck about what ya did. I even forgive ya for tryin’ to off my cousin.”

Diamond Tiara sat on a bench. “I… I’m so sorry…” she stammered. “I… I was…”

“I know who you were,” Babs said, sitting next to here. “Listen, as I said, I don’t care. Ya’re not a monster, Diamond. Don’t let old cunts like Cherry Berry tell ya otherwise…”

“B-but I killed them…” Diamond Tiara said, shuddering and trying to sit as far from Babs as it was possible. “P-pipsqueak, Ruby, Alula…”

“…Twist, Zippoorwhill, Ginger Snap, and Silver Spoon,” Babs finished. “Dunno where have you been for the last ten years, but they wrote about it in the newspapers. They’re dead and ya can’t change that. But trust me, ya’re not a monster. Ya didn’t want to kill ‘em.”

“What do you know about that?” Diamond Tiara asked. “Have you ever killed anyone?”

Babs froze. She remembered Golden Sunset, choking on her own blood, spilling on the pavement. She thought of the first griffon she gunned down during the shootout, and the others she’d shot when they were lying on the floor, bound and unarmed. “Maybe…” she said.

Diamond Tiara looked at her unsurely. She leaned closer to Babs, her blue eyes widening. For a moment, Babs thought that she was going to kill her. “I… I still see her…” she whispered.

“I guess it’s normal,” Babs said casually. “Ya don’t wanna know what I see in my dreams… I think it scared away even Luna…”

“Not in dreams…” Diamond Tiara whispered. “Silver Spoon… I see her even now… She’s there.” She pointed at the grass by the river. “She’s still nine…”

Babs froze. She started to regret that she’d talked to Diamond Tiara first. “Ya should talk to your doctor about that…” she said slowly. “But… Ya don’t wanna kill me? Or anyone else?”

“N-no…” Diamond Tiara sighed. “And I don’t want to talk with the doctor… They’d lock me up again… As long as it’s Silver, it’s okay… She only plays… Sometimes talks… When it was Curtain Call…”

Babs didn’t want to know who Curtain Call was and what’d happen if she suddenly appeared. “Okay…” she muttered and sighed. “That was your secret… Wanna know mine?”

Diamond Tiara nodded, throwing nervous glances around. Babs thought that she probably had to watch her surroundings constantly, avoiding ponies like Cherry Berry.

“When I was sixteen, I was a bad pony,” Babs said. “I did lots of stupid things. For example, I was muggin’ rich bitches like–“ She looked at Diamond Tiara and decided that finishing that sentence wouldn’t be wise. “Anyway, one of ‘em had a pepper spray. She used it, I took a knife… There were no crazy visions or anythin’ like that. At one moment I was coughin’ my lungs out, then she was lyin’ on a pavement with a knife in her carotid artery. They caught my friend for that. It still haunts me…”

Diamond Tiara shuddered and looked at the place where, according to her, stood Silver Spoon.

“What’s wrong?” Babs asked.

“F-for a moment I thought I saw…” Diamond muttered.

Babs shook her head. She wanted to tell Diamond about Golden Sunset’s friend, but decided that risking the sudden visit of mysterious Curtain Call wasn’t worth the feeling of catharsis she felt after confessing to that. “I have to go,” she said. “We’ll meet later, okay? Take care, Tiara…”

“See you, Babs,” Diamond Tiara replied absentmindedly. She stayed on the bench, watching Babs disappear in the distance.

“What will happen now?” Silver Spoon stopped prancing and stood in attention by Diamond Tiara’s side.

“No idea,” Diamond Tiara replied.

Diamond Tiara tossed and turned in her bed. She put her hooves on her ears, but it didn’t help much. The muted whispers were ubiquitous. Even though she tried, she couldn’t just tune them out.

Of course, thanks to the medicines she was taking, she knew that the whispers weren’t real. This, however, didn’t make them any less annoying.

“Let me guess,” she whispered. “You won’t let me sleep till I get up and go to kill somepony?” She turned and saw Silver Spoon lying on her bed next to her. Her mane was hanging freely and her glasses were lying on the nightstand.

“Don’t do that,” Silver Spoon said. “They only wait for that…”

“Thanks for telling me what I already know…” Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes.

“I’m a part of your mind. I can’t say anything you don’t know,” Silver Spoon replied. “For example, you don’t know how would I look if I were nineteen. That’s why I look like I’m nine.”

“Why do I even talk with you?” Diamond Tiara asked, knowing well what the answer would be.

“Other ponies don’t want to talk with you.” Silver Spoon sat on the bed and put on her glasses. “Some of them ignore you, some of them would drown you in the river if they could.”

“I just love this town…” Diamond Tiara gritted her teeth. “Sometimes I think that they could use an another couple of missing children…”

Silver Spoon’s eyes widened. “Don’t let her talk you into that!” she exclaimed. “We can’t see her, but she’s still there… You surely caught a glimpse…”

“Don’t worry, Silver,” Diamond Tiara said, yawning. “A hoofful of pills a day keeps Curtain Call away. Or something like that.”

Silver Spoon nodded and lay back on the bed, closing her eyes. Diamond Tiara, however, felt that she needed to know something else.

“Silver?” she called.

“Yes?”

“How does it feel to be dead?”

“I have no idea,” Silver Spoon replied groggily. “After all, you don’t know that either, do you?”