The center of Ponyville has always been a bustling place filled with ponies going about their daily routines.  The market row held a large amount of ponies as they shopped and haggled for food and other items.  True, yesterday was a hectic day for Ponyville and its denizens, what with that egomaniac Trixie returning with godlike powers.  Today, though, was a calm and peaceful day where ponies peacefully mingled with one another while enjoying a beautiful sunny day.

Well, not for long.  There is an adorable filly, with powers that even gods would be jealous of from an amulet that allows her to manipulate time and space, and also gives her +10 intelligence, running free.  Not to mention she, as well as the other two Crusaders, have a passive ability that allows them to cause mass chaos in a five hundred foot radius just by being there.  Now would be the time to panic.

The aforementioned white filly happily skipped towards the village with her two friends in tow.  After discovering that she can finally use magic, Sweetie Belle was filled with pride and joy.  The amulet around her neck provided the ‘kick’ that allowed the magic within her to be unlocked.  And once she started, she just couldn’t stop!  Almost every object in her vision was touched by her magical residue.  Sweetie Belle was always the one in the trio to be calm and collected, thinking things through or thinking of more rational ways to handle situations.  However, only one thing was running through her mind right then.

Lasers are fun!

Everything was a target to her!  Potted plants, trash cans, signs, a pony or two, Stormtroopers, and small objects littered around that served no significant value.  Passing ponies shrieked in terror and ducked to avoid being shot by a stray beam of arcane energy.

In the midst of the minor chaos, Apple Bloom, who was closely following behind Sweetie Belle along with Scootaloo, spoke up.  “Uhhh, Sweetie Belle?  Ya might wanna let up a li'l bit.”

The overpowered white unicorn was unable to hear her due to having way too much fun.  Laughing maniacally, Sweetie Belle continued her joyful spree of blasting everything in sight with (mostly) harmless lasers.  

A group of teenage colts sat at a nearby bench minding their own business and talking amongst themselves.  Little did they know, a stray arcane barrage was heading directly towards them.  Three of the four noticed the pulsating beam of energy and were able to duck out of the way.  The poor, unfortunate soul of the fourth one was not so lucky.  As the universe laughed at the colt’s bad luck, he was struck square in the back of his head by the shot.  He fell to the cold, cruel dirt, unconscious.

The other three colts gathered around their fallen ally.  One of them looked up to the see the rampaging adorable filly that caused this chaos.  He glared at her.  “Oh my god, Sweetie Belle is so OP!”  he stated in a nasally voice.  “She needs a nerf!”

One of the other colts joined in on the nerdrage.  “I know, right!  Look what she did to Joystick!  She just ONE SHOTTED HIM!”

“Yeah man!”  the third one agreed.  “She must be hacking or something!”

Completely oblivious to the death glares and aggravated yells of the citizens, Sweetie Belle continued her spree of happily shooting lasers out of her horn like it was a contest.  Scootaloo and Apple Bloom tried to become as small as possible, almost crawling on the dirt road and keeping their heads hung low.  Even though Sweetie Belle was ignorant to the scorn she was currently receiving, her two other comrades were not.

It didn’t take long for the three fillies to come across a rare sight.  In a part of downtown Ponyville, a new building was being constructed.  A large chunk of land was fenced off and restricted to anypony save for those working on the project.  So far, the construction was fairly recent, and only half of the metal brace frame had been constructed.

The three fillies stopped in front of an open gate in the fence, observing the commotion going on inside.  When they poked their heads around the corner, they saw a large, brown earth stallion that looked very agitated.

“Come on you bunch of slackers!”  he yelled to the assembly of construction workers.  “We are way behind schedule and need to finish the frame by Tuesday!  If not, the foremare will have our flanks!”

The dozen construction workers groaned like fillies being told it was their bedtime.  Even with their protest, they began to slowly get back to work.  The lead stallion sighed and facehoofed.  These slacking ponies will never get the job back on schedule, and most likely be fired for it.  

Sweetie Belle looked at the workers with sympathetic eyes.  They are behind schedule; it’s not good to be behind schedule when constructing a building!  What if that building was a hotel, or a restaurant, or a store?  Ponies need these things as fast as possible to benefit the town!  Sweetie Belle couldn’t just stand idle and watch when she knew that her newfound magical abilities could possibly be used to lend a hoof.

And so she did just that.

With an effortlessly charged horn, Sweetie Belle ‘assisted’ the workers by lifting up all the steel braces and placing them on the foundation.  She maneuvered the braces around the site, placing them in strategic locations coinciding with where she thought they’d best fit in.

The workers watched in absolute shock and awe as all of their “hard” work was slowly being undone by an insanely magically adept filly.  The boss took it the worst.  His jaw was hanging dangerously low and threatening to touch the ground.  In all his years of work, he had yet to see a single unicorn be able to lift a single brace, while this seemingly ten-year-old filly was lifting all of them at the same time!

If the workers actually cared about their ‘effort’ they would have done something by now...maybe.  But alas, they didn’t, and so they stood there and watched like curious dogs, their heads cocked slightly to the side in confusion.  The braces continued to float into place, and one by one the magical aura surrounding them faded into oblivion.  Soon enough, the structure was done.  

With one final smash, the remaining braces locked into place.  The force of the smash raised a cloud of dust for a few mere seconds before settling back to its home on the ground.  Once the workers ceased their coughing, they observed the completed structure. Only it looked absolutely nothing like what the building on the blueprints looked like.  

The ‘structure’ resembled more of something that a famous painter and sculptor would create.  It looked like a pony, standing on its hind legs with a rock in one hoof and a sling in the other.  It cast a warning glance over Ponyville as it looked in one direction.  

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom mirrored the boss’s reaction.  Both their jaws hung loose while Sweetie Belle smiled innocently.  Scootaloo was the first to recover from her daze, trotting over to inspect the statue.

“Wait,” she suddenly exclaimed.  “It’s...missing something.”  A light bulb materialized over her head as she realized what it was.  And from out of nowhere (again) Scootaloo propped a ladder against the statue, climbed up on it, and placed a clay like object that resembled a gray pickle on the statue’s muzzle. “Ta-da!”

Suddenly, another earth pony bolted through the fence of the construction site.  He gazed in awe at the magnificent statue.  A glint of rage shone in his eye as he looked to the ponies around him.  “Who’s responsible for this?!”  he yelled angrily.

The boss was too shocked to answer, and the workers could really care less.  Sweetie Belle, always the modest one, smiled and pointed to the boss.  “It was this guy, sir.  He’s in charge of this construction site.”

Two eyes, burning with the fires of a thousand hot white suns of furious anger, bore directly into the boss’s soul.  The boss felt as if he was staring into death himself.  Which was not far from the truth.  Happy that she was able to help such a poor stallion, Sweetie Belle and her comrades trotted off to elsewhere.

(\/);,;(\/)

A few moments later, and the trio found themselves at the Ponyville Elementary playground.  Scootaloo had suggested that Sweetie Belle should show her cool magic to the other fillies and colts at school.  Ecstatic as ever, Sweetie Belle agreed almost instantly.  When they approached the playground, where the entire class was currently at, a dreaded sight met them in the form of two fillies.

Sweetie Belle’s smile dropped, and the other two Crusaders scowled.  The distance between them and the last two ponies they ever want to be around closed.  The Cutie Mark Crusaders stood face to face with their rivals: Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.

“Like, hey there, like, blank flanks,” Diamond Tiara said smugly.

Scootaloo suppressed a groan.  Would there ever be a time when Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon would just leave them alone? “Oh look. It’s princess dorkle and her loyal dog,” she snidely replied.  Due to the unfortunate proximity to a schoolhouse and therefore strict schoolteacher, Scootaloo had to restrain herself to simple verbal ribbing instead of violent contact.

Silver Spoon scoffed.  “Like, whatever.  At least we’re not, like, blank flanks.”

There comes a time in every young mare’s life where she undergoes a confusing biological change in order to guarantee the survival of one’s species. Unfortunately, this was not that time. This was the time where she wanted to beat the tar out of somepony. And then burn them.

“Blank flank this, blank flank that. Can’t you two come up with a better insult? We’ll get our Cutie Marks one day, and then where will you be?”  Scootaloo retorted angrily, steam visibly steaming out of her ears and nostrils.

“Like, it doesn’t matter,” Diamond Tiara answered. “It’s funny enough, like, in the now.”

“Well, eventually it’s going to get old.  Eventually we’re going to get our Cutie Marks and you’re going to be stuck sitting on the sidelines unable to come up with anything new. Like, that will be that. AUGH! You’ve got me saying it!”

“Like, what are you talking about?”

“Face it,” Scootaloo started in a menacing tone. “Your ‘insults’ or whatever you want to call them are just getting old.  You keep trying the same material just to find some way to pick on us.  Does it look like it’s still working?”  Scootaloo waved her hoof to her friends behind her.  Apple Bloom just stared at Scootaloo with a disapproving glare. Sweetie Belle looked to be on the verge of tears. “Oh you gotta be kidding me,” she mumbled to herself, facehoofing.

“Well well, like, well.”  Silver Spoon continued, smiling evilly.  “I might not, like, be the smartest pony around, but, like, I think it’s working just fine.”  She then turned her attention towards Sweetie Belle.  “Aww is little Blanky Belle, like, gonna cry?  Does she, like, need a diaper?”  A ray of sunlight shone onto Sweetie Belle, eliciting a sparkle from a metallic object placed around her neck.

Not wanting to miss the opportunity to insult something, Silver Spoon dove in.  “Hey look, whatcha, like, got here Blanky Belle?”  She then pointed to the amulet.  

Diamond Tiara took her position in front of Silver Spoon for her verbal assault.  “Since when did you, like, start wearing jewelery?” Upon closer inspection, she scoffed.  “So tacky.  I mean, like, ruby so doesn’t match you, like, at all.”

“Leave it to the Cutie Mark Crybabies to, like, ever know anything about fashion.”  Silver Spoon chimed in.

“Oh sweet Celestia...”  Scootaloo mumbled while facehoofing.  “Are you two really going on about fashion?!”

“Well, like, duh.”  Diamond Tiara replied.  “Fashion is, like, super important.  I mean, you don’t want to, like, look like a total loser or anything.  Oh wait, you’re, like, too late!” The two fillies starting to giggle uncontrollably at that.

As per usual for a schoolyard squabble, a crowd started to encircle the two misfits and three innocent crusaders.  Scootaloo ignored them.  They mean nothing compared to the insects that stood before her, just waiting to be squashed underhoof!

At this point, Sweetie Belle was only a single jeer away from unleashing a full-blown tsunami. The only thing holding her back was Apple Bloom’s reassuring embrace.  More insults were flung towards the three, but Scootaloo just soaked them like a sponge and bounced back everyone of them.  It was only mere seconds later that the final blow was about to be given.

“You know what, Diamond Tiara?  You’re all talk about how rich you are and about how your dad can buy out all of Ponyville if he wanted to, but you know what?  I believe it.  I believe your dad is the rich one around here...but you on the other hoof... You know what?  I bet that tiara you wear around your pretty little head isn’t even made of diamonds, but instead CUBIC ZIRCONIA!”

The whole schoolyard fell into a dead silence.  Nopony even dared to breathe let alone move to avoid the sheer amounts of rage that Diamond Tiara would unleash.  The feeling in the atmosphere was like staring down the barrel of a cannon; just waiting for it to fire.  

However, the collective fear of an infuriated Diamond Tiara was never realized.  For being the stuck-up, rich brat that she was, one would think she would reactive negatively to such a demeaning insult.  She did, however, react negatively, but in a different way.  A way that would not be of anger or hatred, but of a more negative emotion.  An emotion that grips everypony’s soul to the core once it has struck.  That emotion is none other than sorrow.

However, Diamond Tiara’s ego is far too large for her to accept defeat.  She would not just walk away without giving a final word in any heated argument.  So she opts for the generic thing to say when any brat loses an argument.  “Like, whatever.”  She hastily uttered before storming away with her mane over her eyes to shield her tear-stained cheeks.

The crowd soon shifted their attention back to Silver Spoon, who was soon left shaking uncontrollably.  Without Diamond Tiara by her side, Silver Spoon was nothing.  She was soon reduced to backing out from the center of the crowd with her tail between her legs.  What could she have possibly done?  Without backup, she was left sitting there without a clue.

A few tense seconds passed before both of the bullies were clean out of sight.  Once she made sure that they were gone, Scootaloo let her guard down and did a leg pump while cheering.  A glorious victory had been won that day.  The Bully forces retreated with their tails between their legs.  Supreme Overlord Grand Five Star Admiral Regent-Lord Scootaloo the Great reigns supreme!

Scootaloo turned back to her friends.  “That was so totally AWESOME!  Did you guys see that?  Diamond Tiara was totally crying!”

Apple Bloom was still holding Sweetie Belle in a comforting embrace. “That’s nice, Scoots.”

“Aww c’mon, Bloom! You weren’t even paying attention, were you?!”

“Eeenope.”

“Well, why not? I was sticking up for you gals!”

That was when Apple Bloom’s expression turned from neutral to disappointed.  “You know, Scoots, I appreciate you trying ta stick up fer us, but yer goin’ ‘bout it in the wrong way.  You know how Sweetie Belle gets whenever ya get in these l’il squabbles with Diamond and Silver.  I mean look at her!”  Scootaloo actually took the time to notice how Sweetie Belle was faring this whole time.  She looked like a disaster.  Eyes bloodshot from excessive crying, fur matted with dry tears.  Scootaloo’s heart started to ache from the sheer sight of it all.

“Next time,”  Apple Bloom continued,  “could ya just walk away?  Could ya just not start yer l’il flame wars and be the bigger pony?  It’s not cowardly to just ignore her and walk away ya know.”

“But--”

“No ‘buts’ Scoots.  If’n ya want Diamon and Silver ta leave us alone fer good, we’re all gonna have ta suck it up and ignore her tauntin’ until she realizes it ain’t working no more.  Ah’m tired of you arguin’ every day and makin’ Sweetie Belle cry.”

Scootaloo held her head low.  Apple Bloom’s words were true.  Every day the same thing would happen:  Diamond Tiara would constantly insult the trio, then Scootaloo would stick up to them.  One side would be defeated, and no matter what, Sweetie Belle would end up in tears just from seeing all the fighting.  Even though she will admit that she doesn’t like Diamond Tiara or Silver Spoon, she always wanted to see the day when they would stop fighting and just be at a peaceful coexistence.

It took a few minutes, but eventually Sweetie Belle calmed down to the point where she was no longer spilling tears.  Apple Bloom kept one foreleg around her shoulder just to signify she was still there for her.  As Sweetie Belle looked to the direction where Diamond Tiara had retreated to, the feeling of sorrow escaped her.  It’s as if all her sadness and frustration just left her mind as quick as it came when the fighting first arose.  

Her heart started beating rapidly and more erratically. Her breathing quickened into shallow gasps. Her eyes twitched spasmodically. Adrenaline pumped freely through her veins as heated blood pulsed throughout the entirety of her being. “Um...Sweetie Belle? Ya alright?” Apple Bloom asked timidly, slowly starting to back away.

Sweetie Belle did not answer.  Her mind was clouded by a veil of emotions:  Anger, cruelty, vengeance, hatred, despair.  Never before had her emotions been this lively.  Usually Sweetie Belle never has any ill intentions towards harming another pony, but now...now all she can think of is setting the playing field even.

A dark scarlet aura enveloped her horn as well as the amulet and her eyes.  Raw magical energies surged through her like lighting.  She felt empowered, as if her whole body had been rejuvenated.  She felt as if she could take on anything that stands in her way.

And so she did just that.

Ignoring the calls of her friends, Sweetie Belle set out to exact her revenge.  With every advancing step she took, the power grew stronger.  No more feeling sorry for herself, no more feeling weak and pitiful cuddling up to Apple Bloom and crying, hoping for everything to just go away.  

It felt good to have this power.  The raw, seething anger coursing through her veins felt better than anything she ever felt before.  So this is what it’s like to be able to use magic, she mused. I like it!

With a goal set in mind and magic to back it up, nothing could stop her now.