It was a sudden and violent beating, nothing at all like the standard Apple family corporal punishment Sweetie Belle had to endure before. It got so bad each hit of the hoof felt like she had been hit by a cannonball, and poor Sweetie Belle felt as if every bone in her body was about to snap apart. Equally terrifying was the sheer unprecedented explosive rage from Applejack, who relentlessly pounded and stomped her from head to hooves.

Sweetie cried and screamed, begging for her to stop, only to be beaten even harder as her cries enraged Applejack all the more. One of the last things Sweetie Belle saw was Applejack’s face, twisted and contorted into a frown that screamed raging insanity, and then Applejack stomped her in the face, busting up her mouth, nose and eyes, to the point she was coughing and spitting blood, and to the point her eyes were swollen shut.

Each blow to the head and a instant bright spark flashed across her vision.

“You lis’en to me ya wretched little varmint,” Applejack shouted loudly in her ear, “If Ah ever, EVER see you doin’ magic again, Ah will rip that infernal horn o’ yer’s right outta yer’ skull, ya hear me?”

Too busted up to cry or speak, Sweetie Belle simply whimpered as tears streamed from her swollen shut eyes across her bruised face. She was sad sight. She was lumped and thumped all over, and swollen everywhere she could be. The bruises even showed through her once beautiful white coat. After what seemed like fifteen minutes of this brutal beating, Anypony else would have been horrified to see her nearly black and blue all over, her face covered in blood.

“Ah said did ya hear me!” Applejack roared, right in the filly’s ear.

Sweetie Belle gargled up blood, coughed and spat it out, and tried to speak.

“Quit yer’ snivelin’! Applejack shouted, stomping the filly once more in the face with a front hoof.
“You better shut up. Ah got plenty more where that came from!” she shouted. “Y’better start talkin' sense in the next five seconds, or Ah’ll-”

Sweetie Belle coughed loudly, spewing more blood onto the dirt in front of her face. Finally she senselessly gargled the words, “Rarity...help me...”

Applejack once again completely lost it. She slammed the little filly right in the neck with her front hooves, and violently clamped her teeth around Sweetie Belle’s horn and began to jerk violently, determined to rip it out. Sweetie Belle screamed in panic and agony.

“APPLEJACK, STOP!”

Applejack froze and released Sweetie Belle. The filly collapsed in a heap in front of her. Applejack looked up and saw Big Mac standing a few trots away from them. He had that dead serious look on his face, a clear indication to Applejack he would have charged at her to keep her from hurting the filly even more. His loud thundering roar froze Applejack in her tracks, and broke through the rage that drove her insane. She was first stricken with fear, then a wave of emotions splashed through her. She even wondered, had she gone too far this time?

Big Mac stepped in, urging Applejack to back away from Sweetie Belle. The hulking red stallion examined the scene, and quickly pinpointed the source of Applejack’s outrage: a tome- a little magic spell book, shredded and torn to pieces; scattered around them. He put two and two together: Applejack caught Sweetie Belle doing magic. Here at Sweet Apple Acres, or any Apple family establishment, magic was a strictly forbidden taboo. Unicorns aren't exempt from family rules. At least not anymore.

He grunted, then looked his sister in the eye and said in his well known hick farmer accent, “That’s enough, AJ. Beat her all y’ want, but don’t rip that horn out. You’ll kill her. Is that y’want?”

“The hell it won’t kill the brat,” Applejack snarled, still angry, “Ah reckon snappin’ that blasted horn off o’ her head will make her a hard workin’ earth pony, jus’ like you an’ me, Big Mac.”

“Applejack,” Big Mac rebuked her, “she is a unicorn, and that’s that. You rip the horn off a unicorn, that unicorn will die. You didn’t adopt her and make her part of our family jus’ so you could stomp her to death.”

“Ah ain’t stompin' nopony to death, ya big lug!” Applejack shouted back, “It’s jus’ a hoof beatin’ like she deserves! I will not stand fer’ this magic hocus pocus on mah farm! Ah wont! Ah just won’t stand fer it! We got a big crop full of apples jus’ about ready fer’ buckin’ and this little witch jus’ might hex us all with her infernal magic!” she was hysterical, but failed to faze Big Mac with her emotional rage.

“Big Mac, she-she jus’ might bring Celestia’s wrath down on all o’us!-”

“That’s enough outta you, AJ! You oughta be ashamed o’ yerself, givin’ into that superstitious nonsense. Celestia would’ve burned up all o’ Ponyville and us fer’ lettin’ unicorns trot on into our farm already. Yer’ jus’ makin it worse by bitin’ her horn off. Ah don’t like magic anymore than you do, AJ, but Sweetie Belle ain’t done nothin’ worth gettin’ killed over.An’ I think you’ve done her in more than enough. No doubt she’ll learn her lesson real good this time-”

“Okay, I get it!” Applejack snapped. “Ah jus’ never want to see another spark of that magic come outta her again!”

“You get on home, have a cider and take a load off.” Big Mac commanded her. Normally Applejack never took orders from the big “dumb” red brother of hers, but she was too distraught right now. He knew very well she’d be too messed up to work the rest of the afternoon.

“O-okay...” and she sauntered off.

Big Mac gently picked up Sweetie Belle by the teeth, placed her on his back, and carried her home.

Sweetie Belle spent the next several days in bed, too bruised and sore to do anything. All she was capable of eating was apple cabbage soup. A doctor from town came down to check on her, deemed her well enough to recover here at the farm, and left. Each day after school, Applebloom came home and delivered new homework.

Sweetie Belle sobbed at night when nopony was awake to scold or bop her for crying, and she tried to act tough but remorseful when Applejack, Big Mack, or any other Apple pony was in the room.

As for Applejack, she never felt the slightest remorse for what she did to Sweetie Belle. She was too proud and stuck in her ways to be. To her, it was standard discipline. Afterall, Apple family ponies from generations ago burned unicorns at the stake for using magic on their property.

Nearly all the unicorns living in Ponyville were faithful customers of the Apples’, but they knew well to be respectful when at Sweet Apple Acres.

As for Sweetie Belle, being here was pretty much a life sentence.