*May contain some violent and graphic content*

Sweetie Belle didn’t react or even flinch the instant Scootaloo was swallowed up by Twilight Sparkle’s magic and swiftly yanked out of the bush-covered trail the two fillies were hiding in. They were trying to get away from the screaming Fluttershy without being noticed, then Twilight showed up. Scootaloo, thinking several steps ahead for once since she got herself eaten, fried, and spat out by that spellbook.

Sweetie expected Twilight to find her. She felt Twilight’s imposing magic signature and fields. A young unicorn is not supposed to be naturally able to sense, feel, and read another’s magic field until at least 15 or 16 years of age, and Sweetie was 10 years old. Through sensing the energy, she was able to indirectly track Twilight Sparkle’s position and knew Twilight was trying to magically lock on to her, but Sweetie had two passive spells going: one was she ‘clouded’ her magic field to keep from being identified, and two: she was able to reduce her own magic field by keeping most of her magic in, and from emitting a scattered mix of high frequency radio waves. Unicorns emit radio waves without even doing anything. From their first spark, foals emit radio waves at a very faint high frequency, and as they get older, their own signals, with emit this radiation at multiple frequencies, get lower and lower. Still not enough to be detected by an electrical radio instrument. The amount of signals and frequencies combine to form a unicorn’s magic signature.

Twilight Sparkle emitted over 700 signals, giving her a unique signature. Sweetie Belle, before she found the spellbook, only emitted one or two, but now the unicorn filly’s magic system was emitting hundreds or more signals. The amount of signals and the frequencies indicated how much magic the unicorn was producing, processing, and storing.

When unicorns cast magic, the amount of radio signals increases ten-fold, hundred-fold, or a thousand-fold, pending the spell, the spell power, and the unicorn’s own magic.

Sweetie Belle blocked most of her signals, not enough to completely throw Twilight off (the filly must have broadcast thousands of signals when she fried Fluttershy’s prized birds).

And thirdly, Sweetie Belle cast a ‘ghosting’ spell on Scootaloo, making her signals appear like Scootaloo was the one with all the magic. Hence, Twilight took the bait and caught Scootaloo instead of her.

Before, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom were never ones to betray each other, but Sweetie Belle now operated on an entirely different state of mind. After Scootaloo was gone, Sweetie Belle briefly regretted betraying her despite agreeing to leave Ponyville together.

But Sweetie now had no intention of leaving town. Not with this much power at her disposal. She knew hundreds of destructive spells, and fully intended to use them. On the Apple family. All of them. Except Apple Bloom, whom she wanted to rescue, Big Mac, who stopped Applejack from ripping her horn right off, and Apple Mend, a.k.a. Auntie Heal, who nursed her back to health. They would be spared the wrath.
Sweetie kept on walking through the trail around the backside of Dawn Hill, under the bridges along the creek that joined up with the Bucephalus Brook.

The filly thought of Scootaloo’s new predicament. No way would Twilight Sparkle turn her over to Applejack. Sweetie reckoned she could find Scoots again. She could detect her through the puny radio emissions from the filly’s wings. She was now that powerful, enough to pick up the magic from pegasus foals.

So, as she walked, Sweetie made up her new game plan: Take out the Apples, burn down their entire property, starting with the crops of blood apples, rescue Apple Bloom, find Scootaloo, then take her friends and exit Ponyville. Forever. Using levitation, she could get all three of them on the train.

And they would ride the train as long as they wanted, and get to actually travel around Equestria.

Sweetie felt exhausted and perched herself in an abandoned fox hole. The waning Sunlight bathed everything in a glowing golden hue. Sweetie Belle fell asleep, safely hidden where nopony would find her. But, she was not safe from the wrath of her mind, forever to be haunted by the ancient past, and those unicorns who fought and died in their wars against the earth ponies and the Pegasi for their very survival.

She again relieved the countless lives and untimely, gruesome deaths of hundreds of unicorns, from innocent foals such as herself, to seasoned veterans who shot down and killed their enemies by the hundreds. The dreams seemed to last forever.

Sweetie Belle woke up with a scream, an unnatural pitch of a scream that even scared the pouring sweat off the fully herself and sent high voltage shivers down her spine. Sweetie Belle looked around frantically, having forgotten and barely remembering where she was. She thought she was a unicorn of the past, a foal, having been abandoned before her parents were snatched up by those mutant pegasus freaks with snarling barks and razor sharp teeth. It was dark out.

She ran through the trail, past the decaying wood foundations where houses used to stand, and came to the bridge and the clearing. Instinctively, she hid for several minutes before slowly climbing up the mossy steps into the clearing.

The familiar sight of Fluttershy’s treehouse, with its lights on, calmed her, and reminded her she was not in the world of death.

It was nighttime, and the sky was nearly black with the faintest of a blue glow. She looked up and spotted the galaxy spanning the sky from horizon to horizon. It was an incredible sight, more common in the winter time, when the air was clearer.

But the filly didn’t care about the stars- they would have reminded her of the nights when she and Rarity gazed up at them from the upper balcony of the Carousel boutique, or when she and her fellow CMC’s stayed out late and watched the stars from the top of Dawn Hill. They made up imaginary constellations and tried to match them with the lights coming from Ponyville.

Sweetie looked at Fluttershy’s house. Once that place was the safest of havens. She also remembered when that weird-eyed black forest foal, Dawn Light-something came to her house to see them. He was the one who taught Scootaloo to fly, in a way that she could actually fly, unlike the standard Pegasi methods Rainbow Dash imposed on the young flyers. Sweetie and Apple Bloom envied Scootaloo as most of the forest foal’s attention went to her, even if he was training her to fly.

But things happened, and Sweetie Belle felt a jolt of furious rage when she remembered hearing about what Applejack did to him, how she almost beat the living manure out of Scoots because she tried to stop the hick bitch. Then other things happened and the forest foal went back into Everfree and never showed up since. Sweetie vowed to avenge him even if he wouldn’t be around to see it. she briefly delighted over the memory of the forest foal describing how he stomped and wrecked Applejack’s Stetson hat.

Sweetie Belle would take the hick mare’s hat, piss and shit all over it, then light that thing up, just to get Applejack all riled up with fury. She was so attached to that thing it wasn’t even funny. Applejack said she got it from her father, ‘Great’ Gunsmith Jack, a stallion of guns, so Applejack told her and Applebloom. It was Gunsmith who passed down the religious indoctrination which Applejack forgot then Applegem revived. It was that he who told her ponies like the forest foal were Nightmare Moon’s demons. It was he who dragged little filly Applejack to his town’s hardass church where they told her magic was bad.

If Gunsmith Jack were alive today, Sweetie Belle would blast his ass to kingdom come. She’d go all the way up to Apple Post and raze that town to the ground, and leave nothing but ash and bones. But from what Applejack said, he was murdered by unicorns. Served him right. Too bad Applejack’s mother, Ambrosia, was burned to death for being injured in the assault. And that bucking orange racist hick still sides with those earth ponies, who killed her mother. With fire.

But enough reminiscing of Auntie Applejack’s campfire and bedtime stories, the filly’s stomach rumbled. She hadn’t eaten all day, and last thing she ate was a bowl of buckwheat and apples at 40° in the morning during break from morning chores before school. Damn, that felt like such a long time ago.

But she was hungry, then she felt unsettled over what she wanted to eat; what her body and magic demanded she eat. Her ancestors’ memories made that clear: Meat. Raw red meat, still warm and juicy with blood. Loaded with all the nutrients that would be destroyed by cooking. Her new memories gave her a virtual taste. Sweetie Belle almost puked when she and Applebloom were forced to watch the Apple Jagers slaughter and butcher a sheep. The steaming blood filled buckets, and they used it to make other foods. Blood-wheat pudding? Blood rice pudding? Eyup those buckers ate it up. And desert? Blood pudding loaded with sugar and cured apple butter. They stomached it all. Ponies from New Pangea were just straight up freaks.

She and Applebloom were horrified at how the Apple Yagers did supper. Made the blood apples seem like potatoes compared to what the Jagers feasted on. The foals wanted to eat the leg that was ripped off, and they were about to attack it like a pack of wild dogs when their parents stopped them with whips and rage. They whined and complained as the goat leg was hacked up and thrown into a large stewing pot.

Auntie Bristle Apple Jager explained to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle that they did eat raw meat from time to time, but all that red meat made the foals too violent and naughty, so to keep them calm, they cooked it all up. Only when they learned to control themselves and keep to the hard work would they be allowed to feast on all the red meat they could have. Hell, the Yager stallions hoof beat the little ones when they tried to kill the chickens and turkeys strutting around the place.

Unlike the two visitors, a violent hoof beating was nothing for the foals. they hardly bruised and never cried or came close. At the end of the day when Applejack brought the two back home, both fillies got no sleep that night and turned pale under their fur when Applejack suggested a sleep over at the Jagers’. Not too many Apple family members wanted much to do with their carnivorous relatives. The sight of the Jagers’ sharp teeth scared most ponies away.

Sweetie Belle made a note to incinerate them all. There was a moral ethic in Ponyville against killing animals, and eating their meat. It went against the long list of Princess Celestia’s commandments.

But now, Sweetie Belle realized she craved meat. It no longer traumatized her that the Yagers made her eat a slice of beef. There was much chemical energy in raw meat, as the aggressive Yager foals showed when they violently sparred and beat the crap out of each other for fun. There was something in animal blood that drove ponies crazy, and Sweetie knew, on the grace of her fallen ancestors, that raw meat and everything it was rich in magic-making substances. And the badly needed protein needed to hold a unicorn together when casting so much destructive magic. Lose enough protein, and a unicorn literally blew itself up like a bomb.

So Sweetie Belle crossed the rail tracks, and headed north, into a pasture where of all creatures, a giant variation of flemish lop eared rabbits roamed. These rabbits were huge. Bigger than the poop cart, one of the largest vehicles in Ponyville. On the human standard, these giant rabbits ranged in size between that of a car, and that of a 40 foot city bus.

These rabbits were farmed for their milk and fur. They weren’t skinned but shaved or sheared like the sheep, and the fur was spun and woven to make clothes. Rarity was a customer of this rabbit ranch.
Like a hungry dog, Sweetie Belle licked her lips as she sized them up. Flashbacks reminded her that back in the day, giant rabbits roamed Equestria’s prairies, nomading it during the summer and hibernating in their warrens during winter. Each rabbit ate over a thousand bars of wheat, grass, and hay a day. They also feasted on leaves, berries, and even insects. Some species or all in dire times ate small rodents that infested the Wheatlands.

Ponies ranched and herded them, and sold them as transport or food. Since the flemish giants didn’t hop and merely walked, they made good for hauling wagons loaded with ponies over long distances. They were also a favorite prey for the Pegasi and their freaks during the violent times of the Second Era, many thousands of years ago. When on the hunt, unicorns and earth ponies magicked or impaled the rabbit until it stopped moving and started dying. They ripped off the skin and fur and feasted on the meat, and cooked it and took it with them when they had time.

She used her magic and melted the barbed wire blocking her entrance into the pasture, and like cat, she silently hoofstepped her way onto the pasture completely unnoticed.

Now, it would be very unfair to say Sweetie Belle had no mind of her own or simply thought I WANT MEAT. She was revolted at the very idea of eating meat, much less murdering an entire giant bunny, she was still disgusted by what she saw the Apple Yagers did at supper time, and the smell and the taste of meat was the most disgusting thing in the world as far as she was concerned. She even puked at the Yagers’ house, and their messed up dog licked it up right in front of her.

But she was driven, no, commanded her to eat the meat. She didn’t hear voices in her brain, just that pressing urge stomping and flattening the instincts and tuition of Sweetie Belle the little loveable filly. She teared up at the imminent prospect of being a bloodthirsty killer of giant fluffy bunnies. Oh Celestia, if Fluttershy were seeing this, that pegasus would turn into a monster herself and impale Sweetie Belle in the gut with a large wooden pike, and hoist her up for all the unicorns to see, just like the earth ponies did to those unicorns who passed on their memories and anguished to her via the spellbook.\

Sweetie shook her head and even hit herself in the face with a hoof. No bucking way Fluttershy would do THAT to her. She had to contend with the difficult line of thought that her mental projections of everypony she knew and grew up around were potentially corrupted by the spellbook, and distorted into heartless freaks, when in truth, they themselves never changed. She viewed Applejack as a warrior for the devil, King Sombra, or some other unholy enemy of Celestia. She had to fight the imposing view from some long dead orphaned unicorn bitch who’s mother abandoned her in a ditch after she injured her leg, and left her to die.

Rarity did not leave me, Sweetie Belle screamed in thought She was killed by accident, in a fire

Or WAS it an accident she asked herself under this new hateful intuition, the kind Applejack harbored against the likes of her, Twilight Sparkle, and the forest foal. A thought exploded in her mind, like a parasite, smashing through her thoughts and beliefs like flimsy towers of a city built from sand. Her head ached and she almost let out a squeal. This impeding thought implied that the Carousel Boutique did not burn down by accident, but that the fire was arson. The place lit up by Applejack.

“No...no way…” Sweetie cried as all the crap in her brain, more like an anguished soul that invaded it, forced her to believe such a notion. Why the hell would Applejack burn down her’s and Rarity’s home? Applejack avoided unicorns, and kept to the ‘Apple Family ways.’ Not murder unicorns and burn down their houses-

Another flash shot through her mind, and she was ‘warped’ from the rabbit pasture to some eerie medieval like village. She found herself, briefly incarnated as a projection of a young filly, sitting in the back row of a packed courtroom. Up front, the town’s judges, all robed in black, stared down a red earth pony, big apple cutie mark on his flank.

The judges read the charges, and accused the pony of covertly burning down unicorns’ homes. Several urns were displayed as exhibits, and said to contain the ashes of his victims. The stallion shouted back, saying he was on a crusade to redeem his honor, and tried to convince the judges that the unicorns in town were all evil.

”Begone with you! To the stake! Burn him!” Then a huge ruckus followed as earth pony folk shouted at the unicorns.

The flashback died and Sweetie Belle was right back where she stood. Her stomach panged and pulled on itself, and her magic system burned, her craving for meat would drive her to do the unthinkable, and before she could think one last word as her original self, that survival instinct that took her out of school earlier today kicked in, and as if this other soul took over and Sweetie was shoved into ‘the back’ seat of her own body.

The filly advanced slowly to the nearest unsuspecting giant rabbit. The animal chewed absentmindedly on a mouthful of wheat and grass. Sweetie perched herself right next to it, near its flank, and began charging for several minutes. The spell to convert magic into electricity and zap this giant rabbit with over 700’000 volts. She got up, pressed herself against the warm fur of the beast. It paused in its eating, looked around, then resumed, as if to mistake her for one of the foal-sized baby rabbits trying to nestle up against it for warmth.

Then the magic happened. The low pitched hum of electricity like on the power lines lining the rail tracks. The rabbit squealed, startling all the others as it siezed up, then choked. The rabbit remained still as more than the lethal amount of power surged through it. Two minutes later, and the others could smell the burning fur and flesh. Then the power was cut off, and the rabbit went limp.

It rolled over and fell on its side in a loud whump. The other rabbits scattered to the far fence.

Using her magic, Sweetie (against her own little willpower) tore open a gash in the side, big enough to reveal the bloodied meat and fat below the thick skin and she began tearing out bites, hell not even chewing before swallowing. Her stomach, now empowered with untold magic, would burn that food up and she’d be hungry in time to take the next bite.

Sweetie Belle, covered in blood, feasted for several minutes, and the lights in the house next to the pasture came on. A pony peered out and saw the dead rabbit (Sweetie Belle was hidden away, burrowing into its side, powered by magic and not needing oxygen).

Two stallions barged out from the house, guns latched to their hoof claws. They intended to kill these damn poachers, be them wolves, dogs, or Applejack’s carnivorous distant cousins. Small town. word gets around fast.

“Show yourself!” one of them shouted, unknowingly startling Sweetie Belle.

“We’s gonna blow yer’ ass to hell you varmint! Show yourself and I make it quick and painless!”

Sweetie Belle’s mind completely snapped back and she was herself again. She almost screamed to find herself half burrowed in the corpse of the giant rabbit. She thought this shit was dream, but nope. She desperately tried to pull herself free, tripped and hit the ground, and nearly wrenching her leg on a rib. She heard shotguns being cocked, but galloped back to her opening in the fence.

The whole world lit up around her as they turned on the flood lamp by the barn. She was scared, the two stallions nearly shat themselves when they spotted the little filly, covered from head to tail in blood, scattering towards the fence.

“What the buck?”
“KILL IT! KILL IT QUICK, before it gets away!”
And they opened fire.

Sweetie’s magic system fired up a shield, bouncing the bullets off before they had a chance to pierce right through her.
She made it into the cover of the bushes and didn’t stop till she got to the river. She was terrified, and revolted beyond comprehension, and didn’t stop ‘til she launched herself into the Bucephalus Brook. She made a loud splash, and holding her breath, completely dipped underwater until her body lost momentum and brought her back up to the surface.

Sweetie gasped for air as she tried to swim, then heard the nearby rustling of bushes.
“It’s in the water, now’s our chance!”

Sweetie remembered a skill taught to her by the spellbook. Before the two stallions beamed their flashlights on her splashing about, Sweetie exhaled and disappeared beneath the now red water. Seconds later, the enraged rancher stallions beamed their flashlights on the water, but she was gone.

Rather than drown, the panicking Sweetie Belle powered herself with her magic, eliminating her need for oxygen for a while. She felt her hooves hit the rocks on the bottom of the brook. She was blind down here and didn’t dare open her eyes. But she also knew sonar

Sweetie Belle’s horn beamed out barely audible sounds, and the feedback came onto her vision despite having her eyes scrunched shut. She beamed sonar pulses out at over 50 per minute, giving her a grainy blue-ish sketched view of the riverbed. She looked up at the surface, and saw the streams of bubbles made by the bullets as they cut through the water several hooves above her. The ranchers were shooting point blank.

She also knew to get away while she was covered by the clouds of blood swirling around her. She slowly trotted downstream, letting the current push her with each step.

By the time the blood cleared, the ranchers saw nothing.

“Aw shit, it got away.”
“C’mon Cletus, we gatta go in an’ tell the town guard!”

Sweetie Belle surfaced several trots down stream. It was a slow trek underwater, and she had to resist the urge to breathe and fill her little lungs with icy water. As if she had been drowning, Sweetie Belle gasped for air as she broke the surface, and tried to swim. She treaded and the current carried her to the nearby shore.

Shivering, coughing, and crying, Sweetie Belle pulled herself out of the water and sat next to the tree overhanging the brook. She tried to look around when another spell kicked in, scaring the crap out of her:

Her vision switched to full color infrared night vision. The sky glowed bright like it was day, and she saw the moon, an ominous black circle. In natural light, it was invisible, obscured by the planet’s shadow as they orbited around behind it.

Everything was colored differently, and a recorded audio statement of a unicorn teacher explained to her that she was no practicing full color night infrared night vision. Same as normal full color vision but infrared made things more visible, and discolored. Ultraviolet light also exposed the oddities in object with extreme discolorations.

Sweetie Belle looked around, and saw Dawn Hill far off to the west. She was at the point where the Bucephalus bet the Everfree border and ran along the fence eastward. The lights from the buildings almost blinded her and she had to shield her eyes with a hoof. Then the spell died and she was briefly blind as normal vision returned.

She had escaped. With a stomach full of rabbit meat, and like the blood apples, she was unable to puke it out. She cried. The overwhelming shame. She had committed a capital crime and was so sure Celestia would burn her alive for this.
She prayed frantically forgiveness and shouted out loud, begging for Princess Luna, the weaver of dreams to come to her and help her. The filly was absolutely terrified of the past and her anguished ancestors who were seemingly forcing all this on her, as if commanding or even remote controlling Sweetie Belle from the past via the spellbook. Ok, so she felt really crushed when she saw herself losing color back at the school, she didn’t even want to look in the mirror and see how gray she had gone since then.

Sweetie Belle, exhausted, nauseous, and freezing cold, hunkered down next to the tree, and whimpered. She prayed and begged over and over again, calling out to Celestia, Luna, and the universe in all its space-time glory, for somepony, either past or present to help her, or at least explain some of this bucked up shit that was happening to her. But, the filly got no response.

It was going to be one long and damn cold night.

The house clock chimed. It was 40 degrees in the morning. The predawn light seeped in through the translucent cotton curtains over a really spent lavender unicorn. Twilight Sparkle hardly moved as the melodic bell tune echoed over her ears. She grunted as she tried to open her eyes. The lavender unicorn had hardly slept all night and now a searing headache made her feel like somepony just chopped her head in half with an axe. Her horn and her forehead around it hurt like hell. She didn’t move but she remembered where she was. She was lying on the sofa in the den of the Loos’ home. She heard sounds coming from the kitchen.

Twilight’s body ached. Her muscles felt tense and she felt very fatigued. She wanted to go home, cook up a concoction that would end the headache and perk her right back up. She was aware she had been under way too much stress for the last several moons, and the recent confrontation with Applejack, and then being kicked right in the horn by a filly, took their toll on her. She felt depressed, and on days like this she stayed in bed and hardly moved.

She didn’t want to but she began running all the thoughts and anxieties through her mind. The Apples were taking over. Applejack blocked her mail in and out, cutting off her link to Celestia, whom Twilight was terrified would be furious with her for failing to keep the peace in Ponyville. She felt like a failure and none of her past merits had any weight against this catastrophic failure. Tears formed at the edges of her eyes.

Normally when in her bed at the library, if she didn’t get up to take on the day’s activities, Spike would start badgering her to get out of bed. And she always replied, “Just five more minutes,” or “please, let me sleep for another degree.”

More than once Twilight blew herself out from stress of her work, lack of proper meals, caffeine or magic overloads, and her obsessions and compulsions to research and work. Some projects had her up for days at a time. And when the unicorn came crashing down, she was not much more than a miserable lump. Her mind and conscience tormented her to no end, and her own mental projections of Princess Celestia and everypony she knew demanded from her thousands of more times more than she was safely capable of.

And the shame. Oh the living bucking shame weighed down on her like ten thousand bars per square hoof. Applejack had lost it, so she was losing it too. Twilight actually believed she would be the one held solely responsible for everything that went wrong in this town over the last year. Chief Tibbs’ reading of that article in the Canterlot Times newspaper echoed through her aching brain. Speaking of Tibbs, that grump of a stallion left Ponyville a few days after she ran crying to him about what Applejack did to her. Sundowner had told her that the town guard chief left town to attend some event hosted by the city guard up in Abille. Town guards hosted events or ‘convention’ like gatherings to exchange knowledge, intel, skills training, and trade weapons and gear. But she wasn’t thinking all that much about Tibbs, only she wished she went with Tibbs to Abille, even if that entire county, just south of Nimbuscait, wasn’t all that unicorn-friendly.

In the last four years, from the day Princess Celestia sent Twilight to Ponyville, the unicorn felt entirely responsible for stopping and preventing all the problems from happening in Ponyville, even problems typical for a town of over 4000 ponies.

Drought? Twilight made and dispatched rainseed. Groundwater and irrigation problems? Twilight came up with ingenious ways to distribute proper amounts of clean water from the Bucephalus to thirsty ponies and crops. Parasprite infestation during her first year? the unicorn worked tirelessly to come up with the supplies to rebuild. The disease outbreak due to backed up sewage pits underground? Twilight remedied cures, spoke to the council and quarantined Ponyville, blocking access in and out while she treated and spelled the entire town pony by pony to snuff out the epidemic. When ponies fought, she was first on the scene, at first by shooting pacifier spells on quarreling or fighting ponies then to using diplomacy and words to resolve disputes.

Twilight Sparkle had grown and gained invaluable new social skills and friendships. She herself learned to actually care about other ponies (other than Celestia or the royal family, whom she faithfully served). Princess Celestia had sent the unicorn to Ponyville so she could learn to make friends and and socially cohese with other ponies.

The atmosphere in Canterlot was as cold as ice as far as the young lavender unicorn had been concerned. Ponyfolk were cordial, polite and refined, however they were icy to the heart. Awkward fillies like her never fit in, and so for much of her life, Twilight remained sheltered among the royal family, but she had access to books, scrolls, spells, schematics, and all the smorgasbord of limitless education she could ever want. Twilight felt no need nor desire for other ponies to occupy her life and heart. She was loyal only to Celestia, Cadence, and the other members of the royal family. And she avoided stranger ponies like the plague.

She had felt forsaken and scorned by them, so she forsook ponies too. And Celestia put an end to that by sending her to Ponyville, forcing her to make friends, and sending her to take out Nightmare Moon and establish the new and current Mane Six. Had Twilight known of the entire exercise laid out before her, she never would have gone. But in the end, everything worked out, and the lavender antisocial brainiac discovered that ordinary ponies could be kind, loving and caring.

But then there was the other effect, a radical, highly irrational notion that took hold in her mind. Because these ponies welcomed her into their town, came to befriend and work with her, she felt entirely responsible for them. Twilight Sparkle. 4000 ponies. Her guilty conscience stabbed her in the heart every time something went wrong, from spoiled stocks of food, ponies getting injured at work, to more serious events such as the death of a foal. Of course, ponies didn’t pin it all on Twilight, they didn’t see her as the hero who would make their lives perfect all day everyday.

And Twilight knew her own false guilt was a delusion, but it knew no bounds and she blamed herself for not having seen something coming. Even she blamed herself for Granny Smith’s death, despite knowing nothing about termites infesting the Sweet Apples’ old wagons. Hell, Even Applejack never blamed her (because AJ blamed Sweetie Belle for Granny Smith being crushed when the wheel gave out and the wagon collapsed and fell on her). At least not yet anyway.
Twilight never told anypony of her weaknesses or her mental illness. She kept working, always trying to do her daily jobs and programs for ponies, and obsessively trying to head off the next disaster before it even came.

And of course, she got bogged down in her work and obligations out of town, and failed to keep tabs on the affairs going on in Ponyville, hence she failed to notice Applejack’s shoring up of relatives and power until it was too late.

In the end, Twilight Sparkle became just as terrified of Princess Celestia as Sundowner or the religious nutcase Apples. In her mind, she was sure Celestia would banish her from the moon or blow her clean out of existence. Celestia’s motherly love for the young unicorn had faded in her mind and she unwittingly came to view Celestia as a vindictive ruler. These were just some of the chaotic effects the Element of Magic wreaked on the poor mare.

Bowls on the counter, utensils clattering, water boiling, kettle whistling, the mare humming.

Lassy Loo was preparing something. The door opened and Snapper Loo trotted in. He closed the door, walked silently past Twilight and into the kitchen.

“The train will be here 60 degrees sharp, Lassy,” Snapper said, as he kissed her.

“Okay. I’ll wake the fillies.”

She didn’t even have to. Dinky Doo yawned as she came downstairs. “Do we have school today?” she asked dumbly. Why else would they be up so early?

“Uhh, no, Dinky. We are going on the train.”

“Oooh! Where?” Dinky’s eyes lit up. She loved going on trips. Derpy flew her to all sorts of places, and showed her amazing spectacular sights when she took the filly along on her mail runs. But Dinky had never been on the train before. The train as foals talked about at school, came from afar and went a long way. Equestria was such a vast world, and ponies in each little region of the country could only speculate about other areas. This was a result of information control and tight restrictions on production and distribution of maps, and travel permits. As young foals always said, no matter where the train went, it always ended its journey at Canterlot.

So many times Dinky and other foals galloped to the trackside and watched the huge locomotives and cars of all shapes and sizes, all makes and models in vast ranges of obscurity, pass by. They waved at pony passengers onboard, and even made a game of throwing candies or little presents at passenger cars in hopes of getting something to somepony inside. Sometimes they even hoped foals like them on the train threw something back, not that Dinky ever recalled that happening.

Such practice was heavily discouraged due to incidents of injuries and deaths.

The train wasn’t totally inaccessible, in fact, while ponies required permits to go certain places like the Crystal Empire, or Canterlot, all that was really needed was for newcomers or visitors to register at new towns. It was even rumored that ponies actually lived onboard the train.

Dinky was jumping up and down with excitement. “Really? Train?”

“Yes, dear, train. Now please sit down, breakfast is almost ready,” Lassy beckoned. The mare poured the boiling water and load of buckwheat groats from the small pot, into a strainer. Then she divided up the groats into bowls, and poured almond milk to cool the hot cereal. She then sprinkled cinnamon and brown sugar, and placed a bowls on the table for Dinky and Scootaloo, who was still in bed.

“Scoots! Scootaloo! Breakfast!” Lassy called from the kitchen. Soon enough, Snapper came down, carrying the filly like a mother cat a kitten by the scruff of her neck. He wasn’t actually hurting her. In this pony civilisation, this cat’s behavior was adapted by ponies of the past. Scootaloo was still sleepy and groggy as Snapper gently placed her down on a pad (seat) at the table.

Scoots groaned as she looked around, all discombobulated. The filly slept like a rock after a hard day before.
“Wha...what time is it?”

“42 degrees,” Lassy replied. Scootaloo nodded, then her eyes snapped wide open. Only one reason she’d have to get up that early.
“Mom, I don’t wanna go to Applejack’s farm! Why are you making me go there??”

“Hush, Scoots! Twilight’s still sleeping!” Lassy hissed, “And no, you’re not going to Applejack’s.”

“We’re going on the train, yay!” Dinky Doo piped.
“Dinky, eat your breakfast.”

“Train? Where we going?” Scootaloo asked, relieved about not having to go to Appleja-

“You remember your uncle Haywire and your aunt Hayfitch? You’re going to be with them for a while.” Snapper replied.

Scootaloo just stared blankly. She didn’t remember her adopted parents’ distant relatives. She was told she had been to their home when she was a baby. Lassy had once shown her pictures of Aunt Hayfitch holding her, just weeks after she was adopted. And her parents made no stone about her being adopted. She was a pegasus and they were earth ponies. It was obvious. Scoots didn’t really care anyways. She knew about pegasi abandoning their foals, and she wasted no thought on who brought her into existence and then tossed her.

“Wait, Mom, what about Applebloom and Sweetie Belle?”

Snapper answered her question: “Applebloom is in Applejack’s legal custody and so taking her along with us would be fillynapping, and Sweetie Belle...nopony knows where she is and we don’t have time to look for her.”

“B-but Dad, can’t we-”

“No buts Scoots. I want all of you on the morning train!”

“Scoots, eat your breakfast. The train leaves in eighteen degrees,” Lassy beckoned her.

Scootaloo wasn’t hungry but she knew better than to let her breakfast go to waste. And after yesterday, her mother even put extra sugar on her buckwheat as a comfort. She slipped her hoof into the hoof shoe attached to the spoon and began eating. She watched her’s and Dinky’s mother pace around the kitchen, gathering food and placing it into their father’s sidebags, which were almost big enough to hold a foal each.

“After you two are finished eating,” Lassy instructed, “Go wash your faces and brush your teeth. Then take your sidebags and place some books, games, pencils and paper in in them.”

As she spoke, Twilight, groggy as hell, came into the kitchen. She, herself felt like a foal at that exact moment.
“Morning, Twilight- oh my Celestia, you don’t look too good dear.”

“Wha?” Twilight was still out of it. Her mane was a mess, her forehead and horn bruised, eyes bloodshot and lined with bags. She looked almost even worse than last night.
“Please, please sit down. Scootaloo, move to the other side of the table and sit next to Dinky.”

Scootaloo obeyed and Lassy guided Twilight to the table. A minute later, he had a cup of tea prepared for the unicorn.

“Th-thank for all your hospitality…” Twilight hoarsely whispered. Her throat felt like sandpaper and she could hardly speak.

“Please, think nothing of it. Snapper, Twilight’s...can you please take a look at her. She’s looking worse.”

Snapper had been packing some extra things for his wife to take. He took a bag of bits from their chest in their bedroom, and placed it into Lassy’s sidebag. “750 bits. That should cover the travel expenses.”

Then he greeted Twilight and looked at her. Snapper Loo was also protective of his friends, family, and workmates. He looked with concern at the unicorn who revealed the truth to them, and said, “I think you’re done here in Ponyville. I want you on the train with Lass and the fillies.”

“Wh...what do you mean?” Twilight said. She felt nauseous and dizzy.
“You’re no good. You look like you’re about to hit the floor. You’re not safe here, Twilight. Those damn Apples will tear you apart. They try anything, how the hay can you protect yourself in this condition? You need to go to the hospital, but not here. I’ll pay for your ticket. you can stay on and go with Lassy and the kids to my relatives’, or you can get off wherever you want, but for your sake, you need to leave town.”

“Mr Loo...There’s work...I have to…the Apples...I have to fix this-”

“No you don’t,” Snapper said calmly but firmly. “You try anything, you’ll probably wind up dead before the day is out. You know what Applejack did to you. If she sees you like this, Celestia-knows-what that deranged hick will do to you! As a return favor for all we’ve done for you, I ask you to hop on the morning train, and seek help! What good will you be to Celestia or anypony if you aren’t around?”

Twilight was too messed up and disoriented to even argue. It took her to the end of her health to get some mercy from her own savage guilt. And she herself was somewhat scared of the fate ponies faced if they died in disgrace. She tried to run the situation through her mind, and knew deep down that leaving Ponyville was the only viable option.

She remembered Chief Tibbs’ harsh orders to seek help. She began to feel tears welling up but she didn’t want to break down and cry infront of Scootaloo and Dinky. The faint distant whistle of the train echoed in through the open kitchen window.

“Alright...I’ll...I’ll go.”

Snapper went for the door. “I’m going to fetch her some medicine. Make some extra tea for her,” he told his wife.
Lassy did so, and after giving Twilight a mug of tea, she went upstairs to get her twins fed, diapers changed, and prepped for the journey.

Scootaloo felt horrible just by looking at Twilight. Back when she kicked her in the horn, she only did so in defense; she was just fighting to get away. She never intended to inflict so much damage and pain on the unicorn.

“I’m sorry, Twilight.”

“It’s...it’s okay. I’m not angry.” Twilight replied.

It was 54° when the freight train slowly pulled into the station. Box cars were opened and hastily unloaded and reloaded by the train and station crews. The Sun was just beginning to clear the early morning haze and light up the town, fortunately, it was blocked from beaming on the station by Dawn Hill, just across town. Another train entered in the opposite direction on the other track, and when it stopped, it too was tended by the crews. The two trains were hastily broken up and cars switched around.

At the ticket booth, Snapper Loo paid for his family and for Twilight. To avoid rousing more than the necessary suspicion, Snapper had Lassy and Twilight don cowles. The excuse for curious town guard ponies and the stallion working the ticket booth was that the train went through high altitude, and colder regions despite it being summer and all.

Twilight even wore a bonnet to hide her messy mane. The excuse for clothing accessories was that they’d be going to a town where ponies wore clothes. But that didn’t stop the town guard ponies from taking note of Twilight Sparkle at the station. Twilight had become anxious and paranoid, thinking Applejack would for some reason try to stop her from leaving town. She also didn’t want to be noticed by Rainbow Dash nor Fluttershy who were on weather duty today. She wanted her exit to be as discreet as possible.

“Two mares, and two fillies,” Snapper Loo said as he laid down several large 50-bit coins.

“And yourself?” the stallion asked.
“Not today.”

“Snapper,” Lassy hissed, “I really think you should come with us.”
“We talked about this. I’ll rejoin you as soon as I can. I have work to tend to.”

To help grease the deal, Snapper laid down a 100-bit coin for the stallion behind the counter. It was common knowledge that a generous tip meant no questions asked. Employees of the Equestria Railroad (EQR) were known to prevent ponies from boarding the train in hotspot areas. Thing was, Snapper’s wasn’t the first tip. But money is money, so the EQR ponies gladly took the bonus, hoofed him the tickets and waved them through. He didn’t care if Snapper boarded the train or not.
“Next!”

Twilight didn’t breathe any sigh of relief as the platform, full of ponies, was crawling with the townguard. She instinctively knew something was up. She caught a few cold stares from the town guards trotting around, keeping their eyes on the passengers and crews, to prevent theft or stowaways. Twilight also noticed several other ponies, loaded with saddlebags waiting to board. The freight train pulled ahead and the passenger cars were pulled up to the platform.

“All aboard! Tickets out!” the train crew shouted.

Twilight waited anxiously, her ticket sticking out of her mouth. Her heart raced. Would the town guard try and stop her right at the last hoofstep? Would they arrest her and place her at Applejack’s disposal? Or was she just being too damn paranoid? Or was she now under the protection of the train crew thanks to the huge tip Snapper Loo paid out of his savings on hers’ and his family’s behalf?

She knew quite a bit about the EQR, and how paying a high enough of a ‘tip’ on top of the ticket fees could afford a troubled pony some protection from the locals. As long as the pony in question had a valid ticket in possession, the train crew, operating under an aggressive ‘customer protection’ policy would ward off the locals. The policy was considered by the top brass of the EQR to be an efficient method of investment protection, the investments being their customers and cargo. Equestria was filled with hot spots and conflict zones, so the train crew, or train guard as they really were, had full jurisdiction over their trains and passengers.
Other ponies began stepping off the passenger cars, mostly to walk around and stretch. Very few, except for Apple ponies, had reason to disembark at Ponyville, other than to go up to Turkey Hay Hills, or Abille.

“Listen to me,” Snapper said quietly to his wife, “I urge you not to come back here. I will be with you again in a few days. I just need to clear up some matters at work…” He looked at Dinky, who was completely oblivious to the fact she was about to be separated from Derpy. “...and put out a letter to her mo-”

“Snapper, we can write Derpy from a safer place. I...I got a bad feeling about this, I can’t help it. Please won’t you reconsider? I’m very worried for your safety. What if...they...do something to you. They know the librarian’s with us. She’s a fugitive now. We’re smuggling her out the county, Snapper, you might get arrested, and worse…”

“Look at all these other ponies, Lass. They’re fleeing town. Who will be left to stand their ground against the Apples? They will take this town over, hooves down, and we all will pay the cost in terms of our homes. Ponyville’s been our home ever since we met and got married. You remember our wedding? Under the Great Owl’s Tree? No doubt Applejack’s got some deranged hick prejudice against owls. She’ll probably have our tree torched and all the owls burrowing in it burned. I refuse to let this town be taken over by those Apples.”

Lassy grunted in frustration. “Snapper, they might kill you! What will the fillies and I do without you? Can’t you please stop being so stubborn and listen to me for once? If it is so bad, then forget the house. We put a lot into it, and it will be for nothing. My mother said that home is not just some place, no matter how long we live in it or fancy it up, our real home is each other. I’d be lost, feeling homeless wherever I live without you. And our twins…”

Snapper grunted. He was a staunch and sturdy provider for his family. He didn’t disagree with his wife, but he despised the prospect of losing the house he built and cared for his family in.

“...even without the house or everything we have, I’d still love you to death. I won’t just think you’re some loser mule like those materialistic mares do of their poor stallions,” Lassy nearly cried.

But the stallion didn’t budge. He loved his family just as much, but he strongly believed there were much bigger things he had to ‘fight’ and work for, since he thought without a bigger picture, he’d be nothing for his wife and foals. He was that old fashioned, and had trouble detaching himself from those core values.

“Scoots, Dinky, get on board. Now,” Lassy ordered.
“Scoots,” Snapper said, “You be good to your mother and your siblings, you hear? I will see you again.”

“Y-yes, Dad.”
“Now get on the train. Your mother will join you shortly.”

After the foals got on the train. Snapper and Lassy embraced each other. There was no sense arguing any further seeing as Lassy couldn’t convince her stallion to join her on the train.
“I love you. Please come back to me.”
“I will, Lass,” Snapper said with conviction. Snapper patted the two twins, each in a side bag on Lassy.

Twilight would have said something but she felt like shit and didn’t bother wasting her effort on meddling in their business.
“Come on,” Lassy beckoned to her as she trotted towards the train.

Lassy showed the train crew her tickets and they moved aside to let her on. They looked at Twilight. Even now she felt completely wrenched between fleeing to safety and being a complete coward and shirking her responsibilities. But even she knew this: Cowards who fled lived to scheme and fight another day.

“Train leaves in three minutes, mare,” the stallion at the door called to her.

Twilight gulped, and shivered as a cool morning breeze swept through the station. Yesterday when she was checking the data on the new weather doppler she built, she found it was supposed to be a cool windy day today.

Right before she stepped onboard and give up her ticket, she took one last look back- and something caught her eye, and made her heart skip a beat. No way, it can’t be.

She spotted another mare exit the train three cars down and canter around. She was white, but donned a fashionable dress and large fancy hat. Twilight instantly recognized the mare, although her face was partially hidden by the hat; in how she walked, turned her head, and looked around. Then she made eye contact with the mare.

Twilight’s blood turned to ice, and her breathing almost stopped. She realized with a chilling stun that she had just made eye contact with Rarity.

Author's Notes:

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I GO THROUGH AN ICE CAP (iced cappuccino at Tim Horton's. Seriously WTF do they put in it? I want it explained to me NOW).
Ok, well, out of character...ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?! Of course SB is out of character, and even she knows that now. She has been horribly warped by that spellbook she stole from Twilight. Sweetie, didn't your mother- er- I mean your sister tell you not to play with other ponies' spellbooks?? Sure you hate Applejack but still...THINK OF THE RABBITS!

To all the people who have enjoyed and actually liked my story and gave me positive feedback or reflections, I LOVE YOU and I appreciate all your support. To all the haters...I continued writing this not just for those who liked it, but i did so to troll you guys. So go ahead...press that dislike button, you assholes. (I mean that with the most sarcastic of sarcastically sarcasm). Because when I wrote this chapter, I thought about you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTSA_sWGM44

Everyone else, sorry to dump, had to do it. I hope someone liked this chapter....

I wanted to display the effects of the spellbook on Sweetie Belle, and i think this is as bad as it will get...until she makes her way back to the apple farm.

Dawn Lightwing = main character of the story Foal of the Forest, a very intense story written by the talented author Moguera.

READ IT NOW. FoF was referred to me by TheGreatEater, an awesome friend who gave me ideas and got me to think and asked me questions that I had to tie up to make this make some sense. I think said my portrayal of Applejack was similar to Moguera's. FoF isn't about her but she appears later on. And yes, she's a zealot hick and I think Moguera did a much better job of demonizing AJ than I did as it's so intense in the scenes in which she beefs with the foal, and goes against all reasoning. He didn't bash her like I did but somehow he did it right >.<