Cutie Marks At Last

Apple Bloom trotted to school, her mind swarming with thoughts. Would anypony notice Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon's disappearances? Would anypony think to blame them if it was noticed? Did Applejack REALLY think her cutie mark was ' amazin', just plain amazin'! '?

Snips and Snails happened to be walking by as she made her way into the schoolhouse, and Apple Bloom bumped into them on her way in. "Excuse me, guys," she said cheerfully.

Snips and Snails looked at her as if she were an alien. "Something seems... different about you." Snips seemed to be deep in thought as he spoke.

"Uh... new haircut?" Snails inspected Apple Bloom's mane.

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes, annoyed. "I got my cutie mark, ya dummies!" She showed them her no longer blank flank.

Snips and Snails stared for a moment. "Wow... hey, where's Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon?"

"Huh? Why should I know? I didn't know they didn't come." Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo greeted their friend.

"Maybe they had to stay home." Sweetie Belle winked at her friends.

"Yeah, they must've gotten... sick. They couldn't handle the lesson."

"But they were barely there for the lesson!" Snips' face became a mixture of confusion and suspicion.

"Uh, yeah, Miss Cherilee sent them to the printing room."

The Killer Cuties exchanged glances and went into the schoolroom as if they hadn't heard a thing. Snips and Snails followed, both clearly suspicious.

Sweetie Belle zapped the obnoxious colts with her magic, causing them to yelp and zip over to their desks before Sweetie Belle could hurt them again. Her voice became a low whisper that only Scootaloo and Apple Bloom could hear, and Apple Bloom had to strain to hear her words. "I think they might become a problem..."

"What's one colt, more or less?" The girls all exchanged glances again and didn't need to speak to know what their next move would be. The corruption had given them a new ability: they could understand each other without a single word being spoken or written.

Through the school day, each foal seemed to be paying attention, eyes glued to the teacher and occasionally a worksheet or a piece of paper they needed to write notes on. But in their heads, each one was coming up with a plan to share.

In Apple Bloom's mind, what they were going to do after school was obvious. But would that be the end of it, or would the murders continue? After all, who receives a special skill and then neglects it for the rest of their life? It'd be such a waste. The obvious idea was to share her talent with ponies. Ponies who provoked her would be the ones to see. No innocent ponies would see her doing her work. It was just something that should be obvious to anypony.

Now, how they would deal with Snips and Snails, that was a very interesting subject...

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Apple Bloom trotted over to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. The foals all nodded. Apple Bloom trotted over to Snips and Snails. "Hey, you guys wanna try some caramel apples? They're homemade!"

"Uh, sure. Where can we get them? I want the biggest."

Snails shoved Snips. "No, I want the biggest one!"

"I get it because I asked first!"

"Guys, the apples are the same sizes! Now, come on!" She trotted out the door, Snips, Snails, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo following.

Soon they were at the clubhouse. Apple Bloom trotted into the basement and got out the caramel apples and brought them to the colts. Snips and Snails looked them over carefully, then grabbed one- different ones, thankfully. Snips grinned. "Mine's bigger!"

"Yeah, well mine's shinier!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

Apple Bloom facehoofed. "Guys, just eat it already!"

The colts took a bite, blinked, then fell to the ground snoring, one after the other.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle dragged them into the 'workshop', which was quite the effort because they colts weighed a lot more then they seemed to weigh.

Sweetie Belle used her magic to strap them onto the table and Apple Bloom put five drops of the serum into their mouths, being careful not to catch a whiff of their halitosis. The colts woke up as fast as they had fallen asleep. "W-where are we?!"

"Shush, or we'll cut your tongues out," Sweetie Belle cooed.

Apple Bloom stared at Sweetie Belle. "Did you just say what I think you said in the voice I think you just said it in?"

"Maybe."

"Come on, guys, let's get to work!" Scootaloo got a good grip on Snails' mane. Apple Bloom took Snips'. Sweetie Belle yelled, "Go!" and in a matter of moments, the manes were torn from their scalps, and the colts were howling in pain and watching the blood drip down from the tops of their heads.

"Please, don't hurt us!" Snails' words were barely audible over Snips' cries.

"Sorry, guys. Too late to go back now." Apple Bloom found the scalpel and thought for a moment. Then, with very precise strokes, she carved the word 'COWARD' onto Snails' cheek. The blood ran down his face. Salty tears got caught in the wound, making it more painful and causing Snails to cry more, sending more salt into his wounds, creating a vicious cycle of pain.

Apple Bloom smiled and carved the same thing into Snips' cheek. He did his best to not cry, but the pain made it nearly impossible. He held his breath and almost passed out. Apple Bloom, clearly annoyed, struck the side of his face with her hoof, snapping him back into consciousness. Snips whimpered pitifully, but Apple Bloom merely rolled her eyes and tossed to scalpel back onto the pushcart. Sweetie Belle looked at the colts carefully. Snips and Snails were about to faint from watching the blood run down each other's- and their own- cheeks.

Sweetie Belle made her voice quiet. "Girls, I think these guys won't be able to stay awake long enough, because of all the blood. I had no idea they were so sensitive about that kind of stuff."

Scootaloo nodded. "I have an idea." She got the big butcher knife from the cart.

Snips and Snails did their best not to cry. "W-what are you gonna d-do to us?" Snips was shaking.

Snails suddenly screamed a loud, girlish scream after seeing the heads and cutie marks of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon on the wall. "You killed them!"

"Aw, be quiet," Scootaloo snarled. With one quick motion, she plunged the knife into Snails' eye, then the other. Soon all that was left were two bleeding holes with bits of flesh and tissue left behind. Blood covered Snails' face and he wailed in pain. Scootaloo quickly moved on to Snips before he could say anything, and soon both colts were blind, bleeding profusely, and petrified of what the seemingly innocent fillies would do next.

Sweetie Belle took the scalpel and carved their cutie marks off, flank by flank. She threw away the ragged ones, although this time all four cutie marks were nearly perfectly cut off. She pinned the cutie marks to the wall next to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon's. The blood poured from their flanks and pooled on the floor. This time, it was an even bloodier mess: gouging out somepony's eyes is much gorier than merely cutting out their tongue.

Apple Bloom looked at the colts. "They didn't do much... should we just slit their throats now?"

"No, wait!" Scootaloo grinned, grabbed a knife with a serrated edge, and began to saw at Snips' horn. He screamed and began crying, the cries growing louder as the salt entered his wounds. Scootaloo moved onto Snails' and soon, she had to horns in her hooves. She tossed them to Sweetie Belle.

Sweetie Belle inspected them carefully. "Huh... weird. Look how soft it is on the inside!" She poked the bottom of it, then threw it into the corner.

Apple Bloom looked at the bloody mess that used to be a couple of colts. She reached for a small, slender knife, then began to cut away at Snips' chest. It opened to reveal his bloody guts, working overtime for the damage. Apple Bloom reached in, felt his ribcage, grabbed it, and pulled. Soon she had a bloody bone in her hoof. It wasn't much, but the crack that had accompanied it was ever so satisfying. She didn't bother sewing him back up, she merely moved on to Snails and repeated the bloody process.

The colts were weak, however, and they soon gave up the ghost afterwards. "Bo-ring. We didn't even slit their throats." Scootaloo sighed and poked around Snips' insides. "Hey, his heart is still beating a little!"

Apple Bloom looked at her bloody hooves, then at the pushcart with the fresh aprons. "Why do we always forget the aprons?"

Sweetie Belle shrugged and used her magic to grab an apron to clean herself off. "I guess we never really need them until the end, and then they're just napkins."

"But cheaper and easier to clean," Scootaloo added with a giggle.

Apple Bloom laughed and cleaned herself off. "Who'll bury them this time?"

"I'll do it." Scootaloo took the bodies, dragging them but being careful not to let the intestines spill, and began digging up the hole from yesterday. She held her muzzle as the stench of rotting flesh leaked out. "Yuck!" Scootaloo tossed the bodies in and finished digging the hole.

Apple Bloom held her own muzzle as Scootaloo came back into the cellar. "Phew, I could smell that all the way down here! I sure hope they didn't smell that down at the farm..."

Sweetie Belle made a retching noise and pretended to choke herself. "I wouldn't be surprised if Princess Celestia could smell it!"

The fillies all shared a laugh and went to cleaning the cellar up, this time a bit better than the last. Bloodstains remained on the table from being there so long and so much blood being there, but they could always blame it on juice if anypony came down here and came out alive.

But all the fillies knew that would never happen.