The day was like any other on the old family farm. The sun shined brightly, and the sky was cleared of any troublesome rainclouds. There was a soft wind that carried the scent of splintered wood and cider through the land, it was a familiar scent unique to Sweet Apple Acres. And it hadn’t changed for years, and perhaps will never change.
And although the scenery has been as it always been, the current generation of the Apple family certainly did show their age. Applebloom was now a lovely young mare, having inherited her sister's rustic good looks. Her red mane tied back with her red bow, happily trotting through the acres of apple tree’s she’s spent her entire happy childhood in. “Just this way Scootaloo, thanks for offering to help. This new apple stand really is a two pony job.”
Scootaloo smiled weakly, plodding along behind her. Her purple mane has long grown out, tail dragging against the dirt. She aged quite nicely as well, but not as happily as Applebloom. “Of course Applebloom- we don’t do anything anymore. I miss that.” Her tone was almost accusatory but her friend seemed oblivious to that.
“Oh? Well I have been busy recently I guess…” She trails off as they approach the old barn. There was an unfinished apple stand, still unpainted and bare with the wooden banner still on its side. “Once you get your special talent though, you’d be just as busy too I’m sure.”
Scootaloo winced at that. She was sure it wasn’t meant maliciously but being as old as she was now and still without her mark- it was a sore spot for her. Her friend couldn’t understand. She got her mark when she was still young, when she was still a filly. There was a school play and the stage was destroyed from a magical mishap- and Apple took it upon herself to repair the entire thing for her classmates. She earned her mark that day, a mahogany apple with a bright red apple flower blooming from the stem. It was fitting for so many reasons.
Meanwhile, the young pegasus never even managed to learn how to fly, let alone earn her own mark. After Sweetie Bell received her own mark, the crusaders slowly drifted apart. Everyone just got so busy. Too busy.
“Yeah, maybe...” She bit her lip and walked over to the stand, placing her hood on the banner. “You need me to help you put this up, right?”
“You got it!” Applebloom hopped onto the counter, nudging one of the posts. “Sis is off to Canterlot to visit Princess Twilight and Big Mac is bucking in the field somewhere- so I’m on my own here. At least I would be without you Scoots.”
Scootaloo clamped her teeth on the banner and picked it up, trying to lift it so Applebloom could get a hold of it. She doesn’t respond otherwise- Applebloom only called her when she needed help with something and never for anything else. She knew, she knew she must have been so embarrassed to be her friend now, with a blank flank. Twist had warned her about Appleblooms' shallow nature but… they were the best of friends then.
If only she had listened, this wouldn’t hurt as much as it does now.
“Look out!”
Scootaloo snapped from her thoughts hearing Applebloom cry out- just a little too late. In her distraction she failed to support the wooden board correctly, and it slid off the post. It all happened so quickly that at first, Scootaloo was sure she got out of the in time- but she didn’t.
She fell to her side, wings buzzing frantically in pain as she cried out. “Oh no, oh no, no, no…” From the corner of her eye, she saw a deep red gash in her flank- a nail, a nail in the board must have done it. It was deep and her blood was matting her fur. “Applebloom! I’m bleeding!”
Her friend only stood there, stunned at the wound. Scootaloo couldn’t understand it, but she collected her bearings well enough to get back on her feet. “Applebloom!” Couldn’t she see she needed help? That…
...that… why…
Why was she giggling?
“Applebloom…?”
“I-I’m sorry Scoots… lets go to the barn. It’s just that… it looks like ya got your cutie mark finally!” She giggled in the most insensitive manner. “Don’t be such a baby, it’s not even that bad.”
Scootaloo whipped her head back to her flesh wound- sure enough the gash was exactly where her cutie mark would be, if she had one. She could see the irony but… “That’s… not funny Applebloom…”
“You’re just say’n that now. Just wait, an’ yer gonna laugh about it lat-”
“It’s. Not. FUNNY.”
Applebloom wasn’t sure what to make of her friend suddenly on top of her, pinning her against the soft green grass. She doesn’t fight back- why would she, this was just Scootaloo after all. “Alright! I’m sorry, geeze! Get off-”
But that wasn’t enough for Scootaloo- it only angered her further. She raises her hoof up and smashes it against Appleblooms face, once, twice- until finally she was thrown off by Applebloom’s powerful legs, toned like her siblings from years of apple bucking. Scootaloo was thrown back, hitting her back against the unfinished apple stand, hitting her head against the edge.
“You hit me! You actually hit me!” Applebloom cried out, pressing a hoof to her bloody nose. “What is wrong with you? It was just a joke!”
Scootaloo lay unmoving where she landed, her unnaturally weak wings unfolded and limp. Applebloom paused, wondering if her friend was actually hurt or not. “Scoots? Are you… are you alright?”
No answer.
She trotted a little closer to inspect the seemingly unconscious pegasus. “Scoot…? ...Scoot, are you okay?” She was so focused on the mare’s emotionless face, looking for any signs of life, she failed to see where her hoof was going. And she failed to stop Scootaloo from taking the hammer off the ground, and failed to see the attack before it was too late.
Scootaloo gets a Cutiemark
All Applebloom could feel when she slowly came to was the throbbing pain in her head and the way her main would stick to the side of her face- as if it was soaked and dried with some kind of sticky liquid. Mumbling something under her breath she tried to pull herself together, trying to remember and more importantly figure out where she was exactly... it was so dark now but she was resting against what felt like a tree...
"Are you awake Applebloom?" came the quiet voice from in front of her. She tries to focus her eyes, but it must have been night now. And the fact was confirmed by the increasingly familiar voice. "You were asleep for a long time. You almost scared me."
"Scootaloo?" She tries to get up but she found herself tied down with... rope? Rope? Panic flashed through her mind, clearing her muddled thoughts. "W-What's going on, why the hay am I tied up?!" She snapped at her ex-friend angrily, baring her teeth. "Have you gone crazy?!"
She reeled back in shock, hearing Scootaloo laugh gently. It wasn't crazed or malicious- just filled with a strange sense of hopelessness. "I-I don't know Applebloom! I don't know what I'm doing!" she said sadly, rubbing her eye with her hoof. She was crying- been crying and it was enough for Applebloom to quiet down herself in pitiful confusion. "I was so angry at you, so I hit you with a hammer- I wasn't thinking I swear! I would have brought you back home too but... I would of been in trouble... and couldn't just leave you Applebloom, not like that! I thought you were dead!"
There was a tone of raw desperation in her voice as if she was begging for forgiveness. Her voice cracked at odd places and rubbed harder and harder at her face, practically sobbing.
"...Scootaloo..." She said her name softly, carefully as if one wrong move would shatter the flightless blank flank completely. "It's gonna be okay. I'm fine see? Untie me an-"
"And what?!" The tone changed on the dime, and though the darkness she could see the fierce hatred in those eyes. Her wings unfolded to their full, pathetic wingspan as she loomed over the bound earth pony. "And WHAT?!"
And for once in this entire fiasco, Applebloom felt afraid of her old friend.
"A-And....and...we c-can go home...and.." She stammered out fearfully, wrongfully, and those words were met with a fierce kick in the gut. She was sure she heard something snap, but couldn't so much as double over to relieve even a single iota of pain. Something red dribbled out of her mouth, something with the disgusting taste of copper.
"Home?" Scootaloo wheezed out, as if she was trying to laugh at the absurdity of the word. "Y-You mean your home don't you? With your sister and your brother, and all your apple trees your precious apple stand?! I have no one Applebloom! No one will even hire me- who would? Who would hire some talentless blank flank? You know where I live? Where I been living? The clubhouse Applebloom!" Her voice screeched louder with every word as she paced back and forth, shaking her head as if trying to wake up from some nightmare.
"You would never know that w-would you? You never even walk by it anymore, so how can you Applebloom? You never cared about me, never!" She stopped short and narrowed her eyes dangerously at the ground. "If Sweetie Bell never got her mark after you, I'm sure you would have stopped caring about her too. No, I'm positive."
"T-That's not true!" Applebloom choked out pleadingly. "P-Please, I didn't know!"
"You didn't care!" Scootaloo corrected with venom.
"No! NO! I CARE! I CARE!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, pushed past the pain of her aching chest to make as much noise as possible. Maybe, maybe someone can hear them, someone can put a stop to this madness. She sobbed loudly between breaths, absolutely terrified.
She practically chokes on her own breath though when Scootaloo was suddenly in her face, gently caressing either side of her face with her own dirty hoofs. "Shhh, shhh, shshshhh..." she hissed quietly, now smiling, seemingly calm despite her eyes red and puffy from her own tears. "Don't be stupid, don't you know where we are?"
Shaking feverishly now, Applebloom managed to shake her head 'no'.
"The Everfree Forest silly!" she giggles quietly. Her mind was slipping, if it hadn't completely been lost already. "And its timber wolf season... oh Applebloom, you know it's timber wolf season, don't you?"
Her eyes widened in realization- yes, yes of course she knew! But she didn't realize she was in the Everfree- she hopped that perhaps she was dragged into the deeper part of her apple orchard or maybe even the park. She didn't expect for a second that Scootaloo would be so stupid to pull a stunt this dangerous.
Sweet Celestia... and they've already made so much noise already, it was a wonder that they weren't detected yet...
When Scootaloo felt she was 'behaving' well enough she released her face, rubbing off her hoof against her side as if it was a filthy thing to do, touching Applebloom. "Let's... let's play a game. You look so sad Applebloom. This will cheer you up for sure."
"A...a game?" Applebloom sputtered out in disbelief.
"Yeah. The 'Quiet Game'. But with a twist- you have to be quiet, or else the timber wolves will come and gobble you up for sure." She smiles sadly, looking at Applebloom with glazed over eyes. "Just like old times, but... not really..."
Applebloom flinches, hearing a howl in the distance. "P-Please let me go... please..."
"I have almost nothing left. Letting you go... I will be punished for sure. I'll be locked away Applebloom. That's not fair." She kicks over some dirt and leaves, revealing something that was very familiar. A hammer, still dotted with blood from the strike against Appleblooms' head.
"Don't... don't do this Scootaloo.. please, don't... She struggles against her binds but to no avail.
"I'm sorry Applebloom..." She settles down to the other pony's side. "...I should have taken something sharper instead." She takes the hammer into her mouth carefully, as if this was to be some sort of delicate procedure.
It didn't take long for her to figure out what Scootaloo meant by that, because in seconds she felt the claw of the hammer digging into her flank. She cries out and tries to squirm away, but it was no use. The claw dug and dug at her skin until it broke through the flesh. Unable to take it, she screams out in pain, "A-AAHH-"
'A-OOoooooooooooOooooo!'
The howls sounded ever closer. They shouldn't be here. She'd be killed for sure! She bit down on her lip, whimpering as she felt the jagged metal dig into her skin, peeling it back like she was some sort of fruit. "Stop it! Stop!" Applebloom blubbered. "It hurts! We need to get o-out of here!"
Scootaloo drops the hammer. "I know," she responded coldly. "That's why we're here."