I can remember the night like it was yesterday, even though it was three months ago.
It's been the only thing in my mind.
Three months of mental torture.
When I close my eyes, all I see is his blood. The complete terror in his eyes as the voices slowly cut his flesh in jagged patterns. And when I dream, I am sucked back into that feeling of helplessness watching as the evil inside me tore apart one of my best friends. I'm sure he would dream of it, too.
The voices killed him. After hours of excruciating pain, terror, and agony, he bled out. As the voices were celebrating their success, his mom appeared, and the voices went back to the dark place in my soul and I was forced to deal with the reality they had suddenly made. How do you explain to a mother that wasn't YOU who murdered your son, but, indeed, a voice in your head that took over your body?
You don't. You can't.
And so I ran. I ran, and ran, and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran until I literally passed out just inches away from the back door to the Boutique. I can only imagine Rarity's face, seeing her sister passed out on the back doorstep with somepony else's blood and gore on her hooves. I can only imagine what thoughts were racing through her head as she floated me up to the bath and to my room. I can't possibly imagine what she thought when it got on the news.
I don't know how, but everyone in Ponyville found out. And probably all of Equestria, considering it was on the national news. They probably even heard of it in Saddle Arabia. Nothing as serious as a child trying to kill another child has ever come up. In the world of peace, harmony, and friendship, my evil didn't belong. It was too... well, evil. Nobody expects a foal to murder somepony else, it just isn't done. Of course, everypony wanted me locked in a cell with the key melted, then reconstructed into a blob, then thrown into a volcano. Even Apple Bloom and Scootaloo haven't talked to me. But since I'm a minor, and we don't exactly have laws for this, I wasn't arrested for murder. They haven't even held a trial yet. They're going to later in the year, which means i'll still be under house arrest.
Sort of.
You see, tonight is the night before the first day of school. And I will have to go, whether I want to or not. We actually have a law for that. To keep me 'out of trouble' as Rarity says, I have to wear a magic suppressor. Only a few ponies (not including my sister) can unlock it. So basically, not only am I the currently most hated being on Earth, I also can't use magic. And I have to face being the most hated being on Earth in just a few dwindling hours.
School is the part I have been dreading most. I was (as I said earlier) put under house arrest, which was a great relief, allowing me to not have to deal with what happened. I never want to deal with what happened, the consequences, or anything. Is it bad to wish that they just threw me in prison already? Rarity says that nopony hates me, but I know that's a lie.
I can hear the angry citizens throw eggs or tomatoes or really whatever they can find on the streets at the Boutique. We rarely have any customers now.
Rarity's watching the news right now. I can hear the anchors spewing even more filth on my already trashy reputation.
My eyes close, and I stare at the dark backsides of my eyes.
Oh Celestia, please kill me now.
It's morning.
School.
I do my normal morning routine with extra anxiety and slowness. If I have to come face-to-face with consequence, might as well let consequence wait. So I take an extra-long bath, brush my hair and teeth twice, and spend an entire extra hour packing my saddlebags. I pretend to lose my eraser. But the worst part of being a criminal is the inevitability of having to face the consequences of your actions, even they weren't even yours. I look out the window. The streets are oddly (and thankfully) abandoned. So gathering one last breath of courage, I open the door and step outside.
I quickly run to the shadows in a small attempt to be hidden from eyes that weren't and won't be there. As I walk, I take shadowy alleyways whenever possible. I feel like I don't belong outside after happened, and how long I've spent inside. When i step out of the shadows, the sun feels warm and inviting, but I don't feel like I deserve comfort. So I travel in a dark gloom until I see the school. I run up as fast as I can, entering the building. I'm glad nobody saw me, and even happier at the fact the halls are completely empty. Class has already started.
I look at a map on the wall, pointing me in the direction of my class. With each slow step, I can feel the knot in my stomach tightening and getting heavier. And as much as I try to walk as slow as I possibly can, I reach the door to the classroom before I know it. I look in the small window, and a light yellow earth pony mare with a beige mane is pointing at something written on the board.
So this is it. The moment of truth. Slowly, I open the door and step inside.
It takes three seconds for everyone to go completely silent. It takes just one more for everyone to look at me.
I only look around for a second, but when I do, I instantly recognize the ponies I see.
Author's Note
Yay first chapter done!
This chapter was kinda hard to write, cause all I can think about is the awesomeness contained in the next chapters, to be released shortly.
(also cliffhangers are life)
So what did y'all think?
Comment!
(edit: Sorry for the long wait for chapter 2, I've been busy with SATs.)
Scootaloo, with her bright orange fur and boyish mane, was the first pony I saw. She looked... surprised, to say the least. Disgusted? Speechless? I don't know. Next to her was Apple Bloom, giving me a look of, well, hatred. Pure, raw, country disdain. I shifted my gaze quickly, and saw a light pink pony with eyes filled with a familiar, yet amplified, unkindness.
Diamond Tiara was staring at me.
She looked at me like I was an alien from some distant planet. That's where I wanted to be-- a distant planet. Far away, where deadly gas could kill me or the low oxygen would suffocate me or the low gravity would shoot me off into space where my head would implode. I can see images of the incident again, and I stop imagining these horrible things.
Mrs. Trotter (which was written on her name tag) walked up to me with a look of obvious nervousness in her eyes. Adults shouldn't be nervous of little foals just going into middle school.
But this foal committed a second-degree murder. Who wouldn't be nervous, or scared, or even DISGUSTED by me?!
Then I remember it wasn't me.
Sometimes I forget that. I forget how the evil inside me controlled me and tore apart a living pony. But if it's inside me, isn't it me?
Glancing at the ebony-coloured magic suppressor around my horn, the teacher said "Miss Belle... you're late. Take your seat next to Miss Tiara and do as I say." I hurriedly jog to my seat and slide in, and busy myself with getting a piece of paper and a pencil out of my saddlebags. I pretend to not be able to find a pencil as I hear my peers edge their desks away from my spot. In the corner of my eye, I can see them all boring their curious eyes into the side of my head.
Why is she here?
Why isn't she in jail?
She's dangerous!
She'll kill us all!
I hear these whispers pass from mouth to ear around me. They think I cannot hear how their half-hearted attempts at veiling their words fail. I wonder if they know how reluctant I am to retaliate in any way. If I do, I would surely be punished tremendously. But is this not punishment enough? The voices ruined my family name, left my sister's business in shambles, and now the entire world wants me as dead as Tru--
I think I should finish writing instead of finishing that sentence.
It's almost time for lunch. The whispers have died down, but harassment doesn't. I feel a wadded up piece of paper hit me in the back and fall on the floor. Picking it up, I open it and read what it says.
It's a drawing of me standing in the middle of a massacre, with a dopey evil smile on my doodled face. A small note off to the corner says Monster! in bad writing, from an Earth pony.
As I realize it's Applebloom, I get hit with another. It's another drawing-- me locked up in a zoo cage, with a sign that says WILD BEAST in capital letters. That one's from Scootaloo.
A third one hit's me, this time on my shoulder. I sigh inwardly and open it, expecting another stupid drawing of me.
But it isn't.
It's a detailed drawing of me being stabbed by a zombie. The zombie's chest and abdomen are cut open, with dripping organs hanging out. Some are on the ground. It has no eyes, only empty, bleeding pits. Zigzagging cuts are everywhere on the figure. The zombie has curly brown hair.
That zombie is Truffle Shuffle.
Author's Note
Finally, it's done!
If it's short, i'm sorry, I've been trying to finish this chapter for a while.
This next chapter will probably go deeper into how Sweetie's peers treat her in general, inside and outside of school. Or should it go into Rarity's perspective? Comment and tell me!
Oh yeah, I'd also like to thank this dude for the Diamond Tiara plot.
