The Three Princess Rejects

"Get me some more pain killer! Hurry!" A doctor said to a nurse. She sat up out of the bed. Her family, the princesses, and their students were standing around her bed.

"Tell me where it hurts, Jinx." Her mother said. Sprinklejinx couldn't really feel anything.

"Sprinklejinx, would you like to tell us what happened? Trixie said that you stole her hat and tried to hide in the dungeon when the Ursa Minor got loose. Is that true?" Princess Celestia asked.

"That's not how it happened at all. It was her fault the Ursa Major got out. She wanted to beat the Ursa Major to impress you. She wanted you to pick her to be the princess. Sunset Shimmer and I made a bet with her that she wouldn't last five minutes in a fight with an Ursa Major. Then she chickened out and her hat got stuck in the cage. We knew if you saw her hat in there, Luna would get mad and turn into Nightmare Moon. Then you'd have to banish Luna into the moon for another thousand years." She explained. The princesses looked at each other and laughed.

"I do not turn into Nightmare Moon every time I get mad." Luna said seeming a little offended.

“You were all lucky that was only an Ursa Minor." Princess Celestia said.

“That was only an Ursa Minor?”Sprinklejinx asked.

"Don't any of you ever do that again. You could have gotten yourselves killed over a foalish bet.” Celestia scolded.

"And thanks to your foalish little bet, your mother and I have to pay for your surgery.” Her father said.

"Never be afraid to tell us when something goes wrong." Princess Cadence added.

"So how long was I out?" Sprinklejinx asked.

"Forever." Lucky Dice said.

"Four hours at least." Her father said.

"You really had us going, Jinx. We thought that thing was going to kill you." Sunset Shimmer said.

"Well it could have. Thanks for all the help by the way." Sprinklejinx said sarcastically.

"Survival to the fittest. If you want to stand a chance against monsters, you're going to have to learn to use your magic." Trixie said trying to justify her stupidity.

"Does this mean that you still have to do whatever we say?" Sunset Shimmer asked.

"Well she did lose the bet." Sprinklejinx said smugly. She took Trixie's hat off of the night stand and levitated it back on her head. Princess Celestia gave them a stern look. She didn’t approve of their little bet.

"Ew! You got blood all over The Great and Powerful Trixie's hat." Trixie said.

Sprinklejinx slammed my hoof into a pillow to blow off some steam. Who did she think she was anyway? She should have been grateful that she got her hat back at all. The doctor came back pushing a kart full of sharp looking tools.

"We're ready to perform the operation." The Doctor said.

"Operation?" Sprinklejinx asked cringing at the thought of having my body being cut open with the scalpel.

"Don't worry, sweetie. You won't feel a thing." A unicorn nurse said. Her horn flickered. She forced her eyes open. She didn't want to go to sleep. She wanted to tell everypony all about the things she saw. While Sprinklejinx was asleep the princesses returned to their royal duties. As for her family, they sat anxiously in the waiting room.

"Well, you're all done." The doctor said hearing her wake up.

"What did you do to me?" She asked groggily wiping her eyes with my hooves.

"One of the bones in your back leg was completely shattered so we had to have it removed." The Doctor replied.

"My leg!?" Sprinklejinx shouted sitting up. The doctor chuckled and gestured me to lay back down.

"No, just the bone. We had to replace it with a metal rod." He said. She sighed in relief.

"Where is everypony?" Sprinklejinx asked.

"The princesses left while you were having your surgery." Her mother said patting my head.

"Is there anything we can get you?" Her father asked.

"Just my book, please." Sprinklejinx said examining my stitched up leg. He levitated my book in front of me.

"I better go tell your brother that you're awake. They're in the waiting room." Her mother said.

"Hey, Jinx. How ya feelin?" He asked.

"I'm okay." Sprinklejinx said.

"Do you want me to read you a chapter?" Lucky Dice said peeking over her shoulder.

“I’m a big girl. I know how to read now.” Sprinklejinx said.

“Oh yeah? What’s this word?” Dice asked pointing at a large word with his hoof.

“Tran- Train-“ Sprinklejinx stammered.

“Transmogrification.” Dice corrected.

“That’s what I was going to say.” Sprinklejinx growled. Dice laughed and levitated the book out of her reach. He read to his sister until she fell fast asleep. Dice saw his parents talking to the doctor in the hallway. He leaned his ear against the door.

“There’s no way we could afford these surgeries.” Jigsaw said.

“Without those surgeries she will most likely die.” The doctor said not even looking away from his clipboard.

“We could sell the factory.” Clover suggested desperately.

“But it’s been in our family for years. Where would we work? We’ll be out on the streets.” Jigsaw said.

“What other choice do we have? We can’t just let our little filly die.” Clover sobbed.

“You could always take out a loan.” The doctor said.

“But we’re in so much debt already.” Jigsaw said. Dice had heard enough. He had to take matters into his own hooves. He snuck out of the hospital and snatched a wallet from an unsuspecting stallion. After that he stole a purse from a mare.

“Stop! Thief!” The mare shrieked hitting him with her umbrella. Just as he thought he got a clean getaway two police officers jumped from behind the corner.

“Freeze! Drop the bag, punk.” The first officer said.

“Put your hooves up!” The other officer said putting cuff’s around his hooves.

“Please sir. I’m too young to go to jail. I just need money to pay for my sister’s operation.” Dice pleaded.

“Likely story kid. Where are your parents?” The officer said pushing him forward.

“At the hospital across the street.” Dice replied trembling in fear. He didn’t know what he was more afraid of; his parents being mad at him or going to jail. The stern officer wasn’t about to cut him any breaks, that’s for sure.

“Is this your son?” The officer asked.

“Dice!? What did you do?” Clover gasped.

“Nothing! I just took a little money.” Dice said.

“Dice, you know better than to steal from other ponies.” Jigsaw scolded.

“You shouldn’t have worried about the bits. We would have figured out something.” Clover said.

“I’m not going to jail, am I?” Dice asked.

“If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.” The cop said. He was awfully fond of that corny catchphrase.

“He just made a little mistake. Can’t there be an exception?” Clover asked.

“This hasn’t been the last time he was reported for stealing. Carrot Top said she spotted him eating out of her garden.” The cop said.

“I was just hungry.” Dice said.

“Some time in the slammer aughta teach you a lesson.” The officer said waking up Sprinklejinx.

“What’s going on?” Sprinklejinx asked.

“Your brother is going to juvie until he could behave like normal citizens.” The cop said.

“Can I bail him out? I could sell all of my toys and have a lemonade stand.” Sprinklejinx offered. The officer chuckled.

“Don’t laugh at my sister.” Dice yelled swinging his back legs at the officer.

“Hey! Assulting a police officer just earned you another two months behind bars.” The officer yelled. For the first time, Dice cried in front of his sister. He dropped to the ground in defeat.

“This isn’t fair. Let him go!” Sprinklejinx said trying to get out of the bed. Her parents held her down.

“You’re too young to understand the meaning of the law. I’m doing this to protect your brother from a life of crime.” The officer said dragging Dice into the back of the cart.

“He didn’t even let me say goodbye.” Sprinklejinx sniffled.

“Don’t worry. You’ll see him again.” Her mother said.

“But he’s going to miss my birthday.” Sprinklejinx said.

“Well he should have thought about that before he started stealing.” Her father said.

“It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have went in the dungeon.” Sprinklejinx said.

“Don’t say that. Everypony makes mistakes.” Her mother said.

“Even you?” Sprinklejinx asked.

“Yes, even me. I could have gotten a better job and moved to a friendlier neighborhood, but my parents' factory meant too much to me.” Her mother said.

“When I get better can I go visit Dice?” Sprinklejinx asked.

"Yes, but you will rarely see him at all anymore. You’re going to have to play by yourself. Maybe you could practice your magic or put together some puzzles.” Her father said. The doctor trotted into the room interrupting their conversation.

“I have some good news.” The doctor said.

“Thank Celestia.” Her mother said.

“You really should thank Celestia. She sent me a letter with the payment of your operations.” The doctor said. Sprinkeljinx’s parents sighed in relief.

“It would have been nice to know that a little earlier.” Sprinklejinx mumbled.

“Well at least we have one less thing we have to worry about.” Her father said. As soon as Sprinklejinx was done with her operations she began going back to school again. Occasionally she wrote her brother a letter like this one:

Dear Lucky,

I’m feeling much better than when I last saw you. I had my operation and now I’m able to learn more magic. I got in trouble for eating an orange crayon today. I was hungry. I thought that if I imagined hard enough it would taste like a carrot. It tasted yucky. I drew you this picture of a turtle because I thought it would make you happy. Momma says if I be good and don’t eat any more crayons we’ll come and see you next week. I miss you a lot. It’s no fun being by myself. Soon you’ll get out of jail and we could play games again.

From,

Sprinklejinx