Stuffed Toys

Firefly wondered the streets as usual. The sky was bright as she saw a blur of rainbow pass by her. The filly stopped as she was almost tripped over by the speeding pegesus, who stopped to say her apologies.

"Sorry, kid." The mare chuckled, landing and tucking in her wings.

"It's no problem, ma'am." Firefly giggled, managing to regain her balance. Looking up, she saw a pony she had never seen before. "Um... Who are you?"

"The name's Rainbow Dash." The pegesus flew in the air once more. "And, uh, I'm kind of in a rush. I don't have time for talking."

"Why? What's the matter?" The filly asked, tilting her head.

"It's my friend," Rainbow Dash panicked. "I haven't seen her all week. I'm getting worried, she wouldn't leave without saying goodbye! And I checked everywhere. Ponyville, Cloudsdale, and even the Everfree Forest!"

"Oh..." Firefly gasped. "What's her name? I'll keep an eye out for her."

"Fluttershy." Dash replied. "She's yellow, with a pink mane. She's a pegesus, like me. Please, if you hear anything, even the slightest thing, give me a call, okay, uh...?"

"Firefly."

"Right. I'll catch you later, kid!" And off Dash flew.

Firefly skipped along Ponyville, keeping an eye out for any yellow and pink pegesi. She was heading to the Carousel Boutique to meet her two new friends, but on the way she thought about Fluttershy and Applebloom.

"This is the second missing pony so far. Why do ponies suddenly go missing when my family moves in? Is somepony doing this to torture us? We haven't done anything wrong... But... It's weird. The other day I got a new teddy from mommy and daddy... It was yellow and pink... And it was a pegesus..."

Before she could carry on the thought, she once again bumped into a pink filly. Turning around, Diamond Tiara saw Firefly, and smirked.

"Oh, it's you, the filly with murderers for parents." She bellowed.

"Oh, it's you, the filly that can't keep her mouth shut." Firefly snorted. She was willing to fight back.

"Still got an attitude, do we?" Diamond Tiara laughed. "You're pathetic."

"And you're not?" Firefly shivered. "You know that anger is a secondary emotion... It can't happen without sadness. Are you sad about something? Do you need to talk about it?"

Diamond Tiara smirked at Firefly, flicking her hair and started circling around her.

"Sure, like I'm the depressed one."

"I didn't say that-" Diamond Tiara punched Firefly in the nose.

The filly's legs shook as her nose started to bleed. Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell had just turned the corner, and just in time to see Diamond hurt her. Firefly almost fell to her knees, as she had never been hurt or punched before, and she was still quite young, so the littlest of pain could make her faint. The fact that she was afraid of blood made her want to collapse as soon as she saw her nose bleeding.

Diamond Tiara had left the scene, leaving Firefly crying. Scootaloo had come to her aid, as Sweetie followed behind.

"Don't worry, Fire, it's only a little bruise." Scootaloo reassured her, wiping the blood off her.

"Diamond's gonna pay for that!" Sweetie squeaked. "I'm gonna tell Rarity!"

In the distance, Nightlight was standing in the marketplace and saw the incident. Anger built up in him as he saw the bully run away. He frowned, and turned to head home, not even trying to help his daughter. He thought that the two fillies could help her, since he had work to do.

He ran into his house, stumbling a little from his earlier punch, and set the things he bought on the table where StitchedHeart was sitting. His wife saw frustration in his eyes, and put her hoof on his shoulder.

"Everything all right?" She asked in a soft, gentle voice.

"Firefly." He spat. "She punched her! The brat!"

"What? Who punched who? What happened with Firefly?"

"I saw it! The brat saw a chance and punched our daughter!" He started flailing his arms around.

"What!?" Stitched stood up and slammed her hooves on the table. "Who the heck punched our daughter!?"

"That bratty pink filly with the fucking tiara!" He screeched. He was obviously still a little dizzy, so he had to sit down and calm down.

"Diamond Tiara?" StitchedHeart yelled, remembering meeting her not long ago. "She punched Firefly!?"

Nightlight nodded in response, looking up at StitchedHeart. A vein had popped in her head and her face went red. She glared at the hidden basement door until her husband put his hoof on hers. He shook his head.

"That's a bad idea, Stitched." He sighed. "She wouldn't be missed, I know, but how exactly are we going to get her in for her to get drugged? She's heard the rumours about us being murderers, it'll be hard."

The unicorn nodded. "Then I will find another way to knock some sense into the little bitch." Her breathing started speeding up as she looked at her husband. He knew exactly what she was going to do.

Firefly opened the door steadily. She saw her parents drinking some green tea. She hopped to her room, avoiding eye contact with them. Nightlight realised that Firefly was trying to avoid her scars, but how long did she intend to keep it up? Bruises do not disappear overnight.

"Firefly!" He cheered. "Come over hear, join us for tea."

The filly froze in place and slowly turned around. Stitched turned and inspected her daughter that was moving towards the table. She saw the huge bruise on her face, from her nose to the bottom lip.

"Firefly, who did this to you?" She wanted to confirm the fact.

"A filly..." Firefly said in a crackled voice. "Her name is Diamond Tiara. Now I know what you meant by 'stay away from other fillies', heh..."

Nightlight hugged her daughter. Firefly tried to escape the embrace, but Stitched joined them so she couldn't escape.

"I'm fine, really." She sighed.

That night, StitchedHeart was hanging around outside Diamond Tiara's house, waiting for someone to appear. She wanted to make the filly pay, in any way possible, even if it means beating up her dad as a warning. Stitched's eyes darted towards the door as she heard a clicking sound from the door. It swung open, and out stepped the pink filly with a bag full of rubbish. She trotted to the bin and threw the bag in. Then, she turned to head back inside, only to be grabbed from behind by StitchedHeart.

The unicorn threw the filly to the ground and immediately overpowered her, beating at her face one punch after another. When the filly tried to get away, she simply used her magic to hold her down. Stitched kept beating, and beating, until her hooves started to ache. She spat at Diamond Tiara, and threw the bin at her with her magic.

"Leave my daughter alone you daughter of a whore. If you tell anybody about this, I will personally find and kill you... And I will make it a long, and painful death..."

Diamond Tiara was left in the alleyway for hours. Cold, and unable to move. She was sure that one of her legs were broken. She was found at early dawn by her father. He took her to the hospital, and hours later she was still in shock. She wouldn't talk, and refused to eat. But it wasn't because of StitchedHeart's threat or because she beat her. No... It was because StitchedHeart had shoved a scalpel up her flank. Diamond Tiara had to stay in hospital for a long, long while. Plus, she needed surgery to take the scalpel out. Once it was out, it was covered in too much blood, so the police couldn't pull off any hoofprints. They wouldn't be able to if it wasn't covered in the crimson liquid either, since it was shoved in by magic, and not by hoof.