Blank Flanks

Blank

Flanks

One

Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle were walking together out of the schoolhouse. Now that the school day was over they could go to their clubhouse and plan out their next attempt at finding their cutie marks. “Have we tried baking yet?” asked Sweetie Belle.

“I can’t remember, but it can’t hurt to try,” replied Apple Bloom.

“We can go down to Sugarcube Corner and see if we could help out Pinkie Pie,” Scootaloo suggested. They agreed and set out on their way, when suddenly a young colt ran into them and knocked the three over.

“Do you mind watching where the fuck you’re going?” he said, slowly picking himself off the ground. He was a green earth pony, about the same age as the other three, with a black mane and blue eyes.

“Excuse me? I do believe you’re the one who ran into us,” Apple Bloom stated very angrily. She looked at him and noticed that he didn’t have a cutie mark either. “Why are you in such a hurry anyways?”

“Oh, just fooling around with some very good friends of mine, although they probably don’t consider me a friend…considering they’re chasing me.”

“Why are they chasing you?”

“I honestly have no idea,” he heard some voices drawing near, “Well, I have to go now, see you around.” He ran off, and Sweetie Belle noticed that he dropped something.

“Hey, you dropped your cupcakes!” she yelled, but he wasn’t paying attention. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo also picked up cupcakes.

“I doubt he’d want them, they’ve got dirt all over them.” Scootaloo said. Just then Mr. Cake came running with three police ponies (almost the entire force considering how little crime happens in and around Ponyville). Mr. Cake and one of the police ponies kept after him, but two of the police ponies stopped in front of the crusaders.

“Where did you three get those?” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo then realized what was happening but before they could answer, Sweetie Belle, who had yet to fully grasp the situation, calmly replied, “Oh, we got these from him.” She pointed towards the young colt, who had now been tackled by the police pony. “Alright, you three are under arrest as accomplices to thievery.”

The three fillies pleaded that they weren’t involved, but after running halfway across Ponyville over a few stolen cupcakes, the police ponies just wanted to get done with that case and arrested them anyway. They obviously weren’t going to jail since they were fillies and it wasn’t a huge offense anyway, but they were expecting at least a trial. As it turns out, Princess Celestia had been putting together an experimental new program over the previous few months that was supposed to be based in the new community center built in Ponyville. It was meant as a way of young troublemaking ponies from all over Equestria to come together and straighten out by doing things that benefitted the community. Ponies had finally invented the concept of community service, and Celestia saw four prime candidates right in Ponyville.

About two and a half weeks had passed since the cupcake incident, and Applejack was walking Apple Bloom to her first day of community service. “Applejack, do I really have to do this stupid community payback thing?”

“Yes Apple Bloom, Celestia herself said so. You know you have to give back for the crime you committed.”

“But I didn’t commit any crimes!”

“And I believe you, you’d never lie to me about something that serious, but Granny Smith and I were talkin’, and we think a little service for the community wouldn’t hurt.”

“But if I have to do this after school every day, I won’t have any time to find my cutie mark!”

“You’ll have time on the weekends, or maybe even you’re cutie mark has something to do with community service.”

They arrived at the new community center. “Well here we are,” said Applejack, “better get inside, I’ll see you later tonight.” Apple Bloom said good-bye and proceeded inside. She met up with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, and the three changed into the orange jumpsuits assigned to them. They walked outside through the back and stood with four colts, all about the same age as them, in similar jumpsuits, until a much older unicorn walked out to them.

“Ok, welcome everyone to your first day of community payback, my name is Onyx Stallion, and I will be the one giving you your assignments each day. Let’s start off with everyone introducing themselves. Let’s start with you.”

“Hi, I’m Scootaloo.”

“I’m Sweetie Belle”

“I’m Apple Bloom.”

“Hey there, I’m Daring Dual” said the young, light red unicorn with the brown mane. “Hey, that’s kind of like Daring Doo,” Scootaloo pointed out.

"Oh, I certainly don’t hear that all the fucking time,” Daring said very annoyed, “Yes my parents were big fans of the books, now shut up about it.”

“Jeez, I’m sorry I brought it up.” Everyone looked at the next colt in line, a brown pegasus who hesitated a bit, and then let out, “My name’s…Thunder Runner,” very timidly. Apple Bloom noticed this, and thought to herself that he reminded her a lot of Fluttershy. Next a grey colt with a shaved head and a very intense look on his face quickly blurted out, “Brightening Lightning,” as soon as thunder finished, and then went back to his own angry thoughts.

Lastly was a green earth pony with a black mane that the crusaders at first didn’t notice, but now recognized as they were filled with anger and frustration towards him. “My name’s Evergreen, and I will be your charming and handsome comic relief today.” Onyx was not amused. “Ok, today you all will be painting the benches outside of the community center…”

“Is that it?” asked Daring.

"Yes, for today, now shut up and don’t interrupt me again. Any questions?” Onyx asked.

"Yes, if a dragon and an ursa major had a fight, who would win?” Evergreen also asked. Onyx was furious now, “How about you all stop being a bunch of annoying brats, and get to work! I’ll check up on you later.” Onyx walked into the community center, and the seven ponies got to work. About three hours in, Brightening Lightening randomly flipped out, threw his paint can, and called the whole thing complete bullshit.

“What’s your problem?” Scootaloo asked.

“Well it’s simple really, I used to have a similar problem with my anger,” Evergreen said with a bit of false sincerity, “But that was all originating from when my parents sexually abused me…” Brightening was very pissed off and told Evergreen to “Fuck off!” At that point Evergreen’s voice lost all sincerity. “…And my dad was a unicorn, and he used to do this really weird thing with his horn and my anus. It left me scarred, mentally…and physically.” Brightening Lightening stormed off, knocking over cans of paint as he left. “What? You don’t want to hear about my anus?” Evergreen called out, but he was already gone.

Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle were talking to each other while painting a bench. “A couple more weeks of this and I just might go insane.” Scootaloo said.

"Hey, have you girls noticed that no pony here has their cutie marks either?” Apple Bloom asked. “Maybe we can ask them to join the Cutie Mark Crusaders,” said Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom looked over at the other three ponies. Evergreen gave a smile and a wave back to her. “I don’t think they’d be crusader material,” she said.

“What about Thunder? He seems nice.”

“Well, he kind of creeps me out. He’s said barely anything and he just sits there, and sometimes he just stares at ponies.”

“Still, maybe if we get to know him a little better…”

Scootaloo wasn’t paying attention to their conversation. She was looking at the very strange, very massive storm clouds moving over Ponyville. “Ok, where did the one pony run off to?” Onyx asked, while walking back outside.

“Oh, him? He had to deal with some emotional trauma that we may or may not have brought up,” Evergreen said with a smirk. Scootaloo noticed that the clouds were black now. “Hey, what’s up with this weather?” she asked. Onyx started looking confused, and even a bit worried. “I don’t know, there was nothing scheduled for today.”

Right then, Evergreen got up from the unpainted bench he was sitting on, and walked some two feet away from it before a giant piece of hail fell and crushed the bench in two. “Today must be my lucky day,” he said, and then more hail of varying size, ranging from the size of snowballs to the size of chariots, started falling all over Ponyville. The seven ponies ran for their lives, and just reached the entrance to the community center before a massive lightning bolt stuck them, and as they were knocked back, volts of electricity flowed through their bodies.

And just like that, it was over. The storm cleared, and the seven ponies started getting up off the ground. “We should be dead after that,” Thunder said.

“OH GOD, I CAN’T FEEL MY LE- wait…ok, never mind, I’m good,” Daring let out a sigh of relief.

“Does this mean we get the rest of the day off?” Evergreen asked, still lying on the ground. Onyx seemed the most affected, he started uncontrollably twitching as he simply blurted out, “Fucker!” Evergreen leaned up, “Did you just call me a fucker?” Onyx’s twitching stopped, and he stood up perfectly fine. “Ok, your time was almost done anyway. Everypony go home and just come back tomorrow.” The six gladly obliged and headed into the locker room to get changed.

On her way out, Sweetie Belle noticed Onyx sitting down and wiping sweat off his face. “Are you alright?” she asked “Yeah, I’ll live, and you?” he replied.

“I’ve actually been feeling kind of funny after that storm.”

“And the others?”

“They seem fine. You know, some of the guys, I’ve never met anypony like them before. They seem a bit odd.”

“Well, every once and a while a family gets a bad seed. That’s why Celestia started this community payback program, I believe that we can straighten out those guys eventually. You know, you and your two friends don’t seem like the kind of ponies that belong here.”

“We actually didn’t do anything, it was all a misunderstanding.”

“Oh, so a wrong place, wrong time type of situation?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“I’d believe that. You three seem like normal ponies to me.”

“Thank you so much. I noticed you don’t like the other ponies that much. Especially Evergreen.”

“I’ve met his type before, and I don’t really dislike them, they just get on my nerves. Also, I’ve always had a bit of a temper. I’m sure I’ll just need time before I find the best way to sort him out.” Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had just finished and were walking out of the locker room. “Well, it looks like I have to get going, see you tomorrow.”

“See you later, Sweetie Belle.” The three left, and then Thunder Runner walked out by himself. He was followed by Daring, and lastly Evergreen. On his way out, Evergreen looked at Onyx, and started imitating Onyx’s twitch from earlier before exclaiming, “Fucker!” He laughed and walked out, just as Onyx started twitching again. He felt pure, un-bridled rage towards Evergreen, but he was already gone and Onyx had a strange feeling that someponyelse was closer. A pony who stormed out on his community service, and decided to take a nap in a bathroom stall where no pony would find him. Onyx’s mind was gone, as he walked into the bathroom, dragging the ax he had just gotten from the building’s storeroom.

The three crusaders walked together for a while, but then went their separate ways. Scootaloo was walking by herself  down a dirt road, when suddenly her idol, Rainbow Dash, came flying towards her from behind. “Hey! Rainbow Dash!” Dash stopped mid-flight next to Scootaloo. “What is it?”

“What’s up?”

“Is that it? What’s up?”

“Oh nothing much, how about you?”

“No, Scoots, I didn’t mean it like- ughh, I don’t have time for this, I need to go help Twilight out with something.”

“Ooooh, ooooh, can I come?”

“Sorry, but the library is halfway across Ponyville, and I need to get there right now. No offense, but…I doubt you could keep up.”

“Oh…ok.” Scootaloo sulked a bit as Dash headed off towards the library. Just then, Scootaloo started to feel an uncontrollable vibration all over her body that then shifted to her legs. Dash was flying towards the library, when the sight of a nearly colorless blur zoomed right past her and then instantly disappeared in the distance. “What the hell was that?” she said to herself as she continued on her way.

Scootaloo found herself reeling forwards faster than she thought possible. Everything blurred and she started to feel light headed, until less than a second later she felt her entire torso tighten up in pain. She lied on the ground in pain and soreness, until she was able to lean up and see exactly why she was in such pain. She had slammed into a tree, and broken it right in half…a tree that was on the opposite side of town than she was on a mere second ago.

The following day, Scootaloo was walking to the community center, still pondering what had happened earlier. What happened? How did I get there? What was that weird feeling I had? Did this have anything to do with that storm yesterday? All of these questions were stuck in her mind the entire day, and she couldn’t think of an answer to any of them. She finally snapped out of her thoughts when she walked by the community center, and noticed that someone had painted the words ‘I’M GOING TO KILL YOU’ on the side wall. Daring Dual walked by, stopped, and said to her, “Well that’s a bit…unnerving.”

“Who do you think wrote it?”

“I don’t know. We’re the only ponies who ever come by here. Yesterday, when we were working, I didn’t see a single pony walk by the building.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter anyway, we’re probably going to have to clean it up today.” They walked inside and into the locker room where the other four ponies were changing.

“Where’s the other guy, umm…Brightening Lightning?” Scootaloo asked.

"Probably just ditching, you heard what he thought about all this yesterday,” Apple Bloom said. Scootaloo then stood close to Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. “Hey, since the storm yesterday, have you two felt…weird, in any way,” she asked.

"Yeah, I was, and last night something really weird happened. I was sitting in bed trying to go to sleep, and my throat was really dry. I wanted a nice, cold glass of water but as I was getting up to get one, a glass of water just dropped right on my head and got me soaking wet,” Apple Bloom said, her face completely serious.

“Something like that happened to me yesterday, I ran from one side of Ponyville to the other in a second.”

Evergreen overheard their conversation and promptly butted in. “Ok, let me get this straight, you two say that after the storm, you could run incredibly fast, and you could make a glass of water appear out of thin air. That is the stupidest shit I have ever heard,” he said.

Apple Bloom was becoming fed up with this colt. “Nobody asked you!” she yelled. At this point Daring even got involved out of curiosity, and the five got into an argument over the whole thing. “Didn’t you two feel weird after the storm?’ Scootaloo asked.

“Yeah, but that was probably due to the fact that we were struck by fucking lightning,” Evergreen said.

While they argued, Thunder Runner looked on, wanting to say something. “I felt weird too,” he stuttered, but no one heard him over the arguing. Once again, he felt left out, unnoticed, and so alone. A sort of shiver was sent up his spine and into his head, and he briefly collapsed on the ground. When he got up he said a bit louder, “Hey, something really weird just happened.” They still didn’t notice him. He slowly walked towards them until he was standing right next to the circle of ponies. “Hey, I said something weird just happened to me.” At this point, they weren’t just ignoring him, they were completely oblivious to him. He walked in between them, right in their line of sight, and they still didn’t see him. “What’s happening to me?” he asked himself. He then yelled at the top of his lungs, “LOOK AT ME!”

Thunder Runner then appeared out of nowhere right in the middle of the group. They jumped back, with Daring letting out a “Holy Shit.”

"I was just invisible, none of you could see me, or hear me.” Evergreen seemed like he was getting annoyed.

“Ok, the invisible twat is where I draw the line. I’m gonna go wash some graffiti or something. Have fun with your magical powers or some shit.”

As he was walking out, Sweetie Belle saw a small spider on the floor and jumped back. “What now?” Evergreen asked.

“There’s a spider on the floor, I hate spiders!” Evergreen couldn’t believe these ponies. “If you hate it so much, just kill it.” She still stood back in fear. Evergreen sighed, and walked over to step on the spider. As he raised his hoof, Sweetie Belle let out a scream and it blasted him across the room and he slammed against a group of lockers.

“Ok, I’ll admit it, that was pretty fucking cool,” Daring said. The six of them at this point were convinced that the powers were real, with Evergreen now being painfully aware of it. He rubbed his aching head and other than that he felt fine, but he then noticed a pool of crimson on the floor. “Ahhh, I’m bleeding!” The others rushed over to him, and after checking all over his body, Evergreen had a brief sigh of relief that it wasn’t his blood, before a chill ran down his back when he realized it wasn’t his blood. He darted up and stood with the five.

“It’s coming from the locker,” Thunder said. They were all nervous, and Scootaloo finally built up the courage to open the locker. They all jumped back in disgust. They had found Brightening Lightning, with part of his neck hacked open along with his chest, his organs visible with hints of decay starting to set in. He lost almost all of his blood, which covered the locker and had slowly dripped onto the floor. “Ugh, he smells like over-cooked dogshit,” Evergreen said, nearly throwing up. All the ponies felt sick, and none of them had even seen a dead body before.

“We need to get to the police right now,” Apple Bloom said as they walked out of the locker room, which now stank of dead pony.

“Who would have done something like that,” Sweetie Belle asked. Evergreen was quick to answer, “I don’t know. It could have been any of us, but I think it was you.” He pointed his hoof at Thunder Runner. “Me? You…you think I did it?”

“Yeah, it’s always the quiet ones, they’re always the worst.”

“Why would I ever kill anypony?”

“Oh, you have the perfect motive, with the dead guy always making fun of you, calling you a twat.”

“Yo-You’re the only one who ever calls me a twat.”

“Oh yeah…well, how do we know you weren’t here when he was murdered, how do we know you even left the community center?”

“We left at the exact same time yesterday.”

“Look, Thunder, we’re trying to solve a murder here. Now is not the time to be a complete twat.”

“We’re not trying to solve anything here, we are just gonna go to the police and tell them what happened,” said Apple Bloom, trying to be the voice of reason. Just then Onyx finally showed up. He walked towards them slowly, and started growling, “Get back to work.”

Evergreen turned around, “Look, dickface, somepony just got hacked to pieces, I think we have more important thing to do than paint som-,” Evergreen noticed that Onyx was not himself. His eyes were completely white, he was covered in sweat and blood that was not his own, and he was dragging an axe behind him. “I think I know who killed the other guy.”

Onyx ran right at them, using magic to swing his axe around in the air. The six split up, all panicking and running for their lives in different directions. Daring ran into the stairwell, closed the door behind him, and sat down on the first step. He was out of breath, but gave a sigh of relief that he was safe now. Then Onyx’s axe busted through the door. “JESUS COLTS!” Daring exclaimed, and he started running up the stairs.

Of course the fucker goes after me. He thought, as he ran further up the stairs. He finally reached the roof, and he heard Onyx break through the door and start up the stairs. Daring looked over the edge, and saw it was too high a jump for him to survive. “Oh shit, oh Jesus, oh god.” Tears began to stream from his face. I don’t want to die. Not now, not like this. He started sobbing, his emotions were flying everywhere at once. He then had a very strange feeling. A tingling sensation went from his head, all the way down and started to churn his stomach. What the hell? Onyx burst onto the rooftop. Great, I’m going to die while having to take a shit. Onyx, consumed by pure rage, charged straight at Daring. Daring was frozen by fear, and couldn’t do anything but force his eyes shut, and wait for the end. All of a sudden, some unknown force pushed him to the left, and Onyx ran straight off the roof, and went splat on the ground below.

As it turns out, right as he was about to be hit by Onyx’s charge, Daring Dual split into two ponies, and Onyx ran right in between them. After the splat, Daring opened his eyes and looked over the edge. “Holy shit,” he said.

"I know, right?” said the other. Daring fell back, screaming. “Why the fuck is there two of me?!” he yelled.

“How am I supposed to know?” The others saw Onyx hit the ground, and were now on the roof to see what had happened.

“Umm, why are there two of you?” Evergreen asked.

"It must have been the storm,” Scootaloo said, “It’s changed all of us.”

"That’s all fine and dandy, but we still have a bit of a problem smeared over the ground downstairs,” Evergreen reminded everypony.

They all stood around Onyx’s body, trying to think of what to do next. “Ok, we just go to the police and tell them everything that’s happened,” Apple Bloom said.

"The police? So we just go to them and tell them we all have super powers and two dead ponies in the community center. I mean, when was the last time anypony in all of Equestria was murdered? This colt’s blood is on our hooves.” Evergreen had a very good point.

“Brightening wasn’t murdered by us, and Onyx’s death was an accident.” Just then Onyx sprang to life snarling, and the seven ponies instinctively bucked him until they were sure he was dead. “Ok, now his blood is on our hooves.”

“Now what do we do?” Scootaloo said nervously.

"Face it, we’re already considered troublemakers, even if we told everypony the truth, nopony would believe us. Celestia would probably banish us to the moon, or the sun maybe.” Evergreen started getting nervous too, when Thunder Runner finally spoke.

“If there’s no body, there’s no crime. We find a secluded spot… one where nopony would ever go…and we bury them. We can put the bodies in some wheel-barrels and if anypony asks…we’re just making a delivery for somepony.” The ponies looked at each other.

“I really don’t like the idea of lying about something like this,” Apple Bloom admitted.

“Well,” Scootaloo sighed, “What choice do we have?”

The seven ponies cleaned up all the blood they could find in the community center, and then put the two bodies in wheel-barrels, and covered them with cloth. They walked to the outskirts of Everfree Forrest, took the shovels they had brought along, and started digging. They dumped the bodies, and began covering them up. “So how long do you think this whole, two pony thing will last?” Daring asked the other him.

"Well, I could try going back into you, I mean it would make sense that I would be able to go in and out,” he replied.

"When you are out, what should we call you?” Scootaloo asked. They both stopped digging and pondered this. “Oh, I know,” said the original, “I’ll be Daring, and you’ll be Dual. Together we make Daring Dual!”

“That’s fucking stupid,” Evergreen pointed out, although Dual liked it. “Hey, I just noticed,” Evergreen said, “It seems like Everypony except me can do something now. I mean, half of you get A-list super powers, and I don’t get jack shit.”

"Maybe you do have a power…you just don’t know what it is yet,” Thunder suggested. Evergreen thought about it, and already started thinking about possible powers he might have.

The seven finished burying the bodies, and stood there, contemplating all of the recent events that have occurred. “Remember,” Thunder said, “Tell nopony what happened the past two days. We act like nothing out of the ordinary happened. If anypony asks…neither Onyx or Brightening showed up today.” The group started on their way back to the community center.

“What do we do now?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“I don’t know about you, but I just want to finish this stupid community payback,” Evergreen said.

"Do you think there’s a reason we got these powers?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Maybe we’re supposed to become superheroes or something,” Thunder said. The others looked at each other for a second, and then started laughing. “Come on,” Evergreen said, “I am fucking starving after that. Let’s get a bite to eat.”

The next day, Twilight Sparkle was asked by Princess Celestia to come to the castle so they could talk privately. Twilight thought this was a bit strange, but she happily agreed. When she got to the castle she met up with Celestia, and they exchanged the usual formalities before getting into the real conversation. “Twilight, you’re probably wondering why I called you here today to talk.”

“Actually, yes, I am.”

“Well, I have two very important tasks in Ponyville that need to be done, and I thought you and your friends were perfectly suited for these tasks.”

“Of course, we’d be happy to help your majesty.”

“Good, firstly, you know the community payback program I recently started in ponyville?”

“Yes?”

“Well, the probation worker in charge of it hasn’t checked in for two days, and nopony has seen or heard from him either, and I want you and your friends to look into it.”

“Us, isn’t that more like a job for the police?”

“Well, that’s not all. I want you and your friends took look into it, but also take his place. I understand that a few relatives of your friends are in the program, and I thought bringing in you six could greatly help with those young ponies’ progress.”

“That sounds like a great idea your majesty, I’m sure they’d be happy to help.”

“Great, now secondly, something more serious, I’ve been getting reports that a very strange storm went through Ponyville two days ago.”

“I know, my friends and I were lucky we didn’t get caught in it, but many other ponies all over town were. Luckily, nopony was hurt.”

“Yes, but that’s not all. I’ve been hearing stories about ponies suddenly being able to do amazing, impossible things. I want you to look into this. Can you do these tasks for me Twilight?”

“Of course Princess Celestia, I would do anything for you.”

To be continued…