A Cutiemark's Worth

A bright sunlight shone through the window of Sweetiebelle's room as she sat upwards tiredly and yawned, stretching her back and hearing a few pops as she did so. She got up off her bed, cracking her neck hard and stretching out her back. She fixed her bed hastily, making sure everything was neat- just the way Rarity taught her. Today was going to be a big day, the day, and, boy, was she excited. She hurried downstairs, grabbing a purse full of bits and a small bottle that looked like a salt shaker, dumping it into the purse and running out of the house, going out to buy some breakfast since she wasn't the best chef. She slammed the door closed, not bothering to lock it as Ponyville was a rather safe neighborhood, not much crime happened- not until today.

"Time to go get breakfast..." She mumbled to herself, still tired. Of course, by breakfast, she really meant pastries at Sugar Cube Corner, which she quickly dashed off to. She opened the door to see the Cakes running around crazily. 'Huh, baby duties as usual, I suppose.' The white unicorn thought to herself, rolling her eyes.

"HONEY, WHERE DID POUND CAKE GO!?" Mrs. Cake nearly screamed, twisting her head to look at her husband, who was turning the place upside down to find their other child.

"I DONT KNOW, HAVE YOU SEEN PUMPKIN CAKE?" He shouted back, his voice cracking as he scrambled across the floor.

"Oh, should I come back later?" Sweetiebelle asked quietly, slowly backing out from the bakery, but not before swiping three cupcakes from behind the counter.

'Geez, things sure are a mess without Pinkie Pie here to run things normally.. But that doesn't matter now, there's work to do!'

Now she had to find Scootaloo and AppleBloom, using her magic to pull out her phone and text the two.

'Either of you girls awake?'

'AB: Yeah, Granny Smith made me wake up early to buck apples and do field work since Big Mac out is visiting family'

'SB: Oh good, can I come over? I have something for you.'

'AB: oooo, what is it? I wanna knoooow!'

'SB: You'll see when I get over.'

'AB: aw. Fine. And yes, you can come'

'SL: if u both could not spam my phone that would b nice'

'SB: Scootaloo, meet me at Sweet Apple Acres!'

'SL: y?'

'SB: It's a surprise!'

'SL: k b there'

Turning off her phone and dropping it into her purse, she trotted hard over to Sweet Apple Acres, making sure to get there before Scootaloo. She soon headed through the gates, AppleBloom standing in the front of the large barn smiling wide, her eyes seemed to be very tired though. "Sweetiebelle!" She shouted, walking over and hugging her friend.

"Is anypony else here today?" The unicorn asked.

"Nopony else besides you, me, and Granny Smith!" The young earthpony explained cheerfully, still a bit of drag in her voice as she was exhausted from knocking down apples all day.

"Scootloo isn't here yet, right?"

"Nope, ya got here fast."

"Good. I don't want her to see our... surprise!"

"Surprise? We didn't plan a-" The yellowish farm girl yelped as she was suddenly pulled into the barn, Sweetiebelle closing the doors.

"What're ya doing?" Applebloom asked, cocking her head to the side.

"We have to get ready for the surprise!" The unicorn yelled.

"What surprise?"

"The uhm.. it's the CMC's anniversary! This is the exact date we formed our group!" The young pony lied, smiling.

"It is? Ah don't think so, ah should go n' check my calendar.." She began walking to the doors.

"NO." Sweetiebelle suddenly exclaimed, blocking the door, "It is, trust me!"

"Oooookay... your actin' kinda weird, Belle.." Applebloom mentioned, backing up as her face showed slight concern for the pony.

"Weird? Me? No! I just want to make sure Scootaloo has as much fun as we will for the party. Look, I even bought cupcakes from Sugar Cube Corner!" She mentioned in an attempt to change the topic as she held one out for her friend, who hesitantly took it.

Applebloom was starting to relax a bit as she sat in the hay and began discussing the plans. "So, we're gunna be having' the party here, in the barn? Is anypony else comin'?" She took a bite of the cupcake as she looked down at it, Sweetiebelle's heart skipped a beat, had she noticed? Applebloom smiled kindly, "Thanks fer bringing these, Sweetiebelle." Perfect. She hadn't noticed the Ketamine that was powdered all over her food. She never really knew what Ketamine was all about, all she knew was that it could knock a pony out in a couple of minutes if they hadn't eaten much in that time. She found the small bottle at Sugar Cube Corner a few weeks ago in Pinkie Pie's room. Funny, those rumors about Pinkie Pie being on drugs were true.

"No problem! And no, it'll only be us, its kind of like an inside thing, members only, y'know?" The unicorn looked outside the doors of the barn, hoping to see Scootaloo any moment now. Where was she? She had expected the pegasus to be here sooner. Well, it just gave her more time to be alone with Applebloom before she fell asleep. A few more minutes pasted by before she heard Applebloom call out to her from behind.

"Woah... S-Sweetiebelle? Ah don't.. feel so well.." Her voice was cracking, and her eyes flew around the room as she tried to get herself to stand. The filly was shivering hard as she tried to maintain her balance. "So many colors- I can't... see..." The poor earth pony was hallucinating more things than she could comprehend at the moment, seeing shadows and figures of unknown creatures in colors she couldn't even name. "Help... help me... Applejack..." She whimpered, leaning against a wall as she stared horrified at nothing before her eyes shut and she slumped down, becoming unconscious.

Eyes wide with curiosity, Sweetiebelle poked at the bright yellow filly, lifting her eyelids to see her droopy stare. She looked back, Scootaloo still hadn't arrived. She planned to do the same with Scootaloo when she showed up, for her cupcake was also drugged. In the meantime, Sweetiebelle plopped herself down beside Applebloom, watching the slow rise and fall of her chest peacefully as she started using her telekinetic magic to slowly pluck out her friends eyelashes one by one. She enjoyed having to gently tug at the hairs before they came out, piling them on the farm pony's fore hoof as she counted them. She was amazed at how many there were, they just seemed to keep on coming. She was at about 57 lashes when she heard Scootaloo's voice.

"Sorry I took so long, one of my scooter tires was busted and I had to go... Sweetiebelle, what're you... doing?" Folding her wings, she hopped off her scooter and circled behind Sweetiebelle, finally getting a good look at her friends limp body in the hay. She stood there in shook at what she was seeing, and hearing her fellow crusader humming as if she weren't doing anything wrong certainly wasn't helping. Sweetiebelle stopped humming, and the barn seemed to grow silent, save for the glimmering sound of her magic, which was no longer focused on Applebloom. The now shocked and confused filly tried to back up out of the barn, but when she heard the loud SLAM of the barn doors closing shut, she turned back and had no time to react as her tail was forcefully yanked with magic towards the wall, slamming her into it and causing her to cry out in pain as her head thumped against the hard surface, knocking her out cold.

"What a waste of a perfectly good cupcake.." Sweetiebelle sighed as she kicked the drugged edible across the floor. All she had to do now was drag the bodies to their proper places and tie them with the spare rope around the barn. With the farm being vacant today, not including Granny Smith who was probably taking a nap right now, there was nopony to stop her from preparing her experiments. Morbid curiosities began to fill the young pony's mind as she reached for the ropes..

Today was going to be an eventful day.