The Se7en

Daylight pours through an open window, catching Apple Bloom’s closed eyes. She shakes her head, mumbles to herself, and throws off the covers. As her mind begins to start itself up, it occurs to her that it’s well-past the early morning. She turns to Scootaloo and gasps.

“Scootaloo, wake up!” she urgently insists as she shakes the young pegasus awake.

“Hmmrmm … wha? … what is it,” Scootaloo groggily asks.

“Your flank!”

Scootaloo tilts her neck to see a scarred-over pinprick aside her cutie mark, snapping her consciousness into overdrive. She rises with a start and turns to her friend. “Your flank!” she calls out, causing Apple Bloom to notice her own injury.

“We’ve been shot!” Apple Bloom concludes, before a curiosity dawns on her. “But … we’re still alive.”

Scootaloo processes the comment. “Whoever did this didn’t want us dead like our sisters,” she concludes. “They just wanted us out cold.”

“But that means …”

Apple Bloom races out of the guest room, tearing through the cottage to find signs of its owner. “Fluttershy!” she calls out several times to no avail. She runs out the door to inspect the exterior, continuing to call Fluttershy’s name out in the hopes of a response. She soon returns to the front door and an awaiting Scootaloo.

“She’s gone,” Apple Bloom dejectedly admits.

“So is Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo adds, a serious look on her face.

The mention of her friend’s name causes Apple Bloom to squirm slightly. “Sweetie Belle probably ran back to be with her sister … but Ah feel pretty bad about distancing ourselves from her the past couple days.”

“It’s worse than that,” Scootaloo responds. “Take a look.”

The pegasus beckons the earth pony to follow her into Fluttershy’s bedroom. She indicates a basket near the foot of the bed, which Apple Bloom peers into. She notices a number of syringes, some of which were tinged with blood. A tingling sensation begins to come over her.

“What if Fluttershy wasn’t a victim?” Scootaloo asks. “What if she …”

“Fluttershy was talking about having a picnic last night, remember?” Apple Bloom urgently asks; Scootaloo nods. “She mentioned something about the ‘Running of the Leaves’ … we watched part of that race, when AJ and Rainbow Dash competed. Remember where we were?”

“Yeah, on that flat hill overlooking the path,” Scootaloo answers. “She said she wanted to take us and meet Rarity there … we gotta go!”

The two turn tail and race out the cottage.

Her eyes flickering open, Sweetie Belle wakes up in a daze … and in a box.

Sunlight pours in from above as the filly shuffles her body, causing the box to tip over on its side. Sweetie Belle crawls out and looks around the area. “Hello?” she calls out, with no response. “Anypony here?” she calls out again, met with further silence.

She becomes aware of an acute, stinging sensation; she turns to inspect her flank and notices a tell-tale pinprick, a thin trail of crimson contrasting her white coat.

How did that …

A chilling thought crosses her mind as she takes a second look around the area, her eyes resting upon the blanket spread out upon the ground; two cup-and-saucer tea sets had been laid out, but each had been knocked over, spilling tea onto the blanket and into the grass.

Her mind races back to the previous night … how she had been shunned by her fellow CMCs, how she asked to sleep with Fluttershy for the night, how she snuggled into bed with the caring pegasus … but how did she end up here, in the middle of nowhere?

“Fluttershy? Rarity? Are you here?”

More silence.

She walks over to the precipice of the plateau, gazing over the trees and pathway down below. Her eyes fall upon the broken bodies of …

“NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!”

…

For what felt like eternity, Sweetie Belle sat at the edge of the pleateau, gazing down at her sister’s lifeless body. Her mind clouded with images over the past week … of Pinkie Pie, slumped over face-down in a pastry-induced coma, of Applejack, dead from apparent exhaustion, but both of which she knew to be the work of some twisted psychopath. And now that murderer had claimed the lives of the last two Elements of Friendship … the caring pegasus who kept her protected last night, a calming influence in the world of chaos she had now been thrust into … and her sister, who always looked out for her, who always cared for nopony moreso than her …

Through tears, she wrestled for an explanation. A reason why someone would be so cruel as to do this to her sister and her friends … to leave so many families and friendships forever broken … but nothing came of it all to her.

No meaning … no meaning to anything.

There was nothing left. Nothing at all.

Behind her, she could her a voice … but it was all whitenoise to her.

She gets to her feet. She takes a final look down below.

Soon, she would be reunited with her sister.

She takes a step forward …

The two fillies sprinted in silence, side by side and in step, pushing their physical limits. Upon reaching the base of a grass-covered hill leading to the plateau, exhaustion finally gets the better of Scootaloo, who comes to a halt to catch her breath. Apple Bloom slows and turns to her friend, who beckons her to continue.

“Go … I’ll catch up … just need … a minute …” the pegasus says between breaths.

Apple Bloom nods, turns and races up the hill, a lifetime spent on the farm having built her endurance up to enhanced levels. As she gets closer to the vantage point, the image of a pony comes into focus; someone sits motionless on the edge … a young pony, with a white coat …

“Sweetie Belle!” she calls out as she finally slows to a crawl, puffing and panting as fatigue catches up with her.

No response. Apple Bloom catches her breath and edges closer to her friend. “Are you all right? Where’s Rarity and Fluttershy? Scootaloo and I found … Sweetie Belle?”

As she eyes the unicorn get to her feet and stare down over the edge, she redoubles her efforts to reach her friend, once again sprinting towards her. Don’t do it, please don’t do it, she tells herself as she rushes towards the unicorn, closer … closer …

Sweetie Belle takes a step forward. With a final lunge, Apple Bloom leaps and catches her friend’s tail in her teeth. For a split-second, the unicorn begins a descent, before being caught, hanging off the plateau.

In an instant, the numbness felt by Sweetie Belle shatters, replaced by raging fear. I DON’T WANNA DIE!!!

Apple Bloom keeps her teeth clenched upon her friend’s tail, unwilling to let go for anything … but she struggles to maintain her position. She digs her hooves into the ground, but feels them scraping closer to the edge. Seconds later, the strain proves too much … and she and her friend both tumble over the precipice.

After a brief spate, Scootaloo finds a second wind and resumes her sprint up the hill. Though behind, she still sees Apple Bloom and follows in pursuit, unwilling to exert extra energy by shouting out after her.

As she nears the peak, she notices Apple Bloom take a pause and slows down herself, curious as to the goings-on in front of her. She hears the earth pony’s call to their friend as she continues her slow ascent.

Suddenly, she sees Apple Bloom dart towards the edge; fearing the worst, she picks up the pace and rushes towards her. As she reaches the plateau’s top, she sees Apple Bloom desperately trying to keep something from falling off the edge. Her heart palpitates rapidly as she streaks closer and closer … and she watches Apple Bloom topple off the cliff.

Her eyes narrow as she gallops up to the edge and leaps, her tiny wings suddenly racing into overdrive. She focuses on her two friends as she lifts her forelegs in front of her, soaring towards the twosome as all three plummet to the ground.

In her streamlined pose, she catches up to her friends and clutches both as she attempts to level off. The ninety-degree drop quickly becomes eighty degrees … sixty … thirty …

Moments later, the threesome soar horizontally along the dirt path below … when the combined weight of all them prove too much. The fillies crash along the dirt path, all three bouncing off the ground and somersaulting head-over-hooves numerous times, traversing hundreds of feet before finally coming to a rest.

Disoriented, each one gradually gets back on her hooves, groaning in pain from the countless scrapes and bruises among all of them. The threesome turn back to eye the cliff they had fallen from, then turn back to face other, the silence broken only by the occasional cricket.

At once, the three come together in a tight embrace, all three saying nothing while openly weeping tears of both sorrow and relief.