Pumpkin's Struggle (Part 3): Love is a Lie

Chapters

Issue Problems
Dealing with a Demon
Acer
Getting to know You
Ruby's Failure
Emotional Breakdown
IT... Returns...
Broken Bond
Making Amends
A Cursed Past
This is NOT the End...

Issue Problems

(If you haven't read my first two Pumpkin stories, it's better if you read those first before reading this one; you might be confused if you don't.)

“Miss Cheerliee, Miss Cheerliee!” shouted Minty Swirl; one the recent students of Cheerliee’s school. She came bursting through the entrance doors shouting out to alert her teacher.

“What is it, Minty,” asked Cheerliee as she suddenly jumped from behind the desk she was presently sitting at and then in front of the young filly.

“A fight; there’s a fight taking place outside!”

Cheerliee rolled her eyes while smiling a bit, “Who is it this time? Please don’t tell me it’s Ruby Rose and that other filly.”

Minty suddenly had an awkward smile on her face when looking up to her teacher, “Um… okay; I won’t tell you.”

Cheerliee smacked her hoof against her face and let out a big sigh, “You have to be kidding me; this is the 4th time in 2 weeks.”

Cheerliee walked outside to where her students were having their recess period; only instead of them playing, the students were standing around in a circle-like formation. In the middle of them all were two unicorn fillies going at each other like wild animals. Fur was flying, mild magic beams were being shot and one them seemed to be constantly pulling on the other’s mane.

“Excuse me, out of the way,” said Cherrliee as she went past some of her students heading towards the quarrel. She stopped inches away so she wouldn’t get caught in it herself.

“Alright you two, break it up!”

None of them heard her as they both went on shouting and hitting… and pulling. She had to pull a hoof back to keep it from getting hit by one of their blasts; then Cheerliee got fed up with it.

“I said… BREAK IT UP!”

She raised both of her forehooves up in the air and slammed them both down on the ground; it caused the ground around the rowdy fillies to shake violently and they both lost balance and fell to the ground. One of the fillies was Ruby Rose, a unicorn filly who had a red coat with a light-pink and white mane; she sported a cutiemark of a light-red rose.

The other filly was Pumpkin Cake, who needs no introduction. She started to go to the same school as her brother, Pound Cake, after coming back home from the psychiatric ward from the Ponyville Health and Care Center. Her bi-polar condition was easier for her to control now and she even learned how to meditate with her magic to calm herself down. She and her brother were both ten now and in their final school year with Cheerliee, but Ruby Rose seemed to want Pumpkin to get in trouble by drawing out her other side… her murderous side; but for what reason?

After the two fillies got back up, Pumpkin glared back at Ruby and started to charge towards her again. Cheerliee negated this action by stepping in-between them and holding back the furious unicorn.

“Ruby and Pumpkin, this has gone on long enough! You two need to stop all of this ruckus!”

“Well, don’t look at me, Miss Cheerliee;” whined Ruby while spouting fake tears, “She’s the one who was trying to kill me."

Pumpkin was pushing against her teacher while her crazed anger gaze stayed upon Ruby, “After everything you were doing, don’t put this on me… or you’ll regret it.”

“See, she’s threatening to kill me again!” Ruby responded.

“Why you…”

“I said that is enough!” Cheerliee shouted.

She pushed Pumpkin on her flank and glared at her while Pound was beside her holding her in place.

“Pumpkin, stop making death threats to Ruby; you shouldn’t let words such as hers provoke you so easily!”

Then she turned her glare at Ruby who was lightly giggling; though she stopped when her teacher turned towards her.

“And you young lady, need to stop with your shenanigans and making Pumpkin upset with you; it’s completely unnecessary!”

“I’m not sure what I did,” said Ruby wearing an innocent look on her face, “I was just asking her about her past life.”

Cheerliee rolled her eyes then stepped back so the two fillies could see each other again.

“If any more of this ever happens again, there will be huge consequences; understood?”

Both fillies looked at each other; one showing a hidden pompous smile, and the other sporting murderous glare. They both suddenly responded, “Yes, Miss Cheerliee.”

“Now say you’re sorry… both of you.”

“Sorry.”

Then as if on cue, the school bell rang. Cheerliee let out a huge relief sigh from her chest knowing that recess was over… for today.

“Well, I guess it’s time to go back to class,” she said, “Everypony back to the schoolhouse!”

She then looked back at Ruby and Pumpkin who were still looking at each other intensely, “And you two better get yourselves together.”

When the bell rung again at the end of school, the little fillies and colts gathered up their bags and started to head out door after a hard day of work and play. Suddenly, before Pumpkin could walk out the door with her brother, she heard her teacher call out to her.

“Excuse me Pumpkin; I need to see you for a few minutes.”

She stopped in her tracks feeling troubled as her ears drooped down and her body sweating. Ruby came by them with a few of her friends smirking at Pumpkin and saying softly, “Uh-oh, looks like somepony is in trouble. Good luck, you’ll need it… freak.”

Pumpkin just stared at them intensely as they walked off giggling; all she did was mumbled under her breath, “Idoit.”

Ignoring what was going on, Pound came up to her and asked, “Want me to wait outside for you sis?”

She shook her head in disagreement, “No, it’s okay. Just go on; I’ll catch up.”

“Alright,” Pound responded, “see ya later then.” He then flew out the door; leaving her sister alone with Cheerliee.

Pumpkin slowly walked over to her teacher’s desk with her head down and was feeling a sense worry. She looked up a bit at Cheerliee as she sat down beside her chair.

“Pumpkin, I want to talk to you about your little scuffle with Ruby Rose.”

“Am I… in trouble?” Pumpkin asked in a regretful tone.

“N-no, you’re not in trouble; but I just want to make sure that you don’t.”

Pumpkin was wondering what she meant by that; but she still had that funny feeling that it wasn’t anything that she would be too happy to talk about. Cheerliee looked at her with sincere eyes.

“Pumpkin, were you really… trying to kill Ruby today?”

Pumpkin started to sweat rapidly and became very nervous. She didn’t want to lie, but what would happen if she said yes?

“Well no… maybe… partially yes?”

“Pumpkin,” said Cheerliee, “I know that you’re dealing with your… situation, but is there any way that you can try and ignore Ruby’s hurtful words?”

“WELL HOW CAN I?!” Pumpkin suddenly shouted out of stress, “I mean, it’s bad enough trying to deal with my personal problems; but Ruby… she’s making it even harder!”

Pumpkin stopped for a second to catch her breath and wipe away a few tears.

“Tell me exactly what she is saying to you,” said Cheerliee.

“The usual,” Pumpkin said in a mellow tone, “she keeps insulting me about almost murdering somepony when I was just a toddler foal; she calls me freak, says that in truth no pony actually loves me, and she tells me that I should go back to the place psychos like me belong. She’s even picking on my brother, saying that since he’s my twin he’ll probably end up being as much of a freak as I am one day!” Pumpkin’s eyes started to fill up again and she turned away from Cheerliee.

Cheerliee couldn’t believe what she heard as she placed her hoof on her forehead, “’Sigh’ I can’t believe this.”

Cheerliee looked back over to Pumpkin, only to notice that her horn was slightly glowing and she was wearing one of her familiar creepy glares staring into space.

“Picking on me is one thing,” said Pumpkin in a low distraught voice, “but I won't... allow her to talk trash… about my family…”

Cheerliee noticed her student’s eyes getting narrow and saw a slight eerie smile appear on her face. She panicked and yelled out, “PUMPKIN!” before it was too late.

The magic from Pumpkin’s horn suddenly disappeared and she came to; shaking away the slight pain in her head. She suddenly turned around and saw a slightly terrified look on her teacher’s face and she suddenly bowed down for forgiveness.

“I… I’m so sorry Miss Cheerliee; I’m sorry if I frighten you! It’s just… that filly can really get on my nerves. I do my best to ignore it like my brother does, but there are times that I just can’t take it! It’s like she’s doing it on purpose, trying to make me lose it in front of everypony! I don’t want that to happen!”

Pumpkin broke down on the ground and suddenly started crying. Cheerliee had no idea just how much stress the other filly was putting on Pumpkin. She got up and walked over to Pumpkin and picked her up to her feet. She wiped some of the tears away from her student’s eyes and had her look up at her face.

“I tell you what, how about I come over to your house and have a little talk with your parents; would that make you feel any better?”

Pumpkin wiped away a few more tears and smiled a bit looking up, “Y-yes mam.”

“Very well, I’ll come by later this afternoon. Let your parents know, okay?”

Cheerliee gave Pumpkin a little noogie on the head as the young filly’s smile became a little bigger and she even giggled a bit.

“Okay, see ya later Miss Cheerliee!”

“I sure will!”

Pumpkin left the schoolhouse feeling a little better, but she couldn’t shake what she almost did in front of her teacher out of her head.

Cheerliee suddenly felt a little bad for yelling at Pumpkin when she broke up the fight between her and Ruby, but it was the only way she could keep the two fillies at bay. But still, she knew that Pumpkin didn’t mean to do what she was going to do. She had a feeling that Ruby was causing problems for Pumpkin, but she didn’t realize that it was this bad. She needed to do something about this. After she finished taking care of her business in the schoolhouse, she decided to take a side trip before speaking with Pumpkin’s parents; she needed to speak… with Ruby’s.

Ruby Rose lives in a 2-story cottage house on the outskirts of Ponyville with her mother. They moved there from Manehattan since Ruby was about to turn 8 and her father passed away. Her mother runs a little tea shop there and was living well off of it. However, Cheerliee was hoping that she wouldn’t be too upsetting once she told her what her daughter was being responsible of as she started to approach the cottage house.

“Ah, this is the place,” Cheerliee thought to herself, “I need to get this over with; at least then I might have a little ease looking after Pumpkin.”

She rose up her hoof up to the door and gave it a few knocks. After a few seconds the door slowly opened, and what Cheerliee saw kinda startled her at first.

“’Gasp!’ Oh my…”

In the doorway stood a grayish unicorn mare with a red mane that was tied up in a bun. She also seemed to be wearing a pair of brown glasses that seemed to be a bit oversized for her; maybe it was a recent fashion statement she never heard of. Her cutiemark was a tea cup with green tea leaves sprouting on the sides; it stood for her expertise with all kinds of teas.

The grayish pony looked at Cheerliee with a bored, seldom glare, “And you might be?”

“O-oh, sorry for staring at you like that; my name is Cheerliee, your daughter’s teacher. And your name is…”

“The name is Envy Rose,” the grayish pony answered, “If you looking for my daughter she‘s out with her friends; so if you wish to speak about her, she won’t be a bother.”

“Um, actually it’s okay. I mainly need to talk to you about a serious deal going on with your daughter and another filly named, Pumpkin Cake.”

Envy’s eyes suddenly narrowed for a few seconds then she open the door wider for Cheerliee to come through.

“Hmm… very well; come on in.”

As Cheerliee walked in, she noticed the unique smells of herbal teas and the fancy tea accessories amongst her surroundings. She sat down on a nearby couch and got herself comfortable. After a couple of minutes, Envy came back to where Cheerliee was, placing down a saucer holding a blue teapot with a red rose on it and a couple of little cups.

“Some tea, Miss Cheerliee?” asked Envy.

The magenta mare reached out and poured herself some, “Ah, thanks. ‘Sip’ Mmm, citrus.”

Envy then sat down in another chair and grabbed a cup of tea herself; she took a light sip, then spoke, “So, what exactly is going on between my daughter and… the other one?” There was a slight irritation tone in her voice during her last few words; though Cheerliee didn’t notice it.

“Well, I’ve been noticing it for a while now; but… I’m afraid that your daughter has been severely harassing Pumpkin. She keeps taunting, teasing, and verbally provoking her. This has been going on for who knows how long!”

Envy closed her eyes and took another prolonged sip of her tea. She looked over at Cheerliee and said, “Really, is that all?”

“What do you mean is that all?” said Cheerliee in an upset tone, “You are aware of Pumpkin’s condition, right?”

“Yes, I am aware.” The tone in Envy’s voice didn’t seem to sound too caring to Cheerliee’s ears.

“Then you have to understand; as your daughter continuously harasses her, it stresses her out! She can’t calm down if this continues constantly! Recently, it’s caused her to get into little scuffles with your daughter, and today… she actually tried to kill her; well she might have if I didn’t intervene!”

“I see,” Envy replied; once again not seeming that she cared.

Cheerliee was wondering why this mare didn’t seem to be worried; her daughter was putting herself and others in danger.

“Mrs. Envy Rose, you have to talk with Ruby. If this keeps going on things could go really out of hand. I fear that your daughter could get seriously hurt… or worse!”

Envy slowly lowered her cup on the table and wiped her mouth. She then gave her thought about Cheerliee’s explanation.

“From the sound of it, it seems the only problem is that little Pumpkin menace.”

Cheerliee thought she was hearing things; did Envy just said that, after everything she just said, “What?! Um… Mrs. Envy, I don’t think you quite understand; I’m saying that…”

“I understand quite well, Miss Cheerliee,” said Envy as she interrupted Cheerliee’s recent sentence, “My daughter is being quite a huge bother at your school; I’ll see to it that I take care of that. But as far as the one named Pumpkin goes, it’s really not my problem. If you ask me, that little filly should go back to that hospital ward where she’ll be away from us all.”

“Do you have an idea what you’re saying?” said Cheerliee in an irritated tone, “She’s just a little filly! She’s as innocent as the other students in my class. She just has a problem; a big problem, but a problem nonetheless! She has the means to control it now, but your daughter isn’t making it any easier for her!”

Cheerliee marched right up to Envy and looked at her straight in the eyes, “If you don’t care about the well-being of Pumpkin, then as the teacher I might have to expel your daughter if this continues.”

Envy’s face didn’t seem to change, despite Cheerliee being right in front of her face, “First of all, would you mind giving me some space.”

Cheerliee slowly backed away from the grayish mare giving her a stern look.

“And second of all, why don’t you tell me this; if that Pumpkin filly got the way she did because my daughter only harassed her, imagine what would happen if something much bigger took place. That child is like a ticking time bomb ready to go off at any moment; so the bigger the reaction, the bigger the explosion will be.”

Cheerliee was on the verge of losing it herself, but she just took a deep breath and tried to explain again.

“Look, I know what you mean, but I’m here to get you to keep your daughter from causing trouble so that situation can be avoided. We’re all concerned for both Ruby and Pumpkin. When Pumpkin was but a 1yr old foal, she couldn’t control her condition; but after all those years in that ward she’s learned to control it better! The only thing is that sometimes she may need a little help, and we always…”

Envy slammed down a container of herbal leaves that she was holding with her magic out of frustration and it nearly made Cheerliee jump. She glared over at her visitor and decided to set her straight.

“It… is … pointless! No matter how much help, or support you ponies give that… that child, there is absolutely no hope for her! There is something inside of her Cheerliee, and if she is ever left un-attended somepony could die; as long as she is loose from confinements, she could be the death of us all!”

She calmly got up and sipped some more of her tea as she was preparing to straighten out her kitchen.

“Now, as I said before, I will talk to my daughter and make her understand the situation; but I could care less of supporting the Cake’s psychotic daughter. In fact if I were you, I would expel her instead and have her go back to that psychiatric ward where she belongs.”

Cheerliee just stood there feeling shocked about how irritating and selfish this mare was being. She felt one of her ears flop down and one of her eyes started twitching. But being the polite mare she was, she just got herself together and started to head towards the door.

“Well… Mrs. Envy, I just remembered that there is somewhere else I need to be right now; so I guess I should go ahead and go… seeing that this talk was a complete waste of time. However, thank you for this wonderful conversation, and the tea was delicious.”

Cheerliee got half way out the door and looked at Envy again… with a pleasant smile, “In any case, you have a nice day… Mrs. Envy.”

“As to you, Miss Cheerliee,” Envy responded, “as to you.”

Cheerliee calmly closed the door the door and started to walk back towards the main streets of the town. However, her sweet smiling face changed to an expression of annoyance and irritation. She thought that Envy was being a real… bad parenting role model.

Just then, Envy’s daughter, Ruby Rose, was just on her way to her house to fetch something when she noticed that her teacher had just left her house. She became worried and started to approach her house a little more slowly. She reached her destination and went inside where her mother was tiding up; but her face looked rather troubled.

“Um… Mom,” said Ruby in a worried tone,” I saw Miss Cheerliee leave here just now; what’s going on?”

“Nothing serious dear,” Envy replied, “we were just talking about you and your classmate, Pumpkin.”

Ruby suddenly groaned out loud, “We’re not going to have the talk about school are we?”

Envy suddenly got up into her daughter’s face and stared at her intensely, “Oh, we’re going to talk about your school performance alright.”

She then pulled away from Ruby’s face and gave her a slight smirk, “But as far the business between you and Pumpkin goes… wonderful job; I’m so proud of you.”

Envy gave her daughter a little nudge on the cheek, then went back to her cleaning.

“Oh… y-yeah, thanks Mom,” Ruby said with a breath of relief, “I didn’t succeed just yet, but she was really about to crack this time.”

Envy smiled again feeling proud of her little offspring, “That’s wonderful; just keep it up and before we know it, she’ll show her true colors and all of Ponyville will see just how much of a hopeless case that little filly really is. By the way, make sure to do your deed outside school, I’d really hate it if you got expelled by your teacher, even though it wouldn’t make sense.”

Ruby was happy that her mother was proud for her, but she was wondering just how far she could go with this. What if something really did happen to her?

“Mom, I was thinking. I know Pumpkin is a real danger and everything and she needs to be put away, but what if she actually succeeds in… killing me? Aren’t you worried about me?”

Envy paused in her work and looked at Ruby with concern. She really didn’t want to this, but it was the best way to get Pumpkin off the streets of Ponyville. She went over and gave her a big hug.

“Of course I care about you, my dear child; but this is the best way for your mother to succeed. Just stick with your special defensive and offensive spell techniques that I taught you and you’ll be just fine.”

Ruby stood up proud on all four of her hooves and saluted, “Of course Mom, I won’t let you down!”

As Ruby walked up to her room, Envy continued to clean up in her kitchen. But at some point she looked over at a picture of an much older male pony as she thought to herself, “Don’t worry, Grandfather; I remember everything you told me when I was a young filly. I just didn’t think that we would have to face with this. I will not let this happen again; for as long as that little menace is loose in this world, no pony here is safe.

Dealing with a Demon

Pumpkin Cake was facing some stressful problems at school thanks to a filly named Ruby Rose. Miss Cheerliee was hoping resolve this problem by having a talk with Ruby’s mother. Unfortunately, her hopes were cut short finding out that the mother didn’t really care about what happens to Pumpkin. Unknown to her and the Cake family however, it’s all a set up! Ruby’s mother, Envy Rose, is actually using her own daughter to try and draw out Pumpkin’s alternate bi-polar side so that she could be out of control again and would have to be taken back to the psychiatric ward. The question was… why was Ruby’s mother against Pumpkin’s freedom and what does she have against her?

Miss Cheerliee made her way down to Sugar Cube Corner to explain the situation to Pumpkin’s parents; and Pinkie Pie was there too to hear everything.

“What, there was another fight;” the pink mare shouted, “that’s like… the 5th time in two weeks!”

Mr. and Mrs. Cake certainly did not feel comfortable about the whole situation of their daughter getting into fights; especially when they know what it could lead into.

“Miss Cheerliee only walked in on the fight,” said Pound, “but I saw the whole thing happen; as did everypony else that was there. It usually takes me and Pumpkin’s friend, Minty, to hold her back and keep her calm; but today, it was too much.”

As Miss Cheerliee was sitting in the main room having the conversation with the parents, she couldn’t help but noticed Pumpkin who was lying on the floor with her back turned from them and her face lying on her hooves; showing eyes of a blank, cold stare. The magenta mare guessed that the majority of her stress hasn’t settled down yet.

“This is terrible;” said Mrs. Cake in a troubled voice, “that naughty little filly is not helping our daughter’s condition with all these… insults; what if Pumpkin ends up seriously hurting her?!”

“But this time… it’s worse,” said Cheerliee in a troubled tone.

Both Cakes got even more worried as they both said, “W-w-worse?!”

“Your daughter told me and actually admitted to me herself that she was almost tempted to… kill that little filly.”

Pumpkin’s parents literally had sweat rolling down their coats; Pumpkin never had a pure intent to kill since she was released from the Health and Care center. Hearing about this made them worried all over again.

“Well… that doesn’t sound good,” said Pinkie.

“She was asking for it,” said Pumpkin suddenly in a lowly voice while she was still facing away from them.

They all suddenly looked over at Pumpkin whose head was tilted towards their direction. Her eyes seemed narrowed and her horn was slightly glowing again.

“But she should count herself lucky; I didn’t get a chance to draw any blood.”

They all got sudden chills upon hearing Pumpkin making that kind of statement. Pumpkin gave them a slight creepy smirk before turning her head back around and resting it again on her hooves.

“Um… Pumpkin,” said Mr. Cake awkwardly, “please, come back to us.”

“Did Ruby Rose make any physical contact with Pumpkin before the fight?” asked Mrs. Cake.

Knowing that their teacher never sees how a fight starts, Pound answered for Cheerliee.

“No, she doesn’t; she never does. She knows that all she has to do to push her button is use her harsh words. She doesn’t faze me at all, but the same can’t be said about Pumpkin.”

Cheerliee didn’t want to think about that dreaded unicorn mother that she spoke to earlier, but she knew that she had to; they had to understand what was going on.

“And the absolute worst thing about all of this…” she said spouting a few tears of worry, “the filly’s mother won’t do anything about it; in fact she hardly even cares!”

They all looked at Cheerliee hoping that she was kidding; but they all knew better.

“She what?!” shouted Pinkie, “Oh it’s on now!”

“She says that she’ll talk to her daughter about the situation,” said Cheerliee in a sarcastic tone, “but something tells me that doing that won’t help Pumpking in any way.”

Pumpkin’s horn was still brightly glowing, but she was still in control; she was trying to focus her anger on something that was not alive.

“This is bad,” said Mrs. Cake, “if this goes on, our little Pumpkin could end up losing it again like she did 9 years ago, and she’ll end up having to go back to that dreaded ward again to make sure she’s still in control!”

“I think that’s what that mother wants,” said Cheerliee in a tone of voice that sounded like she was sick to her stomach.

The whole room fell deaf in silence upon hearing what Cheerliee said. Pound suddenly gave a huge glare at Cheerliee and spoke with a little anger in his voice, “She what?!”

“She thinks that someone like Pumpkin shouldn’t be allowed in the outside world. Even if she has controlled it, she thinks it’s not worth anything and that she should be forever contained like the psycho she is; saying that she nothing but a lost cause.”

All of a sudden, the built up anger in Pumpkin’s magic burst forth and she let out a loud, enraged yell as a 3-teir cake that was made earlier suddenly puffed up like a balloon and then exploded; sending many bits and pieces of sugar bread and frosting all over the main room. The little filly literally scared the crap out of everyone in that room. Pumpkin slowly rose to her feet while taking deep breaths and trying to keep her angered magic down.

“Um… Pumpkin… dear…” said Mrs. Cake while reaching out for her child.

“I… I need to go meditate,” Pumpkin quickly said while she started to head towards the stairs. She then looked over at her parents and told them, “Sorry about the cake, Mom and Dad.” With that, she slowly walked upstairs leaving the rest of her family alone with her teacher.

“S-s-sooo,” said Pinkie suddenly, “who wants to help clean up this delicious mess, mmmmm!”

They all gave Pinkie a funny look and she just grinned kinda awkwardly, “Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood.”

“So what do you think we should do?” asked Mr. Cake to Cheerlie.

“Well… I really don’t want to do it; but if this keeps up, I may have to expel Ruby, whether her sorry excuse of a mother likes it or not. But nonetheless, I will do my best to be there for your daughter when you two can’t; and make sure that nothing devastating happens. Not to mention that she has her brother.”

Pound hovered in the air in a proud stance, “That’s right; Pumpkin won’t go crazy as long as I’m around… um, for the most part.”

Cheerliee got up, gathered her things and then placed on her saddle bag. She gave the family a pleasant smile as she walked towards the door.

“Well… I’ll leave you Cakes to yourselves now; and thank you for a wonderful conversation. You all enjoy the rest of your day. Oh, and please, tell Pumpkin that I said not to worry; for all of these things happening are not her fault.”

“We will,” said both Mr. and Mrs. Cake.

With that, Cheerliee left and the Cakes were going on about their work; mainly to clean up the mess that Pumpkin made.

“Oooh,” growled Mrs. Cake, “I just want to march down to that mare’s house and let her have it! She has no right to talk about our daughter that way!”

“Yes, well we better not do anything too rational; otherwise she just might just make it seem like something else.”

Pound looked up the steps that led upstairs as he was starting to worry about his twin sister, “Do you think I should go and check on Pumpkin?”

“Don’t worry about your sister, Pound,” Mr. Cake replied, “She needs to be alone right now to concentrate in keeping her inner emotions at bay; no distractions.”

Pound understood and nodded his head while wiping a few tears, “Yeah, I suppose you’re right, Dad. It might be safer for me not to bother her while she’s holding back her anger. But…” There was a troubling sound in Pound’s tone, “… I can’t help but feel like she’s dealing with something much bigger than what she’s telling us.”

Upstairs, Pumpkin locked herself in her room and was sitting on a cotton mat with her legs crossed. The lights were off and the window was closed and the entire was partially black with one lit candle in front of her; Pumpkin did need to concentrate to keep herself calm, and no distracting objects to see helped a lot. As her horn glowed slightly and her eyes were closed, she was meditating to herself.

“Okay Pumpkin, you shouldn’t worry about a couple of ponies who don’t care about you; they’re outnumbered by the ones by the ones who actually do. Who cares if that pansy calls me a… f-f-freak, or a monster; and who cares if her mother doesn’t care about my well-being, I sure don’t! They won’t get to me; must think positive thoughts, positive thoughts, positive thoughts, positive…”

Suddenly she felt a certain sinister presence come into her midst. Not from the hall outside the room door, but from the inside depths of her mind. It was a familiar presence that Pumpkin feared would return to haunt her one day.

“You know this is never going to work. It’s best to just give those bastards exactly what they deserve.”

That voice was all too familiar to her, her inner demon that has been the cause of all her past problems; the same one that once almost made her commit… murder.

“I had a feeling that I was going to see you again,” said Pumpkin Cake, “Go away; I’m trying to get you and my problems out of my head.”

Her presence hadn’t changed a bit; the blood-red eyes, the waviness in her mane, her pointed teeth, and that dreaded cutiemark… it would make any pony shiver with fear. But Pumpkin was being calm; she wasn’t planning to let her corrupt her again.

“Ouch, is that any way to treat somepony who you haven’t seen in a while?” She said with a sinister smile.

“You’re not some-pony,” said Pumpkin, “you’re some evil manifestation that wants to corrupt my life.”

“Me, ruin your life,” the sinister figure stated, “Wasn’t it that skank, Ruby Rose, the one whose ruining your life?”

Pumpkin’s ear seemed to twitch from annoyance, “She’s ruining it verbally; you’re ruining emotionally. So, I guess it’s two for two.”

The evil presence was grinning out of amusement; what happen today, she’s never felt Pumpkin get that angry since she was in the psychological ward. This was her chance to try and provoke her and break through her conscience.

“So… are you planning to get revenge on that little filly?”

Pumpkin remained unmoved by the comment, so the figure tried to get closer and whisper in her ear many temptations.

“Are you planning to kill her… make her suffer? How about ripping her apart… and then bathe in her blood!?”

Pumpkin’s eyes remained closed but felt like she was being grossed out by her doppelganger’s descriptions.

“Are you completely deranged?! What makes you think that I would ever do something like intentionally?!”

“Why; because she makes you feel miserable; she’s messing with your heart! You hate her, loathe her, and despise her! You want to make her pay in a fatal way.”

The evil manifestation loved to mess with Pumpkin’s head making her emotions go out of control so she would eventually get her to go on a rampage and have some sick, twisted fun.

“You know what, you’re right;” said Pumpkin coyly, “I do feel that way; I do want to get revenge.”

“Yes, yes! That’s what I wanted to hear, good ol’ Pumpkin is going to get sweet, sweet revenge, and I get to have fun again.”

Unfortunately, for the inner demon, Pumpkin wasn’t going to let her other side trick her again; not like she did nine years ago.

“So why do you think I’m doing this? I’m trying not to go on a rampage the last time I checked.”

“What,” snarled the demon?

“When I was 1yr old, I could not protect myself from you; you were the only reason I was put in that ward in the first place. Now that I’m older I don’t plan on letting that happen ever again.”

Pumpkin continued to meditate to keep her emotions calm; ignoring the evil demon within her. However, that didn’t stop her from getting angry herself. She literally threw herself in front of Pumpkin’s view trying to get her attention.

“Are you completely stupid!? How can you ignore such action from such… irritable ponies?! They insult you, they mock you, and they call you freak! Your pwecious,” she said sarcastically, “family is even being targeted at by their insults! Are you going to simply ignore your inner feelings, continue with this meditation crap, and pretend that nothing is going on here!? You know what I think… you need to get up off your sorry ass flank, and go teach that filly bitch and her mother a lesson that they will never forget! Who cares if they try to put you in that place again?! If they do, you should…”

Suddenly, Pumpkin opened her eyes and got up off her mat as her magic faded away in her horn, “Well, I think that’s enough for now;” She bent down and blew out the single candle that was in front of her, “I need to eat something sweet.”

As she walked towards the door, her inner demon was glaring at her with fumes shooting out her snout. Pumpkin was completely ignoring her; not listening to a single word she said. Pumpkin then walked out the room and closed the door behind her.

“Just you wait,” the inner demon spoke in a lowly demented voice, “one of these days you’re going to lose it; your mind will slip; your body will falter, and your conscience will weaken. When that happens; when you are at your weakest point, I will be there, and you’ll never escape me… again.”

And with that, the shadowy figure disappeared from her mind.

Back downstairs, Pumpkin’s family was working together to clean up the mess that she accidentally made earlier. But even with all of them working together, it was still a big hassle; the pieces of the cake were everywhere!

Suddenly, the entrance door swung open and a young light-blue earth pony filly with a spiky yellow mane came trotting in. She had a cutiemark that was in the form of a peppermint leaf covered in frost. She was almost out of breath after she came inside and was welcomed by a bouncing pink mare.

“Hiya Minty, are you looking for Pumpkin?!”

“Yeah; I would have been here earlier,” she gasped for more air, “but I was held up a bit at home. I wanted to see how Pumpkin was doing after what happened today at school.”

“Don’t worry about her;” said Pound, “she’s upstairs right now meditating; keeping herself calm. I’m sure she’ll be down soon.”

Minty laid down on the ground contemplating over her unicorn friend and a certain other individual.

“You know, Pound, I just don’t understand why Ruby would do this sort a thing to Pumpkin. Before Pumpkin came to our school, Ruby and I were friends, but now our friendship grew apart when she suddenly started to harass Pumpkin. I thought what she was doing was wrong and I eventually befriended Pumpkin to help protect her. However, Ruby didn’t seem to care and dismissed me as her friend! It still bothers me sometimes.”

“Well you did the right thing Minty,” said Pinky, “that’s what really counts. But in the mean time while you wait, care to lend a helping hoof to us?”

Minty looked around and noticed the bits and pieces of cake encrusted all around the main room and almost stumbled over out of shock, “Whoa, I didn’t notice this at first; what happen here?”

“Yes, well about that,” Mrs. Cake said as she walked by, “let’s just say that… Pumpkin had a little… freak-out moment. We’re just lucky that she focused on the three-layered cake that we spent 4 hours to make… no big deal… just a bit of a shame is all.”

“Poor Pumpkin,” Minty thought, “I really hope she’s okay.”

Suddenly, everyone in the room got a complete shock when the rest of the cake mess was being magically lifted up and placed away in the garbage.

“Oh dear Celestia, what just happened,” said Mrs. Cake.

“That looked like… unicorn magic!” Minty exclaimed.

“Is that enough proof that I’m okay, Minty,” said a voice behind them.

They all turn around to see Pumpkin standing at the bottom of the stairs with a nice sunny smile.

“Hey Mom, Dad, what do you think of this?” She took the magic in her horn and used it to create an exact replica of the three-layered cake that she blew up. “I made sure to copy it down to the very last detail and ingediant; it’s like I didn’t blew up your first cake at all!”

Her parents came over and gave her a big hug thanking her for fixing up the problem.

“Oh, Pumpkin,” said Mrs. Cake, “What would your father and I do without you and your brother?”

“Pumpkin!” Minty shouted as she ran over to her gave her a big hug as well, “Oh thank goodness you’re alright!”

“Of course I’m alright Minty; I was just letting off some steam; that’s all.”

“Come on Pumpkin,” Minty continued, “You have an murderous side buried inside you; I’m sure you were doing more than just letting off some steam.”

“Ha ha, don’t be silly,” said Pumpkin laughing slightly awkwardly, “it’s not like I’m battling a completely different evil spirit being inside my head.”

They both started to laugh together constantly; you know, being friends. All Minty did care though that her friend was okay and at home and not on a rampage and back at the hospital ward.

“Aw, that so precious,” said Pinkie to Pound, “your sister and another filly being friends and laughing together at a funny joke.”

“Yeah,” said Pound while looking at Pumpkin suspiciously, “a joke.”

“Well now that I know that you’re okay,” stated Minty, “are you up for coming to the park with me?”

“Gee, I don’t know,” said Pumpkin in an amused tone, “aren’t you worried that I might go on a rampage?”

“Not in the least,” Minty amusingly answered back, “So come on, my friends are already waiting for us!”

Pumpkin became all excited then suddenly paused, “Oh, just a second.” She then faced her parents with pleading eyes, “Mom, Dad, could I go play with Minty and her friends?”

“Of course you can, Sweetheart,” Mr. Cake said with a sincere smile.

“Just make sure that you get back before dark,” Mrs. Cake added.

Pumpkin rolled her eyes and chuckled, “Yes mam, I will; don’t worry.”

Minty suddenly walked up to Pound and bopped him on the nose out of personal amusement, “Sorry Pound, we’d invite you but… fillies only.”

Pound gave her a pouty look and blushed “Yeah, yeah, knock it off.”

Both Pumpkin and Minty were giggling together as they ran out the door; smiling without a care in the world.

Pinkie came over to Pound and gave him a little pat on the head, “Oh well, better luck next time! Ooh, ooh, I have an idea! Maybe you could spy on them just for fun; just don’t get a dirty mind, okay?!”

However, Pound didn’t seem to be paying full attention to her as he was staring at his sister with unsure eyes as she went off with her friend.

“Um… Pound, are you okay?” asked Pinkie waving her hoof in front of the, “You seem to be zoning out a bit there.”

Pound suddenly snapped out of his spacing, “Huh, oh yeah, yeah, I’m okay; just thinking things.”

“If you’re worried about your sister, don’t worry about it, she can take care of herself!”

“Something about that fact is exactly what worries me,” said Pound feeling troubled, “I can’t help but think that there’s something she knows that I… I mean, we don’t.”

Pinkie suddenly gave Pound a big hug and kisses on the cheek that made him blush out of embarrassment and was pushing against her, “Pinkie! Come on, stop it!”

“Don’t be such a worry-pants Pound; you need to lighten up and look on the bright side of things and stop letting such matters hinder you from all the wondrous things in life… ooh, like cupcakes, smiles, and friendship, ooh and candy…”

Pinkie seemed to go on and on about her happy matters, but Pound soon turned around to his sister’s direction again; continuing to contemplate on what was on his mind.

“Are you hiding something from us, Pumpkin?”

“Come on, Pumpkin,” shouted Minty as they were running through the streets towards the park, “I’ll race ya! Betcha can’t catch me!”

Pumpkin placed on a serious competitive face and smirked, “Oh yeah?” Her horn suddenly started to glow and she disappeared from behind Minty to in front of her; continuing to run on ahead, “Ha, in your face!”

“Hey, no using magic,” Minty shouted out while laughing.

Both fillies continue to run forward very fast; not looking at where they were going. Just then, Pumpkin accidentally crashed into a larger pony and she fell over. Her mind went off for a second as she yelled out…

“Hey, watch where you’re…”

She suddenly looked up in front of her only to be stared at by an older grayish unicorn mare that seemed to give her an un-amused look. Pumpkin quickly bowed her head at her and apologies.

“I’m sorry mam, I didn’t mean to yell at you like that; and I know it was my fault because I didn’t watch where I was going!”

Her friend Minty came to her aid trying to get the blame off of her, “No mam, it’s mine! I am the one who encouraged her.”

The grayish mare held up her hoof and gave a light smirk at Pumpkin and her friend, “It’s… quite alright dearies; just please watch where you are going next time; somepony could get seriously hurt.”

Pumpkin got up and smiled, “Don’t worry, we will.”

The two fillies then advanced forward; being a little more careful than they were before. Pumpkin looked over at the older mare and yelled out, “Oh, and again… I’m sorry!”

The older mare continued to look in Pumpkin’s direction. Her slight smile turned into an unpleasant frown as she straightened her oversized glasses from the impact against the young filly. She felt rather irritable being yelled at from her earlier; probably little after affects of being what she is.

“Trust me child, one day, you will be sorry.”

“Now off-boarding in Ponyville,” yelled the conductor as the Pony Express rolled to a stop at the Ponyville train station. Many ponies got off, but mainly a family of Pegasi who was there for business; Cloudsdale business. They had a young colt that was about around the same age of the Cake twins. He was white with a wavy lime-green mane sporting a cutiemark of a skateboard riding on a star. He was very ecstatic to be in Ponyvile; it was one the few places in Equestria that he’s never seen before and for a small town, he thought it looked pretty epic. The family was on their way to Cloudsdale when they ran into a certain orange mare with a purple mane. The young colt looked at her cutiemark that was a pair of wings engulfed in fire and shouted out…

“Hey, nice cutiemark miss; it looks so cool!”

The orange mare turned around and smirked and began to flaunt, “Gee, thanks kid; getting this mark wasn’t easy! You have a cool one too by the way!”

He blushed out of embarrassment, “Yeah, thanks.”

“So, are you knew here?” the young mare asked, “If you are, you’re going to love it here!”

“Thanks,” the colt replied, “I’m excited enough already!”

The young mare waved at the family and properly greeted them, “Well, in any case, welcome to Cloudsdale; located above the town of Ponyville. The name is Scootaloo.” She looked down at the young colt and gave him a short noogie, “And what’s your name sport?”

“Acer,” the young colt said proudly, “my name is Acer, mam!”

Acer

It’s nighttime in Ponyville as Luna’s glamorous moon shone onto the land. Almost every pony was silent and snug all nice and tight in their beds; fast asleep. However, about an hour after midnight Pinkie was sound asleep when she suddenly heard light knock on her room door. She slowly rose up in her bed and groaned a bit while wiping away some of the sleepiness in her eyes.

“What… who is it?” she moaned, “You can come in.”

The door slowly creaked open as Pinkie tried her best to see who it was. Standing in the doorway of her room was Pumpkin Cake. She was wearing her favorite light-blue nightcap and carrying her stuffed rubber chicken on her back.

“Pinkie… I can’t sleep,” spouted the young filly that was awake yet still very sleepy.

“Having some bad dreams, Pumpkin?” asked Pinkie as Pumpkin trotted over to the left side of the bed.

“Not necessarily; I guess my mind just feels troubled and it’s keeping me awake. It’s like some kind of feeling telling me that if I fall asleep, something bad might happen.”

Pinkie looked at the young filly as she was constantly wiping her eyes; she looked absolutely tuckered out yet she couldn’t get herself to sleep. Pinkie smiled and scooted over in her bed to make room for Pumpkin.

“Come on over here, lil’ Pumpkin; and don’t rub your eyes too much, you could make them sore.”

Pumpkin hopped onto the bed and then laid down beside Pinkie and placed her stuffed chicken in front of her, “I hope I’m not bothering you; I didn’t want to wake Mom and Dad.”

“Don’t worry about that, Pumpkin,” Pinkie replied, “All of us are always here for you, including me.”

Pumpkin plopped her head onto the bed while trying to relax in her lying position, “Do you think… it would be too dangerous for me to go back to school tomorrow?”

Pinkie suddenly gave her a little noogie on the head causing her to giggle a little, “No way, silly; you need your education.” She suddenly got a little serious and made sure that she had Pumpkin’s attention, “Listen Pumpkin, don’t you dare pay any more attention to that mean Ruby filly; she’s totally lost her gumdrops to try and purposely make you lose it under pressure. And forget about her mother too; so what if she doesn’t care about your well-being. She can’t hurt you, nor will she ever have a chance to do so.”

“Pinkie…” said Pumpkin while looking at Pinkie with innocent, sleepy eyes, “can I… sleep with you; it would make me feel better.”

“Of course you can;” Pinkie replied, “you can stay here all night if you want.”

“Thanks, Pinkie.”

Pumpkin cuddled up closer to Pinkie before getting into a comfortable position. She gave a big loud yawn and grabbed her stuffed chicken as she almost instantly fell asleep. Pinkie just smiled as she gently rubs her hoof on top of Pumpkin’s head; comforting her getting her to stay asleep.

“Sweet dreams, Pumpkin,” said Pinkie, “Don’t let negative energies keep you from getting your beauty sleep.”

The next day, the two foal twins were up preparing for a brand new day of school. Pumpkin, who was already at the door jumping with excitement, was wide awake; thanks to her comforting sleep with Pinkie Pie. She was ready to deal with any challenge that would come her way; even dealing with Ruby Rose.

“Come on, Pound,” Pumpkin shouted, “you don’t want to be late; do ya?!”

“Don’t be silly,” Pound replied, “we’re never late; no need to hurry?”

Pinkie hopped over to the doorway as the twins started to head out towards their school, “See you later, you two! Have fun, learn something, and Pound… don’t forget to look after your sister!”

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” said Pound. He suddenly posed in a proud-like stance while spreading his wings, “No pony is going to pick at Pumpkin without going through me first!”

Pumpkin decided to play along with her brother’s gesture, “Oh, my hero!” She then leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“Ew, Pumpkin!” Pound shouted as he backed away and wiped off his cheek.

“Oh take it like a stallion, Pound.”

The twins continued onward as Pinkie kept a smile on her face; waving and waving until they were out of her sight.

“You’re going to keep an eye on her during their recess period; aren’t you,” asked Mrs. Cake who was standing behind her.

“That’s right! Not that I doubt Pumpkin, but I’m not taking any chances for anypony to make Pumpkin lose her cool! But don’t worry, she won’t even know I’m there; I’ll be going… incognito.”

Mr. & Mrs. Cake gave each other a look of worry; any plan of Pinkie’s always had its weird quirks. Does she really think she can pull it off?

Pumpkin’s friend, Minty, was standing nearby the dirt path that led to the schoolhouse when she looked over to her side and saw Pumpkin and Pound headed her way. She saw Pound pretending to be calm, cool, and collective as always, but Pumpkin… she seemed rather cheerful; perhaps a lot more cheerful than how she usually sees her like on mornings like this.

“Morning Pumpkin,” said Minty, “You look rather cheerful this morning.”

“Well… I had a good night’s sleep last night; I’m up and rarin’ to go!”

“So you’re not worried about… you know who?” Minty asked.

“Don’t worry, I’m ready for her this time,” Pumpkin said with confidence.

“Um, no offense,” Minty replied, “but you said that the last few times and it still didn’t work out.”

Pound walked up to her wearing a proud smirk, “Well Miss Cheerliee had a little talk with Ruby’s Mother; she plans to expel her if she causes another fight to ignite between Pumpkin and her.”

Minty had a slight sigh of relief for Pumpkin upon hearing that, “Well alright; too bad for Ruby. If it does happen she’ll deserve it!”

Minty looked over at Pumpkin who appeared to be thinking in her own little world; probably contemplating on the whole Ruby being expelled thing.

“And don’t think for one second that it will be your fault, Pumpkin,” Minty shouted. Pumpkin suddenly woke from her spacing around and looked at her friend.

“Huh, what was that?”

“If Ruby causes a fight to happen between you two and she gets expelled, it won’t be your fault; she would’ve brought it all on herself.”

“Oh, yeah… if you say so,” said Pumpkin while smiling slightly.

Pound looked up ahead and saw someone familiar, “Uh-oh, prissy pony up ahead.”

As they approached closer to the schoolhouse, nearby where Ruby and some of her misc friends were standing, they did their best not to look at her straight in the eyes. Some of her misc. friends were giggling a bit as they saw Pumpkin and the others walked by in a weird manner. Pumpkin’s eyes sort of leered to the side trying to get a glimpse of Ruby, and then Minty quickly tilted Pumpkin’s head back around.

“Just keep walking,” Minty said, “keep walking and pretend that you don’t even see her.”

They almost reached the door of the schoolhouse, and then suddenly Pumpkin heard Ruby call out to her in a snooty tone, “Well, nice to see that you still came today, Pumpkin. Here’s to another new day of learning.”

Pumpkin didn’t even turned around to answer her; she just took a deep breath, and calmly replied, “Yeah, whatever; just make sure to keep your knowledge away from me.”

As they walked inside the schoolhouse, Ruby just smiled while flouncing her mane making sure that it looked perfect for presentation. One of her friends came up from behind her and questioned her, “Hey, Ruby, are you sure that this will be all worth it in the end?”

Ruby looked at her smiled slightly, “Trust me, it may all look like a waste of time but it’s for the best of Ponyville. My mother says that it must be done and I trust her enough; so when it does happen I’ll be doing all of Equestria a favor.”

“But what about Minty,” said another one of her misc. friends, “think she’ll ever be your friend again once you succeed in putting Pumpkin away?”

“She’ll understand sooner or later… she has to. I intend to prove my mother’s theory today after school; she’ll be so proud of me!”

“Good morning, class!” shouted Miss Cheerliee to her students as they were sitting down for class ready to learn. “I hope you all had a good night’s rest last night. Hope you’re ready for more learning.” Then she put on a slightly more serious face, “And I hope some of you will be on your best behavior or else you may find yourself written up or, or even expelled.”

Some of the students just gasped a little while looking at each other wondering what their teacher was going on about; except Ruby, who knew exactly what she meant.

Then, Cheerliee put on another cheerful face for the class, “But don’t worry; you’re all good students and hopefully that will never happen.”

Most of the class suddenly sighed in relief of heir teacher’s words knowing that she was partly just playing around.

“Yeah, you go, Miss Cheerliee!” shouted Minty.

“Now before we start today’s lesson, I’d like for the class to welcome a new student that will join us for the rest of this semester. Why don’t you come up here and tell us a little bit about yourself.”

The class watched as an individual student rose up from his seat and started to go up at the front of the classroom. He was a white Pegasus colt sporting a wavy lime-green mane. His appearance seemed to be a bit dynamic as he flew the rest of the way to front of the class.

“Hello, everypony,” shouted the young colt in an excited manner, “my name is Acer! My parents and I came from the northern sky city of Trottingham!”

He turned to the side and spread his wings to make himself look cool as he displayed his cutiemark to the class, “I got this awesome cutiemark here from discovering my love for Aerial sports! I love things like wing gliding, air surfing, turbo skating, things like that! I’m happy to be here and I look forward to spending time with all of you!”

Ruby Rose had her head on her desk listening to pegasus who was introducing himself; but then she suddenly had a closer look. When she realized who it was she started to freak out in her mind.

“Wait a second, isn’t that… oh my gosh! It… it is him! It’s Acer; my lovely pegasus friend that I left behind at Trottington when I moved here 3 years ago! I can’t believe that he’s here! Hmm, I wonder if he’s changed his mind about being my coltfriend.”

Cheerliee got back up and walked up beside Acer, “Thank you, Acer; you may go back to your seat now.”

Pound looked over at his sister and asked her in an excited tone, “Hey Pumpkin, that Pegasus seems pretty cool, doesn’t he?”

Pumpkin found herself watching Acer as he went to his seat; to her he was probably one of the cutest colts she’s ever seen. It made her feel rather… happy and at ease.

“Yeah, he sure is something alright,” responded Pumpkin to herself in a content and calm way. She laid her head against her hooves on the desk and sigh to herself while continuing to look at him.

Unfortunately, Ruby notices her love struck expression that was aimed at her old friend.

“What the…” she said to herself, “is she…” She had a feeling that maybe Acer wouldn’t have any similar feelings for Pumpkin, but it still didn’t feel right with her seeing that unicorn filly looking at him that way.

“Sorry, Pumpkin,” Ruby thought to herself while continuing to glare at Pumpkin, “but I’m afraid that he’s already taken.

Pretty soon, their recess period came and every filly and colt were outside playing and hanging out with each other while Cheerliee was sitting on the steps of the schoolhouse entrance watching over her students.

The new student, Acer, was just walking around watching what all the students were doing and was trying to decide which crowd to join. But then suddenly, the snooty little filly named Ruby Rose walked up behind him and decided to give him a little surprise.

“What’s up, Acer?” she called out in a semi-teasing tone, “Remember me?”

Acer quickly turned around and was content in seeing who it was, “Oh, Ruby Rose; I thought I recognized you.” He then gave her a light hug in which Ruby thoroughly enjoyed, “It’s nice to see you again.”

“Same here,” Ruby responded, “I never thought that you would move here too; it must be fate.”

Acer gave her an amused look and chuckled, “Um… actually, my parents just had to switch locations of their jobs due to some minor hurdles of the job location in Trottingham. So, how’s your mother?”

“Oh she’s doing just fine,” Ruby replied, “We’ve been doing good ever since my father passed away, and continuing the family teas and herbs business went off easier than my mother expected.” She quickly turned her side flank into Acer’s view, “And check it out, I got my cutiemark!”

“Pretty neat, congratulations,” Acer responded. He turned around and showed Ruby his as well, “Like mine?”

She stood there and stared at it a little longer than she should have and sighed a bit, “Yeah, it does look nice…” She suddenly shook herself out of it and responded normally, “Y-your cutiemark I mean; your… c-cutiemark looks nice.”

Ruby Rose felt a little awkward, but she just wiped it off and stood right beside Acer looking at him straight in the eyes, “So, h-have you thought about changing your mind yet?”

Acer looked at her feeling confused, “About what?”

“You know; about you… and me?”

Acer suddenly sighed and rolled his eyes while lightly pushing Ruby off of him, “Come on Ruby, you’re still going on about that? You know I only like you as a friend. I’m afraid that’s never going to change.”

Ruby stood back and lowered her ears feeling disappointed, “Yeah, I get it; just thought I try anyway.”

Both ponies suddenly just stood there in an awkward silence; hearing nothing but the sounds of the other students playing. Just then, Acer looked over at a group of ponies playing together; running and kicking a ball around. In that crowd, a certain filly had caught his eye; and something about her seemed very familiar when he saw her.

“Hey… Ruby,” he asked, “do you know who that filly over there is?”

Ruby looked over at the playing crowd, and based on where he was pointing, she was hoping that he was talking about her old friend.

“Oh, you mean that one with the tomboyish attitude? That’s Minty; she’s pretty nice I guess. She’s just as daring as you so you might end up liking her if you…”

Acer suddenly cut her off and shook his head, “Nah, not that filly; although she does seem pretty cool. However, I was talking about that filly; the one with the light-blue bows in her mane.”

Ruby knew that this time she couldn’t avoid it; he was indeed talking about Pumpkin. But why would he be interested in her? But then she thought that maybe he didn’t know about Pumpkin and her… mental problem. Perhaps if she did tell him about Pumpkin, he might have second thoughts.

“Oh, well… that’s just Pumpkin. You ought to be careful around her though, she suffers from a bi-polar disorder.”

Acer suddenly got intrigued by this information, “Really, what happens with her?”

“Well…” Ruby continued, “She gets angry rather easily; and when angered enough, it’s like she’s a completely different pony. I even heard that one time she got so mad she actually tried to murder somepony; and she almost succeeded!”

Ruby had a good feeling that telling him all that would frighten him and he would rather not have anything to do with Pumpkin; but she was sadly mistaken.

“Wait a minute, now I remember,” Acer suddenly said out loud.

“Say wha?” said Ruby feeling confused.

“That’s Pumpkin Cake; the filly from this town who went psycho at only 1yr. old and almost killed not just one, but 6 ponies!”

It seems that he did know her after all; was that a good thing or a bad thing?

“Um… yeah, she’s the one. No colt here dares to be her coltfriend because they’re worried that they may do something that might bring her other side out somehow.”

“Is that so,” Acer replied.

“Yep; but don’t worry; I’m sure she’ll be just fine.”

Acer thought he felt something familiar when looking at her and that was it. He felt that maybe having a coltfriend was exactly what Pumpkin need in her life.

“I think I’m going to go over there and meet her,” Acer said with a pleasant smile. He started to walk towards the direction of that group, and Ruby’s eyes went shockingly wide.

“What; but aren’t you afraid of her, after hearing what’s she’s like and what she has done?!”

Acer turned towards Ruby with an arched eyebrow; but he knew well enough that she was probably just jealous.

“It’s no big deal, Ruby; I just want to talk to her. Besides, I feel that having a coltfriend is something she needs to help her feel calm and safe to be around; somepony that will always be there for her besides her family.” He started walking forward in that direction again, and then he stopped and looked over at Ruby, “So, are you coming?”

Ruby had her head down and her ears drooped. She just laid there on the ground with her hooves crossed and said, “No… I’m good.”

“Okay,” Acer responded, “but don’t beat yourself over it.”

Poor Ruby; Acer had left her there to brood to herself and feel rejected.

Pumpkin, Pound and their friends were playing a simple game of kickball, and for Pumpkin it was a good distraction to keep her from thinking about her troubles. At one point, one of the fillies kicked the ball a little too hard and it went soaring right over Pumpkin’s head.

“I’ll get it,” said Pumpkin as she raced after the ball. But then she suddenly halted when she saw the new student in their class suddenly flew up and caught it himself.

“Allow me,” Acer said as he held the ball and spun it on his hoof.

He flew back down on the ground and gave Pumpkin a little friendly smile as he threw it back to her. She caught it, but barely as it fumbled a bit between her hooves and then completely still. She looked at him and blushed slightly along with a sweet smile.

“Wow, n-nice… catch,” said Pumpkin hesitantly.

“Thanks, you too,” Acer responded, “Although, you might want to work on yours.”

Pumpkin blushed a bit more and stuttered a bit while partially looking down and up at him, “Oh… y-yeah, I-I-I do.”

All of the ponies that Pumpkin was playing with were all surveying the cute little scene in front of them; each of them trying to get a good view.

“Well well, what’s going on here,” said Minty with a smirk.

Pound was looking at the scene very suspiciously as Acer sat in front of his sister trying to get her full attention.

“So your name is Pumpkin Cake, right?” asked Acer.

“Ye-yes… yes I am,” said Pumpkin after slowly lifting her head up to the young colt’s view.

“Well I hope you don’t mind… but I have heard about your condition; it must be very difficult to deal with.”

Pumpkin’s eyes suddenly got wide and she took a few steps back from Acer feeling a bit uncomfortable, “Oh, y-yeah. I’m… I’m pretty used to it by now. I can’t force you, b-but… please, don’t be afraid of me.”

Pumpkin was worried that he was since he did know about her, but the next sentence that Acer spoke was going to make Pumpkin become almost to shocked to respond.

“So… I’m guessing that you don’t have a coltfriend; am I right?”

Pumpkin literally tripped over her own hooves after hearing that question. Her heart started to pound in her chest, “U-Um… n-n-no! I mean n-no I don’t but… where are you going with that statement?”

“I know it may seem a little sudden; seeing that we just met, but would you like to let me be yours; that is if you want one.”

Pumpkin started to sweat constantly; she wasn’t quite sure whether to say yes or no, but he was being so polite.

“I-I-I don’t know,” she said while rubbing her head out of worry and frustration, “Other colts here are willing to be my friend, but they don’t want to be my colt… friend.”

“Well, would you mind if I try to be the first? I’m up for a good challenge.”

Pumpkin face became the brightest shade of red it could be; she did think he was cute, but would it really work out between them. She looked at him as he sported a pleasant smile waiting for her to answer.

“We-well… maybe…”

Suddenly, Pumpkin’s brother popped up beside them, “Hello there.”

Both Acer and Pumpkin jumped and were startled by his sudden appearance. Pumpkin glared at her brother feeling a bit annoyed.

“Pound, do you mind?!”

Acer looked at him and chuckled a bit, “Oh, your name is Pound. So I take it that you’re her brother?”

“Twin brother,” Pound replied while giving Acer a stern look, “So… you’re really interested in my sister, aren’t you?”

Pumpkin was pouting a little with her cheeks puffed and her eyes narrowed, “Pound, stop; you’re embarrassing me.”

“Don’t worry; it’s nothing like that,” said Acer out of amusement, “But… it is really awesome to meet you two. So how is your wing treating you after your operation?”

“Wait, you know about my wing surgery?!” shouted Pound.

“I know all about you two and what happened more than 8 years ago; news about that got all around Equestria, remember? When I heard about it when I was 7, I sorta… had a secret crush on your sister and didn’t tell anypony; mainly because I felt sorry for her and dealing with something that dangerous.”

“He… h-he had… a crush on me?” Pumpkin thought to herself while continuing to blush.

“Being her… protective brother,” continued Acer, “are you okay about me being your sister’s coltfriend?”

Pound thought about it for a second. To him it was rather strange to finally meet a colt that took interest in his sister and actually sound sincere. He looked up and gave him an amused smirk.

“Oh who am I kidding, you’re alright, Acer.” He then gave Acer a bro-hoof, “If you want to be with my sister that’s fine with me. Just make sure that you don’t break her heart. You’ll regret it; trust me.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Acer chuckled. Then he turned his attention back to Pumpkin, “So, what do you say, Pumpkin. Remember, you don’t have to accept it if you don’t want to; but friend or coltfriend, I promise to give my share of support for you.”

Pumpkin felt a little uneasy about the decision, but she couldn’t stop looking at him and seeing how cute he was to her. A lot of her inner anger seemed to go away in her heart and she fell into a state of calm and serenity. She finally looked at him with a bright smile and nodded her head.

“Okay… sure; I’ll accept it.”

She bravely walked up to him and gave him a little smooch on the cheek. A huge ‘dawww’ reaction came from the group of students who were watching. Minty came up beside Acer and gave him a little nudge to the side.

“Smooth move, lover boy; you’re alright. Just make sure that you don’t disappoint my friend, you hear?”

“Yeah, I hear,” responded Acer with a chuckle.

Suddenly, everyone there jumped when they heard loud voice shout out nearby, “Alright; GO PUMPKIN!!!”

“What the…” shouted Pumpkin. She knew that voice all too well. She looked at their surroundings using her horn’s magic; and then used it to part away a pair of bushes. Pumpkin saw who was obviously behind the bushes and couldn’t believe it.

“Pinkie; what are you doing here?!”

Pinkie blushed from embarrassment; it seemed that her cover was blown.

“Oh, hi Pumpkin, Pound; I was just passing by and… and then I was just… gonna… oh look at the time; gottagobye!” And with that she quickly ran off away from the school grounds.

“Who was… that?” ask Acer feeling a bit weirded out.

“That’s just Pinkie Pie,” Pound responded, “She works and lives where we live at Sugar Cube Corner. She helped take care of us ever since we were born, so she’s like an aunt to us.”

“Well, she definitely does seem pretty bizarre for an earth pony,” said Acer with an amused smirk.

“So Acer,” said Pumpkin, “care to play a game of kickball with us?”

Acer nodded his head in agreement, “Of course; I would love to.”

As Acer joined Pumpkin, Pound and the others to their kickball game, Ruby Rose was near on the sidelines continuing to contemplate on everything she just saw. A deep emotional feeling of jealousy began to fill up inside of depths of her heart.

“I… I can’t believe it! I can’t believe he chose that… that freak of a filly over me! Why would he do that, and what’s wrong with me!”

Whatever doubts or second thoughts she had of her mother’s plan to get Pumpkin back to that psychiatric ward suddenly disappeared from her mind and was all for it 100 percent.

“Alright, I wasn’t sure about sending her back to that psychiatric place,” Her eyes suddenly started to fill up with angered tears, “But now… it’s personal.”

Getting to know You

A new student named Acer moved to Ponyville and came into Cheerliee’s class for the rest of the school semester. He just so happens to be a foalhood friend of Ruby Rose when they both used to live in Trottingham. Ruby still sees themselves as more than just friends, but Acer says otherwise. Unfortunately for Ruby, Acer took a liking to Pumpkin Cake and decided himself that he was going to try and be her coltfriend.

Ruby did not take Acer’s action well and a dark ember of jealousy begins to burn deep within her. She thought that Acer was basically putting himself in danger by letting himself be close to Pumpkin all the time; if she ever goes berserk, Acer might end being the first victim. Ruby wasn’t going to let this happen, she wanted to inform her mother right away.

Envy Rose was inside her shop house tidying up around the main room all nonchalant with no worries bothering her; that is until her daughter suddenly rushed into house in a state of panic while slamming the door behind her.

“Please, Ruby, haven’t I taught you not to slam doors behind you;” said Envy in a formally matter, “it ruins their woodwork.”

“I’m… sorry… mother…” Ruby responded while catching her breath, “but… you won’t believe what happened at school today!”

Envy arched her eyebrow at her daughter, “You didn’t get yourself expelled, did you?”

“No, I didn’t,” Ruby quickly shouted.

Envy suddenly sighed a breath of relief, “If not, then I suppose that you’ve finally made your mother proud and got that that little cake filly back to that place?”

“Far from it,” said Ruby in a disappointed tone, “You know that Pegasus that I met back in Trottingham, Acer, he’s here! He’s moved here to Ponyville!”

Envy remembered him well and saw him as a nice, noble gentlecolt. She smiled a bit while eyeing her daughter, “Is He; well that’s nice to hear. He still didn’t accept you as a fillyfriend yet, am I right?”

Ruby slumped down on her flank and a face of rejection and worry formed on her face, “Well… that’s the problem.”

Envy saw the expression on her daughter’s face and realized that something troubling must’ve come up.

“Is there something wrong?” she asked.

“He… chose… somepony else,” Ruby responded with tears flowing from her yellow eyes, “he chose somepony else to be his fillyfriend.”

Envy came beside Ruby placed her forehoof around the little filly to help comfort her, “Well… I’m sorry to hear that, darling. But, you can’t force anypony to be with or not be with any filly of his choice.”

“But…” Ruby continued, “It wasn’t just any filly; he chose… Pumpkin! He chose that danger prone filly over me!”

Envy’s eyes suddenly grew wide and then narrowed down a bit. Whatever glee that showed in her face suddenly disappeared as she became quite bothered.

“Hmm… is that so?” she asked.

“I’m afraid it is,” Ruby responded, “I mean… he knows all about her; what she’s like, and what she’s done! But yet he still chose her! This is absolutely bad; if she so much as hurt him, I’ll never forgive her!”

“Calm down, Ruby,” said Envy, “The boy is obviously oblivious to what he is getting himself into.”

Ruby sat down on the couch with her forearms crossed while sporting a pouty face, “Hmph; I’ll say! Only another psycho would dare be a coltfriend to Pumpkin; and Acer is no psycho.”

Hearing what took place at the schoolhouse, Envy just couldn’t ignore it; she had to do something.

“Just how attached is the little filly to your Pegasus friend?” Envy suddenly asked suspiciously.

“She did seem too shy at first, but now she’s being all lovey-dubby with him; she thinks he’s really cute! Before we know it they’ll soon be become really close!”

“This is just as I feared,” Envy thought to herself, “If that filly’s emotions focuses too much on another subject and makes her unaware of any mishaps that may happen to her, she’ll store up too much anger energy in her. Then if it’s unleashed at once, it could be the end of us all.”

“Mom, what are you thinking about?” Ruby asked suddenly.

“It’s… i-it’s nothing; but perhaps what Acer needs is a live demonstration. If you can somehow get that little filly to flip-out at somepony in front of him, then perhaps he will understand how dangerous it is to be so romantically close to her.”

Ruby’s frown suddenly turned upside after hearing the great idea her mother just gave her, “Yeah that could work! But… how do I make it work?”

Envy smiled and gave her daughter’s horn a light tap, “Just keep on doing what you’ve learned and what you can do; and make sure you don’t get caught.”

Ruby suddenly jumped up onto her mother giving her a big hug, “Thanks a lot mom, you always seem to know exactly what to say.”

“I always do, darling,” said Envy with a pleasant smile, “I always do.”

Back at the main center off Ponyville, Mr. and Mrs. Cake were a little on the tense side while taking care of their business at SugarCube Corner. They couldn’t get their mind off of how their daughter was doing at school; even though they trusted their son, Pound, to keep an eye on her.

Suddenly, knowing that the school hours were over, their hearts began to race as the entrance door swung open. It was then they heard a familiar voice call out… in a cheerful way.

“Hey mom, dad; we’re back!”

It was their daughter, Pumpkin Cake, and she sounded so happy. They both rushed over to the door to welcome both of their little ponies.

“Welcome back, you two,” said Mrs. Cake, “did you have a good day?”

Suddenly, they realized that there was a third pony that was standing right beside Pumpkin; they’ve never seen him before.

“Well hello,” said Mrs. Cake with a pleasant smile, “Who is this?”

Pumpkin stood ahead of the new pony and looked at her Parents with a smile, “His name is Acer; he’s a new student that just started attending our class today…” She then looked over at Acer, and her smile got even brighter, “… and he’s my coltfriend.”

Both Mr. and Mrs. Cake suddenly froze with pure shock as they started looking back and forth at their daughter and Acer.

“Wait… w-what did you just say?” said Mr. Cake with his eyes still wide.

Pound looked at their parents with an amused smile, “I know; pretty awkward, but it’s true.”

Acer walked up closer to the Cakes and greeted them with a bow, ”It’s nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Cake. As you can already see, I have met your children; and I have to say that I think you two have a very awesome son, and a very lovely daughter.”

Mrs. Cake nudged her husband on the side and kinda chuckled a bit, “Well… isn’t he quite the gentlecolt.”

“Acer told us that his parents taught him on how to be polite to others,” said Pumpkin, “especially if he wants to be their friend… or coltfriend.”

Acer blushed a bit from slight embarrassment, “I’ve sorta had a crush on Pumpkin ever since I was 7, even though I’ve never met her. As the younger foal I was, I told my parents that one day I wish to be that filly’s friend and make her feel better from whatever made her unwell.”

“Oh honey, please hold me,” said Mrs. Cake to her husband as she leaned against him, “This little colt has become our daughter’s blessing!”

Mr. Cake chuckled awkwardly as he placed his forehoof around his wife. Pound rolled his eyes and sighed.

“A blessing? Mom… I think that you’re over-exaggerating just a little bit.”

“Oh I don’t know,” said Pumpkin while wrapping her forehooves around Acer, “It sounded pretty accurate to me.”

“By the way,” said Acer to the Cakes, “I saw a certain pink pony putting on a spy act nearby our school; Pinkie Pie is it? Is she here?”

Suddenly, as if on cue, Pinkie Pie zipped past from behind them and into their conversation sporting a delightful grin.

“Why hello there, Pumpkin and Pound.” She gave them both a certain wink with her eye, “Who’s your new friend?”

“You’re not fooling anypony, Pinkie,” said Pumpkin leering at Pinkie.

“I’m guessing that you’re incognito plan wasn’t a complete success?” asked Mr. Cake.

“Nope; ‘fraid not. But who cares; I got to witness cute little Pumpkin here accepting friendship to this little handsome colt. It was so beautiful!”

Acer came up to Pinkie and had a good look at her; and then he suddenly realized, “Hey wait a second. Now that I’m seeing you better, I think I recognize you.”

“You do?” asked Pinkie while tilting her head to side being curious.

“Yeah, I do. If Pumpkin doesn’t mind me saying… aren’t you that pink mare that that almost got killed by her when she was only 1yr old?”

The room suddenly fell silent after Acer’s question. He felt like maybe he shouldn’t have mentioned it like that.

“Oh, sorry; maybe it wasn’t smart to ask that.”

Pumpkin suddenly walked up to him and told him, “Hey, it’s alright; and yes, you are right.”

“Um, yeah; yeah, what she said,” said Pinkie out of relief, “I am the one! Of course, it wasn’t just me.”

“I know,” Acer responded, “It was you and 5 other mares, right?”

“Yep, you’re absolutely right!”

“Hey, Pumpkin… I can get off this subject if you want me to; you know, if it’s bothering you.”

“No, its okay,” she responded, “What else do you want to know?”

“W-well… how did you put up with it? How did you get through your days?”

Pumpkin looked at her parents for their approval. They nodded their heads; telling her to go ahead.

“I don’t remember much of how it started; I was only 1yr. old after all. But what I do remember was not too much fun. It was like a constant battle in my head; one side trying to keep calm, and one side trying to spread fear and having the need to kill. I guess my inner darker self doesn’t like to be told what to do; hence why I almost killed Pinkie. Not to mention that I almost lost my brother’s love and trust when I accidentally mutilated his wings; he was practically terrified of me. But, throughout the years as I got older, I became more aware of my situation and I did my best to redeem myself and earn back everypony’s trust; except, I never did lose anypony’s trust. They were just a bit weary of my condition, and they all wished me luck and prayed for me that I would be able to get out of that dreadful place as soon as possible.”

“We knew that Pumpkin was drawing in a lot of attention around Ponyville,” said Mrs. Cake, “it just didn’t hit us right away that all of them only cared for Pumpkin… and us. They all wanted to help us in any way they could. Pumpkin is really lucky to find somepony like you. You don’t care at all what she’s like, do you?”

“Of course I don’t,” Acer responded while shaking his head, “She can’t help it if she was born like this; I am willing to help her out in any way I can.”

Pumpkin couldn’t help but hug him again while tearing a bit through her eyes.

“Unfortunately,” said Pound in a solemn tone, “there are still a few who consider her a threat, and a danger to all Equestria.”

“What; who would think such a thing?” questioned Acer while flapping his wings out of mild anger.

“Do you know our classmate, Ruby Rose?”

Suddenly, Acer’s wings drooped down out of shock, “R-Ruby? You mean she is one of them?!”

“You do know her, don’t you?” asked Pumpkin.

Acer nodded slowly to Pumpkin, “Yeah, I do. We were good friends back in Trottingham before she had to move here. I did talk to her today, but when I saw you and wanted to see you she seemed to be against it. She really didn’t want me to be into you; now I know why.”

“She did give me a little look before she left the schoolhouse;” mentioned Pumpkin, “Is she… jealous of me?”

“It truly sounds like it to me,” shouted Pinkie while smacking her hooves together.

“Ruby’s mother doesn’t care for Pumpkin either,” said Pound, “In fact, she wishes for Pumpkin to get back into that ward where she belongs… but we really don’t like to dwell on that.”

Acer looked at Pumpkin who was holding her head down trying her best not to crack under emotional pressure; he then went over to comfort her while displaying a little anger himself.

“That’s… that’s terrible! Aside from my family, Ruby and her mother are some of the nicest ponies I know; why would they act like this towards her!?”

“Because… they think… I’m… a freak,” Pumpkin responded quietly shedding a tear, “I’m a monster, a lost cause, a fatal disaster waiting to happen. They see me as nothing but a… major threat to everypony around me.”

This time, even Acer shed a few tears realizing just how tough Pumpkin really had it; not to mention who was truly responsible for her hard time recently.

“No way; they could’ve said all that.”

“It’s true,” said Pound, “the thing is the mother doesn’t do a thing; instead she has to Ruby trust her into personally harass Pumpkin whenever she could to make her lose her temper to remind others exactly just how dangerous she is… nothing but a bunch of bullcap. We’re not quite sure why they are doing this, but the matter has been mostly taken care of; although if they are as you say, nice ponies, they’re certainly not showing it.”

Acer noticed a slight glow emitting in Pumpkin’s horn; and seeing how slightly distraught her face was, he had an idea of what was going on. He politely held up her head and lightly held his hoof on her horn. Pumpkin suddenly felt a feeling of comfort as she felt the irritation go away. She looked at Acer who had a serious, honest look on his face.

“I’m sure that family has been telling you this already but… you’re not a freak, a monster, or a lost cause. I’d say that the real monster is whoever harasses you.”

Pumpkin started smiling again while wiping away some emotional tears.

“Don’t let anypony get you down or get you easily irritated. Don’t let that other side of you gain in control; I believe that you’re stronger than that.”

Pumpkin held her head up; feeling her confidence take flight and Acer’s words giving her stronger willpower.

“Don’t worry, I am. After what I’ve been through, I never want to harm anypony again. Besides…” Pumpkin began to rub her head against Acer’s cheek, “… I think I’m fine… now that I’ve met you.”

“I’m glad that I can help,” Acer responded, and then gave her a little peck on her cheek.

Mrs. Cake started to sob in happiness beside her husband, “Oh Celestia, I think… I’m going to cry.”

“Easy honey, easy; it’ll be alright,” her husband responded to her.

Pumpkin suddenly felt a slight twinge in her head and groaned a bit while holding her hoof to her head.

“Pumpkin, are you alright,” asked Acer.

She sat her hoof down and showed a bright smile to hide her expression of the light pain, “I’m alright, but… could you excuse me for a moment, please?”

“Oh… um, sure,” said Acer awkwardly.

Acer watched Pumpkin as she began to walk upstairs towards her room; then suddenly, Pinkie came from behind and gave him a light noogie on the head.

“Alright; you go, Acer! You know how to impress little fillies!”

Acer kinda blushed but tried to hide it, “Well, I don’t do it to mainly impress them; I just do it to be nice and polite… like my parents taught me.”

As Mr. Cake carried his happily sobbing wife in the front room, he called out, “Pinkie Pie, would you mind helping us out in the kitchen; as sentimental as this moment was, we need to get back on schedule.”

“Okie, doki, loki,” she responded; then she looked back at Pound and Acer, “Gotta roll, you two colt keep on keeping it real!”

As she skipped off towards the kitchen, Acer just smiled and shook his head, “That pink mare really is something.”

“Hey, Acer,” said Pound suddenly, “can I talk to you for a sec; colt to colt?”

Acer looked up and nodded his head, “Sure, what’s up?”

“Well… I just wanted to tell you that… well; you’re the best thing that’s happened to Pumpkin since she was released from that psychiatric ward. I wish I was there for most of her growing up in that place but… I let fear control me. I let Pumpkin’s uncontrollable actions on me draw me apart from her when she needed my support most.”

“Well, getting most of your wings sliced and torn up by your own twin can do that to you,” Acer responded, “And besides, you two were just toddler foals; you couldn’t have thought that through.”

“I know, but she’s still my sister; my twin sister. We’re both 2 halves of the same whole. If I never had gotten over my fear of her, she probably wouldn’t be able to move on with her life. But luckily, she’s met you; and now I can sense that she’s finally going to be able to get through with this much better than she has already.”

“By the way,” said Acer while looking at the stairs, “what is she doing up there…” He hesitated slightly, “Um, unless it’s none of my business.”

“Whenever Pumpkin feels a great deal of stress in her body, she goes up to her room alone to meditate; it helps her to stay calm and keeps her other side at bay.”

Acer was quite amazed by all of this; it seemed that Pumpkin had a self-saving method after all. Maybe with that and his support, he believes that Pumpkin could finally be out of danger of losing control of her emotions.

“I guess things were already taken care of before I got here, huh?” said Acer.

Pound looked over at Acer; wondering if he was still thinking about the ones he calls… nice ponies, “So what are you going to do about Ruby and her mother?”

“I’ll talk to them eventually, but… maybe now is not the best time. Knowing Ruby, she’s probably too mad at me right now.” Acer laughed a bit along with Pound.

Something suddenly across Acer’s mind, “So, Pound… at one point during school I couldn’t help but notice that you were making quite some dreamy eyes at that earth filly; Minty Swirl was it?”

Pound’s face suddenly blushed full red as his wings suddenly popped up, “W-w-what; I-I-I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Acer sported a sly smile and chuckled while patting Pound on his back, “Don’t worry about it, man; some colts are just more resourceful at this kind of stuff than others.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean,” spouted Pound.

Ruby's Failure

Pumpkin Cake has been through a lot throughout her entire childhood trying to keep her alternate murderous side from ever controlling her consciousness. But recently, Pumpkin met a colt name Acer who she grew a crush on. However, Acer actually had a crush on her for a longer time before he moved to Ponyville. He wishes to help the Cakes comfort and support their daughter by becoming her coltfriend. Unfortunately, this didn’t bode well with Ruby Rose who became overly-jealous of the situation. Now she plans to do whatever it may take to make Pumpkin lose her sanity in front of Acer hoping that he would have second thoughts on being so close to the dangerous filly.

Right now, we find Pumpkin and Acer hanging out at the Ponyville Park spending some time together and talking about different things about their lives. They were sitting on a bench just enjoying the scenery around them and feeling the brisk warm air.

“This is a beautiful day; isn’t, Acer?” asked Pumpkin.

“Yeah, it is,” Acer responded while smiling and looking up at the sky, “Although, I think what makes this day even better for me…” He suddenly turned his view over to the relaxing filly, “… is being here with you.”

Pumpkin suddenly turned her head away and blushed feeling embarrassed by Acer’s comment, “My goodness, Acer; stop it. Are you trying to over-flatter me or something?”

“Maybe; I mean, the more I flatter you, the better you feel. And it is important that you feel really great, right?”

Pumpkin turned back around to face Acer and looked him in the eyes, “Yeah, you’re right. Just don’t treat me like I’m too special, okay?”

Acer placed his hoof on her shoulder, “But you are special. I don’t care how dangerous other ponies may think you are; you have every right to live the way you want to live and be what you want to be.”

Pumpkin smiled as she looked to the side and was rubbing her shoulder. Besides her family, she never thought that any other pony would be this nice to her; especially a pony whom she’s never met before.

“You’re just being too nice, you know that,” the bashful filly said, “Come on, loosen up a little.” She lightly tapped Acer on his shoulder making him feel motivated, “Why don’t you show me… your wild side.”

Acer suddenly blushed a little himself and his eyes grew moderately wide, “Wait, excuse me?”

“I mean show me any cool aerial tricks you may know,” Pumpkin responded questionably, “What did you think I meant?”

Acer realized that he jumped the gun a little and mistook what she really meant. He quickly tried to change the subject so Pumpkin didn’t think he had a dirty mind.

“Oh, um… hey, I do have some cool tricks to show you; check this out!”

Pumpkin just looked up when Acer flew up in the air and smiled forgetting about Acer mistook thought.

Unknown to both ponies, Ruby Rose was spying on them from a nearby bush. She was feeling very furious as she saw them carrying on with their business and being so close to each other.

“Oooh… just look at her,” she thought to herself while eerily eyeing Pumpkin, “spending time with the pony who should be my coltfriend. I just don’t understand why he would choose her. Sure, maybe she ‘s good at making mean, delicious pumpkin delectables; but that doesn’t change the fact that she a murderous, killing machine ready to strike at any time. I have to make Acer see her as she truly is… but how?”

Suddenly, Ruby looked up above the park grounds and noticed that the gray, clumsy pony known as Derpy was setting up little rain clouds over designated areas.

“Ahh, there we go! All rain clouds aligned perfectly. Whoo, that wasn’t so hard; and now to water some plants!”

Ruby had a little mischievous smirk on her face as she saw blonde mare start bucking the clouds and releasing the little trickles of rain.

“Yes… perfect.”

As Derpy continued, Ruby made her horn glow and was creating a little rain cloud of her own, but she had it aligned right under Pumpkin. The unsuspecting filly didn’t seem to realize as she was too distracted watching Acer’s aerial tricks.

“Wow, Acer, that’s so cool;” shouted Pumpkin, “even cooler than my brother perhaps!”

Acer did a little flaunting pose in air for Pumpkin just to make her laugh, “If you think that’s cool, watch this!”

It was at that moment that Ruby finished creating her cloud and Derpy was just finishing bucking the last few clouds she set up. Ruby’s plan was set; all she needed now was to catch the bait.

“Well, that’s all of them,” said Derpy to herself while wiping off some sweat, “And they said that I couldn’t do it.”

Suddenly, she happened to look to her side and noticed another cloud that didn’t get bucked.

“Huh, what’s that?”

She flew over to the extra cloud and looked at it carefully and suspiciously, “That’s weird; I don’t remember setting up this cloud. It also seems a bit darker too.”

Ruby was just itching to yell out to her to release the rain water already; but she knew that doing that would just give her away. She waited patiently as Depry kept looking at the cloud like she was studying it for bugs or something.

Then, Derpy just shrugged her shoulders and thought, “Oh well, what pony am I to keep count.”

A little smirk found its way back on Ruby’s face as she saw the clumsy mare get in front of the cloud and lifted her back legs.

“Fire in the hole!”

With one swift move, Derpy kicked the cloud with all her might; and instead of little trikles of rain coming out, a huge downpour came out instead.

“What the…” Derpy thought as she was shocked to see just how much came out.

Acer was in the middle of showing one of his routines to Pumpkin when he suddenly saw the huge downpour of rain heading right towards her. He tried to call out in time…

“Oh no; Pumpkin, look out for the…”

“AHHHHHHHH!!!!”

“…rainwater.”

However, it was already too late, the rainwater had already gushed all over Pumpkin leaving her to lay there all wet and drenched.

“Yes,” thought Ruby to herself feeling amused and satisfied, “Bulls-eye! That freak of a filly is gonna blow.”

Derpy realized the huge mistake she just did; and seeing who she accidentally soaked made her become even more worried.

“Uh-oh.”

Pumpkin just sat there with her head hanging down and her wet mane sloshed over her eyes. She didn’t appear to be moving, but Acer knew something was about to happen. Suddenly, he noticed that her teeth were gritting together and her horn started to glow slightly. Acer approached her with caution.

“Um, are… you alright Pum…”

Just then, like Ruby hoped, Pumpkin just lost it.

“UGH! What the hay!? Look at me at I’m soaking wet!”

Acer soon noticed that Pumpkin’s beautiful crystal-blue eyes suddenly changed into a crimson-red color. That was a sure signing that her other side was trying to come out.

“What stupid, idiotic, unfortunate soul has the nerve to do this to me?!”

Suddenly, Pumpkin’s fearful dark stare turned up above her and was fixed on the shaking gray mare who was trying not to show any fear; but it didn’t work.

“S-s-sorry; I really am! I didn’t realize that this cloud had that much water in it; n-nor did I realize that you were sitting… right under… this cloud. I… I-I just don’t know what went w-wrong.”

“Alright,” said Ruby while grinning in her hiding spot, “any moment now, she going to attack that mare and Acer will finally see his mistake; I just hope she won’t go too far.”

Pumpkin stepped down from the bench and then looked back up at Derpy wearing a fake smile along with her original murderous stare. Acer suddenly became uneasy.

“What’s the matter, clumsy vision,” said Pumpkin in a slightly menacing tone, “can’t see straight? Then why don’t you come down here…” Suddenly, her fake smile completely disappeared within her emotional presence, “SO I CAN STRAIGHTEN THEM OUT FOR YOU!?”

Pumpkin immediately fired an aura beam in the air, and Derpy quickly panicked as she stepped to the side to barley dodge the beam that only graced her side.

“Yeow!”

She quickly hid behind the empty cloud while holding onto the slightly bleeding side wound. She was hoping that she could shield herself while trying to apologize.

“Ow, ow, ow; hey, I said I was sorry!” she said while looking over the cloud.

“Why are you hiding, coward!?” shouted Pumpkin, “Afraid of a little magic!?”

Pumpkin charged up her horn again in an attempt to fire another beam

“Pumpkin, stop,” shouted Acer as he flew towards her.

Ruby was looking at Acer suspiciously and was also feeling a slight feeling of worry, “What the… what’s he doing? He should be scared and frozen in shock, not getting brave and getting closer. I mean, I know he’s brave, but this is ridiculous.”

Acer suddenly grabbed a hold of Pumpkin causing her hesitate on her next attack and glared back at him with her intense red eyes.

“Don’t you dare do it, Pumpkin,” said Acer, “That mare didn’t do that to you on purpose! Can’t you see; it was a complete accident. Please, don’t do this.”

Pumpkin slightly turned her glare back at Derpy who was still behind the cloud shaking and holding on to her light wound, and then glared back at Acer who was staring at her with steady, determined eyes. Just then, the expression in Pumpkin’s eyes suddenly shifted away from her anger, and her demonic red eyes changed back to her normal light-blue shade.

“Ugh… oh my… what did I…” she wondered. Then it suddenly hit her as she gasped suddenly and looked up towards the quivering mare.

“S-sorry, Mrs. Derpy; I didn’t mean to lash out at you like that! Please, forgive me?!”

“It’s… i-its okay,” Derpy responded awkwardly, “It was all just a big misunderstanding. And don’t worry about me; i-it’s not like I was s-s-scared or anything.”

Pumpkin looked back at Acer feeling a sense of relived comfort as she shook herself dry, “Thanks you, Acer. I just don’t know what came over me; it was just water.”

Acer just gave her an assuring smile, “Glad I could help. I told you I would do my best to support you and keep you safe.”

Pumpkin then went over to Acer and gave him an embracing hug; she was so happy to have him by her side.

Ruby couldn’t believe that her plan failed; she was flowing with anger, “How did he even do that; all he did to stop her was putting his… hooves around… her waist. Ugh! That wasn’t supposed to happen.”

Ruby wasn’t going to give up on her first try though; she really wanted to make her mother proud of her and Acer’s attention off of Pumpkin as well.

“Alright; I need to think of something else.”

Sometime the next day at Twilight’s house…

“Easy… easy… easy…” said Twilight.

Pumpkin was practicing some magic with Twilight. She was still trying to learn to keep things stable when being carried by her magic. Right now she was practicing by keeping a puddle of water in a ball formation and then carries it to a vase that Twilight had set up. However, she ended up dropping it about halfway.

“Darn it; stupid water!” Pumpkin shouted, “Why can’t I do it right?”

Acer was sitting behind her supporting her all the way, “You can do it, Pumpkin! Just do your best and don’t let this frustrate you!”

Twilight just smiled and said, “You heard your coltfriend; just let go of your frustration.”

Watching from outside the tree was Ruby… again, and she realized how frustrated Pumpkin was to the excersice.

“Sounds like somepony is a little stressed. Seems like another good chance to mess her up.”

Pumpkin was doing the exercise again, but this time she almost had it over the vase.

“Almost got it; almost got it…”

Ruby chuckled as she used her magic to make Pumpkin think she was struggling with again; a pain went through her head that caused her wince and drop the ball of water right before it could reach the vase.

“Oooooh my gosh,” said Twilight in a worried tone.

Once again, Pumpkin yelled out of frustration and slight annoyance, “Argh! This practice sucks!” She suddenly made the vase shatter right before Twilight’s and Acer’s eyes; and then she glared at the purple mare with her changed eyes, “You… you will teach me something that’s worth my time or I’ll… I’ll…”

She then saw Acer who was just sitting there behind the startled Twilight. He knew for a fact that this irritation was nothing to her and that he trusts her to control her emotions. The crimson red color once again vanished from her eyes, and Acer smiled feeling proud of her.

“Are you okay?” asked Twilight.

Pumpkin rubbed her head and looked at the remains of Twilight’s vase, “Yeah… I am. I’m sorry about your vase though; you know I d-didn’t mean it, right?”

“Don’t worry about it; nothing a little unicorn magic can’t handle. Although, I have to say that I’m lucky that you had your coltfriend here to help support you. I’m afraid my place might have gotten a little messed up if he wasn’t here.”

Pumpkin looked over at Acer who was giving a cool acknowledgement of congratulations. She smiled back him and blushed a bit; his presence just makes her feel all aglow.

“Let’s try that exercise again, shall we?” said Twilight.

“Okay,” Pumpkin responded in a cheerful way.

“AHHHHH! NO!” screamed Ruby from outside, “It happened again! Acer is keeping her calm; and that time he didn’t even have to hold her! Why can’t he see what he is dealing with?!”

Ruby was furious and very frustrated; she needed to figure out a way for her plan to work… and soon.

The next day at the schoolhouse…

Pumpkin was playing a game of tag with her brother and some of the other classmates. They were being careful though because there were some mud puddles that were leftover from a light shower from last night. Ruby was watching close by pretending that she was writing something so no one suspect her of anything.

“I’m sick and tired of wasting my time;” Ruby thought to herself, “How can I get her to lose her cool here?”

Suddenly, it hit her; the running, the muddy puddles, and Pumpkin out there at risk of falling in one; now that sounded like a good plan. Ruby found herself smiling again as she continued to watch for a perfect opening.

“Okay, Pudgy,” said a random filly, “You’re it! Try and catch somepony!”

The well-rounded little colt did his best to run around and catch any of his classmates. But today, Ruby knew that Pudgy would try and catch Pumpkin for the first time; it was good chance to finally get her to finally let her rage loose.

Ruby smiled as she saw Pudgy going after Pumpkin with determined spirit to catch her.

“I’m gonna finally tag you, Pumpkin!”

“You’re going to have to catch me first!”

They were both running very fast but the grass was very slippery; not a good combination, but it would help Ruby complete her plan. Once Pumpkin was at a certain angle and Pudgy was close enough, Ruby used her magic to quickly cause Pudgy to ram forward into Pumpkin. She went forward in the air and landed face first into a nearby mud puddle.

All the classmates gasped in horror upon seeing what happened; Pudgy especially was triple worried that Pumpkin was going to gut him like a fish. Miss Cheerliee was nearby and saw what happened and came to see if she was okay and if she was calm. Ruby was still sitting where she was with a satisfaction smile. That mud was probably going to take forever to get out of her mane; she’ll lose it for sure.

“Oh dear Pumpkin; what happened,” said Cheerliee as she ran to the soiled filly, “Are you alright!?”

Pumpkin just laid there not moving a muscle; not a good sign.

“I don’t know what happened, Miss Cheerliee,” said Pudgy as he approached them, “I was just trying to tag her when suddenly it felt like I accidentally sprinted forward and rammed into her!”

Pudgy was hoping that she was okay and not miffed at him; he wouldn’t be able to outrun her if she tried to chase him down and kill him.

“Please, don’t be mad at me, Pumpkin! I didn’t mean it! Honest, I didn’t!”

Pound and Acer came to them as well to see if Pumpkin was okay.

“Pumpkin, we’re right here,” said Acer, “Are you alright?”

The dirty-stained filly slowly got up and turned around to face the quivering plump colt who was just sitting there waiting for whatever Pumpkin was going to do to him. She walked to him in a slow manner partially glaring at him and her horn suddenly started to glow.

“Pumpkin, please don’t injure your classmate;” said Cheerliee, “Just let it go!”

Just then, Pumpkin used her magic to float away most of the mud that was on her and flung it to the side. Pudgy looked at her and saw that her horn stopped glowing and she was smiling at him.

“It’s okay, I’m sure you didn’t mean it. It was an accident, right?”

Pudgy stood there with wide eyes and slowly nodded his head. Pumpkin then gave him a hug of forgiveness, “Thanks any way for the apology though.”

Cheerliee sighed of relief; she was glad nothing major happened and then she told her class, “Okay, class, from now on, no playing tag when the ground is wet.”

After seeing what happened they all agreed.

“She didn’t even get upset this time?!” Ruby thought to herself, “This is outrageous!”

She looked over at the crowd and saw Acer give Pumpkin a kiss on the cheek.

“I am going to break you, Pumpkin…” she said with bitter jealousy in her eyes, “if it’s the last thing I do.”

Ruby just didn’t understand how this was possible. Before Acer came to Ponyville, she was able to get Pumpkin to release her anger just by verbally insulting her; let alone physically. But now it been about a week since Acer and Pumpkin met, and none of Ruby’s sneaky attempts has succeeded. Based on her mother’s intuitions, she knew something terrible would happen if she didn’t get Pumpkin to release her anger soon; she just didn’t know what. But the more she failed, the higher risk she would put everypony in. She needed to end this now before Pumpkin’s emotional anger became too powerful for her magical teachings to handle.

At the end of the week after school, Ruby saw Acer hanging out… again, but at one point Pumpkin was waiting outside a sport gears store while Acer checked on something. This was her chance to finally let Pumpkin have it… for everypony’s sake and hopefully she could handle whatever amount of anger that was stored inside.

“Oh, hi Ruby,” said Pumpkin with a pleasant smile as Ruby approached her, “Do you need something.”

“Why would I need anything from you, freak,” said Ruby stuck-up tone.

“Excuse me?”

Ruby stared at her and was trying not to fall for the innocent act. She knew what she was, and she needed to bring that side out.

“Do you really think that you can just forget what you are? Do you honestly think nopony isn’t terrified of you?! Do you really think that Acer is going to continue hanging out with a psychopath like you?!”

“Well… yeah,” said Pumpkin with no hint of anger in her tone, “I admit, you gave me a hard time, Ruby, and I thought I was about to lose conscience; but… I’m not mad at you anymore. You and your mother can say what you want, but thanks to Acer, he’s made me realize that there are more important things in the world than being mad, getting upset, or even planning revenge. I hope you can mellow down and realize that… it’s over.”

Ruby couldn’t believe it; what was Pumpkin even saying?! How could she not be at least a little bit angry?

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me!” she shouted, “You’re not fooling anypony, Pumpkin! I know all about you and your freakish condition! You can’t tell me that you go through all that and you’re not furious at all!”

“Actually, I can,” Pumpkin said coyly, “What is it to you anyway? You really need to get another hobby. I mean come on; it’s not like me not getting angry is going to be the end of the world.”

Ruby then got up in Pumpkin’s face with a furious and frustrated look on her face, “Listen, I don’t like you, my mother doesn’t like, and Acer doesn’t like you; nopony here in Ponyville likes you. Not even your own sweet-tart family likes you; you’re just living in a huge illusion! You’re a freak, a monster and a complete murderous nut-job; and one of these days you are going to hurt Acer and I won’t forgive you! So give me everything you got right now; lay it on me! Show everypony here what you truly are now… you… freak!”

Pumpkin for one really hated being called that and it’s what usually brings her a little on edge, but she just looked at Ruby while she was catching her breath from all that yelling.

“Are you quite finished,” asked Pumpkin, “I sure hope so because you really need to just give up… it’s over.”

“What… what are you?” said Ruby out of exhaustion.

Suddenly Acer walked out of the store and noticed that Ruby was here; he was hoping that she wasn’t trying to stir up trouble.

“Ruby… what are you doing here,” he asked, “I hope you weren’t trying to do something bad because of your jealousy.”

Pumpkin didn’t feel like having him know what Ruby was really doing and told him something that would save Ruby’s reputation with him.

“Oh don’t worry, Acer. She was here insulting me, but she was only testing me to see if I truly had control over my emotions, and it worked! And I have you to thank for that.”

“I guess that’s cool,” Acer responded, “Thanks for doing that, Ruby; maybe I mis-judged you.”

“Y-yeah… no problem,” said Ruby solemly.

As Acer walked off, Pumpkin was following him from behind. As she went by Ruby, she stopped for a second and whispered to her, “You’re welcome.” And then she left; leaving Ruby to just sit there and wallow in her ultimate failure.

Back at her house, she told her mother about what it had come down to. She still wanted to do something to get Acer out of that situation; but right now, it seemed that she would never get the chance.

“It’s no use, Mother; I’ve tried all this week but nothing I do seems to upset her anymore! And it’s all because of her feelings for Acer.”

Ruby appeared to be crying thinking that she failed her mother and Acer.

“Do not cry and feel sorry for yourself, Ruby,” said Envy, “You’ve done your best, and that’s all that matters.”

Ruby started to dry her tears away, and then suddenly, she thought of a possible point on this situation.

“Maybe… maybe nothing will happen,” she said, “Maybe her anger is subsiding and we really have nothing to worry about.”

It was a nice positive thought, but her mother had to deny what her daughter had said.

“I’m afraid that’s all a complete lie, my dear. The more anger that filly stores in, the more powerful her magic will become; soon it will all burst out by force and nopony will be able to stop her.”

Ruby understood what her mother was saying, but she still saw no point in continuing, “But what can I do?! I tried everything, but I failed every time; it’s hopeless! I will never get Acer away from that… freak.”

Suddenly, her mother walked up beside her and gave her a comforting hug before saying her next words.

“There is… one more thing you can try.”

Ruby looked up at her and wondered, “There is?”

“Yes, but I’m afraid that you won’t like it.”

Ruby wondered what her mother meant by that, but at this point she really didn’t seem to mind, “What is it; what do I have to do… I’ll do anything!”

Her mother took a deep breath and gave her daughter the answer, “You… must use a lying spell to have Acer… cheat on Pumpkin.”

Ruby’s eyes grew wide in realizing what her mother just said, “What; you want me to… to cast a spell on him?!”

“Yes,” her mother answered, “If what is happening is true and Acer’s love, trust and affection is what holds Pumpkin’s anger in then it’s the only way. You must set up those two to meet each other somewhere in two close alternate times. Have Acer show up first, and then you must use the spell on him so he will have the exact opposite feelings for her. He will hate her, despise her, he'll treat her... like trash; and if done right, he will love you instead. Once Pumpkin sees this, her love and comfort for him should disappear; and then prepare yourself to do whatever it takes to keep her down until the medics gets there.”

Ruby felt totally lost; she couldn’t bring herself to do such a thing to Acer. But, what else could she do?

“But… I-I-I can’t do that to Acer; even if I am jealous!”

“Nehtier do I,” said Envy sadly, “This is hard to do to both of them, but Acer has brought this onto himself. What needs to be done has to be done. So tell me, Ruby, do you wish to do this and save Acer’s life, or do nothing at all and risk letting that filly kill him and endanger everypony else’s life?”

This was a tough decision for Ruby to make. She really didn’t want to this, but she didn’t want Acer to be killed by Pumpkin’s bi-polar side. She still pondered over the fact of exactly why her mother knows so much about her condition.

“M-m-mom? Just what are we dealing with here?” she said in a quivering voice.

“I already told you, it’s best that you never know,” her mother responded, “So… are you still willing to do this; I will not force you.”

“No mother… I… you’re right,” said Ruby in a normal seldom tone, “It’s best for Acer and everypony… if Pumpkin is locked away again. She won’t risk anypony’s life ever again. I… I will do it.”

Envy hugged her daughter again out of compassion knowing that she made an important decision, “You are doing a good thing, Ruby. You make me proud.”

Ruby accepted her mother’s hug and put on a slight smile, “Thanks, Mom. I… I-I won’t let you down; I promise.”

However… Ruby’s life and perspective on her actions was about to change forever.

Emotional Breakdown

(This Chapter is filled with major heartbreak... not for those who are over-sensitive)

During the exact time of our last scene, Miss Cheerliee was over at the Cakes’ house for a brief meeting about the behavioral progress about their daughter at school. Things started to look up for her and Cheerliee wanted to share her thoughts.

“Well, Mr. and Mrs. Cake,” said Cheerliee, “I have to say that everything seems to be much calmer with your daughter over the past week; I’m actually quite surprised!”

“She has been calmer, hasn’t she, dear?” said Mrs. Cake.

Mr. Cake smiled and nodded, “Calmer, happier, and more serene than we have ever seen her in months. She still meditates but we still haven’t seen her get mad at anypony. I mean just yesterday, Pinkie Pie accidentally (metaphorically speaking) ate our daughters newly made special Pumpkin meringue pie that she spent 3 whole hours on making… all by herself! Pinkie’s excuse was that her sweet tooth got the best of her.”

“I couldn’t help it; it was so deliciooooooooous!” shouted Pinkie while shedding some tears.

“Anyway,” Mr. Cake continued, “all Pumpkin did was laugh at Pinkie’s small stomachache and told her that it was alright and she could just make another one; she didn’t get mad, not even a little.”

Cheerliee was quite shocked. Based on Pumpkin handling her condition over the past few years, this was a huge improvement.

“That is amazing,” said Cheerliee, “But you know, I find it kinda strange that I started to notice this ever since that new student of mine came here.”

“You mean Acer,” said Mrs. Cake, “Well, she has been spending a lot of time with him recently.”

“Do you suppose that he is the reason why Pumpkin’s anger has been subsiding?” asked Cheerliee.

Suddenly, Pinkie jumped up on all 4 of her hooves and shouted out loud, “I bet my hoof on it! She loves him, and trusts him; and Acer feels the same! He said he wanted to help support Pumpkin; so he is definitely doing a good job!”

Mrs. Cake suddenly had a tear in her eye, “I never thought that I would see the day, that I would no longer be worrying about our little Pumpkin. I think she’s going to turn out just fine in the end and become the beautiful mare that she dreams to be.”

Suddenly, Pinkie zipped up to Cheerliee’s face and became curious of another matter, “So… tell me, Miss Cheerliee; what’s the latest scoop on your student, Ruby?”

“She’s actually doing okay,” Cheerliee responded while pushing Pinkie away from her face, “She has been a bit more silent in school recently, but I haven’t seen her harass Pumpkin at all. Perhaps her mother actually got my message about expelling her daughter.”

“Yeah,” said Mrs. Cake suspiciously, “maybe she has.”

Cheerliee looked around and realized that they were the only ones there at the time, “So where is Pumpkin anyway; I forgot to ask.”

“Where else do you think;” said Pinkie in a mushy tone, “with Acer.”

“Wow, perhaps Pumpkin and Acer were destined to meet; don’t you think?”

“I don’t see why not,” Mr. Cake responded, “Acer has been taught to be a very good gentlecolt.”

“Before we know it, Pumpkin might actually be cured of her condition one day,” said Mrs. Cake happily, “Nothing could ruin this moment for Pumpkin now.”

The next morning…

At Acer’s place, our kind little colt was just getting up for the wonderful day he knew that he was going to have. But at some point when he heard the doorbell ring… to him, it might get even better.

“I’ll get it,” he shouted out, “I wonder who it could be at this hour?”

He opened the door only to be greeted by a slightly elder stallion that caught him off guard for a second.

“Good moooornig, young colt!”

“Ah! Um… good morning… mister mailpony.”

He dug into his mail sack and pulled out a little letter, “I have a letter for a… Ac… er?”

“Oh, um… I’m Acer.”

“Well then… here ya go, young colt; and have a pleasant day!”

With that, the mailpony left and Acer was left with a letter to read.

“Such interesting mailponies they have these days,” Acer said to himself.

He opened the letter and read what was inside intrigued by what it said, “Well, what have we here?”

‘Dear Acer, I know we’ve only seen each other for a week, but there is something special I wish to tell you in private.’

“Private, huh?”

‘Please meet me at the open field area near Ponyville Park at the 11: 45; hope to see you there. Love, Pumpkin.’

Acer felt a bit uneasy and a little nervous; after all, what private message did Pumpkin want to tell him anyway?

“Wow, this kind of sudden,” he said to himself, “But I might as well see what she wants to say; I’m pretty sure it’s not so bad.”

A little later that morning… Pumpkin was having a delightful time helping her family out in their shop. Then suddenly, they hear a knock at their door. It was the most oddly knock they have ever heard before.

“I’ll get it,” said Pound as he approached the door.

He opened the door all the way, and there to greet him was the quirky gray mare, Derpy Hooves.

“Hello there,” she said cheerfully.

“Oh, hey there, Mrs. Hooves.”

She dug into her mail sack and pulled out a little letter, “I have a letter for your sister, Pound.”

“Thanks,” Pound responded as he grabbed the letter, “I’ll go ahead and give it to her.”

Just then, Pound notice the bandage cast that was wrapped around Derpy’s right side and became quite curious.

“Say, Mrs. Derpy, is that a bruise on your side; what happened to it?”

“O-o-oh, this? It’s, umm… it’s nothing,” she answered awkwardly, “It’s just from one of my clumsy moments, y’know? Umm… have a nice day!”

Derpy suddenly flew off leaving Pound a bit puzzled of that situation, “Okay. Hey, sis, there’s a letter for you!”

Pumpkin came over and grabbed the letter with her magic and held it in front of herself to read. The bright smile on her face seemed to get a bit brighter as she read on.

“O… M… G!” she squealed out suddenly, “Acer wants to meet me near the Ponyville Park at noon!”

“But why?” asked Pound.

“He wants to tell me something special. I guess it’s a bit embarrassing to him to tell anypony what it is yet.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Pound said suspiciously.

“What’s going on?” asked Pinkie as she bounced in their direction.

“Pumpkin received a letter from Acer saying that he wants meet her near the park to tell her something.”

“Aww; but wait, why can’t he come here?”

“That’s what I thought; but obviously he wants to meet her in private. Something fishy is going on here.”

“Pound, I already told you,” Pumpkin responded, “What he wants to tell me is probably too embarrassing to him for anypony else to hear right now.”

“Not that I suddenly don’t trust him or anything, but I would think that somepony like him wouldn’t do something like this just to deliver you a message.”

Pumpkin just turned around and walked away from her brother while flicking her tail at him, “Believe what you want to believe, brother. You would probably understand if you had somepony that you loved.”

Pound was about to say something but he blushed and hesitated. He decided to not go into it.

“Hey Pound,” said Pinkie, “you got a little red on your face there.” She then suddenly gasped, “Hey, you do have a special somepony, don’t you?!”

“What, n-n-no I don’t! That’s crazy.”

“You’re the one who’s crazy,” said Pinkie, “Crazily in love!”

“Forget that; I just want to make sure that nothing bad ever happens to her right now. She’s so calm and happy. If anything were to ruin it right now, I don’t know what I would do.”

Pinkie came over to Pound to try and cheer him up, “Come on, Pound; let me see a smile on that face. Acer is a nice pony; one of the nicest ponies I’ve ever met. So he wants to meet her in private, I’m sure he has a good reason. Pumpkin couldn’t be in better hooves right now.”

Pound looked over at Pumpkin was in the middle of showing her parents the letter Acer had sent her, “I just can’t help but think that something about this feels… wrong.”

11:45 at a nearby open field near the Ponyville Park…

Acer finally made his appearance and was looking around at his surroundings. Hopefully Pumpkin was going to be there soon.

“Well, this must be the place,” he thought to himself, “I wonder where Pumpkin is; maybe she running a little late. I suppose I could just wait for her.”

He did sit there to wait for Pumpkin, but what he didn’t know was that there was another pony there watching him… closely. He suddenly sensed some kind of magical presence nearby and he thought it was Pumpkin. He turned around only to get hit by a magical aura; then he fell over onto the ground unconscious.

A young little red filly emerged from the nearby shadows showing a little residue of magic dissipating off her horn. She looked down at the knocked out colt wearing a face of regret.

“Forgive me, Acer; this is… for your own good.”

Pound was just moping around the main front room contemplating on the situation at hand. Why would Acer call Pumpkin to a certain place just to tell her something? Sure, they shouldn’t dwell in other pony’s business unless they want you to, but Pound just couldn’t get it out of his mind; something just didn’t seem right.

Suddenly, Pumpkin’s friend, Minty Swirl, came through the entrance door and saw nobody there except Pound; who suddenly stopped in his tracks.

“Hey, Pound,” said Mint with a smile, “where’s Pumpkin? I wanted to show her this cool new bracelet that I got!”

Pound became a little flabbergasted and was hard for him to speak correctly, “Oh… h-h-hey Minty. Um… here not Pumpkin… I mean… Pumpkin is not here!”

“Umm, are you alright, Pound? You’re acting all funny.”

“I’m fine, really just a little… flustered over my sister and meeting Acer by herself at the park.”

“Really,” wondered Minty, “well I’m sure it’s just fine, don’t worry. I’m sure Pumpkin will be fine as long as she is with Acer.”

“Yeah… s-sure.”

“Well, I gotta go. You know, we should both hang out more often.”

Minty was on her way out the door when suddenly Pound called out to her, “Hey… uh, Minty?”

“Yeah,” said Minty as she turned back around and look at Pound’s eyes.

Pound tried to say something again, “I think I… I… think…” But unfortunately, it still didn’t come out as he wanted, “I… think you’ve been a wonderful friend… to Pumpkin; she’s real lucky to have somepony like you… as well as Acer.”

“Well… thanks,” Minty responded awkwardly, “but you really don’t have to remind me a dozen times about that fact, Pound.”

“Uh, yeah… sorry.”

As Minty left the building, Pound was holding his composure; then all he could think to himself was…

“Stupid, stupid, stupid Pound! You blew it… again.”

A filly’s bright and sunny day was about to become a dark and desolate one. On her way to see her new friend, Acer, Pumpkin Cake was feeling nothing but positive vibes and had an upbeat attitude. She felt that whatever Acer had to say to her was nothing to worry about, but as she approached her destination, she was about to see something that will make her cheerful glow falter a bit.

“Well, I’m here,” she said to herself, “I wonder what Acer has to say.”

She looked out in the open field and saw Acer sitting out there, but she saw somepony else with him… another filly.

“Wait, is that… Ruby?”

They seemed to be talking and laughing and laughing together and it caused her to glare at the scene for a bit. However, she just threw it off her shoulders and claimed that they were just catching up on stuff and hanging out; they were old friends after all.

“Oh well, I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about. They’re probably just hanging out and being good friends. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

She started to walk towards them keeping her upbeat attitude; and Ruby, she was the only one who saw her coming. She seemed to be giving her a slight smirk as she came closer and closer; what was up with that?

“H-hey, Acer, I’m here,” Pumpkin called out cheerfully, “So… what is it that you want to tell me so urgently?”

Acer suddenly turned around to face her; however his dark glaring face didn’t make him look too happy to see her.

“What are you doing here?”

Pumpkin became hesitant for a second from his dark tone of voice, “Huh, you told me through mail to meet you here.”

Acer just scoffed at her while looking annoyed, “What; why in Celestia’s name would I want to hang out with a freak like you?”

Pumpkin thought she was hearing things that weren’t there, “Um… excuse me? What did you say; I think I misunderstood you.”

“Are you deaf; I don’t need to repeat myself.”

Pumpkin thought that something strange was going on with him; why was he acting like this all of a sudden?

“Are you okay, Acer,” she asked as she placed a hoof on Acer’s shoulder, “You’re acting a bit bizarre.”

Suddenly, Pumpkin found herself being shoved down on the ground from a swift movement of Acer’s front arm.

“Don’t… touch me.”

Pumpkin didn’t seem to mind as she was rubbing her shoulder from landing roughly on it. Acer looked over at Ruby with an uptight look on his face.

“Sorry about this, Ruby; let me take care of this annoyance.”

“Um… sure, okay.”

Ruby was all set on getting Pumpkin back in that ward, safe and away from everypony like her mother suggested; but… deep down… she didn’t seem all that happy somehow.

“W-what’s going on, Acer,” said Pumpkin in a worrying tone, “Why… did you do that to me?”

Acer marched right up to Pumpkin and gave a rather ominous sneer, “Gee, I don’t know, Pumpkin. Maybe I did it just for fun, or maybe because you deserve such treatment! Ever think of that?”

Pumpkin still couldn’t comprehend exactly what was going on because obviously Acer wouldn’t really treat her like this. But then, an interesting thought came to her mind as she suddenly smiled and chuckled.

“Oh, I think I see what’s going on now. This is from what I told you yesterday about Ruby testing me and now you’re trying it yourself.”

“What?” Acer scoffed.

“Well nice try, but I am not affected one bit, see? You helped me get this way you know; you always wanted to help me in any possible way.”

All of a sudden, Acer suddenly started to laugh out loud; but for some weird reason to Pumpkin, it didn’t sound very funny.

“Wha… what’s so funny,” she asked him with a slightly worried look.

“Help… you; why would I want to help you?!”

“Why? Because you care about me; you… love me. You said so yourself.”

Acer suddenly got into Pumpkin’s face and planted his forehead on hers; glaring deep within her confused gaze.

“Please, I don’t care about you; you’re nothing but a crazy psychopath who’s a danger to everypony; nothing but a lost cause.”

Pumpkin suddenly backed away from Acer feeling both confused and a bit frighten, “Acer… please; that’s enough! What are you saying?! You said that you didn’t care about my condition and that I’m not a lost cause! You’re a nice gentlecolt to me, remember? You don’t dare to hate or loathe me just because I almost killed somepony. I am doing my best you know, but right now… you’re just being weird!”

She suddenly calmed herself down and wiped a little bit of tears away from her eyes trying not to get too upset; after all, she still thought that this was all just a test to see if she could truly hold back her controlled emotions now.

“But… you know what? That’s okay, it’s fine. After all, this is just a test and I can forgive you for it cause… I still love you and… you still love me.”

Ruby couldn’t believe how much Pumpkin was standing up to him; she was truly doing everything she could to hold back her anger in which her mother said was a bad thing. But… could she really love him that much?

“Well… tell me this, Pumpkin,” said Acer with an annoyed tone, “If this was all a test as you say, I that I really did love you… would I do this?!”

Pumpkin and Ruby watched as Acer zipped up a few feet in the air and then started to perform a loop. Acer then suddenly swooped down at high speed and literally rammed right into Pumpkin; right into her stomach. Pumpkin’s eyes grew wide as she coughed up a little blood from Acer’s impact and found herself hurtling across the ground and slammed right into a tree yelping from the immense pain.

Ruby’s eyes were wide too as she gasped from what she just witnessed what Acer just did to Pumpkin. This whole plan thing seemed a little too intense on Acer’s part.

“Um… A-Acer?” she softly said.

“Hang on a sec, Ruby,” Acer responded, “I need to finish putting this filly back in her place.”

Acer walked over to where Pumpkin was propelled to wearing a snooty grin on his face seeing the pain that the bruised filly was in. Pumpkin just laid there continuing to cough violently from the headbutt that she received. She looked up at Acer with tears in her eyes, and she was sobbing immensely.

“A-A-A-Acer, that… th… that hurt! Please tell me that you’re just overdoing your fake abuse to test me and my emotions.”

“Don’t you get it, you stupid freak?! The only thing I ever did with you that was fake was my feelings for you!”

“What; no!”

He went over to her and raised her head up with his hoof to get a good look at her sorrowful face.

“Face it; I played you, I tricked you, I fooled you. All the compassion and love I gave to you was all for my amusement to see your pitiful expression for when found out that you were living a lie!”

He let go of her face as she continued to stare into space with tears coming continuously.

“And let me tell ya, it’s priceless!”

“No, no! This can’t be true!” Pumpkin shouted in sorrow, “You’re lying! You… were too nice to me!”

“Exactly my point,” Acer responded in a less amused tone, “So get this through your thick little petite skull; I don’t love you, I never did love you and I never will love you!”

He then went over to Ruby and wrapped his arms around her, “The only one that I love is Ruby here; she’s normal… and she’s not a freakish psychopath.”

Ruby blushed a bit from being so close to Acer; but she was a bit scared of what she made have done.

Pumpkin truly wanted to believe that this was not real, but it was; it seemed that this Pegasus that she fell in love with loved her back only to laugh and ridicule her in the end. She lost all the happiness that she had inside and instead came out as rivers of tears as she continued to cry and sob constantly. She was no longer the happy she once was.

“Now why don’t you go run back to your little family,” said Acer, “Or should I say the only ponies that still give a crap about you!”

Pumpkin lifted her head up and kinda glared at him with tears continuing to stain her eyes and her soft coat around it.

“Stop looking at me like that,” Acer scoffed, “Get away from me right now, unless you want another strike to your gut.”

In one sudden move, Pumpkin rose up on her hooves and yelled in frustrated anger as she threw a random nearby rock at Acer; but he smirked as he easily dodged it.

“F-f-f-fine then,” Pumpkin shouted with tears still running down from her eyes, “Forget you! I’m sorry you and I ever met… JERK!”

She suddenly darted off away from Acer and Ruby. She didn’t even look back, she just continued to flee off and sob to herself

“That’s right, run home to mommy!” Acer shouted, “And by the way, the feeling is mutual!”

He then turned back around towards Ruby and gave her a pleasant smile, “Sorry about all that, Ruby. But don’t worry, that freakish filly is gone now. Now how about we go back to discussing what we were talki…”

Suddenly, Ruby hit him with another aura blast that ended the spell that she casted on her earlier; he fell back on the ground unconscious. That very spell was the lying spell, in which makes the pony act the complete opposite of how they feel towards another individual.

“Whoa…” thought Ruby to herself, “I knew he loved her, but I didn’t realize that he loved her that much!”

She thought carefully to herself thinking that maybe doing this was a little too far than what she intended. However she just shook it off and didn’t seem to care.

“Oh well, whatever. There no doubt that this time that filly will come back for revenge … and when she does, I’ll be ready.”

Back at SugarCube Corner, Pound suddenly heard the front door open and closed instantly. He rushed over from the family room to see his sister standing there at the door and he seemed relieved.

“Pumpkin, you’re back!” he shouted, “How did things go with Ac… er?”

Pound then realized the bruises all over his sister’s body. Her face seemed drenched from her tears and a little blood was peaking from between her lip. Pound got devastated and wondered who would do such a thing to her.

“Pumpkin! Oh Celestia, are you okay; you look hurt; what happened?!”

Pumpkin looked at him and some of her poofy mane seemed to go limp and her hairbows seemed ragged. Pumpkin tried to speak out, but she couldn’t talk about it.

“I… I-I can’t… I don’t want to talk about it!”

She ran past Pound galloped her way upstairs to shut herself in her room.

“Pumpkin, wait!” Pound shouted after her, but she didn’t answer back.

“I knew it,” he said to himself, “I knew this whole letter thing and meeting in private seemed fishy!”

Pinkie suddenly walked in the building came from behind Pound, “What’s going on, Pound? Was that Pumpkin I just saw run in here?”

“It was,” he responded sadly, “Pinkie, it’s terrible. She was crying; my sister was crying… furiously.”

“She was what,” Pinkie shouted, “Oh no… and this day was going so well.”

“What on earth happened to her out there?”

“I can’t believe it; I don’t believe!” shouted Pumpkin as she flopped onto her bed with her face down onto it, “Why would Acer do this to me?! I thought he liked me?!”

Pumpkin did her best to be calm and control her emotions; but all seemed too overwhelming seeming that most of her comfort recently came from Acer. But now that it didn’t seem possible anymore she didn’t know what to do.

“No… I can’t… let it get to me; I won’t let it get to me! It was all a trick, an illusion. It wasn’t real! It wasn’t… real…”

All of her happiness started dissipating more and more each minute. She tried to concentrate on her magical energies, but even that wasn’t enough to soothe her; she fell into deep sadness.

Suddenly, from the deep dark depths of her sub-conscious mind came a familiar figure that witness everything from within Pumpkin; her inner demon. The very one who seemed to take over if Pumpkin ever lost her self-will. It loomed over her with its evil presence; enjoying the essence of her pain.

“Well, well, well. What’s this I see; poor little Pumpkin, rejected and abused by the very one that she thought really cared about her.”

“Go away,” said Pumpkin as she was crying into her bed sheets, “I don’t feel like dealing with your annoyance.”

“But I’m just here to help comfort you after I saw what happened.”

“Oh please, ‘sniff’ everything that you have done has never comforted me.”

The evil shadow was planning to use this very opportunity to do everything she could to get Pumpkin to let her anger out tenfold. The more angry Pumpkin gets, the stronger she’ll be.

”At least I didn’t betray you… like that Acer colt; oh man that was so amusing to watch!”

She suddenly got close to Pumpkin’s ear and whispered, “But you know what would be even more amusing… making him pay.”

Pumpkin didn’t want to give in that easily; she tried to refuse, “No… n-no, it’s fine; he… he must have his reasons.”

“Are you freaking kidding me?!” the demon shouted, “That bastard played you for a fool! He knocked you down like a dirty rag doll! You trusted him and he broke your heart into a million pieces; and then he went right to the very filly who was already making your life a living hell.”

“Like you weren’t!?” Pumpkin suddenly shouted at her ranting evil half.

Wiping away some more tears, Pumpkin placed her head back down into the bed sheets trying to think positive thoughts.

“I just need time to relax… and calm down, and just pretend that this never happened.”

The inner demon just glared at Pumpkin who wasn’t even looking back up and shook her head, “Listen to yourself; you really are pathetic, just like you traitorous coltfriend assumed. He does all of this to you, and you’re just going to let it go?! You’re nothing but a coward.”

“Shut up! I said Shut up!” sobbed Pumpkin, “I’m not a coward… not a coward.”

The shadowy demon could sense that Pumpkin was really losing her patience and slowly… her sanity; it smiled knowing that it was gaining good progress.

“He came saying that he cared for you, but it was nothing but a lie! His compassion was a lie, his chivalry was a lie, and his love is a lie. Everything you thought of him was all a lie. You have every right to shed his blood for his defiance. He has no idea who he is messing with; he doesn’t deserve mercy!”

“No… it wouldn’t be right,” said Pumpkin as she tried not to give in, “Who cares what happened; I’ll just go on with my life… a-a-and my family… and… and…”

Pumpkin was right where her inner demon wanted her, “Let your anger express itself; don’t run away from this. That colt needs to learn his place… underneath your hoof.”

“’Sniff’ M-maybe…”

“He said that he loved you, everyone at your school trusted him, your whole family trusted him; hell, you trusted him… with all your heart.”

“Ye-eah… that is true…”

The shadowy figure turned on a sinister grin as it circled closer and closer to Pumpkin, “But then… he took your heart and CRUSHED it… to dust. He’s no better than any other pony that has treated you like dirt, and… he called you that very word that you loathe soooo much… a freak.”

Pumpkin’s body tensed up and a growing flame was starting to ignite deep within her soul, “I… really… HATE… that…word…”

The inner demon was able to finally wrap her evil embrace around the tearing filly and then asked her a simple question.

“So tell me… are you going to just mope here and cry from this unforgiving abuse and let him and that Ruby filly get away with it?”

Pumpkin’s horn began to glow immensely and rose her head up from the bed sheets showing her sudden ominous red eyes of pure murder.

“… N-n-n… no… I won’t.”

IT... Returns...

“Or maybe… Acer was attacked, and Pumpkin tried to save him,” said Pinkie as she and Pound were trying to figure out why Pumpkin was in such a sorrowful state, “But then she got badly injured… and now… Acer’s DEAD!”

“Don’t say something like that, Pinkie!” shouted Pound in an upset tone.

“Well… why else she come home from seeing him and crying?” she responded, “The only other logical explanation would be if he broke up with her; and we all know that it’s not that!”

“Well I’m pretty sure that he’s not dead; why don’t we just ask Pumpkin what happened when she comes back down.”

“Are you sure that she might be comfortable with that?” Pinkie wondered.

“Probably not,” Pound responded, “but we have to find out what’s going on somehow.”

Suddenly, they heard a loud slam sound from upstairs, followed by a series of steady hoof steps clopping against the floor and coming down the stairs. Pound could see the shadow silhouette of his sister stretching down the steps as she was approaching closer to them.

“Ah, here she comes now,” said Pound.

However, when Pumpkin reached the bottom, there was no hint of a smile anywhere on her, her head was lowered in a position that they couldn’t see her face completely, and some of her front mane was drooping down all over her eyes. Something didn’t seem right to Pound; he could feel this weird chilling sensation coming from his sister.

“Um… h-hey, Pumpkin; are you okay?”

Without lifting her head up, Pumpkin answered in a low, trembling, seldom tone, “No… no I’m not…”

Pinkie hopped down besides Pound and asked, “Acer isn’t dead, is he?!”

Pumpkin’s ears lowered suddenly, then she slowly walked past both Pound and Pinkie while saying, “No…” then her voice changed to that of what sounded a bit crazed, “but he is about to be.”

“Wait… what!” said Pinkie while she was trying to fully comprehend what Pumpkin just said.

The little filly was headed towards the entrance door without another a word when Pound suddenly stepped in front of her storm-riding path.

“Pumpkin, what’s wrong? I feel that something terrible has happened. Please, tell us what’s going on; we have to know.”

Pumpkin lifted her head up face-level to Pound’s and she made a creepy, unsettling glare at him with her newly crimson red eyes that were pulsing with a dark aura.

“Out… of my way… brother.”

Pound’s body started shaking as he was staring into his sister’s eye’s; they were very familiar to him, “Those eyes… oh no.”

He saw the evil gleam within her eyes and tried to show no fear as he stood his ground and looked at his sister straight in the eye, “Um… Pumpkin, m-maybe you should stay here a bit and cool off; you don’t seem well.”

“I said… get out of my way,” Pumpkin said in a more menacing tone as her horn started to glow.

“No, not until you cool down and tell us what’s going on!”

She stomped one of her front hooves on the ground; startling her brother then staring off to the side, “What’s going on… is that I have been living a lie. The very happiness that I had recievd was all nothing but a lie.”

“A lie?” wondered Pinkie.

Pumpkin suddenly turned her glare back at her brother with her horn still glowing immensely, “Now step aside so I can lay my wrath upon the one who has sinned against my heart.”

Pound saw what was going on now, but he wasn’t planning on letting it get too far. He knew for a fact that if Pumpkin got out of control again, the medical corps would have no choice but to bring her back to that dreadful ward place to keep everypony safe for the time being; he didn’t want that to happen.

“Sorry, Pumpkin; but in the condition that you’re in right now, I’m afraid that I can’t allow you to go out like…”

Suddenly, without making a flinch, she used her magic to lift her brother in the air and then flung him behind her right into a wall; leaving a small imprint of his body in it. He grunted a bit from the impact and then dropped down on the ground.

Pinkie quickly rushed to him to see if he was alright, “Pound!”

He quickly got up and shook himself off, “Ugh, I’m okay.”

Pumpkin just stood there in the doorway while mouthing a message, “My love, my happiness, and my light… they were all ruined; gone in one single moment.”

She turned her head towards them and slight trickles of tears were flowing down her face. She glared at them; not showing a single hint of happiness.

“So, whether you two like it or not,” she said in a dark vengeful tone, “somepony’s blood will spill today.”

Her drooping mane wavered in the wind as her horn started to glow and a bright light surrounded her. Pound suddenly rose up in the air and raced toward his sister.

“Pumpkin, wait!”

But the last thing he noticed and saw was a small little grin that appeared on Pumpkin’s face, and then she vanished out of sight.

“She transported?!” shouted Pound in shock, “How did she…”

“Oh no, she’s planning to kill Acer!” shouted Pinkie suddenly.

Pound looked over at her feeling a bit freaked out, “What; how do you know that?!”

“Oh nothing;” she said sarcastically, “just the statement that she made about Acer not being Dead… but he’s gonna be!”

Pound knew for a fact that Pinkie was right; this was starting out to be like that exact day when they were toddlers all over again.

“But… b-but I don’t understand,” he said, “Why would she want to do this… to him; it makes no sense. Unless… unless he really did fake his love for my sister just to hurt her in the end!”

Pinkie thought that could be possible too, “Well, maybe we should let Pumpkin kill him.”

Pound looked at her with an annoyed expression, “Pinkie…”

“Oh, I’m just kidding! Now come on, I’m sure that she’s headed to that same location that she came from!”

They were headed towards the door, and then suddenly, something came to Pound’s mind, “Wait, what about mom and dad? Shouldn’t they know?”

“I don’t know where they are,” Pinkie responded, “and by the time we find them, somepony could already be dead! We have to try and stop her before it’s too late!”

Back at the open area near the park, Ruby was sitting there patiently waiting to see what could happened after her plan worked. Acer was still unconscious beside her but the after affects of her mild spell was about to wear of soon.

“Where is she already,” Ruby thought to herself, “I really don’t have all day.”

But even though she was going along with the plan, she still felt a little uneasy about if she could handle doing this; but… her magic training hasn’t failed her yet.

Just then, Acer started to wake up, and soon she would have to explain things to him.

“R-Ruby; what’s going… on? What… happened to me?”

“Oh; um… hey, A-Acer! Um… I-I saw you passed out… out here for some weird reason. I was very worried.”

“I did come out here to meet with Pumpkin,” Acer responded, “but then suddenly… everything went hazy; like I was under a spell or something.”

Ruby sweated a little and gulped hard in her throat.

“I’m not sure exactly of what happened, but I feel like...”

Suddenly, he saw the visible drag trail in the dirt nearby; the same one in which he created when he sent Pumpkin tumbling across the ground.

“Hey, what’s up with that rugged dirt trail over there?”

Ruby hesitated a bit and then told him a lie.

“I-i-i-it’s nothing! I mean it could be anything.”

“Well, in any case,” said Acer, “Pumpkin must be running late or something. I suppose I can wait for her for a few more minutes; and if she’s not back by then, I’ll just go to her house to see if she’s alright.”

He then looked over at Ruby who seemed to look a little troubled, but he just thought that it was because of her worry of might have happened to him.

“Oh, and by the way… thanks for watching over me and making sure that I was okay. In the end, you really are a good friend… and I trust you.”

Poor Ruby; just that comment from Acer alone suddenly made her feel like her guilt was eating her up inside; she truly felt terrible about what she had done. She knew that she did it because her mother thought that it was the best thing to do to keep Ponyville and all of Equestria safe, but it still ended up feeling very wrong to her for what she did; no matter what she thought of Pumpkin.

“Um… A-Acer,” she said hesitantly as she slightly pushed on his back, “Acer, y-you really have to get out of here!”

“Huh; what are you talking about,” Acer responded, “What’s going on?”

“I’m… I’m afraid I did something… really, really stupid.”

Acer suddenly had this unsettling feeling in his gut that made him know that something serious was up.

“Ruby, you’re freaking me out; what are you…”

Suddenly, Ruby looked behind Acer and saw what seemed like a glowing light… it fully hit her of what it was.

“LOOK OUT, ACER!”

She quickly pushed him down on the ground as a magic beam just missed the top of Acer’s mane and dissipated on the ground. Acer’s heart was racing wondering what was going on.

“What the hay was that!?”

“Acer, you have to leave… now!” Ruby pleaded.

Acer glared at her all while feeling panicked, “What’s going on, Ruby!?”

He then heard a familiar voice behind him; although, there was something oddly chilling about how it sounded.

“Hello… Acer.”

Acer slowly turned around and saw a familiar little filly slowly approaching them from behind some bushes. Her head was down and her mane was drooping down so that it was covering her eyes. Acer knew who it was, but he had a feeling that something was happening to her.

“Pumpkin;” he said nervously, “is that you? Are you okay?”

He suddenly found himself quickly jumping to the side to avoid another beam shot from Pumpkin.

“What the…”

“How dare you ask me that,” said Pumpkin in altered dark voice, “after what you did to me.”

“Pumpkin, what’s wrong?” he asked while feeling a bit fearful of her presence, “Hold your head up; l-l-let me see those cute little eyes.”

A sinister smirk showed up on her face, “Heh, you mean… these eyes!?”

She had held her head up, but what Acer saw was not what he expected; her eyes were a dark, crimson red, and her mane didn’t look as neatly and well-groomed as it once was. It was dangling all over her head and face. To him, it was a shocking sight.

“Sweet sister of Luna!”

“You see these eyes,” Pumpkin stated, “these were caused by your betrayal, your deception, your lie.”

Acer felt very confused of what was going on; what could have possibly caused her to act this way towards him.

“Pumpkin, I don’t know what you mean; I was just waiting here for you to show up like you mention in the letter you sent me. Why would you think I would betray you?! Ruby, do you know anything about this?!”

“Um… uh…”

Ruby couldn’t say anything, she was a bit too frightened by Pumpkin’s presence; this was the first time she’s ever been this scared towards her. However, when the angered filly fired another beam at Acer, she quickly got in front of him and deflected it out of the way. The force of the impact was pretty strong; a bit stronger than she thought.

“Man, that’s some powerful stuff,” she said.

“Pumpkin, you have to calm down,” said Acer who was trying desperately to reach her, “I’m right here for you! Please, do it for me?”

Pumpkin didn’t care to listen as she attacked him yet again. This time, Ruby caught it with her horn and repelled it back at Pumpkin. Unfortunately, she easily jumped out of the way and was glaring at Ruby.

“How are you able to do that, Ruby?” asked Acer.

“It’s kinda hard to explain right now,” she responded.

Pumpkin took a couple of more steps towards their direction with her fear-driven eyes still fixed on Acer.

“You think I’m going to fall for your fake love routine again? The very proof of what you did to me is right there behind you!”

Acer looked behind him and once again saw the dirt trail on the ground, “Wait… that…”

“… was made… when you broke my heart, and rammed me into the ground!”

“What; Pumpkin, that’s not true,” Acer shouted out pleadingly, “I didn’t do that! I would never do that to you!”

“LIES!!!”

Ruby got in front of Acer once again to deflect a powerful magic beam shot by Pumpkin, but it felt even stronger and more exhausting to defend against it than before.

“A-Acer, you have to get away,” said Ruby while panting, “She’s going to kill you!”

“I’m not going anywhere until I find out what’s going on!”

Pumpkin glared at Ruby with her sinister stare while brushing her hoof against the ground, “Out… of the way, witch! He’s going to suffer for what he has done to me… or do you want to die first?”

Ruby, while still shaking, stood her ground and bravely planned to go against the deranged filly. She was hoping that it was going to all turn out the way she wanted it to be; despite the major pressure going on right now.

“N-n-no, I’m… I’m not going to let you hurt Acer! C-come at me; I can handle you!”

Pumpkin just chuckled while looking at the filly that had made her recent life a living hell and started to charge her horn again.

“Heh, your funeral.”

Ruby took a few steps forward towards Pumpkin and readied herself.

“Pumpkin, please snap out of it before somepony gets hurt!”

Pumpkin ignored the words of Acer as she suddenly shot a barrage of fireballs at Ruby. Ruby felt tired, but still managed to place up a shield to deflect all of the fireaballs. Once it ended, she was panting and smirking at Pumpkin, she felt rather proud of herself for deflecting all of that.

“How… do you like that; told ya that I could handle you.”

Pumpkin’s eyes were glistening as she continued to stare down Ruby while lightly growling, “You… are becoming a huge annoyance.”

“That’s right, keep coming at me,” Ruby shouted, “and I’ll just continue to repel you back. What are you going to do now fr… Pumpkin?”
“Ruby, now’s not the time to egg her on like that,” Acer responded.”

“Don’t get a swell head, fool,” growled Pumpkin, “Over more than a year I’ve put up with enough crap from you. You think I’m a freak now, you have no idea how much of a freak I can be!”

Pumpkin slammed her front hooves onto the ground, and with all of her might, she sent a huge magic beam at Ruby. Ruby was able to halt it at first, but soon the force of it was getting too strong and the beam eventually burst through Ruby’s defense and landed right on her. She screamed in agonizing pain from the impact and fell right in front of Acer. Her whole body was covered in singed bruises and she was hardly moving a muscle.

“Ruby!” Acer shouted as he stared at her in horror.

But then, while still alive and conscious, Ruby was lifted up in the air by Pumpkin’s magic and she was levitated over to her. She held her close and looked at her straight in the eyes.

“Stay out of my way; I’ll kill you later.”

Ruby was then thrown over Pumpkin and tumbled against the ground coughing and groaning from the pain.

“Pumpkin, stop this,” Acer cried out, “Ruby are you… Ahh!”

Acer jumped back suddenly while dodging Pumpkin’s attack again. She was slowly walking towards him again giving him her murderous stare. This time, Ruby couldn’t get in her way.

“Now, back to you, dearest Acer.”

“Pumpkin, please… just let me talk to you; you’re not being yourself!”

“There is nothing to talk about,” said Pumpkin with hatred still in her eyes, “And I am very much myself.”

The more Pumpkin edged towards Acer, the more he backed away; worried that she might attack again.

“What’s the matter, are you afraid of me now?”

Trying to not show any main fear in his expression, he just answered calmly, “N-n- no, Pumpkin… I’m… I’m not afraid of you.”

“Well… you should be,” she said with a sinister smile; but then that smile quickly went away; “Nopony abuses me… and leaves with their blood intact.”

Acer was doing his best to keep on a straight face even though he was still shaking from slight fear, “You… d-don’t want to do this.”

“Why don’t we test that theory?”

Pumpkin’s final chance to take out Acer was interrupted when a voice suddenly called out, “Pumpkin!”

She stopped and turned her glare behind her baring her teeth; she then saw ponies that she thought she left behind, Pound and Pinkie.

“I knew it,” shouted Pinkie, “See, I told you that she was here!”

After looking at his sister, Pound noticed their classmate, Ruby, near beside them lying on the ground covered in bruises; it was clear to him of what happened to her.

“R… Ruby?!” he gasped.

Ruby looked up at him and literally pleaded at him, “Please… y-you have to stop her.”

Pound turned his attention back to his sister who was showing no pleasant feeling for seeing them there.

“Pumpkin, whatever you’re doing… it has to stop.”

“Stay out of my business, Pound,” snarled Pumpkin.

“I’m your brother,” Pound responded, “this involves me too… and Pinkie.”

“That’s right!” Pinkie responded in a serious tone.

“Look, even if Acer did something cold and cruel to you, I won’t allow you to murder him like you almost did to Aunt Pinkie back when we were just toddler foals!”

Pinkie slightly shuddered a bit when she thought of that time.

“What’s up with you guys,” shouted Acer, “What in celestia’s name did I do to her!?”

Pumpkin stared at her brother square in the face feeling very un-amused, “So… let me guess, you 2 two are going to try and stop me?”

“By any means, if necessary,” Pound responded.

“That wouldn’t be very wise for you to try that,” said Pumpkin with a slight chuckle, “Tell me, do you feel like having your wings severed again; that would definitely help calm your dear little sister down.”

Pound suddenly faltered down a bit and he fully closed his wings. Pumpkin was trying to place that horrifying moment back in his head again; his entire body was shaking.

“Don’t let her scare you, Pound,” shouted Pinkie, “She’s… sh-she’s only bluffing!”

“Oh really, I’m bluffing,” said the demented filly as she turned her eyes on the pink mare, “You mean like when you thought I was bluffing when I held that knife right between your eyes?”

Pinkie smiled nervously and gulped very hard; and she was rapidly sweating as well. Just then, a powerful beam came at Pumpkin at full speed; but just when it reached her, Pumpkin absorbed it with her horn. She turned her crimson eyes in the beam’s direction and saw Ruby who was barely standing and had wide frighten eyes knowing that she missed.

Pumpkin returned the shot back at her but Ruby was able to soften the hit with a shield; but not by much as went traveling across the ground.

“Stay… down,” she said.

“Oh celestia, Ruby,” shouted Acer.

“I wouldn’t worry about her yet,” said Pumpkin as she turned back to Acer, “because as of right now, I’m going to kill you… and I’m going to enjoy it.”

“Pumpkin… please… I don’t understand;” stated Acer feeling upset for her, “why would you think that I would ever hurt you?!”

“Because I trusted you… with everything I had! But then you turned around and treated me like I was nothing to you, or anypony! You treated me like a monster… and called me a… freak…”

“He did what?” said Pound.

“I knew it,” shouted Pinkie, “Let me at him!”

“NO! Hold on, you got it all wrong,” Acer responded, “Pumpkin, I don’t know who did what you mention to me, but it wasn’t me! Abusing you and breaking your heart is the last thing that I would ever do to you! So please, calm down and fight your emotions, and go back to being the sweet and caring filly I’ve known to fall for.”

Ruby still felt a little jealous against Pumpkin, but at this point even she hoped that she would come back to her senses. But unfortunately, Pumpkin was still not buying Acer’s sweet act.

“Spoken like a fool who wants to save his sorry flank from his own deserved demise.”

“Come on,” said Acer, “you have to come back to your senses!”

“Not on your life, Acer,” snarled Pumpkin as she aimed her horn right at the worried colt, “You dared to break my heart,“ A creepy smile suddenly appeared on her face while panting lightly, “so now… I’m going to break yours… literally.”

Acer jumped out of the way once again avoiding Pumpkin’s attack, “Stop; I just want to help you!”

“Nothing but LIES!”

Suddenly, Pinkie jumped on top of Pumpkin pinning her down on the ground to avoid Pumpkin from firing another shot.

“Gotcha!”

“Hold her down tight!” shouted Pound as he joined Pinkie. He then tried to reach his sister’s sanity himself, “Pumpkin, I’m begging you; fight whatever is making you do this! Fight it!”

“Get… off… of… ME!”

Pumpkin used some kind of magical force to ricochet both ponies off of her and into the air. Too bad Pinkie didn’t have wings as she fell onto the ground with a hard thud; she groaned a bit from the harsh feeling. Suddenly, Pumpkin glared at Pinkie with a creepy grin and fired a spell at her, and Pound noticed.

“Aunt Pinkie, look out!”

Pound quickly flew down in front of Pinkie who was still trying to get up to shield her; however, instead of harming them, the spell created a magical barrier around both of them.

“What the…” thought Pound.

Pumpkin just chuckled out of amusement, “I think I’ll have some fun with you two later.”

She then started to head back towards Acer without any more distractions.

“Pumpkin, stop;” shouted Pound as he was beating against the shield, “This is not worth murder! Pumpkin!”

“Stupid Sheild,” yelled Pinkie, “I can’t get out!”

Pumpkin soon came upon Acer who this time didn’t seem to run away. She held her horn in front of him while her psychotic smile was in his view as well.

“Ugh… Pumpkin, please don’t…”

Without warning, Acer was hit by a huge beam attack from Pumpkin, in close range too. He was holding painful scream in as he tumbled across the ground. Pumpkin was still smiling feeling partially satisfied to see Acer experiencing the same pain that he gave to her earlier.

“Did you feel that, that’s only a taste of the pain I’m about to make you endure.”

Acer slowly got up as his whole body was shaking; he wasn’t going to give up on her just yet, “Pumpkin… even if you do kill me, what will that prove to everypony? I know that the real you is still in there and I know that you really don’t believe anything that you’re saying. Please, think of your friends and family. None of them would do anything to harm you… including me. Can’t you believe that?”

Suddenly just for a second, it seemed that Pumpkin’s eyes suddenly converted back to the original blue color and the filly just looked at him wondering if he meant what he said.

“Acer… I…”

But it wasn’t for too long as the darkness came back in her sinister gaze, “Ugh… no. No, no, no! Never again! You played with my heart once; I won’t allow that to happen again!”

She suddenly raised Acer up in the air with her magic and slammed him against a nearby tree and held him there. He was grunting and struggling against Pumpkin’s force, but his resistance was futile.

“Pumpkin, stop!” shouted Pound with tears in his eyes.

“Do you fear me now, Acer?” said Pumpkin staring creepily into the trapped colt’s eyes, “Now that I’m about to slowly drain your life away?”

On the outside Acer stayed calmed, but on the inside, he was terrified for his life and was scared of what would happen to Pumpkin after this.

“Pumpkin… even now… I… I-I-I don’t fear you, nor do y-you want to kill me.”

Even after everything she was putting him through, the caring compassion that Pumpkin thought was fake would not disappear from his face. The psychotic filly tighten her grip on his body as her creepy smile went away.

“You sicken me.”

Broken Bond

Acer was in a very tight spot, and if no one could stop Pumpkin’s rage, who knows what she would do to him; he feared that this was his final moment… being killed by one that he adored. But luckily, Pumpkin suddenly found herself surrounded by a circle of unicorn ponies that came onto the scene; ones that she recognized very well.

“Halt! That’s far enough, Pumpkin Cake!”

“Oh no, it’s the medical corps!” shouted Pinkie, “I-I mean… yay, it’s the medical corps!”

It was a huge relief to see them here; Acer might have been dead otherwise. But to Pound, this was the worst thing that could’ve happen. If they have to restrain his sister by force, they’ll have no choice but to bring her back to the ward for the time being to keep everypony safe.

Ruby slightly smiled looking up and seeing that the plan was finally going to be complete, “H-heh, right on time.”

“We don’t want to hurt you,” said Diamond Star, the head of the medical ponies.

“Heh, says the group of ponies who have their horns pointed at an innocent little filly,” said Pumpkin with an amused smile.

“Just put the colt down, calm your rage, and come with us quietly.”

Pumpkin gazed upon Acer’s mighty wings and a sinister smile came upon her face as she looked back at the medical ponies.

“Say… you guys are doctors; how much pain do you think Acer will be in if I break all the bones in his wings?”

Acer’s eyes went fearfully wide as tears came down his cheeks; he was hoping that she wasn’t being serious.

“Pumpkin, don’t do anything to rash,” shouted Pound.

Ruby was trying her best to stand up and try to stop her, “Please, don’t you dare do anything to him!”

“Put him down,” said Diamond, “or I’m afraid that we’ll have to force you.”

“Please; please do it…” Pound thought to himself.

Unfortunately, it was no use, “I’m afraid none of you fools have any luck… and neither does he.”

Pumpkin suddenly started to compress down on of Acer’s wings and the young colt started to yell out in pain.

“NO!” shouted Pound.

Some of the Medical ponies quickly fired at the demented filly, but they were easily deflected by her magic.

“You missed…”

Suddenly, they heard a loud snap sound, and Acer’s scream could be heard across the entire area; his first wing was now completely broken.

“Acer!” Ruby cried out with tears in her eyes.

Acer hung there crying a bit feeling the immense pain in his broken wing.

“Ooh, that sounded real painful,” said Pumpkin with a psychotic smile, “Care to feel that again; a second time?”

“We have no choice,” said Diamond, “Everypony, fire!”

“Wait, stop!” shouted Pound; but even he knew that there was nothing he could do.

All of the medical ponies fired a high-level restraining spell at Pumpkin in an attempt to restrain her long enough to calm her down. But… all she did was stand there and smiled,

“Heh, pathetic.”

She absorbed it all in her horn in one fell swoop; a lot of mouths suddenly dropped at the sight; was that even possible for a filly like her?

“Holy celestial moons;” shouted Pinkie, “Did you see that!”

Suddenly, Pumpkin fired back their shots as her own and all of the medical ponies were held down by their own spell; unable to do anything more.

“You ponies were already too late; nopony can stop me now.”

And with that, Acer felt another huge surge of pain as Pumpkin successfully broke his other wing. He screamed out loud again and more tears poured out. He’s felt a couple of scrapes and bruises before, but none of that could compare to what he was feeling right now having both of his wings broken.

Ruby was just laying there sobbing her eyes out continuously. At that moment… she completely regretted everything she did; she just wished that she could take it all back.

“No… it wasn’t supposed to end up like this; Acer!”

“Aw, you poor thing,” said Pumpkin as she dropped Acer on the ground and approached him, “Those wings were so precious to you, weren’t they? Well now they’re crushed… just like my tortured heart.”

Still crying a bit, Acer slowly looked up at her and was careful not to move his wings too much, “P-P-P-Pumpkin… it’s… not too late for you. Just please, stop hurting me… and don’t hurt them.”

Pumpkin’s eyes were boiling with rage just by listening to his words. She had enough of him and his deceitful tongue.

“After how you treated me and tricked me… you expect me to suddenly believe you again?! No more; do you hear me, no more!”

She used her magic to form a nice long spear with a very sharp point and aimed it at Acer’s chest. A psychotic, creepy grin found its way back on her face again.

“I wonder… how far can I push this into your body before it snuffs out your life?”

“Y-you know,” stuttered Acer weakly, “this is not you. The Pumpkin I k-know would never believe whatever she thought she s-saw… or what she didn’t want to believe. So… if you do kill me, I won’t blame you. Nopony will.”

Pumpkin took a moment to stare into Acer’s eyes for a second like she was having a second wind, but then she just scoffed as raised the spear above him, “*Sigh* If only that were true… jerk.”

But just as she was about to lunge the spear into Acer, a loud voice suddenly screamed out to stop her.

“STOP!!! Please, stop! He didn’t do anything to you!”

Everyone there including the medical ponies all looked at the young unicorn filly, Ruby, who somehow found the strength to stand back up. She was sobbing from almost seeing Acer die… and it would’ve been all her fault.

“Ruby?” said Acer.

Pumpkin turned her glare over to Ruby feeling annoyed by the huge distraction, “What are you trying to say, ingrate?!”

“I-I’m saying that… Acer did none of that stuff to you. Well… technically he did, but he didn’t do it on his own accord! He’s was under the lying spell.”

They were all completely blown away by that thought; it was finally starting to make sense to them!

“A l-lying spell,” said Acer, “is that what caused me to black out a bit. But… w-who did it?!”

Ruby gathered all of her courage and took a deep breath and told the truth… if it meant to save Acer’s life.

“It was me, okay? I did it; I casted the spell!”

“What?” said Pumpkin as the spear deformed.

“Ruby,” said Acer, “you did this? You… you’re the reason I almost got killed?!”

There was an awkward silence all around the area and everyone was trying to take in about what Ruby just said; even Pumpkin was pondering about why on earth she would do such a thing. Some of the darkness in her eyes was slowly disappearing.

“This is all my fault; the letters you both received, Acer’s actions against Pumpkin, Acer not remembering anything, and Pumpkin willing to kill Acer for playing her, it was all my doing! And for what… because I was jealous.”

Pumpkin’s eyes somehow changed all the way back to their natural blue color; but her horn was still glowing and any hints of her magic didn’t fade yet, meaning that she wasn’t all back yet.

“You did all of this because you were jealous… of me?” the seldom filly asked.

“Pretty stupid, right?” Ruby responded sorrowful smile, “Acer, I admit to you, Pound, and Pinkie, I was so jealous of her that I was willing to do anything to ruin it.”

“By making Pumpkin kill Acer!?” exclaimed Pinkie.

“No! It was a plan to make Acer so scared of her that he would no longer want to be near her; I never meant it to go this far! I thought I could handle her magic like I have been long enough until those guys showed up,” She pointed at the Medical ponies, “but it didn’t go as… I planned. I thought doing this would make Acer realize how dangerous it was to be around her. UGH! I can’t believe I made you do such a thing!”

Ruby wiped a few tears off to the side while trying to catch her breath and stand straight, “I guess… the real monster here… is me. I’m sorry, Acer; I regret everything.”

Pumpkin suddenly walked up closer to Ruby giving her a calm look, “So… all of this was your doing?”

“Y-yes.” Ruby responded.

Too bad for Ruby; it was a huge mistake to admit that in front of her in hindsight. Suddenly, Ruby saw the darkness appearing in Pumpkin’s eyes again; and before she could react, Ruby was pushed forward by a sudden magical force she tumbled on the ground and landed on her back; wincing from the painful wounds that she had already.

“Wait, what the…”

Pumpkin suddenly pounced on top of Ruby giving her a very dark, grim scowl; and Ruby was truly scared for her own life as Pumpkin re-formed the same sharp spear she had over Acer earlier over her.

“So it was you all along;” she said in her dark, demented tone, “You made me think that all of this was a lie!? You’re the one who caused my pain?!”

She rose up the spear over Ruby’s shoulder and the defenseless filly had tears in her eyes preparing for the incoming pain.

“Pumpkin, don’t!” Pound shouted.

But it was too late; Pumpkin rammed the end of the spear into Ruby’s left shoulder showing no remorse. Ruby cried out from the pain, on top of the pain she was already in. Everyone there watched helplessly as Pumpkin retracted the spear from Ruby’s shoulder and held it over her again in an attempt to deliver a fatal stab into terrified filly’s chest.

“And once I finish impaling your body,” said Pumpkin staring at Ruby intensely, “your bitch of a mother is next!”

Suddenly out of nowhere, a force spell smacked right against Pumpkin knocking her on her side. The sudden interference caused the spear to disappear, as well as any source of her magic. She quickly got up and leered in the spell’s thrown direction.

“Ugh, where did that come from?!”

At that moment when her guard was down, Pumpkin was suddenly held down by the restraint spell from the whole medical corp. Her rage was rising from being held down so easily and was trying to escape the restraints.

“Let… me… GO!”

“Please, Pumpkin, you have to calm down!” shouted Pound, “It’s over; you have to let your hatred go! Listen to your brother!”

The medical ponies had to use every ounce of energy just to keep Pumpkin from escaping. If she got loose, they might have been all doomed. Pumpkin glared at her ordering brother with no sense of care in her eyes.

“I… listen… to nopony. It’s not over until the source of my pain… is no longer breathing!”

The medical ponies could feel their grip loosening against Pumpkin’s power; Diamond Star just shook his head, “I’m afraid we have no choice.” Then he thought to himself, “I sorry for doing this, Mr. and Mrs. Cake.”

He summoned a knockout spell that fell upon the deranged filly. She was fighting it with all her might, but she just felt her strength fading. She fell on her knees and looked over at her brother. Pound could see that her eyes soon changed back to normal right before she closed her eyes fell down unconscious.

“Well, thank goodness that is over,” said a voice nearby.

They all looked over and saw a middle-aged mare suddenly approaching them.

“Is that… you, Mrs. Rose?” said Acer while keeping his wings steady.

“It is me child, and even though the medical corps asked me to stay out of sight and harm’s way, I think that were all a bit lucky I came and made that interference shot just in time. I’m not used to casting quick spells like that nowadays.”

“Wait a minute, Mrs. Rose,” said Pinkie, “You’re Ruby’s mother!”

“That I am, and I am sorry for what has happened. The medical corp would have been here earlier if they have believed me about my… mother’s intuition. I had a weird feeling of something happening that involved that unfortunate little filly.”

Pound couldn’t help but kinda glare at the gray mare; this was the same one who he heard didn’t seem to care too much about his sister and her condition.

“I see,” said Acer while eyeing Ruby, “so it was you who called the medical corps. I guess we should thank you.”

“No need to thank me, Acer,” said Envy, “Nopony dying today is thanks enough for me.”

“Well, I guess we’re going to have to bring Pumpkin back to… the ward;” said Diamond, “We have no choice. Do you mind if we carry your daughter to the health center.”

“I think I can manage,” Envy responded, “Not that I trust you doctors but I rather save my bits and treat my daughter myself; I do have certain healing methods.”

While approaching Pumpkin, the group had to stop suddenly when Pound stepped in front of them with his wings spread out.

“Please you can’t do this;” pleaded Pound, “She couldn’t control herself, and it wasn’t even her fault; it was that mare’s daughter!”

“We understand Pound,” said Diamond, “but that’s just the point. Two ponies here have been severely hurt, and it would have been worse if we didn’t come. I’m sorry, but we have to bring her back to make sure it’s safe enough for everypony.”

“Do understand that they must do what they have to;” stated Envy while looking at Pound, “It’s best for best for all of Ponyville. Now do stand aside so I can take care of my business.”

Unfortunately, Pound didn’t budge; he wasn’t planning to let his sister spend another minute in that wacko place at the. He stood his ground preparing to do anything to defend his sister.

“Um, Pound… what are you doing?” said Pinkie while panicking.

“Not one more step; I won’t let you take my sister!”

Envy looked upon him and shook her head, “Please be careful on what you do next boy. You don’t want others to think that you have the same problem as your sister; seeing as you two are twins after all.”

Pound was glaring rather intensely and Envy; but he looked over at his sister who was still unconscious then looked at Ruby and Acer, and realized that there really wasn’t anything that he could do even if he could stop them. He just stood down and lowered his wings allowing them to go by him.

“Hey, now that was uncalled for!” shouted Pinkie as she comforted Pound.

“No, it’s okay Pinkie; she’s right. Don’t worry about.”

“No it’s not okay! That mare needs to learn some manners!”

Envy used her magic to spread some magical healing ointment that she had with her on a cloth and wrapped it around her daughter’s stab wound.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t get here in time, Ruby; I guess that we were a bit too late in handling the situation. At least you and Acer are still alive.”

She then gave Ruby a little kiss on her forehead to soothe her pain, “Do you want me to fix you up anything specifically when we get home?”

Ruby didn’t feel like talking as she held her head down and shook her head. Suddenly, she saw Acer headed her way being carefully carried by some of the medical ponies; he didn’t look too happy though. As he came by Ruby, he asked…

“Excuse me; can you stop here for a second?”

Ruby wasn’t even looking at him; she couldn’t, not after what she did to him. Acer wasn’t looking at her either, he was looking rather miffed. Without looking at her, he just spoke these words…

“You just couldn’t let it go, could you? Here I thought you gotten over this whole friendship thing; all of this just because you were jealous, seriously? I appreciate that you finally told the truth, but I’m afraid it’s too late for any main apologies now.”

Ruby still couldn’t say anything; she knew that everything that Acer was saying was right and she couldn’t deny him.

“Well, I hope you got what you wanted. I hope that getting that stab wound on your shoulder and me having both of my wings completely useless was all worth it; cause as of now, I rather not talk to you anymore.”

Acer then took his leave away from Ruby, leaving her to feel sorry for herself.

“You want us to contact your parents,” said one of the medical ponies.

“Yes sir… that would be nice.”

Envy lifted Ruby up with her magic and laid her on her back. Feeling that it would be fine in the end, Envy just told her daughter, “I know how you feel, Ruby. I never said that doing the right thing would be easy to handle. Give the young colt some days, and soon he’ll realize why what you’ve done was so important; you did what you chose to do, and you were aware of the consequences. Now let’s get you home and have you cleaned up.”

As Envy carried off her daughter, Ruby, she was just looking around seeing everything that she caused. She saw Pumpkin being carried onto a stretch matt while still out of commission, Acer lying nonchalantly on matt to be carried, and she saw Pinkie with her hoof over Pound who was too busy sobbing for his sister.

After everything that had happened that early afternoon, did she still think that this was all worth the effort to just try to get Pumpkin away from Acer? No… it wasn’t; and in her mind, as a single tear trickle went down her face, she wished that she never did such a stupid stunt.

“What… have I done?”

Making Amends

Today was supposed to be a day of happiness, relief, and compassion; but instead it was a day of sadness, grief, and sorrow. It became a dark day for the Cake family, when Mr. and Mrs. Cake came back home from their deliveries and saw Pound and Pinkie waiting for them. However, they realized that there was something off about their behavior; Pound was lying on the ground with his face covered and Pinkie was beside him looking all sad. Pinkie, sad? When they looked around and noticed that Pumpkin wasn’t there, that together with Pinkie’s expression did not seem like a good thing. They looked at their son and asked what was wrong and where his sister was, but all he did was lift his head and showed his angered yet saddened eyes. Pound had said no words, but he didn’t need to; just by looking into their son’s eyes, they feared the worse. Mrs. Cake just fell flat on her flank and began tearing up while she held onto her husband who was joining her a bit. What the hay happened when they were out?

Acer was at the Ponyville Health and Care center having his wings treated. His parents felt devastated when they heard about what happened to their son and came as quickly as they could to see how he was doing. He was doing fine physically, and the doctors told them that because of what happened, their magic sugery would be free on the house. They were all glad on that kind gesture, but Acer was not doing well emotionally; he was still crying a bit partially from thinking about what may happen to Pumpkin and partially from Ruby and what she had done. He thought that she was his friend, but to him no friend would wound his heart the way that she did. He felt like he would never speak to Ruby ever again.

And as for Ruby, she was at home having her wound healed by her mother, using some special healing tactics that she had learned from her grandfather. It didn’t fully heal it, but it was enough that her mother was able to place a cast with herbal medicines around it. But even with that covered, something in Ruby was still sore and wounded… her heart. She might have accomplished what she thought needed to be done from her mother, but at what cost? Acer was probably going to never speak to her again. And when word gets out, how will other ponies see her as now?

Ruby loved her Mother and she always wanted to stick with her methods, but enough was enough. She had a feeling that it was probably too late for her to apologize or make any amends, but she knew that she had to do something; even at the risk of her own life and dignity… if she had any left.

That late afternoon, she was trying to sneak out the door quietly while mining her wounded shoulder. Unfortunately, just as she opened the door, her mother spotted her.

“Ruby, where are you going? Do you wish to go out in your present condition?”

Ruby froze without turning around because she didn’t want her face to give anything away. She calmed down and faced her mother while showing a loyal smile.

“Oh, don’t worry, Mom. I’m just going over to… a friend’s house; you know, too hang out. I won’t be out for too long; I promise.”

Envy looked upon her daughter making sure that nothing was troubling her, but she seemed to be doing fine; despite her injury.

“Very well, just be careful; and don’t strain yourself. I’ve already let you go through too much already.”

“Yes m’am,” said Ruby as she walked out the door, “don’t worry about me.”

She then closed the door behind her and continued to walk on ahead where she finally stopped hiding her true expression. She did something that she ended up regretting; but even though it was the right thing to do, she was about to do something else that she would end up regretting. She looked back at her house for a few seconds and then continued on ahead leaving a trail of painful tears in her path.

“I’m… sorry, Mom.”

Back at the Poyville Health and care center, we find Mr. and Mrs. Cake rushing back into the place after having Pound and Pinkie to go in before them and be there for Pumpkin, after tending to some last-minute situations. As they both ran through the building, the medical ponies there just allowed them through knowing exactly why they were hurrying.

Once they reached the psychiatric ward and arrived at the very room they remembered very well, they just busted through in a state of panic.

“Where is she; where’s Pumpkin!?” Mrs. Cake shouted out, “Please tell me she’s okay?!”

“You know, Mom,” said Pound nearby, “Pinkie and I fine too.”

Mrs. Cake just chuckled while still tearing a bit as she hugged Pinkie and gave Pound a kiss on the cheek. Normally he would wince and feel embarrassed, but he didn’t have any urge to do so at this time.

Mr. and Mrs. Cake went over to the window of the room that housed Pumpkin and saw her on the padded floor out cold; not making a single movement.

“I just don’t understand,” said Mr. Cake desperately, “just this morning she was as happy as a clam, calm as a cucumber, perky as a flower! Can somepony please explain to me and my wife how the situation of our daughter changed suddenly within the couple of hours that we were out of the house!?”

“We were all quite confused at first,” said the main Medical Corp. Pony, Diamond Star, as he approached from behind, “When we were notified about it, we thought it was impossible concerning on how well she was doing. But… once we got to the scene, we couldn’t believe our eyes on what we were seeing. We haven’t seen your daughter this bad since that very day you had to bring her to us about 9 years ago.“

Diamond brought down a screen showing the energy levels of Pumpkin’s emotional magic; they were currently reading at a high critical level. Mr. and Mrs. Cake just couldn’t believe it. They swore that they would do their best to keep their daughter out of this place; yet here they were once again in the exact same place as before; it was their worst fears come true.

“These energy readings on your daughter show that even though she’s unconscious, her power is still way out of control. My entire team could barely hold her down; and to prevent anypony else from being severely hurt, I had no choice but to knock her out. We have no idea what could’ve caused this… well, actually we do.”

“It was that DAMN Ruby’s fault!” shouted Pound suddenly.

Everyone there suddenly jumped in shock upon hearing what the young colt said.

“Pound,” Mrs. Cake shouted “watch your language!”

“I’m sorry; Mom, but I couldn’t help it. That filly; she was a rather major annoyance while Pumpkin has been going to school with me, but I’ve always been there to do my best to help get her through! Ruby has done some pretty mean things, but what she did today is just… just…”

Pound just repeatedly stomped his forehooves on the ground while grunting out in frustration. Once he stopped he just stood there to catch his breath and his parents were standing there watching him to make sure that he was okay.

“Are you okay, Pound?” asked Pinkie feeling concerned.

“I’m fine, Aunt Pinkie; I’m fine… I’m just fine. But if that filly knows what’s good for her, she’ll stay away from my sister; as far away as possible. I’ve never punched a filly before, but she’s well on her way to becoming the first.”

Mr. and Mrs. Cake became a little weary of how their son was acting; he was really being protective of Pumpkin. However, it would be a bit of a problem if he’d ever do something that would be going too far.

“She’s waking up;” Diamond star said suddenly, “Pumpkin is starting to wake up!”

This caught all of the Cakes’ attention and Pinkie’s as they all rushed up to the window of the padded room.

“How are her energy levels,” asked Mrs. Cake.

“I’m afraid that it hasn’t changed. Going in there now to try and comfort her will be too dangerous. I fear that she’ll go at anypony, even her own parents.”

They all watched as Pumpkin was slowly opening her eyes and groaning to herself; she seemed to be doing alright.

“Ugh, where am I; what happened? Huh… padded floors… stuffed animals everywhere… *Gasp* No; no, no, no, no, no, no! Don’t tell me I’m back here?!”

Pumpkin got up and started to run around frantically in a state of panic like she forgot where the exit was. Her family was watching her with bitter greif; hoping that there was a chance that she would calm down again and keep her cool. But she showed no signs of calming down as she started to fire violent beams all around the area that surrounded her.

“Let me out! Let me out of here! I can’t stand to stay here any longer; I’ll go insane!”

Suddenly, one of her beams ricocheted of the wall and knocked her back down on the ground. Pumpkin’s family gasped upon seeing her get hit by her own beam. Pumpkin became furious and frustrated as she slowly got up again and was breathing heavily; and then her horn started glowing ever brighter, which was never a good sign in this case.

But as they saw that her eyes suddenly changed to that frightening shade of red, they knew that she was lost again in her own dark world. She glared over in their direction, but all she saw were figures of those that were keeping her locked up against her will.

“GET ME OUT!!!”

Everyone ducked as Pumpkin fired another powerful beam at the window; it did seem to stretch a bit, but it still did no good to Pumpkin as she kept on pressing against it with her magic. She eventually stopped her attack and shouted out in aguish.

“No! No! No! Ugh… no…”

Pumpkin just sat on her flank while holding both of her hooves to her head; straining and groaning from whatever pain that she felt in her head.

“I can’t take this anymore, Dear!” shouted Mrs. Cake as she dreadfully looked away from her suffering child, “We have to do something! We have to make her realize that her family is here!”

Pinkie then looked back at Pumpkin who suddenly glared at a bunch stuffed toys and used her magic to blow them all to pieces.

“Um… I don’t think that’s such a wise thing to do right now,” said Pinkie nervously.

Pound looked at his psychotic driven sister with eyes still filled with hope. He didn’t want to believe that she was completely lost yet; that there was still something that they could do… but what?

“I beg of you, sis,” said Pound with tears in his eyes, “please, fight whatever’s controlling you and come back to us.”

Suddenly, the back doors behind them flew open and a young colt came trotting in without saying a word.

“A… Acer?!” said Mr. Cake

The Cake couple saw the two wings that their daughter unintentionally broke and compressed. They were both wrapped in casts and Acer had to keep them lowered to keep any major pain from emitting in his body.

“Don’t worry about my wings; they’re fine,” he said, “How’s Pum-pkin doing?”

“Not too good, I’m afraid,“ Pound responded, “She’s completely lost her mind… thanks to you know who.”

Acer jumped up and saw the inside of the room a total mess with Pumpkin on lying on the ground in the mists of it all constantly sobbing. Acer couldn’t stand to see her like this.

“Just look at that chart,” said Pinkie to Acer as she turned his attention to the energy reading screen, “Unless she calms down and her emotional rage lowers, it won’t be safe for anypony to come near her… unfortunately.”

Acer looked back at Pumpkin who was still doing her best to get her power under control, but he knew that she would need his help no matter how huge the risk is. He went over to the metallic door and looked over at Diamond Star; giving him a face of confidence.

“Let me in.”

They all suddenly looked at Acer like he lost his mind.

“You’re not serious, are you kid?” asked Dr. Diamond.

“My name is Acer; and yes, I am very serious. Let me in so I can try and speak with her.”

“Look, I know that you mean well; but if you go in there right now, that little filly might try to kill you.”

Acer just shook his head and replied while smirking, “No, don’t worry; she won’t kill me.”

Dr. Diamond thought that Acer had lost his mind; but for a little colt, he seemed pretty confident. So along with some background assistance, he carefully opened the metallic door. The Cakes and Pinkie were all getting tense as Acer stepped inside and stopped at a few feet away from Pumpkin who didn’t notice him yet.

“H-hey, Pumpkin, it’s… me. Are you okay?”

Suddenly, Pumpkin picked her head up and turned around to see him. But when she did, her eyes grew wide and then jumped on her flank and then started to back away from him with tears in her eyes.

“A-Acer… please, just stay away from me!”

“Pumpkin, it’s okay; everything’s okay. We’re all still here for you. I just want to talk.”

Pumpkin kept backing away from Acer every time he came closer to her. She wasn’t completely aware of her actions when she went crazy, but she knew Acer saw her for who she was deep inside.

“Acer, please; stay away. I know I did something bad, and I know y-you saw… everything.”

“You didn’t do anything bad,” said Acer, “Well… not intentionally.”

Just then, Pumpkin saw both of Acer’s wings in bandages. She knew what that meant; he didn’t have those on there when she was tricked.

“A-A-Acer…” A tear trickled down her face, “your wings; I did that to you, didn’t I?!”

Acer tried to get closer again, “No you di… well, don’t worry, they’ll heal; its fine.”

Pumpkin continued to back away, “No it’s not fine! I told you being my coltfriend was too dangerous! Don’t come near me; I’ll only hurt you again!”

“No you won’t! Quit judging yourself like that!”

“I said stay away!”

Pumpkin kept backing away from Acer until she bumped into a wall. Acer kept getting closer and closer to her, and Pumpkin’s fearful doubts started to cause her horn to glow. It didn’t scare Acer though; he knew that Pumpkin wasn’t making herself do this. However, the others were on edge, and Dr. Diamond and a few more medical ponies were in position in case they would need to pull Acer away from her.

Pumpkin was in a curled up position against the wall and Acer could see Pumpkin’s blue eye color and the dreaded red color appear and fade in and out constantly.

“Please don’t do it, Acer; I… I may end up killing you. I won’t be able to forgive myself.”

All Acer did when he got to her was kneel down and wrapped his forehooves around her. Suddenly, Pumpkin felt a little bit of her worry simmering down and the red in her eyes fade out completely. She was still showing tears, but she just sat there feeling a sense of comfort again. She just didn’t understand; how could somepony risk their life so much just to try and reach her and show her love.

“None of this is your fault,” he said as he continued to hug her, “Somepony just took advantage of your weakness and caused you go psychotic like that.”

Acer then let her go so she could see his sincere eyes, “But even though you did go crazy and wounded me and broke both of my wings and tried to impale me, don’t think for one second that I would be terrified enough to not come near you. I told my parents and yours that I chose and decided to do what I could to keep you calm… and I’m not breaking my promise!”

The glow in Pumpkin’s horn suddenly went away and she began to cry again. She didn’t even choose to say anything; she just responded by hugging Acer back. He really didn’t hate her nor was he terrified of her… well, not completely. Pumpkin felt overly-relieved and couldn’t stop hugging him; maybe there was hope for her all along.

“Wow, look at this,” said Dr. Diamond bringing up the energy reading screen, “Her rage emotional levels are decreasing. She’s now 70% more calm than she was a few minutes ago! That boy has done something that I admit that I would never be brave enough to do; it so remarkable.”

Mr. and Mrs. Cake couldn’t help but smile as they witnessed the miraculous event unfold in front of them.

“It’s so beautiful!!!” Pinkie cried out in happiness, “No pony can say that they don’t belong to each other now!”

Pound was very relieved; even when his sister was in her most crazed state, Acer was able to calm her down.

“That Acer; so stupid and reckless, yet so kind-hearted.”

Suddenly, once again, everyone turned their heads towards the sound of the double doors opening. However, the pony that entered sent vibes of anger throughout his body. Ruby Rose, the one responsible of his sister winding up back here in this place was now standing before him and his family. She slowly walked in with her head down and shivering in slight fear and worry of what would happen to her now. The Cakes must hate her guts for what she did to Pumpkin.

“Um… h-h-hi…”

Pound started to make his way over to her while staring her down intensely. He was making sure that she wasn’t up to anything.

“You got a lot of nerve showing your face here,” said Pound lowly.

“I know… you’re all mad and furious at me…” said Ruby feeling nervous and scared from Pound’s expression, “and I don’t blame any of you one bit; but I came here to apologize in the best way I can. S-so… do you think you could…”

Suddenly, she was cut off when Pound placed his head right on hers and glared deep into her eyes.

“Who do you think you’re fooling, Ruby? My sister was on the road to recovery and was doing better at not losing it to somepony; then you pull off that incredibly stupid stunt and almost ruined everything! And now you come here and expect us to just automatically forgive you?!”

“Um, Pound?” said Pinkie nervously.

Ruby fell over on her back while continuing to cower before Pound’s threatening demeaning stare.

“Pound, honey;” Mrs. Cake called out, “we’re all very furious, but don’t do anything that you’ll regret earlier!”

Pound stuck his hoof at Ruby’s face while trying to calm himself down, “You’re lucky that I don’t like to hit other fillies; otherwise I would swing my hoof right across that stuck-up snout of yours right now.”

“Please, I’m being serious!” Ruby whined suddenly, ”I’m not here to cause any more trouble. I’ve realized that what I’ve done was stupid and I’m just trying to make things right!”

Pound placed his hoof back down on the ground while not showing any expression of forgiveness, “Give me one good reason why I should believe anything that you say right now?”

“Because she got me,” said another familiar voice.

Pound looked up and literally fell back in shock, “M-M-M-Minty?!”

“That’s right, Pound. Ruby here gave me the low down on what happened this early afternoon. Boy, I just wanted to give her a strong right on her face when she told me the reason for doing what she did; but then I saw that she seemed to be beaten up enough already.”

Pound was just looking at Minty blushing slightly, but then frowned again when looking back at Ruby.

“Anyway, despite all of that foolishness and stupidity, it must have taken Ruby here some major courage to come and tell me this, let alone come in here.”

Pound wasn’t about to start taking Ruby for granted anytime soon, but he decided that it must be okay since Minty was here. He stepped to the side and pointed in the direction of his sister.

“S-she’s… over there.”

Acer was still in the other part of the room with Pumpkin trying to have a normal relaxing conversation with her. But soon they heard some hoof steps starting to approach them.

“Hey, Pumpkin; ‘sup Acer!”

“Huh, Minty! It’s… it’s you!” said Pumpkin in slight shock.

“Of course it’s me, girl! I came here as fast as I could after I heard what happened… thanks to her.”

Minty stepped out of the way and allowed Ruby to be in Pumpkin’s and Acer’s sights; of course, they weren’t very thrilled to see her. Acer just glared at her and turned away from her not saying a word; and Pumpkin… she was strongly scowling at her and her horn faintly glowed while a low rough growl could be heard from the depths of her throat.

“What is she doing here?”

Ruby took a couple of steps back upon seeing Pumpkin’s dark glare and she even whimpered a little.

“Well, Ruby,” said Minty, “you’re here; now try and say something.”

Ruby slowly got closer to the glaring filly and she began what she felt was going to be a long and very difficult apology.

“P-Pumpkin… I am so sorry for what I did. I let my jealousy get the best of me and I’m sorry for what I made… Acer do to you. You probably want to kill me right now and I don’t blame you; but believe me or not, I just want to apologize for everything I did.”

Pumpkin couldn’t stop glaring at Ruby; no matter what she said, all she knew was that Ruby did nothing but to try ruining her life and almost caused her to make one of the biggest mistakes in her life. Ruby suddenly jumped when she felt herself being lifted slightly off the ground by Pumpkin’s magic and brought right in front of the furious filly. She was shaking with nerves and sweat was constantly dripping down her coat as she was forced to look into Pumpkin’s angered eyes.

“Give me a good reason why I should trust you now instead of ramming my sharp horn through your heart?”

Everyone was on edge, even Acer who was hoping that Pumpkin wasn’t going to draw anymore blood today. Ruby stood her stance in the air and was trying not to be too afraid of the one who had her wrapped in their magic.

“Look, I understand how mad you are right now; Acer is the one who made you feel real special, like all your troubles were vanishing away thanks to him. But to me, thinking that somepony like you being with him was unacceptable. But it wasn’t just that; like I said I was jealous. But I was wrong; you deserve him more… no, way more than I do. I don’t even deserve him; after all, my stupid plan almost cost me and Acer our lives. Some good friend I am to him.”

Pumpkin continued to look at Ruby and realized that she was crying even though she wasn’t trying to show it. Maybe she was telling the truth and not trying to trick them again. But after the number of times Ruby harassed her, she didn’t fully trust her just yet.

Ruby fell to the ground as Pumpkin released the shaking filly from her magical hold, and then Pumpkin walked behind her and shoved her towards Acer who was still not looking at her, nor talking to her; but she still had to say something to him.

“Don’t you have anything to say to him?” said Pumpkin.

“Acer…” Ruby started, “I know that you’re so mad at me that you won’t even talk to me, but… I just want to let you know that I completely learned my lesson and that I am very sorry for doing this to you and Pumpkin.”

Ruby was down on her hooves practically begging Acer to say something back to her.

“I should’ve listened to you; not the green-eyed monster that was obviously taking me over. We’ve been friends ever since we were little foals and we both had our own needs and our own decisions. I guess all my recent decision did was ruin our friendship… but hopefully not forever. Please, Acer… just please… can you at least forgive me for what I’ve done if I admit that what I did do was dumb and totally stupid!? I’m down on my hooves here; just please forgive me and say that we can still be friends?!”

Acer just slowly turned around and faced Ruby while still wearing an unhappy expression on his face. He got up and walked over to her and took a big sigh and said…

“It’s fine, I forgive you. But I’m still not talking to you.”

Then he went past her and went back over to Pumpkin who was talking to Minty.

“Well, at least he forgave me,” Ruby thought to herself.

She then turned back to Pumpkin and got her attention, “How about you Pumpkin? Do you think you can forgive me too? I don’t expect you to become friends with me so suddenly… but can I at least ask for you forgiveness?”

Pumpkin still wasn’t thrilled at what she had to go through and the fact that she almost killed Acer, but… Pumpkin just went over to her again and forced herself to give Ruby a quick light hug; it was quick, but it was a hug… and it was painless.

“Do you truly think that she’s absolutely sorry, dear?” asked Mrs. Cake to her husband.

“One could only think, honey. At least our daughter didn’t try to kill her this time; I was a bit worried there.”

“So now what,” shouted Pinkie suddenly, “Pumpkin is okay again, Ruby came and apologized surprisingly, and Pumpkin and Acer forgave her… sorta; so what happens next?!”

Pound couldn’t stop thinking about that moment when he was trying to defend his sister from being taken and looked into the eyes of Ruby’s mother, Envy. He found that there was something off about her, and not just because of the fact that she didn’t seem to care for his sister.

“Could it be possible,” he thought to himself, “No, it has to be possible. Ruby’s hiding something, and I’m going to get it out of her.”

He suddenly zipped past his parents and into the padded room and landed right in front of Ruby who suddenly jumped out of shock and fell on her back. The others were wondering what Pound was up to now.

“What, what do you want now?!” Ruby shouted, “I told you I was sorry!”

“Look, Ruby,” said Pound, “I know you apologized and everything but… there’s something you’re not telling us.”

Ruby’s eyes suddenly went wide.

“This set-up, this whole plan, it was all done by you… but you didn’t plan it, did you?”

Everyone began being on edge again; what was Pound talking about.

“*Gasp* Pound knows something that we don’t know say what?!” shouted Pinkie.

“Br-brother,” said Pumpkin suddenly, “what are you doing?”

“I’m right, aren’t I?” Pound continued to say to Ruby, “Tell us the truth, Ruby; don’t you dare make another lie again!”

Ruby knew she was going to tell them anyway… she just didn’t want to deep inside.

“I was going to tell you guys anyway, but I hesitated at first, “said Ruby, “I did do all of this by myself, but I didn’t plan any of it; my… m-m-mother did.”

Everyone suddenly stood still and was staring at Ruby in shock; and Pound narrowed his eyes knowing that he was right.

“I knew it.”

“Of course, it makes perfect sense!” shouted Pinkie angrily, “It’s not too surprising!”

Suddenly, Acer couldn’t help but ask Ruby, “You mean… your mother planned all of this?”

“N-no, it’s not just today, but all those other times too.”

Acer couldn’t believe it; Envy was one of the nicest ponies that he has met in his life thus far. But now he finds out that she was the one behind everything that has happened to Pumpkin at school and this recent elaborate plan.

“So, your mother just forced you into harassing Pumpkin and getting her brought back here?!” shouted Minty, “Couldn’t you’ve said no!?”

“Actually, she gave me a choice every time; and I chose to do it.”

“Just what is up with this Envy Rose,” said Mrs. Cake, “She has some explaining to do.”

“So let me get this straight,” said Pound, “She gave you a choice and you chose to go along with it!? What the hay is wrong with you!? Why would you choose to do everything that your mother told you?!”

“Because… I’m very loyal to her. I have been ever since my father passed away 3 years ago. I’ve always been known to be a rather obedient little filly who always listened to my parents and were loyal with their decisions… like you Acer.”

Acer just scoffed and shook his head.

“I know it all sounds a bit foolish, but I always had trust in my parents; so when my dad passed away, all I had left was my mother. I always stayed close to her and always did what she asks of me; why? Because, I really care for her and I don’t want to lose her so soon like I did my Dad.”

“That is completely understandable,” said Dr. Diamond as he approached Ruby, “But… I’m afraid that it doesn’t excuse the fact that your mother nearly had you and Acer almost killed. Does your mother even care about you?”

“Of course she does! She always had this mother intuition and always know when I’m in trouble, which is why you and your group were involved in her latest plan… she knew deep down I wouldn’t be able to handle it, even if I agreed to it. I wasn’t quite sure if I wanted to do the plan in the first place; but I was so jealous at the time and I wanted to get Pumpkin away from Acer so bad that I decided to do it anyway. Oh, why didn’t I just say no?”

“Well… you should’ve realized that it was wrong to do it in the first place; but, even though some here still don’t totally trust you yet, I think every pony here is quite thankful that you finally decided to tell us the truth.”

Ruby looked around and saw everyone there looking at her simentaniously nodded their head in agree; some more enthusiastic than others.

“Unfortunately, now that you have told us the truth behind this event, “continued Dr. Diamond, “you do realize that your mother has been violating a Ponyville law, right; harassing a family matters?”

Ruby’s ears drooped down lower than they already were and she let out a sadden sigh, “Yes sir.”

“So… you understand what has to happen now… right?”

Ruby lowered her head trying to hide her tears that suddenly flowed from her eyes again, “Y-y-y-yes… sir.”

After all of that, Pumpkin was confirmed to be well again and was allowed to be released from the ward. Mr. and Mrs. Cake gave their daughter a huge hug; they were so glad that she was okay again. Plus, they gave Acer their blessing; thanking him for everything he’s done to keep their daughter calm.

Dr. Diamond walked Ruby out of the center with Minty by her side to help comfort her. Ruby was quite glad that Minty was there for her after breaking their friendship more than a year ago. Ruby felt a little more at peace now that she told the truth to the Cakes and Acer. However, she still partially regrets that she basically busted her mother and risked getting her in trouble… which she knew she was. But, it’s like her mother told her… doing the right thing was never easy.

A Cursed Past

The sun was setting, and Celestia’s sun was starting to disappear. Ruby was still nowhere to be found; she was no sign of her in the clear. And her Mother, Envy Rose, who was expecting her by now… was getting rather worried of where she was in town.

“6:30pm; where is that little Filly,” she thought to herself, “It’s getting late.”

She looked at her picture of her Grandfather and sighed, “Oh Grandfather, I fear that I almost lost my only child today. Was letting her do this the right way to go about this situation? After all this town’s ponies gave me no choice and if everypony here knew the truth… it would be catastrophic. WHERE THE HAY IS THAT FILLY!?”

Suddenly, she heard a rather hard knock at the door. Nonetheless, she felt relieved because she thought it was her daughter finally returning.

“Oh thank goodness, for a second I thought that something bad happened to her.”

She trotted over to the door and opened it expecting to see her daughter…

“Where were you, young… child?”

But instead, she was approached by a group of four police ponies who were looking quite serious. She was wondering what this meant about her daughter.

“Are you Envy Rose?” one of them asked.

“Yes, I am her,” Envy responded nonchalantly.

“We’re going to have to ask you to come with us to Town Hall; do not show any form of resistance.”

Envy wasn’t planning on doing such a thing anyway; but for them to address that to her, she had a slight thought of what was going on.

“Very well,” she replied, “I’ll go get my bag.”

Before Envy knew it, she found herself being escorted towards Town Hall where she was sure the Mayor was waiting for her.

“Would any of you stallions care to tell me what’s going on?” she asked.

“That is outside of our job right now, M’am.” one of the ponies replied.

“Obviously.”

Once they got to the Town Hall doors, they brought her through into the large room. However, she got a little surprise when she walked in. She was suddenly in the views of some certain ponies that she recognized very well; including Cheerliee, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, Acer, and more importantly… the Cakes.

Some of them had some expression that felt sorta sorry for her, but others thought otherwise as they were shooting her with some scowls. She noticed that Pumpkin was also there staring straight at her as if she was about to come at her and maul her any minute.

“Have a seat here, M’am,” said one the escorting ponies.

Envy sat down on her flank and was waiting for whatever was about to happen. Even though her nonchalant face didn’t change, she still felt a little nervous on the inside.

“What exactly is going on here?” said Envy sarcastically, “Are we having some sort of party?”

Pinkie suddenly zipped up in front of her giving her a stern look, “Oh sure, it is a party… a party of your CONFESSIONS!”

“Calm down, Pinkie,” said Twilight as she pulled Pinkie away from Envy with her magic, “just let this progress the way it should.”

Cheerliee started to approach Envy along with who Envy was originally expecting… the Mayor. They didn’t look happy with her and was planning to end this situation now.

“Mrs. Cheerliee and the Mayor,” said Envy, “This must be some serious business.”

“There’s no room for you to make jokes now, Mrs. Rose,” scowled the Mayor, “I’m afraid that you’re in deep mess now.”

Envy Rose just scoffed, “I can assure you that I’ve done nothing wrong.”

“Oh really?!” Cheerliee responded, “Because I believe what she told us makes us think otherwise.”

Envy looked behind the two mares to find another little unicorn filly sitting in a slumped position. Her Daughter, Ruby Rose. She may have looked up to her mother for a few seconds but then had to look away because she couldn’t bear to see her mother’s disappointed face.

“Ruby… you didn’t…”

“Do you know how wrong it is for a foal like Ruby to have to rat out her own mother?!” Cheerliee continued, “Do you have any idea what you had put your daughter, and this whole family (the Cakes) through?! Open your eyes, Mrs. Envy; it’s bad enough that your daughter did all of this, but you actually let her do it!”

Ruby truly felt like this was partially her fault too, but her Mother might be paying for all of it. She picked herself up and slowly walked over to a nearby corner near the crowd; she felt that her loyalty and trust to her mother was all but ruined now.

“I didn’t just let her do it,” Envy angrily responded, “I gave her a choice; she didn’t have to do it!”

“So you admit yourself for causing Pumpkin Cake so much pain and grief for the past year?” question Cheerliee.

“Yes… I admit it. I am the one who is responsible for all of this. But don’t think that I planned for it to get this far.”

Mrs. Cake didn’t seem to believe her one bit, “Oh, so what?! You planned all of this and just thought that my daughter wasn’t going to try and kill anypony?!”

Envy leered a little in Mrs. Cake’s direction while trying to keep calm, “I’d appreciate it if somepony didn’t put words in my mouth; please don’t be smart with me.”

“I’m being smart!? Honey, hold me back; this mare is asking for it!”

“Enough small talk, Mrs. Rose,” said the Mayor as she came closer to Envy, “Why don’t you tell us exactly what your deal is here?”

“No offense, Miss Mayor, but you ought to know that yourself.”

“And what is that even supposed to mean,” the Mayor retorted.

“I’m specifically referring to when I actually told you what was going on and refuse to do anything about it.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“More than a 1 year ago, I remember trotting in here and requested for you to deliver a message to the Cake Family, but decided to turn down my request saying that it was just nonsense and too un-important.”

The Mayor couldn’t believe what Mrs. Envy was saying. She couldn’t have been implying that she was the cause of her action. Was she?

“What; have you lost it? I remember doing none of the sort!”

“Oh… you certainly did. What’s the matter, starting to gain loss of memory?”

The Mayor almost blew a fuse at that last comment; however, she held herself back from making any strike against the middle-aged mare.

“Even if that is true, it still doesn’t explain the reasoning of your actions.”

“Hmph, why should I even explain anything? None of you Ponyville residents would understand to care anyway.”

A lot of the ponies there gasped upon hearing what Envy predicted from them. Cheerliee stomped over to her and got right in her face wearing an expression of sudden anger.

“Two young foals almost died today… including your own daughter! And it’s all because of your selfish, unexplained foolishness! So unless you wish to receive a sentence more serious than what you could have, you will explain everything that is going on right now! And make sure that your daughter can hear everything too… no more hiding secrets.”

Envy looked over at her daughter who still was afraid to face her at the moment and then looked at the Cake family. She was trying her best to avoid witnessing this outcome, but then she thought that maybe it was inevitable to happen anyway. It was time for her to finally confess.

“My only reason to report to you, Mrs. Mayor, was… I-I didn’t wish to witness the sadden expression on the faces of this young couple… once they found out the dark truth of their daughter.”

The expression on Mr. and Mrs Cake changed slightly wondering what happened to the Envy that didn’t seem to care about their position. Pound was feeling confused upon hearing this. This mare knew something about his sister that they didn’t know about.

“Dark Truth?” questioned Cheerliee.

The Mayor didn’t remember any of this, “Now I know that I never heard any of this from…”

“I DID TELL YOU!” Envy shouted suddenly, “I swear I told you. When I did, it was so you could pass on my message to the Cakes. I didn’t wish to witness such emotional family sadness… not again.”

She looked over at the Cakes feeling rather awkward, but she had no choice but to tell them, “Mr. and Mrs. Cake, I admit that I have been rather… harsh towards your daughter’s cause, but none of it was intentional.”

“Yeah right,” Mrs. Cake Scoffed, “that clearly explains everything.”

Envy paid no attention to that comment, “I’ve gone through much emotional stress myself after my husband passed away years ago from an illness he had. It didn’t exactly help with my thoughts of what’s inside that young filly nor my decisions towards it.”

Both Cakes suddenly widen their eyes.

“Wait, there’s something inside our daughter?!” questioned Mr. Cake in a slight panic, “An actual something?!”

“I normally didn’t wish for any pony here to find out besides myself, the Mayor and… you guys; but what Pumpkin has is not a bi-polar disorder… it’s a curse.”

Suddenly, the entire room was silent and some eyes suddenly turned to Pumpkin, who all of a sudden could do nothing but stand there in deep shock.

Both Cakes stuttered at the same time, “A-a-a c-curse?”

“Pumpkin has a curse!?” shouted Pinkie, “When in Equestria did this happen?!”

“Since longer than you might think,” Envy responded, “Fate had chosen this curse to lay within your daughter’s body long before she was even born.”

Everyone there was suddenly becoming quite baffled and curious of exactly what Envy was talking about.

“It probably won’t help your cause,” said the Mayor, “but how exactly did this happened?”

“It’s a story that I was too afraid to reveal to anypony; let alone all of Ponyville or my daughter. It’s a story that took place back in my hometown in Fillydelphia many years before I was even born. My grandfather told me about it when I was in my early Marehood age. This… curse, made a major impact in Fillydelphia during a rivalry challenge between my Great Uncle, Green Thicket, and a member of the Cake family, Golden Cake.”

Suddenly, that name became very familiar to Mr. Cake, “G-Golden Cake; but… that’s my Grandfather!”

“You mean the Cakes used to live somewhere else besides Ponyville?!” said Pinkie Pie.

“Um, Pinkie?” said Twilight, “I think Ponyville didn’t even exist at that time.”

“Oh right, silly me!”

“Anyway,” Envy continued, “the rivalry between my uncle and Golden Cake was quite a speculation from what I heard from my Grandfather. But what was soon going to happen in that town… no pony could see it coming.

Thicket and Golden always competed against each other all the time. Every single aspect about themselves, they would try to best each other at it. The citizens back then didn’t seem to mind though; it always made great entertainment. Heh, they both sounded like such free-spirited stallions.

Golden Cake was blessed with a wife and 2 young foals; an earth colt and a unicorn colt; see where this is going?

His unicorn child name was Blackberry the 3rd; named after his Grandfather. He was rather close to his father and always rooted for him and always wishes to do anything to help him in these challenges. Then on one fateful day, Golden Cake lost to Green Thicket in a cooking contest; mainly because Golden’s food didn’t seem to cook right. The thing is, it was more likely for Golden to win that event, but he gave into his mistake and declared the win to Thicket; who was gloating in Golden’s face… a lot. But how did that go with Blackberry? One would say that he wasn’t happy; that that he was staring very intensely at Thicket gloating at his father. My grandfather told me that he saw this and thought that there was something strangely off about him.

Later that grim day, when the sun was setting and the sky was turning dark, Golden and his wife realized that their youngest son who was just 8 years old was missing and couldn’t find him anywhere. They ran through the streets frantically; praying to Celestia that they would find their son and that he would be alright. But then, somepony called to them from behind and told them to follow; my Grandfather. The two parents were a bit worried because of the somewhat expression on his face; what did that mean for their son.

Once they reached their destination in a dark alley, they saw a huge group of police and medical ponies there. They were awfully worried now; could their son be seriously hurt if not worse. But it wasn’t their son’s dead corpse that they found… it was… my Great Uncle’s. He was truly dead; lying in his own pool of blood. Golden and his wife were both relieved that it wasn’t their son, but Golden was still devastated over the sudden death of his friend. But they were still wondering what happened to their child… and who killed Thicket. But much to their horror, they saw nearby a little unicorn colt being restrained by some of the town’s strong-stallions (strongmen). The colt’s coat was ruggedly ruffled and blood stains could be seen all over his body. He looked up at the couple with crimson red eyes and wore an expression of murderous intentions. That colt… was their missing son.

This story was very different to everyone who was listening, but the resemblance was all familiar to the near death that almost happened to Pinkie.

“Pinkie,” said Pound, “this is very déjà vu creepy.”

“You’re telling me,” said Pinkie while shaking in her hooves.

Mrs. Cake was hugging Pumpkin to make sure that she was okay; but since when did such a similar event occur.

“M-m-mom,” said Ruby suddenly, “are you saying that Blackberry had the same… whatever Pumpkin has?”

“That's exactly what I am saying, Ruby.”

“This is all very weird seeing that this is all turning out to be like Pumpkin’s experience,” said Cheerliee, “So since times were a little different back then, how exactly did they treat this?”

Envy knew that her description would only get worse as she continues on but… they needed to know.

“It was a rather darker time according to my Grandfather; you should actually count this little filly lucky.”

Blackberry was treated in a similar way that Pumpkin has because thankfully Golden’s family was pretty wealthy enough to get the best care. But even though his family was always there for his son, the same couldn't be said about many other ponies. They were afraid of him, they criticized him, and called him some kind of demon.

After some years, he was released from his hold, and he was out into the world again; mostly cured. However, some ponies still questioned him because he still seemed to still have some minor anger issues, but it was always easily taken care of. And if that’s not much of a coincidence enough, Blackberry soon fell in love with a beautiful filly that seemed to take his stressful feelings away. Everypony realized this and soon their fears and doubts disappeared and they could continue moving on without worry.

“Wait a minute,” said Acer, “There’s no way that the same overall experience could occur twice; that’s too much of a coincidence.”

“It’s no coincidence, boy. My Grandfather is very trusting and he’s never lied to me.”

Suddenly, Pumpkin decided to walk up towards Envy with narrowed eyes to see if she was indeed telling the truth, “So… let me guess, he no longer got mad, lost control of his magic, and he spent a lot of his time with his special somepony, and they all lived happily ever after, right?”

“I wish it was, child,” Envy responded in a sorrowful tone, “but it was nothing close to it.”

Pumpkin’s eyes widen and suddenly backed off from Envy; almost afraid of what she could say.

“W-what?” she thought.

“What do you mean by that?” said Acer.

“One day, without any signs or warning… he just went crazy; out of control… a rampaging pony of destruction.”

Everypony thought that Blackberry’s anger and rage was settled down and in complete control; they were wrong. The more happy and calm he was, the more inner anger started to build up deep inside. And since he wasn’t experiencing any light moments of stress and frustration, all that build-up anger could not contain inside any longer. It burst out all at once and Blackberry lost control of his actions.

The city was in complete turmoil; destruction laid everywhere he went and he couldn’t be stopped. No matter who stood up to him, they couldn’t bring him down; not even Princess Celestia. Unfortunately, a good share of ponies lost their lives that day and many of his friends and family couldn’t get through to him; he even hurt the very one that he fell for. The curse took him over completely and he was no longer himself anymore.

Everypony feared that they were going to fall by his corrupted might; but at one point when he was about to kill his own family, Blackberry somehow temporarily got in control of his body again. When he realized what happened felt heartbroken and devastated for what he had done. He begged any of his unicorn family to finish him before his power took him over again; he’d rather die along with the curse than to risk killing all of his loved ones. However, none of them had the courage to do such a thing to him. But then, my grandfather came in and offered to accept his wish. If he continued to rampage like this, soon all of Equestria could be up in flames because of him.

My Grandfather gave Blackberry his blessing and then took a shot while the young colt had himself wide open; and then… his body fell to the ground completely still. My Grandfather didn’t wish to do it, but the now mourning family gave him no choice. With Blackberry dead along with his emotions, whatever evil that was inside of him was long gone as well… or so my Grandfather thought.

“Do any of you ponies understand now that I had to explain it to you?”

“No, this can’t be true,” said Mrs. Cake, “that can’t be what happened?!”

“It has happened,” Envy replied, “Every other pony wasn’t quite sure of what it was, but my Grandfather had a strong feeling that it was a curse that he had heard of; an ancient curse that could control its host’s emotions and changes their deepest anger into horrible, and devastating actions. At the time I thought he was just making up a story, but pretty soon I did believed him. I don’t know how you will deal with it, but this is what you are dealing with.”

She dug in her bag and pulled out this shiny orb-like object for everyone to see, “Do any of you know what this is?”

Twilight knew what it was right away, “Wait, that’s a memory orb! How did you get one; there are only a few of those in Equestria!”

“Very observant,” Envy replied, “it captures whatever memory you wish to be seen over and over again… and yes; my Grandfather owned one of them. He passed it on to me because he had a feeling that the curse was not fully destroyed when Blackberry sacrificed. Observe.”

The orb shone a bright light before showing the past live image showing everything that Envy had described. Some of the ponies there were totally shocked and frighten of witnessing such violence and some had to look away because they were too squeamish. Ruby couldn’t believe it; this is what her mother was hiding from her. However, she kinda wishes that she still didn’t know about it. What they were dealing with was far worse than she had thought.

Envy then signaled the orb to deactivate and it went back in its originally shape.

“I’ve kept this as a reminder in case something similar to this had ever came up; and surprise, I find out about this.”

“This is a real surprise out of the box,” said Twilight while pacing back and forth, “With an event such as this, how come I’ve never heard about it in the history archives?”

“Only a few heard about it and still live today including yours truly. Originally, my Grandfather said that Blackberry’s family didn’t wish for his unpleasant experience to be remembered and begged Celestia to disguise the cause of his death as an illness. She understood and fulfilled their wish. If I was brave enough, I would tell Celestia just how foolish it was for her to make such a huge mistake.”

“So you are telling the truth,” said Cheerliee, “but can you explain to us why you think you had to do what you and your daughter did?”

“After I requested to the Mayor about it and didn’t work out, I felt like I had to do something about it. Knowing what could happen, I had to figure out a way to spring out little doses of the filly’s anger so no huge amount would be released at once.”

“And that’s where your daughter comes in, right?” said Cheerliee.

“Yes, during all this time, I used my Grandfather’s teachings to teach Ruby many arts in defending against such a power in case she was up for going against the curse if it ever came back. I couldn’t do it because… well, as of now, my magic is not what it used to be. You can believe me or not, but you told me to tell you everything and I did.”

“Hold up just a second,” shouted Pinkie, “So… this curse… it doesn’t matter what we do to it, right? If we purposely or accidentally get Pumpkin mad, her emotional magic will come out and that would be a bad thing. But, if she stays calm and collective, her inner anger will just build up inside, and then later it will all burst out at once and that would really be a bad thing!”

Pumpkin did not bode with this well. She felt that she was in control all this time, but now it seemed that it was utterly impossible to keep it back now.

“I… have a curse…” she said in deep sorrow, “and there’s nothing we can do to stop it? I’m going to be the death of everypony!”

“Your’re not going to be the death of anypony, Pumpkin,” said Mrs. Cake holding her daughter tight, “If… what Envy says is true then don’t worry; we will figure out something.”

“Yeah,” shouted Pinkie, “after all, we don’t want to end up ending your life.”

Suddenly, Pumpkin broke free of her mother’s embraced and raised her voice, “Well, in case you forgot, I almost ended up ending yours, Aunt Pinkie; not to mention your fiends!”

She suddenly broke down sobbing again, “Now today, I almost got rid of two more; I’m never going to be cured… am I?”

Once again, Acer knew that he had to come over to her to calm her down; curse or not.

“Pumpkin, do realized that what happened today wasn’t exactly your fault; was it, Ruby?”

“N-no, it wasn’t,” Ruby responded sadly.

“I don’t care what’s inside you; none of us do! We’re still going to do our best to help you get through this in any way we can.”

“If it helps any…” said Ruby as she slowly approached Pumpkin, “s-s-so will I.”

Pumpkin couldn’t help but smile a bit, but she still couldn’t get the possible disturbing outcome of her… curse.

“Hmph,” Envy scoffed slightly, “this is exactly why I didn’t wish to tell all of Ponyville of this truth; yourer all too soft. No offense to every pony in the room, but it seems that no pony here will even realize just how hopeless this all really is.”

“That is quite enough out of you, Mrs. Envy,” said the Mayor, “Unless you forgot, you almost had your daughter make a traumatical mistake! Tell me, why exactly didn’t you just explain yourself to the Cakes about this?”

“I already told you, I don’t do well with dramatic family emotions like this… I did my best to avoid it, which is why I reported to you. Too bad that didn’t work out, huh?”

Mrs. Mayor realized that Envy was being a little sarcastic towards her, but she decided to ignore her for now.

“We’re all very sorry about what you’ve been going through and we grieve for your husband, but I’m afraid that it makes no difference of what happened here today. We have no choice but to take you into custody for provoked violence and family harassment.”

Envy just shook her head and shrugged her shoulders, “I figured as much that this was going to happen anyway. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Yes you did…” said the Mayor, “now! And do notice that that was sarcastic.”

As Envy was being carried away, Ruby just sat there trying to say something but it doesn’t come out right away. But then suddenly, she quickly rushed up to her mother and cried out, “I’m so sorry, Mother! I had a feeling that you would get in trouble if I told everypony what really happened, but I couldn’t take it anymore! I knew I had to do something about it! It felt like the right thing to do! Please forgive me; don’t be mad!”

Envy stopped and laid her hoof on Ruby’s head; and when Ruby looked up at her mother, she was smiling.

“Its okay, Ruby, I’m not mad. It’s like I told you earlier, doing the right thing isn’t always easy. It seems that I taught you well.”

And with that, she walked out of the building with the police ponies. Cheerliee walked up to Ruby who was crying and feeling worried for her mother.

“Miss Cheerliee,” Ruby said, “what’s going to happen to my mother?”

“Well Ruby, it’s hard to say;” Cheerliee responded, “I’m pretty sure that she’s a good mother and that she means well; but putting you in danger like that and taking such drastic measures in her own hooves could buy her some major years in jail.”

“Hey, Ruby,” shouted Minty as she approached her from behind, “I talked it over with my family and they agreed that you could stay with us until your mother’s possible punishment days officially expire. You can stay with us anytime!”

Ruby’s eyes filled up to the brim with tears as she roughly hugged Minty, “Thank you so much, Minty!”

“Don’t mention it; you’ll fit in just fine.”

Pound saw Minty making the nice gesture to Ruby and he could help but smile; he actually felt pretty proud for her despite what she did earlier.

“This definitely puts a whole new perspective on things,” said Mr. Cake to his wife, “Who knew that something like this has happened before!”

“Well, considering that we just found out that it’s a curse and it affected your family line,” stated Mrs. Cake, “I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised.”

“Do you still feel like slapping Mrs. Envy?” asked Pinkie.

Mrs. Cake just sighed, “Nah, I’ve suddenly lost interest.”

They all suddenly looked to the side and saw Pumpkin lying on the ground brooding to herself with Acer still beside her.

“Come on, Pumpkin, cheer up already,” said Pinkie, “We hate to see you like this.”

“What does it matter; whether I stay happy, sad, or angry, I’m just a big danger to everypony.”

“Maybe so,” said Pound, “but that doesn’t mean we can’t deal with it. Despite what Envy said, I don’t believe that it’s 100% un-curable. We will find a way to stop it somehow.”

Pumpkin slowly got up and snuggled against Acer a bit and then started to walk off ahead of them, “Yeah, I guess.”

“Are you going to be okay, Pumpkin?” asked Mrs. Cake, “Do you believe that you’ll be alright?”

Without turning around, Pumpkin just kept her head down as she kept on walking forward with the weight of her burdened curse on her shoulders.

“I just don’t know what to believe anymore.”

This is NOT the End...

A lot had happened in just one day; Ruby Rose made the worse mistake in her life, she almost got Acer and herself killed by Pumpkin who was in the worse murderous rage she has ever been in since forever, and Ruby desperately apologized and busted her mother, Envy Rose. Now Envy was finally arrested after explaining her reasoning and revealing a dark secret of Pumpkin Cake housing… a curse.

Evening was continuing to linger on and everyone who was at the Town Hall did their best to not blab out about the newfound secret… for Pumpkin’s sake. Pinkie Pie and the Cakes were back at sugar cube corner closing up shop. However, Pumpkin was outside, sulking and contemplating on what they discovered about her. They let her have time alone because they knew how much this was taking a toll on her. But if that wasn’t enough, the very evil entity within Pumpkin suddenly came into her consciousness once again, circling around her sulking body to have some verbal fun.

“Aw, what’s the matter; feeling down in the dumps? Soaking up your sorrows? Troubling over your tribulations? Moping from your newfound misery?”

“Go… away…” Pumpkin replied in a lowly pissed manner.

“Yeah, that’s it! Express your anger; delve deep down into your despair. After all, there’s no reason for you to stay calm anymore, now is there?”

Pumpkin just buried her face deeper in her hooves trying not to give in to her demon’s taunting words.

“Just… who are you? Why… why do you enjoy my pain… so much?”

“Hello,” it said sarcastically, “don’t you remember that mare’s words; I’m a curse! What, did you think I was somepony whom you could become friends with?”

It then got right up to her baring its evil grin, “I exist… to make you suffer and endanger every pony around you. Being trapped in a host’s body like yours is a negative, but I can still mess with your mind and alternate your emotions; not to mention enjoying your immense power.”

Pumpkin just felt terrible at that point; she didn’t even move or made any gesture when responding, “Just… just leave; I don’t feel like putting up with your crap tonight.”

“I’m afraid that’s impossible,” it replied while whispering close in her ear, “Until the very day you die… you’re stuck with me… forever.”

Pumpkin suddenly jumped up with slightly red eyes and frustrated tears flowing from them.

“I SAID LEAVE ME ALONE!!!”

“Hey, um… Pumpkin,” said a voice behind her, “who are you talking to?”

Pumpkin realized that the spirit of her curse had disappeared; and as she turned around, her eyes changed back when she saw her two main friends.

“M-Minty… Acer?”

“Everything alright?” Acer asked.

Pumpkin just slumped down on her flank sweating and shaking her head, “No… everything is… not alright.”

Minty placed her hoof on Pumpkin’s shoulder as she passed by her, “Well… I’m just going to… leave you 2 lovebirds here to hang out and exchange words; later, Pumpkin.”

Pumpkin didn’t even smile as she watches her friend walk to the doorway to her home. Acer soon approached closer to her and then asked…

“Mind if I sit with you?”

Pound and Pinkie were inside the house helping Mr. and Mrs. Cake to close up shop when Minty walked in. The first one in her sights was Pound who didn’t seem to notice her right away. She smiled and called out to him.

“Hiya, Pound!”

Pound became startled and almost dropped the random items he was carrying upon hearing Minty’s voice.

“W-whoa! Minty, um… hi. Um… d-do you need anything? We are closed but… I’m sure my parents wouldn’t mind.”

Minty just chuckled and shook her head, “No thanks, I’m good.”

“S-so… what do you need?”

“Nothing much; I was just thinking over things and… I just came over here to ask you if you want… to hang out together tomorrow?”

Pound froze for a moment looking at her, but then he just thought that she was offering to hang out with her and others.

“Um, sure…” he replied, “and who else?”

“Oh, no pony else,” Minty said a bit nervously, “Just you and me… hanging out; you know, just to hang out.”

Pound couldn’t believe his ears; was Minty asking him to hang out with just her… like a date? Pound’s cheeks blushed a bright red color and he was suddenly breathing a bit heavy; but he soon just brushed it off and tried to respond normally.

“S-s-s-s-sure, okay. W-we can… h-hang out… t-together.”

“Great,” said Minty cheerfully, “I’m glad you agreed.”

Pound’s tail was wagging back and forth a bit and he could feel a new release of relief coming up in his body.

“Um… could you excuse me for a second?” he asked.

He suddenly went upstairs and into his room. But despite that, Minty could still hear his reaction.

“YES! Thank you, Celestia; thank you! Yes, yes, yes!”

As he continued to cheer upstairs, Minty was laughing to herself. She looked at Pinkie and winked at her; and Pinkie smiled as she winked back.

Meanwhile… outside, Acer was sitting with Pumpkin who was lamenting over the truth of her condition. He knew that what she was going through was even worse than they all thought. If only Envy was brave enough to tell the Cake family sooner.

“So… how are you handling things?” Acer asked.

“Solemly okay I guess,” Pumpkin sadly replied, “However, I just can’t get over the fact that all this time I thought I had some kind of special emotional disorder; but now I find out that it’s nothing but a curse!”

“Yeah… it is a bit shocking, isn’t it?”

“A-Acer,” said Pumpkin looking over at him worryingly, “you do still like me, right?”

“What kind of silly question is that?” Acer replied, “I don’t care what’s inside of you, it won’t change who you truly are inside.”

“I know, I know; but… you heard Envy, there’s nothing we can do about this curse. And as bad as I got today, it’s only going to get worse; and I don’t want to hurt you again.”

Pumpkin looked over at Acer’s bandaged wings and couldn’t contain her tears as she allowed them to flow out freely; she truly felt like there was no light at the end of her life tunnel.

“Well,” said Acer, “when I first heard about your condition, I said that I would do my best and all that I could to help you; and I meant it. But now that I know about this curse, I’m just going to try even harder. No matter what happens, I won’t leave you, Minty won’t leave you, and Miss Cheerliee won’t leave you, and even… Ruby… I think that even she won’t leave you now either; I don’t know, but don’t think that there’s no hope for you. There is a way to stop this; I know it.”

Pumpkin just fell on her belly and was sobbing in her hooves again; she didn’t know whether to be desperately sad or overly happy.

“Why are you going so far to help me; no matter how meaningless my situation may seem?!”

Acer came down to her and gave her a little kiss on her cheek that caused her to blush a bit and she perked her head up and looked up at him with tears still leaking out from her eyes.

“Because I would be a monster myself otherwise; I mean I’m not perfect, but no pony else is. You are still you, and no curse will change that.”

Acer suddenly felt like he was being too cheesy in cheering Pumpkin up, but he was just saying what was coming to him. Suddenly, Acer felt Pumpkin wrap her hooves around him and hugged him real tight. At this point she didn’t care if staying calm was still a danger for her; she was just happy that Acer still liked her by the same amount as he did before.

“Do you guys really think that there’s a way to stop this curse,” she asked, “you know without sacrificing myself?”

Acer just chuckled and hugged Pumpkin back, “We know there is, Pumpkin; don’t let this curse keep you down. Now what do you say we go into your house and help your family clean up?”

Pumpkin wiped away her tears and nodded, “Sure thing. Thank you so much, Acer. I do feel a little bit better.”

“That’s good to hear,” Acer replied, “I think you’ve expressed enough anger for today, so you should be okay for now if you stay calm.”

They both started to laugh a little as they approached the entrance door to SugarCube Corner; then suddenly, Pumpkin stopped in her tracks as something came to her.

“You know Acer, despite how devastated I’ve been feeling ever since we left Town Hall, I couldn’t help but wonder; did Envy really tell the Mayor her message about this curse and the Mayor just forgot about it?”

“I don’t know. I have met your town’s Mayor a few times already besides today, but she doesn’t seem like the kind to just forget or ignore such a urgent request. Maybe she got hit by some kind of forgetting spell.”

Both Acer and Pumpkin looked at each other questionably… and then they both said, “Nah.”

It was rather a silly thought to the both of them; a forgetting spell somehow hitting the Mayor right after Envy telling her the message… highly unlikely. But unknown to Acer and Pumpkin, they were being… watched. A mysterious, dark shadow of some kind of pony was hiding amongst the darkness of night. It watched as the cursed little filly was being politely led into her house by her coltfriend. Truth be told, he was watching her actions the whole time she was outside sobbing in her sorrows, but the feelings of this mysterious pony towards Pumpkin’s lamenting seemed rather… uplifting.

A dark glint glimmered in its eyes as it retreated from its hidden spot and snuck away in the dark of night.

Author's Note

The End???

Not by a long shot.