Issues

Settling Troubles

Perhaps the worst kind of day is an "off" day - one where somepony gets out of bed knowing that the remainder of the day is going to be downright terrible, or perhaps they simply feel sluggish and slow. Either way, this kind of day was the day that Scootaloo had woken up to, and was in a mood much like that of an annoyed and hungry shark - Angered and ready to snap at whatever came along.

The difference between the orange filly and the shark, though, is that the shark may not have so much to be angry about, nor would it have peers to compare itself to. The young pegasus had both, and they both conflicted to create a whole mess of issues just tugging at the back of her head. One of the most obvious would be the fact that she hadn't obtained her cutie mark.

Of course, looking between the lines would reveal even more problems. Unlike the other two members of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, she had no sister - no role model to look up to and be disciplined by. Yet another trouble was that despite Scootaloo being a pegasus, she really had no use for her wings quite yet, no matter how she practiced. Truly, it was times like this when somepony wouldn't even feel a need to live anymore.

The orange filly grinned. But what if I could solve all those problems, all at once? Despite not being the most strategic pony, she already had a few ideas floating around, all which would work beautifully. The question was, which one would she pick?

After a few moments of consideration, she nodded. The one she had decided upon was simple. The only thing was, she needed to gather up a few friends to help her.

So it was settled - the fun would begin with a party.

===

"Sweetie Belle, look at this!"

Apple Bloom gestured for Sweetie Belle to come to her, and she did just that. Slowing to a stop, she took a glance over the paper that Apple Bloom was gripping in her mouth, reading it aloud.

"Scootaloo's SACM Party... uh, what's supposed to mean?" She pronounced the odd grouping of letters out loud. "Sack-em?" Reading further, she found her answer - "Oh, I see! Sisters And Cutie Marks! Its some sort of party where we try to get 'em with our cutie marks! But... this is Scootaloo's, right?"

Apple Bloom nodded, placing the paper on the ground gently. "Yeah. She just sort of zipped past on her scooter an' dropped it! Not sure why she didn't stop, though... maybe she's handin' out more?"

"I guess, but Scootaloo doesn't have a sister."

"I'm pretty sure she knows that... Might as well go if it means a chance to get our cutie marks!"

Sweetie Belle smiled. "Alright, I'll go get Rarity, you get Applejack! It's gonna be like the Sisterhooves Social all over again!"

===

After all the sisters were together, they trotted into the school room : the place that Scootaloo had said to go to, on the paper at least. It was questionable if the pegasus had really been allowed to use the place, not helped by the fact it was pitch black inside, with windows shut and lights off.

Apple Bloom stepped inside. "Scootaloo? We're here... is it a surprise party? Because I know you're here..."

"I am here."

A huge, blunt object smashed into the side of Apple Bloom's head. She cried out, head spinning, already looking around for help - and the only help available, namely, Sweetie Belle, Rarity and Applejack - were already on the ground, panting. Mustering what little strength she had left, the injured filly turned her head to reveal what had knocked her down - a scooter. Not even bothering to think about what was going on, she quickly gave into the murky depths of unconsciousness.

===

The school room, still as dark as before, came into view, spinning... at least to Apple Bloom, who was just in the midst of coming back to reality. Of course, it would have probably been a better idea to never wake up at all, but the clueless filly didn’t know what was truly happening. To her, she might have just accidentally tripped and fell, or perhaps ran into something in the darkness. Of course, foggy memory aside, a more grown pony could have easily deduced what was going on.

Finally, once everything in the room more or less stopped, she glanced around. She was still in the inside of the schoolhouse, the windows still shut firmly. She tried to get up to open one of them and see where her friends had gone to, but her movement was hindered. She rocked back and forth as hard as she could, but whatever it was that constrained her at the stomach wasn’t budging. Giving up, she sat there in silence for a moment, her eyes adjusting to the dark.

The room finally came into focus, and Apple Bloom saw the roof... she was facing upwards. Frantically looking around, she saw that she was tied to one of the desks, bound by a rope. There was nopony else in the room, except...

“Took you a while to notice me.”

There was Scootaloo, barely visible in the lack of lighting. She looked fine, and was standing there calmly, facing the young earth pony. Apple Bloom frowned - What’s really going on here? However, her look of concern quickly shifted to happiness upon examining the orange filly’s flank. There was a vaguely visible symbol there! She had finally gotten her cutie mark, and was only doing this to introduce it with a bang.

“Scootaloo! Y’got your cutie mark! Is this what this is all about?”

The pegasus grinned - but not in a friendly manner. Rather, it was in a way that sent chills rocketing down Apple Bloom’s spine.

“...Yeah, I guess you could say that’s a pretty big part.”

“Well, what is it?” she asked curiously. “And whats with the rope-tyin’ act and all?”

Scootaloo flipped a switch with her hoof, basking the room in a sort of a dim light, coming from the ceilling. It revealed her flank in a much better light - around the cutie mark, it was an off-color orange, a much different shade from the rest of her coat. But the way the young pegasus was now facing, it was difficult to make out what the actual symbol was.

Then she turned, and her expression of curiosity quickly turned into a grimace. “It... looks a lot like... Applejacks.”

“That’s because it i-”

Much to Scootaloo’s disappointment, she was interrupted by a high-pitched shriek somewhere from behind Apple Bloom.

“Shut it, Sweetie Belle, I’m trying to say something!” She cleared her throat. “That’s because it is Applejack’s cutie mark.”

“...Wha-What’s that supposed t’mean?”

As if planned, there was a massive CRASH from around the same place that Sweetie’s shriek had came from. Scootaloo groaned, rolling her eyes, and trotted there, out of Apple Bloom’s sight. As she turned, though, the red-haired filly caught a glimpse of something white on her other flank, though only for a second, as the pegasus was already out of her sight and causing a ruckus from behind her.

There was the noise of somepony thrashing around, shrieking - likely Sweetie again. Finally, the noise came to an abrupt stop, and a barely audible conversation began between the two.

“...don’t want to sit still, I’ll GIVE you something to scream about...”

Sweetie Belle replied with nothing but garbled words, all hastily piled into each other incomprehensibly.

“Shut up! I am this close to -”

Shck. There was the noise of something slicing, followed by Scootaloo groaning.

“You bucking... If you want to hurt me, you little shit, you’d better get something good done with it.” Something made a soft sound. “Cut these. You’ll know why soon enough.”

Finally, Sweetie muttered her first understandable words, in a whiny - and terrified - voice. “...Scootaloo, I... I don’t want to!”

The orange filly yelled clearly. “Do it or there won’t be any use at all for that horn!”

It was silent, except for somepony breathing heavily - No, that’s me, Apple Bloom thought.

Finally, there came a noise - a horrid one, much like nails on a chalkboard, except with a more offsetting vibe to it, with Scootaloo’s breathing and groaning thrown into the mix. It stopped, and the orange pegasus commanded in a wavering voice - “...Now the other one... don’t want to be... heh, lopsided, do we.”

The disgusting noise began again, and it seemed like it was never going to end. It finally stopped, accompanied by something falling to the floor with a light thud. Scootaloo shuddered, and continued. “Now keep them both in your mouth, and if you spit them out or even swallow them, I’ll just make the rest of today last twice as long...”

“Scootaloo, what are -” Nothing but muffled speech came out after that.

The orange filly laughed. “Finding a use for those... check.” She finally circled back into Apple Bloom’s sight, in a terrifying state - Her flank still off-color, and her wings now nothing but bleeding stumps barely attached to her side.

Apple Bloom was speechless, in a mix of disgust, fear and anger. Finally, she stammered something out. “S-Scootaloo! W...What’re you doin’ to Sweetie Belle an’ Applejack?”

The pegasus chuckled again. “Apple Bloom, I’m already done with your sister.” She went up to the still bound pony and loosened the rope pressing on her neck just enough to allow her to glance around some more. Silently, she gestured left. The yellow filly slowly looked in that direction, revealing a morbid sight.

The farmer mare was tied to a toppled desk. There was still fresh blood all over her body, most of it coming from her flank. So... that’s why... There were already tears in Apple Bloom’s eyes, her mind trying to wake up from what seemed like a terrible dream. But this was very much real, and Applejack was very much dead. Of course, this was all too much for the filly. She had burst into a sobbing fit, tears rolling down her cheeks uncontrollably.

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “I’ve never had a sister at all, Apple Bloom, so you really have nothing to cry about.”

Apple Bloom stammered, completely abandoning the idea of trying to keep her dignity intact. “But... sis’... you... her... why?”

“Obviously I needed her for one of my cutie marks!”

“Wuh.... one of yours?”

Scootaloo grinned. “Yes, one of them. Can’t blame me for wanting more, you must have had at least a dozen when you got the Cutie Pox.” She turned, giving the blubbering pony her first look at her other flank. It was too not the same color as the rest of her coat, but not nearly as subtle as before - it was a brilliant white, with three blue gemstones located in the middle.

Apple Bloom was already crying herself sick, but at this rate she would likely flood the schoolhouse with her tears. “Rarity too?!”

The ex-pegasus laughed heartily. “Now you’re catching on! Yeah, I couldn’t decide which one I wanted more, so I compromised! And now we all have the same amount of sisters - none! Do you like it?”

“Like it? You’re a sick bi-”

“Watch”, Scootaloo interrupted, “your language.”

“But...”

“Do as I say, not as I do.” She hummed to herself for a moment, then continued. “Now, since I’ve shown all this to you, there’s really no way you’ll keep quiet about it. And since my only other means of shutting you up are busy at the moment...” She muttered something under her breath, glancing at where her wings were supposed to be, still bleeding slightly. “...I guess the only option here is the most obvious one. You’re tied up already, so that saves me some trouble.”

“Shut... shut up. Please, Scootaloo, I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry too, but you brought this on yourself. Now quit crying and die like a big girl.”

“Brought this on myself? What the buck did I ever do to you? Come to this so called party?”

“Again, with the language. And to be honest, I really don’t see why all this was necessary either. But what’s done is done, and it’s time to get started. But first, I’ll need something...”

Scootaloo went back behind Apple Bloom, over to Sweetie Belle. Her speech was still muffled - it seemed she had complied to the orange filly’s demands.

“Alright, Sweetie Belle, this is only going to hurt for a few hours, but you won’t last nearly that long.”

There was a horrible ripping noise, and Sweetie Belle choked for a second, then began screaming like somepony who had just seen a ghost.

Scootaloo yelled, furious. “I told you not to swallow those things! Now how am I going to get them back?” The rrriiipppp began again, until finally there was another shck, and Sweetie was silent.

“There. That’ll teach you.” The seemingly insane filly circled again into Apple Blooms vision, her hoof curled around something triangular and white - Sweetie Belle’s horn.

The earth pony vomited, her mind unable to cope with the traumatic events that were unfolding. The vile substance leaked out of her mouth, pouring itself over the desk and onto the floor.

“Yes, I know that may have been a bit cruel of me, but you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet, hmm? Now do you want this the easy way, the hard way or the fun way?”

Apple Bloom winced out of disgust, her mouth unable to form any actual words - though they would have been useless anyways, for the Scootaloo edged closer to her, muttering “Looks like we’re going with the fun way.”

Before she could even react, there was a sharp pain somewhere around her stomach, and a blood-curling scream erupted from her mouth. She found herself able to make words again, but nothing more than screams of “STOP! STOP!”

The orange filly laughed once more, twirling the horn in her hoof. “But this is only the beginning! Why would I stop now when things are only going to get better from here? Though I have to say, your screaming is sort of upsetting me...” Her face broke out into a grin as an idea struck her. She ducked down, and continued to speak. “Now, I’ll let you prepare for this one... Five, four, three -”

She had lied - there was an agonizing pain near the bottom of Apple Blooms left foreleg, much earlier than she had anticipated. It was the horn, Scootaloo sawing it back and forth, casually continuing her one-sided conversation. “Now, that may have been a bit rude of me, but last impressions don’t matter too much, do they? If it’s any consolation, I’d really rather not be doing this, but it’d be better to kill you quickly than leave you to eventually die!”

Finally, there was a shiver sent throughout her entire body. Something felt missing... looking down with what little strength she had, Apple Bloom saw that half of her leg was gone, now just a horrendous mess of bone, blood and flesh. She had been yelling, shrieking and screaming through the entire thing, of course, but seeing herself in this state nearly doubled the volume of her cries for help.

Of course, Scootaloo expected this - which was the entire reason she had cut off the hoof. She violently thrust it into Apple Bloom’s mouth, keeping it there, resisting against the earth pony until she finally obliged and stopped thrashing around. But really, the tortured filly wasn’t coming to an agreement - she had passed out from the mixture of blood loss, emotional trauma and fear.

Unconscious wasn’t enough for her - the pegasus had to make sure no news got out about this. So she took the horn, and in a final move, sliced directly through Apple Bloom’s neck, sending her head rolling to the ground, splattering blood on the floor and desk.

That’s that, she thought. I’ve done everything. I got to use my wings, I’ve got just as many sisters as the rest of my friends, I’m not a blank flank anymore, and I even got to have some fun!

But then an issue arose in her mind - What about everypony else who knows Applejack, Rarity, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom? With this, an even more horrendous plan arose in her head. Yes, it would work perfectly, and it would certainly benefit her as well.

After all, she had wanted to get Rainbow Dash’s attention for quite some time...

End

I wrote this because I needed to get rid of the crap that keeps clogging up my writing. If you want a less flimsy storyline, check other stories I've made.