//------------------------------//
// Anger 
// Story: Diamond Days 
// by Bysen 
//------------------------------//

Of all the CMC, Applebloom was the only one who really knew Twist. The other two had only come along to support her. Otherwise they suspected that she would be just like Snips and Snails where right now. They’d mostly stopped crying, at least until they’d gotten here with Twist’s sister.

The six of them entered Twist’s room and Bon-Bon left them be. The room was gorgeous, plush even by Sweetie Belle’s standard and strewn throughout were recipe books, baking trays and bags of flour and sugar. Unfortunately, it smelled rather bad. The flour wasn’t the only ingredient Twist had left laying in her room for who knows how long. Scootaloo had some other ideas about what made the smell regarding how long it had been until Twist had been found, but didn’t voice the concerns.

They’d been told: how and when she’d been found. Late last night, with a bottle of her mother’s medication completely emptied out. They hadn’t been told how sad she’d been lately but they could guess. You don't just accidently take a whole bottle of pills and Applebloom knew Diamond Tiara and Silverspoon often made fun of her like they did herself. That that bitch had taken her death as an excuse to ditch school... Applebloom planned on beating the snot out of her next time they met.

The two had grown apart after Twist had gotten her Cutie Mark. But there were other factors as well. While both Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were slightly older than Apple Bloom, neither of them had grown into themselves yet. And it wasn’t just their Cutie Marks either. Sweetie Belle couldn’t use magic and Scootaloo couldn’t fly. And Applebloom’s natural earth pony strength hadn’t quite developed yet, either.

All three of them still had those abilities, just in minor amounts. A pegasus’ wing-strength grows as they get older, a unicorn’s magic strengthens too and an earth pony naturally gets stronger with age. While Applebloom was easily the strongest of the three, the other two also had their own strength. All three’s abilities develop at roughly the same speed, however it’s more noticeable with unicorn and pegasus where you go from not flying to flying or no magic to magic, in a on or off type deal. Earth ponies however have more of a one through one-hundred scale of their fully developed natural gift.

Looking over the room, Applebloom got the urge to clean up a little. Bags of ingredients were spilled here and there and spoiled supplies were commonplace. And Twist’s ‘concoction’ table was covered in books and bowls and what was hopefully melted sugar. “Ya know, this room hasn’t changed at all since ah was last here…” Applebloom sighed, in equal parts nostalgia and grief.

The cleaning went rather fast. There was a lot of stuff but most of it was centred around her table, which apparently even had an oven and stove top built into it now. It was a new thing to Applebloom that hadn’t been there before. Snips and Snails didn’t help too much, they were over by Twist’s bed, looking at her plushies and overly soft blankets that covered it. Both with a guilty look of longing and missed opportunity with her. She may’ve been blind to it, but anypony could tell those two colts had had a crush on her as long as either could remember.

But most of all, was the journal sitting on her bedside draw that gave them pause the most. Even if she was gone, it would be an invasion of privacy. Eventually Snips picked it up. He didn’t open it but something beside it caught his eye. “H-hey Applebloom.” he choked out. “There’s a letter here for you.” he managed to say as he levitated it over to her.

“Fer me? You... you sure?” she questioned as she grabbed it out of the air. It was definitely for her, with ‘To Applebloom’ written on the front of it in what was clearly Twist’s hoof writing but less neat than she remembered it. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle came up beside her as she opened up the envelope and began to read. Before she had gotten past the first sentence, Sweetie Belle, the fastest reader of the three, gasped.

And soon enough both Applebloom and Scootaloo saw what had made her do so. “She wouldn’t really… would she?” questioned Scootaloo. She knew Diamond Tiara was a jerk but to tell somepony to kill themselves? “I am going to kick her flank!” she yelled. But was stopped by Applebloom, putting her hoof up in front of her friend.

“No…” she said forcefully before adding “Ah am! An’ ah’m gonna do so much more than kick her flank.” her voice was deep and cold.

“Applebloom?...” Sweetie Belle said, slightly scared. As she should be. “Don’t do anything rash…”

Without waiting, she bolted out of the room. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle stood there for a moment before chasing after her. Leaving Snips and Snails in there alone. The two went over to the letter Applebloom had dropped and picked it up as Bon-Bon walked back in to see what had happened. The three read together, and from what they saw; Snips and Snails couldn’t help but cry heavily once more.

~ ~ 

Applebloom sprinted at top speed toward Diamond Tiara’s house, making it there in record time. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle shortly behind her saw Applebloom knock heavily on the door a few times. There was some muffled noise they couldn’t hear coming from inside. They caught up to her and stood alongside her. Applebloom turned, reared up and bucked the door, kicking it open.

“Applebloom!” Sweetie Belle called out and tried to grab her friend, as did Scootaloo, but she slipped past and into the house.

“Where the hell is she!?” yelled Applebloom towards Silverspoon, who had been sitting on a couch in the middle of the house, crying into a pillow before this. She knew why they were here. Moreover, she knew she had to stop them from making things any worse for her friend.

“Wha… the door…? You, you don’t…” of course she didn’t exactly have the words to do so. Applebloom ran past her. Silverspoon got up and yelled “Don’t! Don’t go in there!” not that Applebloom would listen to her. She wouldn’t have listened to anypony for that matter. To Applebloom, Silverspoon was just as bad as Diamond Tiara and surely had a part in those words too. “Leave her alone!” she added as she sprinted towards Applebloom, tackling her away from Diamond’s door.

But before she could do anything more, she was out cold. One hard hoof from Applebloom was all it took. “Diamond Tiara!” she called out, getting up from the short tussle. They could hear a muffled whimpering coming from the only closed door. Applebloom moved in front of it, and after what they’d just seen, neither Scootaloo nor Sweetie Belle dared stop her. “Ah’m ganna kill you!” she yelled as she bucked at the door, smashing it open.

As she stepped into the room, with full intention to kill this little filly, anger printed into her scowl like she had never had before, it all instantly vanished at what she saw. Standing there was Diamond Tiara; tears running down her face, her mane disheveled beyond belief and half of her tiara on her head, the other half in her hoof. But what cause Applebloom pause the most was was the noose around her neck.

Diamond Tiara then kicked the chair from under her.