-------------------
Sweetie
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“Hey Blank Flank!” Sweetie heard as she walked home, after a rather uplifting practise session with Twilight. She had felt like a burden to her sister and a failure of a friend to Scootaloo, Twilight effectively dealt with what concerned her on the former.
Surrounded by houses, with various ponies that moved about, Sweetie turned her head to what she was sure would be Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. She recognized the ponies voice who mocked her as Diamond. They’re bullies who picked on her and her friends for not having cutie marks. She never understood why they’re so mean. She could understand why Diamond might have a grudge against them specifically after what happened at Diamonds cute-ceañera, and even more so after they played a part in getting Diamond kicked out of her editor position for the Foal Free Press. Sweetie almost wanted to apologize to her at times, but she made that nearly impossible with their relentless teasing, not to mention Diamond basically threw those situations on herself. She could think up a few reasons as to why Diamond was so mean, but couldn’t wrap her head around Silver Spoon. Silver seemed unsure when she wasn’t with Diamond. “What do-” She responded but was surprised, ”where’s Silver Spoon?” she wondered out loud.
Diamond frowned, “Not that it’s any of your concern Blank Flank, but her parents sent her to summer camp.”
“Stop calling me that,” Sweetie complained weakly, and Diamond gave an annoying smirk, “and how come you didn’t go with her?” She only knew Diamond to hang out with Silver Spoon and visa versa. The one exception is when Applebloom's cousin Babs Seed visited from Manehatten last summer. Babs was worse than those two ever were. Babs destroyed a float they made for the Summer Harvest Parade and then mocked the fact it was destroyed and also threatened them so they wouldn’t tell anypony. Sweetie knew things already went too far, but Applebloom and Scootaloo wanted to deal with it themselves and she couldn’t say no to them. Things only got worse from there. She felt a pang of guilt when she remembered Scootaloo’s reaction when they took the clubhouse. They eventually turned Babs aggressive bullying against her in an elaborate plan, only for them to learn the reason why Babs was so mean before their plan could be concluded. They chased her down before it was too late, they apologized to her and became friends. If somepony like Babs could do a complete one-eighty then she was sure Diamond and Silver could as well. That was her hope at least.
Diamond frowned looked around worriedly, not that Sweetie noticed, “Psh, I don’t do camping, I’d rather be at the spa,” Diamond said confidently. Sweetie was rather surprised Diamond didn’t immediately mock her, as they’ed been much harsher after the whole ‘Twilight Time’ fiasco, “besides it’s not like I’m a blank flank unicorn who can barely hold up a broom with her own magic,” Sweetie thought too soon.
“That’s not true! Princess Twilight said I’m the most powerful Unicorn in the world!” Sweetie blurted out in defence. Her face turned red in embarrassment, shame of her outburst, and slight annoyance of Diamonds immediate laughter.
“Ahahah y-you, the most powe-ahahaha-powerful unicorn in the world?” Diamond flicked a tear of laughter from one of her eyes, whether that tear actually existed or not Sweetie didn’t know, “That’s a good one, how stupid can you be? You know what I think? I think,” Diamond proposed with a raised voice, “Princess Twilight might need to get her head checked if she thinks that.”
Face still red Sweetie argued back, “but it’s true!” she squeaked, “you can ask her yourself if you don’t believe me!”
“If that’s true then how about you show me how powerful you are and levitate that house,” Diamond said with a wicked smirk, pointing to a random house beside her, “Surely the world's most powerful unicorn could accomplish something as trivial as that.”
Sweetie cringed, “I can’t,” Diamond’s smile widened, “Twilight would be upset with me if I used my magic without her, and things I try to levitate have a bad habit of disappearing. I won’t be responsible for somepony missing a house, and I don’t even want to think about what’d happen if somepony was inside.”
“Ha! What a convenient excuse Blank Flank, you almost sound convincing, I guess decent liar is one of your few skills, along with cry baby, and,” Diamond brought a hoof to her chin, “nope I guess those are the only two skills you possess.”
Sweetie felt that, tears began to form in her eyes, “th-that’s not true,” she yelled and then ran towards Rarity's boutique.
“Cya later Blank Flank,” she heard Diamond say as she got farther away. Tears rolled down her cheeks, as she sniffled. She wasn’t upset that Diamond called her a liar and cry baby. It was because what Diamond said rang true to her. Sweetie knew she wasn’t good at so many things, like sewing, cooking, and several other things she’s done to try and get her cutie mark in the past. She wasn’t a good friend, and she always messed things up. She felt useless and weak, she couldn’t help but review her memories of the manticore attack and beat herself up for the one thing she should have done differently. All she had to do was run, instead she froze and endangered everypony. It taunted her to no end. When she made it to the boutique she sighed, wiped away any stray tears, and walked inside. She’d prove Diamond wrong.
The next week and a half Sweetie spent as much time as she could get with Twilight, since Scootaloo and Applebloom were also in need of Twilight's magical expertise and scientific mind. She noticed Twilight had been rather high strung, like something had been bothering her. Whenever she asked Twilight about it, she’d say there’s a vacation coming up and she’d rather not ruin it for anypony, and changed the subject.
Sweetie shown a lot of progress within that time, as Twilight's refined methods helped her control how much magic she put into a spell. Twilight had Sweetie meditate daily to clear her head of any stray thoughts, she said Zecora taught her this method. It was nice putting her worries behind her when she meditated; it also seemed to help out a lot with her magic. Once she perfected levitation with a clear mind, Twilight moved on to slightly more advanced spells, that required different emotional blueprints, like the night light spell. Sweetie momentarily blinded Twilight on her first attempt, but she got the hang of it and they moved on.
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Applejack
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Applejack galloped through strange plants at a cautious speed. She feared for her sister in whatever weird scheme Discord had. Her vision in front of her wasn’t completely impaired by the varied strange plants, and running head first into a trap wasn’t something she felt like doing so she slowed down some more.
“Over here,” Applejack heard in the distance, any caution she had previously went out the window as she galloped full charge towards her sister's voice. She wasn’t about to let Discord pick on her little sister.
After running through a rather tall bush that seemed to be sporting mint leaves, if the smell and look was any indication, she came into a more open area with her sister smiling up at her, though she ignored that, “Alright ya no good rusty screw!” Applejack said looking around everywhere for Discord as she approached Applebloom, “show ya’self. Ah know ya’ll here. Ah won’t let yall-”
“Applejack who’re are you talking to?” Applebloom questioned.
Applejack looked around some more then directly behind Applebloom only to notice a rather huge tree directly behind her sister, her neck craned up as it towered above the surrounding apple trees and whose trunk was slightly smaller than the libraries, “What in tarnation,” she couldn’t help but utter.
“Do you like it?” Applebloom questioned, which startled Applejack out of her stupor.
Applejack looked down towards her sister, noticing her blood stained bowtie instantly, it bothered her but she was sure Applebloom had a good reason for keeping it that way, “Where’s Discord?”
Appleblooms face scrunched up in confusion, “Discord? He ain’t here as far as Ah’m aware.”
“Like tartarus he ain’t! Ah just walked through so many strange plants, and-” Applejack froze, and wondered how Applebloom even knew she was on her way there’s no reason Applebloom should have called out to her when she did, could her sister possible had made friends with Discord, “Now Applebloom, Ah won’t punish you for making friends,” she looked around and said with a raised voice, “even if it’s somepony like Discord,” she knew he’d be listening in, “but Ah want ya to be cautious, because not everypony believes he’s changed,” she ended with a raised voice as she looked around, “now come along Sugarcube we got supper waiting for us,” Applejack noticed Appleblooms confused face persisted.
“What are yo-” Applebloom paused and moved her head to look behind Applejack, smiled and laughed uncontrollably.
Applejack knew something was up, she looked behind her but didn’t see Discord mocking her in some way like she thought she’d find, “Alright Discord ya can show yourself!” Applebloom laughed even harder, “What’s so darn funny anywho?”
Applejack waited patiently while Appleblooms laughter died down, “You think Discord is the cause of those strange plants?” Applebloom chuckled, “Ah couldn’t help myself, because Ah can completely see how you’d think that, but this is all my doin’,” she said gesturing to the strange plants in front of her and the large tree behind her.
Applejack wasn’t convinced though, “Then how come yall called out to me when yall did, it’s not like Ah was bucking apple trees on my way here, and Ah know you couldn’t see me through that,” Applejack gestured to the mint bushes and other strange plants behind her.
“Ah heard you coming actually,” Applejack opened her mouth to retort but Applebloom interrupted, “you know because Ah got better hearing, like a lot better actually. But Ah have to concentrate on it which is what Ah was doing when you were on your way. It was just so quiet and peaceful Ah figured Ah’d just close my eyes and listen to things you know?” Applebloom smiled up at her, “And as it turns out there’s plenty of small sounds that’re actually kind of fun to listen to, though Ah’m kind of glad Ah’m not hearing them right now.”
“Wha, why would ya go an make all these strange plants? Ah think Ah a saw a banana bush on my way here.” She knew when her sister was lying, and this wasn’t one of those times.
Applebloom smiled sheepishly, “because Ah can? And Ah also wanted to see what all Ah can do, it’s just so much fun!”
Applejack sighed, “and what even gave ya the idea to do all this?”
“Twilight did,” Appleblooms bow tie swayed slightly in a nice summertime breeze.
“Twilight!?” Applejack questioned in surprise, she failed to see how Twilight could be involved.
“Yeah,” Appleblooms face went flush in embarrassment, “oh whoops, my bad. It completely slipped my mind, Ah was just so excited about learning more about my healing powers that Ah completely forgot to mention when Twilight had me grow a sunflower seed into a small cactus like thing, and Since Twilight’s helping Sweetie today Ah figured Ah’d see what else Ah could do, Ah guess Ah got a little carried away,” Applebloom finished looking down and ashamed.
Applejack looked behind herself then at the giant tree in front and determined that ‘a little carried away’ was putting it lightly, but opted to remain silent on that fact, instead she moved in for a hug, “Aww, that’s okay sugarcube, t’ain’t nothin’ to be ashamed of. Now let’s get going before Granny Smith and Big Mac hog all the food.” As they walked back for supper Applejack thought of something, “So just out of curiosity where’d ya get the seeds for all of these things?”
“About that…”
-------------------
Applebloom
-------------------
Applebloom was excited about today. She’d finally get to experiment with her healing abilities with Twilight at the hospital, but not till after supper. Time seemed to be taking its sweet sweet time getting to that point in time. It was being obnoxiously slow for her today. She could have went to play with her friends, or even experimented more with her plant growing abilities but she just was too hyped with the idea of healing ponies, saving them, that she didn’t want to risk being late by losing track of time while having fun.
So she milled about the house impatiently, after she did her chores. Granny Smith questioned her about the plants she made yesterday and so to help pass the time she lead her out to the various weird plants, to show them off and hopefully make time move faster. It worked, as a good hour and a half went by showing her grandma all the weird plants she could think of. It was nearing lunch and she still had a good chunk of time to go. Applejack came back for lunch and to restock her apples to sell at the market and Big Mac came back from apple bucking for lunch and to help restock. They had a nice little family meal, nothing grand like supper usually is but it was nice all the same. Applebloom complained about how slow time was going for her, like it was taunting her. They suggested she go do something, and she explained why she didn’t want to. Granny suggested she take a nice nap, and that she’d wake her up for dinner and then it’d be time for her to head on over to Twilights. Applebloom decided she’d give it a try.
Applebloom had a little problem trying to get some rest, since her mind was restless, but eventually boredom overcame her after a tortuous hour or so.
Applebloom suddenly found herself in Sugarcube Corner with a milkshake before her. She had been having a milkshakes with Scootaloo and her sister Rainbow Dash. She didn’t find any of that odd at all. She looked across the table to see Scootaloo and Rainbow enjoying their milkshakes so she went for her own before Rainbow looked at her oddly and pointed to her bowtie in a questionable manner. Concern over what could be wrong with her late parents gift made her raise her hoof grab at it, and grab at it, but it wasn’t there. She brought her hoof down to inspect it only to see it was bloody, and a quick glance at her other hoof revealed the same state. She didn’t understand what was happening as her heart began racing. She looked up from her hooves and saw a angry Scootaloo standing in front of her, but they were in the clubhouse now and Rainbow was gone. The change in scenery didn’t even click as odd to her. She tried to ask Scootaloo why her hooves were all bloody as she began to freak out about it, and got slapped.
When she opened her eyes Scootaloo was gone and she found herself in the Everfree. Tall trees and bushes surrounded her. She wandered around as she looked for her bowtie. A manticore suddenly jumped out from somewhere and she turned and ran. She didn’t run long before she hit a dead end, entrapped by earth. She turned to face the manticore but only saw trees, bushes, and, “Sweetie?” She bolted to her friends side, the closer she got the more blood began to spill into the ground from her friend. She nudged at her unconscious friend worriedly, hooves no longer bloody, while she eyed the large gash on her friend's side. She panicked and got up to get help, only to bump into Zecora, “Zecora you gotta help!” she urged, Zecora nodded and helped put Sweetie on her back so she could run them to the hospital. She put pressure on Sweeties wound but it didn’t seem to help, why wasn’t it helping? She looked up and they were at the hospital. Sweetie was quickly whisked away from her, as she felt dread wash over her.
After what seemed like hours of waiting anxiously, Twilight oddly enough came and escorted her to Sweeties room. She entered to find herself outside and alone again, surrounded by gravestones. She looked at the two immediately in front of her, she knew those two gravestones. Her blood stained bowtie was lying on the ground between them, she gently grabbed it and put it back on her mane where it belonged. That wasn’t why she was here though, she looked to her side to a third gravestone that was engraved with, ‘Here lies Sweetie Belle.’ Applebloom could only stare at it in shock, confusion, and denial. Before she could break down she felt somepony was watching her. She looked up and behind her. She saw none other Sweetie, some distance away watching her sadly, “Sweetie?” Sweeties eyes widened in shock and she ran away from her. Applebloom was confused, but quickly got up and gave chase, “Sweetie!” she screamed. She couldn’t seem to catch up to her, Sweetie seemed to just get further away anytime she left her sight, she thought it must have been teleportation. Before she knew it she was chasing Sweetie through the middle of the town. She turned a corner to the see Sweetie just enter Sugarcube Corner. She gave a burst of speed and entered.
It was packed full of ponies, Sweetie was in here somewhere and she’d find her, she wouldn’t rest until she did, “SWEETIE!” she yelled, yet nopony seemed to acknowledge her. She pushed her way through ponies.
“Applebloom,” Pinkie Pie said as she suddenly appeared in front of her.
“Pinkie have you seen Sweetie!?” Applebloom asked urgently still hyped up from the chase, she wouldn’t allow Sweetie to escape without an explanation.
“Applebloom, it’s time to get up,” Pinkie Pie said as she put her forehoof on her shoulder and shaked her a little.
“Pinkie what are you even talking about? You know what? Ah don’t care, Ah need to find Sweetie right now!” she smacked away Pinkie's hoof in agitation, any second wasted was a second Sweetie could use to get away.
“APPLE,”
"BLOOM!” Applebloom shot up, and found herself lying on her bed, heart racing, whether it was from Granny Smith yelling loudly, or the dream that was now fading from her memories, she didn’t know, “Eheh, sorry,” Granny apologised.
She blinked, and scratched at her slightly itchy eyes as she tried to remember what was going on. Then it came to her, “Is it supper time already?” She asked excitedly.
Granny smiled, “yep.”
Applebloom hugged Granny, “Thanks,” then she got her bowtie that she took off before attempting her nap, “Ah’m gonna go now,” she stated, while heading out her room.
“Not til’ after you eat first!” Granny yelled.
“Okay!” Applebloom agreed, as she headed down the stairs. All she could remember of her dream now was having milkshakes with Rainbow and Scootaloo, and chasing down Sweetie for an important reason that she completely forgot.
Applebloom scarfed down her food and almost choked on it. She was out the door with a strangled goodbye, thanks to the food still in her mouth, before they could ask her to slow down and chew her food with at least some decency. She booked it to the library at a full sprint the whole way. She didn’t get winded. An adult pony with a racing cutie mark at their prime couldn’t hope to sprint that far without it taking in some labored breathing, yet she breathed as though she merely walked there.
She opened the door, walked through, and found Spike cleaning some shelves. “Hey Spike, are yall ready to go?”
Spike looked down to her from his position on a ladder at her, “Oh hey, Applebloom. Yeah just let me go get her real quick,” he got down the ladder and went up the stairs. A moment later, Spike came down the stairs, “Alright she’ll be on her way, it shouldn’t be too long,” Spike said as he went back up the ladder to continue cleaning.
“Aren't you coming with us?” Applebloom asked, since Spike didn’t look like he was going to come.
“Ahh no, I’ll pass on that. I’m not a big fan of hospitals, besides somepony needs to keep the library open, especially after we closed it for three days. Mayor Mare wasn’t too happy about that-” Spike got interrupted.
“Applebloom, I’m glad you could make it, sorry about the wait!” Twilight interrupted as she moved down the stairs, “So you ready to get started?”
“You betcha! Ah’ve been so excited to get started on this, you don’t even know,” Applebloom shaked in and hopped slightly.
“Oh, I may have an idea,” Twilight said with a knowing smile, “so let's go already, Spike I don’t know how long I’ll be gone.”
“Cya Spike,” Applebloom called out. Spike gave his goodbye as the door closed. Applebloom hopped around Twilight like a filly going to Sugarcube Corner on her birthday. She was going to save lives, and make ponies better. She doesn’t know what she’d do if she wasn’t able to heal Sweetie like she did, the thought of losing one of her best friends was just too much to bare. She didn’t like that other ponies could be going through the same situation she did. If she could help them, save them from that kind of loss, she would. She would become a beacon of hope in this harsh unforgiving world that claimed her parents, and threatened to claim her sister more times than she wanted to admit. All she needed to do was prove that it was her who saved Sweetie, and then to learn how she can use it. She would become the light of some ponies darkest hour and save them from whatever fatal injury was inflicted upon them. After all life doesn’t acknowledge mercy, she’d have to be there to give it. She needs to be able to do this, she can’t be helpless, she just won’t allow it.
The hospital was in sight, and soon enough they walked inside, “Princess Twilight! Glad you could make it,” said a nurse that occupied the lobby desk, “I’ll be one moment, while I retrieve Doctor Dish.”
Twilight nodded and they waited, “So I heard you went and grew a bunch of weird plants yesterday? Something about a bush of bananas, a tomato the size of a pumpkin, and you also made a huge tree almost the size of my library?”
Applebloom smiled at that, “Yep, Ah did all those things, Ah even made a red raspberry tree, and-” she stopped herself, and hopped excitedly, “That reminds me! Did Applejack tell you about my super hearing?”
“Ahh, she did briefly mention it yes, but why don’t you tell me about it?” Twilight asked with peaked interest.
“Well if I close my eyes and just listen to things Ah can hear all these things around me that I never could before, like insects crawling about and leaves lightly brushing against each other in a weak breeze, it’s actually quite relaxing, as odd as that sounds,” Applebloom described. It was a rather nice experience that she wouldn’t mind repeating sometime, “but Ah have to really just focus on the sounds around me.”
“Eh hem,” a light green stallion wearing a white jacket and a stethoscope around his neck interrupted, he bowed to Twilight, “Your highness,” and raised soon after, “Thank you for stopping by our humble establishment.”
Applebloom saw Twilight's smile falter for an instant before it was back like it never happened, if she blinked she would have missed it, “Doctor Dish that’s not necessary you can just call me Twilight,” she gestured to her, “and this here is my- ahem my umm, friends little sister Applebloom,” Twilight said with a strained smile. Applebloom couldn’t figure what had Twilight in such a twist, she was sure it wasn’t the good doctor if Twilights micro-aggression was anything to go by. No, it definitely had something to do with her specifically, she could just feel it.
“As you wish your Twilightness,” he said with a bow, “and you can just call me Petri or Dish if you prefer,” then he brought his attention to Applebloom, “Ahh, and you must be the miracle filly, I’ve heard a lot about you, bringing somepony back from such dire straights is very impressive, giving somepony a fighting chance!” He said looking up and making gestures with his hooves that almost made sense.
Applebloom thought he was a little cooky and smiled, “Thanks.”
Twilight jumped in, “Well Dish I think it’s time we get started,”
“I couldn’t agree more now that introductions are out of the way, let us go!” He gestured to stairs that go up. As they moved he talked about the patients he planned on introducing them to starting with physical injuries. He explained the varying degrees of physical trauma the patients had, including one unlucky mare who’d be lucky to walk ever again, and a stallion who got a nasty burn on the right side of his face blinding his right eye and significantly blinding his left. Applebloom didn’t like what she was hearing, but she saved Sweetie, she was sure she’d heal these ponies no problem. She was going to be the world's mercy, she was sure of it, and that hyped her up. She always loved helping ponies and knowing the unforgiving truth of the world only made her want to do it more. Soon they entered a rather large room lined with patients of varying injuries, some significantly more severe than others, “and here we are,” Dish said as he gestured them to come inside, “now I think we should start out small so we could maybe get an idea on how this works,” he said walking up to a light yellow mare with a half pink and half blue mane sporting a rather large bruise on her shoulder, Applebloom knew this pony, “this here is-”
“Bon Bon, what’re you doing here?” Applebloom asked. She knew Bon Bon from her candy shop, pretty much the best one in town for fillies and colts, Sugarcube Corner might be the best bakery in town, but they haven't perfected candy the way she has.
Bon Bon looked down at Applebloom, and smiled in recognition, “Oh you know me, just chasing after Lyra, because she forgot her lyra for the umpteinth time and then tripping and almost dislocating my shoulder on some giant boulder but not really. I instead ended up with this here bruise…” she smirked, “Got any more apples by the way? We all know I could use some more of those,” she teased.
“Ah try to be an overly aggressive seller once and Ah never hear the end of it,” Applebloom complained with a smile. She might not know Bon Bon too well, but she and her friends had been to her store more than a few times for the great candy and they ended up sharing some conversations. Not to mention she let them try and get their cutie marks there. “Anywho, Ah’m here to get rid of that there nasty bruise and heal everypony else here!” Applebloom beamed with confidence. She was originally doubtful about her ability to heal other ponies, but after all the weird plants she made yesterday and the fact she saved Sweetie, she had no doubts this was something she could do.
Bon Bon smiled, “Aww, how sweet of you, but just, don’t put your hopes up.”
Twilight stepped in the conversation, “She’s right Applebloom, this is completely new territory, so just don’t expect to be saving everypony by yourself, that’s too much to ask any one pony. Everypony in this hospital works as a team to help the sick and injured, no one pony can do it all by themselves.” Bon Bon nodded approvingly at Twilight.
“Well, now that that’s out of the way can we get started?” Dish asked.
“Alright,” Bon Bon agreed. Applebloom got lifted up via Twilight's magic to Bon Bons bed. She placed her forelegs on Bon Bons bruise gently. Bon Bon hissed in pain, and Applebloom froze but for a different reason. She didn’t know how to heal, only that she can. She focused on trying to heal like she had previously, but stopped soon after knowing that wouldn’t work.
“A-Ah don’t know how Ah did it,” Applebloom whispered.
“Remember what Puddingheads journal said about honest vision?” Twilight asked, apparently she heard Appleblooms plight.
“Oh yeah, honest vision…” Applebloom said, putting slightly more pressure on Bon Bon than intended.
“Ow, hey be more careful that hurts,” Bon Bon rightly complained.
“Oops, sorry Bon Bon, Ah didn’t mean to honest,” Applebloom apologised. Bon Bon merely looked at her intently, supposedly it was supposed to be intimidating but it just made her smile, and Bon Bon chuckled soon after. Applebloom thought about what honest vision meant, her eyes were filled with tears at the time, so she doubted Puddinghead meant it in the literal sense, but then again maybe he did. So she looked around and thought about the situation at hand logically, she’s here to help heal ponies and the one she’s partially leaning on is Bon Bon. Bon Bon has a badly bruised shoulder, after tripping into a boulder, unless Bon Bon was lying for some reason; that was what was honestly happening right now. All she has to do is keep adding more facts to that and Bon Bon should be healed right up. After about two minutes of no visible changes, she thought to maybe ask some questions, “Where did you get hurt?”
“In the park earlier today, strangest thing, there was some huge boulder there even though I know for a fact that thing hasn’t been there in the past,” Bon Bon said, Applebloom for whatever reason felt the need to look in Twilight’s direction and saw her cringe.
“Yeah…” Twilight said, everypony else brought their attention to the princess, who then looked back and forth nervously, “that sure is strange, because boulders don’t suddenly pop out of the ground right? That would just be ridiculous,” she chuckled and smiled fakely.
Applebloom ignored it and added mysterious boulder to her list of growing facts around this situation while keeping her hooves in contact with Bon Bon. Still no new changes, “it’s not working,” Applebloom complained, a seed of doubt planted in her mind, “maybe it only works on serious injuries,” she suggested.
“I don’t see why that would be the case, I mean you said you healed from some minor scratches from a trip you took yourself,” Twilight pointed out.
“Well what if self healing is different then healing other ponies or what if Ah need to heal worse injuries before Ah can heal lesser ones? You said it yourself that we’re in new territory,” Applebloom countered.
“Well that’s fair enough I guess,” Twilight responded, then faced Bon Bon, “sorry Bon Bon but Applebloom has a point she might not be able to heal your bruise, but we will try again if we make any progress, right?” She finished looking to Applebloom.
“You know Ah will,” Applebloom answered, then paused and jumped from the bed, “now come on show me your worst.”
“Alright if you’ll come with me I’ll lead you to Miss Tornado,” Dish said, as he lead them down the room past several other injured ponies to a pegasus covered in bandages, “she got struck by lightning, and then fell on a fence, it was quite the horrendous incident, she’s lucky to be alive. She’s actually scheduled to be moved to Canterlot for spinal surgery so that she can hopefully retain some movement in her forehooves, but unfortunately too much damage has been done for us to repair her wings and back hooves, but if you pull a miracle here today, well you’d at least have two ponies you can count on to go out of their way to help you,” Dish then brought a hoof to his chin, “Well that’s unfair, I can’t speak for her, and I won’t but you’d at least have one pony who’d go out of their way to help you, and I’m of course speaking about me,” he ended high pitched while making a grand gesture to himself.
Applebloom found it kind of funny, and smiled, he was goofy, “Ah can do this Ah know I can, I just have to figure out how, don’t worry Miss Tornado Ah’ll fix you good as new,” Applebloom said loudly, the patient next to hers brought his attention toward her and she saw his face bandaged heavily. She noted that he must be the burn victim Dish mentioned, it unnerved her as she looked at his distant squinting eye, as he tried to see anything but blurs. She somehow knew he could hardly make out anything but colored blurs. She brought her attention away from him and back to Miss Tornado. She brought her hoof down on Miss Tornado ever so gently and tried.
She tried for about six minutes of nothing happening, Twilight would make suggestions that didn’t work and it was starting to chip away at her confidence in making these ponies better, “Well we always knew this might not work Applebloom,” Twilight said placing a hoof on her withers comfortingly, “I think we should take a short break and try again later,” Twilight said softly.
Applebloom didn’t want to take a break, “No! Ah’m not moving till Ah make her better,” she protested.
Twilight’s hoof removed from her withers and she spoke, “alright we’ll give you a couple more minutes…” Applebloom went back to trying everything thing she could think of to achieve that future she saw for Miss Tornado. Nothing seemed to be working, she was getting frustrated with this. Why won’t it just work she wondered. Before she knew it Twilight spoke up again, “Alright Applebloom it's been a couple minutes let's take a break.”
Applebloom won’t accept this, she can’t accept this, it should be easy, “no!” she hissed, “If Ah can’t help her then maybe,” she looked around, “maybe Ah can help him,” she pointed to the stallion that looked in her direction earlier and quickly jumped from Miss Tornados bed to his and began trying to heal him. Applebloom felt something begin to form around her and lift her away from him, no doubt Twilight using levitation. What neither of them knew though was that Applebloom could cancel that spell with a mere thought, “Let me go!” she yelled and the spell was canceled instantly leaving her to make a surprisingly graceful landing on the bed. She quickly went back to trying to heal the stallion, “come on, work, Ah made a freaking huge tree with ease why is this any different?” she said quietly. Twilight apparently too stunned to do anything else.
“Alright th,” *cough,* “that’s quite enough little miss,” said a unfamiliar raspy weak voice right next to her, which shocked her out of her desperation. She looked to the stallion and his one bad eye as it squinted at her as if it’d ever help him see better, “I know you want to help me and all th,” *cough cough* “these other ponies out and I appreciate it, but sometimes life just isn’t fair, I loved, ahem, reading books, but now I’m going to have to learn braille to keep,” *cough* “that hobby. We all knew this was a off chance, no offence but we never put any real faith in this actually working, so pl,” *cough* “please don’t feel bad if you don’t succeed,” he finished.
Applebloom couldn’t accept his words and tried harder, and harder. She demanded him to be healed in her desperation. Nothing was working. Nothing worked. She snapped back to reality, it didn’t happen, she got up and looked around in a moment of silence. She saw Twilight and Dish watching her patiently, then she scanned the room to all the other patients with bad injuries some she knew they’d never fully recover from, as she realized that they’d have to live with those disabilities for the rest of their lives. The thought creeped into her mind taking hold of her. She brought her attention back to the stallion who loved to read but might as well now be blind, and her eyes got misty. She couldn’t help them. She put her hoof on his shoulder to show she cared and to apologize for not being good enough.
Twilight spoke up, “We’re not gi-” but was interrupted by the stallion as he gave a strangled cry of pain, that soon turned into a scream of agony. Applebloom helplessly watched as the stallion brought his hooves to his face and howled in what seemed like extreme pain. She wanted it to stop, why was this happening?
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The Grand Piano Inn’s best room was everything the bright yellow mare could hope it would be. The view was spectacular, the decor was both fancy, functional, and overall just great. It had a sauna, and hot tub, mini bar, world class kitchen, any kind of bed she wanted, and even a dance floor. Since the suite took the pretty much the whole top floor there was plenty of room. She loved the room and the service, but she was getting bored after a couple days. Living a stagnant life of security was dull to her, since her life up till now has been mostly chaotic and thrilling mentally at least. There’s only so many times she can sit in a sauna relaxing before it loses its charm, same could be said for the hot tub. She’s been in this situation once before but that time was anything but relaxing, regardless of her attempts to make them so. She didn’t possess ‘The Believers Bracelet’ then like she does now. She had to build on her lie and make it more believable. She didn’t get caught that time. She had already made that mistake two times prior and the second time was with some truly dark characters that she wished she never met. Though now that she had the bracelet she could probable get them off her back for good, that was a nice thought.
Another nice feature to the suite was the fact that the roof was one flight of stairs away. That’s rather convenient for a pegasus, maybe not as great as a balcony or large window that can open both of which this suite was sorely lacking in her opinion. Out of boredom, she figured she’d go for a fly, and browse some shops, not that she had any bits to buy anything with but she did have a wonderful bracelet that would help her out. She had to use it when the real Charity Well showed up for her suite room. She was glad she had the receptionist contact her when Charity arrived, as she didn’t want the guard involved. She claimed to be named Charity Well from a company that requested the suite and that it must have been some freak mix up that led to the current situation. Everypony seemed to believe her rather hastily made story, but the real Charity wanted to be compensated with interest for the mix up, as she had already prepaid for the room. The hotel owner took that as an insult and they verbally fought each other, both seeming to try and win her favor in their arguments. She found it odd, but she didn’t want to deal with them so she suggested court and went back to her suite.
After flying around a bit, she found a street that seemed to have an interesting set of shops, so she landed, and window shopped. As she walked she noticed a reoccurring poster on some of the businesses windows. She inspected one briefly, and noted it was for some Martial Arts Festival, that if the date was anything to go by was going to happen in about two weeks. Uninterested in that kind of thing, she ignored it and moved on. She entered the first shop that caught her eye, which happened to be a jewelry store.
The proud owner and proprietor of ‘Obsidians Fine Jewelry’ watched as a potential customer browsed his wares, ready and eager to offer assistance should he need it. A bright yellow pegasus mare sporting a brown cloth bracelet with a beautiful black shard walked in drawing his attention. She browsed around his vast collection of fine jewelry for a little bit. The stallion who had already been browsing waved him over, about time he thought. He had been in a his shop for a good five minutes and was only now deciding to ask for assistance? Sure he’s seen others do it longer and more suspiciously, but he felt something off about that stallion, he could feel it in his gut. The mare still looked around and he felt he could trust her not to pull a fast one so he moved to the stallion, “How may I help you sir?” He said neutrally.
“How much is this?” the stallion questioned as he pointed to one of his more prized pieces of jewelry a gold necklace beautifully crafted, sporting a lovely design equipped with diamonds. There was a sign right below it that clearly stated its price.
He felt more than as little annoyed at this stallions stupidity, but he’s dealt with this situation several times before, “That’s the price right there,” he said with clear annoyance in his voice, while he pointed to the price tag.
“You expect me to believe that’s the real price of something like that? I’ve been to several jewelry shops and none of them had their prices that low…” the stallion said, with a distrustful frown, clearly displaying the true meaning of his words.
The shop owner knew exactly what the ‘customer’ was implying and he’s dealt with that several times in the past as well, “I’ve been in business here for twenty five years sir,” his voice barely containing his anger, “If I were to sell anything that wasn’t legitimate, then I’d have been run out of Manehattan long ago.”
“Hey, you’re being mighty defensive there, maybe I should have somepony check it before I buy it,” the stallion stated clearly still interested in the item, but seemed to completely ignore his defence.
Normally he would have been ecstatic at such an offer to prove yet again he’s a legit trustworthy business pony, but something about this stallion seemed more sinister to him for some reason, “Maybe not. Get out. Before I call the guard on you,” he whispered angrily.
“You know what I’m not interested in your overpriced cheap imitation wares anyways,” the stallion yelled as he stormed out.
The shop owner felt better now that that thief was out of his establishment, he couldn’t trust anypony to be an upstanding citizen these days, well accept that mare over there, she seemed alright. She waved him over, “How may I help you miss?”
“I was just wondering how much those were,” she asked as she pointed at a set of earrings that he completely forgot to put a pricetag on.
“Oh, I’m terribly sorry about that miss…” he said fishing for her name.
“Oh, I’m Light Wind, but you can just call me Light, and you are?” she answered and questioned politely.
He smirked, happy to even be talking to her for some reason, she seemed like and outstanding pony, “I’m the owner of this fine establishment,” he bowed.
“Umm, the price?” She asked shyly, yet rudely.
“Oh, my where are my manners? I’m sure you got more important things to do, those are sixty bits,” he answered. He watched as she brought out her purse opened it and looked at it blankly.
“Umm, I don’t have any bits on me right, now,” she said sadly.
He felt sorry for her, but fortunately he had a remedy, “Well that’s okay, we can always put you down for a payment plan, I won’t even add interest to it, you seem like a honorable mare!” he quickly went and got some papers that he can file out, “Alright, so name is Light Wind, a bright yellow pegasus mare with a happy face mask cutie mark.” At the mention of her cutie mark the mare stiffened up and her mouth opened slightly in shock. He ignored her completely suspicious behavior as if it was normal, “Do you have a address I can use to contact you with?”
The mare snapped out of her stupor, “umm, right,” she handed him a card.
He looked it over, “Huh, never heard of that place before, no matter I’ll have you pay me back in payments of five bits a month, unless you want to change this arrangement?” he questioned. She nodded no, “Well I’ll be just a moment,” he said as he retrieved the topaz earrings for her. He returned to her shortly with the earrings in tow, “Here you go Miss Light I think they’ll look lovely on you.”
“Oh, th-thank you,” she smiled sweetly, “well I really must be going now,” she said as she swiftly made her way towards the exit, “bye,” she waved goodbye and left.
He sighed, and waited for his next ‘customer.’ He felt mighty protective of his things. He almost even considered closing up shop so the thieves would have to break in, and then he’d give them something alright. He felt odd after a little while, like he was lighter. He figuratively kicked himself for sending that stallion away like he did, a third party confirming what he already knows only made him look good. He felt so sure that stallion was a thief, at the time though, no not just him but anypony that would come in his establishment. Everypony accept that shy mare. Thinking about that mare he completely forgot to file away the paper he filled out with all her information. So he went to retrieve it from ontop the display case where he left it last, only to discover it was no longer there. He groaned and tapped his head against the display case.