It was a slightly chilly day in Ponyville and Applebloom silently sat in the school's playground area with her friend Sweetie Belle; who was also silent. They sat there. Their respective sisters had told them a G-rated version of the news, but it had been enough to let them know what had ultimately happened. The two biggest bullies at school had been killed. Murdered in the night. It terrified the two to know how easily it happened. In fact, the whole town was shaken up by this.
After a few minutes of sitting there, their other friend, Scootaloo, came and sat with them. She was in a somber state like the rest of the school and sat with them in silence. That silence was broken like a match being struck in a pitch black room by Scootaloo.
"I can't believe they're gone." She stated, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle nodding in agreement. They sat there, "is it bad that I'm glad that they're gone?" Sweetie Belle looked at her in shock, but Applebloom shook her head.
"No... at least, I'm not." She said. Sweetie then looked at her, "they both said some pretty mean stuff to me yesterday." Scootaloo simply nodded in agreement; not wanting to share anything. They returned to sitting in silence for a few more minutes before the bell rang, and they were called inside.
When they got inside the schoolhouse, they were met with the sight of Cheerilee, their teacher, speaking in a hushed voice with a yellow unicorn stallion in a black trench coat and a large brown hat. He had crisp blue eyes and a deep purple mane and tail. After the two had observed that all the children had sat down in their respective seats, they turned to face the class. Cheerilee put on an obviously forced smile as she addressed the room.
"Class, this stallion is detective Clue Finder, he wants to ask you all a few questions." She said before stepping back and letting Clue Finder take the stage. He gave a genuine smile that seemed innocent to all but Applebloom, who felt a chill run down her back at the feeling the stallion gave off. He took his hat off and put it on a hanger in the corner of the room near the door with his magic; which was a blue that matched his eyes. He cleared his throat,
"Good evening children," he said; a smile still on his face. "As your teacher said, I am here to ask you a few simple questions." A few of the fillies and colts looked at each other, then back to Clue. "These questions are about your experiences with the two fillies Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon." He paused and gauged their reactions, most of them looking depressed, and others looking uncertain. Applebloom's eyes narrowed for a split second at the memory of the pair; to which Clue marked. "Have any of you seen them acting strange recently, such as behaving differently than they usually did?" Twist, a filly of the age ten rose her hoof, prompting Clue Finder to look at her.
"I haf missther Finder. They wher meaner than usthual." She said with her lisp. Clue Finder inwardly cringed in annoyance, but kept his outward appearance the same.
"Thank you," he said, "anypony else?" Applebloom's hoof, along with Scootaloo's hoof went up into the air. "Yes, you." He pointed to Scootaloo, who put her hoof down before speaking.
"They've been insulting us more lately than usual." She frowned while Clue Finder gave a look of sympathy to Scootaloo before noticing that Applebloom still had her hoof up.
"Yes?" Applebloom gave a shaky breath before speaking.
"Yesterday, they said really mean stuff to me. It made me want to..." She trailed off; not wanting to finish her sentence in shame and hurt. Cheerilee's eyes widened in shock at what she was implying and Clue nodded with a frown on his face.
"Anypony else?" He asked. No hooves went up, so he stood up and gave a small smile of sympathy to Cheerilee before grabbing and putting on his hat with his jacket. "Thank you for your time. I will take my leave." He opened the door and left. The class returned to a semi-normal state and the day went on like it normally should, except for the depression and bleakness present throughout.
It was seven thirty at Sweet Apple Acres and Applebloom sat on a bale of hay; sweating profusely in exhaustion. She recalled the day and the one before with a questioning train of thought,
'I wanted their torment to end, but this isn't what I thought would happen.' She sat there for a few minutes, thinking thoughts related to that before she heard the supper bell ring throughout the property. She went inside and washed up before going to eat dinner. When she sat down at the table, her family was in the state the rest of the town was in and Big Mac, her brother of little words, seemed to be in a less talkative mood than usual. Dinner passed and she brushed her teeth in the bathroom that was just down the hall from her room. The rest of the family had already fallen asleep when she left the bathroom and began making her way toward her room. She was halfway to her closed door before she heard something.
"AppLeBlOom..." She whipped her head to look further down into the dark hallway with a growing dread. With breath held, she stood there unblinking into the darkness until she was forced to breath. She slowly backed away and toward her room. She made it to the door and quickly went into the room; barely stopping herself from slamming the door and waking the whole house up. She sat down with her back leaning against the door while breathing heavily.
After regaining her breathing, she stood up and made to go to bed, bet saw her window was unlocked. Thinking nothing of it, she re-locked it and slid under the covers before eventually falling asleep...