//------------------------------//
// Emotional Breakdown 
// Story: Pumpkin's Struggle (Part 3): Love is a Lie 
// by AngelShy24 
//------------------------------//

	(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.”