//------------------------------//
// Five 
// Story: Pony Tails 
// by Jonah Fun 
//------------------------------//

There was, for a small while, a contented silence in the barn. Leaning back on the haystacks, Rose was happy that she had been left alone here with her notebook. Earlier in the day, she had been left alone in the forest clearing under the intense heat of the sun. Rose hadn't liked that, it was too hot for her too enjoy her vast amount of recordings. In here in the barn. it was cool	and yet still bright enough to see. Rose liked that. The fact the she couldn't remember anything in her past was also a plus, as it meant that she could rediscover all that stat the she had wrote down in her past . Indeed, it was looking to be a fine little afternoon for Rose. That was until the yellow horse appeared in the doorway.
Applebloom looked onto the carefree alien as she used her questionably shaped hooves to flick through her book. She wanted attention, but quickly realized none would come if she stood around doing squat. She called out to the creature;
"Hey!" Rose remained face down, her nuzzle fully immersed into her world of numbers. But Applebloom hadn't given up that easily. She trotted in to the barn, a seemingly innocent smile stretching between her 2 eyes. Once again she called out to the creature.
"Hey! The one with the book. Ummm... er - Rose, wun it?" Rose realized she wouldn't escape this creature's company until she satisfied her demands and turned up to face her, Her face and cheeky grin directly covering any view of the outside. 
"Whatcha doin?" She asked, enthusiastically. 
"Just reading my book" Rose replied flatly.
"What's it about?" She tried again.
"Stats." Applebloom showed discomfort at the amount of effort she was putting into this conversation. Her face barely raised up enough for her eyes to glare through, The alien creature looked imposing despite how Applebloom was looking down on it.
"Stats, huh? Bout what?" Applebloom made to sit beside her as Rose gave another simple answer.
"Card time." Applebloom slumped down against the haystack, and for the first time caught sight of the mysterious bag the lay lifelessly on the hay.
"Now what is this..." Applebloom said with greedy curiosity 
"That's Daisy's bag. You're not allowed to touch it. She said so." Rose anxiously said to Applebloom, catching her attention.
"What, an you have to listen to her or somein?" 
"Daisy makes the rules" Rose said, regaining her normal, flat voice.
"Well, you know what they say," Applebloom cheekily grinned, "Rules are made to be broken." With that, she picked up the bag, much to Rose's alarm.
"N-n-no! Don't do that!" She sat forward now, the 7-year old clearly in her voice, with blatant fear in her small eyes. 
"Why? Will the wide,wide world of Equestria fall on me when i open it?" Rose stared back, confused by this logic.
"B-but Daisy said-"
"Daisy was probably jus being a tight ol meanie, a bit like my sister not lettin me see you. They're all like that." Rose was astounded. The girl seemed so calm, so casual, when she was breaking one of the most important rules of all. It was almost as if she were right, as if Daisy had been over-blowing the rules. She was too busy thinking about this to see Applebloom clench her teeth on the zip and undo the bag, and by the time she realized what she was hearing, Rose had turned back to the yellow horse after gazing to nothing and instinctively opened her mouth to object, but then closed it on second thought. 
"Now... Let's see what we ave here..." She had put one of her fore-hooves into the bag but looked to the east of it while doing so. She pulled out an object shaped like a mirrored L, it was green, translucent with a little trigger under the turning point and an orange nozzle at the end of the longer part. Applebloom chucked it to Rose, who failed to catch it. She picked it up off of the hay.
"What's that?" The yellow horse asked.
"I dunno..." replied Rose
"well... try something with it.. shake it or pull part of it or..." Rose's index finger had almost naturally slid into the trigger, and when she pulled, little to her surprise, a fine line of water squirted out of the orange nozzle.
"Hey!!! It's like a portable hose!" Applebloom laughed, joyous at the progress she was making. She then turned glum. 
"It ain't all that powerful though. What else we got in here..." 
She searched hungrily through the bag, eager for more adventure with the alien. This time, she pulled out a silver coil. It looked light but was very long; even though Applebloom was holding it as high as she could, it still reached the ground. She dropped it and it all fell down into one small compressed coil before bouncing over onto it's side. Rose watched the yellow horse with great interest, as she dug through the things Daisy, whom she had trusted, had pointlessly kept from her, trying to figure out why, or what she had done to deserve it.
Applebloom spat a raspberry at the item. 
"What a waste of my time. Is there anythin left in-" What she then pulled out was much like the first object, but it was black and opaque, and slightly larger. Applebloom beamed at Rose.
"Hey, i bet this here is a more powerful porta-hose." She chucked the object at Rose, and added; "Blast me with it, i'm boilin."
This time Rose caught the object, and, upon command, expertly aimed it between Applebloom's eyes and fired. As she did so, the eggs in the nest simultaneously hatched, and the birds started to make a horrendous but quiet cry. 
She looked at the dead filly as blood slithered out of the bullet wound, and realized just what she had done. She dropped the gun. Applebloom's face showed shock, the expression unshifting and cold. Rose's face replicated this. Now she was in big trouble. She killed someone. That orange horse's sister. She was dead. It was her fault. No more card time. Maybe no more Daisy. Then, a memory flashed in Roses mind.
So if anything bad happens, you're to come back here, to this weird pond. Got it?
Daisy was always right. Daisy made the rules. She had to go back to the pond. If she did that, she might be forgiven. or at least, get a less severe punishment. Rose's eyes flashed back into reality, as she saw the pack of cards lying beside the dead horse. She hazily walked over to them and picked them up. She took one final look at the body. She was wrong. Daisy was right. She always had been. 
"It's your fault. You should've known. Daisy is always right!" She was unconsciously shouting at the corpse, her eyes secretly filling up with tears. With that, she ran from the barn, as the 3 newly hatched birds made desperate, hopeless caws for their mother.



The bowling trip had been a great success. All of Twilight's friends had grown to like Daisy, and treated her as if she were a pony herself. Even Applejack was seemingly loosening up a bit. It was night-time, the sun finally ending another trek along the sky and the moon begining one of it's own. Twilight, Daisy and Applejack were still discussing the humorous events of the trip and laughing when they first entered the barn. Then Applejack saw her sister was dead. She ran over to the cold corpse, and she shook the body in some weak attempt to bring life back to it. Then she let out an awful, painful groan before sobbing over her sister's dead body.
Twilight just stood there, shocked. She hadn't known Applebloom too well, but to see Applejack in this much pain was heart-wrenching: she couldn't hold back her tears. Daisy knew almost immediately what had happened. She walked aimlessly to the gun. She had told Rose that she wasn't allowed to open the bag; It must have that yellow horse who had convinced her to do so. She shouldn't have left the bag with Rose, she thought, this was all her own fault. She fumbled back to Twilight, who was silently staring at her poor friend, her body like a statue, her eyes distant and searching. She looked up to the entrance, which was now occupied by Granny smith and Big mac, who had come after hearing the moan. They both held the other for support.

She turned back to Twilight.
"What now" Daisy whimpered. Her question flickered in Twilight's eyes, and she replied;
"Rottadamn," Daisy waited for an explanation "Rose will be sent to Rottadamn prison. It's the strictest, vilest place imaginable. The inmates are the worst of pony kind. And the guards are tough as nails."
"Rottadamn prison?" The orange horse cut in. "That.. thing, is not likely to be gettin that far, i'm afraid," Twilight jerked her head towards the orange horse, who was now carrying her little sister on her back. "I'm gonna go to town, tell everyone bout that there demon, and get her hung."
"Applejack sh-"
"SHE KILLED MY SISTER!!" Twilight hung in shock at the pure rage in her friend's voice. Applejack's face softened, she had scared her friend and felt as if she needed to explain why. "She never got her cutie mark, you know." She said, wearily. "She used to git up every mornin and moan or sigh cus she's still bare. I was waiting so long for the day she'd git up and laugh, smile or grin or somethin. That mornin's never gonna come now, is it?" Twilight shook her head, defeated. "No it ain't. and whose fault is that?" Daisy shuffled uneasily. 
"I just wan a little justice. And i'm sure the townsfolk will too." She turned to Daisy, her look of contempt glaring at daisy's look of guilt.
"An i'll come back fer you later." She added sourly. The orange horse then made her way to the barn entrance, slowly trotting with her dead sister on her back. When she got to the entrance she stopped and turned;
"You comin, brother?" Big Mac shot a disapproving look before going back to comfort his grandmother. "Fine" hissed the orange horse, 
"Be that way." with that, she was gone. A couple of seconds stiffly passed. Daisy opened her mouth;
"Do think that she'll really-"
"She loved her sister. They were really close." Daisy turned towards Twilight.
"Can you stop her?" 
"Not a chance."
"Are we ever going to find that lake?" Twilight's face gave Daisy the answer she needed, but did not want. More stiff seconds came and went.
"I know where Rose will be" She said, determinedly walking over to her bag. She picked up and saw the notebook just lying down on the hay. 
"Where?" asked Twilight. Daisy silently walked over to the notebook a put in her bag. She opened her mouth, hesitated for a bit, then said "Near a weird shaped pond to the east of here. The one with the big tree in the middle of it."
"Go to her" Twilight said. "Escape if you must. Rottadamn prison is no place for a girl like that, Daisy." Daisy had zipped up her bag and put it on her back, and was now listening carefully to Twilight. "I'll go and try to slow Applejack down." She watched as Twilight ran after the orange horse, but stopped mid-gallop in thought. Without turning, she said "Maybe one day... when this all behind us-"
"It'll never be behind her." Daisy replied flattly. Twilight sighed, knowing this was true. Her voice broke while saying goodbye as she left the barn. Daisy began to leave herself, but was interrupted by Granny Smith. She startled at the sound of her; she'd forgotten they were there at all.
"What do you plan on doin with her?" Daisy hesitated, and choose her words;
"Whatever's best for her." The old withered horse smiled sadly through her closed eyes and streaming tears, as she tiredly replied; "Then you have my blessings." Daisy lingered there for a moment, taking in the comment for what it really was. She then hurried out of the barn, and left the 2 horses to the tears. Up above, one bird lay dead and bloodied as the other 2 feasted on it for lack of anything else to eat. The 2 knew that tomorrow, one would kill the other for food. But that was then. For now, they simply gorged themselves on what had once been their sibling, oblivious to the conflict below them.