//------------------------------// // Venom // Story: Like Shattered Glass // by Arwhale //------------------------------// Scootaloo and Applebloom had followed Sweetie Belle up to the front door of the Boutique, where they were now waiting anxiously. Applebloom paced back and forth, staring at her hooves. "Do you think Rarity will be mad?" Scootaloo asked the other filly, biting her lip. Applebloom grimaced. "Ah sure hope not…" She replied, pausing for a moment before blurting out, "Gosh, Scootaloo, Ah feel awful!" She curled up on the ground, hiding her face between her hooves. Scootaloo's raised one eyebrow in puzzlement. "Wait… why?" "What do you mean, why? We kinda forced her to play, didn't we?" Applebloom moaned with exasperation. "And now she's gonna get in trouble and I can't help feelin' like it's kinda my fault!" The pegasus filly listened to her friend's concern, and it did not take long for the wave of realization to hit her as well. She hung her head. "Yeah… I guess you're right. We did kind of make her do it… What're we going to do?" Her question was answered with a scream of rage from inside the Boutique. The two Crusaders froze. "Oh no." Applebloom got up and went to the door, pressing her ear against it. Her worry turned into fear. "Was that…?" Sweetie Belle's wailing cry was heard only moments before she came bursting through the door. Applebloom cried out as the door smacked her in the head, knocking her aside. At first, Scootaloo jumped back with surprise, but quickly recovered, darting after the unicorn filly while Applebloom lay dazed on the ground. "Sweetie Belle, what's wrong? Come back!" … Rarity stood stock still, facing the open door. A cloud covered the sun, blocking the beams of sunlight streaming through the window and painting the room a shade of gray. The air was heavy and suffocating. The only sound remaining was the ticking of a clock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Get out. Her body went numb with the recollection of what was not even a minute in the past. All the words she had said were burned into her memory like a hot iron. Oh, shut up. Her lip quivered. Tick. Tock. Why is it that whenever I try to do something, you've always got to be there to ruin it? The sound of her fast beating heart accompanied the clock. …you honestly think I care that you're sorry? You expect your little "sorry" to cut it? Her body broke out into a cold, clammy sweat. A sob rose in her chest. Tick. Tock. I don't care what you do! I don't care if you leave here and never come back! I don't care! Her legs gave out from under her, unable to bear the weight of her guilt. GET OUT! She wept. … Tears blinded her, but Sweetie Belle kept running. However, Scootaloo, being the athlete she was, did not take long to catch up to her. "Sweetie Belle! What happened? Did you get in trouble?" "Just leave me alone!" Sweetie Belle cried. But Scootaloo was not planning on giving up. She passed Sweetie Belle, jumping in front of her. Her friend went off to the side, dodging Scootaloo and running off in another direction. Scootaloo called out after her, giving chase once again. "Come on, just tell us what's wrong! We can help!" "I'm stupid and useless, that's what's wrong!" She sobbed out. Her tears obscured her vision, and she did not notice a small stone in front of her until too late. She tripped over it, falling onto the dirt with a sharp cry, landing hard on her side. "Sweetie Belle! You okay?" Scootaloo slid to a halt right beside her, trying to help her up. Sweetie Belle scrambled to her hooves, pushing Scootaloo's outstretched hoof away. "Go away! Just leave me alone!" She turned more aggressive, glaring daggers at Scootaloo. Desperate to get to the bottom of things, the pegasus filly grabbed hold of Sweetie Belle to keep her from running away again. "Look, I'm sorry we made you play, I really am! Please Sweetie Belle, let's just talk for a second!" "I said, leave. Me. Alone!" Stars exploded in Scootaloo's vision. She flew back with a yell, landing with a soft thud on the grass. The pegasus filly's hooves immediately shot up to clutch her snout, and she felt a hot, sticky fluid run down her face and over her hooves. When she opened her eyes, colors danced and swirled in front of her, until eventually her hooves, stained crimson with blood, came into focus. She rolled onto her side, groaning with pain, pressing on both sides of her snout as it bled like a tap. By the time Scootaloo looked back up from her place on the dirt, Sweetie Belle was lost to sight. "Oh my gosh, Scoot, what happened? Where's Sweetie Belle?" Scootaloo rolled over to see Applebloom galloping toward her, her face the picture of worry. The young pegasus stood back up, wobbling slightly in the process, but Applebloom was there in time to help her stand up straight. The farm filly gasped. "Oh man, what happened to you? You okay?" Applebloom gestured to her friend's snout. Scootaloo looked down, mesmerized by the sight of blood all over her hoof. "I… think Sweetie Belle just…hit me." Scootaloo wiped her snout again, sniffling. Applebloom's jaw dropped. "She hit you? Why would she do a thing like that?" Applebloom looked around, frantic. "Where did she go?" Scootaloo shook her head, dizzy from the blow."I dunno. I couldn't see where she went. She said to leave her alone. Uhh…" Scootaloo groaned again. "We've gotta go find her!" "Nah… maybe we should wait a little bit," said Scootaloo, still clutching her snout. "She probably just needs to be by herself right now." Applebloom was about to disagree, when she took another look at her friend's face. If Sweetie Belle had been angry enough to do that, then maybe they should wait. "Yeah, you're probably right," she agreed with reluctance, taking a seat next to Scootaloo, patting her back in a comforting gesture. As the minutes dragged on, the blood flowing from Scootaloo's nose eventually stopped, and her dizziness subsided. Once she had fully recovered, Scootaloo blurted out, "You don't think she's mad at us, do you? You know, for forcing her to play and all?" Applebloom exhaled deeply, giving the question a lot of thought. "I dunno. I wouldn't blame her if she was, though." She pouted. Scootaloo gave a grim laugh. "Yeah. Me neither." Another minute went by before Applebloom stood back up, taking a couple of steps forward. "How 'bout we get on over to my place so you can wash yourself up? Sweet Apple Acres isn't that far away," suggested Applebloom. "Then we can go find Sweetie Belle, wherever she is. That way, she has enough time to… cool off." Scootaloo considered the idea, and agreed with a little nod. "That's sounds cool to me… hey, wait! What happened to your head?" Scootaloo looked at Applebloom's forehead, which was sporting a nasty bruise. Applebloom looked puzzled, feeling her forehead, and wincing as her hoof pressed on the blue and black spot. "Uh… I think that might've been from the door when Sweetie Belle came out of the Boutique." She felt the bruise, which was swelling up into a little bump. She shrugged it off. "No biggie. Let's go." The two walked off towards Sweet Apple Acres, nursing their wounds. … Applebloom brought Scootaloo to the back entrance of the house, inviting her friend inside. She cautioned her, however, with a hoof over her mouth in a shushing gesture. "Shh…Granny Smith is probably taking her nap right now, so I don't want to wake her up and have her see y'all… like this." She whispered. Scootaloo frowned. "Does it really look that bad?" Applebloom nodded. "Yeah… it's pretty bad." She walked with a careful step to the front of the house. "Follow me." Sure enough, Granny Smith was right on schedule, dozing in her chair and snoring gently. The two fillies snuck past her, gritting their teeth with the effort to not make any noise. Once they were up the stairs, they breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay, bathroom's down here." Applebloom opened the door. Scootaloo walked over to the sink and turned the faucet with her crimson hooves, and began furiously scrubbing them. Applebloom walked out of the bathroom, calling back, "I'll be right out here, kay, Scoot?" "Mmhm." Scootaloo was splashing water on her face, looking in the sink with morbid fascination as the water turned red. Applebloom closed the door behind her, and turned around. She jumped with surprise as Applejack stood at the top of the stairs, looking down at her from the other end of the hallway. "Uh… hey Applebloom." Applejack approached her. "What're you doing here? And who's in the bathroom?" She tilted her head, angling her ear toward the sound of the running faucet. "Uh, uh, umm… Scootaloo." Applebloom blurted out. It was a good thing she closed the door, otherwise… The bathroom door opened, and Scootaloo peeped her head out. "Hey, Applebloom, you got a washcloth or a towel or something? The blood won't come off… uh oh." Scootaloo froze in the doorway, staring at Applejack. Her snout was still smeared with red. Applebloom smiled nervously. "Yeah, um… Scoot had an accident, so I brought her here so she could clean herself up," said Applebloom, her ears falling back on her head. Applejack's eyes grew wide as saucers. "Good gravy, what kind of 'accident' are we talking about here? It looks like somepony…" She paused, also noticing the goose egg on her sister's forehead. Almost right away, her surprised expression turned into one of sternness. "Did y'all get into another fight, AB?" She asked, gravely serious. At hearing this, Applebloom gave an emphatic shake of her head. "Oh, no! Well, kind of…" She said, looking away. Applejack, understandably, was not satisfied with her answer. "What do you mean, 'kind of'?" She raised her voice, frowning. "Lemme tell ya, it sure looks to me like you're hiding something, sis, and from what I can see right now, it looks like y'all got into another fight-" "No! I didn't fight anypony, honest! It's just really, uh… it's a long story," she said lamely, but made full eye contact with Applejack. "I didn't get into another fight, I promise." Applejack took a long look at Applebloom, giving her a skeptical look. Despite what it looked like, she couldn't see any signs of dishonesty from her sister, and after a few seconds, her expression softened. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. "Alright. Ah believe you. But Ah do want to know how you and Scootaloo got hurt like that. Ah don't care if it's a long story, cuz Ah still want to hear it. We can talk in my room. Can y'all do that for me?" She asked them with a tender tone of voice. The two fillies nodded. Applejack smiled. "Good. But first, lemme get you a washcloth, Scootaloo," said Applejack, going back downstairs to get a cloth from the kitchen. "Thanks, Applejack," Scootaloo called out after her in a low tone of voice, careful not to wake up Granny Smith who was sleeping downstairs. Once Applejack was out of sight, Scootaloo turned to Applebloom. "So, are we gonna tell her everything?" Scootaloo asked, daunted by the task. After all, it really was a long story. Applebloom nodded. "Yeah. We just gotta tell the truth, that's all," she stated simply. Applejack came back upstairs with a washcloth tossed over her shoulder. She passed it to Scootaloo, who took it eagerly, going back into the bathroom to finish up. Applejack motioned for Applebloom to follow her, and she said back to Scootaloo, "We'll be in my room. Just come on in when you're done." "M'kay," replied Scootaloo, scrubbing her snout with the wet cloth. Applejack shook her head in good humor. "Well, we sure ain't gonna be able to use that cloth again. Oh well." She chuckled. "Come on, sis." Applebloom stayed back a ways, hesitant. Applejack noticed, and she walked back over to her, giving her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, sis. Neither of you are in trouble, Ah promise. Ah know y'all are telling the truth." She cocked her head toward her room. "Come on." Inwardly sighing with relief, Applebloom followed her sister into the room. … Sweetie Belle ran until she could run no more. The unicorn filly had run all the way to the outer edge of Sweet Apple Acres, and was finally forced to stop and catch her breath. She gasped, her lungs sucking in air greedily and her chest heaving. She went over to one of the trees and stood up on her hind legs, placing both of her forelegs onto the trunk of the tree and falling into a violent coughing fit. Once the coughing subsided, she proceeded to wander the orchard aimlessly, dragging her hooves through the grass with her head hung in despair. "I wonder what a cutie mark for always ruining everything would look like," she said, a sob rising in her throat. "That's the only thing I'm any good at." Sweetie Belle gradually changed direction, not paying any attention to where she was going. Before she knew it, she was outside of the west end of Sweet Apple Acres, the soil beneath her quickly turning into clay. The filly looked up for the first time, to see the wall of apple trees marking the edge of the orchard several meters behind her. In front of her, the land was dotted with rocks and boulders, and the soil was rocky and infertile. She sighed, and kept walking until she reached a huge stone which was flat on the top. She felt so tired, so drained of energy, and to her, this rock looked like a place where she could just sleep… The young filly plopped down on top of the stone, curling up into a ball and resting her head on her forelegs. She closed her eyes. Without warning, there was a loud buzz. Sweetie Belle's eyes shot open, suddenly on the alert. She lifted her head, looking all around her. The buzzing sounded almost like somepony was furiously shaking a maraca, only it was sharper in tone. And very loud. And it was coming from a spot right below the rock. The noise made Sweetie Belle uneasy, but curiosity got the best of her. She quietly got down from the big stone and stepped around the rock. There was a brief flash of movement out of the corner of her eye, which was immediately followed by a sharp pain in her right leg. She jumped back with a yelp, landing on the ground a few steps away from the rock. "Ow! What the…" Sweetie Belle's blood ran cold. Right in front of her, on a spot right below the big rock she had been laying on only moments ago, was a fully grown rattlesnake. Over a third of its body was raised off of the ground, its head reared back in a striking position. It gazed at Sweetie Belle with reptilian, unblinking eyes, its menacing forked tongue flickering in and out of its mouth and its rattle buzzing in a warning that was too late to heed. The unicorn filly looked down at her hoof, to see two tiny little holes spaced less than a centimeter apart. Fang marks. Sweetie Belle stared at the two little holes, gripped with terror. "Oh no," she whimpered, taking several steps back away from the snake. "Oh no, no! No!" The filly could already see the area around the fang marks swelling up as the venom began to do its work. She did not know much about rattlesnakes, but she had heard stories about ponies that had been bitten by them, only to suffer slow, painful deaths… The thought chilled the poor filly to the bone. Panic began to set in, but she fought it with all her might, taking many deep breaths. She had to stay calm. She needed to get help. There was no time to waste. With grim determination, Sweetie Belle turned around, walking back to Sweet Apple Acres, leaving the rattlesnake behind to sun itself on the rock. … After sitting down on Applejack's bed, the two fillies told Applejack everything they could remember, all the way from their morning conversation until right then. It had taken quite a while, but now the room was silent as Applejack mulled over everything in her head, thinking deeply. "So after you tried to ask her what happened, she popped you in the nose, Scootaloo?" Applejack asked the filly sitting beside her on the edge of the bed. Scootaloo nodded. "Yeah, Ah figured somepony hit you to get it to bleed like that," she shuddered, "but Ah definitely wasn't expecting that somepony to be Sweetie Belle. Ah don't know what got into her… she's normally such a nice girl…" All of a sudden, it hit her. How had none of them realized it sooner? "Thank y'all for telling me what happened, girls," said Applejack. She got up and walked over to the door. The other two fillies looked at her with confusion. "Where are you going?" asked Applebloom. "Ah'm going over to Rarity's place," Applejack replied. "Ah'm gonna try and get to the bottom of- hey! Is that Sweetie Belle right there?" Applejack had turned around, and her gaze was directed out the window. The two fillies' heads perked up right away, darting over the window to get a look, being followed closely by Applejack. Sure enough, all three of them could see her coming right out of the orchard a small distance away. Applebloom jumped for joy. "Yeah, that is her! She must've been walking around the… hey…" Applebloom's excitement vanished. It took a matter of seconds for them all to realize something was not right. Sweetie Belle was half-limping, half-dragging herself over the grass, stumbling forward in a zigzag pattern. "What's wrong with her? Why's she…" Applejack trailed off. She took a step back. "Somethin' ain't right." She trotted toward the door. "She looks hurt. Come with me!" ... At first, she had felt nothing but pain. But the agony had given way to numbness as her life quickly ebbed away. She could only give shallow breaths, her lungs starting to fail her. Everything she saw was little more than a colored blur, and she fought desperately to keep her eyelids from falling shut. All her body wanted to do was sleep, to succumb to the venom flowing through her veins… Suddenly, a voice called out to her. It seemed distant, like it was coming from miles away. "Sweetie Belle!" An orange-colored blotch came into her field of vision. The voice got louder, and was soon joined by two others that seemed even farther away. They sounded so familiar, but the filly couldn't put her hoof on why. She weakly lifted her head. "Sweetie Belle! Are you okay, Sugarcube?" That was when she knew. She hollered out toward the fast approaching blur with tears in her eyes, her voice cracking out of sheer desperation, "Applejack! Help! Help me! Help me please, oh help me…" ... Sweetie Belle's agonized cries awakened the best of Applejack's motherly instincts. She sprinted forward, grabbing hold of Sweetie Belle just as she began to lose her footing, stumbling off to the side like a pony intoxicated. She held the filly steady, keeping her upright and placing a hoof on the sides of Sweetie Belle's face, touching the tip of her snout to hers and looking her dead in the eye. "What's wrong, Sugarcube? Are you hurt?" She pulled her face away from Sweetie Belle, looking over her whole body for any injuries she could see. "What is… oh mah gosh." She saw her front leg, and was struck dumb with shock. It was swollen purple and black, and the flesh above her hoof was beginning to dissolve away, forming grotesque flaps of dead tissue that were festering and oozing blood. But worst of all, placed right in the middle of the swollen mass of dying flesh, were two red dots. Almost right away, Applejack knew exactly what they were. "Rattler!" Applejack exclaimed from between clenched teeth. She had never seen a pony bitten firsthand, but Granny Smith had warned her when she was a filly about rattlesnakes and their dangerous venom. She felt lightheaded at the thought. "Sweetie Belle!" Applejack heard Scootaloo shout from behind her. She whirled her head around to see the two fillies galloping toward her as fast as their legs could carry them. Almost right away, Applejack focused in on the bow in Applebloom's hair. An idea popped into her head, and she yelled to her sister, "AB! Come over here, quick! Both of you!" They needed no second bidding. Both of them obeyed without hesitation, coming to stop on either side of Applejack, who was now cradling Sweetie Belle's head in one arm as she lay on the ground. Before they could ask any questions, Applejack pointed at Applebloom's ribbon, saying with a tone of urgency, "Gimme your ribbon, AB! Fast!" The red ribbon was to Applebloom as the cowboy hat was to Applejack; both sisters hated to part with them. But there was something in Applejack's demeanor that made Applebloom relinquish the ribbon without even a second's thought. She sat back on the ground, grasping one end of the bow between her hooves, and yanked hard until the bow had come undone. She passed the ribbon to Applejack, who caught it with her mouth. Sweetie Belle was lying on her side, wheezing for air. Applebloom and Scootaloo crowded in closer, trying to get a better look of their friend, when they saw the leg that had been bitten. They recoiled in horror. "Oh man! What happened to her leg?" asked Scootaloo. Applejack couldn't talk at the moment, but she wrapped the ribbon around the very top of the bitten leg where it met the shoulder, working it with her mouth and hooves until she had formed a knot. Using her mouth, she pressed one hoof on Sweetie Belle's leg, and pulled on the ribbon with all her might. Sweetie Belle cried out as the ribbon was pulled so tightly that it nearly cut into her skin, cutting off the circulation to her leg in an effort to prevent any more of the venom from spreading. Applejack turned to Applebloom and Scootaloo. She was trying not to cry. "She got bit by a rattlesnake." The words hung in the air like a death sentence. Scootaloo gasped. Applebloom's eyes watered. "Ah'm gonna go get the wagon from the barn. She needs to get to the hospital," said Applejack, trying her best to keep her head. "One of you needs to run down to the hospital as fast as you can and tell them Sweetie Belle's coming." Applebloom nodded right away. "Ah'll go!" "Good, go!" She urged. Applebloom took off, leaving nothing but a cloud of dust behind as she bolted down the road. Applejack turned to Scootaloo. "Y'all need to stay with her till Ah get back. And don't let her fall asleep, whatever you do! Do y'all understand?" Scootaloo nodded wordlessly, too shocked to speak. Applejack took off. Scootaloo went into action. She crouched down next to Sweetie Belle, who had not moved from her position on the ground. Scootaloo laid her hoof on her fallen friend's cheek, turning her head so Sweetie Belle was looking at her. The unicorn's eyes were pale and half shut, flickering open and closed. "Hey, Sweetie Belle! It's me, Scootaloo! Wake up!" The other filly's eyes shot open for a second with recognition, but it was apparent that she was having trouble keeping them from closing again. "S-Scoot?" She stammered. Scootaloo nodded, smiling in a futile attempt to comfort her. "Yeah, I'm here. We're gonna help you. Don't worry." Sweetie Belle seemed to be comforted by this, and she rested her head back on the ground. She breathed in as deep as she could go, and stuttered out, "S-Sorry… I hit you." Scootaloo didn't even know what to say. She lied down next to Sweetie Belle, laying a foreleg around her back and pulling her into her own body, shuddering at how cold her friend felt against her. "Don't worry about it. Don't worry, it's okay. It'll be okay," she repeated, both to Sweetie Belle, and to herself. She lay there for only a minute before she could hear the distinctive sound of wagon wheels rolling over the ground. Applejack came around the corner, pulling the apple wagon with a speed Scootaloo had never seen. She parked the wagon right next to them. "Quick, help me get her in the back of the wagon!" She and Scootaloo lifted Sweetie Belle into the back, setting her down onto the wooden floor. Scootaloo jumped in the back with her, and Applejack raced back around to the front, strapping herself back into the harness. "Hold on to her! This is gonna be bumpy!" shouted Applejack. She charged forward, pulling the wagon at breakneck speed down the road. Scootaloo sat against the side of the apple wagon, with the head of Sweetie Belle rested on her lap. She wrapped both hooves around her and never let go. She kept on repeating the same thing to herself. "It'll be okay. It'll be okay." But no matter how many times she said it, Scootaloo couldn't get herself to believe it.