//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: News // Story: Fallout: Equestria - Of Wings and Stripes // by PeppermintSparkle //------------------------------// *Sharpie Sparkle – Peppermint’s Sister* Meanwhile, elsewhere in Stable 2… “She just… left? Screen, you’re crazy! Nopony can open the Stable door!” I told my brother. “Yeah, we all thought that! Until… until Velvet Remedy left! Celestia and Luna, Sharpie, do you ever play anything other than that dumb band on your PipBuck?” He yelled at me, looking exasperated. Equestria Underground is NOT dumb! Just because you don’t like Hard Rock or Metal like I do, it doesn’t mean you have to…” He gave me a look that told me that I needed to listen to my eldest sibling for once. “Ugh! I’ll turn on the Stable Radio! Jerk!” My horn was surrounded in a glow of purple as I used my magic to make my PipBuck play the Stable’s radio broadcast. “… And in recent news, two more mares have followed Velvet Remedy out the Stable Door! A unicorn, the PipBuck Repair Pony who had Velvet’s PipBuck, and the PegaZebra. Peppermint Sparkle! You think leaving is some kind of crazy, taboo trend, Mic?”A female voice boomed through my PipBuck’s speaker. “Oh no, Discy! But I will tell you what it is… Suicide!” The two radio ponies started laughing at that. I didn’t find it funny. At all. “She… she left???”I felt pale, lightheaded. My blood felt like it had frozen solid as I didn’t move a muscle, heard my heart skip a beat. The world had stopped. THIS WAS NUTS! “Yeah, li’l sis… she did…” He grimaced. Now, I don’t cry much. Most of the time, I have other ways of dealing with my feelings. But at that moment, I wrapped my hooves around my brother, Screen Sparkle, the popular buck of Stable 2… and bawled. My eyes out. Growing up, Peppermint was always there for me. No matter what, if somepony said anything bad about me, she was on their tail. She was bullied and, I guess, she couldn’t stand for the same fate to fall upon her sister. I could confide in her, trust her to keep her word, trust her to keep secrets. She was the pony I talked to about ‘mare problems’, the best friend I could have! But when I became a third year… everything changed. Ponies realized that we were sisters, and instantaneously decided that they hated me. The sisters and brother of Peppermint’s bullies were my bullies now, hating me just because I was related to her! Just because their siblings hated her! I was upset, hated at school and wherever my classmates saw me, and in a bitter attempt to regain some kind of love from the ponies who hated me, tried to separate myself from Pepper. I just… stopped talking to her. If she was around, I wasn’t. Being seen with her meant endless torment… and I couldn’t take it anymore. I saw it, I saw as she started to become even more depressed than ever before. She started hiding things, not talking to Pip or any other pony. She became a loner, and most of her Upperclassman year, she just went to class, did her work, and went to the next class. She’d have small conversations, maybe participate in class, but that was it. And Blade… he never stopped. He never stopped beating her up, never stopped being the biggest bully in Peppermint’s life. He just got worse. The only thing good in her life was that she was one of the smartest ponies in her class. Because of that, she’d be getting extra schooling, a higher level of learning. Without Blade, without any of the ponies who hated her! For another two years! She came home with that news, ecstatic with joy, telling the whole family over dinner. Our Father asked her if he would have to pay for it. She told him no. Our mother asked if she’d be moving out. She told her yes. Screen, he patted her on the back, being the good big brother he was… at home. Me… I regret what I said. “So what, big deal… you get to go through more school, without all the jerks… meanwhile next year, I’ll probably get stuck with some dead-end job, working for some buck who thinks he’s all that because he’s climbed the stupid social ladder of this Stable, just to support this Celestia-damned family. Con-bucking-gratulations.” I was nearly slapped for my language, but that’s not what got to me. It was the look on Peppermint’s face. She looked broken, horribly. But regardless of how much I had hurt her, I could still see love in my sister’s eyes. “I’ll take my dinner to my room.” She said, got up, and silently flew into her room, shutting the door behind her. For 5 years, that’s sat on my soul. For five years, I’ve been eaten alive by guilt. But if I say sorry, I’ll be hated even more than I already am. So I keep to myself, miserably rotting away inside. About 10 minutes after I started bawling, I was all cried out. “What are we gonna do?” Screen asked me, not crying, but sounding like he was about to. “I… I don’t know... what can we do?” He frowned. He didn’t know either. “Well… I guess we have to go tell… Mom and Dad…” I muttered, starting to walk in the direction of their room. I hung my head. This was going to SUCK. *** We decided that I’d tell Mom, and that he’d tell Dad. It’d be easier that way. Hopefully. Walking towards room B-109, Mom and Dad’s, I took a deep breath. Dad was at work right now, so Mom would be doing her… Mom stuff right about now. Wrapping the door handle in my magic, I twisted it, opening the light gray painted door that separated them from this even grayer hallway. She’d never let me paint anything on it, in fear Dad wouldn’t like it, but I really wished I could. A little bit of color would really brighten up the door, setting them apart from the other doors, making them look special, cared for. But nooo… light gray is the only thing Dad wants… he doesn’t want to stick out… Jerk. Pulling myself out of my thoughts, I stepped in, shutting the door behind me. “Mom?” I called, and saw her head stick up, coming from under the kitchen sink. “Sharpie, darling! I was just polishing all the cabinet lights!” “Don’t you polish enough lights at work?” I asked. “I do polish quite a few, but every light deserves to be in tip-top shape, the epitome of lighting perfection! And I insist that this house receive the same treatment I would give a light in the Atrium, Orchard, or anywhere else in the Stable! Heavens, somepony has to keep this place looking the finery as it deserves, and Celestia knows that–“ “My Father won’t do it, I know Mom. You tell me… a lot.” I laughed once. “Quite right, Sharpie! Now, I’ll make tea. You go ahead and sit down. Oh, and there is a tray of muffins in the oven. Remind me of them, Darling?” “I won’t let you forget. But umm…” I started to say, trying to tell her about Peppermint, but then had a second thought that it would be something better to discuss over tea and muffins. Soon, I had reminded Mom about the muffins, and the tea was in cups, one for each of us, along with the pot sitting on the coffee table. Now or Never… “So… I have something to tell you…” “Oh, goodie, news! What is it, Sharpie?” “Well… umm…” I took a deep breath. “Peppermint left the Stable.” “I’m sorry, my hearing has begun to falter, Darling. What did you say?” “Peppermint… left. She left the Stable.” The muffin tray in Mom’s magic crashed to the floor, the hot glass shattering all across the kitchen. “M-my… Peppermint…” Tears swelled up in her eyes. Oh shit. “Mom… two other mares were with her… she… she’s not alone…” Now her tears fell. “W-who…?” “Velvet Remedy and LittlePip.” “I… Darling, I need to sit down…” My throat closing up a little, I nodded, grabbing the chair in my magic and bringing it beside her. She plopped into it. “Thank you… I need to be alone…” She closed her eyes, holding back tears. “O-okay Mom, I’ll-” The door burst open, slamming against the wall. “SHARPIE!!!!!” Dad stormed in, Screen following behind, trying to calm him down but obviously failing. “Dad?!?” He looked PISSED. But how could he be pissed at me?? I wasn’t the mare who left the Stable!! He galloped up to me, ears flat, and grabbed me in his magic. With a squeal I was lifted off the ground and thrown up against the wall! Dad galloped up and pinned me there with his hooves. “I ASKED YOU TO WATCH OUT FOR HER! SHE NEEDED YOU! SHE NEEDED SOMEPONY TO GO TO IN THIS FAMILY! SHE NEEDED A MARE HER AGE TO TRY TO HELP HER! SHE NEEDED HER SISTER! AND NOW LOOK WHAT YOUR SELFISHNESS HAS DONE!!!!” He slammed me up against the wall again, harder this time. “How is this my fault?? How can you place the blame on me??? I didn’t tell her to leave or anything… and you’re her Dad! Why can’t you watch out for her??? I’m younger, shouldn’t she look out for…” He stared at me, a stare that held a death wish in it, a stare that was like he was looked at the cause of all evil! A tear streamed down my cheek. “DON’T YOU DARE TALK TO ME LIKE THAT YOU-“” “CRYPTIC CODE PUT OUR DAUGTHER DOWN AND STOP THIS NONSENSE THIS INSTANT!!!!!!!” Mom screamed at him, up out of the chair now, her ears laid flat, and as she did, his eyes got big, like even he was scared of Mom (of all ponies!) screaming. He dropped me out of his magic, and collapsed onto the floor, sobbing. Without a look back, I darted out the door, Screen running after me. Once I realized I was nearing the Atrium, I stopped running, and Screen caught up to me. “Sharpie, I don’t what got into Dad back there but-” “No, it’s okay… Mom and Dad are just freaking out right now…” I told him, and he hugged me. But in my head, I just wanted to go back to my room, grab one of my blades, and drag it across the backside of my hoof as hard as I could. It’s the only way I can let go of the pain I have inside…