The Strange Case of Dinky Hooves' Cutie Mark Curiosity

by Fluttercheer

Chapter 14: Defeat

As the trio of Crusaders arrived at the operation center and headed up the stairs, Dinky was already inside. She sat on the floor, her eyes half-lidded and her body trembling slightly. The unicorn filly looked like she would fall asleep on the floor any moment. As her milky gaze fell upon her cutie mark counselors who just entered through the door, everything changed abruptly.

Dinky's eyes shot open, the tiny, red blood vessels in them much more apparent now, and she rose to a wonky standing position. Swaying from getting up so fast, she tried to keep her balance. For a few seconds she succeeded, then Dinky collapsed to the wooden floor, just when Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle stepped in front of her. She gasped for air, tongue hanging out.

“Just stay down there. There ain't any need ta get up,” Apple Bloom addressed Dinky's attempt of getting on her four hooves. Dinky recognized the presence of something strict in her voice, but only on the edges of her sleep-deprived mind.

Dinky looked up at the other three fillies. “H-Have you.....” She trailed off, her eyelids lowering. As her eyes had fallen shut almost completely, Dinky shook her head, which nearly rested on the planks already. She forced herself to focus, then looked into their faces again. “Have you brought what we need to make everything stop?” she asked in a weak, thin voice, but still with audible conviction.

“It's all here!” Scootaloo said, smiling at the dead-tired filly in front of her. Confirming her words, Sweetie Belle lifted up the book and a tow sack that filled the air with the strong smell of herbs.

Apple Bloom gave them stern looks, which made Sweetie Belle release the magical grip on the items. With a loud sound, the book landed on the floor, then got covered by the tow sack. The sound made Dinky twitch, as it descended on her. Collectively, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle lowered their heads and let their ears drop.

Turning away from her friends, Apple Bloom looked down upon Dinky now. The stern look was still in her face.

“I-Is anything wrong?” Dinky asked in an unsettled voice. “You couldn't get all I need, right?” Water began to form in her eyes.

Slowly, Apple Bloom shook her head. “No, we got everythin'. We want ta Zecora's on the way here. But there's somethin' else we need ta talk about first.”

The way Apple Bloom spoke the word “else” did not help Dinky to feel any safer. She rubbed the emerging tears out of her eyes, but dropped her ears simultaneously, until they were pressed flat against her head. Dinky cowered down a little. “What is wrong?” she asked, suddenly feeling dread.

Apple Bloom narrowed her eyes a little over this sudden behavior. “We have talked with Pipsqueak at the schoolhouse after ya left.” She eyed Dinky expectantly.

Hearing this name, Dinky felt her tiredness suddenly getting washed away, like somepony had just splashed her with a bucket of icecold Canterlot mountain water. She rose to her hooves in a panicked, frantic movement, even her trembling had stopped.

“W-Why did you.....” She stopped mid-sentence, bringing a hoof down on her face for a moment. “Why? Why have you done this? Why did you talk to Pipsqueak of all–” She interrupted her furious, agitated voice and covered her mouth with her hoof. “I mean..... What did you talk with Pipsqueak about?” Dinky set up a less than convincing smile.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle exchanged a glance. A deep frown appeared in Apple Bloom's face.

“It's not really important, isn't it?” Dinky continued to ask, dismissively waving a hoof to underline her words. “We can talk about it later, now we should take those ingredients and make my potion so we can finally work on getting me my real cutie mark.” She did not await any answers and moved straight towards the dropped tow sack. Apple Bloom, however, stepped in her way.

“Forget it!” she shouted at her.

Flinching, Dinky looked up at her, carefully. Apple Bloom's face showed anger now. Even Sweetie Belle looked at her rather sternly and not much less intimidating. Only Scootaloo's expression was more of a sad, disappointed one.

Dinky shivered, but managed to gather the strength to address them still. “Please.....” she whispered. “Let us just continue, we are so close.” She tried to trot past Apple Bloom, but the other filly lifted a hoof and stopped her in her tracks.

“We? Ya mean YA!” The tone in Apple Bloom's voice did nothing to hide the underlying accusation.

“W-What do you–” Dinky did another attempt at pretending everything was fine, but Sweetie Belle interrupted her.

“You betrayed us, Dinky. Why?”

Confronted, Dinky did not know what to answer immediately. Biting her lip, she looked over to Scootaloo, who avoided her glance and looked sad down on the floor. Seeing that she wasn't receiving any support, fear rose in her chest and her heart started to beat faster. She looked down, too, then breathed in and out sharply, before she looked back up.

“Please don't believe anything! I don't know what Pipsqueak told you, but–”

“Pipsqueak told us everythin'!” Apple Bloom cut her off. “About the potions, about ya cutie marks, about ya plan!” Her voice sounded outraged now.

“M-My plan?” Dinky stuttered. “W-What did he even tell you, there's–” Her attempt to reason with the angry filly in front of her failed again.

“All about that cutie mark disease was just a fake! Ya lied to us and ya faked that disease with cutie mark potions from that old, fishy mare on the marketplace, because ya wanted to be the first one we're helpin' ta get a cutie mark!”

Now intimidated, Dinky began to retreat into a corner of the operation center. She only stopped as she stepped on her saddlebags.

Feeling unable to retreat further, she looked back at the wrath in front of her. “P-Please believe me.....” Her voice was only a whisper. “I'm not lying, it's all true. Pipsqueak is the one who lies. H-He is jealous, because he wants to get a cutie mark with your help, first, t-that's why he's making all of this up.” She gulped. “I-I never did this..... I never used any potions to fake me a cutie mark..... Please believe me.” Dinky sniffed and brushed over her nose. “I-I never betrayed you.....”

Instead of getting an answer on her desperate plea, Dinky saw the three fillies in front of her doing something very strange and unexpected. They all looked past her, with grim faces. Dinky started to follow their stares, but before she could see what they saw, Apple Bloom raised a hoof and pointed behind her.

“And how do ya call that if not a 'potion'”? Apple Bloom's voice was as deadpan as it could possibly be.

Dinky could hear herself cursing inside her head as she slowly turned around to what her saddlebags had just revealed. She bit her lips as her own eyes fell on the small bottle.

“It's not what it looks like..... I promise. It's–”

“– not a bottle with a label saying 'Cutie Mark Potion' on it?” Scootaloo interrupted and finished her sentence at the same time. “But that is how it looks like.....”

Swiftly, Dinky shot her head around, looking at them again. Lips pointing downward, while she still bit her lower one, her face showed a horrified expression.

Scootaloo sighed. “Why have you done this? All three of us were worried about you and we thought you have a really serious problem. Especially after you cut into your flank.....” Her brow got furrowed. “You did all of this to convince us of your lie. This was dangerous, Dinky.....” Unlike her friends, Scootaloo appeared to be more concerned than angry.

Sweetie Belle stepped forward. “You made us believe that your cutie mark problem is worse than it actually is, just to be first..... But there are other ponies who have problems with finding their special talent, too!” The accusatory tone in her voice cut into Dinky's eardrums like a knife. As she felt tears forming in her eyes again, she looked down onto the floor.

“And what's worse than that,” Apple Bloom added “ya even brought us in danger! We went deep into the Everfree Forest ta find out how ta make that potion and almost got chewed up by timberwolves there!” She lfited a hoof off the floor and brought it down again to reaffirm her words.

“I-It's..... I-I'm..... I-It's not what it l-looks like,” Dinky stuttered, repeating her words under tears, while keeping her eyes focused on the ground.

Apple Bloom opened her mouth again, her lips getting ready to form a sharp response, but Scootaloo interferred before she could say anything.

“It is..... Don't make it harder, okay?” Her voice almost sounded like she would tear up herself any moment.

“W-What a-are you g-going to d-do n-now?” Dinky asked, now trembling all over her body.

Scootaloo glanced at Apple Bloom sadly, a silent call for a decision. Instead of answering immediately, Apple Bloom looked around between her two friends. Scootaloo turned her head away as she realized that Apple Bloom prompted her to give her own opinion on the matter. Only Sweetie Belle answered.

“I think Pipsqueak deserves a chance now..... I would have voted for him as the first one anyway, if Dinky wouldn't have come to us.”

Apple Bloom nodded. “Ah agree.” She turned to face Dinky again. With a strict look, she stared down at the distraught filly. “Ah was doin' a lot o' crazy things mahself when ah couldn't wait ta get mah cutie mark..... Ah even faked a cutie mark with a potion once.”

Dinky looked up at Apple Bloom, still tears in her eyes, but a weak feeling of hope rising in her chest.

“But,” Apple Bloom continued “ah only brought mah own life in danger with that, not the lives of other ponies.”

Immediately, Dinky felt the tiny hope in her heart getting extinguished again. She sank to the ground, her eyes looking empty now.

“We will go and see Pipsqueak now, he had ta wait long enough. Go home, Dinky.”

At Apple Bloom's side, Sweetie Belle nodded, but Dinky didn't notice. Only as Scootaloo reached out to her, because she stayed frozen in her spot, Dinky reacted.

“We need to clear the clubhouse so that we can help Pipsqueak here..... Go home and get some sleep, Dinky.” Scootaloo was still rather disappointed than angry and still a bit concerned for Dinky, but slowly, coldness creeped into her own voice.

Dinky was shaking and trembling strongly, by heavy sobs that escaped her mouth now, but she managed to get back on her hooves somehow. At a slow pace, she turned around and began to close her saddlebags. Her shaky hooves made her clumsily fumbling around with their clasps and she needed three attempts to close them, then three more to put the bags on her back.

Finally, she tried to grasp the bottle of the potion with her magic, but aside from a few small sparks, nothing else happened. It was all her concentration allowed for. Unphased by this result, she instead grabbed the bottle with one hoof, then turned around and slinked past her former counselors sluggishly. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle followed her movements with squinted eyes.

Dinky's head was hanging low again now, but her eyes still showed the same empty, emotionless expression. Only as she had reached the door of the operation center, her tempo suddenly increased, and she dashed down the ramp and away from the building, as fast as only three hooves on the ground allowed it.

The further she got away from the operation center, the more she began to choke from all the tears and the lump in her throat. As the desperation began to turn into anger, the young unicorn finally got a better control of her magic again. Her horn flared up and her light-blue aura got wrapped around the bottle in her right hoof. Still clumsily, but relatively secure, she hovered the bottle in front of her mouth and pulled out the cork, then threw it carelessly to the side. She lifted the bottle to her mouth and began to drink from it. “I don't need them, I can help myself!” she repeated in her head until she had gulped down the potion with a few, quick swallows.

Having finished, she threw the bottle to the side as well. She did not even hear the sound it made as it shattered to pieces on a nearby tree.

“I don't need them!” she shouted now. “I don't need them to get a cutie mark!”

Comments

[Wiimeiser]

This is going to end badly. This will end like that one fanfic of Diamond Tiara and Discord, I can just feel it.

[Bronycommander]

Girls, I understand you are angry but that was just rode, you could have talked peacefully about this. Dnky, calm down, please, before you poison yourself and endanger your life!

[Fluttercheer]

8532988

I don't know about this fic and I can't go into detail here what's coming next because of spoilers. But I'm glad to have another reader here, welcome to the story!