Scattered Pages - Ponyville Ciderfest App Stories by volrathxp

by volrathxp

#BadPonyClub - The Bad Pony Club

The Bad Pony Club

Code Word: #BadPonyClub

“Alright, who wants to start?” you ask the room. “Anypony got anything they’d like to share today?”

The assembled circle of unicorns grumbles under their breath. Finally, the loud filly with the cape stands on her seat. “The Great and Powerful–”

“Trixie, no standing on the seat,” you interject. “We’ve discussed this several times.”

“Oh, sorry,” Trixie says, plopping down on her seat. “As I was saying, the Great and Powerful Trixie is still dealing with her issues from the other night.”

“I already told you, Trixie. I’m sorry about the stuffed rabbit,” one of the other fillies says, a light lavender-colored unicorn with a dark purple mane and lighter purple and teal stripes. “I didn’t mean to rip her.”

“Missus Fluffykins was really unhappy about that, Starlight,” Trixie squealed. “I… I was unhappy.”

“That’s excellent progress, Trixie,” you say, penciling in a note on your notepad. “Now, you know Starlight did apologize.”

“You’re right. I accept your apology, Starlight. Friends?” Trixie says, lifting a hoof.

“Always, Trixie,” Starlight says, taking the other filly’s hoof and pulling her into a hug. Both fillies cry a little happily as they make up.

“Gag,” another one of the fillies responds, a dark burgundy unicorn with piercing blue eyes. Her horn is broken.

“Fizzy, it’s good to express our feelings. Do you want to share?” you ask.

“I’m good,” the filly replies. “And that’s not my name.”

“I’m sorry, Tempest,” you say with a wink. “I very nearly forgot this morning. Sunset, Misty? Would either of you like to share?”

The newest addition to the group session, a bluish unicorn with frizzy hair has been quiet since she came to the center, so she shakes her head softly and curls into herself. The other filly, a bright orange unicorn with a blaze of red and yellow mane nods.

“I’m happy to report that I’ve managed to make friends with Misty here. I know she’s quiet today, but I am doing my best to be her best friend,” Sunset Shimmer says.

“Suck-up,” Tempest snorts.

“Am not!” Sunset shouts. “That’s why we’re here, right? To make friends and learn the magic of friendship?”

“You’re right, Sunset. I’m very proud of you,” you say, penciling some more notes in. “Tempest, you should be more respectful of your peers. You could learn a thing or two from Sunset.”

“I don’t need to learn anything from the over-achiever,” Tempest replies. “We’re not here to learn anything. We’re here because of a magical spell. We just can’t remember any of what happened before.”

“T-T-T-That’s not true!” Misty shouts before curling herself back into a ball. “We’re here because we’re bad ponies!”

“Misty, it’s okay…,” Sunset whispers, resting her hoof on the bluish unicorn’s withers. “You’re not a bad pony, Misty. I believe in you.”

Tempest growls, getting down from her chair. “No. It is true. None of you remember it because of the spell we were all put under. But I remember, I’ve always remembered. I remember because of my horn.”

“Fizzlepop Berrytwist, you sit down right this instant!” you say, a hint of anger creeping into your voice. You turn to Misty. “Misty, none of you are bad ponies here. Some of you are hurting and some of you need help, but nopony here is bad.”

“You’re wrong, we’re bad. Sunset stole a magic crown. Starlight enslaved a whole town of ponies. Trixie let a magical amulet corrupt here,” Misty squeaked out. “Even Tempest tried to steal the magical powers of the Princesses. We’re all bad ponies.”

“And what about you? What did you do?” you ask, an eyebrow raised.

“I’m the worst of all of you,” Misty says. “I stole a baby dragon and gave it to a fire alicorn just so I could get a cutie mark.” The little filly starts crying softly.

“You’re wrong,” Tempest says defiantly. “You’re not bad ponies. You’re just under a spell. It’s not your fault.”

Sunset reaches in and gives Misty a firm hug before glaring at Tempest. “See what you started, Fizzy. You’re making Misty upset,” she says. “Why don’t you stop it?”

“I’m going to prove it to all of you,” Tempest says angrily. “I found the answer to the counterspell in Headmistress Opaline’s office.”

She reaches into her bag and produces a piece of paper. It shimmers with power, magical power. You can’t take your eyes off of it. You can’t even respond to the fact that Tempest was snooping around Headmistress Opaline’s office.

“What is it?” Trixie asks finally, breaking the awkward silence.

“It’s our way out of this place,” Tempest says with a grin before looking at you, her piercing stare gazing into your very soul. “You have to trust me, [USERNAME]. You’re trapped here just like we are.”

[CHOICE]
What do you do?
> Allow Tempest to use the magic of the page to free the ponies. (Hero)
> Take the page from her. (Villain)

[ENDING A: HERO]
Your brain searches for a reason to not let Tempest try, and you can’t really find one. You realize you do trust her. She could be telling the truth. Finally, you nod.

“Go ahead, Tempest,” you say, breathing hard.

Tempest focuses on the page, the piece of paper beginning to glow even more. With a flash of light and magical power, the area around all of the unicorns begins to fade out of existence. Instead of the five unicorn fillies, five unicorn mares stand in place. The area around you is a dark castle.

“What… what happened?” Starlight says. “Where are we?”

“Opaline’s castle,” Misty says meekly. “She trapped us here, remember?”

You do remember now. You had heard of a page of the Book in the upper regions of Equestria, and had journeyed here with these legendary unicorns alongside Misty, who had a personal connection to a fire alicorn named Opaline, but it had all gone wrong and Opaline had managed to use the page to trap you all in an illusion.

“Her mind-altering magic couldn’t work on me,” Tempest said. “My horn doesn’t channel magic like regular unicorns.”

“She must not be here,” you say. “Otherwise she’d be trying to attack us again.”

“Then we’d better get the hay out of here,” Trixie says.

You agree, and as one, you flee the castle with the page, keeping it safe for Equestria.

(+1 pages for Heroes)

[ENDING B: VILLAIN]
You stand up and quickly snatch the page away from Tempest before she can do anything about it. Her horn starts to light up but you shut that down flat with a flick of your hoof.

“Fizzlepop Berrytwist, you know better than to scare the others,” you say. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to call the Headmistress over this.”

“You can do your worst to me,” Tempest scowls. “But we are all trapped here and soon all of you will see that I’m right.”

Misty curls even deeper into a ball. Sunset and the others glare at Tempest.

“This isn’t funny anymore, Fizzy,” Starlight says.

“I agree,” a new voice says. From the door steps in a pristine purple alicorn with a stark white mane. A neat pair of glasses sits on the ridge of her snout. A pair of hospital orderlies flanks her.

“Good morning, Headmistress Opaline,” Sunset and the others say in unison.

“Good morning, girls. I trust you are all doing well this morning despite this interruption into your session,” Opaline replies as she steps over to where Tempest is still scowling. “Fizzlepop, I’m afraid I’m going to have to remove you from the group for now.”

You look up at the alicorn you work for. “She had this, she said she took it from your office, Headmistress,” you say as you hold up the page.

Opaline frowns, taking the page from you in your magic. “Thank you, [USERNAME]. I will be sure to secure this better. It’s a dangerous magical artifact I’ve been studying and in a filly’s hooves could be very dangerous.”

She glances down at Tempest, motioning with her head. Tempest starts to step back, but realizing she can’t do anything about it. She relents, following the orderlies out of the room.

Opaline stops briefly to glance down at Misty and then smiles. “Have a good morning, girls! I will see you all later for magic practice! [USERNAME], a word outside?”

You follow Opaline outside as the alicorn stops to ensure nopony else is listening.

“You very nearly let our little illusion spell slip, [USERNAME],” the larger alicorn says as her horn lights up, revealing the inner chamber of her castle. In the center of the room are the other unicorns, sleeping soundly and connected by a thread of magical power. “I cannot afford mistakes. Your services are no longer required.”

“But I… I did my best, Opaline!” you protest. You had led the others here to be trapped by Opaline’s magic in hopes of siphoning off their powers. “I brought them to you in the first place.”

“I don’t care,” Opaline says angrily. “Get out of my sight before I have to enslave you as well!”

You nod meekly, running fast and far out of Opaline’s castle, leaving the others to their fate.

(+1 pages for Villains)

Author's Note:

This one I had the idea of doing a Reformed Unicorn Therapy with all the Reformed Unicorns. The twist of making them all fillies was super fun and interesting.

Side note, this one may turn into a full fledged fic down the line.

Comments

[Janicethelight]

Poor Misty. Honestly, a therapy group for that group would probably help a lot. Too bad it was under Opeline's "care". Loved this!