Diamond Tiara and Babs Seed did a lot of bad things in their lives. Now they have to deal with the consequences of their actions.
Looking for forgiveness is hard, especially when you can't forgive yourself; Diamond Tiara knows about it well. After spending ten years in an asylum, she comes back to Ponyville to deal with her past. She doesn't expect to find an old friend there... And she certainly doesn't expect that her friend also has to deal with the consequences of her actions.
Babs only lowered her head, focusing on the food in front of her completely. Technically, she could answer that yes, she was okay. She hadnât eaten so well in almost three years, she had a cutie mark that looked very similar to Daring Doâs one, and she was what most ponies considered the best age of their lives â nineteen, a magical number joining the innocence of a teenager with all the privileges coming with adulthood.
Yet, nothing was okay. Babs was anything but innocent. Just twenty four hours before, sheâd received an official document stating that she was now free to leave the boot camp near Appleloosa where sheâd spent almost three years for assault, robbery, and possession of an unregistered firearm.
It could be worse. Her lawyer, a young idealist called Twinkie Defense whoâd decided to help her for free proved that she hadnât known what Lightning Dust â Equestriaâs most wanted criminal â had done with the submachine gun Babs had tried to dispose of, saving her from prison. However, the lawyer didnât know that the deeds Babs had been sentenced for were only a tip of an iceberg. In fact, those who knew were either dead or decided to keep their mouths shut.
âBabs?â Apple Bloom looked at her cousin unsurely.
âYes, Iâm okay,â Babs lied. My cutie mark should be in lying, she thought. Who knows, maybe the one I got is also a lie? A compass on her flank had appeared in the boot camp, when she managed to find it after sheâd gotten lost in the desert with a couple of other âguests.â Babs thought that she was just lucky. She shrugged and took a large slice of an apple pie.
âWhat are ya gonna do now?â Apple Bloom asked. âAre ya gonna come back to Manehattan?â
Manehattan. That name brought memories. Fantastic days when she didnât have to worry about anything, hanging out with her friends and robbing those who were stupid enough to go out at night. Nightcap⊠Babs started to wonder what happened to her. Then she shuddered when she remembered White Dove and a couple of griffons, who were probably still lying somewhere in the cemetery not far away from the old warehouse. Tears welled in Babsâ eyes when she remembered what had happened just a few days later when the members of a local mafia kidnapped her.
âMaybe,â she replied, trying to remain calm. âI guess Iâll stay here for a couple of daysâŠâ
âApplejack will be happy,â Apple Bloom said. âSheâs not the same since⊠Ya know, first sheâd almost lost me, then ya⊠And then Granny diedâŠâ
Babs could help but sob. Sheâd learned about Granny Smithâs death a couple of months after it happened. She was told that it was the postâs fault, but she knew that the guards were carefully checking every letter. Especially, when a young criminal was making trouble.
âIâll go for a walkâŠâ Babs said, rising from her chair. âIâll be back by the evening.â
âMaybe Ahâll go with ya?â Apple Bloom asked.
âNo, thanksâŠâ Babs said. âI wanna be alone for a moment⊠Maybe Iâll go and visit GrannyâŠâ
âOh⊠OkayâŠâ Apple Bloom muttered and started to collect the dishes from the table.
Babs trotted to the door and left the house. She looked back at it and sighed, walking down the path leading to Ponyville.
Unneeded. Nopony in the Apple family told her that, but she was unneeded. Her whole family was ashamed of her.
At first she wanted to stay in Appleloosa, with her cousin Braeburn. He didnât even recognise her. Sure, they lived on opposite sides of Equestria and seen each other only during family reunions. Sure, heâd last seen her when she was eleven. But for Babs, it was like a stab in the heart. She turned around and ran to the railway station.
When she was leaving the camp, the guards gave her some money for a ticket. She chose to go to Ponyville, to her favourite cousin. And there she was â Apple Bloom gave her food and told her that Applejack and Big Macintosh were soon going to be back from the orchard, but Babs could feel that something between them changed. She felt that she was no longer Apple Bloomâs favourite cousin. She was met with cold distance, like someone with an infectious disease. Truly, she was a bad apple.
She lowered her head, letting tears fall on the path. Her mane was hiding most of her face, so she could cry freely, not worrying about the others.
âHello Babs! You didnât say that you were back! How are you? Have you already visited Apple Bloom? Are youââ
âPinkie Pie,â said Babs slowly, looking into Pinkieâs eyes. âI swear, if you make a surprise âBabs is back from the boot campâ party, Iâll kick ya to the next FridayâŠâ
Pinkie Pie stopped mid-jump and stood in front of Babs, her mane flattening slightly. âWell, if you donât wantâŠâ she said. âYou look sadâŠâ
âThanks for tellinâ me that,â Babs muttered. âI didnât know what happened to meâŠâ
âIt doesnât have to be a party,â Pinkie Pie said. âIf you want to talkâŠâ
âMaybe later, okay?â Babs sighed. âI stayed at Sweet Apple Acres.â
âOkay,â Pinkie said, her mane going back to its usual state. âI have to go! Iâm preparing a âYouâre not crazy anymoreâ party for Diamond Tiara andââ
âWait!â Babs exclaimed. âDiamond Tiara is here?â
âYes!â Pinkie Pie replied. âShe just came back to Ponyville⊠Three days ago? I think so⊠It was when I ate those blue cupcakes and I felt a bit funny, so it had to be three days ago⊠Or maybe it wasââ
âOkay, I get it,â Babs muttered. âSee ya, PinkieâŠâ
She trotted down the path which soon changed into a street. She looked around. Ponyville was almost the same as she remembered it. Some of the houses had new roofs or fences, but the atmosphere was friendly as usual. Well, maybe not as friendly⊠Babs thought when she saw Lyra and Bon Bon sitting on a bench in front of their house. Lyra probably hadnât noticed her, but Bon Bon was eyeing her curiously. Babs saw that another mare, pink with yellow mane and cherries as her cutie mark, was sitting with them.
ââŠanother little brat comes hereâŠâ Babs heard her when she was walking next to the house. âSoon this town will be full of criminals.â
Babs stopped mid-step and turned to the pink mare who paused. âCherry Berry, I suppose?â she asked innocently. âI was just wonderinâ howâs your cousinâŠâ
âShut up!â Cherry Berry shouted. âWe donât want you hereâŠâ
âDonât worry, I only came to see DJ Pon3âs grave,â Babs deadpanned. âMaybe ya know her? What was the name of that crazy pisshead who killed her? I think I know⊠Berry Puââ She dodged a flower pot flying in her direction, followed by a stream of abuse. âIâll surely tell my mother what ya think about herâŠâ Babs muttered, running away from the mare, who was now standing at the fence, waving her hoof at her.
In a much better mood, Babs trotted to the park. There werenât too many ponies there, even though the weather was sunny. Autumn was about to start; the first red leaves were falling from the trees. Babs walked through the grass, inhaling deeply. Both Manehattan and the boot camp had something in common â she was always surrounded by other ponies there. Here, she was finally alone.
Almost alone. She was just going to the bridge, when she saw a pink silhouette of a pony lying on a bench, looking at the sky. Or maybe she was sleeping? Babs wasnât sure. She trotted to the pony, stood above her, and blew mane from her eyes.
The pink pony â young mare around Babsâ age â opened her eyes, startled. She shuddered when she saw Babs and tried to shrink herself.
âWhatâs goinâ on?â Babs asked. âYa killed somepony or what?â
The mare let out a whimper and made a move as if she wanted to run away.
Babs chuckled. âChill out, Diamond,â she said. âFrankly, I donât give a fuck about what ya did. I even forgive ya for tryinâ to off my cousin.â
Diamond Tiara sat on a bench. âI⊠Iâm so sorryâŠâ she stammered. âI⊠I wasâŠâ
âI know who you were,â Babs said, sitting next to here. âListen, as I said, I donât care. Yaâre not a monster, Diamond. Donât let old cunts like Cherry Berry tell ya otherwiseâŠâ
âB-but I killed themâŠâ Diamond Tiara said, shuddering and trying to sit as far from Babs as it was possible. âP-pipsqueak, Ruby, AlulaâŠâ
ââŠTwist, Zippoorwhill, Ginger Snap, and Silver Spoon,â Babs finished. âDunno where have you been for the last ten years, but they wrote about it in the newspapers. Theyâre dead and ya canât change that. But trust me, yaâre not a monster. Ya didnât want to kill âem.â
âWhat do you know about that?â Diamond Tiara asked. âHave you ever killed anyone?â
Babs froze. She remembered Golden Sunset, choking on her own blood, spilling on the pavement. She thought of the first griffon she gunned down during the shootout, and the others sheâd shot when they were lying on the floor, bound and unarmed. âMaybeâŠâ she said.
Diamond Tiara looked at her unsurely. She leaned closer to Babs, her blue eyes widening. For a moment, Babs thought that she was going to kill her. âI⊠I still see herâŠâ she whispered.
âI guess itâs normal,â Babs said casually. âYa donât wanna know what I see in my dreams⊠I think it scared away even LunaâŠâ
âNot in dreamsâŠâ Diamond Tiara whispered. âSilver Spoon⊠I see her even now⊠Sheâs there.â She pointed at the grass by the river. âSheâs still nineâŠâ
Babs froze. She started to regret that sheâd talked to Diamond Tiara first. âYa should talk to your doctor about thatâŠâ she said slowly. âBut⊠Ya donât wanna kill me? Or anyone else?â
âN-noâŠâ Diamond Tiara sighed. âAnd I donât want to talk with the doctor⊠Theyâd lock me up again⊠As long as itâs Silver, itâs okay⊠She only plays⊠Sometimes talks⊠When it was Curtain CallâŠâ
Babs didnât want to know who Curtain Call was and whatâd happen if she suddenly appeared. âOkayâŠâ she muttered and sighed. âThat was your secret⊠Wanna know mine?â
Diamond Tiara nodded, throwing nervous glances around. Babs thought that she probably had to watch her surroundings constantly, avoiding ponies like Cherry Berry.
âWhen I was sixteen, I was a bad pony,â Babs said. âI did lots of stupid things. For example, I was mugginâ rich bitches likeââ She looked at Diamond Tiara and decided that finishing that sentence wouldnât be wise. âAnyway, one of âem had a pepper spray. She used it, I took a knife⊠There were no crazy visions or anythinâ like that. At one moment I was coughinâ my lungs out, then she was lyinâ on a pavement with a knife in her carotid artery. They caught my friend for that. It still haunts meâŠâ
Diamond Tiara shuddered and looked at the place where, according to her, stood Silver Spoon.
âWhatâs wrong?â Babs asked.
âF-for a moment I thought I sawâŠâ Diamond muttered.
Babs shook her head. She wanted to tell Diamond about Golden Sunsetâs friend, but decided that risking the sudden visit of mysterious Curtain Call wasnât worth the feeling of catharsis she felt after confessing to that. âI have to go,â she said. âWeâll meet later, okay? Take care, TiaraâŠâ
âSee you, Babs,â Diamond Tiara replied absentmindedly. She stayed on the bench, watching Babs disappear in the distance.
âWhat will happen now?â Silver Spoon stopped prancing and stood in attention by Diamond Tiaraâs side.
âNo idea,â Diamond Tiara replied.
Diamond Tiara tossed and turned in her bed. She put her hooves on her ears, but it didnât help much. The muted whispers were ubiquitous. Even though she tried, she couldnât just tune them out.
Of course, thanks to the medicines she was taking, she knew that the whispers werenât real. This, however, didnât make them any less annoying.
âLet me guess,â she whispered. âYou wonât let me sleep till I get up and go to kill somepony?â She turned and saw Silver Spoon lying on her bed next to her. Her mane was hanging freely and her glasses were lying on the nightstand.
âDonât do that,â Silver Spoon said. âThey only wait for thatâŠâ
âThanks for telling me what I already knowâŠâ Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes.
âIâm a part of your mind. I canât say anything you donât know,â Silver Spoon replied. âFor example, you donât know how would I look if I were nineteen. Thatâs why I look like Iâm nine.â
âWhy do I even talk with you?â Diamond Tiara asked, knowing well what the answer would be.
âOther ponies donât want to talk with you.â Silver Spoon sat on the bed and put on her glasses. âSome of them ignore you, some of them would drown you in the river if they could.â
âI just love this townâŠâ Diamond Tiara gritted her teeth. âSometimes I think that they could use an another couple of missing childrenâŠâ
Silver Spoonâs eyes widened. âDonât let her talk you into that!â she exclaimed. âWe canât see her, but sheâs still there⊠You surely caught a glimpseâŠâ
âDonât worry, Silver,â Diamond Tiara said, yawning. âA hoofful of pills a day keeps Curtain Call away. Or something like that.â
Silver Spoon nodded and lay back on the bed, closing her eyes. Diamond Tiara, however, felt that she needed to know something else.
âSilver?â she called.
âYes?â
âHow does it feel to be dead?â
âI have no idea,â Silver Spoon replied groggily. âAfter all, you donât know that either, do you?â
Babs awoke and looked into the ceiling of the old Granny Smithâs room. She thanked Luna for a good sleep. All she dreamed about was Diamond Tiara sitting in some dark, empty hall, but after her usual set of nightmares it was a very welcomed change.
She got out of bed quickly. Sheâd seen lots of deaths â last time a year ago, when a filly from a neighbouring room in the camp hanged herself â but something about staying in Granny Smithâs room for too long seemed wrong. She shuddered and left the room, not looking behind her.
She trotted downstairs and saw Applejack, Big Macintosh and Apple Bloom sitting at the kitchen table.
âHello Babs,â Applejack said. âHow are ya?â
âGood,â Babs replied. âIâm much better since Iâm here with ya⊠Thank yaâŠâ
âAfter everythinâ yâall sufferedâŠâ Applejack shook her head. âWell, Ah donât praise ya for what ya did, butâŠâ
Babs felt a pang of pain in her heart. Unneeded. Black sheep of the family. She looked at the floor beneath her hooves.
âYaâre a wise filly, Babs,â Applejack said. âAh think yaâll never do that again, wonât ya?â
âYeah, sureâŠâ Babs muttered, blowing her mane from her eyes and sitting at the table with the rest of her family. She thought of her plans and sighed.
âSo, what are your plans?â Apple Bloom asked. âMaybe yaâll stay here and help us with the harvest?â
Babs froze. âM-maybe,â she said, pretending to be very interested in the casserole in front of her. âBut first I have to go to Manehattan for a while. See the parents⊠Finish somethinââŠâ
âStay with us for at least one more day,â Apple Bloom said. âScootaloo just came back from Canterlot; weâre gonna meet her in the eveningâŠâ
Babs thought about her last meeting with Scootaloo. What happened later almost wiped that memory, but she could still recall some details which didnât sound pleasant. âHowâs Scootaloo? Sheâs still with that racer, what was his name?â
âRumble,â Apple Bloom said. âYes, theyâre together, but they hardly see each other. Sheâs in the Royal Guard Academy in Canterlot.â
Babs sighed. So, Scootaloo fulfilled her dream. She hoped their ways would never cross.
âSweetie Belle will soon go on tour,â Apple Bloom said. âIt seems that itâll be some time before we meet each other againâŠâ
Diamond Tiara sighed and looked at the food in front of her. When she came back home she learned that old Randolph decided to retire. She wished he could go back. The new butler couldnât get anything right.
âSo, what are you planning to do now, Diamond?â Filthy Rich asked, looking at her. âOf course, you can stay here as long as you want, but the doctors say that you shouldâŠâ
ââŠreintegrate with the society,â Diamond Tiara finished. âItâs a bit hard when the society doesnât want to reintegrate with me.â
âHeâs lying,â Silver Spoon said. She was sitting on the table, just next to Filthy Rich, waving her hooves in the air. Diamond Tiara sent her a nasty glare.
âWhat are you looking at?â Filthy Rich asked, also looking at Silver Spoon, or rather through her.
âNothing,â Diamond Tiara replied quickly. âThis new butler is really terribleâŠâ
âHeâs learning,â Filthy Rich said. âBy the way, did you hear that Babs Seed is in town? You two were friends once, werenât you?â
âYeah, Iâve seen her,â Diamond Tiara replied, trying not to look at Silver Spoon, who was now blowing her mane from her eyes, in a way similar to Babs.
âIâve heard lots of things about her⊠Jet SetâŠâ Filthy Rich paused. âIâve heard she killed someone but they couldnât prove itâŠâ He shook his head.
Diamond Tiara froze. âShe didnât,â she said quickly. âYou know dad, I can recognise a murdererâŠâ
âAre you suggesting that I canât?â Suddenly Filthy Rich shuddered but quickly regained his composure. âOh⊠I see your point.â
âYeahâŠâ Diamond Tiara sighed. âI wonder what would the doctor say about the fact that Iâm joking about thatâŠâ
âThat wasnât funny,â Silver Spoon said. She was now standing next to the butler who stood by the door.
âI know,â Diamond Tiara muttered through gritted teeth.
âWhat do you know?â Filthy Rich asked, looking at her unsurely.
âI know what would ponies in town say if they heard me,â Diamond Tiara explained. She spoke in a low, raspy voice, imitating Cherry Berry, âSheâs a psycho! We need to burn her!â
The butler chuckled, but Filthy Rich didnât laugh. âItâs a small town,â he said. âMost of the ponies lost a friend or a relative. I, myself, lost you for ten years. SilverspeedâŠâ
Diamond Tiara could see Silver Spoonâs ears perking up when she heard her motherâs name. âWhat happened to her?â she asked.
âWellâŠâ Filthy Rich threw nervous glances around. âIt was when you were⊠umm⊠in Trottingham⊠Youâre an adult, you need to know⊠We somehow⊠got togetherâŠâ
âAlmost till now,â Filthy Rich said. âIn fact, we had a little argument about you⊠Like I said, she never really came to terms with what happened. Sheâs now in Vanhoover⊠She said that she needed timeâŠâ
âI⊠I donât know what to think about itâŠâ Diamond Tiara looked at her breakfast and sighed. âIâll be in the garden, dadâŠâ She stood up and left the room.
âSo,â Silver Spoon said, sitting on a tree branch. âWeâre, like, sisters now?â
âNo,â Diamond Tiara replied, lost in her thoughts. She was resting herself against a tree trunk, her face hidden in her hooves.
âAdmit it,â Silver Spoon jumped off the tree, landing next to Diamond. âWeâre already like conjoined twins⊠And now your dad and my momâŠâ
âShut up!â Diamond Tiara shouted, glaring at Silver angrily. âYou know how you sound now? Like Curtain Call!â
Silver Spoon shuddered. âDonât say that name!â she exclaimed. âStay with me⊠Bad things happen when sheâs hereâŠâ
âBad things will definitely happen if you keep doing that,â Diamond Tiara muttered. âI lost ten years of my life⊠Everything here is wrong⊠And you just had to appear and make that even worse!â
âHey, I can go away if you donât wanna see meâŠâ She heard Babsâ voice behind the fence. âBut first Iâd wanna know whyâŠâ
âI wasnât talking to you,â Diamond Tiara said. She saw Babs climbing on the fence and soon she landed on the grass next to her.
âThen to who? Silver Spoon?â Babs chuckled. âI must say, for a moment I felt flattered. I thought the sight of my flank gave ya a wet dreamsâŠâ
âNever gonna happen,â Diamond Tiara muttered. âI was talking to Silver⊠It seems that while I was away, our parents, as my father saidâŠâ She sighed. â⊠âgot togetherââŠâ
âWell, life goes onâŠâ Babs said, sitting next to Diamond. âI was out for not even three years and everypony looks at me as if I infected my beloved cousin with syphilis. Guess ya have it even worseâŠâ
âYou donât even knowâŠâ Diamond muttered. Babs tried to wrap her hoof around her, but she shook it off.
âAnyway, I came here to tell ya that weâre gonna have a small party today,â Babs said. âScootaloo with her coltfriend, Mr. Quick Finish, Sweetie Belle with Mr. Dorky Loser, Apple Bloom with⊠Well, Apple Bloom, and me with ya.â
âWhat?â Diamond Tiara exclaimed, looking at Babs unsurely.
âYou know⊠A party,â Babs spoke slowly and clearly. âPub, cider, coltsâŠâ
âB-but IâŠâ
âOh, ya donât like colts? Donât worry, Iâm open-minded. But in case weâre not lucky, I call dibs on Apple BloomâŠâ
âNo, itâs not that!â Diamond Tiara was looking at Babs, her eyes wide in horror. âI mean that I⊠IâŠâ
âOh, I get it. Itâs âIâm a murderer, everypony will get torches and pitchforks to lynch meâ all over again?â Babs sighed. âListen, yaâll never get better if ya donât start to talk to ponies⊠Show âem that yaâre okayâŠâ
âI⊠Iâm not sure if I canâŠâ Diamond Tiara lowered her gaze and sat on the grass.
âDonât worry, Iâll help ya,â Babs said, offering her hoof to Diamond. âIf somepony tries to hurt yaâŠâ
âNo colts⊠I⊠I donât think IâŠâ Diamond Tiara gulped.
âYou prefer fillies after all?â Babs asked. âYa donât have to answer if ya donât want.â
âNo⊠I donât think I like anyâŠâ Diamond said. âMaybe I was always like that, or maybe itâs because of the medsâŠâ
Babs nodded. âNevermind,â she said. âIn fact⊠Iâm not gonna look for a date either. Last three guys whoâŠâ Now she shuddered and lowered her head, hiding her eyes behind her mane. Diamond Tiara stood before her, unsure if she should ask, when Babs raised her head, blowing her mane from her eyes. âSo⊠Iâll come to ya at six, okay?â she said.
âYa invited who?!â Apple Bloom exclaimed.
âDiamond Tiara,â Babs replied calmly. âYeah, I know, âshe wanted to kill me,â blah, blah, blah. Listen, ABâŠâ She trotted closer to Apple Bloom. âYa⊠claim that you forgave me, even though I did lots of bad things⊠Why didnât ya forgive her?â
âAh did!â Apple Bloom replied. âAh just⊠Ah donât wanna see her aroundâŠâ
âLike most of the town,â Babs said. âEven if she wasnât crazy, sheâd get crazy because of how ya treat herâŠâ
Apple Bloom sighed. âFine,â she said. âBut if yâall make troubleâŠâ
Babs looked at the brown colt standing next to Sweetie Belle and thought that he was probably the luckiest pony on earth. Sheâd faintly remember him from one of her visits in Ponyville. Over the last couple of years he got rid of his propeller beanie, but his mane, ridiculous outfit, and a 20-sided dice he had for a cutie mark were saying exactly what kind of nerd he was. âButton Mash,â he introduced himself to Babs.
Sweetie Belle, on the other hoof, looked absolutely fantastic in a silk dress with a saddle. A pair of sunglasses was resting on her horn. Babs wasnât into pop music, but she heard that Sweetieâs first album got quite popular, bringing her lots of money. She caught herself trying to guess where Sweetie kept her wallet.
When Babs turned her eyes on Rumble, her heart fluttered in her chest. He didnât change much over the last three years; heâd gotten a bit more muscular, but overall looked pretty much the same. Scootaloo was standing next to him; her mane was short, as usual, and she was wearing a flying suit, similar to the one sported by Rumble.
Babs knew almost nothing about fashion, but she felt that their appearance clashed with Sweetie Belleâs more formal attire. Then she thought about her own outfit â when she was released from the boot camp, she was given back her piercings and a leather jacket. However, they didnât gave her back her balisong knife. Babs thought that she had to buy a new one as soon as possible â without a familiar item in her pocket she felt slightly off.
Diamondâs arrival caused mixed reactions. Rumble said nothing, but it could be seen that he didnât feel comfortable. Sweetie Belle looked at Babs and at Apple Bloom who shrugged. Button hid behind Sweetie; from what Babs heard, he and Twist were having the biggest collections of comic books in Ponyville. After Twistâs death, Bon Bon gave her comic books to Button who, however, never truly recovered from his friendâs loss.
Scootaloo surprised Babs. âHello, Diamond,â she said. âItâs nice to see youâŠâ
âItâs⊠Itâs nice to see you too, ScootalooâŠâ Diamond Tiara said, avoiding Scootalooâs gaze. âIâm sorry that I wanted to kill youâŠâ
âDonât worry about that,â Scootaloo said. âYou werenât yourselfâŠâ
âSo⊠Where are we gonna go?â Apple Bloom asked. âAre we headinâ to the pub?â
âSure,â Scootaloo replied. âDo you know that they donât let us drink in Canterlot? Itâs a tortureâŠâ
âYeah, we know, Mr. Sportspony,â Babs muttered. âHowâs that chick, Tornado Bolt?â
âShe got better,â Rumble replied. âShe has now third best track time in the teamâŠâ
âInteresting,â Babs deadpanned. They trotted down the street. It was a cold evening and Babs thought that taking her jacket with her was a good idea. âAnd how about ya, Sweetie?â
âGreat!â Sweetie said. âIâve recently talked to Neon Lights. Heâs going to produce my next singleâŠâ
âIs he still alive?â Babs asked. âWith the amount of drugs he was takinââŠâ
âHe stopped taking drugs and prays to Luna five times a day. He says that heâs cleanâŠâ Sweetie said.
âArtistsâŠâ Babs muttered. âI still think Vinyl Scratch was betterâŠâ
âI think thatâs just nostalgia,â Button said. âNeon has a better equipment and, actually, his style is much more pleasant. Well, maybe Vinylâs brotherâŠâ
âEquipment!â Babs exclaimed. âVinyl would make better music than Neon even if she used a phonograph with wax cylinders instead of records!â She looked around and saw that Diamond Tiara was lagging behind. âDiamond! Come on! What dâya think about our battle of the DJs? Who was better?â
âI donât know,â Diamond Tiara replied. âIâve never listened too much Neon LightsâŠâ
âGood for ya,â Babs said, giving Button a nasty glare. âIâm tellinâ ya, if it wasnât for that crazy cunt with a lead pipe, no one would even hear of Neon todayâŠâ
âMaybeâŠâ Button shrugged. âBy the way, do you believe in the revelations of that doctor? The one who said that thereâs a monster under Canterlot who uses ponies to feed him?â
âI call bullshit,â Babs muttered. âHe made it up to spread a message about tolerance⊠With rather poor effects.â
âBut Twilight really doesnât want to talk about what happened there,â Sweetie Belle said. âEven when Rarity asked herâŠâ
âMaybe she ran away first and is ashamed of thatâŠâ Rumble turned to Babs. âShe doesnât look very brave if you ask me.â
Apple Bloom glared at Rumble angrily. âSheâs not like that,â she said. âSheâs faced worse things⊠Ah believe Dr. Stable.â
âCan you tell me whatâs going on?â Diamond Tiara asked quietly.
âAh can show ya Dr. Stableâs article later,â Apple Bloom said, trotting closer to Diamond. âIt seems that weâre hereâŠâ
The pub wasnât very crowded. Lyra was sitting in her favourite chair, watching the patrons with a bored expression. Minuette levitated her cider and took a sip.
âSo,â she said. âYou wanted to talk, didnât you?â
âYeahâŠâ Lyra muttered absentmindedly. âIâm kinda worried about Bon Bon. Since Diamond Tiara came backâŠâ
âOh no, not this againâŠâ Minuette put her cider on the table and rolled her eyes. âIâm done solving your problems. Well, not yours specifically; I speak about the town in general. Live and let live, Lyra. You want to adopt her or lynch her, I donât care. I wonât give you a hoof with either.â She waved her hoof. Lyra winced when she saw an ugly scar on it.
Minuette looked at Lyra, then at the scar and chuckled. âToo bad Octavia moved out,â she said. âShe was the only pony here who appreciated my crappy puns.â
âIâm not asking you for help,â Lyra said. âI also think that we should leave Diamond alone. Iâm just afraid that Cherry BerryâŠâ
âCan we not talk about her?â Minuette sighed. âSince that accident with Berry we prefer to ignore each other.â
âIâm afraid that she may try to hurt Diamond.â Lyra leaned closer to Minuette. âHow it goes with âlive and let live?ââ
âThere are guards for that,â Minuette said dryly. âTwo of them, not counting Riot Control who, as I heard is quite bored since heâd retired, and Scootaloo whoâs still learning, but I guess she knows some of the tricks.â
Lyra sighed. âWhy do I even talk to you?â
âI donât know,â Minuette replied, taking a sip of her cider. âIt was you who invited me hereâŠâ
Lyra looked at the door of the pub and froze. âMinuette, do you think Cherry Berry will come here today?â
âOf course,â Minuette said. âShe proudly trots the path set by her cousin. Why are you asking?â
âWell,â Lyra said, watching the group of young ponies walking through the pub and sitting at a large table in the opposite corner of the room. âIt seems that we may have a problemâŠâ
Diamond Tiara sat at the table between Babs and Scootaloo. She looked at the others unsurely and leaned to the former. âYou know, Iâve never drank alcohol in my lifeâŠâ she whispered.
âOhâŠâ Babs scratched her head. âDonât drink too much then. Yaâre showing the ponies that yaâre normal, remember about that.â
âOkay,â Diamond replied. âIâll take a small cider, I guessâŠâ
âDiet coke,â Rumble said. Babs looked at him with disdain.
âSmall cider?â Silver Spoon whispered into Diamond Tiaraâs ear, completely ignoring the fact that the space between Diamondâs and Scootalooâs chairs was too small for her to fit. âWhat about me?â
âYouâre nine, my lady,â Diamond deadpanned.
Silver Spoon made an expression indicating that she was about to throw a tantrum. âIâm as old as you! Remember that Iâm a part of your mind!â
âSo youâll get drunk with meâŠâ
Scootaloo turned to her and looked at her unsurely. âSorry, Diamond, but Iâd rather not get drunk with you⊠I guess youâd be an interesting drinking buddy and all, butâŠâ
âAlso, youâre not gettinâ drunk, remember,â Babs said. âBesides, a small cider is not that much. I could drink one when I was thirteen and nopony would noticeâŠâ
âYeah, rightâŠâ Sweetie Belle muttered. âYou vomited all over the floor in our clubhouse. Not to mention my hoovesâŠâ
âSo it was ya?â Apple Bloom asked, glaring daggers at Babs. âApplejack made me clean itâŠâ
âYou know that Iâd rather not know that?â Button asked, looking nervously at Sweetie Belleâs hooves. âItâs just⊠ewwâŠâ
âButton, donât be a pussy,â Sweetie Belle said, earning surprised glares from everypony at the table. âWhat? My father is a hoofball coach, I know how to, umm⊠Motivate the othersâŠâ
âNevermindâŠâ Apple Bloom facehoofed.
âB-but stillâŠâ Button looked at Sweetie Belleâs hooves.
âYou spend too much time with my sister,â Sweetie Belle said.
âI agree. She asked me when weâre getting marriedâŠâ Button shuddered.
âThey are a great couple,â Silver Spoon said to Diamond Tiara. âThough I think the colt should be the head of the family, not the, umm⊠other side of itâŠâ
âJust like your father was?â Diamond Tiara whispered.
âThat was lowâŠâ Silver Spoon furrowed her eyebrows. Diamond also thought so, but at least it was enough to make her shut up.
Sweetie Belle, being the only unicorn in the group, went to the bar to get the drinks and soon came back, levitating the cider, cola for Rumble, and some fancy cocktail for herself. Diamond Tiara took a sip. She shrugged â there wasnât anything special about the taste. Just a sparkling drink with a faint apple flavour.
âYeah, I know what ya thinkâŠâ Apple Bloom said, looking at her. âJust wait till the cider seasonâŠâ
âSee?â Babs turned to Diamond Tiara. âWeâre here for, like, five minutes and Apple Bloom already invites ya to taste her cider⊠I wonder where itâll endâŠâ
Rumble smirked. âI hope it wonât end with her tasting her, umm⊠ciderâŠâ
âPervertâŠâ Scootaloo muttered, poking his wing.
âThatâs not what you said last nightâŠâ Rumble deadpanned. Scootaloo blushed and poked him once more, this time much stronger.
Diamond Tiara took a sip of her cider. For the first time in her life she understood why alcohol was invented â the company of some ponies would be unbearable while sober.
âSo, howâs Canterlot, Scootaloo?â Apple Bloom asked. âAnd Ah swear, if ya say that itâs a silly place, Iâm gonna throw that cider at yaâŠâ
âWhat can I do?â Scootaloo asked. âIt is⊠Though I really liked when they sent me to patrol the cave where bat ponies live. Itâs a nice change after dealing with all thoseâŠâ She waved her hoof and spoke in a mock accent, ââMs. Guard, thatâs impossible that this hoofband ended up in my sonâs saddlebagsâŠââ She sighed. âBat ponies are completely different.â
âWhat dâya mean?â Babs asked. âThey donât let their kids steal from the shops?â
âNo. They simply tell me to fuâ I mean, to go away.â Scootaloo replied. Everypony laughed.
âIâd feel like at home there,â Babs said, wiping her eyes. âBack in my daysâŠâ She paused, seeing that everypony looked at her. âWhat? Do I sound old when Iâm sayinâ this, or what?â
Button was the first to break the awkward silence. âI guess itâs not the place to recall your past, umm⊠sins,â he said, avoiding Babs gaze and making a move as if he wanted to hide behind Sweetie Belle.
âOh, come onâŠâ Babs muttered, downing her cider. âAt least I was doinâ somethinâ instead of wankinâ in my room like yaâŠâ
âBabs!â Sweetie Belle furrowed her eyebrows.
âAh think Button is right,â Apple Bloom said. âYour âsomethingâ hurt a lot of poniesâŠâ
âSo what?â Babs exclaimed. âI paid for that⊠And donât forget that I⊠I got hurt tooâŠâ She lowered her head. âI think Iâll get another ciderâŠâ
Diamond Tiara watched Babs walking to the counter. Then she turned to the rest of her companions. Rumble was whispering something into Scootalooâs ear, Button was focused on his cider, and Apple Bloom was exchanging worried looks with Sweetie Belle.
Babs had just come back, when suddenly a lanky colt appeared seemingly out of nowhere, took a camera, took a photo of Sweetie Belle and disappeared as quickly as heâd appeared.
âWhat the fuck was that?â Babs asked, putting her cider on the table. âCan I get him and beat the crap outta him or are ya gonna whine that I hurt somepony?â
âIt was Featherweight, I think,â Sweetie Belle said, running her hoof down her mane. âIâm not surprised actuallyâŠâ
Babs opened her mouth to say something, but Diamond Tiara was faster. âWell, Iâm not surprised either. A famous singer, a famous racer, andâŠâ She sighed. ââŠa famous serial killer walk into a barâŠâ
âSounds like a beginning of a crappy joke,â Babs muttered. âThough if it ends with that guy gettinâ strangled with a film from his camera, I may even laugh at itâŠâ
âHe was always an asshole,â Rumble muttered. âHe could at least say hello⊠I donât get why you let those guys take photos of you, SweetieâŠâ
âMy manager says that itâs important to show up in the papers from time to timeâŠâ Sweetie said.
âHe was an assholeâŠâ Babs muttered philosophically and laughed. âNow heâd be the butt of the jokeâŠâ
âRarity always says that itâs a shame that Octavia moved out,â Sweetie Belle said and sipped the remains of her drink with a straw. âShe could appreciate a bad pun⊠By the way, maybe I could convince her to play on my second albumâŠâ
âAsk her whatâs the best method to play with a G-stringâŠâ Scootaloo chuckled. âI doubt Iâd have an occasion to meet her, unless she likes to play with A-minorâŠâ
âScootaloo, pleaseâŠâ Apple Bloom shook her head.
Suddenly, Diamond Tiara felt something weird. Sheâd just finished her cider when she noticed that everything around her was moving in slow motion. She could see Scootaloo laughing, but she couldnât hear her â her voice disappeared in a stream of incomprehensible whispers.
âYa okay?â Babsâ voice sounded as if they were underwater.
âYeahâŠâ Diamond Tiara replied. âI⊠I need to go to the little fillyâs roomâŠâ She stood up and trotted to the toilet.
She stood in a dark corridor, resting her hooves against the sink and looked at her reflection in the mirror. The whispers died down. She noticed that her eyes were bloodshot and started to wonder if it was some side effect of the cider. Then she blinked and saw that her reflection was replaced by the image of Silver Spoon. She was staggering slightly; her mane was in a mess. Her glasses were slightly askew and she was blushing.
âH-helloâŠâ Silver Spoon said, giggling. âYou were right, DT⊠Iâm soâŠâ She hiccupped. âW-wastedâŠâ
âOh, come onâŠâ Diamond Tiara sighed. âI got my own hallucination drunk⊠I wonder whatâd the doctor say about thatâŠâ
âNothing wise, probablyâŠâ The voice changed. It was sharp and cold; each word pierced Diamond Tiara like dagger. âThey never say anything wise. Look at yourself, Diamond Tiara. They held you in the nuthouse for ten years and you can still see us. Not to mention me⊠Iâll get old and never see the world outsideâŠâ
Diamond Tiara looked into the mirror. Her vision was blurring around the edges, but she could see that her reflection changed. A pale coat, a braided, orange mane, and piercing green eyes â Curtain Call was looking back at her, smiling menacingly.
âIâm boredâŠâ she said in a melodic voice. âLetâs go out and playâŠâ
âNo!â Diamond Tiara shouted and threw her hoof in the air. âI donât want to do that again!â
The sound of breaking glass woke her up. She realised that she was lying on the floor. Her hoof was aching. She looked up and saw Babs and Rumble staring at her unsurely.
âAre ya okay?â Babs asked. âYa were here for so longâŠâ
âY-yesâŠâ Diamond muttered, trying to get up. âI⊠I think it was the ciderâŠâ
âMaybe you shouldnât have drank it⊠With your medsâŠâ Rumble said.
âM-maybeâŠâ Diamond Tiara shuddered. âRumble, itâs a girlâs bathroomâŠâ
Rumble blushed. âOh come onâŠâ he said. âIâm here only to help youâŠâ
Babs looked into Diamond Tiaraâs eyes and blinked. Then she turned to Rumble. âI think Iâll manage to carry her just fine,â she said. âYa can goâŠâ
âIâll help you,â Rumble insisted. âIâm strongerâŠâ
âWanna check that?â Babs growled. âMaybe she wants toâŠâ She looked at the stalls.
âOh, yesâŠâ Diamond Tiara said quickly. âYouâd better go, RumbleâŠâ
âOkayâŠâ Rumble shook his head and left the bathroom.
Babs helped Diamond Tiara up and looked at her hoof. âWeâll have to get ya to the doctorâŠâ she said. âWhatâs goinâ on?â
âDid I kill somepony?â Diamond Tiara asked.
âWell, I havenât seen any bloodied corpse aroundâŠâ Babs replied. âAnd ya werenât alone long enough to get outta there⊠Letâs go to the hospital⊠Did ya really have to punch through the frigginâ mirror?â
Diamond Tiara lowered her head. She didnât want to tell about what sheâd seen. Even to Babs.
The party was over â Sweetie and Button decided to go to his house, and Scootaloo wanted to go for a walk with Rumble. Apple Bloom joined Babs. They went to the counter so Diamond Tiara could pay the barmare for the mirror and quickly left the pub, almost hitting somepony with the door.
Cherry Berry dodged the door and went into a pub, looking back unsurely. Then she turned around and saw Lyra and Minuette sitting at their favourite table. âWas it that little killer with Apple Bloom and her cousin there?â she asked.
Somepony knocked on the door. Diamond Tiara opened her eyes and looked at the door. âCome inâŠâ she said in a raspy voice.
The door opened and Filthy Rich entered her room. He looked around and sighed; the room looked just like it used to when Diamond Tiara was nine. Of course, heâd bought a bigger bed for her, but heâd never gotten rid of her toys, drawings, and other belongings.
Diamond Tiara didnât want to change that either. She had nothing new to put in her room and she didnât want to see it empty. The very idea was making her shudder. She remembered her room in Trottingham, empty, with soft walls and without a knob in the door. Through the wall, she could hear Curtain Callâs â the real Curtain Callâs â screams. Sometimes, Curtain Call also talked in her head and then she could hear her voice twice.
From time to time, the nurses were visiting her. Each of them was looking at her as if she was a wounded animal. Diamond Tiara knew why â sheâd attacked at least two of them. She couldnât recall their faces; ten years since the day Silver Spoon died in her arms in the middle of the scorched filly scouts camp was a continuous blur of events, voices, and faces. Diamond Tiara couldnât tell what was real and what was only a product of her mind.
Filthy Rich looked at his daughter who was now sitting in her bed, scratching her head. One of her hooves was covered in bandages. âIs everything okay, Diamond?â he asked.
âYesâŠâ Diamond replied. âIâm just⊠My head hurtsâŠâ
Filthy Rich shook his head, but soon he smiled. âI remember my first hangoverâŠâ he said. âThough I have to say that you were less drunk than I was back then⊠In fact you didnât seem drunk at all when Apple Bloom brought you hereâŠâ
âI wasnât drinking muchâŠâ Diamond Tiara replied, trying to recall the details from the night before. âIn fact, Iâve only had one ciderâŠâ
âWell, it seems that Apple Bloomâs cousin rubs off on youâŠâ Filthy Rich muttered, shaking his head. âIâve heard you punched the mirror in the pubâŠâ
âYeahâŠâ Diamond Tiara shielded her eyes from the light. âDad, I have to go to the doctorâŠâ
âSomethingâs wrong with your hoof?â Filthy Rich approached her. âThe bandages look okayâŠâ
âNo, dadâŠâ Diamond Tiara sighed. âItâs⊠Itâs my head again⊠I saw⊠something in the mirror. The voicesâŠâ
Filthy Rich sat on the bed next to her and scratched his head. âVoices?â He furrowed his eyebrows. âB-but the doctors said you were healedâŠâ
âIt never fully healsâŠâ Diamond Tiara muttered. âI know that the voices arenât real⊠I can tune them out, control that⊠But yesterday I was close to losing control⊠Who knows whatâd happen then?â
âIâll go to the hospital,â Filthy Rich said. âYou can stay here.â
âOkay, dadâŠâ Diamond Tiara lay back in her bed and sighed. âI swear, Iâm not drinking againâŠâ
âGood to hear that.â Filthy Rich smiled. âBy the way, how was the party?â
âGreat, actually,â Diamond Tiara replied. âApart from that incident with the mirror⊠But I finally could talk to other ponies⊠I even joked with them! Itâs like I have friends again.â
âIâm so happy to hear that, DiamondâŠâ Filthy Rich said, closing the door. âYou donât know how happy I amâŠâ
Just like the night before, Babs left her bedroom just after waking up. At first she couldnât figure out why she didnât hear the usual morning noises, but then she looked at the old clock in the hallway â it was barely 4 AM.
Babs scratched her head. Part of her wanted to go back to bed and sleep for a few more hours. Then she remembered the nightmare that had awoken her and suddenly felt that her bed was the most unwelcoming place in Equestria.
Babs had heard much about ponies who dreamed about traumatic events that had happened to them, but in her case it was never a literal flashback to that day at the mafia bossâ house. The nightmares were different every night. There was, however, one thing they all had in common â an overwhelming feeling of helplessness.
Before sheâd woken up, Babs dreamed about being in the desert again. She was trapped in a quicksand; somepony was trying to help her out, but she couldnât reach them. Her hooves couldnât move; she tried to scream, but her mouth was full of sand.
âLuna, why are ya doinâ this to me?â Babs muttered. She felt that her fur was drenched with sweat. Some leftovers of the cider from the day before wanted to get out of her system, so she decided to go to the bathroom.
About twenty minutes later, she left the bathroom in a much better mood. Her mane was still wet after the shower, and a rush was chilling her to the bone, but she didnât care. She trotted to the kitchen and looked for something to eat. Soon she was at the table, munching a toast with apple jam and sipping a cup of black coffee.
âNow I only need a cancer stick and Iâm goodâŠâ she muttered to herself. Too bad, it was impossible to find any. Nopony in the Apple family smoked. Babs didnât smoke either â sheâd stopped in the boot camp, since fifty bits for a smuggled cigarette was too much for her. The first year was terrible, then she got used to it.
Babs could, of course, buy cigarettes â she was an adult and she doubted that Applejack or Big Macintosh would say something if they saw her smoking. She, however, didnât â she was broke and she didnât want to ask her family for money she knew sheâd spend for cigarettes.
Apple Bloom knew about her addiction â she even found a pack of some terrible, cherry-flavoured cigarettes at the bottom of her drawer. Sheâd bought them a few years before, smoked two, and decided that sheâd rebel in a different way. After smoking a half, Babs could easily understand why.
Babs chuckled â she thought that Applejack would be more concerned about the fact that the cigarettes were cherry-flavoured.
âBabs?â
She turned to look at the stairs. âHello, Big Mac,â she said, seeing her cousin. He took a toast and sat at the table next to her.
âCanât sleep?â he asked.
âEeyup.â Babs smirked and took a sip of her coffee.
âYâall drink too much of it.â Big Macintosh pointed at her cup and sighed. âRemember that heart problems run in the familyâŠâ
âIâll keep that in mind,â Babs replied. âWorkinâ already?â
âEeyup.â
âIâll help ya once I get back from Manehattan,â Babs said. âI wonât be there for long⊠I want to stay here with yaâŠâ
âEeyup.â Big Macintosh took a large bite of his toast.
âSometimes I think that ya quietly laugh at all of usâŠâ Babs shook her head.
âWhy would Ah do that?â Big Macintosh asked, smiling sheepishly. âItâs good ya want to start to work, Babs.â
âYeahâŠâ Babs lowered her gaze. âIf the camp taught me somethinâ, itâs that hard work helps to forget⊠Have ya ever wanted to forget about somethinâ, cousin?â
âEeyup,â Big Macintosh replied.
Babs sighed. âLet me guess⊠The day ya heard I was arrested?â
âNope⊠That isâŠâ Big Macintosh finished his toast and stood up. âYour uncle and auntâs deaths⊠Grannyâs death⊠When Apple Bloom got hurt⊠And when ya⊠When this guyâŠâ He sighed and wrapped his hoof around Babs.
Babs felt tears welling in her eyes. Part of her wanted to stay there, while the other part wanted to run as far as possible. Yet another part wanted to go to the orchard and buck the trees till sheâd collapse.
She drank the rest of her coffee watching Big Macintosh walking away to the orchard. Then she went back upstairs to pack her belongings.
She didnât want to be helpless again. But to achieve that, she had to do one more thing her cousins would rather forget about.
For the first time in years, Diamond Tiara trotted through the town without fear.
She didnât care about her hoof. If somepony was whispering upon seeing her, she didnât hear that. The headache passed and all she wanted to do was to go out and enjoy herself.
She was just coming back from the hospital. The doctor said that it was probably some side effect of alcohol and her meds, and that she shouldnât be worried, unless itâd happen again.
Diamond Tiara didnât worry. She looked at the ponies around and felt different. Free. Free not only from the small room on the third floor of the clinic of Trottingham, but also from everything else. She had no feelings towards other ponies, regardless of their gender. She didnât crave alcohol, drugs or any other substance apart from her meds. For the last ten years her life depended of other ponies: doctors, nurses, all the hospital staff⊠Now, she was finally independent.
Diamond Tiara sighed. Despite the doctorâs words, she could already hear the false notes in his voice. She knew what caused it. It wasnât her illness, but rather the cure.
Getting her out of the dark room with soft walls was one thing; getting that room out of her was a completely different thing.
âIt changed,â Silver Spoon said. âThe town, I mean. Some ponies arenât jerks anymore⊠Some are even bigger jerks than beforeâŠâ
âI guess thatâs how life goes,â Diamond Tiara replied. âI donât know; I spent more than half of it in a hospital.â
âDonât ask me about that.â Silver Spoon rubbed her temples. âIâm still a bit hung over, but if I recall correctly, Iâm dead longer than I was aliveâŠâ
Diamond Tiara sighed. âIâm so sorry, Silver SpoonâŠâ
âDonât worryâŠâ Silver Spoon approached her and Diamond Tiara almost felt her touch on her skin. âAlso, youâre tired of apologisingâŠâ
âHow do youâŠ? Ah, yes, youâre a part of my mind, right?â
Silver Spoon appeared in front of Diamond, and took off her glasses. âThatâs elementary, my dear Tiara. Iâm a part of your mind and you canât do anything about thatâŠâ
For a moment, Diamond Tiara had an impression that Silverâs mane changed from its usual colour to orange. She blinked, but when she opened her eyes, Silver was nowhere to be found. Diamond raised her eyebrows. Sheâd gotten used to the sight of her friend and it felt weird not having her by her side. After a while, however, she shrugged it off and trotted home.
Babs desperately waved her hooves, but it didnât help. Something was pulling her deeper and deeper towards the bottom of the ocean. Her lungs were begging for air, but she knew that one breath would kill her almost immediately. The pressure of water was slowly crushing her, cracking her ribs. She thrashed, but it only made a terrible pain in her hooves worse. Finally, she opened her mouth, salty water filling her lungs immediatelyâŠ
âNo!â Babs screamed, waking up. She realised that sheâd fallen asleep on a train, while listening to the monotonous sound of wheels. Some mare was looking at her unsurely. âWhat dâya want?â Babs barked.
âYou were screaming in your sleep,â the mare replied. She had an orange mane and a carrot as her cutie mark. âI wanted to wake you upâŠâ
âDonât worry, I woke up myself just fine,â Babs muttered. âI donât need your help.â
âAre you sure?â the mare asked.
âYes, Iâm fuâ I mean, Iâm sure,â Babs said. âI just had a nightmare, not a big dealâŠâ
âI had nightmares too,â the mare said. âAfter my daughter died in a fire⊠Sheâd be more or less your age nowâŠâ
âExcuse me, but I have enough of my own problems.â Babs sighed and turned to the window. âI donât wanna talk, okay?â
âItâs still hard for meâŠâ the mare said, as if she didnât hear Babs. âHer killer is free againâŠâ
Babs groaned. âShe was killed by Diamond Tiara, right?â she asked. âThen keep in mind that Diamond is my friend. Sheâs sorry for what she did and sheâd definitely feel better if ya all forgave her. Now Iâd prefer to get to Manehattan undisturbed.â She turned to the mare, but saw that sheâd walked away. âFuckinâ small townsâŠâ she muttered to herself. âIf I threw a stone anywhere in Ponyville, Iâd probably hit someone whose friend or kid Diamond killed⊠While I donât even know the names of most of my victims.â
She lay on two seats and fell into a shallow slumber again. This time she had no nightmares. A few hours later, the sound of screeching brakes woke her up and the conductor told her that they were in Manehattan.
Babs got out of the carriage and looked at the railway station. It didnât change much. Some of the benches were more damaged and darker that sheâd remembered them, there was some new graffiti on the walls, and she recognised some new faces among the homeless ponies, but the building itself remained the same. Even when she went to the toilet, she found an old scribbling on the wall of the stall, claiming that Babs and Hedgehog had sex there four years before, with a detailed list of things they did to each other.
Wonder what that son of a bitch is doinâ⊠Babs thought. Hmm, maybe I should introduce him to Sweetie Belle? Sheâd probably need a bassistâŠ
On a second thought, she decided against that. Hedgehogâs bass skills were only a bit better than his sex skills. Heâd probably just have a short affair with Sweetie which would end with him running away with as much of her money as he could carry. The paparazzi would get crazy.
Babs left the railway station and stood in the middle of the pavement, inhaling deeply and watching the buildings, the ponies, and the orange afternoon sky above the town.
âHello, ManehattanâŠâ she said aloud. âMissed me?â
âNew policy, my assâŠâ Babs muttered, seeing a colourful group of prostitutes standing on the pavement. The only thing that changed since she had last been in Manehattan was that they were now standing in some distance from the railway station. She approached them and to her surprise, she noticed that most of them were younger than her.
âHey, ya!â one of them, a violet pegasus in a cheap dress who looked like she was fourteen shouted to Babs. âWhatâr ya lookinâ at?â
âIâm lookinâ for someone,â Babs replied. When she walked, she âaccidentallyâ moved her jacket in such a way that two coins inside clinked. The mares didnât know it was the only money Babs had, so they raised their heads.
âFuck off,â the pegasus said. âI ainât like dat.â
Babs spat on the pavement. âI wouldnât touch your skinny ass with a ten-foot pole,â she said. âHave ya ever heard about a girl called Nightcap? Sheâs a dark blue unicornâŠâ
âNever âeard of âer,â said another prostitute, a skinny yellow unicorn with missing front teeth. âHey, girls, I âave a feelinâ sheâs an undercover guard⊠Letâs beat âer!â
âI could knock the rest of your teeth out with three hooves tied,â Babs muttered. âNopony heard of Nightcap? Iâll pay.â
Suddenly, someone started to push themselves through the small crowd. The yellow unicorn got pushed away; she fell on the pavement, yelling curses.
Another mare approached Babs. She was a unicorn, and, if Babs wasnât mistaken, she was about sixty years old. Babs shuddered when her imagination presented an image of her with a client to her.
âI apologise for these cunts,â she said, pronouncing the last word as âcoontsâ. âI am trying to teach them some manners, but as you can see, some of them, like Carnation, canât even get their hâs rightâŠâ She slapped the yellow filly in the ear, causing her to yell another quite impressive stream of swears. âAnyway, my name is Old Celly⊠After our princess, you knowâŠâ
âOh⊠OkayâŠâ Babs muttered, stunned. âH-how come Iâve never heard of ya?â She pointed at the younger whores. âI used to stand here when some of âem were shittinâ their diapers⊠Nightcap was my friend back then.â
âOh, I used to work in more⊠elegant places,â said Old Celly. âAnyway, Iâve heard of Nightcap. A good girl, not like those walking contraceptives adverts.â She gave a violet pegasus a nasty glare. âSheâs not in business anymore. She married a donkey.â
Babs staggered. âW-what? What donkey?â
âBig, silent⊠He worked in a bar.â
âOkay, thanksâŠâ Babs said, trying to put those pieces of information together. âD-do ya think she still lives in her place?â
âShe never said anything about moving out,â Old Celly said. Suddenly, she turned to the yellow unicorn called Carnation and with a reflex no one would expect from an old mare, she knocked her in the back of the head.
âMy âead!â Carnation shouted. âWhat was dat for?â
âThat was for thinking that our guest is a guard,â Old Celly said dryly. âYou should now apologise. Also, itâs âheadâ and âthatâ, not some argotâŠâ
âIâm sorry,â Carnation said to Babs with an expression suggesting that if they met in a dark alley, one of them would end up with a knife between the ribs.
âIâll go nowâŠâ Babs muttered, thinking that she was lucky that her short career in the entertainment business happened before Old Celly started to rule the streets. âSee ya later, girlsâŠâ
âSo, youâre going back to Canterlot tomorrow?â Diamond Tiara asked.
Scootaloo nodded. They were sitting in Sugarcube Corner â Diamond Tiara thought that some sugar would definitely help her battle the remains of her hangover and accidentally met Scootaloo there.
âI only came to Ponyville for a weekend,â Scootaloo explained. âI still have lot to learn⊠But maybe soon Iâll help with some case. Nothing big, probably, filling in paperwork while the rest works, but itâs better than sitting in class.â
âIs it hard to become a guard?â Diamond Tiara asked. After spending ten years seeing only doctors and her own hallucinations, she was interested in every aspect of life.
âThey wouldnât let youâŠâ Scootaloo said. âBut yeah⊠You have to learn lots of things, not to mention stuff such as running, flying, shooting, fighting⊠Even archery and spear fighting, as if we were the guys from Celestiaâs palace.â She took a bite of her cupcake. âAfter the martial arts training I got so crazy that I was looking at everypony assessing if I could beat them easilyâŠâ
Diamond Tiara chuckled. âAnd what did you figure out?â
âIâd have problems with Apple Bloom and Babs, though in their case itâs rather strength than technique⊠With Rumble⊠Well, itâs the other kind of wrestlingâŠâ She laughed.
Diamond Tiara blushed when she understood what Scootaloo had in mind.
Scootaloo shook her head. âWe need to find you a coltfriend, DiamondâŠâ she said. âMaybe Featherweight? You two would really match each otherâŠâ
âThanks, Iâm not interestedâŠâ Diamond Tiara waved her hoof. âAlso, why Featherweight? Was I that terrible to you when you were a foal?â
âYes. Even without the killing.â
âWhy do you hang out with me then?â Diamond Tiara asked. âYou, Apple Bloom, Sweetie⊠I thought youâd be the first toâŠâ
âIt was ten years ago,â Scootaloo replied. âYou changed⊠And I guess we changed too. But I guess it was Babs who, umm⊠convinced us.â
Diamond Tiara shook her head and chuckled. âBut really⊠Featherweight? After the first date heâd start to write a series of articles⊠âMy Life with The Sleepless Killerâ, or something like that.â
Scootaloo almost choked on her cupcake. âI can totally see those headlines⊠âDiamond Tiara eats hayâ,â she said in a dramatic tone. âI can assure you that every day in the morning Diamond Tiara takes a shââ
âDonât be gross!â Diamond Tiara laughed, wiping tears from her eyes. âAlso, howâd he know that?â
âDunno, maybe heâd install a camera there?â
âEww⊠I think I lost the appetiteâŠâ Diamond Tiara looked at her raspberry pie and sighed.
Suddenly, the door to the Sugarcube Corner opened and a young, dark unicorn wearing a guard helmet entered the bakery. âHello, Scootaloo,â he said, looking at Diamond Tiara unsurely.
âHello, Chocolate Donut,â Scootaloo said. She knew him from the academy â he was a few years older than her and after he graduated, he started to work in Ponyville with the new commander, Front Kick. âWhatâs going on?â
âWe just found a body,â the guard said. âThe boss thought that youâd want to see how we workâŠâ
âSomeone murdered, umm⊠a photographer,â Chocolate Donut said, still looking at Diamond Tiara. âHis name was FeatherweightâŠâ
The neighbourhood was even worse than three years before. Babs looked at the buildings, wondering how much longer itâd take before they collapse. Some foals were looking at her curiously. She knew why â even though itâd been through various misfortunes, her jacket still looked quite expensive. Whoever had bought it in the Griffon Empire probably hoped that itâd last for ages. It did, though not worn by them. There were also the earrings â all of them were only gilded, but the foals couldnât know that.
They, however, could easily see Babsâ muscles. She didnât grow much since she was sixteen, but two and half year of working in the desert toughened her. A bunch of lanky misfits stood no chance against her.
She trotted into the staircase, smelling of mice and piss, and went upstairs. She stood in front of the scratched door and knocked.
The only sound Babs could hear at first were cries of a foal. She started to think that Nightcap had surely moved out, but then she heard trotting and the clinging of the latch, before the door opened.
âBabs!â Nightcap exclaimed. âWhat are ya doinâ here?â
âIâm backâŠâ Babs said, pulling her friend into a hug. âHow are ya? I missed ya so muchâŠâ
âYeah⊠Iâve heard somethinâ about ya marryinâ a donkeyâŠâ Babs shook her head. She noticed that Nightcapâs flat looked much cleaner than before. Luckily, the old chest of drawers still stood in the same place as before. âI guess that means no more âhorizontal recreationâ for us?â
âI guess Vinnie wouldnât like itâŠâ Nightcap said, pointing at the mule filly sitting in a tall chair and watching Babs with large, black eyes.
Babs felt a pang of envy, but it quickly disappeared. âHello VinnieâŠâ she said. âWhoâs the father?â she asked Nightcap.
âWell, actually her name is VinylâŠâ Nightcap smiled sheepishly. âBut Raz thinks itâs silly.â
âYou married Raz?â Babs exclaimed. âGeez⊠Iâve never thought this old loner wouldââ
âHeâs really nice once he starts to talk,â Nightcap said. âHe has a new job now⊠Well, itâs still not enough to get us outta here, but at least I donât have whore myself anymoreâŠâ
âYeahâŠâ Babs sighed. âActually, I only came to get somethinââŠâ She trotted to the old chest of drawers and pulled the lowest one out. Behind it, taped to the bottom wall of the chest were two 500-bits coins. Babs took them and put one of them in her pocket.
âI forgot to tell ya,â Babs said and gave the other coin to Nightcap. âItâs for ya⊠Little Vinnie canât stay here⊠Or sheâll be like⊠like me.â
âI canât take itâŠâ Nightcap said. âIf it comes from some crimeâŠâ
âI made it by honestly whoring myself.â Babs sighed. âAlso, ya didnât have any issues with robbinâ our clients⊠And did Raz ever tell ya what we were doinâ together?â
âIt was long time ago,â Nightcap protested. âI changed, Babs. And I hoped that youâd change tooâŠâ
âI changed,â Babs replied. âI⊠I have to thank ya for what ya did. If I didnât get arrested, Iâd probably already be dead. Take it.â She gave the coin to Nightcap. âNot for yourself, for Vinnie. Make some good use from it. And tell her that auntie Babs was a good ponyâŠâ
âWait!â Nightcap exclaimed, seeing that Babs trotted to the hall. âWhat are ya planninâ to do?â
Babs didnât reply.
Scootaloo braced herself. In every novel sheâd read there was always a young guard whose only role was to enter the crime scene, look at the corpse and throw up, seeing how horribly mutilated it was. She didnât want to be that guard.
She had a good training. During classes, they watched a post mortem once or twice. Some of her colleagues threw up. Some left the morgue and never came back. Scootaloo spent that time wondering whatâd be for dinner.
She also remembered the race in Hoofington. She was seventeen and took part in a couple of races as a junior, since Tornado Bolt was injured. The track in Hoofington was old and it had no bounds made of clouds. One of the local pegasi, even younger than her, crashed into a wooden fence and a broken pole pierced through his stomach. She landed next to him, trying to save him, but could only watch him bleeding out.
It was then, when she had definitely given up the dreams about becoming a racer and applied to the Royal Guard Academy.
She wondered if itâd be different this time. After all, she knew Featherweight. Sheâd seen him alive just the day before. The thought that he was now dead was unbelievable.
Chocolate Donut opened the door. Front Kick was already there, standing above the body of the pegasus.
Scootaloo took a look. The body wasnât mutilated. Featherweight looked normal, except of the row of bruises on his neck and his blue face. Scootaloo shuddered â his eyes were wide open, staring back at her. The whole room was demolished â it seemed that he fought before death. A couple of damaged cameras were lying on the floor, along with the films and spilled chemicals.
âWhat happened here?â Scootaloo asked.
âIt seems that someone strangled him with one of those filmsâŠâ Front Kick said. âDo you know who could it be?â
Scootaloo opened her mouth, but she felt that the question wasnât addressed to her. Chocolate Donut cleared his throat. âHe was a paparazzi. Iâd say lots of poniesâŠâ he said.
âExactly,â Front Kick said, looking at the body. âBut who of them would go that far? We have to check those films⊠Maybe Sapphire Shores didnât like when he caught her snorting cokeâŠâ
âThat still leaves lots of poniesâŠâ Scootaloo said. âHell, Iâm sure Iâm on one of those photosâŠâ
âDid you kill him?â Front Kick asked.
âOf course not! He took a photo of Sweetie Belle when we were in the pub yesterday,â Scootaloo replied. âBut he left it alive.â
âAccording to the necrophile, he died before noon,â Chocolate Donut said.
âDonât call Dr. Tulp that,â Front Kick scolded and turned to Scootaloo. âWho else was in the pub with you?â
Scootaloo scratched her head. âThere were lots of us⊠Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle⊠Rumble, Button Mash, Babs Seed, Diamond TiaraâŠâ
âShe couldnât,â Scootaloo replied. âShe says she got sick after our party, then she went to the doctor and then she was with me in Sugarcube CornerâŠâ
âIâd say itâs quite a tight schedule, a murder wouldnât fitâŠâ Front Kick chuckled. âBut can somepony confirm that?â
âFilthy Rich, his servants, the doctor, and I,â Scootaloo said.
âWeâll have to check Filthy Rich and the servants,â Chocolate Donut muttered. âThough theyâll probably say that she was at home.â
âI believe her,â Scootaloo said.
âYeahâŠâ Front Kick shook his head. âBut remember that youâre not working on this case. Also, if not Diamond Tiara then who else?â
Scootaloo furrowed her eyebrows, trying to recall the events of the night before. It wasnât easy â Diamond Tiara destroying the mirror was the most clear memory, but the rest somehow faded. There were mostly stupid conversations about sex⊠Something about Octavia and puns⊠JokesâŠ
âOh shitâŠâ Scootaloo muttered.
âLoosening of the muscles after death,â Chocolate Donut said. âThey teach about it in the academyâŠâ
âNo, itâs not thatâŠâ Scootaloo slammed her forehead. âJust after he took a photo of us⊠We talked that itâd make a good joke. You know, a famous singer, a famous racer, and a famous serial killer walk into a bar and so onâŠâ
âA jokeâŠâ Front Kick muttered. âSo, whatâs its point?â
âThen Babs said something likeâŠâ Scootaloo scratched her head, trying to recall it exactly. ââIf the joke ended with him being strangled with the film from his camera, Iâd laugh at itâ, or something similar.â
âThat BabsâŠâ Front Kick scratched his chin. âDo you think sheâd be able to kill somepony?â
Scootaloo hesitated. She thought about Babs. Sheâd been arrested for stealing and trying to hide some gun, but was it everything sheâd done? There were gossips. The guy whoâd raped Babs had been one of the most important ponies in Manehattan and Lightning Dust had decided to kill him soon after that. âYes,â Scootaloo said. âI think sheâd be able to kill. The problem is, she has an alibi. She went to Manehattan in the morning.â
Babs patted the pocket of her jacket. On her way, she went to the store and bought a new balisong knife. Now it was resting in a place where she could reach it easily, together with the rest of the money. She felt much safer, walking through the streets, especially since it was slowly getting dark.
She sighed, seeing her old neighbourhood. The buildings had been covered with a fresh layer of paint, then, of course, sprayed with graffiti. Only in a few places the old scribblings survived â Babs laughed when she saw that âThe Sleepless Killer will be backâ had been changed into âThe Sleepless Killer is backâ. She looked around, checking if there were no ponies nearby, took her knife and scratched âAnd sheâs the cutest killer Iâve ever metâ below.
âHey, ya!â She heard. Quickly, she turned, back, her knife ready, and saw a lanky yellow filly approaching her.
âAh, itâs ya,â Babs muttered, trying to recall the fillyâs name. âCarnation. Already back from work? If ya wanted to attack me, ya screwed up. The element of surprise was your only chance.â
âFuck off,â Carnation said in a monotone. âIf ya âave to know, Old Celly beat da crap outta me and then I sucked an old, smelly guyâs cock. All I wanna do is to go âome, throw up, and catch some sleep before my dad smashes my âead against da wall againâŠâ
Babs approached Carnation and wrapped her hoof around her. Carnation froze and tried to back away, but Babs held her firmly. âSeems that weâre neighbours,â Babs said. âI donât remember yaâŠâ
âIâd moved in only recently,â Carnation said and sighed. âIâm da only one in da family who brings money âome.â
Babs nodded. During the hardest times, she also was in such situation. But unlike Carnation, she had a loving family.
They trotted to one of the blocks together and went upstairs. When they reached Babsâ floor, she stopped. To her surprise, she saw that Carnation stopped too.
âSo, whereâs your flat?â Babs asked.
âItâs dis one,â Carnation replied, pointing at the nearby door. She sighed and wiped her eyes.
âNo shitâŠâ Babs muttered. âItâs my flatâŠâ
Carnation scratched her head. It was greasy and Babs backpedalled, wondering if she caught lice when sheâd hugged her. âI only moved âere a few months agoâŠâ she said in the same monotone as before.
âShit⊠Dâya know somethinâ about the previous owners?â Babs asked. âApple and Tangerine Seed. He has only three legs and she looks almost exactly like meâŠâ
Before Carnation could reply, the door of the flat busted open. A yellow stallion with bloodshot eyes looked around the corridor, spreading the wave of alcohol smell around. Finally, his eyes rested on Carnation. âYou!â he screamed. âWhat are ya doinâ âere, cunt? Câmon! Get inside and gimme da money!â Not waiting for an answer, he punched Carnation. She fell on the floor, blood dripping from her nose. Before she could stand up, he kicked her in the stomach, causing her to throw up on the floor. He was just preparing another blow, when Babs caught his hoof.
âWho da fuck are ya?â he growled.
âFormer owner of this house,â Babs deadpanned. âI donât like what yaâre doinâ here.â
âFuck off!â the stallion shouted. âFormer owner, my assâŠâ
Two minutes later, the stallion was lying, groaning, at the lower floor. At least one of his bones was broken, but Babs didnât care. He was bigger than her, but years of drinking turned him into a wreck. Defeating him wasnât a reason to be proud.
âAre ya okay?â Babs asked, helping Carnation up.
âWhat da fuck âave ya doneâŠâ Carnation cried. âHeâs gonna kill meâŠâ
Babs shook her head. She looked at the stallion. He was wounded, but definitely he was going to get better. Then, of course, heâd relieve frustration in the same way heâd always did â by mauling his daughter. âYa have to run away,â Babs said. âDâya have money?â
âTen bits I made today.â Carnation blushed.
âTen?â Babs rolled her eyes. âFuck!â She reached to her pocket. Luckily, when sheâd bought a knife, sheâd been given some changed. She took fifty bits and gave them to Carnation, who grabbed them and hid them immediately. âYaâd better find some other job,â she said. âI wouldnât even let the guy look at me for ten bitsâŠâ
Carnation sobbed. âI knowâŠâ she muttered. âDad always says Iâm pathetic⊠And I killed momâŠâ
âYa did?â Babs asked.
âSh-she died when I was bornâŠâ Carnation said. They trotted downstairs and stopped next to the stallion, who moaned, holding his injured hoof.
Babs wasted no occasion to kick him in it. He screamed and started to mutter curses under his breath. âItâs not your fault,â Babs said to Carnation. âCâmon! Go to him and tell him thatâŠâ
Shuddering, Carnation approached her father. She looked at Babs unsurely, then turned back to him. âItâs not my fault dat mom died,â she said in a cold, emotionless tone. âY-ya âad n-no right t-to beat meâŠâ Suddenly, before Babs could react, Carnation positioned herself above her fatherâs face. A sharp stench of urine filled the staircase. âYaâll never see me againâŠâ she muttered.
âO-okayâŠâ Babsâ jaw dropped. âLetâs go⊠We woke up all the neighbours⊠Someone will probably go and check whatâs goinâ on soonâŠâ
They left the block and stood on the pavement in some distance from it. Carnation was staggering slightly; a fire was burning in her eyes. âS-so, whatâll âappen to me now?â she asked.
âDunnoâŠâ Babs muttered. âDâya have any friends ya can go to?â
Carnation thought for a moment. âY-yes,â she replied. âI âave.â
âSo, yaâre in a better situation than me,â Babs said. âI have no idea where my family lives now⊠Couldnât they write to my cousins or what?â
âWell, Iâve âeard dey live with their daughter and âer âusband now,â Carnation said. âA large flat near BridlewayâŠâ
âWell, itâs better than nothinâ,â Babs said. âSee ya, Carnation. Take care.â
âTake care⊠Umm⊠I ainât get your nameâŠâ
âAre you sure?â Chocolate Donut asked, watching her room curiously. âDid you, umm⊠take your medicines?â
âOf course!â Diamond replied. âListen, idiot, if I killed somepony, Iâd remember that!â She shuddered, trying desperately not to cry. âItâs⊠Itâs like riding a cart, but with somepony else pulling it. When I⊠I could see everything, but I couldnât do anything about thatâŠâ She fell on her bed, sobbing.
âWeâll check everythingâŠâ Chocolate Donut said. âYour father and servants are agreeing that you were here in the morningâŠâ
âMaybe because I was here in the morning?â Diamond Tiara deadpanned. âAm I arrested? Because if not, then I donât want to be questioned like that. I didnât kill anypony⊠recently. Iâm mentally ill and I know about that⊠Why canât you understand that?â
âWeâre just checking every possibility,â the guard said.
âAnd one of those possibilities just happened to be me?â Diamond Tiara sighed.
âWe had to check that,â Chocolate Donut said. âWeâll inform you about our proceedings. Until then, donât leave the town.â
Just after he left the room, Scootaloo entered it. âSo, how was it?â
âBad,â Diamond Tiara muttered, sinking her face in the pillow. âOnce it all ends Iâm leaving PonyvilleâŠâ
âW-what?â Scootaloo asked. âWhy?â
âYou see how it looks like,â Diamond Tiara said, sitting on her bed. âNo matter what I do, everyone who looks at me sees only a murderer.â
âI donât,â Scootaloo replied, straightening her wings. âSweetie, Babs⊠Even Apple Bloom. We understand that you werenât yourselfâŠâ
Diamond Tiara sighed. âAnd those who donât see me as a murderer, constantly remind me how weak I am! For you, Iâm either a killer, or a sick pony! Y-you speak to me as if I had cancer⊠No bad news... I live in a glass bubble filled with compassionâŠâ
âChill out, DiamondâŠâ Scootaloo said. âItâs just because of Donut⊠Rethink it when youâre calmer. Everything will be okayâŠâ
ââEverything will be okayâ?!â Diamond Tiara shouted. âYouâre doing this again!â She lowered her voice. âItâs not my town anymore⊠I⊠I want to go somewhere else⊠Start everything from scratchâŠâ
Scootaloo nodded. âWell, youâve spent so much time locked in the hospital thatâŠâ
âI fucking know about that! I was there!â Diamond Tiara exclaimed and groaned, pulling her blanket over her head. âIf you have nothing more to tell me but obvious things, get out. I want to be alone.â
Scootaloo opened her mouth to say something, but then her wings drooped. She was thinking for a moment, then she trotted out of the room and closed the door.
âI told you to kill her when we had a chance,â Curtain Call said. She was sitting on the windowsill and watching Scootaloo leaving the mansion. âNow she can fly⊠Itâll be hard.â
âIâm not killing anyoneâŠâ Diamond Tiara muttered into her pillow.
It was almost 9 PM when Sunflower finally appeared. For a lack of a better idea, Babs was walking around Bridleway, looking for any sight of her parents or sister. When she saw Sunflower, going home with saddlebags full of groceries, she ran to her immediately.
âSunflower!â she exclaimed. âThere ya are!â
Sunflower stopped in the middle of the pavement and looked at Babs with her eyes half-closed. âWhat are you doing here?â she asked.
âThey released meâŠâ Babs replied. âI wanted to see mom and dad⊠Iâd be here earlier, but it wasnât easy to find ya. Ya couldâve sent your new address to ApplejackâŠâ
Sunflower sighed. âListen Babs⊠Do you know why we didnât?â
âWhy?â Babs asked. For a moment, she remembered the dream about drowning she had on the train.
âCan you imagine how much you hurt mom and dad?â Sunflower asked, her voice shivering slightly. âThey couldnât stand the neighbours⊠Someone said that you killed someponyâŠâ
âWhat? They never proved thatâŠâ Babs replied, trying to hold back tears.
âSee? Not âI didnât do that.â âThey never proved thatâ⊠What the hell have you done, Babs?â Sunflower asked.
âB-but I changedâŠâ Babs said. âIâm not gonna do that again⊠Iâll go and apologise to âem⊠Theyâre my parents, theyâll give me the second chanceâŠâ
âNo, Babs,â Sunflower said coldly. âYouâve had a second chance, a third chance, hell, even a fourth chance⊠Do you know that Iâve never told my husband that I have a sister?â
âSo, thatâs what itâs about?â Babs asked, approaching her sister. âI knew it⊠Yaâre afraid that a sister like me would ruin your oh-so-perfect reputation?! Iâd like to remind ya that ya taught me to steal in shops!â
âNot so loud, BabsâŠâ Sunflower said. âUnlike some other places in this town, ponies here call the guards when they hear noisesâŠâ
âFuck offâŠâ Babs muttered. âFuck all of ya!â She turned back. âIf ya want to find me, Iâll be in Ponyville. With my real familyâŠâ
She galloped away, hoping that no one would see her tears.
Babs sat on the bench at the railway station and looked at the clock. It was still two hours to the first train to Ponyville. She felt a bit dizzy â after sheâd left her sister, she wanted at first to get drunk and collapse somewhere, but then she remembered that sheâd have to get on the train. After a short pondering, she went to one of the few shops opened at night and bought three packs of cigarettes. Then she went to the park and smoked them in two hours.
Few minutes after she finished the last one, two bat ponies saw her throwing up bile under some tree. She drank cherry wine from a plastic cup with them and, slightly tipsy, started to wander aimlessly through the streets. She could hardly recall what happened later. She remembered beating the crap out of some punk who tried to mug her. The feeling was almost therapeutic. Then, if she recalled correctly, she drew a couple of dicks on the walls in various places in the town, peed into the fountain, broke a street lamp with a stone⊠Each of those acts was like a punch to the face of the town that created her, fed her, and when it saw how she changed, rejected her.
Babs sighed. She thought about two kids whose future she wanted to change that day. Vinnie, Nightcapâs daughter. A mule among the ponies. Whatâd happen to her? Babs had no doubts that Nightcap wouldnât let her grow up to be like any of them.
There was also Carnation. Babs had no hopes about her father. She had to shape her future herself. What would she do with the fifty bits Babs had given to her? Would she start a new life, without ponies beating her or using her teenage body to satisfy their needs?
âHelp!â somepony next to Babs shouted.
She raised her head, trying to shake off grogginess. âWhatâs up?â she asked.
âSome whore ODâd in the toilet!â the blue stallion with glasses replied.
Bad feelings overwhelmed Babs. She stood up; her moves were slow, as if she was trying to walk underwater. She followed the stallion. Some other ponies, passengers and the workers of the station walked with them.
The door to one of the stalls were opened wide after the pony inside collapsed on them. The floor was covered in stale vomit. An empty syringe was lying below the sink. The filly was lying on her back, her eyes staring at the ceiling.
Babs approached her, shuddering. The smell was almost unbearable; most of the ponies didnât enter the toilet, too afraid of getting their hooves dirty. Babs started to wonder how many of them ever spent a night with a prostitute. She sat on the floor next to the body and touched it. It was already cold and began to stiffen. Babs watched it, recognising the yellow fur, blank flanks, stains of blood on the nose, and missing front teeth. She stood up, knowing well that the crowd was watching her. She stared again at the syringe under the sink, then back at Carnationâs body.
âFuck!â she shouted, hitting the door of the nearby stall. The old plywood gave up immediately, splinters piercing her hoof, but Babs didnât care. She kicked the door, breaking it in two.
Diamond Tiara looked through the window of the carriage, watching the first snowflakes falling to the ground. She sat back on her seat and opened her saddlebags, checking if her cap and scarf were inside.
The train was moving swiftly through the plain between Ponyville and Canterlot. Diamond was watching the other passengers, her eyes half-closed. Some of them were unicorns from the capital â she recognised them immediately, seeing their expensive clothes. Their faces were mostly hidden behind the newspapers they were levitating. She also recognised a few familiar faces from Ponyville. It was always strange to her how theyâd changed over the last ten years.
âItâs cool our dad helped us finding a flat,â Silver Spoon said. âNo one knows you in CanterlotâŠâ
âItâs my dad,â Diamond Tiara muttered. âI guess itâll be a bit small for youâŠâ
âDonât worry about me,â Silver Spoon replied, stretching her hooves and watching the snow behind the window. âAt least you wonât be lonely thereâŠâ
âScootaloo lives nearby,â Diamond Tiara said. âBut thank you for caring about meâŠâ
Suddenly, she heard somepony sneezing behind her. She turned her head quickly and saw a blue unicorn mare with a large scar on her hoof. She blew her nose and smiled at Diamond Tiara. âHello,â she said. âAnd Iâm sorry. I didnât want to sneak on you like that.â
âHello, Colgate⊠umm⊠MinuetteâŠâ Diamond Tiara replied. âWhere are you going?â
âYou can call me Colgate if you want,â Minuette said, sitting next to Diamond Tiara. âIâm going to visit Dr. Stable. Knowing him, I wonât be back till the Hearthâs Warming Eve...â
âReally?â Diamond Tiara asked. âI thought you and OctaviaâŠâ
âThatâs an old story,â Minuette replied. âBerry and Vinyl are long dead. We hold no grudge against each other. Not to mention that Octavia is much better pony than some ofâŠâ She pointed her hoof in Ponyville direction.
Diamond Tiara sighed. She lowered her voice to a whisper. âOnly when I read about Berry, I realised how big consequences my deeds hadâŠâ
Minuette shook her head. âItâs not your fault, Diamond⊠Iâve heard the whole story. I guess Berry would do something like that anyway. That mare was a ticking bomb.â
âStill, she didnât deserve what happened to herâŠâ Diamond Tiara said.
âAnd with these words you prove that youâre not a monster ponies like Cherry Berry want to see you.â Minuette wiped her eyes.
âYou speak like my friend, Babs,â Diamond Tiara muttered. âShe also says that Iâm not a monsterâŠâ
âSheâs right,â Minuette said. She sneezed again and shook her head. âGood thing Iâll live with a doctorâŠâ
Diamond Tiara thought about Babs. In fact, they hadnât seen each other for a while. A month ago, Babs came back from Manehattan in a foul mood, cursing everypony around to Tartarus. Then she went back to Sweet Apple Acres. According to Apple Bloom, she was getting up even earlier than Big Macintosh or Applejack, bucking apple trees so strong that they were almost devoid of bark after she was done with them. Diamond Tiara had visited her for a few times, but Babs barely ever talked to her.
Babs didnât even say anything when Diamond told her that she was going to move to Canterlot. Scootaloo, however, couldnât wait for a moment when Diamond would become her neighbour. Diamond Tiara wasnât sure if she really meant it, but she decided not to think about it much.
Diamond learned about it just a few hours later. When her train arrived to Canterlot, she spotted Scootaloo waiting for her on the platform. She was wearing a warm flying suit and an aviator hat. The platform was already covered in snow; Diamond quickly put her scarf and cap on.
âHello, Scootaloo,â she said, stepping out of the carriage. âNice hatâŠâ
âThanks,â Scootaloo replied. âIt was the first thing I found in my closet when I saw what the weather team prepared for us todayâŠâ She looked at the sky and sighed. âI swear, Iâm gonna fly to them and ask them what they were thinkingâŠâ
âCan you do that later?â Diamond Tiara asked. âItâs coldâŠâ
âSureâŠâ Scootaloo trotted through the hall of the station and led Diamond Tiara to the taxi stand. Most of the ponies there had apparently gotten the memo from the weather team, since they were using sleighs instead of wagons. Diamond and Scootaloo went to one of them, and soon they were travelling through the dark streets of the capital. At least the interior of the sleigh was warm. Scootaloo took off her aviator hat and ran her hoof through her mane.
âSo, you live with your classmate, right?â Diamond Tiara asked.
âYeah,â Scootaloo replied. âSheâs kinda my fourth cousin twice removed. Her nameâs Archer.â She lowered her voice to a whisper, âIf you have some problem, you can always visit us. Archer often pulls all-nighters, so she wonât mindâŠâ
âHowâs she like?â Diamond Tiara asked. âI donât really remember her from school⊠She and Sun Glimmer moved away quite quicklyâŠâ
âYouâll seeâŠâ Scootaloo muttered. âI guess each of us has a weird cousin⊠Apple Bloom has Babs and Sweetie hasââ
âBabs isnât weirdâŠâ Diamond Tiara blushed when Scootaloo looked at her. âDo you still think she killed Featherweight?â
âOf course not,â Scootaloo replied, sighing. âShe has a good alibi â Carrot Top saw her on a train. Still⊠It had to be either one of us, or someone who was in a pub with usâŠâ
âAm I suspected again?â Diamond Tiara smiled. âI wonât tell anything without a lawyerâŠâ
âOf course not.â Scootaloo chuckled. âChocolate Donut told me that they still wonder about itâŠâ
âIf this was a novel, Iâd say that it was Button Mash,â Diamond Tiara said.
âWhy?â
âHeâs simply the least likely to kill somepony,â Diamond Tiara replied. âItâs always the least likely character. Or a butler.â
Scootaloo laughed. âI must tell that to Donut. I guess he and Front Kick would arrest all the butlers in townâŠâ
âStarting with mine,â Diamond Tiara muttered. âHeâs surely guilty of somethingâŠâ
âExcuse me,â the pony pulling the sleigh said. âWe arrived.â
Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara paid him and left the taxi, trotting towards an old tenement house. They went upstairs. Scootaloo produced a key. âOur flat is the one on the right,â she said, pointing at the wooden door full of dents and scratches. âI guess the one of the left is yours. If you want, you can drink tea with us.â
Diamond Tiara nodded. Of course sheâd seen her new place earlier, but sheâd never been in Scootalooâs flat before.
Scootaloo slowly approached the door to her flat, carefully listening for the noises. âSeems that Archer is home,â she whispered and pushed the door open.
Suddenly, something small hit the opened door, leaving another gash in it. Diamond Tiara jumped back, startled and looked at the short arrow that bounced off the door and fell on the floor of Scootalooâs flat. When Scootaloo trotted forward, she followed her, picking the arrow from the ground.
âArcher!â Scootaloo exclaimed, entering the corridor. âWhat the hell are you doing?â
Diamond Tiara followed Scootaloo and saw a blue mare sitting at the table, littered with parts of various stripped-down crossbows and firearms. If it wasnât for lack of wings and blue coat, sheâd be indistinguishable from Scootaloo. She was holding another crossbow in her mouth â a model with a grip on the side, allowing shooting it with ponyâs tongue. Babs once told Diamond Tiara that there were attempts to build similar guns, but all the prototypes were aptly named âDentistâs Best Friendsâ. Earth ponies still had to sit or stand on hind legs while shooting with their hooves.
âIâm thorryâŠâ Archer said. She spat the crossbow out and continued, âI wanted to tell you to watch out, but then it went offâŠâ
âThatâs what Rumble said when⊠Nevermind,â Scootaloo muttered. âI swear, Archer, one day theyâll fire you from the academy⊠Or youâll kill somepony accidentally.â
âWhat exactly are you doing?â Diamond Tiara asked, looking at the parts scattered on the table, as well as several spanners, hammers and other tools. Three different bows were hanging on the walls. âAlso, I have your arrowâŠâ
âItâs not an arrow!â Archer exclaimed. âBows shoot arrows. Crossbows shoot bolts.â
Diamond Tiara raised her eyebrows. âOkay, I have your bolt,â she said, putting the bolt on the table.
âOkayâŠâ Archer looked at the table. âWeâre studying for a practical exam⊠We have to learn recognise all this stuff⊠A propos, Scootaloo, whatâs that?â She asked, picking a random piece of metal.
âItâs an extractor from Souvenir from Manehattan,â Scootaloo replied. âSome group started to copy Equestrian Army submachines, but their inventions were shooting everywhere except the place they were aimed at, and had a nasty habit of losing the bolt which then could hit the shooter and remodel their face⊠Did I pass?â
âI have no ideaâŠâ Archer muttered, watching the extractor. âDo you know that guards in Canterlot only use bows and crossbows?â she asked Diamond Tiara. âThose rich ponies are really conservativeâŠâ
âYouâd better learn it quickly,â Scootaloo said. âSince youâre going to fail the safety part foreverâŠâ
Suddenly, Archer looked at Diamond Tiara more exactly and gasped. âItâs you!â she exclaimed. âIâve read everything about you!â
âW-what?â Diamond Tiara asked, looking at Archer unsurely.
âAbout the murders! It inspired me to become a guard, actually⊠If I was there, you wouldnât have had it that easyâŠâ
Diamond Tiara said nothing. Archer also silenced, seeing her expression. The silence was getting awkward. Archerâs half-conscious smile was making it even worse.
Finally, Archer stood up. âDo you want some tea?â she asked.
âNo, thanks,â Diamond Tiara replied. âI have to go home and unpack my things⊠See you later...â
âWait!â Archer exclaimed. âYou live next to us?â
âYes, sheâs our neighbour,â said Scootaloo dryly. âChill out, Archer.â She turned to Diamond Tiara. âSorry, Diamond,â she said. âArcher is sometimes a bit too directâŠâ
âIâm still here, cousinâŠâ Archer deadpanned.
Diamond Tiara didnât listen. She quickly left Scootalooâs flat, went to her place, locked the door and threw herself on the sofa. An empty room only made her feel worse â the world started to spin around her. She quickly opened her suitcase and found a pack of her pills. She took one of them and went to the bathroom to pour herself a glass of water. Then she came back and lay back on the sofa, waiting for the ringing in her ears to stop.
âAre you alright?â Silver Spoon asked, sitting on the floor next to the sofa.
âYouâre a part of my mind,â Diamond Tiara replied. âTry to guessâŠâ
âOh come on,â Silver Spoon muttered. âI just want to hold a conversation⊠What bothers you?â
Diamond Tiara sighed. The pill started to kick in and the whispers silenced. Even Silver Spoon became more blurred. âI thought Iâve seen everythingâŠâ she muttered. âBut now I have a fanâŠâ
âSo?â Silver Spoon asked. âYouâve always wanted to have fansâŠâ
âBut not for that!â Diamond Tiara shouted. âThatâs disgusting⊠Itâs even worse than ponies who pity me...â
Silver Spoon yawned. Diamond Tiara raised her head and sent her a nasty glare. âAm I boring you?â she asked.
âNo, I just found it interesting that ponies who pity you piss you off, while you still pity yourselfâŠâ Silver Spoon replied, watching her hooves.
Diamond Tiara sighed and looked at the ceiling. âOkay, Iâm patheticâŠâ she said. âWhat can I do about that?â
âThe same thing you planned earlier,â Silver Spoon replied. âWalk out more, meet ponies, read books, make up for the last ten yearsâŠâ Suddenly her voice changed. âOr maybe we should start to do everything again? Weâd be even more famousâŠâ
Diamond Tiara turned her head so quickly that one of the muscles in her neck sent a jolt of pain to her brain. Her eyes widened when she saw that Silver Spoon was no longer with her; instead Curtain Call was watching her curiously.
âThose pillsâŠâ Curtain Call muttered. âYou need to stop taking them. They prevent us from being truly together⊠Cider was a good idea, you know. Who knows, maybe Silver would also be with us? She runs awayâŠâ
âN-noâŠâ Diamond Tiara stuttered, shivering. âIâm not going to kill anypony⊠Get out...â
âOr what? Will you break another mirror?â Curtain Call chuckled. âFace it, Diamond Tiara â you canât survive without meâŠâ
Diamond Tiara grabbed the glass of water and threw it at her. The jingling startled her. She looked at Curtain Call and saw that she was gone; only the shards of glass lying on the floor were a proof that something happened.
Diamond Tiara yawned â a final symptom that her meds started to work. She wasnât sure if it wasnât what caused Curtain Call to disappear, but she didnât think about that. She lay on the couch and soon she fell into a shallow slumber, occasionally interrupted by shudders and whimpers.
Babs was lurking in the shadows. She made sure Apple Bloom was asleep. Neither Applejack nor Big Macintosh were at home, so she didnât have to worry about them.
Babs smiled to herself. She remembered Granny Smith telling her once that she hoped for Big Macintosh and Fluttershy getting together and giving her a couple of grandchildren. Granny didnât live to that moment, but Big Mac and Fluttershy eventually did became a couple. Babs wondered what they were doing â probably they were sitting together, not talking to each other.
Applejack, as she told Babs, went to Pinkie Pie for a party. Probably hoping that Caramel would be there too.
Babs chuckled and shook her head. Sheâd never think any of her cousins would ever find time for dating, and now she and Apple Bloom were the only single ponies in the family. She shrugged â it meant that she wouldnât have to be afraid that somepony would see her.
She quickly trotted downstairs, carefully avoiding all the creaking boards. She cursed under her breath, seeing that it was snowing. On one hoof, it meant that Applejack and Big Mac wouldnât be coming back soon. On the other, her traces would be perfectly visible. Babs shrugged and took her jacket from the hanger. Then she wrapped a white scarf around her neck and looked at herself in the mirror. A brief thought that she looked like a pegasus warrior from the first Griffonian War ran through her mind, making her laugh. She checked if her knife and money were in her pockets and left home.
Taking shortcuts through the fetlock-deep snow, she reached the railway station. She hid in the building, waiting for the night train from Hoofington to come. Luckily, the ticket counters were closed and those few ponies who were waiting for a train werenât interested in looking at her. Despite that, she hid in the corner; she didnât want to take any chances.
Finally, she heard the sound of the steam engine and screeching brakes. She trotted to the platform and, hiding her face from the cold wind, started to look for a familiar silhouette.
The mule recognised her first. âHello, Seed,â she said. âLong time no seeâŠâ She chuckled and reached her saddlebags with her hoof. âI have ten minutes before the train goes to FillydelphiaâŠâ
âHi, Ice Nine,â Babs muttered. âNot hereâŠâ She pointed at the siding. âNo one will see us thereâŠâ
âItâs fucking coldâŠâ Ice Nine muttered when they were walking through the snow. âI liked our desert betterâŠâ
âStop whininâ,â Babs replied. âWith your name ya should be used to low temperaturesâŠâ
âFuck off, Seed, okay?â Ice Nine sighed. âDo you at least have the cash? Iâm not gonna be freezing my ass off all night for youâŠâ
âOf course,â Babs replied. âDo you have it?â
âYes. Just what you wanted.â Ice Nine opened one of her saddlebags and took some small object wrapped in a piece of cloth. âSmall, easy to conceal and get rid of, not used before, and itâs not some shitty souvenir that may poke your eye out. Caps included.â
âThanksâŠâ Babs took the money and gave it to the mule. âThree hundred and fifty, as I wrote yaâŠâ
Ice Nine counted the money and smiled, hiding the coins. âIf you want, I have some cool pills I can give you. They give a great kick to the brainâŠâ
âIâd rather not have my brain kicked, thank ya,â Babs muttered. âSee ya, Ice Nine.â
âTake care, Seed,â Ice Nine said. âWhatever youâre planning to doâŠâ
â... so I showed her the scars, saying that Iâm not gonna give a hoof to anypony. But she didnât get itâŠâ
Octavia chuckled and put her tea back on the table. âWell, Iâm not surprised, actuallyâŠâ she said. âThose scars really look awful. Donât you want to have them removed?â
Minuette shook her head. âIâd rather keep them,â she said with a sigh. âYou see, they remind me of how stupid I wasâŠâ
âYou were trying to helpâŠâ Octavia muttered. She reached for her tea, but hesitated and put her hoof back on the armrest of her chair. âThereâs nothing stupid with that.â
âYeah⊠Though my idea suckedâŠâ Minuette replied. She looked around Octaviaâs place, wondering how nice and cosy it was. The wind was blowing outside, but the fireplace was making the house a much more friendly place. Even though it was still a couple of days till Hearthâs Warming Eve, everypony was in a holiday mood.
Dr. Stable entered the living room, levitating a bottle of wine. âDo you want some, Minuette?â he asked. âI bought it in Hollow ShadesâŠâ
âHope thereâs no blood in it,â Minuette said, smiling. âOcty, arenât you bored of that tea?â
âWell, I canât really drink wineâŠâ Octavia replied, patting her stomach.
Minuette looked at it unsurely. Then she looked a Dr. Stable. Her smile widened and she hid her face in her hooves. âYouâve got to be kidding meâŠâ she muttered.
âKid-in-me? I have to remember that.â Octavia chuckled.
Minuette sighed. âI just⊠I didnât expect thatâŠâ
âWell, I guess nopony didâŠâ Octavia said. âBeauty Brass was shocked.â
âA propos,â Dr. Stable sat in his armchair. âShe visited me at the hospital today, and said that Jet Set and Upper Crust invited us for a Hearthâs Warming Eve dinner. Youâre invited too, MinuetteâŠâ
âA dinner with those freaky nobles?â Minuette chuckled. âI guess itâll be funâŠâ
Octavia shook her head. âI know them⊠Theyâll ask me to play something. But I guess leaving poor Beauty Brass alone with them wouldnât be a good ideaâŠâ
âYeah, sureâŠâ Minuette muttered.
Even though the Hearthâs Warming Eve was close, the guards in Ponyville didnât have time to sit at home with their families. Chocolate Donut was sitting in his office, surrounded by large stacks of photos heâd retrieved from Featherweightâs films. Front Kick entered the station and cleared his throat, seeing that his companion hadnât noticed him.
âIâm kinda busy here, boss,â Chocolate Donut muttered. âWe really need somepony else to help us⊠Maybe we should make Scootaloo our trainee?â
âNot yet,â Front Kick replied. âAre these all the photos he made?â
âUnfortunately not,â Chocolate Donut said. âWhoever killed him destroyed some filmsâŠâ
Front Kick levitated one of the photos, depicting a group of young ponies drinking in a pub. âHmm⊠Sweetie Belle, that future Wonderbolt, and Diamond Tiara? Front page material⊠But, of course, itâs not Diamond Tiara. I remember it. I, myself, figured out her pattern...â
âThough you caught her a bit late,â Chocolate Donut said. âI think itâs from the party Scootaloo told us about⊠Itâs her wing, here...â
âI see,â Front Kick replied. âAnd I see Babs Seed sitting next to Diamond. But I guess our killer isnât here. If they were, theyâd destroy that one too.â
âYeahâŠâ Chocolate Donut muttered, looking at the stacks of photos. âThis guy had the photos of almost all celebrities in Equestria⊠Did you know that Neon Lights is in rehab again?â
âExactly, Donut,â Front Kick muttered. âAlmost. Make a list of ponies who appear in those photos. The one who isnât here may be our killerâŠâ
Chocolate Donut sighed. âWhoâd be stupid enough to destroy every single picture of themselves? Theyâd expect us to make such a listâŠâ
âStill, I think blackmail was involved,â Front Kick said. âI checked this guyâs bank account. Somepony paid him two hundred thousand bits. Three times, every two months.â
Chocolate Donut sighed. âBoss, you donât know how much those guys are paid⊠Maybe he caught Princess Luna on jaywalking? Thatâd be a hit...â
Front Kick didnât laugh. âI checked other records. None of them is even close to those three transfers. Our killer did something really nasty and Featherweight took photos of itâŠâ
Diamond Tiara looked into the mirror. She examined her reflection, making sure that it was really hers. With a sigh, she turned to the door, preparing to leave the flat. However, before she could open it, somepony knocked.
Diamond Tiara shook her head, trotted to the door and opened it to see Archer, resting herself against the door frame and flipping her mane nonchalantly.
âHello,â Archer said. âScoots told me to check on you.â
âI was about to go to you,â Diamond Tiara replied. âItâs still a few hours till our train arrives â just enough for Babs to see the town.â
âShe should be here soon.â Diamond Tiara looked into the corridor, as if she expected Babs to appear. She didnât see her, but the door of the opposite flat opened and Scootaloo stood in it. âBy the way, where are you going to spend Hearthâs Warming Eve?â
âWith Apple Bloom in Sweet Apple Acres,â Scootaloo said. âItâs better than staying here⊠You know, Archer finds cooking recipes in a toxicology textbookâŠâ
âItâs still better than your cookingâŠâ Archer muttered.
âMy cooking is fine.â Scootaloo raised her hoof. âAt least it doesnât taste of greaseâŠâ
âYeah, itâs fineâŠâ Archer said. âBut how long can you eat pasta?â
âYou know, when weâre back, you can eat with me from time to time,â Diamond Tiara said. Archerâs eyes widened; she smiled unconsciously. For a brief moment, Diamond Tiara thought of spiking her food with arsenic.
âWhatâs going on with Babs, anyway?â Scootaloo asked, causing Diamond Tiara to shudder. âWhereâs she?â
âI donât know,â Diamond replied. âShe should be here soonâŠâ
Archer turned to Scootaloo, smirking. âI think I know why are you in such a hurry, Scoots,â she said. âThe two reasons wait for you in Ponyville, both wear the Wonderboltsâ flying suits, and their names start with RâŠâ
âOh, come onâŠâ Scootaloo muttered.
âI was always wonderingâŠâ Archer said. âIf you and Rumble are together, and Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane are togetherâŠâ
âTheyâre not,â Scootaloo interrupted her quickly.
âOh, I forgot. Rainbow Dash is too cool for relationships. One day sheâll simply divide into two smaller Rainbow DashesâŠâ
âHave you ever wondered, cousin, why everypony runs away from you?â Scootaloo deadpanned.
âI guess itâs because of my awesome personality,â Archer replied. âAlso, Diamond likes me. Donât you, Diamond?â She asked, wrapping her hoof around Diamond Tiara.
âUmm⊠yeahâŠâ Diamond Tiara muttered, shaking Archerâs hoof off. She wasnât sure what to think of Scootalooâs cousin. She definitely was⊠overwhelming; that was a good word. Babs could be overwhelming too, but, unlike Archer, she knew how to tone it down when Diamond was around.
Just when Diamond Tiara wondered how to politely tell Archer to leave her flat and let her wait for Babs alone, she heard somepony climbing up the stairs. One look was enough for her to recognise the distinctive mane and a black leather jacket. âBabs!â she exclaimed. âWhere have you been?â
âI kinda got lost,â Babs replied. âThe taxis in this town are crazyâŠâ
âItâs great that you decided to introduce your friend to us, Octavia,â Upper Crust said. They were walking through the crowded market between stands full of food, jewels, gifts, and other things ponies absolutely needed to have before the Hearthâs Warming Eve. A group of little foals was standing at the corner of the street, singing songs. Jet Set was smiling politely but Octavia noticed that he was throwing nervous glances at his wife from time to time. Minuette, on the other hoof, didnât even pretend that she was interested in anything.
âSo, who are you exactly?â Jet Set asked. âI think I remember you from Princess Cadanceâs weddingâŠâ
âYeahâŠâ Minuette muttered. âIâm just a humble dentist, though I indeed know Cadance⊠And I donât really remember the wedding⊠You know, I kinda woke up in some creepy cave with Lyra and TwinkleshineâŠâ
âOh, I remember it,â Upper Crust said. âIt was terrible⊠And now those caves are inhabited by bat poniesâŠâ
âI always say Celestia should do something about them.â Jet Set shook his head. âSoon thereâll be more of them here than in Hollow ShadesâŠâ
âYeah, I know somepony who had a great ideaâŠâ Minuette muttered, piercing Jet Set with her gaze. âHer nameâs Cloud Kicker. If she behaves, theyâll release her from jail soonâŠâ
âMinuette!â Octavia hissed.
âWhat?â Minuette asked. âItâs the same bullshit like saying that unicorns are better than, letâs say, earth poniesâŠâ
âEarth poniesâŠâ Jet Set sighed. âThey always think they know everything betterâŠâ He looked at Octavia. âNot all of them, of course.â
âMaybe because they do,â Minuette said. âThereâs that proverb I like: âa unicorn levitates it, a pegasus flies to it. An earth pony invents a ladderâ. Itâs a slow process, but earth ponies will rule Equestria one dayâŠâ
âGood,â Jet Set muttered, watching one of the ponies in the crowd, wearing a long cloak with a hood that was making her face invisible. Something about her seemed familiar. âMaybe theyâll find a way to deal with bat poniesâŠâ
Minuette shook her head. She turned away, watching the stand with gingerbread and other baked goods, when suddenly a loud bang nearly deafened her. She heard Octaviaâs scream, as if it was coming from a great distance. She turned back, hearing another two bangs in a rapid succession. Octavia was lying on the ground next to Jet Set. The snow around them was quickly getting red. Minuette froze; she saw a pony wearing a cloak with a gun attached to their hoof with a strap. Before Minuette could react, the pony looked back at her and ran away, undisturbed by anypony.
âOctavia!â Minuette shouted, running to her friend. âShit⊠Octavia! Donât be dead...â
Octavia raised her head when Minuette sat next to her. âIâm okay, I thinkâŠâ she muttered. She looked around and retched, seeing Jet Setâs blood. Behind her, Upper Crust screamed, holding her husbandâs body in her hooves.
âW-who the fuck was that?â Minuette asked. She examined Octavia and saw that while the bullets were aimed at Jet Set, one of them grazed her flank. âHowâs the baby?â
âI⊠I donât knowâŠâ Octavia muttered, panting heavily, her voice drowning in Upper Crustâs cries. âOh CelestiaâŠâ She grabbed her stomach, suddenly getting pale. âI hope itâs okayâŠâ
âDonât moveâŠâ Minuette whispered, shuddering. The ponies were running around them; it seemed that the killer disappeared before someone could tear their cloak off. Foals were screaming, but Minuette didnât care. Octavia was much more important. âEverything will be alrightâŠâ
Diamond Tiara, Babs, Scootaloo, and Archer were walking through snowy Canterlot, watching the shop windows. Even the usually pragmatic Archer livened up a bit seeing the jewellery store. Diamond Tiara couldnât take her eyes away from it â recently she started to draw her own projects again and was looking for a possibility to start working as a jewellery designer. Only Babs was silent. She was trotting slowly behind the rest of the group.
âSeems that thereâs some commotion in the market,â Scootaloo muttered, seeing a large crowd of ponies surrounding one place in the middle of it.
âI guess two mares are fighting for the last piece of cake,â Archer muttered. âWeâd better not go there â dunno how about you, Scoots, but I like the shape of my noseâŠâ
âIs it coronerâs carriage?â Scootaloo asked, watching the black vehicle standing near the centre of the crowd. âAlso, I can see the guards thereâŠâ
âOh, come onâŠâ Archer muttered. âItâs nearly the Hearthâs Warming Eve⊠I donât want to watch any crime scenesâŠâ
âSince when donât you like crime scenes?â Scootaloo asked. She saw that Babs was walking towards the group. âHey, Babs! Where are you going?â
âI wanna see what happened,â Babs replied.
Scootaloo shrugged and followed Babs. Archer and Diamond Tiara went with them.
âIâd rather stay behind,â Diamond Tiara said. âIâm not sure how Iâd reactâŠâ
âOkay, no biggie,â Archer muttered. âExcuse me, Iâm a guard!â she yelled when they reached the crowd. Several ponies made place for her and Scootaloo. Babs tried to follow them, but got stuck between ponies.
Charge, the guard who was leading the investigation was one of Scootaloo and Archerâs teachers from the academy. He saw them and quickly trotted to them.
âYouâd better not go here,â he said. âTechnically, youâre civiliansâŠâ
Scootaloo looked at the crime scene and, to her surprise, saw Minuette being questioned by some guards. She was sitting next to crying yellow unicorn mare, gesturing widely and apparently yelling at the guards.
âSomepony was shot here?â Archer asked, watching a large patch of red snow.
âI canât tell you,â Charge said. âYouâd better go awayâŠâ
âThis sucksâŠâ Scootaloo muttered when they were pushing themselves back through the crowd. âWeâll soon be guardsâŠâ
âDonât worry, cousin,â Archer said. âI think I have a planâŠâ She guided Scootaloo to the coronerâs wagon. A younger guard, Archerâs friend called Riot Shield was standing next to it, hiding from the cold wind and smoking a cigarette. Scootaloo noticed that Babs was following them. For a moment she considered telling her to go back to Diamond Tiara â they couldnât be there even though they were guards in training and Babs was definitely a civilian.
âSome freak shot one of those rich guys, Jet Set,â Riot Shield replied. âI feel for anypony whoâll have to put the witnessesâ testimonies together. Apparently it was an earth pony with a horn, wearing a cloak hiding her wings, who shot three times at the guy and disappeared. Not to mention that we have at least twenty descriptions of how the killer looked likeâŠâ
âThree times?â Archer asked, furrowing her eyebrows. âFailure drill? Twice to the chest and once to the head?â
âMore like failed failure drill,â Riot Shield replied. âOne shot to the chest, one that grazed the victimâs leg and a flank of a mare walking next to him, and one that tore his ear. Definitely not an ex-soldier...â
âBut definitely someone whoâd heard of that technique,â Scootaloo said. âMaybe some military fanâŠâ She looked at Archer briefly. Suddenly, she shivered. âOr someone who spent a lot of time among the ex-soldiersâŠâ She turned her head, but saw that Babs wasnât with them; instead she went back to Diamond Tiara.
âHmm⊠It kinda makes sense,â Riot Shield muttered, blowing the smoke from his cigarette.
âYou can tell it to Charge,â Scootaloo said before leaving. âAnd remember, you havenât seen usâŠâ
âYou?â Riot Shield asked. âWho are you?â
Archer only smirked at him before following her cousin.
The pageant was getting to an end. Sweetie Belle, who played Princess Platinum, finished singing The Heart Carol with the crowd and the rest of the cast and went backstage to take off her costume.
âThat was... even better than when I played that role,â Rarity said, clapping her hooves.
âEeyup,â Big Macintosh added, wrapping his hoof around Fluttershy. Babs, who was standing next to them, only rolled her eyes. She looked at Filthy Rich who was standing not far away from them; as he told Babs, Diamond Tiara didnât want to come to a pageant â apparently she was afraid that it would trigger some kind of attack.
Babs sighed when Scootaloo joined her. For a few days between their travel from Canterlot and Hearthâs Warming Eve, she had a feeling that Scootaloo was watching her almost constantly. She also caught her once whispering about something with Apple Bloom. When they saw her, they immediately changed topic.
âThat was awesome!â Archer shouted, appearing seemingly out of nowhere. Babs smirked seeing her. It seemed that sheâd already put her hooves on a bottle of booze. She put her hoof on Babsâ back and laughed. Babs shook her head. Seriously, she was supposed to be a guard?
âWait till we go back to the Sweet Apple Acres,â Apple Bloom said, walking to them, still in her Smart Cookieâs outfit. âWe prepared a small partyâŠâ
âWell, Ah guess itâs not as small since Pinkie decided to help usâŠâ Applejack shook her head.
âCool!â Archer exclaimed and started to run to Sweet Apple Acres.
âIs she always like that?â Apple Bloom asked Scootaloo.
âUsually,â Scootaloo replied, watching her cousin falling face-first into the snow. âBut you wouldnât want to see her when sheâs seriousâŠâ
They waited for Sweetie Belle to join them and trotted towards the farm. Sweetie looked around, furrowing her eyebrows. âHave any of you seen Button?â she asked.
âNo, and I havenât seen Rumble either,â Scootaloo replied. âI guess they went somewhere to get drunk. Possibly debauching my cousinâŠâ
âSheâs already debauched,â Sweetie Belle muttered. âThough she wasnât always like that⊠I remember that she was friends with Sun GlimmerâŠâ
âWell, itâs called âreaching pubertyâ and it happened to all of usâŠâ Scootaloo said. âExcept BabsâŠâ she finished, lowering her voice to a whisper.
âWhat dâya want from her again?â Apple Bloom asked. âSince yâall came back from Canterlot, ya seem weirdâŠâ
âI just have a feelingâŠâ Scootaloo muttered.
âChill out, Scoots,â Sweetie Belle said. âItâs Hearthâs Warming Eve. I donât know what you want from Babs. Sheâs kinda like Diamond â a bit lost.â
âYeah, sureâŠâ Scootaloo shook her head. They saw the lights of the Sweet Apple Acres shining brightly in the winter night. Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane were already there, circling above the farmhouse. Scootaloo joined them. The wind chilled her wings, but she didnât care; she spotted Rumble talking with Button Mash between the apple trees and landed next to them.
âHello, Scoots,â Button said. When he saw her, he jumped, startled and smiled sheepishly. âRumble and I were justââ
âLater,â Rumble interrupted him. âItâs getting cold in here, donât you think? Weâd better go inside.â
Babs looked at the remains of a cake in front of her and sighed, rubbing her stomach. Next to her, Sweetie Belle and Archer were singing a drunk rendition of Fiddlesticksâ âBarn Doorâ. âDrunkâ was, however, mostly on Archerâs part. Sweetie Belle either was better in holding her liquor, or she was just able to sing well, despite her tipsiness. Babs, however, couldnât take her eyes off Archer. For some reason, she had a feeling that she was only pretending to be drunk. A few times it seemed to her that she caught a glimpse of Archer throwing curious glances at everypony around.
There were lots of things worth looking at. It was past midnight, so almost everypony loosened up a bit. The only calm ones were Fluttershy, Big Macintosh, and Twilight, who was almost nodding off, even though she didnât drink. Next to her, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were chatting loudly about things that made even Babs blush. There were definitely things she didnât want to know about Thunderlane.
Speaking of him, he was now telling some very interesting story about being a Wonderbolt to everypony who wanted to listen, which in this case meant Rarity and Applejack. Babs wasnât sure, however, if Applejack was paying attention to what he was saying â Caramel was sitting with them.
Looking for Scootaloo, Babs spotted Rumble and Button talking in the darkest corner of the room. She facehoofed mentally. No wonder Scootaloo became so annoying â her coltfriend definitely preferred the company of other stallions. An idea appeared in Babsâ mind. She remembered that when she was younger, she was even better in pretending to be drunker than she really was. Too bad, one of the ponies she managed to cheat that way died in unexplained circumstances a few days before, but Babs didnât care about it. She stood up and trotted staggeringly to Rumble and Button. When she approached them, she wrapped her forelegs around their necks, smiling widely.
âHello, faggots,â she said a bit louder than she usually talked, before lowering her voice to a theatrical whisper. âIf ya two need some time alone, I can give ya a key to the barnâŠâ
Rumble looked at Button, then turned to Babs. âFuck off,â he muttered. âWeâre just talking.â
âTalkinâ, rightâŠâ Babs chuckled. âI know your talkinâ...â
Suddenly she heard Apple Bloom clearing her throat behind her. âYaâd better go to sleep, Babs,â she said. âYa and Archer definitely had enoughâŠâ
âI had enough?â Babs asked, deciding to stay in her role. âPlease, girl⊠I can drink much more than ya⊠Wanna see it?â
âNo,â Apple Bloom replied coldly. âCould ya stop behavinâ like that? Ah sometimes think Scoots was rightâŠâ
âOh, I forgot⊠Yaâre the responsible oneâŠâ Babs muttered. She realised that it wasnât only a play. It wasnât alcohol that caused her to say that; the cause definitely was deeper. âYa donât even go on dates âcause ya only care about the farm⊠And I? My own family rejected meâŠâ
Apple Bloom sighed and pulled Babs away from Rumble and Button. âAhâm sure theyâll change their minds,â she said. âIf they see that you changedâŠâ
Babs shook her head. âBut did I change? Dâya think I changed, cuz?â
âYa did,â Apple Bloom replied. She released Babs, seeing that she was able to walk on her own. âYaâre wiser and Ahâm sure yaâll never do that againâŠâ
âSureâŠâ Babs muttered. They trotted out of the room. âStill, Iâm nothinâ like Diamond TiaraâŠâ
âDiamond is on meds,â Apple Bloom said. âYa deal with everythinâ yourself.â
âYeah⊠maybe.â Babs shrugged. âGoodnight, Apple Bloom⊠And sorry for thatâŠâ
She trotted upstairs and went to her room. She was about to throw herself on the bed, when she saw something moving behind the window. She took a knife from her nightstand, opened it, and went to the window. She pushed the knob and cold wind ruffled her mane. She had to blink, but she saw a silhouette of a pegasus landing on the windowsill.
âWhat the hell ya want?â Babs asked. âDâya like watchinâ me sleep or what?â
âI just wanted to talk to you in private,â Scootaloo replied, closing the window and stepping into a circle of light. âPut that knife back, please.â
Babs wanted to say something snarky, but she put the knife on the nightstand and sat on her bed. âSo, what dâya want?â
âDid you kill that guy?â Scootaloo asked.
âW-what?â Babs shuddered visibly. âHow can ya accuse me of that? I was with ya all the time! I donât even know him!â
âYou werenât with us all the time,â Scootaloo said calmly. âYou said something about the taxiâŠâ
âYeah, sureâŠâ Babs muttered, glaring at Scootaloo angrily. âI went to Canterlot to kill a guy I donât even knowâŠâ
âI donât know why you wanted to kill him,â Scootaloo said. âBut Iâm sure youâve heard about failure drill or Zebrican drill?â
âYeah⊠So what?â Babs asked, sitting on her bed. âLots of ponies were in the camp with me⊠Not to mention that half of the war novels mentions itâŠâ
âBut those ponies werenât caught with a Souvenir from Manehattan hidden under their jacketsâŠâ Scootaloo replied.
âI canât even shoot it!â Babs shouted. âI made a mistake⊠I shouldnât have helped her hidinâ itâŠâ She lowered her head. âWhy are ya accusing me?â
Scootaloo sighed. âI worry about Apple Bloom,â she said. âI⊠I donât want to believe that you did that⊠But if you did⊠What have you done with the gun? You tossed it into the sewer? Unless it falls on the head of that monster from Dr. Stableâs story, somepony will find it. Do you know what Apple Bloom will do when youâre caught again? This time it wonât be a boot camp, Babs.â
Babs was sitting in silence for a while. âYa speak as if the boot camp was easyâŠâ she said eventually.
âThatâs not the point,â Scootaloo interrupted her. She approached Babs, watching her hooves and the knife lying on the nightstand carefully. âListen Babs⊠Have you read the newspapers? There was a pregnant mare with that guy⊠Sheâs in the hospital now; theyâre trying to save her baby.â
âSo?â Babs asked. âIs it my baby? Iâm sorry, Scoots, but Iâm not in a mood to talk. Iâll think about it...â
âWhatâs here to think about?â Scootaloo asked. âYou either did it or not.â
Babs yawned. âIâm tipsy and tired,â she said. âIâll tell ya tomorrow⊠Honestly.â
âYeah, sureâŠâ Scootaloo muttered. She opened the window and flew away.
Babs was lying in the darkness for a few minutes, hoping that she wouldnât come back. She tried to steady her breath, but something was botching her attempts to do so. Finally, she got up from her bed and took her knife. She opened a drawer and took a hoofband from it. She put it on her leg and hid the knife behind it. She looked out of the the window, but Scootaloo wasnât around. The sounds of the party got quieter. Babs opened the door and, walking near the wall and avoiding the creaky boards, went to the stairs. Carefully checking if nopony was around, she trotted downstairs. She picked her jacket and left the house, galloping through the snowy orchard.
Diamond Tiara couldnât sleep. She turned in her bed. The Hearthâs Warming Eve party was over; she lasted only to the moment when the servants announced that Silverspeed arrived. Before Filthy Rich went to greet her and came back to the table, Diamond Tiara was in her room.
âWhy didnât you want to meet my mom?â Silver Spoon asked. She was sitting next to Diamond Tiaraâs bed, patting her mane. âAlso, we didnât stay for dessert.â
âI donât want to see her and you know well why,â Diamond Tiara replied. âShe will never forgive meâŠâ
âYouâll never know if you donât try,â Silver Spoon said. âGo to her and try to talk to herâŠâ
âI donât want to interrupt them,â Diamond Tiara muttered, sinking her face in a pillow. âYour mom and my dad are happy together⊠I think. Iâm like a fifth wheel of a carriage...â
âThat what you think⊠What she tells youâŠâ Silver Spoon whispered into her ear, causing Diamond Tiara to shudder.
âShe doesnât speak to me anymoreâŠâ Diamond Tiara covered her head with a blanket.
âAre you sure?â
Diamond Tiara froze. She looked around. Silver Spoon was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Curtain Call, but Diamond Tiara knew that she was hiding somewhere there. The last words definitely werenât said in Silverâs voice.
She tried to look for her pills, but then she realised that she left them in the kitchen. To retrieve them, sheâd have to walk through the living room, where Filthy Rich and Silverspeed were talking. There were also servants⊠Diamond Tiara didnât want to risk their lives.
She lay back on the bed, trying to calm down. Her muscles started to shiver; she couldnât feel her hooves. She gritted her teeth, trying to focus, but something was still off; the room was spinning around her and her vision was blurring. She didnât want to risk staying at home with all those ponies. She opened the window and pushed herself through it, thinking that it was much easier when she was nine.
She shuddered when her hooves touch the snow. Walking through the garden, she couldnât get rid of an unpleasant thought that this was how it all started â from a walk in the middle of the night, ended with smashing Pipsqueakâs skull with a rock. The hole in the fence was still where it used to be. Diamond somehow managed to get through it and trotted down the street.
Her breath became more steady; her vision sharpened. The droning noise disappeared. Diamond Tiara, however, didnât want to go back home. She decided to take a short walk first, making sure that she was okay. She wandered through the empty streets. The light in some of the houses was still on, despite the late hour.
Diamond Tiara turned into some side street, wondering if her friends were sleeping. Then she caught herself on thinking about them as âfriendsâ.
âMerry Hearthâs Warming Eve!â somepony shouted in a raspy, alcohol-filled voice.
âFor you too!â Diamond Tiara replied, seeing the dark silhouette of a pony emerging from the darkness.
Suddenly, a strong blow to the head caused her to collapse on the snow. Before she could get up, another kick almost rendered her unconscious. Her vision blurred again. Her ears were assaulted with white noise; she wanted to get up and show that pony what fate awaited for those who dared to attack her. However, she could only whimper, when the pony dragged her to a cellar door next to one of the houses.
âYou donât even know how happy I am to meet youâŠâ She heard a voice she recognised as belonging to Cherry Berry; she was now opening the cellar door. âA Hearthâs Warming giftâŠâ
Diamond Tiara wanted to scream, but a kick to the stomach had made her barely able to breathe. Cherry Berry kicked her again, pushing her down the stairs into some dark basement. Then she walked behind her.
âNow youâll feel what Ruby and Berry feltâŠâ Cherry Berry muttered, staggering slightly. She raised her hoof to punch Diamond, when somepony switched on the light in the basement.
Diamond Tiara blinked. The room was full of bags of sugar, boxes of candies, and some barrels and cases. Cherry Berry looked at the other set of stairs, allowing to enter the basement from inside of the house. Bon Bon was walking downstairs. She was wearing her pajamas and a nightcap.
âWhat the fuck are you doing in my basement, Cherry?â Bon Bon asked.
âLanguage, BonnieâŠâ Cherry Berry muttered. âWe have a guestâŠâ
Bon Bon stopped, seeing Diamond Tiara panting on the ground, her coat wet from the snow. Her eyes widened. âWhat have you done, idiot?!â she exclaimed. âAre you crazy?â
âOh, come onâŠâ Cherry Berry hit Diamond Tiara again and pinned her to the ground. âShe killed your sister, remember?â
Bon Bon shuddered. She approached Cherry Berry, trying to pull her away from Diamond Tiara. âKilling her wonât bring Twist back,â she said. âI donât think Twist would want thatâŠâ
âWe donât have to kill herâŠâ said Cherry Berry, placing her hoof on Diamond Tiaraâs neck. âHow about blinding her and breaking her spine? Weâd never have to worry about her anymore.â
Diamond Tiara closed her eyes, trying to hold back tears. She heard someponyâs hoofsteps and thought that Cherry Berry managed to convince Bon Bon. She started to shiver. Deep inside her head, Curtain Call opened her eyes and started to whisper something into her ear.
âCherry, stop it!â Bon Bon shouted. Diamond heard a slap and Bon Bonâs surprised moan. Then she felt that Cherry Berry caught her with her hooves.
âI wonder how youâll like the rest of your life⊠Hmm, maybe I should cut off your tongue too?â Cherry Berry forced Diamond Tiaraâs mouth open. âSitting alone in the darkness for the next sixty yearsâŠâ
Suddenly, her voice changed into gurgling. Diamond Tiara felt that something warm and sticky sprayed on her face before Cherry Berry released her. She screamed, feeling a strange force taking over her body. She opened her eyes and darted forward, tackling Cherry Berry.
She didnât care about the fact that Cherry Berry was now bleeding out from a large wound in her throat. All she wanted to do was to follow Curtain Callâs whispers; to beat, mangle, and kill. Her hooves were hitting Cherry Berryâs face, breaking bones, gouging her eyes, and changing it into unrecognisable pulp.
Babs picked up her knife and turned to Bon Bon, who was cowering on the ground, holding her face with her hooves â a split second after Babs slit Cherryâs throat, she kicked Bon Bon just in case. Now she stood above her, aiming the bloodied knife at her. âI should let Diamond kill ya,â she said. âOr maybe I should blind ya, deafen ya, break your spine, rip your tongue out, and cauterise your cunt? Yaâd still be alive⊠Unable to see or feel, but aliveâŠâ
âNo! Please!â Bon Bon screamed, trying to crawl as far away from Babs as possible. âI didnât want to hurt her!â
âOh really?â Babs asked. âI havenât heard you protesting too much⊠Though I almost got late to the partyâŠâ
Behind her, Diamond Tiara backpedalled from Cherry Berryâs mangled body and sat on the floor, shaken by dry heave.
âPlease!â Bon Bon shouted, trying to hold Babsâ hooves. âI didnât want that!â
Babs sighed. Then she delivered a powerful buck to Bon Bonâs stomach, knocking the wind out of her and causing her to throw up on the floor. She smirked and spat on her. âConsider this your lucky day, cuntâŠâ she muttered and trotted to Diamond, who was staring at her hooves in disbelief.
âBonnie?â they heard a voice from the upstairs.
âShitâŠâ Babs muttered and helped Diamond Tiara get up. âWe need to get outta hereâŠâ
They ran out of the basement and galloped through the town, hiding in some dark nook. Babs took a hoofful of snow and started to wipe blood off of herself and Diamond Tiara. They still needed a bath, but at least the stains werenât as visible as before.
âW-what happened?â Diamond Tiara asked, looking around groggily.
âWe need to run away,â Babs said. âThere should be a night train to Baltimare soonâŠâ
Babs hesitated. She thought about Scootaloo and the bloodied corpse on the basement floor. âNopony would believe it was a self-defenceâŠâ she said. âWeâre unharmed and sheâŠâ She paused, seeing that Diamond Tiara sobbed.
âD-did I kill her?â
Babsâ ears perked up. âYes,â she said quickly. âI heard ya and I wanted to stop it, but ya were already attackinâ herâŠâ
âShh⊠We need to go to the station,â Babs said. âI wonât leave ya. If weâre lucky, they wonât call the guards till they find a better explanation than âwe kidnapped Diamond Tiara and she got crazyâ... Thatâs our chance. Weâll wash ourselves in the bathroom and get on the train⊠Dâya have any money?â
âYesâŠâ Diamond Tiara muttered. âBut I have no medsâŠâ
âDonât worry, Iâll take care of yaâŠâ Babs said. She gave Diamond Tiara her jacket to cover some of the blood stains that didnât want to get off her coat. âLetâs go. We canât stay hereâŠâ
They didnât get to Baltimare. It was Babs who noticed the guards walking towards the train in Hoofington. She woke Diamond Tiara up and before the guards reached their carriage, they left it and hid in the darkness.
The railway station in Hoofington was probably bigger than the town itself. After all, it was the place where tracks from Canterlot were splitting into two lines, one leading to Fillydelphia and the other to Baltimare. Thus, the small town on the eastern border of the Everfree Forest was a hub joining freight and passenger lines of the whole country. Babs, who spent her childhood in Manehattan, found it easy to hide in a maze of side tracks, carriages, and platforms, especially since it started to snow again.
Diamond Tiara, on the other hoof, was trembling â unlike Babs, she had no clothes. She was also off her meds and she couldnât get rid of the memory of Cherry Berry from her mind. Her vision was fuzzy â all she could see was the distant lights of the city and Babs, walking through the snow, uttering curses under her breath.
Diamond Tiara stopped, panting heavily. Just a few minutes ago, pleasant warmth inside of the carriage almost helped her forget about everything and fall asleep, but now she was fully awake. The guards were nowhere to be found, but she know that they were after her. Maybe I should turn myself in? she thought.
âCâmon!â Babs shouted. âWe need to hide somewhere!â
Diamond Tiara ran forward, focusing only on Babs. At least she didnât have to walk through the deep snow, but rather the path made by Babs. When Diamond Tiara realised it, she stopped again. âBabs! Weâre leaving hoofprints!â
âI know, okay?â Babs muttered. âWe need to find some place where thereâs more ponies. Our hoofprints will mix with theirs...â
They resumed walking through the snow, tripping from time to time. It was getting colder; first snowflakes were falling from the sky. Diamond Tiara thought that they were going to cover their hoofprints and started to wonder if the guards had already noticed them. Maybe they had dogs? Then even the snow wouldnât help them.
âI have a feelinâ that weâre gonna feel like at home here...â Babs muttered, stopping.
Diamond Tiara raised her head and stared at some old, abandoned building, made of yellow bricks. There was no door and all the windows were broken. There were some holes in the roof made of tar paper, but it didnât seem like it was going to collapse soon. Diamond Tiara opened her mouth to say something, but couldnât think of right words to describe it.
âWhat?â Babs asked. âWe had a similar warehouse in Manehattan...â
Diamond Tiara followed Babs inside. The interior of the building was littered with rubbish and smelled of urine, but at least it provided a cover against wind and snow. A couple of large, fat cats looked at them with disdain as they trotted to some cleaner spot on the floor and sat there. Babs looked around â among the rubbish there were some charred pieces of wood she could gather to make a bonfire. Diamond Tiara was still shivering, but Babs was worried â what if somepony would see the fire? She went to Diamond Tiara and gave her her jacket.
âThanks,â Diamond muttered. âBut what about you?â
âMeh, Iâm used to cold,â Babs replied. âYa wouldnât believe how cold nights are in the desert... Are you okay?â
âNo.â Diamond Tiara closed her eyes and lowered her head. âI... I killed again... And now we have to run away...â
âDonât worry...â Babs said, wrapping her hooves around Diamond. Her stomach grumbled, but she knew that it had to wait till tomorrow. Another thing was worrying her. âAnd howâs your head? The medicines...â
âI can manage...â Diamond Tiara replied. âBut I donât know how long...â She shuddered, hugging Babs. Soon, she was asleep, breathing calmly.
Babs knew that she wasnât going to do the same. She had plans to make. She had to watch out for the guards.
And, what was even more important, she had to watch out for Diamond Tiara.
âSo, Ms. Bon Bon...â Front Kick looked deeply into Bon Bonâs eyes. âYouâre saying that somepony dumped that body into your basement, right?â
âY-yes,â Bon Bon replied blankly. She was sitting at the table in her kitchen, still shaking despite a cup of tea she had. In the living room, Chocolate Donut was talking with Lyra, while in the basement, Dr. Tulp, who had been woken up only fifteen minutes ago, was examining the body, accompanied by Scootaloo and Archer.
Somepony knocked on the kitchen door. Front Kick sighed and went to open it.
âExcuse me,â Archer said, walking into the kitchen, not even bothering to ask Front Kick for permission. âDr. Tulp said thatââ
âMaybe weâll talk in the hall?â Front Kick said dryly, looking at Bon Bon. Technically she wasnât a suspect, but he didnât want Archer to spill something about the details of the investigation in her presence.
âSo,â Archer said when they went out of the kitchen. âDr. Tulp says that itâs a big load of horseapples...â She looked at Front Kick unsurely. âI mean, he didnât exactly say that... Nevermind. Anyway, me andâ Scootaloo and I checked out the street and there are, like lots of traces there. Mostly Cherry Berryâs, but also some leading from Diamondâs house. I checked that myself. Diamond Tiara went for a walk...â
âTo the point, Archer...â Front Kick muttered.
âOkay...â Archer sighed. âDiamond Tiara was walking here and met Cherry Berry. The snow not far away from here is trampled, but then it looks like somepony dragged something heavy to this basement.â
âSo, Diamond Tiara dragged Cherry Berry here?â Front Kick asked.
âNope!â Archer exclaimed, grinning. âThe hoofprints show that it was Cherry Berry who dragged Diamond Tiara here. Also, Dr. Tulp says that Cherry Berry crushed her hoof while beating somepony.â
âDiamond Tiara was attacked?â Front Kick asked.
âYep. Scootaloo said that Cherry Berry was fuâ I mean, she wasnât happy that Diamond came back here. Then Seed came here... Her trace led us from Sweet Apple Acres, yâknow... Scootaloo was suspecting that she murdered that rich scoundrel in Canterlot and confronted her about it...â
Front Kick raised his eyebrows. âWhat now? Or no, youâll explain it to me later. Tell Scootaloo to stop helping Dr. Tulp. Sheâs Diamond Tiaraâs friend so the lawyers may make problems with that...â
âYes sir!â Archer saluted. âFucking lawyers...â she muttered under her breath.
Front Kick shook his head. Then he remembered that ten years ago, when Diamond Tiara first started to kill ponies, he was quite similar. He sighed and went back to the kitchen. âMs. Bon Bon,â he said. âWould you like to rethink your statement?â
âHeartstrings knows nothing,â Chocolate Donut said. They were back at the station. Archer and Scootaloo were with them, together with Apple Bloom, who was sitting on the chair, her face pale, and silent Filthy Rich, accompanied by Silverspeed. âWhen she woke up it was already over.â
âBon Bon said a few very interesting things about Ms. Cherry Berry...â Front Kick muttered, sighing.
âAh donât understand one thing...â Apple Bloom said. âIf it was self-defence, then where are they now?â
âWe informed guards in Hoofington to look for them on a train,â Front Kick said.
âA train?â Apple Bloom asked. âWhy would they run away?â
âBecause Babs went nuts and killed that guy in Canterlot, thatâs why,â Scootaloo said bitterly. âAnd now sheâs dragging Diamond Tiara with her.â
âWhat?â Apple Bloom asked. âWhy?â
âWe donât know yet,â Front Kick said. âThe guards from Canterlot are looking for anything connecting her to him. But from what Iâve heard, they found the gun in the bat poniesâ district.â
âAhâm gonna kill her...â Apple Bloom muttered. âShe said that she changed...â
âWhatâll happen to Diamond?â Filthy Rich asked, his voice hollow. âD-did she...â
âAgain, we donât know yet,â Front Kick replied. âDr. Tulp has to make an autopsy, the hospital laboratory has to check the blood samples... But it seems that Cherry Berry was killed with a knife, similar to one Babs Seed owns.â
âAnd thatâs the only reason why youâre here,â Chocolate Donut said to Scootaloo. âYou canât help us with the investigation officially, but, after all, you and Archer figured out Babs before the guards from Canterlot did. You know her best... What do you think sheâll do?â
âSheâll try to get to some big town and disappear,â Scootaloo said. âShe wonât ask anypony for help â she doesnât trust anyone. If Diamond Tiara gets in her way, sheâll stab her and dump a body in some ditch...â
Silverspeed cleared her throat. âBut what if Diamond snaps?â she asked. âYou talk about her as if she was innocent, but remember that itâs mostly because of her meds. Does she even have them?â
âNo,â Filthy Rich said. âShe left them at home...â
âIf Diamond snaps, weâll find them even faster...â Front Kick shook his head. âThey need food, shelter... Even if they get to Baltimare, I doubt any of them have friends there or knows the town...â
It was an early morning. Citizens of Hoofington were still sleeping after the Hearthâs Warming Eve. Babs looked behind the corner and, finding that nopony was there, she trotted through the street. âStay there,â she muttered to Diamond Tiara. âIâll be right back...â
She looked at a sign above the door of the building in front of her. âDaktariâs Potions and Remediesâ. She started to wonder if, apart from zebra medicines, they had something more conventional.
Diamond Tiara sat in the nook and rubbed her temples. She sneezed â even though Babs had warmed her with her own body, she caught cold.
âBless you,â Silver Spoon said. She had a blue scarf around her neck and Diamond Tiara smirked, seeing that her friend was better prepared for winter than she was. Curtain Call was with her, dressed in a red coat that was clashing with her orange mane. She watched Babs as she was checking out the shops.
âI donât like it,â Curtain Call said. âI donât like Seed. She has a knife and she killed that bitch.â
âShe saved us,â Silver Spoon observed. âIf it wasnât for her, Cherry Berry would kill us and Bon Bon would make candies of us.â
âBon Bon doesnât make candies of foals,â Diamond Tiara said. âShe only looks like that.â
âWe wanted to kill Cherry Berry ourselves,â Curtain Call whined. âAnd then weâd feed that other bitchâs liver to her. And Seed let her live.â She spat on the snow. âWe should kill her before she kills us...â
âNot so fast,â Silver Spoon said. âShe saved us! We canât kill her like that... We should vote, or something...â
âDid I tell you why I donât like democracy?â Curtain Call asked. âOkay, I didnât, since we havenât had an occasion to talk... But anyway, before we decide, weâll wake up with Seedâs knife between our ribs.â
âShut up, both of you!â Diamond Tiara shouted. âWeâre not voting anything. Iâm not gonna kill her.â
âWhy not?â Curtain Call asked.
âExactly!â Silver Spoon added. âWho gave you the right to be in charge here?â
Diamond Tiara sighed and rolled her eyes. âThatâs because itâs my body and you two are just... just...â
âWhat?â Curtain Call asked, leaning closer to Diamond Tiara. âWhat we are?â
âYouâre just...â Diamond Tiara tried to remember what she wanted to say, but for some reason her mind didnât want to work the way she wanted it to.
âSee?â Silver Spoon asked. âWeâre in charge of your body in the same way as you are. So stop telling us what to do!â
âI think itâs time for me to rule for a while,â Curtain Call said to Diamond Tiara. âThough I must admit youâll be useful... Weâll kill Seed... eventually. Now she sees it coming.â
âI watched her when you slept,â Silver Spoon said. âShe was watching us with her hoof on a knife. We need to make her think weâre not with you. Then weâll kill her.â
âSheâs useful for now,â Curtain Call observed, watching if Babs wasnât coming back. âShe knows where to find food and how to avoid guards... But once she outlives her usefulness...â She made a gesture as if she was cutting her own throat.
âAnd then weâll finish off Scootaloo...â Silver Spoon laughed.
âDiamond?â
Diamond Tiara looked around nervously, before her eyes rested on Babs. She was carrying a red coat, very similar to the one Curtain Call was wearing, and some canned hay, bread, and cheese.
âThe pharmacy here doesnât have your meds,â Babs said. âI broke into a grocery. And I think this may be good for ya...â She gave Diamond the coat. âWill ya manage to not kill me for a few more days?â
Scootaloo cursed under her breath and went back to the large pile of the photos. Since she and Archer were Diamond Tiaraâs neighbours, they couldnât help in investigation. However, Chocolate Donut had a task for them. He gave them Featherweightâs photos and told them to look at them and note everything theyâd find suspicious.
âHey, he even had photos from the races!â Archer exclaimed. âRumble, Tornado Bolt... And here, the Wonderbolts during a training...â
âArcher...â Scootaloo shook her head. âWeâre supposed to look for clues, not the Wonderboltsâ photos...â
âI know,â Archer replied. âBy the way, it seems that he wasnât into sport. There are only a few photos of the Wonderbolts...â She sighed. âThe rest are from some parties, meetings, and celebrations. Boring.â
âYou donât say...â Scootaloo muttered. She flipped through the photos Archer threw on the desk. Indeed, Rumble was there, taking a sharp turn. Next to him, Tornado Bolt was trying to overtake him. Scootaloo felt a pang of jealousy. If she was faster, maybe sheâd try to become a Wonderbolt too?
She put the photos back and took another stash. This time, they were pictures from some gig. Most of them were depicting the crowd, though Featherweight had apparently tried to capture the stage. However, the last photo was different: it was overexposed, and Scootaloo could barely recognise some corridor and silhouettes of two ponies on the other end of it.
Archer looked at the photo above Scootalooâs shoulder. âSeems that he screwed it up...â she muttered.
Scootaloo looked at the photo more exactly. âOr maybe... The killer tried to destroy the film, but this photo survived?â
Archer scratched her mane. âItâd be easier if we knew whoâs in it,â she said. âFor me, it may even be Princess Celestia and that guy who sells donuts on our street...â
âOne of them seems to have wings,â Scootaloo muttered. âMaybe both of them...â She threw a photo back on the desk. âIâm not sure... Maybe itâs just an ordinary photo?â
âStill, itâs better than nothing...â Archer said, eyeing the empty kettle on the desk. âMaybe Iâll make more coffee?â
Scootaloo only nodded, coming back to looking at the photos.
âTheyâre not gonna come back here...â Front Kick muttered, looking at the old warehouse next to the railway station in Hoofington. âSeed is too clever for that.â
âStill, the local guys keep an eye on that place,â Chocolate Donut said. âThey also said that in the morning after the Hearthâs Warming Eve somepony broke into a pharmacy and grocery store. The hoofprints are similar to Seedâs.â
âThey couldnât run away too far...â Front Kick said. âTheyâre getting desperate. Sooner or later somepony will catch them trying to find food.â
Chocolate Donut shook his head. âI wouldnât wait for that, boss,â he said. âSeed has a knife and, since the pharmacist said that the only thing that was stolen from him was the money, Diamond Tiara is still off her meds.â
âSo, soon we may find them both...â Front Kick winced.
Another guard approached them. âWeâre checking all the freight trains,â he said. âWe think they could hide in one of the carriages since we observe the passenger ones. Weâre also looking for them in the town.â
Front Kick nodded. Even though Hoofington wasnât much bigger than Ponyville, it had much more guards. The large amount of passengers and goods travelling through it attracted thieves. âAnd what if they get out?â he asked.
âWell, there arenât many places where they may go,â the guard replied. âThey wonât go back to Ponyville or Canterlot; their only choices are Fillydelphia and Baltimare on the east, Dodge Junction on the south, and Hollow Shades on the north.â
âI donât think theyâd choose Hollow Shades,â Chocolate Donut said. âIf they wanted to go there by hoof, theyâd have to cross the mountains. Also, theyâd be too visible in a town where everypony has fangs and a pair of wings...â
âExactly,â Front Kick said. âThat leaves three towns. Four, if we assume that they may come back to Canterlot, hoping that we wonât look for them there... Letâs go to the station. We need to inform the guards everywhere...â
The sun was slowly setting behind the horizon. Babs stood on the pier and looked at the rusty steamboat. According to the boards on its side, it was named âRotten Herringâ and its owners were Fritter, Fritter, and Lulamoon. Babs smirked. Lulamoon and both Fritters either had a peculiar sense of humour, or no delusions about the condition of their ship.
âDo you think itâs safe?â Diamond Tiara asked. Babs looked at her. For the whole day, Diamond Tiara didnât say a word. Even when Babs told her that they couldnât go back to the warehouse.
âIt shouldnât sink,â Babs replied. âBesides, weâre not gonna stay on it for long. It goes to Baltimare, but once we see the forest on the both banks of the river, weâll leave it and go south to Dodge Junction. Weâll stay there till Spring, maybe longer...â
Diamond Tiara nodded. âHow are we going to leave it?â
âMost of the river is covered in ice, except of the path made by the icebreakers,â Babs muttered. âIf we manage to leave the boat unseen...â
Diamond Tiara had no further questions. They trotted through the pier, hiding behind some crates waiting to be loaded. The snow there was almost black; even the air seemed to be filled with soot, making it hard to breathe. Babs stopped and caught Diamond before she walked past her. She put her hoof on her mouth and pointed at the griffon pacing on the deck and smoking a cigarette. The very sight made Babs want to smoke again. They waited till the griffon threw the butt of the cigarette into the river and went under the deck. Then they approached the ship and quickly trotted through the gangplank.
âWhat now?â Diamond Tiara whispered. âShe may come back...â
âFollow me...â Babs rushed to the stern of the ship. There was an open trapdoor there, leading to the coal storage. She looked into it, closed her eyes and jumped on the large hill of coal, hoping that Diamond Tiara listened to her. .
The landing on the coal was harder than Babs thought. She rolled from the pile, muttering curses under her breath. She opened her eyes and saw Diamond Tiara, her red coat now dirty and ragged. They stood up and trotted deeper into the dark, interior of the boat. It smelled of steam, hot iron and wood â the shipâs main cargo.
âWeâll stay here,â Babs muttered, sitting between two heaps of wood. âI donât think somepony ever checks it out...â
Diamond Tiara sat next to her, her eyes half-closed. She lowered her head, hiding her face in her hooves.
âWhat do they say?â Babs asked.
âW-what?â Diamond Tiaraâs eyes shot open. She looked around nervously.
âI can see whatâs going on with ya...â Babs muttered. âOnce, my friend, White Dove, ate some mushrooms and she spent the night walking like a zombie, mutterinâ somethinâ to herself. while I was lookinâ after her. Ya look pretty much the same.â
âWell...â Diamond muttered. âNothing in particular. Thereâs just Silver here... She seems to be enjoying it... I donât.â
âYeah...â Babs said.
âWhat happened to your friend?â Diamond Tiara asked.
âShe was okay,â Babs replied, shuddering. âThat is...â
âWhat?â
âSheâs dead,â Babs said, her head drooping. âCan I leave ya here for a moment?â she asked. âI wanna take a walk...â
âSure,â Diamond replied. âIâm gonna go to sleep anyway...â
Babs nodded and disappeared between the stacks of wood. Diamond Tiara looked blankly at the wall.
âYou couldâve mentioned something about me,â Curtain Call said, shaking her head.
Diamond Tiara said nothing. She closed her eyes and lay on the floor, curled in a fetal position under her coat.
âSheâs tired,â Silver Spoon said. âGive her a break, Curtain.â
âYeah...â Curtain Call muttered. âThough itâs no use. Soon theyâll turn the engine on and this whole place will be so loud theyâre never gonna sleep...â
âYou donât say!â Curtain Call exclaimed. âIt wonât last long... Once weâre safe in the desert...â
Silver Spoon nodded, grinning maliciously. However, her expression softened when she looked at sleeping Diamond Tiara. She lay down next to her, nuzzling her gently.
âGoodnight,â she muttered.
The roar of the engine deafened Babs. She stayed in the shadows next to the boiler room. She took off her jacket and wiped sweat from her forehead. She could see the reflections of the fire; a couple of dark silhouettes were running in the hot, smoky room with shovels.
Babs yawned. Despite the noise, she wanted to go to sleep right there. However, she couldnât stop thinking about Diamond Tiara.
It wasnât a crush. Diamond Tiara definitely wasnât Babsâ type, not to mention that, as far as Babs knew, she wouldnât be interested. It was similar to what Babs felt towards White Dove, at least before the young filly went too far in her admiration: care, compassion, a kind of a link usually connecting a mother with her daughter.
Babs slammed her forehead with her hoof. Iâd be a bad mother... she thought. Not that Diamond is a good daughter, but Iâm even worse...
Suddenly, she heard some noise behind her. Before she managed to turn around, somepony grabbed her and pushed her at the wall. She tried to fight back, but the assailantâs hooves clenched on her throat.
âWhat are ya doinâ âere?â The voice was a husky whisper, but it definitely belonged to a mare. Her accent reminded Babs about Carnation, causing her to shiver despite the high temperature. Even though her eyes were wet from the smoke, she saw the attackerâs wings. She started to wonder what the pegasus was doing in such a claustrophobic place.
âI... I just...â
âItâs you!â the mare whispered, her accent suddenly disappearing. She pulled Babs further into the dark corridor and released her.
âSeed! What the fuck are you doing here?â
Babs blinked, looking at the pegasus mare. She was skinny, yet muscular. Her mane was cropped short and her fur was covered in soot, making it hard to guess not only its original colour, but also the mareâs cutie mark. Her wings didnât look healthy: some of the feathers were missing; they were also covered in burns and Babs thought that she had to constantly hit the pipes with them. Yet, something about her seemed familiar.
âLightning Duââ
âShh!â Lightning Dust silenced her. âIn case you donât know, Iâm Feather Duster now.â
âFeather Duster? Really?â Babs shook her head.
âShut up!â Lightning Dust hissed. âWhat are you doing here?â
âI... Iâm running away...â
Lightning Dustâs hooves started to shake. âRunning away! If the mafia got me as I expected, Iâd be turning in my grave like a fucking paddlewheel! What the fuck have you done again?â
âI killed the guy because of whom I got raped,â Babs replied. Seeing that Lightning Dust was about to snap again, she added, âAnd one crazy mare, but I was savinâ Diamond Tiara from her! Diamondâs with me, by the way...â
âYou in a nutshell...â Lightning Dust rolled her eyes. âI kill a guy to save your flank, pretend to be a retarded stoker for three years, and what has it taught you? Fucking nothing, thatâs what...â
âBâ but...â Babs sobbed. âI tried... I really tried... But even my parents donât want to see me anymore...â
âFrankly, Iâm not surprised,â Lightning Dust deadpanned. She noticed the tears on Babsâ soot-stained face and sighed. âListen, I donât give a fuck what youâre doing here. For me, you can even take over this barge and go to Zebrica. Just... Just donât pull any stunts again, okay?â
âWeâll leave the ship soon,â Babs said. âI... Iâm sorry, Dust. I didnât want to...â
âYeah. It just happened,â Lightning Dust muttered. âWhere do you hide? In the cargo hold?â
Babs nodded.
âWatch out for Gilda,â Lightning Dust said. âShe sometimes takes a walk around the ship, looking for thieves.â
She turned around when Babs disappeared behind a pile of coal. A griffon Babs had seen earlier approached Lightning Dust, frowning.
âWhat the fuck are you doing here, dweeb?â she asked. âGet your sorry ass back to work!â
âTakinâ a leak, maâam,â Lightning Dust replied in a slow, slightly slurred voice. âI wanted to do dat in da boilinâ room but da guys say I smell...â
âFeather Duster, huh?â Gilda asked. âBad news: theyâre right. Iâd tell you to use the toilet like the rest of those idiots, but I guess you donât even know where it is.â
âNope,â Lightning Dust said. âMommy said I ainât smart...â
âYeah...â Gilda rolled her eyes. âItâs a mystery to me how you even learned to talk, retard... Get back to work, or I will do what your parents should have done when you were born: put you in a bag with a couple of bricks and throw you into the river.â With these words, she turned back and went to the stairs.
âYes, maâam!â Lightning Dust exclaimed. âIâll snap your neck one day, bitch,â she whispered, before turning to Babs, âSee? Thatâs how my life looks like since I started to help you... Babs?â
She looked behind the pile of coal, only to find out that Babs had already been gone.
Scootalooâs eyes shot open. For a moment, she was looking at the ceiling, trying to remember where she was. Then she realised that she was sleeping on a mattress at Sweet Apple Acres. She started to regret that Rumble wasnât with her.
She tried to remember the dream she had. It was somehow connected with Featherweightâs photos â not surprising, since sheâd spent most of the day looking at them. All she could recall was the overexposed one, with two ponies standing next to each other in some corridor. Maybe that was it? Scootaloo wasnât sure, but something was telling her that it could be it. She turned in her bed, trying to fall asleep, but the caffeine was still buzzing in her veins. Archerâs cooking could be considered a murder attempt, but when she made coffee, she made it to twist the parts of the brain Scootaloo had no idea existed.
Her mind started to work faster. She remembered some small events, pieces of the bigger puzzle. Many elements were still missing, but she could already guess what the picture would be and she didnât like it. She focused on the photo and thought about Archer. Again, sheâd have to ask her for a favour.
She started to wonder how to do that. The atmosphere since Babsâ escape was rather bad; Apple Bloom was walking like a hungry tiger in a cage, ready to snap at anyone. Applejack was similar, though she was able to control it better. Sweetie and Button had an argument right after the Hearthâs Warming Eve and Scootaloo had a feeling that Babs was only one of the reasons for it.
She thought about Archer. With her greatest talent being making herself easy to ignore by other ponies, she was perfect at finding useful pieces of information. Just what Scootaloo needed to fill in the gaps. She closed her eyes, her plan ready, hidden safe and sound in the depths of her mind.
Scootaloo wanted to smile. Yet, something was preventing her from doing that.
The clerk in the Hoofington portâs office was an old mare sitting at her desk in the middle of a small, comfy office littered with papers. Front Kick sat on the chair in front of her. âGood morning,â he said. âMy nameâs Front Kick, from Ponyville Royal Guard. Weâre looking for two suspects who may have hidden in one of the boats. I need to know if there were any, umm... incidents recently.â
âWell,â the clerk said. âWinter is a rather slow season for us. Just icebreakers and one boat with firewood to Baltimare, just yesterday.â
âBaltimare, you say?â Front Kick asked. âDid it come back?â
âNot yet,â the clerk replied. âAccording to the schedule, itâll come back tomorrow.â
Front Kick nodded. âWhoâs its owner?â
âLet me see...â The clerk took a large book and opened it, looking for something. âIts name is âRotten Herringâ and its owners are Apple Fritter, Lavender Fritter, and Trixie Lulamoon.â
âThank you,â Front Kick said. âIf we need something more, weâll contact you...â He stood up and left the office.
âI checked the owners, boss,â Chocolate Donut said.
They were sitting in the cafeteria in the Royal Guard station in Hoofington. When Front Kick was looking at the modern building, he couldnât get rid of a memory of the station in Ponyville, an old, smelly building with furniture remembering times when he and Riot Control were looking for the mysterious Sleepless Killer. This has to change, he thought.
âApple Fritter and Lavender Fritter are sisters. Ex-farmers, theyâve never been accused of anything. Trixie Lulamoon used to be a travelling magician. I think you remember her, boss...â He gave Front Kick a piece of paper with a mugshot of a unicorn mare.
âCharged with assault, casting dangerous spells, and kidnapping the whole town.â Front Kick nodded. âReleased, since she was under the influence of the Alicorn Amulet. Princess Twilight Sparkle herself testified that...â
âThey settled in Hoofington, since itâs Lulamoonâs birthplace, bought that old piece of junk three years ago, and ship goods to Baltimare and back,â Chocolate Donut explained. âNo drugs, no smuggling, all the papers in order. They hire a captain, a pilot, three ponies to carry all the stuff, three stokers and a griffon bodyguard. I checked her. Two years in jail for assault and battery. Do you think Seed could know her?â
âWeâll see,â Front Kick replied. âOur friends in Baltimare were informed to check that boat. Once itâs back, weâll interrogate the crew. By then, weâll talk with the owners â maybe they know if one of their workers used to live in Manehattan?â
âIâll check it,â Chocolate Donut said. âDo I have to talk with all of them?â
âNo, one will do... But not Lulamoon â she knows how to talk with the guards...â
The first days after Hearthâs Warming Eve were rather slow and Button Mash hoped that heâd be able to catch some zâs while pretending to work at his shop with comics, action figures, and role-playing games. Most of the ponies who were interested in those already got what they wanted and were home, enjoying their newly-acquired gadgets. Unfortunately for him, just when he arranged the items on the counter in such a way that he couldnât be seen by the clients and sat in his armchair, the door opened.
âHow can I help you?â he asked automatically, getting up. At first he didnât notice anypony in sight. Then, a blue earth mare appeared next to him, startling him.
âYes,â Archer replied. âYou know, Iâve heard from Scootaloo that you have a shop here and I wanted to check it out.â She smiled. âAnd Iâm looking for some nerf crossbows. Scootalooâs getting pissed when I shoot crossbow at home, you know...â
âI can imagine,â Button muttered. âWe have some right there.â He pointed at the shelf.
For about ten minutes, Archer was checking out various crossbows. Button decided to go back to his armchair, but when a foam bolt whistled past his head and knocked the Mane-iac plushie off the counter, he suddenly felt more awake.
âIâll take this one,â Archer said, walking to the counter. âBy the way, howâs Sweetie? Havenât seen her in a while.â
âSweetie?â Button asked. âSheâs... okay, I think. Sheâs going to be recording her new album soon.â
Archer nodded. âYeah, long distance relationships suck...â she muttered. âHad a guy in Vanhoover, you know. Once I got a bit drunk with some cute, little painter... Canterlotâs full of those. She wanted to show me her pictures. Didnât get shit from them, but... Well, you may guess what happened...â Archer chuckled. âTurned out, she lived in Vanhoover earlier. Had a painting of my coltfriend in her kitchen. Found it while making pancakes in the morning... Can you believe that?â
âWell... Thatâs an interesting coincidence,â Button muttered, looking around as if he was looking for an escape route. âSweetie and I...â
âSweetie and you what?â Archerâs ears perked up. âYou know, I broke up with my coltfriend right after that. With her... well, three months later.â
âN-nothing,â Button replied. âWeâre fine, thanks. Thatâll be forty bits.â
âThanks,â Archer said, resting her hooves on the counter and getting close to Button. âAnd one more thing... How often do you see each other? I was visiting my coltfriend every month, but it seems it was too rare...â
âWell, I only see Sweetie when sheâs in Ponyville,â Button replied. âI donât really go to her shows... I have to work, you know...â
âYeah... Too bad,â Archer said. âSee you, Button.â She put the crossbow in her saddlebags and trotted out of the shop before Button could say anything.
Scootaloo landed in front of Carousel Boutique and stretched her wings. Even though she loved flying, cold days like that one were discouraging her from it. She trotted to the door and entered the boutique, taking off her aviator hat. For a moment, she thought that sheâd have to give it back to Archer one day.
âHello, Scootaloo,â Rarity said. âWhat do you have there?â She winced. âYou know, if you want some new cap, I can make it for you. This is just...â
âNo, thanks,â Scootaloo interrupted her. âItâs not even mine. And I really like it...â
âItâs impossible that you donât have your own cap!â Rarity exclaimed. âIt canât be like that...â
âI just wanted to talk to Sweetie Belle,â Scootaloo said. In fact, she had quite a few winter caps. Sheâd simply borrowed Archerâs aviator hat once and never gave it back. Archer never protested anyway.
âSweetieâs upstairs,â Rarity said. âSheâs preparing to leave.â
âOkay, thanks.â Scootaloo trotted past Rarity and went up the stairs. She stood in front of Sweetieâs room door and knocked.
The door opened, revealing a room littered with dresses, coats, scarves, sheet music, and various other items. In the middle of it stood a large travel bag. Sweetie Belle was standing behind it, looking at the mess in her room. âSorry,â she muttered. âIt fell when I used my magic to open the door.â
âNo problem,â Scootaloo said, entering the room and trying carefully to avoid stepping on something. Sweetie levitated some heavy box that flew past Scootalooâs head and landed in the travel bag. âGeez, it seems like forever since weâd last met and now weâre going to part again...â
âYeah,â Sweetie muttered. âI barely see you... or Button, for that matter.â
âReally?â Scootaloo asked. âI thought he visits you when youâre on tour... I think I saw a photo...â
âWhat photo?â Sweetie turned to Scootaloo. Her magic faltered and a dress almost slipped from its grasp.
âOf you and Button, after some show,â Scootaloo replied, smiling innocently.
âOh yeah, that one.â Sweetie nodded. âIn the corridor leading to a backstage? Yes... That was the only time he saw me singing...â
âToo bad he doesnât have more time...â Scootaloo said. âRumble at least visits Canterlot quite often...â
Sweetie looked at the mess in her room. âSorry, Scootaloo, but I really have to pack it all... But Iâll go to Sweet Apple Acres later and weâll talk more before I leave...â
âOkay, no problem,â Scootaloo said and left the room.
Before she left Carousel Boutique, Rarity gave her a really nice wooly cap.
Apple Fritterâs carriage arrived at the Royal Guard station in Hoofington exactly at half past three. Looking through the window, Front Kick saw two almost identical yellow mares. One of them, with a green mane, talked for a moment with the second, whose mane was lavender, and trotted to the building. Apparently she told her sister not to wait for her, since the carriage rode away.
Two minutes later, Apple Fritter was in the office the commander of the local guards lent to Front Kick. âGood afternoon,â she said, looking around nervously. âDid ya call me?â
âPlease, sit down, Ms. Fritter.â Front Kick pointed at the chair. âI wanted to ask if you havenât seen anything strange while checking the boat before it left to Baltimare?â
âAh havenât checked it,â Apple Fritter replied. âWe trust our crew in that matter. Maybe Trixie did it, since she stayed in Hoofington during Hearthâs Warming Eve. Lavender and Ah spent it with our family in Ponyville.â She sighed. âNot the best Hearthâs Warming Ah remember. My cousin apparently murdered somepony...â
âWait... Babs Seed is your cousin?â Front Kick looked at Apple Fritter more carefully. He realised that Apple Fritterâs country accent indeed was similar to Applejackâs, though a certain Hoofington drawl could be heard in her voice.
âYeah... Weâre second cousins once removed,â Apple Fritter replied. Seeing his expression, she continued, âThat is, Iâm the granddaughter of Granny Smithâs brother. Babsâ father, Apple Seed, is my second cousin.â
Front Kick decided not to delve into it. âHave you... seen her after the murder?â he asked.
âWhat?â Apple Fritter exclaimed. âAhâm not like that. Ahâd never help her. Ah barely ever seen her, yâknow.â She leaned closer to Front Kick. âJust between ya and me, Ah always knew sheâd end up like that. Tangerineâs blood. Itâs Babsâ mother... Looks the same, talks the same... Raised both kids to be spoiled biâ brats.â
âWeâll check that,â Front Kick said dryly. âCan you tell me something about the crew? Iâve heard that one of them was in jail...â
âAh still canât understand why Granny liked Tangerine so much...â Apple Fritter muttered. âThe crew? No, Gildaâs good... for a griffon, of course. Ah personally chose every single worker... Except of Feather Duster. Itâs some relative of Trixieâs... Poor girl... Sheâs over thirty and she wouldnât find her way outta paper bag.â
Front Kick nodded. âWeâll talk with them once theyâre back,â he said. âUntil then, I want you and your sister to not leave the town...â
First thing Scootaloo noticed after landing in the snowy orchard was a snowpony standing next to an apple tree. At the first glance, it looked like a normal snowpony. However, when Scootaloo came closer, she saw a piece of paper pinned to its side, with âTotally Innocent Bystanderâ written on it in a messy hoofwriting.
âYouâd better move outta here, cousin...â Archerâs voice was coming from behind her. Scootaloo took off, deciding that watching the scene from above would be safer.
Apple Bloom jumped from behind an apple tree with a stick in her hooves. She stood on her hind legs, aiming the stick at the snowpony.
A foam bolt flew between the snowponyâs ears and hit Apple Bloomâs chest, causing her to lose balance and fall on her rump. Archer spat the nerf crossbow out and laughed.
âIâd watch out,â Scootaloo said, when Apple Bloom got up and joined them, laughing. âOne day youâll aim too low and your Totally Innocent Bystander will become Totally Dead Bystander...â
âBut itâs not this day!â Archer exclaimed, picking up her crossbow. âHow was Sweetie Belle?â
âSheâs packing her stuff,â Scootaloo replied, looking at Apple Bloom unsurely. âWhatâs for supper?â
âYa want to eat supper already?â Apple Bloom asked. âArcher wanted to show me how to shoot a snowball off my head...â
Scootaloo shook her head. âArcher, didnât you hear that those toys are for foals who are older than three?â
âYouâre no fun, Scootaloo...â Archer chuckled. Scootaloo, however, noticed that her eyes focused on her and her muscles tensed.
âWell, my sense of humour was brutally murdered with your casserole...â She paused seeing that Apple Bloom froze. âWhatâs wrong?â
âBabs,â Archer replied.
Apple Bloom nodded. âAh still canât believe she did that... She knew sheâd go to jail for that... And still...â
âWe canât understand that either,â Scootaloo said. âBut she canât hide for long... Soon weâll catch her...â
âYeah...â Archer muttered. She gave Scootaloo a meaningful glare and looked at her crossbow. âYou know, AB, if weâre gonna shoot the snowball off your head, youâll need some glasses or something... You know, itâs all fun and games till somepony loses eye...â
âAh have goggles in my room,â Apple Bloom said. âAh can look for âem.â
âThatâd be great,â Archer replied. When Apple Bloom went to the farmhouse, Archer went closer to Scootaloo. âHow was Sweetie?â she asked.
âStrange,â Scootaloo said. âAt first she didnât know about any photo, but when I said that it was Button with her, she quickly said that it was the only her show Button attended.â
âThatâs indeed strange.â Archer scratched her head with a crossbow. âBecause the cutie says that heâs never been to any of her gigs. Also, I had a feeling that he felt uncomfortable around me...â
âArcher...â Scootaloo shook her head. âEverypony feels uncomfortable around you... Especially Button.â
âHey, I was nice to him!â Archer exclaimed. âHe seemed more uncomfortable than usual. Reacted poorly to long-distance relationships. If you ask me, Iâd say that there was somepony aside from his Daring Do in her Crystal Cave, if you catch my drift.â
Scootaloo winced, which convinced Archer that she caught her drift. âAre you sure? You know... I donât feel comfortable thinking that about my friend...â
âOur deduction says so,â Archer replied. âSeems that Apple Bloomâs coming... Donât you want to shoot it?â She raised her crossbow.
Scootaloo smirked, for a moment forgetting about Button and Sweetie. âSure...â
Chocolate Donut looked at the griffon in front of him unsurely. He had nothing against griffons, but he felt that any jury would imprison her for ten years for her expression alone. She glared at him angrily and lit up a cigarette. âYou donât mind,â she stated rather than asked.
âMs. Gilda, right?â he asked.
âYeah,â Gilda replied, blowing smoke into his face. âWhat do you want?â
âDo you know a pony called Babs Seed?â Chocolate Donut asked, trying not to cough.
âWho? Never heard of her. Maybe she was in jail with me?â Gilda shrugged. âNo idea. All those cunts there were the same. I donât remember their names.â
âShe killed at least two ponies in Ponyville and Canterlot.â Chocolate Donut showed a photo of Babs Seed and Diamond Tiara to Gilda. âThey may travel together. Have you seen them?â
âThis little shit looks familiar...â Gilda muttered, looking at Babs' photo. âManehattan, three years ago. I had nothing to do with what was going on there at that time, by the way. I ran away from there after my friends disappeared and then pigs shot my cousin. She was on the news. Never seen her, though.â
âHow about the other one?â Chocolate Donut asked.
Gilda inhaled the smoke, tossed the cigarette butt into the water, and looked at Diamond Tiaraâs photo. âNo idea.â
âOkay... Have you seen anything strange on your way to Baltimare?â
âNothing stranger than a burst pipe. Also, that retard, Feather Duster was going bonkers. She disappeared on the way back here,â Gilda said. âI still donât know what to say to the boss. She liked that shithead.â
âOne of the stokers,â Gilda replied, rolling her eyes. âA dirty, drooling moron who couldnât even manage to get to the toilet in time. Only thing she was good at was shoveling the coal.â She shook her head. âTo think about it, she seemed to be afraid of you guys. But who knows what was going on in her brain... I think she went out at night to have a wank and drowned. We wanted to call you just after reaching Hoofington, but you came to us first.â
âThank you,â Chocolate Donut said. âDonât leave town until we check that.â
Gilda whispered something that sounded like âfuck youâ and flew away without even looking at him again. Chocolate Donut only shrugged and left the boat to tell Front Kick about what heâd learned.
âWell, I kinda didnât think this through...â Babs muttered, looking through the porthole at the forest on the right bank of the river. According to her plan, they were supposed to leave the boat as soon as sheâd see it, but it was harder than she initially thought. Sure, there river was mostly covered in ice, except of a path made by the icebreakers, but still it meant that sheâd either land in the cold water or on ice that could snap under her weight. The steamboat was moving slowly, taking them further from Dodge Junction.
âWhat are we gonna do?â Diamond Tiara asked. âAre we going to Baltimare?â
âOf course not,â Babs replied. âThe guards will be already waitinâ for us there...â
âHow about snapping her neck and telling the guards that she kidnapped us?â Curtain Call whispered into Diamond Tiaraâs ear. âShe has no idea what to do...â
âAll we have to do is to stop this ship, even for a brief moment,â Babs said. âIâll talk to Dust...â
âYeah, because sheâll totally help us,â Curtain Call muttered.
âShut up,â Diamond Tiara hissed.
âWhat?â Babs asked.
âNot you,â Diamond Tiara replied, trying to tune Curtain Call and Silver Spoon out. âItâs just...â
âWhat does she say?â Babs looked at Diamond Tiara unsurely. âYa still donât have your meds... And I doubt they have âem in Dodge Junction...â
âDonât worry, Iâm not gonna kill you.â
Babs shook her head. âI think I have an idea,â she said. âWait for me and donât go anywhere. Iâll be right back.â
She listened for a moment if nopony walked to them and trotted down the narrow path leading to the boiling room. The roar of the engine and the hissing of steam was deafening. Babs was staggering â she hadnât had a proper sleep since theyâd left Ponyville. It was hard to fall asleep when Diamond Tiara was around â at first, Babs could occasionally hear her talking with somepony invisible. Then, Diamond noticed that Babs was listening to her and since then she started to hide that from her, which only made Babs more suspicious.
Babs blinked and wiped sweat from her forehead. The innards of the ship were a dark maze of rusty pipes, broken cogwheels, valves and other junk. Babs could already hear the shouts of the stokers. She knew that Lightning Dust was there, but she also knew that the pegasus wouldnât help her. She didnât tell anypony about them, but Babs was sure that she reached the limits of her kindness.
A jolt of pain woke her up. She realised that sheâd knocked her head against a low-hanging pipe. Her forehead started to itch and she realised that a patch of her fur was now slightly charred.
An idea appeared in Babsâ mind. She looked at the floor, littered with various pieces of scrap metal and other equipment. There was even a piece of rope there â Babs took it with her, since jumping from the deck of the ship on the ice wasnât something sheâd like to try. She was, however, looking for something else.
Finally, she found it â a spare piece of pipe, lying forgotten on the floor. She picked it up and hit it against the large, low-hanging pipe, the sound drowning in the roaring of the engine.
Nothing happened. Babs groaned and looked at the pipe more exactly, looking for weakened, rusty spots. She then stood on her hind legs, and hit the pipe, using her own weight to make a blow stronger.
She backpedalled when the hot steam bursted into her face. Its pressure made the hole bigger and soon the whole place was filled with the vapour. Babs cursed under her breath, rubbing her face and trying to see something. Tripping over the garbage, she retreated to the corridor leading to the cargo hold. She heard that the engine slowed down and the stokersâ rapid hoofsteps.
Babs turned back and sprinted to Diamond Tiara, who was sitting hidden behind a stack of wood, just as sheâd left her. âLetâs go!â she exclaimed. âWe have to run before they get whatâs goinâ on!â
Diamond Tiara looked at her and gasped. âBabs! Is everything okay?â
Babs felt that her face was itching. She blinked â while her eyes were intact, she felt that her eyelids had suffered much from the burns. She clenched her teeth, trying not to cry. âIâm okay,â she muttered. âLetâs go!â
They galloped to the ladder and climbed on the deck. Babs noticed that the paddlewheels stopped and there was nopony there. She took the rope and tied it to the railing, realising that it was too short â they could only climb halfway down the shipâs starboard, then theyâd have to jump.
âGo,â Babs muttered, looking around. âIâll keep an eye on the crew...â She took her knife from her pocket. She hissed, feeling the cold breeze on her burned face.
Diamond Tiara caught the rope and closed her eyes, sliding down. She reached the end of the rope, pushed herself off of the side of the ship and released the rope.
Her back hit the ice, knocking the wind out of her. She heard a crack and wanted to get up to her hooves, when she felt as if somepony touched her back.
âCrawl,â Silver Spoon muttered. âRemember what Ms. Cheerilee told us about ice breaking under a ponyâs weight?â
Diamond Tiara didnât remember that, but since Silver Spoon knew about that, it meant that this information was hidden somewhere in her brain. She took a look at the ship â even though its engine had been disabled, it was still going with the flow while Babs was struggling with the rope. Diamond Tiara didnât have time to watch her â she saw that Curtain Call was awaiting her on the river bank, and started to crawl towards her. She shuddered when the ice touched her skin, but only gritted her teeth. When her hooves touched the snow, she got up and ran to Curtain Call.
âIf Babs continues like that, we wonât have to kill her...â Curtain Call muttered when Diamond Tiara turned to look at the ship disappearing slowly behind the trees. She saw a dark silhouette crawling through the snow. âIâm surprised she didnât drown, her thick skull should pierce through ice like a stone...â
âYeah...â Silver Spoon suddenly appeared on the other side of Diamond Tiara. âRemember Ruby? Her squeals before she died...â
âScrew Ruby...â Curtain Call muttered. âRemember Alula? She wasnât that brave with swamp in her lungs...â
âOh yeah...â Silver Spoon chuckled. âAnd Twist... She only managed to catch a glimpse and bang! She was choking on her blood. Also, Diamond, why did you think she was me?â
âStop it...â Diamond Tiara whimpered, covering her ears. âI didnât want to kill them...â
âIf they hoped that I drowned, tell them to fuck off.â Babs patted Diamond Tiaraâs arm.
âHow did youââ Diamond Tiara saw that Babs was limping and had a nasty burn on her face.
âYa were talkinâ to yourself,â Babs replied, giving Diamond a worried look. âHow many of âem are there now?â
âDonât listen to them,â Babs said. âWe need to get to Dodge Junction quickly. They must have a pharmacy or a doctorâs office there...â
Diamond Tiara nodded. Babs got up and started to trot deeper into the forest. âCâmon!â she exclaimed. âIf we want to get to Dodge Junction quickly, we need to move.â
Diamond Tiara sighed and followed Babs through the snowy forest.
The hall of the Canterlot General Hospital was empty. Minuetteâs hoofsteps echoed through it, startling her. She took a deep breath and scolded herself mentally. It was just a hospital.
She didnât like that place. She remembered all too well how sheâd been transported there, nearly dead from blood loss, with large gashes in her hoof and side. Seven years later, the only reminder of those events were the scars on her foreleg. For all those years, Dr. Stable had been recommending her his friend who was one of Equestriaâs best plastic surgeons, but sheâd always been refusing. Eventually, sheâd agreed on having the scars on her side removed, but her hoof still looked like after Berry had attacked her.
That, however, wasnât why Minuette came to the hospital. She trotted to one of the rooms at the end of the corridor and looked inside, not sure if she could enter.
âCome in,â Octavia said. She was lying in bed, barely moving. Her voice was quiet, but Minuette noticed that it was a bit stronger than when sheâd last visited her friend.
Minuette sat at the chair next to Octaviaâs bed. âHow are you?â she asked.
âBetter,â Octavia replied. âMuch better since I learned that the baby is okay...â
Minuette sighed with relief. âWhereâs Stable?â she asked. âI think he should be here with you...â
âHe was here all the time, but he had to go back to work.â Octavia straightened in her bed. âHe panics more than I do...â She shook her head. âOne could think that it was him who was shot, not me...â
âWell, weâre all worried,â Minuette said. âFor a moment I thought that you were dead. I hardly remember anything. Just that filly shooting at Jet Set and the psychologist trying to calm me down. It was like Berry again...â
âDid they catch her?â Octavia asked. âIâve heard they know who she was...â
âApplejackâs cousin.â Minuette sighed. âShe murdered Berryâs cousin and now half of the country is looking for her.â
Octavia shook her head. âWhat happened to those kids? How old is she? Twenty?â
âThe newspapers said sheâs nineteen,â Minuette said.
âIâd give everything for some newspaper...â Octavia muttered. âThe doctors say that I should avoid stress... Iâll die of boredom sooner... My husband talks to me as if I was dying and the baby isnât exactly talkative...â
âI can bring you some,â Minuette replied. âThat Babs... Iâve seen her a lot in Autumn.â
âLet me guess...â Octavia smirked. âThere was always evil hidden in her eyes?â
âNo,â Minuette replied. âIn fact, she seemed quite normal...â
Babs collapsed on the ground. There was much less snow there, since they were coming closer to the desert surrounding Dodge Junction, but still it meant landing in the mud. The burns on her face were aching. âIt looked closer on the map...â she muttered.
âCome on,â Curtain Call said. âThere has to be some shelter here...â
âCome on,â Diamond Tiara repeated. âThere has to be some shelter here...â
Babs stood up slowly and limped behind Diamond Tiara. It felt strange â after walking through the forest she was hungry and exhausted, while Diamond seemed to grow stronger with every step. âWeâd better watch out,â she said. âThere may be guards there...â
Diamond Tiara sighed. âSo what? Are we going to sleep in the forest?â
âWell, there are cherry orchards around Dodge Junction...â Babs muttered. âI was planning to hide in some remote barn...â
âIf thereâs even one there,â Diamond Tiara muttered. âNot everypony puts them in random places, like Apples...â
âHey!â Babs exclaimed. âDâya have some problem with my family?â
âIâm just stating a fact,â Diamond Tiara replied calmly. âAlso, Iâd like to remind you that your family disowned you. They threw you away like a rotten apple...â
âFuck off,â Babs muttered. âYa think I wonât beat the crap outta ya? I didnât yet only âcause I know itâs because of your meds.â
âYeah, right...â Diamond Tiara chuckled. âYouâre afraid of me. Well, not only me. Youâre afraid of everything, even that dead guy... Even of yourself... Aargh!â Diamond Tiara fell on the ground face-first when Babs hit her in the back of the head.
âNever insult a pony ya canât see,â Babs muttered. Instead of going further, she waited for Diamond Tiara to stand up so she could still trot behind her.
âYou just had to provoke her,â Silver Spoon muttered to Curtain Call. âSheâs strong. If we donât surprise her, weâre dead.â
âShut up.â Curtain Call helped Diamond Tiara up. âShe might be stronger but she has to sleep sometimes. Once we find some barn, weâre gonna think about it.â
âDo you think thereâs a barn here?â Silver Spoon asked.
âThere has to be,â Curtain Call replied. âOr else weâll have to deal with that bitch forever... In Tartarus...â
Babs barely remembered the last twenty four hours. They didnât find a barn; just some old, smelly cottage near the road. Diamond Tiara promptly lay on the ground, wrapped in her coat, and fell asleep. Babs, however, couldnât join her â she had to watch out for the guards who could be travelling down the road and, what was more important, she had to watch out for Diamond Tiara. She knew that one didnât get âThe Sleepless Killerâ moniker for nothing.
Now, however, she was on the verge of passing out. She curled in the cleanest corner of the cottage, holding her knife in her hooves. Closing her eyes, she hoped that if Diamond Tiara woke up, sheâd hear her.
When she woke up, she realised that her hopes failed her. Judging by the sunâs position, it was long past midday. Luckily, Diamond Tiara was still sleeping in the same place as before. There was, however, another problem; when Babs tried to get up, a dirty, aquamarine hoof pushed her at the wall.
âYou think youâre very clever?â Lightning Dust asked. âIâm glad I still can fly here from Baltimare in just a few hours and you should be glad too...â She sighed. âGuards are looking for you, imbecile...â
âTell me somethinâ I donât know...â Babs muttered, glaring at Lightning Dust angrily. âWhy are ya even here? Got bored of beinâ a retarded stoker?â
âYouâre not only dumb, youâre also deaf,â Lightning Dust muttered. âGuards are looking for you. They want to interrogate the crew... Including retarded stokers.â
âSo, youâre basically savinâ your ass?â Babs asked.
âNo, Iâm saving your ass... again. Way to go, kid... Damaging a ship and hiding here, where everypony can see you? And you fall asleep!â
âI havenât slept in forty eight hours...â Babs groaned. âI have to take care of Diamond...â
âSo, I guess youâll need my help...â Lightning Dust said.
Diamond Tiara slowly opened one eye. She looked at Lightning Dust and sighed, turning in her makeshift âbedâ.
âDammit...â Curtain Call cursed. âNow thereâs two of them...â
Scootaloo yawned, looking through the window of the train. The station behind was Canterlot, but she wasnât going to leave the train there. On the opposite seat, Archer was solving a crossword in her newspaper.
âA form of dungeon only accessible from a hatch in a high ceiling?â Archer asked.
âOubliette,â Scootaloo replied. âIt was on my word of the day calendar last week.â
Archer nodded and wrote the word into her crossword. âWhy are we even going to Baltimare?â she asked.
âItâs simple,â Scootaloo said. âSweetie Belleâs New Yearsâ Eve show.â
âIs it why you told me to take a crossbow?â
âLouder...â Scootaloo muttered. âThereâs a lot of ponies in this carriage who didnât hear you yet...â She shook her head.
Archer looked around, but saw that nopony was listening to them. Not many ponies were travelling anywhere just a few days after the Hearthâs Warming Eve. âYouâre overreacting, Scoots... The thing is, I have a feeling that weâre gonna get in trouble. After all, the whole Baltimare is looking for Babs now, huh?â
âYes, but it has nothing to do with that,â Scootaloo said. âWeâre just going to a show...â
âI can shoot her drummer,â Archer muttered. âSweet Celestia, this guy is fugly...â
âIf everything goes well, you wonât have to shoot anypony.â Scootaloo sighed and lowered her voice to a whisper. âWeâre going to catch Featherweightâs killer...â
Archer smirked and patted the bag lying next to her on the seat, where she kept her crossbow. âThatâs something I approve of, cousin,â she said. âLetâs do this...â
The train kept going through the snowy plains.
Lightning Dust sighed and looked around the old barn full of empty crates and remains of rotten cherries. The sweet smell was permeating the air. âOkay,â she said. âI guess weâll have to set some house rules...â
âMore like barn rules...â Babs muttered, chuckling. She was sitting on a crate, watching Diamond Tiara lying on her coat. She saw Diamond had bags under her bloodshot eyes, yet she hadnât seen her sleeping since theyâd met Lightning Dust. She wondered if it was healthy.
âRule one: Babs doesnât play a smartass...â Lightning Dust deadpanned. âAnyway, one of us has to go to the town to get food and meds for Diamond... We canât guard her all the time...â
âYeah, goinâ to the town will be easy...â Babs said. âAfter all, only three of us are wanted...â
Lightning Dust approached her. She was only slightly taller than Babs, but when she looked into her eyes, Babs backpedalled. âOne more remark and Iâll add a nice bruise to that collection of burns... Where did you get that? Steam from the boat?â
âYeah...â Babs muttered, scratching her face. The burns were itching and she could barely contain herself from screaming.
âHow typical of you...â Lightning Dust shook her head. âPutting your hoof between the door... Touching the pipes to check if theyâre hot... Doing first, thinking later. If ever.â
âFuck off,â Babs spat. âDonât ya remember what happened to me?â
âWhat that has to do with anything?â Lightning Dust asked, rolling her eyes. âAlso, rule number two: no swearing, rule number three: no playing the victim. You seem to forget how much shit you did in your life, starting withââ
âSo, I deserved that, right?â Babs ran to Lightning Dust, tears welling in her eyes. âYou think it was my fault that those guysââ
âI didnât say that,â said Lightning Dust coldly. âThat is only his fault. His death is my fault. Mugging ponies... Drug delivery... Murder... Those are your fault. Think about it, Babs. And donât tell me that you had no choice.â
âI hadnât!â Babs exclaimed. âItâs a jungle, Dust. Only the strongest survive...â She inhaled the air to add something, but before she could open her mouth, she was interrupted by Lightning Dustâs hoof hitting the burnt side of her face. The pain stunned her; she fell off the crate and hit the ground, groaning. She got up and charged at Lightning Dust blindly. The pegasus took off, somersaulted above Babsâ head, and hit her in the back of the head, sending her on the ground again.
âStop it!â Diamond Tiara screamed. She tried to get up, but then her legs gave up and she collapsed back on her coat. Her eye twitched; she tried to move, but her hooves were stiff.
Babs rolled on her back, rubbing her face and muttering curses under her breath.
âThe strongest, huh?â Lightning Dust panted. âIâm sorry, Babs, but I had to use an argument youâd understand.â She offered her hoof to Babs.
âBlow me.â Babs stood up by herself and trotted, limping, to the other corner of the barn.
âNo way,â Lightning Dust muttered. âYou didnât deserve such a pleasure.â
Babs said nothing.
âIâll look after Diamond till the night comes,â Lightning Dust said. âThen Iâll go to Dodge Junction to look for those meds and youâll be checking if Diamond doesnât want to kill anypony.â
If Babs heard that, she didnât show that.
âIt was really nice to meet you too...â Lightning Dust sighed.
Diamond Tiara could barely catch a breath. She rolled on her back; it felt as if Curtain Call was sitting on her chest.
âLet me tell you one more time,â Curtain Call said. âYouâre getting up only when I tell you. Got it?â
âI... I thought you wanted to kill Babs...â Diamond Tiara muttered.
âBut not when this featherbrain is watching,â Curtain Call replied. âHave you seen what she did to Babs? Sheâd change us into a red and pink spot on the floor in no time.â
âSo what are we gonna do?â Diamond Tiara asked, trying to free herself.
âWeâll wait till the night...â Curtain Call whispered into her ear.
With a silent click, Babs opened her knife. She remained motionless in the corner of the barn, trying to be as quiet as possible. Lightning Dust had left only recently and she could still come back at any moment. Diamond Tiara also wasnât making any sound. Babs clenched her hoof on her knife and slowly lifted her head.
Twoâs a company, threeâs a crowd, she thought. But Iâd rather be alone...
She turned her head to check out the rest of the barn. In the dim light she saw the silhouette of Diamond Tiara still in the same place where sheâd been before. Babs looked carefully if nopony was lurking in the shadows and got up.
Fuck Lightning Dust, Iâm goinâ to Hayseed Swamps. Babs took the first step. The ground and rotting hay were muffling her hoofsteps, but she had to be careful. Diamond Tiara looked like she was sleeping, but Babs knew that insomnia was one of her symptoms. Also, Diamondâs hearing was perfect.
Babs stopped few feet from Diamond Tiara and took a deep breath. Then she jumped forward, rising her hoof and lowered it, stabbing the lying lump, covered by the red coat.
She almost tripped, feeling much less resistance than she expected. The knifeâs blade nailed the coat to the ground. Babs looked at it and felt her innards freeze when she saw several straws of hay protruding from below the fabric. She reached to retrieve her knife, when a powerful kick sent her rolling on the floor. She smashed the old crate and skid to a halt. Every breath was like a needle piercing her side. She was sure some of her ribs were bruised, maybe even fractured, but she had no time for checking them.
She darted to the side and saw her own knife swinging inches from her. She didnât wait for another attack; letting out a powerful scream, she tackled Diamond Tiara. The knife fell out of Diamondâs hoof. Babs felt that she had an upper hoof; she could feel that Diamond was not even half as fit as her. She could thrash and smack her with her hooves as much as she wanted; Babsâ body survived much worse.
It didnât mean, however, that Babs was going to let Diamond Tiara beat her. She headbutted her, feeling her burns explode with pain. However, when she raised her head, she smirked, seeing blood pouring from Diamond Tiaraâs nose. She raised her foreleg and hit her again, feeling Diamondâs teeth cracking under her hoof. Panting heavily, Babs punched Diamond again and put her hoof on Diamondâs throat.
âIâm done with ya...â she muttered through gritted teeth. âSee ya in Tartarus, psycho...â
Diamond thrashed, trying to catch a breath.
âDonât worry...â Babs whispered. Her vision was darkening; the wounds sheâd received were taking their toll. âSoon Iâll send Lightning to ya... Yaâll have eternity to talk...â
Diamond Tiara thrashed, causing Babs to release her for a moment. Before Babs managed to grab her again, she caught a breath and landed a surprisingly nasty right hook on Babsâ temple. Babs staggered, but held Diamond firmly, leaning closer to her.
âYaâre right...â she panted. âPests like ya need to be killed quick...â
She turned back and reached for her knife. Before she could grab it, she felt Diamond Tiara sliding from under her.
Then, Babs screamed. Her vision blacked out completely for a moment. She collapsed on the ground and lay there in a fetal position, trying to catch her breath.
Diamond Tiara spat on the ground. A mix of snot, blood, and saliva was running down her face. âYou didnât think being kicked there only works on colts?â She chuckled. âOh wait, you know something about that...â
Babs tried to get up, only to almost throw up, when the world started to spin around her. Her mouth was completely dry. Diamond Tiara limped towards her. The knife was out of her reach. Diamond Tiara stood on her hind legs, ready to crush Babsâ skull under her hooves.
Babs closed her eyes, thinking about White Dove and Carnation. Would she see them again? Or maybe sheâd have to spend the eternity with Golden Sunset, Raspberry, Jet Set, all those ponies and griffons sheâd killed? She didnât exactly believe in afterlife, but that perspective scared her. Just having to look into their dead eyes would be too much for her. When she thought about it, she realised that it wouldnât be better even if she met White Dove and Carnation.
She felt a cold wind. So, thatâs how dying feels like? she thought. Then she heard the sound of something heavy hitting the ground. Another sound of a hoof hitting something and everything went silent.
âBabs, you okay?â Lightning Dust asked.
Babs opened her eyes and groaned. âIâm okay...â she tried to roll on her stomach, only to bite her lip when she lay on her injured ribs. âOr maybe not... Howâs Diamond?â
âI think I knocked her out...â Lightning Dust poked Diamond Tiara with her hoof. âBut sheâs breathing. I have meds for her. When she wakes up, she might be a little hazy... I have no idea if we can give them to her just like that, but I guess weâll have to try.â
Babs nodded. Her vision was darkening again. The pain between her hind legs was unbearable.
âI also took some things useful if weâre going to stay here... I even thought about your burns.â Lightning Dust continued. âBandages, antibiotics, vitamins...â She looked at Babs. âIt seems that painkillers will be useful...â
The show was great. Even Scootaloo, who didnât usually listen to that kind of music, loved it. After all, Sweetie Belle was her friend. Archer, on the other hoof, liked everything she could dance to, so she enjoyed it greatly. Now they were trotting through the crowd of ponies.
âWhere are we going?â Archer asked.
âFirst to the cloakroom to retrieve your bag,â Scootaloo replied. After a few attempts of pushing herself through the crowd, she took off, causing her cousin to utter something that sounded like âunfairâ. Not that it made it any easier; several other pegasi already got that idea.
âAnd then?â Archer asked, when she finally found a way through the crowd.
âNext stop, backstage,â Scootaloo replied.
âWeâre gonna meet Sweetie Belle and find a few new uses for my crossbow with her?â Archer laughed.
âI guess Button wouldnât be happy about that...â Scootaloo said. Not that heâll be happy after what weâll do tonight... she thought.
âOh, come on.â Archer rolled her eyes. âIâve met him. Iâm sure he enjoys such stuff...â She suddenly made a serious expression. âYeah, that... And he seemed so cute...â
âExactly.â Scootaloo sighed.
Archer took her bag and they went out of the building. They circled it and stood in the dark backyard, hidden in the shadow of the wall. The air smelled of rubbish and alcohol.
They were waiting for ten minutes. Archer took her crossbow out of her bag and loaded it. She grabbed it with her mouth and aimed it at the ground, making sure that the safety was on. She knew the plan â it was their last resort.
Suddenly, Scootaloo patted Archerâs back and pointed at the dark silhouette approaching the clubâs backdoor. She prepared a torch, her hoof on the switch.
âNow,â she whispered, turning the torch on and blinding a pony in front of them. He covered his eyes with his hoof and backpedalled. Archer aimed her crossbow at him.
Scootaloo smiled grimly when she saw who he was. She expected it, but still it was a shock for her. âHello,â she said, trying to keep her voice steady. âDonât move. You know Archer can be a bit trigger-happy sometimes.â
The pony said nothing, looking at Scootaloo, his mouth agape.
âNow youâll tell us...â Scootalooâs voice faltered, âWhy did you kill Featherweight...â
Babs bit her lip, trying not to scream. The painkillers wore off and now she turned on her bedding, panting heavily. Each breath felt like a branding iron being put to her chest. The itch on her face was also unbearable; she couldnât help but moan, scratching her forehead with her hoof.
âYou okay?â Lightning Dust asked. She was sitting in the middle of the barn, watching Diamond Tiara, whose breath was uneven; from time to time she was moving frantically. Babs and Lightning had given her the medicines, but they werenât sure about the effect â Diamond Tiara didnât attack them anymore, but she still was either sleepy or half-conscious, unable to talk coherently.
âNo,â Babs replied. Her vision was blurry and when she tried to get up, she staggered and collapsed again.
Lightning Dust approached her and put her hoof on Babsâ forehead, causing her to hiss. âYou have a fever,â Lightning Dust said. âWeâll either have to change this place into a hospital or take you and Diamond to one.â
âNo hospitals,â Babs whispered, feeling that her throat got dry. âIâd land in prison in no timeâŠâ
âWell, maybe itâs time to take responsibility for your actions,â Lightning Dust said, going back to her place and giving Diamond Tiara a worried look.
âJust like ya took responsibility for yours?â Babs asked, covering her head with her jacket. She shivered and changed her mind, trying to wrap herself in the jacket as tightly as possible.
âMy case was different,â Lightning Dust replied. âI wouldnât do that if it wasnât for some little fuck who had to run away from the hospital because she couldnât get that the guards would soon get this guy.â
âYeah, rightâŠâ Babs sighed. âMafia and the guards, theyâre all the same.â
âThey had all the evidence,â Lightning Dust said. âIncluding what theyâve gathered⊠umm⊠from you. I guess you know what happens to guys like him in prison⊠Heâd be there, but you just had toâŠâ
âI?â Babs tried to shout, but her voice was a coarse whisper. âYa couldâve left it to me.â
âIf you like being deadâŠâ Lightning Dust shrugged. âIâll tell you the truth, Seed: if I were to kill that guy today, I wouldnât do that.â
âGreat,â Babs muttered. âAt least I wouldnât have to put up with yaâŠâ
âI can leave at any moment,â Lightning Dust said. âI canât go back to that boat, but Iâm sure thereâs always one more town a little further down the trackâŠâ
Babsâ reply was interrupted by a fit of coughing.
âSee?â Lightning Dust asked. âYou wonât survive without me. Also, we canât stay in that fridge.â
âBut where can we go?â Babs asked; her breath was heavy and laborious. âEverypony is looking for us⊠In the swamps itâll be even worse.â
âI know,â Lightning Dust said, looking at Diamond Tiara who opened one eye and groaned. âAre you okay, Diamond?â
âI guess she isnât,â Babs said. âCanât we just, like, light a fire here?â
âIf you want to burn this place down or attract everypony in Dodge JunctionâŠâ Lightning Dust sighed. âYou know, when you feel better we can go to the town at night and hide in some freight trainâŠâ
âIf I get more painkillers, I can walk,â Babs muttered. âBut dragging Diamond Tiara with usâŠâ
Lightning Dust stood in front of her. âDo we really need to?â she asked, giving her a package with pills. âDid she even do something wrong? We can leave her here and drop an anonymous message at the sheriffâs office...â
Babs felt the pill almost getting stuck in her throat. Lightning Dustâs idea definitely was better than killing Diamond Tiara or making her go with them, yet Babs didnât know what to do. If Diamond Tiara was found in Dodge Junction, itâd be clear that they were nearby. Not to mention that she could tell the guards everything about what happened... Babs was just opening her mouth to tell Lightning Dust about her doubts, when the pegasus raised her hoof, silencing her.
Babs stood, motionless, listening to the sounds coming from the outside. There was somepony there; she could hear the hoofsteps. She looked at Lightning Dust who took off and flew to the door as quietly as she could.
The painkillers slowly kicked in; Babs felt that she could walk again and creeped to the hole in the barn wall. Through it, she saw a light of a kerosene lamp held by somepony trotting towards the building.
With a creak, the door opened; Babs looked there and saw a cream mare with a sophisticated manestyle holding a lamp in her mouth. The mare stopped, seeing Diamond Tiara lying on the floor in the middle of the barn. She put the lamp on the ground and at the same moment Lightning Dust landed next to her, wrapped her wing around her neck, and put in on her mouth.
âNo talking,â she whispered. âYou can only nod or shake your head, get it?â
The mare nodded.
âGood. Are you the owner of this barn?â
Another nod. Lightning Dust smirked grimly, carefully watching Babs who limped towards their captive and looked into her eyes. The mare gave out a panicked moan.
âDo you live alone?â Lightning Dust asked. âAnd donât lie to me. I see that you recognised my friend and know exactly what happened to the last pony with cherries on her flank sheâd met. Am I clear?â
The mare nodded.
âDo you live alone?â
Nod.
âGood. As you can see, our friend isnât in exactly good condition and she canât stay in your barn. I guess you wonât object if we bring her to your house?â
The mare shook her head. Babs approached her. âNo as âno I wonât object?ââ she asked, glaring at her angrily.
The mare nodded, trying to move as far from Babs as possible, but Lightning Dust held her firmly. Babs sent her another smile and walked to Diamond Tiara. Despite the painkillers, she groaned, trying to lift her on her back. Diamond opened her eyes and slowly got up.
âCan you walk?â Babs asked.
Diamond Tiara nodded and took a shaky step forward. Lightning Dust smirked and turned to the mare. âAs you can see, weâre in a bit of hurry. Why donât you lead us to your house?â
Scootaloo approached the pony in front of her, glaring at him. Her wings spread, she raised her hoof. Archer ran to her and caught it.
âDonât even try to fly away,â Archer muttered as clearly as it was possible with the crossbow in her mouth. âI may have stopped her from punching you, but I can still shoot you, you know...â
âIâm not gonna fly away,â the young stallion replied, backpedalling. âI... I can explain...â
Scootaloo freed herself from Archerâs grasp and ran to him, pushing him at the wall. âYouâll have lots of explaining to do...â she muttered through gritted teeth. âTell me, Rumble! H-how long did you and Sweetie Belle...â
âA... a year or so...â Rumble muttered. âI wanted to tell you, but...â
âScootaloo, stop it,â Archer said calmly and turned to Rumble. âDid Featherweight know about that?â
âYes,â Rumble replied. âHe... He blackmailed me. He had a photo of Sweetie with me... He took it after a show...â
âSo you killed him?â Scootaloo asked. âBecause it was better than telling me the truth?â
âAm I arrested?â Rumbleâs gaze hardened.
âYes,â Scootaloo replied.
âI wonât tell anything without my lawyer,â Rumble said, freeing himself from Scootalooâs grasp.
âFuck you,â Scootaloo spat.
The backdoor of the club opened. They looked at it and saw Sweetie Belle who froze upon seeing them. âR-rumble? What happened?â she asked.
âDidnât he tell you?â Scootaloo walked to her, pointing her hoof at her. âHe forgot to mention it during your...â
âWhat happened?â Sweetie Belle exclaimed, tears flowing down her face, smearing her make-up. âRumble, what did you do?â
âThe guards will explain that,â Scootaloo hissed. âBut what I wonder is, why didnât you tell me? We were friends... I... Iâd understand. But you kept it a secret! If Feaââ
âScootaloo!â Archer exclaimed. âYouâll finish that conversation in the station, okay?â
âYes, sure...â Scootaloo muttered. âI must be professional...â She gave Sweetie Belle a long look before turning away. âItâs just so hard sometimes...â
âJust for the record,â Babs muttered to Lightning Dust, âI donât wanna hear anymore bullshit about me being reckless from ya...â
Lightning Dust looked at the shivering mare, who just opened the door of her house and entered it, turning on the lights. The house was quite spacious, with a large fireplace in the middle of the living room. The red, wooden doors led to the bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen. Lightning followed the mare inside and sat at the table with her.
âIâm talking to ya!â Babs exclaimed. âI donât know if ya noticed, but we just kidnapped somepony!â
âYeah, because I wonder what you would do if she walked on you,â Lightning Dust muttered. âStab her, probably.â
âI...â Babs sighed and looked at Diamond Tiara who sat on the floor in front of the fireplace and looked into the fire. âDiamond! Are you okay?â
âNo,â Diamond Tiara replied, still staring into the fire.
Lightning Dust turned to their host. âWe wonât be here for long,â she said. âWhatâs your name?â
âCherry Jubilee,â the mare replied. âWill you kill me?â
âNot if you behave,â Lightning Dust said. âDo you have any weapons here?â
Cherry Jubilee sighed. âIn the kitchen,â she replied.
âBabs, watch out for her,â Lightning Dust commanded. âAnd you, Cherry, watch out for Babs...â She walked to the kitchen and came back soon with a double-barreled shotgun. âIâll borrow it for a while,â she said.
Babs ignored her, still trying to make Diamond Tiara speak to her. Diamond Tiara, however, was silent and motionless, not caring not only about Babs, Lightning Dust, and Cherry Jubilee, but also the whole world. Soon, she fell asleep, curled into a ball on the floor.
âDiamond!â Silver Spoon exclaimed.
âSilver?â Diamond Tiara muttered, looking around. They were alone in the living room. Silver was sitting on the rug, her big eyes staring at Diamond. âWhere isââ
âSheâs gone...â Silver Spoon replied. âAnd she wonât be back, if you take the meds...â
Diamond Tiara rolled on her back and sighed. âThat was awful...â she muttered. âI... I almost killed Babs. Andââ
âOh, come on...â Silver Spoon sighed. âShe wanted to kill you, remember?â
âShe did?â Diamond Tiara asked. âI donât remember...â She sat on the floor and sighed. âGuess Iâm no good... I canât even remember anything that happened to me since we ran away from Ponyville.â
âItâs not your fault,â Silver Spoon said. âIt was Curtain Call... But sheâs gone now and we can be together again.â
âSilver?â
âYes?â
âWhy did you stay with me?â Diamond Tiara asked. âI mean... Ten years ago. I told you to leave...â Tears started flowing down her face. âYou didnât listen. You stayed with me even though I...â
âWeâre friends,â Silver Spoon replied. âFriends never leave each other.â
âIâm a part of your mind,â Silver Spoon said. âIf I know that, then, on some level, you know that too...â
âMaybe.â Diamond Tiara sighed and slowly got up. Her cuts and bruises started to ache, but Silver Spoonâs presence was giving her power. She stretched her limbs and turned to the kitchen door. Babs stood there, balancing a cup of coffee on her hoof.
âWe need to get outta here,â Babs replied, wincing as she limped towards Diamond Tiara. âLightning is losinâ it...â
âLike you never kidnapped anypony...â Silver Spoon muttered, glaring at Babs angrily. âDonât listen to her, Diamond. She tried to kill you.â
âBabs?â Diamond Tiara sat next to the fireplace, smelling Babsâ coffee. âMay I ask you something?â
âSure,â Babs replied, taking a sip of her coffee.
âWhy did you try to kill me?â
Babs nearly choked on her coffee. She coughed a few times before replying, âI was defendinâ myself. Without your meds... ya werenât herself... Why ya think I look like that?â She rubbed her aching ribs.
âLiar,â Silver Spoon muttered through gritted teeth. âShe attacked you first. Iâve seen it...â
âAre you sure?â Diamond Tiara asked. âBecause I remember some glimpses...â
âI think itâs time for your medicine,â Babs said, shifting her legs. âIâll go and find Lightning... She talks with our host, ya know... I donât like it.â She lowered her voice to a whisper, âSheâll betray us to the guards, Iâm tellinâ ya...â
Silver Spoon only shook her head.
Rumble didnât say anything more during the interrogation. Despite his lawyerâs requests, he was locked in a cell in Baltimare Royal Guard Station. Right after that, Archer found Scootaloo sitting at one of the desks, resting her head against a stack of papers in front of her.
âHow are you, Scoots?â Archer asked.
âMy coltfriend had an affair with my best friend and turned out to be a murderer,â Scootaloo replied, not rising her head. âTry to guess.â
âYeah, that sucks...â Archer muttered. âDo you want some tea?â
Scootaloo murmured something incomprehensible. Archer took it as âyesâ and trotted to the small kitchen at the back of the building. She took a battered cup from the cupboard, put it on the table and poured some water into the kettle. Then she found tea in another cupboard and, hoping that it didnât belong to somepony important, threw a tea bag into the cup. In the fridge, Archer found a lemon that wasnât mouldy, so she cut off a slice and put it in the cup after pouring hot water them. She scratched her head, thinking about Scootaloo, and took a hip flask from the pocket of her uniform. She unscrewed it and sniffed the contents, smelling of homemade booze and cherries.
âNice,â she muttered to herself, pouring the foul cherry-flavoured liquid into Scootalooâs cup. She then trotted back to Scootaloo and put a cup on her desk. Scootaloo raised her head and took a sip of her tea. She coughed, looked at Archer unsurely, and took another sip.
âCongratulations,â Front Kick said, entering the room. âYouâve caught Featherweightâs killer.â
âYeah...â Scootaloo muttered and took another sip of her tea.
âAlso, weâve got a message from Dodge Junction.â Front Kick levitated a piece of paper. âSomepony robbed a pharmacy there. Guess whatâs missing...â
âDiamond Tiaraâs meds?â Archer asked.
âExactly,â Front Kick replied. âPack your stuff, girls. Youâre going with us...â
Lightning Dust landed on the windowsill and immediately ran downstairs to Babs, who was sitting on the sofa, reading some book about growing cherries. Cherry Jubilee was sitting next to her, silent, while Diamond Tiara was sleeping, curled next to the fireplace.
âWhatâs goinâ on?â Babs asked, raising her head from the book. âBy the way, thereâs some interestinâ stuff in here. Once we run away, Iâm gonna start growinâ cherries. Applejack would have a heart attack...â
âSoon, youâll have lots of time to think about it,â Lightning Dust replied dryly. âThe whole town is full of cops.â
The book fell on the floor. âWhat?â Babs asked. âH-how?â
âYou tell me...â Lightning Dust turned to Cherry Jubilee, whose face went pale. âYou donât have anything to do with that, do you?â
âOf course not!â Cherry Jubilee exclaimed, shuddering and glancing nervously at Babs. âI didnât leave house since you arrived...â
âThen how do they know weâre here?â Lightning Dust started to pace around the room. âWe need to get out of here...â
âBut how?â Babs asked. âNot everypony of us can fly, you know...â
Diamond Tiara woke up and trotted to them. âWhat happened?â she asked.
âThe guards are on us,â Babs replied quickly. âLightning says that the whole town is full of them.
Diamond Tiara froze. She saw Silver Spoon walking from behind the sofa. âWhat to do?â she muttered to her.
âYou will know,â Silver replied.
Suddenly, they heard knocking at the door. Lightning Dust looked at it, while Babs grabbed Cherry Jubileeâs shotgun resting against the sofa. Their guest knocked once more.
âCherry?â They heard a voice from the outside. âAre ya here?â
âItâs Cornflower,â Cherry Jubilee whispered. âSheâs my friend.â
âCherry?â Cornflower asked unsurely. âAre you okay? I havenât seen ya in, like, three days...â
âTell her that youâre sick,â Lightning Dust whispered.
âIâm okay!â Cherry exclaimed, and faked cough badly. âIâm just a little sick... Iâll visit you once I get better.â
âAre ya sure?â Cornflower wasnât going to give up easily. âI can help ya... Cook ya something... Or maybe ya need some meds?â
âNo, thanks, really...â Cherryâs voice faltered. Some tears escaped her eyes. âIâll manage...â
âAre ya crying, Cherry?â Cornflower asked. âNevermind. Iâm coming in...â They heard a sound of a doormat being pulled to the side and the ringing of the keys.
âCrap...â Babs muttered. She got up from the sofa and sat on the floor in front of the door. Lightning Dust turned her head to her to see that she had the shotgun with her.
âBabs, donât...â
âDonât worry, Iâll only invite her inside...â
The door opened and Cornflower, a grayish mare with honey-coloured mane wearing a brown hat stood on the porch. Suddenly, her eyes widened when she saw Babs aiming a shotgun at her.
âCome inside...â Babs muttered through gritted teeth. Cornflower took a tentative step forward. Suddenly, she turned around and started to run away. Cursing, Babs pulled the trigger.
Most of the pellets hit the door frame, throwing a wave of splinters around. Some of them, however, hit Cornflowerâs flanks and hind legs, causing her to scream and collapse, rolling on the ground. Babs lowered her gun.
Lightning Dust wanted to say something, but had to catch Cherry Jubilee who passed out, seeing her friend getting shot. Diamond Tiara also staggered and rested herself against the couch.
âBefore ya start to yell at me,â Babs said coldly, closing the door and pushing a nearby chest of drawers to barricade it. âShe was going to call the guards...â
âYeah, and now we have a dying pony on our front lawn,â Lightning Dust replied with a sigh, trying to bring Cherry Jubilee back to consciousness. âYou couldâve as well put a banner here, saying âhere we are, come and get us!ââ
âShould I go and bring her?â Babs asked.
âToo late,â Lightning Dust replied. âYour shot will lure everypony in the town here...â They heard rapid hoofsteps from the outside.
Babs ran to the window and rested the shotgun against the sill. âDonât move or Iâll shoot!â she shouted.
âDrop the gun and get out!â some stallion shouted. âWeâre surrounding you!â
âWe have a hostage!â Babs shouted back. âDonât go anywhere closer or weâll shoot her!â
âDonât make your situation worse, Babs!â
âS-scootaloo?â Babs loosened her grip on the shotgun. âWho cares... Donât go here! Iâll shoot ya...â
âBabs!â Lightning Dust hissed. âYouâd better let me negotiate...â
âAnd what will ya ask for?â Babs asked. âAn airship? Did somepony ever get an airship?â
âDo you want to spend you whole life in prison?â
âNo,â Babs replied. âWhatâs the difference? Whole life or twenty years...â Suddenly, she aimed and fired, missing a guard by about two metres. She quickly reloaded the shotgun and pointed it at the ponies outside again. âOne more such try...â
âLet us at least help that mare!â Scootaloo was almost begging her. âDo you want her to die because of you too?â
Before Babs could reply, Lightning Dust pushed her away from the window; Babs fell down, but didnât let go off the shotgun. âWe agree!â Lightning Dust replied. âTake her and get out!â
âWho are you?â the stallion, who was apparently the commander of the guards surrounding the house asked.
âLightning Dust,â Lightning replied. Next to her, Babs stood by the window again. âAnd who are you?â
âWe keep the owner of this house hostage, remember!â Babs added.
âFront Kick, from Ponyville Royal Guard,â the stallion replied. âIs Diamond Tiara with you?â
âYes,â Lightning Dust replied, looking at Diamond Tiara, who was sitting next to half-conscious Cherry Jubilee with a blank expression. âSheâs taken her medicine and should be safe...â
âWhat do you want?â Front Kick asked.
âFreedom,â Lightning Dust replied. She knew that it couldnât be done, but it was always worth trying.
âIâm afraid we canât do that,â Front Kick said. âYouâre all wanted for murders. Release the hostage and we wonât add abduction to that...â
Babs gulped, clenching her hooves on the shotgun. âDiamond Tiara did nothing wrong,â she said in an emotionless tone.
âThe judge will tell...â Front Kick replied. âIf you wonât release the hostage, weâll have to storm the house...â
Babs walked to the sofa where Cherry Jubilee and Diamond Tiara were sitting and aimed her shotgun at them. âJust try!â she shouted. âIâll shoot them both!â
âBabs... Are you crazy?â Lightning Dust whispered. She tried to approach Diamond, but she stopped, seeing the barrels aimed at her.
âMaybe,â Babs replied, swallowing her tears. âYa see yourself... We canât negotiate with them...â
âThen weâll need to surrender,â Lightning Dust said. âIt was nice to be free for three years, but my time came. Iâll open the door and no one will get hurt, okay?â
âNo!â Babs shouted. âI... Iâd rather die than go to jail... Itâll be faster...â
âCâmon, Babs...â Lightning Dust rolled her eyes. âYouâre a wise filly... Just think about it... Youâre only nineteen... So many things can happen to you...â
âDonât tell me what to do!â Babs exclaimed, her hooves shaking. âI... I just canât...â
âBabs, please...â Lightning said in a soft voice. âI killed a guy so you could live... Donât waste this...â
Babs shuddered. The shotgun in her hooves lowered a few centimetres. Suddenly, they heard a squeak of the door opening.
âBabs, NO!â Lightning Dust exclaimed, seeing Babs galloping towards the door.
Diamond Tiara blinked. In front of her, she saw Babs Seed talking with Lightning Dust. Next to her, Cherry Jubilee was watching them, paralysed by fear. Diamond felt her mind getting clearer; she could finally move her hooves without the feeling as if she was wading in a syrup. The static blocking her hearing disappeared. She could easily hear the voices of the guards outside. Scootaloo was among them... She blinked once more and saw that Babs was aiming a shotgun at Lightning Dust. She had to do something...
âYou will know what to do,â Silver Spoon said. She was standing by the door. Next to her, stood Curtain Call â but not the Curtain Call from visions created by Diamond Tiaraâs sick mind, but rather the one sheâd first seen over ten years before â a small, scared filly, whose only desire was to play with her peers.
âLetâs go, Diamond,â Curtain Call said.
Diamond Tiara stood up. The rug muffled her hoofsteps. She walked out of the room, unseen by Babs, though she had a feeling that Lightning Dust saw her. As quietly as she could, she creeped through the hall to the door. There, she pushed the chest of drawers. Babs was too busy yelling at Lightning Dust to notice.
Diamond wiped sweat from her forehead. The chest of drawers was heavy, but it wasnât only that. Something strange was happening with Diamondâs body; she wasnât sure if it was some effect of her meds or maybe it was a sign of them wearing off.
Finally, the piece of furniture was moved out of the way. Diamond Tiara took a deep breath and pushed the door open.
Babs, seeing Diamond Tiara walking towards the guards, ran to the door, shouting something. She stood on hind legs. All her world was falling apart around her; all she could do was to give up and let it bury her under the debris. She held her breath and blinked to get rid of the tears from her eyes. Then, seeing that Diamond Tiara was about to walk next to the puddle of Cornflowerâs blood, she aimed the shotgun at her.
Archer was faster. Seeing the silhouette of Babs in the dim hallway, she darted forward with the crossbow in her mouth. She held her breath and aimed in a split second. Her teeth clenched around the trigger. The string started to move forward, pushing the bolt out. It flew between Diamond Tiaraâs ears and hit Babs Seedâs chest.
Time slowed to a crawl. Babs looked at the bolt, surrounded by quickly spreading spot of blood on her fur. She took a step backwards and lost balance, collapsing on her back and dropping the shotgun.
Several guards darted from behind the bushes, following Archer, who dropped her crossbow. Two of them tackled Diamond Tiara, while the rest, including Scootaloo, ran to Babs.
âBabs!â Scootaloo exclaimed. âOh no...â
Babs coughed, spitting some blood. She looked at Scootaloo and smiled widely. Her breath was heavy and slow, each inhale causing bright red, foamy blood escaping her wound.
âBabs!â Scootaloo put her hoof on Babsâ wound, trying to stop the bleeding. âWhat will I tell Apple Bloom?â
âThat...â Babs said in a raspy whisper and coughed. â... her cousin...â Another cough. Scootaloo leaned closer to her to hear the next words exactly. â... screwed up...â Babsâ body went limp. Her green eyes remained open, staring at the ceiling. Scootaloo couldnât bring herself to look into them.
âI... Iâm sorry...â Archer whispered, watching Scootaloo swallowing her tears, holding Babs in her hooves. âI didnât want to...â
âItâs okay...â Scootaloo said, her tone bearing no emotions. âYou did what you had to...â She looked at Babs once again and closed her eyes, her hoof shaking.
Diamond Tiara approached them, escorted by one of the guards. She was crying openly. Archer walked to her and hugged her.
âI didnât mean to end it like that...â Diamond Tiara sobbed. âShe... I donât remember half of the things that happened...â
âItâll be okay,â Scootaloo said in a tone suggesting that she didnât believe her own words.
âHey! Whereâs that third one?â Chocolate Donut exclaimed. He was standing in the living room, where the guards were telling Cherry Jubilee, sitting on a stretcher and wrapped in a blanket, that Cornflowerâs state was stable.
âBroken window in the kitchen,â another guard said. âShe ran away in that whole commotion...â
Front Kick banged his hoof against the wall and sighed. âJust great... Now all we have is a corpse...â
Octavia stretched her limbs and turned a page of her newspaper. Lying in bed was a torture for her, but the doctor had told her not to overexert herself. She was looking forward to the delivery; now all she could do was to lie there, barely able to move. The only thing her belly was good for at that moment was to rest newspapers and books on it.
Not that she wasnât excited. She was reading most of the books aloud to her baby. She also asked Dr. Stable to bring a gramophone to her room so she could spend days listening to classical music. Octavia didnât believe in half of the things sheâd read about in the guides for young parents, but it didnât hurt to try.
The door opened and Dr. Stable walked into the room. He looked at the newspaper Octavia was reading and shook his head. âYou should avoid stress,â he said.
âOh, come on.â Octavia looked at him and smiled. âIâm okay. Also, my grandmother gave birth to my mother in an air-raid shelter. I can manage a daily dose of bad news...â She turned back to her newspaper. âDid you hear that this filly who shot Jet Set was killed in Dodge Junction?â
âMinuette mentioned something about that,â Dr. Stable replied. âSwiped that Wonderbolt-killer from the first pages...â
âPoor girl...â Octavia sighed. âShe was just nineteen...â
âPoor?â Dr. Stable exclaimed. âShe couldâve killed you!â
Octavia shrugged. âI donât know... After what happened to Diamond Tiara, I look at it a bit different...â
âYeah,â Dr. Stable muttered. âBy the way, they caught Diamond Tiara too... I wonder what will happen to her...â
Diamond Tiara sobbed. Two guards were sitting on her both sides, watching the coffin with flat expressions. Behind her, Sweetie Belle was sitting alone, hiding her face in her hooves. Scootaloo was sitting in the first row, together with Apple Bloom, Applejack, and Big Macintosh. Archer was also there, hiding behind Scootaloo. Other Babsâ friends also appeared: a muscular donkey and a blue unicorn mare with a foal.
âExcuse me... Can I talk to Diamond?â
Even though Diamond Tiara didnât hear that voice in ten years, she recognised it immediately. She turned her head to look at the young, orange mare with green mane, wearing a black outfit.
âTwo minutes,â one of the guards said, still watching the coffin.
âHello, Diamond.â Sunshine Rainbows whispered. âAre ya okay?â
âNot really,â Diamond Tiara replied and sighed. âBabs is dead and I may end up in prison or the hospital again...â
âYeah...â Sunshine replied and looked at the coffin. âI knew her, ya know?â Since the guards were listening to them, Sunshine decided to spare Diamond Tiara the circumstances of her meeting with Babs. âItâs kinda weird when I have to prepare somepony I knew...â
âI can imagine...â Diamond Tiara muttered. She remembered way too many funerals of her friends.
âIt got easier after the first three,â Sunshine said. âBut still... Didnât expect her to end up like this. Well, maybe a bit.â She sighed. âIâm not good at it, am I? I wanted to say that itâll get better. Yâknow, donât give up and such stuff...â
âSee ya later, Diamond,â Sunshine Rainbows said. âHopefully in better circumstances.â She walked away slowly, her hoofsteps echoing through the funeral parlour.
âWas she always that weird?â Silver Spoon asked. She was sitting on a bench before Diamond Tiaraâs resting her hooves at its back.
Diamond Tiara only nodded.
âHere comes trouble...â Silver Spoon muttered, looking at the gate.
Three ponies were walking towards the front row of the benches. One of them, a red mare resembling Big Macintosh a bit trotted to Archer and pushed her off the bench. âWhat is she doinâ here?â she yelled.
âSunflower...â Applejack stood up.
âShe killed my sister!â Sunflower exclaimed, shaking Archer brutally. âWhat is she doinâ here?â
âSunflower!â Apple Bloom shouted, pushing her cousin away from Archer. âThatâs not the time and place for that... Babs wouldnât want toââ
âWell, thanks to her, we wonât know what Babs wanted and didnât want to do!â Sunflower leaned closer to Apple Bloom.
Apple Bloom looked into her cousinâs eyes coldly. âAnd where were yâall when she got outta the boot camp?â she asked. âDid ya let her go back home?â
âThatâs not important...â Sunflower muttered.
âStill, Babs spent a few months with us,â Applejack said. âAnd itâs interestinâ that her own family didnât want to see her...â
âMaybe because she was aââ
âSunflower...â Babsâ mother put her hoof on her daughterâs shoulder. âEnough. Babs wouldnât want us to argue now...â
Sunflower looked at her mother angrily and trotted with her to the bench on the opposite side of the funeral parlour.
âWell, at least they didnât start a fight,â Silver Spoon said with a disappointed expression.
Diamond Tiara said nothing, looking at Archer, who was standing next to Scootaloo, her head hanging low.
A few weeks later, Diamond Tiara was sitting in the middle of the courtroom, watching her lawyer, Twinkie Defense, as she was talking to Dr. Midline Shift. The jury was listening to them, interested. Some older mare looked at Diamond Tiara and, to her surprise, Diamond saw tears welling in her eyes.
âSo, what happens if my client stops taking medicines?â Twinkie Defense asked.
âWell, she starts to hallucinate,â Midline Shift replied. âSheâs also getting aggressive and may attack a pony, trying to kill them.â
âCan she control that?â
âNo. Iâm actually surprised that she didnât kill anypony while running away with Ms. Seed...â
Several members of the jury nodded. One of them levitated a notebook and wrote something in it. Diamond Tiara closed her eyes. Babs was dead, but she was alive...
Donât give up...
âIt seems that theyâll let you go home,â Twinkie Defense whispered, sitting next to Diamond Tiara. âJust take your meds and donât get into trouble... like Babs...â
âIâll try to,â Diamond Tiara replied.
The coffin was slowly lowered to the ground. Scootaloo watched it with grim expression and turned to Archer, only to see her cousin slowly walking away. âWhere are you going?â she asked.
âI canât...â Archer replied and sighed. âIt was far too easy... To just pull the trigger...â
âShe was trying to kill Diamond,â Scootaloo said.
âI know,â Archer muttered and turned around. âI know and still...â She shook her head. âIâll be in the nearest bar...â
A different courtroom and a different judge. This time there was no audience, just a few Royal Guards. Archer was sitting in the middle of the room, sweating profusely as she looked into the faces of the fellow guards.
Archer felt a taste of bile in her mouth. She understood why she was there. She knew well that she deserved it; it was actually a relief for her, but the feeling was overshadowed by something else.
She knew exactly what sheâd hear soon.
âAccording to our reconstruction of the events, Babs Seed was armed and clearly had an intention to kill Diamond Tiara,â the judge said. âTherefore, you had the right to use any means to prevent that. We wonât be pressing any charges against you.â
Archer looked at the floor. She stood up automatically and left the room without looking at anypony. She trotted down the court corridor and walked out of the building. She sighed and walked along the street of Canterlot. It was a cold, January afternoon, and soon she started to shiver. Ponies were walking around her, but Archer didnât care. She thought that she probably had to go home, to Scootaloo now, but she didnât want to.
Until Babsâ funeral, Scootaloo was keeping herself together, but later it was like everything collapsed on her: Rumble getting arrested, a bitter fight with Sweetie Belle, Apple family experiencing yet another loss... Archer wanted to make her happy, but for the first time in her life, she was failing at it.
She stood in the middle of the bridge and rested herself against the barrier, looking into the water. She leaned forward, raising her hooves, and closed her eyes.
âArcher?â
Archer opened her eyes and looked at the colt who called her. âHello, Button,â she said. âWhat are you doing here?â
âI was just taking a walk,â Button replied. âAfter Sweetie and I...â
âYeah, that sucked...â Archer muttered, getting off the barrier. âIn fact, everything sucks recently...â
âWhat exactly were you doing here?â Button asked, looking at the barrier.
âAbout to do something stupid,â Archer replied. âLetâs go, Button.â
âWhere?â
Archer sighed. âAnywhere but here...â
The first lump of earth fell on the lid of Babsâ coffin with a hollow thump. Soon, another followed, slowly filling the grave. Sunflower stood above it, motionless, her face showing no emotions.
Gilda stood in the dark alley of Baltimare, motionless, listening to the hoofsteps behind her. âIf you wanna rob me, you can try, punk,â she said, blowing smoke from her cigarette. âBut donât cry later...â
âI wonât.â Lightning Dust landed in front of her and raised a balisong knife. The blade stopped an inch from Gildaâs throat. âNice, isnât it? Belonged to Babs Seed, but she wonât need it anymore...â
âFeather Duster?â Gilda smirked. âAlmost didnât recognise you. Did you take a shower?â
âThatâs âLightning Dustâ to you,â Lightning Dust replied. She reached her hoof to Gildaâs beak and grabbed her cigarette. She sniffed it and threw it on the ground, smashing it with her hoof. âYou know, I only smoke when Iâm stressed. Like three years ago...â
âAre you gonna tell me your life story?â Gilda asked, looking at Lightning Dust and trying to assess if she could catch her off guard.
âOnly this one. You see, three years ago, I really wanted to smoke after my now deceased friend changed some griffons into minced meat in an old warehouse...â Lightning smirked grimly, seeing that Gildaâs face became even paler than usual. âYou know what was funny? None of these griffons had cigarettes.â
Gilda gulped. âWhat do you want?â
âItâs funny that I assumed that they had to smoke, you know?â Lightning Dust pushed the knife closer towards Gildaâs throat. âThen I thought that there has to be someone with them... Someone who quenched her cigarette on the fur of a dying filly... Repeatedly.â
âI... She was already dying,â Gilda said quickly. âCompletely out of her mind... I couldnât do anything...â
âSo you used her as an ashtray?â Lightning Dust clicked her tongue. âReally, Gilda?â
âI... I dream about her every night...â Gildaâs voice was shaking. Her eyes widened. âEvery... fucking... night... I wish I could help her, I really do! But it was too late when I came there... I yelled at them... Ran away from there... Like a coward...â
âReally? I really wish I could believe you...â With these words, Lightning Dust swung her knife upwards, leaving a long wound on Gildaâs face. Gilda automatically raised her wing to defend herself, but then Lightning Dust hit the base of her wing with the knife.
Gilda screamed. Her left wing went numb and fell down limply. Lightning pulled the knife out, causing her to scream again and collapse, pressing the wound with her claws. There wasnât much blood on the blade â it didnât hit any major vessel, but the torn nerves meant that Gilda would never fly again.
âSee you, Gilda,â Lightning Dust said in a monotone voice, closing the knife and hiding it in her saddlebags. âI hope youâll dream about that filly till the end of your life.â
âF-fuck you...â Gilda muttered, swallowing her tears.
Lightning only shrugged and flew away.
The funeral ended. The crowd slowly dissipated, leaving only Sunflower sitting by the grave, hiding her face in her hooves. Sunshine Rainbows approached her and sat next to her. âAre ya okay?â she asked.
âDo I look like?â Sunflower gave Sunshine a nasty look.
âOh...â
âGo away,â Sunflower muttered. âJust... leave me alone...â
The hot wind was blowing, causing the waves of sand to hit against the tentâs fabric. The zebra stallion inside yawned. He had to spend the whole day there, waiting for suitable candidates, but barely anyone came. He was just thinking about leaving his outpost, when somepony moved the fabric aside and entered the tent.
The zebra smirked. The mare in front of him was not only a pony, but also a pegasus. The Zebrican army needed an air force, but pegasi were scarce. âGood afternoon,â he said.
âHello,â the aquamarine mare replied. âIâve heard I can join your army here.â
âWell, it depends if you can fly...â he said.
She only smiled. âI flew all the way from Equestria,â she replied.
The zebra nodded and grabbed a pen. âWhatâs your name?â
âFeather Duster,â the mare replied.
He wrote the name in the documents. It was probably fake, but he couldnât care less; most of the ponies joining the Zebrican Army to fight the rebeliants were outlaws or wanted criminals. The army couldnât be picky. âAny particular reason why you want to join?â he asked.
âNo, not really,â Feather Duster replied. âJust running away from something...â
The snow melted, changing the streets of Ponyville into muddy rivers. Diamond Tiara trotted through them, trying not to get her hooves dirty. On her way from the railway station, she saw Bon Bon who was walking slowly, her saddlebags full of groceries. Even though the bruises and cuts on her face disappeared, Bon Bon still was limping, staring at the ground beneath her hooves. Her mane, usually neatly curled, was messy and unkempt. When she saw Diamond Tiara, she froze, but soon approached her.
âIâm sorry,â Bon Bon said, avoiding Diamond Tiaraâs gaze. âIt was Cherry... I didnât know sheâdââ
âItâs okay,â Diamond Tiara replied. âIâm sorry too... For your sister... And for what Babs did to you...â
âPoor filly,â Bon Bon said half-heartedly. âI mean, she was a psycho, but stillââ
âIâm a psycho too,â Diamond Tiara interrupted her.
âBut youâre different,â Bon Bon replied. âSo much different than her...â
Diamond Tiara stared at Bon Bon blankly, not sure what to say. Babs, as far as Diamond Tiara knew, didnât see her dead friends telling her to murder somepony. But on the other hoof, she witnessed Babs shooting a pony in cold blood... And then she was almost killed in the same way. Had Archer been a bit slower...
Bon Bon wrapped her hooves around Diamond Tiara and hugged her. Diamond Tiara froze and wanted to push the older mare away at first, but Bon Bon quickly retreated herself. âSee you later, Diamond Tiara,â she said. âTake care...â
For a moment Diamond Tiara stood in the middle of the path, watching Bon Bon walking away. Then she shrugged and walked towards her home.
To her surprise, she saw that the gate was open. She pushed it and walked through the garden, to the door. Diamond Tiara looked around, at the naked trees and dry grass. She knew that in a few weeks everything would be green, but now it looked just like she felt. She raised her hoof and knocked.
âDiamond Tiara!â Filthy Rich exclaimed, opening the door. Diamond walked inside and hugged her father. They walked to the living room.
âItâs so good to see you back,â Filthy Rich said. He thought for a moment before asking, âHow are you?â
âBetter,â Diamond Tiara replied. They had seen each other earlier, soon after Diamond was found, but they didnât have much time to talk. Diamondâs constant medical examinations and the trial werenât helping them in getting together. During their short meetings, Filthy Rich carefully avoided the topic of Diamondâs escape with Babs. âI... Iâm sorry, dad,â Diamond Tiara said. âI was... you know, without meds, panicked... She told me that I killed Cherry...â
âI understand that,â Filthy Rich replied. âI donât blame you, Diamond. I keep telling you that youâre not a bad filly...â He smiled. âYouâre the best daughter in the whole world and nothing will change this.â
Diamond Tiara felt tears escaping her eyes. âThank you, dad... I donât think I deserve this...â
âItâs okay, Diamond,â Filthy Rich replied. âNow, youâre finally home and we can spend some time together... That is, until you go back to Canterlot. Iâve heard Octavia Melody said she is going to give a small recital âonce her daughter will be responsible enough to stay with her fatherâ...â Filthy Rich chuckled.
âWell, I didnât decide what to do yet,â Diamond Tiara said. âI think Iâll visit Curtain Call in Trottingham one day... Sheâs still in the hospital and I know how she feels...â
Filthy Rich nodded. âThatâs a good idea. But now, you should stay a bit with your old dad... Do you want something to eat?â
Diamond Tiara nodded. Soon, the servants brought the supper and for a brief moment she could focus on food, forgetting about all her problems. After she ate, she went to her room, saying that she was tired and wanted to catch some sleep.
She closed the door, turned off the light and lay down on her bed. The soft light of the moon was casting shadows on the walls of her bedroom. Diamond Tiara looked at it and closed her eyes, thinking about tomorrow.