“Ah!” Berry Punch gasped as the box slipped and crashed into the ground. The box was marked “fragile” and sounded like breaking glass. The top of the package dented inwards. “No, no, no!” Berry Punch cradled the box in her hooves, but the damage was done. She felt a hoof touch her shoulder.

“Don’t worry about it. Mistakes happen,” said Sunshine.

“But, but! Cobalt Shores told me if I screwed up again, he’d…” Berry let her words hang in the air.

Sunshine smiled. “I’ll take care of it.”

Berry Punch hung her head as she walked away. She looked back to see Sunshine sweeping the contents of the box into a trash can and writing on a clipboard.

Berry sighed as she ran her punch card through the machine. Almost made it through the day without any mistakes. Almost. They were definitely going to take this out of her paycheck. If they took any more out, she’d have to start relying on noodles for sustenance.

Always messing up. Pathetic. Useless. She shook her head, trying to calm her inner voices.
Why bother beating herself up? The damage had already been done. Still, she couldn’t help the uneasy feeling in her throat.

“Hey, Berry Punch!” called a voice. Berry looked up and saw a familiar cream-colored pony with a blue and pink mane waving from the distance. It was Bon Bon. She trotted over and smiled. “Haven’t seen you in forever! How have you been?”

Berry shrugged. “Fine.”

“Are you sure?” Bon Bon raised an eyebrow.

Loser. Failure. Never good enough.

Berry Punch avoided eye contact. “Yea, yea. Just… tired, that’s all.”

Bon Bon looked at her for a moment, her lip turning downwards. But it only lasted a split second and she continued on a rant about Lyra’s shenanigans.

“You wouldn’t believe it, but she actually tried to make a flying machine.” Bon Bon waved her hooves. “She jumped off the roof just like that, and ended up breaking three of her bones.” Bon Bon shook her head. “Honestly, sometimes I don’t know what’s going through that head of hers.”

“Ah.” Berry tried to pay attention as Bon Bon rambled on, but she wasn’t feeling it today. She nodded at what she thought was the appropriate intervals, but her mind focused elsewhere.

When she was a young foal, she wanted to become a nurse. But after failing several classes repeatedly, she wasn’t eligible anymore. She tried to work at the post office, but she kept losing the packages. She also tried to be a gardener, but every plant she tried to grow ended up dying. Janitor, window washer, lifeguard, so many different jobs, fired from all of them. By this point, she had already been through twenty different ones. She couldn’t afford to get fired again.

She looked over and realized that Bon Bon was still going on, mouth gabbing away. Berry raised a hoof. “Sorry to interrupt but…”

“Yes?”

“I’m not feeling so well. I’ll talk with you later, okay?”

“Sure!” Bon Bon reached over to hug Berry. After a goodbye wave, Bon Bon went on her way.

Berry sighed and shuffled back towards home. As she did, voices floated through her brain.

“You’ll never make anything of yourself.”

“You’ll always be a loser.”

“Why bother? You’ll only screw up anyway.”

She tried to ignore the voices, and she trotted a little faster.

“Can’t do nothing right.”

“Always a burden. Nopony wants you.”

“Why are you so useless?”

She wasn’t sure if those were somepony else’s voices or her own, but she clasped her hooves over her ears. “Shut up! Shut up!” she screamed at the air, her trot becoming a gallop. She noticed other ponies looking at her as she ran by, but she didn’t care.

Finally, she made it back home and flung herself onto her bed. The voices had congealed into a buzz. She placed the pillow over her head, but it didn’t help. After several minutes, she proclaimed, “I get it! I’m a loser! I suck. Now shut up!”

The voices didn’t stop, instead growing louder inside her head. “Argh!” Berry shouted, throwing her pillow against the wall. “Fine!” She hopped out of bed and stomped towards the kitchen. Only one thing could silence the voices in her head. She hated it, but it was the only way.

She turned the bottle over in her hooves, took a deep breath, and drank.

The voices gradually faded, then disappeared. For now.

“Ahhh,” Berry sighed in relief.