Winona was a good girl.

She’d always known it. Her best friend had told her so, from the days when the world was so much bigger, till right now. Over and over, so many times, that Winona was a good girl. 

Winona knew there’d been times she’d caused a whole heap of trouble. She just got carried away sometimes. Things were so wonderful and exciting and next thing you know there was a big crash and sharp things everywhere! That day, she learned not to play with the hanging blanket on the table. 

She remembered the very first time, back in the days that her best friend was smaller too, when she went inside instead of outside. She’d soon learned what was for doing [i]inside[/i], and what was for doing [i]outside[/i]. And each and every time she caused trouble, even if she got scolded till her ears were back and her tail tucked, she was forgiven. Then there’d be a hoof petting her, or a stick to fetch, a ball to chase, and always, always that she was a good girl.

Sticks weren’t supposed to chase you back. But the world could be a funny place, couldn’t it?

Winona had a good life. Summer after summer spent amidst the apple groves, having a nap while her family worked. She’d keep an ear out, though, in case varmints needed chasing off. Sometimes something didn’t smell quite right, and she had to bark and bark and bark until somepony came to investigate. They didn’t always understand, but that was okay. They always found a way to listen when it really mattered.

Sometimes, though, they didn’t listen quite soon enough. Especially the little Apple. She was a good girl, just like Winona. And just like Winona, she could cause a lot of trouble. Winona understood that. They were a lot alike, so sometimes when the little Apple was sitting in her room being punished, Winona went to sit with her. She wanted the little Apple to know she understood. That Winona would do anything for her.
That Winona would protect her.

The little Apple wasn’t supposed to go into the woods, Winona knew that. She’d barked when she saw her heading there, but nopony had been round to hear her. So she’d followed. She ran after her till she caught up, but by then they were in the woods. Winona had started being quiet then. She’d stayed quiet until things started to smell wrong, and that’s when she whined. She wanted the little Apple to turn around, to go home. But she hadn’t. She kept going. She only stopped when Winona started to growl. She only really listened when the bad-smelling sticks arrived.

Winona did what she had to do. She got between the little Apple and the sticks, and she barked as loud as she ever had. She growled and she yapped and she hollered. When the sticks kept coming closer, she bit.

But the sticks bit back. And it hurt. It hurt like nothing had ever hurt before, but that didn’t matter. If she didn’t ignore the hurt, the sticks would hurt the little Apple too. And when it was done, the sticks were scattered across the forest and Winona was aching and it was going to be okay. It was going to be okay. The little Apple was listening now, and they were going to go home.

The sticks put themselves back together again. Winona was really hurting, but she did what she had to do and bit and shook the sticks until they were scattered again and again and again. They kept putting themselves back together. They kept biting and scratching Winona until she couldn’t see right, till she couldn’t walk right, till she wasn’t sure she could even get up anymore.
But she still got up. Finally, she bit one of the sticks and didn’t let go. She bit down hard even when it started to pull to try to go back to the other sticks. She wouldn’t let it. She laid there and kept that stick bit tight. She kept her family safe.

She bit till her best friend was there telling her it was okay to let go. She wagged her tail to say it was alright because she couldn’t bark anymore. Eventually, the nice yellow pony was there too. She gave Winona something cold to drink, something that made her sleepy. That was good. She wanted to sleep, now.

Winona was a good girl.