Cracking the Elements of Harmony

Twilight was walking slowly through the endless corridors of the Canterlot Castle, looking down at her own reflection on the patches of white marble that weren’t covered by an expensive rug or a mosaic. It wouldn’t be long before the hearing would start and each clatter of her hooves against the marble marked a passage of time as accurately as any clock could. Heavy thoughts lingered in her mind and grew stronger with every step she took, with every turn she followed. Something was still missing.

What caused it? Ponies were looking over their shoulders as she passed by without acknowledging them in any way. What was the trigger? Twilight stopped for a moment, her mind spent from making wild guesses as to what could have made Pinkie Pie snap. With a hoof unconsciously stroking her chin, Twilight tried once more to piece together what had happened the last time Pinkie went insane, but the more she thought about how the perceived feeling of being shunned caused the first breakdown, the more she couldn’t understand what could have taken her over the edge this time, especially in such a severe manner. She puffed a burst of air through her nostrils, stomped her hoof to the ground and brought her head up.

She saw that she was now in the middle of a narrow hallway that she didn’t immediately recognize. “Damn it,” she muttered, not quite finishing the sentence to damn herself for getting lost in the castle minutes from the start of the hearing. She looked down the unadorned curve of the hallway, to both sides, trying to see which end had more light going through it – finding the nearest grand hallway with the large stained-glass windows was the easiest way to get your bearings in the castle, and strong light was the first signal to that. Or to the grand halls, which had the same effect.

Might as well go on. She walked on, following the light past the gentle turn until she saw the tall window at the intersection further down. With a gentle trot, and still steaming from having to find her way back in the first place, Twilight reached the end of the hallway and poked her head out. First to the right, No, wrong way, then to the left. So there-

She recognized a small hall in the middle of the larger hallway she had stumbled on. In the middle of it, Shining Armor was saying something to the Guards accompanying him. She hunkered down and watched. Shining waved to the Guards and they went ahead without him, away from Twilight, leaving him to run back to the door in the hall. Twilight took her chance. As soon as the Guards disappeared, she ran toward the room where she had seen Shining go. Without a thought spent second-guessing herself, she burst into the room and closed the door behind her faster than it took Shining Armor to turn around to face her.

“What do you know?!” Twilight nearly shouted. Her lip was twitching from the effort it took to contain the scream she had wanted to let out. The upcoming hearing was the first time she would see Pinkie Pie since the Incident and she suddenly felt the need to know what to expect beyond Pinkie’s confession. And there was only one pony who could give her the information that she could use to fill up the gaps in her theories.

As Commander of the Royal Guards, Shining Armor was leading the investigation. It was the Guards that were going around, searching for clues and questioning everypony that could have held any information on the Incident, and it was his task to present whatever evidence and testimonies that they had collected to the Princesses. Celestia had forbidden him from talking with Twilight, and vice-versa, on the account of their family bond and her relationship with Fluttershy influencing the outcome of the investigation, but no amount of loyalty could stop him from easing his sister’s worries. But now she wanted to know far more than he was willing to reveal..

As soon as the initial shock passed, Shining Armor shook his head in anger toward himself and her request. “I’ve already been telling you too much. We’re not even supposed to be talking about this!”

Twilight wouldn’t be dismayed by the response she knew was coming. She continued in the same tone of voice as before, only calmed down so it didn’t come out as a shout. “You’re the one who knows what’s going on and the next time I see her, she’ll be on the stand, confessing to something she probably didn’t do!”

Shining puffed out his chest and said in the most authoritarian voice he could muster, “I’m sorry, Twiley, but I can’t talk about it – not with you or-”

“Don’t give me that!” Twilight knew her brother well enough to know that he was refusing her plea as a last-ditch effort to reassure himself of his loyalty to Celestia before telling her what she wanted to know. “I may be involved in this, but I’m also your sister! And she’s my friend and I want to know what she’ll be up against.” She stomped her hoof to illustrate her point. Shining Armor was never as clever as Twilight; the furrowed brow and the first signs of stammering were clear signs of his struggle to find a way out of the conversation. Knowing that panic would only lock the knowledge inside him, she forced herself into a calmer state and asked again. “What did the autopsy show?”

Shining shook his head slowly and looked down at the ground. At that moment he knew he had nothing to use against her. He couldn’t defend with an attack – she had been through too much in the last few days; he couldn’t evade her questions by ignoring her, if he hadn’t been able to deny her previous questions. And, at the end of the day, she would know the truth in a few minutes anyway. She’s been through enough, he thought as his mind formed excuses for what he was about to do, Better she hears it from me. Then he looked at Twilight from under his brow and quietly replied.

“There were –“ he paused briefly, hoping that what he was about to say wouldn’t hurt Twilight too deeply; she merely inclined her head forward in expectation. “- small blades and twisted pins in the cookies.” Twilight’s eyes went wide and she slowly moved her head back. “She might have survived that… if it weren’t for the magic.”

Twilight’s mind was firing in all directions. She stared blankly at Shining until it settled down to the most obviously redeeming part of what he had said. She was even quietly confident that by pointing out the obvious, she would get Pinkie a step closer to freedom, even if it meant indirectly questioning her brother’s very competence.

“But Pinkie isn’t a unicorn,” she said, very quietly.

Instead of the look of stupefying clarity that she expected, Shining looked at her with a pitying smile. He knew she was going to say that and now he had to explain everything. The sanctions he would face if anypony were listening in on their conversation were buried deep beneath the knowledge that what he would say would destroy Twilight. But not before she would go through the kind of denial such that she would likely end up blaming him for Pinkie’s inevitable sentence.

“I know Twiley, I know.” He let out a deep sigh as Twilight perked her ears. “We found a book at the Sugarcube Corner, hidden amongst all the cooking books. Something to do with creating spells and potions out of natural materials.” Twilight’s mouth opened slightly and her stare was becoming ever more distant, until it was going straight through Shining. He knew she was struggling to comprehend what he was saying so he continued, rather than giving her the option of creating preemptive theories and excuses. “We think Pinkie used a transformation potion when she made the cookies. Fluttershy never knew what she was eating. And then…”

His strategy worked, but only in returning Twilight back to the room they were standing in. Her mind was letting the words through, but worked overtime on any possible explanation. She was already prepared to object, until he left the last sentence hanging like that. Her breathing slowed down in anticipation of what he had to say and she once again looked at him, rather than through him. He answered, knowing that asking “What?” directly would drain her of too much power.

“They turned back to normal after she ate them, Twiley. And then they –“ he coughed into his hoof to mask the pain in his voice, “- we don’t completely know how she did this but - they heated up. Like steel in a furnace.” He didn’t like the analogy, but the years of military service had narrowed his focus. With a raspy voice, he concluded, “They cut and burned right through her, Twiley,” as the pain of knowing what his words were doing to Twilight gripped his heart. But Twilight showed no signs of pain as she imagined the events unfolding with scientific curiosity. She was left standing, her face expressing nothing but the fact she was lost deep in thoughts. She didn’t hear his later questions. She was no longer listening to anypony. She merely made a step to the door, but by the time she made the second, she had already lunged into a full-on sprint.

“Twiley, stop! Where are you…”

She could barely see where she was going, as tears clouded her vision, but she ran straight past the grand hall where the first hearing of the trial was to be held. She ran through the corridors of the Canterlot Castle, past Guards, past curious ponies who had come to see the first murder trial in decades. The sight of the crying, running princess excited them even more, although every one of them hid it behind a veil of compassion. Finally, Twilight burst through the door of the Royal Chambers.

“WHERE IS HE?!” she shouted at the princess, the thirst for blood in her voice far outweighing the anger. “WHERE’S DISCORD?!”

Princess Celestia calmly lowered her head and motioned for the two Royal Guards that had come for a final briefing before the hearing, to leave. As soon as they carefully rounded Twilight and closed the door behind them, Celestia replied.

“I had assumed this would happen. But I feel your rage is-” She had wanted to say unjustified, but after a moment’s pause, she chose a more fitting word for it, “- misplaced.” She walked closer to Twilight who was angrily staring at her, and said in a motherly voice, “I know how much harm it has done to you, but you are not alone in your suffering.” She gave Twilight a gentle hug and walked past her to the door, then looked back at her as a sign to follow.

They walked through the Canterlot castle and onward to the Statue Garden behind it. The sounds of crying were growing louder with every step and Twilight recognized the voice immediately. A few turns past the labyrinth-like shrubbery of the garden later, and the sight in front of her dispelled most of the anger she was waiting to unleash. Leaning against the pedestal that had once displayed him to the world, Discord was crying his eyes out. He was pale blue, with red and orange colors of aggression occasionally showing through random locations on his strange body. But it was the tears that showed the true extent of his suffering. They weren’t comically large or flowing like a waterfall. They weren’t water at all. Flowing as a thick paste out of his eyes was a yellow-green slime, similar to snot. For once, the draconequus had no intention of masking his true self behind a veil of comedy, unleashing instead his full pain to the world around him. Forming a bubble around him was a familiar pink force field.

“The moment I received the news regarding Fluttershy, I sent for him,” Celestia whispered to Twilight while keeping her gaze firmly fixed on the creature ahead. “He will remain here until we resolve what has happened.”

As the sun was approaching the tops of faraway hills, a disappointed and exhausted Twilight was leaving the grand hall, Applejack walking beside her. The hearing had provided no new answers. Pinkie Pie had maintained her guilt, and everypony else had told their part of the story, the only exception being Mrs. Cake, who had been so shocked by the events that her mind had blotted out most of that day. Pinkie’s fate would be known in a few days, and it was with doubt in her mind and a heavy heart beating to each breath she took that Celestia ordered for Pinkie to return to the dungeon where she had spent the days leading up to the hearing. Celestia, Luna, Shining Armor, Twilight, Applejack, and everyone else who knew even the most basic facts of the Incident knew that there was nothing that could be proven.

They did not have the motive for the attack, or proof of intention. They didn’t have any hard evidence either. The book they had found at Sugarcube Corner had no specific recipe, chant or ritual with which Pinkie could have executed her plan, but it did mention procedures similar enough to be considered a possible instruction manual. To make matters worse, they had no proof that Pinkie could have ever used the book in question in the first place and no reasonable explanation for why she had warned the others and why she had insisted on taking them to see Fluttershy. They didn’t have anything to disprove her guilt, either. In fact, apart from some circumstantial evidence, they only had one thing - her never ending confession, even if she hadn’t provided any details.

In the end, it was the law of Equestria that forced the Princess to send her to the dungeon, at least until more evidence came to light and a true verdict could be formed. For everypony living outside Canterlot that had attended the hearing it was now time to leave. Twilight walked with Applejack to the waiting Royal chariot, two Pegasi Guards waiting to pull it back to Ponyville.

One thing became clear the moment they walked out of the castle and the doors closed behind them - Applejack was no longer able to keep her emotion completely in check, but was now merely maintaining enough control over her body to allow only sporadic tears to form, then wiping them off at regular intervals. She was leaning on Twilight ever so slightly the whole way to the chariot. Twilight was calmly walking next to her, feeling nothing but the tiniest amount of joy for Applejack. As much as she hated herself for it, she was happy to see that Applejack had finally released some of the emotions that she had been bottling up for so long, acting the part of the immovable wall on which others could lean. And now it was her time to lean on somepony else.

They were climbing onto the chariot in complete silence when a Royal Guard slammed his way out of the castle and galloped toward them in long strides while shouting for Princess Twilight. By the time she managed to turned back to look at him, he was already at the chariot, handing her a piece of paper with a strange red smudge on it.

“Her majesty, Princess Celestia, has instructed me to give you this and to tell you to leave for Ponyville urgently. She said you would know where to go and the she will keep an eye on Discord until she hears from you. I am to accompany you.”

In the few seconds it took him to recite the instructions, Twilight had already seen the contents of the paper and had understood their meaning. There was nothing written on the paper. Instead, it was a simple drawing of a butterfly. A drawing made by tracing a line of blood on the paper.

“Come on!” she shouted as she pushed Applejack onto the chariot and jumped in behind her. “To Fluttershy’s cottage!”

The flight to the cottage was the longest flight Twilight had ever experienced. They didn’t approach Ponyville – they swam toward it through the clouds and the heavy air that pressed against her body and squeezed her lungs. Even as the first buildings became distinguishable, they seemed to pull against the chariot with their mere presence, desperately trying to prevent it from reaching its destination. When the cottage appeared, Twilight was already flexing the muscles in her legs to jump off, and even before the chariot landed, she did just that. As soon as they were close enough to the ground, Applejack followed suit and the Royal Guard wasn’t far behind. The three of them were already inside the cottage while the Pegasi were still unstrapping themselves from the harnesses.

“Spike!”

“Spike! We’re here!”

Twilight flew upstairs in search of the dragon that had sent her the message. Applejack first went into the kitchen. The Guards had split up; the Pegasi were searching the outside of the cottage, the other one was going through the ground floor of the house.

“He’s not here!” Twilight shouted as she returned from above. Applejack had come to the same conclusion and was running from the kitchen, when she noticed the door to the basement. She stopped suddenly and jumped to it. Twilight, who had noticed Applejack’s sudden shift in direction, followed her into the only remaining place where Spike could be.

Their combined shadows blocked the light to the basement, but even before Twilight illuminated the space around them, they had already seen a faint outline of a small dragon at the far end of the basement. But it was only now that they heard the faint echoes of whimpers resonating through the air around them. “Spike-“ And it was only now, with the basement fully lit, that they saw the mangled remains of a pony just ahead of Spike. White patches of fur still clung to pieces of flesh, but they were far and few between. Most of the mane had survived though, even though its owner would scoff at its current scruffy state. The one thing they simply hadn’t had the chance to notice, though, were thousands of tiny red dots going in every direction away from the body.

Spike was sitting in a pool of blood, shivering. His pouch with the paper for the Royal Letters was dumped nearby, most of its contents soaking in the blood. Twilight wanted to jump to him. To hold him and protect him against what he was seeing. To shield him from all the evil of the world. But she couldn’t. As Applejack froze at the sight of Rarity, Twilight felt as if each of her hooves was chained to the stairway behind her. She took slow, individual, steps, breaking the chains on each hoof every time she lifted it off the ground, only to have the chain materialize again as soon as it touched the ground. Countless thoughts flashed through her mind. She wanted to scream and kick and cry for Rarity, and she wanted to protect Spike from what he had already seen at the same time. She wanted to thrash the basement in pure rage at whomever – or whatever – was doing this, and merely to hug the baby dragon in front of her until both their worries would go away. Before she could get any closer, though, something happened that overruled any previous thought.

Rarity twitched. And then again. As if the fog had lifted, both Twilight and Applejack rushed to her, taking no note of the blood they were stomping through. “Rarity! Rarity, can you hear me?” “We’re here Rarity, we’re here! Just hold on!” They spoke over each other as they leaned down to her, Twilight already preparing her healing spell. As she concentrated on enveloping Rarity, Applejack shouted out at the top of her lungs, straight through Spike, “Get a doctor! In the basement! Get a doctor!” As the sound of fast-paced hoofsteps echoed in from above, and one of as Guards appeared at the stairway to the basement, wanting to assess situation himself, Applejack finally looked at Spike.

Spike was sitting in the puddle of blood, looking down at it, but his gaze was going well past the reflections in the blood. He was trembling, clutching his claws as if he we grabbing some invisible objects, his head gently rocking back and forth in motions only seen from up close. He was moving his jaw, opening and closing it ever so slightly, and Applejack took a slow step toward him. She wasn’t sure how he would react to her or if he had even recognized their presence.

“Spike?”

He continued his reflexive movements, but the first hints of speech were forming at his mouth. Applejack took another half-step toward him. She wanted to bring him out of his state with the same question as before, but mouthed it instead. In the silence of the basement, broken only by the heavy, panic-induced breathing of Twilight Sparkle behind her, she now finally heard what Spike was saying.

“I was too late. I was too late. I was too late…”