Cracking the Elements of Harmony

The Royal Guards arrived at the small clearing in the middle of Everfree minutes after Rainbow and Twilight had gotten there, their hearts pounding as they chased down the last living bearers of the Elements of Harmony, but as soon as they set hoof in the clearing, the lead Guard stopped abruptly. The morning fog, slowly dissipating with the rising temperatures, was shaping the sight in front of him into a scene from a theater play. To the edge of the clearing, glistening from the fog, and wrapped in a layer of magic, was a bloody figure that his brain refused to recognize as a pony. Next to it were the two ponies they had been following; Twilight, creating the life-saving spell while looking at the strange form, jaw shaking and tears in her eyes, and Rainbow Dash, who was just now turning her head toward him. She had a look of anxiety in her tear-filled eyes, as if she had been waiting for the arrival of the Guards to release her of the burden of staying still. The Guards behind him were coming to a stop, and he was about to take a step forward to move out of their way, when Rainbow flew toward him, shouting all the way.

“It’s about time!” She came to a hover in front of him and pointed to Twilight. “Get over there!” She then turned to the two Guards directly behind him. “You two, come with me! We have to catch it!” At that point, she turned and started flying back to Twilight, when a shout from behind stopped her.

“Wait!” There was a sense of urgency and fear in the traditionally heavy tone of the Guard. As Rainbow turned back, she saw the Guards rushing past below her, running in an ever expanding circle to establish a defensive perimeter. Only their leader was standing still, looking at her, pleading. “There’s an entire platoon coming behind us,” he looked at her with fears in his eyes and talked in a calmer voice than before, “but we need to bring you back. Alive.”

He knew that there was no catching Rainbow Dash, should she decide to fly off into the woods by herself. At the same time, he kept seeing the look on Shining’s face when he was shouting orders from the ascending chariot. There was pain there, and despair. There was no doubt in the Guard’s mind that bringing Twilight and Rainbow back to the castle was the single most important mission he had ever received. The brief mention of Applejack’s name at the end of the rapid briefing told him only that she was presumed dead. He had followed the orders to the letter – one Guard flew into Ponyville to gather the platoon stationed there and that platoon was to search every last nook and cranny in the Everfree, as the Pegasi would fly over the tops of trees. One way, or another, both Applejack and Zecora would be found. But here, now, there was only one thing on his mind; to bring the two ponies in front of him home. His mind was still doing everything in its power to divert his thoughts from Applejack.

For a brief moment, Rainbow contemplated what he had said, her eyes twitching ever so slightly as the options of fighting or fleeing fought for dominance. She knew what had mutilated Applejack – Twilight had correctly read the bite marks - but she also knew who was really behind the attack, even if the exact method of controlling the manticore remained a mystery to Twilight herself, let alone Rainbow Dash. She knew that flying off for the manticore meant dragging the Guards into mortal danger, despite that same word having never appeared in a thought about her own well-being, but the Guards would eventually go through the forest anyway, so the battle was unavoidable. Only this time, she could take part in the hunt. And she was already planning precisely what kind of injuries she was going to inflict on the beast, as killing it was out of the question before Zecora would be found. With a clear vision of the battle in her head, she responded to the Guard.

“Did you see Applejack?” The Guard’s mouth barely moved before she continued. “No, right? Well, there she is,” she pointed to Twilight once more, then to the trees further back, “And the thing that did that is out there.”

With a measured flap of her powerful wings, she turned in place and flew toward Twilight, ears already searching out for any sounds beyond the fog that impaired her vision. The shouts of the Guard went by her as if they were intended for somepony else, but a quiet, tear-stained sound from below stopped her again.

“Stop. Please stop.”

Rainbow Dash came to a halt and looked down. Twilight was looking back up at her, tears flowing from her eyes in a gentle, barely noticeable stream. The halo of the magic was endlessly spreading from her horn and onto Applejack, slowly draining the power of one to close the wounds of another. Next to her, Applejack was looking through her eyelids in two thin slits; she was exhausted beyond any measure, the only thing maintaining her will to observe the world around her being the sense of dread that the creature would return and that she would not be awake to see it coming. She was staring at the same two trees, from whence it came, unblinking, and feeling nothing but dread. Yet she was breathing as calmly as if she was going to bed, her heart slowing down with every moment. A small part of her mind knew that she was safe as Twilight’s magic closed the wounds and numbed the pain. But Twilight could only maintain the protective field in near perfect concentration.

“Please. Don’t go,” Twilight added before returning her gaze back to Applejack.

From the few simple words, Rainbow Dash understood what Twilight had gone through. There was no desire for revenge in her voice, only the determination to keep Applejack alive. But there was a clear note of surrender, even if only temporary; a desire to keep any harm at bay by hiding under the nearest rock or, as it was, in the knowledge that at least Rainbow was still unharmed. There was nothing that Rainbow could counter with. While she had been sulking and fighting an imaginary battle in her mind, Twilight had worked to understand what had happened, had stood by the side of their friends, and had seen them reduced to nothing – including me, Rainbow suddenly thought. She landed on the ground and looked at Applejack and Twilight as the Guards finished their formation. The sound of dozens of heavy hooves reached her ear.

The platoon arrived; Royal Guards armed to the teeth and wearing steel armor in place of their usual gold. Streaks of cyan moved over the armor in waves, letting all opponents know that Celestia had had a hoof in enchanting it. They were only the first part of a greater operation that would see the wildlife of Everfree flee, regardless of its own size, from the advancing army. But for now, securing Zecora’s hut and the passage through the forest was the first priority. As part of the platoon continued on, the Pegasi readying to take flight to cover them from above, and the other part stopped to escort the three ponies through the forest, the Pegasus Guard approached for a final time.

“There’s a chariot waiting just outside the forest to take you back to Canterlot.” He spoke to Rainbow and Twilight, not knowing if Applejack could even hear him through the field. The chariot wasn’t able to fly in, as the Pegasi hadn’t been, which left Twilight, Rainbow and the waiting unit of Royal Guards with the difficult task of moving Applejack through the dangerous forest path back to the outskirts of Ponyville. Only this time, it wasn’t dangerous because of the wildlife, but because of its very nature. The uneven terrain, dotted with slippery mud and stones, hidden beneath leaves, would force them to slow down to a crawl, even with the few unicorns using their magic to levitate Applejack as Twilight would continue sealing her wounds. There would be no room for a misstep. But despite the message that revealed the difficult journey ahead, the Guard spoke with a faint tone of hope, his eyes revealing the quiet happiness he felt by knowing that the three ponies would return back to Canterlot safely. Rainbow understood the reasons behind the chariot not arriving here, but Twilight raised her head, so he answered before she could waste her any of her energy, “The fog is too thick and the trees are too wild. They can’t fly through it all to get here.”

With a nod of understanding, Twilight shifted back to Applejack. Rainbow hadn’t moved her eyes away at all. She saw flashes of Applejack’s life, as she had experienced them; of all the contests they had entered, of all the adventures they had been on and even of mundane moments she would never have thought about otherwise - the memory of casually observing a hard-working Applejack high up from a cloud was the most persistent. When the Guards from the platoon came to them, she didn’t hear the words they spoke. She only knew that a rainbow-like halo had formed beneath Applejack, below Twilight’s own, and that Applejack was levitated away, Twilight moving along with her. When Twilight’s voice cut through the stream of thoughts, all Rainbow could do was to reply, “I’m coming – I’ll be right behind!” She barely glanced away from the puddle of blood before her to look at Twilight.

She suddenly heard the flapping of wings from the Pegasi taking off, and the sound of hooves slowly – very slowly – moving away from her. In a slow, uncertain motion, she got back up on her hooves, her eyes planted on the ground in front of her the whole time. Her mind traced out the outline of Applejack’s body, as it lay in the puddle, with darker patches of blood serving as markers as to her exact position; a blood-filed indentation from her knee, a darker smear from the side of her head pressing against the ground. Rainbow Dash took a step to the side, away from Twilight and the rest, away from the blood before her. Then, with only the smallest traces of fear and pain remaining visible in her eyes, her cheeks, and her lips, she lowered her head in line with her back and began vomiting. She didn’t stop until she was ready to drop to the ground, but before she could do that, two of the Guards had already braced her, waiting for her to finish before they carried her away.

Meanwhile, in the padded dungeon cell below the Canterlot Castle, Pinkie Pie had just received her breakfast. The moment the plate slid through the slit at the bottom of the steel door, the Guard closed the lower slit, as well as the square opening at his eye-level. During the night, the upper opening served as the source of light from the hallway, now its job was done as the Sun brought in light from the barred window to the outside, just below the ceiling. As the Guard walked away from the cell, he heard muffled sounds coming from behind the door, but by now he was used to it. Pinkie Pie had had the habit of murmuring to herself before, and after Twilight’s last visit, it had only grown more frequent and eloquent, until she was having outright conversations with the only other thing in the cell – the empty necklace of her Element of Harmony. The Guard turned his right ear back in an automatic response, then brought it back forward, shaking his head ever so slightly at the noises coming from behind.
Ever since she had received the necklace, Pinkie’s mood had been on an upswing. Her mane was still deflated, and there were sparks of sorrow in her eyes, but her demeanor told a different story; her movements were now more rapid, although nowhere near as fast as when she was herself, and there was a heavy dose of excitement in her sad voice.

“Come on Goldie!” She poked the necklace with her hoof. “Stop playing around. Breakfast is here!”

The necklace sat on the floor, unmoving, so Pinkie rolled her eyes sarcastically, muttering “Then be like that,” to herself. She turned to the plate and the three closed containers on it. One was a small pitcher of water, meant to last until lunch, another was the take-away-like paper box with whatever the breakfast of the day was, and the final one was a smaller box with a slice of cake. The last one was Twilight’s way of making sure Pinkie was as comfortable in the prison as she could be, and hoping that things from her past would trigger the buried memories in Pinkie’s mind. There were only two ways out of the dungeon - for Pinkie to normalize and recant her previous confessions, or for the real perpetrator to be found. Until at least the first would happen, Pinkie was far too great a danger to herself alone to be left out, even if Celestia would bypass the very laws she had written centuries ago.

“I’m sorry, Pinkie!” the necklace suddenly said in a clown-like voice, “I must have dozed off for a moment.” A soft chuckle followed.

“It’s all right!” Pinkie replied, turning her head back to the necklace moments before taking a bite out of the dried fruits in the paper box. “Would you like some?” She turned back and dug in, knowing the answer to that question. Goldie was never hungry.

“Now that you mention it,” Goldie said in a voice that held a small amount of uncertainty and shame for requesting it, causing Pinkie to turn back, mouth full and a quizzed look on her face, “I am feeling a tad thirty.” Goldie smacked her lips that were made up of the outer edges of the indentation for the missing Element of Harmony. Pinkie Pie spat some of the food out, a rush of guilt surging through her.

“Of course!” Pinkie stammered around, overturning the box with the fruit and crushing the cake underneath her bandaged hooves. She grabbed the pitcher and brought it to Goldie, then lowered it down and started pouring. “Here you go!” she smiled widely, but the water soon filled the crevice and overflowed. Pinkie stopped and looked in wonder at the necklace, now sitting on a soaked pillow-shaped pad of the soft floor. A lone thought in her mind, buried beneath millions of others, pushed to the surface, telling her the sight below her wasn’t right, but the thought soon got entangled in the web of others and was washed away by the chaos inside Pinkie’s mind. She shook her head and returned to her previous state of illusion-crafted happiness, then leaned down to the necklace. “How silly of me! Let me dry you off.”

“Oh, it’s all right, Pinkie,” Goldie said as Pinkie lifted him up, allowing the water to flow from his mouth and using the bandages on her hooves to dry him off. As soon as he was dried up, Goldie continued with a more serious tone, wanting more. “Thank you Pinkie. But I’m a bit cold; why don’t you put me down where it’s warm?”

There really was only one place in the cell where it was warmer than the rest, and Pinkie knew exactly where Goldie wanted her to put him, even if he didn’t have hooves and eyes to indicate it. She looked at the spot, then back at him with a huge grin on her face, that served both as an apology to what she had done and the sign that she would do anything to make Goldie feel better. With a gentle swing, she brought Goldie around and put him down on the ground where the split beam of the rising sun fell from the barred window. The rays hit the gold of the necklace, making it sparkle violently. It was a sight Pinkie greeted with lifted eyebrows and twinkles of amazement in her eyes. Now in the warm embrace of the sun, Goldie chuckled again and said, as if asking one final favor, “But I am still thirsty. Could you pour a few drops on my dried-up lips?”

Pinkie nodded enthusiastically, then grabbed the pitcher and carefully filled up the mouth of the necklace with water. Most of it dripped out again, but enough remained pooled inside the indentation for her to consider it a success. Then she turned back to fruit, scattered on the ground near the door, and was about to go back to eating her breakfast, when Goldie spoke again.

“Say, Pinkie?” She turned her head, bewildered at the clarity of his sound. How can you talk with your mouth full? was the question in her mind, but before she could swallow her food to ask it, Goldie was already answering her question, quickly saying in a dismissive tone, “Oh, I don’t need my mouth to speak, just as I don’t need eyes to see.” Surprised by the answer, Pinkie raised a single eyebrow and looked at the necklace, but the very next moment, she grew a smile.

“You’re just full of surprises!” she happily said, as soon as she swallowed her food. She pointed her hoof at Goldie. “I bet you could teach Twilight a thing or two!”

“Oh,” came the amused response from Goldie, “I’m sure I could.” There was pride in his voice and pleasure at hearing those words. “Why don’t I show you another trick?”

Pinkie bounced over to the necklace, although the small size of the cell meant it was more a single joyous leap. “Mhm!”

“Why don’t you turn me around a little?” Goldie said. Pinkie looked at him for a second, then moved to pick it up. “No!” The scream was harsher than Goldie had intended, and Pinkie’s reaction to it was to stop mid-move and backtrack slightly. “No,” Goldie said in an apologetic tone, “No, that’s not what I meant. Sorry I shouted. Just twist me around, but do it slowly.”

Pinkie Pie put her hooves to the ornate sides of the necklace and turned it around, as instructed. The light from the sun occasionally reflected from the gold into her eyes, making her blink in response, but for Goldie’s happiness, it was a small price to pay. She didn’t know how far she would have to turn Goldie, and was about to ask him when to stop, when a single beam of light cut through the lesser-lit part of the cell, the sunrays having reflected from the water on the necklace and the ornate shapes of the indentation for the Element of Harmony, converging in a single point on the padded wall of the cell. Goldie’s shout to stop was unnecessary - the bright sight in front of her had already distracted Pinkie enough.

“Wooooo!” she hummed, looking at the beam crossing the room.

“I’m glad you like it. You see, Pinkie Pie, I thought we could have a barbecue.”

“A barbecue?” Pinkie asked, turning back to Goldie. As she did that, a black dot appeared where the beam was striking the fabric on the wall.

“Yes, Pinkie, a barbecue!” Goldie said joyously, before explaining. “I’ve seen the things you eat and I think it’s terribly dull. So let’s bake that fruit into something more tasty!”

Pinkie’s face lit up. “Yeah, the stuff I’ve been eating was so dull!” She briefly stuck her tongue out and cringed, then happily asked, “But where’s the barbecue?” The black dot behind her was growing, and a slim stream of smoke started rising from it.

“It’s right there Pinkie, behind you!”

Pinkie looked at the wall, but she didn’t see the black dot growing in size. What she saw was a bona fide fireplace made from red bricks that curved around the logs inside. There were painted images of balloons on the inner most bricks and plates for cakes sitting near the opening. It struck her as strange that the fireplace should be built into the wall so high from the ground, just below the ceiling, but it was a fireplace, and that was all that mattered. One of the logs grew a red dot that started spreading, and she thought it was strange how quickly the glowing edge moved through the wood; more quickly than any log had ever burned before, only this one was still only smoldering. Goldie made a faint grumbling noise, but she was too enchanted by the glow to look at him. A bright spark suddenly travelled pass her on the beam of light, and when it struck the log, the fire started. Pinkie started jumping up and down from excitement, clapping her hooves.

“There. Now we roast,” was the calm reply from Goldie, and it was only now that she noticed Goldie had lost his clown-like tone. She looked at him.

“Roast? Don’t you mean grill?”

Goldie let out a short, but genuinely hearty laugh. Then, with a voice changing into something very familiar, he answered. “No Pinkie, no. I don’t like to grill. It takes all the fun out of making a meal. Oh, I even tried baking once, but that didn’t turn out so well.” He waited for a second as Pinkie’s mind struggled to form a connection between the sound and a face amidst all the madness still going through it. “Turns out ponies can’t digest blades. Huh. Who knew?”

Pinkie’s thoughts were suddenly clear, and there was only one thing she saw – Fluttershy. Every trace of happiness and hope that she had gained was wiped away, and she once again bore no sign of her normal self, instead looking at Goldie with tearing eyes, waiting for the next words to hurt her. She was ready to accept any punishment for what she had done, her mind having discarded the actual words Goldie had said and leaving only the thought of Fluttershy behind. But the punishment didn’t come, something far more surprising did.

“Oh, yes. You see, Pinkie, it wasn’t you who killed Fluttershy. I don’t really know why you think that.” Pinkie’s eyes focused as the words contradicted her expectations, and now she was focusing to hear more. “What you did was… fairly stupid, but if anything, you merely shortened her suffering. Honestly, Pinkie, did you really think a running hug was any way to make her feel better?” Images began flashing before Pinkie’s eyes, but not before she heard the knowingly ignorant reply that Goldie had given himself. “Hmm, well I guess you did.”

As the day of the Incident played out in individual scenes in Pinkie’s mind, the smoke was starting to whirl through the window. The hallway to the cells remained as calm as ever, though, the airtight fit of the doors and the openings on them ensuring that not even the stench of smoke was noticed by the Guards patrolling the dungeons. The flames spread through the fabric of the walls with a passion only fire can produce, swirling and engulfing every patch of padding that wasn’t yet on fire. Pinkie Pie, meanwhile, was once again running toward Fluttershy, old thoughts playing over old memories. Why is she staring at me like that? She’s shaking! And she’s scared! It’s worse than I thought. But I can help her! It was the moment before she had pushed herself from the ground to embrace Fluttershy in a hug only Pinkie could give. It was a second before she had wrapped her hooves around Fluttershy, as the Pegasus made an awkward move to escape. And it was no more than two seconds before they had both fallen to the ground, Pinkie wondering what the strange sound was the Fluttershy had made – a short whimper, combined with a violent burst of air and the sound of gushing liquid.

The next scene she saw was Fluttershy clutching her belly, blood pouring from it and more spewing through her mouth and nose. Up until this moment, Pinkie had been convinced that the hug she had given to Fluttershy was the reason behind her death. And everything everypony said didn’t matter, because she was the only one there so she must have been the killer. Only now, the words of Goldie combined with what she finally noticed in the scenes playing out in her mind. Fluttershy wasn’t scared of me. She was hurt. For the first time in days, there was clarity in Pinkie’s mind, with a single thought now dominating. I didn’t kill her.

Her mane inflated back to normal the moment she thought that, but now anger replaced self-loathing. “You!” she screamed at the necklace, hoof pointing, “You killed Fluttershy!”

A cough followed the scream, the smoke from the fire growing too large for the small window to evacuate. With her senses restored, Pinkie Pie felt heat for the first time, accompanied by an overwhelming smell of burning wax. As the first drop of sweat fell from her forehead, Goldie started laughing hysterically, the sound bouncing of the padded walls as if they were steel. But Pinkie soon noticed that it wasn’t an echo that moved all around her, but the source of the sound itself. For a brief moment, she looked at the necklace, now lying lifelessly on the floor, and saw strange shapes reflected in its golden skin. Bright, curvy stripes were dancing on it, disappearing and reappearing randomly. A crackling sound was cutting into the manic laughter. She turned around, remembering the promise of a fireplace and suddenly realizing that she was in a small cell, not outside.

The fire had engulfed the wall behind her, flames licking at the ceiling and the walls around her, the fire spreading even downward to the floor. Pinkie moved backward until she hit the soft wall behind her. She stared with wide eyes at the growing inferno, the fires moving toward her, spits of flames poking at the window to her left, a stream of fire forging a path above the door to her right. There was surprisingly little smoke, but the heat was becoming unbearable. She felt it press down on the skin below her fur, and in the air entering her lungs. Sweat was pouring around her muzzle, evaporating before it could fall to the ground, and all of this was accompanied by the never ending laughter. Her throat was going dry, forcing a reflex to swallow her saliva, but there was none. She opened her mouth and mouthed, “Why?” and the response was rapid.

“Now, now, my dear Pinkie, no need to be greedy. I already told you that you didn’t kill Fluttershy, so now you can die happy! What more do you want of me?” The voice was playfully accusing. As the flames spread across the ceiling and the upper parts of walls, Pinkie hunkered down to the ground, pushing herself into the wall behind and the floor below. She could hear the fizzling of hair as her mane came into contact with the ever greater heat. In a final salute to a dying enemy, the voice solemnly said, “I’ll tell you what. So that you don’t burn alive, I’ll allow you to take your own life.” The necklace came flying toward her. The pain, when it hit her nose, wasn’t from the weight, but from the immense heat now contained in the gold. The necklace suddenly snapped in half, revealing sharp, glowing edges on both parts. “Goodbye!”

With a strange noise, a mixture of glass breaking and a bubble popping, the voice disappeared. Pinkie glanced at the makeshift blades, then jerked her head around the room to search for any way to escape. The barred window had long been engulfed, but she had no way of knowing if anypony would notice the flames spitting out of her cell, or how long it would take them to rescue her. Jumping through it was impossible either way; the glowing bars reminded her of that. On the other side, the door was no longer visible behind the wall of fire that slowly spread toward her. She looked again at the necklace and around the room, only now the heat was making it hard to breathe. With shallow breaths she frantically looked around, with the questions of how to escape mixing with the determined thoughts that she would not use the blades. But the heat only increased and there was nowhere to go. She looked at the necklace again.

“No!” she shouted, inadvertently raising her head into the boiling air above. She recoiled from the pain, but when she pressed her head into the ground, she saw her lifeline. Or better yet, she didn’t see it. Glowing bars… went through her head as she realized she couldn’t see the glow of the door. It was a much larger piece of metal than the bars and it had less flames to shine through, since there was less padding around it to burn, yet she saw only flames. It’s enchanted! was the second part of the revelation. She knew now that the Guard patrolling the hallway had no way of knowing what was going on behind the door. To him, everything would remain normal, until somepony would alert the Guards about the flames going through the window. And the path the dungeons was long. Pinkie knew now that she had to get the Guard’s attention and there was only one way to do it. Fortune, at least, was on her side. The ceiling was in flames, as were large parts of the walls, but the floor was catching fire at a much slower rate. A quick dash-and-kick was all that was needed.

Going against every instinct and fear, Pinkie Pie jumped to the center of the cell. Even as she flew through the air before hitting the ground, she felt her body enveloped in a searing hot blanket. The sound and smell of burning hair intensified, but she had no time to stop. She gritted her teeth and, as soon as her front hooves hit the ground, swung her legs toward the door and kicked. Flames licked her hooves from the sides and above, burning away hair and touching the skin below. After just two kicks, Pinkie ran back to the sanctuary at the bottom of the wall. She let out a grateful sigh. Her legs had burn marks on them, and blisters were already forming above her hooves, but now she was back in the coolest part of the cell, even if she would have likened it to a sauna any other day.

She hoped the Guard wasn’t too far away to miss the bangs, but after a few seconds, the only result was a wall of fire that was now much closer than it had been before. Once again, she started feeling the heat, only this time, the flames were nearly above her. She felt her skin going dry beneath the fur, and there were no more tears of sweat moving down her face. Her tongue was like a rolled up strip of sandpaper, and the exposed blisters above her hooves were starting to hurt. Only it wasn’t the pain of the blisters themselves, but of fire being added to the wound. She pulled her legs in and curled up in a ball, but the effect was minimal. Not a second later, she saw a spark flash in her mane, before a whole strip of it ignited, burning rapidly, the hairs turning to ash moments later. She screamed, only to feel patches of her fur following that example. Unlike the mane, when they burned, it hurt, the fire briefly passing over her skin each time. And the parts of fur that didn’t ignite immediately fizzled away, leaving behind skin, exposed to the heat all around.

Pinkie Pie clenched her teeth and tightened her muscles, making herself as small as possible, but the searing pain of fire now reaching her body intensified with each passing moment, countless blisters forming in its wake. She could feel her skin being torn apart at places where there was too much heat, but the pain now went far below the skin, and for the first time ever, she felt every one of her muscles and the bones beneath them. The muscles were starting to seize, the skin above them on the verge of burning, thousands of hot needles piercing her flesh. Pinkie looked at the necklace and swiped at it before she could admit to herself what she was about to do. She burned her hoof on it when she picked it up, but by now, higher priorities had replaced the pain that followed. She could hardly breathe now, but she took one final look at the jagged piece in her hoof, and plunged it toward her throat. Her hoof was the only thing to hit it.

The laugher reappeared, now happier than ever. The voice soon followed. “That was just marvelous! You should have seen yourself…” As the few chuckles went by, Pinkie kept looking at her hoof. It was now bare, covered only in bleeding burns. Yet she felt no pain. “I couldn’t let you do that Pinkie Pie, I couldn’t. But don’t worry, help’s on the way!” The voice disappeared, and with it, the protection from pain. Pinkie suddenly felt every burn and gash on her body, and there was only one response she had for that.

The Guard was slowly walking to the cell, expecting to be asked to remove the chamber pot, or to refill the water, when he heard the scream. He galloped to the door, but the closer he got, the more he was certain that the strange buzzing sound he had been hearing wasn’t coming from a bee, stuck in some strange place in the dungeon. He pressed his hoof to the lever of the upper opening and pulled. The hatch opened, and a burst of flames shot into his muzzle, singing his nose and burning away the ornamental blue plume at the top of his helmet. He fell to the ground from the shock blast, but rose the next moment as another scream came from within. A long, narrow flame was shooting through the hatch, licking the stone ceiling of the hallway. The Guard yelled out for help. But it was too late.

With the flames shooting out onto the hallway, the fire burning inside the cell suddenly found itself with an abundance of oxygen, swamping the last few sources of energy left to consume. Where it had burned at a steady pace before, it now came around, from top, bottom, and the sides, converging at Pinkie Pie. The advancing heat burned away what remained of her skin and she felt the open flames going across her muscles, now no longer needles, but long blades slashing in every direction. Her eyeballs burst as the liquid inside them boiled, and when her lungs drew in air, they drew in fire as well. As the overwhelming pain stiffened her body into a charred statue, Pinkie’s thoughts remained alive for a moment longer. Even in blindness, she saw the fire devouring her.