Spiritus Malum

Silence held an evil rule for a time, maniacally laughing in it’s silent tongue.

“Uh, about what?” Apple Bloom asked, overthrowing silence as supreme ruler.

“How about we start with how this here sphere came inta yer possession?” Applejack inquired, pointing a hoof towards the black ball.

It was then that Apple Bloom started to grow nervous, she gave a questioning mental frown towards her change, not sure what was happening. Had she been looking down, she may not have missed the sliver of shadow that had slipped in uninvited and attached to her hoof.

“I dunno,” Apple Bloom replied shakily, ‘What the hay is wrong with me? Are these some of those changes Applejack told me about?’

Taking in Apple Bloom’s voice and posture, Applejack came to a shocking conclusion.

“Yer lyin'!” She exclaimed, pointing an accusing hoof at her younger sibling, a mixture of emotions assailing her mind. She didn’t know whether to feel angry or betrayed at the fact that her sister, her own sister, was lying right to her very face. Especially when the evidence was laying out right in plain sight.

“What!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, “No I’m not!”

The feeling of unease took the two other fillies as they threw their voices into the fray. Again, after a sliver of darkness attached to them.

“Apple Bloom isn’t lying,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Yeah,” Scootaloo began, “We don’t know where that sphere came from.”

“What next?” Applejack asked, emotions still clashing, “Y’all gonna tell me that pigs can fly!? I can tell when yer lyin, Apple Bloom, the rest of you as well. Now come clean, tell me where ya got this sphere!”

“Applejack,” Twilight began, “Do you really need to egg them on like this? We found the sphere, that’s what we came here to do.”

Applejack turned to her friend, “This ain’t about that dang sphere no more, Twi. This’s about my sister lyin' right to my face!” Applejack wheeled back to her sister and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders, all of whom were tearing up.

“B-but I really don’t know!” Apple Bloom retorted, on the verge of crying, “I’m not lyin' to ya, Applejack.”

“Oh like hell you ain’t!” Applejack growled, anger taking over, “You wanna give me a good explanation fer how Twilight’s sphere thingy got stolen from her house and ended up here?!”

Apple Bloom looked at the sphere through her tear riddled eyes, she looked to Twilight, who held an uncertain lip biting expression, and finally back to her elder sister.

“I don’t know! I ain’t lyin', I really don’t know!”

Applejack stared her sister down, angered sick. After a few moments, she lifted a hoof and brought it down hard, causing the three fillies to flinch and a small crack to appear in a floorboard.

“Fine,” She said in a quietly deadly voice.

Applejack began towards the Crusaders.

“Applejack?” Twilight inquired, not sure what was going to happen.

The angry farmer didn’t show any sign of having heard her friend. As she got within striking distance, the three fillies cowered away, hiding their heads under their forehooves and praying for the best.

The hoofsteps stopped before Apple Bloom, tears slipped through her closed eyelids, which she only dared open after a few moments of silence. Her larger sister was staring down at her with an unsure, but rage-filled gaze.

The two sister’s eyes met for a moment before Applejack broke contact and continued onwards, out the door and down the ramp that led to the treehouse.

“B-but I-I not l-lyin',” Apple Bloom retorted to nopony, tears now freely dropping to the floor.
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Meanwhile, hiding in the shadows of a tree overlooking the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ treehouse, Metal Stirrups wore a half-mouthed smile.

‘That went far better than expected,’ Malum commented.

‘Agreed,’ Stirrups replied back, ‘I’m surprised that it took so little deception essence to pull that off.’

Their job done, the pony-spirit hybrid left. With that obstacle out of their way, they had much work to do.
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The next day...

“Hey, you notice anything strange about Applejack?” Rainbow Dash inquired before sucking down more of her drink.

“Hmm,” Pinkie pondered, poking at her chin with a hoof, “Ooh! Did she get a new hat? That would be really strange if Applejack got a new hat.”

Dash facehoofed, “No, not like that, Pinkie,” Dash thought carefully over her next words, “She seems...I dunno, there’s just something off about her.”

“So...she didn’t get a new hat?”

“No, she didn’t,” Dash sighed.

“Aww, well that just ruins my plans for a ‘New Hat Party,’” Pinkie pouted, getting a raised eyebrow of inquiry from Dash.

“Ookay then,” Dash looked around to make sure the coast was clear before leaning closer to Pinkie. In a conspiratorial voice she whispered, “So, do you have any new ideas for pranks?”

Pinkie modeled Dash’s actions, in an equally quiet voice she replied, “Hmm, nope. But I...” Pinkie suddenly spotted a particular dark colored pony walking down the street and switched to her yelling voice, “Metal Stirrups! Hey! Over here!” She cried.

Nearly busting an eardrum, Dash hopped back with a startled cry, landing on her back before the table that she and Pinkie were sitting at. Her smoothie chased after her and Dash threw up her hooves, catching it before it splattered onto her face.

“Hey, wait up!” called Pinkie, shooting off across the street towards Stirrups.

Rubbing her ear and sending a glare of annoyance to Pinkie, Dash picked herself up and placed her drink back on the table.

With an annoyed looking Stirrups in tow, Pinkie returned to the table.

“I’ve got things that need to be tended to, make this quick,” Stirrups said, not hiding his annoyance at all.

This time it was Pinkie’s turn to make sure that the coast was clear. Despite the fact that they were sitting outside of Sugarcube Corner with Pinkie knows how many ponies around, the crazy mare decided that the coast was, in fact, clear.

Pinkie turned her whisper voice back on as she leaned closer to Stirrups, “Got any good pranks that we could pull?”

Stirrup’s frown slowly turned into that signature half-mouthed smile.

“I suppose that one could say that my schedule just cleared up,” Stirrups said.
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The three prankateers, at Stirrup’s request, had made their way into Sugarcube corner. The Cakes were vacationing, leaving Pinkie to watch over the store by herself while they were gone. As such, the trio had full reign over the sweetshop.

“So why are we here?” Dash asked, “Shouldn’t we be heading to the joke shop?”

“If there was anything there of any value to pranking, you two wouldn’t be out of pranks, now would you?” Stirrups asked.

“You gotta admit, Dashie,” Pinkie conceded, “We have used every possible prank from the joke shop. Maybe Stirrups can get an idea from here!”

Stirrups and Malum scanned over the kitchen, most of the utilities they recognized, those that they didn’t didn’t look important enough to know about.

Trotting around, Stirrups eventually came to a cupboard, which he opened. Inside were an assortment of different ingredients. Sugars, spices, wasabi powder, flour...wait.

‘What in tartarus is wasabi powder doing in a sweetshop?’ Malum wondered. Stirrups voiced the question a few moments later.

After a quick giggle, Pinkie wrapped an unwelcome hoof around Stirrup’s withers and replied, “Silly Stirrups, it’s for wasabi emergencies! You never know when you might need it!” She said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“Right...” Stirrups said, closing the cupboard.

‘Wait!’ Malum cried, ‘Perhaps we could use this in a prank, spice up some cupcakes perhaps?’

Putting on his signature smile, Stirrups opened the cupboard and took out the jar of wasabi powder.

“I may have an idea,” he turned to his two fellow pranksters, one of which looked bored whilst the other appeared random, “Have you ever tried spicing some baked goods with a hot spice like wasabi?”

“Hmm,” Pinkie thought for a moment, frowning expression telling it all, “We did that once or twice...” Then Pinkie got an idea. Pinkie got a wonderfully prankful idea, “I’ll know just what we’ll do!”

“What?” Dash asked, doing a slow backstroke in the air. She righted herself and landed.

“There’s a free cupcakes sampling tomorrow,” Pinkie explained, “We could slip in a few cupcakes spiced with the wasabi powder!” She giggled jovially, “It’s perfect!”

Dash laughed, “Wow, that is perfect! I can’t wait to see the looks on those poor pony’s faces!”

“Yes, yes, now let’s get started,” Stirrups said, breaking up the comical atmosphere, “What do we need to do?”

“Well first we need to bake the cupcakes, silly,” Pinkie stated the obvious, she started towards a pan, but stopped as a thought struck her, “Hmm, what type of icing should we put on them?”

Dash shrugged her wings.

“Why not some wasabi-flavored icing?” Stirrups asked with his signature grin, “Double the power of wasabi.”

“Wait, they make wasabi-flavored icing?” Dash asked, she stuck out her tongue in an effort to make a grossed out face.

“No, silly, we’ll have to make some!” Pinkie said.

A wild song appears: Frosting song
(Sung in a similar tune to the Cupcakes song)

First, you gotta beat some butter
Make sure it’s not too cold!

Then, you add a bunch of sugar
Make sure it isn’t old!

Making frosting is such a breeze!
Pour in some milk!

Don’t pour in a lot, or you’ll have to trot
All the way back to the store, to get...

Frosting!
So smooth and creamy!

Frosting!
But not too steamy!

Frosting!
Frosting, frosting, FROSTIIIIIIING!

After what was hopefully not too awkward of a presentation of her song in writing, Pinkie settled back down to all fours. Still in the mixing bowl, the finished white frosting now rested on her back.

‘What just happened?’ Questioned Malum.

Stirrups frowned at the smiling pink mare, “Pinkie,” he said.

“Yes?” Pinkie asked.

“You forgot to add the wasabi powder.”

“Oops,” Pinkie said, hopping to it.
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After what was a rather uneventful time making the batter for the cupcakes, rather surprising as it was Pinkie who made it, it was time for baking.

As Pinkie was carefully finishing pouring the batter into the mold, the sound of the door ringer announced that a customer had entered.

“I’ll get it!” She said, racing off from the kitchen.

Impatient and bored from lack of doing anything, Dash opted to take the ready cupcake mold and stick it in the oven. Dash closed the oven door and paused before the dials.

“Hey, Stirrups?” Dash asked, looking back at the unicorn in question.

“What?” He replied.

“What temperature do these things bake at?”

Pinkie’s head popped around the doorway to the kitchen, “Exactly three hundred degrees fahrenhoof,” And with that, she was gone again.

As Dash turned to the dial, Malum began to think about something. While he couldn’t tell what she was thinking about, Stirrups could tell that the spirit was using a lot of brain power.

‘A bit for your thoughts?’ Stirrups inquired.

‘These simple poisoned pastries may cause a slight bit of pain and hatred essence, perhaps some deception...but it won’t be very much, not enough. If our plan is to succeed, we must have our reserves of the essences replenished far more than a simple prank or two may do,’ The spirit responded, ‘Now a catastrophe on the other hoof, that may cause quite a bit more to energize us.’

‘What do you have in mind?’ Stirrups asked.

‘Use your magic to amplify the heater on that oven, simple telekinesis on the mechanism should do the trick,’ Malum said.

‘No, that won’t do much, the oven is made to withstand any heat that the dial is set to maintain...at least for a time,’ Stirrups schemed silently for a moment, ‘But, if we were to use a bit of deception essence...’

A sliver of shadow split from Stirrup’s own. It darted towards the oven and raced up the side, slipping into the dial mechanism for the heating.

Almost immediately the temperature of the room increased, something that didn’t go unnoticed by the non-evil inhabitant.

“Wow,” commented Dash, “Is it just me or did it get really hot in here all of a sudden?”

“The oven,” Stirrups pointed out, ‘That should do the trick.’

“Oh,” Dash gave a quiet chuckle, “I knew that.”

‘How much longer will that thing hold? Should we be taking our leave?’ Malum asked.

Before Stirrups could formulate a reply, Pinkie finished with the customers and trotted back into the kitchen. The master baker instantly knew that something was wrong as the heat in the room embraced her.

Frowning, Pinkie asked, “Dashie, you set the oven to three-hundred, right?”

“Yeah, just like you said,” Dash replied, “Three...”

But before she could finish, the intensity of the heat blasted open the oven door. The force wrenched the hinges apart and the red-hot oven door slid across the kitchen floor. Hot on the door’s tail was a massive wave of heat that sent even Stirrups reeling backwards.

“Gah!” Yelled Dash, hopping over the runaway oven door before it scorched her hooves.

“What did you do!?” Stirrups growled, shielding his face with a hoof and squinting against the heat at Dash.

“Me!?” Dash exclaimed, quickly realizing that it was, in fact, probably her fault, “I don’t know!”

“Nevermind, we need to get out of here!” Stirrups said, galloping from the kitchen with Rainbow Dash hot on his tail.

The two came to a stop in the next room, the cooler air soothing their previously burning bodies. It was at this point that Dash came to realize something.

“Wait...Pinkie!” Dash hit the air again, shooting back into the kitchen.

When she hit the wall of heat, Dash’s immediate instinct was to recoil backwards to escape the sudden increase of temperature. Battling that instinct, Dash landed on the now-hot floor tiles and quickly spotted her pink friend.

Pinkie, who was sweating profusely in the heat, was forcing her way towards the oven. The once familiar machine was now bent out of shape and some of the lesser metals were turning to liquids. The heating rods were the same white-hot that the sun was, a testament to how haywire they were going.

“Pinkie!” Dash started, pushing towards her friend, “We have to get out of here! Come on!”

“No,” Pinkie replied in a voice that almost sounded tired, “I need to turn this off before it starts a fire!”

“It’s too far gone!” Dash retorted, now right behind her friend and unable to venture much further, “I can grab a cloud from outside and use it to stop this, but you need to get out of here! Now come on!”

“No!” Pinkie declared, taking another step towards the source of the heat, “You go get the cloud, I’ll try to turn it off from here! I...I just gotta...” But before she could say more, Pinkie collapsed.

“Pinkie!” Dash cried. When Pinkie failed to respond, Dash pushed forwards and tried to drag her friend along, but this proved fruitless.

Trying another method, Dash slowly got Pinkie hoisted across her back and started towards the door.

The intense heat assailed her on her slow trek, sapping away her energy and burning into her body. The doorway seemed miles away and Dash began to feel slightly faint.

“Stirrups!” She called out, “I need your help!”

There was no reply, Stirrups didn’t poke his head around the corner or show himself.

“Help!” Dash said, stumbling in the heat. Her vision flickered as she threatened to collapse from heat exhaustion. Dash knew that if she lost consciousness now, it would all be over she couldn’t faint! Her life and, more importantly, the life of a friend were in the balance!

“No more foaling around!” Dash declared, intent on making it to the other room no matter what. Using all her remaining energy, she rushed forwards and collapsed as her strength left her body, torn away by the intense heat.

The hot tiles on the floor bit into her belly and the heat in the air covered her like a blanket. Bit by bit, Dash’s eyelids slowly fell until suddenly the blanket of heat was torn away and a coolness replaced it, soothing Dash’s boiling body.

“Hurry!” Twilight called, horn aglow with magic.

“Twilight?” Dash asked, slowly making her way to her hooves.

It was then that Applejack came around the doorway, rushing to Dash and Pinkie.

“Woah there, take it slow now,” Applejack said, “I’ll take Pinkie from here,” Applejack threw a look behind her, “Twi? A little help?”

Twilight nodded and quickly levitated Pinkie onto Applejack’s back. With the weight of her friend gone, Dash was able to get back up.

“You go first, Rainbow. I’ll follow you with Pinkie,” Applejack adjusted her pink friend's position on her back and followed Rainbow Dash out of the kitchen.

“Get them to the hospital,” Twilight ordered, “I’m going to try and stop this from getting any worse.”

Applejack nodded and began to lead the way.

Focusing on her magic, Twilight grabbed all the heat and began to contain it inside an invisible bubble around the oven. She condensed the bubble of heat into a smaller and smaller sphere, hoping that when it got hot enough, the oven would simply turn into slag and shut off.

As the bubble was made into a shimmering sphere of heat around the oven, Twilight constricted it even further, hoping to increase the heat bubble’s temperature and destroy the oven faster. As she did this, she felt an odd sensation coming from the oven. It was as if there was something out of place, something that was just off about it.

Ignoring it for now, Twilight focused harder, she was certain that if she destroyed the oven that it would stop this Celestia-forsaken heat.

But before that could happen, the oven detonated.

A loud bang followed by a shockwave threw Twilight against the wall behind her.

She shook her spinning head, ears ringing and drowning out all other noise.

Looking to the oven, she was met with a blackened splotch on the wall and a few small fires raging around it. Twilight tried to focus on her magic, intent on stopping the fires, but her spinning head ensured that she couldn’t focus enough to use her magic properly.

Fortunately for her, the blast did seem to stop the heat wave and Twilight was able to get to her hooves and stumble out of the kitchen and then out of Sugarcube Corner. Having heard the explosion, a ponies had started gathering around outside, looking worriedly into the shop.

Her head spinning less than it had moments ago, Twilight started issuing orders, forming a bucket line to take water and extinguish the fires inside Sugarcube Corner.
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‘Well that was quite interesting,’ Malum commented as the duet of evil watched from a darkened alleyway.

‘Indeed,’ Stirrups replied, ‘I believe that with the essence we have gathered from this, that we are ready.’

‘I agree,’ Malum said, ‘We must still prepare, but the essence we now possess should be enough for us to finally destroy the Elements.’

‘Once and for all,’ Stirrups said, half-smile crossing his face.
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