Spiritus Malum

“So how are they, doc?” Applejack inquired, worried.

“They should be fine. The worst that they received were high-end first degree burns and some heat exhaustion. All they need is some burn cream, painkillers, and some rest and they’ll be right as rain in no time,” The doctor replied, adjusting his glasses with a touch of magic.

Dash grumbled from her bed, “How much rest? Is this gonna be a repeat of the last time I was here?”

“I don’t know,” The doctor replied, “Are you going to steal one of our books again?”

Dash gave a short, nervous chuckle, “I’ll try not to, doc,” she assured.

“At most you should be here a couple of days,” The doctor said, taking his leave of the room, “So get some rest and before you know it you’ll be on your ways.”

“Ugh,” Dash grumbled, falling back into her hospital bed. It was then that a sudden thought struck her, “Hey, where’s Metal Stirrups?”

“What?” Applejack, who had been zoned out for a second, asked.

“Metal Stirrups!” Dash exclaimed, “That jackass just up and ran off after that stupid oven went haywire! We could’ve been killed if you and Twilight didn’t show up! The good for nothing...”

“Excuse me?” Applejack interrupted, annoyance crawling into her voice, “Mister Stirrups just so happened to be the reason that Twi and I came round to save the two of you.”

Now it was Dash’s turn to say, “What?”

“I was cleanin' up my stall for the day when mister Stirrups came rushin' by and told me that somethin' was goin' wrong at Sugarcube Corner,” Applejack thought a moment, “Now that I think about it, what were y’all doin' down there anyways? I know for a fact that you don’t know salt from sugar when it comes to bakin', Rainbow.”

Dash seemed to wither under the suspicious glare that her farmer friend was giving her.

“Heh,” she chuckled, rubbing the back of her head and avoiding Applejack’s gaze, “Oh, would you look at the time, I should probably start getting some of that rest. Come to think of it, I’m pretty dang tired from that whole ordeal. See you later, Applejack.”

And with that, Dash closed her eyes and started to faux-snore.

Unimpressed, Applejack glared at her friend a while before turning to go, “Well good then. Y’all get your rest. But I’ll get what you were doin' from ya one way or another once you’re outta here.”

Once outside of the hospital room, Applejack’s head drooped and she let out a pained sigh, ‘First my sister, now my friends too? What in the hay is goin' on?’
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“So...whatcha got there?” Twilight asked with a smile, trying to make conversation.

Stirrups, annoyed, turned his head around to look at Twilight, “A book,” he replied simply before turning back to his reading.

Twilight’s smile turned to a frown of annoyance, ‘Why is this pony so difficult to talk to!?’ she mentally growled.

Putting on a more pleasant face, Twilight cut through the bull, not literally of course but I digress, “Look, I just wanted to say thanks for warning AJ and me that something was wrong at Sugarcube Corner. If you hadn’t warned us...” Twilight trailed off, her mind wondering to what would have happened had two of her friends been killed. She shook her head to clear the bad thoughts, “Thank you, I don’t know what I’d do if two of my best friends were killed.”

“Hm,” Stirrups replied with a gruff nod.

Once Twilight had left him to his studies on different types of acids, Stirrup’s signature half-mouthed smile split his features once more.

‘What do you find funny?’ Malum asked.

‘The fact that she thanked us for saving the lives of two of her friends when we’re going to do away with them ourselves,’ Stirrups replied in kind.

Had Malum had a face, she would have smiled as well.

‘Ah yes,’ Stirrups continued after a moment of silence, ‘There’s just one last thing that I think we should do before we begin with our elimination.’

‘And what might that be?’ Malum inquired.

‘I think that we can make Pinkie Pie suffer quite a bit more before she leaves this world.’
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The next day...

“So how have you been, darling? I didn’t see you at the spa the other day,” Rarity said, making pleasant conversation as the two made their way towards Sugarcube Corner.

“Oh, well, cleaning,” Fluttershy replied meekly, “Sorry.”

“No need to apologize, Fluttershy. I understand that sometimes work comes before play, as the old saying goes. But what besides cleaning have you been up to? Surely mere cleaning hasn’t been the highlight of the week.”

Fluttershy seemed to shrink down a bit, her trot slowing, “Well actually...I-I’ve been doing a lot of cleaning,” she said, voice losing volume towards the end.

Rarity frowned at this, “Did some of your animals make an extra large mess of your cottage? If you’d like I could help you finish if you haven’t already...well so long as it doesn’t require getting dirty, of course.”

At the word ‘dirty,’ Fluttershy flinched, “Y-you don’t think that my cottage is messy...do you?” She asked, looking at her friend with scared eyes.

“Whyever would I?” Rarity inquired incredulously, “You do a great job keeping your cottage clean. I don’t think I’ve ever seen your cottage messy at all,” Noticing her friend’s overall actions and look, Rarity continued, “But what would make you think such a thing? Did somepony say something about your cottage being messy?”

Fluttershy shrunk down as Rarity hit dead-on what had happened, “Well...yes.”

“Who?” Rarity asked.

“Oh, I-I’ll tell you later,” Fluttershy replied, the two ponies were finally before the doors of their destination.

Rarity was going to inquire further, in an effort to find out just who had hurt Fluttershy’s feelings, when who should show up but a particular pink party pony.

“Hiya!” Pinkie greeted, appearing from nowhere as she did sometimes.

“Oh, hello Pinkie,” Fluttershy replied, her heart rate dropping back to normal.

“Why, how are you, Pinkie? Feeling better I take it?” Rarity replied with a question.

“Yep!” Pinkie chirped happily, “All better after that silly-willy accident.”

“Well that’s simply great to hear, darling,” Rarity said, “Fluttershy and I were just about to drop in for a bite to eat at Sugarcube Corner, care to join us?”

“Nope!” Pinkie replied bluntly, yet happily. She hopped through the door while the other two entered after her, “I’ve got baking to do!”

Nopony noticed the two shreds of shadow that followed the three mares into the sweetshop. Yet that was not to say that their effects went unnoticed as both shreds latched onto the two ponies already inside the shop.

Before she could bounce past the counter and into the kitchen, however, Pinkie was stopped.

“Oh...P-pinkie,” Mrs. Cake greeted with a worried expression on her face, “C-could you wait a moment...”

“Hiya, Mrs. Cake,” Pinkie replied cheerfully, not noticing the odd expression on Mrs. Cakes’ face.

Mrs. Cake was silent for a moment as she struggled with the words she wanted to say. Mr. Cake came through the kitchen doorway with a set of sweets on his back, he halted, however, when he spotted Pinkie.

“Look, Pinkie,” Mrs. Cake finally began, “Af-after the, well the accident, we can’t have you...” She trailed off.

Pinkie, who now wore a slightly confused expression on her face turned to Mr. Cake as he picked up where his wife had started.

“...I’m sorry, Pinkie, but you can’t work here anymore,” Mr. Cake said with a pained expression.

“But...can’t work...I...here...any...any...anymore?” Pinkie wondered aloud, sounding a bit like a broken machine

Fluttershy and Rarity stared, not sure entirely what to do. As what she was being told sunk in, Pinkie collapsed into a sitting position, her mane and tail deflating in a matter of seconds.

“Can’t work...but...” Pinkie continued, eyes latching onto the floor before her.

It was Rarity who snapped out of her trance first. She trotted up to Pinkie and after some hesitation placed her hoof on the pink pony’s shoulder.

“Pinkie?” She asked.

Pinkie didn’t reply.

“Pinkie, are...are you alright, darling?”

Again, no response.

“Well, look. If...you need a place to stay, I have a spare room at Carousel Boutique. You can stay there if you want...free of charge of course,” Rarity offered, “Okay?”

“Okay,” Pinkie mumbled after a few tense, silent moments.

The normally energetic mare got back on her hooves and slowly trotted out of the shop. Rarity followed, glaring back at the Cakes before she left.

“It may not be my business telling ponies what they should and should not do...” She began. Yet upon looking at the pain on the Cake’s faces, the next words died in her throat, her glare losing its power as she followed Pinkie.
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‘Oh by Luna’s majestic flank that, was beautiful!’ Stirrups thought as the three mares left Sugarcube Corner, all feeling different degrees of pain.

‘Quite our luck that her two friends were there,’ Smirked Malum, ‘That was perfect.’

‘So we’re ready now?’

‘With the added essence we now have, we should have plenty left over after the Elements are out of the picture.’

‘And then?’

Malum would have smiled should she have possessed a mouth, ‘Equestria shall be ours.’
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“What!?” Twilight exclaimed rhetorically, blind to the fact that libraries were supposed to be quiet, “They fired Pinkie!?”

Fluttershy, trying to make herself as small as possible should Twilight try to blame the messenger, simply nodded.

“But...what...that doesn’t make any sense!” Twilight continued, turning from the library door as she thought. Now facing the interior, she caught a glare from the lone reader, Metal Stirrups, and withered a little bit as she realized that somepony was trying to read while she was yelling. Furthermore, she realized who she had been yelling at, “I’m sorry for yelling, Fluttershy,” she said, lowering her voice as she turned to face the pegasus in question, “But this doesn’t make any sense, the cakes would never fire Pinkie over something like a little mistake, that’s completely out of character...right?” She wondered out loud, starting to doubt herself at the end, “Well perhaps blowing up an oven and almost killing two ponies might not be the exact definition of ‘little,’ but still.”

“The Cakes did look really sad,” Fluttershy offered quietly, “They looked like they didn’t want to do it, but they had to...like they were forced to.”

From his reading spot, Stirrups’ ears perked up ever so slightly, his body tensing.

After pondering a moment more, Twilight sighed, “So Rarity said that she has a place for Pinkie to stay?”

Fluttershy nodded.

“Well then I guess there’s one good thing to this mess. I think I’ll have a word with the Cakes and try and get them to change their minds to let Pinkie work there again.”

‘Damnit, we must do something! We can’t let her talk to them or it might ruin our corrupting essences over them!’ Malum growled.

Before Stirrups could respond, however, Fluttershy did.

“I...I don’t know if that’s such a great idea, Twilight.”

Twilight looked confused, “What? Why? Pinkie must be distraught, horrified even, at the prospect of losing her job at Sugarcube Corner.”

“But...so are the Cakes,” Fluttershy replied, looking from her hooves to her friend, “They looked really sad, like they didn’t want Pinkie to go. I don’t mean that we shouldn’t try to help Pinkie get her job back, just...not so soon,” Fluttershy flinched, “I mean...”

Twilight sighed, “No, you’re right, that makes more sense. Whatever the reason, it must’ve hurt the Cakes bad to make them fire Pinkie. We should at least give them some time to reconsider on their own and get over whatever bump this is before trying to force their hooves.”

Silence descended over the two, Stirrups’ body untensed and his signature smile came into existence as a crisis was averted.

“Thanks for keeping me in the loop, Fluttershy,” Twilight smiled.

Fluttershy replied with a weak, unsure smile in return.

“I’m sorry you had to hear all that,” Twilight apologized to Stirrups with a sigh as Fluttershy left, “I’d hate to bother you with my friend’s and my own dilemmas.”

Stirrups gave a neutral snort, not looking up from his reading.

Twilight made her way to the opposite side of the library, sorting through some of the shelved books. She threw a few glances back at the ever-stoic Metal Stirrups before turning towards him.

“What...” she began, a grimace of doubt flashing across her face, “...what happened in the kitchen...at Sugarcube Corner?” Stirrups looked up from his reading, but remained facing the opposite wall with his back turned to Twilight, “If you don’t mind me asking,” she added.

She wasn’t certain if Stirrups was going to reply for a few moments before he did.

“I don’t,” he began, “Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and I were making cupcakes for a prank. We had just put them in the oven when Pinkie was drawn away by a customer. Dash decided to turn on the oven to get the cupcakes done sooner, and then everything went haywire.”

“You three were making cupcakes for a prank?” Twilight inquired, not having heard the story of what happened yet.

“That’s what I said, isn’t it?” Stirrups replied.

“Rainbow Dash...she didn’t sabotage the oven to do that, did she?”

“Not from what I could tell,” Stirrups said flatly, “But...unless it was pure mechanical failure I don’t know what else could have caused it.”

Twilight turned, a hoof at her chin as she thought, ‘Rainbow Dash would never deliberately sabotage the Cake’s oven...would she?’

Twilight remembered a time quite some time ago, when Dash and Pinkie had replaced her ink with a fading one. She had been working on some experiment which time had blurred the purpose of, but the result had been a small explosion. Harmless, yes, but an explosion nonetheless.

True, it was a simple prank that she had been a good sport about...but what if Dash had tried pulling a prank by messing with the oven? The athlete didn’t have a ton of mechanical know-how, but...

Twilight looked back to Stirrups, who was back to reading and silently scheming, and decided not to bother him any more about the details. She could ask Rainbow Dash herself later and find out if it had been through her that Pinkie ultimately lost her job.
______________________________________________________________________________

“So what were ya doin' with Pinkie and Stirrups in Sugarcube Corner?” Applejack asked bluntly.

Rainbow Dash, who had neither heard nor expected her friend’s approach, startled at her friend’s voice, hopping a short distance into the air.

When Dash landed, Applejack planted a sturdy hoof down on the end of Dash’s tail, ensuring that the pegasus didn’t escape.

Dash turned, as best she could with her tail mostly pinned to the ground, and faced Applejack to be met with an intense and questioning gaze.

Seeing that her options were either test Applejack’s strength in an attempt to escape, or just tell her friend what had happened, Dash decided to just fess up.

“We were baking cupcakes,” She admitted.

“So what in the hay happened, and why you and Stirrups? I know that you don’t have any interest in bakin',” Applejack raised a suspicious eyebrow, “Or am I mistaken?”

“We were making them for a prank. The idea was to put some really spicy frosting on this batch as a prank,” Dash groaned, knowing better than to lie to the Element of Honesty, “I set the oven and then it went all weird and crazy.”

Applejack remained silent, waiting to see if there was anything else.

“What? That’s everything!” Dash exclaimed under Applejack’s stern gaze, “I set the oven to three hundred or whatever and it just went straight to Tartarus from there!” Thinking for a moment, Dash came up with a question of her own, “And what’s with you lately?”

Seeing as she was done with the interrogation, Applejack released dash’s tail before replying, “What do you mean?”

“You’re, like, zoning out and stuff,” Dash looked over her friend once before replying, “And is it just me or do you look like you’ve lost some sleep.

“I’d blame it on harvest season or something, but one: it isn’t harvesting season, and two: you look like you spend more time at your stall than you usually do, you’ve set up in the market every day this week.”

“That doesn’t concern you,” Applejack replied with a slightly defensive tone.

“The well-being of a friend doesn’t concern another friend? Another, loyal...” Dash stressed the word, “...friend?”

“My well-bein' is fine and dandy, Rainbow Dash,” Applejack replied, turning to go, “Plus, you got a lot to think about yerself now that Pinkie lost her job cause of that damn oven explodin'.”

This was news for the pegasus.

“What?!” she exclaimed.

“The Cakes went and fired Pinkie,” Applejack, who had started to make her way away from Dash, replied. She halted and turned her head back towards her friend, “Ah don’t mean to point any hooves, but seein' that you were the last one to touch it before it went to pony hell, I’m beginnin' to wonder just who was to blame for that.”

“What!” Dash raged, shooting up so she was nose to nose with Applejack, “You think that I’m to blame for this whole Celstiadamned mess?”

“I hate to say it, Rainbow, but I’m beginnin' to. I’ve been wrong before, but if it was your fault, then you’ve got a lot to answer for,” Applejack held eye contact for a moment longer before turning and leaving.

Dash was about to chase after her to continue the argument, when it hit her. It hit her so hard that she landed rather harshly and sat back on her haunches.

“Wh...” she began, pausing for a moment to consider, “What if it...was me?”
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