They'll Always be With Me
Thunk…
Celestia’s ears swiveled forward.
Thunk…
Her teacup hovered in front of her lips, frozen.
Thunk…
“Is something wrong?”
“Hmmm?” Celestia focused back on the alicorn across from her. “Oh, no…”
Thunk…
“Do you hear that, Twilight?”
“Ah.” Twilight shifted in her seat. “It’s the pipes. It’s a magic crystal tree, but not exactly up to code, according to the inspector.”
Celestia sipped from her cup, and set it down. “Pipes?”
Thunk…
“Pipes,” Twilight confirmed with a nod, taking a sip from her own cup - louder than necessary, to cover the noise that echoed up through the walls. It reverberated in the crystals, ringing harmonically like a tolling bell.
Thunk…
“Are you-”
“I’ll have Spike check it out,” Twilight said, turning and looking pointedly at the teenaged dragon hovering in the doorway. Their eyes met, and Spike looked away.
“I-I’ll go look,” he murmured, hurrying out of the room.
Appeased, Celestia visibly relaxed, and brought her cup back to her lips. For a moment, the room was silent.
Thunk…
“How are you?” Celestia asked, her tone just as motherly as it had been when Twilight was young.
“Fine,” Twilight answered. “Why?”
Celestia’s eyes narrowed, slightly. “I confess, I thought the 50th anniversary would be… hard on you.”
“Oh!” Twilight’s eyes widened, and she nodded. “Has it been that long? I… hadn’t noticed. They’re still with me.”
“True, our loved ones never really leave us, if we remember them,” Celestia acknowledged gracefully. “But that doesn’t erase our burden of-”
Thunk…
“They’re my very best friends,” Twilight said, loudly. “I don’t know what I’d do without them.”
“I see…”
Thunk…
“If you’ll excuse me, Celestia,” Twilight said suddenly, standing. “I’m going to go check with Spike and see what’s happening. A moment, please?”
“Of course.”
Hurrying out of the room, Twilight maneuvered through the crystalline corridors with practiced ease until she arrived at the door to the basement - the padlock hanging open.
Thunk…
Twilight began descending the stairs.
Thunk…
“Please, stop,” a voice from the depths said.
Thunk…
“You know what she’ll do,” Spike pleaded.
THUNK…
“Pinkie, stop!”
SPLAT.
Twilight reached the hard stone floor just in time for blood and graymatter to splash her hooves. She followed the trail to its source - a bright pink mound of flesh that vaguely resembled a pony, its sorry excuse for a head smashed flat and laying in a pool of blood on the floor. Spike stood over the corpse, wringing his claws.
“Pinkie…” Twilight sighed, shaking her head. Spike’s head snapped up.
“I-I couldn’t s-stop her!”
“It’s alright, Spike,” she said gently, lighting her horn. Scattered bits of brain and skull were collected in her magic and brought towards the pink mass. She was stopped, however, by a desperate, wheezing gasp to her right, and the sound of rattling chains.
Twilight turned, and looked at the mare pulling on her collar. “Rainbow,” she greeted shortly. “You’re as lively as ever.”
“Hhhhhhh!” Rainbow yelled. Or, tried to, her tongue dangling loosely down from the open hole in her face that was once a mouth. One too many times biting her own tongue off had forced Twilight to remove her lower jaw entirely. Her two front legs were bent at unnatural angles, as was one wing.
Twilight had tried to keep her wings intact - she really had, knowing how precious they were, but she kept flying into the wall.
“Just a moment,” Twilight grunted, as she took as much of Pinkie as she could and put it back roughly in place.
“Mmmph!”
Looking to the mare chained next to Rainbow - just far enough apart so that they couldn’t reach each other - was Applejack, fighting against the chain around her neck. Though her jaw was still intact, it had been wired shut for much the same reason as Rainbow’s. A more refined method, one Twilight wished she had thought of earlier.
“I know,” she said, “I’m sorry I let this happen. I’ll fix her.”
Applejack desperately shook her head. Horn glowing brighter, Twilight took a breath. Pinkie’s corpse was engulfed in a white glow - one that was quickly overtaken by a billowing black smoke that seemed to leak out of Twilight’s eyes, ears, and nose.
When it stopped, all was still.
Then the pink lump of flesh shook, and raised itself up on broken legs, its squashed and bloodied face looking around. The tears came, and it fell back onto the floor, a disgusting, squelching sob emanating from it.
“There, see? Good as new!” Twilight proclaimed, reaching out and petting Pinkie on the head. “Don’t do that again. It would hurt me so much to lose you.”
“Please…” a quiet voice croaked out. Twilight turned to Fluttershy, the only mare who was still allowed the full use of her mouth. Though she was still covered in wounds that didn’t heal - most of them from before Twilight learned to keep the girls separated.
“What’s that?”
Fluttershy looked up from her spot huddled on the ground against the wall. Her eyes, lifeless and dull, met Twilight’s. “Please just let us die.”
“Die?” Twilight asked, indignantly. “Why would you ask me that? That’s not very kind of you, Fluttershy. How would I survive, if my closest friends in the world all died and left me behind? Why would you want to leave me alone?”
"What has that magic done to you?" Fluttershy asked.
Twilight ignored her. "Now, I’m having tea with Celestia, so no more disturbances, okay?”
Rainbow and Applejack did their best to protest, but were ultimately ignored. “Come along, Spike.”
Spike made to follow, his eyes glued to his feet, but he gave one look back, his eyes meeting with a familiar piercing blue. Rarity’s horn had long been snapped off, and her jaw was immobile, but her look held it all.
“Y-you don’t know what she’ll do to me…”
“Spike!”
“I’m sorry!” He cried, running up the stairs.
The door to the basement closed, and the familiar sound of the padlock being latched echoed through the basement.
