Pinkie Pie was the most prolific user of the Little Inferno Entertainment Fireplace. She had burnt every last item in the catalog - in addition to hundreds of her own belongings. Even the ones she usually had stashed away for emergencies. She had begun to notice patterns in the flames. Odd effects. Peculiar happenings. Some items were not like other items. Little Inferno Entertainment Fireplace had secrets. Mysteries. Ponderances.
The Core stared back at her, somehow cutting into her soul with its closed eyes. It dared her to try it with its presence. “Oooh! You drive a hard bargain mister Core!” Pinkie giggled. “Alright, you win, I’ll do it!” She grabbed several of the interesting items and shoved them all in the enclosure at once. Then she lit them on fire, watching as the streaks of fire swirled towards the Core, causing the gears to rotate faster and faster, the mechanisms starting to shake with increasing vibrations.
The wiring began to pop, the fire starting to jump erratically. The bricks that made up the enclosure began to crack and dust began to fall all around the soot covered room. Pinkie grinned as the fire poured out of the Little Inferno.
“Cool!” She said, backing away so as not to be burned. She wasn’t that crazy - who wanted to be toast?
Then she saw it, the serene Core. The sleepy face… it began to open its eyes. It basked Pinkie Pie in a blindingly bright holy light. “Oooo… Shiny…” Pinkie said, staring deeply into it, finding herself unable to turn away…
The light engulfed her, and in the last moment a look of panic crossed her face. “Uh-oh.”
~~~
This was not spring.
This was not green.
There was no sun.
Fluttershy had long ago given up on making a genuine smile while she was out and about - it was always faked. The world around Ponyville was drab and grey - life was moving away from the once quaint town. Now it was nothing but smokestacks.
She walked, trying her best to look happy among the trails of smoke that coalesced above, making the entire sky an ominous grey. And most of all, nopony seemed to care. They just treated the smoky air and the sooty ground like it was normal! Even Applejack didn’t notice that her own apple trees were producing sick apples because of this!
Everything just looked sickly… Like the world has lost the will to live…
Fluttershy shook her head. Don’t think like that. She continued her way through town - still trying her best to be welcoming and kind to all she saw. It was getting harder with each passing return - the sticky soot multiplying in quantity every time she did so. And whenever she looked up, she felt uneasy.
Everything just felt wrong.
She trotted over to Sugarcube Corner, ready to order some sweets. The ground started to tremble powerfully. The Cakes ran out of Sugarcube Corner screaming, but Fluttershy didn’t see Pinkie Pie come out. She did see smoke coming out of the building though.
“Oh no…” Fluttershy said.
Then the entire top half of Sugarcube Corner exploded in a ball of white-hot fire, sending a torrent of heat upwards into the sky. The rest of Sugarcube Corner was reduced to ash in a matter of seconds, leaving almost nothing behind. The scent of burnt candy and pastries filled the air, the wreck smoldering.
Dozens of ponies had gathered, staring at the wreckage. None moved for the longest time.
Fluttershy flapped into the air finest, drawing herself closer to the charcoal. She looked down from above, finding that virtually everything was unrecognizable, burnt, charred, and smoking. She sniffed - there was a smell here besides burnt wood, sugar, and smoke… What was it - it smelled good.
She gagged when she realized what it was, shutting her mouth with her hoof and screaming inwardly. Cooked meat. And it wasn’t quite like any of the meat smells she had encountered when cooking for her animals.
She could see a charred pony body under a piece of wood. It was slightly pink.
She managed to direct herself out of the smoldering wreck before passing out and dropping fro the sky with a thud.
That was when the ponies started screaming.
While the ponies scrambled in panic, the heat of the wreckage billowing into the air, cutting through the smoke cloud. For the briefest of moments, the sun was visible.
Barely conscious, Fluttershy managed to look up and see the glorious fiery orb moments before it was covered up again.
She started crying.
~~~
What had she been doing that caused that? Why? What would bring that about?! She couldn't think of any reason and it was really tearing her apart!
Twilight roared in rage, her coat going white and her mane to fire. She threw a beaker into the Little Inferno, its glass shattering into a thousand pieces. Tears in her eyes, she just kept throwing more and more things in. She didn’t care what they were - just burn. Burn. Burn! BURN!
She cut up a table into several pieces and fed it through. She did not wait for it to complete burning - she just kept adding more. And more. And more.
“Twilight are you-” Twilight threw Spike into the enclosure, though the flames were harmless as usual. He crawled out just in time to avoid getting beaned by a centrifuge. “Twilight, calm down!”
“Spike…” Twilight growled, eyes flashing. “Shut. Up.”
Spike’s eyes widened and he took several steps back, extremely concerned. “Twilight…”
“I said shut up. Do not…” She didn’t finish the thought as she was overcome by another flood of tears, her fire going out. “Why… Why… What did she do… what did this…?”
“I… Have no idea Twilight.” Spike said, hugging her tight. The two sat in the intense flow of the Little Inferno Entertainment fireplace. They didn’t even notice it was there.
“What?”
Twilight and Spike looked up to see Fluttershy standing there, face red, mane haggard. “Fluttershy?” Spike said. “How long have-”
“How can you not see it!?” The pegasus cried. “Look!” She pointed both of their heads at the Inferno.
“...It’s just fire Fluttershy.” Twilight said.
“JUST FIRE!?” Fluttershy screamed. “THIS IS WHAT KILLED PINKIE!”
Twilight stood up tall, angry. “This had nothing to do with it! The inferno is perfectly safe-
Fluttershy roared. “Pinkie was obsessed with that thing! She had an entire room covered completely in that sticky soot! She scared me with how intense she was about it!”
“That doesn’t mean it killed her!”
“Well I see it one of two ways!” Fluttershy yelled through her tears. “It either drove her to pyromania or it broke! And that was a big explosion to just be some fire she set!”
“Stop being stupid!” Twilight yelled back.
“You’re in denial! OBVIOUS DENIAL!” Fluttershy slapped Twilight. “Think about it! Get ahold of yourself!”
Twilight glared. “Fluttershy, this conversation is over. The door is- What is it Spike?”
“I think she’s right.” Spike said.
“What!?”
“Think about it. It makes sense. There’s enough energy in that thing to do it. It’s the only thing we’re sure she has that can possibly make an explosion that big.”
Twilight’s brain began to work frantically. How… How could it have been caused without the Inferno. What coudl Pinkie had done? What could someone else have done? There had to be something else…
Then it hit her like a train.
Why did there have to be something else?
She slowly turned her head at the Little Inferno Entertainment Fireplace with fear.
The serene Core looked back, unmoving.
She lit her horn, scanning her own mind. Deep, deeper, still deeper. She looked into herself, analyzing… had she not been looking exactly for it, she would not have found it.
“Compulsia Exponentia…” She said, a haunted voice coming out of her mouth.
“What?” Fluttershy said.
“A mental spell designed to work over very long periods in the background, so as to not draw attention to itself…” Twilight said, slowly working her magic in her mind to remove the Compulsia. “It… I think it makes you want to keep using the Little Inferno.”
Spike blinked. “It got to me!” He grabbed his head. “Get it out!”
Twilight nodded, doing what she had done to herself to Spike. Then she turned to the balcony, her face expressionless. She walked out into the air of outside, a look of guilt appearing on her face. She looked out over Ponyville.
The streaks of smoke looked like wounds to her now. The dark cloud above them appeared as an evil entity slowly coalescing overhead. The world as lifeless, grey, drab… pointless. Ruined.
“What have I done?” She whispered to herself, looking upwards once more.
The smoke above shook with magic.
Something was happening up there. Something powerful.
She bit her lip. “...What do i do now?”
Spike and Fluttershy glanced at each other. They had no idea. All their eyes flew wide open in fear as they heard what sounded like a laugh come from the sky…