//------------------------------//
// Chapter 38 - Heart-Breaking News 
// Story: A Gizmonk in Ponyville 
// by Moheart7 
//------------------------------//

By the time Applejack had managed to reach the spot where her little sister was, she was seriously out of breath, working on the farm was nothing compared to the night she had lived through. 

“Apple Bloom!” she called down to her, instantly grabbing the young filly’s attention.

However when Apple Bloom looked back up at her sister, her eyes were drowning in tears, needless to say Applejack, as well as Pinkie Pie and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders, who had just joined her on the ledge, instantly knew something was wrong upon seeing her like this.

“Goggles?” Scootaloo asked, hopefully.

However much to their misery, Apple Bloom only responded with a tearful shake of her head and once again looked down to the bottom of the waterfall, where the Gizmonk who had just saved her life in exchange for his now remained.

“No,” Sweetie Belle gasped, instantly realising what Apple Bloom meant. “NO!!!”

At that moment all four fillies burst into tears, as did Pinkie Pie, whose mane instantly deflated into her flat Pinkamena style upon finding out what had just occurred here. Applejack however simply remained silent, she may have been well-known for crying on the inside but in this situation that wasn’t the case, never in her life had she ever felt so much of a failure, she and the others came here to Baltimare to save Goggles’ life, but after coming so far and yet fail regardless, it was too much to bear. But the worst part, was telling the others who had stayed behind to keep Queen Icicle under restraint.

“Ugh, what’s going on?” Trixie said groggily, rubbing her head as she finally came to.  

“Trixie!” Rover exclaimed, helping her up as Jinx, Fido and Spot continued to hold Icicle down.

“Did we make it out?” Trixie asked hopefully.

Rover looked depressed at that, and needless to say Trixie took notice, especially since everyone else had the exact same look. What made it even more confusing, and somewhat frightening for her, was when she noticed Queen Icicle and the Cutie Mark Crusaders were with them, and out of all of them only Icicle seemed to be smiling.

“We did,” Applejack finally answered with a heavy sigh. “But… not all of us made it.”

Trixie’s eyes widened at that, she couldn’t help but dread what Applejack’s answer meant, especially when she saw that a certain Gizmonk wasn’t with them.

“What do you mean by that?” she asked fearfully.

And thus began the most dreadful explanation Applejack had ever had to say in her entire life, she first started by telling Trixie what happened after she used the Teleportation Spell to get her and the others into the Courtroom, the encounter with the Gem Foxes, Tod’s betrayal, even their narrow escape to find the Crusaders hanging from a tree outside. However that was when Applejack found it hard to finish her explanation, after all, it had only happened a few minutes ago and now she was forced to relive it by telling the Unicorn what happened after Icicle had followed them outside, and thus what happened to Goggles afterward.

“YOU HEARTLESS WITCH!!!” Trixie screamed, lashing out at the white Unicorn after hearing about Goggles’ death. “I’LL KILL YOU!!!”

Needless to say Trixie took the new hard, so much so that her anger reached boiling point as she continued to slam her hooves directly into Queen Icicles face, by the time Rover and the other Diamond Dogs had managed to pull Trixie off her, Icicle was left with a bloody nose and a black eye.

“Trixie! Calm Down!” Fido said desperately as Trixie continued to lash out. 

“Let me go!!!” she screamed. “I’m gonna wring her worthless neck!!!”

“That won’t be necessary,” said another voice, one that everyone apart from Jinx and Icicle recognised.

Turning their heads towards the source of the voice, everyone was surprised to see none other than Princess Luna herself, just landing to the ground on her carriage with another familiar face in tow.

“Applejack!” Twilight screamed as she jumped out of the carriage to her friend.

“Twilight?” Applejack exclaimed in response. “What are y’all doing here?”

“I should ask you the same thing,” Twilight replied sternly, though still giving her a small hug to show that she was at least glad that Applejack was okay. “We spent ages looking for you, Trixie and Pinkie Pie back in Ponyville when we realised that you were gone, and when the girls took off in that large mechanical… thing, most of Ponyville was in utter panic. After we had calmed everyone down, we came straight to the prison to plea for Goggles’ release.”

But those words didn’t really make anyone fell any better.

“Too little, too late Twilight Sparkle!” Trixie snapped, tearfully turning her head away.

That was when Luna and Twilight managed to get a better look at what was going on, and what state everyone was in, and judging from the fact that Queen Icicle continued to smile even after receiving the beating of her life, it was obvious that nothing good has occurred.

“What happened here?” Luna asked anxiously. 

At first everyone remained silent, after all hearing about what had just happened another time only adds to the torture of it all. Finally Applejack once again swallowed her sorrow for a moment and spoke.

“Something awful your highness,” she answered, a few tears running down her cheek as she held her weeping sister close to her.  “Something just awful…”


#


It was a horrible day, after Luna had ordered the arrest of Icicle and all of the Gem Foxes she had frozen to the courtroom wall, everyone else returned to Ponyville on the next train, all of their hearts filled with utter sorrow. By the time everyone returned home the sun had already risen and morning was upon them, however there was no amount of warmth that the sun could give that could help them now. When the news of Goggles’ death reached the ears of everyone in Ponyville, everyone took it hard, the Cakes gave Pinkie Pie as much time of work at Sugarcube Corner as she needed given the situation, though they soon began to wonder about using umbrellas inside their shop with the amount of tears Pinkie was producing that were beginning to flood the entire building when she went back into her room that morning. By the time the Diamond Dogs had returned to their caves and their pack to tell them the news, every dog in sight couldn’t find it in their hearts to dig anymore, in fact after hearing about Goggles some of them even threw away the gems they already had out of anger, however the one gem no dog ever dared to touch was the very first wall of gems that Goggles had created when he had first met each other, it didn’t feel right to do anything to it due to the respect they felt for their fallen friend. Even Diamond Tiara felt guilty for selling him out when Tod and his goons came to Ponyville, granted she didn’t like the Gizmonk but even she would wish such a fate on him. However the ones who felt the most sorrow that day were those who tried to come to Goggles’ rescue, after returning home, every one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders simply sat in their bedrooms crying their eyes out, even when there were no more tears left to cry they didn’t dare leave out of pure misery. Applejack too felt the need to stay in her room, however instead of crying, she took it upon herself to bring a large mug of Granny Smith’s hardest Apple Cider and spend the rest of the morning gulping it down. As for Trixie, she didn’t hide herself away, after all, she couldn’t since half of Goggles lab had blown up and her caravan was knocked to its side from the shockwave, so instead she simply wandered around town, trying to find somewhere to be alone with her thoughts. As she walked through the snow-covered streets of Ponyville, she couldn’t help but sing to herself:

Why must it be this way?
This is just the worst day,
I can’t believe that my best friend,
Has unfairly met his end,

Oh why, oh why

As Trixie continued to sing, she passed by the numerous sad faces of everyone in Ponyville, Silver Lining simply sat outside the local Coffee Shop staring down at his beverage with a depressed look on his face, Daisy Rose and Lilly all cried over the winter flowers they were selling in their shop even Lyra Heartstrings was wailing  as she collapsed into Bon Bon’s embrace. 

Dear sweet Goggles, I don’t know what to do,
Our hearts’ breaking, what will we do without you?

Oh why, oh why


As Trixie finished her song, she simply couldn’t keep in her misery any longer, so right then and there she broke down and began crying right in the middle of the street, so much so that she caught the attention of many of the citizens, one of which was Twilight Sparkle, who had just returned from telling Spike the terrible news.

“Oh Goggles,” Trixie whimpered as she collapsed into Twilight’s comforting embrace.


#


Over the next week, the reality that Goggles was never coming back began to set into the minds of every pony, some of which were finding it harder to take than others due to the amounts of memorabilia that Goggles had left behind. In Apple Bloom’s bedroom still hung the hammock he had made for himself when he first arrived, plus there were the many inventions that Goggles had created over the 5 months he had spent in Ponyville, all of which reminded ponies of him whenever they used or even looked at them. But the hardest thing to take of all, was the Newspaper Article that came out that morning.

“Extra! Extra! Read all about it!!!” screamed the Newspaper Pony from his stand at the Canterlot Markets. “Baltimare Prison in Ruins!”

“Another one of Fedora Green’s work?” said a Unicorn mare walking by.

“Too right,” the Newspaper Pony replied. “First reporter on the scene, that one.”

Needless to say, the news did seem to take up the mare’s interest.

“Let me have one of those,” she said, placing some bits on the counter.

At those words, the Newspaper pony took the bits and passed the mare one of the newspapers in his stand, which the mare instantly read with curiosity:


BALTIMARE PRISON IN RUINS:
KAPPANESE QUEEN DETHRONED

Due to the shocking events of last week, Baltimare Prison still remains in shambles after the attempted breakout of one of its prisoners. While no dangerous prisoners were able to escape the prison itself, the Baltimare Courtroom was left in utter ruin after a mysterious contraption fell out of the sky and crashed through the front wall. However, after interviewing with several members of the Baltimare Prison guard and other numerous witnesses, it was revealed that the crash itself was merely a later event which occurred after the initial escape. 

Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the attempted escape was due to the fact the accused prisoner was innocent of all charges, the prisoner, Goggles the Gizmonk was said to have been a thief who had escaped justice by fleeing to Equestria after escaping his own country of Kappan. However this proved to be a false accusation after the discovery of a mechanical device, with the ability to record sound was given to Princess Luna of Equestria. After an interview with the Princess, it was noted that the device in question was designed and created by none other than the accused prisoner, who for some time had earned the trust of Princess Luna since the events of the previous Nightmare Night, as such, she was certain that the device she was provided bared no falsities of any sort. 

Upon listening to the recorded message on this device, it was discovered that the true culprit of the crime was none other than Queen Icicle, ruler of Kappan, and the accuser of the crime, and thewhole reason she had committed this act of fraud was due her own bigotry against the Gizmonk. After hearing Queen Icicle’s confession upon the device, Princess Luna proceeded to take action, however by the time she had arrived in Baltimare, the prison itself was in shambles and the Queen herself was incapacitated by those who had attempted to free the accused prisoner. On a further note, it was also discovered that the Kappanese Queen’s magical ability was enhanced by the power of a Polaris Star, a rare gem that is said to magnify a Unicorn’s magical ability. However when apprehended by Equestrian authority, the gem itself was not on Queen Icicle’s person due to the fact that it was removed by the escaped prisoner and thrown into the Baltimare River, as such the Kappanese Queen no longer had any magical ability when apprehended.

With evidence of her false claims upon the innocent Gizmonk as well as the injuries she had inflicted upon several Baltimare Prison guards, Queen Icicle was arrested by the Equestrian Royal guard and is now being shipped back to Kappan where she will await trial for her crimes and judged accordingly by the other members of the Kappanese royal family. On a further note, her former followers, the Gem Foxes led by Captain Tod, have also been arrested for their involvement in the crimes as well as the destruction of the Equestrian town of Ponyville, however while Queen Icicle is to be shipped back to Kappan, it is more than likely that the Gem Foxes shall remain in Equestria to serve out their sentence in Baltimare Prison due to their crimes being committed on Equestrian soil. 

While this evidence would usually allow the accused prisoner to be exonerated of all charges, it has been learnt that Goggles the Gizmonk had met with a more unfortunate fate. During the last efforts of his escape, Queen Icicle attempted to kill the Gizmonk with a final ounce of her magic, however once this proved futile, the Kappanese Queen kicked a innocent Earth Pony filly, into the Baltimare river during a struggle between herself and those who had attempted to break Goggles the Gizmonk out of prison. However while the filly was successfully rescued, and while no body had been recovered from the river, it is more than likely that the heroic Gizmonk perished upon falling down the waterfall while attempting her rescue.

After these tragic events, Princess Luna herself had decreed that in remembrance of the fallen Gizmonk, all of those he had encountered during his time in Ponyville are hereby invited to his funeral, which is set to occur at the Sweet Apple Acres farm in the said town within the following week.


That article spread through every newspaper from Ponyville to Griffinstone, by the end of the week almost everyone in Equestria knew about Goggles and his plight, and needless to say there were a LOT of mixed reactions about it. Many were of course, merely intrigued by the piece of news since it had nothing to do with their own lives, however there were also the large groups that were simply appalled by how unfairly the Gizmonk had been treated due just being what he was, while others were in awe due to such bravery to save a young filly’s life. However there was one individual who did not take some parts of the article well while reading it from his recovery bed in a local Baltimare Hotel.

“They think I’m DEAD!?!”