Aqualine perched herself on a nearby tree. Spike wasn't the hardest of opponents, but he used ice attacks, which put Aqualine at a disadvantage. Not that she minded since it gave Heatnix a chance to shine.
Spike himself didn't stand a chance. Any attack he threw was immediately turned to water, which he couldn't control. He scowled at the other dragon, then gathered all of his energy into one massive chunk of ice. He threw it forward... and could only watch as Heatnix melted the middle of it as she charged through it. One full-body tackle later, and the fight was over.
"Oh yeah! I'm good!"
"We need to split! There are guards nearby, and we can't let them find us!" Wind Jet immediately teleported away.
Heatnix turned into fire and leaped into the nearby forest. As soon as she landed, she undisguised and started brushing off her arms. "When I find that Sludge, I'm gonna-"
She paused. There were other heat sources near her. She slowly looked up.
Princess Celestia was standing right in front of her, with a guard at either side of her.
"Smolder?"
"You have to stop it!"
"Why are you letting this happen?"
Twilight shied back. The last time they argued about this, she had the advantage that the others didn't have any idea of who had that power. This time? There was no hiding it.
Tears were welling in Rarity's eyes. "Celestia will listen to you! She has to!"
"Sh-she doesn't." Twilight wanted to run, but they weren't going to let her.
Rainbow got in Twilight's face. "You're just letting a child die?"
Pinkie grabbed Twilight and pulled her nose to nose. "After she saved our lives?"
Twilight had one escape route. She teleported behind her friends, planning to run to Celestia to talk to her.
But teleporting was as far as she got before Fluttershy struck her across the face, sending Twilight to the ground.
"Fluttershy..."
Fluttershy placed her left hoof on Twilight's horn, her right hoof on Twilight's neck, and forced her right hind leg into Twilight's stomach. "Twilight. You remember our agreement, right?"
Twilight bit her lip. "I... I..."
Fluttershy's cold, heartless eyes moved closer to Twilight's. "You have one opportunity to stop this before I follow through on my threat."
"Please... I just... need to... to..."
"Hey, girls?" Applejack positioned herself near her other friends. "Do you know what's going on?"
The others looked at each other. Rainbow and Pinkie knew. Rarity knew. But Rarity didn't know Rainbow or Pinkie knew, and vice versa. As a result, they remained quiet at the moment. Meanwhile, Applejack had no clue what was going on.
Though Fluttershy clearly had a good idea of what was happening. "The clock is running out, Twilight. You should know what will happen if Smolder dies." Fluttershy got up and started walking away. "I'll be at the execution site."
Twilight watched as Fluttershy left, soon followed by the rest of her friends. She was barely able to think. Her friends were gone. She was all alone. Was this going to be... permanent? Had she lost all of her friends?
"Twilight." Celestia had approached her at some point. "Are you going to the execution or not?"
"Celestia?" Twilight's eyes shot wide as she leaped up to Celestia. "Celestia! You have to stop the execution!"
"Why?" Celestia's tone was flat.
Twilight produced a scroll, unrolled it, and forced it into Celestia's face. "Gold Strike was able to control the minds of other creatures! If his powers are not restricted to the White Cursed, then there's no need to outlaw the White Curse!"
Celestia stared at the scroll. "... Cute. I don't see how this is proof. Stop wasting my time."
Twilight's heart dropped back into her stomach. "B-but... I..."
"I do want to ask you something before the execution. Smolder is one of the White Cursed. There are five more. What are the odds that they're your other students? The ones close to Smolder?"
Twilight averted her gaze. "Just... let me stay in denial a bit longer, okay?"
Celestia continued to stare at Twilight. "So you did know. We can discuss this later." Celestia turned around. "Faithful student."
Twilight curled up into a ball. It was all going wrong. Her student was about to die. Her friends abandoned her. She closed her eyes. She just wanted to... disappear.
Rainbow kept staring at Fluttershy. The way Fluttershy was acting earlier was definitely not like her. And she wasn't corrupted since that apparently has a one time limit.
"You haven't put it together yet, have you?"
Rarity lifted Fluttershy onto Rainbow's back. Fluttershy was... shaking?
"Oh. Cruel to be kind. I think you went a bit too far, though."
Fluttershy just whimpered, tears pouring down her face.
"But why? Even if Smolder was one of them, that doesn't mean we know who the others are?" Applejack walked a few steps before realizing the others stopped. "What? Don't tell me you all know who the others are."
"Applejack. Darling. Think for a second. There are six members, and one of them is Smolder. It's not that hard to piece together who the other five are."
Applejack stared at them, then scratched her chin.
Rainbow didn't feel like waiting for Applejack to piece it together. "They're our students, Applejack. The other non-ponies and Sandbar."
Applejack's eyes narrowed. "And how did you know that?"
Rainbow sighed. "When you got corrupted, our students went missing. I thought about it, and realized that they had to be the White Cursed that just showed up."
Applejack placed her hoof to her face. "Pinkie, please tell me you don't believe that-"
Pinkie practically teleported into Applejack's face. "I saw them fighting me while I was corrupted! They didn't have their costumes yet!"
Applejack stared. "... Alright. I believe ya. But that doesn't explain why Fluttershy was acting so weirdly!"
Rainbow put her hoof on Fluttershy's. "Well, what do you think Twilight would have done if she learned who the White Cursed are?"
Applejack raised an eyebrow. "Tell Celestia."
Rarity patted Fluttershy on the head. "But she hadn't. Why?"
Applejack stared at Fluttershy, then said, somewhat slowly, "Because Fluttershy was blackmailing her. Because if Celestia knew, she would put all six of them down. And Fluttershy didn't want that." She pulled her hat over her eyes. "None of us do."
Pinkie rubbed the back of her head. "Although, to be fair, that would require Twilight knowing in the first place."
"She knows." Fluttershy's voice was a near whisper. "That's why she was trying to get away back then."
Rainbow opened her mouth to respond, only to hear someone screaming nearby. "What the heck?"
The mares walked towards the screaming.
"NO! LET ME GO!" Dragon Lord Ember was struggling against five Yaks, although three of them looked more like transformed Changelings. "LET ME GO! SMOLDER! SMOLDER, DO SOMETHING!"
Smolder smiled at Ember, then hung her head. Her arms were bound behind her back, pinning her wings down as well. She was kneeling on a circular wooden platform surrounded by a foot deep moat of water. It was clear she had no intention of struggling.
"SMOLDER!" Ember felt something touch her shoulder. She looked over and was met with King Thorax's somber gaze. That's when she broke down crying, falling into his embrace once the Yaks let her go.
Ocellus watched from behind Thorax. He had already told her to be ready to flee to the hive. She wanted to save Smolder, but she couldn't think of a way to.
"What was Celestia thinking?" Queen Novo looked over the other attendees. "Why block off the public while inviting the leaders of the other races? Is she trying to create another divide? It makes no sense!"
"Auntie."
Novo looked at Silver. "We may need to escape to Mt. Aris. You can take the scenic route to meet with your friends, but your safety is our priority. We may not even stay long enough to collect your things."
Gallus was staring at the Hippogriffs intently. He was so distracted, he didn't notice who walked up next to him.
"Be ready to fly, boy."
Gallus turned to his other side. "Grandpa Gruff?"
Gruff pressed his claw against Gallus' beak. "Don't take me for a fool, boy. I know you took the bell, and I know why. That's why I had a fake made in the first place. If you're going to use that bell well, then you need to live."
Gallus looked at him. For most of his life, Gallus thought Gruff was uncaring at best. Now, even Gruff speaking in the same cold tone, Gallus realized how much he really cared. "Yes, sir."
"Bah. Ponies silly." Prince Rutherford looked like a ten-year-old at a classical performance. "They call Yaks brutes, then go and kill others."
"Y-yeah. Ponies very silly." Yona trembled both because her kins were treating her friend's death so casually and because she got used to talking like a pony, making her original dialect awkward for her.
"Well, this is a brilliant way of letting us back into society." Rain Shine knew how harrowing the situation was but simply didn't care for what Celestia was doing.
"Why wouldn't it be? Gathering angry and sad creatures of power around a child about to be killed is a beautiful way of showing Equestrian hospitality!" The only thing indicating Autumn's sarcasm was her expression.
Rain Shine giggled a bit, then looked away from the execution site to observe Ponyville.
"Sir, do we really need to be here?"
Flash Magus looked at the other guard. "I don't feel like we should be here either, but this was the Princess' orders."
"Why does she want us here?"
Flash focused on Smolder again. "No idea."
"Excuse me! Guard!" Flash looked at Rain Shine, who pointed off in the distance. "What is that?"
Flash looked. There were bright flashes of color off in the distance.
One of the other guards rolled his eyes. "It's probably just fireworks."
"If you're so sure, why not check it out?"
"I'm not missing the execution!"
Flash glared at the guard. "Then I'll write you up for insubordination."
The guard rolled his eyes. "Fine." He headed off in the direction of the "fireworks."
One of the other guards stared at him. "He wants to see this? What is wrong with him?"
"I can think of something, but I'd rather not say something I shouldn't."
Sandbar stared at Smolder as Rainbow walked up beside him. "She's accepting it. She won't fight back."
Rainbow, having let Applejack carry Fluttershy, draped her wing over his back. "Do you feel like she failed you guys?"
"No. I failed her."
"Celestia!" Novo's voice was full of fury. "What are you doing?"
Her yell drew everyone's attention to the approaching mare. Though some of them immediately took note of the mare beside her.
"Twilight?"
Rain Shine watched as the other leaders yelled at Celestia to stop the execution. "This is getting wild."
Autumn shrugged. "You can't make up this level of drama."
Celestia and Twilight simply ignored everyone yelling at them and stepped into the moat. The various onlookers fell silent as they realized their voices weren't being heard, eventually leaving Ember as the only voice still crying out.
Celestia and Twilight nodded at each other, then looked at Smolder, who was still hanging her head.
The water from the moat wrapped around their horns.
Smolder looked up just before the water hit her.
Ocellus closed her eyes.
Silver clasped her claws over her beak.
Gallus cringed.
Yona turned away.
Sandbar just stared.
A huge plume of steam rose from the platform Smolder was on.