.
“You're pitiful, both of you!” Alula landed in front of Peach Fuzz and Train Tracks while lashing out at them.
The two other foals turned around at her, confusion on their faces. “What?” Train Tracks asked.
“Yeah, you! You and you!” She pointed with a hoof at Train Tracks, then at Peach Fuzz. “You are completely pitiful! Just look at you! Your love meant something once. But now you're just fighting. You say you love each other? You're hypocrites!”
Train Tracks and Peach Fuzz exchanged a concerned glance.
Alula noticed it. “What, huh?! You wanna say something to me? Do you have any problem with what I'm saying?” She came a step closer, menacingly.
Peach Fuzz and Train Tracks gulped. They shook their heads in unison, fear written on their faces now.
“Yeah, you better don't!” Alula continued her mad talk. “Want me to tell you something?” She leaned in on her friends. “Having a goal is meaningless. You can try hard, you can fight, but, in the end, it will all be useless. You will never reach your dreams and life will always be dark and bleak.” Her voice had become searing at the end.
~ * ~
“But it's not good to treat yourself like this, Train Tracks!” Peach Fuzz' voice was clad in worry.
“What do you know?” Train Tracks shouted back at her, perhaps lashing out a bit too much. “I always worked myself through any trouble that way and it went fine!”
Peach Fuzz gasped and looked down, a few tears appearing in the corner of her eyes.
Unaffected by the fight, Alula stood at their side. “It's all his doing,” she muttered in a low voice. “As long as he is here, it will never end.”
Peach Fuzz wiped a few tears out of her eyes and looked at Train Tracks again. She placed a hoof on Train Tracks' shoulder. “Don't be so angry, please. I just wanted–”
“Hmph!” he shrugged his shoulders forcefully, making Peach Fuzz retreat her hoof. “Just stop telling me what to do!”
“Hehehe.....” Alula snickered. “I know exactly what I have to do,” she spoke, a little louder than before. She looked over at Fluttershy and fixated her eyes on Angel who sat on her back.
“He needs to disappear. It will never stop as long as he is here. With him, it will never become Hearth's Warming Eve ever again. He needs to be stopped, it's the only way.” She sat herself into motion, towards Fluttershy and Angel.
Her last sentence finally made Peach Fuzz and Train Tracks look up. They followed her with their eyes.
“Now I'm getting worried about her.....” Peach Fuzz said. “She has been strange the entire morning already.”
“I noticed,” Train Tracks answered, seemingly having forgotten their fight, but still with a noticeable huff in his voice. “I think something is seriously wrong with her.”
The twosome exchanged a short glance, then they followed Alula.
As she was close to Fluttershy, Alula suddenly turned around. She approached Train Tracks.
“That's the end for me, Train Tracks. There's no other way out.” Her voice sounded strangely deep and it was full of resignation. “I just wanted to let you know that I love you and that we had a fun time together once.” She leaned in and gave Train Tracks a passionate kiss on the lips. Then she suddenly ran away without saying another word.
“Hey, what's going on here?” Peach Fuzz shouted, confused and angry at the same time. “Alula, what are you doing?!”
The filly ran up to Fluttershy. Before the adult pegasus could react, she had snatched Angel from her back and taken off into the sky. High up in the air, she placed Angel on her back, between her wings.
“Hey, buddy!” Alula turned around and grinned at Angel. “Now we're going for a flight. Lean back and enjoy it.”
Angel gulped.
Fluttershy looked up at her. “Alula, what are you doing with Angel?” she shouted. But Alula did not respond. Instead, the filly suddenly zipped away. Fluttershy ran after her. “Please help!” she shouted. “She kidnapped Angel!”
“Let's follow her!” Train Tracks shouted and took up the chase. Peach Fuzz ran right after him.
“Stoooooop!” Fluttershy shouted at Alula, but the filly still didn't listen or react.
“Why is she doing this?” Peach Fuzz asked, puzzled.
“No idea,” Train Tracks answered his fillyfriend's question. “I think she finally has enough of Angel.”
“Oh no.....” Fluttershy winced. But the reason was not Train Tracks' remark. She pointed ahead. “Why is she flying in there? What is she going to do to Angel?!”
Ahead of the three ponies, Alula had reached the borders of the Everfree Forest, but kept flying.
As Fluttershy had arrived there, too, she wanted to run aside, but Train Tracks and Peach Fuzz grabbed her tail together and held her back.
“You can't run into the Everfree Forest, it's too dangerous, Fluttershy!” they shouted.
“But..... Angel!” Fluttershy pulled with all of her power, until her tail was free. Peach Fuzz and Train Tracks toppled over and fell to the ground.
Fluttershy turned around. “I'm sorry, but we can't let her hurt him!” She picked up the two foals and draped them over her back, then took flight and followed Alula on the same route. The urgency of the situation had given her unexpected strength.
Train Tracks and Alula sat up, holding each other to not fall down while the pegasus mare raced after Alula. Suddenly, Alula started to descend towards the treetops. Fluttershy and her two passengers watched in horror as she disappeared between the foliage.
“We need to find her!” Fluttershy cried out. “If we don't, Angel won't make it ouf of there and Alula won't either!” The two foals nodded and Fluttershy descended as well.
Alula took a deep breath as she flew at high speed between the trees. In the distance, she saw what she had been looking for: A gigantic dragon. It hadn't noticed her yet, but it already made Alula shiver in fear.
“That's it then, buddy,” she said. Alula turned around, lifted Angel off her back and held him in front of her chest. “Let's make it a nice firework for them!” She broke out in sweat and her teeth started to clatter.
Angel started to squeal in panic and struggled, but Alula's hooves held him tightly in place.
“Is she flying to that dragon?” Train Tracks pointed with the hoof that wasn't holding Peach Fuzz.
Fluttershy gasped. “She is! Whatever is she doing?!” She took a deep breath. “ALULA, STOP!” she yelled as loud as she could. Peach Fuzz and Train Tracks assisted her, but the filly ignored their combined shouting.
Alula flew over the dragon, then landed in front of him and cut off his path. “Hey, you ugly, fat lizard!” she greeted him.
The dragon stopped and immediately shot her a glare.
“Oh, did I make you angry?” Alula asked the dragon, mockingly. “How about fried filly, with some roasted bunny as side dish, to make up for it?” She smirked, but shivered all over her body at the same time.
She didn't have to tell the dragon twice. He moved his head back and took a very deep breath. Then he unleashed his fire on Alula and Angel. The flames covered them and raged for a few seconds. As he stopped, there was nothing more than a pile of ash left of his victims.
Fluttershy slowed down and came to a halt, eyes widened from what she had to witness. Peach Fuzz and Train Tracks looked the same.
“AAAAAAAANGEL!” Fluttershy yelled in distress, tears leaking from her eyes immediately.
“A-Alula.....” Peach Fuzz broke out in tears, as well. Train Tracks pulled his fillyfriend closer and she averted her gaze, hugged him and started crying into his chest.
~ * ~
Now shall we sing songs of harmony within this realm! And with true love and brotherhood, each other we all whelm! This day, apart, warm hearths and hearts, all other doth efface! For friendship and rectitude to all and kindness and grace! Warm hearths to all and kindness and grace!
Alula opened her eyes and sat up in her bed. Despite having just woken up, her face looked already destroyed. “Oh, no.....” she said weakly. “Why am I still here?” She fell back onto the pillow.
Diligently and with a lot of care, Alula tied the the rope she had made out of her bedsheets to the shower curtain rail. Hovering in front of it, she made a few knots into it to make sure it would hold her weight.
Another knock came from her locked bedroom door. “Alula? Why aren't you answering?” the voice of her mother entered her ears. “I heard your alarm clock, honey. Is everything alright?” She knocked again.
Alula ignored it all. With heavy-lidded eyes, she looked back at the rope. Hesitating for only a moment, she put the rope around her neck and fastened it. She sobbed one last time, then she stopped the flapping of her wings and let herself fall. There was a pain right below her head, then the world turned black for her.
~ * ~
To her right, Peach Fuzz and Train Tracks were bickering and fighting. To her left, Scootaloo unleashed a stream of words on her. Alula ignored both. She was waiting for something. As two muscular stallions, who pulled a huge cart, approached them, Alula stepped in front of them in the last moment. She flexed her wings as the stallions tried to stop.
The other three foals averted their eyes as they heard their friend getting knocked down and trampled over by the two stallions.
~ * ~
On top of the Ponyville Clock Tower, Alula looked behind her and checked her wings to make sure the thick rope around her body would hold. She looked ahead again. Her face looked stressed and tears garnered in her eyes.
Alula rose to her hindlegs and spread her forelegs apart. Not waiting longer, she jumped. Her body turned around itself while she fell, so that her head pointed down before she impacted with the road at the foot of the tower.
Peach Fuzz, Train Tracks and Alula's mom had gathered in the hospital, in a room with bleak walls. Cold-looking light came from neon lamps on the ceiling.
A doctor pulled back a white sheet from a small, stiff body on a gurney in front of him. It revealed Alula, who laid there with widely opened eyes that stared up at the ceiling. They looked cold and dead.
Peach Fuzz looked over at Alula's mom, who broke down crying at the sight, not able to say anything. She glanced at the doctor and sobbed. “I-It's her,” she confirmed, then leaned in on Train Tracks and started to cry without restraint.
Train Tracks put both hooves around her, held her tight and cradled her comfortingly. He looked down at Alula's dead form. “Alula..... You annoyed us sometimes, but you were a really great friend. I wish you'd have told us that you didn't feel well.” Tears started to build in his eyes, too, now. He gave the doctor a sign and the white sheet got pulled over Alula's head again.