“I must say, these cupcakes are delicious as always.”
“No one beats Pinkie when it comes to cupcakes. Hey, Rainbow, why don’t you have some?”
The blue pegasus looked at the cute basket full of baked goods, then at her friends.
“I don’t know, you guys... There is something about Pinkie’s cupcakes that always gets me a little... ‘Uuuuh’.”
Applejack laughed.
“Now there, that’s just silly talking! You should really have some. Look, this one is even rainbow-colored...”
“That’s what I find so disturbing”, Rainbow mumbled, “Ah well. Here goes nothing.”
She had to agree, these were good cupcakes.
-
The five ponies were relaxing on the blanket, digesting their opulent picnic. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were playing cards.
“Say... Where is Pinkie Pie, anyway?”
“She said she would join us later, she had to check on something...”
“Maybe we should have left some cupcakes for her.”
“Naaah. She is eating these things all day. Hey, look everypony! There she comes! Howdy, sugar cube! What took you so long?”
Pinkie Pie was trying to catch her breath.
“...Cupcakes...”
“Yeah, they were great. But you’re a little too late to...”
“...Evil...”
The other five ponies frowned.
“Evil cupcakes...? That sounds unlikely, even coming out of your mouth...”
Pinkie took a deep breath.
“You guys, I have to tell you something. The ingredients I used to make the cupcakes for our picnic, they were kinda... contaminated.”
Applejack let her cards fall. Rainbow, as shocked by these developments as her friends, still used the occasion for a little peek.
“Now, when you say ‘contaminated’...”
“There were eggs in them. Teensy weensy peensy parasite eggs. That are gonna hatch in your tummies. But I think they already have by now...”
Rarity was turning green. She ran behind a tree to empty her stomach. Pinkie was shaking her head.
“I don’t think that’s going to do you any good...”
The other ponies were still under shock, when Applejack suddenly shrugged and said.
“So we gots tummy parasites. Big deal.”
“BIG DEAL?”, Rarity said, sticking her head out from behind the vegetation, “How can you be so nonchalant about this?”
Applejack grinned.
“I’m a farm pony, remember? We catch all kinds of little critters all the time, it’s part of the job. Why, just last week, I had this crazy bump growing on my ear, and...”
“ I SENSE TOO MUCH INFORMATION AHEAD!”
“Look, girls, the point is: A little parasitian is nothing a normally built pony can’t handle. Granny Smith knows some powerful weeds what go through your tummy like a broom, we have trained medical professionals in Ponyville, and if nothing else helps, we can still go see Zecora. Though I must say, if I have to pick between a parasite and zebra voodoo, I’m kinda undecided...”
“Oh Pinkie Pie”, Rarity moaned, “How could you do this to us?”
“Simple”, the party pony said, “All you have to do is take a cup of flour, add it to the mix...”
“Pinkie”, Twilight Sparkle said, “What kind of parasite are we talking about?”
“We received a warning from our furnisher, he called this critter ‘morgellongus amongus’. Said it wiped out his entire village, isn’t that crazy?”
“Well, at least now we know what it...” Twilight paused. “Did you say ‘wiped out’?”
“I guess I did, and if not, I should have.”
“So now you’re telling us this thing is deadly.”
“Pretty deadly, yes. He said they grow up to ten meters long, and then they tunnel through your flesh and go on a rampage to find new victims and spray their eggs around...”
This took a few seconds to sink in.
Applejack jumped on her hooves.
“Pinkie! How could you DO this to us?”
“Simple”, the party pony said, “All you have to do is take a cup of flour, add it to the mix...”
Fluttershy started crying.
“Pinkie”, Twilight said, “Did the furnisher say anything about a cure?”
“Not really. His letter ended in lots of scrawly lines and body fluids...”
“Zecora. NOW.”
-
“Wow... this is not quite what I expected.”
The ponies were locked up in a white, sealed dome. From time to time, Zecora was checking on them through a tiny porthole. She was wearing a futuristic biohazard-suit.
Applejack sighted.
“That’s a fine mess you have gotten us into this time, Pinkie Pie. Still, it’s mighty neighbourly from you to keep us company.”
“Oh please, that’s the least I can do. If you will be devoured by lovecraftian parasites, I want to be devoured with you.”
Rarity was beating against the walls of the dome.
“ZECORA! You have to open this thing! You’ve got to let Sweetie Belle out!”
The zebra peeked inside. They could not hear her, but judging by her lip movements, she was saying something that rhymed.
Sweetie Belle beamed.
“I’m not leaving your side, sis!”
“How did you even make it in here in the first place?”
“A magician never reveals her secrets.”
Pinkie chuckeld. “I like that kid!”
“And I guess you couldn’t teleport her out of here, Twilight Sparkle...”
Twilight was shaking her head. The dome was spell-proof.
“Guess we’ll just have to wait until Zecora finds a cure... Uuuuh...”
Her belly was making awful noises. Soon, the guts of the others joined the concert, except for the two non-infected ponies.
Sweetie Belle was putting one ear on her sister’s side.
“This is so cool... Awww, Rarity, don’t cry...”
“Clock is ticking”, Twilight said, “Oh girls... After all these years of studying and magical adventures, the thought that my life might end at the tentacles of something growing inside my...”
“I know what you mean”, Rainbow said, “I always figured I would end in some really cool freak accident, before the incredulous eyes of millions of ponies...”
“...I always thought I might perish due to... zoological causes. So, you know. I guess I’m the one who should be the least upset”, Fluttershy added.
Rarity was sobbing the loudest. “My dresses! My wonderful compositions! No one will want to wear them anymore when they hear of my filthy fate! They will meet nothing but disgust, and I will forever be forgotten...”
“Well I ain’t going down without a fight”, Applejack said. She started punching her own bloated stomach. “Take this! And that! And now some... Ouch.”
“Applejack, what would you say if I was the one doing that?”, Rainbow asked.
The workhorse sighted. “I’d probably call you a featherbrain. Geez, I really hope...”
“RARITY!”
Sweetie Belle’s cry made them all jump.
The white unicorn was rolling on the floor, her belly moving as if it was filled with fighting cats. Her face was a grimace of pain.
“Oh dear Celestia, it’s starting...”
-
Someone was knocking at the dome. The ponies looked up, and the faces of Mr. and Mrs Cake appeared in the porthole.
Twilight concentrated on reading their lips. She gasped.
“I don’t believe this...”
-
It was so good to be outside again, breathing air that was perfumed by a myriad different smells.
“So... I want to be absolutely clear about this”, Applejack said, “We were never actually infected.”
“Nope”, Twilight laughed, “It was all just in our heads. Tummys. Whatever.”
“That’s right”, Mrs Cake said, “The contaminated ingredients are still safely locked up in our storage room. Mr Cake and me, we put them aside as soon as we laid eyes on them. If you’re in this business as long as we are, you develop certain... instincts. Young Pinkemina just found the letter, and I guess she... panicked.”
“Please show us the ingredients, Mrs Cake. We will dispose of them them right away”, Twilight said.
“Oh dear, you don’t have to...”
“No, we insist”, Rarity was shaking her head, “We can only sleep peacefully if they are destroyed by our own hooves.”
Mrs Cake opened the storage room. And then she screamed.
“They are GONE!”
The ponies were paralyzed in shock.
“Uh-oh”, Pinkie said.
“What now?”
“You were talking about these ingredients?”
“...Yes?”
“Mhm. I guess that makes sense. They looked kinda strange to me. So I used them for cupcakes I was going to eat myself. No use letting go something to waste, eh?”
Twilight was trying to keep her calm.
“So YOU ingested all the eggs. Is that what you’re saying?”
“I guess so.”
“But you...”
Pinkie burped.
“X’cuse me.”
She burped again.
“Re-X’cuse me.”
Everyone stepped back as she opened her mouth, as if she was going to...
Slowly, a large, worm-like creature was gliding out of her throat.
It looked sick, dying even. As they stared at it, it started talking.
“The horror.... THE HORROR! There were so many of us, and now, I’m the only one left... Crunched... suffocated... digested... Enzymes to the left, enzymes to the right! Burning heat, evil gas demons... Entire oceans of boiling acid! And then the bouncing, the horrible bouncing...”
“...There, there...”, Fluttershy said, “You poor thing...”
Then she took the creature to her cottage to nurse it back to health.