Seeing the Pattern
Part 10: Epilogue
Pinkamina hauled the final box and hefted it into the bonfire. All the papers and scribbles and candid photographs started to curl and brown. It had been almost a month with no sign of the Pinkie Sense from either Surprise or herself. It was safe to say that, somehow, with their separation, the ability had left them. It depressed Pinkamina to know she could no longer foresee the deaths of others and try to prevent them. She wasn’t an especially friendly mare, but she had to admit toying with the universal design had been rather thrilling while it lasted.
Surprise had tried to throw her a ‘congratulations on getting your life back and moving in with your coltfriend’ party, but she’d dryly refused in favor of a rather normal cook-out at Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack and her family were hosting the get-together. Pinkamina could already see the alternate motif of examining her in a social setting. The pink mare wasn’t stupid. The scowl she wore on her face was a knowing one.
Poking the bonfire and standing at her side, Lickity Split smiled gently at her and chanced nuzzling her in public. She scowled at him more deeply, but allowed it. When nopony was looking her tail twitched and swatted his butt with mild affection, making him jump. She would need to get used to this new and public life. She hadn’t been in full control of herself since age… what… ten? Twelve? Before she’d gotten her cutie mark, that was for sure. The dark circles under her eyes had vanished, for full nights of sleep had made her into a much healthier mare.
“Pinkamina?” Lickity said with concern as she watched her life’s work curl up in black heat. “Are you gonna be okay, now that all this is officially over?” he nodded towards the boxes they’d been burning since the start of the party. With the Pinkie Sense gone there seemed to be little point to hanging on to it all. It would only remind her of the angry, sleepless nights.
“Yes. I’ll be fine.” Pinkamina said. There was a passing look between them, one of genuine affection. The pink mare was hard-pressed to know how to express herself facially. Having been all alone for so long, she’d not really needed to use her face for much. Fluttershy had mentioned that it made her look hawkish, since even when hawks were happy they seemed to be glaring at the world. A good analogy. “I’ll just need to find something new to do, is all. Surprise is the new Pinkie Pie, so she’s working at Sugar Cube Corner.” She gestured at the white mare who was chatting animatedly at one of the picnic tables with her friends.
“Well, if you still wanna save lives,” Lickity said gently, stoking the flames of the bonfire a bit. “Maybe go for the fire brigade? Or a medical job?” he listed a few things off.
“I’m not very fireproof. And I really don’t want to spend the next ten years getting a medical degree.” Pinkamina shook her head with a loud sigh. “I don’t know what I want right now, and its already been a month. I can’t just work in an ice cream parlor for the rest of my life.” She winced inwardly when she saw his troubled expression. “Well, what I meant was, it’s not my special talent. I really don’t have one, truth be told. Pinkie Pie was the party pony, and now surprise has almost the same mark anyway.” Pop! Just like that, the three balloons on her flank vanished. Lickity startled back, his mouth agape. Pinkamina turned to look, rather openly shocked.
“Oh my Celestia lookit that!” The Cutie Mark Crusaders had materialized out of the crowd of milling ponies. “Pinkamina’s got no cutie mark! She’s a blank flank like us!” Applebloom announced, and more than a few heads turned. The pink mare flushed hotly, scowling at the three fillies. “You wanna join the Cutie Mark Crusaders?!” she was bouncing up and down excitedly. “We look for our cutie marks ev’r single day!”
She ignored the bouncing fillies entirely, sighing in a tired way until they gave up following her across the barbecue’s grounds. “Why did that take a month to happen?” Pinkamina pondered, lifting her back leg a little. “Did I just have to acknowledge it?” Nopony could seem to figure it out, and Lickity Split pawed at it a little. She kicked him firmly and he yelped, smiling apologetically. Troubled, Pinkamina roamed to get another dandelion burger and take her place at the head of one of the picnic tables.
“Hey Pinkamina.” Said Twilight Sparkle, trying to be friendly.
“Hey.” She said, lifting her burger before deciding she needed salt and ketchup. “How is Surprise doing?”
“Just fine. She’s basically Pinkie Pie in another body. Just a different color.” Twilight chuckled good-naturedly. They both knew it was true. Surprise had taken to her new body with all the gusto one would expect from their sugar-wired friend. “So tell me, what’re you going to do now? Will you stay in Ponyville?” she said in a low voice, curious.
“I’m going to stay with Lickity Split.” Pinkamina said around her burger. Both mares turned and watched the stallion prancing about with the three fillies. They’d roped him into being a playmate for the time being. Cantering around the barn and through the milling ponies, they were helping to light the lanterns hanging off of the barn as the dusk drew deeper. It was the end of summer, the night would grow chilly if they didn’t stoke the bonfire and light a few lights. “He’s been… kind to me, through all of this.” The pink mare said carefully. Twilight Sparkle watched Lickity play with the fillies, laughing when one of them decided to climb on his back and be mare of the mountain. This of course brought the other two to tackle him down to get at her. Big Mac watched from afar, quite happy that for once he was not the mountain.
“You and Lickity Split, huh?” Twilight said with a smirk, watching the fillies conquer the poor stallion and climb all over him trying to get at each other. Pinkamina nodded slowly. “I’m happy for you.” She said, smiling genuinely for her. Pinkamina bit into her dandelion burger, watching the crowd of ponies chatting, laughing, eating, and having a good time in her honor. It was a good feeling, she supposed, to fully become a part of the community rather than skulk in shadow. It would just take some getting used to. While she was eating, though, she paused. Something felt funny. Her brow furrowed and her eyes darted around. Something wasn’t right. Twilight saw her scowling and looked around as well. “What? What is it?” A strange, electric feeling was buzzing in the back of Pinkamina’s mind. It worked its way slowly down her spine, making her shudder a little. “Pinkamina?” Twilight’s voice seemed to be fading into the background while the pink mare squinted around the party.
The buzzing feeling traveled down her back, slowly to her tail until TWITCHY-TWITCHY-TWITCH! Pinkamina rose quickly from her seat with a panicked expression, snatching Twilight Sparkle’s burger right off of her plate. “Sorry.” She quickly turned and baseball-pitched it over the crowd! No one seemed to notice the flying food. Over where Lickity Split was playing with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, an old barn lantern’s rope snapped. The lantern fell, spilling its oil out onto the four of them. They looked up just in time to see the lantern tumble through the air, the bright flame threatening within. Something struck it in midair, making it spin off course and away from them. Scootaloo screamed! It fell with an explosion of glass and oil, whooshing briefly into flame. Thankfully, it hadn't hit any of them. Big Macintosh rushed onto the scene, stamping it out with his massive hooves before the whole barn went up in flame. Lickity and the three fillies froze on the spot, fearful. That could’ve fallen right onto them and set them on fire!
“Pinkamina, how did you—?!” Twilight was silenced and Pinkamina quickly sat and shoved her hoof into the lavender mare’s mouth. The two of them exchanged a serious, long gaze. The crowd was rushing over to make sure the four ponies were okay, but Pinkamina and Twilight stayed at their seats, their eyes locked.
“I didn’t. You didn’t see anything.” said Pinkamina slowly. “The wind must’ve knocked it loose. It was a lucky thing it didn’t land on them.” She said in a low growl, programming the story that Twilight would tell to anyone who asked her. The librarian nodded slowly, her eyes still wide with shock. Pinkamina ripped her dandelion burger in half and put the bigger half she hadn’t bitten off of onto Twilight’s plate to conceal the evidence. Hunching low so it looked like she’d never risen from her seat, the pink mare slowly looked over her shoulder to check on the four of them. They were being wiped down of the oil and the three fillies coddled. Everything would be okay, nothing bad happened, there there. Lickity Split looked a little rattled but otherwise okay. “I’m… going to get some air.” Pinkamina rose slowly from her seat, stuffing the last of her burger into her mouth. Twilight nodded slowly, watching her go. Pinkamina left the barn unnoticed, for everyone was making sure Lickity and the fillies were okay. The door was pressed slowly shut.
“We have you now, Pinkamina.” A haughty voice greeted her from the darkness beyond the edges of the bonfire party. “You’ve done exactly what we told you not to.”
Pinkamina stood stalwart against the massive shadow. “Keep your voice down, Princess. This is a happy day.” She walked, side by side with darkness. The earth pony and the alicorn regarded one another cautiously, both of them very dangerous for very different reasons. They walked along a silent path amongst the orchards.
“Dost thou mean to continue preventing deaths, despite our warnings to the contrary?” Princess Luna growled at her as they went past apple tree after apple tree. “Dost thou not fear my wrath anymore?”
“Well, technically your threat has already been carried out.” Pinkamina said in a very business-like way. “I disobeyed you. You killed me. Pinkie Pie was my sacrificial lamb. You cannot punish anypony for the same crime twice.”
“Pinkie Pie was punished for lying, and even that turned out to be false. Thou must not twist our words.” Luna said, careful to keep her voice down and not panic the local populace. Pinkamina read her like a book. If she stayed calm and collected, so would the alicorn. Don’t show fear, don’t show shock, she would be fine. “I promised to execute you if you prevented another death. By fate’s design, that stallion or one of those fillies was meant to die by the flames.”
“Which one?” Pinkamina asked.
“We are not sure. The threads of fate grow more complex when more than one pony is involved. All we know is that one of them would’ve burned to death.” The Princess spoke of the agonizing death as though it were tomorrow’s lunch. How jaded she was. Pinkamina frowned, waiting for her to continue. “We have come to deliver one final warning, pink one.” The goddess stopped and turned to her. The full moon silhouetted them against the night, casting long shadows. If one were to look at the ground, one would think that Pinkamina stood just as tall as the princess herself. “If thou prevent-est any more deaths, for any reason, something terrible wilst happen to thou. And we do not mean the wrath of ourselves.” She raised a powerful hoof in warning. “Your time as a preventer of death is over. Move on and embrace thy stallion. Raise a family. Get a normal profession. Live a normal life.” There was a long silence, Pinkamina refused to speak. They scowled at each other. The dark alicorn took wing before long, leaving her alone with her thoughts.
A familiar itch began to work on Pinkamina’s mind. Just out of the corner of her eye, she saw something. Turning her head, she stared at it. There was a figure standing far away, among the apple orchard’s trees. She could barely make him out, but it was definitely a stallion. His eyes glowed red in the moonlight, and a thick cloak hung over his body. The hood all but concealed his face, but she could see even from the distance he had no lips. Pinkamina’s eyes widened in horror when she saw the skeletal face turn towards the moonlight to watch the princess of the night fly away. Death? In pony form? He turned to look at her again with his burning, otherworldly gaze. There was a hatred in his gaze, a frustrated and burning hatred. The pink mare glanced at the alicorn in the sky as she hit the horizon and headed towards Canterlot. When she turned her head back to him the stallion was gone, replaced only by a dissipating wisp of black mist. It had been a warning. A brief and terrible warning, to see death incarnate.
Her time as a preventer of death was over, the Princess had said. “No Princess. It’s not over.” She whispered stubbornly. Pinkamina’s curtain-like mane hung low over her face for a few moments as her head dipped towards the ground. There was a sparkle of magic on her dull pink flank. A white skull appeared on her rump, crossed by a black scythe. “After all… it’s my special talent.” Her horrific smile returned and she turned her gaze to the moon, grinning impishly. She didn’t need her papers, pictures, or research anymore. The Pinkie Sense was hers, and now she could understand it. Her mind slowly expanded, grasping the metaphysical meanings of all the Pinkie Sense had to offer. It was beautiful. “I’ve only just begun.”
THE END