“My Brother of course. Anarchy.”
“Oh Celestia,” Anarchy purred as he paced through the Chamber of Harmony. “Look at everything you have achieved.” He removed the amulet from around his neck and held it high into the air, turning it side to side as if to show it the stained glass windows that decorated the hall. “So many foes vanquished, so many lives saved.” He shook his head. “All because of your precious Elements of Harmony.” He curled his upper lip into a sneer. He stopped in front of a window depicting six young ponies battling against a dark blue mare with stars in her mane. “Are these your Champions? Are these the ones you hope will put an end to my games?
The amulet said nothing. He scowled at it. “Do not ignore me, Celestia! When I am asking you a question, I expect an answer.”
The amulet just glinted in the afternoon light.
He shook it violently. “Do not ignore me!” He bellowed. His voice echoed throughout the halls, making the windows vibrate. He had no concern of being heard. He had already turned the guards into stone. It was quite easy, really. All he did was stroll into the Chambers while disguised as Celestia. Once the guards opened the doors for him, he turned back into his natural state and encased them in stone. Their shocked expressions had put him in a rather good mood. It didn’t last very long, however, as he discovered that there was, in fact, a way for these ponies to stop him.
“What kind of magic are these Elements anyway?” He ran his claw down the glass, cutting the image of a white unicorn with purple hair in half. “And who are these ponies who posses them?” He ran his snake-like tongue over his sharp teeth. “Laughter, Kindness, Generosity, Loyalty, Honesty, and Magic.” He rolled his eyes. “How disgustingly sweet.”
His gaze lingered on each of the ponies. “Well,” he chuckled while pawing at the amulet. “Thanks to your precious little journal and these windows, I now have a pretty clear understanding of what I am up against.” He carved out the image of the pink pony with poofy hair. He gently pulled the glass shard from the window and held it up to the light so that the pink colors danced across his scaly body. “Ah yes, I remember this one. She’s the filly with the balloons on her flank.” His smile widened. “What does she represent, I wonder?” He tilted the piece of glass side to side before crushing it in his palm. “Why don’t we just find out?” He laughed.
Anarchy was a very patient creature. He did not just rush head-first into a situation, instead preferring to observe his surroundings. Any creature could kill a pony but it took a very special one to hurt a pony. He turned himself into a crow and spent the next couple minutes flying across PonyVille in search of the pink pony with the balloon markings. It wasn’t all that difficult. This particular pony made herself known in seconds. She was the only pony in the entire town that preferred hopping over walking. He noticed that every time she ran into a pony, she had to stop and say hello. He used his wings to cover his ears as she had the annoying tendency to talk a mile a minute. However, it was the fact that she kept on smiling and laughing that led him to believe which of the six elements she possessed.
Oh, he thought, is it always the cheerful ones that are the most fun.
He discovered where this pony – Pinkie Pie – lived. He spent several minutes poking around the bakery, looking at photos of the ponies that lived there. A stallion named Mr. Cake and his wife seemed to be the owners of the bakery. To make matters a bit more interesting, the two of them recently had children. Anarchy ran his wing over the image of Mr. Cake holding the twins. A unicorn foal and a Pegasus? Now this I can use.
He heard the front door open and teleported himself out of the bakery. He perched himself on the windowsill so that he could monitor which pony had decided to enter the shop. To his delight, it was Mr. Cake himself, along with Pinkie Pie.
Perfect, he thought.
“And then I ran up to Rarity and said, ‘Have you seen Twilight?’ and Rarity was like ‘No, my dear, I haven’t. Why don’t you ask Rainbow Dash?’ so I did! But the problem was that I couldn’t find Dashie because she was in Cloudsdale so I had to go to the balloon shop and buy all these balloons so that I could fly up there to meet her, but before I could fill them up with helium, AppleJack appeared. She was looking for Twilight too so I was like ‘Hey, why don’t we look together?’ and she was like ‘Sure sugarcube,’ but then I saw you coming home with a big box and I knew that inside that box had to be something amazingly delicious so I said bye to AppleJack and came home instead!” Pinkie Pie took a long, deep breath, and then said, “And that’s my day. Well, not really my entire day because I still have like seven more hours until bedtime but that is my day up until now.” She blinked with a smile upon her lips. “So, how are you?”
“Pinkie, I’m fine.” Mr. Cake grumbled as he pushed the heavy box onto the counter. “Just fine.” He leaned against the counter while trying to catch his breath. “Look, Pinkie, why don’t you go upstairs and check on the foals for me? I need to get these ingredients put away before they spoil and I am sure the kids would enjoy seeing you.”
“Oh! Good idea!” Pinkie Pie hopped out of the kitchen and towards the staircase. Just as she was about to head upstairs, however, a knock came at the front door. “I’ll get it!” Pinkie sang. She raced on over to the door and pulled it open with her teeth. “Hello and welcome to Sugar Cube Corners! What can I get for you?” She paused as the realization that the pony she was looking at was somepony she had never seen before. “Oh, My, Celestia! You’re new, aren’t you?” She felt her tail wag back and forth in excitement. “Well, hello! I’m Pinkie-Pie and this is our bakery. Well, not my bakery but Mr. and Mrs. Cake’s bakery. I just help out.”
The elderly female pony smiled. “I know, dearie. I’ve been here before.”
Pinkie blinked. “Are you sure? Because I know every pony in Ponyville and I’ve never seen you before.”
“That’s because I’ve been away for quite some time.”
“Oh! Where are you from?”
“Las Pegasus,” she said with a smile. “I’m looking for Cup Cake. Have you seen her?”
“Oh, no. Mrs. Cake is out delivering some desserts.” Pinkie smiled while patting her hoof against her chest. “I can help you out with anything you need.”
“Pinkie,” Mr. Cake called out. “Could you give the babies their bottles?” He stepped into the living room. “Oh! Mrs. Sweet! This is a surprise! What brings you all the way out here?”
Pinkie tilted her head in confusion. “Mrs. Sweet?”
Mr. Cake smiled. “This is Mrs. Savory Sweet; Cup’s mother.” He led her into the family room. “Come in, sit down!”
“Oh please. There is no need to make a fuss on my account.” She smiled. “I am just here to visit the little ones.” She gave Mr. Cake a stern look. “I have been waiting quite some time to see my little grandfoals.”
Mr. Cake blinked. “You didn’t get the letter we sent? The one with the baby photos?”
“I did not.” She huffed. Her expression softened. “Do not fret none. I figured that the letter must have been lost in the mail so I decided that I would hop on board the first train to Ponyville and pay my grandfoals a visit.”
“Why of course! I am so sorry for the mix-up, Mrs. Sweet. You know how the post office can get sometimes. Just a few months ago, I heard stories of the mail-delivery ponies dropping anvils and pianos all over Ponyville. Can you believe that?”
“Stranger things have happened.” She replied while smiling. She and Mr. Cake went upstairs. “Hey!” Pinkie exclaimed. “Wait for me! I want to see them too, you know!”
The trio entered the baby’s room. Pound Cake was on the floor, smashing his teeny hooves against some building blocks, while Pumpkin was gnawing on a stuffed teddy bear’s arm. “Oh look at them!” Mrs. Sweet exclaimed. “How precious. I…” she hesitated. “Carrot. You didn’t tell me that unicorn and Pegasus blood ran in your family.”
He blinked. “I don’t. My great, great, great, grandfather was a unicorn but there are no Pegasus in my family.” He looked over at Mrs. Sweet. “Cup told me that her great aunt second cousin was a Pegasus.”
“Surely you jest!” Mrs. Sweet gasped. She poked her nose underneath her cloak and retrieved a scroll. She unrolled it upon the floor. “That’s quite impossible. I remember our family tree like the back of my hoof.”
“Do you always keep a scroll of your family tree with you?” Pinkie asked.
“But of course darling! Where else would I keep such an important document? At home in some cupboard where it could grow mildew and mold? I should think not.”
Pinkie blinked a few times before smiling. “Makes sense to me!”
“Look,” Mrs. Sweet pointed out. “We have no Pegasus in our family.” She gestured towards a branch in the tree where Cups aunt’s second cousin was sitting. Sure enough, the image portrayed upon the parchment was that of an Earth Pony. She stared up at Mr. Cake with a frigid expression upon her face. “Carrot.” She whispered. “I am so sorry to have to say this, but my daughter lied to you.”
“N-No,” Mr. Cake stumbled backwards, bumping his hindquarters into a table. “That’s impossible. Why would she lie to me?”
Mrs. Sweet’s shoulders fell. “That girl,” she whispered. She began to grind her teeth together. “I cannot believe she would stoop so low as to cheat on her own husband.”
“She wouldn’t! She couldn’t!” Mr. Cake sat upon the floor, his eyes as wide as dinner plates. Pinkie couldn’t believe what was going on. It just seemed so surreal. Mrs. Cake would never do such a terrible, horrible thing.
Would she?
No! Of course not! She was Mrs. Cup Cake, the sweetest, kindest, most loving pony Pinkie had ever met! She couldn’t have done something so hurtful to the stallion she loved. There has to be a mistake! She snatched up the family tree and began scouring it for any signs of a Pegasus pony.
“Listen to me,” Mrs. Sweet said. “I am going to be in town for the rest of the week. If you see that daughter of mine, you tell her to march her butt over to my hotel room. She has some serious explaining to do.”
Mr. Cake didn’t say a word. He just continued to stare off into space. Pinkie glanced up from the parchment to see that his eyes were glassy with tears. She returned to her research. “Please be a mistake,” she whispered, fighting back tears of her own.
Mrs. Sweet left the bakery without another word. Pinkie didn’t even notice that she was gone until the backdoor leading into the kitchen opened and shut. She was still trying to trace Mrs. Cake’s lineage when Mrs. Cake herself entered the bakery. She was carrying in her teeth two grocery bags full of flour, eggs, milk, and butter. “Camf suffmon hewp mwe pwease?” she mumbled.
Mr. Cake snatched the parchment from Pinkie and stormed up to his wife. “Explain yourself!” He screeched in a voice Pinkie had never heard before. “Explain yourself right now!”
She set the groceries on the floor, eyes widen, expression terrified. “What in Celestia’s name is wrong, dear?”
“This is what’s wrong!” He bellowed. He thrust the parchment into her face. “Your mother paid me a visit just now.”
Mrs. Cake’s face flushed red. “She…she did?”
“Yes! And she told me some interesting facts about your aunt’s second cousin.”
Mrs. Cake’s eyes grew hard. “Oh really? Like what?”
“Oh, like maybe the fact that she was not a Pegasus!” He took two steps towards his wife, his eyes blazing with betrayal and anger. “Tell me the truth! Where did our daughter get her wings?”
“It’s a mistake,” Mrs. Cake replied defiantly. “My mother is always…”
“There is no mistake!” He roared. “Tell me the truth right now or so help me, Celestia, I will…”
“You will what?” She snapped back. “You’ll do nothing is what you’ll do.” She snorted. “So you want to know the truth? Do you really?”
“It’ll be nice,” he snapped back.
“Yes, I was with another stallion. He was some guy passing through town on a business trip. I met him while delivering a parcel of cupcakes and we started talking. One thing led to another and the rest is history.” She sneered.
He stumbled backwards. “How…how…could you?” Tears began to flow down the sides of his cheeks. “Cup Cake…you were my girl…”
“Well I’m sorry but a woman has needs.” She snorted. “And going a year without either of us doing anything was just too much.”
Pinkie couldn’t believe a single thing she was hearing. This couldn’t be real! This couldn’t be happening!
“But I…” he whimpered.
“Oh knock it off,” She snapped. “It has nothing to do with you. It’s all her fault!” She glared at Pinkie Pie. Pinkie gasped in shock. “Me?” she squeaked. “What did I do?”
“Always prancing about as if you own the entire house,” Mrs. Cake snarled. “Never going to bed on time, always stealing our food and taking bites out of other pony’s orders. All you do is cause us stress and misery; and we never get a chance alone because little Pinkie Pie always has to have company else she gets,” She mimicked the sound of a baby pouting, “Whiny and pouty, and lonely and we all know that we cannot have that, now can we?” She bared her teeth. “Any time we wanted some privacy, there was Pinkie Pie. Any time we tried to have a romantic night out, there was Pinkie Pie. WE couldn’t even go out to dinner without having to worry that we’d come home to an empty shop because some glutton pony couldn’t keep her mouth off the goods!” She growled. “This is all because of you! If you weren’t such a needy little foal, than I wouldn’t have fallen into some other stallion’s hooves. This,” she gestured towards Mr. Cake who looked as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Is all because of you!” she raised her voice. “Now get out of my house! I don’t want to see your face ever again you little home-wrecking foal! Get! Out! Now!” She screamed the last word so loud that Pinkie feared that she would go deaf. Pinkie raced out of Sugar Cube Corner as fast as her hooves could carry her. On the way out, she heard Mrs. Cake say, “Now that the pest is gone, maybe things can get back to normal.”
Pinkie ran through Ponyville sobbing all the way. She didn’t know what to do or who she could talk to. All she knew was that she wanted to be left alone, hidden away from the world. Not once in her life has she experienced a pain such as this. It was as if someone had reached into her chest and plucked out her heart. She turned down an alleyway between two shops and hid behind a couple of boxes.
She began to cry and these were not the exaggerated tears that she shed whenever things got out of hand or when she was feeling overwhelmed with emotion. These tears were much more painful. With each tear that dripped from her cheek, she felt a part of her die a little.
“Pinkie…” she sobbed. “You’ve gotta stand up tall…Learn to face your fears…” She sniffed. “You’ll see…” She fell onto her stomach, burying her face between her legs. “That they can’t hurt you…” her voice grew softer with each word spoken. “Just laugh…and make them…” she felt the last bit of her heart shatter. She screamed into her hooves. Her entire body was shaking as she cried. She couldn’t contain herself; the pain was just too much for her to bear. “Disappear,” she gasped.
She gasped in pain. “I’ll never laugh again,” she hissed to herself while curling up into a tight, trembling pink ball.