//------------------------------//
// Chapter 24 - Love and Insanity  
// Story: A Gizmonk in Ponyville 
// by Moheart7 
//------------------------------//

While Goggles and his group attempted to subdue the deranged Pink Pony upstairs, Spike and Applejack’s minds focused on the final riddle they needed to answer before they supposedly can be freed.

“Okay, only one more riddle to go,” Applejack said, with determination in her voice. “We’re so close now!”

“You bet we are!” Spike replied with enthusiasm in his voice. “Just one more right answer and it’s onward to freedom!”

At those words, Spike became so excited that he almost jumped for joy, luckily Applejack was there to calm him down.

“Whoa there Sugarcube, let’s not get carried away just yet,” she said with a slight chuckle.

“Oops,” Spike said sheepishly, regaining himself. “Sorry.”

Despite everything that has happened in the last couple of days, Applejack really seemed to be growing more comfortable now, granted she still wasn’t willing to speak of her theories as to why she and Spike were really locked up, and she certainly wasn’t willing to say anything about her feelings either. But she had to admit that this whole time with Spike had been somewhat of a blessing in disguise, not only did Applejack get to spend time with the one who captured her heart, but she was also lucky enough to receive somewhat of a compliment from him, that had to have been the closest she had ever been to Spike ever since the Timberwolf incident. Now that they were both so close to answering the final riddle and possibly getting out of their imprisonment, she almost felt saddened to see it end.

“So any ideas?” Spike asked inquisitively.

“Ah don’t know,” Applejack admitted, trying desperately to think. “Plus it’s REALLY hard to think with all that racket upstairs!”

Indeed there was a bit of a noise coming from the top of the spiral staircase, so much so that Applejack and Spike found it somewhat difficult to concentrate on what they were doing.

“Guess our captors must have decided to have some kind of party or something,” Spike deadpanned, crossing his arms with irritation.


#


However little Spike realise, that was as far from the truth as it could possibly get, after reaching stage two of Goggles’ tea, Pinkie Pie flew into a manic rampage, due to her hallucination, everything that moved she saw as a horrendous mechanical monster with piercing red eyes. And for the past twenty minutes Goggles, Trixie and the Cutie Mark Crusaders were trying desperately to calm her down as she began tearing up Sugarcube Corner’s dining area.

“Hurry up and get the chocolate!” Goggles screamed as he tried desperately to hang on to her tail.

Since talking to Pinkie Pie was out of the question in her state of mind, the only thing Goggles could think off at the time was to try and physically tie her down, and since Trixie couldn’t use any of her magic due to the possible side-effects that could occur due to the tea still in Pinkie Pie’s system, Goggles soon found himself being bucked around while riding the insane pink Earth Pony like a mechanical pull. Luckily Silver Spoon and Sweetie Belle soon came to his rescue.

“Hey Pinkie look! Look what we’ve got here,” Sweetie Belle said, grabbing her attention with something in her hoof. “A nice, scrumptious Chocolate-chip Cookie, your favourite.”

Needless to say that caught Pinkie Pie’s attention in an instant.

“Cookie?” she said, stopping mid-buck before throwing Goggles against the wall. “COOKIE!!!”

At those words Pinkie Pie launched herself at the two fillies, who screamed in terror. Luckily Trixie was there to quickly levitate them out of the way, allowing them to drop the cookie and let Pinkie Pie ravage the delectable treat. For a few brief moments the Earth Pony remained silent and happy as she chewed on her favourite delectable, allowing everyone to let out a sigh of relief, however just when they thought things had finally calmed down, Pinkie Pie’s eye suddenly turned back onto Silver Spoon, Sweetie Belle and Trixie.

“Oh you think you can get me with yummy treats, do ya!?!” she growled inanely, eye down the three mechanical monster that she was seeing. “!?! But I see right through you’re scheme, you crazy Mini-cons, Equestria shall never be yours!!!”

“She’s gone stark-raving-bananas!” Trixie said with terror in her voice.

“And that’s saying a lot since it’s Pinkie!” Silver Spoon added.

As she edged her way towards the frightened trio, Pinkie Pie let out an insane laugh.

“Oh yeah,” she chuckled. “Come on, who’s first?”

But before anyone could answer Pinkie Pie suddenly found herself hearing a loud ringing in her ears followed by a hard impact across the back of her head, as she collapsed to the floor with a goofy grin across her face, everyone else was relieved to see Goggles standing on the table behind her with one of the Cakes’ frying pans in his paw.

“I know it’s crude but effective none the less,” he said, trying to justify his actions, though not really needing to given the circumstances. “Apple Bloom, you still got Applejack’s rope?”

At those words, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo crawled out from underneath another one of the tables they were hiding under and looked up to the Gizmonk with a look of relief.

“Eeyup!” Apple Bloom answered. “It should still be with the things we brought back from the farm.”

“Good,” Goggles sighed. “Then hurry up and hog tie this pony up before she wakes up and starts tearing up the place again.”

Apple Bloom nodded at that and quickly hurried of towards the kitchen, only to come back seconds later with a large rope in her mouth. As Goggles rubbed his temples, he soon found the throbbing in his head doubled by the added screams of the other two ponies under the influence of his tea.

“And could someone please calm those two down!” he snapped, pointing towards Twilight and Diamond Tiara standing on top of another table.

“So many puddles!” Twilight stuttered, shaking so badly that she looked as though she was about to have a nervous breakdown. “So many ponies MELTING!”

Just like Pinkie, Twilight and Diamond Tiara’s hallucinations also increased slightly, to the extent of Twilight now seeing everything, pony or object, melting into a gooey puddle, while Diamond Tiara suddenly began to see other ponies look as though they were made out of fire walking through the floor of lava. 

“The lava is ALIVE!!!” Diamond Tiara screamed as she saw three more small fire monsters walking towards her, which in reality were Silver Spoon, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. “Back away from me you freaky fire foals!”

“Well that’s not exactly the WORST thing she’s called us,” Scootaloo Deadpanned as all three of them edged their way closer toward the table.

While those three were seeing to Twilight and Diamond Tiara, Trixie and Apple Bloom were doing  their best to tie up Pinkie Pie before she wakes up, as he looked over the destruction that Pinkie Pie had cause within the last few minutes alone, Goggles couldn’t help but pull his hair with anxiety.

“Oh boy,” he said, wondering how so much could go so wrong in such as few minutes. “The Cakes are seriously gonna be ticked off when they get back.


#


Meanwhile back in the basement, and glad to be rid of the noise upstairs, Spike and Applejack continued to think on the answer to the third riddle, the very thought of the idea of freedom making Spike’s toes curl with anticipation. Suddenly the Dragon’s eyes widened with realisation.

“It’s gotta be…“he started, before falling back on his sentence. “No, wait could it? Yeah, I think it is!”

“What is it Spike?” Applejack asked inquisitively.

“I think I have the answer!” Spike answered excitedly. “But it kinda sounds ridiculous.”

“What? What’s the answer? Applejack questioned, only more anxiously this time.

At first Spike remained silent, however after a few brief moments he gulped and gave Applejack his answer.

“A… kiss,” he said nervously.

Needless to say Applejack was taken aback by that, in fact she was so shocked at what Spike had just said that she practically lost her balance and fell to her rump.

“Wait what?” she said, her jaw hanging with surprise.

“I… I know it sounds weird,” Spike explained awkwardly. “But it’s the only thing I could think of, something that’s useless to one and yet absolute bliss to two? There’s only so many things it could be, plus that whole thing about it being stolen and needed, what else could it be?”

However Applejack only remained silent in a state of surprise, for just a moment she had thought that Spike was only joking around, but as she sat there, letting the dragon’s explanation sink in, the more it began to make sense.”

“You’re right,” she admitted. “There ain’t anything else it could be.”

At those words Spike smiled with determination.

“Then that means we’ve solved all three riddles!” he shouted with joy. “Now they have to let us out!”

Those words rang in Applejack’s ears like the cry of a mockingjay, as much as she enjoyed being with Spike, the only thing she wanted now was to get out of this imprisonment and get out of this awkward situation.

“Well y’all heard him!” she shouted, supposedly to their unseen captors. “Beauty, the heart and a kiss, those are your answers now let us go!!!”

However Applejack was only met with silence, there was no eerie laughter, no voice echoing in the room, only the faint sound of Spike breathing.

“Come on, we played your stupid game!” Applejack screamed, “And you promised that y’all would let us go if we got all three answers right!”

But once again there was only silence, at this point Applejack became so frustrated and angry that she really felt the need to hit something. 

“AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHH!!!” she screamed as she bucked at the wall to let out her fury. “Why. Aren’t. They. Freeing us!?!”

That was a question that troubled Spike too, it didn’t make any sense, and he would have thought that there would be at least some kind of response from their captors. However little did he or Applejack know, their captors were a little too preoccupied to listen into their words at that moment.


#


Back upstairs, the chaos had finally managed to calm down, as Goggles and the rest of his cohorts sat down at one of the dining tables to catch their breath, Twilight, Pinkie Pie and Diamond Tiara were all laid out on the floor, passed out and their manes showing small signed of turning white.

“Okay, I think we’re finally reaching stage 3 of the tea,” Goggles said, taking notice of a few multi-coloured spots appearing on Diamond Tiara’s mane.

“Thank Celestia,” Apple Bloom exclaimed, resting her head on the table. “Ah guess we were lucky Applejack managed to teach me a few of her knot-tying skills, otherwise Pinkie would probably be sleep-walking or something.”

“I guess the tea was more potent than I thought,” Goggles admitted. “I didn’t really take into account that the effects would be lighter on me than they would ponies, and the fact that Pinkie Pie drank it only made things worse than they needed to be.”

“Oh you think!?!” Trixie snapped sarcastically, he face scowling at the Gizmonk.

Goggles would have normally retorted at that, but in this case Trixie’s anger was justified, if he hadn’t given Diamond Tiara the tea in the first place, heck, if he hadn’t come up with the whole kidnapping scheme in the first place, then neither he, Trixie, nor the Cutie Mark Crusaders would be in this mess right now.

“I’m seriously gonna have nightmares after all that,” Sweetie Belle said, shivering at the memories of what Pinkie Pie was like under the effects of the tea.

“Me too,” Scootaloo added. “I don’t even think Princess Luna would even be able to help out with them either.”

“Never mind the nightmares,” Goggles pouted. “I’m going to have to use up all the materials I have left just to get this place fixed before the Cakes get back. That’s gonna push my business schedule back by weeks.”

“So who’s bright idea was this again?” Trixie remarked, still keeping her spiteful sarcasm.

“Oh don’t start Trixie,” Goggles replied, not really having the energy to say anything else. “Today has been bad enough already.”

“Then tell me what we are gonna do now,” Trixie retorted. “We have three ponies knocked out with their manes turning white as we speak because of YOUR tea, two captives locked in the basement trying to solve a bunch of riddles, a trashed cake shop and a massive lie going around town that we can’t confess to without ending up with a couple of years in jail for kidnapping and property damage!”

Goggles groaned at that, as much as he wanted to tell Trixie not to be so dramatic again, he had to admit to himself that this situation was indeed bad. He doubted that he or any other the others would end up in a jail cell, the CMC were only fillies and surely Twilight and Applejack would understand if he confessed to everything. However as Goggles tried to mull the situation over, something Apple Bloom said suddenly snapped him out of his concentration.

“Hey wait,” she said. “Where is Pinkie?”

That was when everyone’s eyes widened with terror, turning their way towards where Apple Bloom was pointing her hoof, the area of the floor where an unconscious Pinkie Pie should be, was nothing more than a chewed up piece of rope.

“What the…?” Goggles gasped, before hearing a maniacal laughter from the top of the stairs.

“You’ll never get me Decepticons!!!” Pinkie Pie shouted as she ran up to the second floor, evidently she wasn’t quiet done with stage 2 of the tea just yet. Suddenly Sweetie Belle couldn’t hold in her frustration any longer.

“OH COME ON!!!” she screamed.


#


As the chaos upstairs moved onto the next floor of Sugarcube Corner, both Applejack and Spike were starting to get just as big of a headache. Even after answering all three riddles, they still found themselves stuck in their imprisonment and now as they tried to figure the possible reason why that was, both began to feel a vast amount of despair.

“Maybe there’s something more to these riddles,” Spike suggested, though not really sure himself.

“What do you mean Spike?” Applejack asked curiously.

Spike hesitated at first, but then he figured what could he possibly loose from saying what was on his mind?

“Maybe the REAL game is to figure out what the riddles mean altogether,” he said, trying his best to make his explanation as easy to understand as possible. “That way our captors could keep us in here for that much longer.”

At those words, Applejack growled in anger.

“I swear, when ah get out of here, ah’m gonna buck a few heads,” she hissed to herself before trying her best to calm down. “Ah suppose it’s as good a theory as any, not like we have anything else to go on. Let’s see if we can figure it out.”

The two then began to think really hard on Spike’s theory, was there something hidden in the riddles? Could there be a connection between them? Or was this just some way to drive them both insane? As Applejack contemplated on each of the three riddles over and over again, her previous suspicions began to once again enter her mind, if Goggles was behind this then why would he come up with a bunch of riddles for her and Spike then just ignore their answers? Was Goggles even behind this? Had she been wrong from the start? Suddenly she came to a realisation, one that made her stomach twist, there WAS a connection between the riddles, or more specifically their answers, if Goggles WAS the one that trapped her and Spike in here then there would only be one reason for it, and as Applejack recalled the answers to each of the three riddles, her eyes widened with terror. At this point, Applejack seriously hoped that Spike didn’t come up with the same conclusion.

“They’re… riddles of love,” he said, his face suddenly overcome with comprehension.

Turns out that he did.

“They’re… what?” Applejack replied, trying her best to pretend to be surprised. 

“Beauty, the heart and a kiss, they all have something to do with love,” Spike explained, much to Applejack’s dread. “Why do you suppose that is?”

That was a question that Applejack REALLY didn’t want to answer, in fact at that moment she simply just wanted to get out of this situation and crawl underneath the covers of her bed. Due to force of habit, she tried her best to avoid telling Spike the truth.

“You’re guess is as good as mine Spike,” she said, nervously wiping the sweat off her brow.

While in most situations Spike would simply just accept Applejack’s usual lie and move on to another subject in the conversation, however after spending two days locked up with the Earth Pony with no one else to communicate with, he had finally managed to pick up on the way Applejack looked when she was lying.

“Applejack, what is it that you’re not telling me?” he demanded, much to the Earth Pony’s surprise.

“Wha… what do you mean?” Applejack responded, her stubbornness and fear still making her try to avoid to topic.

“You’ve been saying some weird things ever since we first heard these riddles,” Spike pointed out, remembering what Applejack said earlier about thinking she was pretty. “And just now, when you’ve heard what they have in common, you looked at me all weird.”

Spike certainly got her there, he really did have a bit of Twilight perceptiveness rub off on him over the years, but regardless of that Applejack still wasn’t willing to speak the truth.

“Oh I’m sure that…” she tried to say, before suddenly being interrupted by Spike.

“Applejack,” he said. “Are you… in love with someone?”

Applejack never thought she would see the day when Spike would ask her that, it may not have technically implied that he was talking himself, but regardless it was a question she had been avoiding ever since the Timberwolf incident.

“Why would you ask that?” she asked, turning her head away with embarrassment.

“Whoever locked us in here brought us here for a reason,” Spike explained, walking around Applejack so she had no choice but to look at him. “And I think those riddles had just pointed out why. We’re here because we both care for someone, so is it true?”

At those words Applejack simply wanted to cry, she may have been as tough as they come but Spike’s question hit her hard. There was no avoiding it now, even if she could come up with something else to say Spike would most certainly just see through it, Applejack instantly began to feel sick with all the guilt of lying for so long. However that was when Spike put a claw upon her shoulder, as she looked into his reptilian green eyes, suddenly Applejack’s fear and guilt simply faded away, there was just something about his caring look that made her feel… calm. Finally that was when Applejack decided it was time to stop lying, as her eyes sparkled with the realisation she looked down at Spike and spoke.

“Yeah,” she finally admitted “Ah am.”

“Really?” Spike replied. “Who?”

“It’s not important,” Applejack said rolling her eyes. “It’s not like ah have a chance with him anyway.”

“Why not?” Spike asked inquisitively.

“There’s some pony else,” Applejack explained, secretly wanting to spit at the very mention of that detail.

She may not have been telling Spike the full details, but it was still the truth that Applejack was finally letting out, a truth that felt really good to say. Suddenly Spike said something that made her heart skip a beat.

“Well then he’s an idiot,” he said.

“Pardon?” Applejack asked confusingly, desperately wanting the young dragon to elaborate what he meant.

“Oh come on, who’d be stupid enough to dump you for someone else?” Spike continued. “I’ve known you for a long time now, and I tell you that whoever that guy is probably doesn’t even deserve you.”

Applejack couldn’t help but blush at that.

“Oh you’re just saying that,” she said, slightly embarrassed.

“No I mean it!” Spike insisted. “You’re bold, independent, honest, strong, and totally awesome to hang out with. If I were the guy, then I wouldn’t pass up the chance to be your Special Somepony.”

At this point Applejack’s heart felt like it was about to explode, it was beating so fast that any more of Spike’s kind words would have probably made her flatline. Suddenly Spike smiled and made his way towards his bed, pulling something out from underneath his pillow.

“I don’t know why this was brought in here with me but I suppose it’s a good thing that it was,” he explained as he presented what he had to Applejack. “I WAS gonna give this to Rarity, but I think you need it more.”

What Spike held in his claws was indeed an amazing piece of art, it was a beautiful, Crystal Lilly, undoubtedly made by one of the finest crystal artists in Ponyville, even in the dim light of the basement Applejack could see the luminescent colours of the rainbow reflect off it.

“Oh Spike…” Applejack exclaimed, taking the Lilly, not really knowing what else to say.

“Listen, I don’t claim to be an expert on romance,” Spike said sheepishly. “But I can tell you right now, whoever this guy is, then he doesn’t know what he’s missing out on.”

That was the final straw, it was at those very words that Applejack finally realised that she couldn’t keep the whole truth from Spike any longer. This was it, she needed to tell Spike right now how she really felt about him.

“Spike, you…” she began.

However before she could let another word out, she suddenly found herself cut off by an ear-piercing scream.

“YOU’LLL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!!!” it said.

Upon hearing that scream, Applejack and Spike recognised the voice almost instantly.

“Pinkie Pie!?!” They both gasped simultaneously.

At this point, both of them would have ran up the spiral staircase and started banging against the door to see if their friend could hear their pleas for help, but before they could even take a single step, something literally came bursting through the door and started crashing its way down the steps. As the splinters of wood of the door littered the basement floor, the large metal jar of flour bounced like a ball, edging its way towards Spike and Applejack, before either of them could even move, the jar crashed right into the young dragon.

“Spike!” Applejack screamed in fear for her friend as a burst of flour filled the room as it impacted with Spikes head.

When the cloud of flour finally began to clear and Applejack’s vision cleared, her eyes widened with shock as she saw a certain Gizmonk crawling out of the jar and rubbing his head with pain. As it turns out, he had been stuffed inside that jar of flour by Pinkie Pie during her insane rampage, and using her ability to defy logic, threw him and the jar right through the basement door, shattering the chains and leaving a gaping hole right in the middle of it. Upon seeing Goggles, Applejack’s eyes twitched with fury, all at once every suspicion she had about the whole situation had been confirmed. Applejack was only glad that the jar had knocked Spike out cold, since she didn’t want him to see her in the state of rage and betrayal she was in at that moment.

“Goggles,” she growled, a furious vein pulsating in her forehead. “AH I KNEW IT!”

It was only then that Goggle had snapped out of his state of pain and suddenly realised where he was, as he looked up at the clearly furious Earth Pony, who at that moment was literally spurting out angry flames through her nostrils, Goggles shrunk with terror.

“Oh Scrap-Bunnies!” he squeaked.