Breaking Cute

by GoldenState3

Plans

Twilight was relieved that this had all been solved peacefully. While the death of a foal, or for that matter, any pony that wasn't of an advanced age was very rare, it happened occasionally. There'd been a young Pegasus colt that had fallen from Cloudsdale in a flight training exercise about ten years prior. She'd been young, around the same age as the the colt, and she'd been terrified of being hit by falling Pegasi for the longest time. Eventually, her brother had explained just how rare it was for Pegasi to completely lose control, and further more, how even then, how unlikely it was that they'd hit anypony. Twilight had accepted this lecture, she'd been too young to understand that she'd been more afraid of death itself, then of any particular Pegasus plunging out of the sky.

Wait, that sounded silly. Here she was talking about some serious subject such as death, and she'd used something as silly as any particular Pegasus Plunging. That was all wrong. She should be showing more respect for the dead, shouldn't she?

Wait! Where was this coming from? It was perfectly natural for ponykind to speak in alliterations. Using an alliteration in a serious situation had never bothered her before. Besides, there were more important ways to show respect for the dead then to do something silly like modifying how she thought.

Twilight was uncomfortable. She just wanted to get things back to normal. The kind of normal where there was always a party being thrown, and the town could break into song for no reason. That was what real life was, not this nightmare where ponies could die by drowning in their own bodily fluids.

No, that was silly. Why did ponies just break into song at the drop of a hat? It didn't make sense. Well, it made about as much sense as using alliterations, which is to say that it was just something that happened. Nopony had ever bothered to explain it. People just treated it like something that happened.

She was starting to feel really uncomfortable now. She wasn't the type to engage in abstract thinking about right and wrong, or pony nature. The world was simple. There was good, and there was evil. She had a checklist that had the various traits of both cleanly marked off. She'd have to add killing to the bottom of the evil checklist.

No, killing could replace the entire evil checklist. There was no way that the a good pony would ever kill another pony. That would be it. If you killed, then you were irredeemably evil. No and ifs or buts.

But, then she'd have to move all of the things that didn't kill to the good list. She doubted that King Sombra could be considered good, even if he didn't kill. This was confusing.

Confusion was her enemy. She couldn't stand it. If even one book was out of order, she could detect it. She wouldn't know what book it was, or even the shelf that the book was on, but she'd tear the library apart looking for that one out of place book. She'd usually find it, as the sun rose. She'd have the now awake Spike shelve the books, while she slunk off to bed, ashamed at what she'd done.

Why hadn't her checklist included killing before? It seemed like an obvious addition, even if no pony had ever killed another on purpose before.

"Noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Twilight shouted.

What was the point of thinking about this? Yes, a filly had died. But, despite the nightmare that Luna had witnessed, no pony had killed another. Zecora had heard the symptoms, and decided that it was an accident instantly. She'd even known what caused it. Zecora had said that there wasn't anything any pony could do to cure castor bean poisoning, even if the crusaders had gone to Fluttershy like she'd told them to, Babs would be just as dead.

Somepony was going to have to explain this to the Crusaders. Otherwise, they might blame themselves for what had happened. It wasn't their fault that they were impulsive, and had decided to try and find Zecora themselves. But, they might get it into their heads that their getting lost had killed Babs. She'd have to talk to them...

Apple Bloom was dreaming up their next plan. The monkey's answer to their body problems had been simple. They'd dissolved the body in some made up chemical called acid. They'd looked through two dictionaries and the Encyclopedia Equestria, and there hadn't been any mention of acid.

That made sense, Sweetie Belle thought. While nopony would ever mistake something as obviously made up as creatures with beige colored flesh and no fur for something taking place in real life, the authors must have been taking extra special care. Murdering another pony was serious, and if they showed an easy way to dispose of the corpses, that would mean that people would that much more likely to do it.

Murder? What was that? That was a new word. It's meaning was clear, but it's origins weren't. Hadn't she been looking for a word for killing another pony yesterday? Now she had one. She didn't like it, and she didn't know where it came from. It wasn't the kind of thing that foals should have to think about.

She was shivering now, she just wanted to be hugged by Rarity, and to be told that everything was going to be alright. She'd give anything right now to be with her big sister right now. She'd even settle for being banished from the Carousel Boutique by Rarity, for getting under hoof.

"What if we burned Babs' body?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Do ponies even burn?" Scootaloo wondered out loud.

"Griffons cook their meat." Sweetie Belle said.

She'd once seen a magazine article about Griffons. It had been in one of her Dad's copies of Equestrian Geographic. Her mother had confiscated the magazine, but not before she'd seen the pictures of the griffon party. They'd been cooking meat, the camera pony had tastefully kept the camera off of the top of the barbecue grills, but the caption had made it clear. She hadn't known where meat came from then, so she didn't have nightmares till later, but they still came every once in a while.

"So it's settled then!" Apple Bloom said.

The hospital had refused to keep Babs' body, something about a dead pony disturbing the other patients, so the body had been brought back to Sweet Apple Acres. Apple Bloom had said that Granny Smith had put the body in an out of the way shed. Big Mac had spent the early hours of the morning boarding up the windows. His hammering had only just stopped a few minutes earlier.

There was a train to Manehattan later that night. According to Apple Bloom, her sister was trying to get Celestia's permission to place the body on the train, so that Bab's could be buried at home. Unexpected death was so rare in Equestria, that they'd need special permission. But, given Applejack's special relationship with Celestia, such permission would soon come.

They set off towards the shed in a hurry. The train didn't arrive till much later, but Apple Bloom was terrified that they'd move the body to the train station. Scootaloo had argued that there wasn't a hurry, if the hospital hadn't wanted the body, why would the train station.

Apple Bloom bucked the board out from between the door handles where Big Mac had placed it. She and Scootaloo were in the barn already, but Sweetie Belle hung back.

The smell was disgusting. It smelled like pee and poop, and some other horrible smell that she'd never smelled before. Something told her that this was the smell that bodies made when they died. It was all terrible, almost as bad as seeing Babs dying in the hospital bed.

Apple Bloom had found a lantern in the shed, and lit it. Babs was sprawled out on her tummy, her legs sticking off to the sides. In the flickering light, it was almost possible to believe that Babs was still breathing. After one exceptionally convincing bout of flickers, Sweetie Belle ran into the shed.

She wanted to believe Babs was alive it would solve all of their problems. But, it was just an optical illusion, doing it's work on the already spooked filly.

"Let's get this over with." Scootaloo said, the false bravado very evident in her voice.

Apple Bloom bucked the lantern over. The fuel spilled out, and began to form a puddle around Babs. With a woosh that sent even Scootaloo running, the puddle caught. Within seconds, the entire shed was consumed, and a dark plume of smoke was spreading into the sky.

Sweetie Belle heard hoof beats through the trees. Applejack ran up a few seconds later.

"We wanted to make sure that Babs was... well... you... know..." Apple Bloom said, tears bubbling up in her eyes. "We knocked over a lantern! We didn't mean to do it!"

Sweetie Belle watched as Applejack hugged the crying filly. She wanted to be hugged and comforted, but she doubted that Rarity would have time for her. She had dresses that had to get done. It was some big order for someone in Canterlot. With the time Rarity had lost last night, due to the unpleasantness, and Rarity's already ambitious schedule, she was way late.

In the meantime, Big Mac had arrived with a cart filled with water. He was already using a bucket to throw it on the surrounding apple trees. These were all Zap Apple trees, the pride and joy of the Apple Family. There were ominous creaks and pops coming from the shed.

Sweetie Belle looked around in confusion and fear. This shouldn't be happening. They had no idea that the fire would spread just that quickly. This shouldn't be happening. Why wasn't Big Mac putting water on the shed. That was what was burning, not the orchard. There was a giant splash as some water magically appeared over another part of the orchard. The aura was purple. That meant one thing! Twilight.

Scootaloo must have seen the Unicorn first, because she was gently nudging her. Something bit her tail, and she was being pulled away from Scootaloo. Twilight must have figured it all out! They'd be thrown on the overnight train to Canterlot, and they'd be statues by this time tomorrow. They'd failed.

No, why would Twilight be biting her tail? She had magic! Sweetie Belle turned, and saw Applejack dragging her away from the fire.

"Sugar cube, don't want you catchin' on fire too." Applejack said with a nervous laugh.

Applejack grabbed Scootaloo next, and Apple Bloom last. Things had gotten worse. A few of the trees were starting to burn now, and the fire was spreading slowly through the orchard. It had been a dry summer so far, and that must have been helping the fire.

There was a horrible crack and a thud, as the roof of the shed collapsed. The impact sent a cloud of embers into the air, causing the non stunned ponies to gallop off, leaving the three Crusaders alone for a few seconds. Applejack was the first back, and she was already comforting Apple Bloom by the time that Sweetie Belle reopened her eyes.

She wanted this to be over. It had to end soon. How much more could there be in the shed that could burn? How long had it been? She'd trade detection right now, for the end of the fire. Why had she let the others unleash such a horrible and primal force upon the world? They hadn't thought about it, but they could destroy all of Sweet Apple Acres. Twilight and Big Mac's efforts hadn't stopped the fire before, and even the second cart of water that they were now using to douse the orchard wasn't doing much more then delaying the fire. The heat was intense, even from the edge of the orchard as far from the shed as possible where they were cowering.

A commotion high overhead brought her back to Equestria. There was a giant cloud overhead now, and it was starting to drizzle. There was a giant crash of thunder, and then it started pouring. The water quenched the flame, steam rising with a terrible din as it hit the wood of the destroyed shed. The orchard wasn't burning anymore. A hole appeared in the clouds, directly over the ponies, revealing Rainbow Dash comfortably lounging on top of the cloud.

"Five minutes flat!" Dash said, in between pants.

The young Pegasus flew down, landing near Twilight. The appearance of her idol had broken Scootaloo out of her trance. Apple Bloom was still catatonic, her eyes staring at a point well beyond where the shed had been. Sweetie wondered what she looked like. It couldn't have been good. This had been the second most scary thing she'd ever seen. Only the hospital room came close, and well maybe this was worse. Only Babs had been in danger then, not Sweetie Belle.

The raw terror of what had just happened was starting to set in now. They'd been lucky. The fire had spread so fast, that the entire shed had been engulfed as they were making their escape. They'd been seconds away from potential death. She collapsed onto her belly, some unwelcome part of her brain informing her that this was exactly how Babs had looked before the lantern incident.

Applejack was in the wreckage now, bucking steaming debris away from the center of the shed. With a rising horror, Sweetie realized that most of Babs was still intact. They'd almost died, almost wrecked Sweet Apple Acres, and they had noting to show for it. Being bad was hard, dangerous work, with little reward.

"Girls, we know what happened." Twilight said. "Zecora recognized it as soon she was told."

It was over, Sweetie Belle thought to herself.

Author's Note:

Okay, so things are starting to pick up, and the corruption from the video has started to spread to other ponies. Will the Crusaders make a clean getaway? Can things ever go back to normal? Tune in next week for another spectacular installment!

Comments

[fedback]

as in breaking bad?

[GoldenState3]

3282722
Yes, it's not quite a crossover, but a couple of episodes of Breaking Bad on a rogue tablet that gets tossed into Equestria manages to cause a very different ending to "One Bad Apple..."

[John Tannius]

And they ate of the tree of knowledge and knew good from evil... next thing you know they'll be wearing clothes and Celestia will cast them out of Equestria.