The Wild Laughter of Stone

by dah884

Chapter 2: Enigmas and Conundrums

As Mrs. Cake reached for the distraught pink pony, she saw the ghostly apparition of Celestia reaching to drag her to the bowels of hell. “Why? I’m a good pony. I make others laugh. I help my friends and everypony…” she thought feverously, as she started screaming again, and furiously trying to back herself impossibly further back into her corner. “I’m a good pony. I’ve never hurt anyone…” her screaming stopped almost instantly as half remembered, half forgotten images blurred across her minds eye. Wild flames, a blue haired doll, a flying bird, a staff with the moon on it, and a tornado flying from her foreleg. Something happened, something really bad, and standing there was… Celestia?… with… she gasped and went limp, letting the apparition do with her as it would. She was a bad pony, a very, very bad pony.

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Mrs. Cake hesitated when Pinkie began screaming again, only to become really worried when she stopped screaming and started crying again. As she pulled Pinkie into a comforting embrace, she heard the distraught girl mumbling. “I’m a bad pony, I’m a very, very bad pony.” She would repeat this over and over as the Cake tried desperately to consult the young pony. Then, as she tried to reassure the pony in her forelegs that she was in fact a good pony, she said a single line that froze Mrs. Cake completely in her tracks.

Pinkie, in a dazed trance, whispered a single line. A line she wasn’t even aware she said. A line that Mrs. Cake nearly missed, but would haunt her for days to come. “I had to kill him, I had to kill him…” she began rocking back and froth.

Shock and fear raged across Mrs. Cake’s face as she stared at the pink pony in her forelegs in stunned silence barely able to whisper a single word, “why?”

This was unnoticed by Pinkie as she continued to mumble, “I had to…, I had to…” before breaking down completely, “I don’t want to be a bad pony, I don’t…” She began openly crying.

Mrs. Cake just held her, trying to reassure her and having no clue what to due with the supposed murderer in her arms.

“If I hadn’t killed him, she would have died…,” her sobbing became incoherent. Every once in a while her voice would hick and Mrs. Cake could make out her saying, “if I hadn’t…”

Dreading finding out what happened but needing to make sure her family was safe Mrs. Cake asked her tenant the only question she could think to ask, “who?”

“Saffron,” she absently whispered without noticing she hadn’t said, ‘Celestia.’

Mrs. Cake went rigid. The world faded away as a single thought repeatedly raced itself over and over again in her head, “it can’t be. It just can’t be.”

A few minutes later Mr. Cake open the door to their guest room to see his still wife holding a quietly weeping Pinkie.

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A few minutes later, after the town settled down…

Pinkie and the Cakes found themselves in the crystal castle. While Pinkie was being taken care of by her friends, Mrs. Cake was having a quiet confrontation with her husband.

“You weren’t there, she said ‘Saffron,’ I’m telling you that’s her I’m sure of it,” Mrs. Cake vehemently declared.

Sighing Mr. Cake looked at the broken form of the pony they thought they knew, “maybe you’re right, we should discuss this with Zecora.”

“Oh, my!” Mr. Cake glared at Mrs. Cake, who completely ignored him. “Applebloom!” his glare turned to shock, “we need to keep her away from Pinkie.”

Sighing once more, Mr. Cake looked at Pinkie then said, “I’ll warn Granny Smith tonight. Would you mind covering for me.”

As he left someone walked over to Mrs. Cake.

“Where’s Mr. Cake going?” asked a curious Spike, Twilight’s assistance and brother. Spike was a dragon with purple scales, lime-green underbelly, and emerald green spikes and irises.

“Seeing as we’re going to be a while, he went to check up on the twins and their sitter. Since he’s going out I asked him to tell the Apples that Applejack might be home late tomorrow.”

“Spike, I need you to send a letter to Princess Celestia,” called Twilight.

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A few moments earlier with the mares…

“Do you think what Mrs. Cake told us was accurate,” asked Applejack, an earth pony mare with an orange coat, green eyes, a cutie mark with three red apples, and a blonde mane and tail.

“I don’t think she would lie about something like that,” replied Twilight, a violet coated alicorn mare with a mane and tail of violet shades that had a stripe of magenta, a cutie mark of a starburst surrounded by five white stars, and violet eyes.

“That’s not what I meant, …that Pinkie could have,” she left the rest unsaid, as she glanced at the pink pony, Twilight had put in a dreamless sleep. “…even to save somepony’s life.”

“Yeah! This is Pinkie we’re talking about,” chimed in Rainbow Dash, a cerulean pegasus mare with magneta eyes, a rainbow lighting cutie mark, and a rainbow colored mane and tail.

“I know she can be eccentric,” began Rarity, an unicorn mare with an alabaster coat, azure eyes, a cutie mark of three diamonds, and a indigo mane and tail. “But, have you ever known her to do something so, so… barbaric.”

Rainbow Dash looked a little nervous, “well there was that one time with her birthday party.” They looked at her with an impression that screamed, ‘Really.’ “Well, it’s true,” they sighed.

“I guess there is nothing to it, but to ask for help,” Twilight stated. “Spike, I need you to send a letter to Princess Celestia,” she called.

“Sure thing, Twilight,” he answered. A few moments later, “ready.”

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“Dear Princess Celesetia,

I sorry to disturb you at this late hour but a matter of great importance has come up.

Earlier tonight the Element of Laughter, my friend Pinkie Pie, suffered a terrible nightmare. Now I know this would be more of a problem for your sister, but it seems to have awaken certain memories. Memories that imply that while saving somepony, who’s name she has yet to remember, she may have taken the life of the aggressor, a pony named ‘Saffron.’

We as her friends and the other Elements of Harmony would like to get to the bottom of this. As such, we would appreciate all records on Pinkamena Diane Pie, as well as any ponies by the name of ‘Saffron’ that you have available. Not to mention, if your sister could lend us a hoof and maybe unscramble these memories that are causing Pinkie such torment.

Thank you for any assistance you and your sister can lend.

Your Former Student, Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic and Princess of Friendship

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About two hours later, in a flash as bright as the sun there was standing the diarchy of Equestria surrounding by a mountain of files.

“My former student and fellow Princess, we have a problem,” spoke Celestia.

“Princess, what’s wrong?” asked Rainbow Dash in concern.

“Around the same time as Pinkie’s nightmare, my sister detected a miasma spreading through the dream-scape. In her attempt to confront it she witnessed the same nightmare that gave birth to Nightmare Moon,” the other ponies in the room all gasped. “There may as well be a correlation between the two. But, there is another matter of concern. No records of Pinkamena Diane Pie exist before she was eight.”