The Perfect Baker

by Harmonator

The Burial

Limestone Pie had been missing for about two weeks. Nobody in Ponyville had seen her the day that she went missing. The last pony to have seen her was Pinkie Pie. When Cloudy Quartz came home from shopping for groceries, Pinkie was lying on her bed sleeping in her room, and Limestone was nowhere to be found. Cloudy Quartz went into a panic, and began searching the entire bakery. She checked every room, looked under every bed, and searched through every closet. No Limestone. She figured that Limestone had for whatever reason left the bakery to wander into town for something, but that wasn't the case. Cloudy Quartz ran all around Ponyville, frantic with worry. She searched for Limestone for three whole days, until finally, the Ponyville Council put out a search for the missing filly. Soon enough, missing pony posters with Limestone's face on them started appearing all around the little village. Almost everyone in Ponyville was devastated about this missing filly, for it rarely if ever happened for ponies to go missing. Cloudy Quartz had become distraught over the situation, and many felt her pain and were also very worried and sad for the lost little filly, that is...except for Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie Pie was oddly calm and collected over the fact that her sister had gone missing. Of course, she had been interviewed by some ponies who were involved in the case. She was the last pony to have seen Limestone before her disappearance. According to Pinkie, she and Limestone got into a little spat and they decided to stay out of each other's way for a little while. Pinkie said that she felt tired and decided to lay down and take a nap. When she woke up, her mother was at the edge of her bed asking where Limestone was. And that was all there was to it. The investigators suspected that Limestone had run away from home, that was their most logical guess as to what happened, because her mother, Cloudy Quartz, had stated that Limestone had been dealing with all sorts of emotional trouble. From her parents splitting up to being defiant against her new home and feeling homesick, it would make sense if she did run away. However, that wasn't exactly the case. Because there was one pony who knew the truth behind Limestone's disappearance. And that pony...was Pinkie Pie.

She had lied to the investigators who were interviewing her, about what Limestone and Pinkie were doing the day she vanished. Some of it was true, like the part when they were fighting and tried their best to stay away from each other, but everything else was made up. A cover-up to what really happened. And what really happened, was something that Pinkie thought that she would never get over. But she had to, Limestone was in her way, she had to be...removed. Besides, she was just following orders. Wasn't it Mother who wanted Pinkie to get rid of her sister? She said it herself, there was no denying it. But still, even though she was the one that told Pinkie to remove her sister, she came home acting as if none of it had happened and wanted to know where Limestone had gone to. Pinkie didn't understand.

Well to Pinkie Pie, it didn't really matter at the moment. What mattered, was that she had to keep everything a secret for the time being. If word got out about what really happened to Limestone, the authorities would take her and Mother away. Away from the bakery. Away from the dream. Pinkie wasn't going to let that happen. She still had to prove to her Mom that she was a perfect baker. All Pinkie had to worry about was to make sure that nopony discovered the body. It bothered Pinkie to call that corpse of what had been her sister, "the body," but she knew that she needed to let it go and tell herself that it had to be done.

The evil deed was done down in the dark and depressing basement of the bakery. It wasn't necessarily a planned out event from the very beginning or anything like that. It just sort of...escalated to that point. It had started after Pinkie had hit Limestone so severely. And once blood was drawn, everything was fair game. The two fillies became so wrapped up in their feud, that they had both forgotten who they were, or what they were. As they punched, kicked, and even bit each other, it was almost as if they were nothing more than just two raging animals out for blood. In their minds, there were no thoughts of decency, fairness, or even family. There was only anger and fear. Limestone, for the first time, felt an absolute fear for her life, and she had very good reason to. This little pink filly, that she had bullied and humiliated all her life, had suddenly shed its innocent and harmless characteristics, and had become something else entirely. Something very dangerous. And Limestone had to flee from it.

She had made her way to the opening of the basement, and had attempted to lock herself in there; leaving the danger on the outside, but it was too quick for her. Limestone felt as the raging thing pushed her down the steps. When she had finally reached the bottom, there was a loud crack. Limestone attempted to move, but when she did, there was a sharp and severe pain, so intense, she almost passed out. Her back had broken immediately as it hit the floor. She was now helpless and vulnerable, as the very danger she was attempting to flee from was descending the steps and coming towards her.

The angry filly which stood above her was speaking words, but she could not hear. The pain was just too intense for her to concentrate. For how long it just stood there talking, Limestone could not know. She just wanted it all to end. Maybe if she spoke, and pleaded to the danger hovering over her, it would all end quickly. She tried desperately to whisper something, but the words would not, could not come. It was hard to speak because of the blood that was filling her mouth. And then finally, something came forth.

"Pinkie...Pinkie...please...please..." Limestone wanted desperately to say more. There was so much more that she needed to say. But it just couldn't be done. It was all in vain, and she soon realized that, when the image of an enraged Pinkamena Diane Pie, with the stringy dark pink hair covering her face came into view. Limestone stared deeply into the eyes of hate, and wished desperately for them to go away. She then heard the voice of the angry being that was her little sister. She listened to it speak, but the sound was unfamiliar to her. Otherworldly. It spoke, softly and clearly.

"Do you remember...that day when Dad hit me? Do you?" Limestone struggled and didn't wish to remember. All she wanted was to forget. She didn't like what the voice was saying.

"Because I remember. Those kinds of wounds...never really heal...not really..." It was becoming more and more difficult for Limestone to continue listening. There was a new sensation of pain now. A pain which she felt from within her, and that pain came forth in the form of a tear, which rolled down her bleeding cheek.

Her mind was beginning to fade now. Breathing became hard and she gasped with each breath. She then heard, as the voice which had been speaking these things to her, began to quiver and quake. She then recognized the familiar cadence of her little sister's voice as it began to grow frantic. She listened, as the voice called her name, but Limestone could not find the will nor the strength to respond. Limestone could only feel now, and she felt many things. But the biggest thing that she felt in her last moment, was regret...much regret. Until finally, Limestone Pie was gone. Gone from it all. Gone from the pain and sorrow that she had left behind. Gone from the misdeeds that had led her to this moment. Gone from the desperate pleas of her tormented little sister. Gone, but never forgotten...never...ever...

For how long Pinkamena Diane Pie sat there, trying desperately to shake her older sister back to life, she did not know. She had become so consumed with her unending rage, that she didn't even realize that the life in Limestone's eyes had slipped away in the middle of it all. Finally, she stopped shaking her sister's limp body, and grabbed ahold of Limestone's head with her two front hooves.

"Limestone! Limestone! No! No, Please! I didn't mean it! Limestone? Please...please...don't go..." was all that Pinkie could say, as she stared into the lifeless eyes of her older sister. The tears then came, and once they started, Pinkie knew they would not cease. She let go of her sister's head as it slumped to the floor of the dirty basement.

"What have I done? Oh Momma, what have I done? Momma, please help me...please help me, Momma..." Pinkie Pie could only then curl herself up, and wallow in her grief. She cried, and cried, until she had practically nothing left to cry. She sorrowfully rocked back and forth, sitting only three feet away from the corpse of her dead sister.

"Why? Why? What's...what's wrong with me? How could I...? How could I...have done...?" Pinkie couldn't even bring herself to look at the remains of Limestone. She just continued to sob, even though she no longer had anymore tears left to shed. Then Pinkie suddenly stopped. She gasped and looked all around; her eyes darting everywhere, making sure to not let them fall on Limestone's remains.

"Is this real...? Please..." She slapped herself several times in a desperate attempt to wake herself up from the nightmare that she was living. But no matter how hard she beat herself up, the nightmare would never end. She had to accept it now. What she had done...was very real. It was no dream. The reality of the situation sat only three feet away, as a constant reminder. Pinkie finally got a good look at her sister's body. Her spine was clearly broken, and it was all twisted and distorted. There was a gentle stream of blood that flowed out from her mouth and nose. Not only that, but blood also seeped out of the many cuts and bite wounds that were all over her body.

And even though Pinkie had already cried her heart out over this tragedy that she had caused, she still somehow felt the need to continue. So, she sobbed some more, as she sat and continued to cradle herself. But then, she heard a voice, and for half a second, she had hoped that it was Limestone waking up again, but it wasn't. This was a different voice. It was her mother again.

"Pinkamena Diane Pie, why are you crying?"

"Momma...Momma..." Pinkie managed to say, through many sniffles and sobs. "I did this...this...horrible thing. I'm sorry...I'm sorry. It's all my fault..."

"Pinkamena, dear, there is absolutely NO reason for all of these unnecessary tears."

Pinkie then became startled at her mother's words. She felt confused. She thought that she would be absolutely furious, but she wasn't. Her melodic voice was still just as gentle and soothing as it had always been. Pinkie then slowly began to stop crying. She wiped the tears from her eyes and listened to see if her mother would say anything else.

"I know that right now it might be difficult for you to understand, but what you did was a good thing."

Pinkie Pie was shocked upon hearing this. She became even more confused. She didn't understand what her mother was trying to tell her.

"Mom, how could this have possibly been a good thing?! I just murdered my own sister in a fit of rage!" Pinkie felt the need to cry again, but this time she held it back in order to remain strong for her mother.

"You don't understand...you're not thinking clearly, my dear. Remember what I told you when you were locked down here, all by yourself?"

Pinkie Pie thought long and hard about it, trying to remember what it was that her mother had said. And then, her mother finally said it.

"Limestone was in the way, Pinkamena. She was in the way of your improvement. Listen to me, Pinkamena. Listen to your mother. Don't let this guilt eat you up. You have to understand that it had to be done. For the greater good, sacrifices must be made."

Pinkie listened very carefully to her mother without interrupting. She was beginning to understand now. It did indeed have to be done. There was no other way, really. It just couldn't be helped...

Pinkie Pie then realized that she had to stop feeling sorry for what she had done to Limestone. There was just no more use in it. Mother was right, it was all for the greater good. "Sacrifices must be made," Pinkie told herself, and she would be sure to remember that phrase whenever she felt doubtful.

And so, the deed was done, and Pinkie had to find a way to clean up the mess and hide the body before anyone else discovered what dark undertaking had occurred at Sugarcube Corner. Luckily, the bakery had not opened its doors yet, so there was no need to worry about customers walking in.

Pinkie wanted to make sure that Limestone's body would be buried and taken care of; she at least deserved that. So, she had to find a way to get Limestone's body out of the basement and outside. But wait, she couldn't do that, somepony would most certainly see her burying the corpse. She had to find another way. Pinkie wandered around the dark basement and eventually found the light switch. When the lights came on, Pinkie could fully see the horrifying details of the act that she had just committed. Limestone's mangled body was all beaten and bruised, and her lifeless eyes still stared disturbingly at Pinkie, as if mocking her. Before she could do anything else, Pinkie forced herself to close Limestone's eyes manually, so she wouldn't have to see them anymore. After this, she went back upstairs and made sure to close the basement door behind her.

When she was in the kitchen, Pinkie got a mop from the closet in order to clean up the little spots of blood that were all over the kitchen and in the hallway from the fight. Once that was cleaned up, she carried the mop and bucket down into the basement to clean the rest. However, she quickly realized that she had to find a place to store the corpse temporarily, before she could clean. She frantically searched all around the basement for anything that she could use. She was about to give up, when she found a half-hidden compartment underneath the stairs. There was a tiny red curtain, which draped over the little door. On the door was a latch with a padlock just hanging there, unlocked. She opened the tiny compartment and looked all around inside. It wasn't very big, but she figured that it was just big enough for a small filly to possibly fit inside. So, Pinkie decided that it would be better than nothing.

So, she carefully dragged Limestone's corpse over to where the door to the compartment was. She slowly opened the little door, which gave off a quiet little creak as it opened. And then, Pinkie tried desperately to get Limestone to fit inside, however she had a difficult time. She had managed to get the body inside fine, but the door to the compartment would not shut all the way with Limestone inside. And so, Pinkie made a choice. She decided to just pull the red curtain over the door, hopefully concealing what was inside. That's the best that Pinkie could make due for now, for she still had a lot of cleaning up left to do.

It took about half an hour or so before she had gotten all of the bloodstains cleaned, and she made sure that there weren't any more remaining traces. Once that was done, Pinkie Pie dragged the mop and bucket back up the stairs and put them away. However, Pinkie was still concerned over the fact that Limestone's body was still not well-hidden, and so, she decided that she would do the next best thing: she'd make sure that absolutely NO one could get down into that basement.

She took the padlock which she had found on the little door in the basement, and decided to lock it on the latch to the door that led down to the basement instead. She knew that she didn't have a key for the lock, but right now, Pinkie was going to worry about that for later. She was very tired after everything that had happened, and she decided, right then and there, that she would go take a nap in her nice, warm bed. And so, she did.

And that's how Pinkie Pie's sister, Limestone Pie, went missing. Afterward, as soon as everything had calmed down, and once all of the ponies who had interviewed Pinkie multiple times had gone their way, all who were left in the bakery was Pinkie Pie and her mother, Cloudy Quartz. Pinkie Pie sat quietly behind the counter, while her mother stood staring out the window, with tears rolling down her cheeks, and sobbing bitterly. Pinkie Pie was very confused as to why her mother was going to such lengths to find her missing sister when she knew the truth as to what really happened. In fact, she was the one who told Pinkie to do it. So, why was she so sad? And as Pinkie thought about it more and more, she realized that just because it had to be done, did not mean that you had to like it. Maybe this was her way of grieving, and it was best not to question it at this point.

"I'm going to go lay down for a little bit." Cloudy Quartz suddenly said, catching Pinkie off guard.

"Oh, a-alright." she replied, and with that, Cloudy Quartz walked slowly up the stairs, down the hallway, and into her bedroom. Pinkie Pie didn't hear a peep out of her for the rest of the night.

It was midnight. The bakery was still, and Cloudy Quartz had cried herself to sleep and was now peacefully at rest for the time being, when down the hallway, the door to her youngest daughter's bedroom opened slowly. Out came the little filly as quiet as she could be, with only a few creaks escaping from the floorboard every now and again that broke the silence, as she crept down the stairs. She was now tiptoeing her way towards to big door that led down to the ominous basement. She stared unhappily at the old door, locked up tight with the padlock that she had found. Pinkie Pie now had a problem. She had no key with which to unlock it with, and if she didn't unlock it, she couldn't dispose of the..."thing" in the basement. She figured that she might be able to bust it open, but that would make far too much noise. She knew now. Her only solution was to find the key...wherever it might be. Pinkie knew that her mother had a key ring which hung on the kitchen wall. She decided to start with that.

Pinkie then silently crept her way into the kitchen. But to her horror, when she looked to retrieve the key ring, it was missing from the nail on the wall. Pinkie Pie then felt a desperate need to scream. However, this was not the time nor the place to let out these frustrations; right now she had to focus on finding that key ring. She searched the kitchen thoroughly; looking through every cabinet and drawer, trying to be as quiet as she possibly could, but there was no key ring to be found. Pinkie then began to feel panicked. In the silence of the night, she could hear her heart pounding clearly. She tried to think of where else the key ring could be, but the steadily rising agitation made her judgement cloudy. Until, finally a thought came to her. No, actually it was more of a memory. She suddenly remembered that when Mom had gone up to her room earlier that day, she still had on her saddle bags. And on the saddle bags, held there by a string...was the key ring. Pinkie then felt a sense of anxiety wash over her, as she realized what she had to do.

The door to her mother's room slid silently open, which Pinkie was very glad for. She stared at the bed where Cloudy Quartz lay, her chest gently rising and falling. Pinkie Pie felt bad for her mother. This whole thing was hitting her much harder than Pinkie had thought. But hopefully, once everything was taken care of, things would finally be able to go back to normal. At least, that's what Pinkie hoped for. But right now, she had to concentrate. Had to find the key ring. She scanned her eyes across the room looking for the saddle bags, until she saw them lying in a corner of the room, carelessly thrown down there from what it looked like. She crept, carefully and quietly over to them. Unfortunately, she didn't see the key ring hanging there, and thought that it might be underneath the bags. She turned the bags over, making sure not to bang the items inside of them around. And then she saw it, the key ring, held by a string. She then loosened it and the key ring was released. There were about seven keys on the ring itself, and as Pinkie picked it up with her mouth, they all jingled together as they touched. Pinkie Pie flinched with the sudden noise that broke the silence, and she turned to face the bed, afraid that the sound might have woken her mother. But to her relief, Cloudy Quartz only shifted slightly in her sleep, and then lay still. Pinkie then let out an exhale through her tiny nostrils and crept quietly out of her mother's room, taking the key ring with her.

When she had finally made it to the basement door, she went through key after key, trying to find the one that would fit the padlock. All of the keys on the ring were ones that Cloudy Quartz had received from the previous owners of the bakery, and she hoped that one of them would fit the padlock on the door. One of them had to fit. It just had to. By the fifth key, Pinkie Pie was beginning to get nervous, her little hooves floundering slightly as she fumbled with the sixth key. She placed it into the lock, and hoped that it would turn over. She then heard the telltale click from the padlock, as it snapped loose. Pinkie then breathed a sigh of relief, as she took the padlock off the latch on the door. She opened the door to the basement as softly as she could, but could not help the loud creak which ascended from it as it opened.

The little pink filly then stood there in the opening as she stared into the darkness below her, knowing fully what was awaiting for her down there. She crept down the stairs, each one creaking softly as she descended. Pinkie did not need to flip on the lights, for she already knew where the thing she was looking for was. And when she had found it, she pulled back the red curtain to reveal the horror that was hiding behind it.

Pinkie then proceeded to drag Limestone's twisted corpse up the stairs, out of the basement, and into the backyard that was behind the bakery. She already knew the exact spot where she was going to bury the body. She chose to bury Limestone behind some thick bushes that were under a large tree that had grown above them. She grabbed a shovel from out of the tool shed and started to dig. The hole was relatively deep and big, which was much too large for burying a body, but Pinkie didn't care. All she was worried about, was getting rid of...it.

She placed her sister in the hole and threw earth on her. Once she was done and had carefully padded back down the dirt, she decided that she had to at least say a few words before leaving. She thought about it for a minute or two and then looked down at the patch of dirt.

"I'm sorry sis, I'm sorry that it had to end this way." Pinkie could feel tears starting to form, but forced herself to hold them back. After all, it would only make her look weak and pathetic, which was not the lasting impression that she wanted to leave for her sister. "But, it had to be done. I proved you wrong, I am not weak and pathetic. I still haven't forgotten the things you said to me that day, and I never will forget. Ever." Pinkie could feel growing irritation as she spoke.

"Maybe if you had treated me better, you wouldn't be in the cold and dark place you are now. I guess you aren't as perfect as you thought you were." Pinkie let a little sick grin break across her face.

"Everything is going to be different now. From now on, I'm going to be the one that succeeds at everything. I'm going to be the one most loved by my parents. I'm going to be the perfect baker at Sugarcube Corner." She then bent her head down, with her face almost touching the ground.

"And while I'm making all of the progress, you are going to be right here, lying under the cold dark earth." And with that, Pinkie stood up and started to head back inside the bakery.

"Oh, I'm sure you won't get that far...Stinkie Pie."

Pinkie Pie made a sharp turn to face the grave that she had just made for her sister, looking for any sign of Limestone. But she wasn't there. She was hearing her voice again. Even from beyond the grave, her sister would still be there to torment her. Pinkie Pie ran back inside and locked the door behind her. She went back to her bedroom and climbed back into bed. She sat there wide awake, with the words of her sister still lingering in her mind.