Baking Bad

by XMark

Cupcakes

Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie walked across the field toward the approaching crowd of ponies, hearing excited and scared whispers.

"Hey! You!" said a beige mare. "Did any of you four see anything? Did you see a dragon?"

Twilight and Pinkie were two of the four. They were walking in front of Gilda and Trixie. Twilight was wearing Trixie's hat, partly to make herself less readily identifiable to someone in the crowd who might know her, but mostly to conceal the glow of her horn. She was using her magic in a grim puppeteer act, doing her best to make them appear to be walking normally. She kept them walking closely behind them so they could block anypony from looking too closely.

Twilight responded to the mare, trying to balance focus between talking and levitating. "I heard the same thing you heard, but I didn't see any dragon. I think I heard it from over there." Twilight pointed in a direction conveniently away from where they hid the balloon.

"The horror! The horror!" she heard the familiar voice of Lily in the crowd. "A dragon near Ponyville!"

Twilight faked a smile. "Oh, I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. Dragons haven't attacked ponies in centuries. They respect pony laws."

A green-haired orange stallion sneered. "Terrible creatures. Do you not remember when that dragon rampaged through Ponyville? Nopony ever found him. Some day the dragons will come for us all, I tell you!"

The sounds of approval from ponies around him sent a chill down Twilight's spine. For a moment, her concerns shifted back to Spike, worrying about how he would fare on his own in a town that had grown increasingly frightened of him as he grew, and with anti-dragon sentiment still strong despite Princess Celestia's efforts to bring ponies and dragons together...

But that was a long-term issue to think of some time later. Right now they were taking the corpses of two drug dealers out for a walk in plain sight through a crowd of ponies, an idea which seemed good on paper. Now she was just thinking how horribly stupid and insane this was. And that she shouldn't have actually written the plan on paper; she made a mental note to shred the scroll, along with her letter to Princess Celestia, at the first available opportunity.

"I'm sure it was nothing." said Twilight with a fake smile. "Well look at the time." (no watch) "It's getting late, I should be getting home."

"You might be missing out on seeing a dragon, but good night anyways." said the mare.

Just as the mare was turning around, Trixie suddenly groaned. In her surprise, Twilight lost control over her magic and threw them both up into the air. She looked up in terror and frantically focused her magic, managing to catch Trixie and Gilda before they hit the ground and rotating them into standing position, just as the mare turned around. "I'm sorry, did you say something?"

"Ohhhhh" said Pinkie Pie. "Ohhhh my stomach. I'm starving!"

The mare shrugged her shoulders and walked away, following the crowd. Twilight and Pinkie breathed a sigh of relief.

When they were clear of the crowd and reached Ponyville, Pinkie Pie walked up next to Twilight and whispered to her. "Trixie's still alive!"

"Yeah, I noticed."

"That's a good thing, right?"

Twilight looked back at the two macabre puppets following them, Trixie breathing erratically and trying to open her eyes up. "She'll be dead any minute."

"But if she's not dead right now, we have to leave her at the hospital!"

"No. Maybe. I don't know. We have to think about this. Sugar Cube Corner is the closest place that we can hide them for now."

They walked through the streets of Ponyville. It was later in the afternoon, but the sun was still up and ponies were walking around everywhere. Eight blocks to go to get to Sugar Cube Corner, but it seemed to Twilight as if it were miles away. Twilight hoped against hope not to run into anyone they recognized, but half the town knew her, and both halves of the town knew Pinkie Pie, so the best she could hope for was that nopony felt especially conversational.

Twilight looked back and saw that a trickle of blood was running down from Gilda's mouth, leaving a trail behind them. She motioned to Pinkie, who stepped back behind Gilda and tried her best to look innocent as she swept the blood trail with her tail. Three blocks went by relatively uneventfully, as they avoided the thick of the crowds and took less-travelled alleyways. Then Twilight started to feel some ripples in the magic field. She turned and saw a blue glow from Trixie's horn blending its light with the purple glow of her levitation spell. Trixie still wasn't fully conscious, but some instinct was making her fight against the magic controlling her. Though she was already feeling the strain, Twilight had to increase the amount of effort in holding the spell. They continued walking for another three blocks, Twilight fighting a growing feeling of nausea, and Pinkie's Tail getting noticably bloodier as she swept the trail of Gilda's blood behind them.

With Sugar Cube Corner in sight, they picked up their pace. But then Twilight saw Fluttershy walking in front of Sugar Cube Corner, and suddenly froze in place.

"Celestia dammit, just when we're almost there!" whispered Twilight. "Pinkie, be very quiet. Hopefully Fluttershy will just keep walking and won't see us."

Suddenly Trixie's horn erupted in a bright blue flash. The field of levitation magic around her vanished and she collapsed to the ground. Not expecting the sudden imbalance in the magical field, Twilight yelped at the sudden disruption of the spell, and with the forces all out of balance, she ended up throwing Gilda's body forward.

Fluttershy looked up at the sound, but only saw what looked like an angry griffon flying directly at her. She screamed and ran away, barely evading Gilda's corpse, which slammed into the wall of Sugar Cube Corner. Fluttershy just kept on running without looking back.

Twilight looked around to make sure nopony else saw what just happened, then quickly picked up Gilda and Trixie again. Pinkie ran up ahead and opened the door. Twilight dragged Trixie and Gilda in after her. The moment all four of them were inside, she released her levitation spell and collapsed on the floor, breathing heavily with exhaustion.

-

Trixie's eyes fluttered open. Her head hurt like crazy, and she could barely keep her eyes open. She knew she was in danger somehow, and had a vague recollection of a balloon and an explosion, but couldn't put the pieces together.

"Twilight, I really don't feel good about this at all." said a pink blur to a purple blur. Pink blur. Pinkie. Pinkie Pie. A piece fell into place.

The purple blur bounced in place. "Do you have any better ideas? Ones where we don't get banished and then thrown into a dungeon in the place we're banished to?"

The purple blur was starting to come into focus. She could make out a horn. Sparkle. What did the word sparkle mean to her? Sparkling. Sparkling like stars. Stars in the Twi... Twilight Sparkle! A wave of fear rushed through Trixie's body. She strained to open her eyes more, and looked around. She was in a dark room with the two increasingly pony-shaped blurs, and for some reason she couldn't move.

"This isn't right!" said the pink blur. "Can't we just drop her off in front of the hospital and run?"

"Let me think" said the purple blur, pacing around. "What is she anyways? What's her place in the chain of Spark dealers?"

"Well, she's above me, but she reports to someone she calls The Big Guy. That's all I know."

"Right, so we take her to a hospital, then she tells The Big Guy about us when she gets out. What's he gonna do?"

Trixie tried to breathe in, but with the breath came a searing pain through her throat. She coughed, and the two blurs jumped. She wheezed, trying again to take in some air.

"How much did she hear?" whispered Pinkie Pie.

"I don't know. Let's talk upstairs."

They slowly backed away from her. She finally managed to focus her eyes and look around. She had a yoke around her neck. It was fairly big, and should have been large enough for her to slip out of, but it was also around a metal pole, so she was stuck in place, only able to slide up and down the pole with great discomfort.

"w....water" she croaked.

"We'll get you some water!" said Pinkie Pie before Twilight shooed her up the stairs leaving her alone.

Finally her mind unscrambled itself and she remembered everything up until being immersed in the poison gas cloud. And she could recognize where she was at last, having gone down to this basement with Pinkie to get some supplies a couple of times. Something about being chained up in Pinkie's basement sent a chill down her spine.

Pinkie Pie came down the stairs holding a tray in her mouth. On it was a glass of water and a couple of cupcakes. Pinkie set it on the floor and pushed the plate to her. She quickly levitated the glass of water and drank it, finally soothing some of the pain in her throat.

Twilight Sparkle came down the stairs and walked to Pinkie. "This situation is under control for today, Pinkie. We need some rest so we can think straight tomorrow."

Trixie tried her best to talk. "Are... you... going.... to kill... me?"

Twilight froze in place, then turned around and walked up the stairs again, leaving Trixie alone with Pinkie. Alone with Pinkie in her basement. Chained up, alone with Pinkie, in her dark basement, with cupcakes.

-

The sun had gone down when Twilight finally got home. She had been meaning to talk to Spike ever since the early afternoon. As exhausted and drained as she was, this could not wait a single moment longer. Seeing Spike's door closed, she knocked.

"Go away, I'm trying to get some sleep." came Spike's annoyed voice.

"You never go to sleep this early!"

"Maybe I do now. Leave me alone!"

Twilight sighed. "I... I really need to talk to you. It's important."

No response. Twilight hung her head and began to walk away before she heard some metal clinking sounds, and the door opened. Spike stood, leaning into his crutches, an annoyed look on his face. "What is it?"

"I'm... I'm aware that I've been acting really... strange lately. It's just that... I've got something on my... I'm..."

"Spit it out already!"

"I'm dying."

Spike almost fell out of his crutches. Instantly his annoyance was replaced with concern. "W... what?"

"Horn rot. It already spread to my brain. I have only two years maximum, and for the last few months I won't even really be Twilight Sparkle anymore. I'm sorry I hid it from you. I didn't know how to tell you."

Spike burst into tears and wrapped Twilight in his arms.

"I'm sorry too..." said Spike. He said something else afterwards, but Twilight couldn't understand what he was saying through his tears.

"It's okay, Spike. We can get through this. I'll take care of you as long as I can."

"As long as you let me take care of you, too." said Spike.

Twilight smiled, overwhelmed by the simple fact that for the first time today she was smiling for real instead of covering a horrible lie. "You've got yourself a deal, Spike."

Comments

[Rhulain]

dude. fucking ponies man. I was on a Breaking Bad kick today, and about five episodes in I was wondering if this story would update. THen it did. Fucking...fucking ponies man. shit.

First.

[BlueYoyoYoyo]

This story...

media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8mmd19wlf1qfgcwj.gif

Please, continue.

[KimmyJ]

I'm sure everypony here can appreciate this:

[ArkNoMane]

Update please?