Krizak's Compendium of Concise Chronicles

by Krizak

The Power of Laughter - Adventure, Tragedy

“I’ve done all I can, but I just… I don’t…” Fluttershy couldn’t hold back her sobs any longer, and she turned away from the bloody mess before her, only to be caught in Rarity’s reassuring embrace.

“Hush, Fluttershy, you did all you could. More than I could.” Rarity felt her own tears begin to well as the yellow pegasus soaked her shoulder, the comforting hug giving her all too good a view of her friend’s terrible fate. “Oh, why have I dedicated myself to fashion? I could have been a doctor and studied healing magic. What good is a dress if I’m fitting it for a funeral!?”

“Hey! There’s no funeral yet!” Dash yelled indignantly at the unicorn, her anger overriding her need to cry, at least for the moment. “Twilight’s never given up on us, and we’re not giving up on Twilight!” Save for Twilight’s terrible trauma, the prismatic pegasus was the worst for wear among all the friends; she held one foreleg close to her chest, the broken limb incapable of taking any weight. She was covered in blood, but fortunately, most of it wasn’t hers.

She knew that she’d probably be wracked with guilt for killing the beast later. How much guilt… well, that depended entirely on Twilight.

“C’mon, AJ, grab that rope, strap her to my back!” Dash continued as she looked over at the farmmare, only to become further incensed when she shook her head sadly.

“Dash, it took us a week to get out here. Even at yer fastest, it would take you a day to get to civilization, and you wouldn’t be at yer fastest, not after the battle you just fought and Twilight on yer back.” Applejack had never uttered a truth that hurt her more than those words. “Twilight… doesn’t have that long.”

“But I have to try!” Dash screamed, her tears finally falling as she screamed into Applejack’s face. The earth pony simply bore the brunt of Dash’s anger; it was how Rainbow Dash needed to deal with it, and so AJ could be that rock that she needed.

After Dash had finished her scream, which had devolved into loud blubbering, Applejack pulled the pegasus into a firm hug. “If’n we have to lose Twilight… Ah don’t want to lose you as well.”

“I-I hate losing…” Rainbow Dash whispered into Applejack’s ear… but the thought reminded her of something. Something that might make it possible. Pushing away from Applejack’s embrace, Dash turned to the one pony who hadn’t said a word since Twilight had been felled. “Pinkie!”

The morose pink pony glanced up from where she cradled Twilight’s head, one blue eye staring out from underneath her straight pink mane. She still didn’t say anything, but she was paying attention.

“Pinkie, you’ve beaten me before, and I never understood how! It’s like you can pop up wherever you want, any time you want!” Rainbow Dash gestured to Twilight. “Use that! Get her to a hospital, and we’ll catch up!”

Pinkie maintained her stare for a moment before closing her eyes and shaking her head. “I can’t.”

“You can, Pinkie!” Rarity spoke up, letting go of Fluttershy and approaching Pinkie, her eyes filled with a glimmer of hope. “I’ve seen you appear in my shop even when all the doors were locked!”

“No, you see…” Pinkie’s tone betrayed no emotion; this wasn’t the accusatory pink mare who had confronted them at her own birthday party. This was something much worse. “I can only do that when it’s funny.”

“What in Tartarus do you mean ‘when it’s funny?’” Dash felt her anger building again. “This is no time for laughter!”

“Exactly.” Pinkie shook her head again and looked down at Twilight. “It’s the power of the Element of Laughter. If it’s funny, I can do it. Saving Twilight wouldn’t be funny… It would be heroic.” She suddenly gritted her teeth together hard enough to cause pain, barely feeling it over her anguish. “No Element of Heroism for Pinkie. I’m not a hero.”

“You… you have to try, Pinkie,” Fluttershy added as she came closer. “Please… you’re Twilight’s only hope…”

“Don’t you think I would have by now if I could?!” Pinkie suddenly snapped at her gentlest friend, causing the pegasus to take a step back. “I would give anything to save Twilight! ANYTHING! But I can’t! I…” She started sobbing finally. “I just can’t!”

Applejack took on a grim expression as she slowly approached. “Well, that’s it, then. We can’t save Twilight.” She shook her head as she came closer. “All we can do for her is end her suffering.”

“AJ, you can’t be suggesting—” “What are you saying—” “No… no, why would you—” Applejack silenced her other friends with a raised hoof, her gaze not deviating from the broken mare before her.

“She’s sufferin’. She’s in pain, and Ah’m gonna put an end to it, one way or another!” The farmmare reached Twilight’s barely breathing body and placed a single hoof on the unicorns’s neck. With the strength she’d built up from years of apple farming, she could easily break a pony’s neck with a single blow, and all her friends knew it. Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, Applejack pulled back her hoof…

…and the blow ended up being dealt to her, as Pinkie suddenly pushed her away with a cry of anger. “No! No, it’s not going to end this way! She’s going to live! Twilight’s going to live and she’ll hear about my feelings and nopony is going to take her away!”

As the pink mare struggled to lift Twilight onto her back, Applejack secretly breathed a sigh of relief; she had been quickly been approaching the point where her bluff would have been obvious. Grabbing her rope, she helped secure Twilight to Pinkie’s back, and then took a step back.

“Alright, alright…” Pinkie wiped her eyes with her hoof, trying to clear away all of her tears. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, she needed to find a laugh to create. “Back in Ponyville… have any of you had anypony there make you a Pinkie Promise?”

Her four friends blinked in confusion at her question, looking at each other with shrugs before Rarity exclaimed, “Oh!”

“Yes, Rarity, yes?” Pinkie’s voice was desperate.

“After the incident with the gold fabric, Sweetie Belle Pinkie Promised me that she would never take my supplies without asking again.”

Pinkie Pie glanced upwards for a moment, considering what Rarity had said. And then she saw her opportunity, and her laughter started to bubble forth, low at first by rising in pitch as her hair gradually recurled itself. The maniacal chuckles reached their crescendo…

…and then Pinkie was gone, and the injured Twilight with her.

Three of the ponies remaining breathed sighs of relief, even as Rarity posed the question that was foremost on her mind now: “Hmm, now do I scold Sweetie Belle for touching my materials… or praise her?”

Comments

[Krizak]

This story was for Prompt #3: "Pangs." The prompt was that Twilight is grievously injured and only Pinkie Pie can save her. This was originally only half-finished within the thirty-minute window, but by request, I went back and finished the scene I had in mind.

[Donnys Boy]

I think my fave part was that Applejack was bluffing and really relieved that her bluff didn't get called. Also, I just really like the idea that Pinkie's weird reality-warping abilities are somehow tied to being the bearer of the Element of Laughter.