Gifts from a friend

by Element of Malice

A gift for Pinkie

Pinkie Pie scanned the plethora of pastries gifted to her by ‘A Friend’. It was packaged in a deep box, suggesting that there were at least three layers of delicious goodies. Thanks to the aroma and the demands from her sweet tooth, she couldn’t resist gulping down the entire first box in one swallow. She planned to share the rest with others, but that didn’t stop her from peeking into the next box. When she opened it, there was a note.

Pinkie Pie,

From what I understand, you like games. If you are reading this, that means you have eaten the first box containing the pastries laced with a fast-acting poison.

She stopped reading the note, letting the words sink in before she continued.

The remaining treats have the antidote in them. If you can consume all of them in less than five minutes, that will be enough to negate the poison. By now, your throat is probably starting to feel a little sore. Tick tock, you’ve already wasted one minute reading this far, leaving you only four left.

Scrunching her face in annoyance, Pinkie scoffed, “Humph, if this is some kind of joke, it’s not funny! And I know funny!” She threw the note aside. However, the message was accurate about her throat. It was increasingly getting more sore to the point of burning.

If what she read was true, all she needed to do was gulp down the remainder of the delectable desserts, which sounded simple. She had consumed a complete cake in one swallow plenty of times. The worst thing that could happen would be indigestion. Though it was a shame that she wouldn’t be able to share with other ponies.

She pulled out and opened the other two boxes. “Well, down the hatch," she said, her voice starting to sound raspy. Like so many treats before, she swallowed all of them in one fell swoop as she had with the first box. Immediately she spat them out along with a great deal of blood.

Against all conceivable logic, they tasted far worse than the muffins she forced herself to eat in Starlight’s village despite their visual appeal. Also, looking at the mass of regurgitated pastries, she saw the exact-o-knife blades, pins, brad nails, and broken glass that had been baked into them.

Games are supposed to be fun. Pinkie thought to herself. This isn’t fun. This isn’t a game.

Perhaps it wouldn’t be so simple after all.

Now realizing the severity of her situation, less than three and a half minutes were remaining before the poison would finish what it started. If Pinkie wanted to counteract the poison, she had little choice but to resume eating the pastries as her stomach began to feel like it was devouring itself.

Closing her eyes, Pinkie blindly shoveled the contents into her mouth. She felt the sharp objects tearing her throat to shreds more with each painful swallow. To an extent, the blood masked the appalling taste but knowing what it was, wasn't helping all that much.

With only one minute remaining, there were only six small mouthfuls left. Pinkie was lying on the ground with a steady stream of blood escaping her mouth, pooling around her head, and going into her airway.

Pinkie thought maybe she could hear one of the Cakes enter the room. It sounded like they were saying something to her. But her vision was tunneling, and her heartbeat was pounding in her ears, drowning out all other noises around her.

This is embarrassing, She thought, feeling her body grow colder by the second.

I don’t want to upset the Cakes. If I’m about to die, then I should at least be wearing my best smile. Try as she might, her entire mouth area had gone numb, no thanks to the pins and nails stuck between her teeth. Not to mention the damage done by the glass and razor blades chewing up her cheeks, tongue, and gums.

Still, Pinkie did the best she could, given the circumstances she was in before everything went black.