Ciderfest 2023 Mane Story Saturday Night - "Fulcrum"

by Nyronus

If Fizzy Isn't Saved

With a shout, Barley leapt through the portal, flapping his wings to break his fall… only for Caramel to crash on top of him. Spinning end over end the two found themselves tangled in… wires?

Twilight sailed in after them, the portal closing behind her. She touched down and looked around.

“What… is this place?” she said.

“It, uh…” Barley looked around, trying to get a snarl of fiber-optic wires out of his vest. “It’s, a, uh…”

“A server room?” Caramel said, in confused awe.

Towering over the three ponies were line after line of humming black monoliths, pulsating with purple, pink, and teal lights beneath their metal casings.

“Is this… normal in your world?” Twilight asked, concerned.

“Uh, kind of, yeah.” Barley said, looking around, “...I think, anyway.”

“You don’t know?!” Twilight gaped.

“I’m a bartender!” Barley replied, waving his hoof, embarrassed. “Technical stuff like this was really more the speed of–”

“Fizzy!” Caramel shouted.

Twilight and Barley looked. She was pointing with one hoof towards a room hanging over the endless servers, a flickering blue light shining from within.

“You think that’s her?” Twilight asked, frowning.

“It looks like her nirik fire,” Barley said, hopeful.

“And it is her speed,” Caramel added, with a tired smile.

“Best lead we got,” Barley said, with a shrug.

“Then let’s check it out,” Twilight nodded, giving a nervous glare to the silent spires around her.

Without another word, the three set out towards the beacon.

---

“Look at that!” Fizzy shouted, laughing. “That’s great!”

On one of the many floating screens around her, Pinkie Pie had just fired another con-goer from her party cannon.

Fizzy spun in her chair, grinning like a madkirin, looking at all the sights. On one screen Princess Cadance skated across a roller derby rink while guests watched. On another, Trixie and Starlight were putting the final touches on a rocket while guests helped, and on a third, Iron Will hyped the crowd up as an airship hovering over the roof of the hotel had been converted into a wrestling arena.

It was all, unbelievably, amazingly cool.

And then a pounding on the door to her office interrupted her reverie.

“Fizzy!” Caramel’s muffled shout came through the door. “You in there, Fizz? We gotta talk.”

FIzzy groaned and rolled her eyes. With a sigh she pulled off her headset,and then stopped, frowning. After a moment, she put it down, and then patted her cheeks, before spinning the chair to face the door. With a burst of magic, the door flung itself open and Barley, rearing up to knock, fell into the room.

“Wondering when you’d get here.” Fizzy grinned.

“What is this place?” Caramel said, leaning down to offer Barley a hoof.

“My battle station!” Fizzy said, throwing her hooves into the air and giving a toothy smirk.

“Battle… you’re fighting someone?” Twilight said, concerned.

“No it’s– ugh.” Fizzy rolled her eyes. “It’s a gamer thing.”

“Like… Buckball?”

“No that’s– nevermind.” Fizzy shook her head, blue pixels of fire showering off of her. “This is where I can watch the whole con. Check it out!” She spun her chair around and pointed at one of the screens. On it some guests were standing, looking lost, on a rock. “Now watch this.”

There was a flare of blue fire next to Fizzy as a pen and pages levitated up next to her. With a click, the pen sped away. The guests on the screen stumbled all at once, the stone heaving beneath them. Within seconds the ridge they were standing on revealed itself to be a massive dragon, which took off into the air, the guests giving out silent cries as they clung on.

“See!” Fizzy spun her chair back around. “Isn’t that cool?”

“Fizz, they could get hurt!” Caramel said, alarm clear on her face.

“Uggggh!” Fizzy rolled her eyes and took the page and pen back in her grip. “‘Thankfully, despite the thrill of danger, none of the guests fell off or got hurt.’” She paused, looking at the page, and started scribbling again. “‘In fact, none of the guests at the con would get hurt and in fact never got hurt, miraculously healing any prior injury because the Great Sage Fizzyban cast a spell that protected them from all possible trouble. Even the Con Crud.’ There!” She looked up, glaring, unaware that on the monitor behind her a version of herself sporting a robe and a fine beard had appeared, waving at the guests as the dragon carried them away.

“FIzzy, that’s not–” Barley began.

“Oh shut up!” Fizzy said, her mane flaring. “I have it handled! I have a giant stack of pages right here, and I can do whatever I want!”

“Fizz, listen–”

“No!” Fizzy leapt from her chair, mane a pillar of sparkling blue fire. “You listen, or better yet.” She whirled around and waved a hoof at the screens, “Watch. Look at those guests! Look how excited they are! I made Equestria real, guys! Don’t you get it?”

“That might be part of the problem–” Twilight began, only for a muzzle to snap around her snout after a quick pen scratch.

“Don’t you guys trust me?” Fizzy asked, suddenly, looking vulnerable.

“We trust you, Fizz, but–”

“Oh, ‘but,’ right.” Fizzy rolled her eyes and began stalking around. “I’m sure you trust me with the AV equipment, right? You trust me to make sure the GoHs have coffee. But you don’t trust me with anything serious, right? ‘Oh, here’s Fizzy, she bailed us out during lockdown but now that we have the con we really wanted back we can just have her do errands!’ Just a goofy little kirin doing her stupid little streams and at the end of the day nothing–” she stomped a hoof, wheeling to face them.

“–she–” the hoof came down again, cracking the floor.

“–does–” her mane flared as a third stomp sent chunks flying.

“–matters.” The crack flared across the floor and her mane blazed almost to the ceiling.

When she looked up at Caramel and Barley, she couldn’t hide the tears turning to steam as they rolled down her face.

“Fizz… it’s not like that.” Barley said, quietly.

“Well, you’ve got a funny way of showing it.” Fizzy spat, before turning back to her chair. A few pen strokes later, and a swarm of small droids appeared, fixing the floor as they went.

Their chirps and clicks did not fill the silence.

Neither did Twilight’s grunts as she desperately fought with her muzzle.

Caramel looked at Barley, pain clear in her eyes. Barley met hers with shame.

“I did all this, you know.” Fizzy said, not turning the chair to face them as she spoke. “I did it all to make Ciderfest the best it could be.”

Caramel looked at Barley a second longer, and took a step forward.

“Fizz, I know we maybe didn’t treat you right, but you have to stop this. Equestria–”

Fizzy groaned and snatched up another page.

“Fizz–-”

“No,” Fizzy said.

“‘No?’” Caramel echoed.

“No, I don’t care. Get out.” She was furiously scratching away with her pen.

“Look,” Barley stepped up, “we can talk.”

“Talk all you want,” Fizzy said, fake smile audible in her tone. “I’m not listening any longer.”

“Honey,” Caramel pleaded, softly.

“I did everything for you two.” Fizzy said, quietly, pen scratching away. “And you threw me aside.”

“I’m sorry, Fizz, I really should have read that proposal–” Barley began.

“Oh yeah, you’re sorry, sure.” She spat. “I don’t care. Get out.”

“Please, Fizzy, Grogar–”

The pen came to a sudden, scratching halt.

“‘Unfortunately for them, it was on that word that the automated security grabbed ahold of both Caramel and Barley.’”

With no other warning, metallic claws snatched up both ponies and dragged them into the air.

“‘Fizzy, having nothing useful to gain from talking to ‘old friends,’ pressed the button to activate her chair’s ascension mode.’”

Barley and Caramel watched as, on cue, Fizzy’s hoof reached down and pressed a button neither had seen before, and the chair began hiss with steam.

“‘Fizzy turned to look back at her friends, one, last, time.’” She turned about, then, fixing them with a sneer. ‘“She wouldn’t hurt them, though. Oh no. Unlike some ponies she knew when to be gracious. Plus…’” The ceiling above Fizzy opened wide, revealing a towering dark hollow, “‘she had a con to run.’” She gave her two friends one last look, and then, with dripping fake acidic cheer, said: “Enjoy the show, guys!”

And with that her chair began lifting into the space above, and Fizzy watched with contempt as Barley and Caramel shouted after her.

She managed to keep herself from crying until the gate sealed shut beneath her, blocking them from her sight.