Tempest Rime

Malediction smiled slyly at smugly. She'd noticed the little flare-up, and was actually rather proud of inspiring it. "I guess the Great and Powerful Trixie's got some FIRE in her after all... Alright, we can save 'em, so long as I don't have to deal with 'em directly. I'm not great at giving false reassurances." The little hissy fit she'd thrown hadn't been just for fun. Mal had intentionally stoked up her anger in order to recharge her magical batteries. She needed all the energy she could get to face down these things, and she was certain another confrontation would be unavoidable. "I'm itching for a rematch with those things anyway." She stomped a hoof and conjured up a few wisps of green flame, letting them orbit around her head in a malefic halo, preparing them to lash out against her foes. "Oh, and kid," she snapped, turning back towards the survivors. "Don't be such a martyr. If there's one thing I hate it's a whiny little martyr. If you're gonna get out of this, you're gonna have to WANT to live, 'cause if you don't you're as good as dead already. You don't want your family to get all sad and stuff because you DIED, do ya? Besides, if you don't act a little tougher, nasty ponies like me will walk all over you. Now all of you, pull yourselves together and get ready to make a break for it." She glanced at Lyra, grinning maliciously. "How about you, precious? You gonna risk it all for fire and glory with us, or help the Great and Powerful Bleeding-Heart over there with the dead weight." Her grin vanished, and her voice softened for a moment. "She could probably use your help with the kid." With that, she steeled herself for a fight, ready to leap into action at the Doctor's signal.

Lola let only the slightest bit on confusion show in her eyes when the unicorn began typing out her reply, but she was far from slow on the uptake. Upon reading the note, she immediately realized the unicorn must have some medical condition, and her confusion vanished. She did, however, note Rivet's nervousness, and assumed it was because she was a griffin. She'd gotten a lot of that since her trip into Equestria. She flashed her most disarming smile at the unicorn and addressed her. "There's no need to be nervous, Miss Rivet. I assure you, while there may be some griffins out there who lack common civility, I am part of a noble and forward-thinking clan." She turned back to Snowfall. "Excellent, that greatly simplifies matters. Ah, but there's no need to rush into talk of business now. This is a party, after all, and it would be rude of me to monopolize your time right now. Suffice to say, we are interested in opening a laboratory here, and possibly importing some of your machinery. Specifics can wait." She turned her piercing gaze back to the unicorn. "And how about you, Miss Rivet, what do you do?" Lola was unaware how easy Snowfall had made getting in to the banquet, and assumed that Rivet was someone of local importance that she hadn't heard of. She was eager to remedy her ignorance, as she knew very well that in business, knowledge is power.

"Of course! Nopony else is gonna look out for me, why should I look out for them. Only difference is I don't pretend otherwise. I don't make friends with ponies and then stab 'em in the back. If I'm gonna stab you, it'll be in the face, and I'll give you the opportunity to run away first. That's more than any self-proclaimed 'friend' would do for you." Mal sounded somewhat proud. She actually seemed to relax a little bit, in spite of Zephyr's continued advances. "Besides, I'm not greedy like most folks. I couldn't care less about money or material possessions. That trash just weighs you down in the long run. Ponies like that are just enslaving themselves by chaining themselves into the system. The only thing that really matters in the long run is..." She trailed off, giving the pegasus a skeptical look. "Well, it doesn't matter. Either way you're still screwed over by those who latch onto the power of their betters. I don't know how the Princesses can stand for it." She didn't take her eyes off Zephyr, but for the moment he still seemed to care more about persuading her than in actually fighting. Besides, if he did try anything he'd only be proving her right. She shook her head, dismissed the thought, and glanced at the floor. "You..." she started softly, the anger in her voice dissipating. "You can take the bed if you want. I don't, um. I don't really need it."

Lola Silverbeak sat attentively at a table as the CEO spoke. Her ventures in Canterlot had been mildly successful, but the pony's speech filled Lola with hope. In the blink of an eye, this company had arisen to become a major player in Stalliongrad. The opportunities that would come from an alliance with their company were vast. And Lola's own company had plenty to offer them in order to secure that alliance. After the speech she politely ate what pony food she could stomach. Nuts and fruit were all very well, but hay was not part of a griffin's dietary needs. Still, it was better to be seen eating, as many ponies seemed to get a little off-put in the presence of a hungry griffin, even if Lola personally would never dream of committing such barbarities as eating the flesh of a sentient being. Stalliongrad actually had a griffin population, and Lola had spotted a few places that advertised griffin cuisine, but even so, eating meat in front of ponies was quite the social faux pas. When she was sure she'd eaten enough that she wasn't going to accidentally put on any predatory airs, she got up and glanced around for the CEO, preening her already immaculate feathers and smoothing the bejeweled winter cloak she had purchased in Canterlot. She was told they were the latest fashion since some pony pop-singer had worn something similar on her latest tour. Being fashionable was only a means to a good impression for Lola, but the cloak's primary purpose had been to keep her warm on the trip to this inhospitable land, and it had served that purpose well enough. Finally she spotted the CEO, speaking to a unicorn. The griffiness swept in gracefully, brushing past another group of griffins she recognized from Talonopolis. She gave the slightest nod in passing before heading straight for the CEO, gripping her ever-present parasol daintily in her claws. "Madame Snowfall, I presume. Pardon me for interrupting, but I have been very much hoping to meet you." Lola bowed respectfully without conveying the slightest bit of submissiveness through the gesture. "I have heard very good things about your business." Lola had done her research. "I am Lola Silverbeak, and it is a very great pleasure to make your acquaintance." In a careful ploy to see just how much snowfall knew of her family's business, Lola did not elaborate on it yet. Lola turned and graciously greeted the unicorn with the typewriter, assuming she was a journalist of some kind. "And it is a pleasure to meet you as well, though I must admit that I have no familiarity with you, miss..." She trailed off, expecting the unicorn to introduce herself.

Mal snarled angrily. "NO! You... you... conniving, insulting jerk! You're underestimating me! I may not be heavy, but I'm quick and I'm tough, and I'll do whatever it takes to defend myself!" She scooted back into the corner as she spoke, betraying her exaggerated bravado with her fear-driven body language. "Whatever it takes!" She barely managed to keep her voice to a furious hiss. "You're nothing but a stupid foal. Anypony will help you if doing so helps themselves. That doesn't mean squat. They'll backstab you just as quick if it'll benefit them more. Everypony claims they want to be your friend, but they're all vipers, waiting to strike when you turn your back." She snorted irritably and fell silent. If only she could use magic in here. At least then she'd have a way to vent some of her emotional energy into physical form. Without that release, she had no idea what to do about her burgeoning rage. This stupid pegasus was driving her crazy. At first he'd seemed like somepony who might understand the way the world worked, but now he was going on trying to convince her to believe in the inherent goodness in other ponies and telling her he was motivated by nothing more than kindness? At least coming from some soft, upper-class snob that sort of naïveté was to be expected, but coming from somepony worldly... it just made Mal feel sick.

For just a moment, Mal felt very sad. She wasn't quite sure why, but she knew hated feeling this way. It was weakness. Pathetic. She just barely managed to blink back tears before her expression hardened again, angry now that he had provoked such an emotion in her. "L-like you even care," she snarled. She sat up and glowered at him. "Well you got what was coming to you. Looking out for other ponies doesn't lead to anything but trouble. Maybe next time you'll think about that before you jump to help somepony. Even in the best case it's just a waste of time. And I'm not going to pay you back for your trouble. In any way. You got that? I didn't ask for any favors. I want to be very clear about that." She harrumphed and scooted away from him. "And if you DARE try anything funny, I'll show you something a unicorn horn can be used for that isn't magical." She waved her head around threateningly. "One little headache isn't enough to keep me down. I could bear this as long as I needed to, so don't go thinking I'm easy prey." She gave Zephyr an accusing glare.

Pinkie's expression instantly changed to a smug grin. "Great! OK, first thing's first, lets clean up all the dirty cookery." She pointed a hoof at a large-scale industrial sink. This was a bakery, after all, they were well-equipped to clean lots of dishes. "If you can gather 'em all up and toss em into the sink, I'll get 'em cleaned up in no time. After that we just need to get all the gunk wiped up. Ewww, there's even stuff on the ceiling, that's gonna be a trick to clean up. I'll get the inside of the ovens later, since I'm still using that last one to make the cookies." Without hesitation, Pinkie grabbed the first few dishes and started cleaning them out, a task which went remarkably fast considering the number of things that needed to be cleaned. "Cleaning up is always the least fun part of cooking, isn't it?" She looked thoughtful as she rambled on. "Hmmm... I wonder if there's some way to get the cleaning up out of the way before the fun parts. That would be great!"

Mal's gaze softened slightly, and she gave Zephyr a more thoughtful appraisal. He talked like he knew about living on the streets. And his dislike for the lawponies was a good indicator of that as well. "Yeah... well... at least on the street you can still do something about your problems. In here there's nothing to do but wait." She sighed and gave him a quizzical stare. "You really got the worst of it, you know. A week in here... and you're a delivery pony. If I disappear for a week, the worst that happens is I miss a few customers. You're not even self-employed. Seriously, what were you thinking when you jumped in to protect me like that? It's not like she was gonna kill me, the worst that would have happened is some bruises, maybe a broken bone. I mean, look at me. I earned each and every one of these scars. I'm not afraid of one little pegasus." Her eye wandered to his wings. "Uh, no offense." Mal walked over to the bed and tossed herself into it, staking her claim. She gave a mirthless, sardonic laugh. "Hah. This bed's nicer than the one I got at home. How's that for an ironic punishment. I bet the food's nicer than the slop I make, too. When I can be bothered to make anything at all. And this is what our taxes go towards. Locking ponies up in nice cells like these, and employing those douchbag guards. I swear, if I could develop my magic without living here I'd ditch this city in a heartbeat." She shut her eyes for a few moments, almost appearing to have gone to sleep until they shot open again. "Do you really not feel anything from these wards? I mean, I get that you pegasus folk don't interact with magical energies the same way we unicorns do, but you've still got magic in you. Everything does. For example, you wouldn't be able to walk on a cloud in here, if there was one. Doesn't that make you feel any different at all?"

"Those instructions," hissed Mal irritably as she snapped back to reality, "are because I stay open late and thus don't get up until the afternoon most days. Which incidentally, is also why I was out tonight. When somepony locks themselves out of their house at night, they don't like to wait until morning to get back in. And as for the guard, it's not like I picked that fight. You saw how they ignored me when I told them what I was doing out there. They had it in for me from the start. The least I could do is get back at them for it." Mal spat through the bars, wanting to express her disgust but not wanting to make the cell filthy, just in case it was cleaned manually. "Besides, those stuck up pigs make me sick just knowing they're around. Their ilk only exist to restrict our freedom so that tyrant Celestia can keep control. Not that I've actually got anything against the Princess herself, to be fair. She's actually worthy of respect, it's the lawpony filth that mooches off her authority that I despise." Mal sniffed and rubbed her head. "Ugh, these wards are so stupidly strong, who do they think they'll be keeping in here, Nightmare Moon? It's already giving me a headache just sitting here. This is gonna be the worst night ever!"

"Okie dokie loki," said Pinkie happily. She opened a cabinet and pulled out a pair of glasses, filling them with water and dropping a straw into each. She balanced one on each hoof and handed one to Dark Core, taking a long sip from the other. "Ahhh, refreshing!" She set down her glass suddenly and put her hooves on either side of Dark's head, holding it in place so she could get a better look at him. "Hmm... still blue. Wait, is that a little green?" She stared intensely at him for a few minutes, not blinking once. Finally she spoke again. "Nope, false alarm. You probably just looked a little green from all that salt. Eating a bunch of salt like that would be enough to turn anypony green. Either way, no progress on the blue." Pinkie looked around the kitchen. Her various experiments had made a mess of the place. There were dozens of dirty pots and pans, and strange, unnatural residues left around from some of the less successful ones. "Umm, I better get started cleaning all this up while we wait for the cookies. Would you kind giving me hand?" She turned back to him and gave him her best, pouty, pleading face.

Just because they don't have the gallows or the death penalty under Celestia's enlightened rule doesn't mean it never existed under Discord, or in other lands. And as it's a reference to gallows humor, I don't see any problem with it. Other forms of execution wouldn't really carry the same meaning.

"Hmmph mhp mh mhm!" Pinkie said emphatically. She frowned. Why did it always have to be stuff that kept her from talking? She gave an exasperated grunt and slumped down for a moment. She had to think. What was the opposite of jelly? It wasn't long 'til she had an epiphany. If rainbows were spicy, and jelly was sweet, the solution must be something salty! And what could be saltied than... SALT! She opened up a cabinet and pulled a box of table salt, pouring it directly into her mouth. The taste was rather unpleasant. A little salt now and then was great, but this was TOO MUCH salt. Still, her strange logic proved to actually work, though not quite for the reason she'd thought. The moisture in her saliva mixing with the jelly had been the catalyst for it hardening, and the salt counteracted it completely. Before long it had softened back into a wad of foul, salty gel, which she spat out in disgust. "Yeuch, blehhh." She made a face. "Tastes waaay worse coming out. Hmm, salt worked pretty well on that. I wonder if it'd help your thing too." She pushed the box toward him, helpfully.

Mal listened to the sounds of the night. The shouting had silenced the bugs, so she was able to catch bits of voices, at least three different sets. Dragons were solitary creatures, and she didn't know of many other monsters that could speak in equine tones save for griffins. A party of griffins, however, could be exceedingly dangerous, Mal had heard tales of them eating ponies, and she was in no mood to risk being taken unawares. "If you're friendly," she called out, her voice significantly less harsh this time, "come into my light where I can see you." She intensified a wisp of flame into a bonfire, sitting it atop the indestructible stone with the moon symbol. Mal herself ducked into the undergrowth, to ensure she would get a look at whomever came to investigate before they got a look at her. If they were griffins or monsters, Mal also had a secret weapon in the bonfire itself, which she could launch at an unwary opponent. She sat in the bush, watching for a moment before it occurred to her that the glow from her own horn might give her away as she maintained the flame spell. She quickly dug a piece of paper out of her saddlebag, wrapping it around her horn awkwardly. The result wasn't perfect, but it was still awfully hard to spot with the sickly green glow of her bonfire flickering over the scenery.

Mal glared at the little pegasus, suddenly conscious of all the other ponies who had shown up. "Fine," she snapped. "But you should learn..." she stepped forward and stomped on the little spider viciously. It darted away as fast as it could, but it was still partly caught under her hoof, mortally wounding it without killing it entirely. Mal grinned as it dragged itself away from her as best it could with its few remaining, functional legs. "...not to take your eye off an enemy" To emphasize her point, Mal was about to ram into the little pegasus, but in stomping on the spider, part of the wound on her shoulder had reopened. She winced and drew back, bleeding. "Horseapples," she swore. "Forgot about that. I don't supposed anyone's got any alcohol on 'em?" She needed to get this stupid injury cleaned and bandaged already. She glanced dismissively at the rainbow pegasus. "Just some monster out in the woods. I took care of him, though." The noise seemed to be attracting every pony in miles. Mal shook her head and looked over the group, her gaze lingering on the red unicorn that was staring at her. Mal was used to stares, but she stared back anyway in hopes that it would make the other unicorn feel uncomfortable. It seemed effective, as she broke eye contact quickly. "Not much of a story. Manticore took my eye. I took his heart. You know, the usual." When Cat mentioned the name of the rainbow pegasus, though, Mal lost interest in anypony else. "Rainbow Dash, huh?" Mal sneered. "I've heard of you. You're one of Celestia's goon squad who get hooked into that magical artifact every time one of her political prisoners gets out. I wonder, how does it feel, knowing that your greatest contribution to the world is to be Twilight Sparkle's 'friendship' battery?"

Mal wasn't about to give in on the issue. Admitting defeat was not something she ever did, even in the case of actually being defeated. That applied as much to verbal arguments as it did to a good scrap. "Well it's not like I could just TELL you with the guards already there, now could I? If it wasn't for your stupid package they wouldn't have gotten so suspicious. What were you doing, anyway, delivering it at this time of night?" Her voice was raised enough that the guard at the desk blew a whistle, sending a loud, sharp noise through the room. "PIPE DOWN," he shouted, before going back to whatever paperwork he'd been doing. Mal stopped shouting and hissed at him. "Now look what you made me do." She glared again and sat down. She began attempting to channel her magic, testing the wards. There was no visible effect, as the wards were far stronger than she, but she sat with a look of intense concentration on her face. The wards were incredibly well-made. Mal had actually been able to poke a few holes in the wards back in Trottingham with enough focus, but she might as well have been an earth pony in this place.

How rude. She'd gone and given a proper introduction, just like her mother had told her to do when she met new ponies, and they hadn't even acknowledged her. Truly she had not misjudged them, they were clearly scoundrels. But then again, perhaps her introduction had been too informal. She hadn't given any of the pleasantries her mother had always tried to drill into her, mostly because she could never remember them. She resolved to try again, if not for the crooks, at least for the sake of the new pony who had showed up. She cleared her throat. "Ahem, may'aps I was too informal. I am Beachnut, of the nut clan. Um... it's a fine... pleasure to be seeing you?" She bungled it. They would never accept her now. What a disgrace. She glanced between the ponies around her. They seemed not to have noticed her faux pas. She coughed and quickly changed the subject back to what they had just been talking about. "Wait, if those are your glasses, why does she 'ave them? I thought you were the thieves. Or, are they 'er glasses and your are trying to steal them?" Bea was getting very confused.

"Aww," Pinkie looked disappointed as she spat the needle back into the box. "Nopony ever lets me try this." She sighed. "Well, I dunno if we should try anymore tests. A lot of these are turning out a lot more dangerous than I had expected. Besides, I found one good recipe at least. Oh, but before I forget, there is one last important recipe I was gonna try. Don't worry, I'll test it out this time. I dunno what another dose of weirdness might do to you with that one still affecting you." She opened a cabinet and pulled out a variety of jellies, which she busied herself with. She mixed a small about into the jellies and shaped them into rectangular shapes, before opening another pot that had been simmering on the stove. She carefully coated them in chocolate, and set them out to cool. "That wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be. They had these little chocolate jelly things last time I was in Canterlot, so I thought why not try making them myself. I just hope I got the chocolate right. And that they don't explode or anything." She gave Dark Core a sly grin. "These don't need to taste all that great, though. They're for a prank." She winked and popped one into her mouth all at once. As she attempted to chew it, it seemed to get harder to chew, and before long, her mouth was thoroughly gummed up by the weird, course-textured jelly material. "Mmph! Mmhp imm mmphckmk." She nodded happily. Now she just needed to find out how to get it out...

Malediction didn't struggle too much as she and that delivery pony she'd been arrested with were led into the holding cells. They'd already been booked, and Mal had been thoroughly relived when there was no mention made of her psychological profile. She'd gotten off the hook, or perhaps the ******* that had arrested her had simply been bluffing. Either way, they were only being charged with misdemeanors, so a short stay in the jail was about it would amount to. It was the first time she'd been in here, she reflected. Though she'd gotten into trouble more than a few times back in Trottingham, and she'd spent a few nights in the jail there, she'd managed to stay out of trouble since moving to Canterlot. Until now. Still, her records had no major crimes on them, and there was precious little to go on to keep her here long. As she passed over the invisible line where the wards that prevented unicorn magic began, she stumbled momentarily. Most unicorns perceived these things slightly differently, and to Malediction it felt like in intense pressure in her chest. She gasped for breath for a few seconds, feeling as though she couldn't inhale, even though her breathing was not actually impaired. She focused on breathing manually, getting accustomed to the feeling as the guards shoved her and her witless companion into a cell. The cell itself was a sterile, well-kept area, a far cry from the rather dingy cells she'd been in before. She wondered briefly if there was some kind of enchantment built into the place to keep it this clean, or if the guards were forced to clean it. As the guards left, they were left alone, save for a single guard sitting at a desk up the hall. The cells around them were dark, and Mal didn't spot anypony in them, but that didn't guarantee solitude, especially at this time of night. She glared at Zephyr, speaking to him for the first time since their arrest. "Why'd they put you in the same cell as me? Doesn't seem to be a shortage of space. You know it's your fault we're in here, right? You and that scumbag unicorn totally messed up my game. I was just trying to get that stupid, self-righteous Pegasus angry enough to get herself into trouble."

50k words isn't all that hard to believe, there are some fics that go on for like dozens of chapters. If you put your mind to it, cranking out 5k words in a day isn't too bad, especially if it's for something you enjoy writing. All you'd need is 10 days like that, and you'd hit your goal. So yeah, you might want to put an upper limit on there, just in case.

Malediction was in a wicked good mood. She'd been on a trip to the Everfree, and gotten into an immensely satisfying fight with a giant centipede. She left the forest and veered around the city, deviating from her normal path in order to head for the river to wash up. She was still spattered in ichor from the foul creature, and there was a nasty gash on her shoulder, so she planned to wash up and dress her wound. She cut through a field of irritatingly tall grass, pushing through without heed to where she was going. Instead of a river or lake, however, there simply seemed to be a big, empty clearing. The natural beauty was lost on Mal, and she grimaced as she glanced around. Still, even this setback wasn't enough to kill her good mood, and the occasional blades of grass swishing into her shoulder only served to remind her of her victory, rather than actually cause significant pain. She grinned sadistically as she thought about it, and set off again, only to pause when she heard someone shout. Mal blinked. Was there a fight? Could she really be so lucky as to run into trouble twice in one day. She licked her lips and crouched down into the grass, stalking towards the voice. It didn't take long. There was a runty little pegasus who was glaring menacingly at... nothing? Mal did a double take, and only then did she spot the tiny little spider. It was too absurd. Mal burst out laughing, a mean-spirited, unpleasant sound. "Aaaahhahahahahahaa, oho wow, you sure know how to pick your battles, huh runt? You know, if you keep at it, maybe one day you'll be able to actually HURT a FLY! HAAAhahahaha!" She shoved through the grasses she'd been hiding behind, a truly horrific sight, as the slime that had spattered her had also turned her mane into a sticky mess. It was stuck back from where she usually let it fall, leaving her disfigured eye socket exposed as she grinned sadistically at the little pegasus.

These are small-time. Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjNw75bJyuM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wik2uc69WbU

"Oh it's not that bad. I mean, at least purple is a nice color, right?" She smiled at Dark Core innocently. "Besides it's good for a change, right? Well, we can just go over to Rarity's place, I'm sure she can fix up your coloring problem, she was able to fix it when that Trixie unicorn turned her hair green, so I'm sure she knows a way." She stepped to the door and opened it. Outside, the green cloud had amassed a small army of weather ponies, who were working to disperse it, and many of whom looked very angry. Pinkie slammed the door shut again. "Uh, but I, uh, I don't want to leave with the oven on. We can go when the cookies are done." Pinkie watched as the blue slowly started to win out against the dye in his coat. "Hmm, it's actually getting worse." She peered at him intently, thinking. "I have an idea." She dashed upstairs for a moment, leaving Dark alone in the kitchen for a few minutes. When she finally returned, she had a small box labeled 'Beginner's Acupuncture Kit' in her mouth, which she set on the counter. "Maybe if we poke some holes in you, the blue will drain out. Now, hold verrrry still." She opened the box and pulled out a frighteningly long, sharp needle.

Mal hesitated as the Doctor commented on her anger, a deeply weary look coming over her. She quickly turned away. "No. Anger is all I have, so just shut up about it already," she snapped. She fell silent for a little while, moving to the opposite side of the room from the others. She ignored them for a few moments, lost in thought for a moment. Then the Doctor mentioned that they were not alone, and she took a moment to compose herself before turning back to see what they had found. Mal stalked up behind the others as Trixie lit up the corner of the room. "Psh, always so melodramatic." She peered coldly at the survivors. "Guess we know why nopony went for help, at least. They didn't get out." Mal turned away from them with an unsympathetic air. She glanced at the Doctor. "What was it you said again? They draw power from the lay lines? Sounds to me like the lay lines themselves must be messed up somehow. That would explain both the usual behavior and the nasty aura. If we could figure out what's causing that and fix it, they may stop acting so aggressively." Hmm, maintenance constructs..." She frowned, thinking for a moment. "If that's the case, and they're still functioning at least somewhat properly, we might be able to distract them by damaging the buildings they're supposed to maintain. Smash one up good enough and it ought to keep most of them busy fixing it up. But if they've gone this far, it could backfire and they might go berserk, too. Either way, it wouldn't give us enough time to get him out of here," she glanced at the injured foal, "but we might be able to distract enough of them that we could move around a bit. Maybe even find the root of the problem." Mal turned back to the survivors and stomped towards them, prompting the mother to step back in front of her children and whimper in protective fear. "What happened to wake up those things? Why did they attack your town?" She barked the questions sharply, causing the mother to burst into tears. "Nothing!" She shrieked, terrified of the scarred and threatening unicorn. "There was nothing! I swear! Please," she sobbed, "my son-" "I could care less about him, we're all stuck here you stupid nag, I just want to know WHAT HAPPENED HERE so I can FIX IT and GET OUT!" She raged pitilessly at the traumatized survivors.

"Hmm..." Pinkie scooted up to Dark Core and looked him straight in the eyes with a sudden intensity. "Looks like you are looking through a blue-tinted window. Your eyes turned blue. And I don't just mean the way my eyes are blue, your eyes went totally blue all over, look." She grabbed a mirror, seemingly out of nowhere, and held it in front of him, heedless of the fact that him already seeing everything as blue would make the change impossible to distinguish. "I wonder..." She said thoughtfully as she set down the mirror. Without warning, she lept over to him and yanked on his mane. "Oops, sorry, that was harder than I meant to pull, I just wanna see if the color is getting into your hair." She peered intently for a moment. "Hmm, it's in your skin a little, but it doesn't seem to be in your coat at least. Maybe just because your fur is so dark. There's a hint of it in your mane, though, it's looking a bit more purple than red. Don't worry, though, it's probably not permanent." Pinkie turned back to the rest of the blueberries, frowned for a moment, and pushed them off to the side. She liked being pink. When she turned back, she blinked. "Er... are you a bit more round than you were earlier, too?"

"Uh... th-thanks?" Mal was unsure how to react to Saw's charity, and she began to fidget nervously. "Now go on, get out of here before you make me anything else. I mean... it's not like I don't appreciate it, but you're trying to start up a business. Don't go undermining yourself by giving so much away for free. Guh, wait, at least let me give you a few bits for the sign." She opened her cash box and dug out what she'd made for the day, not really caring much about how much she was overpaying him. "You oughta be able to buy some decent tools with that, and get your business started." "Ok, now you can go. Come back if you ever need anymore keys made, or whatever." Mal shuffled back to her seat sullenly, mumbling cantankerously under her breath. With any luck, this pony would just leave without trying to be friends with her or something annoying like that. This was purely a business relationship, friendship had no place in it.