Chapter 4, Smile

*By gods... what have I done? What disgusting excuse for a paradise have I created? I have stripped away the very soul of my ponies.. I... I tried to play gods... I tried to control the very free will of those I fought to protect... I... I'm a monster... what have I done?* Forgotten excerpt from Celestia Sunbeam the First, locked away in the Forbidden Archives.

After Pinkie's cuffs were unlocked, she immediately headed home; there she met a group of Royal Guards and SWAT, the leader walked up to Pinkie, "apologies mam, this is a routine inspection."

Pinkie nodded, "of course, I have nothing to hide."

Once inside, Pinkie sprinted up the stairs of the apartment complex with all due haste unitl she reached her floor. Once she did, she paused in her running and regained her composure, straightening out her mane and relaxing her breath.

With that, she entered into the sub-hallway to see a contingent of SWAT sitting by her door.

"Search teams are already inside mam." one of the SWAT said.

"Excellent." Pinkie responded. Inside her apartment she saw a dozen Magi searching through the building for any contraband that might suggest sense offense.

Pinkie calmly passed the group and walked into her bathroom shutting the door behind her; she headed up to the mirror and ripped it out... only to see that the little shelf among the piping no longer had her missed doses.

The bathroom door slowly opened and closed.

"Looking for something?"

Pinkie turned around to see her son.

"I'd be more careful in the future, if I were you." Pound said calmly.

"... how long?"

"Since mom..."

"And Pumpkin?"

"Of course."

Pinkie smiled, "how did you know?"

"You forget, it's my job to know what you're thinking." Poun dsmiled back.

"Then you know what I'm going to do."

XXXXX

Pinkie sat at a table with the leaders of the rebellion holding a phone, "It's done, I've located the resistance. Come now, you'll have them all."

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Pinkie watched as Applejack and the others were loaded up into a van.

-Knight moves in towards King and Queen. Ally Queen is sacrificed to move closer to King.-

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Pinkie was being lead up to an elevator in a white Paladin suit bearing a medal of Arch-Hierophant-Paladin-Grand-Knight; with a beautiful enchanted katana at her side.

"Do not adress Celestia unless first adressed to; avoid eye contact, should you break her personal security zone; you will be immediately put down by snipers, is that clear?" the guide didn't wait for Pinkie to respond as they walked down the hallway of the highest level of the Royal Palace, "you'll be required to surrender your firearm of course, and then there's the test."

Pinkie stopped for a moment and blinked, "test?"

the guide turned back to her, "of course, you don't think we'd expose Celestia even to such a dedicated soldier as yourself without first bein tested for emotion did you?"

Pinkie's hand holding the scabbard of her Katana clenched it tightly as she calmly nodded.

Pinkie proceeded through a series of automated doors and lead into a testing room. A Royal Guard held out his hand, "your weapon please." Pinkie handed over the Katana before sitting down in a metal chair in the center of the room.

A Wizard hooked up a series of sensors to Pinkie's head and switched the machine on, "let's start with a test question, more of a riddle actually; what would you say is the easiest way to get a weapon away from a Solar Paladin?"

The Royal Guards around the room aimed their riffles straight at Pinkie.

The mare blinked as the sensors started to twitch a bit. "You ask her for it." Pinkie heard a familiar voice say, she turned to see Twilight standing there smiling.

The emotion sensor began to spike with activity.

Twilight stood in front of Pinkie, "I told you I'd make my career with you Paladin."

Pinkie's mane and tail began to puff out slightly in parts here and there.

Twilight laughed a bit before leaving the room.

"Pinkamena." Pinkie's head snapped up to the screen showing Celestia.

*Twilight's job was simple, to make you feel like you'd won. To make you feel safe.*

Pinkie's mouth quivered in shock, more tuffets of her mane poofed out.

*For years I'd tried to infiltrate an agent into the Underground; and then it hit me. In order to pass, undedected, in order to be trusted by them; my sobateur would need to think like them; would have to feel like them. But where to find such a pony? With the capacity to feel and yet... didn't know it.*

Pinkie's breath picked up while the emotion sensor went out of control, Pinkie's mane began puffong out all over until her entire mane and tail were like a cloud of cotton cany; "but... but... we've never met."

*no?* Celestia's image shimmered and faded away revealing Luna, "don't be so suprised Pinkamena, why should Celestia be any more real than any other political puppet? The real Celestia took her own life centuries ago. She couldn't... handle the new world she created. Believed that she'd made a mistake in creating the HARMONY syrum. She shut down the factories; and swallowed a poisoned tonic as 'punishement' for her crimes. In other words, she was weak. She couldn't fully grasp the glory of the new world she had forged. And so, as the dutiful little sister, I picked up where she so foolishly left off."

-And so Knight makes a move for check, but is blocked by Queen.-

Pinkie's shook around in bafflement as her entire world was flipped upside down.

"And you, Pinkamena, the suposed savior of the resistance; are now its destroyer. And along with them, you've given me yourself."

Pinkie's breathing turned into hyperventalation as she stared at the ground.

"Come now... cooly... entirely without incident"

-Queen takes Knight; ally King is unprotected, Queen was aready sacrificed; a group of pawns and bishops surrouend ally King, checkmate; gameover. You lose.-

The emotion sensores spiked entirely out of control as Pinkie shook her head.

And then, in that moment, Pinkie Pie made a decision. A decision, to be free. To decide her own fate; even if it was death.

"No..."

The emotion sensore suddenly went entirely blank; Pinkie's mane and tail fell to dark curtains.

Pinkie... Pinkamena Diane Pie looked up at the screen, and in a completely monotonous voice she said, "No. Not without incident."

-The chessboard is knocked into the air, player pulls out a gun and shoots adversary in the face.-

"Oh..." the Wizard said as he stared at the emotion sensor, "shit."

Pinkie Pie whipped her hands out sliding her gunds into place and stood up spinning around as she fired.

Enemies calculated, taking into account Royal Guard training, computing... plugging in geometric positioning of surrounding hostiles, computing... Logorithim for distance vs. bullet trajectory and return fire, computing... compensate for enchanted bullets in return fire, adjusting...

Assessment complete, Total killchance = 73% Survival rate: 59% Chance of injury = 92%

Pinkie fired to her sides killing two Royal Guards; the immediately returned fire at Pinkie who ducked under the fire, but was still clipped across her torso by the homing bullets, and switched the positions of her guns killing two more Roayl Guards before spinning around in a tornador of gunfire that finished off the remaining guards busting stright through their shields.

Pinkie then looked towards the screen with Luna on it, "I'm coming." she said before shooting the glass and proceeding towards the throne room.

Pinkie kicked open the door to the audience hall which contained twenty Royal Guards, her mane and tail now puffing out in a cotton candy fashion while her eyes burned with impossibly bright blue light of vibrance and spirit. She chucked two special cartridges of gun clips into the center of the room before begining her gun cotta while the twenty Royal Guards readied their assult rifles.

Pinkie's head bounced slightly, she charged forwards while singing, "my name is Pinkie Pie, and I am here to say, I'm gonna make you smile; and I will brighten up your daaay." Pinkie shot out the first two guards while back flipping over the gunfire of the next few enemies.

"I love to see you grin, I love to see you beam; to see the corners of your mouth turn up is always Pinkie's dream."

Pinkie rushed in towards teh centure of the room spinning in circles letting out a flurry of bullets all the way sailing through the hearts and skulls of Royal Guards as she made her way through the audience hall.

"It's true some days are dark and loonely... and maybe you feel sad, but Pinkie will be there to show you that it isn't that bad; there is one thing that makes me happy, and makes my whole world worth while; and that's when I talk to my friends and get them to smiiiiile."

More bullets sailed out as time seemed to slow down; Royal Guards flew through the air from the force of the enchanted bullets tearing through their flesh.

"Cause I love to see you beam, beam, beeaaam, tell me what more can I say to make you see, that I do? It makes me happy when I see you beam, beam, beeaaaam."

When the bullets ran out, she slammed her guns down on the two special cartridges on the floor automatically reloading before stwitching the guns to full auto and assulting the remaining guards with a tital wave of death as Pinkie took a few shots here an their to her liver, thigh, and forearm.

"Come on everypony, smile, smile, smile, fill my heart up with sunshine sunshine."

She saw two coming in behind her and backflipped shooting as she was upside down killing the two guards before dropping the gunsa and rushing towards one of the dead warriors;

"Yes the perfect gift for meeee, is a smile as wide as a mile; To make me happy as can beeee! Smile, Smiiiile, Smiiiiile, Smiiiile! Come on and smiiiiile!"

kicking his rifle up to her hands and blowing the last two Royal Guard's brains out.

The guards fell to the ground dead and Pinkie kicked open the doors to the throne room.

Inside she found Luna sitting on her throne in front of a desk with a set of two Katanas on it. Beside her was Twilight.

PInkie throew the gun away and approached the tyrant. Six Paladin-Knight-Commanders stepped out from behind the columns holding Katanas of their woan; they closed in around Pinkie.

"Tell me Pinkamena." Luna said as she folded her hands, "how do you feel?"

Pinkie sted attPaladin in front of her and smiled. She whipped her hand back grabbing the handle of the Katana on the Paladin behind her and ripping it out to slice the Paladin in front of her's throat; then whipping around in a tornado of steal slashing open more of the Paladins until only three were left; she slashed the first one's stomach open and pulled otu his scabbard before blcoking the attacks of the other two; then she swung the scabbard around, it was cut by the second Paladin creating a sharp point.

Pinkie stabbed her Katana into one Paladin, and the now improve-wooden stake into the other; both fell to the ground groaning, and died.

Pinkie stood up in front of Luna and Twilight.

Luna rose her eyebrow at Twilight who sighed and pulled out a Katana from the table's scabbards, "mind the uniform Pinkamena," she said as she whipped the sword around, "I plan to be wearing it for a long time."

She dashed at Pinkie whoducked under it, yanked a Katana out of one of the dead Paladin's chests and spun around slicing opn Twilight's lower back, then spinning around with a downward strike that cut her chest open as she turned; and then whipped the blade up through Twilight's face.

The entire process took only two seconds.

Twilight fell to her kneese... and her face slwoly slip off her head.

Luna chuckled... she stood up, "tread carefully Pinkamena..." she grabbed a Paladin pistol from the table, "you're treading on my dreams."

Pinkie lunged forward and snatched up Twilight's pistol from the ground; both mare's guns met and were deflected by one another.

What followed was what might have looked to be an elegant but deadly ballet. Each mare trying to shot the other only to have their gun hand parried away just in time to miss the shot; then retaliating with their own fire only for the same thing to happen to them.

For minutes this lethal dance took place with the two most skilled Paladins twirling around each other; parrying, dodging, countering, but never landing a shot.

On and on it went a parryin, a redirection, a shot missed, again and again; bullet holes littered the Throne Room but neither mare was injured; the just kept... dancing around one another parried the incomping shots and attacks.

But at last Pinkie got her opportunity and caught Luna's hand, twisting, and breaking her wrist knocking the gun from her grasp.

"WAIT!" Luna shouted as Pinkie aimed the gun at her.

"let me... let ma..." Luna panted, "I'm life. I live, I breath... I feel. I'm a feeling pony just like you. Now that you know it... can you really take it?... is it really worth the price?..."

Pinkie hesitated for a second; and then the image of Soarin burning in the furnace flashed through her mind, "I pay it gladly."

BANG!

Luna stumbled bakcwards a bit with disbelief written on her face; a bullet hole striaght through her heart.

And finally, she fell to the ground... dead.

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Pinkie entered into the control center; blood staining her outfit from her wounds; the technitions ran in fear. Pinkie looked around at the TVs and computers sening out Celestia's teachings throughout the control center.

She put her hand on the screen showing the face of the mare she'd seen as an ultimate mother throughout her entire life... a lie... a puppet for tyranny... she shot out the TV screen and marched down the control center obliterating the computers short circuiting the broadcasthroughout Canterlot. All over, ponies saw the giant TV screens around the city suddenly fizzle out; the speakers went silent.

And finally, Pinkie looked out the window towards the city.

Firery clouds filled the sky as the HARMONY facotries were bombed.

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Pound looked up from his desk in the monastary as he heard the bombs go off; and he smiled.

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Pumpkin played with the puppy in her room, it licked her hand and she smiled.

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Applejack and the other rebel leaders were down in the furnace; suddenly they heard explosions go off; rebels came pouring into the furnace and killed the SWAT members; Applejack lead the rebellion out and ito the city, and she smiled.

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Pinkie looked down at the city of Canterlot, the bombs lighting up the sky; rebels flooding into the city and killing the guards, completely overthrowing the government; an abosoloute rebellion. the fire of the bombs reflected in her eyes, and she smiled.

The End.