The farmboy collapsed instantly, his body twitching furiously. 

Pinkie stared down at the boy, utterly blankly. 

The farmboy's stomach continued to rise and fall rhythmically, though slowly. 

Pinkie reached down and put two fingers on the left side of his throat.

. . .

A pulse. Faint, but a pulse nonetheless. 

She had already assumed that this was the case. That last cast wasn't nearly as strong as it needed to be.

She stepped back. 

She reached out her left hand, stuck out her thumb and pointer finger, pointed directly at his head. 

She held it there for some time.

"The boss would probably want me to..." She mumbled to herself.

She closed her eyes and sighed deeply.

. . .

She chuckled to herself. 

"Y'know, boy," She began, opening just her left eye, "I've stolen from married men less devoted than you are." She grinned as she joked to the convulsing, not quite but almost lifeless corpse of the farmboy. "Women too, obviously. 'Cus, y'know, adultery isn't exclusive... Uh, point is, you're quite... Oh, whatever. Just, good job, guy." 

She put her arm at rest. Dampened shock or not, with his damage, he'd be out for a while. Might just go and die on his own at this point, but that wasn't her business anymore. He wouldn't be a problem. She quickly dragged his body into the convenient bush, and retrieved her bell as she did, as well. 

'From the sound of things, they're packing up over there. Probably won't be needing this anymore.' She thought to herself. 'Plus, that weirdo in the coat'll show up soon, he'll probably distract 'em if things go awry.'

With that in mind, she quietly walked up to the freshly picked back door. Regardless of how much she respected the farmboy, she had no intention of backing out of her plans.

'At any rate, based off what that guy said, this 'Charolette' chick is probably inside right now. I should be prepared for a confrontation.' She thought to herself as she quietly slid in through the door. 

She found herself in what seemed to be the space under a staircase. Seemed like kind of a strange place for a backdoor to lead. After briefly scanning the space for valuables, she quietly inched over to what appeared to be the door to the house proper, and pushed it open ever so gently... 

And was immediately greeted by a young girl with slightly messy ginger hair, inspecting the farmboy's pitchfork which was currently sticking into her wall. Oh, and she also smelled vaguely of citrus. 

Much to Pinkie's surprise, instead of screaming or something like that when she saw the intruder, the girl simply smiled gleefully and excitedly. 

"Ah! Finally! Took you long enough!" She said. 

Pinkie didn't know how to react to this. 

"Uh... y-you're Charolette, right?" She said after a moment of silence.

"Ah, you've heard of me?" Charolette said. In truth, while she hadn't heard of her before today, she did find her oddly familiar, though she couldn't quite place it. 

'Maybe I saw her at some rich guy's party?' She thought to herself. 'They all kinda blend together...'

"Anyways!" Charolette continued, "Lemme guess, you're here to rob me? Or hurt or grab me, right?" 

"Uh... N-noooo..." Pinkie lied without even a shred of confidence. 

"Then why are you here?"

"Uh... Y-you, uh baby." She said, doing finger guns, her face burning pink.

. . .

"Nevermind, just... Yeah, stealing stuff." 

"Figured!" Charlotte said. "With that in mind," She produced a small ball of white out of her sleeve and launched it at the intruder.

Pinkie, not about to be caught off-guard, was narrowly able to duck out of the way the first ball, and even the second and third ones, too, though the fourth beaned her right in the nose, and bursted on impact, covering her face with a white, powdery substance. She chuckled at this, as it was kinda almost perverted.

"Ah!~ What is this stuff? Flour?" She said, quickly rubbing the stuff off her eyelids.

"I'm gonna run upstairs now! You better come catch me, or I'm gonna scream reeeeeeal loud!" Charolette said as she quickly ran towards the stairs, just as advertised. 

In truth, Pinkie could have just casted her noise dampening spell again, and that wouldn't really be much of a problem. But, if she were to escape, it could jeopardize the entire mission, maybe. She wasn't sure, as she still didn't know what her mission was, exactly. Still, better safe than sorry. 

'Guess I gotta deal with her, then...' Pinkie thought to herself, electricity jolting around her right hand as she swiftly yet carefully gave chase to the strange girl. 

The girl was already at the top of the stairs, grinning ear to ear as she gripped the rug that was placed there, seemingly as a tripping hazard.

'Seriously? That's her plan?' Pinkie though to herself as she ran towards the stairs. However, just before she ran up, she stopped dead in her tracks.

There was a thing of fishing line strung up to the railing. A makeshift tripwire. It seemed that the rug was a distraction.

"Huh. Clever." Pinkie said aloud. "Unfortunately," She stepped twice, and leapt up the stairs, grabbing hold of the rail at the apex of her jump, before once again launching off of that too, and off the wall, and landing gracefully atop the stairs, right next to the girl...

Who was holding a very large sack of flour, that was stored just out of view earlier. 

With a grin and a quick flourish, Pinkie was now caked completely completely white, from her hands to her arms, even down to her legs and feet. 

"Well. Guess I gotta wash the suit after this." Pinkie said as she wiped the powder off her face once again. "As well as... Everything else."

As she opened her eyes once more, she could see Charolette clumsily sprinting towards an open room, narrowly avoiding tripping. "Awgh, gah!" Though, she did twist her ankle a bit.

Pinkie just looked on in disbelief. 

'I can't believe this chick of all people is 2 steps ahead of me.' She thought to herself. 'At least, I think she is. What the flying hell is she trying to accomplish, anyways? What, she gonna try to shove me into a comically large oven, or something?'

The girl entered the room, and, as Pinkie was giving chase, a great crashing could be heard from deep within. 

'Again?' 

A moment before Pinkie burst into the room, the door somehow slammed shut in front of her. 

Figuring this was another trap, instead of stepping through, Pinkie opted to kick the door open, and stood aside, not yet entering the room. Which ended up being a good idea, as a large bucket full of orange somethings fell to the floor with a great thud, missing her completely.

Unfortunately, that was only the first bucket. Once the door was opened, Pinkie was greeted by another, larger bucket being swung towards her on a rope, and, in an instant, she was covered in... Orange peels? And some sticky orange crap? 

"Ok, guess this suit's just goin' in the trash." Pinkie stated calmly.  "Aww, hair's all fucked now, too... Ah well. Guess I'll take this opportunity to dye it again."

"Y'know, you're surprisingly calm about all this! In my head, you were supposed to be angrier!" 

"Eh. I've been through worse." 

"That's a shame. It'd be a lot more entertaining if you were screaming right now."

"H-how 'bout instead, I make you scream? O-or something..."

Charolette simply gave an unamused look. 

Pinkie just shrugged. No sense lingering on this for too long.

Moving on, she studied the room Charolette was in. 

The first thing she noticed was that the bedroom was a complete mess, in every sense of the word. Cobwebs everywhere, incredible amounts of dust, and a bunch of papers and stuff she didn't recognize that was seemingly hastily pressed up against the walls. Beyond that, the entire floor of the room was covered in... Little oddly shaped things of wood on wheels, laid atop a tarp?

At the end of the room, in the only spot that wasn't covered in wheeled blocks stood Charolette, holding a curved piece of wood with a string on it, with another stick with a pointed metal tip placed on stringy bit, which was drawn back. 

"The hell..." She whispered as she took everything in.

"I'd be careful if I were you!" Said Charolette. "One wrong move, and this thing's gonna go flying and land somewhere on your body! And it'll hurt, probably!" 

Pinkie considered just making a mad dash for her, attacking before she could react, but the little wheeled blocks might take too long to step through. She wasn't exactly sure what the thing Charolette was holding was, but she wanted to be careful.

Thus, she stood still, and paused for a moment. 

She took a good look at Charolette, prying for any sign of weakness. After a moment, she found one. 

With that knowledge she raised both of her hands in mock surrender. 

"Eh? Wait, seriously?" Charolette said in surprise.

"Well, not like I've got many other options." 

"Oh. Yeah, that's true... I, uh, didn't plan for you actually... Huh." She relaxed her arm, and lowered her weapon. "Man, you're a real party poo-"

"AH! Gotcha!" Pinkie said, raising her left hand and sticking out her thumb and pointer finger. Pinkie noticed that Charolettes arms appeared to be shaking. It seemed that it took some effort to keep the string drawn, meaning time was on her side. Still, she was surprised her gambit worked to quickly.

"Eh-" Charolette let out. Her mouth hung agape, and her eye began to twitch. "I... Wow. Uh... Guess I shoulda seen that coming, to be honest."

"Yeah, probably. Anyways, this room's one hell of a fire hazard, and it looks like you're out of tricks and places to run." Pinkie explained. "So, uh... Tell me where the valuables are, or something." She said with little enthusiasm.

"Well... Of course, I could do that..." Charolette said before her mischievous grin returned on her face. "But I think there's one thing you're forgetting." 

"Ah. That's never good to hear."

"I'm sure it isn't. Anyways, you're covered in flour and orange peels. Both of which are incredibly flammable. So, not only would this room probably explode, but you'd also, well, you get the picture."

. . .

Pinkie looked over herself in disbelief.

"Huh." She said. "Guess... Guess I do." She, too, relaxed her arm.

She stood for a moment, in silence.

. . .

"What... What were you planning to do if I didn't happen to use fire magic?"

"Hope I hit my shot, I suppose. But, even if that failed, I had some other things lined up. And in the worst case, I'm sure Zramazos will appear at some point!"

. . .

"Zramazos, eh? Uhm... Does he happen to be a semi-muscular farmboy type?"

"Yeah, he is. Did ya see him on your way here?"

"... Something like that." 

. . .

"Anyways, how long have you been preparing this?" Pinkie asked. 

"Eh, a few days. I didn't even know you were coming, actually. You just got some pretty unlucky timing!"

"Huh. Yeah, I suppose I do." 

. . .

"Or, at least, I would." Pinkie said with a grin. "But it looks like there's one thing you're forgetting." 

"Ah! That isn't good to hear!"

"I'm not here to hurt you. I'm just here to steal stuff. And, from the looks of things, you're a lot more trapped than I am. I should have plenty of time to grab whatever the hell I want. Heck, even if you did get out, you probably wouldn't be able to do much that could stop me. "

"Eh-"

"And, beyond that, it's not like fire's my only means of attack." She thought about doing a demonstration with the electricity from her right hand, but she didn't want to risk that causing a spark. 

"Eh-"

"At any rate, trapping yourself in a corner was kinda dumb, wasn't it?"

. . .

Once again, Charolette's mouth hung agape, and her eye began to twitch. Though, this was different from last time, Pinkie noted. 'Guess she's being genuine, this time.'

"W-wait, I still have the-"

Pinkie picked up one of the wheeled wooden things, and simply started slinging them across the room. The first few weren't so accurate, but it was rather difficult to draw the string under the barrage. Eventually, Charolette was forced to drop the thing.

"See what I mean?" Pinkie said.

. . .

"Yeah... I guess." Charolette said. "I... I... I dunno, I made all this stuff... I guess I wanted to use all of it... Practicality got kinda lost in translation... Wow... Yeah. That was... A real Blunder. Huh." 

. . .

"S'posse you could just start screaming. Not much I can do about that." 

"Oh, yeah. Forgot I still had that option. Wait, why tell me that?" 

"To tell you the truth... I don't really know." Pinkie said, looking distant. "I guess I'm... Not really feelin' it." 

. . .

"You okay?" Charolette asked.

"I'm... Not sure. It's just... Something about this whole ordeal doesn't sit right with me. The boss, especially... He didn't say anything today..." After a moment of pause, a gentle, real smile began to creep its way onto her face, though the look in her eyes didn't change at all. "Yet, I wonder if I truly want to celebrate that. Somehow... It scares me." 

"I, uh... That sounds... Bad? I think? I dunno, kinda getting mixed messages here. Also, just putting it out there, this has become the weirdest home invasion I've ever taken part in."

"It's getting up there for me, too." Pinkie said. She shook her head, and her eyes seemed to refocus on the world. "At any rate, I'm thinkin' I'm gonna clear out."

"Just like that?" 

Pinkie took a deep breath. "Yeah."

. . .

"Where are you gonna go?" Charolette asked, with concern in her eyes.

"I want to say I'll finally be running away, but..." Something began to form in her eye. "I know I'll be crawling back before long." She chuckled, as a single tear rolled down her face. 

"Uhm... Y'know, if you need someone to talk to... I'm not the best with emotions and stuff, but..."

"Nah. I've already... I should get the hell outa here. Plus, I don't think it'd be right for me to be friendly with you after what I did to that boy." 

"Huh? W-what boy?"

"The farmboy. He was around outside your door when I came. We had a... Confrontation."

"Wha... The pitchfor- WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO HIM!?" She stared up at Pinkie with death in her eyes.

'Oh, that struck a nerve... Good for you, farmboy.'

"Relax, he's... Well, 'alright' might be a bit of a... He's alive, at any rate. Probably. He's in the bush outside. 'Course, now, you could take out your rage on me, and, hell, maybe I'd deserve it, or, alternatively, you could go make sure he's still breathing. Your choice."

Immediately, Charolette sprinted through her minefield of wooden thingies scattered about the floor, and just about shoved Pinkie to the floor.

She couldn't help but smile as she stood alone outside that room, as she heard the door outside slam open and shut.

"Good for you, farmboy." She said aloud this time.

'Guess I'll head for the bridge...' She thought to herself, once again reaching for that pale blue powder, and going transparent. 

'As far as my head can stand it...'