"This is gonna be so awesome!" the rainbow maned pegasus exclaimed excitedly, holding two hooves in the air.
I smiled. Rainbow was at it again. She was always up to no good. But I enjoyed it. It was why we were pranking buddies in the first place. She was the brains and I was the executioner. There was no better combo than that.
"So what'cha thinking of Dashie?" I smiled at her, bouncing along to the rhythm of her wingbeats. It was a nice summer afternoon, and Dashie had just finished her afternoon nap and had come visited me at the Sugarcube Corner. Says she has the best prank that any pony will ever see.
She stopped mid-flight. "Remember that horror movie we watched about those ponies who went camping in the woods and got abducted by a crazy chainsaw guy?"
I rolled my eyes around to try and remember. Oh yeah. It was a good movie. Everyone died in the end which wasn't so happy. But I did get a good scare though! Oh boy!
"You mean Camp Lakeside? Yeah I remember! It was pretty spooky." I made wavy hooves at Dash. She laughed. It was cute.
"Yeah! That one! So I was thinking..." She paused for dramatic effect, but I couldn't wait to let her finish her sentence.
"We should dress up as chainsaw pony and scare everyone!" I screamed.
"Uh yeah... But not really," she replied, "You see Applejack's been planning a Hearth's Warming Getaway for all of us, so I was thinking..."
"We should take them camping and scare them as chainsaw pony!" I screamed again.
Rainbow laughed. She shook her head. "Except ponies don't go camping during the holiday season Pinks."
"Oh." My hair deflated a bit. "So?"
"It doesn't have to be a campsite! I was thinking we could go somewhere else, like a ski lodge! Imagine being trapped on a mountain with a crazy killer! How awesome is that!"
I smiled back. I could already see where this was going... and I loved it.
"It even fits in with the holiday season!" she added.
"Yeah I know!" I said excitedly, arms wide, "We should totally do it!" My mind was already racing through all sort of places, but first things first we needed the perfect location.
"Ooh! Ooh!" I bounced up and down excitedly, "I'll go look up some nice places now! See ya Dash!"
And I was gone in a flash. I knew a great travel agency down in Fillydelphia. I could probably get a great discount from the manager since we're great friends too. This was gonna be great.
"You want me to do what?"
It was a Friday afternoon. Rainbow was back from her Wonderbolts training and she was telling me all about her new plans. We were sharing a shake at Sugarcube Corner, my treat.
"I want you to take pictures of me. You know, like how those creepy stalkers would."
"Are you sure you want that? Don't you already have fans stalking you all the time?" I said, half jokingly.
"Haha very funny Pinks." She deadpanned. "But this is for our 'little game'. And I want to make sure that the pony taking these pictures is someone I can trust." She looked at me square in the eyes. "So can you do it or not?"
I shrugged and smiled. "Why not? One batch of Rainbow Dash pictures coming right up!" I laughed. “Oh! And do you want the super ‘steamy’ ones as well?” I winked at her playfully, her face quickly growing red.
“Err…Sure. Whatever you think fits…” she said, still blushing. I laughed.
“Don’t worry Dash! It’s not like I’m attracted to you or something! Besides, it’s just a game! I’m sure you can burn them when you’re done.”
Rainbow’s face was still glowing red, and she was staring at the ground. She wasn't sure what to say at first, but ended up giving in anyway. “Yeah sure, let’s do it then.”
“Okay then! See ya!” I waved, darting back into the kitchen where my work was. Rainbow left after that to do some other stuff. Like napping. She napped all the time.
I went back to stirring my next batch of cupcakes, humming happily. This was going to be sweet!
"Yo Dash, check this out!" I pulled a pink sack out of my closet. It was made to resemble my body, with hooves, tail and even my cutie mark.
"And that is?" She asked, half puzzled, half disturbed.
"It's me silly! Or at least my body." I played the limbs around a little bit. "I thought maybe we could pretend to saw me in half and then I'll come out and surprise everyone that I'm okay! That'll sure shock everyone!"
"Yeah..." Rainbow's voice trailed off. It always happened when she was thinking of something. So she must be thinking of something. "Instead of coming out immediately and surprising everyone, why don't we save your 'I'm still alive' surprise at the end of the night? I mean, your death would seem more realistic that way. "
"Oh." I said, "But I want everyone to know I'm okay! So that, they don't have to keep worrying about me!"
"It's okay Pinkie, that's the point of the whole serial killer stuff. The only way people will believe there's a serial killer is that if you stay dead, got it?"
"Yeah I think I get it." I didn't really like the idea, but hey, it was Rainbow's idea originally, I'm just helping her out.
"Hey! In the meantime, you can be the serial killer too!" she said excitedly.
"What like two serial killers?" Suddenly, she had my interest again.
"Yeah! Taking down ponies all over the mountain is hard work. I could use a sidekick. What do you say?"
"I don't know Dash. Do I have to be rough on anypony? I don't want to hurt anyone."
Rainbow tapped her chin. "We'll just use some sleeping gas to put them out. No violence needed," she slapped my back. “Everypony’s gonna be fine…”
I stared at the pictures. The pictures I took were all stuffed in this crummy old horror novel.
Was there something I missed? I thought Dash changed her mind? I thought she said explicitly that she never wanted to see these again? She even threw them in the bin! I guess I did went too far by sneaking up her bedsheets. But did she change her mind again?
I shook my head. It couldn’t be. I had to go talk to her. There was no way she would leave pictures like these lying around. Was there? Unless someone else did it…
I shook my head again. I had to go talk to her.
I ran to her room and started banging on her door. She didn't answer. Was she even in? I continued banging anyway.
Without realizing, I woke up Applejack instead. She started yelling at me, asking me why I was shouting so much. I didn’t know what to say. If I did say anything the secret would be out. And I Pinkie Promised I would never do that! Only Rainbow was allowed to tell everyone when she was done, so I couldn’t say much at that time.
AJ pushed me aside and started knocking. After having no response from RD I thought it'd be best to leave. Perhaps RD did want to cancel plans tonight. Perhaps…
AJ kicked the door down, much to my surprise. She barged into the room angrily and pulled the covers off of Dashie, except that she wasn’t there. I too was surprised at first, but when I inspected the broken window and her bedroom, I knew it looked too neat to have been a fight.
Dash did this. I knew it. She did this on her own. But why? This wasn’t part of the plan! Did she plan something without telling me?
But I didn’t have time to ponder these things. Applejack yelled at me to get Twilight. And even though I was reluctant, I knew I had to, or else I'd be acting too suspiciously. Dash has something planned, and I can't let it be over until she said it was...
"Dash you need to stop!" I shouted. Things have gone too far, and I wasn't going to stand around one bit.
"C'mon! You can't be bailing on me now Pinks! The traps! The set-ups! All this for nothing??"
"DASH STOP," I said sternly, I couldn't tolerate this anymore, "Applejack is not having fun. No one is. You're just scaring the wits out of them."
"But that's what you agreed to in the first place!" She screamed at me, almost deafening My ears. "You said it was going to be funny. You were excited to pull this prank off. Now you want out?! NOW??"
"BECAUSE NOPONY'S ENJOYING THEMSELVES!" My face was red, I was huffing angrily. My face felt close to burning itself into ashes. "PRANKS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE ENJOYED BY ALL!!! YOU'RE JUST HURTING PEOPLE!!!"
Rainbow finally shut up. She rubbed her temples in frustration, "Fine fine. I'll stop ok?" She sighed and kicked the snow. "I’ll go get Applejack, ok?"
My face was still fierce. But inwardly, I let out a sigh of relief. I followed her to the back of the shed, and she opened up the back door. She flickered the lights on and there she was, Applejack.
I was overjoyed. Applejack was sleeping peacefully, unharmed. I knelt next to her. Oh how I wish I could tell her everything was just a joke, to finally put her mind to rest. I smiled contently.
"MHMMMHMM!"
Out of nowhere, something grabbed me, and covered my muzzle. I knew that smell. It was...
"I've came too far to stop. Sorry Pinks." I looked up. Rainbow's face was just a blurry mess of colours. I collapsed.
6:05 a.m.
~ 1 HOUR UNTIL DAWN
"Ugh..." Pinkie stirred, finally waking up. "Dashie?" She shouted at the empty cave.
“Dash?” Her vision was still blurry, and she couldn’t make out anything in front of her. “Where am I?” she muttered to herself.
She was surrounded by darkness on all sides, and it didn't seem like some place she was familiar with.
"Hello?" she called out. There was still no response.
She turned to her left and right. There were only rocks everywhere.
Was she in the cave? But where? Why did Dash take her to the cave anyways?
“Dashie? Where are you?” She cried out. Her senses were finally coming to her and she could get up. She looked around. This didn’t seem like any part of the caves they've explored.
Did Rainbow Dash take her somewhere else?
No. Rainbow couldn’t have explored the mines all on her own. Not after she had told her about the legend of the cave dwellers.
The cave dwellers were an old folk tale her parents told her as a child, to warn her and her sisters never to venture too deeply into caves. They were described as having thin bony limbs, and empty eyes, and were as tall as 2 minotaurs combined. They fed on lost, hungry young children who got lost in the mines, eating every piece of them until they were no more.
Looking back, her parents probably only said that to scare the Pie sisters, to stop them from getting lost in the mines. Neither of them have ever seen these 'cave dwellers' so they can't be real right?
Nevertheless, Rainbow felt uneasy travelling in the caves alone after she had told her the story, so Pinkie knew it was impossible she'd drag her body here.
Her mind stirred. If Rainbow hadn't taken her here, who has?
Pinkie was not going to rule out the possibility that someone else had been on this mountain. Someone unfriendly. A couple times her Pinkie sense had went off, but she never caught anyone else on the mountain except Dash. Perhaps the stranger was really good at hiding. Perhaps. But what if he’s taken her? Then what about Dash?
Pinkie felt a sharp pinching pain in her knee. She looked around. That meant only one thing...
She stood quietly in the darkness, waiting. She knew something was out there, waiting as well. But she couldn't see it.
Then it attacked.
A pale white creature with legs as long as broomsticks and eyes as white as glass marbles leapt from the shadows towards her.
She screamed.