Twilight could barely breath. The straps cut deep into her chest and her legs. Even her wings were strapped securely to the uncomfortable metal chair that had become her one pony prison cell. The buckles of the straps, cold against her flesh, cut even more deeply into her skin. She would have complained about it, except for the strap firmly wrapped over her mouth. That strap and the one over her eyes secured her head to the back of the metal headrest, giving her not one ounce of freedom, allowing not one inch of movement. Twilight Sparkle's head throbbed with pain. She tried to summon her magic, using her sense of touch to try and find where all the buckles were fastened so that she could free herself. But even as she tried, she could feel that wave of pain in her head awake nausea in her stomach. She fought it down as best she could, unsure what would happen if she made herself sick in the position she was in. Choking on her own vomit wasn't the last experience Twilight wanted to have in this world.
If she were honest with herself, it was less the pain in her head and more the pain in her heart that made her hesitate. She wasn't in this predicament because of the workings of some evil entity, (though the ultimate blame could still be said to lay with who ever had kidnapped them) but rather with the ponies she thought of as her best friends. Rarity and Applejack had been responsible for binding her like this, securing her so that they could continue to try and find a way out of a trap they now suspected the alicorn had sprung. The worst part was, Twilight couldn't stop wondering if she were worthy of their doubt. Had she done something to them to give them pause? To make them worry about her intentions? Had she been a bad friend? Was it because she had become a princess and moved on to deal with the responsibilities that entailed? Was it because she had lied to them, even if it had only been once? She couldn't help going over and over in her mind what had happened, what had been said, and what it all really meant.
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"What do you mean I was the changeling?" asked Twilight. The cold kiss of the razor at her throat was overwhelmed by the sudden sensation of something warm and wet, the first bead of blood forming where the tip of the blade bit just a little too deep. She hadn't even felt the cut. "Why would I warn everpony about it if it were me? That's crazy talk!"
"Is it Twilight? Is it crazy!?" demanded Rarity, the smirk twisting her lips doing nothing to hide the fear and contempt in her eyes. "Or is it just you being clever enough to shift suspicion from yourself while you continue to conduct your horrible experiments on us? Don't play coy Twilight, I know this little 'party game' was all planned out by you and your little helper Pinkie Pie!"
"Just calm down Rarity," said Applejack, trying to put herself between Rarity and Twilight, for all the good that would do. "Twilight and Pinkie Pie are responsible for this, is that what ya'll are tryin' ta say? Them are some powerful accusations ya've got there. Do ya have any proof aside from a binder and a lot of guess work?"
"Why yes, dear Applejack, indeed I do!" responded Rarity with a flourish of her mane, more out of habit than any need to show off, flicking droplets of Pinkie Pie's blood into the air. "When you received your invitation from Pinkie Pie for this little soirée, what exactly were you invited to?"
"Well shucks, you know that Rarity. It was a party to honor me for organizin' the best harvest Ponyville has seen the past two years runnin'," replied the farm pony blushing. "Though Ah did have a lot of help, everypony pitches in for Winter Wrap-Up after all."
"No dear, actually I didn't know that," Rarity replied rolling her eyes. "I, on the other hoof, was invited to a party in my honor, to commemorate my recent delivery of my five thousandth ballroom gown, and to celebrate the announcement of my upcoming summer line. Or at least that is what I was led to believe." Rarity paused, turning her attention back to Twilight. "And then I had a little chat with Pinkie Pie. It would seem that even though the letters were written on her stationary and very clearly in her hoof-writing, she was under the impression we had all gathered for her birthday. I don't think I need to remind you of the fiasco that happened last year. Rainbow Dash could only keep what Pinkie was up to while we planned her surprise party to herself so long. Remember how she had all those...inanimate objects gathered around for gummy's 'after party' party? The little voices Dashie said she gave them? Her rage at thinking we were giving her a going away party? Her violence."
"Yeah, I remember all that," said Applejack darkly. "But that was all just a misunderstandin'. She cheered right up once she remembered it was her birthday." Applejack paused and kicked at the cavern floor, "Shoot! Ah knew Pinkie's birthday was comin' up, but I plum forgot it was comin' up so soon! Ah've just been so busy lately it musta' completely slipped my mind."
"What does that have to do with anything?" asked Twilight, wondering how far she could get if she tried to run.
"What does that have to do with anything?" replied Rarity rhetorically. "Pinkie Pie's birthday was two weeks ago! I should know, I sent her a card informing her of my regrettable absence. But with Dashie training with the Wonderbolts and dear Twilight here off being a pretty princess, I'm not entirely sure anypony else remembered."
In fact Twilight Sparkle hadn't forgotten. Though she wasn't able to attend Pinkie's party herself, she had sent her a present to celebrate the occasion. She found herself regretting not being able to tear herself away from the duties of state to share the day with her friend, but surely one missed birthday wasn't the end of the world. Was it? "All this proves is that whomever is really behind all this fooled us each into thinking the party was for some other reason. That's all," said Twilight, uncomfortable with the trickle of blood dripping down her chest. "So what, you think our not coming to her party made Pinkie Pie some kind of lunatic bent on killing off her friends? I don't buy that and neither should you two. You saw how hard she cried when we found Fluttershy...when we found her the way we did."
"Oh no dear, I don't think she did any of this on her own. One pony couldn't possibly do all this on her own. The magic doors, the scrying crystals, even...even dear Fluttershy's untimely demise. All those things, I think, would require the talents of a pony who was particularly skilled in magic. Now, do you happen to know anypony who has such rare talent?" Rarity asked, her words as sickly sweet as cyanide, twisting the knife at Twilight's throat for emphasis. "No, I think it far more likely that you capitalized on Pinkie's instability, using her to set this all into motion and then winding her up and letting her go."
"Ah think Ah get what yer sayin' Rarity, but why would Twilight do all this?" asked Applejack
"Maybe she isn't really Twilight." said Rarity, bluntly. "Maybe she really is a changeling and her disguise is just so good she can keep it up even while she's unconscious." Rarity's left eye started to twitch. "Or maybe she hasn't been unconscious at all this whole time, and she's just been pretending. Listening to us worry about her, laughing privately to herself," the unicorn began to shake, a fleck of foam forming at the corner of her mouth. "Or maybe this is just the kind of thing a princess does with her subjects. A game, a test, to decide which ones of us are worth keeping and which ones are a nuisance now that she stands as one of the rulers of Equestria!" Rarity barked a harsh laugh that was completely unbecoming of a lady. "Or maybe this is just what she had planned for us all along. Don't you remember how against having friends she was when she first came to Ponyville? What if she just pretended to be friends with us so she could harness the elements of harmony, to ultimately use them to become an alicorn? Molding and manipulating everything up until this point...up until the elements were a threat to her power instead of a boon? Whatever happened to the original wielders of the elements Twilight. Did your books tell you that? Did they!?"
The knife gouged deeper into Twilight's throat, causing a thin veil of crimson to dribble along the edge of the blade. Without warning, Applejack kicked the blade away, sending it skittering down the corridor and into the darkness. "That's enough of that! So far all you've got is speculation and conjecture. Yer soundin' mighty paranoid Rarity. Twilight's been doin' nothin' but tryin' ta help figure this mess out, which is more than you've been doin' refusin' to get yer hooves dirty!"
"Oh yes, she's been so exquisitely helpful leading us from one chamber of horrors to another. But ask yourself this, why hasn't she opened any of these doors herself?" Twilight felt the bottom drop out of her stomach. "If she's so worried about Pinkie Pie, why doesn't she rush over and let Rainbow Dash free so she can let her out of the bathroom? Does she even have a sigil?" Applejack looked at Twilight Sparkle questioningly, as if she were waiting for a denial or some kind of proof that Rarity had just lost her marbles. All Twilight could do was stare back. Rarity continued with all the inevitability of the tomb, "I saw you know. When you were struggling with that mail pony before, when your dress fell back on the floor, I got a good look at your body. You don't have so much as a scratch."
"Is it true Twilight? Do ya not have a sigil? Can...can we not open anymore doors?" The hurt and fear that crept into Applejack's voice broke Twilight's heart. What could she say?
"You've got it wrong. It's true I don't have one of those runes carved into my body, but that doesn't mean..." she fell silent as Applejack laid her hooves on her shoulders. The look in her eyes would haunt Twilight's dreams. It was a look of disillusionment and something more. Betrayal.
"Ah can't be trustin' a liar," the Element of Honesty stated flatly.
Twilight Sparkle fell to her knees. She couldn't believe this. She wasn't a monster, she wasn't a killer! And yet one little lie, a lie by omission, and her friends lost all faith in her. Seemingly, that was all it took to lose her friend forever.
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Twilight was about to replay the entire scenario again in her mind when a shift in the quality of light trickling in from beneath the strap over her eyes let her know she wasn't alone. As she waited anxiously, the strap was suddenly tugged away. Rarity stood before her, a look of exhaustion creasing her features as she asked, "Feel like talking yet?" She tugged down the strap that served as a gag so Twilight could answer.
"It's not me. I wouldn't...couldn't do something like this!" cried Twilight, tears forming at the edges of her eyes.
A dark look crossed Rarity's face. Without warning she reached out and knocked a jar of some unknown fluid to the floor. The jar shattered and its contents sloshed at Twilight's hooves, the cold liquid stinging where it touched. "That's not what I want to hear!" shouted Rarity, her voice full of anger.
"We ain't gettin' anywhere like this," said Applejack. She had been sitting on the bed next to Twilight, apparently flipping through a few more books from the archives. That is, up until Rarity's latest outburst. The earth pony got up and walked away from the pair of ponies.
"And just where are you going?" asked Rarity petulantly.
"Ah reckon Ah'm gonna have a look at them scryin' crystals. Most of them are steady, but a few of em swap from place to place. Maybe, with a bit of luck, we can at least get a glimpse of where the exit might be." Applejack looked down, her eyes drooping. "Besides, seems like that's the only way Ah'll be able to check up on the others fer the time bein'."
"In that case..." Rarity suddenly gripped Twilight with her magic and ripped the sitting pony from the chair. Rarity then flung Twilight to the floor, narrowly missing the shards of glass from the broken jar, "Take her with you! I'm not about to be left babysitting a cold blooded killer." The fall hurt, but not as much as the contempt in Rarity's voice.
"And what about you?" asked Applejack.
"I'm sick of this suffocating place. I'm going back upstairs. Besides, I think I might be better off by myself, don't you?" Rarity paused. "After all, if you're right and Twilight isn't the 'changeling', then doesn't that mean it could be you?"
"Rarity, don't! We need to stick together," pleaded Twilight from the floor.
"Don't talk to me!" The white unicorn snapped. "You make me sick, you murderer!"
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After Rarity left, Applejack half carried, half dragged Twilight into the surveillance room with her. She'd been kind enough to leave Twilight's eyes uncovered, but had put the strap over her mouth back in place and left her tied up on the floor. Though she was laying on her side, if Twilight cocked her head at the right angle, she could see most of what the crystals had to show. At least those that were not obscured by Applejack herself. Just as she had observed before, they seemed to be trained in various corridors, rooms, and places they had already discovered. A few of the crystals were dark, lacking even a reflection from the glow of the other crystals around them. These Twilight took to be enchanted, but not currently broadcasting their image. If this was because the magic had slowly worn off or because the spell was somehow obstructed, Twilight could only speculate. The crystals that Applejack was most interested in, the ones that showed her friends and the ones that shifted from scene to scene, were both blocked by her body.
Staring at the screens made her eyes hurt after awhile. Twilight's mind began to go back over her predicament, and her regrets, and as her thoughts wandered so did her eyes. Her gaze moved around the room, settling on Derpy's corpse. Applejack had apparently brought it back here after they had strapped Twilight down. That was another thing to fill the Princess with guilt. Derpy, a pony she didn't really know, had struggled for her life, filled with pain and fear as she died. And what had Twilight done? She'd acted like she was the one being killed. Granted at the time she had no way of knowing that the pegasus had been poisoned. There was also no way for Twilight to know she had been the pony who had unwittingly done the poisoning when she had removed the weird bunny mask the mail pony had worn. But still, her death was on Twilight's hooves. The blood on the grey pegasi's cracked, blue lips had dried into a horrible black smudge. Derpy's eyes had rolled up into her head so only the bloodshot whites showed. Is that what Twilight would look like if her friends found a way out and decided to leave her here? She couldn't help picturing herself laying beside the pony she had unwittingly murdered, moldering here in the dark beneath Canterlot for the rest of eternity.
Twilight was shook from her morbid revery as Applejack suddenly got back to her hooves. The earth pony glanced down at the bound unicorn, a strange look in her eyes. "Now you sit tight for a moment Twi. Just stay put and behave yerself." Saying only that, Applejack left the room and went out of Twilight's line of sight. Where could she be going?
As Twilight pondered that thought, her eye caught a flicker of motion. Now that Applejack had left, she could easily see all the scrying crystals and all that they had to show, including the ones that shifted there images. Such a shift is what had drawn her attention...that and the bright pink coloration that only one pony she knew could possess. The image had settled on the bathroom where Pinkie Pie was clearly visible. Her left shoulder was injured, a horrible gash left a nasty red crescent in her skin, but aside from that she seemed to be fine. It was clear Pinkie had been crying, but her injury looked to be minor. A wave of relief flooded Twilight. Even if she was locked away, at least she was safe for now. Rarity, and more importantly whomever had kidnapped them, couldn't hurt her anymore.
The image changed, growing fuzzy as it shifted to another scene. Rarity sat in what she could only assumed was the upstairs room that this had all started in. It looked like she was waiting for something, but what? She stared at the ground with listless eyes, only shifting her body weight every now and then as comfort dictated. Twilight wriggled on the floor, trying to drag herself closer so she could get a better view. As she did, the image shifted once more, now changing to show a room she had never seen before, though it shared many of the hallmarks of the other rooms in this facility. A stripped down bed with a sagging, soiled mattress took up the majority of space in the room. That wasn't what drew her attention, but rather who was lying in that bed. Rainbow Dash! She seemed to be sleeping, which almost made Twilight laugh. For all her friends energy, Dashie had a habit of falling asleep in such odd places. Twilight's mind drifted back to happier times, when Rainbow Dash might be found sleeping peacefully on somepony's roof or draped across a lamp post.
It was when Twilight was reflecting on those times that the axe blade drifted into the scrying crystals frame. What!? Twilight's eyes grew wide as she stared at the image. Some pony in a grey robe, their face obscured by a floppy eared mask, stalked slowly into the room. The mask looked like a half finished copy of the strange mask Derpy had worn before. As the figure drew closer, step by step, it raised the axe over its head. Twilight tried to scream a warning; to Rainbow Dash who'd never hear her, or one of her friends who could do nothing about it, she didn't know, but the urge was overwhelming. It was a pity the strap over her mouth held tight in place, driving home just how helpless she really was. The murderer raised the axe as high as it would go and then...
And then the image changed back to the stairwell. The crystal was cycling back again. Twilight's mind raced. How could it be possible. No pony should be able to get into that room. Not without...without dismembering Fluttershy. She found herself reaching out with her mind if not with her magic, willing somepony, anypony to hurry to Rainbow Dash's side. Willing somepony to realize something was wrong. In the meantime she did what she could to work the strap off from her mouth. Mustering her magic, she manged to unclasp the buckle just as the image shifted back to Dash's room. She was about to scream, but her voice caught in her throat.
"No...it can't be" she sputtered, tears blurring her vision, but not enough that she couldn't see the horror before her eyes. "This can't be real!" Twilight howled. Real or not, Rainbow Dash was no longer on the bed. The mattress, now freshly stained with rich red blood, was also covered in blue feathers. The pegasus herself hung limply, a noose around her neck. Her usually rainbow colored mane and tail were dyed a deep crimson. Her Wonderbolt uniform hung in tatters, and it took Twilight a moment to realize that the reason why was that she had been chopped repeatedly all over her body. Blood still gushed from wounds that reached down to the harsh white of her bones. Even her wings seemed to have been chopped up, hanging in a bedraggled, bloody mess.
Twilight closed her eyes, but the image was burned into her mind. There was nothing she could do but scream, for all the good it would do Rainbow Dash. For all the good it would do her.