//------------------------------// // Pieces // Story: Equine Royale // by MemoryLane //------------------------------// While Doctor Whooves and Twilight Sparkle were working on their makeshift radio, the team of four was finally waking up from a sleepless night. Vinyl Scratch particularly, as she woke up many times during that night to find Scootaloo mumbling in her sleep, having nightmares. Vinyl would do through the rigorous routine of waking the filly up, comforting her, and making sure she gets back to sleep. Only to have Vinyl wake up again an hour later to another shaking Scootaloo. Ditzy Doo and Octavia were sleeping pretty peacefully, given their circumstances. They all slept in a small, 30 foot high treehouse and Ditzy was lucky enough to come across. Well, more like crash into. The other three ponies had heard the now undeniable smack and she ran into it. No one knew why it was here, although Octavia had a guess that Luna and Celestia used to play up there when they were foals. But there's no way to be sure, and it's better not to ask questions and to just accept their luck. It took a while to even get up there though, since there was a lack of a ladder. And since Scootaloo couldn't fly, and was too weak, for that matter, everyone had to rely on Ditzy to fly every pony one by one up to the treehouse, except for Vinyl, who simply teleported up there. It went exactly as everyone planned, by the time everyone was on the treehouse, almost everyone was rubbing their heads and their flanks after being repeatedly knocked into trees and branches. The treehouse was quite pleasant. It had two beds, which Octavia and Scootaloo, Vinyl and Ditzy insisted they slept on the floor that night. Along with a few kindergarden-like drawings on the wall, a circular purple rug, a wooden toy chest(Which Scootaloo was more than pleased about). After waking up multiple times, Scootaloo was the first one to actually stay awake. She shun shone in her face through a window, almost burning her eyes. It didn't take a rocket scientist to deduce that she was sleeping in sun princess' bed. She tried to go back to sleep, but it was no use. She was completely awake now. Besides for almost being killed in that explosion, the experience there wasn't too bad. She had the death of Thunderlane replay in her mind as she was sleeping, and while she wasn't. She yawned as she jumped out of bed and immediately rummaged through Octavia's bag for food. The coal maned mare had told her to grab something to eat out of her bag if she ever got hungry, since hers got destroyed in the explosion. She pulled out another apple and munched on it quietly, wanting to let the others get their "beauty sleep". Scootaloo didn't know what time it was, but luckily there was a clock in the treehouse. It read 9:49 AM, to her amusement. She was quite surprised that her and the others slept in so late. She didn't want to wake anyone up, but was unable to leave the treehouse since she wasn't able to fly. Out of sheer boredom, she took one of Ditzy's kunai's and had a little target practice with one of the drawings on the walls. At first, she was failing miserably, hitting several different parts of the wall. When she almost sent one of the kunai's hurdling out the window, she realized her error and, using one of the markers she found in the toy chest, drew a target on the windowless wall across the wall with the actual window. As she kept practicing and getting the throwing motion down, it just kept getting easier from there. Octavia didn't appear to be a morning person, however, and when the THUMP of the kunai hitting the wall accompanied by the sound of skittering hooves as Scootaloo went to retrieve it, then walk back to her spot of the end of the room woke her up, she was not happy. "Knock it off..." She grumbled, subconsciously and softly, tossing her pillow at the orange filly. At first, Scootaloo wanted to frown, but she didn't. She simply put the kunai back in Ditzy's bag and sat on the middle of the rug between the blonde and the blue haired ponies, sighing loudly. She tried so hard to be, but she wasn't very patient. It got to the point where Scootaloo could't take it anymore, and walked out the door and stood on the porch of the treehouse, taking in the fresh air and letting the suns rays his her body. "Ahh..." She sighed in a state of pure bliss. The birds seem to sing to her, as if they were beckoning her to dance to their whistling songs. The air flowed through her purple mane. She almost felt as if she were on top of the world right now. Once again, not so much like clockwork anymore, the speakers all around the island flickered on, and everyone was once again BLESSED by Celestia's soft voice. "Good morning, my ponies. Everyone sleep well?" Scootaloo looked back at the rest of the group, who were sleeping right through the announcement. "Darn right..." "Good!" "Wha-?" "I'm here to give you all the updates! I am pleased to let you all know that, if you are hearing this. You are one out of just the eleven ponies remaining! Now, it seems we all had a pretty active night since seven ponies had died. We have #3, the zebra, Zecora..." Scootaloo had no idea a Zebra is...WAS...on the island. "We have #14, the fashion goddess, Photo Finish..." "Aw..." Scootaloo groaned, she was kind of upset that she never got to meet her. She saw her on the ship, but since she was picked first, she never got a chance to actually speak to her. "#17, The country stallion, Braeburn, who I might add, died of 'brae-burning' lungs." Celestia giggled at her own terrible, and downright cruel joke. When she realized how unfunny her joke was, she cleared her throat and continued to read. "We have the fashion model, # 19, Fleur De Lis..." Scootaloo had heard of her. She was a fashion model who occasionally worked for Photo Finish...she was very skinny, and looked to be very unhealthy. The filly was honestly surprised that she had made it this far in the game. "#20, the schoolteacher, Cheerilee." Scootaloo flamed at the sound of her name. Cheerilee... Scootaloo was glad she was dead. She's kind of wanted to kill her herself. She will never forgive her teacher for what she did to her. She trusted her, listened to her. But all that came out of it was hurt feelings and pain. Celestia kept on reading. "#21, the apple bucking champion, Applejack..." Scootaloo knew her, that was Applebloom's sister! Scootaloo dreaded having to tell her best friend the bad news... "#22, the fashionista, Rarity..." "Are you kidding me!?" She said out loud. Now both her best friends sisters are dead. Poor Sweetie Belle, poor Applebloom. What are they going to do now... "And finally, #28, the speed demon, Rainbow Dash..." "No..." She said, slumping to the ground. Not her idol too. Everyone's dead. Everyone is slowly dying around her, and she was just now realizing it. Her childhood hero was now dead. If she ever finds out who killed her- "And that's all. Good luck, every pony. Fight like you mean it. Like I said, only ten other ponies stand in your way! Oh, and by the way, I will not be blocking off any areas today. Tahtah~" She sung before the speaker shut off. Scootaloo was speechless, and now that she thought about it, she should be dead herself. She was defiantly the youngest competitor by a longshot, and if SHE manages to make it to the final eleven, something must really be out of whack. It didn't make any sense. How do 19 strong mares and stallions, such like Applejack and Thunderlane, die before a small filly like herself. Well, she partially has Vinyl, Octavia, and Ditzy to thank for that. If it weren't for them she would most certainly be dead by now. She probably would have been one of the first few ponies to die, really. She will be eternally grateful for their gratitude towards her. They saved her life more than once, and in many different ways. Underneath her, she heard what sounded like hoof steps. Scootaloo's heart froze, and she stood as still as physically possible, even forgetting to breath. It took her a moment, but when the realization hit her that she couldn't be spotted up here, she slowly began to breathe again. She gazed over the side of the porch and waited for the pony to show themselves. After a few more seconds, Scootaloo saw a dark blue unicorn make her way through the brush. "...Trixie?" She asked herself, immediately covering her mouth. Trixie looked around as she heard her voice, spotting Scootaloo up in the treehouse. Stupid Scootaloo, STUPID! Scootaloo knew this mare, she almost got Ponyville destroyed after lying about the Ursa Major. Even though most of it was Snips and Snails' fault, Trixie did lie about it. She left Ponyville after being perceived as a fraud! "S-Scootaloo?" Trixie asked. Finally, someone who can help her. She was so tired of being alone in this game, she would take anyone she could find at this point. "How did you get up there?" She asked as she took a look at the pegasus' small wings. Scootaloo frowned. "I got help. Ditzy Doo, Octavia and Vinyl are up here too." She covered her mouth again.Stupid, Stupid, STUPID!! "Can you please help me? I've been wandering around all night alone! I don't want to be lonely anymore..." Scootaloo stared into the unicorn's deep and sincere eyes. "Can I please hide with you guys? I'll do anything! I'll share my food and everything!" She pleaded, desperate for help at this point. "But...I can't..." She said, before turning to look at Ditzy Doo, who was still sleeping amoung the others. Scootaloo didn't really like Trixie all that much, but she couldn't just leave her for dead. She sighed and called down to her. "Sure, just hold on a second!" Trixie beamed as tears of joy fell down her face. Finally! Someone safe that she can turn to! Maybe there can help her get out of here! She hoped. "Octavia! Vinyl! Ditzy!" She called, running back inside of the treehouse. Ditzy almost immediately sat upright at her name being called. Octavia refused to get out of her bed, and Vinyl was sleeping like a rock due to her lack of sleep. But with a little help from the blonde mare, they both manage to get them out of bed. Forcefully. Octavia rubbed her head tiredly. "What do you need Scootaloo?" She asked, letting her eyes adjust to the light. "This better be good..." Vinyl mumbled. Scootaloo ignored her. "Trixie's outside," Before Scootaloo could say anything else, Vinyl Scratch rolled her eyes and put the covers back over her head. Ditzy was starting to get annoyed with Vinyl's early morning attitude and pulled the covers off her entirely, bringing out the wrath hidden inside of Vinyl. "What the hell!?" She asked. Ditzy just gave her usual kindly smile "Listen first!" She gestured to Scootaloo to continue, who thanked her. "As I was saying, she's alone and she's scared. We can't just leave her out there, even if no one likes her, it's not justified." She said, already trying to convince them to help before they can even object. "Look, you three have been helping me out since the very beginning. Now I'm trying to pass it on. Trixie really needs out help. Why won't you guys let me help someone who needs it?" Scootaloo sighed. Vinyl looked like she was about to respond, but Octavia noticed this and spoke up first. "Alright dear, we can let Trixie come up..." Scootaloo cheered and ran outside to tell Trixie the good news. "Hey! Trixie guess what! You can join...us...." Scootaloo trailed off as she looked down below her, her mouth almost hitting the floor. Ditzy looked at Octavia and Vinyl before walking over to the little filly. "Scootaloo? What's wrong? Oh..." She stated as she looked down. At this point, Vinyl and Octavia were curious themselves. They walked down to the porch and looked down with them, only to see their hearts drop into their stomach. "H-help...!" Trixie squealed as a knife was being pushed up against her blue neck. Both her, and the pony holding the knife were standing on their hind legs. The pink mare grinned wickedly as she saw the four ponies staring down at her and Trixie, the sunlight bouncing rays off her knife. "Good morning!" She shouted. As soon as she spoke, the birds songs no longer began to play, and the wind nearly stopped. "Pinkie!?" Octavia shrieked, unable to comprehend what was going on here. "What are you doing!?" Pinkamena laughed loudly. "I'm here to offer you a proposition..." She whispered eerily, right in Trixie's ear, she visibly shook with fear as she did so. Tears fell down her face as she assessed the situation. "What do you mean!?" Vinyl shot back. Nobody noticed Ditzy had quickly retrieved her kunai's from her bag. "Inside of that treehouse lies a murderer." She spoke, calmly and somewhat serenely. "If they give themselves up and come down here, I'll let Trixie go, if not." She forced the blade higher onto the unicorns throat, making her let out a loud groan. "But...But no one here has killed anyone! We're all innoc-" Vinyl stopped, and everyone looked at Ditzy Doo. She was a killer, technically. She ended Thunderlane's life to save Scootaloo. She was whom Pinkamena wanted. Ditzy backed up defensively. "Wait a minute! It was self defense, I ended a life to save one!" She told Pinkamena, who simply scoffed. "You're still the same. You're like all those other monsters inside of Equestria. I heard you also killed a family of what...five?" She sneered. All three other mares looked at Ditzy Doo unbelievably. "What...?" Scootaloo asked. Ditzy began to sweat and actually felt quite sick. "It was an accident!" She cried, as Trixie began to squirm in Pinkamena's arms. "Honest..." Pinkamena's expression didn't change as she stared into the mare's cock eyes. "Doesn't matter. You're still a murderer. And that's what you're going to keep on doing. Killing!" She screamed. "Killing until everyone is dead! That's why you must be stopped!" She looked at the ground through her long and straight pink mane that dangled in front of her face. "Before you hurt others again!" Ditzy began to cry. Why did no pony believe her when she said it was an accident? She was telling the truth. She didn't even know if her new friends were believing her. "I didn't mean to!" She told her three friends, who were saddened at the position that Pinkamena had put the poor mare in. "The clock is ticking!" Pinkamena yelled. Trixie's tears wetting her knife wielding hoof as she cried uncontrollably. Ditzy looked around at her friends, and then back to Trixie, and then to Pinkamena before sighing. It was time to give up. There was no choice. Trixie did not deserve to die like this. Not for something she herself did. "Alright...I'm coming..." She said as she opened up her wings, but as she was going to take off, a force pulled her tail, keeping her back. "No!" Scootaloo growled as she continued to pull Ditzy's tail back to the treehouse. "You're not going! Pinkamena isn't going to do it!" She argued. "Yeah! If she killed Trixie she'd become a murderer herself! There's no way she would do it!" Vinyl added. To Ditzy Doo, it did seem to make a lot of sense, but she was still scared for the poor unicorn, she didn't want her to die in her place. But she did have a filly to look after when she got home. She can't afford to lose. Ditzy took a step away from the edge pridefully. "Oh, I see it's going to be the hard way..." Trixie's eyes widened as she envisioned the inevitable. She began to frantically squirm. "No! Wait!" Trixie screamed, wrestling to try and push the knife away from her neck. "So be it..." Pinkamena whispered as she jabbed the edge of the knife deep into the fleshy part of Trixie's throat. Trixie was unable to scream at this moment. But when Pinkamena twisted the blade while it was still in her neck, she mustered the last of her energy to let out one last scream. Her last cry of agony out of many. Pinkamena let go of the unicorn as she slumped to the ground, presumably dead. No one inside of the treehouse watched, as they had all covered there eyes. They were wrong. Pinkamena was a murderer herself, and now Trixie paid the price for their resistance. Octavia was the first to shuffle back inside, everyone else quickly following her example as everyone sat down and shivered in random corners to the treehouse. "She actually did it.." "Trixie is dead!" "Oh my..." Scootaloo sat on the toy chest, screaming as she has a new memory to have nightmares about. "She can't get up here? Can she?" Octavia suddenly asked the ground. No one said anything as they ran out the door and looked over the edge of the porch, only to see that the party mare was now gone. Scootaloo was visibly losing her mind out of fear. "She's gonna kill us!" She cried, invoking another shaking fit. Vinyl Scratch put an hoof on her shoulder. "Don't worry kid," She told her. "Ol' DJ Pon3 will make sure that you never get hurt. Alright?" She spoke. Scootaloo simply nodded, and Vinyl let out a satisfied chuckle. She was getting better at 'comforting'. Suddenly, the treehouse shook, shaking the beds and rustling all the leaves on the trees. "What was that!? Octavia shouted, as she and the others attempted to gain their balance. Another shake, this time is was harder. It nearly sent Scootaloo flying out the window, but she ultimately plopped on the floor instead after losing her balance. Octavia looked out the window the foal had almost fallen out of. "Pinkamena's cutting down the tree!" She screamed. "Heh heh heh..." She cackled as she hit the tree with another swing of the blood stained axe. Oh, she was glad that Snowflake had left it in Rarity's skull, making it easy for her to find. It's all about being at the right place at the right time. "WHAT!?" Everyone shouted. By the time they had looked out the window with Octavia, the axe was already almost entirely through the tree. With another tremendous swing, the tree gave way. All four friends seemed to float in the tree house in slow motion as it slowly toppled into the ground, knocking into trees that happened to get it its way. Scootaloo was the first to go airborne, as she was the lightest. Her head painfully hit the ceiling and was instantly knocked out upon impact. The other three were forced to deal with the incoming pain as the treehouse hit the ground, sending wood and large rusty nails all over the place. *** When Octavia woke, she was hit with a giant headache before she even opened her eyes. Luckily, she wasn't injured and only sad various scrapes and bruises on her body. Scootaloo lied next to her, her eyelid twitching in fear after what had just happened. Scootaloo looked at her and helped Octavia to her feet. "Are you ok?" She asked, looking the mare all over. Octavia sighed and rubbed her head, but smiled to show that she was. Octavia looked down to see that Scootaloo had a single, deep cut on her flank, right where her cutie mark would be. Scootaloo followed her gaze and gasped as blood ran down her leg. Scootaloo looked scared, but Octavia shushed her. "You'll be alright, it's just a cut..." She looked around a little more, expecting to see a certain white mare. "Where's Vinyl and Ditzy?" She asked. Scootaloo reluctantly pointed to Ditzy, who sobbing and looking down at the ground pitifully. Her blonde mane mangled and wild. Octavia did not want to know how her mane was looking like at this point in time. She walked over to Ditzy, but as she became closer, she noticed that Ditzy was actually looking at something on the ground, something...white. Octavia put the pieces together and starting galloping at full speed. "Vinyl!" She screamed, as she stared at her unmoving best friend. Vinyl had blood coming from her nostrils and her ears. On her right cheek was a piece of wood from the crash. It seemed to stick there. Ditzy already knew why, as there were other sharp nails scattered around the ground. Octavia screamed and put her ear up to the alabaster mares mouth, praying for any sort of sound, or breathe. But none came. She pounded the ground in frustration as she cried out in anger and sorrow, sobbing on the mares chest. Scootaloo and Ditzy shed a few tears at the sight. The one pony who was there for them was gone. A trustful friend. "Vinyl!!" Octavia's sobs intermingled with various "No!" and "Please!" noises. Octavia begged for her friend to come back. She didn't care if someone killed her at this point, or if someone heard the noise she was making. She just didn't care. She wanted her best friend back From the bushes, Pinkamena cackled to herself. "My dear Octavia, now two sacrifices have been made for your demon friend Ditzy Doo...I wonder how many will be necessary..." She said, as she casted her gaze on the orange filly. #8 Trixie, dead #9 Vinyl Scratch, dead 9 to go *** Record chapter. Also, it tore me up inside to write this, as me and Vinyl go way back... Down to just nine...getting down to the wire here... I'm really going to hate Pinkamena after this. Anyhoo, thanks for reading! -Cyneryk Stay nice and plump for me, my kiddies...