Her tears stung her eyes, dripping over her muzzle and salting her lips, but Twilight couldn't stop crying. Another of her friends had died. When would this nightmare be over? Even behind closed lids, she could sense when the lights went out once again. This alone wasn't enough to startle her from her gloom, but a sudden sound of metal jangling against metal from the clinic made her freeze mid sob. She tried to choke down her sorrow as she writhed on the floor, staring wide eyed into the darkness. A memory rose, unbidden, of the table in the clinic that had been covered with scissors, scalpels, knives, saws, dental hooks, and other metal devices of surgery.
Twilight cursed herself for staring at the glowing scrying crystals for so long. She could see nothing in the sudden darkness. If the killer were to find me now, all tied up like this... the very thought made Twilight's blood run cold. Desperately she began wiggling toward an old desk. It wasn't much, but it was the only spot she could think to hide. She crawled, agonizingly slowly. If she had even one limb free to drag herself, she would've made faster progress. She could hear hoof steps now, drawing closer from behind her! She started crying again, unable to control her panic. Twilight couldn't help herself, it was just too much for her. As tears and snot began to pour from her face, she still struggled, even though she knew there was nowhere to go, no where to hide. She just wanted to get away. She wanted to live!
A hoof shot out of the darkness and pinned her to the filthy cavern floor. Twilight screamed and began to wriggle like a worm caught in a birds beak, uselessly, if energetically. Her eyes grew wide as a knife drifted into her field of vision. She struggled harder as the hoof that pinned her down covered her mouth. This was it! She was as good as dead! "Easy sugarcube." Applejack looked down on Twilight, a concerned look on her face. As the alicorn's eyes drifted to the knife, Applejack set it down on the floor beside her, "don't worry none, Ah just grabbed that in case Ah ran into any trouble. Ah heard ya screamin' from down the hall. Whut's goin' on?"
Applejack pulled Twilight up into a sitting position. "It was horrible! Rainbow Dash...she's dead. I saw it on the crystals! I saw it all!" blurted Twilight.
The farm ponies eyes narrowed. Without hesitation she hoisted Twilight up and draped her across her strong back. "Lets go."
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The corridor was as dark as the rest of the cavern. The enchantment on the illuminating crystals must have worn off since Rarity had gone off by herself. Twilight did what she could to muster some illumination from her horn for Applejack to see by, but she worried about making them a target. She feared who ever had killed Rainbow Dash could still be lurking somewhere in the dark. Applejack stopped without warning. Within the feeble circle of light Twilight could manage, she could just make out the door to Dash's room. The stone was shifted only slightly, leaving a barely perceptible crack. How had it been opened? There was no pony left that should've been able to open the door on her own. Unless...did the "changeling" have a way of opening all the doors?
As Twilight contemplated this, Applejack shifted from underneath her, setting her down on the cavern floor. With a flash of the scalpel she had brought with them she cut the straps that bound Twilight. "Since ya've got the light an all, Ah think it best ya go on ahead of me," Twilight looked on her friend with a smile. "Don't get the wrong idea sugarcube. Ah'm still not sure Ah can trust ya, but if'n there is somepony in there with a thirst fer blood, Ah'd like to see em comin." Twilight's face fell. There was nothing to do but grit her teeth and get on with it.
Drawing closer to the door, Twilight tried to wedge one hoof into the slot and open the door the rest of the way. It moved slightly before grinding to a halt. Try as she might it wouldn't budge any further. "Somethings...jamming the door. I don't think it will open the rest of the way." She tried to feed more magic into her horn, increasing its light. Her eyes widened. She could see, just through the crack, Rainbow hanging from the ceiling. The body turned gently as the rope creaked. The soft pitter patter of blood oozing from her friends wounds, her friends corpse, squeezed Twilight's heart. The alicorn crouched down and put her foreleg through the door. If she could just find what was jamming it, she could open the door the rest of the way and take Dash's body down. She could at least do that much for her friend. It just seemed far too cruel to leave her hanging in that room, all alone. "I think...I think I've got something." Twilight felt something cold and hard just on the other side of the door. Hooking her hoof around it, she drug the object into the light.
Twilight Sparkle clutched Rainbow Dash's hoof, cut through at the shin, its sigil still clearly emblazoned on the end. The stump was still moist and left a trail dripping from the severed end. Twilight screamed, dropping the limb to the ground. As if on cue, the door to Dash's room slammed, sealing tight once again. Twilight could only stare at the limb as it lay lifelessly in a growing pool of her friends blood.
It was up to Applejack to take the initiative, as she knelt down to the sad blue lump of flesh to examined it, turning it this way and that. "Looks like whoever did this didn't take her hoof of in one blow. It's been hacked at somethin' fierce. Ah'd say with a big blade of some kind...probably an axe." How could Applejack say that so dispassionately? Wasn't she horrified at what was going on? Realization dawned behind Twilight Sparkle's eyes as she slowly got up from the floor. Her magic might not be back at full strength, but she knew what she had to do. Charging, Twilight slammed her body into Applejack's, sending the earth pony's hat flying and her body crashing to the floor. Without wasting a moment, Twilight was on top of the Applejack, pinning her down as best she could, making sure to straddle her chest so as to be away from her strong hind legs. "Whut in tarnation has gotten into you!?" demanded Applejack from the floor.
"Before, when Rainbow Dash was being killed, I was watching the images of the crystals the whole time. I could see almost every inch of the facility. I could see Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash. But do you know who I didn't see!?" Twilight Sparkle paused and looked down on her friend with a glare. "I never saw you. You were the only pony who didn't show up anywhere! So that means the murderer has to be you!"
To Twilight's surprise, Applejack burst out laughing. To her ears it was a cold and cynical laugh, one she'd never heard from her friend before. "That's it!? That's yer reason?" the earth pony laughed again, "That's hilarious. Ya got some real impressive powers of deduction sometimes Twi..." Twilight's hoof smashed Applejack's mouth, cutting her off mid-sentence.
"Don't laugh!" yelled Twilight, punching Applejack again. "You're laughing while our friends are dying all around us!" and again. "How could you be so cold-hearted!?" Each exclamation was punctuated by the loud smack of hoof smashing into Applejack's jaw. "How could I not suspect you!?" One final smack and Applejack's head lolled to the side. A thin trickle of bloody spittle dripped from the edge of her mouth where her lip had been busted. Twilight's friend was out cold.
What had she done? How had it come to this? Twilight's eyes drifted to Rainbow Dash's severed hoof. The sigil engraved there still glowed slightly. There was no time to waste. If Applejack really was the killer, it would only be a matter of time before she woke up. Twilight had to get the others and find a way out before that happened! Twilight mustered her magic, feeding it into the crystals in the cavern. Within moments the crystals soft glow filled the halls again. Her magic spent, she almost retched as she picked up Dash's hoof in her mouth. She tried to ignore the taste as she ran down the corridor. She was heading to the door to the bathroom, the room Pinkie Pie had been trapped in, bleeding and alone all this time. She wouldn't let what happened to Rainbow Dash happen to Pinkie. She wouldn't allow it!
Despite its owners death, the enchantment placed on the blue hoof held, flaring a brilliant azure that allowed Twilight to push the stone door aside. Spitting the severed limb out of her mouth, Twilight rushed into the bathroom. "Pinkie...Pinkie Pie are you okay?" she called. The last time Twilight had seen the party pony she had been hurt but conscious. Now she lay on the bathroom floor, a trail of blood between one of the toilet stalls and where she lay motionless. Twilight rushed to her side, fearing the worst. What had looked like a minor cut on Pinkie's left shoulder in the scrying crystals was clearly much deeper than it had appeared. It seemed blood loss had caused Pinkie to fall unconscious. Twilight grabbed the hem of her dress in her teeth and, giving a sharp tug, ripped off a swath of material. Working quickly, she used the material to make a make-shift bandage to bind the wound and staunch the flow of blood.
"There, that should do it for the time being," said Twilight. "But it's no good staying here. Pinkie...can you hear me? Can you wake up?" Celestia's former student nuzzled the pink pony's prone form tentatively and brushed her pink hair away from her face with her wings. Twilight tried gently, but firmly, to rouse her friend, all the time worrying that she might not wake up ever again if they didn't hurry. Pinkie's eye lids began to flutter and Twilight felt a smile spread across her face as her friend opened her soft blue eyes.
"Twilight...is that you?" asked Pinkie Pie groggily.
"Oh thank goodness," responded Twilight. "I've managed to stop the bleeding, but you should probably rest for a moment before we move."
"You came for me. I was so worried that you were just going to leave me in here all alone..." Pinkie Pie hugged Twilight hard, sobbing. "I was so scared Twilight! Why would Rarity do that to me!? Locking me up, just like Applejack did with Rainbow Dash...she knew how upset I was about that!"
Somewhat uncharacteristically, Twilight seemed to be at a loss for words. "I...I don't know Pinkie. I don't know why any of this is happening anymore." Tears began to pool in the corners of her violet eyes. "Maybe...maybe if I hadn't lied about my sigil, maybe none of this would've happened. Maybe Rainbow Dash would still be alive." Pinkie Pie's eyes widened, but she didn't interrupt Twilight as she continued, "I couldn't do anything to save Fluttershy either. How can I call myself their friend when they died right in front of me? When I was just so helpless to save them? What right do I have to pretend I know what's going on!?"
Pinkie Pie pulled the weeping Twilight into a tight hug, laying her hoof on her friends back and holding her close. When the pink pony spoke it was with deep tenderness and understanding, "I know you've been doing the best you possibly can Twilight," Pinkie pulled away and looked Twilight straight in her eyes. "That's why, you can't blame yourself for what's happening, okay?" Twilight looked deep into her friends impossibly blue eyes. She saw no blame there, no hatred or disappointment. Only love.
"Okay...okay," was all she could manage to say as she wiped her face with her tattered dress, brushing away the blood, snot and tears. She slowly stood up and Pinkie stood with her, wincing slightly as her left forelimb took her weight and the wound on her shoulder clearly made itself known. "Are you going to be okay?" asked Twilight.
"Yeah...I think I can manage," responded Pinkie Pie. "Twilight...I need you to tell me. What happened out there while I was locked in here? And don't...don't spare me any details. Will you tell me, please?"
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Twilight didn't tell Pinkie Pie everything right away, but she told her enough so that she could buy herself some time to take care of a few things. Once she was a little more sure of Applejack, she asked Pinkie Pie to join her in the library/record room. "So it was Applejack that killed Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash?" asked Pinkie Pie disbelievingly once they were reunited. "Why in the wide world of Equestria would she do such a horrible thing?"
"I don't know," responded Twilight truthfully. "Maybe out of hatred, or envy. Under normal circumstances it would be easy to think something like that, but right now I'm not even sure she's the real Applejack. I can't even begin to imagine the motivations of somepony who would come up with this insane game to begin with. I doubt we'll ever be able to understand."
"But in that case, maybe if we just ask Applejack about the exit..." Pinkie began, but Twilight instantly cut her off.
"No. If she really intended to kill all of us off, then there's no way she'd ever tell us."
"Where's Applejack now?" asked Pinkie.
"For the time being, I have her tied up in the clinic," answered Twilight. "So long as she's in there we should be safe. I never really got to finish looking through the files in this room. If you and I work together, maybe we can find some kind of clues to what's really going on. I'd ask Rarity to join us, but since she seems to be convinced that we're the killers I don't think that would go over very well. Our best hope is to find something here and then try to clear the air with her afterwards."
With a nod from Pinkie Pie the pair began to delve into the books and binders that still lined the cavern walls. Even as she focused on the task at hand, Twilight's mind couldn't help but wander just a little. She remembered the words that had apparently been written in Fluttershy's blood, the liar must die. That should've been a clue to begin with. Applejack was the Element of Honesty after all, so did that mean that Fluttershy had lied about something and was that why she and Rainbow Dash had to die? If so, then did that mean that she thought the rest of them were liars too, worthy of similar punishment? Even if that were true, what kind of lie could possibly be worthy of death? Even if Applejack were a changeling, this just didn't make sense. A changeling fed off of the love of those around her. The instances of changelings actually killing their hosts were very rare, usually due to over feeding or negligence on the changelings part, not from any direct action. A changeling was usually devoid of the kind of animosity that led to murder.
As Twilight flipped through an old almanac the sound of steady breathing came to her ears. Looking for the source, she found Pinkie Pie huddled against a wall, an open book in her lap and another on top of her head. Twilight hadn't realized how long they had been at it, what with one thing and another, neither of them had gotten any proper rest since they'd been down here. Pinkie's injury and subsequent blood loss had probably made her extra tired. Slipping out of her dress, Twilight draped the tattered garment over her sleeping friend. It wasn't much of a blanket, but at least it might help keep the chill of the cavern out of her friends bones. Twilight turned back to her almanac, though it wasn't long before she too slumped fast asleep.
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Twilight woke with a start, disoriented. She'd been having a nightmare about giant rabbits with razor sharp teeth chasing her through their warren. Given her circumstances it wasn't surprising she'd have bad dreams, what shocked her more than anything was that when she awoke she wasn't bleeding, she wasn't tied up, or wounded in any way. Her head still ached slightly but for the first time in what felt like days she'd slept without someone first knocking her unconscious. Natural sleep had become so unfamiliar a concept to her she didn't recognize it at first for what it was. All she knew is that she had an unaccountable gap in her memory in which she'd gone from a sitting position to laying among a pile of books on the floor. Groggily she looked around the room, half thinking she was back in the library in Ponyville where she had lived once upon a time. She found herself wistfully remembering those simpler times from before she became a princess. Not just because of the realization she was still sealed under Canterlot with a murderer and the corpses of her friends, either, but there was still that. Pinkie Pie had slumped into a more comfortable position beneath her makeshift blanket. She rolled over and opened her eyes. "Oh...I'm sorry...did I wake you up?" Twilight asked, stifling a yawn.
"No...it's fine. I guess I fell asleep huh?" asked Pinkie, shuffling out from beneath Twilight's dress. "I don't suppose you found anything?"
Twilight gave up and yawned hugely before she replied, "No, nothing at all. I thought there would be, I don't know, something. I guess I ended up falling asleep as well."
"Twilight?"
"Yes Pinkie?"
"I'm hungry."
She hadn't been thinking about it, but Twilight's stomach cramped with emptiness. If they were down here much longer they were going to have to find something to eat. Twilight didn't want to have to think about that, but they weren't making any progress here. There was only one other option. Pulling her dress back on, Twilight sighed heavily, "I guess we don't have a choice. It's time we had a little chat with Applejack."