After what seemed like days of silence, the two magical ponies heard the creaking of steps and the clinking of hooves slowly trotting down stairs. Pinkamina descended the steps with curiosity, but a smile was still plastered on her face. The two ponies by the doorway were still frozen, staring up at the pink mare, whose face was now splattered with Mrs. Cake’s blood. “Oh, hi, Twilight- Dashie.” She nodded towards each pony respectively. “I don’t remember inviting you to my party?” The mare walked with great poise towards the corpse on the wall. The Pegasus and unicorn stood trembling, yet unmoving, as the murderous pony approached the bloody body. “I was throwing it for Mrs. Cake, here!” To emphasize her pun, the pink mare reached up with one hoof to jiggle the cleaver a bit, turning back to see her “friends’” reactions. All she received were shocked looks and a gasp from Twilight.
“S-she’s still moving!” Twilight whispered, noticing how the body twitched when Pinkamina touched the lodged knife.
Curious, the pink earth pony turned back to face Mrs. Cake, jiggled the knife a bit, and chuckled at the reaction of the dead body. “Oh, silly! That’s because my cleaver is embedded in her nervous system! Look! I can make her dance!” And with that, the pony’s hoof came down on the handle of the cleaver over and over again, like a game at an arcade. The carcass jerked and leapt, limbs flailing about with each slight pressure Pinkamina put on the cleaver.
“S-stop!” Twilight took a very daring step closer, trying desperately to ignore the squishing noise under her hooves. The sight had ridden Rainbow Dash completely immobile and unresponsive, but Twilight needed to do something! If only Celestia were here! Her consciousness seemed to be fading, her breathing becoming heavier, but the purple mare was determined. “Why are you doing this, Pinkie Pie?”
At that, Pinkamina suddenly dropped her plastic smile. In less than a millisecond, the mare was next to the unicorn. “My name is not Pinkie!” Suddenly, the pink mare struck out, bucking Twilight hard in the side, sending the unicorn flying. With a loud bang, the pony hit the wall, falling into a purple heap of hair and hooves in the pool of blood pouring out of the corpse beside her on the wall. Twilight groaned for an instant, then ceased, her consciousness fading into oblivion. The loud noise of Twilight’s impact with the wall snapped the Pegasus back to reality, and she whipped around to face Pinkamina. A sideways glance showed Twilight’s crippled body on the ground, covered in somepony else’s blood. It was infuriating. The blue mare’s bright crimson eyes glowed red with hatred. She screamed in agony and flew faster than a speeding bullet at the insane pony. One moment, the Pegasus was hurling herself at Pinkamina’s side, the next, her back hooves.
The air had been punched out of the pegasus’s lungs by the pink earth pony’s forceful buck. Rainbow Dash gasped, clutching her stomach as she tumbled through the air, falling painfully against the counter. The small bell atop the counter dinged lightly from her impact. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t move. Pinkamina’s bright blue eyes grew closer in the darkness, accompanied by a glint of metal from a knife she had found. This one was more of a bread knife, complete with serrated edge. “Dashie, if you really wanted to help me make cupcakes, you could’ve just asked!” With that statement, the pink pony stabbed through one of the blue mare’s wings, nailing her to the counter so she wouldn’t try to fly away.
Rainbow tried desperately to catch her breath. When a few gasps of air proved fruitful, she managed to let out what would almost definitely be her last words before the butchering began.
“Y-you..’re…. a psy…cho….”
Pinkie blinked, then smiled, “No, I’m not! I’m a chicken!” and she let out a very loud chicken noise.
Thinking this was just one of the pony’s sick games, Rainbow’s eyes grew wide and cold with fear. Would her “psycho” comment be the end of her, if she wasn’t dead already? Why was she trying to be funny? Rainbow Dash was once again unable to move, although she struggled under the knife, willing to tear her wing, if necessary. The pink pony blinked again.
Her blue eyes darted in confusion. “Where were we?” She asked softly to herself. “Ah, yes, that’s right!” The earth pony reached over the Pegasus and took another, long, slender knife from the tabletop. She grinned wide at the trapped Pegasus.
“P-please, Pinkie! You don’t want to do this!” Rainbow’s voice cracked as she choked from the tears of pain and fear rising inside her.
Again, the bright blue eyes before her blinked; the pink mare furrowed her brow. “Of course I don’t, silly! But I don’t really have a choice. After all, Pinkamina’s kinda hard to control.” She smiled sweetly at her friend, and started placing the hoof in which she held the knife back on the table. “Hey, Dashie,” she continued, “if Pinkamina comes back, you should probably run. OK?” Pinkie Pie was about to grasp the handle of the breadknife that was pinning Rainbow Dash against the counter with her teeth, when she again blinked.
“What the hell are you doing, Pinkie?! We said we could take care of this! They aren’t your friends and they never will be!” Pinkamina was growling to herself, eyes rolled up seemingly to the ceiling. Frantically, Rainbow turned her blue head to try and get a hold on the knife in her wing. Angrily, Pinkamina switched her head back down and jammed the knife in deeper with a hoof. “Tsk, tsk, Dashie! It’s not time to play hide and seek. Let’s play Peek-a-Boo, first!” In one movement, the knife from the counter was back in her hoof as the crazed mare grinned sadistically, holding the tip of the knife close to the pegasus’ wide, crimson eyes. “That’s right! Keep your eyes open, then I’ll just take them out!” Rainbow moved at the wrong moment, her head shooting up and away from the knife. Pinkamina missed her eye, but managed to graze over her cheek and jaw. “I don’t think you know how to play this game.” Pinkamina seemed disappointed. Still holding the knife, the pink mare crossed over the shadows on the floor, wading through the blood below her without a second thought. She appeared to be thinking. The Pegasus again began struggling.
“I can’t think when you make so much noise! Maybe I oughta cut out your throat. No, that would kill you too quickly….”
The crazed pony paced about the dark room, fading in and out of darkness as she crossed by the window where the lamplight streamed in consistently for a while. In the shadow, she began muttering: “Maybe we should take care of the Unicorn, first. If she wakes up there could be trouble.” When she crossed into the light, her demeanor seemed to change as she argued with herself: “Why do you have to kill them at all? Maybe you should just go back to Nurse Redheart and Doc-“
“Nonsense! You know what they did to us! We thought we were human! It was a lie. We’re here, now, and we must exact vengeance!” Pinkamina cursed.
“But Twilight and Dash didn’t have anything to do with the asylum! That was all Mrs. Cake and Nurse Red-“ Pinkie Pie pleaded.
As the pony paced, Rainbow Dash slowly moved to try and take out the bread knife as discreetly as possible. She grasped the handle with her teeth. That movement alone sent a shot of pain through her nerves and she struggled to keep her hold on the knife and keep from attracting attention by crying out in pain.
The pink mare began waving the silver knife about in frustration as she argued.
“Yes…. The Doctor and his Nurse. The only reason we’d have to EVER go back to them is to kill them. They had no right to try and ‘fix’ us! We aren’t broken. Are we?”
“I don’t think you’re a very nice pony,” Pinkie imitated her captor and continued waving the knife about. Rainbow Dash pulled gently on the knife, wincing as each tug sent another jolt of pain through her. Blood began to seep from the wound, dripping slowly down her cerulean feathers. “In fact, I think maybe you are broken! How could you do this to my friends?!”
“Friends?!” Pinkamina was fuming now. She stopped pacing, now, waving her hooves about angrily. The knife glinted as it passed between the shadows and light. The light from the window was now only lighting half of the pink pony as she had placed herself between the window and the door, facing Rainbow Dash, but seeing nothing before her. “These ponies don’t even exist! We are all that is real, Pinkie Pie!”
“No!” Pinkie Pie stomped her empty hoof down fiercely into the pool of blood, splashing some onto her fur, “I refuse to believe that! Nopony should have to die for my own insanity!”
Rainbow finally removed the knife completely. The handle was too slick from blood and saliva for the Pegasus to hold it. It slipped and fell with a loud clink onto the floor. She looked up to see if the crazed mare would react to the noise. However, it was as if the pink pony couldn’t see anything at all, as if she wasn’t even in the same world as Rainbow Dash. A muffled whimper came from the wall beside Mrs. Cake’s carcass and Rainbow Dash limped over to Twilight, who was now struggling to wake herself. The Pegasus helped Twilight onto her hackles, leaning against her to keep the fainted pony erect. While this was happening, the oblivious Earth pony leapt onto a nearby table and raised the knife.
“We can’t let them live! They’ve seen too much!” Pinkamina pleaded with herself.
Pinkie Pie’s friends turned groggily to watch the pony on the table.
Those bright blue eyes blinked again. “Yes…” she whispered to herself, holding the knife out over the edge of the table. “We have seen too much…. And there is nothing we can do… but prevent it from happening again.”
Twilight’s purple eyes shot wide open as she watched the knife move closer to her friend’s body. “Pinkie Pie!” With all the strength she could muster, the unicorn hurried across the slick ground towards the table, crawling with fearful determination. “Pinkie Pie, stop!”
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“G’AAAAAAH!” She let out a loud cry of anguish. Looking down, she could see the knife had flown true, sticking out of her gut. She knew now that it would all be over. She wouldn’t have to cause anypony any more pain. Her eyes were blurring, but the strangest thing was happening. As she focused on the knife, her hooves seemed to morph, splitting five different ways…. They weren’t hooves at all! They were fingers; fingers wrapped around the handle of a butter knife; fingers covered in bright red blood that was now oozing from under her pale blue hospital gown. Her mind was finally clearing. In fact, it seemed almost crystal clear. She could crisply hear a voice calling to her, and she could remember this body…. She was human, wasn’t she?
“Diane! Oh, God!” It was Twilight’s voice. “Help! Someone, please get help! Oh, Diane!”
“Twilight?” she looked puzzled at the knife inside her, “I was always human, wasn’t I?” Her blue gaze lifted heavily up to look at the girl with purple bangs reaching out to her. Feeling rather faint, she began to sway on her two feet. A second later, her back was being supported by her friend, who had sunk to her knees and was cradling the wounded girl.
“Yes… Oh, Diane! I’m so, so sorry! I’m so sorry….” Her voice choked with tears as she held her dear friend in her arms.
“Don’t be sorry….” She said dreamily, fading away with each breath, “Everything’s going to… be… Okee… do.. kee.. lo…..” Her eyes began to darken, falling down to stare at whatever happened to be behind Twilight. It was a pink object, laying on its side beside the tray of food Nurse Redheart had brought in not three minutes earlier. The more she concentrated, the more she recognized the small figure. Twilight was crying more, but she couldn’t hear her. All she heard was laughter. Smiling, she whispered to herself, “We can all sleep now….”
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((Be sure to read the epilogue!!!))