//------------------------------// // Chapter One: The Beginning of the End // Story: The Cupcakes Anthology // by Waffle Town //------------------------------// A scream of true despair rings through the night, but Rainbow Dash is the only soul awake to hear her own cry of terror. The cyan pegasus shudders, chilled, as the blanket of fear covering her is much thicker than the one under which she lies. Tears fall from Dash's face in copious amounts, welling up in her eyes and blurring her hazy vision. Long she waits like this, shivering, crying in silent dismay. Vivid images, those of splattering blood, long needles, and curved scalpels, seem even more real than Dash's own room. Even awake, keenly listening, the mare can still hear an ethereal laugh bouncing around inside the walls, mocking her. Just another nightmare, thinks Rainbow Dash. Another nightmare about being brutally dismantled, another night filled with a conscious recollection of her own dissection. These were the dreams that plagued her sleep; for many months, they had come and leeched at her sanity and well-being like a disease. A small part of herself believed that Princess Luna, the controller of such dreams, was playing some sick trick on her. However, Dash knows that the kind Princess would never stoop to such a level that she would abuse this dream for months on end. Feebly, her disheveled body slinks out of the cloud bed, and towards the bathroom. Into her mirror she stares, looking sorrowfully at the mare meeting her gaze. Heavy purple crescent moons hang under Rainbow Dash's eyes, and the eyes themselves are bloodshot, as though stained red. Even her polychromatic mane had a grayish luster, to match the wide, tired frown stretched across the mare's face. This is Rainbow Dash, but this is not the same Rainbow Dash that Equestria knows. With a sigh, she splashes cold water onto her face, then promptly dries it off, returning to bed. Flopping apathetically back down on her cloud mattress, the sky blue pony gazes up at the tall walls of her floating home, teeming with portraits and propaganda of the Wonderbolts. In a daze, her mind drifts to her good dreams; those of joining the honored team of pegasi, those of spending time with Scootaloo, and eventually, those of her friends. "Pinkie Pie represents an Element of Harmony," she whispers to her posters, "She'd never do something like... That. It's just a stupid dream, about some stupid basement... It's stupid." Dash, never the one to ask for help, begins to formulate an unsavory (albeit necessary) errand for the following day. Close to breaking under the stress of her nightmares, Dash decides to visit Twilight Sparkle for a brief talk the next morning. Rolling over onto her side, a stream of glasslike tears slides down her worn face, and onto her pillow. "Let it end," breathes Dash, "Please let all of this end." "Months...?" Princess Twilight Sparkle's eyebrows lift, as she shoots a look of disbelief at her tired friend. The alicorn sits across from Rainbow Dash, who is slumped uncomfortably on a small couch in the foyer of Twilight's castle. "I know, right?" Dash shakes her head, "It's the same dream, over and over..." For a moment, Twilight silently contemplates her companion's situation. The same dream, over and over, for months on end. A terrifying nightmare, at that. "Have you... Talked to Pinkie, lately?" she asks, taking a shot in the dark. "I... Well... No..." "Then I don't think I'll have to do much studying to help you. Rainbow Dash, I think the best solution is going to be facing your fears." "Fears? I'm not afraid of Pinkie Pie, she's my friend! I just... Just..." The mare's magenta eyes lose focus, hazily setting in on the crystal floor. Her mind goes blank, and her mouth parts a bit, as if paused in the middle of a word. Silently, she looks back up, and meets eyes with Twilight, who returns her gaze empathetically. "I'm really tired, Twilight. I don't know what to do." The Princess rises, and places a hoof on Dash's shoulder. "Pay Pinkie a visit. Trust me, it will make a difference." Outside, the residents of Ponyville merrily go about their daily routines, oblivious to Rainbow Dash's predicament. However, none are truly as oblivious as Dash, whom into a dark spiral plunges herself deeper. Things unimaginable to her would unfold soon, and continue to do so forevermore, but currently, the weary heroine is none the wiser about this maelstrom of confusion, approaching like a black cloud across the sun. And sealed is this fate as the door of Sugarcube Corner creaks open before her. A small, brass bell signals her entry, and Mrs. Cake issues her a kindly welcome from behind the register, unnoticed. Rainbow Dash's heart beats more quickly than usual, accompanying her rapidly thumping hoof. This she ignores with difficulty, as she approaches the counter. "Mrs. Cake, um... Where's... Where's Pinkie Pie?" "Oh, you came for a visit! I'm not sure where that pony got off to... Maybe she's upstairs?" Terrified, Dash expects the older mare to suggest that she make the trip upstairs herself. "I'll go check for you, hm?" Relieved, the pegasus nods, smiling at the baker. As the blue and pink pony ascends the stairs in the rear of the bakery, a calm silence falls over the autumn air, which flows cooly through the open windows. A milkshake plops down suddenly in front of the young mare, startling her. Across the table, a blur of pink slides into a chair before her, holding a platter of pastries. "...H-Hi, Pinkie...!" Dash musters some anxious enthusiasm, her eyes glued to the tray of cupcakes beside her guest. "Hey Dash!" Pinkie slurps her own milkshake, and giggles. "You look really hungry! Try a cupcake, huh? Will ya?" Hesitantly, Dash stammers, searching for words. A bead of sweat rolls down the side of her head, and down her neck, making her even more uncomfortable. "I... I'd rather not. That's... What I wanted to talk about, actually." Pinkie, genuinely concerned, withdraws the pan of confections, and gives her distressed friend a worried look. "What's wrong? There isn't anypony bothering you, is there Dashie?" "N-No, I've just been having some weird dreams," the blue mare reclines in her seat, taking a drink of her milkshake, then shaking her head, "Weird dreams where you're... Insane. Not just, like, crazy, like you normally are, but... Insane. You like... Cut me up, and bake me into cupcakes while I'm still awake. It's... It's not cool." "Oh," Pinkie rushes her cupcakes back to the kitchen apologetically, then returns to her guest, "That sounds terrifying, Dash! Can I do anything to help?" "I think I just needed to hang out with you for a little while. I-" Mid-sentence, a nauseous, uncomfortable sensation settles over Rainbow Dash's head. She closes her eyes for a moment, and then reopens them to see the world spinning around her, more and more quickly each second. Shaking, the pegasus braces herself against the table, and grits her teeth together. Facing Pinkie, her eyes plead for any sort of help, although she knows such a thing is far out the window now. "Why... How did you...?" "Those were some terrific milkshakes," says the pink pony smugly, "Gee, Dash, you look exhausted. Must be all those bad dreams! Why don't you take a nap?" The blue pony collapses to the wooden floorboards, her head throbbing. No. This can't be happening. Eyes closing, Dash's consciousness ebbs away rapidly. A wall of black approaches like a speeding train, and sleep takes the mare. Iron. The pungent odor of iron is the first fleeting grasp of the waking world that Rainbow Dash is able to wrap her brain around. The next is the dampness of the air around her body, and the strangling of cuffs around each of her limbs, plus her neck. Without openi ng her eyes, she reminds herself of what is to come. This situation is all too familiar, too similar to the only dream that she had been subjected to for the past few months. Biting her tongue, Dash takes an elongated breath in. I've seen this too many times to let it happen. Opening her eyes, the pegasus stares into the pitch blackness beyond her own hooves, her expression stony and unafraid. She spares herself the task of looking down at herself, and instead directs her vision towards the very spot that her captor will soon appear. And appear she does. Bearing a toothy smile, laden with a cape of raw, bleeding hide, Pinkie Pie thrusts herself into a column of light. A cart, displaying a wide array of scalpels, knives, and other bizarre torture utensils shares the spotlight with her, but Dash knows this only from memory, as her eyes remain locked with Pinkie's. Words come tumbling from the pink mare's mouth, but they go unheard, unheeded. Rainbow Dash's eyes glaze over, her mind focuses on something more important, and something inconsistent with her memory. Her right foreleg. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Scraping, jostling, sliding. It moves. The screw is loose. Dash is ripped from her silent jubilation by a howl of impatient rage, as Pinkie Pie grows angry at her unresponsive victim. Furiously, she casts a thin scalpel into Dash's thigh, straight into her cutiemark. The knife strikes home, all the way to the bone with a sickening wrenching sound. The bound mare rips her own vocal cords to shreds with a horrifying, ear-piercing shriek. Then suddenly, barely noticeably, a shiver rolls down the spine of not only the wounded pony; but the assailant as well. A feeling unknown by either before, yet so familiar that both seem to recognize it immediately. A third presence, very near. "Dashie," Pinkie begins, quietly, turning away from the table, "Whatever you're doing, whatever you know..." The pink mare looks back at Dash again, at first solemnly, but then with a pencil-thin smile, "It can't help you anymore." A second wind surging through her, Rainbow Dash rips the metal shackle violently out of the holes from which it came, slamming the freed appendage into the brace around her own neck, breaking it loose as well. Pinkie shrieks now, fumbling for some way to stop the escapee, but quickly finds herself met with a hoof to the face. Pinkie falters as Dash breaks free of her irons. Quickly afterward, however, she is brought to the floor by her injury in a heap, and tears form in her eyes. A gagged moan escapes her lips as she looks back at her impaled leg, which is frothing with black, syrupy cruor. The pink mare, clearly insane, towers over her former friend, and in her clenched teeth, yanks the knife clean from her hip, an action met with another howl of agony. Pinkie Pie takes the bloody scalpel again, this time plunging the blade into the base of the pegasus's wing. Dash, slipping into shock, flails her stabbed wing wildly, sending the knife flying. Before she can turn around, however, she barely has time to feel the slam of a hoof against her skull, knocking her out instantly. Shortly afterwards she reawakens, the pain from her fresh injuries even more pressing now. Pinkie Pie, her attacker, is nowhere in sight. Shudderingly, and with great effort, the mare is able to stand, and thankfully, walk. The dark, dank room in which her dreams had occurred is now fully illuminated, yielding curiously now a new inconsistency. The macabre decor and grotesque furnishings were nonexistent, in their place an empty stone room. Across from the wide pallet where her dissection was staged, a thick, metal door hangs ajar enticingly. Slowly and painfully, the mare's wounds elongate the short distance by miles, and the eventual sighting of a long, twisting hallway on the other side of the threshold brings Dash more tears. "Pinkie Pie, I-I don't know where you are," she pauses to cough, "But I won't d-die. N-Not today." After many yards of walking, exhaustion and searing pain crumple her body like paper, collapsing her legs, flooring her yet again. A mirror-like pool of blood forms beneath her, and a mirage before her. Dash now lies at the hooves of a small, orange filly. Wide, sad eyes stare back at her under a curled mane of purple. Scootaloo, her honorary little sister, was looking down upon her idol, who lie motionless on the cold, stone floor of a long corridor. "Get up, Dash," she cries out, "Get up! You can't lose yourself! You can't lose everything you'll be leaving behind! Get up, please!" A few drops of blood seep into the pony's magenta eyes, dripping idly from her kick to the head. Scootaloo has disappeared; all that remains is a dim light at the end of a short tunnel, and a few raised stairs at the end of the hall. "I can't," Dash whimpers, groaning as she rises again to her hooves, then leans against the wall, "I can't..." Slow and arduous, the steps meander on towards the small staircase, which holds the immediate likeness of a large mountain. "I... Can't..." Rainbow Dash ascends the stairs, and slings herself limply upwards through a wooden hatch, which gives way into delicious fresh air and moonlight. In a small meadow, the pegasus is boxed in by coniferous trees and the darkness of nighttime, and her limited awareness is focused on nothing but the moon, full and bright. "I can't." A small motor revs behind her, and Dash can't will herself to turn around. Upwards through her back comes an explosion of terrifying agony, unmatched by anything she had ever experienced. As she falls for the last time Rainbow Dash is able to catch a glimpse of a shining steel chainsaw, hoisted high into the air by Pinkie Pie. A waterfall of red diamonds catches the moonlight, and the dying cyan mare inhales deeply, filling her lungs with air to scream- "I can't lose!" Rainbow Dash wakes up. "Let me reassure you, before you ask," comes a warm, familiar voice, "that you were not experiencing a dream just then, as you previously have been." Beep. Beep. Beep. A heart monitor drones quietly through a cool room, painted white and tan. A blanket covers Dash, and a thick bandage is wrapped around her head. At the foot of her resting spot, which she discovers to be a hospital bed, sits Princess Luna, gazing kindly down on her. "You're okay, friend, just take it easy. You're going to need to rest for a bit before you'll be ready for any kind of action, but... Perhaps my magic has accelerated the process." The tingling of magic brushes the bedridden pony's head, as the Princess removes her bandage carefully. "Healed completely. Wonderful." "Wh-Why are you here...? Why are you healing me...?" "Because, Rainbow Dash, I require your assistance." "With... What...?" "My sister," Luna says, sorrowfully, "She has been overtaken by some terrible disease. Not like a virus, or an infection... A mental disease. The very same one that you saw in Pinkie Pie." "I... I can't help you. I can't deal with two ponies, Pinkie Pie was... She was like, my best friend! When I leave this hospital place, I don't think I'll ever sleep again. What if she comes back? What if she tries to finish the job? What if-" "Pinkie Pie is dead, Rainbow Dash." The blue mare gives the Princess a shocked look, and processes this. "D-Dead? Did you kill her?" "That's the real kicker," Luna turns, opening the door to leave, then meeting Dash's eyes, "Pinkie Pie was found impaled completely by a tree branch, run all the way through and suspended in midair. She was able to get out less than one complete sentence before we rushed her here, where she was pronounced dead on arrival." Princess Luna steps out, but before she can leave, she is caught by Rainbow Dash's words. "...Less than one complete sentence...?" "Ah, yes," Luna nods, looking away, then back at her smaller friend, "She bids you the most sincere apologies, and hopes for forgiveness." "About your sister," Dash says quietly after a few seconds of pondering the Princess's words, "You can count me in."