by neorenamon
The surviving ponies were going down the passage past Applejacks body with Rainbow Dash in the lead. Twilight followed as her horn glowed and Pinkie was right next to her.
"I can't believe it," said the rainbow pegasus, "First Flutters, then Rarity and now AJ."
"None of us can believe that," said the violet unicorn.
"As soon as we get this done with," agreed Pinkie, "I think I'm going to lose my mind over here."
"No. As friends, we'll somehow get through this!" she swore.
"Yeah, we'll get through," said RD as if she was trying to convince herself of something she didn't quite believe.
As they walked along, something changed. Suddenly Twilight stopped as she said, "Wait a minute."
"What?!" asked RD as she looked back.
"This passage," she said, "It's been worked over into a rough tunnel. Look at how rectangular the passage has become."
"So?!" she replied, "Your point is?!"
"That some group of ponies or perhaps some other race did this on purpose," she replied, "but they didn't go all the way into these caves for some reason."
"I don't see how this matters!"
"There might be somepony or some other race ahead of us," she warned, "Perhaps even Diamond Dogs."
"We'll beat up that problem when we get there!" she growled back, "Now come on and stop sightseeing!"
"Can't we all just get along?" asked Pinkie.
"SHUT UP PINKIE!" they both hissed as one as they turned to glare at her. Yet they both continued to walk ahead.
She stopped and blinked.
"I'm sorry," said Twilight as her face softened, "I think the pressure is getting to me."
"I'm sorry too," added Dashie, "This... is getting to be too much."
"Oki doki loki!" said the pink pony as if it were all already water under the bridge.
They continued for a while until they came upon something carved into the wall. Twilight stopped to squint at the words once she lit her horn bright enough to see them clearly.
"Well what does it say?" asked Dashie.
"Beware the Black Beast of D'uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."
"What the hay does that even mean?!"
"I have never heard of anything like it!"
"Could that message have been unfinished?" she asked as she cocked her head, "Maybe while under attack?"
"Why by Celestia's horn would they take all the time to carve out all those extra 'h' letters if they were under attack?"
"Don't look at me, bookworm," she replied, "I'm just visiting here."
"Arg," she moaned, "Another mystery for another time."
The two walked ahead while they looked at each other.
Then Pinkie pointed with her hoof as she said, "Oh, look at that nice wooden door!"
They turned to see what Pinkie was looking at dark brown wooden door with brass fixtures and doorknob almost right in front of them.
"That door is way too nice to have been placed there by a Diamond Dog or some ordinary miner," mused Twilight.
Pinkie just pushed her way past RD to open it as she and Twilight just looked at her slack jawed. "What?!" she asked, "I thought we were in a hurry to catch the killer?" Then she casually strolled in before they followed. Once inside, they realized that magical heatless smokeless torches were placed every twenty feet or so along the wall for almost complete illumination. The place was not kept up very well as dust was almost everywhere. It looked like only parts of it had been disturbed and recently. "Wow, this place is just so creepypasta!"
"What da what?!" asked Dashie.
"Nothing!"
"That's odd, but the only door is that one down the hall," mused Twilight, "I wonder if they were going to add more rooms here?"
"Maybe they abandoned the place because it's haunted by ghosties!" said Dashie spookily.
"I giggle at the ghosties!" replied Pinkie.
"Not now," said Twilight.
"What?!"
"Well if Daring Do were here," said Dashie, "She'd slip up to the door and hear what's on the other side."
"Why didn't you do that back at the last door?" asked Twillie.
"Because d'uh! The first door is never the one that has the trap or ambush!"
"So the world is a Daring Do Novel?"
"Well..." she said awkwardly, "How do you know it isn't?!"
Twilight sighed.
"I think that would be really COOL!" gushed Pinkie.
"Have you even read a Daring Do Novel?"
"No," she replied, "Do I have to?"
"It helps," said RD as she came up to the door and listened. "Ahah," she pronounced, "Since I don't hear anything, it must be a trap or an ambush!"
"Huh?" asked the violet unicorn.
"D'uh," said Pinkie, "Obviously Daring Do rules!"
"So what would she do?"
"Open the door and duck!" she replied, "I suggest you two move out of the way of the door."
So Pinkie and Twilight stepped to the opposite sides of the door. Then Dash opened the door and ducked, but nothing happened.
"So?" asked Pinkie eagerly.
"Unless the trap or ambush is in with this old junk, I don't see anything."
"Old junk?" she asked as she and Pinkie looked it. The room was fully of an assortment of valuable antiques of many stripes and types. There was statues, pony busts, oil paintings, jeweled cases and ivory scroll cases. On the walls hung bronze armor pieces, weapons and shields from a bygone era. It was all clearly hundreds of years old. "By Celestia," she gushed, "Such a find..." The room was quite large with another fine door at the other end.
"I'd rather find that killer!" growled Dashie. She moved across the room while the other two marveled at the treasures.
"OH MY CELESTIA!" gushed Pinkie as she looked at something encased in glass on a stand like some kind of museum display, "That's a 400 year old joy buzzer!"
"I don't even want to know how you know that," muttered Twilight as she looked over a Starswirl the Bearded bust.
"Hey, I hear something on the other side," said Dash as she listened.
"Can you hear what's being said?" asked Twilie.
"Something like 'What's with all the blasted CUPCAKES in here?!'" she replied, "I think she said, 'It looks like the Rainbow Factory dumps all of their rainbow toxic waste in here'?"
"I have no clue," muttered Twilight.
"It has to be Gilda," she said as reached for the doorknob, "I'm going in there to take her down!"
"No wait!" called Twilight, but at the same time something else happened.
"This torch is different," said Pinkie as she grabbed it, "Maybe it leads to more... treasury stuff!"
CLICK!! In almost an instant, a huge bronze wall dropped down cutting the room in half with RD on one side and the other two left behind her.
"Blast!" said Twilight as she closed her eyes and her horn glowed brighter, "There's a spell blocking teleportation in here! I guess I'm going to have to do this OLD SCHOOL!" The wall began to glow as she tried to lift it, but it was even heavier than the combined weight of the Ursa Minor and the water tower full of milk. It took all of her focus and several minutes to lift the barrier high enough that they could squirm underneath it. She was too focused to pay attention to anything else going on around her. Even Pinkie was not making a sound. Sweat covered her face as the barrier moved upwards inch by inch. "Almost there," she groaned.
"Okay," said Pinkie at last, "You get on your belly. Then I'll crawl under. Once I'm past, I'll take you by the hooves and pull you through. That way, you won't risk breaking concentration."
"Good... idea..." she panted as she laid on her belly.
Pinkie slipped under, but the door slipped down a little. "Just a little longer!" she pleaded as she grabbed Twilight's hooves, "You can do it!" She dragged Twilight under the door as she strained, and then her will broke. The wall crashed down clipping the hind hooves of Twilight with a huge crash.
"Uh, my hind hooves are caught!" she said as she panted.
"It's lucky I carry a hoof trimming kit as a party favor!" she said as she pulled a box from her mane.
Twilight raised an eyebrow.
"What?" she asked, "You think only Rarity cared about the condition of her hooves?" She took the large hoof file out.
"Forget about me!" pleaded Twilight, "I can get out myself! Go ahead and help Rainbow Dash defeat Gilda!"
"Oki doki loki!" she said as she bounced towards the door.
Twilight turned her head as she used the file to chip away at the edges of her trapped hooves. It took a couple of minutes, and she was sure she was going to getting the third degree from Lotus and Aloe at the next spa visit, but there was no time for being neat.
"OH NO!" screamed Pinkie from the other room.
Once Twilight freed herself, she rushed into a gruesome scene. An ancient spear had been used to impale both Dash and Gilda through their guts. They were facing each other as if they were fighting at the time. The spear was piercing the door behind it by several inches. Both of the bodies were headless, marked by the blood that flowed from their necks.
"Then Gilda couldn't have been the killer at all!!" screamed Twilight.
"Who then?!" asked Pinkie.
There was a trail of blood leading from the bodies to another door across the room, and there was no attempt to hide or contain it. They walked to the ajar door and pushed in to see the walls covered with severed heads. All of the victims and all of their friends were there somehow stuck to trophy plaques. None of the heads seem to have decayed regardless of how long had passed since their deaths. The blood trail came up to a line of trophies starting with Flutters, then Rarity and AJ. The blood trail went up to the heads of RD and Gilda.
Twilight's face contorted into a mask of madness as she slowly turned on Pinkie.
"Twilight?" asked Pinkie.
"It all makes sense now," she chuckled darkly, "All of it!"
"What does?"
"The killer!" she yelled, "IT'S YOU!! YOU MONSTER!!"
"What?!" she replied, "Are you loco in the cocoa?!"