//------------------------------//
// How It Began 
// Story: Plague 
// by Even Evil Has Standards 
//------------------------------//

       Rainbow Dash tried to get up, but couldn't. She opened her eyes and looked around; what met her sight shocked her. She was in a dark room with a hanging lamp the only source of light. But even the gory decorations (that's as far as I'm going) couldn't compare to what was truly devastating (though they did spook her...who wouldn't be?) "Pinkie Pie, how could you be the one behind all this? I never would've guessed."

Said pony was a few feet away in her...Victor Zsaasz dress, if you catch my drift, clutching a skin knife. She giggled, "I'm full of surprises, as you can plainly see. I don't find being surprising all that hard. Catchy tune, that".

"But why?" Rainbow Dash sounded like she was going to cry. "Why would you do something like this? This isn't the Pinkie Pie I know."

Pinkie Pie dropped the knife as uncertainty flared up inside her. As she studied it, she forced a giggle. "What can I say? I'm a good actress." She forced a grin that didn't last long. "Or AM I?"

Rainbow Dash fought back her tears. It wasn't easy. "You mean you've been like this the whole time? You've gone and tricked us all?" She was losing the tear battle. "I've always treasured the good times we've had. But after all the challenges we've faced, you'd kill me over some stupid cupcakes?!? What's wrong with you?!? How would it be if I had said something similar?!?"

Pinkie Pie's uncertainty grew, so much so that it began to show. "I don't like the way you're talking."

"Oh yeah? Well I don't like your acting."
"I'm not acting! I'm serious!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Yes! Yes! YES!"
"NO! NO! NO!"
Pinkie Pie's mane blew back from the force of Rainbow Dash's voice. "Don't make me angry."

But Rainbow Dash said something that got an unexpected result. "What would happen if Percy's number came up?"

Pinkie Pie dropped the knife again. "P... P... Percy?"
"You might not have noticed, but we did see the love in your eyes as we got acquainted with the Sudrians. Plus, you've been leaning on each other ever since Thomas died. Forget about what might happen if he saw this. What would happen if he was to be a part of this?"

Pinkie Pie's mane and tail deflated as she fell to the floor, sobbing. "You don't understand. He's the reason why I'm doing all this."

Rainbow Dash was confused. "How could some pony like him get you to do something like this?"

"It's not what you think. Thomas isn't dead."
"WHAT?!?
"It all started in the days that followed the day we set Thomas' body adrift in the longboat. In the dark of the night, I was tossing and turning. The nightmare I had didn't start out as bad as can be, but it took a turn for the worse."

CUE FLASHBACK

Pinkie Pie was having a lunch break at Sugarcube Corner. She had invited Percy who only ate a cupcake halfheartedly. Everyone had been in a gray spot since Thomas had "died". He would've returned to Sodor, but she had asked him to stay with her, offering to be his shoulder to cry on. However, she was beginning to see him as more than a friend.                                             

"You know Percy-wercy, I've been thinking of a way to cheer every pony up after the series of unfortunate events..         

"But how, Pinkie," sighed Percy, "Thomas was my best friend. Not even a party could cheer me up." 

Pinkie Pie laughed nervously. "Actually, I've been thinking about a wedding."

This seemed to get Percy's attention. "A wedding? But who would want to get married at a time like this?"

"No pony!" hissed a Christopher Lloyd esque voice. Suddenly, ghostly white bats with a deathly green teal came out of nowhere and flew around and around. Everything in Pinkie's dream began to spin as well. When it died down, she found herself in a dark library.                  

"Hey, what gives?" she demanded.
The bats flew over to a ghostly reliquary that had serpents encircling the glass. As they flew into the skull at the top, it was pulled up by an elderly, six-fingered ram dressed in monk's robes. 


Welcome to my library. 
Screwtape is my name.
There are stories of which you will see
Will force you to play this deadly game.


He sent his minions to the crooked shelves. They returned to him carrying books, circling around the two. Each one was presented to Screwtape. As he named each plot, the book was passed to Pinkie Pie, who had no choice, but to skim through them. And boy, were they terrifying!


There was a gray mare who played an instrument,
But she refused to give it many flings.
She only did it because of an abusive parent,
Black magic, and bloody puppet strings.

Two ponies were lost from a princess friend.
After that, her other friends' lives were never a ball
Because to ensure that their lives would never end,
The princess pressed each of them into a separate doll!


Pinkie Pie was horrified. But it didn't end there. A fallen book was picked up by a female draconequus.


There once was a mare who taught fillies.
She decided to take up gardening, for the job wasn't at all very fun.
But she didn't plant begonias, irises, freesias, cry-manthesums, or lilies,
She planted the bodies of her students, each and every one!

There was another mare who wanted a child.
But all logical means she left behind.
For the means she did use weren't so mild.
She kidnapped a friend and psychologically broke her mind!


Pinkie Pie began cowering in terror. These stories were getting to be too much.
"Why would anyone want to write such sick stories? WHY?!?" she wailed.


Some do it for twisted fun.*
But when those stories they have hurled,
Others write their own to fight each creepy one.
It's their secret of survival in a very nasty world!
Is it really such a nasty world?
Oh yes. A very nasty world.


Pinkie Pie whirled around and was shocked to find a gray unicorn stallion enter the scene. He had wrinkles on his face, a 0 cutie mark, and seemed to be unaware that he was leaking blood, nor did he appear to be trailing any. "T... T... T... Timothy?"

"Yes," he growled. "It is me. My ego, Thomas, was found by Eris. She nursed him back to health and fed him and in return, he told her everything. When he made to leave, she showed him all sorts of visions of his so-called friends enjoying their lives without him, even ridiculing him. All because that prissy princess deliberately delayed a vital message just so she could have him to herself. 

"But Twilight would never do anything like that," protested Pinkie Pie.

"ENOUGH!" Timothy then selected two other books from the shelves and began sing.


Enough about ponies, let's talk about trains. 
This story was about their behavior, but first!
They had to undergo transformations because they was humanes.°
The processes went well until the end where they would cook until they'd burst!
HA!
Then there's my ego. They say he finds young ones fun.
But what they say is not what comes from their breath.
For here's a story where he does them in, every one.
When they get on a bus, he runs them over and squashes them to death!


Pinkie Pie felt like she was going to be sick. "Why are you telling me all this? What do you want from me." The 3 villains said nothing. Screwtape's minions flew of in 3 groups and each returned with a book, which they presented to their master and his allies.


These 3 are about a Pegasus who's both victim and vil-lain.
One where she has a dream that leaves her mentally askew.
She tries to perish the thought, but it was all in vain.
Until she resorted to killing the source which was YOU!


Timothy pointed a bloody hoof at Pinkie Pie. 


Here's one where she ran a factor
Where rainbows  were made of every pony that flies.
She put her job above everything, especially her family.
Her own sister failed, was done in, her last words were, "You have beautiful eyes".

Victim story's acknowledgement will never end.
This one's a nightmare that goes on, leaving every pony with mental aches.
YOU go and kidnap and torture a close friend.
It gets worse when it's revealed that every pony is ground into cupcakes!


Pinkie Pie was beginning to change her mind about why she was here. She found out anyway. It became clear that they were going to make the latter story a reality.


By doing this, we'll make this jolly land a place they long to leave. We'll be ridding them of goodness, loving, and cheer, see?
No more caring, kindness, or Hearth's Warming Eve.
Won't cooperate? We'll not only expose the book, but you'll say goodbye to precious Percy!


Screwtape's reliquary spewed green smoke that showed a moving image of King Sombra's defeat. Now Pinkie Pie was at a crossroads; a Hoofson's choice, if you will.She didn't want to be a serial killer. But if she didn't, one pony would die, and not just any pony, some pony she loved. It was all too much. It still sounded hypocritical to take so many lives or lose a very close one.  Extremely reluctantly, she held up a hoof. 

"And we are there! Bam." remarked Eris. She placed her eagle claw on the pink hoof. Screwtape followed suite with his 3-fingered hand as well as Timothy with his bloody gray hoof. Almost immediately, a dark glow followed. When it cleared, Pinkie and Eris were gone.           


Sugarcube Corner-Basement
  
Pinkie Pie stared around. It seemed so...empty. That is, until Eris flicked on the only lightbulb. It was still empty, except for the tool tray. (Do I have to describe them?)

"Here's the deal," said Eris "I need you to this because I am doing this for sicker grins than my brother Discord. Screwtape is doing this because he's evil and wants to go farther than Tirek, as well as his brother Grogar, in world domination. Timothy is doing this because for him, it's another way of collecting pony souls that he needs to become that gargoyle ego. Basically, this tends to our needs. As for you, well, ask the sergeant what made that story."