My Little Doubt

by Knackerman

Boss Fight

Twilight Sparkle checked the first library. Though the room was now quiet a mess from their many previous searches, there was nowhere a pony could really hide and not be spotted. She double checked behind the shelving that there were no hidden doors or other surprises before moving on. Now that she was alone, the silence of the caverns was starting to play on her mind.Twilight's nerves had already been pushed to their limit, but now it seemed she was becoming hyper aware of her surroundings. Every distant plink of dripping water, every beat of her own heart, echoed in her head. She almost felt as though she would be deafened by the roar of her own blood rushing through her veins.

Twilight came to the door that had been jammed before, behind which she knew Rainbow Dash's body still hung. She couldn't be in there, could she? The door is stuck. But whoever the killer was, she'd had a way of getting into that room at least once before. As Twilight reached her hoof to the door, it swung open easily. Earlier Applejack and Twilight combined couldn't force it open, and now it swung open with such ease? Twilight stepped into the room cautiously, the limb to which she had tied her crowbar raised to ward off any sudden attack. She needn't have worried, the room was small, the only thing in it was a bed. That, and Rainbow Dash's corpse of course. This was the first time she'd been able to see the sad remains in up close. Dashie's jaw hung open, tongue lolled out. The killer had slashed the edges of the pegasus' mouth, giving her a crimson grin from ear to ear, a smile that looked all the more disturbing with only the whites of the flier's eyes showing.

Twilight had to marshal her will to turn away from the sad remains of her friend and scan the room to make sure there wasn't anything she had missed. Her eyes were drawn to a pool of blood far away from Dash's body near the door. How could the gore from her friends demise splash all the way over here? She looked closer at the floor next to the door and noticed a patch where the crystal had been severely scuffed and scratched up. It's as if something was really forcefully scraping against it. Was the reason we couldn't open the door earlier because something was wedged into it from the other side? Twilight thought to herself. Could the killer have shoved that axe into the gap beneath the door to jam it? Then would that mean somepony else had been in this room that whole time? The thought made Twilight shiver. Loud noises suddenly echoed through the cavern, one after the other, like cannon fire. Outside, the hallway was suddenly plunged into darkness. Twilight abruptly found herself blind.

Taking several deep breaths to calm herself, Twilight focused her magic around her horn. Her head still ached from all the trauma it had suffered over the last day and a half, but she was finding it easier to work through the pain. Everything was alright. The glow crystals had just lost their charge again. It wasn't a surprise really. She hadn't recharged them in some time. Focusing her power she willed her magic to recharge the crystals...but instead only managed to make a shimmering fog around her hooves that flared and died. The glow crystals had been smashed to dust. Was that the plan then? Was the killer going to try and sneak up on her in the pitch black darkness? Why even bother? "What's wrong? I'm the only one left right? Why don't you come out and kill me then!?" Twilight suddenly screamed, "COME OUT, YOU COWARD!"

She panted for breath, not so much from shouting as an effort to rein in her roiling emotions. Part of Twilight didn't even care if she died at this point. At least then this would all be over! I can't let her keep toying with me like this. I'm playing right into her hooves. Standing in the dark, the only source of light spilling from her horn, was likely only serving to make Twilight an easy target. If she was going to end this, she needed to be proactive, and not just wait for the killer to seek her out. Steeling herself, she moved on to the next room. The bathroom seemed even more menacing without any lights. Somehow it rendered the foul stench of the place more urgent, assaulting Twilight's nostrils with a repulsive bouquet the source of which she did not wish to speculate upon.

Her light swept back and forth in the darkness. She's not here? Twilight paused. Had she just caught a flicker of movement, or was it a trick of the light playing over the crystalline walls? No. She might be hiding in one of the stalls. One by one, Twilight went down the row of stalls, kicking in each door one after the other. When she got to the last stall, she grit her teeth, ready for whatever might be waiting for her on the other side. What she saw she wasn't prepared for. Nothing. There was nothing. No pony was in here. In a fit of frustration, she buried the hooked end of the crowbar in the stall wall. The metal stuck fast there, leaving the chain dangling between Twilight and the wall. Calm down, calm down, Twilight thought to herself, though the muscle beneath her right eye was starting to twitch. If she's not here then where is she? A soft, steady plink came from directly behind Twilight, like dripping water. Only the sinks were over by the door. Oh no.

The killer, dressed in a loose fitting robe and bizarre rabbit mask, raised it's bloody axe high and brought it down at Twilight's face. Reacting more on instinct than anything, Twilight stretched her chain taught between herself and the killing blade just in time to block the lethal edge. She could have sworn she saw sparks. "So you've finally come out huh? Well it's about time!" Before she could say more the killer's axe fell again, breaking the chain and burying itself in the stall door next to Twilight's head. As the murderer struggled to pry the axe free, Twilight saw her chance. With a quick burst of magic she freed her crowbar and slammed the hooked end into the killers forelimb, and then again into one of her hind limbs, sending her attacker crashing to the floor. "Hah! Now I've got you..." but before Twilight could do anything else, her assailant slammed her forehead into her own, smacking her horn and causing her light spell to sputter and flicker. Then she did something Twilight hadn't expected at all, and started trying to hobble away. The enraged princess was not about to let her friends killer slip away again, "Oh no you don't!"

Not trusting her magic to light her way and manipulate objects at the same time, Twilight picked up her crowbar in her teeth and chased after the masked killer as quickly as she could. A tell -tail trail of blood splattered the stairs leading up to the upper floor. "I won't let you get away!" she hissed through clenched teeth as she flew up the steps. The killer turned as she drew near and took a wide swing with her axe with enough force to cleave through the metal banister. If Twilight hadn't anticipated the move, she would've lost her head there and then. With a surge of strength fueled by her righteous anger, she slammed the killer into the door of the upstairs room. The stone gave way easily, as if it had no longer been sealed. Within hung the body she had seen on the monitor before, stabbed through with multiple stakes. Twilight couldn't afford to let yet another grizzly scene distract her from the killer beneath her hooves, "I've got you! Lets see who you really are!" Twilight cried triumphantly. Using the crowbar, she flipped the mask off the killer, revealing her true face at last. Twilight's eyes grew wide in shock. "It can't be! You're dead!" Her eyes flickered between the hanging corpse and the killer pinned to the floor. In that moment of hesitation, the killer capitalized, slamming the blunt side of the axe hard against Twilight's shoulder and knocking her off. Rising slowly, the murderer loomed over Twilight. "I don't understand...why would you kill everyone!? Are you really a changeling after all?" but the only reply Twilight received was another blow from the blunt end of the axe, to the side of her head. As the light of her spell died so did the light behind her eyes, and she collapsed to the floor.
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Twilight awoke and almost immediately plunged into the darkness beneath her. It was a close call and one that made her already aching head swim with vertigo. She tried to back away, but found herself pressing against metal bars. It took her a moment to realize she was on the wrong side of the upper floors banister. She only had her hind hooves to stand on, as her forelimbs were tied behind her back. The same rope that held her limbs was also bound tight around her wings. How had anypony managed to balance her in such a precarious position while she was unconscious? "Careful. You shouldn't move around too much," came a voice from behind Twilight. "You're smart aren'tcha Twilight? You should know all about carotid arteries. If you cut off the circulation, you can die a painless death. But if you were to fall like you are now, you'd just crack your head open and I'm sure that would hurt." Twilight felt something slip over her head. A noose tightened around her neck. "There, now it'll be okay," whispered Pinkie Pie sweetly in her ear, "Now you don't have to feel any pain Twilight."

"Why are you doing this Pinkie?" asked Twilight. "Why are you playing this sick game?"

"Because you lied," said the pink pony matter-of-factly.

"What do you mean by that? What do you mean I lied, Pinkie?" When she didn't get a response, Twilight almost started to cry. "What lie is so bad it could possibly justify all this madness!? Well!? Answer me!"

"Hush. If it means that much to you, I'll explain. This world is full of nothing but secrets and lies, secrets and lies! So I decided to punish the liars." Pinkie tugged on the noose, forcing Twilight's head back just enough so they could look at each other eye to eye. Pinkie's eyes were almost completely blank, glazed over with insanity. "Can you honestly say you've never lied to me?"

"What reason...would I have to...lie to a friend?" Twilight struggled to ask, the rope cutting into her windpipe.

"Then what about your sigil Twilight? A lie by omission is still a lie." Pinkie relaxed her grip on the rope. Twilight's head fell forward as she gasped for air. "You know, at first, I intended to put a sigil on everypony. A lot of ponies think I'm silly, but I know a lot about old stories and legends that even Celestia herself has forgotten. Magics so old that they could be used by any kind of pony who if she knew the right words, the right inscriptions. All it really takes is a little blood and, wouldn't you know it, there's just bucket fulls of the stuff inside a pony!" Pinkie said with a sinister little giggle. "So I gathered everypony here while you were all still knocked out. After that I was planning on tricking all of you into killing each other. But I just couldn't do it. I thought maybe if you were the only one who didn't have a sigil, you'd be the very first pony they'd suspect. That way you'd be bound to get locked up...and while you were I could just kill everypony else. Then once everypony was dead and the game was over, the two of us could escape from here together..." Twilight felt Pinkie's forelimbs wrap around her torso suddenly. As Pinkie's warm body pressed into her back, Twilight realized with surprise she was being hugged. "If you had only told the truth, honestly, I could just have let things run their course and then I'm sure from that point on, we could have been together. Just like always." Twilight cried out in pain as Pinkie bit down hard on her ear. Something warm and wet dribbled down her neck, blood or saliva, neither were welcome options. "But you lied!"

"No!" cried Twilight. "That isn't fair! I was just scared of being the only one without a sigil. Besides, I only lied that one time!"

"You only lied that one time, huh?" asked Pinkie sadly. "Then I guess you really don't remember." Pinkie pulled away from Twilight, but stayed close. "Fluttershy told me that she had been out of town helping to care for a very sick manticore in the Everfree Forest. Fluttershy! She's been a bit braver since making friends with Discord, but there's no way she'd go into those woods alone for something as simple as that. Rainbow Dash, on the other hoof, said she had to go to mandatory Wonderbolt's training. Only, it couldn't have been very mandatory given none of the other pegasi in Ponyville who are in training attended." Pinkie kicked the metal railing in anger, causing it to shake and Twilight to almost lose her footing. "And then Rarity...our dear little miss Rarity. She sent me a card saying she was dreadfully ill and just couldn't make it. Funny how she was healthy enough to still go to all those fashion shows in Canterlot. Apparently she had become quite the sensation among the social elite. I wish they could've seen her, mascara running, her stupid fake eyelashes peeling off of those big blue blood-shot eyes when I chopped off her head!" Pinkie giggled again. "See? They're all liars. Come to think of it, there's one other liar aside from you who isn't dead yet."

"You mean...Applejack?" Twilight asked. "Pinkie you have to stop this. What good will come of continuing this insanity? Yes, we missed your birthday and I'm sorry, I really am, but that doesn't justify killing all of your friends! Besides, I know Applejack would never lie to you!"

"You really don't know anything, do you Twilight," the party pony said through clenched teeth. "Oh, sure, Applejack says she's been going off to compete in rodeo's to make money for her family, but despite the multiple championships she claims to win, she's never brought home any money. It turns out she hasn't even entered any rodeos. She's just been going off and laying claim to accolades she hasn't earned, all the while leaving her poor, overworked family to take care of the farm. Not to mention abandoning the friends she no longer has time for. Tell me Twilight, what kind of 'Element of Honesty' does that sound like to you!?" As Pinkie said this Twilight felt the rope of the noose slip between the ropes that bound her wings. With a few tugs, Pinkie tied Twilight securely to the banister. "You know Twilight, I really believed that you would tell me the truth. That's why I gave you, and only you, a second chance. But you failed. And now I really can't forgive you." Pinkie started trotting down the stairs. It was only then that Twilight got a good look at her in the gloom. Her usually curly hair had gone completely straight, and the madness glowing in her eyes shone brightly through the darkness. "Don't bother trying to undo your ropes with your little magic tricks. Were you getting any headaches when you tried to use your powers before? If you were a unicorn, you wouldn't have been able to do any magic with the drugs I gave you. But that's fine, I've upped the dosage now. Even an alicorn shouldn't be able to use magic without sending an icepick of pain stabbing into her brain. But you know? It wouldn't surprise me if you tried anyways. You've always had a real knack for hurting yourself." Pinkie disappeared into the darkness below, singing a happy little song.

Was she bluffing? Was there really some kind of drug that could do that to a pony? Twilight tried to concentrate but just as Pinkie had warned, she immediately felt a pain sharper than any she had ever known run from the tip of her cracked horn straight down through the base of her skull and into her spine. Waves of nausea welled up inside her, causing her to gag and dry heave. For the first time she was glad she hadn't eaten anything in over a day. The ropes were too tight to wriggle free of. For all intents and purposes Twilight was trapped. From below, she could hear the sound of something heavy being drug along the floor. Then a steady thunk, thunk, thunk, as Pinkie reappeared on the stairs. She was dragging Applejack behind her by her tail. The steady thumping was the sound of the farm ponies head bouncing off of each step. Pinkie didn't seem to notice, or perhaps she just didn't care. The pink pony grinned up at Twilight, her smile shining like a scythe blade in the darkness. "Pinkie, I don't believe you'd just be doing this because your friends were a little too busy to pay you enough attention. I know you, and this isn't like you at all. Please, can you just tell me what's really going on?"

Pinkie heaved Applejack's unconscious form onto the balcony's landing, her smile turning up at the corners as the farm ponies head made one final, sickening thud against the cavern floor. "I guess it's a fairly common story. My father was the type who never learned to distrust other ponies. So when one of his friends told him about this fantastic investment opportunity in Manehatten, well it never occurred to him not to jump at the news and take out a mortgage loan. You have to understand, my father wasn't greedy, he honestly thought he was doing a favor for a friend. The profits he should've made would have gone to pay back the loan and maybe pay for a few new tools around the farm. That was it. So when the investment fell through and my fathers friend left him to shoulder the weight of all that debt...well." Pinkie mimed putting her own head in a noose and choking. "Since his was the only name on the loan agreement, it was the only way he could think of to keep from losing the farm. Mom found him hanging from the gantry in the silo. The doctors told her it was a painless death, but the scratch marks around his throat where the rope cut into his neck make me think otherwise. I guess you could say it's just another example in a long line of liars." Tears spilled from the pink ponies eyes, but she never stopped smiling. "My dad was way too nice to go on living in this world full of liars. Meanwhile the ones who lie go on living, and laughing without a care in the world. So I decided, if because of them innocent ponies will die, I'll just kill the liars!" Pinkie grunted as she finished tying Applejacks limbs behind the ponies injured back. "You know, I don't think I brought enough rope to make another noose. I'll be right back. Don't worry, I'll try not to keep you waiting." Pinkie winked cheerfully as she bounded down the stairs and was completely enveloped in darkness.
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Comments

[Ecstatic]

Part of Twilight didn't even care if she died at this point. At least then this would all be over! I can't let her keep toying with me like this. I'm playing right into her hooves.

More gender assumptions, Twilight?

Her light swept back and forth in the darkness. She's not here? Twilight paused. Had she just caught a flicker of movement, or was it a trick of the light playing over the crystalline walls? No. She might be hiding in one of the stalls.

Yea, you know, the one that has held a Spooky Monster since the beginning, great deduction.

"I don't understand...why would you kill everyone!? Are you really a changeling after all?"

Everypony.

"If you had only told the truth, honestly, I could just have let things run their course and then I'm sure from that point on, we could have been together. Just like always." Twilight cried out in pain as Pinkie bit down hard on her ear. Something warm and wet dribbled down her neck, blood or saliva, neither were welcome options. "But you lied!"

Kinky, and there's the TwilightxPinkie too, but it seems our psychotic little pink mare isn't content to elope with her anymore, the sadness, the negative feels, the weird motivation for killing off everypony else.

"My dad was way too nice to go on living in this world full of liars. Meanwhile the ones who lie go on living, and laughing without a care in the world. So I decided, if because of them innocent ponies will die, I'll just kill the liars!"

Well, that makes a twisted kind of sense when viewed through the patented psychotic magnifying glass.

You'd still better have an angry/bloody make-out session with Twilight, Pinkie, and decide not to kill her after all.

[PaulAsaran]

Aaaaaw, crap. Here I was hoping for something more original, and we get another "Pinkie is a psychopath" story. I am profoundly disappointed.

But there's still some mystery left. According to Applejack, she and Pinkie were attacked by a figure in the clinic. Since it seems likely she was telling the truth, who then did the attacking? There's another body in that room – a body Twilight mistook for Pinkie, so it must at least have the same coat color. Somepony helped Pinkie set this up, and then got killed for doing so, and I want to know who.

[Kato The Green Being]

3230829 In the show, if ponies dont know a gender they say she instead of he.