Madness

by ManeWriter

Chapter 3

“Pinkie… What are you doing with that needle?!”

“What’s the matter Sparkle, afraid of needles” Pinkie said in a dark and dreaded tone. Twilight knew where she heard Sparkle before, but couldn’t quite remember. It seemed familiar somehow, but no pony ever called her that. She slowly backed up step by agonizing step till she ran into the back wall. Behind her was a decapitated head of scootaloo, still fresh with bits of meat left rotting on the bone.

“AAAAA!” Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs breaking the frightening silence. She backed up frantically from the skull only to find pinkie staring up at her with a deranged smile.

“That’s all folks!” Pinkie said with a menacing yet innocent laugh. She swung the needle, but twilight held it up with her magic.

“RRR… I knew I should have removed that damn thing from your head!!!” Pinkie said with a furious anger. She struggled to get the needle into twilight’s shoulder, but didn’t have the strength to fight twilight’s magic. Pinkie was pushed away from twilight with a bubble, the same one used to protect her ironically.

“Pinkie I need answers! Where am I, what is going on, what have you done to my friends?!”

“Oh silly, haven’t you learned? Sometimes the best things in life are the things you don’t know”

“ANSWERS PINKIE, I NEED ANSWERS!!”

“Tsk… Tsk… Tsk… you should already know that yourself twilight, after all I did leave your quill and note paper by your side. You’re not the only one taking notes Sparkle” she said with a devilish tone represented by that evil smirk of hers.

“But… how… I…”

“I noticed you were still unconscious, so I thought you could use some time to chill, too bad that infuriating door never works.”

“What about the chocolate milk?!” Twilight said in a rampaging tone.

“It was a gift, from a friend” Pinkie said laughing hysterically yet maniacally. “If you want all the answers Twilight, you’ll have to pull them from my lifeless carcass!” Pinkie said fiercely. This time she wasn’t playing any mind games, she knew what she was doing. Using her more than famous speed, she caught up to twilight in the blink of an eye and smacked her upside the head. Twilight fell to the floor with the force of a buck from applejack. She was dazed and confused with little to rely on other than her own self morals. She shook her head and toughened her stance ready to charge.

“Alright Pinkie, if that’s how you like to party, then lets party” Twilight said with an evil grudge. Normally she would have backed out to preserve her friend’s life, but her only way to the truth stood between her and Pinkie. The chaotic silence returned with only the sounds of the ponies breathing. Their stare was menacing towards each other with a burning fury curable to death. Twilight made the 1st move after breaking the stare between them. Her horn shined dark purple and picked up the cart full of tools and tossed it besides Pinkie. Pinkie acted swiftly with only a slight cut on her left back hoof. She became furious and charged at Twilight with the needle in her hoof stampeding with feet of fury. Pinkie was swinging and throwing around the needle furiously like a machete rather than a medical procedure. The contents spilled everywhere leaving acidic imprints on the blood stained floors. Twilight had to keep backing up, but Pinkie was catching on quick.

“It will NOT end this way, DO you hear me Pinkie!” Twilight said while desperately backing her way out of the maniac’s swing distance. Pinkie appeared not to care, her blood shot eyes showed she was too set track on finishing Twilight like she should have done a long time ago.

“It’s over Sparkle, its OVER!!” Pinkie screamed when she was close enough to swing the needle. Pinkie was inches from Twilight and was about to strike, but Twilight noticed she dropped her exacto knife. She picked up the knife and threw it at the luminary tube sitting above where Pinkie stood. The bulb broke in a chemical explosion spreading around a 10 foot radius. The contents of the light tube reacted to Pinkie’s skin like hot mercury. Twilight was screaming frantically as she watched Pinkie’s skin burn slowly and painfully. The pink pony struggled to grip onto life with her last words spurting out of her blood drenched mouth.

“It’s not over Twilight… It’s… Not… Ove-“ Collapsing on the floor next to her procedure desk. The skin on her eyes burnt to a crisp, the layer of fur melted with a slowly painful hardening of the content. Whatever that tube of light was Pinkie used for her procedures, it was beyond any ponies’ knowledge. She gasped and gave silence to her fallen friend. She passed a slight look around the slaughter room and noticed an object reflecting fiercely from the burning bright content covered over Pinkie’s face.

It appeared to be a pendant of some sort with a gold plated chain and a design of a tiger’s claw. It had a pink glow to it surrounded in a blistering bright polish. She turned the pendant around to reveal some text on its back side.

“What a strange charm, why does it remind me of something…” She questioned as she stared at it more and more. She decided to read the cursive styled writing on the back of the pendant reading “Element of Manslaughter”, which only looked like gibberish to her.

“Ele… Ell… Eleman… o… Man…Mansla…Mansl” having trouble reading the fuzzy, ill proper sized text. She read word by word reading them out and taking notes on what they could possibly mean. She wrote down every word that came to her mind as fast as she could possibly write.

“Elective of Manager… no that’s not right. Elemore is Messanger… who is elemore?” curiously writing out until she figured it out.

“Elements… of… Manslaughter… but what does that mean?” Twilight pondered until she started to realize its double meaning.

“Elements of Manslaughter… Manslaughter… LAUGHTER!” she panicked in an ingenious state. She stood taller and prepped her head up in a way a governor gives speeches.

“Manslaughter is spelled with Laughter… but why Manslaughter?!” she couldn’t quite remember until it hit her! The tiger claw’s relations, the familiarities with the elements, she remembered everything!

“DISCORD! He must be up to this, it only makes sense.” She said in a flash of confidence. She finally made sense of everything now, the chocolate milk floors, the ponies calling her Sparkle, and the messed up characteristics.

“If this is supposed to represent the element of laughter… then rainbow dash’s element must be in here as well.” She checked through every drawer, searched all the cabinets until she looked upon the ceiling noticing rainbow dash’s severed head laying front heavy on a pike still dripping the remainders of blood.

“Sigh… well here goes nothing…” Twilight said with a less than egger tone. She tried to grab the element with her horn, but her magic seemed ineffective, she would have to grab it manually. She grabbed the closest tool cart she could find and used it as a kick stand. Unbalanced and wobbly, she fell face first into the side of the pike and knocked rainbow dash’s head off which landed right on her chest.

“AGH! GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF”. She tossed rainbow dash’s head across the room in panic only to notice the element fell off her neck half way across the room onto the floor sitting close by twilight. She presumed to pick it up and noticed it was discord’s body on this pendant with a blue glow. She turned it around and it read the words “Element of Misfortune”, this time more legible than pinkies.

“The element of misfortune… yeah no kidding, poor rainbow.” She said with a depressed mood swing knowing not only 1, but 2 of her friends died. When she took both the elements, they snapped in place together like earthly strong magnets.

“The elements connect, this has to mean something!” In desperation, she thought of what pinkie said when she was about to fight her.

“You’re not the only one taking notes sparkle”. Twilight thought of pinkie’s quote and broke it down mentally.

“If I’m not the only one taking notes… then who is?!” she quickly pulled out her note page to notice it became blank.

“But how… I… how? I had all my notes in here top to bottom, where did they go?!” She checked both sides to notice on the back side was a picture of discord uncolored and unprofessionally sketched. Whoever made this picture made it in a hurry; the poorly erased lines prove it.

“Whatever this photo means, I can’t simply let go of it. I’ll take pinkie’s word.” She then presumed to slip her quill and note paper back into her back pocket and walk towards the final iron door shining an aura of golden sunlight. “It’s only begun…” Twilight said as she pressed forward through the iron plated door into the wakes of light.