Laughter in the Night

by Robipony

Laughter in the Night

Roseluck awoke with a screaming headache. Her head pounded so hard, Roseluck thought her head might explode.

“Ouch! What happened? Where am I?” The pale yellow mare sat up, pushing her raspberry-red mane from her eyes. All four of her pale yellow legs were bound in medical tape, covering up the injuries she had suffered earlier this month. Despite her legs injuries Roseluck was able to walk around normally.

Feeling something weird around her neck, Roseluck raised a hoof to feel what was hanging there. From what she could tell, it was some sort of collar.

“I wonder where that came from.” Looking around, Roseluck discovered that she was in a room. It looks almost like a cave but with disco balls hanging from the ceiling; filing cabinets lining the walls covered in confetti; and even a full balloon slowly shifting to the air coming from the ventilation system. Turning around, Roseluck discovered that she had been lying atop some crumpled presents below a yellow slide. Did she fall down the slide into this room?

In another area of the room was a vending machine with a wide array of beverages. Curious, Roseluck walked over and examined the machine more closely. There was a wide assortment of drinks, including Chocolate Milk Rain, Berry Cola, Rocky Root Beer, Dr. Jalapeño, and more. Looking the machine over, Roseluck noticed that there was a coin slot on the machine for money to be inserted.

“Is it free?” Pushing one of the buttons Roseluck was surprised when the machine released a can into the slot. Free soda, how interesting. As Roseluck picked up the can of Bubble Gum Delight, popped it open, and took a sip, she noticed something on the wall.

On the wall, hidden behind some streamers, were the words, “What Have You Done?!” written in some sort of dark liquid. Finishing the can of Bubble Gum Delight, Roseluck threw the can into a small garbage bin that sat next to some of the filing cabinets.

Something on the ground glistened, drawing Roseluck’s attention to a large kitchen knife that was lying on the floor. Its blade was sticky and red with blood. The object puzzled Roseluck; it had been a long time since she had used a knife.

Roseluck picked up the knife and looked around the room, searching for an exit, when she saw a door hidden in the shadows. Walking up to the door, Roseluck realized it was pink with six symbols carved in a circular formation. The stainless steel door knob was cold to the touch.

Opening the door, Roseluck stepped into the room. In contrast to the previous room, this room was brightly lit with yellow wallpaper. Six small pink tables were chaotically scattered throughout the room, and broken chairs lay on the purple floor. On each of the tables were plates with cupcakes on top. Hanging from the ceiling on long strands of metal wire were what appeared to be ponies.

Across one of the walls was a banner that read: “Every Day Is a Party!”

At the other end of the room was another door, only this time, there was a pink mare with a blue and pink cannon standing in the way. Roseluck thought that the mare might be Pinkie Pie, but her mane was all different. It seemed straighter then it had been the last time they met.

“Hello there, Roseluck.” Pinkie Pie spoke in a not-so-cheery voice.

---

Applejack was sitting on the couch in the living room, trying to read a book before going to sleep, when she heard a strange noise from outside near the barn. At first, she shrugged it off as maybe just a small rabbit, but once Winona started barking, Applejack knew that something was up.

Putting on her hat and grabbing a flashlight, Applejack walked out to the door and into the night air. As she walked toward the barn, Applejack began to grow exceedingly apprehensive. She looked toward the apple tree and expected to see some vampire fruit bats looking back at her but saw no eyes among the leaves.

She carefully approached the barn, not wanting to disturb anything that might be trying to cause trouble. Yet whatever it was seemed to have stopped whatever it was doing. The night was now quiet, and even Winona had stopped barking.

“Hello?” Applejack called out as she slowly opened the barn door, “Is anypony there?”

There was no response. Applejack slowly walked into the barn, holding her flashlight out before her. Looking around, Applejack saw some of the hay tossed about as if whipped up by a strong gust of wind. Aside from this, however, nothing seemed to be disturbed.

Applejack sighed. “Perhaps it was just the wind that scared Winona.”

As she said this, Winona barked again and something glistened out of the corner of her eye. Applejack turned as a knife plunged into her side. The sudden pain caused Applejack to drop her flashlight.

The farm mare screamed and tried to kick at her assailant, who dodged Applejack’s attack and scurried back into the shadows, taking the knife with it. Blood gushed from the wound as the blade was pulled free. Instinctively, Applejack pressed her hoof against the wound in order to prevent herself from bleeding out.

“Who are ya!” Applejack growled, “Show yer self!”

Despite her outburst the assailant remained silent, not wanting to give away his or her location. Instead they continued to stalk their prey from the darkness. The sound of a knife scrapping against wood drew Applejack’s attention to the other end of the barn.

“What do ya want?” Applejack called out. There was still no response.

Why was this pony doing this? Was it something Applejack had done? Had she accidentally offended somepony? If so, this was a little drastic.

Winona started to bark but suddenly cut off with a bloody, gurgling whine.

“Winona!”

Applejack turned back to the barn door to see Winona’s body thrown into the room. The farm dog’s throat was cut clean through. Winona’s eyes had rolled up into the back of her head.

“WINONA!”

Despite her attempts to save Winona, it was clear that the dog was dead. As Applejack bewailed the loss of her faithful farm companion, Applejack felt another blade stab into her back, severing her spinal cord. No longer having control of her legs, Applejack fell to the ground.

"Come on out!"

Applejack tried to stand, but her hind legs wouldn't let her. Instead, Applejack had to use her forelegs to hold herself up. While her hind legs were gone, she was still far from helpless. Looking around, Applejack saw a pitchfork near the barn door.

Her back hurt as Applejack dragged her lower half to the barn door. The assailant must have guessed what she was planning, for they dashed out of the shadows and stabbed Applejack in the shoulder blades before rushing back into the darkness. Despite Applejack's desire to fight, her strength was now gone, and she collapsed.

Lying on the ground, Applejack thought she heard some giggling as her assailant walked away towards the house.

"What! No! Come back here!"

But the assailant didn't listen and continued their way towards the house. A few minutes later, Applejack heard Apple Bloom scream only for her cry for help to be cut short. There were no sounds of any struggle, so Applejack assumed that the assailant must have killed Big Mac and Granny Smith in their sleep, while Apple Bloom had woken up, only to be killed by the assailant. Now, even if Applejack could somehow managed to kill the assailant, there wouldn't be much worth living for.

The farm mare now lay there at the mercy of her assailant, who once again had vanished into the shadows. As Applejack struggled, her attacker stepped out, and loomed over her, a large knife glistening in the moonlight.

“Just get it over with!” Applejack growled at her assailant.

The assailant obliged, running forward and slamming the blade into Applejack’s neck. As the world faded away, Applejack thought she heard laughter in the night.

---

Pinkie Pie fired the party cannon at Roseluck. Using all her might, Roseluck flung herself out of the way of the blast, knocking into one of the hanging ponies. Upon impact Roseluck dropped the bloodied knife. The blast struck another pony that was hanging from the wire, causing it to explode. Panicked, Pinkie Pie picked up the cannon and ran into the next room.

Picking herself off the ground, Roseluck took a closer look at the pony she had bumped into. Upon closer inspection Roseluck realized that it wasn’t actually a pony but rather a stuffed doll. She discovered that the pony that had been struck by the party cannon blast was also a doll with little bits of cotton and lint where it had once hung.

This was not something Roseluck had expected from Pinkie Pie. After a little searching, Roseluck recovered the knife she had dropped. With knife now in hoof, Roseluck walked to the end of the room and opened the door that Pinkie Pie had gone through. The door led to a stairway down to the next floor. Descending the steps, Roseluck cautiously watched the door below, waiting to see if Pinkie Pie was going to ambush her, but nothing happened.

Opening the door, Roseluck found herself in a room with a pool in the center. The walls were painted with a mural of a jungle, featuring actual bushes and rocks placed in an organized fashion around the room. The lights on the ceiling wee quite dim.

Stepping deeper into the room, Roseluck noticed that there were some large rocks in the middle of the pool, almost as if they were meant for some lizard or reptile to use to sun itself. Small bubbles rose from the bottom of the pool.

It was clear that this room was especially prepared by Pinkie Pie. Every detail in the room shad been meticulously prepared. Contemplating this made the skin of her bandaged legs itch.

In the midst of Roseluck’s meditation, a spotlight turned on and illuminated the area around her. Looking up, surprised Roseluck saw Pinkie Pie standing up high above on a balcony overlooking the room. The pink mare looked down at Roseluck with a broad grin on her face.

“You're pretty fast,” Pinkie Pie said, “but I have friends that are pretty fast, too.”

The bubbles in the pool multiplied as something rose from its murky depths. A large, four-legged creature stood up on the rocks in the center of the pool. Its large snout was pointed in Roseluck’s direction.

“Here’s GUMMY!!!”

Another spotlight turned on, revealing the large alligator in the center of the pool, which hissed at Roseluck. Gummy’s purple yes looked at Roseluck with cruelly.

“Both you have fun now!” Pinkie Pie said as she left the room through the balcony entrance.

As if on cue, Gummy lunged off the rock, across the water of the pool, toward Roseluck. The alligator was much larger than any Roseluck had ever seen. Gummy's torso itself is about the size of a carriage, and that wasn't including the gator’s legs, head and long tail. How could Pinkie grow Gummy to such a massive scale?

HISSSSSSS!!!!!

---

Fluttershy wandered through the forest listening to the birds as they tweeted in the daylight. The sound of the animals in the forest made Fluttershy very happy, to the point of singing quietly to the world around her. Loud enough to encourage the birds but quiet enough not to be heard miles away by any other ponies wondering through the forest.

Today, Fluttershy was going to Applejack’s to grab some hay for her animals. A couple of days ago, Fluttershy had asked if it would be alright if she could borrow some hay from them.

“Sure you can.” Applejack had said, “come back later in the week, and we should have some available for ya.”

As Fluttershy continued to wander along, her humming stopped as she noticed that something was off. The birds had stopped singing.

“Is something wrong?” Fluttershy quietly spoke toward the trees, but no birds responded.

Had something scared them off? Fluttershy was so worried about her bird friends that she didn’t notice the pony approaching from behind with a large knife in hoof, ready to stab their prey.

When Fluttershy did notice the pony hunting her, it was too late, for the knife had already plunged into her neck. Fluttershy gurgled as the knife was pulled free, and she fell to the ground, her blood spilling forth and staining the dirt a deep crimson.

A sinister chuckle echoed through the forest.

---

As Gummy lunged at Roseluck, the mare dodged to her right, narrowly avoiding a rock that had been placed there for decoration. Missing its mark, the alligator’s jaws snapped on a bush, which Gummy thrashed around before dropping it.

HISSSSSSS!!!!!

The alligator turned and lunged at its prey; this time, Roseluck tried lunge past Gummy while sticking her knife out to cut the alligator’s side. Instead of cutting the flesh, the blade emitted scraped against the impenetrable scales, emitting sparks.

HISSSSSSS!!!!!

Annoyed, the alligator tried to swat at Roseluck with its tail. Roseluck dodged the attack and tried to put some distance between herself and Gummy. Roseluck had to find a weak point in order to defeat Gummy, perhaps his underbelly or eye.

HISSSSSSS!!!!!

Turning around Gummy charged at Roseluck. The large alligator held its mouth wide, ready to devour the pony whole. Taking advantage, Roseluck grabbed hold of Gummy’s snout, and used it to pull herself up over the mouth, so that she could plunge her knife into one of the alligator’s large purple eyes.

Gummy roared as a gelatinous ocular fluids leaked forth from where Roseluck had struck him. Feeling intense pain, Gummy shook the pony free of its face and dove back into the pool.

“I hope you will leave me alone now,” Roseluck growled.

Instead of tempting fate to check whether the alligator was submerged or not, Roseluck trotted over to the door on the other side of the room. It was a bright red color with a picture of a rainbow-colored cupcake stapled onto it.

Leaving Gummy’s room, Roseluck found herself in a long hallway. The floor was covered in black and white tiles, framed by green walls and a white ceiling. All the doors along the hallway were white. The lights revealed only the first six doors, while the others were concealed by darkness.

As she walked through the hallway, Roseluck could hear something behind the walls, but whether it was crying or laughing, she couldn’t tell.

Roseluck tried the first door on her left, but it was locked, as were the next three doors she tried to open. However, upon trying to open the fifth door, Roseluck found the door was unlocked. The room seemed to be a janitor’s closet with various supplies strewn about.

“I need to find a flashlight or maybe a lighter. I just need something to light up the rest of the hallway.”

While Roseluck wasn’t able to find a flashlight, she did find a box of light bulbs. These were strange, though, because they had dark purple glass instead of the normal clear glass. Not finding anything else of use, Roseluck tried to the last door in the hallway that was still in the light.

Opening it, Roseluck found a few filing cabinets along with a brown oak desk. On top of the deck were piles of papers. After closer inspection of the papers Roseluck could determine that these papers were recipes for different kinds of sweets like cupcakes and muffins.

Searching the desk’s drawers, Roseluck discovered a flashlight with a broken lightbulb. Retrieving one of the purple bulbs, she had found in the supply closet, Roseluck replaced the bulb in the flashlight. Testing the flashlight, Roseluck saw that the flashlight had plenty of battery power, and despite the light have a purple tinge, it would suit her needs in the dark hallway.

Stepping out of the room, Roseluck began to walk down the dark hallway. Coming across a door that seemed to be clear of dust, Roseluck decided to open it. As Roseluck pulled the door open, she discerned a quiet click.

Roseluck jumped in the nick of time as the door opened and what appeared to be a wall of party cannons fired their deadly payload of shrapnel and confetti. Picking herself off the ground, Roseluck examined the trap. There had been a tripwire attached to the door so that the trap would go off once the door opened.

Flashing her light on the back of the door, Roseluck was surprised to see some text. The purple light of the flashlight made what must have been invisible ink glow bright blue. The message read: “Don’t listen to them! They are messing with your head!”

As she finished reading this, Roseluck thought she could hear some quiet chuckling further down the hall. Closing the door, Roseluck walked down the hallway with her flashlight held out in front of her. After taking a few steps, Roseluck discovered a doll sitting on the floor.

The doll resembled a purple Alicorn with a missing wing and a loose button eye that hung from the doll’s head by a mere string. The purple light from the flashlight revealed the words: “Don’t hurt her!” written on the floor in front of the doll. Roseluck approached the doll cautiously, prepared for it to explode or something. However, when nothing happened, Roseluck decided pick up the doll.

Upon touching the doll, Roseluck’s head began to hurt as strange memories began to flood into her head.

---

Twilight was puzzled as she looked down at the Equestrian map in the center of the crystal table. She had used her magic to zoom in on Ponyville while examining all the information that had been gathered about the past three months. As of today, three fourths of Ponyville’s population had completely disappeared. While some blood had been found in a few locations, there were no signs of any bodies.

To make matters worse, most of Twilight’s friends had vanished, as well. Only Pinkie Pie and Spike were left. After Starlight Glimmer had finished her friendship studies, she had moved up to the Crystal Empire to do some magical research with her friend Sunburst.

“Spike, have you finished making the tea?” Twilight called out, but there was no response.

Twilight stood up from her seat and walked toward the door to see what was taking the little dragon so long. Looking outside the door, Twilight discovered a dish with her cup of tea sitting next to the door. Perhaps Spike was tired and had left the cup of tea by the door, not wishing to disturb Twilight.

While this did seem to make sense to Twilight, she nevertheless felt a bit anxious.

Using her magic, Twilight gently lifted the tea off the floor and brought it over to the table. Perhaps Twilight was just being paranoid; maybe she just needed to relax. Twilight sipped some of the tea as she continued her research.

“What could be causing all these disappeara…?”

The cup of tea fell to the ground shattering into tiny pieces and creating a big mess on the floor. Twilight tried to talk but couldn’t as her throat began to seal up. Was this an allergic reaction? As far as Twilight knew, she didn’t have any allergies that could cause anaphylactic shock.

As her lungs burned due to lack of oxygen, Twilight fell to the floor. She tried to call out for Spike, but none of her words left her mouth. As she suffocated and her vision began to fade, Twilight thought she saw some pony enter the room.

Perhaps it was some pony that could help her! However, the pony simply stood over her, and long black vines emerged from the darkness surrounding the watching pony.

Wait… had she been… poisoned.

Twilight realized the answer when she saw the severed head of a familiar dragon rolling along the crystal floor.

After Twilight breathed her last, the figure walked out of the room hurriedly, like a buspony behind schedule. There were preparations to be made.

---

Roseluck put a hoof against her forehead as the pain ended and the memories receded. Annoyed by what had happened, Roseluck threw the doll against the wall, causing it to squeak on impact.

Walking down to the end of the hall, Roseluck found herself looking at a rusty green door. The flashlight revealed another invisible message written on the door, “You really should smile more often!” This time, Roseluck opened it carefully in order to avoid any traps. The door didn’t appear to be rigged.

Stepping through the door, Roseluck found herself in another hallway. Truly, it was more of a corridor than a hallway, for the walls, floor, and ceiling were made of some sort of metal railing. Roseluck could look through the gaps in the metal and see that she was in some sort of metal maze.

Suddenly, the door closed behind her. Roseluck turned around and tested the door, only to find that it was locked tight. With no other choice, Roseluck walked to the end of the metal hallway and found herself in a metal room.

In this room were two doors: a pink door and a blue door. The blue had some words reading, “Leave this place,” while the other door had a sign saying, “Pursue me.”

Despite how tempting it was to leave, Roseluck knew that there were others depending on her to stop Pinkie Pie. They wouldn’t appreciate her backing out. The idea of fleeing her objective made Roseluck’s bandaged legs itch. Thus, Roseluck opened the pink door and walked forward.

Like before, the door automatically closed and locked itself behind Roseluck; however, this time the collar around her neck started to make a rather strange beeping sound.

“So I see you decided to take the pink door.” Pinkie’s voice resounded overhead via an intercom system. “Well, I suppose it was inevitable. That is why I created this maze and the collar around your neck.”

As Pinkie Pie spoke, some lights in the facility turned on, illuminating certain sections of the metal maze.

“In order to survive, you must reach the end of the maze before the timer in your collar goes off. When you reach the end, you will be provided with the proper means to remove the collar. However, once I am done speaking, you will have approximately ten minutes to reach the end of the maze. Failing to do so and deactivate the collar in time will cause the collar to go off, creating a marvelous explosion. Well, have fun.”

Once Pinkie Pie finished speaking, the volume of the beeping on the collar grew louder. It seemed the race to escape had begun. Running down the metal hallway, Roseluck came to a section of the framework that split into a two-pronged fork. Roseluck chose the right path and found herself trotting down some metal stairs into another walkway.

Carved out of the walkway were various slots in the metal that allowed for long, sharp blades to stab into the corridor and retract at varying intervals. Roseluck managed to navigate carefully through the hallway at a quick pace, avoiding the blades as they stabbed and sliced.

The last of the blades cut a gash in Roseluck’s flank, causing black blood to slowly ooze from the shallow wound. Roseluck hissed at the pain but continued to move forward. Up ahead there was a corner that turned to the right.

Upon turning the corner, Roseluck found herself looking at another long metal hallway; only this time, there were some circular saw blades buzzing around the hallway. Roseluck quickly counted the blades and discovered that there were about twelve rotating disks of death standing between her and the end of the maze.

Not wanting to be cut in half, Roseluck carefully maneuvered through the trap, zigzagging and ducking around the saw blades. There were moments during this endeavor that the blades came dangerously close to Roseluck’s flesh, but eventually, Roseluck was successful in traversing the corridor.

However, it wasn’t time to celebrate, for Roseluck still needed to make to the end of the maze to remove the collar.

Up ahead was another split in the path with one hallway going straight forward while another turned to the left. Taking the left path, Roseluck found this hallway crowded with pink balloons. At first, Roseluck didn’t think anything of them until they changed shape and developed long deadly spikes on their rubbery surfaces.

Roseluck moved slowly underneath the balloons fearing what would happen if a single one of those spikes touched her. Would they cut into her flesh, or would they perhaps explode like some strange bomb? Whatever the result, Roseluck had no intention of finding out.

Eventually, Roseluck managed to pass through the hallway filled with balloons, and as she did, the beeping on her collar began to increase in tempo. She was running out of time.

Distracted by her collar, Roseluck didn’t notice the long metal slide in front of her. Roseluck screamed as she fell head-first down the slide. The slide weaved and zigzagged, causing the mare’s stomach to churn.

Suddenly, the slide came to an end, and Roseluck found herself in a pile of old party hats and water-stained party invitations. Pulling herself free of the pile, Roseluck found herself inside a large metal cage with a metal table in the center. On the table were a couple items, one of which was a key with the word: “Truth,” etched into the handle.

Roseluck scrambled for the key, trying to fit it into the lock on her collar as the timer picked up speed.

“Come on!” Roseluck growled.

As Roseluck continued to struggle to unlock the collar, the beeper continued to quicken. Finally the lock gave a satisfying click, and Roseluck threw the collar to the floor. However, the timer continued to beep at a rapid pace, until it stopped and a shower of confetti flew out of the collar, blanketing the room.

No longer stressed by the thought of her head exploding, Roseluck inspected the room. On the table where she had found the key was a photograph of Roseluck standing next to her friends Daisy and Lily Valley, with all three of them smiling at the camera. On the table written next to the photograph in pink letters were the words: “They used to be your friends.”

Looking up from the picture, Roseluck saw that there were two doors: a red door with the words “Final Room” painted on it and to the left of it another door. On the frame surrounding this second door were the words, “You can still leave.”

Roseluck stepped forward and opened the red door to the final room.

Stepping into the room, Roseluck saw Pinkie Pie sitting at a table. Her pink mane was still long and straight. Beside her on some chairs around the table were a bag of flour, a tower of rocks, a bucket full of turnips, and a pile of lint. All of these items wore festive party hats.

The room was decorated with balloons of various colors along with images of Pinkie Pie having fun with her friends.

“Hello there, Roseluck,” Pinkie Pie spoke, “What do you think of my friends here?”

“They're uh… lively.” Roseluck replied.

Pinkie Pie frowned. “No, not really. In fact, I had some way better friends a while back. It is a shame you took them away from me.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“DON’T LIE TO ME!”

Pinkie Pie toppled pulled a knife from the table, overturned it, and charged forward toward Roseluck. In response, Roseluck pulled out the bloodied knife and parried Pinkie Pie’s attack.

“Oh, I see you found my little gift.” Pinkie growled. “You would be surprised where I found that.”

Stepping back a few feet, Pinkie Pie let out a soft whistle. Suddenly, another door on the other side of the room slid open, and an enraged Gummy bound into the room. Seeing Gummy’s damaged eye, Pinkie Pie let out a loud gasp.

“How dare you hurt Gummy!”

Pinkie jumped on Gummy’s back, and the alligator roared as it charged forward. Roseluck tried to remember Gummy’s weaknesses. When she had fought him earlier, Roseluck’s had succeeded in damaging one of his eyes, perhaps she should try incapacitate the other eye.

HISSSSSSS!!!!!

As Gummy lunged at her, Roseluck side stepped and tried to stab the gator’s other eye, only to have her attack deflected by Pinkie’s blade. Pinkie Pie tried to perform a counter attack and slashed at Roseluck. Roseluck managed to jump backwards, but Pinkie’s knife managed to cut a small slash across Roseluck’s left foreleg.

Roseluck hissed as her leg slowly began to bleed. Attacking Gummy’s remaining eye was out of the question; Roseluck would have to decide upon a different means of attack.

HISSSSSSS!!!!!

The giant alligator attempted to swipe at Roseluck with his tail and successfully knocked her to the ground. As Roseluck tried to pick herself up, she saw Gummy charging at her, his mouth wide open, ready to snap down upon her and tear her to shreds. An idea crossed Roseluck’s mind.

Roseluck rolled to the side. As Gummy missed her, Roseluck rolled back, positioning herself underneath the alligator’s soft belly. As the alligator charged overhead, Roseluck thrust the knife up into Gummy’s soft underside, cutting a long deep gash in the alligator’s stomach. Roseluck emerged from behind Gummy, covered in blood.

Gummy screamed in pain as he tried to hold himself up but eventually toppled to the floor and perished. Roseluck cleaned her eyes of the blood to see Pinkie Pie sitting next to Gummy’s head.

“I’m sorry, Gummy!” Pinkie cried. “I am so sorry!”

Pinkie slowly stood up from the corpse of her favorite pet before turning to face Roseluck. Despite the tears streaming down her face, Pinkie looked at Roseluck murderously.

“I will make you pay for everything you’ve done!”

Enraged, Pinkie Pie vaulted into the air and pulled out a missile launcher from her pink tail and aimed it at Roseluck. The mare ducked behind the toppled metal table as Pinkie fired the rocket. The rocket exploded in the center of the room, and both fire and colorful confetti burst forth.

Having spent her only rocket, Pinkie Pie threw the rocket launcher aside and returned to using her knife. The party pony lunged at the overturned table and attempted to stab Roseluck.

“DIE!!!”

However, Roseluck was too quick. She dodged Pinkie’s attack and thrust her blade into Pinkie’s chest. Blood spurted forth, and the knife she was holding fell from her hoof.

“Well done,” Pinkie murmured, “but you still lose.”

Once Pinkie breathed her last, the pink mare’s body inflated like a balloon before popping, leaving behind only air. Suddenly, all the lights went off except for one, which revealed a window overlooking a room that Roseluck hadn’t noticed before. Inside was Pinkie Pie staring down at Roseluck while delivering a deliberately slow clap.

“Bravo,” Pinkie Pie said. “It seems you have given me all the information I needed.”

How was this possible? Roseluck had just killed her! How could she still be alive? Pinkie Pie noticed Roseluck’s confused expression but refrained from speaking further.

“How did you do this?” Roseluck roared.

“It is simple, really,” Pinkie Pie spoke while looking at one of her hooves, “think of life as a game, and that I have all the cheat codes.”

Roseluck gave Pinkie an unamused look.

“Okay, okay. Once I learned that you were coming to kill me, I decided to pay a visit to a local mirror pool I had come across a few years back and made a few extra copies of myself so I could trap you. And here you are!”

“You planed this from the start?”

“Sort of, but personally, I had hoped you might redeem yourself. I gave you plenty of opportunities to leave, and I provided you with numerous ways that you could realize the error of your ways.”

Pinkie walked over to a table and picked up a glass with some berry punch and took a sip before continuing her speech.

“But instead you continued down this path of hunting me. You did this in order to feed your ‘friends.’ Honestly, I find that a little surprising; I never thought of you as the chasing type, even before you murdered the others.”

Yes, it was true. Roseluck had found some new friends, and in order to appease her new friends she had to feed them. But surely Pinkie could understand that. Pinkie Pie had thrown plenty of parties in her lifetime; surely she knew it was improper to not entertain your guests.

“How long did it take for you to find out?” Roseluck asked with sly eyes.

“Not long, actually. After all, I know every pony in Ponyville, so when one of them suddenly disappears, I generally try to figure out what is going on. While I did figure out it was you, I never had enough evidence to prove your guilt. Also, I had hoped that you would stop, that perhaps you could change, but you never did, and I was too afraid to stop you.”

Pinkie gulped down some more of the punch. "This used to be Gummy's favorite punch. You know, he wasn't actually supposed to attack you in the first room you met him in. In fact, all he was supposed to do was rough you up and disarm you of any weapons you had."

A tear trickled down Pinkie’s face, falling into the glass of punch in her hooves.

“But now both he and all my friends are gone.” Pinkie said as she glared down at Roseluck from behind the glass.

“What are you going to do to me?” Roseluck growled.

Pinkie Pie walked over and sat the glass of punch down on the table before returning to the window.

“Well, originally I was thinking of turning you over to the authorities,” Pinkie said, “but seeing that you were able to kill Twilight, who was an alicorn, it would be just too risky putting you in close proximity of the Celestial Princesses.”

Pinkie Pie tapped the glass with a hoof and smirked.

“So I think instead I am just going to keep you down here. It will be much safer that way.”

“You can’t do that!” Roseluck yelled.

“I believe I can.” Pinkie Pie growled, “After all, you killed all my friends, and all the ponies in Ponyville. So it is only fair that you die here for your sins.”

Pinkie Pie pushed a button on her side of the glass, and a shutter began to descend over her window slowly closing off the only light source into Roseluck’s new cell.

“No, please…” Roseluck begged.

The party pony ignored Roseluck’s pleas as she turned around and headed toward the elevator back to the surface.

“NOOOOOOO!!!!!” Roseluck screamed as the sliver of light gave way to pitch black darkness.

Wishing to reach the light, black roots tore through Roseluck’s flesh. Tearing through the bandages on Roseluck’s legs, the black vines reached out to the glass window. The vines pounded the glass, but it remained unbroken.

Roseluck pulled out the flashlight hoping its purple light would satiate her friends. In there eagerness for the purple lights the swung towards the bulb, startling Roseluck causing her to drop the flash. Hitting the floor the purple bulb broke and the light sputtered and died. As the light faded away, the roots withered and died.

Blood leaked from Roseluck’s legs as she fell to the floor. With the light gone, the trapped mare was recalled back to how this all began.

---

Roseluck looked down at the bright red rose in her hoof. About a year ago Roseluck had been given some special seeds by a stallion that had been wandering through Ponyville. According to the stallion, he was a seed salespony, who was just trying to scrape by and need money for the train. After explaining his situation he offered to sell Roseluck some seeds for a rose bush in exchange for ten bits. While she had been skeptical of the stallion’s words, she decided to buy the seeds anyway.

The stallion was thankful and gave her the best seeds he had for her kindness.

“These are very special seeds.” The stallion grinned. “They will provide you with the most beautiful roses you have ever seen.”

After the trade was made, the stallion wandered toward the train station, never to be seen again. Despite Roseluck’s doubts the seeds did indeed grow roses, but these roses had a rather strange property to them.

Placing the rose underneath a blanket, Roseluck was pleased to see the red petals of the flower glow a bright red in the darkness. The light from the petals seemed to throb as if it were a beating heart. The roses seemed to be alive, and they seemed to whispered precious things to her.

She always made sure that the flowers she chose were the lively ones, using the darkness test as a means to prove they were. If the rose petals glowed in the darkness, she kept the flower, whereas if they didn’t glow, she would set the rose aside to be burnt later.

Using some pruning shears, Roseluck cut off the long thorny stem of a rose and placed the rosebud into a basket. On one side of the basket were all the rosebuds of these unique flowers while the thorny stems were placed on the other side. Once Roseluck had collected twelve such flowers she took them inside the house into the basement below.

Down in the basement there was a space where an old hot tub used to be. While the heat didn’t work properly, the tub could still be used to bathe as well as to contain the glowing rosebuds. Currently, there were about sixty such rosebuds floating on the surface of the water. Despite being there for a long time, the rosebuds continued to last, almost as if they had only recently been plucked.

The basement was filled with the scent of roses, which barely covered up the scent of something else decaying.

After putting the twelve recently cut rosebuds into the tub, Roseluck walked over to a workbench with the basket holding the stems. Setting down the basket, Roseluck began to unwrap the bandages around her legs, revealing circlets of rose stems piercing her yellow skin. As time had gone on, some of her flesh had grown around the stems, resulting in patches of skin with small red thorns, peaking through the flesh.

Roseluck couldn’t remember when she had started to perform this ritual, only that it was something that the roses had whispered about to her, first in her dreams, but later in person as she slowly started wrapping her limbs with the thorny stems. Knowing that no pony would understand what she was doing, Roseluck had wrapped bandages around her limbs to hide the thorns. At the same time, the bandages also held the stems fast, making it easier for them to merge with her flesh.

Once Roseluck finished unwrapping the medical bandages, she began applying the new stems to her legs. It was painful, but Roseluck didn’t care as she had grown used to the pain, almost to the point of gaining pleasure from it. With the new additions wrapped around her limbs, Roseluck began to apply some new bandages over the stems.

Having finished applying the bandages, Roseluck stood up and slowly walked over to the tub. Slowly, Roseluck lifted her body into the tub and let the water and glowing rosebuds envelope her body. The water was cold, but Roseluck didn’t care. Eventually, her body would adapt to the water's temperature, and the rosebuds would talk to her.

“You don’t need anypony,” they would say to her, “all you need is us. All you need is to feed us.”

Indeed, they were right. All Roseluck needed to do was keep the roses alive and fed. What better way to feed her best friends than to make some grade-A fertilizer for them from the corpses of other ponies? Sure, her old friends wouldn’t appreciate it at first, but once the roses were capable of thriving on their own, Roseluck was sure those old friends wouldn’t mind.

Looking over the edge of the tub, Roseluck saw the corpse of her first victim. It was a pink Earth pony mare with a green mane and two daisies for a Cutie Mark. The look on her face was that of shock.

Indeed, they wouldn’t mind at all.

---

Pinkie Pie stepped out of Sugarcube Corner and into the rain. Her straight, pink mane was drenched by the cold rainwater. To an observer, it would be difficult to discern the tears falling down her face. However, there were no observers, for everyone was either dead or gone.

As she walked away from the abandoned pastry shop, Pinkie Pie wondered if life would ever return to Ponyville. Perhaps it would, but first, the world would have to heal, and when it came to such wounds, only time and cauterization would help.

Upon reaching Roseluck’s house, Pinkie Pie broke open one of the windows to gain entry. The interior of the top floor looked almost like any ordinary pony’s house. The only thing that seemed out of the ordinary was the thin layer of dust that seemed to covered everything.

Searching the house, Pinkie Pie discovered the doorway leading to the basement with the tub inside. The party pony could hear the sound of something whispering, as if it had been alerted to her arrival. Looking around the room, Pinkie Pie noticed a strange red glow coming from tub. Pulling a knife from her tail, Pinkie Pie carefully looked inside the tub to see some glowing red roses inside the water.

Observing that there was no physical threat to herself present, Pinkie Pie put the knife back in her tail and pulled out a gasoline canister. After dowsing the tub and the room Pinkie made her way from the basement to the outside toward the greenhouse that Roseluck had in her backyard.

The door to the greenhouse was locked, but with a swift kick Pinkie Pie was able to make her way inside. Looking around the greenhouse, Pinkie saw even more of the strange glowing roses. As Pinkie searched the greenhouse she came across a door. Opening the door a wave of decay reached Pinkie's nose and her jaw dropped as she saw a pile of corpses on the floor inside. No doubt this was where Roseluck had been putting the extra bodies, before she disposed on them. Pinkie recognized two of the bodies next to door, belonging to Daisy and Lily Valley. Once they had been Roseluck's best friends but now they were here.

With her suspicions confirmed, Pinkie Pie dowsed the greenhouse with the rest of the gasoline. When she was a safe distance from both of the greenhouse and Roseluck’s house, Pinkie Pie struck two matches. She threw one into Roseluck’s home and the other into the greenhouse.

In a matter of minutes, both houses were engulfed in flame. As Pinkie walked away from the fire, she thought she could hear the sound of something screaming. Perhaps it was the roses, or perhaps it was something else.

Either way, the threat was gone, and with most of Ponyville in shambles and its inhabitants either vacated or deceased, no one would be bothered by the fire. Perhaps now the world could heal and rise from the ashes.

Thus satisfied, Pinkie Pie trotted off down the road, away from the forsaken town.

Comments

[IAmApe]

It's kind of anticlimactic. I think the section about "how this all began" could have been cut out completely, and Pinkie's explanation could have been a lot shorter.

[Robipony]

7320744 Personally I thought it was important to show the reasons behind the antagonist's actions. Just throwing the "Their Insane" tag is not only pretty unimaginative but can be really annoying.

As for the explanation part I felt it was needed and therefore I included it but in truth it was originally going to be a lot longer.

[Alexander Frederickson]

I honestly didn't expect Pinkie to be the good pony here.

[Robipony]

8000444 That is exactly what I was aiming for. I am glad it worked.

[Robipony]

Swift Blade did a reading of this fic. If you are interested in listening to it, a link has been included in the stories description.

[Astelle Evening Star]

Whoa! Great job! I felt like I was watching an RPG Horror game. With all the halls, the lightbulbs, and flashlight. And the twist near the end! Oh my gosh! I feel like I was sitting in front of the TV watching YouTube, except without all the jumpscares! Great job! I love it. Wish it hadn't taken me so long to read it and it had just been collecting dust in my 'Maybe' folder.

[Robipony]

10310853 Thank you, I am glad you enjoyed it. I enjoyed writing it.