Abductions

by Daxisle

Sickening Truth

Sickening Truth

Twilight had searched all threw the Ever free forest, and after hours of tireless examination, and combing every possible place the Pegasus pony could be, she returned to Ponyville. The sun was down again, and the clouds had dispersed, she realized walking out past Fluttershy's cottage again. Though something caught Twilight's eye, a small crescent moon was now gently and skillfully drawn on the cottage's mailbox. Twilight thought it an interesting decoration, but dismissed it as probably some kind of redecorating.

As she made her way home, the exhausted Unicorn noticed white stallions with Silver armor standing within the town square; a half-finished large wooden building in the town square's park area, and a handful of white tents were erected around it. Twilight stood confused before she remembered the barracks of troops the mayor claimed she would request from the Princess. Twilight felt uncomfortable, only a few of the Peace-colts present were ponies she actually knew, and the others seemed to be more... eager. Typically, the guards of Canterlot, or any city for that matter, were expressionless to the slightest detail, but many of the guard ponies lacked the discipline of the veterans.

A few white stallions’ eyes would shift one way or another; others would yawn and stretch, and others still would noticeably shift from left to right continuously. All of the silver clad rookies had one thing in common; they all let out constant sighs of boredom. After wondering around, Twilight had gotten a count of over twenty five Peace-colts. Almost twice as many as the young mare had originally predicted. And she could only imagine how many the surrounding orchards had, or how many were asleep and not available for addition.

Though, she found a few royal guards also standing threw out the town, all in their typical golden armor and helm attire that Twilight had come to remember them by. There were only a few, but the small number of royal guardsman made her feel safer than the two dozen Peace-colts

"Twilight Sparkle!" Barked one of the Royal guards as he marched up to the intimidate mare. His dark grey coat almost seemed black under the street torch illuminated golden armor. She didn't know this particular stallion, and stood on edge being addressed by him. "I was told to inform you; your brother, Shining Armor, is in the library." With a quick jerk of his head, Twilight guessed was supposed to be some representation of a bow, the Peace-colt returned to his post by the lamp.

"Wait Shining Armor is here?" Twilight asked. The golden clad stallion stood cold and motionless, refusing to answer.

Twilight let out a sigh and trotted back home. She supposed it isn't really that strange to find her brother her under the circumstances. Though, the more she thought about it, the happier she became, she had missed her brother and perhaps he could give her a little insight about the Princess's plan to deal with the ponynapper.

Twilight burst through the door to find the white haired and blue maned stallion she called her brother sitting at a group of tables pushed together with a giant map on it. With him, two Unicorn Royal guards and two pegasus Peace-colts stood in a circle. They all drew their weapons and glared at the young Unicorn with alarmed looks.

"Twilight!" Exclaimed the Captain dropping his sword, running over to her and embracing his sister in a hug.

Twilight hugged her brother back; she had missed him so much. She hadn't seen him since his wedding with her old foal sitter Princess Cadence. His strong frame and armor brought comfort to the pony's emotional turmoil. She felt as though everything would be alright with him around.

"Twilight where were you?" Her brother scolded, "I sent a party out to find you, i feared the worst." He exclaimed, is overbearing concern was more than welcome to the frightened mare.

"I'm sorry Shine; I was out in the Everfree forest looking for Rainbow Dash." Twilight said apologetically, breaking the embrace and looking into her brothers eyes.

A flash of realization crossed his face before he averted his eyes to the ground. "Lieutenant Warhoof, please escort the Tribunes out, Twilight and I need a few minutes." One of the unicorn royal guards gave a quick solute and the four officers walked out the door, leaving an uncomfortable silence between the two siblings.

Twilight studied her brother’s face, he looked as though he were on the verge of tears. "Twilight, please have a seat. There is something you should know."

Twilight felt a twinge of pain in her heart. She knew that Shining had bad news for her, but with the thick silence between the two and the devastated look on his face, it seem ''bad news'' that would be an understatement.

"Once Celestia had received your letter about Rainbow Dash's disappearance. She informed me, and i sent out a search party to find her right away." Shining Armor turned his back to his sister and wondered over to a newly crafted military trunk. "Her being your best friend and all."

Twilight stood, she felt her stomach churn, she prayed on all things magical that he wasn't about to tell her what she thought he was.

"Everywhere; from Manehatten to Fillydelphia and a few provenances beyond that. The Pegasi searched the sky for miles in either direction. But we found nothing... until" The blue maned Unicorn pulled out a brown cloth bag in his mouth, a foul oder coming from it that made Twilight cover her snout. He placed it on it on the table, seemingly unaffected by the stench. "Until we found this in the Rainbow Factory at Cloudsdale."

Twilight gazed with an appalled squint at the odor seeping sack. "What is that smell?"

Shining Armor let out a sigh. "Would like me to tell you, or show you?"

Twilight didn't care, she just wanted the stench to go away. "Whatever just show me!" She exclaimed her stomach feeling queasy more from the smell than fear.

With a moment of hesitation, the stallion untied the bag, and with his hooves and lifted it upside down giving way for the object within to fall with a dry splat on the table. Twilight witnessed the chunk of flesh fall from the bag and could no longer contain herself. She threw up on the floor due to the sound, the over powering smell, and what she recognized to be pony flesh. After a few dry heaves she wiped her hoof a crossed her mouth and looked back to the vile thing. Her eyes widened and tears began swelling. "No" she cried weakly. "It- It can't be."

The Cyan colored flesh was painted with something Twilight knew all too well... A White fluffy cloud giving way to a multicolored rainbow lightning bolt, Rainbow Dash's cutie mark. Someone had carved it off of her flank. Twilight found more substance in her stomach as she cried and threw up again. What hope she had left for her friend was now gone. Wrapped up and discarded just like the bag of flesh as Shining Armor put it back in the trunk.

"We had it taken into observation, there was blood covering it except the cutie mark. If what the labs say is correct, than she had her cutie mark cut out while she was still alive." The Stallion stared down at the ground again, his expression becoming hard, trying to withstand the urge to release the contents of his own stomach.

After a while, the stench dispersed, contained by the military grade oak trunk. But Twilight was still letting out dry heaves. One of her best friends... one whom had been seen as one of the best fliers in Equestria, a pony she looked to for courage, loyalty and strength... Twilight looked up, a desperate and hysterical resemblance of hope clinging to her heart. "Than that means she's not dead, maybe she is still alive if we hurry we-"

Twilight was cut off by her brother’s hoof on her shoulder. His face was saddened and discouraging, pleading with her to be realistic and accepting. "Twilight, when it was brought to observations, the team said that it was cut off over a week ago. We wanted to keep it secret from the ponypublic, but ever since the disappearances began, ponies have been finding carved out cutie marks like these in every city. All the cutie marks belonged to the ponies that were abducted, and were found in the cities they were born in."

Twilight hugged her brother and cried. She wanted him silent, she couldn't take anymore. The pain and sick mutilation that those ponies must have gone through. The pain of having their cutie marks carved from them. Twilight could only imagine the screaming, hurt, and helplessness they had gone through. "Please stop, please."

She cried for seconds, than minutes. She lost track of how long she had cried. Her eyes and nostrils were becoming raw, and she could feel tear drops staining her front hoof that clanged to her brother’s neck. Images of the rainbow pony started flowing threw her mind: Her vulnerable and filly like eyes were aglow with happiness as she was hoisted up by the crowd after she was declared the winner of the Young Fliers Competition. Her proud demeanor when she and Fluttershy had saved the Unicorn from plummeting off the edge of a cliff. Her aspirations of becoming a Wonder Bolt and how she never stopped talking about it, unless it was to talk about how awesome she was.

Twilight reminisced for what seemed like hours before she finally passed out due to exhaustion.

When the unicorn finally came too, she was greeted by a pair of big blue eyes outlined by a pink face. "Morning sleepyhead." Pinkie Pie exclaimed jamming her face into Twilight's. The purple mare pushed Pinkie off and discovered that she was in her own bed. She looked around to see if Shining Armor was anywhere around, the only other pony in the room with her was the over ecstatic Pinkie Diane Pie. Twilight remembered the conversation she had with Shining last night, and thought over telling Pinkie Pie.

"I'm sorry about leaving last night," Pinkie scratched the back of her neck. "But you should have seen them come in Twilight, a whole bunch of Ponies in golden armor stood in the town square, and everyone was all like: 'Oh do you see that?' and I was all like: 'Duh, don't you all remember the Mayor said she was going to bring them in?'"

Twilight let her friend go on, she couldn't care less that Pinkie was talking, much less what she was actually saying. She was still wrapped up in the death, and what looked like torture, of her once amazing friend. The purple mare sat in bed, dead eyed and broken.

"And then, Nightmare Moon came." Pinkie swooned, her front hooves clicked together in glee.

"Princess Luna." Twilight corrected.

Pinkie acknowledged and dramatically corrected her mistake. "Oh yea Princess Luna, right err, whatever. Well anyway she swooped in on her night chariot and started to look around town."

Twilight resumed her thought, letting her friend tell her usually exaggerated stories. Nothing was really on her mind; she just wanted to be numb. She didn't want to feel the hurt she had suffered last night. She left the pink pony to her babblings and looked out at the sun she had missed so dearly, its warm vibrant rays were comforting as they came in threw her bedroom window. During her time in the light, a small smile slid across her face. She realized, even in Rainbow's death, she was not alone. She still had her friends, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rarity. Though these thoughts brought her comfort, the image of Rainbow Dash's cutie mark born flesh stole her smile away.

The Purple mare turned around and hugged Pinkie Pie. "I love you Pinkie" She cried squeezing the mare’s body to her. A Stunned Pinkie stood speechless, her tirade about who knows what; called to an abrupt halt. She smiled down at her friend and returned the embrace. Twilight felt better, but still: confused, sad, and now angry.

Something came over Twilight, a feeling she had never felt before in her life. It was more than just anger, anger would only make her resent the Pony in Black and see him receive retribution. No, she Hated him, she didn't just want him brought to justice, Twilight wanted to hurt him. She wanted to make him scream and cry, just as he had made Rainbow and all of his other victims. She didn't know why he did it, but the ponynapper was now a serial killer, and Twilight would find out why he killed so many ponies and make him pay.

Twilight's joints tightened around Pinkie and her depressed look slowly turned into a scowl, a scowl that told of nothing but absolute hatred. She would give the maniac the justice he deserved, and Rainbow the revenge she was entitled to.

Comments

[Daxisle]

Second story. First one tanked hardcore. Please, do give feedback; good, bad, or indifferent. I know some might see what's coming, but i promise you, it goes far beyond that.