RoMS' Extravaganza

by RoMS

Apr. 2013 - Beyond All Thresholds - 1. Grey Areas

Author's Note:

Short Description:
Rainbow Dash survived Pinkamena’s muder attempt but was left in comatose. Meanwhile, the world is dangerously escalating to war.

Long Description:
With Twilight crowned princess, everything was said to be just fine. However, after Pinkamena Diane Pie revealed herself being a cold-blooded killer, the situation drifts away from everypony’s hooves. From now on, an escalation of events will bring the world to its knees and the ponies we know so well will go through Tartarus to answer this very simple question:

“Where will you be ready to go to save those you cherish and which sacrifice will you be eager to pay for it?”

This story is an alternative ending/sequel to the known, loved or hated Sergeant Sprinkles’s story, “Cupcakes”.

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This is my first story any criticism is welcomed! It is not because it is a sequel to Cupcake that it is necessarily bad. Read it and enjoy the unfolding plot.

I would like to thank Neo Draco for the skilful editing this pony has performed on my story.

ACT I Ξ What stands beneath

1. Grey areas

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A lure?

Somepony was calling her.

A joyful, vividly colorful and modulated voice was echoing in her ears.

She had faded more than a few times, unable to keep her thoughts coherent. Pain was dwelling on and within her skin, flesh and blood. She was struck down, lying on an uncomfortable wooden chopping block.

Eerie flashbacks were bouncing in Rainbow Dash’s unconscious mind, melting in harmful memories, twisted laughter and floating smirks. She caught a voice whispering in the shadows. She remembered a bloody scarf swung around a pink neck, some acts of terrific sickening cannibalism and of course this long-lasting nasty feeling of knifes and sharpened edges running on her skin.

“Waaake up Rainbow Dash… Wake up… Wake UP!!”

Pinkie laughed a deep, twisted and disrespectful chortle. Opening her eyes, Rainbow instantly glanced at her belly, driving her insane by the pain coming back and forth in her tortured bowels. The long, atrocious wound was sewn up. Regaining slowly her senses, the wingless pegasus shivered, terrified, disoriented and obviously agonizing in her own coagulating blood. She raised her stare of somepony facing her.
Pinkie Pie’s smile was nastily disturbing, like white fangs shining in the dark, thanks to moonlight… And right now, the moonlight was just the beams surging from small candles randomly scattered around in the room. Rainbow panicked, breathing hardly, searching for pure air, or at least some oxygen which was not corrupted by her own blood stench and her own reeking faeces.

“You shouldn’t rest, my dear pony, you’re missing the party! A party you won’t forget. Look around to our guests! Exhausting Flesh, Dying Life, Hale and Hearty Living Dead Corpses!”

Pinkie was gamboling around the table where Rainbow was shamefully displayed, tied up so tightly that her joints were bleeding. Rainbow gazed at her merciless foe. She was showing off a bag of limbs on which was badly painted a pair of eyes. She then slid her hooves inside a griffon’s head. Rainbow’s fur rose on her skin, she knew so well whose skull it was belonging to. She remembered glancing at it earlier but she had quickly forgotten. Her mind had been rapidly bathed by nothing but pain and pleas. Pinkie then showed up heads nailed on the walls of the basement.

“That… makes absolutely no sense!” Rainbow finally gagged.

“Of course it doesn't!”

Anesthetic was still running through Rainbow’s veins, pushing her relentlessly toward insanity. And it was only an outward ride. With her half-closed eyes, she sought to find a light in the chiaroscuro of the room. She was trying to find something to rely on, something that kept her mind free from the madness… a madness which had already begun running beneath her cranium.

Hallucinations from the pain and fear were driving her insane. Full of tears, Rainbow desperately searched for help. She was only able find a wooden roof where the Pinkie’s shadow was casted by the light of dying candelabras. Everything was hidden behind a dark veil, blurred, and Pinkie was the cause of all of this mess. The hopping pink pony gamboled back to the round table. Rainbow’s breath quickened. It was an uneasy and hesitant hiss.

Pinkie imitated quite well the voice of her dear Applejack, “Had enough Sugahcube?! Mah, this is still the b’ginning! So stahp that death rattlin'!”

Tears flooded Rainbow Dash’s cheeks. Pinkie had something in her hooves and Rainbow had no clue about the true nature of the object. Once again she struggled, trying to break the ties holding her. With an evil strength Pinkie grabbed her “friend’s” mane, biting it harshly.

She forced Rainbow’s eyes to open, and with a nightmarish tool dropped something into them.
Rainbow screamed as she never had before. The pain was agonizing. Something strange, something liquid, was being poured into her eyes. They were on fire and everything went black.
Rainbow Dash’s eyeswet with tears. This pain... The bloody drops were mixed with fresh scabs. Her voice faded in sorrowful hiccups.

“P… Pl… Please Pinkie, for Equestria’s sake, stop! P… p… please! Have a bit of…”

“Mercy? Why? That’s an awesome party, isn’t it? We can’t pause it! Who would want to stop such a cheerful celebration!? You promised it to me! And NOPONY breaks a Pinkie Pie promise,” Pinkie maintained with small shouts.

Rainbow Dash was whining while her tormentor was swiftly hopping about in a frenzy before she stopped. Pinkie Pie’s head was slowly swinging from left to right. She was now doing something on a large desk close to the stairs. Eerie sounds rose which echoed in Rainbow’s ears, only to amplify her dizziness and terror.

SHLACK! Shlack… Shlack… Crack… Shlash!!

Rainbow was absolutely blind. And the fear of the unknown bathed her mind, more vivid than ever as the metallic clatters sprawling from Pinkamena’s location were foreshadowing so many grim things. The mad pony was talking to herself, muttering freaked rhetorical questions and casting away dark threats to invisible foes.

On her own, riveted to the uncomfortable table, Rainbow was left to her hearing. Abandoned on the improvised scaffold she let the shivers roam over her skin. Pinkie erupted in joy, but Rainbow could not care less anymore.

“It would be a shame if OUR Rainbow dies too soon. We have a record to break, a cupcake to make, and the ingredient is not READY!

Pinkie paused. Rainbow nearly imagined the smirk growing on the maddened features of her so-called friend.

“Neither am I!” the party pony finally erupted.

The pink pony turned back to her blind and terrorized captive. How was she not dead yet? The pain was so unbearable, her will to end this mess so strong. Standing over her guest, Pinkie squeezed those scab-covered cheeks.

“Aren’t you so cute?”

“Why Pinkie?! Why do you keep doing this?! Kill me! Enough! ENOUGH!!!!! PLEEEAAAASE!!!”

Pinkie kept being mute. Dash sobbed again. Pinkie was bored now.

“I’m Pinkamena Diane Pie, Element of Laughter! Smile, smile, smile… Or I will carve it on your pretty face! I’m PINKIE, Pinkie, pinkie…” Covered in blood and carved up flesh, Pinkie found a sadistic pleasure in spelling her own name.

In Rainbow’s ears, each of her hoofsteps echoed like a countdown, a jangling mixed with a sharp metal clatter. Pinkie was carrying a knife, no doubt about it. And it was for sure new one that Rainbow had never felt running on her skin and penetrating her flesh. Mind fogged by the pain, the cyan pegasus wagered that the edge was calling her.

“…Cause the end is where we begin,” Pinkie whispered.

Clack… Clack… Clack… Clack…

The same kind of slamming, again. Rainbow Dash opened her blinded eyes. They were burning as if sand had been splashed onto them. And all around, there was nothing but darkness. She, the fearless Pegasus, started fearing this blackened fog enshrouding her. “When we are isolated from everything we have ever known, snatched from our home and unable to grasp what stands and occurs around us, who would not?” She tried to rationalize.

The sweat was dripping from her forehead while her tormentor was contemplating her plaything, a mere living toy. And of course, Pinkie imagined herself as the toymaker pulling the strings.
And then came the sharpness of the blade, slicing and cutting through the flesh, the muscles, carving the bones. The pain was so intense Rainbow Dash let her despair take hold of her spirit.

“KILL ME, KILL ME! NOW! NOW! Now… please! Set me free!”

The blood flowed of her legs, flanks and belly. The warm liquid rolled down her opened flesh. She tasted something in her mouth, was it blood or her own tongue that she was crushing, trying to ease the pain by inflicting herself a different one. Rainbow Dash fainted again.

“No, no… You can’t, it’s too soon! You’re not ready yet! I have to restitch you. You’re still incomplete. Shouldn't you be loyal? Don't leave my party then!” Pinkie said imperiously.

Pinkie re-sewed the wounds, again. Then she gave Rainbow another adrenaline shot. The unconscious pony quivered. And this time it was neither pain nor misery which overflowed her lost mind when she awoke. There was nothing but rage.

“I’ll KILL ya! You hear!? I’ll KILL YOU! I. WILL. KILL. YOU! I’ll shred you into pieces, I’ll break every one of your bones until you’re nothing but mash. There will be no ashes! I will erase everything, even your own existence!”

“Ooooh what a berserker. That’s the spirit, I like it! Help me now,” she ordered coldly.

She went to her “dining table”. Gilda’s skull was flung off the desk and broke on the ground. There was work to be done. When Pinkie came back, Rainbow Dash knew the time to pass out had arrived. She closed her eyes, greeting the death with open hooves, like she had always done with old friends.
Rainbow came upon the whistling of a knife lifted in the air.

“Do it… please.”

Pinkie struck four times and Rainbow Dash fell to the dirty and sticky floor. She was fluttering, defenseless, disoriented, without knowing what was happening.
Pinkie did not stab her but the leather restraints. Rainbow found no available reason. She could not get up; the nails in her hooves were unbearably painful.

“I know you want it,” her interlocutor answered back.

Pinkie’s hooves clasped Rainbow’s. She gave her playtoy the blood-soaked knife.
Holding it with difficulty, a tensed grimace printed on her face, Rainbow was disconcerted.

“Cause the end is where we begin!” Pinkie repeated mystically.

Rainbow was trembling. Her mind was twisted. ‘Why? What was happening? Why, Why? Why now after this entire dreadful and painful journey? What was the purpose of all of this? Had there ever been one?’ She was disbelieving.

“Dash… Dash… Dash… My dear, do you know what this lucky charm is called?” Pinkie whispered, insisting with a poke on the knife Rainbow was now in possession.

“No I don’t…” Rainbow cried, stuttering. Her tears dropped on the floor melting with her own fluids.

“Home… Home Sweet Home.”

A long, horrible and earth-shattering silence set up.

“Do it, Sugarcube. My dea’ friend!”

“DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT”

These words echoed in Rainbow Dash’s head.

“YOU’RE NOT MY FRIEND!”She replied with a scream.

Minutes passed, maybe hours and Rainbow struck, over and over again, stabbing, sinking deep this tool called “Home” in Pinkamena’s body. Nopony would have recognized the corpse. It was dismembered, mashed up, pulp-like. Her remains were a mess on the floor. And sitting in this puddle, the killer was laughing maniacally.

It was so terrible, so wrenching, that the guards who had just broken into the basement were stunned by such play: two eyes reflecting the light of dying torches were staring madly at an unknown cadaver. The place reeked, smelling like a graveyard. Some of the spectators blacked out, the others just threw up.

The wingless pony was palpitating. Standing still, transfixed, she was staring to the stairs, where the guards were located. Rainbow’s eyes were casting dark-red shadows, the coagulated blood spread over her face working as a catalyst.

“Miss… Rainbow Dash, are you okay? Miss…”

“Cause her end is where I begin… I, I, I! Only I!”

The ghoulish pony started moving forward to the white and grey stallions. Going further step by step, covered in blood and absolutely nightmarish, Rainbow was frightening.

“Miss, what happened? You can’t pass! Oh … Wait!”

“I WANT TO GO HOME!” Rainbow Dash screamed and charged drawn out knife-first toward the exit.

ϐ Ϙ ϖ ϧ Ξ ϧ ϖ Ϙ ϐ

“It’s a dark and stormy night, isn’t it?” Princess Luna said to herself.

“I couldn’t agree more Princess Luna,” the Royal Guard sergeant responded, coming from a crossing avenue.

He took time finding the right words, visibly shocked.

“Thank you, your highness for coming here. I thought it was necessary for you to see it, this is unprecedented… Would you be so kind as to keep your calm.”

Trotting through Ponyville, Princess Luna was already suspecting something when an old and, she feared, forgotten fear came up in her heart.

“Thou should not worry about it. Usually we would like this breed of night, but tonight, there is something wrong… d… dreadful.”

She was still having difficulty ridding herself of the antique etiquette of the Canterlot court.
Princess Luna casted a glance at the threshold of Sugarcube Corner’s door. She had a fateful look as she focused on the royal Guards breaking in. Screams were coming from the bowels of the earth, deep in the shop basement.
Luna was quivering on her slender limbs. Even her, the Almighty Night Alicorn, the Mare in the Moon was staggering from tail to hooves from just staring at a broken gate.

To add another straw on the griffon’s back, there was no Moon to reassure her. The black clouds were obstructing everything and the thunderstorm was rumbling far away.

“Sister what happened?”

Celestia had just teleported beside her in a flash. The opalescent princess fixed Sugarcube Corner. Disgust was the sole feeling Celestia felt, obvious through her wrinkled and horrified features.

“We haven't seen this atmosphere in a while, Luna.”

Princess Luna was muted. She was hardly able to breath, afraid even if she would never confess it. The youngest alicorn always had a stronger connection with the darkness and its mobs. And even so, she wanted to flee away from this accursed place.

Another scream resounded. It was clearly Rainbow Dash’s voice but its tone was desperate, full of fear and anger. A Royal Guard showed up in SugarCube Corner entrance.

“Call Emergency care, now!”

Some witnesses ran toward the horsepital as fast as the wind.

“Contact the morgue… And bring back as many bags as they have…” another voice called with despair.

Luna and Celestia stared at each other’s paled faces, frightened, holding their breath. Getting aware of the regal sisters’ presence, the shouting soldier came up with an awful truth.

He stuttered, “Your Majesties, we’ve discovered something atrocious down there… Ten, maybe twenty corpses… They are more or less rotten.”

He took a long-lasting, unsettling and heart-breaking pause.

“We also found Miss Rainbow Dash,” He finally managed to say. “She’s just killed Miss Pinkamena Diane Pie and mutilated her body. There’s too much grim gore to handle down here.”

Celestia nearly fainted, “Not her… them…”

Tear rushed to her eyes, her hooves started trembling.
Princess Luna glared at the ground as she tried to cast away this terrific revelation.

“Miss Rainbow Dash has also been mutilated in such horrific ways.” He held his breath. “She attacked us in a fit of madness when we went down there. We seized her for her safety… and ours. She killed two guards.”

No response dared creep out of the two stunned princesses. The silence was unbearable.

“Should I contact the identifiable victims’ families and Miss Dash’s relati…”

“What is this all about?” a voice rose behind the sorrowful trio.

Luna, Celestia and the guard turned around. With tears running on her cheeks Fluttershy was standing behind them.

“What happened to Rainbow? And Pinkie?” she blabbered, becoming inaudible.

“Oh dear…” Celestia gulped, she had nothing to add.

Avoiding Fluttershy’s hopeless gaze, the princess started biting her lips. This was a kind of situation she had hoped to never encounter. She held back a painful gag.

Within ten minutes the remaining Elements of Harmony had gathered. Rarity collapsed once she went aware of the recent events.
Each one refused of course to accept the truth… that Pinkie was dead, that Rainbow might be the murderer and that the basement of the Sugarcube Corner was the set of the most monstrous rampage in eons. Everypony's expression was nothing but utter disbelief.

But everything really drifted away when Twilight arrived at last.

“Can you explain me what everypony is do…”

She was not given the time to finish her sentence. Glancing at Sugarcube Corner she looked deep inside something unspeakable, upon something she had never met before. It was a dark vision which came up as an already new experience for her.
Before her true eyes were two large claws of mere shadows, creeping out of the contours of the door and dragging themselves out of the basement. It was absolutely irrational and impossible. The talons were waving, attracting her, calling her, seducing her, sucking her in the abysses, down there in the darkness… down in the sickness. And she knew that the end of the path was nothing but madness. But Twilight kept moving forward.
She perceived a disembodied voice, “Come little foal. Let the shadows cradle your soul...”

Suddenly, Twilight was surrounded by greyish and thick smog and found herself trapped inside. Baffled and terrified, she kept advancing deep inside. Step by step she let herself circled by relaxing shadows. The silence was so absolute, so peaceful… It was fine staying there forever… forever.

“Twilight?”

“Twilight!?”

“TWILIGHT!!!!”

Twilight inhaled deeply, sucked out of this terrifying vision of despair. She fell flat on her right flank. During her trance she had narrowed the space between her and Sugarcube Corner ‘s broken entrance. And in front of her hooves were knocked-down two guards.
Tearful and quivering, she turned back to Celestia.

“What did I… Why?” she wept.

For everypony, the eerie play Twilight had performed in front of them had come as a horrifying surprise. All of her present friends were clueless about the way how to react to this strange outbreak. Luna instantly teleported Twilight back to her smoke. She hugged her gently, hiding Sugarcube Corner from Twilight’s with the back of her hoof.

“Don’t look at it, thou just had a hallucination, it happens somehow.”

Twilight managed to stare back to the thresholds of the shop gate. The “claws” were indeed gone.

Applejack was shocked. But as honesty was undoubtedly her Element she did not hold herself from asking a simple question.

“What the meaning of this all? She almost kill’d two guards in order to go down!”

“Thou can’t see it but We, alicorns, can gaze through the veils of this world,” Luna answered hesitantly. “Thou don’t want to know about… the things We can stare at... Thou might not be able to stand it.”

Bewildered, everypony examined the door with narrowed eyes. It was a simple wooden door, broken in half since the guards staved in. Twilight started sobbing. Her friends were totally abashed.

There were ponies gathering around the place while the emergency services were extracting a victim. They all without any doubt recognize Rainbow Dash, unconscious, lying on a stretcher.

Applejack tried to get closer, but the police’s safety belt and the doctors repelled her harshly.

“She is both a victim and a suspect,” an officer stated with a grim voice. “You can’t talk to her. Draw back to your home… a summer storm is coming. Go back home before it starts raining.”

As nopony dared make a move or step aside, he vented with a bit of irritation, “Everypony, move along, there is nothing to see.”

But there was. The morgue employees had just arrived and all the witnesses saw a big cart where was piled up empty body bags.
However the most disgusting spectacle given to watch was that, following the stretcher on which Rainbow was lying down, a surgeon was carrying in a bag containing a pair of light blue wings.

ϐ Ϙ ϖ ϧ Ξ ϧ ϖ Ϙ ϐ

Celestia, Luna, Twilight and the remaining Element of Harmony were standing in the horsepital waiting room. For ten hours the surgeons and doctors had been working on Rainbow, trying to save her… or at least to salvage what could have been. During those ten hours, no further developments were brought to them.

Everypony was afraid and the silence was exasperating their worry. Twilight was drawing circles with her hoof. Rarity was still crying, trying to quiet her sobs. Fluttershy who had collapsed earlier was struggling in her sleep against an unknown foe. Luna was watching upon her dreams.

Suddenly, Applejack bucked a bench. Each pony turned. Nopony dared speak. All of them had failed something or somepony today. Hqving an easy conscience was now a long-gone reality.
Applejack clearly was not doing any effort in holding back grumbles of rage.

“Calm down,” Twilight asked for with a voice betraying her pained thoughts.

“How can I!? Dashy is right behind that door and nopony can tell us… how she is doing,” she burst into tears. “Mah Sugahcube…”

Twelve hours had now passed and everypony was still standing in the room, exhausted. Noon had passed and nopony had leaved the room to even take a drink. The postman brought with him the Equestria Daily. Its claims were stupefying.

Murder in Equestria.

This night the Royal Guards found in the basement of Sugarcube Corner, a well-known patisserie of Ponyville, the greatest butchery ponykind have seen in history. Following the scarce Royal Guard’s statements, thirteen corpses have been pulled up from the bloody cellar, and among the victims, the name of Pinkie Pie, one of the Elements bearers has been mentioned.
Rainbow Dash, the sole survivor, has been taken to Ponyville Intensive Care.

Someponies outline she could be the kill…

“LIES! That’s all LIES!” Applejack yelled, her wrath exploding.

It took ten minutes to cool her temper down.

Twilight convinced her, “Don’t listen to gossips! Nopony knows what happened down there… We must wait for… Rainbow’s waking up.”

“Will she…” Applejack darkened the gloomy atmosphere a bit more. “Ah… Ah can’t stand to lose… fail two friends the same day. Ah…”

The door of medical bloc opened. A surgeon whose name was Dextral Hoof introduced himself to the group. Everypony stood up and held their breath, waiting for the news, good or not.

“She is safe… for now,” everypony felt better. “At least, physically. She… lost her wings. Both. We couldn’t do nothing, the nerves were already dead…”

The audience was ravaged. Tears fell to the ground.

“Does she…” Luna asked.

“No, she will never be able to fly again. She is wingless. Somepony snatched them with a rusty tool…” – he paused, trying to choose words less shocking for his audience – “Miss Dash must have suffered a lot. She has been stabbed nearly thirty times and her… tormentor has taken proceedings as she did not die from her wounds despite her blood loss. This is a master’s work.”

“She’d been… tortured,” Celestia stuttered, disbelieving.

“In the cruelest way. She’ll recover on a physical level but it is beyond my abilities to state that she will awaken without any psychological traumas. We’ve induced a coma due to the pain she is enduring now.”

No pony made a move, breathes still hold.

“All of you should go back home, we’ll wake her in three days. And don’t worry. We’ll keep an eye on her state.”

They were all disappointed but finally resigned to leave. And standing in the forecourt of the horsepital, a strange pony was there, waiting for the three princesses.

ϐ Ϙ ϖ ϧ Ξ ϧ ϖ Ϙ ϐ

“As captain of the Special Services of the Royal Court of Canterlot, may I request a meeting with Yours Majesties?”

The Captain gazed at the other ponies.

“Do not cast them away Sharpened Edge, they are the remaining Element Bearers. They can know the truth,” Princess Luna stated swiftly.

The captain sighed, ill at ease.

“As you wish Madame, but how will they take it?”

He drew a worried glance at everypony. His stared paused a long time on Fluttershy who dunked her head between her shoulders.

Everypony accompanied the captain toward the city hall. It was nearly five in the afternoon and the rain had stopped. But the clouds Rainbow Dash should have moved off in the morning were still standing high in the sky, hiding the sun.

h the assembly room of the Hall, two inspectors were impatiently waiting for the captain and his followers. They were wearing identical large brown tweed coats. Sunglasses were set upon a large oval wooden table.

After everypony had sat down, they started unfolding their version of events. This grim night had finally… maybe… an explanation. The first inspector, a large white stallion, moved forward.

“The basement of Sugarcube Corner was filled in thrash, flesh and blood when we arrived. What we found was your friend, Miss Rainbow Dash, standing over the corpse of what appeared to be Miss Pinkamena Diane Pie. The first one had a butcher knife in her hooves and instantly attacked us when we called her by her name. Miss Rainbow was visibly severely injured and had nails hammered in her hooves. She fainted from the blood loss right after a short encounter… but she had already managed to kill two guards who came to rescue what could have been saved.”

“One was my brother,” The captain said neutrally.

The second inspector brought on the desk a set of crime scene photos, pulling them from his briefcase. Pony’s remains, parts and pieces of flesh was noticeable. There were also knives, scalpels, blood stains and a table carved by hundreds of knife strikes and slashes. A photo showing a burning brazier with nails and pliers inside slid toward Princess Luna. Madness exuded from the photos, just an utter madness.

“Please take it away. I can’t…,” Fluttershy wept, hiding her eyes behind her hooves, her voice unable to go over a mere decibel.

“Neither can I,” Rarity added with a smirk of disgust.

“What is your speculations inspector?” Celestia asked, gulping back a gag.

“We can’t assume that we already have the exact answer about this night events. But with the evidences we’ve found down there it seems that somepony, and Miss Pie is our principal suspect, trapped the pegasus named Rainbow Dash in order to torture her and make her endure the most horrifying experiences. We also found a coat which was made of Cutie Marks…”

Unsettled by the multiple shocked stares fixing him, the inspector chewed his words quite a long time before continuing the creepy presentation.

“By the way… Miss Rainbow Dash’s cutie marks have been unfortunately cut off from her both flanks.”

Fluttershy hurriedly left the room, her face distorted by an expression of disgust. The surgeon had not got the courage to tell them.

“We also found cupcakes…”

“Cupcakes?” – Twilight arched her brows – “How can this be relevant?”

“Let me finish Your Majesty… cupcakes made of Pony’s flesh.”

A queasy Luna covered her mouth with her hoof in an attempt to fight back the irresistible craving to throw up.

“I don’t want details, be quick please!” Celestia implored, grieved.

“The basement is currently a twisted place. Nopony dares to go down there. The smell is untenable, and the place itself...”

The inspector developed his presentation, mentioned cannibalism, and outlined his suspicion about dark rituals.
There was only one unfolded question, the reason behind this insane deed.

“From now on and until Miss Dash’s wake-up, we can’t know. We have to wait. But one thing is clear now. Miss Dash killed your friend Pinkie Pie. The true question is really to know whether or not Miss Pie is Rainbow Dash’s tormentor. Or is she another victim?”

When the inspectors left with the evidence, Celestia gently asked everypony to go back home, to get some rest.

ϐ Ϙ ϖ ϧ Ξ ϧ ϖ Ϙ ϐ

Sleep was rejecting Twilight’s pleas. Whatever she did, however how many times she twisted and turned under her bed linen, she always pictured these two black claws creeping out of the Cake’s basement. She shuddered. Twilight knew how persistent a hallucination could be in somepony’s mind, but... this aftereffect had been lasting for so long she started questioning the nature of her vision. It was so vivid.
Each time she closed her eyes they were waiting for her, ready to strike. And the eerie shadows of a tree the moonlight was casting on the curtains of her window were not helping.

Ten other hours had flowed by since she had left the city hall, and she was not able to get past what she had witnessed. It was enough for her. Waiting for the sandman was over. She had to face the issue tickling her spirit again.

Spike was quietly sleeping on his couch; in order to avoid her assistant’s discontent, Twilight tip-toed stealthily toward the exit of the Golden Oak’s Library.

It was a cold night. The moon was high and some pegasi had the sky cleared during the evening. A soft breeze made Twilight shiver. By night, Ponyville had the aspect of a creepy ghost town. No light was coming from the windows. The noise which gave life to any city unsettled the small alicorn by its overwhelming absence. Alone, she would have sold her wings just to get a friend close to her…
Such comparison pained Twilight, she would have preferred coming with another expression.

Sugarcube Corner was waiting for her, dwelling in the same street since its erection. Plunged into darkness and coldness, the usually colorful place had lost all of its haughtiness.

A large yellow strip tagged the place as a restricted area. “DO NOT CROSS, CRIME SCENE,” It read.
Twilight crossed the warning anyway. She found the entrance sealed by another strip.

There was no claw waiting for her, just a deep and dark room where Pinkie used to sell her cupcakes. Shakes ran under her fur. Cupcakes made of ponies’ flesh. She could not tell… Was she really relieved to face nothing but emptiness?
She quivered.

A strangled cough popped out of nowhere, coming from behind her back. Twilight flinched. Ready to defend herself she turned over in a jump, her horn glowing magenta. A well-known silhouette was sitting on a carriage. A mighty foe she had fought once.

“What are you doing here Discord? Is that another of your twisted schemes? Wrecking chaos does not suit you anymore? You have to make ponies kill one another?”

Gritting her teeth, only anger was readable on her face.

“Where is fun in all of this?” the spooky voice of the creature asked.

Twilight caught sight of tears rolling on the Draconequus’ face. In his hands laid the fragments of Pinkie’s necklace. Colorless, the jewel was as grey as marble and no magic was issuing from it.

“Where is fun in death? Nowhere.”

He paused and his two luminescent yellow eyes glared at the young purple alicorn.

“Tell me Twilight Sparkle, why would I have done such a thing? I’m Discord, a spirit of chaos, not Destruction. There is no fun at all here. It was not meant to be like this,” – he dropped the necklace and buried his head in his hands – “Why Pinkie, she was so funny.”

Confused, Twilight’s mouth dangled wide open. Discord was a treacherous being. But now, looking so depressed and sincere, Twilight pitied him.

“Discord, you should worry about Rainbow Dash, she is the sole survivor.”

“She lives, others didn’t make out as well.”

“You… cynical!” Twilight burst out. “Why are you worried about a murderer! She killed… tried to kill Rainbow!”

“Why are you so confident about it? Did you witness it? No!” He enraged. “I liked Pinkie, I just… I just can’t believe she’s gone…”
He sobbed, “At least let me the benefice of the doubt… the bliss of ignorance.”

Struck hard by Discord’s claim, Twilight tried to rationalize. She always knew that he was fond of Pinkie. They shared the same hobbies after all, pranking and having fun. But… believing that the spirit of Disharmony could have had somehow, a kind crush on the Element of Laughter… she was aback.
However, it was obvious on second thoughts.

Discord spoke to himself, “Why was I not able to see this coming? I should have… I’ve always failed in everything.”

Twilight felt unpleasant and queasy. Discord used to picture himself as a nonsense folk, a being who laughed at rationality and what made sense. This was brand new, terrifying, or at least deeply moving.
Discord’s voice called her back from her confused thoughts.

“Why are you here Twi? This isn’t a place for a princess.”

His tone was frightening, heavy and stern. Discord was generally a funny creature, and even Twilight had to admit it. But right now, enshrounded by the dark, her former antagonist was just a crooked character, veiled by the night and sorrow.

“I… I saw something last night, just there,” – She pointed her hoof toward the entrance of the shop – “They were two claws, it was black, it was…”

“Calling you?”

“How do you know?”

Discord had already gotten up, his face revealing a strong resignation. The moon silhouetted his body as he fixed Twilight in her eyes.

“Never speak of it. To nopony! Do you understand? Seek for it, search for answers because you will try… even if I deter you to do so! Do it, but do not drag anypony with you.”

“But…”

Twilight burned internally to protest, to counter this warning. But Discord put a finger on her lips.

“Quiet! Here is a lesson your dear teacher never taught you. There is always something darker in this world, waiting for the right moment to strike, waiting for an opportunity. There will be no glowing red eyes or contemptuous sneer. The blackness will ambush you from the darkest corners of the earth without any indication. And it always shows up in the most horrific ways.”

Twilight kept her mouth closed, chewing over Discord’s wise words. He continued with a voice more oppressive than ever.

“Listen. Do not make a leap of faith into the unknown with your friends. They’ll be alone… alone in the dark. Do whatever you want, go deep but don’t drag them into it. They will end up wrecked at the end of this ordeal… because, compared to us the ‘powerful ones’, they’ll have no way to combat the power of the dark.”

Aback, Twilight tried to clear up the catch in Discord’s warning. The Draconequus was elusive and did nothing but troubling her more.

“I must go. I have something to figure out,” Discord stated, looking away.

“Discord you can’t abandon us, when we reformed you… you promised to help us.”

“I can’t, at least, not for the moment.”

“Don’t…”

“Sometimes you’ll have to fight alone, young alicorn. One day you’ll be left stranded, trapped or unable to reach your friends, because scary powers always splits apart the strongest links.”

Discord words started echoing magically.

“This isn’t a game. It has never been one,” he warned.

“Wait…”

And he vanished in a white flash.

“Don’t underestimate the dark,” His voice kept going, erupting from the void. “It has always waited for the right moment to strike back. Be ready because it shows no mercy… And remember, this world is frail…”

Now alone in front of Sugarcube Corner, Twilight was devastated with a broken necklace at her hooves, unanswered questions in her mind and a taste of bitterness in her mouth. Discord would never change. He had to bring confusion anywhere, anytime.

“I thought everything would be just fine,” the young pony whispered in the night.