> Pinkamurder
>  by Mudraynebow
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Part One: The Carnival
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Warning: This fanfic has been rated Mature for strong graphic violence and gore, and may affect your appreciation of certain My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic characters.



"PINKAMURDER" 

by Mudraynebow


It was a bright, sunny afternoon in Ponyville that day, a perfect day to be outside. There were no traces of the puddles of water that had been in the ground earlier that morning, an aftermath of the storm that the Pegasi ponies had cooked up the day before. Being such a beautiful day, almost everypony in town was outside, enjoying the sunshine. There were only a few exceptions, one of them a pink mare with poofy hair which sat silently at a table next to a window in Ponyville's local sweets shop.

Pinkie Pie sat in Sugarcube Corner, staring out the window thinking hard as she watched all of the ponies trot around and play outside. She had been noticing a big problem in the town lately. The problems were her friends. Every pony in Ponyville was her friend, and Pinkie liked nothing more than making her friends happy. The problem was, however, sometimes no matter what Pinkie did, she couldn't make certain friends happy, or even smile. And with Pinkie, ALL of her friends had to be happy. But with certain ponies, it proved impossible to ever make them cheer up. There were Apple Bloom and her two friends, always whining about never getting their Cutie Marks, even though Pinkie had tried so many other ways to get them to cheer up. There was Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, who, Pinkie had noticed, always had the worst attitude ever and were rude to others. There was Gilda the gryphon, who had an even worse attitude than Diamond Tiara's or Silver Spoon's, but thankfully, she didn't live around Ponyville. There was the Great and Powerful Trixie, who was just a mean show-off. Pinkie simply didn't know what to do with ponies, and gryphons, like these. Deep in thought, she continued to stare out the window.

***

That very same day, the Cutie Mark Crusaders all sat up in their clubhouse, talking excitedly.

"Ah can't believe mah big sister bought all of us tickets to Ponyville's carnival!" Apple Bloom said excitedly to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. "This is gonna be the best night ever!"

"Did you know my sis is making outfits and she's going to be selling them at the carnival?" Sweetie Belle asked. "They're amazing! But Rarity said I had to stay out of the house for most of today so I don't ruin anything."

"I hope Rainbow Dash will be there!" Scootaloo said. "I really want to talk to her and hang out and show her how cool I am!"

"Maybe we can go see the play, too!" Apple Bloom said. "It was Granny Smith's idea. "They're having a play about how Ponyville was named!"

"Ohh, I'm in that play!" Scootaloo reminded the other two excitedly for about the hundredth time that day.

"What about Applejack?" Scootaloo asked. "Isn't she going to be at the carnival, too?"

"Oh, yeah, she's gonna be selling food there. She's outside right now, buckin' apples. She needs to collect a lot of em before tonight!"

"Apple Bloom!" a voice said from the doorway of the clubhouse.

The three fillies turned and saw Applejack standing there.

"Yes, sis?" Apple Bloom said.

"Sorry to interrupt y'all, but ya need to do your chores now. Ah need a lot of help gettin' ready for the carnival tonight!"

"Aww! But Applejack, ah'm hangin' out with mah friends right now!"

"You'll be able to see yer friends tonight," Applejack said. "Ah did buy y'all tickets, did ah not?"

"We can help Apple Bloom with her chores!" Sweetie Belle suggested.

"That's a great idea!" Scootaloo agreed. "Then we can hang out all day until the carnival!"

"Well..." Applejack said, thinking.

"Please?" Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo said in unison.

Applejack sighed.

"Ah guess that's fine with me. But ya three have to actually work, ok? No goofin' off! There's a lot of stuff that needs to get done, and soon! The day's half over already!"

"Yay!"

***

Pinkie Pie paced all around her house, thinking. She felt kind of sad. Tonight was the carnival, and she couldn't bear to see the unhappy ponies make the happy ones unhappy. There were a few ponies that stood out in particular that never seemed to get in the spirit of things. And all they would do was bring the others down.

Pinkie turned her head and looked at her Cutie Mark on her left flank for a moment. Her special talent was supposed to be making ponies happy, and keeping them happy. She could make some ponies, like Apple Bloom, happy for a bit, but it never lasted. Pinkie thought of how whenever she tried making Apple Bloom happy, the filly always eventually got back to being sad about not having her Cutie Mark. It was that way for several ponies.

Still looking at her Cutie Mark, Pinkie thought more. Was she no longer good at her special talent? Was that why not everypony in town was happy? Did she get her Cutie Mark, but it only meant a temporary talent? Was her talent wearing off or something? Pinkie felt sad just thinking about it... And then she raised her head in horror, realizing something. She was sad. She was sad. Those ponies, by not being happy, were making Pinkie not feel happy, either. And Pinkie did not like not being happy. She loved being happy, but with unhappy ponies in her town that her special talent didn't seem to affect, it was impossible to be happy.

Pinkie walked into her bedroom, and looked at herself in the mirror. Instead of seeing her normally happy face, Pinkie saw that her face had a frown on it. Seeing that, she couldn't take anymore. Her hair deflated into limp, sad-looking strands. She stared in the mirror a little longer, and a surprisingly strong flash of anger overtook her. She slammed her right hoof into the mirror, which cracked and exploded into a shower of glass that fell all over the bedroom floor. Pinkie looked at her hoof in wonder, it was now bloody. She stared, almost mesmerized, as the crimson liquid dripped to the floor in a hypnotizing rhythm.

All those ponies... I just can't do anything to make them happy, can I?

Pinkie walked over and looked into one of the bigger shards of the shattered mirror, at her sad expression. She couldn't believe she was feeling sad, and all because she couldn't make a few ponies happy. It just wasn't fair. She wasn't sure if she was bad at her job, or if these few ponies were just particularly stubborn. Maybe they just weren't letting Pinkie do her job. Maybe they were just refusing to be happy. Or then again, Pinkie thought, maybe her talent had just worn out. She had never heard of somepony's talent "wearing out", but there were first times for everything, she supposed... But she wanted to do something about these ponies. She wanted to help them or something, but she just couldn't. Nothing worked.

What can I do? Pinkie thought sadly. With those few unhappy ponies living in Ponyville, I don't see how I'll ever be happy if they can never be happy.

Suddenly, Pinkie thought of something and she raised her head up, contemplating the idea.

Could I actually do such a thing? What if I get caught?! But then again... I think I could... 

Pinkie thought a minute longer and decided that she could, in fact, carry out her plan and her hair poofed right back to normal. The idea she had was not a pleasant idea at all, and it would make the unhappy ponies even more unhappy for awhile, but if it worked, Pinkie would once again be happy because the only ponies living in Ponyville would be happy ponies. She decided to put her plan into action at the carnival, already having the perfect place in mind. In the meantime, she was going to go around and see how everypony was doing.

***

Pinkie bounced on over to Sweet Apple Acres first, and saw Applejack still bucking the apples off the trees. Pinkie bounced over to her.

"Hey, Applejack!"

"Howdy, Pinkie," Applejack replied, turning around and wiping the sweat from her forehead with a hoof. "How are ya doin' today?"

"I'm doing great!" Pinkie said. And I'll be even better after the carnival tonight.

"That's good!" Applejack said. "So, what're ya up to? Just headin' 'round town as usual?"

"Yep!" Pinkie said. "Hey, where's Apple Bloom?" 

"She's over on the side of the barn," Applejack said, rolling her eyes. "Ah gave her and her friends the job of paintin' apples to look like zap apples for the play tonight, but ah think they're takin' it a bit too seriously."

"Is she not in a good mood?" Pinkie asked.

Applejack thought for a moment.

"Ah guess ya could say that."

Just as I thought, Pinkie thought with a sigh. It looked like Apple Bloom and her two friends would be in the plan tonight. But she could at least go see for herself. Maybe, hopefully, Applejack was wrong about Apple Bloom's bad mood and Pinkie could reconsider having Apple Bloom in her plan.

"Could I go see what she's up to, Applejack?"

"Sure, why not," Applejack replied, rolling her eyes at the thought of the three fillies again. "An' if they're fightin', could ya tell em to stop?"

"You can count on me, Applejack!" Pinkie said happily.

Pinkie headed over to the side of the barn and peeked around the corner. Her heart sank a little. Looks like the three fillies would all be a part of the plan now. They were sitting there around a bunch of apples and paint cans, and they had paint all over themselves. They were also fighting.

"Sweetie Belle, stop painting whatever you want on the apples!" Scootaloo was saying. "They're supposed to look like zap apples, not fashion-show fancy apples!"

"You're not doing any better!" Sweetie Belle whined. "You're supposed to paint the rainbows starting with red at the bottom of the apple, and end with the purple at the top!"

"Ya both are doing it wrong!" Apple Bloom declared. "The rainbows are supposed to curve upwards on the apples, not be in perfectly straight lines!"

"They are not!" Scootaloo said.

"Are too!" Apple Bloom insisted.

"Are not!"

"Are too!"

"Are not!" 

"Are too!"

"Are not!"

"Are-"

"Quiet, both of you!" Sweetie Belle said loudly. "You both are painting the rainbows on the apples upside down!"

"What would you know about zap apples?" Scootaloo asked her. "I bet you've never even seen a zap apple before!"

"I have too seen a zap apple before!" Sweetie Belle said. "We were even there when Apple Bloom's big sister was selling them that one time, and we were dressed up in those bunny costumes!"

"Oh, yeah," Scootaloo said, remembering. "But you still don't know anything about them!"

"An' ah am paintin' the apples right!" Apple Bloom told them, holding one up for her friends to see. "That's Scootaloo who ain't paintin' the apples right!"

"Apple Bloom, you just smeared the paint on that apple, now!" Scootaloo said.

"Oops," Apple Bloom said. "Well, we can always repaint it!"

"Just don't let Sweetie Belle repaint the apple," Scootaloo said. "She's not even painting rainbows on the apples, hers look like Hearts & Hooves Day decorations!"

"Hey!" Sweetie Belle said angrily. "I can paint a perfect zap apple, you just watch me!"

Sweetie Belle moved the bucket of red paint closer to her, picked up a brush, dipped it in the paint, and carefully began painting the apple with tiny, gentle strokes.

Scootaloo clapped a hoof to her face, frustrated.

"Sweetie Belle!"

Sweetie Belle looked up at Scootaloo, confused.

"What?" she said.

"You're supposed to paint the apples faster than that! We should be much, much farther along right now!"

"You can paint the apples the wrong way and do it sloppy," Sweetie Belle said, "but I'm going to do it the right way neatly, just like my sister Rarity does with things."

"Oh my gosh," Scootaloo said. "We need to get this done!"

Pinkie had seen enough right here. She turned around and headed for the exit of Sweet Apple Acres. She would be seeing those fillies tonight. All three of them...

***

Pinkie bounced through Ponyville and headed out to the edge of the field where the carnival would be tonight. There were already hundreds of ponies here, setting up their things. Everypony was talking and laughing, having a great time. Everyone except...

"-can't even believe those blank-flanks would even show up, here," Pinkie saw Diamond Tiara saying nastily to her friend, Silver Spoon.

Pinkie wandered near the two fillies, pretending to not pay any attention to them, but actually listening closely.

"I know, right?" Silver Spoon said. "I mean, how embarrassing can it be for you to come to this awesome carnival and be the only ponies in your class to not have a Cutie Mark?"

"That must be, like, totally embarrassing," Diamond Tiara said.

The friends laughed and walked off.

Pinkie stared after the two fillies with her eyes narrowed. Meanies. Pinkie didn't like meanies, and anyways, there was no room for them in Ponyville. She knew what she had to do. She added Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon to the mental list in her head. They would be included in the plan tonight now.

As Pinkie turned to walk away, she suddenly saw another carriage riding onto the field. It looked familiar.

"Trixie!" Pinkie said to herself under her breath. "What is that big show-off meanie doing here? I guess I'll add her- wait! Maybe she's changed!"

Pinkie walked over near the carriage to see. The door of the carriage suddenly burst open in a cloud of blue smoke, and nearby ponies began coughing. A pony stepped out of the smoke; Trixie.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie will be performing at the carnival tonight!" Trixie called, causing several nearby ponies to groan as they remembered the huge show-off. 

Pinkie casually trotted closer to Trixie in time to hear the blue unicorn mutter something under her breath: "This time, I'll show Twilight Sparkle."

Pinkie added Trixie to her mental list. Trixie hadn't changed a bit. All she would do tonight is make everypony mad by showing off. Pinkie couldn't stand her. Trixie was just a big meanie, one of the meaniest meanies Pinkie had ever seen. That Trixie just had to be better than everypony else. Well, Pinkie would show her...

Pinkie walked away from Trixie's carriage through the crowd of ponies. She thought she had enough ponies on her list for now, so now she just needed to get some things to get prepared for tonight.

***

Pinkie walked back through Ponyville. She had to get to Zecora's place because she had a feeling she would find some of what she needed there. She wasn't worried about the zebra being home, as Pinkie had seen her in town earlier that day.

Pinkie was so lost in thought, she didn't even see the gryphon in front of her until she bumped into her.

"Watch where you're going, runt," Gilda the gryphon growled.

"Gilda!" Pinkie said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here for the carnival, dweeb," Gilda sneered.

Gilda hadn't changed at all, Pinkie noticed. Same old Gilda, always being mean to everypony. Gilda, who was an even a meanier meanie than Trixie.

"You do know, no pony in town likes you," Pinkie said, not trying to be mean but just telling the truth.

"You think I care what you lame ponies think of me?" Gilda asked nastily. "Because I don't. And I especially don't care what you think. You're the lamest of them all."

The gryphon walked past Pinkie, taking care to smack the pony in the face with her tail as she did so.

"She's the meanest meany-pants ever!" Pinkie said to herself. "The meanest kind there possibly is! Looks like I have a gryphon to add to the list, now!"

Angrily, Pinkie kept walking. She would show Gilda who was lame tonight at the carnival...

Pinkie got on the road that led to the Everfree Forest. She walked on the road until she reached the edge of the forest and she hesitated. The Everfree Forest scared her.

No. Pinkie couldn't and wouldn't let that stop her. She stepped into the shade of the forest and began walking down the narrow path to Zecora's place.

***

When Pinkie reached Zecora's, she cautiously peeked inside the window. The cauldron in the center of the room was empty and there was no zebra in there. Like everypony else, Zecora was still in town to get ready for the carnival. Even the zebra, who most of the time kept to herself inside the Everfree Forest, didn't want to miss out on the carnival.

Pinkie walked inside Zecora's hut and looked around. There was a shelf of books, and that's where Pinkie went over to and began looking. She found a book for potions, and she opened the book and turned the pages until she found a potion for potent acid. Pinkie grinned. It didn't look hard to make, and this was Zecora's, so all the ingredients she needed would surely be here. After that, Pinkie found another book on the same shelf, and she looked through it until she found a recipe for- a firebomb. Pinkie looked at the recipes, and got to work, moving quickly in case Zecora came home.

***

"We got all the apples painted," Apple Bloom said, going up to Applejack who was still bucking apples.

Yep, we're all done," Scootaloo agreed, coming up beside Apple Bloom. "Sorry it took us awhile, Applejack. We had a few... problems."

Applejack turned as Sweetie Belle came up on Apple Bloom's other side.

"So y'all three are done then?" Applejack asked.

"We... Um... Did the best we could!" Sweetie Belle said.

"An' the apples look like zap apples and can be used in the play?"

"Yep!" the three fillies said in unison.

"Oh, the play!" Scootaloo said suddenly. "I completely forgot I was in that play! Uh, gotta go, see you two tonight at the carnival!" she said, running off.

"Um, I better get home, I... Uh... I... I wanna see how my sister is doing with her dresses!" Sweetie Belle said, quickly running off.

"Ah'm just gonna go wander around Ponyville an' check out everything," Apple Bloom said. She also ran off towards the entrance of Sweet Apple Acres.

Applejack frowned.

"Somethin' tells me those fillies were up to somethin'..."

She went around to the side of the barn and stared at the apples that Apple Bloom and her two friends had painted. Applejack sighed.

"Why didn't ah jus' do this mahself?"

***

Cheerilee was in charge of the play at the carnival tonight, and right now, she was unhappy because the group of fillies putting on the play was getting on her nerves. Scootaloo had just arrived, late of course, and Cheerilee had had just about had enough. Snips and Snails were over at the side of the stage, talking. That was all they had been doing all day ever since they got there.

"I heard that the Great and Powerful Trixie is going to be performing here tonight!" Snips was saying excitedly to Snails. "Do you know what that means?"

"Why do they call it a Cutie Mark even if it's not cute?" Snails asked.

"Yeah!- I mean, no!" Snips said, correcting himself, and a little angry at the stupidity of his friend. "It means, we can-"

"Boys!" Cheerilee said sharply, walking over to them. "You're supposed to be practicing your lines, not talking!"

"Sorry, Miss Cheerilee," Snips said meekly.

"Um, what character was I again?" Snails asked Cheerilee.

Cheerilee almost shouted in frustration, but then she calmed down and forced a smile onto her face.

"You, Snails, are one of the settlers, remember? Your lines are right next to you where you left them."

"Oh yeah, I remember."

"So boys, you need to stop chatting and really practice your lines. You want to show everypony how good you are at this kind of thing at the play tonight, don't you?"

"Of course, Miss Cheerilee!" Snips said.

"Miss Cheerilee?" Scootaloo asked, coming up behind the teacher.

"What is it, Scootaloo?" Miss Cheerilee asked with a sigh. 

"I can't find my cape."

"Did you look where all of the costumes are stored?"

"Oh... I guess I didn't. I'll go look there right now."

Scootaloo ran off, and Miss Cheerilee sighed. She couldn't believe some of her students. They didn't make any sense to her. She hoped this play turned out okay tonight.

***

Pinkie Pie walked back through the forest, carrying a pack on her back that held twenty bottles of acid. It was apparently, according to the book, the most potent acid known to ponykind, and could melt right through skin in seconds. In other words, it was perfect for tonight. She would show all those unhappy ponies.

On the way back near Ponyville, Pinkie went over to the hospital. Entering through a back door as to not be noticed, she snuck through the halls quietly and found an empty surgical room. Gathering up some of the instruments in there, she quickly packed them into her pack and began to head out. Only once did she have to quickly duck into a side closet when she heard several nearby nurses coming, but they quickly passed the room without even looking in. They hadn't noticed Pinkie duck in. All the same though, Pinkie still waited a few minutes in case the nurses were still nearby, and after that, she quickly rushed out of the hospital.

Pinkie went to her house and dropped off the pack of stuff there. They would come in handy later tonight.

After Pinkie was done dropping off the stuff, she returned to the area where the carnival would be. There was a stage near the edge of the field that had been set up for a long time, and there was a below-stage underground. It looked like all the ponies that were going to be in the play were busy practicing her lines, and the teacher, Miss Cheerilee, was supervising them. Pinkie noticed one of the ponies practicing her lines was Scootaloo, one of the ponies on her mental kill list.

Since all the ponies in the play were all above-stage, Pinkie snuck around to the back of the stage and went below-stage. It was a big, dark room, and there were many things in there that Pinkie could use tonight for the unhappy ponies.

Pinkie began to use the things in the room, developing something wicked, paying attention to some of the more dangerous props, like a table that could fold in half, and poles of some sort that could come down from the ceiling.

Pinkie was done and was heading for the door to get back above ground when it opened and Miss Cheerilee stepped into the room.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Nothing much!" Pinkie Pie said. "Just checking out the stuff that's going to be in the play tonight."

"That's nice, but you better get out. Some of the stuff down here is dangerous, and I don't want anypony getting hurt."

"Oh, I'll be fine! In fact, could I run the play tonight? I think I could do a Pink-tastic job at it!"

Cheerilee thought for a moment.

"I don't know... It's a big responsibility, especially with some of these students..."

"Oh, please let me do it! I know I can, I won't let you down!"

Cheerilee sighed.

"I guess you could... I really could use some help with these students, anyways."

"Oh, thank you so much!"

"Just let me give you your list of responsibilities, and then I'll let you take over." 

The two ponies walked out of the below-stage area and back up to the stage where the little ponies were still practicing their lines. Cheerilee sighed.

"You really think you can handle this crowd tonight?"

"Sure I can!" said Pinkie. "Easy as pie."

***

Finally, the sky turned from light blue to dark orange, and finally to deep dark blue as Celestia set the sun and Luna raised the moon, but no pony was asleep. They were all at the carnival, talking and laughing and having a good time. It was brightly lit, easy to see around. Trixie started being her normal show-off self and Gilda strutted around, stealing food from the stands and yelling at anypony who got in her way, and saying how lame they all were.

The play was about ready to start soon, and Pinkie was very excited. Now that she was in charge of the play, getting rid of Scootaloo would be so much easier. Little filly always whining about how she never got her Cutie Mark. Pinkie would really show her something to whine about, but smile anyways when the time was right.

Pinkie saw more of her targets through the crowd: Apple Bloom, walking with Applejack, Sweetie Belle, walking with Rarity, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon walking together, saying nasty things about blank flanks as usual. Pinkie sure was going to take care of those meanies.

Pinkie went over to the stage where the play would be, and she looked through a copy of the play's script. Luckily, she discovered that Scootaloo only had one line, and she could come down below-stage after that. Pinkie had plans. She would be sure to tell everypony not to go downstage when they were done with their lines. Everypony except Scootaloo.

All the ponies that would be in the play were now on the stage by this time, and Pinkie went up there too with a checklist to make sure she didn't miss anypony. She went around the stage and told all the ponies up there except Scootaloo to not go below-stage when they were done with their lines, and instead to just go behind the curtains until the play was over. She just hoped none of them would tell Scootaloo to stay above stage. If they did... Pinkie could think of something else for her.

A large crowd of ponies, mostly parents of the children, were starting to gather around the front of the stage to watch the play. Applejack came up onto the stage carrying a bucket in her mouth that had all the painted apples in it, the ones that were painted to look like zap apples, for the play.

"Ya ready for this, Sugarcube?" Applejack whispered to Scootaloo.

"Oh, yeah!" Scootaloo replied. "I've been practicing, I think I've got my line nailed!"

Applejack frowned.

"Line?"

"Well... I only have one line..."

"That's ok, Sugarcube, ya can't of had too much practice."

"Do you know if Rainbow Dash will be watching this play?" Scootaloo asked eagerly. "I want her to see me perform!"

"Ah don't know. She might be. Anyways, jus' do yer best. You'll be fine. After the play, ya can go find Apple Bloom and talk with her."

"Ok!"

***

As the play on how Ponyville was created was about to start, there was a little argument going on near Trixie's carriage.

"I know you banished that Ursa Minor and saved everyone," Trixie told Twilight Sparkle, "but you'll never have the amazing abilities of the Great and Powerful Trixie!"

Twilight sighed. Would this pony ever learn her lesson?

"Trixie, it doesn't have to be this way. Please."

"I challenge you to a magic duel!" Trixie said, ignoring what Twilight's words. "I'll prove to you that the Great and Powerful Trixie is better than Twilight Sparkle!" 

"Fine," Twilight said, a little angrily. "Let's get this over with."

"Draw!" Trixie shouted. Her horn glowed, and suddenly, a nearby bucket of water from one of the stands rose up into the air, over Twilight, and turned over. The water in the bucket splashed down on top of the unicorn, soaking her. Trixie began to laugh.

Twilight just smiled a bit, and her horn glowed. All the water that she was covered with rose off of her, leaving her body completely dry, and shot at Trixie in a stream, and now, Trixie was the unicorn covered in water. Her expression grew angry; apparently, she didn't know the spell that Twilight had just used to get all the water off her.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie is unfazed by your attack, Twilight Sparkle!" Trixie shouted. Her horn glowed again, and several nearby apple pies from another stand floated into the air and hurled themselves at Twilight.

Twilight, barely in time, used her own magic to turn the pies around and fly back at Trixie, who dodged them, and the pies exploded against her carriage behind her.

Trixie glared at Twilight.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie will-"

"Hey!" a voice said from behind Twilight.

Trixie and Twilight both looked at the angry stallion standing near them.

"You mares know that you'll have to pay for those pies now, I hope!"

Trixie and Twilight looked at each other.

"I'll see you later," Trixie said with her eyes narrowed, and backed off.

***

The play was going well, and everypony was doing well and remembering their part, even Snips and Snails, which was a surprising relief. Cheerilee watched from the crowd of other ponies, and as the play went on, she began feel glad that she had left Pinkie in charge. It looked like doing that was the perfect decision. In fact, everything was going perfectly until Snails forgot one of his lines.

"Uh, what am I supposed to say again?" he asked loudly, drawing a little laughter from the audience.

The pony at the side of the stage, the helper, flashed the script at Snails. Snails looked at it, and then his expression cleared a little bit.

"Oh, yeah, that's what I'm supposed to say."

The play continued without any more incident.

Finally, it was Scootaloo's turn to act with her single line.

"We simply cannot survive without food!"

With that, Scootaloo exited the stage while the play continued.

Because Scootaloo had not been told to go around the curtain after her part in the play, she walked around the stage and opened the trap door that led below-stage.

As Scootaloo walked down the stairs below-stage, she wondered why it was completely silent down there. There had been other ponies that had finished before her, weren't they below-stage?

Halfway down the stairs, Scootaloo began to notice a strange smell. It smelled sweet, but not the good kind of sweet. It smelled bad. Thinking it was just another old smell, Scootaloo continued down the stairs, but she suddenly felt very tired and weak. By the time she reached the bottom step, she could no longer take it and she fell, unconscious, to the ground.

***

Scootaloo awoke suddenly, she didn't know how later it had been since she had fallen asleep. She was lying on a wooden table in a dark room; it was below-stage. She tried to sit up, and for the first time, she noticed that she was chained to the table. She couldn't move.

Another pony suddenly stepped out of the darkness and stood next to Scootaloo. Pinkie Pie.

"Pinkie!" Scootaloo cried in relief, happy that she recognized the pony. "I don't know what's going on, but can you please get me out of these things? I have a horrible feeling that we're not alone down here!"

Pinkie laughed.

"Don't worry, we're alone down here!"

"But- how did I get chained to the table?" Scootaloo asked in confusion. "Pinkie, what's going on down here?"

"Look, silly filly, before I answer any of your questions, I want you to answer one of mine."

"Ok," Scootaloo said. She was not scared yet, only confused.

"Are you upset that you haven't gotten your Cutie Mark yet?"

Scootaloo answered right away.

"Well, yeah! Do you know how long I've been waiting for one? Of course I'm upset!"

Pinkie laughed.

"I knew it! I knew it, I knew it, Pinkie guessed all by herself and she guessed right!"

"Um... That's great, Pinkie, but can you get me out of these chains now?"

"You silly, why would I do that?" Pinkie laughed. 

"But why not?" Scootaloo cried. Now she was beginning to get scared. "I know you like pranks, Pinkie, but this isn't funny!"

"EXACTLY!" Pinkie shouted, which was very unlike her. "Nothing I do is funny to you, nothing I do works! You always go back to being sad over your Cutie Mark and how it never appears!"

"But Pinkie!" Scootaloo said, now positively terrified and extremely confused. "I don't understand! But just please let me go, I won't tell anyone about this, I swear! I Pinkie Promise I won't tell anypony at all about this!"

"I know you don't understand!" Pinkie screamed. "That's why you're not me! You don't know how depressing it is, thinking that you're losing your special talent because you can't keep a few ponies happy! No idea! Which is exactly why I'm doing this. I can't have ponies like you that refuse to let me do my job by just not staying happy! So I'm eliminating ponies like you- and before I do that, I'll force them to smile, so they'll die with a smile on their face!"

With those words, Pinkie reached into a bag on the floor next to the table that Scootaloo was lying on. Pinkie brought up two things, one in each hoof: one was a painful-looking device from the hospital that was used to hold pony's mouths open, the other was a scalpel, and even in the dim light, the razor-sharp blade gleamed wickedly.

"I got these things- along with the gas I used to knock you out when you came down here- from Ponyville's hospital after I visited Zecora's," Pinkie said with a chilling laugh. "It was easy, I just went around through the back, snuck to an empty surgical room, threw this stuff in a bag, and I was on my way!"

"Why are you doing this, Pinkie?" Scootaloo whimpered. Tears formed in the corner of her eyes, but Scootaloo refused to let them fall. "Why?"

"You silly filly, I just told you why!" Pinkie said. "It's impossible for me to keep ponies like you happy for long, so I'm eliminating you! Much easier than being all depressed that my talent is wearing off or something."

"But Pinkie, I'm always happy!" Scootaloo said desperately. "I'm happy all the time!"

"Likely story," Pinkie said. "You and your other two silly filly friends are always whining about not getting your Cutie Marks. And if my talent's not good enough to keep you happy, I'll at least make you die with a smile on your face!"

"Pinkie, please!"

"Enough chatter, Scooty!" Pinkie sang. "Time to get operating!"

Pinkie set the scalpel down and used that hoof to keep Scootaloo's mouth held open. With her other hoof, Pinkie shoved the device in her other hoof into Scootaloo's mouth.

"First of all, I wonder what this thing's maximum extensions are?" Pinkie wondered. She pushed a button on the devise, and the top and bottom metal bar on the devise which held Scootaloo's mouth open began to push in opposite directions, forcing the filly's mouth open even wider. Scootaloo began to shake, unable to scream.

Pinkie held her hoof on the button, and Scootaloo's mouth was forced open wider and wider. Unable to scream, Scootaloo began to make grunting noises of pain. As the device forced the filly's mouth even wider, there was suddenly a sickening pop as Scootaloo's jaw got dislocated. And still, the devise forced her mouth open wider.

The devise finally stopped when Scootaloo's mouth had been forced open three times as wide as it was supposed to. Scootaloo was crying now, tears running down her face, but with her mouth open so wide, she could hardly make a sound.

"Now, the next step is to put a smile on your face!" Pinkie said with a laugh. She picked up the scalpel, put the blade in Scootaloo's mouth, and began to cut her cheek open from the side, expanding the filly's mouth on the right side by about four inches. A river of bright red blood instantly began to run from the wound and dribble down Scootaloo's chin and slide into her mouth. The pain hurt worse than anything the filly had ever experienced, but she still couldn't even scream.

"There you go!" Pinkie said happily. "You're smiling on your right side, but now, you have to do the same with the left side!"

Scootaloo began to make choking sounds as her own blood began to slide down her throat, but Pinkie still put the scalpel blade in the filly's mouth again and slit her left cheek all the way open, expanding her mouth on that side by another four inches. Blood sprayed into the air, covering Scootaloo's face.

"That's the spirit!" Pinkie said happily. "Now you're smiling!"

Scootaloo just made loud grunting sounds of pain. If her mouth hadn't been stretched so wide open, she would have been screaming her head off.

"Well, we don't need that in your mouth anymore!" Pinkie said, happy that Scootaloo was now smiling. She grabbed the device that held Scootaloo's mouth open, but instead of retracting the two metal bars that held the filly's mouth open, Pinkie just pulled it out as hard as she could, ripping Scootaloo's front teeth out, revealing her gums and blood-filled mouth. Scootaloo took in a breath to scream, but instead just inhaled some of her own blood and a tooth, causing her to start coughing.

"Hey, Scootaloo, I know what your Cutie Mark can be!" Pinkie said. "A Dying Cutie Mark!"

Pinkie used her scalpel and buried the blade in Scootaloo's right flank, as deep as it would go in. Scootaloo was able to scream this time, and blood flew from her expanded mouth. If she had thought it was painful to get her mouth sliced open, that was nothing compared to this. Scootaloo felt the blade slicing through her muscles, and she screamed louder. And then, as if to prove her point, she screamed even louder.

"Screaming won't do you any good," Pinkie laughed. "Even though the stage is right above us, the walls are sound-proof, you silly filly! Haven't you noticed that you haven't been able to hear the play right above us?"

Pinkie cut a large X in Scootaloo's flank, the scalpel cutting through the muscle easily. Scootaloo screamed some more, and dark blood squirted from the deep slash, splattering over the wooden table and onto the floor. Pinkie did the same with Scootaloo's left flank, and in seconds, her flank was covered in blood dripping from the slashed X.

"Please..." Scootaloo whimpered, her voice sounding strange coming out of her ruined mouth. "Stop... Please..."

"Oh, you silly filly, don't worry, I'm done with you! We just need to finish up here now!"

Pinkie pulled a lever that was attached to the bottom of the table, and the top half of the table which was also what the top half of Scootaloo's body was lying on began to raise up, forcing the filly into a sitting position. But it didn't stop there. It kept folding. Scootaloo, realizing what was going to happen, began to scream while Pinkie just watched in anticipation.

The top half of the table continued to fold slowly down, forcing Scootaloo's body into a 45-degree angle, and that was when it started to happen. The table still folded down, and Pinkie began to hear cracking sounds- either the filly's spine or ribs, Pinkie couldn't tell. But Pinkie did see the filly's stomach swelling ominously under the increasing pressure. Scootaloo felt her guts trying to burst out of her body, and she threw up all over her legs, she couldn't help it, it felt so gross, and it hurt so bad.

The top of the table still folded down, and one of Scootaloo's ribs cracked under the intense pressure, piercing through her chest and spraying blood. Then another rib did the same. And another. Scootaloo began to make grotesque choking noises, and she vomited again, but this time it was thick, dark red blood that came up and splattered all over her legs. She managed to scream one more time, then the unbearable agony caused her to pass out.

There was a sick crunch as Scootaloo's spine broke under the pressure. At almost the same time, the pressure on the filly's stomach grew to be too much and a broken rib pierced through it, splitting her stomach open with a wet splattering sound. As the table folded even further, blood exploded out of the filly's open stomach at a violent speed, splattering all over the place on and the floor in front of the table. Some of Scootaloo's guts and organs fell out of her body and landed on the floor, but most of them began to get crushed into a thick red pasty substance by the pressure of the table.

Scootaloo had nearly been completely folded in half by the table now, and blood, guts, and pulverized bone were leaking out from the inside like a sandwich. The top half of the table had by now folded so far over, Scootaloo's, chin was resting against her own hind legs, and still the table continued to fold.

There were loud cracking sounds as the table began to splinter Scootaloo's skull from the pressure. Blood began to pour out of the body's nose, ears, and even out of the eyes. As the pressure increased even more, the flow of blood did too, almost spraying in a jet from her face.

One of Scootaloo's eyes popped out as the top half of her head caved in. It landed on the floor with a sickening splat. A few seconds after that, the pressure from the table caused the filly's head to explode outwards sideways. Thick, dark-red blood, bits of skull, and pulverized brain matter spattered all over the place, and Scootaloo's other eye, with the optic nerve still attached to it, flew out of her head with such force, it hit a shelf on the far side of the room and burst apart in a splatter of blood, fluid, and goo which began dripping from the shelf.

"That's good enough," Pinkie said to herself. She went over to the table and pulled the lever again and the top half of the table slowly folded back until it was flat again. 

Pinkie looked at Scootaloo, or what was left of Scootaloo. The only things that were mostly still intact on the filly's body were her legs. Everything else was just a gory mess. Blood, smashed bone, some kind of bloody red stringy material, and pulverized guts covered the whole wooden table and dripped off onto the floor. Scootaloo's guts were now just thick reddish paste, mixed with shards of bone and half-digested food that the filly had eaten earlier. Her head was nothing but a mess of sharp shards of shattered skull, blood, and brains.

Pinkie wondered what the stuff tasted like. She leaned her head in towards the mess and licked up some of the gore that had once been organs. Pinkie let the flavor settle into her tongue before swallowing. Not bad.

"At least she smiled until the very end," Pinkie said, laughing crazily. "I don't need to worry about that silly filly anymore- she died with a smile on her face!"

Pinkie was about to go back up above ground to go look for her next target when she realized she was covered in gore and blood from head to hoof. Some of whatever food Scootaloo had eaten earlier that day, along with brain matter and bits of bone matted down her poofy mane. She couldn't go back up there looking like this. Pinkie looked around, and spied an old sink on the other side of the room, probably used by actors for washing off makeup. It would have to do for now. At least there was some soap there, too, that would help. Pinkie went over to the sink to get washed up. She wasn't worried about anyone coming down here for awhile- she had specifically told them not to- and she had a plan to dispose of Scootaloo's mess before the night was over.

***

While all of that was happening below-stage, up above, the play was going just fine. Everypony seemed to be remembering their lines. Near the back of the audience, Cheerilee smiled. That Pinkie really did know how to run a play. No pony was aware of what was happening right below the stage.

It was Snips' and Snails' turn now. These would be their last lines in the play, then they could go back behind the curtain.

"We need to find some way to get more food," Snails, who was playing a settler said.

"Yeah!" Snips agreed, who was also playing a settler. "We need to find a way to... Um... Get more food before it becomes the winter time!"

One of the other fillies whispered to Snips.

"It's just winter time, not the winter time," she told him.

Snips glared at her, but didn't reply. He didn't want to say something that wasn't in the script and make Miss Cheerilee upset. He also didn't want to upset Pinkie Pie, who he knew was now in charge of the play.

"We need to plant our apple seeds," one of the fillies said.

"Even if we plant the seeds now, it'll take years before they grow," Snails said.

"Yeah, we need to find a new source of food or else we'll have to find a new land to move to that has more food!" Snails agreed. "And we need to do it soon, so we don't all starve!"

"Then we better get looking!" One of the fillies said. After that, several of the ponies moved off the stage and went behind the curtain, including Snips and Snails, because they were done for the rest of the play.

"So, Snails, how do you think you did?" Snips asked excitedly. "Do you think you did good in the play? Did you remember all of your lines?"

"I dunno," Snails said in a bored voice. "It was kind of boring. Why did Miss Cheerilee make us be in this play, anyways? She just singled out some students in our class including us and said we had to be in the play, while our other classmates get to have a good time at the other stuff at the carnival."

"I don't know," Snips said, "but the play will be over soon and then we can go watch the Great and Powerful Trixie perform!"

"Ok," Snails replied, "but isn't she a fraud?"

"Of course!" Snips said. Then he realized something. "I mean- no! I mean- maybe! I mean- oh forget about it," he finished angrily. "Let's just go watch her perform. This carnival does last most of the night, after all!"

"Ok."

Suddenly, one of the play directors, a mare that was slightly older than Snips, came through the curtains.

"Great job, all of you that have done your part!" the director said. "We all thank you actors for waiting back here so patiently while the rest of the actors finish out acting the play. Just stay here for the present, and soon the play will be over, and you can have more fun at the other things this carnival has to offer!"

"Oh... I like presents," Snails said in a dreamy voice.

"Wait, that's it!" Snips cried as the director went back around to supervise the play again. "We just need permission to leave from the pony running the play! Snails, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Why is it they call it a play when you don't actually play in it?" Snails asked.

"Yeah! I mean-no! Never mind, I'll just go do it myself!"

Snips walked back around the curtain to go below-stage. If he got permission from Pinkie Pie, he thought, he would be able to go see the Great and Powerful Trixie right now.

Snails just stayed at the back of the stage behind the curtain with the others. He didn't know where Snips was going, but he knew Snips would be back in a few minutes.

***

Snips walked around to the trap door that led below-stage. He opened it. It was silent down there. Why would Pinkie Pie be waiting in the dark for the play to be over, all alone? Snips didn't know, and it was none of his business, but all he had was a question and he would just go down there, ask her, and be on his way.

He started down the staircase. Although the stairs looked old, they didn't creak that much. When Snips reached the bottom, he waited for his eyes to adjust to the dim light. The first thing he noticed was the table in the center of the room, a table that seemed to have something on it. Unnerved and kind if scared now, Snips quietly walked over to the table. He took one look at what was on it, then he turned and threw up over the floor. It was the remains of a pony that had been flattened. Snips could smell the pony's insides, and whatever he or she had been eating earlier. 

Snips turned around, wanting to get out of there as fast as he could to go tell somepony, and he saw Pinkie standing in the doorway, blocking his way. She had shut the door, too, and Snips hadn't even noticed. She had a grimace on her face, and the look in her eyes was one of insanity.

"Oh! Miss Pinkie!" Snips said. "Do you know what's been going on here?"

Pinkie answered by stepping towards Snips. He saw her better now. Her mane and coat was soaking wet, like she had just been washing herself off, but Snips saw the dried blood around her mouth that she had missed.

"I didn't want to kill you," Pinkie said, her voice dark and sad. "You are always happy, and I like happy ponies. But you don't look happy now. You look scared. And I can't have anypony know what I've been doing down here."

Snips, although confused a bit, gathered his courage.

"I'll stop you!" he said bravely. "In the name of the pony you killed down here, I'll stop you and tell all the grown-ups on you!"

Pinkie laughed. This filly was just so funny. It was almost a shame she had to kill him. Pinkie took a few steps back, got prepared, and charged.

As Pinkie ran at him, Snips gathered magic energy in his horn and released it at Pinkie. Pinkie suddenly felt a blinding flash of pain across her face and she was thrown backwards.

"Ouch!" she said in confusion and pain. She felt something warm run down her face, and she put her hoof to her face, then looked at it in disbelief. She was bleeding. She looked back at Snips. Snips. The pony who had scissors for a Cutie Mark. Snips. Cutting.

"Oh, I get it now!" Pinkie said, getting up again. 

"Yeah!" Snips said, who felt a lot braver now. "And if you don't give up, I'll give you another!"

Pinkie thought to herself for a moment. This pony was stupid. He would probably fall for anything.

"Behind you!" Pinkie shouted. As she expected, Snips turned around with a surprised look on his face.

"Wait, there's nothing-"

Pinkie jumped on Snips, tackling him to the ground. Snips fought back, trying to shoot another spell at Pinkie, but she grabbed his head with her two front hooves and slammed it into the ground, distracting him from using magic. She then planted one of her front hooves against Snips' throat and slammed the other into his horn repeatedly, breaking it right off his head and tearing a flap of skin with it. Blood ran from the head would, and Pinkie slammed her hoof down again into Snips's chest, again and again and again. Pinkie grabbed a nearby prop- with her luck, it turned out to be a heavy crowbar- and smashed that into Snip's chest. She heard ribs crack. Pinkie did it again and again, and then some of Snips' ribs pierced through his own chest and he began choking on his own blood.

Pinkie then raised her hoof and brought it down right into Snips' open right eye. Snips screamed, spraying his blood all over Pinkie's face. Pinkie still forced the front of her hoof down. Snips struggled, but it was hopeless. Pinkie gave a hard push with her hoof, grabbed her scalpel, and thrust it into Snip's eye, which split open like a grape. Pinkie's hoof was suddenly covered in warm blood, goo, and eye fluids. Snips gave another loud scream of pain, and blood dribbled out of his mouth.

"You've been a bad, bad silly filly," Pinkie said with a snarl. 

She brought up the crowbar again and brought it down on one of Snips' hind legs. Snips screamed more, but that didn't stop Pinkie from continuing to do it until his broken leg bone pierced through his flesh in a burst of blood, and even then, Pinkie continued to do it until she heard something else crack. Then, she grabbed the bottom part of his broken leg and she twisted it, causing Snips to shriek in total agony. Pinkie then grabbed her scalpel, cut through a few more muscles in his broken leg with difficulty, and then she gave his leg a tremendous yank. Sliced muscle tore, and Pinkie ripped the whole bottom part of Snips' leg off. Blood ran out from the stump of Snips' leg, and Snips gave the loudest scream yet, then fainted. Pinkie looked at the stump of his leg where blood was still gushing from, and she saw severed muscle and the bone.

Snips woke up again, groaning in pain, just as Pinkie rolled him onto his stomach, leaving his back exposed. She walked over to her bag and got out a bottle of acid. She went back over to Snips, who was starting to faint again from blood loss. Pinkie hit him in the face with her hoof, and Snips' one remaining good eye fluttered back open.

"I'll give you one chance to walk out of here alive," Pinkie told him.

"Y-yeah?" Snips whimpered. "And what would that be?"

"I'm going to torture you," Pinkie said with a laugh, and Snips started to cry again; blood came out of his ruined eye though. "But if you can smile through the whole thing, I'll let you get out of here alive."

"Ok!" Snips said right away, and forced a painful smile onto his face.

"Good," Pinkie said. "Now we begin."

Pinkie uncapped the bottle of acid and shook a few drops onto Snips' back. The acid burned through his flesh and muscles instantly, leaving tiny bloody craters in his skin and muscle. Snips howled, but he did it with a smile on his face. He knew his life depended on whether he smiled or not.

"You're pretty good," Pinkie said, impressed. "But I bet you'll never smile through this next torture!"

Pinkie grabbed Snips and dragged him over to another table, which had a fairly large square hole in the center of it. Pinkie threw Snips on the table so that his one good hind leg was lying across the hole. 

"Try and smile through this!" Pinkie said, laughing. She went over and pushed a button on the wall, and a pole began to lower itself down from the ceiling. When it reached Snips' leg, it still went down. Snips began to scream as his leg bone began to creak under the pressure of the pole, but the smile stayed on his face. Suddenly, there was a loud CRACK and Snips' leg bone splintered and broke in half. Snips was crying and screaming, and yet, he somehow managed to keep the smile on his face, even when the pole tore most of his leg off in a spatter of blood.

Pinkie went over to Snips. 

"Wow!" she said, honestly impressed. "I can't believe you actually smiled through all of that!"

Snips didn't answer. He was unconscious. Pinkie hit him gently with her hoof until his eyes fluttered open.

"Can- can I go home now?" Snips asked weakly, still crying hard though from the pain.

Pinkie grinned.

"Almost. I have one more challenge for you, though."

Without giving Snips a chance to reply, Pinkie grabbed her scalpel, forced Snips' mouth open, and slowly cut out his tongue. Snips howled in agony, almost fainting again, and blood poured out of his mouth and all over his already-tortured body.

"This last challenge is simple," Pinkie said with a smile. "I'll let you go- after you eat this. Without throwing up."

She held up Snips' blood-covered tongue, and Snips looked at her in disbelief through his tears.

"Better get started, silly filly!" Pinkie said, and shoved the tongue into Snips' already blood-filled mouth.

Through his pain, now Snips also had to struggle to not throw up as he bit down on his own severed tongue, causing blood to squirt from it and out of his mouth. With a scream of determination, he bit down on it hard, bit the tongue in half. Even more blood filled his mouth now, but the pieces of his tongue were still too big to swallow. Trying to think of the thing in his mouth of anything except a tongue, he bit his severed tongue into fourths; now he could swallow them. He swallowed, almost throwing up as the rubbery pieces of his own tongue and a lot of blood slid down his throat. He managed to not puke, but it was close.

"Well, I'm surprised," Pinkie said, and indeed she was; she never had expected Snips to eat his own tongue without throwing up.

"D-doth thith mean ah cam go home naw?" Snips asked, still crying.

"Oh, yeah," Pinkie said. "About that. Well, I may have lied to you."

Snips looked at Pinkie, horrified, and Pinkie laughed.

"Don't look so sad, I loved it so much better when you were smiling! Don't worry, you silly filly, I'll make it quick!"

Pinkie grabbed her bottle of acid again and poured some on Snips' neck. Snips began to scream in agony as the acid burned into his flesh, but when the artery in his neck gave out in a dark, pumping jet of blood that splattered all over Pinkie, his screaming stopped.

Covered in blood, Pinkie laughed to herself. 

"Looks like I better get washed up again, then I can go find my next target!"

***

It was even later at the carnival now. Some ponies were heading back into town to go to bed, but not that many. After getting cleaned up, Pinkie had left the play, confident that the rest of the fillies would finish just fine- but she put a lock on the trap door to get below stage, so nopony could go down there except her. She had the key for the lock hidden in her poofy mane.

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were walking around the carnival, talking and laughing and gossiping as usual. They accidentally bumped into Sweetie Belle, and the cup of punch that Silver Spoon held in her hoof fell to the ground.

"Why don't you watch where you're going, blank-flank!" Silver Spoon said.

"Yeah!" agreed Diamond Tiara.

"Me?" Sweetie Belle said in disbelief. "You think that was my fault? Why don't you two watch where you're going!"

"That was totally your fault!" Diamond Tiara said nastily. "Blank-flank."

"Why don't you go pick on someone else," Sweetie Belle said angrily. "You never leave me or my friends alone!"

"Make me," Diamond Tiara said. "Use your special talent and make me go away!"

"Hang on a second-" Silver Spoon said to Diamond Tiara.

"You don't have one!" they said to Sweetie Belle in unison, and then they laughed.

"Leave her alone!" Apple Bloom said, coming up behind Sweetie Belle. "What're ya two doin' here anyways, besides causin' problems?"

"Um, what am I doing here?" Diamond Tiara asked with a glare. "Excuse me, but if it weren't for my dad, none of us would be here. Who do you think paid for over fifty percent of this carnival anyways? My dad. And as his daughter, I practically own this place with him!"

"Why don't you blank-flanks buzz off and go find your other annoying friend?" Silver Spoon suggested. She turned with Diamond Tiara and they both walked off.

Apple Bloom turned to Sweetie Belle.

"Where is Scootaloo, anyways?" she asked.

"Scootaloo is in the play, remember?"

"Oh, yeah. Ah thought she was jokin' bout that."

"Scoots wasn't joking," Sweetie Belle said. "I bet they're still performing. We can go find her when the play is over."

"Sounds good to me."

***

After the run-in with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon continued walking through the crowd, just chatting and laughing like good friends. They were good friends. But they were still meanies to other ponies. And meanies had to be dealt with. Pinkie could not stand meanies.

"Hi, fillies!" Pinkie Pie said, walking over to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.

Silver Spoon looked at Pinkie, unimpressed.

"Why are you all wet, lady? And how did you get that ugly cut on your face?"

These fillies are rude, too.

"Oh, someone just dumped a bucket of water on me as a prank, ya know!"

"Um... Yeah." Silver Spoon said and turned back to Diamond Tiara.

"Wait!" Pinkie said. "I need to show you something!"

Diamond Tiara turned to Pinkie, also unimpressed.

"Yeah? And what exactly would that be?"

"A party!" Pinkie said happily. "A party I set up just for you tonight!"

The two friends looked at each other.

"A party for us?" Diamond Tiara asked. "A party just for us at a carnival that's practically mine? That's... Awesome! Come on, Silver Spoon!"

"Follow me!" Pinkie said happily. She began to bounce away.

"Hey, wait for me!" Diamond Tiara called, running after her with Silver Spoon right behind her.

Pinkie led the two fillies behind the stage where the play was still going on, where nopony else was, and the only light was from the moon.

"Where's the party for me?" Diamond Tiara asked. "There's nothing back here!"

"Hang on a second," Pinkie Pie said, digging into a nearby bush, looking for something. "Oh, silly me, here it is!"

The two fillies stepped closer to Pinkie to see. Pinkie turned to face them. With one hoof, she held something over her mouth and muzzle, with the other, she held a spray bottle of some sort. 

"Party will start in a few minutes when you wake up!" Pinkie said, and before the fillies could react, Pinkie sprayed an invisible cloud of sweet-smelling gas of some sort in their faces. The fillies instantly felt drowsy, and a few seconds later, they were asleep.

***

Silver Spoon awoke in a dimly-lit room. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, the first thing she noticed was that she was chained to the floor, and the four chains were attached to large box-like devices on either side of her body. She tried to move but couldn't; the chains were too tight. She lifted her head as best she could, and even in the dim light, she saw Diamond Tiara chained to the wall on the far right of the room. There were also several other shelves and tables in the room, and in the very center if the room, there was a larger table than the others. It was covered with something, but the light was too dim to tell what it was from this distance. Near a smaller table, a crumpled shape was lying on the ground.

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie stepped into view from behind one of the shelves.

"Oh, you silly fillies are finally awake, it's about time!"

"What is this?" Diamond Tiara said, sounding more angry than scared. "Where are we?"

"Don't worry," Pinkie said with a laugh, "you're just below-stage. The play is still going on right above us."

"What are you playing at?" Diamond Tiara asked angrily. "This isn't funny! Let me go back to the carnival. I want to go back to the carnival right now, do you hear? Let me go back to the carnival and maybe I won't tell my father on you."

Pinkie gave a chilling laugh.

"You silly filly, your father has no idea where you even are! You aren't in any position to be making threats here! Nuh-uh! Pinkie's smarter than that!"

Pinkie went over and pulled a lever on Diamond Tiara's wall. The filly began scream in agony as electricity began to course through her body. Her back arched, and Silver Spoon saw smoke rising from her friend's coat.

"Those chains are hooked up to the generator that runs the lights on the stage," Pinkie said with a giggle, ignoring Diamond Tiara's screams of pain and talking to Silver Spoon. "Not enough to kill her, but enough so that it hurts a lot."

Pinkie went back over and pulled the lever again. The flow of electricity stopped, and Diamond Tiara fell back against the wall, gasping for breath.

"Congratulations!" Pinkie told her. "You passed the first part of the game!"

"What... game?" Diamond Tiara asked weakly, crying.

"Since you two are such meanies, I'm playing a mean game with you! I hurt you bad, and whoever passes out first loses. The filly who stays awake the whole time gets to leave!"

Pinkie went over and pushed a button on one of the boxes that Silver Spoon's chains were attached to. The chains on her hind legs began retracting into the boxes in alternate directions, pulling her legs apart wider and wider. Silver Spoon began to scream in panic which quickly turned into screams of pain as her legs were pulled farther and farther apart. There were loud poping sounds and Silver Spoon began to scream louder and harder as she felt the limbs and muscle begin to tear.

Finally, with a loud ripping noise, Silver Spoon's hind legs were torn right off her body at the exact same time. Blood poured all over the floor, and torn, bloody muscle hung down from where her legs had once been. A blaze of agony shot through Silver Spoon's body, causing her to convulse uncontrollably, and she continued to scream. Pinkie quickly grabbed two rags and tied them around the stumps of Silver Spoon's legs to reduce the bleeding.

"Looks like your friend passes this round!" Pinkie said to Diamond Tiara, laughing.

"What kind of fun should we have now, girls?" Pinkie asked, giggling.

"Just let us go home!" Silver Spoon said, crying. "We want to go home!"

Pinkie pretended to think about it.

"I might let you go but not yet. There's still a lot of fun to have first! How about, since you're always teasing the younger ponies about not having their Cutie Marks yet, I'll make you feel just like they do? How about I cut off your Cutie Marks, and then you'll see how they feel?"

"NO!" Diamond Tiara screamed from the other side of the room. "Please! I love my Cutie Mark! Please let me keep it! I just want to keep it!"

"You should have thought about that before you started being a meanie to other ponies!" Pinkie said. "Silly filly!"

Pinkie grabbed her scalpel and walked over to Diamond Tiara first. She lowered the knife to Diamond Tiara's right flank, and pushed the blade in as deep as it would go. Diamond Tiara screamed loudly. She continued screaming as Pinkie cut all around her Cutie Mark in a circle, and then Pinkie used her hoof to peel off the flap of skin and muscle. Blood poured from the large crater in Diamond Tiara's flank. Pinkie went to the filly's other side and began a cut just like the one she had done on the right side, causing Diamond Tiara to scream more. Seconds later, Pinkie had ripped off that Cutie Mark, too, and thrown it aside.

"And now, for your friend," Pinkie said. "I think she needs to be taught the same lesson as you."

Diamond Tiara's only response to this was a groan of pain.

Pinkie went over to Silver Spoon and before she could mentally prepare herself for the pain, Pinkie had already sank the blade into her right flank. Silver Spoon quickly understood how Diamond Tiara screamed when this was happening to her; the blade in her flesh and muscle hurt a lot, and Silver Spoon began to scream, too. After a few moments of slicing, Pinkie peeled off Silver Spoon's Cutie Mark.

"And now, just one more side," Pinkie said. She went over to Silver Spoon's left side and repeated the same process, making her start screaming again. Pinkie quickly tossed that Cutie Mark aside, too.

"Oh, I have another idea now!" Pinkie said. "Let's 'heat things up' a little bit!"

Pinkie went over to one of the shelves of play props and grabbed a metal fireplace poker in one of her hooves. She then went back over to her bag and pulled out a blowtorch.

"I got this from the hospital, too! They use it to cauterize wounds! But I have a different use for it tonight..."

Pinkie turned on the blowtorch and using her other hoof, stuck the top of the fireplace poker in it. After ten minutes, Pinkie spoke again.

"That should be hot enough for now!"

Pinkie turned off the blowtorch and walked over to Diamond Tiara.

"You're a meanie!" Pinkie told her. "I think all meanies should get exactly what's coming to you now! Maybe you'll learn your lesson after I do this to you!"

Before Diamond Tiara could react, Pinkie thrust the poker into her right eye. The filly screamed in agony as the hot, pointed tip of the fireplace poker began to melt her eye. The eye seemed to turn shiny and liquid-looking, and the heat make her eyeball start to bubble. After a few seconds, Diamond Tiara's melting eyeball burst open, and there was a loud hiss as blood and eye jelly fell on the hot poker and began to sizzle there.

Pinkie took the poker out of Diamond Tiara's ruined eye, but she kept screaming as blood and fluids ran down her face. Some of the stuff ran into Diamond Tiara's mouth, and she stopped screaming and instead began to choke and spit as she realized her own eye juices were getting into her mouth.

Pinkie walked over to Silver Spoon.

"Please don't take out my eyes!" Silver Spoon said.

"Why would I do that, silly?" Pinkie asked. "If I did that, how would you be able to see?"

Pinkie pushed the hot poker against Silver Spoon's chest. Silver Spoon gasped in shock, then began to scream. The smell of scorched fur and burning flesh filled the room, and the poker burned right through Silver Spoon's coat. The wound began to bleed, but the blood just bubbled and sizzled upon contact with the hot poker. Silver Spoon just screamed more as Pinkie pushed the poker down farther, burning nearly all the way down to bone.

"Hahaha! Look at you!" Pinkie laughed. "You have a hole on your coat! Get it? Because that's literally your coat and you have a hole in it?"

Silver Spoon responded to Pinkie by screaming and crying some more.

"Aww, don't belike that!" Pinkie said. "There's still a lot of more fun to have!"

Silver Spoon continued to cry.

"Fine, be like that," Pinkie said. "But if you thought that hurt, wait until you feel this!"

Pinkie raised the poker and put it on the right side of Silver Spoon's face. The hot metal burned through Silver Spoon's skin in a red flare of agony, and it sank deeper into her face, driven by the heat. The large wound began to bleed heavily, some of the blood hitting the poker and sizzling there, and the rest of it pouring down Silver Spoon's face, splattering to the floor in a shower.

"Please make it STOOOOOP!" Silver Spoon screamed, and a second later, the poker burned all the way through her right cheek all the way back to the end of her jawbone, expanding her mouth by four or five inches.

Pinkie took the poker off of Silver Spoon's face. The right side of the filly's face was bleeding and hideously burned. Blackened muscle hung down from where the poker had burned all the way through, and in one spot, the poker had literally burned all the way down to the jawbone. Her face was covered in blood, both burned blood and unburned blood that was running down her face. Silver Spoon was also unconscious. The pain had finally proved too much for her.

Pinkie turned to Diamond Tiara.

"Looks like your friend didn't pass the challenge!" Pinkie said cheerfully. "She's never going back!"

"Wait!" Diamond Tiara said, tears coming out of her eye. "Please... We both just want to go home!"

"You can go home, but not your friend!" Pinkie said cheerfully. "Maybe this will teach you not to be such a meanie to other ponies!"

Pinkie went over to Silver Spoon's wall and hit a button. The chains that held Silver Spoon's front hooves into the floor suddenly started pulling in opposite directions.

"Watch!" Pinkie told Diamond Tiara. "I want you to see this!"

There was a pop as the tightening chains popped Silver Spoon's left front leg out of its socket, and another as her right front leg came out of its socket, also. The chains kept tightening, pulling Silver Spoon's front legs in opposite directions. After a few seconds, Diamond Tiara and Pinkie Pie heard the sound of tearing muscle.

"Ohh, this is going to be so exciting!" Pinkie squealed.

After a few more seconds, Silver Spoon's front legs could no longer take the pull from the chains. Her two front legs were torn from her body at the exact same time, spraying blood everywhere. The two legs, when they were torn off, also took a bit more of Silver Spoon's body when they went, leaving two huge bloody spots in the sides of her body; the sides of the filly's rib cage were visible and two knobs of bone stuck out from where her legs had just been. Torn bloody muscle and sinew hung down around the areas where her two front legs once had been. It was clear that she was dead, and two pools of dark red blood began to spread out from the huge areas where her legs had been.

"You killed her! You killed my only friend! Buck you! BUCK YOU!" Diamond Tiara screamed, crying from her one good eye, more so from what had happened to her friend than her own physical pain.

"Don't feel so bad! You'll see her again soon!"

Diamond Tiara looked at Pinkie through her tear-filled eye in horror.

"You- you told me I could go home!"

"Yeah..." Pinkie said. "Well... I lied. I'm the Element of Laughter, not Honesty, after all!"

Pinkie went over and pulled a different lever on Diamond Tiara's wall, and a hammer that Pinkie had rigged to the ceiling swung down, smashing into Diamond Tiara's chest. She screamed as Pinkie heard ribs splinter and crack, and several pierced through the filly's chest which began to bleed. Diamond Tiara's screams of pain quickly turned into grotesque choking sounds, and blood flew from her mouth.

While all that was happening with Diamond Tiara, Pinkie went over to her bag and took out an empty bottle, then smashed it on the ground. Carefully, Pinkie scooped up some of the glass in her hoof and went back over to Diamond Tiara.

"Ever wondered what glass tastes like?" Pinkie asked the screaming filly. Without giving Diamond Tiara a chance to reply, Pinkie shoved the glass shards into Diamond Tiara's mouth. Caught off guard, she swallowed the glass, choked on it, tried to scream, and began vomiting blood all over herself.

"Do you want to go home now?" Pinkie asked. Diamond Tiara answered by trying to scream but instead choking on her own blood and shards of sharp glass.

"I said, do you want to go home?" Pinkie asked again. Diamond Tiara didn't answer. Pinkie doubted she even could answer.

"I'll take that as a no!"

Giggling, Pinkie went over to the lever that sent electricity through the chains, but first she turned up the power all the way. Then, she pulled the lever. Blue sparks shot through Diamond Tiara's body, and in less than five seconds, the filly was carbonized. Flames burst from her eyes and mouth as her body convulsed uncontrollably. Her mane started on fire, followed by her coat. The electricity ignited something in the filly's body, and her body burst open in a sickening splatter, spraying smoking insides and blood all over.

Pinkie turned off the electricity and looked at Diamond Tiara. She was dead, possibly the deadest thing Pinkie had ever seen. She was quite literally toast.

"Haha! I took care of the two meanies!" Pinkie said happily. She went over to the sink and looked at herself in the grimy mirror above it. Once again, she was covered in blood. She laughed. "Looks like I need to wash up again... then I can go find my next target!"

***

The play was, by now, over and all the fillies in it had taken down the props they had used and had stored them behind the curtain, where other ponies would come to take them below-stage later. All the fillies had instantly ran off to go enjoy the rest of the carnival. A few minutes later, Pinkie had reappeared to make sure everything was fine, and then she, too, walked off. She was not going to enjoy the carnival though, she was looking for more of her victims.

Nearby, Trixie was still showing off, but even her crowd was starting to disappear. Gilda was over at a food stand, shouting at everyone. Sweetie Belle walked by with Apple Bloom, looking for Scootaloo.

Pinkie looked at Trixie again. She was about done with her performance. Then, Pinkie looked back at the stage. Heavy stage lights, and because nopony was around the stage, they wouldn't hear the sound of a stage light falling. And if they couldn't hear a light falling, they surely wouldn't be able to hear it fall on a pony's head.

Pinkie went back over to the stage and climbed onto it, and closed the very front curtain that blocked all view of what was happening on the stage. She went to the side of the stage and climbed some stairs that led up to the stage lights above the stage. Very carefully, Pinkie walked over to one of the lights and loosened it, then grabbed a nearby rope, tied it to the light, and threw the end over down onto the stage where it could be pulled and make the light fall down. The trap for Trixie was ready.

Pinkie got back over to Trixie's carriage just as her performance ended and the ponies watching her began to walk away. She approached Trixie cautiously; Trixie tended to make bad things happen to ponies if they tried to challenge her.

"Hi, Trixie!" Pinkie said, walking up to her with a smile on her face. 

Trixie looked at Pinkie Pie, clearly unimpressed. She saw the unicorn's eyes travel over the cut in her face.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie is too exhausted to answer your questions or to talk to lower-class ponies such as yourself."

"I saw you and Twilight about to have a duel earlier," Pinkie said, ignoring what Trixie had just said. "I know where she is. She wants to finish your duel now."

Trixie glared.

"I can beat Twilight Sparkle in any magic duel," Trixie said.

"Why don't you prove it then?" Pinkie asked. "Come on, follow me!"

Pinkie began to walk over towards the stage with Trixie following her. When they reached the stage, Pinkie slipped behind the curtain with Trixie following.

"I don't see Twilight Sparkle," Trixie said.

"You have to walk to the other side of the stage, silly!" Pinkie said. 

Trixie began walking, and Pinkie ran over and grabbed the rope to pull the stage light down. She waited until Trixie was right under the stage light... Then she pulled. Trixie looked up in time to see the light falling right towards her, and then it crashed into the top of her head hard and she was knocked out instantly.

***

Trixie awoke fifteen minutes later in a dimly-lit room. Her head hurt a lot. She felt blood on her face from where the light had hit her head. She tried to get up but couldn't, and she realized she was tied to a table with two ropes, one across her chest and the other across her stomach. She looked up at the ceiling and to her horror, she saw several items: an axe and a stone slab. Trixie didn't know how or why they were on the ceiling, but she did know that if one or both of them fell, it wouldn't be good for her. Trixie tried to use her magic but nothing happened. It took her a few moments to realize that she no longer had her horn; it must have been shattered when the light fell on her.

Pinkie Pie came out from behind a shelf and Trixie turned her head to look at the pink pony.

"What is going on here? Where am I?" Trixie shouted in a croaky voice. "Trixie demands to know at once!"

Pinkie's only answer was to laugh and push a button she held in her hoof. The axe on the ceiling began to swing back and fourth, descending on a foldable metal bar. Trixie screamed, sure that this was the end, but Pinkie pushed the button again and the axe stopped swinging halfway down.

"What are you doing?" Trixie cried. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because you're mean," Pinkie said simply. "That's why I'm doing this."

"I'm sorry!" Trixie said automatically. "Just please let me go, and I'll never be mean again! How can I anyways, I don't even have my horn anymore!"

"You should have said sorry when you had the chance!" Pinkie said, laughing. "It's too late now! You've been mean for too long and now, Pinkie's gonna take care of you! I'll show you what mean is!"

Pinkie held up another button in her other hoof. She pushed it, and the stone slab on the ceiling began to decend, attached to a long retractable pole that came out of the ceiling.

"Funny how props for plays can be turned into deadly weapons if you know what you're doing!" Pinkie laughed.

The slap came lower and lower and it finally pressed into Trixie's stomach lightly, but it still came down. Trixie screamed, as she realized her guts were going to be flattened, but Pinkie pressed the button she was holding and the poll retracted, pulling the slab back up to the ceiling. Trixie began to cry in relief when she realized what a close call she had just had.

"I'm not done with you yet!" Pinkie said. She set the buttons she held on the ground, went over to the table, and pulled a lever on it. The ropes that held Trixie to the table suddenly began to tighten. And they continued to tighten. Trixie began to panic again when she realized that her guts were going to be squeezed out. Just when she thought she wouldn't be able to take any more, Pinkie pulled the lever again, and the ropes stopped tightening. 

"There you go!" Pinkie said, satisfied. "Now you'll definitely not escape!"

Trixie struggled a little bit to breathe. The rope across her stomach had been pulled so tight, it was hard to.

"Can you... please... let the... ropes up a little?" Trixie gasped.

Pinkie laughed.

"Sorry, but since you're a meanie, I'm going to be a meanie to you too! Now you'll see how it feels when others are mean to you!"

"Please! Just let me go!" Trixie said frantically.

"Now... what can I do with you?" Pinkie asked herself, ignoring Trixie. "Oh! I got one! Pulling your ribs out sounds fun, doesn't it?"

Trixie looked at Pinkie in horror.

"Y- you can't be serious! You're insane!"

"Don't be silly," Pinkie said, giggling. "I've done worse things to other ponies than you."

Pinkie picked up a blood-stained scalpel and went over to Trixie. She set the scalpel on the ground next to the table and she used her hooves to throw another rope over Trixie's neck, then tied the rope down. Pinkie then picked up the scalpel again and cut the rope that was over Trixie's chest, but the unicorn still couldn't sit up, due to the new rope that Pinkie had tied to the table that went over Trixie's neck. Pinkie then raised the scalpel.

"This is going to hurt... Well... A lot," Pinkie said, giggling some more. She then placed the blade of the scalpel several inches below Trixie's neck, and with a sharp swipe, made a bloody slash all the way to the bottom of the unicorn's rib cage. Trixie screamed in pain and even anger, wishing that she had her horn so she could teach this pony a lesson. But she was no longer the Great and Powerful Trixie. She was a helpless unicorn with a shattered horn, a unicorn about to get her ribs removed.

Pinkie placed a hoof on either side of the cut on Trixie's chest, and savagely pulled it apart in a spray of blood, exposing Trixie's rib cage and causing her to scream in agony. The two flaps of skin hung down, and bloody muscle was visible. Pinkie went over to her bag and pulled out a pair of huge, rusty shears.

"I borrowed these from one of the gardeners I know in Ponyville!" Pinkie said. "I hope they'll do the job. And if you thought getting yourself cut open hurt, just wait until you feel this!"

Pinkie went back over to Trixie with the shears. She placed them so that the blades went in between several of Trixie's ribs, and the unicorn began to scream and choke. Pinkie then used the shears like scissors, and there was a series of sickening CRACKing sounds as Trixie's ribs splintered and broke. Blood squirted into the air, and Trixie's insides became visible.

"I can work with these," Pinkie said, picking up a splintered rib from Trixie as the unicorn's screams began to die down, replaced with sobbing. "These will come in handy a lot."

Pinkie held one of Trixie's own splintered ribs up to her face.

"Hey Trixie, ever wanted to get your ears pierced?" Pinkie asked with a laugh.

Trixie desperately shook her head, hoping Pinkie wouldn't do it. She might of well not even bothered, Pinkie was going to continue anyways.

"Oh, silly, I know you say that you don't want pierced ears, but I know in reality that you actually do!"

With those words, Pinkie thrust the rib at Trixie's face, and the sharp piece of bone did more than just pierce her right ear, it nearly tore the whole thing completely off. Trixie could do nothing except groan in pain. She already felt giddy and lightheaded from blood loss and internal bleeding. That didn't stop Pinkie, who did the same to Trixie's other ear, tearing it off in a spatter of blood.

"Aww, Trixie, I'm disappointed!" Pinkie said. "Even the little fillies lasted longer than you, but you're starting to slip away already!"

Trixie just groaned, and Pinkie laughed some more.

"Not so Great and Powerful now, are you?" Pinkie asked her. "Answer me!"

Groaning and vomiting up blood which was now all over her face, Trixie shook her head again.

"See, Trixie, you silly filly, now you know what it's like when others are mean to YOU!"

"I never did anything like... this to anypony," Trixie said, crying and coughing. "Sure, I was a show-off and all, I admit it, but... what did I ever do to deserve this?"

"You were just too mean one too many times to me and my friends," Pinkie said. "And I have other targets besides you to get to before they leave the carnival, so I'm afraid I'll have to say good-bye now! It was nice talking with you again, Trixie!"

Pinkie went over and grabbed one of the buttons she had left on the floor. She pushed it, and the stode slab on the ceiling above Trixie descended- way faster than last time. There was a sickening SPLAT as the slab hit Trixie in the stomach. Blood, whatever Trixie had eaten earlier that day, and pulverized organs and guts were hurled in every direction from the impact, splattering all over the room, all over the walls, shelves, floor, and even the ceiling. Pinkie Pie also got sprayed with gore from head to hind leg.

Pinkie walked over to where Trixie had been lying as the stone slab retracted back up into the ceiling. Impressive. The slab had slammed into the unicorn's stomach so hard, Trixie had literally been splattered in half. In between Trixie's lower waist and cut open rib cage was nothing but a huge bloody mess of half-digested food, and guts, now little more than paste.

Laughing to herself, Pinkie went over to the sink to wash up- again. That had been fun, but she still had three other targets to eliminate tonight- Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Gilda the Gryphon. Which one to kill first? Gilda was obviously the meanest, but Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were the most unhappy and whiny and annoying.

Turning on the water in the sink, Pinkie spoke to herself.

"I really should get Gilda... she's the meanest meanie I've ever seen."

Pinkie began to splash water and soap on herself, washing all the blood and gore off her coat and out of her mane.

"Yeah- I think I'll go and get Gilda first. She was so mean to me and my friends! I think Gilda is definitely a higher priority than those other two silly fillies!"

***

"You mean, you actually SAW her leave?" Pinkie asked Applejack in disbelief. "Like, she flew away?"

"Ah don't know how many more times ah have to repeat mahself, Pinkie. Gilda flew away. She left about fifteen minutes ago. Good riddance, if y'all ask me. That gryphon's nothin' but trouble."

Pinkie turned away from Applejack so Applejack wouldn't see the glare on Pinkie's face. She couldn't believe this had happened. Of course it was the meanest target that had to escape. That was just bucking typical, Pinkie thought. She knew she had to get over it, though. She still had two other targets to kill tonight. They would have to do.

"Well, it was good seeing you again, Applejack!" Pinkie called as she walked away.

"Good seein' you too, Pinkie!" Applejack called after her. "See ya later!"

***

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle kept looking all around the carnival, but they could not find Scootaloo anywhere.

"We've searched this whole carnival for her three times already!" Sweetie Belle whined. "Where could she be?"

"Ah dunno," Apple Bloom said, "but she's just got to be around here somewhere! She can't have just gone straight home after the play was over! She told us she would meet us!"

"I don't know where Scootaloo is," Sweetie Belle said, "but I've got to go... well, I had three cups of punch earlier, and now I've got to..."

"Yeah, yeah, you go do that," Apple Bloom told Sweetie Belle. "Just come an' find me when you're done."

Sweetie Belle took off.

Apple Bloom continued to search for Scootaloo, but she still couldn't find her friend anywhere. Pinkie went up to Apple Bloom.

"Hi!" Pinkie said cheerfully. "Are you looking for your friend?"

"Yeah," Apple Bloom said. "Have you seen Scootaloo anywhere?"

"Of course!" Pinkie said. "I know exactly where she is. Follow me, and you can come get her real quick. She's waiting for you!"

"Oh, that sounds easy enough," Apple Bloom said. She began to follow Pinkie through the crowds of ponies, and over to the stage where the play had been.

"Is she behind the curtains of the stage?" Apple Bloom questioned.

"Nope! Not behind the curtains, behind the actual stage itself!"

Apple Bloom followed Pinkie behind the stage, out of sight of all the other ponies. Before the filly could react, Pinkie turned around and kicked Apple Bloom, hard, in the jaw and she went sprawling to the ground, unconscious. Pinkie had no time to play with this filly, she had to take her down below-stage and get her prepared right away. There was still one more target left, and Pinkie wasn't going to let that target escape.

***

Pinkie took the unconscious Apple Bloom and got to work on her right away. She didn't have much time. Lying her on the floor, Pinkie used the scalpel to gouge out Apple Bloom's eyes. Done with that, she sliced the filly's cheeks open, putting a smile on her face. Apple Bloom began to moan in pain as she started to wake up, but with a quick, brutal stab to the throat, Apple Bloom's moans turned to gurgles, and even those stopped after just a few seconds.

Pinkie dragged the corpse over to where she had left the crow bar, a nasty idea forming in her head for what she could plan for her last target, Sweetie Belle. Then, laughing, she began to beat Apple Bloom's head in with the heavy bar, and within a few minutes, the dead filly's head was just a pile of gore.

Laughing to herself, Pinkie began to beat the rest of the dead filly's body, turning it into a bloody mess. After pulverizing it as much as she could, she began to walk away from the body, nearly slipping in the massive puddle of blood that had spread out from it during the beating. Regaining her balance quickly, Pinkie continued to look around, wondering if there were any buckets in the room...

***

After taking care of Apple Bloom, Pinkie came back up above the ground and locked the trap door that led below-stage again. She couldn't have anypony going down there, especially not now.

Pinkie went walking through the carnival again, looking for Sweetie Belle. That filly just had to still be at the carnival, it was bad enough that even one of Pinkie's targets had left the carnival before Pinkie had gotten to them. Although she could no longer get Gilda, she could still get Sweetie Belle, the last Unhappy Pony. She looked around but couldn't spot her, but she did see Snails. Maybe he could help. Pinkie went over to him.

"Hi there! Have you seen Sweetie Belle anywhere?" Pinkie asked him.

"I like the sound bells make," Snails replied. Pinkie laughed.

"No, not bells, you silly filly, Sweetie Belle!"

"Oh, her?" Snails asked. "Yeah, she's right over there." He pointed with his front hoof. Pinkie looked at where he was pointing, and sure enough, there was Sweetie Belle walking right over near the food stands.

"Thanks!" Pinkie told Snails.

"Ok," Snails replied.

Pinkie bounced over to Sweetie Belle.

"Hi! Are ya looking for your two friends?" Pinkie asked her.

"Yeah," Sweetie Belle said. "Now I can't find Scootaloo or Apple Bloom."

"Oh, I know where they both are!" Pinkie said.

"Oh! Could you take me to them?" Sweetie Belle asked, smiling. 

Pinkie suddenly stopped and looked at Sweetie's face. She was smiling. Smiling. Happy. Sweetie Belle was smiling and she looked happy. Pinkie almost reconsidered having Sweetie Belle in her plan... but she forced herself to let go of the thought. Sweetie Belle was happy, right now, but she would be sad again later over her Cutie Mark that never appeared. And that was something Pinkie couldn't have. No. There was only room in Ponyville for ponies that were happy all the time- not ponies like Sweetie Belle.

"Can you take me to them again?" Sweetie Belle asked eagerly.

"Of course!" Pinkie said. "Follow me."

Sweetie Belle followed Pinkie Pie through the crowds of ponies over near the stage where the play had been put on.

"Are they behind that curtain on the stage?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Nope," Pinkie answered. "Just follow me."

Sweetie Belle followed Pinkie back behind the stage, out of sight of all the other ponies. 

"Hang on a minute," Pinkie said, looking through a nearby bush for something. "Oh! Here it is!"

"What is it?" Sweetie Belle asked, stepping closer. Pinkie turned, holding something over her own mouth with one hoof, and with the other, held a can of something which she sprayed into Sweetie Belle's face- it was some sort of invisible, sweet-smelling gas. The filly felt drowsy almost instantly, and several seconds later, she was asleep.

***

Sweetie Belle awoke about ten minutes later in a dimly-lit room. She had been lying on the could stone floor, but now she got up. She noticed that her head hurt, and there was blood running down her face. She held her hoof to her head.

"My horn!" Sweetie Belle shrieked. "My horn's gone!"

"Don't worry, silly, you won't be needing it!" a voice said from behind her. Sweetie Belle turned and saw Pinkie standing there.

"What's going on?" Sweetie Belle demanded shrilly. She took a step towards Pinkie and stepped in some kind of liquid. She raised her hoof to her face. Red. Some kind of red liquid.

"Where are Apple Bloom and Scootaloo?" Sweetie Belle demanded. "You told me you'd take me to see them!"

I did!" Pinkie said. "But before I show you where they are, why not have something to drink? You look thirsty."

"What happened to my horn?" Sweetie Belle asked again, ignoring Pinkie. "I want to know where my horn is and I want to know where my friends are!"

"I'll tell you everything if you'll just sit down and have a drink!" Pinkie told her. "I Pinkie Promise. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

"Fine," Sweetie Belle said. "You better tell me if I have a drink."

"I Pinkie Promised, didn't I?" Pinkie asked with a laugh. "Of course I'll tell you, silly!"

Pinkie went over to a small wooden table that had a chair on either side of it. As Sweetie Belle followed her, she stepped in more puddles of the red stuff. Sweetie Belle was terrified now, but she was determined not to let it show.

Sweetie Belle sat at the table across from Pinkie. There were two mugs on Pinkie's side of the table and she pushed one over to Sweetie Belle. Sweetie Bell looked at the sloppy, reddish contents of the cup.

"What is this stuff?" she asked nervously.

"It's my special!" Pinkie said. "I made it myself."

Pinkie took a drink from her mug, leaving a large smear of red on her muzzle. Sweetie Belle reluctantly took a drink too, and she almost spat it out in disgust but she forced herself to swallow.

"I really like the... texture?"

Pinkie laughed, and took another drink from her mug.

"Go on then, drink up!"

Maybe if I drink it really fast, it won't be as bad, Sweetie Belle thought to herself. She raised the cup to her mouth and took a huge drink, downing almost half of it.

"So, how do you like Apple Bloom and Scootaloo?" Pinkie asked.

"They're really good friends," Sweetie Belle said, as her stomach tried to push what she had just drank back up. "I can't wait to see them before the carnival is over tonight. Can you please please please just take me to them now?"

Pinkie laughed. "That's not what I meant, silly! And I already did take you to them! And when I asked you how you like them, I meant how do they taste? You're drinking both of them right now!"

Sweetie Belle looked confused at first, but after a second, the true meaning of what Pinkie had just said to her hit her. In horror, she looked into her cup in time to see one of Scootaloo's eyeballs rise to the top of the muddy red substance. Sweetie Belle screamed in horror, jumping out of her chair and throwing up all the pieces of her friends that she had just drank. Pinkie just laughed.

"You're crazy!" Sweetie Belle screamed at Pinkie, still spitting vomit out of her mouth and crying. "Crazy!"

"And you're never just HAPPY!" Pinkie screamed back. "I will NOT have ponies in Ponyville that my talent doesn't seem to affect, I just WON'T! No more being depressed and worried about if my special talent is wearing off or not!"

Pinkie jumped out of her chair and began to walk towards Sweetie Belle. Sweetie Belle stepped back, and her back hoof stepped in a puddle of the red liquid. Sweetie Belle now knew what it was. She began to scream for help.

Pinkie jumped on top of Sweetie Belle. The filly struggled, but Pinkie was much stronger than her.

"There's more of your friends where that came from!" Pinkie shouted. "There's also a little bit of Snips and Trixie in there, too!"

Sweetie Belle struggled harder as Pinkie dragged her over to a bucket over by one of the walks next to a shelf. Pinkie held Sweetie Belle's head over the bucket, and the filly saw more of the muddy red stuff that had once been ponies. In horror, Sweetie Belle thought she saw one of Apple Bloom's eyeballs floating near the top, the same way she had seen one of Scootaloo's eyes in her mug.

"In ya go!" Pinkie said with an insane laugh, and forced Sweetie Belle's head into the bucket. Sweetie Belle didn't even have time to take a breath, and her head was dunked into the bucket of gore, and she accidentally inhaled a bunch of blood and whatever other pieces of the ponies were in there. With her last bit of strength, Sweetie Belle pushed the back of her head against Pinkie's hooves which were holding her head in the bucket, and her head broke the surface of the gore, and completely covered with whatever parts of ponies was in the bucket. Sweetie Belle began coughing up blood and red slime- not her own, but other pony's. She was crying, and she threw up, missing the bucket and it landed on the floor.

"Go back IN THERE!" Pinkie shouted in frustration, and dunked Sweetie Belle's head into the bucket again, and she held her there. Sweetie Belle screamed, causing bubbles to come to the surface of the gore, and she struggled harder. Finally, the filly's struggles became weak, and Pinkie lifted Sweetie Belle's head out of the bucket; her head was now completely covered in blood and red slime, and who knew what else, and she began coughing up the gore she had swallowed again, crying. For the third time, she threw up.

"Are you ready to be happy and stay happy NOW?" Pinkie screamed. "Did that make you smile? Did all those ponies taste good?"

Sweetie Belle just sobbed and continued to cough up bits of Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, Trixie, and Snips.

"It should have been fine!" Pinkie said. "I didn't put any of Diamond Tiara or Silver Spoon in there, if that makes you feel any better!"

Sweetie Belle just cried, still covered in gore that had once been her friends and Snips and Trixie. She didn't ever want to stop crying.

"Be happy!" Pinkie said. She went over to her bag, pulling out a blowtorch. Sweetie Belle, who was much to weak to move, couldn't do anything as Pinkie went over to her and turned on the blowtorch.

Pinkie put the blue flame against Sweetie Belle's chest, and her skin blackened and burned off. The smell of burning flesh and blood filled the room, and Sweetie Bell screamed. Pinkie moved the blowtorch, and the filly's skin melted off at a touch of the flame. The wounds began to bleed but the hot flame instantly cauterized the wounds.

"That not good enough for you?" Pinkie yelled. "I told you to SMILE!"

Pinkie raised the blowtorch and stuck the flame right into Sweetie Belle's eye. The filly screamed louder, and her eye instantly began to bubble and melt from the flame. Thick liquid ran down Sweetie Belle's face as her eye melted, and in seconds, there was just an empty eye socket full of gore.

As Sweetie Belle continued to scream, Pinkie went over to her bag again and took out her blood-stained scalpel. She went back over behind Sweetie Belle and ran the knife down the filly's back, drawing blood. Pinkie then tore a huge flap of skin right off Sweetie Belle's back as hard as she could. Blood sprayed all over Pinkie and Sweetie Belle screamed even louder.

"I'm done with you!" Pinkie said, laughing. "I'm done with all of you! I'm going to kill you. Then, I'm going to use the last potion I made at Zecora's, the one that sets fire to everything around it within twenty-five feet if its smashed on the ground with a bottle. But don't worry, you silly filly! Equestria will hear and believe my story- about how I saw Trixie lead you and the other fillies I killed down here, and I followed, and I smelled the fire, but I was too late to save any of you!"

Sweetie Belle just cried. Pinkie went over to another table and picked something off the ground- one of Trixie's broken ribs. She then went back over to Sweetie Belle, who was in too much pain to resist as Pinkie dragged her over to the bucket of gore again with her other hoof. Pinkie then raised the broken rib and brought it down hard, shoving it through Sweetie Belle's back. It went all the way into the filly's body. Sweetie Belle stopped screaming and instead began to make choking sounds. Blood- this time her own blood, sprayed out of her mouth.

"Good-bye!" Pinkie said. She shoved Sweetie Belle's head into the bucket of gore again, and Sweetie Belle, who was too weak, struggled weakly. Pinkie held the filly's head under the gore for two minutes until she stopped struggling. Then, Pinkie turned and left the body of Sweetie Belle there with her head still under the bucket of gore and the rib still impaling her body.

Pinkie went over to the sink and yet again, washed all the blood and gore off her body. She smiled. Tonight had been good. Six of Pinkie's troublesome ponies had been killed, and the seventh, Snips, was just unfortunate. Pinkie hadn't had anything against him; he had just walked into the wrong place at the wrong time. All the same, Pinkie thought, tonight had been good.

Pinkie, when she was done washing up, went over to her bag and grabbed out the last bottle of potion she had made at Zecora's. This potion was not acid, it was a fire-starter. It would burn everything below-stage and then burn the above-stage down. No one would ever link it to Pinkie.

Taking out the glass bottle of fire starter, Pinkie threw it under the table where Scootaloo had been crushed. It shattered, and the potion inside began to bubble and fizz on the ground. Pinkie had only seconds before the substance exploded and engulfed the room in fire. Pinkie ran for the steps that led back above the ground. Would she make it on time?

***

All the ponies began to panic as they all looked over and saw the old stage burning.

Pinkie Pie ran up to Applejack, who was also looking over at the stage.

"Applejack!" Pinkie screamed. "I tried to stop her... I honestly tried!"

Applejack turned to Pinkie.

"Whadya mean?" she asked in alarm.

"It's horrible, Applejack... I saw Trixie leading Apple Bloom and her friends over behind the stage and maybe one or two other fillies, and I tried to go over and see what was going on, but I went behind the stage and I smelled fire... I was too late to save them."

In her head, Pinkie knew that the loss of the Cutie Mark Crusaders would make Applejack and Rarity very sad for awhile... but Pinkie knew that they'd eventually get over it and be happy again. No need in killing any of her own best friends.

"Ah can't believe that..." Applejack said, as Pinkie's words sank into her. "Ah just can't!"

But Applejack did believe it, and Pinkie could tell when the mare started crying. Pinkie also started crying- tears of relief. No more Unhappy Ponies in the town.

The two mares were joined by Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity. They all stared at the burning stage. Rarity still didn't know about her sister. She would learn when Applejack would tell her what Pinkie had said later. But for now, the six mares just stood and watched the old stage burn to the ground. By the time the fire-ponies arrived fifteen minutes later to help out out the fire, it was too late for anything that had had been below-stage. By this time, it would just be ashes.

*** (TWO WEEKS LATER)

Ponyville was now a much happier place without the Cutie Mark Crusaders whining about everything, or Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon going around being mean to everypony, at least in Pinkie Pie's opinion. Applejack and Rarity still mourned over their lost sisters, who had tragically burned to death in the fire. At least, that's what everypony thought, anyways. Pinkie knew the truth.

A lot of ponies came by to tell Applejack and Rarity how sorry they were for the loss of their siblings. That day, a burial was held for all the ponies who had died in the fire, but since nothing but ashes were found in the rubble of the fire, the coffins for the seven dead ponies were just filled with their belonging. Snails came up and put a flower on top of Trixie's coffin, and another on Snips' coffin. It was a sad day for the whole town.

Two weeks later, Pinkie Pie stood outside in the morning and looked around at Ponyville, at her wonderful town. She smiled. She felt happy. From now on, Pinkie thought, I'm not going to let any more Unhappy Ponies bring me- or this town- down.