The Shadow Behind Her Eyes 4: Dark Secrets

WARNING: This story has been rated Mature by the author for graphic violence and gore, and disturbing themes.

THE SHADOW BEHIND HER EYES 4: DARK SECRETS

The sky was dark on the day everypony in town attended the funeral for the two fillies, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. It was a sad day for the whole town, but there was no pony sadder than Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom had just lost both of her best friends, both who were victim to horrible, gruesome deaths- Sweetie Belle had been nailed to a tree and a stick had been shoved through her head, and Scootaloo had been stabbed repeatedly to death.

The two coffins were levitated down the street past the crowds of silent, sad ponies. They were open coffins, allowing view of the bodies inside. They had been gently cleaned of blood, and expert doctors had sewn their wounds back together, making it nearly impossible to tell that they had once been horribly mutilated. The two filly's bodies had also been placed in their coffins in a position so that they could have just been sleeping. Several ponies, including one pony with rather curious golden eyes, stepped closer to get a better view of the bodies as they passed.

Applejack, Granny Smith, and Pinkie, with two royal guards on either side of them, were also at the funeral, Applejack and Pinkie being the only two left out of six friends. Three were dead and one was an insane psychopath who had already killed several ponies, including the two fillies, hence the presence of the guards.

Other than the Royal Guards, Princess Celestia, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, nopony thought the situation could've been any worse, but in reality, it was. The town still didn't know about the other murders, including the murder of Princess Twilight Sparkle, but it wouldn't be long before the ponies began to suspect something. The official report for the two filly's deaths was "death by misadventure", but although the other ponies in the town knew little about the situation, it was doubtful that all of them actually believed the report, because of the Royal Guards who now patrolled the whole town day and night.

***

Several hours later, the funeral was over, the bodies buried in the cemetery. Apple Bloom had cried silently a lot during that, and Applejack's comforting hoof around her didn't seem to help at all. Applejack and Pinkie cried, too, not just for the fillies, but also for their other friends that had been killed.

As Applejack, Granny Smith, Pinkie, and Apple Bloom, accompanied by two Royal Guards, trotted for Sweet Apple Acres, they noticed many Pegasus ponies moving more dark storm clouds into the sky above Ponyville after the funeral. It was probably scheduled, Applejack thought, but it was ironic that the weather today was going to reflect the mood of how they felt.

The group of five were all heading up to the house at Sweet Apple Acres just as the first of many raindrops began to fall. A Royal Guard inside the house opened the door for them as they got to the porch, and they went inside.

When the five walked into the living room, they could all hear the rain start to come down harder, thumping on the roof of the house loudly. Apple Bloom headed straight for the stairs to go to her room, the Royal Guards moved into a corner of the room, trying not to be a disturbance, and Applejack went over to the couch which she flung herself upon. Next, Granny Smith sat down in her chair, and after crying a bit more, she quickly fell asleep.

Applejack realized her big brother was nowhere in sight. Big Mac must've still been outside, coming back from the funeral. He went, but he didn't stand with us, Applejack reasoned with herself. She knew he'd be in in a few minutes; looking outside, she saw that it was by now nearly as dark as night and the rain had began to come down in sheets, despite the fact that the storm had only started five minutes before.

Applejack heard hoofsteps rapidly coming down the stairs and she turned towards the noise, along with the Royal Guards, but it was only Apple Bloom, who went over and joined Applejack on the couch.

"Sis, ah'm scared," Apple Bloom said in a small voice. "An' shouldn't Big Mac be in by now?"

"Ah'm sure he's comin'," Applejack said, but her voice sounded unsure, even to her own ears.

***

Rainbow Dash, shivering and cold, flew crazily through the rain and wind, looking for shelter. Her fur was completely soaked and all the blood she had gotten on herself several days before was all washed away.

Despite the dark and heavy rain, the Pegasus kept searching, and finally spotted an old shack on the ground below, which she instantly flew for.

Stepping inside the shack, she instantly felt the rain stop pounding on herself and heard it patter on the roof instead. It was dark inside the small shack, with the only light coming from the doorway, and the whole shack smelled of moldy, damp wood. But it didn't matter.

Rainbow Dash laid down near the center of the shack and tried to sleep, but she couldn't. When she looked up again, she was horrified, but not surprised, to see some familiar faces standing in front of her- or what was left of them.

Rarity was in the front, and she advanced on Rainbow Dash as the Pegasus scrambled up in terror. Rarity' once-white coat was now rotting and streaked with blood. A hatchet wound in her stomach was spilling what was left of her putrid insides. The slash in her throat was wide and gaping, allowing an unattractive view of the inside of her neck.

"This is for Twilight," the dead unicorn snarled in a throaty voice, and attacked. Rainbow kicked at Rarity and she went sprawling across the floor, but Fluttershy was right there to take her place, her mutilated head spilling brains, her once bright-yellow coat now dirty and matted down with blood.

"The others are going to kill you for what you did, Rainbow," Fluttershy said in a chillingly calm voice, and flew at Rainbow, who managed to knock the dead Pegasus down, not even aware that she was screaming at the top of her lungs as she did so.

As Rainbow backed away from Rarity and Fluttershy, who were getting up again, Twilight herself stepped forward, the dead alicorn's body rotting away, the eye that had been stabbed with the knife now running down her face. She snarled at Rainbow and flew right at her, and Rainbow covered her head, closed her eyes, and screamed and screamed until she could scream no more. After what seemed like hours, she looked up again, right as lightning flashed. She was all alone in the shack, the horrible visions finally gone. Rainbow began laughing hysterically, but it was no more than a whisper of a sound, as her throat was raw from screaming. She tasted blood in her mouth.

After a few minutes, Rainbow closed her eyes, trying to sleep, but the nightmares haunted her, stalking the wasteland that had once been her mind.

***

It had scared everyone when Big Mac burst through the front door of the house, soaking wet from the rain, and the Royal Guard near the door had managed to turn his head in time so that instead of the bolt of energy from his horn blowing Big Mac's head off, it missed him by inches, flying out the front door into the rain.

"Big Mac! Where have ya been?" Applejack said angrily, running over to him while the guard who had nearly hit him stuttered endless apologies which were largely ignored.

"Had to finish a few trees," Big Mac said calmly.

Applejack clapped a hoof to her face in frustration.

"So that's why you were late inside? Ya get back from a funeral, see that it's starting to rain, and you go finish yer work?"

"Eeyup."

"Big Mac... Ah though... Ah thought you'd been..."

Applejack couldn't finish the sentence, and instead hugged her brother, silently thanking Celestia he was alright. When she stepped away from him, she led him into the living room and spoke.

"Well... We're all here now... We're all safe."

With those words, they all went back to remembering their dead friends.

***

Princess Celestia had arrived back in Canterlot, and as soon as she got to the castle, she stopped to levitate a rather large box into the air. Done with that, she proceeded to go down into the farthest depths of the castle, down so deep that few in all of Equestria knew that this part of the castle existed.

As she continued down, she felt her magic dampen slightly; the spell she had cast on this place to keep ponies from using magic or flying was strong, but being the one who had cast the spell, she mostly had power over it. Nevertheless, levitating the box was a bit more of a struggle.

Finally, Celestia made it to a small wooden door, which she pushed open and walked inside, slightly out of breath, but she instantly felt her magic return to her.

Looking around, she saw the familiar large, shadowy room with the familiar giant machine with tubes running from it, with the familiar buttons on it. She saw the shelf against the far right wall that was stacked from floor-to-ceiling with books on magic and magic potions. Then she saw the familiar five unicorns dressed in black coats and gas masks, making their identity impossible to determine; even their horns were covered, wrapped in black cloth. One of these unicorns walked over to Princess Celestia.

"Yes, Princess?" he asked.

Celestia sighed and gently set the large box down in front of her.

"Shadow, I know that this room was created for many things. But now, I'm going to have to ask you to do the hardest thing yet."

"And what would that be, Princess?" Shadow asked cautiously.

Celestia's horn glowed, and the lid on the box opened.

"I... I need you to fix this."

Shadow stepped forward and looked inside of the box, and although it was impossible to see the expression on his face, Celestia heard it in his voice.

"But Princess... How...? A-are you sure...?"

Celestia closed her eyes and spoke.

I'm sorry to have to ask you to do this. But Twilight Sparkle and her friends were never supposed to die. With them gone, all of Equestria is in great danger. I really don't want to ask you do do this, but I must. So I repeat: Could you please fix this? Oh, and one more thing, I will be bringing in the other two soon."

Shadow contemplated for a moment, looking at the dead purple alicorn inside of the box. After a moment, he sighed.

"Alright, Princess. I'll see what we can do."

***

While all that was happening, an angry golden-eyed unicorn was addressing four of his friends inside of his house.

"If Princess Celestia thinks she can hide what is going on from us, she is sadly mistaken," the unicorn with the golden eyes addressed his four friends, also unicorns.

"Something is going on, and we aren't being told what. Two ponies, killed? Several others, missing? Royal Guards, patrolling our town day and night? Stuff like that doesn't just happen in Ponyville."

He narrowed his eyes, silently daring his friends to challenge what he had said.

"Well, what do you think it is?" one of his friends asked.

"If you want my opinion," the golden-eyed unicorn said, "I think that those ponies didn't die by misadventure. No, no, something killed them."

"Why do you think that?" another one of his friends asked.

The golden-eyed pony clapped a hoof to his face in frustration.

"First of all, why else would there be royal guards patrolling the town? And second of all, did you look at those two filly's bodies at the funeral? The orange one, Scootaloo, had been stabbed, repeatedly. With Sweetie... the stitches suggested something had been forced through her head."

"But why would anypony do that?" the third friend asked. "I can't think of anypony in town who would do something as sick as that."

"That is exactly what we are going to find out," the golden-eyed unicorn said. And we're going to start by asking Princess Twilight. She must know something about all of this."

"I doubt she'd tell us anything," the fourth friend said. "If Celestia wants to keep the news of a killer quiet, she would've warned Twilight not to tell anypony."

"But that's just it, isn't it!" the golden-eyed unicorn said. "Why would Celestia want to keep news of a killer quiet? Wouldn't she address the whole town then to warn them of the danger? No, no, there's something bigger going on here. And we will find out what. And we are going to pay a visit to our local princess."