Popped

Applejack cantered through the dense woods, skipping over the rocks and fallen trees that littered her path. Tiny pieces of dead leaves clung to her damp hooves as she made her way across the forest floor. "You see anything yet, R.D?" She said, glancing upwards for a moment to make sure her partner was still hovering above her.

Rainbow Dash grunted in frustration. "Ugh, nothing but trees!". She flapped her wings at a slower pace, letting herself descend to the ground below. The sea of dead leaves crunched under her weight as soon as she touched the ground. "Hold up, A.J." she said, galloping for a brief moment to catch up.

Applejack turned around and redirected her trot towards Rainbow Dash. The two met in the middle. "What's the map say?" Rainbow Dash said.

Applejack opened her saddlebag and stuck her head in. It was absolutely filled with supplies, so much so that Applejack had a difficult time keeping it closed. Dash, on the other hoof, carried with her a bag that contained only a few essentials. She had made the argument that, since she would need to fly, Applejack would have to bear the majority of the burden. Applejack didn't mind that much, though. Earth ponies were naturally strong, after all.

Finally, after rummaging around for a while, Applejack managed to pull out the map from her overstuffed saddlebag. She laid the paper flat on a large tree stump and ran her hooves over it to flatten out the creases.

The map itself was incredibly detailed, depicting every single road, village, and city in Equestria’s central province. They both stared at the the map’s complexity for a while before either of them spoke up. "To be honest with you, I don't rightly know the first thing 'bout readin' these things." Applejack said, scratching her chin.

"Okay, well..." Rainbow began, tracing her hoof across the paper. "Uh, here's Ponyville...right?"

"Looks like it." Applejack replied, looking at the small shape on the map that defined the borders of her home town. She smiled at first when she saw her family's farm, but furrowed her brow upon further examination. "Rainbow, how old is this thing?" She asked, pointing to the location of Sweet Apple Acres. "This must've been drawn before Granny Smith purchased the west fields."

Rainbow scratched the top of her head with a wing. "Oh...how long ago was that?" she asked sheepishly.

"I reckon it wasn't fifteen years ago!" Applejack groaned, putting a hoof to her forehead.

"Oh. Is that bad?"

"'Course it's bad, Rainbow! This map's outdated! Where'd you get this thing anyway?"

"Look, I'm sorry, okay?" Dash said defensively. "It was half-off."

"You can't be serious." Applejack scolded, staring daggers at her partner.

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Oh, whatever. I doubt that this stupid forest has changed much."

"You'd better hope so." Applejack said with a huff. "Hoof over the compass, will you?" She held out her hoof without looking away from the map.

"One sec." Rainbow Dash replied, opening her lightweight saddlebag. Inspecting its contents, she couldn't help but notice how it seemed to have a lot less inside of it than when they had departed earlier that day. Did I really eat that many granola bars? she thought.

Investigating the issue further, she stuck her head in and looked around, only to gasp sharply upon the discovery of a giant, gaping hole in the bottom of the bag. The compass was nowhere to be found. Holding her breath, she checked the other bag, only to find it equally lacking in a certain navigational instrument.

Applejack looked at Rainbow. "What's the holdup, R.D.?"

"Um..." Rainbow Dash slowly turned to return the gaze. "Um...I might have...uh..." She hesitated.

"You might'a what?" Applejack said, her eyes wandering towards the huge hole at the bottom of Rainbow's tattered saddlebag.

"Dang it, Rainbow Dash!"

* * *

Pinkie Pie groggily opened her right eye mere seconds before a quiet gasp escaped her blood-encrusted lips. She instinctively moved a hoof up to the left side of her face, resulting in a second, sharper gasp upon receiving the painful reminder that both of her hooves were still restrained by rings of spikes. Blood playfully tickled her left hoof as it seeped out of the newly-born puncture wounds.

"No, no, no..."

She wanted the ordeal to be a dream, a fabrication of her own mind. But with the entire left side of her vision gone, the damage was hard to ignore. Her left eye had been completely destroyed, optic nerve and all. As a result, Pinkie had lost both her depth perception and the ability to see anything to the left of her snout.

Her newfound half-blindness was particularly problematic once Pinkie noticed something sticking out of her face just below her eye. Careful around the spikes, Pinkie bobbed her head up and down, feeling the object’s weight shifting along with it. The more she moved her head, it seemed, the longer the object became, and she could begin to see it as it extended past her nose. It looked like...

Pinkie pouted slightly and raised an eyebrow. A syringe?

She continued bobbing her head up and down, now faster and with more force, until the object finally lost its grip on her face and fell to the floor. It rolled in a wide arc across the floor towards Pinkie before finally coming to a stop as it collided against a small rock sticking out of the dirt floor.

Pinkie looked down at the object, which, upon further inspection, was indeed a small, plastic syringe.

It wasn’t until Pinkie saw the medical tool that she noticed the odd lack of pain in her left eye. In fact, the entire left side of her face felt tingly, bloated, and numb; a very severe contrast to the horrible, scathing pain that had knocked her unconscious. Each attempt to move any muscle in the area was met with failure.

She cringed. Her imagination ran wild, coming up with hundreds of theories as to what Pokey had injected into her face. One particular thought had prominence over the others.

What if it was poison? she thought. Am I gonna die? Pinkie could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she contemplated the grim possibility. The more she thought about it, however, the less threatening the idea became.

Maybe that wouldn't be so bad... she thought, her heart rate returning to its normal rhythm.

But less than a second after the thought flashed through her mind, Pinkie gasped, the sound of her tired, raspy voice echoing off the bricks that made up the cell walls.

No! Bad thoughts! she scolded herself. She would have kicked herself if she wasn’t restrained by the wooden panel.

The fact that such an idea even dared to run through her head appalled her. Pinkie Pie was supposed to be the happiest, cheeriest, most joyful pony in Ponyville. No. All of Equestria. Maybe even the whole world. She wasn’t supposed to think about stuff like that.

She closed her eyes and thought of happy things. She tried the hardest she could to make herself smile, but her body refused. Pinkie hadn’t seen the sun for a very, very, long time. She was being held captive in a dirty, disgusting basement. All she had to look forward to was pain, which made it quite difficult to be happy about anything at the moment.

The worst part of it all? She was alone. Utterly alone. Sure, when Pokey wasn’t around she could at least relax a tiny bit, but the crushing loneliness of isolation was starting to get to her. While Pokey was away in Ponyville, she would be left alone for days at a time without food, water, or any form of socialization.

Maybe Pokey was right... she thought, releasing a long, disheartening sigh that would have dampened the mood of even the silliest of parties.

Why aren’t my friends here yet? Don't they care about me? Why haven't they come to save me?

Pinkie felt a lump form in her throat as her imagination ran wild.

Did they forget about me?

Her lips trembled as tears began welling up in her eyes.

What’s the point of living if I’m all by myself?

An eerie silence hung over the basement for a few seconds before it was filled with a cacophony of sobs.

* * *

Rainbow Dash hovered in the air, squinting her eyes as she scanned the horizon. “Maybe we should call it a day.” She said, pointing to the orange sky. “I saw a clearing about a quarter-mile east where we could set up camp.”

Applejack let out a tired sigh. “Yeah, I reckon you’re right.” she said, nodding her head in agreement. As it turned out, it was quite difficult to nod one’s head and look straight up at the same time without looking odd, but she assumed Rainbow got the gist of the gesture. “Lead the way then, I s’pose.”

Rainbow Dash nodded back, the same thought going through her head as she looked straight down, flying slowly towards the clearing. Applejack’s head shot up and down as she simultaneously watched the pegasus above her and avoided the thick tree trunks that dotted the path in front of her. As they approached the clearing, not a word was said between the two ponies, both preferring to preserve their energy after a long, grueling, not to mention fruitless, day of searching.

Within a few minutes, the pair finally made it to the small clearing moments before the sun disappeared behind the horizon. Applejack let out a sigh of relief as her worn hooves touched the lush grass, a well-appreciated break from the blanket of tiny rocks and sticks that covered the rest of the forest floor.

Her overly-stuffed saddlebags landed with a light thump as they hit the ground. “I'm a might hungry” she said, feeling her stomach rumble. “Can you gather up some firewood while I pitch the tent?.”

She waited a few seconds for a response, glanced behind herself, and immediately rolled her eyes. “Oh, gimme a break.” Applejack mumbled to herself as she trotted towards her partner, who was already laid on her back with her eyes closed. “Come on, Dash. Get up.” She said, giving her side a few light kicks.

Rainbow's face scrunched up as she groaned. “Alright, I heard you! I’ll get to it in a second.” she said, a hint of agitation in her voice. She turned to a more comfortable position on her side. “Can’t we just chill out for a bit? I’ve been on my wings all day.”

Applejack sighed, recalling this exact situation with Applebloom a few months ago. “And I’ve been luggin’ around twenty pounds a' supplies all day, but you don’t see me complainin’. Come on, we can rest later.”

“Ugh...fine.” Rainbow Dash said, putting all of her effort into getting up on her hooves. It was a surprisingly difficult task at the moment. She stuffed her face with the last of the trail mix before grabbing her ripped saddlebag and sluggishly walking towards the surrounding trees.

“Now don’t take too long, 'ya hear?” Applejack said, waving a hoof at her disgruntled companion.

Rainbow Dash didn’t care to look back. “Yeah, whatever.” she mumbled, taking a step into the wall of trees that surrounded the clearing.

The sound of Applejack’s whistling grew fainter as Rainbow Dash advanced into the dense forest growth, tiny twigs snapping under her hooves with every step. Her head moved slowly from side to side, scanning the ground for fallen branches of just the right thickness. Not too puny, but not so heavy that Dash would only be able to carry a few.

Instead of walking in a straight line, however, Rainbow Dash moved every which way, turning every time she saw a piece of wood that fit her criteria. This wasn't an issue, of course, as unlike the other pony races, a pegasus like Rainbow Dash didn’t have to worry about getting lost. After all, as long as she stayed in the general vicinity of the campsite, she could just fly over the canopy to figure out which direction she needed to go.

She trotted towards a promising looking branch. “A-ha!” she said to herself, picking up the dead piece of wood between her teeth. Craning her neck to the side, she deposited the wood in her empty saddlebag and promptly spit on the ground.

As the minutes passed, Rainbow Dash’s burden gradually increased as she placed one branch after another into her saddlebag. Once it was filled to the brim, she turned around and began trotting toward the campsite.

Alright, I just gotta look for that mossy rock and go...east. she thought, recalling the landmark she’d taken note of before collecting the last piece of firewood. She glanced around, twice in all directions, but the dark shadows cast by the forest’s thick canopy blocked out any light the moon would have provided. In the impenetrable darkness, she couldn’t even see her hoof in front of her face, let alone a small rock on the ground.

“Ugh...figures.”

Setting the saddlebags on the forest floor, Rainbow Dash crouched to build up energy before ascending into the sky. She made sure to do a few flips, just in case anypony happened to be watching in the distance. She had a reputation to keep up, after all.

She hovered in one spot, flapping her wings at a steady pace as she slowly turned three-hundred and sixty degrees. She scanned the vast land below her for any sign of civilization, only to come up with nothing. Miles and miles of trees and nothing.

“Darn it...” she muttered under her breath, feeling a small tinge of dread sink into her.

As she began descending, however, she caught a glimpse of a large silhouette out of the corner of her eye. turning back around, she did a double-take and squinted her eyes.

She slowly glided towards the distant structure. “Is that...?” she whispered. She closed her eyes and shook her head, just to make sure her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her.

What are the chances I’d find a cabin out here in the middle of nowhere? she thought to herself, eagerly approaching the building.

* * *

After what seemed like days of waiting in silence, the familiar sound of Pokey descending the staircase finally reached Pinkie’s ears. However, unlike the last three times she’d heard the sound, Pinkie Pie didn’t panic. She didn’t feel the horrible sensation of dread she had grown accustomed to whenever she heard the wooden stairs groaning under his weight. Instead of cowering in fear, Pinkie simply stood there, expressionless, waiting for Pokey to open the door. In fact, she was almost relieved.

Pinkie shook her head in disbelief, trying desperately to get the strange feeling out of her head. But no matter how hard she tried, it just wouldn’t go away. She was happy to have company. Even if that company was only there to hurt her.

The cell door swung open, groaning under its own weight as Pokey stepped into the cell. He looked at Pinkie for a moment, instantly taking note of the fact the the syringe was on the floor rather than sticking out of her face. “I bet you’re wondering what I injected you with.” he said as he picked it up with his magic.

Pinkie was relieved to not see the sharp medical tool heading in her direction. “Y-Yeah...”

Pokey set it down on the fold-up table, making sure to prop it against the other objects so it wouldn't roll off. “Guess.” He said, casually opening his saddlebag.

“P-poison?” Pinkie stuttered.

Pokey stuck his head into his saddlebag and pulled out two sets of hoofcuffs in his teeth. He set one of them on the table while he slipped the other pair onto Pinkie’s forehooves.

“Why would I want to poison you, Pinkie?”

Pinkie cringed slightly as the metal rings closed around her forehooves at the tightest possible setting. “I don’t know,” she started. “I guess I...”

Pokey laughed, interrupting Pinkie as he locked the hoofcuffs with a small metal key. “I don’t know what it's actually called, but it’s numbing stuff. I decided to give you a break for once. Aren’t I the best?”

Pinkie nodded weakly as Pokey went behind her with the other pair. “Thank you so much...” she said. The cuffs were tightened around her back hooves.

Pinkie coughed due to her empty stomach, the sudden internal movement sending an uncomfortable sensation through her frail, fatigued body. “May I...um...please have some water? P-please?” She begged, doing her best to present her request in the nicest way possible.

Pokey said nothing in reply as he made his way back in front of Pinkie. He opened his saddlebag again and pulled out a long, albeit quite thin, rope. While its pure, pale yellow color indicated that it was woven quite recently, the hundreds of tiny hairs that stuck out from the main shaft revealed its cheapness. Nevertheless, it looked strong enough to serve its purpose. Pinkie would have a difficult time trying to break it, especially in her weakened state.

Rather than do anything with the rope, Pokey produced a large, bronze key and unlocked the wooden panel. Using his magic, he lifted off the top half and propped it against the wall.

As soon as the upper section of the panel was removed, Pinkie immediately lifted her head up and slid her front hooves out of the holes. In her excitement, she had completely forgotten about the hoofcuffs that bound her legs together, causing her to tip over sideways.

“Oof!” A brown cloud of dust appeared around her as her body hit the dirt floor.

"Heh. Stupid mule." Pokey mocked. “You’re thirsty?” He stepped towards her and kicked her hard in the gut. Pinkie was already out of breath from the hard landing, and Pokey's contribution only worsened her condition.

Pinkie moaned in pain as he kicked her again, harder this time, just for good measure.

While Pinkie writhed on the floor, Pokey tied the rope around the chains that linked the two cuffs on her hooves. After tugging it a few times to make sure the knot was secure, he levitated the camera, grabbed the rope between his teeth, and began walking backwards, dragging Pinkie across the ground with him as he exited the cell.

Under normal circumstances, Pinkie Pie's above-average weight would have proved difficult for a pony of Pokey Pierce's thin, weak stature to freely drag around. Luckily for him, however, Pinkie had lost a considerable amount of weight in the time she had been imprisoned.

The severe lack of nutrition affected more than just her weight, however. With barely any energy left in her body, Pinkie could barely moan in pain, let alone put up a fight as she was dragged across the floor of the basement's main corridor.

Pinkie stared down the basement's dark hallway as she was dragged across the floor , wincing as as the tiny rocks embedded in the floor scratched at her side. She could barely make out the dim outline of a steep staircase on the opposite end.

She felt her heart sink as she watched it move farther and farther away as she was dragged across the floor. She didn't want to believe it, but she knew in the back of her mind that she wouldn't be leaving anytime soon, if ever.

Pokey turned the corner, entering a small area adjacent to a row of cell doors. In the far corner of this area, below a long pipe sticking out of the wall, was a small, dug-out hole. It would be a tight fit, but the hole in question looked just large enough for a pony to fit inside.

Pokey continued around the corner and approached the small hole with Pinkie in tow. He dragged her motionless body next to the hole and spit out the rope.

He turned the camera on. “Pinkie Pie, session four.” He whispered, making sure Pinkie Pie couldn’t hear.

He hovered the camera in front of himself and looked through the eyepiece. “Get in the hole.” he deadpanned. His voice was apathetic, lacking even the tiniest sliver of empathy for his victim.

Pinkie laid motionless on the ground. “Uggghh...” she moaned, still out of breath from the two blows to her stomach. A good part of her side, which had been dragged across the basement floor, had been scraped by its rough, earthy surface. There was no noticeable bleeding, but to Pinkie, the small, shallow cuts felt like tiny knives continually stabbing her.

“Did you not hear me?” Pokey said, raising his voice. He put the camera up to Pinkie’s face. “Get in the hole. Now.”

“O-okay...” Pinkie said weakly, looking with dread into the camera’s mechanical eye. She did her best to follow Pokey’s instructions, putting up an earnest, yet pathetic attempt to scoot into the hole. She shifted her weight to the side and slowly made her way towards it, struggling to do so with all four of her limbs restrained by cuffs. “Ow...ow...” she quietly mumbled, scooting across the floor as its rough surface scraped at her back.

“Hurry up!” Pokey screamed, bits of his saliva landing on Pinkie’s face.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” She whimpered, frantically shifting her weight to the left. “I-I’m trying!”. She put all of her strength into her last few movements, and before long, she finally made it to the edge of the hole. She landed on her back after a brief fall, giving the camera a good view of her emaciated figure.

The hole was small and cramped, and Pinkie was just barely able to fit inside. From this position, Pinkie could see directly up the faucet that hung over the hole. She noticed that the black mold that lined the rim also climbed up the inside of the pipe, which would no doubt contaminate any water that flowed out of it.

“Ugh, I can’t even look at you. You’re so disgusting.” Pokey sneered. He took four worn, ragged washcloths that had been hanging over a copper pipe in the basement’s unfinished wall and dropped them all on top of Pinkie’s face. “There." he smiled. "That’s much better.”

Pinkie said nothing in reply, but Pokey's words still hit her hard. She knew for a fact that he was telling the truth. She looked like a monster. An ugly, revolting monster.

“So. You said you were thirsty?”

“Yes! Please!” Pinkie exclaimed, desperation evident in her voice.

Pressing the four rags down with his magic, Pokey placed a hoof on one of the faucet’s handles and turned it thirty degrees to the right. The handle, which had obviously been neglected for quite some time, produced a tiny squeak as it was moved. This prompted a gentle stream of cold water to trickle out of the pipe.

A small, slowly-expanding damp spot appeared on the topmost cloth where it was touched by the stream of water. Its permeable surface allowed the majority of the water to pass through to the next layer of cloth below it. This process continued with the next two layers before the stream finally reached Pinkie Pie, whose mouth was already wide open, eager to feel the moisture on her dry, cracked lips.

At last, a thin stream of water dribbled into her waiting mouth. She moaned in relief as each drop rolled down her dry, arid tongue. The water had a strange taste, probably thanks to the faucet’s interior lining of mold, but Pinkie didn’t care in the least. As long as it didn’t kill her, she was willing to drink just about anything at this point. What she didn’t understand, however, was why Pokey had to administer the water to her in such a strange fashion.

What was wrong with the jug of water he used before? Pinkie thought.

Pokey levitated the camera above the hole Pinkie was wedged in. “Do you like that?”

Pinkie nodded her head weakly. “Mmhmm...” she confirmed, her words muffled by the rags.

“Do you want more?”

She nodded her head again, this time with more energy. “Mmm!”

The handle squeaked again as Pokey turned it another thirty degrees, allowing twice the amount of water to flow out from the faucet. As the stream of water became thicker and fatter, so too did the wet spot on the cloth.

“Mmm. Now the real show begins.” Pokey muttered into the microphone.

As soon as the thicker stream of water made contact with the cloth, the saturation quickly expanded to cover most of the surface, and Pinkie felt the ever-increasing weight of the rags press down onto her face as they absorbed the excess water.

The refreshing, though strange-tasting water now flowed much more quickly through the thick layers of cloth and into Pinkie’s mouth. She moaned in pleasure after each hearty gulp, a euphoric feeling of satisfaction stimulating Pinkie’s brain as her thirst quickly washed away.

One...two...three... Pokey thought to himself, counting in his head the number of seconds Pinkie spent under the stream of water. He’d read in a book that only about thirty seconds was necessary to break a pony's mind, and that it was internationally agreed upon that anything more was cruel and unusual torture.

Just his style.

While Pinkie was happy to be able to get more than a few drops of water per second, she was beginning to wonder if her decision to have Pokey increase the speed was a mistake. Since he’d done so, the constant flow of water through the now completely-saturated rags made it quite difficult to breathe. The feeling of the water flowing into her arid mouth was intensely satisfying at first, but now, Pinkie felt increasingly uncomfortable with each passing moment. She barely had enough time to take a breath in between swallowing the mouthfuls of water that now flowed steadily into her open mouth.

As the seconds passed by, Pinkie felt a growing pressure in her chest as the amount of air in her lungs slowly diminished. She attempted to lift her head up to take a breath, but the surprisingly heavy weight of the fully-soaked rags greatly overpowered any energy she had left to do so. After resting her head for a few seconds, she tried again, but to no avail.

Twenty. Twenty-one...twenty-two...

“Mmmph mmm!” Pinkie mumbled in between swallowing more and more mouthfuls of water. The rag’s muffling effect, however, rendered Pinkie’s words unintelligible.

“What was that? You said you want more?” Pokey teased. He pointed the camera’s microphone toward Pinkie’s head to capture the subtle sounds of her panic.

She shook her head to the best of her ability while she was crammed in the tiny, restrictive space. “Nnph!”

"Alright, if you say so!"

“Nnph!” Nm Mrrph!”

Pinkie listened with dread to the squeak of the rusted handle as Pokey turned it another thirty degrees to its maximum setting. Now, instead of a relatively calm, clear flow, the faucet now expelled a chaotic torrent of water.

Pinkie thought it was difficult to breathe before, but now, as the water flowed constantly with even more pressure and volume into her throat, the task was completely impossible. Unable to swallow the massive amounts of water flowing through the rags without suffocating, she closed her mouth in an attempt to divert the water and give herself time to breathe through her nose. Unfortunately, this plan backfired completely, cascades of water now rushing up her nostrils instead.

Pinkie Pie squirmed around helplessly in the tight space, doing everything she could to try to get away from the never-ending torrent of water coming from above. “MMMMPH! MRRRPH!” She screamed, unwisely using the little oxygen she had left in her lungs to do so. As the water filled her throat, it distorted her screams, transforming them into a grotesque, panicked gargling sound. "MMMPH! MMRPH MMMPH!"

Fifty-eight...fifty-nine...sixty. Pokey set the camera on the floor for a moment and approached the faucet. Quickly, he turned the handle back to the off position and lifted the soaking rags off of Pinkie’s pale, terrified face.

As soon as the rags were off, Pinkie gasped for air, taking several massive breaths before even opening her good eye to look at Pokey. Conversely, the empty eye socket on the other side of her face was partially filled with water. “I...I’m..not...” she began, pausing after each word to take in air. “I’m...not...thirsty...anymore...”

“Too bad.” Pokey said, levitating the dripping pile of rags back towards her.

“N-no! NO!” Pinkie pleaded, already feeling a shortness of breath as droplets of water dripped onto her face from above. “Stop, Please! I'm not thirsty anymore! Ple-mmmph! MMMPPH! ” Her pleas were muffled as she felt the cold touch of the cloth on her face.

In any other situation, Pinkie would have kept frantically begging for Pokey to stop. However, as she waited in dread for him to turn on the faucet, she saved every bit of air she could.

She took a deep breath and closed her mouth in preparation, determined to endure. It’s just water, Pinkie. You can-

Her thought was interrupted by the the long, drawn-out creak of the handle as Pokey turned it a full ninety degrees.

"NO! PLEASE!" Her screams echoed throughout the entire building.

Pokey reset his count. One...two...three...

It took only a few seconds for the water to soak its way through the four layers of cloth. Pinkie Pie squirmed around, whimpering in panic as the liquid, unable to enter her closed mouth, rushed up into her nose.

Pinkie held her breath for as long as she could. However, as her lungs burned, desperate for air, she was only able to restrain herself for a few seconds without passing out. Pinkie exhaled and then inhaled in turn. The sudden inhalation sucked the damp rags tightly against her nostrils, effectively plugging them shut. Pinkie instinctively tried to exhale again to break the suction, but there was no air left in her lungs to do so. Though air was unable to pass through, water still flowed freely through the permeable cloth covering her nostrils.

Pinkie felt like she was drowning under a massive pool of water, slowly sinking every second, but never reaching the bottom. Her head violently thrashed left and right as she tried anything she could to escape the constant onslaught of freezing cold water.

In her panicked state, Pinkie made a sound that Pokey had never heard before from any of his victims. Instead of a pain-filled shriek or a moan of despair, Pinkie produced a heartbreaking whimper that seemed to say: “Why is this happening to me? What did I do?”

Meanwhile, while Pinkie struggled to breathe under the torrent of water, Pokey was busy with the camera. Unlike the previous sessions, Pokey didn’t need to use his hooves or magic at all. The faucet did all of the work for him. He took full advantage of it, taking the opportunity to capture his victim’s misery from multiple angles.

Forty-five...forty-six...

The water tickled her tiny nasal hairs as it ran through the inside of her nose, traveling through her nasal passages and ultimately down her throat. Tiny droplets of water separated themselves from the main stream, freely bouncing around and teasing her sensitive nasal hairs as they finally came to a rest against them. Functioning as they should, the thin hairs sent a signal to Pinkie’s brain to indicate the presence of a foreign object. In an unmeasurably brief amount of time, her brain sent another signal to her respiratory system.

She had to sneeze.

To her horror, Pinkie Pie felt pressure building up in her head as the water continued flowing through her nose. Her mouth, which she had been determined to keep closed, was forced open as her diaphragm contracted to suck in air. Just like it had with her nostrils, the inhalation sucked the rag into her mouth, forming an air-tight seal over the opening.

With water once again flowing directly through her mouth, Pinkie fought against her own body as she desperately tried to close her jaw. Her body, however, didn’t give up so easily. Even with the tight seal around her mouth and nostrils, her lungs continued trying to suck in air, determined to inhale enough of it to expel the unwanted droplets of water from her nose. It felt as if Pinkie’s own body was trying to smother her. She tried to exhale, but her body had already made up its mind. It was going to sneeze, and there was nothing Pinkie could do about it.

Sixty-two...sixty-three...

Finally, with her diaphragm fully contacted, it abruptly released to expel what air it had out of her nose. With her larynx wide open, the water flowing down her throat now had two passages to choose from, and a large volume of water soon found its way flowing down Pinkie’s trachea and into her lungs.

Pinkie struggled more than ever before as the water entered her lungs. As they slowly filled with water, her childish mind likened it to filling up a water balloon, something she would never be able to do again without having a nervous breakdown. She felt the fluid sloshing around inside of her chest as she struggled, each time less noticeable as her movements gradually slowed down.

Eighty-nine...ninety.

Suddenly, Pinkie’s vision returned as the heavy cloth was pulled off of her face and the water turned off. As soon as she was able to breath again, her body expelled the water inside her lungs with a loud coughing fit.

Surrounding her bloated body with his magical aura, Pokey attempted to lift Pinkie upright. Earlier, dragging her across the floor had been a breeze, but now, with her stomach and lungs filled with water, the task of moving her was exceptionally difficult.

Blood vessels were visible on Pokey’s face as he focused his magic, and after a considerable effort, he finally managed to lean her body against the wall. As soon as Pinkie was sitting vertically, she leaned over and vomited out the gallons of water that had been forced down her throat.

Pokey stepped back, avoiding the cloudy mixture of stomach acid and water that spread across the dirt floor. Within seconds, the liquid was absorbed into the dirt floor, leaving only a large wet spot where it once stood.

“So, Pinkie" He grinned. "Do you-”

Pokey’s remark was interrupted by a faint, repetitive noise.

What the... he thought, looking up quizzically toward the ceiling. He tried to listen for the noise again, but even if it did repeat, Pinkie’s loud crying and coughing fits drowned out the noise.

“Shut up!” He said, placing a hoof on the faucet’s handle.

That was all Pinkie needed to see to set her off. Even though she wasn't even under the faucet, the concept of running water terrified her. “NO!” she screamed, bringing her two restrained forehooves up to her face. “NO! Please, not again!” She paused for a moment to cough up another round of water. "Please!”

Pokey took his hoof off of the handle. “Then be quiet!” He said, looking her coldly in the eye. Pinkie complied, doing the best she could to suppress both her coughing and crying. Even after he left, her gaze didn't leave Pokey’s hoof until it was well away from the faucet.

Pokey ended the recording and slowly made his way down the basement’s main corridor, looking left and right for the source of the noise. After peeking his head into every room in the basement, he turned around. “Hm. Must have been-”

Another series of knocks ensued, this time louder and longer. Pokey stopped dead in his tracks. Once he realized that the sound wasn't coming from anything in the basement, he simply stood there, dumbfounded.

Somepony was at the door.

* * *

Pokey tugged the handle one final time just to be sure. The door moved a minuscule distance before it was stopped by the old, rusted locking mechanism.

Locked. Good.

Finally satisfied, Pokey turned away from the basement door and toward the small flight of stairs that led to the cabin's main area. Alright, Pokey. Play it cool, he thought, They can’t search the cabin without a warrant.. Though, despite himself, every step towards the cabin's front door was more difficult than the last. Hesitantly, Pokey opened the door slightly and peered through the small crack.

On the other side of the door was a familiar-looking rainbow-maned pegasus. Pokey recognized her from Ponyville, though her name escaped him at the moment. In any case, Pokey breathed a sigh of relief. Okay, he thought. Good. Not the Royal Guard.

Stepping back, Pokey closed the door, unhinged the lock, then opened it completely. "Hey there..." he greeted, his nervously hesitant diction returning to his speech. "What uh...what brings you around these parts?"

Rainbow Dash took a single step back. “Wait, Pokey?” she said, raising an eyebrow. “What are you doing in a cabin in the middle of nowhere?”

“I think the better question is why you’re walking around in the middle of nowhere.” Pokey replied, rapidly tapping his hoof on the wooden floor.

“Oh. Well, ah...” Rainbow began, scratching the concrete slate in front of the door with a hoof. “Me and Applejack are out looking for Pinkie Pie.”

Pokey felt his entire body go weak. Without thinking, he stuck his head out and scanned the area around Rainbow Dash. For all he knew, there could be an entire regiment of royal guards hiding in the brush, waiting for her signal.

They know. She’s onto me. he thought, fighting the sudden urge to tackle her to the ground right then and there. He knew that he needed to do this calmly. Besides, a pony like Rainbow Dash would fight back, and probably be able to win.

Okay, calm down, Pokey. She’s terrible at acting, he thought to himself, thinking back to last year’s Hearth’s Warming Pageant in Canterlot. Take it easy...

“You okay, Pokey?” Rainbow asked, tilting her head in confusion.

“I- ah..yes, um...” Pokey stuttered, scrambling to regain control of the situation. “Yeah, I’m fine. A-allergies. You must be cold. Why don’t you come inside?”

Despite Pokey's odd behavior, Rainbow’s face lit up in excitement. “Sure!” she exclaimed, trotting into the cabin’s inviting warmth as soon as Pokey stepped aside. She didn't know Pokey all that well, but the choice between the cold winter night and the warm cabin was a no-brainer.

As soon as Rainbow passed through the threshold, Pokey shut the door behind her, taking care not to slam it. He quickly locked it while Rainbow's back was still turned, checking it three times just to be sure it wouldn't easily open. After the fact, his head whipped to the side, and he calmly exhaled, relieved that she hadn't noticed.

“So, why are you looking for Pinkie Pie?” Pokey said as he made his way over to the kitchen area.

Rainbow Dash plopped down on the sofa and made herself at home. “You haven’t heard? Pinkie went...” she said, pausing for a moment. She wasn't sure, but she could have sworn that she could hear the faint sound of crying coming from downstairs. “Uh, she went missing about a week and a half ago. We think she may have been kidnapped or something. There’s been a lot of unsolved cases of missing ponies lately, and we think they might be connected.”

“Oh, wow. That’s some good detective work.” Pokey said, using a sarcastic tone that barely made an attempt to sound serious. It resembled the tone of voice one would use while humoring an overly-enthusiastic foal. “So you think she may be out here somewhere?” He continued, placing a pot of water over the stove's burner.

Rainbow watched the black stove top turn orange as it slowly heated up. “Yeah, that’s what we think. Have you noticed anything suspicious out here?”

“Not really.” Pokey said, opening a packet of cocoa powder and mixing it into the pot with a wooden spoon. “Nothing too interesting ever goes on out this far. That’s the reason why I have a cabin out here, to get away from it all.” Pokey looked over his shoulder before slipping a few white tablets into the mixture.

“Exactly! That’s why we think she’s out here! It’s like, the perfect serial-killer hideout!”

Pokey would have done a spit-take had he been drinking someting. Instead, he simply didn’t respond, opting instead to focus on stirring the pot. After that, not a word was said between the two ponies. Pokey kept stirring, and Rainbow sat quietly on the couch while she looked around the cabin.

The interior of the cabin wasn’t very large, but at the same time not small enough to be considered cozy. This was perhaps due to the fact that the one room of the cabin’s ground floor was quite sparsely decorated. Not including the fireplace, the only furniture was the couch she was sitting on, a coffee table in front of it, a small rug in the middle of the room, and a tall coat rack by the door which held a gray cloak and a long, blue and yellow scarf.

She couldn't exactly put her hoof on it, but for some reason, being inside the cabin made Rainbow Dash feel a little uncomfortable. It could have been the fact that the dwelling lacked any windows, or maybe it was the thick, awkward silence that filled the room. Perhaps it was the weird feeling of déjà-vu she got whenever she glanced at the scarf on the coat rack, or maybe it was the fact that she was by herself, in the middle of nowhere, with a pony she barely knew.

Pokey finally broke the silence. “By the way, how difficult was it for you to find me way out here?”

Rainbow Dash looked up at Pokey. “Umm...pretty hard. I only found it because I was flying over the trees. Why?”

“Oh, no reason.” Pokey said, hitting the shaft of the spoon twice against side of the pot. He poured its contents into a ceramic mug on the counter. “I just like my privacy.”

Rainbow nodded her head in understanding as Pokey walked towards her, levitating the mug next to him. “Yeah, I can understand that.”

The ceramic mug clinked as it was placed on the stone coffee table. Then, as quickly as it was set down, it was grabbed by a pair of enthusiastic cyan hooves. Rainbow Dash took a sip from the mug. She savored the warm chocolate drink as it flowed into her mouth, closing her eyes and inhaling its sweet, intoxicating scent. Then, placing the empty mug back onto the table, she exhaled with a look of satisfaction.

She brought a hoof up to her face to wipe the excess hot chocolate from her lips. As she did so, her ears perked up at the faint sound a high-pitched scream from downstairs.

Rainbow felt her stomach twist into a knot. What the hay... she thought, suddenly feeling a strong urge to bolt out the door. Such a gesture would be rude, however. Rarity had taught her at least that much about manners.

"So, are you...um...watching a horror movie down there or something?" She asked, rubbing her front hooves together uneasily.

“Yeah. I must have forgotten to pause it when you knocked on the door.” Pokey said, relieved to have been provided with a believable excuse for the noise.

"Oh, nice!” Dash said, her discomfort melting away slightly. “Which one?"

A cold sweat ran down Pokey's temple. "It's uh...I..." He stuttered. "I-It's an indie film. I don't think...I don't think you would have heard of it before. Pretty obscure."

"Yeah, right! Try me! I'm a freak for scary stuff!"

“Are you now?” Pokey said, prompting a proud nod from his guest. “I forget the title, but I think it has something to do with a mare who wanders into a serial killer’s house.” Pokey fought hard to keep the corners of his mouth from moving. “Spooky, huh?”

“Wow, that does sound pre...”

Before she could finish her statement, Rainbow Dash’s vision suddenly went blurry. Woah, she thought. She’d experienced the same sensation many times, especially when standing up after a few hours of laying down.

This time, though, the dizziness didn’t go away after a few seconds like she had expected. Instead, the sensation persisted. The inside of her head was filled with a tight, dull pain, as if her brain had suddenly grown too large to fit inside of her skull. It tingled as tiny black dots danced carelessly across her vision.

An overwhelming sense of fatigue overcame her. “Wha daaa heck isss...” Rainbow Dash mumbled, slurring her speech as she slowly bobbed around. Her voice grew quieter with every word, turning the other half of her question into an unintelligible murmur. Her own words sounded to her like a distant echo in her head.

With her eyelids half open, she groggily looked toward Pokey, who was staring at her with an wide, unsettling grin. Just looking at it made Rainbow extremely uncomfortable. For some reason, though, she couldn’t look away. Something was wrong. He knew something that she didn’t.

Then it all clicked. Pokey’s absence from Ponyville, his cabin in the middle of nowhere, the familiar scarf, the screaming and crying from downstairs...

“You...” she breathed, sluggishly bringing a hoof up to point at her host.

Pokey nodded his head.

Rainbow Dash let out weak groan, all the while fighting a losing battle to keep her eyelids open. Unfortunately, the battle was short lived, as a moment later she slumped onto her side across the length of the couch. At the moment, it was the most comfortable thing Rainbow had ever experienced in her life.

She tried her hardest to stay awake. She knew that Pokey had drugged her, and that falling asleep would be a very, very bad idea. Unfortunately, the overpowering drowsiness made it quite difficult to put closing her eyes anywhere else but the number one spot on her priority list.

Maybe for...just...a second...

Rainbow Dash shut her eyelids, resting her head on the sofa’s soft cushion. Within seconds, she was fast asleep.

Pokey smiled. “Perfect.”