The Death of Loyalty

“The scholar does not consider gold and jade to be precious treasures, but loyalty and good faith.”- Confucius

Two Months Ago

Luna was tired again and she was pacing the halls of the Canterlot castle like every night since the Changeling Invasion. With news of a serial killer on the loose in Ponyville and the surrounding area she had a lot to be worried about. She was staring at the Elements thinking back on the good times when something unexpected happened.

The Element of Loyalty broke. That only happened when a Bearer died.

“Guards, Guards get to Ponyville now!”

***

Ponyville: Two Months Ago

“Hey, Fluttershy! Want to try some of my cupcakes?” Pinkie Pie happily bounced towards the yellow pegasus. Everypony in the town knew that Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were an item. There were even rumors that the two were going to be married soon.

“Why, thank you Pinkie. What flavor are they?” Fluttershy asked nicely.

Pinkie got a creepy look on her face that Fluttershy had only seen on Pinkie’s surprise party. “It’s just Rainbow flavored. Nothing special.”

“Well,uh, thank you Pinkie but I...”

“It’s free. I know everypony likes free stuff.”

With those words said Fluttershy couldn’t help herself. She loved sweets almost as much as Pinkie Pie. She devoured all of the cupcakes that Pinkie offered her.

“Pinkie was there something special in those cupcakes?” the yellow mare asked cautiously.

“Just a special ingredient. I am really glad you liked it.” Pinkie Pie giggled happily after bouncing away.

Fluttershy wondered why she hadn’t seen Rainbow Dash in a week.

***

Luna walked to where the last known sighting of Rainbow Dash was.

Sugarcube Corner. Where the Element of Laughter resided.

“Guard, tell me all about Pinkie Pie.”

A Night Guard began to ramble off facts that they had learned about Pinkie. “It is unknown where her family is located. From what we found, her “family” that she described to Twilight Sparkle was made up. Records indicate that the Cakes adopted her when she was ten. Before that she was in the Ponyville Orphanage.”

“What of her mental state. We can’t just accuse her of murder.”

“Yes, Your Highness. She had to go to a Doctor Whooves for  psychiatric analysis while in the orphanage. She has multi-personality disorder, shown in what Doctor Whooves called “Pinkamena.” It is unknown what caused this personality, but he suspected the death of her parents could have caused it. Pinkie said the personality liked to torment her with violence, and she was prone to fights.”

“Fights? Sounds like a normal filly to me.”

“No. The last fight she had in the orphanage was with five colts. She won.”

“Ok, so what? She is strong.”

“She is sadistic. From reports from the social workers in the orphanage when they got on the scene, it was a massacre. One of the colts had all four of his legs broken. On another, she found a way to rip out his eyes. It was impossible to salvage the optic nerves. The pony is still completely blind One died from all his ribs breaking. The last two were spared from her anger because the adults got there in time.”

Princess Luna looked worried. “When was this?”

“When she was nine.”

“If she was capable and willing of murder at such a tender age...then she might be the serial-killer that has killed over 50 of our subjects. Was there anything else this Doctor Whooves said?”

“Yes, when he asked if Pinkie enjoyed killing she said yes.”

“What was done to her?”

The Night Guard sighed. “The normal procedure. The Ludovico process. Brainwashing. Therefore, if she is killing ponies, it has worn off.”

“Let us go in.”

***

Pinkie’s Basement

Pinkie was ready for the date with Twilight. They had been dating for months, but Twilight did not know her secret. She killed ponies and put them into cupcakes. The Cakes couldn’t do anything about it. She had thoroughly terrified the kind couple after threatening them about killing them in their sleep.

“Batch is ready. I hope ponies like the flavor of the week. Carrot Top flavor. I wonder if she tastes like carrots?”

Nearby, the carcass of Carrot Top was on a bench. On Pinkie’s walls were the skins of the numerous ponies that she had killed. Trixie, Flim, Flam, and countless others. She even had sewn a coat of skins and wore it while killing ponies.

A knock came from the top of the stairs.

“Now if that’s the Cakes wondering how long I’ll be, I’ll just have to provide them with a party they won’t soon forget.”

She trotted up the stairs and began to open the door before it was bucked in which caused her to fall backwards down the stairs. The was a crunch as her back leg snapped from her fall.

“Princess, she’s down here...oh sweet Faust.” a night guard Pinkie never saw in her life said while walking down her stairs.

“We found her.”

***

One Month Ago

The trial of Pinkie “Pinkamena” Diane Pie had found her guilty of 50 counts of murder. The mare had laughed while telling Fluttershy that she had eaten her own girlfriend’s body. Fluttershy was horrified and ran out of the courtroom to throw up in the bushes. In the first time in 100 years, the death penalty was doled out as punishment.

The door opened and Pinkie looked up.

“Celestia, you want to kill me yourself.”

“Yes, any last words?”

“Just that my death is only the beginning, my Pinkie Sense says that our happy utopia will go to hell.”

Celestia’s magic shot out of her horn and hit Pinkie in the heart.

“That’s is not going to happen, not on my watch.”

In the chamber of the Elements another one shattered.

Equestria was in for a world of hurt. There were going to be beautiful days in Equestria for that was the norm, but what about the ties that bind? This was the death of loyalty.