The Cutie Mark Killers

Cutie Mark Killers
Part 2: Gathering Supplies

Scootaloo held her breath. A bead of sweat trickled down her brow. She swallowed, and then gave the “all clear” signal to Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo was being suspended from the chimney carved into the middle of Zecora’s tree-hut, used to clear smoke from the giant cauldron at the centre of the room below. Above her, Sweetie Belle and AppleBloom were carefully lowering her to the ground using some old rope they found beside the hut.

This plan was stupid, she thought. Why did she get talked into this? If they had just asked Zecora, Scootaloo was sure that she would have helped them. But noooo, Sweetie Belle had insisted that it would “raise suspicion”. So they had waited until late at night until they were sure the zebra was asleep and came up with this crazy idea.

She looked over to Zecora, and was relieved to see she was still soundly sleeping. A few seconds later, Scootaloo was on the ground. She Looked up to Sweetie Belle and nodded. Sweetie Belle silently slid down the rope to meet her. Without a word, she reached into her small saddlebag and grabbed the book on potions they had got from the library. Opening to where they had marked the page, she indicated the flower they were looking for. A purple one with a golden centre. It was the key ingredient of the anesthetic potion they needed.

Both Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle went about looking for the blossom, while AppleBloom stayed on the roof. If anything went wrong, she would be there to pull them up. Searching wasn’t easy, as it seemed like there were dozens of various flowers and herbs dotting the shelves surrounding the room. After what seemed like an hour, Scootaloo finally saw what they were looking for. The Flower was on the top of a shelf at the far side of the room.

Right above Zecora’s head.

Scootaloo gulped, and pointed it out to Sweetie Belle. This wasn’t going to work, they needed a new plan. The two of them regrouped on the far side of the hut.

“Now what?” Whispered Scootaloo.

“Well, we need that flower, and I’m defiantly not going home without it.” Said Sweetie Belle. “Can’t you fly up to the shelf and grab it?”

“Not really, I don’t have enough control to hover in place to grab something, never mind doing it silently.” Scootaloo sighed. “I could try to climb the shelves.”

“I guess…” Said Sweetie Belle, looking concerned. “But I’m going to get the binding spell ready, just in case.”

“Good idea”

Sweetie Belle opened her saddlebag once again, and retrieved a very old-looking book. She flipped through the pages until she found what she was looking for. The binding spell was simple enough. Sweetie Belle had seen Ms. Sparkle the librarian use it plenty of times without even thinking. Still, Sweetie Belle had made sure to practice it until it was perfect, much to the chagrin of AppleBloom, her test subject.

Scootaloo started slowly climbing the shelves, taking extreme care not to disturb the zebra sleeping almost directly underneath her. When she reached the top, Scootaloo grabbed the flower with her teeth and slowly pulled it down. As she dragged the flower however, it brushed against a glass vial containing a clear liquid.

The vial wobbled, and fell. Scootaloo watched in horror for what seemed like an eternity as it fell towards Zecora’s face. It bounced off of the zebra’s forehead and smashed on the floor. With a yelp, Zecora bolted uptight, fully awake.

“What in Equestria is happening here? Whoever is responsible faces punishment most severe!” Zecora looked towards where the vial had dropped from. Scootaloo was still there, frozen, with the flower still clutched in her mouth.

“Scootaloo, have you gone completely insane? When I get you, you’re in a world of pain!”

“Uhhh, Sweetie Belle… any time now…” Scootaloo said, spitting out the flower. Both her and Zecora looked over to where Sweetie Belle was standing, just as she released her binding spell.

There was a light blue flash from her horn, and Zecora was flung against the wall, a turquoise glow surrounding her limbs. Zecora looked furious, and started struggling against her magical restraints.

“Scootaloo do something! I can’t hold her for long!” Sweetie Belle cried.

Panicking, Scootaloo looked around the shelf. Nothing there looked like it could really be used as a weapon. It was just full of various herbs and flowers, along with a mortar and pestle.

“Well,” She thought, “It’s better than nothing”

She grabbed the pestle and jumped off of the shelf. With all of her weight, she brought the makeshift club down on Zecora’s head. With a dull crack, the granite tool bounced off her skull, knocking her unconscious. A faint trickle of blood dripped down her face.

Getting to her hooves, Scootaloo backed away from Zecora and went to Sweetie Belle.

“Now what?” She asked frantically.

“I don’t know,” Sweetie Belle replied, “but we have to do something before she wakes up again.” She let go of the magic surrounding Zecora, and the turquoise glow dissipated.

“What’s going on down here?” AppleBloom had slid down the rope to join the other two crusaders.

“Zecora woke up, and Scootaloo knocked her out. Now we’re figuring out what to do.” Sweetie Belle replied.

“Well that’s obvious.” Said AppleBloom. “We have to get rid of her.”

“Huh?”

“Give me that.” AppleBloom snatched the pestle from Scootaloo. “We have to make sure Zecora never tells anyone that we were here” Without another word, she walked over to Zecora and clubbed her again. The stream of blood grew stronger, but Zecora was clearly still breathing.

“This isn’t working, we need something heavier” AppleBloom said. She looked around the hut. Her eyes rested on the cauldron in the middle of the room. A smile crept to her lips.

“Girls, I need your help with this. Sweetie Belle, lie Zecora down on the ground. Scootaloo, I need you to help me lift that cauldron.

With a grunt, Sweetie Belle dragged Zecora near the centre of the room, and then went to help out AppleBloom and Scootaloo with the cauldron. They shakily lifted it off of the ground and moved it over Zecora’s head.

“Ok,” Said AppleBloom, “On the count of five, we drop it. This should be enough to crush her skull. One… Two…”

Beneath them, Zecora started to stir.

“TheeFourFive!” Shouted Scootaloo, and the three of them dropped the cauldron as hard as they could. It landed directly on top of Zecora’s face with a pulpy crunch. Blood splattered around the three of them. Zecora’s body convulsed once, then relaxed into an unnatural position.

“Well, that went well” Beamed Sweetie Belle. “Let’s get out of here, before our families start to wonder about us.

“One second, Belle” Said AppleBloom. She rolled the cauldron off of Zecora, revealing the mess underneath. The face was almost beyond recognition, with the muzzle punched into the rest of the head. Bits of skull protruded from the scalp, exposing the soft brain underneath. AppleBloom bent down and carefully extracted some of the grey matter with her teeth. She sighed contentedly and started eating with renewed vigour.

“Seriously, AppleBloom” Said Scootaloo, “That’s really getting creepy.”

AppleBloom continued eating the brain, not answering. Scootaloo looked over at Sweetie Belle, who just shrugged. It was best to just let her do her thing, it wasn’t hurting anypony.

“Ok, I’m done” Said AppleBloom, wiping blood from her mouth. “That tasted pretty good. Not as good as Mrs. Cheerilee, but still”

“You’re messed up, AppleBloom” said Scootaloo, rolling her eyes. “Come on girls, we should really be going. We’ll meet up tomorrow morning and start to brew the anesthetic. Then we can get started on our first-“

“Technically third” interrupted Sweetie Belle.

“…right, third cutie mark kill.”

The three of them bumped hooves and ran out of the hut and towards Ponyville.

_ _- -_ _

“All right, what do we got?” asked a particularly displeased policepony. This was his day off, and he was stuck here in the dammed morgue.

“Well,” the coroner replied, looking at the purple corpse between them. “Severe stab wounds across the upper torso, large laceration across the abdomen, internal organs severely traumatized. Body shows signs of post-mortem intercourse… with a broom.”

“Dear Celestia, ponies are getting sicker by the day. Better get the chief in here, before another pony gets…”

The coroner looked up to see the officer put on a pair of aviator sunglasses.

“…Shafted”

The coroner arched an eyebrow “Yeahhhh…”

End of chapter 2.