The Cutie Mark Killers

Chapter 7

We All Fall Down

Twilight Sparkle stared at the tree in disbelief. This couldn’t be happening. It was like a nightmare she couldn’t wake up from. As she looked on, memories welled up inside of her. Her first slumber party. The best young flyers competition. The countless adventures to save Ponyville. Tears started to silently flow from Twilight’s eyes. She blinked, and then gazed directly into a pair of muted red irises.

She was looking into the dead eyes of Rainbow Dash. One of her closest friends. Dash had been crudely crucified to the tree, with four nails going through her wings and rear legs. A final nail was driven through her skull. As if this torture wasn’t enough, Dash’s throat had been slit.

Twilight turned away in disgust. She couldn’t have imagined that anypony would be sick enough to do this. She looked over to Fluttershy. The poor thing was in shock. She was staring unblinking at Rainbow Dash, her mouth hanging open slightly. Her wings had unfurled slightly.

Twilight turned to the police officers.

“Why did you bring us here?”

“We needed next of kin to identify and claim the body.” One of them said, “Since none could be found, we turned to her associates.”

Twilight couldn’t help but roll her eyes. As if Rainbow Dash was hard to identify.

“Have you found anything about who did this?” She asked.

“The investigation is still ongoing.” Said the other officer.

“I guess that’s a no.” Twilight thought.

She paused to look over the scene. Dried blood was everywhere. Hoofprints were left from where the investigators had been working. It didn’t look like they had taken much care to avoid contamination.

Twilight squinted at one of the sets of prints. It looked a lot smaller than the others. She looked around a little and found the same tracks everywhere, especially around the base of the tree. Twilight moved closer to inspect the branches around Rainbow Dash.

The same small hoofprints were imprinted in the blood that covered the branches. It was as if a filly had climbed the tree while Rainbow dash was nailed there.

“What kid would climb all over a dead body and not tell anypony?” Twilight thought.

She backed away from the tree, taking care not to let her gaze linger on her deceased friend. It had been bad enough to see the remains of Cheerilee and Applejack, but this was different. It was as if Rainbow Dash had been put on display for everypony to see. There was no attempt to hide the crime. It seemed like whoever was doing this had stopped caring about secrecy.

“Are we free to go now?” Twilight asked the officers.

“Of course ma’am” one replied, “We can escort you back to Ponyville, if you like.”

Twilight glanced at Fluttershy. The pale pegasus was still rooted to the same spot, staring at Rainbow Dash.

“No thank you officers. I think we just need to be alone right now.” Twilight replied.

“Alright then, be careful. If you know anything that might help the investigation, come by the station.”

Twilight nodded and started to leave. However, she noticed that Fluttershy wasn’t moving.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight asked.

Fluttershy made no response. She just stood there, staring. Her wings were now completely open. Twilight guessed it was some sort of defensive reflex. Carefully, she stepped between Fluttershy and the tree, breaking her gaze.

“Fluttershy, we need to leave now.” She said gently, “The police need to continue their investigation.”

Fluttershy only gave a choked squeak in response. However, her eyes sank to the ground and she turned towards Ponyville. The two started to head home. There was nothing Twilight could say to the shell-shocked Fluttershy to make anything better, so they walked in silence.

An hour later, they crossed the bridge that lead to Fluttershy’s cottage. Without a word, Fluttershy turned towards her home. Her wings now hung loosely at her sides, it was as if Fluttershy was too depressed to even fold them up properly.

“Are you going to be ok?” Asked Twilight nervously.

Fluttershy stopped. She slowly raised her head and looked towards the Everfree forest. She opened he mouth, but no sound came out. She cleared her throat and tried again.

“I’ll be fine.”

Twilight nodded and began to walk to towards the library. She made a mental note to check on Fluttershy later. Despite what she said, Twilight doubted that the fragile mare would easily recover from seeing her friend like that.

Twilight walked through the streets of Ponyville in solitary misery. She barley even noticed the ponies she passed by on her way home. However, she was suddenly snapped out of her depression when Sweetie Belle bumped into her as she sprinted from the Carousel Boutique across town.

“Ouch!” Twilight cried. “Sweetie Belle, you really need to watch where you’re going…”

Twilight trailed off, as sweetie belle had continued her breakneck pace towards the outskirts of town. Twilight squinted at the filly as she ran away. Strangely, she seemed to be carrying something long and red in her mouth. Stranger still, Twilight could have sworn there was a cutie mark on her flank.

Twilight shrugged and continued walking. Let somepony else deal with it, she thought. She just wanted to get to her bed and rest.

Across town, she saw spike walking towards the Boutique. The little dragon had the slightest spring in his step. Twilight smiled slightly as she watched him.

“There goes the brave knight, off to comfort his princess” Twilight thought with amusement.

She stopped suddenly when she thought of Rarity. Her friend needed to know what happened. She hesitated when she noticed that Spike had entered the boutique. This wouldn’t be easy for the dragon to hear. However, Twilight knew that she would have to tell him eventually, and it would be easiest when both she and Rarity were present.

Twilight steeled herself and trotted towards the boutique. As she got closer, she heard Spike’s voice.

“There you are Rarity! I’ve been kinda worried about you.”

Then there was silence, followed by a muffled thud.

Panic brought on by her already frayed nerves drove Twilight to sprint the rest of the way at the sound of the disturbance. Her mind immediately jumped to several worse-case scenarios.

“Please be ok, please be ok, please be ok…”

Twilight burst through the open door. She looked around, and her heart skipped a beat at what she saw. There on the ground, was Spike. Tears welled up in her eyes.

“No… not Spike… please…”

Twilight unconsciously held her breath and cautiously edged towards his prone figure. As she neared, she could see his chest gently raising and lowering.

Twilight exhaled and slumped to the ground in relief. She moved closer to Spike to inspect him. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with the dragon, it just looked like he passed out. Twilight looked around the Boutique. There was a line of mannequins along the far wall. One was different from the others, however.

A chill ran down Twilight’s spine. In an instant, she knew what caused Spike to faint. There, in the middle of the row of mannequins, was the corpse of a horribly disfigured unicorn. Although its face had been mutilated and cuts crisscrossed its body, there was no mistaking who it was.

Twilight let out a small whimper. She had just seen Rarity a few hours ago. She was perfectly fine when Twilight left her. Now she was…

The trauma of the week’s events suddenly came down on Twilight. She collapsed, sobbing. Images flashed in her head. Cheerilee, Zecora, AppleJack, Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, and now Rarity. They were all gone. Every friend she had was being taken away from her one by one.

Twilight got to her hooves again. Anger flashed in her eyes. She would find whoever was responsible, and bring them to justice. She needed to get to the police station. She had to tell somepony. Twilight swallowed hard, not looking forward to breaking the news to Rarity’s family.

“wait a minute…” Twilight thought, “I just saw Sweetie Belle running from here. Maybe she knows something!”

Her heart racing, Twilight glanced at Spike. He was still out cold. She gently lifted him onto a nearby couch, then raced out the door.

“Ok, first, find Sweetie Belle and find out if she knows what happened. Then, the police station.”

Twilight bolted through Ponyville. She had seen the general direction where Sweetie Belle had gone. If Twilight had to guess, she was headed for their tree fort on the outskirts of town. It wasn’t long before she was there.

When she neared the tree, Twilight paused to catch her breath. She walked forward, trying to appear as calm as possible. It wouldn’t help if Sweetie Belle saw her in hysterics.

As she approached the ladder leading to the clubhouse, she heard Sweetie Belle talking to somepony. It sounded like Scootaloo and AppleBloom.

“…going to get a nice little surprise when they walk in.”

“How’d you manage that?”

“She taught me some basic sewing stuff. The rest I just improvised.”

“We could have used that when we were cleaning up after Cheerilee.”

Twilight stopped cold. Her mind again raced to conclusions, but she tried to suppress it. Still, she couldn’t help but tiptoe the rest of the way to the ladder. She carefully started to climb, trying to be as quiet as possible.

“I guess I forgot. hehe.”

“Well, anyway, we have to figure out where we are going to go, now that the police are after us.”

“We don’t know that they’re after us!”

“AppleBloom, that’s six ponies we’ve taken out. The cops were bound to pick up our trail eventually.”

Twilight silently gasped. Her heart raced.

“Stay calm,” she told herself, “It’s just some stupid game they’re playing.”

She craned her neck to look between the crack under the door. She saw the three cutie mark crusaders sitting around a small table. Sweetie Belle was closest, and beside her, Twilight saw what she had been carrying when the bumped into each other earlier.

It was a long knife. The blade was covered in blood.

Twilight cried out slightly, then shoved her hoof into her mouth in panic.

It was too late. Scootaloo’s head turned towards the noise, and she ran to the door. She flung it open, catching Twilight on the forehead with it.

Stars exploded in Twilights vision as she was knocked back off the ladder. She hit the ground hard, driving the air from her lungs. Some part of her noticed the three crusaders standing in the doorway, with fear in their eyes.

“Busted.” Said Sweetie Belle dumbly.

Scootaloo grabbed the knife from the ground. With a snarl, she leapt from the doorway, raising the blade above her head.

Twilight couldn’t move; there was no time. Everything seemed to move slower as Scootaloo brought the knife down, aimed directly at Twilight’s heart. Twilight could see the fury in her face as she fell.

Without thinking, Twilight summoned her magic. A basic pushback spell. Her horn glowed a brilliant purple, and she tried to release a wave of energy towards her attacker. However, her mind was still clouded from the impact of the door. This, combined with her frayed nerves, caused Twilight to momentarily lose concentration. Without realizing it, Twilight dumped nearly all of her energy into the single spell.

A brilliant purple explosion lit the area. Scootaloo was rocketed upwards. With a resounding crack, she flew through one of the branches of the tree and continued straight up for another twenty feet. For a moment, she just seemed to hover in the air. Then she fell. There was a faint snap when she impacted the ground.

Scootaloo was still. Her neck was bent at an unnatural angle, and a sliver of bone poked through her front leg. Blood started to pool around her. The knife landed beside her, its blade sinking into the ground.

Sweetie Belle and AppleBloom stared down at their unmoving friend. Tears welled in AppleBloom’s eyes, while Sweetie Belle just stared, mouth agape. In unison, they both turned to Twilight, who was struggling to collect herself after her strenuous spell. Sweetie Belle was the first to act.

“You monster!” She screamed, her voice cracking in fury.

Sweetie Belle telekinetically grabbed the knife from the ground. With a snarl, she flung it with all the force she could muster. The blade flew through the air, towards Twilight’s chest.

It sank into her skin, cutting through muscle. With a shock, Twilight felt the tip sink into one of her ribs. The impact knocked the wind out of her, stopping her from screaming out from the sudden pain.

Sweetie Belle and AppleBloom dropped down to the ground. Sweetie Belle grabbed the knife and tore it from Twilight.

“You killed her!” she shrieked, “You killed her!”

Sweetie Belle lunged forward with the knife, stabbing upwards. The blade disappeared below Twilight’s chin. It sliced through the soft tissue, and nearly cut her tongue in half. Sweetie Belle pushed until she felt the resistance of the roof of Twilight’s mouth. Twilight cried out in agony as the blade slammed into her.

“You killed her. Now, you are going to die. Right here, right now.”

Twilight Sparkle stared into Sweetie Belle’s eyes in horror. She knew the filly wasn’t bluffing. She tried to escape, but Sweetie Belle held her head steady with the knife. In desperation, Twilight reached for her magic once again.

AppleBloom saw her horn glowing and aimed a savage buck towards Twilight’s forehead. Her hooves met with the base of Twilight’s horn, and with a resounding snap, it broke cleanly off.

A cold emptiness filled Twilight as the connection to her magical energy was instantly severed. Twilight’s heart nearly stopped cold. The pain was indescribable. Every nerve in her head felt as if it had been split open. She didn’t know if she was alive or dead. All that she was conscious of was the volcano of agony that was erupting from her destroyed horn.

Then, as quickly as the pain came, it faded away. Twilight went limp. She was emotionally drained; the trauma of losing her horn was too much for her to bear. She wasn’t even aware of what Sweetie Belle was doing with the knife.

Sweetie Belle pulled down on it, drawing a line straight down Twilight’s throat. Instantly, a torrent of blood poured from the wound. As she finished the cut, the inside of Twilight’s wind pipe was completely exposed.

Sweetie Belle was finished. With tears in her eyes, she turned away from Twilight to look at AppleBloom.

“Come on, we need to get going.”

“What about Scootaloo?” Asked AppleBloom.

Sweetie Belle looked at Scootaloo’s body. The little pegasus still hadn’t moved. Blood no longer flowed from the injury on her leg.

“She’s gone, AppleBloom” Sweetie Belle said, “We have to leave her. We need to be far away by the time somepony finds Ms. Sparkle’s body.”

AppleBloom said nothing, but nodded.

Twilight looked at them from the ground. She couldn’t move, but she was still conscious enough to see her surroundings. It was here that Twilight got her only good look at Sweetie Belle’s cutie mark. Unlike her friends, Sweetie Belle’s was simple and unassuming. It was just a broken hourglass. Nothing more.

Twilight pondered this in the last few moments of her life. Her vision faded first. Her other senses followed. Finally, there was nothing. Twilight slipped into the void.

The element of magic died.

The end.