Pinkamena heaved a shuddery breath as she shut the door quietly behind her.
She disappeared. Calm down. She is an alicorn princess, and she has always been exceptional at magic. But there’s no way she could have followed me…
Her eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness. She listened to her rapid, raspy breathing.
Am I the only one hearing it?
She struggled to breath quietly. Pinkamena hadn’t had this feeling in a long time…
Is this what all those ponies feel when I’m about to turn them into coats?
Twilight waited outside the door. She listened Pinkamena’s hoofsteps receding over the sound of her heartbeat. Her magic aura glowed around a floating dagger next to her.
She closed her eyes shut. Clenching her jaws, she teleported inside.
Fump.
Pinkamena’s heart dropped. There had just been a temporary flash of pink light coming from behind her.
No way.
She turned her head slowly, and saw a pony figure a few meters away. The pony took a few steps toward her, and her face became apparent.
“Twilight.”
Twilight Sparkle didn’t seem to be carrying anything with her, but Pinkamena wasn’t ready to trust what she could see right now.
“Pinkie…” Twilight’s voice was probably quieter than she intended it to, and probably a lot more emotional as well.
Pinkamena looked away from her once good friend’s eyes. Her knife tray was somewhere ahead of her. She started taking a few steps forward.
“Pinkie, wait.”
Pinkamena took two more steps and then stopped. Her hoof had just grazed the tray stand.
“Pinkie, why did you leave us?
Pinkamena didn’t listen. She flicked a knife and grabbed the handle with her mouth, making almost no movement.
“We’ve missed you so much all this time…well now, there’s no one to miss you except me. Pinkie”—
Pinkie flung the knife at Twilight. The knife bounced off an invisible wall and then Twilight disappeared.
Oh no.
Twilight was now invisible, and Pinkamena was completely vulnerable. She didn’t know what else to do but run.
She galloped as fast as she could. Inwardly, she had the feeling that she was done for. But she couldn’t just let herself be killed.
“Huc”—
Something smooth and cold went under her ribcage. Her room spun, along with the head pieces of the ponies she killed, the coats made from their pelts. The side of her head hit the floor. She was staring at Rainbow Dash.
“Hey, Pinkie! You okay? Gosh, you hit your head pretty hard…don’t worry, I can zip you to the doctor’s in a flash.”
Pinkamena blinked. Rainbow’s hollow eye sockets stared back.
“Dashie…”
Rainbow wasn’t there. Only her stuffed body was.
Pinkamena’s vision blurred. The faded blue pelt of Rainbow was disappearing.
Something moved across her vision. It was Twilight.
Pinkamena rotated her head and looked at Twilight. She couldn’t see her face. The purple alicorn stopped.
“Sorry, Pinkie Pie.”
Pinkamena looked at Rainbow Dash again. When she did, all of her friends were there, alive and well, sitting on a picnic blanket.
She looked at them with half-closed eyes.
“Oh Pinkie, you’re filthy!” Rarity exclaimed. “Get off that dusty floor.”
“Aw shucks, Rarity.” Said Applejack. “She ain’t that dirty. In a few moments she’ll be perfectly new.”
Fluttershy smiled at Pinkamena. “Oh, Pinkie, you don’t look at all bad. Oh…but you’re covered in blood…but that’s okay.”
Pinkamena coughed a cough that splattered red all over the sunny image of her friends, and that brought her back to reality. Her once good friends were dead, and she herself was dying at the hooves of Twilight Sparkle.
The princess had started walking away again.
“No,” whispered Pinkamena.
She lifted her right hoof and reached towards Twilight. She placed it over the end of the mare’s tail, making her stop and look back at her.
“You’re not sorry,” Pinkamena said hoarsely.
Twilight looked back at her, and her face started twisting with emotion.
Pinkie’s eyes started glazing over, but she managed a smile.
“I’m sorry.”