The Problem With Serial Killers

"Hey Twilight, have you seen Rarity? I haven't seen her in a while."

Twilight sighed and shook her head, and thought to herself I swear, that dragon never does anything but eating gems and thinking about Rarity. But what Spike had said peaked her interest. She hadn't seen Rarity in over a week. The last time she had seen Rarity was at their last pony pet play date. Twilight tried to push the thought of something happening to Rarity out of her mind, but it kept coming back to the forefront of her thoughts.

Feeling more and more nervous, she called out. "Hey Spike, did Rarity say anything about doing something?"

Spike looked up in thought and Twilight could almost see the gears in his head spinning. After a couple minutes of hard thinking Spikes face lit up and he said "Yes I remember now, she said that she was going to be going to Fluttershy's cottage because she looked like something was bothering her."

Twilight sighed in relief that she at least knew that Rarity was someplace safe, but she still had a bit of lingering doubt that was gnawing at her from the inside. She managed to push the doubt out of her mind, after closing the library for the night she decided to go out for some dinner. As she crossed the threshold of her front door, the thought of Rarity crossed her mind again. Not being able to push it back out of her mind, she decided that she would make a small detour towards Fluttershy's cottage before she went out for dinner.

Twilight yelled out "Hey Spike, I'm going out. I want you in bed when I get home in a couple hours."

She waited and listened and after a couple seconds she heard a faint "okay" from upstairs. After closing and locking the door, she set off in the direction of Fluttershy's cottage. The trip to Fluttershy's domicile was a long arduous trek along a path that ran directly beside the Everfree Forest, and Twilight was not particularly happy about having to walk along it in the dead of night. After walking for about 15 minutes she heard a roar, she had heard this same roar before on the same day she had met her friends, it was the roar of a manticore. After hearing the roar Twilight's pace quickened from a brisk trot to a full out gallop, she was eager to escape the confines of the forest. When Fluttershy's cottage came into view Twilight's body was flooded with relief.

As Twilight got closer to the cottage she noticed something, leaning against the wall of Fluttershy's house was a strange looking creature. Normally she would have given it a wide berth but it was standing right between her and her destination. Twilight approached cautiously not knowing if this creature was dangerous or not, as she got closer she noticed more of it's features. It was tall, very tall easily taller than Celestia. It was bipedal like a minotaur but it didn't have the backwards facing joint like they did. It's arms were muscular as well, they weren't as prominent as a minotaurs muscles but they were still quite well defined. It's arms ended with a weird sort of appendage, it wasn't a hoof like ponies or minotaurs nor was it completely like the claws Spike had. Puzzling over in her head what this thing could be she didn't notice that it had changed locations and was no longer leaning against the cottage but was now standing in front of her towering over the lavender mare.

Twilight gulped as her eyes moved up the creature's body dreading what she would see in the creature's face. When Twilight's eyes met with the creature's she noticed that they seemed like they were appraising her for something. After a couple moments the creature broke eye contact and walked back to the cottage and resumed its position against the wall. Twilight was momentarily stunned from the creature being so close to her. After a couple moments, she mustered up the courage to approach it again. But this time Twilight asked the creature "Ummm, excuse me? Would you mind moving, my friend lives there."

Twilight was not ready for what was about to happen, the creature eyed her for a few seconds and then opened it's mouth as if it meant to speak. Much to Twilight's surprise the creature did just that. With a voice that was filled with charisma the creature said.

"Oh my, I'm so very sorry miss. I did not realize I was blocking your path. Allow me to move myself out of your way."

Twilight was stunned, she hadn't expected the creature to understand her let alone apologize for being in her way. After getting over her initial shock, Twilight squealed with excitement and yelled. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!!! What are you? Are you a new species? Are you from Equestria or somewhere else?" The byzantium unicorn relentlessly bombarded the creature with question after question, barely pausing to take a breath every once in a while.

After a couple minutes, Twilight's questions started to slow. She slumped to the ground, exhausted from all the energy she had expended asking the questions. The creature was staring at the unicorn in shock, then burst out in a loud guffaw, his sides violently shaking from the ragged chuckles that passed his lips. Twilight looked at the laughing creature in confusion, not sure what she had said to make the creature laugh.

"Why are you laughing?" Twilight interjected.

The creatures laughter ceased except for the occasional giggle that racked it's body and said. "I find your exuberance amusing, not many beings are so eager to learn new things."

Twilight beamed at the compliment, and spoke again but this time with tact. "I apologize for my earlier behaviour, I was just so intrigued I couldn't contain myself."

The creature smiled, and said. "There is nothing to apologize for, curiosity is something that should be embraced not shied away from. To answer a couple of your previous questions, I'm not from around here, I am what my species call a human. You may call me Barry."

Twilight's mouth was agape, standing in front of her was a new species that she had discovered. It was also capable of speech no less, she could study him and maybe have a paper on him published for the scientific community. After running through multiple scenarios in her head, each one becoming more exciting she decided she should start her investigation.

"So Barry, do you mind if I ask you a couple more questions?" Twilight asked.

Barry looked at a small metallic device on his wrist and then up at Twilight and then back down again, and said "yeah, I guess I can fit in a couple minutes."

"Okay then, first question. How did an species of animal like yourself learn to talk?"

All the colour drained from Barry's face, as he realized what the unicorn had implied. She made the same mistake just like her friend Fluttershy had. She had implied that he was nothing more than a animal, some kind of circus beast that had been trained to talk, and he would not stand for that. Reaching behind him he gripped the hilt of his knife ready to strike. He would strike when Twilight finished speaking.

Twilight continued to drone on, each question becoming more invasive than the last until Barry couldn't take it any longer.

"Enough!!!" He shouted.

"I've had enough of your pointless questions you fucking bitch, you're more annoying than both of your friends especially that purple-maned unicorn."

Twilight's eyes widened in surprise at his sudden outburst and then narrowed in suspicion at his mention of another unicorn, he had said purple maned meaning he might have seen Rarity. Swallowing a growing lump in her throat she asked. "Did you see a unicorn mare with a white coat, purple mane and a cutie mark of some gems on her flank?"

Barry smiled at Twilight's question and said, "why yes, now that you mention it I did see a unicorn who looked just like that."

Twilight sighed in relief and said "oh thank goodness, where did you see her?"

Barry gave her another smile, but this one seemed to have a dark atmosphere to it. Almost as if it was trying to warn Twilight about things to come. Twilight shuddered and push the thought out of her mind. She spoke again this time with determination and pride.

"I'm sorry Barry, but I'm in a bit of a hurry would you mind telling me where you saw her so I can go and find her."

Barry's smile got even wider and he said. "Last time I saw her she was inside Fluttershy's cottage."

Twilight looked over at Fluttershy's door, apprehensively she walked over towards the door and stopped. She thought to herself what happens if this is a trick of some sort, then what will I do? I have got to have faith in myself, if this is a trap then I'm sure I can take anything he throws at me. Gathering up her courage she knocked on the door and shouted.

"Fluttershy, Rarity, is somepony in there?"

After waiting a couple seconds and hearing nothing she knocked again, after she knocked on the door a couple more times and had no response she decided that she would go in. Twilight grabbed the doors handle in her magic aura and pushed. What Twilight saw next would haunt her for the rest of her life. Lying there on the ground were to of her best-friends Fluttershy and Rarity. They were both sprawled over on the floor in a bloody heap. Twilight screamed in horror and rushed over to them, not caring about the blood they were both soaked with.

"Noooooo!!! Fluttershy!!! Rarity!!! Oh my god, who did this?! I should have been there for you both or this wouldn't have happened." Twilight broke down into a sobbing mess, she just lay there embracing the lifeless corpses of her two friends.

Barry walked into the room and leaned against the wall grinning down at Twilight's reaction to her friends deaths. After she had lay there sobbing for about 10 minutes he spoke up and said.

"You shouldn't blame yourself, there is nothing you could have done. No one is able to stand up to me not even the Elements of Harmony."

Twilight digested what Barry had just said and it then dawned on her, that he was the one that did this to her friend's. Twilight's horror and grief were replaced with pure unadulterated rage. "You did this! I will kill you and grind your body down to nothing with my magic!" Twilight screamed.

Barry smiled at the sight of her anger, so cute, it's a shame I am going to kill her. But maybe I can just maim her and finish the job at a later date. It would be quite fun to toy with her. Barry thought to himself.

Twilight was still standing there fuming, getting ready to attack. She wouldn't hold anything back she was going to destroy this monster, so that he would never be able to harm anypony ever again. She snorted hot air out of her nostrils and pawed the ground with her hoof and she ran forwards, everything else was a searing pain on her left shoulder and then the comforting embrace of unconsciousness.

When Twilight came to, she was lying on the ground her hooves shackled onto the ground with steel chains. Her horn flared about to user her magic to escape but was interrupted by a voice.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, you had a concussion from where I hit you and I don't think you want to be attempting to use magic when your concentration will be off."

He was right, unicorn magic took focus and trying to use magic with a concussion could be bad. Twilight sighed in defeat and slumped back against the cold hard ground. Curiosity getting the best of her she asked. "So, how long will you keep me for? What are you going to do with me?"

Barry smiled at what she asked and said. "I won't be keeping you for very long, and about what I'm going to do to you is going to be a surprise. But here is where we part ways for now, I have a master plan that I'm cooking up and this is only the beginning."

Twilight was stunned, he was going to just let her go, just like that?

Barry seeming to sense Twilight's shock said. "In a way, but I'm going to be leaving you with a little parting gift. In the sense that it will part you, don't worry, you won't die it will just be very painful." As he finished his sentence he pulled out a skinning knife, it's silver gleam shimmering in the moonlight.

Twilight screamed, struggling against her bonds. Barry reveled in her panic, and as he drew closer he raised the knife above his head ready to strike. The last thing she remembered before her vision faded to black was the feeling of her left leg being parted from her body.