What Happened Last Week

What Happened Last Week

By Mist

Segment 3

She looked so peaceful, so relaxed, so care free. I couldn’t help but stare at her while she slumbered for several hours. My mind wouldn’t allow me to sleep, so I slept vicariously through her. Her pink mane lay ever so gracefully around her orange body as she rested.

I wondered what she was dreaming about, maybe flying or being with the Wonderbolts perhaps? I liked to think she was off on a wonderful adventure, enjoying herself.

I wanted to protect her, from harm’s way, from the demons, and mostly from Pinkie Pie. I didn’t want anything to hurt Scootaloo, but with things going the way they were, I didn’t think I would have a say in the matter when the time came.

Just kill them? Just like that? Is it really that simple to her? How can she say that without any kind of remorse?

Regardless of the circumstance murder was still murder, and there had to be another way to save these souls than by murdering them. No, murdering them wasn’t saving them at all; I couldn’t even fathom how she could even think such a thing. Killing will never solve anything, and Pinkie Pie needed to accept that. Who are we to decide when someone’s suffering should end or not? We couldn’t even prove these demons truly existed at this point anyways. All we had to go off of were some voices and a red glow, that wasn’t enough to justify murder.

Pinkie Pie was crazy that was the only explanation. There had to be a logical explanation as to why the two of us could see the red in ponies’ eyes. If what she was saying was true then we’d have to murder Applejack’s family. She said it herself, that was the first time she saw the red eyes, in Applebloom.

“Rainbow Dash…? What’re you doing here?” Yawned Scootaloo.

I must have woken her up.

“I couldn’t sleep, so I came to check up on you, that’s all…” I lied.

She smiled faintly and gestured for me to join her on the bed. I accepted the invitation and rested myself next to her.

“I had a dream about you…” She smiled.

“Really now?” I tapped her nose playfully.

“Yeah, I was upset about something, and you picked me up and held me close. You kept telling me everything was going to be okay…” She smiled again.

She was too precious sometimes.

“I’d never let anything happen to you Scoot. You just go ahead and go back to sleep alright?” I stroked her mane out of her face.

She responded by pulling herself closer to me and resting her head on my chest. I placed a hoof around her and pulled her in closer. She snuggled up to me like a teddy bear and nuzzled into my chest. I stroked her mane gently as she laid there.

“Rainbow Dash is going to protect you, don’t worry… I won’t let anypony hurt you… I promise…” I whispered.

“You have a great day at school alright Scoot? I’ll come by to pick you up today. I took the day off to catch up on some sleep, so we’ll spend some time together tonight, alright?” I smiled at the young pegasus.

She grinned happily and nodded.

“Sounds awesome and I hope you feel better!” She said.

I smiled gently and nodded back at her.

“Me too,” I replied.

“Scootaloo, come on, we’re gonna’ be late to class!” Cried a southern accented female from the distance.

I recognized the voice right away, Applebloom of the Apple family. She had grown quite a bit as she approached her teenage years, but still bore the same blank flank I always remembered. Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and her always hung out together for as long as I can remember, but the only one that seemed to acquire her cutie mark at this point was Sweetie Belle.

“Sorry Applebloom, just talking to Rainbow Dash, I’ll be right there!” Scoot replied.

“Rainbow Dash!?” Applebloom exclaimed.

She raced over and before I knew it she was bowing in front of me. Her long red mane danced frantically as she tilted her head up and down in front of me.

“Nice to see you again Applebloom, how’s your sister doing?” I asked politely.

“Great, Big Mac and her are tryin’ to raise more money for the farm expansion, so they’re pretty busy, but they are pullin’ through. You know how Applejack is.” She waved a hoof.

“That sounds like them. Tell her that I said we should get together and catch up sometime, I miss seeing her,” I said.

Applebloom nodded.

“Sounds like an idea,” She smiled.

It happened again. It was different this time though. Everything around me lost color, it just all turned to shades of grey, except for Applebloom’s eyes. They shined the same eerie bright red that I had come to fear at this point. I wanted to believe I was seeing things; I wanted to believe I was imaging this happening, but then I heard it in my ear once again, “Deceit.”

This couldn’t be happening; I didn’t want to believe it was happening.

“Something wrong Rainbow Dash?” Applebloom asked.

I had snapped out of my spell and shook my head.

“Nothing, I’ll see you later Applebloom, tell your sister I said hello, and tell Big Mac that I said he’s a brute.” I joked.

“Can do,” She responded with a nod.

Taking flight I decided I wasn’t going back home for a nap like I promised, I couldn’t sleep now. There was somepony I had to talk to again.

“Rainbow Dash, what a pleasure to see you again,” Pinkie Pie responded with a care free tone.

“Shut the fuck up Pinkie Pie, I don’t even know why I’m humoring you, but you have five minute to explain these demons to me and why I shouldn’t just turn you into the police.” I growled.

She sighed and gestured for me to sit down at the couch with her. Her apartment was small and claustrophobic. It only added to how eerie she was, regardless I sat down.

“I know it’s a lot to ask of you right away.” She started.

That was an understatement.

“But you have to understand. These ponies have no other escape. These demons will feed off of them until the day that they die, and by then it’ll be too late.” She said.

“There must be another way; maybe we can like exorcise them or something… Like in that movie…” I replied.

“Rainbow Dash, this isn’t Hollyhoof. Exorcism isn’t real, but these demons are very real. They can blend in so perfectly… At first you find them odd, and then you only mildly notice them… Before long… You can’t tell who’s a demon and who isn’t anymore… Only those of us who have the power to see them can find them and flush them out. They have the rest of the world fooled, but we have a gift, Rainbow Dash. We have the power to see them no matter what masks they wear…” She spoke softly.

“I can’t kill them Pinkie Pie… I won’t.” I said in the most serious manner I could.

She sighed yet again and shook her head in disappointment. Looking back up at me she smiled gingerly and gave the most care free expression I had ever seen. It irked me that she was so unmoved by anything happening around us.

“You can do this, I know you can.” She said.

“No I CAN’T!” I yelled.

“You saw the demon in Applebloom didn’t you?” She questioned.

“What of it?” I hissed.

She approached and sat next to me.

“She’s only a child now, but it’ll feed off of her. It’ll consume her and make her suffer. These creatures show no mercy. They’ll devour anypony that lets them.” She explained.

I froze just staring into my empty tea cup in front of me.

“I don’t know if I can bring myself to do something like this Pinkie Pie… I just… I don’t know if it’s right…” I managed to get out.

Pinkie Pie placed a hoof around me in comfort. She pulled me closer to her and nuzzled my head into her chest affectionately. It was odd to see her showing any kind of compassion at this point, as all I had seen from here up until now has been an emotionless expression.

“Rainbow Dash, I know you’re scared, but you’ve been given a purpose greater than yourself. Nopony is going to understand you for it, nor will they appreciate you for it. I won’t lie to you; you’re going to be the scapegoat for these ponies to be saved. You can’t have anything good without sacrifice.” She explained.

I lifted my head up, trying to compose myself.

“We can’t possibly save them all though. We can’t possibly even make a reasonable dent on their numbers. If more of these things are being created every day, us stopping a select few isn’t going to change anything. Sure we may save a few from their fate, but what about the rest? We’ll be stopped long before any actual progress is made. Nopony is going to believe us if we tell them that demons live inside of us and they devour our souls.” I spoke rationally.

She got quiet for a moment before speaking out again.

“If you saw a mare about to get raped, and you could stop her attacker, would you?” Pinkie questioned.

“Of course, a majority of ponies would.” I replied.

“Why?” She asked.

Why? She was asking why I wouldn’t allow somepony to just get violated when I could stop it?

“What do you mean, ‘why?’ Rape is a crime; it’s taking away somepony’s freedom and innocence. Why wouldn’t you stop it?” I raised a brow, curious as to where she was going with this.

“Rape happens every day. There’s always going to be rapists, you can’t stop them all, there’s always going to be more, so why try?” She leaned in with a devious smile about her.

“Yes, but we can’t just let it happen just because we can’t stop it.” I protested.

Her grin grew; clearly I had played into her trick.

“So what you’re saying is that even though efforts may appear pointless we should try anyways for the greater good, that we should try to save the few rather than not save any?” She said.

I didn’t know how to respond. Clearly she had thought this through with more detail than I had. It was to be expected though, as she knew I would come to her eventually.

“Meet me at Applejack’s house at midnight. We’ll do this together, and I’ll show you once and for all that we’re helping these ponies.” Pinkie instructed.

“And what if I decline?” I asked.

“Then I’ll do it myself.” She responded.

She knew how to propose an offer. Damned if I did and damned if I didn’t. Part of me wanted to just walk away and play ignorant, but knowing that Pinkie Pie might actually just go through with it herself prevented me from doing so.

“Fine… I’ll be there…” I sighed.

“Excellent,” Pinkie nodded.

“Before you go, I have something you may need.” Pinkie added as I was heading towards the door.

I turned around instinctively to be handed a metal object with a long cylinder. It had a cartridge slot of some sort in the back, and a belt to strap it to one’s front hoof. I recognized it from the many movies I had seen on television. It was a gun.

It felt like it was the darkest night I had ever witnessed. The moon, the stars, even the streetlights didn’t feel like enough to illuminate the darkness on this particular night.

My brain kept telling me to turn back and go home, to forget about the whole situation and let it be. I had been trying to convince myself that Pinkie would never show up, and that it would all be a waste of time. I wanted to believe that nothing was going to happen tonight, but I couldn’t convince even myself. I knew what Pinkie knew, and I was the only one who knew it like she did. It made it impossible to not put myself in her place and see it from her perspective; she was going to do this either with me or without me.

It was that mentality that forced me to actually show up at the Apple family residence. Upon arrival however, I was met by no Pinkie Pie despite being there only minutes after the scheduled time of midnight.

I wanted to turn back knowing that she wasn’t present, but I couldn’t be certain just by standing outside. There was only one way to be sure that Pinkie wasn’t here.

Sneaking in wasn’t too difficult, Applebloom had left her bedroom window open a crack to let in some of the cool night air. Their family didn’t have the kind of money necessary to own an air conditioner, so it was safe to assume that she left the window open on a regular basis.

Sure enough, I stood in the bedroom of a young filly with only a sleeping little girl there with me. There was no sign of Pinkie Pie anywhere in this room.

I approached Applebloom cautiously. She gave off a delicate snore as she slept; she had no clue that I was even there.

“Applebloom? I heard a noise…” A large red colt trotted in unannounced. I nearly wet myself from the surprise.

It was too late to hide now, he certainly saw me standing in the bedroom over the little girl. There was no way to make an escape. Surely he would be suspicious as to why I was there, and it was too late to run, as I was certain he had already gotten a good look at me.

I made the only choice that made sense at this point. Snagging the little girl I held her head tight in my grip while I turned back to face the brutish colt.

“Just stay back and nopony gets hurt,” I warned.

“Put ‘er down, she ain’t done you any harm… Just let it go…” He said while sitting.

“Shut it Big Mac, don’t try to be a hero,” I commanded.

Applebloom was silent the moment I lifted her from her slumber. She understood the intensity of the situation the moment it appeared.

I raised my right hoof to reveal the firearm strapped to it. There was a glint of cautiousness in Big Mac’s eye now.

“Y’all don’ wanna hurt anypony, we both know that. So why not put that gun down and…” I cut him off.

“I said shut up, unless you’re looking to get shot.” I demanded.

He complied, though it would seem that a raincloud of misfortune was hanging over my head this night, as right through the open door walked a sisterly looking mare with golden blonde mane, a bright orange coat, and a shocked expression.

“Nice of you to join us AJ, now sit down or one of them is going to get it.” I threatened.

She obeyed without so much as a side comment.

This had escalated to dangerous levels quicker than I expected. My desire to abandon the situation and go home was impossible now, and to top it off, Pinkie Pie was going to show up soon.

“Is anypony else here?” I asked.

“Nah, Granny Smith is with our relatives in Apploosa, so it’s just the three of us.” Applejack answered calmly.

“Alright, good…” I nodded.

“We’re going on a little trip outside to the barn, if any of you run then I won’t hesitate to kill the others,” I said.

That was a blatant lie, and I’m sure they knew it. I had already proven nervous and reckless at this point, they had no reason to take me seriously except for the fact that I had a gun and they didn’t. Regardless I led them outside anyways.

The three were silent the entire trip, but fortunately they obeyed perfectly without a single one of them stepping out of line. Clearly they knew that at least one of them would get hurt if they tried anything, which was the only thing working to my advantage at this point. We arrived inside the barn uninterrupted.

I closed and latched the door behind us.

“Alright, Applejack, I want you to tie them up. You can use any of the rope here in the barn, but I am warning you now, I’ll be checking the knots, so if you try anything funny, one of you is going to pay for it.” I threatened.

Applejack nodded and began to bind her siblings as instructed. With her knot tying skills she was done in only a matter of moments. Checking over her work it looked legitimate, just as I suspected it would be. After confirming the authenticity of her knots I began to tie her up myself with the leftover rope. My knot wasn’t as tidy as Applejack’s, but it would do.

After the three were strapped down nicely I leaned back into a vacant chair left in the barn. I sighed as I tried to let my heart rate return to normal.

The four of us sat there in silence for nearly two hours.

“E-excuse me…” The smallest of the group asked.

I ignored her.

“E-e-excuse me…” They spoke again.

I gave her the same response.

“Miss Rainbow Dash…?” She asked a third time.

“What!?” I shouted.

She quivered in fear, but continued to speak.

“What are we doin’ out here…? Are you gonna let us go or somethin’?” She asked.

“We’re waiting for someone… Now shut your fucking mouth, I’m trying to think here.” I commanded.

The filly did as told.

Pinkie was starting to make me impatient, maybe this was all a trick and she wanted me to go here just to make a jackass of myself?

“MOTHER FUCKER!” I yelled.

The three of them were startled by my sudden outburst.

“WHERE THE FUCK IS SHE!? SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE HERE OVER TWO HOURS AGO! THAT STUPID PINK BITCH!” I screamed.

“No need for name calling,” A collected voice replied.

I pivoted quickly to be greeted by a familiar pink mare.

“Nice of you to show up…” I tried to compose myself.

“Sorry, I got a little distracted,” She admitted.

A little distracted? What could have been on her mind besides this?

“Maybe you should get your head out of your ass and focus on then?” I scolded.

“Calm down, I’m here now, that’s all that matters…” She rolled her eyes.

She was as nonchalant and easy going as ever, and it sickened me. I couldn’t stand how cool she was acting.

“So what do we do now…?” I asked.

“I think you know,” She smiled.

I did know, but I didn’t want to think about it.

“Maybe we’ve taken this too far Pinkie… Maybe we should just let them go and apologize, we haven’t really done anything too extreme yet; we can still go back and call this whole thing off…” I pleaded.

“Rainbow Dash, you know we can’t do that. We’ve already come this far, we have to finish what we started.” She insisted.

I was afraid she was going to say something along those lines.

“I can’t do it Pinkie Pie…” I admitted.

“Sure you can, you just need a bit more confidence that’s all.” She assured me.

“Let them go!” called out a powerful masculine voice.

Big Mac had decided to speak up.

“Take me, but let them go! Y’all can do whatever ya’ want to me, but don’t be hurtin’ them!” He yelled.

“You shut the fuck up!” I screamed waving my gun at him.

“Come on, y’all don’t want these lil’ ones, take me an’ leave them be,” He insisted.

“I am warning you, shut the fuck up…” I hissed between my teeth.

“Y’all won’t do it. Yer’ shakin’ in yer’ shoes right now. If ya’ wanted to kill us, y’all would have done it by now…” He grew a smirk on his face.

He knew I didn’t have it in me to actually do it, he had figured me out.

“Shut up…” I spoke almost silently.

“Y’all ain’t nothing but a scared little filly…” His grin grew larger.

“Knock it off,” I replied.

“Why don’t y’all make me? You ain’t nothing but a stupid little bitch!” He taunted.

“Just kill him and get it over with…” Pinkie yawned.

“Y’ALL AIN’T NOTHIN’ BUT A SCARED LITTLE BITCH!” He screamed.

His eyes, I saw them turn at that exact moment. It was exactly like before, the eyes, the loss of color, and the voice, “Lust.”

I lost control. I fired my gun without even thinking about it.

When I snapped back to reality all that stood in Big Mac’s place was a limp corpse with a hole in its skull; blood gushing out from the backside. He was dead, I killed him.

I vomited at the sight.

Applebloom and Applejack were going ballistic; screaming, crying and begging for mercy was all I could hear from them.

“Not bad Dashie, only two more now.” Pinkie complimented.

“I was an accident! I didn’t mean to! His eyes… And then…” I replied.

“Dash, you only did what you were supposed to do, there’s no reason to be upset.” Pinkie attempted to calm me.

“NO! I DIDN’T MEAN TO KILL HIM!” I yelled.

Applejack was bawling like a baby at this point.

“Shut up, I can’t hear myself think.” Pinkie responded to Applejack.

With a quick jerk of her right hoof she aimed it and a loud bang came out of a firearm attached to it. After the shot Applejack fell over silent. Pinkie quickly turned to the whimpering Applebloom.

“Now keep quiet…” Pinkie instructed.

Applebloom brought her whimpers down to an almost inaudible level.

“See, now we only have one more.” Pinkie smiled.

“No… I can’t… Big Mac was one thing, but I can’t kill a child…” I begged her to let me out of it.

“Don’t think of it as killing, think of it as liberating. We’re saving her from a fate worse than death…” Pinkie smiled as she approached me.

“Why doesn’t it feel that way then…?” I asked.

Pinkie came in close and pulled me into and embrace. She was oddly warm for somepony I had thought to be heartless at this point.

“We’ll kill her together,” Pinkie whispered into my ear.

I nodded.

The two of us took a step back and both aimed our guns at the crying filly.

Could I really do this? Could I really murder a child…?

Before I knew it all I heard was two loud simultaneous blasts. Only a second later did a headless Applebloom fall to the floor.

“We killed them… We killed three ponies… We killed a child…” I thought out loud.

Pinkie walked over to the bodies and started to make Applejack’s limp corpse dance. She clearly was amused by the whole situation.

“We’re murders… Somepony is going to find out, it won’t be overlooked…” I said.

Pinkie Pie sighed and dropped the body. She approached me and placed a hoof on my shoulder in a comforting gesture.

“Nopony is going to find out, all we have to do is hide the bodies, just take them back to your place and throw them in the basement or something. Nopony is going to suspect the famous super model Rainbow Dash, so naturally nopony is going to think to look there. We’ll just keep them there for a little while and we’ll move them later when it’s more convenient.” She explained.

“In my basement!? ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY!?” I screamed at her.

She took a step back to get me away from her ear.

“Just lock it up and nopony will ever go down there.” She said.

“How the fuck do you propose we get them to my house without being seen? Even if we take the back roads and keep a low profile we have to drag these fucking bodies all the way there. Somepony is going to notice…” I pointed the hole in her plan out.

“That’s why we put them in bags and move them,” Pinkie tapped her forehead.

“HOW THE HELL ARE WE GOING TO DO THAT PINKIE PIE!? BIG MAC ALONE IN FOUR TIMES MY SIZE!” I screeched.

“We just have to… Trim them up a bit and make more than one trip.” She explained.

“Are you suggesting… That we… Cut them up…?” I gagged at the thought.

“If that’s what you want to call it, we can use the tools right here in this barn to do it.” Pinkie nodded.

I couldn’t believe her. She truly had no morals or remorse for anything that happened in the past few hours.

“Fine… But you’re doing that yourself… I want nothing to do with that…” I turned away.

“Fair enough,” She replied.

“Rainbow Dash, you alright?” Scootaloo asked.

She was standing at my bedside with a gentle smile on her face. She was as innocent as always.

“Yeah, I’m just having some trouble sleeping is all…” I replied.

“Maybe I can sleep in here with you then?” She said.

I wanted nothing more than to rinse my hooves clean of what happened and sleep right next to Scootaloo. I wanted to forget this whole thing happened and sleep it off, but I knew that it wouldn’t happen. Right now I couldn’t face the child.

“I’ll be fine by myself; you just go and get some rest alright?” I smiled.

“Alright, but let me know if you need anything.” She replied.

“I will,” I answered.

My needs were far beyond her power to fulfill now.