All the Little Nightmares

by Solaris90

Rating: mature
Tags: Dark, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, Sad, Gore, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 7033

A stranger visits Twilight during a storm. A fic for Halloween.

A storm is raging over Ponyville, and Twilight Sparkle is hunkered down for the night with a nice mug of hot chocolate and a book. Everything changes for her however when a strange stallion comes in from the storm. Who and what is this unexpected guest?

Published 2012-10-17 22:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-10-17 22:40:01 UTC

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, or any of its characters or concepts. I make no money from this writing.

A/N: So here we go, my first foray into the evil and macabre with My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I hope you all are as horrified reading it as I was writing it. And please, in the name of Halloween, try to make it to the end.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Dashie’s After Party

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear.”
—H.P. Lovecraft

Night. A storm raged over Ponyville. It showered down sheets of freezing rain, pounding ceaselessly on rooftops and windows, and carts left abandoned out on the street. It tore through the streets as a cold wind, store signs swinging about on their chains, trees creeeeaaking as they bent in its wake, leaves caught helplessly swirling in its eddies. Window shutters and screen doors went BANG BANG BANG against walls and doors like the banging of a traveler’s hoof, calling for the attention of the ponies inside. The world was dead, dark, the colors of the world driven away by the rain and wind, just as the inhabitants of the town had been driven into their homes, to warmth and light, friends and family. Not a living soul walked those cold, dark, abandoned streets.

Lightning tore across the sky, dragging the world for a moment back into the light. From the shadows of the town entrance gates a deeper shadow emerged. Thunder crashed and the shadow moved. The slender figure moved through the empty streets, its hoofsteps drowned out by the pounding of the rain, if they could have been heard at all. It went untouched by the storm around it; neither was its suit, black as the night above, wet from the falling rain, nor did its tie, red as newly-shed blood, whip about in the wind. Puddles it passed showed no reflection, and the fur of its coat, white as bleached bone went unblemished by the mud of the road. The storm was nothing to it.

In that storm, no living creature, pony or otherwise, was out to see the slender figure’s passing. But that does not mean its passing went unnoticed. Its shadow stretched out from its hooves and fell on the houses it walked by, and as it did the ponies inside their homes paused in their actions. Happiness left them, feelings of cold and emptiness touched the hearts of the ponies, as if the shadow itself had slipped in through the door and touched them. But the slender figure did not linger near any home for long in its walk, and as it left so did the feelings, until the ponies were able to shrug off the sudden chill as something from the storm and resume their happy activities. Snacking, games, books, embraces with loved ones; these all protected them from the cold as much as the walls around them and the fire in their hearths.

The storm reached new levels of ferocity as the slender figure entered a town square, the buildings opening up around it. The wind shrieked, the rain fell like spikes of ice and battered the buildings, and on windows, street lamps, poles and fence posts, ice spread out, cracking and creaking. The slender figure stared across the square towards a building unlike any other in town. It was a large tree, massive, the inside of the trunk carved out into a building. A library, a home. From its windows poured streams of yellow light, warm and cheerful, almost defiant to the cold and darkness the storm had brought to the town. The slender figure considered the building before it, before reaching a decision.

Tick tock tick tock tick tock. 10:25

A steaming batch of hot chocolate and a book, leather-bound or hardback, big or small; such little joys were all Twilight Sparkle needed to defeat even the darkest, dreariest storm. It could be a collection of ancient gryphon epics, a treatise on modern magical theory, a history of relations between ponies and dragons, or a silly little thing she snuck out of the romance section when she was sure Spike wasn’t looking, it didn’t matter what. If it was a collection of paper pages with words on them and kept between two covers, Twilight could and would read it. Even books not written in Modern Equestrian were not safe from her voracious reading, being as proficient as she was in Old Equestrian, dragontongue, Gryphonese, and the languages of the Elkish kingdoms. She was the prized pupil of Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria. She would never let something as simple as a language barrier stop her.

At that moment, in that storm, Twilight was snuggled up on her couch, a roaring fire in the fireplace to the right to read by and a particularly steamy novel picked out at random from the romance section placed down in front of her on the armrest. She had little fear of being discovered reading such a silly little thing. Her dragon assistant Spike had gone to bed hours before, complaining to Owlowiscious all the way up the stairs about crazy purple ponies and their reading obsessions. The owl had simply hooted at this and flown off, up into the attic where he had stayed since. It seemed even owls would sleep at night with such weather.

Twilight’s horn shimmered constantly, as she would alternate every few seconds between turning a page of her book and lifting from the end table a mug of hot chocolate to her lips. Her eyes stayed trained to the pages, soaking in the words she read with a blush enveloping her cheeks. “Oh Professor Lovehoof, how can you get away with being so risqué with your students?” She turned to the next page, read the next few sentences, and eeped as her blush grew ever brighter. “O-oh my! This is beginning to get a little more than risqué! I think even somepony like Rarity would get flustered at this!”

A sip of her hot chocolate, and then she delved once more into the book and the story unfolding within it. The storm outside went unheeded, neither the shrieking wind, the pounding rain, or the flashing lightning and crashing thunder enough to pull even the slightest bit of Twilight’s attention away from the...plot.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

Twilight nearly jumped from her laying position on the couch, her focus breaking. Her mug of hot chocolate slipped from her magical hold and shattered on the floor. For a moment Twilight sat shaking, patting a hoof to her chest to calm her pounding heart before it leapt from her chest. She looked down at the spreading brown puddle on the floor beside the couch and sighed. “That was a really good batch too.” Then Twilight looked to the door. She had just heard knocking from the door. The door had just been knocked on. Something had knocked on the door, she could not deny it.

“Well, I can deny it, but that would be pointless. Plus, it would be rude. I should really stop talking to myself and get that door; somepony must be outside in this weather. Yeah, I really should get the door and let whoever’s outside in.”

Twilight did not move from the couch. Looking at the door, at the moment silent from any knocking, she felt a thrill of fear make her heat flutter in her chest. She did not want to open the door, did not want to even get near the door, and to her utmost annoyance could not even give a good reason why. “It...would be really strange for a pony to be out at this hour and in this weather. Maybe it was just a branch caught in the wind hitting the door, or perhaps a window had been blown open in another room and banged against the wall, or Owlowiscious up in the attic had knocked something ov-”

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

Twilight flinched at the sound of the renewed knocking, her heart once more feeling like it wanted to leap from her chest. Her eyes snapped back to the door and she frowned. There was no denying it now, she had heard knocking, even though it defied all common sense as far as she could tell. Yet even so, if there was a pony outside, knocking on her door, then something could be wrong, somepony could be in trouble. She couldn’t just ignore that. And so she stepped off the couch, taking care to avoid the spilled hot chocolate and shards of ceramic, and began to cautiously approach the library door.

“Hello? Who’s out there?” Twilight’s eyes darted to the doorknob, expecting to see it move after her call, a sign of somepony trying to enter. She had locked it that night, and so far had not been given reason to unlock it. But as she waited five, ten, fifteen seconds for an answer to her question, none came. No sounds at all came from beyond the door other than the wind and the rain. “I said who goes there? If somepony’s out there, answer me!” Again, no answer came. It seemed that whatever had been knocking had moved on.

“Or there was never anything there to begin with, other than my overactive imagination.” Twilight’s face turned into a frown as her analytical side surfaced to try to make sense of what had happened. “Yes, just some wind and my overactive imagination, of course. I heard one thing, maybe a tree branch or a sign, hit my door, and then with my thoughts already active from reading my imagination ran away with it, heightening any other stray sounds I happen to hear into knocks on the door.” She nodded to herself, her mind beginning to be at ease as it deconstructed with practiced ease the events.
“Hmph, I mean really, knocking in this weather? This is the sort of thing I would admonish Spike for. I can almost hear him laughing at how I’m acting right now.”

With that mystery solved, Twilight gave the door one last look before shaking her head and turning to go back to the couch. But then she stopped, her breath leaving her. There in the doorway to the kitchen stood a slender figure, barely 10 feet from her. It was a pony, that was for sure. It was thin, almost to the point of sickly. It stood taller than her, taller than any pony she had met other than the two princesses, the proportions of its legs to the rest of its body like that of a child hitting maturity and growing. On any other pony, like Fluttershy, it would have looked amusing or cute, but here it was only terrifying and WRONG. The slender pony was a figure of white fur, the sickening shade of bleached bone, and a dark suit, black as ink spilled on a fresh page. The only color to it all was a red tie, like fresh blood.

Twilight took all this in during one moment of frozen terror, before her eyes moved upwards and found the most horrible of horrors. The thing, the creature, the slender pony...all Twilight could see where it face should have been was a blank stretch of skin and coat. What...what....”

The slender pony moved forward towards Twilight, not so much stepping as sliding. Whatever spell of fear holding Twilight in place broke, and with a cry of terror she turned and ran for the front door. Before she made it five steps the creature released a shriek that pierced her ears, and suddenly the whole world around Twilight went fuzzy. The screech of white noise filled her skull, sending her to her knees. She gripped at her head with her forehooves and screamed, pain at a level indescribable flooded through her, as if razors were stabbed through her eyes and scraping at the back of her skull. The world began to fade in and out to Twilight as she spasmed and jerked, slamming her head against the hardwood floor again and again and again.

“Make it stop make it stop make it stop make it stop make it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop itstopitstopitstopitSTOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTO-”

“M-Miss?”

As if a switch had been flipped the pain was gone, the white noise silent as if it had never been there. Twilight lay crumpled on the floor, panting for breath she realized after a moment that she didn’t need. In fact, as she gathered her wits and focused a moment on herself, Twilight did not feel like she had been screaming or slamming her head against the floor at all. The only signs that anything had happened at all were that she was kneeling on the floor and her memories of that slender pony in the doorway.

“The slender pony!” Twilight jumped to her hooves and spun around, expecting to see the towering form of the slender pony advancing towards her perhaps its blank face leaning out towards her face. What she saw instead was a normal-looking earth pony, perhaps as tall as Big Mac, and certainly not as tall or thin as the slender pony. His coat was cream-white, like eggnog, his mane and tail grey and cut short, and his eyes the lightest shade of pink she had ever seen. Twilight’s frazzled mind barely registered that he was also soaking wet and shivering.

“What? What?”

The earth pony smiled down at her, his teeth chattering some in his mouth. “Uh, hehe, I-I’m sorry for st-startling you, I d-didn’t mean to. I tried the f-front door, but n-nopony answered s-so I c-circled around b-back and found the b-back door unlocked.” He folded his ears back, a blush coming to his cheeks. “I g-guess I sh-should’ve called out as I c-came in. S-seeing a st-strange pony in your ho-home during a ssstorm l-like this c-can’t have been g-good for your n-nerves.

“Although,” the stallion continued, chuckling some, “it was k-kind of fffunny when you t-tripped over your own hooves t-to get away fr-from me. Are y-you okay?”

Twilight stared slack-jawed at the stranger for several seconds, trying to process what she was hearing. So it had been this pony outside her front door, so she had been hearing knocking after all. Okay. And then she had turned around and seen him standing in the doorway, so...THAT was when her overworked imagination took hold of her. Yes, now that she thought about it, this made perfect sense. This earth pony in front of her was taller than average and had a white coat, so in her shock she had...exaggerated some things. Wasn’t the first time this had happened.

Twilight’s face lit up red as she realized her mistake. She looked to the stallion, opening her mouth to apologize, when the full picture of him standing there, dripping wet and shivering in cold, hit her. “Oh! Oh, I’m so sorry, you must be freezing! Go over to the fireplace and warm yourself up, I’ll go get you some towels.”

Tick tock tick tock tick tock. 10:30

The stallion nodded and smiled in appreciation, before making his way over to fireplace as instructed. Twilight hurried in the other direction, going past the door to the kitchen to the main floor restroom. She opened the cabinets with her magic and dug through the towels for the biggest and fluffiest among them. All the while she thought about her visitor.

“I’ve never seen him around town before. At least, I think I’d notice him, with such a unique color scheme.” She levitated several towels she was happy with from the cabinet and shut it, turning back to the door. “I didn’t even take a look at his cutie mark. I suppose I should.”

Twilight flicked the light off and left the bathroom. She returned to find the stranger sitting by the fireplace, forehooves held out before it. He looked up from the fire at her approach and smiled, taking one of the offered towels. “Thank you kindly. It feels good to get to dry off and warm up after a storm like that.”

“Don’t mention it! Just being a friendly pony!” Twilight returned the smile, before turning as the stallion started rubbing over himself with the towel and, with the two other towels she had, started wiping up the trail of rainwater he had left in his wake. “So, what were you doing in that storm, if you don’t mind my asking? I figured everypony would be in their homes by this point.”

“Oh, well yes, if they have homes to go to.” The stallion twisted around to run the towel over his back. As he did so though he overextended and lost his balance, flopping to the floor face-first. Twilight giggled at this, prompting his face to flush red. He quickly picked himself back up. “Hehe, you didn’t see that. Anyway, as I was saying, ponies with homes would be in their homes. I however am a traveling...performer. I make my life on the road, traveling from place to place and bringing thrills to my audiences!” By this point the stallion had stood back up, wrapping the towel about his shoulders like a cape and making broad gestures with his forehooves. The scene reminded Twilight of another showpony that had visited Ponyville once, and once again she giggled to herself.

“Anyway,” he continued, settling back down beside the fire. “I was traveling near the edge of the Everfree Forest when this storm suddenly sprung up on me. Knowing of the dangers of that particular forest, I instead headed here to Ponyville for refuge. Yours were the only lights that were on, so here I am.”

Twilight quirked an eyebrow as he jumped up onto the couch where she had been before he arrived, but let it slide. It sounded like he had been through quite a lot. “Well, I can certainly understand your preference for Ponyville. I’ve been in the Everfree a few times, and I can safely say that it’s everything you’ve heard.” She tossed the towels she had used to clean up the floor and tossed them into the hamper near the stairs, figuring Spike could get them in the morning. “Anyway, you’re free to stay the night if you want, I have plenty of spare blankets and some hot chocolate in the kitch-”

Twilight paused as she turned fully toward the couch for the first time since the stallion had arrived, her eyes narrowing in confusion. She stared at the mug of hot chocolate on the end table, sitting right beside where she had left her book. “What....” She remembered it falling to the floor and breaking. She remembered commenting on how it was a good batch of hot chocolate. She remembered cleaning it up while she had been cleaning up the water! Or at least, she thought she did.

“Ooh, is that hot chocolate?” Twilight jumped when the stallion lunged forward, wrapping his forehooves around the mug and lifting it up. He down the contents of the mug in one long gulp, before setting it back down and groaning. “Ohhhh yeah, that hit the spot. You don’t get much in the way of creature comforts while on the road, so you have to get them where you can.”

“Uh...yeah....” Twilight looked down at the empty mug, HER empty mug, before picking it up and shifting up to the smiling face of her stallion guest. She put on a weak smile of her own and turned toward the kitchen. “I guess I’ll get us some more hot chocolate then. You just wait there.”

All the way there she could feel his eyes on her; as she walked, as she grabbed a new mug from the cupboard, as she mixed together the hot chocolate mix and heated it up with her magic. “It probably doesn’t help that I left the kitchen door open,” Twilight looked to her left, where she could see the stallion sitting on her couch, apparently occupied with watching the fire. She smiled a little to herself, chalking that weird feeling to just overactive nerves. “Hm, a traveling performer. An earth pony traveling performer at that. I should try to introduce him to Pinkie Pie; I bet she’d get a kick out of this. Oh! Darn it, I forgot to look at his cutie mark again. Okay, this time for sure.”

“Heheheheh....”

Twilight nearly spilled the hot chocolate at the sound of giggling. Very familiar giggling. She turned and scanned the kitchen for any sign of pink, but saw none. “Pinkie? Pinkie Pie, are you there?”

She got no answer. Twilight looked around for a moment more, before shrugging and chalking what she had heard to having been thinking about the pink pony. Taking the now-ready mugs of hot chocolate she left the kitchen, closing the door behind her before trotting across the room to the couch. “Well, here you go. Ponyville’s World Famous Hot Chocolate in a Mug!”

The stallion chuckled at the obvious mimicking of his theatrics and took one of the mugs in his forehooves. He took a deep sniff of the rising steam and sighed. “Oh, this is going to be so delicious. I love chocolate. Thank you again so much for your hospitality, Mrs....?”

“Hm? Oh!” Twilight blushed, sitting down beside the stallion on the couch and placing her own mug on the table. “No, I’m not married. I’m just Ms. Twilight Sparkle, heh. Though I don’t think I’ve ever been called ‘Ms.’ before now either.”

“Really?” The surprise on his face was clear. “A smart, beautiful mare like you, in a small town like this, not married? Well, surely you must have a coltfriend or marefriend at least.”

Twilight shook her head, her blush visible from space if she were outside. Beneath the embarrassment however something else stirred, something she didn’t feel comfortable dealing with. “No, I don’t have a coltfriend or marefriend. Actually I’ve never been in any sort of romantic relationship. Back when I lived in Canterlot I never had time or interest in that sort of thing, and ever since I’ve come to Ponyville I’ve just never....”

“Had anypony be interested in you,” said the stallion, finishing her unspoken thoughts. Twilight frowned and nodded. He sighed, shaking his head. “I know that story all too well. There’s a young, pretty mare, smart and thoughtful and kind, living in a small town with great friends and a perfect job for her. Only, something is missing from her life. Passion, love, that spark of romance we all crave. And so the pretty mare lives her life away, wondering where it went, and if her friends could have helped her...but didn’t.” He took a deep gulp of his hot chocolate and smacked his lips. “Delicious. Um, not that you’re doomed like that.”

Tick tock tick tock tick tock. 10:50

Twilight gaped at the stallion, mouth ajar. She couldn’t believe the nerve of this pony, sitting on her couch, drinking her hot chocolate, enjoying her hospitality, but going on in such away about her, about her friends. It was so...so... ‘True.’ Her eyes drifted down in thought. ‘Rarity’s the most elegant and fashionable pony in town, she could easily help me understand the whole romance, dating thing. And with all the suitors she turns down, it couldn’t hurt to send some my way. Pinkie Pie, she knows everypony in town, I’m sure she would know somepony who’d fit me....”

A moment later Twilight shook her head, banishing these thoughts from the forefront of her mind. This was all ridiculous, she thought. Of course her friends weren’t holding back on her to hurt her or something. But...maybe she could ask them, next chance she got. Just to be safe.

The sound of a clearing throat shook Twilight from her thoughts. She looked up and saw the stallion looking at his mug and frowning. “I apologize, it just dawned on me how rude that might have been. I’m sure that your true friends, if you have any, mean you no harm.”

Twilight blinked. She wasn’t sure exactly how to take that. “Um, no harm done?”

The stallion smiled. “That’s good to hear. Losing trust in your friends is the fastest way to lose them for-EV-ERRRR.”

“Yeah, I-wait, what?”

“I said that this hot chocolate is delicious.” He took another sip from his mug, making a big show of swirling the chocolaty liquid around in his mouth before swallowing. “Mmm...holy Tirek this stuff is good. Do you think I could-” The stallion was cut off by the sound of a gurgling stomach, making him blush and Twilight put a hoof to her mouth to keep from giggling. “I, uh, do you think I could have something to eat with this? Maybe some cupcakes?”

“Cupcakes?” Twilight put a hoof to her chin and thought. “Hmm. Oh, yes! My friend Pinkie Pie delivered a fresh batch of cupcakes earlier today. There should still be plenty left, I’ll go fetch them.”

The stallion beamed at Twilight. “Sweet! We do things right, and this could be just like a slumber party!”

That did it. With those words Twilight squealed, clapping her hooves together in excitement before hopping off the couch. “Yes yes yes! Oh, that sounds just great! You stay right there, I’ll be right back with those cupcakes!”

Giggling, Twilight turned and began to hop not unlike Pinkie Pie towards the kitchen once again. Despite her reservations about her guest’s rudeness and other actions, she decided that she was going to enjoy the night as best she could. ‘I can’t believe it, a slumber party...with a guy! Oh, I hope it isn’t too different from the sleepover I did with Applejack and Rarity. Ooh, he did say he was a traveling performer, maybe he could put on a show for me. That would be really-’

Twilight never got the chance to finish that thought. Hopping through the kitchen door without a glance inside first, Twilight all of a sudden found nothing for her hooves to land on. Her eyes widened at the black abyss stretched out before her. Her mouth opened in a scream as she fell into the darkness.

From the couch the stallion watched the kitchen door slam shut. He turned back to the fire and finished off his hot chocolate with a smile. “A show was planned from the start. I hope you enjoy it.”

Twilight regained consciousness to find herself in a dark room, a single bulb above her shining a cone of light down on her. Beyond that there was nothing, no light at all. She could be in a void for all that she could see.

“But...I went into the kitchen.” Twilight flinched after she spoke, her throat tight and sore. She tried to turn her head to look around but found it held in place by a thick leather strap around the neck. Similarly, braces across her chest and limbs held her tight against a rack formed by several sturdy planks, holding her limbs wide apart from her body. The whole contraption reminded Twilight of a medieval torture device, a thought that did nothing to calm the rising panic she felt. She began to pull at her bonds, struggling to escape, only to stop at the sound of laughter. Very familiar laughter.

From the darkness in front of Twilight two sky-blue eyes appeared, followed a moment later by the grinning head of Pinkie Pie. The pink party pony hopped over towards Twilight, laughing and grinning as merrily as she always was. “Hi, Twi! I’m so super duper excited to have you here!”

“Pinkie, what’s going on, why am I tied down like this?”

“Well duh! You’re tied down like that so that you can’t move!” Pinkie giggled louder and bopped Twilight on the nose with a hoof. “I didn’t think I’d have to explain something so simple to a Brainy McEgghead like you!”

Twilight resisted the urge to yell at Pinkie that that wasn’t a very good answer, instead groaning and shaking her head as best she could while it was restrained. “But Pinkie Pie, why can’t I move? For that matter, where am I anyway? The last thing I remember I was in the library, I was sheltering a traveler from the storm...I was getting him cupcakes!”

Pinkie giggled again and hopped back into the darkness. “Oh, I know, Twilight! He’ll still be getting his Cupcakes.” The next moment she came trotting back into the light, pushing before her a small cart covered in a white cloth. She stopped in front of Twilight and, grinning up at her like a mad Cheshire, ripped the cloth off the cart. “He just gets to call the shots on what Cupcakes he wants!”

Twilight’s eyes widened at the assortment of medical instruments and cutting tools laid out on the cart, all wickedly sharp and gleaming. Her heart pounded in her chest hard enough to hurt as she looked back and forth between the knives, scalpels, saws and pliers on the cart and Pinkie’s smiling face. Then, sweat tracing its way down her own face, Twilight began to laugh hysterically, Pinkie quickly joining in with her.

“Oh hahah, heh, hahahahah, oh r-really fu-funny, Pinkie Pie.” Twilight’s voice was high, tinged with panic. “Awesome p-prank, your best one y-yet. S-so whose idea was it? Yours, Rainbow D-Dash’s? Yeah, I bet it was Rainbow D-Dash’s idea. She’s s-such a clever p-pony, hehe, and she loves pranking and Nightmare Night, and this all h-has a certain N-Nightmare Night flavor to it.” Twilight was rambling. She knew she was rambling, it was the only way at the moment to stave off her mounting panic. “I, I bet she’s somewhere around here r-right now, watching and ba-barely holding her laughter in. Right, Pinkie? R-right?”

Pinkie kept laughing a moment longer, before shaking her head and creeping backwards, slowly sliding back out of Twilight’s sight. “No, sorry Twi, I don’t think Dashie’s laughing right now. But she is here! Here, just let me get the lights.” The sound of a cord being pulled was heard, and then the room was filled with enough light to reveal the rest of it.

Twilight stared. “Oh no.” The room Twilight was in was horrible, and all the horrors assaulted her at once. The stench of the blood-bathed walls and dried intestines hanging from the ceiling like streamers slithered into Twilight’s nose, filled her mouth with the sick-sweet taste of blood. It made her heave and empty the sticky, brown contents of her stomach onto her chest and belly, whimpering as it oozed down her flanks and legs to her hooves. Flies buzzed about tables made of pony bone and dried pony flesh, their BUZZING driving into Twilight’s ears, as if the slack-jawed, socket-eyed pony skulls mounted along the walls were screaming.

But the worst, the absolute worst to Twilight, was the body of Rainbow Dash nailed to the wall across from her, her wings gone and her limbs splayed out to the sides and nailed there like she was some big bug. Her eyes were puddles of mush in their sockets, kitchen knives handle-deep into them. The whole front of her body was split open, cut SNIP SNIP from chin to groin with the skin flaps peeled back and held in place by clamps, and looking in Twilight saw the empty cavity, the pegasus’ insides emptied out, the blood drained into a tub set out beneath her. As mind-shatteringly horrific as this was, Twilight didn’t even register the pony skin dress Pinkie had donned.

“You could say Dashie is hanging around! Hehehahahaha! Oh, she would’ve laughed at that if she were alive.” Pinkie stood up on her hind hooves and pointed up to a patchwork banner of pony skins hanging from the rafters, ‘life is a party’ scrawled across it in blood. “Welcome to Dashie’s After Party, Twilight!”

Twilight screamed then, thrashing in her restraints as Pinkie Pie hopped back over to her. “No! No no no, Rainbow Dash....” She cried deep, heaving sobs, unable, unwilling to stand anything she was seeing. It was wrong, it was all so wrong. “Oh Rainbow Dash...why, Pinkie? You were friends...WE’RE friends!”

“Oh of course we’re friends, Twi! But that just makes having you and Rainbow Dash down here all the funner! Besides, I don’t make the rules, Dashie’s number simply came up. And now yours has too!” Pinkie was skipping now, dancing around Twilight with a scalpel clenched in the cleft of her hoof. “And no asking questions about the rules, Twilight you egghead, that’s against the rules. Hah, hehe!” She came to a stop on Twilight’s left side. “Well, enough with the shaking, it’s time to get baking!”

“No, please don-aaugh!” Twilight shouted in pain as Pinkie placed the scalpel blade an inch above Twilight’s cutie mark and began a circular cut around it. Rivulets of red ran down Twilight’s leg as she squirmed, her sobs reduced to weak whimpers and cries as her friend cut away at her. Finishing the incision, Pinkie grabbed from the tray a curved skinning knife. She stuck her tongue from the side of her mouth in exaggerated concentration as she worked the blade under Twilight’s skin and sliced the hide away from the muscle. Twilight shuddered, grinding her teeth to keep from biting her tongue as she watched her flesh peel away. Pinkie then repeated the process with the other cutie mark. Once finished she held them up in front of Twilight and waved them around like pom-poms. Twilight just cried at the loss of her marks of her talent, her flanks burning with the worst pain she had ever felt. It was agony.

“Well, now that I’ve left my mark on you, it’s time for me to nail ya!” Pinkie dropped the stolen cutie marks down on the tray, before turning her attention to a small can on the tray. She removed the lid, revealing the can to be filled with red-hot coals. Lying on top of the coals were a multitude of large nails and screws. At the sight of them Twilight began to panic again, crying for Pinkie not to do this. Pinkie ignored her. Picking up the can she trotted over to Twilight’s left. Holding some tongs held in her mouth, Pinkie picked up a screw and positioned it at the seam between Twilight’s front left leg and hoof. She then grabbed a hammer and took careful aim. “Hey Twi, let’s screw!”

“No Pinkie!” Twilight pulled at her restraints. “NO! NO!”

The hammer came down and the screw punctured flesh. The white-hot burning was too much. Twilight screamed as she pulled and thrashed at her braces, rubbing her skin until it was raw and torn. Pinkie lined up again and swung the hammer, but with Twilight’s moving it all went off target, burying an inch-long nail into Twilight’s hoof itself. Twilight burst out into crying and begging.

“PLEASE STOP! PLEASE, PLEASE STOP, PINKIE!”

Pinkie rolled her eyes. She put down the hammer and tongs, and then walked around to in front of her broken friend and stared at her in thought. The unicorn was sobbing, bleeding from multiple parts of her body, and mumbling barely intelligible pleas for mercy. Gilda hadn’t even cried this hard when a live Parasprite had been- “Oooh...idea!”

Laughing to herself, Pinkie turned and hopped away from the table to a far corner of the room. Twilight watched her rummage around some crates for several seconds, before looking as best she could to her mutilated hoof. Blood poured from it and she was beginning to lose feeling in it. Vague memories of stepping on a nail once as a little filly surfaced briefly in her mind before being pushed back down. This was so much worse.

A laugh of triumph caught Twilight’s attention. She looked forward again and saw Pinkie hopping towards her, something round and squirming gripped tightly in the pink pony’s mouth. “What...what is that?” But then after she asked this Twilight recognized what it was and began to panic. “No, no way, you, you can’t...please, oh Celestia please! No! N-”

In the middle of Twilight’s scream Pinkie leapt forward and slammed their lips together, jamming the living Parasprite into Twilight’s mouth. At the same moment she released her hold on the creature’s wings, allowing the horrid, buzzing thing to zoom around in a panic. Pinkie quickly pulled back and stuffed a hoof over Twilight’s mouth to keep the Parasprite from getting out, watching in glee as the unicorn’s eyes bulged and wept, limbs flailing in their restraints. Blood seeped out from Twilight’s mouth around Pinkie’s hoof, as for almost a minute the only sound to be heard was a BUZZING. Then the buzzing began to fade. Disgust mixed with horror on the unicorn’s face as a squirming, wriggling bulge appeared in her throat, slowly traveling down the length of her neck before disappearing into the chest.

Pinkie removed her hoof from Twilight’s lips and began giggling. “Hahahah, oh wow Twilight, you swallowed the thing whole! Not just whole, but living! I didn’t think you had it in you, Twi, but I guess you do now! Hahahahehehehah!”

Twilight groaned, looking as if at any moment she could throw up. She opened her mouth and choked for a moment. “P...Pinkie?”

“Yeah?”

“I want to see Spike again.” Twilight sobbed.

The party pony nodded. “Yeah, I can see wanting to do that. You two have known each other for years. Heck, you hatched and raised the little guy, you’re practically his mother! Hmm, a mommy but no daddy, how sad. But don’t worry your pretty little head, your baby boy will grow up big and strong without you! Unless of course his number comes up.”

Twilight hung her head and cried.

Pinkie giggled and nuzzled the unicorn’s cheek. She then turned back to the tray and picked up from it a large hacksaw. She turned back to Twilight and grinned. “Well Twi, it looks like it’s time to end this, and I don’t know about you, but I’m beginning to get horny!”

“W-what?” Twilight looked through tear-stained eyes from Pinkie’s smiling face, to the hacksaw gripped in her hooves, and then to the necklace of unicorn horns dangling from her neck. Twilight’s eyes widened in renewed horror. “No...no, please, please please no....”

“You say no, but your body says yes!” Pinkie turned a wheel on the rack, rotating Twilight around onto her back. Then she hopped up onto Twilight, her rump resting comfortably on Twilight’s puke-smeared belly. She leaned forward and held the hacksaw against the unicorn’s exposed horn.

“No, stop it! Don’t don’t don’t doaAAAAUUUGHHH!” White-hot agony flooded Twilight’s head, driving all rational thought from her. She felt the jagged teeth gnawing through her skin and bone, making her puke again. The VRRRR VRRRR VRRRR of the saw so close to her ears filled her head, making it feel like it would burst. Every back and forth of the wicked blades made her scream, bloodied froth flying from her lips. But then the sawing paused. Pinkie was only halfway through. Through the haze of pain Twilight could feel her horn hanging on through a patch of skin and splinters of bone, the flow of magic through the area reduced to a mere trickle.

“Hey Twilight, think fast!” Pinkie yanked on the horn as hard as she could. It ripped free of Twilight’s skull with a deafening KA-CRUNCH, flaps of skin and mane sticking to it. Blood erupted from the gaping wound, painting their faces in red. Twilight’s body seized from the trauma. Her eyes rolled back into her head, her pelvic tensed, the suffering unicorn feeling a warm release between her legs.

“Gosh Twilight, I had no idea you were gonna be a squirter!”

Unable to breath, unable to think, her vision swimming with Pinkie’s grinning face and Dash’s corpse and a towering slender pony behind Pinkie and approaching, Twilight felt parts of her go numb. The world around her began to grow dark, Pinkie’s gleeful cackling transitioning into a deeper voice, a masculine voice. As the last bits of her mind cracked and faded away into the darkness, a few words unfamiliar to her rose to the surface.

“Why...why...why....”

Then Twilight Sparkle was gone.

Twilight Sparkle sat on the couch and stared into the fireplace, its crackling flames reflected in her dumb, lifeless eyes. In her hooves was balanced her romantic novel from earlier that evening, flipped to the last page. A drip drip drip was heard throughout the room, a trickle of blood oozing from the left corner of her mouth and leaving little red beads on the blank book page.

Beside Twilight on the couch, the stallion wiped some cupcake crumbs from his lap and sighed. “Well, was that as good for you as it was for me? I certainly hope so. That’s my absolute favorite little show to perform. Although...you must be wondering why, I assume?”

Twilight let out a groan, slumping forward a little. The stallion smiled and leaned in, licking once at the blood at Twilight’s mouth. It smeared across her cheek. “Well, it’s very simple really. There are rules to the whole thing. The nicer, the...purer something is, the more enjoyable it is to ruin and corrupt. And oh was this enjoyable. You really should try it sometime. I guarantee, from now on you will never look at your friends the same way, will you? Hmmeheheheh. But I want you to be honest with yourself. As horrible, painful, sickening, and disgusting as you found it, some small, sick, twisted part of you enjoyed everything that happened.”

Somewhere a grandfather clock chimed the midnight hour. The stallion looked briefly up at the sound, listened to the clanging of the bell, before his smile turned wistful. He stood and looked back at his audience. Spike and Owlowiscious watched in fear from the top of the stairs.

“Well, the day is over. It’s finished. This is the end.”