How Friends May Fall

How Friends May Fall – Part 4

“Twilight…”

The coldest of chills she had ever felt ran down Twilight’s spine as she heard Rainbow Dash speak. It wasn’t the same tone she always spoke it. It somehow didn’t even seem to be the same voice. Like it had been partially distorted.

“H… Hello, Rainbow Dash.” daid Twilight softly, her voice shivering from fear and nervosity.

As she slowly walked into the room, Rainbow Dash got back up on her hind legs. She tightly pressed herself into the corner, as if she tried to escape from Twilight. But it was no use. The bouncy walls forcefully pushed her again, causing her to smack right back on the ground.

“Rainbow, please…” said Twilight. “I’m not going to hurt you, or do anything bad to you. I just want to talk.”

As she finished her sentence, Rainbow Dash notably calmed down. But instead of looking at her, she simply faced the ground, trying to hide her face out of shame. Despite her insanity, she seemed to be quite aware of the situation she was in.

“Doctor, can I speak to her in private, please?” asked Twilight, as she turned towards the doctor.

The doctor narrowed his eyes, and looked at the two ponies. With a grunt, he turned around and walked into the room.

“You have five minutes.” he said. “Try not to make her snap.”

The doctor closed the door behind him, leaving Twilight and Rainbow Dash alone in the room. Yet, he kept a close eye on the two ponies through the glass. Twilight could faintly see him holding on to something that he pulled out of his pocket, yet she could not make out what it was.

She turned back towards Rainbow Dash, who still sat in the same position. Her face was hidden behind her mane, yet Twilight could see drops of water falling down from her face. She couldn’t make out whether it was sweat, tears, or possibly even drool.

For a moment, the two ponies remained completely still, the sole noise coming from Rainbow Dash’s loud breathing. Even though Twilight knew exactly what she wanted to ask Rainbow Dash, she had trouble with finding the right words. She had to know what happened without driving Rainbow Dash mad, but still had to find out as much details as possible.

She took a deep breath to ask a first question, but was suddenly interrupted by Rainbow Dash.

“I know what I did.”

Rainbow Dash raised her head, and faced Twilight. Tears once again welled up in the Pegasus’ blood-shot eyes, yet she tried to hold them back as hard as she could. Unfortunately, her sorrowful expression was not as easy to mask.

“I know what I did. I… I murdered Pinkie Pie. One of my best friends. I… I…”

She bowed her head, and softly began to sob. A few tears streamed down past her cheeks, dripping of the soft floor. Feeling sorry for her friend, Twilight carefully came closer and stroked Rainbow Dash’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash.” she said, trying to sound as soothing as possible. “But I need to know exactly what happened.”

Rainbow Dash calmed down for just a moment, yet burst into crying and turned her head away soon after. The memories of that night still haunted her, tormenting her with sorrow and anguish. Twilight could clearly notice it from her expression.

“I know it’s hard, Rainbow.” she said. “But please, I have to know. It’s important.”

Steadily, Rainbow Dash began to stop crying, and faced her face back towards Twilight.

“It… It was two weeks ago. During an afternoon.” She said with a soft voice. “P-Pinkie Pie invited me over at Sugarcube Corner, because I had felt so bad lately. She… She wanted to cheer me up with a treat. She…”

Her body began to shiver, and her eyes grew wide. Her expression changed to one of pure fear, as if she stared death right in the eyes. It was horrifying enough to even cause Twilight to back off.

“She gave me… Cupcakes…”

She began to grind her teeth, and tears again rolled down her face.

“Cupcakes… She gave me cupcakes… Cupcakes… Cupcakes! Cupcakes!!”

She began to scream loudly, bursting the word “Cupcakes” in-between her screams. The doctor prepared to move in, but Twilight signaled him to stay back. She could make out the item he was holding much clearer now. It was a blow dart. He was planning to sedate Rainbow Dash should this go out of control! She felt slightly relieved that he wasn’t going to use more drastic measures, but still hoped that he wouldn’t have to actually use it.

“Please, Rainbow!” Shouted Twilight, grabbing Rainbow Dash by her shoulders. “Calm down! What’s wrong with the cupcakes?”

Rainbow Dash stopped screaming, but the expression of fear did not leave her face. She was on the verge of a panic attack, and had trouble formulating her sentences.

“The cupcakes… They were drugged… She took me to the basement… Strapped me up… All the corpses! Corpses everywhere!”

Twilight’s eyes grew wide as she heard Rainbow Dash say those words. So far, it sounded a lot like…

“Rainbow Dash!” said Twilight. “What--”

“The knife!” screamed Rainbow Dash, interrupting Twilight’s sentence. “She took it… Came to me… Cut off my cutie mark! Cut off my legs! Cut open my stomach! Blood everywhere… Pinkie Pie… Killed me… She killed me… She killed me!”

With a fierce headbutt, Rainbow Dash knocked Twilight aside. Her fearful expression changed to one of pure anger, as she attempted to push herself towards Twilight with her hind legs.

“The nightmares warned me, Twilight!” She screamed hysterically. “Pinkie Pie killed me! She mercilessly cut me open and killed me! And now she wanted to do it again! So I killed her first! I’m not the murderer! She is!!”

Fearing for her life, Twilight got back up on her legs and tried to run gallop back to the door. But, Rainbow Dash tightly grabbed her tail with her teeth, and with all of her might threw her back against the wall. Dazed from the impact, she was unable to get away while Rainbow Dash crawled on top of her.

“Everybody blames me! Well guess what, I’m not the murderer! Pinkie Pie was! And I will kill every one of you for blaming me!”

Rainbow Dash tightly bit Twilight’s neck, closing the unicorn’s trachea. In a panic, she tried to push Rainbow Dash away from her. But Rainbow Dash’s grip was too strong, and only began stronger the harder she pushed. Everything slowly began to turn black, as she ran out of breath and began to suffocate…

Suddenly, Rainbow Dash loosened her grip. Twilight pushed Rainbow Dash off her and gasped for breath, hacking and coughing as she filled her lungs with fresh air. Still panting, she saw Rainbow Dash laying paralyzed on the ground, with a blow dart sticking out of her neck. The doctor had quickly stepped in as he saw Twilight getting choked.

As she regained her breath, Twilight stormed out of the room in fright. Although she knew beforehand that Rainbow Dash could attack her, she never thought that she would actually try to kill her. She didn’t know what hurt worse, the shock or the tooth marks in her neck.

“I warned you not to make her snap.” said the doctor angrily, as he locked the door behind him. “And yet you didn’t even last five minutes without making her attack you.”

“I-I’m sorry, doctor.” replied Twilight, still breathing heavily. “But I…”

“I don’t want to hear it.” he said. “You may have made her even more mad then she already is.”

The doctor opened the door to the hallway, and looked back to Twilight.

“I advise you to leave, now.” he said harshly. “And don’t come back to visit her again”

Fighting back tears, Twilight slowly walked back into the hallway. She looked back into the hallway once more, and saw Rainbow Dash laying in the same position as before, but with tears once again falling from her eyes. Tears of bitter anguish, of the knowledge that she had almost killed another one of her friends.

As Twilight walked through the hallways, she felt an immense feeling of dread crawling through her. Not only had Rainbow Dash tried to kill her, she had mentioned the exact same basement that Twilight had found before. The worst scenario she could possibly have ever thought of had occurred. The gruesome find was indeed related to the incident at Sugarcube Corner.

She began to sob softly as she continues through the hallways. She didn’t know what to do anymore. Everything she had learned about the incident so far had only turned out to be horrible, yet she knew too much to back out now. It wasn’t just curiosity bugging her anymore. Instead, it was a fiery hope urging her to learn more. Hope that there might still be a good end to this terrible nightmare. Hope that there was a good reason behind all of this. Hope that it wasn’t all as bad as it seemed… But she didn’t know if she could take it anymore. At this rate, she felt like she was going to lose her sanity herself should she keep going.

Whereas the desperate hope in her mind was pushing her to continue, the despair and sorrow she experienced begged for her to stop and go home. Go home, and somehow forget everything she had learned about the incident. Forget that the incident had occurred at all. Even forget that she had ever known Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash.

As she walked through the door back into the entrance hall, her mind was suddenly forced back into reality as two guards ambushed her and forced her down to the ground. Before she could even realize what was going on, the guards had her in a stranglehold, and cuffed her hooves together.

“What is this? What’s going on??” shouted Twilight in a panic, her view shifting all across the room. “Somepony help me!”

Yet, everybody in the entrance hall simply stood there and watched as the two mute guards carried Twilight outside. She noticed several chariots which she hadn’t seen before parked around the asylum, and guards had blocked the entire entrance area for possible visitors. Still panicking, Twilight struggled to break free, but the guards’ grip was too strong for her to break.

As she was laid down right next to one of the chariots, a group of guards surrounded her to prevent her from getting away.

“What’s going on here? I didn’t do anything!”

“Calm down, miss Sparkle.”

Twilight heard a familiar voice coming from behind the guards. As the voice spoke, the guards cleared a path for another colt. The colt approaches Twilight, and stared right into her eyes.

Twilight instantly recognized the colt.

“Lieutenant Mane…” she said with a soft voice.

“I’m sorry, miss Sparkle.” he replied, as he blindfolded Twilight.

“You’re coming with us.”