Rainbow Castle

      The flight seemed slow, but the intent to get to the current destination was true and steady. The balloon trailed behind Rainbow Dash as she flew at a leisurely pace. Everypony chattered and gossiped. Rarity discussed her new fashion line with Fluttershy while Applejack and Twilight Sparkle stared wide eyed at Pinkie Pie as she complained about having to use the little filly's room. Fluttershy happened to glance in the direction of their destination, and her eyes went wide. She gave a squeak of astonishment. "It's beautiful!"

      The Rainbow Castle had many types of Spectra flowing from almost every crevice and tremor within its surface. The clouds seemed as if they were at the beginning stage of becoming a raincloud, however. Was it just that the weather was going to be a bit wonky later? Who knows. It was Spring, after all. Rain is to be expected. Everypony decided to shrug it off. Pinkie, however, in desperate need of self-relief squealed at the top of her lungs. "Hurryhurryhurry land this thing already I'm going to explode hurry hurry hurryhurrygogogogogogo!"

      The balloon pulled up next to the cloud platform which led into the entrance of the Rainbow Castle. Pinkie bolted off behind a corner, leaving imprints on the light-grey cloud surface. Everypony looked at eachother as they heard a loud sigh of relief come from a certain pink pony around the corner. Pinkie came trotting back towards the group. "I'm fine now. Now, let's do this!" She screamed a cheer and pumped a hoof in the air. The other girls gave a slightly-less-enthusiastic cheer, but a cheer nonetheless.

      Rainbow Dash led the posse in front of her latest construction and grinned. "Here it is! The Rainbow Factory!" The banner in front of the Rainbow Factory prominently displayed the name in clear, colorful letters. The girls blinked. Wasn't it the 'Rainbow Castle' not long ago? Oh well. Probably meant nothing.

      Rainbow Dash laughed aloud, apparently very proud of her work. "There's a special place for all of you. Each is a surprise!" Her voice cracked as she cried the last statement, a grin visible on her otherwise emotionless face. "I'll bring each of you into your respective rooms when I've shown the others theirs. No particular order. Prolly just gonna pick all of you in a random order to show their rooms to." She whipped her rainbow mane out of her eyes to observe the elated looks of her friends, who immediately started to chat as they followed Rainbow.

      Rainbow gave them a tour of the main lobby, showing them all of the different appliances and entertainment methods that were available to them until they were each introduced to their specified rooms. Each mare took to conversing and using the random electronics within the room. Pinkie Pie clicked all of the buttons on the microwave to see what would happen. Applejack looked around and noticed the redundant image of Rainbow Dash's cutie mark plastered on the cloud walls every now and again. Rarity had begun to groom her mane as usual; it did get a little dinged up on the flight here. Fluttershy sat on a nearby cushion, opening her book from earlier and letting the small blush play at her muzzle once again.

      Twilight was about to open her novel when Rainbow Dash strode up and gave a mysterious grin. "Twilight! You're about to see something that you're gonna love! Your own personal Magic Study! You can study there, and... do magic! At the same time!"

      Twilight's eyes sparkled immediately and she hopped up, novel forgotten on the cloud-floor. "Let's go! I can't wait!" Twilight followed after a certain rainbow Pegasus, grinning and waving back at all of the girls still in the lobby, who returned her wave with affectionate waves and smiles of their own.

      ---

      Twilight was introduced into her room through a corridor filled with star-like curtains and dim lighting. Without the magical aura that seemed to fill the corridor, it would've seemed almost romantic. Rainbow pushed aside the final curtain, leading Twilight into her new Magic Study. The purple unicorn's eyes twinkled and she squealed in delight. She immediately began to examine the bookshelves packed full of Tomes and Spellbooks. Her hooves carried her to all of the magical items in the room, some of them amazing her just by a glance.

      Perhaps the only thing that she didn't notice was that Rainbow Dash was gone.

      Twilight was being completely and utterly absorbed into a tome on Illusionary Magic when she heard a noise. Her ear pricked. Was that a hoofstep? Probably just Rainbow Dash. Or something. She continued with her reading, lying down with the book open in front of her.

      That's when it hit her.

      A flash of light and a rushing sound greeted Twilight's eyes and ears, a splitting pain blasting through her right flank. Twilight instinctively swallowed and screeched, getting blasted back about a foot. Her eyes were hazy, but she was still fully cognizant of her surroundings. The tome of magic flew away from her, but that was the least of her worries. A weak Twilight Sparkle managed to lift her head and examine her flank where the stinging pain shot through her. Her eyes went wide and she screamed, flailing her limbs as she saw that her cutie mark had been ripped from her coat. The exposed flesh bled profusely, her bloody cutie mark close by. She got light-headed and nearly threw up from the sight. Her heart began to race as she began to search the room for the unknown assailant. She called weakly, "Hello? Who's there?"

      A pompous giggle greeted her ears. "I ripped off your cutie mark and you still act polite in the face of danger? How droll. I was hoping you were going to try to put up a fight."

      Twilight's eyes began to tear up as she felt the warm, sticky fluid travel down her hind leg. "I'm g-going to report you to the guards! And I'm going to f-find out who you are and g-get the Princess to put you in jail, p-permanently!" She tried to get back up, but her injured flank shot a pain as she stressed a nerve, causing her to scream in agony and fall over. She sobbed and crawled in no particular direction using her forehooves.

      The high-strung, strict voice spoke in a familiar tone. "Twilight, Twilight! Where did your manners go? You were such a behaved little filly just a few moments ago."

      Another swooshing sound played against Twilight's ears and another splitting pain blasted through her right flank, causing the purple unicorn to screech at the top of her lungs. After she squeezed her eyes shut, she let go of her bated breath, beginning to hyperventilate. Her vision grew more hazy. She went against her best judgement and looked again at her right flank.

      What Twilight saw caused her to vomit unexpectedly, her wrenching causing the pain to split through her flank again. She screeched once her vomit stopped coming, collapsing into her own stomach acid. A large chunk of flesh was gone from her flank. It lay close by, bleeding buckets of blood itself, let alone the lakes of red liquid pouring from Twilight. Her head was spinning and she felt no more energy within any of her limbs. Her neck wrenched to look at her assailant.

      Trixie?

      Twilight's eyes poured tears and she let out a choking sob, flopping her head back into the vomit. Trixie trotted over, flipping her cape and grinning wide. "I've been wanting to do this for ages." The blue unicorn stepped over to the chunk of flesh, tapping it with a hoof. She giggled as it rolled a little towards Twilight. She continued to roll it until it rolled through Twilight's upchuck, covering it with her stomach product. Trixie grinned and moved the flesh chunk near Twilight's mouth. "Here comes the train, darling! Chugga chugga, chugga chugga, woo!" Trixie flipped her cape again as she pushed the flesh into Twilight's gasping mouth. Twilight vomited once again around the flesh ball, but that didn't spit it out. She breathed heavily through her nose, still trying to maintain at least her breath. But then, Trixie picked up Twilight's nearby cutie mark. Strings of flesh and muscle hung from its underside, making Trixie grin sadistically. The blue unicorn trotted back over to the slowly-dying Twilight, a mischievous look on her face. She slapped Twilight across the face as hard as she could with the underside of her own cutie mark, which didn't create much of a response from the delirious unicorn. Trixie frowned again. "Looks like somepony's getting sleepy."

      Twilight's eyes poured tears, her eyes becoming red and raw. She looked up from her current position at Trixie, her mouth forced open by her own flank-flesh. The blue showsmare leaned down and held Twilight's cutie mark close. Trixie stared into Twilight's eyes. She grinned, and muttered, "Your eyes really are beautiful, you know." Then, the purple unicorn's own cutie mark was plastered tightly around her nostrils. Her eyes went wide, and she tried to breath through any access point at all. She tried chewing through her own flesh, which only brought a terrible ache in her jaw. The sparkle in her eyes ebbed, and she struggled valiantly using the last of the oxygen that the rest of her blood would give her.

      Twilight Sparkle moaned through her own flesh, unable to keep her own dignity anymore. A pool of urine flowed around Twilight's dampened tail. Her heartbeat slowed to obey the laws of a stop sign. She looked up at the grinning Trixie, and let out one last tear.

      Her heart beat for the last time.