"Gallopin' haybales, Twi! Are ya alright?" Applejack exclaimed, rushing over to her friend's side. A stray thought flickered across her mind, but she paid it no heed. Twilight's safety mattered more than how suspicious it was an alicorn somehow got injured by a simple knife.

"Y-Yes," Twilight wheezed, struggling to get to her hooves. Her attempts were futile as she continuously failed, collapsing to the ground in a heap.

"Ya ain't movin' one hoof, ya hear me? Yer bleedin' too much for that!" Applejack grunted with the exertion of pulling Twilight up, surprised at how heavy Twilight was. The lavender alicorn shakily got to her hooves, her breathing shallow.

"What happened, Twilight? Who did this to you? I promise you, that pony will beg for me to end their life after I get my hooves on them!" Rainbow Dash snarled, her expression one of pure fury.

"I-I'm fine, Rainbow," Twilight reassured her, wincing at the pain that came with her every movement, "you don't n-need to go to all that t-trouble for me." She could tell that the rainbow-maned pegasus was not buying it, judging by the way her eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"What happened?" Fluttershy gasped, snapping out of her shock-induced state and moving forward to join her friends.

Twilight closed her eyes, shuddering slightly as she relieved those horrifying memories. "I was ambushed," she said softly.

"Ambushed? By who?" Rainbow demanded, her wings flared open.

Twilight shook her head in response. "I couldn't get a clear view. It was definitely a mare though."

"Was it Pinkie Pie?" Rainbow persisted even further.

"No, it couldn't have been. The mare's coat wasn't pink in the slightest way, nor were her eyes blue," Twilight denied, a thoughtful expression on her face.

Applejack frowned. There was something wrong with the entire situation, how Twilight as an alicorn princess had gotten injured in the first place by a knife...

A knife...

The knife! Applejack thought, understanding dawning upon her as her gaze immediately slid over to said weapon. The bloodstains on it weren't recent, yet somehow Twilight had been found near it with a major injury, which could only mean that...

"Twi?" Applejack asked, acknowledging that she had to choose her words carefully if she wanted to get to the bottom of this whole mess.

"Yes, Applejack?" Twilight glanced questioningly at the farmpony.

"Look at this knife," Applejack said slowly. "Do ya recognize it in any way?"

"No, not really. Why do you ask?" A confused expression now adorned the alicorn's face.

"We found this knife a few minutes before we found ya. Judgin' by its appearance, the blood ain't from recently, but ya've got a pretty nasty wound over there which can only be made from a knife like this. How'd ya explain that?" Applejack could have sworn she'd saw a dangerous gleam in Twilight's eyes as she said this, but it faded away as quickly as it'd appeared.

"It's possible that whoever assaulted me tampered with the evidence," Twilight stated matter-of-factly, her tone betraying nothing at all, "you of all ponies should know that, Applejack."

"Exactly mah thoughts, Twilight. But how'd ya expect a pony to change blood itself? Did yer attacker cut themselves on purpose just to cover up a little assault? And most importantly, if that knife really was modified, why didn't ya recognize it as the weapon used against ya in the first place?"

"AJ, are you accusing Twilight of all ponies?" Rainbow gaped, the shock evident in her voice.

Applejack met Rainbow's gaze with a steely one of her own. "Right as rain."

Twilight's eyes widened in disbelief. "But me, Applejack? Do you actually think I hurt myself this badly on purpose?"

The farmpony sighed, averting her gaze. "Ah don't know, Twi, Ah don't know. It's just that a lotta things aren't makin' any sense here, an' ya seem to be at the center of it. Maybe ya'd care to explain what happened exactly when ya were ambushed?"

The alicorn facehoofed at this, but nonetheless still relented. "Fine then. Basically, I was taking a shortcut through one of the alleys when I was suddenly tackled by a mysterious pony. I tried to fight them off with magic, but they were too quick and plunged the knife into me first before fleeing the scene. The wound ended up being really deep and I was bleeding out pretty quickly, so I crawled my way out of the alley as fast as I could for help and was about to lose consciousness when you girls came along."

"A shortcut through one of the alleys," Applejack echoed. "Why the alleys? It's common knowledge that they ain't safe."

"There wasn't any other way, okay?" Twilight groaned in exasperation, throwing up her hooves. "I did what I had to do to catch up with her!"

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "An' who's this her yer referrin' to?"

"Oh, Spikey-Wikey!" Pinkie called out in her best Rarity voice as she entered the library, hiding behind a tall stack of books nearby. Even though it wasn't an accurate impression of her deceased friend, it still managed to lure out a miserable Spike that was clearly grieving for her.

"Rarity? Is that you?" Spike said hoarsely, dried tears staining his face. "I t-thought you were d-dead!"

Pinkie giggled softly to herself as Spike's gaze darted all around the room, searching for his beloved Rarity. If her plan would go as she desired, Spike would eventually head right toward the books she was hiding behind and right into her trap.

Fortunately for the insane mare, the young dragon didn't disappoint her. He slowly made his way over to the book stack, getting closer, closer... and stopped just a few inches away from Pinkie. "Rarity? Are you there?"

The trap had been sprung.

"AHH!" Spike cried out as Pinkie leapt out from behind the book stack and tackled him, bringing him down. She quickly produced her knife and held it right by the dragon's throat, laughing madly all the time.

"P-Pinkie? W-What are you d-doing?" Spike looked up at the former party pony, his emerald eyes wide. "Where's R-Rarity?"

"Oh, you silly filly!" Pinkie chuckled. "Rarity was never here! I made my voice sound like her just to lure you out! Wasn't that a great plan, Spikey?"

Spike's eyes grew even wider as the truth behind the situation finally hit him. "Are you t-trying to k-kill me?"

Pinkie rolled her eyes. "Well, duh! Why else would I be holding a knife?"

"But... w-why? I'm your f-friend!"

"Sure, you're a great friend at that, especially at betraying!" Pinkie snorted. "When I came up with my brilliant plan of killing everypony to find Rarity's murderer, what did AJ and the others think? They didn't want me to and tried to stop me!"

Silence.

"So, to make up for you all being horrible friends to me, get ready to say goodbye!" Pinkie moved the knife even closer, causing Spike to tremble in terror.

One slash was all it took.

Author's Note

Well, this is a surprise!

Somehow, I've managed to publish early two chapters in a row! Maybe this means you guys no longer have to wait that long for a new chapter?

Anyways, stay tuned for the next chapter (which hopefully will be released early just like Chapters 6 and 7)!