Rarity could not seem to get her legs to stop moving. After noticing everyone had gone from the kitchen, she felt vulnerable and left in a panic. Her panting only increased as she continued to run; her head whipping about in every direction to see if anypony had been chasing her.

The sight of Applejack’s dead body had been ingrained in her mind, she would not soon forget such a horrendous sight, nor would she forget the acrid stench of her blood. It all had happened so suddenly, but the brief moment kept repeating in her mind, over and over again. She couldn’t shake the fact that her friend was dead and there was nothing she could do that would change that. All she could do now was hope to survive long enough to see the light of next morning’s sun.

After what seemed like minutes of aimless running, Rarity finally slowed to a brisk trot. She had to stay strong and alert. There was a killer among them and they could be anywhere. She assumed they were prepared enough to leave more than just one trap.

As Rarity’s mind wandered, she had failed to notice that she had all but lost her bearings. Twilight’s new castle was massive and troublesome to navigate. She stopped momentarily to take in her surroundings, plotting where to look for an exit. As she did so, she heard the sound of oncoming hoofsteps from around the corner. She turned around to see who approached, not knowing whether she should run in fear or stay out of curiosity. The gold and scarlet mane of Sunset Shimmer caught Rarity’s eye as the unicorn plodded along, seemingly without purpose.

Sunset Shimmer hadn’t noticed Rarity as she walked by so she was alarmed when the ivory mare called out to her. She whipped her head to see Rarity nearing toward her.

“I don’t want any trouble.” Sunset stated blankly.

“Nor do I darling, I’m merely looking for a way out of this place. It is much larger than I remember to be honest; perhaps you’d be interested in pairing up, strength in numbers right?” Rarity smiled awkwardly as a half-hearted chuckle emerged from her lips, trying to seem as innocuous as possible.

“Thanks… but no. It isn’t that I don’t trust you, but I’d rather not be picked off in bundles. Sorry.” Sunset left hurriedly without another word, leaving Rarity alone once again. She didn’t know whether to be offended or afraid. The brief encounter with Sunset did nothing to ease her nerves.

She ignored her doubts and pressed onward. Not much time had passed as she progressed down the wide corridors before she saw another figure advancing in her direction. Rarity squinted and was able to see a flowing rosy mane and a delicate yellow coat.

“Fluttershy dear!” Rarity called to her friend, her legs reinvigorated.

“Oh, Rarity! I’m so glad I found you!” Fluttershy wrapped her friend in a comforting embrace. “Are you hurt? Have you seen anything suspicious?”

“Not really, only Sunset Shimmer.” Rarity admitted.

“Where is she?” The concerned pegasus asked.

“Celestia knows where. The madmare would rather work on her own, for what reason I have no idea. She also seemed to be in quite the hurry, but I suppose that isn’t out of the ordinary. She didn’t seem all that concerned about leaving though, it was as if she had already accepted her fate.” Rarity reflected on her brief conversation.

“Not everypony operates the same under stress, I’m sure she has everything under control.” Fluttershy reassured her.

“What about you darling, how are you holding up?” Rarity inquired.

“I think I’ve calmed down enough, finding you really does help, but I’m still beyond frightened. I don’t want to die.” The sheepish mare embraced her friend once more and began to weep. Rarity had no words to share, only comfort to give. The two finally gathered themselves and proceeded to search for a way out.

For once in her life, Pinkie Pie did not feel happy. One of her childhood friends had been taken from her forever. There was a void within her now and it would never be filled. She felt lost, both physically and emotionally. She just wanted to go home.

The rooms seemed endless. She systematically prodded each door open to peak at their insides in hopes that someone or something would be on the other side that might be able to help her. Time and time again, she was disappointed by what she found, or rather by what she didn’t find.

The party mare sulked and trudged fruitlessly down the hallway, dragging her hooves along the cold tile floor. Her tears cascaded down her muzzle before plummeting to the ground. She briefly looked up to see how much further the end of the hallway was, she was greeted however, to a figure at the end of it. She couldn’t make out who it was, but she didn’t care at this point, she sought any form of companionship from anypony. Her legs picked up speed as she galloped towards the figure.

“Hey!” She cried out. The figure turned slowly to face the oncoming mare. As they saw that it was Pinkie, they turned and ran down another hallway.

“Wait up! Don’t leave me! I don’t want to be alone!” The Pink pony cried out as she rounded the same corner. She watched as the figure entered a room on her right and slammed the door forcefully. Pinkie cautiously approached the room before jiggling the handle. It opened with ease, revealing the strange contents within.

Pinkie was mesmerized by the large, clear container that seemed to encompass the entire area of the room. There were two large hoses connected at either side. Pinkie’s eyes followed the length of the hose to two metal canisters propped up in the corner. They had weird letters and symbols inscribed on them. She dismissed the canisters and examined the container even closer.

“What is this thing?” Pinkie Pie mumbled to herself.

“Why don’t you have a closer look?” Pinkie had entirely forgotten about the pony she had pursued into the room. The door slammed behind her as she was forcefully shoved into the container before it was sealed and locked. Pinkie was dazed and confused, but before she could make out who had shoved her into the cube, they had left. She pounded on the glass and screamed for help, but the chances of anypony finding her were futile. All she could do now was wait.

She aimlessly looked around the cube and the room for a way out, but there was nothing to be found, only a rolled up piece of parchment on the floor in front of her. She unraveled the scroll and read the note.

Hello Pinkie Pie

I’m so sorry to have to do this to you, but at the same time, I’m not

This all must be done, and it must be done tonight

Applejack’s death was the first of many

So instantaneous

So very satisfying

And knowing that I was in the room alongside you… watching

That made it all the better

As for you Pinkie, your death is a waiting game, and I know you like games

So of course I had to choose you as the participant

If luck be in your favor tonight, you may survive a bit longer

But the clock is already ticking.

The next one of your friends that walks through this door will send you to your doom

It will be so marvelous, I may just have to come back to watch

Or even do it myself

Either way, you will be at a loss for words when the time comes

Just remember Pinkie

Smile

More of Pinkie’s tears stained the parchment as she finished reading her death sentence. It hardly seemed fair, that she never even had a fighting chance from the start. Pinkie crumpled the paper in her hooves and set it on the ground.

She wasn’t angry, she wasn’t afraid, just tired. Pinkie Pie sat on her haunches and sighed before laying down, resting her chin in the crook of her elbow, closing her eyes quite possibly for the last time.

Twilight made her way to the main entrance of her home in hopes that it wasn’t locked like every other exit. All of the windows had been sealed from the outside as had the doors, she doubted the most obvious exit would be untampered with, but she suspended her belief for any semblance of comfort.

Her heart sank as the massive double doors would not budge. She slumped to the ground and buried her muzzle in her hooves. She felt the hopelessness well up in her chest as her fate seemed inevitable.

“What a cruel fate, to die in the place you call home, and to know it’s your fault they’re here…” Twilight sulked to herself almost prophetically before fading into silence.

“T…Twilight. How are y…you holding up?” Twilight turned to face the voice of Trixie Lulamoon. The blue showmare had taken a seat next to Twilight and bundled herself in her cape.

“Not great,” Twilight wiped the tears away that formed on her cheeks. “I would say I just want to go home but… I’m already here.” Twilight sunk into her arms as the words escaped her lips.

“I h…haven’t f…f…found a way out yet.” Trixie admitted dolefully.

“Why are you shivering so much? It’s not that cold in here is it?” Twilight probed harmlessly.

“N…no, I don’t really know why. I g…guess I’m s…still shaken up from earlier. I d…don’t handle stress very w…well.”

“Well, I can assure you everyone else will get out of this predicament safely.” Twilight tried to encourage the gloomy unicorn, not entirely convinced of her own words either. There really was no way out, but that wouldn’t stop the princess from fighting, no matter how grim the circumstances may be.

“I doubt it, y…you saw what happened to Applej…jack back there. Whomever is responsible is s…smarter than w…we think.” Twilight tried to push the memory of her friend’s brutal demise to the back of her mind. She knew her friend’s corpse was still in her kitchen, something about that made her all the more uncomfortable. She shook the thought and brought her attention back to Trixie.

“I don’t care who the killer is, we can and will make it out alive, I promise.” Twilight couldn’t tell if she meant that for Trixie or herself when she said it. But she felt as though she needed to hear those words. Anything to lift her spirits.

“That’s r…rather wishful thinking Twilight.” Trixie pulled herself to her hooves and brushed out her cape. “B…but thanks for the p…pep talk.” The magician disappeared into the depths of the mansion. Twilight found herself alone again and figured it wouldn’t be the last time.

Trixie left Twilight, not out of fear, but out of remorse. She didn’t want to feel as if she were being a burden to anypony, especially at a time such as this. Trixie had all but accepted the inevitable and simply meandered the halls in suspenseful trepidation. Her body would not rest from its quaking.

Her ears perked as she passed a peculiar door, she could have sworn she heard someone mutter from the other side. She brushed it off as nothing more than paranoia and continued further into the castle.

The lurking fear of a killer prowling the shadows hung over her head like a dark cloud. Part of her wished she had made amends with Twilight and her friends after the incident in Ponyville several years back. She never meant to be as insolent as she was, and to Twilight’s credit, her friends only did what they believed to be just. Trixie’s pride caused her to make poor decisions that hurt more than she could have ever imagined, but now was not the time to regret the past. Now is the time to focus on the present, and survive.

Lightning Dust, Gilda and Rainbow Dash managed to find one another rather quickly after splitting up and teamed up, finding strength in numbers unlike Sunset Shimmer. Not a single word had been shared between them since aligning; all three mares remained skeptical of one another after prior events. Despite a level of agreement among the trio, none took their eyes off of the others. They looked for any reason to be suspicious of one another in an effort to exploit the killer’s true identity.

They had dismissed all beliefs that an exit could be found and focused solely on investigating and confronting the killer. Whomever it was certainly would not be able to hold their own against the vexed coalition.

“Let’s face the facts here girls,” Gilda spoke up, breaking the tangible silence, “There is no way out of here, so I say we just wait for the killer to come to us. When we find them, we’ll fuck ‘em up. Besides, Dash shouldn’t be walking with that injury anyway.” Gilda finished, gesturing towards Rainbow’s bleeding hoof.

The Pegasus couldn’t agree more, her hoof had been in immense pain since she ran out of the kitchen. She hadn’t properly treated her wound as more blood seeped from the incision, leaving behind a trail of bloody tracks for the killer to follow. They agreed to stop and rest for a moment.

“How are you fairing Lightning Dust?” Dash addressed the jaded mare.

“Could be better, I’m feeling a bit dizzy though.” Lightning answered, her speech seemed uncharacteristically slurred.

“How much did you actually drink?” Rainbow asked suspiciously.

“Not much, certainly not enough to get me tipsy, just the glass Gilda got for me.” Lightning slurred even harder as her legs began to wobble.

“Yeah, that definitely would not be enough to get you plastered, no matter how much of a lightweight you are.” Gilda chimed in scanning their surroundings.

“Come to think of it, my drink did taste kind of funny. Can champagne spoil?” Lightning asked.

“Yeah, but it takes years, and the bottle still had fizz to it so it must have been fairly fresh.” Gilda added, dismissing Lightning’s theory. “I say we head back to the kitchen and look for something there, it is where this whole ordeal began after all.”

Rainbow Dash was reluctant at first, not wanting to see her best friend’s body in the state that it was in, but after several moments of contemplation, the group came to a consensus to search the kitchen. Dash hobbled alongside Gilda as the determined griffin supported Lightning Dust in her inebriated state.

When the group arrived, they were greeted with the sight and stench of Applejack’s corpse now stiff due to rigor mortis. Dash couldn’t bear to look as she walked around the mass of bloody fur on the ground.

The kitchen had remained unaltered from it’s original condition.

“I guess nopony else decided to come back.” Gilda stated.

“I don’t blame them.” Lightning Dust garbled as she went to take a seat. She laid her head in her arms and tried to get some rest while the others investigated.

Rainbow dash hobbled over to the poem on the wall with the glass shattered beneath it while Gilda inspected the drink bar.

Rainbow kneeled down to examine the glass on the floor. It was still surrounded by champagne and her own blood. “Try not to drink any of that champagne just in case it’s been contaminated.” Rainbow called out to Gilda without diverting her attention from the glass. “Why are you here? Who dropped you?" Rainbow pondered inwardly.

Her gaze then shifted to look at the prophetic poem on the wall. She scanned the lines in her head multiple times, trying to wrap her brain around the mystery of it all. “How could you have possibly known this would come true?” She asked the killer subliminally.

Gilda rummaged through the beverages until she found the champagne bottle. It was emptier than she had remembered from when she poured Lightning’s glass. She knew she had been the last one to touch it before the lights went out. She deduced that somepony else had to have tampered with it between then and now.

“Hey Dash, gotta sec? Come check this out.” Gilda called out. Rainbow Dash discontinued her search to join the griffin in her findings.

“Did you find something?” Dash asked as she eyed the bottle in Gilda’s clutch.

“Not quite, but something just isn’t adding up here.”

“Are you going to tell me or make me figure it out on my own?” Dash prodded with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

“Well for starters, I’m certain there was more champagne in this bottle than when I used it…”

“Wait, so you were the last pony to touch the champagne before Lightning got sick from it?” Rainbow interjected.

“Don’t be throwing accusations around Dash. It wasn’t me; I’ve got nothing to do with Lightning’s condition. All I did was pour the drink, but I’m thinking somepony else has poured some out since then without us knowing. On top of that, if Lightning is feeling all loopy, shouldn’t the others be acting strange if they drank some?” Gilda concluded

“Maybe… if we find anyone else that was having champagne, we can monitor their behavior for anything weird. Maybe Lightning is just sick or something.” Dash looked around the room to find Lightning Dust but noticed that she had seemingly disappeared from the kitchen entirely, she also noticed that the poem was now on the floor and the knife had been plucked from the wall.

“Where the fuck did she vanish to?” Gilda spat fiercely. Both mares scanned the entire perimeter of the kitchen in search of their missing comrade before Rainbow Dash heard the sound of rapid hoofsteps approaching from behind her. Gilda and Dash whipped around to see Lightning charging at them brandishing the missing knife.

Gilda shrieked in fear and retreated to the back of the kitchen, abandoning Dash to fight on her own. Her injury prevented her from running so she stood ready to fight.

She waited until her assailant was within an arm’s length before ducking underneath the rampaging mare and hoisting her over her head, sending her slamming onto her back. She stood back up in an instant as if she had felt no pain.

“Stay still and die!!!” Lightning squawked.

“Gilda, get your ass over here and help me control her!” Rainbow yelled desperately for the cowering griffin. She rushed from her hiding place to aid the injured Pegasus. “Lightning, get a hold of yourself!” Dash shouted again toward their attacker.

Rainbow began to back away, pain shooting through her leg with each step. Lightning rushed at her again, preparing to strike before Gilda jumped in the way. The knife plunged through her paw sending blood specks onto the griffin’s face. She mustered up the strength to fight through the pain and wrestled the blade out of Lightning’s grasp before pulling it out of her own appendage. Pain shot through her arm like electricity.

The crazed mare saw nothing but a jumbled haze of lights and colors, her head was throbbing with incomparable amounts of pain. All she could hear were distant mutters before losing her balance and falling backward to the ground. Through her lidded eyes, Lightning could distinguish two blurry figures hovering above her. They were yelling at her and slapping her repeatedly, but she didn’t feeling the stinging pain on her face, only the thunderous pounding in her skull. The pounding of drums. Each beat of her heart, every pulse sent new shock-waves of unimaginable pain through her head.

She had to find a way to end the torture; she had to make it all go away. She staggered to her hooves, shoving herself past the blurry objects. Her legs buckled once more as she collapsed to the floor in a heap; her head slamming on the hard surface.

The new external pain temporarily quelled the internal pain that drove her mad before coming back even more fierce and intense than before. The moment of relief felt so good, she had to experience it again, over and over until the torture ceased.

She scraped herself from the cold floor and stumbled forward until she ran into a hard wall. “Perfect, this will do just fine.” She thought to herself.

She reared back and slammed her skull into the wall with as much force as she could muster. The trenchant pain felt like pure bliss as she continually rammed her head into the wall with renewed vigor. The cracking sounds that echoed about the room filled the soundless void in her mind. Blood poured down her forehead, drenching her face in crimson. It seeped into her eyes and mouth. It didn’t bother her much anyway. Her vision had gone black and her eyes felt as though they were being crushed in a vice. Her jaw slacked open as moans of pain and pleasure oozed from her throat along with her blood. She huffed for air as she prepared for her last swing. As she did, she felt her head seemingly explode. Her legs gave way beneath her and she crumpled to the floor before exhaling her last breath, satisfied.

Gilda and Rainbow Dash could only watch in perplexed horror at what they had just witnessed. Lightning Dust had not stopped until she was gone, as if she never felt it. Perhaps she hadn’t.

Rainbow had now witnessed both deaths that night and wasn’t prepared to watch any more. Her eyes were fixed on the lime mare’s busted skull, her brain clearly visible through the blood and skull fragments.

Rainbow gulped slowly and spoke. “I think we need to get out of here Gilda, this kitchen seems to be where shit starts happening and I don’t want to be next.” Rainbow Dash’s voice quivered in fear at her own safety. She hadn’t grasped the gravity of her predicament until now, and she truly feared for her life. Gilda however, had other plans.

“If you want to go that’s up to you, but I’m not leaving until I find something. I just know we’re missing something in here.” Gilda hurried back to the kitchen counter.

“Stay if you want, but I’m getting out of here.” Rainbow turned and left into the castle interior, hoping to never have to step hoof in that deadly room ever again.

Nine little ponies

The hour getting late

One lost control, and then there were

Eight

Author's Note

Hey everybody!

So I noticed that this hasn't really been received as well as I had hoped, it may have something to do with the subject matter and the graphic nature of it. I get it, gore isn't everyone's cup of tea, but if there is anything outside of that I can improve upon to enhance quality, please do not hesitate to let me know.

I'm always open to constructive criticism and I love hearing your thoughts.

Thanks all!