With nothing stopping them, the ponies went about cleaning out the town as best as they could. Vinyl couldn’t carry anything more, weighed down with her sound system and Octavia’s cello. When asked, she refused to leave it behind and Applejack wasn’t about to fight with her on that point. “If you need a hoof carryin’ it, just ask, okay? You don’t need to carry it all by yourself.”

“Thanks, but nah. Tavi’s weight is my weight and I’ll keep it that way.” Vinyl answered with a little smile, as the group prepared to set on the road.

Trixie was staring nervously down the street, drawing Vinyl’s attention. “Yo, phony.” Trixie ignored her. “Magician. Hey, Trix, why do you look like you’re about to vomit or something?”

“Over there...” Trixie motioned, tilting her head to point. In the distance, two or three shambling figures were walking into view, teetering on their hooves as if they were drunk. They were all Earth Ponies and, much to Applejack’s misery, they appeared to be dressed like the residents of Appleloosa, only covered in bite and stab wounds. Applejack felt sick to her stomach, looking at the ponies she’d once shared meals with, once known by name, revived by sinister powers. Their eyes burned with dark energy as they sought out something to sate their eternal hunger.

“We need to run.” Pinkie leaned over as she spoke, grabbing Applejack’s head, physically turning her eyes from the Risen. “Don’t stare. Just run.” The other two had taken the cue, starting in the direction of the train tracks.

Trixie’s limp was more prominent now, her ability to disguise the injury long gone with fear and haste. Applejack and Pinkie follow up the rear, hearing the howls and moans of the Risen as they became aware of the running meal. The group fled, nopony looking back, the sounds of thundering hooves getting farther and farther away. Soon, Ponyville was gone from behind them, the train tracks clicking under their hooves. Panting, the four ponies stopped for the day, heaving in heavy breaths. They were closer to Canterlot, the massive city visible in the far distance on its mountainside perch.

Applejack slides off her saddlebag, sighing as she wiped some sweat from her face. She sat down, letting the weight off her shoulders. “I think we lost ‘em.” She and the others had taken to a small space beside the tracks, a very small clearing resting among the trees. “We should have somepony watch for ‘em, just in case.” The others shrugged free of their saddlebags, letting out sighs of relief.

“We should start a fire and get some food.” Vinyl sets down her belongings, holding the cello just long enough to make Applejack worry about her again. “I’ll keep an eye out. You guys worry about the fire, okay?”

Pinkie had regained some of her bounce in the time of silence and hopped around their makeshift campsite. “Who’s up for scary stories? Those are always great around a campfire. Oh oh, how about The Pony in Yellow? Or maybe The Cursing of Colonel Buck? Ooh ooh, maybe a good old classic like the Olden Pony?” Pinkie had a hoof gesture and silly pose for each one, making Applejack giggle. Leave it to Pinkie to find a way to make somepony laugh, even in such a dark time. Trixie was less enthused.

“How can you think of old mare’s tales at a time like this?” Trixie said, an audible crack to her voice at the end. Applejack noticed a look in her eyes, frantic and manic, like somepony who’s terrified to even breathe. She was sweating and tapping her hoof, generally making the others uneasy. Applejack looks over to her, frowning.

“Trixie, I figure now’s a good a time as any to ask. I saw you limpin’ back there and wanted to be sure ya weren’t bit.” Applejack keeps her tone level, eyes locked on Trixie to look for any unusual reactions. She makes a mental note as Trixie’s eye and ear twitch. “I ain’t sayin’ you are. Honestly, I figure you would be a lot sicker if you were, but I just wanna know what is wrong, so we can be sure to plan for it.”

“T-Trixie doesn’t wish to talk about it, but if you insist. While she was running from the monsters, Trixie fell on a root and hurt her leg. It healed poorly, so running has become difficult.” The magician’s eyes were darting between them, looking worried or scared. “I can prove it. See, no bite.” Trixie lifted her cloak, showing off her body.

There wasn’t any bites visible to Applejack, but that didn’t convince her right away. She stared at Trixie until the mare started looking uncomfortable. “I’ll go get some wood for the fire and some food. There must be some nice herbs around here somewhere. I need some time alone.” Trixie rushed her sentence, turning to hurry into the woods. Applejack watched Trixie leave, considering.

“You two set up here. I’m gonna go see what’s eatin’ her. That ain’t fittin’ to what we know of her.” Applejack mumbled out, starting after Trixie. Something wasn’t sitting right in all this; either Trixie was hiding a bite somehow, or she was lying. Applejack knew the face of a liar when she saw one.

She slowed her steps, moving silently as she follows the aqua mare. The woods wrapped around them, holding them in a dark embrace. Eventually, Trixie stopped, looking over a patch of flowers. They were daisies, resting beside a small pool of water. At first, Applejack thought she was looking at the flowers, but quickly she realized she was staring at her reflection.

“You know…” Applejack twitched as Trixie spoke, freezing in place. Had she not been quiet enough? “You can’t trust them, Trixie.”

Applejack wasn’t sure if she should relax when she realized she wasn’t seen, or become more tensed when she realized Trixie was talking to herself. Trixie’s eyes were wild, her ear twitching constantly. As she spoke, her voice trembled. “They’ll be like the others soon. They’ll get bit and then they’ll bite you and me...”

She shifted her leg so she wasn’t standing on it anymore. “Like the ones who broke our perfect leg. They called us crazy, but I was just doing what I had to do. They would turn into monsters and they would bite and turn us into monsters too. We both just did what Trixie had to do. And we will do what we have to do, again. Won’t we?” Trixie’s hat levitated off, resting in the grass. “The white one, I can trust. She barely remembers Trixie. But the other two are friends of Sparkle. They’ll stab Trixie right in the back, even if they aren’t turned into monsters, I’m sure. Yes. They’re treacherous ponies, the lot of them.”

Trixie’s twisted grin made Applejack’s blood freeze. It wasn’t the kind of grin a sane pony would make. “They won’t get Trixie. She won’t let them. She’ll stop them, like the other ones.” Her horn shimmered, a knife slipping from a small pouch she had kept hidden inside her cloak. It was one from Sugarcube Corner and, sickeningly, it was smeared with dried blood. Applejack took a step back, deciding to run. She would pretend like she never saw this and they would abandon Trixie later on, once they were a safe distance from Ponyville.

A twig snapped under her hoof, makes her whole body tense. Of all the times for a stupid cliché, it had to be now, didn’t it? Applejack cursed her luck as Trixie turned slowly, chuckling. “Are they showing their colors earlier than expected?”

Applejack turned, rushing back to the camp. She needed to warn Pinkie and Vinyl. She heard a faint hiss, followed by a loud sound, a thunk, from her left. She didn’t stop; she had no time to worry about anything but where she was going. She hoped that something was there to slow Trixie down, but she wasn’t holding her breath. When the trees broke Applejack sped up even more, glad she wouldn’t need to dodge them anymore.

“Girls, we need to get outta here! Pack up and get runnin’ now! Don’t be stoppin’ to look at me like that, get those saddlebags back up and get goin’! Now!” The two didn’t argue, putting their saddle bags on. Vinyl hurried, re-strapping the cello to her back.

“So what’s this all about, AJ? Those things out there?” Vinyl spoke, as Pinkie Pie was still packing. As she started approaching, she looked somewhere over Applejack’s left shoulder. “Hey Trix, you know what this is about? You get some food?” Applejack’s pupils shrunk to pinpoints. There was a flash of light and something hissed through the air. Applejack felt the wind on her neck, making her swallow instinctively. Vinyl shouted in pain as a wound burst from her side, the saddlebag falling, the strap cut. Pinkie gasped, dropping her bag as the knife drifted back to Trixie’s side.

“Trixie’ll have all the food Trixie will need soon enough.” The mare’s eyes burned brightly, with both insanity and magic. “All Trixie needs to do is carve it.” The knife swung again, a slashing motion this time, at Applejack. The orange pony jumped, leaping out of the knife’s reach. She skidded to a stop, turning to face Trixie.

“It’s three on one, we can take ‘er.” Vinyl and Pinkie nodded, Vinyl dropping the cello to lighten her load. “Maybe she’s got a reason for all this craziness. Let’s try to not hurt her too bad. Trixie, calm yerself down! We’re your friends!”

Applejack yelped, dodging a flying knife, which lodged itself in the ground where her hoof had been second before. Vinyl hurried to levitate it, but Trixie’s magic easily overpowered hers, the magician having more strength in the field of levitation. “The Great and Powerful Trixie will not succumb to your filthy lies! Y-You’re all probably already bit and hiding it. Or you’re just luring Trixie into a false sense of security so you can kill her. Like those filthy mud ponies from before.”

Applejack seized up, realizing something. “… From before?” Pieces began clicking together in her mind and terror rose in her throat, along with bile. “Trixie, you- how could you?” Applejack paled, trembling. “How many? How many did you kill?” Pinkie and Vinyl both turn to look at Applejack, then Trixie, terrified.

“The ones we had to. As many as I had to, to make them leave us alone. They were plotting to kill us, I know they were. They hated Trixie before all this. They called her a fraud and chased her out of Appleloosa. But who has power now, huh? All of you mud ponies are so predictable.” Trixie’s laugh was manic, thrown in the middle of words here and there, as if she couldn’t control herself. “I killed them. I killed them, one by one. With this very knife.” As she spoke, she started crying, but the smile hadn’t left her face. “And then, Trixie ate well. Trixie survived. She always survives.”

Applejack felt a surge of rage. She pictured Braeburn and the other Appleloosans being knifed to death by Trixie. Her blood boiled and soon, she didn’t care who Trixie was anymore. “Fine. We’ll just have to kill you first, then.” Trixie laughed out loud, swinging the knife at Pinkie Pie this time. The pink mare managed to duck, but yelped as the knife ripped through her ear. She stumbled and falls, trembling, staring down at the small chunk of ear Trixie had removed, resting in a small pool of blood.

Applejack took initiative while Trixie was distracted, rushing towards her. “Vinyl, get me my lasso! It’s in my bag!” Vinyl acted swiftly, levitating the lasso out, flinging it towards Applejack. Trixie returned the knife back to her, dripping with blood from Pinkie’s fresh wound.

“That won’t work, you lesser pony. The Great and Powerful Trixie will still kill you easily.” The knife flipped in the air, moving to stab down at Applejack, who hopped to the side to avoid the slash. She avoided being injured, but the knife cut cleanly through the rope, severing the knot Applejack normally left tied in it.

The knife flew outwards, in Pinkie Pie’s direction as Trixie abandoned it, opting for a burst of magic light instead. The flash was blinding, leaving Applejack helpless. Trixie’s grin grew as she stared down at the crippled mare, horn dancing with deadly combat magic. “Let me show you what Snarkle’s library taught me, you filthy-“

Trixie stopped, twitching slightly, her eyes wide and her mouth gaping in surprise and pain. The knife was lodged in her side, blood leaking from the wound, Pinkie’s hoof wrapped around the handle. As Applejack’s vision returned, she soaked in what she was seeing.

Pinkie’s hair had straightened out and her eyes were empty, devoid of any rational thought. Applejack had seen this before and the sight of her enraged friend chilled her bones. “Pinkie, don’t!” Applejack shouted, but Pinkie twisted the knife, making Trixie buckle and collapse in agony. As the aqua unicorn screamed in agony and terror, Pinkie started to slowly grin, her lips twitching as if they were lifting themselves forcefully. Applejack was forced to watch, terrified. It almost mirrored Trixie’s smile, in a sick way.

“There is no laughter in a world like this.” Pinkie said, giving the knife another sound twist. Trixie screamed again, crying now and begging for Pinkie to stop. Pinkie heard none of it and never stopped smiling. She didn’t even hear Applejack screaming for her to snap out of it.

“There aren’t any smiles either. Nopony smiles anymore. So I’ll just need to make them smile.” Pinkie ripped the knife out, grabbing Trixie’s mane and pulling her up to stare into her eyes. Pinkie was oblivious to the world around her; it was only her and Trixie, alone in a dark void of madness. “Do you want to smile, Trixie?” The knife tapped against Trixie’s gritted teeth, and then slipped between them, forcing her to open her mouth. “I can make even the saddest pony smile, now. Don’t believe me? Let me show you, Trixie.”

Trixie cried, trying to push Pinkie Pie away. She was in too much pain to concentrate on her magic and was in no position to outdo Pinkie Pie in physical strength. Pinkie braced to slide the blade up, through the cheeks of Trixie’s muzzle, laughing to herself as she did.

The knife was suddenly coated in a light blue aura and Pinkie twitched, trying to force it to move.

Vinyl wasted no time tugging the weapon from Pinkie Pie. It had taken a few seconds for her shock to wear off, but the task was easily done now, sparing the wounded mare more torture. Trixie bubbled out thanks, her wound oozing blood. Pinkie went to turn, to demand for the knife back, but Applejack was there, swiftly kicking Pinkie square in the face. Perhaps it was a little excessive, but Applejack couldn’t see her friend like this any longer. Pinkie fell unconscious, landing overtop of the bleeding Trixie. As Applejack looked over the pair, she met eyes with Trixie.

Trixie was horribly wounded, the cut digging in between her ribs. Pinkie must have broken them and spread them apart because, much to Applejack’s dismay, she could swear she saw something that wasn’t muscle among the wound. “T-Trixie doesn’t… I don’t want to die. Please… A-Applejack, save me… Please. I… don’t want to be one of those… those things. Do something. Do… anything. P-please.” Trixie’s voice was hoarse, her speech broken by bouts of pain and coughing. As the mare continued to beg, Applejack just stared in silence. Trixie had killed her family members in cold blood. She’d injured them, if Applejack’s guess was right, and left them to be eaten in her stead by those monsters, while she ran to save her own hide.

So why wasn’t Applejack overjoyed to see this? She felt a pang of guilt, as she realized that a part of her had wanted Trixie to die, but now she was regretting it. She’d gotten what she’d wished for.

“What’re we gonna do?” Vinyl moved up alongside Applejack, tossing the knife into the trees. “Leave her? And what about Pinkie? That was some crazy stuff there and I’m not too sure travelin’ with her is a good idea.”

“We ain’t leavin’ either of em.” Applejack spoke sternly, turning to look to Vinyl. “Get Pinkie and patch her ear up. Be sure there ain’t no sharp things around when she gets up, you understand me? I’ll deal with miss magic here.” Vinyl nodded and without another word, left to fulfil Applejack’s orders.

As she looked down over Trixie, Applejack remembered when she first met the boaster. She’d hated her at first and, even after she returned with the Alicorn Amulet, she had little reason to forgive the magician mare. But now, seeing her like this, begging for mercy and wracked with pain, Applejack regretted never giving her a chance. Leaning in, she lifted Trixie as gently as she could, resting the wounded unicorn onto her back, silently carrying her into the woods.

“You know, you caused me a load a trouble a lotta times and, all those times, I never really gave you a chance at redemption. I’m sorry for that, Trixie. You deserved another chance.” Applejack sets her against a tree in the woods, looking at her. She was pale from blood loss, far beyond saving, but she was still conscious. She wasn’t able to reply, but her eyes showed she understood Applejack. “I-I won’t let you turn into one of those monsters. You don’t deserve that. And I ain’t about to make ya suffer any more. Close yer eyes, T-Trixie.”

Taking a deep breath, Trixie listened and obeyed, closing her eyes. She’d come to realize nothing could be done for her. Fear and pain had given way to a calm clarity. Even her madness had faded, in the wake of her death. “Sparkle…”

Applejack turned, closing her own eyes. She imagined herself on her farm; the world still bright and hopeful. Applebloom would be home from school soon and she’d need to get her help with making cider. She was going through her usual daily routine, buck a tree for the apples in the branches. Her breath was heavy and her body hesitated, knowing this wasn’t the same as harvesting apples. There was a moment of stillness around her, tears streaming from her eyes as she braced to kick back.

No matter how hard Applejack tried, she couldn't disguise the sound of Trixie's skull, cracking under her hooves. She knew that sound would hide in the back of her nightmares, for the rest of her life.

Author's Note

So, a few interesting things;

When I was writing this, I was still a relatively new brony. Grimdark fanfics, like Rainbow Factory and Cupcakes lead me to write my own; this. As a homage to my original inspirations, I have themes and direct references to them throughout the story. For instance, as a bit of a teaser, I will mention that Rainbow stumbles upon the ruins of the Rainbow Factory.

This chapter is where I really started putting the 'Grim' in Grimdark.

-Inkheart