Not The First

"Spike!" I was getting a little angry now. Okay, a lot angry. "This has gone on long enough. You need to eat!"

He said nothing.

"Just try a piece, okay? Would I hurt you?"

His claw dropped down over his stomach, which I did not look at. For just a moment, something told me I should, but it was pushed aside.

"Look: I'll eat some, too. Aaaah." I took the chunk of meat into my mouth and chewed. "Ss-shea? 'S good!"

The little dragon stubbornly sat on the corpse pile, ignoring me.

I swallowed. "Why won't you eat it?"

Nothing.

"Rrrr. Spike!"

I reached out without thinking, and slapped him. Spike rolled across the ground, quite limp. It took a moment for me to realize what I'd just done.

"OhmyCelestia, I'm sorry! I'm sorry, Spike." I cradled him as gently as I could. "I didn't mean it. Twilight didn't mean it." He stayed still. "You're asleep again, aren't you?" I realized.

Just like that, I dropped him back on the ground. "Hrumph. I suppose I can't blame you. Nothing to do in here anymore except sleep and wait for-"

Pop!

I felt my pupils constrict. "Did you-"

Pop!

Thump.

Shuut-shuut-shuut.

"Gaah!"

Sh-sh-sh-sh-shuut!

"Whoa!"

A moment later, a me slid down the side of the hill of mes, along with another couple of mes that had dislodged. The difference between the firs me that fell and the others was that the first one was alive.

I watch her flail around, and for just a moment I froze. I knew what I wanted to do. I knew what I had planned. But I froze.

And then I slapped myself. "Okay, Twilight. It's time."

I found her near the base, struggling to dig herself out from under a pile of bodies. She looked scared and helpless.

Good.

She stopped when she saw me. "Sweet Celestia," she whispered.

I probably looked pretty frightening. My mouth caked with dried blood- and a little fresh; my thin limbs and swollen stomach; my stringy mane and wide eyes. I stared at her for a second, my face flat.

Then I forced a smile and held out a hoof. "Welcome, Princess."

After a moment, she took my hoof and I helped her out from under the pile. "Th-thank you," she said. "What is this place?"

I led her up the hill. "This is a sub-dimension. A space between spaces. Every time Twilight Sparkle has teleported- filly, unicorn, alicorn, princess- we've ended up here. And we stay here. Until we die."

"But that's impossible!" she cried. "Surely, if teleportation worked that way, it would've been outlawed centuries ago."

"Oh, naturally," I agreed. "If anypony knew about it. See, the new pony that shows up back in Equestria? She's got all our memories. Except of this place. She doesn't know. She'll never know."

"Well- maybe we can tell her! Maybe we can find a way to get a message out, to stop all this from-"

I cut her off. "I'm afraid that's going to be impossible, Princess."

We'd reached the mouth of my cave, and I waved her inside. After a moment's hesitation, she went in. "Firstly," I told her, "We have no magic. Getting a message out is about as likely to happen as Pinkie Pie flying."

"It's Pinkie Pie," she deadpanned.

"Applejack, then." I rolled my eyes, which hurt. "My point is, it's not happening. And secondly-" We rounded the last curve of the cave, entering my living area."-You're not going to have time to try."

"What?" She looked around, eyes widening in horror. She took in the sight of Sparkle with her pinned smile, and Spike sleeping on the ground. She looked at the bodies that made up the walls. "Oh no- no no no no no..."

I stepped closer. "You killed my friend, Princess. Now you're going to pay!"

She jumped away just as my axe slashed towards her. I cursed under my breath and charged again, determined to hobble her at the very least. She dodged again.

"I never killed anypony!" she gasped. "I'm the Princess of Friendship!"

"You were," I corrected. "Now you'll be a corpse!"

She ducked my axe- very annoying.

"I'm serious! I never hurt your friend!"

"You did!" I pointed at Sparkle. "Look at her, Princess! Your potion did that. You killed her!"

She looked and winced. "Oh, ponyfeathers. I didn't mean to! I was just trying to get the potion away!"

"Congratulations. Here's your reward!" While she was distracted, I slammed the axe blade down on her shoulder. Princess screeched in agony and collapsed. I smiled. The pitch of her scream rose as I slammed the blade down again, and again, and again. I hacked her foreleg off, then hit her with it, then started on the other leg. Blood sprayed across the other bodies that made the ground.

But before I could get in more than two strikes on the second leg, she rolled to the side. My axe hit the wrong Twilight and stuck. Princess struggled up on three legs, powered by adrenaline.

"I'm sorry!" she yelled. "Please, just stop!"

"No!"

I took out a knife and threw it at her, knocking her off her hooves.

"What do you think, Spike?" I called over to the sleeping dragon. "Should I finish the leg, or go for the eyes?"

She writhed around until she was able to push herself up again, though she was more sitting than standing. "Wh-who are you talking to?"

"Spike!" I said. "My Number One Assistant. He's been waiting patiently for you to get here. Just like me."

She looked over at Spike, who had slept through all the noise. Her eyes widened. "What have you done to him," she murmured.

"Nothing," I lied. I couldn't tell her I'd just hit him. I already felt terrible enough. I promised I'd make it up to him later.

In fact... "You're the one who did something to him. You sent him here! You doomed him to this life. And since he's a dragon, he'll live here a lot longer than I will."

She paled. "Live? He's dead!"

She might as well have slapped me.

"Dead?" I repeated. My voice was silky. "What do you mean, dead?"

Princess glanced back and forth between me and Spike. "Please tell me you're joking," she said.

"No, please. Explain."

"Oh, sweet Celestia, you're not." She started trying to push herself backwards. With only one foreleg, and a lot of blood loss, she didn't have an easy time of it. "Get away!"

I gently picked up Spike and brought him closer. "You're going to make me wake him up, but go ahead. Tell me! Does he look dead to you?" I pushed Spike into her face.

She gagged. "Yes! Stars' sakes, get away!"

"Take it back!" I placed Spike on the cave floor in front of her and pulled the axe out again. "Apologize to him."

She pressed herself into the wall, shaking. Blood oozed out of what used to be her shoulder. She moved her head to the side. And the other side.

"Apologize!"

"N- nuh..."

I glared at her. "Tell. Spike. You're. Sorry!"

"NO!" she shouted. Then she threw herself forward. Her hoof slammed into Spike's head. And it collapsed. Brain and bone popped from gaps in his scales; gore splattered everywhere. Princess reared up and stomped down again. "No!" Again. "No!" Again. "No! No no no no no no no!" Every time she said it, she stomped again, until there was nothing left of my faithful assistant but a bloody smear on the floor.

I stared in shock. "You- you just..."

She was breathing hard; the flow of blood from her wounds was thick and unstopping. But she looked horribly satisfied. "He's dead!" she said.

I looked from the mess to her face and back, scarcely able to believe it. "I already knew you were a murderer," I whispered. "But now I see... you're a monster."

"Call me whatever you want," she scowled. "I'm not the crazy one here."

"Crazy?" My eye twitched. "Crazy?" I reared up, raising my axe as high as I could. "I'll show you CRAZY!"

I brought the axe down on her other foreleg, cleaving it off in one blow. "You're worse than Sombra." I pushed her onto her back and brought the axe down on her hind leg. "Worse than Chrysalis!" I chopped off her third leg and went to the fourth. "Worse than Tirek!"

She lay there, a limbless, bleeding body. Her lungs heaved; I could hear every breath. "You're the most evil, uncaring, horrible monster in the history of Equestria," I told her. "So die!" I raised up my axe again, ready to deliver the final blow.

"I... forgive you..."

I paused. "What?"

She coughed up blood. "I forgive you. This place... I get it. It's not Tartarus. But it's close enough. Do it," she whispered. "Just get it over with."

I stared. "Okay."

Her eyes snapped open. "Wait what! I was-"

I brought the axe down. Not on her neck, no. I swiped the blade across her truck, from chest to crotch. And then I pushed her over on her side.

Her guts spilled outward, a steaming and pulsing mass of red. She gurgled and gasped, but seemed unable to speak.

Good.

I leaned in close and smiled at her. "Goodbye, Princess. I wish you'd been more cooperative. You deserve much worse."

She made a small noise, but I ignored it. "I know!" I realized. "You'll be back! You're only the remainder, after all. So guess what!" Princess burbled blood. "I'm going to kill her, too! I'm going to kill her, and the next one, and the next one. Every time she comes back. I'll kill her."

Princess rolled her head, and her eyes drooped. The glint of pain faded away. She was gone.

I was glad. I finished my vow, standing over her corpse. "I will kill Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship. Or I'll die trying."