All My Friends are Heathens

The ponies of Ponyville whispered to each other in frightened tones as three strange mares slowly made their way down the street. Some ponies even hid in their houses, watching them with apprehension.

The three newcomers were so... intimidating and... well... scary.

One pony had dark slate colored mane and tail, grayish coat, and violet eyes. Her mane hung over one side of her face, slightly obscuring one of her eyes. She wore a light purple cardigan over a dark t-shirt and a pair of black pants. Her cutie mark was some kind of Geode.

The second one had a silver-grey mane and tail, a dull lavender coat, and listless yellow eyes. She wore a white buttoned shirt under a pair of dark grey overalls. Her cutie mark appeared to be a gold nugget.

The last mare was the creepiest out of the three. Her mane and tail were a very dark midnight blue, and were so long, they almost reached the ground. Her mane hung over one side of her face, completely hiding one of her dark green eyes, which were sunken in slightly and surrounded by dark, sleepless shadows. Her coat was a much darker grey than the first pony, and had a blue tinge to it. She wore a dark bluish grey dress with a black sash around her waist and black fingerless gloves. Her cutie mark was a lock.

All three of them were earth ponies, and aside from their dark appearance, it was their facial expressions and the way they carried themselves that freaked out the citizens of Ponyville.

The first mare held her head up high, her heavy lidded eyes looking cold and apathetic, and she had this wide, creepy smile on her face. She walked with a slight strut.

The second was also smiling, but it was smaller, almost a smirk. She looked very mean as her eyes glared around at the onlookers they passed by. She held her head in a way as if she was ready to attack somepony at any second.

Finally, the darkest pony made no eye contact with anypony. She stared at the ground as she trudged along. Her hair just barely swept the ground as she moved. However, she wasn't walking like she was shy or depressed, but more like she was full of hatred and malice.

They stopped, and the ponies all held their breaths. Finally, the first mare walked over to Berry Punch, whose eyes were wide and her lip trembling.

"Excuse me." She called in a low but intimidating voice, "Do you happen to know where we can find a pony named Pinkie Pie?"

Berry Punch trembled and pointed her hoof down the street, "S-S-SugarCube Corner." She stuttered, "Down the st-street and to th-th-the l-left... Can't miss it..."

The strange pony tilted her head with that terrifying smile, "Thank you."

She rejoined the other two as they continued to the bakery. Berry Punch looked as though she was going to faint.

Eleanor/Quartzite's POV.
It was a quiet day in Ponyville. Pinkie Pie, Applebloom, Samantha, Ditzy and I were in the back room, playing with Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake, while Mrs. Cake was baking some pies.

Suddenly, there was a loud clang from the kitchen. Pinkie Pie looked up.

"Stay here, okay?" She told us.

Applebloom, Samantha, Ditzy and I nodded. She trotted into the kitchen. Mrs. Cake staring at the door. There was silence, until Pinkie's jaw dropped.

Suddenly, she suddenly screamed, "INKIE!! BLINKIE!!! It's been so long!!!!"

'Inkie' and 'Blinkie' laughed, hugging her back tightly. I got to my hooves and joined my pink cousin and Mrs. Cake.

I saw Pinkie hugging two mares out of the three that have entered the café. All three looked familiar to me. An all grey in a light purple cardigan and black pants. A darker grey in a buttoned shirt and overalls. And an all dark toned in a dress and gloves.

"We missed you so much, Pinkamena." The mare in the overalls smiled softly, using Pinkie's real name.

Only a small group knows Pinkie's real name. And they're members of her family.

"Ooh! I missed you too!" Pinkie Pie cried. She looked at the mare in the cardigan, "You guys haven't changed a bit!"

"Nope..." The mare shook her head, "Not at all..."

Then Pinkie turned to the third mare. The one in the dress. Mr. Cake joined his wife, watching with confusion.

"Who's this?" Pinkie Pie asked.

I narrowed my eyes at the three mares. I gaze turned to the dark mare. She was replaced by a younger filly in the same colors, wearing a grey sundress. Recognition hit me. I knew these three mares. My cousins!

"Obsidian... Limestone... Marble..." I gasped with a shocked expression.

The dark mare looked me and shared my shock, "Quartzite!"

Pinkie turned to me, "You know her, Nellie?"

Marble and Limestone grinned wide.

"Pinkie, meet our oldest sister," Limestone told Pinkie, "Obsidian 'Minkie' Pie."

Pinkie Pie stared at Obsidian for a few seconds, absolutely shocked. Then she suddenly gave a great gasp, "WHAT?!?!?"

Obsidian didn't flinch, but slowly raised her head to stare at her pink sister. She didn't seem to need to blink.

I walked around the counter and hugged my dark cousin, "I can't believe it. You're alive."

I felt Obsidian throw her arms around me.

"Can we go somewhere to talk?" Marble asked, "We got loads to tell you..."

"Of course!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed with a nod.

She lead us to her room upstairs. Once there, she leapt onto the bed, bouncing slightly. Obsidian, Marble and Limestone looked around at the brightly decorated room.

"You really Pink-ified it up, didn't you?" Limestone laughed. Pinkie and I giggled.

"So! Tell me, tell me, tell me!" Pinkie encouraged excited, "Sister? How'd you find her? Where's she been? How come we never met? When--"

Marble put a hand over Pinkie's mouth to silence her, "Chill."

She climbed onto the bed next to Pinkie. Limestone sat in an ice cream cone shaped chair. Obsidian and I simply sat on the floor.

"Alright. Blinkie, do you want to tell it, or should I go for it?" She asked her younger sister.

"I'll tell it!" Limestone quickly volunteered, "Alright, so this is what happened..."

Inkie Pie and I had just got back from selling cupcakes. We decided to sell rather than just give them away. We had also started making pies, cakes, pastries... the works. So we were walking around the farm before mom and dad put us to work, which we quickly grew to hate after you left, when we saw a pile of rocks... well, I know there were tons of piles of rocks, but this one looked as though it had been pony made. The reason we were suspicious is because one of the rocks seemed to have fallen off the pile, revealing a piece of old wood.

We approached it and started taking down the pile. Eventually, we discovered a door to a cellar. Mom and dad never told us we had a cellar, so obviously we were curious. We opened it up and descended the stairs.

It was so dark we could barely see our hooves in front of our faces. We coughed as heavy dust rose from the wooden stairs as we stepped on them, and there was a horrible smell of mold. As we got lower and lower, (it was an extremely deep cellar) we heard a faint voice that scared the cutie mark off of us.

"Mama?" said the voice. "Is that you? I'm cold..." Inkie Pie and I looked at each other, then we practically ran down the rest of the stairs. It was pitch black, but we could see a dark shape on the floor.

"Hello?" I said hesitantly.

"Who are you?" said the soft voice.

"Who are you?" said Inkie Pie.

"My name is Minkie Pie." When we heard that, we were terrified.

"Pie?" I said. "What..." I felt Inkie Pie dart forward. I tried to stop her, but I couldn't see through the darkness. I hesitantly followed her, both of us kneeling down next to the shape.

"Who are you really?" Inkie Pie said in a gentle voice.

"Please save me..." said Minkie Pie. "I'm cold and hungry... it's so dark... I've been down here for so long..." Inkie Pie stood up quickly.

"Blinkie Pie, stay here. I'll be right back." Before I could say anything, she ran back up the stairs. There was a painful silence, which was broken by a very soft cough from Minkie Pie. I was too shocked to say anything to her.

Eventually, Inkie Pie came back down with some sort of fabric. She tossed it onto the pony.

"Hurry, put that on," she whispered urgently. "Put the hood over your face. We need to move quickly, okay?"

"Where are we taking her?" I asked.

"To the cave," Inkie replied. "But we need to go without being seen. Blinkie, can you pile the rocks back up on the cellar door?"

"Yes," I assured her. Without another word, we dashed out of the cellar. Once outside in the sunlight, all I could see of the pony were about an inch of her hooves. The cloak Inkie Pie had put on her hid her very well.

While they ran off toward the cave, I quickly, but carefully, rebuilt the rock pile. Once I was finished, I tore after them, running faster than I've ever ran before.

I entered the cave and saw Inkie Pie stroking the mysterious pony's mane. She was laying on one of our torture tables, shivering as she tried to get warm in the cloak. Her shadowed eyes were closed, and she looked so weak and frail, it was almost like she was minutes from dying. I joined Inkie Pie by the table, and Minkie Pie weakly looked at us.

"Thank you..." she said in that same soft voice.

"Who are you?" I asked. "Why did you say your name is Pie?"

"I... I think I'm your sister." We were blown away. How could we not have known about a third sister?

"Why were you in that cellar?" Inkie Pie asked.

"When I was a very young filly, barely able to talk, mama and papa started to not like me," Minkie started. "I couldn't say much, but I could understand most of what they were saying. They spoke to each other, saying I was strange.

"When I got a little older, it got worse. I suppose they didn't like the things I said or the way I acted. I was quiet, but when I spoke, I'd speak my mind. I also didn't have a filter, so... when I was mad at them, I told them I wish they'd die. I meant it, but if I knew any better, I'd have kept it to myself. They'd see me outside when I was supposed to be working, mutilating the trees with sharp rocks.

"One day, mama saw me accidentally cut myself on one of these rocks. She came forward to help me, but... I kicked her and started mutilating myself with the rock. I don't know why, but it satisfied me. It was the only time I smiled.

"Then I overheard my parents talking about me. Mama said I must've been sent by the devil, that I wasn't right. Papa said that they couldn't kill me because that would be wrong. So they cleared out the cellar that used to be house mama's jars of home made jam and forced me to live down there. I was given a small pillow and a thin sheet, nothing else.

"Every three days, mama would bring me small bits of food. I could only tell when it was day because of the small crack in the door where the sun shined through. If it rained, I had to try and find something to stand on because the cellar would start to flood. Winters were horrible. I'm surprised I'm still alive.

"I tried to escape every day for nearly a year, but nothing worked. The rocks sitting on the door were too heavy, so I couldn't break through. I lost all my will after awhile, and decided that I was going to live the rest of my life locked up... and I'd die right there in the cellar. After that thought, this cutie mark showed up." Minkie Pie pulled up the cloak to reveal her flank. There was a mark shaped like a lock. "I only noticed it because I saw a dim flash. I decided to walk up the stairs to see if I could shine some light on it, and... there it was...

"Destined to remain locked up forever, I curled up in my sheet and cried. I cried nearly everyday until, after a few years, all sadness left me. I didn't feel anything but cold and hunger. I never moved unless I had to go to the bathroom in the bucket that mama emptied out each time she fed me. I never saw papa again, never heard his voice... and that's how it's been all these years..."

When Minkie Pie ended her story, mine and Inkie Pie's faces were wet with tears. We had been softly crying as she spoke, completely horrified at our sister's experience. We hugged her tightly, trying to give her the love she should've had all her life. After awhile, Inkie and I curled up on the table with Minkie Pie under the cloak and fell asleep, our bodies giving her warmth.

We woke up in the evening when we heard mom calling for us. We promised Minkie Pie that one of us would sneak out to bring her food and blankets, and that we'd decide what to do in the morning. Inkie Pie and I were rather cold toward our parents after that, and we didn't even eat. That was partially because we were so disgusted, and also because we wanted to bring the food to Minkie Pie.

After we all went to bed, Inkie Pie snuck out with a rucksack on her back full of things to help Minkie through the night. She was the one who went because she was darker and would be less likely to be spotted in the night.

The next morning, we rushed off to the cave before mom and dad even woke up to make sure Minkie Pie made it through the night. To our relief, she was fine. She even looked a little better. She started asking us about our lives, and we told her about you, which led to us telling her about our baking. Let me just say that she was intrigued.

We spent the whole day with her, even when our parents called for us. Minkie Pie started getting her emotions back, but they were filled with hatred and resentment toward our parents. We didn't blame her.

Then she said she wanted to make cupcakes.

Pinkie Pie's eyes were wide, dried tears clinging to the fur on her cheeks. She looked over at Obsidian, who had her head hung. Under her mane, which was covering most of her face, you could see a wicked smile.

"So what happened?" asked Pinkie Pie in a hushed voice.

"Pinkie..." Marble started, "The three of us killed our parents."

There was silence. Pinkie's mouth was agape, eyes expressionless, body tense. Limestone reached into her saddle bag and took out a small box, handing it to Pinkie Pie.

"We brought this for you." She told her.

Pinkie Pie slowly took the box and opened it. There was a lone cupcake. Pinkie Pie's lip trembled as she took out the cupcake, staring at it. Just then, her shaking lips slowly curled into a smile.

"This is their cupcake?" She asked in a whisper.

"Completely made by Minkie Pie," Marble explained, "Of course, we had to teach her the other ingredients and how to work the oven, but the way she handled mom and dad was superb."

"Well, after that much hatred, I'd expect nothing less!" Limestone smiled.

Pinkie took a large bite out of the cupcake, chewed, and then smiled wider.

She looked at me, "Nellie, try it. It's delicious!"

Pinkie gave me the half-eaten cupcake. I took a bite and chewed. A smile of delight grew on my face.

I turned to Obsidian, "This is amazing. Great job, Minkie!"

"Thank you." Obsidian gently replied, still smiling evilly.

Marble looked at me with wide eyes, "You know about the secret ingredients?"

Pinkie took the rest of the cupcake. I nodded, "I had my first victim two weeks ago." A smile grew on my face, "I guess it runs in the family."

When Pinkie Pie finished the cupcake, she hopped off the bed and ran over to her newly found sister and gave her a huge hug. Marble and Limestone joined them, and together they embraced in a group hug, reunited at last.

"Welcome back to the family!!"