Camp Cutie Lake

The next day was a flurry of emotions and activity. Cheerilee oversaw a subdued breakfast, while Applejack ran to the next town to fetch carriages to get the police and carriages to send the foals home. Nopony wanted to say anything or do anything, and the flower sisters were inconsolable. They spent the day in their cabin, weeping over the loss of their sister. All of the foals were sitting quietly in the mess hall, picking at their food and playing board games or other amusing games to keep themselves busy while they waited for the carriage.

Lyra and Bon Bon had offered to go investigate the lake, and maybe try to dredge it for her body. Cheerilee had expressly forbade them from going or onto the lake until the police arrived. The colt who had seen her go under, who went by the name of Dressy Shoes, had insisted, time and again, that it was a pony who had grabbed her. The pony, he said, had long and muscular legs, a misshapen skull, and had something on his head. Dressy hadn’t been able to see much of the thing underwater, especially with Roseluck’s body in the way, but the thing had surfaced once to scream at him, which is when he had let go.

Cheerilee was satisfied with the explanation, and the poor colt was clearly traumatized, but if this was Deep Cutter from the story, then why had he decided to show himself now? If it was the foals, this was going to get very dangerous, very quick. But then why had he attacked Roseluck? Cheerilee couldn’t make sense of it, and that was what worried her the most. A murderer without an obvious motive was dangerous. She satisfied herself with working on breakfast and keeping the foals entertained while they waited. Nopony was alone out there, so all they could do was wait for Applejack to return.

Daisy and Lily were crying in their room, hugging each other tight. They had long since failed to produce any more tears, and were just heaving with dry sobs as they tried to reign in their emotions. Roseluck had been their sister their whole lives, and they had all worked together as a team to sell their flowers. They had been inseparable. Roseluck was the mare the stallions all came to see, and she would sell them a rose. Then as the stallion turned to leave, Daisy and Lily would swoop in and badger the poor colt to buy more flowers to complement the rose she had sold him. Roseluck would agree that it would be flattering, and he would buy it just to please her. Now they had lost a sister, a business partner, and a friend all at once, and they couldn’t even find the body. They sobbed and sniffled, trying to get over it, when they heard a stomping and cracking sound outside the cabin.

They both went silent.

When they stopped making sound, the hoofsteps outside did as well.

“What was that?” Daisy said, her voice low.

The crackling moved a small amount. The bushes outside moved and shuffled with whatever was out there.

“I don’t know, but I don’t trust it,” Lily whispered.

The hoofsteps moved again, and this time it sounded like they were coming from outside the wall they were leaning against. The two mares pulled away from the wall, staring at it with wide eyes. Their heartbeats were loud in their ears as the bed creaked underneath them, and the rustling sound from outside got even louder.

It stopped outside their wall, and the two remaining sisters clung to each other, waiting for some other indication that the sound had moved on.

A metal hook on a long pole crashed through the wooden wall, splinters flying toward the sisters. They screamed in terror as the pole speared through, came close to their faces, then ripped back outside.

An eye peered in the hole the pole had made, taking in the state of the room and the sisters. It pulled away and hoofsteps started moving to the front and only door into the cabin. Daisy and Lily screamed and bolted for the entrance, realizing the intent. They ran for the door, with Lily the first one out. Daisy followed close behind, and they both turned to see the thing that had attacked them.

It was a stallion, of that they were certain. He was taller than average, with wiry muscle and a sack covering his eye. Two eyeholes were cut into the sack at different heights, and he was holding the pole he had stabbed through the cabin wall in his teeth as he advanced on them at a slow but inexorable pace.

Lilly and Daisy bolted, aiming to head for the mess hall where the rest of the ponies were holed up, but Daisy felt something stab into her hind leg. It pulled her to the ground, and she started sliding back toward the stallion following them.

“Ahhh! Lily, help!” Daisy cried.

Lily spun about to see her sister, the boathook embedded in her leg as the stallion yanked her toward him. Lily ran back and grabbed her sister’s forehooves, trying to pull her away. He made no sound as he pulled, far stronger than the two of them, but he yanked harder, and Daisy’s flesh tore as the hook came loose, carrying a chunk of her flesh with it. Daisy screamed as she was freed, and Lily yanked her to her hooves. She helped support her sister as they made for the mess hall, Daisy leaving a trail of blood behind her.

Lily chanced a look behind as the stallion pulled the chunk of flesh off the hook and tossed it to the side. He put the hook back in his teeth and started walking after them, not running as she might have expected. Still, he was keeping up with them, not losing much ground as the two sisters hobbled away.

Daisy and Lily hobbled toward the mess hall, the wide-open windows and doors calling to them as the stallion behind them kept up his pursuit. They started screaming for help, and a crowd gathered at the doors to see what the commotion was about.

Cheerilee pushed through the crowd to see what was happening, and gasped, then immediately rushed out to help carry Daisy into the hall.

“Quickly, children, lock all the doors! Even the ones in the back, and stay away from any entrances! Quickly! Quickly!” Cheerilee yelled.

Some of the older colts rushed away from the group and went to lock all other doors and windows, and as soon as Cheerilee, Lily and Daisy were inside, everypony slammed the large double doors and locked them. Cheerilee brought several benches and tables up to the doors and slammed them up against it, barring it as well as she could manage.

Crying foals were all over, and Cheerilee brought everypony into the middle of the room while she checked the other doors and brought out a first aid kit. She began bandaging Daisy’s wounded leg while asking colts about the other doors.

“The windows are higher than a normal pony can reach, so I don’t think he’ll come in there,” Cheerilee said.

“He has that hook, though,” a colt said.

“Yeah, but Deep Cutter isn’t a unicorn, he’s an earth pony,” another one said.

“That’s not Deep Cutter,” a filly said.

“Of course it is, why else would he attack us?” a colt said.

“Was he the one who drowned Roseluck?” somepony asked.

“Yeah, she was too pretty and he was jealous,” another pony said.

“No, she got grabbed by an octopus,” somepony answered.

“Octopuses don’t live in lakes,” somepony said.

“Octopi.”

“Is he gonna break in?”

“No, the doors are too solid. He’d need something bigger.”

“What’re we gonna do?”

“Is Applejack back with the police?”

“Who’s out there? I wanna go home!”

“Everypony quiet!” Cheerilee yelled.

The ponies all quieted down and looked to her.

“Now I know we’re all scared, but we have all the doors locked, and the windows are high up. He hasn’t gotten in yet, and I don’t think he will, but we need to remain calm,” Cheerilee said. “I need you all to listen to me and do exactly as I say when I say it, understand?”

They nodded.

“Good, now I don’t know who’s out there, and I don’t know what they want, but they’ve hurt Daisy, and they may or may not have been the one who attacked Roseluck. The problem we have now, is that Lyra and Bon Bon are out there, and they don’t know that he’s dangerous. I need to go out and warn them,” Cheerilee said.

“No, you can’t! It’s too dangerous!” somepony said.

“I can, and I must, or his victims will grow. Lily, I need you to lock the door behind me when I go, and make sure everypony stays in the center of the room at all times. Gather anything you need from the kitchen to defends yourselves if necessary, but make sure everything stays locked. Only open the door for Applejack, Lyra, Bon Bon, or myself, and make sure you hear their voice before opening the door, okay?”

Lily and Daisy both nodded.

“Okay, Cheerilee, but take something to defend yourself with, okay?” Lily said.

Cheerilee went into the kitchen, with Lily following behind her once Daisy was set on a bench. Cheerilee looked for the kitchen utensils, finding a drawer full of knives and other implements. She grabbed a wicked looking chef’s knife herself, and Lily grabbed the rest and began divvying them out among the older foals. Once all the dangerous kitchen tools were divided up, Lily took a cleaver for herself, and joined Cheerilee at one of the rear doors.

Cheerilee stood behind the door and cracked it open. When nothing happened, she swung it wide. When still nothing happened, she finally peeked around the door outside into the woods. There didn’t appear to be anything, and there was no noise, so Cheerilee decided that was going to have to be good enough. She slipped out of the mess hall, across the open ground and into the woods. She waved to Lily once she was hidden in the underbrush, and Lily waved back, then shut the door and locked it, sealing herself and the foals inside the building once again.

Cheerilee crept away through the trees, keeping herself as inconspicuous as she could. She tried to avoid as many branches as possible, and kept her knife at the ready in her right hoof. It made walking slow, but rushing wouldn’t be safe, so that was fine. She just needed to find Lyra and Bon Bon and let them know there was a killer about. They said they were going to try to dredge the lake where Roseluck had gone under to see if they could recover the body. That meant they were armed with implements similar to the hook Deep Cutter had been carrying, if the pony was indeed Deep Cutter. At this point Cheerilee didn’t care. He was a danger to them all, and they needed to be protected from him.

She skulked through the woods toward the pier, and crested the hill that led down to the pier itself. She tried to spot Lyra and Bon Bon as she went, but was unable to see any mint green or cream colour. They had started at the pier, but if they hadn’t managed to find her body there, they would have moved a bit down the shoreline. But which direction? She had to choose, so she went to the right of herself, hoping to see some sign of them.

Lyra and Bon Bon stuck their hooks into the deep and murky waters ahead of them. Cheerilee had forbade them from going out into the lake any deeper than their fetlocks, which stunted Bon Bon’s ability to help, and wasn’t going to give them much luck in dredging up a body that had sunk to the bottom further out. Still, they owed it to Roseluck to try until the police arrived.

“So, do you think it was Deep Cutter, like the foals claim?” Lyra asked.

Bon Bon sighed yet again. They’d had this conversation several times since they had begun dredging, and it hadn’t changed yet. Lyra was obsessed with finding out if the ghost story was true or not. She seemed almost excited about it.

“No, Lyra, I do not,” Bon Bon said. “ If it is a pony and not just bad luck on Roseluck’s part in getting dragged under by an anim, then I think it’s a pony who is taking advantage of the ghost story to get away with murder, and have it be blamed on the phantom in the ghost story instead of him or her self.”

“I’m just saying, maybe it’s magic,” Lyra said.

“I know, you’ve said it multiple times, but magic can’t bring ponies back from the dead. That foal in the story died, what, twenty years ago? Surely somepony would have noticed them coming back,” Bon Bon said.

“But what if it’s—“ Lyra stopped as Bon Bon raised a hoof to cut her off.

Bon Bon’s eyes narrowed and her ears twitched, swiveling on her head to try to pinpoint some sound she had heard.

“Get out of the water,” Bon Bon said.

Lyra didn’t hesitate and moved out of the shallows up to the muddy bank with Bon Bon close behind her. Lyra knew her well enough to know that something was out of place, and Bon Bon meant to defend the both of them with her life.

“Move back toward the mess hall slowly, and keep your boathook at the ready. Somepony is watching us, and trying not to be seen. I don’t know if they mean us harm, but if they didn’t, then why are they hiding?” Bon Bon said.

Lyra and Bon Bon walked up the shore to the main path that led back to the mess hall. Unfortunately, it narrowed further ahead, putting them within reach of the woods on either side. The alternative was to walk along the shoreline, but the water was dangerous as well, as whatever had pulled Roseluck under might still be there. Bon Bon didn’t know if it was the thing that had taken Roseluck watching them or not, but there was no safety in giving it the benefit of the doubt.

They walked along the path for a short distance, but were stopped short when they saw that one of the boats had been dragged from the shore and placed sideways along the path, forcing them to either climb over it or go around it into the woods. Neither option was safe, since they couldn’t see through it to find if a pony was hiding behind it.

“What do we do, Bon Bon?” Lyra asked.

Bon Bon’s ears were still flicking about as she tried to pick up some noise besides themselves. “We may have to wait. This pony means us harm, and is looking to put us in a position that is advantageous to them. The tricky part is, I don’t know if they’re still here anymore or not. If they’re here, they’re not attacking anypony else, but if they’re not here, then we’re stuck here unable to help everypony while we debate. But where is the pony that is threatening us?”

Bon Bon hefted her boathook and pointed at the boat straight ahead, motioning with her head. Lyra nodded, hefted her boathook with her magic, and shot it straight forward through the hull, to sink into something on the other side with a satisfying SHUCK!

Lyra tried to pull her hook back out, but a hoof grabbed it before it could slip out of the wood. Her horn glowed brighter as she yanked on it, sliding the boat toward them a bit, but she couldn’t pull it free. There was a thumping sound, and the boat blocking their path split in two with a horrifying CRUNCH, leaving them looking at Deep Cutter himself, with the boathook stuck into his right shoulder. He had grabbed onto it with his left hoof and was holding it tight, unwilling to let Lyra steal it back from him.

“Lyra, stop pulling and push instead!” Bon Bon said.

Lyra tried to push it deeper into his flesh, but only made it an inch or so before he managed to prevent it from moving again. “He’s not letting me, Bon Bon, he’s incredibly strong!”

“Grab him directly, then!” Bon Bon said.

Lyra let go of the hook and wrapped Deep Cutter in magic, then began lifting him off the ground. He looked confused for a moment, then focused his eyes on Lyra herself. Without even so much as a grunt, he ripped the boathook out of his shoulder, and hurled it at Lyra. Bon Bon’s hoof flashed out kicked it away, sending it spinning into the woods, but Lyra still flinched. Her magic winked out.

Deep Cutter lifted one half of the boat and chucked it in their direction. Bon Bon grabbed Lyra and dove into the trees. The boat splintered and slid along the path, crashing into trees. Deep Cutter grabbed the other half of the boat and hurled it at their new hiding place. The boat impacted the tree they were behind, sending a shower of leaves and seeds down on top of them. Bon Bon pulled Lyra to the side just as Deep Cutter’s other boathook speared the ground where she had been standing.

“He used the boat as a distraction. I’m not sure if he’s smart or just clever. Either way, he’s strong,” Bon Bon said.

Bon Bon pulled Lyra further into the woods, looking behind her as Deep Cutter walked up to his boathook and pulled it out of the dirt. He turned toward them and started casually walking in their direction again, hefting the spear in his right hoof.

“What does he want? Why is he doing this?” Lyra said.

“I think he just wants to kill us. Why is a moot question,” Bon Bon said.

Deep Cutter crashed through the underbrush, walking in as straight a line as possible toward them. Bon Bon motioned to the branches above as they hurried through the bushes themselves, and Lyra nodded.

They stopped for a moment, Lyra’s horn glowing. Deep Cutter didn’t hesitate or even seem to think about it as he plowed forward. Lyra’s horn flared and the sound of splintering wood came from above as she yanked a heavy branch down from the thicket above him, onto Deep Cutter’s head. He crumpled under the impact, and dropped his hook, which Bon Bon Bounded forward to snag. To her surprise, however, he wasn’t unconscious. He still had a firm grip on his boathook, and yanked it to himself, using his other hoof to bear hug her.

Bon Bon felt the air squeezed out of her as his hoof crushed her. She used every trick in her considerable book to try to get him to let go. She chopped at the vulnerable spot on his neck, but he didn’t react to it at all. She smashed her hooves into his temples, but he didn’t react to that either. She tried to jab his eyes, but he headbutted her in the muzzle, breaking her nose and dazing her. She couldn’t breathe, and she felt her ribs cracking under the pressure of his grip. Spots started to appear before her eyes, until she heard a THUK, and his grip loosened.

Bon Bon fell to the ground, and pain shot through her as she landed. Multiple ribs were broken, and her breathing sounded wet. She wasn’t sure if that was from the blood in her nose, or if she had a punctured lung, but it was bad. Lyra grabbed her hoof and yanked her to her hooves.

“Bon Bon! We have to go! He’s still moving!” Lyra shouted.

Bon Bon turned to look at Deep Cutter. The boathook Bon Bon had dropped when he grabbed her was sticking through his head, and one of his hooves was pulling it out of his skull.

“That… that shouldn’t be possible,” Bon Bon said.

“He’s bad magic, Bon Bon, come on!” Lyra said.

Bon Bon struggled to her hooves, and they started shuffling out of the forest, Lyra supporting Bon Bon as they went. Bon Bon was struggling to breathe well, but she kept an eye behind them as they moved on. Just as he disappeared behind the trees, Bon Bon saw the hook being pulled fully through his head, and he looked in her direction. She felt a horrible chill as her sight of him was lost. She felt more vulnerable now than when she had been right next to him. Now she didn’t know where he was, and that was horrifying.

Their path led them to the main area of the campground, and the mess hall was just ahead. There was a huge section of open landscape, and it felt unsafe, but there was no way around it that was as quick as straight ahead. They would have to pass through more forest if they wanted to sneak around, and that would cost them time. Time he could catch up to them. There was nothing for it but to run across the open ground. Bon Bon’s breath rattled in her throat, every inhalation causing her pain. Applejack was supposed to be coming with police. They should have medical staff with them.

Lyra dragged Bon Bon closer to the mess hall. She began shouting for help. Cheerilee had said she was going to be waiting in the mess hall with the foals until Applejack showed up, so they must still be inside if Applejack wasn’t there yet.

“Help! Somepony open the door for me! Bon Bon’s hurt!” Lyra yelled.

The door stayed shut, and Lyra continued hustling for the door, Bon Bon groaning beside her when her breath wasn’t whistling. Lyra trudges as fast as she can go closer and closer to the door. A strange whistling sound came from behind and started to turn and look. Bon Bon’s eyes went wide and she shoved Lyra to the side. A boathook landed with a THUK in the ground where Lyra had been standing.

Without Lyra’s support, Bon Bon fell to the ground, grimacing in pain and clutching her hooves to her chest. A second whistling came from the direction of the forest they’d left. Lyra looked up to see the second boathook coming down toward Bon Bon.

In a flash, her horn lit up and snagged it right out of the air. She turned it back around and launched it toward Deep Cutter. He let it hit him in the chest, and ripped it back out, then prepared to toss it again.

“Bon Bon get up, my magic can’t take him, and I can’t think of a good way to stop him,” Lyra said.

Bon Bon coughed, but pulled herself up to her hooves, and limped off toward the still-closed door. Lyra lifted the other boathook off the ground and brandished it in Deep Cutter’s direction. He seemed unaffected by her threat, and the hole in his chest didn’t seem to slow him down in the least. Lyra followed after Bon Bon, putting herself between her and Deep Cutter, while watching him for any signs of attack.

“Open the door, please! Bon Bon’s hurt and somepony is attacking us out here! We need in, please!” Lyra yelled.

They had reached the doors but they still weren’t open. Lyra could hear commotion behind them and some sort of movement, but the doors weren’t opening at all. She pounded on the door with a hoof.

“Open the doors, please! He’s injured Bon Bon! Let us inside!” Lyra shouted.

“No way! You’ll let the monster in!” somepony shouted.

What? The foals had gotten too scared or something, and now they weren’t letting them in.

“Where’s Cheerilee?” Lyra shouted.

“She went looking for YOU! If you were actually Lyra, you’d know that!” somepony said.

“I couldn’t know that if she never found me! Open this door right now!” Lyra said.

There was no further response. Lyra turned around to look, and Deep Cutter was much closer. Only a short distance of a walk and he would be on top of them. Lyra looked at Bon Bon and back at Deep Cutter, then up at the window above them.

“I’m sorry Bon Bon.” Lyra kissed her on her broken nose, lit her horn, and lifted Bon Bon up into the air, she tossed her at the window, and just as glass broke, she saw a boathook go flying in the window after her. Her horn winked out and there was a wet THUK, then screaming from inside the mess hall.

Lyra’s blood went cold.

She turned to look at Deep Cutter, who didn’t show any sense of satisfaction, remorse, glee, or pity. The blood-stained sack on his face didn’t betray anything that was going on inside his head, but he advanced toward her.

Lyra’s vision went black at the edges, and her horn blazed, she lifted the remaining boathook and launched it at Deep Cutter, a small CRACK accompanying the speed at which it sailed. It impacted Deep Cutter, and ripped into his torso. He staggered in place.

“You absolute BASTARD!” Lyra shouted.

She ripped the boathook out of his chest, then stabbed it back into him again from a different angle. His hooves flailed at the location he was expecting the hook, but she didn’t let up. He was covered in holes and blood, and Lyra still kept the hook stabbing into him. He dropped to his knees, reaching out at the hook with both forehooves. He tried time and again, but Lyra’s fury was unrelenting. Finally, he stopped moving. Lyra stabbed the hook into his chest and held it there.

“I don’t trust you, mister,” Lyra said. “I stabbed you in the skull once, you should be dead by now. I’m not going to take my eyes off you for one second until I’m absolutely sure.”

Lyra watched him as he bled. It was thick, dark brown, and seemed more like syrup than actual blood, but it leaked out of him just the same. She kept watch, waiting for some sign of life. If he never died, then what could even be done with him? That was quite the pickle. How would they even transport him anywhere? This was a job for better unicorns than herself.

She kept him pinned, and kept her magic on the hook. The mess hall had gone silent, but she was sure they were still in there, scared stiff. She didn’t know what had happened to Lily or Daisy, but Cheerilee was missing. She could be dead, but Lyra would worry about that later. She had this guy down, and she needed to keep him that way. If he was working alone, he couldn’t hurt anypony else while she held him.

She saw a hoof twitch, and gasped in surprise. She tried to rip the hook out, but his hooves both flew up and latched onto it, preventing her from pulling it out.

“What even the Tartarus are you?” Lyra cried.

Lyra tugged at the hook, but Deep Cutter’s grip was not weakened by his wounds. He held the hook inside his body as he pulled himself back to a standing position. Lyra’s magic couldn’t budge the weapon as she pulled, pushed, and even tried to twist it. Now that he had a grip, he wasn’t letting go for anything.

Once he was standing, Deep Cutter pulled the hook out of his chest himself. Lyra’s magic didn’t seem to be able to control the hook at all, and she let go. He was very close to her now. She turned to the left and made to run for it, but he stabbed out with the hook, blocking her path. She turned back the other direction and tried to run that way, but the hook once again came stabbing past her face into the stone wall of the mess hall. She turned to look at him and tried to lift him into the air with her magic, but as soon as her horn lit up he wrapped the hook around it and yanked down, slamming her head into the ground. Dazed, Lyra tried to get back up, but he grabbed her horn and dragged her over to the door to the mess hall.

Lyra struggled in his grip, but was unable to break free or even cast any magic. She was lifted up and pressed against the door. He made no sound as he lifted the hook, and stabbed her in the gut with hook. She choked as the tool speared through her insides, and felt something liquid dribbling out of her mouth. Blood poured out of her wound as he stabbed her again, then again, then again. Lyra stopped breathing after the fourth of fifth stab, but Deep Cutter kept going, ripping chunks out of her flesh with every stab. The door couldn’t stand up to the onslaught, and it splintered and tore, until it eventually fell inward.

Behind the door, hidden and hoping to be ignored, the foals cowered as far away from the door as they could. Daisy and Lily were tied up in another corner, and there were three colts holding kitchen knives that were standing in front of the group. Bon Bon’s body was lying in the middle of the room with the boathook through her torso, and most of the foals were crying.

Deep Cutter slowly advanced into the room. He went first for the other boathook and yanked it out of Bon Bon, to the accompanying cries and intensified weeping of many foals. He looked around the room, first at the foals, then over at Lily and Daisy. He stomped over to the older mares, tied up and helpless, then nonchalantly stabbed both of them. He alternated hooves as he stabbed one, then the other, multiple times. He picked up Lily with one of the hooks, and tossed her limp and bloody corpse at the crowded foals. They spread apart in a panic as her body landed in their midst. Some of the foals were pushed in his direction by their neighbours, and he raised a hook to attack.

A kitchen knife buried itself in the back of his skull, sprouting out one of his eye sockets. Cheerilee bucked him to the side and motioned to the foals.

“Everypony outside, now! Now now now!” Cheerilee yelled.

The foals only hesitated a little before bolting for the collapsed door. Some were far too distraught to run, and Cheerilee picked them up and hoofed them off to older foals.

“Carry anypony who’s too scared or weak to move! Do it! You’re older than them, take care of them!” Cheerilee said.

Cheerilee pulled the knife out of Deep Cutter’s head, then stabbed it into his neck, severing his spinal column. His head was moving, but his limbs were limp.

“I’ll follow after you in a moment, hurry outside, Applejack is coming down the road. Get on the carriage and go immediately,” Cheerilee said.

With the knife stuck in his neck, Cheerilee dragged his body into the kitchen. She stuffed him into the brick oven, and latched the door shut. The coals in the furnace below were still warm from breakfast, and with a little coaxing, she got it going again. Once the flames were licking at the wood, she added more to the fire pit, eager to see it blazing hot as soon as possible. Once she was satisfied it wasn’t going to go out anytime soon, she closed the furnace door and followed the foals outside.

Applejack was there with two members of the police, and the carriage drivers from before. The foals had all piled in, most of them still sobbing and wailing in fright. The police were looking around in disbelief at the scene, but were trying to make sure all the foals were accounted for.

“Alright, you’re miss Cheerilee? How many foals came to camp,” the officer asked.

“Twenty-eight,” Cheerilee said.

“That’s all of them, then. Both of you, please accompany my partner back to the station. He’ll get more officers out here as soon as he knows you’re all safe,” the officer said.

Cheerilee didn’t argue. She climbed in the carriage, sat down and hugged as many foals as she could. Applejack did the same in the other one, and they both watched the camp disappear behind them. Cheerilee took little comfort in knowing the foals had escaped with their lives. Many lives had been lost, and the foals would carry these emotional scars for the rest of their lives. She only hoped nopony else would ever have to deal with what they had been put through. She looked at the smoke rising over the campground, and prayed she was right.

The officer left behind at camp surveyed the scene with a tight-lipped grimace. The wounds on the deceased, the trail of blood, and the bloody boathooks indicated a pony who was utterly unstable. The perpetrator had been causing injury just to cause injury, and didn’t want anything else other than for them to die. It was a small comfort that he had targeted the counselors first, and the foals only afterward.

He shook his head and followed another trail of blood into the kitchen. The fire was roaring in the furnace under the oven, and the door was latched shut.

“Oh, dear Celestia. There better not be a body in here,” he said.

He unlatched the door and opened the oven, stepping back from the heat that poured out. There was indeed a body inside the oven, and a hoof stabbed outward, holding a red-hot knife. It stabbed into the officer’s throat and slid easily through his flesh to the side, opening his jugular. He fell to the floor, choking on his own blood as the blackened pony pulled itself out of the oven and down to the floor. Flakes of burnt flesh sloughed off him, revealing stark red flesh underneath.

Deep Cutter stomped on the officer’s skull for good measure, then walked back out to the main room. He grabbed his boathook from the floor and stepped outside. He walked out to look at the road leading away from camp, then turned toward the lake. He walked into the water, and disappeared underneath, giving the shoreline one last look before the surface closed over his head.

The End.