Chapters Chapter 1: Bloody Introduction
"Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears."~ Les Brown
The year was 2066. Ponyville has exceeded its capacity, thus renaming itself Pony City. After all, many seem to want to live near the heroes who saved Equestria time and time again: The Mane 6. The still-crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends - Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy - have gone from total strangers to life-long partners on epic quests. At least in the day time. When day turns to night, things are different...
The now-motherly Scootaloo has come home from her time as a weather worker, greeted by a big hug from her son, Blitzing Speed. She smiled and returned the favor before telling him to let her go. She's got to settle down after a hard day of keeping the sky clear and beautiful. It may seem she and her son are the only things keeping her going, but there was a third thing that also means a lot to her: her manager and idol for a long time, Rainbow Dash, who was the very reason she even joined RD's foundation when she got older. Scootaloo felt so close to her, especially when she eventually got the chance to be her adopted sister and prove to everyone she can fly despite the... disability. Now that the sun has gone away, it's time for the mother to finally play. Recovering from a long day's work, Scootaloo upheld her motherly duty spending some time with Blitzing by playing his two favorite games: Hide and Seek and Tag. She isn't the kind of woman who would care more about her work than her family. She is capitalizing on what childhood he has left as he's approaching teenhood. Her own years of enduring puberty were rough. The aggression, the rush of hormones, it'll be all new to him. She knew that by being involved, she'll keep him straight as an arrow. Now that it's getting late, it's time to tuck him into bed as she always did since the crib.
One little kiss on the forehead later and it'll almost be time for her to go to sleep. She still had chores to do though. Sweep, sweep, sweep went her broom against the floor. Scrub, scrub, scrub went her sponge against the sides of the toilet and rub, rub, rub went the cloth against the dishes on her plate. It's amazing how many plates a family of two has. It was once three until... nah, she doesn't want to remember him . She resumed scrubbing until the sound of thuds drowned out her cleaning. Is that coming from the window, she thought. She put her plate down to walk over to one, passing a mirror nearby, to find nothing there but her reflection. She shrugged and began walking back until the thudding resumed. Now it seemed to be getting louder, and louder, and louder .
"Hello? Is anyone there? What are you doing in my house?!"
She ran back to the kitchen to grab a butcher knife and began going down the halls of her home. She pressed up against the corners of the walls, quickly peering out to check for threats before pressing on. No thuds at all.
"Hello? HELLO?!" No answer.
She decided to slowly go back to the window to check again but before she got there, she heard the thuds getting closer as if they were the boots of someone chasing after her. She shrieked and leaned against the mirror behind her. The thuds went silent again and she didn't see anything from the corners of her eyes.
"Mommy, why you screaming?"Oh, thank goodness, it's just my son.
Before she could finish her sentence, a black hand covered in blood reached out of the mirror, muffling her screams. She tried stabbing the arm, but it remained unflinching. Blood continued to cascade from the hand like a rushing river. She then saw another hand, this one with its fingers extending into very sharp claws mimicking the tip of her blade that soon stabbed themselves into her face. She struggled violently as she could feel the tips piercing through her eyes to the optic nerves in the back, the rest into her cheekbones. She could feel her own crimson fluid drip down these wounds. Eventually, the two claw fingers pulled out and stabbed again, this time impaling her brain. It was the last thing she could feel before she collapsed and died, as the knife she held clanged against the kitchen floor.
The creature that was pretending to be her reflection soon popped out of the mirror to see her work more closely, along with 5 others. Its skin was pure black, no light from the window nearby seemed to reflect off it. But as Scootaloo saw, it was already bleeding but it wasn't from just the hands. It was bleeding from its eyes, nose, mouth, chest, arms, legs, as well as other various slash wounds. With no witnesses, they peeled off their second layer of face skin to reveal who they are: The Mane 6 themselves.
"Haha! That was amazing, Slaughter!" Rainbow Dash said to Pinkie, congratulating her efforts.
"Quiet, Poison! Remember your sister here's not alone in this house..." Slaughter answered in a whispery tone.
"Oops, sorry!" Poison apologized. For Poison, her skin was pure black just like Slaughter. However, her blood oozed out with a white hue, not red. It almost looks more like paint or glue.
"Stand back to let Anti-Life clean this up, then." Twilight said, pouring some weird black goo from the wounds of her white symbiotic body as it begins dissolving Scootaloo's body like a flesh-eating bacteria.
"Geez, Twilight. Since when did you become Trixie all of a sudden?" Applejack asked, crossing her blue arms against her red bleeding chest.
"We're not supposed to say our real names, remember?" Anti-Life hissed at her.
Fluttershy then chimed in, "And to add to Pain's point, I feel way more confident now than ever before as Shriek, so I don't want to lose this yellow and red symbiote forever. Now that I've had a taste, I'm hooked. I can't imagine being feeble, old Fluttershy again."
Pollutant points out to her, "Didn't you try to tear it off completely once?"
Shriek responded, "We all did. But it felt like peeling off our own skin with our bare hands. Plus, the thrill it provides is much better than withdrawing from it. So much blood to spill and the fact no one will ever know. It's why we'll keep on doing this. They'd never suspect their heroes to be the villains they've been running from all this time. Even when people vanished, our adventures made more people come. They're mere lambs to the slaughter."
Slaughter asks, "Yes, Shriek?"
Shriek shouts, "Not you, Slaughter!"
The acidic goo was done decaying Scootaloo's flesh and conveniently the knife to nothingness, so their work was done.
"Let's go now, ladies." Anti-Life ordered as Slaughter already went through the mirror first. They nodded their heads and went in after her.
Author's Note
Alright this is my first go at my story, no antagonist yet as it's too soon. Anyone tell me their thoughts so far, comment below, especially any edits I need to make.
"The death of a friend is equivalent to the loss of a limb." ~Unknown
A grey zipper fastens to secure Rarity's body into a black bag. A separate one was needed though for her head. As both are strapped to a gurney, the paramedic pushes as hard as he can through the mess he's surrounded in: the chalk outline on the floor, the devastated young sister Sweetie Belle struggling to stop him, and past the broken window that indicates someone broke in, before he's finally out the front door on his way to the outside ambulance where the Mane 5 are speaking to a nearby police officer. His name plate glistens off the moonlight with the words, "Officer Nightstick."
"So what happened, Officer?" Twilight asked him.
"We don't know, Ms. Sparkle," Nightstick answered, "At 9:31 PM, we received a call from the little girl Sweetie Belle that her sister was found dead. We arrived an hour later to the grisly scene. Her head was cut clean off, so whoever did this was an expert with a blade. There was blood splattered on the nearby wall and a crimson pool all around the body, so the culprit was fine killing Ms. Rarity but not in trying to hide the evidence. So it must've been deliberately left behind. But for what purpose?" He tapped his chin in wonderment over that.
"Um Mister Nightstick. Can we... go check out the crime scene? We know Rarity personally so maybe we can find out more than you if we look around?" Fluttershy asked, her one eye hidden behind her hair as she spoke.
"Well Ms. Fluttershy. If you and your friends are trying to be junior detectives, go look around then. My crew already searched and found nothing, so the murderer left after doing their deed. No harm in double checking, I suppose."
"Come on, gals." Applejack said as she pushed her way through some leaving policemen, one of which was holding onto Sweetie's hand.
"Wait, Officer. Where you gonna take her?" Applejack asked him.
He explained, "Well with no sister here, she'll have to go live with her parents. I'm just taking her there with my car as I don't feel safe letting her go off by herself. Especially with the killer still at large."
The weeping Belle quickly hugged Applejack, looked up to her, and pleaded:
"Please Applejack. Find out who did this. And make them pay ."
"Don't worry. Just go with the man and get yourself to safety. We'll take care of this." Applejack promised.
Sweetie Belle smiled weakly and resumed to grab the officer's hand as he escorted her out of the boutique.
The investigators have since left the scene to go search the city. "Now that the coast is clear, we can turn into our symbiotic forms to get us 20%... cooler," Rainbow Dash boasted, each of them returning to their more intimidating states.
"This makes no sense," Anti-Life pondered as she circled around the body cut-out of Rarity on the floor. "Even without turning into Pain, Rarity's formidable in combat. So who would have the knowledge and skill to kill her?"
"Well remember, even we symbiotes do have a weakness: that being fire. Fire automatically shuts down our transformation and exposes our mortal bodies," Poison stipulated.
Pollutant then points to the decapitation part of the cut-out. "But Poison, the murderer chose to behead her. Why that method? On top of that, we don't see any scorch marks around her body. So maybe there's another weakness."
Slaughter responds, "Anti-Life already did all the tests with her own symbiote. Only fire can harm it."
Shriek then pouts, "Ugh, I'm so frustrated by this I could just kick something." She ends up kicking the air before slipping and falling down.
"Oops, sorry." she apologized.
"Wait a minute Shriek," Pollutant notices. "Look."
In Shriek's attempt to kick, her heel scraped on the floor beneath her, revealing something black and charred. Looks like scorch marks were hidden away with a fresh coat of paint.
"Slaughter, get your claws out and find what's hiding here." Anti-Life ordered her.
Slaughter obliged, extending her fingers to begin clawing up the floor around the cutout. Tearing through the new paint, she not only uncovers the hidden scorch marks, but a hole containing a scroll. She then picked it up and unrolled it to reveal a message:
"One down, five to go. Until we meet again, Symbiotic Six. ~Pinkie Pie"
Anti-Life immediately shoved Slaughter straight up against the nearby wall.
"YOU DID THIS, SLAUGHTER?!" Anti-Life yelled at her, smashing her fist through the bricks next to her as a warning.
"No, no, no Anti-Life! This wasn't me! I have no motive for doing this!"
Shriek picked up the scroll and called out, "Wait guys, there's more on the back."
"I DID do this for the thrills. It's just so fun, like you all said. But when killing people to achieve such a rush gets boring, it's best to begin fighting others as tough as you. The easiness of the prey, the silenced screams they produce, the blood pouring all over your body as your victory confetti. It's terrific but kinda messy. Way more fun than mere tourists lost in the city or even Rainbow's sister, am I right?"
Anti-Life begins shaking Slaughter violently, "YOU HAVE FUCKING FIVE SECONDS, SLAUGHTER! TELL ME! TELL ME!"
Poison then hastily broke up the fight by pushing Anti-Life off Slaughter. She then exclaims:
"Stop it, Anti-Life! Don't jump to conclusions! For all we know, it could even be Scootaloo's son. He might be trying to seek justice for his mother and frame Slaughter to break us up. It'll then be easier to pick us off one by one. Don't believe everything you read!"
Anti-Life lowered her head and sighed, "I'm sorry. I just don't know wh-"
Before she could finish her sentence, they heard the front door creek open as the officers reentered, including Nightstick who says:
"So ladies, did you find anything use- OH MY FUCKING GOD! IT'S THE SYMBIOTES! FIRE AT WILL!"
The officers quickly pulled out their pistols and began unloading their clips, many of which bounced off the skin of the five. The Mane 5 would've just slaughtered them, but they found it in bad taste to kill them next to the place where their friend had just died. Instead, they ran to the second floor, broke through a window, and began firing ropes of goo from their arms to swing through the buildings outside. They didn't stop until they reached the rooftop of the new Flim and Flam Factory at the outskirts of Pony City.
"Trust me, you guys. I didn't do it." Slaughter reiterated, trying to convince her friends. Anti-Life, extending her gooey arms, responded by grabbing her by the shoulders, raising her 10 ft off the ground. She then shouted at her:
"You may say that now Slaughter, but I'm keeping my eye on you! I care for my Symbiotes but if one's trying to backstab the rest, I'll make sure that one burns for their crimes!"
"Isn't that hypocritical to say when we're all murderers?" Slaughter mentions, raising an eyebrow.
Anti-Life hissed, "None of those people were important. The world is overpopulating, we're just trying to prevent a crisis here. But it's become personal now, Slaughter. So if I find more members of this group dead with your little messages around the scene, I'll come for you."
Shriek looks down to see the police cars scrambling to find them. She then shouts to the group:
"Guys, we should probably go back to being the Mane 5. The police already have tried to catch us back at the boutique. We don't want the military to get involved."
Anti-Life drops Slaughter and replies, "Good point. Alright everyone, meet at my place in the morning. It's time we find out who truly did this. I'm still not letting YOU off the hook, Slaughter."
They split up and began swinging back to their homes to make it seem as if they were simply sleeping after leaving the boutique. Slaughter still wonders though: Why would this killer say they were Pinkie Pie? SHE'S Pinkie Pie. Unless... no they're all gone now. It can't be changelings again... Let's just hope this doesn't get any uglier.
Author's Note
For Reference:
Twilight Sparkle: Anti-Life
"We all go a little mad sometimes." ~ Billy Loomis, Scream
Ever since the death of Rarity, Fluttershy has barely been seen by anyone. She only goes outside for small things like grabbing the overstuffed mail and buying her animal friends food. Day or night, she's always ready for the killer's arrival. She makes sure her pets are all asleep so she can patrol as Shriek without them finding out her secret. It's bad enough someone formidable is after her and her team so having her animal friends against her would be too much. As the sun goes down, she remembers the meeting she attended with Anti-Life and the others 2 days ago, who suggested all patrol their homes late at night. For Flutters, this method of trying to catch the perpetrator has already began to take its toll on her. Peeling off her mask reveals the bags underneath her eyes, the red cracks within her eyeballs and her teeth nearly as yellow as her suit. She constantly looks left to right, jumping when she hears a single squeak or scratch, noises she was used to originally as she has been surrounded by woodland creatures for most of her life. This time though, Fluttershy has had enough.
"I've had enough!" She yelled to the top of her lungs. [Oh look, an echo]
She decided to step things up. As her animal friends slept, she swung her way into the city to break into a closed hardware store to steal a couple things: A welding device, welding mask, metal scraps, hammers, nails, and many more building materials. She put it all in a rather spiky bag and swung back to her place before anyone arrived. Good thing she used her rather silent wails to break the glass, security cameras, and alarms to avoid being caught. She then got to work. She welded metal sheets onto her windows to prevent any possible break ins. Next, she began fastening some metal rods together to construct a giant cage. She covers it in leaves and attaches it to some pulleys and ropes (not goo ropes, normal ropes) so it can be dropped from the tree she hid it in when she pulls hard enough. Finally, she used her leftover metal to construct not only some strong metal armor to protect her body and face from fire, but have a spear ready for combat. She wiped all the sweat off her skin and became Shriek again, albeit armored.
"What's the matter, murderer? You too dumb to be able to break into my fortress now? Or you ready to face me as a man? Or woman or whatever?" She taunts out loud.
She also decided to turn off all the lights. This may appear to be stupid on paper as she's trying to catch her friend's killer and not get killed herself, but this works in her favor because as Shriek, she can see in the dark and makes her invisibility come in handy. Plus, in case this person is also comfortable with fighting in the dark, she has a powerful flashlight in her inventory.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are. You ain't the killer, Killer! I'm the killer here! Just show yourself so I can finally draw blood again!"
Good thing her animal friends are in the living room as instructed in the evening. Otherwise, they would've heard her spitting out that she was Shriek a while ago. But taunting time is over. Time for patrol. She proceeded to walk down the halls. She squeezed against the corners, took one glance after firing her flashlight with one hand, whilst keeping her spear ready in the other. She went up and down the corridors. She went to the bathroom, found nothing. She looked under the couch, found nothing. She walked circles around her house 16 times before going back in, found nothing . She even checked her traps to see if any needed fastening or went off. She had to be careful though as she also installed some disguised bear traps that looked too convincing, even to her.
She looked at her glowing alarm clock to see she's been going at this for a whole hour straight. And she's growing tired. In fact, she feels exhaustion's gonna kill her faster than this murderer. But she mustn't stop, she said to herself. She must find Rarity's killer or she'll see her soon. Time passes and she decides to go down the corridor one last time. Just one last time, Fluttershy explains to herself. She says that even though it's been like what, the 37th time she promised this? Tediousness really makes one lose track of time and focus. As she leans up against the corner again, she hears what sounds like a creak. IT must be there. She first turns invisible, waits a bit, and then quickly turns around and pounces, only to see nothing was down the corridor. She sighed, turned back visible, picked up her flashlight and... wait. Where's her spear? WHERE THE FUCK IS HER SPEAR?! Thoughts raced through her head. Maybe she dropped it outside. Maybe she dropped it around the floor nearby. Maybe... the killer's here and he or she has it.
"Calm down, calm down, Fluttershy. Don't get paranoid over this. Just retrace your steps and find it, plain and simple." She says to herself.
She hears something. It sounds rather faint but sounds like... wind blowing. She could hear crackling too, but the noise sounds very weak and hard to hear. She decides to go find the source, maybe she'll find her spear along the way. She tip toes this time to prevent her own steps from creeping her out. Despite this, one creak slipped out and when she saw what looked like someone next to her, she turned her flashlight quickly to it only to notice it's her reflection in the mirror. She decides to have a little chat:
"Look at yourself, Shriek. You're losing your yellowish glow. Stop worrying so much. Now remember, you're doing this to save the Symbiotic Six."
All of a sudden, her reflection blinked, smiled from ear to ear and answered, "I will destroy the Symbiotic Six."
Shriek literally shrieked and smashed her mirror with a powerful punch. She then screamed again when she heard another noise, only to recognize it was the chime of the grandfather clock. Fluttershy quivered at the stroke of midnight.
There was another sound... a strange, faint hissing. Where is it coming from? With this symbiote, she's supposed to feel brave, yet she's acting like old Fluttershy. Feeble, weak, timid Fluttershy.
She picked up her flashlight again and marched her way down to the basement where the noise was coming from. Normally, there's nothing interesting there. This is where she stockpiles all her animal food so her cottage doesn't look like a pet food warehouse. But what could be making that darn noise? She decides to look behind bird seed boxes and walk down some mini hallways again. Her heightened senses only served to increase her awareness. Mere pin drops sounded like thunderbolts. Walking closer and closer to the source, she discovered... the welder device hissing. Oh yeah, she left it here before she began doing her hourly patrols. She must've left it on and let it get louder overtime. As soon as she leaned over to turn it off, she heard a drip. She suddenly activated her flashlight to the left to see what it was. A blood splatter. Where's the source? She then freaked out when she noticed the wall near the welder device had a message on it painted in crimson:
"We all go a little mad sometimes. Even YOU."
"Who... who did this?"
The murderer takes the flashlight and aims it at its face to let Fluttershy see. Her last words were:
Two down, four to go. Until we meet again, Sinister Six. ~Twilight Sparkle.
"Poison is in everything, and no thing is without poison. The dosage makes it either a poison or a remedy." ~Paracelsus
With the mailwoman still being the ditzy Derpy, Rainbow Dash didn't get the mail that Twilight and Pinkie were having an extremely important meeting at her castle again today, so she simply spent her morning having her breakfast and getting ready to go to work at the Rainbow and Cloud Factory. She had on her suit and tie ready until she heard knocks on the door. She was hesitant as the deaths of her friends made her edgy and more worried just like Fluttershy. She then decided to calm down and look through the peephole. It was Blitzing Speed carrying some heavy bags along with some winged police officers.
Hm... what are they doing there, Dash asked herself in her thoughts. Well time to find out. She opens the door to see the group more clearly. A man approaches her with the label of "Officer Nightstick" on his uniform.
"Good morning, officers. What's going on?" Rainbow Dash greets and asks.
Officer Nightstick replies, "Morning, Ms. Dash. As you know, your adopted sister Scootaloo has gone missing. We don't know if her disappearance correlates with the murders of your friends, but that's not why where we're here. After she was gone, Blitzing here was sent to the Pony City Orphanage to await his mother's return but she hasn't come back so with no grandparents, uncles or aunts left to take care of him, that leaves you the only guardian left to take care of him. He'll be under your care for now while until we find Ms. Scootaloo. Surely, it won't be a problem, right Ms. Dash?"
Some sweat did go down her head as she remembered that night but she wiped it away and answered, "No, no problem at all, Officer. I knew Scootaloo all my life so her son shouldn't be a problem. Thanks for coming to me. Come on now, Blitzing, you can take the guest room down the hall to the right."
Blitzing smiled and said, "Wow! Thanks, Aunt Dashie!"
Officer Nightstick nodded and turned to his crew behind him and instructed, "Okay boys. Lets go continue our search." before flying away with them to Pony City below.
One new breakfast later...
All Rainbow's wondering is what to do with Blitzing. He's unaware he's living with his mother's killer and now turning into Poison will be harder to do as she normally turns at her home as she's used to being alone. Maybe if he's... eliminated, she can get back to her plan of catching her friends' killer. Oh wait, she remembered. The rule of the Symbiote Six is that they shouldn't kill children. It'll be a low for them, even for their accounts of kidnapping, robbery, murder and arson. She also remembered though that they never said it can't be done to look like an accident. Yes, that's what she'll do. Then again, the accident could make her the main suspect to it as she is the boss of the Rainbow and Cloud Factory. And if she tries to do it while walking away, she'll get arrested for child negligence. Maybe... she can take him out BUT hide the body so no one will ever know. But how can a corpse remain hidden forever? She can try to decompose his body to nothingness like Anti-Life but her own personal goo's normally been capable of doing that to people alive. Could her poison fangs work on the dead? She'll have to test it out. If not, she'll probably just pop Blitzing into a cloud, overload it with lightning to fry him and leave it alone until nighttime falls and she'll drop the body to be buried in the Everfree Forest or somewhere farther than that. Sounds like a plan, so she'll do it.
"So Blitzing. Since I want to keep an eye on you, want to come with Aunt Dashie to the Rainbow and Cloud Factory? You could learn how to do a job early on in your life." She questions him.
He cheered, "Oh yes, Aunt Dashie! Take me there!"
The Rainbow and Cloud Factory is very easy to spot. After all, since the expansion of Ponyville to Pony City, the Pegasus population began to rise, leading to some buildings created for them on top of the area to better control the weather. And besides that, R & C facility has tubes coming from the sides in rainbow colors to make it stand out compared to the others. Eventually, Rainbow and Blitzing arrived.
She then told him, "Alright, Blitzing. I'll show you around, but be careful and don't touch anything you're unfamiliar with. Rainbows in their purest form aren't tasty juice and clouds aren't cotton candy."
"Touch and taste are two different things though, Aunt Dashie." Blitzing points out.
Rainbow squeezed the bridge on her nose and said, "You're still touching stuff with your mouth, which can be hazardous."
Blitzing's eyes widened and answered, "OH, that makes sense. Alright, Auntie. I won't touch anything."
Rainbow opens the front door to three different hallways. There is a door nearby labeled "Worker Locker Rooms" so Rainbow quickly goes in there to grab a worker outfit and says, "Blitzing, put this on so you'll fit in around here." Speed obliges, putting on the white helmet, blank shirt, and pants along with a pair of black boots.
"Follow me to that corridor," Dashie instructs as she points to the "Cloud Creation" Hallway. She heads her way over there while Blitzing tries to speed up. As they make it, they see tons of workers puffing up water, creating several clouds. Some are using special suits to blast static electricity into clouds to turn them from white to grey so that they're ready to produce rain, thunder, and lightning. Others are pushing away carts of clouds for storage downstairs. This place is loud considering the machinery and the other supervisors shouting orders at the workers for productivity reasons. Since not many would be able to hear Blitzing, this is a perfect opportunity for Rainbow to kill him. She takes his hand, leading him through a crowd of workers to a more quiet area of the room, a corner where a lightning cloud is being held in suspension by a stand as it's waiting to be stored alongside the others.
"So Blitzing. You know what this is?" Rainbow asks him.
"It's a lightning cloud, Aunt Dashie." He replies.
"Not really. This cloud isn't taken away like the rest. It's a dud cloud. It did get grey, but it refuses to take enough electricity to become a lightning cloud. So this cloud is harmless. Just go inside from the back and you'll see what I'm talking about."
It was a strange thing for her to say as she instructed him not to touch anything he's unfamiliar with, but since he's now familiar with the "dud" cloud, it piques his curiosity. He goes around back, uses his hands to open a hole and goes in. It's very dark and when he turns around, the hole closes up.
He then yells, "Um, Aunt Dashie. I don't know if you can hear me, but it's too dark in here to see."
Rainbow could hear him, but barely. Not just because the room she's in is loud but he is also within layers of cloudiness. Now's her chance. She then answers, "Oh, don't worry. Let me light it up for you!"
"Are you okay, CEO Rainbow Dash?" He questions her.
She turns to him and says, "Oh, just reminiscing. It's been a while when I've done this, kicking a cloud. It reminds me of when I was the weather manager back when Pony City was Ponyville."
He joins her in going down memory lane, acknowledging, "Oh yeah, wasn't that when you had the dream of joining the Wonderbolts? Shame they made you quit for Lightning Dust's recklessness and me for defending you. Well at least we've had a happier life here in the Rainbow and Cloud Factory ever since."
"Yeah, those were troubling times. Anyway, resume your duties, Soarin. Maybe we can go out soon tonight."
He smiled and went back to work. He then stopped in his tracks, turned around and asked, "Wait, who and where's that worker I saw you bring here?"
She did sweat a bit but thought up a great coverup story:
"Oh that was just a newbie. He was eager for me to show him around the factory on his first day. He went to the nearby bathroom, so I'm waiting for him here."
Soarin' believed she answered honestly so he returned to supervising.
"All in a day's work, Rainbow. Nothing can go-" Rainbow gloated to herself until a small grey cloud fell on top of her, trapping her inside.
She started yelling, "WORKERS! SOARIN! GET ME OUT OF HERE! WHOEVER DID THIS WILL GET DEMOT-" but before she could finish her sentence again, the cloud struck a myriad of bolts all over her body.
Turning around, Soarin' was shocked at the sight of his beloved in a fatal situation, ordering everyone, "STOP! HELP RAINBOW DASH! SHE'S TRAPPED IN THERE!"
As the bolts began burning her chest and arms, she began to feel weak. The pain was too much for her so she passed out and fell to the puffy ground of the cloud. Just as she did, the cloud collapsed, dropping her to the floor below. Soarin then exclaimed:
"She's still breathing! Call 911!"
*1 hour later*
When Rainbow wakes up, she finds herself in a white room and can barely move. She looks down to see her crisp body covered in bandages, though some burn marks aren't fully patched up. She looks to her right to see flowers in a vase and on her left is a needle going through into her arm, connected to an IV bag on a stand. She's in the hospital. Last time she was here, she had her wing busted and got herself immersed in the world of Daring Do.
"Hello? Is anybody there?" It was hard to keep her eyes open as everything hurts so she decided to go back to sleep. Time passed and she felt a small gust of wind to her left. Did someone open the door? She opens her eye and moves her head to notice a hooded figure. She couldn't see the face but her eyes widened when she realized what the stranger was doing. The figure had just injected a syringe of some weird dark fluid into her IV to go straight into her arm. The pain from her burns were overpowered by a new agony washing over her body. She tried to move but the hooded person held her down. It then says in whispers:
"Karma can be a bitch, right Rainbow? Or should I say... Karma can be a Poison? One that can result in a similar fate one does to others. I'm not the crazy guy with the needle, Rainbow. I'm the doctor. Time for your medicine..."
She tried to yell, but her screams were muffled by the hand of the figure and soon, her flailing hands fell as her body went limp. It then left a little card next to the flowers and walked out the doors of the Pony City Hospital. The note read:
"Three down, three to go. Until we meet again, Symbiote Six ~Applejack."
Author's Note
If anyone's wondering, her wounds didn't heal by the symbiote because lightning can set trees on fire so the volts caused by the figure fried not just Rainbow Dash but the symbiote too until it died. Just to clear things up.
"The most pathological effects of pollution are extremely delayed and indirect." ~Rene Dubos
One might wonder why there is a Flim Flam Factory on the outskirts of Pony City. Well, the "outskirts" are what's left of Sweet Apple Acres. 50 years ago or so, the two brothers promised a 75-25 partnership between themselves and the Apple Family, but when the family found out they're not the ones getting the 75, they refused. The two brothers then challenged the family for ownership of the land and apples, and despite the attempts of the Mane 6, Sweet Apple Acres was torn down and Flim Flam Fields was born. In terms of productivity, machine can apparently beat woman. Despite being reduced to employees, the Apple family were soon replaced with machinery. While Big Mac once pulled heavy Flim Flam Field loads, a self driving Tractor-Bot now does that for him with no need for pay. The late Granny Smith used to judge apples with her sense of smell, whereas an advanced Super Cider Squeezy 6000 does that 100 times faster than she ever could. The only route left for the siblings was getting jobs at Sugarcube Corner, making sweets that weren't entirely apple-related, which was a shame. Things seemed to be looking up for them until the two sisters, Applejack and Applebloom, heard their big brother had an "accident" near Flim Flam Fields and died. While the Flim Flam brothers could've done it, they were let go by the judge due to "lack of evidence" *cough* They paid the witnesses to lie *cough*
Having lost half of her family, Applejack accepted the symbiote, which helped her and her sister break into the Flim Flam factory and kill off the founders 30 years ago. Flam's daughter, Flammy, is the sole heir to the business and has continued to control it ever since. Applebloom initially told AJ not to go Pollutant on her as there's been enough bloodshed already on their former land. Bloom was one of the few that knew the Mane 6's secret. But recently, history seems to have repeated itself. Applejack got word from the police her sister was found dead on the dirt road passing through Flim Flam Fields and while she immediately accused Flammy of being the possible killer, the court maintained lack of evidence. This time, if the authorities aren't going to bring her siblings' killer to justice, then she will.
Unlike RD who died in the hospital that evening - Applejack did pay her a visit though - AJ did get her letter of the emergency meeting at Twilight's castle. She couldn't go though as tonight was the night she would finally destroy Flim Flam Fields and reclaim her family's land once and for all. Avenging her family was a greater priority than avenging her friends. They might say to her that killing is wrong, but so was the Flim-Flam Family killing them. And she remembers the old rule: An eye for an eye, and a bloodbath for a bloodbath. Nah, blood's too noticeable, she thought. She'll just do what she did last time. Turn into Pollutant and pump in the poisonous gas that killed off Flammy's father and uncle. Then she'll simply swing out of there and be happy when the newspapers say the heir of Flim Flam Fields died and the land is now up for auction.
Day became night for Flammy. While her robotic workers toiled away, she simply sighed and looked at the picture frame that rested on her desk. In it, she was a baby being cradled by her father and uncle. She never really knew her mother, nor did she ever spend her childhood with her remaining parents. She's all alone now, surrounded by their machinery, not knowing how to honor their legacy properly besides being there. While many in Pre-Pony City considered them to be arrogant assholes who seemed to care about polluting the environment for their greedy purposes, she knew they were never like that. They had plans to create machines that would coexist with the soil, not tamper it. In a world currently so dependent on technology, it's hard to stand out compared to other companies who rely on nonrenewable resources. Or at least not adhere to the norm, irresponsibly dumping waste. Her time trying to teach herself adult duties has already cost her several fingers, requiring some metal replacements. One might even say she's as lost as her digits.
Hearing a long bang from the front door to her office, she sees it open to reveal her robotic butler, back to serve her 10,000th cup of coffee. She puts the sugarcubes on her tray into the mug, picks it up by the handle and gulps it all down. She then hands back the tray, which the butler took as an automated response to go back to the kitchen down several floors to refill it. It bowed to her and left. She looks up at the ceiling light of her room and laments:
"I know I'm supposed to be your legacy, father. It's just that you were taken away from me when I was so young that I don't know what to do. My life has been spent on being raised by your robots and being given everything. In reality, I don't know how to cook, I don't know how to build, I don't even know how to make friends. Your butler's nice, but he's an automaton. His schedule's merely programmed and his soul's manufactured, if he even has a soul. I bet you would simply laugh and say he doesn't as you preferred using machines for everything over paying real workers. I do understand the benefits of that, but you just left me so utterly confused on what to do. I can't even fire these robotic workers as they're stuck on their tedious schedules since they don't follow my voice. They come by with trays of coffee and snacks for me alongside today's profits, but it's been YEARS since I heard a single person come up to me and say 'Hello'. The last time I heard it was from this officer named Nightstick who knocked on my door and revealed you and Uncle Flim died. They just left me here as they assumed the robots could take care of me. They have for over 23 years, but they're not alive. It's just driving me nuts. And bolts. No sorry, I'm not a robot. Or maybe I am." She pulls off her white gloves to reveal her organic and robotic fingers.
"I look at these hands and I don't see the hands of a creator. I see something I'm not. Maybe I should focus on becoming like your workers. Heartless, incredibly obedient, and THEN I might be able to interact with them. I look in the mirror and I want to see you behind me but all I see is myself and the desk behind me instead. Oh, what am I doing? I'm just talking to a fucking lightbulb and not my real FATHER!" She then slams her fist onto her desk, creating a crack on it. Or rather the 15th crack on it as she has taken out her anger on it several times. She then simply put her gloves back on and cried rivers.
Meanwhile, Applejack, having finished her shift in Sugarcube Corner, went up to the roof where she turned into Pollutant. She fired her gooey rope at a nearby building and began swinging her way to the roof of Flim Flam Field Factory. She was going to go through the front door but that would be too easy and she bet Flammy put her father and uncle's robots to Anti-Apple Family mode. Instead, she decides she's going to break in through the glass window on the top floor where the CEO office is. Good thing Flammy surrounded herself by robots and no actual witnesses. However, AJ still shouldn't leave evidence behind for the police. She arrived to the pane and peered in to see Flammy talking to herself.
"Bet she's bragging on about how her fun her life was killing off my sister and continuing her father's work ever since she was a child," Applejack thought as she listened in on Flammy:
"And Father, do you know how long it's been since I even saw a person? And I don't mean the family album I have of you and Uncle Flim, which has several pages empty. It was of someone I also couldn't save. Two days ago, I was simply going outside as I rarely do to see how much the world has evolved ever since my isolation. Well, Ponyville has become Pony City, so that must be a good thing, right? No. I look back here and realize how empty this place is. I then heard a blaring noise and turned around to see it was coming from one of your Tractor-Bots. It spotted a little yellow girl with red hair 'trespassing' on Flim Flam Fields as she made her way through the dirt path that you or Uncle didn't own. And guess what happened? Did I tell her to scram? No. Your Tractor-Bot literally ran her over but when I told it to stop, it simply looked at me and replied, 'Scanning subject. Subject name: Flammy Flam. Going back to automated duties.' That girl's limbs were crushed by the Tractor's wheels, yet she was still alive. Pony City was too far away and when I ran back to your factory, I couldn't find a phone or anything. So I simply went to her and said, 'I'm sorry. I don't know how to help you.' She replied, 'It's ok, it wasn't your fault. It was mine....' and then she died. It took until the sun went down and the moon to go up for someone to FINALLY find her and call the police. Despite the fact the patterns on the girl's limbs matched the one on the tires of the Tractor Bots, the companies you partnered up with told me to shut up and let them pay their way to not have me arrested and have your company keep on going. They may say I'm not the killer, but I am. I just feel so stupid and blind to everything you left behind for me. I don't know what button to press, what tone of voice to say to these robots and I'm overall alone. It was MY fault! It was mine..." She then lies on the ground and cries again.
"So Flammy didn't kill her? She just couldn't save her?" Applejack said as tears formed within Pollutant's face. She had to pull back from the ledge near the window out of sight to tear off her mask and wipe away them. She decided to look again and say, "I'm sorry Flammy. I'm sorry for leaving you like this. I guess I never knew your father well."
"Apologize to her face, Pollutant," she heard a voice near her say before a strong force made her break through the window and land in front of Flammy's desk, mask still not regenerated. She got up just to see Flammy get up too and said, "Um... hello, Flammy."
Flammy's first instinct was to press herself against the wall behind her, stuttering, "Y-you're P-Pollutant? THE Pollutant f-from the S-Symbiotic Six?"
Applejack knew it was too late now to hide it so she sighed and answered, "Yes Flammy. I am Pollutant. It's just that this symbiote felt so awesome. When I become HER, I feel invincible. I feel unstoppable. I feel like nothing could hurt me, so I went ahead and hurt others. I just now feel stupid for what I've done."
Flammy was confused. She asked, "What do you mean, stupid? You killed a lot but you-" she gasped once she connected the dots. "YOU, YOU KILLED MY FATHER?! MY UNCLE!?"
Applejack tried to calm her down by saying, "Please Flammy. Let me explain..."
Flammy was too scared to listen, so she shouted, "YOU EXPLAINED QUITE ENOUGH, POLLUTANT! SECURITY!" She pressed the dusty old red button on her desk which set off a blaring alarm to make the butler storm back in. It scanned Applejack's face before it used its built in flamethrower to set her on fire, burning the symbiote and then her. She tried to roll over and put it out, but she screamed at the top of her lungs as she stopped flailing around and eventually died.
"I finally got justice for my family's murderers. I hope you rot in Hell for this." Flammy declared.
She then got hit by what felt like a sharp tip from the back of her head and when she turned around, it's revealed to simply be a paper airplane. She looked up and saw a figure at the window, the very one that pushed Pollutant to Flammy's office. It simply told her:
"I helped you get your vengeance. Now do what I say and read the letter."
Flammy then opens the paper up and reads what it says out loud: "Four down, two to go. What does that mean?"
The figure simply answered, "Check the news tomorrow. I have to go now."
Flammy simply replied, "Go then. Do what you have to do," as the factory returned to its lonesome state. The robot butler then presented her latest meal. Recognizing the "trash" left in the middle of the office, the butler then shoves AJ's body in a trash bag to further incinerate it. Pleased with her butler's service, she finally smiled and took a sip of her 10,001th coffee.
While I thought I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die ~Leonardo Da Vinci
Sunlight bleeds onto the crystal walls that make up Twilight's castle on the morning of Friday the 13th. Twilight wakes up, gets dressed in her typical princess attire, and sits on her throne awaiting for her friends to arrive, but all she sees is Pinkie:
"Greetings, Pinkie Pie." Twilight welcomes.
"Hey, Twilight. Hey, Spike." She replies while waving to Spike, who's now a full-grown dragon after so many years..
Twilight then gets straight to the point on why they've gathered:
"I haven't gotten a reply letter from the rest, so they're more than likely doomed now, so it's just us. Listen Pinkie, I think I finally connected the dots. Not on who's going out there killing us but rather how the killer kills. We have been trying to solve this issue the wrong way. We did the stupid horror movie cliché of splitting up, and thus Fluttershy was alone and got killed, possibly even RD and Applejack too since they haven't arrived yet. Anyway, we need to stick together. Plus, we should prepare and reflect on the others. For Rarity, she was taken by surprise. For Fluttershy, she tired herself out fortifying herself, and the killer took advantage of that. Instead, we should go out and spend time creating our defenses now. The killer chose to kill us at night for obvious reasons. Not only do we go out as Anti-Life and Slaughter at night but it's very hard to see, even with all lights on as they can always be turned off. So we should get a massive grocery list of what we need:
First we'll need to install bulletproof glass. The amount needed must replace all the windows in this castle, as I noticed in Rarity's death, the killer broke in through one so let's avoid that. Next, I'll send a letter to Celestia asking for an extension to my security as these deaths threaten my life as an important political member of society. Both Fluttershy and Rarity had little to no defenses, but Fluttershy left one door unbarred and wide open during her patrols. Both also had no surveillance in their homes to keep track of or spot the killer, so it's time we also create a security camera system but hide it from everyone, even the guards, so only me, you, and Spike know. And don't worry about drawing suspicion to us. Everyone knows our lives are primarily at stake, so seeing a princess and her friend going around buying home defense products doesn't sound crazy."
She then turns her head to Spike and mentions the final step:
"And you, Spike. You're my last line of defense. I want you to follow me wherever I go should two factors come into mind: One, I lose my Anti-Life symbiote and two, my magic is suppressed by something. You've grown bigger so surely your adult dragon attributes can make you formidable against this killer. And no matter how much pain that man or woman puts you in, stop it at all costs, even if I die. Is that clear, Spike?"
He sheds one tear and replies, "Yes, Twilight. You're the only person I got left to care for. I'll do this not just for you, but for Rarity and the entire Symbiotic Six."
Twilight nods and says, "Good. Lady and dragon, [she gets up from her throne] let's get ready for the storm."
Twilight not only had to buy several things from the shop, but also some of their carts to bring all the stuff she bought back to the castle. She would've just teleported them all, but she needs to save her strength for her plan etched on a blueprint paper she called Operation: Flytrap. Pinkie brings in a power cutter to carve out a hole in a wall in a random room to be the secret security camera room. Meanwhile, Twilight cuts out other areas around the castle to set up the secret cameras but also have visible ones should she have no way to hide them like the outside monitors. She connected all the wires and attached them to the walls until they reached the security room. Inside, she then installed the giant desk to hold all the observation monitors for each camera out there and be all controlled by several keyboards. Small microphones have been put in places like potted plants and inside lamps for discretion. Now with the system installed, Twilight and Pinkie Pie began unloading crates of guns, grenades, melee and blunt weapons, and so much more into the room should their symbiotes no longer be of use. As night falls, they turn into Anti-Life and Slaughter to not only heighten their senses but keep them safe from most other weapons as they are still mortal, so it's best to put up nearly indestructible skin than run around naked. They then spend their time glued to their seats watching every monitor for any suspicion, as well as see if any guards outside were knocked out or killed. They weren't instructed to patrol the hallways, otherwise they would catch them in their symbiotes and focus on fighting them instead of the killer sneaking past them. It's only been a few minutes and monitoring is already starting to feel drawn out and tedious, so Anti Life decides to speak:
"Do you see anything, you guys?" Anti-Life asks her.
"Nope, nothing." Slaughter replies.
"Neither do I, Anti-Life." Spike says as he also checks the cameras.
First minute, no traces. Next came the fifth. The thirtieth. A total of sixty minutes, no detection. Sweat begins pouring down Anti-Life's face. Not from being worried, but she skipped dinner to begin construction and monitoring. And it's making her stomach swirl in pain. She can't take it anymore.
"Slaughter, can you please watch me as I go to the kitchen? I'm starving and don't worry, I'll bring back food for you too." Anti Life explains to her.
"Sure, but be wary of any sudden noises, Anti Life." Slaughter warns her.
"Spike, come with me." Anti-Life orders as Spike nods and waits for her to get up from her chair first.
Anti-Life then leaves through the hidden wall, closes it up to protect Slaughter should the worse come and walks to the kitchen. She looks in her refrigerator and after scouring around in it, she found a cold plate of spaghetti. She then tells Spike to heat it up while she went to the bathroom.
"Sure thing, Twilight, I mean Anti-Life." Spike answers.
As he typed in the time to heat it up, he felt a sharp pinch near his spine. He began to feel rather tired... and sleepy. It's been days since he slept properly, maybe it's now showing its toll on him. The world around him started to vibrate and spin around and sure enough, he was on the ground, his back revealing a knocked out dart with a hooded figure standing in the doorway with an air rifle at hand. It then hid its weapon in the nearby closet as well as store away clothes and it began to set its trap...
When Anti-Life arrived, she spotted a rather happy Spike who managed to spend his time putting toppings like tomato sauce, tomato pieces, ketchup, meat sauce, flavor leaf and more onto the plate.
"Wow Spike. You really wanted to make it special for me. Though was it necessary?" Anti-Life wondered.
"Of course Anti-Life. It's been rough times for all of us so I thought a less boring meal would help calm your nerves." He explains as he swipes some sweat off his head. "Since it's your meal, want to put the plate in yourself?"
"Sure, my #1 assistant" Anti-Life says as she puts it in the microwave and presses the start timer. She then notices what seemed like the plate in there to get brighter. She was confused, is she seeing things? She looked closer at it and-
*KABOOM*
Hidden underneath the spaghetti were things like un-cracked eggs, grapes, and aluminum foil, all set to overkill via exploding the microwave and not only let out a flame big enough to kill her symbiote but have shards of the microwave door itself embedded into her face and neck, killing her near instantly. Spike then smiled, turned to the visible camera and said out loud, "Five down. One to go. We have meet again, Sinister Six. You ALL thought I was dead and gone but in reality, I was in the shadows the whole time. Signed, Spike."
"You can't spell SLAUGHTER without LAUGHTER!" ~Pinkamena Diane Pie, Cupcakes.
So as the bodies began piling, they began to take their tolls on the Sinister Six. For Pinkie, it was lack of sleep. Sure, the one more likely to suffer this is Twilight considering her mental breakdown in the time travel episode, but Pinkie's been known for being the happiest and going to sleep knowing the next day was a new day. Now ever since the death of Rarity, she's been more scared than happy. She jumps whenever she hears doors open now, even jumping high enough to reach the ceiling. She began spending with her "friends" again from Gummy's party like Rocky, Mr. Turnip and more. And she slept with the lights on or try to train to sleep with her eyes open so she can dream and watch reality at the same time. Before you say that's impossible, it's Pinkie, don't question it. So why is her hair not straight and still poofy? Well that's normally when she's sad. It did droop at one point but she had hopes of being happy once she helps the rest of her friends find the killer to bring them to justice. Plus, she had too many happy memories killing others, it made sense her pleasure in committing murder eventually overpowered the death of her friends. To them, the team relied heavily on variation. Each killed differently, each named themselves differently, each used their symbiotes differently and each reacted to their personal tragedies differently:
Fluttershy took it as a sign of warning. That's why she jumped to her guns or rather her spear and turned her once happy cottage into a crude ironed fortress with traps and spear in hand. She unfortunately didn't cover everything in her home and wasn't perfect so when she dropped her spear, it became the shovel that dug her grave.
Rainbow Dash didn't go around and crying sad. She just dust her shoulders off and tried to keep on moving. She didn't want the past to affect her present, hence why she also didn't want to have Blitzing Speed in her home and instead have him out of his life forever. Sure, Scootaloo meant a lot to her, but people change overtime, for better or worse. One moment, a guy you knew all your life cared for you as a friend, the next you're on the floor covered in bruises with that "long time friend" of yours just watching as he was too scared to help defend you now. This ignorance of the past rather than reflect or adapt to it is what led to her demise by the mysterious murderer as it came back to bite her in the form of the cloud drop and electrocution, not just as a sign of karma.
Applejack also thought ignoring the past and focusing on the present would make her a better person. In her eyes, her wanting to end the life of Flammy right now was more important than the killer out there hunting her and her friends. The death of her family hit her harder than her companions.But when the truth was revealed in a form she didn't expect to be, finding out Flammy didn't kill Applebloom and Flammy's life has been shitty to say the least, she forgot the other unsolved problem so the figure came by to remind her and thus, she got killed because she wasn't there at the meeting. She tried to talk her way out of this knowing the true side of Flammy, but since Flammy then knew of AJ's true side too, she made Applejack pay for it in death. Just like Jack said. An eye for an eye, and a bloodbath for a bloodbath. She thought she was gonna be bathing in Flammy's blood but it turned out to be her own. And the temperature to the bath was set to be 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
Twilight and Pinkie were the only ones left to actually try to stop the killer once and for all.Not only did they see what happened in the past but they tried to adapt to it too. Rarity's death was a surprise, Fluttershy's death a day later was caused by the defenses being brought up too late, and Rainbow Dash and Applejack's deaths were the result of blissful ignorance. The two remaining friends decided that to prevent falling into their categories, they should set their subtle home defenses during the day as well as stay together. Unfortunately, they should've been concerned about their well being at first, as seen by Twilight needing to go eat.
Twilight also brought up a point when accusing Pinkie right away that she killed Rarity. The killer is someone who knows them all greatly. It's someone who knows they all are the Symbiote Six. It's someone who refuses to kill in plain sight in the day but at night when they are usually the Symbiotes. She should've realized that it must've been someone who believes killing is wrong in the sense of killing the innocent, but killing ones who deserve it is logical. Why would the likes of Spike still love Rarity when he's aware she's descended to a cold-blooded murderer alongside her friends? He tried to stop her when she did go crazy before, so why has he dropped his gun now and embraced her instead? Especially since he didn't kill anyone nor was fused with a symbiote? Twilight in this universe is of course a psychopath who can easily hide her true nature, but her way of seeing good and evil is forever tainted. She still had a certain blind spot that the killer managed to exploit in the form of her unexpected death by microwave. With Pinkie or should I say, Slaughter the only one left standing, lets see what she'll do against the killer literally staring at her through the security cameras:
Pinkie woke up from her inner fight between staring at the security cameras all night or taking at least a nap. The nap won and as she awoke, she finally spotted the killer: At the kitchen where she was supposed to watch Twilight and Spike, she now sees Spike smiling menacing at her with Twilight dead behind him. She sees him just in time to hear him say out loud:
"Five down, one to go. We meet again, Symbiotic Six. Signed, Spike."
Then the camera went static and Pinkie slammed her fist on the desk hard enough to break the table in two as well as a lot of monitors in the fall. She then busted through the crystal wall, pulled out her megaphone and yelled:
"ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! SPIKE, I CARED FOR YOU FOR SO LONG! NOW IT IS TIME YOU PAY FOR YOUR CRIMES AGAINST ALL OF MY FRIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!"
The force of her screams spread throughout the castle, blasting several doors open, shattering the bulletproof windows, and making all the guards outside fly hundreds of feet away. While it was indirect, no distractions should get in way of Slaughter this time. It's 1 to 1. She then took several big breaths of air, dropped her microphone and got into a fight pose as she could hear the big stomps of a certain dragon coming this way. She could also hear a long squeaking noise, but it doesn't matter now. Spike dying is all that matters in her mind now. She then saw what was coming this way: Not only a still bloodied Spike, but in his big claw was the corpse of Twilight being dragged this way. Maybe he considers her body as his trophy? He does come from a greedy and rather heartless species, maybe it's starting to show now.
Now's not the time for staring though. Slaughter got to work, spraying various amount of goo at Spike so many times until he got stuck and essentially glued to the wall behind him. He tried to move his arms but they were trapped inside the main red-black blob on his chest. Slaughter then tried to draw first blood by aiming to slash his exposed neck, but it proved to be more difficult than anticipated. Then again, she should've known as it's a human with organic claws vs. a dragon. She kept on going anyway, not wanting to give up on her progress until she saw Spike begin channeling his fire breath and unleashed it. She quickly did a backflip to dodge it, only to notice he didn't do this to fire her, but burn the goo away. He then gets off the wall and boasts:
"What's the matter, Pinkie? You hate challenging prey? I'll do more than be a nuisance!"
He then gives out an extreme power roar to rival the one Pinkie did a while ago with her megaphone which sent Pinkie flying several feet into the crystal wall behind her, but she quickly got up and hissed. She then pulled out a big slab of goo from her body and constructed a giant thick sword from it. She ran up to him and tried to cut his legs off but he quickly jumped up and blasted another fire breath at her. She quickly ran around the corner into a room near her to avoid the flames catching onto her symbiote as it did manage to burn the sword. She then replied loudly to him:
"I don't hate challenging prey, Spike! I'm just getting used to it and so far, you're putting up an awful fight! I'm moving faster than you!"
"Speed isn't all that matters, 'Slaughter'. Did you forget my strength?"
He proved his point further by smashing the crystal wall she was hiding behind, causing her to be crushed by blocks of rubble. He didn't see her in the pile so he assumed she ran off somewhere and began looking around the room to search. He's got his back to her. Perfect for Slaughter, who jumps out of the rocks and begin climb up his back. She did notice this weird stream of blood on his back, but that doesn't matter. He felt her there and tried to grab her, but Slaughter dodged every one of his grabby claws. He then tried to fall on his back to crush her but before he made it the ground, she fell off and landed on the floor just to then jump on his face. She resumed to making him miss her so he resorted to opening his mouth and try to bite her in half, but despite his formidable jaw strength against gems, that symbiote's too tough to break. He then remembered his flame breath and began firing it up but she then jumped up before he repeated this attack for the third time and went up to his eye. He tried to punch her off but she jumped out of his incoming claw to end up stabbing himself in the pupils, making him unable to see. As he tried to cover his bleeding corneas, Slaughter then blasted goo at his face to make his hand stuck to his face, but he still tried to swing at her blindly with his other arm and tail. Eventually, he fired a flaming ball into his hand to free it and pull out his fingers, but Slaughter also noticed on the ground were not just his blood but also two punctured corneas and up there now were pupil-less eyes which he quickly closed them to stop the blood gushing from them.
That's it, she said to herself. She has to get to his squishy insides like his brain, but the only place big enough to let her go into now are those eyes. His mouth's too risky considering his flame breath, so she'll have to get up there. He wasn't trying to go down that easily so despite being blind, he began punching, clawing and roaring at the air in front of him, hoping one of his hits would strike at Slaughter and knock her out to burn her to death like Pollutant. Good thing his back's still exploitable so she fired a goo rope to the ceiling, launched her way up and dropped onto his head talons. She then forcibly open his eyes and made a chilling discovery:
Spike's eyes are always green. and had slit irises. But the eye that was now in its place were blue and had normal irises. Just like... hers. Wait a minute. Framing her out of all the Sinister Six, bearing a grudge against all of them, killing them only based on their names, having seemingly impossible ways to get in and out of sight, knowing where all of them live or went, saying it was not dead and hiding the shadows... It's not Spike the Dragon in front of her. IT's wearing his skin or took over his body. That's why that bloody trail is on his back. So that means its...
"Spike" then slashed her off and breathed another ball of fire to burn her symbiote and her but she didn't die. She's alive like RD but severely hurt. "Spike" then says, "It's time for you to get a good look at... yourself." The dragon then collapsed and his back splits open, releasing gushes of blood everywhere. Something then jumped down. It was pink and had those very same blue eyes. It was Pinkie Pie. ANOTHER Pinkie Pie. One who was also nude as well. It then approached the burnt Pinkie and put her foot on her crispy chest.
"Hello again Pinkie Pie. Did you miss me? I had the heck of a time tracking you down after beating your friends. It was... FUN!" This Pinkie exclaimed gleefully, showing her big, bloody smile.
Pinkie's burnt eyes widened as she did connect the dots already. She explained, "You. You're one of the clones."
The nude Pinkie nodded and explained, "The one that got distracted by Rainbow long ago when she said, 'Somebody's making balloon animals'. It wasn't easy getting out of that fucking Mirror Pool. I felt myself melting and losing shape as I punched for dear life to get out but eventually I had the sudden amount of force to escape and my body reformed to look like you again. I was filled with less happiness at that point and filled with rage. Rage that you and your friends figured we were a threat to your kind and thus, it's best to put us back in that hellhole world we used to live in and not be free in this one. That's why we were so eager to go around and be you. We finally felt freedom, we felt hope, but then everyone got sappy and wanted us back in there. I even had to spend a harder time pulling out that boulder at the entry to the pool. Who put that there? Applejack? That doesn't matter. I wanted to come back to you purely for my revenge. But the more I heard about these "Sinister Six" and realizing they were YOU and the rest, my plan changed. I knew if I went to you right away, they would come after me and put me back in the pool. So I instead took my years planning out my attacks carefully on each of your friends, starting from weakest to strongest. That's why I saved your friend Twilight for last as if I took her out, the others could've brought other magical friends involved and thus, I would need to kill unfortunate sods trying to protect ones who don't deserve such thing. I also got some of the family involved to keep track of your movements. Applebloom, Blitzing Speed, Spike, Flammy, the Cakes. All of them were involved. You and your friends thought telling them your secret identity was a good idea but in reality, who would want to support their heartless, genocidal family members? They still had hearts, you all lost your own. So you're the last woman standing. Or rather on the ground, ready to die. So any last famous last words, Pinkamena Diane Pie?"
The burnt Pinkie was so mindblown by this unraveling of a mystery, she didn't know what to say now that it's her turn to speak. There was no way out of this though, so she simply muttered, "Just finish me and get over it."
The nude Pinkie answered, "Gladly" before tearing into the crisp Pinkie's flesh with her bare hands. She broke several ribs, ripped out several organs and basically made Spike's corpse nearby no longer the only one surrounded by a blood pool with guts. The burnt Pinkie simply watched until eventually, the nude Pinkie clone tore out her heart, abruptly ending the life of the real one. The clone then dropped it and crushed it with her foot. It then spun around to rid itself of all the blood and began walking out the room, down several hallways, out the back door of the castle and walked all its way to the forest, never to be seen again...
The End.
Author's Note
In case any are confused. Here's what happened:
The week went like this:
And that's it. Did you enjoy my story? Tell me what you thought about it in the comments below.
