Author's Note

Still not telling! But you can probably figure it out from this. Next chapter will be the one I skipped.

14. No, that's wrong!

Wednesday, 6/29/2078
POV: Devil Rose

Despite the situation they were in, Devil Rose found sleeping easy. He was a mercenary, so this wasn't the most dangerous place he'd ever slept. He'd slept on a battlefield with no guards and bombs exploding a few hundred hoofsteps away, so he could sleep here.

To be honest, it surprised him they'd gone this long without a serious incident. He expected another faction to retake Canterlot within a few months, but it'd been eight now. They'd been living on borrowed time while waiting for whoever won out there to invade here, so even if he died here he came out a little ahead.

Though he must have gotten used to the silence of the stable since he woke up a few times during the night, and most of them were a bit foggy. He did remember that one was some announcement Paper Cut made, which he promptly ignored and went back to sleep. then again when he thought he heard some clattering around in his room. He looked over to the corner where he heard it from and thought he saw movement, but when he turned on his light, there was nothing there but the vent. He closed his groggy eyes and went back to sleep.

The second time he woke up during the night was a lot more disconcerting. He woke up to the feel of warmth in the bed with him, and it didn't take him long to realize that someone had crawled into it with him. Before he knew it, they were rolling him over onto his back and crawling atop him.

Devil's eyes shot open, ready to throw whoever was atop him out of the bed, but quickly realized who it was, mostly because he was so used to this particular body crawling around on him. It was Smokey, straddling him and grinding her slutty behind against his sheath. For some reason, she wasn't wearing her trademark shirt she used to hide her wing stumps, but she was holding something in her muzzle.

It was his blue and red butterfly knife, Yamoto, and it was dripping with fairly fresh blood. No way. Could she be the... that sort of seemed too obvious at this point.

"Smokey!" Devil blurted out, defensively moving his hooves to her throat. "Why are you here? You can't be here... after the eight hours are up."

In his sleepy state, he almost forgot to lie. Damn annoying rule that was.

"Nah don't worry, muddy," Smokey moaned as his hooves went to her throat, muttering around the bloody knife between laps at the handle. "You killed Cream so you don't have to be alone for the full eight hours, and I already did my time, so we're fine. You can kill me all you want! Seriously, I am so turned on that you're the traitor!"

With that, Smokey leaned forward, or tried to with Devil's hooves in the way. He realized she was trying to mouth him the knife, but what did she say about Cream? And the traitor?

"Cream isn't dead," Devil said, assuming she was. "Why am I the traitor?"

Smokey leaned forward more, and Devil let her get close enough to take the knife from her muzzle, if for no other reason than to have it himself. The blood on it tasted fresh, and like an older mare's blood. He grunted as he took the knife, his shaft hardening against Smokey's soft behind, but he had no interest in banging this thot at the moment. He just wanted an explanation.

"There was an imprint of your knife in the blood near her body, mud pie, where you bucked her to death with!" Smokey grinned excitedly. She was so nuts at this point he didn't even care about her weird earth pony slurs. "Then I found the trail of blood through the vents from the kitchen to here, and your bloody knife under the bed!"

"So I killed her," clarified Devil. "But didn't clean my knife afterward?" He hoped the absurdity of that would sink in without him having to connect the dots for this dumb whore.

"Yep!" Smokey nodded without getting the point. "Now you can cut off my dick and make me eat it while you bang my faggot asshole! Bucking is all you muddies are good for, right?"

He shoved the crazed thot as hard as he could, tossing her from the bed rather easily. He could then sit up and get a better look around his room as he reached to turn on the light. The vent in the corner where he'd heard the noise before, was completely off as if she'd crawled in through there. Smokey's shirt was lying next to it, ripped down the back as if it'd gotten caught on something while she was crawling to his room.

"Yes!" Smokey groaned as she writhed on the floor. "Kick my ass, dirt pony slime! Stomp my balls into a pulp this time! Make me sorry I ever... hey!"

Smokey sat up too as she realized Devil wasn't leaping out of the bed atop her to begin her gruesome murder. She peered at him like a jealous marefriend that just caught her stallion staring at a passing mare's twat. He didn't have time to explain more though as another bang made them both jump.

Was that a gunshot? A muffled gunshot at least. He'd heard enough gunshots to know what one sounded like when one fired while penetrating somepony.

Devil didn't wait for his eight hours to be up, not that it mattered now that Smokey had stumbled into his room. He'd have to start the eight hours over again, anyway. He ignored the annoyed slut on the floor, slipping on his saddlebags and placing Yamato within one to keep it out of sight.

As he trotted toward the door though, the screen in the room flickered on and Paper Cut's annoying visage lit it up. She held popcorn and looked quite entertained; that wasn't good.

"A body has been discovered!" Paper Cut said. "Two bodies if you count that the bun was ripped out of her oven. This is a lot of dying in a short time, so you ponies and various lesser species should probably get on that pretty soon. Just some friendly advice because it seems that traitor is running rings around you!"

"Aw..." Smokey frowned. "A hornyhead got her foal ripped out, and I missed it..."

That little bitch was bucked the hell up, but there was no time for that. Another one? A pregnant mare? That'd have to be...

The image of Paper Cut flickered off, the image of Figure Eight darkening at the bottom and the number dropping again to 13. Damn it; that would devastate poor Berry, losing both a wife and foal. Who would have done such a thing to someone so hot as a futa-impregnated lesbian?

As he opened the door, the screen flickered back on as if having forgotten something.

"Oh, and your eight hours is up too!" Paper Cut added. "Rise and shine every thing! Time for another beeeeauutiful day!"

Devil was out the door already. Looking up and down, the first thing he saw was Berry standing in front of Night Light's room with a freaked out expression. He ran over to her, holding out a hoof to comfort but not sure how to speak to her in this situation with his rule in place.

"I didn't do it! I swear I didn't!" Berry blurted out before stumbling back into the floor in a heap and sobbing.

Well of course she didn't. Unable to say so though, Devil turned and looked into the room himself. There was Figure on the floor, gutted beyond recognition, with her dead infant still attached to her by the cord, but the head crushed. But there was more than that. On the bed, Gale was extracting her sniper rifle from the rear end of Night Light. So that's what it was.

"A body has been discovered!" Paper Cut made the announcement again as soon as Devil saw Night's corpse. "Up the plot with a rifle, in case not everypony recognized that sound!" The number at the bottom of the view screen ticked down again and Night Light's outline at the bottom darkened.

"What the buck are you doing?" Devil could still ask questions at least.

"He fucking murdered Figure Eight!" Gale said as she cleaned the blood off her gun. "He would have offed Berry too had I not come in time, he's obviously the traitor!" She added more quietly. "And I was wet so I figured I may as well have fun. Fuck off already unless you want to be the next to sate me."

"What is going on?" Thunder roared as he approached from behind. Almost everyone was out of their rooms and in the hall at this point. "This is the third announcement. Who was the first?"

"Cream Heart, you cat-butt," Smokey said. "Someone crawled from a bedroom to the dining hall and killed her there... and that someone was... You!" She grinned widely as she pointed at Devil Rose. "Her blood is still on the knife in your filthy dirt horse saddle bags!"

"Wow this is almost like a real murder mystery now!" Paper Cut said as she hoofed more popcorn into her muzzle. "Oh by the way? None of those killed last night were the traitor, including Mister-Definitely-Did-It that you shot up the asshole. So good work there."

"Wait, what?" Gale blinked. "Then why did Night Light kill Figure Eight?"

"Who knows?" Paper Cut shrugged. "I mean I pumped most of this place with snuff gas during the night, so that may or may not have had anything to do with it. Like I said, I haven't exactly tested my poisons and I did have to use a lot of substitute ingredients with what the stable had in store... so can't entirely be certain."

"How is that fair?" Shadow asked, then glared at his daughter for a moment before trotted towards Devil. "Sorry, Devil. Show everypony your knife so my daughter can shut up about it."

"What?" Devil asked. "Why would I kill anypony with my own knife?"

"Devil," Thunder repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Show us your knife."

"I..." Devil stammered. Damn it! He wasn't even allowed to say he didn't do it! "I would never kill someone with my own knife, it'd make me the obvious suspect!"

"Wait everypony, I don't think he did it," Dangerous staggered out of her room, then blinked. "Wait, that other room was Night Light's?"

"Devil," Shadow sighed, looking at Devil with the most serious expression he'd ever given him. "Just say you're not the traitor, and I'll believe you."

Devil clenched his teeth and shut his eyes for a few long seconds.

"Devil?" Shadow asked again, tilting his head.

There was nothing else to do. If he stood here, he'd be the next to die, the next accused of being the traitor. Who knew if the real traitor had even killed anypony yet. Did they even need to?

Devil turned around to face away, and ran as fast as he could towards the other end of the hallway. He kept his focus on the door as a gunshot rang out, buzzing past his head inches away and deflecting off the metal wall next to the door before he flung it open and went through.

On the other side, his movements were lightning fast, hefting over a nearby storage cabinet in front of the door after closing it. Not waiting to see how much that slowed them down, he raced towards the warehouses to hide.

POV: Smokey

Could it be? Her father's comrade that had led him into battle so many times? That would be such a ridiculously hot betrayal, but it still seemed unlikely. Yeah, she knew better.

But then why did he run? Why wouldn't he say he didn't do it? Maybe the drug made him do it instead of being the traitor? So then why didn't he say that?

"Everyone, he didn't do it!" Dangerous shook her head as she galloped into Night Light's room as if hoping to find something there. She did find something because the next thing heard was her retching as she deposited the contents of her stomach on the floor in there. What a softie.

"I thought you were a crack shot?" Crimson stepped up beside Gale as she lowered her gun.

"Seriously," Tella smirked. "You were less than five feet from him. How did you miss?"

"I am a crack shot!" Gale protested. "I... we're all drugged and stuff."

"Please, you're not close to a crack shot," Thunder growled. "That's just what I told everypony to get you promoted in exchange for wrapping that at-the-time illegal snatch around my cock."

He was being a little unlike himself to say it that bluntly, this whole thing was getting to everyone. So amazing.

"Shut up!" shrieked Gale.

"Why was the first thought to shoot at him anyway?" Winter asked from a corner he'd backed into. "Why is this happening? Why are you killing each other? It doesn't make sense!"

"Everyone shut up!" shrieked Berry from one corner, holding her hooves over her ears. So someone killed her wife, huh? Smokey hoped someone forced her to watch and envied her if she had. Such despair!

"Look, look!" Dangerous stumbled out of Night Light's room, looking greenish still from how ill it made her, but holding a bloody tablecloth. "I found this in his trash!"

"And that means?" Thunder arched an eyebrow.

"Well, I mean..." Danger shook her head as if she had put little thought into how to word it. It was a little suspicious. "Smokey, you said the trail of blood in the vents led to Devil's room. But what if they killed Cream Heart with the knife, crawled to Devil's room to drop it there, then wrapped the table cloth around themselves for the rest of the way so they wouldn't trail the blood to their room?"

"But that would make Night Light the killer," Winter said. "And we already know he wasn't! No one that died was the traitor! You're all killing each other for no reason!"

"Well we know he killed Figure," pointed out Shadow. "If the Touch got to him..."

Though it was still unusual. Aphrodite Touch poisoning rarely made somepony come up with complicated schemes. Grabbing Figure out of nowhere and snuffing her out would make sense if someone drugged him, but not successfully framing Devil for another crime.

And honestly, she found that tablecloth really fast considering how busy she was vomiting. Smokey turned and hopped into Danger's room.

"W-where are you going?" Danger called behind her. "Get out of there!"

Smokey shut the door and locked it, shortly followed by the sound of Danger's hooves beating on it. Yep, definitely suspicious.

It didn't take long for Smokey to find what she wanted, mostly because she had put a lot of thought into where she'd hide murder evidence in her own room. The only really good hiding place in there was between the mattresses, so that's just where she looked. Sure enough...

When Smokey opened the door again, Danger's angry face met her, but she paused when Smokey held up the bloody tablecloth.

"Between her muddy mattresses!" Smokey announced gleefully, proud that she found something so important.

"So wait, so she framed someone for framing someone for murder?" blinked Shadow.

"Wow," Crimson laughed. "Okay, so who framed Danger for framing Night Light for framing Devil for killing Cream? May as well fess up now!"

"I... that's not mine!" blurted out Danger, but she didn't have much of an argument beyond that.

"Um, everyone?" Gale waved a claw at the others. "Not to make this more complicated, but I just noticed something else... about somepony else."

"What is it now?" Thunder growled.

Everyone in the hall looked to Gale, then their eyes followed her wing as he pointed towards Smokey. Smokey tilted her head a little before realizing what part of her he was pointing at. Oh yeah; her shirt had been ripped off and the bare scars where her wings had once been were showing. Awesome! They'd murder her horribly for sure now!

"You're a pegasus?" Thunder spit out the words like 200-year-old Salsbury steak.

"Oh that?" Smokey blinked and waggled her nubs. "Guess my shirt got ripped off in the passage... guess this isn't the best time for you guys to find this out. What ya gonna do about it, rape-baby?"

"For crying out..." Shadow groaned. "It's like you're trying to get yourself killed!"

"Well yeah, I am," Smokey admitted freely. She wasn't sure why more of them weren't having as much fun as her, especially when she was offering fun.

"Oh yeah," Crimson rolled her eyes. "Being a featherbrain definitely means she's an NLR spy. Look she's not even the only pegasus in the Stable. There's that infant some smartass snuck in."

"The NLR were allied with the Grand Pegasus Enclave," Thunder said. "Why would a pegasus clip her own wings to sneak in if not for nefarious reasons?"

"Decent point," Shadow sighed, taking no action to defend her from the accusation. It was unlike him even when she was being an embarrassment to his sensibilities, but Smokey appreciated it.

"Does that mean you're a pegasus too?" Gale looked at Shadow, glaring with a tilted head.

"Oh don't even go there," Shadow growled. "Even if I was, a traitor doesn't volunteer to have their body ripped apart and put back together by the Ministry of Magitech."

"All right, everyone calm yourselves," sighed Thunder. "We need to get a hold of ourselves and remember we're all under the influence of something right now."

"She planted it!" Danger blurted out as if having finally decided on a counter. "S-she probably hid it in the vent outside my room so she could 'find' it later. She wanted to frame me!"

"Holy shit," laughed Crimson. "I was joking, but this is hilarious! Now who framed Smokey?"

"You're suspicious for joking about it," smirked Tella. "Maybe I'm suspicious for pointing that out!"

"Goodness' sake," sighed Thunder. "Okay look. Everyone stay out here and I will search through ALL the rooms to make sure we missed nothing. Danger... Smokey... I'm sorry but I will have you both restrained just to be sure. You're the two most likely suspects, so we'll all go as a group to storage to get rope when I'm done searching."

"B-but I didn't," Danger cried.

"Definitely!" Smokey's eyes lit up. "You should torture us until one of us admits to it, bird-butt!"

"Sure," Gale rolled her eyes. "We can torture you by not torturing you."

Oh horse apples, they were catching on!

"Where's Button?" asked Winter.

"Oh he's at Cream's corpse." Smokey said. "Pretty sure he has a rule that he can't leave her side... hey... if I let him know I knew his rule, he'd have to..."

"We'll be gagging you too I guess," sighed Thunder. "Listen. No one else dies, got it? All we have to do is not let anyone die for three days and we're free!"

"Why is that so hard?" Winter sat in the corner of the hall and held his front hooves over his head in frustration, rocking back and forth. “I mean, three murders in a night? WHY!?”

Aw, no fun. If they gagged her, she couldn't get killed by Button. Getting murdered by a foal would be almost as hot as getting murdered by her dad.

"Don't we need to let Devil know we're not trying to kill him?" asked Shadow.

"Don't forget the rules against communicating any way other than face-to-face," Paper Cut helpfully warned.

"So if you see him, tell him, but it's not a huge problem if we all stick together," Thunder said. "It's not a problem if only one of us is separate and the rest of us barricade ourselves somewhere."

"Unless he is the traitor and goes after Button," said Gale. "Just because he didn't do this one thing doesn't mean he isn't the traitor."

"It can't be helped if we can't move her body," sighed Thunder. "For today, we'll keep half the group with Button in the kitchen while the other half searches for a better place to spend the night, one without ventilation that you can fit through."

Surviving Participants: 12