The Everfree Slayer

Rarity emerges in a lush open field with flowers and sparse trees across a beautiful rolling hillside. She also notices a magenta unicorn standing there with a wavy bluish-white mane, matching tail, and a distinctive curved horn on her forehead.

She smiles while staring at Rarity with her cerulean eyes and says, “Permit me to introduce myself! My name is Starfall Twinkles!”

Rarity widens her blue eyes to the other unicorn, “Um, why am I speaking with you? Where am I?”

“Where you are is not important, darling Miss Rarity! However, it occurs to me that you’re the only member of the trio that first found me that I haven’t hung out with!”

Rarity shakes her head and frowns, “Trio? Uh, trio with whom?”

Starfall nods, “Why, you, Twilight Sparkle, and Rainbow Dash! We’ve spoken before! Don’t you remember? ‘I’m going to kill you!’ and ‘You’re both gonna die!’ Don’t you remember me saying those things to you?”

Rarity’s face, white as it was, could not be whiter as the fashion horse widens her eyes and narrows her mouth, as she says, “YOU! You’re the killer!”

Starfall smiles wider and giggles, “Now she gets it!”

Rarity is silent for a moment before saying, “We’re in a dream, correct?”

“That is correct, darling Miss Rarity!”

Rarity sighs, before finally looking back at the other unicorn, “So uh, what did you wish to speak with me about?”

“Didn’t I just say, I wanted to hang out with you?” Starfall says while looking skyward. She lowers her eyes to the other unicorn, “Was sure I did?”

Rarity’s mouth curves as she stutters out, “I uh, hang out? H-how Starfall? You’re a ghost and...”

“And you’re not!” Starfall cuts her off while frowning. “Still, I can talk to you in your head, and we can share lots of fun ideas and activities! Oh, and by the way, I adore Catwalk Strut’s new look! So, fetish-chic, is it not?” She says before tilting her head to the right and grinning mischievously.

Rarity narrows her eyes, “W-was that you?”

Starfall straightens her neck and continues to smile, “Oh please! Do you think, Twilight Sparkle, Miss Goody Goody Four Hooves herself,could ever think of something like that on her own?”

Rarity starts as she normalizes her eyes before she suddenly lowers her gaze and starts to chuckle slightly, “You know, when I think back on it, that was rather funny!” she looks back up. “Of course, I won’t be telling Catwalk anything about my personal life!”

Starfall giggles, “Of course not! Uh, so what did you want to do, Miss Rarity?”

The spark of inspiration suddenly hits Rarity, “Actually, I have an idea after all! Since we’re here, my body is currently resting on my bed, and you’re speaking with me in my dreams, why don’t we do something for amusement, right here and now?”

Starfall’s eyes widen, “Like, what?”

Rarity frowns, “Well, we can play cards? You seem to be quite the conversationalist?”

Starfall smiles, “Okay, but the loser has to tell Rainbow Dash that her flying sucks!”

Rarity’s eyes widen, “W-what?”

Starfall giggles, “We can tell her why we said it afterwards! But not before we know her reaction!”

Rarity’s eyes narrow, “You are wicked, Starfall!”

Starfall looks up again, “I get that a lot?” She looks back down to Rarity, “But seriously, she’ll get all upset and butthurt! It’ll be hilarious!”

Rarity smiles, “Well, as long as it’s just a harmless prank!”

Starfall smiles back, “Then again, you already hurt her butt pretty bad earlier?”

Rarity widens her eyes at the giggling unicorn!

Starfall stops giggling before lowering her head and suddenly, a metal fold-out table with two fold-out chairs, one for each unicorn, appears between the two ponies with a distinctive pink glow, when it suddenly stops glowing in the empty field.

Rarity looks over to see the table is a dark green color when suddenly, another magical glow appears, holding what appears to be a deck of playing cards. The glow lowers to the table and ceases, leaving the cards there.

Starfall looks at the fashionista, “Should I cut, or you?”

<*****>

The cards magically float with a blue glow in front of Starfall as she sits at the far end of the table. She floats a card to Rarity before herself and continues while saying, “Name of the game is rummy!”

Rarity looks at Starfall from her side of the table, “That’s the one where if you can play, you must, right?”

Rarity looks down and causes her cards to glow blue and form a fan in front of her face as Starfall says, “Yes, Rarity! If you have a set or run, you must play it and I must play from that if I can.” Before setting the pile down at the center of the table and placing the 3 of diamonds card from the top of the deck, face-up next to it.

Rarity clears her throat as she looks at her cards, “Yes, of course!” before floating down three 4’s onto the table, lined up in a row in front of her and smiling dimly at Starfall.

Starfall looks at Rarity, “You have to draw from the pile or deck before playing!”

“Oh, um! I’m sorry…” Rarity says before deciding to pick up the 3 of diamonds. She looks at her hand and discards the king of diamonds to the discard pile.

Starfall glares at the fashionista, “So uh, conversation?”

Rarity looks at Starfall while she magically picks up the king of diamonds and sets down a 2 of diamonds, “Well uh, I guess I’ll just ask the obvious question?”

Starfall looks up from her fan of cards, “Which is?” while Rarity draws from the pile and discards the 7 of clubs.

“Why do you do it? Murder random ponies, I mean?” Rarity asks inquisitively before blinking, while Starfall magically draws a card from the pile and sets down the ace of spades into the discard pile…

Starfall smiles, “It makes me feel better about what happened to me, you know? I uh, because of my scar, I didn’t feel like I belonged… And so now, I like to end ponies because it makes me feel better…”

“I see…” Rarity says before looking at the discard pile and magically moving the ace of spades to her hand and then, floating the ace, 2, and 3 of spades to the table and then, floating her final card to the discard pile… It’s the 3 of hearts… She looks back up to Starfall, “But don’t you feel bad? I mean, don’t you think killing is wrong?”

Starfall tilts her head to the right while collecting all the cards together and magically shuffling them in her blue glow, “Why would killing them be wrong? They’re going to die anyway…”

Rarity speaks a little louder as Starfall deals 7 cards to both players, “Well yes, but what about their lives? Don’t they deserve to have them?”

Starfall frowns as her 7 cards float to a fan in front of her in a blue glow, “Why? I never got a life. So why should they?”

“Well um, what did they do to deserve being killed by you?” Rarity says as her cards form their own fan in front of her.

Starfall causes the top card of the pile to go face up next to it and it’s the jack of hearts, “They don’t need to do anything… This isn’t about actions or right or wrong… This is about being fair…”

“F-fair?” Rarity responds while looking at the other unicorn intently with her right eyebrow raised.

Starfall smiles dimly back to the other unicorn, “Yes… I never got a chance… Why should they?” before looking at the cards and floating the 3 of diamonds to her hand and discarding the 6 of clubs.

Rarity looks at her fan, “But, two wrongs do not make a right, Starfall! Just because you never got to live your life, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t!” before looking up, magically fetching the top card and then, discarding the 7 of spades.

Starfall looks up and magically fetches to 7 of spades to her hand, “What does it matter though? We all die, Miss Rarity… Just like I died when I put my neck into that noose and fell down from my hind legs in that chair…” before discarding the 5 of diamonds.

Rarity stops and frowns at the other unicorn… She pauses for a moment before finally saying, “You don’t believe life is worth living, do you?”

Starfall looks up at Rarity, “It always comes to an end, Miss Rarity… All things do…”

Rarity leans forward, before magically fetching the 5 of diamonds to her hand and putting it on the table, along with the 5 of hearts and 5 of clubs. “But what about life, Starfall? What about the time we’re given?” and then laying down the 6 of spades.

“Hardly meaningful, Miss Rarity… I loved once, and I even had a life, once upon a time… When it all came crashing down and I had nothing, I realized that it’s all meaningless… Nothing really matters…” Starfall says, before drawing from the deck and laying down the 5 of spades onto the table and discarding the 3 of clubs.

Rarity gulps before looking at the table and drawing to her hand from the deck, “You could’ve started over, Starfall?”

Starfall snaps back, “Why? So that can get taken away from me, the next time my life comes unraveled? Like I already said, nothing is permanent in this life, Miss Rarity…”

Rarity leans forward slightly, “But why not…”

Starfall widens her eyes as she cuts off the other unicorn, “Why not just bucking hang myself? Yeah, good plan!”

Rarity narrows her eyes, “That’s not really what I was going to say…”

Starfall sighs and looks wistfully to the right, “I-I’m sorry Miss Rarity…” she looks back to the white unicorn, “I guess you can’t be couth without practice?”

Rarity normalizes her eyes, “Some things are more important than mere etiquette, Starfall darling…”

Starfall narrows her mouth as the fashionista puts her cards face down on the table and trots around the table to her left, “W-what?”

Suddenly, Starfall is embraced in tight warm hug from the unicorn, “It’s okay Starfall…”

Starfall is stunned in place for a moment before finally asking, while laying her cards face down on the table, “Why are you hugging me?”

Rarity lets the unicorn go and goes back to her hooves on the grass to Starfall’s left, “I’m showing you empathy, darling!”

Starfall looks at Rarity with narrow eyes, “But I killed three ponies! I’m a bad pony! Why would you ever be sympathetic to me?”

Rarity raises her left eyebrow, “Wait! If killing is neither right nor wrong, as you claim, why then would killing, make you a bad pony?”

Starfall smiles, “Nice try! I mean, you ponies would think the act of killing is evil!”

Rarity sighs as she normalizes her eyes, “According to you, killing is fine, since life is not worth living, correct?”

Starfall continues smiling, “Correct! Honestly, I’m just doing them a favor!”

Rarity frowns, “Then why even bring it up to me, then? Why present these thoughts if you are indeed so certain?”

Starfall sighs as she normalizes her mouth, “Well, the truth is, the fun I had with Rainbow and Twilight made me stop and think… At the same time though, I can’t imagine what I’d learn from you three that I didn’t after spending years alone, by myself…”

Rarity raises her left eyebrow again as she leans forward slightly, “Do you suppose, maybe that’s the problem Starfall? You’re always on your own…”

Suddenly, Rarity here’s a loud beeping noise as Starfall begins to grow fuzzy and hazy before her eyes… She then opens her eyes to find herself laying on her left side on her bed, with her head on the pillow and she sees the digital face of her alarm clock with a red 6:00 on it. She sighs as she reaches her right hoof towards the clock and presses the top to silence it…

<*****>

The workday is awkward for the white unicorn, although she cannot put her hoof on why. She eats a breakfast of fruit and chases it with orange juice before trotting down to her shop below and getting ready to open for the day. As usual, everything is already set up from the night beforehand and so, all she must do is flip the sign and unlock the door…

The next 4 hours go by very slowly for the unicorn as she can’t help but think of the strange murderous unicorn, she met the night before. She considered what Starfall said carefully… Life is not worth living and we all die in the end… She eventually realized shortly after her dainty lunch of strawberry halves and veggie salad, as she sipped her low-fat milk with her magic, that Starfall’s real issue was that she hadn’t been shown a reason to exist…

The rest of the day goes by uneventfully. Rarity sells three more dresses and returns a dress to another customer after showing her the alterations she had made… Dinner was hayburgers that Coco Pommel got while Rarity was finishing closing the shop. “Here! Get yourself two as well darling!” Rarity said while magically handing the earth pony some bits to pay for it all.

Rarity ate her meal alone in silence while in deep contemplation about this unicorn… Well, she already had fun with Twilight and I’m guessing she did things with Rainbow Dash as well? So, if she truly believes there’s no point to anything, she has a strange way of trying to find said point?

Rarity wrote in her diary before bed later that night:

I met the murderer in my dreams last night and we played cards together… Her name is Starfall Twinkles and she’s an odd purplish pink unicorn. She doesn’t seem to think life has any meaning or purpose, but at the same time, I am perplexed as to why she would even feel the need to contact I, Twilight Sparkle, and Rainbow Dash? I think this is my opening to explain more about life to her. Hopefully, I’ll meet her again in my dreams tonight… It’s also important to note that I don’t work tomorrow and so, I’ll leave my alarm clock off this time for as much time as possible with her…

Rarity then turns the lantern to her right on the table off with a blue magical glow and gently gets off her chair to the left. She turns and trots back to her bed to rest…

She opens her eyes on the same hillside, to see herself on her hooves and staring at a familiar magenta unicorn. She also notices the same dark green table to her left with chairs there with cards on top as Starfall smiles and says, “Now, where were we?”

(To be continued…)