Everfree Slayer (Redux)

Chapters

Chapter 1: Dark Confessions
Chapter 2: The Nameless Pony
Chapter 3: The Ghost in the Cave
Chapter 4: Dreams and Nightmares
Chapter 5: Immelmann
Chapter 6: Twilight's New Friend!
Chapter 7: Meeting Rarity
Chapter 8: The Meaning of Life

Chapter 1: Dark Confessions

Rainbow Dash trots inside the Carousel Boutique and goes to the front counter. She looks at the white unicorn standing there and calmly says, “Rarity… I need to talk to you in the back…”

Rarity frowns and says, “Um, of course darling!”

Rarity trots to the backroom with Rainbow Dash in tow. There are no customers inside the boutique at this time of the day and all the racks of pony cloths are neatly arranged and laid out, just as Rarity had organized them, not more than an hour ago. She reaches the wooden door in the back and causes the doorknob to glow blue with her mind before the door swings open to the right, on the inside. She steps inside and Rainbow soon follows her.

The backroom is roughly 15 feet wide and 10 feet long with wooden walls and metal shelves arranged with many different garments and materials on it on the back wall, opposite the door. Rarity turns to face her pegasus companion inside the wooden room, after Rainbow trots in from the door to the side and asks, “What is it dear?”

Rainbow Dash turns her body to look behind her before trotting to the door and looking over the deserted shop carefully. She finally nods and back steps to use her left forehoof to shut the door quietly before turning to face the unicorn again and sighing.

Rarity can only patiently wait for the pegasus to speak as Rainbow clears her throat.

“Rarity!” Rainbow Dash says with a serious look in her magenta eyes, “I need to tell you something…”

Rarity leans forward with wide blue eyes full of concern, “What is it, pray tell darling?”

Rainbow blinks, “I’m the Everfree Slayer…”

Rarity stares at Rainbow with her eyes wide open as her mouth grows small, “W-WHAT?”

Rainbow blinks again and nods, “I killed another victim last night… Their body is buried in a shallow grave, about three-hundred yards just east of the train tracks… I could show you the place…”

Rarity takes a deep breath and frowns, with her eyes still peeled on the pegasus, “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because…” Rainbow sighs as she looks down, before turning her head back up at the white unicorn, “Because I don’t want to do this! I don’t want to kill anypony!”

Rarity narrows her eyes somewhat, “I see… Then why do it? Why do you kill victims?”

Rainbow shakes her head before looking back at Rarity, “I don’t know, okay? I don’t want to do this! Not anymore, not ever, and I didn’t want to do it earlier! I don’t know why I go out at night and kill! I just do it!”

Rarity continues to stare with wide open eyes at this strange pegasus, “Uh, so what do you propose we do, Rainbow dear?”

Rainbow gulps, “I want to sleep here with you, until further notice…”

Rarity narrows her eyes, “What? Uh, why?”

“Because…” Rainbow blinks, “Because I think if I was with somepony at night, I won’t want to go out and kill… I’ll just crash on your couch and be gone early in the morning…”

Rarity smiles, “Actually, I have a much better idea!”

<*****>

“Ugh!” Rainbow grunted as she moved her two forehooves, now firmly tied together by a hot pink rope as she lay on her side on the right end of Rarity’s bed while staring up at the fashionista from the pillow. “Why do you have ropes of these specific lengths anyway?”

Rarity only smiles and giggles as she stares at the daredevil from her haunches on the other side of the bed…

Rainbow’s eyes widen, “Oh my Celestia! Rarity, you’re gonna have to tell me what you’re into later, but right now, we need to keep me and everypony else in town, safe!”

Rarity smirks, “Well, I suppose I should finish the scene with a ballgag and buttplug? So, what size does your rectum prefer darling?”

Rainbow’s eyes widen as she starts out emphatically, “What? No! We just need to tie me up, so I don’t kill anypony! Why do we even need that?”

Rarity can barely contain her giggles while grinning, “Well if you’re going to be my new slave, we must outfit you properly, no?”

Rainbow’s eyes widen dramatically as her mouth is fully agape.

Rarity starts to giggle hysterically!

Rainbow frowns and groans…

Rarity looks down at the pegasus, “Okay, look darling! If what you say is true, then I don’t believe you’re actually the killer… Somepony or something is obviously controlling you at night… You’re going to sleep here and I’m going to watch you! I have the new Shadow Spades book and coffee right over there on my nightstand!” she moves her head to indicate the nearby nightstand that sure enough, has these two objects on it, “I’ll calmly read my book on the chair while you slumber and we’re going to see what happens!”

“Wow Rarity! You uh, really thought this out, didn’t you?” Rainbow stammers out while she’s tied down on the bed.

Rarity nods, “Of course darling! You should expect nothing less! Now, do you need a sleep mask so you can rest while I keep the lights on and read?”

Rainbow frowns, “Uh, I guess?”

Rarity smiles, “Right!” She looks to the white sleep mask with ruffles on the edges and hearts on the eyes on the dresser on the other side of the room from the bed, and causes it to glow blue and float over Rainbow’s head as she calmly says, “The gag and plug can come later I suppose?”

“Ugh!” Rainbow closes her eyes as she leans forward slightly before staring up at the white unicorn and says in her raspy voice, “Rarity! I need you to take this seriously!”

As the mask glows and floats over Rainbow’s head and the band extends for her head, Rarity giggles slightly, “I’m terribly sorry darling! But I just think it’s hilarious that I actually have you tied up and blindfolded on my bed and we’re not playing!”

Rainbow’s eyes are wide as saucers as the mask snaps over her and cute dark red burgundy sparkly hearts now take the place of the eyes on her face.

“Rest well sweetie! I’ll be in my chair!” Rarity says before Rainbow can hear the resounding clack of her hooves touching the floor followed by trotting as Rarity makes her way to the chair on the other end of the room. Rainbow hears her say, “Hmph!” as she daintily mounts the chair and then small sipping noises as Rarity enjoys her coffee. She says lowly, “Well, that’s a touch too hot! We’ll just have to let that sit then, won’t we?” And then she says louder, “I love you Rainbow Dash!”

“I love you too!” Rainbow chimes out before she leans forward slightly and does her best to get comfortable in her bindings.

<*****>

When Rainbow wakes, she starts suddenly as she’s bound and blinded by the covering over her face. She no longer feels the bed or anything at all as she suddenly attempts to thrash in the air as she can now feel a rope solidly holding both sets of legs to her body together in a hogtie. She cries out, “Where am I? What’s going on? Help!”

Rainbow then hears the soothing voice of Twilight Sparkle say, “Rainbow! You tried to escape! Rarity tied you up more… Do you remember any of this?”

Rainbow stops moving in the air as her tightly bound body is held in the air by a purple glow, “Uh, not really? I just know I was tied up on Rarity’s bed with a mask on and then, I woke up here tied and in the air like this! W-what happened?”

Rainbow hears Rarity say, “Well, you had made your way to the floor beside the bed. I didn’t know what else to do with you and so, I tied you up with the hogtie straps from my closet…”

“I…” Rainbow blinks underneath the mask, “tried to escape? Even though you were in the room with me?”

Twilight says incredulously, “Yes Rainbow! Also, you’re clearly under the effects of dark magic at night! Why didn’t you just come to me in the first place?”

“Well…” Rainbow leans forward in mid-air suspended, “You’re a government official now! I thought that if I could just keep myself from killing at night, this would all go away! That’s why I talked to Rarity… I didn’t want to go to jail if I didn’t have to…”

There’s a small pause before Twilight says, “So, your whole plan hinged on the theory that Rarity, by herself, could keep you from killing and that you would abruptly stop killing at some point for no discernible reason?”

Rainbow widens her eyes underneath the mask, “Well, it seems kinda dumb, when you put it like that!”

Twilight adds sardonically with a frown on her violet face, “You think?”

Rainbow sighs, “Okay, so you think there’s dark magic involved then?”

Rarity says, “Well, what else could it be dear? I mean, you’d have no reason to lie to me about something like this and if what you’re saying is true, then something must be making you do these things!”

Rainbow barks, “Yeah, but what?” She shakes her head while contained in the rope bundle. “I just don’t understand. I mean, I never wanted to kill anypony, even ones I really hate! And now, I just kill random strangers!”

“Well, that’s what we’re going to find out!” Twilight says before Rainbow’s mask glows and it lifts off her head.

She sees a purple alicorn standing there just to the right of the door while Rarity stands off to her left side as she’s held in the air, with rope firmly tied all around her. She looks at the purple pony, “Okay, so how do we find out then?”

Twilight frowns, “Well, that’s just it! We need to be able to trace this magic and I can’t do it when it’s not affecting you… You’ll need to go back to sleep so I can cast the binding spell that allows me to see what influences are affecting you…”

“Ugh!” Rainbow groans as she throws her head back. She stares at Twilight with narrowed eyes, “Alright fine! Put the mask back on me!”

<*****>

Twilight Sparkle sits in a chair opposite to the bed and reads the mauve book, now magically floating before her face in a violet glow, when suddenly, Rainbow Dash starts to violently thrash on the bed as she grunts. Twilight looks up at Rainbow and magically causes the mask to flay off Rainbow’s head as her body thrashes violently in the bed while still trapped in her bindings, “Rainbow! Wake up! Are you there?”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes now glow an eerie green color as she stares back at Twilight, seated to the left of Rarity and to the bed’s right, “You’re both in danger! I’m going to kill you!”

Rarity looks up from her book on the chair and says frantically, “Uh, Rainbow dearest! You need to calm down!”

Rainbow twists her body to stare at Rarity with her neck staring down at the rest of her body, “No! You need to die!”

Rarity frowns, “Oh dear!” before looking to her left at Twilight, “Any idea on how to find the source of this dark magic?”

Twilight stares at Rarity, “Not yet!” She turns her head left, back towards Rainbow, “Who is controlling you? Why are you killing ponies?”

Rainbow looks back up and smiles psychotically at Twilight, “Wouldn’t you like to know!”

Twilight frowns, “I know you’re in there, Rainbow Dash! Please!”

Rainbow starts to giggle maniacally while grinning, “I’m still going to kill you!”

Twilight groans, “There’s gotta be a way to figure out what’s causing this!”

Rainbow begins to chant, “I’m going to kill you! I’m going to kill you! I’m going to kill you!”

Rainbow continues to chant as Rarity frowns and stares at Twilight, “Worry not darling!” before she stares at her closet behind Twilight and makes it glow blue as the door opens.

“I’m going to kill you! I’m going to kill you! I’m going to kill you!” Rainbow continues to chant while desperately thrashing on the bed to try to escape her bindings.

Twilight looks to her left and sees two black straps with a red rubber ball in the center, floating it’s way in the air while glowing blue towards Rainbow Dash on the bed, who’s still chanting…

“I’m going to kill you! I’m going to kill you! I’m going to, MPH!” Rainbow starts as the glowing gag flies around her head from the far side of the bed and fills her mouth before the straps close behind her head and she feels the buckle clasp firmly to hold the gag in place. The gag stops glowing a moment later…

Twilight looks to the left at Rarity, “Why do you have all of these bondage implements anyway?”

Rarity widens her eyes at Twilight, “Never mind that darling!” She narrows them, “The important thing now is, we need to find out why Rainbow is doing these things!”

Twilight shakes her head slightly and blinks at Rarity, “Right!” She looks back at Rainbow Dash, still with the eerie green glow that still encompasses her eyes and she thrashes on the bed, now desperately trying to make her way to the other side, opposite to Twilight. “And I know I’ve seen that same color in the eyes of ponies before…” She frowns before lowering her head and causing her purple horn to glow a vibrant violet color and a magical beam of light soon shoots from the tip to Rainbow Dash, still trying to scoot to the back side.

Rainbow’s frame glows and floats in the air before a large mass of black crystalline magic starts to exit her body and swirl towards the window and she abruptly stops thrashing. She breathes in and out through her nose as the ball is still inside her mouth and her eyes widen towards the princess.

Twilight leans towards Rainbow, “Rainbow! Are you in there? Can you hear me?”

Rainbow can only nod frantically with wide eyes at the princess at this point because she’s both scared and unable to speak.

Twilight says emphatically, “Rainbow Dash! You’re definitely under the control of dark magic at night… Do you know when you started to kill ponies?”

Rainbow shakes her head no.

“Okay!” Twilight nods, “Have you been outside of Ponyville at any point in the near past? Maybe in the badlands to the south or the Everfree north of here?”

Rainbow widens her eyes.

Twilight giggles, “Oh! You’re gagged!” before staring at Rainbow and forcing the ballgag to glow purple and undo the buckle behind her neck and slide upwards off her head.

Rainbow coughs and says in her croaky voice as spittle dribbles out the right side of her mouth while she’s suspended in the air, “Well, I was out cloudbusting to the east and I saw a strange green glimmer on the ground… I flew in to check it out…” She abruptly stops talking and closes her eyes…

Twilight leans forward wide-eyed, “You went to check out what, Rainbow?”

Rainbow Dash opens her eyes and looks to Twilight. The purple alicorn can see that her eyes are once again, the same sickly green color as a clear curved horn of the same color begins to grow out of Rainbow Dash’s head and she grins at the alicorn sadistically.

Twilight looks at Rainbow and chants melodically, “Unable to hurt others and held in place, make this pony bound here, in this space!”

Suddenly, a forcefield forms around Rainbow as she cackles maniacally to the alicorn, “You think your puny magic can stop me?”

“Rainbow!” Twilight starts at the pegasus, “Can you hear me?”

Suddenly, Rainbow’s eyes stop glowing the green color and her pupils and magenta irises are once again visible as the horn suddenly vanishes. She can no longer move her head inside the mauve energy field, but she can utter, “Uh, yeah Twilight? What happened?”

Twilight frowns, “You had another night terror…” She looks up, “That’s strange! I still can’t seem to detect any outside magic?” She looks back down at Rainbow, “Do you remember anything?”

Rainbow Dash frowns, “Uh, not really? Why is there a forcefield around me?”

“Never mind that! What did you check out east of town, Rainbow?”

(To be continued…)

Chapter 2: The Nameless Pony

The purple alicorn stares over at Rarity, trotting on her right as they walk through the Ponyville city streets towards the East side, “Did you really have to get the triple mocha caramel frappe with an extra espresso double shot?”

Rarity stares back at Twilight with bleary eyes as she trots and slowly replies, “Yes darling! I find a good solid jolt of caffeine does just the trick whenever I haven’t had enough beauty sleep!”

Twilight stares back forward as the city awakens and ponies begin to trot to and fro on the road before them, with a variety of varying pastel colors and different mane-styles, “Well, Rainbow said the light she saw was in the Eastern Woods, just outside of town.” she frowns, “Honestly, I’ve never heard of anything over there until this morning!”

Rainbow Dash finally chimes in from Twilight’s other side, “Yeah, me neither! But I swear, I saw an eerie green glow from the sky and flew down to investigate! Next thing I know, I wake up on the trail with no idea what happened! Uh…” She furrows her brow and scrunches her mouth, “I kinda think it’s a cave we’re looking for, though? I remember flying into something if that makes any sense, and that just makes me think of a cave.”

Twilight turns her head left, to Rainbow, “Into something?”

“Well,” Rainbow continues with a frown, “yeah, I just remember flying into dirt or the ground? I mean, it’s kinda fuzzy when I really try to think about it, and I’m not sure why?”

Twilight frowns too, “So, this whole cave idea is just a hunch?”

“Well,” Rainbow looks down for a moment before back up at Twilight with renewed resolve as her eyes narrow as she says sharply, to get her point across, “Let’s just say that as a flier, I learned to follow my gut and I’m telling you,” she nods. “I really think it’s a cave we’re looking for!”

“Okay!” Twilight says as she lifts her left eyebrow at the daredevil. She turns her head forward at the approaching tree line and the end of the paved stoned before all ponies stop trotting at the edge of the cement pavement, “Well, we’re near the city edge now.” she cranes her neck left to the flier. “Do you think you could fly up in the air and see if you can spot that glow again?”

“You got it!” Rainbow chimes in her raspy voice before flapping her wings mightily and taking off with a resounding woosh to fly forward over the trees in the wooded region roughly 20 feet from the ponies.

Rarity looks at Twilight from the right, “What do you suppose that glow was, darling?”

Twilight frowns while keeping her face forward, “I don’t know. But we need to find out. Whatever it is, it’s most likely responsible for the way Rainbow has been uh, behaving!”

Rarity turns her face forward to the treeline and frowns, “The one thing I don’t understand is, why? The way she was talking, it seemed like her victims were chosen completely at random! I mean, why just kill random ponies?”

Twilight frowns, “I don’t know… I also don’t think Rainbow Dash saw that light by accident… I think something was signaling her or trying to get her attention!!”

Rarity nods, “That may very well be, darling! But I still don’t understand why the victims are random?”

Suddenly, both ponies see Rainbow descending from the air with her wings flapping as she lands on her hooves roughly 15 feet before them. She lands before raising herself upright to smile and say, “I was right! The glow is coming from a cave! I didn’t go down this time though…”

Twilight shakes her head before staring back at Rainbow with her wide blue-violet eyes, “Obviously! Uh, where is it? Can you show us?”

<*****>

The three ponies stand on a wooded trail as Rainbow stands in front of the horned ponies as she squints her magenta eyes at the path before them while moving her neck left and right. “Um, I know it was around here somewhere?”

Twilight stares at her from her back left, “Now, was it on the trail, or off to one of the sides?”

Rainbow looks back at Twilight over her left shoulder and frowns, “Pretty sure it’s to the left somewhere!”

“Ugh! Surely, you don’t get that lost when you go to the ground Rainbow Dash!” Rarity snidely says from the other side of Twilight.

“Yeah, just uh, gimme a sec!” Rainbow says before she turns her head and body back to the trail. She squints her eyes and lifts her head as she says, “Actually, I don’t think many ponies go down that trail?”

Twilight steps forward to Rainbow’s side and looks down the trail with her, “What are you talking about?” before turning her neck to the pegasus.

Rainbow smirks, “Well, in the air, it’s all about keeping track of minute details. And I’m telling you,” she points her left forehoof down the trail, to the left slightly, “there’s a trail leading into the woods that way to the left! And I bet it leads to where that cave is!”

The left side of Twilight’s mouth frowns as her brow furrows, “Well, it’s the best thing we have to go on, so far? Lead the way Dash!”

The ponies then proceed to walk down the trail in a single-file line, Rainbow in front, Twilight in the center, and Rarity at the rear.

Rainbow looks to the left as they get near what looks like a barely noticeable break in the trees. Rainbow stops and points at the break with her left forehoof, “See! I told you there was another trail there!”

Twilight steps to Rainbow’s left side and cranes her head left to investigate the thick trail, “Yeah, but there’s a lot of brush and overgrowth!” she frowns, “I’d better do a force spell to open our path!” she turns her body to the mystery trail, “Don’t worry! It just blows aside brush and debris! It won’t harm animals!” before staring up at her horn with her violet eyes and forcing it to glow with vibrant purple energy. She looks down the half-trail and smirks, “One usable walkway, coming up!” before lowering her horn parallel to the ground and shooting clear violet energy out of her horn.

Rainbow looks up at the trail and sees brambles and stray vegetation clearing the way off to the sides as luminescent clear purple energy flies through the pathway.

Twilight blows air at her horn above her mouth and looks at the now clear path before the ponies, “Path all clear! Go ahead!”

<*****>

The three ponies make it to a wall of rock, roughly 30 feet high with trees and growth in various spots around it. Their eyes however are affixed to the small dark opening in the cliff face, roughly 5 feet wide and 6 feet tall.

Twilight stares at Rainbow Dash on her right and says, “Well, is that cavey enough, for you? Do you think that’s where the light came from?”

Rainbow nods, “Fairly certain, Twi! I know it came from a cliff face, and that’s definitely a cliff face!”

Twilight turns her head back towards the cave, “I have a magical horn! I’ll go in and see what I can find. You two, stay here!”

Rainbow nods at Twilight from the right, “Well, alright Twilight! Just yell if you need help, okay?”

“Do be careful, darling!” Rarity chimes in from the rear.

“I will!” Twilight says with a slight smile at the pegasus before nodding curtly at the unicorn and then, stares forward, back to the cave.

From behind the two ponies, Rarity says, “Good luck, sweetness!”

Twilight begins trotting to the darkened opening and walks inside. She forces her horn to glow a purple color and inside the cave, she sees the walls now illuminated and a dark pathway before her as she trots forward. She stares upward at the ceiling and sees her magical energy illuminating the 12 foot tall chasm, set in brown stone. She observes the walls, roughly vertical now and 7 feet away on either side, with various bits of stone chopped off in intervals.

She turns her neck forward and continues to walk further to another opening inside the cave that leads into a dark stone room, roughly 20 feet long by 20 feet wide, albeit roughly square… She raises her neck to speak up, “Hello?” she calls out.

Suddenly, a pale green glow emits from the far wall across from her as a soft feminine voice says, “Oh my! Princess Twilight! Well, when I started using Rainbow Dash the way I was, I thought that this might happen!”

Twilight looks at the glow and frowns and stammers out timidly, “Why are you doing this? Why kill random ponies?”

The voice replies, “Oh, the murders! That must be why you’re here!”

Twilight furrows her brows in defiance, “Yes! And I want answers! Why are you killing ponies?”

“Because Twilight… We need to be even!”

Twilight frowns, “What are you talking about? And just who are you, anyway?”

The voice quickly replies, “Who I am was never important Twilight! And that’s why they’re not important either!”

Twilight shakes her head and stares at the glow, “What do you mean? What is your name?”

The voice is silent for a moment before saying, “I don’t have a name…”

Twilight widens her eyes in confusion, “That doesn’t make any sense!”

The voice mockingly replies, “Oh, what’s the matter, Princess Twilight? Can’t handle difficult concepts, like a nameless pony?”

Twilight lowers her head and furrows her brow again, “Okay, so you don’t have a name… But that doesn’t answer my question! Why are you doing this? Why are you killing anypony you can find?”

The voice sighs, “Simple, my dear Twilight… Because I want revenge and it doesn’t matter who pays the price! Besides! All ponies are awful! Horrible creatures really! I never got life, and so they don’t deserve it either… THAT is fair!”

Twilight frowns again, “Revenge? Revenge for what? How were you wronged? What happened to you?”

The voice superciliously replies, “You would never understand! Not the perfect little princess protégé!”

Twilight straightens her face and leans forward and says after blinking, “Try me!”

The voice is silent for a moment before replying, “I hung myself…”

Twilight frowns, “W-why did you do that?”

“Because my dear Princess Twilight, I eventually came to the conclusion that I don’t matter and that I would never get to live my life anyway… It didn’t really matter to me anymore… Nothing really does, after all...”

Twilight blinks, “What do you mean, live your life?”

The voice angrily replies, “I mean, there was never a point to my existence, Twilight. I mean, I never got the chance to fall in love or have the job I wanted or do all the things I wanted to do. There was just no point anymore… That wasn’t fair to me and so now, I cannot be fair to anypony else! And it really is their fault anyway! Everypony! And that’s precisely why you could never understand!”

Twilight stares at the light with wide curious eyes, “How is it their fault?”

The voice sneeringly replies, “Because they never acknowledged me! My existence was meaningless! Ironic that my doom would seal the fate of one of the most beloved ponies in all of Equestria!”

Suddenly, the cave starts to rumble loudly, and Twilight turns her body back to the light at the entryway to the cave to see rocks falling, causing the floor to rise, closing her in! She turns her body back to the green light and says, with wide startled eyes in morbid curiousity, “So now, you’re trying to kill me?”

“Why not?”

Twilight shakes her head and stares back to the green light, “Because, I didn’t do anything to you! And just who are you, anyway?” before trotting a few paces towards the light for a closer inspection.

“NOOOOOOO!!!!!” the voice screams before a green wave of energy emits from the glow and forces Twilight to fly back and slam into the rocky rubble behind her!

Her back cracks against the brown stone and her body tumbles to the ground, 4 feet below. “Ugh!” Twilight says as she slowly lifts her body to her hooves and shakes her head blearily with her blue mane, now disheveled on her head and moving side to side. She turns her head back to the light, now slightly to her left, with the wall behind her.

“I don’t have a face!” The voice bellows back at the purple alicorn.

Twilight completely turns her body to the light, “That also doesn’t make any sense!” Twilight sighs, “Ugh! Look! You speak with a lot of force and anger, but I can’t help but hear a deep underlying sadness in your voice…” Twilight frowns, “I want to help you…”

The voice is silent for a moment before finally saying, “What?”

Twilight furrows her brow slightly, “You obviously have a lot of angst and pain and I’m guessing that’s why your spirit can’t cross over,or whatever it is you’re supposed to do when you die…” she nods, “So if I help you get where you need to be, you’ll have no reason to kill ponies!” her eyes widen as her face frowns, “Simple, no?” and tilts her head slightly to the right.

“Ah-ha!” The voice roars, “You don’t really care about me! You just want to protect other ponies! No deal!”

Twilight deepens her frown and straightens her neck, “Can I go or both? Both of those things sound pretty good!” she leans forward intently as her mouth straightens, “You never told me your name….” before widening her eyes, “But I’d like to know?” and then, frowning in hopeful anticipation...

The voice is silent…

Twilight finally leans forward slightly with wide eyes, “Hello?”

The voice finally screams, “You can never know my pain, but soon, you will know death!”

(To be continued…)

Chapter 3: The Ghost in the Cave

Twilight Sparkle smiles at the eerie green light at the end of the cave and says sarcastically, “I’m sure! But since I’m going to die anyway, why not just tell me your name?”

The voice snaps angrily, “I don’t have a name!”

Twilight frowns as she stares blankly, “I also find that hard to believe!”

The voice falls silent…

Twilight starts and looks at the light with wide-open purple eyes, “Look! I meant what I said, okay? I uh, want to be your friend!”

The voice continues to be quiet…

Twilight frowns again, “Why aren’t you talking? You had so much to say earlier.”

The voice somberly replies in a melodic tone, “You only wish to be my friend to save the lives of those I’ll kill…”

Twilight scrunches her brow and narrows her eyes, “Not exactly true!” she blinks, “Look! You already said that I don’t know your pain, right?” She takes a few paces towards the light, “But why not tell me about it? I mean,” she looks up at the cave ceiling, lightly illuminated by the purple glow of her horn, before back down at the light, “we have time?”

The voice remains wordless…

Twilight Sparkle stretches her neck out slightly with wide eyes, “Please?”

The light begins to speak in its soft feminine voice as Twilight looks up to it, “Tell me something Twilight… Do you know what it’s like to not be there?”

Twilight frowns, “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I had no friends! Nopony wished to associate with me…”

“Why not?” Twilight timidly asks.

“Because of what happened to me!”

Twilight scrunches her brow, “And just what happened to you, exactly?”

The voice sighs, “I already told you, that doesn’t matter!”

Twilight shakes her head and stares at the light with renewed resolve, “Of course it matters! You matter!”

The voice is silent.

Twilight sighs, “Okay, let’s start from the beginning… Tell me why all ponies are awful and deserve to die? What did they do to you?”

The voice is quiet before finally saying, “I wasn’t there… I couldn’t be...”

“That doesn’t make any sense either!” Twilight bellows, “Why would you want to kill ponies who didn’t do anything to you?”

“I already told you that too Twilight. Since I’m not important, neither are they! It’s only fair…”

Twilight shakes her head and stares back at the glow, “Okay, new question! What is it in particular about what happenedthat makes you think that other ponies won’t like you? I mean, have you ever really given friendship a chance?”

The voice is silent again.

Twilight smiles, “Okay, so how does this sound! I’ll come back tomorrow at four o’clock in the afternoon, after my day and duties are done and we can chat then! Would that be acceptable?”

The voice snickers, “Well, how do you intend to get out of this cave I trapped you in?”

Suddenly, Twilight hears a resounding mechanical thumping noise, like a jackhammer. She smiles and says, “Don’t worry about that! So, do we have a deal?”

The voice is quiet as the hammering noise gets louder. It finally speaks, “If you can escape, I don’t see why not?”

Suddenly, an ashen gray earth pony with a purple mane starts to hammer through the rock behind Twilight’s head with her forehooves… She makes it through and then falls 7 feet towards the ground, where she lands on her hooves with a resounding clack about 15 feet behind Twilight in the darkened cave!She stands up to look at Twilight with an expressionless face and somberly says, “You’re not trapped anymore…”

Twilight is staring back at this over her right shoulder, away from the eerie green light, when she hears a familiar raspy voice say from above, “Hey, I got Maud to dig you out Twilight! Are you okay down there?”

Twilight lifts her neck to yell back, “Yeah, we’re fine Rainbow Dash! She’s here now and apparently, I have a new friend!”

She then hears a soft feminine voice coming from the direction of the light, “You’ll be here tomorrow?”

Twilight looks back and smiles, “At four o’clock!”

<*****>

That night, inside the Sweet Apple Acres farmhouse, as Big Macintosh trotted into the darkened kitchen, he saw the icebox across from the table from him and continued to make his way around the right side of the table in the dimly lit kitchen, when suddenly, he hears glass shattering on the floor above.

He widens his green eyes as he thinks to himself, What in Equestria could that be?

He hurriedly makes his way to the living area behind him as his hooves make a clip clop noiseon the floor and while he doesn’t hear anything else, he still thinks that he should at least see what that was. And so, he trots up the stairs into the hallway.

Once at the landing, he hears a raspy groaning coming from Applejack’s room, which is the first door on the right in the wooden corridor. He trots that way and softly uses his right forehoof to cautiously open the door and carefully glances in to see a blue pegasus standing there with a ghostly green colored clear luminescent curved horn jutting about 5 inches out from her rainbow mane and her glowing green eyes staring down at a sleeping orange earth pony underneath the covers. He also notices an ax floating to the left side of this pegasus with a creepy green glow, that looks like it’s about to chop into the bed! He screams, “Applejack! Roll over left!”

A hoarse voice comes from the bed, “What in tarnation?”

Before the ax falls onto the bed quickly!

HACK, the ax sounds, as it goes into the top of the mattress, narrowly missing the orange pony, now rolling to her left to avoid it and wrapped in blankets.

Applejack hits the floor with a booming thud, and quickly gets out of the blankets, which fall behind her as she rises on her hooves, to stare back at the strange Dash zombie. “Dash! What in the hay has gotten into you?”

Then, Applejack sees a large red earth stallion barreling out of the darkness, from behind her to smash into the zombie and crush her body against the floor! The ax abruptly stops glowing and falls to the floor with a clack!

Both earth ponies hear an agitated raspy voice say, “Ouch! Hey, what gives?”

Applejack takes a pace towards the subdued pegasus and looks down at her, now pinned underneath a large red earth pony and stares into her magenta eyes, now looking at up at her in the pale moonlight from the window in quivering confusion, “I don’t think we’re the ones who need to be answerin’ questions right now…”

<*****>

Twilight Sparkle angrily trots into the cave at a rapid pace. She stares at the pale green glow from the other end, 15 feet away from her and furiously shouts from beneath her jeweled crown, “I agreed to meet you here today!”

A soft feminine voice says back to her, “And so, you have! Congratulations! You can keep your promises!”

Twilight lowers her gaze and narrows her eyes, “Why did you try to kill Applejack last night?”

“Why not?”

Twilight shakes her head and widens her eyes to the glow, “I think me agreeing to meet you here today implies that you can’t try to kill my friends!”

“Does it now? Perhaps I’ll remember that…”

“Look!” Twilight leans forward slightly, “Are you willing to work with me or not?”

“Well, I’m still talking to you, aren’t I?”

Twilight frowns and keeps her gaze solidly on the pale green glow, “But, you tried to kill Applejack last night!”

“Did I now? Think I’d remember something like that?”

Twilight narrows her eyes into a grimace, “Stop it! You know exactly what I’m talking about!”

The voice giggles slightly, “I might?”

Twilight’s eyes widen, “This is serious! You tried to kill one of my friends!”

The voice sighs, “Twilight, death is inevitable! Even for alicorns, like yourself, it will still come… It doesn’t matter if it happens now or one hundred years later, it’s still going to happen… What does it matter?”

Twilight scrunches her brows to the light, “It does matter, because Applejack needs to be alive right now!”

“Does she now? How can you be so sure?”

“Look!” Twilight bellows before leaning towards the voice slightly, “Can we just agree that you won’t try to kill anypony else while we’re talking and getting to know one another?”

“I suppose I could agree to that. I mean, if I really wanted to…”

“So, will you?”

“I might?”

Twilight lowers her gaze and narrows her eyes defiantly, “You know, I could very easily imprison you with the Elements of Harmony, right?”

“No you can’t, because you locked Rainbow Dash up in the Friendship Dungeon, remember?”

Twilight widens her eyes, “Because we can’t just get her out?”

“I suppose that’s true… Of course, you realize that I’m not of this world anymore and that the Elements might not even work, right?”

Twilight furrows her brow in defiance, “That’s a chance I’ll have to take!”

“Right! And if you fail, I’ll just be back again and kill some more! So, in a way, those new deaths will be at least partially your fault, since you didn’t want to deal with me…”

Twilight starts and shakes her head, “Well, how do I keep you from killing, then?”

“Let’s see now, what do I want? Well, if everypony in Ponyville could just jump into a lake, that would be a good start!”

Twilight widens her eyes and says in exasperation, “Sweet Celestia! Is there anything you want, besides death?”

The voice is silent before saying at a lower tone, “Not anymore Twilight…”

Twilight corrects her eyes, “Look!” she shakes her head before staring wistfully to the slight right, “I don’t know your name yet and maybe that doesn’t matter? I’m not sure, but…” she shakes her head, “I want you to know that you matter! You’re important too… And I’m sorry if you felt left out and ostracized… But I meant what I said… In death, you can have me as a companion…”

The voice is silent once more before finally uttering, “Starfall… My name was Starfall…”

Twilight smiles, “See? Was that so hard?”

“As if my name mattered…”

Twilight leans forward again and corrects her mouth, “It does matter! To me, it does now…”

The voice angrily replies, “Get real, Twilight! If I didn’t kill ponies, you would never have cared!”

Twilight corrects her neck, “Well, we have no way of knowing that for sure, now do we?” before staring down with narrow sensitive eyes, “But I do know this Starfall… I had no idea who you were or what you went through… But I do know that it isn’t right, and I also know that I wasn’t there, nor was anypony else… You were alone… And I’m sorry…” before closing her eyes and lowering her head somberly…

The voice is silent before finally saying, “Twilight… What time can you be here next?”

Twilight looks back at the light and says, “Well, I have that delegation from Saddle Arabia tomorrow, but I can come back at five o’clock on the next day?”

“Could you come back then please? I need to be alone right now…”

Twilight nods to the light and says, “Of course! And uh...”

The voice cuts her off, “No killing ponies! Right! Since the lives of other ponies are” the voice continues melodically, “so important,” the voice normalizes, “I won’t end them… For now…”

Twilight gulps and turns to trot out of the cave… She soon emerges from the cave to see a blue pegasus standing on the right and a white unicorn to the left, both about 15 feet from her, there in the sunlight and surrounded by vibrant green trees. She looks at Rainbow Dash, “She said she won’t kill anypony for right now…”

Rainbow looks at Twilight wide-eyed, “Oh, thank goodness! I hated thinking that I might kill again later!”

Rarity looks at Twilight intently, “So, what did she say, darling?”

Twilight glances at the fashionista, “She agreed to give friendship a try… I’m her first real friend, it would seem…”

Rarity frowns, “I truly wish she could’ve met you under different circumstances!”

Twilight sighs, “I know! I just don’t know why she’s the way she is or what went so horribly wrong? I just, “she closes her eyes and flinches before opening them again, “really wish we could’ve reached her sooner! Before all this ugliness happened!”

Rarity nods, “Indeed darling! When do you see her again?”

“At five o’clock, the day after tomorrow!”

<*****>

Twilight Sparkle is asleep in her bed, when she hears a boyish voice coming from the right side, “Princess Twilight! I know it’s really late, but um, I need to talk to you!”

She opens her eyes to witness a lime green changeling there with a red pack on her back.

Ocellus says, “Professor Rainbow Dash somehow got magic and tried to kill me! I uh, contained her in my closet. There’s nothing in there she can use to break out, I wouldn’t think? Anyway, I came here as soon as she stopped trying to break out and I heard snoring… I guess she’s asleep in there, but uh, I don’t really know what’s going on?”

Twilight eyes the changeling carefully, “Okay, exactly what happened?”

Ocellus nods her head, “Well, I saw Rainbow Dash come into my room with a strange green horn coming out of her head… Uh, she never had that before! Anyway, it was glowing and there was a knife floating at her side. She didn’t know I was still awake, and so I just waited for her to try and stab me before rolling out of the way and turning into a giant tarantula on the other side of my bed! Yeah! A knife isn’t gonna do much against that!” she nods. “I restrained her!”

<*****>

Twilight Sparkle furiously marches into the cave and trots towards the pale green light. She looks at it and sternly shouts, “Why did you try to kill Ocellus last night?”

The familiar girly voice replies, “Oh, Princess Twilight! I didn’t expect to see you until tomorrow!”

Twilight shakes her head and stares back at the light, “Why did you try to kill Ocellus?”

“Oh, is that what I did? Well now, she’s not just anypony,now is she?”

Twilight starts as she stares at the light wide-eyed, “Well, no! But you said…”

The voice cuts her off, “I said that I wouldn’t murder anypony, Twilight! You never said anything about changelings!”

Twilight sighs, “Well, don’t you think it would be implied that you can’t kill any intelligent creatures?”

“Probably? But again, we never mentioned that!”

Twilight scrunches her brows and grimaces to the light, “Okay, fine! Can we agree that you won’t murder anycreature, now?”

The voice chuckles, “Oh, you’re no fun!” before sighing. “Such a pity I wasn’t able to end her miserable existence! I can only imagine the fun of the blade slicing up her flesh!”

Twilight widens her eyes and her mouth agape in horror, “Does life mean anything at all, to you Starfall?”

“No Twilight! At this stage, it really doesn’t!”

Twilight Sparkle leans forward with wide purple eyes as she curiously asks, “What happened to you to make you like this?”

“I wised up, Twilight! Having a lot of time alone, away from the distractions of friendship and fun gives you plenty of time to do that! Life means nothing, since it will all end anyway and I see nothing wrong with speeding up the process a bit to make me feel better…”

Twilight frowns, “Why would that make you feel better?”

“Because I know the truth now! They’re all greedy evil creatures and deserve to die! It makes me happy to end them...”

Twilight narrows her eyes, “What if I proved you wrong?”

“Oh? And just how do you intend to do that, Princess Twilight?”

(To be continued…)

Chapter 4: Dreams and Nightmares

“Yeah, this is Officer Clip Clop at the pet store now! There’s a broken window right next to the entryway door! I’m going to go inside and see what I can find!” The police pony said into her walkie-talkie with her right forehoof before putting it back on the right of her utility belt and carefully opening the door with the same forehoof, before finally lowering it to the ground. Her blue officer’s cap narrowly misses the sides of the open door as she moves her head near to see if she could listen to anything, shortly before her eyes widen in surprise when she hears a low rasping noise.

She carefully trots forward and silently shoves aside the glass door to the left with her flank. In the pale moonlight from the window, she reaches with her neck to the left side of her belt to grab the flashlight there with her teeth and bites down to turn it on so the area before her is now illuminated on the yellow glow of the light. She glances down on the right, and sees feathers of many different colors on the floor. She trots that way through the darkness with the hamster window on her left and bird cages to the right, both silent as the inhabitants are asleep now.

She hoofs her way around a big metal cage and turns her head further right to see a sky-blue pegasus there, with a plethora of colors in her mane and a bloody butcher knife in her teeth. The pony stares up at her with wide, confused magenta eyes as she stands in front of an open metal cage, opposite the first cage and roughly the same height as her. The officer glances into the cage to the left of the pegasus with the flashlight still in her teeth to illuminate the cage bottom and widens her eyes in shock at the now blood-soaked sawdust in the bottom of the cage with green feathers strewn about, but most of all, at the distinctly avian corpse just beyond that.

<*****>

“I don’t understand?” Twilight Sparkle exclaims from the right side of the Friendship Map. “While Maud did an excellent job of clearing away the rubble, I went back there this morning, and Starfall wasn’t there! No glow or anything! It was just an empty cave!”

Rainbow Dash sifted nervously to the right in the chair across from Twilight, and can’t help but widen her eyes when she stammers out, “Th-that’s really weird Twi! I can’t imagine where she might be or what happened to her?”

Twilight stares at Rainbow while scrunching her mouth, narrowing her eyes, and says lowly, “You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

Rainbow starts and widens her eyes more, “Uh, no, that is to say, er, I might?”

Rarity turns her head from her chair on Rainbow’s right and Twilight’s left and narrows her dark blue eyes at the daredevil pegasus, “Precisely what do you mean, darling?”

“Well uh, heh heh…” Rainbow looks down nervously before staring back at Twilight with wide open eyes as she lowly says, “I may have, kinda had Zecora perform a zebra Hoodoo exorcism rite, just outside the cave?”

Twilight widens her eyes and leans towards the pegasus with her mouth agape in shock, “You WHAT? Rainbow Dash! I was finally getting through to her! She agreed not to kill anymore! Don’t you think you should’ve discussed this with me, first?”

“Well uh, “Rainbow stammers out while shrinking lowly in her chair, “I kinda also uh, murdered a parrot last night…”

Twilight frowns and widens her eyes in horrified confusion, “Uh, why would you do that?”

Rainbow looks down at Twilight’s belly as she sits in the chair next to her, “I don’t know, okay? I just did these things while in a sort of trance, just like when I was killing ponies before!” before raising her gaze to Twilight’s face. “But uh, only this time, I was killing a parrot…”

Rarity looks at Rainbow Dash, “That is most peculiar, darling! Uh, do we need to tie you up again? I recently purchased a pleather bodysuit, and it has no shortage of straps to restrain you!”

Rainbow quickly looks back at Rarity and shouts, “NO!” she shakes her head and continues, “I mean, that is to say, uh…” she swallows, “Maybe just locking the door would be good enough? No more bondage, please!”

Rarity frowns before saying, “Oh, you’re no fun!” and looks at Twilight on the other side, “What do you think, darling?”

<*****>

Rainbow Dash laid there on her left side, opposite Twilight Sparkle and staring at that side of her room while encased in a pale violet glow. She says to Twilight laying behind her, “Well, at least it’s not more bondage gear!”

Twilight giggles while laying on her pillow at the head of the bed, behind the pegasus, “Yeah, makes you wonder about all those questions you don’t ask, right?”

Rainbow chuckles, “I don’t wanna know!”

Twilight snickers slightly more, “Yeah… Goodnight, Rainbow Dash! Rest well!”

“Goodnight, Twilight!”

<*****>

Twilight stands on her hooves in the lonely desolate plain. She stares off and sees prairies, stretching out as far as the eye can see as the wind blows the grass, causing it to sway back and forth when she hears a familiar soft feminine voice say from behind her, “Twilight?”

Twilight turns around to see a magenta unicorn 10 feet before her. She has a curved 5-inch horn coming out of her forehead, and a wavy bluish-white mane that sits neatly on her shoulders with a ponytail of matching color and consistency behind her. She widens her eyes at the cerulean eyes of the other pony, “Starfall?”

Starfall narrows her eyes slightly to the alicorn, “So, here she is! The famous Princess Twilight Sparkle!”

Twilight quickly takes five paces to Starfall so she’s 5 feet away. “Starfall! What happened?”

Starfall stares at Twilight blankly before starting and shaking her head, “Oh! You mean, why am I in your dream like this? Well, as you’re probably aware, a zebra performed an exorcism! But that only banishes me from that one particular cave! But uh,” she leans forward and widens her eyes, “there’s lots of places I can go, you know?”

“I see… Are you still able to possess Rainbow Dash?”

Starfall smiles slightly, “I think so? There’s a particular squirrel on the north end of the park that I wanted to eviscerate, but I can’t do that right now because of the forcefield!”

Twilight starts and widens her gaze, “All you want is death! What happened to you?”

Starfall straightens her mouth, “I already told you Twilight, you have a lot of time to think when you don’t associate with other ponies…”

Twilight nods her head, “Okay, so thinking! Tell me Starfall, what did you think about?”

Starfall narrows her eyes and looks down as she says, “I thought about how I’m not important… About how I don’t matter… And then, I thought about all of those other happy ponies out there…” she looks to Twilight wide-eyed, “I thought about how they get to live fortunate lives while I live alone and can only rely on myself… How I’m alone all the time…” she frowns, “And how awful they are…”

“Well, why didn’t you just talk to somepony? I mean, do you really believe they’d reject you outright?”

Starfall blinks while staring forward blankly and scrunching her mouth, “Probably?”

“What makes you say that?”

Starfall normalizes her face, “Well, I had friends earlier, but they all just disappeared… Then, I realized that it was because I wasn’t a priority to them.” she shakes her head, “That I didn’t matter…”

Twilight frowns, “And so, you started killing random ponies?”

Starfall blinks, “Well, it wasn’t just that! Ponies just use you and take advantage of you, while they’re around! Not worth my time and not worth being in my life!” she shrugs, “Heh, that’s why I didn’t care too much when they disappeared… Then, after I hung myself, I wandered in limbo for a long time…” She frowns at Twilight, “You probably won’t find any records about me, by this point?”

Twilight blinks, “That doesn’t matter, Starfall! You still existed and you still matter!”

Starfall frowns, “How so?”

Twilight lowers her gaze, “You were a pony living in Equestria! You mattered, just like everypony else!”

Starfall smiles halfheartedly while giving a wide-eyed stare, “Could’ve fooled me!”

Twilight sighs, “Look! I’m not sure exactly what you went through, and it occurs to me that I may never know…” she blinks. “But, I’ll make a deal with you, Starfall…”

Starfall narrows her eyes and scrunches her mouth, “I’m listening…”

Twilight nods, “Okay, now as you’re aware, I’m an alicorn!” before looking to her right and lifting her wing so its under-feathers are now visible in the sunlight. She lowers it and stares at Starfall again, “I will live for a very long time… Much longer than any of my other friends will…”

Starfall lifts her chin slightly, “Go on?”

“You agree not to kill anything, and I’ll be your friend…” Twilight smiles slightly and leans forward a little, “We can meet in dreams and possibly communicate in other ways? I don’t know for sure, but I will do research!”

Starfall sighs in visible disappointment, “So, you don’t want me to kill the squirrel?”

Twilight widens her eyes while leaning towards the unicorn, “No! Leave the squirrel alone!”

Starfall smiles and chuckles, “Well, I’ll think about it…”

“Um,” Twilight frowns, “could you refrain from killing…” she widens her eyes. “Please?”

Starfall cuts her off, “Until I’ve made my decision?” she smiles. “Of course, Twilight! Life is precious, after all!”

Twilight blinks, “You don’t sound like you actually believe that?”

Starfall normalizes her mouth and looks skyward, “Probably because I don’t?” she looks back down to Twilight, “But if my best friend believes I shouldn’t be killing,” she smiles slightly. “I’ll uh, take that under advisement…”

Twilight frowns, “Why did you start killing animals, anyway?”

Starfall looks at Twilight, “Okay, I’ll admit it! I downgraded my killing from ponies to animals, for you! I decided that since something has to die and something has to pay, it can be animals instead, so your precious poniescan all live!”

Twilight widens her eyes in horror, “Why does anything have to die?”

“Because that makes me feel better, okay? I…” Starfall closes her eyes, “I didn’t really have anything… Well, nothing I wanted anyway. I…” she opens her eyes, “was alone and nothing really matters…” she grimaces, “We all die, Twilight!” she smiles, “It won’t make a difference in the end! Because everything dies and nothing truly matters!”

“But... what about life, Starfall?” Twilight shouts with her head leaning forward. “What about those ponies you killed? Their hopes and dreams, extinguished by you! Don’t you think some crime has been committed here? Even if their time is limited, don’t you believe they at least deserved that?”

Starfall snorts and smirks, “Hardly! They would all eventually die in the end, and nothing would’ve changed… Life is meaningless, Twilight…”

Twilight frowns and stares on with bleak open eyes, “I don’t know where to begin telling you how wrong you are…”

Starfall normalizes her mouth and stares at Twilight fiercely, “Stow it, Twilight! It would just be hot air and meaningless drivel!” and smiles wickedly. “I’ve heard those lies and nonsense before!”

Twilight suddenly stares at Starfall carefully, “Well, how about this! Call it, a friendly arrangement, if you like… I’ll agree to meet with you every night for as long as I live, and you agree not to kill! Would that make you happy?”

Starfall scrunches her brow again and lowers her gaze at the alicorn, “You know, the big assumption here is that I would enjoy meeting you, right?”

Twilight narrows her eyes to the unicorn, “Well, the subject matter is a bit darker than I’d like, but surely you like having somepony to talk to, yes?”

Starfall blinks and finally sighs in resigned defeat, “I guess so? I mean, it does seem better than being alone?”

Twilight smiles slightly, “Exactly! And I can give you a lot more of that! Just uh, please stop killing?”

Starfall chuckles and shakes her head, “Okay, fine Twilight! For now, and just for you, I’ll stop killing things!”

Twilight eyes Starfall carefully, “There is one more thing I’d like to give you…”

Starfall stares at Twilight with a blank expression and frowns, “Uh, what would that be?”

Twilight trots the remaining 5 feet to Starfall and embraces her in a tight warm hug!

Starfall frowns and blinks, “What are you doing?”

“I’m hugging you! You need to feel important and like you belong!”

“I uh…” Starfall can only stammer out before tentatively returning the hug with her own forehooves.

<*****>

Twilight Sparkle opens her eyes to see Rainbow Dash, still encased in a purple forcefield. Twilight smiles as she cautiously scoots down to the other side of the bed and her hooves land with a low audible clack on the floor.

Rainbow stirs and stammers out, “Uh, hey Twilight! I’m awake now! You can unfreeze me!”

Twilight faces her body to Rainbow Dash on the bed, lowers her head, and causes her horn to glow purple right before the forcefield dissipates and disappears around the pegasus.

Rainbow then leans back and stretches her forehooves and hind hooves in front of her body to awaken them. Then, she calmly scoots out of her side of the bed to land on her hooves on the floor with a similar small clack noise. She turns her body to Twilight, “So, did you rest well?”

Twilight smiles, “Oh yeah! I met Starfall in a dream and she agreed to stop killing!”

Rainbow frowns, “I’ve heard that before!”

Twilight lowers her head and frowns, “True! But I think I actually got through to her this time… And I hugged her…”

Rainbow scrunches her mouth and moves her head back in surprise while widening her eyes, “You hugged a murderer?”

Twilight raises her head, “Look! I know what she did was evil and wrong! And I know nothing will bring back those ponies she killed! But…” she lowers her head again, “if I can keep her from killing from this point forward… If I can show her that there are other better things…”

Rainbow lowers her head and frowns, “I thought Zecora banished her though? How did she come back?”

Twilight smiles and snickers at the pegasus, “Banishing only takes the spirit out of whatever location they’re at! She can go anywhere from there!”

Rainbow lifts her head and widens her eyes, “So, she decided to visit your dreams?”

Twilight frowns, “Well, it’s also possible that once she found she couldn’t control you, that she just decided to go into my dreams, since I was sleeping right behind you…”

Rainbow frowns, “Meaning she may or may not be entirely sincere here…”

Twilight stares at the pegasus, “What do you mean?”

Rainbow stares at the alicorn, “In the air, you need to be able to take into account what other fliers are thinking and what they do and don’t know. Starfall knows she was banished from that cave, and she knows that I’m usually restrained at night. But she might still be lying to you, just to gain your trust…”

Twilight lowers her head, “Meaning I’ll need to tread carefully!”

Rainbow nods, “Well, right!”

Twilight frowns, “And the worst part is, even when we do let you sleep freely later, I have no way of knowing if she’ll honor her word, other than what she says to me!”

Rainbow sighs and says in an irritated raspy voice, “And in the meantime, I sleep while restrained!”

Twilight looks at Rainbow, “Right! Uh, I need to stay in Fillydelphia tonight! So, you’ll need to go to Rarity’s to be restrained.”

Rainbow frowns, “Well, Applejack would just hogtie me, Fluttershy couldn’t restrain a fly, and Celestia knows what Pinkie would do?”

<*****>

Rainbow Dash laid in the bed, while encased in black pleather. She could see out the eye holes and speak out the mouth opening of the suit, which otherwise, encased her whole body. She looks at Rarity standing there on her hooves on the left side of the bed, “Tell me why you can’t use the rope again?”

Rarity snickers, “Well, sorry darling! But I can’t for the life of me, find it! However, I did just purchase the bodysuit…”

Rainbow frowns, “Do you think you could’ve bought one with a crotch and ass, though? My privates are cold, and this is humiliating!”

Rarity giggles more and smiles at the pegasus, “Well, we can’t have my slave feeling dignified now, can we?”

“Rarity, knock it off and cover me, already!”

Rarity composes herself, “Oh um, right! I’ll just cover you with the blankets and then, trot on over to the other side. Since I’m actually sleeping this time, the lights can go off and there’s no reason to blindfold you…” before looking at the blankets on the other side of Rainbow’s body, that’s had its hind hooves roped to the foot of the bed while her forehooves are bound to her torso with small ropes linking to D-rings on the suit and the built-in collar is roped to the head of the bed on both corners and buckled to her neck with clasps. Rarity’s horn glows blue and this causes the blanket to glow azure as well before it neatly goes over Rainbow’s body. She then daintily trots over to her side of the bed, gently scoots in under the covers, and places her head on the pillow. The lights soon turn off as she says, “Goodnight, Rainbow Dash!”

<*****>

Rainbow Dash is standing on her hooves in a wide-open field of grass, that sways back and forth with the wind.

She suddenly hears a soft feminine voice say from behind her, “Hello, dear husk!”

Rainbow turns around to see a magenta unicorn standing there in the field, about 15 feet from her... This unicorn has a curved 5-inch horn out the top of her forehead as well as a bluish-white mane and tail.

The unicorn smiles wickedly at the pegasus while looking up at her with cerulean eyes, “You already know who I am…”

(To be continued…)

Chapter 5: Immelmann

Rainbow Dash frowns as she stares at the magenta unicorn with the wide-open grassy meadow behind her, swaying in the breeze, and asks, “Why did you make me kill?”

Starfall continues smiling while the grass on the ground blows and her bluish-white mane whips to the right in the wind, “Well, the fact that it happened to be you, the Rainbow Dash, was just a happy coincidence! The truth is, I had been trapped in that cave for some time, just waiting for a pegasus to fly overhead... But, when your zebra friend performed an exorcism, that freed me!”

Rainbow narrows her eyes and mouth as she lowers her gaze, “But why do you kill?”

Starfall tilts her head to the right slightly, “Well, I wanted revenge! So…”

Rainbow widens her eyes and leans forward slightly while her rainbow mane flails to the left, “Revenge for what?”

Starfall straightens her head as the wind dies down, “Well, for the way I was shunned by most ponies of course!”her eyes widen, “All ponies are awful! And well,” she blinks, “since I can’t think of a way to kill all of Equestria, you taking them out one at a time, shall have to suffice, I suppose…”and she smiles. “For now…”

Rainbow corrects her eyes and frowns, “Uh, didn’t you already promise Twilight that you wouldn’t kill anymore?”

Starfall’s cerulean eyes go skyward, and she sighs as her mane falls on her shoulders, “Well, yes. I suppose that’s true…” her eyes go back down to Rainbow, “But, I did wish to speak with you…”

Rainbow corrects her posture and eyes, and frowns as her own mane falls as well, “About what?”

Starfall smiles, “Oh, I just wanted to see how my killer was doing?”

Rainbow stares back up defiantly and furrows her brow in anger, “I’m not a killer Starfall! You are! You made me kill!”

Starfall leans forward slightly and widens her eyes, “But whose body was doing the killing?”

Rainbow frowns, “That’s not the point!”

“I did notice that you stopped trying to resist me, after a while…” Starfall states, while wistfully looking off to the right as the wind picks up and blows her mane slightly to the right.

Rainbow starts and leans forward slightly with wide eyes as her mane flows left, “Well, whenever I tried to resist, you always managed to take complete control anyway! I was trying to think of something else to do!”

Starfall turns her neck right to stare downward, “Oh, right! Your fashionista friend!” her eyes look up to the pegasus as her head turns that way and smiles, “How is she doing, anyway?”

“You leave Rarity alone!” Rainbow shouts as the wind blows her mane, slightly left again.

Starfall lifts her chin up and grins as her mane falls once more, “Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it, dear husk! I know how important and precious the darling Miss Rarity is to you, after all!”

Rainbow narrows her eyes and mouth, “Why don’t I believe you?”

Starfall looks up with her eyes again, “You know, I’m actually not sure?” she brings them down to Rainbow as the wind starts to pick up again, blowing her mane right, “I mean, I’m a vicarious killer, sure!” she widens them. “But this whole time, I’ve never once lied to you!”

Rainbow normalizes her eyes while her mane falls to her shoulders, “So you admit that you’re the killer, huh?”

Starfall smiles again, “Well, partially,” she leans forward slightly, “but you know, I couldn’t do it without you!”

Rainbow cringes, “Yeah, but it was YOU who made me do it! I wouldn’t be killing ponies without you!”

Starfall smiles wider while the wind picks up again slightly, “We are quite the team, aren’t we?”

Rainbow leans forward angrily with wide eyes and shouts, “That’s not the point!”

Starfall widens her eyes as the wind dies and she says, “Oh, but that is the point, dear husk!” while staring at Rainbow and taking a few paces in her direction. “The point is, I wouldn’t be able to do it, without you!”

Rainbow recoils again before staring back at the unicorn, “So, is that what you wanted to say to me?”

Starfall blinks, “Not exactly, dear husk! I wish to make an arrangement with you! A proposition!”

Rainbow narrows her eyes and frowns, “And why should I listen to a word you say?”

“Well…” Starfall’s eyes go up, “I suppose you don’t have to? I suppose I could always just take what I want?” her eyes go back to Rainbow, “I agreed not to kill, and I’ll honor my word! But there are other things I could make you do, after all…” before staring at the pegasus with a wicked grin on her face.

Rainbow squints her eyes and narrows her mouth as she says at a slightly lower volume, “Okay, fine! I’m listening…”

“Well, it occurs to me that you’re quite possibly the best flier in all of Equestria!”

Rainbow blinks as her mouth normalizes, “Well, I don’t mean to brag, but…”

Starfall cuts her off with a stern expression, “Bullshit Dash!” she corrects her face and shakes her head. “And since I can take control of you anyway, why don’t you show me what it’s like to be you?”

Rainbow blinks and narrows her mouth, “W-what?”

Starfall smiles, “Simply release part of your consciousness to me while you’re in the air doing all of your tricks and stunts! Let me have that experience and I promise that I won’t kill anymore…”

Rainbow frowns, “How do I know you’ll keep your word?”

Starfall widens her eyes, “Well, that’s the thing, isn’t it? You already don’t trust me, so, what difference does it make?” and she shrugs while looking casually off to the right.

“How do I know you won’t make me brutally murder the Wonderbolts or something like that anyway?”

Starfall sighs at Rainbow, “Why do you keep bringing up such fun and interesting activities?”

Rainbow leans forward defiantly with wide eyes, “See! I knew it! You just want to kill some more!”

Starfall squints her eyes, “Okay, let me put this another way… Relinquish part of your consciousness while you’re doing your tricks, and I won’t take complete control over you.” She leans forward with wide eyes, “You know, I could easily just take complete control over you while you’re doing your tricks! And I don’t have the experience with your body that you do…”

Rainbow corrects her posture and narrows her eyes, “Meaning, you’re more likely to make mistakes during the routine!”

Starfall widens her eyes, “Exactly!”

Rainbow widens her eyes, “Which means, I really don’t get a choice!”

Starfall smiles and snickers slightly, “Now, she gets it!”

Suddenly, a fog begins to overtake the pegasus as it rises from the ground. Rainbow begins to shout as she returns to the waking world, “Hey! I wasn’t done speaking with you!”

As the fog completely envelopes her and she wakes up, she hears a soft feminine voice shout, “See you in the air, dear husk!”

Rainbow wakes up underneath the blue covers of her bed in a cold sweat with a start as her head shakes suddenly on her blue pillow and her left hind hoof almost kicks the tortoiseshell underneath the blankets. “AAAAAHHH! Oh gosh! I need to talk to Twilight!”

<*****>

Twilight frowns on her chair at the Cutie Map, “So, what did Starfall say to you, Rainbow Dash? I did think it was odd that I didn’t meet her in my dreams last night…”

Rainbow shakes her head from her chair to the right of Twilight, “Just that she couldn’t kill those ponies without me! She said that I’m partially responsible!”

Starlight Glimmer standing on the other side of the room raises her left eyebrow, “You know, she could just be trying to get into your head?”

Rainbow frowns at the magenta unicorn standing to the right of Twilight, “Psych me out, huh?” she nods. “Yeah, that’s probably it!”

Twilight normalizes her mouth and leans forward, “Right, so the worst thing you can do right now is think about what she said to you! Although I’m still not sure exactly what she hopes to gain by telling you these things?”

“She could just be trying to throw me off my game. Keep me guessing, so her next move won’t be expected?”

Twilight frowns, “Maybe? Did she say anything else?”

Rainbow sighs, “Yeah, that she wanted me to give her part of my consciousness while I’m in the air, doing my tricks!”

Twilight blinks as she starts, “What?”

Rainbow nods and leans forward, “Yeah, she said she wanted to experience what it was like to be me, or something?”

“Well, if what she said is true, it stands to reason that she had a pretty boring life?” Twilight nods slightly. “I say, why not? Just give her what she wants…”

“But what if she takes me over completely and makes me kill again?”

“Well…” Twilight says while normalizing her eyes, “do you trust her?”

Rainbow frowns, “I don’t think I really get a choice? She already said she can take control, whenever she likes…”

Twilight leans forward slightly and widens her eyes again, “But, do we really know that for sure?”

“Well, no! Not really?”

Twilight leans back, “Meaning, she could be bluffing?” she straightens her neck and eyes to the pegasus. “Still, I think you should give her what she wants! Let her experience the thrill and exhilaration of flying in the sky as you!”

Rainbow looks to Starlight nervously, “Well, what about your research? Did you find out anything?”

Starlight sighs and stares back at the pegasus with sincere blue eyes, “Uh, not really! The truth is, we ponies don’t know much about ghosts or the spirit world!”

Rainbow sighs, “So, what should I do?”

Twilight straightens her neck and stares at Rainbow, “I think you should give her what she wants...”

Rainbow widens her eyes and says in shock, “What? Why?”

Twilight smiles, “Because, if she experiences something other than death, she might not be so interested in killing anymore…”

Rainbow raises her right eyebrow and narrows her mouth, “Might?”

Twilight sighs, “Look! We need to trust her at some point, anyway, right? And we don’t know for sure what she is capable of…”

Rainbow widens her eyes as she throws her forehooves in the air and exclaims, “Great! I might kill the Wonderbolts tomorrow morning!” and lowers them with a grimace, “But it’s okay!” and she nods. “Starfall will get what she wants!

Twilight stares at Rainbow intently, “Did she actually say that she was going to murder the Wonderbolts, though?”

Rainbow corrects her eyes and frowns, “Well, not exactly?” she leans forward slightly with wide eyes and says louder. “But I wouldn’t put it past her!”

Twilight frowns, “But, she never actually said that she was going to do that?”

Rainbow sighs as she looks off wistfully to the left and her ears fall to the sides of her head, “That’s technically true…”

Twilight nods, “Okay, so the only reason you believe that she’s going to kill the Wonderbolts is because that’s the thought that entered your mind and nothing she said, correct?”

Rainbow stares at Twilight and blinks, “Well, technically true!”

Twilight frowns, “So I say, just give her what she wants tomorrow morning…” her eyes dart to Rainbow, “If I sit in the bleachers and watch you, to make sure you don’t kill anypony, would that make you feel better?”

Rainbow frowns, “Well, while I am pretty awesome, you can just stop me with your magic, right?”

Twilight smiles, “Exactly! Think of this as training wheels for Starfall, so she doesn’t kill again!”

Rainbow grimaces as she tries not to smile, “Why is that funnier than it should be?”

<*****>

Rainbow Dash stood there on her hooves on the tarmac in the Delta formation with the other Wonderbolts. They were all in their tight black uniforms and she was just to the left of the point in the V-shaped formation as Spitfire stood there holding the clipboard in her right forehoof and took roll with the white pen in her mouth.

Suddenly, Rainbow hears a familiar soft voice in her head, “Hello again, dear husk!”

Rainbow’s magenta eyes widen as she whispers, “Ah! Well, you said you’d show up!”

“And so, I have!” The voice casually replies in her mind.

“Ugh!” Rainbow softly groans out the right corner of her mouth, while strategically leaving most of it closed, “Could you uh, stop calling me ‘husk’ please? It feels so impersonal!”

“Well, that’s fine, I suppose. I’ll just call you Dash then!”

Rainbow lightly sighs, “And another thing, if you’re gonna be in my head like this, I’d at least like to know who you are?”

The voice is silent for a moment, “My name is Starfall…”

Rainbow says in a slightly louder and more irritated tone, “I know that! But you’re in my head now and I don’t know anything about you! Feels so weird and intrusive!”

“DASH!” Spitfire barks out from her position in front of Rainbow, to the right.

Rainbow starts and looks at the yellowish pegasus with her fiery mane with wide eyes and tensed body, “Yes ma’am?”

Spitfire lowers her head so her steel-rimmed aviator shades are lower than her eyes “I called your name twice and you didn’t respond, and yet, I can plainly see you standing there! Are you here today, Dash, or do you require more time off for psychological reasons?”

Rainbow’s eyes widen as she hears the voice in her head calmly say, “Don’t you dare!”

Rainbow blinks, “N-no ma’am! Sorry! I uh, have a lot on my mind!”

Spitfire blinks, “Well, you better get all that crap out of your noggin right now Dash, because you need to be focusing on the routine!”

Rainbow blinks again and stares back wide-eyed with a sober expression on her mouth, “Y-yes ma’am!”

<*****>

As Rainbow soared in the sky just to the left of the point, and still in the V-shaped Delta formation, rainbow streaks trailed her body alongside the smokey trails of the other fliers. She soon soars into the sky at a steep climb.

Starfall says in her head, “I don’t think you can keep this up, Dash? You’re about to stall!”

Rainbow smiles, “That’s the point! Watch and learn!” as her body’s ascent slows and she curves to take a J-turn and her form soon drops towards the ground at high speed!

She hears Starfall screaming in her head, “AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!” but focuses her magenta eyes dead center and her mouth smirks as the ground comes close to her and she vectors her wings to suddenly streak parallel to the ground as gravity slingshots her forward!

Rainbow smiles as her body slows and she begins flapping to ascend again over the treetops, “That’s called the Herbst and it’s about letting gravity do all the work to make you go fast!”

“Interesting…” Starfall chimes in Rainbow’s mind. “Now, what else do you do?”

“Next up is the Cobra and that always wows them at shows!” Rainbow says as she slows her flapping slightly to slow down so that she’s back in her spot in-formation. Suddenly, the Wonderbolts all begin to ascend once more into the sky as they accelerate rapidly.

The wind blows through Rainbow’s mane and the velocity is almost visible on her goggles as the wind streaks through her body and the rainbow streaks from her tail as she climbs farther and further so that her body is almost vertically going straight up!

Suddenly, Rainbow and the other Wonderbolts flip back upside down in the air as they streak their smokey and rainbow-colored trails behind them, so they are now heading the opposite direction that they started!

Twilight Sparkle can only stare in awe from the bleachers at this point as she sees the amazing rainbow streak accompanied by the many smokey trails of the other Wonderbolts overhead. She frowns when she wonders about that particular streak, though… Is it truly trustworthy?

“WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!” Starfall screams in Rainbow’s mind as the pegasus vectors her wings upward, so her body begins to fall, and she goes streaking back towards the surface at high velocity.

“Another slingshot, coming up here, Starfall!” Rainbow says as she angles her wings to narrowly miss the ground and fly straight ahead, parallel to the earth, once again, as rainbow streaks fly behind her.

She and the other Wonderbolts begin flapping all their wings again to gain altitude.

“What’s next?” Starfall excitedly asks inside Rainbow’s thoughts.

Rainbow frowns as she flaps her wings, “Well, just a quick Immelmann to return to base and that’s pretty much it for now! Yeah, we just do this stuff during the off-season, so we stay in shape and trained, but the really fun stuff doesn’t start for another month!”

Rainbow hears Starfall snort, “Okay, but I want a Sonic Rainboom soon!”

Rainbow spreads her wings to her sides once she reaches a terminal velocity with the other pegasi in the formation before they all angle their right wings upward and left wings downward, so their bodies begin to turn around completely and they streak back towards the compound in another J-shaped maneuver in the sky. “Well, I can’t say I blame you? It is my signature move!”

<*****>

Rainbow flies forward and flaps her wings in the opposite direction to slow down over the tarmac, in front of the bleachers as Twilight trots her way down the aisle to the surface below.

Twilight looks up and begins flapping her wings to fly forward the necessary 20 feet to land next to where Rainbow Dash is lowering her body as she flaps her wings and descends from the air to the ground.

Rainbow turns her head left to see the purple alicorn landing there and faces her body to Twilight, “Starfall! Did you have a good time?” she whispers.

There’s no answer in Rainbow’s head as Twilight takes 3 paces so that she’s 5 feet from Rainbow, “Uh, Rainbow?”

“Starfall?” Rainbow says at a louder volume with her eyes to the sky.

“Rainbow?” Twilight exclaims as she leans forward slightly.

“STARFALL!?” Rainbow shouts as two other Wonderbolts look her way from behind.

Twilight frowns, “I don’t think she’s there anymore, Rainbow?”

Rainbow frowns back at Twilight, “Well, I think she had a good time?”

“You gave her what she wanted, right?” Twilight says as she leans forward slightly with her head tilted right.

“Well, yeah! I did our entire short routine with her in my head, just like she wanted!”

Twilight normalizes her body and sighs, “Well, all we can do now is hope!” before widening her purple eyes.

<*****>

That night, Twilight slept deep underneath the covers of her pink frilly princess bed as her head lay on one of the soft fluffy off-pink pillows and her shut eyes began to twitch as she dreams…

Twilight once again, emerges in a wide-open field, surrounded by pastures. The wind blows her azure mane to the left and she sees the back of a magenta unicorn standing there on the other side of the hill her hooves are on, about 10 feet from her.

Starfall turns her head to Twilight so her smile is now visible underneath her wavy bluish-white mane, “Hello Twilight! I wish to make an arrangement with you! A proposition!”

(To be continued…)

Chapter 6: Twilight's New Friend!

Twilight eyes Starfall from her side of the hill, “Let me guess! You want to be present in my mind at some point to experience the thrill and excitement of being me, right?”

Starfall blinks, “Um, no! Why would I want that? You’re a government official and your life is boring! Bleh!” before opening her mouth and sticking her tongue out.

Twilight blinks, “Hey! I have a good time!”

Starfall widens her eyes to the alicorn, “Oh sure!” as she swishes her bluish-white tail.

Twilight begins to speak faster, “No really! I have all sorts of fun and interesting times as Princess of Equestria!”

Starfall looks at Twilight, narrows her eyes, and smiles, “Like what?”

“Well, um, there was that one time, uh…” Twilight nervously stammers out while narrowing her eyes.

Starfall widens her eyes and raises her voice, “Exactly! Your life is boring!”

Twilight grimaces to the left, “Well, you don’t have to rub it in!”

Starfall grins wider, “You haven’t really had any excitement since you turned the Terrible Trio to stone, have you?”

Twilight looks at Starfall indignantly, “Hey! I’ve been to lots of royal parties!”

Starfall rolls her eyes, “Oh please, Twilight! You go in there, meet a bunch of ponies you don’t want to meet or know, smile and make nice-nice with them, and get through the evening as best you can, knowing that you’ll have more government nonsense to do tomorrow and alcohol is probably the only thing that makes these idiots bearable, am I right?”

Twilight stares at Starfall wide-eyed and frowns, “Well um, that’s a little harsh, don’t you think?”

“But am I right, Twilight?” Starfall says before nodding.

“Well, um…” Twilight narrows her eyes and stares wistfully to the right as she sighs, “Yeah… That’s pretty much it…”

“See, I knew it! You need some excitement!”

Twilight narrows her eyes and mouth to the unicorn, “Well, what do you recommend?”

Starfall suddenly looks at Twilight with wide-open eyes, “I don’t know? I’ve never really had a friend before?” and frowning.

“Hmm…” Twilight says as she lowers her head and scrunches her brow.

Suddenly, a wicked smile forms on Starfall’s face, “Why don’t we play a prank on that kinky white unicorn friend of yours?”

Twilight raises her right eyebrow and narrows her mouth to the unicorn, “What?”

<*****>

Rarity casually trots into her boutique after shutting the door with a blue magical glow and stops dead in her tracks as she sees her favorite model, Catwalk Strut, there standing in the center of her dressing area at the right of her shop, from the doorway. She sees Catwalk there, a sky-blue earth pony with her pink mane and tail, and shimmering green eyes standing on the tan mat. Although Catwalk herself was not nearly as interesting as what she had on at that moment... A black pleather suit with zippers just below the tail, between the legs, and on the sides to expose the nipples. She stammers out, “Uh, C-Catwalk Strut! What are you doing here?”

Catwalk looks up and smiles nervously at the fashionista, “Well, I came into your shop, and you weren’t around. Then, I saw the ‘out to lunch’ sign and was just trotting out the door when I ran into your alicorn friend outside!” her eyes widen, “She said that the new outfits you wanted me to model were in your bedroom closet and that you wanted me to model, post haste! She told me to go ahead and try one on! Uh, I hope you don’t mind?” she smiles. “You’re obviously not done with all of them though, because certain pieces are missing from many of the garments!” She strikes a pose by moving to her left side and rearing upwards, so that her tail and the zipper parts of the ultra-tight hind-end section are now exposed, causing the white unicorn to widen her eyes, but admire the view, all the same...

Rarity gulps, “Th-those outfits aren’t for modeling or the catwalk uh, d-darling! They’re for uh, a special project!” she nods and smiles nervously,”Th-that’s why many uh, pieces are missing! You see, I’m not done with them yet! Uh, go ahead and take that off and I’ll show you what you’re meant to wear!”

Twilight is watching all of this from the side window and trying desperately to suppress the snickers as her face grimaces in amusement.

She hears a soft feminine voice from her mind, “You think that’s funny, huh?”

Twilight’s violet eyes widen as she frowns and stammers out lowly, “N-no!”

“Yes, you do!”

At that point, Twilight busts out in hysterical giggling, that she can only barely suppress by holding her right forehoof to her face so as to not alert Rarity inside!

Starfall then giggles before saying, “Now, we need to get the hay out of here, before she spots us!”

Twilight’s eyes widen as she lowers her hoof and stops snickering, “Right!”

<*****>

Rarity explodes through the throne room doors to angrily trot towards the central chair. “Twilight! I know you got a look into my secret closet, but you WILL keep my private life and professional life separate, this instant!” She shouts before stopping in front of the throne in the aisle and angrily stomping her right forehoof and staring up at the throne, with a, now smirking purple alicorn on it.

Twilight tries to suppress more snickering as her head and mane bob with quelled delight with an obviously unreleased smile on her muzzle, “Why, I have no idea what you’re talking about?”

Rarity narrows her eyes, “Oh, don’t be coy with me, Twilight! I know full well that you told Catwalk Strut the wrong outfits to put on!”

“I’m innocent!” Twilight says wide-eyed, with a big, obviously fake smile on her face.

“Oooohhh ugh! This ends, RIGHT NOW!” Rarity angrily growls before stamping her left forehoof and turning to trot back towards the door and exit as she magically slams the door in a huff!

Suddenly, a soft girly voice chimes in Twilight’s head says, “So, now, we need to get your daredevil friend, yes?”

Twilight frowns, “Well, topping the zombie prank the whole town once pulled on her, might be tricky?”

“So, what do you think we should do, Twilight?”

Twilight’s mouth straightens, “Well, I think we should get Rarity involved this time! So, she’s not too angry about what happened earlier.”

“Hmm, makes sense! Well, maybe we should talk this over with her then? See what she thinks!”

Twilight nods, “Right! If she’s involved, she should definitely have a part in planning it!”

<*****>

Rainbow Dash doesn’t know what sort of emergency this is, but she flies quickly to the Carousel Boutique on the Lower East Side of town. She lands up front and knocks on the door with her right forehoof.

A violet maned white unicorn answers the door with her hair thrown seductively over her should and says with directed and provocative eyes featuring slutty purple eye shadow, “Come on in, Dash…”

<*****>

Rarity frowns at Twilight Sparkle from her place on the left side of the Cutie Map, “I uh, honestly did not see that one coming…”

Starfall snickers in Twilight’s mind, “She means cumming as in orgasm, tee hee!”

Twilight’s eyes widen as she decides not to repeat what was just spoken to her and says to Rarity from her position at the head of the table, “Yeah, I was so sure Rainbow would freak out at the idea of bondage playtime with you! I really didn’t think she was that sort of pony?”

Rarity blinks at Twilight, “So uh, what do we do now?”

“I uh, it’s not my thing… But if you and Rainbow decide to uh…”

Rarity starts, “Oh uh, of course darling!” she looks down and to the right. “I still have no idea how to bring this up to her later, though?”

Twilight stares at Rarity wide-eyed, “So uh, you want to uh, with Rainbow, er, never mind…” before looking down to the left…

Rarity narrows her mouth, “Well, I assumed you would know to leave when I lowered the blinds!”

Twilight starts wide-eyed at the unicorn, “Well yeah! I’m not sticking around for THAT!”

Starfall giggles more, “Well, that’ll teach younotto use my ideas!”

Twilight’s brow furrows as she thinks back, “You were gonna use dead bodies to scare her! Don’t you think that’s kinda morbid?”

“I don’t know, maybe?”

Twilight grimaces as she narrows her eyes and scrunches her brow to say lowly under her breath, “Well, at least my friends are enjoying themselves!”

Rarity looks up at Twilight wide-eyed with a scrunched mouth, “What was that dear?”

Twilight looks at the fashionista wide-eyed, “Nothing!” and smiles nervously...

Rarity straightens her eyes, “Well uh, if that is all, I suppose I’ll be on my way and I’ll just uh, see you later then, dear!” before getting off her chair, trotting over to Twilight’s left and hugging the dazed alicorn as she sits there, speechless… Rarity trots out of the Cutie Map Room and leaves Twilight alone with Starfall in her mind.

“So, what’s up?” Starfall says to Twilight.

Twilight frowns, “My life just continues to get weirder! I mean, I used to be just a student of Celestia, and now I have all these responsibilities and now, to top it all off, there’s a ghost pony in my head!”*

“Well, gee Twilight! How do you think I feel?”

Twilight looks up, “What do you mean?”

“Well, as you know, I’ve claimed three victims!”**

“Uh, we only found two bodies?”

Starfall giggles slightly, “Oh, right! You haven’t found the one by the tracks, yet!”

Twilight shakes her head, “Anyway, three victims?”

“Yes, Twilight… But each of those victims represented something to me… When I kill them, I feel as if I’m killing myself all over again!”

Twilight widens her eyes in shock, “Th-then why do it then? Why kill victims?”

“Because Twilight…”Starfall sighs. “Deep down, I felt that since I had fallen to despair, so should they… Because even though killing them hurt me, I still felt it needed to be done…”

Twilight normalizes her eyes, “Why did you feel it needed to be done?”

Twilight hears Starfall audibly shudder in her mind before slowly responding, “Because I wanted to share my pain, okay? I wanted to take the lives of other ponies because I never got one! You could never know my pain!”

Twilight furrows her brow, “You don’t know that, Starfall…”

Starfall is silent for a moment… “Tell me Twilight. Do you know what it’s like to not be there?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I wasn’t there! There was nopony around me! While they all lived their happy little lives living and working in town, I stayed home, by myself…”

Twilight frowns, “Well, how did you live? How did you make money to feed yourself?”

Starfall says, “Nopony sees you when you work in the back…”

Twilight nods, “So, you had a job! Obviously, somepony hired you! What about your boss?”

“I didn’t see him much… Just once a week to get my paycheck…”

“What about when you bought food in town?”

Starfall sighs again, “Oh, Celestia! That was the worst! I’d put on my cloak at dusk and go out right when they closed and nopony was around...”

Twilight is intrigued at this point… She asks, “Why? What was wrong with you Starfall? Why do you hide your face?”

Starfall is silent for a moment, “I’d rather not talk about it…”

Twilight blinks and stares forward curiously, “Why not?”

“Can we talk about something else please?”

Twilight frowns while deep in thought as she knows there’s definitely more to this story, but she also knows she can’t risk what she’s gained by pressing the issue. She finally decides to say, “Tell me something Starfall… Now, I’ve enjoyed your company and I’d like to think that you’ve enjoyed mine… Would you like to continue this instead of murder?”

Starfall is silent…

Twilight continues, “We can just have fun together! What do you say, friend?”

Starfall is silent before finally giggling, “Well, we still have to get Rainbow Dash, right?”

“Okay, but no more kinky stuff!”

“Well, now your friends are spanking each other!”

Twilight closes her eyes, “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!”

Starfall can only cackle maniacally!

<*****>

Twilight stands on the knoll, looking up at the sky through black binoculars held in front of her face with a purple glow. She sees the rainbow streaks of Dash flying around overhead as Starfall asks her, “How long do you suppose she’ll be looking for her cloud-house?”

“I don’t know?” Twilight replies.

“Well, I say give her another ten or fifteen minutes! We don’t want her too freaked out, after all!”

The glowing binoculars float down, away from Twilight’s eyes, “You care about Rainbow Dash?”

Starfall is silent for a moment before finally saying, “Yes, I suppose I do… Well, on some level?”

Twilight starts, “So, you DO care about somepony else!”

Starfall sighs, “You wanna know what’s weird? I hung myself all that time ago and that ended my life! And yet, I’ve never felt more alive than when I was with you girls! You and Rainbow Dash, Twilight!”

Twilight smiles dimly, “You know, my grandmother was a unicorn named Twilight Falling and losing her was perhaps the hardest thing I ever had to go through!”

Starfall is quiet before saying, “Go on?”

Twilight blinks and normalizes her mouth, “But when I look back at it all, I’m honestly just glad she’s no longer suffering at this point…” she blinks again. “I like to believe there’s something else though. I like to think that maybe, there’s not really such a thing as death… That we all just go through transitional phases…”

“I like that thought, Twilight! But uh, what about me?”

“I don’t know Starfall! I don’t know why you can’t move on, but I know there’s more to this story!”

Starfall falls silent in Twilight’s mind...

“And I’ll tell you this much, Starfall…” Twilight continues, “For a homicidal maniac, you’re really not such a bad pony!”

“I killed three ponies…”

Twilight sighs, “Yes you did, Starfall, but I think there’s a reason!”

“Reasons don’t justify murder…”

Twilight is silent before finally saying, “You could stop killing?”

“Twilight?”

“Yes, Starfall?”

“Do you want to know the real reason I stayed hidden? I mean, sure! Users came and went! But after I got rid of them, I was all alone again… Do you want to know why I was alone?”

“Um,” Twilight blinks before saying louder, “actually I do! Why were you alone, Starfall?”

Starfall is silent before saying, “A roc attacked me… What you saw in the dreams was my visage before, but that’s not really what I looked like…” Starfall sighs before softly saying. “I didn’t know that I was between it and it’s hatchlings…”

“Were you scared?” Twilight asks with wide concerned eyes.

“Yes, Twilight… I was terrified!”

Twilight has concern in her eyes at this point, “What did you do?”

“I ran, of course! I tried to hide in the woods, but it found me and wouldn’t stop! It just wouldn’t stop when it got to me!”

Twilight is almost panic stricken as she asks, “What did you do? What happened?”

Starfall is silent again before finally saying matter-of-factually, “I had a big grievous scar across my left eye that went from top to bottom before it finally left me alone… The cornea on the eye itself was also broken and so, it looked yellow, whereas my other eye was a pale green color… I felt that I was hideous and could no longer approach other ponies… Then, I thought about them and their happy little lives… And how that was stolen from me…”***

Twilight frowns, “That still doesn’t explain why you thought they were so awful?”

“I already told you that too, Twilight… I was only ever approached or befriended by drifters and ponies who only wished to exploit my hospitality… They weren’t really my friends; I later came to realize…”

“So, you thought ALL ponies were like that?”

Starfall sighs again, “I uh, I guess so? I guess when you only hang around that sort of pony, you eventually start to believe they’re all like that? I…”

Twilight leans forward concerned again, “What, Starfall?”

Starfall loudly replies in Twilight’s head, causing her to wince, “I was… I was angry, okay? I was angry at the world for what happened to me, and I was angry at other ponies for ignoring me, but mostly, I was angry at myself for not figuring out a solution!”

“Did you ever seek help, Starfall?”

“From whom?”

Twilight lowers her head, “Well, I’m not that great at visage manipulation, but surely somepony?”

“There was nopony, Twilight! The doctors told me there was nothing that could be done!”

“But don’t you think you should’ve given other ponies a chance?”

“I already told you what other ponies are like…”

Twilight shakes her head, “Not all ponies are bad, okay! I mean, you’ve had fun with me and Rainbow Dash, right?”

“Well, yes… I suppose we had a good time?”

Twilight smiles and nods, “Well, now you have two friends!”

“T-two friends?”

“Rainbow Dash and me, okay? Look! I don’t know what awaits you when you cross over, but I do know that you’re here now…” her smile widens. “My ghost friend, Starfall!”

Starfall finally giggles again, “Ghost friend! Yeah, I like that…”

Twilight blinks, “And if dealing with Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer have taught me anything, it’s that your past doesn’t need to be your future! You can change! You can be a better pony!”

“A better ghost pony?”

Twilight blinks as her mouth straightens, “Right! That!” her eyes grow narrow as she focuses her thoughts. “But I’ll also tell you this Starfall… I know I saw good in you today… I don’t think you’re really such a bad pony after all…”

“But?”

Twilight lowers her gaze and she sighs, “But eventually, you’ll have to deal with the guilt of those three ponies you killed…”

“Perhaps later? But not at the moment…”

Suddenly, Twilight hears a raspy voice coming from 10 feet in front of her, “Uh, Twilight! I know you moved my cloud-house!”

Twilight starts to look at the rainbow maned pegasus before her with wide eyes, “I don’t know what you’re talking about?” before smiling widely at the pegasus…

(To be continued…)

Author's Note

*A “ghost” is how I often describe my “former self” as a transgender person. Starfall is a representation of demons from my past.

**The number three is also metaphoric here as that represents the number of “false starts” I’ve had in life and their respective broken promises.

***Starfall’s scar represents how I often feel about myself… I’m neither “male” nor “female” at this point and I often think of myself as a monster, a mutant, or a freak… I often have trouble believing that I actually belong anywhere…

Chapter 7: Meeting Rarity

Rarity lays there in bed on her left side, with her plush purple comforter draped over her equine body as she closes her eyes and thinks about all the strange events… Twilight mentioned strange magick and what Twilight did earlier… Such an odd time for a prank? Rarity begins to suspect there to be more to this as she drifts off to sleep...

Rarity emerges in a lush open field with flowers and sparse trees across a beautiful rolling hillside, lined with flowers and daisies in sections and she witnesses the wind blowing across the enormous lush field around the area... 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!”

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 sparkly azure eyes and narrows the mouth on her snout, as she says, “YOU! You’re the killer!”

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

Rarity frowns in silence a moment before saying, “We’re in a dream, correct?”

Starfall nods again, “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 smiles and chuckles, “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 green metal fold-out table with two tan 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, because it all gets taken away in the end…” 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 strawberries and bananas 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 kiwi 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 real 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.

Later that night, 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 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 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…)

Chapter 8: The Meaning of Life

"Um, whose turn was it?” Rarity asks as the four blue glowing Bicycle cards form a fan in front of her face at the table.

Starfall looks up from her six cards, “I’m not sure? Uh, you just go ahead, Miss Rarity!”

“Very well then!” Rarity exclaims before looking down at the table and drawing the 3 of clubs to her hand from the face-up pile and discarding the 2 of diamonds. She looks up at Starfall, “We all need love and empathy Starfall! Even killers like yourself!” she says while placing special emphasis on the word, killer.

Starfall looks up at Rarity with narrow eyes, “But I never got that… I stayed hidden…”

Rarity nods, “Right! And you see how that turned out?”

Starfall frowns in contemplation before deciding to draw the 2 of clubs to her hand and puts down the king, ace, 2, 3, and 4 of clubs on the table and then, discards the jack of clubs to the discard pile to go out. She looks at Rarity, “I believe that means we’re tied now, one for one?”

Rarity smiles at Starfall, “Yes, darling!” before looking at the table and magically causing all the cards to face the same direction in a pile before she begins to shuffle them on the table as her blue eyes stare onward. She says to Starfall, “There’s still one thing I don’t understand about your philosophy, Starfall…”

Starfall looks at the fashionista while frowning, “And what is that?”

Rarity looks at Starfall as she begins magically floating over 7 cards to her, “You say that all ponies are awful and deserve to die, yes?”

Starfall nods, “Yes…”

Rarity nods and begins to float over 7 cards to herself from the pile, “Right! Well, you also said that life is meaningless and not worth living, correct?”

Starfall nods again, “Also true!”

Rarity narrows her eyes, “Well, if you’re just doing them a favor, as you say, then why bother killing them at all? Wouldn’t just leaving them living be a far worse punishment?” before placing the jack of clubs, face up next to the pile.

Starfall floats her 7 cards before her in a fan, before looking at the other unicorn and saying, “Clever girl!” before shaking her head and continuing, “But no! The truth is, I enjoy ending their miserable lives and I see no reason not to…” before looking at her hand for a moment and drawing from the pile and finally, discarding the 10 of clubs.

Rarity stares intently, “But why do you enjoy ending them?” before looking down and magically floating a card from the face-down pile to her hand and discarding the 3 of hearts.

“I just do, okay?” Starfall snaps back as she stares at Rarity harshly.

Rarity frowns and blinks at Starfall, “But I don’t understand?”

Starfall magically slams her cards face-down on the table, looks down, and sighs, “Well… It was all I had left, you know? Revenge…” she stares off to the left while keeping her face down.

Rarity normalizes her eyes and leans towards Starfall slightly, “For shunning you? For not acknowledging you, when you went out with your hood and cloak to buy groceries or flowers, correct?”

Starfall looks at Rarity wide-eyed, “H-how did you know?”

Rarity smiles, “I haven’t always been attractive, darling…" she normalizes her mouth. “But you’ve never been attractive, have you?”

Starfall blinks at the fashion pony and frowns, “I’m uh, actually not sure?”

Rarity widens her blue eyes as she leans forward frowning in curiosity, “What do you mean?”

Starfall sighs, “I mean that after I got my scar, I was so consumed by rage and fear that I kinda, um, forgot about a lot of other things…” and keeps her mouth agape and breathing…

Rarity blinks, “I see… Well, what can you tell me about yourself now? What did you do with Rainbow Dash and Twilight that you enjoyed so much?”

“Well, I liked flying with Rainbow Dash in her head as she did all of her tricks in the air… That was exciting and I enjoyed her quick turns and lightning-fast reflexes…”

“Go on?” Rarity nods before staring onward with wide open sparkling blue eyes.

Starfall nods, “I also liked pulling pranks with Twilight Sparkle! Not just what we did with Catwalk Strut, but watching Rainbow fly around looking for her precious cloud-house was also amusing…”

Rarity smiles slightly and nods, before timidly asking, “And you enjoy playing cards and chatting with me as well, correct?”

Starfall blinks, “Well, yes. I suppose I do…”

“And now that you have three friends, what do you think of friendship now? Is it better and more fulfilling than killing?”

Starfall sighs, “Yes, but…”

Rarity’s eyes somehow get wider, “But what, darling?”

Starfall blinks again, “But I get this after my exile and death!”

Rarity looks at Starfall intently, “Do you suppose maybe your exile was self-imposed?”

Starfall looks at the other unicorn and a flash of blue light envelops her to show her face, now with a long vertical scar across her left eye that curves downward into her cheek and a smaller horizontal scar, slightly slanted towards the top, crisscrossing the top of the longer scar. Her normally cerulean left eye is yellow as she says at a higher volume, “Tell me! Would you do business with THIS?”

Rarity gulps at the new visage before stammering out confidently, “Well, yes! Yes, I would!”

Starfall frowns, “Please, Miss Rarity! I couldn’t go anywhere near the Carousel Boutique, looking like this!”

Rarity says hesitantly, “I-I would do my level best to make sure you look pretty!”

“Ha! Good luck!” Starfall says with a grin on her marred face. “But, there’s something else I wish to show you now!”

Suddenly, the ponies are enveloped in a fog that soon dissipates to reveal the table is now in a darkened wooden room, with a wooden door leading to Rarity’s left and one to her right.

Starfall gets up off her chair and trots to the door on Rarity’s right, before making her horn and the doorknob both glow pale blue and the door swings open inward to the left before Starfall points in the other room with her left forehoof and says, “Go in, Miss Rarity! Take a look for yourself!”

Rarity timidly and daintily gets off her seat to the right and cautiously trots around that side of the table to approach Starfall.

Starfall’s horn soon glows and the next room is suddenly illuminated to reveal a sight that makes Rarity gasp in horror… There’s a small bed in the back-left corner and a dresser on the far wall, but Rarity’s blue eyes are trained on a lifeless magenta shape, hanging there from a rope over a wooden chair… Her eyes are open, while her scarred face has the mouth agape with the tongue slightly out… She sees Starfall’s limp and lifeless corpse dangling on the end of the rope…

Starfall smirks and says, “That was my final moment… And that, my dear Miss Rarity is why you can’t help me…” *

Rarity turns her body to Starfall behind her, scrunches her brows, and says boldly, “I think not, darling Miss Starfall!”

Starfall widens her eyes, “W-what?”

Rarity nods, “Your body may have been dead for some time, but you’re still here, are you not?”

“W-what?” Starfall repeats herself.

Rarity frowns as she leans forward in sheer defiance, “I’m still able to interact with you and spend time with you, even though you’re dead…”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Starfall snaps back.

Rarity lowers her head as she sighs, “Did it ever occur to you that you’re still, more or less, in the world of the living for a reason?” before slyly looking back up at Starfall with her azure gaze.

Starfall scrunches her brow, “Well uh, I’m actually not sure? I mean, I was still able to possess Rainbow Dash and make her kill?”

Rarity raises her head and nods, “That may be true, but what else could you be doing?” she asks with a slight frown.

Starfall frowns, “Well, I can spend time with you, Twilight, and Rainbow, instead?” Starfall looks down to the left, “I-I’m sorry Miss Rarity…”

Rarity leans forward inquisitively with wide blue eyes and a frown on her face, “For what?”

“I…” Starfall looks up at Rarity, “I was trying to scare you… I felt that if I could just frighten you away, I wouldn’t have to worry about how you’d betray me later…”before frowning.

Rarity scrunches her mouth as she stares onward, “How would I do that?”

Starfall blinks, “I-I don’t know, okay? But I still don’t think I should trust anypony… After all, ponies are scum!”

Rarity smiles, “Well, what reason would I have to lie to you?”

Starfall frowns, “Well, you probably care about anypony who I’d kill if you didn’t go along with me?”

Rarity nods, “That’s true, but here’s the thing… You don’t need to trust me right now…”

“W-what?” Starfall asks with a frown on her face.

“What I mean is, you just have to play cards for the moment… Okay? We can build trust as we go! How does that sound, darling?” Rarity says with a small smile on her face.

“I uh…” Starfall looks to the lower right, “Uh, okay, Miss Rarity…" she stares back at the other unicorn, “Back to our game?” she raises her left eyebrow.

<*****>

Starfall’s face is once again unmarred as she sits in front of the open grasslands, before the pale unicorn and she floats the 3 of hearts to her hand and lays it down on the table, along with the 3 of clubs, and the 3 of diamonds before discarding the 2 of hearts to the discard pile. She looks at Rarity, “Your turn!”

Rarity smirks as her plan is realized and she magically floats the 2 of hearts to her hand and sets it down on the table, along with the ace and king of hearts, before setting down the 3 of spades and discarding the 6 of spades to the discard pile.

“To the wire, huh?” Starfall says with a smile on her face as she magically floats a face-down card to her hand and stares at it with the rest in her fan. She finally magically discards the 10 of clubs.

Rarity looks at Starfall, “You say that ponies are scum, correct?”

Starfall blinks at the fashionista, “Well, yes… All ponies are awful!”

Rarity nods, “Well, right! But you also said that we’re only going along with you to save the lives of those you might kill?”

Starfall frowns, “Your point?”

Rarity leans forward slightly, “Well, my point is, if we are indeed just trying to save those ponies, that must mean that we care about them, no?” and raises her left eyebrow…

“And?”

“Well, if we do care about them, doesn’t that mean that we’re good ponies?”

“Okay?” Starfall says while raising her left eyebrow.

Rarity nods, “And I’ll tell you something else too…” she leans forward slightly, “You don’t need to kill ponies to get us to hang out with you… You’re actually a lot of fun!”

Starfall laughs at the white unicorn with wide cerulean eyes, “Ha ha ha ha ha!”

Rarity frowns, “What’s so funny?”

Starfall stares at the fashion horse defiantly, “You would never hang out with me in real life because of my scar! You’d never know my company, otherwise! The irony is palpable!”

Rarity widens her eyes, “You don’t know that!”

Starfall grins and giggles, “Oh please, Miss Rarity! You of all ponies should know that aesthetics are everything!”

Rarity blinks as she stares at this maniacal unicorn blankly, “I…” she blinks again, “I once believed that, yes…” she sighs, “But now, I know better…” she looks intently at the other pony, “somewhere inside you, there’s a beautiful soul, Starfall…” her eyes and mouth narrow. “I know I saw it earlier!”

Starfall lowers her gaze, “You only saw what you wanted to see, Miss Rarity! Believe me, I know better!”

Rarity narrows further her eyes in determination, “You say that life is meaningless, yes?”

Starfall nods, “Correct!”

Rarity nods before magically moving the 10 of clubs to her hand. She looks at the magenta pony, “I worked very hard to build my fashion empire, Starfall… For awhile, I truly believed that was my purpose…” she looks down and floats the 10 of clubs, 10 of diamonds, and 10 of spades to the table, before looking back up at Starfall, “But later, I came to realize that it’s truly friends and the relationships we build that make life worth living…” she sighs and discards the 9 of clubs to the discard pile to go out… She stares back up. “Tell me, isn’t this better than being alone with your own devices?”

Starfall blinks, “Well, I suppose it is, yes?”

Rarity smiles and nods, “Right! But I simply must know what you’re going to say to Dash! Can you allow me to hear what you say in my mind while you’re saying it to her?”

Starfall smiles…

<*****>

The next day is also uneventful for the fashionista. She wakes up and eats a breakfast of strawberry halves and orange juice before going for a walk around town…

She sees the shops in the market district as she heads north, and she thinks about the magenta unicorn she met in her dreams… She thinks about her lifeless body swinging there from a rope and is deeply saddened. She wonders what could’ve brought her to that point in her life. She wondered what sort of loneliness and despair Starfall must’ve felt before her final moments…

She travels further north and sees the Castle of Friendship and she ponders if she truly showed Starfall a better way? She hopes that she somehow got through to the other unicorn as she frowns in uncertainty…

She then turns left to go west and trots off into a residential area of Ponyville where she sees ponies just now waking up and many of them looking out their doors for the morning paper. She sees a coffee shop in the distance on her left and decides to stop…

As she sips a French vanilla soy latte, she considers Starfall’s words carefully. She takes another sip and suddenly looks up as she hopes to Celestia to see her again soon…

<*****>

Rarity gets into her plush baby blue bed and decides to use her black sleep mask with sparkly red hearts over the eyes as she floats it from her dark wooden dresser on the left side of her bed to her face, where it slips over her eyes, and she leans back in comfort and luxury as her soft warm pillows envelop her head and neck…

She emerges in a fog, in the same field as before… She looks around and sees Twilight to her left blinking with a startled expression on her face and she looks to her right to see Rainbow Dash there, looking around in stunned bewilderment…

She suddenly hears a soft feminine voice from the front of the trio, “Ugh! You know, getting all of you into this dream really takes some effort!”

Rarity sees Starfall standing there at the top of a hill, near some pink and red flowers as the wind blows her bluish-white man to her right and she blinks as she begins to steady herself once more…

Starfall takes a deep breath before looking at Rainbow Dash, “Okay! First order of business! Rainbow Dash!”

Rainbow looks at the magenta unicorn and blinks while frowning in uncertainty, “Um, yes?”

Starfall blinks before saying, “Rainbow, I’m not a pegasus and even I know your wing positioning is sloppy! Also, your speed needs serious work and your turns could be tighter…”

Rainbow widens her eyes, “W-WHAT?”

Starfall nods, “Honestly, your flying sucks, Rainbow Dash! If you had a LOT of practice, you just might be average!”

“Okay, first off, that WAS just a practice run! And secondly, I don’t see how you’re in any position to make assessments! And finally, I…”

Starfall doesn’t let the daredevil finish before she smiles and says, “Gotcha!”

Rainbow gives a wide-eyed start before smiling and saying, “Oh! You are SO gonna pay for that one!”

Starfall chuckles, “Well, don’t blame me! It was Rarity’s idea!”

Rarity starts wide-eyed and says, “LIAR!”

Starfall looks at the fashionista, while continuing to smile “I know!”

Rarity starts, grins, and starts giggling, “You’re a tricky one, Starfall!”

Starfall sighs and nods, “So, I’m told!” she sighs again deeply before looking to her right at Twilight Sparkle, “Twilight Sparkle! You are currently Princess of Equestria, yes?”

Twilight stares at Starfall and frowns, “Well, yes…”

Starfall sighs again, “Yes… Okay, I’d like to apologize for murdering three ponies now…” she blinks, “I realize at this point that if friendship truly does make life worth living, that killing them was probably wrong?” she frowns…

Twilight blinks and scrunches her mouth as she stutters, “Do you feel any guilt or remorse for what you’ve done?”

Starfall frowns as she looks down, “Well um, not really?” she adjusts her gaze to the alicorn, “But you know, no amount of guilt is going to bring those ponies back to life at this point, so I’m not even sure if it matters?”**

Twilight widens her eyes and frowns deeply, “Well uh, that is technically true, I suppose?”

Starfall looks up and nods, “Right! So, how about this, then! I’ll be all of your friends, and in return, I won't kill ponies!” she gazes to Twilight, “You’re an alicorn and will live for a very long time. You realize that this means you won’t be alone, even when your other friends are gone?” she smiles. “You’ll have a ghost pal, now!”

Twilight blinks at Starfall before stammering, “That um, is actually a really good point!”

Starfall nods, “Right! So, you’re not alone and I don’t kill ponies! Everypony wins!” she turns to face the whole trio, “And as for the rest of you miscreants,” she sighs and smiles. “I’d very much like to be your friend too… If you’ll take a killer like me?”

Rarity nods her head, “Absolutely!”

Rainbow grins at Starfall, “Well, I still need to get Twilight back, right?”

Rarity glances over at Rainbow and lowly says, “Hush slave!” causing Rainbow to wince...

Starfall snickers at this as she shakes her head, “Only after death, do I get a life!” as Rainbow stares at Rarity out the left corner of her eye and wonders what she got into, Rarity grins at the flier, and Twilight stares onward blankly and wondering where this ghostly new friendship will lead…

(The end… To be continued?)

Author's Note

*This scene hit me hard because I know that was supposed to be me at the end of that rope… That’s how I chose to die, once upon a time…

**Starfall is a sociopath. She does not feel guilt or remorse, but she can be taught to behave.