Everfree Slayer (Redux)

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…)