“Pinkie Pie. I’m here.” I called out.

Even after a solid five minutes, there was no reply. Assuming she was upstairs, I nudged the door open with my body, which seemed strangely hard till I realized a chair was pushed underneath the handle.

“The hell??” I mumbled underneath my breath. We had practically planned this whole day out, why was she now trying to keep me away?

The whole building looked trashed, the windows boarded and a… a blood trail led upstairs. I bolted upstairs, my heart now racing as I feared the worst.

“Pinkie Pie?!” I stopped, her room was empty and almost all of her furniture was tossed and thrown about. The faint sounds of a tub running sent an eerie chill down my spine. As I stepped towards the room, my heart might as well have jumped completely out of my chest… and once I finally entered the room… it dropped.

Her lifeless body laid in the tub, her blood trailing down the sides of the porcelain, but what scared me the most was the message painted with blood above her: “He Did It”.

—

I could barely even hear the sounds of everypony else talking, as loud as they were. My eyes were glued forward, and everything around me felt like a vessel of fantasy… It felt like I was living out a nightmare in real time, a long and cruel nightmare sent to punish me…

Was I being punished?

“We’re gathered here today to mourn the loss of a beloved member of our society… Pinkamena Diane Pie, also known as Pinkie Pie amongst her peers and closest of friends.”

I think my mind purposely pushed the whole church service out of my memories, I don’t think I can recall anything aside from one… strange… detail.

A closed-casket.

My brows furrowed. Maybe she was right… Maybe something fishy was going on here. I suddenly stood up, the attention landed on me, but I didn’t care at this point. I squeezed through the rest of my friends before walking down the aisle towards the exit. The doors slammed shut behind me, and I could hear a mumble of voices beyond that door… obviously gossiping.

I could barely take a few steps down the stairs when the door whipped open again. At first I ignored it, continuing down the flight of stairs when an easily recognizable voice spoke up behind me.

“Um, hello??” It was Twilight, “What was that? You just made the decision to waltz out? You embarrassed everypony in there–”

I scoffed, yanking my body to face her, “I embarrassed them? Twilight, listen to yourself for once. Ain't it strange? Discord dies of supposed suicide, and suddenly Pinkie Pie does too?”

“She… look I don’t have an explanation as to why she’d do that, but chances are she couldn’t handle the memory, let alone all the medications her psychologist kept testing on her.”

“I spoke to her yesterday, Twilight. She was fine.”

“That’s the thing, Apple Jack. You can never always tell when somepony is going to do that… there’s different sides to–”

“Oh for cryin’ out loud, you sound like my therapist.” I growled, turning away from her in an attempt to shut her out.

“Well they sound like a reasonable pony.” she sighed, “Look… I know this is hard for you. You and Pinkie were close, but–”

“But? But what? But you need to move on? Let it all go? I saw her body, Twilight. I saw the message she wrote. I saw everything. I can’t just–”

“Message? What message?”

My ear flicked, and I found myself looking back at her. Did she really not know? “They didn’t tell you ‘bout that? She wrote ‘He Did It’ on the wall out of her own blood. I– this is what I’m talkin’ about. Nothin’ is making sense here and I think the Noble Council is part of it.”

“Okay… Apple Jack, I think you just need a minute. Just… I’ll talk to you later alright?” I heard her hoofsteps fade away till the door of the church swung open before slowly closing behind me.

I sighed, “Figures, nopony believes me…” I sat down, “I… I should’ve listened to you, Pinkie Pie. I should’ve just sat down and listened. And now? You’re gone.” I slammed my hoof on the concrete, letting out an ounce of my anger, “Gah— I don’t get it, Pinkie! Why would you do this? Why would you—“ I stopped, “Unless you didn’t…”

My ears dropped and my eyes widened, and suddenly a realization washed over me. I made a run towards Sugarcube Corner, sliding past the caution tape that covered the doorway and upstairs towards the cork board Pinkie Pie had made.

“Hey, what are you doing—“ the sudden appearance of Rainbow Dash scared me, causing me to yelp before turning back at her. “Sorry. I— are you okay?”

After calming my nerves, I nodded, “Fine. Why?”

“Well I saw you run out and… huh?” She walked past me, glancing up at the cork board. “What’s this?”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “She must’ve made it after Discord passed. I asked her about it and she started talking in riddles, saying how she believes Discord didn’t kill himself at all. Then all of the sudden Pinkie “kills herself”? It makes no sense Dash.”

“You saw her, didn’t you? She cut herself in the tub. That doesn’t just happen—”

“I know. But Pinkie’s told me before how she’s terrified of cutting when I confronted her about her binge eating. That’s why she overeats as a coping mechanism.”

“Well maybe she just tried it? It wouldn’t surprise me if she did, considering what she saw. Maybe she was hallucinating and they “told her to cut herself”…? I dunno. Kinda…” She stopped for a minute. “…hey.”

I glanced over at her, “Hm?”

“Does that look like a pony to you?” She pointed at a photograph. The photo wasn’t related at all to whatever Pinkie was trying to figure out. It was just a normal picture of Discord with Pinkie.

“What do you mean?” I asked as I watched Dash walk up to the board, standing on her hind hooves before pulling the photo off with her teeth. She then placed it on the nearby table before pointing at something in the background.

“That.” My eyes followed her hoof, and as I looked closer in the forest background… my heart dropped.

“Hold up now.” I moved closer, placing both of my hooves on the table as I peered at the photo. A silhouette of a pony stood in the back… eerily watching Pinkie and Discord. “When was that?” I tapped my hoof on the picture a couple of times before glancing at Dash.

“A few days before he died.”

“You’re kidding.”

“No. I remember. I showed up there like ten minutes after this photo was taken. Why in Tartarus would a random pony just stand there and stare at random bystanders from the Everfree Forest?”

“Unless it wasn’t random at all and they were there for a reason.”

“Exactly.”

“Rainbow Dash? Apple Jack?” I heard footsteps from downstairs. Dash quickly covered the board with a white sheet before Twilight walked into the room looking rather confused and angry. “What are you girls doing here? You two can’t be here.”

“Twilight, come look at this.” I ordered, looking back at the photo.

She ignored me, focusing solely on Dash: “I expect this from Apple Jack, but you too Rainbow Dash? Our friend is dead and you’re playing Fetlock Holmes!”

“Uh well, in my defense I was coming to check in on AJ.”

“Well stop it! I can’t keep wandering around worrying about everypony else. I’ve already got Princess Celestia on my mind as well as Princess Luna, and now they’re saying there’s a chance of a total Solar Eclipse this upcoming weekend! With the sun blocked out the crops aren’t getting enough light, and no crops means no food.” Twilight was rambling on about quite literally everything and nothing all at the same time.

“You do know Solar Eclipses occur for like… five minutes right?” Dash asked.

“You’d think if you worried that same amount for Pinkie instead of pushing her away, she’d be alive right now.” I bluntly stated.

“Excuse me??” Twilight stepped forward, causing Dash to walk between us.

“What she means to say is—”

“You heard me. You always pushed her away. Every damn day you’d push her away, tell her she’s insane, say she’s off her meds. Whatever you decided was wrong that day—you told her. It was never about her. It was about you. And now? Even when she’s dead you still make it about you.”

Twilight didn’t say a word. Which was good, maybe she was realizing how awful she’s been to everypony. But despite wanting to hear an apology, I didn't want to get my hopes up too high for one.

“Anyways…” Dash begun, “Now that we got that out of our system—”

“You know, I don’t get it.” Dash sputtered as Twilight interrupted her, “I don’t understand how you’re so stuck up to think I don't care about anypony but myself. I’m a princess. I have more responsibilities, more expectations, I don’t have time to mourn regardless if it’s Discord or Pinkie.”

I scoffed, “What’s the difference? Was Discord not considered a friend to you?”

“Discord is complicated.”

“Oh now he’s complicated. First it’s “I don’t want to listen to your problems” and now it’s “complicated”? Do you understand how narcissistic and selfish that sounds?”

“I’m selfish? I’m not the friend that ran out of the church before they could even take her to get buried. I’m not the friend that is so in denial about her death that I’m playing murder mystery.”

“Just look at this Twilight— look at this and tell me this ain't strange…”

“She committed suicide, Apple Jack!” She suddenly screamed, “There’s nothing fishy or weird going on, so stop it. You’re hurting yourself and everypony else because you can’t accept that they’re gone! They’re dead, AJ. Dead. And yes, you do need to let go… before you end up dead too.”

Noticing her tears, I didn’t say a word. Despite opening my mouth, I only sighed and kept my maw shut. After a good few seconds she turned around before walking down the steps.

Dash stepped closer to me, “Hey… you okay?”

I inhaled sharply, almost making myself dizzy. “Yeah. Yeah I’m good. Don’t worry ‘bout me.”

“Rainbow Dash, come on. At least one of you will say goodbye to her before she’s underground forever.” Twilight called out to Dash, who was hesitant to move till I nodded her out.

I flinched when the door slammed, but as I glanced back at the covered cork board on the wall, my brows furrowed.

“I’ll fix this, Pinkie. Regardless if they’re with me or against me.”

Author's Note

Longer chapter this time at almost 2k words eep.
I didn't think this one was gonna be so long, but I couldn't find a good enough stopping point for a hot minute.

Also if you can't tell I've kinda stopped over exaggerating AJ's country-side talk. Sometimes I add it but sometimes I don't. I guess I just kept getting tired of re-reading and editing it to sound more "country" lol.