Chapters It was fairly quiet night in Ponyville as I left the graveyard. I went there to see what progress had been made on the Rainbow Dash memorial, I never got to know her very well but I had seen her around town every now and again and she seemed friendly enough. The town just wasn't quite the same without her around. It felt like there was something missing from everypony.
As I passed through the town center I froze to the spot when I realised what I was looking at. Ever since what happened I tried to avoid Sugarcube Corner. I stil find it hard believe that what happened there actually happened, and even harder to believe that Pinkie Pie of all ponies would do that to another pony. Especially to one of her closest friends. I was never the same after hearing about her demise.
Suddenly a familiar face came up behind me.
"Hey Ex... Are you alright?" Said Doodle Sketch. She was my cousin and though she was a bit moody she was always a welcome sight. She was a pegasus for some unknown reason as none of our other relatives were but no pony cared much.
"Uh, yeah I'm fine I was just heading home actually." I mumbled in a slightly uncertain tone of voice.
"Oh well I was just going to see you." The purple pegasus said casually.
"Oh r-." I was cut off mid sentence but a sudden cold feeling on my nose when I looked up I noticed it was snowing.
"What the hay?" said a suprised Doodle Sketch.
"I'm not sure but we should get back to my place, we shouldn't stay out in the cold like this." I said as a cold shiver ran through me.
It didn't take long to get back to my house but by then the weather had got much worse but that didn't hinder too much, but when we arrived the front door was open. I was a little suprised but assumed it was the wind that blew it open but as soon as we entered the living room a feeling hit me almost immediatley, we were not alone here. My eyes scanned the room but everything seemed normal. Then a noise that sounded like a scream of agony quickly followed by a loud thud made Doodles and I jump out of our skin.
"What was that?" Murmured Doodle Sketch.
"I've got no idea Doodles, I'll go check it out." I whispered, with a hint of fear in my voice.
"Ok." Said Doodle Sketch.
I slowly climbed the stairs so as not to alert who ever was up there, I moved along the hallway until I heard a low groaning noise on the other side of my bedroom door. With out a second thought I barged into the room and was horrified by what I saw. A dying mare lay on the floor before me, her throat and stomach had been slit open and her hind legs had been violently sliced off. Blood and gore covered the entire room. She couldn't be saved from wounds like that. I was about to leave her to it when I noticed a metal object glinting on the floor, I picked it up and felt a surge of power go through me as the kukri lay there in my hoof. I looked to my right to notice something that did worry me. The window was open, maybe who ever or what ever did this left through there. I put the kukri knife down and quickly shut the window as it was a total white out outside and I didn't want to catch a cold, I heard what sounded like a distorted voice but I ignored it... It was one of the worst decisions I've ever made....
A sudden smashing noise that sounded like it came from downstairs made me look behind me. I began to think that who ever did this had returned to get rid of any loose ends. I picked up the kukri the moved swiftly moved into the hallway and galloped down the stairs. I stopped in the living room as a scene of utter chaos greeted me. Bits of glass and wood covered the floor and the remains of the front door hung uselessley from it's hinges and the chair next to it had been completley anniahlated, Doodle Sketch was standing in the corner of the room desperatley looking around for an escape route as a white mare with eyes blacker than the darkest night slowly closed in on her. There was no time to lose, I had to act.
"No!" I yelled before swinging my newly obtained kukri roughly in the mares direction only for the blow to be parried by her own blade. I swung again but she dodged it. She lunged at me with the knife I tried to get out of the way but she was too quick. I felt a sudden pain in my gut and looked down to see the bloody blade be twisted and torn out again, blood trickled from the wound. The mare then turned her atention back to Doodles. I took the opportunity to strike and took a wild swing at the mare. The blade hit it's target and nearly cut her head off in one swing. Black liquid sprayed all over me as I removed my blade and the mare fell to the floor, her head hanging from her neck by a scrap of flesh.
"Are you alright." I groaned, every word I said seemed to cause more pain than the last.
"Yeah but the real question is are you?" Asked a worried Doodle Sketch as she stared at my wound.
"I'll be fine." I mumbled.
A strange noise grabbed my attention and I looked at the white mares body and doubled back in horror as flesh and bone began to fuse back together. Doodles shared my disgusted look.
"We have to leave now!" I barked before ushering Doodle Sketch to the door.
Doodle Sketch and I galloped into the snow and began to search for shelter. As we got further from my home the weather slowly improved. A red trail of my own blood marked where we had been, and with each step I felt a little weaker. I knew that if I didn't find help soon I was finished...
I'm not sure how long we spent out there in the snow, It didn't take long though. All I know is it was cold and that my gut hurt a lot, but eventually we made out the outline of a building through the snow and I felt a new spark of hope. Maybe whoever lived there could help us out. I pointed it out to Doodle Sketch as it didn't look like she noticed it.
"There is a house over there!" I yelled, my voice barely audible over the blizzard.
"Let's hide there." Doodles said.
We began to move towards the house when the distorted sound of singing behind us made us stop dead in our tracks. My heart sank as I looked back and saw the white mare moving towards us, I also noticed the gleam of the knife that was sticking out of my guts less than an hour ago. I looked back at the house. It was our only hope, we had to get there or we were doomed.
"Doodles come on!" I shouted at the top of my voice.
"Ok." said Doodle Sketch.
We quickly moved through the snow in the direction of the house. When we got there I pounded the door but no pony answered. I tried the door knob but it was locked.
"We are so screwed!" I mumbled.
"Wait, I've got an idea?" Said Doodles.
Before I could ask what her plan was she took my kukri knife and threw it through the nearest window, we then clambered through and blocked it up with a near by shelving unit. I began to relax when a white unicorn at bottom of the stairs nearly made me scream. I then noticed she was almost as freaked out as we were. A grey earth pony stood next to her. I felt like I recognised them from somewhere.
"And who are you guys." Growled the unicorn.
"I might ask the same question." I said casually.
"I asked first." The unicorn said angrily, she wore a purple set of shades and the earth pony was wearing a bow tie. Judging by their cutie marks they were musicians of some kind.
"I'm Ex Plosion and this is Doodle Sketch, everypony calls her Doodles though." I blurted it out for some reason I'm not quite sure why.
"Heh, is that so. Well I'm Vinyl Scratch and this is Octavia, but please call me Vinyl." Said the unicorn in a much calmer tone than before.
"I need help." I croaked.
"Yes we can see that, there are some bandages in the bathroom upstairs, Octavia go get them." Said Vinyl Scratch.
"Are you sure about this Vinyl?" questioned Octavia.
"Yes I am now get the bandages!" Snappend Vinyl Scratch.
Octavia nodded and silently went upstairs to get the bandages I desperatley needed. After a while she came back with some and gave them to Vinyl, who then led me to the kitchen. While she applied the bandages we started talking.
"So why exactly did smash and barricade my window Ex Plosion?" Asked Vinyl Scratch.
"We were fleeing from a white mare, a unicorn, Oh and call me Ex, everypony else does." I said.
"So that's why you almost jumped out of your skin when you saw me Ex?" Said Vinyl.
"Yeah, I guess so." I said as I turned red from embarressment.
"Ok you should be fine now. Oh and take your knife thing." Vinyl said before giving me my kukri and leaving the room.
I stood silently in the kitchen for a while contemplating how it came to this before I decided to return to the sitting I had entered through. A wave of heat hit me like a train as I opened the door. I looked around the room, It had changed and it was empty. The floorboards were rotten and the furniture was completley destroyed. I looked through a hole in the wall as a look of confusion and fear appeared on my face. Snow wasn't falling anymore... Ash was...
Nightmares [sidestory/flashback]
I think I need to talk about this. It began to happen just after Twighlight found the bodies. I guess you could call this self therapy, and it would be hard to say otherwise. But I need to talk about... the dreams, well nightmares actually but they were so... Real.
They'd always start the same way, I'd be wandering around town thinking about what to do with the rest of my day and then I'd always, and I mean always ended up at Sugarcube Corner. I'd go in and the Cakes were always "out of town" or "gone shopping" or at least thats what Pinkie Pie would always tell me when I asked.
Eventually she'd ask the inevitable question of "wanna cupcake Ex?" and though part of me always told not to do it I always had one... And that's all it took... Just one... I would feel fine for a split second after the first bite but then a then I'd notice a strange aftertaste. My eyes widened as I realised it was... Chloroform. I dropped to the floor and the last thing I always heard would be Pinkie's manical giggling as I lost conciousness.
I was probably out of it for a couple of hours but after a while my eyes would drift open... And everytime I tried to get up but a set of tough leather straps held me onto a large bloody slab. I tried to wriggle out of the straps but it was useless. I surveyed my surroundings. I was in a dark room, there was a candle next to the slab and allowed to see about two metres around me. Then Pinkie would come out of the shadows. After I had finished screaming pointlesly for help she'd say
"Oh don't worry Ex no one will find us here. We are completley alone down here." I'd ask where I was and she never answered me but when I started calling for help again she said
"Ex you shouldn't be scared. You know I love to make everypony smile, and as luck would have it so does Mr Scalpel here." She advanced towards me, revealing an extremely dirty scalpel as she came closer. My breathing quickened as I realised what she was going to do. Pinkie stopped about eight inches to my right
"And now the fun begins." she sounded like a complete and utter lunatic. She began to laugh as she began to cut my cheeks open with the scalpel, each time she curved the blade so in the end it looked like a warped parody of a smile. Painful is an under statement. blood poured all over my face as I screamed and writhed in agony. Needless to say I could not move much because of straps but I tried to struggle and Pinkie Pie just watched and laughed in a way only somepony who was totaly crazy would be able to.
"Ex it is so funny when you scream like that. Especially when you wriggle about in pain, it's hillarious." Pinkie was suppressing the urge to laugh at my suffering.
After she had finished laughing at me, Pinkie Pie went back into the unlit part of the room. Then again, practically all of the room was pitch black. I could hear the sound of Pinkie Pie moving something towards me, when she came back into the light she had a trolley with a selection of wickedly sharp blades and some adrenaline needles in a basket hanging of the front.
"Now Ex don't be afraid this will only hurt a lot." She joked but she was the only one who laughed at it.
"Pinkie... Why are you doing... This.... To me?" I could barely speak with cheeks that had just been cut open.
"Because I ran out of... Oh who am I kidding I still have plenty of the special ingredient I just find this too fun and your number came up so sorry Ex, but it's your time." She didn't seem to care about how I might feel about being tortured and then killed.
Before I could reply she got a needle and some thread.
"I think I'll do this while you are still around I usually do this after they're gone but this will be a new challenge." Within the next ten to fifteen seconds Pinkie looming over me with the needle and thread. She began to sew up the cuts in my cheek. I winced but tried not to struggle as that would make it worse. Little specks of blood came out of the holes the needle made in my face. After a couple of minutes Pinkie finished stiching the wounds up and she put the needle back on the trolley.
"There, that was not too painful was it Ex Plosion?" Pinkie seemed proud of her skill at sewing as she said that.
"Well as far as physical torture goes that wasn't the most painful thing ever... It comes close though." I suprised myself with my own sense of humour despite what was being done to me. I even laughed a little bit to myself.
"Wow Ex, I've seen many different ponies scream and thrash around so you're probably the first to ever joke about this as it happens. Which is great! This might even compel me to let you live." Pinkie was obviously glad to see that somepony could still joke and laugh as she tortured them.
"Well in that case can I go now with my lovely new smile across my face?" My sarcasm was so obvious as I said that.
"...No!" Before I could answer she swung a knife in my direction and cut across my chest. I screamed as loudly as I could and then she said something that scared me
"But I will end your suffering a little early." After she said that she made one last cut across my windpipe. I tried to wriggle about a little as I slowly suffocated. As a pathetic excuse of a last breath left my body... I woke up in my bed with a cold sweat and I would be breathing very quickly but I was glad it was just a dream. The problem was going back to sleep. I kept having the same nightmare over and over again and now it's like they are real. Like all my worst nightmares have become flesh... And this time I can't wake up!
I'm not sure when it started or how it started, and to be honest I do not care about these things, not now anyway. I only know of four ponies that stand a chance of living long enough to find this recording, if you are listening to this you either looted it from my mangled corpse or I trust you quite a damn lot....I hope it's the latter because I did not come this far to die now, but if I didn't make it... Take everything but the kukri knife, I took out so many of those.... Ungodly beings with that, or at least I thought I had, they just keep coming nothing works.... I-I don't think they die, or at least nothing conventional works...I tried to save them...I just wish that they made it here with me but they died and now I will too, maybe later but not now... I am Ex Plosion, everything else doesn't matter, as that bitch in the blizzard has probably turned me into a fine red mist by now... Though something about her seems...Oddly familiar... Could she be...?
I never meant for any of this to happen. The amount of innocent blood spilt by those things...And..me. I guess my fragile sanity finally shattered a couple of hours ago when...when... Oh Doodles please forgive me... I wanted to save you but... I wish you were here now with me... I cannot go on for much longer... I realised that even me with my extremely strong sense of mental well being was simply not designed for this!
I considered.. Y'know, ending this myself with very own hooves but I didn't have the gut's to stick a knife in my eyes and drop dead in this old crumbling house! I am simply too vain to do that to myself, I love myself to much.
If anything I can only compare myself to only one pony I know and she killed herself nearly two weeks ago and is now known as the greatest serial killer Equestria has ever known! She's the only pony that I can relate to in this crazy town as we are practically the same...Including... Including the psycho killer part... It's mainly left her but she still knows how it felt to kill... and enjoy it...
...We were doomed from the start..... There is no hope left........ Absoloutley none....
Anyway where was I... Ah yes I was about to start telling the story of how I came to be here in this living hell. Well it all started like this......