Pony Royale

Chapter 6

"What are you afraid of?"

"What?"

Fluttershy and Discord were out searching Everfree Forest for Angel Bunny. He was most likely out on one of his heroic escapades, which made Fluttershy all the more worried.

"What makes you afraid, Fluttershy? What do you fear?" asked Discord. She could tell this was going to be another deep conversation.

"You should know by now, Discord. I'm afraid of just about anything."

"Yes, yes, I know." He was growing agitated. "but what are you afraid of," he said as though it were a different question.

Fluttershy sighed. "Well, I'm afraid of dragons, and monsters, and... " she trailed off, having realized something shocking, something she hadn't seen before. "... my friends," she finally finished.

Discord gasped, sucking in a disproportionate quantity of air before he spoke. "Afraid of your friends? You shock me Fluttershy!"

But by now Fluttershy knew his game. He wasn't really surprised. In fact, it was his words alone that brought her to that conclusion. She collapsed onto the ground, sobbing. "You win, Discord. I get it now."

All of his talk about their imperfections had finally rubbed off on her. The Elements of Harmony? What a joke. They all lived out their lives as if they wore a mask. All of their deeds, their entire friendship was fueled by a putrid desire. And the worst part was that Fluttershy knew she wasn't any different. She couldn't distance herself from what she and her friends did any more than Princess Luna could distance herself from the night.

"Oh, now Fluttershy my dear," said Discord, his tongue slithering like a snake to form words, "you mustn't be scared. You must conquer your fears. Do you know why?"

"Why, Discord?"

"Because wherever fear goes, stupidity dwells in its shadow."

Fluttershy squeezed her eyes shut, refusing to cry. That was a bad, bad, memory. She wished she'd stop having these, whatever they were. But she also knew that these were memories that made her who she was today.

But who was she anyway? She tried to imagine a dictionary definition. Flut*ter*shy - 1 n. Resident of Ponyville, caregiver of woodland creatures, and representative of the Element of Kindness. 2 n. Student of Discord, and last survivor of the Elements of Harmony. Fluttershy had never taken the time, when she still had it, to look at herself, and see what she had become. But now that Fluttershy was the monster she always denied, did she regret changing? Did she regret spending all those countless hours with Discord, listening to what he had to say? No. She was grateful for it.

She was perched in another tall willow tree while she watched the oblivious Snails saunter about below her.

Do you remember now? Do you remember what I said to you?

She knew she was closing in on whoever fired the gun earlier, so she couldn't afford to give herself away with a gunshot. If she was going to kill Snails, she had to do it by hand.

You can do it, Fluttershy. Don't be afraid. Don't be stupid.

She swooped down from her tree, landing on Snails. He didn't have time to struggle. Fluttershy pinned him to the ground, pressing her two front hooves into his neck. He struggled, and thrashed about, but Fluttershy held fast.

You're almost done, Fluttershy. You can do it.

Snails stopped struggling. His eyes drifted upwards as saliva began to drip from his mouth. Fluttershy turned her attention back to the forest around her. Killing Snails had taken longer than expected. She was going to have to move fast if she wanted to catch up with her target.

Trixie had no intentions of traveling out of her way to vanquish Rainbow Dash, but she was going to do it. And she was going to enjoy it.

Rainbow Dash had already made one stellar pass over her head, this time touching down thankfully closer to her position than before. Trixie had her ears peeled. What she needed was something to scare Rainbow Dash in her direction. Not that Trixie thought Rainbow Dash was all that easy to scare, but those gunshots were enough to make anypony shit themselves.

WHA-CRACK!

A gunshot! Although it seemed to sound different from the other gunshots Trixie had heard in the last few hours. Nonetheless, she kept her eyes in the sky. Her back was aching. She wanted to get this over with. Maim her, humiliate her, and slit her fucking cyan throat already. She'd had enough of this mindless bird-watching game.

BOOM!

Now that was a gunshot, one of the loudest she'd heard all day in fact. And it seemed to do the trick, as Rainbow Dash flew from the trees once more, only to descend back into the forest moments later. But in those few moments, Rainbow Dash had chosen to fly in Trixie's direction. She couldn't be more than a few hundred feet from Rainbow Dash's landing point. Trixie raced through the forest in excitement. She had to be wounded to make such a pathetic flight, which gave Trixie a huge advantage.

Trixie was so close now that she could practically smell each shade of her stupid rainbow mane. She heard a thrashing noise. A scuffle with the branches? A hard thumping noise. It sounded like Rainbow Dash's landing wasn't her most successful one. Trixie was throbbing in anticipation. Once Rainbow Dash was dead, she was home free. Who was going to stop her? Fluttershy? Caramel? Talk about prudent. Twilight Sparkle?

Twilight. The name sent a shiver down Trixie's spine. Twilight was the one pony she dreaded going up against. Nopony else had ever stolen her pride so elegantly, and so many times in a row(it was only two, but still). It must be by twisted fate that Trixie was now here on this island with her. She was ready to gain vengeance.

But alas, it was not Twilight Sparkle but Rainbow Dash that now stood as her next objective. An objective that grew closer and closer to being complete with every second that went by, with every tantalizing step she took, she could feel Rainbow Dash's blood running over her hooves. Her heartbeat slowing with every hoofful of flesh Trixie ripped from her prostrate body. Oh yes, Rainbow Dash's was going to be quite the death.

Twilight Sparkle gasped for air as beads of sweat drew moist lines down her coat. She was still on top of Caramel, and he was inside her now.

These thoughts of mine, and the feelings that go with them...

He pushed forward as she arched back, and together they rose and fell in waves of pulsating energy. Twilight collapsed onto Caramel, exhausted.

Are they.... different? "That was amazing," Twilight whispered into Caramel's ear, "You're amazing."

Caramel remained silent, but began to kiss Twilight, and lick the sweat from her body.

Rainbow Dash lay helplessly, barely conscious, as Trixie crept up on her. Trixie walked up and over to Rainbow Dash and positioned her neck between Trixie's forelegs.

"Resting again?" asked Trixie with a smirk on her face.

Rainbow Dash's eyes grew wide and her pupils shrunk as she was just now gaining knowledge of Trixie's presence. She squirmed furiously, while at the same time she tried to flip herself over to escape her compromising position. Trixie easily put her hoof down on Rainbow Dash's lower back, and began to walk her hooves up to her neck, and then her head, pressing her face into the ground.

"You shouldn't lie around so much, you know," taunted Trixie, "somepony might think you're lazy or something."

Rainbow Dash didn't say a word, but she struggled as hard as she could, thrashing about and kicking at Trixie. But with every jerking motion, blood began to flow a little faster from the makeshift bandage, and she became weaker with every drop of blood she lost.

"What have we here?" said Trixie, inspecting the blood-soaked manual tied to Rainbow Dash's leg by the chainmail bullwhip. "Did you get caught up in an accident? Well, I suppose whoever did it wouldn't consider it an accident."

Trixie began to untie the whip from around Rainbow Dash's leg. Rainbow Dash seized the moment and scampered away through the woods, leaving her bandage behind.

WHA-CRACK! Rainbow Dash suddenly lost the ability to move her non-wounded hind leg. A moment later she fell face first into the dirt, and the sharpest pain she'd ever felt shot through her leg. Her eyes were wide again as she lay on the ground in a state of panic, breathing unbelievably hard.

"Oh, I get it now," said Trixie, staring at the bullwhip, having just learned something new. "That was you a moment ago. You were whipping somepony." She would have asked who, but she really didn't care. What surprised her was the fact that she was even whipping somepony the first place. She cracked the whip again. This time it dug a gash strait through Rainbow Dash's side, making her shriek with pain. She wasn't struggling any more. She was just curled into a ball, shaking from shock and fear.

Trixie turned to her pack, and withdrew her scythe. She approached Rainbow Dash, and slammed her hoof down on her back again. She then grabbed Rainbow Dash by the mane, and pulled her head back, lifting her face off the ground.

"You know what I like about you, Rainbow Dash?" whispered Trixie into Rainbow Dash's ear. Her mouth was so close she was almost licking Rainbow Dash's earlobe. "You always act on impulse. You never think things through. For example, take your little rooftop incident. What did Applejack say that convinced you that there was even a remote chance of survival? 'Hey RD, I was feeling a little stupider than usual, and though you might like to join me while I get myself killed by dancing around on a roof with a megaphone,' she must have said. And you just followed along like a gullible little lemming. 'Well gee, AJ. Because you made me feel cool by abbreviating my name with an R and a D, I guess I'll have to take you up on that little offer of yours.' But don't get me wrong, Rainbow Dash. I absolutely loved how you stood by Applejack. Right up until her head was blown to bits."

Rainbow Dash still said nothing. Trixie began to slide the tip of her scythe up Rainbow Dash's face, drawing a thin line of blood across her cheek. Rainbow Dash's jaw clenched, and tears began to stream down her face. "But you see Rainbow Dash, I'm not like you. For example, right now I'm not going to kill you right away because I know that I can only kill you once. I know that when I'm finished, I'm going to kill each and every one of your friends. I'm going to watch as Fluttershy bleeds to death after I saw her stomach open. I'm going to take Twilight Sparkle's neck, and grind it against a rock until her bone is like flour. I've already killed Rarity. I stabbed her through the stomach with my horn. After that I gave her a new haircut. I'm going to keep going until every last pony on this island has been chopped to pieces. After all, we only live once, right?"

And with that Trixie sunk the blade of her scythe into Rainbow Dash's cheek, chipping one of her molars. She then twisted the blade, causing spurts of blood to drain down the side of Rainbow Dash's neck, as well as down her throat. She refused to swallow her own blood. It began to accumulate atop her epiglottis while her lungs screamed for air, until finally her diaphragm took over, and sucked it down her trachea. Trixie finally removed the blade from Rainbow Dash's cheek, and she began to cough gobs of blood back onto Trixie's face.

Trixie finally sat up, wiping the blood from her face. Her back was aching from being bent over at an angle for so long. She then flipped Rainbow Dash over, and mounted her stomach. Trixie probed her upper body with her eyes for some sort of inspiration. Rainbow Dash was still coughing and sputtering. She began to moan, either from terror or pain.

Trixie suddenly forced the tip of her scythe into Rainbow Dash's upper stomach, and the moaning stopped. Then she thrust her blade sideways, leaving a deep gash across Rainbow Dash's upper midsection. Rainbow Dash's eyes grew wide with terror in anticipation of what Trixie was about to do. Trixie then forced her right forehoof into the incision, arching it upward, and below Rainbow Dash's rib cage. She continued for force her hoof upward through Rainbow Dash's anatomy. She broke through layer after layer of fat membrane until she reached her goal: a throbbing mass of muscle, just right of center, pumping blood throughout her body. As Trixie put her hoof on Rainbow Dash's second most vital organ, she looked back up at her face. She wore an expression of shock and terror, and rightfully so. After all, she was currently the only living pony in Equestria who knew how it felt to be touched in the heart.

Trixie paused for a moment, and closed her eyes. She felt Rainbow Dash's heart beating right in her hoof, felt
Rainbow Dash's blood flowing down her own stomach and pooling at her lower stomach, where Trixie was straddling her. To Hell with cutting off Rarity's hair, this was satisfying.

Trixie finally leaned forward, and cupped her hoof around Rainbow Dash's heart. Just before she began to pull, Rainbow Dash let out a blood-curdling scream that ripped its way through the forest. Trixie was shocked that Rainbow Dash had the strength to scream in her state, but was otherwise unaffected. She then finally put force into her hoof, pulling with all her might as she defeated each and every vein and artery that linked her heart to the motherland. When the last tendon broke, Trixie's hoof lurched back, producing forth a pony heart. It was still beating, and squirts of dark red flew out the ends with each throb. She looked down at Rainbow Dash herself to see that she was now finally dead.

Trixie fell backwards, resting her head on the ground no more than two meters downhill of Rainbow Dash's. The Great and Powerful Trixie did it again. She felt Rainbow Dash's blood trickling down the curvature of her back, and up her neck. She began to giggle as it flowed through her mane.

Filthy once again slumped down against his rock, uncomfortably distraught with his current situation. Shooting Rainbow Dash was great fun, but Mr. Cake's death left a hole in him. They were alright friends before the game started, but what Filthy really wanted was to escape the game with somepony else. He didn't know whether to make an attempt at an alliance with somepony else, or to make his escape alone. Contacting other ponies was going to be hard and dangerous, but being the only one to escape was almost as bad as being the winner. As Filthy mulled over his decision next to the fresh corpse of Mr. Cake, he began to notice something wrong with the sky.

It was turning orange, as in end of day orange. The sun had risen only a few hours ago, hadn't it? And now it had already gone behind the mountains on the island, and was clearly nearing the horizon on the other side.

As Filthy watched the sky darken with every waking second, he heard two more cracks, one after the other. Rainbow Dash must have been busy. Filthy continued to watch as the orange turned to a stunning dark red. A scream rang out in the same direction as the whip cracks. It was Rainbow Dash again. He smiled, knowing that Mr. Cake's killer was getting what she deserved. A few seconds passed, and the sky had faded completely into nighttime.

Rainbow Dash's scream ended abruptly, making the corners of Filthy's mouth tug its way into a smile. This truly was a game, he realized, a game that was almost over.

5 ponies remaining.