Rainbow Dash did a pretty good job at staying awake. She was the last pony to fall asleep, only a few hours until sunrise. She woke up and saw Twilight Sparkle still gracefully sleeping. It took her a moment to remember where she was. She laid her head back onto the bed and closed her eyes. She was still pretty tired. She was lying in between Twilight and Applejack.
She rolled over and felt something pressed up against her muzzle. She opened an eye and took a look at what it was. It was Applejack. She was still sleeping as well. Rainbow Dash sighed with relief that they were all still alive. She rolled back over and closed her eyes again.

She rubbed her eyes with her hooves, but then stopped. Her hoof felt weird. It had something on it. She opened her eyes again and saw the blood that covered her hoof. She looked around her and saw that the bed was covered in blood. She panicked and jumped out of bed, causing Twilight and Applejack to flop out and land on their faces.

"Errr... My face..." Twilight mumbled as she got up.
"Twilight?" Rainbow Dash said.
"What?"
Rainbow Dash pointed at the blood stained bed. Twilight looked at it and then down at her hooves, which made her gasp.
"Ahhh! Blood!"
Twilight and Rainbow Dash were covered in it, but there were no cuts on them.
"Where did it come from? And where's Applejack?"
"It couldn't have come from AJ. She was..." Rainbow Dash paused. "sleeping."

They walked around to the other side of the bed and saw Applejack still lying face first on the ground. She had a cut on her body which ran from her ribs around to her flank. And once again, the killer had left a message.

"She's dead!" Twilight said.
"No. She can't be dead!" Rainbow Dash cried. "I promised her she wouldn't die!"
Twilight put her hoof on her shoulder. "It's not your fault."
"I know, but I made a promise. The last thing I said to her was "You won't die. I promise." And now she's dead. I broke my promise."
"It's okay. It's not like you've never broken a promise befo-" she was cut off.
"It's not about the promise! It's about her being dead!"

They went outside and watched as the policeponies arrived and took a body bag out of the house and drove off. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle weren't there, so they didn't know that Applejack was dead. Rainbow Dash could just imagine the crushed look on Applebloom's face when she found out. Somepony would have to tell her eventually. She felt sorry for the pony who would have to break the bad news to her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That night, Twilight and Rainbow Dash walked home together.

"So... It's just us left." Rainbow Dash said as they walked.
"Yeah..." Twilight said.
"One of us is going to die tonight. You know that right?"
"Yeah, I know." Twilight sighed. "I'm really scared."
"Me too, but either way, we're not going to see each other again."

They arrived at Rainbow Dash's house in the sky.
"Well, goodnight Rainbow Dash." Twilight said.
"Goodnight Twilight, and good luck."
Twilight gave Rainbow Dash a big hug and she hugged her back.
"I'll hopefully see you tomorrow."

Rainbow Dash flew up to her house and got into bed, but she didn't dare fall asleep. She was too scared.

Author's Note

This chapter's not supposed to be long.