The Shadow Behind Her Eyes 2: House of Death

"I absolutely refuse to believe Rainbow Dash could have done such a thing!" Rarity said in horror, standing in the doorway to her shop and talking to Applejack, who had just arrived there.

"Ah'm not lyin, Rarity," Applejack said grimly. "Mah Element is Honesty, and ya know ah wouldn't joke about a thing like that."

"We have to find her!" Rarity said, panicking. "We have to do something!"

"Ah know we do," Applejack said. "When Pinkie Pie tells Fluttershy what happened, we'll get right on it. In fact, ah'm guessin she's probably back already. Let's go down to Sugarcube Corner to meet them."

A few minutes later, Rarity and Applejack stopped in front of Sugarcube Corner. As Applejack had predicted, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were already there. Fluttershy had been crying.

"Well- c'mon girls," Applejack said. "We gotta go an find Rainbow Dash."

***

Rainbow Dash had flown back to Ponyville after setting up the things in the old house. She had to leave a clue there so her "friends" would know where to find her. The insane Pegasus snuck around, not wanting anypony to see her.

As Rainbow approached Sugarcube Corner, hiding in the shadows behind buildings, she began to hear familiar voices talking out in front of the building. It was them. They were plotting to kill her, Rainbow knew that, but she would kill them first. There was plenty of surprises at the old house to make certain of that. She just needed to give them a clue so they could find her there.

Rainbow Dash dipped her hoof in the bag she was carrying and drew out the bloodstained knife she had used to gut the royal guard. Using the tip of the knife, she carved a message on the back wall outside of Sugarcube Corner, giving directions to the old house. Now all Rainbow needed was a sound or something to get the ponies to go back there. Easy. She opened her mouth and-

***

"Oh gosh, what was that sound!" Fluttershy said in a high, terrified voice.

"It came from behind the building!" Applejack said. "Sounded like somepony was screamin!"

Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy all ran behind the building.

"There's nopony here!" Rarity said.

"Um, girls," Fluttershy said quietly, "I think there's a message-"

"Look!" Pinkie said loudly. "Somepony carved a message into the wall!"

"That's what I was trying to say," Fluttershy said quietly, but not loud enough for the others to hear her.

"Good eye, Pinkie!" Applejack said. "What's it say?"

"It's directions!" Pinkie Pie said. And they're signed by-"

Pinkie gasped.

"Who?" Applejack demanded.

"Rainbow Dash," Pinkie said.

"Ah bet those directions will lead us right to her!" Applejack said. She looked at the directions, memorizing what they said. "C'mon, everypony!"

The four friends took off, running back around the building to the front.

"Oh my, do you think we should tell anypony else about that message?" Rarity asked.

"No," Applejack said. "Rainbow's our friend, and we're gonna help her."

"Our FRIEND?" Rarity gasped. "After what she did to Twilight? Applejack, she killed a princess, and our friend! When Celestia finds out-"

"Rainbow Dash wasn't right in the head," Applejack said sadly. "She needs help."

"What are we waiting for?" Pinkie Pie said. "Let's go save Dashie from herself!"

The four friends took off, Applejack leading because she was the pony that had memorized the directions to where Rainbow Dash was.

Applejack didn't think for a moment that it was wrong to just take off without telling anypony else where they were going. She thought they could just go get Rainbow Dash and help her somehow and that would be it. She was wrong. She should have told another pony where they were going, but she didn't. And although they didn't know it, they were already dead.

***

"THIS is where Rainbow Dash is staying?" Rarity asked, looking up at the old house in disgust. "I've never seen a more HORRID place in my life."

"Rainbow's inside there," Fluttershy said quietly. "And she's probably crazy, too."

"I bet Rainbow's hiding!" Pinkie Pie said gleefully. I say we try to find her! Then when we find her, we can throw a big party and-"

"Pinkie! We are NOT throwin any party!" Applejack said angrily. "Remember what Rainbow did to Twilight?"

"Oh, yeah," Pinkie said, her smile fading.

"Now, ah think we should split up to go into the house," Applejack said. "If two of us go in through the back, and two go in from the front, Rainbow ain't got nowhere to run. We can catch her, and help her. Now, Rarity and ah will go in through the front, Pinkie an Fluttershy, y'all go in through the back."

"G- got it," Fluttershy said in a shaky voice. She was scared.

"Well then, let's get moving y'all."

Pinkie and Fluttershy watched Applejack and Rarity go up to the front door of the old house and open it. Then, they both stepped into the darkness of the house, and Pinkie and Fluttershy could no longer see them.

"Come on, Fluttershy!" Pinkie Pie said. "Let's go around back!"

"Oh- ok," Fluttershy said in her quiet voice. She followed Pinkie around the side of the house. They turned the corner into the backyard, and then they both started to scream as they saw the corpse of the royal guard lying right in the middle of the yard, covered in guts and blood.

"I- i- i- is he d- d- dead?" Fluttershy cried out in a high voice.

Pinkie Pie went over to the guard. "Yep," she replied in a voice that didn't sound like her own.

Fluttershy thought she was going to faint, throw up, or both at the sight of the mutilated guard with his intestines strewn around him like confetti, but she managed to hold on to herself- barely.

"We have to get in there and find Dashie fast!" Pinkie said. "Before it's too late!"

She and Fluttershy, leaving the gutted guard behind them in the yard, walked up to the back door, opened it, and walked into the kitchen of the house. It was gloomy and hard to see, and the two mares nervously began to walk deeper into the house.

***

Rainbow Dash cried for no reason at all on the old bed upstairs in the bedroom of the house. She was crying and laughing softly at the same time, and she didn't even realize she was doing it. Suddenly, she heard a noise from downstairs. It was them. Her "friends".

Rainbow jumped off the bed, grinning. Besides the fact that her face had the expression of a murderous maniac that had been possessed by a demon on it, she looked a lot better. As she had flown back to the house from Ponyville after leaving the message carved on the back of Sugarcube Corner, she had flown through some thick clouds which had washed the blood off her mane and off of her coat. The clouds had also washed off most of the bandage that her pet, Tank, had wrapped around her side earlier, but the bandage had coagulated around the wound in her side, making it like a piece of strong cloth covering a wound. The medicine in the cloth was also having an effect, soaking into her skin and slowly repairing the internal damage. Yep, Rainbow Dash wasn't going to die today (unless those other ponies kill me for what i did but oh no they won't do anything because i'll kill them all first) Rainbow thought. She grinned. Her "friends" were here. Time to let the fun begin.

***

The house was huge, Fluttershy realized as she and Pinkie Pie walked through it. Much bigger than she had expected.

Suddenly, as they turned down a hallway, Pinkie yelled, "my Pinkie senses! Fluttershy, get down!"

Fluttershy gasped and dropped instinctively, as one of them accidentally stepped on a thin rope on the carpet. A second later, a huge knife was slingshot right over the spot where Fluttershy's head had just been, and it impaled itself in the opposite wall.

Shaken by what a close call she had just had, Fluttershy talked in a quiet, high voice.

"Was- was that Rainbow who set that up?" she squeaked.

Pinkie shrugged. "Probably," she said, not sounding concerned. "Come on, Fluttershy, it's fine! With my Pinkie senses, we're untouchable!"

"Oh- ok," Fluttershy said, getting up slowly.

Fluttershy began to follow Pinkie down the long hall again that they were in. One time, Pinkie had to knock Fluttershy aside as a knife fell from the ceiling and impaled itself in the carpet, but there was no other incidents, except when they reached the end of the hall.

Pinkie turned the corner at the end of the hallway and nearly bumped right into Rainbow Dash. Judging by the Pegasus' look of complete shock, she had not been expecting someone to find her there.

Pinkie grinned. "Hi, Dashie!" she said brightly. "Your hair's sticking up a bit, you know."

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Rainbow screamed. She took off and ran down the hallway with Pinkie after her, leaving Fluttershy alone in the dark hallway.

Fluttershy stayed where she was, but after three minutes had passed and Pinkie hadn't returned, she began to get worried.

"H- hello?" Fluttershy stammered, but too softly for anyone to hear her. She didn't want to go off by herself, but she didn't see any other choice, so she nervously began walking back through the dark hallway. She had almost reached the end when a voice laughed crazily behind her..

"AHAHAHAHA!"

Fluttershy screamed and turned around in time to see Rainbow Dash, with an absolutely insane look in her eyes, swinging a sharp hacksaw right at her face. A split second later, Fluttershy felt a blinding flash of agony... then she was gone.

***

Rainbow Dash laughed and swung the saw as Fluttershy screamed and turned around. The saw hit Fluttershy right in the face, the sharp grooves slashing almost two inches into her head. The saw also sliced one of her eyes right in half, and in less than a second, her face was covered in blood and eye fluids. Even as the yellow pegasus began to fall, Rainbow swung the saw again, tearing most of Fluttershy's face clean off. Rainbow then raised the saw high and brought it down as hard as she could, laughing crazily all the while. The blade sank into the top of Fluttershy's head, but even then, Rainbow forced the saw down until Fluttershy's head had been sliced completely in half. The dead pony fell to the ground and one half of her head broke off her neck and rolled several inches away, splattering the carpet with blood and brains. Rainbow laughed some more, horrified at what she had just done, yet infinitely more happy. She took off, the hacksaw dripping blood, still laughing.

***

A few hours later, Applejack and Rarity stumbled through the depths of the house, exhausted. They still hadn't ran into Pinkie or Fluttershy yet- or Rainbow Dash.

"Ya think Rainbow's still even here?" Applejack asked disheartedly. It's been hours, and no sign of her."

"Well, we best keep looking!" Rarity said. "Besides, we have to find Pinkie and Fluttershy before we leave!"

"Yep, we best go find em," Applejack said. "Wait, ya smell somethin' funny?"

Rarity sniffed at the air, and held her nose. "Oh my- that smell is simply HORRID!"

"Wait- ah think it's comin' from down there," Applejack said, motioning to a doorway to her right, which led down another hallway.

"Well, let's go see what it is!" Rarity said.

The two stepped through the doorway and into the hall, and they saw something lying on the floor about five feet in front of them.

"Oh, shoot, that's not-" Applejack gasped, feeling like she was going to vomit.

Rarity screamed, the sound re-vibrating throughout the whole house.

"FLUTTERSHY!"

"There's nothing we can do," Applejack said softly, then turned and threw up for the second time that day. She heard the sounds of retching, and she turned in time to see Rarity throw up, too. Applejack ignored her and stepped towards Fluttershy's mutilated body.

"Oh Fluttershy," Applejack said with tears in her eyes. "Ah've been so buckin' stupid. We should've told someone where we were goin', and gotten help. This is all mah fault." Applejack hung her head, and tears fell from her eyes and dripped into the carpet of the hallway. "First Twi, an' now you."

"Applejack," Rarity said sadly and softly, "you mustn't blame yourself for what happened here. You had no idea this was-"

Rarity didn't finish her sentence, and instead let out a choking sound. Assuming Rarity was just sad and was choking on sobs, Applejack didn't turn around and continued staring at Fluttershy, crying.

"Ah'm so buckin' sorry, Flutters. Ah wish ah could take this all back."

Suddenly, Applejack noticed that Rarity was still making choking noises. And they didn't sound like sobs.

Applejack looked up in horror, and slowly turned around. Rarity still made choking noises, and now Applejack saw what had happened. Most of Rarity's normally clean, white coat was now almost completely red in the front and down her sides. She was choking on her own blood. And standing on top of Rarity, grinning insanely with a wild, demonic glint in her eyes, was Rainbow Dash. In one hoof, she held the six-inch-long shard of now-scarlet glass that she had used to slit the unicorn's throat, and in her other hoof, she held a garden hatchet.

Laughing, Rainbow buried the hatchet in Rarity's back and flew into the air, and Rarity fell on her side. Rainbow Dash landed next to her, pulling the hatchet out of Rarity's back. She swung it again, right into Rarity's stomach with a sickening splattering sound. Blood exploded out, splattering the hallway floor in a wave of blood, and then the wound opened wide as Rainbow wrenched the small axe out again, and Rarity's guts became visible. Laughing so hard now that tears steamed from her eyes, Rainbow raised the hatchet for a third time and brought it down into Rarity's guts, and her intestines began to spill out. She pulled out the hatchet, and grinned at Applejack.

"You came here to kill me BUT I'LL KILL YOU FIRST I SWEAR OH GOD I TOTALLY SWEAR I'LL KILL YOU ALL BEFORE YOU KILL ME!" Rainbow Dash screamed, laughing and crying at the same time. She raised the hatchet, and Applejack could only stare, paralyzed with fear, as Rainbow prepared to bury it in her head.