Haven't updated in a while. Hopefully I can make this chapter worthwhile.
Let the madness continue, damnit!
~Chapter 3~
It's only a game. Aren't you having fun?
The scene of the crime had been carefully scrubbed clean, the remains deposited into a rugged grave. It was as if nothing had ever happened, and Fluttershy was almost convinced of her abandoned theory, that it was all just a dream.
Pinkie had cleaned up. Fluttershy had been astounded that Pinkie seemed perfectly okay with the job, and how well she did it. It was as if the pink party pony had experienced nothing wrong with the cleaning of blood and body parts.
She had advised Fluttershy go for a walk to clear her mind. What else could she do?
What happens if somepony finds out?
Nopony will. You won't be found out.
But somepony will...
No. Do whatever it takes to keep this a secret.
...
"Fluttershah? Y'all okay?"
Fluttershy jumped at Applejack's voice. She hadn't realized her hoof-guided walk had brought her to Sweet Apple Acres. The orange earth pony was looking her over carefully.
"Um..." Fluttershy began, "Everything's okay."
"Well..." Applejack muttered, "Oh, have y'all seen Rarity? She ain't in 'er home this mornin'."
The blood under Fluttershy's skin went icy.
Yes, I have seen Rarity. I nearly strangled her with a scarf and now I've gone and decapitated her. She's dead, I killed her.
Or maybe you just don't need to know.
Fluttershy shook her head, a bit too erractically, "Nope! Haven't." she muttered, "I haven't seen her all day."
Applejack peered at Fluttershy carefully, "Y'all a bit jumpy today. Yer sure nothin's wrong?" she asked.
That was when the red, like blood flowing over her eyes, sheeted her vision.
Her panicked heart suddenly slowed with the calmness that spread over her. She smiled a smile that portrayed friendliness, but hid deception, "Yes. Nothing is wrong, Applejack." Fluttershy said, "Um...I actually think I saw Rarity just now, going into the barn." she said, pointing toward the building down the hill they stood on.
You don't need to know a thing.
Dead birds don't sing. Dead ponies don't spill.
Applejack cantered up to the barn, Fluttershy on her heels. The orange pony stepped through the gaping doors, looking into a shadowed interior, "Rarity? Y'all in there?" she called.
The doors suddenly slammed shut with a fluid kick. The barn's inside was plunged into pitch darkness.
Applejack jumped, "What? Who closed the..." she finished the sentence with a yelp, and found herself crumped into the hay. The pain receptors at the back of her head suddenly responded, filling her skull with a white-fire pain that blurred her vision and rang in her ears. She thought she heard Fluttershy before her senses went numb.
But it couldn't be. Fluttershy couldn't sound so demonic...
...
She groaned as a light pierced into her skull, through her eyelids, amplifying the ache from the afflicted spot at the back of her head. She tried to roll away from it, only to find her body incapable of movement. Applejack opened her eyes, wincing as the light sent a bolt of pain rocketing through her skull, but with effort managed to adapt to the burning light. She blinked, clearing the fog from her eyes. Her senses still numb, her surroundings came sluggishly through feel. Applejack was laying on a hahybale, she recognized the shape under her form. The chaffing of rope bound around each hoof, stretching her legs out as far as they'd go registered. A response triggered, and Applejack reflexively pulled at one rope, only to grimace in pain as the scratchy fibers dug into her flesh. Whatever was the other end tied to, it wouldn't come undone through manual pulling.
"Fluttershah?" Applejack called tentatively.
The pegasus seemed to materialize from the darkness, as if she had been waiting for that cue. The knife was in her mouth. The single light source, the hanging lamp fom overhead, highlighted every crease in her sinister, lovely face with shadows. The silver of the knife shone eerily in the dim lighting.
Applejack seemed taken aback, "Fluttershah? What's goin' on?" she asked, and then felt the pain of her head again, "Did you hit me, Fluttershah?"
Fluttershy blinked simply, and transferred the knife from her mouth to her hoof. She smiled angelically, "No. I'm just playing a game." she said, "I thought you'd think it was fun...so..."
"Y'all hit me!" Applejack interjected, "Why'd ya do that? This ain't no game Ai've ever seen!" she exclaimed.
"Quiet, please." Fluttershy murmured, "Um...somepony might hear." she played with the knife a bit.
Applejack's brief anger dissipated, replaced with a cold dread and creeping fright, "...F-Fluttershah, y'all are creepin' me out with that there knife..." she paused, "What kind of game is this?"
Fluttershy smiled, looking innocently pleased, as if she wasn't standing over her friend whom she knocked out and tied up, "Oh, it's a fun game. But you have to be quiet. I'm new at it so..." she trailed off, examining Applejack's face, "Now...where to start?"
Applejack was not entirely conviced, "Start where, Fluttershah? What are y' gonna do?"
Fluttershy shrugged silently, and suddenly the knife came down. Applejack shrieked as she felt the blade slice at her mouth. She tasted blood as her tongue felt the puncture in her lip. She stared at Fluttershy in shock, "Are y'all out of yer mind?"
"I said be quiet!" Fluttershy hissed. She sighed, "I guess I'm going to have to make you quiet. You're breaking the rules..." she murmured, almost sadly. With a quick movement, she wrenched open Applejack's mouth.
The orange pony writhed under her, her eyes wide with fear. A scream ripped from her, but it ended in a sickening gurgle as Fluttershy cleanly sliced through her tongue, sending blood and some sort of chunky matter pouring down her throat. She whisked the severed tongue away, and then pinned Applejack's shut, watching her be forced to swallow the fluids of her wound. Applejack was still gagging as Fluttershy let go, grabbing a piece of rope which she used to tie shut Applejack's mouth. Applejack's muffled screams echoed through the barn, but not loud enough to be heard outside.
"Why don't...I start with your mouth, since I already cut out your tongue." Fluttershy murmured. Applejack's head thrashed under her, but Fluttershy pinned it to the haybale. Her knife blade traced along Applejack's lips, from the corner of her mouth to her cheek. She traced a frown, a smile, and blinked, sinking her knife into Applejack's mouth.
The orange pony's silenced screams were frenzied with pain as the blade sawed through the corner of the mouth, extending the agonized frown to as far as the base of her ears. Fluttershy saw the blood running down from the wound, and found herself not shaking, not panicking at first sight.
In fact, it quelled her rage-induced hunger. She wanted more.
Fluttershy's knife extended the eerie smile along the other side of Applejack's face, and now the pony bore a huge, jagged smile, reddness running down her cheeks and dripping onto her chest.
Fluttershy wasn't yet down with the mouth. She saw the pearly white teeth of her friend when she attempted to snarl at her, and decided to do those next. The pegasus peeled the lips away from Applejack's teeth, and sent the blade delving slowly, deliberately, into the gums. Applejack was screeching through her restraints, tears streaking down her face and making the blood watery on her cheeks.
The pink gums went red, and Fluttershy heard the dull clicking as her knife sliced a few tooth roots. A reddended tooth fell out suddenly, dragging with it a clot of blood on its furrowed roots. Fluttershy watched it fall to the floor, then initiated a quick cut across the row of top teeth, sending several showering out of Applejack's mouth. One fell into her throat, making her wretch. Some of the tougher teeth Fluttershy had to root out with difficultly. Clumps of pulpy gum, and sliced teeth fell. Fluttershy looked at the bottom row of front teeth, and slid the knife blade under one tooth, sliding it in a delicate little arc under the tooth. Then back up. The slice of gum was still attatched to the tooth, and fell deeper into Applejack's mouth. She made pretty little wave shapes, sending teeth showing backwards or to the floor with each arc.
Applejack wasn't even screaming anymore. She was still alive, but the pain had sent her to unconsciousness. Fluttershy sighed, "You seemed really athletic." she murmured. Absently, she abandoned her work on the mouth and found the ears. It was boring, hacking off both ears. There was blood, yes, but the dismemberment of the parts were uneventful.
Fluttershy was still hungry, but she didn't want to resort to eviserating, or decapitating the pony. She wanted to keep her alive a while longer. She busied herself with inscribing little symbols into Applejack's hooves. One she drew was a cute little butterfly that continually bled.
Applejack floated back toward consciousness, and her screaming began again. Fluttershy stared into her wide eyes, and hovered the knife over one eye. Applejack squeezed her eyes shut in fear, and Fluttershy hesitated. Instead, she had another idea, "Wait here." she asked, and raced from the barn, careful to shut the door behind her.
She wandered the perimeter of the barn a while, her searching gaze hungering for a certain, specific item...glowing, hot...there it was!
She saw the black iron stick, the end resting in a bed of glowing coles. She raced over, picking it up, and quickly used it to jostle the coals, to get them hotter. She let the stick's patterened end sit in the hot embers before she withdrew it, watching it glow with heat and light.
She ran back to the barn, careful again to tightly shut the doors. Fluttershy trotted up to Applejack, whose screams had descended into pitiful whimpers of pain. Fluttershy shushed her comfortingly, "Don't cry, Applejack." she soothed, "It's only a game? Aren't you having fun? It's like playing doctor."
Applejack stared at her with her eyes full of betrayal and fear, her lack of ears making the sound come muffled and incoherent. They widened as Fluttershy lowered the heated stick toward them. She squeezed her eyes shut again, and screeched as the scalding metal met with her eye. Smoke and the smell of burnt fur and skin rose into the air. Fluttershy smiled, seeing the initials "SAA" appear over the eyelid. As she lifted the stick, she saw the almost constant tears flow from the quivering, burnt eyelid. She pressed the stick against the other eye, earning another screech, another flow of tears...
Fluttershy found that using this...burning stick thing was actually quite enjoyable. She crossed over to Applejack's haunches, locating the cutie mark and printing the "SAA" over it as well, marring the apple symbols on the fur.
Applejack, Fluttershy noticed with disappointment, had passed by this time, unable to withstand the pain. Fluttershy set the stick down, seeing most of its heat was fading. She looked over her accomplishment.
Applejack was tied down, the ropes dug into her bloody hooves showed her struggles. Her ears were bloody stumps, her mouth expanded eerily and still bleeding. Teeth littered the floor, some still hung from her ruined mouth by gorey tendrils of exposed roots. Her eyes were closed forever, each eyelid had the initials of the farm burnt into them, and the cutie mark as well.
Fluttershy sighed, and jumped as she heard a voice from outside, then somepony pulling on the barn doors. She had wanted to slice open Applejack, like she had done with Rarity, but when the doors swung open, Fluttershy was already gone.
So the hunt begins. I'm kind of uneasy about this chapter...I at least hope it didn't sound rushed and badly done...
Anyways...wonder who the next victim will be?