Pinkie awoke to the smell of cooking meat. Her back popped as she sat up, she felt a few scabs tear. The rocks had taken their toll.
Rarity, Fluttershy and Spike were sitting around a surprisingly smokeless fire. A few squirrels were roasting over it on a crude spit that Fluttershy was taxing to turn as Spike and Rarity macked up on each other.
"Good morning, Romeo, Juliet, the one normal pony that we were sanctified to have on this trip to give us a goddamn break from all this EMOTIONALISM. What's on the menu, Fried Squirrel a La Spike breath? Oh by the way, why can't you heal Fluttershy's leg with the breathy breathing with the sparkles and stuff?"
Spike, ignoring the first comment, replied. "The structure of the healing is too inelastic to sustain its forte on such an essential bone. It prohibits customary curative though can withstand a minor injury."
"English?"
"It would bend."
"Okay. I was also wondering about these scabs on my back?"
"Oh. Ok. Sure."
Spike healed her cuts and took the squirrels off the spit. Pinkie and Fluttershy got one, and Spike shared one with Rarity (probably not for the purpose of eating).
Pinkie stared at her squirrel for a second, then shrugged and bit off its head. She spat out the tiny skull (Fluttershy shrank back in horror) and screwed her face up in thought.
"I love it."
Spike and Rarity quickly started on theirs as Fluttershy held hers at arm's length. Pinkie got fed up before long and shoved it headfirst into Fluttershy's mouth. She screamed through her full mouth for a second, then swallowed it whole. Pinkie grimaced, staring at her for a second. Fluttershy screamed out loud, though it barely reached Pinkie's ears. Fluttershy then contemplated a little. She said it tasted like turkey.
Pinkie shook her head and continued cleaning her squirrel's bones.
"We'd better get moving," said Spike after he and Rarity had finished half eating half making out.
Spike grew significantly to occupy them all. Rarity placed Fluttershy's healing leg between two of Spike's spikes (irony) and Spike took off. They soared on gentle thermals for a while, Fluttershy was looking very green as she looked down.
They stopped midair.
"Spike, shouldn't we be moving? Go!" said Pinkie.
Spike twisted his head around to look behind him, and the others mimicked him. Biting his tail with millions of bloody fangs was Rainbine.
Spike groaned weakly. His wings shook in waves of pain. He was losing a lot of blood. Rainbine yanked fiercely, scales broke free, revealing the purple flesh. Then the purple flesh turned black as thick black blood flowed in spraying whips around his tearing tail. In seconds, he was tail-less and had lost his steering ability. They flew around in circles, each clinging for dear life on Spike's legs. Finally, they landed with a bump on a rock. Spike groaned pitifully. Black blood slithered like snakes, whipping out behind him.
Rarity started crying. She shook and shook. The three ponies dragged him out of sight into a cave. Rarity bent over him, weeping on his shoulder. "We'll save you, Spike! Don't—don't let go! I-I love you, Spike!"
Spike's eyes flew open wide. He grabbed Rarity. "All my life, I've wanted to hear you say that," he croaked weakly. Then he yanked her forward and kissed her hard. Rarity's tears fell onto his cheek. And slowly, Spike the Dragon died with his true love in his arms.
Fluttershy flung herself into Pinkie's chest and sobbed there. Pinkie quivered, too miserable for tears, and stared at her best friend's carcass blankly while she stroked Fluttershy's hair with her quaking hoof.
"Ahh, sentimentality. How little I wish I could feel it," bellowed a gritty, evil voice behind them.
Rainbine stood silhouetted in the opening of the small cave. Blood, red and black, dripped slowly from her gruesome smile. Her eyes were getting more bloodshot, their cerise deeper than ever before. Her left ear was falling off. It did not look torn, it was simply withering and crumbling away. In fact, her entire body was disintegrating, it seemed. She looked like she was moments away from total decomposition.
Pinkie shrank back, her hair falling persistently from the braids that Rarity had laced around her head. It fell around her like a cloak of rose pink satin. She disappeared into her hair, only a slit of viewing capacity was revealed.
Rainbine laughed, a horrid sound that rattled through Pinkie's bones. Fluttershy buried her face in Pinkie's hair.
"This is too hilarious. Let's say I pick you off one by one. Tomorrow you'll say goodbye to Rarity. Then, day after, you, Fluttershy. Then, you, Pinkamena Diane Pie. I'm looking forward to our little visit tomorrow. And remember, you cannot hide. You cannot run. I'll always find you, I'll chase you till the end. And when it ends, and it WILL end, you'll see me die. And I accept that. Oh, also, I brought a little friend of yours. Hope you have fun. I'll be watching," Rainbine said, throwing the corpse of the dead Applejack to Pinkie. It landed at her feet, and she screamed and shrank back, tears starting to pour for the second time that day. And with that, Rainbine took off.