"Hold on!" I begged to Celestia that Pie would survive.

He lay on the surgery table, bleeding profusely from stab wounds scattered around his body.

"Stay with me now!"

I knew that he couldn't survive; no, not from these wounds. The vital organs were all sliced apart and had already started to turn black. Major arteries leaked fresh blood. His weakening heart only pumped what was left onto the floor. A gash in his stomach dripped acid, burning itself away.

"Don't leave. Please don't leave!"

He was the last pony that could understand me. He was the only pony who I can talk to. He was the only one left.

I grabbed my tools, hooves trembling, making sure to not make any mistakes. I stitched up one half of his body, but as soon as I did, the other side would pop and tear. Organs were misplaced in his cavity, and many lay in fragments. What was left of him on the inside resembled a pulpy soup with chunks of meat bobbing up and down. This was a butcher's job, not a doctor's. I could see that his eyes were white in pain and fear. There is nothing more I can do. The last minutes of his life would be spent in pain and suffering as every organ would shut down one by one.

I didn't know why the voice in my head told me to try, even though my logic was clear. I grabbed all the tools, stitching and mending. Simultaneously, there was popping, spilling, and tearing.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." I thought as I embraced myself for what had to be done.

I brought out the syringe, the deadly toxin still intact in its chamber. I glanced at Pie's face once more, his once sweet and old face, and plunged the syringe directly into his heart. Science lied. He died in only two seconds. I couldn't apologize for what I had done. No, not anymore, there wasn't enough time. Why did I do it? I couldn't bring myself to see him suffer anymore.

I broke out crying, remembering Nurse Trueheart. It was my fault that both of these ponies were dead. My fault. I couldn't blame anypony else this time. I'm a killer. I should be exiled to the moon, if not sentenced to death right on the spot. It's all my fault. I'm so sorry. But there was nopony to apologize to anymore.

His corpse lay unmoving and dripping with blood. Blood covered the white-washed walls of the surgery room, the bottoms of my hooves, and my eyes. It must have covered my eyes, because the only color I could see for the next hour was red.

I walked out of the operating room and into the lobby where a single filly sat in the seat closest to me. She looked up at me. I saw her dead blue eyes behind a wall of pink mane.

"Uncle Pie... He said he'd come back."

I couldn't bring myself to tell her the truth. I looked down.

"Uncle Pie... Why isn't he here?"

I continued to look down. I couldn't face reality.

The filly began to tear up, "Uncle Pie, he promised that nopony would have to be sad anymore."

Why do the innocent ponies die? He... Pie... Never wanted this war. He didn't want violence or torture. He didn't deserve to die like this!

The filly cried and cried. "Uncle Pie... Why did you leave me?"

For the past week, I isolated myself from the world. I didn't care about the world. The world took away the only family and life I knew. Everypony can go die. I wouldn't care.

I closed my eyes and tried to imagine what it would have been like if Nurse Trueheart and Pie had met each other. Nurse would have always snapped at Pie, I guess, for being too carefree. In his defense, he would probably have sung her a happy song. Nurse would have laughed with him because nopony could stay angry at him forever. I imagined myself happily snuggled between them. We could have been a happy family. There would be no more sadness, only love and happiness. It was like a dream. I looked up at them.

And saw their eyes dripping with blood.

"Why did you kill us, Redheart?" they both shrieked at me in a screeching tritone.

Their once warm faces slowly began to peel and melt away, and blood began to drip from the corners of their mouths.

"Why did you let us die, Redheart?"

Their faces were now skinless, exposing muscles glistening with blood and pus. Then the muscles rotted away, leaving their skull bone exposed. Their bones were stained brown with bile and blood. Chunks of tissue, like grayish jelly, were festering on the bones.

"Why did you want us dead, Redheart?"
They vomited blood over me, and I felt it; the cold liquid dripping down my back. They continued to laugh and scream at me mockingly as I cowered into the corner of my room. I just wanted it to be all over. Please, let it stop.

Knock-Knock-Knock

Nurse Trueheart and Pie disappeared. I was curled up in the corner of my bed in a cold sweat. These visions had been becoming more and more realistic since Pie had passed away. I knew that they were nothing more than a wild imagination, but they had become something so surreal that I truly thought that I would die.

I walked up to the door and opened it. It was one of the nurses.

"Oh, Redheart, are you alright?" she asked.

"Yes. I'm completely fine. Please leave me alone." I said, as I began to shut the door.

But, her hoof stopped me. "Redheart, please don't do anything rash."

"What are you talking about? I wouldn't do anything…"

I look at my hoof and saw that it was covered in blood.

"How…?" I was perplexed. Why was there blood on my hoof?

The nurse gave me a worried look, "I've heard you screaming through the walls for the last half-hour. I just couldn't stand and do nothing anymore."

Half-hour? I'd had that nightmare for only ten. What was going on? I searched around for a clock with my eyes, found one, and saw that it had indeed been thirty minutes. What's worse was that I had a gash on my upper forearm. Self-inflicted. Why didn't I remember all of this?

The nurse grabbed my other hoof, and I saw that I had been holding a bloodied knife. "I can get you help. But only if you let me, Redheart."

I knew what had happened. My nightmares had become a reality, possessing my body and forcing myself to act upon these thoughts.

The nurse took a step into the room. She tried disarm the knife from me, but my body wouldn't let it go. "Let the knife go, Redheart," she said with more force.

"No."

I couldn't believe that I said that. My body wouldn't listen to my mind. It was acting by itself. I saw myself grab the nurse's head and slam it against the door. I was horrified, but unable to stop myself.

I knew that it wasn't over. I saw myself shut the door and drag her body over to the bed, leaving a trail of blood behind.

"Ugh…" the nurse muttered.

I saw myself take the knife and hold it pointing into her neck. The nurse was scared to death. I saw myself smile widely and whisper into her ear, "I've gone too far now. I've got to make sure nopony knows about this."

I saw myself force the knife upwards, into her bottom jaw. The tip of the blade penetrated through one eye and sliced right through it.

"Aghhhhhhhh", she screamed. She tried to push me off, but I saw myself take the blade out of her face and repeatedly stab it into her hoof. Her blood painted the embroidering of the covers bright crimson. Eventually, her hoof separated from her body, leaving only a stub on her foreleg. I saw myself smile, again. I saw myself begin to hack at her other hooves, until all of them were ripped off.

"Hey," I said, holding up her severed hooves, "it's alright. I've only started surgery."

No. No. I saw myself head to the medicine cabinet and into the bottles of the most potent chemicals.

I saw myself sit by the nurse, smiling, as I opened a bottle at random.

"Warning," I read the label out loud, "increases sensitivity of nerves, use in extremely small quantities and dilute."

I saw myself upturn the whole bottle into the nurse's mouth.

Pain multiplied tenfold for the nurse, and continued to increase. She wailed and screamed, hoping that somepony would hear her. Nopony did. I saw myself take the knife and jam it into her neck, cutting away the vocal cords. She was purposely left alive, barely, and suffering. Please, just end it. That is all I wished for. Then I saw myself begin to skin her alive. The knife cut through her skin, layer by layer, peeling her like an apple.

I saw myself pick another bottle. No. Not that. Please don't. My body wouldn't listen.

"Hydrofluoric Acid." I knew that this chemical would eat through almost every ponymade material, even glass. What it would do on a pony I had no idea.

I saw myself squirt the pure acid over her body, were it immediately reacted. Her flesh sizzled and holes formed, disintegrating whatever was in its path. Around the holes, flesh rapidly changed colors, from orange, to purple, to black, then nothing. The skin had burned away like a wildfire, reaching as far as her head. There was no blood because it had vaporized into a red gas before it escaped her body.

I knew that she was dead by the end of the procedure. The only sound heard in the room was the sizzling of the acid, still eating away internally and throughout her corpse. I heard organs pop as the acid dripped into them. The acid eventually made its way through her and dripped out of her back.

But it wasn't over. I saw myself raise the knife once again.

"Autopsy time!" I heard myself cheer.

I saw myself stab at her neck, which came off clean in only two strikes. I saw myself take her head and smash it against the bedpost, until it cracked and leaked grey matter. I saw myself extract the intestines, pulling at it until all of the connecting digestive system also fell out. What came out was only a filthy muck, a homogeneous sludge left over from the acid. Her bones no longer functioned to give structure to her body. The bones were so damaged by the acid that they became like clay. Marrow spilled out in clumps as brown jelly.

Suddenly, I gained control. And cried. What had I done? I saw her body, lying on the bed, mutilated horribly. The smell of the acid and burnt flesh filled my lungs. But, it didn't bother me. It was the smell of the bunkers, the stench of war. This couldn't be happening. No. I looked around the room and saw blood and organs splattered, as if a grenade had exploded. The nurse's only eye stared at me as I screamed.

This couldn't be happening. But it was happening. This was all too real to be a nightmare. The sights, the smells, the taste... all of it was too real.

The next thought came immediately. I had to hide her. If anypony found out what I did, I'd be banished to the moon. I panicked to come up with a plan.
"C'mon, Redheart, you didn't kill her. Your body did!" I realized how stupid that sounded.

I heard hoofsteps coming towards the door.

"Please don't come in, please don't come in."

The footsteps grew louder, and louder, and louder.

Then they stopped.

Silence.

Knock-Knock-Knock

I was curled up in the corner of my bed in a cold sweat. What in Equestria just happened? I remember that I was standing over somepony I had just killed. Was it a dream? Is this a dream too? It was all so real.
I felt myself changing on the inside, from a scared helpless filly into a monster. I was scared of that nightmare. Is that what I'll become?

Knock-Knock-Knock

I got up and opened the door. I recognized the pony who stood before me. It was the little filly who I had met in the lobby.

"Miss Redheart," she said quietly, "this is for you."

She placed an envelope onto my hoof and ran away, bubblegum hair bobbing up and down with every step.

I looked at the parchment and saw that it was signed by Pie. It was dated on the day of his death. I tore open the seal and began the read Pie's last words:

To my little pony, Redheart.

I know that we both have been going through hard times ever since we came back from the War. Don't try to deny it. We both know the truth. What I want you to do is just as important to yourself as it is to me: I want us to both move on. It may seem hard, yes, but time heals all wounds. I've found this little filly a ways from Ponyville and decided to adopt her. I'm going to be a father. She's not like other ponies, she's like us. I've bought a new home where we can settle down. I want you to stay with me, Redheart. Together, we can move on and forget the past. Please try to move on, for me. I know you can make it.

Be brave,
Love, Pie, your 'father'.