Chapter 4: Every Minute Counts
"PINKIE!" Twilight yelled, still slamming on the door.
She stepped back and aimed her horn for a blast at the hinges, quickly melting them.
It fell with gusto, slamming the ground, kicking up dirt and dust.
She coughed and quickly shook it off, jumping over the door and rushing out the room.
"Pinkie? Pinkie Pie! Where are you!?" She yelled as she lit up the hall.
She scanned the hall trying to find anything of semblance. The dark walls of the hall revealed nothing in her search. As she walked out into the hall she stepped on a plump green cherry.
"What in Equestria?" She raised the slightly smooshed cherry with her magic to get a better look at it. 'Where did these come from?' She thought.
She walked to the stairs and pointed her horns illumination down to light her path through the red and green cherries, finally finding the pink ponies corpse.
"Oh no…" Tears filled her eyes as she rushed cautiously down the steps, careful to not share the same fate.
"No no no no no! This can't be happening! This CAN NOT be happening!"
She reached the corpse and circled it, she pushed the hair covering Pinkie's face, showing her dimmed pupils.
"Pinkie… Who was it Pinkie?" She cried as she laid down next to the lifeless body. "Oh Pinkie…"
Twilight grabbed Pinkie's corpse and held it close to her, the tears wetting her pink fur.
"I-I.. I just.."
One of the few times in her life she was truly at a loss, unable to comprehend the scene or any reasoning to its cause.
A scream could be heard by Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. These two ponies were making their way back to the entrance when they heard the yell. They were only feet from the bottom of the stairs that which lead back to the entrance.
"I'm so lost Rainbow Dash. This place is too confusing at night."
"Listen, I think the scream could be heard this way." Rainbow replied.
They were deep in the back section of the castle, nothing was truly around as Twilight did not have much material items to actually fill every room. This section stored the books that had yet been hauled up the stairs to be categorized.
Rainbow used her wing to raise the lantern to one of the piles. "There sure are a lot of books that were salvaged from the library. I'm honestly surprised. Wonder if she was able to save any Daring Do's?"
"No! NO! PLEASE!"
Fluttershy let out a quiet scream and hid with her tail covering her face.
"Who and where was that?!" Rainbow scanned the room. "It sounded like Scoots!"
She burst off, running as fast as she could to where the ponies voice came from. "I'm coming Scoots!"
"Rainbow wait up!" Fluttershy said as she tried and failed to keep up with Dash.
Rainbow Dash quickly found a crystal door that had been half blocked by a pile of books, though the door knob was reachable without removing the pile. This was the room that the voice was coming from. She quickly started to throw the books out of the way.
Fluttershy slowly caught up to Rainbow Dash and saw what she was doing. She panted trying to catch her breath to speak. "Rain- Rainbow Dash!"
"Help me move these books!" Rainbow commanded as she was bucking the book mound out of the way.
"For goodness sake Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy rolled her eyes at Rainbow, moving past her and grabbing the handle, opening the door. "It opens inside!"
Smoke exhaled from the room once it opened and Fluttershy rushed inside the room.
Rainbow slapped her own face with her hoof, and quickly got up and headed inside.
Screaming could be heard the entire time she wasted on the pile of books. Once inside they saw the reasoning behind it.
The screaming was silenced before they got in, as the fire had moved past the body and onto the head.
The foal was strapped to a pole and surrounded by newspapers. As the paper burned, so did the pole and the filly tied to it. The last few bits of purple mane burned off as Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy approached the pole.
"Scoots…" Rainbow said, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Fluttershy put her front leg around Rainbow Dash and burrowed her head into Rainbow's neck as she cried.
Rainbow stared as the flesh dripped like chili falling from a spoon onto the burning newspapers, a sizzling and pop could be heard for every drip. The face puffed and charred as it burned.
She felt as if it was her fault, that she could have stopped this. The feeling that she needed to punish herself by watching the fire burn would be too much for any other pony to handle.
Her anger was rising uncontrollably, she was about to burst into a frenzy, and then everything went black.
Her body went limp. Fluttershy felt Rainbow's body push against her face as she opened her eyes. Dash's body fell to the ground, out cold. "Rainbow?" She looked up at what could have caused it, unfortunately at the wrong time. She was bucked in the face and, like Rainbow, was out cold.
Shining Armor had lost Applejack. He had returned to the Dining Room for a quick snack. He knew that the running and the magic use would drain his energy, and if he was going to defend his family and sisters friends he would need all the power he could muster. This was guard training 101.
He was unable to find anything worth eating and headed for the kitchen. As he came upon the kitchen he could hear the rain hitting the castle and ground. A light shined in the room, but the rain covered any sound that emanated. He quickly dimmed his horn to catch whoever was inside. Peeking through the opening of the double swinging doors revealed nothing but a candle on a counter.
'Alright. One, two, three!' He thought as he pushed open the left side and pointed his horn.
No one was inside the kitchen. The opposing door was open, an outside door was open.
"What? How can this be?" He said and drew close to the backdoor.
He noticed the muddy hoofprints, the pony who came in knew how to clean off mud from their hooves as the prints stopped half way from the door.
He ran outside into the rain. He needed to make a decision. Leave to get help, or try to escape with everypony.
'The door could be sealed back up if I don't leave now. It may prove fruitless to bring everyone to the kitchen.' He debated with himself.
It did not take long for him to decide. He used his magic to shoot a bolt into the sky to try and send it above the clouds. The bolt exploded into several pink and purple lights lasting for a bit. This was the Canterlot Royal Guard's distress signal. If anyone saw it they'd come to the rescue.
He turned back, soaking wet and went inside. He illuminated the kitchen again, as the candle had been snuffed out by the wind.
When he lit up the kitchen two filly sized bodies were swinging upside down tied by rope from their back legs to the ceiling, above the kitchen burners. Their faces were covered in dried mud.
Shining looked on in horror as the bodies finished their swing. He rushed over and smashed open one of the mudded masks.
The dirt fell apart easily revealing the filly. It was Sweetie Belle. The mud had suffocated her, suffocated both the fillies.
He turned away in horror, the sight of children being mutilated was far more than he could handle. His stomach couldn't take it, and he began to violently vomit on the ground. Perhaps this was a good thing, as once he finished he looked up at the cabinets.
Painted in blood red the words "Your wife" could be read.
The look of shock and horror filled his face, then turned to anger as he snarled, kicked back, and stomped his feet. He rushed out of the room with his mission in mind.
The castle was too large for a pony without a light. Applejack had found her way back into the Great Oak Hall. A candle had been lit inside the room by another, and so she was going to use it to light her path back to the others. She stopped before Spike's corpse, staring down at it, her depression had reached its boiling point.
"I'm so sorry for yah Spike. I can't seem to find anypony anymore." She said as she sat down and lowered her hat over her face, her blonde mane dirtied from the sweat of all her running.
"I don't know if the others are safe. I can't even find mah lil' sister."
She got up and walked over to one of the catering tables filled with snacks. The cake for Spike's party laid half eaten. She knocked over the cake, and pushed the plates off of the table to retrieve the table cloth. There were food stains and crumbs all over it, but Applejack felt she needed to cover Spike.
She placed the tablecloth over Spike. "I'll never get to tell yah now, will I little guy?" She looked down at the sheet and let out a drawn out sigh. She turned and grabbed the candleholder from the opposing table and headed out of the room.
Now that she could see, nothing was going to stop her from finding the others and her sister. As she stepped out the door she could hear the galloping of hooves coming from down the hallway.
She could tell that they were on the stairs, but was unable to tell if they went up or down.
Applejack walked the hall slowly, remembering her first time walking through that very passage after the defeat of Tirek. She would give anything to go back to fighting large horned creatures, even if it meant being a prisoner again.
She shook her head.
'Can't let myself think those nasty thoughts.' She thought to herself.
Continuing on down the stairs gave her an uneasy feeling. She knew that something had happened to more of her friends, and as much as she tried to push the feeling away, she knew she was being honest with herself.
Twilight had laid her beds blanket over Pinkie's corpse. She stood over her body crying, tears staining the purple comforter.
She was too depressed and stressed to fight, sitting alone without even her horns own illumination. Losing two of her friends in the same day was far more than she could handle, for anypony to handle.
She could hear footsteps coming up the stairs.
"Who goes there?" She turned to the steps, illuminating her horn.
"It's me," the voice yelled out as they climbed the stairs. "Rarity."
Rarity's horn illuminated the top steps as she reached the second level. Twilight moved in front of Pinkie's corpse to not cause panic within her emotional friend.
"I'm sorry darling, I couldn't stay with Cadence any longer. I had to see if I could find-" She stopped as she reached the top, noticing the blanket. The horror on Twilight's face said everything. "P-Pinkie…?"
Twilight looked away, rubbing her tears away. She looked back and nodded at Rarity, unable to speak.
Rarity's eyes watered, but she shook her head flinging the tears away.
"No, no more crying Twilight. Whatever is causing this needs to be stopped. It's hurt too many of our friends." She stomped her hoof. "Tell me, where are all the doors out of your castle?'
Twilight let out a sniffle and rubbed her eye. "Well, there's the front, the kitchen, the backdoor where I had the books brought in. Then there's the balcony in my bedroom and the guest bedroom. Spike wanted one but I said-" She paused. "…That's all the doors."
Rarity frowned, nodded and replied, "Well let's check each door and window to see how the intruder got in. I'll head to the backdoor, you go for the kitchen."
She turned and started to walk down the steps. "Oh, and if you find any of the girls please bring them back to the entrance. I do hope nothing happened to them." Her nonchalant care of her sister had struck a nerve in Twilight.
'Why was Rarity so unmoved that she had yet to find her sister?' She thought to herself, as she too started down the steps.
Then it hit her. 'Whoever the killer was better not run into Rarity, as I'm sure we'll be unable to get any answers after she's done with them.'
A look of pleasure and horror was on Twilight's face. A part of her didn't want Rarity to find the killer, another part wanted to watch what Rarity was going to do to them if she did.