The skies were clear, the majority of the clouds dissipated by Rainbow Dash’s own hooves. She felt more on top of her duties than usual on this day. She couldn’t say why or how, but it was one of those days she decided to keep herself busy. As she settled down on a high cloud, she began to fancy herself a nap. After all that work, she figured she earned the nap. She curled up onto the cloud, covering herself up within its fluffy contours. Within moments, she already had her eyes closed, and was beginning to doze off when she heard a faint scream.

“Huh?!”

Rainbow opened her eyes wide, looking down below her cloud to try and find the source of the scream. She was so high up, that she could barely spot anything amiss. Her mind began racing for possibilities for the scream. Rainbow Dash then remembered that today was Valentine’s Day. Wonderful Valentine’s Day.

Ugh, she thought to herself with a scowl scrunching up her face, Valentine’s…

The cyan Pegasus could think of a million and one reasons to be disgusted with the love dovey, heart-filled day. Why it was a holiday in Ponyville, she’d never understand. Rainbow shrugged off the scream with a huff, figuring somepony must’ve been overly surprised by their Valentine’s gift. She never cared at all for the silly ‘holiday’. Even when she’d been offered gifts previous years before by several different colts, she never considered the day anything special. She began to close her eyes once more, thoughts of disgust at the candy and chocolate treats filling her mind.

Valentine’s Day… Puh… Like I need that crap.

As the pegasus finally began to drift off again, she was startled awake by yet another scream. This time, louder. Peeved, Rainbow opened her eyes once more only to be face-to-face with another pegasus she knew quite well.

“Oh, hey Derpy! You hate Valentine’s Day, too? I wonder…” Rainbow trailed off, noticing something was definitely not right with the clumsy pegasus.

For one, Derpy was staring at Rainbow Dash as though she were going to be her lunch. More stunning than her stare was the shape of her body seemed to be mangled. In fact, upon closer inspection, Rainbow noticed that her ribs were protruding through the grey skin of her belly, covering her lower underbelly with large amounts of dripping blood. Bits and pieces of Derpy’s flesh was missing from its original place, revealing both raw muscles and organs. Although, these were not the most striking features of the mangled pegasus. Her eyes, which were usually crossed and golden, were now focused and a vibrant shade of red.

“D-Derpy?! Oh, Celestia, what’s wrong with-“

Rainbow was cut short as Derpy dove for Rainbow’s neck, her teeth sharp as razors and a gruesome growl tearing through her vocal chords. The cyan pegasus’s wings folded out, allowing Rainbow to dodge her deadly grip. This was not Derpy. This was something else entirely.

“Aaahh!!” Rainbow Dash yelled, now in a chase with Derpy. She could hear the wings behind her flapping frantically, much quicker than any pegasus could ever realistically do. Rainbow knew that she would be caught if she kept at her current pace. Rainbow didn’t want to hurt Derpy, but she knew only one of them would get out of this alive.

Rainbow Dash came to a sudden halt, quickly sticking each of her hind legs out to greet Derpy’s jawbone. With a sickening crack, the former clumsy pegasus’s body stopped its effort to hunt down Rainbow, and fell to the ground. Rainbow’s chest heaved in and out, the adrenaline still coursing throughout her body, making it shake in anticipation of another quick escape.

Wh-what… I-

Another scream occurred below Rainbow Dash. She now realized that this wasn’t a Valentine’s Day Ponyville was used to. If Derpy was like that, she hated to see what everypony else would be like. Rainbow quietly hoped that it wouldn’t be the same result. However, something inside Dash made her doubt her hopes. Rainbow looked down to the source of the scream to see Carrot Top, a common Ponyville resident, running for her life from a couple of other ponies. They both let out the same kind of scream that Derpy had. The scream was ear piercing, and made Rainbow want to hide somewhere, anywhere. As long as she wouldn’t be able to hear that screech any longer.

Rainbow Dash watched in horror as Carrot Top was captured and ripped to pieces by the two savage ponies. Her entrails were soon strewn from side to side, landing in what Rainbow recognized as other puddles of blood. It wasn’t long until Carrot Top was split apart, her large intestine the only thing to connect her upper and lower body halves together. Moments later, the organ snapped, leaving Carrot Top in a bloody mess of indiscernible body parts and pieces. Rainbow nearly puked, the stench of death hitting her nostrils nearly as fast as the image before her hit her eyes.

How did this…

Rainbow began flying. Where to, she wasn’t sure, but she was going to try and find the source of this odd plague. Through the heart-shaped signs that read, ‘Happy Valentine’s Day!’, strewn all throughout the town, it was hard to imagine that something like this could happen on a day like this.

As the cyan Pegasus flew into the heart of the town, the screams and horrors increased. In fact, Carrot Top’s death seemed gracious compared to all the deaths she was witnessing now. They all ranged from jugular veins being ripped from throats, all the way to, ironically, hearts being eaten straight from their chests. She tried not to pay attention. She instead focused on finding the source of this chaos.

There has to be something that caused this. It can’t just… Happen!

Rainbow Dash’s train of thought was interrupted as she ran into a large sign that was Valentine’s Day themed. Her wings flapped more momentarily as she tried to regain her balance within the air, shaking her head as she did so. She looked at the sign that had hearts all about its red background, the words in bold being black. ‘Valentine’s Day Special! Pinkie Pie’s Red Rum Cupcakes!”

Pinkie…

Rainbow hadn’t given a thought to where her friends might be. She could only hope that Pinkie might still be within Sugarcube Corner, alive. As Rainbow made her way to Sugarcube Corner, she realized that this is where the bulk of the crazed ponies were at. Along with the amount of bodies laying about. They all lacked at least one portion of their bodies.

Pinkie must be trapped!

The cyan Pegasus ignored the dead bodies and crazed ponies, making her way to the top of the crowded building. She found that the skies were luckily clear of other pegasi. She then spotted her entrance: the chimney. After flying down through the soot-covered chimney, she landed in the fireplace of the Gingerbread themed building. Rainbow shook her mane, trying her best to clear the ash from her hair.

“Pinkie! Pinkie, are you here?!”

Rainbow Dash looked around, trying to see past the darkness that pervaded the room. She felt an eerie feeling come over her, as she realized that maybe now it wasn’t such a good idea to come in here. She could hear the other ponies on the outside, banging on the windows and walls, their screeching never letting up. The pegasus continued to look around, hardly being able to see a thing in the darkness around her. Her fear of the entire situation was beginning to settle in.

“Hello, Rainbow Dash…”

The pegasus’s ears perked up, her eyes searching for any sign of her pink friend amid the blackness.

“Pinkie! Thank Celestia, you’re okay… Where are you? I can’t see-“

Rainbow stopped her sentence as she saw the outline of Pinkie emerge from behind the main counter, her hair straight from the looks of it. As Pinkie approached, a few lights seemed to flicker on and off, as if the wiring had suddenly become very faulty. Rainbow looked up to the lights, imagining it must have been from the ponies outside that continued to rattle and stomp on the structure. In the dimness of the flickering lights, Rainbow could see Pinkie’s face was graced by a most disturbing smile. Her grin stretched to each side of her face, giving her the complexion of a mental ward patient. She slowly approached Rainbow, her pupils continuing to dilate within the dimly lit room.

“Isn’t today just… A wonderful holiday?!” Pikamena giggled lightly, coming closer to Rainbow Dash with each shaky step.

Rainbow Dash felt herself backing away from her crazed-looking friend, replying in shaky words, “P-Pinkie… Don’t you know what’s going on out there?!”

Pikamena stopped, but allowed her smile to continue stretching her lips across her teeth in the most gruesome of ways. She tilted her head to the side, laughing as she did so before replying, “Of course, Dashie! I baked the red rum cupcakes for everypony in Ponyville! That way everypony could have some… Fun.”

“Y-You did this?! You made them all… Why?!” Rainbow now looked upon her friend in a new horrified light.

Pikamena reached over to the counter that was a few feet behind her, and picked up the long kitchen knife. Rainbow Dash felt fear flow throughout each and every one of her veins, her thoughts of just what she was going to do with that blade pervading her every thought. She could feel herself backing up more and more, until she had her back against the wall. Pikamena saw the pegasus’s reaction, and just laughed as she came closer.

“Oh, Dashie… You’re so silly.”

Rainbow could faintly catch an eye twitch from Pinkamena’s left eye as she raised the blade up with her left hoof. The Pegasus began to silently cry, her body frozen from fear and shock from what she’d witnessed not 30 minutes ago. And now, as she was facing death, she couldn’t find the strength in her to move. Rainbow closed her eyes tightly, just waiting for the impact to come so it could end the whole nightmare. Dash could hear the blade come swishing down, and hitting flesh… But she felt no pain.

Rainbow Dash pried her eyes open to see that Pinkamena was using the blade on herself. Pikamena held the blade up to her throat, and was rapidly moving the sharp blade through her own soft skin. After it broke the skin, she went to work on her own jugular, tearing muscle and bursting blood veins. Blood began to spurt from her neck as she laughed, each time it sent more blood spraying onto the horrified Rainbow Dash’s face and mane. Rainbow felt a sort of loss and urgency to help her former friend, yet she couldn’t bring herself to do so.

Amazingly, Pinkamena’s leg continued to move, cutting deeper and deeper into her neck, until her head was nearly all the way off. Moments later, her sawing stopped, her body collapsing to the ground in a heap of bloody spurts. Her laughs began to fade away, too gargled and washed away from the blood of her nearly decapitated head to discern.

What… What do I…

Rainbow stared at her former friend that had just committed suicide right before her eyes. What had just happened made no sense. Pinkamena had never told her a thing about why she’d done this. Only the screams of the other ponies on the outside brought Rainbow back from the horrible scene before her. She needed to leave, she needed to find help from Princess Celestia. She would probably be able to fix everything.

Just as she was getting the ability to move back into her body, a blood-curdling screech, similar to the ones Rainbow Dash was beginning to become used to, was heard all throughout the inside of the shop. Rainbow’s eyes widened as she searched for the source of the sound. It came from inside, and she was sure of it. The cyan pegasus knew she needed to move. Knew she should just turn around and fly out to Canterlot. Someone had to get word out about this. However, Rainbow Dash wasn’t prepared for what she saw next.

Emerging with blinding speed from the kitchen, was what Rainbow barely recognized as her friend Fluttershy. Her body was mangled, wings missing most, if not all, of their feathers, and the skin had been ripped from a majority of her skull, leaving a bloody and battered version of its former self. Most importantly, however, were her eyes. They were vibrant red.

Rainbow didn’t get a moment to scream before Fluttershy came running at the cyan pegasus with blinding speed. Fluttershy dug her teeth into Rainbow’s neck, ripping out a good portion of meat from her body. Rainbow could feel her body hit the ground hard, the blood spilling from her open wounds with ferocity. She could also feel Fluttershy tear at her legs, stomach, spine, and just about anywhere her hunger desired. The last thing Dash heard was Fluttershy’s alarming screams. The last thing Rainbow smelled was her own organs being spilled and played with within Fluttershy’s mouth. And the last thing Rainbow Dash saw was a happily painted sign that read, ‘Happy Valentine’s Day!’.