Welcome back. Are we going to play now? Do you have the strength to make it through my games? Can you handle the penalties of losing? Don't worry, we're all friends here. We all love you. In fact, we love you to death.

WARNING! THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS LOTS OF VIOLENCE REGARDING FILLIES! IF THIS OFFENDS YOU, SKIP IT!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Oh Raaarity," Pinkie called as she turned away from her cart. An object was hidden between her hooves. "Guess what we get to play first!"

The white mare was in excruciating pain. Her horn had been ripped off and replaced with a moly drain plug to quell the bleeding. She heard Pinkie and began shaking. If her horn hadn't counted as a game, then what would?

Pinkie produced a large scalpel. "We hafta practice, but then I have a really fun game for us to play." She squished her face between her hooves, "aren't parties just the best?"

Pinkie walked over to Rarity's flanks and began studying them like a sculptor deciding where to begin. 'Or a butcher finding the right cut,' Rarity thought as another wave of pain shot through her head. Pinkie gave a slight nob and placed the blade of the scalpel against Rarity's flank. The cold metal pressed against her, icy cold, yet somehow burning hot.

It slid through her skin easily, the white fur parting before the unyielding metal. Rarity screamed as the white hot feeling of the blade slid through her. It sliced a nerve and her leg began to kick out, but the straps held it too tight for it to go far. The sudden motion caused Pinkie's hoof to slip.

"Rarity," she complained as the scalpel ripped a jagged line through her hip, "be more careful. I hafta fix all of this later." A large flap of the diva's skin hung down; blood was flowing quickly from this new wound and her leg felt as though it was on fire. Pinkie turned back to her work, "Oh hush, you did it to yourself."

Pinkie finished tracing a circle around Rarity's cutie mark and set the scalpel down. She held her hooves in front of her face for a second, focusing on them. She gave a little twitch and plunged the tips into the edge of the cut she had just finished. She carefully worked her hooves under the skin, each movement making a sound like tearing cloth as the layers of flesh separated. Rarity screamed and tried to squirm away, but was held fast by the straps. Right before she pulled it all the way off, Pinkie caught Rarity's eye and gave a little wink. She shot her head forward and grabbed the flap of skin between her teeth. Sitting back up quickly, the skin came free, tearing off a large hunk of meat in the process. Pinkie carefully pulled this off and offered it to Rarity.

Rarity stared at the glistening redness by her snout. 'Eat myself?' she thought, nausea rushing through her. She turned her head away and Pinkie shrugged. She stuffed the meat in her own mouth and walked to Rarity's other side. She repeated the whole process once more. Rarity knew what to expect and she prepared herself to keep her hoof from moving, but nothing happened this time.

Pinkie stood up, two cutie marks held in her hooves. She placed them on the cart by the horn and tiara and surveyed her work. Nice clean cuts, except where the leg had twitched. Very little blood came out of the cuts themselves, but where the meat had been torn out there was a lot of bleeding. Pinkie shrugged, she had plenty of shots to handle it if something went wrong.

Pinkie picked up a remote and pressed a button. A nearby wall opened up revealing a huge window that looked into a small room. Several chains hung from the wall and there was a small throne in the middle facing the chains. "Whoops," Pinkie said, dropping the remote, "I forgot to set up the game." She picked up a large needle and shoved it into Rarity's stomach.

The needle slid in quickly, but she could feel it catch on her organs as it slid. Pinkie slowly depressed the plunger, pushing the strange red serum into her. "Nighty, night," Pinkie said with a smile. Rarity's vision began to blur and everything seemed to spin. The pain in her flanks and head flared momentarily, but left with her sight.

The white head slumped to the table. Its thick purple mane cushioned the thud like a large pillow. Pinkie nodded. "Time for some real fun."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scootaloo's head shot up. It was still dark, but she could hear something coming closer; something big. She shook Sweetie Belle awake.

"Hm- huh- wha?" Sweetie Belle sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Something was wrong. She couldn't see! She shook her head, memories of the past hours already returning. "What is it? Is something coming?"

"I think so," Scootaloo said, "but I don't know what."

"Here, lemme try making a light again." Sweetie Belle pushed with her horn. She felt the magic begin to move in little patterns that made her think 'light'. The small orb of yellow light that she conjured illuminated the room showing the fillies that they were still in the same place, but now there was a door and loud thudding sounds came from beyond it.

"Get behind me," Scootaloo said, "If something happens, I'll make a distraction and you can run."

Sweetie Belle wanted to argue, but she knew that living with Rainbow Dash had affected Scootaloo. She was almost as loyal to her friends as the cyan mare. She gave a slight nod and they both faced the door, ready for whatever might come.

The door opened slowly and Scootaloo ran forward yelling. Just before she reached the door, she realized that nothing was there. A loud snarl, followed closely by a scream echoed behind her and the orange pegasus whirled. A large alligator-like creature had jumped out of the water at the back of the room and was pulling Sweetie Belle in with it. "Sweetie Belle!" Scootaloo charged forward and kicked the creature full in the snout.

It continued moving backwards, a slight grin splitting its huge mouth. Row after row of teeth were revealed as it laughed at their weak attempts. The mistress had given it one task, when the door opens, take a filly and distract the other. As usual, the mistress's plan had worked perfectly.

Scootaloo began kicking at the beast's eyes, but before she could land a good kick, a pink hoof wrapped around her chest, pulling her away. Scootaloo looked up, unsure whether to fight the new arrival or ask for help. Pinkie's huge smile filled her vision. She tried to cry out but Pinkie shoved something into her mouth. It was warm and dripping and it tasted strange, almost like it was metal.

"Hi Scootaloo," the pink mare was nearly bouncing with excitement, "ready to have fun?"

Scootaloo spit out the strange lump in her mouth. It splattered onto the ground with a sickening smack, blood splashing against the orange filly's hooves. "What was that?

Pinkie pretended to think for a moment, "I think that was Fluttershy, I can't remember for sure."

Scootaloo began bucking at the pony behind her, but each time she hit her hooves collided with what felt like a stone wall. Her hooves began to crack ominously, but she continued bucking. Pinkie sighed. She pulled out a tattered rag that had a strange looking vapor rising from it.

"Tell me Scootaloo," she said pressing the rag into the small pony's nose, "does this smell like chloroform to you?"

The purple eyes rolled back and Scootaloo slumped against Pinkie. Pinkie let her drop and moved over to Sweetie Belle who was now being held under the water by the immense alligator creature. "That's enough. Give her here; I need to go get the game ready."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rarity was shot back into consciousness by a large needle protruding from her chest. Rarity noticed a few smaller needles in her stomach. These had small happy faces on them and she realized that in the areas immediately around them, she couldn't feel anything; the sensation was spreading. Pinkie stood over her, a large smile on her face.

"So Rarity," she said, "I heard you like horror movies. Tell me, would you like to see one first hand?"

Rarity shook her head frantically, fearing for the worst. She was no longer strapped to a table, but was instead sitting in a large chair. She could see that the hoof rests were made of something he easily recognized as bone. She stopped thinking about the chair before she looked to see what the plushness underneath her could be. She was very close to the large window now. It seemed tinted slightly, though it didn't make sense to have a tinted window underground like this.

Pinkie grinned and produced a large tray of cupcakes. She was sitting on a large ball-shaped mass of color. At first Rarity assumed it was a beanbag chair. After a few seconds she realized it was covered in cutie marks. "Are you ready to watch the first ever episode of?" She produced a remote and turned off the lights around them.

"One way mirror," she explained, "I don't want them to see us. It could ruin the fun." Pinkie produced a large hind leg out of nowhere and began gnawing at the base. She made little slurping sounds and red juices began running down her face. Rarity nearly vomited when Pinkie tried to get her to try it.

Strange music began to float through the room and Pinkie froze. The music stopped and a voice began talking. Pinkie, perfectly synchronized, copied it. "Get ready to play Voooooltaaaaage Jeeepardyyyyyy!"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scootaloo woke up. Her neck was very stiff and she seemed to be in a large stone chair. The room she was in was lit by dim yellow lights and sobbing came from in front of her. She opened her eyes and looked around. Thin lines seemed to follow her vision and, reaching out to touch them, Scootaloo found that they were wires. They connected to a thick metal collar around her neck and wound, in a coil, to a tiny hole in the wall nearby. She gave the wires a little tug, they dug into her hooves leaving thin red lines; she gasped, but didn't feel much pain.

Scootaloo stood and began looking around the room. Almost immediately she noticed a large sheet covering one wall, the sobbing came from behind it. Gripping it in her teeth, she gave a huge tug and felt it slide loose. The huge expanse of cloth billowed down revealing the figures of two small fillies chained to a wall. Applebloom was awake, her eyes full of tears, she was shaking violently. The other filly was unconscious. Sweetie Belle was chained to the wall. She was forced into a standing position and her chains had large spikes on them that dug into her legs.

"Applebloom," Scootaloo said running to her friend, "Rarity's spell showed Pinkie killing you."

"Scootaloo!" Applebloom jumped up and tried to hug her friend but was stopped by the thick chains. "Thank Celestia somepony else is here. Ah thought Ms. Pinkie was gonna kill me."

"We're not outta here yet Applebloom," Scootaloo said, "we still need to find a way to get out of this stuff."

A voice echoed down from the ceiling. "Contestants, arrrrre yooooouuuu reeeaaaaadyyyyyyyy?"

"Ready for what?" they said in unison.

"Ready to play Voooltaaaage Jepardyyyyyyyy! Scootaloo, you have ten minutes to decide which of your friends to cut open. All three of you have a key somewhere in their body, just look for the 'x'. One key will open the lock for Sweetie Belle and Applebloom. The others will open yours. You must choose which friend to kill and which to save; if you don't make a choice within ten minutes you all die."

"What kinda game is that?" Applebloom whined, "Ah don't wanna die and ah don't want any of mah friends to die neither."

"Yeah I won't kill my friends," Scootaloo said angrily. The voice didn't respond, but a giant timer appeared on the ceiling. It was counting down the seconds rapidly.

"Oh, who do I choose, who do I choose," Scootaloo didn't know what to do. She couldn't just cut open someone she knew. But then it was worse, whoever she didn't pick would know that she killed somepony that they both knew and loved. Things would never be the same.

"Pick me," Applebloom said, "you both thought ah was dead anyways." She pointed at a large black 'X' covering her stomach. "Just cut in there and free Sweetie Belle. She never has to know."

"But you'd have to be awake and feel all of it," Scootaloo said, trying to delay picking one of her friends. "I don't think I can do that."

Applebloom sighed. "Ah didn't want to suggest this, but ah don't think ya could kill me even now. Sweetie Belle is out cold. She won't feel a thing, plus with those chains on her, she wouldn't be able to walk or anythin' for a really long time."

"You're right. But I don't think I can," Scootaloo was fully crying now. The tears ran down her face matting the short orange fur against her body. "I can't."

"Well it's that or do it to yourself, and I really don't think ya can do that either."

Scootaloo steeled herself. "Okay," she said spying a large knife nearby, "I can do this. We can make it up to her somehow but right now, she's the only choice we can make." Scootaloo picked up the knife and looked at the blade. "Dull. Of course, what else would it be?" he didn't notice the smile rising on Applebloom's face.

Scootaloo turned to Sweetie Belle and pushed the knife into her stomach as hard as she could. It slid in slowly, the organs making a sick popping noise as they were punctured. Crying, Scootaloo pushed the knife in all the way and began pulling down. "At least she can't feel anything," she heard Applebloom say. She was taking this as hard as Scootaloo it seemed. She was crying so hard it was almost as if she was laughing.

Blood poured out of the thick rip in Sweetie Belles' stomach. It mixed with spilling digestive fluids and created a noxious puddle on the floor. But there was still no sign of a key. Scootaloo began digging faster with the knife, wanting to spend as little time doing this as possible. But after a few frantic pulls, the knife became lodged in a bone and snapped in half.

Scootaloo stared at the hunk of metal in her hoof. There was absolutely no way to cut with it now. That meant, she shivered, that she had to do this all by hoof. She slowly pushed her hoof into the gaping hole in the white unicorn's stomach and began moving it around, trying to find the key. After what seemed like an eternity, Scootaloo found it. She had had to push into several different organs, but found the key in one of Sweetie Belles lungs. Scootaloo had started twitching violently as she dug and couldn't stop herself from taking quick ragged breaths. She knew she would never forget the feel of her hoof sliding though the small pale body for as long as she lived.

Scootaloo ran to Applebloom. Her hooves were covered in blood and other fluids all the way up to her shoulders. She held the key in front of her. It was shaped in a delicate spiral ending in a jagged spike, almost like a strange drill. She looked over Applebloom's lock, but couldn't find a hole that fit the key.

"What the buck?" Scootaloo was confused. This was supposed to be the key to open up Applebloom's locks. Shaking her head, she ran over to Sweetie Belle and tried her locks. They were exactly the same as Applebloom's. "What the hay is going on here?"

Applebloom had a slight smile on her face but covered it quickly and said, "Try your lock."

Scootaloo's heart dropped. If she had just done that, only to free herself… The key slid in easily. She turned it and the lock clicked open. She thought back to what the voice had said. "Applebloom." Her face had lost all color, "Applebloom. I think the two of you each had a key for my lock. But that means that… your key is…"

"Inside of you?" Applebloom raised an eyebrow. "What now?"

Scootaloo was torn. She had just killed Sweetie Belle to save herself. She hadn't known it at the time, but that was what she had done, pure and simple. She couldn't' leave here, not after what she had done. She could never live with herself. Besides that would mean leaving Applebloom and she wasn't going to lose her again. "No, not again." Scootaloo tore the knife blade out of Sweetie's spine and walked over to Applebloom. She thought she heard a squeal as she took the knife, but knew that was impossible. Sweetie Belle was unconscious and by all rights should be dead by now. She was in a better place.

"What are you doing?" Applebloom asked eyeing the blade.

"What I should have done in the first place." Scootaloo shoved to blade into her own stomach, right at the center of the 'X'. The pain was instant and unbearable, but Scootaloo continued pushing, clenching her teeth as the pain began to overwhelm her. She lay down within easy reach of the yellow filly. "Free yourself and get away from here. Avenge Sweetie Belle and everypony else. I've done what I can to make it up to her."

Scootaloo could feel herself slipping away and she realized Applebloom was laughing at her. A door opened and Pinkie bounced in giggling. "Oh wow, I didn't think it would work that well." She said as she stopped by Scootaloo. She could see the hatred in the young filly's eyes and was eager to seize upon it.

"Hey Scootaloo," she giggled, "wanna know something cool?"

She ripped off Applebloom's head revealing a mass of wires. "That wasn't the real Applebloom. But wait," she giggled, "it gets better." She walked over to Sweetie Belle. "This one was really awake the whole time. I gave her a special serum I've been working on. She was completely paralyzed, but she could feel everything much more than any normal pony could."

Shock covered the orange pegasus's face. She had torn her friend apart and killed herself… for nothing? "Oh isn't it so funny," Pinkie said rolling around laughing. "I just love plot twists." She looked at the slowly dying filly by her feet. "Thanks for killing her for me. I don't like cutting up little foals if I don't have to."

Scootaloo felt herself finally drifting away; all of her strength leaving through the rip in her gut. Her last thoughts were filled with hatred for the pink mare that had ruined everything she had. "Pinkie," she said weakly.

"Yes?" she was interested. Surely if Scootaloo had wanted to say something she would have just said it. 'Besides,' she thought, 'she shouldn't still have questions.' Pinkie leaned in; she couldn't understand what the filly was saying. "What was that Scootaloo?"

She whispered as quietly as she could and still be heard. "I said go buck yourself!" Scootaloo shot her head forward and clamped her teeth tightly around Pinkie's ear, digging her teeth in to keep the mare trapped. Pinkie's hoof slammed repeatedly into her head, trying to loosen her grip but it was too late. Scootaloo was too far gone to feel anything except her burning desire to hurt this thing that had torn her life apart.

Pinkie's lethal hoofs eventually finished the job the broken knife had started, but in her death throes Scootaloo's teeth clenched too tight for even Pinkie to pull apart. She began beating even harder at the orange head attached to hear ear and was rewarded with a series of cracks, though the head stayed clamped tightly. Giving a huge wrench, Pinkie ripped the head off, leaving a huge crescent shaped hole in her ear. The ends quickly began writhing and reforming, but that still didn't excuse the fact that that little shit bag had bitten her.

Pinkie gave the head a kick and it sailed through the nearby one-way mirror disguised as another wall. It smashed the greater part of the mirror and thumped against Rarity who was still tied to a chair watching everything that had happened. "So," Pinkie said waving a hoof at the scene around her, "see anything you like?"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, chapter 27 is done. The death toll has added two more and there are still several hundred on the way. Care to journey deeper into the madness of my visions and see more?

Oh, before I forget again. 'Voltage Jeopardy' was an idea given to me by Timefather64. Timefather, thanks for all the reviews and random conversations over the course of this story. Oh, and though it's been a little bit since I used it, thanks for letting Pinkamena swear to Samuel, saved me from thinking of somepony on my own.

Next Chapter: The Shadows Grow Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 15 Minutes