Rainbow Dash was alone...again. She sat silently on top of the Overlook as she scanned the boring and gray scenery of the undead Ponyville. She closed her eyes and thought about a series of recent events. The revelation of her death, her connections with the world of the living, the ongoing investigations, and the past of Bellamina that was slowly being revealed to her as time progressed. Her thoughts then trailed off to the depressed Pinkie Pie, locked away in the dark void. Rainbow found her encounters with this Pinkie strange...but comforting. Could the Pinkie Pie that she had known and had been good friends with still exist in some plane of reality? Was it possible? By now, Rainbow was starting to get the pieces to the puzzle but she had yet to make them fit. The mare that had killed her over a month ago was Pinkie Pie...and yet it also wasn't Pinkie Pie. She tried to comprehend the matter at hand but she decided to stop trying to fit everything together for the moment.

A sudden wave of familiarity rushed over Rainbow's body like a cold wind. She was gliding down through something that felt like cold gelatine. She opened her eyes to find a scene slowly forming around her. It was time to receive the next piece of the puzzle.

The scene eventually came into clear view and Rainbow found herself standing in the middle of a bleak basement consisting of a dirt floor, stone walls, and wooden ceiling. A table covered in a white cloth stood off to the side of the room and in the center of the room there stood an operating table...with somepony strapped to it. The table was perched at a vertical angle and an unconscious Bellamina was strapped to it, with her legs sprawled out and two straps wrapped around her torso and forehead. Sitting next to the wall, in the direction Bellamina was facing, there sat a cage. Inside the cage there lay an unconscious Pinkie Pie. Rainbow gulped. This scene was all too familiar. She had seen it somewhere before.

There was a series of groans and the two fillies slowly woke up.

"What...happened?" Pinkie asked. She soon realized that she was in a cage and began banging on the bars. Bellamina too realized what state she was in and tried to break free of the bonds.

"Sis...what's happening?" Bellamina asked nervously.

"I...I don't know! Rufus! Rufus! Where the hay did you go?! What happened to the party?!"

A chilling laughter echoed from the darkness. Rainbow, Pinkie, and Bellamina turned towards a dark corner of the room to see Rufus slowly emerge. A sadistic smile was carved into his face and a long lab coat stretched over his body. A loud screeching sound pounded against their ears as Rufus dragged a large, rusty, metal pot across the floor. He situated it underneath the spot where Bellamina was strapped and turned towards Pinkie.

"It's time for the fun to begin," Rufus said. He followed his statement with a crazy laugh that seemed to send physical shivers through Rainbow's body.

"What is all this?" Pinkie asked again. "What happened to the party?"

"What are you talking about, Pinkie? This is the party."

"What?"

"The cupcakes we had were just an appetizer for what is to come. I'm so happy to have two friends at this party with me! This means I can have fun with one of you and save the other for later!"

"Why...why am I strapped down?" Bellamina asked. Rufus turned towards Bellamina and stared straight into her eyes. The mere expression on Rufus's lustful face managed to scare Bellamina to tears.

"Aw...don't cry yet, Bella. The fun has yet to start!"

Rufus walked over to the cloaked table and removed the cloth, revealing a series of medical instruments as well as a large medical bag. A cold shock sprung through Rainbow's body like fire. Memories began flooding into her mind like a raging river. The basement of bones and corpses, the table of medical tools, and Pinkie's dress of skin, horns, and wings.

"Rufus...please let Bella go!" Pinkie pleaded.

"I can't do that, Pinkie. If I do then we won't have any fun!" Rufus replied with a dark chuckle. He turned back to Bellamina and proceeded to slowly lick the tears from her cheeks. "Why don't we go ahead and start?"

Rufus walked over to the medical table and tapped each instrument with his hoof. He turned back to Bella and looked down at her cutie mark, which was that of a paintbrush.

"Do you like art, Bella?" he asked as he placed his right hoof on top of a scalpel. Tears were streaming down Bellamina's face and her only response was that of a couple hiccups. "Come on, Bella! Answer my question! Do you like art?"

"Y...yes. That's...why my cutie mark...is a paintbrush," she hiccuped. "I...like to...paint."

Rufus picked up the scalpel and turned towards Bellamina.

"I'm sorry to tell you that...this party won't have that many colors. There's probably going to be a lot of red though."

Both Pinkie and Bellamina's eyes widened. Rainbow wanted to turn away but some force was making her watch. Rufus smiled as he clasped the scalpel in his mouth. He slowly approached Bellamina until he was right next to her.

"Please! Please, Rufus!" Pinkie pleaded. "Don't hurt my sister!"

Rufus looked back at the crying Pinkie Pie and smiled, his face now resembling that of a bloodthirsty monster.

"No pain...no game," he chuckled as he turned back to Bellamina. He aimed the scalpel carefully and proceeded to stab it into the young filly's thigh. Bellamina screamed in agony, Pinkie pressed herself against the bars of the cage, and Rainbow cringed in fear. Rufus was quick to make the perfect incision. Once he had cut a circle into Bellamina's thigh, he drove the scalpel back into the cut and proceeded to peel off the cutie mark on Bellamina's right flank. Bellamina continued to scream and cry as a rush of intense pain rocketed through her body. Rufus finished peeling the piece of skin off and presented it to Bellamina happily.

"Got your cutie mark!" he said with a chuckle. A pain shot through Rainbow's head.

"Hey, Dashie! Look! Got your cutie mark!" giggle Pinkie's voice from within Rainbow's mind. Rainbow backed away towards the wall and watched as Rufus proceeded to cut off Bellamina's remaining cutie mark.

"Please...no more!" Bellamina begged. "No more!"

"But we've only just begun!" Rufus pouted as if he were a little foal not ready to leave a friend's house. He tossed the scraps of skin into the large medical bag and returned to the table. He placed the bloody scalpel down and presented a large needle to the two fillies.

"No!" Pinkie cried. "Please!"

Bellamina screamed and cried some more as Rufus slowly approached her with the needle.

"Since you don't have wings or horns, it looks like I get to cut straight to the harvest!" Rufus proclaimed happily. Another pain shot through Rainbow's head. Visions of her wings getting chopped off, nails getting driven into her hooves, and an electric shock rocketing through her body flooded her mind. Rufus smiled again as he drove the needle deep into the center of Bellamina's chest. A mysterious fluid drained into Bellamina's body from the needle and, once the needle was emptied of the fluid, Rufus pulled it out.

"I...I want to go home now," Bellamina cried.

"Pinkie...I want to go home now," echoed a voice from inside Rainbow's head. Rufus shook his head and reached for a large, sharp knife.

"We can't go back now. Don't worry. In a few seconds, you won't feel anything below your neck. That way we can have more fun together before you have to go, Bella," he said. Bellamina tried to break free of her bonds but she soon lost control of her entire body, aside from her head. Rufus approached Bellamina with the knife and began making deep incisions in her belly. Pinkie tried to close her eyes but couldn't as she watched her sister get butchered right before her eyes. A mixture of bodily fluids drained into the pot below Bellamina and Rufus began whistling a happy-go-lucky tune as he proceeded to empty Bellamina of her intestines, chop off her legs, and pretty much remove the entire lower half of her body. Both Pinkie and Bellamina threw up and Rufus simply giggled at the sight. Rainbow wanted to throw up but, due to being dead, had no feeling of doing so whatsoever. But she still felt incredibly sick, though.

"Where's my daddy?" Bellamina asked as she slowly became weaker and weaker. "Where is my daddy?"

"He's not here right now," Rufus replied sternly as he proceeded to pull Bellamina's stomach out of the gaping hole in her body. The pot was now almost completely full of bodily fluids and the medical bag was full of Bellamina's internal organs. Pinkie cried at the sight of her younger sister getting mutilated. Rainbow turned to Pinkie and also began to cry a stream of warm tears. "Why, it looks like we're almost done!"

Rufus began to make another incision when, suddenly, there was a loud crash from upstairs. Rainbow, Pinkie, and Rufus looked upwards as the hidden trap door leading to the basement was flung open. Five large stallions charged into the basement. One stallion, which resembled that of an older Joan Silver, charged at Rufus and knocked him to the ground.

"You motherfucker!" yelled the stallion as he punched Rufus three times in the face. Two of the other stallions grabbed Rufus and pinned him to the ground, allowing the other stallion to stand up and examine the scene. "Dear Celestia!"

The stallion approached the butchered Bellamina and nearly lost his lunch at the sight of her.

"Where's my...daddy?" Bellamina asked. "Where is...my daddy?"

The stallion placed a hoof on Bellamina's blood-soaked face and stroked it.

"It...it's going to be okay," he said. "It's me...Mr. Silver. I'm here to save you. It's...all going to be over soon. You're going to see your daddy again."

One of the other stallions smashed open Pinkie's cage and pulled her out.

"It's alright, Pinkie," he said. "It's all going to be okay."

"No!" Pinkie cried as she tried to break free of the stallion's grasp and run to Bellamina. "Bella! Bellamina! No! Don't die! Please don't die!"

Just then, a familiar voice echoed from upstairs.

"Dad?!" called the anxious voice of the 14-year-old Joan Silver. "Did you find them?! Please tell me that they're okay!"

Joan then appeared in the opening and ran down the stairs.

"Joan! Don't look!" Mr. Silver ordered. But it was too late. Joan had already scanned the room with his eyes. At first, he was happy at the sight of a healthy Pinkie Pie...but then he saw Bellamina.

"Bellamina?!"

"Don't look, son."

"Bellamina?!"

"Please...don't look any further!"

"BELLAMINA!"

Joan fell to the ground as a rush of pain, guilt, sadness, and anger raced through his entire body. The dying Bellamina looked at Pinkie. Pinkie looked at what remained of her sister.

"I'm...sorry, Bella," Pinkie said as she continued to cry. A weak smile formed on Bellamina's face as she proceeded to cough up a river of blood.

"It's...okay...Pinkie," she croaked. "I...forgive...you. I...forgive...you...and...Jo-"

Then her eyes rolled up into her skull, one last breath escaped from her butchered lungs, and she was gone.

A wave of silence spread throughout the room. The only sound that remained now was that of Pinkie and Joan's crying. Rainbow looked on at the destroyed corpse of Bellamina, tears slowly rolling down her cheeks. Joan then kicked the wall behind him and screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Oh Celestia! Oh sweet Celestia! No! NO! IT'S ALL MY FAULT! I SHOULD HAVE NEVER LET THEM GO! OH NO! BELLAMINA! BELLAMINA! I'M SORRY!" he screamed. Mr. Silver ran to Joan's side and hugged him tight. Another pain shot through Rainbow's mind as she examined the scene as a whole.

"Do you remember now?" asked a familiar voice. Rainbow turned to the darkness to see a saddened Bellamina and Susie Salmon standing there.

"Bellamina," Rainbow breathed. "I...I...I'm so...sorry."

"Do you remember now?" Susie asked. Rainbow gasped as the two spirits slowly began to rot before her. Cuts appeared on their bodies, their eyeballs fell out of their skulls in rivers of blood, and pieces of their body began to rip apart like wet paper. "Do you remember now?"

"Do you see the connection now?" Bellamina asked as her head popped off. Rainbow screamed as a wave of memories crashed into her like water cascading down the side of a cliff. The cutie marks, the wings, the shocks, the harvesting, and...the final strike. Her last moments with Pinkie Pie came back to her in one fell swoop. Rainbow fell to the ground as the basement slowly faded away into darkness. Bellamina and Susie returned to their normal forms. The pegasus, the filly, and the human were now standing in a void of darkness.

"Why...why did I have to remember?" Rainbow asked with a cringe of emotional pain.

"Facing the truth. Facing your death. You are almost ready," Bellamina said.

"You and everypony else...is almost ready," Susie said with a grim smile.

"Ready for what?" Rainbow asked.

"I think you know."

With that, Bellamina and Susie disappeared and Rainbow found herself sitting back on top of the Overlook. Rainbow scanned the undead Ponyville with her eyes one final time. She then placed her face into her front hooves and wept.