> The Dead Of Night: The Menace Returns
>  by Raidah
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> There's Never Just One...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

     One hour after The blue pegasus with the rainbow coloured mane left the area, the five alicorns that had been watching their sister's last stand flew from their perches to inspect the corpse. One, with a very dark purple coat and a reddish-black mane, who was the leader of the group, was the first to speak.
"Sister...?" She began, "Are you still alive?"
No response.
"She's dead." Said a midnight blue coated alicorn.
"The pegasus," began the purple one, "she must pay."
"I agree," said a dark green one. "We must show her how it feels to have a part of your family taken away!"
"No, not just a part of your family, your WHOLE family!" The leader said in anger.
"Agreed!" The other four shouted in unison.
"Now," the leader started, "to prepare for the slaughter!"
> One Year Later
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     It's been a full year since Applejack and Rarity were killed at the hooves of the black alicorn. Twilight has been handling it the best out of the remaining four friends, mainly because she was trying not to think about it by burying herself in her studies. Fluttershy is now even more shy than ever, barely even responding when anypony trys to talk to her. The only residents of Ponyville she seems to be able to talk to are her animal friends, nopony knows why. Pinkie Pie was also having a hard time dealing with AJ's and Rarity's passings, but within a few weeks she was bouncing around again like the normal Pinkie Pie. Impacted by far the worst out of the four was Rainbow Dash, she didn't have any more nightmares, but she still remembered vivid images of AJ and Rarity's corpses. And she knew that they would never leave her. She may have gotten back to normal, but that was outside home, whenever she was alone she would just sit and cry because of both deaths. Even Tank couldn't make her stop crying, all he could do is provide someone to hold on to. Sweetie Belle had moved in with the Apple family at Sweet Apple Acres. She shared Apple Bloom's room with her and whenever one of them found themselves crying about their dead sister, the other was there to comfort them. They even decided to let Scootaloo join them so that they would all be there for each other, even though Scoots hadn't lost anypony to the alicorn, she still wanted to be there for her friends. And they were obviously greateful for the support.
The one year anniversary of Applejack's and Rarity's murders was a long day for everypony. Filled with memories of saddness and despair at either hearing the news, or being one of the few ponies that followed Rainbow to retrieve the corpses for a proper burial. Nopony said a word that day. They didn't need to. They all knew how they were feeling that day and were just trying to get past the memories.
> And So It Begins
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     It was a fairly nice day, not a cloud in the sky (thanks to Rainbow Dash, who was napping as usual) and it was rather warm as well.
Pinkie Pie was on her way to the library, to spend some time with Twilight, when she heard somepony behind her.
"Ahem," they began, "are you Pinkie Pie?"
"Sure am!" Pinkie replied in her usual happy tone, "Why do you ask?"
"Because you're coming with me!" Was the reply.
"What?!" Pinkie turned around to see a midnight blue alicorn with glowing red irises standing right behind her.
She tried to run but she soon found herself floating a foot off of the ground, lifted by the alicorn's magic. She tried to yell for help but to her horror she couldn't open her mouth. The alicorn was holding it shut with her magic, which had a dark red aura.
"You aren't going anywhere!" The alicorn said with an evil smirk.
And with that, she flew off, the captive Pinkie hovering alongside her.

Rainbow had finally convinced Fluttershy to leave her cottage. It took a while, but they were going to Sugarcube Corner to spend some time with Pinkie Pie.
"Come on Fluttershy!" Said Rainbow as Flutters, again, was trying to return home.
Rainbow had been practically dragging Fluttershy the entire time, and they were almost there.
When they finally arrived at Sugarcube Corner, Rainbow went to knock on the door, but to her surprise, the door slowly swung open as she touched it. When she looked inside, she nearly puked all over the floor.
What she saw was Mr. and Mrs. Cake, but they were dead. Their organs thrown all over the place and hanging from various objects, and their blood everywhere. Written on the only wall not covered in blood was: "If you want to see your pink friend again, go to the Everfree Forest. It would be wise to bring your other friends as well."
"Dear sweet Celestia!" Rainbow muttered under her breath. "Fluttershy, we're getting Twilight. We need to go help Pinkie Pie."
"What?" Fluttershy asked, puzzled.
She then looked inside, and her breakfast ended up on the floor in front of her. Rainbow sighed.
"Come on!" She yelled at Fluttershy, who was staring at the sweet shop in horror.
Rainbow Dash, not being one for patience, grabbed Fluttershy's tail between her teeth, and proceeded to drag her to the library.
Twilight didn't believe them when Rainbow told her what was going on, but a quick glance into Sugarcube Corner quickly changed that, and soon she was ready to head to the forest along with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. The latter of which was terrified beyond anything since what everypony was calling "the incident," and was being levitated by Twilight's magic to ensure that she was coming too.
> Looking For Pinkie
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    As Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Fluttershy entered the forest, they noticed that finding Pinkie was going to be harder than they thought.
"No tracks..." Rainbow whispered loud enough for everypony to hear.
"Get out the map." Twilight ordered.
"Why?" Rainbow asked.
"Just do it!" Twi shot back.
"Okay, okay!" Rainbow said as she took the map from her pack. "Now what?"
"I'm going to find out where they took Pinkie Pie." Twilight said calmly.
"How?" Rainbow and Fluttershy asked together.
"Using an old locating spell I learned a few years ago." Twilight explained, "It will tell us exactly where anypony we are looking for is so long as they are somewhere on the map."
"Makes sense," Rainbow said, nodding, "but what if it doesn't work?"
"It will work," Twilight assured, "trust me."
"If you say so..." Rainbow said nervously.
"Alright, now lay out the map." Twi said.
Rainbow did so, and Twilight's horn started to glow purple with magic. Putting all of her concentration into the location spell, Twilight managed to pull it off, and red dot appeared over a place deep in the forest, that is where Pinkie Pie was. So the three headed in that direction, and a few hours of walking later, they found Pinkie Pie, along with five alicorns, all with glowing red eyes.
"Ahhh, there you are!" Said one with a dark purple coat and a blackish-red mane.
"Who are you? What do you want with Pinkie Pie?" Twilight demanded.
"Oh it's not Pinkie Pie we want," the purple alicorn said, "she was just the bait, it's the pegasus who killed our sister!"
"Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy asked.
"So THAT is her name." The alicorn said. "Makes sense, her having that ugly multicoloured mane of hers!"
"What the buck did you just say?!" Rainbow said, anger rising in her voice.
"Ugly. Multicoloured. Mane!" The alicorn taunted.
"Alright I've had it!" Said Rainbow as she made a jump for the alicorn, which Twilight quickly stopped by catching Raimbow with her magic.
"What are you doing Twilight?!" Asked a furious Rainbow Dash. "Put me down!"
"No Rainbow Dash, that's exactly what she wants." Twilight warned.
"Well, well, well." The leader alicorn mused. "Aren't you a clever one?"
"Just give us Pinkie Pue and we'll leave you alone." Fluttershy just barely managed to whisper.
"And why would we do that?" The midnight blue alicorn asked. "You haven't given us who we want, so why should we give you who you want?"
"What do you mean, "who" you want?" Twilight asked.
"Isn't it obvious? We want revenge!" The leader alicorn said, anger starting to take over her tone of voice.
"They want me..." Rainbow Dash said. "They want to see me dead."
"Finally! Somepony who understands!" The purple alicorn sighed with relief.
"But you can't have me!" Rainbow said, her own anger taking over. "You will never get the chance to harm me or any of my friends ever again!!!"
Rainbow then flew right at Pinkie, who was still being levitated by the alicorn's magic, and crashed right into her. Rainbow then tried desperately to free Pinkie Pie from the alicorn's powerful hold, to no avail. Another alicorn, a black one with a blood red mane, grabbed Rainbow from behind and restrained her.
"Time to go!" She whispered in the pegasus's ear.
And with that, the five alicorns, along with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, vanished in a bright flash.
> The Predaki
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     As Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy watched their friends, along with the five alicorns, disappear, they realized that they were in over their heads.
"NO!!!!!" Twilight said once the seven had teleported away. "No, no, NO, NO!!!"
Twilight kicked the ground, her anger getting the better of her, not noticing that the map was splayed out in front of her, the red dot that had brought them to Pinkie Pie now in a different spot than where they were, but still glowing all the same.
"Twilight look!" Fluttershy said as she tried to draw the furious mare's attention to the map. "The dot, it's still there!"
"What?" Twilight said, trying to control herself.
"The dot, the one that brought us to Pinkie, it's still glowing, and it moved!" Fluttershy said, somewhat happy that they could easily track their friends.
Sure enough, the little red dot that they had used to find Pinkie Pie was still on the map. And it had moved a considerable distance from where they stood.
"Well then," Twi began, "I guess we better get a move on."


Rainbow Dash awoke with a start. Around her were trees, trees, and more trees, but the five alicorns that had captured her were nowhere to be seen. Pinkie Pie lay next to Dash, still unconscious from whatever spell the alicorns had used to knock them out. But even still, they were together, which was way better than last time when Rainbow woke up alone and afraid, only to eventually find her friends' mutilated corpses. Rainbow shivered at the memories, and pushed them away. No time for dwelling on the past, Rainbow had to focus on getting Pinkie Pie awake, and then getting the buck out of there. Because there was no broken wing grounding her like last time, and she intended to keep it like that.
"Pinkie," Rainbow said, shaking the pink pony in an attempt to rouse her from unconsciousness, "Pinkie wake up!"
No response. Rainbow was as good as alone until Pinkie came to.


"Come on Fluttershy! We're almost there!" Twilight said as she passed through another pair of branches that were blocking her path.
"Okay, okay!" Fluttershy said, panting.
They had been running for hours now. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were dangerously deep into the forest. So far in that Twilight knew that she and Fluttershy would have to keep sprinting as fast as they could if they were going to save them. She didn't have Fluttershy fly, however, because she didn't want to risk getting seperated by one of the alicorns jumping out, grabbing Flutters, and then teleporting away like they did with Rainbow Dash. Which, to be honest, wasn't that hard, as Fluttershy was too scared to even consider flying.
After another hour of furious sprinting, Fluttershy and Twilight came across the five alicorns, who were the last ponies they wanted to see today.
"Well whaddya know?" The leader mused, "You just can't back the buck off can you?"
"Where are Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie?!" Twilight demanded.
"Now where's the fun in telling you? I'd rather keep watching you try to find them. After all, we did put you on a wild goose chase.
"What do you mean?" Twi asked.
"Do you really think that the red dot on your map is Pinkie Pie?" The alicorn replied, "no, it was a decoy. I had one of my sisters put that spell on your map and to have it looking or me. So we could bring you here."
"Why?" Twi said, starting to get more than a little angry about this development.
"So we can kill you, of course." The leader said with an evil smirk. "But first, we must have Rainbow here, so she can watch as you and your friend die."
As she finished speaking, the alicorn that had grabbed Rainbow Dash when she attempted to help Pinkie flew off, presumably in the direction of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. Twilight tried to run after her, but the leader alicorn caught her with her magic, and soon had Fluttershy as well.
"Who are you evil ponies?" Twilight asked accusingly.
"Well, considering that you'll all die once my sister returns with Rainbow Dash, I might as well tell you. We are the Predaki, that is not a plural either, the six, or should I say, five, of us created this group when our parents were killed. And now we kill anypony who enters our part of the forest, or manages to kill one of us." The leader explained. "Your friends that we already killed did the first, and Rainbow Dash managed to do both. For which she, and all of those close to her, must die."
> The Massacre
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     As soon as Rainbow Dash heard the flapping of pegasus wings, she intensified her attempts to wake up the still unconscious Pinkie Pie. With the alicorn drawing nearer, Rainbow did the only thing she could do, she slung Pinkie over her back, and galloped full speed in the opposite direction of the alicorn that she knew was coming for them. Before long, Pinkie Pie was stirring, but Rainbow kept her pace, she wasn't slowing down for anything, not even what she had been trying to do for the past hour.
"Ugh! Rainbow? Where are we going?" Pinkie asked confused.
"Can't... talk... gotta... keep running." Rainbow replied as she kept speeding away.
"Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie said, hopping off and running alongside Rainbow Dash.
As they passed the next couple of trees, the black alicorn that had been perusing them teleported directly in front of them.
"Where do you think you're going?" She asked, levitating both Pinkie and Rainbow a few feet off the ground. "The party hasn't even started yet. I was just coming to get you." She said with an evil smirk.
"A party?" Pinkie repeated, surprised.
"I don't think it's THAT kind of party Pinks..." Rainbow said nervously.
The alicorn's horn began to glow even brighter, as she teleported them back to where Twilight, Fluttershy, and the other four alicorns were waiting.
"Ah!" The leader alicorn began. "Now we can get started!"
"Get what started?" Twilight asked, "We don't even know what you're going to do to us!"
"We're going to kill you, of course!" the leader said. "But we are going to make Rainbow Dash watch every single one of you die, so that she can hear your screams, and not be able to do a thing about it!"
With that, she turned to Fluttershy.
"I think we'll kill you first, my dear..." she said with a smirk.
"NO!" Rainbow screamed. "Please, do whatever you want to me! Just let my friends go!!!"
"No," the alicorn shot back, "you took away our sister, no we are going to take all of yours."
With that, she began to inspect Fluttershy, thinking of a way to begin the execution. Fluttershy just whimpered in fear, and Rainbow tried to escape the other alicorn's hold, to no avail, her magic was too strong.
"Twilight?" Rainbow said. "Can't you use your magic and get us out of this mess?"
"What do you think I've been trying to do?" Twi shot back. "They must have used a magic surpression spell on me, I can't even use my horn as a light source."
"Ah ha!" the purple alicorn said. "I think I know how I'm going to kill you now."
As she finished speaking, her horn began to blow, and Fluttershy's fur began to separate at her middle, along with Fluttershy letting out an unending scream. After several minutes, Fluttershy's skin began to break along where her coat was separated, and she started screaming even louder. Eventually, The skin had completely split apart at the center, the muscle underneath being exposed. Soon enough, the muscle finally broke, then the bone, and Fluttershy was then completely pulled apart, blood spattering everywhere, completely bisected much like Rarity before her.
Rainbow was crying, unable to move or close her eyes, she just had to watch as one of her best friends was pulled apart.
"No... Fluttershy..." Rainbow said between sobs.
"Just as we had hoped you would respond..." the purple alicorn said, staring Rainbow Dash in the eye.
"Buck you..." Rainbow spat.
"Better be more polite to the pony who is going to spare your miserable life." the alicorn said. "Now, who's next Rainbow Dash?"
"What?" Rainbow asked in shock.
"Who do I kill next? I want you to decide, so that you can hold yourself responsible for their death." the alicorn said with a grin wider than Pinkie Pie could ever dream.
"You're sick!" Rainbow said. "I'm not going to choose who you kill next!"
"Me!" Twilight yelled at the alicorn. "Kill me next! I'm not afraid of you!"
"I'm sorry but I do believe I asked Rainbow Dash to choose, not you." the alicorn said with a wave of dismissal. "Alright Rainbow Dash," she said, turning to face Rainbow Dash once more, "who do I kill? Pinkie Pie? Or Twilight Sparkle?"
"I'm not playing your twisted game!" Rainbow said, staring the alicorn in the eye with more defiance than she had ever felt in her life.
"Alright," the alicorn said, "I guess it's Twilight than."
With that, she turned to Twilight, and proceeded to inspect her much like she did Fluttershy. After several minutes, she looked like she had finally figured out what she was going to do.
"I think..." the alicorn began, "I'll start with your hair."
Another alicorn, one with a dark grey coat and blood red mane, then brought the leader a long, curved knife, which she accepted. She then used the same knife to cut off Twilight's mane and tail. Twilight didn't even flinch, she was going to show that alicorn what she was made of, even if it meant dying in the process. She just stared into the alicorn's glowing, red eyes, not breaking her stare no matter what happened.
"Huh?" the alicorn looked surprised, "So we have a fighter than." she lowered the knife to Twilight's stomach, "How about this then?!"
With that, she jabbed the knife right into Twilight's abdomen. Twilight almost lost it, but regained her composure and stared the alicorn down again. Not satisfied, the alicorn continued to stab Twilight in different places all over her torso and limbs. After about twenty stabs, Twilight finally lost control, and began to let out cries of pain with every stab and cut. The alicorn, now happy that she was getting Twilight to scream, ramped up her routine by cutting open Twilight's stomach and tearing out every single organ one by one. As Twilight took her last breath, the alicorn violently tore out her heart, blood spraying all over herself and Rainbow Dash, who was screaming for the alicorn to stop.
"Stop.. Please stop." Rainbow sobbed.
"Once again, no!" the alicorn said, turning to her final victim, Pinkie Pie.
Pinkie only shivered, her face contorted in fear.
"Now, what shall I do to you?" the alicorn said, eying Pinkie Pie. "I think... yes, that will work."
She then picked up the knife, and brought it to Pinkie Pie's flank. She then began a circular cut around Pinkie's Cutie mark, and, once she had finished, tore the skin from the muscle. Pinkie let out a long and painful scream, much to the discomfort of Rainbow Dash, who was, once again, yelling for the alicorn to stop,
"PLEASE!!! STOP! DON'T HURT PINKIE PIE!!!!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.
But the alicorn wasn't paying attention, she was busy looking for another place to stick the knife into Pinkie, and she decided to stab Pinkie right in the stomach, then her lungs, and finally, she stabbed Pinkie right in the eye, killing her instantly.
"No... Pinkie... why?" Rainbow sobbed at the loss of her friends. She was the only one left now.
"Well, that was fun." the purple alicorn said with an air of finality. "You can let her down now." she said to the black alicorn that had been holding Rainbow Dash up the whole time. She did, and Rainbow then became instantly fueled by adrenaline.
"Big mistake..." Rainbow said, bucking the black alicorn's face in, crushing her skull and sending bits of bone and brain matter flying all over the place.
She then rammed the blood red alicorn, smashing her in the stomach, knocking her over. Once Rainbow Dash got on top of her, she brought both of her front hooves on the red alicorn's face, crushing her skull and brain as well. Rainbow then moved to the midnight blue alicorn, and proceeded to repeat the process on her as well. Now with only two alicorns left. Rainbow made a mad dash for Ponyville. Going faster than she had a year ago when she had to escape the first alicorn. She then started flying, causing a sonic rainboom and knocking both of the alicorn's off of her trail if they had been in the first place.
Meanwhile, the two remaining alicorns standed where they had when Rainbow was first released, still dumbstruck over Rainbow Dash's speed and agility.
"I didn't expect her to be that fast..." the dark grey alicorn said.
"Me neither..." the leader agreed, "We should have killed her too. Oh well, at least I managed to put the nightmare spell on her while she was unconscious."
"But what about our sisters?" the midnight blue alicorn asked.
"We will bury them like we did our other sister." the leader replied calmly.
"Alright, and what of Rainbow Dash?" the blue alicorn asked again.
"As I said, I managed to put the nightmare spell on her, so it shouldn't be long before she returns." the lead alicorn explained.