(Author's Notes: Warning, violence ahead. You have been warned.)

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== CHAPTER SIX: CONCOCTION ==

Berry backhooved Miss Cheerilee into the sliding rollers. The train of her white dress and bright pink tail easily caught. She slid slowly and as she tried getting up, she slipped on the rollers and fell with a metallic rattle.

Honeydew was first to scream but the others quickly joined in the high-pitched choir, except for Noi who looked about with wide eyes. Piña Colada saw her old friend Noi and looked away with a frown. Ruby Pinch walked over beside her mom to watch Cheerilee go down.

"We have to help her!" Rumble said. He flapped his wings as hard as he could and slammed into the unsuspecting Berry Punch.

Ruby objected to the attack on her mom. "Hey!" She used her magic to grab one of Rumble's wings and he stumbled. Silver Spoon was too stunned to do anything, but Jelly Splat tripped over her to reach the unicorn quivering in the grass. "Honeydew! We need your magic!"

"I's… I's…"

"NOW!"

Honeydew stood without further hesitation. Berry was trying to recover from the brave move by Rumble. "Fucking little shit," she spat. She rolled in the fallen leaves and upon seeing him tried to stamp on him. But Rumble was too quick and was getting ready to fly again. She bit the black backing of his Changeling costume, causing him to jerk sideways into a tree.

Meanwhile, Cheerilee was whimpering as the cranking machine fed on the hairs of her tail. She quivered and frantically slid her hooves to try and get away as she felt the stinging tugs by her hindquarters, but her white dress was being yanked and caught in the rollers, almost tying her down. She had to make it. Her life depended on it. But most of all, the children needed her more than ever. She loved all of her students very much.

Noi appeared on the side and was looking at Cheerilee. Upon seeing the golden filly, the teacher struggled with all the Earth pony strength she could muster, the weaves of her white gown splitting across her back. She reached out a hoof to the filly. Noi reached down and grabbed Cheerilee's right arm. Then, Noi's hooves were coiled with a green flame that licked the entire length of her body, peeling away her true visage. A Changeling.

Cheerilee's eyes widened with fear on seeing the black creature before her, insectile wings buzzing and slithering tongue dripping with saliva that tapped on the teacher's face. Sucking its gut, the Changeling drained Cheerilee of her love for her students and her strength quickly failed.

The Changeling's image was thrown from her sight and replaced with an angry Silver Spoon. "Get away from Miss Cheerilee you ugly monster!"

Were she not drained, Cheerilee might have used that encouragement to pull herself free, but she was too weak now. She felt her tail get coiled in halfway and she was pulled in faster. Jelly Splat and Silver Spoon reached down, each grabbing one of her arms and with what little safe space there was to brace against, they pulled. Honeydew tried to grab Cheerilee with her magic but it was no use.

Cheerilee wanted to try her best to be strong for the children. Her right hind leg was first to go under, the coiling, semi-sharp blades of the screws quickly spitting blood. Cheerilee yelped and she tried to frantically buck it with her other hoof, but it slid against a smooth rolling pin section and the hoof broke with a branch-like snap everypony heard. She wailed in response.

"Pull!" Jelly groaned. "Pull!"

Honeydew was crying as her horn sparked and fizzled. "I's—I's can't!"

"Pull!"

Cheerilee felt the nefarious device coil around her legs and break more bones, ripping tendons and causing such burning tension. Blood was squirting like a pressure fountain and flaying in various places. Her smiling trio flowered Cutie Marks were next, bright yellow faces dripping with staining blood. The machine stalled for a moment, groaned, and began moving at a more determined pace. Two Changelings had emerged to trot on the wheel. Cheerilee's eyes opened wide and she screamed so loud it hurt the ears of the foals trying to save her.

Her ribcage crunched and blood was freckling the children. As she was twisted to the side, Silver Spoon and Jelly Splat lost their grip. Cheerilee was cranked from being on her stomach to her back like bony meat chunks twisting in a sink disposal, and she was screaming all the way. Cheerilee was being blinded by her own blood as her tears couldn't swell up enough to wash it away, the remains of her screaming body slick from the gurgling blood so thick the pool emerging on the rollers was stringy black.

Adrenaline and whatever mixture she drank minutes ago helped keep her alive, even as her lungs exploded, shooting warm, sticky and thickly metallic-tasting blood to vomit up her throat and froth from her mouth. Finally, her neck was squeezed shut and her head tumbled against the edge of the blades and rollers left and right. Even without the body, a brain can still process information many seconds, and the last thing she saw reflecting on the blood covering her apple green eyes were the foals crying and gagging. She failed them.

Finally Cheerilee's pink and blistering-reddened mane caught one of the screwing shears and her skull cracked and splintered before her head collapsed under.

Silver Spoon vomited oily yellow onto the chunky-black red rollers. Changelings appeared behind them. Rumble was pulled by a pair of them when he bit the cord holding his costume together and broke free. But another Changeling swarmed above him and drove him to the ground and stamped on a part of his left wing. He bucked its leg and started running, yelling as he went.

"Most of you, back to the pit!" Berry Punch shouted. "That concoction is going to emerge and the hive needs to be close and strong for it!"

Half the Changelings obeyed but there were two for each of the foals to deal with. Jelly Splat wasn't going to go without a fight, struggling to forget what he just saw and unable to feel the beads of Cheerilee's blood on his wrestler mask. But in the scuffle he tripped, falling back face first directly into the screws.

Silver Spoon screamed. "Jelly Splat!"