The Umbral Lab...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

The last thing I remembered before blacking out from that electrocution was the sight of Umbra eagerly pleasing himself by the table. I remember seeing the meter staying consistently in the red as the voltage ran through my body in short controlled spurts. Everything was agony then, constant pain, unrelenting torture. At least that part was done, I didn't feel anything shocking me anymore. In fact, I couldn't feel anything at all.

My eyes fluttered open for a while, seeing a bright light blinding me from above. But the light was certainly closer to me than the last time. I moved my arm to check if I was still in the straps, and nothing moved. I was probably secured still, it's pretty hard to be able to tell when your whole body feels like a brick. I guess my nerves must be recovering from the shock session earlier.

Now that I think about it, I can barely open my eyes as it is. I looked over to my arm, or at least I tried to. Instead of being able to freely move my head, I was situated in a vice-like rest, and my face felt incredibly numb. So I had to work my eyes a little harder to see what was going on. My arm was actually free from any restraints, but there were some bracelets on my wrists to keep me from using spells probably. I tried to move my arm, and nothing responded. I looked to my other arm, and it failed to respond just like the other. I looked down below to look at my toes, discovering that there was some sort of mask on my face, but that wasn't the only thing I noticed...

If I had the ability to widen my eyes, they would've been enlarged. But instead I was listlessly watching as the unicorn quietly guided his tools into my body, carefully working around until he had reached his goal. He reached within and quietly pulled out a piece of bone. He looked at me and grew surprised.

"Oh, are you lucid right now?" He questioned as he put his hoof in front of my face, waving it around for my eyes to track. "Oh you are! Oh dear, not exactly what I would've wanted to happen. Shame on me for not increasing the supply of anesthesia, should've been more diligent. I'm so sorry, hun."

My eyes looked down to see the bone he carefully placed aside.

"I'm sorry, I was just in the middle of giving you a few extra enhancements. I've actually done a few on you already. You know, bone marrow transplants, bone marrow implants, some insertions here and there, genital alterations, stuff like that." He said as he pulled out another bone, I could assume that he was pulling out all of my ribs. "Also, a little fun fact. Did you know that you had about two extra inches of penile tissue hiding inside of you? I didn't until some hours ago, about maybe eleven or twelve hours ago. Had to completely revamp my research to dedicate that time towards relocating that tissue to your external. I should be able to have a little more fun with you tomorrow, those two inches matter in some cases. I even went into some research recording your healing factor. And by human standards, you are absolutely rapid right now. Some issues that require humans to heal about twelve weeks, you'll heal in the matter of hours. So yeah, that's a thing."

I looked past the bloodied cavity where he had cut my chest open, trying to see what all he did to me as I was out.

"Oh you're probably wondering what I'm doing to you now. I'm still doing the bone marrow implants. I'm doing them to promote bone growth, to reinforce your body's acceptance of the serums I'm going to pump in you to make your a bit sturdier, to increase the carbon in those bones to make them rock-solid. Can't have you being a glass cannon when you head back into the human world, I need you to be able to withstand a lot of that human weaponry of yours, especially if I'm going to use you in the way I intend to. See, I observed the condition of your body shortly after your match with my dear little darling, and you were shattered all over the place. I don't want that to happen for the next time you two conduct trials. She was really disappointed that you didn't really give her a chance to show what she could do. She was just getting started and you go out like a light. It took me half an hour to convince her that she shouldn't go looking for more fun when all I wanted her to do is have fun in the arena. You know how kids are when they get a taste of something."

My lips twitched as I wanted to speak.

"Uh oh, the anesthesia is wearing. Sorry, love, but I have to put you back under. Don't want you feeling all of this, now do we?" He said as he turned a knob on one of his tanks. But he soon realized that nothing had come out of it, no hissing, no indication that there was any change in the air flow. He lifted the tank and laughed to himself. "Oh, well that's why you came back up. The tank's empty. Give me a moment, I only have relatively small sizes, easier for the dolls to cart around."

Just on cue, a pair of dolls walked into the room, offering a new tank to Umbra. He popped the hose off of the empty tank and put it on the new one, replenishing my supply before turning the knob.

"And there we are, back to the world down under you go. Forgive me for that little bit of horror, I had no intention to have you looking at yourself like that. But it's good to see that you're so calm about it. Thank you for cooperating with me, I'll see you in some hours."

My mask filled with anesthesia, reintroducing the chemicals to my body and sending me off to a truly deep sleep.

Canterlot Castle...

In the active halls of the castle, Luna continued to coordinate many of the other tasks she was issued. She had finished lowering the sun in place of her sister and began to move the moon. The high princess didn't address much in her night sky, feeling very fatigued after spending the day picking up after her comatose sibling.

Some guards and maids in the halls began to speculate that the princess had fallen gravely ill considering that she had failed to respond in any of the nurses' visits. The worst was beginning to be assumed, as many prepared for the announcement that Princess Luna would inevitably take over in her place.

Their rumors began to spread throughout the castle. As many of the servants and guards were unicorns to begin with, many had expressed their cases of extreme magic depletion, as experienced by none other than Lord Tirek draining their magic from them in times past. A lot of them felt drastically weakened for maybe an hour or two at most, but in the usual case no more than maybe a few minutes. But with the princess, it was much more serious as her condition had not improved since her passing out at the dawn of her sun.

Most of Equestria remained in pause with all of what happened. The elements were rumored to be missing, the bearers were present but not doing much to help other than direct efforts to assist in calming the community. The streets of Canterlot itself were in disarray, many citizens wondering who to turn to, some wondering what was the guard doing with some of their deceased loved ones they had recently brought to the morgue. Since it was the guard who commandeered the morgue for the time being, much of public opinion was to blame the ones at the morgue for the situation that happened, losing track of corpses and angering the families of the deceased loved ones who were discovered the previous night.

Anger and confusion ran rampant. Calls for the guard's leadership had began to swell, many of the officers who were just briefed on the situation by the princess were actively trying to allocate efforts to bring peace to the streets. Their priorities ran in the order of bringing calm to the streets, disposing of the bodies, and quarantining the borders of the Corrotto District.

Luna worked with dark bags under her eyes, signifying her increased fatigue throughout the day. She barked orders to many, and lashing out at those who issued a bad report. It was clear that a lot of her frustrations had pooled to where she couldn't control them much and she would have to take some time away. But with having to tend to a young blind victim, rumors of her sibling's unwell being, and a villain who brought disorder and panic to the public, she had a rough time juggling the load on her plate.

Solemn Oath was quiet ever since the interrogation of Senator Damper Trot. There was much she had brought into question about her career, her status, her loyalties, and even the princess she admired so much throughout her life. It almost seemed that the world around her had come cratering around her, unveiling some truths she couldn't quite process clearly.

Even so, she still stood by the door leading into the princess' chambers. An officer approached the mare and came with a group of nurses to see over her condition. Many of them were ready to resuscitate her if she had experienced weakening life signs. Solemn allowed them inside, accompanying them as the nurses looked over the princess' vitals. The nurses worked nervously, awaiting the results for the princess' pulse. The nurse's eyes narrowed for a moment to listen carefully, but widened as she heard an increase in pulse. She she sighed in relief and nodded to the group of medics, allowing them to do the same.

They began their work, pulling at the princess limbs to clean her. But they retracted, showing signs of life. The group continued to pull with the intention of care, but the slowly waking princess could not gauge her strength upon waking up. She flinched a light kick, sending one of the nurses sliding across the room. Celestia's eyes had opened slowly, her breathing slowly coming to form as she observed her surroundings. "Nngh... This feels like my bed."

"Your highness, you are in your bed." The leading nurse replied.

She then replied a bit perturbed. "Why in Equestria am I here?"

"You passed out after raising the sun." The nurse answered. "Prince Blueblood saw to it that you were brought here. He even carried you himself, along with a few others who helped in his effort."

"Oh, I guess he would do something like that." The princess stretched her hooves, her limbs shaking off the inactivity. "Give him my thanks."

The princess instinctively felt for her regalia, noticing that she was wearing nothing at all. "Your highness, he also removed all of your regalia, citing that you would need to breathe better."

"Of course he would say something like that." She replied as she levitated her royal assets to don on her body once more, the chest plate in particular was the one she gave the most care to put on without her scars being noticed.

As she finished, she rose out of her bed and started walking towards the front door. "Your highness." The officer said, standing in her way. "The situation is under total control, you must rest."

"My captain is in need of assistance." She tiredly, yet boldly replied. "Equestria is in turmoil, my sister is probably struggling, and I am sitting here in my bed? Tell me where this exudes any kind of good sense?"

"But Princess, all operations are being thoroughly coordinated and carefully planned. You needn't stress yourself further."

Celestia rubbed her eyes free from the sleeping crust. "What time did I raise the sun this morning?"

Solemn looked towards the officer before answering in his place. "Approximately 6:09."

The princess looked to the balcony and then back to Solemn to questioned her. "I see no sun. What time is it now?"

"It's been a little over four hours since the setting of the sun. Sundown was at approximately 5:16."

"I WAS ASLEEP FOR SIXTEEN HOURS!? IN THIS CHAOS!?" She screamed vehemently.

"Your highness, you needed the rest. And Prince Blueblood instructed that you were not to be disturbed for anything." The officer politely argued.

"Out of my way!" She barked, pushing her way through the nurses that were prepared to clean her.

The officer nearly trampled through the other nurses himself as he stood to defy her access to the outside halls. "Your highness, you are fatigued and unwell. Please consider─

She wasted no time, summoning her golden halberd and pointed at the officer. "Either you open those doors for me like a servant or I'm cutting both you and the damned doors down. Choose."

Solemn, disturbed by seeing the princess being so brutal and aggressive, had held her tongue as the officer opened the door for her. She walked out with hardly any time to prepare herself for her outgoing. She was still somewhat covered in soot and ash from her work earlier. "SOLEMN OATH, REPORT!"

With a newfound fear of the princess she idolized, she ran out the halls to acknowledge the princess' summon. "Your highness."

The princess urged Solemn to trot beside her. "I cannot trust bumbling fools who give every excuse as to why they cannot disturb me for the city burning to the ground. So give it to me straight, what is the status report?"

While she wanted to say something along the lines of her needing the time to recover if she wanted to, she knew that it would probably make the princess angry. So she gave the princess what she requested. "Your highness, there are no current signs of bodies being left in the city streets. But with ponies loved-ones being reported among the ones we cleaned up, many are questioning the guard's intentions and integrity since we've been running the morgue for almost two weeks now."

The princess sighed with frustration. "Great. Another issue to clean up after. What's the status of Canterrot?"

"Quarantined heavily. All access points, including one of the secret entrances we've looked into, has been under heavy surveillance. No sign of the captain there, or the beast he was fighting."

"Parliament is unimportant right now, I need to know what's the situation with the element bearers. I have not been aware of their returning status from last night."

"Your highness, so far they have been diligent in trying to find more information about the captain and the one responsible for this chaos."

The princess groaned. "Umbra Sanctus. Might as well say the name, he's going to be the one who we go after now. That's been the priority, regardless of the captain's status."

"Actually, we've been recently informed as to what he may have going on next." Solemn added.

"Who's the source?"

"Senator Damper Trot." Solemn replied. "He gave the information to us, even telling us motives and the possible location of... Umbra's hideout." She said, glancing around the halls to see if anyone was coming after her.

"You have nothing to fear, you are with me." Celestia reassured coarsely. "Now I am assuming that his hideout has something to do with that underground arena."

"Nowhere near, your highness." Solemn informed her. "The Temple over on Canter and Stockyard... which is a disbelief. My parents attend that church for mass every Saturday morning. I used to go there when I was younger. It's only in recent times when I started putting those days into my job."

"Yes, when you figured that I would give you the promotion to the Captain's seat." Celestia stated.

"Yes, your highness." Solemn responded, a bit downtrodden. "But today we've been going into some research about that creature the captain faced off against. Turns out that a bartender in that V.I.P. Lounge he goes to every Tuesday and Friday helped in notating some of it's abilities, components, and even it's size. It was all written data."

"What is his status?" The princess questioned.

"We have him in protective custody, your highness. Though he is complicit in the operation, he did give the information to help us, as well as our lead to Senator Damper Trot." Solemn answered quickly.

"How complicit is Damper Trot in this operation?" The princess inquired.

"Your majesty, I have strong affirmation that he was conspiring against the royal family. His participation in this matter had the intended results of overthrowing the royal family's place in our way of government, redistributing that power to the parliament."

Celestia rolled her eyes. "Ugh, typical of the usual filth in that district."

"Your majesty, it's a serious crime, even high treason."

"And it will be considered as such. Thank you for your ever-present dedication." The princess praised the mare for her diligence. "But now to the captain, have we identified what may be taking place?"

"If Kalimba and Alabaster's warning was true, then it could be that the captain is undergoing some level of sexual abuse as well as physical abuse. Umbra also intends to use the captain as a vessel to enter into the human world."

"And he's the one who holds the last element needed to bring all of this to an end." The princess stressed. "We may have to hurry along should we wish to avoid that at all costs."

"But your highness, we have no way of certifiably knowing if that is the location of Umbra's hideout. The only thing that we know is that the place leads to some underground lab somewhere hidden within the mountain."

"You are a trove of intel." Celestia praised the guardsmare. "So what do you recommend?"

"I guess we could allocate some forces to thoroughly search the caves within the mountain, I would prefer six-pony squads to move, cut, clear, and search the abandoned mines for anything like that."

"And what of the creature Nondis faced?" The princess asked. "Have you discovered more on it?"

"Princess Twilight Sparkle and Counselpony Alabaster Charm is looking into the notes even as we speak. They assumed they can come into a definite conclusion come tomorrow morning, the very earliest by midnight tonight."

"Time is ever a cruel reminder of what all the captain has to suffer through. If we want to stop him from moving forward with this, we must be able to stop him from turning Nondis into his vessel." As the princess concluded her statement, Solemn looked to the princess and grew mum, wanting to ask the question that lingered on her mind throughout the day. The princess took notice of the guardsmare looking at her on occasion. "Is there something you wish to ask me?"

The mare looked away. "Nothing. It's nothing."

The princess illuminated her horn for a second, investigating the thoughts that plagued her guard, she soon found out what had gripped her. She then responded in the way that she knew how to not be heard. "...You are under the assumption that the captain and I are speaking."

The mare looked up to the princess, partially horrified that she found out. With a nervous expression, she nodded in reply.

The princess walked quietly, responding to her the same way. "I suppose Damper Trot has made it known to you out of a play of arrogance."

The mare trembled as she whispered under her breath. "You love who you love, I guess. I can't argue for anything else."

A moment after surveying the mare's thoughts, Celestia looked away and answered, but out loud. "...I'll love him no matter how broken he is."

Solemn stopped walking, seeing the princess walk right past her, trotting down the hall to reach the throne room. As she moved, Solemn couldn't help but to feel a pain thrusting into her. Many more thoughts ran through her head as she watched the princess disappear behind the large red wooden doors. Tears had threaten to appear, but she clenched her eyes shut and took a trembling breath, accepting the circumstances as they were.

The mare murmured to herself. "Almost twenty years... Figures. I never knew it would hurt this bad."

***Point of Perspective: Melanie Brewer***

Mr. Sparkle had made an appearance at the castle along with his wife. Mrs. Velvet seemed very antsy in hearing what was all going on in town. And since her husband had some idea of what was going on, she jumped into the equation to try to talk Twilight out of the assignment. However, the young princess wasn't willing to be disturbed for anything.

We waited in the throne room, hoping for some information that could at least help us in our being able to counter some of the things Ummie's doing. Alex had run through the gauntlet of books to help his younger brother get a better handle of his newfound powers. So far, it came up empty. Stanton didn't show any signs of being a magic user until something had either startled him or disrupt him emotionally. He had no control over what he was doing.

Since it was pretty restless night for all of us, Kalimba had kept her little sister with her. And since we were made aware of what exactly happened to her and who was directly responsible, we decided to never ever mention anything about Ummie in her presence.

Shining continued to work as acting captain until we got Nondis back, especially since there was no pony underneath him who would be mentally prepared to address the myriad of issues undertaking the kingdom. Blueblood levitated some mediation balls to keep himself composed while we waited.

And then came an unexpected face walking through the door. "You'll have to forgive me. I didn't expect to let the city burn for as long as I was out."

"Ay, princess sleepy-head! How's it been?" Alex called out.

"Not exactly pleasant. I've been left to the bed for a whole sixteen hours. Nopony even bothered waking me up." She looked to Blueblood. "And I'm not too thrilled about that."

"We've been through this before, Celestia. Magic exhaustion without rest will get you killed in the heat of battle." He warned.

"I remember telling you that after the Battle of Canterlot River." Celestia said to the blond prince.

"Well consider it a lesson paid forward and keep it moving." Blueblood responded, earning the princess' eyeroll of annoyance.

Mrs. Velvet spoke out to her before she could reply to the prince. "Your highness, please reconsider having little Violet undergo this assignment. It's much too dangerous for her to take on. Is there any way that she can avoid having to do this? Where are the guards, the captain no less?"

Mr. Sparkle added to his wife's inquiry. "In speaking of which, all the humans are here except the one we often see the most. Where is he now of all times?"

"That's the thing, dad. He's gone." Shining explained. "He went into Canterrot yesterday evening, tried to get back home, but some creature snatched him up as they destroyed the main checkpoint. He hasn't been seen since."

"Creature, what creature?" His father questioned.

"Little miss 'Darling Daddy' was the one we think whisked him off." Rick answered.

"Darling daddy?" Velvet asked in bewilderment. "Is that really it's name?"

Crescent's eyes grew cold and his cheeks fell, seeming to recognize the words that were repeated. "Darling daddy's wasting away... Surely that hell-beast hasn't seen the streets of Canterlot."

"It did." I confirmed. "Snagged Nondis and drug him through each avenue to get back to Canterrot. From there, I guess he got beaten and spirited away by a mentionable party."

We could hear a panic brewing from the other side of the room. The young filly started to tremble. "It was him, wasn't it?"

Seeing that she was already going to become emotionally distressed, Kalimba comforted her as she placed her on her back and walked out of the room to get her off to bed. Crescent noticed her condition. "...That monster needs to pay for what he's done."

"Yeah. That sick motherfucker is doing God-knows-what to my brother. And I'm not pleased." Alex lashed out for a moment. "He already has another fucking human in his stock, a dead one! What the fuck is he doing to my brother!?"

"Alex, calm down." Stanton said, holding his brother in place with a single hand. "The more you think on that, the more you get worked up. I'm pissed off about it too, but you don't see me throwing shit around."

"Well no shit, Sherlock. if you start throwing shit around, I'm sure the castle would need more than some minor repairs with the way you are." Alex said back to his younger sibling. "Wouldn't be surprised if you could deadlift the sun right now, you sure have the magic for it."

Celestia looked to Stanton. "You have magic?"

"I was meaning to say that to you before we all had to go do the emergency stuff, but yeah. I have magic and I can't control it." He replied, holding up one of the introductory magic books Twilight had passed on to him.

Celestia sighed as she looked at the book he held. "And Twilight taught you nothing?"

"Twilight's been in the throws of doing some research on─"

"On the creature Nondis faced, I've been told." She jumped back in. She looked to the very book he held and quickly thought of a plan. "Stanton, drop that book."

"But Twilight said not to drop any of the books because they were─"

The princess interrupted him once more. "Those are my books, I can rewrite them at any given time, and they are already mass published for other magic institutions around Equestria. Now drop it." Stanton did as he was told and dropped the book, causing it to fall to the ground unceremoniously. "Good. Now pick it back up." Stanton bent down to pick it up, but was stopped by the princess' magic. "Not that way. Breathe, then pick it up."

Alex questioned the princess. "Okay, so what does this do? How is he able to pick it up, with his toes?"

"Alex, I understand the urgency, that's why I am doing this the way that I am now." She informed him before going back to his younger brother. "Now you, I want you to close your eyes and breathe deep breaths. Don't just use your lungs to breathe, I want to see your stomach rise along with your chest. I want to see it fall with your chest." Stanton did as he was instructed and took his breaths. "Are you calm?"

"Getting there." Stanton replied. "Yeah, I'm pretty relaxed right now."

Celestia spoke softly, almost as if she was a mother speaking to her son. "Good. Now, the flow you want to circulate is not just in your head. It's in your heart, in your stomach, in your mind, and in your extension."

Stanton opened one eye in confusion. "Wait, you mean my dick?" The princess pursed her lips at the man, he looked down with remorse. "Sorry. Bad habit."

Alex covered his face in second-hand embarrassment as the princess continued to instruct him. "Hand, fingers, the extension you can FULLY CONTROL throughout your daily life. A unicorn's extension is already closer to the brain, so the process is a lot more streamlined. With you, your cycle is a lot more extensive because of where your hands are in contrast to where your brain is, but it operates similarly to your nervous system. Think of it as an extra set of hands you can use."

Stanton went back into closing his eyes and breathing slowly. "Okay. Extra set of hands."

"Now without opening your eyes, answer my questions. Do you know how the book feels? Do you remember it's weight? Do you remember how grainy the pages were within it?"

"Yeah. It felt old, coarse, and it felt like it was going to come apart at any moment." He replied.

She looked to everyone in the room. "I want silence from everypony and every creature. He needs to concentrate." The princess disclaimed before going back to Stanton. "Now without bending down or opening your eyes, imagine that this book rests on a table in front of you. And since you know it's falling apart, try to carefully lift the book with the anticipation that you're going to put it on a shelf."

"Okay." He said as he reached out for it. "I kinda feel it."

"Then pick it up." She replied.

Just as she described it, he pretended to reach down to a table and pick up the book to place on a shelf. But what he didn't see at that moment was all our collected faces gawking at the sight of that book effortlessly coming off of the ground. Even I had to stuff my palm into my mouth just to not scream with excitement.

The princess then instructed the man. "Now, with that same calm and collection, open your eyes and see the bookshelf in front of you."

He opened his eyes, not to see a bookshelf in front of him. But he did see the book floating in front of his face. It was like seeing a kid open up his Christmas gift for the first time. "OOOHHHHH SHIT!" He started getting excited, but his emotions caused him to lift almost everything small in the room up all at once.

Celestia quickly looked around and saw everything rising all at once, she called out to him loudly. "BREATHING!"

"Oh, right, sorry!" He said as he snapped back to being calm about his newfound accomplishment. But he still showed excitement over his being able to levitate the book. "Wow! This is hella awesome! Oh my God."

"Good. Now practice putting the book down and lifting it back up. Same motions, but replicate that result with your eyes open."

Alex smirked at the princess. "You know, you should be a teacher one day."

Velvet chuckled lightly. "As if she didn't teach little Violet what all she knows now."

Almost in a matter of perfect timing, Twilight and Alabaster came through the door. "In speaking of which, guess who just walked in." I pointed out.

As they got closer, we started to see the sunken looks on their faces as they held in their possession the pages of notes and documents that were given to them over time. I know that the both of them are tired, but there was a bit of despair on their faces that spoke legions of what we were set to face. "Twily, what's the cinch?"

The young princess looked up to her brother and then all of us. "That thing moves underground."

All of us had a collective head drop in disbelief. And Alabaster only added to it. "Not only that, but at maximum configuration, it can reach up to about fifty-five feet tall with a base consisting of a twenty-foot radius. Where the brain, or it's functioning figurehead, stands is where the radius is measured to the outside of it's shadow, the shadow is basically the outline of where the rest of the collective lies."

"Well that's ten ways from fucked." Rick replied.

"It doesn't end there." Twilight continued. "The creature can stretch a tendril to about five hundred feet, but the range can further be extended if a body of the collective is used as a medium to carry over the signal."

"So the bodies that were found throughout the city─" Shining began.

"All a portion of the collective, and thusly used as a means to continue the signal." Alabaster finished, causing the prince's eyes to widen. "And of course having over three dozen bodies recovered throughout the night, you can safely assume that the distance was more than four miles covered, all thanks because of a trump card that thing has up it's sleeve. It can toss any members of it's collective forward and away to drastically extend the reach. And then there's a second trump card it plays; remote summoning. Once it sees that there's a distance it can't cover, it'll use another body in it's collective to close the distance and remotely use that body as a 'brain' with a reduced radius of reach and a drastically reduced shadow, the shadow having a radius of seven feet and a tendril length of thirty-five."

"The report from some of the guards who worked at the checkpoint the moment the captain showed up said that the body of the recently murdered senator suddenly showed up in the front lobby, almost in preparation of being able to intercept him." Blueblood stated. "In other words, the senator we recovered from the murder scene Thursday morning was actually a surprise hand that remained in play. Since the castle has no way of cremating a body, and the morgue is undergoing a massive backlog of retained corpses, it does nothing but certify Umbra's ability to move himself within the castle."

"All the more proving Nondis' shot at Umbra's abilities, and that of this monster, all but certifiably confirmed." Alex replied with overwhelming disbelief. "There's no way he could win."

"But Discord said that the creature was much smaller." I pointed out. "We saw that thing, it was just a small little filly in a dark hallway that grew into something nightmarish."

Cliff started snapping his fingers, putting together a conclusion of his own. "Ayo, hold up a minute. So that thing showed up in a dark hallway. We saw no lights from the outside on down from where that filly stood. Was it likely that the reason the hallway was so damn dark was that it was actually the creature's shadow?"

Rickey shuddered in response. "Okay, that just makes the whole situation even worse."

"But Discord said he defeated it. Even Ummie screamed about that thing being 'destabilized' once it happened." I stated. "That means there's some sort of way to destabilize it, at least driving it away."

"Given the information we received from Crème, the only way that could've happened is due to an overload on three different fields; sensory, magic, and emotional. And to be frank, the dead can't feel much of anything." Alabaster said.

Twilight then offered a small ray of hope. "But there is one thing we discovered about this so-called 'brain' this creature has. While the collective itself is indeed comprised of dead bodies massed around a centralized skeleton of a large beast, we have confirmed that the one who operates as the 'brain' is very much alive. However, with as many bodies as there are in the collective, it makes it to where a conventional death is theoretically improbable. I can assume that if we attack the head of the brain, we can put an end to that thing."

"One problem." Alex rebutted. "Nondis had every opportunity to shoot that thing in the head. And given the condition of the weapons he used, he shot everything he had towards that thing with more than enough splatter to make a Nickelodeon executive sweat. So we're looking at─in ratio─a microscopic target in the grand scheme of what that thing really is. And I severely doubt that a single bullet to the head is how we kill that thing."

"To make matters worse, the brain can 'swim' through the entirety of the collective, relocating itself in a split second. That gives it more than enough of a defense against a swarming attack on all fronts. So we'll have to be immediate when the brain relocates." Alabaster compilated to Alex's rebuttal.

Celestia then offered her own question. "So with that said, why a foal for the brain? Could they not use a more suitable figure like an adult? Why something so small and innocent?"

"Apparently they ran trials on these matters." Twilight stepped in. "What their research shows is that a living brain of an adult has well-developed sense of independence. Once a brain reaches adolescence, disobedience is pretty much the norm, asking questions is the call of the hour, and independence is all but assured. Only a brain of a passive host must be used to remain compliant to the holder's will. In other words, why use a potentially vengeful adult or a disobedient teen when you could use a young and mentally underdeveloped foal for you to control?"

Velvet expressed her sadness at hearing what her daughter explained. "Of all things, the children? What has happened to him where he takes his cruelty out on children!?"

"Does that even matter?" Stanton asked. "Look, we all know he's bad news. We all know what he did to little Gala, we know what he did to Kali, we know how he did Alabaster and Blue, and we've seen just how easily he puts us in the crossfire for his own entertainment. We might as well not even be surprised by this. Nondis warned us fair and square of what he was, and the idea that we're losing our minds over it is a bit overdrawn."

"Okay, so what do you guess we do, mister magic hands?" Alex questioned his younger brother. "You got magic, so you obviously have some plan cooking up in some way if you're speaking like this."

"We know where he's at, we know what he's gonna do to Nondis, but we don't know when he's gonna be able to do it. But what I do know is that it's gonna take some time for him to be able to do it all. We have to start planning our approach now, our priority isn't the monster that's being described to us. If we run into it, maybe we have some good magicians who can get us to disappear at a moments notice." Stanton answered before looking to Celestia. "If that thing can't see where we go, that's one thing. But since we're saying that it can run itself underground, then perhaps we use magic to get ourselves out of there. I see how Twilight just zips herself from one place to the other, I even see how fast Discord can go from place to place, surely we could have more than one of those capable ponies come with us."

Celestia then replied to the man. "But your brother had a teleportation scroll. It was used, but all it did was send a dead body to our doorstep."

"Probably something or someone that took it away from him." Rick guessed. "He probably saw using it as a last resort, not needing to use it if he had gotten out far enough to escape. Nondis couldn't have known what all that thing was capable of if he went solely off of Discord's information. He went by the approach as if he couldn't risk putting it on the ground, because that thing could've used it and teleported itself to the castle instead. And even if he got back here using it, there was already a surprise waiting for him at the end."

"Nondis just got outplayed on this one." Stanton summarized. "So we'll need to run something a little different. Maybe something that's not just direct, but also a little tricky. Maybe we can run a wide-out play, get our guys open so we can get our ball downfield."

"In common terms, if you would?" Blueblood requested.

"I'm sure you've watched a football game, maybe you guys call it hoofball or something." Stanton began. "A wide-out play is when you have two receivers going deep, running in various routes to get free from defenders. The quarterback then has the option to either throw the pass downfield to two of his receivers, or even faking the wide-out by handing it off to a rushing receiver. The goal is to not fall behind the line of scrimmage, advance the ball, move the chains. And you repeat that until you score on that possession."

Blueblood was about to protest, but Shining held a hoof up to his shoulder to interrupt him. "I'll explain it to you later." He then spoke to Stanton. "Okay, so you want one party who can go out wide left, another to go wide right, and a third to possibly get some penetration up front. In which case, you'll need to fake the handoff and pass it downfield to get those chains to move, correct?" All of us looked at Shining and blinked, the entirety of us humans in the room was more amazed that he could talk football. The stallion shrugged and then replied. "Your phones really do have some nice entertainment options. I've been following the Indianapolis Colts."

"I like you, dude. We're gonna hang out more often." Stanton nodded as he pointed a finger at the stallion. "But yeah, what he said. We'll need three parties, probably all of them being small, no more than four each."

Alabaster folded his forelegs and thought aloud. "Okay, so maybe we use one to run a distraction. At least to keep interesting for Umbra. The problem is that we can't send any humans to this party, it's got to be ponies only so that nothing else bad happens to any of the element bearers."

Twilight jumped in. "My party will always be six deep. And we already know what we're going to do."

"Sweetheart, please don't say what I think you're going to say." Crescent pleaded with his daughter.

"I'm sorry dad, but if there's anypony with the magic to be able to distract that thing for long enough, it'll be us." Twilight replied.

Shining spoke out. "Guess that makes me responsible for the party to retrieve Nondis."

"Shining Armor, you will be with me." Celestia said firmly. "Since it is our responsibility, we will be the frontline to distract Umbra."

"Too inexperienced." Blueblood replied just as firmly, arguing against her decision. "If you're going to use anypony by your side, it's going to be the one who knows how you fight. You'll need a real party who can hold their own in every aspect while covering your blind spots." He looked to the younger prince. "I'm sorry Shining, but if something happens to you, Cadance would never let us live it down. You're a father now, so you'll have to live with that."

Crescent drew a heavy sigh. "Well if it's experience you want, I will be happy to supply it."

"At your age, Night Light?" The blond prince replied. "I thought you resigned to become father of the hold, not some old colt looking for a bit of action."

"And that's coming from the oldest prince in Equestria? Aren't you like five-hundred some-odd years old?" The stallion replied.

"Peccavi." Blueblood replied as he summoned a spear. "It's been a while since I've been out on the prowl. Perhaps us older, more established ponies will give the youngsters a reprieve from the hard work for a change." He ran his hoof against the blade and smiled as he swiped sparks off of the weapon. "Besides, we're already letting six heroines do the dirty work on the side, it only makes sense that we be gentlecolts and assist a fair lady in her sensitive age."

"I'm not a day over twenty-eight, so watch it." Celestia replied as she summoned a golden halberd, letting the pole clatter against the back of her chest plate. "I still know how to use this thing."

"It won't be anymore interesting without me." Kalimba replied as she walked back into the room. "I know dat I am young, but having me around would do a lot for getting his attention. What he did to baba and my sistah was a message to me and me alone. I wish for him to know dat I received his warning."

"Are you sure?" Twilight asked the zebracorn. "I know your emotions are pretty raw right now. What if something happens to you? Who would take care of your little sister?"

"I am coming back. You can wager on dat." She replied adamantly.

"Then I guess that leaves one more party to go down field and make the play." Stanton noted. "I guess we're running five deep."

"Seven." Alabaster replied. "It's me and my sister who should be held responsible. We got Nondis in this mess by working with him. It's only fair that we help get him out without being noticed. And with a bit of luck on our side, we walk out being eight strong."

"That might work out." I replied to the stallion. "If Blue can do that one spell she did on our way into the VIP Lounge, we can get there without being noticed, get in, snag him back, and get out without any kind of alarm."

Alex nodded in agreement. "Okay, I'll admit it, I'm starting to like our chances here."

"Bruh, we got this." Cliff cheered on.

"Our only play is to get our guy, get our elements together, and get out so we can regroup for the big fight." Rick noted. "Okay, so I guess we have a lot of gun cleaning to do before we head out."

"I'll be sure to send out a scouting party to the church to survey the activity there. If we notice any openings in security, we'll go with it." Shining said as he looked to his dad. "Just try to be careful, dad."

"My number one priority was always to come back home, son." He looked to his daughter. "Sugar bear, take good care of yourself."

"Give him hell, dad." Twilight replied.

Celestia looked to Alabaster and quickly asked him of another request. "You worked with Nondis and got him up to an intermediate speed fairly quickly. Can I assume it was from your father's method?"

"Sadly, yeah." He replied with some apparent disgust. "All his books are sitting in the old study."

"Well despite your father turning out the way that he was, I can say that the façade he put on in my institution was at least a pleasant one to work with. I know your father's method is unconventional and somewhat combative, but I'll need you to do the same with Stanton until the time your party heads out."

The stallion showed some disdain over having to go through his father's lessons again, but showed himself to be willing to commit. "Your highness, I'll do what I can."

"Also your father's words." Celestia informed him.

"Euuugh! Just cremate me already."

The Umbral Lab
The Next Day...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

I don't know what day or hour it is. He had me under anesthesia for so long that I can't make track of things anymore. My head was swirling, lots of randomized thoughts had swarmed as my brain tried to piece together answers. The room was quiet. It was as if I had just blinked from the moment I woke up on that table when he was pulling my ribs out...

MY RIBS!?

My hand flung to my chest, feeling the stiches running down my entire chest and abdomen. There was no blood, it seemed like it healed up already. But in all reality I understood that he did a lot to me when I went under. I could remember what it was he said he was doing, some sort of bone marrow implants.

I didn't initially feel the difference until I had realized that my wrists were free from restraint. I let my arms hang loose after reaching for my stiches, only to suddenly discover just how heavy my limbs seemed to be. Even lifting them, I felt like I was lifting another five pounds throughout my arm. Did I gain weight with what all he did?"

I stood up, trying to gather my balance, but I felt a bit off. I looked down, seeing just what happened. There were scars all over my body, stiches from various incisions. My legs looked like a set of lace-down boots, my knees look like I had just gotten them fixed after a bad ACL tear, my thighs seemed like they were sliced into like meat and stuffed. There was an assortment of stiches all over my waist, among some areas where it felt like I had just got a hip surgery done. I reached down to confirm that everything was a bit longer on the front end of things, stiches there too, along with a skin graph. My chest felt bigger, almost as though I had a little more room to breathe.

Then came the moment I felt that I dreaded the more. I felt against my back, feeling a elongated stitch job running the entire length of my spinal column. Even past my neck, I felt the stiches running up to the back of my head. Then they stopped. I ran my fingers through my hair, nothing on my skull that showed a point of entry. Fingers against my jaw, nothing there either. But as I ran my fingers down my neck, I noticed something that deeply scared me. There was a long set of stiches lining at the base of my neck, I trailed it to find the end, all throughout the front... around the side... intersecting the stiches up my spine... back around again... all throughout the front... around the side. I placed both hands on my neck in horrifying disbelief, using both hands to trace from the back of my spine to hopefully not meet in the middle of my throat.

They did just that, meeting in the middle of my throat.

Fear and panic ensued, consuming every ounce of space in my brain. My breathing grew erratic, my arms trembled, my cheeks grew cold, was this even my body I was walking around in? I couldn't see how my face looked, there was no mirror to see myself in. There's no measure of me I could try to identify myself. The scar on my stomach from Mel's operation, that's been cut back open and sewed closed. The incisions for my previously dislocated shoulder, written over by stiches, my wrists have been stitched, my ankles have been stitched, it's pretty damn obvious that I've been decapitated and stitched back together like a rag doll.

I'm not me anymore.

Umbra opened the door and entered the room with a brightened smile. "Ah, so Sleeping Beauty awakes. Welcome back to the world of the living."

Just hearing those words made my skin crawl more than it already did.

"So, I'm sure you're just as curious as to what's going on right now. And while I would normally not tell you such things as to not ruin the surprise, I think I'm going to tell you that you will be getting some company."

"What did you do to me?" I asked, still very startled over the scar I felt on my neck. "Where am I, what day is it, what did you do to me─"

"Patience is a most important virtue." Umbra whispered as he sealed my lips shut with his magic. "Now, I guess I could answer some of those questions, but I won't do all of them. Where are you, with me of course, here in my humble little lab of discovery. What day it is doesn't matter, we don't count days when work is being done, we count the ways our work can be done, the operations we can perform, the incisions, implants, changes, alterations, even anatomical enhancements. At best we can count the hours, but I already gave you too much of that during your little wake-up spell on the operating table. So does that cover it?"

I continued to feel at the scar on my neck. "What did you do to me!?"

Umbra quirked a brow before coming to the realization of what it was that stressed me out so much. "Ah, okay. You're probably wondering about that scar on your neck and if it has some semblance of importance to your condition. Actually, I did do a thing while you were out, I'm sure you wouldn't have wanted to be awake for it anyhow, so count your blessings that I was merciful enough to keep you asleep while doing it."

"WHAT DID YOU DO!?" I screamed before he sealed my lips again.

"Okay, okay, I'll tell you. But before I tell you what I did, I want to tell you why I did it." He began with an amused trot towards me. "So I've been perusing through your world's internet all from the time I had grabbed hold of your friend. He had a device similar to yours, a cell phone. So I went through it all, trying to find some information about the so-called groundbreaking surgeries that you humans have mastered, the ones you've proposed, and then ones that have been regarded as insults to the scientific community. Though I don't consider them as insults personally, I consider it as merely answering the questions we often leave unresolved in ignorance. But not everyone understands that process, there's always a group calling out the equinity of these matters, or 'humanity' in your world's jargon."

He stood before me, lifting my chin to speak to me directly.

"So color me surprised that I discover a modern surgeon who's theories and practice is shunned by the greater medical community at large. You may not know his name, but I will tell it to you. Dr. Sergio Canavero, an Italian medical expert who wishes to conduct an operation which would truly be ground-breaking for your species. That operation, a human-head transplant. Now if successful, it would give a healthy head ridden by an underdeveloped or otherwise vegetative body a chance to relive their life in a relatively healthy body instead. So I grew curious, let the dolls work on you while I pulled up that bit of research, and grew curious if his theory held water."

He turned my head, observing the scared tissue on my neck.

"So being that I did have your friend Jasper sitting in storage, I repaired all the tissue you damaged, closed and sealed all the blood vessels, tested the nerve endings of the spine to confirm that signals can still be sent to the body, I already don't use embalming fluids, rather artificial blood simulants in my process of keeping up a cadaver─which is why my bodies tend to look so great for funerals, almost as if they're alive. So I did all of that, verified that the body can still activate without the dead head present, moved that subject into the room with you, cast a little spell on you so that you don't keel over once separated for too long, identify the exact chop I used to to sever exactly the cartilage between C4 and C5 of your spine, lift, move, attach, and quickly align the nerve endings. And thus waited for the results."

I wanted to throw up. I found myself hunching over as I felt deeply sickened, gagging and threatening to eject anything that was in my stomach.

"Sadly, while the results did yield a bodily response, the response from the body was not favorable. You were rejected by the body." He concluded as he continued speaking. "But then I came to realize that this was just another confirmation of my mana imbuement theory. My theory states that if a magical being, like us ponies, ever share the commonality of that trait as mana, that word being the scientific word for magic, our anatomical code will accept whatever is given and will grow to assimilate into it's new host, hence why my beautiful little creature is so active the way that it is. So how does it fair against you human's anatomical assimilation rate? Well, imagine a pristine ninety-eight percent of a pony versus the coin-flip of a human's fifty percent. You have one side being the virtual constant, the other being a variable. So if I were to ever try to even have the same success with you as my new brain for a creature built in your own likeness, it will take me a minimum of 432 humans to even come up with the bare minimum of 216 bodies to apply. And the subject known as Jasper, sapien-0, will unfortunately be considered as a rejected candidate."

I looked to him with fear ever present in my eyes. My entire being was shifted into my chest, much less my stomach.

He continued on. "So yeah, I will need to bide my time for more humans to experiment on. Then there's the process of acquiring and accumulating human bodies in a fresh state, both in relatively good condition and without undergoing the embalming process. We have a lot of work to do, you and I, but we are soon to bask in brilliance. All that is required is a bit of patience." He unsealed my lips, smiling as he kissed me. "So what do you think, my dearest human mate?"

All I could think of was the number of bodies he had to sift through just to even find the ones he needed to use to terrorize the rest of the human race. All I could imagine was the sight and sounds of military grade weaponry firing into an amalgamation of human corpses, each of them screaming out as though they were alive to feel the pain. What happened to me was already unbearable to think of as it is. So if that was the fate he had lined up for me, there's only one way I would prefer it. "...Kill me."

The stallion tilted his head. "I'm sorry, what now?"

"Kill me. Just finish it. You already took my head off of my body, you even made my body to where I can't even recognize it anymore. Just kill me, please. I don't want to live like that, I just want to be me..."

The stallion slowly cackled, then giggled like a giddy schoolchild, and finally erupted into a maniacal laugh, his voice cracking through several phases of it. He looked to me with eyes glinting with madness. "Ah, you wish to die? After everything I gave you, after all my hours of work in getting you the body you deserve, you wish to die!?" He laughed again. "I find it ironic that I would save your life multiple times and you'd wish for death! You'd wish to invalidate my work by dying. That's so damn amusing!"

With the cuffs on my wrists that I could not remove, I had to resort to finding a means to end my own life. I looked around the room, seeing that it was too well padded to even allow me to bash my head against the wall. I reached for my own throat, hoping to crush my trachea, but I found myself not being able to.

Umbra snickered erratically as he laid me against the wall, holding his hooves into my chest. "Oh wow, you're even trying to do it. But I should have you know of a little addition I injected into your your spine. I'm sure you wouldn't otherwise know of it until I had to show you." He stopped laughing at me and lightly pressed his hooves into my neck. "But if this is what you wish for, to invalidate me as you see fit, I will grant you this one wish... in spite of it being what I detest." The pressure on my trachea grew, cutting off all of my air supply. He leaned in, whispering to me as he choked me. "So go on, let go." He said as I struggled against him, he replied by increasing the pressure, putting his entire weight into my neck. "Suffer no more, surrender to the sweet embrace of eternal slumber. Close your eyes. Free your soul. Give up fighting. Dive into the abyss, engage in the great conversation, know no pain or suffering. That sounds good, doesn't it?"

I don't know what drove me to react the way that I did, but it was as if all of me in that moment had pushed all of my adrenaline to the ceiling. I battered his hoof away and punched him, sending him flying across the room. The stallion bounced off the padded walls and stepped back up, laughing as he coughed up blood. He smiled back at me and pointed.

"See? I told you that little extra was enough to get it going! You wouldn't have known about that little bit until it happens! But you'd have to be close to death! What was it, it was none other than your fight-or-flight response overriding your suicidal instinct. That's it! That's the injection! I made it to where you virtually cannot and will not kill yourself! Assisted suicide, immune! Even downright assassination is something you can't keel over and accept! You will strive to fight and live until your brain is nothing! And with your healing factor as an element bearer, you'll be virtually indestructible! PERFECT!"

That was it. That was the moment that truly broke me.

I looked at the hands who's weight I couldn't identify, I glanced down at the scar climbing up my chest, I bent down and saw the legs that supported me, and I admitted total defeat. Going home was never an option, not anymore. I won't have a happy marriage to Celestia, I won't have the five kids we agreed on, I won't know what it's like to win against this monster, to see Law Processu Approbatio repealed, or even see my family and friends again. There is no more freedom of a man to be had, only the beginnings of a monster soon to come... a monster that will hoard the lives of others for my own survival.

I can never go home again... I will never go home again.

Usually when I think of Sunday morning, I think of my grandparents waking me up, asking me to get clean, get dressed, and act accordingly before attending the usual eleven o-clock service. I'd usually be sitting on a back row with all the other youth to separate ourselves from the religious fanatics during praise and worship. Once we hear the pastor start his sermon, we leave and head off to a back room and talk shit, that or invade the breakfast nook for bagels and coffee. It took Nondis a while to get out of being one of the fanatics to being just like us on the back row.

Today had me missing that back-row buddy of mine.

Breakfast came, we ate our food, discussed more findings about that creature, and started planning our various methods of approach, capture, and escape. Since Twilight was a stickler for being well-prepared, she stayed up the night to put together a series of plans to go by for each phase.

The first phase was infiltration. Plan A was to walk in as parishioners on a guest visit, enter a confessional booth, and interrogate the priests there for any information. Plan B was to have some 'plain-clothed' guards enter inside and gather with some of the deacons to speak of how to save themselves from eternal damnation. Plan C was to take advantage of the chaos going on outside and urging street dwellers to shelter into the church for protection, probably to distract most of the staff and get them to flock towards the sanctuary. And then there was Plan D, walk in like tourists trying to check the place out as another party snuck in. Blue then added another plan, Plan E, which was to use her platform and protest marriage rights in the chapel itself. And since her supporters were on standby with the recent things that have been happening, it only made sense to use what she already had. Plan E for phase 1 it was.

The second phase was access. Plan A was to hopefully use the information given by one of the deacons to enter into the lab from there. Plan B was to follow a deacon into creating the pathway for us and giving us a chance to leap in after him, hold the point of access open, let the rest of the others inside, knock him out, and continue on. Plan C was the one we didn't want to do unless there was no other choice, and that was to search every room in the church until we had found the access. Alabaster managed to pull a few cards with his informant Crème, getting one scroll to access the lab from within the church, we held that as our Plan D. Bonus points, we'd follow through with Plan A and see if a deacon intentionally gives us the wrong access, that way we'd know if we should lock down the church as well for investigation.

The third phase was search and rescue. This phase was a little more straight forward with only two options. Plan A was to have Princess Celestia's party, or Royal Party create a diversionary front. The princess and her party will hopefully confront Ummie, who will be interested in seeing who is running into his lab and making a mess of things. Twilight's party, or Hero Party will actively search the area for the main compound where the monster is rumored to be hiding. They'll buy us some time for our search. Our party, or Liberty Party, will search the rooms one-by-one, seeing if we can find Nondis, extract him, and get him to the rendezvous point. Once we confirm, we should be able to send a message to the other parties letting them know that our VIP is confirmed for evacuation. Kalimba has a working phone, Twilight has a working phone, and we have at least five.

And then there's the final phase, withdrawal. There's only one approach we know that can work here, and that is teleportation. We all teleport our respective parties out of that place, directly back into the castle where we should be safe. Shining Armor was left behind for this purpose, to ensure that our home base is accounted for with absolutely no chance of entry. The castle grounds would be sealed off from the moment we leave the castle, nothing gets in or out, be it in the sky above, or even the ground below. That should buy us some time to be able to work an escape plan, getting Nondis reacclimated to freedom and more so prepared in leading us to take down Ummie in the final standoff.

After some intense regiments from Alabaster, Stanton has started getting the hang of his newfound magic abilities, but so far he could only levitate some stuff and not much else. Alex went through the painstaking effort to clean our weapons alongside Rick, needless to say that those two came out smelling like death and needed multiple showers before setting off. Princess Luna, after getting a few hours of rest, took to the mantle of barking out orders while Shining oversaw security on the castle grounds. The girls came back in and were notified of their mission and we were set to make our move out to the church. And as we left the grounds, a bright magenta beam shot to the sky and sent down a large bubble surrounding the entirety of the royal castle grounds.

All of us humans gawked for a moment as Twilight made a mention to her brother. "It's smaller, maybe this one will be a lot less stressful on him."

Her father looked on with pride. "That boy never ceases to amaze me. Sometimes I look at the both of you and ask myself if you two are really what came from me and your mother. I knew the sex between us was special, but I didn't know it would be so mold-breaking."

Twilight stuck out her tongue in disgust. "Eugh, don't say that out loud."

Crescent chuckled at his daughter. "Oh come on now, you're at the age where you know exactly how you got here."

"Doesn't mean I wanna think about it."

While the rest of us saw some amusement in the interaction, Twilight tried her best to remain focus on the task at hand. However, it was her father who was trying to lighten the mood before we had to go in and inevitably face what we were going to face. "I didn't think a romp in the bathroom sink would somehow make a princess out of it."

"DAD!"

Some time had went by as I came to the realization that I was stuck here, forever to possibly be a lab rat until he had accumulated enough bodies to where he would be able to turn me into another one of that thing. I started to wonder if maybe my being chosen as an element bearer was somehow a mistake, maybe even a fluke. Let's be real here, since I got that thing, has it ever did anything for me since I've been here other than to heal me faster than I would like at this point? Hell, I swear that thing was helping him along more than it helped me.

The door opened to my room, I saw another one of those damned dolls he calls in to do his dirty work while he looks up another way to cut me open. The only thing that was on my mind at this point was whether or not I was about to get hooked up to some apparatus to shock me, tied down to some mast where he can sexually abuse me, or even dump me on an operating table where he'll cut me open with the latest and not-so-greatest medical theory from the human world fresh on his mind.

"Hellooooo?"

That was a foal's voice. I shot up to see who had called out. My face was already drained of hope, so it was only adding to my reasons for wanting death when I saw that filly's colorless, lifeless face. I sulked to myself, not wanting to answer.

Not that it mattered anyhow, she still walked in. "Hello there, big brother."

I looked down to her, seeing the shadow that stretched only a paltry three-feet around where she stood. All I could see in that moment was my future, one I didn't want, one I didn't prepare for, and one I was forced to have. She even rubbed salt in the wound by calling me 'big brother' also. I already vomited enough to feel myself being detached from my gag reflex.

She walked up to me, putrid with the stench of death surrounding her. "You look sad, big brother."

I looked to her, seeing the actual emotion of concern on her face. I then looked away, convincing myself that it wasn't really real. "What does it matter?"

"Daddy wanted me to see what you were doing. It's my wake-up time, he says. He told me I should go play with big-brother instead of playing with my doll today."

I looked over to the faceless doll standing in the doorway. "You play with that thing?"

"No silly, those are just the servants!" She called out happily. "They don't do anything but what daddy tells them to. And they don't say anything either, other than bedtime, playtime, intruder, and walk time."

"Intruder?" I asked.

"Mmmhmm!" She confirmed while nodding. "The bad ponies who do bad things to the servants! There were three bad ponies that one time, but they let me have walk time early then. It was fun getting to run through the halls! Usually they don't want me running through the halls, I make a pretty big mess."

"A pretty big mess." I repeated in a murmur.

"Yeah! I usually go all SWOOM and WOOSH and BANG!" She said before visualizing her exaggerations in running around the room. "And then all the servants' stuff goes all DINGILING and CRASH and BOOM!" She said as she sank into the floor, popping up just in front of me to jump out with one last sound. "BOOM! And then everything's broken."

Hearing the complete innocence in her voice just seemed like a cruel juxtaposition to what she actually was. I looked at her another time, but really taking the time to get a good look at her body to see any markings or incisions. Of course there were several, her legs had old scars, her neck looked like it had been sliced through too, her back seemed to have had the same thing done to it as mine. "I have a question, does your daddy love you?"

"Mhmm!" She confirmed. "Daddy loves me, he calls me special! He says I'm his prized possession."

I then asked the filly. "Don't you think somepony who loves you wouldn't do cruel things to you like that?"

The filly appeared confused. "What do you mean?"

"I mean look at what he did to you. Doesn't it scare you?" I asked.

She looked down at herself and held out a foreleg. "Oh yeah, that! Daddy did that for me so I could walk!" She said so excitedly that her voice cracked.

"You couldn't walk?" I asked.

"Nope!" She happily answered. "I was so sad then! Back then, all the other kids wanted to do was keep me away from them, saying that my body was a case of the cooties! But daddy said it was something called muskal... mustal... muskulur dis... muskur dispony."

"Muscular dystrophy." I corrected her slowly.

"Whatever that is." She dismissed. "But my legs couldn't move. I was born with it, so my legs looked so much smaller than the other ponies. I couldn't even walk on crutches! Everywhere I went, they called me Sluggy the Slug! I hated it!"

I found some ability to chuckle at that name, but it didn't last long. "Sluggy? Sounds to me that you didn't have very good friends at school."

"I wasn't in a school. I was in an orphanage."

"An orphan?" I questioned.

"Yup. And everypony told me that I would never get adopted because I looked like a slug." She replied as she held up her foreleg. "But daddy fixed me after he adopted me! He made it to where I could walk! I could finally play with the others instead of getting made fun of for crawling on my belly all the time!"

I couldn't find myself to sympathize with her complete, as I was very aware of what she was and what she could do. "But don't you think your 'daddy' did something bad to you when he 'fixed' you?" I pointed to the various scars on her body. "I know you're excited that you get to move around now, but don't you think that what you're doing is wrong?"

"Nope!" She cheerfully replied. "I just do what daddy tells me! And he tells me that I do good when I finish! He gives me ice cream, he lets me read books, he even tells me stories of a evil princess and how he does his best to beat her!"

I shook my head at the filly, realizing that there would be very little I could say to condition her to think otherwise. "But what about those others you pick up and throw around? Don't you think it's mean to do that?"

"But daddy tells me that they're all special dollies! All of them have their own look and he lets me play with them! I have fun when he lets me play with them!"

"They aren't toys." I stressed to the filly. "They are ponies just like you, not action figures you can fling across your room when you want them to do crazy flips! They are moms, dads, kids to some other ponies out there! And they're trying to sleep. It isn't nice when ponies wake you up in the middle of the night, is it?"

The filly shook her head. "Nuh-uh! They're my dollies! Daddy told me so! They make me happy! And daddy says that they aren't anything but toys! So he lets me play with them!"

Figures he would see these bodies as nothing but playthings for him and his creature. "Your 'daddy' can say that they're toys, but they aren't. They are ponies who are... in a special kind of sleep─"

"A sleep that they can never wake up from." The filly concluded, raising up a body and showing me a young mare from within her shadow, suspending her into the air as if she was to be modeled. "Daddy told me that once we all go to sleep like this, we turn into dollies. And he tells me that they all want to be played with, to make them feel like they're having fun! I'm only doing what he told me to!"

"Your 'dad' is a bad guy. He makes others hurt and feel bad. He does a lot of things that others don't want. He takes them away from their families, do horrible things to them, and then keeps them for himself after they die when the family wants them to sleep peacefully! How do you just excuse that!?" I stressed as I felt the scars on my body. "Look at me! Do you think I wanted this!? I DON'T, I WANNA GO HOME! I WANNA SEE MY FAMILY AGAIN! I WANNA HAVE FUN WITH THEM!"

"But daddy said you're a part of our family now." The filly argued with a pouting demeanor.

"I'm not! I'm me... I think... I don't know... But I don't belong here. I'm not even a pony! What part of that makes you see that I somehow belong here with you!?"

"Because daddy says so!" She replied firmly, walking up to me. "And you're my big brother now! This is my family! Everyone loves me here! And daddy says you'll love me so much that you'll be just like me!" I wanted to gag at her words, but I found very little left within myself to heave out. The little filly hugged against my legs, causing a few corpses to hug me in turn. "We are a family here! And we don't be mean to one another! You'll love it here, big brother! Daddy will make you better! You'll see!"

I sickly glanced down at the corpses that hugged against me and shuddered from their cold touch. "Do they feel better? Have you ever asked them how they feel?"

"Silly big brother! They don't feel anything! Daddy said so!" She answered.

As much as I wanted to try and tell her what she really was, I think she neither cared nor questioned it. She was truly happy in her delusion, ecstatic over her newfound lease in a cruel draw of life. And Umbra fed her whatever he wanted to make her feel vindicated in her current state. Does she not smell the corpses around her? Do the return of silence not disturb her? Even kids can differentiate good and evil, what's natural and not, what's alive and dead. They can be the strongest of us when we adults break down. So how, how does she not put it together like the bodies she strung along with her?

There really is no hope.

The little filly smiled as she gripped me even tighter. "We're gonna have so much fun! We'll have races, and running tests, and play hide-go-seek, and eat ice cream, and talk about our dollies when you get some! It'll be so much fun! You're gonna love it so much!"

I looked down to see the corpses grasping around my legs, pain started to set in as I struggled for my freedom. "Let me go!" I urged.

"Sorry! Daddy told me to hug you and hug you until you feel like you're about to pop! Something about making sure that you don't fall apart when I hug you."

I started bashing my fists against the pony corpses that clutched onto me, their dead grip was just as forgiving as their odor. My legs started to squeeze in and it felt like I was at my breaking point. I screamed at the filly. "STOP IT!"

The filly smiled. "Hug me back, and I'll stop!"

I held my breath, reached down, and gave the filly what she called for. "There! I gave you a hug, now let me go!"

The filly giggled happily. Another corpse crawled up my back, bearing down on me as I tried to free myself from my new predicament. The filly held on to me as she started to sink me down. "Come play with me, big brother! Now you gotta come down and play with me!"

My fight or flight responses were kicking in, I was struggling to free myself, but all in vain as I screamed before she sank me into the ground with her other corpses. Everything above appeared as a dim light hiding under a black sea of water I felt myself drowning in. And all around me were the faces of every corpse she assimilated for the moment. Each of them hugged me and welcomed me as I heard a swallowed voice call from up above.

"Don't tell daddy, but I'm taking you to my room to play with me!"

The Temple of Faust
***Point of Perspective: Melanie Brewer***

With the information that was passed on to us by our plain-clothed informants, we deduced that the crowds had gathered outside of the church pleading the deacons for a prayer service after having some of their family members being reported to the castle on Friday evening to the midnight hour of Saturday. But for some odd reason, they seemed to refuse having a service on yesterday morning. Odd call there.

Blue signaled to her group of supporters to start their protest, even going so far as to have them lead an effort to storm the church. The onlookers may have disagreed with the sentiment, but they were adamant on being able to enter the church. Once they saw the protestors pushing their way in, they saw the opportunity to push in as well. They were firm on wanting to have their prayers heard, and they were all-in for having a place to exercise that religious right.

With an unusual mix of both Plans C and E being active, we snuck around to the back entrance and watched as Celestia weaved a spell to allow us to phase through the back wall of the abbey. From there, Blue weaved a spell to hide us from the general populace of the institution. A number of bishops and deacons started running towards the ensuing chaos, looking to hopefully quell the situation before potentially turning violent. But at the same time, we saw an archdeacon issue orders before walking the opposite way, trotting towards what appeared to be an office. Two other friars nodded as they removed themselves from either side of the door and he entered within.

"Be sure to help the others out in the sanctuary. We don't need anarchy in the halls of the church. Faust wills it." He stated as the two acknowledged his orders and departed. As they closed the door, Twilight used a spatial disruption spell, making it appear to the archdeacon inside that the door was closed, but in all reality we had just opened it back up and all filed inside to wait and see what he would do.

He reached within a closet, pulling out a black robe and sat it on his work desk. Meantime, he started quickly taking off his religious garments in lieu of the robe he sought to change into. As he finished, he walked back to his wardrobe and placed a scroll on the door, he drew a circle and a number of runes within it. Upon it's completion, it started glowing blue before splitting right where the two doors met. He opened the wardrobe to unveil an immaculate white hallway with a number of glass sliding doors on each side. He threw on his hood and walked inside. Alabaster walked up to hold the door open and we all snuck within.

We looked back at the doors that allowed us passage and thought heavily over what was going on. We knew that once those doors closed, we'd have almost no way back by any conventional means. But since our mode of escape was teleportation anyways, we thought light of that and carried on with our shadowing the stallion.

We continued to follow our target of interest, mainly to scope out the layout of where he was going and how he was going to get there. If we were going to get ourselves into two different fights, then we needed to at least map out what routes we could take to secure an escape or arrange a rendezvous point where we can zap ourselves out together. Alex had already started on that process, mapping out areas where we were and giving out markings of certain room numbers to use as a point of reference, especially since the four halls we traveled through looked very similar to one another.

There were these strange white puppets walking around, each of them with a green glowing gem at the center of their forehead. Some walked with carts and tables, others with supplies, I think we even saw one moving a body down the hall. Then there were two more that walked completely past us, not even knowing we were there all thanks to Blue's spell. But as much as we were taking it easy to start off, we noticed that the minister had frozen in place. Two of the dolls walked towards him, but then there was a third figure, one we didn't anticipate seeing up until later.

A little filly pranced towards the statuesque minister and greeted him. "Hello, mister Sacred Ark!"

"W-w-why he-hello." He stammered. "I-I didn't think you'd be out and moving at this time of day. Usually the master has you walking in the throws of the night hour."

"Daddy's letting me walk around today!" She excitedly replied. As her excitement grew, the shape of the shadow around her grew slightly. Each of us walked towards the walls to avoid having to step on the shadow if she ever passed by us. She continued to speak as we tried to avoid her path. "He says I should go and play with big brother. But I haven't seen big brother around today."

"Big brother?" The cloaked minister questioned.

"Mmhmm! He's supposed to be around here somewhere. I'm just checking the rooms." She said calmly before exploding into excitement. "Ooh! Maybe he's playing hide-and-seek!"

The stallion chuckled nervously as he stepped out of her way. "Okay, well try not to be too rowdy now. The master doesn't like having to clean up the entire lab every time you run a little too wildly."

"Oh no! I won't do that again! I'd lose my ice cream time for the day trying to clean up. And that's way too boring to do." She grumbled.

"Well then you know what to do." He replied as he carefully walked around her shadow. "Have a good day, little one!"

The little filly sent a shadow tendril out to reach up and hook the stallion's foreleg to stop him from moving forward, the tendril looking as if it was made of an amalgamation of flesh. "Wait, you haven't forgotten my name, did you?"

The stallion nervously called out to the filly. "Why of course not. Your name is... uh... Darling Angel, at least that's what the master has told me."

The filly giggled as she released the tendril from around his leg. We watched with horror as the tendril sank back into the ground and retracted into the shadow down below. "Yay! You remembered this time!"

"Of course! I wouldn't forget." He said before increasing the pace of his trot away from her. "Now if you excuse me, I have an important matter I need to discuss with the master about matters topside."

"See you later, Mr. Ark!" She called out, waiving her hoof to the minister. With her conversation concluded she walked along her way, but stopped once more as she shifted her head around the hall. All of us stood quietly, some calmer than others as she took a skeptical glance at the floor. "Hmm... Something's off."

We all looked down to see what it was that had her attention. It didn't take long for Stanton to cover his mouth as he realized his large foot had his toes standing on the outer edges of the shadow she sent out. He was motivated to move his foot, but Blueblood held a hoof out to stress to him that he should remain still. Pinkie Pie held her breath, waiting for the filly to make her next move. Both Celestia and Crescent ignited their horns in anticipation of an early fight.

The filly's eyes widened as she realized something crucial. "Oh no! I'm supposed to be off to my room by now! He can't wait that long for me to play with him!"

She darted off down the hall past us, clearing all of us out of her shadow. As soon as she turned the corner, we all breathed a collected sigh of relief. Stanton raised his foot, cussing in a pant as he clasped at his chest. "Motherfucker! That shit was not lit, that shit was not it! Holy hell!"

"You did good in not moving your foot." Blueblood commended the more-than-relieved man. "Had you did, she would've lunged at you and we'd be fighting that thing here and now."

Alex then pointed out another detail of the filly. "Hey, that thing was supposed to have like a shadow of some twenty-feet, right? That thing looked incredibly small for twenty feet."

"That was probably just a simplified version." Alabaster suggested. "I'm sure the 'big brother' she's on about is the creature in it's entirety."

"So you're saying that there's more than one?" Crescent questioned worriedly. "That can't be, that same voice that filly spoke with, that was the one we heard during our previous look around in this place."

"You've been here before?" I questioned him.

"It was that Tuesday when Umbra was distracted by Nondis' bout in the underground arena. Guiding Light could only show us the way in, the first way in. But the way out was a ghastly affair, plowing through a bunch of corpses and reaching a door, only to hear that filly sing about how her darling daddy is wasting away was not a good time to be had... Guiding Light was unfortunately impaled by one of those tendrils that poked out from the ground. This is probably the first time I've seen that thing's face so closely, the second I've seen it's resemblance."

"She's just a foal." Pinkie added with a saddened tone. "All she wants to do is have fun and eat ice cream. None of this is right."

"If you think that way, then go take a gander into one of these rooms, tell me what you find." Crescent warned coldly.

Alex looked back to the older stallion. "We're gonna have to do that anyhow to find Nondis."

"We're losing our track." Celestia warned sternly. "That archdeacon just wandered off and we let him go. He was our only shot at finding Umbra and cleanly confronting him at this point. We should trail him down."

Rarity looked to the high princess and spoke. "Then I guess we'll trail behind that filly who just ran past, since we're going to be fighting that thing, we might as well confront it now."

"If you hit it now, you might be able to kill it." Alex suggested. "It doesn't look tough as it is, just gruesome and small. Now's our only chance of taking that thing down."

"You might want to hold off on that." Blueblood warned. "We'll be doing this out of sequence if we go after her now. For now, we follow Celestia's lead until we run into Umbra."

Rainbow then argued against the prince. "But that thing is probably at it's weakest right now. If we fight it, we might just win!"

"Win while that thing can still use satellite bodies, in it's home turf, no less?" Blueblood rebutted.

"Bad idea." Crescent cosigned. "All it takes is for one of these doors to open, and it has another body added to it's collective, consider that before you fight that thing here in a heavily enclosed space with nothing but dead bodies in every room."

"If that little filly is the 'brain' of that thing, we kill her, that whole thing goes." Alex argued once more.

"Alex, I want to explain to you something." Blueblood said calmly, looking down the hall towards the direction of where that creature had wandered off to. "Do you know the difference between chance and opportunity in battle?"

"Yeah, and we're missing our best chance to put that thing down." He responded.

Blueblood pointed back to the man. "Exactly, you're missing out on a chance. Going after that thing when we know nothing of where Umbra is located, much less of your brother, we would be operating on a chance to do something monumental, but not taking advantage of the opportunity to save Nondis, which is what we're here to do. The one reason why you never win a battle when taking chances is that when you do so without the proper opportunity, there is a chance that you succeed... but there is also a greater chance that you fail. And if you should fail, there's casualties on your hoof that you can never wash off. Chances are fine for gambles, you can bet on something and have the chance to win or lose. But here's the difference between chance and opportunity; Chance comes with every moment, changing at every second, but opportunity comes once in a lifetime."

Twilight shook her head as she looked back towards the path the filly took. "Sadly, he's right. We might have a chance to win, but if we fight that thing now, it could alert Umbra to what's going on. And then we'll end up losing track of Nondis because of it."

"You also lose track of de Element of Magic by losing him." Kalimba supplemented. "Our focus to start should be to distract Umbra, den confront dat monster, den find Nondis and leave."

"And we are talking instead of finding Umbra. We have lost precious time." Celestia marched onward, Blue frantically trotted to keep the princess in the field of her spell.

All of us quickly jogged up to rejoin her, maintaining our cover within Blue's spell. Alabaster looked around as he tried to scout out what was where. Alex continued to jot down notes of where we were headed. As we came to a fairly empty hallway, we saw a set of double doors on the left side of the hall.

Crescent spoke up about where we were. "This place, this must be the staging room."

"Staging room, staging for what?" Twilight questioned her father.

"Probably that creature we walked by." Alabaster suggested.

"Exactly." Crescent confirmed. "This place is where we ran into our ambush that night. But what we did know was that there was an awfully large headless body in there of some creature."

"Big brother." Blueblood murmured. "That's where that thing probably is."

Cliff shook his head as he expressed his disbelief. "Hold on, wait a minute. You're telling me that we actively circled back around this place and somehow ran to the direction of where that thing had marched itself into?"

"To be fair, dis place has a lot of places that look de same." Kalimba said as she looked around.

"We still haven't ran into Umbra yet. So we should keep going." Rickey stated.

"No sign of the archdeacon either." I pointed out in frustration. "Did we really lose that guy that bad?"

"We wouldn't have been able to do much anyhow. We had to wait until that thing had run off." Stanton answered. "Think about it, if we had never ran into her, that dude would've never ran off as fast as he did. It was a loss either way."

Celestia cursed herself under her breath. "Ugh, dammit. We're going to have to change our approach."

"How so?" I asked.

The princess looked to Blue and pointed her further down the hall. "Blue, I want you to take the others down that way and start your search from there. There's at least another ten hallways down there from what I can see. If you go there, you should be able to find something."

"Right." The young mare confirmed before she noticed that the high princess had already summoned her halberd and walked out of the formation. "Wait, your highness─"

"My party with me. We bring Umbra to us."

As she and the others stepped out of the field of Blue's spell, two dolls walked down the hallway and took notice of the differing sets of hooves running towards them. Both of the puppets' jewels turned orange as they cried out in a scratchy voice "INTRUDER."

Celestia wasted no time in cutting them down, making sure that she hit the targets directly where they had glowed the most. And after they were cast to the ground, the junctions of their bodies glowed no longer as their limbs fell apart in a collection of wooden blocks. She called out in an angry voice. "UMBRA! SHOW YOURSELF THIS INSTANT!"

Alabaster grabbed at his sister. "She'll more than likely get his attention. We should keep going."

Blue looked back to Kalimba, who brought up the rear of the high princess' four-member party. "But what about─"

"She'll be fine! Let's go!" He reassured.

The young filly sat in her room, playing with her multitude of corpses as she shifted her eyes over to the shadow down below. Once she figured that she had gone unfollowed, she clopped her hoof against the ground to pull out a chain of ponies holding onto the human she captured, holding him upside down as her tendrils coiled around his left leg. Upon surfacing, he coughed and gagged as though he had come from under water.

The filly smiled at him as he struggled. "Sorry I kept you down there for so long, big brother. I know it takes some getting used to."

"Had you kept me under, I don't think I would've minded the results." He replied, quietly hoping that he would've drowned instead.

"But daddy would be mad at me! And I don't want to make daddy mad! He's scary when he's mad." She answered.

"Believe me, I know." He replied, still coughing.

One of the bodies had fallen off of her mass, flopping down to the ground. "Oops." She called out before reaching back to grab the corpse that segregated itself from her. But instead of it rejoining her, it stayed it's own entity. However, the reason soon revealed itself. The flesh of the corpse livened, the coat changing colors, and it's eyes blinked open, revealing the mad scientist who assumed the body that was once of the collective.

"There you are." Umbra called out to the human before looking to the filly. "I take it you must've gotten him out of his room."

The filly expressed her dismay. "Aww! No fair! I can never win!"

The stallion chuckled. "Of course not, my dear little Angel. You're a part of me. And a good father always knows where his little ones are."

"Daddy, daddy, when are we going to play again?" She asked as she held the human.

"When I finish my work, dear." He replied, walking towards the human in her tendrils. "I know you're so excited to play with your new brother. He'll be more than happy to cooperate in due time."

"Go to hell, Umbra." The human hissed.

He put his hoof on the man's cheek and felt him being damp. He looked towards the direction of where the tendril had risen from. "My dear, how long have you had him under?"

"Um... I guess... uh... 364 Maressissippi's." She answered.

"A little over six minutes. Good." He replied as he patted the human's face. "You're coming along nicely, it seems you humans' adaptive nature is more of a boon than I had originally hoped for."

"Can you drop me back down and count to thirty minutes, next time?" The human requested to the filly.

Umbra smiled as he kissed the man's cheek. "Of course not. You'd drown before that's finished." He then looked to the filly with a serious expression. "In fact, you weren't supposed to be down there at all today, much less for six minutes."

The filly's shadow shrank as she took a step back. "I'm sorry, daddy. I won't do it again."

His horn flashed for a moment, his eyes gazed up to his horn to notice the rapid flashing. He nodded as he spoke calmly. "Actually, you will be doing it again. Sink him down."

The human proceeded to plead with the filly. "Just leave me down here, don't bring me back up, please─" But his cries were suddenly silenced as he was dragged into her shadow.

Umbra cleared his throat and summoned his cane. "Good, now that he's under and deaf, take him to the big room you're usually doing your tests in. And when you finish, you come to me and wait for me to tell you to come out and not a moment sooner, we don't want to appear rude." Umbra wore a smile on his face as he started to walk out of the room. "We have guests today who will play with you."

"Guests?" She questioned.

"Indeed." He confirmed. "Ponies who want to be dollies, I suppose. And I know how much you love playing with your dolls. So why not have a few more today?"

The filly's shadow proceeded to grow as she showed an irrational excitement. "I̸ ̴g̴e̷t̵ ̸m̴o̸r̸e̸ ̴d̷o̵l̶l̷s̴ ̷t̴o̸d̷a̸y̸?̴"

"That's right!" Umbra answered to further feed her excitement. "Now hurry along and do your chores. When you finish, I'll let you play with your new dolls."

"T̸h̵a̵n̵k̶ ̶y̶o̷u̸ ̷s̴o̴ ̴m̶u̷c̸h̴,̷ ̶d̴a̶d̷d̴y̷!̶ ̷I̵'̵m̸ ̵g̷o̸n̶n̵a̵ ̶h̴u̷r̸r̷y̷ ̴a̷n̸d̸ ̴g̵e̶t̷ ̸i̵t̵ ̶d̷o̶n̶e̷!̸"

This venture through the halls had us going in circles, at least I thought so. All these damned halls look the same. And it didn't help that our venture had us short on patience and breath above all else. There was no telling where they had this man. And all it did was make us nervous of what we would find.

Finally Twilight suggested that we'd part ways for the time being, at least until we had found something substantial, that or simply finding Nondis. And we were about to come up with good idea in terms of our rendezvous point. But there was something that put our thinking to a screeching thought. Sounds of a set of hooves frantically galloping closer prompted us to stand on either side of the hall. The last thing we wanted was for that little girl to come darting past us. And if it had to happen, we were going to be out of her way.

It wasn't that easy anymore.

It was her, but not only did her shadow grow even larger, her tendrils appeared to surface of their own volition. And with as far as her shadow reached, trying to avoid her was nothing short of impossible. The only thing we could do was stand still as she passed. If she didn't notice anything, we could continue uninterrupted. And if not, Twilight's party would break off here and give us our best chance to escape to find Nondis.

She ran right through the hall, her shadow had found all of us. And when it did, all we could smell was the overwhelming stench of decay. And since we had to remain stationery, all we could do is bear with it until she passed, no reactions, no gagging, none of it.

"D̶̘̿á̶̼d̵̠̋d̶̳̒y̷̧͑ ̷̥͝g̸̢̎i̴̝̓v̷̬̌ì̴̮ń̶͕g̷̥̓ ̸̢͝m̷̘̆è̴̥ ̷͎͌s̵͍̽o̶̟̽m̶̡̊é̶̫ ̶̬̔ǹ̴̻e̴͎͌w̵̭͘ ̵͇͠d̶͉̂o̸̱͌l̵̜̀l̵͙͛i̵͍̓e̴͔̋ş̶̕!̸͕̂ ̶̝͒Į̶̓ ̴͓͋ç̴͐ã̸̺n̴̩̐'̸͍̒t̶̝͋ ̶͍̐ẃ̵ͅǎ̵͉i̴̯͑t̴̲̒ ̴̥͊t̷̪̃ŏ̵̞ ̷͉̂m̴̰̎e̶͈͂e̴͎͐ṭ̵̋ ̸̬̅t̴̘̃ḥ̵͆e̸̬͝m̷̪̚!̴̟̽" She seemed to not even know we were there, which was a relief. Seems that she was in a rush to play with her new dolls, though I personally wondered what those so-called dolls really look like. That's a question I'm sure I didn't want to know the answer.

One of her tendrils did manage to swipe at Alex's leg. And looking at the muscles in his neck, I could tell he wanted to express how much that hurt. But it didn't go completely unnoticed by the filly, who stopped and looked back to see what it was that clashed with her collective. She came to a screeching halt, looking back to us. Blue held her breath fearing that her spell had finally wore off. The filly didn't investigate into it any further and went about her way.

When she turned the corner, her shadow left us and we could finally move again. Alex immediately nursed his injury. "Ah, that shit hurt."

"You okay?" I questioned.

Alex nodded quickly. "Yeah, just feels like an abusive ass whooping from a dad with bad aim."

Cliff then responded. "So are we talking like switches, belts, paddles, or extension cords?"

Alex looked back at the man with bewilderment. "Yo, what kind of upbringing did you have?"

"Guys, we need to focus." Rainbow interjected. "I know that may be a deep conversation, but we can have that later. Right now that thing is on the move and getting stronger."

"So, about that split-off plan." Stanton began. "You think it's better that we just do that now and start flushing these halls, looking for results?"

"I concur." Rarity issued her agreement. "I don't think we should waste another moment. Who knows what they've been doing to poor Nondis."

"Are you all going to be okay?" I asked, mainly towards Apple jack.

The farm pony bravely replied. "Honestly, that there thing is the stuff of night terrors. But we ain't got time to be afraid."

"We got a world to save." Fluttershy added as she stood by her friend. "And you all have a world to save on top of a friend. Your cause is just as important as ours."

"Well the difference is that we won't get a stained glass window for what we're doing." I replied to the usually shy mare. "Our world won't even know what were up to, and it's probably better off that way."

"No great deed goes unrewarded or unrecognized." Twilight encouraged. "What you'll do will have an equally important part to Equestria's history. But if you don't believe me, then ask Nondis when you see him."

"If we even see him." Stanton murmured.

"We'll get him back." Cliff responded. "You guys just take care of yourself."

"Same to you." Twilight replied, giving Cliff a tiny smirk. "I would hate to see how Sunset would react if you just up and went missing on her."

"Well tell her I'll hopefully see her soon." He replied as Twilight turned around to sortie off with her friends.

"Tell her yourself." She replied while walking out of Blue's field of distortion.

As her and her five fellow element bearers ran off to trail that filly creature, Blue grew nervous as she looked around to see just us seven remaining. "Well, I'm not particularly good at teleporting multiple ponies at a whim, but I'll try my best if things get too hairy."

At that point we started pulling out our weapons, getting ready for whatever came our way. "Just as long as we don't see that thing, we should be all good." Alex noted.

Alabaster took front to lead the way. "Okay then... It's gonna be ugly, but let's start seeing what's in all of these rooms."

Yet another mannequin fell to the magic bolts of the princess who dared to boisterously carve her way into the halls of the underground lab. With every one that dared to charge at her, they were either effortlessly carved down or burned to smolders with a single shot. When there was more than one to come at her, she would dedicate herself to saving as much energy as she could for the impending confrontation. So as she would disable one, she would cast a few others behind her.

Behind her was a calm and collected, yet ever the lethal prince who donned his spear with precision and grace. As one came to her left side, he would launch his weapon directly at the doll's head, disabling the glowing jewel at the top of it's forehead. And to minimize his efforts, he would simply teleport the spear back into his possession. As another came from one of the rooms, he swept it's legs from under it, and in a fluid motion drive his spear into it's face to finish it.

Beside him to maintain the princess' right side was a former captain in his own right. Crescent, formerly known as Captain Night Light, would use his sword to cut down and disable every doll that dared to approach. Even some ones that were tossed behind from the princess' front would be finished off promptly by the steely stallion. While not fancy in any way, his method was a lot more straight forward and brutal. One mannequin was even unfortunate enough to be thrown from the princess his way, where he walked past it and kicked it's head in, sending splinters and wooden fragments down the hall.

As mannequins came rushing from the rear of their formation, Kalimba took to the mantle of disabling each and every one that came their way. She was not as strong as the others, nor as experienced, but where she showed potential was her physical prowess, dodging many attempts to capture and countering with swift blows to various joints to temporarily disable them before shooting them in the head where their jewels were. Since she dedicated almost all of her magic to fight the stallion who took the life of her father, her preferred weapon of choice was a .44 Remington Magnum, a loud weapon of choice, but one that would surely grab the attention of Umbra, thinking that there would be a human present.

Leaving a hall of splintered and sundered dolls in their way, they trudged forward, waiting for their desired opponent. But they did not have to wait for very long. As soon as they heard the hoof steps, the princess raised a hoof to halt the formation of her party. She waited with an incredibly frigid stare down the end of the hall.

Walking up as though he was yawning from boredom, Umbra turned the corner and saw the mess that was left in his halls. He groaned to himself and muttered. "Well, this will be at least four days to reorganize." He walked up to the party, unafraid, undeterred, and very much uninterested in the princess' appearance. "Well well well, look who it is causing a scene in my most hallowed laboratory. I swear I don't have respect for those who disrupt the scientific process."

The princess then replied to him. "Well if you have any blame to place on anyone, it should be in the archdeacon who brought us here."

His eyes opened wide for a moment, appearing a little frustrated at what she said. "Is that so?" He used his magic to quickly summon the stallion who made his earlier report. Upon being summoned, the stallion looked towards his master who appeared calm and quiet. He bowed before him before feeling his head forcibly turned to see the princess standing down the hall. Umbra then spoke to his cloaked subordinate. "So, about that little report you made earlier."

The stallion immediately panicked. "My lord, the princess is here! We must─"

"Shhhh." Umbra silenced the stallion. "Now... tell me how is it that you appear at this very time, with news of an uprising taking place in the halls of the church, and the princess finds herself walking my halls with two of her stronger lackeys."

The archdeacon wiggled free from Umbra's grasp. "Please, I didn't know. I made sure I was unfollowed, there was no one behind me at all. I closed the door, I covered the windows, I changed my garments, I did everything I was supposed to!"

"So you say now, Archdeacon Sacred Ark." Celestia spoke out. "But I do believe that we've discussed how we would be able to find what it is we want to find here. You even told us of how that thing of his moves, works, the truth of it's shadow, and even it's weakness."

"I SAID NO SUCH THING!" The stallion replied frantically. "My lord, you must not listen to her, she speaks lies!"

Umbra patted the stallion's head. "I am aware."

The princess continued to feign her story. "If you do not believe me, Umbra. Then explain how his sudden appearance also allowed for ours to manifest. He even guided us through one of the hallways where we saw your wandering beast talk to him. You even named her Darling Angel, what a beautiful name for such a foul creation."

Umbra looked to the stallion and glared coldly. "That's right... you did question me if I had allowed my little bundle of joy to wander the halls."

"I did not guide her! Please you have to listen to me!"

"But you did." The princess replied. "You disrobed, you placed a circle on your wardrobe closet, and opened the doors to this lab. You were even so kind enough to keep the door open for us."

Umbra didn't even look at the stallion, summoning magic into his horn to manifest into a tiny ball of concentrated energy. The stallion in his grasp pleaded for his life, but that soon fell silent. A small bolt of magic zipped through the stallion's forehead and his body fell motionless, all muscles in his body coming to an immediate rest. He dropped the newly deceased archdeacon to the ground and watched as blood began to pool around his head. He then looked up to the princess and smiled. "I know you and he didn't work together to bring yourself here. But I can't shake the fact that his arrival did bring you here also. As such, punishment was in order."

Crescent raised issue with the stallion killing the archdeacon in cold blood. "You are a cruel murderer. But then again, I suppose that only gives you yet another body to play with."

"Equine bodies are so overvalued these days." He said as he sat on the corpse of the stallion he murdered. "They're just there. I mean there's a different color, a different breed, maybe even a different species, but it's all the same to me really. There are so many ways to kill an equine, it's just boring and easy. You either wait around and let fate run it's course, or you just take the reigns and make their end as quick as you want it to be. It's the reason why I don't particularly like human weaponry, it can take the fun out of the process. What's a better way than to kill off someone when they know it's coming and they can beg for life as they experience it? It's the disbelief."

"The same disbelief it took to take a little filly's eyes?" Celestia questioned angrily.

The psychotic stallion shrugged with indifference to the princess' sentiment. "And pray-tell, how many foals did you contribute to their end? Teenage colts you've slain who's aim was to fight for glory and peace throughout Equestria?" He dipped his hoof into the stallions blood and began to write out a word on his otherwise immaculately white tiles. "How many sons, fathers, uncles, nephews, husbands, friends and strangers, how many have fallen to your halberd? How many have you spared once your armies were decimated beyond salvation? How many battles did you lose, to ultimately frenzy your way into massacre? What lives did you spare? Tell me, Celestia, who stood by your side when it was all over? And please do tell me what happened after."

Celestia said nothing as Blueblood stepped up to defend her. "You don't know anything about what she's suffered or what we had to endure─"

"Wasn't it you who was sentenced to the gallows?" Umbra pointed out, silencing the prince. "And for what, murder no less? Or here, I'll put it in the way it was rewritten by your adoring princess, a 'training accident'. It didn't matter what happened before you did it, you took a life out of spite. I'm sure whatever happened to you was never as grave as to warrant a death sentence." He then giggled. "Or maybe you enjoyed it, and didn't want to express how much you did."

Blueblood was set to lunge forward, but was held back by both Celestia and Crescent.

"Ah, and now we go on to you." Umbra replied, looking to the retired guard. "Such an immaculate image you've built up around yourself. Husband, father, breeding stock of two new-blood royals anointed and appointed to the throne. But I'm sure your family knows nothing of the things you hide in your shadow. How many mares did you sleep with for information, how many times did your wife play the role of a mistress to further your knowledge? Are you even certain that those two kids of yours are actually yours? Well I know you do, the secret paternity tests you've had done attest to that, and her finding that out almost led to a very messy divorce. Though of all the things you've done, I mainly consider the lives you've taken to destabilize some opposing nations. All who lobbied war against Equestria, you silenced them yourself with your own hooves. I mean you brought peace and stability to the realm, but how many fathers did you cull in your wake before becoming one yourself? How many families did you break, sever, destroy while keeping yours in the sunshine? How many times have your son begged for you to come home, all while you similarly ignored the other sons who begged for their fathers? And what of the one friend who actively assisted you in everything you've done in the shadows?"

"Don't you ever speak on him." Crescent replied coarsely.

"And why not? He only became what you should've been. Both you and he looked at the abyss together, but he was the one that took the next step. You cowered, ran back home, and decided to play the role of a family guy. To this day, it eats at you how you should've been right there with your friend, doing all that he did, how you abandoned him to the shadows to become what he was. I can assure you that his end was the most ironic, to be assassinated by his own sex slave of six years, truly pathetic." He then whispered to the former guard. "I bet seeing his face on my doll really made you see yourself, didn't it?"

While Umbra finished writing his message on the ground, pointing a bloodied arrow to the party before him, he caught glimpse of Kalimba in the back and smiled brimmingly.

"Ah! Now that's a way to get my attention! You should've been up front!" He said as he summoned the quiet zebracorn to his side. "Kali, my dear, how's it been!?"

The mare wasted no time, blasting him in the face with a bolt of magic, causing him to stumble and let her go. "My family will know peace." She spoke in a grave yet unusually straight voice. "And you will know death for your own self!"

Umbra got up to see Celestia's halberd coming down on him, he teleported to the other side of the formation, maintaining a safe distance. Both Blueblood and Crescent ignited their horns to ready their magic for combat. Umbra proceeded to summon his cane, holding it like he would a sword. "En guarde!" He playfully replied. "Ah, to see this day finally manifest. Strangely, I find myself shaking far less than I would in any means of the past. It's almost as if the spirit of my family is giving me strength and courage."

"Your family?" Blueblood questioned, still maintaining his guard.

"Why yes, Blueblood. Or should I call you the name lost to time, peasant to the realm of Sir Duke Mane Hatting, Gentle Step." Umbra answered, causing the prince to suddenly break his concentration, quenching his magic. "I know of you very well, it's hard to forget the one who started this mess. Had you not laid waste to my cousin, you would've known an insignificant death. Equestria would know nothing of you, and little of myself. It would've been perfect."

"I killed countless stallions and colts, but that was a distant time ago. Centuries I haven't heard that name." Blueblood answered. "Who are you?"

"Who am I?" He responded. "I'm the cousin of the colt you've killed. Not just any colt, but your very first one, your first blood."

Both he and Celestia looked to one another as they realized what he spoke of. "House Bastion." She muttered. She returned her attention to Umbra. "House Bastion was eradicated on the count of conspiracy against the crown."

"You say eradicated, I'd say that I'm still standing right here before you. So allow me to formally pontificate to the princess who's life will be taken today." He said, giving the princess a bow. "I am Umbra Sanctus, or Umbra for short. You may call me by my formal title Count Sanctus Quorum of House Bastion, sole proprietor of the estate. So please know that name, and engrain it into your memory as you will soon know the warm embrace of death."

There was a longstanding silence between the two parties. At least it lasted as long as no one said anything. But instead of being interrupted with words, it was interrupted with something unexpected. A giggle. A small chuckle from the princess herself as she looked around her and glanced back at the stallion. "Death?" She whispered before laughing outright, causing the once-confident stallion to scowl at her. "Oh, surely you jest! I couldn't even kill MYSELF in the number of times I've tried to! You think that any creation you make will kill me!? It's so amusing that you would think so! I've been stabbed, crushed, beaten, broken, my own foal miscarried before I could give birth to it, burned, every feather ripped and plucked from my wings, raped by many, heartbroken by few, poisoned to the point where I have an immunity to even cyanide, I've been everything but decapitated at this point. You might as well try something a little more... final than that thing you mucked up around here."

The stallion, while frustrated in hearing the princess speak of her experience, feigned a laugh in his own right. "So that makes you and I one in the same then. Surely I would've never expected us to be as equals, but here we are. Doomed to an eternal conflict of power and influence, set to make our mark across the annuls of history and engaged in a bout to the death for all of eternity."

"Two options." Celestia spoke. "Either you simply surrender or I simply scorch every single body you have in your possession. If I do that, then where do you run to?"

Seeing the princess remaining undeterred, he looked back down the hall and nodded. "Well, I would like to see you try to dispose of all of my bodies. But I'm sure you'll find out how much of an argument they'll put up against that idea." He looked back to Celestia and grinned. "Though I'm sure the reason why you're here isn't because of me, it might be because of a certain somepony who you've stolen for your own accord."

"And who might I have stolen?" The princess questioned.

"Why none other than the suitor of your youngest protégé." Umbra looked to Crescent to gauge his reaction. "You swooped in and became his romance after his suitorship with the young princess fell through. As ruthless as I always pinned you to be."

Crescent showed no change in his demeanor as he defend her. "What she does in her life, what my daughter does in hers, and especially what Nondis does in his has no bearing in this."

"No bearing? None? Not a single hint of emotional weight?" Umbra questioned as he summoned a phone to his side. He tapped at the screen and selected a picture he wanted to show to the princess. "Then your highness, tell me what you make of this unfortunate fate your suitor has met."

The princess stopped smiling as the phone was levitated towards her, on the screen she tried to make out what was being done. It didn't take her long to see the blood streaming from the table, or the presence of two humans in the room laying next to one another with Umbra standing between them. In the background was an assortment of tools and measuring devices, but sitting beside them was the head of a human male unknown to the princess' eyes. But that wasn't the thing that had grasped the princess attention so strongly, it was rather the other human lying to the left of Umbra, the headless body with a number of stitches and scars all over.

The princess held her disbelief initially, until Umbra scrolled to the very next photo.

As if the air had suddenly been rushed to her lungs, the princess' mouth was covered and her eyes grew to see the ghastly face before her. The image of her captain had shown upon the screen, his face sitting as peacefully still as the body he was separated from. The element was seated next to him in a plastic bag, a confirmation of what and who he was.

Celestia trembled, trying to control her emotions. The others dragged the phone down to see what it was that had her so bereaved. But all she could think of was the various moments they shared. She could remember his touch, how fresh it was, the moments he first arrived, the time she spoke with him about his potential return to his world, the instant she beat him at arm wrestling to show the strength difference between them, her watching as he was given the rank of guard, his talking to her in the hospital, how he complimented her wings, the moment she saw his image in the newspaper depicting his potential demise, the following report of his triumph, his gravely injured body being carried in by his younger brother, the conversations they shared as humans, the dinner date, her first kiss with him, how he held her when she cried, their first date, how he cleaned her wings, the first exchange of passion, the moment she held him in mourning his grandfather, the night she confessed her love to him, from the moment he tried to hold the sun, to the day he left the barracks. The final smile he gave her before leaving, that was brutally erased as his head sat motionless on the table.

The others observed what she did and felt grief in having seen it. Blueblood felt an enormous guilt overwhelm him, turning his head away as he blamed himself. Crescent felt the air in his body leave him as he felt almost as though he lost a prospective son. Kalimba, still dealing with the grief of losing her father, had to wrestle with the hurt of seeing him in such a state, all she could do was shrink in the moment.

Umbra retracted the phone and watched as they were fed on the despair of losing their friend, all while withholding the truth. Witnessing the varying emotions they had gave him life, joy in seeing the pain they shared in losing their friend. He especially enjoyed Kalimba's reaction, who had just collapsed to the ground, holding herself as though she had very little left to fight for. He stayed a moment longer to watch them dwell in the moment.

Blueblood took a sharp breath before steeling his resolve. He stood firm in the face of the loss and took to the mantle of being Celestia's emotional pillar. "Celeste, get up."

She wanted to grieve, she held her chest wanting to scream at her failure to protect the one she loved. But hearing the prince call her out removed her from that emotional vice and replaced it with a maddening rage building within her. "We will mourn later. For now..."

Kalimba found very little strength to be able to continue, overwhelmed with the grief of losing the stallion she adored. She screamed out in tremendous pain, causing Umbra to snicker. "And so once again, you are relegated to nothing. Daughter to a senator? Assistant to a captain? This ridiculous assertion of freedom? No longer, any of it. All of what you are is nothing more than a wish as dead as your parents. Perhaps you will do better to realize where you stand in all of this, girl."

Crescent stood in front of her, propping her up with his magic. "Chin up. I know it's hard right now. But what stands before you is the chance to make a difference in all of that." He replied, trying to encourage the emotionally distraught mare. "I've seen the abyss and I've walked away in spite of all I've done. I've lived a normal life outside of it. You can do just that, only if you are willing to take the first step. Nondis gave you that start, don't look back and think that's where you belong."

Umbra rolled his eyes as he shrugged at Crescent's words. "I mean you can try, but I don't think I'll let you have a choice in the matter."

Celestia disappeared from where she stood, suddenly reappearing beside the amused stallion. Her halberd threatened to come down on his neck, offering to give him the same treatment her beloved had undergone. However, her blow was intercepted by a tentacled entity that reached out to defend him. While the tendril was all but severed, the enchanted halberd came to a halt.

Umbra twirled his cane as he called out. "Oh Darling!" He slammed his cane to the ground, producing a high pitched ringing that immediately shut out all the lights in the entire lab. "Playtime."

Crescent, immediately recognizing what was taking place, illuminated his horn to give them as much light as they needed. He sounded to the others in the party. "Not good! That thing is headed towards us!"

"How do you know?" Blueblood inquired.

Blueblood gritted his teeth as he used his horn to light the area around himself, Celestia and Kalimba did the same. "...That's how." Crescent confirmed as he brandished his sword.

Umbra illuminated his own horn to offer one final message to the party. "Well as much as I would love to be a present parental figure to watch you lot play around, I have some work to do. And fortunately, that work involves the two human bodies I have in my possession. I'll be sure to clean up after you guys when you're done." He looked back to further down the hall, hearing the hoofsteps draw even closer. "Rather, I will be sure to clean up what's left of you guys when you're done. Toodles."

Umbra walked towards the growing shadow that consumed even the light that refracted off of the walls from their horns. The shadow completely engulfed the floors, the walls, and the ceiling of the hall. Celestia grimaced as she readied herself for the impending fight. Blueblood snarled as he readied his spear. Kalimba trembled, but stood ready to take on the creature.

Crescent stood firm as he spoke to the creature that marched towards them. "Alright, lets get a real good look at you."

When the lights suddenly went out, Alabaster raised a light on his horn to see. But instead of relying on that, we pulled out our phones and turned on our flashlights while using them. The stallion looked back to see our phones raised high into the air, surprised of their utility. He quenched his magic and we carried on with our journey of peeking through the rooms.

To say it was ugly was an understatement.

There were some rooms that made you question whether or not your constitution would hold up as much as you think it will. It's one thing seeing a dead pony laid out on a table or something with a cloak on it, but there's another when you have to see a dead pony with their faces uncovered. Some expressions were quite peaceful, others were a bit concerning, and some just outright the thing of nightmares. You'd never want to imagine someone going through so much pain in the midst of their final moments, it's heartbreaking.

And then there are the rooms with bonafide nightmare fuel within. Those rooms were pretty much left as is, many cases being that they were in the midst of operation before being interrupted, probably to go chase after Celestia broke off and made a raucous. I was already undergoing medical training, so sights like these don't do much to me anymore other than an occasional gross-out. But for the others, they're a lot less weathered on things like this. Alex in particular wasn't as strong as the others in terms of dealing with stuff like this, he already didn't like the sight of dead bodies as it is.

Looking in the rooms with nothing but cell-phone lights was nothing short of added horror to the mess we had to endure. It was like we were playing a horror game in first-person. Only this time, you could smell the decay, the formaldehyde, the various chemicals used to preserve a cadaver. And the concoction of odors was ghastly to the senses, it would prompt many lesser-prepared or unfortified individuals to lose their previous meal.

Blue didn't aid us in our attempts, we needed her to be able to maintain the spell, should anything happen. But she was getting tired, she was running that spell for well over an hour and some change. Her brother cited that she was undergoing some magic fatigue. And if we wanted to use it to get Nondis back out of this place, she needed to stop using that spell for a time until she could recover some of her magic. I asked Alabaster if he knew the spell, he said he couldn't cast it for more than maybe thirty seconds. However, he did cite that his sister attended a lower level magic school when she was sent off to live with her aunt, which would explain the disparity between the two. Their only difference was that Alabaster had knowledge of higher level spells, but only his sister could execute them properly.

We all worked quietly until Alex couldn't really hold his breakfast in for much longer. He just completely dumped himself in the hallway after peering into a room. Stanton looked after his older sibling while Rick went in to see what it was that had him so disturbed.

His jaw dropped immediately, as did his phone. I whispered back to him. "What? What is it?"

He shuddered and stammered as he pointed into the room. "Mel... I found Jasper."

I wasn't prepared in any way to see him as a cadaver. Granted, I planned to make him into one for abusing me repeatedly, and I didn't initially care about having a whole criminal record behind it all. But understanding what they did in here was the driving force that better illustrated my intimidation. Still, I felt some part of me wanting to verify it for myself. I walked over, but he stood in my way, shaking his head. "Okay, he's dead. We've known this for a week. What's the big deal?"

"...He's fucked up." Rick very bluntly explained. "Bad. Old dude did some shit to him."

I peered inside, holding my phone up to assess the scene. The first thing I was greeted with was Jasper's face looking at the void from across room. And that was it, it was just his face, or rather his head. Following some med school training, I did what I had to in terms of dealing with the very real cadaver sitting somewhere in this room. Even if it was a ghastly scene that greatly unnerved me, I had to rehearse in my head that this was a natural process, and that the only thing I didn't need to see was him suddenly open his eyes to look at me, blink, or even express himself in any way. That part is done, he's gone, and there must be a medical reason for this being the case other than some cruel postmortem butchery.

I took a deep breath, remaining calm as I entered into the room. I took a look around, observing my surroundings, and gathering what information I could find out. There were some notes left behind, seemingly some information about a weird theory of head transplants. At the top of the paper was an immediate name-drop, Sergio Canavero. I called out to Rick as he was putting his phone back together. "Rick, can you do me a favor?"

"What's that?" He asked.

"Can you find a Sergio Canavero and tell me what he does specifically?"

"Sure." He answered before a brief expression of annoyance. "Goddammit, my screen's cracked."

"It still works, right?" I asked him.

"Yeah, it still works fine." He replied as he typed in the name. "How do you spell it?"

"Sergio. S-E-R-G-I-O. Then Canavero. C-A-N-A-V-E-R-O."

"Okay, okay..." He mumbled as he pulled up the first result that showed up on Google. "Um... Mel."

"What?"

"This guy you told me to look up... he claims himself a specialist in human head transplants." He replied.

I looked back to see Jasper's beheaded body and immediately thought the worst. "Oh my God. He has Nondis."

Alex immediately expressed his disdain in hearing the conversation taking place. "I'm not opening up another fucking door. My brother's not gonna look like that. On my Lord and Savior above he's not going to look like that."

"Hell, for all we know, he might be in that room right now." Alabaster whispered to himself before looking to the other room next to it. "Or... he could be in the room adjacent."

Blue's concentration on her spell completely broke, not just from the fatigue but also from the revelation we've walked in on. She looked back to her brother, about to cry as she shook. "I'm sorry. I can't do this anymore. I don't want to be here."

Cliff looked further down the hall and called out to us. "Guys."

"What?" Alex asked, visibly distressed.

"We've got company coming." He warned as he immediately walked over to a room to hide in.

We all heard the calm hoofsteps approaching from further down. With few options, we all hid in the same room. Not wanting to be stuck in the very room as his current vested interest, I ran out of that one and sought to barricade myself in another room just across the hall, where we waited quietly for the pony to pass.

We all tried to gauge our breath, in spite of the smell of the room. Each one of us were operating under the fear of being caught. The last thing we needed to do was to find ourselves looking at the face of that thing, or worse the madman himself. They sounded like they were humming pretty happily throughout their journey. We tried to see if there were any lights showing, at least something to show that whoever it was was either casually passing through or walking towards one of these rooms. Instead, the clopping came to a cold stop.

A curious hum sounded from outside. Next came a loud ringing sound that echoed throughout the halls. The lights immediately came back on. I felt a trembling against me, gripping at my leg. I looked down to see Blue covering her own muzzle as she clenched onto me for comfort. Alabaster ignited his horn to make the first strike. He appeared very angry as he charged his magic for whatever came our way. The room grew tense as we heard the sound of the door across the hall slide open. Not wanting to take any chances, Alabaster cast the spell his sister used, trying to make it appear that we were nowhere to be present.

Stanton quietly disarmed the safety of his weapon and took aim at the door. Without warning, the door was rapidly opened and Umbra's head poked through. He looked to the left, observing if there had been any changes. Then he looked to the right, just where we were all standing. I felt my heartbeat racing into my throat as he glanced our wall up and down. He looked ahead to the covered pony that lied on an operating table. He muttered to himself. "Hm, something made a mess around here."

He walked off, his hooves disappearing off into the distance. All of us had yet another moment where we had to breathe a collective sigh of relief. Alabaster disabled his spell, quietly laboring to himself as his horn had some residual sparks. Blue tearfully congratulated her brother for stepping up in place of her. I couldn't help but to feel proud for the stallion also, knowing his sister was already taxed with the very spell he could only use for seconds.

"If only your father was here to see how much you've improved."

All of us froze, looking back to the source of the voice. Instead of there being a dead body laying in sheets, there he was hopping right off the table as if he had finished a check-up. The stallion smiled as he tilted his head to us.

"And wouldn't you know, you've brought me more subjects to use. How wonderful of the both of you."

Stanton fired his weapon, sending a bullet into the stallion's skull. He flopped down to the ground as if he had died. "Okay, we're officially fucked."

"Not yet, you aren't." Umbra replied as he poked his head through the door. I took aim for him in the door and took the shot, sending him down to the ground. But instead of him using another body, he just simply got back to using the one Stanton shot at a second ago. "And I can say that I'm interested in seeing how you'd feel, miss Melanie Brewer."

"Go fuck yourself!" Alex screamed as he took aim with his own weapon, but found his barrel lifted towards the ceiling.

Umbra closed the distance between them and smiled as he mocked the older sibling. "Believe it or not, your brother taught me this trick." He said before sending a hoof to his abdomen, causing the man to tumble down and grasp at himself. He quickly evaded both Cliff and Rick using teleportation, sending a hoof to either side of their heads. "Also a trick I learned, you humans discombobulate when I strike you in the temples. Very weak area, prone to a lot of damage." He then turned his attention to Stanton. "And you boys don't like it if I hit down low." He replied as he took aim for his crotch. But before he could land the blow, he was stopped by an invisible aura of magic. Umbra looked up to see the human straining to keep himself from experiencing the blow. The stallion was enthusiastically surprised. "And you have magic too? So much untapped potential! I see I have another prime subject to use!" Stanton went in for a kick, but found himself getting swept by a powerful tug of magic against his supporting leg. He fell to the ground, getting a cane pointed to his face. "You're a feisty one, just like your brother. But so unrefined in fighting, which is strange considering your athletic build."

Blue levitated one of our guns and held it up to Umbra's head. It shook unsteadily against him. "Where is Nondis! Tell me or I'll kill you!"

The stallion smiled as he rose, holding the weapon still as he walked closer to her. "Kill me? Killing me would be a great idea, if it were possible. That doesn't happen, especially not down here. I'm sure you've seen the rooms, I have corpses for days."

Umbra's head was blown completely open as Alabaster helped Alex take aim with his weapon. The stallion looked up to the recovering human. "Nice shot."

"We're running against time here." Alex said as he stood himself up. "We need to find Nondis, and fast."

My phone vibrated, indicating I had a message. I looked at my screen to see Jasper's name pull up. My heart completely stopped for a moment as I looked to the door across the hall. I went into my inbox to see that it was some pictures that was sent to me. Umbra spoke out from within the hall as he walked closer. "You might want to see that, it'll help you understand why your coming here was only to my benefit! After all, what good does it serve to search for a dead man!?"

I closed the app, not wanting to dare look at what he was trying to advertise. "Nondis isn't dead! We know he's here!"

"Yes! He is! Unfortunately, that's the truth!" Umbra confirmed. "And he still is a valuable test subject. But under most circumstances I can only let you see him through other means. Though I'm sure you wouldn't understand much if I just showed you a bunch of samples in a test tube, or cells in a microscope. At least the pictures I've sent you are the only confirmation of his fate you'll ever have from this point forward."

"We know what you've been looking up, you sick fuck!" Alex called out. "Who the hell goes around trying to do head transplants!?"

Umbra walked back into the room. "Well to be fair, your dearly departed brother proved to be valuable research into the matter."

Alex grew indignant, firing a bullet into the stallion's chest. "I'm sorry, but I know you didn't just say what I thought you just said."

And again, the corpse he shot earlier had risen up to speak. "Well, if you would let me explain to you what happened, maybe you'd get some closure."

"Oh we're all about closure alright." Cliff responded. "We about to close your eyes in a second, and give you a closed-casket cremation, an all-in-one-day special complete with same-minute shipping at checkout. How bout you close in on that shit? It's a once-in-a-lifetime deal." He then fired his weapon into the corpse Umbra was currently using. And yet again, the stallion rose using the other body in his presence.

"You humans are all the same, shoot first, question later. Is that the reason why your civilization has lagged so far behind it's potential apex by some five hundred years?" The stallion asked as he pulled out a phone he had in his possession. "Honestly, with what all you've lot created, it's hard to imagine such primitive responses coming from you all. It's almost spitting in the face of evolution itself. I'm just trying to show you the truth."

"Well we know you talk a lot of shit." Alex replied as he took aim, but stopped as the phone Umbra used reappeared before the man's face. The weapon that was firmly aimed for the stallion had not gone off, instead just stationary before shaking and eventually falling out of his hands.

The weapon slid on the ground by Alabaster, who looked up to see the horrified and tormented expression of the man beside him. Umbra shook his head as he shrugged. "And unlike your brother, I happen to very much back my words with actual facts. Don't believe me, then you can ask Alabaster right there."

Alex fell to his knees, holding the phone, he drew short and frantic breaths, trying to process what he saw on the screen. Stanton walked over and saw what it was his brother had collapsed to. He soon joined with his elder sibling, expressing his disbelief and horror, and then his grief to follow. I snarled back at the stallion. "What the fuck did you do!?"

He replied in a quiet tone. "I did them a noble service, I let them see their brother again." He continued through the ongoing shrieks and cries of the two brothers. "If you had only been paying attention to what I've been trying to tell you. Maybe you would understand why they are the way that they are now. And the evidence of that is what I've sent to you."

I continued to hold all disbelief in my heart as I pulled out my phone. I went back into my messaging app and selected the conversation. And the first thing I was greeted with were two gory images that seemed to involve Jasper in the background. The first was Jasper's head sitting idly by on a shelf, two headless bodies laying on an operating table, one with various staples on the body, the other with healed stitches and scars. The second image was what truly shook me.

It was Nondis, just his head on a table, sitting right next to a bag containing his element.

Umbra took back the phone he showed to the duo and continued to send images. "I showed these to Celestia as well. But since you're a medical-minded individual such as myself, I thought you would like some illustration of how my experimental operation went, Melanie." The next image was a picture of Nondis' head placed next to Jasper's body. Then came one of him being placed onto his body. At that point, I just put the phone down, beginning to hyperventilate. "The experiment was a failure. The body rejected the new host. Signals were sent to the body, but the body did not respond positively. And since I was working on limited time to get Nondis back on a working body, I tried to make sure that the new body was at least 'alive' enough where it could be used. All of my methods were successful, the prep was done to the T, but the body rejected him, and with seventeen seconds already elapsed from the moment I had him on the donor body, added to the four I used to move him, another three to seat him properly... well, it was too late to get him back to his own body. As a result, all brain function ceased, and he was gone."

Alex rose up and darted to the stallion, immediately laying his fists into the stallion's face. "YOU FUCKING PLAYED GOD WHILE YOU BUCHERED MY BROTHER, YOU SICK MOTHERFUCKER!" He screamed with hatred and vengeful bloodlust dripping from every word. He grunted and hollered as each fist made contact with him. But he hadn't even realized what was happening before his eyes because of how bad his rage blinded him.

Umbra once again swapped bodies and spoke. "I understand if you're upset. I'm upset at myself for failing. I too loved your brother, so much."

All of us were angry, we couldn't fathom the idea of us coming here only to find out that Nondis had died the way he did. It was pure denial at first, then the pictures came and showed us otherwise. There's no way to refute what was seen, the evidence was brutal, the truth all in plain sight.

The psycho stallion cheesed as he started to reminisce fondly. "He was so wonderful, winning at almost everything that was thrown his way. I couldn't believe he was so strong, so smart, so resourceful..." His eyes slowly drifted to me as he continued. "So firm, so enduring to the end. His body was so much of an Adonis that I had to keep it safe. After all my hard work, I would never be able to devote that much time in one setting to another. So I offered to keep him alive in that sense, at least his body can still be used. I did the same for Jasper, but he's a failed candidate, incompatible with the desired results of my research. Though I suppose there is some hope to be had in this, that the body I gave Nondis before the operation would serve as a vessel to a worthy candidate."

Alabaster fired the weapon in his possession, but was unprepared for the recoil, firing two rounds into both Umbra and the ceiling. He tried to remain composed as he spoke to the stallion. "You're not finding anymore candidates for this madness!"

The body that he shot hadn't even went down, he just simply looked back to the stallion who took fire at him. "Oh to the contrary, Alabaster. I have five prime candidate already lined up in this room, plus two witnesses to my account to certify my thesis. The only question there is to answer at this point is merely who I start with first."

Anger was supplanted by fear, Alex looked up to see the stallion collecting a number of surgical tools and serums, syringes and interveinal tubes, even closing the door and locking it with a distorted smile.

"At last, I have the humble beginnings to my newest masterpiece."

***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

A massive roar sounded from further down the halls, along with them were the sounds of impact. We all continued with our journey to try and find the creature we were set to confront. And since that was our objective, we went to the solitary set of doors my father had warned us about. This was probably the place where they had the monster lying in wait. The large steel doors were locked tight, barring all entrance.

We stood in anxious wait, prepping our minds for the fight ahead. "Alright girls, this is it."

"If there was ever an adventure we had to go on, I never expected something like this to be here in Canterlot of all places. Kinda wild if you think about it." Rainbow stated.

"That poor thing only wants to have fun, but I don't think she knows what's wrong with any of this. I'm starting to believe she really thinks all of this is normal." Pinkie said as she shook her head. "I never thought I would ever say this, but this party's over."

"I can only imagine how simplistic her life must've been before all of this." Rarity replied. "But now we have to do what we must to bring her down."

"Ain't that the truth." Applejack added. "None of this ain't right. An' Ah reckon we shouldn't be seein' any of this happenin' again. An' we're gonna make sure of that."

"I can only think of the families of those poor restless souls who found themselves trapped here. It's too cruel." Fluttershy said before closing her eyes and looking bravely at the doors. "They deserve so much better. And we should be able to give that to them."

"Well then." I replied as I felt an astronomical magic surging through my body, spreading out to that of my friends. We were enveloped in a flash of light that uplifted us before coming back down to the ground. Upon landing, we all had much longer manes and tails, our hooves sparkled, our bodies felt significantly lighter. I walked to the door, charging my horn to break it down. "Let's get this done and bring our friend back home."

In a powerful blast from my augmented magic, the doors broke down and fell within the room. From the moment the dust cleared, I was introduced to a familiar sight, though one that my friends had yet to experience for themselves. From the high ceiling hung several hundreds of bodies, possibly thousands. Each of them with their faces unveiled expressing the various states to which they've met their fates.

I issued a warning to the others. "Don't look up."

"It isn't anything we haven't seen already, darling." Rarity replied. "All it does is serve as an uncanny reminder of what we'll soon see for ourselves in the end."

"Even the animals I take care of find their last moments with me. But not like this." Mumbled Fluttershy.

"It's cold." Rainbow pointed out as she hovered slowly, rubbing her forelegs for warmth.

"It has to be, you can't let the fridges do all the work." I quoted, thinking of Guiding Light's words.

"What if this place is one giant fridge?" Pinkie questioned.

"Then we know what to expect." Applejack answered.

We heard movement from a distant part of the room. All of us turned to the direction of a series of body bags that was stashed away in a corner. Each of us tensed as we walked slowly, readying ourselves to confront the thing that was hiding within. We slowly closed the distance between us and the numerous body bags. Once we got close enough, we started to spread our formation out, ready to attack from every direction if that thing wanted to sprout out and surprise us. We heard a trembling breath from within the pile, both Rarity and I ignited our horns to lay into whatever was inside. In simultaneous casting, I used my telekinesis to grab at the topmost layer of body bags to try and surprise whatever was inside of here. I motioned my hoof to count to three.

One... two... three.

The body bags I moved off had revealed a figure underneath them, but far from what I was expecting. Instead of seeing a pony hiding in wait until the moment where they were revealed, it was a large human with a large scar running down the length of his spine. Various scars covered their body, running parallel of it's features. As soon as it was revealed to us, our powers surged back down to normal as we expressed our shock. We softly called out to the figure that huddled itself in the corner. "Are you okay?"

"...J-j-j-ust leav-v-v-e me alo-o-o-ne, Umbra." He shuddered.

My jaw fell to the ground, I didn't care of the bodies I ran through, past, or even over as I reached out to him. "Nondis! Oh my goodness! You're here!"

"Leave me alone, Umbra!" He called out angrily. "I'm tired of you playing these games with me."

Rarity then spoke out. "Oh darling... what did they do to you?"

The human looked back slowly to see us standing where we were, watching as he slowly revealed his face. He continued to show his disbelief. "Th-h-h-h-here's no way y-y-y-you're all here. It muss-s-s-s-st be the drug-s-s-s-s-s." He replied in disbelief.

"Non-non, we're here." Pinkie replied. "What are you doing underneath all of these corpses?"

"T-t-t-trying t-t-t-to ssss-t-t-tay warm." He replied. "Best p-p-lace in the room where the v-v-v-vents don't blow on y-y-y-y-y-ou as much."

I touched his arm, feeling how uncharacteristically cold and clammy he was. "You're so cold." I looked to Rarity and issued a request. "Can you summon something warm for him to wear?"

He held out his arms, revealing an unholy amount of scars on his hands, his wrists, his fingers, his arms, all throughout his body. On his wrists were a set of leather cuffs that appeared to be tightly bound to him. "G-g-g-get these t-t-t-things off of me." He stammered, his jaw trembling from the cold air in the room.

I tried to use my magic to wrestle the cuffs free from him, but found that my magic quenched immediately on contact. "Magic inhibitors. I've never seen them made out of this material."

Applejack walked over and snagged the cuffs with her teeth, trying to rip them off, but not without causing Nondis to scream out in discomfort. "AAHHHGGH!"

"Sorry, Nondis! These darn things feel like they don't come off of ya!" Applejack complained.

"They're grafted into my skin." He explained slowly, taking deep breaths. "It's gonna hurt like hell, but you're gonna tear these damned things off, no matter how much I scream."

"Ah don't wanna hurt ya, Nondis." Applejack argued.

He lifted his neck and ran a finger on a distinctive scar that ran the entire circumference of his neck. He revealed his chest, allowing us to see the great lengths where he had been cut open. His teeth chattered as he spoke. "Do you see what he did to me?... I'm not supposed to be alive right now.... So I don't give a shit what I'm gonna feel like.... You get these fucking things off me." Tears ran from his eyes, almost freezing on his face in the cold air. He held his wrists out, accepting of the pain he'd soon endure. "You're a strong pony, you can do it."

Realizing the seriousness of his tone and dedication, Applejack sulked over what she was asked to do. She clenched her eyes shut as she chomped down on the strap and tugged at it. "Alrighty partner, It ain't gon' feel nice."

Applejack looked to both me and Rarity to hold his arms in place, our magic locking his arms where they stood. Applejack counted down to herself before biting down and ripping at the cuffs in his wrists. With each yank we could see the skin separate from his wrists, blood started dripping down as Applejack strove to free him from the hellish bindings. As one wrist was freed from the bindings, Rarity summoned some clean socks to cover over his fresh wounds. His chest rose and fell rapidly as he tried to endure the pain. "Shit! Gaaah...FUCK!" He laboriously chanted before cheering himself on. "One more, one more, c'mon!"

Applejack didn't like having to do this, and neither was she in any mood to continue. "Nondis, please."

"Applejack, it's gonna feel worse when you do it later! It's cold as hell and I can barely feel my fingers! So let's get this done now!" He pleaded. "C'mon! You're not hurting me, you're helping me! One more! One more and we can go home!"

Applejack turned her head away, refusing to continue. "Ah'm sorry, Ah just can't live with myself doin' that to ya! Ah know ya want me to help, but Ah can't do this! It ain't in me to hurt my friends like this!" Applejack turned around completely, holding her hoof to her stomach as she gagged. "Ah'm sorry. Ah ain't strong enough fer it."

But as Applejack tried to collect herself mentally, Fluttershy stepped forward and whispered to the man. "Is there any way we can do this differently?"

He looked down to his bleeding wrist, then to the other. "As long as these things are on me, I can't ever shake off what he did to me while I was in them."

Fluttershy closed her eyes. "...I'm not strong, nor am I as stout as Applejack. But as long as you know that this will hurt, I will try my best."

His breath shuddered, not from the cold air exclusively, but also from the pain he was about to endure once more. "...Yeah, and don't apologize, you're helping me."

"I don't intend to." She answered as she leaned down, grabbing the strap with her teeth. "Okay, on the count of three. One. two─" She immediately went to tugging, pulling and yanking her head back as she violently peeled off a portion of the strap free from his wrist. Nondis screamed, the muscles in his arms tensed as much as they did during Applejack's attempt. And unlike Applejack, her work took twice as long. I looked over to the farm mare, who held her hooves over her ears, mouthing her apology repeatedly. Fluttershy worked hard to remove the strap from his wrist, giving one last yank before freeing him of the magic inhibitors that kept him from being able to fend for himself. Both Rarity and I released his arms after Fluttershy wrapped his other wrist in another clean sock. His hands shook violently as he looked to his crudely bandaged wounds. The yellow pegasus sighed as she spoke to the human. "You did good."

"Thank you..." He weakly replied. "Thank you all... so much."

Rainbow winced as she watched the human stand up, seeing the multitude of scars on every part of his body. "I'd like to say 'that's what friends are for' but that had to hurt way too much for you to even see us as that."

"Sometimes we gotta endure pain too." He said with a shiver. He looked over to Rarity and chattered his teeth. "Hey, you have a coat?"

"Not one that fits well." She replied. "You've grown a lot since you've been brought here."

"Anything on me is better than nothing." He responded, still holding himself to stay warm.

My mind started to hum loudly, indicating that the phone I had located offsite was vibrating. I summoned for my phone and pulled up the messages. The first thing that popped up in my messages was a tilted image of what appeared to be Umbra with a number of human bodies in his magic. Below had a message stating that Celestia's party was fighting the monster, all while the others had gotten caught by Umbra himself.

I made the news known to the girls. "We don't have much time! Umbra's got to the others!"

"Wait, what others?" Rainbow questioned.

"The other party, our rescue party!"

"Oh no! Melanie!" Fluttershy shrieked.

Nondis looked to Rarity and urged his request. "Fuck it, give me that uniform you've been working on."

"But your measurements." Rarity cried out in protest.

"Fuck that, give me the damned thing so I can be decent!"

***Point of Perspective: Melanie Brewer***

Umbra stretched his hooves as he put together his collection of lab tools as he walked over to Stanton, deciding in his mind that he would be the first victim of his work. My eyes turned to the pair of unicorn siblings, each with some leather bindings attached to their legs and magic blockers to their horns. He had their mouths bound with medical gauze so that they couldn't speak.

The rest of us struggled as we tried to break out of his magic, but our efforts proved entirely fruitless, his magic was far too strong for us to break. Alex in particular was silenced as he was forced to watch his youngest brother to become a victim of Umbra's work. The stallion himself had giddied over where he wanted to start first.

"So, you're an athletic type. I can only begin to wonder how your body stacks up well to what your brother possessed."

Stanton's lips were sealed by another means. Before utilizing his tools, he swapped bodies and wrapped his hoof against the man's mouth. He then swapped back and got right into his tools. So Stanton couldn't say much outside of a bunch of grunting and moaning.

"I'm so glad you agree." Umbra smiled at the human before looking back to me. "I'm sure you'll inform me of my progress. After all, I'm going to need you to be my second hoof." He said as he levitated me by his side to oversee the operation. "Now, stay there and and gauge me on how well I cut."

"You know, anesthesia would be pretty fucking essential right now." I snarled at the psycho.

"Sorry hun, fresh out of my supply. I would use it if I had much more than I already do, but your friend took the last bit I had before my next shipment came in. And in speaking of that, my dolls are incapacitated at the moment, so no using them for that. I'm going to have to be very attentive to my first incision." He paused for a moment and closed his eyes before exclaiming. "Oh wait! I do have a doll or two still able to move around. I guess I could have them pick up tab on the bodies of the others fighting my beloved Congregant." His ears perked up after a quick thought, bringing his attention to Stanton. "Ah! I know what I'm going to do first! I'm going to go for some brain work today! I never got a chance to utilize your brother for that, so you'll be my first subject on that matter!"

"You can't operate on someone's brain while they're conscious! They can still move, which makes every cut twice as dangerous!"

He again looked to Stanton. "You hear that, my dear subject? That means you're going to have to stay still while I work."

"You're going to hurt him!" I urged.

"Oh, he'll probably enjoy it more than he won't." He replied as he brought over a phial of some strange serum. "This little solution will replace everything in his dopamine responses with endorphins. And the good news: It's extremely potent, so potent that he might just have a happy little accident or two while I work on him. He might love me more than your friend did in those moments."

He grabbed a syringe and started measuring out his dosage all while I complained. "You can't just put a bunch of shit in his system without knowing what it may do to him."

"It worked on your brother. And I have plenty more where this came from. I couldn't consider this any more of a win." He stated as he tapped the needle, using his magic to apply a tourniquet for his arm. "Now try not to struggle. You're going to feel like you're in heaven soon enough."

A knocking sounded on the glass window leading into the operating room. Umbra paused for a moment and went about his injection until it sounded another time. The stallion called out in frustration. "Can you wait!? I'm busy with a patient right now!"

Next thing I saw was the window shattering and a wooden doll suddenly launched into the room. Umbra stopped the mannequin from barreling into himself, staring back at the open window. "Oh, what is it now!?"

A hand grasped at the frame where the glass had rested in, fingers bleeding as it grasped to anchor the body that walked in. But the voice was certainly his. "Hi there... dad."

My eyes expanded, watching the man walk into the room. Almost reaching as high as seven feet standing, he donned a black guard uniform with purple and silver accents. He ripped the curtains down and revealed his face, staring down the stallion he easily dwarfed. Umbra expressed his bewilderment. "I. But. You. How!? How did you get out!? That door locks from the outside!"

All of us watched in complete disbelief as Nondis walked into the room, but he didn't come alone. Standing by his side was Twilight, Pinkie, Rarity, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Applejack. He then simply replied. "Friends." His hands shook as they raised up, bloodied bandages on his wrists as he pointed to the stallion. "But of all the things that's gone bad for you today, the worst one was the fact that you let me live. You could've just let me die when I asked, when I begged for it, left me to drown, choke me out, hell keep my head unattached. But you just couldn't let go."

"I told you why!" He called out before being levitated into Nondis grip.

Nondis watched quietly as the stallion wriggled as his chin was squeezed by his unforgiving fingers. "You have only yourself to blame." He replied before cocking a fist back and driving it directly into his skull, completely collapsing the stallion's face and knocking his head completely off. The corpse fell from his hand and he called out quietly. "Next body up, please."

Umbra used the body that held Stanton down, holding the syringe against his neck. "You make another move and I'll inject your brother full of serum" Twilight showed no hesitation in blasting a bolt for the syringe he held to Stanton's neck. The contents splashed and fell to the floor as he looked down to see what had happened. "You stupid girl." He growled. "Do you have any idea of how much that one dose costs?"

"I fail to see where that's any of my concern." She replied as Nondis ran past her and yanked Umbra by his neck, repeating the same act of violence to disable the body. He ran over to his younger brother on the operating table and checked on him.

"Stat, you good?" Stanton didn't reply, just remaining breathless as I stood before him. He appeared pale as he looked me up and down. "Yo, you look like I'm on some paranormal-type shit."

The only thing Stanton did was reach out to me and hugged me tightly, sniffling as he replied. "Oh God, oh damn I don't know if you're actually alive, you smell dead. But I'm so glad you smell like it and not look like it."

"Yeah, I might have had a scare or two. Today was pretty much me wishing that it did happen" I replied. "The girls saved me, dressed me up, got me right. But as soon as we heard you got snagged by Umbra, I had to run in. I'm so sorry."

"You dumb motherfucker." Alex called out as he hugged me from behind. "Don't you ever get yourself into some fucked up shit like this ever again, do you hear me?" He held my head as if he was scared that it would come off.

"It's attached." I replied. "I take it he told you what he did."

"Told us?" Mel replied as she damn near collapsed to her knees. "Nondis, we saw pictures, he had pictures, you were..." She shook her head, trying to convince herself that she wasn't suffering from some fever dream. "...You can't be here, you're not supposed to be here, you're not supposed to be talking or saving us!"

As Rarity freed both Blue and Alabaster from their bindings, Blue expressed her happiness in seeing me alive. "I was about to lose all hope of existing because of you. Please don't say you were wanting to die here."

I ran my hand against my neck and quietly spoke to her. "You find out that someone just placed your head on another body and you still live to talk about it. It's pretty damn easy to have an existential crisis after that one."

"Nondis, you're pretty tall. Is that even your body now?" Cliff questioned.

"I don't even know right now." I replied.

Melanie got up and started tugging at my jacket. "Up with it. C'mon, let me see it."

"Mel, if you're looking for the surgery scar you gave me after your operation, it's a mess. I've seen my own ribs and beating heart more than that scar over the past... what day is it?"

"It's Sunday." She called out. "You've been here for two days, now take off that damn jacket."

"Mel, I just got warm." I answered.

She completely ignored me and opened my jacket to reveal the mess of surgical scars on my chest and abdomen. She lifted my left arm and covered her mouth. The tears full-on exploded from her as she clenched her arms around me. "Oh my God, it's you! It's you, all of you!"

"How do you know that for certain?" I questioned.

"You have a birthmark under your left armpit." Twilight explained. "You may not pay much attention to it because you have a lot going on, but it's kinda hard to not notice with you sweating on top of me."

"And had it not been there, we would've told you that from the start." Rarity added. "Sorry darling, but all those positions you've put me in, how could I not take in all of what you are?"

"Must be pretty nice to be in that position." Pinkie mumbled.

Twilight blushed as she cleared her throat. "Well conversations aside, we need to get out of here before Umbra regroups."

"More like before that thing wipes out Celestia's party." Mel pointed out. "Our whole order got fucked up, Twilight found you instead of fighting that thing, we found Umbra instead of finding you. They have to be fighting that thing."

I thought to myself aloud as I noticed how many bodies she took with her, which was very many. The whole ceiling was still packed like a slaughterhouse, which could only mean she wasn't at full strength, even now. "We might have a chance." I spoke out. "That thing can pack a punch, but it's nowhere near full strength."

"How do you know?" Twilight questioned.

"When you came and got me, have you ever looked up at the ceiling and noticed what's missing and what's not?" I inquired.

"There were a lot of spare bodies in that room." She replied.

"And maybe a few missing here or there, right?" I pointed out. "I fought that thing at full strength, and Umbra had to save my life. These surgeries weren't completely cosmetic or just enhanced for his own amusement. He built me to try and become that thing... a human version of it, no less."

"I'm sorry, what?" Mel stared at me as if I was crazy with what I revealed.

Twilight's phone buzzed, indicating that there was another message coming through. It was a message giving an update about Celestia's party. And they were losing ground fast. Twilight perked up and spoke to me. "You'll have to explain that later, Celestia won't make it for long. Let's get moving."

We all nodded in agreement as I took lead.

Celestia was pushed back, continuing to hold her shield over the party that fought alongside her. As she started to show signs of strain, Blueblood bravely stood before her to take any further incoming blows. A tendril rose directly in front of him and threatened to crush him entirely, but Crescent held his sword to parry the slimy appendage. In a move to try and make space, Kalimba sent a magic bolt to the filly who stood at the center of the bulking shadow. But instead of her taking the blow, she raised another two bodies from her collective and blocked all the blows that came her way.

The group found themselves almost back to where they first saw her in the halls after having to constantly fall back and regroup for the next wave of attacks. And since her shadow was pretty much taking up much of the space they had, there was little choice but to try and relocate to places where they could teleport to within the lab. While the fight had not been much between the two sides, it's been more of one trying to pull the other away from where the two other rescue groups had ran off to. The only thing they sought to do was to buy time.

But again, the party of mostly royals and guards had started to wain in strength and endurance, leaving them fatigued for their current stand. While Celestia adamantly tried to conserve her magic for their final escape, she didn't want to keep holding back for much longer.

The creature called back to the group, giving them a grim complaint. "Y̸̢̓o̶̢͒û̵̹'̵̥̄ṛ̵̓e̴̱̿ ̷̖͝j̷͎͗u̷̓ͅs̵̲͂t̶̥̿ ̸̪̉ḷ̷̿i̴͉̔k̵̘̎e̶̬͘ ̴͈͝ť̵̞ḧ̴̜ẻ̴̹ ̶͍̈́o̷̤͘ṯ̶̎h̶̠́e̴̩̾ṛ̷́s̶͙̆!̸͖͠ ̷͕̿A̴̞͂l̸͍͠l̶͎͂ ̶̮̈́ẗ̴̪ḩ̸͘é̴͔y̶̦͑ ̸̨̈́d̷̤͑o̷͇̊ ̸̢̈i̷̛̮ś̸͕ ̴̨̀r̵͍͒u̶̦͑n̸̞͆ ̸͕̊á̴̮w̵̯̒å̸̩ý̷̻ ̶̫͋f̶̫́r̶̜̆ò̷̰m̶̬̽ ̸̻͋m̴̭̿ĕ̷͓!̶̘͛ ̸̦̔W̵͈̐h̷̨̅y̸̢͌ ̷͙͑c̷̚͜ä̸̟ņ̷̕'̶͕̈́t̶̙͝ ̶̭͘ý̶͉o̷͕͆u̵̥̿ ̶̱̏j̷̟̀ǘ̴̢s̷͓͂t̴̮̎ ̶̰͝s̶͎͐ẗ̵̪ạ̶̓ỷ̵̲ ̴͚̚h̴̺̉e̸̲̋ṛ̴̚e̴̻̕ ̷̗̎a̷̭̍n̸̖̽d̶̟̉ ̸̺͐p̵̏ͅl̵͎̿a̷͒ͅy̶̟̔!̸̘̂?̷͚͝"

Blueblood muttered to Celestia. "Well, this is just as dire as the battle of Canterlot Fields."

"I feel this one may be more dire than that." She replied. "Everything I throw at this thing, it just shrugs off."

"Do we try and withdraw again?" Crescent questioned.

"Anyplace but here would be nice." Kalimba said as she beamed down yet another tentacle.

She also used her firearm to try and catch the creature off-guard. But as she was shot, she sank down into the shadow itself and shifted herself forward, relocating the shadow to where it had engulfed their position. Celestia quickly transported the group out of it's reach and put up yet another shield to prevent themselves from any stray blows. She groaned out as one blow had caused her horn to spark on impact. "Kalimba, message the others quickly." She urged. "Tell them that we need to go, now!"

Blueblood grimaced as he spoke. "It makes no sense in staying for the dead, we might as well get out of here before we become just like them."

"With Nondis dead, we don't have a purpose in being here. Let's get the others and go." Crescent stressed as he sliced at a few more tentacles that tried to slither their way.

Kalimba grimaced, not wanting to say what was already confirmed in her eyes. She had already lost much and accepted that there would be very little for her to return to outside of her younger sister, who barely knew much of her anyhow. She clenched her eyes, shot another bolt and ran straight for the filly at the center of the mass. She hollered back to the trio she ran out from. "I will buy you time! Go!"

Celestia vehemently charged in after her, speaking to the zebracorn. "Kalimba, a needless sacrifice is nothing more than a foolish casualty! Don't be so stupid!"

"I am not stupid!" The zebra used much of her magic to try and use two spells at once, casting a bolt at the creature and pushing the princess back to the other two stallions who watched down the hall. "I am merely realizing my worth! Now go!" She called out before being brutally hammered aside by a tendril. The mare slammed into a wall, falling limp before getting up slowly and looking around disoriented. As the world around her appeared to be nothing but swirling images and stars, she propped herself against the wall and called out weakly. "Baba... Mama... I'm so tired."

"Kalimba!" Celestia called out, being withheld by both Blueblood and Crescent.

Crescent quickly levitated the zebra back to their formation, trying to care for the injured mare as she started to cough up blood. "Hey, stay with me. We're not back home yet."

The zebra cried as she howled in gurgling pain. "Baba! Mama!"

The creature once again advanced onto their position. Celestia stood with her wings outstretched before the formation, her horn glowing a rich golden flame before parts of her mane would begin to transform from it's usual prismatic sky coloring to flames. Her eyes fixated on the creature that advanced it's shadow around the entire group. "You dare to challenge me, you unnatural abomination!? I will show you fear!"

The filly then called out in a distorted voice. "H̵̱̄u̵͙͝g̵͉̈́!̸̯͗"

Three tentacles pierced through the shadow and latched themselves around the enraged princess, who unleashed a powerful flaming shield that incinerated the tendrils that gripped her. "DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH ME!!!" She shouted in her Royal Canterlot Voice.

"T̴͓͊a̶̙̍g̷̢̊!̴͈͘" Another tendril jettisoned form the shadow below in an attempt to pierce the princess' chest, but her shield held strong. She sent several others to perform the task she called out, but the princess' shield remained as fiery, cremating everything that threatened it to ash before they would even reach an inch within the princess' body.

Blueblood and Crescent carefully carried the injured mare away from the skirmish, actively trying to keep themselves away from the fight. Blueblood then called out to the princess. "Celestia! Let's go! We stay here any longer, she won't make it!"

"LEAVE THEN!" The princess ordered, her voice breaking every window in the hall. More of Celestia's mane began to become consumed in fire, one of her eyes becoming crimson and yellow as started to wield her halberd with the intent to destroy the creature that opposed her. "YOU UNNATURAL THING! YOU SHALL SEE JUDGEMENT!"

The filly, realizing that she wasn't going to immediately win, sank into the shadow and withdrew quickly. She called out as she descended into the pool of darkness. "Y̶o̴u̷ ̸b̴i̸g̷ ̵b̵u̵l̵l̸y̸!̷ ̴Y̵o̶u̶'̶r̷e̶ ̷g̸o̷n̸n̸a̸ ̴b̸e̷ ̵i̵n̴ ̵b̵i̶g̸ ̵t̷r̸o̶u̵b̷l̷e̷!̶"

Celestia, seeing the creature retreat temporarily, reverted back to her usual form and stumbled as she powered down. "That took a lot out of me. We need to go." Looking back where the creature retreated to, she ran back towards the party she led. Once she turned the corner, she could see Kalimba convulsing unsteadily as she had blood oozing from her mouth. She looked to Crescent. "What's her status?"

"Punctured lung, so definitely some broken ribs there. She's concussed also."

"Can you treat her or will it have to wait?" She inquired.

"That thing will be coming back for us." Blueblood warned as he lifted the mare to his back. "And it will definitely be even stronger."

"Stronger than what we've just faced?" Crescent questioned in disbelief. "That thing was already breaking doors and puncturing ponies like parchment."

"We might have fought that thing off for now, but if you say it's coming back for another round, I doubt that I will have enough magic to teleport us out from here after fighting that thing off again."

"Can you do that for us now?" Blueblood questioned.

"Not until we've found the others." She answered, starting to apply some measure of healing magic to the injured mare on his back. "I don't want her dying here, not today. She deserves better than that."

"Stupid girl, why the hell would she just run in like that!?" The blond prince cursed.

"Because she's lost hope." Crescent answered quietly. "With Nondis dead, I doubt she won't have a moment living where she'd wish to take her own life. I've seen this too many times."

As they were talking, the heard a noise coming from the other side of the hall. They remained quiet, but on their guard as the sounds got closer. But they started to let their guard down as the conversation taking place further down became clearer.

"Are you sure you mapped this place?"

"I wouldn't be stupid enough not to! Here, look at it for yourself!"

"Your drawing sucks."

"Oh, I'm sorry for not being Michelangelo who can illustrate all over the top of the fucking Sistine Chapel."

As our party turned the corner, we were met with a grisly sight of Kalimba hunched over Blueblood's back. I ran over quickly to check in on the group. "Kali!" I called out, quickly joining her side. "Kali, you good?"

The mare weakly groaned her reply. "Abeg... tell me I have finally crossed over."

"You're not dead yet." The prince answered her before looking up to me with amazement. "And neither are you... You glorious bastard, how are you breathing?"

"Honestly, I was hoping to not be doing that before you guys came along." I replied.

"But he showed us... you were... dead." Crescent added.

I lifted my collar to reveal the scar on my neck. "I'm sure he would've had you think that. No better path for the devil to win than to convince the world that he doesn't exist."

"You're not a devil." Celestia replied as she looked up to me. "But you sure do look like you've endured his work."

"It's been a long weekend." I replied. "I want to go home."

"Then there's no better time than the present." She replied as she saw Twilight and her group bringing up the rear. "Twilight, let's get out of here."

"I second the motion." She said as both she and her former mentor illuminated their horns to cast the mass teleportation spell. "Hang on tight, everypony. We've never teleported this many bodies all at once, so it'll be a bit."

A piercing ring sounded throughout the halls. Without warning the tiles of the floor began to glow orange all around us. I turned back around to see a not-so-enthusiastic Umbra trotting up towards us with his cane. He called out in a loud manic voice. "Well. I didn't think I'd be so upset where I'd take the time to actively hop on over to actually give this my personal attention." He replied as he suddenly disappeared and reappeared beside me. "And you would leave with every last bit of what I gave you, no less. Typical of such an irresponsible male."

Before I could cock a fist back and punch him, I found all of my body sinking to the ground. In my mind was a piercing pain that completely disabled me. Celestia called him out in a rage. "Stop this!"

"You tell me when you will die, then I will stop!" He shouted back, slamming his cane into the ground. Both the magic of Twilight's and Celestia's teleportation spell subsided. The floor started to glow even brighter as the lights completely went black. Umbra lifted my chin as he continued. "I wanted only what was the best for you. I truly wanted nothing more than to give you the body you deserved. You wanted to know everything, so I traded your offer by making you into what you deserved to be. Aren't you tired of being so vulnerable?"

"A penile enhancement surgery does not help me in any way." I replied.

"But isn't it what you human males prefer?" He asked with a chuckle. "That matter aside, I improved your body substantially. You should be singing my praises, not everyone gets such an exclusive opportunity. You shouldn't just be grateful, you should obligate your body to my cause, especially with me being the one who gave it to you."

"Where in the fuck did I tell you to do any of that?"

"You were dying, Nondis! I saved you! Where's my thanks? You can love that power-abusing despot calling herself a princess, but you can't reciprocate the tiniest bit of affection I seek, the slightest bit of unquestioned obedience, or even the minimum show of gratitude. You'd sooner choose the one who barely saved you, can't lift a hoof to fix whatever is wrong with you, relying on spells and hopes that you'll get by. But I spend DAYS running tests, observing your vitals, altering your bone structure to make you even more durable. I made you taller to stand out in a crowd of your peers. I made it to where you can live past improbable odds and keep yourself alive. I've operated on you so much now that I know you from the inside out. I know what you hate, what you like, what you are, and what you can be. So I wonder why it is that you still defy me."

"You threatened my friends. You played God and violated me in ways beyond forgiving. But somehow you think you're entitled to me." I responded. "You fucked up from the moment you scooped me out of that arena, knowing damn well I was supposed to die. But you know what, thank you, thank you for letting me see the day you get what you deserve!"

Umbra picked up my head and whispered. "You know my plans. You know what I'm capable of. And you owe me a life's debt, and you will pay me for it. But if you won't pay me for it, then I will have your entire species pay the toll! Instead of a merciful deity, I will be as merciless as that mare you love so illegally. I'll become the despot she is, I'll become the very thing you show loyalty to. Maybe that's what you want, what you gravitate towards. How does that sound?"

I looked down to the floor as it glowed a fiery orange. In the background I could hear the sound of a set of small hooves barreling our way. Celestia and Twilight tried to restart their spell, but found that their magic would not even manifest. "My magic's being canceled out." Twilight announced.

"And I've no magic to defend us." Celestia added with a worried glance further down the hall, watching as the tiles were slowly swallowed by an encroaching shadow. "That thing is coming back."

Umbra tapped his hoof on the ground. "Ah, you've noticed that my floors aren't so plain-looking now. Each tile has a magic inhibition seal placed on it by yours truly, so if I choose to activate it, only my magic will persist while yours quench." He looked down to my wrists and saw the bloodied socks I wore on each of them. "An anti-escape maneuver I've applied to prohibit breakouts of magical creatures." His eyes wandered over to Fluttershy as he summoned a powerful sphere of magic before it started to compress itself to a much smaller bead. "And I'm sure Discord would love to come by and help you, I wonder what he would say to my power now. So let's test that theory and see what he can do here in this place. Will he save you, or even can he? A quick life-or-death wager, let's find out."

Celestia, realizing what was about to take place, called out to the unknowing mare. "Fluttershy, run!"

The mare did as she was told and got up to run. Umbra teleported in front of her, his spell still active. "Oh, how I hate it when they run." He fired his spell and sent the tiny beam barreling into Fluttershy as she stood in fear of her life. The mare gave a shriek before falling silent.

As the beam made contact, the high princess screamed out as the mare collapsed to the ground. Twilight was in horror at watching her friend fall quietly to the ground. Rainbow Dash felt a tremendous weight sink in her body as she watched her long-time friend lay on the ground. The others called out her name, trying to reach out to her. Melanie watched in disbelief as they crowded around her.

But Umbra stood with a scowl on his face, first seeing the white aura over the pegasus and then looking back at the glint of white light coming from our party.

My hand glowed brightly, outstretched to the yellow mare as she laid on the ground. My other hand tightly grasped at the element that suddenly appeared within it. While the others were unable to use their magic, I was suddenly able to. And in turn, I casted a bolt of magic towards the stallion. He dodged out of the way, watching as the beam traveled down the hall and suddenly hit the filly that barreled towards us. A massive howl sounded throughout the entire lab as the ground shook with the multitude of voices all crying out in a brief impact of pain.

The element in my hand began to glow a soft magenta before turning a pure snow white. An aura grew around my entire body, quenching that of the tiles beneath me. Without warning, Mel's hair glowed warmly as a pink streak appeared in her usually brown strands, all connecting from the element that was clamped to her hair. Cliff's eyes changed to blue as he looked over to the woman who's own pink aura developed a growing void of quenching magic to negate the tiles beneath where she stood. As he stepped forward, the tiles were darkened as a blue flame grew around his feet, soon enveloping his entire body. Rickey looked down at himself, seeing his feet run red as his own flame silenced the spell beneath him. He stomped his foot to widen the area of how much of the tiles were silenced. Stanton's hands glowed a similar orange to that of the tiles themselves, but he punched down at the floor to completely destroy the ones he stood on, his aura growing stronger from the impact. Alex watched as his arms developed a purple streak of diamonds as though it was a tattoo. He waved his hands over the floor, watching as the tiles were shut down beneath his hand.

I looked to all of my friends and their varying modes of transformation, be it minor or significant, and was amazed of the power that flowed through all of us. We all looked to one another and felt a unifying power, a weightless presence guiding us without words on what we were to do next. I quickly levitated Fluttershy over to us. Umbra ran in to try and stop us, but Stanton stood where he was and pounded his fist down, causing the ceiling to collapse on top of the stallion. Twilight's party ran back to us, getting in the place where the tiles couldn't glow. Celestia stood close by me, starting back up her spell.

The harrowing cry was enough to awaken Fluttershy, who yelped as she curled into herself. Rainbow Dash stood in front of her to protect her. Twilight joined with her mentor in casting the spell, hoping to hurry and get back the progress they lost. I saw Alabaster join with Blueblood and Crescent in an effort to beam down the monster that started back in trying to reach us. Blue called out to us as we encircled our entire group. "We'll try to buy you some time!" She rushed by to join with the other three ponies in suppressing the creature that rushed towards them.

But as the rubble started to shift, Umbra's hoof came from underneath, pushing off whatever had him pinned down. Rarity, thinking on her hooves, sent powerful blasts of magic into the ceiling in an attempt to keep the stallion buried. "STAY DOWN THERE AND DIE, YOU FOUL BASTARD!" Applejack kicked down a wall to use some of the rubble as ammunition. She found a series of heavy chunks of concrete and bucked them into the pile to help Rarity.

A tendril jettisoned from further down the hall, rising from within the ground before threatening to try and strike at Celestia, but Pinkie ran underneath it and bucked it out of the way, causing it to completely miss it's intended target. Rainbow came down and dropkicked the tendril at such a speed where she completely severed the tendril from it's source. As it wriggled wildly from the sudden disconnect, Fluttershy called upon Discord to help her clear the tendrils from within the field they stood in.

Umbra, growing more and more angry with what was taking place, erupted out of the rubble and shouted to the party. "There ain't a mountain high enough, a valley low enough, or an ocean wide enough to keep me from getting to you! I will have what's mine!"

The stallion's ears twitched before he ducked down below to avoid a stray beam of magic. He looked back to the source, seeing Kalimba being weakly coherent but firmly aiming her magic at the stallion. She murmured under her breath. "You will get yours."

Umbra threatened to cast another one of his bolts, but found himself having to teleport out of danger as a large chunk of rubble was launched to him. Rarity teleported from above him and grappled the stallion, quenching his horn at every opportunity. In a show of rage, he screamed as he grabbed her from off of his back and slammed her to the ground. But before he could use his own magic, a spear lunged cleanly at him, causing him to focus more on dodging the blows. Blueblood continued to apply the pressure on him. "For a boastful aristocratic brat, you sure do handle the pressure of battle fairly well!"

"You realize how many lives I've lived, how many bodies I've hosted who were skilled at combat!? My cousin wasn't the only one who endured training! I could easily beat a lowly peasant like you!" He called out as he summoned his cane to parry some of the blows.

"But I'll tell you one thing your method of existence had made you weak to!" Blueblood rebutted as he summoned a sword to further put the stallion on his heels. He tossed the weapon in the direction of the stallion, who barely dodged it. But as he was about to counter another blow the prince made at him, the sword he dodged found itself lodged into his neck from behind. Umbra looked back to see Rarity wielding the weapon for herself. Blueblood then replied. "You've grown weak in the art of self-preservation! You've lived so many lives that you tossed that sense away because you knew there would always be another chance. But now that it's time to get serious, you've forgotten how important it is to protect the one life you have!" Rarity then cut through his neck, halfway slicing through his neck. Blueblood used his spear to pin him down and watched as Rarity came back to finish her work, decapitating the stallion. "Now you'll have to find another."

The entire lab rattled, the foundations themselves moved and started to crack some of the walls and floors. The creature that shouted out sent out several tendrils to try and overwhelm the party of unicorns defending our formation. But they found themselves suddenly teleported into the circle that both Celestia and Twilight manifested. A number of runes and shapes revealed themselves in place of the inhibitor seals. The field of the spell grew to entrap all who were within, using the six of us humans as it's outmost boundary. The shadow enveloped everywhere we stood except for the field in where we guarded. The creature threw everything it had to stop us in that moment.

But it was too late.

We were suddenly teleported back into the front lobby of the castle, where Solemn Oath, Princess Cadance. and Shining Armor awaited us. There were a number of onlookers, mainly some guards conducting their shifts. All of who were just in awe that us humans were actually glowing with all the power that was imbued in the elements we borrowed. In the seconds we realized where we were, our connections to one another severed, and our power had completely subsided. But upon that withdrawal of so much energy, our bodies collapsed with the sudden reintroduction of gravity hitting us like a ton of bricks.

We all looked to one another, seeing that our changes still remained with us as opposed to subsiding with our temporarily gifted powers. Alex looked to me and smiled, as if to simply say without words 'welcome home'. I nodded back before feeling the terrible weight of relief come over my shoulders, the sweet smell of royal scents and oils as opposed to rotten corpses and the taste of saline ever present on my tongue from the interveinal injections. I no longer saw a sterile environment with faceless dolls crowding around my body, but familiar faces that gave me the space to react.

Solemn was the first to speak. "Captain! Wow, where have you been?" She questioned before getting close enough to smell me. "Ugh... And why do you smell like you've been out rotting for three days."

Shining approached also, replying back to the guardsmare. "I'm sure he'd much rather smell like that as opposed to being that way."

"So how do you feel?" Cadance inquired. "You're an element bearer, officially. You now have the power to save Equestria and your world. I bet some part of it excites you."

I shook my head, just relieved that I was speaking to her. "Honestly... I just can't believe I'm here right now. I'm back home..." I said before it finally hit me. The small amount of hope I had started to cast away had blossomed into a bright doorway, leading back to where I could lay my head and rest. My body grew weak as I tried to suppress my initial emotions, at least for long enough where I could finally have the moment to express myself. "...I'm back, and I'm ready to go whenever."

Without me realizing it, a crowd had gathered in the castle. All of the onlookers had watched quietly as I stood to my feet. Some gasped and looked at me. I saw the number of confused and mortified faces that littered the room. I had looked down, seeing the number of scars on my hands, the bloodied socks on my wrists, the drastic change in my height, all very much appeared like I had come off as someone else donning an Equestrian Guard uniform.

Twilight grabbed at my hand, smiling up at me. "We're so glad you're safe now."

But just as I was about to have another breath of fresh air, another teleportation spell had gone off nearby. We looked to see Umbra walking towards us, reaching out to me in particular. "I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU YET! GET BACK HERE!"

However, as he lunged for me, his body was seemingly swallowed in a sinister looking glow of magic. It was an unusual aura of black and green lightening with purple blobs. He was frozen in place as Shining Armor called out to him. "YOU! OUT!" For that moment, the young prince's eyes glowed the same colors as that foreboding aura. The stallion was cast back out in an unceremonious poof.

Twilight looked to her brother. "You're using King Sombra's spells?"

"Well I did read up after he beat me in our first encounter. I did some research and saw some spells, learned a little alicorn magic and thought it would be nice to use it for this purpose. Anypony I don't know who suddenly ports themselves in are immediately cast back out to where they came from."

"You just be careful, Shining." Cadance warned. "Alicorn magic has a strong potential to corrupt those who use it."

"It's only for this once." He replied.

Melanie then asked. "Okay, so we're all home. But do you think that barrier you put up will hold up against what they have going for us?"

"Meh, I've done bigger." He replied with a proud smirk. "Besides, the tighter the field, the stronger it becomes, the less frequent you have to cast into it to keep it up."

"And the less frequent you get headaches, dear." Cadance added.

"Well, that too." He replied before his mom came running past him, lunging herself at her husband.

"Crescent!" Velvet called out as she hugged her spouse of several years. She gave him a kiss on the lips and hugged him once more. "Honey, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." He said before glancing over to Kalimba, who was assisted by Prince Blueblood still. "Our casualties could've been substantial, but I can thankfully chalk that to a minimum."

Alabaster then issued a general warning for the group at large. "We might have saved Nondis and got him back, but there's no doubt Umbra will be looking to bring the action to our doorstep this time. And there's no doubt of the company he's going to use in his plight. The guild, pretty much all of Canterrot will be stewing for payback. We will need to get ready."

Celestia looked out to the stallion and replied. "In due time. For now, we rest and gather our resources to fight."

"But why not now?" Rickey questioned. "We got all the elements, we just went beast mode, and we kicked Umbra's ass for a change! If anything, we should be hitting him right back in his stupid muggy ass!"

"Careful, you don't know if he'll enjoy it." Blue muttered.

"As much as I feel that Equestria is in imminent danger, we must hold off for now." Twilight suggested. "If we go out there, we'll be playing right into his hoof. Our best bet is to let him come to us. Whatever forces may have infiltrated the castle now have been either suppressed or cut off entirely because of Shining's spell. We have the elements, we have Nondis, we hold all the cards. If anything, we take the time to rest and recover our strength."

"As much as I hate to admit it..." Alex began. "We're still down a member from injury. Kali's gotta heal up before we go heading in. And if she can't join us, then she's got to be strong enough to defend her sister. And then there's Nondis' injuries. I'm sure he's still healing from all the bullshit he had to go through. Plus look at his wrists, that's not a one day job. I don't think we should move until he's able to take them bandages off."

"I also think he should stay the night in our world." Mel suggested warmly, not realizing just how much of a panic that idea had gotten me into. "He should be safest in─"

"NO!" I called out, only thinking of what had just happened a moment ago. If Umbra knew where I was and could teleport here based on that alone, I could trust myself being in a place where there was no protection against him running amok. But as I shouted my rejection, the others grew concerned over why I was so opposed to it. I took a deep breath and apologized for my outburst. "I'm sorry, I can't go back."

"Dude, it's like the safest option." Rickey argued.

I shook my head. "No. You don't get it. I'd be doing exactly what he wants. I go back home, he finds me, ports right to where I am, and then his cruel work begins all over again." As I explained it, I started to feel a sense of dread as I started to relive the vast number of experiments he put me through. "No. I don't wanna be another one of those things, I don't wanna be like that fucking filly prancing around the halls like there's no problems with me using the corpses of other humans. Everything he did was for that... To make me into that..."

The memory of corpses all slithering and holding me as I was submerged into the shadow had me realize just how cold, clammy, and filthy being in that kind of environment was with equines. All my mind did was transform every last one of those corpses into humans, various men, women, and children all grasping, crying out in pain with every hit I take, yet even more humans being cut to pieces, disassembled like they were in a factory line of dolls. It would be like watching him cut my parents into spare parts and having them attached in various perverted and nightmarish ways.

That cruel image unearthed a primordial scream within the confines of my mind. All I could do was whisper. "God almighty..." The memories of me having my chest open, the explanation of how he tried to place me on Jasper's body, the thought of seeing how he could've done my brothers and friends, it reached deep within and pulled out a finalized image of me walking with pillars of my own family members creaking and groaning from the ground. I covered my head, trying to block out the screams I heard. I tried to close my eyes to stop the sight of death. I tried to speak on the things that happened to me, but all I could do was scream.

***Point of Perspective: Melanie Brewer***

Shining winced as he watched Nondis in distress. I could only imagine all that he's going through, and even then it's probably a lot tamer than what he's seeing in his mind. I watched as he trembled, clutching onto himself like he had not wanted anyone to touch him. Twilight tried to reach to him and reassure him, but he flailed his arms at her touch.

Celestia lit her horn and zapped the man with a temporary sleeping spell. His eyes rolled back and closed, he flopped to the ground as though he had went into a peaceful sleep. She walked over to him, surveying his mind to see what he had underwent. As she rose back up, she grew disgusted as she whispered to us. "More than fifty broken bones, severe sleep deprivation, forced drug injections, surgical trauma, sexual abuse, sexual assault, acute psychological torture, acute physical torture, hypothermia, asphyxiation, schizophrenia, all followed by suicidal thoughts." When she finished listing off the issues Nondis had underwent, she raised her head and looked to all of us. "In two days, Umbra will be dealt with. And I will see to it his end is slow and grueling."

"How slow are we talking?" Alex questioned.

"Slow enough, Alexander." She replied. "I give you my word, sworn to my crown."

The elder brother slowly nodded. "I want front row seats."

"Done."

Well my break's over and we're right back in it. Yeah, this chapter had gotten pretty dark, but it's always the darkest before the first light of dawn. I suppose now is a good time to give word of advance of how the next bunch of chapters are going to be.

In terms of the bulk of the story, we're really not talking much. But the final six chapters will be done differently. They will be in different perspectives exclusively, namely to give the viewpoints of the different characters who have had a perspective at some point in the story. No further spoilers on that front but I can say that they won't be a monthly release. They'll just get pushed out whenever I finish with them.

I'm still wrapping my head around the idea that it's almost at an end. Granted, I'm about 60% done with the next chapter, but it's been a pretty wild ride to consider the humble beginnings of "how do I get home" to the grander pursuit of doing the impossible. Even then, it's been a pretty wild ride.

I can't even begin to count how many endings I've visualized, how many scenarios I've drawn up and tried to think through that would make sense, the number of easy-way-outs I could've gone with, the simplified concept of have Twilight and her friends do the friendship thing and make the world safe again, or even simplify the villain in the last chapter to make him seem less powerful. But instead, I had to have this grand chess match with myself in seeing how each piece would move and how the opponent would naturally respond according to their personality. It's been hard trying to defeat an opponent who has hundreds of years to build his deck, and it can only be shy of impossible for the protagonist to overcome.

As it becomes a challenge to beat the opponent without flipping the board, so too is finding the right way to end an arc spanning for the better part of some almost forty chapters, much less a story spanning some 100 plus chapters.

But as all things in life, the destination does not come without the scars and bruises of the journey. The war is not won without cost, nor can one's life be perfect after enduring such hardships. Trauma will remain, pain will come, suffering is assured, but neither of those things are truly unending. As there are lows, there will be highs. And as life goes on, you learn to live with the trauma that was brought to you. Not all people can do this, and for some that pain is too much to bear.

It's understandable to want to withdraw and isolate, only to see that the world can indeed live on without you, so you further feel yourself to be less important. And then it can be twice as hard when you know that others are counting on you to pull through when you don't know what comes from where. But it's not fine to feel like you should take the life others share with you, to leave them questioning what they did wrong. Bad relationships, bitter endings, financial troubles, even just the disability of feeling like your troubles don't matter and neither do you, those are all troughs we have in life. And we look back uphill to say that we can't possibly make that climb, but we often do without even realizing it.

2016 was when I was diagnosed, I felt like my life was at an end. It was close, but it didn't finalize that way. 2020 was the year when all of my life came to a crashing halt and I didn't know where I would find the funds to feed the house, or how to fix the hole in the ceiling, or how to keep the lights on, but I did it anyway. 2021 had a lot of me coping with the death of my grandfather, trying to pull the home together, seeing my mother's health in a slow aging decline, but that's something I'm learning to see the peaks in.

We'll see some of that reflected in the writing come next chapter.

I will see you guys next month if you'll still come around.