Spike was with Rarity a lot more now that Twilight no longer needed him. Twilight worked only at night with Owliscious, meaning Spike had the whole day to himself. Twilight said it was important he take a vacation from work, and that she was studying something delicate. So delicate that might not be easy with a baby dragon running around. Spike understood it that way, anyways. Today Rarity had dismissed him, saying that her newest line was done for now and a spa day with Applejack was in order.

Spike figured it would be a good day to check in on Fluttershy, who had once invited Spike to talk about dragons. Spike could talk forever about himself. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," he mentioned to nopony in particular as he looked in a puddle from last night's rain. He walked up the twisted path that lead to her house, not knowing if she was there or not. When Spike arrived, he was shocked. The door was crumpled in, and most of the furniture was wrecked. There seemed to be signs of struggle everywhere. Furniture was broken, the stairs were scorched... and there was movement under the debris. Spike saw the mangled corpse of Angel, Fluttershy's dearest pet, inch out from under the couch with a clawed and ulcered arm. Spike met Angel's eyes and it wailed back with a scream that chilled his scales. As it was mere inches away from the purple dragon, the Princess chose an opportune time to send a letter. The emerald flames coated the rabbit and it caught. It squealed in pain as it melted away, leaving only singed fur and a puddle of blood. The letter was now coated in the red mess, and it simply read: 'Come back to Canterlot immediately, Twilight.' Spike picked up the letter and ran off, looking for his master and Celestia's student.

"Twilight!" screamed Spike as he barged down the door of the Inner Library, where Twilight was located. When he reached the bottom floor, however, he revulsed. There was Carrot Top, her stomach slit and her innards placed in an organized fashion on an operating table. Her mouth was taped shut, and her eyes were still flitting about, filled with frozen terror. Her lungs were still moving separate from her body, and her heart continued to beat without the other organs to support it. He turned around to see a pale Fluttershy, bloody and wrapped in bandages with her mouth bound. She was placed gingerly in the corner with a griffon's skeleton. Spike hears the door creak shut, and it dawns on him that he just walked straight into a trap.

"Why, hello SPIKE!” A voice from the shadows spoke, giving emphasis to Spike's name. “Glad my FAVORITE assistant could join us! I was just practicing a new spell, and it works so WELL! I like to call it... Immortality. Now Carrot Top can live FOREVER! If only she would just stop SCREAMING when I removed the tape..."

Twilight was more red than purple. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her teeth were sharpened into points. It occurred to Spike that there were many more ponies here, and that the room was bigger than it used to be. The walls were carved by frantic hooves, bloodied by victim's efforts to escape.

"Twilight, what have you done to yourself? You're not like the pony I once knew and admired!" Spike was running on a mixture of anger and fear now.

"Oh, so you've noticed my new wings?" An array of color fanned out from her sides. "Well, they aren't exactly MINE, per say, but Fluttershy and others were KIND enough to lend me a few!" Her grim countenance would have made Spike puke if he was not as still as stone. "I'm so GLAD you could DINE with me though. I have a few plans I would love to discuss over a plate of Rainbow Dash!"

"I- I'm not hungry." motioned Spike to the red and blue meat offered to him.

"Oh but you ARE! Growing dragons need to eat!" A knife and fork worked away, feeding Spike with his old friend as Twilight rambled on. "At first I was a bit shocked too! After all, what kind of unicorn thinks about killing her friends and eating the insides for dessert? But I'm not exactly a UNICORN anymore, am I? I have wings now! In fact, you could say that I'm practically ROYALTY."

"Royalty my ass!" choked a disgruntled Spike as he spat out his food. "You're not half the princess Celestia is! You're just a monster now!"

Twilight's features fell. "Well that isn't very nice. Not very nice at ALL.”

Twilight looked innocently at the baby dragon as she sidled up to Fluttershy, petting her pink hair and coating it with blood. She paused, and looked back at Spike.

“Did you know that dragons have multiple hearts? Of course you did. But do you know what that means? A full grown dragon can live their life while constantly bleeding. The backup systems will keep them alive, after all." Twilight's eyes grew in intensity. "Do you know how useful dragon blood is? It can grant the user fire breathing, can cure death, even turn lead to gold. You should see what happens when I get my hand on Applejack's meteor. Do you see where I'm getting with this?" Spike nodded with a pale sheen as the thought dawned on him. He wasn't going to die here. He was going to live in misery for the rest of his days.

"I was hoping it wouldn't come to this, really. You were such a nice assistant..."

"No, no, wait! I'll help! Please, not that! I'll... I'll kill anyone you ask!" Spike pleaded, still held by the magic that bound him.

"You'll kill anyone? Anyone I ask? Who's the monster now?" Twilight stomps down on Spike stomach. "I'm not the monster here! It's everyone else who are the monsters! I'm solving a problem! With the help of a certain rock, I can solve EVERYONE'S problem! Imagine, will you; a world without death? People will worship me. They will respect me. They will all learn to LOVE me. Why does that make me the monster? Well, I guess some just can't learn, can they? It's okay. I ccan solve that. First step is to kill anypony who opposes me. And you know what? I have a good idea of who is fir-"

A loud *THWACK* interrupted Twilight mid-sentence. It was Rarity. The chair in her hooves had knocked the pseudo-alicorn down. Twilight's world blackened, covered in blood and shrouded in confusion. "Well this is no good! Twilight HAD to sign the demon book, didn't she?" yelled an angry Pinkie Pie from the doorway. "If you're going to do something in secret, don't scream your plans to the victims outside!" Pinkie Pie jumped on Twilight's fragile face until her horn cracked and her jaw followed. "At least this will keep you from casting those nasty spells while we figure a way to reverse this mess!"

Rarity untied a wingless Fluttershy and helped her to her hooves. "It's going to be alright, Fluttershy, we have this handled." Fluttershy shivered but stayed close to Rarity, unable to stand. Spike looked towards the stairs as Nurse Redheart and Applejack raced down. "I brought 'er as soon as you called, Pinkie Pie!" The nurse pulled the tape off Carrot Top and everypony heard a loud scream. "I'll take this one back first. She's going to need a lot more therapy than the dead ones." Spike helped stuff some organs back into the ribcage, hopefully getting the important ones.

"How could this happen?" Rarity asked Pinkie Pie.

"I think I can answer that one..." groaned a tattered Rainbow Dash with both wings missing. She wheezed from her corner and it was shown her ribcage had been torn through her chest and one f her legs removed. Rarity looked shocked, and Dash took notice. "It's okay. I got the same spell as Carrot Top. I'll live, but I'm not the fastest in Equestria any more." Rainbow Dash laughed at this part, and some blood followed. "I happened to stop by a few weeks ago, when the whole thing started. She invited me in, and I'm not sure even she knew what she was doing. Before I was sedated, she kept muttering something about 'That Book'. One day she was even frantically screaming for it. I think that if there was a book, it's gone now, moved on. Perhaps Zecora knows more about it." Dash coughed up some blood, but it was blue rather than red.

As Applejack helped Rainbow Dash up to her feet, Fluttershy went to recover at Rarity's Boutique. Before she could leave, Spike stopped Pinkie Pie. Their eyes met for only a moment, but Pinkie Pie understood the message. Their eyes unlocked and they stepped outside. The skies felt more blue than before, and the grass was greener. Spike felt true about his emotions, and he could only hope to adjust with time.