Author's Notes:

Finally, finally, I got this done! This is the longest chapter I've ever written, somewhere around 60 pages! I know that seems intimidating, but I promise I tried my best to make it interesting, though the quality of my writing may degrade/change because I didn't write it all at once.

But anyway, thanks for waiting, and enjoy!

Inside of Sugarcube Corner, Rainbow Dash and the rest were enjoying a party, or trying to, anyway. The inside of Sugarcube Corner resembled a Pinkie Pie style party, all of them have been to them so many times, they would know how to recreate it. The tables that were usually there were all gone, except for one in the center of the room that had a medium-sized cake on it, the frosting being yellow with smaller dots of blue on it. Balloons of varying colors were attached to the counters, some of them weren’t attached to anything and just floated up to the ceiling, staying up there along with some multi-colored streamers attached to the ceiling.

Though this wasn’t a birthday party, so there weren’t any presents or anything. But there was a banner attached to to the ceiling above the counter, the words “Fun Party!” Written on it messily in blue paint.

Rainbow Dash was blushing in what looked like embarrassment as she chuckled to herself, the other four seemed to be somewhat amazed and a little nostalgic, looking around the room they were in. They hadn’t realized how long it had really been since they’ve been to a party like this until they were at one.

“Darling, you really outdid yourself! Though it is a bit childish for my taste, nonetheless, this is amazing! However did you do this?” Rarity asked as she began walking towards the cake, looking up at the balloons and streamers above her.

“Ah don’t know about ya’ll, but that cake looks mighty tasty! Ah can’t even remember the last time ah had cake!” She said as she eagerly walked to the cake, taking a bite out of it, her face now covered in frosting. Rarity seemed to recoil in disgust at this, quickly grabbing one of the napkins from the table and trying to clean Applejack’s face.

“How did you do this? I mean, it’s not like you’ve thrown a party before.”

Twilight asked skeptically as she turned to Rainbow, Fluttershy stayed beside Twilight, looking between her and AJ and Rarity, seeming to be debating with herself what to do.

“Yeah...about that, you see,” Rainbow said as she rubbed the back of her head with her hoof, trying to avoid eye contact. “Back when Pinkie was still Pinkie, she showed me some of the spots where she keeps her ‘emergency party supply kits’, in case there was a party related emergency. She showed me how to set up parties since I am one of the few ponies who could do it fast enough. And, well, she’s not using them anymore, and this seemed like a party related emergency to me!” She said as she smiled bashfully, not used to receiving praise from anything besides flying.

“Well, I think it-”

Fluttershy was interrupted by the sound of the Sugarcube Corner bell opening, and then suddenly slamming as three Canterlot Royal Guards entered, capturing the attention of everypony in the building. Rainbow’s wings quickly opened in anger, her eyebrows furrowing and teeth gritting as she flew towards them.

“GET OUT! I specifically asked Celestia to make sure no pony bothered us! This is a private party! GO a-” Rainbow Dash didn’t finish, as she was suddenly interrupted by the hoof of one of the guards smashing against her face. She was sent tumbling backward, falling back on the ground.

As soon as Rainbow hit the ground, spitting out blood as she quickly got back up and looked at the guards in confusion and anger, the guards burst into green flames, their armor and pony disguise burning away, revealing the black carapace of the changelings beneath.

The one who punched Rainbow Dash seemed to smile sadistically as he looked at the surprised ponies in front of him, licking his lips as if he were about to feast.

“No, this...is your grave!”

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

This place was abandoned.

She had realized that at some point in time, but she futility tried to deny it. After setting the picture back on the wall, the feeling that she was forgetting someone important still bothering her like an itch in the back of her mind, she picked the lantern up in her mouth and continued exploring the house.

For whatever reason, she couldn’t stop shaking, through the terror inside her seemed weaker than before. She still didn’t know why she was so scared, but, she pushed through it.

She slowly began walking up the steps, barely able to keep balance with her hooves constantly shaking, but she suddenly stopped as she felt a sharp pain in her brain, a sudden headache making her stop. She grits her teeth, but she started pushing through it, her hooves shakingly moving up the stairs as she bit onto the handle of the lantern tighter than she needed to, sheer willpower and a burning need for answers helped her push through the mixture of emotions she was feeling.

She wasn’t positive of the cause for the headache, but she had a pretty good guess.

“What are you doing?” She mumbled angrily, knowing she was heard clearly.

She could almost feel it smile.

*Who, little old me? Oh, I’m just sitting here and watching you try to figure out this little mystery, it’ll really help me get a look at your detective skills.*

Pinkamena slammed her last hoof against the wooden floor as she got to the top to the stairs, more out of anger than anything else.

“But you already know the answer, don’t you?”

The only response she got was a giggle.

Pinkamena saw three doors in the short hallway in front of her, two on her left, and one on her right, all the doors were the same as the ones for the entrance to the house. She opened the first one on her left, which was the room she shared with her sisters. She slowly pushed the door open, it made a low creaking noise as it did, only adding to the terror she was feeling.

And when the door opened enough to let her see into the room, she could the blood in her veins run cold.

The room was dark, but there was a window in the room that the moon could be seen through, allowing her to see in the room enough to make out a few details. The window had dust on it, dust that would take years to accumulate, and mom would never allow any part of her house to become this dirty. Not only that, but the beds weren’t made at all, which was strange because her mother had burned into them that they should never leave it unmade.

There was also rust around the ends of the beds, the frames on the window seemed the also be rusty. But it’s not like they just moved somewhere else, all their stuff was still here. She could see the outlines of a toy or two on the ground, and even the wardrobe against the wall to the right of the room, which had been slightly opened so she could see the clothes that were still in it.

It’s like they all just vanished into thin air, never to be seen again. Inkie, Blinkie, and...someone else.

She hesitated to shut the door, as she tried desperately to remember her last day here, trying to remember anything that might tell her what happened, and whatever it was she seemed to be forgetting. But she couldn’t, all she could remember was the blandness of it all. She woke up, ate, worked, slept, repeat. She barely ever talked to her sisters, or anypony, ever. She could even remember the coldness she used to feel, how depressed and lonely she truly felt, even though she was surrounded by family.

Even as she tried to remember the day everything changed, the day the sonic rainboom happened. But the second she tried to remember what happened after she entered the house, her headache got worse, the pain hitting her hard enough to bring her to her knees, biting even harder on the lantern handle as she brought her front hooves to her head, her eyes clenching in pain.

*No, no, no. No spoiling the surprise, especially not by accessing memories that aren’t available.”

The Voice said in an innocent manner, like it was just treating it like some child’s game. The headache slowly lowered in intensity, at least to a point of tolerance. Pinkamena slowly opened her eyes and hooves, hesitant whether or not The Voice is just playing with her. She slowly got back up, backing out of the room with the lantern still in her mouth as she shut the door behind her, not even remembering when her breathing had gotten so erratic.

When the sound of the door clicked as she shut it, so did the meaning behind the warning The Voice gave.

“Not available? What do you mean? Why wouldn’t I have access to them, they’re my memories.”

She asked as she began walking towards the second door on the left, which was her parent's bedroom.

She grits her teeth as she heard it giggle again, she was really getting sick of that.

*Nope, not telling.”

Pinkamena opened the door, realizing that The Voice was even less useful than she expected. She slowly pushed open the door to her parent's room, the sound of the door creaking was almost exactly the same as her sister's room. But, her parent’s room didn’t have a window in it, so when the door opened, the room was pitch black. She leaned forward slightly, the lantern illuminating the room a little. She walked forward a little, until the outline of the bed came into sight.

Unlike the previous bedroom, the bed still seemed to be made, though the metal parts of the bed were still rusted. It made some sense why the bed would be made, her mother had minor OCD, so even in an emergency, she’d have a very strong urge to make sure things were organized in the things she wanted them to be. As Pinkamena walked closer to the bed, the lantern making a bit more of the bed and the floor visible, her hoof hit something on the floor. She lowered her head along with the lantern, moving it closer to the object she brushed across.

It was a picture frame.

It must have been on the nightstand beside the bed, and got knocked off somehow. It was made out of oakwood, though it seemed to be faded from age. It was face down against the ground, Pinkamena put the lantern down to the spot beside it, then picked up the photo in her hooves.

She felt herself stop breathing when she saw it.

It was an old black and white photo of her and her family, none of them smiling like a normal family picture. But unlike the photos from before, this one not only had the glass partly broken, but had something else on it. On the faces of each of her family members, a red x’s done in crayon had been drawn on all their eyes, the shade of red fade to near black. Her face was different from the others, her eyes had been shaded completely black, a wide, red smile covered most of her face.

Something peculiar about the picture, was a red circle in the spot to the left of her in the photo, but there wasn’t anyone there. The words ‘Get Later’ written above the circle in the same crayon red.

That’s when something broke through.

She didn’t know when or why she started crying, but she felt the warm tears rolling down her face and then dropping onto the picture, and they came with a searing headache, once again bringing her down to her knees.

But this time, there was something else.

She could hear screaming, loud screaming, like someone was in great pain or being killed. But the pain wasn’t coming from the outside, but the inside. She felt memories coming through, but only flashes. She could see the look of fear on Igneous’ face, then she saw herself getting a knife from the kitchen, then the feeling of something warm and wet on her mouth, practically feeling the smile on her face. All she could hear was the screaming.

Then, just like that, it was gone. The headache, the memories, the screaming, all gone. And all that was left was Pinkamena, filled with fear and questions, her face wet with tears.

*You’re getting closer and closer, this is so exciting!*

Pinkamena slowly began to stand up, trying to comprehend what she just saw. She tried to speak, but her mouth felt so dry, and she wasn’t even sure if anything she would have said would have been coherent.

*I know what you’re thinking, and no, that wasn’t me. Those memories are yours, and yours alone. Now, do you want to sit there thinking about what happened, or do you want to get up and find out?*

Despite what it said, Pinkamena still sat on the ground, her heart beating erratically and her eyes moving back and forth nervously.

*Ok, that was a rhetorical question, not a choice. GET UP!*

Its disembodied voice seemed to vibrate through her mind, only adding to the pain of another headache, though this one wasn’t as bad as before. Hesitantly, Pinkamena got up, picking up the lantern in her mouth and began to walk out of the room, shutting the door behind her and leaving the picture on the ground.

One of the things that worried her the most, is that, unexplainably, the shaking had stopped.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After checking the bathroom, Pinkamena had decided to go back down the stairs. The bathroom didn’t have anything interesting in it, actually, it seemed too normal. The bathroom had been very clean, the only thing strange about the bathroom was the mirror. It had been almost completely shattered, something blunt had been thrown or hit against the center of it, the shards of glass were still on the ground of the bathroom, and it was only thanks to her already being so cautious that she didn’t cut herself by stepping on them. Though there was enough of the mirror for her to see her reflection, and she almost looked into it, but…

She couldn’t bring herself to look at her reflection, every time she did, something pulled her away.

She decided that was one of the few things she wasn’t going to question, and went down to the kitchen, which was a complete mess. She only knew where the kitchen was from memory, but after actually getting there, the layout started getting a little fuzzy. She more or less stumbled around in the dark until she bumped into the family table they always ate at, and set it on the center of the table. She turned the dial on the side of the lantern, allowing it to lighten more of the room, though it does burn the candle faster.

The table was made out of wood, but had been painted a brighter green, though it had faded and now looked a lot paler. It was a lot longer than it was wide, intended to let her and her family all eat at the same table, with three chairs on either side, and one on each end. Right now, it seemed whatever had happened, occurred sometime during dinner, bowls of what looked like rock stew were on the table, some of them seem to have barely been touched. Luckily rock stew never spoiled, so it didn’t emit any kind of foul odor no matter how long it lays out, though it seemed a few bugs have made the bowls their new home.

But Pinkamena had a very good sense of smell, something she got after years of working as a baker, along with her extraordinary sense of taste. She could tell something had been left out, or just hadn’t been cleaned in a while. She walked towards the sink area, locating one of the sources of the smell. There were several plates in the sink, most of them weren’t cleaned, scraps of food on the plates causing a disgusting gray and green mold on most of the plates.

Though the smell coming from the mold was horrendous, she could tell that wasn’t the main source. She turned toward a dark gray refrigerator in the corner of the room, something her mom only ever use to store milk and cheese, since their diet mostly consisted of rocks. The door was currently slightly ajar, though that was hard to see in the dark with only the dim light of the lantern to see it. She hesitantly walked towards the fridge, the smell seeming to be more and more familiar the closer she got, but she wasn’t sure where.

She slowly opened the fridge, the second it opened she jumped back, her eyes constricting from the sight inside the fridge. She recoiled backward, both from the sight of it and the smell. She landed on her flank and began to crawl backward until the back of her head hit the table, causing one of the plates on the table to fall off and shatter against the ground, startling her. She recognized the smell now, she knew it all too well from the time with her clones.

It was the smell of death.

Inside the fridge, besides the rotten milk and cheese, were half a dozen dead, mutilated rats. Some of them had been cut open from their pelvis to their necks, their guts hanging out of their bodies. Others were headless, their heads seeming to have been ripped off rather than cut, judging by the way the area around it had hair ripped off, their heads seeming to be nowhere near the bodies. Blood soaked the inside of the fridge, the inside of the fridge looked like a butcher shop. Sure, she killed her clones pretty brutally, but this? This was the work of someone demented!

“Who….who would do this?” Pinkamena whispered, shocked by the grotesque display in front of her.

*Who indeed? Whoever they are, I like their taste. A very...interesting sense of art. Now, ignore that. Why don’t you take a look to your left? On the floorboards, there’s a clue!” The voice cooed, she couldn’t tell whether or not it was taking this seriously.

Pinkamena glanced at the floor beside her, looking for whatever it was The Voice wanted her to see. Then she noticed it, blood. There was dried, dark red blood ingrained into the wooden floor, and there was a lot more of it than a rat would have. Not just that, but there were bits of skin and hair too, too bright to belong to a rat. She followed the trail with her eyes, a strong sense of terror prevented her from moving. The trail of blood seemed to get thicker the farther it went, and it stopped at the back door, leaving her to assume it continued outside.

*Follow it.*

She felt something run through her when The Voice spoke, like something trying to move her body. But she resisted, biting the inside of her cheek as she felt the fear coursing through her veins. She clenched her eyes shut, unable to stop her body from shaking.

“I...I don’t want to k-”

*That wasn’t a request, it was a command. Get up and follow the blood, NOW!* It shrieked, it’s disembodied voice booming in her head, the familiar feeling of an intense headache coming without it as her brain screamed for the pain to stop. But still, Pinkamena refused.

“NO! I won-” She was unable to continue as the pain intensified, she soon lost her sense of hearing as the ringing in her ears intensified, the feeling of blood dripping down the sides of her face as they did. She felt her body convulse as she threw up on the ground beside her, some of what she ate earlier mixed with blood covered the floor.

*I can’t kill you, yes. But, there are many things worse than death, and I have a very creative imagination. I suggest you do what I say, or you can see just what I can do to you without it being fatal, your choice.*

Pinkamena wiped her face, her hearing slowly coming back as the ringing began to fade away.

“I...hate you…” Pinkamena spat as she slowly got up, her erratic breathing becoming stable as she slowly stood up.

She faintly heard The Voice giggle, deciding whether that was worse or better than when it was threatening her.

*I know.*

Pinkamena turned around, staring at the blood trail leading outside. She slowly began to follow it, barely even able to hear her own hoofsteps. She made sure to grab the lantern on her way out, knowing now how dark it was outside. And with her hearing slowly coming back, she could hear the loud booming of thunder and the clicking sound of rain against the house. At some point in time it had started raining, and somehow, she could feel this was going to be a long storm.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Graves.

That’s what was waiting for her in the backyard, graves.

A few feet away from her house, stood four crosses. They seemed to be arranged in biggest to smallest, the one of the far left being the biggest, and the one on the far right being the smallest. She hadn’t even really noticed the crosses until lighting allowed her to briefly see them, though it was too short for her to see anything on them. The storm seemed to be picking up, the wind was getting stronger and so had the rain, the cold water splashing against her not helping the intense fear she was feeling.

Of course, the blood trail she had been following had been washed away years ago, but she didn’t need it now, she had an idea of where it was leading.

She tried lying to herself about who the graves belonged to, even as she moved closer to them, she tried to lie. But, deep down she knew. Four graves, four family members, abandoned house, blood in the floorboards.

Her family was in those graves.

She slowly raised her lantern to the crosses, noticing that letters had been carved into the center of the crosses. Starting from the one on the farthest left, the letters were IG.P., C.Q., I.P., B.P. She wasn’t sure what these were at first, if they were some sort of secret code left by whoever killed them. She began to repeat them out loud, tapping her chin in thought.

She felt her heart freeze when she figured it out.

Igneous Pie, Cloudy Quartz, Inkie Pie and Blinkie Pie, they were initials, initials of her dead family.

She jumped when there was another sudden loud boom of thunder, the lighting briefly lighting up the crosses. In those few seconds of light, she saw the handle of a shovel poking out of the ground a few feet behind the graves. She picked up the lantern and moved closer the where she saw it. It seemed it had been in there for years, dirt had built up around the end, a mixture of that and the rain causing the dirt to become wetter and the shovel to sink deeper in the ground, the shovel itself being halfway into the ground. The top part of the handle seemed to turn a dark red from rust over the years, only tiny bits of the shovel was still the light gray metal color it used to be.

She didn’t know whether it was The Voice influencing her, or if what something deep inside her needed to know. But she didn’t hesitate when she grabbed the handle of the shovel, ignoring the taste of grime. She wrapped her tail around the handle of the lantern, swiftly turning around as she pulled the shovel out of the ground. With a burning desire for answers, she placed the lantern beside her father’s grave and slammed the shovel into the dirt, the storm seem to get stronger as the downpour of the rain increased, another booming thunder lighting up the area around her. But she didn’t so much as flinch, she only bit down harder on the handle of the shovel as she dug into the grave, few things could stop her.

The dirt had hardened over time, a few plants had even begun to sprout from the graves. But thanks to the rain, and how single-minded she could be, it took her barely two minutes before she saw a hoof. Then a chest, mane, coat, and then, finally, a face.

Her father’s face.

His body had slowly began to decay, being buried in the ground left to the elements didn’t help. His amber coat had long faded to a disgusting brown, all of his mane and tale had fallen out except for a few stubborn pieces of his sideburns that were staying to his face. Some parts of his body, like around his stomach, some of the flesh had already rotted away, bits of his decaying rib cage could be seen. But none of that is what caught most of her attention, no, none of that even compared. What really caught her attention, and what caused her to drop the shovel in her mouth, was his head.

Or rather, how much of it wasn’t there.

His face was terrifying, his mouth agape as if he had died in agonizing pain, some of his teeth had been busted out. The eyes, thankfully, seemed mostly untouched. The color of the eyes turned a lifeless gray, looking up, presumably, at whoever killed him.

Then, right where his forehead should have been, it cut off.

The top of his skull was completely missing, it seemed to have been partly cut off and partly cracked open with something blunt, indicated by the cracks in parts of the skull that were visible and still there. And the parts of the skull that were still there were stained dark red with blood, some of this blood had even leaked down to his eyes. But, one of the scariest things, was that inside of the skull was completely empty. There was no brain, it looked almost like someone had scooped it out.

She had already gotten used to the feeling of the cold rain against her face, even so, she didn’t flinch when warm tears began to run down her face. She seemed to be in shock as she stared at the body of her father, her eyes unmoving as the rain hit her, her tears slowly rising down her face. Then her mouth slowly began to open, her pupils constricting as the tears began to stream down her face faster than before. She couldn’t seem to take her eyes away from the sight before her, not even as her mouth slowly began to open.

A loud scream pierced through the storm, only overshadowed by another boom of thunder.

Maybe it was The Voice, maybe it was Pinkamena, or maybe it was something in her subconscious, desperate for some form of comfort after what she just saw. But something compelled her to get out of that grave as fast as possible, and run into the house. And after her scream, that’s what happened. She crawled out of that grave, and ran as fast as she could inside, as if her family were still alive, waiting inside to embrace her and tell her it was ok.

But when she got inside, all that was there was the darkness.

Her knees began to shake and wobble, and she soon collapsed, unable to hold herself up any longer.

The room was silent for a few moments, then there was the sound of her tears quickly dripping on the floor, and then the sound of her sobs, which she was unable thold back anymore.

She looked down at her hooves, only barely able to see them thanks to the moonlight shining through the open doorway. She looked at the dirt and mud covering her hooves, unable to hold back the emotions pouring out of her. Then, for a split second, she saw something else. Suddenly her hooves were smaller, the same size as when she was a filly. Instead of mud being on her hooves, they were drenched in red blood. Her father's body lay before her, a knife poking out the top of his head, and yet her hooves couldn’t have been steadier. She heard a bloodcurdling scream from behind her, causing her to quickly turn around.

Only for her to realize there was no one there, she had come back to reality, there was no one there but her.

Before she had time to react, another searing headache caused her to scream, she reflexively put her hooves against her temples to try to ease the pain.

*Hmm, I don’t get it. Why are you resisting? I thought you wanted to know the truth? But now you’re causing yourself all this unnecessary, but delicious, pain? You’re either really weird, or really stupid.*

Pinkamena slammed her hooves against the ground as she ground her teeth, her entire body shaking from the pain and emotions she was feeling.

“What...in Tartarus... are you ta-”

There was another wave of intense pain, causing Pinkamena to slam her head against the floor to try to ease the pain, unable to do much more than scream in agony.

*Oh! I get it! You think I’m doing this. Well, sorry to burst your ignorance bubble. But those flashes you're seeing? Those are memories, your repressed and ignored memories. I guess it makes sense that you’d be resisting, I doubt anyone would want to see their family die a second time. But, since you’re so desperate for answers, I’ll help you out, just this once.*

Before Pinkamena could respond, the pain seemed to surge through her bad, as her brain seemed to melt from the pain. All she could do was scream in agony, as reality faded away.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nothing.

Pinkamena felt absolutely nothing.

Not just the physical and emotional pain she was experiencing before, but she felt nothing.

As the whiteness and the pain slowly faded away, slightly thankful the headaches were gone, she had slowly lost any and all feeling she had. She couldn’t feel her body, couldn’t feel the tears that were rolling down her face or the mud on her hooves, nothing.

As reality came into focus, she recognized immediately where she was. She was in her home, her real home. Before whatever happened, happened. And the house fell to age and lack of care. It still looked the way it usually did, and now it was the middle of the day, something she could see from the windows outside. She was currently in the kitchen, the rotting food she saw earlier, now looked fresh and sat on the kitchen table, though there wasn’t anypony in there.

Now that she knew where she was, she tried moving her eyes down to look at her body, still curious as to why she couldn’t feel anything.

Then she realized she couldn’t move to look down.

She could move her eyes, sure. But only horizontally, not vertically. Whenever she tried to, it’s like something was preventing the signals from her brain to her eyes, they wouldn’t move.

And the worst part? She couldn’t even panic about it.

“Hmmm, Pink, not sure what other color I expected you to be.*

Pinkamena tried moving her head towards the sound of the voice, but then realized she couldn’t really move her head. So she moved her eyes as far left as they would go, trying to locate the source of the feminine, foal like voice.

“I forgot what it looked like, seeing someone experience nothingness for the first time. It’s...interesting, to watch you squirm.”

Though Pinkamena couldn’t feel her spine, she still felt a chill go down it when she heard the voice again as her eyes fell on the source, recognizing it almost immediately.

“Surprise! It’s me-actually, I’m not going to tell you my name, would spoil the Surprise! Though, it is nice to meet you in person. And, you know, not have to watch the world from your eyes and learning you inside and out from repeatedly watching your memories.*

The voice was sickeningly sweet, to the point where she preferred the disembodied version. The presence before her only seemed to resemble a pony, the figure of one, at least. It wasn’t a corporeal being, it seemed to just be a very thick cloud of fog, though the fog was a dark shade of scarlet, and wasn’t see through. The fog seemed to be in the form of a filly, though it only had the outline. It had no coat, mane, or tail. It also had no cutie mark, or no facial features, eyes, mouth, anything. It just looked like one of Rarity’s creepy mannequins that she used to put outfits on, though this one was in the shape of a filly, a dark shade of red, had no defining features, and could move around and talk despite not having a mouth.

Though despite not having a mouth, she had no doubt it was smiling sadistically at her right now.

“For now, you can call me The Voice, as you have been. It’s not too original, but it’s better than ‘crazy bitch’ or ‘obsessed stalker’. You know, the things you call me when you think I’m not listening. And, hey, while we’re on that topic!”

The Voice walked towards her, though it seemed more like she hovered rather than walked. She made the motions of walking with her hooves, but they didn’t seem to hit the floor. It’s like the entire world was on pause, but she was on play. Not only that, but Pinkamena noticed that despite the fact she was supposed to be a filly, there didn’t seem to be any height difference between them. Even as she got closer, she didn’t seem slightly taller or shorter than her, they seemed to stay at eye level the entire time.

When she was right in front of Pinkamena, she stared at her for a few moments, seeming to just observe her. Then she slowly raised her right hoof a few inches above the ground, just leaving it there. When she stopped raising it, she slightly tilted her head to the left curiously, still looking at Pinkamena. It kind reminded her of a puppy, looking up at its owner playfully.

That image shattered as soon as her hoof slammed against the ground.

Even though she didn’t have a body, excruciating agony vibrated through her. It felt like some invisible force was pushing her against an extremely hard surface, like she was pinned under one of the giant boulders she occasionally saw on the farm. And at the same time, it felt like something had exploded inside of her body, her insides having been torn to shreds. And something, what felt like an invisible hand, had reached inside her body. This hand felt like it had razor sharp claws, and had no issue being rough. It felt like it was tearing apart her organs, or at least what was left of them. And the remaining bits of what was inside her felt like they were being grabbed by the hand and ripped out, crushing her bones in the process.

She couldn’t struggle, couldn’t resist, couldn’t do anything but take the pain. She couldn’t even scream!

“I am always watching! Every second, of every minute, of every hour, of every day! I don’t need to sleep or eat! All I ever do is watch you and think, that’s all I can do! And when you’re sleeping, or just doing something I could not give less of a shit about! I take a stroll in the deepest parts of your mind, and I take a peek into your memories. I’ve seen each memory at least a dozen times, I know everything about you, I probably know you better than you know yourself. I know how you work, why you work the way you do, and how to make you do what I like. You may think you have control, but you don’t! I do! You control your body, sure, but that’s because I allow you to!”

As she spoke, the fog seemed to spike, as if unstable emotions can cause it to lose form. It was becoming less of a filly and more of an amalgamation of one, barely even keeping a physical shape. Pinkamena was barely able to hear and comprehend her, the pain seems to get worse as time went on. It felt like her insides were melting, here mind barely able to process anything else except for the pain.

“Celestia might be the god to ponies in Equestria, but to you? I control everything you do, any privilege you think you might have, I let you! I can hear every thought you have, I feel every emotion you do, I could even predict what you’re going to say if I wanted! I am your god! And this is me being benevolent, free will is a privilege you have that I can take away whenever you step out of line! I allow you and Sylia to because it’s entertaining! How many times do you think a decision you’ve made was actually yours? How many times do you think a suggestive thought was really yours? Everything, from the decisions you’ve made, the life you live, the friends you have? They are not yours, they are what I allow you to have. I OWN YOU! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!”

She wasn’t even a poor imitation of a filly anymore, or even anything that could be considered a pony. It wasn’t even red anymore, but was now a jade black. It had grown to be significantly bigger, it was now practically the only thing Pinkamena could see. It was much larger than she was, even if she still had her body, it could consume her whole. It no longer had any single shape, every inch of it seemed to be constantly moving, where Pinkamena couldn’t be looking at just one spot. It seemed to be constantly spiking, switching from growing to shrinking and staying like that. It didn’t seem to have any other features, except in the spot where the face was. Unlike the rest of it, there were two spots on the upper part of the face that was still a scarlet red, and the way they were shaped, they looked like eyes.

The pain suddenly stopped, as if it was giving her the chance to actually answer. She had no mouth or head to nod, really, she had no actual way to answer. All she could do is desperately scream yes in her head and hope it could hear her.

“Oh goody! Now we can be best friends! Now, onto the main show!”

And just like that, her chipper and mock sweetness. And just as fast as it had happened, the shape went from the black beast, right back to the mannequin-like imitation of a filly. It changed from black to scarlett again in an instant, and just as fast, shrank back down to the size of a filly. There were no more spikes in the shape, as she now seemed to be completely calm. She wasn’t even facing her anymore, she had turned around and was now facing the kitchen table, making Pinkamena unable to see her.

“I’m sure you have plenty of questions, like how long I’ve been here or why I’m here. Well, that’s part of the reason I didn’t let you have a mouth, or a body, or any kind of emotions. No, I’m not giving you direct answers, not anymore, you don’t really learn anything that way. No, you see, you're a lot smarter than you think, smarter than when I started off, even. But you don’t know it, and you don’t put that genius brain of yours to work. Instead, I’m going to leave little breadcrumbs, both because it’ll help me watch you put your brain to work, and I have a bad habit of doing that anyway.”

She began to walk around the kitchen, just seeming to examine the place. She stayed just inside her eyesight, even if just barely.

“I will answer one question I know you have though, just because you have no way of figuring it out, you don’t have the pieces. You see, I have absolute control here, in your mind, had years of practice. I know every trick, and every place. So, while we have our party of two in here, I made sure Sylia won’t be bothering us. She couldn’t handle the stress anyway, needs her sleep. What I’m about to show you is going to be very important, so I don’t want you to be distracted by something as pesky as emotions, so I got rid of those.”

She walked back up to Pinkamena, outstretching it and rubbing it against her face, or, at least where her face would be, if she had one, and if she could feel it.

“So just sit there like a good girl, okay? Before we start though, let me explain to you how this works, because that’s something you couldn’t figure out on your own either.”

She pulled her hoof away and moved to the left, right outside of her peripheral vision, though she could almost feel her still there.

“After having literally nothing to do but mess around with your mind, I found out that I could also force Sylia to watch a memory with me, if I so wanted. Though making her shut up and not move took some trial and error, but I eventually got it. And by the way, this isn’t the first time I’ve forced you here, I’ve done it multiple times. It’s just after doing this long enough, I’ve figured out that whatever memories you have in here, I can tamper with however I feel like. Not just that, but it seems no matter how long we’re in here, or how many memories we watch however many times, not a single second passes out there. I can do whatever I want to you, however long I want, so, just remember that. Now, onto the show!”

There was a loud snapping sound, like somebody had snapped their fingers.

She hadn’t been paying that much attention to the room around her, having been in agonizing pain for the majority of the time she’s been here. But now that she had another look at it, she noticed how...still it all looked. It didn’t seem like it was really there, it was like she was in a picture of the place, rather than actually being there, nothing seemed real.

Then after that snap, it was like it had been on pause, and The Voice had just pressed play.

“Now, I started this memory about one minute before the main event, so you can more or less get a grasp. I’m showing you this memory because you are being so stubborn about denying the truth, so I’ll make it to where you can’t deny it. Well, that, and this is one of my favorites.”

As soon as she said that, the front door opened, her father walking in, along with her mother, and her three….why did she think three? Anyway, her two sisters walked in behind them, and all them had wide smiles on their faces, which was a strange sight in itself.

Then Pinkie walked in.

Behind all of them, literally bouncing into the room on all fours, was Pinkie.

She was so bright and colorful, almost to the point of painful to look at. Every bounce was with joy, wide, happy smile on her face, her mess of a hair bouncing along with her every time. Her bright baby blue eyes seemed to sparkle with innocence, innocence Pinkamena no longer had. If she could feel emotions right now, she’s not sure what she would feel.

As she watched them enter the house, she began to wonder why they were all smiling. When did this take place? Then, when it hit her, she felt stupid for not realizing it immediately. This was the day, the day of the sonic rainboom, the day she threw her first party, the day she left,

“The day everything changed, yeah I know, I know. You’re getting it. But, not quite. Think about it, why would I take you back to one of the happiest days of your life? Just doesn’t sound like me, right?”

Pinkamena didn’t need emotions to know she should be dreading what that meant, and all the possibilities.

Even as they got closer to the table, she couldn’t make out what they were saying. Either she didn’t even have a memory of what they said, or The Voice decided it didn’t interest her and just muted them. She watched as they got closer to the kitchen table, the smiles never left their faces, even as they continued to talk. She noticed that Pinkie was lacking behind, she seemed to be slowing down, almost just walking at this point. She seemed to be concentrating on something, as if she was trying to think of something.

She heard the soft humming of the voice to her left, it was a happy tune, one she felt she should know. But, she just….couldn’t quite place it.

Her eyes would have widened if they could, but she could only watch blankly when Pinkie suddenly dropped mid-bounce. All the color seemed to leave her, her curly hair suddenly deflated, going back to the flat mane she had before. When she hit the ground, her body started to spasm and convulse, it was like she was having a seizure! Her limbs frailed back and forth as she did, her eyes had been shut forcefully, as if she was trying her hardest not to open them. Pinkamena was almost worried she was going to bite off her tongue, but she realized that was likely something she would have remembered that.

For some reason, The Voice began humming slightly louder, her humming seemed to be happier and upbeat. She recognized that song now, maybe she would have been better off not realizing.

It was The Smile Song, the one she hadn’t heard or sang in so long.

“Pinkamena! Honey, get the first aid, hurry!”

Igneous said as the smile left his face, running to Pinkie and holding her, place a rock in her mouth so she wouldn’t bite off her own tongue. Her mother, Cloudy, ran towards one of the cabinets, pulling out a small red box with a sun on it, the first aid kit. She began hastily running towards Pinkamena, pulling out some kind of needle filled with something in her mouth, her tongue wrapped around the plunger as she placed the first aid kit on the kitchen table. Her sisters could only watch in fear, unable to do anything.

She remembered now.

When Pinkamena was younger, she used to have seizures a lot. They took her to the doctor for it, but there didn’t seem to be a problem with her, it was a mystery. Luckily, the seizures weren’t usually that bad or that long. But for moments when they did get bad, the doctor had provided some kind of medicine that was made to help with it whenever it got too bad. The medicine was kept in the first aid box meant for emergencies, though it was rarely used. After a bit, the seizures slowed down and seemed to stop completely. She had assumed the last one she had occurred a few weeks prior to the sonic rainboom, but apparently, she had one the day of it. Why didn’t she remember this? Any of this?

As Cloudy got on her knees, preparing to inject the medicine into her, Pinkamena suddenly stopped. Her frailing and thrashing had ceased, her body seemed to completely relax. Her eyes seemed to slowly begin to open, blinking rapidly as they did. Then her eyes suddenly opened, her eyes widened as she suddenly shot up, as if she were just in a dream and suddenly woke up.

She looked up at Igneous, who was looking down at her, confused and worried about his daughter. She pushed himself off of him, beginning to stand up on her hind legs and look down at her hooves. This made Igneous and cloudy glance confusedly at each other, Pinkie may have been weird, yes, but they’ve never seen a pony stand on their hind legs before.

“Pinkamena, dear, are you….okay?” Igneous asked hesitantly, slowly getting up off the ground. Cloudy put the syringe back in the first aid kit, setting it down on the kitchen table, though the first aid kit was still open.

Pinkamena just continued to stand there, staring down at her hooves. Her hooves seemed to be shaking a little, not out of fear or anything, but it was like she just enjoyed moving them. Her mouth also seemed to be moving, but it moved strangely, as if she weren’t used to the mouth she had. She seemed to be mumbling something to herself, though it didn’t seem like actual words, it was like she was first learning to talk. Then, she seemed to fully adjust. A smile suddenly stretched on her face, one she had become all too familiar with.

She could only watch in fear as she realized, that wasn’t Pinkamena in there, something else was controlling her.

“Yes daddy, I’m just,” The thing said controlling her body, sounding just as enthusiastic and happy as Pinkie usually did. But unlike Pinkie’s, it wasn’t faked. Not just that, but there was a tone of sadism and maliciousness was hidden in there, she had used the same tone enough times to be able to recognize it.

The thing walked up to Igneous, that wide smile still on its face. It was still standing on its hind legs, not even seeming to struggle at all with doing so. It then seemed to quickly reach towards one of the bowls still filled with rock stew with her two front hooves, having little trouble with holding it. She then slammed it over Igneous’ head, knocking him out on the ground and knocking his hat off, he barely had time to react.

“Fine! Perfect, actually! Now that I have a body!”

It was then that The Voice began to sing the lyrics to The Smile Song, seeming genuinely happy to be doing so. Her voice sounded so sing-songy and foal-like, similar to a filly singing a foal hood song.

“Come on everypony smile, smile, smile,”

Before Cloudy had a chance to even scream, It quickly grabbed a scalpel out of the first aid kit. It seemed whatever was controlling her was using the fact that is had a small body to its advantage, using its size and agility to move quicker than she could. She didn’t seem to have any issues grabbing the handle of the scalpel either, she held it quite steady actually. Either this thing was used to using its mouth to hold things, or it could adapt terrifying well and quickly.

It quickly jumped up and used the scalpel to slit Cloudy’s throat, cutting deep enough into her windpipe to prevent anything more than a wheezing gurgle to come out. Blood quickly started pouring out of the slice in her throat, her face began to pale out of shock, fear, and blood loss as she quickly put her hooves against her throat at an attempt to stop the bleeding. She quickly fell to her knees, the thing controlling Pinkamena’s body still standing on its hind legs as it watched her, the smile on its face only stretching as its eyes widened.

As blood spurted out of her throat, hitting the body of the thing in front of her, she could only look up in fear and shock, not understanding why she was now dying. Her body soon hit the floor as her desperate gurgling stopped, a pool of blood beneath her.

“Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine,”

Her sisters had backed themselves into a corner, holding on to each other as they shook in fear. Though the thing didn’t seem to have any interest in them, it barely gave them more than a glance. They watched in fear and horror, unable to move.

“Hmm, I wonder, does it taste as good as I remember.” She said to herself, almost like it was meant to be a thought, but she had said it instead.

She turned around, getting on top of Igneouss’ unconscious body. She sat on his chest, looking down at him almost eagerly. She slowly opened her mouth and brought both her hooves up to it, putting the scalpel in between her hooves so she could hold it properly. She then brought her hooves above her head, and then brought them down as she slammed the scalpel into his head, stabbing it in the spot she slammed with the bowl. There was a wet squelching sound as it entered his brain and stabbed into his skull, his body briefly convulsed, but otherwise stayed still.

Both the sisters screamed, but it only smiled wider.

“Bust it out from ear to ear, let it begin,”

She began to….cut Igneouss’ head, instead of pulling out the knife, she began to push it to the left, cutting through his skull and making a line in his forehead, more blood began to pour out of his head onto its hooves, but it didn’t seem to care. It seemed to be struggling a bit, having trouble getting the scalpel to cut through the bone, but the smile never left its face.

As Pinkamena was forced to listen to the sick sound of that thing controlling her body carve into her father’s head like a pumpkin, her sisters only able to watch in terror traumatized, she began to realize why her father was missing his entire upper head when she discovered his body. What she couldn’t understand, was why.

“Just give me a joyful grin, grin, grin,”

“Thick-headed bastard!” Pinkamena heard it mumble as it cut into him, at this point almost making it all the way around.

When she did, she gasped excitedly, like a foal who just unwrapped a present. She quickly pulled the scalpel out, placing it down on the floor carefully. She then put her hooves under the cuts, coating them in blood, and practically ripped off his upper head, a disgusting tearing sound could be heard through the room as she did. She tossed it to the side carelessly, it began to make a puddle of blood beneath it, it looked almost like a wig, if it wasn’t for the fact the skin and the hair were still attached to part of the skull.

“Wow! Pony brains are bigger than I expected! And pinker too! Weird, I thought with how stupid most ponies seem to be, they’d have relatively small brains.” It said playfully, holding said brain in her hooves after pulling it out of his head. Blood and some other kinds of liquids covered its hooves and began to drip onto the floor below, it didn’t seem to care.

For a few moments, she just seemed to stare at it. She poked it once or twice to watch it jiggle, seeming to almost giggle as she did.

“Now, for the taste test.” It whispered as she leaned forward, taking a bite out of the brain, the sick squishing sound as she bit in and the blood and juices covered her face almost seemed to echo throughout the room. So did her squeal of delight as she seemed to enjoy the taste of the brain, and the disgusting sounds of her greedi devouring the rest of it like she hadn’t ate in years.

If Pinkamena had a body, she was sure she would have thrown up. But it seems her sisters had already done that, one of them seemed to have even pissed herself, a puddle spreading from underneath them.

“I really am so happy”

It had consumed his brains in seconds, causing her face to be covered in blood, most of it dripping from her mouth. Pinkamena would have been disgusted at the fact that it was using her body to do so if she could, she was almost grateful The Voice had prevented her from feeling, if she didn’t hate it so much.

“Absolutely delicious! Even better than I remembered, I can’t wait for more! Though, there is one thing I’d like to try first.” It said as it got off of Igneouss’ body, what was left of his head dropped to the floor lifelessly. She picked up the bloody scalpel off the floor in her mouth, her back still facing the sisters. Then, her head quickly turned toward them, her pupils constricted and her smile still wide.

They visibly worsened when it did that, they tried to push themselves as far back in the corner as they could, clutching onto each other as tightly as possible.

“Your smile fills me with glee,”

It turned around and began walking towards them, the blood covered smile never even flinching.

“There’s this thing about brains, something I’ve learned from trial and error. Adult brains are generally better tasting, since they’re fully developed. But children and teenagers are a lot easier to scare usually, and when a body is filled with fear and adrenaline, the brain working at its best, it’s like cream filling! I can feel my stomach growling just thinking about it! So girls, do me a favor, for your little sister!”

It stood right in front of them, holding the scalpel right above its head.

“Be completely terrified of me, ok?”

“I give a smile, I get a smile, and that’s so special to me.”

She would remember their screams for the rest of her life.

She hadn’t realized how much of a mercy it had given her parents, considering what it did to her siblings. They tried to fight back, but were barely able to. They were filled with fear and were traumatized, having just watched the brutal deaths of their parents. This thing seemed to also have almost extraordinary strength, as if whatever it possessessomething, the host becomes more powerful. Or maybe that was just the so-called ‘strength of insanity’, who knows?

Unlike her parents, who it had just knocked out or killed with little to no pain, it didn’t give them that privilege. Blinkie hadn’t really fought back at all, it was Inkie who had even tried, though it was futile, Pinkamena knew that by the four graves behind her house. It had pinned her against the ground, sitting on her chest with it’s lower legs laid on top of her upper arms, preventing her from doing anything but squirming.

Pinkamena and Blinkie could only watch as it did the same thing it did to Igneous, but this time the victim was awake to experience it, and her screams would be burned into Pinkamena’s memory.

It had cut open Inkie’s head, tossed the upper part to the side, and eagerly ate her brain, right in front of Blinkie.

Then it slowly walked over to Blinkie, and did the same, though it didn’t even need to pin her down. Though her screams were louder and higher pitched, Pinkamena was sure if she had ears, they would be bleeding. Maybe the ears of that thing were bleeding, though its blood covered face made it hard to tell.

“There’s one thing that makes me happy,”

After consuming every last bit of brain from Pinkamena’s siblings, its entire front body was now soaked in blood, it went back to Cloudy’s body, not wanting to leave any scraps left. It seemed to rush this time, almost like it was short on time. Though it ate her mothers’ brain just as eagerly, and enjoyed it just as much.

When she was done, she stood straight up and stretched satisfyingly, rubbing her stomach as if she had just enjoyed a big meal.

“It feels so good to eat again! That was the best! But I don’t really like eating with these teeth, they make it kind of hard to chew meat and stuff. Though, I am still a little peckish.”

It sniffed the air a few times, reminding Pinkamena of a dog trying to get the scent of something. It suddenly turned towards the book cabinet walking up to it and pushing it to the side. It then grabbed a nearby lamp, using it to bash a hole in the wall. When it peeked in, it noticed a rats nest in the walls. There were about a doze baby mice in the nest that looked just a few hours old, the mother and father were hovering over them and hissing up at it.

But it only smiled.

It didn’t bother carving the heads of the rats, instead, it just bit the heads off at the neck, tossing the bodies to the side having no interest in them. But about halfway through, it stopped eating them, seems to have satisfied its hunger. But it wasn’t finished with the rats,

It liked to play with its food.

“And makes my whole life worthwhile,”

It brought the rest of them in a pile in front of the fridge, and the scalpel along with it. It began to cut and disembowel the rats, and began to squeeze the guts and blood out of them until they didn’t move or squeak anymore. Then it placed them in the freezer, as if saving it as a snack for later. And all the while, it was humming something to itself, a tone and rhythm Pinkamena had never heard before.

“And that’s when I talk to my friends and get them to smile.”

“Ugh! Only fifteen minutes left? Man, time flies when you're enjoying a meal. Hmmm, what to do? I feel like…..I’m forgetting a family member. Pinkie’s mom has a family picture in her room, might as well double check, just to be sure.”

It suddenly said, slowly standing up. Though it stopped for a moment, looking down at its own hooves. Instead of standing on its hind legs like it had been, it got down on all fours, as if curious what it was like. It then began to walk forward and backward a little bit, and then started jumping up and down. It quickly adjusted to being on all fours, seemed to enjoy it even, judging from the way it smiled.

“Oh yeah! Just like riding a horse! It’s good to have four legs again, though I know it is only temporary.”

It began walking towards the stairs, but seemed to suddenly stop and scowl, as if hearing something it found gross.

“Oh, buck you! That was funny! Your just mad because it’s not your turn yet!” It said aggressively, as if talking to someone else that was in the room, but there was no one. It started walking upstairs, seeming to mumble something else.

“Well, wasn’t that interesting? Come now, the fun parts over, but there’s still more to see.”

The Voice suddenly said, Pinkamena noticed how happy it seemed to be. It walked past her eyes, seems to be following it up the stairs. As it did, Pinkamena seemed to hover behind her, as if The Voice made it to where Pinkamena would always stay where she was, and she could only move when The Voice did.

And though she had stopped singing, The Voice was still humming The Smile Song. Pinkamena still didn’t understand why, or why The Voice had an interest in the song.

When they got upstairs, the door to her parent's room was wide open. They walked into the room, seeing that the thing possessing Pinkamena’s body was sitting in there bed, looking down at a picture frame in their hooves. Pinkamena glanced at the window, noticing how it was still day time. Though the sun seemed to be slowly setting, it was still bright enough to see into the room.

“Let’s see, control freak father, check.”

It was now holding the blood covered scalpel in its mouth, its speak somehow not affected at all by it. She leaned down and drew x’s over Igneouss’ eyes, the blood on the scalpel making the x’s red. Her face already had the red smile on it and the eyes blackened out, though she wasn’t sure how it did that.

“Bitch mother, check.” She drew x’s over Cloudy’s eyes, resulting in the same red x’s as Igneous.

It seemed to be making a checklist of sorts, though instead of tasks it had done or yet to do, it was members of Pinkamena’s family it had killed.

“Shy and tomboy sister, check.”

As it drew red x’s on her sisters, it looked at a spot on the picture curiously. It was the spot that when Pinkamena looked at it, it was empty. But now there was a pony there, though the face seemed to be completely blurred out.

It looked at this pony with a scowl, seeming to be annoyed at her.

“I always forget her name, not sure why. Where was she, anyway? I could’ve sworn she was here earlier, hmmm. Then again, this one was always too smart for her own good. It’s possible she could’ve had some sort of idea of what was going to happen, and left. I wonder, what kind of taste does a brain that smart have? She’s going on my to kill list, no question.” It mumbled to itself as it drew a circle around her head, then writing the words ‘Get Later’ above her.

It then sat the picture frame on the nightstand, putting the scalpel down on the bed and giving a satisfied sigh as it did.

“Alright, I’m done. I know I still got, like, seven minutes left or something. But there’s not too much I could do in that time, and you know how much I hate being bored. So go ahead and take over, do your thing. I’ve enjoyed my freedom.”

It just sat there for a moment with a smile on its face, its eyes slowly closing as if it were falling asleep. Then its body completely relaxed for a moment, like when it possessed Pinkamena’s body the first time, but without the frailing and convulsing. Then, its head slowly began to rise up as its whole body tensed. Its eyes opened slowly, and Pinkamena noticed immediately something was different. There was a different light in their eyes, and it seemed...more relaxed, less sadistic than before. She couldn’t place it, but it seemed too familiar.

“Oh Pinkie, I’m so sorry.” It said sadly, looking down at its blood covered hooves as it did.

It didn’t say anything else, almost like it didn’t think it deserved to speak, or that there just wasn’t anything to say.

It tried to jump off the bed, attempting to land on all fours. But it lost its balance as it landed, causing it to fall on the floor with a grunt almost comically, its four legs spread out. It slowly began to stand itself up, legs shaking like newborn first learning how to walk. It collapsed a few times before it was finally able to stand, it seems whoever was possessing her body wasn’t as adaptable as she was.

After learning how to stand, it walked back and forth for a few minutes, then jumped up and down until it felt comfortable with walking. It took longer than the one previous, but it also stayed completely quiet. It didn’t say a word, not even as it walked through the doorway, right through her and The Voice, and began to walk down the stairs, taking its time as it didn’t want to fall.

Like before, The Voice began to follow, with Pinkamena in tow. At some point without her noticing, The Voice had stopped humming. Now, she was being silent, though Pinkamena still had the feeling it was smiling.

“This isn’t some huge mystery to figure out, I’m sure you’ve already got an idea of what’s happening here. The only things you weren’t given a clue about, is why it happened. Let me give you a hint, the person who’s possessing you now, is Sylia. Though I’m sure you might have figured that out already, and that the one possessing you previously and killed your family, was me. Now what you need to work on figuring out, is why would she cooperate with me so easily?”

The Voice didn’t say anything else, leaving Pinkamena to only think. When they got down the stairs, Sylia had been just standing there, staring at the bodies. She gave out a loud sigh as she looked at them, remaining silent otherwise. She turned around, walking towards and opening the back door and walking outside. She came back a few moments later, a shovel balanced on her back.

She grabbed Igneous by his leg, biting into it and beginning to pull him out the back door, a trail of blood behind him.

“Well, now you know who buried your family for you, huh?”

Pinkamena didn’t respond, she wouldn’t even if she had the ability to.

“This was a fun trip down memory lane, huh? You were having the happiest day of your life with your family, I killed your family, great times! I hope you were paying close attention, because you’ve seen more than enough to answer any burning questions you may have. But, sadly, all the interesting stuff ends here. After burying your family in the backyard, Sylia used the family’s money to get a ticket to Ponyville, and I fabricated the memory of you saying goodbye to them. And after that? Well, you know the rest. So, let’s go ahead and go back to reality. You’ve got a surprise waiting for you!”

And just like last time, reality began to fade away, a bright light consuming everything she could see. Though this time, it seemed The Voice was feeling generous, as it didn’t come with the same searing pain.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The world slowly began to come back, Pinkamena slowly beginning to regain her senses. She blinked her eyes rapidly, both because she wasn’t able to blink before, and there were still tears running down her eyes. She slowly got back the feeling in her hooves, and the mud that was on them. She also got the feeling of pain on her knees from sitting on the hard ground the way she was, and the terrible smell of death in the house. She could tell the storm was still going, she could still hear the pitter patter of rain outside. The Voice was right, no time had passed at all.

At first, Pinkamena didn’t feel anything. She simply just sat on the floor, tears running down her face and hitting her grime-covered hooves. Then, it all hit her at once. Pain, regret, sadness, fear, and every other emotion she should have felt during that memory.

This was the price for not feeling anything in there, when you come back, it all hits you at once.

But Pinkamena didn’t cry, she didn’t scream, sob, she didn’t do anything. No amount of crying or screaming would, these emotions were….overwhelming. It did more than just traumatize her,

It broke her.

It was almost funny, it felt….almost familiar. She felt similar to when Spike told her her friends didn’t want to be her friends anymore, it was that moment where her worst fears had been realized where every negative emotion she had ever repressed so she could be the happy pony they wanted her to be, all overcame her at once. Her friends had been her one pillar of strength in her life, her only thing that gave her a reason to live. And when she realized that they didn’t care about her, that hurt her badly, it left an emotional scar on her, one that had only scabbed over. But this?

This broke her.

Like with her friends, there was almost an audible sound of glass breaking, like her mental state had been crushed. She didn’t have the energy or desire to move even an inch, and she couldn’t bring herself to cry or scream anymore. She only sat on the ground in a catatonic state, the tiny amount of life that had been in her eyes was now gone, they looked almost as dead as her fathers.

She kept staring at her hooves in front of her, some of her tears from earlier dripping down and hitting them, even though she was no longer crying.

She didn’t even flinch when a changeling walked in, she didn’t respond at all, as if not even noticing it was there.

This changeling was alone, though there was almost no doubt there were others outside, or maybe some who had snuck in the house and were waiting for some kind of signal, there was never just one changeling.

Though this one was different, it wasn’t like the drones before, despite it being hard to tell due to the lack of light and the changelings natural dark black carapace. This seemed to be a bit taller, though that could be because it was trying to look intimidating by standing as tall as it can and protruding its chest. It had all the features of a changeling, black carapace with extendable wings, long, fang-like teeth, hooves have large holes in it like swiss cheese, and large light blue eyes with no pupils, that seemed to be looking down at Pinkamena in anger, an evident scowl on its face. What made it look different than the changeling, wasn’t anything about the changeling itself, exactly, but what it was wearing. It was wearing some kind of dark blue armor on the top part of its body, with holes for the wings, and it seemed to extend down to the chest. This armor also had three white ovals on it, one on both sides of the neck, and the last one the back. He also had a helmet made out of the same dark blue material, a hole for his sharp horn was on there, along with another oval and one on the back.

He walked closer to Pinkamena, until he was standing a foot or two in front of her. He looked down at her with an almost disgusted look, that look of pure hatred didn’t leave either.

“Hello, monster.”

He spoke those words with nothing but anger as he looked at her, it was the same look of hatred Celestia gave her when she walked into the throne room. That look of hatred, disgust, and fear, it was almost not noticeable, but it was there.

Though he clearly hated her, he made no physical movement, he seemed to be waiting for a response. But he didn’t get one, Pinkamena still sat there in her catatonic state, not even flinching. He seemed annoyed at this, but wasn’t going to do anything, not yet. He couldn’t see her face, but he could see the dirt on her hooves, though he didn’t really care why.

“I doubt you remember me, you ponies think we changelings all look the same. But I was there, I was at Canterlot. I was just another drone then, we had specific orders not to kill any ponies. While reluctant, we agreed, disobeying our queen isn’t something a changeling would even consider. So, throughout that entire invasion, not a single pony was killed, no matter how hungry we were or how much we wanted to. And yet…..”

He visibly shivered as he slammed his hoof onto the ground, his teeth grounding as he growled at her.

“And yet you slaughtered them! We were just trying to capture you, and yet you brutally murdered dozens of us! You beat us down, broke us, mutilated and killed us, and I could only watch as you did! What you did to them was more ruthless and bloodthirsty than anything we have ever one to a pony, and you did it all with a smile! And yet you have the audacity to call us the monsters!” He screamed at her, spit flying out and landing on the back of her head. He was now visibly shaking, whether that was from rage, or because he was traumatized by the memory of what he witnessed at Canterlot, was unclear.

Even so, no matter how much he screamed or did, Pinkamena did not move. She did not move an inch, didn’t say anything, it was if he wasn’t even there.

“And now….” His anger only seemed to get worse at that, he was grinding his teeth together so hard she could hear it.

“You won’t even look at me. Are you so ashamed of what you did, to the point of being unable to? No, ponies don’t feel guilt for what they do to us, since we’re so inferior! Then is it because I’m such a bug to you that I’m not even worth your attention? Do you even think about the lives you took? Or were they just more bodies to the pile? How many other lives have you taken? How many times have you gone on a rampage, creating orphans, parents losing their children, widows? No more, I will not allow you to kill another. On my honor as a changeling from Chrysalis’ hive, you’re not leaving this place alive!”

At that moment he seemed to lose all sense of self-control, giving in to his rage. He jumped forward, pouncing on her as he pinned her to the ground by her shoulders, sitting on top of her exactly like how The Voice had been when she killed Inkie.

“Nothing I could do to you can amount to the pain and suffering you’ve caused to my hive, but I can try.” There wasn’t a single ounce of sadism or joy in what he said or on his face, just a burning hatred and desire for revenge.

That was when he started beating her.

Changelings weren’t any stronger than the average pony, and she was an earth pony, so she had higher durability than the typical pony. But he was hitting her with every ounce of rage he had been holding in, using her to channel his emotions with every punch. Though she wasn’t resisting in the slightest, it was doubtful she could even if she tried. She remained in her catatonic static, even as she felt her teeth rattle and come loose with each punch, sure her jawbone would break soon if this kept on.

She felt the pain, and yet, it didn't hurt. It was like her entire body was numb, she could feel his hooves pounding against her body, but it was like her brain just couldn’t register the pain.

Besides, even if she could feel it, it was doubtful any amount of physical pain could match the emotional she was already feeling.

Strangely enough, being beat like this felt....almost familiar. Though she knew her father was strict, he had never hurt them. And there hasn’t been a single point in her life where she had gotten beat, well, besides the clone. But the clones never beat her like this, if at all. It was like she had a memory that didn’t belong to her, but yet it was still hers.

*Sylia chose a good time a good time to start the process, though letting you experience the pain of being beat would have been more...interesting.*

The sound of The Voice in her head didn’t bring her distress or fear, not even anger. Whether she wasn’t able to feel those emotions right now, or just didn’t want to, she wasn’t sure. Though she did feel confused, she didn’t quite understand what it was saying.

*Hmmm, since you’re about to, for lack of abetter way of saying it, stop existing, I might as well tell you. You see, Sylia is dying, in a sense. Without a body, she will eventually just fade away, and take her with me. She seemed more or less content with that, but I wasn’t. The thing is, in order for her to permanently take over your body, since I’m sure you’d never let her, you needed to be at your most weak, emotionally, mentally, and physically isn’t necessary, but it helps.*

As The Voice continued to talk, the world around her seemed to almost fade away. It wasn’t like when she was forced to inside her mind, she was still very conscious and aware. It was more like her senses were starting to dull, the sound of the rain seemed to get more and more distant despite her not moving at all. Even the grunts as the changeling hit her sounded like just an echo, the hits taking longer to register, if at all. Something else she noticed was the feeling in her legs, or the lack of it. She couldn’t feel her legs at all, nor could she move them at all, they might as well have been amputated. Not just that, but the feeling seemed to be spreading further up her body, as she slowly began to lose feeling in it. She could barely even hear the words the changeling was saying, it sounded like he was talking to her from miles away in a field.

“I’ll send you straight to Tartarus!”

*And what better way to put you in emotional turmoil than finding out you were forced to murder your own family? This revenge-bent changeling thing was just a lucky coincidence. Now, as you can probably feel, Sylia is slowly taking over your body. Once she’s taken over, you’ll just fade away, the only thing left will be your memories. Then, after Sylia has taken control, we’ll handle these changelings, kind of like a test drive. Then your friends, Celestia, Luna, Chrysalis and the rest of the changelings, Sombra, and the rest? We’ll get to that when we get there, I’m quivering with excitement!*

Her friends.

It had been a long time since she had called them that, were they even that to her anymore?

No, after everything, they deserved better than her. That is one good thing that will come from her death, the people she had treated terribly out of an irrational fear won’t have to deal with her anymore.

“The only regret I have about killing you right here and now, is that you won’t get to see what we’ll do to the rest of the ponies when we win, especially the ones who were with you!”

*Hmmm, or maybe after killing these changelings, just sit on the sidelines for a bit? I’m curious how this war between Equestria and the changelings is going to go, and whoever wins we can just destroy, though my money’s on the changelings, ponies are kind of spineless now, even more so than during the whole Meotrize war thing.*

No.

She couldn't die, not here, not now. The Voice was right, most ponies, including her friends, didn’t have what it took to fight a war, they didn’t have it in them to take a life, and she didn’t want them too. They would try everything they could to resolve it peacefully, even if a changeling was beating them to death. And under the rule of two tyrants seeking revenge, these changelings would stop at nothing to win, no matter the method. They needed someone like her, who wasn’t afraid to kill, someone the changelings were afraid of. Without her, ponies would undeniably lose, and everyone, including her friends, would die.

“I can’t….I’m not…” Pinkamena felt a burning desire inside her, a burning desire to live. She had lost control of her entire body, the only part she could move was her head, but that was all she needed. She began to move her tongue around in her mouth, as if looking for something.

The changeling beating her didn’t seem to even notice she said anything or her movements, as if he had completely lost himself in his rage.

Pinkamena used her tongue to pull the pill out, placing it in between her teeth.

“I’M NOT GOING ANYWHERE!” She screamed as she bit down on the pill, her voice hoarse and muffled from how damaged her mouth was.

*NO!* The Voice yelled panickedly, somehow having forgotten about the pill.

As she bit down onto the pill, releasing the dark blue liquid inside, there was an explosion of magic from her body as the pills stopped the possession process where it was. The explosion knocked the changeling off of her, he only stopped when his back hit a wall, causing him to roughly hit the ground.

“What in Tartarus! You can’t use magic, you’re an earth pony!” He screamed in anger and disbelief, as the room lit up from the strong amounts of magic pulsating from her body.

Pinkamena’s body began to rise off the ground, hovering above it because of the magic. There was another explosion of magic as a field came from her, working almost like a shield as it entrapped the surrounding area. The magic was an electric blue, and light lighting, it seemed to pulsate and spark, as if the magic could barely contain itself.

Her eyes had been forced closed, though from the look of it she seemed calm, almost like she was asleep. The magic surged throughout her body, some of it even zapping areas inside of the fields, leaving deep burn marks. The magic seemed to be healing her, the bruises and injuries on her body slowly mending themselves, she soon looked like nothing had even happened to her.

The changeling could only watch in confusion and fear, not understanding what was happening.

Something else was happening to her, particularly her coat and moan. The magic seemed to be trying to find something to contain itself, her body being the closest vessel. It began to enter her body, changing it in some ways. As it entered her body, parts of her coat and mane began to change color, going from pink to an azure blue. But it only seemed to do so in lines, almost like streaks or highlights, though they only appeared in threes. It started at her hooves, three three inch wide lines begin to quickly move up her body from the bottom, one on the front, one on the sides, and one on the back. The lines didn’t seem to have any limit, and as they got higher up her body, they left a trail behind them, seeming to permanently change the parts of her coat they touched to that same shade of blue.

The lines soon got up to her face, but strangely, starting at her chin, it stopped changing the color of her coat. Two of the three lines, the one in the middle and the one on the left, went up past her face and to her mane. The one on the right stopped at her left eye, seeming to curve right, go above it, and then go down into it, seeming to enter her eye through the eyelid. As it did, her eye seemed to flash emerald green, changing from the azure blue as it entered. The veins around her eye began to become visible and pulsate the same shade of emerald green, they seemed to almost bulge out of her skin, the magic pulsating through her veins like blood, each pulse seemed to be in sync with her heartbeat, and was visible to anyone who was looking.

Her mane seemed to be changing the same way her tail was, the middle, left, and right part of it was changing color, from pink to the azure blue. Though unlike with her tail, it seems bigger parts of her mane were affected, just as much of it changing to the color blue as is staying pink. Though the magic was changing the color, the shape seemed to remain the same. Her mane was still long and straight, though it seemed to be flowing as she floated above the ground in the magic.

When the tips of her hair had been changed, the field of magic around her began to shrink, almost like it was collapsing in on itself. As it did, streams of it coming from the inside of the field began to stream towards Pinkamena, specifically her chest. The streams of magic seemed to enter her body, as if she were absorbing it. As the field shrank, more and more of the magic entered her body, the magic in the veins beside her left eye seemed to be pulsating even more vibrantly.

When the last bits of the field was gone, her body fell to the floor, collapsing as if she had completely passed out. She lay there for several seconds, unmoving, it was hard to tell whether she was even breathing. The changeling didn’t dare move, he was too shocked and confused, he didn’t understand what was happening.

Then she twitched, just slightly, barely noticeable. Her front hooves then moved, being placed flat against the ground as she pushed herself up. Her hooves didn’t shake at all she seemed completely balanced. She slowly stood up, but not on all fours. She stood on her back hooves, which looked rather strange to the changeling, he could only think of a few animals that stood like that, and ponies were not one of them.

She stood on her back legs, turning to her left as only her right side could be seen by the changeling. She didn’t even look like the same pony as a few minutes ago, her coat and mane striped blue, the rest staying pink. And the calm look on her face, which had been completely unscathed, was a cold calculating look, one he thought he’d never see from a pony.

He hadn’t been able to see it earlier, but her cutie mark seemed to be changed also. It was still the three party balloons like previously, but the colors of one of them had changed. There was still the yellow one in the middle, and the one on the right was still bright blue, but the one on the left was different. The color had seemed to fade, the light blue had changed to the same shade of emerald green that the veins beside her eye had been. Did that happen when the magic reached her cutie mark and he missed it? Or was that a sudden change? He was unable to tell, he did know, however, that it took powerful magic to change a cutie mark. Changelings could imitate the cutie marks of existing ponies, but they could never alter them.

She then opened up her eyes, but he could only see her right one, which seemed to be the same color of blue as before. She slowly brought her left hoof up, holding it just in front of her hoof as she looked down at it. She didn’t express any sort of emotion, her face seeming completely blank, no curiosity or surprise, nothing. Her eyelids were half closed, as if she were about to fall asleep. But it was more like she was bored, her eyes seeming focused on her hooves, but she wasn’t really looking at them.

“Interesting, stopping the possession process when it was almost done seems to have merged Sylia and Pinkamena, making me some kind of hybrid of the two. But am I a new being? Or should I align myself as one of the two? Strange, I have both of their memories, both of their personalities, all in this amalgamation of a body, I could be whichever one I choose to be, and yet I don’t want to be either. And yet, at the same time, what emotions should I be feeling right now? Anger from Sylia for the process failing? Happiness from Pinkamena that I still exist? Right now, I feel absolutely nothing, as I have nothing to feel for. Though I’m sure I still have my own emotions, I’m sure I still have some of their habits. Talking to myself out loud like this is obviously a habit from Pinkamena.”

She spoke in a clear, calm voice, seeming to be talking to no one but herself. This was extremely strange behavior for the changeling to witness, though not one he hadn’t heard of. He had overheard Chrysalis talking to herself on occasion, though she is very stressed and there aren’t a lot of people who she could talk to, at least none she could have a meaningful conversation with. But this? This seemed...different, more like she was the only one she could talk to. What in Tartarus was this pony?

*DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU’VE DONE! YOU FOO-*

“Shut up.” She said in an irritated voice, her eyebrows furrowed as her face formed into a scowl.

The Voice tried to speak again, but it couldn’t. It felt like some kind of force had taken away its ability to speak, no matter how much she tried, nothing came out.

“I have Sylia’s memories, all of them, including the time she spent inside of Pinkamena’s mind, and how she had spent her entire life, when she was alive, dealing with you. Which means I know how to deal with you, and I will. Though I am neither Sylia nor Pinkamena, so I hold no emotions towards you, positive or negative. But that doesn’t mean I’m not aware of the kind of being you are, so, for now, I’m taking away your ability to speak, and I’ll give it back when I feel like it. And by the way, Sylia had figured out how to put up a mental barrier to prevent you from hearing her thoughts, she was going to do so after gaining control of Pinkamena’s body. But since she can’t, I will, starting now.”

She was right, The Voice could no longer hear her thoughts, she could only watch the world through her eyes. Though she was burning with anger and frustration at the failure of her plan, and for the way this new being was talking to her. But she couldn’t do anything, at least, not yet.

The changeling was now completely confused. Not only did this pony seem to be changed, but she was saying the names of others he did not know, and seemed to be speaking to someone else, someone else that wasn’t here or in her head.

“I knew you were a monster, but I didn’t think you were crazy!” The changeling said as he slowly got up, as if trying to insult her. He quickly stood up, though being thrown back by that magic caught him off guard, he was otherwise uninjured.

Her right eye looked up from her hoof, looking straight ahead of her. Then it slowly moved to look at him, that same scowl coming on her face as she did.

“Oh….you, I forgot you were here.” She said with a contempt tone, like he wasn’t even worth the effort of talking to.

“What to do with you, I wonder?” She seemed to ask herself, turning away from him. Her back now faced him as she still stood on her hind legs, she tilted her head upwards and began to look around, as if examining the house. “Let’s take this outside, I…..don’t want to destroy this place.” There was almost guilt in her voice as she spoke, though there was also a sense of disregard, but it was hard to tell what for.

For a moment, the changeling felt nothing. Then there was a sudden burning in his chest, a burning feeling of rage. This was the pony who had destroyed countless changelings’ lives without a care, one who had seen them as nothing more than bugs that she squashed. Now she’s doesn’t want to destroy a building? And she doesn’t even think that he was worth looking at?

No more.

“I’ll kill you right here and now!” He said as his wings sprang out, pushing himself off the ground towards her, his wings rapidly fluttering.

Her left ear twitched slightly, indicating she had heard his movement, though she didn’t seem to move an inch.

“Oh no, you seem to misunderstand. That wasn’t a request,” She said nonchalantly, not even turning her head towards him as she did.

The second he got right behind her, his hooves inches away from touching her, she vanished. It wasn’t quite teleportation, it couldn’t even have been, she had no magic. But there still seemed to be traces of magic where she was standing, the magic being the same color as the field of magic before. There were little vapors of magic, almost like smoke. They seemed to get bigger and thicker the farther right they went, so he tried moving his head right to follow them. As he did, his eyes could only widen in surprise when he saw she was there, the vapers of magic seeming to be coming from her. He didn’t have time to look up at her face, he could only see her stomach as her left hoof was pulled back, as if she were about to kick a ball.

“That was a demand.”

He suddenly felt like an Ursa Major had headbutted his stomach as hard as it could with all its body weight as she kicked him, he could practically hear the sound of his armor, exoskeleton, and ribs being shattered by the sheer force of the kick. He was quickly thrown back, the kick tossing his body like a ragdoll. His back hit the window beside the door and easily broke the glass, the sound of it being broken could be heard by the changelings waiting outside. But the window barely slowed him down, he went soaring across the farm, the only thing stopping him was a large boulder a few dozen feet from the house. And from the way he hit that rock, he was sure his spine had also been destroyed, and the boulder likely had cracks in it. The changelings waiting outside were startled, one of them going to the captain to check on him, the others lowering their heads and hissing as they turned towards the broken window, their night vision allowing them to see clearly in the night time as if it were day. And since the storm had suddenly stopped, they weren’t distracted by the feeling of rain or the sound of thunder.

“That’s what I thought. Since I’m not a unicorn, I can’t use spells or the such. But I am an earth pony, so my body can be used as a conduit. I can use this overwhelming amount of magic and channel it into my body at will, increasing my strength, speed, and durability as I desire. The question is, to what extent? Well, I’ve got about five more changelings out there to help me test this body out. Need to use less magic though, I don’t want to break them too fast.” She said with a chuckle, putting her leg down and walking through the window.

She places her left leg through it, having to duck under the glass above that wasn’t broken, causing her long mane to cover her face. When she stepped through, she pushed it back with her mane, debating whether she should cut it or not later. As she pushed her mane back, both of her eyes were revealed to the changelings, but they seemed to be surprised by her left eye. It was an emerald green, a different color than her right one. While ponies having two different eye colors wasn’t unheard of, it was the way it looked that had them surprised. The veins to the left, above, and under the eyes were entirely visible. Though instead of blood, the veins seemed to visibly pulsate with green magic. She looked at each changeling easily, her eyes not straining at all despite it being very dark out. Somehow, she was able to see in the dark just as well as them. Not only that but the hair was different, a ponies hair being two different colors was also not unheard of, though pink and blue were a strange combination.

It was the cutie mark that confused them the most.

They had come here under the orders of their queen to kill The Element of Laughter, and since all of them remembered what happened at Canterlot, they happily volunteered. Since ponies could be varying colors, they identified ponies by their cutie marks, it was their most defining feature. And while this pony looked very similar to the monster that killed so many of them, her cutie mark was different, even if only slightly. She was supposed to have three balloons, two blue, and one yellow. But she had one yellow, one blue, and one green. And if they end up killing the wrong pony, it would be bad.

The changelings stood where they were, still on guard, but hesitant to attack, they weren’t sure this was the pony they were looking for. Four of the changelings stood in a formation in front of her, preparing for anything that may occur, this was still the only candidate for who hurt their captain.

The fifth changeling was slumped down beside their captain, trying his best to mend his wounds. The captain sat with his back against the rock, his breathing was ragged, sounding more like wheezing than breathing. He was also coughing up green blood, some of it splattering onto the floor in front of him.

“Don’t….fight…” He tried to whisper, but he was sure one of the broken ribs had punctured his lungs, making it hard for him to even breath.

“What?” The changeling near him said, leaning closer to try to hear what he said.

“Don't...fight….her...you’ll...lose.”He said as he coughed up more blood, even just the effort of trying to talk was putting a huge strain on his body. But they needed to hear him, if they fought her….

She’d demolish them.

Pinkamena looked at the changelings curiously, she had been expecting them to attack her the second she walked out. Then her eyes widened for a second, as if realizing something.
Then her eyes closed again, her mouth curving into a smirk.

“I get it, you guys don’t recognize me. That’s understandable, I changed my...well, everything. But, there’s one thing that I’m sure would take away your doubts.” She said almost sadistically, her eyes slowly opening as they do.

Then she smiled. The ends of her lip curved upwards, her teeth showed as she eagerly beamed at them. The pupils of her eyes constricted as she did, her eyes widening as wide as they could. That was the same smile, the same smile Pinkamena wore when she slaughtered those changelings, and unknown to them, the same smile she wore when The Voice murdered her family.

She stood as straight as she could, her arms outstretched to her sides in an almost welcoming way. She also tilted her head back, raising her chin as she kept eye contact with the changelings, as if she were looking down on them.

“Come on! Let me shed some more of that delicious green blood! I couldn’t get enough of it last time, now I’m going to savor every moment!” She screamed with her tongue sticking out of her mouth, in a very similar way to when she first fought the changelings.

And it worked.

The changelings were overcome by rage, all of them may have been siblings, but some of them lost close friends, and all of them were there at Canterlot. All four of them began to fly toward her, shouting as their wings sprouted and began to quickly lift them off the ground and toward her.

“No-” The captain tried to stop them, jumping forward to warn them, but he was unable to.

“First, let’s see what I can do without any magic.” She said as she leaned down, lifting one hoof the ground, not even losing her balance.

It all happened in an instant.

It was obvious she wasn’t as fast as before, her moves were very fast, but still fairly visible. But even so, that level of balance and agility, it wasn’t like anything he had seen before. Not even the best warriors they had, bred and trained from the day they were born to fight, could match her in a fight.

And she was doing this without even using her magic.

First, she turned her body clockwise, dodging the attack of the first changeling, while grabbing his right wing in her mouth. She bit down tight and swung him around, throwing him into another changeling, causing them both to collapse onto the ground in front of her.

The other two changelings reacted quickly, seeing this as an opportunity. One changeling changed his direction downward, wrapping his limbs around her one leg that was still on the ground, and then proceeding to sink his fangs into it. Though this locked her in place, she didn’t even flinch in pain. The other changeling jumped for her head, opening his mouth as his fangs showed, he was going to bite her throat and kill her quickly!

But instead of desperately trying to escape, she pulled her head back and quickly launched it forward, headbutting the changeling between the eyes. The changeling was knocked back, landing on one of their wings and crippling it as they screamed in pain. She then looked down at the changeling attached to her leg. She reached down and wrapped her hooves around the base of his neck, instead of trying to pull him off her leg, she slammed his head against the ground, hard enough to cause his fangs to snap and his nose to break as he was slammed against the ground. She put her other leg on the ground after this, she didn’t need to just stand on one now. The immense amount of pain causes the changeling to briefly lose his grip on her legs, allowing her to pull her leg back and kick him as hard as she could, snapping his neck and killing him instantly. His body was thrown back, falling to the ground lifelessly.

She looked at the changelings before her briefly, before slowly raising her left hoof up to her face. She brushed a strain of her hair behind her ear, then placing that same hoof on the side of her neck, applying a bit of pressure as an audible cracking sound could be heard as she cracked her neck. She closed her eyes and sighed, opening them again and looking at the changelings before her disappointedly.

“I get the feeling that this body is faster and stronger than it should be, I didn’t even use any magic and I’ve already killed one of you! Is this the result of a pony and a meotrizen fusing? Or is it just because I don’t know the first thing about holding back? Hmm, well, I might as well move on, don’t want to break them too fast.”

She lay her arms to the sides of her body, letting out a long breath as her body becomes completely relaxed, her eyes closing again as she did.

“Second, I want to see how durable I can make my body with magic. So I’ll put the magic in my skin and bones, instead of my muscles and tendons.” She seemed to whisper, the changelings unable to hear her.

Suddenly, the pulsating magic in her eye began to spread to the rest of her body. It began to spread and go through all the veins of her body, becoming visible and seeming to almost wiggle like worms as the magic moved through her. Then both her eyes opened, though her left one seemed to be brighter than before, the magic seemed to be almost stronger. The veins in her body were no longer visible, though the veins beside her eye still were, and seemed to still pulsate rhythmically with bright green magic.

“Well, come on now, hit me with all you got. You’re not discouraged just because I killed one of your friends, are you?” She asked with a grin, she knew one of them would take the bait.

One of the changelings, the one she had thrown at the other, slowly got up on his legs. He couldn’t fly, but he could walk just fine. He jumped forward, pulling his hoof back and slamming it into her chest.

But she didn’t move an inch, she only smiled as he screamed in pain, his hoof felt like it had hit a metal wall!

“That tickled.” She chuckled, making sure it was loud enough for him to hear.

He ignored the pain, and began to assault her body, giving everything he had into each punch. But Pinkamena did not flinch, there weren’t any marks or anything on the parts of the body he was hitting. Only small bits of green blood as the parts of the carapace on his hooves began to chip off, though he kept pushing through the pain. Though the only thing she did was grin down at him, which only further pissed him off.

“Come on, what are those, love taps? Surely you can do better than that, I’m giving you the chance to kill me, or were the deaths of all those bugs I squashed not enough to-”

She was interrupted when he decided to stop attacking her body, and aimed for her face directly. He pulled his right hoof back and hit her with everything he had, a sharp cracking noise and a scream of pain as he fractured his hoof in the process. The punch had suddenly turned her head to the left, looking away from him with a splotch of green blood on her cheek, but still no injury.

“Heh, cute. Now,” She slowly turned her head forward to look down at him, that same smile on her face as she seemed unfazed by his attack. “My turn.”

The changeling looked up at her in fear, beginning to pull his hoof back as he tried to jump away from her. But he wasn’t fast enough, she was faster than him. He was soon stopped when he felt something in his chest, a loud squishing sound as he did. He slowly looked down, curious why he couldn’t move or feel his chest. Her hoof had punched straight through his carapace like it was nothing, though it was right below his heart by a few inches, he couldn’t tell if that was intentional or not. He could feel her hoof poking out her back after shattering through the middle part of his spine, preventing pretty much any chance of escaping. Her hoof was coated in green blood, he coughed some up, causing bits of it to splatter on her chest.

“How…” He tried to say, slowly moving his arms around hers to try to push himself off.

“Here, let me help you.” She said she placed her leg on his torso, pulling her hoof back as she kicked him forward, sending him flying a few feet. He landed on his back, struggling to breathe as blood puddled below him. He soon lost consciousness, bleeding to death.

Pinkamena began toward the two changelings, she lifted the hoof soaked in green blood up to her face. She slowly stuck her tongue out, taking a lick of it as she maintained eye contact with them. “Hmmm, more sour than I expected, but not bad.” She said as she lowered her hoof, causing some of it to drip into a puddle below her.

“Three more left. What to do next? I know! I’m curious if the magic can heal me, and if so, how much.”

She seemed to close her eyes and relax again, the veins in her body were now once again visible with bright green magic. Though instead of going down, the magic seemed to retract up her body, going back to her eye. It was a lot faster than before, the veins were only visible for a few seconds.

Though this time, the changelings took it as an opportunity. The changeling that had gotten another one thrown at it had jumped up, his wings bursting into green fire as they changed into Pegasi wings as he rocketed to her, attempting to take this moment and get her in surprise.

As soon as he was about to attack her, her eyes opened and she jumped forward, a lot faster than he did. Her hoof had smashed straight through his head, and also ripping it off his body in the process, causing it to collapse to the ground behind her, blood gushing out of the hole where his hole used to be.

“Ah, so changelings can change only specific parts of their body without changing the rest of it, that’s good to know.” She said as she pulled her hoof out of the removed head of the changeling carelessly, she was going to have to wash herself pretty thoroughly afterward.

“Going to....kill you..” The changeling with the crippled wings said from behind her, slowly pushing himself off the ground, blood dripping from his forehead and his arms were shaking, barely able to support himself. Though she noticed changeling magic begin to come off of him in green vapors, she noticed his body beginning to expand.

“Oh?” She said curiously as she turned around to face the changeling, noticing it had started changing into something, but not a pony.

“Even if it takes everything I have, I will kill you!” He said as his body exploded in changeling magic, the wave of it twice the size of his body, as it seemed to cloak him.

The fire quickly died down, showing a creature she wouldn’t have expected to see out here. Its green eyes looked down at her, it snarled at her as it walked forward, the sound of its body made of wood and trees sounded exactly like the creature it was copying.

The changeling had changed itself into a giant timberwolf.

“Ooh! Changelings can change themselves into other creatures much larger than them? Wow, that must take a lot of magic, I wonder how long-”

She was interrupted by being hit by one of its giant paws, tossing her towards the house, though she managed to catch herself and land on all fours before hitting it though. This time injuries were apparent, the left side of her body was covered in deep cuts and bruises from where it hit her, though she seemed to have no issue ignoring the pain.

“Just as strong as one too, this migh-”

In seconds the giant timberwolf leaped forward, reaching her in mere moments. It opened its giant mouth, revealing the dozens of razor-sharp teeth within. It snapped its head downward, attempting to bite her.

Pinkamena only had a second to jump to her left to try to get out of it, and she almost did. But her right arm got caught in its mouth, causing it to be chomped off. Not even she could remain composed after that, she ground her teeth and clenched her right eye shut as the blood from her dismembered arm splattered onto her face. As soon as it bit down, it shoved its head in her direction, pushing her off her hooves and a few feet away from her.

“Alright, I underestimated you, that’s fair.” She panted as she put her left arm over the stub where her arm was, blood was pouring out of the wound. She looked up at the timberwolf, expecting that it was going to attack her again. But after swallowing her arm, she noticed some kind of green steam begin to come off of it as it seemed to shrink.

“Time up already? Well, that explains why changelings don’t do that often, at least.” She said as she almost fell over, the sudden blood loss was making her dizzy.

Soon the giant timberwolf had been degraded back to a changeling, no signs showing it had changed at all except for its mouth being covered in blood, though the arm it ate was nowhere to be seen.

“That's...fine, you’ll die from that wound. I’m exhausted, but I’ll live.” It said as it collapsed to the ground, still conscious, but the transformation had taken every ounce of energy she had, she wouldn’t be able to fight after that.

“Really now? You think so?” She said cockily, removing her hoof from the arm wound.

“What are you-” The changeling looked up at her, her eyes widening as she does.

Around the wounds on the side of the body where she was hit, the veins were pulsating with that same green magic. Though now, the wounds seemed to be quickly closing, the blood on her body the only signs the wounds were even there at all. Soon the wounds were completely gone, no bruises or scars at all, it looked like she hadn’t even been injured. Even the veins were no longer visible, though they seemed to be quickly moving around her body, going towards the right side of her body.

“Now, my arm will take a bit more magic, but,” She raised the stub of her right arm up, the veins that remained were now pulsating with green magic. As the magic moved towards the end of the stubs, it began to flow out of it, soon turning from a gas to a solid. The changeling watched as the magic turned into a bone, connecting to what was left of one. Soon the entire bone was remade, then the magic turned to different colors as it remade muscle, tendons, and ligaments. Soon even the skin and coat had been remade, the pink fur looking exactly the same as before, almost cleaner, even. The changeling could only watch in terror as her entire arm was grown back in less than a minute, and she made sure to look at the changeling with a knowing smile as she did.

“I could have done that a lot faster, instantly, even. But I wanted you to watch and realize just how futile your efforts were, it was cute to watch you try though.” She said as she began to walk towards the changeling, moving her right arm back and forth, up and down, almost as if testing it out.

“W-what kind of creature are you?” The changeling stuttered, trying to push himself off the ground, his hooves shaking desperately to push his body off the ground. But he collapsed, his body too weak to support him.

She stood over him, that same sadistic smirk on her face. She slowly raised her right leg, not moving her eyes from the changelings.

“The kind that always wins.”

She slammed her leg down on his head, squashing it like a watermelon. His skull was crushed along with his brain, brain matter, bits of crushed skull, and green blood splattered on the floor, some of it coating the bottom part of her leg, particularly her hoof which had smashed it.

“I don’t know if I’m too strong, or if these changelings were just a lot weaker than I expected.”

She said as she stepped away from the changeling’s body, turning toward the last two changelings. The changeling that had been trying to help him was standing his ground in front of the captain, though his entire body was shaking from pure terror after having just watched his comrades be slaughtered brutally without a second thought. He tried to bare his fangs and do his best to intimidate her, but he was too terrified to even hiss.

The captain was barely conscious, it took every ounce of will power he had to stay awake. He wasn’t able to make any facial expressions, only able to focus on his weakening breathing. Though this also means he couldn’t move his head or close his eyes, forcing him to watch once again as the same monster mercilessly kills changelings, and he was unable to do anything about it.

“I-If you t-take another step….I-” Before the changeling could finish its empty threat, she had already sped past him, seeming to only teleport. But strangely, instead of her moving, it was like the entire world had spun except for him. He was now looking behind him, directly at the pony who killed his friends, even though he could feel his body hadn’t moved at all. The last thing he heard was a loud snapping sound coming from somewhere, then the world seemed to stop, nothing else moved or made a sound.

That was when he realized, in a split second, faster than he could react, she had snapped his neck, turning it around completely. It was done so fast his body didn’t even register it, soon collapsing to the ground as he died.

“You changelings have quickly bored me, this isn’t fun anymore, it's just pathetic.”

When she said that, she suddenly heard a loud wheezing sound coming from the captain, causing her to change her glare to him. At first, she thought it was his last dying breath, he surely had some fatal organ damage. But she soon realized that wasn’t it, he was laughing. Not like someone had told a joke, he was laughing like he knew something, something he found funny that she didn’t know about, and that pissed her off.

“What? You find me killing your friends again funny?”

His laughing soon calmed down, more because it was excruciating rather than him not wanting too.

“No….I just find it funny…..that while you were killing my friends….another group of changelings are killing yours!” He said with a chuckle, which soon turned into a coughing fit as more green blood came from his mouth.

That was the first time throughout the entire fight that he saw her face form into one of anger, real anger. Her eyes widened as her eyebrows furrowed into a scowl, she took a step closer to him, her hoof slamming into the ground as she did.

“What?! What do you mean?!” She demanded, screaming at him.

“What? You think we’re just….only going to be attacking you? No, Chrysalis is much smarter than that. She’s had….changelings watching you and your friends for a while, so when she noticed that you were separated from the rest, she took the opportunity to attack. All we need…..is to kill just one of the bearers of harmony, and we’ve won. It doesn’t matter that we failed to kill you, this victory has been assured ours. Even as we speak, the changelings sent to kill your friends either already have, or are in the process of it right now. You’ve lost.”

He began to cough up more blood, some of it landing on her hooves. In an instant, she jumped forward, forcing her arm onto his neck and pushing him against the rock. She began to lift him off the ground, his bottom hooves a few inches above it. He began to gasp for air desperately, the pressure against his windpipe made it hard to breathe.

“WHERE?!” She asked as she slammed her other hoof into his stomach, pushing the broken ribs deeper into his lungs.

He screamed in pain as she did, barely able to stay conscious.

“Ponyville.” He wheezed out.

She dropped him, his broken body falling onto the floor like a doll as he tried to get any air he could. She quickly turned around, her teeth grinding in frustration and her eyes darting back and forth desperately as she tried to remember what direction Ponyville was in, but the fact that it was still dark and raining made that difficult.

“It doesn’t matter, you can’t get to them. I don’t know what happened to you, but you didn’t sprout wings or a horn, you couldn’t possibly make it in time, not even as fast as you are.”

She suddenly stopped looking around, her eyes locking in in a specific direction.

“I know what you’re trying to do, and it's not going to work.”

His eyes began to shut as he lost consciousness, his head suddenly snapped up, attempting to stay awake. He knew if he fell asleep, he wouldn’t wake up again.

“Your body is broken, your broken ribs have punctured your lungs, your spine is shattered, and who knows what other kinds of damage. You're in immense pain and are slowly dying, and you're trying to provoke me into killing you. I’m not a merciful person, I won’t give you such a thing. And as for getting to Ponyville,” She suddenly got on all fours, magic flaring up around the tips of her hooves as she did.

Suddenly, her eyes closed as she seemed to concentrate on something. The veins in her arms and legs soon became visible with the same green magic. When it reached her hooves, her eyes suddenly opened, the veins no longer pulsating with magic.

“Pinkie used to bounce around a lot, didn’t seem to bother her no longer how long she did it. So, I’m thinking if I just put some magic in my arms and legs and do the same thing,”

She lowered herself, her knees bending as they coiled up. Suddenly she launched herself in the air, quickly going higher into the sky than the changeling could see. Moments later, he had a crashing sound miles away, as something big and fast had slammed into the ground.

He looked in the direction of it, barely able to see that far. But in the distance, he could see her. He could see the outline of her body, the pink and blueness of her body sticking out more than anything else.

In just a single jump, she had traveled miles!

At this rate, she’d make it to Ponyville in less than an hour. And that’s just assuming she only jumped that far, he had no doubts she could easily jump farther than that.

“Monster…” He tried to say before collapsing to the ground, finally giving in to his injuries and passing out. The last thing he saw before the darkness consumed him, was her jumping again, this time higher and farther before, straight in the direction of Ponyville.

He died, moments later.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Rainbow Dash was the first to retaliate, flying forward and ramming one of the changelings out the door. The others followed, attacking the two other changelings, with the exception of Fluttershy. She had taken the opportunity to hide, too scared to fight. All she could do was wait and get help when there's a chance she could get away, she wouldn’t be of any help anyway.

Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack had managed to force the other two changelings outside, not wanting to destroy anything in this building.

Unfortunately for them, that had been the changeling's plan. Changelings didn’t fight well in enclosed spaces, they preferred more open area, specifically ones without much light.

When they walked out of Sugarcube Corner to help Rainbow Dash, they were attacked by two other changelings in wait.

A beam of dark green magic came out of the dark and hit Twilight, causing her to collapse to the ground. Though her eyes were still opened and were moving back and forth frantically, panicking as she realized she couldn’t move her body, they had hit her with a paralysis spell!

The other one quickly came out of the darkness behind Applejack, hitting the back of her head with a rock, knocking her unconscious as she began to bleed from the wound.

This all happened in a matter of seconds, before Rarity could even react. In the moment of confusion, to two changelings they had forced outside had suddenly jumped towards Rarity, pinning her to the ground. Her horn charged up with bright blue magic as she tried to teleport, but she was soon punched across her face, stopping the spell mid-cast.

“Rari-” Rainbow Dash shouted as she turned around, noticing what happened to her friends and was about to try to help them. But the changeling she had tackled outside jumped on her back, pinning her to the ground also.

“Let go of me you bu-”

“Shut up!” He said as he slammed his hoof on the back of her head, forcing her head into the ground.

The changelings had, in less than a minute, incapacitated almost all of the mane six.

The changeling on top of Rainbow Dash, who seemed to be the captain, looked at the scene before him. The earth pony was unconscious, both of the unicorns are now unable to cast any magic, the white one had one of the changeling's hoof over her mouth the prevent her from speaking, and the blue pegasus was beneath him, though that didn’t stop her from struggling.

“Lanthol.” The changeling on top of Rainbow Dash said, peering in the darkness towards the source of the spell that had hit Twilight.

“Sir.” A changeling said as it walked out of the darkness, looking towards the captain expecting orders.

“We’re missing one, the yellow pegasus, The Element of Kindness. She must be inside, take Tharnix and get her, be hasty.”

“Don’t you touch he-” Rainbow Dash tried to say as she desperately pushed herself up, but the captain pushed his hoof harder on the back of her head, shoving her face back into the ground.

“Yes, sir.” The changeling said as he looked at the changeling who knocked out Applejack, both of them walking inside Sugarcube Corner.

“This mission has been almost a complete success so far, huh captain?” One of the changelings who had pinned Rarity down asked, seeming to had no issues keeping her down.

“Of course, I had no doubts that this would go well. These five didn’t kill any at Canterlot, they’re hardly a threat. I’m concerned about the others though, I know we sent an entire squad to take down that pink monster, but still.”

He said with a visible shiver, preferring not to think of Canterlot.

“I understand the concern, but the squad sent there was Morthrals’, right? He’s been rather...obsessed with taking her down, I’m sure he’s spent months planning it out and everything. Plus there’s more of them than us, and there’s only one of her, I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

The captain seemed to chuckle to himself, though more out of irrational fear than anything else.

“I hope your right. I don’t know though, Queen Chrysalis, and more so King Sombra showed visible concern when discussing the events of Canterlot and how to get rid of her, which is worrying since he tries to hard to keep composure. I guess I just can’t help but feel an-”

“NO!”

There was loud screaming from inside of Sugarcube Corner, followed by the sounds of object clattering and falling to the floor. The voice sounded like Fluttershy, but it was almost hard to tell, most had never heard her raise her voice, so much as scream. Rainbow Dash began to thrash even harder after hearing that, briefly getting her head out of the ground to speak.

“If you hurt my friends, I swear I’-”

Once again she was pushed into the ground, this time hard enough to make her dizzy, as the changeling on top of her hit her in the back of her head.

“You’ll what? Friendship me to death? Come on, we all know the only one of you that kills is that psychotic pink friend of yours! And she’s not here right now, is she?”

As he said that, the two changelings sent inside came outside with Fluttershy, who seemed injured, but terrified, There was one changeling on each side of her, holding her by her arms as they carried her out. She seemed to be trying to resist, though she was weak, a lot weaker than most ponies, and these changelings were soldiers.

They forced Fluttershy on her knees in between Rarity and Twilight, when she saw that Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight had been incapacitated, while AJ had been knocked unconscious, she began to panic.

Her breathing became erratic as she began to hyperventilate, though she tried to calm herself down, it wasn’t working.

“Afraid, are we? Good, you should be afraid.” Said the captain, noticing her sudden hyperventilating.

“Why are you doing this?!” Rarity asked as she tried to get up, but the changelings forced her back down.

“Why?” He said as looked down at her, a sadistic smirk on his face as he did. “Because this is war, something you ponies know nothing about, but us changelings are all too familiar with war. In war, there is no friendship, there is no peace or harmony, only death and victory, by any means. You ponies will either learn this, or perish.”

He says as he looks down at Rainbow Dash, who was still resisting, though not as aggressively.

“Sir, now that we have them all, what did the queen say to do with them?” One of the changelings who was holding down Rarity asked, seeming to require little to no effort to do so.

“Well, other than no prisoners, no.” He said as he looked down at them, as if deciding what to do. “I know, you guys are tired, right? Why not have a snack? These ponies must be just brimming with love, don’t you think?” The captain said as he lowered his head down to Rainbow Dash’s neck, he slowly opened his mouth, his long split tongue licking all the way down her neck.

“There’s five of us, and five of them. Everyone gets their own fill, go on now, enjoy the spoils of war.” He then bit into her neck, causing her to groan in pain as she tried to stop herself from screaming, she didn’t want to give them that satisfaction. Blood began to run down her neck, his fangs that were inside her began to be soaked in it. She began to feel weaker every second as he drained the love out of her, she tried fighting back, but she could feel herself getting weaker by the second.

Soon, the same thing began to happen to her friends, one of the changelings who was holding her down bit into her neck, causing Rarity to release a loud, high pitch squeal of pain. Her struggling soon stopped as the love was drained from her and she became weaker, making it easy to hold her down. The other one who was helping subdue her walked over to AJ’s body and sank his teeth into her neck, and she wasn’t even able to fight back. The same thing happened to Twilight, she was unable to fight back or even scream as a changeling sank his teeth into her, though she was still awake to experience the pain and the feeling of getting weaker.

All Fluttershy could do was watch as they drained her friends, unable to do anything to help them. She soon felt the changeling behind her push her to the ground and get on top of her, she shivered as she felt its long tongue lick her neck. Its warm breathe on her ear as its sharp fangs scraped against her skin, preparing to suck her dry of all her love like her friends.

Then she suddenly heard a soft squelching sound, like an apple being crushed or something. Simultaneously, she no longer felt the tongue or fangs against her neck, nor his head at all. It was like it was suddenly gone, or had gotten off of her. Except for the second she felt it leave, his entire body weight seemed to push down on her, as if it completely relaxed. She somewhat tried to push herself up, but stopped when she felt something on her neck. She felt drops of something warm dripping on her neck, it felt gross, like some kind of juice was being poured on her.

She slowly opened her eyes, hesitant to do so.

When she did, she looked behind her, curious what happened to the changeling and what the source of the liquid was.

When she did, she released a scream that could be heard by everyone in Ponyville, if there was anyone.

The changelings head was gone, it looked like it had been completely ripped off in seconds, the liquid dripping on her was green changeling blood. It seemed she actually got lucky with that, since the changeling was leaning over when he was decapitated, most of the blood was in a puddle in front of her, the blood hitting her neck was what was dripping down.

When she turned around and saw the flesh and bone that normally wouldn’t be visible, she did all she could to push the body off of her after she screamed, barely able to roll the body off of her and to the side.

“Get your hooves off of her, you filthy bug.”

Fluttershy heard a voice to the right of her say, one that sounded familiar, but different at the same time. She looked in the direction of the voice, noticing a green blood trail behind. This pony was only a few feet from her, but due to how dark it was out, she wasn’t able to make out any distinctions, no coat colors or cutie marks, only that they had a long, straight mane. The thing she noticed first was that this pony was standing on their hindlegs, which looked bizarre and uncomfortable for a pony to do.

Her left arm was outstretched to her side, the head of the changeling was around her elbow, blood still dripping from the bottom of it. It seemed in a matter of seconds, she had punched through the head of the changeling on top of Fluttershy hard enough to rip his head off, somehow not taking the body with it. Fluttershy didn’t see any wings on this pony, so she had no idea how they could do that so fast. All she could see was the part that had punched through the changelings head was soaked in green blood, though that didn’t seem to bother this pony at all.

“This anger and desire to protect these ponies may not be mine, but I feel it just as strongly, and it puts me in just as big of a bad mood.” She said sternly as she pulled back her left arm, suddenly flicking it forward and tossing the head to the side carelessly.

As she did, she turned to face the captain, who had gotten off of Rainbow Dash and now was staring at this pony in confusion and disbelief. As she did, her left eye was the only part that could be seen by Fluttershy due to how dark it was. But the left eye seemed to almost glow in the dark, it seemed to be luminescent, even the veins around the eye seemed to glow bright green as they pulstted. Fluttershy had seen a lot of strange things, being both an Element of Harmony and living so close to The Everfree Forest, but she had never seen an eye do that before.

The pony raised her left hoof, which was still soaked in changeling blood, up to her mouth and licked it. Her face then scrunched up in disgust as she suddenly pulled her hoof away from her, looking away from the captain for a moment.

“Eugh, sour.” She said as she lowered her hoof, her eyes once again locking on to the changeling. “So, I take it you’re the captain? You’re wearing the same kind of armor as the last captain I killed, and you’ve just got that look that screams ‘superiority complex”.” She joked as she stared him down, not even paying attention to the other changelings. Slowly, they were getting off of the ponies they had been draining before. They didn’t seem scared or angry. They displayed no emotion as they moved. They remained completely silent as she moved closer to her, intent on eliminating this new threat.

Fluttershy looked at the captain, confused about what armor she was talking about. But now that she looked at him, he seemed to be wearing some kind of blue armor around his torso, and the same color blue helmet, though it was too dark to make anything else out about them.

“Last captain? What do you mean? There shouldn’t be any other changeling captains anywhere near here! Who in Tartarus are you?” The captain said as he stood his ground, noticing the other changelings preparing to attack her. No matter who this pony was, ponies can’t see in the dark as well as changelings can, and it seemed she didn’t even notice them.

Though something about this pony bothered him, why were her eyes so different? The one on the right was blue, while the one on the left was green and seemed to pulsate, the veins around that eye were just as visible. He saw ponies with different eye colors before, but still, something about this made him uncomfortable.

“Who I am is irrelevant, I’m not in the mood to indulge. So let’s just get this over with, shall we?” As soon as soon she said that, the three changelings had surrounded her. One behind her, to her left, and to her right, and since the captain was in front of her, she had no chance of escape. They were prepared to pounce.

And then in an instant, right as they were about to attack, she disappeared. They didn’t even see her move at all, she hadn’t even flinched or took her eyes of the captain, nor was there a flash of magic like when a unicorn teleports, she was just...gone.

Before anyone could even react, she appeared behind the changeling on the right, seeming to come out of nowhere. In a split second her hoof punched through his chest like it was paper, his still-beating heart landing on the floor in front of him.

And just as fast as she appeared, she was gone again. Her hoof pulling out of the changeling's body, causing it to collapse to the floor lifelessly. She disappeared, seeming to blend into the darkness and out of sight, even though the changelings could see in the dark far better than any pony, they still couldn’t see her.

“You changelings think you have the advantage here, just because there are more of you than me, or because you think you can fight better in the dark than me?”

Her voice seemed to come from all around them, making it impossible to tell where it was coming from. The two changelings left got into a back to back formation, trying to see in all directions. The captain peered deeply into the dark, sometimes even seeing something move in the dark out of the corner of his eye.

Or maybe that was the terror getting to him.

“Why…”He mumbled to himself, biting his bottom lip in frustration as he did. “Why can’t we see her?!”

“Sure, you changelings understand war and brutality fine, and you'r not half bad at stealth. But when it comes to psychological warfare?”

Suddenly, her voice stopped sounding like it was coming from all around them. Actually, it sounded like it was coming from behind the captain.

“You lose.” He heard her sadistic voice whisper into his ear, causing his heart to skip a beat and his eyes widen as he realizez she was right behind him.

“Att-” Before he could even get the chance to say or do anything, the knee of her leg smashed against the back of his head with such force that his head was forced to the ground, the rest of his body seemed to almost bounce off the ground.

His skull and brains were crushed the second he hit the ground, but she slammed him down so hard his entire head was forced into the ground, only his neck was visible, this prevented any of the blood or anything else from being seen.

This did not, however, prevent Rainbow Dash, who was only just now pulling herself out of the ground as she recovered from head trauma, from seeing this occur. Her eyes widened in surprise as this pony killed the changeling in a more brutal way than she’s ever seen. And she couldn’t help but feel terrified, was this thing even a pony? She’s never seen something that could move that fast or have that much brute strength, and especially not without magic.

And yet, why did she feel like she knew her.

“I told you, I’m not in the mood to play.” She said as she looked down at the captain, his body still twitching.

The other changelings saw this and immediately sprang into action, their wings spreading out as they jumped forward.

But, as she had proven before, she was much faster than them.

This time she didn’t disappear, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash could see her clearly as she jumped forward of the captain’s back, almost faster than Rainbow Dash when she did the sonic rainboom. They watched as she easily got behind them from the gap in between them, and before they even had the time to react, she had turned around and placed her hooves on both sides of the head of the one on the right. In an instant with a sickening crunch, she had snapped that changelings neck, his body falling to the ground with a thud.

The other changeling turned around and began speeding toward her, intent on ramming into her. But she easily clotheslined him, causing him to fall on his back, desperately gasping for air. Before he even had the chance to try to get up, she slammed her leg down on his chest, pinning him to the ground. He could do nothing to scream as he heard and felt his exoskeleton cracking, the ribs beneath doing the same.

“Hey, let me ask you a quick question.”

She asked sarcastically as a smile stretched on her face, now that she was so close to him, he could easily see that malicious smile on her face as her green eye pulsated. She didn’t seem tense at all, in fact, she seemed almost happy as she smiled down at him. Her long mane draped down as she looked down at him, almost reaching him. She brushed it to the side out of her face as she looked at him, though it quickly fell down again.

He was terrified, this pony, no, this thing, had killed his entire squad in seconds! And it seemed to enjoy it! But still, no matter how scared he was, or what she did to him, she wouldn’t tell her anything.

“You won’t….get anything out of me!” He said as he wrapped his hooves around her leg, trying desperately to pull it off of his chest, though it didn’t budge an inch.

“Oh, you misunderstand, you won’t be answering with words. You see, I’m very good at reading people, no matter how good they think they are at lying. You could bite off your own tongue, but you could still give me answers. Now, as I was about to ask.”

He screamed as she pushed a little harder on his chest, her smile seeming to stretch a little wider as did.

“You changelings have a hive mind, right? Though not in the sense that you’re always connected to each other, but more that you’re always connected to your queen, right?”

He suddenly stopped struggling as she said that, his eyes widening in surprise. But he quickly stopped himself, not wanting to give her the satisfaction of being right.

“Yep, I thought so. Now, this might just be an assumption, but I think I’m right. She can see through your eyes, and listen through your ears, but that’s it. She can’t hear your thoughts nor talk to you, she can’t feel what you feel, and she can’t actually feel what your feeling, she’s essentially just a spectator. But, I must find a way to send her a message, and I think I’ve figured it out.”

She lowered her left hoof to his face, rubbing his cheek almost gently. He tried to move his face away from her, but she just pressed down harder on his chest when she did.

“You see, I have this little hypothesis about my magic, but I need to test it to see if I’m correct. I’m thinking if I focus all my magic on the tip of my hoof, for example, and then push it all out, my hoof will function like a horn, and all the magic being pushed out could be formed into a ball, bolt, whatever I can imagine. But, If my hoof happens to be touching an object when I conduct magic into it. Well,” She chuckled as her hoof began pressing into the changeling's face, almost painfully so. “I’m curious what magic does when it's forced into a foreign body. And if what happens what I think will happen, Chrysalis will get to hear your screams.”

She leaned down a little more as placed her other hoof on the right side of his face, pressing into it as roughly as the other one.

“So, what do you say, ready to be my messenger and test subject?” She asked him, then there was a moment of silence, until she let out a low chuckle, as if laughing at her own joke. “Just kidding, you don’t have a choice. After all,” For a second, the changeling swore he could see the veins in her arms pulsate with green magic, as it seemed to travel down her arms to her hooves. “This is war.”

At first, he didn’t feel any pain when the magic entered his body. It just felt like a jolt, like if someone suddenly surprised him or something.

Then the burning began.

It felt at first like a warm sensation in his stomach, it was almost comforting. Then it began to hurt, burn, even. Soon it felt like his insides were melting, it felt like someone had started a fire inside of him! He began to scream as his insides began to melt, the magic inside him has caused him to start combustion, a reaction caused when magic that doesn’t belong to the creator is forced inside of another living being. His flesh began to melt, though his body still looked normal due to his exoskeleton. His eyeballs soon also began to melt, all he could do was flail his limbs as his body thrashed about, his screams of agony getting louder, if there was anyone in Ponyville, they would be able to hear them.

For the other ponies nearby, his screams traumatized them. Fluttershy couldn’t bare to watch it any longer, she tried to look away and cover her ears, but she just couldn’t block it out! The sight and sound of it horrified Rarity, but the smell of his flesh burning from the inside made her throw up. Twilight was unable to see what was happening, since she was still paralyzed. She could hear the agonizing screams and smell something burning, not understanding what was happening. Applejack was still unconscious. And Rainbow Dash could do nothing but watch in shock, never having seen something so horrible in her life.

In reality, it only took one minute for her magic to cook him from the inside and kill him. But for the changeling, it felt like hours, he was grateful when death accepted him.

For the other ponies, it was the most horrible thing they had ever seen, and would likely haunt their dreams for years.

But for Pinkamena? It was interesting. But most importantly, fun.

“Hm, expected it to kill him faster. But, I was hoping I would be wrong and it was slower, so I feel conflicted.” She said nonchalantly as she got off of him, her smile gone, leaving a bored, almost disinterested look on her face.

“Well, now that that has been handled, I should probably help.” She said as she turned towards the other ponies, no longer standing on her hind legs and she suddenly got on all fours. Not just that, but her right eye no longer pulsated with magic, nor was it even green. It now looked completely normal, the same color of blue as her left eye.

She looked at the ponies before her, Fluttershy was still on the ground, her hooves around her head as she whimpered. Rarity was wiping her mouth of vomit, trying to avoid eye contact. Applejack was still unconscious, the wound on the back of her head slightly visible. Twilight was still somewhat paralyzed, though it seemed to be wearing off as some of her limbs were twitching. And Rainbow Dash was now standing, her head trauma pretty much gone. Though she wasn’t really doing anything, she seemed to be staring at Pinkamena, more out of shock than anything. Her face was completely blank, as if she didn’t know how to express how she was feeling.

In response to this, Pinkamena sighed and closed her eyes, brushing her hair behind her ears as she did.

“Yeah, pretty much what I expected. Welp, might as well get you all fixed and such. I’m going to have a lot of explaining to do, and I don’t like explaining things twice.” She said as she began to move towards Twilight, no longer facing the others.

When she got to her, she crouched down an seemed to be examining her body.

“Hmm, figured changelings were capable of casting paralysis spells, helps them when they need to feed. Luckily, it’s easy to fix.”

She extended her hoof, hovering it right above Twilight’s body. She then moved it left and right horizontally, staying above her body. She then retracted her hoof, standing up slowly as she continued to look down at Twilight.

“There, all better.” She said as she began to walk away from Twilight, going towards Applejack, who had more injured than any of them.

“W-what?” Twilight said as she soon regained feeling in her body, now being able to speak again. She slowly began to stand up, her hooves shaking as she did. Rarity watched in fear and astonishment as she did, in an instant she had fixed her paralysis, what was she?

Fluttershy was still covering her ears and eyes, too afraid to look up. And Rainbow’s eyes hadn’t left Pinkamena, she was still watching her as she got closer to Applejack. Twilight to was staring at her in astonishment, never before had she seen an earth pony cast magic like that, or at all.

She was about the say something, but then she glanced at the changelings. Or, at least, what was left of them.

“Wow, you got lucky, AJ. You barely avoided a concussion, any higher and you would have got one, though you will be out for a while.”

Just like with Twilight, she had crouched down and seemed to examine Applejack. Then her hoof seemed to hover over Applejack, though only the back of her head where the injury was. And when she waved her hoof over the injury, it was gone. The only thing left indicating it was there at all was the blood on her coat.

“Can’t do anything about the headache though, sorry.”

Twilight felt her heart stop when she saw them, she had read about the anatomy of changelings before, but she had hoped she’d never see it. There were puddles of blood, the head of a decapitated changeling lay just a few feet in front of her. One had his heart ripped out, another his neck snapped, one even crushed!

But she could still smell the stench of the burnt flesh of the last changeling, now she knew what all the screaming was for.

She felt disgusted, she wanted to throw up. She was also angry, angry at herself for not being able to fight back, for needing somepony else to come to her and her friends rescue.

But right now, she felt afraid. She felt afraid because there was a creature who was capable of doing these grotesque things with such ease, and that she was standing right here! And yet she didn’t know who she was, or why she was here. She just seemed to be on their side.

But if Twilight wasn’t careful here, that could change very quickly.

“W-who…” Twilight began to say as she turned toward the pony, barely able to stop herself from shaking.

The pony stood up, turning towards Twilight and the other ponies. She still held that look of disinterest on her face, even as she turned her gaze towards Twilight.

Somehow, that look was more terrifying than anger.

“Who….are you?” Twilight asked, trying to figure out the fastest way to save herself and her friends if something went wrong. The only thing she could think of would be to pull all her friends to her and teleport away, but she’s never done so many before. Could she even do it fast enough, before any of her friends got hurt? She wasn’t sure, but she had to try.

She tilted her head, seeming to be confused more than anything.

“What, do you not recognize me Twilight?”

Her mouth curved into a wide smile showing all her white teeth, it wasn’t like the smile she gave that changeling, there was no sadism or maliciousness in her smile. It was pure, innocent, almost childlike. Now that she was in the light coming from SugarcubeCorner, Twilight could see her more clearly. Her coat along with her mane and tail were a dull pink, though she seemed to have streaks of blue in them, it was too dark to tell what shade. She could also vaguely make out her cutie mark, which seemed to be three balloons. Though it seemed the coloring of them were somehow off, it was hard to tell in the dark.

Everypony there had known that face, it had felt like years since they had seen it.

“It’s me, Pinkie Pie!”

.