Steamcart Music Hall, a showcase of culture and fine art, famous for… I don’t know. I’ve never heard of this place before. I’m just reading what the sign says. The building looks fancy, and it has Music Hall in the name, so I assume rich yuppies go here for operas and concerts and such. Shame there won’t be any show tunes playing anytime soon. Blackwatch commandeered the place to use as a base. All shows have been canceled on account of the plague.

This place is right on the edge of the Yellow-zone, serving as a border checkpoint for the quarantine zone. Blackwatch has a makeshift compound set up from the entrance of the theater to the building across the street. They blocked off the road with tall concrete walls, and there are blue-eye goons running around like ants. There’s also two airships hovering above the building, and one parked on top of the roof. The ponies on the street are keeping their distance away from the gates, and I wouldn’t blame them. The blue-eyes guarding the entrances seem to be heavily armed and ready to shoot anything that so much as flinches.

This is the place my Gilda sense led me to. Dr. Eureka is somewhere in there, and I’m not so sure how easy it will be to get to him. I could slip in as Sweet Tooth, but if they sniff me out, Tartarus will break loose. I also have a good vantage point from this ledge. I could take my time and observe the place, memorize patrol patterns, plan out a stealth approach, and do cool secret agent stuff.

Screw it, I’ll risk Sweet Tooth. Worst comes to worse, I’ll hightail it out of there and come back on another day with a real plan. There’s nothing stopping Gilda sense from finding Eureka again if I bail.

Yeah, that sounds like a plan. Sneak in, bail if things get loud, rinse and repeat. What’s the worst that can happen? I know Blackwatch’s tricks. They can’t surprise me.

Are those blue-eyes wearing metal plates? There are a couple of blue-eyes standing next to some red barrels, and they look like they’re wearing metal plates. Huh, I haven’t seen that yet.

Welp, time for action. I kick off from my ledge and glide on over to the base. I steer myself towards one of the windows. Going through the front door might sound all fine and dandy, but I’m not feeling up to a flashy entrance. I want to get in without making a scene.

I’m flying at that window faster than I want. I try flaring out my wings to slow down, but my feathers are locked in place. Of course they are. Why should I get control of my wings? Doesn’t matter. It’s not like crashing through glass will hurt me, I’ve already busted through a fish tank today, so what’s another window to me?

Wait, what is behind that window? I can’t see anything through it. It’s just silver and shiny.

Oh. That’s metal. There’s metal covering that window, and I’m flying at it very fast. Son-of-a-bis-

My face smashes into the steel plate with a loud clang. Underneath that clang, I can hear my beak go crunch from the crash. I dig my talons into the wall before I fall off, and now I’m dangling five stories above the ground. Oh good, this is starting off with a rough landing. I’m sure everything else will go smoother.

I shake my head, ignoring the beak chunks flinging away. It doesn’t hurt… Scratch that, it hurts a little. No, that’s wrong. It hurts. It hurts a lot! The pain just needed a moment to register. Owowowowow! Sweet mercy, someone jammed a rail spike up my nose!

Now the pain is fading away, and my beak is growing back into place. Thank goodness for monster healing powers. I glance at the metal plate, and the front half of my beak is sticking out of that. Son-of-a-bison, I broke my beak off!

In retrospect, I should’ve seen this coming. Why would a military base have unsealed windows? A rowdy pegasus or a monster griffon can break in through there. Sealing windows with metal plates is a great idea.

As my monster powers finish up the end of my beak, the sound of flushing water comes from somewhere near. That sounds like a toilet. It’s echoing, like it came from a bathroom.

A voice comes from the same place as the flush. I look towards the sound, and I find an open window next the one I’m hanging by. Oh come on, how did I not see that?!

I hop over to the window ledge, grab on to the sill, and take a peek inside. Yep, it’s a bathroom alright. Stalls, sinks, mirrors, potted plants, all looking very fancy. This music hall spent its money right. I should come back here later and steal some stuff for the sconeshop.

One of the stall doors swings open and an earth-pony mare comes walking out. Her hair is a rat’s nest, she has bags under the eyes, and she has a cutiemark of a hoof punching a bowl of fruit. Interesting character. She heads up to the sink, washes her hooves, splashes some water on her face, and now I feel like a creep. Why am I watching this?

The bathroom door swings open and a blue-eye pegasus trots on in. “I freaking hate these uniforms,” the blue-eye yells. The pegasus pulls the mask off to reveal the peach mare underneath, who also has a messy mane and eye bags, and tosses the thing on onto one of the sink basins. “They get really sweaty! I’m going to go insane if I have to stand another day with this damn suit sticking to me!”

“Preach it, girl,” the other says, splashing more water on her face. “Would it kill R&D to come up with a suit that breathes?”

The pegasus clicks some buckles on her uniform and lets the straps fall loose. “Why can’t we wear the stuff the military wears? Those uniforms don’t turn into a sauna after ten minutes and they don’t have to wear these damn masks.”

“That’s what I’ve been saying.” The sink mare splashes some water in her hair and tries combing it with a hoof. “We're nowhere near the plague, so why do we even need these suits? All this protocol is command trying to feel important.”

“Command can go suck it.” With the sound of a zipper, the back half of the pegasus’s uniform falls to her hooves and she kicks it away. “If they’re not going to give us decent suits, then I doubt they give a crap about us at all.”

“We’re cannon fodder to them.” The sink mare turns off the water and flicks her hooves dry. “Why give us nice things if we’re going to die and ruin their toys.”

The pegasus rolls her eyes. “Oh please, we’re not going to die. It’s not as if Patient Zero is going to walk in and eat… us… Who the heck is that?!”

The pegasus is looking right at me. Her shout throws me off balance and my hooves lose their grip. Hooves? Ah, I turned into Sweet Tooth without noticing it. I suppose that’s convenient. With my balance gone, I teeter forward and flop face-first onto the tile floor.

“Ow,” Sweet Tooth groans.

“Holy shit!” the pegasus mare shrieks. “A fucking creep’s been watching us!”

Sweet Tooth shuffles back onto his hooves and shakes off the dust. “Well, I’m a girl, so the term creep doesn’t apply.”

“You sound like a guy! Shit, it’s one of those fucking gender benders! There’s a gender bender watching us!”

She’s not wrong. Technically I am a gender bender, and I was watching them. Just give me a second and I’ll physically change to anyone’s sexual preference. They just have to be lenient on what species they get.

“Go get the other officers! Tell them we got a peeper,” the sink mare barks at the other. She turns towards to me with a steely glare. “I’ll take care of this freak myself.”

The pegasus nods, and flies out of the bathroom with just the top half of her uniform. The sink mare shifts into a fighting stance, bending her neck to make the bones crack. Somehow her wet mane adds a level of threat on top of her snarl.

“Okay, I know what you’re thinking,” I say, “And trust me, you don’t want to fight me. It’s gone south for you guys every time you try and fight me.”

She doesn’t listen. Before I can blink, she’s up in my face and gives me a nasty kick under the chin. Her kick sends me into a backflip and my head hits the window sill, busting the tile apart. Ow! This earth-pony has power in her!

“You’re going down, freak,” she sneers. “I’ll make sure you get more than court-martialed for this!” Great, all the Blackwatch ladies want to pick a fight with me. Line up and get the popcorn, let’s all have a cat-fight with Gilda!

Sweet Tooth rolls on his side to get up, but the sink-mare rams her hoof straight into my crotch.

“I did not say to get up! Stay on the floor like the scum you are!”

I wanted to say something, but this chick just whacked me in my no-no spot and I feel like I’m about to explode. Oh sweet mercy, this is payback for flight camp. I’m sorry Hoops! I didn’t know that rock hurt this bad!

“Are you going to cry? Good! I want you to cry like the pussy you are!”

This girl is asking for it. My leg kicks out and lands a hit in the center of her chest. The power behind it sends the mare flying across the room before crashing into a stall. Hah, she didn’t see that coming!

“I’m not taking any smack talk from the likes of you,” I say, groaning as I stand up on my hooves. “Now stay down like a good girl and forget any of this happened.”

“Eat shit, freak!”

A toilet comes flying out of the dust. I duck just in time, and the porcelain throne shatters behind me. I don’t see the mare running at me with the steel pipe until it’s too late. She clonks me upside the head and sends me stumbling for the window. I trip and fall and land on the window sill. My head’s sticking out and I got a nice view of the street below.

My pony ears hear the mare coming, and I push myself away before her pipe smashes the window sill into tiny bits. She takes another swing at me, and I fall back into a stall to avoid her hit.

She winds up for her next swing, but I kick myself forward and bodyslam her to the ground. Her pipe drops with a clink, but that doesn’t stop her. Her head lashes out and she bites me in the throat. The sharp pain stuns me, and she throws me off with a kick to the gut.

She jumps to her hooves, and I just stumble back up. We have a bit of ground between us. “You know, you’re the second Blackwatch today to give me a beatdown,” I say.

“Why am I not surprised,” the mare says, bending back down in her fighting stance. “Another peep show gone wrong?”

“Nah, he just didn’t like me, and I didn’t like him.” I take a moment to shape-shift back into a griffon, making sure my monster claws come out with me. “So I ate him.”

The mare’s eyes shrink into slits as the worms finish their job. “Zero,” she hisses.

My monster claws wave at her. “Hi, how’s it going? Can you be nice and let me go so I don’t have to eat you too?”

Before I blink, the mare picks up her pipe and whacks me in the side of the head, again. “Die!” she yells. A simple no would’ve hurt less!

I bash into her with my shoulder and she stumbles away. “Come on, don’t be a bitch. I got better things to do than to eat ponies!”

I’m not letting her attack again. She’s had her chance to stop, and she blew it. Only one of us is leaving this room alive.

My claws slash at her, and she raises the pipe to block. My blade chops that thing in half and a piece of it flies away. Now she doesn’t have a weapon.

I charge at her, throwing slice after slice at her. The mare turns out to be surprisingly nimble, as she’s weaving in and out of my strikes. In a blur, she snakes between my arms and ends up nose-to-beak with me. She holds up her piece of pipe and yells as she jams it into my eye.

“OW! Buck- ACK!” Her right hook hits me in the throat, and I smash into a bathroom mirror. Red and black goop pours out of my eye-socket, and I can barely see what this chick is doing.

She backs off and is tearing through the pegasus’s uniform. What the heck do you need to steal from a friend’s purse? Perfume? Money? Through my blurred vision, I can see her yank out something long and black. Oh come on, how lonely does a mare have to be to carry around a di-

OW! Everything hurts! The world turns bright blue and I can’t see a damn thing. Is something burning? I smell something burning, like meat. Sweet mercy, I think I’m burning!

The light fades and I can almost see the mare pointing the black thing at me. The thing flashes blue, and my stomach explodes in pain. She’s shooting spells at me! Why do these hurt more than before?!

She fires another shot, and then another. Each hit makes my legs spasm in pain. My feathers, I can smell them burning too!

“Pfft, pathetic,” the mare says, shooting another bolt into my leg. “I can’t see why everyone thinks you’re a big deal. You went down like a bitch.”

I try saying something, but she cuts me off by shooting my beak, which explodes into tiny fragments. I just healed that!

“I bet the reward for your head isn’t that high. Command is probably going to give me a gift card and tell me to get back to work. Whatever the reward, it’s going to be disappointing, like you."

I try moving my body, but I can’t feel anything move. She takes another shot at me, but at this point it doesn’t even phase me. No, I’m not going down to a single goon. Not like this.

One of my claws still works. I scratch at the floor to test what I can do with it. I think I can still move it, but what can I do? I can’t get up and slice her. She’s too busy standing far out of reach and shooting me.

Another bolt to the stomach, and my claws clench up, grabbing something small and metallic. Wait, this is the pipe I sliced off. Hah, now I got all of her pipe, half in my claw and half in my eye. Hmm, there’s an idea.

My claw winds back and I fling the pipe piece at the mare. It whistles as it flies through the air, then it makes a quick slurp sound. I hear the mare choke and collapse to the ground, along with the clatter of the spell stick hitting the tile. Sweet, I hit her. I hit her with her own weapon.

It takes a moment, but my healing powers do enough work to let me stand up. They only patch me up enough to lumber around, but that’s fine. I only need to walk a short distance.

I stumble at a slow pace towards the mare, grabbing the sinks to keep me stable. I wipe the goop off my face, and I can see the mare laying on the floor. She’s grabbing her throat, trying to hold onto the blood that’s squirting out of the pipe. Her face is turning pale, and the only sound she’s making is a weak wheeze.

“You should’ve stepped down” I say. My claws go up in the air, and then they chop down the mare’s torso, splitting it in half. Her eyes go wide as her wheezing turns into a gurgle, and then she disappears into a mass of tentacles and worms.

And so ends another bitch’s life.

Wait, the world’s going blurry. Why is the world-

Airships floating above, blue-eyes marching around…

“At ease, Fruit Punch. Eureka is here to speak with you.”

A yellow earth-pony, a well-combed mane…

“Captain Cole Slaw recommended you as a candidate for a special project we’re working on. Would you perhaps be interested?”

Scientists surround a monster, medical tools poke at it…

“It depends, sir. What do you want from me?”

A big smile, glass eyes…

“I can’t disclose much on it just yet, but I can say we’re looking for individuals who display incredible strength. Seeing as you are one of the top ten performers of the Dozer Brigade, you would make an ideal participant.”

“And if I refuse?”

“I won’t hold it against you. You can accept at any time. In fact, once the project is fully operational in the coming weeks, you may find yourself signing up to join.”

“So you’re offering me an early enrollment for one of your experiments?”

“At this point I wouldn’t call it an experiment. It’s applied science now.”

“I think I’ll pass. I’m not all keen into jumping into one of your projects without a little knowledge.”

“That's... fine. The offer is still open for you. But may I ask you a question before I go?”

“You may.”

“How did you get your cutiemark. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

A cutiemark, a hoof punching a bowl of fruit…

“It’s not that special. I got it when I was much younger. My dad tried to rape me and my sister, so I punched him in the dick. Crushed it to a pulp. He died from shock shortly after.”

A gulp, clenching teeth…

“Ah… I see. You’re lucky Blackwatch doesn’t do psyche evaluations.”

“I’m lucky with a lot of things.”

“Clearly. Well, if you do end up changing your mind, you know where my office is.”

“You’ll be the first to know.”

Ponies walking away...

"Why does everyone say no?"

“Hey Fruits, are you alright?”

My eyes flicker open, and the first thing I see is the peach pegasus staring down at me. The goop is out of my eyes, and my body doesn’t smell like it’s on fire.

“Yeah, I’m good,” I say in a voice not in my own. Wait, this is the mare’s voice. I roll over onto my hooves and stand up. I take a quick glance at my flank, which has a cutie mark of a hoof punching a bowl of fruit. Yep, I ate the mare and now I am Fruit Punch.

A large Blackwatch goon, covered in metal plates, lumbers past me. “Where’d he go? Where’d the creep go?”

I take a look around to see where I am. I’m still in the bathroom, and woo boy, did I make a mess out of this place. The Music Hall is going to be pissed when they find out how much this is going to cost to repair.

“I don’t know,” I say. “We got in a fight, and he knocked me out and left.”

“You got knocked out?” the large goon asks, and laughs. “Did you cry uncle too? How did you let a creep get the better of you?”

“He hit me with a pipe.” Yeah, I got hit a lot with that pipe. As I say that, I notice two pipe pieces laying on the ground not too far from me, covered in a thick coat of blood.

“Go easy on her,” the pegasus snaps. “She got assaulted by a pervert!”

“Hey, I did a number on him too,” I say. “I broke the bastard good.”

“Yeah, you let loose on him too.” The big goon picks up the spell stick and hefts it in his hooves. “Shit, you set your bolt-gun to full charge, and it’s almost empty. Was this pervert an Ogre?”

I shrug. “Something like that.”

The pegasus pats me on the back and pulls me out the bathroom. “Come on, let’s get you to a medic. He’ll make sure you’re all right.”

No, he won’t. He’ll take one look at me, see I’m actual a monster in a mare’s body, and tell everyone to shoot me. Taking me to a medic would blow my cover, and I just got this body. “No, I don’t want to deal with doctors right now.”

“Are you sure. You might be hurt and not realize it.”

I brush the pegasus off. “Yes, I’m sure. I don’t need a damn doctor.”

The pegasus’s brow furrows. “Well at least sit down somewhere. How about some coffee? We’ll sit down and have coffee.”

“Sure, why not,” I say, suppressing a sigh. “That’s going to work just as much as the medic.”