Author's Notes:

Extra long chapter, welcome to the endgame.

I hear a lullaby in the dark, and for a moment I’m back at the Cabin in the woods. The lullaby unceasingly intoned behind me, never wavering, never slackening no matter how fast I run. No sound but the lullaby, but I don’t need to hear her to know that her hatchet is raised, ready to fly from her expert fingers.

My vision flickers; I’m in the cornfields, Billy’s domain, and behind me, the lullaby is replaced with the endless revving of an old, rusty, and blood-stained chainsaw. I don’t have to look to know that the irregular beat behind me is the uneven loping of the weapon’s malformed owner.

My vision flickers; I’m surrounded by the stink of engine oil and coppery blood. I’m sprinting between crushed cars and shattered machines. The wind is blowing ominously as a bell tolls away behind me, without rest or respite, reminding me with every dolorous tone that I too shall die.

My vision flickers; The stench of decaying vegetation fills my nostrils as my ever-running legs take me into the damp, wild cattails of the swamp. The foghorn of the Pale Rose moans thunderously over the thick Fog, and every other step evokes a scream and explosion of mud as hands, twisted and gnarled reach for my throat.

My vision flickers; I’m running through the twisting, blind turns of Lery’s. Behind me is that endless, cackling laughter and the sharp cracks of electricity sparking off of metal. I smell ozone and cooking flesh, the stink of sterile insanity. His laughter… it’s strange. It’s almost becoming comforting.

My vision flickers; To either side of me are rows and rows of houses, parked cars, and little parks, all empty. The road is smooth asphalt, and everything around me is so, so quiet. There is no sound here. There is no warning. Only the constant, omnipresent and choking knowledge that the only possible place that It could be is behind me. Knife poised high to slice down, cold and welcoming, into my flesh.

My vision flickers; the crumbling stone pillars and shattered windows of Crotus Asylum careen past me, everything is blurring but I know the sound behind me. That choking, grating scream. The harsh rasping of her stridor belying the knowledge that at any moment she will be upon me, hands on my throat, stealing my last breath.

My vision flickers.

Everything is dark and I hear a lullaby calling me home.

I open my eyes from my fitful sleep. I feel awful, my mouth is dry and I feel too warm. Is it possible to get sick in this place? I wouldn’t think so. The Entity has no interest in the sickly, he wants his prey strong and confident when they die. He wants them to know that all their strength means nothing, so he can drink in their hope as it floods out of them to be replaced with bitter despair.

I hear Tempest's husky voice stop singing.

“Mi sol?”

Warm, strong arms are cradling me near the edge of the campfire, it’s warmth… that’s why I’m too warm. Strange, I’m used to it being a reassuring feeling, why does it feel so uncomfortable now?

“Tempest?” I try to rise, and her arms keep me down. “What’s going on?”

My senses start to come back, one by one; my vision clears up and my ears aren’t ringing with that infernal lullaby anymore. Tempest is looking down at me and I can hear the campfire crackle nearby, the whispers of the girls around me. My head is resting on Tempest’s shoulder, where she’s cradling me in her arms. That in and of itself is perfectly nice except…

“Tempest, let me up,” I say evenly.

A glimmer of pain crosses Tempest’s face. “Lo siento, mi sol, but I can’t do that until we know what happened in the woods.”

“You changed, Sunny,” Aria’s voice says from my left, and I turn my head to look at her. Tempest lets up her grip a little so I’m not wrenching my neck but I know I can’t get out of her grasp. “Tempest said you looked… like one of them. Just for a second but…”

I glare at Aria. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Ari’, I saved Tempest! That’s all that matters!”

The rest of the girls are still whispering. It was starting to drive me up the wall.

“S-sunset?” I look over towards the voice, it’s Starlight, staring at me from the other side of the campfire. She looks bad, ragged and red-eyed. She’s looking at me with a combination of terror and… guilt?

“What?” I say, a little bitterly, still annoyed at my… whatever Tempest is… keeping me pinned like a misbehaving housecat.

“Was it me?” Starlight asks, her voice a little choked. “Was what happened… was it my fault? Because of how I was treating you?”

I blink in confusion. “What? I still… I’m seriously not even sure what you girls are talking about!”

Tempest lets out a ragged sigh. “When the Huntress had us cornered, chica, you foolishly decided to try and stand up to her, even knowing the Killers can’t be harmed. She ignored you to secure her kill, me, and then… you stopped her.”

My mouth hangs open for a moment. I… I what? You can’t stop a Killer. No one can stop them. That’s their whole fucking point. How did I…

Pain.

I remember… fragments… bits and pieces of what Tempest is talking about. I remember the harsh, feverish breath of the Huntress at my back. I remember telling her to go away. Gods I sounded like an idiot. Then… she just ignored me, walked past me and… and I got mad. I followed her and, just as she was bringing down the ax…

“I caught it,” the words slip out of my mouth as I try to fight off the migraine edging its way into my skull. “I caught her ax,” I say in disbelief. “How the fuck did I do that?”

“I told you, mi sol.” Tempest says carefully. “You changed.”

I changed.

Claws like knives, silver and shining in the moonlight, reflecting the dancing lights of the Fog. Smooth, unpleasantly rubbery red skin with veins like blue fire.

I changed.

I… I clench my eyes shut. I feel like Wraith’s bell is tolling away in my head, and the whispering is getting so loud that I can barely even hear myself think.

“Will you girls SHUT UP for a second!?” I shout, gripping my head. The whispers don’t stop. They’re grating at the edges of my consciousness and it’s driving me nuts. “I SAID SHUT-!”

I turn to yell at them and they’re all staring at me. Their eyes are wide with worry… and fear. I can hear their fear, their terror, their… despair. They’re whispering.

None of them are talking.

Swallowing the dry lump that’s suddenly taken up residence in my throat, I let out a slow, shuddering breath. Control… control… control your breathing, your emotions, your magic. Control your fire or it controls you. I cycle through my old exercises from back when I was a student. Things I haven’t done consciously since I left Equestria.

Concentrate, Shimmer.

I light a fire in the darkness of my mind. A little flame, small but bright, see how it dances? It dances in the dark, casting the shadows around it like partners in a play. But it needs to be bigger. Flames need fuel, everypony knows that.

I’m afraid. Scared of what’s happening, it’s making my mind race in all directions and I can’t keep track. Focus, Shimmer, focus. Fear is good in moderation but this is terror. Feed it to the flame. Let it grow and be brighter.

I throw the fear to the flames.

I’m angry. I’m frustrated. Tempest is holding me down, and I hate it. But I know why she’s doing it. Getting mad won’t do me any good. It’ll just make the girls more scared of me, it’ll just make everything harder. I’ve always had a temper, time to curb it.

I throw the fury to the flames.

I’m… uncertain. There’s a gnawing seed of doubt in my gut that tells me everything is my fault. What if Starlight was right all along? What if I’m a monster? What if I was always just a monster and no one ever noticed but… but the Entity? What if that is why he called me here? Not to be food. But to feed. No, I can’t think like that, I can’t. If I do, I’ll never stop. I let out a breath.

I throw the doubt to the flames.

Opening my eyes, I let out another breath. My body feels slack and loose. I haven’t felt this good in a while. For a moment I feel like all the tension is gone, even though I know it won’t last. Another clap of thunder, another trial, and there’s that adrenaline back to the fore.

“I’m okay, Tempest,” I say. “I promise, it’s me, I just… needed a second to get a hold of myself.” For a moment I think she doesn’t buy it, but then I feel the iron in her grip slacken up.

I smile. She’s still holding me though, that part’s okay. I wiggle a little to get more comfortable but I don’t try to get out of her arms.

“What was it like?”

Sour Sweet’s voice comes from my right and I look over. She looks strange, not afraid, not angry, not… anything. Nothing except curious. “Changing, I mean, what was it like?”

Tempest’s rip hardens again, but not because of me, I raise a hand a stroke her arm to calm her and just shake my head at Sour. “I don’t really remember it all, to be honest. I don’t know if it makes you all feel any better, but that’s not the first time I’ve gone, uh… she-demon-y.”

They all look surprised, glancing at each other.

“It, uh… it was kind of a mess,” I admit, sheepishly. “Basically I’m a mage, I came to Earth from another dimension, way nicer than this one, by the way, to escape some pretty objectively bad choices that I’d made. I spent five years here plotting my return and it sort of involved stealing a highly specialized magical artifact and then jamming it on my head.”

They all stare at me in disbelief.

“Y-yeah…” I chuckle, scratching the back of my head. “Uh, in hindsight I probably could’ve thought that out better, but in my defense, I was a huge bitch and seriously up my own ass about a lot of stuff. Long story short, I got hit with some bad juju backlash from the artifact vehemently disagreeing with how I was using it and it made me go, uh… demon-y.” I wiggle my fingers for emphasis, getting a chuckle out of Sour Sweet.

Sour Sweet broke the ensuing silence with a question. “Is it true you might be able to get out of here? And that you won’t because you want to be here?”

I stare at Sour, then back up at Tempest. “You told them?!”

“Si, and I will not apologise,” Tempest retorts. “I still don’t agree with your decision and after what happened I think you need to get out of here more than any of us!”

“Yeah, Sunny,” Aria says before I can respond. “No offense, it’s nice having you here and all, it’s great having another solid teammate, but uh… I don’t know if I can deal with losing someone else like I lost my sisters…”

I stare at Aria, she says the words evenly but I can see the haunted look in her eyes and I can hear the pain in her voice.

“I swear I didn’t mean the things I said before,” Starlight says softly. “I don’t think you’re a spy or a plant by the Entity. It’s my paranoia, it gets really bad and… and I don’t want you to be hurt, Sunset, so please,” she pleads, “if you can get out then get out!”

“Girls I…” I work my jaw for a moment, trying to find the words. “I can’t leave you all here… I can’t! I don’t even know how or even if it’s actually possible to get me out but even if it is it’d be a one-in-a-billion shot! There’s no guarantee it would work twice, much less four more times and I will not leave you all here!”

“It’s not that bad,” Sour Sweet says, drawing looks from the rest of us. “What? You’re not the only one that doesn’t hundred-percent mind it here. I mean, yeah, that thing in the ‘burbs is pretty much the most terrifying thing ever, but it’s still better than the real world.”

“What?” Starlight says, her mouth hanging open. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I’m not as brave as Sunny,” Sour responds. “But my life pretty much sucked. Sure my family has money but I’m… miserable. I’m basically a cocktail of disorders, Borderline, Bipolar, Schizo; all facts that my family likes to ignore whenever possible. I can barely keep it together most days. My mom and dad treat my illness like a dirty secret and push me to succeed at fucking everything because it’s Crystal Prep Academy,” she spits out bitterly.

I’m used to Sour’s sudden tonal shifts, but I’d just kind of passed it off as a personality quirk, I’d never really thought about it like that.

“In here it’s… not as bad,” Sour admits, a little shakily. “Maybe it’s just because here I know it doesn’t matter. The changes come when they come, but it doesn’t really matter because all that matters is getting to the next trial.”

Starlight nods. “I’m pretty much in the same boat, to be honest,” she says softly, “I hadn’t ever really thought about it too hard until now but… I don’t know how I’d feel about going back to the real world either. I hate my mom, and I’m pretty sure she hates me too. I’m an embarrassment because I’m delusional and paranoid. Except… here that’s almost a benefit. Here, paranoid is fine because the whole world is actually out to get me. Except… with you, Sunset, like I said… sorry.”

“I can’t leave knowing my sisters are here,” Aria says evenly. “But that was no secret to anyone, Tempest knows where I stand and why. They’re my family, we’ve been together for centuries. I plan to keep it that way, even if it means running from them forever.”

The look on Tempest’s face is indescribable, it’s like she just had a rug pulled violently out from under her. I know she hates this world and I think she just assumed everyone else did too. I let out a sigh, and lean into her.

“It’s not their faults, you know, or mine,” I say quietly, keeping my voice low as I stare up at Tempest. “If you think about it, it makes sense…” I gesture to the other girls, “how we all feel about it I mean, it makes sense.”

“Sense, mi sol?” Tempest whispers dourly. “What kind of sense is this?”

I turn about in Tempest’s lap and loop my arms around her neck, draping them over her shoulders. “The sense that remembers how the Entity’s hunts by despair. How my ‘friends’ drove me to try to kill myself, how Star was put in a psych ward by her own mother, how Sour was running from her oppressive life, and how Aria, along with her sisters, were powerless and desperate in an alien world… it’s hard to argue why someone would want to go back to any of that.”

Tempest nods. “Si, mi sol, I can… understand that, then.” I smile, and I’m about to say something else when she cuts me off. “Then I have another question; why are you the only one that’s suffering like this?”

The girls look up at me, a little startled by the question, I am too. Why… am I the only one who’s… changing? “W-well, I don’t know! It might be because unlike all of you I actually know magic? It’s no joke that I’m literally saturated in it… maybe that has something to do with it?”

“Wrong-o, Sunny,” Aria says evenly, her eyes suddenly narrowed. “Just because I can’t feed doesn’t mean I can’t feel or taste magic anymore, I’m still a Siren even if I lost my gem. I’m ancient, Sunny, I’m more saturated in thaumic energy than you’ll probably ever be, so it can’t be that.”

I look around to the other girls, feeling my heart starting to pound. Why… why was this suddenly coming apart? “B-but your sisters…”

Aria almost growls out her next words. “Don’t you drag my sisters into this, Sunny, Adagio was the eldest, then me, then ‘Nata, so if it had been her and me, or just her, to go first I might buy it, but I’ve lived hundreds of years more than Sonata, yet it was her that was taken.”

“And she was the first,” Starlight interjects, looking confused. “Can’t be magic then, right? Otherwise, Adagio would’ve been taken first.”

“Then why?” Sour asks, turning her eyes to me. “Why is it you?”

“I… I don’t…” I struggle to find the reasoning, the words, whatever it takes to make them understand. It’s not like that. Just because I don’t want to leave…

“I know why,” Tempest says gravely. “I don’t know why I didn’t realise it before… Maybe because… because of how I feel about you, but I think I know why you’re the one changing, I think…”

Everyone, including me, is staring at her. My heart is thunder in my chest as her bright eyes meet mine and I can feel the sadness in them. Not judgment, or pity, or fear… just sadness.

“All the others, mi sol?” Tempest nods to Sour, Starlight, and Aria. “They have their reasons to hate their old life, like you, or their reasons to stay, like Aria. But it’s not about this place, it’s about the real world. You… I remember what you said in the woods. You told me this place gave you purpose, drive… it gave you a reason to live… and I think it only just got through to me what you meant.”

“I-I didn’t mean anything but what I said!” I cry out, bringing my hands back to clutch around hers. She grips my hands back but I see the change in her eyes. “Please, I swear it!”

Tempest shakes her head. “No, mi sol, you don’t understand, the others would leave if their lives would improve but… I’m not sure you would. You were offered a road out by someone willing to shatter the Fog to reach you… I think you’re staying because you… actually like it here.”

The silence is deafening.

Tears fall silently down Tempest’s face as she stares into my eyes, unflinching. I can’t breathe, it feels like I’m drowning. “W-what?”

“So am I right, chica?” Tempest asks, her voice impressive steady. “Truth y nada, mi sol, am I right or wrong?”

I want to tell her she’s wrong. I want to throw it in her face and ask her ‘how dare she even suggest such a horrible thing’, I want to get angry… furious that she’d think I was even capable of something like that.

I can’t… I just don't have it in me to lie like that.

“I…” What do I even say? What can I say? “I… hate that world… so much… I can’t go back there. I can’t… everyone there… they hate me.”

“That’s not true, mi sol,” Tempest counters. “Twilight? Your amiga? She wouldn’t have come here if she hated you.”

“She’s the one who got me into this fucking mess!” I scream, staggering out of Tempest’s arms, and batting her hands away. “She’s the one who put me with those fucking liars! She’s the one who convinced me that I could atone! That I could be forgiven! She’s the reason I can’t stop hurting!”

I scramble away from the fire. It’s too hot, the whispers are too loud. I can’t hear myself think, I can barely hear anything at all. Aria and Sour have gotten up and they’re trying to come after me, but I can’t… I can’t let them, they just want to hurt me… to send me back!

“Get away from me!” I shriek, grabbing my journal from where it’s been gathering dust in my satchel since I stopped using it and swing it at the two girls. “If you wanna go, then GO! I’ll even fuckin’ help Twilight snatch you out. But I’m not going back to that place ever again!”

Tempest rises slowly from her seat at the fireside and approaches me, hands out and face impassive. “Por favor, mi sol, don’t make this choice… if you want us to… to be anything, we can’t be it here in this place. Even if it’s impossible we need to try and escape. I need you to want to escape with me.”

Tears and streaming down my face, I want to vomit. I’m too hot and too cold at the same time. “I can’t. Go back.” Every other word comes out in a heave of breath. I feel like I’m coming apart at the seams. “I won’t, I won’t go back there. Twilight can rot in tartarus for what she did to me! She should’ve just let me die!” The last words come out as an almost incoherent scream as I clutch the journal to my chest. “You want me to go back? Well, I can’t… I can’t do that.”

“I’m on your side, chica,” Tempest says, her voice choked with tears. “I swear to you I am, but I can’t watch you do this to yourself.”

I let out a shuddering breath, feeling a cold, almost alien calm flooding my body. For the first time since I got back to the campfire the whispers have died down and I feel strange kind of comfort. Like… I’m on a road and I can see a familiar house approaching after a long trip.

“So that’s it then?” I say, opening my eyes. I don’t need the look of shock on her face to tell me that they’re black again. Maybe that’s not so bad.

I always did look good in black.

Maybe it’s time to end this all, then. I look up at the roiling black sky and somehow it feels more welcoming than the campfire. Come on then you old stain… one more trip…

Thunder explodes around us and the girls jump in terror. The darkness is closing in fast with a kind of oily, unpleasant fervor that suggests sentience. It feels… pleased.

Tempest reaches out for me. “I’m not leaving you, mi sol!” she screams as the darkness swallows us up. “I promise I’m still fighting for you!”

I let the shadows cradle me, wrapping and dragging me into the coming Trial. I scowl at Tempest, feeling my heart cracking in two as she’s dragged away.

“Tell yourself whatever you need to, I don’t care anymore,” I say, my face twisting in a grimace. “Betrayal all tastes the same to me now.”

I let the hooks bite and rip me away from the burning light of the fire, and for a moment I hear something in the darkness that I’ve never heard before. No screams or shrieks. No lullabies or bells or revving saws.

No… I just hear… breathing.

I’m falling, I feel the ground approach. The Trial… but I don’t know this place. I hit the ground hard and roll, hissing as my journal bites into my chest where the hard binding presses against my skin. As I get up, I scan the area.

The smell of coal and dry, upturned dirt, combined with the decay of masonry and stone. Can stone rot? Apparently, it can.

“S-Sunset?” I swivel my head around and fix my eyes on Starlight, who’s peeking around a corner. She looks scared. Of the trial or of me, I don’t know. I don’t even know if I care anymore. “Are you… you?”

I snort in disgust. “Yeah, guess I am,” I spit, “for whatever anyone has ever cared about that. Maybe if I’d been someone else it would’ve been an improvement.”

Starlight sidles over to me cautiously and follows as I scoot around a pile of rubble towards a chest I’d spotted on my way down. Glancing around I don’t see much, but I don’t fancy rolling around a new Trial ground naked. I pop the chest and start fishing around in it.

“Keep an eye out in case a murder-hobo decides to redecorate your face, will ya?” I say as I push aside from junk. “Or at least scream before he guts you.”

I pull out a medkit and grimace. Not the best pull. I can do better. “Here,” I say, tossing her the kit, “I’ll find something else.”

Before I get more than a few feet away, I stop as a warm body wraps itself around me. I look around at Starlight, who captured me in a hug.

“I’m sorry…” she whispers, burying her face against my shoulder. “I’m sorry I hurt you, and I’m sorry you… your life… it went so wrong… I’m just… sorry.”

“Stop,” I say, pushing her off and heading towards a generator stack.

“S-stop? Stop what?”

I narrow my eyes at her. “Pretending that you care, go find something else to waste your time on. I’m not having it anymore.” I point to another gen stack in the distance, then turn my back.

If she follows me to the generator I’ll kick her off. I don’t need her messing up my work, and I do not have the patience to deal with anyone right now. I scoot around, keeping low like always. More than once as I was creeping about I wished I had some kind of hat. My hair isn’t exactly inconspicuous in the dark. Not so bad if I’m covered by the Fog and have something between me and psychopath du jour, but it’s a goddamn liability when I’m on the move through open territory.

I get to the generator and kneel, getting to work on the cold machine while keeping my eyes open and my head up. I can do it mostly by feel now, but… If I’m being honest I’m not even sure why I’m doing it anymore.

Going back to the campfire is starting to become as unappealing as going back ‘home’.

Glancing around I notice something out of sorts on the ground nearby. It’s grimy and rusty and at first, I took at just part of the debris inherent to the decay of this particular Trial ground, whoever it belongs to. Now, though, as I take a closer look, I feel like it’s more than that. It’s not broken, whatever it looks like. It’s in perfectly good condition in fact, if you’re willing to look past the fresh tetanus all over it.

“What kind of idiot steps in a bear trap, though,” I mutter with a faint grimace.

I get my answer a few moments later when I hear a harsh, grating SNAP of metal teeth and a scream I instantly recognize as Starlight’s.

“How the fuck-?” I swear, I could not fathom how someone could be that stupid as to step into one of those things. They’re huge, bulky, and friggin’ orange with rust. Whatever, she’s not near me, I can’t hear the heartbeat anyway.

Another snap and a scream tells me something has happened, probably she got caught. I shake my head and keep working. I’m not helping anyone by dilly-dallying, the sooner the generators get done the sooner… the sooner they can leave. I’m almost done with this one anyway, I turn and twist a few parts before reaching deep into the thing and wrenching a crucial piece back in place. The generator explodes into life just as Aria snaps around the corner and swears viciously.

“Fuck! We gotta move, Shimmer,” Aria says, crouched and moving away carefully, staring at the ground with every step. “Don’t run, at least… not through the grass, and definitely not through any narrow spaces.”

I raise an eyebrow in question but nod and follow her around the edge of the Trial grounds.”Who are we up against? I thought I’d met all the Killers.”

Aria just shakes her head. “No, this one is… rare.”

“Yeah, no shit,” I respond dryly as we approach another generator. “Better than the Wraith though, at least I can probably see this mother fu-”

I grunt as Aria’s arm shoots out and stops me, thudding hard into my chest. I’m about to tear into her when I see her looking down at my feet. Slowly, she raises a finger and points to the grass I’d almost stepped into. Frowning I look closer.

A bear trap.

How in Tartarus had I missed that?

I’d almost walked right into it. If Aria hadn’t been keeping an eye on both of our path’s I’d be screaming my head off right now. Letting out a sigh, I reach down to disarm it. Bear traps are crude but relatively simple. Just basic physics given teeth.

Aria’ puts a hand over mind and stops me. “Don’t, just leave it. Disarming a trap is loud, he’ll hear it, we know where it is, best to leave it alone until we’re ready to bug out.”

I nod. “Fair enough, you lead?”

She agrees, taking the lead and moving us around the trap. “That’s why you don’t run,” Aria says as we get up to a new generator, “I’ve only been up against him… maybe twice? He’s brutal, careful, and just because you can’t see or hear him doesn’t mean you’re not in danger.”

“What is he?” I ask, going through the rote motions of repairing felt good, it felt familiar at least. “Other than just a crazy hunter?”

“I don’t know,” Aria answers sullenly. “But I think he’s important… He’s the one who took Sour, and my sisters and I. I think… I think he’s the first. That’s the feeling I get. I think he’s been here so long he’s almost as much a part of this place as the Entity is.”

Thump-thump, thump-thump

Both of our eyes widen as we glance up at each other. Ducking low, we split in opposite directions. I carefully move around the trap Aria had pointed out earlier and-

The heartbeat thunders as he turns the corner of a section of rubble and collapsed buildings. I feel my breath catch in my throat. He’s smiling at me. Only... not really. That chipped and pitted white mask, so pale in the dark and the fog, the wide, split-faced grin filled with sharp shark-like teeth. I don’t know why but… he scares me as much as the stalking Shape did. Maybe… maybe more.

I don’t think, I just turn and run.

Stupid, stupid Sunset. I scream as the trap I’d just passed closes around my leg with a hungry snap, biting through the flesh and scraping the bone. What did Aria just say? What did she say?!

‘That’s why you don’t run.’

I try to pull it off of my leg, feebly gripping the rusted teeth and pulled, feeling the sharp blades shredding my fingers as I try to wrench it open. I hear breathing, not like the breathy whispers of the Huntress, or the choked stridor of the Nurse. It’s… harsh, grating, like smokers lung, a chest filled with ash and fiber.

A massive, paw of a hand closes around my neck at the same moment a large and thick leather boot hits the mouth of the trap just so, bracing a heel between the teeth and leveraging his weight against the ground, he pushes the trap open with one foot and an unthinkable amount of practice.

I gasp as the trap’s jaws unclench from my leg. He slings me over his shoulder and I try to wrestle free of his grip but it’s pointless, there’s a hook only a few feet away. I brace myself, swallowing hard as I brace myself for-

SHUNK

I scream as the hook erupts from the meat of my shoulder, catching on bone to hang me for the Entity’s feeding pleasure. I let out a gasp, struggling as I watch him just… walk away. A generator goes live and I smile, That’s fine, maybe it’s for the best. I’ll just… be here.

A yell in the distance makes me flinch. That was Aria, but that was definitely a ‘come get me’ shout. She hasn’t been hit yet, at least.

I still feel a little bad for the things I said to Starlight before, she probably didn’t deserve that but… I’m so tired. I’m tired of trying and failing. I’m tired of listening and never being heard. I’m… tired. I hope they got Starlight down from her hook.

“Mi sol,” I hear Tempest and turn my head, she’s crouching towards me. “Any traps nearby?”

I shake my head. “Nah, he hauled off after hooking me. Probably keeping us off gens.”

She smiles. It’s beautiful, I love her smile. It’s so bright that it makes the dark so much darker. “Good, Aria is keeping the Trapper busy, I’ll have you down un momento.”

She rushes over to me and wraps her arms around me. I think about kicking out like I did back at the swamp after we argued the first time. I don’t really have it in me, though. I like her arms, I like how it feels when she holds me. It feels… safe. Even if it’s a lie, it’s a nice one.

“Don’t worry, we’ll make it,” Tempest says as she lifts and I grunt in pain as I’m dropped to the ground. I kneel to let her patch me up, her practiced hands moving fast to close up the hook wound. It’s a common one, and enough practice makes a doctor out of all of us eventually.

A third generator thunders to awake as I stand, testing the range of my bandaged limb. Not great, but it could be worse. “I’m going this way, you go that way,” I say, point to generators on opposite sides of the grounds. “Let’s finish this.”

Tempest actually looks hopeful at my words and I feel a slight pang. I’m sorry, babe, I really… really am. We split and I make my way to the generator, keeping to the edge of the map and sprinting along it, ducking between banks of fog and piles of rubble. There’s less high grass here and besides, he’d be crazy to trap the edge. It’s not efficient and the Trapper strikes me as a very efficient sort.

I’m almost to the generator when I hear the heartbeat. Aria is sprinting in circles around and around a block of rubble, keeping it between her and Trapper who seems content to keep smiling at her. I see the remains of a broken pallet near her. She’s in trouble, but it’s what she signed up for when she got that psycho’s attention.

Without warning, Aria turns on her heel and sprints towards a copse of trees, I grimace as I see Starlight crouching amongst them. Fortunately, she’s smart. She’s keeping the trees between her and the Trapper, who’s focused more on Aria anyway, she runs between the trees and away and the Trapper follows as planned.

Except…

His head never moves, his masked face never veers from Aria, so there’s absolutely no warning when he hikes his crude, brutal ritual blade up and lunges around the tree. Star is already wounded and his blade slams her hard against the tree she hiding beside, drawing out a coarse, grating scream.

“Shit,” I mutter, “one more hook for-” My eyes widen as Starlight tries to crawl away and the Trapper follows, then his boot comes down on her lower back, pinning her to the ground as he raises his machete. “No… not again.”

Once, twice, three, four, five times his blade hacks mercilessly into Starlight, flaying her back open and crushing her body against the cold, unforgiving earth of the Trial grounds. One down, dammit. He straightens and scans around for a moment before setting off in the direction that Starlight ran.

I step out of cover and sidle over to Starlight’s body, I already know what I’ll find but… I have to. She’s dead, and she died badly, I hope she gets back to the campfire. Sighing, I move to the generator a moment later, after I’m sure the heartbeat has faded enough, and start working. Shit, it’s just like it was with Sonata and Aria…

“One down,” I mutter as I chip away at the generator. I have to finish it, I have to get the others out. They don’t trust me, no one does, but… maybe here I’ll be welcome.

Maybe in the Fog.

There’s quiet, for a time, no screaming or chasing, or running. Just the soft, clunking grind of the generator. I’m almost done when I hear the generator that Tempest headed off to go live and I smile. Good, maybe…

I hear Tempest scream a second later as my own generator thunders into full activation and I tear off in the direction of her generator. Damn it, he must’ve found her, he was probably close when she turned it on. I keep an eye on the ground, in as much as I can, I know Aria said don’t run, but I’m not… I’m not going to give up on her, even if she’s given up on me.

I sprint past the Killer shack and catch a glimpse of an exit. Aria is pulling the breaker switch down and powering it, good girl. I keep track of my twists and turns and soon enough I see Tempest make a beeline around the corner staggering and clutching at her side which is bleeding badly...

“Run!” Tempest shouts as she staggers forward.

I see what she means, the Trapper is right on her tail. He rounds the corner on Tempest’s heels, stalking forward like the march of death. I let out a breath of relief, though. There’s a pallet between us, she’ll make it she just needs to-

Wait…

I narrow my eyes and feel my heart catch in my throat. No… it’s just like before. Probably just like it was with Starlight. And just like Star, Tempest is too concerned with getting away to see what she’s running into.

The Trapper isn’t chasing Tempest.

He’s herding her.

The moment stands still. What do I do? Disarm the trap? Not enough time, not nearly enough time. Throw down the pallet? It’ll be too late, either I’ll trap Tempest on the other side or she’ll hit the trap and I’ll just throw it down on top of her. She’s going to get got. No doubt about it that she’ll hit the trap unless…

I close my eyes and breathe. I run towards her, timing my sprint so we’ll meet right in the middle.

Well, not quite. I do get there a little faster.

SNAP.

“Mi Sol, no!”

Tempest cries out just as I scream when the bear trap closes around my leg, but I focus through the pain and heave Tempest over me and past me. She staggers straight forward, glancing back in abject horror. I smile back at her as the Trapper stops, almost… curious as he stares down at me.

“Get out,” I say. It’s the last thing I say before the Trapper’s stained hands close around my throat and tear me free of the trap.

Tempest lets out a wracking sob and turns her back on me, sprinting for the exit. Good, that’s the only way this was going to end.

The Trapper heaves me up only to throw me right back down to the ground. The wind goes out of me as I land on my stomach. I start to rise by reflex, but I know what’s coming. His boot hits my lower back. It’s like a mountain’s fallen on top of me. I’d have better luck lifting the Canterhorn off of my back than the Trapper’s boot.

It shoves me harshly to the ground, and I smile.

It’s over.

The blade falls, it’s crude, flint-knapped edges bite and shred into me over and over.

And over.

And over.

And over.

It’s finally over.

Darkness.

I’m floating in darkness… but it’s not the same as before. I feel the claws and hooks of the Entity biting into me.

Slowly… gently…

New Priest… new Hunter… new Daughter…

The alien thoughts intrude into mine like a leech slipping into a pool of tar. It’s almost comforting, like a prickle of electricity caressing my brain. I breathe, my mind is finally free of all of that terror, the doubt and the fear. It’s all… gone. I’m finally just… empty.

Thank the Quill.

Will you-Won’t you?

Those thoughts again, it’s… asking for my permission. I wonder what happens if I say no. Will I just fade away? Is that what happened to Spruce? Maybe that would be for the best. No more Sunset Shimmer. No more pain or failure. No more disappointment.

Except…

Will you be mine?

“What will you give me?” The words tumble from my lips, half-slurred. I know what I want. It’s maybe the only thing I still want. The only thing I’ve ever wanted: Knowledge. Only this time it’s not spells or incantations.

Vengeance.

I feel a smile crawl drunkenly over my lips. Vengeance. “That sounds good to me, old stain.” Rising from where I lay supine in the shadows, I raise my hand to caress one of the black and wicked claws. “Alright, show me then… show me Anon-A-Miss.”

He shows me, and I feel a rage like I’ve never felt before bubble up through my core and stick in my throat. My hand closes around the one thing I’ve kept with me all this time: my Journal, and I smile viciously.

Snapping the Journal open I reach through it to the place where I came from. Time to get mine. “Alright, a deal’s a deal, old stain so let’s do this,” I say with a wild grin.

The claws snap forward, closing around me and piercing into my back like a dozen stingers from the world’s most horrifying breed of scorpion. Then I feel it, the change, it comes on slowly and gracefully, crawling over my skin like an army of cockroaches. My amber skin turns a dark, rubbery red. My veins flow blue with ice and cold fury. My coat lengthens into a tattered jacket caught on aetherial winds and my hair hangs lank and bedraggled around my face. I’m smiling. I can’t stop smiling. Everything is so beautifully red.

Finally, things are going my way.

I raise a hand and admire the sleek, silver claws that protrude from my fingers. They’re so beautiful, so shiny and sharp.

“Alright,” I rasp, pressing my claws to the Journal’s pages and slicing into them, feeling for the glimmer of Equestrian magic. I find it and grip hard. “Time to meet your worst Nightmare.”

I flicker through between here and there

“Welcome to my world, bitches.”