"Wait... I recognize that voice!" Twilight’s eyes widened in recognition, "Starlight, is that you? But it can't be..."

"Sssstarlight..." hissed the figure on the throne. For the first time, she seemed to lean forward, the folds of her voluminous crimson robe spilling onto the dais. "Yess. They once called me that. But that wasss another time, another place. That was before our arrival in this world."

"Wait, yer 'arrival'?” Applejack was clearly confused. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

"It means she's not from here. Right?" Pinkie answered her friend, realization dawning. "You're another Starlight, from another world. Where are you from?"

"A place of pain and death. Not like thisss world. No, nor like the world that isss to come. It won't be long now..."

Rarity turned paler than usual. "There's another 'world' coming? Are you talking about some kind of invasion or...?"

"Invasion? Hah!" it was a harsh, painful bark of a laughter that was drawn from 'Starlight'. A wet chuckle that quickly subsided into a coughing fit as she seemed to gasp and struggle for air. Even so, it was with another labored laugh that she continued. "You could call it that. Though It's not a threat from outssside you ssshould be worried about..."

"Enough with this cryptic nonsense!” yelled Rainbow Dash, “We're here to stop you once and for all! Now are you gonna come quietly or are you gonna put up a fight?”

Another round of painful laughter that caused the seated pony’s body to quiver and her robes to slip aside. As the gore soaked cloth fell away, it revealed a gravid and swollen belly. Thick dark veins spider-webbed across the painfully stretched flesh. Her skin was almost parchment thin, as if her stomach was threatening to rupture at any moment, each laugh causing the stretch marks to expand a little more. Already, rips and tears in the ragged flesh were widening, spilling thick orange puss from the opening wounds. Indeed, it seemed the reason that ‘Starlight’ hadn't risen from her makeshift throne this entire time was because her very body was fused to her seat by the effluence oozing from her.

The stench became overpowering, and all the more horrifying because now they could finally see the source. A pool of thick, dark fluid spread beneath ‘Starlight’, dripping down the dais towards the girls as the sick and distorted creature before them finally ceased her laughter and instead raised her hooves to pull off her hood. Her face was just as bloated and deformed as her belly. Her horn was almost lost in the mounds of lumpy flesh, covered in the boils, cankers, and sores that remained of her face. It was the thick black filth that dribbled from her mouth as she exposed her rotten smile that made the girls collectively take a step back. Nothing so clearly in pain should be able to smile like that. "It'sss too late to fight. Ssshe is coming. You are blesssed. You will bear witnesss. The fruit of all my labor. Our ssssavior and our deliverance. Ssssoon we will... all... be... free..."

"W-w-who's coming Starlight?" stammered Fluttershy, afraid.

"The Candy Mare..." As if in response to her voice something shifted beneath the skin of the swollen belly, stretching the already taut flesh to the breaking point. Starlight’s gut distended further than before, the thing that had once been a pony let out a soul shriveling scream. "The time has come!" she sobbed, flecks of black filth flying from the corners of her mouth as equally dark tears spilled from her bulging eyes. “Give thanks that you are allowed to witness... her rebirth!!! EeeeeeaaaAAAAGGHHH!!!"

As her final words rose into a scream, her jaws split in half with a wet popping noise. Not just her jaw, but her entire body seemed to rupture as a huge gash spread down from her mouth, cleaving her throat down to her belly. Flesh ripped and muscle tore as bones were bent at unnatural angles and the unicorn howled in incoherent agony, very much still alive despite everything. Her insides seemed to slither and writhe, searching for a way out!

"What's happening!?"

"We have to stop this!"

"Do something!"

What happened next in the already dreadful tableau made the girls own guts churn. Starlight's high pitched screams had deteriorated into harsh animal squealing, but now they changed again to high girlish giggle! A chill ran up their collective spines at the sheer madness encapsulated in that horrible sound! But no, it wasn't her, it wasn't Starlight. The unicorn's eyes had rolled back into her head and thick foam was pouring from the remains of her ruined mouth. That childish, insane laughter was coming from somewhere else.

With a horrendous sound that one could usually only expect to hear in a slaughterhouse, the bloated belly at last popped like a wet balloon. Blood, guts, and viscera cascaded down from the throne in a warm red tide of filth. Damp skin hanging in shredded tatters, as the unfortunate pony was completely hollowed out. Starlight's lifeless carcass was now draped like a discarded coat over what remained of her throne. In her final moments she had been almost completely emptied...

Almost.

Something stood on four hooves, trembling slightly in the steaming pile of innards that remained piled beneath her. Something with long, slick, red and black liquorice instead of hair, and a tiny body drench in gore, shiny with the riot of colorful candies that she seemed to be composed of. Twin lollipop eyes opened, swirled pink and blue with madness, glowing gently in the gloom.

As the girls watched, stunned, a grin spread slowly on a tiny face that belonged solely in a realm of nightmares. A candy corn grin, razor sharp and stained with the fetid blood of her 'rebirth'. That predatory smile parted and again it laughed, high and sharp, sweet and shrill. All over her body new mouths opened to join in. The heavenly laughter of children, filtered through the mouths of hell.

Dumbfounded, the Twilight and her friends realized there were words mixed into that bone chilling sound.

"Happy birthday to me. Happy Birthday to me. Happy birthday dear Candy... Happy birthday to me!" She laughed and laughed as if this was the best joke in the world.

“Are you... Are you the Candy Mare?” asked Twilight, still somewhat in shock and unable to believe her eyes.

“My names Punkin’ Patch!” The tiny filly-like creature said. “Wanna play?”

Rarity and Applejack shared a look of doubt and confusion. “Play what?”

“A game, a game, a guessing game!” shrilled the abomination madly as it excitedly leaped back and forth from candied hoof to candied hoof. “Guess what happens now!”

“We don’t know dear,”replied Rarity, trembling. “Perhaps you should tell us.”

The candy coated creature laughed and turned around and around in a circle like the world's tiniest and most psychotic ballerina. “That’s easy! Now... we begin!”

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