"Hold on Pinkie, where 're you going?" I yelled, looking at the bouncing pony a few miles ahead of us.

"She's strange. She should be able to hear us from here. We're not far away from each other." Frankie said.

"Like I said, she IS strange. Something must have happened."

"Um, maybe the zombies destroyed her party so she is depressed, or something numinous happened?" Spike said.

"That's not possible. Zombies couldn't and will not destroy her mood so easily like this. But, something numinous.."

"Numinous illusions, maybe?" Frankie said, still following us behind. " That's one of the effects of LSD, aka hallucination-causing drugs."

"Does that mean.."

"Yes." He nodded. "Meryl's trick. "

"Whatever it is, I think we should keep on tracking her down. I don't want Pinkie to get in danger."

"Agree."

=======

After several minutes of tracking and running, we finally arrived at the front of the Sweet Apple Acres.

"Let me guess, " Frainke asked. "She always walks like this? I mean, bouncing all the way?"

"Yes. That's Pinkie Pie, the unstoppable pony." I replied.

"Oh Celestia. That's one of the most supernatural things I've ever seen in my long eternal life."

"Yeah, it does...wait, ETERNAL?"

"Yes, eternal, you're not hearing it wrong. It's just some curse that put on me, cuasing me to stay at 25 forever. My body never ages or rot. I 've been living for almost two hundred years like this."

"That's sad but amazing."

"It seemed to be, but very soon, about ten years you will find it boring. Sometimes I just wanted to kill myself. Shooting through the brain, decapitation, hard projectile knocking in the spine... well, they didn't work at all. My life only became colorful right after I met Princess Celestia a few ten years ago."

"I see. That's good for you, right?"

"Sure it does. And this will be a really long story to tell, so let's just keep on going. I don't want to see your friend in danger either."

"Speaking of Pinkie, where is her?" Spike suddenly said, looking around the place.

The place was a complete silence without any other signs of ponies, just us three, and the acres beside us.

A cranking noice was heard.

"Did you guys hear that?"

"What? I didn't hear anything at all."

"Me neither." Frankie said, "What are you talking ab- OH SHIT!"

He suddenly yelled, with a surprising look on his face.

I turned around, only seeing that the farmhouse of the acres, or where Applejack was living, suddenly collapsed with loud bangs and crushing sounds of wood.

"Oh my Celestia -"

As I was about to run to the collapsed farmhouse, there was a sudden darkness all ahead of us. No, not ahead, but all around and surronding us.

"What's happening?!" Spike yelled.

"I don't know but don't let go, Spike, stay with me! Frankie! Frankie!"

I said to Spike, then yelled the stallion's name, hoping for a response.

Unfortunately, he didn't response to me. It seems like that we're separated by the darkness.

Then I suddenly realised. It must be her who capturing us.

Meryl.

======

"World of darkness, hopeless, losing faith, death, suicide, despair..."

Who's talking?

"Where are we?" Spike asked, looking around us.

Flashing colors all at the background of this strange world. The scheme is dark, and making people feel uncomfortable.

"All these colorful backgrounds, it's just like, taken drugs and caused illusions."

"Do tell, we're fighting a Psychedelic zombie. Or pony, whatever." I said, holding my chainsaw tight.

In this world of complete silence, only our breathing and the sound of my chainsaw running was heard. It's echoing in the world, making me feel..so lonely.

"Ugh!" I shook my head. "She is trying to distract us off. I couldn't let her do so."

I looked around where I was standing. It looks like some kind of stage, forming a circle, built with metal fences and wooden planks. It looks creepy.

All of a sudden, without making a sound, the pony slowly floated up from the big pit in the center.

Now I can take a more clear look of her.

She had long, black hair, almost reaching her waist and the hip, wearing a white shirt inside her OD green blouse, wearing a necklace with a Peace logo on it, long blue trousers with the words 'CeLeStia' sewn at the right leg. She has mismatched eyes, probably heterochromia, and seemed like shaking of impatience.

"Who the hell are you?" I shouted, in an urge to find Pinkie back.

"Ahahaha.. oh my dear Twilight...and little Spike. Let's travel to the Land Beyond the Doors of Perception.... Step outside the boundaries of your mind, lose yourself in the eternal, collective unconscious...and rot."

She said, plucking the chords of her prism-colored bass guitar. Strangely, I heard the sound of a sitar instead.

"What are you talking about?" Spike yelled, looking at the strange-behaving pony.

"Seriously, lady, you should try some deodorant, because honestly, you smell like shit!"

I said, pointing my running chainsaw to the pony floating in mid air.

"Ah, this one, was just an insolent..." She slowly spoke, turned to a slowly arising pony from the pit, stopped beside her.

"Pinkie!" I yelled, looking at the pony whom seemed to be in deep coma.

"Now, open your heart...and let my music guide you."

"Into the world of everlasting peace....and rot. And HELL!"

{Meryl   Psychedelic Zombie}

Influences: Psychasthenia, Screaming Mantis, spectrum, Korobeiniki.

====

"Flow on, child, into the rush of chaos and dark..."

Meryl said, floating above the giant pit. Pinkie, who was just beside her, disappeared.

"I can't reach her from here!" I yelled, thinking a way to confront her.

All of a sudden, while we were just standing on that weird stage of wooden planks, appear in front of us, is a long, long corridor, arranged with dim lights that separated from each other through a distance. The lights were hanging still from the ceiling.

The floor we're stepping on were combinations of discrete white tiles. At the sides of the corridors, there were broken windows and locked doors, and some beds separating along the corridor.

This seems like to be the corridor of a hospital or something.

"A hospital..?" I quietly spoke.

"Is it those damn illusions?" Spike murmured.

Probably is. I guess we could only track down the corridor now, since I didn't see any sight of the pony.

After walking for a several minutes, I still can't reach the end of the corridor. It looks like it wasn't far away from us, but we just couldn't get to it. It seems like either it's getting further and further from us, or the corridor is just keep on expanding.

Illusions, illusions. we just couldn't get lured to these dangerous traps. But what can we do? I couldn't even saw her.

I lied against a wall, with my chainsaw touching it. It's still running and the vicious chains are going fast.

Just as the split instant of the contact of the wall and the chains-

"Ahahahahahaha! You got me, clever girl!

Then at instant, the corridor disappeared. We returned to the stage of darkness.

"Yeah, give me more, baby." Meryl slowly spoke.

"What was that?" Spike said, looking surprised.

"I think I just accidently cut her with my chainsaw. Though I just touched it to the wall, it did seemed to injure her."

"But we need to think of a way to finish her off more faster, Twilight! We don't have anytime to be tricked in her damn hallucinations!"

Yep. Unfortunately, as Spike finish speaking that, the environment around us changed again.

It was a cloudless night, the moonlight was shining onto the grasslands full of trees. Tall, dark trees, spreading all over the land.

Though there's some moonlight barely lighting the place up, I can still barely see. It's too dark.

"Spike, are you still on my back?"

"Yes, right here, and all these darkness are getting me blinded. What should we do now?"

"Twilight!"

"Huh? Who's calling my name?" I shouted, looking around in the dark woods.

"Twilight! Can you hear me?"

"This voice sounded familiar.." Spike muttered.

"If you can hear me, simply shout!"

"Who is that? Stop fooling us around!"

"It's me, Frankie, Twilight!"

"What? Where were you? Why can't I see you?" I yelled to the darkness.

"You're probably in the very core of Meryl's mind! All those you can see is her former memories!"

"Why is your voice so muted?"

"It wasn't matter as soon as you can hear me. Now, listen carefully, you have to break out of those mind-draining illusions and injure her as much as possible!"

"How can I do that?"

"She will eventually show herself up in her world. Only use your chainsaw if she is really close in range, otherwise, get a long-ranged weapon!"

"A ranged weapon? But all I've got here is only my chainsaw!"

"Hold on, what about, the present that Pinkie just gifted you?"

"Yeah, you may get some weapons like a cannon or something!"

"Alright, I 'll try it, hold on!"

I shouted, taking out Pinkie Pie's present from my back, removing the ribbon tying around it and uncovering it, showing another upgrade to my chainsaw. It simply transforms my chainsaw to an eight-round launcher firing 40mm pink shells, which is more likely to be slug rounds instead of explosives.

"Chainsaw Blaster!"

I carefully looked at the barrel. The words Effective range: 500m were carved on it.

"Alright, this should do the job!" I said, while holding the blaster and looked around.

"How do you swap between the chainsaw blade an the blaster form then?" Sike asked, looking at my fancy new gadget.

"It's simple. I'll just use my spells to take care of it." I said, while the purple magic aura started to appear on my horn, as I launched a simple spell to change back to the sawblade.

VNNNN!

"Done! All we have to do is wait for her to reveal herself!"

BANG!

A loud gunshot was heard, followed by a mare's voice shouted:

"There she is! Don't let her run!"

Then, all of a sudden, something swiped through my cheek, very quickly, and painful. It just feels like a bullet barely about to hit me.

"Spike, can you see anything on my face? Like a wound or blood something?"

"I didn't see a thing on it. What 's wrong?"

"I just felt like I'm being shot by a gun or something! Shouldn't there be any wounds?"

Then I realized, the very familiar gunfire sound.

I've heard it before, with a very old friend about several years ago, but very strangely I couldn't remember a thing about her. The only thing I can remember is, she is a Pegacorn. Same as the races of the princesses, but she's not one.

BANG! BANG!

Crap, no time for all these less important thinking. Either I should run, or directly face it.

"Spike, your choice."

"Huh?"

"Run, or fight it."

"RUN."

"I knew you would say that! No way, we're gonna face it."

"But it's dangerous! We don't know what they're holding!"

"We already knew it, guns! But what do you think they can do to us?"

Just as I finished saying, a long-bladed bowie kinfe flew over me, then with a loud crack, deeply lodged into a trunk in front of us.

GULP.

"Spike, I agree with you. Let's run."

"Like I already said!"

Handling my chainsaw with magic, I started to run in four hooves.

I don't know where should I go, but I know if I just stayed where I was, I will be severely harmed for no sure.

I kept on running and running, until I got tripped over by a root emerging from nowhere. I fell and landed on my face, as well as Spike, and my chainsaw.

"Ouch..that hurts."

I was sitting up from the ground, when suddenly, a black shade raised from the grassland, with a pair of red glowing eyes, staring at me angrily.

Its arms started to form, revealing that it was holding a long, sharp machete, pointing it at me, then lifted it high over shoulder(if it exist), slashing it towards me.

*CLANG!*

I blocked this vicious swing with my chainsaw, even the sparkles created between the blade and the chains couldn't light its face.

We went stalemate between each other. He is strong and brutal, while I used the front hooves to push the knife back, and I cannot do it for a long time. My hooves are getting sore.

If I can't hold for a long time, let's end it right NOW.

I quickly changed my position from sitting to crouching, then slowly and slowly push the goddamn knife back, and when it comes to a right timing, I jumped and knock the shadow out, breaking free from the stalemate.

And just as the right timing, the world break into billions of pieces again. We returned to the core of her mind.

I looked at the floating her at the other side of the stage. She seemed to be greatly weakened, lowering her head and keep on groaning words.

"Hear the thunder and rage of the people, piss on the graves of the fallen warriors, and pray your soul rot away..."

"We got her now!" I said, running towards the pony, then a quick leap, shoving the chainsaw into her chest, pushing in deeper and deeper, until the whole blade simmered into her flesh once, then pulled it out, shaking the blood off.

She quickly recovered from this relatively minor injury then, floating into midair once again, followed by a series of evil laughter,

"Peace is nigh, kid, hold your enthusiasm and unleash them in the eternal freedom and liberty..."

The board floor we're standing on started to shake. It was shaking so heavily, just like something is emerging from it..

My sense told me, it's something lethal coming up.

A backflip at the right timing, a tall, sharp metal pillar shoots up from the dark bottomless space under the planks, almost directly hit me.

I don't even have time to take a breath. Just right below the place I was standing , another pillar shoots up in a split second, and was dodged by me with a slight jump.

This process repeated eight times, until the last pillar shoots up from the floor, they all suddednly sunk back into the deep darkness underneath.

But the danger hasn't ended yet. A beam of light sparkled and flew towards me, which I roughly dodged it and it hits the ground and created an amber colored explosion.

"Look, what are..those things?" Spike said, pointing the suddenly-changed background of protest signs and blood : 'Terminate', 'Kill', 'Freedom' and red crosses.

"Hold tight!" I shouted, running quickly to avoid another explosion. They looked much like grenades, who shooting towards me with a red to orange colored trace.

"That's Excatly what I tasted when Chrysalis trapped me down at the caves of Canterlot!"

"It was bad, isn't it?"

"Hellyes!"

I yelled, not to let my voice being covered by the heavy explosions, and finally arrived in front of her, lifting my weapon high,

"Eat-it!"

-Cutting deep into her collar bone!

Yes, just one more bisection and I shall be able to finish her!

"Finale, the deep core, darkest bottom of your heart, taste the pure, fresh bloody horror..."

And then, in a black flash, the world turned completely dark, forcing me to close my eyes.

When I opened my eyes again, I found my running chainsaw stopped, and there was a torch, turned on, lying in front of me.

"Spike? Spike? Can you hear me?"

I looked at my back, finding that the baby dragon got his eyes shut, lying quietly an didn't respond to me.

I guess he went fainted, after experiencing all these mind blurring traumas. Well, I'll let him take a rest, and I will solve all this crap out. Myself.

Whenever I tried to start the motor, the chainsaw won't start. It never needs external source of fuel, but I just couldn't start it.

I guess my only weapon is the torch now.

I picked up the torch with my magic, shining through the place.

This seemed to be inside the Canterlot castle, but strangely, all the lights have gone out and the only visible light sources are the bright moon outside of the windows, and my torchlight.

I started to walk around, searching through the castle. It looks like magnified multiple times in area, and was left vacant. Where were all those guards? No wait, I was in Meryl's mind, of course they will not exist here.

Then, where should I go now..? The castle is big as hell, and with the darkness making it creepy. I feeled like something was going to pop out at any seconds.

I keep on thinking that and walking along the hallway to the atrium, when suddenly the doorknob of an oak door aside me turned by itself, making creaky noises.

This gave a great shock to my heart. I stood back and watch, holding my breath.

Slowly, but swiftly and quietly, some black hair started to creep out from the gaps between the door and the floor. The hair becomes longer and longer, and with a heart-attacking causing bang the door got crushed into pieces.

Standing behind it all the time, was a mare. A mare with sickly white coat, very very long black hair, and a bloodstained white dress. She turned to me from her ground-looking position, showing her pale face, with bloodshot eyes and snapping sounds, slowly walking towards me with her two hind legs.

Her neck-snapping sound becomes more frequent, and louder. Loud enough to deeply damage me in the mind, combine with her creepy outlook...!

I wanted to run, escape from this horrifying sense, but I soon find out that I can barely move, not sure if too scared or just under the mind of Meryl.

So, all I can do for now is just remain stationary and let her grab me in the front hooves, pushing her head forward, looking at me with her bloody eyes. It's really a horrible experience, and I thought this is almost the end here.

But no, I won't let myself die so quickly.

I started to struggle from her grab, shaking my hooves heavily, trying to make her let go.

This do work, and after a quick flash, when I opened my eyes again, she disappeared. Just like there wasn't anypony standing there.

"Illusions, illusion, just illusions, c'mon get over it, Twilight.."

I said with a shaking voice. I 've never experienced anything like this before, even at my zombie hunter life. Anyway, after the jumpscare I started to track down the long walkway again, still holding my torch tight.

I walked for almost half an hour, checking and looking at every door I walked past. I can't handle another of these scares right now. This is even more horrifying than killing zombies.

My torchlight flashed.

Don't tell me the battery is draining.

DON'T TELL ME.

It flashed more frequently and quickly.

*CRACK!*

The lightbulb blew up, cracked into pieces, and its glowing tungsten dropped out from the torch.

'Kay, I am officially doomed right now. but what else can I do? I already said that I am not going to stand still and die here. So, I keep on pushing forward in the dark. Even the moon outside couldn't shine the floors.

Clop, clop, clop, clop....

Footsteps. Somepony is following me. And I am starting to hear shrieks and screams as well.

My hind leg suddenly came in contact with hair.

This is a signal telling me to run, as fast as I could.

I landed with four hooves, and starting to run. Run, run, run, run, along the endless hallway.

The screams, the breathing and the crying sound behind me is getting closer and louder.

I can see light in front of us. I am surely totally gonna make it.

If I don't, there will be nopony to save the tortured world-!

====

Huff, huff.. yes! I escaped from that darkness, and the pony who is causing all of these is right in front of me!

I tried to start my chainsaw again, and successfully the chains started to run.

I lifted it high,

"You're gonna PAY for THIS!"

VVVNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN. Next Chapter: Stage 3 -Cloudsdale Estimated time remaining: 12 Minutes