//------------------------------// // The Terror of Psych Part 1 // Story: My Little Pony: The Brothers of Discord // by mr.myxsiple //------------------------------// CHAPTER 23 THE TERROR OF PSYCH PART 1 Rarity let out a relaxed sigh as her mane was doused with shampoo, conditioner and dozens of other hair-cleansing products. She let out another one as soft, blue hooves massaged her scalp while another pair filled her hoof. Lighting up her horn, she levitated a grape from a nearby fruit bowl and popped into her mouth. "My goodness Rarity; what happened to your mane?" Lotus asked cleaning the dirt and grime out of the purple strands. "All this dust and ash; were you in that forest fire yesterday?" "Well I...do not wish to talk about it." Rarity replied simply. Lotus and Aloe were pro's when it came to spreading gossip around Ponyville, and she didn't want to get mixed up with the whole incident. "You six are always involved in something." Aloe commented brushing Rarity's hoof. "Every week, one or all of you get into some kind of trouble. At least you keep things interesting in town." "I assure you Aloe; none of us caused whatever happened yesterday." Rarity told her. Both spa ponies looked at each other still a little unconvinced before going back to work on Rarity. Rarity was glad to be in their hooves. Their little encounter with Ash the previous day ended with her getting dirt, smoke, dust and ash all over her mane and coat. Once she arrived home, she immediately spent the rest of the day cleaning up every square inch of her. When she thought that still wasn't enough, she dropped in on Aloe and Lotus the next day. After being scrubbed down fully by the two earth ponies and looking stylish once again, she was planning on dropping by Fluttershy's place to check on her. The poor thing looked so distraught the yesterday. I do hope she feeling better today... For the next hour or so, the spa ponies worked their magic on one of their best and most frequent customers. Once they were finished, Rarity got off her chair and admired herself in a mirror. She looked absolutely dazzling, much better than she did an hour earlier. "Aloe, Lotus, you've done it again." she said to the two earth ponies smiling proudly. "How could I ever repay you both for making me beautiful once again?" "With the usual Rarity." Aloe answered sticking her hoof out. Rarity giggled a little at her own mistake before rummaging through her saddle bags and pulling out a pouch of bits. Lotus took it and counted them, making sure they were enough. "Have a nice day Rarity." Rarity nodded left the spa passing by the next customer, a deep green earth pony with a dark red mane and brown eyes and a Cutie-Mark consisting of a trio of cabbages who was reading a newspaper in the waiting area. She failed to notice his eyes glazing over her as she passed as well as the grin. Setting the newspaper, he got up and followed Rarity out of the spa. Unaware that she was being followed, Rarity continued on. He stalking had been keeping track of her and her friends for weeks and knew how to do so. He made sure to keep his distance, around 20 feet from her, and just acted like any normal citizen of Ponyville. Still ignorant, Rarity thought that Fluttershy would love something from Sugarcube Corner; blueberry tarts were her favorite. Making a decision, she made her way to the sweets shop which was still located some distance away from the spa. As she rounded a corner, she spotted a pony who seemed to stand out of the others, a maroon earth pony colt with a white and light grey mane. Said pony, upon noticing her, quickly trotted up to her. "Hey, your name's Rarity right?" Psych asked. "Why...why yes I am." Rarity replied with a flourish of her mane thinking him to be a potential customer. Psych smiled. "Oh, that was quick." he said, and his eyes began to glow with a strange dark-rose light. Before Rarity could process what was happening, a shooting pain unlike any other suddenly struck her back left knee causing her to scream out and bolt upright. She then fell on her back and continued to scream. She thrashed about, but found herself unable to move the leg where the burning pain came from. Frightened beyond measure, she looked and nearly threw up. Sticking out of her leg, going past her bone and splattering her blood everywhere, was a long, black, metallic tendril with sharp edges and separated into many segments. At the end of it was a large five-fingered hand with sinister-looking claws. Right next to the claw was Psych, smiling with the wide grin of a psychopath; he was enjoying this. With Psych grinning at her, the claw flexed itself before burrowing into Rarity's right hind leg just above the knee splattering even more of her blood around. More agonizing pain shot through her body as she screamed until her throat burned. Unfortunately, Psych wasn't finished with her yet; the claw reared back and drove itself through her body right where her heart was just like a needle threading its way through cloth. Right before impalement, Rarity was somehow glad that it was about to be over. But as the claw burst into her chest, the only thing that came to her was more agonizing pain. Death had not come to end her suffering once and for all, but why? Surely she should've died from a blow like that. Why was the pain prolonged far after she was supposed to be dead. She screamed and thrashed, her forelegs swinging about, but Psych just stood there smiling at her like a mad pony, his eyes still glowing. Rarity felt the earth shudder a little and then screamed as something suddenly grabbed the back of her head; the claw had burst out of the ground and clutched her skull. Her body covered in blood, Rarity found herself unable to scream anymore and just felt every inch of her body scream out instead. She wanted the pain to end even if it meant death. The claw began to intensify its grip; Rarity could feel the fractures racing across her skull. The claw raised her head allowing her to look into the heartless eyes of her tormentor. "P...Please...Please...Please!" she begged as tears began to form. Upon seeing the tears leaking out from her face, dropping to the ground and mixing with the slowly expanding pool of her blood, Psych raised his eyebrows. He pouted and sat on his hunches, his face scrunched up as if he was in deep thought. Still in horrible pain, Rarity watched him put his hoof on his chin as he thought about what to do. Finally he looked right at her once again. "Hmm...nah." The tips of the claw began to whir and spin like drills. The claws retracted briefly before stabbing into Rarity's head and burrowing into her skull. As Rarity screamed from having the insides of her skull being burrowed out, short spikes suddenly popped out throughout the length of the tendril. The segments began to spin around, some clockwise and the other counter-clockwise. Whichever way they spun, their spikes dug into Rarity's innards intensifying her agony even more. As her screams grew louder and her thrashing more violent, Psych chuckled. Rarity's pain was as unbearable to her as it was pleasing to him. She couldn't believe such pain existed before. She couldn't believe that she was still alive enough to experience such a thing without dying. When would it end? When would Psych finally be satisfied enough to stop this? Apparently not anytime soon. "Hmm...Surely I can top this." he muttered to himself wondering how to make Rarity suffer even more. Ignoring her screaming, an idea popped into his head. "I know-genetically altered fire ants!" Almost immediately, Rarity fell thousands of small creatures swarming all over her. Her vision was suddenly filled with thousands of large, red ants armed with massive black pincers. She swung her hooves wildly, but they stayed on her and covered her entire body. As the drilling continued, they burrowed themselves into her. They entered her eyes, her ears, her nose, her mouth, her skin, everywhere. Rarity could feel the swarm crawling inside of her gnawing away at her flesh, bones and organs. Unable to see anything but ants, Rarity thrashed and thrashed and kicked and screamed at the pain that was engulfing her. It was just unbearably maddening. She felt like she was going to go insane. As for Psych, he just laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed and- "Hmm?" He had been so busy torturing Rarity that he has failed to notice something else. He concentrated, and Rarity's form shimmered out of existence and was replaced by another pony-shaped mound of fire ants thrashing and screaming like crazy. This time however, the screaming was that of a stallion's. The ants shifted a little revealing an amber coated earth pony, a trio of horse shoes on his flank. Like Rarity, he was also had a claw drilling into his head and millions of ants gnawing on his insides. His screams also brought a smile to Psych's face. The screaming pony vanished and was replaced by a golden coated, cyan maned pegasus mare screaming her head off. Then in her place came another mare, a unicorn this time with a blue coat, a grey and blue mane and an hourglass on her flank. Aside from Rarity and the next three ponies, Psych could sense around five more ponies trashing and screaming their heads off as ants devoured them internally and a claw burrowed out their skull. He always loved using his powers on other ponies, and it had been a long time since he last used them. Having more fun than he ever had long time, Psych laughed, and laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed... "Wh-what the hell?!" The pony spying on Rarity, as well as a large crowd, stared with his jaw hanging at the scene before him. Some strange colt had walked up to Rarity, and a few seconds later, his eyes began glowing, and Rarity and several others collapsed and started screaming and thrashing. For some reason, they didn't seem to be able to move their hind legs as if some unseen thing was holding them in place. The maroon colt she was talking to was the only one not screaming but was instead laughing like an insane pony. Psych then suddenly grinned and raised his head. The pony instinctively jumped behind a nearby tree. As he slowly rose to his hooves, the screaming suddenly became louder; he quickly turned around and gasped as he saw everypony else in the crowd on the ground screaming and thrashing like crazy. He pressed his back against the tree and panicked. Whatever was happening, he seemed to be safe there. He opened his mouth to cry for help, maybe backup even, but hastily shut his trap. What if that pony had heard him and went up and did the same to him? He was trapped there until...who knew when? Just when all seemed lost, a familiar pony appeared in the distance. "What in tarnation?!" Dumbstruck, Applejack stared at the street full of ponies screaming and thrashing in agony. A crowd had joined her in watching the shocking scene before them. A particular stallion in the crowd gasped as he spotted a familiar mare in serious pain two ponies away-his marefriend. He quickly galloped over to her; he opened his mouth to call her name, but as soon as he reached the first pony, he suddenly collapsed and started yelling his head off like the other ponies. The crowd screamed and ran away. Applejack remained in place and saw something in the distance, a maroon earth pony with glowing dark-rose eyes laughing maniacally in the midst of the torture session. Right in front of him was a familiar unicorn thrashing about. "Rarity!" Applejack cried out, but her friend didn't respond. She readied herself to gallop to her aid but stopped remembered what had happened to that other pony. "Twilight!" she cried out ready to fetch her friend, but the ponies' screaming stopped her in her tracks. If she left them alone, who knew what would happen? "Looks like it's up ta me then." she said fixing up her hat. First step: get over to the maroon pony without screaming her head off; much easier said than done. As she looked around for an idea, she spotted the green earth pony hiding behind a tree afraid to come out. Unlike the other ponies around him, he didn't seem to be in any pain at all. She had to get him out of there first. Looking around she grabbed an empty crate and bucked it over to him. "Hide inside an' git yerself outta there!" she yelled out. Still a little scared, the pony gingerly nodded and hid under the crate covering his body completely. Tensing up, he gulped and stepped onto the street. To his and Applejack's surprise, he didn't end up screaming like the other pony did. "Good! Now try ta git over here!" she shouted. The pony followed the sound of her voice and slowly made his way towards her. Just the, Psych raised his head while laughing. "Hold it!" Applejack shouted, and the pony obeyed. She tensed up, but for some reason, Psych didn't take notice of the crate in the middle of the street. "OK. Keep walkin'!" The pony resumed walking; the farmer kept her eye on Psych who failed to notice a crate moving on its own despite it being within sight. The pony passed several screaming and thrashing ponies before finally reaching Applejack who pulled the crate off him. "Thanks." he said before galloping away as fast as he could. Applejack turned her attention to the crate. It had somehow protected him from whatever was going on. Readying herself, she got under the crate. It was pitch black inside, and she couldn't see in front of her, but she knew the maroon pony was right ahead of her. "Here goes nothin'!" she yelled as she galloped straight ahead. She stumbled a little upon treading upon a few ponies, but maintained her speed. His eyes glowing, Psych was looking right at the quickly approaching crate but failed to respond to it. It finally registered however when he felt something suddenly collide with him. The collision had sent him flying, the glow in his eyes vanishing upon impact. He tumbled around a little before finally stopping. The crate had gone with him as well and landed right on top of him, concealing him completely. With him down, Applejack noticed that the screaming and thrashing around her had stopped. The ponies were instead shivering and whimpering with fright. She looked to the side and saw her unicorn friend doing just that. "Rarity!" She quickly picked her up. "Y'all right sugarcube? What the hay's goin' on here?" Rarity was still shaken by the things she saw and felt. The images of the claw and ants still flooded her head. "Th-th-th-c-claw and-ants-and-" Claw? Ants?Applejack looked around and spotted none of those things in sight. Rarity clutched her orange hoof and held on so tight it hurt. "So much-It-it hurt-so-so-m-much-" "Don't worry sugar; I'll get ya outta here." A shifting inside the nearby crate told her to hurry up. She hurriedly scooped the trembling unicorn on her back and galloped off the street. She deposited her behind a building and ran back to fetch the other ponies despite Rarity's please, but as soon as she arrived, Psych burst out from under the crate. He looked around and instantly spotted Applejack who tensed up. "Well isn't this a treat? I've found both Generosity and Honesty, and it isn't even lunchtime yet." he said with an evil sneer. Applejack was surprised to know that he knew who they were. "Just wait one apple-pickin' minute here, yer with Ironhead and the rest of 'em ain't ya?!" "Hmm...I suppose you can say that." Psych replied, his smile turning into a snarl. "However, I've no interest in your Elements; I'm here to make you pay!" He eyes glowed once more with dark rose light. A pair of large wolves, larger than an average timberwolf, with black fur, glowing yellow eyes and razor sharp teeth suddenly appeared snarling beside him. Psych raised a hoof and pointed at the mare before him. "Tear her to pieces!" Their mouths dripping with saliva, the wolves lunged at her. Applejack jumped to the side as one passed her, but the second one lunged at her fangs bared. It sank its teeth into her right foreleg causing her to cry out in pain. The wolf bit down harder; Applejack felt the bones in that leg break apart. Not finished yet, the wolf yanked her leg away; Applejack felt it in danger of being torn off completely. Psych's maniacal laughter rang in her ears. Panicking a little, she heard the other wolf head her way. Thinking fast, she pulled up her hind legs and gave it good buck right across its muzzle. The sound of the wolf whining in pain stopped Psych's laughter. With the other wolf down, Applejack turned her attention to the first one who pulled back and tore half her leg completely off. Applejack screamed louder than she ever did before. She stumbled trying to balance on three legs and looked at her leg and nearly fainted. Blood was pouring out of it like a fountain, and a piece of her bone stuck out. The pain coming from it clouded her mind, but she managed to take notice of the wolf spitting her leg out and approaching her hungry for more. Pissed off, Applejack stood her ground. "C'mon! I'm still standin' here!" she taunted despite the burning pain in her leg. The wolf barked before lunging at her. Applejack readied herself, spun on her one good leg and bucked the wolf right in the chest. This sent the wolf flying straight towards Psych whom the wolf crashed into painfully. As soon as the wolf hit Psych, it just vanished into thin air, but that wasn't the only thing. The pain in her leg had vanished just as quickly. Applejack checked and, to her surprise, saw that her leg was perfectly intact, not a scratch on it. She looked up and saw Psych who seemed to have stumbled from the impact. He opened his eyes which were no longer glowing. "Wh-what the hay was that?!" she exclaimed. After fully recovering, Psych glared at her. "I've underestimated your abilities Honesty. It appears that you can do more than just stand for the truth; you also have the strength to enforce it. Not many ponies can throw off my illusions so simply." "Illusions? What that what those wolves were? Is that what ya did to these here ponies?!" she demanded. Psych chuckled. "Indeed. None of the things I create are real. However, they look, seem and feel real. That's why you still feel the pain I cause. And what enjoyable pain it was! Had I kept what I was doing, had I increased the pain they were experiencing even more...Let's just say your friend would've never been the same!" He ended his sentence with a cold, sadistic laugh. Applejack pouted and pulled out her lasso. "Alrighty then. Listen here partner, you hurt my friend and ev'rypony 'round here, an' I ain't gonna stand fer it! Just who do ya think ya are runnin' 'round terrorizin' innocent folks like this?!" Psych stopped laughed but kept the sinister smile on his face. "You're gonna oppose me? Good. First you then Generosity and then the rest of you Elements of Harmony! I won't rest until you're all naught but drooling, catatonic wrecks for the rest of you lives!" Applejack readied herself as his eyes began to glow once more. "I am the Illusion of Grief! Brace yourself Honesty; as the embodiment of pain and suffering, the agony I'm gonna bring will make you beg for death!"