"Spike!" Twilight cried, holding the lifeless body of the baby dragon in her front hooves, "Wake up! Please Spike! I need your help!" She lifted a fearful gaze to towering ancient drake, Velstadt, that appeared after Spike screamed and fell unconscious. She fired off a blast of magic from her horn, but it merely glanced off of the jet black scales of the dragon's abdomen. The great dragon gave a tremendous roar that shook the entirety of this new, horrific Carousel Boutique that appeared with it. She returned her attention to Spike, shaking his body once more, "Spike, please! You gotta wake up!"
A familiar voice calmly stated, "That's not Spike anymore."
Twilight turned behind her and saw Fluttershy and Ichibey approaching. Ichibey hopped off of Fluttershy's shoulder and passed a mini, crayon-drawn Rarity trotting about and giggling. He continued, "That is merely an empty vessel." he pointed at the ebony dragon, "That witch, Velstadt, is the one you once considered to be Spike."
"Your lying!" Twilight shouted.
Ichibey blankly stared, "Our people do not understand this concept of lying. That is the ultimate fate of Magical Mares: When they are overcome with grief, they turn into witches."
"That's not true!" Twilight shifted her gaze to Fluttershy, "Tell me that's not true!"
The pegasus did not answer, hiding behind her mane.
Twilight's teary eyes now burned with fiery anger towards her friend, "Why didn't you tell us?! We could've stopped this!"
Ichibey shook his head, "Impossible. No one can undo fate. This was meant to be from the moment he made his contract."
"BUT HE DIDN'T MAKE THE CONTRACT!" Twilight screamed, tears flowing, "It was made for him when he slipped on his necklace sent from Celestia! That's not fair!"
"It was plenty fair. We granted an impossible miracle, and, in turn, Spike forfeited his soul."
"Fluttershy!" the Alicorn cried, "Are you just going to let this happen?"
"I've already failed."
"What?" Twilight asked.
"Do you remember the witch, Hildegarde Ornstein?" Fluttershy unfurled her wings and callously replied, "That was Rarity. Just before she turned, she made me promise not to let anypony else make a magical mare contract with Ichibey. And I failed her..."
Twilight's eyes grew wide with shock as she remembered Ornstein's fate, "N-N-No... This can't..."
Fluttershy ignored her and took off for Velstadt. Twilight screamed as she levitated Ichibey with her magic, "YOU! You did this! You've killed two of my best friends!"
Ichibey replied as stared blankly into Twilight's eyes, "Yep. The plan worked to near perfection!"
Twilight's heart sank, "W-What plan?"
"You see," the cat creature started, "us Incubators can't survive without energy. But every energy source we have discovered all fall under the Law of Entropy, the Second Law of Thermodynamics. It grows cold and useless. All, except one that is. We have discovered the power of raw emotion is not restrained by the Law of Thermodynamics, and thus, it's power is undying. We also discovered that the soul of a young mare contains immeasurable amounts of hope and despair, both of which are the most powerful of emotions. We found a way to harness these energy sources not bounded by Entropy."
"And how does this involve Spike?!" Twilight cried, "Before this whole incident, he wasn't a mare at all, nor did he make a contract!"
"That's where it gets complicated." The Incubator continued, "You see, we cannot be everywhere at once, so your Princess agreed to help us experiment with a new Soul Gem prototype. Basically, if a pony has a strong enough wish in her heart, one that they're willing to fight and die for, the Gem will absorb her soul and automatically make her a Magical Mare! Like I told you when we met, Spike's wish was so powerful, it even bypassed the laws of Nature itself!"
Twilight growled, "There's no WAY Celestia would agree to something like that knowing what the stakes were!"
Ichibey blandly continued, "Oh, she didn't. All I had to do is tell her that it would be best for her kingdom. She was skeptic at first, but she'll do anything to keep her kingdom safe. When I explained the power of a Magical Mare to her, she couldn't refuse! She even wrote you that letter, meaning for you to accept that contract, and released apparitions of those giant monsters to seal the deal! Sadly, Spike simply got to the gem first."
"A-Apparitions?" Twilight stuttered, "Are you telling me Spike and I have only been fighting illusions this entire time? Spike's wish... was a lie?"
"To an extent." Ichibey answered, "Just as his sense of usefulness was a fantasy, so was the danger. But he truly believed he was fighting monsters and helping the good of Ponykind. Technically, he got his wish."
Shadows covered Twilight's eyes as she threw the Incubator to the ground, "...I see now that you are the only real monster here."
"No," Ichibey replied as he stood up, "I'm just trying to survive."
* * *
"Spike!" Fluttershy shouted as she quickly approached Velstadt, "I'm sorry this happened to you!" Small, curved daggers extended from her wrists, "Now, it is time to end your misery!"
The dragon roared and tried to bat the pegasus out of the air. With a quick lurch the right, Fluttershy twisted around to the beast's back, crossed her hooves and x-scissored Velstadt's left wing clean off. The dragon gave off a horrifying howl to the heavens as toxic, green flames spewed from from it's great black maw. The pegasus turned to make another round, brandishing her daggers. She impaled them deep into Velstadt's snout, her momentum forcing the dragon's head to recoil.
With another howl, Velstadt stole Fluttershy from it's nose with it's left claw and tossed her to the ground like a ragdoll. The mare plucked her face from the newly formed hole in ground. As three mini Rarities started bouncing around her, she frowned and wiped some dirt from her lip, "Hmph."
With three swift movements from her daggers, the Rarities' heads slid off of their crayon-like bodies and disappeared. Fluttershy returned her attention to Velstadt. She gasped as a stream of toxic flames flowed straight at her. She quickly launched into the air, the flames just narrowly singeing her long, pink tail. She glanced at it at sighed. Glaring at the dragon, she shouted, "It's over, Spike!"
With speed faster than a bullet, she shot straight towards Velstadt's chest, impaling her daggers and herself deep within the beast's heart. After viciously tearing up its insides with her blades, she ripped her way out through it's jaw and gently floated to the ground. The ebony dragon gave a grotesque, guttural scream as it's Labyrinth shook like an earthquake. One by one, all the Rarities had melted away, then followed by Velstadt, disintegrating to dust.
Fluttershy sighed as she retracted her daggers, "I'm sorry, Spike. I truly am."
* * *
Twilight cried as Velstadt disappeared, "SPIIIIKKEEEE!!!"
In her anger, she grabbed Ichibey with her front hooves and shouted, "BRING HIM BACK!" Blinded by tears and rage, she shook the Incubator violently, "Bring him back right now!"
"I cannot do that." Ichibey replied nonchalantly as Golden Oaks Library materialized around them once again. "Once a Magical Mare becomes a witch, there's no salvation for them."
The alicorn screamed and threw the demented cat against a chair.
"However," Ichibey offered as he recovered from the throw, "there is one thing that could still save Spike."
"What is it?" Twilight asked bitterly, "Tell me!"
"Well," the Incubator explained, "when a pony makes a Magical Mare contract with me, I grant them one miracle."
"I'll do it!" Twilight exclaimed, "I want to be a Magical Mare and I wish for Spike back!"
"Are you absolutely sure?" Ichibey asked, "Even after seeing the ultimate destiny of a Magical Mare?"
"Anything!" Twilight cried, "Anything to bring my friend back!"
"Okay." Ichibey shrugged, "Twilight Sparkle of Ponyville, I dub you Magical Ma-"
Like lightning from out of nowhere, Fluttershy swiftly lifted Ichibey up and snapped his neck on her back leg.
In that instant, Twilight's world crashed around her. Spike was gone. Forever. There was no way she could ever get him back now. She tried to utter words of anger towards her so-called friend, but her grief allowed none.
Fluttershy glared as she tossed Ichibey's body aside, "This is one price I will not allow you to pay, Twilight."
Twilight wordlessly stared as the pegasus slowly sauntered out the door and slammed it behind her. Tears streamed from her eyes as she was now truly alone.
* * *
"You do realize I have plenty of shadows to spare, right? You killing that one was rather pointless." Ichibey commented, "By the way, that was a clever ruse you used when you told Spike about Rarity's death! I almost believed you myself."
"It was bound to happen sooner or later, once he realized Rarity was dead." Fluttershy coldly remarked, "He was beyond saving when I discovered he was a Magical Mare, and I decided it better to deal with his witch while it was still weak."
"You're a cold mare, you know that?"
The pegasus sighed, "With courage comes brutality. That is the curse of my sin."
"You understand that you too shall become a witch eventually, right?"
Fluttershy gazed into her rose-colored Soul Gem, now tainted black. She withdrew the grief seed expunged from Velstadt and held it close to the jewel. The tainted blackness leaped from her gemstone to the seed, reverting the Soul Gem to it's original sparkling glow. She sighed, "Perhaps. We shall see."