Spiderlock rested in her cottage surrounded by the thousands of animals she had been suddenly taking care of. Ever since that black smog blotted the sky and covered, her colors had darkened, but her feelings had increased. Spiderlock needed to be with the animals. She needed to stay with them. She needed to sleep with them. She needed to eat with them. She needed to BE one of them. The mare squirmed around in her bed as she thought about how she could become an animal herself. A costume wouldn't do, and she wasn't ready to look for dark artifacts in the Amberveil forest. The only other solution was to visit a mare that had a very close connection to Queen Blackhole and was known for performing feats impossible for the average unicorn. Perhaps she could grant the yellow pony her wish?
Hurriedly, she rose from the comfort of her bed and the hundreds of furry creatures serving as a living comfettor. The pony then stumbled back onto her hooves and quickly galopped out of the door. As she ran down the path to Duskville, the mare looked at the warped forest and the darkened, nightly skies above. While the sky was mostly a darkened shade of black and blue, the smog remained high in the sky and frequently flowed about like a plague of insects. The trees, themselves, had literally become twisted and the leaves black and crispy, yet animals strived on it, albeit mutated from the smog and the leaves themselves.
Each step brought more stress to the pegasus as she didn't know how the pony would react to her, yet it was too late now. The mare had entered the town, where many frightening and scary ponies walked about, some stranger then others, like the armored mailmare fused to said armor.
"Come on, Spiderlock. Where does she live...Oh. I can't remember...Maybe...I should...ummm...ask somepony?"
Spiderlock was standing in the middle of the town as ponies came and went. She felt herself lock up the second she wanted to ask help from somepony. Finally, though, after gathering her courage, she decided to ask the closest pony to her. This pony had a turquoise mane with some white streaks in them. Her mouth looked like it was made from a sock puppet, what with the strange stitching around the lips. The same could be said for her eyes that looked like a thin, black film of plastic which would reflect light to show two yellow lines next to eachother. They seemed to refract in the direction the pony would be "looking" in.
"Um. excuse me." Spiderlock said almost inaudibly.
"Yes?" the mare answered.
"Hi. I'm Spiderlock."
"Oh. Well, I'm Lyrabon."
"Hello, Lyrabon. I was just wondering if you could show me where Dimmed Star lives."
"Dimmed Star?" the mare rubbed her head in confusion and frowned.
"I'm afraid I can't remember. Maybe Lyrabon would know."
Spiderlock became confused.
"But you just said you were Lyrabon."
"I am."
"Then why did you say that you would ask yourself?"
"Not me. Lyrabon."
Spiderlock frowned.
"She means me."
The turquoise pony turned around to reveal the half of a vanilla colored mare stitched to her back. She was tanned with a blackish-blue mane which curled at the top at her forehead, and near th end of her mane which extended to the back of her neck. This mane even had a very large, pink streak going through its middle. She had the exact same black eyes as the turquoise one, although they seemed to have been "punched in", what wit the "deep" looking, blue creases in the eyes.
"She lives in the house over there. The one that looks like a tree." the mare smiled as she pointed towards a treehouse a few blocks away.
"Thank you." Spiderlock said with fear.
"You're welcome."
The "two" ponies then continued their path forward, passing Spiderlock who slowly turned around to see Lyrabon casually walking away, and the vanilla pony smiling and waving at her. Spiderlock felt shivers run down her spine. That was efinately one of the solutions to "love" that Princess Lolung was famous for. After that little incident was done, Spiderlock hurried towards the house ans eagerly knocked on the door. Her heart was pounding in her chest as excitement filled her every being. Unfortunately, it didn't avail to much as nopony answered. Frustrated, the mare began to knock a few times against the door, then several times, then began pounding violently against it. Finally, after such a long wait, the door swung open violently and powerfully, revealing a purple mare with strange eyes and black liquid dripping off of her. SHe looked mad.
"WHAT? WHAT IS IT? STOP HITTING MY DOOR!"
The unicorn clenched her teeth as she stared at the yellow pegasus, who simply gulped in response.
"I was t-told that you w-w-would help me with a pr-pr...a problem."
"What kind of problem?"
"I want to become an animal."
Dimmed's eyes sparkled.
"Really now? Well, come in. I haven't tried morphing magic on living creatures yet. Only on objects."
Spiderlock stared at Dimmed Star for a few moments as she looked at the terrible mess on the first floor.
"Uhhh...were they succesful?"
"Pretty much, although a few of them exploded."
Spiderlock felt cold sweat trickled down her head.
"Come downstairs. I'll get you ready for the spell."
The pegasus did as she was told, and, when she saw the laboratory down below, was awfully scared and shocked at what she found. The mess was unbearable, but she had to make do.
"This is where I do all my experiments." Dimmed Star said as she rummaged through a shelf.
"R-really?"
"Oh yes. A few haven't always been great successes...like that green one...but they've generally come out good."
"Green one?"
"Nothing."
"Do I have to sit on that metal table?"
"Nope. I'll just inject you with this." Dimmed Star said as one of her black tentacles pierced Spiderlock's hip with a needle."And maybe this too."
"Ow!"
The purple mare turned around with an evil grin on her face. and kicked the door to her closet close, bringing about the rattling of glass. The unicorn then placed her horn on her guest's forehead and began to mutter something. It first simply started off as a tingle, but then started to turn into a burning sensation, like something was growing with Spiderlock. As the unicorn's horn glew brighter and brighter, the color in the room began to lter as well. It had started from its typical dull and dark demeanor, then began to phase into a bright red, and then into various shades of blue and purple. Spiderlock couldn't really see anything despite her eyes being open. It was the spell doing all the work and preventing her body to function normally. Finally, however, after an immense sparkling mist of magic swirled around the lab, it finally dissipated gently, and quietly. Dimmed looked around with confusion, occasionally eye-balling everything from left to right with puckered lips.
"That's it? No explosion? No shockwave? Well, that effect is disappointing."
"N-no. I think I'm good like this...Why am I still a pony?"
"Huh? OH! I forgot about you."
This comment stressed Spiderlock who showed it clearly in her facial features.
"It's a lag spell. Before you even ask, it takes effect little by little in a short span of time."
"Oh! Thank you so much, Miss Star." the pegasus shouted with joy as she squeezed the uncomfortable unicorn in a big hug.
"Yeah. Okay. Leggo!" Dimmed Star exclaimed as she pushed her assailant off.
The mare hurried out of the tree and back to her shed. She was so overjoyed with her future appearance that she didn't even wait to tell her animals, who didn't really seem to care much. Spiderlock started to play around with them all and clean others up and do pretty much all the previous tasks she had ready for the whole week. She was now clueless for what she wanted to do. So, she decided to take a walk in the forest to see if her abilities would wake up eventually.
This wooden creep was twisted and somewhat "damaged" by the arrival of the mist so many years ago. Several twisted shapes lurked within the shadows of the forest, some looking like shadows of the now jagged trees, but with red eyes added in place of holes and knots made within their bark. There wasn't much to say about this place aside from its dark and twisted shapes, the inky fog climbing from tree branch to tree branch like a slim cat. The birds, sometimes screaming when Spiderlock would pass, looked like skeletons with light glaring through their bodies. The pony was still fascinated by this tainted Gaia and looked in aww at it. She did feel a great hunger starting on her. She even felt like something was skittering on her skull and trying to get to her brain. Faint, the pony tumbled towards a tree and grabbed her head with a groan.
"I don't...feel so good..."
Two antennas grew out from her forehead, reminiscent of black twigs. The exit points began to bleed, if only lightly. Once she put a hoof to her forehead and felt these long tems, the pegasus hopped up with joy. It was starting!...But why was she so hungry and in pain? She could feel a seering pain pushing through her sides and her left eye as well. It even felt as though something was trying to burst through her lips. Ignoring this, the mare began to eat all the grass that she could, but it wasn't enough. She then began to devour the dead leaves...but it wasn't enough. She ate non-poisonous mushrooms, then poisonous mushrooms, and nothing would change. The living beings nearby were looking mighty tasty to Spiderlock, especially with her new mandibles now out.
She quickly realized what had now come out and screamed in pain as she put a hoof to her left eye. It was being pushed out. The pain was unbearable, but as the orb slid out, taking tissue and veins with it, a multi-faceted, insectoid eye took its place. It looked around and made Spiderlock run towards the new prey, but it found the mare slow, so it pushed out four, extremely long, brown legs from her sides, and continued its path forward, devouring everything in sight. Even though the parasite felt satisfied, it felt itself weakening and dying. In its voracious devouring, it had forgotten about its host, so instead of taking all the nutrients, it would only sap off what it needed to survive, although it would need to bring the mare to its nest. It was quite a sight to see: A fainted mare with one eye open and four legs walking it back to her house.
Spiderlock went to see Star about her new condition. Apparently, the unicorn had miscalculated her spell and, instead of imbedding Spiderlock with a new, animal form, she imbedded her body with a new animal form...she put a parasitic form of parasprite in her body. The first of its kind. Surprisingly, despite its appetite, it hasn't killed its host, denoting atleast a MINIMUM of intelligence, by Dimmed Star's standards. However, Spiderlock might have gotten several advantages with this new bonding, such as increased reach, and better stamina, but her appetite grows ten-fold at sunset, which is why she is waiting in the forest near the trail at night for some food...an animal, preferably.
The cold breeze of the night wind barely ruffled Spiderlock's feathers. She was extremely impatient and waiting in the bushes, letting their leaves fluster in the cold embrace of this wind. Like usual, the moon was unviewable due to the mist, but that was something many ponies no longer moaned over. A few foals had left their houses and were laughing as they walked along the trail. The ambusher caught sight of them and gasped quietly.
"Um. Excuse me." she asked with a gentle and timid demeanor.
"AH! WHAT WAS THAT?!" a colt shouted in fear while the other two stood in place with mild irritation.
"Over...here."
The three looked to their left to see a red dot in the bushes.
"What are you?" a filly asked.
"A pony. Just like you."
"What are you doing in there?"
"I'm waiting for somepony. I'm sorry to bother you, but have you seen any animals nearby?"
The three looked at eachother and shrugged.
"No. Sorry. Did you lose a pet?"
"Not really."
The figure in the bushes began to slowly rise to great heights, dragging the foals eyes along with them. Their mouths followed in the opposite reaction.
"I'm sorry, but I need something to eat. If I don't get any, I'll die. I'm terribly sorry about this."
"NO! MOMM--"
The mare pounced, and there were no more sounds. Just the calm, immaterial form of the wind brushing against the trees and bushes, and the occassional pitter-patter of certain substances falling on the floor. A new mare had been created...and she was quite happy for gaining a new "friend" in the process.