"I don't understand. What's wrong with him," Derpy asked.
"It's almost too horrible to even think about," Orangecream said as she stood next to Winter.
Winter gagged.
"I think I'm gonna be sick," she said and looked away closing her eyes.
A mare ran through the bushes and to the stallion and started shaking him.
"Crystal! Crystal! Dear! Can you hear me?!,"
There was evil laughter ringing in the forest.
"Crystal?!,"
The mare looked at the Shadower angrily.
"What have you done to him?," she demanded angrily.
"What should have been done. Don't worry, he's alive. Just sleeping at the moment. I don't want to kill any pony," the Shadower said.
"Alive? He's not breathing! How are you?," The Doctor said getting angry and facing turns the forest.
The Shadower laughed evil again.
Though all the Shadowers had the same kind of voice. You could still tell from their voice if they were guys or girls. This Shadowers sounded like a young filly, what gave them all chills was the voice.
The mare didn't look up from the stallion.
"Winter please. Go find Orangecream and tell to stop scaring us," the mare said.
Winter was shaking, her ears were flattened.
"Um...... E...... Emerald? Um........ I don't think that's Orangecream,"
"And what makes you say that?," she said.
"Because she's standing right next to me,"
The mare looked up and when she saw Orangecream standing there, staring terrified at the Shadower, her face turned white with terror. Storm clouds rolled over the forest and there was thunder and there strong wind blowing at the leaves at every ponies mane and tail. The three fillies ran over to where the Doctor, Derpy, and Tick Tock were.
"Orangecream? Why does she sound distinctly like you?," Splints said as all the fillies were growing more nervous and backing away from the stallion.
"Why are you asking me?," Orangecream asked,moving her eyes to the left were Splints was standing.
The Shadower busted out of the bushes and into the air to the canopy, right above the stallion, glaring down at the fillies, the Doctor, and his companions.
"And more importantly, why does she look distinctly like you? Except for you coat and mane color, anger in the eyes and sharp teeth, she looks exactly like you," Winter said.
Orangecream turned her eyes to the right where Winter was standing.
"Again. Why are you asking me? I'm just as much in the dark about this as all of you are,"
"Does that mean you have a twin that turned into a Shadower," Winter said.
Orangecream growled.
"I don't remember my family! Why does every pony think I do. Every pony!,"
"Okay. Well this has clearly not happened to any pony else. So how is it even possible for a Shadower to look identical to you. Right down to every detail of the cutie mark?," Splint asked.
"I don't. Know," Orangecream exasperated, pointing a hoof at the Shadower, turning around to face her friends.
"But there she is. And I really don’t like the way she’s looking at me,” Orangecream said.
The pegasus filly Shadower spread out it’s wings and coordinated it with her hooves. The forest started shaking and then the thorny bushes branches grow, blocking all the paths out of the clearing, even the canopy.
The stallion began to breathe again.
"Crystal!," the mare said and hugged him.
Crystal's head shot up and he hissed at his wife. To every pony's shock, Crystal's eyes were red and he had sharp teeth. He had become a Shadower. The Shadower filly landed on the ground and extended a hoof to the colt who took it.
"Come. We have much work to do," the filly said and started walking away.
"No Crystal!," the mare sobbed.
"What have you done to him?!," the Doctor exclaimed.
"I haven't done anything wrong. I only did what she wanted," the filly said.
"Why would she want you to turn him into a one if you? Why are you doing this?," the Doctor said.
"She didn't want her husband to be dead so I helped. He couldn't be allowed to remember anything so I helped. It's all part of our process. Do you know why I'm telling you all if this?,"
"No. Why?," The Doctor said, keeping dark coldness in his voice.
"Because there isn't a single thing that you or any pony else can do to stop it. Soon we'll have our leader back. And then we will do....... or I almost spilled the beans on our plan, naughty me. Come on Crystal," the filly said.
She walked away pridefully.
"Yes ma’am," Crystal said.
"Or and before I go," the filly said, making a book appear out of thin air and giving it to the Doctor.
It had a bookmarked page.
"That has some information you might want to know about your little filly friend," he said.
The two Shadowers walked into the Shadows of the forest and disappeared. Turning everything to normal.
The Doctor opened the book.
It was a picture of a baby filly. Dispute being the size of a newborn filly and, it looked exactly like....... Orangecream.
"That's not possible. They look identical. Right down to every detail one the cutie mark," Tick Tock said.
Orangecream looked at her cutie mark.
He was right.
The filly in the picture even had developed the same eye color and mane style as Orangecream. If the filly was the same age and size, it would be impossible to tell the two apart on appearances.
Search jumped out if the bushes behind them.
"I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! I knew it!," he chanted.
"You again?," The Doctor asked annoyed.
"How did you even get here?," Derpy asked getting out from behind the Doctor.
Twinkle walked next to him, ears flattened, very annoyed.
"See. See. Her friends look just like ponies. But Orangecream looks just like-,"
Twinkle got in his face from In front of him.
"A pony. Orangecream looked like a pony too," she said.
"What are you talking about? And who's this pony?," The Doctor asked showing them the book.
The mare, still in tears gasped.
"That's the Shadowers' leader. A horrible, and hateful yet very young filly. Sourfruit," she said and then shivered at the mere mention of her name.
"Haha. Ya Sourfruit sure was a terrible pony. Good thing she was revealed as dead right?," Orangecream said.
Something dark was glimmering on her hooves. No pony except for Winter and Splits realized it. They knew what it was. They flattened their eyes and almost froze with a panicked expression.
Winter bumped into Orangecream.
"Ow! What?," she said annoyed.
Winter pointed down to her hooves, Orangecream looked down.
"AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!," she screamed.
"What? What's wrong?," The Doctor asked concerned.
Orangecream looked really nervous and was sweating a lot.
"Um......... nothing........... it's ...........um...... nothing. Would you excuse me," she said and ran off before waiting for a response.
"What was that all about?," Tick Tock asked.
But these creatures remind me a lot of the Vashta Nerada, I've met I'm the past. And if they are anything like them then we need to find out what's going on. Why they convert but never kill any pony. And why they want Orangecream,” the Doctor explained.
They start heading towards the direction Orangecream ran in.
“Oh no! That would not be….!,” Winter said trying to stop them.
They ignored her. Winter and Splints sighed in unison, and followed them.
Orangecream kept running into the woods, until she got deep enough that she could, until the town was barley visible. She knew what was coming. No pony could be around what it happened. She stopped at a clearing. The Doctor and his companions and Orangecream’s friends found her, but were out of her sight, they were hiding behind bushes. She looked down at her hooves. Dark magic was just coming up around her hooves, like fire on firewood. She lifted a hoof up and stared at it seriously. The bottom of it was completely covered in dark magic. She didn't looked panicked, almost like she had seen this before. Her friends looked panicked.
“Orangecream!,” Splints said, the two running towards her.
Orangecream looked behind her.
“The Doctor, Derpy and Tick Tock. Their watching you,” Winter said.
“What their watching this happen right now?,” Orangecream asked.
“Yes,” Splints said.
“DAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!,” Orangecream suddenly screamed in pain.
Stumbling back, and hitting a tree and her vision began to blur. It was starting.
“Guys. Get away from me,” Orangecream said.
The dark magic was halfway up her legs.
“Her legs are halfway covered in it,” Winter said.
“It’s the change. It’s starting. Orangecream-,” Splints said.
“Go!,” Orangecream said quickly. “Go quickly!,”
The two ran off behind the bush.
The dark magic covered half her body. She started to cry.
"I'm so sorry Equestria," she said sadly.
The dark magic completely covered her. It levitated her off the ground. It exploded, making a light beam. The magic absorbed into the filly ' body, swirling into her like a world pool. She enhanced a large puff of the dark magic through her mouth. Her cutie mark started to glow bright red.
"RRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!," she growled and moaned in pain, with her eyes shut tight and teeth clenched l, legs contracting for what was to come. The magic completely hide her in the dark beam. Her friends watched in horror.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!,"
She let out a scream, spreading out and extending her legs when the magic exploded again, making her visible. She had passed out. Most of the magic was gone. The bit of the dark magic left had turned bright yellow. It lowered Orangecream down on her stomach before disappearing.
Orangecream woke up slowly and got up. She checked out her body. But she had changed, she looked the same, but she didn't act the same. She was looking at everything with her eyelids halfway down.
"How is that?," Derpy asked.
"That's, in a way, Orangecream," Splints said.
"But that can't be Orangecream. She doesn't even act like her,"
The Doctor stared frozen at something. Orangecream had two shadows. This was what he was afraid of. "Orangecream also noticed the second shadow. But instead of trying to eat her flesh like the Doctor though it was going to do, it started to move. It jumped out of the shadows into it's pony form. Orangecream looked at it for a while before starting to walk away. Before she got too far away, she looked back at the Shadowers.
"Are you coming?," she asked casually, as if the Shadowers was a good friend of hers.
"Yes ma'am," the Shadower said, before following her.
The ponies watching her were shocked.
"What?," The Doctor said confused.
"Prepare yourselves every pony. Sourfruit is back," Winter said.