Kevin stared, empty-eyed at the mare in front of him, putting together what had happened over the last 24 hours. Her leg had broken, Fluttershy was in pain (somewhere else), The changeling had been overfilled with the love he felt for her and was guilted to confess. It all made sense now, he just needed a few more answers.
“Um… So what’s your name?” Kevin asked, calmly. There was no need to get upset, he needed her to tell him where Fluttershy really was and she had confessed, she wasn’t all that bad, just in need.
“My name is Preed,” said the mare, softly. Almost no difference in voice.
“Why did you come to me?” Kevin asked, warming her up for his most important question.
“As you needed somepony to love, I needed somepony to love me.” Again in a shy voice.
“I don’t need anypony to love,” corrected Kevin, pulling out his watch.
“But you do.” Preed insisted.
Kevin stopped caring that that was not the right answer and continued to his next question as he read the words on his pocketwatch.
The mare hesitated and stepped away taking a breath. “I didn’t do it, I swear!”
“Where? Did you see her get taken? Where is she?” Kevin shot the questions at her quickly, trying to understand what happened to Fluttershy.
After a pause, she finally stated to position, “Where not a single soul gets through,” Preed said, sadly.
Kevin stared at the words appearing on his watch:
Pain, Rainbows, Fear.
Kevin looked back up at the mare he was interrogating and smashed the watch on the ground. Tears shot to his eyes. It was his turn to run away from the dinner he made.
His back shivered as he felt a strong mix of hatred, fear, anger and sadness. Kevin put his face to his chest and wrapped his hooves around the back of his head. He may never see Fluttershy again.
“Are you okay, Kevin?” Preed asked, walking over to Kevin and placing a hoof on his shoulder.
Kevin turned around, his eyes black as tar with a smile wide as a river.
“Don’t call me Kevin.”
Fluttershy looked down at her injured leg. Her fur rose on end as she feared for her life. She was due for the picking soon. She was due tomorrow.
Hopeful, she looked down at her necklace, reading the clear writing:
Please stay calm, you know Kevin still loves you.
“I know, but he can’t get me now. it’s too late tomorrow,”
He’d stop it if he could. He can’t.
Fluttershy now hated the device. Kevin had given it to her to always comfort her, but its most recent words just hurt her.
Somepony else can, though.
The necklace attempted, trying to help her. Fluttershy didn’t read it, though. She was scared, hurt and way too stunned to think to look at it again.
“What’s that?!” screamed the guard, looking at the necklace. He grabbed it firmly from behind the cage and violently tugged past the bars, bringing Fluttershy with it, pulling around her neck. He checked it thoroughly before exclaiming:
“Communication device!” shouted the guard, releasing his grip and opening the door.
“Get out!”
The guard slammed the necklace on the captain’s desk.
“I caught her communicating with this!” he shouted, making it very clear that he hated the very definition of what he thought was happening.
“But it’s just…” Fluttershy stated before getting interrupted.
“Silence!” cried the captain, examining the device. The words placed themselves on the screen, very clearly not words you’d see on a traditional piece of jewelry, “Take off a day for this one. She’s at great risk of getting realized and will need to be taken care of immediately before somepony comes looking for her, understood?”
“Yes sir!” replied the guard, grabbing Fluttershy by the front hoof and dragging her towards the door.
“Wait! Wait, my leg’s… AH!” Fluttershy’s back hoof scraped along the floor, moving her broken leg, vibrating it until the already broken leg extended the other way at the point of fracture.
“OW!” Fluttershy screamed as loud as she could. Her eyes teared as much as they could and she started to cry. Kevin couldn’t save her, the necklace already said. Her leg that was causing her unimaginable pain would soon be the least of her worries. She was due for the machine: today and now.
The beast that refused to be called Kevin ran for the door as his wings began into fire and the rings of his eyes flowed with magic. His mane curled and formed into the color of fire. His tail disappeared and was replaced with purple flames.
His new wings flapped, bringing him skyward as he flew for Cloudsdale.
The city of Cloudsdale hung high in the air, placed far above an ocean view. The sunset beamed red crystal rays onto the waving, yellow beach. Golden flakes of sand reflected the sunlight onto the white bricks of the cloud castle. Palm trees stood high over the calm waves, shuddering under the gentle breeze and creating a gentle ruffling noise to match that of the waves. The sounds of the ocean could be heard faintly as the creature approached the cloudy city. Metal creaking noises would soon consume that noise, though. Cloudsdale was a pleasant place to look at right now. It was the most perfect abomination in all of Equestria. Only from the outside was it clean and beautiful, but on the inside, it was a mess of blood. A sham it was, a devilish, brutal sham.
The wind curled around the strange figure’s wings. The flames around his eyes bent according to the direction of the wind and it felt itself accelerating. He was making progress on the building. It was nearly a mile away now. A few seconds later, he would run headfirst into it. And it did. Running his crown directly into the side of the large castle-style building, the creature pounded through the wall, leaving the strange being just enough inertia to crawl inside without tumbling backwards into the ocean below. Pegasi guards from different corners of the factory charged him, attempting to get him out before each one burned up at coming close to it, and vaporized. Alarms blared, sending signals to all personnel in the factory to flee or to dismantle the intruder. The fumes of those stupid enough to get close to the raging ball of hatred and fire drifted into space, dispersing and drifting to the ceiling.
The strange beast continued to walk, trails of fire coming off both its tail and hooves as he did so.
Many pegasus guards stood back, choosing an archery kit and taking aim with it. Arrows flew. The long shaft of the wooden point fell through the skin of the beast that was once Kevin, going right out the other side, and letting the skin remold itself.
Fluttershy squeaked loudly. Pain arched itself into her voice, making a vein of sharp hurt as it did so. The syringes of the machine graded in on her, preparing to sink deep into her chest, pulling every ounce of her own blood out of her.
Fluttershy closed her eyes, just hoping that it wouldn’t hurt that bad. The necklace had said it itself: Kevin could never save her. It was cruelty that the pony had to be alive for the rainbow-making process. It was cruelty that their cages were kept in perfect view of the machine and all its victims.
The sharp syringes finally pressed into her chest, digging into her fur, stopping just short of breaking her skin. Fluttershy couldn’t help but open her eyes, noticing that the metal beakers had been melted off, in a void of red and orange heated iron. An arm hung over the very tip of the sharp utensils. The head broke off and fell to the ground. The head of a white stallion hovered away from Fluttershy’s own. The very sight of it horrified her even more than the experience she had only recently undergone.
Fluttershy squeaked again, turning her head away and closing her eyes tightly.
The white Pegasus clenched his hoof and pressed it hard against the restraints on Fluttershy’s wrist, burning it off. The new molten steel fragments moved aside of Fluttershy’s own hoof, slithering aside to prevent burning her. Regardless of the lack of damage dialed back onto her by the fire, Fluttershy could somewhat be heard whispering to herself: “What is happening? Please somepony help.”
As the brief whisper left the mare’s lips, the stallion held the mare in one hoof and dashed back out the same way that it entered. The factory lay in ruins.
The beast was not Kevin. The beast was the remains of a monster from the depths of Tartarus that was captured in Kevin from now and forever. And Kevin would never know of the Bellus inside of him. Dark magic doesn’t just disappear. Somehow, some way it finds a way to burn.