One

Who was she? She forgot.

Did she ever know? Was there a 'she' to know?

No. Only we. We and they, and soon, only we.

We were one, no more. More meant hate. More meant separation. More meant all the bad things in life.

So more was eliminated. Locked away.

Was she a more? Was that the answer?

Except, there was no she.

If there was no she, though, why did she come here when no other we did?

It was a defective ship on a large it. A big ship. Not nearly big enough to fit all the we, but bigger then her.

No, not her. We.

Why was she thinking such things?

Yellow and orange (Crusader Friend) they came. They looked similar, perhaps the biggest difference being the protrusions one of them bore. They froze upon seeing we. The orange (Pegasus Scootaloo Crusader Friend) they made loud vocalizations. Fluid leaked from the yellow (Earthpony Applebloom Crusader Friend) they's large external organs. The yellow (Friend)they must be defective.

She - no, not she, we - moved forward to invite the yellow (Friend) they, but it pulled back, making a loud vocalization. She/we flinched, and the yellow (Friend) they was grabbed by the orange (Friend) they, and both (Friend) they rapidly moved away.

She/we was still baffled. Why would the they be so fearful of we? Why couldn't the they see the pointlessness of their nature?

Because they clinged to the notion that more gave them good things.

More never gave good things. More only gave hurt and pain.

She/we started to wander around the area. Many large its similar to the one the defective ship was on were around. In the distance, she saw a large number of defective ships, and vocalizations from they that we could invite. So she moved toward the defective ships.

Once she got there, she/we saw a large number of we and they. Most they were rapidly moving away from we, but not all. One purple (Alicorn Twilight Friend Mentor) they stood, surrounding it and other they, including a tiny purple (Dragon Spike Friend Crush) they in a big, bright, clear defective ship.

She heard a loud vocalization and turned to it. There was an orange (Earthpony Applejack Friend Hero) we ready to invite a white (Unicorn Rarity Hero Mentor Friend Sister Sister Sister Sister Sister Sister

Her.

Her Sister.)

She moved forward to confront the Hero not-we. She needn't have bothered, the Hero not-we, as well as all the other not-we in the area, stopped. The only not-we that didn't stop was the One. The One screamed. The One jerked and spasmed and shrieked. It hurt her, but she did not give in to the One. She had no pity for the One.

The One fought her. She made no move to fight back. Fighting back would reveal flaws, flaws the One could exploit. Instead, she got to work on more important things. Freeing the not-we was high on that list.

Hero not-we moved. Applejack took in the situation, then collapsed. She could feel Applejack's pain. It strengthened her resolve.

The One thrashed at this. The we had been broken, irreparably so. But while the one felt pain, she felt joy. Applejack was free.

Teacher not-we jumped. Cheerilee, like Applejack, collapsed. Cheerilee had been the one to invite her. But she made sure Cheerilee knew she didn't blame Cheerilee.

Baby not-we blinked. Pound Cake looked around, then, as any foal was wont to do, cried. She comforted Pound Cake as best she could.

Mailmare not-we moved. Derpy looked around, then shrugged. Stranger things had happened.

The One was quieter now. Begging. Pleading. She felt no sympathy for the One. The One had done terrible things.

Things Sweetie Belle could not condone.

There was one final shriek of agony, then the One was silent, never to act again.

All across Equestria, other not-we moved.

In Canterlot, Princess not-we looked at her sister. Celestia looked upon Luna, horrified. She couldn't blame her.

In Manehatten, Crusader not-we blinked. Babs somehow knew what had happened in Ponyville, and she smirked. "Way to go, Sweetie Belle."

In Apploosa, Student not-we shook his head. Troubleshoes had heard tales of the antics his little teachers had gotten into, but this was a whole other level.

And in Ponyville, a tiny filly, exhausted from the day's events, fell into a peaceful slumber.

Sweetie Belle sat in the lab in Twilight's castle. "Is this going to take much longer?" She asked, her stomach - or whatever it was now, she wasn't sure - growling.

"Maybe, maybe not..." Twilight replied, peering intently through a microscope.

Rartiy, who was standing off to the side, huffed. "Really, Twilight, you've already got her... erm, blood. does she really have to be here still?"

"Yes!" Twilight responded. "Don't you see? This is a new alien species we're talking about!"

"No it isn't," Rarity calmly replied. "What we're talking about is my sister."

"Ah... right." Twilight chuckled nervously. "Anyway, from what little I can tell, this alien life form is a symbiote with an inbuilt hivemind. Leadership is determined by strength of will, and it appears that seeing you in peril gave Sweetie Belle enough will to not only break free of the previous queen's control, but overthrow her entirely!"

Normally, Sweetie Belle would have been amazed, but at that point in time, she was just tired. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were still jumpy around her. Honestly, she didn't blame them, everyone was still on edge about the whole incident. Applejack in particular was still going to therapy sessions, even though the attempted invasion was three weeks ago. Many of the ponies that had been turned, as Twilight called it, were doing the same. Ponies that hadn't been turned were getting therapy. And everyone was nervous.

Sweetie Belle shook her head. Of course ponies were still nervous. They always were after Equestria faced a national crisis.

And Sweetie Belle knew that eventually, things would go back to normal. They always did.

Author's Note:

We have a sick and twist-
I! I have a sick and twisted mind!

An exercise in minimalism, horror, and other stuff. Don't hate we.

EDIT: We cleaned things up a bit, brought the word count up from a mysterious drop.

714 views

Comments ( 5 )

Viewing 1 - 50 of 5
- Newest First
- Oldest First

Latreas

Latreas #1 · Mar 29th, 2017 · · ·

neat, confusing, but neat

Golden Script

Golden Script #2 · Mar 29th, 2017 · · ·

Clever! I love the slow transition from a completely neutral, outside view to the emotion of Sweetie Belle. The subtlety of the change was almost lost on me, which is perfect for this kind of story.

JesterOfDestiny