The Elements of Harmony investigate a supposed critical point in the Human resistance, only to find the most horrifying monster in existance.
Twilight Sparkle and her friends had been patient with the decision to save the Human race. She had watched from afar as they destroyed each other, dedicating their lives to warfare and horrible things. Now they were closer than ever to saving them from a horrible fate, and have just given the ponies a great slip of information. Twilight couldn't wait any longer, and brought her friends with her to find the Human's newest base hidden in a place called Crystal Lake.
Captain Moore watched with baited breath as the gates to the UN military base opened for the small convoy that they were expecting. Soldiers from almost every military that had once existed in the world were all lined up around the perimeter of the base, waiting for the inevitable attack from the invaders. After a few minutes, the convoy rolled past the makeshift barrier of scrapped aircraft and cars, and the soldiers hurriedly closed the barrier once more, in fear of infiltrators.
Moore approached the convoy with two guards, former US Marines, and kept his hand over the M-1911 firearm on his hip. The center vehicle, an armored 2003 MDX with the roof torn apart and a .50 Caliber Machine Gun mounted atop it, opened its doors. The first one out was a former FBI operative, Steven, saved from the attack on D.C. by the Captain himself, holding an M4A1 like it was his own child. Opposite of him was a member of the species that had been the cause of New York City's current state.
The defector walked on four legs, had an elongated face that extended into a muzzle, had large eyes, and a horn. The officer that had just stepped out was a light blue unicorn. At first, her kind were considered a myth, and when the portal opened, fanatics were looked upon in a new light, before the Conversion Bureaus opened up. Her silver hair was cut short, along with her tail, and she wore a modified Kevlar vest that was etched with her symbol, a wand with sparks around it.
The two that had exited the MDX gave a salute to the Captain before he returned the gesture. After a few seconds, they all lowered their arms and Moore spoke to them.
"What happened out there?"
"Sir," Stevens started, "we were searching for the camp as instructed, but when we got close to the site, we heard screaming."
Moore remembered that this particular unit was sent to investigate a possible launching-point for the Equestrian military, the force that had driven Humanity to its collective knees. That site in New Jersey was an ideal location for a portal, if what the PHL, Ponies for Human Life, said about Ley Lines was correct. The Ley Line went directly from a point near the Barrier that kept Earth and Equestria apart to the border of Sussex County, New Jersey.
"Screams, Sergeant?" Moore responded.
"The Equestrian Military had set up a camp near a small lake, in a town nearby. I think it was... Crystal Lake."
Moore didn't recognize the name, but kept quiet to let the Sergeant finish.
"We went to check out what was going on, but when we found their camp..."
"They were all gone, sir," the unicorn answered.
"Corporal Trixie, explain," Moore ordered.
"Sir, when we went to investigate, I felt an evil and dark magic take hold of the town. When we first got there, there were bodies everywhere, all slashed apart, beaten to pulp, or eviscerated on whatever was around. Then, some kind of fog rolled over the town, and... everything was gone. The bodies, the blood, even the broken-down buildings were all fixed. There was no evidence of any struggle, or evidence that anyone or thing had ever been there. Sir," Trixie finished.
"So we're dealing with an unknown magical entity of some kind?" Moore speculated.
"Not exactly, sir," Steven answered.
"Explain, you two. The more time we play this guessing game, the closer that Tyrant's barrier comes to our shores," Moore stated impatiently.
Trixie's horn glowed softly as a worn leather book was levitated towards the Captain before it was snatched up by one of the Marines. The unicorn didn't flinch from the sudden movement, as she knew that everyone here was wary of all kinds of magic, especially the kind used by unicorns. The book was then handed over to Moore by the Marine.
"It's clean, sir," the Marine stated.
Moore nodded to the Marine before taking the book in his hands. It was thin, easily less than a hundred pages, and lengthwise, was about the size of his hand.
"In Crystal Lake," Steven began, "there was once a boy who was drowned in the pristine lake. He was thrown in by a group of campers because of how hideously deformed he was. Some time later, the boy's mother, Pamela, went on a killing spree, killing a majority of counselors before the camp near the lake could reopen. After she was decapitated, her son, Jason Voorhees, had apparently come back from the dead, and started killing in her name. There are stories in there about how no matter what you try on him, whether it's stabbing, dismembering, lightning, crushing him, drowning him, or even shooting him in the face, nothing can kill him."
Moore thought on the unicorn's words for a few seconds before responding.
"Are you fucking serious, right now?"
Trixie looked down to the ground, a defeated expression on her face.
"Sir," Steven started, "those stories are true. We found a security system in one of the shops, and you need to see this."
Steven reached into one of his pockets and produced a small flash-drive. Moore took the device and motioned to his Marines and the two operatives. With Moore in front, his Marines on either side, and Steven and Trixie following, they made their way to the War Room, which amounted to a conference room in the JFK National Airport.
When they arrived, eight officers and three PHL executives all stood and saluted the Captain. Moore returned the gesture before going to the computer terminal that acted as the Central Intelligence Monitor.
"Captain Moore," one of the PHL executives, Coco, started, "what brings you back so early?"
"Trixie, Steven, explain while someone searches through this thing," Moore commanded as he handed the flash-drive over to a technician.
"Sirs," Steven began, "when we reached Crystal Lake, we arrived at a massive slaughter. All of the Equestrian forces were brutally murdered, and not a single Human or PHL corpse was found."
"Approximately thirty three minutes after we arrived," Trixie continued, "a magical fog rolled over the town, and all of the bodies, blood, and damages just vanished into thin air."
"Corporal Lulamoon," one of the PHL executives, Spitfire this time, interrupted, "what purpose does this serve us?"
"Got it," the technician stated. "It's ready to play, sirs."
"What is?" Spitfire asked.
"The solution to our problems, ma'am," Trixie answered. "Lieutenant, would you kindly play the video?"
The technician looked over to Moore, who nodded in response, before typing on the keyboard for a second as the lights in the room shut off and a light began to broadcast onto the wall.
The scene started with a trio of Newfoals, former Humans turned pony by the Conversion Potion, were simply smiling at each other with their empty, emotionless eyes. One was blue with an orange hair and tail style, another was green and had no mane, but had a red tail, and the last was white with a blonde hairstyle and tail. All of them were switching between looking at each other and the forest behind them. After what seemed like hours, the white one talked.
"Aren't you all excited about next week?"
"I know," the green one responded, "we're going to save so many!"
"Queen Celestia's finest are on their way! I just want to throw a big party for them!" The blue one concluded.
A collective shudder of disgust and fear rang through the conference room, disturbed by the unnatural behavior of the seemingly lobotomized Newfoals.
"Yes! Let's do that! I wonder if we can swim in the lake nearby!"
Spitfire was about to sigh in agitation before the image began to flicker in static, and a thumping sound began to echo through the recording.
"I hope we can celebrate by taking the newest ones to the airships while we bomb the city!"
"To show them what we saved them from!" the three said in unison.
A shadow began to expand from the forest behind the Newfoals as the static began to turn into faded whispers.
"What if we filled the lake with the saving serum, and watch them be saved by diving into the lake!"
One of the Newfoals gasped as the thumping began to grow even louder.
"That's like a poem of some kind!"
The first one gasped as well, ignoring the shadow that began to solidify by the edge of their little sit-down.
"Maybe that's how you'll get your Cutie Mark!"
They looked as though they were about to start cheering before a boot slammed into the ground, and all attention was drawn to the monstrous figure behind them.
It was a Human, except far too large to be confused for any normal man, easily standing more than 7 feet tall. His boots were almost as wide as the Newfoals' torsos, capped off with steel toes. His jeans were damp and matted with mud and rust and what looked like blood. Next, everyone seemed to focus on his massive torso and arms, which were covered in what looked like an old military jacket that was sewn with a leather coat. Underneath the jacket was a worn and torn black shirt, which barely contained his burly form. His chest was about as thick as an average pony was long, and his arms resembled tree stumps one would sit on. Around his neck was a thick, moss and rust coated chain, which lead up to his head. The man's face was concealed behind a terrifying hockey mask, cracked and faded in a few spots, revealing nothing but demonic eyes.
What stood out most, however, was the massive machete that was sticking out of the center of his chest.
"Oh my goodness," one of the Newfoals shouted.
"He's hurt and needs help!"
"Somepony get a potion!" another shouted.
The static began to intensify as the kind voice of a woman spoke.
'Jason, sweetie, kill for mother.'
As if he had heard the voice, the man, Jason, reached for the machete and yanked it out in a shower of blood. The closest Newfoal was unaffected by the action, yet still watched on. After cutting himself in a way that would have killed any other person, Jason simply flicked his blood off the machete and walked over to the unmoving Newfoal. He raised the blade high before slamming it down through the Newfoal's head, cutting clean through his head and splitting it in half. The Newfoal's body fell to the ground as the other two simply complained like children. Jason merely walked past the corpse and raised his left leg. Jason thrust his leg outwards and sent the blue one flying into the brick wall of the store. Static began to fill up the screen again until everything went black, and all that could be heard was slashing.
The technician paused the recording and switched the lights back on. Everyone in the room was wide-eyed and sweating, especially Trixie. Spitfire was the first to snap out of her fear, clearing her throat to draw attention.
"That was... something, indeed. But what good does this do us? We don't even know if this, 'Jason,' is still a Human after that."
"Ma'am," Steven started, "this could be our ace in the hole. The things we've read about Jason Voorhees, not to mention the evidence we have on his existence right here, prove that he could help end this war."
"Sergeant Steven," Moore started, "what are you suggesting?"
Steven looked between Captain Moore, Executive Spitfire, and Trixie before speaking.
"Sirs, Trixie and I threw some ideas around, and we thought that since Jason is likely to kill anything and everything that gets close to that lake, we could use him as a trap."
"We could send out a false message, or an easily intercepted Scroll," Trixie continued, "and get them to send their highest ranking officers to investigate what would have been a secretive command outpost."
"Fight monsters with monsters, sirs," Steven finished.
Captain Moore pulled out a seat and sat at the head of the table, rubbing his temples as he weighted the proposal.
"What are the odds that this would work?"
"Better than our chances now, sir," Steven answered.
"Wait, are we really considering this as a plan?" Spitfire asked. "We're going to place all of our faith on a man that may or may not even exist, so that he can do what? Slow them down? What if they send the Elements of Harmony to take him down? What if they manage to convert him and turn him on New York City?"
"Spitfire," Moore started, "it is an undeniable, and may I say fundamental quality of man, that when faced with extinction, every alternative, is preferable."
Moore pointed at Trixie and Steven.
"Get that fake message out on a high-priority channel out to some former outpost, and make sure it's something they'll think is worth intercepting."
Trixie and Steven saluted.
"Yes, sir."
The two left the room and made their way to the Magi-Comms, where they would end up encoding the message that would lead to their victory.
\\\\\\//////
Twilight munched happily on a daisy sandwich as she overlooked the Fleet of Salvation as it hung over New Coltland, formerly known as the United Kingdom by the Humans. She had seen the conversion of the inhabitants first-hoof after developing the potion, and couldn’t be prouder of her own work. She was working to save an entire species, after all. Few would ever be known for these events.
A Newfoal happily walked up and placed a saucer with a glass of water on a table beside her, bowing to the alicorn.
“Thank you, Spearmint,” she spoke to the Newfoal.
“Of course, Princess Twilight. Anything for the mare that saved my life.”
Twilight looked forward to the crystal map before her, the magical structure displaying a 3-D map of the “front lines,” as the Royal Salvation Army would call it. She giggled at the thought. They had to be reminded that this wasn’t a war, it’s a crusade of salvation. A rescue mission, that entailed fighting in most parts.
The alicorn focused on the map, seeing the Barrier by what the Humans call, “New Jersey,” and soon to be renamed “Sunset Shores”.
The train of Twilight’s thought was interrupted when the massive airship, “Ray of Hope,” ignited its engines and began to move forward. The door to Twilight’s observatory burst open as a Royal Guard rushed to her side, bowing before her.
“Your Highness, we’ve intercepted a Magical transmission from the Human and Traitor city across the sea. They’re setting up a secondary command center on a site where we were planning to assault New York City from.”
Twilight rubbed her chin in thought.
“I see. So the Admiral decided to move the fleet immediately to capture and convert the Human leaders. Good thinking on his part. Send a message to the rest of the Elements of Harmony. We’ll hold the site until we receive word from Queen Celestia.”
“Of course, ma’am.”
The Guard rushed out of her observatory as Twilight watched the landscape below her slowly crawl away, giving into the ocean that divided New Equestria from the remaining Human territories.
Twilight heard a light chime behind her and turned her seat to smile at the familiar face.
“Hello Twilight, dear,” Rarity said with a smile.
“It’s good to see you Rarity. How are you doing?”
“Fantastic. Although, I wish I was here on just a regular visit, I must ask why we’re suddenly moving.”
“Oh, did one of your projects get interrupted?” Twilight asked.
“Oh, not a project, just spilled some tea on a fabric roll. Honestly, I had forgotten about it, but seeing the patterns in it now, I’m sad to see it unusable.”
“Well don’t worry, I’ll get you a new one when we come back. We just intercepted a message saying that the Human leaders are relocating into an open area, and from what I can see on the map, it’s right on a Ley Line.”
“Oh, splendid!” Rarity cheered with a small clap. “We’ll have this conversion sped up very nicely once these ruffians see how much their leaders love being cured.”
“I’m sure Pinkie’s looking forward to it, too.”
\\\\\\//////
Pinkie looked out towards the sea as she felt the warmth and happiness of the last few months slowly bleed out of her. She remembered the darker past of her Pinkie-Sense, and who had taught her to read them.
Granny Surprise.
She remembered every combination that her Granny had taught her, from ear wiggle to wobbly knees. The one she had at that moment, however, gave Pinkie a sense of dread. She felt her knees itch, her ears buzz, her tail shook, and her mane shed out exactly 13 hairs.
Pinkie remembered exactly what that combination lead to.
She would never forget the final prediction her Granny ever made.
\\\\\\//////
Rainbow Dash pumped her wings as she flew above the air of Ponyville, watching the weather teams instruct a batch of Newfoal pegasi on how to operate the rain systems. Ponyville had not seen a large number of Newfoals over the past few months, only ever getting those that had once held positions of power amongst the monkey-apes.
The pegasus dived to the left and descended to the streets below, coming to a stop in the center of the market. Almost immediately, a thundering sensation rumbled beneath her as the ponies around her stomped and cheered.
“Thank you, thank you,” she spoke to the crowd. “I know, I’m awesome. Thank you.”
Dash began to stride through the crowds, some bowing before her as she scanned the area for a certain somepony. On the other end of the market, she saw the familiar pink trail of a tail, and hurried her pace. In a few more strides, she found who she was looking for and tapped the pegasus on the shoulder.
“’Sup, Fluttershy?”
The butter-yellow pegasus turned and smiled to her friend.
“Oh, hello Rainbow Dash. How are you doing?” she said in her soft voice.
“Awesome as always,” Rainbow emphasized with a stretch of her wings.
“Well, that’s good to hear.”
“I’ve got some great news!” Dash beamed.
“Really? What is it?”
“Hold on a sec.”
Rainbow Dash jumped into the air and began to speak.
“Hey, everypony! We’ve found where the monkeys are hiding, and we’re gonna save ‘em in a week, tops!”
Everypony began cheering and stomping, especially the Newfoals, when the news of the Human’s imminent salvation was declared.
“Queen Celestia’s sending in the Royal Guard Elites now, and we’ll be off by tomorrow! I think that calls for some pre-victory celebration! Who’s with me!?”
\\\\\\//////
Queen Celestia sat upon her throne in the center of Canterlot Castle, staring over the pristine white and gold city as she pulled the Sun across the sky like the puppet of her will that it was. A smile graced her perfect face, causing her legion of Royal Guards to beam like Newfoals.
They were so close to finishing the Salvation.
Equestria’s finest had proven their worth, raising Celestia’s flag on more and more cleansed soil as the scars of mankind were wiped from their eventual expansion. Her little ponies felt the Ley Lines of Equestria strengthen as they shared power with those of New Equis, and were on the verge of a second Magical Revolution.
Celestia examined the murals that were hung in her hall. Each one was an attempt to capture her perfect figure, the majesty of her motions, her beauty, her grace. None had come close, but they were good attempts, nonetheless. Some had her flying across the skies of Equestria, a cleansing fire burning across the landscape as the city of Manehatten rose like a Phoenix. Another had depicted her holding the planet in one hoof as she blew a kiss to it, the Sun wisping off her lips to give life to the planet.
She blinked, and then everything changed.
Her white halls had become red, drenched in blood. Every piece of furnishings, such as the drapes and vases, had been broken and torn, covered in the gore of what remained of her Royal Guards. The paintings changed as well.
One had changed from her standing atop a cliff to show her hanging off of it, her foreleg snapping off as she plummeted beneath the frame. Another that had painted her with a halo as her armies stood by her had changed, her halo replaced with a cage that was piercing her flesh, and her soldiers all slashed in two.
A Human form stood on the opposite end of the hall, bathed in blood and holding a severed head. Celestia took a closer look at the decapitated victim, and was shocked to see that it was her own.
Celestia blinked again, and everything had gone back to normal.
“Y-your highness?”
Celestia looked to her left to see a Royal Guard, shivering and fearful, looking up to her with worried eyes.
“Yes, my little pony?”
“We felt a dark surge of magic, and detected in come into here. Then your eyes did something odd, and…”
“I’m fine, Wind Spear. Thank you for your concern, but I’m not effected easily by dark magics.”
Wind bowed deeply, his muzzle almost digging into the rich carpet.
“I apologize, your highness, I beg your forgiveness for doubting your might.”
Celestia smiled warmly.
“It’s alright, little one. You were merely cautious. If you’ll excuse me, I must go.”
Queen Celestia stood from her throne and ignited her horn, the purest and most powerful magic in all of existence bending reality to teleport the goddess to the more remote chambers of Canterlot Castle. She appeared in a trophy room, and gazed upon her victories. The head of Chrysalis, the horns of Tirek, Discord’s stuffed carcass (posed in her favorite scream of pain), the horn of Sombra, and the stone corpse of her former sister.
She had scanned them all over and over again, trying to find out which spirit had refused to yield to her might. None had any trace of magic.
Annoyed that there might be some little hitch to her perfect world, Celestia took out her rage by starting a firestorm in the Griffon wastes, annihilating three or four villages. Whatever had caused the annoyance wouldn’t matter in the long run, she knew. After all, no Human can live on Equestria, let alone harm get close enough to breathe the blessed air she had walked through.
\\\\\\//////
On the edge of Camp Crystal Lake, there laid a single cabin. At first glance, it would seem like an average cabin that would just seem a bit far from the Camp grounds. Since the Barrier opened, however, a magical surge had suddenly made a change around this specific cabin. All of the plant life that had grown around it turned brown and died before fixing themselves, stuck in an undead state. The reason for this was simple.
The Necronomicon.
A powerful and ancient tome of the world of the dead, and all the magics that can change this force of nature. Ever since the Ley Line had suddenly been revitalized, the Necronomicon had fed off of the magical surge and began to pour it out into all the things around it, as well as the only anchor it had left in the world.
Jason Voorhees.
The murderer in question was currently staring at the small mural the Necronomicon rested on, his mother’s head having rotten away a decade ago. Those alien creatures had been feeding off of the Ley Line, and in doing so had drawn out more magical energy, which fed into the Necronomicon, making him more powerful than ever.
His machete was practically glowing, the magic-infused blood screaming in pain long after the victims had died. Voices were calling to him from all across, from Purgatory, from Hell, and even from Heaven.
They were begging for blood.
Blood of those invaders.
They had mutilated, murdered, and raped the innocence of billions in a campaign that they screamed was for justice.
The voice of not only his mother, but also of thousands of others, shouted at him to kill. To butcher.
To bring justice.
‘Kill for Humanity, Jason,’ they all spoke at once.
Jason gripped his machete tighter than he ever had before as dark magics flowed from beyond the grave, the will of the dead pulsing in his undead veins.
The Necronomicon glowed twice as Jason felt a tear in the magical presence of Crystal Lake. The undead slasher turned towards the door of his cabin and marched out of it.
Before he did, however, the faded calender on the wall flipped to the current date, the Necronomicon altering its pages. As Jason closed the door to his cabin, the calender stopped at Friday the 13th.
Twilight Sparkle watched at the pegasi scouts began to sweep through the air above the forest, brushing by the treetops in large V-formations. Fluttershy had once mentioned that it was like watching a flock of birds migrating, and Pinkie had once insisted that the patrols make quacking sounds to boost morale. One pegasus Commander in particular had been keen on trying to appeal to the good sides of the Bearers of Harmony, or more specifically, Twilight's good side.
The pegasus in question was walking alongside the Princess at the moment, his orange fur standing out against the golden armor, and his blue mane peeking out of the sides a bit. Twilight would have pointed out the regulation error, had it not been somewhat cute to see the guard's personal touch. As they came closer to the camp where the Human leaders were supposed to be, her personal guard's voice drew her attention.
"Your Highness," her guard spoke, "we've arrived."
"Thank you, Commander Flash Sentry," she nodded.
The Commander held a faint blush, as did Twilight, before bowing his head as she stepped down onto the ground. Around her, Twilight could make out decrepit cabins that have long since rotted through their walls. Each cabin seemed to be on the verge of collapse. Behind her, Twilight could see the reason they had dubbed this camp as "Crystal Lake". The water was pure in its form, looking as if it were a piece of Equestria already. The reflection of Ray of Hope made it look like a beautiful work of art. Twilight immediately thought of building a future Summer-home here for vacations.
"Somepony make note of this place," she started, "I want to see if we can start turning this into a resort or residence of some kind when the Barrier passes by."
"Of course, your Highness," one of the Guards said before going to find parchment.
As Twilight walked around the little area they had open to themselves, she watched as multiple stations and tents were set up for a Forward Operating Base. Barrels of the Conversion Potion were stacked together on one side, while sleeping tents were set up closer to the forest. In the center, near a large, destroyed building, a crystal formation was being set up, with several powerful unicorns pouring their power into it. The crystals began to float up into the air before stopping and forming a semi-circle. A magical rift opened up between the crystals in a flash of energy as the gateway into Equestria was opened up.
Before anypony could say anything else, a rainbow blur shot through the portal and did several spins in the air before landing on the roof of one of the cabins, revealing none other than Rainbow Dash.
"Aw, yeah!" she cheered. "Time to round up some apes!"
Two more forms shifted through the portal, one a familiar buttery-yellow, and the other orange.
"Ah'm with Dash on this one," Applejack stated, "let's start roundin' 'em up, y'all."
Fluttershy looked around to see the beautiful environment they were currently in, and breathed in the clean, unspoiled air.
"Wow, I didn't think there would have been anything this clean on this side of the barrier," Fluttershy noted.
Twilight walked up to the pegasus as she spoke.
"Well, considering how old these cabins must be, it's probably like this because nothing's been trying to destroy it."
The two mares smiled widely before going up to Twilight and giving her a hug.
"We missed ya, sugarcube," Applejack commented.
"Oh, I was so worried one of those Humans would have done something to you. But, I'm glad I'm wrong," Fluttershy stated. "I'm sorry I ever doubted you."
"It's fine, Fluttershy. The Humans are pretty savage, after all. I almost felt afraid a few times, I'll admit. But as long as I had friends that I knew would come and help, nothing came close to scaring me."
As they separated, Dash landed beside them and spoke.
"You know, I bet that if I had been here the entire time, we would have already converted all of these apes by now."
"Rainbow, you know how dangerous it is to fly in alone in Human airspace, right?" Twilight asked.
"Pfft, please. Like those, "gun" things could catch up with these," she emphasized with a flap of her wings.
The three other mares rolled their eyes at Rainbow Dash's bragging, but laughed together as they relished their company.
"Oh, there you girls are!"
They all turned to see Rarity and Pinkie Pie moving towards them. With open hooves, they gave another big hug as both mares joined in. Behind them, two Guards were pulling up a heavily armored carriage. They bowed before the Bearers of Harmony before the six mares all separated again. The carriage opened to reveal five necklaces and a single crown. The Elements of Harmony floated onto their respective Bearers as they glowed with the awesome power of Harmony and Friendship.
"Princess," one of the Guards spoke, "we've swept the entire camp and town, and are now setting up stations for the upcoming assault on the Human city."
"Excellent work," Twilight stated.
The Guards left the Bearers to themselves. As they left, Fluttershy spoke up.
"Um, did they say the town was clear?" she asked.
"Sure did," Applejack responded. "Why?"
"Well, didn't Twilight say that we came here because the Human leaders were already setting up camp in town?"
The six mares looked between each other as the revelation set in.
"Wait, you're right," Twilight noted. "This doesn't make any sense. Usually, if the Humans were hiding nearby, and saw even one of us coming, they'd usually spring every trap they set up, or start fighting when we start setting up camp. If they're supposed to be here..."
"Ya think it's a trap?" Rainbow asked.
Twilight shook her head.
"I don't think so. If it was, we'd have detected a bomb before getting in range of any explosion, not to mention that if they had launched any weapons at us, the scouts would have seen them coming already."
"So they just ran away?" Rarity asked.
"I don't think they were here to begin with. Maybe the translators misread the message, and we're in the wrong town."
As they conversed on what could have happened, or what they would likely do if somepony had messed up, they failed to notice the fog creeping away from the edge of the lake, or the Elements dimming in fear of the power the fog carried beneath their very hooves.
\\\\\\////// Sex starts here \\\\\\//////
Two Royal Guard members burst into a bedroom in a decrepit house near the edge of Crystal Lake. The mare, a white-coated, yellow-maned Earth pony with a heart and a spear on her flank, pushes back the stallion, an aqua-coated, green-maned pegasus, to the side. They watched each other as they stripped off their armor, casting it to the floor before the mare moved forward again. This time, she pushed the stallion onto the bed, causing a small cloud of dust to rise as the springs strained to keep the weight of the pony above ground. The bed strained even more when the Earth pony began to crawl up to the pegasus.
"Ready to celebrate?" the mare, Starry, asked as she licked her lips.
"You know it," the stallion, Cloud, responded in a low tone.
Their lips met once more, and the couple leaned into each other. Cloud opened his mouth to try and let his tongue in Starry's mouth, but she responded by pushing back with her own. As their mouths wrestled for dominance, the two began to grind their hips together, the friction raising more heat in their loins than their legs. Starry felt a hot, hard object begin to rub against the fur on her belly, causing her to moan lightly into Cloud's mouth.
The two separated to catch their breath, and as a trail of mixed saliva hung between them, Starry looked down to examine the hot sensation that twitched against her fur. Cloud's erection was not something that could have been taken lightly, at eleven inches long and two-thirds the width of her hoof. Starry subconsciously licked her lips again at the sight of the black rod of hardened flesh, the sheer thought of having it in her moistening her lower lips like a dam leaking.
"Wow, you weren't kidding, were you?" Starry teased.
"It's all for you, my special star," Cloud tried to dirty-talk.
Starry couldn't help but laugh at the remark, almost rolling off the bed as she wrapped her hooves around her barrel. Cloud held an embarrassed look as his blush spread across his muzzle.
"You're mean," he commented dryly.
Starry began to calm down as her grin became more seductive.
"Aw, I'm not that bad. I don't know why everypony insists that I'm..." she turned around and lifted her tail to present the damp folds of pink flesh to her lover, "... such a hardflank."
Starry didn't give Cloud time to think as she scooted back and lowered her flank. She bit her lip as she felt the heat of Cloud's massive dick grind against her entrance, teasing her hungry sex. When she sat down, she felt the heat from Cloud's member spreading through her plump flanks as she felt his heartbeat through his erection.
"These aren't too hard, are they, sweetie?" she said with a playful pout.
Cloud couldn't react as he felt his member squished between the heavenly mounds that were Starry's flanks. He had stared at them nearly his entire career as a Royal Guard, from training, to field tests, to their first deployment, and now at the end of the First Conversion War. All of his fantasies faded away as they were replaced by the events that were transpiring right now, between his legs. Starry saw Cloud's face and smiled proudly as she used nothing but her glorious flanks to bring the stallion to near orgasm, a small dribble of pre dripping out of his tip.
"Now I see why the saying holds up," Starry talked in a slow and soft tone, "cause these flanks make ya hard."
Starry demonstrated her theory by slowly lifting herself by her hind legs, slowly dragging her flanks along the surface of Cloud's throbbing rod. Cloud gripped the bed and threw his head back as he held back a cry of pleasure, while Starry let her tongue hang out of her mouth at the sensation of Cloud's erection grinding against her sex, coating the underside of his penis with her love juices. Slowly and deliberately, Starry brought her flanks down to Cloud's thighs, a slapping sound coming from the impact as they both moaned in pleasure. The mare looked back to her lover with hungry eyes, asking through only her gaze if she should keep going. The look in Cloud's eyes were all the motivation she needed.
Starry took in a deep breath as she lifted herself yet again, slowly dragging her flanks around Cloud's rod. This time, however, was faster, and managed to coat even more of her juices on his penis. Again, she rose and fell from and towards Cloud's inner thighs, slamming her luscious round flanks against his crotch with an increasingly satisfying, and moistening, slapping sound. Cloud had not stayed still, going on instinct as he thrust his hips in tune with Starry's movements. Cloud could feel the building pressure in his dangling sack, just as Starry was growing hungry for more.
The mare lifted herself a bit too high, and, without warning, adjusted herself so that Cloud's cock would line up perfectly with her pink folds. Like some kind of hungry beast, Starry's pussy ate up Cloud's massive staff of pleasure in a single thrust, causing both participants to scream out in ecstasy. As they joined, Starry felt Cloud's heartbeat through his cock, the sensation driving her further into lust than before. Cloud felt the unrivaled warmth of Starry's wet and hungry sex grip every inch of him, trying to pull him in and milk him for all his worth.
Starry continued to bounce up and down, Cloud's length sliding in and out of her in a magnificent orchestra of pleasure-filled moans, the bed springing up and down beneath their motions, and the distant sound of heavy hoofsteps.
Unable to hear the last sound, the two continued to thrust at each other as the pressure began to build to nearly unbearable levels. Starry began to moan louder than before as her pussy quivered in delight of the hot object inside her, while Cloud grunted harder and harder to try and finish alongside his mare, feeling the warm envelope that was Starry shake and grip at his rod with more force after every thrust.
"Cla-Cloud," Starry moaned, "I'm... I'm gonna cum! Cum inside me, Cloud! Cum inside my little pussy!"
"Yes! Ma'aaaaAAAM!" Cloud managed.
At the sound of Starry's pleads for his seeds, Cloud felt the pressure break inside of him as his cock twitched a few more times before depositing his sticky essence into Starry's walls with an almost explosive force.
Thump Thump Thump Thump
Starry screamed as she felt the warm burst of Cloud's orgasm in her deepest parts, and came instantly. Her vagina clamped down hard onto Cloud's cock, pulsating and milking the stallion as she savored every sensation. The feeling of his seed within her folds, slowly melting into her walls, pumping her with a liquid seed that cooled her heat in the greatest possible way.
\\\\\\////// Sex is over (Press "X") \\\\\\//////
After the thrill of the climax had started to fade away, Starry fell backwards and landed on top of Cloud. She turned her head to gaze into the stallion's eyes and stared into the emerald pools.
Thump Thump Thump Thump
They leaned closer to each other and kissed calmer than before, only keeping their lips together as opposed to wrestling with their tongues. When they drew back, Starry smiled warmly and nuzzled into Cloud's neck, right under his chin.
"Wow," was all she could say.
"So were you," Cloud commented.
All Starry did was look up to Cloud's head and breathe in deeply. She could smell Cloud's natural musk, a faint of rust from the armor, a dash of a summer's breeze, and...
... something else.
Apparently, Cloud smelled it too, because he began to sniff around the air.
"What's that weird smell?" he asked.
CRACK
As if to answer Cloud's question, a massive blade shot through the door to the bedroom and began to crack apart the door. The two Guard members watched as the blade was pulled out and slashed through again, this time bringing down a portion of the door. On the other side was a massive Human wearing a mask.
Starry screamed in horror as Cloud gawked at the sight. They started to remove their reproductive parts from each other before the Human sent the door to the ground in a single kick. Before either pony could properly react, the Human raised the blade and brought a swift end to the lovers.
\\\\\\//////
Twilight watched as the pegasi teams did another collective sweep of the area, a few groups pulling carriages filled with unicorns to detect explosives. They had been at this for at least two hours, and nothing was making sense. If this was a trap, which Twilight was beginning to doubt, then there should have been some kind of evidence of tampering with the grounds. So far, there were no signs of anything dug under the surface, nothing waiting in the lake, nothing in the camp, and nothing on the way. Even the Human's orbital satellite things haven't been detected anywhere near the continent, so why had the Humans lead them here?
She thought that, for a moment, this was their unofficial surrender. Maybe they wanted the Equestrian forces to find the place and wait until their leaders had actually arrived and surrendered to them face-to-face. That, or they were on their way to try and attack, which would be a futile effort considering the fleet that hung above the town and camp.
The alicorn was brought out of her thoughts when she heard shouting and saw a large number of Guards galloping in different directions. One went straight up to her and hastily bowed before speaking.
"Your Highness, we've been attacked!"
"Where? By how many?" Twilight asked calmly.
"It- ititit- it came from the town! It, it killed- no, no, it slaughtered almost two dozen Royal Guards!"
"What is it, Guard?" Twilight said forcefully.
The Guard opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off as somepony shouted in the distance before the portal connecting to Equestria gave a piercing screech. The fabric that made up the surface of the portal began to twist and turn in unnatural ways while it began to redden, as if it were being stabbed. Once it looked like a surface of blood, the crystals vibrated and glowed a similarly evil red before simply exploding. Several large shards connected with a number of the Guards, one in particular sailing right into the temple of the Guard Twilight was speaking to.
She shrieked in shock and stumbled backwards as the Guard fell to the ground, his gaze empty as he stared into the void. Several other voices began to shout aloud, the number of the Guards now looking thinner to Twilight than it was before. They still had at least eight hundred on ground, though they were spread thinly looking for whatever trap the Humans had left. Now, Twilight seemed to have found it.
"Egghead, get up!" a familiar voice called to her.
Twilight shook her head and looked up to see Rainbow Dash.
"There's something in town that's killing a bunch of Guards!" she explained. "Let's go kick it's butt!"
Twilight nodded before she pumped her wings and took to the air. From seemingly nowhere, the rest of the Bearers of Harmony began to converge on the two fliers, and soon, all six were off towards the thing that was causing so much panic. Groups of Guards were retreating from the town, screaming things like, "monster," "daemon," and "Human". Altogether, the words were similar, but didn't give many clues as to what was going on. When the six mares made it to the edge of the town, however, they were met with a terrifying sight.
The Human in question was massive and dressed like a professional Nightmare Night costume designer had their way with him. At the moment, he crushed a Guard's midsection underneath his boot, causing them to unload their innards like a tube of toothpaste. The Human simply walked by the mess of gore before punching a pegasus out of the air before the Guard could tackle him. The strike knocked the Guard's jaw clean off, and the Human merely swung a blade by the falling pony, slicing through the enchanted armor like it was butter, and coated himself in what looked like a seconds-fresher layer of blood. The Human walked straight up to an Earth pony Guard who was preparing to buck for all they were worth before he thrust the blade forward in the blink of an eye, drove the blade straight through the pony, and slammed them into a tree, where the blade's tip came out the other end, covered in blood.
"Hold it right there, freak!" Rainbow shouted.
The Human looked to them so fast, it should have snapped its neck with the force alone. The six mares stared into the Human's eyes, paralyzed by the almost dead gaze, as if he was alive through nothing but rage. He pulled the blade out of the tree and pony, letting the corpse slump to the ground unceremoniously. With a flick of the wrist, the Human's blade shed off the blood as the Human tilted his head, looking at the Bearers the way a confused dog would with a new toy.
Twilight swallowed in an attempt to wet her dry throat, keeping her eyes on the blade. As she did, Fluttershy looked up to him with soft eyes, and spoke as if he were just another one of the animals she nurtured, which seemed quite fitting, given its nature.
"Hello there, big guy. Why don't we all just calm down."
The Human did not move or blink, watching Fluttershy with his undead, wrathful gaze.
"Good, good. I'm sure you're in a lot of pain right now, aren't you?"
The Human stayed perfectly still, looking as though he wasn't breathing.
"I know something that'll fix you right up. Will you let us help you?"
Before the Human could respond, a Guard came up from behind and flew up behind the Human before dumping two vials of the Potion onto him. The pink mist clouded around the Human's form as he gave a surprised sound that reminded Twilight of something drowning. After what stretched into a few minutes, the sounds stopped, and the haze began to clear away.
"Told ya it was gonna be a breeze," Rainbow bragged.
"It was just one this time, Rainbow Dash, that managed to kill dozens of Guards," Rarity stated.
"Yeah, but so did that one team of Humans. What were they, Seal Six, or something?"
"Nice work, Guard," Twilight complimented.
Before the Guard could thank the Princess for the praise, however, the familiar blade imbedded itself into the Guard's side, right underneath his wing, and another hand grabbed the Guard by the opposite wing. He was lifted into the air before the blade cut straight through his body and pulled him apart, his internal organs worming out like a rolled of toilet paper being dissected.
The six mares watched in horror as the pink haze of the Conversion Potion gave way to reveal the same Human standing before them, unchanged physically, but now radiating some unknown, dark power.
"It's working off of some kind of magic!" Twilight stated. "Girls! Element time!"
Rainbow gave Twilight a deadpan look.
"We've gotta work on that."
"Firing Orbital Friendship Cannon!" Pinkie shouted.
The six mares concentrated on the energies that lay within their necklaces and crown, a rainbow of Harmony magic coursing between them. The rainbow began to spiral around them before it shot straight up and arched high above the trees. They could hear the cheering of the Royal Guard as the rainbow shot downwards and slammed into the Human. He began to writhe in pain, fighting the power of Friendship while one hand clutched his head. The Human fell to one knee and sank the massive blade into the dirt as the dark magic began to crack and evaporate.
They were almost through with whatever dark forces were controlling him before they heard a crying sound. It sounded like a colt, and it was coming from the Human. He looked like he was crying, breathing raggedly as bloody tears fell from his eyes.
"Jason," a disembodied voice spoke within the magical energies.
The Human looked to the forest, where a kind-looking woman was hugging a child. The woman looked to Jason, the six mares heard him called, and smiled at him.
"They can't hurt you, Jason. Not anymore. Your mother loves you. The people believe in you. It is the will of God, Jason."
Suddenly, the ground beneath Jason's blade glowed with a reddish light, while a small beam of light from above shone onto his back. Struggling underneath the awesome might of the Elements of Harmony, Jason gripped the blade's handle with both hands.
"You had your life taken away unjustly, Jason. These six have done the same to billions. They have no right to take life away from you again."
Jason began to pull out the blade from the ground and stood up on both legs before glaring at the Bearers of Harmony.
"Bring justice, Jason. Bring justice for mother."
"RRRAAAAAAAGGGGGHHH!!!!"
With a roar that echoed through the realms of Earth, Equestria, Tartarus, Heaven, and Hell, Jason raised his machete high above his head and slammed it into the ground.
The moment the blade moved, a fine line was made it the rainbow that connected them. A second passed, and the line spawned cracks. Another second later, those cracks spread farther and wider. Three seconds passed, and the rainbow shattered.
In a blinding flash, Jason had broken the Elements of Harmony.
In the next few hours, he would break the Bearers.
A massive blast rocked through the air as bolts of magic went flying in every direction. Pegasi scrambled to get out of the way as Harmony magic and the powers the Human threw out began to scatter like shrapnel from an explosion. Bolts of Harmony magic were tainted, the flying teams soon found out, as several pegasi were hit and turned to statues that plummeted to the ground below, shattering on impact. Thousands of lights from the blast had simply dissipated in the air or collided with the ground, but hundreds of those bits of power had found new targets.
Entire teams of scouts were ripped from the sky, brought down in a way similar to Human Anti-Air fire. Some pegasi were desperate enough to try and save a comrade or two, only to watch with horror as their friends slipped from their grasp and broke like glass far below. Almost a dozen of the smaller airships were hit by the beams of Harmony magic, and had entire sections turned to stone. Their parts would darken to a dull grey before the weight either became too much for the balloons to handle, or the balloons themselves were hit and broke the seals that kept the ships in the air.
Those were the results of the Harmony magic.
The magic that the Human unleashed seemed to seek out the ponies like magical missiles. Each one had a different effect. A few had simply set some ponies of fire, burning away their flesh and bones while melding their nerves with molten armor, causing them to scream in agony until their hearts and brains were all that was left. Some had turned to bolts of ice, freezing up muscle and fur into a single block before breaking itself off, throwing off the balance of several dozen fliers before the ice-cold sensations reached their nerve centers, locking up their limbs so they would fall to the ground or wait for another bolt of magic to strike them. A great number of the bolts were black, and simply caused the ponies they hit to collapse to the ground. After a few seconds, however, their skin would burst open and fill the air with a foul cloud of death and rotting flesh, revealing black and green innards to the world.
Chaos overcame the camp as hundreds of ponies screamed in agony and fear, the wrath of the damned finally seeing justice delivered to a truly unholy army.
Billions watched from beyond the grave as their justice would be served by a true demon.
\\\\\\//////
Captain Moore watched with wide eyes, along with the remaining leaders of the Human Resistance, as bolts of magic slammed into everything they could, airships being ripped from the sky as ponies began to fall to their deaths. Beside him, the leaders of the PHL were also shocked.
"The Elements of Harmony," Representative Coco gasped.
"They failed," Representative Spitfire finished the thought.
Moore felt the urge to smile and cheer rising, but waited with his breath caught in his throat as the slaughter continued.
"Sir," the Lieutenant spoke, "permission to play this across the base?"
The Captain felt like he should say yes, to let everyone in the base- no, the whole world- see that they had finally struck a huge blow against Equestria's military. However, what they would see here could get far too graphic for the shelters that the civilians were occupying, and the noise would likely draw unwanted attention to the base. Not to mention the possibility of Jason not being able to kill the Bearers could damage whatever little morale they had left.
"Permission denied," Moore replied. "Let's just wait and see how this goes."
\\\\\\//////
Jason began to recover from the blast of magic, and shook his head to clear his senses. Around him, a majority of the town was blown apart, buildings reduced to their foundations and paved streets blown off the ground. He got to his feet and examined the six intruders that had tried to kill him. They were all stirring awake, trying to recover from their failure to do what few others could. Jason shifted his grip on the machete as he began to walk straight towards them, intent on ending their lives.
\\\\\\//////
Twilight began to stir awake, blinking away her tiredness and rubble from her eyes. Every fiber of her being felt sore and burning. Every muscle she moved screamed in pain at her, while every organ inside her felt like relocating somewhere far away. She turned onto her hooves and heard something metallic clink to the ground as a weight left her head. Twilight opened her eyes and gasped in shock at what she saw.
The Element of Magic, broken and dead.
The once ultimately powerful weapon was now in pieces at her hooves, a mere shadow at best of what it once was. The gold that had made up its majority was now brown and crumpled up, the power having turned it to rust and breaking what little stability the crown once had. The gem, the Cutie Mark of Twilight Sparkle, the once unfathomably beautiful light that shone hope in any corner, was now grey, dull, and broken into shards, forgetting that it had ever held any kind of shape.
Twilight looked to her friends to see them grieving their losses as well. Each and every Element was broken, rusted, reduced to dust, dulled, and broken apart. Rarity was having a panic attack as she tried to hold the dust that made up her necklace together in a vain attempt to repair the Element. Applejack was slamming a hoof into the ground in rage, angry at the Human world for destroying one of the most precious things in her life, yet again. Rainbow was stunned beyond any actions, simply staring at the pile of rust and dust like it was her own casket at a funeral. Fluttershy was crying as she looked around and saw the bodies scattered and broken around them. Pinkie Pie had lost the poofiness of her mane, and her fur darkened, leaving only a shell of sadness as she stared beyond Twilight, looking terrified. Twilight looked into the eyes of the party mare, and saw the form of the Human, Jason.
The alicorn turned around to see the Human completely unharmed by the blast and strolling casually over to them. The same blade was still in his grip, unchanged by the magical power he had thrown at them. She looked up into his eyes, and screamed in fear.
"Protect the Bearers!" a gruff voice called out from above.
Suddenly, Jason was attacked by three pegasi Guards, all slamming into his midsection at incredible speeds, trying to slow him down. Their impacts did little more than make Jason stumble a bit, taking a single step back as he reacted. The machete was raised high before slashing downwards. The action resulted in one Guard having his head chopped cleanly in two, falling to the ground in two directions as another one screamed in pain as his wing fell from his side. Jason raised a knee to the falling Guard, snapping his head backwards to the point where his neck almost ripped open. As the second one fell, Jason brought his blade back through the third Guard's neck, decapitating him.
More pegasi Guards came down from above, having survived the burst of magic only to fall to the Human's wrath. Left and right, Guards were falling in pieces, having been either shredded by the machete or broken by Jason's inhuman strength. Two Guards tried to rush him from the right, only to cry in agony as Jason ducked down, grabbed the closest wings, and ripped them off. He took the severed appendages and jammed the bones into the neck of another Guard that tried to attack him from behind. He kept the momentum going by lifting the impaled Guard up and slamming their skull into another two Guards that were flying right at him, crushing their heads in a shower of grey-matter and blood. Jason's machete flew out and slammed into the forehead of another attacker, their body flipping in the air from the sudden introduction of an outside force. As their body flew by, Jason gripped the machete and used it to cleanly decapitate another Guard before stomping down on one more Guard, embedding them into the ground as their innards exploded from both ends.
More and more Guards fell prey to the monster as the Bearers of Harmony began to recover.
"What in the hay was that!?" Applejack demanded. "The Elements are supposed ta be unbeatable!"
"Well, I don't bucking know, AJ!" Rainbow replied angrily. "What I do know, is that this ASS needs to DIE!"
Without waiting for her friends, Rainbow Took off into the sky.
"Twilight, stop her!" Rarity stated.
"I can't," Twilight responded. "Not without breaking something in her, or more likely, snapping her neck!"
"Rainbow, get back down 'ere right now!" Applejack shouted above.
When Rainbow was at a high enough altitude, she stopped and took in the sight. In the distance, she could see the dim lights of whatever ape-built city was waiting to be conquered, and refocused her attention on the Human below. He was currently fighting seven Guards, two of which were hanging off his back, trying and failing to slow him down as three more attacked from the distance, being the only unicorn survivors of the blast. She watched as Jason swatted one Guard aside with a backhand, collapsing his skull and sending him to the ground before he slashed the eyes of another charging one. The Guard screamed in pain before Jason slammed a fist into his head, crushing his brain and leaving a large hole. Finally irritated by the extra baggage, Jason grabbed the hooves of the Guard hanging off of his left side, and held them in front of him. He sliced their midsection, and shook them about, forcing the intestines and organs out of the Guard before dropping him to the ground. Jason grabbed the second one and spun around, throwing them at one of the unicorn Guards. They collided harshly, the unicorn having his head snapped back by the collision while the thrown Guard broke his spine on impact, both dying from the impressive show of strength. Distracted by the death of his fellow Guards, the second unicorn failed to notice a blade flying right at him until it spun by his head. Slowly, the front of his face slid off from the rest of his head as the machete slammed into a piece of wall behind him. Both halves of the Guard's brain flopped onto the ground when he collapsed. The final unicorn Guard began to fire off random Kinetic spells, trying to push back the monster, but every shot didn't even exist to Jason. He simply grabbed the Guard by the neck before tightening his grip, the Guard's eyes almost popping out of his head as his neck became more narrow than a drinking straw. Jason let the Guard fall to the ground as he plucked the bloodied weapon from the dusty brick of the ruined building.
"HEY, UGLY!" Rainbow Dash called below.
Jason looked up to see the prismatic mare prepare herself for a dive-bomb.
"Eat dirt, you Nightmare Night stand-in!"
Rainbow Dash soared downwards, her hooves out before her as she plummeted straight to the ground, intent on ending this battle herself. When she got close enough to the ground, she spread her wings and shot forward, heading straight for the Human. In the blink of an eye, Rainbow collided with Jason, hooves-to-chest, with enough force to cause a small explosion.
Jason shot backwards from the impact, sailing through the air until he came upon a building. The murderer blew straight through the walls of the house, bringing the entire place down before flying straight out, covered in dust. While he was still in the air, Rainbow came back down and flew underneath the behemoth. She delivered a straight-upwards buck with all of her might. She heard several things snap as the Human was sent airborne. Now flying above the town of Crystal Lake, Jason waited as Rainbow came around and slammed all fours into Jason's face, sending him down into the ground. Upon contact, Jason kicked up like a stone on a lake and tumbled into the town, blasting through two more buildings before skidding to a halt, six feet under.
Rainbow cheered as she relished her sweet victory, chanting her own name and dancing like somepony with a serious mental disorder. Or a Newfoal.
"Who's the best? I'm the best! Yeah!"
As she continued to cheer and whoop, the dirt that concealed the murderer began to shift upwards. In the middle of a cheer involving the spelling of her own name, Rainbow looked down with wide eyes to see Jason stand up in the end of the ditch, the dirt and dust falling off of his form like some kind of wakening giant. Rainbow cracked her neck as she stretched.
"Still up, huh?" she asked, not caring for a response. "Let's fix that."
Jason simply began to walk out of the ditch, his heavy boots sinking into the dirt before clanking onto the street. Rainbow flapped her wings hard and flew upwards. She could feel a layer of frost growing on her fur as she neared the edge of the atmosphere, her lungs burning as the air became almost too thin to breathe. Rainbow turned around and gazed down at the world, seeing the edges curve a bit as she held her height. With a mighty flap, she rocketed downwards. As she locked onto Jason's form, she began to flap her wings harder and harder as a mach-cone began to form around her. The resistance became almost bone-crushingly intense as Rainbow's barrier began to shimmer with magical power. With one last flap that consumed her entire focus, Rainbow shot forward.
A massive eruption of power and light burst behind the prismatic mare as her speed doubled. The pegasus surged forward while trailing a solid rainbow streak behind her every motion. She aimed perfectly downwards and at the last second, just as every single fracture in the asphalt, turned upwards and prepared a hind leg to strike the Human. As she passed him by as nothing more than a rainbow streak, she delivered a powerful buck to his masked face, causing him to reel back and grasp at his head.
Smirking as she knew of her imminent victory, Rainbow turned sharply before landing three kicks to Jason's back, making him stumble forward as he was attacked by a fighter that was too fast to see. Again, Rainbow turned in a fashion that would kill anything else and used her forelegs to pound the back of Jason's head. This time, however, Jason recovered and tried to introduce her neck to his machete. Being the blur of motion she was, Rainbow simply turned and evaded the strike, the blade not even grazing her fur.
"Gotta do better than that, idiot!" she gloated.
Rainbow decided to play with her opponent, and began to fly around Jason and tapped him occasionally to egg him on. The Human growled in anger as he swiped at the air, trying to butcher the pegasus that annoyed him to no end. Rainbow would bump him on the shoulder or knee, making him stumble, before she backed off and let him slash at the trail she left. After a few more bumps to the noggin, Jason had tossed aside his machete and was trying to swat Rainbow away like a fly.
Deciding that playtime was over, Rainbow increased the distance between her and the Human before turning 180 degrees and charging straight at him. Jason growled and began to thunder his way towards the incoming rainbow, stretching his right arm as he did. The rest of the Bearers watched intently as the fight was drawing to a close.
Everything seemed to slow down as Rainbow Dash was about to end the fight. She put everything she had into the last few flaps, bringing her to a greater speed than she had ever tried before. Jason's massive form shot forward as he pushed his entire weight into a shoulder charge, intent on meeting the mare head-on. The Bearers knew the Human stood no chance against their speedy friend, considering they had seen her ram through Human fighter jets without so much as a scratch.
Rainbow's form finally collided with Jason's shoulder.
CRACK
Time seemed to freeze in utter shock of what had just happened.
Rainbow's head met the Human's shoulder, but instead of ramming it aside, it flew off in the direction of Jason's charge. A shocked look graced Rainbow's dying face as bits of blood and bone exploded from the stump that once connected the two. Behind the corpse that was once Rainbow Dash, the trail of multicolored light shattered like glass, falling apart into dust as the world seemed to lose a bit of color. Rainbow's corpse was thrown into the ground as a cloud of dust and dirt burst from the point of collision, leaving the body looking like a broken toy that a foal had thrown at several walls. The head of the Bearer of Loyalty rolled to the ground and stopped on the right cheek, blood trailing out of her mouth and neck.
Rainbow Dash had used her most powerful technique, her Sonic Rainboom, and slammed into the Human at full-speed. And now her head was laying in the dirt nearly thirty hooves-paces away from the rest of her.
The Human had charged at barely a running speed, and shouldn't have been able to withstand a fiftieth of the force dealt by Rainbow Dash's tackle. Yet, like some kind of true monster, it not only survived the attack, but used Rainbow's own momentum against her, and severed her head with a mere shoulder-charge.
Rage filled Twilight's vision as she began to charge her magical power into her horn.
"You... You MONSTER!!!" she shouted, lavender magic erupting from her form like a volcanic eruption.
The masked Human turned to see Twilight's enraged look before she fired off a massive bolt of magic, nearly twice her own size.
The telekinetic strike had all of Twilight's magical power poured into it, enhanced with her rage and fueled by a need to kill the abomination of nature. The purple bolt flew through the air, the nearby houses being reduced to shrapnel by being near her discharge as it closed in on Jason. Left without any room to react, all the Human could do was gaze into the killer magical shot that would unavoidably hit its mark.
The burst of energy from the collision blew back dirt and rubble with enough force to turn each and every piece of debris into a killer projectile. Twilight tried to reach out and grab Rainbow's remains, but before her magic could reach the corpse, shrapnel from the blast had already reduced it to a pile of cyan fur and red chunks, scattering about the area like some kind of feed for a horrible animal. Thankfully, Rarity had brought up a shield powerful enough to keep the rest of the debris from rendering their forms to ribbons as well.
Moments passed by, the group of former-bearers waiting for the winds to settle. After what seemed like a decade, the winds finally died down, and Rarity lowered the shield.
The five remaining former-bearers grimaced at the sight of the damage to the abandoned town as Twilight strolled up to the crater left by her unrestrained attack.
"I can't believe this," Rarity spoke shakily. "Rainbow..."
"She's..." Fluttershy couldn't find the words, only able to cry as the images of her best friend being decapitated.
"At least she didn't die in vain," Twilight remarked grimly.
"Twilight, how can you say something so cold!?" Rarity scorned. "We're not Humans! Don't say things like that!"
Twilight turned to face her friends, tears pouring down her face.
"I know we're not! But this is a monster they created to kill all of us! If Rainbow hadn't taken action-"
"She'd still be here now!" Applejack countered, interrupting the alicorn. "Why didn't ya stop that thing when it destroyed the Elements!? Dash could still be here if ya put that varmint down like it was meant to be killed!"
"Applejack, these animals may be violent, but we're trying to save them!" Fluttershy countered. "Rainbow tried to-"
"An' look where it got her!" Applejack shouted back, her voice cracking as she failed to hold in her tears.
While the five were arguing, none of them noticed a familiar figure rise from the crater.
""What's important is that it's dead and we have an advantageous launching point for our final assault!" Twilight assured them.
"An' what about Rainbow, huh!? Ya chopped her inta as many bits and pieces as the darn monster!" Applejack retorted.
None still noticed as the figure began to walk out of the crater, and onto the street.
"Girls, please! We're degrading ourselves to the level of the beasts we've sworn to fight!" Rarity stated.
Two of them widened their eyes at the sight of the familiar form closing in on them.
"Uh... g-g-girls?" Pinkie whimpered as her pupils shrunk to pinpricks, her hair loosing its poofiness.
The other three looked to the area of the crater and froze in shock.
Jason was walking down the street straight for them...
... with his head snapped backwards.
Rarity felt the bile rising to her throat as she tried to comprehend the sight before her, while the rest simply screamed on the inside.
The Human reached up and, without slowing or faltering, snapped his head around back into place perfectly, his killer eyes and terrifying mask barely scratched by the attack. As he closed in on Twilight, the alicorn began to slowly shuffle away, her eyelids twitching as she began to hyperventilate.
"N-n-no... No! No, that was enough to break one of your Destroyers in half! You couldn't have survived that! How did you survive!?" Twilight screamed in fear.
Jason responded by raising his fist into the air, and slamming it right onto Twilight's head. The alicorn tried to erect a shield, but the moment the light came into existence, the Human's fist crashed straight through, as if her magic was merely glass. The fist collided with her skull, though it was clear that he was holding back, as Twilight's skull cracked under the force, but did not shatter completely. As she slowly lost consciousness, Jason raised his boot, ready to stomp the Princess to death.
"STOP!"
Jason looked up to the source of the shout, and froze entirely.
Fluttershy was hovering right before him, her eyes wide and intense as the power of her Stare overcame the unbreakable will of Jason Voorhees.
Fluttershy kept her eyes wide open, intensifying her Stare as she hovered towards the behemoth.
"We come here, trying to help you, and you repay us by slaughtering the mares and stallions that are risking their lives to bring peace!? I don't think so, mister!" she emphasized by jutting forward.
What happened next would have left those in Hell shocked, made monsters sick, and envy a perpetual nightmare.
Jason Voorhees retreated from the butter-yellow pegasus.
His steps were shaky and his hands were trembling in shock as his cold eyes gazed into the overwhelming abyss. It was a look unlike anything he had encountered before. This one felt as commanding as it did familiar, and it was that familiarity that made the killer falter. Only in his memories did a look barely reminiscent of this one echoed, haunting him. Scolding him. Judging him.
"We only wanted to help make your world better! You were all going to kill each other! And now you think you can get away with killing my friends!? Unacceptable!" Fluttershy emphasized with a stomp of her hoof.
The moment the hoof made contact with the ground, Jason tumbled backwards and started to crawl away from her, tears streaking down his faded mask.
Rarity and Applejack took the opportunity Fluttershy was providing to collect Twilight. The moment Rarity lifted Twilight from the asphalt, however, the alicorn passed out. Applejack braced herself as she carried the unconscious princess and began to trot away alongside Rarity. Both of them turned to see Fluttershy advancing on the monstrous Human.
Jason Voorhees continued to crawl backwards from the pegasus until his back hit a brick wall. Unable to summon enough strength to smash through it or the willpower to fight back, he watched in horror as Fluttershy advanced upon him. Seeing her rear back a front hoof, Jason braced for whatever was about to come his way.
What he did not expect, however, was for the pegasus to wrap its arm around his side in an attempt to hug him.
Fluttershy brought her other hoof up to wipe the tears off of Jason's mask as she smiled up to him.
"There there, it's going to be alright," she cooed.
The pegasus raised her hoof further up to pet Jason's head to calm him down.
"You were just unlucky in life. Nopony blames you for what happened. You're only Human."
The relenting authority that her Stare once had was gone, replaced by a tone far more familiar to Jason.
It was the voice of a mother.
"It's going to be okay now, I pro- HRGK!" Fluttershy choked out as a hand clamped onto her throat.
"Fluttershy!" Rarity cried out as she witnessed the Human strangle the pegasus.
Jason held her out as he stood back up, staring down into her eyes with his own fury.
No one could replace his true mother. He had been betrayed before, and he won't fall for it again.
Fluttershy tried to reassert herself through her stare, but all she saw was pure hatred and the inevitability of death.
Her will crushed by the glare of Jason, she put up no resistance to his actions. Without breaking eye contact, Jason shifted the pegasus in his grip so that either of his thumbs were beside her eye sockets.
"Fluttershy, get out of there!" Applejack screamed as both her and Rarity debated on helping her or running away.
Jason slowly dragged his thumbs across Fluttershy's eyes until they were centered in each of her pupils. Over the course of what felt like an eternity, he pushed inwards. Fluttershy shrieked in pain as Jason's thumbs ruptured through her eyes and dug deeper into her skull without resistance. She began to flail in his grip, only being held up by her skull as she wildly kicked with her hind legs, her wings flapping without any intended direction. After agonizing seconds, the grip on Fluttershy's skull began to intensify, feeling small bits of her head already starting to give way.
In a single motion, Jason ended her suffering.
Fluttershy's entire head, from her eye sockets to her temples, cracked and caved inwards as her entire body went stiff. Bits of her skull and greymatter dripped to the dirt below as her remains went limp.
Jason tossed her corpse to the ground without ceremony and began his advance on the remaining ponies.
"Fluttershy!" Rarity shrieked as she watched the monster-shaped Human brutally murder the pegasus.
"She's gone, Rares! We gotta get Twi outta here, now!" Applejack shouted as she pushed a foreleg into the unicorn's barrel.
Fear overrode Rarity's grief as she looked up to see Jason stalking towards them, undeterred by the gore that stained his boots. The fashionista turned and galloped as fast as she could, while Applejack trotted with Twilight in tow.
Jason looked on at the retreating ponies as he scanned the sky. Another airship was closing in on Crystal Lake and unloaded a platoon of pegasi Guards, who were diving towards Jason.
"Human spotted! Prepare the vials!" the one in front shouted.
As the potion clouded the ruins of the camp, Jason faded into the mist.
\\\\\\//////
"Commander Sentry, sir," a unicorn said with a salute.
"At ease, Private, report," the orange pegasus said.
"Sir, we've found the Bearers of Harmony."
"Good. How are they?" Sentry asked with a smile.
He knew that they would be alright. Nothing in this world would have been able to stop Twilight and the gals. He only wondered if-
"They're in a terrible condition, sir. Ladies Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are dead and Lady Pinkie Pie is nowhere to be found."
Flash Sentry felt his face fall into shock as his heart froze.
Around them, there were gasps of shock and looks of pure, unadulterated terror as the Guards processed the information.
"Wha... what?" Commander Sentry tried to process. "No... no, that, that can't be true, we've been separated from the battle-group for all of ten minutes! There aren't any Human vehicles anywhere in sight! No gunshots! How could two of Equestria's greatest heroines be de... no, I won't even acknowledge it until you can prove this horrible lie!"
"S-sir... we found Miss Fluttershy's body, and Miss Rainbow's head."
Flash Sentry took a step back from the Private as though Celestia herself would have set him aflame for the news itself, were she here. Instead, the Private had a grim look of defeat on his face, his eyes staring out into oblivion as he gazed down at nothing.
"Get... g-get the other Bearers aboard, right. Now. We're leaving."
The immediate group of Guards went about their work on the airship's main controls and began to lower the balloon into the small camp.
\\\\\\//////
Rarity sobbed to herself as she curled up into the blanket in her cabin.
After having been picked up by the Royal Guard, they had escorted her, Applejack and Twilight into the ship's medical wing to be properly treated for their physical wounds.
However, no amount of therapy could help Rarity with the ones that the Human had caused in her very soul.
The once posh and confident unicorn cried and bawled as she reflected on the horrible death of her friends.
Rainbow... always so brash and willing to go straight into action. She had given her the courage to push through the most grim times during the start of the War, and had always been capable of handling everything that was put in front of her. Now, though...
Fluttershy... the sweetest, most innocent one of them. She was dedicated to helping to save any creature, no matter how violent and repulsive, if her care of the Newfoals had was anything to go by. And how was she rewarded? By getting her hoof bitten by the dogs she was trying to feed...
She wept for the death of her friends, not caring for the stains she set in the fine satin sheets nor the mascara ruining her own fur. Her closest family had been cut short by two, maybe even three precious lives.
"F-f-fluttershy-ahahahyyyyy!" she cried out in pain.
She pounded her hoof against the bed...
... just in time to drown out the sound of a thump in the cabin's closet.
"W-why did it have to be them! R-rainbo-oh-oh-ow! AAAAAHHHH!"
The closet door opened without even the slightest creak, the expensive magical oil lubricating the joints enough to silence the friction as a mud-coated boot stained the carpet.
"It should have been me! It should have been somepony else! Anypony else, damn it!" she cursed. "Why couldn't that monster have taken me instead!?"
In that moment, Rarity heard the creak of the floorboards.
As soon as she turned around, she gazed into the abyss, and realized that her wish was about to come true.
Captain Shining Armor strutted through the halls of Canterlot with a tension in the back of his throat. He felt it since he had received the report from Commander Sentry, and was pale since.
He walked up to the doors to the Throne Room and rapped on the doors twice.
"Enter, Captain," the voice said behind it.
Shining Armor slowly opened the door and made his way inside, his training in the Guard the only thing keeping him from breaking down into a nervous wreck.
At the other end of the empty hallway was Empress Celestia herself, waiting for his report. Shining bowed deeply and held his position for the mandatory thirty seconds before rising.
"Your Majesty," he croaked out, "we have received the report from Commander Flash Sentry regarding the Crystal Lake site."
Celestia smiled as she levitated a cup of tea to her muzzle.
"Good. How many have we managed to save from a gruesome fate?" she asked before taking a sip of her tea.
"A-actually, your majesty... there were, massive casualties."
Celestia sighed as she put the cup down.
"As to be expected when landing so close to enemy territory. However, it was for a greater good, and they shall be remembered. How many were lost in the initial force."
"A-all of them."
CRK
Shining flinched as the stone marble in front of him broke into a crater. Celestia's look had gone from her usual motherly one to that of fury.
"Would you care to clarify?" she asked softly.
"The ships and ponies that were sent in the first wave were all slaughtered, the airships torn apart by what looks like lightning strikes and magic."
"Those traitorous curs of the rebellion!" Celestia shouted as she stomped a hoof, all of Canterlot trembling under her might. "What of Twilight and her friends?"
As Shining regained his stance, he pushed his luck to deliver more of the news.
"I-I'm afraid that two of the Bearers of Harmony were Killed in Action, and the Elements themselves were, according to Dame Applejack, destroyed. We're afraid that Dame Pinkamena is missing currently."
The room began to heat up as Celestia's rage grew.
"Tell me we wiped out the traitors and the Humans that did this."
Shining armor gulped.
"A-according to Dame Applejack's report... there was... only one Human there... and he couldn't be killed. Rainbow Dash tried to crush him, Fluttershy tried to Stare him down, and even Twilight herself unleashed a massive blast onto the Human, but... she said it just... kept getting back up."
There are no words, to this day, that could convey the storm that erupted within Celestia.
\\\\\\//////
Applejack wiped her muzzle as she came up to the stairwell. It had been an exhausting few hours on the airship and she was ready to fall over and sleep for the rest of the week.
She was currently on her way down to the barracks deck to see if Rarity needed somepony to comfort her, and perhaps share in her pain. The mare could barely shoulder the burden of making a dress, how could she handle the deaths of two of their closest friends?
As she stepped down through the ship's sealed stairway, she let loose a few tears for her departed friends. She tried to steel herself, saying that there would be time to mourn later, but she couldn't hold back the raw pain in her soul.
She pushed open the door to the deck, and-
plop
Applejack paused as she felt her hoof land in a puddle. Curious as to how a top-of-the-line airship could have a leak this large, she wiped away her tears to see...
... blood.
Her entire hoof, up to her wrist, was soaked in the crimson liquid.
She quickly looked down to see the entire entryway was almost flooded with blood, nearing the doorway.
Horror seized her throat, denying her a chance to vocalize her terror as she examined the pooling blood. She traced the flow of it and found a mess of bodies littering the hallway.
There were dead Guards everywhere, their bodies mutilated and their insides pouring out of various wounds. Most had their barrels sliced open wide enough that their intestines were rolling out over themselves while a few had their jaws ripped clean off. One pony's head was severed from his body, the neck crushed in such an angle that it looked like something had stomped him to death.
Applejack's eyes widened as her jaw twitched, only a few small noises coming out of her as she tried to back away.
A familiar shriek of terror echoed through the hallway.
"Rarity!" Applejack shouted.
Applejack carefully moved over the streams of blood and piles of gore as she raced to try and find her friend's room. As she did, she found more corpses in her path, soaking the fine carpet of the hallways a deep red. There was one body crashed through a door, the splinters cutting into his neck, while another one was pulverized into a grate in the ceiling, dangling while blood dripped from the vent.
Applejack turned a corner and burst into one of the rooms.
"Rarity!"
She looked around the room in a panic, distraught that it looked like there wasn't a struggle, and almost nothing was out of place. The bathroom door was wide open and nopony was inside. Applejack turned around to try and see where her friend could have gone, or if there was any sign of the murderer.
Looking back outside, she knew that there was only one monster that could have done that, but she knew that it couldn't have made it here, it couldn't have. They were in the air and had some of Equestria's finest aboard, there's no way...
She looked down to find a dried spot of mud in the carpet in the shape of a Human's boot.
"No, no no no no," Applejack whispered to herself as she approached the closet it was in front of.
She slowly reached out to open the closet door, and swung it open before taking a step back.
Inside the closet was Rarity, sitting with her back to the door.
Applejack sighed in relief that her friend was in one piece, and moved up to the white unicorn.
"Rarity, thank Celestia ya'll are alright."
Rarity did nothing to respond, sitting there still as a statue.
"Don't worry, that monster's gone for now. Ah don't know where it is, but ya need ta get outta here right now, come on."
Applejack grabbed Rarity by the shoulder and pulled her.
Rarity's corpse fell over and revealed her fate.
Rarity's eyes were impaled by knitting needles dead center in her corneas, her neck split open with a wire hanger's hook sticking out of her mouth.
"AAAHHH!" Applejack screamed as she backed away from the mutilated display of her friend.
Applejack tried to feel something as she back away from the corpse, trying to comprehend how she had met her end.
But instead, all she could feel was weightlessness.
... and the room turning.
... and something pulling her rear leg.
Applejack struggled to come to her senses as the masked Human from Crystal Lake lifted her up by her hind leg, coming eye-to-eye with the terrified farm pony.
Before she could decide on how to react or feel in any way, Jason made the decision for her.
Pain.
Jason brought his arm back before grabbing Applejack's left foreleg at the base. In a second, he pulled and Applejack screamed in agony. She could feel bones and muscles break under her fur as the murderer stretched her limb to its absolute limit. She tried to rear back her other back hoof to buck him in the face, but only managed to slap his mask in a pathetic display. She tried to pry the killer's steel-like grip off of her foreleg, but didn't manage to make him budge.
Then, she snapped.
Literally.
Applejack cried out in pain as her left foreleg was ripped off of her body, the nerves tearing last as Jason pulled if off of her before tossing it to the side. He grabbed the other foreleg and repeated the process slowly, tearing both of her front legs off in less than a minute.
The apple family mare wailed in suffering as she felt her forelegs ripped off of her body, and prayed for it to end.
When the second foreleg came off, Jason adjusted his grip and held the mare upside down, gripping her by both of her hind legs.
Applejack looked up with a pleading tear in her eyes as she shook her head.
"N-no, please," she begged.
Jason pulled his arms in separate directions as the mare screamed. Applejack could feel her pelvic region creak and crack from the strain, and flailed her barrel to try and escape his grasp.
After what felt like an agonizing eternity, Applejack's pain reached unfathomable heights as her rear end split open, her lower organs being granted air for the first time.
Unable to properly make any sound, Applejack felt herself paralyze internally as her brain shut itself down to keep the pain away. She could feel the numbing sensation of her spine being torn down the middle as her killer stretched his arms out further, until only her head remained.
Satisfied with his work, Jason suddenly released the remains of Applejack and let her fall on top of her friend's corpse. The mare was split down the middle from her rear to the back of her head, and would likely die slowly within the next few minutes. Just as his late mother taught him, sometimes, they have to suffer before you let them die.
A fog enveloped the room as Jason walked to the door, fading away to only reveal the remnants of the Bearers of Harmony.
Shining Armor stood at attention at the Air Docks near the Castle's Southern section, a part of the mountain sliced open to allow air traffic a less crowded area than above the city. Currently, he and ten teams of medical ponies were awaiting the arrival of Commander Sentry's ship with the remaining Bearers of Harmony aboard.
"Have there been any messages sent from the ship after retrieving the Bearers?" Shining asked a nearby Guard.
"No sir, none since the report. We've sent several since, asking for confirmation, but the Commander is likely shaken by the events witnessed."
"That doesn't excuse poor conduct on the part of the Commander or anypony working around him. Twily and her friends are the ones that suffered most out there, not Flash Sentry. I expect him to give a full report or I'll-"
A distant foghorn cut off whatever threat Shining would have come up with, the bow of the airship cutting through the clouds as it closed in on the port.
"Finally," Shining said as he took his position. "Wave them in."
A group of Pegasi flew out to meet the ship on his word, and for a few minutes, the Captain waited. He watched as the Pegasi flew towards the bridge of the ship, hovering around it for a few seconds. Then, much to everypony's confusion, they turned around and flew straight back to Shining Armor.
"Sir, we need to evacuate the area!" a green pegasus shouted as he struggled to land.
"What? Are you crazy?" Shining Armor responded. "Why should we?"
"The-there's b-b-blood splattered, everywhere!" the mare shouted as her fur went pale. "Something's on that ship and it slaughtered everypony on the bridge!"
Shining froze in fear, looking up to the ship.
"That... that's not possible! They're warded to keep teleportation spells out! A-and they don't touch the ground! No way that anypony could have boarded it!"
"Sir, that thing's not going to stop! We need to evacuate and shield the city, right now!"
\\\\\\//////
"Get to the wheel!" Flash Sentry shouted.
Twilight limped as fast as she could towards the center of the bridge, stepping through pools of blood and squishing some kind of gore as she tried not to implode from the sheer overwhelming fear she felt.
"Come on, come on, come on!" Twilight chanted as she adjusted the ship's steering wheel with her bare hooves.
She had woken up only minutes ago in the forelegs of Flash Sentry, who was covered in blood and panting like he had galloped a triathlon. Apparently, the Human that had decimated the Royal Guard at Crystal Lake, the same one that had killed two of her friends, had somehow gotten on board the ship, despite its enhanced magical wards.
THUD
"Twilight!" Flash shouted from the doorway. "I don't think this door's gonna hold for much longer!"
Twilight gave a silent prayer to Celestia that she wouldn't die by the Human's hands, begging for something, anything to save her and Flash at this moment.
\\\\\\//////
Shining looked between the two Pegasi and the ship, watching as it dipped in altitude, he huffed.
"You incompetent sods, look! It's adjusting its course! Somepony's behind the wheel and you're here lying about seeing blood on the windows!? I'll have you two scrubbing the latrines for years!" he shouted.
The ponies all watched with baited breath as the ship began to correct its course, the scouting Pegasi agape as they watched it slowly approach the docks.
\\\\\\//////
"There! Shining Armor's there! He can stop that thing! Right Flash?" Twilight said.
Just as Twilight turned around, the pounding on the door ceased, Flash Sentry leaning against the entrance with his back against it.
"It.... i-it just stopped," he observed. "Do you thi-"
A hand suddenly burst through the door behind him, penetrating the spot between Flash's wings before it ripped straight through his chest, the tips of Jason's fingers breaching the skin on his front.
"GAH!" Flash managed to gurgle out as the hand erupted from his barrel.
"FLASH!" Twilight shrieked.
Another hand erupted from the same spot, before the door started to part. As it opened, the strain on Flash's insides grew to a crescendo, the Pegasus screaming in agony as the gaping hole in his body grew vertically. With a mighty push, Jason ripped the stallion in half with the door, tossing the two halves of the Guard aside as though he were a part of the entryway.
"No! Stay back!" Twilight cried as she tried to hurl whatever magic she could gather at the approaching monster.
Jason simply walked through whatever magic Twilight threw at him, unaffected by her power in any way. A hand reached out to her maw, grasping Twilight by the jaw and flesh of her cheek. As the Human hoisted her up, her mouth open as she was forced to taste the blood of his victims from the glove invading her mouth, she knew only one thing.
This was her end.
The sound of a cork popping open brought Twilight's senses to a new high, her pupils shrinking as she watched the Human pull out a vial of the Potion.
'No, no please, just kill me! Anything but that!'
Her prayers unheard, Jason tipped the end of the potion's bottle down Twilight's throat, the fluid forcing her body to ingest the gift as her mind began to go blank.
Everything that made Twilight Sparkle who she was, every synapse of her personality, was wiped away like dust scattering under a great wave. Her injuries and fatigue were cleansed as she gulped down the Potion. Thoughts of her friends and family were replaced by the program that she herself had created, everything being replaced with Celestia and only Celestia. Happiness. Smiles. Friendship. Her mind devolved into these things, and these things only as a crooked smile began to overtake her face.
The Human release her once the bottle was empty, and she stood up slowly, a wide-toothed smile on her face as she stood.
"Hello, there, large, Human!" she said carefully, as if forcing a proper pronunciation on each word. "I, think, you, are, big, and, tall! I, want, to, be, friends! Friendship! Happy! I, am, happy!"
Cadance grimaced as Flurry Heart wailed into her coat. She wanted so badly to rock her to sleep, to sing her a lullaby, but being cast in the Dungeons for treason left the de-horned alicorn with little room to work with.
Peering through the anti-magic bars of her cell, she could see Royal Guards rush through the halls, shouting about reinforcing the flanks or some such nonsense. It sounded like Canterlot was being invaded, and the activity proved such.
'Good,' she thought, glaring at the gold-clad ponies. 'We deserve it for starting this holocaust.'
Just when it seemed as though the last of the Guards were leaving, the ones before her cell stopped, addressing the last pony she wanted to see.
"C-Captain Armor, sir!" they said.
"G-G-Gaurds, get o-out, now," the Captain stuttered.
Cadance gasped in horror at the sight of her ex-husband.
His armor was dented in several places, a giant gash across his left eye while his left hind leg was dragging uselessly behind his limp trot.
"Sir, we need to get you to the infirmary!" one of the Cadets shouted.
"No! We n-need ALL available p-po-p-ponies to evacuate the r-r-r-residential area while special f-f-forces intercept the invasion f-f-force!"
"We can't just leave you here like this!" another said. "We need to-"
"GET OUT!" Shining said.
The recruits dashed out of the hallway, and for a moment, there was silence.
"C-C-Cadance," Shining said, limping towards her cell. "I... I-I'm sorry..."
Cadance blinked before her expression went stern.
"For what? For abandoning your empire when Celestia called? For standing by that tyrant when she spouted a bunch xenophobic propaganda? Or for abandoning your wife and daughter when they needed you the most!? She took off Flurry's HORN, you psychopath! She magically neutered our eight-month-old foal!"
"YES, OKAY!? I'm sorry for all of it! I regret everything! I wish I could change it, but it's too late!" Shining Armor shouted before collapsing to the floor, wailing through the bars as tears and blood ran from his eyes. "I fucked up! I fucked up horribly and I couldn't see it! And now the specter of death has come for all of us, and all we can do is delay the inevitable! All I can do now is... say sorry! I can't fight that... that, THING! It slaughtered hundreds of Guards on the other side of the portal, on Earth, killed dozens more at the shipyard, and now I KNOW it's coming for me!"
Cadance froze as she cradled her daughter.
"'It'?"
CLANG
A shield slammed against Shining Armor's head, the edge colliding with his neck. Although the force wasn't enough to penetrate the skin, it dug in and snapped a vertebrae, decapitating him internally. As Shining Armor's head fell limply to the side, all Cadance could see in his eye was regret.
Cadance screamed, backing up into the corner of her cell as she pulled Flurry Heart closer to her barrel.
Stepping into view was a massive behemoth of a Human, wearing a bloodied jacket and sports mask of some kind. It turned its gaze from Shining's corpse to Cadance, or more specifically, the crying bundle of fur in her forelegs.
"No, no no no no no no NO!" Cadance shouted.
The Human didn't pay her words mind as it ripped the grated door off of its hinges and walked into the cell. It reached into its jacket and pulled out...
... a bottle of formula?
Cadance blinked.
As the Human placed it on the ground, Cadance got a better look at the bottle. It was an older kind of bottle, one made of glass, but it looked freshly prepared.
She looked up, back to where the Human was, only to see that it was gone.
Slumping down onto her flank, Cadance recoiled at what had happened.
Even Humanity's monsters were gentler than Equestria's idols.
