1: Why does Something Bad always Happen when She has Free Time?

Written by: Drweegee1337

Edited by: Jake Roberts

Ahh, morning in Ponyville. Was there anything more picturesque than a cloudless day featuring Celestia’s glorious sun as its centerpiece? The denizens of the small, frontier town went about their business with the rest of the town proper ready to seize the perfect day.

However, inside the town’s only library, there was one pony (and her dragon assistant) who was not about the town. Twilight Sparkle was getting ready for another day of studies, albeit today, reluctantly. While it was indisputable that the lavender unicorn was a passionate scholar, even the best of them sometimes get exasperated with the heavy workload of often demoralizing busywork. Twilight was, for lack of a better phrase, running on fumes this morning, and ideally needed some rest.

“Maybe I should just take the day off?” she thought to herself while brushing her teeth. Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she could see the evidence that supported her idea. She had gotten a solid eight hours of sleep that night, but the stress-induced bags under her eyes indicated that she had been working too much.

“Spike, take a letter.” Twilight said to her purple dragon assistant. The student’s young ward whipped out his quill and scroll in a motion that was second nature to him at this point.

Dear Princess Celestia,
Today I would like to take a break from my studies and see my friends. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.

Spike took the letter and breathed his signature emerald blaze unto it. The document disintegrated into a cloud of swirling smoke and flew out of the window, on its way to Celestia.

About two minutes later, the baby dragon burped out Celestia’s reply in a cloud of smoke. He unfurled the scroll and read aloud,

My dearest Twilight,
Of course it is okay for you to take a break from your studies to see your friends. Just make sure to send me a letter on anything you have learnt today.

Twilight didn’t say anything, at least not to Spike. Initially, she just stood there with a widening grin on her face.

“OHMYIHAVETHEDAYOFFTOSEEMYFRIENDSWHATSHOULDWEDO!?” she thought out loud; VERY loud; loud enough to give herself a light migraine.

Twilight bolted out her front door giddy as can be about the prospect of an unrestricted day. Unfortunately, as soon as she took in her beautiful surroundings, the lavender unicorn experienced an unsettling rumbling in the air.

“What could that be?” she asked nopony particular; curiosity and nervousness sharing each other’s company.

Following the tremble was an explosive sound-wave that sent tremors throughout the town. The ground was shaking, glass was breaking, nocturnal animals were waking, all of this was interrupting the Cakes’ baking. It was practically Armageddon, but it ended almost as quickly as it began.

“What in the world just happened?” Twilight thought as she was lying on the ground, having been rocked from her stance by the booming quake.

She rose to her hooves and started trotting toward the commotion a couple of houses away. A large crowd had gathered outside a house and judging from the sounds, they were not happy. Twilight walked closer and noticed that the owner of the house, a white unicorn with blue mane and shades appeared to be held responsible for the sound-wave.

“Hold on, everypony! What is going on?” Twilight asked when she got closer to the crowd.

“That Vinyl Scratch has taken her musical terrorism too far this time!” a light blue mare with a blue and white mane yelled. This was Colgate, an acquaintance of the unicorn’s that, as far as Twilight knew never liked Vinyl’s music.

Twilight sighed. She found it hard to believe that the sound-wave was Vinyl’s fault. Normally, when she played her music loud enough to create sound-waves they sounded like bass drops, you felt them move through your body, and they where never powerful enough to shatter glass. This sound-wave however, had an otherworldly power behind it. It was hard to describe but it had felt like having shattered glass pressed through your ears with a jackhammer.

Twilight then proceeded to force her way through the crowd until she saw Vinyl through one of the blown out windows, she could see that Vinyl had suffered just as much as everypony else, the glass in her shades had been blown out and she looked like she had eaten a gemstone by mistake. One of her red contacts had popped out of her eye revealing its natural color of magenta. Twilight prepared herself to attempt to mediate the situation. Needless to say, this was not the way she wanted to start her day off.

Twilight cleared her throat. “Hey Vinyl, can I come in?” she asked gingerly.

“Calm down, it’s just me, Twilight Sparkle, i don’t think it was your fault.” Twilight said in her calmest voice.

“I am NOT opening the door while that angry mob is there!” Vinyl quickly replied, pointing to the gathered mass of disgruntled ponies (some of whom were adorning pitchforks and torches).

“OKAY EVERYPONY! BACK OFF! You can’t start blaming Vinyl for what has happened.”

“YES WE CAN!” the crowd replied in miraculous unison.

Twilight breathed an exasperated sigh. “Okay, how about this. Let me investigate what has happened. If it turns out that Vinyl was completely responsible for this, I’ll turn her to you all.”

Muttering, the crowd began to disperse seeming to begrudgingly accept Twilight’s offer. Satisfied, the unicorn turned back to the broken window.

“Can I come in now?” Twilight asked soothingly with a warm smile.

“Umm...Okay, but promise you won’t be mad at me.” Vinyl weakly replied, obviously upset and somewhat guilt-ridden.

Twilight heard the door unlock and was just about to enter when she heard a scream in the distance.

“SOMEPONY, HEEEEEEEEEELP!” the scream was coming from Colgate.

Twilight rushed over to where she had heard Colgate’s distraught screams. When she got close she saw Colgate leaning over something pink bathing in a pool of something red. Twilight leaned over the pink thing and saw what it was.

“It... It’s Pinkie...” Twilight slowly said, becoming consumed by shock and fear.

It looked so strange, Pinkie was laying in a growing pile of blood, with foam coming from her mouth. Twilight examined Pinkie but couldn’t find any wounds.

“W-where is all the blood coming from? Wh-what? H-how, what?” Twilight stammered to Colgate.

Colgate managed to reply without breaking down, “It seems to be coming from her....her...ears.”

2: What Could Possibly Break Pinkie?

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Twilight Sparkle was not enjoying herself in spite of the ideal weather. She was too concerned with Pinkie Pie. It had now been four days since she had been found lying in the middle of the street, bleeding from her ears.

“What could possibly have done something like this to Pinkie of all ponies?” Twilight thought to herself as she trotted to the hospital, unwilling to believe that it was Vinyl’s booming bass alone that incapacitated her friend.

“I mean, certainly Vinyl’s sonic boom was powerful, but not enough to internally damage a pony like that...right?” The unicorn fought the conclusions that her mind was reaching. After all, just four days ago, she was standing up for that DJ. She couldn’t just turn her back on her, not just because of Vinyl, but because of the lavender unicorn’s pride.

Regardless, Pinkie was in grave condition, and was confined to her hospital bed. Twilight had received a letter telling her that Pinkie had awoken from her comatose state earlier in the day.

As soon as Twilight got inside the hospital she anxiously trotted to her pink companion’s room on the third floor. Not being mindful of her surroundings, Twilight, in her nervous sprinting, brushed, bumped, and crashed into enough ponies and objects to make Ditzy Doo shake her head in bemusement.

Twilight finally arrived and opened the door gently and gingerly tip-hooved inside with her eyes closed, hesitant to actually see the condition her friend was in.

She was probably right to feel this way.

This was not Pinkie Pie. This was a twisted inversion of the party pony everyone knew and loved. Her mane had lost all of its curliness or bounciness, now draped over the pink mare’s head straightly in the style befitting Pinkie in her “crazy” state. Her pink coat had lightened from hot to a very pale shade that was practically white. Twilight was eerily reminded of Pinkie’s grey complexion from her possession by Discord upon viewing her. The party pony was currently incapacitated and breathing heavily into her oxygen gas. As it turned out, Pinkie’s condition was far beyond simple internal bleeding. Aside from the need for oxygen therapy, Pinkie, in her comatose state was connected to several IVs as well as a couple of large machines that upon close inspection appeared to be some sort of life support system.

“Pinkie....” was all that Twilight could say. It took all the strength she had to approach Pinkie’s bedside in the state she was in. Twilight hesitantly moved her hoof to Pinkie’s head before eventually running her hoof gently across the party pony’s face. The lavender unicorn wanted to recoil. Pinkie was also suffering a terrible fever. “How could this happen” was the running line in Twilight’s bothered mind.

“All I can hope for is that you’re having pleasant dreams.” Twilight muttered to herself, trying to fight back the tears.

Twilight turned around, barely handling to see Pinkie in such a miserable state, when she heard a faint sound from the sickbed.

“Is...that...you? Twi-...” Pinkie whispered weakly. Twilight slowly turned around, she was, for some reason, expecting a sharp object to be pointed at her throat. She was aware of Pinkie’s "crazy" state, and it was something she was not prepared to encounter. So now, to look into those ice blue eyes and seeing nothing but pure sadism and a complete lack of empathy for other living creatures would cause her senses to freeze. However, it was a different feeling that Twilight felt radiating from Pinkie’s eyes in this moment. Her pupils were twitching and and the iris was fluctuating in size. The eyebrows were drooping with tiny beads of sweat dripping from the forehead. Twilight sensed Pinkie’s fear, but there was also a more complex feeling beneath the fear, a feeling that Twilight could not identify despite all she had read about pony psychology.

‘Is there anything Pinkie would be afraid of?’ Twilight thought for herself when she stared at Pinkie.

“I know you care for your friend Ms. Sparkle, but that is not an excuse for running around and crash into other ponies at this hospital.” The voice made Twilight jump from surprise, she turned to the door and saw that Doctor Stable was standing in the opening with an unamused mien.

“Doctor, be straightforward with me. Will she be alright?” Twilight asked, her voice filled with concern and fear.
“I can guarantee a full physical recovery in roughly nine days. However, I have greater concerns for her psychological state of being, and frankly, I’m not sure how to help her. Either through physical or emotional trauma, I’m afraid that your friend is not all there mentally.”

Twilight was shocked when she heard these words, especially since they came from somepony whom she knew was a professional. She didn't want them to be true, but she knew better than to doubt Stable.

“Are you okay Ms Sparkle? You look like you could need a glass of water.” Stable said, his voice hinted of concern.

“Y-yes, I’m fine. I just need some fresh air.” Twilight said shakingly, walking towards the door, wobbling slightly as she exited the room.

Twilight rushed back to the library the fastest she could. She had some reading to do.
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“Come on Twilight! You have been reading nonstop for, like 8 days now. These aren’t even topics you are interested in. Just look at these:

"Complete Equestrian Encyclopedia of Sonical Creatures" and "Advanced Interrogation and Identification Spells and Techniques". Spike had regrettably learnt that whenever Twilight took interest in a new topic, that meant less time he could spend with Sweetie Belle.

Twilight was just about to give Spike a lecture on why she was reading about these specific topics when she heard a knock on the door.

“Who could that be? Don’t they know the library is closed on Sundays?”

Twilight trotted to the door and opened it wide. Pinkie Pie was standing opposite of her.

“That’s right! Pinkie was signed out of the hospital today! I knew I had forgot something.”

“C-can I come in Twilight? Sorry to disturb you, but I need someone to talk to.” Pinkie said, her voice trembling slightly.

“Of course, Pinkie Pie, please come in.” Twilight said, sweating slightly when she Pinkie’s mane, it wasn't bubbly, but almost plastered to her head. She was not herself, both in looks and in countenance.

Pinkie entered the library and the first thing she did was to collapse on the floor, sobbing loudly.

“Pinkie, Pinkie, it’s ok. Everything’s okay.” Twilight said with a calming voice while wrapping her forelegs around the crying pony in a tight hug.

“You have to tell me Pinkie, what did this to you? Could you tell me what it looked like?” Twilight took up a quill and scroll. She was going to use a spell that would draw a perfect picture of whatever creature Pinkie might describe.

“I... I don't want it to be true, Twilight!” Pinkie cried.

“Could you at least tell me what kind of creature it was Pinkie? You are the only one who knows what it looks like.” Twilight said, doing her best to convince Pinkie to overcome her seemingly crippling trepidation.

“It... It was a... pony.” Pinkie whispered through her sobs.

Twilight was shocked when she heard this.

“What pony would ever hurt Pinkie?” However she had to keep it professional, and not let her feelings get the upper hoof during this "interrogation".

“Could you continue your description of this pony?” All traces of feeling was gone from Twilight’s voice, she was doing this professionally.

“Well, it was a pegasus, it had the same size and hairstyle as Fluttershy, and when I think about it... what if it WAS Fluttershy!?” Pinkie said, almost screaming the last part.

“Pinkie! How can you even think of such a ridiculous thing!” Twilight replied, fearing however that there was perhaps a grain of truth in Pinkie’s accusation.

“Anyway, the pegasus was pale. It had red hair and.... its eyes, I will never forget those eyes! They had very small pupils, and the really weird thing was that the left eye was blue and the right eye was red, the right eye also had what looked like traces of red eye shadow around it.”

Pinkie had never sounded this serious in all the time Twilight had known her. Pinkie was, however, visibly fighting back tears as she described the pony that had almost killed her.

“Was the pony wearing any clothes, any at all?: Twilight was going to get as much information from Pinkie as she possibly could.

Pinkie now had visible tears rolling down her cheeks. She took a deep breath and continued...

“Well, i-it had a r-red and white striped top hat.” Pinkie was stammering, that had never happened before.

Twilight looked at the picture that her spell had drawn. It sure looked a lot like Fluttershy, but that was impossible! Fluttershy would never hurt anypony! Besides, there were several key aesthetic differences. Of course, Twilight didn’t count out the possibility of Fluttershy physically altering herself.

The mane could be colored, but changing from butter yellow to pale white was incredibly risky, not to mention expensive. Then the eyes, while colored lenses were something that had grown in popularity recently, the pupils could probably change size, thus removing the possibilities of lenses, but an operation to change the colors of both the pupils into different colors? The thought was ridiculous, yet not impossible.

“No! It is impossible for this to be Fluttershy! However, to be sure I need to know what the cutie mark looks like, now that I have this spell that can identify the talent connected to the cutie mark.”

Twilight was in "the zone" and nothing was going to stop her from finding out the truth about this strange pegasus.
____________________________________________________________________________
Twilight had spent the entire day copying the picture of the pegasus and distributing them all around Ponyville. She had just placed the last one when a mint green unicorn rammed her straight on and almost knocked them both out.

“Darn It, Lyra! Watch where you’re running!” Twilight shouted, while rubbing her head.

“Sorry Twilight, I just wanted you to know that i have seen the pegasus you are looking for!” Lyra’s obsession of finding mythical creatures (Humans, Bigfoot, etc) had at least rewarded her with the ability to pay attention to everything.

“Where?! Where did you see it?!” Twilight replied, elated that the news had reached her so fast.

“I saw it over at Fluttershy's cottage.” This caused Twilight’s pupils to instantly narrow.

“What if the pony is going to hurt Fluttershy like it hurt Pinkie!”

Twilight ran as fast as her legs could carry her to the small cottage at the edge of the everfree forest. She noticed how all the windows and the door had been sealed with planks.

“Oh please be alright, Fluttershy.” Twilight whispered to herself.

She carefully bent a plank away and peeked in through the window. In the middle of the room. Lying on the floor was the strange pegasus, Pinkie had been correct on the looks, even the top hat was there balancing on its head.

“Okay Twilight, you can do this, just look at the cutie mark and use the photograph spell.”

Twilight swallowed and moved her eyes to the cutie mark. It was really weird looking, it was a butterfly with speaker shaped patterns on the wings, it also had a red stain on it.

Twilight quickly took a picture of it with her spell, the photo materializing in her hooves as she made her way back to the library.

“Let's see if the pegasus talent can shed some light over its mysterious behaviour.” Twilight was determined to stop the weird pegasus before anypony else was hurt.

Twilight opened the cellar door and entered. She had prepared a special area where he could perform all sorts of advanced magic. It was a table with a hexagram painted on the ground beneath it, and each point of the star had a magical artifact placed on it. Three of the points had drop shaped artifacts: the so-called “tears of of the goddess”. They could store magical energy, and would thus make sure she had enough for the spell. The other three points had a crystal with the mark for infinity chipped out on them, these were called “catalyst, the protector”. They would hinder any stray magic from exiting the hexagram as well as restore Twilight’s energy whenever the spell reached a higher arcane level. Twilight entered the hexagram and placed some papers and a quill on the table. She then started the spell that would identify the talent of the cutie mark. She concentrated and felt the arcane energy bend and twist like snakes around the bonds she created. The spell quickly drained her own energy and she could feel the tears supplying her with more. Suddenly, one of the bonds crackled and loose magic started to swirl out, but it was quickly consumed by the catalysts.

After channeling for about 10 minutes, she could feel the energy drain lessen as the spell neared completion. A small purple smoke cloud appeared out of nowhere and lifted the quill, slowly being absorbed by the feather. Twilight strained her magic to make sure the spell was finished correctly. The quill landed on the table again, now bearing a strange aura. It was not dark, it was more “lacking light” (some kind of anti-photons if you want to get theoretical).

Twilight lifted the quill and put it towards her forehead. She felt the picture of the cutie mark disappear from her mind as the aura from the quill turned crimson red. The quill hovered over the paper onto the table as it started to write and draw.

When the quill stopped Twilight looked at the paper.

“What? This doesn’t even make any sense!” The text on the paper looked like it had been written by a dyslectic chipmunk, it was just a mess of symbols.

“Wait a second, this isn’t a random symbol, this is a H and a I written on top of each other.” It seemed like the quill had written two different things on the same area.

Twilight redid the spell, this time she instructed it to use half of all the information on one paper and the rest on the other. The results were both confusing and terrifying.

Paper 1:
Cutie Mark: Butterflies
Special Talent: Communication and caretaking ability in regard to animals
Known Bearer(s): Fluttershy/Element Of Kindness

Paper 2:
Cutie Mark: Bloodstained Speakers
Special Talent: Generation of sounds booming enough to injure large creatures
Known Bearer(s): None

Twilight must have read those documents half a dozen times. All of this was insane! This was absurd! This was ludicrous!

This was too much for Twilight to handle, who collapsed in mental exhaustion.

3: A Friend Falls, A Queen Rises

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Fluttershy was laying in the middle of her living room, staring at her hoofs. The color of them disgusted her: The once butter-yellow color was now pale. She had nothing against white coats, in fact she liked it. But this wasn't white, this was a color that belonged to the dead.
And the buzzing! Fluttershy felt as if something was in the back of her head. When she searched her mind for it, she found a buzzing cloud. It was driving her insane. It whispered to her. It was hungry for control.
If only she hadn’t fallen asleep that 1 night about 11 days ago...

*About 264 hours earlier*
Fluttershy was tired: she had been vaccinating all her animals from a mutation of PIV (Pony Immunodeficiency Virus), a mutation that could infect other animals as well. The fact that she had a light migraine didn’t make the job easier. She took an aspirin and made her way to bed, collapsing on it and fell asleep instantly.
Fluttershy felt a light breeze in her face, had she left her window open? She opened her eyes and the first thing she noticed was that she most certainly wasn’t in her bedroom anymore. She appeared to be in the middle of a graveyard.
"H-hello, i-is anypony t-there? L-Luna, i-is th-this y-your do-doing?" She knew that the princess of the night could manipulate the dreams of ponies, often for her own amusement.
"Eeep!" She felt a chill run down her spine and she yelped. This graveyard felt... wrong, she couldn’t put her hoof on it but she wasn’t supposed to be here. She saw a grave in front of her, the name had been erased by time and weather, however on the grave, a white and red striped top-hat was laying in the dirt. Fluttershy couldn’t help but walk up to the grave, it was as if it pulled her closer.
She was standing right in front of the grave when she heard a muffled noise. However, she couldn’t hear much of it. What happened next was something she would never forget: the top hat hovered up in front of her, and a strange creature emerged from the dirt, just so that the top hat ended up on it’s head.
Fluttershy tried to run, she knew she had to run, but she couldn’t move her legs or her wings. She just stood there, staring at the creature. It was an undead, it had green-ish skin, and the flesh was visible and sagging at some places. The creature said something incredibly loud, it wasn’t Equestrian, but Fluttershy saw that the creature was happy to see her.
The creature moved up next to Fluttershy with surprising speed and grabbed her around her neck. Fluttershy felt the creature squeeze her air pipe, she started to feel dizzy. The creature was strangling her! Black dots were dancing across her field of vision, she felt her body going numb. However, right before Fluttershy fell unconscious, something happened: she felt her mouth snap open, and a sound came out that sounded like a vacuum... Then everything went white.
Fluttershy bolted up from her bed; It had only been a nightmare. She looked at her hooves: they had turned pale, probably because of panic. She got up and went for a glass of water. She felt a faint buzzing in the back of her head, the migraine was coming back. Walking into the bathroom, Fluttershy took a look at herself in the mirror. What she saw caused her to yelp and faint.

Fluttershy stood up on her shaking legs. She had probably been unconscious for hours. Why was she afraid of herself? Well, apart from the fact that she looked directly intimidating, she wasn’t sure. Looking into the mirror for a second time, she stared into the face of a pony with one deep blue and one crimson red eye, a crimson red mane and a pale cream colored coat. The pony also balanced a red and white striped top hat on it’s head. She turned and investigated the cutie mark: it was a butterfly that had a red stain on it, with marks on the wings that looked like speakers.
As soon as Fluttershy saw the cutie mark, it was as if the buzzing in her head reacted to it: it became slightly louder and she felt it spread through her brain. She realised there was only one thing she could do, ask somepony for help, she needed to see Twilight, Twilight always knew what to do! As she felt her body being filled with panic, she dashed out of her cottage and headed straight for Ponyville, although she tried to be as discreet as possible, what if somepony she knew were to see her like this?

"Hi! Are you new in town because i don't know you and i know everypony in town so that means that you are new and then i must throw a welcome-to-ponyville party! I am Pinkie Pie by the way and i really like your hat although Rarity might not think it is that nice!" Of course, the first pony Fluttershy had to run into was Pinkie Pie. Pinkie did not seem to recognize her since she tried to give her a Welcome-To-Ponyville party. Problem #1: Friends might recognize me, not a problem anymore.
Pinkie just kept talking and talking about everything in town, this started to really annoy Fluttershy. As she got more annoyed, she felt how the buzzing in her head got louder, it filled her mind and it started to fuel her annoyance, the annoyance turned into anger, which turned into hatred for the pink pony.
Just who does she think she is? Doesn't she have any respect for private space? Oh, she is making me so angry, I could just scream!"
Fluttershy opened her mouth and screamed. What happened next snapped her back into herself, as soon as she opened her mouth, reality seemed to distort around her and Pinkie: all colors were inverted and shapes twisted randomly. Pinkie struggled to stand up from the sonic assault: she only lasted around 10 seconds before her ears popped and blood started flowing from them. Pinkie collapsed in a growing crimson puddle.
Fluttershy just stood there in horror, she had just injured, maybe even killed Pinkie Pie! And she had enjoyed doing it... she felt a smile spread across her face as she watched the pink pony twitch. She saw what her sound had done to the rest of Ponyville and she started to giggle... she LIKED doing this.
Weak Fluttershy is no more! Let Equestria know that their true queen, Fluttershout, the queen of ear rape sound has arrived!
Fluttershy, no, Fluttershout was looking around at the street, the destruction she had caused was just the kind of shock and awe these lowly ponies needed to understand why she was a better ruler than those weak and empathic Alicorn sisters.
NO! Fluttershy would never hurt anypony! Did you hear that? I WILL NOT LET YOU CONTROL ME!
Fluttershy managed to suppress the ominous buzzing and regained control of herself, she dashed to her cabin and quickly blocked every way in or out. If she were to let this "Fluttershout" control her, all of Equestria would be in danger.

*Present time*
Fluttershy was struggling against the buzzing, it had been hammering her mind constantly for almost 10 days, she knew what it was trying to do: trying to give Fluttershout control.
NO! My friends need me! I am the Element of Kindness! I can't let you endanger Equestria!
Despite all her effort and willpower, Fluttershy was starting to lose her foothold in the mental battle. She hadn't slept and she hadn’t eaten and her mental strength was running on fumes.
Oh come on, would you not want to be somepony important? Aren't you tired of being weak and helpless? I could give you true power, i could make you into the ruler of Equestria! Just give me the controls for a while.
Fluttershout was showing no mercy; she was bombarding Fluttershy with images of her on the throne with Luna and Celestia chained like animals at her feet. She saw pictures of Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow and all her other friends worshipping her and offering everything they had for her. She saw how she forced her friends to have intimate orgies with her in her bedchamber. Okay, maybe the last one was coming from Fluttershy's own mind, but still, it disgusted her.
Fluttershy tried to push Fluttershout out of her mind one last time before collapsing from the exhaustion. She felt Fluttershout's mind flow in and assume control of her body. She didn't even care anymore, she just felt so sleepy... Fluttershy closed her eyes and allowed Fluttershout to have full control.
Fluttershy felt a breeze move through her mane, she opened her eyes and she saw the bright blue sky. She sat up and realised that she was laying in the grass outside her cottage. Something felt... off though.
Why is it so quiet? Why aren't the birds singing? And where are all my little animals?
Fluttershy stared at the thick fog surrounding the area around the cottage, it looked like she was in the eye of a storm. Her thinking was cut short when she heard a sound coming from her cottage, it sounded like someone was trying to clean the kitchen.
"H-Hello? I-is anypony t-there?" Fluttershy crept through her empty house. She heard the whistling that her tea kettle made when it was done.
"A-angel bunny, i-is that y-you?" Fluttershy didn’t want to go closer, but she was too curious of who was making tea in her house. She peeked into the hospital and saw a large creature standing by the stove, it seemed to be watching the tea kettle. Fluttershy yelped a little when she recognized the creature from her nightmare. This time, the creature was very much alive and healthy. It noticed Fluttershy and turned around to face her. Fluttershy hid behind her mane, terrified of the monster.
"Hello, Fluttershy. I've been waiting for you. Would you like sugar and milk with your tea? Oh, sorry if I have scared you. I couldn’t destroy your mind, so I locked it up in here. It's quite cozy, actually." The creature spoke with a friendly tone, it was as if it actually cared for Fluttershy.
"Wh-why are you doing this? Why are you going to take over Equestria? Who are you? What are you?" Fluttershy was still afraid of the large creature. But she sat down by the table with it. It wasn't like she had any other choice, and she really didn’t want to make it angry.
"I suppose I haven't introduced myself properly. I am GAYPENIS, king of ear rape. I am from a alternate universe called a modiverse." Fluttershy stared at the creature, what kind of vulgar name and title was that? The creature leaned forward and Fluttershy tried to hide herself behind her mane.
Please, Celestia. I don’t want to be here. Somepony, anypony take me away from it!
Fluttershy started to cry softly while trying to avoid to look at the creature. It reached out with a hand and patted her on the head.
"There, there. Calm down Fluttershy. I understand if you are scared, but you will have to get used to living with me. Why don't we go and sit in the couch for a while; I am quite tired." Fluttershy felt her vision flare red-blue when GAYPENIS took away his hand from her head, she instantly calmed down a little and looked at him.
He isn't that scary when you think about it, and he is actually quite kind...
GAYPENIS walked out in the living room and sat in the couch. Fluttershy followed and jumped up in his lap, where he started to pat her lightly on her head.
Wait, what am i doing? Why am I letting him do thi... *snap* Nevermind, why would I NOT let him do this? He is so kind, and he is my master.
Fluttershy's vision flared red-blue again and she nuzzled GAYPENIS's arm. She closed her eyes and fell asleep.
"Doesn't that feel better Fluttershy? No worries in the world, just you and your master." GAYPENIS allowed a small smile to creep across his face, Fluttershy's cutie mark was already fading.

Meanwhile in Canterlot, Celestia felt the unease that meant one of her subjects were losing their destiny.

4: Shadow Cupcakes aren't a Good Thing, Pinkie!

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Twilight had woken up and had showed the test results to Pinkie. She had taken it suprisingly well, at least Twilight thought so. All Pinkie had done was mutter something about making Shadow Cupcakes and then she had walked off to Sugarcube Corner. Twilight had been reading about cutie marks with negative attributes for the rest of the day.

She heard a loud knock on the door and checked the time.
"22:46 already? Time sure flies." Twilight made her way to the door and opened, only to find Pinkie dressed up in a dark camouflague jumpsuit, she was carrying a black cannon on her back.

"Come on Twilight! I need your help!" Twilight looked at Pinkie and decided that it was better not to ask what the crazy party pony was up to, as this wasn't exactly out of her character, as the black cannon on Pinkie’s back obviously was a party cannon of some sort. Twilight took the black jumpsuit that Pinkie had given her from nowhere and put it on.

"What are we doing Pinkie? Shouldn't we wake the other girls?" Twilight was just confused. By now, she was standing just outside the library, in the middle of the night, wearing a black jumpsuit, standing next to another mare wearing an identical jumpsuit as well as a cannon on her back.

"NO! We can't wake the other girls. It is harder to do ninja-ish stuff if we are more than two. Our target is currently sleeping in this house in Cloudsdale." Pinkie was pointing at a map of Cloudsdale.

"I suppose I will prepare the balloon then." Twilight decided to play along with Pinkie’s little shenanigan. Hopefully, nopony would get hurt. Unlike that time when... Twilight shuddered to even think about it, for she was still having nightmares of that cat. Twilight teleported herself and Pinkie to the launch pad for the balloon. It was already filling up with hot air.

"I am coming for you, you better run Shadow." Pinkie was staring at Cloudsdale with a small grin and determation in her eyes.

Pinkie and Twilight got in the basket and began their ascent. Twilight wished that Pinkie wouldn’t do anything stupid while they were out "ninjaing" in Cloudsdale.

"By the way Pinkie, what type of Party Cannon are you carrying? I haven't seen that model before." Twilight was eyeing the black cannon: it had some sort of drum shaped magazine, and the barrel was much thinner than the regular type.

"Oh Twilight you silly! Can't you see that it is a Party Flak? I have these stashed around Ponyville in case I need to throw airborne parties!" Twilight shrugged and started to look for a nice landing spot, she didn't like Pinkie bringing a Flak Cannon into Cloudsdale. But, what could be the worst thing to happen? Everypony was asleep, anyways.

As soon as they touched the clouds on one of the public landing platforms, Pinkie lept out and rolled into the shadow of a nearby building. Twilight got out of the balloon and walked over to Pinkie.

"Stay down Twilight. We need to be stealthy! Omigosh, it feels like I'm playing "Hitmare", but with me instead of Agent 42!" Pinkie did her best to keep quiet, but Twilight saw how hard it was.

"Why were we here again? I think you never told me, Pinkie." Twilight would at least want to know why she was standing in Cloudsdale in the middle of the night.

"Oh Twilight, didn't I tell you? Commence operation "Inverted Shadow", our target: this house here, in Western Cloudsdale. The meanie, or at least the meanie's dumb henchpony, should live there."

"Operation "Inverted Shadow?" Why did you choose that name?" Twilight was confused but Pinkie only gave her a "may i borrow one of your hoofs so that i can do a triple facehoof" glare.

"Well duh, it was either that or "Operation Downright Orange". Which one would you pick?" Pinkie glared at Twilight as if the question actually had an incorrect answer.

"Nevermind, let's be on our way then." Twilight was just tagging along; she had to make sure nopony would get hurt by Pinkie. Pinkie snuck through the shadows, a thing that wasn't very difficult since Cloudsdale had large buildings grouped up tight which meant that every street was completely shrouded in darkness.

After sneaking around for a good 20 minutes, the duo finally reached the house Pinkie had been searching for. It was nothing special, just a plain little house with only one floor.

Pinkie snuck up to a window and peeked in. Twilight, albeit not too happy about doing it, peeked as well. Inside was the bedroom of the house, in the bed a black pegasus with a red mane was snoring loudly. The only thing in the room that was even remotely unusual was a dark red hat sitting on the bedside table.

"AHA! I knew he was a baddie! All baddies have dastardly moustaches!" Twilight rolled her eyes. When was Pinkie planning on acting mature?

"Pinkie, that pegasus doesn’t have a moustache... Why don't you just tell me why you chose to troll this particular pegasus and we'll be on our way home." Twilight was already fantasising about crawling in under her bedsheets and reading "Fifty Sheds of Gray".

*Click*

"H-Hey, what are you doing outside my window? Why are you wearing black jumpsuits? And why are you carrying a Flak Cannon in the middle of Cloudsdale? That’s like begging for somepony to beat you up." While Twilight and Pinkie had been talking, the pegasus had woken up and noticed them standing outside the window. He was now leaning out of the open window, eyeing them suspiciously.

"His hat makes him look stylish." Twilight thought, stylish enough to make her blush slightly.

"W-Well... Uh, we were just ummm..." Twilight didn't get longer on her excuse before Pinkie bolted through the open window and pinned the pegasus to the floor. Twilight climbed after to stop Pinkie, as this was getting out of hoof.

"Pinkie stop! What are you doing? You don't even know him!" Twilight tried to pull Pinkie away from the poor pegasus but she wouldn’t budge.

"OH YES, I KNOW HIM! HE IS THE ONE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT HAPPENED TO FLUTTERSHY! Isn't that right, Inverted Shadow?" Pinkie was pushing a hoof against his throat, he was visibly struggling to breath. The pegasus's pupils shrunk when he heard the name Inverted Shadow, he started sweating and desperatly tried to push Pinkie away from him.

"I-Inverted S-Sha-Shadow? W-What a-are you t-talking about? M-My n-name is *GULP* Sh-Shadow Rush..." Shadow Rush/Inverted Shadow (Twilight wasn't sure on which was the real name) trembled as Pinkie forced him still on the ground. It was a very suggestive pose, so Twilight closed the windows and pulled the curtains over. She looked back at the interrogation and gasped as Pinkie pulled out a scalpel from nowhere and leaned in very close to Shadow.

"Let's see here, would black cupcakes with red frosting look good? I might even make custom muffin cups with your cutie mark on them, if you want, of course. Maybe I should begin with the ears this time, it would be nice with some variation from the standard procedure." Pinkie’s left eye was twitching slighlty and she had a manic grin on her face.
Then, in pure adrenalin powered panic, Shadow managed to force Pinkie off of him and darted out of the window, it was closed but a thin glass pane wasn't enough to stop him.
Pinkie leaped after with a fierce cry and gave chase. Twilight snuck out through the door and looked at the crazy display.
Shadow was flying above the roofs while Pinkie was parkouring on the rooftops. A confetti explosion appeared next to Shadow, forcing him to change course. The Party Flak sure had a high rate of fire, Twilight could barely see Shadow behind all the exploding confetti. Suddenly, Pinkie scored a direct hit and Shadow lost his balance. He crashed to the ground, Pinkie was on him instantly.
"TELL US WHAT HAPPENED TO FLUTTERSHY!" Pinkie yelled with all her lung capacity in Shadow's face. Shadow yelped and tried to crawl away but he just crawled into Twilight, he looked at her with pleading eyes.
"G-Get this c-crazy mare away f-from me! I will tell you everything, just don't let her turn me into cupcakes!"

Twilight moved up next to Pinkie and patted her on the shoulder.
"I don't think anypony would want to eat black cupcakes with red frosting, Shadow Cupcakes isn't a that good idea Pinkie. Why don't you let me do the talking?" Pinkie looked at Twilight for a moment before backing off.
"Maybe you’re right... black cupcakes do sound a little gross. It seems like today is your lucky day, punk! Twilight is a lot nicer than me when it comes to meanies!" If looks could kill, Shadow would have been liquified by Pinkie’s stare. He crept away a little and hid his face under his hat.
Twilight took Shadow in her magical grasp and carried him to the balloon. They decended back into Ponyville and got inside the library. Twilight locked the door and sealed all the windows. They sat down by the table and Twilight prepared two cups of coffee.
"Now, I think you promised me a story in exchange for me saving your life. Don't worry, I won’t threaten you. But you are not getting out until you have told me everything you know about this." Twilight gave Shadow his cup and a picture of the pony that used to be Fluttershy. He looked at the picture for a second before pushing it back.

"N-No, i'm s-sorry, I h-have never seen h-her before." His eyes darted all over the room and he was sweating a little. Twilight looked at him suspiciously and took the picture back.
"Okay, it was worth a shot, now we might never be able to save Fluttershy." Twilight fought back tears as she said it and she slowly made her way towards the bedroom. Shadow couldn’t stand watching the devastated mare and leaped after her.
"Wait! I haven't been honest with you, I do know that mare. Come back to the table and I’ll tell you." Twilight instantly brightened up and she smiled at Shadow. They sat down again and Shadow started talking.

A long time ago, before Nightmare Moon returned. I lived in a different universe. It was called a modiverse, and I was one of many who posessed near godlike powers. I could create and manipulate matter and beings at will. I sometimes took things from other universes to experiment with. One night, I took a being from this universe, the one you call Fluttershy, and placed her in a graveyard for others like me. Little did I know that she would be possesed by one who had as a speciality to manipulate sound so that it could physically harm other beings. The result was the creature on the picture, we called it "Fluttershout"." Shadow was obviously feeling a little embarrased over what he had done.
"But, what happened? Why are you here? Why is that... creature here?" Twilight felt like she had more questions now than before.
"May I continue? Anyway, Princess Celestia did not look on this action as something small. She managed to save the soul of Fluttershy and constructed a new body for it to inhabit. She then decided to punish me, she took all my powers, turned me into a pony and forced me to live under a new name. In the modiverse many called me "The Inverted Shadow.” Celestia forced me to change name to Shadow Rush. I promised her and myself to put my old life behind me, but it seems like it finally caught up with me." He took a sip from the coffee and rose from the table.

"That is my story, as for Fluttershout, I think she will try to become a ruler of something. She always had a "führer's mentality"." He began to walk to the door.
"What does "führer" mean?" Twilight knew more languages than the average Ponyville citizen but she had never heard that word before.
"It means "leader" in German, or as you would call it, "Germane"." Shadow took of with a burst and flew back to Cloudsdale, the last thing Twilight saw or heard of him was a loud bang followed by a black and red shockwave.

"A Shadow Rainboom..." Twilight whispered to herself, her mouth slightly agape.

5: Audience with the Princess

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Fluttershout was strolling through Ponyville, not a single one paid her any attention. It was a funny feeling that their future queen was walking in the middle of the street without anyone knowing. She got to the train station and boarded the train to Canterlot, she made sure to enjoy the passing scenery. It was something she would see less of when she was sitting on the throne.
Don't worry Fluttershy, i think you are going to enjoy this too. Not that you will know what is going on.
Fluttershout smirked, it felt incredibly good to be alive again, especially in a world where you didn’t die because people forgot about your existence.

The train slowed down and stopped, Fluttershout stepped out of the train and looked at the buildings. She gasped: she was there. She was in the capital of Equestria. It was breathtakingly beautiful. She happily trotted down the street, every problem in the world was temporarily gone and she now had a free way to the castle.
"I-I can't believe how amazing Canterlot is! It is beatiful!" Fluttershout was talking to herself, but she made sure to tell Fluttershy.

Fluttershout gleefully trotted down the street when she suddenly heard a sound from a nearby alley. She went up to the alley, curious of what the sound was, when she felt a magical aura grab her and pull her in.
"Hello there pretty, do you have any bits for a poor unicorn? Or do you have something... else to offer?" Fluttershout felt herself being pushed up against a wall as a dark green unicorn with a sand colored mane crept out of a nearby shadow. He pushed himeself close to her and whispered in her ear.
"Trust me, you are going to enjoy this." He edged even closer and Fluttershout could feel his breath in her face, it stank of hard cider.
"Let me go! Release me, or I will scream!" Fluttershout was panicking and thrashing around, trying to break the magical grip.
"Please, do scream. Nopony will hear you and it just makes everything hotter." The unicorn looked Fluttershout in the eyes and chuckled. She felt how the magic grip started to spread her hind legs.
"Fine, you asked for it." Fluttershout opened her mouth and screamed right in the face of the pony. The blast was powerful enough to launch him into the wall on the other side of the alley and knock him unconscious, breaking the grip he had on her. Fluttershout stood up and looked at the downed unicorn. She spat on the ground in front of him, and walked out on the main street again, this time making sure to stay away from alleys.

"TWILIGHT! Where are you going? Can i come with you? Pleasepleasepleaseplease!" Pinkie was following Twilight as she trotted to the train station.
"Fine Pinkie, you can come. But this is not a fun trip! We have to warn the Princess! If I can tell Celestia that a mad demigod-thing is trying to take her throne, she might be able to stop it and save Fluttershy!" Pinkie looked at Twilight with a frown and sighed, maybe she wouldn’t find this trip to be very fun after all.
The train left the station, their cart was empty save for a pony behind a large newspaper. Pinkie's Pinkie Sense was ticking off like neighger counter, somepony was following her and Twilight. She tried to discard the feeling but she couldn’t, it just came back, and Twilight’s nagging on how slow the train was moving didn’t make it any easier.
"How can they be so slow? Are they running on raspberry juice or something? I bet even my grandmother could make this train go faster! Feh... Hey conductor, can't you make this soup can move any faster!? I have a princess to save!" Twilight was running out of patience rapidly, Pinkie backed away a bit just to be on the safe side.

"NEXT STOP: CANTERLOT! Can all crazy mares please step off the train!" The magically enhanced voice wasn't helping Twilight with calming down. Twilight walked out of the train, closely followed by Pinkie.
"Where are we going next Twilight? Do we go and see Celestia?" Pinkie looked at Twilight, Twilight looked back and nodded. "Yes we are going to Celestia, the faster the better!"
"You are going to need help with stopping Fluttershout, I am kindly offering my assistance." Twilight spun around when she heard the voice. "Shadow Rush! You did come!" Twilight pounced forward and gave him a hug.
"I realized I couldn’t leave you to stop her yourself: she is far too powerful for you to handle on your own." Shadow pushed Twilight away and started to walk towards the exit of the train platform.
"Come on, we had to hurry, didn’t we? Celestia is holding court right now, and we should take the chance to warn her." Shadow Rush grabbed Pinkie and Twilight, he then set off towards the castle at full speed. He reached the castle gates in 10 seconds flat. Pinkie and a slightly green Twilight walked up towards the line of ponies standing to meet the princess.
"WEEE! That was fun! Let's do it again later! Okay Shadow?!" Pinkie bounced around him while cheering.
"We'll see Pinkie. First, we need to warn Celestia."

If there was one thing Twilight had grown to hate in the last 10 minutes, it was to be delayed. And of course, there had to be a line consisting of over 100 ponies between her and Celestia. As the line slowly became shorter, so did Twilight's fuse. When they were down to place 50 in the line, Shadow swore he could feel the smell of smoke. When they were at place 20, Pinkie could see Twilight's eyes starting to glow red. When they were at place 7, Twilight's coat had turned completely white. When it finally was their turn, Twilight had to summon a small raincloud to cool herself down before she could enter.
"Sorry, but volatile materials and creatures are prohibited inside the throne room." was the reason given by the guards outside.

Twilight, Pinkie and Shadow entered the throne room. On the far end, sitting on a throne, was the goddess of the sun, Princess Celestia.
"Hello, my faithful student. What brings you here today?" Celestia spoke with her regular voice: caring and loving, but at the same time authoritative and regal. After a kneel, Twilight began to talk.
"I am here to warn you Princess. A powerful being has posessed Fluttershy and is going to try to take over Equestria! You have to be ready!" Celestia looked at Twilight and chuckled.
"Now now Twilight, if something like that existed, I'm sure I would know. Are you sure you aren't just overworked? Maybe you need a couple of days off. Now, if you would please leave me. I have important matters to work with." Upon hearing this, Twilight completely lost herself. She just sat down on the floor with her ears hanging.
Maybe I am overworked... Then I’ve done all this for nothing... And I’ve wasted the time of my mentor...
"Please Princess! I have seen this thing, I know what it is! Twilight is telling the truth. Please just let us explain." When Celestia heard Shadow, she turned to him and frowned.
"You! I remember you. Shadow Rush was it? I thought I prohibited you from meeting any ponies! And now you chose MY PERSONAL STUDENT as your next target!?" Shadow backed away as the Princess raised her voice.
"I-I'm s-sorry, i-it w-won't h-h-happen *gulp* again." Shadow hid behind Twilight as she stood up and began to walk away.
"Sorry for wasting your time Princess. I think I should just... Go home." Pinkie followed close by to Twilight... her Pinkie Sense told her something was not what it seemed to be.

Twilight, Shadow and Pinkie sat at a café in Canterlot. They all stared at their coffee as if they were having a staring competition with it.
"You know what? I think..." Pinkie began before Twilight silenced her.
"No Pinkie, not now..."
"But Twilight! I got a reaction! Twitchy left ear, rumbling stomach, itchy hooves and liver failure. It means somepony was being manipulated!" Upon hearing this, Shadow looked up. He thought for a while before it hit him.
"Of course! Fluttershout isn't just the queen of ear rape! She is the queen of sound in general! And every pony queen can control what they are queen over!" Twilight's ear twitched when she heard this.
"Are you saying that Fluttershout has hypnotized Celestia, with sound?" Shadow nodded. Twilight sprung up from the table.
"Then we must free her! But we don't know if it's true... We need to confirm this first." Twilight's and Shadow's bright mood died out simultaneously.
"Well, of course there is something going on with Celestia! Didn't you see her eyes? They were flashing red-blue every now and again. And she didn't have any cutie mark."
Twilight just stared at Pinkie, then Pinkie saw how Twilights mane began to catch fire. Twilight erupted into a ball of fire while screaming: "YOU KNEW ALL THE TIME PINKIE!? WHY IN THE NAME OF TARTARUS DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING!"
"Well, uh... Because you didn't ask? Is that a good answer? Or maybe: Buck you, I'm Pinkie, HATERS GONNA HATE!" Pinkie answered with a nervous laugh. Twilight descended and the flames died out, it was just Pinkie being Pinkie. No reason to argue. She sighed. Every pony in the street had stopped and was staring at them.
"Eh, let's just... We gotta hurry!" Twilight, her face was as read as a tomato. She took Pinkie and Shadow and dashed away towards the castle.

"What do you mean we can't be let in? I am Celestia's personal student!" Twilight was trying to get past the guards blocking the entrance.
"Sorry, but we wouldn't be allowed to let you in even if you were Lauren Faust herself. Now if you could back off a little, before i make you back off." Twilight backed off to Shadow and Pinkie, she was grinding her teeth so hard that Pinkie could swear she saw small chunks of them fly out.
"Hmm... How are we supposed to get in?" Shadow thought for a moment before he was interrupted by a yelling.
"FAITHFUL STUDENT COMING THROUGH!" Twilight charged towards the guards with her horn glowing. She blasted the guards away and charged right through the heavy door.
"Oh my god, she just ran in. What should we do?" Shadow looked at Pinkie in confusion.
"Just stick to the plan." When the dust had subsided, Pinkie and Shadow snuck in through the wrecked door.

Twilight was standing in front of the throne, Celestia was taking a nap in it. Twilight saw that Celestia's cutie mark was gone.
"Ummm, Celestia? Where is your cutie mark?" Celestia woke up and blinked a couple of times, one of her eyes were blue and the other was red.
"Why do you want to know?" Celestia spat back at her. Twilight was shocked when she heard her mentor talk like that, something was indeed wrong.
"What? Don't you recognize me? It's Twilight Sparkle, your most faithful student." Celeatia eyed her for a while, her blue and red eyes made Twilight feel incredibly uncomfortable.
"Oh, yeah. That failure of a unicorn I sent to Ponyville to get rid of. Are you here to pester me with more of your ‘friendship reports’?" Twilight staggered back. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Celestia pushed her aside and began to walk away. Shadow and Pinkie ran up to Twilight's side, she was having trouble standing up after what Celestia had said.
"Now, if you and your little ‘friends’ would kindly get out of my sights, I have a new queen to announce."
"WHAT?" Pinkie and Twilight yelled in unison.
"We were too late..." was all that Shadow could say.

6: My True Powers

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"Wh-What do you mean with new queen?" Twilight was shocked. Just what had Fluttershout done to turn Celestia into this? Pinkie just stared at Celestia with her mouth hanging open.

"I-I don't think I w-want to throw a p-party... not f-for her." Pinkie said weakly. Shadow facehoofed and grunted something.
"Show yourself, Fluttershout! I know you are hiding in here!" As if on command, Fluttershout appeared next to the throne. She gave Shadow a sly smile and walked up to him.

"Why hello there, handsome. Have we met before? It would be a shame if we hadn't." Fluttershout winked at Shadow before moving back; he just gave her a cross look. Seemingly annoyed by this, Fluttershout turned her attention to Twilight.

"Oh look, it's the student. Remember that I'm still your friend on the inside, and you wouldn't hurt a friend, would you?" Twilight backed a little, she was scared.

"R-Release Fluttershy. P-Please." Twilight mumbled. Fluttershout staggered at Twilight's words and looked at her with a shocked expression.

"But Twilight darling, I am Fluttershy! Don't you recognize me?" Twilight couldn't contain herself anymore: she pounced at Fluttershout and tackled her to the ground, only to be pulled away by Celestia's magic.

"You do not. And I repeat not, LAY YOUR HOOF ON THE QUEEN!" Celestia finished in the royal Canterlot voice, something she hadn't used in a long time. Twilight staggered, both from the sheer volume and the fact that it was Celestia herself who said it. Fluttershout snickered and walked up next to Twilight, she hummed a soothing sound right into Twilight's ear. Shadow and Pinkie watched in horror as Twilight's eyes changed color to red and blue and her cutie mark faded away. Twilight bowed down and kissed Fluttershout's hoofs.

"W-What did you do to her!?" Pinkie shouted. She ran up to Twilight and gave her a hug. Twilight barely reacted, she just blinked a couple of times and stood completely still.

"Oh, I just told her the truth. Sure, it was wrapped in honey and spiced with lies, but still. She liked it enough." Fluttershout said with a smirk. Shadow just stared in shock. Fluttershout wasn't that cruel, she was just an annoyance. She and OLDSACKS used to scare and ear rape the others. But she never tried anything like this.

"T-Twilight! W-Wake up!" Pinkie forced out between sobs. "This isn't you!" But Twilight didn't react; she just grabbed Pinkie with her magic and held her so that Fluttershout could do whatever she wanted to her. Fluttershout slowly walked around Pinkie, eyeing every millimeter of her body. she then pulled a hoof through Pinkie's poofy mane. All while Pinkie was desperately struggling to break Twilight's magical shackles, with little success.

"Hmmm... Kinky, but it will do." Fluttershout mumbled, she then planted a gentle kiss on Pinkie's mouth, Pinkie's hair immediatly fell down and became straight. Her eyes turned red and blue and her cutie mark faded. Pinkie's mane turned poofy again, she gave Fluttershout a seductive smile and whispered something in her ear. Pinkie then walked out of the throne room.

"Later..." Fluttershout whispered, she then turned her attention to Shadow Rush, who was standing defyingly, like a standard representing freedom. Of course, that was only Shadow's view of himself. Fluttershout let loose a malicious laugh: she was in control of this little world now.

Shadow backed away from Fluttershout, something had definitely pushed her over the edge.
Fluttershout hummed a strange tune, the sound distorted itself as it travelled through the air. When it reached Shadow's ears he felt his vision flaring red and blue, and nothing happened.

"What!? Why isn't it working? What are you!?" Fluttershout cried in shock. Why wasn't he bowing before her? How could her powers be useless on him?
"Fine, if that's how you want to do it!" Fluttershout sent a sonic blast at Shadow, it hit him straight on and threw him across the room.

I have to stop this madness! Even if... I'm sorry Celestia, I have to break my promise to you.

Shadow had been gathering energy ever since he was turned into a pony, it was for a situation like this. He ran away from Fluttershout as she neared him, he then began to channel his energy into his hat. The energy swirled like a river, and he struggled to keep it under control.

"What are you doing? Stop it now!" Fluttershout said, she felt a familiar type of energy emanate from the pegasus, but she couldn't put her hoof on what it was. The energy created a barrier around Shadow that made it impossible for Fluttershout to near him. She launched a soundwave at him. It ricocheted and struck her back in the face, throwing her backwards at least 5 meters. When she rose, she was blinded by a flash of light emanating from Shadow's body.

Shadow felt his body change, and his old powers returning to him. As the light died out, Shadow looked down on Fluttershout.
"This is my true power and form Fluttershout. Remember me? My name is The Inverted Shadow." He said with his new voice, it was deeper than his old one.

Fluttershout cowered before the creature, she did remember it. It was tall and apelike, it wore a black shirt with a blue insignia, the creature also sported a red hat. In its hand it held a device, resembling a revolver with wires and a screen attached to it.

Shadow could feel the very fabric of the world around him: to him it was letters and numbers aligned into code. He turned to the possessed Celestia and Twilight, he shot them with the revolver. Their bodies froze in place. He walked up to them and examined their minds; it appeared in front of him as A.I programming. Shadow quickly identified the corrupting code and deleted it.

Fluttershout watched as The Inverted Shadow cleansed Twilight and Celestia. Shadow then flew away through the roof, and a few moments later, Fluttershout could feel her control over Pinkie fade. NO! SHE was in charge here, and she would not accept this! As Shadow came back before her, she prepared her most devastating sound attack: the same one she had used on Pinkie. She took a deep breath and screamed... Nothing happened.

"Yeeeah... I took the liberty to mute you Fluttershout, I don't like micspamming."

Fluttershout gasped as he had just removed the only power she had. She pointed at Celestia and Twilight, they were just standing and staring blankly in front of them.

"I disabled their A.I. It will only work while I am in this form, but it should be enough time to put you out." The Inverted Shadow took up his toolgun and fired at Fluttershout, she jumped away from the blue beam and delivered a flying buck to the side of Shadow. However, Fluttershy's body isn't exactly famed for physical strenght, so Shadow barely flinched from the weak kick. He took Fluttershout by the leg and held her upside-down in front of him.

Nnngh... I only have about a minute before my power runs out. I have to shut her down NOW!

Shadow was just about to delete Fluttershout when she bucked the toolgun out of his hand with one of her hoofs. She followed up with bucking him in the face, sending Shadow staggering backwards. He reached down to pick up the toolgun when he felt a wave of fatigue hit him like a flaming oil barrel launched from a Coilgun, and he knew how that felt. Shadow collapsed down on one knee and felt the world go blurry, he fell and felt the last of his energy disappear as he reverted back into a pony.

No... I'm sorry for failing you... Twi...

Fluttershout carefully neared the blacked out pegasus. She poked Shadow with a hoof to ensure he was unconscious. After making sure that he wouldn't wake up for a while, Fluttershout gleefully kicked the light body across the room. Shadow crashed into a pillar, his body then slowly slid down from it while leaving a red trail on the shiny marble. Fluttershout fluttered over to the limp body and flew it high into the air.

This is what you get for muting me!

Fluttershout dropped Shadow and heard the satisfying sound of bones cracking as he hit the floor. Fluttershout landed next to the body, it was laying in a now growing crimson pool and blood was dripping from his mouth. She leaned her head against his chest and listened to his heart, it was beating slower and slower with each beat.

Perfect. If I leave him like that, he just might wake up before he dies. Oh, I would LOVE that!

Fluttershout rearranged Shadow's body so that he looked like he was sleeping. She then looked over at Twilight and Celestia, only to find that they had disappeared. Fluttershout looked around herself, only to hear a fizzle behind her and a horn gently jabbing her in the neck. She collapsed before she even felt Celestia's spell.

"Jolly good aim there Your Majesty." Pinkie said in a comically British accent while putting on a fake moustache and a monocle. Celestia and Twilight, who had teleported up behind Fluttershout in order to put her out just stared at Pinkie.

"Wha... How... When?" was all that Twilight managed to stutter out.

"Pinkamena Diane Pie. From the stairs. About 25 seconds ago. Does that answer your questions Twilight? Ooh, my turn! My turn! I think it was Colonel Mustard in the kitchen with the crossbow!" Pinkie cheerily exclaimed. Twilight just stared at her for a second before switching her focus to Shadow Rush, he was bleeding from a gash in the back of his head, five ribs were broken, one lung was punctured and his left wing had been turned into feather-and bone salad.

"Ohmygosh! Somepony get him a doctor!" Twilight yelled. Seconds later, a team of doctors came running into the room with a stretcher. They secured Shadow's limp body on it and took him to the castle's medical wing. Twilight tried to follow in order to make sure that Shadow would make it, but Celestia stopped her with one of her wings.

"No, my faithful student. You may not see him yet, we aren't finished here." Celestia said and gestured towards Fluttershout's unconscious body. Twilight walked up to it, she tried to sense Fluttershy in it but all she felt was an alien mind.

"How are we going to save Fluttershy?" Twilight asked, Celestia thought for a while before getting an idea.

"We need to get inside her head." she calmly said, Twilight just tilted her head slightly in confusion.

"How are we supposed to do that? With a hacksaw?" Twilight asked. Celestia frowned at the ridiculous assumption while doing a mental penta-facehoof. Sometimes she wondered how Twilight could be so intelligent and yet so stupid. It was what made her so adorkable, part of her charm so to say.

"Eh... Well, no. I was planning on, instead of playing brain-surgery, letting you use Luna's dreamwalking spell to enter Fluttershy's mind and purge it from the alien entity. Do you think you can do that, my faithful student?" Celestia asked. She was trying her best to not smirk at the idea of Twilight trying to open Fluttershy's head with a hacksaw and poke around in the pegasus's gray matter.

Twilight thought for a little bit: while it was the only way for her to save Fluttershy, it was also something she had never done before. She probably didn't have time to read one, or twenty, books about it either

I have to do it, for Fluttershy and Demacia, I mean Equestria!

"I will do my best." Twilight said, Celestia nodded and summoned some pillows for Twilight and Fluttershout to lay on during the spell, and gently placed the tranquilized pegasus on them. Twilight seated herself in front of Fluttershout and readied the spell: a purple aura formed around Twilight's horn. She touched Fluttershout's forehead with it. The aura turned dark blue and spread across both Twilight and Fluttershout's bodies.

"Remember who you are Twilight!" was the last thing Twilight heard from Celestia before everything went white.

7: The Marked of... Something

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"So, this is what Fluttershy's mind looks like." Twilight said to herself. She was standing on the bridge outside of Fluttershy's cottage. The area was identical to Fluttershy's home, and a thick wall of gray clouds surrounding it made it look like it was in the middle of the eye of a storm. The silence was absolute, not even the rustling of leaves could be heard, making Twilight's breaths sound like howling wind.
"Hello? Is anypony here? Fluttershy?" Twilight called, slowly walking forward to the front door of the cottage.
Suddenly, she heard a small rustle in a bush behind her. She turned around and slowly walked up to it. Before she could react, a yellow blur bolted out of it and knocked Twilight over. Twilight got up and looked in the direction of where the blur had gone.
"What, is that you Fluttershy? It's me, Twilight. I'm here to help you!" Twilight shouted to the bush where the yellow blur had gone. A pair of red and blue eyes fixated themselves on Twilight from within the bush and Twilight felt all her willpower leave her body: she was getting The Stare!
"N-no, wh-why are y-you d-doing t-this F-Flutters? It's m-me, Twi-Twilight." Twilight managed to press out. The yellow blur darted out of the bush, and Twilight felt it apply a flurry of taps all over her body. As soon as the blur was finished, Twilight collapsed, unable to move any of her limbs or cast spells.
What! W-what happened? Oh no, pressure points! She blocked my nerves... I can't move or use magic until it wears off!
Twilight could only watch in horror as the yellow attacker bucked her high up into the air, she felt something wrap around her, and saw a lock of pink hair brush over her face. Twilight felt herself being turned head down and saw the ground: it was very far down.
Oh buck... was the only thing Twilight thought when she realised what was about to happen. The next second, she was piledrived so hard into the ground that her neck snapped.
That's going to hurt in the morning. Was the last thing Twilight could think of before blacking out.

Twilight woke and sat up in a bed. It seemed that she had been moved inside of Fluttershy's cottage.
Why is everything tilted 90 degrees? Twilight thought before it hit her: her head was hanging from her snapped neck.
"How did I survive that?" Twilight muttered and she grabbed her head with her hoofs and snapped it back with a sickly cracking noise. Twilight massaged her sore neck and looked around: she was sitting in one of Fluttershy's guest rooms.
Twilight heard a sound from downstairs. Wanting to investigate, she cautiosly walked out of the bedroom and crept towards the staircase. She slowly peeked down to the living room, and saw Fluttershy sleeping on the couch. Twilight heard slamming from the kitchen, and saw a large hairless monkey with a red and white striped top hat exit the kitchen. It was carrying a teapot, two mugs and a plate with two sandwiches on it. It sat down on the couch and placed the food on a small table.
"Are you going to join me for lunch Twilight Sparkle? Or are you just going to stand on the stairs all day?" the creature said. Twilight just stood there breathless for a moment, wondering how the animal knew she was there. She slowly walked down the stairs and faced the creature. Fluttershy was laying in it's lap, watching Twilight while blinking the sleep out of her eyes.
"Wh-What have you done to Fluttershy? Why is she like that?" Twilight asked. The creature just gave her an annoyed glare before it spoke.
"Where are your manners Twilight Sparkle? I thought you were the student of Princess Celestia herself. We haven't even been properly introduced to each other." the creature gestured towards Twilight, Fluttershy nodded and gave Twilight a stare that could melt solid rock. Twilight suddenly felt all her willpower dissapear and she struggled to stay up when the effect of the unusually powerful stare peaked.
"S-Sorry, *ngh* I'm Tw-Twilight S-S-Sparkle, bea-bearer of *hgh* t-the E-Element of M-Magic. Wh-Who d-do I *gah* h-have th-the hon-honor t-to ad-adress?" Twilight forced herself to say. Once she had said it, she felt the Stare's effect dissipate. She stood up straight again, wobbling slightly.
“Much better. Now, to answer both of your questions. My name is GAYPENIS, King of Ear Rape. Fluttershy has been... Well, basically, I've turned her into a sort of watchdog/assassin hybrid. She is as loyal as a watchdog, and as strong and deadly as a professional assassin.” GAYPENIS said. Twilight watched with both disgust and shock as Fluttershy nuzzled the large creature's hand while it petted her.
"But... Why... What exactly did she do to me out there?" Twilight asked. She wanted to know how Fluttershy of all ponies could become so dangerous.
"Good question, Mrs. Sparkle. Why don't you ask her? What exactly did you do to our... guest, dear Fluttershy?" GAYPENIS said, Fluttershy looked at Twilight before giving her a sly smile.
"It was nothing, really. I just used Flutters- I mean my different skills such as The Stare, acupressure and some tricks I normally would never use to create a combat style. I call it The Way of The Butterfly, and it focuses on bringing down opponents with minimal physical injuries." Fluttershy said. Twilight noticed how Fluttershy's voice was different: it sounded more cat-like and seductive than normal. Twilight raised an eyebrow.
"And a piledriver is considered to be non-violent enough?" Twilight asked, her voice a mix of disbelief and confusion. Fluttershy just rolled her eyes and yawned. Twilight turned to GAYPENIS again, and frowned at him.
"I don't know why you are doing this, but I'm going to stop you." Twilight said.
"Yes, I'm sure you will. Now, how about you drink some tea?" GAYPENIS said, he poured some tea into one of the mugs from the tray on the small table and placed it on the table in front of Twilight. Twilight eyed the tea suspiciously before taking a whiff of it. It smelled like regular Earl Gray tea; there were no hazardous chemical, biological or arcane substances that Twilight could detect. She slowly took a sip of the tea, it was just the perfect strength.
No dots dancing across my field of vision, and I'm not feeling dizzy. This tea is alright.
Twilight quickly downed the tea and gave GAYPENIS a glare.
"Thanks for the tea, but I made a promise to purge you from Fluttershy, and I'm going to keep it." Twilight said, trying to sound as confident as possible. GAYPENIS just gave her an amused look and chuckled slightly.
"Remember Twilight, you're in my domain right now. What do you have? Your magic? What do I have? I have my powers, Fluttershy and the ability to manipulate matter. For example, I can turn the tea in your stomach into things like cyanide or lead by snapping my finger." GAYPENIS said in a slightly menacing tone. Twilight reeled when she heard this, she realised how easy it was for him to kill her.
He literally just needs to think about killing me. Oh Celestia, what am I going to do?
"C-Can't we m-make a d-deal? I'm s-sure a *gulp* reasonable... c-creature like y-you would l-like to re-resolve this p-p-peacefully." Twilight stuttered, GAYPENIS just looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
“Actually, how about no. I don’t feel reasonable today, now leave us alone!” GAYPENIS snapped his fingers and Twilight felt how the floor around her began to soften. She desperately tried to struggle, but the floor was like quicksand: it had sucked her in. The last thing she saw before being consumed was the emotionless face of Fluttershy as she watched Twilight disappear.
No... Flutters... Help...

(Establishing battlefield control. Stand by.)
Silence. Silence was all that met Twilight when she woke up. She raised her head and slowly lifted her eyelids, blinking a couple of times before opening them completely.
Where am I?
Twilight slowly looked around herself: she was laying on a pillow in the middle of the throne room of Canterlot Castle. At least, she thought it was Canterlot Castle.
"What happened to this place? Where is everypony?" Twilight thought out loud. The room was completely ruined, the windows were broken, and the walls were destroyed in places. The night had fallen outside, and Twilight could see the sky through a hole in the roof. The night sky was completely empty of stars, and the moon were glowing in a crimson red color. This made Twilight feel extremely uneasy: she wondered how much time had passed in the real world. She decided that the best thing to do would be to search for other ponies.
There has to be somepony other than me here.
Twilight walked out of the throne room, and took the corridor which she knew led to the Elements Vault. She looked around herself while walking, the walls and the roof were destroyed in places and the statues in the corridors were either corroded by time or twisted into creatures too horrifying to describe.
What has happened here? How could something like this happen?
Twilight continued her way down the corridor until she came to the door to the Vault, where the door normally was there were a wall of glowing green crystals. Twilight slowly moved closer to the crystal wall, casting a number of protective spells on herself to be sure.
"What is this thing?" Twilight mumbled, she reached out a hoof to touch the crystal when she noticed something. The crystals were partly composed out of pony bodies. The bodies were stuck on the crystals and it looked like the crystal was growing on the bodies, slowly covering them. Twilight reeled back in shock and fear, she looked at the faces of the crystallized ponies, all of them were frozen in expressions displaying intense agony.
Sweet Celestia! Maybe I shouldn't touch these crystals...
Twilight decided that the best way to get past the crystals were to destroy them, she charged her horn and tried a number of different destructive spells ranging from regular explosions and fireballs to gluon beams and antimatter singularities. None of them would do much more than scratch the surface of the crystals, and the crystals quickly grew back to cover the damage.
Twilight sighed, she had burnt a large amount of her mana trying to get rid of these crystals and nothing had worked. She only had a few spells left to try before she was completely out of ideas.
"This have to work, I can feel the Elements on the other side of this wall." she said, she charged her horn again, this time the energy felt heavier to control and Twilight began to struggle against fatigue. Twilight let loose a spell she had learnt from Rarity, it was a search spell that localized gems with the help of sonic pulses, if the power was sufficient it could also destroy rocks and polish gems.

Twilight directed the sonic pulses at the crystals and to her relief, the crystals seemed to disintegrate into thin air when they were hit. Twilight swept away all the crystals with the pulses and admired her work, the only thing left was a fine silvery powder.
Hmmm... That's mixed minerals and metals, why did those come out of the crystals?
Twilight shook her head a couple of times. She couldn't let herself get distracted from the current situation. She slowly walked into the room, on the far side was the decorated door designed to keep the Elements of Harmony safe.

Twilight took a deep breath, the air felt weird. It had a sort of undertone she couldn't quite place. Twilight swallowed and approached the final door. A strange aura was emanating from behind it, she could definitely feel four of the Elements: Laughter, Generosity, Honesty and Loyalty, but it felt like if they also represented Empty, Hollow, Devoid and Lacking. The fact that her own and Fluttershy's element wasn't there just added to her feeling of unease. Twilight stopped for a moment, she looked at her side and saw that one of the large stained glass panes were still intact. The mosaic however, did not show an important moment in history. Most of the panes were black, and some red panes formed a crude sentence.
"Four broken because of one, they will not forgive." What does that mean?
Why was the message there, and what did it mean? Twilight kept thinking about it as she cast the spell to unlock the vault door, the door opened silently. Twilight reached in with her magic and opened the chest containing the Elements. What she found confused her.
The chest contained five necklaces and a tiara, whose gemstones seemed out of place. Twilight's Element seemed to be in regular condition: the purple gemstone was glowing with a faint aura. The Element of Kindness lacked a gemstone altogether and the other four, Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity and Laughter, were gray and cracked.
If my own Element is here, how come I can't feel it?
Twilight grasped her own Element and placed it on her head, it felt calming and rejuvenating. She threw a glance at the rest of the Elements before deciding that she should take them as well.
I might need the extra firepower.
Twilight used her magic to lift the rest of the Elements out of the chest, they all felt weird in her magic, as if she was holding them with a numb hoof. Only the Element of Kindness felt unique, it felt like a regular piece of jewellry, not a trace of magic was in it. Twilight looked into the chest to see if there was anything more in it. In the bottom of the chest somepony had carved a message.
"Give us back, make us complete." Who exactly is creating all these messages? It's as if they have been placed here for me.
Twilight quickly transmuted the chest into a pair of saddlebags and placed the Elements inside it, save for her own which she kept on her head. She began trotting towards the exit of the castle, occasionally seeing clusters of those strange green crystals or weird markings painted on the walls; they often looked like a circle with a line going through it horizontally inside a triangle composed out of three bars, and they were always red. Twilight increased her speed, the lack of other (living) ponies was freaking her out. She knew she had seen that mark on the walls before, but she couldn't remember where.
"Hmm... They represented some sort of organisation if I remember correctly, but which? Wasn't it the... what was their name, Marked of... something." Twilight muttered, she continued to trot through the castle until she reached the exit. The heavy door that usually kept ponies out had been turned into a pile of splinters, remains of royal guards were spread all over the pile. Twilight forced back the urge to vomit, she looked at the macabre scene in front of her before slowly making her way around it.

Twilight slowly walked through the main street in Canterlot, the city was in ruins and green crystals were growing out of holes in the buildings. Twilight looked away from the buildings and down the street, she could make out three rough pony shapes.
"Hey, over here! Help!" Twilight shouted, the three ponies turned and set a new course directly towards Twilight. Twilight's joy was however quickly replaced with fear as the three ponies got close enough for her to see them clearly.
Oh lord, what are those things?
The ponies were all earth ponies, they were almost completely covered in a black armor sporting red lines, and their mouths and noses were covered by some sort of metal respirator. Their right front leg ended in some sort of tube which released a blue glow through side-openings. On their left side a thick barrel was mounted, the barrel had a number of holes around the edge. Twilight knew what the barrel was, she had seen more primitive versions of it guarding the Castle.
Those are rotary cannons, but they are so small compared to the normal ones. Where the Tartarus am I?
The ponies finally spoke, they spoke in a metallic voice lacking any trace of feelings.
"We can taste your fear!" The ponies said before opening fire on Twilight with their cannons. She barely had time to erect a shield and run away. Twilight ran as fast as her legs could carry her. Bullets ripped apart the road where she had been standing mere milliseconds ago. She could hear the voices of the ponies, they were saying things like "Terminate!" and "Disable her!". She could hear them galloping in hot pursuit, they were directly behind her, and they were slowly gaining. Twilight finally ran into an alley, heading quickly towards her much needed salvation from her pursuers, only to be met with a dead end. The ponies turned into the alley and slowly approached her.

"Wh-Who are you?" Twilight whimpered. She backed up against a wall, trying to place herself as far away as possible from the three pursuers. She began cycling through possible escape routes and counterattacks in her head.
"Awakened." was all the ponies answered. The answer confused Twilight: were all three of them named Awakened? Why had they answered in almost perfect unison?

"Why are you doing this?" Twilight asked. The three “Awakened” stood idle for a moment before answering.
"Our will is Cadence's." They said, once again in perfect unison. Twilight was rendered speechless by this statement: had Princess Cadence sent these killers?
But why? It makes no sense.
Twilight's train of thought was interrupted by the Awakened beginning to spin their Rotary Cannons. Twilight began to charge a teleport spell in a desperate attempt to get out of the situation. The closest Awakened lifted its right front hoof and released a blue wave from it: Twilight's spell fizzled out, and she felt the same numbness as when somepony attached an arcane Inhibitor to her horn. Twilight realized what had happened: they had fired an AMP at her, effectively disabling all her magic.

Twilight curled up and bit her tail. The only thing she could hope for now was a quick and pain-free death. She began crying for she would never see Shining again, or mom and dad, or Celestia, or any of her friends. Instead she would die alone in an alley in the ruins of Canterlot, killed by some freaks sent by Cadence.
Why would Cadence do this? She is one of the kindest ponies I know.
Twilight never got so far however, three *thunks* were heard, followed by three cries. Twilight slowly opened her eyes and saw the three Awakened laying on the street with arrows through their face. A faint "We shall return" could be heard from them before they died.

"Right between the eyes!" Twilight turned around, behind her on a rooftop a mare was standing. She was a dark brown unicorn with a pitch black mane, her eyes were glowing green and her cutie mark resembled some sort of strange symbol. Twilight thought it looked like a hazard symbol, one that she hadn't seen before. The weird thing about the mare was the fact that small green crystals were growing on her coat in some places. She was levitating a crossbow and a couple of arrows in a fierce green energy field.
"Thanks, I guess? Who are you?" Twilight said cautiously. The mare grabbed her in a surprisingly strong magical field, and lifted Twilight up to the roof she was standing on.
"No problem. I gotta get you out of Canterlot. My name isn't important. Let's go, there are more cyborgs coming, and I bet they are sending Enlightened. Remember to stay low!" The mare urgently whispered. But Twilight didn't move an inch: she wanted answers.
"Your name is important, I'm not moving until you've at least told me your name." Twilight said. The mare sighed, and replied in a slightly annoyed tone.
"You're not going to move are you? Geez... Fine, you can call me Crystal Sun."

8: Why Do You Keep Hitting Me So Much?

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"Now that you know my name, tell me yours." Crystal Sun said to Twilight. They were sneaking through a block of destroyed buildings while trying to avoid the Awakened, who were patrolling the streets.

"My name... What was it? Oh no, I can't remember!" Twilight exclaimed, but Crystal quickly silenced with a hoof over her mouth.

"Shush, not so loud. So, you can't remember your name, huh?" Crystal whispered. Twilight nodded slowly. Crystal sighed and took away her hoof from Twilight's mouth.

"What am I supposed to call you then? I know, I'll just call you Lotus Star. Will that do?" Twilight nodded.

"My name is... Lotus Star..." she slowly said, as if she just had reached a realization. Crystal gave her a slightly confused look before peeking through a hole in a wall, Twilight peeked too and could see the streets on the other side. They swarmed with Awakened and a different type of cyborg: They wore completely white armor, had a full-covering helmet which sported a cross-shaped red visor, they also had some sort of energy cannon instead of a rotary cannon.

"What are those? I haven't seen them before." Twilght whispered, Crystal kept eyeing the cyborgs while answering.

"Those are Enlightened... But those are only sent against high-priority targets. What are they doing here?" Crystal hissed, Twilight just looked at the strange cyborgs with curiosity.

It would be fun, I mean interesting to study one... Wait, am I a scientist? That would explain all these complex thoughts I'm having.

Twilight closed her eyes and pressed at her eyelids with her hooves, it helped against the headache from all the thoughts going through her mind. Twilight tapped at Crystal's shoulder, she turned around and gave Twilight an annoyed look.

"What is it, Lotus? I hope it's important because we are in quite a hurry here." Crystal whispered.

"Oh, umm... I just wondered, could you... You know, kill one of those cyborgs for me? I want to study one."

"HAH! That wasn't even funny."

"It wasn't meant to be funny."

"You're kidding... You're kidding me, right?"

"Well, no..."

"Oh, okay. Let's just put it... How should I say this... Buck you and your idiotic ideas!" Crystal said, ending the sentence yelling. Twilight backed off a little; she hadn't expected such an outburst from the unicorn.

"B-but, why not?"

"I was only sent in here to retrieve a unicorn, not kill an Enlightened for her to study. Tartarus, they didn't even say ANYTHING about Enlightened being here!" Crystal yelled, throwing her front hoofs into the air.

"Wait, you were sent in by someone to retrieve me?" Twilight asked with a quizzical look on her face. Crystal nodded, she still seemed angry.

"In that case, I'm your client."

"Yeah, so what?"

"Then you, according to the Equestrian Bodyguard Constitution have to do as I say. So would you kindly go and kill an Enlightened?" Twilight said triumphantly. Crystal seemed completely taken by this statement and just stood there staring.

How do I know all of this? Oh, it feels great to be smart!

Crystal stared at Twilight for a split second before bursting into laughter, a mocking type of laughter.

"That's not how it works around here, laws aren't worth nickel anymore. From when are you? Before the fall of Celestia?"

"What do you mean 'laws aren't worth nickel'? Equestrian law is written to never expire, even if the world were to end. So you have to follow my orders!" Twilight countered, Crystal stopped laughing and frowned at Twilight.

"That's right, you MUST follow my orders. That's the law." Twilight said with a triumphant smile. Crystal just looked at Twilight with growing hate, and Twilight noticed how frustrated she was.

Crystal pounced at Twilight and pinned her to the ground, she took her crossbow and aimed it at Twilight's throat; she then leaned in close and whispered in Twilight's ear.

"Let's get something straight, wiseacre: I don't take orders from you. I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing it for the money. Is that clear?" Crystal hissed in Twilight's ear. Twilight was petrified by fear and couldn't do much more than nod slowly.

"Good, let's get moving then." Crystal said and helped Twilight up, she was shaking and didn't want anything other than get away from this twisted version of Canterlot.

So this city is named Canterlot? How come I know that? Welp, must be an important place.

"Identify yourselves!" A voice suddenly said, Twilight and Crystal looked at each other before looking over the wall they were hiding behind. They found themselves staring into the faceplates of a squad of Enlightened. Twilight felt herself turn multiple shades paler; Crystal Sun slowly raised her crossbow and grabbed Twilight's hoof with her own.

"Prepare to run when I tell you to." Crystal whispered, Twilight nodded without taking her eyes off the cyborgs.

Wow, they sure resemble crusaders with that armor. Except bigger, and deadlier, and scarier, and less reasonable.

A red beam came from the visor of one of the cyborgs; it swoop across Twilight and Crystal before fading away.

"Targets identified as Twilight Sparkle and Crystal Sun, recommended action: kill Crystal Sun and Twilight Sparkle." The Enlightened that scanned the two mares said, a white glow began emanating from the muzzle of it's weapon.

"RUN!" Crystal yelled as she drew her crossbow and shot the Enlightened straight through the visor: the arrow punched through the glass and embedded itself in the cyborgs brain; killing it instantly. Twilight turned around and ran away as fast as she could,the other Enlightened opened fire and she could feel the air around her crackle as brilliant-white energy beams barely missed her. Twilight ran as fast as her librarian body could carry her.

Do I work out? Maybe I should do it more.

Twilight’s thinking was interrupted by Crystal dashing past her, moments later Twilight felt an energy beam singe the tip of her tail.

This only motivated Twilight to run faster, and she could hear the noises from the Enlightened shrink in volume as she outran them.

Suddenly, a beam of energy from one of the Enlightened struck Twilight's leg. She felt a jolt of pain and the smell of burnt skin reached her nose.

"Aagh!" Twilight shrieked as she lost balance and crashed into the ground headfirst. She slid in the mud for a good meter before hitting a rock. Twilight crashed into the rock with her horn first and felt a massive surge of pain as the sensitive appendage cracked from the impact.

Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs as she felt the crack spread to the base of the horn. Energy began flowing out through the crack, and she felt her body grow heavy from the loss.

"Come on, get up! We need to get out of here!" Crystal yelled to Twilight, but Twilight could only whimper as she laid in the dirt. Crystal stopped, turned around, and ran back to Twilight. She muttered something before lifting Twilight's slack body with her fierce green magic.

"Faust damnit! You broke your horn!" Crystal growled to Twilight before dumping her behind a broken wall. Twilight nodded weakly, she could feel her very life spill out through her cracked horn.

Crystal dove down behind the wall and landed next to Twilight. Then she saw the large field of crystals in front of them. Twilight glanced weakly at the field and remembered the guards back in the castle: the ones that had been encased in crystals.

"Buck! How am I supposed to get you past the field?" Crystal groaned in frustration. She then turned to Twilight with a much more concerned look.

"Hold still, I'm going to fix that horn. It's only temporary, but it should work until we find some reinforcements." Crystal said with a calming voice. She charged her horn and sent a beam of energy into Twilight's; the effect was instant, a green net grew over the crack and stopped the energy leakage.

"Wh-what did you do?" Twilight blurted out as she ran a hoof across her horn, it seemed to be in crisp condition.

"I quick-mended it. Your horn will hold for a while, but you still need to get it checked by somepony." Crystal whispered as she eyed the field of crystals. She was trying to determine if it was worth trying to throw Twilight across.

Something's not right with Crystal Sun... She isn't a normal unicorn.

Twilight stopped thinking as she saw a swarm of blue bolts soar above her head, she shakily stood up and followed the bolts as they crashed into a group of approaching Awakened. The Awakened were engulfed in white energy discharges, a *thump* could be heard and the energy subsided. There were nothing left of the cyborg ponies.

"Did you see that Crystal? What was it?" Twilight said in a confused tone as she turned to Crystal.

"That my dear Lotus, is our ticket out of here..." Crystal mumbled with a small smirk. Twilight tilted her head and gave the brown mare a questioning glare. The purple unicorn then turned around as she heard something, only to see a large group of cyborgs move towards her and Crystal.

"Um... C-Crystal... Now would be a g-good time to d-do something..." Twilight stuttered as she paled from the sight. Before Crystal could react, something appeared on the other side of the crystal field. It jumped across the field and landed in front of Twilight, who reeled back with a yelp. Twilight realized that the creature was a pony, it stood on it's hind legs though, and it sported some sort of futuristic white armour. The pony was also holding some sort of metal tube with it's front hooves, which it now pointed at the incoming cyborgs.

"Wub a dub dub motherbuckers!" The armoured pony yelled with a feminine voice, before letting loose a barrage of energy spheres from the tube it was holding. Twilight watched in amusement as the projectiles discharged when they hit their targets and completely evaporated the cyborgs, doing no sounds except from a heavy thump with each discharge.

Seeing the coast was clear, the armoured pony turned to Crystal and Twilight. It put a hoof to one of it's ears before starting to talk.

"Command? Scratch here, we have a civilian and a mutant. Requesting Ox evac." The pony said, Twilight assumed she was using some sort of communications device.

"Who is that?" Twilight whispered to Crystal, the armoured pony must have heard her though, and it turned to look at Twilight.

"Save the questions until we're at a safer location will ya?" It said, Twilight assumed it was female considering the voice. The pony put a hoof towards it's ear again, nodded and muttered something.

"Alright ladies, I have good and bad news! Our evac won't be able to land closer than a kilometer away." She said to Twilight and Crystal, Crystal groaned.

"And the good news?" Crystal asked in an annoyed tone.

"Those were the good news, the bad news is that an armour division has been dispatched by the Marked of Cadence to take us out, and we won't get any reinforcements of our own in another six minutes. So I suggest we start moving towards towards the extraction point!" The armoured mare barked before grabbing Twilight and Crystal with her magic. She then turned towards the field of crystals.

Oh no, there's no way she's going to make that jump! Twilight desperately thought just before the armoured mare jumped.

Twilight closed her eyes as hard as she could, but opened them again when she noticed that they were still hanging in the air. Twilight looked up at the pony carrying her, a pair of metallic wings were extended from her back. The wings didn't flap and seemed to be used for gliding rather than flying.

The three mares landed on the other side of the crystal field safely, and Twilight immediately turned towards the armoured mare.

"Never... EVER do that again without warning me! What's your name by the way?" Twilight growled while trying to calm herself.

"You're not in any position to comandeer me sweetie. Name's Scratch by the way." The armoured mare said with a small laugh. Twilight raised an eyebrow, it felt like she knew this "Scratch".

I swear I know that voice and name from someplace else...

Twilight's thinking was interrupted by a beam of energy striking the tiara that somehow was still sitting on her head, causing it to vibrate from the sheer amount of energy in the blast. The crystal in the tiara gave off a little spark, that spark jumped to Twilight which caused her to get a slight migraine.

"We need to get to the evac zone! Double time!" Scratch barked. She launched another volley of energy at the incoming cyborgs and set off in the opposite direction; Twilight and Crystal quickly tailed her. As they ran, a thumping noise could be heard. It sounded like a walking giant, and it was getting closer.

Suddenly, a giant metal unicorn appeared in front of them. Twilight raised her eyes and saw a red crystal at the tip of the giant horn. The three ponies stopped, and Twilight could hear the other two swear.

"What the buck is an Avatar doing here!?" Scratch yelled in a confused and angry tone. Crystal didn't answer, she gritted her teeth and brought up her crossbow.

"Get yourself to cover! I'm taking it out!" Scratch barked and gestured to Twilight and Crystal to run into one of the ruined buildings, an order they promptly obeyed.

The Avatar, a behemoth compared to the three ponies, emitted a low-pitched sound not unlike a growl. Twilight peeked up from her hiding spot behind a cracked wall and saw how the red crystal at the tip of the giant's horn was glowing. Suddenly, the lavender unicorn felt something shove her aside, a brilliant red beam cut through the wall and scorched the ground where she had been standing mere seconds ago.

"I swear to Faust, I'm not going to help you the next time you decide to get hit by an Obelisk laser." Crystal growled while slapping Twilight. Twilight reeled, she put a hoof to her chin and rubbed the sore skin.

"S-Sorry..." Twilight stammered, but was quickly silenced by another slap.

"Just... be quiet will ya." Crystal groaned in irritation.

Scratch tilted her head upwards to see the top of the Avatar: it was a somewhat larger than usual model, and it was equipped with a scanner.

"Well, seems like Crystal and that civvie won't be able to hide. Help me Tavi, what's the best approach?" Scratch muttered. A gray earth mare with a pink bowtie appeared on the inside of her visor, the small mare took up a cello and slowly played a sad tune while answering.

"Well... according to your scanners you are up against an Avatar AW-15. Before I give you some advice, may I ask how you got into such a ridicilous situation?" The small pony said in a slightly disappointed tone. The tune she played sped up slightly and turned from minor to major.

"Oh you know me Octavia, I'm always getting the cool missions!" Scratch replied with a chuckle. The armoured mare unleashed a volley of sonic pulses from her cannon, they didn't even scratch the paint job on the Avatar. The enormous robot pony shifted it's attention towards Scratch and fired a beam of ruby-red energy from it's horn. She swiftly jumped to the side as the beam cut the air and evaporated the remains of a cart behind her.

"I swear, if you didn't remind me so much of Vinyl..." Octavia said with a grunt. She threw away the cello, took a thick book from nowhere and placed a pair of purple reading glasses on her muzzle. She opened the book, flipped a couple of pages and read a little before continuing to talk.

*ahem* "Avatar Warmech, model AW-15, produced by the Brotherhood of TROT. The Avatar Warmech is an advanced weapon developed specifically to counter the heavy armor of the E.D.I Manticore Tank. This hulking beast resembles a black metal unicorn, and is armed with an Isis Class VI Military Laser. It's known for being able to vaporize entire armour columns in a matter of minutes and it's ability to take equipment from other TROT vehicles in order to upgrade itself. What makes this robot menace truly unique is the fact that Princess Cadence herself designed it." Octavia read in a monotone voice, completely oblivious to the fact that Scratch was doing her best to dodge the lasers fired from the Avatar.

"Yeah, that's great trivia and all but... Could you skip to the part with documented weak spots?" Scratch sighed while dancing away from a giant hoof trying to crush her. Octavia frowned, flipped page in the large book and ran her hoof down the page..

"Ah! Here we are my little stressball, known Avatar AW-15 weak spots. The best way to neutralize an Avatar AW-15 is to focus one powerful blast on it's belly, as this is where the hatch for the crew is placed." Octavia said with a playful smile. Scratch quickly acnowledged and activated her visor to display the area. The surroundings was covered in a white grid, her two unicorn companions hiding behind the wall were covered in a green grid, the Avatar was covered in a red grid: a square on it's belly were highlighted in yellow.

"Thanks Tavi, I'll cover it from here." Scratch mumbled with a smirk before dismissing the small gray mare from her line of sight. Scratch used her jump-pack to glide past the Avatar and land next to it. She quickly bolted in under it and rolled over on her back.

"Let's see how ticklish you are..." Scratch whispered while centering her sonic cannon on the highlighted patch in her visor.

"Are you sure this is a good idea? This equipment is still a prototype, and such a discharge has never been attempted before. I'm not sure even your custom capacitors will be able to handle a power flux at 120 percent." Octavia said in a concerned voice.

"Don't worry baby, I got this!" Scratch yelled as she removed the safety lock from her cannon. A humming sound could be heard from it, and a blue light coming from the coolant vents intensified.

"Have a taste of my BASS CANNON!" Scratch screamed as she fired her cannon. At first, nothing happened. Then, a blue-white beam of energy struck the underside of the Avatar, ripping apart the entire midsection of the large robot, pushing Scratch one decimeter into the ground and releasing a sound like the heaviest bass drop in the history of Equestria. The beam continued far past the gray clouds up in the sky and disappeared almost as soon as it had appeared.

*phew* "What'd I tell you Tavi? I got this." Scratch laughed before beginning to dig her way out of the hole she was laying in.

(Avatar destroyed. Unit promoted.)

Twilight and Crystal threw themselves to the ground when they heard the shockwave, for all they knew it might have been the end of Equestria. The duo slowly raised their head over their cover and took in the scene: Scratch was digging herself out of a hole, surrounded by bits of metal and small fires. Twilight couldn't help but find the scene a bit funny, it just looked so unreal to her.

"Alright girls, we need to reach the evac point ASAP!" Scratch barked, and before they knew it, they were running again.

Twilight could feel that she hadn't been running this much for a very long time, and finally she collapsed from exhaustion.

*gasp*"I-I can't*phew* run an-anymore..." she panted as she crawled across the ground. Crystal and Scratch looked at Twilight with disapproving expressions, looked at each other and said something. It was too low for Twilight to hear.

"It's a good thing we finally got backup then. Great work on running pony girl." Scratch encouraged in a sarcastic tone. The two mares then snickered to each other.

(Reinforcements has arrived)

They were all interrupted by a loud roaring noise, and suddenly a large tank rolled through a building and drove past the trio. Twilight sat up and watched as more of the vehicles drove past them, including some even larger double-barelled tanks.

"Wh-What is that!" Twilight yelped. She looked at the other two mares who just seemed to be more and more amused at her stupidity with every minute. They were whispering something about amnesia.

"I'll have somepony explain to you when we are on the Ox, alright?" Scratch said while gesturing to an armoured cart-like vehicle. The vehicle stopped and a pony sporting regular combat armour leaned out through a window.

"Hey there Captain Scratch, need a ride? I'll give ya one in exchange for a date." The pony said with a stupid grin. Scratch laughed and gestured for Twilight and Crystal to get inside the vehicle.

"Keep dreaming, we need a lift to sector zeta-six for evacuation. Or you know what, I'll drive." Scratch said with a slight laugh. She then proceeded to take the soldier's place at the controls and drive the party away from the battle. The soldier, now sitting in the back with Twilight and Crystal, looked like he was in heaven and Tartarus at the same time.

"I can't believe this... Here I am alone with two hot mares in the back of an APC, both of them are taboo and I'm going to have to go through the realm of Discord if I try something funny..." he muttered while trying to hide his blush. Twilight noticed how Crystal saw an opportunity. She stood up in the moving APC, spun around and brushed her tail against the face of the soldier. Twilight couldn't help but laugh a little at the soldier's reaction, as he fought to remain collected. Crystal then sat down, and winked at the soldier, who proceeded to have a nosebleed and fall unconscious.

"How did you do that?" Twilight asked with wide eyes. Crystal just smirked and gave the lavender librarian a sly smile.

"Practise Lotus, lots of practise." She said with a wink. Twilight decided to leave it at that, she wasn't sure if she wanted to hear the rest.

The two mares remained silent for the rest of the trip, the vehicle was closed up so they couldn't watch the landscape speed by. When they reached a full stop, Twilight had counted to approximately one-hundred and fifty bolts holding the armoured plates in the vehicle together. The vehicle shook as Scratch jumped out of the driver's seat and opened the back door for Crystal and Twilight to exit.

"Here we are ladies. It may not be first class, but it's durability, reliability and ability to absorb large amounts of anti-air fire makes up in my opinion." Scratch said while leading the two unicorns towards a large flying transport.

"Wha... What is that thing?" Twilight asked with her mouth hanging open. To her it looked like a giant metal bird, it had two wings with some sort of fan attached to them. There was a grey container attached to it, and Twilight assumed that was the cargo hold.

After being shoved inside the container by Scratch, Twilight sat down on a bench while they took off. She wasn't unused to flying, but flying in a metal box held up by two fans was almost too much for her.

"What's the matter Lotus? Scared of heights?" Crystal teased as she saw Twilight's expression. The lavender mare took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down, it was obviously nothing to be scared of.

"So, where exactly are we heading Captain Scratch? I hope it's not a detention center." Crystal asked as she turned to Scratch, who was talking to a holographic extension of a gray earth mare.

"Well then design the next capacitator's software to not get a green square of doom when the hardware overcharges... Huh? Oh, we're heading to the EDI base in the area." The armoured mare spoke absently without turning away to the hologram.

"Who are you talking to?" Twilight curiously asked while throwing a glance at the hologram. She had never seen anything like it before, and if she had it was now forgotten. Scratch turned around and held up the holographic projector. It was a gray metal plate with a ghostly image of a pony standing on top of it.

"I don't think you've been introduced to each other. This is Octavia, she's my personal PBPU, or Pony Based Processing Unit. Octavia, meet Crystal Sun. She's the mutant bounty hunter I told you about." Scratch said while gesturing at Crystal, who frowned slightly when Scratch called her a bounty hunter.

"And this is... I don't think I ever caught your name." Scratch said as she turned to Twilight. The lavender librarian could see a confused and surprised face appear on the image of the pony called Octavia.

"Oh, um... Just call me Lotus Star, that's what Crystal does." Twilight awkwardly answered.

"Okay. *ahem* Octavia, this is Lotus Star. Lotus, this is Octavia." Scratch said while gesturing between the two ponies. Twilight smiled slightly, but Octavia seemed to withdraw.

"Scratch, is this a joke? Are you messing with me?" Octavia whispered, her ghostly teeth clenched together.

"Huh? No I'm not. Why would I do that?" Scratch asked in a puzzled tone. The rest of the unicorns looked just as confused, and repeatedly kept looking between Octavia and Twilight.

"Because that pony is supposed to be dead." Octavia answered in an emotionless tone. Scratch and Crystal gasped, they then turned towards Twilight with an expression of confusion. She just looked at them with even more confusion.

"Uh... Are you sure Tavi? Why are you saying that?" Scatch stammered, she slowly backed away from Twilight until she was standing against the wall in the small cargo hold.

"Oh but for Faust's sake Scratch. What were you doing during history lesson? That pony is Twilight Sparkle, the last Element of Magic. She disappeared just a few years before the fall of Celestia, and many thinks her disappearance was one of the reasons Celestia was… removed. Can’t you see the tiara on her head? That IS the Element of Magic. Search her saddlebags, I'm sure you will find the rest of the Elements there." Octavia groaned while facehoofing. Scratch rubbed her head with an armoured hoof, she didn’t seem to know what to do.

“Wh-What? Why are you saying that?” Twilight blurted out. She then noticed how Octavia was giving her an annoyed face. Crystal rubbed her chin.

Suddenly, Scratch let out a relieved little sigh.

"Oh I know what this is, your software has been tilted by the overheat in the capacitators! But don't worry Tavi, I'll plug you into the maintenance grid as soon as we get back to base." She laughed, Twilight could hear the exhaustion in the armoured mare's voice. Octavia's eyes narrowed, and she was just about to say something when Scratch withdrew her.

As they kept flying, Twilight noticed how Crystal was eyeing her. The lavender mare paid it no attention, and managed to fall asleep for the rest of the flight.

"Wakey wakey!" Twilight awoke from a voice yelling in her ear and a hoof connecting with her chin. She sat up and rubbed the sore spot where she had been slapped. The lavender unicorn raised her eyes and stared Crystal right in the face.

"Why are you hitting me so much?" Twilight spat while standing up. She took her tiara, which had fallen off her head, and placed it in her saddlebags.

"Oh you know. I find it funny, mostly because I know you won't strike back." Crystal grinned. She was quickly silenced by Twilight's left hoof striking her muzzle. Crystal wiped some blood away from her nose and chuckled. She then grabbed Twilight with her magic and threw her out on the ground.

"You know, try practicing your technique! The force is there, but you're not using it properly!" Crystal laughed from inside the Ox cargo hold while Twilight slowly got up. After glaring daggers at the unicorn, Twilight turned around and saw the impressive base she was inside. It was surrounded by a concrete wall, and towers with some sort of small double-barelled cannon mounted atop were placed evenly along the perimeter. A number of large buildings could be seen, most of them were identical with some sort of large chimney. Twilight suddenly felt a hoof shove her forward, so she began walking towards the entrance of the largest structure in the base, the one they had landed outside.

"Come on you two! We don't have all day, Scratch yelled from the entrance. She had removed her helmet and Twilight could finally see her face. The mare had a white coat and a well-combed electric blue mane. Her eyes were deep-green.

The trio stepped inside the main building and found themselves standing in a small chamber.

"Scanning in progress." A voice spoke from a speaker. A cyan light filled the chamber.

"Organic lifeforms detected, starting decontamination process." The voice said, sprinklers then opened in the ceiling, completely dousing the three mares. Twilight felt how the chemicals sprayed caused her horn and hooves to hurt, and she noticed how Crystal seemed to have even more troubles with it. The mutant unicorn was gritting her teeth, and it was an obviously painful procedure for her.

When the sprinklers retracted, Twilight could see small wounds on her hooves, and when she touched her horn she could feel the crack in it forming again. Scratch seemed to notice this, as she quickly pushed a red button on one of the walls. She then barked something in a microphone. Twilight wasn't sure what, since she felt a fog lower over her senses. The lavender mare collapsed just as the other door on the airlock opened, and the last thing she saw before blacking out was two medical teams rushing in to her and Crystal.

Twilight slowly opened her eyes, it felt like somepony had been marinating her in Hydrochloric Acid. She blinked a couple of times to adjust to the bright light surrounding her. After squinting for a while, the lavender mare finally managed to take in her surroundings.
Twilight was laying in a hospital bed, and a number of machines were connected to her. After some struggle with her weakened muscles, the unicorn managed to turn her head just enough to take a look at herself in a mirror standing next to her hospital bed.

She was a mess to say the least. The purple horn was covered in some sort of metal cone, probably to protect it. Her legs were each having two syringes connected to them, a glowing green liquid was being extracted from the leg by one syringe while the other one was pumping in a crimson red liquid. Twilight wasn’t sure on what the green liquid was, all she noticed was that it seemed to be replaced with blood. Looking at her hooves, Twilght noticed that they were placed in some sort of cage, a cyan field was surrounding them.

“Oh, so you are awake? What a pleasant surprise.” The purple unicorn heard from behind her. She slowly turned around and was met with the hologram of a surprisingly familiar looking stallion.

“Wh-Where am I? What are all these machines?” Twilight mumbled, not being capable of much else. The stallion, who had a caramel coat, a brown mane and an EKG as a cutie mark simply chuckled. He took the glasses he wore, wiped them and placed them on his muzzle again.

“A very good question. But a better question would be ‘What are you doing here?’.” He answered. Twilight just raised an eyebrow, how was she supposed to know that?

“You’re probably wondering why I’m saying this, but the reason is very simple. You see, it’s not every day I get a patient that’s supposed to, how should I say this... Have died a couple of hundreds years ago. Isn’t that correct, Miss Sparkle?” The holographic doctor said in a surprisingly menacing voice.

That line caused something to spark inside Twilight’s mind, and she felt a massive surge of pain rush through her brain. The pain was so immense that Twilight couldn’t even move, all she did was lay and watch the doctor walk up next to her and stare at her, doing no visible effort of trying to ease her pain.

After ten minutes of unimaginable pain, it finally subsided. Twilight opened her eyes, which she had clenched shut halfway through. It felt like a fog had been partially lifted from her mind, and memories were starting to fill the gaps.

“I-I remember things… I’m Twilight Sparkle. You're Doctor Stable.” Twilight mumbled. She looked at the now very familiar face of Doctor Stable, who were smiling while writing something in a journal. He nodded to himself before fading out of existence, just to appear in front of a machine hooked up to Twilight a second later.

"Just as I suspected, a severe case of amnesia." He mumbled while reading some of the gauges on the machine.

"Just how are you doing that? Walking around, you're dead too." Twilight exclaimed. Stable looked at her and chuckled.

"One might argue that I am in fact, physically dead. But my mind now exists inside a computer. The floor here is actually a holographic projector, that's why you'll probably see some old friends around here later. I wasn't the only one to do this you know." He absently said while warping between the machines.

"Now relax, when we got you you were suffering from Chrysalium Toxemia. Your body was slowly crystallizing. What I've been doing is that I've removed all the major infected tissue, I've also been purifying your blood with a powerful neutralizing agent. At this rate, your body should have recovered in a week and a half." The doctor said while reading a notepad. He adjusted his glasses and scribbled something on it.

"Stable, can you tell me exactly where and when I am? I think I have been subjected to some sort of temporal displacement. I-I'm so confused." Twilight asked, ending in a sigh. Stable looked at her in amusement.

"You are in the underground medical station of a EDI base located at the outskirts of what used to be Canterlot. The time is half past seven and the year is three-hundred and forty-seven after the Fall of Celestia. You're in the future Miss Sparkle. Wait a sec, I'm going to bring you a very close relative." Stable replied. He dematerialized once again, and returned several minutes later. With him he had another holographic pony.

It was a mare Twilight didn't recognize, she was a chalk-colored unicorn with a purple and white striped mane. Her cutie mark was three purple stars.

Twilight just looked at the unicorn in confusion. It felt like she knew her, but Twilight wasn't sure. The chalky unicorn just looked at Twilight with teary eyes before disappearing, leaving nothing but a stain of holographic tears next to Stable.

"You didn't recognize her, did you?" Stable asked, a hint of disappointment in his voice. Twilight slowly shook her head. he sighed and brought up a notepad. After making a mark in it, Twilight noticed how a blue fluid was mixed with the purified blood pumping into her. Before the lavender mare had any chance to protest, she had fallen into a deep sleep.

"Don't worry Twilight. You'll wake in a week, and I'll make sure to have a way to make you remember by then." Stable muttered before dematerializing. His mind flowed out on the base's grid and informed all the other PBPUs that the Element of Magic had returned.

Holographic ponies watched over Twilight during the following days.

9: Just a Nightmare, Just a Nightmare

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Twilight struggled against the chains, they were keeping her in the rusty bed that she was strapped to. She tried to use her magic, but stopped once she saw her broken horn laying on a pedestal next to her bed. The room she was laying in looked like some sort of facility, and the walls were covered in rust, mold and dried blood. A large and old machine was standing against a wall, it was rusted and covered in dials.

The lavender mare screamed for help, screamed for somepony to find her. Suddenly, a pony appeared next to Twilight: the pony was a chalk-white unicorn mare with a white and purple mane, the eyes seemed to have been cut out, and in their place a red and blue vortex was present. The pony was also constantly crying a glowing green liquid. Despite the mutilations, Twilight instantly recognized the mare as her mother, Twilight Velvet. Twily tried to say her mother's name, but when she opened her mouth Velvet levitated a knife into Twilight's mouth and cut out her tounge.

Twilight didn't even feel any pain, she was too shocked and scared. The lavender mare just watched as her mother placed the tounge next to the purple horn. Helpless and scared, Twilight felt tears beginning to pour down her face. Velvet just looked at her with an expressionless face before leaning forward and licking away one of the teardrops. Velvet then backed off a bit, and more ponies appeared around Twilight. They all bore the same mutilated eyes and expressionless faces.

For a minute or two, they just stood there watching Twilight, who was trying to not break completely. Suddenly, some of them stepped aside to reveal a to Twilight all too familiar pegasus.

"Missed me, Twilight Sparkle?" Fluttershout said with a subtle smile.

Twilight's eyes widened, and she began thrashing around, trying to break free from the chains and escape from her possessed friend. But all she managed to do was to exhaust herself, and she could only watch in horror how Fluttershout walked up to her. Fluttershout slowly ran a hoof through Twilight's mane, and stopped to nibble slightly on the crippled unicorn's left ear.

"It's so sad you forced me to do this. You would've been perfect as my personal assistant," Fluttershout whispered, a tone of disappointment and malice in her voice. The pale pegasus then circled around the terrified Twilight, she then giggled in a way that reminded Twilight too much about Fluttershy.

"Would you kindly finish this, my dear Crusaders?" Fluttershout called. Three fillies made their way up to Twilight and jumped up next to her on the bed. When the lavender mare realized who the three fillies were, her eyes overflowed with tears of fear and sadness.

Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom stared at Twilight with their red-blue vortex eyes for a couple of seconds before doing anything. Apple Bloom stood up on her hind legs and smeared her hoof in the green liquid pouring from her eyes, the filly then touched Twilight on the left hind leg. Twilight felt a tingle and sensed a strange smell coming from the area Apple Bloom touched. When she looked at her leg, Twilight could see a spot where she was decaying, rapidly. In only a few seconds a hole into the bone was created.

The lavender unicorn tried to scream, but she couldn't since her tounge had been cut out. She just trashed in panic while the Cutie Mark Crusaders continued to spread decay over her body.

"What's the matter Twily? Cat got your tounge?" Fluttershout cackled madly.

Twilight's vision began to blur, and she realized that it was only a matter of seconds before it would all be over. She began crying, but her tear canals had decayed into nothing. Everything darkened as she decayed away.

"Twi...wake...stimula...now!" A sting in her shoulder made Twilight bolt up in bed. She looked around herself and saw the hospital room. The lavender mare tried to calm herself, she was soaked in sweat, she was hungry and she was hyperventilating.

"There Twily, take slow, deep breaths. In through the nose and out through your mouth," Stable said. Twilight took some deep breaths and forced herself to calm down.

Just a nightmare, just a nightmare... the lavender unicorn thought as she regained control over her breathing.

"I-I'm fine... It w-was just a n-nightmare," Twilight mumbled, stuttering slightly. Stable gave her a concerned look.

"It must've been quite a nightmare. I had to triple the dose of narcotics to keep you in bed, and then give you pure epinephrine just to wake you up before you fell into a state of unreversive coma," Stable said while reading from a notepad. Twilight sighed, she had already forgotten who most of the ponies in the dream were.

"I was chained to the bed... and... and... three fillies... they k-k-killed me..." Twilight mused quietly, tears formed in her eyes and slowly trailed down her cheeks. She was shaking, but not because she was cold. A sting in her shoulder made her wince, and she saw a syringe on a metal arm inject a clear fluid into her.

"That should help your body get rid of the rest of the epinephrine," Stable explained as the metal arm retracted into an open hatch in the ceiling. Twilight exhaled slowly as her body stopped shaking. She crawled out of the bed and stood up on her shaking legs.

"Muscles have degenerated at a constant rate of 2.5% each day, I suggest we take a tour of the base. Both to make sure you won’t get lost and to re-activate your muscles,” Stable smiled and extended a hoof. Twilight tried to grab it, but failed. Mostly because Stable was nothing more than a hologram. Stable chuckled.

"Funny..." Twilight muttered as she crawled out of the bed. Once she stood up, she realized that she was wobbling, alot.

It's tiring to stand up, I really should begin exercising when all this is over.

After a few seconds of wobbling on the spot, Twilight followed Dr. Stable out of the hospital room. The lavender unicorn found herself standing in a fairly large hallway, it was mostly unpainted metal, but some areas had symbols and signs pointing out directions painted on them. A number of ponies, both real and holographic, were walking and talking with each other. Twilight noticed that the floor was made out of some sort of glass-like material, and that it was glowing beneath holographic ponies.

"The floor is one large projector," Twilight remarked, Stable nodded. The duo then began walking down the corridor, with Twilight asking Stable about everypony and everything she saw.

“So, this will be the last place on our tour of this base: The War Factory.” Stable said as they reached a particularly large door in the corridor. Above the door there was a picture of an armoured vehicle with a cannon mounted on it. Beside the picture there was a sign.

“Armoured Vehicle Dispatchment Area, Safety Gear Must Be Worn At All Times.” Twilight read out loud as she took a step forward to the massive door. A glowing display was placed right next to the door, and Stable was talking to somepony through it.

After a brief conversation, Stable nodded, the display turned off and the massive armoured slowly turned outwards, showing Twilight the insides of the massive hangar-like War Factory.

“That… is one big door…” Twilight mumbled as the at least one meter thick door opened completely. The lavender unicorn took a couple of steps into the hangar-like area and took in the impressive scene: the room was huge, it had a very industrial look to it and vehicles were standing everywhere; they were either unused and neatly lined up, or they were well used, dirty and partly broken, as ponies were working with replacing parts on some of them.

"Impressive, is it not?" Stable remarked as he came up next to Twilight. She simply nodded slowly.

"But that's not why we're here. Grab a helmet, there are some ponies who wants to see you," Stable said and gestured towards the nearest wall, where a number of yellow construction helmets were hanging on a metal rack. Twilight took a helmet and put it on before following Stable, who had began trotting through the massive hangar.

Twilight observed the many vehicles in the hangar, they looked like they could take on a platoon of Royal Guards on their own. Well... most of them did, some looked like they could eradicate entire armies by themselves, and the giant hangar was full of them. The purple librarian lifted her head to see a large vehicle hanging in the ceiling, it looked like a sleeker, more dangerous version of the transport that had brought her to the base. A loud clanging sound interrupted her train of thought, somepony had dropped a silvery wrench, and it had landed mere inches from Twilight's head. She looked up at the aircraft hanging right above her, a wall-eyed dark blue earth pony was leaning out over the edge of the vehicle, bearing a sheepish and concerned face.

"You okay down there? I-I just don't know what happened," the pony shouted in a surprisingly deep voice, revealing him to be stallion. Twilight nodded and continued trotting after Stable, this time keeping an eye to the ceiling.

After getting exactly five wrenches, eighteen screws and five hoofulls of small metal pieces (she had counted) dropped on or next to her by mistake from various clumsy ponies, Twilight and Stable had finally made it through the largest part of the vehicle bay.

At least they make good helmets... Twilight philosophied as she removed her helmet and dropped it in a hatch labeled "Helmets, Hazardous Environment Suits (Mark IV only) & other protective equipment".

They entered a smaller room, where individual ponies where working on armour, weapons and strange devices. At one table, a very familiar pony was sitting fidgeting with a white metal backpack while talking to a small hologram of a gray earth pony with a pink bowtie. The white mare pulled her well-combed blue mane away from her deep-green eyes and continued working.

"Hey, will ya look who's awake? Welcome to the armoury. Had a good recovery, Twily?" Scratch said without looking up from her work. Twilight trotted up to the white unicorn and curiously observed the work she was doing. Scratch was using a tiny manual screwdriver to fasten a pair of pulsating tubes on a green card filled with small silvery lines inside her backpack-thingy. Not understanding why, Twilight noted to ask Scratch later what it was, if she got the time.

"Um... Yes. I'm fine, thank you. How do you know my real name," Twilight asked, confused that Scratch somehow had learnt not only her real name, but her nickname.

"That you can blame on Herr Doktor over there. Poor stallion can't keep his mouth shut about special patients. By the way, you can call me Shatter," Scratch said, chuckling slightly. Twilight gave Stable an annoyed glare, she didn't like too much undeserved attention.

"Okay... Why can I call you Shatter?" Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Because that's what ponies call me. My full name is Melody 'Shatter' Scratch," Shatter mumbled and fastened a small, beige card in her backpack. She closed the hatch on the backpack and used the screwdriver to secure it. Twilight rubbed her chin, both of the last names where very familiar.

Twilight's train of thought was interrupted by something tackling her to the ground, and she could already guess who was responsible.

"Hello Crystal, did you miss me?" Twilight groaned in irritation as she wormed her way out from beneath the brown unicorn. Crystal laughed as she helped Twilight up, but stopped as soon as Shatter's disapproving glare met her.

"Seriously!? We are inside a military facility, at least try to pretend that you actually are able to act professionally," Shatter scolded. Crystal retreated with a silent "yeah whatever" and turned back to Twilight.

"Sorry, I guess. But you're still the only one here I can jump without getting noticed," Crystal said, holding back a snicker. Before Twilight could reply, all the lights turned out, and red emergency lights activated in the ceiling.

"What happened?" Twilight shrieked. The lavender unicorn ignited an orb of light at the tip of her horn and turned to her four companions, two alive and two holograms.

"I don't know, the entire PBPU grid is in chaos. Apparantly there is some sort of disturbance in the power grid, strange readings have been picked up from somewhere and the radar has been jammed. Literally, jam is for some reason seeping over the radar monitors. Hold on a sec... Yep, it's cloudberry jam," Octavia babbled, her eyes changing colour so rapidly that Twilight got a headache from looking at it. Stable trotted up to Octavia and gave her a powerful, holographic slap.

"Sorry for that, PBPUs run on a separate power grid. When something like this happens, the regular information grid is not sufficient to send all the data. Therefore some of it gets converted over to the power grid, as an extra data slot so to say. As you can see, that data sometimes is picked up by PBPUs, who begin babbling uncontrollably about everything they pick up, relevant or not," Stable explained as Octavia regained control over herself. She rubbed her temples before giving everypony a sheepish face.

"Whatever, this isn't good. We have to get to the command center ASAP," Shatter barked before galloping out into a corridor. The rest of the ponies had little choice other than to follow the best they could, which was difficult considering the dull, red light in the tight corridors.

"Excuse me? I'm not allowed in? I'm the highest ranking field operative on this Faust forsaken base! I'm a bloody field captain!" Shatter yelled at the holographic soldier guarding the entrance to the command center.

"Well excuse me Captain Scratch, but my orders are to only let in Generals, Commanders and higher ranks," The soldier spat back, everypony in the group groaned. This one PBPU was serious about not letting them in.

"Um... Excuse me Mister, Sir. Why are we not allowed in?" Twilight asked. The guard turned to her.

"Because the command... Excuse me ma'am!" the soldier began, but quickly saluted when recognizing Twilight. The purple mare lifted an eyebrow, was the soldier addressing her?

"Eh, could you maybe... I don't know, let us in?" she tried, hoping the guard wouldn't notice that he had taken the wrong pony.

"Yes ma'am!" the guard replied, disappearing before the armoured door slowly opened like an aperture. The five ponies walked inside, the door closed and the soldier from before could be heard over a speaker.

"Element of Magic, Twilight Sparkle on the bridge! All personnel report!" the voice barked. The chaos in the large room stopped instantly, all the uniformed ponies running around, checking screens and yelling just froze. They all turned to Twilight and made one perfectly syncronized salute.

Now what? Uh, maybe I do like they do in the books!

"At ease!" Twilight yelled, all the ponies in the room stopped saluting and slowly began moving closer to Twilight. They whispered among each other.

"Is it really?"

"Yes it is!"

"But, how?"

"It's the most talented unicorn in Equestria, don't question it."

Twilight backed a little, she wasn't sure on what to do.

Shatter cleared her throat.

"Can anypony tell us what in the name of Discord is going on?" she spoke loudly. The ponies in the room began talking among each other before one stepped forward. It was a young pegasus, he was wearing a brown uniform and a headset.

"We aren't sure captain! All we know for sure is that Area 73 had a 087," the pony said. Twilight raised an eyebrow.

What does that mean?

"Excuse me, but what does that mean in Equestrian?" Crystal asked. Twilight could hear that she was annoyed of not understanding. The uniformed pegasus paid her no attention.

"What's an 087? Where's Area 73?" Twilight curiously asked. The pegasus turned to her.

"An 087 is something unknown, we're not sure on what happened. Area 73 is located at what used to be called Ponyville," one earth pony said. Twilight felt a chill run down her spine, the coincidence that it would be Ponyville, just when she was there, it didn't feel like a coincidence.

It's as if somepony is toying with me, if only I knew who...

The lavender unicorn stopped thinking as a loud noise erupted from the command room's speaker system. The sound was loud, obnoxious and terrifying at the same time. Everypony looked around wildly in confusion, monitors were checked, orders were barked, Shatter threw herself and Twilight to the ground, they covered their ears. The most peculiar reaction however, came from Crystal: she curled up in a ball, clenching her ears while spasming slightly.

Shatter threw her a concerned look and ignited her horn: a light-blue barrier formed around Crystal, sealing her from the sound. She instantly calmed down, and laid down on the metal floor, rubbing her temples.

"What's happening to her?" Twilight managed to say as the loud noise died out.

"She's a mutant, her cells, proteins, everything really, isn't carbon-based. The carbon has been replaced with Chrysalium. It has a five to ninety-five per cent chance of happening to infected ponies. That's why she's so strong, durable and swift. However, it's also her curse as powerful sonic waves can disrupt, and possibly destroy her cells," Shatter said with a sigh.

"Will she recover?"

"Yes, just leave her in a field of Chrysalium. The stuff enables her body to rapidly heal."

Shatter pressed a button on the wall, and a minute later two muscular earth ponies appeared. Shatter told them to get Crystal to the nearest Chrysalium field. They nodded, picked up the mutated mare and promptly carried her away.

"We've managed to pinpoint and dechipher the signal, ma'am," a unicorn stallion said as he approached the two mares.

"It appears to be some sort of beacon signal, sent from Area 73. We turned our spyglasses at the spot and saw a large Changeling base surrounding the area. They appear to be searching for something," the unicorn continued. Twilight scratched her chin.

Ponyville is my old home, that much I remember. But what could be there that's of any value?

Twilight stopped speculating as all the lights in the relatively small command room turned off. An ominous female voice appeared from the speakers in the room, who were now glowing red for some reason.

"I know you're confused, and frankly I don't care. But I know you're there Twilight Sparkle. I can hear you. If you want answers, go back to the place where all of this began. Oh, and do it now. I'm an impatient pony," the voice was replaced by white noise and all of the lights turned back on. The entire command room was quiet, all ponies were either staring at the speakers or at Twilight. The lavender mare herself wasn't really sure on what to do either.

"With all due respect ma'am. It's most probably a trap. We've detected very high Changeling activity in Area 73," a middle-aged earth pony told Twilight.

"I know, but it doesn't seem like I have much choice. I need answers," Twilight replied. The earth pony, who was a mare, saluted and turned back to her colleagues.

"This is actually a good opportunity to wipe out those Changelings. Your presence alone will be enough of a moral boost for our troops," Shatter mumbled to Twilight. Twilight nodded slowly and thought about her options for a while.

This isn't my type of decisions...

"Um, sure... I'm not the expert. I suppose we attack, or something," Twilight stammered. The entire room saluted at once. Without questioning the lavender mare, the ponies returned to their stations and began preparing.

"Now what?" Twilight asked Shatter, who responded with a sinister smile.

"Now? Let's go practice war, Twily..."

Maniac's Melody

by Dementia Ravenmane

1: Why does Something Bad always Happen when She has Free Time?

2: What Could Possibly Break Pinkie?

3: A Friend Falls, A Queen Rises

4: Shadow Cupcakes aren't a Good Thing, Pinkie!

5: Audience with the Princess

6: My True Powers

7: The Marked of... Something

8: Why Do You Keep Hitting Me So Much?

9: Just a Nightmare, Just a Nightmare