Wings and Steel

I opened my eyes.

Noises. Muffled noises.

Muffled.

No. This time I fought off the painful flashes of thought. I ignored the pain, the cold, but couldn't ignore the light. I backed into a solid object, and turned away, to try and block out the painful sensation.

More meaningless noise, and a movement. There was darkness upon the light. The darkness moved across my face, soothing me. The darkness seemed to be pointing something at me, I couldn't make out what it was with my blurry vision and the light assaulting my eyes, but my brain screamed danger. Quiet you, you've already lost my trust.

The darkness moved again, lowering the object it was aiming at me.

I curled up in a ball, trying to shut everything out. There were more muffled noises, and then a... slender shape curled around one of my front legs. My body reacted on it's own and threw itself away from the unwelcome sensation of touch. It backed itself into what felt like a corner, and there I was. Trapped in a space with a mysterious thing. I made myself as small as possible, hoping it would lose interest and leave me. Time seemed to slow down, and nothing moved. But my body had tired itself out, and the cold darkness came again to bury me.

*****

When I next awoke, the first thing I noticed was the feeling of something draped across my back. I reached over my shoulder to find out what, only to be greeted by a strange sensation. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. My eyes scanned the space I was entrapped in, for what, I didn't know.

Light.

Light meant clarity. But how could that be, when it brought so much pain earlier? I struggled to my hooves, only to fall flat on my snout. Eventually I managed to get the light, pushing past a thin wooden slab to get to it. Moonlight flooded my vision. Wonderful, glorious moonlight. I basked in its serene glow for a moment, steadying my frayed nerves. I decided to look around, scope out my surroundings.

That was a horrible mistake.

I was greeted by a tannish... shape. It seemed round-ish in general, but was attached to a stub leading to a even more confusing shape. The circle has various bumps and indents in it. One of the holes in the circle was moving, making confusing sounds. I backed up again, filled with fear of this strange thing. The thing lifted two long, slender shapes, and placed them on my shoulders. No. This felt wrong. What was-

That was when I made the mistake of looking down. I was standing on my hind legs... no... what were those things? They were pale and slender, and reached up to a brownish object just under my line of sight. Oh Celestia, the beast had already infected and morphed me.That's when I caught sight of what had happened to my fore hooves. They were hooves no longer... they had fingers. What had I become?

This triggered another burst of memory. Scenes flickered by faster then I could process. I made out a tree, a mysterious brownish box, and... a face. More specifically, a skull. A skull with bits of flesh being melted away, one that wants to scream, to cry for help, but can't. Something she had brought upon this skull. Had I done that? Had I killed this... my friend?

The word popped up so easily, but what kind of friend was responsible for this kind of thing? The image persisted, the rest of the child's body melting away. I clutched my head, wrapped my hooves around my fetlocks, or whatever it was I had now. The darkness was returning.

The last thing I saw was the being moving towards me.

My last sight, I was sure.

And with that, there was nothing.