E S C A P E

Berry Punch wasn't ever a very close friend, but Twilight knew of her. She went to nearly every party Pinkie Pie ever threw, always the first to sip at the punch bowl and offer suggestions on how to improve the flavor. She was a kind enough mare, a wonderful mother to her little one Ruby Pinch, and overall a respected member of Ponyville's community.

Now she hacks out another congealed blob of poison. Slime, a putrid mixture of acid and bile and magical venom, strings down her front and slops into her pelt. Twilight throws herself to the ground, her chest exploding into a supernova of agony, as the chunky projectile sails over her head. Mucous droplets spray from the wad of spittle and splash into Twilight's mane; she can hear it sizzling, smell the burning hair. Then the blob splatters into the chitinous mass that is Lyra Heartstrings. Both mares scream, a hollow, haunting screeching that tears into Twilight's ears.

Try to get Lyra to help subdue Berry and try to explain what you know to them

"Girls, please!" Twilight wheezes, shoving a hoof to the fire in her chest. What in Equestria is going on?! "Calm down! I can help you!"

But it's too late. The two grotesque mares shamble towards one another, foul smoke rolling from both of them. Berry Punch cracks her neck back, her throat convulsing and her open maw glistening with that inky tar. Lyra flashes her fangs, tears rolling down her bloodshot eyes, her fleshy chitinous body swaying as she slashes at the air limply with her clawed bear-arms. She groans, a sound that almost sounds like a sob. She turns to look at Twilight, her pupils still dilated and sparkling with hope.

"B-Bonnieee...?" she drawls, saliva oozing from her teeth.

Between the two of them, Twilight shivers helplessly on the ground. Her whole body aches. She gasps for every breath. Berry Punch is gaining, fast, and Twilight is right between them! She's doomed! Unless...

Tell Lyra that Berry has taken Bonnie away, then while they fight make your escape quietly

Twilight sighs, the air rattling hot and dry out of her heaving throat. She clenches her eyes shut, and she just can't help it -- tears bubble up, burning as they drip down her cheeks. She can't believe she's doing this. To Lyra, her friend. But she won't make it if she doesn't. Equestria won't. She coughs out a pitiful noise, lost in the cacophony and the dark.

"Berry h-has her!" she cries. She throws out a hoof wildly in Berry's direction, the muscles of her foreleg screaming in protest. "Berry Punch took Bonnie, Lyra!"

Then she runs. Or, tries to. Her body is giving out. Even her alicorn magic, faintly pulsing, isn't enough. Twilight shoves upwards on shaking forelegs, pulls herself up with a heave-- then lets out a yelp as her legs buckle and send her flailing back onto the cobbles. Twilight sobs. Tries again. Fails.

But she can't give up.

Twilight yanks herself forward, her belly scraping stone, her hind legs scrabbling for purchase. At every inch she crawls, her chest stabs in an unbelievable sharp lance of pain. It shoots down her spine, paralyzes her hind hooves for a few seconds before she can desperately push again. She can barely feel it, though; all she an hear is the fighting.

The noise echoes grimly into the dark. It's pitch black again, oily and unnatural -- her horn snuffed to nothing when she collapsed. So as she crawls blindly into the abyss, all she can focus on is the retching, the shrieks of pain, the sizzling of melting flesh. She tries to breathe, like Zecora taught her in their hours meditating together, but the air reeks of meat.

She keeps going. Onward and onward. Until the sounds dull into the pitch, and her belly is soaked with grass-dew. Until her gasping breaths calm enough that every one isn't an inferno. Then she just. Lays there. In the nothingness, cradled in the cold black and the wet.

Then--

"Twilight?"

It's close. Too close! She means really, what now?! She whinnies, her tail snaps, and she shimmies back in the abyss as far as she can. But she can hear her -- no, it, it's probably another creature! -- clopping forward, horseshoes squelching. Her mind racing, lightheaded, Twilight scrolls her mind for anything she could do for defense in this state.

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