The SS

Twilight awoke, heart pounding and hooves shaking. The smell of dried mud filled her nostrils as she looked down at her body and saw it covered in dirt. Grunting, she lifted herself out of her bed, which was now covered in the dirt.

Rubbing the sleep out of her still weary eyes, she awkwardly jerked up the stairs towards her study room. What...happened last night? She thought to herself as she opened the door.

The room looked like it had just exploded. The walls were charred black, aside from some hoof prints. Twilight usually very clean and proper, but now the room was in shambles, along with a few blood marks on the shattered glass.

“What happened here?” Twilight asked sleepily before she covered her mouth with her hoof so she wouldn’t scream. Her voice, it sounded nothing like her. A lot lower, almost aggressive. Had she used a mind-control spell? No, those were against the law and used dark magic.

Scurrying out of the room, she headed towards a room that Rarity had lovingly accessorized for her. It was filled with jewels, and most importantly, mirrors. When she was opening the door, she swear she saw something wrong with her aura, but that wasn’t important right now.

As soon as Twilight had looked around the room, she noticed something. Every mirror in the room, (That Rarity had given to Twilight so she could admire herself) had the reflection of a purple alicorn in them. Her horn was lit up with a starry black aura, like her eyes were black pits, though she clearly had two white pupils.

Then Twilight realised something. She was looking at herself.

“Well, that’s certainly an improvement.” She watched as all her reflections were replaced with a shadowy looking pony with yellow pupils. “Black is a nicer colour on you.”

Twilight’s eyes twitched, and before she could even think, she replied angrily. “What did you do to me?!” Her horn lit up again with the same sickly dark aura.

“To be honest with you, Princess, it’s less of ‘what I did’ and more of ‘what YOU did’.

She scowled. I don’t have time for this. Although it was her thought, there was something about the intent of it that rubbed her the wrong way. “What do you mean by that?”

“You will find out soon enough. Ah well, have fun with your friends.” With that, all the reflections turned back to normal.

Twilight’s heart was racing. All of this was happening too fast, and next thing she knew she had passed out.

***

Rarity lifted the delicate china up to her muzzle, taking a sip of the golden flower tea. Placing it back down, she waited for her guest Applejack to do the same before she started a conversation.

“Did Dash ever come back?” Applejack asked, after Rarity brought up the subject of the cyan mare.

Rarity stopped and thought at the earth pony’s words. It’s True, Rainbow Dash hadn’t come back to her house that night, but it was deathly late, and she had a day job to attend to. She’d need some sleep.

“She didn't come back here, Darling, but I’m sure she’s just resting at her home. She was over for a long time, after all.” Another sip, and more silence. Applejack's hooves awkwardly batted against the small table.

Beep… Beep….. Beep….

The ponies ears perked up at the noise, which appeared to be coming from under the Carousel Boutique. “D-Do you hear that, Applejack?” The beeping got louder.

Beep…. Beep…. Beep….

“Rarity I-I think ya’ll should get out of he-”

***

“It’s okay Applejack, Miss Rarity will be okay, she just needs some recovery a-”

“BUT SHE MIGHT BE DEAD!!”

“We’re sorry Miss Applejack, but we have to wait until her heart beat is back to normal.”

Rarity heard a groaning sound. “D-Dawg-nabbit….”

Beep, beep, beep.

Rarity, slowly but steadily opened her eyes, vision still blurry from what she presumed was the night before.

Applejack, slumping back into her bed, was rubbing her eyes and staring at the wall, red markings showing under her eyes. The nurse she was talking to was gone already, attending to other patients. She was in the hospital.

Rarity, rubbing her eyes, turned her head to look at her heartbeat monitor. Next to her heartbeat, which seemed to be normal, it displayed her temperature.

60 Degrees F.

She rubbed her eyes again, that shouldn’t be right. It was still 60. She peered over, looking at a patient next to her, who was currently asleep. His body temperature was 98.96. A completely normal temperature for a pony.

The light quickly faded and the room became darker, the sound of thunder and a pitter-patter on the windows rang through the room. Rarity shivered. If she was under a blanket, why was she so cold? She looked over to see Applejack the same, tucking her face into her hooves and shivering.

Then the nurse walked in again. “Miss Rarity, you’re finally awake. Don’t worry, we have prepared you some drinks for the cold weather.” She brought in a tray, lifting up the drinks with her magic and setting them to the side tables next to the two. Applejack quickly turned her head to meet Rarity’s gaze and sighed happily.

“Thank you.” Rarity smiled weakly, picking up the cup of hot liquid akin to an earth pony. “But… if I may ask, why are we in the hospital?”

The nurse’s smile faltered, if only for a second as she looked at the confused mare. “Well, a hospital is a place where injured or sick ponies come…”

Rarity mouthed a silent ‘o’ as she remembered the night before. Or, at least she think she did. It had been a cozy night, the unicorn had invited Applejack over. They two of them had sat and talked, before everything went black. But then there was something else. Rarity didn’t know what, something else in her mind wanted to fog it out, like a bad memory.

“O-Oh.” Rarity chuckled lightly, rubbing her neck. “W-Well dear, are the two of us going to be okay?” Rarity gave a toothy smile and for some reason the nurse flinched. This time her smile didn’t return.

“Well, miss Rarity…. In the state we found you….” She gulped. “We’re not exactly sure how to… fix what has happened.”

The two of them froze, before fear overcame them. Rarity shook every limb of her body under the sheets, making sure it was still there. Still is.

“W-What do you mean darling? I can still feel my legs. My arms. My tail…..my….tail.” It was still there, she knew it. It felt weird though, like instead of the usual soft tail she could feel what felt like another hoof.

The nurse smiled weakly. “Don’t worry, you should be completely fine.” Even though the unicorn was still shocked, she let the thought by. Maybe her tail just burned off? Okay, even that was an unpleasant thought to her.

‘Nah, you’re fine.’

Rarity blinked. “Excuse me, darling, did you say something?”

The nurse shook her head. “Probably just a side effect. It will pass soon.”

‘Hey, hey! Check out this!’

Rarity and Applejack suddenly shivered and the nurse dropped her clipboard on the ground.

When Applejack slowly lifted up her hoof, five small sharp claws were sticking out, like Spike’s hand.

The two of them turned to each other. They screamed.