Apprentices

“Thank you all for coming today, it means very much to me that you all got here on time…and sane” Spike announced to his friends as they took a seat in a circle. He was currently aware of what his group was now in. Scootaloo just turned two weeks ago, making him the only one left who still didn’t take the Victim’s Blood. This was a very dangerous situation, if one snapped and turned off their emotions, this would spell disaster for all of them. Apprentices and Murderers and Murderesses had the ability to turn off their emotions, thereby making them unable to feel remorse or sadness and kill as much as ever.

“Does anypony hear that?” Scootaloo asked as her ears twitched.

Bunny’s ears zoomed in on the sound. “An Apprentice is here”

Spike then noticed something about his alien friend. “Bunny, are you okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” her eye twitched.

“Your pupils, they’re smaller than normal”

“My eyes are fine, Spike” Bunny began to feel agitated.

Right then, they heard the sound of a lightbulb break. The entire room was flooded with darkness as the fillies screamed in fear.

All that stopped when Spike lit a candle. He saw that the fillies were all huddled up together. “Okay, you can let go of each other now”

Scootaloo let go of Sweetie Belle as Babs did with Applebloom. They began to calm down when Spike noticed something. “Wait, I only count four fillies. Where’s the alien?”

Babs looked to see that Bunny’s seat was empty, like she disappeared. “Where’s Brazy?”

Thump

“What was that?” Spike asked as he approached his group.

“Sounds like it came from downstairs” Scootaloo said.

“Bunny has a basement in her house, nice. Just gotta find it” Sweetie Belle said.

Spike then looked around as he tapped the floor, finding a hallow sound in a weird area: beneath the couch. “Don’t need to, it’s right here” he said as he tried to push against the couch. The other Crusaders helped him. It was heavy, but they could hear screams coming from down. If whoever got inside kills Bunny, she may live but will have to fake her death. Finally, they moved the couch off the floor area, revealing a cellar door underneath. They didn’t waste a second to open it and hurry down.

“Bunny, don’t worry! Help is on the way!” Scootaloo called out as they looked around.

They heard something rather disturbing: the sound of a stab in the stomach. Spike made the lamp go to where they heard that sound. Did the intruder stab Bunny? The light illuminated and showed the scene. There was a stabbed victim, all right, but it wasn’t Bunny. It was the intruder.

There, at the wall, was Bunny. The intruder was on a wall, but they looked like a cow now. Their insides were spilled out on the ground. It was unknown if it was either a filly or a colt since the distinguishing features were sliced off. Bunny was infront of them, a knife in her paw. The weapon was still embedded in the victim’s stomach as blood dripped off it. Bunny’s eyes were now like that of an Apprentice after a fresh kill. What used to be like those eyes of a cute rabbit-like creature were now a glare that shot shivers down anypony’s spine.

“Bunny?” Applebloom called out to the alien.

The alien just glared and growled at her. In a swift glide, Bunny pinned Applebloom to the wall. It was now a turn of events; the tables have turned. But, unlike when Applebloom needed to have her name called out, Bunny just snapped out of it simultaneously. Her irises returned to their normal white as her cerulean eyes peeked out. When she saw the scene she and Applebloom were in, she backed up and let go.

“Oops! Sorry, Applebloom! I got crazy!” she apologized.

“Bunny, you killed somepony” Spike called out as he saw the corpse.

Bunny looked down on her now-blood stained paws. “I didn’t mean to! They wanted to kill me!”

“Okay, Bunny calm down. We’ll figure a way out of this…” Sweetie Belle said.

“She just told me that I had to do it to defend myself and find Fluttershy” Bunny looked down.

Spike stopped. “Who told you that?”

“Little Voice, my voice of instincts”

“WHAT?!”

“I know! It’s just…I miss Fluttershy so much! I just did this to find her! This was why I Turned! I just want to find Fluttershy!”

Suicidaloo bit her lip. She knew the truth would have to come out, but she never expected that it would be like this. “Fluttershy’s dead, Bunny”

Bunny’s eyes widened at that. That couldn’t be true. “What?”

“I looked up on her information here at the Organization. The last file said that she died because she was killed by Rainbow Dash. I didn’t want to tell you because I know you would take it hard. I’m so sorry!”

Bunny looked down as the tears streamed down her face. She felt like her entire world was crashing down on her. It was just like her former Master dying all over again, except for one thing.

“I never got to say goodbye” she choked out.

“Bunny, please. I’m sorry” Scootaloo tried to reach out for the alien.

“No! I don’t deserve your comfort!” Bunny cried as she pushed the filly off her.

“Why do you say that?”

Bunny paused for a bit. “I killed Orion”

Scootaloo’s eyes widened in shock. “You what?!”

“It wasn’t suicide! Orion wanted to kill me so I killed him before he got the chance! My instincts took over and I turned him into a cow before I stabbed him to death! So go ahead! Hate me! Your boyfriend was my first victim!” Bunny confessed as tears flooded her eyes.

Scootaloo shook off the pain. She was over Orion and he just wanted her for her friends anyway. “Nevermind Orion! What I need to do now is help you!”

“Help me?! My friend’s dead! How does that help?!”

“Bunny, please, calm down”

“I can’t!” Bunny broke down in tears as she fell to the floor on her knees. “I can’t! I can’t! I can’t!” she sobbed. “It hurts too much!”

Scootaloo and the others could only look on as the alien cried her eyes out. Applebloom approached the alien, putting a hoof over her. “Shh, it’s alright. I can help you”

“How? Nopony can help me”

Applebloom paused for a bit. It was risky, but worth a shot. “Turn it off”

“WHAT?!” the others cried in confusion.

Turn off her emotions? That’s crazy on a normal pony, but if it’s on somepony like Bunny, that’s pure insanity!

“Just turn it off, and it will all go away” Applebloom said.

“Bunny, don’t!” Scootaloo tried to reason with the alien.

Bunny thought about it. This would be risky. If she did that, she wouldn’t feel any more pain. She could also terminate Apprentices without trouble anymore. Besides, a Murderess killed her Mistress. And her Mistress’ Murderess’ sister was infront of her. All in all total, she decided to go with it.

Bunny took a deep breath before she closed her eyes. Everypony else hoped for the best she wasn’t doing what they think she was doing. All that hope was shattered when Bunny opened her eyes again, making them a bit like a blank stare.

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“Her emotions, Applebloom” Scootaloo reprimanded the filly. “That was all she had left”

“Emotions mean nothing to us Apprentices if we don’t have anypony to care about, Scootaloo”

“She has us!” Sweetie Belle tried.

“She lost her close friend” Babs Seed looked down. “We’re not enough”

Spike looked at what became of his group. He then looked down to what he held in his claws: a vial of Victim’s Blood. This would come with its own price. If he didn’t do something now, his gang would drift apart. They needed him.

“You know what, gang?” Spike got their attention.

“Spike, you’re not gonna, are you?”

“The Wonderbolts have Spitfire, Mane Six has Twilight, now we need a leader of our own” Spike then downed the vial infront as all of them watched. His eyes then shown deeper green with the irises in black. It went back to normal after. “Every group needs a leader. As I have lead you as a normal, I will lead you as an Apprentice!”

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Bunny finally finished sewing together the horn of the intruder to a stich of black fabric. She had always been good with taxidermy. The rest of the body became a doll for her to practice on. Her doll done, she took her new bowie knife. She swayed it infront of her, testing it.

Avenge her, Brazy.

Bunny nodded to the voice in her head. She was gonna perform a spell that would make a weapon that only she could operate and it would turn into anything she wanted it to be, standard form would be a bowie knife. All she needed to do this would be the bodies of foals to represent the three tribes: Earth Pony, Pegasus, and Unicorn. She set the first three to their positions in the circle and placed her bowie knife in the center. She breathed and chanted,

Ave ferrum , cogitavi ut frustra
Become a telo usus ad iustitiam

As she did, white auras came from the three bodies and went to her bowie knife. She picked it up to see it now had a small red stone on it. She looked through the stone to see the aura inside beginning to manifest. She swung her new weapon to test it. Murderers killed her Mistress; she will make sure they won’t go unpunished.

Pockets full of posies