War, Friendship, and Crisis: The Tale of a Torn World

The rolling pastures were quite flat and barren. Not too many trees popped out of the ground in random areas, and animal grazing was at a very low amount. The afternoon sky partially shone down onto the ground through some cloud buildup. The assault truck rolled through the uncharted land for a about an hour before grinding to a complete halt. Applejack's hat fell off her sleeping head as the entire truck stopped for no clear reason, leaving her annoyed and curious. The other three ponies were startled from the stop, but Fluttershy was a little too startled. She fell off her seat and tumbled onto the metal floor. She quickly stood back up and darted around the room in panic.

"Who's there?" she asked hastily with a quivering voice. "Why did we stop? Is there something out there?"

The driver looked to the side of his unprotected windshield in shock. His eyes locked onto two twitching and snarling humans that slowly walked along the grass. Their eyes were completely yellow, and so was their skin. Sharp fangs filled their mouth, inhumanly sharp claws were positioned where their fingers were, and three-toed feet with one of the toe claws facing backwards supported their bodies on the ground. The creatures wore nothing on their bodies, but there were no signs of any reproductive organs or navels on them. They dragged themselves closer and closer to the truck, examining and feeling its texture when they approached close enough to do so.

The passenger beside the driver spoke his words in terror. "Those things, what are they doing here?"

Twilight Sparkle poked her intrigued head next to the two soldiers. "What things?" After scavenging for a few seconds, her eyes detected the two creatures. The odd thing about them was their eyeballs. There was no indication of a pupil or iris in them. Even though they were looking directly at the metal while they scratched and climbed it, it felt like their eyes were also staring directly at Twilight. She slowly retreated her head back to her seat as she heard the two soldiers' explanation.

The driver spoke first. "Those things are called the Ruptured. They are the same creatures that destroyed planet Earth hundreds of years ago."

"What do you mean, Earth?" Applejack asked intently. "I thought that was just a name for dirt."

The passenger turned his body to face Applejack "Well, it is, but it is also the name of our original home planet. Even though none of us in this truck have actually ever seen the planet, we do know that it exists from history classes and General Solk himself."

The driver glanced at the two Ruptured again and donned a face of worry when one of them screamed a blood-curdling screech. Both of the Ruptured sprinted around the truck and climbed onto the double doors. Dents and warps formed as they pounded and gnawed their way through the metal doors. Applejack positioned herself next to the doors in an attempt to buck the two creatures if they break open the door.

"Don't use any melee attacks on them!" the driver warned as he primed his laser rifle. "These things are highly volatile and contagious! You want to stay as far away from them as possible."

Applejack nodded and backed away from the door. She prepared her projectile launcher instead to avoid any dastardly situations. Twilight readied her magic for anything that was about to break through the misshapen doors, and Rarity levitated her gemstones in front of the door, ready to impale anything that enters the truck.

The warping and pounding stopped as dead silence cloaked the air. After a few seconds of nothing, the windshield broke apart as the two Ruptured shredded the passenger soldier apart. The soldier's armor was easily destroyed when extremely sharp claws forged out of millennia of evolution ripped into the suit. Blood and flesh painted the Ruptured and front of the truck as the two creatures gashed their teeth into the soldier. Piercing screams of pain showered over the ponies and driver that we're breaking open the double doors.

After the doors fell off their hinges from the beatings of the Ruptured and the force of the ponies, the two creatures paused their devouring and snarled at the group. One of them shrieked an animalistic shrill as they leaped towards the group. Rarity and the driver smashed lasers and gemstones into its body, ripping pieces of flesh off the creature and spilling golden blood. The Ruptured tumbled onto the metal floor with screams of irritation and slight pain. The driver gestured the ponies with one hand to make haste and escape the Ruptured.

The quartet took the hint and galloped out of the truck. As they proeeded in the direction that their truck was traveling, the two Rutpured inside the truck mutilated the driver in a bloody mess of pure gore. Twilight turned around and fired an explosive blast of magic at the truck as a safety measure to ensure the death of the two creatures. Startled, disgusted, and terrified from the encounter, the four ponies trekked swiftly towards the bundle of steeper hills in the distance.

•—————•

After about twenty minutes of walking from the two Ruptured from the incident, the quartet discovered some architecture and an opening etched into the side of one of the steep hills. The architecture looked relatively ancient and Equestrian in nature. Two life-sized unicorns carved out of marble lowered their heads in mourning and acceptance. Some of the dusty and grimy writing on the marble entrance read 'Catacombs of the Unicorn Tribe'. The writing chilled the four ponies to the bone.

"Twi, does that writing mean that this place belongs to the Unicorn Tribe from centuries ago?" Applejack asked with slightly chattering teeth.

Twilight read the writing again and nodded a yes. "This must be a mausoleum for all of the dead ponies of this tribe during their migration to Equestria." She noticed that a signal from one of her friends was buried deep in the catacombs. "Apparently, this is where we need to go."

"Uh, if you three don't mind, I'll just stay out here and wait for this mission to end." Fluttershy walked behind a marble column and shuddered in her own fear.

"In Celestia's name, Fluttershy, come over here and face your fears!" Rarity commanded with an irritated tone. "We need to save one of our friends, and your cowardice is not helping!"

Fluttershy timidly regrouped with the three ponies and glared at the empty maw of the entrance. She felt something horrible claw at her bones while she peered at every detail of the catacomb entrance. Cobwebs and even more dust collected around the ancient cemetery as they slowly ventured in the darkness. A huge gust of dead cold air whooshed through the ponies' souls as a raspy and guttural voice introduced itself to their ears. "Ah, I smelleth moo mortals yond dwell into mine own keepeth. Enter mine own tombs if 't be true thee dare, but beest eft f'r mine own punishment."

The open and bright air behind the ponies collapsed into pure darkness. All of the torches on the catacomb walls burst into spouts of gilded flame. To the ponies' horror, multiple holes as big as a pony's coffin became visible. Some of them were empty, but others held lifeless unicorn corpses. Their faces were forever twisted into uncanny smiles of frigid teeth and bone. Fluttershy nearly crumbled in her own fear, but Applejack kept her on her hooves. Rarity was recoiling from the grime all around the group, and Twilight squinted her eyes to examine the obstacles waiting for them ahead.

The hallway split into three separate paths, and every single one of them looked the exact same. Twilight constantly switched her vision to face the different paths. She could not completely tell them apart. "Now, I may be able to know where our friend is, but that doesn't mean I can walk down these hallways and know where I'm going."

"Do you expect us to split up and meet later?" Rarity proposed unconfidently.

"That'll get us killed quick," Applejack responded in disagreement. "Even though it will take quite a long time to find our friend, we have to stick together."

"I agree on that idea," Fluttershy quietly stated as she raised her front left hoof.

"Alright then," Twilight announced in agreement. "Let me just talk to Travis about where we need to go."

She recalibrated her communications chip to Travis's signal. Pure static and nothing else met her ears harshly. She tried some of the other calibrations, but her chip still emitted static. After fiddling with her chip for a few more seconds, she finally realized why this was happening.

"Girls, remember when Solk talked about lost signals at the site?" She glanced around the area, pausing at all of the skeletons that she detected. "I think we lost ours too."

Fluttershy began to hyperventilate as the news slammed into her mind. Applejack attempted to calm her down, and Rarity was peering into the dark hallways. She pointed her hoof to the left hallway in hope of that being the correct path. Twilight agreed with her choice and began her trek into the labyrinth of catacombs. Fluttershy followed from behind with her head low and riddled with fear.

Their journey into that hallway eventually led them to a T-junction. Applejack pointed to the right and pursued the darkness and flames in front of her. The group reached another set of three hallways. Twilight kept going forward and urged the others to follow her. After a few twists and turns, the quartet reached a dead end.

"We'll have to try another hall then," Twilight sighed in disappointment while turning around and entering the left hallway. After traveling through that hallway for about one minute, the quartet reached yet another dead end. They turned around and tried the last hallway that they didn't explore yet. This hallway was relatively long compared to the rest, and there were more unicorn skeletons in the holes than usual. Fluttershy was shaking the entire time, expecting one of the skeletons to pop out of their resting place and attack her.

The quartet eventually reached a wooden door that was crumbling apart. When Twilight opened it with her magic, it immediately fell apart into multiple planks of rotten wood. The room on the other side was circular and filled with so many unicorn skeletons resting in their holes in the walls. Since they have only seen these corpses countless times along their catacomb crawling, they were shocked to discover two GEST Corp. soldiers' bodies leaning back on the dirt wall behind them.

Their entire bodies were a disgusting sight to see. The metal suit around their chest area was ripped apart into multiple rips and tears. Huge incisions plagued the chest, opening up the chest cavity and flesh that lingered inside them. The hearts, lungs, esophagi, and tracheae of the bodies were absent, so blood, mucus, and stomach acids took their place. Blood gently pooled around their feet and collected into a huge mess. Another disturbing addition to the sight was a plank of wood with nonsensical words.

A Ceded Interferes Yip Tumor Soys

"What does that even say?" Rarity questioned while glaring at the mess of words and attempting to ignore the rancid bodies next to the note. "And why is it so disorganized like that?"

"I, I don't know," Twilight answered in confusion. She was also trying to avoid looking at the bloody mess. "It's most likely a message, but it doesn't make sense."

"Is nopony gonna mention the two soldiers without any organs and a huge opening in their chests?" Applejack gagged from the horrible stench and sight of the bodies. She was completely confused on how the other ponies could stand being next to two rotting bodies. Well, Fluttershy already fainted from the sight of the mutilated corpses. When she recovered from her faint a few seconds later, she pretended to still be unconscious and kept her entire body very still.

Twilight attempted to decipher the words and remember their meanings. She was already stuck on how 'ceded' can be a noun, so she made little progress in reading the words.

A gust of cold air blew in the circular chamber from the broken doorway. The raspy and dead voice revealed itself once again. "I can feeleth thy souls. They long f'r another chance in life, and I can deliv'r yond f'r thee. Spirits of the long and forgotten Unicorn Tribe, I hest all of thee to aid me in mine own time of needeth!"

Streams of grey and light blue light struck the unicorn skeletons around the four ponies. Fluttershy stopped her pretending act and got up onto her hooves for whatever was about to happen. Rarity, Applejack, and Twilight Sparkle primed their weapons and stopped paying attention to the bloody mess and note.

The voice spoke again in a louder tone. "Anon, aid me mine own soldiers of the dead!"

The skeletons rattled and slowly crawled out of their holes. Blue pupils in completely black eye sockets met the quartet. The unicorns' horns glowed a dark purple and conjured various items. Some magical swords, bows, and armor materialized next to the skeletons, and the rest strengthened the magic collecting in their horns. Twilight activated a magical barrier in response, but the unicorns used surprisingly powerful magic in their arsenal. The enchanted weaponry severely damaged the barrier and broke it apart into magic particles. Applejack bucked a few of the unicorns back, destroying most of their bones and slightly clearing a path to the exit. Rarity conjured and fired multiple gemstones towards the mob. Multiple skeletal unicorns fell and crumbled apart from the attacks.

Twilight charged her magic and fired a large beam of magic into the unicorns, creating a straight path to the doorway. "Alright girls, head straight for the door!"

The four ponies galloped through the gap between the unicorns and left the circular room. More unicorns in the walls emitted a faint blue glow while they crawled out of their tombs. At this point, the quartet was speeding through the hallways for the original entrance. They backtracked to the T-junction. A GEST Corp. soldier corpse was waiting there with a huge machine gun in its hands. All of its flesh, skin, and organs on and in its chest were completely absent, showing nothing but bloody bones and scraps of metal armor. The visor of its helmet was broken as well, revealing a twisted face with black holes with blue lights for eyes.

Twilight pointed a hoof to the left hallway of the T-junction. "We have no time to fight this thing! Just go down that hall now!"

The ponies dodged its gunfire as they galloped down the left hallway. They immediately met a circular two-story room with two staircases descending to another hallway straight ahead. Multiple unicorn skeletons already primed their magic and fired magical blasts at the group. They dodged, ducked, and hopped over the countless blasts that shook the dirt walls. They ran down the left flight of stairs while bashing into multiple skeletons with magic, gems, and brute force. They raced down the hallway to meet a dead end with empty holes all along the walls. Another heavily bleeding human corpse with no organs in its chest was nailed onto the wall. It looked down at the ponies without wearing the standard helmet. The scalp was completely removed, and its face was slashed into a permanent and crying smile. Words were written into the corpse's skull.

You are delicious!

The ponies had no time to regurgitate their gorge, as the pony skeletons shambled down the hallway with their crooked smiles and their twitching ventriloquist dummy movements. Applejack powered through the horde by ramming headfirst into the skeletons. The other three ponies also followed with the stench of rotting flesh invading their nostrils. They ran up the left flight of stairs once again while avoiding as many magical swipes and blasts that they can. They eventually met the same corpse that threatened their lives with a huge machine gun.

"Not this thing again!" shouted Applejack in irritation.

Rarity conjured a horizontal line of gemstones that sliced its head off its body. The corpse kneeled on the ground while feeling for its fallen and tumbling head. The quartet galloped passed it in hopes of losing it in the dim darkness of the catacombs. They ran down the straight hallway, this time in hopes of finally advancing. To their dismay, they encountered another T-junction with a shadowy figure standing in front of them. Its eyes glowed a purple hue as black dust swirled around its form. An outline of a human skeleton filled the leather hood, graphene chest plate, and graphene leggings. The creature held two laser uzis in its hands, both ready to fire at will.

The creature spoke in the same raspy and dying voice from the air. "Well, holla thee four ponies. Doth all of thee adore mine own skeletal army? T is a replacement f'r the want of mine own fusty crypt on earth." The lich looked at the two uzis in his hands. "I has't been waiting a long time to finally useth these two guns, and I has't the perfect targets right in front of me. Prepare to join mine own onslaught, equine daws."

A challenger approaches: Marksman Lich of the Unicorn Catacombs

Twilight raised a magical barrier in front of the marksman lich. As hundreds of lasers pelted the barrier, Rarity and Applejack slid along the walls and kept their distance from the lich. Rarity forged her gems, and Applejack readied her projectile launcher. When Twilight Sparkle's barrier was just about to collapse, they sliced and bludgeoned the lick with gems and metal balls. The lich halted his firing and aimed his guns to the two ponies. Rarity leaped over the incoming gunfire while Applejack lassoed the lich's left arm to his side. Twilight fired a magical blast and slammed it into his chest, damaging his essence greatly. Fluttershy was fending off the approaching unicorns from behind the quartet by swatting at them with her forelegs.

The lich raised his head and lifted his right hand in a truce. "I believeth yond mine own stayeth hither is not did welcome. I shall leaveth this lodging in peace, but beest did warn. I didst not commit those travesties onto those humans. Something hither in vast dismay didst."

"Then what did?" Twilight asked hastily.

Before her question could be answered, the marksman lich's form disintegrated into dust that left the dark catacombs, and the skeletons behind the ponies lost their blue pupils and dropped to the ground lifelessly. After the area finally calmed to dead silence once again, the catacombs brightened up a little.

Marksman Lich has been defeated!

Applejack turned her head to Twilight and approached her at a walking pace. "Hey, Twi, what did that thing mean about those soldiers back there?"

Twilight scratched the back of her head in bafflement. "I don't really know, but I do know that it's still around here." She remembered the horrific stench and sight of the bloodied bodies. She raised a hoof to her mouth to stop a flow of vomit. "I don't want to think about them right now, Applejack. Let's just proceed down one of these halls until something else happens."

Rarity pointed a hoof down the left hallway of the T-junction. "I think we should go down this one. It's not as, red, as the other hall."

Twilight looked over to the other hallway and discovered multiple pools of blood and viscera lining the floor. Whatever caused that mess is definitely down that hallway. "I think we should follow the blood. As much as I hate to say it, we need to see that the whole way through."

"What?" exclaimed the other three ponies in unison. Fluttershy's wings swiftly unfurled in sudden shock.

Applejack was the first to retort against her idea. "You mean go where the, blood, takes us? Are you trying to kill us?" She heaved after smelling the odor of decaying flesh once again. "There has to be some other way."

Twilight shook her head in disagreement. "That is the only way. Remember that we're looking for our friend, so a killer that is on the loose in these halls might pinpoint where she is. Hopefully, if she is injured, we can heal her at GEST Corp.'s base in Ponyville." She waved her head to the direction of the right hallway. "Now, let's go. We cannot let that killer get our friend."

"Just assure me that I'll not get any blood on my gorgeous suit." Rarity readjusted her suit just in case she walked over any blood or flesh. The ponies regrouped and hesitantly proceeded down the messy hall, cringing whenever they steered near the fresh tissue and crimson liquid. They eventually reached another T-junction with the mess traveling down the left hallway. Twilight and company continued down that hall to hear the faint screams of a GEST Corp. soldier. They then heard echoing laughter that felt demented and hollow.

Fluttershy wrapped her wings around her drooped and terrified head. "Please, let's just go down the other hall, please. I bet we'll find her down there." Fluttershy's excuse to leave the hall was not enough to change Twilight's mind, as she shook a no and kept trotting down the corridor.

The ponies reached a room identical to the double staircase room from before. A GEST Corp. soldier leaned back on a wall as they held their hand to their chest. Twlight could hear the man's sobs through his helmet. The quartet hastened their walk down the stairs to examine the soldier. Fresh blood dripped from his chest and pooled near his legs. A large opening in his armor and flesh revealed the absence of his stomach, liver, and part of his intestines. He was dying at a moderate but excruciatingly painful rate.

He reached his open hand to the ponies as he talked through his coughs. "Don't, don't go back there. It, it killed all of my friends, and, and then it, it ate them alive. Please, save yourselves." The soldier's coughs became more violent as more blood trickled down its neckhole and open wound. "God, help us, all." The soldier's breathing and coughs stopped as his head rested on his left shoulder. Applejack couldn't take the gore anymore and regurgitated on the dirt floor. Fluttershy kept her eyes covered with her wings as Rarity stayed away from the body, almost fainting in disgust and terror. Twilight could only stare at what she had just witnessed. A soldier died right in front of her, and the killer was still alive. It would only be some time before she was next.

Twilight slowly walked down the hall and urged the others to follow. "We have to find out what this killer is. I don't care how many of these soldiers die, we still have to move on."

"I think we should do what Fluttershy recommended a while ago," Applejack sated while wiping her mouth with a hoof. "I don't think I can take anymore of this."

Twilight Sparkle raised her voice through small tears and hoarseness. "We have to! What if our friend is down this hallway? We can't let them die! We need to save them!"

Applejack remembered that one crucial thought. Even though she knew that everypony was waltzing straight into death's scythe, her friend was still important. In reality, their friend was important for everything. If she dies, so does Equestria when the demons invade with even more dark magic. If another foe, even stronger than what they experienced, eventually discovers Equestria and notices how plentiful and useful it is, they might kill or enslave everything when they get the chance. The quartet knew that more monsters and sadistic people roamed outside their world, and any of these things can invade at anytime.

Realizing the seriousness of the situation, the group of fearful ponies trotted down the blood-soaked path. The hallway curved to the left and right dozens of times, and the amount of torches illuminating the halls grew smaller and smaller after every twist or turn. The hallway eventually ended at a small, circular room with one spiral staircase in the center going downwards. The ponies carefully walked down the crimson-glazed steps while glaring down the maw of darkness and increasing temperature. When the ponies finally reached the bottom of the staircase, they met a wooden door that was in surprisingly good shape. Twilight carefully grabbed the bloody knob with her magic and slowly opened the creaking door.

Inside the next room was multiple torches along the walls that brightened the tombs of the dead. Nearly every hole was empty, and some were replaced with metal ovens that emitted a low, warm glow into the scene. Multiple tables and counters littered the walls and inner area, similar to the pattern of a kitchen. Bowls and plates lined the inner tables, and various machinery and cutlery dotted the room. A few knives, forks, spoons, and other utensils rested in random areas on the tables and counters. A shadow lurked in the distant fog of darkness, but it was too faint for the ponies to detect.

After a few seconds of admiration, the communications chips buzzed to life. At first, Twilight thought that the chips finally have a signal, but she was dead wrong. A low, guttural, and threatening voice boomed in the speakers. "Hello, subjects. You four must be the 'Elements of Harmony' that General Solk enslaved, am I correct?"

"Enslaved?" Applejack took offense to that word. "We're not enslaved, we're helping out our world!"

"That is only what GEST Corp. wants you to think. Anyway, your cooperation with the dreaded humans is undesirable and a nuisance to us. All four of you will be terminated at this very location."

The wooden door slammed shut and collected a metal casing, sealing the ponies in the room. Faint footsteps penetrated the still air, and the scraping of a blade on the checkered floor chilled their very souls. "That must be the specimen approaching. Have fun, but do not overload yourselves on the snacks. They are, cannibalicious."

The footsteps increased in volume as the communications chips died into static once again. In the midst of the room, a pink and fluffy mare crawled out of the inky shadows. In its mouth was a long, bloody, and sharp blade that trailed blood onto the floor. Bloodstains covered the mare's hooves and mouth. Some speckles and droplets of the fluid also hardened into its pink coat and frizzy mane. The iconic sight of three balloons, one yellow and two blue, shimmered in the dim light. The blade dropped from its mouth as a wide, demented, and unsettling smile crawled up the mare's face.

Twilight was the first to react to the reveal. She dismissed the red speckled all over Pinkie for just some sort of frosting or other ingredient. "Pinkie Pie, what are you doing here? There's a killer on the loose, and they just hurt so many GEST Corp. soldiers!"

Pinkie's smile lowered a little as the word killer perplexed her. Her voice was oddly calm and not so bubbly as it used to be. "What do you mean, killer? There is no killer, just a baker preparing goodies for the others."

"Others?" questioned Rarity.

"Goodies?" cooed Fluttershy without assurance of safety.

"Baker?" Applejack asked while looking around the room.

Twilight approached her to about three quarters of her original distance to Pinkie Pie. "Pinkie, stop fooling around and come with us. We need to save Equestria."

Pinkie glared at the quartet and ignored Twilight's demand. "I think you three will be really great for the next batch. If the others and I enjoy my cooking so much, I think my friends should pitch in for it too."

"Pinkie, we would love to cook with you, but we really need to leave this horrible place," Fluttershy quietly responded.

Pinkie's smile quickly shifted to a dead tone of seriousness. "Follow me to the kitchen. I have something for all of you."

The four ponies slowly walked towards the tables and cabinets. The darkness pierced the area like knives, killing all of the light that reached to the kitchen area. Pinkie's shadowy figure walked towards the left wall, flicking a light switch as the quartet tried their best to see their surroundings.

When the light flickered on, the group almost died from shock. Human and pony corpses littered the used to be hidden tables. Blood dripped from the incisions and lack of flesh on the bodies. Entire limbs and sections of the bodies were cut apart into piles of blood-soaked meat. Pinkie walked over to the blade she dropped and picked it up with her hooves this time. She stood on her hind legs when she approached the four ponies that were petrified from her 'baking'.

Twilight's face twitched into a horrified frown. "Pinkie, how could you do this? This isn't you! Why would you do this to those innocent soldiers?"

"Soldiers, innocent, not me?" Pinkie repeated the words in bafflement to herself. "They were all ingredients, silly, not ponies. Plus, they all taste really good." She licked the blood on her lips until there was it was all in her mouth. "I would let you four have some, but you offended me and my work. Also, you four actually look quite appetizing." She pointed a hoof to Fluttershy. "Fluttershy, would you eat yourself if you had the chance?"

"Uh, no." Fluttershy dug her head into her hooves and wings from the question. Why would she ask that?

"That's too bad. I would, but I can't snack on myself if I have to cook these creations. I can't stir a bowl with one hoof now, can I?"

"Pinkie, please," Twilight was breaking into tears after putting two and two together. "just stop this and lower the knife! You're scaring us!"

"Well, it was nice knowing you, Twilight. It will be nice to know how you taste though." Pinkie's inner desire for more pony flesh twisted her idea on even her own friends. The taste never left her mouth, and she needed more of it to keep herself happy. Human flesh was close to the original taste, but it wasn't exactly pony flesh. She needed this treat so badly, and she was about to kill her own friends for another bite of those delicious ponies.

Pinkie raised her knife in a stabbing position. "Unicorns taste the most magical. All of that leftover magic that still lingers in your body adds so much texture and taste to the meal."

A challenger approaches: Psychotice Pinkie Pie, also known as The Mad Baker

Twilight hopped backwards to avoid the knife that almost ripped her throat open. In response to her dodge backwards, Pinkie pulled out two chained, metal claws. The other three ponies also backed away, unwilling to hurt their friend. Pinkie launched her claws straight at Twilight, but she missed when Twilight dodged to the right. Pinkie rolled up her claws and launched them again, but also she missed again from a dodge to the left. The lingering taste of pony flesh was torturing her psyche, and Twilight was only worsening the aching desire that weighed her mind to the depths of her broken brain.

"Stand still real quick," grunted Pinkie with a brewing infuriation, "or else I'll have to use more extreme measures."

"Extreme?" Rarity glanced around the room and looked back to Pinkie again. "You do not call this mutilation extreme?"

Pinkie Pie ignored her statement and pulled out a chainsaw from behind a counter to her right. She revved the machine to life and ran towards Twilight with the chainsaw over her head. Twilight cast a barrier spell before Pinkie could shred her with the chainsaw, causing the machine to slam on pure magic.

Applejack kept her distance while attempting to reason with Pinkie Pie. "You don't have to do this, sugar cube. There's other ways to deal with your desires than killing other ponyfolk."

Pinkie turned to Applejack and donned a threatening expression. Her mind was overflowing with infuriation. "Do you know how it feels to have this wanting feeling inside you? Do you even know why I keep doing this? No, no you don't!" Pinkie raised a hoof to her head from the withdrawal of pony flesh. "It hurts so much to not have anything to eat for this long, and none of you will cooperate!"

"It's because you have gone crazy!" snapped Rarity while backing away from the chainsaw. "Nopony eats another and enjoys it!"

"Well, then I'm an exception!" Pinkie swung her chainsaw towards Applejack, but the machine missed when Applejack ducked under the blade. She quickly rolled her body halfway towards the door to gain more distance between her and the brand new, psychotic Pinkie Pie.

Twilight charged a lower form of her magic to avoid badly hurting or killing Pinkie. After firing a few shots at her, Pinkie turned around, tossed the chainsaw into a wall, and pulled out a curved and blood-soaked axe from her tail. She tossed the blade after Twilight in hopes of decapitating her. The blade missed due to dodge to the right, but the blade was still spinning horizontally. It then turned around and headed towards Twilight's head once again. She dodged to the left of the spinning blade and fired another blast at Pinkie. Even though her blasts were created to leave the target unconscious, Pinkie Pie was as active and as sporadic as she was minutes ago.

The blade returned into Pinkie's hooves safely, not even landing a scrape on her during its return. She then hopped to Rarity's location and performed a vertical slam on her head. Luckily, Twilight halted the attack with another magic blast that blasted Pinkie to the left wall and sent the curved axe flying into the darkness to Twilight's right. Pinkie tumbled onto the floor with a slight amount of damage to her side, but something else felt hurt. There was still a glimmer of hope for her savage greed to disappear from her friends' kindness, but this quickly evaporated as the pain crawled all over her left side. Her pain shifted to rage, and this rage suddenly shifted to broken tears and melancholy.

Twilight felt terrible for committing the deed, but she still felt justified for her actions. Applejack, not able to bear the wailing anymore, galloped to Pinkie and comforted her. "It's okay, Pinkie, we're all here for you. There's no reason to hurt us or yourself for a simple illness. We can cure you."

Pinkie Pie's crying died as primal instinct overtook her body. A quick head turn and constriction of Applejack's right foreleg created a nasty gash. Pinkie had dug her teeth into Applejack's flesh, tearing away at the muscle, bone, and tendons while holding onto the chunk of meat that bled in her mouth. Applejack screamed in sharp pain and terror as she watched an entire piece of her body detach from her bone. Pinkie then kicked her to Twilight and Rarity, reducing her to the checkered ground while chewing on the bloody earth pony flesh. Fluttershy sprinted towards the other end of the room while sobbing in acute distress, and Rarity screamed while looking away from the chaos. Applejack's right foreleg burned and stung from the open air, so she glanced around the area to find something to cover it up. Twilight noticed a roll of gauze poking from one of the kitchen cabinets. She levitated it towards the bleeding and bony leg and wrapped the roll around it several times. By the time she finished patching up the leg, Pinkie Pie chewed the entire bloody morsel and gulped it down.

Pinkie licked the leftover blood that coated her lips. "Mmm, that type of pony meat is very tough, but it tastes really good! Are you sure none of you want a bite?"

"That's just wrong!" Twilight screamed through her tears. "Why would you chomp off a bit of your friends? Do you really not care for them that much?"

Pinkie's face resorted to the previous look of anger and torture that the craving created inside her head. "It's not enough though. Only all of you will be able to fix it. Even if you decide to say no again, I'll have to continue my work. Remember, you don't leave your duties unfinished."

Pinkie Pie grabbed another item out of her tail. This time, it was a similar set of metal claws with a slight upgrade. Two electrical wires were grafted into them, and multiple sparks bounced out of the claws like fireworks. She twirled them in the air while aiming for Twilight Sparkle. Twilight activated a magical barrier before the class could grab and electrocute her, possibly to death from the amount of electricity escaping out of the ends. In response to the block, Pinkie recollected her metal claws and aimed for Rarity. The claws almost latched onto her, but she dodged to the right before they could electrify her body. Pinkie's rage increased after every miss, and she was heading towards a complete assault.

"How do we defeat her?" Twilight asked Rarity while keeping her barrier active. She literally had no idea how to stop Pinkie Pie. "My magic is doing almost nothing to her, and she is throwing too many attacks! We need to find out how to stop her!"

Rarity examined a Pinkie that was pulling out a chainsaw again. "Do you have anything else on you that can help you? You must have something."

"Yeah," Applejack weakly responded while slowly limping backwards. "She has to be weak to something. Remember, nothing's impossible to defeat." The pain in her leg was still present, and it racked her mind with every additional flurry of pain.

Pinkie scanned the room and noticed one friend she excluded from her attacks. She redirected her attention to Fluttershy, who was hiding behind a counter in the back of the room. Pinkie approached her with the chainsaw and raised it above her head. Twilight noticed this attack and charged a magical blast in response. When the blast slammed into Pinkie, it threw her to the locked door. She sluggishly got back up and picked up her chainsaw again, ready to attack another time. When Twilight fired a few more blasts to keep her incapacitated, Pinkie simply dodged around them by hopping and spinning from left to right.

Twilight decided now that it was best to use a not so wimpy magic blast. She charged her lethal variant this time and aimed for Pinkie again. She knew that Pinkie would dodge this one like the rest, so she aimed to the left a little. To her surprise, Pinkie dodged into the blast slightly to her right when Twilight fired the blast. This time, Pinkie was actually hurt instead of pushed back. She sprawled on the floor for a few seconds, allowing Twilight to think about the situation.

"Alright, so I need to find something that could also damage her," Twilight spoke to herself while rummaging through her pocket chest. She took out and placed back a few scraps and other bits that she collected on her travels through the worlds. When she finally rediscovered the shiny stone that Princess Celestia gave her. Her words echoed in her mind as she examined the shiny stone.

"It will be very useful if you ever encounter a deadly threat. Just toss the stone towards the enemy to activate its effects."

Twilight levitated the shiny stone out of her pocket chest and examined it carefully. A rainbow briefly shimmered through the stone before disappearing into the silver. She then scanned the entire room to see what was happening. Pinkie was almost on her hind legs again with a syringe in one hoof and a chainsaw in the other. Applejack was huddling behind a counter with Fluttershy to avoid anything else that could hurt them both. Almost touching the left wall of the room, Rarity stood to the right of Twilight Sparkle. Twilight raised the shiny stone a little and pulled it back to wind her magic. After several milliseconds of winding, she threw the stone at Pinkie Pie in hopes of something helpful happening.

To her surprise, something indeed did happen. The stone bounced off of Pinkie harmlessly, only causing a small bruise on her left shoulder. When the stone landed on the floor, it flashed all the colors of the rainbow and hovered above the floor by itself. The rainbow light grew and engulfed Pinkie Pie's body and weaponry, showing nothing but a pulsing and spinning rainbow while it used its magic. Twilight could hear Pinkie's screams of shock, but they vanished when they were replaced with snoring sounds and a thud. When the rainbows washed away and returned to the stone peacefully, a peacefully sleeping Pinkie Pie met the quartet's eyes. Even though the chainsaw and syringe were still in her area, they were not too close to be extremely deadly.

Psychotic Pinkie Pie has been defeated!

Applejack was the first to react. She winced as she got back on her hooves and limped towards Twilight. "What did that thing do?"

"I don't know, but it looks like it fixed Pinkie," Twilight responded curiously. She was intrigued in how that small stone created all that raw power and magic, but her dreamy thinking about the power was cut short when a buzzing entered the communications chips.

"Is anyone there?" a concerned and gruff voice asked.

"Yes," replied the four ponies in slight unison.

"Alright, all four of you are alive. Our GEST Corp. soldiers found a kavarian outpost near your location. We had to take it out to regain the signal here, but it looks like we were a little too forgetful of our fellow comrades."

"What do you mean?" asked Rarity. "How can you forget your own soldiers if they are right next to you?"

"I'm talking about the dead bodies all over the catacombs. What the hell happened to all of them? I know that these marks are not from any of our enemies."

"Pinkie Pie lost her mind and started gutting humans and ponies all around this place," Applejack answered with a slight indication of pain in her words. "We have her with us, but we're locked from the outside, I think."

"We'll find your location soon. Our technicians here have studied the kavarian language and their technology. We should have the door cracked open in no time."

The quartet waited silently in the room for a few minutes due to the lack of needing to talk. They were all to busy on thinking about Pinkie and her massacre. The door beeped and fell apart as several soldiers hustled through the disfigured opening. One of the soldiers kneeled down near Pinkie's body and pulled out two fingers to her neck. "Blood circulation is normal. What should we do with her, sir?"

Another soldier without a helmet turned to the soldier. His voice was the same as the voice in the communications chips, and he wore armor with orange stripes covering his shoulder pads and knees. "These four ponies said that she was the one who killed all those men."

The soldier looked back at the sergeant. "So, should we take her prisoner?"

"No, she's an Element of Harmony, and she never did that before. Something must've gotten into her head, so send her to the Ponyville base so that we can check up on her. This might be a psychological problem."

The soldier gestured two more to help him pick up the still sleeping Pinkie Pie. All three of the soldiers lifted her body and gently escorted her out of the room. The sergeant and two other soldiers approached the quartet calmly and without any intent in attacking. The sergeant pointed his head to the broken door. "Now, come with us. We got a few drop ships that you four can take. We'll be home in no time."

One of the soldiers glared at Applejack's bleeding bunch of gauze on her leg. "Hey, sir, that leg's going to get infected. We need to give her medical assistance as soon as possible."

The sergeant turned his head to the soldier on his left. "We got a medbot on the surface. We can patch her body up in no time."

The quartet followed the sergeant and other soldiers out of the room and into the catacomb halls. They walked through the dried blood and flesh that tortured them and their senses, touched the exit of the tunnels, and returned to the cool air outside. A temporary encampment to the left of the exit held a few wounded soldiers and a rolling medbot that healed their injuries in record time. Applejack limped to the medbot and held out her mangled leg. "Can you fix this? I got bit during a fight in the room."

The medbot beeped happily and scanned the injured tissue. It cut the gauze off with a claw arm and drew red beams in the affected area with its singular red optical sensor. New muscle, tendons, and skin filled the hole in her leg. In just a few seconds, her leg felt as good as new. She gave a warm smile to the small machine and pat it on the top with her fixed leg. "Thanks, partner. You're pretty good at your job."

The medbot beeped and rolled to another wounded soldier. Applejack returned to the other three ponies that had surprised looks on their faces. "How did that machine do that?" Twilight asked in awe. "Not even my mending spells can fix injuries like that!"

Rarity entered the conversation. "Well, these humans have quite the stylish vehicles and clothing. Plus, they are very advanced compared to us. Of course they would such magnificent tools and luxurious attire. It's all so sophisticated."

"You don't have drool all over their fancy gear now," Applejack teased a little to Rarity. "I think we should be heading to the drop ships. Whatever they want with Pinkie must be very important to us."

"All right girls, to the drop ships!" Twilight exclaimed happily while she trotted to the closet ship. All of the ponies entered the same ship that carried Pinkie. The soldiers put a muzzle and straitjacket on her just in case she wakes up and starts eating ponies and humans again. The ponies sat down and rested on the seats. The ramp door closed tightly, and the engine roared to life. The ship soon ascended into the air and flew towards Ponyville. This period of low activity was exactly was the quartet needed. Too much stress and terror stabbed their minds, and they couldn't take anymore of it today. Especially Fluttershy, who was still paranoid of Pinkie waking up and attempting to snack on her body. To put it simply, they were all perfectly safe at this point. There were no worries and problematic situations as the drop ship set course for Ponyville.