Fear Takes Control

Celestia stood in front of the mane six. “Hello, my little ponies. Although Discord may have been defeated, but I have… grave news. A terrible creature called Betty has escaped imprisonment.” Celestia said gravely

“Uh, not that I’m doubting you princess, but… ‘Betty’ doesn’t sound very scary,” A light blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail said.

“That is what we thought as well. But she has killed countless lives, stated numerous wars, and has even managed to kill our parents.” Celestia said gravely, making the gathered ponies gasp in shock and fear.

“B-but Princess, I thought you were immortal?” Twilight asked.

“While I may be ageless, Twilight, Alicorns may still be killed. It is just more… difficult.” Celestia explained.

“But how in tarnation did she kill an alicorn?” Applejack asked,

“She ripped out what she called a ‘soul’.” Celestia said. “But she does not just rip out her ‘souls’. She feeds them to a pink monstrosity.”

Twilight looked horrified at this, as this was called the worst of the dark magics, that only high ranking nobles and herself knew of. And that was just that it existed. “But no one knows how to use, or even access, that kind of power!” Twilight said, the other five not seeming to understand what was happening.

“The only other people that could have posed a threat to Betty, she went after first.” Celestia said, grimacing. “Unfortunately, we were not that well acquainted, and thus did not know of her until it was too late.”

Twilight remembered a book, a legend, about a little girl that caused the first, and only, Equestrian world war. “T-this isn’t t-the same Betty that c-caused the World war, is it?” Twilight asked, feeling dread at her nod.

“You mean we have to take the monster that took on several armies at once?!” Rainbow Dash said.

“Unfortunately, it is the same monster.” Celestia said. “However, IT will be weak, having not fed for so many years.”

“We should find it as soon as possible then!” Twilight said.

“I will show you what we are dealing with.” Celestia said, her horn glowing. The area around them turned colorless, just shades of grey, though thankfully not fifty of them. It showed a battlefield, with dragons, griffons, ponies and minotaurs lying dead on the ground. They were sliced, stabbed, and some had holes in their chests.

They saw one pony being held up by a pink blob as the fear child had a heart, pink, in its hand. “Your SOUL is mine!” Betty said, before ripping the red SOUL away, feeding it to Akumu. “I always wanted to say that.” Betty giggled as Akumu floated over, her smiling fondly at the pink orb.

Fluttershy noticed this, but was too scared to bring it up.

With Betty…

“Hey Kumu, you remember how we actually got here?” Betty asked as she lightly skipped through a field.

“Yes, because unlike you, my memory lasts longer than five days.” Akumu replied, making Betty pout at his teasing.

Flashback

“Come on!” A voice called. It was an imitation of the fear child's partner, but wasn’t quite there, being more mature.

“I’m coming.” Another said, chuckling mirthfully. The first voice belonged to an adult that seemed to act like anything but, features hidden by a pink bodysuit with a black face drawn on. Presumably human Akumu.

The other was a adult dressed as Betty. The two were walking in a con, taking in the view. “So, first comic con, huh? Never actually went before.”

“Yeah, it’s gonna be fun!” The first replied to the second, sounding happy.

“You think we’ll meet a certain merchant?” The second asked. The first shrugged simply. Didn’t know, didn’t care. As if summoned, the two had their attention drawn to a stall with a figure there that looked more in place in Resident Evil 4.

“We’re gonna try and buy everything,” The second stated. The first nodded, the two walking over to the merchant.

“Oh, if it isn’t fear child and the little demon. What can I get for ya?” The Merchant asked.

“Everything.” The Betty cosplayer replied.

“I don’t think ya got the cash, stranger,” The Merchant replied with a shrug.

“Your the real Merchant, right? The one that sends people away? If that is the case, you can have everything I own, in exchange for everything here.” The second replied.

“Heh, alright then. But some of this stuff won’t be available to ya for a long time. When the fool breaks you free, start your quest, in everfree…” The merchant said, before giving the second the alicorn Amulet and Pink SOUL, the first getting the hate bottle. A portal opened beneath them, and they fell in as the rest of the stuff in the stall went after them.

Flashback End

“Hey, Betty… ‘when the fool breaks us free’... do you think he meant Discord?” Akumu asked, floating in front of her face.

“Who else will be fool enough to break us free after what we did?” Betty asked, giggling. “Yeah, those first few years were awkward as hell…”

“But we could be trapped again and freed out of desperation,” Akumu argued. “Whoever did that would be more foolish than Discord.”

“Not after what we did. Celestia would rather have the world burn then free us.” Betty replied with a shrug and a smirk.

“But that’s the thing. We never completed our mission despite coming close so many times. We always let them repopulate first to feed us.” Akumu replied with a sigh.

“True… but what was our original mission? Not the one we gave ourselves. Keep Monsters from having peace.” Betty said.

“We completed that fairly quickly… why do we bother to do this anymore? Besides the need to feed on SOULs to live? Our mission is over.” Akumu said as he looked away.

“Because it’s fun?” Betty asked with a shrug, as if it was obvious.

“But you didn’t think that when we started. We only killed out of necessity back then. When we found out there were monsters here, you… changed…” Akumu replied with a sigh. It seemed he really didn’t like this path.

“But what else are we supposed to do? We are literally enemies number one and two.” Betty said.

“Maybe if we’d let the Elements affect us, we could have not needed to anymore… but you were so scared, that I reacted…” Akumu replied with a heavy sigh. Betty looked away at this, shivering, hair turning a little pinker.

“But… they’re brainwash at best… and re-write existence at worst.” Betty said softly. Akumu floated over, nuzzling her, trying to cheer her up by turning into a mini pink Sans, then having it stabbed. Betty smiled. “Hey, c’mon Akumu. Let’s get those SOULs. They’re divine, maybe your hunger will finally cease then.”

Betty started running towards the castle, Kumu floating after her. Kumu noticed how scared she was of the elements she was. They’d almost starved in there, and were this close to using the HATE. Both him and Betty would hate that.

A few minutes later, they arrived. They went down, seeing plunder vines keeping the tree from being able to harm them. “Now… where were they again?” Akumu asked idly.

“Alright Mr tree, I have a deal for you… if you want to hear it, glow once. Twice if not.” Betty said. The tree, desperate, glowed once softly. “Okay Mr Tree, I’ll get rid of the vines… if you remove the threat of the Elements for me and my little Kumu.”

The tree glowed softly. Betty smirked, before Kumu turned into a scythe. “Now glow once if you swear on your power, magic, and elements themselves to uphold our deal.” Betty said. She had learned to make sure everything went as planned, after the… griffon fiasco. The tree glowed softly in defeat.

Betty walked over behind the tree. Kicking over a loose rock behind the tree against the wall, a hole appeared. Inside, there were two rainbow SOULs, flooding with divine energy. “Well Kumu, eat up,” Betty said. Kumu smiled, launching at the jars in blob form, smashing them and eating the SOULs.

All across equestria, people felt Bettys power skyrocket. Everyone around the world was filled with… F E A R.

In Equestria.

“N-no…” Celestia trembled. “H-how? How did it become so strong so fast?”

“W-what w-was that, Princess?” Twilight asked. Celestia ignored her in favor of frantically writing letters to the other world leaders. The day had come… to unite once more.