Underground, far away from any gemstone cave, a lurking beast tossed clumps of dirt aside retreating from its humiliating defeat. It's feeding ground taken not just once but twice. The obscenely colorful vermin tricked it into hurting itself. Now it flees from such tiny pests? Its blood boiled with the fury of a lone beast set out against the dangerous world. Anger is a wonderful supplement when taken in measured doses, but now, now it's cause for rapid consumption. The feeling of the earth only taunted it further. It wanted to feel flesh ripping beneath its claws, it needed the flesh of those that cast it away from its feeding ground.

Yet even that endeavor seemed lacking somehow. Perhaps it could take things into another direction. Meat never interested it before but after what it suffered trying new things can't possibly hurt more than defeat. How could it exact the much-needed revenge that festered just beneath the skin. A primal realization ran up its spine telling the secret it desperately wanted to know. The echoed vibrations of many trotting hoofs in the opposite direction of its feeding ground was felt. It knew then what it needed to do.

Far from the changeling hive, a town, small and quaint, lied hidden behind mountains. The ponies there were just as sociable and connected to the outside as any other place in Equestria, however, they couldn't possibly know what was coming. Midday, not a soul in unrest. Ponies in the marketplace happily socializing with smiles a plenty. In the middle of the town, a rumbling was felt from the earth. Many assumed a quake but just as soon as it started it stopped. They looked on in confusion, at the source of the rumbling and each other. Just then, it started again. Fear started to creep in and they all began to head for safety inside their houses. Not a minute later did the source of the disturbance reveal itself to the unsuspecting town.

It scanned the surrounding area. Just two straight rows of houses running parallel to each other. They screamed from their homes echoing into the mountain side but much like their physical forms, the screams were swallowed by a larger force. Running its unforgiving claw on the side of the homes it grabbed ponies out like kernels of popcorn out of a bucket. The ponies tried to fight back but it wanted them more than they wanted their own lives. It clawed and ripped at anything that moved leaving a path of crimson in its wake. The taste was nauseating, it understood that blood wasn't made to dance down its gullet, but the burning, the burning gave it a masochistic pleasure.

That wasn't enough though. So long had it been relegated to a secluded corner of its own domain, this newfound freedom hadn't been exercised to the fullest extent. No, it needed a lot more before it can consider itself satiated. Calming itself slightly, it took a second to focus on what exactly it was doing.

A pony appeared to be crying, or maybe it was bleeding. When your eyes evolve to adapt to the underground having vision of any sort is considered extra for what you need. But seeing one of those vermin that tricked it away from its home, glee, that's a good word to describe the feeling currently. Another drop of its fearsome clawed paw and the pony disappeared into a mist.

Nothing. Now there was nothing, just silence, and no vibrations. But that didn't fill the hole. The hole stayed in its heart like a virus and it couldn't allow that to go unattended. Burrowing back underground it needed to find a new hunting ground. Like before, vibrations could be felt in the distance and with newly reddened claws it dug.

Ponyville had been in a stunned silence for the past several hours. Anypony that braved the outside refused to meet each other with any sort of eye contact. A light drizzle of rain fell from the sky incentivizing the townponies to stay inside that much more. However, in Twilights Castle, the scene was far dourer. Twilight herself sat at the roundtable her head hung almost limply.

She had been waiting there for quite awhile. Twilight hadn't noticed the passage of time though her head had been running through measures she would have to take once the time had arrived. No matter how many times she had been over this in her head she couldn't come up with a solution that would suffice. Temptation constantly swaying her from being blunt to gentle and every approach in between. The look on her friend's face was just too much to bear when blunt, but the slow reveal of kindness wasn't much more appealing.

She had no more time to think because the time had come.

“Twilight I'm home! And do Trixie and I have a story to tell you!” Starlight Glimmer exclaimed with a sheepish grin on her face. Flanking her, Trixie accompanied with her typical arrogant, muzzle-to-the-air stride. Though they entered with fairly high spirits both Starlight and Trixie noticed the depressed form of Twilight and resigned themselves to similar emotions. Tepidly approaching Twilight, the unicorns wrapped themselves around her, even Trixie cast off her arrogant attitude seeing how saddened Twilight was.

“Starlight, I have something to tell you.”

The feeling, the rush, come and gone just like last time. This time it was lying in a pool of viscous liquid it had made from its victims. This town had been slightly bigger but was just as isolated as the last. Off in a secluded desert that was only neighbored by a bison tribe. They proved no problem either. Except for one little calf that had escaped when the others used themselves to shield her.

That was quite perturbing. Although they hadn't been the ones to force it off its land so missing only one can be ignored. For now.

So many ponies had fallen before its feet. Revenge felt so good. It was time that it returned to its burrow and plotted out another way. For an animal such as it, guilt was not part of its psychology. It wouldn't recollect on any of the ponies it had slaughtered. It didn't feel any importance from such an unnecessary act. But suddenly it felt a large disturbance from somewhere. A dangerous presence emanated across the entire country. Self-preservation kicked into overdrive. It had to escape to a safer place so it started to dig straight down making as much separation between it and the surface as possible. About fifteen hundred feet below the surface it turned making its path into a perfect right angle. It was still disturbed to feel the presence just as strong as it did before. So it dug faster, and faster, but the presence never went away. It dived even deeper pushing it's biological resistance to the heat and gravity of the earth's crust.

Nothing. Finally, after fleeing for so long, the presence had finally ceased to haunt it. With a large huff, it rested at the base of the long tunnel. Darkness began to fall in front of its eyes and it drifted into a soft slumber.

“I know you're there.”

The voice resonated throughout the cave immediately waking it up. Its heartbeat pounded uncontrollably as the presence was stronger than ever. Before it could do anything a strong force tugged on its leg. It tried to bury its claws as an anchor but that only made the tugging worse. Its leg slowly stretched to the point that its bone separated from the rest of its frame. It screamed out in pain and released the grip its claws had on the earth. Besides its own screams, it could only hear the light sound of a crackling fire coming from the force that surrounded its leg. A monster had to have taken hold of it, what kind could do this it did not know.

It was violently brought back to the surface. Hitting every nook and cranny on the way. Being slammed against the wall it made when it turned from its straight path down. The next thing it knew it had been fully pulled from the ground and exposed to the open air.

“It was you. You were the one that killed my friends! They did nothing to you and you slaughtered them! You were merciless and evil, and I...I CAN'T FORGIVE THAT!” Starlights eyes burned with rage and grief.

It looked at the monster that had forced it out of its hole. The monster looked familiar, it had seen the monster before. With a roar, it remembered exactly who was attacking it now. It tried to thrash free of the death grip but the force that engulfed its body was too strong. Rage came flooding back into it, even more than when it started its revenge tour. Still, nothing could be done, the monster could not be stopped, and it did not end with a bang or a whisper, but a barbarous sizzle.

Author's Note

Is it weird that I had a lot of fun writing this? Well anyway, thanks for reading and I await your feedback, good or bad. Thanks again.