Let Them Eat Vengeance

“Be advised, we have multiple 187’s and 480’s, and a possible 415! Requesting all units to Canterlot High and SugarCube Ave!” The radio crackled. Private Officer Joseph raised an eyebrow and turned to his left, looking over to the driver’s side of the squad car he was currently a passenger in. The lieutenant beside him gave him a similar look. The lieutenant had black hair and a clean shaven face. His nose was a tad long for his face, but it wasn’t enormous looking. His prominent jaw definitely helped minimize the impact of the size. Private Joseph was clearly a slightly younger man, with blonde hair and green eyes. He had a stout nose, and a more rounded, baby-ish look to his face.

The lieutenant pointed to the radio and nodded. “You hearing this?” The man asked. The private nodded.

“Multiple homicides, hit and runs, and a possible disturbance in a vehicle?” The private shook his head. “You ever heard anything like this?” The lieutenant slowly shook his head.

“I gotta say, this is not what I was expecting to hear tonight.” The lieutenant commented. Joseph found his choice of words odd, but brushed it off. For a second there, it sounded like he was expecting a different set of codes. But, surely it was just a slip of the tongue. The lieutenant started the police charger and quickly pulled off toward SugarCube Ave.

The private scanned the area as they raced toward the scene of the crime, and he spotted smoke billowing up and over the buildings. The only reason he could really see the inky black smoke against the equally black night sky, was because it had an orange glow cast on it from below.

“Holy shit.” Joseph muttered. The lieutenant glance at it and shook his head.

“Hit and run must’ve caused a fire. A pretty bad one at that.” He remarked. The cruiser rounded the corner, and the officers were met by a scene of total chaos. Three trucks were destroyed and on fire. One sheered sloppily in half, one folded like a taco around a pole, and the last one crumpled like an accordion against a concrete wall. Fire fighters were desperately trying to put out the flames, while police were trying to cordon off the area. “The fuck?” The lieutenant muttered as they slowly cruised by the wreckage. The private saw heavily charred remains scattered about, and put a hand to his mouth.

“God, this is sick.” He mumbled. He was beginning to feel queasy, and his skin turned pale. They pulled to a stop and got out of the car. The stench of burning meat was heavy in the air, and it made the two officers gag. A young female officer approached them in a hurry. She had her light brown hair back in a ponytail, and her purple eyes stared icicles into her male colleagues.

“Scott, Joseph, glad you could make it.” She said quickly.

Scott shook his head. “What the fuck happened here, Jessica?” The female cop shook her head.

“I don’t know yet. It was a hit and run, but, we don’t know but who or what.” She informed. She glanced around shakily and swallowed the vomit creeping up her throat. “It looks like a monster came through here. And this is only half the carnage.”

The lieutenant’s eyebrows shot so high, they could basically high-five his hairline. “Half?” Jessica nodded.

“It looks like some people were trying to attack CHS. It looks like they ran into something else before they could kill anyone.” Jessica informed. She looked at the ground and shook her head. “The terrorists were dismembered and burned beyond recognition.”

“Burned?” The Private asked. “That sounds like…” He looked over at the Lieutenant with a frightened gaze. Scott nodded and wiped the corners of his mouth.

“The Ghost Rider.” He muttered. A frightening cacophony of shrieks and groans filled the air, turning everyone’s gaze to the sky. At the far end of the street, a black car with green headlights was spotted. It was far enough away from the police blockade that no one really thought much of it, but whoever was inside was revving the engine constantly. Scott rolled his eyes and pointed at the car. “Someone get that asshole to stop!” One of his fellow officers turned around and waved at him. He jogged off toward the blockade of police cars, and squeezed his way between the noses of two cruisers. As he jogged his way up the street, the car suddenly shifted into gear. The officer paused as the Mustang revved into a burnout. A thick plume of white smoke quickly enveloped the car, obscuring most of it from view.

The white haze suddenly lit up with a bright orange color, and the officer’s eyes widened as the car surged forward from the cloud, revealing burning tires. The man stood there like a deer in headlights as the burning vehicle barreled toward him, only to feel his body moving on its own as he turned around to run. Scott’s eyes widened when he saw it in the distance. The car thundered up behind the running officer and crashed through the police blockade, sending two of the cars spinning one hundred eighty degrees, and mashing the officer’s legs against the squad cars. It didn’t even stop, and quickly crushed the injured officer under its left tires. The wheels ran up the man’s spine, crushing everything on the way up, before finally splitting his skull wide open. The car screeched to a halt inside the police perimeter, and a deathly figure stepped out. It slammed the door shut and its skull ignited.

“Son of a bitch!” Jessica shrieked. She drew her pistol and began dropping 9mm on the demon. Her fellow officers all had the same idea, and some pulled their pistols, while others ran to their squad cars to grab bigger guns. Pretty soon there were bullets of all calibers and kinds flying around the beast. It roared angrily at its attackers, and stomped its foot down, dislodging a manhole cover. It reached down, grabbed the hefty piece of metal, and hurled it at one of the officers like frisbee. The officer ducked, and the metal disc lodged itself firmly into a brick wall with a loud crunch and the plunk of metal on rock. The beast uttered something in a hoarse whisper, which sounded like it was directly in your ears. It sounded like utter gibberish to Joseph, but about half of the officers seemed genuinely affected by it. Especially Scott.

“Shut up!” He shouted as he carelessly dumped his magazine at the thing. The bullets sparked off a few cars, which his fellow officers were hidden behind, prompting them to duck and cover.

“Jesus, Scott, watch your fire!” Jessica shouted at him.

“GET OUT OF MY HEAD YOU SON OF A BITCH!” Scott screamed. The beast marched over to one of the two cars he’d plowed through, and tried to open the trunk. With it didn’t budge, the thing narrowed its eyes and snorted smoke out of its nostrils. It viciously dug its fingers into the metal around the lock, and tore a chunk of the boot out. With nothing latching the trunk closed, the lid slowly opened. The impatient demon shoved the lid hard, basically bending it over the back windshield, and reached into the trunk. All it found inside was a pair of throwing axes. It grabbed the axes and hurled one at an officer. The hatchet quickly spun end over end, before embedding itself in the man’s chest. The officer, who had dodge the manhole cover previously, shrieked as the hearty blade dug into his flesh, and splintered his ribs.

The man fell to his back, where he writhed in agony as he gripped the handle of the axe. The rider marched over to the injured man and swung the second axe at the downed officer’s head. The axe lobbed off a chunk of the man’s forehead, shattering the brain case and splattering pulverized grey matter on the sidewalk. The demon reached down and gripped the handle of the axe embedded in the corpse’s chest, and tried to pull it free. When he, instead, lifted the whole body off the ground through the axe, the specter gave the body an annoyed kick, wrenching the head free from the man’s thoracic cavity.

With two axes in hand, the ghastly thing went on a rampage. It sprinted toward an officer and slammed an axe into his stomach with a back handed swing. Rather than pull it out the way it went in, the foul wretch twisted and pulled the blade sideways. It slashed the officer’s belly open from right to left, spilling the man’s intestines. He dropped his pistol and quickly reached down, trying to catch his falling guts, only to half his left leg lobbed off at the mid-shin. The man toppled onto his own innards, and the beast wound an axe back behind its head. The blade glowed red hot as it was ruthlessly driven into the officer’s back. The man screamed as the blade was repeatedly smashed into his ribs, only for it to fade into choking gurgles, and inevitably fall silent. The body caught fire as the scorching axe was pulled out for the final time, and the unholy thing moved on.

Joseph was disturbed and confused by the thing. Its brutality was unmatched, but its focus was very selective. It would totally ignore some of the officers, while it followed others with a laser like focus. It walked right passed one female officer, who was constantly blasting it with her shotgun, and marched toward a totally different one. The woman, realizing it was after her, took off running. The rider threw one of the axes at her, spinning it horizontally like a boomerang. The thick blade slammed into the back of her thigh, cutting right down to the bone. She screamed and flopped to the ground face first. She began grunting and wheezing like an animal as she rapidly crawled on her belly, desperate to get away from it. It, however, was far to fast for her. It came up behind her, grabbed a fist full of her hair with its free hand, grabbing right down to the roots. It wrenched her head back, and with one massive swing and a deafening roar, it severed her head from her body.

Her torso flopped back to the ground, spurting blood from the main arteries at the sloppy ends of the split neck. The shattered vertebrae and hollow tracheal passage stared at Joseph, making him tremble uncontrollably. He couldn’t take it anymore. He puked his guts out all over the pavement, which turned into dry heaving after he ran out of stomach contents to eject. Everything began to blur as he stood there, gagging over and over again as he stared into his own pool of vomit. The frothy chunks of his food constantly brought his mind back to all the dismemberment, further fueling his violent illness. He wasn’t sure what had happened, but when he pulled his eyes away, the monster had reached Scott. It hacked and chopped away at him in a frenzy, taking fingers, hands, whole body parts off with each swing. Scott lai flat on his back, struggling to keep himself alive. Joseph fell backward into his own pool of vomit, and sat frozen on his butt as he listened to Scott scream. Dear lord, his scream. It was horrific to listen to. It was like listening to someone getting mauled by a bear.

Joseph felt himself shake as he watched in muted horror. With no arms left to try and ward off the attacks, Scott was now at the mercy of countless axe swings to the chest. The screaming turned into choking and gurgling, and eventually an axe blow to to face exploded his skull, putting him out of his misery. The monster panted slowly for a moment, then its gaze slowly turned to Joseph. The private flinched as two burning lights met his gaze. It stood up, yanked its axes free of Scott’s cadaver, and slowly walked over to Joseph. No matter how much he tried, Joseph couldn’t move. He pleaded and begged that his muscles would let him do something, and even started to cry as the monster inched closer. He sobbed shakily as it bent down and came face to face with him. He could feel the heat coming off of it. He stared it straight in the eyes, and it the same hoarse whisper came a word.

“You.” It croaked. Joseph didn’t move an inch as it gazed upon him. Even this close, the voice had an echo to it, sounding so close yet so distant at the same time. “Innocent.” It declared. With out another word, it stood and began walking away. The ten or so remaining officers began to fire upon the demon once again, which it seemed to have little regard for. It didn’t even flinch as the hail of bullets pierced through its clothing, only for that clothing to patch and mend itself. Jessica came out from behind a squad car and race to Joseph’s side.

“Private!?” She barked. The man turned his head, eyes wide and skin white as a sheet. “Are you okay?!” She asked. He slowly shook his head at her.

“I resign.” He mumbled.

Rainbow Dash groaned. She was wrapped in a blanket to keep warm as they sat outside on the soccer field. Celestia had evacuated everyone to be as far away from the scene as possible, so the whole school was now in the frigid temperatures of the night. The EMTs were kind enough to give everyone emergency blankets so they wouldn’t freeze, though it did little to aid in Rainbow Dash’s story telling. “I’m telling you, I saw it! Clear as day! It was wearing his outfit!” She retold. AJ groaned.

“I can’t believe you snuck out.” She scolded. “You could’ve got hurt! We still have no idea what the hell happened here, what would we do if ya got killed?” Dash winced at her friends words.

“Alright! Alright! It wasn’t a smart idea.” She admitted. “But just listen to me for a moment! The Ghost Rider was here, and he was wearing Dave’s clothing! We gotta do something! I mean, shit, fighting crazed demons is what we do!” Sunset shook her head.

“I don’t know about this one Dash. We’ve dealt with magic before, but…” Sunset paused and bit her lip. “Well, the Rider has actually killed people. We’ve never had to deal with that before.”

Rainbow blinked. “What? We’ve dealt with plenty of bad guys who wanted to kill us!” She snapped. AJ shook her head.

“No, we’ve dealt with people who said they wanted to. None of them actually managed to get through with it, and none of them have done it on the regular.” Applejack corrected. “Besides, this guy is clearly good at it. We’re way in above our heads here. It might be best if we let someone else handle it.” Rainbow gritted her teeth.

“Like who, the police?” She snarled. “They don’t stand a chance against evil magic.” AJ rolled her eyes and sighed.

“We don’t know that.” She insisted. “We’ve never seen the police try to handle magic before. We don’t know how they would do against him.” A chilling symphony of shrieks and groans filled the air, turning everyone’s gaze to the sky. Sunset rubbed her arms and shivered.

“God, what the hell was that?” She muttered. The other girls shrugged. Not too long after, an officer approached them. He looked to be a hispanic man, average height, with black hair and chocolate brown eyes. It name tag read ‘Sgt. Ramirez’. He nodded and glanced between the group with a concerned stare.

“Hi, you girls okay? I just going around making sure everyone’s alright.” He informed. Sunset nodded as her teeth chattered.

“We’re fine, officer. Just a little cold.” She replied. Rarity stepped forward and asked the man a question.

“Excuse me, Darling, but, do you have any word when they might be letting us back inside?” She questioned. Ramirez shook his head.

“Sorry, girls. It’s kind of a mess in there.” He answered solemnly. Rarity sighed and nodded.

“I suppose we’ll just have to wait, then.” She remarked. AJ stepped forward and raised an eyebrow at the man.

“Any word on what happened in there?” She asked. Ramirez sighed.

“Its real confusing to shift through, but it looks like some people came into the school with automatic rifles and a machine gun.” He informed. Rarity gasped.

“Oh dear.” She whispered.

“Was anybody hurt?” Sunset asked. Ramirez rubbed his chin.

“No one from the school, no.” He confessed. Sunset raised an eyebrow.

“Then, someone from outside the school got hurt?” She asked. Ramirez closed his eyes for a moment a shook his head.

“Look, I shouldn’t be telling you this, so just keep it to yourselves, but…” He paused and glanced up at the sky. “It looks like whatever these guys were planning was stopped by the Ghost Rider. And he did quite a number on them.” The group glanced at each other silently, until the officer’s radio crackled.

“Officers down! Repeat, officers down on SugarCube Avenue! The Ghost Rider has struck, the Ghost Rider has struck!” The radio barked. Ramirez grabbed his radio and spoke into it.

“Copy that, back up is on the way.” He assured. “I’ve gotta go. You girls stay out of trouble.” The girls didn’t even get to say goodbye as Sargent Ramirez jogged away to his cruiser. Once he was out of sight, the girls shared a glance with one another.

“You heard that too, right?” Dash asked. The girls all nodded. Applejack took her hat off and shook her head.

“Son of a bitch.” She mumbled.

“So what are we gonna do about it?!” Dash exclaimed. “We can’t let that maniac run loose!” Applejack held her hands up flashed Rainbow a concerned look.

“Woah, there, nelly!” She remarked. “I agree this is important, but we can’t just run off half cocked.” Sunset stepped forward and nodded.

“I agree with Applejack. We need a plan before we try anything.” She concurred. “Tomorrow is the weekend. I say we pay him a visit and try and talk him down. The less force we have to use, the better.” Rainbow groaned and slouched forward.

“Fine.” She muttered. “We’ll try and talk him into giving up first.”

A man was working late into the night in a gun store. He had a full beard which offset his pale skin. He was dressed fairly casually, wearing tan cargo pants and a camo teeshirt. A baseball cap sat on top of his head, proudly wearing the name of the local team on it. He was straightening the wall behind the counter, when he heard the door bell jingle. He turned around and started his little speech.

“Hello. Welcome to Western Slingers. How can I-?” He froze when he saw stern looking face standing in front of the counter. He recognized the face. He’d seen it in the paper a few weeks back. David K. David gave him a nod and scanned the wall behind him with his eyes. The way his eyes swirled side to side as his head remained fixed was chilling. His eyes finally came to a stop on something off to his left.

“I’d like to take a look at that CZ Sharptail.” He said plainly. The bearded man looked off to his right, spotting the classic full length double barrel on the wall. He glanced back at Dave for a moment, then slowly nodded and walked over to grab it. He took it down and placed it on the counter before him. Dave gently picked it up and turned it over in his hands. He clicked the breach open, scanned the inside of the barrels for a moment, then snapped the weapon shut and shouldered it, pointing it off to his left. He pulled the trigger and the weapon clicked. He opened and closed the weapon and did the same again. He nodded and placed the weapon back on the counter.

“I-Is there anything else I can help you with?” The bearded man asked hesitantly. Dave glanced up at him, then over at the wall again.

“The kel-tec ks7.” He spoke firmly. The man quickly nodded and turned the grab the weapon. He placed it on the counter and Dave took the opportunity to inspect this one as well. Midway through his little shoulder test, the clerk spoke up.

“Hey, listen…” The man started. Dave gave him a sideways glance and lowered the weapon. The man sighed and slumped his shoulders. “I’m terribly sorry about what happened to your parents… I guess, I feel responsible in some way, because… well, I used to sell weapon’s to Alison’s men.” Dave gently placed the shotgun on the counter and leaned against it with both hands. Now the clerk had his full attention.

“I always made sure to do the background checks, and I never gave any guns to people with criminal records, but…” The man scratched his chin through his beard and shook his head. “I don’t know. I guess I feel like that bitch wouldn’t have gotten to this point without me selling them shit.” Dave slowly nodded and stood back upright. He took a breath and pointed too the two shotguns.

“It’s only pistols that need background checks, right? So I can walk out with these in hand today?” He asked. The clerk nodded and Dave nodded back. “Alright, I’ll take these in a duffle bag, if you sell any.” The clerk nodded. He pulled out a long, black canvas bag from under the counter and reached into the display before him. He grabbed a few boxes of shells, and tossed them in the bag with the shotguns.

“The shells are on the house. Your total will be six thousand two hundred and ninety two dollars.” The clerk informed. Dave nodded and pulled out his wallet. He swipe a debit card and the counter, and when the transaction went through, the bearded man gave him his receipt. Dave was about to walk out, but then he stopped and turned to the man.

“Oh, uh, listen-” Dave paused and pointed to the clerk, realizing he didn’t catch a name.

“Zane.” The clerk informed. Dave nodded.

“Zane, right, well… I don’t blame you for what happened.” Dave informed. He rolled his eyes and shrugged. “They’d have gotten them somewhere else if not here. Point is, you didn’t know it would come to this, so… I absolve you of sin.” Zane didn’t quite know why, but Dave’s words sent a chill down his spine. Zane raised an eyebrow and shook his head.

“Absolve me how?” He asked. Dave’s eyes flashed orange, and Zane’s attention was grabbed the the sound of a car starting outside. His blood ran cold when he saw the bright green headlamps on the sleek black car through his shop window. His gaze snapped back to Dave, eyes peeled wide open.

“You?” He asked. Dave nodded.

“Yeah.” He confirmed. “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna use these on any innocent people. I’m after The Bitch. I will make her whole empire crumble, and send her to hell myself.” He ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

“Feel free to call the cops if you need to. I can’t say I’d blame you, but, it will make things more difficult from here on out.” He informed. Dave pushed the door open, and Zane finally decided to speak up.

“I wont!” He yelped. Dave paused halfway out the door and turned his head vaguely toward Zane. “Tell anyone, that is. She needs to be stopped, so, I wouldn’t feel right about getting in your way.” Dave nodded, thanked the man, and marched back to his car. Zane stood behind the counter shaking. He’d just met the Ghost Rider. He wasn’t sure if he’d want to again.

The next day had come, and the girls were setting their plan in motion. Through a ‘complex’ process of looking at Dave’s records, they managed to find his place of residence. This had set their plans back to the late afternoon, and the sky had gone dark grey from the coming snow storm. He lived in a more rural area, not too far from where Applejack lives. If anyone had to guess, his father likely selected the location so he wouldn’t disturb any neighbors with their constant work on cars. The house wasn’t huge. But it was larger than average. The windows indicated there were about four floors. They were staggered in a zig-zag pattern from right to left.

It honestly seemed to be laid out as if the house had been cut in half, and the right side was slightly sunken into the ground. There seemed to be a level slightly bellow ground, possibly a den area. Then, up and to the left, there was the ground floor. Back over to the right, above the suspected den, was a second floor. And finally, a third level just above the ground floor. The outside was coated in a matte steel grey paneling, and the door seemed to be made out of dark oak. Sunset shivered in the cold as she looked up at the house. Little snow flurries were already starting to fall.

The girls normally would’ve tried to doorbell, but seeing as they could hear the noise as they pulled up the long drive, they figured Dave must’ve been around back somewhere. They walked around to the back end of the house, where they saw a refurbished barn. The door was wide open, and inside was finished to be a shop of sorts. In the middle of the expansive room was an engine, up on mounts with cables and tubes connected to it. Dave was nearby at a computer station, wearing his usual boots and jeans, but only wearing a black wife beater tank top on his upper half. He was using the computer to rev the engine to various levels, and it would give him feed back on a graph. The exhaust gases were blasted out of the exhaust tubes into a pair of much larger tubes, which ran up and out through the back wall close to the roof.

Applejack decided to announce their presence, between his engine tests, with a firm but polite, “Howdy, partner.” Dave turned around and smiled a little at the girls.

“Hey, what brings you guys to this neck of the woods?” He asked. Sunset spoke up through the chattering of her teeth. You could see the misting of her breath in front of her face.

“We came by to see how you were doing.” She lied. Dave’s smile fell a bit at this, but no one thought too much of it. “Aren’t you cold?” She inquired. Dave make a face and shook his head.

“Nah, not really. The engine keeps it a little warmer in here.” He informed. The cloud of fog from his breath announced how cold it really was outside, but he didn’t seem to notice it. His nose wasn’t even red, somehow.

“Um, so, what are you doing?” Fluttershy squeaked. She was basically hiding behind her hair, frightened of the man before her. “If you don’t mind me asking.” Dave took a breath and glanced over at the engine.

“Oh, uh, I’m testing the engine out.” He imparted. He placed a hand on the intake manifold and glanced back at the girls. “It’s the engine we used to use on the drag strip. I modified it, and I’m testing it to see if the performance has been improved at all.” Dash raised her eyebrow.

“Isn’t that thing hot?” She asked. Dave shrugged.

“A bit. Its not too bad since there’s a constant flow of cool air into the manifold.” He informed. He removed his hand from the manifold and let it fall back to his side. Applejack groaned.

“I can’t lie about this.” She muttered. “Listen, we came here because we know about you.” She informed. Dave raised and eyebrow and turned around to his computer again.

“Uh-huh, know what?” He questioned halfheartedly as he typed away at the keyboard.

Sunset straightened out and stared right at the back of his head. “We know you’re the Ghost Rider.” She said firmly. Dave paused his typing for a moment, then kept going.

“That so?” He mumbled.

“Yeah, it is!” Rainbow snapped at him.

“I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but you can’t go around killing people!” Sunset scolded. “You have to turn yourself in.”

“And why would I?” He asked in a harsh tone. Sunset rolled her eyes.

“Because, what your doing is wrong! You-” Her tirade was cut short by Dave’s fist slamming against the keyboard. He turned around and glared nails into her eyes.

“What I’m doing?!” He snapped. He took two short steps toward them and balled his fists. “My father and I were shot and killed together… My mother died in this house! Scared and alone, with no one but her tormentors to hear her scream.” He gritted his teeth and lowered his chin.

“My cousins were all murdered in cold blood. My infant niece was tossed into the air like a sporting clay for target practice.” He spatted. He cracked his neck and took a sharp breath. “I’m not stopping until The Bitch and her cronies get what they have coming to them.” He growled.

Rainbow Dash snarled and stomped her foot. “You fucking killed police officers!”

“Only a specific few.” He corrected. “They had close ties with Alison Grace, and used their influence to let these tragedies happen.”

“But murder isn’t the way to get back at them!” Sunset barked.

“It ain’t about what’s right anymore.” He growled coldly. “She has to be stopped… whatever the cost.” Rarity scoffed.

“So you resort of evil magic to make it happen?!” She piped indignantly. Dave shook his head.

“Oh, there ain’t nothing magical about me, darling.” He oozed mockingly. “Just a pissed off deadman who’d like to share a grave.” Sunset shook her head.

“Then we have no choice but to stop you.” She muttered in a depressing tone. “Ready girls?!” She beaconed. They all joined hands and spoke in confirmation. Within moments, they had grown new ears, and they had all sprouted ponytails. A few of them had even sprouted wings. Dave just stood there, snarling at them as they went on with their little bit. A literal beam of energy shot from the girls, and struck Dave with a blinding flash. When the light subsides, and the dust settled, the girls were mortified of what they saw. They all just stood there for what felt like an eternity, letting reality slowly sink in. Sunset collapsed to her knees, looking like she was going to throw up. Laying there, on the ground, was nothing but a mangled torso in a shredded tank top. Half his left arm was gone, and his hair had been singed away. Rarity turned away and place her hand over her mouth.

“Dear lord, we’ve killed him.” She muttered. “We’ve become no better than he is!” Applejack slid her hat off her head and let it drop to the floor as she stared wide eyed at the remains before her. A pool of blood was staring to form on the ground around wound. Whatever remained of his internals spilled out on the floor, causing the waistband of his jeans to suddenly deflate like a balloon. Rainbow Dash was the only one to actually throw up, though she turned around to do so. Fluttershy was a sobbing mess on the floor, and Pinkie Pie looked desolate, her jaw quivering as what they’d done sank in. Applejack, though certain of the damage they’d done, decided she need to check just to be sure it was real. She slowly inched closer to the torso, walking as if she was going to scare it.

She grimaced as she peered around the chest to see the destroyed face. Then the arms moved, making her jump back and away. It wasn’t a subtle movement, like a twitch or a spasm. They full on batted at the air, then settled again. There was a brief respite in the commotion, before the thoracic cavity began thrashing again. The girls watched on as the remains began moving and growling. With one arm they managed to flip the torso onto its stomach. Dave glared up at them with massive blood shot eyes, and spat out tattered flesh and blood as he snarled and groaned at them. He began dragging himself toward the mortified girls with his one functional arm, while trying to use the stump of the other one to aid him. His insides spilled and dragged across the ground behind him as he slowly inched forward, smearing blood and gore across the tiled floor.

Rarity was the second one to vomit, as she emptied her stomach on the white floor upon witnessing this. The mangled body began to undergo a transformation. His clothing began to appear from cinders and ashes, which fluttered in from seemingly no where. His eyes glowed orange as he dragged himself, and his skin started falling away in burning chunks. The missing pieces of the skeletal structure started reforming, similar to the way the clothing had. Missing vertebra pieced together one by one, the missing arm slowly began reforming from the top down. By the time the burning, boney arm had reformed, the pelvis was nearing completion. Now with two working arms, the two centimeter per second speed of the crawl had doubled. The long leather sleeve and glove formed on the new arm, giving it better grip.

The sleeve finished around the same time the legs began forming at the hip. The pelvis wiggled wildly, trying to propel the abomination even faster. Soon enough there were long enough nubs of the femur to allow it to kick at the floor, and they did so with a determination unlike anything they’d ever seen. Sunset found herself staring into its blackened eye sockets, and watched the balls of light form deep within. The kicks grew even more wild as the tibia and fibula started forming. It wasn’t long before the thing was able to crawl like an alligator. It howled at them angrily as it grew ever closer, sounding like it was right next to their ears, but echoing as if it were in a cave. The girls started to slowly back out of the barn. By the time the feet started coming together, it had crawled out into the snowy grass outside, and the upper thigh of the pant legs had reformed. The snow around it began to melt a bit as the fire billowed and flickered from its skull. It fumbled a bit as it tried to rise to its feet early, only to drop down to its hands and knees.

Heavy snow was falling from the sky around them as it lifted one leg forward, and planted the unfinished foot down into the snow. The demon was now kneeling on one knee, using one hand for support. It clumsily stood and wobbled a bit as it tried to find its balance. As the toe bones came to be the task became easier and easier. Then it began walking toward them. They weren’t particularly firm or secure steps either, it jerked around quite a bit as it tried to march toward them. Once the toes and finished developing, the boots and lower pant legs began to take shape. As this was going on, its footsteps became more and more steady. Once the being in its entirety was complete, it stomped one foot down in front of it and roared at the girls. As it roared, fire spewed from its open mouth like a flame thrower. The girls, who were just out of reach of the inferno, recoiled and shielded their faces from the heat.

It shook its head from side to side, before rearing it back, sending the fire ball upward. The demon snapped its jaws shut and the fireball evaporated. Then it lowered its gaze back to them, and narrowed its eyes angrily. Sunset dropped to her knees holding her head, and she began shaking uncontrollably. The other girls tried to see what was wrong, but she wouldn’t stop sobbing and mumbling on about how sorry she was as she rocked back and forth. Its jaws parted slightly, and it growled at them as it stood its ground. Rainbow Dash stared at it with wide eyes. This wasn’t magic. There was no way it could be. Then what was it? The idea of not knowing frightened her. She looked down to see her legs shaking. She couldn’t stop them. God, she wished she could. In the distance, around the front of the house, the garage door unlocked itself. It slid open, and the already idling Mustang slowly rolled out. It turned and went around the house, coasting at ten miles an hour.

The girls all saw it round the corner at the right side of the house, and come to a stop there. It revved twice, catching the monster’s attention for a brief moment. It turned its head back toward the girls and glared down at Sunset. Her gaze shot up and she stared at it with a wide open eyes. It muttered something to her. Something incomprehensible to the other girls, but Sunset Shimmer seemed to understand it. After saying its piece, it turned and started marching toward the parked Mustang. Sunset fainted shortly after, and her friends rushed to her side, trying to bring her back to consciousness. The car quickly reversed back around the side of the house, and was gone from sight. They listened to the engine thunder as it drew further and further away. Only after it was inaudible did Sunset regain consciousness.

“Hey, Sunset, are you okay?!” Rainbow Dash asked. Sunset shook her head. She looked distant, like everything was happening far away from her. Applejack placed a firm hand on her shoulder, causing the bacon haired girl to look over at her. Aj leaned in close and stared Sunset in the eyes.

“What did he say to you?” She asked firmly. Sunset swallowed hard and opened her mouth.

“He said I was innocent.” She informed.