Equestria's Doom

The inert human body of Fluttershy lay silent on its cot.

“Is she okay?” asked a nervous Rarity.

Twilight looked at her with wide eyes and began to explain. “The spell I used was highly experimental-”

“We know,” interjected Applejack. “We just want to know if our friend here is doing alright.”

Twilight let out a long exhale and shakily sat on the floor. “The exact type of spell I used was a soul swap. Soul magic is forbidden under several decrees due to the extreme, unpredictable costs of using it. However, I believe Fluttershy is alive for now.”

“So she’s in there?” asked Pinkie Pie as she curiously prodded the still body.

Twilight looked to Flutterguy, who was still lying on the floor with closed eyes. She then turned back to her friend. “She is. However, given the level of damage that happened to her pony body, her soul’s tether to this realm has been weakened.”

“Um, what?” asked Applejack with a cocked eyebrow.

“What magically happened is extremely complex,” explained Twilight. “While her body has been changed, the soul inside is still the same. The souls of all living creatures are bound to this plane by their physical bodies. While you can technically modify the position or status of souls through magical means, it comes with a cost that the original caster of the spell has to make.”

She took a deep breath before speaking. “This strange being happened to have a powerful enchantment placed on its soul that carried over to the body I switched it to. So after the switch, Fluttershy’s pony form was completely healed, though her soul’s tether is still damaged heavily.”

“I still don’t get it.” remarked Pinkie Pie as she did a headstand. “So doesn’t that mean Fluttershy is okay? Actually, why not just switch her back and call it a day?”

“Pinkie Pie, this is no time for childish acrobatics!” retorted Rarity. “This is extremely serious business, my dear. Our friend Fluttershy has, um...been switched into another body, I think? And it seems as if there was a cost to dear old Twilight?”

Twilight groaned. “All you need to know is that the weird monkey thing in the armor is Fluttershy and the yellow pegasus over there is someone else. And I can’t just switch her back.”

“Well, why not? I think the smartie in this group is acting like a big dummy.” said Pinkie Pie as she stuck her tongue out. Rarity chastised her for her rudeness, only to receive a raspberry from Pinkie.

Twilight gathered her thoughts for a moment before speaking. “The issue is with her soul. Soul magic is highly transactional in nature. In order to do something to somepony’s soul, you have to make a bargain of some kind. One of the conditions of my choice was that while the two have indeed switched their bodies, their souls are still in their original forms, meaning that Fluttershy is still technically dying.”

Dash’s ears perked up. “Wait, so she’s dying?”

“Yes,” confirmed Twilight. “Her soul is still losing its connection to this realm and she’s close to passing into the afterlife forever. I essentially bought us a few days, if that, by switching her into a fresh body.”

“Why can’t you switch her on back over, then?” asked Applejack. “At least then she’d still be a pony.”

“The other part of the magical bargain I made is that I can no longer use soul magic,” explained Twilight. “In order to do something of this magnitude with a pony’s soul, the magic user must give up something of great value; in this case, I sacrificed an entire area of my own magical capability, just for this single spell.”

She inhaled before speaking. “We would have to seek out a being powerful enough to both restore Fluttershy’s soul and reverse the body switch. However, it’s doubtful that a mere pony would be capable of doing such a thing and I doubt Celestia or the other alicorns would be willing to risk their magical power on such a large transaction.”

Twilight continued. “However, deep in the Everfree forest, there’s an imprisoned being known as the World Nymph, from another realm of existence. While not evil in intent or nature, the sheer power of the creature was causing devastating magical aftereffects across Equestria from the time it manifested and the threat it posed was too great to be ignored. A great hero known only as the slayer sealed it within the bottom of a lake a long time ago and it owes a great debt to ponykind for the damages it caused. If we offer to free it, there’s a chance it may help us by healing Fluttershy and reverse the swap, in return for freedom.”

“However,” said Twilight with a gleam in her eye. “The creature will still pose an enormous threat. So after freeing it, we have to banish it with the elements of harmony.”

Twilight finally exhaled. “Any questions, guys?”

“Okay, so we free this World Nymph and it might help to heal Fluttershy?” asked Rainbow Dash. “If it’s that simple, then I’m in.”

“Wait,” retorted Applejack. “I jus’ don’t like the idea of tricking this poor thing, even if our friend’s life is-”

“But it’s our friend’s life,” snapped Dash. “I think Twilight is-”

“”Wait, you two.” interjected Twilight.

The two paused their argument to listen to their friend. “With the elements of harmony, we can return it to where it came from, fixing both of our problems. Sounds like a deal?”

Applejack shrugged. “I trust ya, Twi.”

“So we go to the lake, free the Nymph, get Fluttershy back, then just banish it with the elements.” said Dash. “Sounds easy to me!’

“But this won’t be easy,” warned Twilight. “While doing the swap was one thing, both restoring Fluttershy’s soul and reversing the swap will require an enormous sacrifice. One of you may or may not have to bear it. While I doubt any of you will have to necessarily give up your lives, the World Nymph may permanently change one of you forever.”

“Twilight, no honest cost is too great to get our friend back.” gently spoke Applejack. The other ponies nodded in agreement.

“Just be prepared.” cautioned Twilight. “Any more questions, girls?”

Everypony shook their heads

“Okay, good. As for him,” said Twilight with a gesture towards Flutterguy. “We don’t know who he is or where he came from. He brought in Fluttershy covered in blood and that’s all I know.”

“I suppose I do have a question, actually. What in the world is that animal, darling?” asked Rarity as she walked over to the armored giant.

Everypony in the room took a second to observe the peculiar beast. It was quite unlike anything they had seen before. While it wasn’t a monkey or an ape, it was similar in appearance to both. Thick, bulging cords of muscle wrapped over the few spots of its body that were visible through its armor. Everything about it seemed to radiate masculinity and aggression, though it was Fluttershy’s soul within.

Still, it was clearly sickly and weakened. Its cheeks were sunken in and with each moment that passed, its breaths seemed to become more and more labored. The flesh of the creature was disturbingly pale and its fingers trembled with every breath it took. The effects of Fluttershy’s broken soul on the creature’s physical form couldn’t be more obvious to the gathered onlookers.

“Is Fluttershy okay in there?” asked a worried Pinkie Pie.

“It’ll be okay, Fluttershy.” said Rainbow Dash as she hugged the side of the armored human.

As she hugged Fluttershy’s new body, Pinkie Pie joined her. She reassuringly grabbed the hand of the creature with her hooves. “Yeah, Fluttershy. We’ll do a super duper job of getting you out of there.”

Rarity trotted over to the two, Applejack close behind. They looked at one another and nodded before turning to Fluttershy.

“It’ll be okay, sugercube.” reassured Applejack.

“No matter what, we’ll save you, darling.” promised Rarity with a trembling lip.

“You guys,” said Twilight.

A tear rolled down her cheek and her friends all turned to look her way.

Twilight sniffled. “You guys are amazing. I know we can get through this together, girls.”

Applejack chuckled. “Yeah, it ain’t such a big deal.”

As the other ponies indulged in their excitement, Twilight noticed Dash whispering something in Fluttershy’s ear, too quiet for her to hear.

“Oh, Flutterguy is waking up!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie.

Flutterguy groaned and struggled to her hooves, drawing the attention of the rest of the room. The ponies waited silently to see if the pony would speak. Her eyes shot open and immediately the ponies present could tell that something was far different about the body of their former friend.

A steely look shot from her eyes to the rest of the room. Muscles that hadn’t been there before now embraced her form and she was a bit bigger than before, her chest and legs noticeably bulkier. She also stood a little bit taller than the other ponies in the room. Her stature and presence made the other ponies instinctively cower, as if this being possessed some inherent authority over them.

Twilight turned to her friends as her horn glowed. “I know how worried you are about Fluttershy, but you need to go for now. I don’t know how safe this situation is.”

The other ponies nodded and quickly hurried out of the library.

Flutterguy’s mane hung in a tangled mess around her face to give her a wild and unkempt appearance. Her mouth was drawn into a small frown and her face was blank with no expression. She took a couple of shaky steps and fell to the ground before clambering up once more.

Twilight quickly cast a spell to bind Flutterguy’s limbs. “I’m sorry to have to bind you, but until I can figure out who you are and where you came from-”

Flutterguy flexed her muscles briefly and snapped the magical enchantments.

Twilight’s jaw dropped. “How powerful are you, exactly? Those were level 4 manacles of-”

Flutterguy arrogantly strode past her, sending Twilight reeling to avoid her.

She tried another spell of bonding, stronger this time. Again, the stranger shattered the chains almost dismissively. She sighed and gave up on that line of action as she sat on her flanks.

“Well, if you won’t let me restrain you, can you at least tell me a little bit about yourself?” asked Twilight.

Flutterguy once again ignored her and she proceeded to fiddle with her old suit.

Twilight groaned. “Fine, be as rude as you want, at least you don’t want to hurt me. I think?”

Flutterguy extracted a small, black chip from the armor. Twilight regarded it curiously. It definitely wasn’t pony technology, but something about it was oddly familiar. She thought back to the books she had read on the technologies of distant lands. Though she couldn’t quite pinpoint what she was remembering, she also couldn’t shake her feeling of recognition.

Still, there was no doubt to her that this stranger had to be restrained. With an element of harmony down, she simply had no room to allow any further risk to be unleashed upon Equestria.

Twilight closed her eyes in focus as she readied another spell.

A small aura of purple magic began to envelop her that quickly began to expand and pulsate as she gathered a fog of swirling energies about her. At once, she released a steady stream of magical energies forwards.

They surged towards Flutterguy and he leapt to the side as they impacted a wall.

Twilight manipulated the tentacle of magic at her again.

Books began to fall off of their shelves and windows cracked from the shockwaves of energy flowing from Twilight’s form. Beads of sweat worked their way down her face and a low groan came from between her lips. Increasingly large coronas of energy flickered from the fogs of magic swirling about her horn as she poured everything she had into the spell.

Flutterguy dodged it again.

Twilight split the stream of magic into two parts and nearly went unconscious from the effort. One surged forwards to pin Flutterguy from the front and she dodged backwards with a speed that made Twilight shudder.

“Just how strong is this creature?” she thought to herself in frustration.

Flutterguy’s leap backwards took her into a waiting stream of magic. A vice grip locked her limbs into place.

Flutterguy’s teeth gnashed underneath flaring nostrils and she bucked furiously against the onslaught of magic pouring across her body.

Tears trickled down Twilight’s cheek from the discomfort of maintaining the spell. Sweat matted her mane to her forehead as veins began to bulge out along her chest and legs.

No matter the strength of the spell, Twilight could tell it was barely containing Flutterguy.

Flutterguy began to seriously push against the restraining power of the spell. Sweat poured from her body and with a final roar she was free of Twilight’s magic.

Twilight lay panting on the floor as she struggled to catch her breath.

“That was my most powerful restraining spell.” she confessed through gasps of air. “If you could escape that, even Celestia would break a sweat keeping you still.”

Flutterguy rolled her eyes and climbed off of the floor.

“Okay, let’s work something out.” said Twilight. “If you help me out, I’ll put you back into that body.”

Flutterguy looked at Twilight and then at her old body and gave a single nod. She then began to look closer at the chip she had pulled from the suit.

“What is that?” asked Twilight.

Then a roar came from outside and she heard the sound of screaming ponies.

Flutterguy tossed the chip on a nearby table and was out the door before Twilight could even process what was happening.

“Where are you-”

Twilight was cut off as Flutterguy kicked the door open, shattering it into splinters.

“Wait, I still need to explain-”

Twilight stopped talking all of a sudden.

“That look!” she thought to herself with a shudder.

Though it was only a mere glimpse of Flutterguy’s left eye that she had caught, what she saw sent chills down her spine and goosebumps along her skin.The expression she had just witnessed was one of those things that she had never before seen, but instantly recognized, as if by some genetic instinct from the primal days of ponykind.

It was the desire to murder.

The demon held half of a dead pony in one hand.

Afternoon sunlight lazily streamed over the streets of Ponyville in a way that seemed to mock the chaos of the scene. Though the wind blew softly and birds chirped overhead, the hulking monster in the street defied all notions of peacefulness. It looked like a creature from another world among the cottages and wooden fence-posts of the town’s idyllic street.

A trail of smoke climbed into the sky from somewhere in the distance. Blood was splattered across the ground and a large smear of it trailed down the street and around the corner. Houses had chunks missing and ponies fled from the scene in every direction, while others foolishly gathered to observe the chaos. Arrows stuck from the flesh of the creature as a testimony to the efforts of those who had failed to stop its rampage so far.

Flutterguy recognized the creature as a hell knight; its human stature and bulging muscles were more than enough for her to categorize the creature on sight.

It slammed the pony’s corpse to the ground, sending entrails and gore squirting along the soil of Ponyville. Several onlookers ran off, while several others yelled in fright when the creature let out a ghastly, ear-piercing shriek of white-hot rage.

It turned to the crowd and extended a gnarled finger forwards.

“SLAYER!” roared the beast with terrific fury. “SLAYER, COME FORTH. DIE, SLAYER!”

Flutterguy walked into the middle of the gravel street and stood before the beast. She snorted and stamped a hoof on the ground.

The hell knight turned its green eyes towards her. She leapt to the side as it swiped at her.

Her hoof shot outwards and impacted the side of the creature. She felt flesh tear and bones buckle beneath her strike, but it wasn’t enough.

The hell knight let out a scream of pain as it once again tried to punch Flutterguy. She rolled away from the monster and kicked at its leg.

A kneecap snapped beneath her hoof.

The hell knight’s screams were coming even faster now. It began to throw things at Flutterguy and she manipulated her new body in various contortions to avoid the projectiles.

A trash can flew at Flutterguy and in a single moment, she leapt on top of it. She shot from the top of the projectile towards her foe.

It caught her in midair with one hand on either side of her and began to squeeze. For a moment, she struggled under its grip, before bucking forwards with both of her legs.

The skull of the demon cracked and the rotten jelly of its brain spilled forth.

Flutterguy freed herself from its grip.

Now that the demon was writhing senselessly on the ground, she was able to pummel it with no restraint. Some onlookers drunkenly cheered while others silently watched the mauling.

Flutterguy took a moment to breathe as she stood triumphantly over the demon.

A shaken Twilight approached her from behind.

“I get it now,” said Twilight. “You don’t talk because this is what you do. You don’t want to make friends with us or hurt us. You just want to fight these monsters and maybe you see us as a means to an end.”

She turned towards Twilight and for the first time, Twilight felt truly acknowledged by the stranger.

Flutterguy locked eyes with Twilight and began to chuckle in a low, gravely tone.