Defiler: Apocalypse.

Meanwhile in the dark cover of the Everfree. A shadowy figure lurked, it had done so ever since that fateful day, at first it had been lost, but by now it knew its way through the horrifying dangers of the forest. It had seen the zebra, even, the zebra had tried to find out what was in the Evefree Forest with her, after all it was not a place for little ponies, yet each time the zebra had tried to find her, she'd hidden or ran, not wanting to be found. It had been hoping to talk to the zebra, but soon enough learned not, no she was with the village, it had seen her go around with the offspring of the villagers.

Zecora had been feeling a strange feeling for a few months now, weeks even perhaps was the better way to describe the time. She had even tried to communicate with this being, but each time it would flee from her as she tried. The presence was elusive, yet it did not seem malignant to her as it kept its fair distance from her at all times, as if it was scared of her. Without finding a way to communicate with this peculiar being she had no chance to convince the being of her not being a danger. She'd grown accustomed to the presence in time, as it was not completely unheard of in the lands of her people that these things happened, could just be a lost spirit roaming the Everfree.

It had learned a lot about surviving in the Evefree from the zebra, what to avoid and what was edible. It still felt a icy weight upon its shoulders however, as whoever was friends with that village surely was her enemy. It remembered back to the day when it still had all its glory, all the beauty that was.. The Great and Powerful Trixie! It greatly despised what it had become however, yet her shame not allowing her to return to Ponyville for her belongings. Perhaps even the fear of what the other ponies would think of her after her little deed was behind the fact she had not dared to go near Ponyville.

The zebra however was something she had started growing kind of fond of even if she still was her enemy, a potential danger to her livelihood if it caught her. She would slowly make herself bolder and bolder with her approach as time passed, putting the plants that the zebra needed close to her cottage. Trixie even remembered how happy the zebra had been at finding her necessary herbal indigrients growing so close all of sudden. The one pony she'd seen around the zebra most thesedays was the yellow one with butterflies on her flank, one with a pink mane. They seemed to be friendly with each other strangely enough, it made her shudder thinking someone was closer to the zebra than she was.

Meanwhile at the barn where the special task forces of princess Celestia's royal guards had finally gained atleast a temporary victory against the physical form of the enemy of Equestria. The commander counted his fellows and they were down to fifty in strength of ponies, they'd have to finish this quickly, after all they knew that defeating the evil presence couldn't have been that simple. They needed to find the bearers again, so they spread out and started searching near the Sweet Apple Acres, they couldn't have gone far in the shape they were in. Mourning for fallen comrades would come later, when it was safe to do so, now they broke up into groups of ten and made the barn's outside their recoup point, object was to find and rescue the carriers.

Yet the evil wasn't defeated, it was never really even hurt, but now it was unable to manifest itself to actively hunt down the bearers of the elements, however now it had sensed a viable carrier for a part of its horrifying powers. As its conciousness slowly faded, it felt the being in the Everfree more than suitable for it to corrupt into its own uses, the being however felt wrong somehow, but it would have to do, it was already broken and it would be easiest to take over, to command. So it set towards the Everfree, where its prey wandered cluelessly, just waiting to be taken. And without a warning it launched itself into Trixie's shambling form.

Trixie had seen something come her way quite fastly, but she never had the chance to react to the assault as the being had disappeared by the time she'd started to try and avoid the incoming impact. Now instead she felt something wrong with herself, something malicious waking in her, something that had been dormant for a long time now. She felt her emotions getting into a web of malicious thoughts, she couldn't help but notice how she despised Twilight Sparkle and every last one of her friends due to how they'd treated her before and Twilight she hated most of all, that lavender colour just made her sick to her stomach. She now felt a strange surge of power whenever she thought hatefully of that pony, strange feeling that made her so angry she nearly lost the control of herself, and as time went by she only delved deeper into this hatred, why had the lavender unicorn ruined everything she ever had? Oh how the lavender one probably bragged and jested at her expense, it was simply infuriating to the once proud Trixie, unbearable to think of.

Without her own notice, her coat had turned into a very pale colour of that beautiful azure coat she'd had before, her eyes bloodshot, blood trickling down from her right eye, she didn't even notice. She was so lost in her own thoughts and hatred for the ponies of Ponyville at the moment that she only awakened when she grew in size, not much, but she felt so good.. So hateful, like she could do anything she wanted to those she now so openly despised, why had she ever thought of perhaps being found in the Everfree and being forgiven, when she could have her own sweet vengeance on everyone that dared call themselves Twilight Sparkle's friend.

She saw the zebra wandering in there, looking wary for somereason, perhaps she'd pay the zebra a visit and let her know of her feelings, that she'd kept a secret with herself ofcourse, she hadn't dared to approach the beautiful being.

Zecora had noticed that the visits from her yellow coated and pink maned friend whom called herself Fluttershy had stopped, it had been sudden to say the least after all they'd planned a potion brewing day, which she for a good reason had been happy about. After all so few showed anykind of respect for the arts, Fluttershy having seemingly even some experience of her own at making simple cures for her animal friends. At first time had passed, normally for her, it wouldn't be the first let down of her life and probably not the last, yet as she watched the forest, there had to have been a good reason to keep her friend from arriving, perhaps she could offer some assistance? With these thoughts she had started to prepare for her journey to Ponyville, packing many healing supplies.

Suddenly Zecora could feel a chill running down her spine as she heard a screeching sound not of the beasts of the Everfree, it was something deeper, sinister. It was the presence she'd felt, it was definately malignant now and it was coming..

Zecora made her choices and packed her bags, before placing them over her back, just as the door slammed open, revealing a terrifying figure that reached out after Zecora. ”Hello..”, it would utter eeriely, as if trying not to drive Zecora away, yet the zebra smartly moved away from its deathly touch.

Trixie saw the zebra moving away from herself and looked a bit confusedly at her hoof, which had been partially replaced with a sharp clawed spider's leg with a poisoned claw, shambling back in surprise she startled the zebra whom seemed to start making her way slowly towards the door as she circled around the cauldron so she could see the horror at all times while moving closer and closer to her escape. Trixie would call out, ”Don't run!”, but her voice came only out as torn shrieks, driving her deeper into state of madness as she reached out to stop the zebra, who was by now at the door and turning to flee from the horrid being that Trixie had become. Oh but Trixie would have that zebra.. And if she couldh't have that which she so craved, nobody else couldn't have her either.

So the chase had begun, the zebra only barely managing to keep ahead of the swiftly moving being that's eyesockets were glowing dimly red, sickly green ichor flowing from its jaws and wounds alike as it chased after her.

Trixie tried to reach out for the zebra once she got close enough, that not working she tried pouncing at her, her maw was agape now rather constantly, filled with razor sharp teeth as she tried to take a bite out of the zebra while pouncing after her.

Zecora managed to dodge the incoming assault on her as she kept making her way away from the deadly being, down the path she knew to be the one leading towards Ponyville, stumbling slightly on the roots that now seemed to be pushing up from the earth to hinder her escape. While she did not see the being chasing her she could feel each of the attempts it had at trying to take her, the air currents flowing from where the clawed feet swung at her.

Trixie had hit a tree and this made her only more furious as she tore a piece out of the tree, tossing it aside as she swung her claws wildly at the zebra, pouncing off of the tree and shrieking rather audibly in her frustration. The more she loved that zebra the more she seemed to try and escape from her advances, it wasn't fair..

Each of the swings at her had missed by pure luck as Zecora kept making her way out of the woods, she lived deep in the everfree, which she now fully realized the folly of, jumping over the roots that she saw, she'd try and lose the being, zigzagging between the trees to keep her assailant away from herself. She heard as the being landed in some bushes and shrieked out even louder and more distorted.

Trixie would wail after the zebra she wanted, her wails summoning the other dark monsters of the Everfree that would normally stay hidden away from the normal beings, lurking in their own territories. The eerie entities starting to appear out of the trees and ground, some would even be seen by Trixie as the glid downwards, starting to chase after the zebra in one big mass of howling apendages and razor sharp teeth, defiling the landscape as the mass grew and crushed things under itself. Trixie guided the monstrosity towards the zebra and returned to the chase with renewed determination. That zebra would be hers.

As Zecora saw the mass starting to flow after herself she would make a detour in her path, knowing the Everfree did have its good sides, she decided now was the time to take a leap of faith as she headed for the massive crack on earth, speeding up her steps as she prepared to take that leap that would determine if she could shake off some of her chasers, the strikes from air were relatively inaccurate even if they sometimes came pretty close to taking her down.

As Trixie saw what the zebra had more tricks up her sleeve and sped up, ahead of the mass of scrambling monstrosities that she had called to her aid, aiming rather accurately this time as she went foward in a burst of speed, poweruflly swinging her clawed leg at the zebra as she was in mid flight over the linelike hole on the ground.

Zecora could not dodge this time seeing she was airborne, the blow landed on her side with full force, tearing a gash open on her left side, sending her off her original trajectory and causing her to roll on the ground after landing on the otherside. Rocks and roots bludgeoned her body until she came to a halt. Zecora felt a dull ache in her head as she gasped for air for a few seconds before remembering where she was, turning her head to look at the abomination that was making its way towards her. The burning in her veins signaled that the claw had indeed been poisonous, things were starting to look very bad for her at the moment, luckily none of her bones had been broken yet.

The zebra got to her hooves again and stepped behind a tree to avoid Trixie's latest blow upon her, this getting her claw stuck in the tree for a while, until she tore down the tree while getting her claw out. While the aerial support Trixie had from her fellow dark lurkers of Everfree was rather plentiful it seemed to have great difficulty reaching the zebra at all in everfree. As Trixie finally got her claw off of the tree's trunk she saw the zebra disappear behind a hill, still headed for Ponyville.

Having gained some precious time ahead of her assailant she paced herself, the airborne monstrosities having a really hard time not hitting the trees so she was fairly safe as long as she remembered to zigzag between the trees. Far off she heard many screaming mosters fall to their doom before they stopped and started looking a way around the gap, the screams being accompanied soon by a furious shriek that she could register coming from her assailant. The poison seemed to be slowing her down, but she was now nearing Ponyville and hopefully safety..

Trixie knew her time to catch her precious zebra was running low as she started moving again, having gotten only more and more emotionally unstable as she chased the zebra had made her stronger somehow, her malice boiling her own thoughts about having the zebra to herself into nothingness, she only wanted it gone now. She would use the trees to push herself into going faster, using her spidery legs to grasp the trees and propel herself fowards the destination, taking a massive leap upon the zebra, trying to devour her this time.

As she heard the shrieks getting closer from above she turned her head after making sure there was no tree before her, but by then it was too late and the jaws descended upon her.. She could feel them tearing through her flesh, causing her to cry out in pain as her right side was torn open, not too shortly after the claws swung at her back, leaving deep wounds after themselves as they withdrawed from her flesh. Her mind wanted to shut down right then and there, but she had to push through, if she went down now she'd die for sure... For that she was not ready quite yet.

As she could taste the zebra's flesh her hunger only grew, her claws drawing blood, making her even more needy for the flesh of the zebra, she swung at the zebra's throat, leaving a opening she did not think the zebra could use anymore. As her claw descended upon the seemingly defenseless zebra she would be stopped.

Zecora saw the blow coming and in her fear induced rush of adrenaline raised a hoof, directing the claw aside and using most of her remaining strength to buck at the abomination's head. This sent the unsuspecting assailant off of her, giving her the time she needed to get up and running away again, however her moves were becoming very staggering the more she struggled to move, her body growing numb from all the poison flowing through her.

Trixie had not expected the zebra to have this much power in her legs and being taken by surprise did not help either. She was sent rolling down the hill, trying to recover from her shocked state so as to get back to chasing the zebra that she wanted so badly. Yet however she was far too stunned, so she could only watch the zebra as she escaped, her airborne allies trying to catch her now that she was out in the open.

She was making a good time towards Ponyville and possible safety, her mind clouded in red mist of pain as she kept moving, having just enough time to take a her from her saddlebag that would delay the poison until she would reach the library, her bleeding not helping at all. Ofcourse she could help herself if she wouldn't be chased, having a extensive knowledge in how to treat herself effectively with healing ointments. She didn't take note of the gathering mass of monsters above herself as she kept up her pace.

The monsters of the forest swarmed down upon her, each of them swooping over her and tearing at her from above. Their voracious assault not ceasing until the zebra had reached the borders of Ponyville, leaving the torn and nearly dead zebra to stumble into town.. What she saw was a terrifying experience indeed, several shambling ponies she recognized as the shop stand keepers and such were there, they went towards her with a maddened look in their eyes, but instead of her whom they recognized from her medicinal arts they were all headed after Trixie, allowing Zecora to make her way towards the library before the crazed bloodthirsty ponies had a chance to turn around after her.

Zecora made it to Twilight's library, opening the door and slamming it shut right after, dragging the nearby table to rest against the door to hinder anyone trying to get in meanwhile she began to tend to her wounds, having only stopped the poison partially before her conciousness faded. Her last vision being the various bottles and other things she'd managed to preserve resting there next to her as she blacked out.

The magic Twilight Sparkle had put into the door worked with a delay, its powers weakened slightly during the times, not having been restored, but it finally launched the mental image towards Twilight Sparkle, it speeding right into the lavender coated unicorn's mind.

To this Twilight Sparkle did react, snapping her head towards the general direction of her library and struggling to get up from her position, although time had allowed her body some rest as well as her mind she was in no shape to move around. Yet as her scrying spell hadn't exactly been the most allowed type of magic in her permissions to study, she would have to lie until they went to the library, having forgotten that Spike already was at the library. She did remember it now and seemed to pale a little at the thought, ”Spike and Angel are still at the library.. We have to go get them!”, leaving out Zecora from her words, feeling rather horrible for forgetting Spike for so long.

From the CMC's treehouse they would head to the library as fast as they could, Twilight and Rarity having for now suppressed their disease with their magical ability, it would take a while until the disease noticed the change, starting to infect the magic flows themselves inside the unicorns to overcome them. Rainbow Dash and Applejack would be taking care of the now rather hostile Ponyville's inhabitants as they proceeded, trying to just knock them unconcious as they made their way foward.

In the library Spike's attention had been suddenly diverted from Angel towards the loud noises downstairs. He'd told Angel to stay put as he headed downstairs to check out what was causing all that noise, the sudden stop hadn't helped to calm his nerves. It took him a while to gather the courage necessary to take a peek at the intruder, what he saw was rather unsettling, there was blood everywhere near the zebra he finally recognized as Zecora.

The zebra was obviously dying from blood loss, then again, he'd been tending to Twilight's wounds from the many experiments and had built a tolerance to stuff like this, that unicorn apparently could get herself messed up really bad somedays with all those magic alchemy things. He steadied his breathing and just barely managed to stop himself from throwing up violently at the sight, fetching the bandages, before undoing the ruined old bandages that were mostly makeshift. He proceeded to cauterize the most bleeding wounds on the zebra with his fiery breath, seeing the zebra being already unconcious that was, othervise it'd been a too big of a risk, even if he had to still be careful not to make the wounds worse with his breath instead of just sealing them with it, before wrapping them up in bandages the best he could. He did not have extensive knowledge about salves, but he'd treated some burns so he had added some of the salve he usually used for Twilight's small burns onto the now closed wounds. After that he started trying to awaken the zebra, as being unconcious would be bad in the condition she was in.

Boiling hatred towards the being she wanted now only dead was what drove Trixie this far, she wouldn't be stopped by just some villagers, even if the beasts that came with her were somewhat set back by the furious resistance and total abandon for their own lives that the ponies expressed as they tried to destroy the outsiders. The creatures kept coming and so did the Ponyvillians keep striking to kill, it was baffling to Trixie, she'd never seen anyone fight like this in her life, but soon enough she gathered her strength, starting to push through the ponies before her, cleaving with the claws that now pushed out from her back as she utilized her hooves to push through the mob.

The ponies of Ponyville were not any special military force to be recogned with, but they were not in control of their own selves for now. All they knew and saw was a enemy, outsider, which had stopped their constant battling between themselves as they had united, although reclutantly, to purge this outsiding force from their territory. These ponies were feral with the hatred that had clouded their minds, the age long grudges usually hidden had come to fuel themselves from the disease and even as their bodies weakened from the disease their resolve only grew stronger with the malicious thoughts they now bore towards others, perhaps even paranoid suspicion that overshadowed everything they saw. Everything was against them, some more than the others, and so they would continue their maddened battle against the opposing force, not making it easy to take them down as they abandoned their ability to reason, directing their newfound instinct to harm towards a unified goal so they could return to what they had been doing before, which was battling amongst themselves.

Beasts of the Everfree were not a force to be taken lightly at all, they were many in numbers and they were out for blood as well, something had empowered them. Now that something was commanding them to massacre the enemies of the abomination that had called to them in the forest, now having led them to their next glorious feast. Yet their numbers had severely diminished due to the unnervingly bloodthirsty ponies attacking them back instead of just fleeing like they used to do in the natural habit of the beasts. They would still get their feast, following their great abominable leader towards it had been very exciting to them, now they'd be in for a treat made from the flesh of those ponies that they were denied for so long.

Trixie had managed to push through the ponies that were against her, leaving the angry mob behind with the beasts she'd brought from the forest to take out the opposition as she chased after her only goal. In the far back of her mind however, Trixie could feel something struggling against the bindings that clouded her vision in red, she knew she was closing in on her with each step, yet it felt wrong somehow. The bloodlust however kept driving her to go after the main prize to her struggles, the dark presence in her mind now clearly visible to her.

It was a malign presence that had taken a hold of her, somehow it had also been feasting on her feelings, she could feel it laugh at her struggles to clear her head of the false feelings and unbending fury that she held for the zebra that had denied her love that she feld toward her. This thing was now in control of her and it did not plan to let her go anytime soon, after all she found that she was a perfect vessel for its dark power.

However Trixie kept struggling against the bindings in her mind that kept her chained against the backseat of her own body and her own mind. Vivid images of what she was going to do to the zebra when she caught her made her even more desperate to breach the hold over herself. It was true she disliked the zebra not loving her back, it hurt, it hurt her so much, but perhaps this was the wrong way to go about it. She was not murderous by nature, she was hurting something fierce however and that was when the presence seemingly came to her. She proceeded to struggle with all her will against the bindings, some of them coming loose. She was now halfway to the library, tracking her prey by scent.

No one had chased after her, they were all too busy to care for one fleeing creature. Behind her Trixie could still hear the voice of the battling forces that kept slaughtering each other without any purpose, other than to kill the opposing force that was.

Suddenly in her mind she would see the zebra, how she could have her, forever with her, the presence within her mind seemed to promise that if it could take the zebra it would give her to Trixie. It was alluring, subduing the struggles that she'd kept up, making her succumb deeper into the prison she'd made of her own mind at somepoint without her own realization of such being done. Her thoughts had betrayed her, but it was too late that she realized it, she was still moving towards the library and to her horror she'd lost the footing she'd had in her mind just now.

In her mind she could see the presence now clearly, it was a black ooze that ran through her thoughts and tried to poison her mind, it was hightly dominant in her mind now. It scared her, but if she couldn't now summon her own self to stop this pursue, she would end up killing what she held so precious to her. After all that zebra had given her something to look to, to wait for and to stay sane for, perhaps that was what she liked about the zebra the most. Without her knowing Trixie had been taught about friendship and how beautiful it could be when Fluttershy had been visiting Zecora, that was what made her so jealous, she'd wanted to have friends. The thoughts were gathering in her mind and making a rather heavy point to her now that she was so close to the being she'd thought she loved and hated, sure she had a crush, but she wanted a friend..

Meanwhile she could feel her hooves and claws breaking down the door as the malign entity forced her inside the library and stared down at the small dragon, along with the unconcious zebra. It started slowly making its way towards the two, intent on finishing what it had wanted of her, each step taking it closer to making Trixie forever succumb into the presence's lures.

Trixie finally pushed against her binds with all her fury, breaking them slowly, but surely as she made her body stagger with each step, just as the claws were closing in on Spike that was defiantly standing before her to stop her from reaching Zecora she would break through the last chain and defiantly yell out, stopping herself and starting to battle the foreign presence in her mind, driving it into the background, retreating her claws from Spike. She saw herself in a mirror and nearly threw up, sure she had not looked her best while she was herself, but this presence had altered her, needless to say she was disgusted with herself. She turned her head to look back at the babydragon and the zebra, something in her eyes having changed as she just stared at them.

Everything went still for a moment, but it would soon be broken with a furious yell from behind Trixie, moments after four strong backhooves bucking her to one of the bookshelves as Twilight and her friends had arrived. Trixie found herself laying on the ground and looked up at the two that had just now tossed her to the wall. The orange earth pony and the cyan pegasus were preparing for another assault upon her as the two unicorns had both moved to stand so that the dragon and the zebra were between them, ready to provide support or to protect the zebra. Trixie was rather confused at their appearance, but she did recognize the face of the pony that had shown her up, a whole new batch of fear and hatred building up within her, but she was still in control, so she fled the library, heading off to somewhere where she could think, perhaps even drive the entity out of herself.

After things had been calmed down a little and the doorway had been barricaded again, the four turned to look at Spike who was still a bit shaken from the near death encounter he had just now. Zecora had been apparently taken care of by the babydragon, Twilight made a mental note to later pamper his number one assistant, moving closer to the zebra to check up on her. She nearly yelped as she saw the zebra suddenly open her eyes and stare right at her unblinkingly for a few moments before her eyes started moving properly again.

”An-”, the zebra mumbled before fading out again, Spike moving to check on her and turned to Twilight, ”She's burning up.”. It didn't take Twilight long to decipher the situation, moving to check Zecora's saddlebags and finding a potion holding bag, proceeding to search for the antidote to poison. After all the being they'd seen had been a spider-like entity that reminded of a pony she'd seen before, but who? It didn't for now matter to her, she knew some spiders had poison in their bite and it could be fatal if not stopped, she found the vial, emptying some of it into the zebra's mouth to purify the poison from her innards. She had to force her to drink it seeing Zecora was unconcious again.

Now they could only wait and hope for the best, but they had very little time to spare to begin with, each dying hour would make the two unicorns weaker. Wait wasn't that Trixie?

Meanwhile in a shady alley a mental battle between two wills had begun. One of them however was bound to lose from the beginning..