Sunset’s pulse pounded in her ears, adrenaline surging through her as she desperately fought to keep herself up right and running. She risked a glance back and immediately regretted it; the hunched, skull faced creature releasing another unnatural screech as it pounded after her. Pressing tighter against the bleeding gash in her side, the until-just-recently-pony girl pushed herself to sprint faster.

However, her overworked heart plummeted at what she saw when she turned back ahead, a row of lockers bordering the solid wall of a T intersection at the end of the dark hall. Yes, there were turns on either side but she knew she couldn’t slow down enough to take them without the death-faced monstrosity reaching her. She doubted that even if she did have time that she’d still be able to pull it off; she was amazed she was even running in her new body.

Then as if the fates had decided her luck wasn’t bad enough, a door to Sunset’s side burst open with another, more spider-like and tall-headed monster lunging out at her. Her instincts forced her into a running crouch, finally breaking her fragile balance and sending her sprawling to the floor.

A pair of shrieks collided above her and a heavy weight slammed into her back, forcing the air from her lungs. A loud rip sounded and Sunset slammed her eyes shut against the oncoming pain. However as soon as the weight hit her, it rolled off with a cacophony of snarls and unnatural cries.

Quickly scrambling away from the pair now viciously clawing and snapping at one another, she bolted down the rest of the hall before hesitating at the turn. Spotting the backs of a pack of the walkers feasting on some poor soul to the left, she quickly headed down the right hall as quietly as she could. She rushed to the first open door and gave a frantic scan before closing it behind her, falling against it and sliding to the floor panting.

Her hands flew over her mouth as rapid thumping sounds rattled along the wall before scuttling to a stop on the door itself. Sunset stayed as still and quiet as she could, feeling the vibrations of each step of the monstrosity rotating along the wood, as if sensing her just beyond. After a silent beat that felt like an eternity, she at last heard the abomination continue on its way.

Deep, ragged heaves escaped her as soon as she let herself finally breathe. She fought off the urge to break down into a crying mess and settled for doubling over and losing her lunch instead. She fell back into the door and tried to wipe the sweat from her eyes before slowly pulling a hand, sticky with blood, away from the gash in her side.

‘That damn mare in the helmet. Or female… whatever the Tartarus I am now. I was fine until she showed up!’ she cursed internally. Her shoulders slumped as she closed her eyes and tried to focus, to sort through everything that happened and figure out her next step...

Less than an hour earlier...

A short yelp echoed through the moonlit courtyard as a young woman suddenly fell out of the statue standing at its center. Rubbing her head, she wearily pushed herself up to her hands and knees before jumping at the realization that not only was something very different, but that something very important was also missing. Strange appendages scrambled over her forehead.

‘Where is it?!Where is it?!Where is it?! How can I-STOP! Stop. Calm down’ she shut down the panic, taking several deep breaths as she searched her core. It took only a moment of focus but she confirmed it; the internal flow of her magic was thankfully still there. Unfortunately, it also seemed to be all the magic of substance that she could sense in the whole area.

‘Guess I’ll be stuck using my own reserves for now… wonderful…’

After taking a moment to look over the strange new body, she moved to crawl before the rough pavement dug into her palm. Wincing at the mild irritation, she reexamined her status and quickly reached a conclusion based predominantly on the boots she now wore. Using the statue as support, she pushed herself into a leaning stand more suited to the now obviously bipedal body before a second realization dawned on her and dashed any sense of satisfaction.

She pressed against the stone. She then pushed off to shove wholeheartedly against it. She even went as far as to lightly pound a fist against it to the same result.

Solid.

“Well that rules out going back home right away… must have been that shock wave…” Sunset knew better than to jump through a portal completely blind; while she may not have known where it would lead her, she had learned how often the mirror activated and how long it should be open for. However as she entered the swirling vortex, there was some kind of explosion of colorful magic that hit her just as she jumped in. The manipulation of time and space could be unpredictable enough under normal circumstances. Being mixed with the sudden unknown magic, she was surprised she was only changed as much as she was. For all she knew she was nowhere near where or even when the portal was supposed to normally connect to…

She shook away the uneasiness and turned her attention back to her current surroundings. There was nothing she could do about it for now, not without knowing where she ended up at least.

Despite the late hour, the full moon gave her a fairly good view of the area. It was obviously a school. Even if she was in a completely different dimension, she could tell a school when she saw one. That observation was only proven when she went inside; Classrooms, desks, lockers, the works. They were all tailored to fit creatures like her new self but all the stuff was the same as she knew from back home.

She was examining her new self again in the reflection of a display case when a low, disjointed rumbling caught her attention. She paused to perk her ears and quickly discovered she couldn’t actually do that anymore. After giving a small huff, she made her way towards the sound. An odd smell also began to reach her as she moved through the darkened halls. It had a familiar coppery tinge but she couldn’t quite place it. She was making a mental note that her now tiny nose probably had a relatively diminished sense of smell when she spotted the flickering of candle light from a door slightly ajar at the end of the hall.

‘It’s chanting’ she realized, creeping up to peek through the opening. It was some kind of auditorium, full of the same species her new body was. It was a decently sized group, all kneeling and wearing hooded robes covered in dark blotches. A new wave of the smell slammed into her.

‘Oh Sweet Celestia, it’s Blood!’

“EVE EMBRACE US!” one figure suddenly shouted and as one they all impaled themselves with what looked like syringes. Everything inside Sunset told her to start running but she was frozen on the spot, unable to look away from the spectacle.

The effects were instantaneous, if not uniform. The majority broke out into convulsions and their bodies began twisting and contorting with sickening snaps. Others seemed unaffected as they either looked on in horror or searched around, eyes distant and lost. The rest…

The rest burst into flames.

Sunset yelped as the door she was peeking around burst open, knocking her to the ground as one of those few that avoided either grisly end barreled through. A terrified man locked eyes with her, confused until an unnatural shriek cried out over the screams. He turned back at the sound before whatever he saw sent him sprinting down the halls. Sunset looked back herself and blanched.

The rest had stopped contorting and began to stand to show their new, horrific forms ripping through their clothes. A pair of hungry, primal eyes in pools of black locked onto her and their owner unleashed a monstrous wail.

Sunset tried to scramble to her feet, but her unfamiliarity with her new body resulted with her flat on her face. She looked up and felt her blood run cold, the horrible mutant was charging toward the door and quickly filling her vision.

A shadow crossed between them as an unchanged female tried to escape from her own pursuer, only to run right into Sunset’s.

The former pony managed to rise and sprinted away from the screams for help, from the sounds of ripping flesh and gurgled screams. There was no thought, just fear and running. Not to the exit, she couldn’t even remember where it was. Just away, away from those things and the terror they wrought.

She would stop to breathe, hide or sneak when she could, catching glimpses of other survivors before getting seen and running some more. This pattern repeated for she didn’t even know how long when she was driven down a hall slick with noxious goo. She slipped, landing hard on her tailbone just before another creature loomed over her, one different than any she’d seen so far.

It was shaped similar to her new body, except it was far taller and lanky yet solidly built. It was as if a bodybuilder had been stretched out to fill the odd tactical garb covering it from head to toe. It stood hunched, its disproportionately long arms nearly brushing the ground despite its equally disproportionate legs. A gasmasked visage turned downward to her before her nearly forgotten hunter cried out and leapt at them both. She turned away with her eyes slammed shut, awaiting a fate she couldn’t escape.

The cry turned into a sharp gurgle, promoting her back around to see the tall figure holding the beast aloft with a single hand. It clutched its grip with a sudden twist and a spine chilling crack echoed through the hall. She scrambled backwards until her back hit the wall, paling as the figure's soulless gaze turned back to her.

Sunset knew she needed to get away. Even if it had just technically saved her, alarms in her head were triggering left and right. She tried sliding away against the wall, it’s head tilting almost curiously at the action. A small glint of hope that it might just let her leave rushed through her. At least until it exploded into motion. She pushed away from the wall in a stumble just before a fist drove straight into the brick where her head had been only an instant before.

She rounded the corner to find a female wearing a skin-tight suit and heavy black helmet dominating her view. The headwear was largely featureless save for two solid, glowing red lines over where the eyes would lay. Under it stood the body far more like Sunset’s, its form fitting sheath shining like rubber even in the low light.

A shine that grew blinding as the female whipped a hand up and a ball of light burst to life before slamming into the former pony.

She didn’t know how far her flight took her, only that it ended with the sound of breaking glass and the sudden pain of something piercing her side. She couldn’t even blink away the spots before she heard more cries of the damned heading her way. So she was running again, the pounding of her pulse contrasting against the pounding of feet right behind her.

She opened her eyes, returning to the present with a heavy sigh. She was wounded, cut off from home, in a school full of monsters, far from the exits, and both physically and emotionally drained.

“And why in Celestia’s name is it so HOT?!” she was positively drenched in sweat but her body refused to cool down. She struggled out of the dark jacket she had appeared out of the portal with, grumbling at the only minimal relief it brought ‘I don’t understand, I was actually kind of chilly when I first got here…’

Dismissing the feeling as much as she could, she struggled back to her feet and hobbled deeper into the room. It seemed to be some kind of workshop; Several chest high tables were lined up opposite to a much larger one at the room’s front, all adorned with tool marks and a light layer of sawdust. The offending tools lay organized in containers beneath them or along the walls.

They were remarkably similar to pony tools. In fact they seemed almost far better suited for her new appendages then they did for hoov-

She shook away the thought before any theories cropped up to distract her and grabbed a screwdriver. It wasn’t much of a weapon, but it was better than the nothing she currently had.

She next moved to the door behind the bigger desk at the head of the class. It was locked but she found a key in the teacher’s drawers. She rolled her eyes at the laziness as the deadbolt clicked open. Within she found what she had been hoping for; something clean for her wound. She grabbed the plastic-sealed towels and a roll of thick, silver tape. There was a moment of panicked tension after the first rip, the sound far louder than she anticipated. However, after several moments of breathless silence, she learned how to exhale again and got to work.

‘Well, that’s the best I can do for now…’

It would hurt like tartarus when it came time to take it off, but her wound was triaged and she could move again without leaving a trail. She had considered a healing spell but wasn’t sure she could trust completing it with just her own reserves. She especially didn’t trust it without a proper focus to channel it though either, not when it was already not her best area.

‘I’ll almost certainly need as much of my reserves as possible to get out of here too…’ She could survive this injury without magic. Surviving against one of those creatures without it though? That was far less likely.

She quickly repaired the new tear in her pack with more of the tape, left the closet and walked back into the room. She was considering searching the other rooms when a shadow passed over the window, stopping her in her tracks. She slowly turned to see the spider-like monster clinging to the frame, its head reared back before rushing back forward.

Sunset was out the door before the breaking glass hit the ground, slamming it behind her and racing down the hall. More cries and shrieks sounded all around her, the creatures from what sounded like the whole school seemingly agitated by the noise. Too late did she realize she was headed right back toward the pack she saw earlier.

She failed in her skid to a halt and fell into the side of a drinking fountain. Ignoring the pain in her shoulder and the fresh wave from her side, she bolted back the opposite way. Her thoughts skipped as a large blob of flesh fell out of a door ahead, and her heart skipped next as it pushed itself off the floor.

‘How many different kinds of these things are there?!’

Its gait was a plodding waddle, as if its weight was almost too much for its short, blubbery legs. If the masked figure from before was a stretched body builder, this thing was the opposite. Its disgustingly bloated body filled more than half the hallway as it turned toward her and a dumb grunt escaped its drooling maw. She stumbled back until a trashcan clattered behind her, knocked over by the closing pack she had left behind. Her head whipped back and forth, both avenues of escape cut off.

Options gone, she decided to take hold of the heat that had gripped her and build upon it. She crossed her arms across her chest with the image of the heat’s flame in her mind, feeding it until an inferno raged in her core.

The monstrosities stopped in their tracks, instinct taking over as the food before them began to glow and raise off the ground. Before they could react, something sparked and the girl exploded. Flame engulfed the hall, burning everything in its path.

Embers drifted through the air as the unicorn turned girl drifted back to the ground and fell to her knees, panting heavily. That had taken the entirety of her reserves and then some. They’d build back up in time, but not soon enough. She looked around with satisfaction though; she managed to keep the spell’s target matrix intact even without a horn. If she hadn’t, a lot more would have burned than the monsters and some posters on the walls.

Speaking of, she looked to the burnt remains of her pursuers. The hunched, skull-faced ones seemed to be almost melting, puddles of the noxious goo she slipped in before forming from their bodies. The fat one laid still on her other side, smoke wafting off its charred carcass. She sighed and stood…

And nearly doubled over in pain. She clutched her sides, but not because of the hole in one of them. The heat that she built upon hadn’t extinguished with the spell, if anything it had only grown hotter. It felt like she was on fire. She looked down to her hands and screamed.

She was on fire.

Flames danced along her skin, burning without consuming. Even worse, beyond the pain a new sensation emerged. Something foreign...

Something Wrong.

Her skin darkened. A deep red spread beneath the blaze as her form began to twist. Her fingers elongated and grew sharp. Snaps and cracks echoing out as her body followed. A fresh wave of suffering ignited as two new limbs erupted from her back.

“NO!” an anguished scream ripped from her throat “I DON’T WANT TO BECOME ONE OF THESE THINGS!”

She clutched her head; she could feel something pressing in on her mind as tears streamed down her changing face. Something was trying to smother her, trying to extinguish all she was. She screamed again, fighting with all she could.

‘You can’t fight what’s already within…’

*BANG*

Blood splattered across her face when the deafening boom rang from down the hall. The obese creature she hadn’t even realized was back up fell away with a sizeable hole through its head. Behind it stood another figure, one like what these things were before they changed. A bald male with a smoking metal tube extended before him.

“What the hell?” a gruff mutter escaped him as he got a look at what stood past his target. His surprise widened eyes then narrowed dangerously, his weapon’s aim snapping to her. Sunset’s vision went red as a rage brighter than the fire surrounding her flared to life at the sight. Her body turned to him, wings flaring out. None of it within her control.

‘No…’ she thought weakly ‘No, I don’t want to!’

She lunged at the male before another heavy boom shook the walls and a flash erupted from his weapon. Pain ripped through her bicep and the wing behind it, sending her reeling back. Yet despite the pain and the tears rolling down her cheeks, she snarled, seemingly unfazed to any that would witness the scene. The male’s silver weapon shimmered with the reflection of her flames as it aimed unerringly at her head.

“No!” a shout called out before the next flash and a blur crashed into the shooter. Another ripping pain grazed the twisted pony girl’s temple and made the red of her vision far more literal. She raised a claw and tried to shake away the obstructive liquid when a growing green glow filled the hall with the sound of arcing electricity.

She flew back and slid across the ground in a blinding flash, a tingling static washing over her. The pain began to fade and the light of her flames started to dim as her senses began to grow numb to the world. A weight landed on top of her before the sharp prick of a cold needle pierced above her collarbone. A soothing chill spread from the needle, finally driving away the heat.

New tears flooded her eyes to wash away the blood. Her vision began to clear but a deep lethargy descended upon her as the final flickers of her flames went out. The borders of her vision began to grow hazy...

The last thing she saw before the darkness took her was a pair of intense blue eyes locked on her own.

Author's Note

And here we go