Author's Note

I'm sorry that this chapter felt rushed. It will go under appropriately editing and contain the feeling it holds till tomorrow. Thank you for your support and understanding, friends. I hope you enjoyed the story of our monster and got to see a new light shine on him, yet like all monsters, there are all the same.

Horror.
noun;
An intense feeling of fear, disgust or shock.

"Good horror is quite frail and won't even bother killing you. You can kill it just because it creeps you out, but here's what makes an absolute good horror terrifying."

"It. Never. DIES."

"No matter how hare you try."

Chapter 13: It's All in Your Head

Twilight sits in front of a small observation tank looking at the glowing maggot that Dr. Stitching not only gave to "offer" but also fed to her baby dragon spike, who is now lying on the ground feeling a bit nauseous. He lays on the floor, looking a bit greener and gently rubbing his belly, gowning sickly as Twilight levitates books of larva spices and insectoids, seeing what could this new maggot be as it crawled around in the tank.

" What did I told you spike about taking food from strange ponies, or in this case zombies no less."

" I'm sorry, Twilight; it was just so weird but looked so tasty, but like he said, dragons are like lizards and other stuff he mentioned."

Twilight recalls what stitching said about how young dragons would eat incest and small light gems. How does he know about a dragon diet, let alone know anything? How was he even alive? What was that dark magic he spoke of when he told them his story? Was he even dead or alive? There were so many questions yet barely any answers. Due to calamity, much of the knowledge about dark magic was either forgotten, destroyed, or locked away by Celestia for reasons far from understanding. Twilight vividly remembers stories and records of how some ponies long before princess Luna's banishment that they had special powers to peer into the dark magic, to raise the dead, summon beings of pure evil and monstrous abilities. Like how King Sombra used the magic of shadows, hate, and fear as his magic or how the dark alicorn amulet corrupted Trixie.

Twilight lets out a sighing grunt as she lays her head on the desk as the maggot stops moving with its head pointing towards spike as he groans, gripping his belly, the larva started to glow its green light a bit brighter as it slowly raised its head to a lifting stand with its rear legs, spikes eyes widen with a sudden grip of his neck with his claw, he was choking but choking on what, he tried to crawl towards Twilight. Still, her being too oblivious in her studies, thoughts, and questions her mind was asking, she was unaware of the situations around her, let alone anything, as her curiosity takes the best of her.

Spikes tried to crawl towards her but slowly felt his eyes roll to the back of his head and felt his claw grip tighter around his neck. The feeling of something crawling up his neck from the inside started to make him choke more and gag as it then slowly started to feel like it was spreading inside him, first up to his neck, then in his chest, and down from his stomach. At this point, his gags made him drool as he shut his eyes tight from pain from the feeling of something in his head letting go of his neck. He held his head tightly and tried to claw it out the sides of his head and face a bit, till finally, he saw... a maggot, the same one he ate from Stitchings, the same grub that was glowing green, the same one that was in the... the observation tank... seeing it slither out from his nose only to quickly jab its head into the corner of his eye and force its way slithering under his eyeball into his socket.

" Spike I'll be back I need to get some copies of Equestrias history before Lunas banishment keep an eye on this thing and don't eat it please, I need to know what it could be and run some tests on it.

Twilight, without even facing the choking, gagging baby dragon drake, her attention was on the books that were levitating around her about insectoids and larva, leaves the laboratory, leaving the baby dragon drake she hatched from her time in the school of gifted unicorns, leaving her number one assistant her closest... friend alone. The sounds of spikes, gags, and chokes were ignored by her entirely curiosity in a topic she barely touched or seen yet needed to know. As she closed the door, Spike quickly crawled over to her desk out of desperation where the maggot watched spiked crawl, his body fighting himself getting up on his knees reaching to grab a quill and paper, accidentally knocking over the observation tank to the ground smashing the glass case as he falls and lays on the floor and shakily writes with his claw clenching the quill tightly as the maggot from the broken case crawls over towards his body barely writing two large words on the paper;

" Help me "

Using the last bits of himself to roll up the paper, cough out a smoky green flame at the roll burning it to smoke as the smoke flies out of an open window above the laboratory and spike lays there on the floor his slit eye going wide, and half-closed the maggot crawled to his body crawling under his scales into his body and burrows itself into his tiny body.

Minutes turned to almost an hour, but soon Twilight opens the door of her laboratory, levitating her books and a hefty dust tome and some medical equipment for dissection as she slowly walks he her face still in the book of insectoids. " Ok spike I think I know what this creature is it appears have similar features of a fly maggot and a wasp larva but yet it was long to be extinct apparently it was named something "Neuraxin" or "Brain Worm" as it was call-" her sentence cut off by what could be a stench that rival or even be practically similar to Stitchings and soon stopped in her place dropping all her equipment and books to the floor from her magical aura to see the observation tank smashed onto the floor as she scrunches her face angrily letting out a sigh of stress as she looks around for the young dragon.

" Spike I understand that Stitchings said that baby dragons would sometimes eat worms as a diet of sort, but I specifically told you not to-

She stopped in a mid-sentence again at the sight that made her jaw drop and eyes widen in pure terror; her ears pinned to the back of her head as he body started to shake, and her breath grew rampant as she slowly felt her body move backward on its own. Here he was, her trusted assistant baby dragon she hatched from an egg, hunched over owl Twilight's pet owl Owlowiscious's body part of a gruesome scene as her pet was being eaten and ripped apart by Spike with his body missing some chunks of his scales and what looked like significantly large skin infection starting from his stomach up against his torso and around to his back. Only the sounds heard of a low, deep, gargling groan, the owl's body torn apart, and blood splashes.

He then stopped at the echoing sound of Twilight dropping her books and equipment and slowly turned to look at her face; his green slit eyes widened as he had a dead snarling thousand-yard stare with a slight green glow to them, his claws and mouth drenched and smeared dripping with blood as he stared straight Twilight locked onto her. He slowly and wobbly got up to his feet and took slow steps towards her. His body looked half limped as he took one step at a time in unknowing steps as if he lost his balance to stand for moments moving side to side; his head leaned a bit to the side as he continued to stare at Twilight, letting out a loud hissing below she quickly turned around and runs through the lab doors slamming them shut and locking them and slowly felt tears start to form in her eyes.

She slowly fell to the ground with tears trailing down her cheeks as the only sounds she heard were Spike banging on the door and hissing and groaning; Twilight slowly sat up and leaned her back on the door as Spike continued to knock on the door and bellowing, she didn't know what was going on or what was happing. But what she saw Spike doing to Owlowiscious wasn't him, he was no longer himself, and she was afraid only to be frightened by a bright flashing light. She quickly covered her eyes with her hoof facing away from the flash and looked up slowly to see princess Celestia herself standing over to her from teleporting herself. Celestia quickly trotted over to Twilight and hugged her crying student in her hooves and wings, pulling her away from the locked doors. Twilight tightly hugs Celestia as she hears spikes stop banging on the door as silence engulfs the two and a tight grip from her teacher around her body.

" H-he...t-then...I just... is... is h-he?"

Celestia holds Twilight tightly in her hooves and wings, hugging her with the silence was filled with nothing but whaling cries of the purple alicorn crying into Celestia's chest like a child to its mother as if it were troubled. The crying lasted from minutes to hours as she slowly calmed herself, facing the loss of not only her assistant but her first and closest friend that felt as like a baby brother to her gone within just a span of a moment. She looked up at Celestia, who smiled her caring, kind smile at her and gently nuzzled her, making her feel better.

" I'm sorry, Twilight, I'm so sorry. I know he meant so much to you and many, and you have many questions, but his mind was gone; his body was under the control of something that's not meant to exist. I wish to tell you, my dear student, I do, but this is something that should never be able to live or even roam this world. Tell me what brought such a dangerous entity to these lands."

POV: Princess Celestia

Location: Sugar Cube Corner

Celestia sat sitting across a table seated with the pony that started all this chaos. She tried her best to keep her blank princess mask on. Still, the smell of his rotting body, the site of his maggots crawling under and across his flesh, along with his abnormally large figure, it was hard for her to keep looking at him. He just sat there staring, locked into her eyes, looking into them. She could feel through that fake smirk on the 'clean' half of his face if you could call it, his teal blue eye almost looked whited out as if he was blind, but deep in them, she could see something of pure sadistic sinister evil, even his intimating aura of his physic was making even her guards that surrounded them both break their baring as they aimed all there spears blades at the giant zombie.

"Princess Celestia I understand that the scene around us is a bit... he looks around seeing the bodies of the ponies he killed in the bakery lined up and covered in cloth with their cutie marks over the sheets as the guards watch his every moment he made. "Messy but please were in a public area and I assure you, there is no need for such hosti-"

" Messy, you call this murderous killing spree "A messy" and even the death of one of the proud, heroic elements of harmony a 'messy,' I was hoping for peacefully negotiations, but this, this is no longer a time to talk, but a time for judging, so I ask you, by royal decree explain yourself and prepare to be judged accordingly." Celestia, Princess of Equestria, Idol of peace and friendship and one of the immortal alicorn goddesses of the lands stood up promptly staring crossly at Stitchings as he drops his smirk and lowered his head slightly staring down at Celestia.

" Just as I expected, only you still have held that boldness that all these ponies lost a millennia ago. I'm going to be clean and honest with you, your highness. This wasn't my first kill, nor will it be the last. I promise you that you will be the last one along with your younger sister, and not even these guards would or could even stop me from breaking this table and choking you in my claw." He raised his claw, curling it up as all the guards around him moved their spears, aiming right at his neck and chest as he still maintained his locked eyes on the princess. Her eyes widened a bit as she stared at his claw then back at his eyes. He wasn't lying, threatening, or even promising, and his tone made it enough for her to know he would guarantee that it would happen, but she still stood bold and held her head high, ignoring his physic.

" Why are you so driven to his murderous rampage? What purpose does this, any of this service? Is it some sick pleasure, vengeance, or just a blind power obsession? What made you so enraged?" She ask noticing something within his eye she looked at his red deformed eye seeing only a flaming hatred that was similar to how Lord Tirek's rage and lust for power. but within his normal teal eye she could see the same fire but something of a pain, a pain of...loss.

Stitchings lowered his claw and looked away from Celestia. His broken horn sparked as he levitated a severed ponies forehoof from one of the covered bodies into his hoof and slowly raised it only to take a bite from it and eat it. All the guards reacted in disgust at the sight of Stitching not only eating meat but cannibalizing on another pony. They all turned away in disgusts or sickness, even making Celestia look away sickly with the sound of his chewing can be heard.

" My Vengeance was fulfilled a thousand years ago, now... I'm just doing this out of service to another, I apologize your majesty, but I serve a new immortal being that made me the way I am." He looks around at the guards that slowly regained their compositor and baring as they locked eyes with him, making a few of them back away out of intimidation. " My goal is to bring back a loved one that I loss long ago, but her body is gone to ashes and now, now I'm no longer a pony but an undead abomination that gift new life and and plague. I will rot these lands and have your body hanging south from that mountain, so you may watch your whole world die."

Celestia watched the giant zombie unicorn slowly stand up, finishing consuming the dad ponies forehoof, even eating the bone. As the guard tried to stop him, he only impaled himself onto one of their spears. Stitchings looked down as the guard let go of the spear and backed away. Stitchings horn sparked furiously as he levitated the covered dead ponies to have them laying on his back. He turned his head, looking back at Celestia as he used his hoof to grip the spear and rip it out from his chest, dropping it to the floor; not even a drop or smear of blood was on the blade of the spear or even an oozing spot of blood from his suited attire.

" The next time we talk will be only be me giving you a warning for your surrender and death, knowing you it wouldn't be necessary, but I am not sorry for my actions, I'm not sorry for what I have and will do." A large sinister smile curled up on his cheek and lips as he looks around at all the guards. " You all will be dead, reborn into my family serving me and my master "The Conquering Pestilence," and you this I will promise this is only the first step to a road of pain, rot and pure sweet blood hell from Tartarus, if you fear death and wish to join a family that no longer knows pain, or even death then go to the forest, and sleep, a hunderd years of service to me and my master in extange of peace from the painful death."

He Celestia stands up, mouth gaped in shock, breaking her princess mask, and watches the unicorn laugh a low, rough, coughing before grabbing the guard that impaled his spear to his chest. Sinking his claws into his head as he screams in pain as Stitchings jams his thumb into the guard's eye, causing blood to trail and pour down his claw and onto the floor, the guard using his hooves to smack, kick and thrash around Stitchings grip only to see his body go limp. His coat turned to a sickly shade of green and grey, his veins turning purple as parts of his coat decayed, falling off, and soon he wasn't moving and fell to the floor with a loud thud as Stitchings laughed his bellowing laugh.

" I am already dead for you all to know, and if you wish to attempt to take my head, then I accept all challenges if any wish to part take in, my offer stands and if you choose not to, well, let this be an example for all to witness."

He raises his hoof and slams it down on the dead guard's head, caving the skull in as a spore cloud of the rotting smell to form as he teleports away with the cloth-covered bodies. Celestia bubbles the cloud in a magic seal before it can spread as Stitchings disappeared as one of her guards rushed to her said.

"Your highness shall we track him down and prepare for what he will bring?"

" Prepare the guards and army, this my require more than what we are facing, hire mercenaries if you have too, and alert my sister to the throne room, we have a lot than what were about to face for, I only hope the remaining elements or something else will be able to stop this new threat of chaos."