{Butcher's room, the third day of isolation}

Pulling his cleaver out of his latest victim's neck, the Butcher shook his head as he watched the body slowly stop wriggling around on the table. The sight usually brought joy to the man's heart, but recent events had long since changed that fact.

"What's the point of carving up these fuckers anymore? I can't taste the meat, and I can't even leave the base to use the bits they're paying me either!" In a spurt of rage, Louis chucks his cleaver across the room and looks down at the gaping wound in the old unicorn mare's neck.

"Hell, I've tried everything! fruits, vegetables, desserts..." The Butcher's train of thought ended as he found his gaze magnetized to the copper liquid flowing from the pony and her wound. "The only thing I haven't tried yet..."

Without another thought, the Butcher slowly lowered his hand into the neck wound, scooping out a bit of blood and cupping it in his now trembling hand.

"Is this what I'm resorting to? Drinking the vile ichor of these pastel ponies?" The Butcher whispered to the empty room as he brought the cupped hand to his mouth and drank its contents, only for his eyes to widen as he finally managed to taste something.

"YES! Finally, something that doesn't taste like ass!" The Butcher proclaimed with a manic grin as he scooped another handful of blood and let it pour down his throat.

"This flavor...an almost sour taste that feels like syrup going down." Louis mused as he patted the beyond-dead unicorn on her head, trying to find the right words for the almost addictive taste the mare's blood had, before stopping cold as he remembered a certain prisoner of his and the conversation they had.

Eyes widening, The man marched around the table and made his way over to the cell holding the two foals, making sure to rattle the cage bars to wake them up from their slumber.

"Hey, Colt! Got a question for ya!" The man stated, getting a tired glare from the young stallion as he slowly stood to his hooves and faced down his kidnapper.

"What is it now? Need more ideas to sate that appetite of yours?" Fall Back tiredly remarked, feeling the drainage of malnourishment taking its toll on his body as he tried to stand, only to fall back on his sister.

"Actually...I think I finally found out how to deal with that problem." Louis growled darkly as he moved his face closer to the cage, showing off his blood-stained mouth to the colt. "Just had a personal taste of pony blood, and of all the things it is the cure to my problem...but why?"

"Why?" The pegasus echoed, confused by the question as his captor slammed his right fist into the bars, ignoring the sharp pain that danced on his knuckles for doing so.

"Why, damn it! I ain't a fucking vampire, so why, after almost 3 days is the only thing I can taste well blood?"

Fall Back shook his head rapidly, bushing himself and his sister against the wall as he tried his hardest to find an answer that would calm the monster in front of him.

"I think I owe it to you to answer that, Stud."

Exhaling sharply at the voice, the Butcher peeled himself from the bars and turned towards its owner, his suspicions were confirmed when he laid eyes on his partner in crime, Delilah...

...or at least he thought it was her. The changeling he was facing was easily at a height level with him now, had almost no holes in her body, and had a horn the size of the Butcher's arm. However, the same empty purple eyes shined from her sockets, and there was no mistaking that voice of hers.

It had to be her, which only made more questions run through the Butcher's mind.

"What the hell happened to you?" Louis asked the changeling, watching her closely as she swayed right up to him, eyeing the man up and down with a big smile on her lips.

"I knew your transformation would be different, but to make you even more of a weapon than before? By the Moon, I love changeling magic!"

"Transformation?" Louis repeated, narrowing his eyes. "So you know what's happening to me then?"

Nodding once, the new and improved Delilah circled her partner, her tail wrapping itself around the man's torso as she did so.

"Of course. Any queen needs someone they can trust. Someone more than a meal ticket or one-night stand." The changeling winked at Louis as she bared her fangs. "And when I realized you had an absurd amount of love to feed off of, I knew you were my ticket to becoming stronger!"

Crossing his arms, Louis couldn't help but feel slighted, even if what was happening didn't make sense to him.

"So, you used me to evolve yourself like a fucking pokemon...and in doing so you put me through all this shit?" Louis barked, getting another nod from his partner, who simply brushed off my anger with a smile.

"Sounds about right, Stud. If you're referring to your food not tasting the same, then that's a perk for becoming a changeling. Changelings feed off of emotion, not regular food like everyone else...even if you have a unique way of consuming your share."

"Eating...emotion? What the hell?" Louis asked Delilah, watching as she reached up and poked his blood-stained chin.

"I can assume that you have quenched your hunger with blood, right?" Seeing the man give her a hesitant nod, Delilah continued. "Well, most changelings use magic to feed on emotions, our main food source. However, you have no natural magic at all...only the blood magic I performed on you a week ago with your cleaver."

Summoning his cleaver, Louis looked over the veins running on both it and his throwing hand, putting two and two together with a grimace.

"So...the same stuff that grants me power is my only way to not starve now?" Louis stated, a resigned look coming over his face as he looked back at Delilah. "Why me though? Couldn't anyone have worked instead?"

Delilah shook her head, her eyes shimmering in the dark hallway. "The amount of love needed to become a queen is impossible to obtain without someone seeing the effects of feeding, especially on those damned ponies...but when someone like you comes around and has a neigh unlimited reservoir, it was my chance to finally ascend once and for all."

Watching his partner get giddy over all of this, Louis couldn't help but feel like he had gone down a path he couldn't return from. All of this, from blood magic and drinking blood from his victims...where were the days he was simply chopping up the meat given to him?

Am I ok with this? She used me as a means to her ends and altered how I fucking live, but without her, I would've died by now... The Butcher questioned himself as he looked at his cleaver once more, the tool of death glowing a dim red in the darkness I've been had, used for the sake of this woman getting stronger...the question is what happens now?

"So, what happens now? Did you come down here to gloat and leave me in the dust?" Louis stated, gripping his cleaver in his hand as Delilah looked appalled.

"What?! Tartarus No! Louis, I know it may seem odd to say this now but I transformed you for a reason." The big wings on her back began to buzz as she lifted herself off the ground and up to his face, wrapping her hooves around his neck as she got close to his face.

"I came here because I want to save you from what's about to happen. I'm going to need someone to help me start a hive, and your twisted mindset and strong genetics are exactly what the doctor ordered for what I've envisioned."

Louis was about to retort that statement before his mind registered the beginning of what she said.

"Save me? From wh-"

At that moment, the entire building began to shake violently, causing several things in the room behind Louis to fall over alongside the sound of keys dropping somewhere nearby. Hell, if Delilah hadn't been holding onto the man Louis would've probably fallen over as well.

"YOU ARE IN THE PRESENCE OF THE SUN'S GUARD! STAND DOWN OR FACE DEATH FOR TREASON TO THE CROWN!"

A loud voice echoed from somewhere above, causing the Butcher to look at his partner in shock.

"What the fuck is going on?"

{Manehatten school building, principals office, earlier that morning}

"So, you think your friend and his sister are trapped in this...hidden building you came across following this stallion?" The principal asked the young filly sitting in front of his desk.

"Of course ah do! It was the same type of ponies doing those shady dealings my parents saw that same day Spring Forward went missing! And doesn't having a secret entrance like that raise suspicion anyway?"

The principal sighed, folding the papers on his desk as he gave the little mare in front of him a tired smile.

"Listen, Babs Seed. I know your best friend was taken and all, but the royal guards are doing their best to find him, so we don't need little interruptions like this slowing us-"

"Slowing WHO down, exactly? I don't recall getting a letter about this tragedy from you, principal."

Turning around, Bab's eyes widened as a unicorn wearing a scarlet cloak and a yellow medallion walked into the room, tailed by two of those yellow-clad guards that walked the streets in the day.

"C-Chancellor Neighsay! What brings you here?" The principal stuttered out as the unicorn flashed a hollow smile.

"As you know, I am the representative of the EEA, the same board that brought up the money for this school to be built. Did you really think we wouldn't become aware of a kidnapping in one of our own schools?" The unicorn turned to me, his gaze oozing authority as his scrutinizing eyes looked me over. "We have also heard word of a terrorist organization working in the walls of our fair city, and after the stunt a few days ago I am sure the kidnappers were affiliated with that group."

Babs Seed couldnt help but shudder at the way the Chancellor walked and talked, barely able to turn her gaze to the other unicorn in the room, who's face was currently a weird combination between stuttering mess and one of a pony who was scared out of his mind.

"O-Of course, Chancellor! As always, your logic is spot on." The principal turned to Babs with a pleading look. "Now, young filly, if you have any idea of how to help the good Chancellor, please speak up."

"Indeed, any information can help...especially that of a possible location of operations." The unicorn leaned in towards Babs, showing off his pearly whites with a unnatural grin. "Now, if you are serious about what you claim, you would have no qualms as to showing me and a couple friends of mine where this 'entrance' is you were speaking of to your principal?"

Glad to finally have some pony listening to her...even if it was this creep, Babs was more than happy to show him where she had followed that weird stallion if it meant her best friend was saved.

"What are we waiting for, huh? Let's go!"

{A couple of hours later, outside the secret base}

If Bab's had been unsure as to whether or not the Chancellor was joking about helping, she sure as heck wasn't now.

The unicorn had amassed almost every guard in the district, each one stationed across the block in different groups the filly thought she heard one bigger guard refer to as squads on the way here.

The last time she could remember a guard this big was after that invasion that happened in Canterlot, and that was just to catch any stragglers from the wedding fiasco that day.

Standing at the entrance of the alleyway, Babs Seed pointed at the familiar wall from before, looking up at the unicorn next to her.

"That's it. That's where I saw him enter yesterday."

Turning to the filly, Neighsay was unable to keep a grin off of his face as he nodded once, signaling to the guards nearby to be ready to breach the entrance.

"Good, now go home young one. The guards and I will save your friend and bring these evil ponies to justice once and for all."

Babs went to argue, only to stop as she realized he was right...she WAS a child, and there were probably a bunch of murderous adults in that building.

What could she do to help? She had already led them here, best to let the capable adults handle it from here.

"Please, Sir...save them." She asked before turning around and galloping home, not noticing the big smile on the Chancellor's face as he held his medallion in his right hoof, three gemstones sparkling off of the medallion as he looked towards the building once more.

"Time to finish this little game of mine once and for all."

{Under the building, Butcher's hall}

Fall Back had barely managed to get to his hooves after the rumbling that had shook the room when he noticed the keys to the cell were on the ground nearby, laid forgotten as his two kidnappers paid no mind to him or his sister.

This is my chance! I just need to get those keys and we can escape!

Slowly inching his way towards the front of the cell, the colt froze halfway through a step as his captors continued their conversation from before.

"There is a whole Battalion of Solar guards breaching the building! If they find you down here with all those bodies, they're gonna execute you!" The changeling yelled at the man in front of her, ignoring the colt entirely.

"How did they even find us? I thought this place was securely hidden!" The Butcher yelled back, pointing behind him to his kitchen. "I can't just leave all of that behind, it's literally my life!"

"Your not gonna have a life if this keeps up!" The changeling retorted while Fall Back made it to the edge of the cell and slowly reached his wing out to the keys. "If you want to survive this, we need to complete the ritual."

"Ritual? What else are ya gonna do, take my soul?" The man barked at his companion, not noticing the colt grab the key ring and draw backwards into the cage once more. "Or are ya gonna steal my eyesight too, so I can't even look at my prey when I carve them?"

The changeling sighed, facehooving as she exhaled softly. "You have every right not to trust me, but if we don't do this your dead meat, Stud."

Crossing his arms, the Butcher shook his head as he exhaled through his nose, a small part of him regretting going down this path in his life.

Not enough to go straight and narrow though, that ship had long since sailed.

"Fine. What do you have to-GLHK!" The Butcher began to state, only to gasp as a ramrod horn shot through his heart.

"Be warned, this is going to hurt a lot, Stud." The changeling stated with a frowns as her horn began to glow. "But it will all be worth it."

"W-Whats happening..." Fall Back turned to his sister, who was trying her hardest to stand up, and stepped into her line of vision.

"Nothing, Sis. Just close your eyes for a sec alright, things are gonna get bad and you don't need to see it."

Watching his sister do so, Fall Back wrapped his wings around her as he turned his gaze back to the two criminals, barely keeping himself from vomiting as he watched what was unfolding before his eyes.

There was a blood red light shining throughout both of their bodies, but there was also this black goey stuff flowing from the changelings horn and the man's chest wound...and it kept spreading up to-

Nevermind that last statement, Fall Back was officially retching as the black goop when into the man's mouth and into his throat, all the while the changeling was suffering the same fate.

Just as the poor pegasus colt thought it couldn't get any worse, the man began to scream.

Feeling his sister hug his body tight, Fall Back tried his best to push the muffled screams of the Butcher out of his head as he watched the man's body writhe and twist in ways that looked beyond normal, the movements looking even worse as the room shook once more, with more yelling and screams coming from above them.

They said Solar guards were here...does that mean we might get rescued? Fall Back thought to himself, doing anything to avoid focusing on the two in front of him. Then again, who knows how big this place is...it might take a while for them to get here, so I'll still need to escape.

After what felt like hours, the spell between the two partners finished, dropping the man to the floor as the changeling shook off her daze from the spell.

"Sorry, Stud. They're probably gonna find ya well before ya wake up, but this way they won't be able to kill ya...that is, unless I die first." The changeling whispered before her gaze flicked to the colt in the cell, her mouth curling into a wicked smile as she winked at Fall Back.

"Mention what happened here to anyone, child, and you'll be an orphan by the end of the week."

With that threat, the changeling popped out of existence, leaving the unconscious man on the floor and the imprisoned colt with his sister...and a key.

"THE KEY!" Fall Back exclaimed as he let go of his sister and slowly made his way to the cage door, barely being able to put his wing around to the lock.

With a slow twist and a overly satisfying click, the cell door slowly opened up, causing the hornless unicorn to look up in shock.

"The-The doors open?" She asked, looking up to her brother with tears in her eyes as the colt nodded, extending a wing to his sister to support her as she got to her hooves. "Does that M-mean we can go home?"

Pulling his sister close as the colt began to lead her out of the cell, Fall Back suppressed tears of his own at the hope-filled voice of his sister.

"Yes, Spring. We can finally go home. You won't have to worry anymore about the bad guys."

Looking down at his frail sister, having lost most of her body's width while imprisoned, Fall Back couldn't keep himself from smiling as they slowly walked towards the end of the hall, seeing a small circle on the ground with weird symbols inside of it.

"Could that be our way out of here?" The colt muttered as he looked it over before lowering his gaze to his sister. "Do you know what this is?"

Looking just as confused as he was, the small filly began to open her mouth just as a bloodied hand grabbed her by her throat and pulled her away from her brother.

"SPRING!!!" Fall Back yelled as he turned around just to see the Butcher looking down at him, a manic smile on his face as he held his sister in his left hand.

Almost screaming in shock, it took every fiber in his being to not hurl at the sight of the large gaping wound in the Butcher's chest, nor the black orbs that replaced his eyes...whatever that changeling had done to him had left the man in a state of severe disrepair.

"Where do you two think your going?" The man asked, shaking the filly in his grasp violently. "I'm out for a short minute and my guests think they can just leave without my permission?" With a loud pop, the man's Cleaver appeared in his open hand as he brought it up to the fillys throat.

"I was happy, ya know? I kept to myself, did my job and no one bothered me...But then you stupid children show up and suddenly everything goes to hell!" Glaring at Fall Back, Louis licks his lips as he shakes his head at the colt. "Ya know what? Fuck this organization and fuck my orders, I'm freaking starving and you two are on the menu!"

It was at that moment that something in Fall Back snapped. both him and his sister had been kidnapped by this monster and his friends, not to mention tortured and left malnourished as well. And now, on the cusp of freedom this...thing was going to kill the very pony Fall had been trying to find all this time?

Not this time.

Mustering every bit of strength he had left, the colt spread his wings and pushed forwards with a big splash of momentum, smashing into the Butcher's stomach and knocking the three of them to the floor.

"Spring!" Fall Back called out as he saw she had fell near the circle on the ground. "Get out of here! Go find the guards and get them to-" Fall Back was interrupted by a hand gripping his throat as the Butcher got to his feet.

"I don't care WHO I feed on, but one of you are dying tonight!" The man screamed, chunking Fall Back into the Kitchen room before turning to the filly with that same evil smile. "Go ahead and run...you'll never save your brother."

The filly could only watch as the twisted man began to walk away, laughing madly as Spring ran into the circle on the ground, vanishing on the spot with a loud pop and a flash of light.

Fall Back, having slammed into the table in the kitchen, couldn't help but smile as he saw the flash go off ahead of him.

"Thank Celestia..."

His content expression soon faltered when he saw the Butcher making his way towards him, tapping his cleaver against each cell door he passed in the hall while doing so.

"You've been a very bad kid..."

Trying his best to stand, Fall Back began to inch away from the man, circling to the other side of the table and towards a giant fireplace nearby.

"W-Why? Why do you hurt innocent ponies so much? What did we ever do to you?!?!"

Watching the colt stop scooting backwards as he ran into a chair, the man narrowed his eyes as he squatted down to the colts level, a surprisingly solemn look on his face as he answered the young stallion.

"Innocent? Hurt?" Louis barked out a laugh as he tilted his head back, scaring the colt further as he pressed his whole body into the leather chair behind him. "It's not even close to being that complicated. I don't hate your kind or have a resentment, kid."

The man leaned in really close to Fall Back, that same black goop from before starting to seep from the Butcher's mouth as his black irises reflected Fall Backs scared eyes back at the colt.

"To me, your all just a bunch of fucking animals to be chopped up and served on a silver platter."

Grabbing the colt by his wings, The Butcher dropped his cleaver and walked over to the pot that was full of boiling water as it loomed over the fireplace by two giant metal rods, turning the squirming foal so he could see it as well.

"Sadly, spoiled brats like you can't be just chopped up and served...your too firm and chewy, so we gotta let your body saturate first before I can begin to prepare ya right."

Fall Backs eyes widened as he saw the Butcher take the lid off the giant pot, and in watching him do so a realization came to the colt.

He's gonna boil me...

Swinging his hooves towards the man and trying to free his wings, Fall Backs body immediately went into its fight or flight instinct, only to stop in an exhausted mess as the man watched him with a raised brow.

"Why the fuck would I hold you close enough for you to hit me? You already got me once, and I'm not making that mistake again." Watching the man reach over into the leather chair, Fall Back let out a whinny of fear when he saw the man grab duct tape in his hand.

The colt had no time to react before he was slammed to the ground, knocking the wind out of his body as the man placed a knee on his chest.

"Stupid kids always think they can get away with shit...none of yall ever think about the consequences of your actions!" Taping the colts forelegs together, the man rotated Fall Back as he taped his hind legs as well.

Trying his best to buck the man off of him, Fall Back continually lurched his body upwards, but couldn't even begin to struggle against the sheer weight of the monster on top of him, watching in horror as the man grabbed him by his wings again and lifted him up, now twice as defenseless as before.

"Why didn't you tape my mouth shut?" The question was out of his mouth before he could stop it, causing Louis to chuckle as he booped the colt on the nose.

"How else would I hear your screams in the pot?" The man answered, grabbing the pot lid and moving towards the pot with the colt in hand quickly, making the colt scream out in protest.

"NO NO NO NO! PLEASE!" Fall Back yelled at his captor as he was held above the pot, writhing in the man's grasp as the Butcher shook his head one last time...and slammed the colt into the boiling pot before holding the lid over the cover with both hands.

The Butcher smile began to widen as he heard the pegasus begin to scream, his melting screams echoing out of the pot as the Butcher put all of his weight on the pot, keeping the colt trapped inside at a boiling point.

"YOU SEE, KID! THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO IDIOTS WHO DONT BEHAVE! IF YOU WOULDN'T HAVE GOTTEN INVILVED YOU'D BE JUST FINE!!!"

The pot began to shake more and more as the colt fought with the all he had to try and escape his burning prison, only for the pot to be held in place by the metal rods on its side, balancing it out every time it shook.

"HEY! What are you doing?!?"

Ignoring the voice behind him, Louis continued to hold the pot lid in place as he relished in what would probably be his last masterpiece...even if he wouldn't get the chance to finish it.

"Those screams...Somepony is in that pot, stop him!"

The voices spoke up again, this time with a surge of pain going through his chest as something collided with his back. Finally dropping the lid, the Butcher turned to the new arrivals just in time to get a hammer to the face, making everything go dark in an instant.

Author's Note

Finally managed to get this chapter out...holy moly this took too long.

Had a LOT of Army stuff crop up, alongside a bunch of in forest tactical drills, so I spent almost three weeks at an army base doing training. other than that, schools been the same as ever.

So yeah, shit hit the fan here...really quickly. What's gonna happen next? Just you wait!

As always, comments are greatly appreciated and if yous spot any major spelling mistakes, then please point them out...I'm only hooman lol