"Come, My Beckoning Fair One..."

I stared down at the empty place where my sword was embedded, then slowly looked around. Unlike earlier, there were no longer any sounds of animals or other movements. All was completely, utterly still. Then, I scowled and pulled my sword out of the ground with some effort. It was a trick! It had to be! When that slut had fallen to all fours, I'd noticed she still had her wings, so she must have quickly flown off before my blow had landed. Even though we knew the ponies to be as inferior as any other race, we did not lie to ourselves about their abilities. I remember hearing stories of how fast the pegasi could be, which was why it became standard practice to remove the wings of all captured female pegasi. She must have been an exceptionally fast one, or else she was fueled by fear and adrenaline when she saw she was about to be cut in half, and moved out of the way of my blade so quickly. As I walked back to retrieve my lantern, I convinced myself of this solid truth, for the alternative was impossible...

In all of our travels, during all of our conquests, I'd heard many stories from dozens of different lands, tales of supernatural beings and other entities. And while I didn't believe them all, I wasn't arrogant enough to assume that there only existed things I could myself see or touch, for I knew there had to be more beyond this life. I looked up at the night sky and took a moment to stare at the expanse of stars. The Great Cock Constellation stood out most prominently, eternally representing the place of Male domination over all females. This was not by chance but by Design, so there had to be other Forces at work in the Universe.

So it only stood to reason that if there were one unseen Force, there would have to be others if the stories I heard were true. I took another moment to look down at the hand that had grabbed that mare. She had been real! Solid! In none of the stories had I ever heard of a ghost being such. Yet...she had claimed to be from Ponyville, under pain. But, Ponyville was supposedly gone, along with every creature that lived there, a century ago. It...made no sense.

So...the only logical conclusion is the slut had to be lying. I snorted as relief flooded me. Of course. Without discipline, all females would tell a lie as easily as drawing breath. If I ran into her again, I would teach her that lesson before I killed her.

But, there was still the matter of my being lost.

I lifted my lantern and began scouting the ground. As small as she was, she still should have left some discernable traces, such as footprints, disturbed leaves, and maybe a bit of cloth torn from her gown adhering to some thorns or branches, but after an hour of searching, I came up empty. She couldn't have just appeared out of thin air! And her body, mane, and clothing were far too clean for her to have been roughing it out in these woods, so she had to have a dwelling close by. That, and the way she came up behind me so quietly, indicated she knew her way around this forest, so, despite her frail appearance, I wasn't dealing with a novice. This one had obviously been hiding out for a very long time and knew how to hide when she needed to.

Then I stopped as another thought occurred to me. If...all that's true...then...why did she approach me? Alone? In the dark? Surely she could recognize my race if she'd been hiding from us...so why the farce? As quiet as she'd been, she could have slipped a poisoned dagger between my ribs while she was behind me or waited until I'd fallen asleep...but she acted as if she'd never seen my kind before. And, for that matter, how did she find me? Had she been...watching me? Did she wait until I'd lit my lantern, or had she been out here on her own already and happened to find me? For what purpose? It made no sense! I stopped and strained my ears for the slightest sound while shining my light in every direction. Then I took a deep breath, trying to catch the scent of a cooking fire.

And that's when I heard...music?

I tuned my ears for the source, then started walking in that direction. The music was faint but growing louder the longer I trudged through the rough foliage, pushing and hacking my way through thick bushes and vines until I suddenly found myself looking at a dirt road. Now, I could not only hear the music but also see faint lights far off in the distance, so I walked out onto the road and began following it.

After ten minutes of walking, I came across an ancient sign partially buried in the dirt. I bent down to look at it, then sheathed my sword and brushed away the matted growth that obscured the writing. Then, I froze as I read the words: Sweet Apple Acres. I stood and shone the light before me. I could just make out the remains of a ruined building that could have been a barn off in the distance, then shone the light back where'd I come. I was no farmer, but those trees through which I'd trudged past for the last hour might have been all that remained of a devasted apple orchard. If so, then this was what was left of the Apple Family's holdings after we took our revenge on them for causing us so much trouble during the War. If I cared to, I could probably turn aside into that dilapidated barn and see the site where they'd drawn and quartered that traitor to males, the leader of the Apples, one Macintosh Apple. We'd all been taught how he had defied us and bought time for his female relatives to escape. And how the General had rightly dealt with the traitor before they'd approached Ponyville.

I took a moment to spit on the sign before turning to follow the sound of the music.

If I remembered my geography, then Ponyville was next to Sweet Apple Acres, so someone or someones was there now, having a celebration of a sort. I snorted. I guess whoever it was hadn't heard the place was "haunted" and "spooky." Yet they could be enemies, possibly rebel friends of that mare, so I kept an eye out for assailants the closer I got.

I stopped when I saw a sign along the road that read, "Ponyville, Population 1200," and could see lights in the buildings up ahead. I frowned. From what I could tell, the structures all looked ancient and burned, hardly fit for a place of celebration. Then, a cold wind blew past me, and I caught the scent of ancient rot, of decay. I took a step past the sign...and everything...

CHANGED

I was in the middle of a huge crowd of ponies, all gathered around tables filled with various food and drink. As I stared, the buildings were intact and completely restored, not burnt, decayed, and dilapidated as I'd seen them only seconds before. The Moon shone brightly down upon the assembled throng as they all celebrated with laughter and music. Then, one grabbed my hand. "Come on! Join the party!" It was a pink mare with a puffy mane and an eager smile. I hesitated for a moment, then allowed her to pull me to a table. She grabbed a slice of cake and pushed it into my hands. "Eat up! It's a special occasion!" I stood dumbfounded, looking all around me. How...how could there be an entire town of ponies not under our rule?! And I was told they'd all killed themselves and destroyed their home...yet here they all were, ALIVE, and...and having a...PARTY?! Worst of all, none of them seemed to show any fear of me! How could they not know my race?!

Then, I turned and looked into a nearby shop window...and my heart almost failed me. In the reflection, I did not see happy ponies dancing, singing, and playing with one another...I saw...corpses. My eyes grew wide as I looked at the tables. Instead of cakes, pies, and other delicacies, I saw rotten piles of decaying fruit...long-dead slabs of putrescent flesh covered in flies, moldy loaves of bread...and the worst part? The...corpses...were trying to...eat all the disgusting offal as if it were the most delicious food they'd ever tasted. Some...some no longer had midsections...so the objects they tried to swallow would slip out onto the ground, but they didn't seem to notice...

I looked slowly down at the reflection of the slice of cake I was holding, and it was filled with squirming maggots. With a great cry of disgust, I dropped it, leaped back, and drew my sword. I turned back from the reflection, expecting to see the same horrors, but all was as it was before, only now, everyone of them was staring at me. The music had stopped. There was no more dancing or singing. All of them stood. and then slowly started walking towards me.

"Keep back!!" I shouted, raising my sword. I backed off, looking for a way out. There were too many of them, but by Daiin, I'd take more than a few of them with me to The Inferno before they took me down!

The pink mare laughed. "Don't be silly, Silly! I told you it's a special occasion!" She held out an arm as she reached for me, as that smile stretched across her face.

"Keep back, I said! I'll cut you in half, bitch!" She giggled once more, then rushed me! My arms reacted without conscious effort, honed by years of battle training, and I took her head with one swift blow. I watched her body still stand upright, expecting it to fall any second, but then...then I heard something that almost shattered my mind:

Laughter

Her...severed...head...was LAUGHING.

I felt my bladder release as I watched her headless body turn, pick up her still-giggling head, and then set it back in place.

When she turned back to me and SMILED, her teeth had been replaced by rows upon rows of...fangs. As the laughter began again, I stared at the rest and saw they all had changed: their teeth had grown long and sharp, their eyes blood-red, and their fingers into claws. Then, the pink mare spoke, but her voice had changed to gravel:

"Now the party can REALLY begin!!"

She looked back at her companions. "GET HIM!!"

"NOOOOO!!" I screamed as I swung my sword wildly, but there were too many of them! They swarmed me like ants, then began tearing into my flesh like rabid dogs! Great chunks of flesh were ripped from my body as my screams filled the air, yet all the while, they were LAUGHING...LAUGHING!

My last sight before the darkness claimed me was the pink one, her mouth bloody and stretched to an impossible width across her face giggle one last time and growl, "yOu'Reee...DeLIciOcIOusssss...!!" then sink her teeth into my throat...