Dear Princess Celestia

"Twilight, what is that?..." Fluttershy whispered, she heard the skittering as it approached the library, only for Applejack to charge forward in hopes of kicking the doors closed however she was stopped by Spike colliding with the door, Applejack was knocked backwards as Spike crawled into the room. "Oh...My...God..." Twilight uttered, she was gazing upon Spike, Spike looked mostly the same, but his teeth jagged and sharp with his green scales sharpened like spines protruding from his back, but the most alarming thing was the thick black liquid pouring from his eyes like tears. "What in tarnation?! What is that?!" Applejack cried out, she pulled herself back onto her hooves as she looked upon the seemingly demonified variation of Spike standing on his hands and feet in the doorway, she had seen critters somehow sickened by some awful infection but she had never seen something affecting a Dragon so badly. "Spike! Oh my god...Spike..." Twilight cried out, she had never hoped to gaze upon the form of Spike before she had found a way to cure him, but here she was standing, her former number one assistant tainted and corrupted by whatever horrific infection was spreading and tarnishing Ponyville.

"Twi...Light...Twilight...Sparkle..." Spike whispered through a strained voice, the words sounded more like some cheap imitation of Spike instead of the real Spike, Twilight had known and heard Spike enough to understand that the voice was not natural and some form of imitation by the monster before her. "Spike?...Are you in there?" Twilight begged, she was hoping beyond a pipe dream that Spike was still somehow present inside his body, that he was screaming out for her help and not just some deceased vessel the parasitic infection was using as a puppet. "Heard. You. Saw. Her. Felt. Discord." Spike emotionlessly replied, the two voids present in his eyes turned to glance at Fluttershy, the yellow Pegasus yelped and stepped back to avoid somehow angering the monster wearing Spike's skin, Spike just let out a strained breath as he crawled further into the room. "Princess. Twilight. Element. Of. Magic." Spike whispered, his eyes remained empty and black, yet she noticed a faint almost unnoticeable glimmer of some red present in the 'center' of Spike's completely black eyes. "You're not Spike, are you? You're something else. But you can talk, can't you?" Twilight asked, she was hoping that imitating confidence would make the parasite pause its infective desire for spread to answer or at least humour her question.

"You're obviously capable, otherwise you wouldn't be talking using Spike's voice." Twilight snarled, her anger and grief overtaking her thoughts, the anger was however sufficient in making Spike pause almost frightened until his body began to jolt and twitch as he raised himself back onto his taloned feet. "If. You. Want." Spike whispered, his empty black eyes seemed to suck the dark liquid back up like some kind of mystical vacuum, then his eyes began to glow with a blinding scarlet hue that was covered when Spike shut his eyes. "S-Spike?..." Fluttershy questioned, her body shaking from fear as Spike remained silent and motionless, then his eyes reopened, his eyes had returned to normal, however his irises were now red instead of their ordinary green. "Close. I'm not Spike, he's here. Conscious. Kinda." Spike replied, his voice was completely replaced by a hollow raspy variant of itself, it sounded like some kind of monster imitating Spike's voice through a voice recorder. "Who are you. What are you. And why are you doing this." Twilight ordered, her voice was no longer scared, she was fuming and burning with hatred towards the monster that had done nothing but steal away her friends, and steal away the one thing she could possibly consider her son.

"My name, is Death, Death Rose to be specific. And I...Well, I'm an Alicorn, like you Princess. Just a little more powerful than you can believe. And why? Well, you're not the only one with a bone to pick with Celestia and Luna." Spike growled, his voice was enraged, fuming with the anger of something ancient that had occurred long before Spike or Twilight had ever walked Equestria in the first place. "Alright, 'Death Rose'. How are you an Alicorn, if you really are." Twilight questioned, she was reeling from the reality that another Alicorn did exist in Equestria, but her anger was doing wonders in hiding the level of horrified shock that Celestia had never chosen to mention that not only did another Alicorn exist, he was a damn psychopath who was corrupting everything she held dear to her heart. "Magic, my dear girl. Is a powerful thing, I've studied it, I spent centuries studying it. Nearly a thousand years. Harnessing. Perfecting, and moulding my dark power. To counter the 'Magic of Friendship' and the magic of the princesses." Spike chuckled, his eyes narrowed from confidence as he watched Twilight's expression shift from rage, to confusion, to horror at the implications of her status being forged solely from magic.

"That's right, Alicorns aren't special. None of us are, you're just holding more magic than others. Starlight Glimmer, she's stronger than you, even with the Element of Magic. But she can't reach Alicorn rank without being given some pretty flappers and some extra strength, and some plant magic." Spike snarled, the Alicorn holding his mind hostage could gaze through his memories of Starlight Glimmer's immense magical power, Death Rose had never truly seen such capabilities in a unicorn since the days of Starswirl. "No...You're wrong! You...You lie!" Twilight replied, she was trying to hold onto hope that her status as Alicorn was true and not just some deceitful lie crafted by Celestia in order to harness the status of ruler over the entirety of Equestrian borders. "I can, and I do lie, but not of this. Believe me, I was just as shocked when I learned of it. I truly thought that royalty, that Alicorns were special. But no. They're nothing. Just glorified amalgamations." Spike responded, his voice was cold as he countered Twilight's desperate attempted to hold onto the hope, Twilight was left staring down at her own hooves in horror after discovering everything she had believed was nothing but a lie.

"You unlocked Alicornhood through earning it, finishing Starswirl's Destiny Swap spell. A touch of friendship and you did something Starswirl was too stupid to accomplish, isn't that impressive. But I didn't have that luxury, I was just an ordinary unicorn, I had magic talent, I could've been you. Just, you know, much older. but I lost that chance." Spike snarled, this time he seemed wrathful towards whatever memories he had begun remembering, whatever Death Rose was referencing had left him deeply scarred. "You, what? What do ya mean, could've been Twi? Nopony can be Twi, even Sunset learned that the hard way." Applejack countered, she had never believed anypony else could surpass or rival Twilight in terms of magical talent, Starlight managing to do so was more of an unbelievable revelation, but that was modern day magic, this pony must've been around since the oldest days of Celestia and Luna's rule. "When I was a filly, I had a village. Everypony was happy. Everypony helped the community however they could. Earth Ponies grew crops, Pegasi gave the necessary weather to help the crops and helped transport things, the Unicorns used their dazzling magic to heal the sick and craft unbelievable things. It was perfect. My home was a perfect joyful machine. Until the consequences of Celestia and Luna came to haunt us." Spike growled, the recollection of the memories left Death Rose growling within the regions of Spike's conscious mind, then he cleared his throat and glanced towards Applejack who narrowed her eyes.

"You see, the land that would become Equestria. It wasn't pony land, it was owned by various species, other species. Chimera, Manticore, Cockatrice, Bugbear, and various others. When ponies came, they took over the land and pushed those species out. Those species didn't forget such things." Spike snarled, Applejack and Twilight were left pondering then they both gasped at the implications of Death Rose losing his village and swearing revenge on the princesses for the loss of his home and more than likely his own family. "The species, they found our village, they wanted to know where the princesses were. When we couldn't offer the answer, they...They burned it down, they slaughtered my people. All that I remember from the carnage is blood, screams and fire. I only survived because they got off their lazy asses and decided to help." Spike continued, his eyes glancing to the side as he growled in rage, Death Rose could feel his hatred beginning to rapidly resurface as he recalled the events that had inevitably led him up to the stage of wanting absolute revenge.

"Hey! The princesses aren't lazy! They're just..." Fluttershy stopped herself, she could see the rage burning in Spike's glowing eyes, that was enough to make her freeze up and slowly descend back to the ground in a heap of nerves and terror that couldn't handle the events transpiring. "They arrived in my village too late, my people were gone. I barely survived myself. I was half dead from fear and the smoke clouding up my lungs. Wanna know what they told me? They said it was an accident. They never intended for other villages to suffer, that I would be justified in getting royal assistance to put my life back together." Spike growled, his hands clenching into fists until he felt the tips of his claws stabbing against the palms of his hand, Spike hissed in response to the pain and loosened his grip until he glanced at Twilight who was just staring at him in horror.

"I didn't want any fucking help. I didn't care about getting any stupid assistance from those regal shitbags. I wanted justice for the innocents that got slaughtered, every mare, stallion, filly. Even foals. Those bastards slaughtered innocent foals. My own cousin, he wasn't even a week old and they thought I would just accept that stupid shitty help?!" Spike raged, Death Rose had finally lost control as Spike grabbed the sides of his head, Spike growled softly as he stumbled back then he began growling louder, Spike dashed forwards to try and tackle Twilight. "TWILIGHT!" Applejack screamed, she attempted to gallop towards Twilight to try and get Twilight out of the way, but Spike charged towards with speed that he had never wielded previously, Twilight's horror left her frozen in fear as Spike dashed towards her.

"NO!" A voice screamed, the voice was followed by a flash of pink light shooting through the library forcing Applejack and Fluttershy to look away, Twilight's eyes were filled with enough tears that the light was unable to cause any true damage to her vision as she sobbed quietly. "I...Oh my..." Twilight cried, she could feel her own thoughts burning away with each sob, but she found the strength to lift her forehooves up to her face and wipes away the tears that was flooding her eyes. "Are you okay?" The voice asked, Twilight glanced towards the sound she heard it emerge, and noticed a stallion standing in the doorway of the library, his fur was milky white and his mane was bright red, his horn was coated in a pink aura that matched the colour of his eyes. "What the...Who...?" Twilight questioned, her voice broke during her question but the stallion chuckled in response, Twilight took notice that the stallion had the physical stature of a mare, he was also wearing a long crimson coloured cloak that covered his back and flank.

"My name is Omega, Omega Scarlet, and I received the message that I should come here to avoid infection. I guess that was a little prematurely spoken I guess?" Omega chuckled, the comment made Twilight glance towards Spike, Spike was frozen in place, the spell that Omega had used somehow generated a perfect cuboid shaped crystal form around Spike that contained him and the infection possessing him. "Yeah, sorry about that. I needed to keep him contained, there's a whole ton of explaining to be done, but we should probably deal with the infected dragon before my spell wears off and Death Rose can break that thing open." Omega stated, the comment made Twilight sniffle but nod in confirmation, then she glanced towards Fluttershy and Applejack who were trying to wipe the shapes and colours out from their vision. "Applejack. Fluttershy, stay here and watch for anypony else, I'll go with...Omega, and put Spike back into the basement, hopefully he'll stay there this time." Twilight ordered, Applejack and Fluttershy just nodded in approval, then she turns to the cube and lifts it off the ground with her magic, Twilight approached Omega who stepped out from the room to allow Twilight passage until they could both begin heading down the hall in silence.