As Blanc stared at the likeness of his latest victim in the mirror, he began to get chills up and down his spine. The air began to feel hot and filled with the same sounds he had constantly heard in Tartarus: a melody of tortured screams, sobbing, and ecstatic laughter. Blanc, panic rising, began to frantically look around the room, which distorted in his vision.

Rarity's mannequins all grew eyes and mouths and seemed to be trying to escape the metal bar that holds them in place. The eyes and mouths were both seemingly empty, blackened by a veil of darkness despite the room being very well illuminated, but over the brief amount of time Blanc remained in there, the illumination lessened and became a harsh shade of red. Seeing this all unfold before him all at once, Blanc ran to the door and quickly opened it, not bothering to shut it, as he knew what was happening inside the Boutique.

Blanc was being hunted by some unnatural force which took notice of his escape, and was apparently now seeking to recapture him and toss him back in there again. Blanc was not even thinking about it now. All he was doing was running, blind panic flaring up inside of his mind. Many onlookers stared in puzzlement, some calling out to him, as he, still in the guise of Rarity ran frantically through the town, wordless and panting.

He eventually arrived at the Apple family's farm, which he only noticed when he slammed headfirst into the side of the barn, not paying attention to where he was going, as well as not caring. He heard a voice pipe up, a voice he recognized, but only vaguely, from some of the memories he's absorbed. It sounded younger than most of his previous equine victims, and it had a distinct southern drawl to it. It sounded surprised and alarmed.

"W-what was that!?" The filly exclaimed, startled. It was Apple Bloom. Blanc heard footsteps come to him and decided to take on the form of Sweetie Belle, whom he knew was close friends with Apple Bloom. "Hello..? Anyone there?" Apple Bloom asked, taking slow, small steps towards Blanc's location. Blanc popped out as Sweetie Belle and greeted her.

"Hey, Apple Bloom!" Blanc said. "Sorry for startling you, I was just so excited! I have a surprise waiting for you inside your barn." Blanc quickly decided that he was going to kill and consume Apple Bloom, who immediately grew a suspicious expression on her face in reaction to Sweetie Belle's mentioning of a "surprise" in her barn.

"A.. surprise?" Apple Bloom asked. "What kinda surprise?"

"Oh, you'll see. Follow me!" Blanc said. Blanc opened up the barn's doors and peered inside, as did Apple Bloom. It was dimly lit with a lantern hanging from the ceiling. He proceeded in there with Apple Bloom following suit.

"This better not be some sort of prank or anythin'..." Apple Bloom said, a scowl slowly growing on her face in remembrance of the last prank Sweetie and Scootaloo played on her.

"Trust me, this will blow your mind, I promise..." Blanc said, slowly closing the barn's doors.

"So, what's the surprise?" Apple Bloom asked, looking around curiously.

Blanc got in front of Apple Bloom with a sly smile on her face. "Here it is..." As he said that, green tentacles sprouted from his body, and the red one slithered out of his mouth, quickly revealing the blade within. Apple Bloom stared in frightened shock as she saw one of her best friends turn into some sort of monster. Sweetie Belle's eyes rolled back in their sockets, a grotesque groaning noise emanating from her mouth, and her legs began to grow in length, getting progressively slimmer until Blanc was towering over his victim and his legs were not unlike spider legs, ending with sharpened bones protruding from where Sweetie's hooves used to be, now sharp enough to penetrate flesh and bone.

"Surprise!" Blanc shouted in a distorted, demonic voice. Apple Bloom began screaming as loud as her small lungs would allow. She bolted off into a sprint beneath the giant monstrosity that stood before her, jumping to avoid the tentacles trying to catch her. Blanc turned around and gave chase, repeatedly trying to slash or grab his victim with no success. He managed to wrap a tentacle around her a few times, but she managed to slip through it somehow before another tentacle could grab her. He also managed to graze her slightly with his blade, but it didn't hinder her from running. She was quite an energetic filly, as Blanc was now finding out.

At last, after a few minutes of this, he finally tripped her up with one of his green tentacles. She collapsed to the floor with a yelp. She flipped onto her back and slowly crawled away, tears welling in her eyes as she gazes upon what she believes is the last thing she will see, which was walking towards her at the same pace she was crawling, seemingly relishing the moments before he sent the blade down into his victim's small, fragile little body.

Suddenly, the barn doors flew open and another voice piped up into the scene.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" A stone went flying right at Blanc's head, knocking him down to the ground with a hard, loud thud. Apple Bloom looked over at the doors and saw her elder sister, Applejack, who rushed forward to the rescue of her little sister. Apple Bloom immediately got up and met her half way, and they both shared a brief embrace. As they did so, Blanc began to get back up, groaning in pain.

"Listen, Sugarcube." Applejack began. "I need you to get out of here and warn Big Mac and Granny. I'll take care of this thing!"

"But Applej-" Apple Bloom began but was cut off by Applejack.

"NO BUTS! GET OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW!" Applejack shouted as she sidestepped to the left a little bit, shook off her hat and got into a fighting stance, her legs parted and her head held low. Apple Bloom saw no more reason to argue, because she knew that once Applejack had her mind set on something, she was going to do it no matter what.

"Good luck, sis!" Apple Bloom hugged Applejack's leg for a moment, then turned around and took off running, her mind buzzing with worry.

"Ahh, time for a fight scene, huh?" Blanc said with excitement, now completely back up on his spider-like legs. "Ohh, I've always enjoyed fight scenes! Bring it on!"

Applejack snorted and rushed forward, narrowly dodging the bladed, blood-red tentacle he lunged at her with. As she ran past him, she raised her hind leg and gave one of his a kick as hard as she possibly could, which shattered it. Blanc let out a scream and fell to the floor, angry at both himself, for not switching to a form with a less exploitable weakness, and at Applejack, for exploiting it in the first place. Blanc sprouted Fluttershy's wings and flew upwards so he could transform uninterrupted. Applejack just stared at him in awe.

"What in tarnation..." Applejack said, watching Blanc quickly changing from a grossly mutated Sweetie Belle to what seemed like Fluttershy, except he still had his tentacles out.

"Does this look familiar?" Blanc asked in Fluttershy's voice. Applejack continued to stare, wondering what on earth she was looking at.

Applejack picked up a nearby brick, tossed it upwards, turned around and used one of her hind legs to launch the projectile at him as she had before. Blanc was prepared this time and promptly dodged the brick, which somehow managed to break a hole in the ceiling. Blanc looked back at the hole and laughed.

"Oooooh, we're strong, now aren't we? You will make a fine addition to my steadily growing collection of outfits!" Blanc said mockingly.

"What the?" Applejack said, puzzled. "How'd ya do that? You a unicorn or somethin'?"

Blanc let out a laugh and flew closer to Applejack to explain himself. "No, I'm a refugee from Tartarus. Ever since I got out of there, I've had these tentacles, a huge appetite, and the ability to turn into whoever I eat, which just so happens to include your buddies Fluttershy and Rarity, among others. I was ABOUT to do the same to your sister, until SOMEONE rudely interrupted me..." Blanc gave Applejack a glare with Fluttershy's eyes, another mocking gesture.

Anger was steadily rising in Applejack as Blanc explained himself, coming to a head when he said he ate some of her friends. In response, she turned around and tried to kick him with both feet, but he dodged once again, this time wrapping a green tentacle around her and raising her off the floor, making Applejack let out a yelp in surprise. Blanc raised Applejack up, her face a few feet away from his, his bladed tentacle going up to her abdomen, getting ready to slice it open.

"Any last words?" Blanc asked smugly, smiling. Applejack simply said "Shut up!" in an angry growl and bent her abdomen a little to give Blanc a headbutt, making his blade just slightly graze the flesh on her abdomen. They both fell to the ground. Applejack, getting up first, got a running start and kicked Blanc in the head as he raised it, hitting him square in the eye. He swung his bladed tentacle, but Applejack just barely dodged the blade as she watched it swing right past her face.

"Lemme see the real you!" Applejack shouted. "Show your real face to me!"

Blanc chuckled after hearing this odd request. "Hmm.. an interesting request. Well, you are the element of honesty, after all. Very well, then! I'll consider it your dying wish." Blanc then reverted to his original form, mask and all, as he's never allowed to take the mask off.

Applejack stared in dumbstruck awe at the creature that now stood before her. The mangled neck, the creepy mask with no visible eyes, just black holes. Shivers went down her spine. Blanc just stood there and laughed at her expression.

"Now all that has been said and done.. time for the curtain call for you." Blanc then stood on his hind legs and he opened his abdomen up to reveal just a large, pitch black hole. Applejack turned around and tried to run away, but he grabbed Applejack with all of his green tentacles and began trying to pull her in. Applejack struggled with all of her might, but she knew she was only delaying the inevitable as well as Blanc did. Still, she thought she had to at least try.

After a few moments of struggling, Blanc began thrusting his blade into Applejack repeatedly, causing her to scream. Only after the 4th stab did she finally give up, allowing Blanc to throw her into the black void inside of him along with the rest of his victims.

After all of that struggling, Blanc closed the hole and stood there for a moment, allowing himself to go through all of Applejack's memories to see if there was anything that could be useful to him. He didn't find much he didn't already know.
"Well.. three down, three more to go." Blanc then turned around and saw a crowd amassing, hearing chatter amongst them, mixed with several different emotions in the voices. The remnants of the Apple family lead the crowd.

"There he is!" Apple Bloom shouted and pointed at Blanc, assuming that must have been his true form. Big Macintosh immediately charged at Blanc, fury welling in his eyes. Blanc then sprouted wings and quickly took off, flying over the enraged colt and took off into the sky.

"Well, looks like this is where things get interesting..." Blanc thought as he flew upwards. Eventually, he stopped flying and looked down at the town below him, the town called Ponyville.

"Let the games begin!" Blanc said audibly in an excited tone.

Author's Note

Sorry it took me so long to update it again, I've been lazy xD