Paranoia Ingredient

Paranoia Ingredient

{----- [[[[[-Security Breach-]]]]] -----}

The first thing I noticed when my vision was reestablished as a sense-

“Teacher!” Aside from Twilight-

I saw a small filly calling my name from the distance; it had hooked my attention almost immediately, therefore, I didn't care about anything else at the moment, for I knew who it was.

“Hey, it’s Fluttershy! She’s back!”

“No questions asked, let’s GET HER!!” Suddenly, when I looked at the pony who noticed me first, I found myself fighting off a different body, another filly. “Whooa!”

“Ooofff!” It’s a good thing that the collision of bodies wasn't too harsh-

“Wait a minute...”  I thought something was different about me, how I didn't topple onto my back from the impact.

“My leg. It’s as if nothing ever happened to it. I-It’s not infected anymore!”

“Fluttershy!” cried the pony who, I would assume tried to jump at my neck to wrap her front legs around me. She had managed to force me down on my rear.

My mind was in a state of unorganized madness, much like a jigsaw puzzle. It had mainly been running off of pure emotions: anger, frustration, confusion, sadness. You name it, I probably had it.

Apple Bloom was the filly that had assaulted me with her little embrace. She was crying, for minutes on end, but for a reason I could not explain, I couldn't find myself to be in a sympathizing state, at least, not at the time.

Her cold tears reminded me of the extreme weather that was nationally present . This made me instinctively look around the room, like there was a cause for another incident.

This was the Princess’ personal quarters. Easily the most royal chamber in the entire castle, everything about it spoke ‘sanctuary’. Though they were simple, the walls were not impregnated with glass sheets; but the very fact didn’t give the room a claustrophobic feel. In addition to this observation, I also saw that the room was not decorated one bit, only a large, widespread blanketing of velvet curtains in the back of the room. I would expect the princess’ to have some sort of taste in décor, but who am I to question them, even internally?

“App-Apple Bloom?”

“Where’ve ya’ been all this time?” No doubt about it; vision isn’t the only thing that gives that girl away. She’s always there for me, eager to help out in some way or another, and that doesn’t just go for me. She ended up in my left front leg. She tried to launch herself at me, but overwhelming happiness was invited into her mind, preventing it. I could see her eyes fill up with tears, those of which rolled down her face when she lifted her head up to look me in the eyes.

It was such a beautiful happening.

This brought an immense burst of tears to flow out from my own eyes. I immediately shut my eyelids to reroute the path in which they would fall. No matter how short our time apart may have seemed, I knew that more than mere days have passed since our lives started falling apart.

“Apple Bloom?” Her smiling face could be seen even while my eyes were tightly shut. “Apple Bloom!  I was so worried about you three!”

“Fluttershy?!”

I was just about to embrace Apple Bloom in a manner that of the ‘once in a lifetime realization’ thing; Just looking at her now made me realize that I hadn’t lived up to my promise to always be there for my new family, and I wouldn’t let her go.

Ever.

“Fluttershy!! It’s really YOU!”  Another childish voice made its way into my ear, and it was soon followed by another familiar filly who joined Apple Bloom in the act of surprising me.

It was Sweetie Belle.

“Apple Bloom, why didn’t you say she was here??”

“I did.” silently replied Apple Bloom. She didn’t bother with the tears on her cheeks. Neither one of them did, as Sweetie Belle began to tear up as well, but not as much as Apple Bloom. “Didn’t ‘cha hear me yell out ‘Fluttershy, where’ve ya been all this time’?”

I looked down at both of their adorable smiling faces while they kept a tight hold on me. “Now Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle...”

They were in perfect, literally perfect, shape. But, one thing wasn’t right.

I mean, I was really surprised. So surprised in fact, that I thought I may have been dreaming, much like I wished I was doing before...

But there was something else that wasn’t right.

Scootaloo. She was nowhere to be seen.

No! There were too many things going on at the moment to even get started asking more questions.

I needed answers, or at least a general idea of what was going on.

What’s happening here?

“Fluttershy.” Booming out of nowhere, the princess’s voice... She was addressing me. Me! I must have been focused too much on the girls minus one to notice what Twilight meant by ‘teacher’.

The princess, who managed the land of Equestria loomed over me and Twilight, height-wise. (Well, also status-wise; I was a nobody, being addressed by the princess!)

Princess Celestia herself deemed Twilight Sparkle as her own personal protégé’ at the School for Gifted Unicorns in Canterlot. Twilight was barely at the age of six years old! You see, Princess Celestia respects Twilight to an incredible degree. She’s the one who taught Twilight the most important thing she needed to know; to control her lethal raw magical abilities through focused studying.

She was lucky to have lived her young life with such a nice background. Everything she ever wanted, her parents, who enrolled her into the school, would provide. I remember when Twilight shared the story with me and the girls about how she earned her Cutie Mark...

Twilight didn’t tell me much, but I can see how she and the princess have become almost inseparable partners, perhaps even equivalents.

“Y-yes Princess?” I was expected to be nervous in the presence of the ruler of all of Equestria, but this time, it seemed like she was the only reality in this nightmare that I was living.

She was not going to try to kill me; she was not going to make things worse.

“I wish to speak with you and Twilight, I request your presence.” Her voice was strong and powerful, but it was also very inviting. Her aurora-themed mane and tail fluttered in the air, even though there was no wind present. It flicked itself as she awaited my reaction.

Sweetie Belle had extremely powerful emotions. “Please don’t leave us again Fluttershy...” she said.

I began to approach her and Twilight, who was leaning against her princess, showing slight weakness. Was she hurt too? Was she not somehow cured of her injuries like I was?

I found myself only some feet away from where I was welcomed by the girls. The princess would make sure nothing happened to them.

“Please Fluttershy, your family deserves to know too.” The princess sympathized with me. She knew that my head had been filled with such nightmares.

“Pinkie...”

“Invite them to your side, don’t leave them again.” She emphasized on that last part.

“Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle...” The girls didn’t show any emotion this time, however. They joined my left and my right, supporting my forward movement as I became mentally weak due to my inescapable thoughts.

I fought to remain sane after what I had done. I felt as if, somehow, the end was near, that there was no hope left for Equestria.

“I’m so sorry...”

.............................................

“I’m afraid I don’t know what this plague is, nor how it reached Equestria, but I do have a theory; everything points to it-“

Something the princess doesn’t know about?

“I think...that this ‘thing’...

It must be from the future.” she finalized.

“The...future?” Apple Bloom questioned the princess.

“It has to be.”

My mind had been completely blown. Even though Celestia assumed ‘it’ was, there couldn’t be such a thing as travelling through time!

Could there?

Twilight nodded while staring intently at Celestia. “...Iiit sounds a bit weird, princess, but that would explain the recent drop in Fahrenheit.”

“Um, princess Celestia.” I asked for her attention, still as scared and nervous as ever.

“Fluttershy, there’s no need to be shy to speak up. I have us protected from those monstrosities.” The princess lowered her head until she was looking into my eyes dead on.

“I can’t say I know how you feel right now, but don’t show fear, whatever you do.” She then appointed her voice to Twilight as well. “I’ve learned from experience that this ‘darkness’ feeds off of fear. And even with me, being one of the royal rulers of this great land, I’m not fearless, I can tell you that.”

I hate to put it this way, but I was reassured a bit with that brief explanation.

Then, the princess exaggerated on the story. “I would have aided you two earlier, but I was a bit...preoccupied with my sister at the moment, hence the mention of experience.”

Out of the corner of my eye, my peripheral vision saw Twilight’s pupils grow intensely. “Princess... Are you saying that...princess Luna..?” She stuttered.

I remained silent while the princess conversed with Twilight, but I was listening thoroughly.

“Twilight.” Celestia looked at Twilight with concern, like her hypothesis was incorrect on all levels.

“Did you experience the same thing? Or you, Fluttershy?” she said with greater concern than before.

.............................................

“There she was, my own sister, standing over me as I laid helpless on the floor.”

“Luna...” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, not one bit. “Not her!”

Twilight listened to Celestia, intently studying her words and the evidence she would give. We were all survivors, and Celestia’s status as the ruler of Equestria had to submerge for the time of darkness that was at hand.

“She had this look in her eyes...” Celestia now had tears streaming down her face. She had committed a crime; she had done the unbelievable...the unthinkable!

“I knew that this darkness...had taken over her. I didn’t know why...or how! But I had only one option.

There was a long silence, gradually followed by cries from the princess.

“I killer her! I...killed my sister..!”

......................................

Soon, after a few comforting words from myself and Twilight, the princess ceased to produce tears. I’ve never seen the princess cry, not even out of happiness. She was knelt down at the ground, legs bent with her lustrous mane obscuring her face. There was a growing puddle of tears beneath her nose.

“You did what you had to do, Celestia.” Twilight said. “She had no control of herself; she would have only act like a zombie.”

“I know how you must feel, every step of the way.” I meaningfully told Celestia.

Celestia had a look in her eyes this time. “You...do?” I swear the hue in her eyes changed when Twilight and I shared our thoughts with her. “But how do you know? Twilight, I’ve known you since you were only five years old. I know your whole background.”

“Forgive me Celestia, but no, you don’t. Like Luna, I too was influenced by this evil.” Twilight wasn’t too thrilled about telling the princess this. “As a foal, even before I met you, I’ve been able to see things that nopony else could, and I know this because, while that cloud of darkness was finally getting to me, I saw something else, and it was nothing that’s ever infiltrated my eyes before.”

“Twilight?” I was gaining an interest in her story. “What did you see?” I immediately thought that her explanation could help us all understand what the hell was going on.

“Yes, continue if you wish.” An unwary smile formed on the princess’s face; she was already regaining faith in her ironically dark life.

“Well, alright.” She closed her eyes for a second, and then opened them as she began to reveal her secret. She always did that, but it seemed to help her organize her thoughts; whatever was going on in her mind.

“When...I’m alone, and when it’s quiet...I start to hear things, sometimes even see things that nopony else can. Hay, I don’t even have to be alone. It doesn’t even have to be quiet, either.”

“Celestia.” She continued. A few weeks ago, I recalled this dream I had exactly three weeks prior from then. That night, I dreamt about this empty room. It was somewhat of an interactive dream. My coat reacted to the extreme temperature. I heard the stomping of my hooves, even though it didn’t sound like hooves at all.”

“The whole thing felt so real, like it wasn’t even a dream at all.” Twilight concluded with a long sigh. “I seriously don’t know what’s going on anymore.”

I listened to every bit of the story “A room you don’t remember...Twilight, what’d it look like, the room?”

Celestia wasn’t suspecting a thing.

“Well, now that I think about it, it wasn’t a compact room, but it was more like a...a shrine, with an altar and everything.”

Celestia stared at Twilight as she continued to explain.

“The overall setting was something like a lost temple-the lost temple like in the third Daring Do book, Daring Do and the Fight for the Future! The whole exterior was covered with plant life, leaving almost no light to intrude through the windows.”

Celestia gasped as her pupils dramatically shrunk in size. She wanted to say something to Twilight, but she withheld.

“This sounds all too familiar for some reason. It’s on the tip of my tongue.” I told Twilight, who nodded in agreement.

“It does, but I can’t seem to remember where this place might have been.” She was caught, deep in her thoughts. “Fluttershy!” she called out. “Do you recall this place, assuming it’s even real?”

Celestia kept her head down, but swiftly shifted her sight from me, to Twilight, and vice versa.

I thought about it hard, but no too long, but it didn’t take me as much time as what was allotted to figure it out.

What Twilight had dreamed about was, in fact, a real place, in real time.

That unforgettable place where the world would have ended...

The ancient grounds of sacrifice, located deep inside the Everfree Forest.

Not long after Twilight revealed more details about the ‘fantasy world’ she had dreamed about, Celestia used her magic to thrash about the royal chambers.

“No, no, no... NO! NNAAAOOWWW!” Celestia grew more furious, even when Twilight tried to calm her. For whatever reason, Twilight brought about a rage within the princess, something that I had never seen before.

“Celestia!” Nothing. The princess ensued in a panic.

“NNNNOOO!! NO! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!!!”

Celestia was lost, for Twilight and I couldn’t do a thing to stop the princess’s strange rampage. The magical power that started to emanate from her horn was flooding out almost as quickly as it started. She started to launch beams of pure energy not only at me and Twilight, but all over the room.

She was losing control of herself, just like Twilight did. The darkness had gotten to her.

“Die Celestia!!”

‘It’ was here...

My reflexes from before came back. When I was confronted by this dark force earlier in the lower level of the castle-

“Oooh god...” She calmed down for a bit. She whimpered under the influence as she showed signs of her loss of sanity.

“Suffer!”

-They were back. As Celestia fought on, casting spells that were supposedly meant to be of great benefit, the hairs on my back stood on end when I started to avoid them all, one by one.

Twilight also managed to remain untouched. She locked herself away inside a magical protective barrier. As I advanced toward the princess who was spiraling out of control, I gave Twilight one, perhaps my final, glances: The barrier was something like a magnet. It attracted all of the energy blasts into one spot, and then concentrated it all into one hunk of bright light.

I had faith that she would prevail, and she always does.

When I focused back on my aim of direction, I also remained confident in my own abilities. I raced to Celestia, who seemed to be growing ever farther. The concentration of gratuitous power was probably getting to my head. The factory of all this energy was right in front of me; I realized that after a vertical conducted beam of energy (being pulled with much force by Twilight’s magnet) ripped through my wing, tearing it apart like a pebble skipping over a lake.

“Mother-” The searing pain glided across my wing, instantaneously taking my focus away. I then, unluckily, suffered a horizontally conducted cleaver slash. "FUCKER!!!" It tore my weakened leg clean off.

“Useless Host...”

I fell to the hard, cold floor in a matter of seconds. The secondary delay was caused by my sudden flightless body coming into contact with-

“You are NO LONGER MY SISTER!!!!!!” I bellowed at Celestia, wishing for her death after Fluttershy came into contact with her. This useless Host couldn’t be any weaker: the lost momentum from her right side where Fluttershy’s wing was torn apart and discarded by means of the force from the numerous blasts was used in a unique way.

Celestia hastefully spread her wings at the exact moment before the Host would have hit the floor, producing a powerful gale force. She then used the momentum along with the speed Fluttershy had reached to counter with the force she had just created. In addition to Celestia’s magical ability, she manipulated the direction in which the Host slid across the floor.

Celestia was completely untouched, and that’s exactly how I like things. Too bad it had to be my worst enemy who wasn’t hurt, though.

........................................

“You...haven’t won...” Poor, poor Celestia. You would have the tenacity to say that. But do you really believe you can stop the Movement? You truly are a lost cause.

I think I’ll just take your body now!!

“Twilight!”

Celestia would not survive the process. Assuming this, she thrashed about the room, destroying anything in her path, including the Host, who lay helpless near the baselines of the walls. Celestia’s sanity was almost mine, only a few more phases now...”

Her body was being consumed, enshadowed in darkness as she ensued in the act of unintentional murder. However, I could not let the Host perish under Celestia’s name.

I needed something from her, but the process would include me taking a huge risk here...

I needed to keep her alive. Broken, but alive.

“SHUT UP!”  I could care less about this godforsaken minority of a Host. Celestia was growing ever closer to becoming engulfed by my influence. Her warm heart was freezing instantly as she beat down on Fluttershy. She had ceased the blasts of light and proceeded to use her magical ability to manipulate the actions of the Host.

Celestia threw Fluttershy high into the air until the Host’s spine broke upon impact with an overhead window, blocked off by several steel bars.

Before this happened, I acknowledged my ‘faithful student’ watching me totally fucking the Host up.

“I’M SO SORRY."

Celestia was now mine, her body mine to control. All I needed to do now is travel to her heart, and the Movement shall begin...

She brought the beaten Host down upon her long horn, puncturing her flesh, and accurately piercing her ribcage. Once the Host remained secure on the princess’s horn, she raised her head, and then threw it down, bringing the host down with it. The Earth trembled after the Host tried to cry out in pain when she was thrown to the floor.

The punishment that the Host was long due satisfied my lust for pain, even though I was the one untouched. I manipulated Celestia’s body until she was thrusting down on the Host with her golden steel-plated forehooves endlessly. As this was happening, I forced the host reveal her other wing. My temporary Host Celestia, quickly stomped on hard bone, shattering it with no difficulty whatsoever.

And just for the hell of it, I opened Flutershy’s legs and gave her a swift and powerful kick in her sensitive area. I think I actually reached inside of her! I let out a low, maniacal laugh.

The main Host Fluttershy, remained silent upon receiving all of this pain, for she had no choice but to do so. There was so much of the Host’s blood spilled on both of their slender bodies...

If I had a body of my own, I would so fuck them. Defile their bodies to the MAX!

My next objective was to extract the Host of all internal organs, except of course, for her heart. Just like Celestia, I needed to travel to her heart in order for the Movement to launch. However, the delay I experienced was caused by the natural light energy her heart had been producing all her life.

Without hesitation, I used Celestia’s magic to artificially carve Fluttershy’s flesh. It was all from raw magical strength; it was overpowering, and delicious as well.

And when I’m finished with these two, and the Movement has prioritized, I suppose I’ll eat that Twilight Sparkle’s heart.

“Mmmmm, I wonder how she tastes.” If I could lick my lips, I would right now.

I was aware of Twilight Sparkle’s activity; she had absorbed and concentrated all of the light Celestia had previously thrown into one gargantuan dome, surpassing the limits of the castle walls. She was most likely going to try and light up the room, try to drive me away. Her petty little friends were not here; they were all dead. She lacked the strength, she would not hold up on her own. She would overexert herself, and she would die.

And then I would feast on her. She’s the one I wish I could be destroying right now, but she didn’t fulfill the requirements.

..............................

“This time...” Twilight Sparkle gained confidence that was unheard of. But even so, it would do her nothing. “I’LL FINISH YOU FOR GOOD!!”

As weak as the aura was, I still needed to sheath my consciousness away from her attempt. It was easy enough, considering how little times Celestia lit up the room.

And so, I continued to prey upon Fluttershy, weakening her even more. Whatever living part of her spirit remained was falling apart.

Only then she would be completely vulnerable.

I was about to finish the psychedelic cut that would reveal her internal organs, but I felt something...odd.

“YOU WANNA TASTE ME, HUH? TASTE THIS YOU BITCH!!!”

My power. My subjects...

My plan... It was all in vain.

The source of power was incomprehendable. Twilight Sparkle was only a mere foal when it came to magic!

She released the dome from her intangible grasp, and it began to shear through the tiles on the floor. Some of the aforementioned tiles impaled Celestia in her legs, hindering my progress on my main Host. She collapsed to the floor, which was already removed of its tiles. I gave every attempt to plant the princess on her hooves again, but I was rapidly losing my power as the dome of light dreaded ever closer. Soon enough, I found myself fleeing! If I didn’t, my weakened state would have dissipated, and then I seriously would have been finished for good.

The pitfall at the top of the chamber provided the quickest escape route. The metal bars were broken, but that didn’t matter.

I’m intangible...for now.