Seven Devils

I padded into the library after Spike and instantly recoiled as four sets of eyes swivelled towards us. Even with my original fear, the thought niggled at my mind- four pairs of eyes? Surely there should have been five. But as I looked over them, the reason for this inequality became clear.

My eyes fell first on 'Twilight.' Blue, shiny, scaled from head to tail, fangs, fins, a wholly aquatic look about her. Spike had detailed her appearance as we travelled to the library, so I knew what to expect, but I was still repulsed by her appearance.

A dark shape hovering near the ceiling caught my eyes next. After spotting the lightning cutie mark on her strangely shaped flank, I could ascertain that this was 'Rainbow Dash'. Her whole body was red, and to my intense disgust her bones and muscles were bared as if she had been skinned. Raw, bony wings still beat, and in her grinning skull her rose eyes stared unblinkingly at me.

'Fluttershy's' eyes were covered with a thick scarf, so I could not see them, but her now muddy yellow fur, emblazoned with her cutie mark in its usual place, was clotted with dark red which I seconds later realised was blood. Her hooves were now claws, and they were steeped in blood. Membranous insect wings twitched on her back. These were not lustrous butterfly wings; more like those of a fly.

'Applejack' looked at me with blank eye sockets. I was puzzled for a minute, sure I had recognised her green eyes when I first entered, until she raised an orange hoof to reveal a leaf green eye implanted in its underside. Other than this, her body was normal, except for small puncture marks all over her body, out of which trails of blood were running.

'Pinkie' had no mouth to be seen, only glaring red eyes which pierced me terribly. Her mane was black as night, and straight, as was her tail. Her body gleamed silver as if it were made of metal. Even as I wondered how she communicated, her voice, a cold, harsh reflection of the usual Pinkie Pie, spoke in my ear.

Hello Rarity.

In light of all that had happened, I didn't question the supposed telepathy.

'Twilight' began speaking, her voice with a slimy, hissing quality to it. "Now, I think we all can see something awful has happened here-"

"No duh!" came a reply from 'Rainbow Dash'. Her voice clicked as her teeth clacked, amplified from the lack of muffling flesh.

'Twilight' coughed and continued. "Now, I think the best thing to do is get out of town before one of us loses control again. We don't want anything else like the, er, incident at Fluttershy's-"

"Why? interrupted 'Spike'. "What happened at Fluttershy's?"

'Twilight' shot him a killing glare, but it was too late. 'Fluttershy' sniffled and burst into tears.

"I.... I... killed them! Killed them all!" she wailed. "All my animal friends... I woke up and there was blood, so much blood, and bodies everywhere... and Angel came over to me... I looked at him... and he... he...."

"What happened to Angel?" I asked, dread suddenly filling my heart.

"Let's just say he won't be hopping around again any time soon." came a harsh statement from 'Applejack'. She pulled a small statue of a rabbit from her bags. I stared at it in horror.

'Fluttershy' dissolved into sobs, hugging the little statue and unintentionally smearing blood all over it. As she wept, 'Pinkie' spoke again. From the way the others went rigid, I could see they heard too.

Girls, what are we going to do?

"Get out of town." replied 'Twilight'.

"And go where?" I growled.

"The Everfree!" bawled 'Fluttershy'. "That's the only place for monsters like us... Like me."

I was about to refuse, when I saw that 'Twilight' was nodding. "That's the best place to be out of the public eye until we can get back to ourselves."

'Applejack', 'Rainbow' and 'Fluttershy' agreed. 'Pinkie' was nodding too, so I sighed, "Oh, very well. I'd rather not be seen by ponies when I'm like this anyway."

'Twilight' moved on to the next discussion. "Okay, now that's settled, have any of you, other than Fluttershy, experienced loss of control over your actions?"

I shook my head, only to hear 'Spike' say, "Rarity did, when I tried to force her to leave the boutique. She turned on me and was snarling, she was about to hit me when she came back to her senses."

I had forgotten this instance, but now it came back clear as day. I had felt the sudden, overpowering urge to attack Spike, claw him, bite him, but then it had died as quickly as it had risen up.

Now I focused on it, I could sense it, deep inside, that urge. It whispered to me, sweet words of murder, blood and death, urging to leap at my friends, kill them, rip them apart. I shoved the urge back down before it could get to me again.

'Applejack' was nodding. "I checked on Applebloom as I left home, and just for a moment, I..." she faltered, "I wanted to kill her."

None of the others had suffered the loss of control, so we left the library. We needed to be far away by dawn. Twilight walked ahead of us, her hooves making slapping sounds as she walked.  Rainbow flew overhead, and when I looked up I could see every movement of her strong wing muscles.

Fluttershy was feeling her way along, still sobbing behind her scarf, while Applejack had moved her eyes up to her forelegs as she walked so that she could see. It was apparent that she could put her eyes anywhere but the eye sockets on her face. Spike was walking on one side of me, Pinkie on the other. Both were silent, impassive.

We soon reached the edge of the Everfree. Twilight strode in without a care, while Rainbow could be seen hovering over the trees further in. Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie followed Twilight, while I paused at the edge of the trees. Spike turned to me and wordlessly held out a silver claw. I took it in my jets black paw and we walked into the darkness together.