Subterfuge : the Descent Into Madness (NSFW, no sex, dark)

	“Subterfuge,” –Mayor Mare thought to herself- “she is, of course, masterful in that art. Shape-shifting allows for a wide degree of opportunity to practice such skills. When the usurpation of the royal bride failed, she only needed to attack the one thing that foiled her plans; Twilight sparkle.”
Mayor Mare sighed to herself. It had not been difficult to trick the pony of local legislation. She even remembers how Chrysalis did it; a letter bearing the royal seal of Canterlot came in the mail requesting a meeting ‘away from prying eyes.’ The mayor knew that something was fishy, but against her better judgment she went anyway. She assumed that the mailpony was in it too, replaced with one of those…impersonators.  But it was no use, now; Mayor Mare was just another pawn to the Queen, a prisoner literally in her own skin.
	It didn’t matter now if she knew or not. The confrontation in the woods was brief. She arrived at the spot designated by the letter, and waited. After a trivial passing of time she heard a rustling in the bushes in front of her, she straightened herself up, trying to appear as presentable as possible to the highest authority in the land. What greeted her instead was a dark pony, tall as Celestia but black as night, hair tangled and matted, with draconic eyes and insectoid wings.
	“Hello there, my dear Mayor,” said Chrysalis in a slightly accented voice, resonated with a hollow echo of itself.
	“w-w-what do you want from me? I-I’m just a silly old Mayor pony,” replied Mayor Mare, knees shaking .
	“Oh, you could say that we would wish for our voice, in your counsel,” answered the Hive queen. A sound of amusement underlying her tone
	Mayor Mare didn’t know what she meant, but she would soon find out, as she heard a rustling behind her. As she turned around she was struck unconscious by a glimpse of a smaller, but equally back and menacing creature.
The morning after, she woke up in her bed with virtually no recollection of the night prior, and a throbbing headache. She felt her head and noticed a sizable bump. Wondering where it came from, she tried thinking about last night when the memories of the encounter started to seep in. She widened her eyes and grabbed at some paper and her inkwell, notifying Celestia was the upmost priority! As she finally found a sheet of royal parchment she grasped the quill and made for the opening sentence; she was struck short of writing however, as soon as she touched the ink to the paper. Her hoof refused to move, she willed herself to write, but the only thing that did was increase the severity of her headache.
	She gritted her teeth, and managed to pull the quill away from the parchment. She was almost instantly relieved of her headache she woke up to.
	“Odd,” –She said to herself- “Maybe I should just take it easy.”
	She felt a small amount of euphoria with the sentence uttered, but she didn’t question it as she walked to her office further in town.
	The rest of her day went as did any other. Paperwork, mediation, politics, more paperwork, it passed slowly but quietly. By the end of the day her menial tasks took up too much thought to concern herself with yesterday. She felt another burst of endorphins as she reasoned that ‘it was just a crazy dream’ and she shouldn’t worry about it. As she burst through her door into her rather drab house she threw all of her things into a rough pile on the table to be picked up again for tomorrow. She ate a quiet dinner, content with herself and her spinach casserole. Afterwards she cleaned up and stumbled into her bed, mentally exhausted at the mundane activities of her work. Snuggling into her bed for the temporary asylum of sleep, she quickly fell into its familiar grips.
	A swirling mist enveloped her, she tried to see her way out of it but as she walked it only became thicker. The faint cries of strange and unknown animals were heard in the distance. The mist was everywhere, coating the vast unknown surroundings in a faint grey shimmer. She tried putting a hoof up in front of her face, but she could barely see even that.  It seemed to be alive, caressing her face and whispering in her ears. She tried listening for anything, but the faint ringing in her ears drowned out the hushed voice seemingly right next to her whenever she tried listening. She didn’t feel safe anymore; she looked behind herself, checking for anything lurking in the mist. A sound caught her attention and she looked up, the cawing of a crow. When she looked down she realized, there wasn’t a floor, just a black void supporting her hooved feet. With this realization she began to feel like she was falling. There wasn’t an up, down, right or left; only the fog surrounding her, growing seemingly solid as the whispering grew into a scream of static.
	She woke up in a cold sweat and gasping breath to the sound of the alarm clock. She smashed the device with her hoof and closed her eyes, waiting for her breath to catch back up to her, than she looked around; Still her own bedroom, albeit with the sheets thrown into a corner of the room.  She made a mental note to pick them up when she got back and got to work preparing for yet another day of droll existence.
The next few days were typical, boring and slow. She cleaned up her house a little and commissioned a landscape portrait to try to brighten up her house, but it only took on the grey that seemed to envelop everything that went inside her home, herself notwithstanding.
	One day, while filing paperwork, she looked at another inconsequencal document to stamp. As she reached for the stamp she looked at the clock, 2:13. Then she took ahold of the stamp and took a final read of the document. She lost herself in thought for a moment, but then continued to skim and stamped the paper, clearing it for whatever purpose it was for, She noted that the day seemed to go by quicker then normal, as she walked back to her home.
	That night she lay in bed, she tried going to sleep but none overcame her, she tossed and turned into her sheets, before just throwing them into the same corner that seemed to always take them. A ringing started to enter her ears and all she could think of was her dream, falling, no end to the falling, no direction, time or perspective. She could see herself, falling, but standing. Always enveloped by that stagnant fog.
	*Thud*
	She awoke with a start in her office, twice as tired as when she was the previous night.
	"W-Wha, where?" she stuttered out, quite flustered
	"Here's your paperwork for the week, Mrs. Mayor," the head pony of treasury, Twitterbottom Goldstine, a pony with an abnormally large nose and cutey-mark of a multitude of sheckles, stated.
	"When did I get here Mr. Goldstine?" asked Mayor Mare sleepily.
	"I don't think you ever left, don't you remember?" replied the Treasurer.
	After a moment of internal deliberation, Mayor Mare let out an exasperated sigh and rubbed her temples, saying. "Maybe you're right, I must be getting old,"
	"Perhaps a vacation! You've gone too far without one, in my opinion," -quipped Twitterbottom,- "You need to relax, being a mayor pony takes so much work, I don't know how you do it!"
	"that's an excellent idea, have my secretary set up a date immediately!"
	"yes, Miss Mayor."
	Mayor Mare spent the rest of her week getting ready for the trip, she had it scheduled to a whole week on the Mareianis islands. Getting back massages, hooficures and the best part, no paperwork!
	The packing occupied most of her time, she put off or differed most of the paperwork to her secretary, whom was in need of an actual justification for a paycheck and continued employment. Despite the hard work, Mayor Mare began to experience lapses in time more frequently. She payed little heed to them however, as she was too preoccupied with her trip.
	Mayor Mare awoke from her bed in a start, not from any bad dreams, she's been devoid of dreams recently, but that doesn't concern her at the moment. Today is the day of the trip! She grabbed her Suitcase and hurried down to the Mayors office, required to wrap up some last minute things before the fun could begin. When she entered the building it was dark and appeared deserted.
	"Odd, it's before hours but surely somepony would be here by now?" she said to no one in particular as she reached for the light switch.
	*click*
	"SURPRISE!" yelled the faculty.
	There were balloons, confetti and other miscellaneous things littered around the building. All reading either "have a nice trip," or "happy birthday!", regardless Mayor Mare was delighted but nearly given a heart attack by the surprise. It was her birthday as well!
	'how could I of been so forgetful, it's my own birthday as well! No wonder Twitterbottom Scheduled my trip for today, he must of remembered as well.' she thought to herself.
	"thank you, but I mus-"
	"already been taken care of Miss. Mayor" yelled a female voice in the crowed, most likely her secretary.
	"well, in that case everypony, I guess I'll call for a cab, after of course I get a slice of cake."
	After the cake and various festivities hosted by the ponies they bid her a farewell, the carriage appeared at the front of the building to whisk Mayor Mare to her week long vacation. As she got in the carriage she glanced around the front of the building, many ponies were waving to her, balloons and cake still in their hands. Mr. Goldstine was there too, waving quite frantically; she observed him, and caught a glimpse of his eyes. They sent shivers down her spine as, just for a second, they appeared a poisonous green, with reptilian pupil slits; instead of his dull, grey irises. They reverted back into his normal dreary color as soon as he caught her staring at his eyes, and he gave a toothy smile, as if he knew that she was spying on him.
	Her vacation was in some ways, exactly what she needed,but in others it was the worst experience she had ever had. In the day, she would get massaged, treated like she was 20 years younger and even get hit on by some of the fellow attendees, but at night, she could never get into a deep sleep, being awakened by seemingly nothing in the muggy room in the tropical island chain. She kept peering out into the window in the middle of night, hoping to catch a peek of whatever she felt staring at her as she woke up. She went to go so far as to put a flashlight under her pillow as her anxiety reached levels of childhood nyctophobia and boogyman-anxiety, one instance being that her closet was closed and locked when she put her head down, and wide open when she awoke once more in the middle of the night.
	Despite the horrific night-terrors that plagued her, Mayor Mare was determined not to let any more of her hair turn grey over it, so she stayed the entire week. She would hardly talk after the 2nd day, but the spa employees weren't payed by words, The week eventually passed and she was anxious to return to her drab, but normal and predictable abode. The last day before her trip back to ponyville, she felt more tired then usual due to her anxieties keeping her up, so instead of wandering around the tropical island-chain she headed to her home after her tropical lunch and lay down for a nap. It was warm, but after tossing, turning and such she finally found a pseudo-comfortable position and drifted off into a nice, relaxing afternoon nap.
	Her dream, like most, didn't have a definitive start. She dreamt that she was young again, with one of her many coltfriends. One of the many that failed to impress her, and receded from her conscious memory. He was cute by her standards, and they were on the beach, overlooking an idyll pink, purple, and orange sunset plastered on thin and wavy high altitude clouds. As the sun set they were whispering sweet nothings into each others ears, each giggling in response. The rainbow-plastered sky turned a dark shade of blue, and her unnamed coltfriend broke from their gay activities and big her a farewell as he departed. A fog settled in from the vast expanse of sea and made its way to land, creeping in from the endless horizon. She herself got and went to leave, before it became too dark. She was nearing the line where sand meets grass as the fog enveloped the surrounding countryside. It made it difficult to see but she kept going, squinting to try to make out the distance. She heard a sound in the distance and turned to face it, it came from where her coltfriend left. She listened out and heard
	"help me, please!"
	Her heart dropped like a stone, and her nerves froze like hoarfrost as she recognized the voice in the seemingly endless fog. She followed the voice and tried to track its originator, Galloping in a blind panic. She made out a figure on the ground and put her hoof up to her face and turned her head away; unable to stomach the sight in front of her. Before her stood the mutilated remains of her coldfriend, his chest was torn open, the lungs had stopped operating, but heart still making an few occasional, erratic beats. His entrails were scattered about, a macabre effigy to cruelty, blood, and gore. The grass was stained red and a pool of it was forming under him. She could only stand there, shocked at the sight below her. She felt the contents of her stomach rise up as a fly landed in his chest cavety. She turned away once more and wretched bile unto the grass; Succeeding in making the smell of rot and blood-iron worse. She ran, ran from the abomination in front of her, ran from the horrible image, but she could never truly outrun it.
	The stench followed her deeper in the fog, the mental image still burned as vivid as reality. She kept running, lost and confused. She was in the middle of a field. Surrounded by nothing but the fog. She ran out of breath and stopped, the wind running gently around her as she panted for breath. A moment passed and she heard footsteps behind her. Her blood turned to ice in her veins and she could barely will herself to confront the noise. She turned around and was greeted by nothing. She mentally sighed, but heard more footsteps. More then one set, it came from at least 3 different ponies at the same time. The wind was picking up too, carrying with it whispers, the same static-filled droning. She kept turning around, trying identify the origins of the footsteps. In the distance she could see faint shadows, but they either didn't correspond with the footsteps or didn't make any noise to begin with. The Wind was gale-force now. Blowing her fur and mane. She started to run again, trying to escape the voices, the taunting, the shadows.
	The wind grew into hurricane strength, blowing sand into the air. it stung her throat, her eyes, her skin. She ran blindly until she tripped, scraping her face on the dirt. She stood up only to be faced with a silhouette of an extremely tall pony, she recognized it. It had green eyes, holes riddled along its hair, wings and body and a horn of jagged bone. It only smiled a toothy, fanged smile as it let the fog envelop it once more. The wind, the voices, and the static was so loud that she could almost see it. The sand was stinging the scrapes on her face, and she saw everything with a layer of visual snow over it. She stood, tears of irritation and stress in her eyes, against the Queen. The whispered turned into laughter, quiet and hollow, still radiating from everywhere, and nowhere. The confrontation lasted a brief minute before the outline pointed behind Mayor Mare, she turned around to see the same, lifeless corpse. Its glassed over eyes fixated in the air, an absent gaze of death. The lungs suddenly expanded in the broken ribcage, the eyes shot to Mayor mare, and the undead corpse whispered out "Help...me,"
	Mayor Mare awoke in a puddle of cold sweat and bile. She meekly picked herself up, took a quick shower and looked at the alarm clock, '3:28 AM' it read. She rubbed her eyes and started packing. She couldn't take this place anymore. She left 200 bits in the counter and a note that simply said. 'sorry for the mess,'
	It was stormy outside and she waited in the rain with her luggage, she was supposed to be picked up at 9:00, but she couldn't stand it anymore. The rain cleared up and an eternity and sunrise later the carriage arrived; whisking her back to ponyville in no time at all.
	The trip was long, but eventually she arrived back at the office. She was greeted relatively warmly and they let her back to her own devices. She fell asleep in her office and was woken up by her assistant when it was time to leave. Mayor Mare thanked her and bid her goodnight, and walked to her home.
	The next few weeks were a little strange. Everyone in the office seemed to give her the cold shoulder, ether being crass, almost blatantly rude to her, or avoiding her almost entirely. She also noticed that they weren't doing a lot, usually she would have be busy keeping up with paperwork, but such little got through the office that she was often left incredibly bored. She noticed that the treasury pony was never around; she inquired about it but, as the staff's now evident nature implied, she wasn't given much help in the matter.
	The next week, she called a Staff meeting. The office was not producing results and mayor Mare was upset. As as the ponies lazily filed into the center room Mayor Mare was infuriated, the attitude of the ponies' entry only added fuel to her fire.
	"Where is Mr. TwitterBottom, I haven't seen him in 3 weeks!" she screamed at no one in particular.
	one of the ponies casually replied "who?"
	Mayor Mare wasn't amused, but decided to change the subject to the more pressing matter, "Alright then, if no one can tell me where Twitterbottom is, can you at least tell me why work productivity is down to an all time low?"
	One of the accounting ponies smirked and replied "I think you might be going a little crazy," -With the word crazy her eyes flashed a poisonous green, before reverting to her emerald blue"
	Mayor mare was flustered, she didn't know how to react. The accounting pony continued, saying
	"ever since, and sometime before, your trip, you were slowly losing mental stability. You know this, and the faculty knows this, "-she motioned around the room- "Now, I think the best course of action would be for you to keep in your office, and mind your own business. Or maybe the public might catch wind of your rapidly deteriorating mental health, hmm?"
	The other employees grinned, and flashed their eyes. All of them had green, reptilian irises. Mayor Mare suddenly felt dizzy, she had to lay down. The rest of them only watched as she stumbled, and fainted.
	She woke up in her office, guarded by two of her former staff.
	"Why are you doing this to me?"
	"I'm sorry, Miss Mayor, someone will be here shortly."
	Mayor mare groaned dejectedly. She waited in her office until the front door bell chimed. She expected something different though, as what walked through the office was the mailpony. She strutted in like she owned the place and gave a mischievous grin at Mayor Mare, before transforming into her true self in a wave of green magic.
	"We meet once more, Mayor. Did you enjoy your trip?"
	Mayor Mare was shocked, "how did you know about my trip?"
	the Changling queen was keen to answer, transforming into the Treasury-pony before answering, "I think you knew."
	"But why me?"
	"oh you silly pony, your proximity to the higher-ups. If I just ran around town plucking townsfolk like turnips you would of tattled right to the queen and brought fire upon us all. Isn't it obvious? I made you insane! we had to get you away from town, and make you doubt yourself. What better way then with a little insanity spell? Do you think that Celestia doesn't know about your little 'condition'? the only reason you're not out on the street is because you serve no other purpose. You hurt yourself, you turned your own mind against you, all you needed was a little help." -She leaned in closer, leaning across the desk- "and do you want to know the best part?...You don't know if this is real right now. Now that you are no threat to me, I don't really find a use in wasting my magic on you anymore. You can continue your daily routines, in fact I encourage it. It makes it less suspicious. No one will believe you if you tell them that ponyville's entire government is full of changings anyway. So I hope you, My little Mayor Pony, have a very nice day.

	And so we are back where we started, Mayor Mare, a slave to her own insanity in both waking and sleep. With a hidden knowledge that may, or may not, change the course of pony history. and not a single pony will believe her, not even herself.