An Anonymous Werewolf in Canterlot 3

Previously: http://pastebin.com/H8Pi5qKw

Story Theme Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUQiUFZ5RDw

>No matter where you go, things never stop being strange.
>Of course, it's not just that strangeness actively follows you, but that you actively seek it out.
>This has, on occasion, necessitated that you leave home to chase down the curious, the cryptic and the crazy things that go bump in the night.
>That's what you've been doing for the last year: travelling from state to state, seeking all things unnatural.
>For two years now you've lived a life that is equal parts natural and supernatural; you and your friends walk the line between what is real and what only seems real.
>But unlike the first, this last year was spent on a trip, travelling from state to state in a large mobile home.
>It's been a nice journey: seeing the sights, taking pictures, making new friends, fighting freakish monsters of all shapes and sizes, the usual.
>That's what's taken you here, on your last leg of the journey, outside of the U.S. to the open stretches of Mexico.
>It's made local news that recently people have been disappearing, only for their corpses to show up days later.
>This only started after large amounts of the local wildlife started to die in much the same way, followed by farm animals, and now people.
>With sights turned to south of the border, you travelled here and now you find yourself staring at a most peculiar sight.

>The silence of the night air is punctuated by a shrill and terrified scream as a woman backs away from a monstrous beast.
>The gangly and quill-covered thing, its frame wiry and sickly-looking, looks upon her with burning red eyes and a maw of dripping fangs opens accompanied by a hungry growl as it advances towards her.
>She crawls on her back as it stalks her across the open farmland; she continues to scream and call for help, begging for the beast to leave her alone in her native tongue.
>But even if it could understand her, it wouldn't listen.
>The monster's talon-like claws dig into the soft dirt as it moves closer and closer to the shrieking woman, its hands poised and ready to tear her to shreds.
>Almost as if it is taking its time, relishing the terror of its victim…
>Alright.
>That's enough of that.
>Leaning down, you pick up a rock and throw it at the beast's head, smacking it squarely on the side of its forehead.
>The creature's face twists into a confused and angry visage as it turns its head towards you.
>You walk down the hill, lightly tossing another stone up and down in your hand.
>With a cocky swagger and a strong smirk, you do what you like to do the most and taunt the monster.

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to step away from the lady."
>The thing's red eyes size you up, quickly deciding that you are no threat.
>It turns back to the woman and is about to resume its dinner plans when it receives the second rock thrown even harder against its head.
"Hey! You're dealing with me now, ugly." You look at the woman and tell her to vámonos, which is just about the extent of your Spanish.
>She gets the idea and quickly runs off.
>As the beast shakes its head, it now turns its attention to you fully, angry at having lost its previous meal.
>You walk down the hill and approach it as it screeches at you in a shrill, loud cry.
>In the moonlight, you look at its thin form, with its patchy skin and needle-like quills.
>It's not even that large, barely bigger than a full-grown mastiff, with a face that looks both diseased and like it was run over by a car.
"Boy, you are just about the ugliest damn thing I've ever seen," you smile as you look at the thing. "You're supposed to be El Chupacabra? I was expecting something more beefy; you look like a starved and ugly dog. You'd think after all that Mexican food you'd at least look well-fed."
>The creature again gives a cry, its maw of sharp and long fangs opening up to spew spittle at you.
>You brush a small amount of saliva off of your shirt and cock an eyebrow.
"And bad breath to top it all off, too. If you aren't the ass-end of the evolutionary spectrum, I don't know what is. It's like all the other monsters got the good genes and all you got was what was left over."

>The monstrous goat-sucker seems disinterested in conversation, as it now moves forward to attack.
>Its hunched-over frame is well-suited to pouncing, as it seems more like a dog than a man, but if anyone is more qualified to deal with dog-man-things than you, you've yet to meet them.
>You move your foot back and bring up your hands, moving to grab the cryptid as it flies at you.
>Using your strength and skill, you manipulate its forward momentum and toss it clear over your head.
>This is not done without getting a few scratches from its claws; they tear your shirt and draw blood.
>It hits the ground and rolls, getting up after a moment and growling.
>You look at your arm and see three bright red lines under your shredded sleeve.
"That was rude," you say, reaching up and tearing the sleeve off completely. "Even the Jersey Devil had better manners than you."
>The Chupacabra charges back in, only to be met with a swift fist to the face that knocks it back.
>The beast backs up a few paces, rubbing its nose with a paw.
"That was for my shirt. The next twelve or so punches are going to be for the people you killed. Then we'll get to the animals, and brother, you've got a lot of punches coming up for them."
>As you hold up your fist, the scratches on your arm seal shut and any evidence of them existing, outside of a little bit of blood on your skin and your slightly-torn clothing, is gone.

>The beast runs up again and swipes at you, but you're more than ready to meet it head on.
>You dodge its first attack with a simple side-step, then punch it in the face again.
>Again and again it tries, and occasionally it manages to scratch you, but each time you respond with a swift punch to its face.
>Soon enough its nose is bloody and its face is bruised, but you're unharmed; each scratch is healed within moments.
>The most damage it's done so far is to your clothing, which is annoying, but clothes are cheap down here, so it's not much of a loss.
"I've seen better monsters in my sleep," you mock the beast as it scratches your arm, digging in deeply before you punch it again. "My best friend has a fish-man for a pet, and he put up a better fight than you!"
>Suddenly, the beast lunges forward and snaps its jaws around your left wrist, violently twisting.
>You let out a grunt as you pull against its mouth, which it is using to voraciously tug on your flesh.
"Alright, I've been using my left hand, but I think it's time you met my right," you say, curling your right hand into a fist. "Chew on THIS!"
>You swing it upwards in an uppercut against the monster's jaw, knocking a few teeth out.
>It lets go of your hand and reels backwards, crying out in pain as you shake out your left hand.
>There's a tooth lodged in your arm; you pull it out and inspect it for a moment before flicking it away.

"Nice tooth," you say with a smile. "Now then, I think it's time we stopped playing around."
>You run up to the monster and kick it in the chest, rolling it onto its back.
>Quickly stepping on its chest, you kneel down and hold it by the neck as you pummel it over and over with your right hand in a rain of blows.
>You punch again and again, until it stops scratching at your legs.
>You hold up your fist, red with its blood, and step off to dust your hands.
>As you brush your hands against your pants, you look back and see the thing struggling to get up.
"Haven’t had enough?” you ask with a smile. “Go on. Make my night.”
>It looks at you before rearing its head up to the night sky and letting out a loud, painful cry.
>The shrill, high-pitched wail reaches out far and wide, and after it is over, its call is answered: more are heard in the distance, echoing out over the hills.
>You wait with a smile on your face as its reinforcements begin to arrive.
>It's just like Twilight hypothesized; there is more than one of them.
>And now they come out of the darkness, running in small packs up towards the farm.
>They leap over the fence and through the plants, running up until they have you surrounded on three sides.
You wipe some sweat from your brow as you look at them. “Consider my night made…”
>Their red eyes gleam in the dim light of the crescent moon, their mouths snarling and snapping as they slowly approach.

>Even the one you subdued and beat to a pulp is back up, bolstered by the appearance of its pack.
>You put your hands on your hips and smile even wider.
"Wow, you brought friends! I wish I had thought of that."
>For a moment, nothing happens.
>You blink and then look back over your shoulder.
"I said: I WISH I HAD THOUGHT OF THAT!"
>Your hyper-sensitive ears pick up the sound of an engine starting.
>Two large headlights shine down from atop the nearby hill, startling the pack.
>The mobile home roars to life as its driver slams down on the peddle, lurching the massive vehicle down the hill.
>As the monsters scramble over each other to escape, it slams into several of them, running them over and crushing them with its sheer bulk.
You bring a hand up in a half-shrug. "You still missed your cue. Whatever."
>As the creatures regroup nearby, the side door to the grand caravan bursts open as a blonde-haired gun-toting girl emerges, trigger-happy like it's the Fourth of July.
>Shotgun in hand, Applejack blasts one of the creatures as they leap at her, painting the side of the vehicle with blood.
>As one of the monsters that wasn't run over climbs on top of the vehicle, the roof hatch slams open and a pink-haired winged vixen emerges, spreading her large, bat-like wings as she takes flight from within.
>The vampire swoops down and tackles the Chupacabra off of the roof, carrying it up into the sky by its neck.

>The pack moves in, hoping to overwhelm you in greater numbers, but they don't realize just who you have on your side.
>From the entrance come two of your heavy-hitters; Gummy and Spike.
>The gill-man and the flesh golem both roar as they charge into the fray, joining you as you hold off the horde; you have your hands around two of the creature's throats and were using them to keep the others at bay.
>But as Spike runs in, his massive and bulky frame dwarfing the dog-like creatures, he brings up a massive boot and slams it down on one of them, all but snapping it in half.
>Gummy is more vicious, equipped with sharp teeth and claws, and he puts them to great use as he tears into the creatures with abandon.
>As Applejack puts down another with her last shotgun shell, she drops the weapon and draws a crossbow from her back.
>Taking aim, she fires and impales another two beasts; the silver bolt flies cleanly through the first and nails the second to the ground, where it kicks and screams in pitiful pain.
>As she takes out another bolt, a dead Chupacabra falls onto the ground next to her; Fluttershy then swoops in to pick up another victim.
>You toss aside the two creatures you were holding and look around, seeing another two figures emerge from the mobile home.
>Pinkie Pie, armed with a small cannon she's borrowed from Applejack, aims at one of the nearby beasts that snarls at her.

>"Bye-bye~!" she says in a sing-song voice before blasting it away.
>The projectile, a combination of a cannonball and confetti, bursts cleanly through its stomach and out its back, completely blowing it in half.
>Alongside her, Rainbow Dash steps out and over a dead monster as she holds up a sword in its sheath.
>With a wicked smile on her face, she draws the blade out and holds it up high as it glows with a bright light, briefly illuminating the battlefield.
>The Chupacabras all shy away from the light as it encompasses her body; two beams emerge from her back and turn into angelic wings.
>As the light dies down, the wings remain, and the Valkyrie is ready to party.
>She kicks off the ground with a single beat of her wings, kicking up dust and sand behind her as she flies towards the nearest one.
>With a single swing of her sword, she cuts it in half.
>She then follows this up by dragging her sword along the ground, leaving a cutting trial behind her as she slices into another one while flying past.
>She circles around the battlefield, picking off the stragglers, before she lands next to you.
>"So, are you done showing off yet, or what?" she asks with a big grin. "Just transform already! You're not impressing anybody."
"I'm enjoying myself," you say, picking up one of them and snapping its neck with your bare hands.
>"Yeah. I'm worried about you, dude." One of the monsters then leaps at her, which she impales on her sword.

"Well I'm not the only one," you joke, kicking the beast off her blade.
>Before she can reply, a cry is heard throughout the field, louder and more ear-splitting than any up until this point.
>The Chupacabras all seem to back up a few paces and part as a new foe appears, moving through their ranks to the front.
>This one is larger than all of the others, bigger even than a man, and twice as ugly and mean-looking.
>You let out a long, low whistle as you look at the leader of the pack.
"Now, I have seen some damn ugly monsters in my time, but you take the ugly cake."
>It roars at you, eyes blazing and drool dripping off gnarled fangs.
"Hey! Don't be mad at me, be mad at your mother for not bashing your head against a rock when you were born." You look the creature up and down. "Of course, she might have, it's hard to tell."
>Your friends all snicker as the alpha charges, with the rest of its pack following.
>You immediately drop your smile and rush back at it, meeting it in the middle.
>The two of you clash against each other, but it has the strength of a bear and quickly overwhelms you.
>It knocks your hands aside and then swipes a paw across your face, digging deeply into your skin and tearing out a few chunks before it knocks you aside.
>You hit the ground as Spike and Gummy move in to deal with the beast.

>Nearby, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rainbow Dash are handling the rest as best they can.
>You cough and shake your head, feeling a very painful stinging sensation all around your face.
>It'll heal, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt like a bitch.
>As you pick yourself up, you feel a hand on your shoulder.
>You look up and see Twilight standing over you, holding a syringe full of green glowing liquid.
>"Are you ready?" she asks, squirting some of it out to get rid of any air.
You nod. "Hit me with the juice."
>She brushes aside part of your torn shirt and holds the syringe right over your heart before plunging it in, injecting its contents directly into your bloodstream.
>Your eyes shoot wide open as you feel the green fluid being swiftly carried all throughout your body.
>The effects are almost instantaneous; your skin feels like it is on fire as every nerve in your body screams at once.
>You throw your head back and shout as something deep within you awakens.
>In the dark recesses of your soul, forced prematurely out of his slumber, the Wolf begins to surface.
>As he claws his way to the front of your mind, your body begins to change.
>Your spine grows, along with your skull; your skin is stretched and elongated as your mouth begins to jut forward unnaturally.
>Lips curl away from teeth that grow and change, getting sharper and yellower.
>As your back, shoulders and chest expand, the remnants of your shirt tear away, as do your pants, shoes and socks, until you are completely nude.

>Your feet and hands spread out, with your fingers and toes thickening into paws.
>Afterwards, claws sprout out from their ends, which then dig into the earth as the painful transformation moves into its next phase.
>As your legs painfully snap and grow new joints near your feet, a tail forms at the end of your spine.
>With your face now fully formed into its new shape and your ears now pointed, your hair begins to lengthen as well.
>All over your body, grey and white hair begins to form until you are completely covered in it, along with a slightly-bushy tail.
>The final and most minute changes take place as the transformation comes to a close, and your eyes snap open, revealing bright golden orbs that shine in the darkness.
>With your claws still dug into the earth, you rear upwards, now much larger than an average human, and point your head up to the sky.
>You then let out a long, loud howl to the quarter-full moon, alerting everyone that the Wolf has returned.
>When you stop, you stand up on your hind legs, hunched over as you look at the alpha Chupacabra throwing Spike and Gummy off of him.
>Your muzzle opens and you bark a challenge at him, growling and baring your fangs.
>Twilight steps out of the way and back towards the RV, where she sets aside the used syringe and quickly begins preparing the counter-solution in a larger autoinjector.

>The largest Chupacabra faces you directly, answering your challenge with a cry of its own.
>Behind your wolfen eyes, you and your animalistic companion work as one to focus on your newest foe.
‘Let’s show that ugly son of a bitch what a real monster is,’ you think, and the Wolf agrees with your sentiment.
>You take a few steps towards the alpha, your feet leaving large paw prints in the dirt.
>One of the lesser beasts leaps at you in an attempt to stop you, but you snap your larger jaws around its neck and twist, snapping it as easily as a candy bar.
>You drop the body and then charge at the alpha, grabbing a smaller Chupacabra in your claws as you do, before using it as a club and bashing the alpha over the head.
>Both monsters let out a screech as you do this.
>Once the alpha is on the ground, you toss the lesser beast away and descend upon the creature that clawed your face earlier.
>What ensues is a struggle for dominance as both of you roll on the ground, snapping and clawing at each other.
>In your human form, the alpha was much larger and stronger, but now you are on even ground.
>Both of your jaws clamp around each other’s shoulders, digging deeply into the flesh.
>But unlike you, he doesn’t have the supernatural power of the moon on his side; though only quarter-full, it continually rejuvenates you, providing you with regenerative healing and constant stamina.

>Not only that, but your body is more suited to combat than his.
>Your thicker coat makes it harder for him to hurt you, whereas his comparatively wiry form is all too easy for you to bite and claw.
>Though his attempts at pushing back against you are admirable, you ultimately begin to push him back as his clawed feet drag through the dirt.
>Around you, the battle continues to rage, with Applejack and Fluttershy teaming up to take down more of them.
>The vampire picks them up and throws them into the sky, where the monster hunter shoots them as they fall, not unlike recreational skeet shooting.
>With you taking on the alpha, Spike and Gummy are free to mop up the remainder around him, keeping you free from smaller pests attempting to swarm you and protect their larger cousin.
>That leaves Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie to clean up the perimeter, taking care of any who try to escape.
>Rainbow soars overhead, dipping down and spinning with her wings held close against her body as she holds her sword out.
>This creates a whirling, chopping cyclone that quickly slices several of the creatures down.
>Pinkie, meanwhile, has reloaded her cannon and fires another confetti-covered cannonball at a group of them, which blows cleanly through three of the monsters, taking the third one’s leg clean off.
>”Talk about a fiesta! Aye-yai-yai!” she cries with a big smile on her face.

>At the mobile home, Rarity has appeared in the doorway, having left the driver’s seat, and is helping Twilight with the necessary post-battle preparations.
>With so much going on, one could almost be forgiven for being distracted.
>You don’t see the alpha’s hand come up to your face and dig into your eye, nearly gouging it out.
>Your vision turns half red and you howl in pain as you back up a few steps.
>The Chupacabra attempts to follow up with another attack, but you then spring forward and tackle it to the ground.
>There, in furious rage, you snap your jaws tightly shut around its throat, clamping so tightly that it can no longer breathe.
>It kicks and claws at you but you hold it in place, shaking your head slightly as your mouth fills up with its blood.
>Eventually, after a few moments, the creature chokes to death, unable to breathe.
>It twitches a few times, claws grasping at nothing in its death throes, until it is completely still.
>You stand up, your maw dripping with blood, as you pick up the body of the alpha and hoist it over your head.
>With a great howl, you throw the body down onto the earth and step upon it, roaring triumphantly.
>Their leader dead and their numbers decimated, the remainder quickly loses any heart to fight and flees.
>Rainbow is about to chase after them, but is stopped by Fluttershy.

>”No! Remember what Twilight said.”
>”But… Argh! Fine.”
>Both of their eyes are then drawn back to you as you growl, digging your claws into the alpha and tearing it to pieces.
>With the corpse destroyed, now your attention turns to your friends, who are carefully surrounding you.
>Inside your head, you watch this happen, knowing what must be done.
>They’ve done it at least a dozen times by now, and know what to do.
>The problem is, the Wolf knows it as well, and doesn’t want to go through with it.
>”Easy there, big fella,” Applejack says, taking out her lasso. “Fight’s over. It’s time to back down and let Anon back out.”
>The Wolf snaps at her, baring your fangs.
>Nearby, Twilight holds up the autoinjector as Spike and Gummy stand protectively in front of her.
>Rainbow and Fluttershy land behind you.
>And inside, you speak to the Wolf.
‘Just calm down. You know what’s going to happen.’
>’Not this time,’ the bestial spirit barks back. ‘Not this time!’
>Once he comes out to play, he never wants to go back in the cage.
>He crouches low and then pounces upwards, intending to escape and have some fun of his own.

>Fluttershy, having anticipated this, shoots up and tackles you from behind, taking you to the ground.
>Once there, Applejack quickly throws her lasso around your neck and pulls it tight as she and Fluttershy work together to hold you down.
>The Wolf desperately resists this, thrashing in her grip.
>Spike and Gummy are there in an instant to hold down your arms and prevent you from clawing at Fluttershy or the rope.
>Your mouth snaps violently as you attempt to bite them, but they’ve done this plenty of times before and know just where to hold you to stay out of the reach of your claws and teeth.
>Twilight and Rainbow walk up to you, and the scientist hands the Valkyrie the autoinjector.
>Rainbow bites the cap off and turns it so that the needle is facing downwards.
>Quick as a rabbit, she darts forward and stabs it down into your heart.
>The Wolf howls in pain and continues to snap and growl, but as the serum of the counter-solution works its way into your body, he loses more and more strength.
>’One day,’ he growls in your mind. ‘One day, she won’t be around…’
>His threats are empty and you simply let him fade back into the darkness of your mind.
>As the serum runs through your blood, you begin to change back.
>The others all let go as your body rapidly shifts, growing smaller until you are human once more.
>Rarity is quick to provide a blanket for your nude form from the cabin in the RV.
>Though painful, you bear the pain of the transformation that you have felt at least a hundred times now and wait for it to finish.

>Your mouth is left feeling slightly numb as your teeth return to their normal shape.
>Not to mention the killer headache that never seems to get any easier.
>Twilight always mixes in a little bit of painkiller to make the return transformation less painful, but it leaves you dizzy for a while.
>You sit up and rub your head while the others take stock of the battlefield.
>Twilight kneels down next to you. “How are you feeling? Do you need something to help with the pain?”
“No,” you grunt. “No, I’m fine.”
>Applejack offers a hand and helps you up to your feet.
>You pull the blanket close and let her do so.
>Not far away, Rarity is fussing about the large spatter of blood on her RV.
>”Applejack! How could you be so careless? Look at what you did!”
>”Aw, can it Rares, you ran over like six of ‘em anyway!”
>Pinkie Pie bounces up. “It’s okay, Rarity! We can take it to the car wash like that time we got it stuck in the swamp with the skunky ape-people!”
>The purple-haired girl shivers. “Ugh! Don’t remind me! Such abhorrent stenches in that swamp…”
You look around at the bodies on the ground. “So… Are we gonna have to clean this up? Because it’s at least two in the morning…”

>Twilight shakes her head. “No, I don’t think so.” She turns over to Applejack and asks, “Did our plan work?”
>”You’re darn tootin’,” she replies, walking over to a nearby ditch.
>You and Twilight walk up and look down to see a live Chupacabra, specifically the one you were fighting one-on-one earlier, tied up in a net.
“Ugly bastard, isn’t he?” you ask.
>”But alive,” Twilight points out. “Now, when the authorities arrive, the Mexican government will have no choice but to investigate the recent rise in the Chupacabra population.”
>She takes out her phone. “An anonymous tip to a local news outlet should do it. Once this hits the news, the whole world will know. Unless they cover it up. In either case the problem will still be dealt with. I’ll make the call.”
>She walks off as Applejack approaches you.
>”I guess your plan to be bait worked.”
“We should do it more often. It was fun.”
>Rainbow, using a rag to clean the blood off of her sword, walks up. “Yeah, what the hell was up with you, anyway? Getting all taunting with it and stuff?”
You shrug. “Like I said, it was fun.”
>The rainbow-haired girl gives you a look of concern as you turn back to the RV.
>Inside is a change of clothes, including a new pair of shoes, which you forgot to take off before transforming.
>Again.

>As you pass by Gummy, Pinkie Pie is checking him over.
>”Did you have fun, Gummy? Did you have fun tearing apart all those meanie-weenie Chupacabras?” She hugs him close and pats the fish man on his head. “Yes you did, yes you did!”
>He gives an affectionate growl and hugs her back.
>The sight of the cute, pink-haired party girl hugging the bloodstained monster is, as always, equal parts disturbing and sweet.
>Near the entrance to the RV, Rarity is using a flashlight to check over Spike.
>”I’m okay, Rarity, really,” he says.
>”Oh! Some of the stitching on your neck came loose! We need to get that fixed right away! We can’t have your head coming off!”
>”I’m fine…” he grumbles as she fishes around in a bag for her sewing kit.
>You walk past without saying anything and enter the RV.
>Inside, Fluttershy is tending to Angel in his cage.
>You move past her, but she turns and speaks.
>”Anon? Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I just need a drink.”
>You open the cabinet and take out a bottle of whiskey.
>Fluttershy is concerned, but doesn’t object as you plop down on the couch and take a swig.
>You swallow it down and let it rest for a minute before taking another drink.
>You don’t think you have a problem, but lately you’ve found that it helps after transforming to get just a little bit hammered; it keeps your head from aching too hard.

>Twilight enters the RV. “Alright, I left a message. We need to get out of here before anyone comes looking.”
>”Did you get your samples?” Applejack asks.
>Twilight holds up a bag and several jars containing Chupacabra remains. “You know it!”
You set the bottle down in your lap. “Does this mean we’re leaving Mexico now?”
>The scientist nods. “I don’t see any reason to stay.”
>”The food!” Pinkie calls from outside.
>At that moment, Rainbow pushes past them and looks at you on the couch. “Come on, man. At least get dressed before you get drunk. Last thing we need is for that blanket to slip and everyone to get a look at your little werewolf.”
>Some of the other girls snicker.
>You respond by taking another drink, but then heading to the bathroom to change.
>Once inside, you set the whiskey down and shower off the blood.
>Outside, you can hear the others packing their things up and getting ready to leave.
>Soon enough, the RV starts up and you’re driving off.
>You lean up against the wall of the shower as the water runs down your body, taking a deep breath.
‘Leaving Mexico,’ you think to yourself. ‘Two weeks spent tracking these damn Chupacabras. It took way longer than we thought.’
>You turn off the water and step out to towel off.
>Your phone is on the counter.

>You pick it up and check it; one missed call from Sunset Shimmer.
>The date, now that you’re past midnight, is October 1st.
>Originally your group had planned to be back in Canterlot by this date.
>This trip has been fun, but it’s been too long---you’re homesick.
>But that’s not the only reason you’re feeling the way you are.
>After all, October is when the stranger things tend to start happening around home.
>Thinking back on the last two years---Archsepsis, and then Spencer---you can only wonder what might be going on now.
>Of course, you hope that after such an eventful trip like this, nothing will happen.
‘After all, we’ve been through two doomsday scenarios in the last two years in October; what are the chances that this will be the third in a row?’
>You pause for a moment, then reach for the bottle and take another drink.
>Setting the bottle aside, you pause and look into the mirror.
>You look rather tired, all things considered.
>The scars are gone, the physical ones at least.
>You open your eyes and examine how bloodshot they seem.
>While not entirely red, they don't look very white either.
>Coupled with the bags under them, it's clear that you haven't been getting as much sleep as you used to.
>The RV bumps along; these old back roads aren't very smooth or well-paved, so on occasional the entire room shakes.

>You turn on the faucet and splash some water on your face before taking a deep breath.
'I'm losing it,' you think to yourself. 'Every time it's not the full moon, it's like I'm thrown into a meat grinder.'
>Your hand comes to rest over your heart, where the serum is injected each time you need to trigger a transformation.
>It's not as painless as it was with the moonstone; quite the opposite, really.
'It's tenderizing me, making me weaker. The meat's getting soft.'
>You may think that, but it is in a purely metaphorical sense.
>Your human body has never been stronger.
>You've been prioritizing transforming less and less, focusing on fighting the supernatural with your mind rather than letting the Wolf out of his cage.
>To that end, you've been honing yourself over the last year with a strict workout regimen and diet.
>The thought was good, but more often than not, a monster comes along and proves too difficult to handle with more conventional means, forcing you to fight on its territory.
>But with no moonstone to transform, that's where the serum that Twilight invented comes in.
>After two years of intense study of your lycanthropic qualities, she managed to isolate the physical trigger that forces the transformation itself to take place, thus allowing you to transform with a single injection.
>You never would have accepted it unless she had the counter-solution as well, which forces you to change back into human state.

>It was theorized there could be side effects; transitioning from a physically-forced transformation as opposed to a magical-based one carried a number of then-unknown variables.
>No one could have really known that it would result in you losing whatever control you had gained over the Wolf after the Spencer Incident last year.
>You look back into the mirror, staring into your golden-eyed reflection, and think about your first serum-induced transformation.
>It wasn't pretty---for you, or your friends.
>And ever since, you've been back to battling him in the realm of your mind, forced to live alongside him again.
>When you're not transformed he keeps quiet, usually.
>Sometimes you have an odd craving here or there for raw meat, but it's not too intrusive.
>No, ultimately the greatest negative effect it had on you was that you began to distance yourself from the others.
>Spending more and more time by yourself, getting lost in your new physical training or reading.
>You thought that if you could hone your body and mind, you could better control the animal within, and you were correct up to a certain limit.
>Your personal relationships suffered for it, though.
>When this trip began, you were dating Dash.

>At first she was very supportive of your new lifestyle; being very active herself, she was quick to work out with you.
>Then came the desire to be alone, snapping back at her, arguments and worse.
>You splash some water on your face again.
>Some things were said that probably shouldn't have been said, and there's been some animosity ever since.
>For the sake of the job, you two have remained on the team, though there isn't as much interaction between you as there used to be.
You let out a sigh. 'I screwed up. I didn't need to let things get the way they are.'
>Thinking about your relationship with Dash brings you back to your phone, and the missed call from Sunset, another monster-hunting ex-girlfriend, and the only one absent from the road trip.
>You hesitate briefly, then pick it up to dial her.
>It rings twice and then is answered.
>"Hello? Anon?"
"Hey. You called?"
>"Yeah. What time is it over there?"
"About two or three in the morning."
>"What are you doing still up?"
"Washing Chupacabra blood off myself. Nothing new."
>"So you finally found it? What happened?"
"There were a lot more than we thought, but we handled it." You rub your forehead and sigh. "I had to transform again."

>Her she sounds concerned. "How are you feeling?"
"Worse each time. I don't know what it is."
>"Well... maybe you should stop. You remember what happened to Twilight when she took too much of her reagent, right? Maybe there could be something similar happening."
"I don't know. I don't take it as often as that, but that doesn't make it any better. It's like... every time it just keeps making me, I don't know, angrier, more distant. I think it's changing me."
>"Is it the serum, or you?"
You sit down with your back against the wall. "I don't know."
>A moment of silence passes.
>"Well, keep me informed. I still worry about you guys."
"What time is it in Egypt?"
>"About nine-thirty in the morning. Not too bad. I'll be coming home to Canterlot in a few days."
"Is... 'it' safe?"
>"Yes. It's somewhere nobody will find it, trust me."
"Alright. I'll take your word for it. Are you sure it can't just be burnt?"
>"That wouldn't be a good idea. The power contained in it would be much more dangerous if released in such a way. It's better to hide it away."

"I understand. It's kind of like that with the Wolf, I suppose. Better to keep him hidden away than let him out and play."
>"You know, if you're really worried, we might be able to link up when we're both home and figure out a magical solution. Maybe something I have can remedy whatever you feel is wrong. Or maybe we could make a new moonstone; I don't know how, but it could be possible."
"We’ve been all over the states and Canada and we never found another one. We'll see... It might take a few days for us to get home, depending on how long it takes us. I'd like us to hurry up, we were in Mexico too long. It's October already."
>She understands what that might mean.
>"With the timing, we might end up coming home around the same time. You haven't heard anything strange from back home, have you?"
"No. At least, nothing that Big Mac has called back about."
>"Well that's good at least. I've been hearing about some strange things over here."
"In Egypt? What, a mummy uprising? Pharaoh coming back? Do we need to fly out there and punch him in the face too?"
>"Oh, shut up," she laughs. "No. People are saying that they are seeing strange lights over some of the pyramids at night, but nobody can be certain if it's real or what it means."
You let out a chuckle. "Ahh, so it's the 'ancient aliens' coming to take back the pyramids!"
>She laughs again. "I missed this."
"Well, wait until we get home, then you can have all the sarcasm you want."
>There is a bit of silence again before she asks, "So... how are things between you and Rainbow? Any better?"

>Your smile slowly fades.
"No. Still the same."
>"Okay, well, if you ever want to talk about it, I'm here."
>You scratch the top of your head in frustration as your thumb rubs up and down the side of the phone.
"No thanks, I'll be alright. I'll deal with it."
>"If you're sure." She changes the topic and her tone a bit. "Well, I should probably let you go. You need to get some sleep."
"Tell me something I don't know. Hey, why did you call originally?"
>"I just wanted to see how you guys were doing."
"Yeah, but why me? Why not Twilight or AJ?"
>Silence.
>"I just... wanted to see how you were doing."
>For a few moments more, the two of you remain silent on the phone.
"Good talking to you, Sunny. See you soon?"
>"Yeah. Bye."
"Bye."
>You hang up and set the phone in your lap before running your hands up and down your face.
>As you sit and think, your train of thought is suddenly interrupted by a hard pounding on the door.

>Rainbow shouts from the other side, "Hey! There's more than one person covered in monster blood out here! Come on!"
>You stand up and get dressed before opening the door.
>Dash makes brief eye contact before standing aside to let you past, but doesn’t say anything else.
>She shuts the door behind her and you head to your bunk.
>The nice thing about Rarity’s RV is just how extravagant it is on the inside, and it should be---it's massive on the outside, too.
>You living in close quarters with the others has been made a lot easier thanks to this.
>It’s also very comfortable, with lavish furnishings and plenty of amenities.
>The luxury of the mobile home has allowed a number of things on this trip that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise, such as bringing Gummy along.
>What with him needing to be hydrated every so often and such at the risk of drying out otherwise.
>Pinkie takes great care of him; much like Rarity does for Spike, who has also been along for the ride.
>You pass by him as he drinks from a cup of grape juice, his favorite, while Twilight sits nearby with a book and a microscope.
>She definitely doesn’t waste any time, as she is already studying the remains of the Chupacabras.
>Spike watches curiously, but doesn’t interrupt her.
>He’s gotten much smarter in the last year or so; Twilight attributes this to his body continually adjusting and learning new things.

>Reemerging trace memories or patterns in the brain they put in his skull may also be the reason for his boost in intellect, but that’s not to say that he’s exceptionally clever or anything.
>In fact, most would compare him to something of a ten-year-old or somewhere in that range.
>Another useful thing about the size of the RV is its ability to hide things you wouldn’t want to be seen crossing a national border with, such as fish-men, reanimated corpses and Applejack’s loads of weaponry, along with most of Twilight’s questionably-legal equipment.
>And by questionably-legal, you mean completely illegal nuclear accelerators meant to be used in fighting ghosts.
>That’d be tricky to explain to a border patrolman, so it’s better that they just don’t know.
>Pinkie Pie is in her bunk snoring away, but Fluttershy isn’t, as she’s sitting in her bunk and also reading a book.
>She’s more of a nighttime kind of girl anyway.
>Applejack and Rarity are up front; they often take turns alternating between driving and sleeping.
>With Gummy in the second shower, that accounts for everyone.
>You crawl into bed and adjust your pillow before closing your eyes.
>Before you go to sleep, Rainbow comes back and crawls into her bunk above yours.
>With the lights off, all you can do is really hear and smell her.
>She’s still using that same shampoo that she always uses; that’s the first thing your nose picks up.

>You close your eyes again and finally get to sleep.
>The next day, after not nearly enough sleep and a close encounter with the border patrol when Gummy was nearly found, you find yourselves in Texas, eating at a roadside diner.
>Outside, Applejack hooks up the RV to a pumping station to expel garbage and waste while also filling up the truck.
>Rarity assists her, but lets her do most of the dirty work.
>To her credit, she is ready with a handkerchief to clean Applejack’s dirty hands and cheeks with.
>They come back inside to find you all sitting at a table and scoot into the booth on Fluttershy’s left.
>The waitress walks up with a notepad and a hairstyle that looks a few decades out of style.
>”Mornin’ y’all. What can we get ya?”
>”Black coffee,” Applejack is quick to answer.
>”Tea, please,” Fluttershy says.
>Pinkie’s next. ”Coca-Cola!”
>”Lemonade,” is Twilight’s choice. “Not too much sugar, please.”
>”Coffee with sugar and cream, but separate and with a little spoon so I can stir it in myself,” Rarity says with a polite smile, at which the waitress raises her eyebrow but jots it all down.
>”Ice water,” Dash says, and then it’s you.
“The same. Ice water.”
>She jots it all down. “Anythin’ to order yet?”
>Not everyone is ready, but you are.

“Steak, please. Extra rare.” You pause for a moment as she writes it down, but then you say, “Actually, make it two if you could. On the same plate.”
>”You want anythin’ on the side?”
“No thank you. Just steak.”
>The waitress cocks a brow, but none of your friends do: they’re used to it.
>After a little longer of studying the menu, the others order breakfast; Rarity and Pinkie Pie make sure to order two extra to-go meals.
>When she leaves, Twilight places her phone on the table and opens up her travel planner app.
>”Well, at this rate, we’ll be back in Canterlot in two days if we drive straight on and keep stops to a minimum.”
“And if we don’t stop at all?” you ask, drawing some of their eyes towards you.
>”Well, we’ll need to stop,” Twilight points out. “Gas and such.”
“I know, I just hate that when we started this little road trip, it was always our goal to be back by now.”
>”Yeah, well, things happen,” Rainbow says in a slightly sour tone.
>You stare at her while the others remain awkwardly silent.
>Twilight clears her throat. “Well, it’s not so bad. We’ll only miss the month by a few days.”
>Applejack tips up her hat. “Yeah! Besides, nothin’ ever happens at the beginnin’ of October. It always happens near the end, ‘round Halloween.”

>”And perhaps nothing at all will happen this year,” Rarity points out. “I mean, not to jump to conclusions or anything, but we are effectively out of enemies, aren’t we? What with that Spencer fellow perishing and all the work we did in rounding up all the escaped---“
>She stops speaking as the waitress comes back with the drinks.
>Once she is gone, Rarity resumes, “---the escaped individuals.”
>You down nearly half of your drink and shake your head.
“I don’t know,” you say to Rarity. “I can’t shake the feeling. The hairs on my neck have been standing up. I keep waiting for something to happen or for one of us to get a bad phone call.”
>Applejack and Twilight exchange slightly worried looks.
>The blonde leans over the table and asks, “Are you alright, sugarcube? You’ve been awfully… well, somber lately.”
“I’m fine,” you say, taking another bite and swallowing. “I’m just… still tired, is all.”
>In her drink, Rainbow mutters “Suuure…”
>The table is then mostly silent until the food arrives.
>Yours is obvious, since it’s pretty simple; two hunks of barely-cooked meat.
>You lick your lips and start chomping down as soon as it arrives.
>Fluttershy’s meal is set in front of her, and then Pinkie Pie’s, but the energetic girl isn’t in her seat.
>She’s climbed out of the booth and is in front of the jukebox, flipping through tunes, eagerly searching for something.
>Suddenly, the group hears Pinkie Pie saying, “Oooo~!” as she finds just the right song.

>She plays it and suddenly the upbeat sounds of a guitar start to come out of the jukebox and played over a few speakers.
>You know the song: Creedance Clearwater Revival’s Bad Moon Rising.
>Pinkie Pie skips over and puts a hand on your shoulder.
>”Cheer up, Anon! We’re going HOME! No need to be so grumpy-wumpy all the time!”
>In the background, John Fogerty starts to sing and Pinkie sings along with him, “I see a bad moon rising! I see trouble on the way! I see earthquakes and lightning! I see bad times today!”
>The others are all amused at the lyrical connection to both your lycanthropy and doom-saying, but you aren’t.
>Maybe you just can’t take much of a joke this morning.
>You down the rest of your drink and stand up.
“I’ll be outside.”
>”Aw, come on,” Pinkie says, trying to get you to dance with her to the song. “Please cheer up? Pretty please with sugar on top?”
>She gives you her biggest, most friendly and heartwarming smile and puppy-dog eyes.
>Defeated by her masterful tactics, you give in and start dancing with her to the song, finally starting to lighten up and set your worries behind you.
>Rarity snaps a quick photo for the album as Applejack taps along to the beat and Fluttershy hums the words to herself.
>Rainbow eats her food, purposefully not watching.
>The only other person not watching is Twilight, whose attention is drawn to a nearby television.

>It’s small and in the corner of the room and playing local news, but she can make out the headlines.
>Twilight stands up and scoots past the others to approach the diner’s counter while you spin Pinkie around, where she asks the chef, “Excuse me, sir? Could you please turn that up?”
>He looks at the TV, shrugs and turns the mute function off.
>”…a dazzling display last night as the skies over northern American territories were treated to a grand meteor shower, one of the largest in recent recorded history. Dozens of small lights streaked across the sky in a spectacular show from space.”
>The co-anchor then says, “Yes, I saw it from my window last night; it was absolutely marvelous! A once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon, some observers are calling it.”
>”What is it, Twilight?” Fluttershy asks.
>”I’m just wondering why we didn’t see that, is all.”
>”Well, we were pretty busy last night…” Rainbow replies. “Plus, we were in Mexico. Maybe it just wasn’t seen down there.”
>”I would’ve liked to observe it,” Twilight says as she walks back. “Astronomy is one of my passing hobbies.”
>”Tell us something we don’t know, Miss Master-of-Every-Science,” Rainbow jokes.
>The jukebox finishes playing the song as the lyrics wrap up, “Don't come around tonight, well, it's bound to take your life! There's a bad moon on the rise!”
>As it does, you spin Pinkie away and she ends it with a big bow.
>Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity all applaud, and you give a little bow of your own.

>As you both take your seats again, following Twilight who does the same, Pinkie says, “Hey, didja ever notice how that last part always sounds like, ‘There’s a bathroom on the right’?”
>Everyone snickers and finishes up eating, then contributes to the table tab to pay before heading out to the RV.
>After leaving the diner and helping Applejack and Rarity unhook the pumps from the RV, you’re all loaded up and rolling in minutes.
>Everyone settles into their little areas of the mobile home as Applejack drives in order to allow Rarity to bring Spike his breakfast.
>She places the to-go box in front of him as Pinkie Pie passes by to do the same for Gummy.
>Spike eagerly licks his lips and rubs his hands together, but upon opening it, he seems disappointed.
>”Aw… I wanted scrambled eggs.”
>”Nonsense, dear! Scrambled eggs are a simpleton’s meal. Sunny side up is the proper way eggs are to be enjoyed.”
>Nearby, Rainbow scoffs. “Whatever, Rarity. Eggs are eggs! Let him have it the way he likes.”
>Rarity lets out a small ‘hmpf’ of disapproval. “It’s all in the presentation, darling. I wouldn’t expect you to understand the intricacies of true cuisine.”
>Rainbow leans over the table and looks her square in the eyes. “Oh yeah? Well, I guess some of us are a little bit too busy to care about crud like that. Sometimes I just crack my eggs into a glass and down them straight!”
>She shivers. “Goodness, how revolting!”

>Rainbow laughs and sticks her tongue out.
>Meanwhile, since Rarity was so distracted, Spike has been using his spoon and fork to mash his eggs into a scrambled-like pulp.
>You sit up from your chair and decide now would be a good time to get a workout in.
>Heading towards the far, far back of the RV, you enter the fitness area.
>It never fails to impress you just how opulent this damned oversized car is.
>While the room is not very large, it’s got a number of useful things; a mat, pull-up bar, weights and a few other items.
>Sure, it’s not a full-fledged gym or anything, but you make do with what you have.
>Shedding your shirt, you go through a number of early stretches to prepare your body.
>Personal fitness was something you never really focused too much on early in your monster-hunting career; after all, you were already working with werewolf stamina.
>But ever since really, really working at it, you’ve become a beast.
>Again, in a metaphorical sense.
>Though it is quite an appropriate description, really.
>Pausing to down an entire bottle of water, you rub your lips and toss it aside.
“Alright, let’s make the walls sweat.”
>Three-hundred push-ups nonstop, three-hundred mountain climbers nonstop, three-hundred one-armed push-ups for each arm (also nonstop).
>You really like the number three-hundred.
>Three-hundred push-ups with rotations, three-hundred tricep dips.
>Moving onto the pull-up bar, you start off with bringing your knees up to your elbows three-hundred times.

>Then, kicking outwards by swinging them up.
>From here, you start doing full pull-ups, with your head in front and back of the bar alternating for three-hundred each; that makes six-hundred in total.
>Since you are doing this nonstop, it all flies by very quickly.
>Once this is done, you bring your legs up and hook your knees around the bar, hanging freely from them and interlocking your hands behind your head to do some hanging sit-ups.
>You do two-hundred and ninety-nine just to be funny.
“Alright… That’s set one. Time for two.”
>Your unnatural physique and stamina allow you to do all of this consecutively, without breaking.
>If you really pushed yourself, you could do even more, go even further and harder.
>Hell, if you gave a damn you could put most Olympians to shame.
>Hell, maybe you could even get merchandising rights; your face on a box of cereal.
You can’t help but chuckle at the idea. “Full-Moon-O’s,” you say aloud. ‘Probably need to workshop that a bit. Werewolf Bites, maybe?’
>Your brand-deal train of thought is derailed from a knock on the door.
>A single sniff tells you who it is by the lavender shampoo she uses.
“Come on in.”
>Twilight opens the door and sees you hanging upside-down at the knees.

>”Should I come back later?”
“No, this is fine,” you say, pulling yourself down. You grab a towel and another water bottle, and as you do you notice her eyes on your chest. “Come to talk, or to stare?”
>She blushes and adjusts her glasses.
>”Well, you work hard. It should be appreciated, right?”
“I guess so,” you say as she closes the door.
>At first, you aren’t quite certain of her intentions, but she folds her arms and says, “And yes, there is something I’d like to talk about.”
“I’m all ears.”
>”I know you’ve been doing this for a reason,” she says as she indicates the workout equipment and your sweaty body. “You’re trying to physically control yourself to the point of mastering your body in the hopes that you can figure out what you lost.”
>You sit down on the stool next to the weight rack.
“I suppose I am, yeah.”
>”Well, have you ever considered that you’re going about it the wrong way?”
“What, like I should do more push-ups?”
>”No! Your arms are big enough. Seriously.” She brings a hand up to her mouth and stifles a giggle. “What I mean is that you’re so focused on yourself that you’re neglecting other things that might contribute to the control of, well, the beast within.”
“I know where this is going,” you say, capping the water bottle. “I haven’t been very social lately.”

>”Try ‘at all’. You’ve been keeping to yourself and everyone’s noticed. We’re not just a group of strangers who go around and fight monsters like some Saturday-morning cartoon show, we’re friends. And if I remember correctly, it was you who exposed all of our secrets to each other and brought us closer than ever.”
>You sit back and twiddle your thumbs in your lap, nodding.
“I remember.”
>She takes a step nearer and kneels down alongside you.
>”Look… I know what’s brought this about. It’s the Wolf inside of you. You’ve been transforming less and less as time goes on; it used to be your go-to thing but now you avoid it like the plague.”
“Because I lost control,” you remind her. “Everything I had, everything I built up was gone and I still haven’t gotten it back. And---”
>”And you’ve been trying very hard to get it back, I know. But you’re so wrapped up in this idea that you can do it by yourself; don’t you think it’s gotten worse instead of better? Why is that?”
You inhale sharply though your nostrils and slowly let it out. “I don’t know.”
>”I have a theory. And it deals directly with how much you’ve distanced yourself from the rest of the team. I think you should let us help you, because what you’ve been doing hasn’t been working.”
You rub your forehead. “What? I can beat the Wolf with the power of friendship?”
>She’s not as amused as you are.

>”What I am saying is that you should seriously consider lightening up and letting us back in.” She reaches up and places her hand over yours, squeezing it gently. “We all care about you, Anon. Some more than others.”
You look into her eyes. “Twilight, I…”
>”And I’m talking about Rainbow.”
You break eye contact. “Right, of course. Rainbow.” You clear your throat. “Well, it’s just that it’s... Look, I screwed up there. She was in the right. And what’s more, I just don’t think I’m very good at, well, relationships.”
>You sit back and think for a moment.
“I remember when Dash was dead, and we talked about how when she came back she’d want to start living life to the fullest. And I was with her on that, I was, but…”
>”But?”
“I can’t really describe it. Ever since I started losing control, I just sort of wanted to go back to what was familiar. She talked me out of living in fear of the Wolf, like not wanting to pursue a relationship in case I killed someone again. But ultimately I just kind of… fell back into old habits.”
>”Is that what all this working out is about? Trying to externalize and work off all this inner doubt?”
“I can’t say for certain. Part of me wanted to focus more on being me, but part of me wanted to get away from it all. Either way it doesn’t really stop me from thinking that I messed up big time with her.”
>”You can’t keep blaming yourself like you do. You’re not completely at fault.” She reaches up and takes off her glasses, looking at them in her palm. “After all, I’m the one who made the serum that caused you to lose control in the first place.”

You look up, surprised. “You can’t blame yourself for what’s going on in my head.”
>She smirks. “You know, no matter how smart I think I am, every now and then I run into a big red stop sign and smack my face in it.”
“We talking literally or metaphorically?”
>”Metaphorically. I tend to watch where I’m going.” Her smile fades as she continues, “I’m talking about with my science. For all the good I’ve done, I’ve done a lot of bad too, accidentally. Mixing science with the arcane like I’ve been trying to do is dangerous. Sometimes it’s wonderful, like Spike---other times we get hordes of zombies or I go crazy.”
“That’s all in the past, though.”
>”Is it? We’re all the sum of our choices and experiences and we all go through periods of doubt and difficulty. Some of the things we say or do stay with us forever, no matter how much we claim to have moved on, but we never have to deal with those things alone. The point I’m getting at is that even after I’ve messed up, my friends were always there to support me. I wouldn’t be the person I am without them, and that includes you.”
>She squeezes your hand a bit more tightly as she says, “We’re all in this together. No matter what.”
You listen to her words and after a moment of thinking, you relent and ask, “Well, what should I do?”
>”Just be you, not what you think you should be. Everything else will come around.”

“Thanks,” you say. “Now… You should probably get out of here. I have another set to complete.”
>Her shoulders slump a bit, but she says, “Take your time. We’ll be here to talk if you need us.”
>She stands up and moves to leave, but when she opens the door, Rainbow is there in loose clothing; seems like she was just about to knock to use the room.
>She looks at Twilight, then at you, slowly raising a brow.
>”You two… busy?”
>”No,” Twilight is quick to say. “We were talking, that’s all.”
>Rainbow looks her up and down; she notes that she isn’t sweaty or anything else that would seem to indicate she isn’t telling the truth.
>”Something wrong?” Twilight asks her.
>”Nah.” She looks over at you. “You done in here yet?”
“…Sure. Let me get out of your way.”
>One set or several don’t make much of a difference; you already work yourself to the bone every day.
>Might as well shower off.
>Twilight slips past Rainbow and you move to follow her, but as you do, the RV hits a bump in the road.
>You inadvertently bump into Dash and pin her against the wall for a moment.
>She looks up and makes eye contact, and for a moment she seems almost glad that you’ve done this.

>When you don’t go any further and step back, however, her brow furrows slightly and she pulls away, closing the door behind her once she’s inside.
>You stand there for a moment, thinking.
‘Just apologize. Just go in there and apologize.’
>Your hand hovers over the door, about to knock, when she starts playing loud music on the other side.
>You lower your hand and walk off.
‘Later, then.’
>But you don’t, at least not for the remainder of the journey.
>The trip takes a few days for you to reach Canterlot, and during that time, things are pretty much the same.
>Change doesn’t really spring out of nowhere, but you also don’t make any extreme effort to kick it off.
>To be fair, you try to take Twilight’s advice and spend more time with the others.
>Just not Dash.
>You keep telling yourself that you’re just waiting for the right moment, but it never comes---or maybe you just never go about trying to make it happen instead of waiting for it to happen.
>You end up convincing yourself that the RV just isn’t the right place to talk about it.
>Home would be better suited.
>And speaking of which…

>It’s around evening on the fourth when you’re sitting in the living area, helping Fluttershy assemble a photo album of pictures taken from the trip.
>”Remember this one?” she asks, holding up a photo of the gang in front of a lake wearing swimming trunks.
“The Oklahoma Octopus,” you say with a smirk. “That one was a slippery bastard…”
>”True, but Gummy got him in the end. He had calamari for days after that adventure.”
“The RV sure stunk of it for weeks afterwards…”
>You and she share a giggle at the memory of Rarity continually forcing every possible window open to try to air out the smell, and Twilight continually shutting them because the wind kept disturbing her piles of notes.
>And all the while, Gummy happily munched on giant, chewy tentacles.
>As you sort through several other photos, Applejack calls back from the driver’s seat.
>”Hey everyone! Come look an’ see!”
>The group all quickly crowds towards the front of the RV to get a good look at your first sight of home since leaving.
>A large wooden sign with a sun painted on it reads, “Welcome to Canterlot!”
>”Yippie!” Pinkie says, grabbing everyone she can and pulling them tight. “We made it! We made it home!”
>Rarity taps her on the shoulder. ”Pinkie, darling, I think you’re suffocating poor Fluttershy.”
>The vampire’s face bears a smile, but with Pinkie’s arm wrapped tightly around her neck, is rapidly losing color.

>”Whoops! Sorry!” Pinkie smiles and lets go, allowing her to breathe normally.
>The RV drives past a few familiar structures.
>In the distance, the Everfree National Forest looms.
>”Well, ain’t that a sight for sore eyes,” Applejack says. “Ya know, we never talked about what we’re gonna do for a homecoming celebration. I’m thinkin’ we should have a barbeque! Let everyone in town know we’re home again!”
>”I think that’s a marvelous idea!” Rarity agrees.
>Pinkie’s eyes nearly pop out of her head. “A homecoming party! I’m so excited!”
>She seems as though she’s ready to explode.
>Twilight puts a hand on her shoulder. ”Calm down, Pinkie. We’re still driving.”
>”I’msorryI’mjustsohappytobeback!” Pinkie says in one long semi-comprehensible blurb.
>You lean over the driver’s chair, looking out the window at your home.
>Everything still seems normal.
>Maybe you really were just worrying about nothing.
>Speaking of which, Rainbow is just as quiet.
>You wonder if she’s as anxious to get off this RV as you are.
>Maybe she’ll be too busy unpacking to talk; you might want to give her a few days to settle back in.
‘Or maybe I should just fucking talk to her and get it over with.’
>For now, you and she remain silent and simply look out at Canterlot as it rolls by.
>You should just enjoy being home.
>One by one, everyone is dropped off at their homes.

>First Fluttershy, then Pinkie and Gummy, then Twilight and Spike and so on.
>Pinkie is already all over social media, planning the barbeque for tomorrow; it's set for the afternoon.
>When it comes time to stop by Rainbow's house, she quickly grabs her things and sets out without much of a goodbye.
>After all, you'll be seeing her again tomorrow.
>Still, it's a little awkward, so she leaves as quickly as possible.
>Rarity and Applejack exchange looks before moving on to your apartment.
>You grab your suitcase and backpack, say goodnight to them both and step out.
>As you approach the door to your apartment, you take out your keys and open it up.
You flip on the switch. 'Just as I left it. Home sweet home.'
>Mostly empty.
>At least the rent is cheap, and with dad always gone anyway, you’ve never needed to furnish it.
>And considering you haven't been here for a while, at least it was never broken into.
>You toss your things on the couch and crash onto your bed, feeling the old familiar mattress.
'Might as well get some sleep. Not much else to do.'
>You kick off your clothes and toss and turn for hours, trying to get comfortable.
>But no matter what you try, it just doesn't seem to work.
>Something beneath your skin is itching at you and you can't seem to scratch it.
>You get up a few times to get a drink of water, or to adjust the thermostat, or do some wall push-ups, but nothing seems to be working.
>Eventually you go to the bathroom for a hot shower and end up in front of the mirror afterwards.

>It's all fogged up, so you wipe a hand across it and stare at yourself.
>Your hair has gotten longer than usual, and you haven’t shaved in a while.
>More than that, your chest and arms have gotten hairier.
>You can’t see your back, but that’s probably the same.
>What has caused this?
>Simple maturity, or are you actively turning into something else more permanently, even while you are human?
'Who is staring back at me right now? Me. Only me. Nobody else.'
>You pry open your eyelids with your finger to stare at your eye.
'What is wrong with me?'
>For some reason, you feel on edge, unable to relax.
>What is it caused by?
>Is it simply being back home, your recent conversation with Twilight, your unresolved issues with Dash, or something else?
>You stare into the mirror some more.
"Or is it you?" you ask your reflection as you stare into your golden eyes. "Down there, deep inside of me. I know you're there, that you're listening. I can feel you. What is it, huh?"
>You grip the sink firmly and your neck tightens.

"What the hell do you want? To just run around eating, fucking, what? What do you WANT?!"
>Somewhere, deep inside, you get an answer.
>'Freedom.'
"Well you're not getting it, not from me. This is MY body damnit. You live in MY mind. I tamed you once before and I'm going to do it again."
>There is no response, prompting you to squeeze the sink even tighter.
"Speak up you worthless mutt, I know you're there! Come on, let's go already!"
>In the mirror, you suddenly see something behind you; a shadow of a wolf's head rising on the wall behind you.
>You spin around and punch the wall, leaving a large hole.
>But nothing is there.
"Don't you fuck with me," you mutter, turning back to the mirror. "Don't you fuck with me!"
>When you look back in the mirror, it's not you that you see, but something else entirely.
>Pale skin, dirty hair, and as you see it, it smiles with a mouthful of yellow, sharp teeth, with monstrous yellow eyes.
>It is a mockery of you, and its smile is taunting you.
You give a shout, "ARRRAGH!" and slam your fist into the mirror, smashing it to pieces.
>Afterwards, you bring your fists down and crack the sink.
"I'm in control, I'm in control! It's me!"
>You back up into the wall and slide down, breathing heavily as you pull on your hair, feeling a pounding in your chest and head.
>Every muscle in your body feels tense and ready to burst; your heart races as your breaths come in short, quick gasps.

"I'm in control, I'm in control, I'm in control," is your mantra, and you repeat it a few more times.
>As you begin to calm down, you hear a faint ringing from the next room.
>Your phone.
>You crawl out of the bathroom and up to it, seeing that it's Sunset.
>There's no reason not to answer.
"Hello?"
>"Hey, it's me. Did I wake you?"
"No. I wasn't asleep."
>"I saw that you guys were home; Pinkie sent me an invite to a barbeque you're having, or something?"
"Tomorrow, yeah." You check the time and see that it's 2am. "Or today, rather."
>"Well, I won't be able to make it. My flight was delayed."
"Can't you just teleport?"
>"Hey, some of us like being normal. You can understand that, right?”
"Yeah."
>She pauses for a moment. "Hey, are you alright? You're breathing pretty heavily."
"I was... working out."

>"I've seen some of the pictures of you guys from your trip. How come you never take a picture of yourself without your shirt on, stud?" she asks in a playful tone.
You manage to chuckle as you calm down some more. "Just not vain like that, I guess."
>"Well, you should be making someone happy with a body like that. Any... progress there?"
>The question is somewhat awkwardly worded, but you understand her intent.
"No. I haven't really been trying." You bring up a hand and rub your eyebrows in frustration. "I just, I don't know what it is. I think I'm going nuts again, like back when I first started turning."
>"Do you want to talk about it?"
"I'd prefer talking in person."
>"Okay. I'll let you know when I get in. This delay is killing me; it's not just my flight, but nearly every flight all over."
>You blink in the darkness and then sit up.
"Why? I mean, what caused it?"
>"There was some kind of accident. I read that a few planes crashed due to navigational errors; two collided in the air, it's a really big tragedy. There's a big investigation going on about it, like they're trying to figure out if it was human error or some kind of computer glitch."
"...You don't think it means anything, do you? I mean, about this time of the year..."
>"What? Um, well, I don't really know. I guess it could, maybe, but have you been seeing anything strange lately?"
>You think for a few moments.
"No, I don't think so. At least nothing that's jumped out to me as being really odd or out of the usual... I think I'm just trying to look for something that isn't there."

>You let out a sigh and rest your head backwards.
"Or maybe I'm just hoping something comes up so I can focus on that instead of what's going on in my mind. I don't know."
>"You sure you don't want to talk about it?"
"Again, I don't know. Like I said before I've been really out of whack lately; I just broke my mirror."
>"Oh, wow. Listen, do you really need me there? I can work my magic and be there tonight."
>She sounds so supportive, so warm and comforting.
>Like someone you could use by your side tonight.
>Several memories come back of when you and she were together…
>You sit against your bed and remain still for a few moments as you breathe through your nostrils.
>You can't deny it; you would like to see her again.
>It's been a while since you've seen her.
>But with everything going on, is that the best idea?
"I'll be alright," you whisper. "Really, I will. I'm just too in my own head, I need to relax. I've been stressing over so much lately, I need to just clear up and focus on what's important. I'm going to the barbeque tomorrow; maybe there I'll try and talk to Dash."
>Her tone is hard to detect, but she replies, "Okay. My next flight is going to be in a day. We'll see each other when I get back there."
"Bye," you say, and she repeats it back and you hang up.

>You stare at your phone for a moment, and then decide to open your browser.
>It doesn't take long to find a news story about these planes; it's all over the world headlines.
'At least two-hundred dead in fatal midair plane collision. Airplane crashes in Atlantic; rescue operations underway. Several airlines temporarily grounded as investigation continues.'
>As you read more headlines, you can't help but feel a strange knot forming in your stomach that grows tighter and tighter.
>What if something is actually happening, but it isn't in Canterlot?
>What if it's all over the world?
>Flights from Tokyo to Maine to Africa are being cancelled or rerouted into emergency landings, but what could it all mean?
>The flight issues can't be a coincidence, but is it a coincidence that it's happening in this month?
>You can't be certain.
>Turning off your phone, you crawl back into bed and close your eyes.
>Only this time, sleep actually finds you.
>That night, you have a dream.
>You're running through the woods, sprinting as fast as you can.
>You are naked, your body honed and lean from all the work you've put in, muscles rippling in your arms and legs.
>The way you dash through the trees and leap over rocks, it's almost like you're Tarzan.
>At the side of a river, you pause and kneel down to drink from it.
>Then you hear something.

>Very still, you watch as a deer walks towards the river on the opposite side.
>It is a buck, with grand antlers, unafraid of anything that could challenge him.
>You watch him with singular focus, eyes locked on.
>He drinks and then lifts his head, staring at you.
>Then you pounce, leaping across the river and grabbing his antlers, wrestling him to the ground.
>He struggles, but you are stronger, and soon you have him pinned.
>That's when you open your mouth and tear into his neck, consuming his flesh raw.
>You can taste the blood in your mouth, the meat.
>Delicious.
>When you awaken, it is with a startle; you sit up straight in bed, covered in sweat and panting.
>Your fingers are white from gripping the sheets as hard as you are.
“I’m getting real sick of this Animal Planet shit…”
>You throw the sheet off of yourself, fully expecting to find the dead body of a deer under it, or at the very least yourself covered in blood, but you aren't.
>Everything's normal.
>Eventually, you manage to bring yourself down and calm your rapidly-beating heart.
"It's alright," you whisper to yourself. "It's okay. Goddamn..."
>You stand up and move into the bathroom; the mirror is still broken and the sink is still cracked.

"Gonna have to get that replaced," you mutter as you step in the shower.
>After a period of cleansing and getting dressed, you check the time.
>11:30.
"Shit. The barbeque..."
>You quickly leave your apartment and lock the door before running out.
>It's taking place out on Applejack's farm, with the most open land, so you've got a ways to go.
>It's about 12:15 when you arrive, and it seems like half the town has shown up!
>Cars completely fill the long driveway and stretch around for a ways.
>As you approach the farm, you see a large grill with Big Mac working it, flipping burgers and steaks.
‘Nice that he got off from ranger work for this,’ you think to yourself.
>You can spy some of the extended Apple clan, like Braeburn and Apple Fritter, along with several other friends from school.
>A few sets of parents here and there, and even some faculty from the school.
‘Pinkie sure wasn’t stingy with those invites.’
>And, of course, your team is all spread out to greet everyone, shaking hands and exchanging hugs.
>As you walk up, Applejack looks over and immediately points you out with a smile.
>Several people see you and walk up to greet.
>Fluttershy’s brother, Allie Way, Granny Smith, Mr. Cake and several other townsfolk are all positively delighted to see you back, even though you never knew them too well.
>Others you do know better, like Braeburn, Principal Celestia and her sister Luna.

>But Pinkie knows everyone, and she’s the one who summoned them all, as though she were a mythical pied piper who played the right note to bring them all out.
>Applejack is quick to hand to a plate with an extra-rare steak on it, just the way you like it, with a smile and a wink.
>With some music, showing off pictures from the trip (but not certain photos that would expose anything strange or unusual, naturally) and getting to catch up with old friends, it’s a real good time.
>It is nice to finally relax with your feet on familiar ground, surrounded by old friends and neighbors.
>Celestia and Luna in particular; as one of the few trusted individuals who know your secret, and with secrets of their own, they were instrumental in putting together the trip you went on.
>Although you and the others graduated earlier this year, it was the promise of both psychics that they would watch over Canterlot while you were gone that helped push all of you towards the decision to ultimately leave, assured that things would be safe in their hands.
As you sit at a table with them over a plate of steak, you ask, “So, how have things been?”
>”Quiet, thankfully,” Celestia replies with a smile. “The school year has been going marvelously.”
>Luna nods and looks around to make sure nobody else is listening before she adds, “The peace that you have afforded Canterlot cannot be overstated. With Spencer and his cult gone, the town has never been nicer.”

>Rarity, sitting alongside Luna, asks, “But what of any non-cult issues? Ghosts or anything supernatural?”
>”There hasn’t been anything too active. Not even any hauntings, even in the older districts.”
>Celestia sets a fork down in her salad. “Yes, I’d say that things around here have been quieter than they have for several years it seems.”
>Fluttershy speaks up then and changes the subject. “Did you hear on the news about all the airplanes?”
>Celestia is quick to reply. “Yes, my goodness, what a terrible thing! I just can’t believe it. I have a relative who could have been on one of those flights, you know.”
>”My word, how awful,” Rarity comments.
>Luna nods. “Thankfully nothing has happened around here like that. The last thing we need is planes falling out of the sky.”
>Applejack comes up and sets down a plate with a big bacon cheeseburger. “I’ll say. I don’t think even we could stop that.”
You take a drink of punch. “Sunset’s own flight home was delayed because of it.”
>Luna then says, “I don’t mean to change the subject away from the macabre for a moment, but there is something that’s happened in town recently, and it’s putting our community on the map as it were.”
>With a mouthful of bacon cheeseburger and a disregard for table manners that causes Rarity to physically react, Applejack asks, ”What’s that now?”
>”A new television show started up not too long ago, by one of our own residents, ‘Time for Thought with Dr. Turner.’”

>”An alumni of ours,” Celestia explains. “He’s a quite brilliant doctor with degrees in a few fields; psychology, pharmaceuticals, the list goes on.”
“I think I remember Twilight mentioning him once,” you say. “Doesn’t he run the observatory here in town?”
>”Yes, it’s actually where his studio is located and he broadcasts from.”
>Rarity seems interested. ”What’s the show about?”
>Luna picks up. “It’s part talk show, part self-help, part science. He often examines difficult medical cases, usually mental but sometimes physical, and talks about the impact of the disabled on society and the need for charity and assistance.”
>Celestia enthusiastically adds, “But it’s not always like that. Last week, he had several local mothers on and interviewed them on the subject of motherhood and how important certain factors are to early development of children, as well as a wonderful segment on childhood education.”
>Luna looks at her sister and smiles. “It almost made a certain principal consider finally getting a bun in her oven.”
>Celestia’s face turns bright red. “Luna! That was told in confidence!”
>The girls all giggle and finally Celestia calms down.
>”The point is, his show is really getting quite popular,” Luna explains. “It’s all local right now, but there’s talk in the papers of it going even further. I really recommend it. There is a new segment every Friday evening.”

>You take another bite, nod and smile, but inwardly you don’t really care.
>You don’t even own a television; a computer and a phone get you by.
>As Rarity and Fluttershy both continue speaking with them, your eye catches something else---or rather, someone else.
>Rainbow Dash, by herself, getting a drink.
‘Now or nothing,’ you think as you excuse yourself and stand up.
>You walk towards her, mentally preparing what you are going to say, when suddenly you feel a hand on your shoulder roughly turn you around.
“Hey, what the?”
>You stop when you look down and see Caramel, a student who is one year younger than you, now in the senior year.
>”H-hey there, Anon!” he says nervously.
>Almost immediately, you detect something odd about him, and as you look more closely, it’s not hard to see why.
>He’s a wreck.
>His brown hair is all disheveled, and he is visibly shaking, with his eyes darting erratically.
>He has a water bottle in his hands; the liquid inside is constantly jostling from his hands.
>What’s more, every single heightened sense you possess tells you that he is afraid.
>And not just afraid, but out of his wits terrified.
“Caramel, hey,” you finally reply. “You seem… Are you alright?”
>”What, me? Fine, fine, finefinefine, hey listen, um,” he pauses, looks around and takes a drink of water. “You, uh, you and your friends just got back in t-town, right? Last night? Late?”
“Yeah… Last night, real late.”

>”Oh, good, that’s good, it’s good that you’re back,” he says loudly, almost like he’s trying to make sure others hear him.
>He takes another nervous sip of water as he again looks around, but you can’t imagine what the hell he’s looking for.
“Caramel, are you okay? You want maybe a drink of punch or---“
>”NO!” he shouts, drawing some eyes. He laughs nervously and says, “No, no thank you, Anon, no punch for me.”
>He’s sweating profusely.
‘What the hell is going on with this guy? What’s he so paranoid about?’
>”Listen, Anon, uh… I know we’re not, like, good friends or anything, but I was wondering, and d-don’t take this the wrong way or anything… But were you with anyone last night?”
>Your eyes narrow in suspicion, but you don’t know what to begin being suspicious about.
“What do you mean exactly?”
>”Oh, you know, just… Did you talk to anyone in person or meet up with anybody or have any kind of, um, interaction at all with anyone who isn’t any of the people you went on your trip with?”
‘The fuck kind of question is that?’
>Might as well be honest, he seems like he’s ready to snap, but over what you don’t know.
“No… I was dropped off at my apartment, slept and came here.”

>”Oh thank Jesus,” he mutters. He steps closer and says, “Listen, we need to talk in private, now.”
“O-kay…” you reply, unsure of where this is going.
>But for someone to be so frightened as he is, there must be more to it.
>You follow him out behind the barn.
“So anyway, what’s this all abo---“
>Suddenly he turns around and grabs your shoulders, looking you straight in the eyes.
>”Don’t trust anyone! Don’t talk to anyone, don’t be alone with anyone!”
“Woah, Caramel---“ His grip on your shoulders tightens. “What the hell is wrong with you, man?”
>His tone couldn’t be more urgent and desperate.
>”Don’t TRUST anyone! Don’t TALK to anyone! Don’t BE ALONE with ANYONE! Do you understand?!”
“I’m alone with you RIGHT now!”
>”Yeah, but I’m not one of them, and neither are you!”
>The fear in his voice, the desperation, tells you to remain calm.
“Look, man, just tell me what’s got you so freaked out. Maybe I can help you.”
>”No. Nononono. There’s no helping it. It’s too late for that---all we can do is try to remain ourselves!”
>Now you grab him and push him up against the wall.
“Caramel, CALM DOWN. Just talk to me. Alright? Just talk to me.”
>”Okay, okay, I’m calm, I’m calm,” he says, even though he’s breathing faster than ever. “My parents are gone. They’re not the first.”

“What? Where are they?”
>”I don’t KNOW!”
“Okay, calm down! What’s going on?”
>”I said I don’t know! People around town are vanishing! And then they come back, and it’s like they’re normal, right? But they AREN’T!” Tears well up in his eyes as he says, “And now my parents are gone and I’m next, I know it!”
“Next for what? What is it?”
>”It’s been going on for a while. I’m not the only one who’s noticed. But the papers don’t talk about it and the police don’t look into it because they’re IN on it, I know it!”
“Wait, wait, what? The police and papers are in on it?” You sigh and let go of him. “Listen, are you sure you’re al---“
>”I’m NOT crazy! I’m NOT one of them!” he says, desperately defending himself.
“One of WHO?”
>”Them,” he whispers, very unhelpfully. “I don’t know what’s going on and I’m scared. It’s the town, the whole town maybe, I don’t know how far it goes, but, but---”
You run a hand through your hair. “Look, you said your parents are gone. I get that, that’s big. But whatever you’re talking about is much bigger than that. Do you have any proof?”
>”No! They cover their tracks, whoever, whatever they are. But I’m not the only one who’s noticed! Flash, Flash Sentry---he’s been working with some of the others around the school.”

“Flash? He knows about this, too?”
>He nods like a jackhammer. “He noticed it before I did. People go away then they come back like nothing’s wrong but there IS something wrong, something about the way they act, I can’t describe it, but---“
>Suddenly, Celestia walks around the corner and Caramel instantly shuts up.
>”Caramel! There you are! You’ve been absent from school for nearly an entire week!”
>He looks at the principal with pure, utter terror.
>”Remember what I said!” he screams as he turns and runs away as fast as he can. “NO ONE!”
“What the…?”
>You watch him go and are about to chase him when Celestia puts a hand on your shoulder. “Wait, Anon. Let him go, he’s… He’s in a very difficult position right now.”
You turn and look up at her. “He’s paranoid. Everything about him was terrified, like he was being watched. He said his parents were gone, and that he’s next.”
>”The rumor around town is that they’ve divorced, apparently. Or are in the process of getting divorced. There was a terrible fight at their home… the police were called in. I’m afraid I don’t know much else about it.”
“But he said they were gone.”
>”I can’t speak for his mother, but his father was brought in for questioning by the sheriff. This wasn’t exactly in the newspapers, but it wasn’t a secret, either. There was a lot of gossip around town… She may have left due to the stress.”

>You are silent for a moment before looking in the direction he ran off in.
“I’ve seen fear before, quite often. Had a lot of it myself. But nothing, I mean nothing, was like that. He’s a nervous wreck, he was talking about something, like the entire town was out to get him.”
>”The school has been trying to get in contact with him throughout the week. He stopped coming to school after Tuesday. I think the stress of the situation with his parents is having a terrible effect on him, but chasing after him won’t do him any good.”
>You listen to her words, and while they make sense, something about how afraid he was just doesn’t add up.
“If he’s really that out of his element, he needs help. He was rambling, paranoid, delusional it seemed like.”
>”I absolutely agree. While I’m not an expert in the matter, I think this situation with his parents has created a kind of persecution complex within him---he’s inventing demons and other things to blame for what’s going on in his home.”
You look back up at her. “What about his mind? Did you read it?”
>”No, I tend not to do that to my own students. And it’s a bit more complicated than that---he may not even be thinking straight.” She sighs. “I’m going to talk to the school counselor, see if there isn’t something we can do about all of this. We’re going to get him help, I promise you.”
>Applejack then comes around the corner. “Anon? Principal Celestia? Somethin’ goin’ on?”
>She pats your shoulder and turns back towards the girl. “No, nothing, just talking about one of the students at the school. He was here, but isn’t now, unfortunately.”

>As she goes, explaining what happened to Applejack, you watch her back and think about everything that just happened.
>’Don’t TRUST anyone! Don’t TALK to anyone! Don’t BE ALONE with ANYONE!’
>You look back in the direction he ran off in.
>What could he have been talking about?
>Why is he so afraid?
>You need to talk with the others about this, right now.
>Something could be happening in town after all…
>You purposefully didn’t mention to Celestia that Caramel talked about others, specifically Flash.
>Maybe you should start with him.
>As you rejoin the party, you scan your eyes around, taking in absolutely everything you see.
>But more than that, you pause and try to see beyond the surface, as though you are trying to see the invisible.
>What you see is a perfectly normal gathering of people.
>Enjoying food, sharing drinks, exchanging stories and having laughs.
>For a moment, it's almost as if he's transferred the paranoia to you as you search for anything that seems wrong.
>But you see nothing.
>You close your eyes and smell, but even your heightened senses of smell and hearing detects nothing unusual.
>Usually you have a very good sense for danger as well; a kind of animalistic or instinctual "sixth sense" that tells you when something bad is about to happen.

>Perhaps a wolf-sense instead of a spider-sense.
>But there is simply nothing unusual going on, at least as far as you can detect it.
>Why, then, was he so adamant about there being something wrong with the townsfolk?
>You look at the bowl of punch and see someone getting a drink.
>Why was he so afraid of the punch?
>But maybe it wasn't just the punch---he had a water bottle, but no food with it.
>Maybe he is so paranoid that he doesn't even want to eat food that he hasn't prepared?
>But what could possibly cause such a fear?
>You look over and see Celestia part ways with Applejack.
>Everything she said did seem plausible enough, but he was terrified of her.
>She couldn't be in on it, could she?
>But why would she be?
>And what exactly would she be 'in' on?
>"Anon?" You turn and see Twilight standing with a cup of the punch. "Is something the matter? You've kind of just been standing for a minute, staring."
>You purse your lips together and then lick them as you give her a concerned look.
"Something strange just happened."
>"What kind of strange?" she asks, stepping closer and lowering her voice.
"Perhaps mundane strange, but maybe the kind of strange that we specialize in."
>She understands immediately and takes your words seriously. "Should I assemble the others?"

"I don't know. I just spoke to Caramel, and---"
>"Caramel? From the year before us?"
"Right. He was just here, but he ran off. He was terrified, utterly delusional with fear. He could hardly put a sentence together."
>"What could have driven him to such a state?"
"He was talking about people in town disappearing, and then reappearing and being ‘different,’ but he couldn’t say why or how. They just were. He kept talking about not trusting the people in the town, about not going anywhere alone."
>Her brow furrows as she gets deep in thought.
>"Do you suppose he is disturbed and inventing it all?"
"That's what Celestia thinks, but that's the strange thing about it: he was terrified of her, too. Like he thought she was one of 'them' and ran away. She told me that he's been absent from school ever since his parents vanished, but she says they've gotten divorced and he's making all of this up due to stress."
>Twilight looks over at Celestia as she talks to some of the parents about the current curriculum and budget plans for the school.
>"Well... I mean, we trust the principal, don't we?"
"Sure," you shrug. "So far we have no reason NOT to, I suppose. But you need to understand, he was absolutely frightened, I could practically smell the fear on him."
>Twilight's fingers tap on her cup a few times before she says, "Okay. I'm going to let the girls know. You go see if you can find him and try talking to him some more. If he isn't crazy, if he's really onto something, then he needs our help. But Anon?"
"Yeah?"

>"We should also be prepared in case he is under too much stress. If that's the case, we need to help him before he hurts himself or someone else."
"I'll be careful. But there's something else: he mentioned others know about whatever he's afraid of too. The only one he mentioned by name was Flash. If there is something going on, he might know about it as well."
>"But what could they be implying? What does 'people vanishing and then reappearing but different' really mean? What difference in behavior could he be talking about? Have you sensed anything wrong?"
"No. Everything seems normal. But he was so paranoid it's gotten me paranoid, too." You lean in closer and whisper, "He was adamant, absolutely adamant, about not trusting anyone in town. About not going anywhere alone, or talking with anyone."
>"Well, that's a little extreme, isn't it?" Twilight points out. "I mean, my parents were home last night. Technically I was alone with them."
>You blink a few times and stare at her, slowly studying her eyes.
>"What?"
"Nothing... Like I said, I think his paranoia's rubbed off on me. Maybe if we investigate it a bit, we'll find that there's no reason to be worried. But given what we are and what we do, I can't just ignore the possibility of something going on."
>"I understand and agree completely. I'll brief the others."

"And Twilight... Just to be safe, maybe we really shouldn't go anywhere alone for now. We haven't been in town, and we've only been here today, so I would think that we could rule out everyone who was on the trip as being... I don't know, whatever he's afraid the people in the town are. We should stick around just each other and not go alone with anyone else. Sleep over at each other's places or something."
>She nods and then asks, "Are you going to need someone to come with you to find him?"
"No, I'll be fine for now. Me and Fluttershy can fight off anything by ourselves. But pass this along to the rest of the gang: be careful. Something just may yet be going on."
>Twilight hesitates for a moment. "I will, but let's also consider that we may be looking for trouble when there is none purely because of what's been going on lately. What with us getting back and the month being---"
"I know, I know, believe me I know. But has being cautious ever proven to be a bad thing?"
>"No, not at all. Just as we wear safety goggles when we do chemistry, just in case."

"Just in case. I'll go try to find Caramel, or Flash. I'll keep in touch."
>”Wait,” she says, reaching into her jacket.
>She takes out a small, pen-sized autoinjector and offers it to you, palm-up.
>For a moment, you just stare at it.
>”If you’re not comfortable taking it, I understand… In an emergency---“
>You hold up your hand and shake your head.
“Without the rest of you around, I can’t guarantee that’s a good idea.”
>After a moment of reconsideration, she nods her agreement.

>”You’re right. Even if it were an emergency, and you had to transform to get out of it, you would be stuck in your other form… With no way to control where he would go and what he would do.”
“But I appreciate the thought,” you say, closing her hand around the device. “I’ve always trusted that you’re the best one to hold onto the serum.”
>She slides the small device into her pocket.
>"Stay safe, okay?"
"Same to you."
>You step back and unceremoniously leave the party behind, as well as any thoughts of approaching Dash.
>This has put you through a bit of a spin, you must admit.
>At the edge of the party, you turn back and take a final look.
>You see a few things; people chatting, eating, Celestia talking on her cell phone...
>Your eyes hone in on her as she speaks into it, then turns it off and slides it into her pocket.
>A completely innocent action, and yet...
>No, there's nothing there.
>Is there?
'Can't be,' you think. 'She was just answering a call.'
>And yet, how can you know for certain?
>You let out a chuckle.

'So this is what paranoia feels like.'
>If something was going on, something so under the surface that you would need a microscope to examine it, how would you ever know?
>Like you and your lycanthropy.
>Everyone has their secrets; everyone lives something of a double-life.
>Some are tame, some are wild, but everyone has them.
>So how would you possibly know if something was going on in the town?
>As you leave Sweet Apple Acres and walk back to town, your eyes scan every street corner and passerby.
>People are going about their lives; working, socializing, reading, walking pets and more.
>Normal.
>You were with Caramel long enough to pick up his scent, and so you follow it.
>He was sweating profusely, so there's a strong enough trail.
>It seems that he went straight home, as you soon find yourself in a suburban neighborhood.
>Not exactly the high-end part of town, but the houses here are nice enough.
>You pass by a dog, who growls and barks at you as its owner pulls on the leash, but you don't pay it any attention.
>Instead, you continue up to the front door of a brown house.
>Pausing, you inhale deeply to confirm: this is the place.
>The first thing you notice is that the mailbox has mail in it, and there is an unopened newspaper in the front.
'The front lawn could use a mowing, too.'

>Your eyes are inevitably drawn to the windows, where you see no lights on inside.
'Fair enough, it's still daylight.'
>You walk up to the front and knock.
>No answer.
>You knock again, harder and longer.
>Nothing.
'He was here,' you think as you smell again. 'I'm not detecting any scent of him leaving...'
>That doesn't preclude getting into a car and driving off, but you don't smell anything around the garage that would indicate that.
>Usually you’d be able to pick up the scent of gasoline or rubber on the road; that’s how you tracked down that killer car in Detroit.
>You briefly shudder as you remember being dragged behind that possessed hunk of junk before focusing on the task at hand.
>Looking up and down the neighborhood and seeing nobody, you walk into his backyard.
>A lone tire swing hangs from a tree.
>The backdoor is locked.
>So are the windows.
>As you try to pull one up, you then notice something unusual.
>You peer through the glass at the other side and see the heads of nails sticking up.
'He's nailed the windows down...'

>You quickly check he others to confirm this; they're all the same.
'Completely barred from the outside world.'
>You approach the backdoor and look around again before bringing up a foot and kicking it open.
>It was nailed shut; the board that it was secured with flies off into the empty garage.
>Thankfully it wasn’t too secure; it was clearly put in place desperately and hastily.
'I've heard of shut-ins but this is downright ridiculous.'
>You step inside and close the door behind you after checking to make sure there wasn't an alarm system.
'Well, they live in a good neighborhood. But you never know when a werewolf is going to come knocking. They really should've invested in some anti-burglar alarm or something.'
>No time to dwell on that, however.
>You walk up into the kitchen and look around; you can see a hammer and some nails on the countertop.
You call out, "Caramel? Hello? Anyone?" and wait a few seconds for a reply. When there is none, you say, "This is Anon. I tried knocking, but..."
>You pause as you walk into the dining room.
>Walking up to a window that you were on the outside of, you inspect the nails.
>Three or four per window; someone was very, very concerned with keeping them closed.
You mutter, "Where is that person now, hm?"
>You stand up and walk to the front door to turn the doorknob.
>It's unlocked, but there are some scratches on the brass.

>You kneel down in front of it and see that, while the door wasn't boarded like the backdoor, there was some kind of additional lock on here recently.
>Given that he left the house to go to the barbeque, he must've removed it.
>But if he came back, why didn't he put it back on?
>You begin to inspect the rest of the house.
>There isn't any sign of a struggle anywhere, but his room is rather messy.
>It's also the only room that seems to have signs of recently being lived in; the master bedroom is empty and without odors to indicate human presence.
>You enter his bedroom and look around.
>It's a simple room, all things considered; normally furnished, with a messy bed.
>Seems he rather likes Japanese mech figures; he's got a shelf full of them.
>The second thing to catch your eye is his desktop, which is on and unlocked.
>Fortunate for you, he isn't one for screensavers.
>You sit down in front of it and crack your fingers in preparation to type away.
'Let's see here... Recent tabs, recent tabs... Search: DNA testing. Search: Blood sample how to get. Search: How to tell if someone is not who they really seem. Search: Newspaper illegitimacy. Search: Canterlot missing people records public. Search: Canterlot police personnel records.'
>The list goes on for a short stretch, all similar in nature.
>You open up his Facebook page; there are a few notifications that haven’t been checked.

>He received Pinkie’s invitation, but did not publically accept it.
>In fact, he hasn’t been active for several days; at least that’s when he stopped posting.
>There are a few unread messages that he seems to have purposefully avoided.
>But the one nearest the top is a conversation with Flash Sentry, with the last message sent from this account.
>You open it up and read it.
>’THEY ARE COMING FOR ME KNOCKING ON MY DOOR DON’T TAKE ANY MORE MESSAGES FROM ME IT WON’T BE ME CANCEL MEETING THEY WILL KNOW’
>It was written nearly twenty minutes ago.
>A chill crawls up your spine as you read this.
>Did you just miss something happening?
>You read the message again, narrowing your eyes.
>You can see that Flash has seen it as well, but has not replied.
>The last message from him is from three in the morning.
>‘They have Ms. Harshwhinny now. We’re sure of it. She was with the others. Meeting tonight, same place. Remember the secret knock.’
“Harshwhinny… I remember. Teacher, accounting. A meeting tonight? Well, that’s probably cancelled now.”
>You scroll up, but there is no mention of a meeting location, who else is involved, or what the secret knock is.
>This must all have been communicated in person to leave no digital trail.

>Scrolling up further, you can see that Flash and Caramel only became friends about two weeks ago.
‘That must be when they both noticed something going on,’ you realize.
>That gives you a lead to check on who else he’s become friends with lately; Octavia, Vinyl Scratch, Thunderlane and Blossomforth.
>Cross-referencing this, you begin to notice another pattern emerging, of them talking to each other more across their pages in the last two to three weeks.
>Well, now you have a larger picture to work with, or at the very least people you can question.
>But that still doesn’t answer where Caramel is.
>You stand up and walk over to his window; there’s a perfect view of the driveway.
‘He could’ve seen someone drive up, heard them knock and then have sent that message. But where would he go from there?’
>You look around, smelling, trying to find something to take you to the next step of the mystery.
‘He was here, but now he’s gone… He knew, or at least thought, that someone was coming for him. The backdoor was barred, he wouldn’t have gone out the front…’
>You walk out into the hallway, pretending to be him, and then you look up.
>There’s a trapdoor leading up to an attic, and you spy something on it: dust.
>Or more specifically, recently-disturbed dust, with clear fingerprints in it.
>You reach up and grab the handle, pulling it down to reveal an unfolding ladder, and then climb.

>You stick your head up into the attic.
“Caramel? You up here?”
>No answer.
>But you do smell something else…
>It smells like… chlorine?
>They don’t have a pool, though.
>You get up in the attic and look around, sniffing, until you come to a spot behind some old cardboard boxes with Christmas decorations.
>There’s a lot of kicked-up dust here, and a few things knocked over.
>A box is spilled over onto the floor, its contents strewn about.
>No blood, no bullet casings, nothing of the sort…
>But the strange scent gets stronger.
>You lean down and look at the ground, experimentally running your fingers across the wooden floor, right up until you feel something wet.
>There’s a pool of transparent liquid here, very viscous and thick, almost like saliva or sex lubricant.
>You bring it into the light of the only window and inspect it, rubbing it between your fingers.
>When you bring them apart, it sticks between them in a strand.
>You smell your fingers, and this is definitely the scent you were picking up.
‘Like a public pool or a freshly-cleaned bathroom…’
>Whatever it is, it doesn’t seem normal to be up here, especially in a small pool of the stuff…

>You’d like to bring a sample back to Twilight, but you don’t really have a sealed container to do so with.
>In fact, it may already be spoiled, whatever it is.
>Still, you go back down into the kitchen to get a cup and then return to the attic to collect as much as you can.
>You scoop it into the cup with a knife and then leave the house through the front door.
>As you do, you notice someone across the street getting into their car pause and look at you.
>You make brief eye contact and then continue walking down the sidewalk, quickly heading back towards downtown.
‘Twilight’s first, to drop this stuff off. Then onto the next step: figuring out what Flash knows.’
>As you walk, you notice the car that the man across the street was getting into drive by.
>You think you catch a glimpse of him looking out his window at you, but with the light on the window you can’t be certain.
>It drives off and doesn’t turn around.
‘Am I going crazy? Am I seeing things that aren’t there?’
>You look around, feeling like the perfectly-normal houses have taken on some kind of almost sinister air.
You shake your head and mutter, “This must be how people felt in the fifties about communists… Beware the Red Menace.”
>You pick up your feet and head to Twilight’s a bit more quickly, carrying the cup all the while.
>Unlike Caramel, you actually do know where Flash lives.

>While you and he have not always been on agreeable terms, things picked up in your senior year.
>After the school was attacked by zombies and other monsters, that is.
>But, like everyone who wasn’t you and your friends, his memory of the occasion was wiped by Luna and Celestia, the events obscured through the use of their telepathic abilities.
>While he couldn’t remember why he was no longer antagonistic with you, he didn’t question it much.
>As you and the others worked to help cleanup and rebuild part of the town that was destroyed by a ‘tornado’ you got to bond with him for a short while.
>It was actually rather pleasant to have a male friend to hang around with until you left for your trip.
>Now that you’re back, hopefully things should pick up where they left off.
>But given his involvement with this curious business, you can only wonder what he is up to.
>In fact, he lives closer to Caramel’s house than Twilight, so perhaps you should drop by there first.
>You pick up the pace, walking briskly towards his residence without trying to look like you are in a hurry.
>As usual, his nice house has a shiny red sports car parked in front of it, which is a clear indication of him being home.
>You approach the door and knock on it, only to receive no answer after a few moments of waiting.
>Tapping your foot on the ground, you try knocking again, and ring the doorbell.

>That’s when you hear a mechanical sound; a soft and subtle one, like the adjustment of a lens, something that a normal person would not be able to detect.
>You look up and see a camera focusing on you.
‘Someone’s home, alright,’ you think as you look at the security camera.
>You give a little wave to the camera.
>That’s when you start hearing footsteps behind the door.
>It opens, just a crack; you can see a brass chain is still in place to keep the door locked.
>Flash’s face is on the other side, looking at you with suspicion.
“Flash, hey.”
>”…Anon. Long time no see.”
“We, uh, missed you at the barbeque.”
>”I didn’t go.”
“Clearly. Hence the whole ‘missed you’ part.” You bring a hand up and scratch the back of your head. “I was… hoping to catch up a bit now that I’m back home.” You lean closer and add, “Since I haven’t, you know, been here for a while. Wanted to know how things are going.”
>You are purposefully not talking about Caramel, to gauge his reaction.
>After a moment of looking you in the eyes, he closes the door.
>You hear him unlatch a few things and then open it back up, this time all the way, so as to let you inside.
>”Come on in,” he says, though he still sounds suspicious.

>You step inside and look around as he closes the door quickly behind you, latching it back up.
“You seem nervous,” you note. “Something the matter?”
>He finishes with the last latch and looks back at you.
>”So, you haven’t been around. On your trip with the gang, right?”
“Yeah… We were having a kind of ‘back-in-town’ barbeque earlier. Weird thing, though… I ran into Caramel there.”
>He stops moving and looks at you. “Really…”
“He was acting a little funny,” you say, running a hand over the furniture in the living room. “So I decided to follow him home.”
>You wait for his response, but none comes.
>Instead, you hear him reach for and grab something.
>”I didn’t think it would be you,” he whispers. “I thought you’d be safe since you just got back.”
You pause when you hear him say that. “Sorry?”
>You look back at him and see him holding a shotgun, which was apparently behind the door.
>A good model, too; pump-action, probably loaded with some decent stopping rounds.
>He’s pointing it right at you and his voice grows sharp.
>”When did they get to you? At the barbeque? How long does it take, huh?”
>He stands ready, still, his finger dangerously on the trigger.
>You remain calm and assess the situation.
>Obviously, he’s just as paranoid as Caramel was; the primary difference being that Flash is armed and ready to exercise his second amendment rights.

‘That won’t kill me, but it’ll hurt… And I’ll be pissed off.’ You clear your throat and slowly raise a hand. “Now Flash, I need you to calm down for me. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Caramel was acting crazy, talking about something going on in town. I wanted to find him and help.”
>”That’s exactly what one of them would say.”
You sigh. “Well then, I don’t have a very good defense, do I?”
>”Nope.”
>He then pulls the trigger and blasts you square in the chest.
>You fly backwards, over the back of the couch, ending up in the middle of the living room.
>As you land on your stomach, blood seeps out of your body and onto his nice, white carpet.
‘That’s going to stain…’
>You cough and hack for a moment as you find yourself unable to breathe.
‘Son of a bitch actually shot me. He actually just straight-up fucking shot me.’
>Flash comes around the couch on the other side, and points the gun at you again.
You let out a long, low groan, and when you speak, it is in a labored tone. “You know… I’m curious… What was your plan if I was a normal person and you just committed murder?”
>”So you ARE one of them. I knew it!”
>You push yourself up onto your arms and then turn to face him with a less-than-pleased expression.
“No, I’m NOT… and it would really be nice if you or someone would explain what THEM means.”

>Flash cocks the shotgun and aims it at your head and speaks as you stare down the barrel. “You already know.”
>He fires, but this time you swing a leg up and kick the barrel, faster than he can react.
>The shot goes wide, blasting the nearby wall and leaving a sizeable hole, roughly the same size as the one in your chest.
>You follow this up with a swipe from your hand, grabbing the front of the barrel and tearing it from his grasp.
>He backs up as you stand, straightening your back as you take a deep breath into your regenerating lungs.
“You really don’t know how much this kind of thing stings, Flash.”
>He looks down at your chest as the hole he left begins to close up; the blood seeps back into your body and the flesh begins to mend.
>”I knew you were a freak,” he says with wide, fearful eyes.
“Not the kind you’re thinking of.” You look down at your torso. “And you ruined my shirt. I’m gonna need a new one.”
>As you look down, Flash reaches behind a sofa chair and pulls out a machete.
>”DIE, FREAK!”
“Did you just have that behind the---“
>He charges at you, but is stopped when you bring up your foot and kick him in the chest in a strong standing kick.
>This sends him back up against the wall, where he breaks a mirror with his back and head.
>He slides down, sitting in a pile of broken glass.

“Now… I’m going to ask you again to calm down.”
>His eyes open and he grits his teeth, determined to keep on fighting.
“Oh, come on, man!”
>He shakes his head and jumps up, swinging the machete at you.
>You dodge three swings before grabbing his arm holding it, twisting it to make him let go.
>He then punches you in the face with his other hand, and then again, and then a third time, but only because you let him.
>Honestly, it feels kind of good to take a punch, and he’s trying his damnedest to hurt you.
>Flash isn’t exactly a slouch when it comes to fitness either, but only one of you has supernatural stamina and strength on your side.
>Really, it’s very little contest.
>Still, he’s got some moves, which he demonstrates as he wraps an arm around your neck and wrestles you to the ground.
>”You’re not… taking me in… without a fight!”
As he tries to choke you, you shrug and think, ‘Well, if it’s a fight he wants…’
>You stand up, nearly effortlessly taking him with you, and then turn to get an arm under his waist.
>You then lift him up and carry him across the living room as he punches you in the face, where you then throw him into the wooden table in front of the TV.
>Thinking that he’s done for, you dust off your hands and speak.

“Now then… As I was saying, I---“
>He springs up out of the wreck, pushing wood off of him as he shouts.
>He then Judo-rolls into the next room, where he picks up a baseball bat.
>As you contemplate the number of weapons he has lying around, he swings it at your head.
>You duck and punch him in the gut, which makes him reel backwards and hold onto his stomach in pain, but he’s not done yet.
>You kick at him but he blocks it with the bat before using the head to slam your jaw.
>He then swings it upwards and knocks you to the floor, and this time it wasn’t because you let him.
>As your sore jaw aches in protest, he brings the bat over his head and swings down at you.
>Both of your arms shoot up to block the attack by grabbing it and gripping tightly.
>Your feet kick outwards at his waist, knocking him into the dining room and atop the table there.
>You stand up and break the bat over your knee before tossing both halves aside.
>And again, you warn him, but you doubt he’ll listen.
“Flash, you really don’t want to keep this up. Come on, man.”
>He looks up from the table, a thin line of blood coming from his mouth. “I’ll never join you! You’ll have to kill me before I turn!”
“I’m NOT trying to---“
>He grabs a plate and whips it at your head; you sidestep to the right and it smashes against the wall.

>Next comes a second plate and then a candlestick.
“How much else you got in there?” you chide him, goading him into throwing more.
>He rolls off the table and heads into the kitchen, where you hear him open a drawer.
>You follow him into the dining room, where you see a bowl full of apples on the dining room table.
>Picking one up and cleaning it on your tattered shirt, getting a little bit of blood on it in the process, you take a bite as he readies a large collection of knives.
>”Hey, Anon!” You look up at him as he holds two fairly large knives, one in each hand. “Stay SHARP!”
“…Did you seriously just---“
>Then he whips them, one after another.
>Your eyes narrow as you hone in on them with your lightning-fast reflexes.
>One, you catch in your open hand, and the other you block with the apple.
>The blade pierces the red skin, going through the core and poking your hand harmlessly.
You cock your brow. “Nice, try, though. Can you just let me explain---“
>He runs out of the kitchen, into a back room and out of your sight.
>You sigh, set down a knife on the table and then take the other one out of the apple.
‘Might as well finish this.’ You start dicing the apple and eating it.
>After all, you’re not exactly afraid of whatever he’s going to come back with, unless it’s silver or covered in holy water.
>Or both.

>In a funny, roundabout way, this whole situation reminds you of those times you used to fight with Applejack when she thought you were a monster.
>Well, technically she was right, but still.
>You walk back into the living room, enjoying the apple when you hear Flash coming back.
>Out of the corner of your eye, you see him run out of the dining room, holding a wood chopping axe.
Your eyes widen and you dodge his wild swing, thinking, ‘Where the hell is he getting all of these?’
>He shouts and swings again, only this time you turn, catch it in your hand and stop its forward momentum.
>You then finish the apple and toss the core behind you.
>Time to stop playing around.
>You tear the axe out of his hands and punch him with your other hand, launching him in front of the fireplace.
>He hits the bricks and groans, reaching for a fire poker.
>You drop the axe and walk over to him, grabbing him by the neck and hoisting him up before slamming him against the wall and holding him there.
“ENOUGH!”
>He continues to struggle in your grasp, but eventually relents, his arms dropping to his sides.
>He opens an eye and looks at you with a hate-filled yet defeated gaze.
>”Just… Just get it over with, you freak…”

You wipe a bit of apple off of your lips. “I have to admit, Flash, you’re pretty tough.” You let him go and step back. “Now, granted, I let you get some of those hits in, but still. Not bad.”
>He looks up at you, confused. “What are you waiting for, huh?”
You shrug. “An explanation would be nice. Maybe give me some reasoning behind you trying to, you know, murder me by shooting me with a shotgun, but I’ll wait.” You rub your chest through the hole in your shirt.
>He forces himself to sit up. “You aren’t… mad about that?” he asks, confused by your tone.
“Well, you’re not the first person to shoot at me. Applejack used to do it all the time.”
>”What?”
>The confusion is still present on his face as you lightly pat your now completely-healed torso.
“I’ll keep you out of the suspense. Most people don’t find out this way, but I’m a werewolf.”
>”…What!?”
“A WERE-wolf. A lycanthrope. Full moon comes and I turn into a beast, half-man-half-wolf, come on and keep up here. I know you’re smarter than you look.”
>He slowly pushes himself up and stares at you, half-believing and half-thinking you’re full of bullshit.
>You can nearly see the gears turning in his head.
>He KNOWS something otherworldly is about you; after all, you just tanked a shotgun blast to the chest and are perfectly fine.
>Finally, he comes to a conclusion and asks you the question on the forefront of his mind.
>”…So then why are werewolves trying to take over the town?”

“What? No! I’m the only one. That I know of… And I’m pretty sure that whatever you and Caramel are so frightened about, it’s NOT werewolves.”
>”But you’re one of them…”
“No, I’m NOT! I’ve said this at least a half-dozen times now!” You rub your eyes and let out a frustrated sigh. “Now LOOK… and I’m only going to explain this ONCE, so listen too. I’m trying to HELP you. I came here because Caramel came to the barbeque, talking all kinds of crazy about people in town disappearing and for me to not trust anyone before he ran off. I followed him home, but someone got there first, because he wasn’t there when I got there. I saw his message to you on his computer and came here.”
>He blinks a few times, digesting the information. “And… And you being a werewolf…”
“Strange as it may be, it is a complete coincidence.”
>His arms fall down and his head slams gently against the wall as he sighs. “I don’t know whether to be relieved or terrified.”
“I get that a lot, trust me.”
>You walk over and sit down next to him as you survey his now-destroyed living room.
“So… You gonna need some help in cleaning this all up, buddy?”
>”Yeah, I think so.”
“Good. And while we’re doing that, maybe you can finally explain to me what the hell is going on around here.”
>He brings up a hand and rubs his forehead. “I wish I knew…”
>After a few minutes, you’re helping him pick up the wreckage around his home.
>You hold up the axe and the machete he attacked you with, inspecting them.

“So you just had these at the ready, huh?”
>”I didn’t know who or what would come after me, so I prepared.”
>He sweeps up the broken plates into a small receptacle as you set the weapons aside.
“Well, points for trying, but only silver works on me.”
>He looks up and asks, “How long have you been… you know?”
“A werewolf, man. Get used to saying it.”
>”Fine. How long have you been a werewolf?”
“About two years now. It started one night in October when I turned for the first time and killed Roseluck.”
>He drops the receptacle, and the plates with it.
>”That was YOU?!”
>You hold up a hand and urge him to calm down.
“Easy, easy. That was when I didn’t have it under control. Plus, I made peace with her spirit, so we’re cool now. But I’m probably not cool with her family and, you know, the law, so keep that to yourself, alright?”
>He tosses the broom aside and throws up his hands.
>”Well, forgive me for being a little bit reactionary, but I just found out my friend is a werewolf and a murderer!”

“Hey, you shot me. If I wasn’t a werewolf, I’d be dead, so don’t get all high and mighty on me now.” You take a steadying breath and relax. “Alright, look, let’s just both calm down. There’s a lot to take in and I don’t mean to blow past the heavy stuff.”
>You walk around the sofa and sit down on it, kicking out the leg rest and cupping your hands together in your lap.
“So… I’m a werewolf.”
>”We’re a bit past that part,” he deadpans.
“Now, I wouldn’t normally tell people this stuff, but you kind of forced my hand. You know, by shooting me.” You let that sink in for a moment before adding, “And I still need a new shirt.”
>He indicates the rest of the room and says, “But look at what you did to my living room!”
“Hey! That was YOU, Flash. Not me. I’ll help you clean up this mess, but I won’t take the blame for it.” You sit up and continue, “First thing’s first---aside from me being a werewolf---the supernatural, the world of the spooky and the surreal, well, it’s all real. All of it. Vampires, monsters, ghosts, most mythologies that I can think of, they all exist, hidden from normal view.”
>As he listens, he sits down on his couch.
>”And… And you, what? You just know about all of these things that nobody else knows about?” He rubs his forehead as he attempts to comprehend everything he is hearing. “How could all of that be real and the world not know about it?”
“Ignorance is bliss,” you mutter. “Most people like to think that there can’t be anything worse than normal life lurking in the dark, that there really is nothing that goes bump in the night. But there is. I’m living proof of it. You’ve seen it for yourself now, so the sooner you start believing everything I say, the sooner we can move past this part and get to what matters.”

>He takes a deep breath and sits back, still trying to work it all out in his head.
>”Okay… Okay, fine. Let’s say I believe you. That all this terrible, kid’s story or horror movie stuff is just real, and nobody ever knew about it.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say NOBODY---after all, there’s a reason we have legends, stories, movies and things like that. It’s all just a product of people trying to rationalize the fantastic as just that: fantasy. But legends and myths come from somewhere.”
>”Alright. So it’s all real then. But then what’s happening to the town?”
“I have no damn idea! I came here hoping YOU at least knew.”
>He shakes his head. “No. It all started about a month ago---maybe two. But nobody noticed it at first, so by the time we started noticing strange things, it was too late.”
“Caramel was telling me about this, but he was rambling and incoherent. Try and give me the honest truth of the matter as best you can.”
>”Wait, wait, hold on,” he says, waving a hand. “…Who else knows about you? I mean, your lycan-whatever?”
“Lycanthropy. And the girls do, and so does Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna. And three werecat witches, and a shapeshifting Native American, and---“
>”Wait. You said Celestia and Luna know?”
“Yeah, what of it?”
>He sits back, his face masked with concern. “I think they’re in on it.”

“They were at the barbeque and seemed perfectly normal to me. They talked about school, and the town, and some new TV show---“
>He jolts upwards. “The TV show! ‘Time for Thought’ right?”
“What? Yeah, I think so. Why?”
>Flash starts pacing around the room as you track him with your eyes.
>”That show started when all of this strange stuff started happening. And what’s more curious, is that the people who began to disappear would almost always show up as guests on his program later on as part of his talk-show segment.”
“So… You think he’s kidnapping and brainwashing people, or something?”
>”I don’t know. I don’t know what the endgame is, but I’m almost positive he’s involved. And it’s not just him, but the police too, and the newspapers!”
“Flash, these are some pretty heavy things you’re implying. If something really is going on in town, and it goes as far as you think, we’re going to need proof.”
>He stops and sighs. “Well, I don’t have any. Whatever these people are, they’re good at hiding their tracks. There’s no evidence anywhere of whatever it is they’re doing, and the police don’t investigate it. The newspapers don’t report it. All I can think of is that they’re all in on it and working together to keep the people ignorant.”
You lean back in the chair and reply, “Well, like I said, ignorance is bliss. If I were trying to take over a town, that’s how I would want to do it.”
>You look over on the window sill near the front door, where you set down the glass you took from Caramel.
>Walking over, you pick it up and show it to him.

“But maybe this is our first piece of evidence right here. I took this gunk from Caramel’s attic, where I think he was hiding. Someone---or something---went up there and got him, and this was all that remained.”
>He looks at the stuff and nods. “Okay, so we finally have something to go on. What’s next?”
“We get this to Twilight to analyze.”
>”Twilight? You said she’s in on your secret too, right?”
You think for a moment. “I think she was actually the second one to find out, if memory holds. She was there when a bunch of cultists burnt down my grandfather’s house with him inside.”
>He blinks. “Dude… What?”
“Nothing. Long story.” You take the cup back and set it down. “If we’re going to get to the bottom of this, we’re going to need to know who our friends are.”
>You face Flash fully and put a hand on his shoulder.
“Flash, you’re about to enter a world of the strange and the weird. We deal with monsters, hauntings, ancient evils and pandimensional entities on a fairly regular basis. It’s going to be dangerous, it’s going to change your life forever, so I just have one question I need to ask you.”
>His eyes get serious. “What?”
“…Seriously, can I have one of your shirts?”
>With Flash’s living room cleaned up as best you can manage at this time, and a nice new shirt from his closet, you leave his home and walk to his car.
>He’s right behind you with the keys in his hand, unlocking it and climbing into the driver’s side door as you briefly look around.

>A stray wind blows past, bringing an odd smell with it, which you pick up immediately.
>It resembles a kind of strange cologne, though you aren’t sure of the type.
>Looking in the direction it came from, you see someone in the far distance of his neighborhood, near the street corner, standing near the bus stop.
>You only catch a glimpse of him before a bus pulls up and blocks your view, but in that brief and narrow window, you see that he is tall, has pale skin and wears a suit---and is staring right at you.
>Not just in your direction, but you’re positive he’s looking directly at you.
>He’s also carrying a briefcase in one hand.
>As the bus pulls up, he adjusts his tie, briefly revealing a thin neck set beneath the narrow ridges of his cheekbones and jaw.
>You stop in your tracks the moment you see him, watching the bus.
>When it pulls away, he is gone.
>The bus rounds the corner and goes out of sight, vanishing as quickly as he did.
‘Who the hell was that?’
>Flash rolls down the passenger window. “Hey man, you coming?”
“Yeah… I just… Nevermind.”
>You open the door and sit inside.
>This is the first time you’ve ever been inside Flash’s sports car; it’s really nice.
>A bit too, well, ‘flashy’ for your personal taste but hey, whatever works for him.
“Twilight’s,” you say, holding the cup in your hand. “And don’t step on it. We might be watched.”

>”Did you see someone?”
“I thought I did… Some stranger with a briefcase. Looked like a government official. He was just at the bus stop, and I could have sworn he was looking this way.”
>Flash hesitates as his hand hovers over the stick.
>”You know… I think I’ve seen him, too. Pale guy, right?”
“Do you know who he is?”
>”No idea.” He looks over at you and asks, “Do you think he might be involved?”
“Maybe he’s just a guy going to work.”
>”But maybe not, right? I’ve never seen him before.”
“If we keep getting hung up on every little thing we’ve never seen before or never noticed before, we’re going to go crazy. Let’s just stick to the mission in front of us, alright?”
>”Right. Right. Twilight’s, then.”
>He puts the car in reverse and drives off.
>As he makes his way across town, you explain a few things.
>Leaving out the details of your friends and their abilities, you cue him into a brief glimpse of your life as one who battles the supernatural.
>You also clear up any questions he has about Roseluck, and the other questionable things your other half has done.
>”So, you said that was when you didn’t have it under control… Does that mean that you have it under control now?”

>You pause, considering lying to him for a few moments.
>Then you shrug and decide that if he’s going to be in on it, he needs to know the truth.
“I used to. When I had a magical amulet, but it was destroyed. I lost control of the wolf and killed someone else.”
>”Who?”
“…Rainbow Dash.”
>He nearly slams the breaks on the car. “What?! But how is she---“
“She got better.”
>”Then… Then is she like… a zombie?”
You can’t help but laugh. “No, no. She’s not a zombie. She’s something far more magnificent than that, but I’ll let her tell you.” You readjust your seatbelt and change the subject back to the original point. “Look, I manage the transformations now. Twilight isolated the gene sequence of my lycanthropy and created a serum that can trigger it, even in the daylight. She also created a suppressant to turn me back into a human.”
>”So then, what’s it like? When you’re not you.”
“Just like that: me not being me. The thing inside of me, it’s a wild animal. It doesn’t want to be chained or caged. I thought I had him leashed for a while, but the serum did something to me the first time we tried it out and I lost control of him again. I don’t know if it’s empowered him or weakened me or what, but when I change… I don’t have control. I can kind of ‘aim’ him, but once he wakes up, he’s the one in charge. At least until the others can inject me with the cure.”
>”That’s pretty crazy, man. How can you live with that thing inside of you?”
“I manage. Some days better than others. But it’s kind of gotten to me lately.”
>”What’s that mean, exactly?”

“Well, I…” You sigh and rub your eyes. “I guess I can talk about this with you. Everyone else knows it.”
>”Hey, it’s not like I’m going to shoot you again. You can trust me.”
“Fair enough. Lately, I’ve been letting it affect my personal life. I had a, well, a kind of a thing going with Dash.”
>”Before or after you killed her and she came back?”
“Well, it started kind of in the middle.”
>He cocks a brow, waiting for you to continue.
“She was a ghost for a while. We got to talking a lot during this time and we agreed to start dating once she came back. So we did.”
>”And what’s wrong now?”
“I said some stuff I probably shouldn’t have said. Well, okay, there’s not so much a ‘probably’ in there as I put it; I really meant that I definitely said some stuff I shouldn’t have said. We had a big fight, both got very angry, and haven’t really patched things up since.”
>”I thought she was loyal to her friends to a fault. What could you have said to her to make her so angry?”
“I don’t want to talk about it. Sorry.”

>”S’cool, bro.” He shakes his head and lets out a chuckle. “I just can’t believe all this shit is real… You’re a werewolf, Dash actually died… Something must be going on in the town then, right? I mean, with all your stuff being real, there HAS to be.”
“We’ll keep looking. For now, I don’t know what it could be.”
>Flash pulls up to a red light and looks around.
>”There,” he suddenly says, pointing a finger at a street corner.
>You look and see three adults standing and talking to each other.
“What am I looking at?”
>”That’s Mr. Cake, Filthy Rich and Ms. Harshwhinny. They’ve never even been in the same room as each other.”
“Look, I’m not trying to doubt you, but how can you be sure of that?”
>”It’s not just a conversation,” Flash insists. “Something is going on.”
>When the light turns green, he drives past them, casually so as not to draw suspicion.
>From out of the corner of your eye, you watch them, but there isn’t anything seemingly out of the ordinary.
“Mind control, perhaps?” you say, repeating your earlier theory.
>He shrugs as he turns around the corner. ”Maybe…”
>Within a few minutes, you have arrived at Twilight’s home.
>Flash pulls into her driveway and parks before you both disembark and approach the back entrance to her basement.
>You knock, and she answers, pushing the cellar doors open.

>”Anon, good to---“ She pauses immediately upon seeing Flash “Flash. Nice to see you.”
>She looks at you beneath her glasses, shooting a ‘what are you DOING’ glare as she does so.
>”Uh, hey there, Twilight,” he says, sounding a little uncertain, but he does throw up his hands in mock-guns.
>She frowns. ”I wasn’t expecting you. To be here. With Anon, I mean. What I’m getting at is that I didn’t expect Anon to bring you.”
You clear your throat. “Yeah, me neither. But he knows.”
>She reaches up and takes off her glasses. “Knows what?”
You lean closer. “He knows about me,” you say, heavily implying without outright saying it.
>She looks up at Flash before sighing. “Perfect. Well, come on inside, then.”
>Flash quietly follows as you two enter; she closes the door behind her and locks it.
>He looks around the basement, noting the scarcity of furnishing, and says, “So… where’s the lab?”
>”First thing’s first,” she says, pointing at him. “You do not tell ANYONE about this. And you,” she points at you now, “are going to owe the group an explanation.”
“Oh, it’s a good one,” you assure her. “Now if you don’t mind, we have a missing person and a weird goo I need you to look at.”
>She looks at the cup in your hand and takes it. “What is this?”
“After Caramel ran off from the party, I followed him, just like I said. But he wasn’t home. Someone---or something---came and got him. That’s all I could find, up in his attic.”
>She sniffs the contents of the cup, her nose scrunching up. “Fascinating.”
“Like a pool, right?”

>”Similar, yes. Come this way,” she says, mostly to Flash.
>She approaches the large metal door that leads to her lab.
>”Woah, you have a vault down here or something?”
>”Or something indeed,” she says, opening it to reveal a room awash in green glow.
‘She didn’t waste time in getting this old lab up and running again,’ you think as you follow them inside.
>The tables and shelves are lined with vats, bottles, alembics and vials of various liquids, many of them filled with some variation of her reagent.
>”Woah,” Flash says, approaching some of the beakers. “This is amazing. I feel like I’m in a mad scientist’s lab!”
>”Flattering,” Twilight says as she approaches a microscope. She sets down the cup and prepares a few things as she says, “Don’t touch anything, if you please. Lots of this equipment is very sensitive.”
“Yeah, and you don’t want to make her angry. She’s got stuff in here that turns her into a monster when she gets angry.”
>”Seriously?” he asks.
>Twilight rolls her eyes and goes about preparing a viewing sample on a plastic palette.
>You watch Flash as he approaches the opposite wall, where the ghost containment unit is stored.
>He reaches up to inspect some of the buttons, but you catch his hand and stop him.
“Trust me. Of all the things in here, you don’t want to touch that.”
>”Sorry. There’s just so much stuff in here, it’s hard not to be curious.”

“Well, that’s where we store excess ghost hunting equipment,” you point at a few lockers. “This is where we store the ghosts,” you indicate the unit. You then point at the freezer. “And that’s where Twilight keeps her dead bodies.”
>”Which I don’t have anymore, incidentally,” Twilight points out. “It’s proven to be too much of a hazard to keep corpses around my reagent.”
“You could say that again,” you mutter.
>”So… This stuff makes zombies?”
>”Only under very specific circumstances!” she is quick to defend herself, even though he doesn’t understand the context.
“And only once every year or so.”
>”Anon!”
>You shrug as Flash asks, “Wait, what?”
>You’re about to explain, but then Twilight says, “I need concentration, please! No more distractions or talking about past misuses of my reagent, okay?”
>She then busies herself with examining things under the microscope.
“I’ll explain later,” you tell him.
>Just then, there is a knock at the cellar door, which echoes into the lab.
>Four slow knocks, just like you did.
“I’ll get it.” You look at Flash and say, “Don’t break anything and cause an apocalypse while I’m gone.”

>”Hey, I’m not touching a thing in here, I got it.”
>Approaching the door, you unlock it to let the others inside.
>Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, the lattermost of whom pushes past to get in the lab first without a hello.
“Uh, Rainbow, you shouldn’t---“
>She cuts you off. ”Yeah, that’s nice Anon.”
>She enters the lab, and a moment later you hear her again.
>”What the hell are YOU doing here?!”
>”I wasn’t touching anything!” Flash insists.
>The others all curiously follow as you walk inside, closing the door behind you.
>”Hello everyone,” Twilight says, not looking up from her microscope. “Flash is here.”

>”Seriously, what’s going on?” Dash demands to know. “What is Flash of all people doing here?”
You fold your arms and lean up against the wall. “Yes, Flash, please explain now that we’re all here.”
>He looks at them all as they stare at him, then shoots you an apologetic look. “Aw, come on man, don’t make me do this.”
“If you’re going to be one of us, the first thing you need to learn is that we don’t keep secrets from each other.”
>”Wait, he’s going to be a member?” Rarity asks.
>”Why?” Applejack follows up.
“Flash?” you deflect their questions back towards him.
>He gulps and straightens his jacket.
>”I, um… Anon’s a werewolf.”

>Dash slaps her face. “One day back and he’s already screwed up.”
“Hey, this was NOT my fault,” you say, somewhat defensive. “Now Flash, tell them how you learned about me, or I’ll do it, and I won’t make it pretty.”
>”Fine. I shot Anon.”
“With?”
>”With a shotgun.”
“And why?”
>”Because I thought he was a fake person coming to kill me so I tried to kill him first.”
“There, see? That wasn’t so crazy. I mean it sounds crazy, sure, but we’ve had worse.”
>”So you shot him?” Applejack asks. “With what kind of rounds?”
>”Uh… shotgun shells?”
>”I mean what were in ‘em? Any silver, or holy water, or flame rounds?”
>”Uh… No?”
>She tips her hat and shakes her head. “Amateur monster hunters, I swear…”
“Go easy on the guy. He was as ready as he could be; he came at me with a machete, an axe, a baseball bat… He’s a decent puncher, too. Not as good as me, but we can get him there. And he needs some work on his one-liners…”

>"Hey, man, I don't need any more shit about that. It sounded cool at the time, alright?"
>"The heck’re you two on about?" Applejack asks.
>”Woah, woah, back up a minute,” Dash says as she holds up her hands. “You thought he was a ‘fake?’ How and why did you get that idea?”
>Flash leans over the table he’s standing behind and quickly lays it all out.
>”Because something is happening in this town! People are disappearing and when they come back, they’re not the same. They act strange, they gather in strange groups and something about them is just… off!”
>Applejack puts her hands on her hips. “Like what?”
>”I… I can’t really explain it. It’s subtle. Whatever’s going on, it’s hard to explain.” He stands back and rubs a hand through his hair. “Nobody noticed the pattern until kids in school started talking about their parents disappearing. They’d always come back with excuses: a sudden trip to Vegas, a family emergency, ‘I just had to get away for a few days’ and stuff. And none of these things are looked into by the cops or anybody. And strangers around town...”
>”I’m still not hearing much proof,” Applejack replies. “Look, I don’t mean to play devil’s advocate, but what if this is all just a series of coincidences? How do we really know something is happening?”
>”I don’t have any proof… just a feeling.” When that doesn’t seem to win over any hearts, he says, “But it’s a STRONG feeling. It’s not just adults, either---Caramel was still going to school. He was telling me about---“

>”Excuse me, but what’s this about Caramel?” Rarity asks, interrupting him. “Twilight mentioned him as well.”
“We might not have proof, but we know one thing: Caramel, and his parents apparently, are gone. He was at the barbeque and talked to me. He told me not to trust anyone in town, but that since we were away, we were safe from whatever’s been happening---that’s why he confided in me in the first place. Then I went to his home, found it boarded up from the inside, like windows nailed shut, but he was gone. His scent was strong, so he had been there, but he wasn’t when I got there. I saw on his computer that he sent a message to Flash warning him that people were coming for him. So now, he’s missing.”
>”He was part of a group I’ve been a part of for the last few weeks,” Flash explains. “It’s made up of students who have noticed what’s been going on. Octavia, she’s in it---she’s got a chart she’s been working on that can explain all of this way better than I could. But I’m getting off-point: Caramel contacted me and said ‘they’ were coming for him. That’s the last we heard of him.”
“That’s when I went to his house and he shot me,” you add.
>”Wait, wait, wait,” Applejack says, taking off her hat. “Let’s say, for the moment, that the thing Celestia told us was wrong: that Caramel’s parents aren’t going through a rough patch, that he isn’t crackin’ under the pressure. If so, what are we talkin’ about? I mean, what are we REALLY talkin’ about? If people around town are being replaced, why? And by what?”
>”ALIENS!” Pinkie Pie exclaims. “It has to be!”
>”Come now dear, be serious,” Rarity replies.

>”Think about it! It has to be aliens!” Pinkie runs around the table, to Flash’s side. “They’re invading, and taking over the town! It’s just like in those old movies!”
>”That’s plum ridiculous,” Applejack says, her voice heavy with doubt.
>”Is it?” Fluttershy asks. “I mean, we’ve seen some very strange things, so… why can’t it be aliens?”
>”We deal with threats of the Earth,” Applejack replies. “Sometimes things from elsewhere get in, but everything we’ve ever seen, everything we’ve ever fought has been of the Earth. I don’t believe in aliens.”
>”Oh, come ON!” Pinkie shouts. “How can you NOT? Do you know how many billions and billions and billions of planets there are in our galaxy ALONE?”
>Twilight looks up from the microscope. “Roughly one-hundred billion.”
>”RIGHT, THAT MANY!” Pinkie waves her hands. “With those odds, there HAS to be alien life!”
>”Well, the odds are actually very narrow,” Twilight points out. “There are many competing theories about the viability of a planet’s habitability zone being concurrent with---“
>”Hold it,” Applejack cuts her off. “Not that your rant wouldn’t be inerestin’ an’ all, Twilight, but come on now. Aliens?” She looks back at Pinkie and places her hat on the table. “So you’re tellin’ me that honest-to-god alien life came to Earth, landed here, and are replacin’ people in town for an invasion?”
>Pinkie taps her fingers together. “Well, when you put it like that, it sounds kind of silly… But that’s EXACTLY what I’m saying!”
>Fluttershy speaks up. “Um, I don’t mean to cause a fuss, but if there really were aliens on Earth, wouldn’t we have seen some on our trip?”

>Dash chews on her lip for a moment. “What about mutants from another dimension?”
Before anyone can reply, you raise a hand. “Strictly speaking, we’ve dealt with things not ‘from’ Earth before. Sunset once told me about all the extraplaner life she’s read about in the Necronomicon and other books. We all know that magic is real, and other dimensions are; what is a being from another dimension if not technically an alien, at least to our prime reality?”
>”Now you’re just arguin’ semantics,” she says, waving away the notion. “Besides, what kind of aliens are we even talkin’ about? Little green men in UFO’s?”
>”Plant people!” Pinkie shouts. “No, wait, pod people!” She suddenly gasps. “Pea plant pod people!”
>”Now, now, darling, let’s not rule it out solely on that basis,” Rarity says to Applejack, ignoring Pinkie’s outburst. “They could be aliens, but not as we know them. What if they're... shapeshifters?”
>”Are you on their side now?” Applejack asks her.
>”Why do we have to be on sides?” Flash asks. “Can’t we just recognize that there is a problem and go after it?”
>Everyone is quiet for a moment.
“He’s got a point, surprisingly,” you nod at him. “Caramel is gone. Something may or may not be going on in the town. We need to find him, and if there really is something strange or alien going on---and I’m not saying it’s aliens---but the trail will pick up with him.”
>”On that note,” Twilight says, walking over with the sample, “this doesn’t help us any.”
>”Nothing?” Flash asks, somewhat dejected.

>”As far as I can tell, it’s some kind of mucus. But from what, I can’t say.”
>Rainbow chuckles. “So someone sneezed on the crime scene and that’s our only clue?”
>”I don’t think it is snot, based on the smell alone. But I’ll need to analyze it further.”
“Damn. I was hoping that would lead us to the next step… This means that we’ll have to find him the old-fashioned way.”
>Rainbow Dash cracks her knuckles. “Let’s get to it, then!”
“Wait,” you say, stalling them. “First thing’s first. I said earlier that we don’t keep secrets from each other, so that means Flash is going to need to learn a few things about us.”
>Everyone looks at him as his eyes drift from one person to the next.
>Pinkie Pie raises her hand. “Oh! Oh! Me first!” She clears her throat. “I don’t have anything special, really, but I do have a super-duper pet named Gummy! He’s a precambodian life form!”
>”Precambrian,” Twilight corrects her. “It means he predates the modern fossil record.”
>”He’s missing a link!” Pinkie exclaims.
>”No, he’s A missing link. Between humans and fish.”
>”He likes to eat birthday cake!”
>”Well, that’s technically true.” Twilight sets down her sample. “I’m sure you can guess what I contribute to the team, Flash. I deal in the science of what we do, and design most of our gear. I also have, on occasion, reanimated dead bodies. For science.”
>”And I work with Twilight, usually,” Rarity says. “I… suppose that I used to dig up dead bodies, chop them up and stitch them back together, but I haven’t done that since we made Spike.”
>Flash’s eyes go wide. “Uh… Spike?”

>Twilight coughs. ”You’ll meet him later. He’s watching cartoons upstairs.”
>Rainbow unslings a guitar case from her back and opens it up.
>Inside is not a guitar, but a sword, which she holds up.
>”Behold, Flash---when I draw this blade, I grow an awesome pair of wings and become a living Valkyrie!”
>”That sounds cool! Can I see?”
>”Erm, not here. My wings would probably knock over all of Twilight’s beakers and junk.”
>”Thank you,” Twilight murmurs.
>Dash slides the guitar case back over her shoulder. ”Hey, what are friends for, right?”
>Applejack steps forward. “The Apple family is a proud lineage of monster hunters. We’ve done our best to keep Canterlot safe, and now we work with monsters to fight monsters. Like ‘Shy here.”
>Fluttershy now speaks up. “And, um… Well…”
>She opens her mouth, revealing a set of sharp fangs to Flash.
>He reacts in shock, stepping backwards. “You’re a… A…”
“Don’t act so surprised, you’ve seen them before,” you chuckle.
>He tears his eyes away from her to you. “Wh-what?”
“Well, your memory was wiped but Fluttershy once bit you.”
>”Anon!” Fluttershy protests, her face growing red.
>”Wh-what?!” Flash stammers. “What are you talking about?”
“Well, that’s kind of a long story… Sit down, buddy, you might need it for this.”

>You walk over to him and put a hand on his shoulder as he sits and prepares.
“You see, Flash… Once upon a time, you were bitten by Fluttershy and your memory was wiped.”
>”…That didn’t tell me anything!”
“I know man, I’m just messing with you. It actually all coincided with the attack by a cult of werewolves who tried to bring about the Norse apocalypse by spreading chaos and resurrecting an army of the dead in order to enact a ritual to free a giant wolf from his chains and have his son swallow the moon. There are some more details that I’m leaving out, like a trio of werecat witches and a wendigo, but honestly there was a lot going on. And that's not even getting into the year before that! The point is that the town was destroyed and Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna used their psychic powers to convince everyone that a tornado hit the town instead of, you know, all of that other stuff. That’s why you don’t remember Fluttershy biting you, even though she did. For what it’s worth, I’m sure that she’s sorry.” You look back. “Right?”
>She shyly hides behind a lock of pink hair. ”Yes… I’m very sorry about that.”
>He blinks a few times as he attempts to digest all the information you just fed him.
You slap his shoulder. “So, any questions?”
>His mouth opens and closes several times as he stares, dumbfounded.
“Is that a no?”
>”I, uh, I need a minute,” he says, standing up and walking over to a wall.
>He puts a hand on it to steady himself.
>In the meantime, you look back at the others.

“So, we spread out. Search the town. Sooner or later, we’ll find him, or someone who knows what happened to him.” You look back at him and ask, “You think your friends in that group would be willing to help?”
>”Yeah… Yeah, of course,” he nods. “I’ll let them know what happened and maybe we can all get together or something. But we need to keep this secret!”
>”We always do,” Applejack says. “Hell, my family’s been huntin’ monsters in Canterlot for generations, ain’t nobody ever spilt the beans until we all teamed up.”
>”You don’t understand; we don’t KNOW who could and could not be in on it. Your parents, the postman, the police, hell maybe even the mayor---they could all be in on it.”
>”That’s a little TOO paranoid, don’t you think?” Rainbow asks.
>”I’m just asking you to please not trust anyone in town. I think I can trust all of you because you haven’t been here, and it’s because of that we shouldn’t go anywhere alone.”
>”We can handle ourselves, thanks,” Dash says.
>”He may have a point,” Twilight says to her. “We should all stay with at least one other member of the group and keep up communications.”
>”Slumber party?” Pinkie asks in a hopeful voice.
>”Yes, Pinkie, that means a slumber party.”
>”Yippie~!”
>Fluttershy strokes a lock of her hair and says, “Well, we could all stay at my place… it’s far enough out of town that it would minimize the risk of… whatever it is we’re talking about.”

>”Until disproven, it’s aliens!” Pinkie insists.
You clasp your hands. “So… Break, then? Let’s hunt down Caramel.”
>”Wait!” Pinkie says, suddenly shifting gears again. “We need a password!”
>Rarity is confused. “Wait, for what?”
>”For in case one of us is replaced by the aliens, doy!” Pinkie thinks for a moment. “It needs to be something that never comes up in normal conversation… I GOT IT! Dildos!”
>Rainbow smacks a hand over her face. “Really, Pinkie?”
>Pinkie sticks out her tongue. “Oh really? How often do YOU have a conversation about dildos, huh?”
>”Really, must we be vulgar about it?” Rarity says.
“How about ‘dolphin’ then?” you ask. “We never talk about dolphins.”
>Pinkie nods, her wild hair poofing out a bit. ”Good point! And it sounds like dildo, kind of! In that they both start with D!”
>”So long as it isn’t dildo dolphin, I’m good,” Rainbow says.
>Flash takes out his phone. “So… Can I get all your numbers, ladies?”
>”Smooth,” Applejack says, and Rarity giggles.
>”For the mission!” Flash insists. “Really, I mean it!”
>After a round of everyone giving him their number, and him theirs, they all confer on a few last-minute details.
>It’s decided that you will temporarily hang out with Flash and that they will all stay at each other’s homes in teams of two or three.

>When everyone leaves for the night, with the understanding that tomorrow they will begin searching the town in teams, you stop and pull Rainbow off to the side, behind Twilight’s house where you can be alone.
>Now that you finally have a chance to talk to her, you’re going to take it.
>Slightly annoyed, she says, “What? What is it?”
“I’ve been trying to talk to you,” you tell her. “It’s been on my mind a lot lately.”
>”Has it? I haven’t noticed.”
“Come on, Rainbow. I’m trying to apologize here.”
>That seems to have caught her attention, but she’s no less skeptical. “Really? Now? Maybe you’ve already been replaced by an alien.”
“I’m serious. I want this hostility between us to end.”
>”Well, I’m ready for your apology. I’ll see how I’m feeling at the end of it.”
>She folds her arms and waits.
You take a deep breath and say, “I’m sorry.”
>A few seconds of silence pass between the two of you.
>”…And? Is that it? Seriously, dude?”
“Well, I am! I am sorry!”
>”For WHAT?” she nearly shouts. “Come on, out with it!”
“For what I said, obviously!” you reply, growing a bit irritated. “I’m sorry for what I said, okay?”
>”You think this kind of apology is going to make things better?” She rubs her face and groans. “I can’t believe this.”

“Alright, just… Let’s back up.” You bring up your hands and then lower them, taking another deep breath as you do. “I’ve been going through some things lately and I got angry at you. I shouldn’t have and I said some things I never meant to say.”
>She is still for a few moments, but then relents. “Well, that’s better than the first try…”
>Her expression softens and she says, “Look… Anon, I know most of the things you’re going to say. I know you’re sorry, I know you didn’t mean it, I know you can be kind of a pigheaded moronic numbskull---“
“I wasn’t going to say any of that last part!”
>”Oh. Well, anyway, I know you didn’t really mean it, what you said that night. Truth is… I’ve kind of been wanting to apologize too.”
“Really? For what? You didn’t do anything wrong.”
>”Well, yeah, I have been. When we fought, I should’ve, I don’t know, stuck with you even though you said that stuff. I know you’ve been having trouble lately, with that snarling bastard inside of you, so I should’ve, I dunno… been there for you, I guess.”
>She rubs her arm and looks away sheepishly.
>”Truth is, I just got angry, too.”
“So… What now?”
>”I don’t know. I mean, I still like you, I do… even if you can be an idiot sometimes… but I don’t really know where we’re at.”
“I, uh… I mean, I wouldn’t mind just kind of going back to the way things were.”
>”Do you really? I mean, with all that stuff that’s happening to you?”

>That gives you pause and you step back.
“Well, now that you mention it…”
>She folds her arms again. “Thought so.”
>Having been baited into the trap, you are quick to defend yourself.
“No, wait, that’s not what I meant. It’s just that---“
>”It’s just that it’s still the same as last year,” she interrupts you. “You’re still afraid of doing the stuff we talked about doing because I could get hurt, so it’s better to do nothing at all, right? Because you’re still afraid of living life to its fullest like we both said we wanted to!”
“That’s NOT what I said.”
>”But it’s what you meant.”
Your hand scratches the back of your head in frustration. “Look, Rainbow, I just want to get the damn Wolf back under control before I commit to anything! Alright?! Is that too damn much to ask? He already killed you once!”
>That disarms her a bit, making her back off.
“Sorry.”
>”No, I get it. It’s cool, really. I mean, I just pull out a sword and get these badass wings, but you’ve got this whole other thing you have to deal with.”
>She’s quiet for a moment, giving you some time to calm down.
“Thanks. I just… I’m going crazy, Dash. I don’t know what it is.”
>Her face grows concerned, and you see the part of her that wants to be with you resurface.
>”Are you going to need my help?”

>You look into her eyes, but when you do, for some reason all you can see is the visage of her corpse, floating in the air, the ghost that she once was, because of you.
“…No.”
>She steps back, her voice betraying the hurt she feels.
>”So… What, then? Are we still just on a break?”
“It’s… Not you. It’s me.”
>”That’s an old line if ever I heard one.”
“Yeah, well, it’s true.” You stop for a moment and look around at the sky, seeing the setting sun over the rooftops paint it orange. “And maybe it isn’t just me, too.”
>”What? What are you trying to say, exactly?”
“I’m talking about what month it is. I know I seemed a little paranoid before but there’s something legitimately strange going on around here.”
>”Yeah, I get it.”
“Look… I don’t want to use what could be going on right now as an excuse for us to be, you know, apart… but maybe we just keep it easy until we learn what’s really going on?”
>”And then what?”
“And then I’ll see how I feel. And you see how you feel.”
>”I already know how I feel,” she says. “I want ‘us’ to work, but I can’t just keep giving and giving without getting anything in return, Anon. I need to know if you’re ready for us to go even further beyond.” She pauses for a moment and adds, “I need to know if you care as much as I do.”
>You step back and put an arm on a nearby tree.

“I don’t know if I can do that right now.”
>She shifts onto one foot. “Boy, Anon. You sure do know how to make a girl feel special.”
>You hold up your hands an offer an apologetic shrug.
“That’s all I can do right now. I’m sorry.”
>”Yeah, you said that. I know.”
>She walks past you and back to the front, where she gets into her car and drives behind Fluttershy to stay at her house.
>You remain in the back for a moment, leaning against the tree, before punching it in frustration.
‘Damn it all.’
>That didn’t exactly go as you wanted it to, but then again, with how you’re feeling and everything that’s going on, how well could it have gone?
>You walk up to Flash, who is quiet up until you move to get into his car.
>”You alright?”
“Fine.”
>He smirks and elbows you in the ribs. ”Bitches, huh?”
You pause. “Right.”
>”Yeah, tell me about it, man. Me, I’ve been trying to just keep it cool, right? But these crazy chicks, they just---”
“Drive your damn car, Flash.”

>”Oh, sorry.” He quickly gets in and starts it up while you buckle up. “So… Any ideas on where to begin?”
“I wouldn’t mind seeing that chart you mentioned Octavia was making.”
>”Right. I’ll contact her tonight. There was going to be a meeting, but I cancelled it when Caramel sent me that message. I’ll set something up for tomorrow, how’s that?”
“Should be fine.”
>”Yeah, cool. I’m really glad you guys are helping. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I was freaked out for minute there but I feel a lot better now.”
“Well, just don’t forget that you shot me, and that’s why you know.”
>He rolls his eyes. “How can I forget if you keep reminding me? Look bro, I said I was sorry.”
“You really can’t just say that about shooting a man, Flash. You SHOT me.” You look out the window and smirk. “But hey, I forgave Sunset for stabbing me, so maybe if you survive long enough you’ll get there.”
>”What do you mean, IF I survive? You saw how good I was back at the house.”
“I saw an idea of how good you could be. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that you’re quite there yet. You need some time battling the supernatural before you’re an action movie hero, buddy.”
>”Well, just you wait and see. When we find whatever this is, I’m going to kick its ass and smoke it like grass.”
“And you need to work on your one-liners…”
>Soon enough, you’re at Flash’s place, ready to help him clean up the remainder of the mess left from earlier and then sleep.
>Tomorrow, the search begins.

>The next day, you begin coordinating with Flash, his allies and your team to search the town for Caramel.
>As your friends begin to look around, you meet up with the pseudo-underground-resistance that Flash has been leading to get a look at this graph.
>They have been meeting in an abandoned farmhouse on the edge of town; a secret knock is required for entrance.
>Once the door is open, you follow him inside to behold his crew’s setup.
>You are introduced to them: Octavia, Thunderlane, Blossomforth, Lyra and Bon Bon.
>Their hideout is fairly barren, but they have a table that you all gather around with a map of the town on it.
>The walls are also plastered with newspaper articles, printouts from online articles and photographs.
“Hello everyone,” you say, greeting them all at once.
>You’ve had classes with a few of them in the past but none of them were in your inner circle of friends.
>It seems circumstance has forced you and them together; you don’t like the idea of putting this many non-powered individuals in harm’s way, but you’ve got a feeling that your team will need all the help it can get.
>Octavia, a very bright student and a British transfer, has put together a chart of teachers and other faculty members and their relations to one another.

>The chart, a series of lines and circles with a few pictures, deals with who they have been interacting with as of late.
>Unfortunately, it doesn't give you many clues; all it seems to indicate is that recently there have been more instances of teachers meeting outside of school than usual.
>These are accompanied by useful photos snagged at a distance from cell phones.
>But at the same time, it also doesn't prove that anything sinister is going on underneath it all.
>Flash, clearly the leader of this rag-tag group, steps up to speak.
>”I’ve got some bad news. Caramel was in our group, and he knows everything about our setup: the location, the knock. This is going to be our last meeting here. We’ll need to move everything to someplace else.”
>You watch their reactions; some are upset, while others are frustrated.
>”Is this going to happen every time one of us gets taken?” Octavia asks.
>”This really pisses me off,” Thunderlane mutters under his breath. “It’s like there’s nothing we can do.”
You walk around their table and stand next to Flash. “Well, the good news is that you guys aren’t alone. My team has been out of town and we’re all onboard to help find Caramel and get to the bottom of this.”
>”Your team?” Lyra asks with a skeptical look. “No offense, but you haven’t been here. You don’t know how bad things have gotten.”
>You’re about to defend yourself when Flash holds up his hand.

>”Anon and yes, his team, are the real deal. Realer than I ever thought. If we want to get through this, we have to join up with them.”
>Everyone seems to trust him and take his word for it, though there is still a heavy air of doubt lingering in the room.
You place your hands on the table and lean forward. “Let’s start with what we all know, shall we? Cue me in.”
>”My parents suddenly up and left about a week ago,” Thunderlane says. “No warning, no phone call, nothing. I eventually got a note in the mail saying that they won a free vacation from some agency I’ve never heard of.”
“This was unusual?”
>”They didn’t even text! I’ve never, ever gotten a letter from my folks.”
>Bon Bon then steps forward. “My neighbor disappeared. Every day for the last fifteen years she would sit on her porch and wave as I walked home from school, and then she’s gone. When she showed back up, I waved to her, but there was no response. She hasn’t been outside since.”
“How long between her disappearance and reappearance?”
>”About three or four days.”
>You scratch your chin, deep in thought.
>The others all have similar stories: a mail man gone missing, only to pop back up a few days later; a woman going to the police about her missing children only for her to suddenly go missing, then she and her kids just show up to school one day as if nothing has happened; the list goes on and on.

>However, one small detail that the others can corroborate is that they have all seen strangers in town lately; in particular, a man in a suit with a briefcase.
>Blossomforth apparently got a very good look at him one time when she was coming home from a yoga class.
>"He's got a super-creepy face, all pale skin and bright-eyed, with slick-back hair and stuff."
"Did you get a good look at him, up close?"
>"No. He was at the end of the street, and when I saw him, he walked around the corner and left. But I know he saw me looking at him."
>Thunderlane adds, “I saw him up on the river bridge when I was jogging. He left as soon as I saw him, and then when I worked my way up he was gone.”
"Have any of you gone to the police about this man?"
>They all shake their heads.
>"The cops are in on it," Lyra says, walking forward with a series of clipped articles. "Here, look at these."
>You take them in hand and look them over.
"Mayor approves new extension to sewers. Local library renovated. Supermarket blowout sale breaks records. Investigation into plane crashes continues." You set them down. "I'm sorry, but is there a pattern here I'm not seeing?"
>"Those are all headlines, and nothing about people in town disappearing. Nobody's reporting it, nobody's investigating it!"
>Flash walks around the table. "When we first started, we tried going to the police and the mayor's office, but got turned away. They always say 'oh, we'll send a unit' or 'we're still looking into it' but they're lying."

>Bon Bon throws in, "I once spent a whole day following a police car in secret. All it did was go around town, doing nothing."
"I believe that's called a patrol."
>"That's not the point!" she insists. "Nobody is doing anything about these disappearances and nobody seems to want to talk about them."
"It's not that I don't believe you, I do. I was there in Caramel's house, I know he's gone. But we just don't have any kind of solid lead we can use right now."
>"That's why we need to start searching the town in sections," Octavia says. "We work a grid and find him."
>She takes out a ruler and some red markers and starts drawing on the town map.
>As she does this, Flash takes you off to the side and whispers.
>"Is there anything you can do to help find him? I mean, special powers, you know."
"I have a good sense of smell. It's how I found him originally. But unless I pick up his scent again, it's not going to work."
>He nods and turns back to the table with you as Octavia finishes with the map.
>You snap a picture and send it to your team to give them an idea of where to begin.
>As you do this, Flash’s crew begin to clean up, taking things off the walls and getting them ready for transport.

You slide your phone away as you tell them, “Fluttershy’s cottage is on the outskirts of town. For now, I think it will make a good hideout for you all. The rest of the girls are setting up to work there as well, so it’ll be good for all of us to work together. It’ll be somewhat cramped, though… Is there anyone else in your group?”
>"Yes," Octavia replies. "Vinyl."
"Who?"
>"She was that girl who was always on her headphones," Flash explains.
"Ah, right."
>"She has a radio station that she runs out of her home. It’s kind of a podcast-thing. Most of the kids at the school still tune into it, and we’ve been trying to get her to spread information around with it and clue the others in.”
“Right, because the news isn’t doing it, right?”
>”Exactly!” Octavia turns back to the map while you and Flash walk towards the exit.
>”So, what’s first? Uptown, downtown, public parks?” he asks.
>You pause at the door in thought before making up your mind.
“Let the others stick to the grid for now. I have an idea of where I want to begin.”
>Several minutes later, the two of you pull up in his car in the morgue parking lot.
>”What are we doing here? You don’t think he’s dead, do you?”
“Look Flash, I’ve been around the block a few times. Trust me on this: when something supernatural is going on, the morgue is always involved.”
>The two of you approach the front door.
“Now then: you go in there and distract the workers. I’m going to sneak into the back and check on the dead bodies.”

>”I really don’t know what you’re looking for here, man.”
“I just want to rule a few things out. Trust me, I know what I’m doing.”
>Flash takes you up on your word and enters while you circle around to the back.
>There is a fence here, which is easy enough to hop over.
>You sneak up to a window and peer inside at a sterile examination room.
>With nobody in sight, you walk up to the door and try it; locked.
>Back to the window, then.
>Using your hands, you dig your fingers into the wood, allowing you to pry it open.
>From here, you carefully climb inside, finding yourself in an empty room with a stretcher in the center.
‘Now, let’s see who died recently…’
>You sneak up to the wall lockers that hold the corpses and open the first one, only to find that it is empty.
>The second one, too, is empty.
>And the third.
>Soon enough you’ve searched every single one and they are all empty.
‘I guess it’s a slow time for business,’ you think. ‘Still, strange that there isn’t a single body here…’
>Furthermore, this examination room looks like it hasn’t been used for a while.
>The instruments, all laid out neatly and ready for use, are covered with dust.

>A shelf containing substances like embalming fluids and preservatives is similarly untouched.
>A noise nearby alerts you to footsteps that are growing louder.
>Thinking quickly, you hop into a nearby closet, leaving the door cracked open only slightly.
>The morgue worker comes back and looks around, scanning his eyes across the entire room.
>He fixates on the open window, and then approaches it to investigate.
>You watch from the narrow crack in the door as he wipes a finger across the windowsill, then checks the dust, carefully observing every little detail that he can.
>He turns back to the rest of the room, now seemingly more suspicious, as he approaches the wall lockers.
>Slowly, he opens them, looking inside, as if he were searching for someone---like an intruder.
>You prepare to defend yourself if he comes to search the closet, stepping back slightly and nearly bumping into something.
>You turn and come face-to-face with a skeleton, staring at you with empty sockets.
>It takes a moment for you to realize that it is nothing more than a medical dummy hanging on a rack.
>Though you made no noise, the man outside in the room is getting closer.
>As he stands outside the closer, reaching for the doorknob, the office phone rings.
>He turns to the red phone on the wall and walks over to pick it up.
>”Hello? …No. It was nothing. Did you get the latest shipment? Good. I’ll keep you informed.”
>He hangs up without saying goodbye and then approaches the sink.
>You watch as he turns it on, putting his hand under the water and cupping it before bringing it up to his mouth to drink.

>He does this several times, and seems to take great enjoyment from it; he sighs deeply as he is rehydrated.
>The sink is turned off before he leaves the room, and a few seconds after he does so, you prepare to leave yourself.
>After hearing his footsteps vanish down the hallway, you leave the closet and make for the window, all but diving out of it.
>Back outside, you scale the fence and meet Flash in the back.
>”Dude, what happened? Everything alright?”
You straighten your collar. “Fine. Almost got caught. Weird thing---there were no bodies in there.”
>”None? At all? Did you check the basement?”
“No I didn’t check the basement; who keeps bodies in their basement?” You pause for a moment. “Who other than Twilight keeps bodies in their basement?”
>”I don’t know. Chill.”
“The point is that all of the lockers were empty, completely empty.”
>You look around and spy a newspaper stand and run over to it with him following.
“You have change?”
>”Uh, yeah, I think so, hang on…”
>He begins riffling through his many pockets on his jacket.
>”Hang on, I know I do. Let me just…”

>He unzips an inner pocket as you tap your foot on the ground impatiently.
>”Ah-hah! Told you.” He takes out several coins and you snatch them from him, depositing them in the machine.
>You open it and grab a paper before searching through its pages.
>Flash, meanwhile, walks over to a nearby garbage bin and picks up a discarded paper.
>”You owe me some quarters,” he says with a smile.
“Look at this,” you say, holding up the obituaries. “Six deaths in the past month and three of them are due for funerals that haven't happened yet.”
>”So… it would stand to reason that those bodies should be in that morgue, right?”
“It would.”
>”Maybe they’re at another morgue?”
“There’s only one in town.”
>”Or at the hospital?”
“Or they’re not fucking HERE, Flash. The guy in there got a phone call and mentioned something about ‘shipments’ to whoever was on the other line. I think he might have been talking about bodies.”
>”So… What do we do, then?”
“Twilight developed a tracking device and we once used it to hunt down some swamp monsters in Florida. We can tag the back of the van and wait for it to move.”
>Flash nods as you both walk back to his car.
>”So… This has been interesting and all, but was any of it related to Caramel? Got any other weird ideas on where to search?”

“I’d like to hit up the hospital, just to double-check,” you reply. “Let’s go.”
>”This isn’t going to be another thing where I distract people, is it?”
A smile comes to your lips. “Actually, about that…”
>Less than half an hour later, you’re pulled over in an alleyway not far from the hospital and punching repeatedly Flash in the face.
>As he takes the blows, he tries to speak.
>”Are you sure---this is really---necessary?!”
“You’ve still got at least thirty punches before I begin to forgive you for shooting me,” you reply. “Besides, I’m just trying to make you look hurt, not ACTUALLY hurt you.”
>You give him another good punch in the face before he holds up a hand.
>”Okay, hang on, truce for like five minutes.”
>He rubs his bruised cheek; his eyebrow is split and bleeding.
>You lean your back against the alley wall and shake your hand.
>”Can I at least hit you a few times?”
“Sure,” you smile and stick out your chin. “Give it your best shot. Go on.”
>"I ain't gonna hold back on this one."
"I'm shaking. Really."
>Flash rubs his arm across his lips, taking away from blood from his nose, as he gets ready to lay you out.
‘Not that he could,’ you think with a shit-eating grin.

>He curls his hand into a fist and gets a determined look in his eyes.
>When the punch comes, it is sudden and fierce, and next thing you know, you’re sent reeling from it and are on the ground.
>Your eyes widen and blink in surprise; you honestly didn’t see that coming.
>Flash’s hand is once more in your vision, only this time he is reaching down to help you up.
>You grab it and he pulls you up, whereupon you both start slowly laughing.
>Soon enough you’re leaning over your knees as Flash leans against the wall, both of you chuckling like idiots.
“Good one,” you earnestly compliment him. “I was getting a little bit too cocky there.”
>”A little?” he laughs.
>You straighten and let out a breath before looking out of the alley at the hospital.
“Alright. We’re going to stumble into the emergency room, me holding you like you were just in an accident or something. The doctors will take you, and I’ll split off and search.”
>”Are we sure this is a good idea?” he asks. “What if the staff are in on it, and try to, I don’t know, take me?”
“Well, then you’re just going to have to trust that I’ll get you out of there. Now come on.”
>The plan works flawlessly, if you say so yourself.
>You drag Flash through the emergency room doors and shout for help.
>Nurses and a doctor come to attend to him, checking his vitals as you explain he was just in a car crash.
>For his part, Flash plays up the pain he is feeling.
>While he won’t win any Academy Awards with moaning and groaning like that, he certainly looks the part of someone injured.

>As they take him away, you slip into a closet and close the door, waiting a few moments for the nurses to pass by.
>When this is done, you leave and begin stalking through the halls, carefully avoiding anyone else by hearing or smelling them in advance.
>When you do detect someone, you try to hide in a room or take another hallway.
>At one point, when there is no other place to hide, you leap up to the ceiling and push against the walls to remain there as a doctor leaves a room, his face too buried in a clipboard to notice you.
>You eventually make it to the lower levels of the hospital, where you begin to search for bodies.
>But much like the morgue, all you find is a whole lot of nothing.
>Cadaver examination rooms are barren and there seem to be no bodies to be found, no matter where you look.
>There is something, however; you hear a television playing in the janitor’s break room.
>A single janitor sits, transfixed by the screen, eyes all but glued to it.
>It seems to be that television show that was mentioned at the barbeque; ‘Time for Thought with Dr. Turner.’
>On this episode, Dr. Samuel Turner is examining the psychosis of sleep deprivation and the phenomenon of insomnia.

>As you push open the door ever-so-softly, you watch and listen.
>”What is remarkable is that human beings, because we are so self-aware, are one of the few species on earth who choose when and when not to sleep. While all beings sleep, this is true, animals never stop to consider it outside of their biologically programmed routines. For them, sleep is just another part of life---and while the same is true for us, many of us can come to see sleep as a burden of sorts.”
>The screen changes to show a sleeping figure, eventually zooming in on her head, which turns into a 3D graphic of a brain.
>The doctor’s voice returns in narration.
>”We spend much of our lives asleep; in a much generalized figure, roughly 30% of our lives is spent in this state. Imagine that: almost a third of your life. All that time that could be spent honing a new skill, exercising, reading, and living. That’s what some people come to see sleep as. I personally find this to be a rather cynical point of view: focusing purely on the ‘time lost’ rather than seeing it as time gained, for without sleep we wouldn’t be able to do any of those things.”
>The camera zooms in more upon the brain, focusing on the neurons, which light up like Christmas lights.
>”What is important to understand is that sleep is a rejuvenating process. It is a healthy thing, something that refreshes and renews the mind for another day. We’ve all had days where we slept badly, or were forced to wake up early due to school or work, but I promise you this: the number of nights you have slept well vastly outnumbers the number of nights you have slept poorly.”

>Suddenly, you shake your head and realize you’ve been staring at the screen for too long.
>As you quietly shut the door and walk away, you find yourself rubbing your forehead slightly.
>It’s almost as if walking away from the show was more difficult than watching it all the way through.
‘Weird…’
>Once you are back upstairs and out of the hospital, you find Flash at his car.
>He looks up from wiping his bloody nose. ”Find anything?”
“If you count the absence of anything a thing, then yes,” you reply, climbing into the passenger seat. “There’s nothing down there. It’s mind-boggling.”
>”And you think it’s all connected somehow?”
“At this point, I can’t really afford to believe in coincidences. Did the staff give you any trouble?”
>”I slipped out when the opportunity presented itself.”
“Nicely done. Now come on, let’s keep looking.”
>And so the search begins in full.
>But, despite your best efforts, nothing.
>Three days are spent combing the town, searching high and low.
>You coordinate with the others, searching parts of the town and the Everfree Forest, but nothing comes up.

>Even with your team and Flash’s crew working together, searching high and low with a buddy system, you get no results.
>On top of that, keeping your team’s supernatural side hidden from the others is an inconvenience, but after speaking with the others and Flash it is decided to keep it from them until absolutely necessary.
>If this does all turn out to be one big goose chase, at least only one of them will know the truth about your secrets.
>Eventually, you go to the police to attempt to form a report, mostly just to see for yourself how unhelpful they are being.
>Much like what was described before, although they take the information you give them, they don’t do anything with it.
>There are no organized searches, no faces on milk jugs, no missing person fliers.
>You begin to see why Flash and his gang were getting so frustrated with the lack of progress, and now it’s even more apparent on their faces since one of their own is missing.
>And the more you search, the more it becomes apparent how nothing seems wrong in town.
>Everyone is just going about their daily lives, working, sleeping, eating, shopping and existing.
>There are portions of some of the days you search where you simply sit and observe everyone passing by.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOKwewc9dns

>Even something as simple as sitting on a park bench and watching people can be a profound experience of sorts when you notice just how little anyone actually interacts with their environment.
>People are glued to their phones, driving their cars, working with lifeless expressions on their faces.
>Shuffling from one area to the next, getting on a bus but never looking anyone in the eyes.
>It’s funny, in a way---this is the world you have fought to defend, yet nobody seems to appreciate it.
>Just like the last two years, everyone is living in comfortable luxurious ignorance of what could really be going on around them.
>Is that for the better, though?
>Can you honestly say your life has become better since learning and doing all that you have learnt and done?
>More interesting, certainly.
>But everyone just seems so blind to what could be lurking just beneath the surface.
>Yet even you don’t know where to start looking, and you’re the one who has been trying.
>What is really going on?
>Is there in fact something happening, or is it all an elaborate series of coincidences?
>Is it paranoia?
>You don’t know.
>But what you do know is that there is someone who was afraid and is now missing, and that’s all that matters, so you resolve to keep looking.
>And so it comes to be, three nights later, that you are sitting in Applejack’s living room with most of the others, from both your inner circle and Flash’s group.

>All of you have worked tirelessly the past few nights looking all over town; it seems like no stone has been unturned.
>But all leads have turned cold and no further clues are found.
>Twilight’s analysis of the goo turned out nothing helpful; it seems to have degraded fully, leaving nothing useful behind.
>And even though you tagged the morgue’s van, it hasn’t moved.
>”This is horseapples,” Applejack mutters. “I just don’t get it. How can someone up and vanish and nobody in the town give a damn?”
>Rainbow, sitting next to Blossomforth, has her feet on a coffee table over a map of the town that has been drawn on multiple times.
>She’s rubbing her forehead in frustration; the entire town has been combed over at least twice.
>”I just don’t know what we’re doing wrong,” Rarity says over a cup of tea.
>Fluttershy, also drinking tea, says, “I don’t think we are. I mean, we’ve looked all over.”
>Nearby, Lyra and Bon Bon sit in silence, clearly dismayed by the lack of progress on the case.
>You, meanwhile, are near the door and rubbing your forehead in frustration.
>In the background, music from Vinyl's radio podcast is playing.
>Octavia and Thunderlane are going back over the map, drawing out areas that have been searched multiple times.
>Amidst all of this, your phones all begin to buzz with a message from Twilight.
>She is at home with her parents, along with Pinkie Pie so as not to break the buddy system, and is watching television with them.

>Your ears pick up that multiple phones are getting notified; it is a mass-message.
>It consists of the following: "Caramel is on television with Dr. Turner tune in now"
>As soon as everyone checks the message, you look at each other before turning towards the television.
>Applejack fumbles for a moment with the remote and turns it on, quickly turning it to his show.
>Everyone is immediately fixated on the image as it appears; sure enough, there is Caramel, wearing patient's clothing, on the set of Dr. Turner's pseudo-talkshow.
>The camera is focused on Caramel; his face seems slightly dull, like he is fatigued or burdened with something.
>He is speaking slowly, and as your group tunes in, you hear the latter half of his sentence.
>"---really know what I was doing all along. I was going crazy in my head."
>"Holy shit that's actually him," Rainbow says.
>"Shh!" Applejack shushes her.
>The camera turns back to Dr. Turner as he leans forward with a concerned look on his face.
>"So, why do you believe you did what you did? Boarding up your home from the inside, avoiding going to school, becoming so reserved and anti-social?"
>Once more the camera pans in an expert shift to focus on Caramel's slightly confused face.
>"I was afraid," he admits. "I, I was terrified. I thought everyone was out to get me."
>"You weren't alone, though. There were others who fed this behavior?"

>"Yes... Yes, there were. I had a group of, well, friends who helped convince me that something was going on, something bigger than just my parents."
>"Are you comfortable explaining what you came to believe?"
>He shifts, slightly nervous.
>"It's alright if you don't."
>"No, no, I just---It's all so strange to me now. I don't know why I was thinking the way I was, that people in town were being kidnapped or disappearing. I was convinced, completely convinced, that I was next..."
>"You felt persecuted? Isolated, paranoid, always looking over your shoulder or out your window?"
>"Yes... Yes, I did."
>Dr. Turner puts a hand on his knee and smiles.
>"Modern society can do that to a person."
>You watch, horrified in a way, as all of this unfolds before you.
>He's done something to Caramel, you know it.
>Making eye contact with the others, you get the idea that they are thinking the same thing.
>But soon enough your eyes are back on the screen, drawn into the program.
>Dr. Turner looks into the camera now and speaks to the audience.
>"Here we see the disastrous effects that too much reliance on technology, a lack of a strong safety net, poor public education and our rampant addiction to over-the-counter medication can bring to an otherwise perfectly healthy young man. Caramel's problem was entirely invented, a figment of his imagination. Yet to him, it was all too real."
>He stands up and walks further out onto the stage with arms wide open to better address them.

>"In our modern society, we are metaphorically choked by the pressures it levies upon us: pressure to do well in school and be successful, pressure from our peers, pressure from our parents. And therein lies another part of the equation: the parents."
>He returns to his seat and looks over at Caramel.
>"Now, this all began when your parents left without a notice, isn't that right?"
>"Y-yes, that's right."
>"What was the first thing you felt when you realized they were gone?"
>"Well... afraid."
>"Precisely." He looks back out at the audience. "People, particularly children to young teens like Caramel, tend to put parents on a pedestal. And why wouldn't they? Our parents are our caregivers, our providers. A safety net. And when it is removed so suddenly and so without warning, what is one to do?
>"What Caramel did was invent a boogeyman. It's all-too common for us to invent a kind of mythical 'them' to place the blame on. But in doing so, in creating this invisible army that was out to get him, he created a dangerous fantasy of persecution, a paranoid work of fiction that soon drove him to seek help from others."
>As you sit and watch, you briefly stray your eyes over to Flash, who is similarly looking at you, clearly wondering the same thing you are: 'What is really going on?'

>But not for long; your eyes snap back to the television.
>"But unfortunately we were not the first group Caramel turned to. Without his parents, Caramel went to his friends, but what did they do? Instead of recognizing and helping him, they fed his delusion, reinforced it. Undoubtedly for fun, or knowing kids these days, issues of their own." He pauses to allow the audience to laugh.
>Alongside him, Caramel also chuckles nervously.
>"This dangerous peer group almost led to Caramel hurting himself, or others, out of fear. It is truly wonderful that he contacted my office and begged for help, so that we could give him the treatment he needed." He puts a hand on the young man's shoulder and gives him another comforting smile.
>"Yes... Thank you," he says, sounding truly grateful.
>"But Caramel, that earlier point I made about parents, and putting them on a pedestal: it's a natural thing, but what so many children---and indeed, so many adults---don't realize is that parents are simply people. People who work, get frustrated, and sometimes have arguments. People are fallible---after all, the expression, 'To err is human!' exists for a reason."
>Everyone in the living room is dead silent as the camera changes focus to a wide shot of the entire stage as Turner continues speaking.
>"Caramel, I know you felt your parents were kidnapped by some antagonistic force, but the truth is that sometimes people fight. Sometimes, we make mistakes. And your parents made a mistake. Now, now! Don't worry, it wasn't you!"

>The audience all laughs at the joke while Caramel sweats and tries to laugh along.
>Dr. Turner uses his hands to calm the audience down. "Now, if you will, please, allow me to introduce my other two guests... Please welcome Caramel's parents to the stage!"
>The audience applauds as two figures emerge from off-camera.
>Caramel looks at them and a look of relief and happiness comes upon his face as he runs up to them, tackling them with a hug.
>The mother and father, two perfectly normal-looking people, hug their child as tears stream down their faces to the uproarious applause of the audience.
>Dr. Turner approaches a camera, and it switches focus to his smiling face.
>"Now, the healing process can truly begin. It is regrettable that it got to this point, but the important thing is this: a family that was teetering on the edge of fracturing completely has now been given a second chance. Mr. and Mrs. Sweet had a fight, like we all do from time to time. They left in a hurry. Was this wrong? Surely, it could have been handled better. But people make mistakes, and forgiveness is the first step."
>As the parents hug their child, Dr. Turner walks back over to them and places a hand on the husband's shoulder.
>"We live under constant pressure, and we can only take so much. Sometimes, you just need to get away from it all. That's why our studio is sending the Sweet family on an all-expense paid vacation to beautiful Hawaii! They'll be leaving on a plane this very evening!"
>The audience claps and cheers as the family graciously thanks the doctor.
>But to you, their joy is matched only by your dread.

>Everything you have just witnessed, while wholesome on the outside, conceals something dark underneath.
>You know it does.
'And with them being sent away tonight...'
>The trail ends here.
>Or does it?
>On the show, Dr. Turner adjusts his glasses and smiles at the camera.
>"Thank you for watching Time for Thought. I've been your host, Dr. Turner, hoping that you all make some time for thought tonight. Thank you."
>At that exact moment, you feel a distinct stinging sensation in your head, like an acute headache.
>It distracts you from the thoughts about everything you just saw, but quickly as it comes, it goes away.
You rub your forehead slightly and ask, "Did anyone else just feel that?"
>But your question is lost to the sudden burst of discussion that goes on all over the room.
>"I can't believe it," Rarity says, still staring at the commercials on the screen. "I simply don't understand."
>Applejack turns down the volume. "He was there the whole time. They kidnapped him!"
>"Did they, though?" Blossomforth asks.
>Octavia nods. "They must have. They've done something to him, they must have!"
>Rainbow's fingers skim the screen of her phone. "Social media is blowing up about this. Everyone in town is talking about the episode. Nearly everyone was watching it---a record for their ratings."

>Your phone buzzes with a message from Twilight, reading, 'It must be mind control'
>"But it all seemed too sincere," Blossomforth says, her voice full of doubt.
>Flash is steadfast in his belief, however. "It's all a trick. It all has to be a trick."
You nod. "I have to agree... That station... That station is in on it."
>"What do we do, then?" Rarity asks. "Do we go up to his broadcasting station and just bust in?"
"I think that's exactly what we should do." You look at Applejack, who nods in agreement. "How far off is his station?"
>"Not too far," Flash replies. "I'll drive."
>"We're all gonna go," Applejack says, taking out her keys. “We’re going to need the stuff in my trunk.”
>You know exactly what she is referring to.
>Fluttershy looks nervously over at Rainbow, who is busy texting Twilight about everything that's happening over here.
>Just then, there is a knock at the front door.
>Absolutely everyone freezes.
You look over your shoulder towards the front entrance. "Were we expecting company?"
>As Applejack reaches for her revolver, she says, "Nope."
>You hold up a hand and approach the front door.
"Be ready," you whisper, before opening it.

>As all of the others prepare for whatever it may be, you find yourself staring into a pair of cerulean-green eyes surrounded by fiery red hair.
"Sunset," you say, relief palpable in your voice.
>She smiles and throws her arms around you in a tight embrace, just as warm as you fondly remembered.
>"Look at you!" she says, squeezing your arms. "When did you get all of this?"
>You can't help but give her a sheepish grin, but she then notices Applejack lowering her weapon.
>"Woah. Is this the kind of reunion I should have been expecting?"
>Applejack slides the revolver back into her holster. "Thank stars. We've been missin' you, girl."
>Sunset keeps an arm around your waist as she says, "Oh, it's been one hell of a trip, I can't wait to---Wait, don't let me get ahead of myself. Why was Applejack ready to shoot?"
"It's a long story. Hop in Flash's car, I'll explain on the way."
>As you turn to walk outside with her, you notice Rainbow staring at you both with an unreadable expression on her face.
>Flash follows you both outside and unlocks the car while the others filter out to other vehicles.
>Applejack leads all of the others up to her truck and opens the back. "Gather round, y’all. We ain't goin' unarmed."
>There are collective gasps from Flash and his group as they take in the sight of crossbows, stakes, shotguns and assorted other weapons.
>Thunderlane pushes forward. “Woah… Hardcore…”

>Octavia stammers. "I can't... I mean, I've never even---"
>"You learn right quick, trust me," Applejack says, taking a shotgun out of a section of cut-out foam.
>Blossomforth seems to share her unease, as does Bon Bon, but Thunderlane and Lyra are both interested, as is Flash.
>”Only take what you are comfortable with and can defend yourself with,” Applejack tells them.
>Octavia, her hands shaking, swallows nervously as she holds a pistol.
>”I really don’t think I should be holding this,” she replies.
>Lyra takes it from her, straightens her arm and points it at the nearby forest.
>Fluttershy is about to intervene when it looks like she is actually going to shoot, but Lyra merely smiles and says, “Oh, I like this!”
>Rarity smiles and places a hand on her shoulder. “Just be cautious, darling…”
>After the others have armed themselves and the group piles into four cars, with you, Sunset and Flash in his, you all take off towards the observatory.
>As she settles into the back, Sunset notes, "Haven't been in here for a long time.”
>Flash laughs. "Hah, yeah, I remember..."
Your brow arches. "Remember what?"
>Sunset waves a hand. "Oh, we used to date."
"Really?" You cast a strange look at Flash and then at her.
>"Before you moved here," she explains. "We split up, though."

"I see..." You cough into your hand. "Well, I'm glad you're back in time. Some strange things have been happening around town."
>"What kind of strange?"
>"Anon's a werewolf," Flash says bluntly.
"Dude!"
>"What? She knows, doesn't she?"
>Sunset answers for you. "Of course I know. I was the FIRST to know." She then casts a look in your direction. "Well, technically not the first, considering you found out the hard and bloody way."
"Can we not, right now? I'm not the only one with a shaky past in this car."
>"Fair enough. But Flash, you can't just go blurting that out! Also, how do you know?"
>"Funny story..." he starts to say.
"And I hate to cut you off, but there are other things going on right now. We're on our way to Dr. Turner's broadcasting station. For the past three days, we've been looking for Caramel."
>"Twilight messaged me about some of the details."
"Well, let me fill you in."
>"Please do," she says in a flirty tone that could imply any number of things, and makes you let out a surprisingly nervous chuckle.
"So, it all started when we got back in town..."

>True to Flash’s word, the observatory is not far away.
>In that time, you quickly bring Sunset up to speed on everything that’s been going on and everyone you are working with.
>She listens raptly, asking very few questions.
>One of the benefits of her being so knowledgeable in witchcraft is how readily she accepts a strange situation for being worth investigating.
>Upon arriving at the hill leading up to the observatory, you look up and see the large structure that looms over Canterlot.
“I can’t believe we never thought to look over here,” you say to Flash.
>”Yeah, it’s weird…” he mutters. “I even told you that sometimes people would show up on his show after they hadn’t been seen for a few days, right?”
You blink a few times. “That’s right, you did… Why didn’t that stick?”
>You rub your head and grit your teeth.
“I feel strange…”
>Sunset’s hand squeezes your shoulder. “Are you alright?”
“I don’t know… But something is definitely wrong, and this station has something to do with it.”
>Suddenly, Flash stops the car.
>There is a gate in your path.
>Opening your door, you get out and look around.
>It is a strong, sturdy fence with rolls of barbed wire running along the top of it, and a guardhouse on the other side that controls its opening and closing.
“Is this an observatory or a military installation?”

>As Flash and Sunset join you, the other cars pull up and your friends begin piling out.
>You approach the gate and peer beyond to the guardhouse, where a man sits disinterestedly, reading a magazine.
>Looking up, you see security cameras, several of them in fact, and most focused on the gate.
“Cameras,” you warn the others. You then bang on the gate to get the guard’s attention. “Hey! Open up!”
>The guard does not leave his shack, but puts his feet down and leans over to a microphone.
>His voice emerges from a nearby panel.
>”No visitors are permitted at this time.”
>Twilight strides forward, putting her through the chain-link fence. “Isn’t this a public observatory?”
>”It was, a few years ago. Now it is private property. You missed the taping; the show is done with.”
>Applejack, hiding her weaponry, shouts, “We want to speak to the man in charge!”
>Rainbow kicks the fence. “You kidnapped our friend and brainwashed him, you psychos!”
>Rarity and Pinkie Pie hold her back from the fence, but the guard is unmoved by any of your words.
>But it seems Applejack’s request was meant to be fulfilled, for a car begins driving down from the large, domed structure.
>It pulls up to the other side, shining you all with its headlights, causing some of you to flinch.

>You don’t see who is behind the wheel until the lights turn off with the car, and two figures emerge.
>Dr. Turner and Principal Celestia.
>”Hello, everyone,” she says in a warm, yet concerned tone.
>You wince as a feint headache flickers; a dull throbbing in your head.
Your eyes flicker between her and the sharply-dressed man. “What’s going on here?”
>”I was invited to the taping of tonight’s episode by Dr. Turner himself,” Celestia explains.
>The man, thin and wiry with black-rimmed spectacles, smiles. “You must all be Caramel’s friends. He spoke very highly of you all during our sessions.”
>At that moment, Rainbow Dash bursts out saying, “Principal Celestia, you can’t be buying what this guy is selling. They kidnapped the kid and his parents!”
>Thunderlane adds in, “He’s the reason Caramel cracked in the first place!”
>Dr. Turner sighs and adjusts his glasses as Celestia holds up her hands. “Now, now, I know that this all must be very confusing, but please calm down. Dr. Turner invited me here yesterday to personally speak with Caramel and see his progress.”
>”I don’t make it a habit to kidnap patients,” he wryly remarks. “Caramel came to us. As a doctor and a public servant, it goes against every code of ethics I possess to engage in behavior you are suggesting.”
>He approaches the gate, looking each and every one of you in the eyes. “Furthermore, I’m afraid that I am not the problem here. It’s all of you. Caramel was in a very fragile state, and I’m sorry to say that all of you only made the problem worse. You convinced him there was some kind of grand conspiracy, when the truth is that you were making connections out of nothing. The damage done to him was thankfully minimal, and he has been reunited with his parents.”

>Before you can reply, he looks at the guardhouse and snaps his fingers, a signal for the gate to open.
>Now, with no barrier between your group and his, he steps forward.
>”If any of you doubt the sincerity of my cause, I invite you to tour my facility. Not tonight, I am afraid, as hours have ended. But I would be more than happy to have any of you drop by during the daylight.”
>Your group all exchange glances of uncertainty.
“We want to speak to Caramel,” you say firmly.
>”I’m afraid that’s not possible, and even if it were, I wouldn’t allow it on the grounds of what he told me during our sessions.”
>”Impossible?” Twilight scoffs. “Why?”
>”Because he and his family have already left,” Celestia answers, walking forward to stand alongside him. “The show was taped earlier this day, and aired only this evening.”
Your eyes narrow. “So it wasn’t live?”
>Dr. Turner shakes his head. “No. Because, frankly, we thought we would get you knocking on our door. We were right.”
>Again, the headache seems to return.
>You notice one of the girls, Blossomforth, is rubbing her own forehead.
>Celestia puts her hands together. “It has not exactly been a secret that you have been searching the town for Caramel. While I am sure that your intentions are absolutely nothing but pure, this turned out to be a special case. Dr. Turner recommended having them leave the city before you could find them, and I reluctantly agreed.”

>Rainbow slowly shakes her head. “I don’t believe it… You really are buying what he’s selling.”
>”Enough,” Celestia says in a stern tone. “There have been far too many unwarranted accusations thrown around tonight. Dr. Turner performed a great deed in helping this young man, and while I know you wanted to help him as well, he is a professional. And speaking frankly, while I can appreciate you all showing up as a group, this isn’t the kind of problem you are used to solving and never was.”
>Though she is speaking to your entire collective, you know that last particular bit was targeted at your team.
>Celestia knows your secret; she and her sister are one of the few confidants your team possesses.
>She never would have sold you out to Dr. Turner, so…
>Perhaps she is telling the truth.
>Is that so hard to accept?
>Looking at the others, you see that they are having doubts as well.
>You furrow your brow and look back at them.
“Why does this place have such security?” you bluntly ask.
>Dr. Turner adjusts his glasses once more---it seems to be like a nervous tick.
>”There is a lot of expensive and sensitive equipment here, you see. In addition to my broadcasting studio, we have converted much of the old observatory into a privatized research institution. Government funding and contracts have enabled us to ensure the property is protected, not only with this gate here, but surveillance equipment and all manner of security measures. I don’t mean to brag, but it is quite advanced, and once more I would be more than pleased to give any of you a tour. But I really would recommend calling ahead of time and scheduling an appointment.”

>Rainbow Dash is clearly not on board with their excuses. “How do we know that Caramel is really safe, huh?”
>”The vacation will only be for a week,” Celestia explains. “Caramel has been granted an absence from school and will return in higher spirits, hopefully.”
>”That doesn’t really answer my question,” Rainbow snaps, and Celestia sighs.
>”If you can’t trust me, then what am I to do?” she asks, holding out her hands to her sides. “I am standing here, telling you that your worry is misplaced.”
>Dr. Turner softly clears his throat. “His personal items were returned to him. You could always text and message him. I am sure he would be relieved to hear from you and that you were worried about him, but I must urge you to drop this delusion of persecution. Please, be responsible young adults and simply accept that he was in need of professional help, and he has received it. In fact, I plan on scheduling future therapy sessions with him and his family to follow up on their progress.”
>For several moments, everyone is silent.
>You want to say something, but you’re distracted by a dull headache.
>Why won’t it go away?

>Dr. Turner takes out an antiquated pocket watch and flips it open.
>”It’s rather late,” he says softly before putting it away. “I would appreciate it if you all went home, or wherever appropriate, so that I may return my guest to her own.” He lets those words hang in the air for a moment before adding, “If all that we have said isn’t enough to assuage you, then I simply don’t know else to do. That will be up to you.”
>Slowly, your group begrudgingly disperses back to your vehicles.
>As you turn to leave, Celestia walks forward and puts a hand on your shoulder.
>Behind her, Dr. Turner is getting into his vehicle, but even so she speaks in a tone only you can hear.
>”If you would like to speak about any of this, please don’t hesitate to drop by. Luna and I both understand where you and your friends are coming from. Please believe me… there isn’t anything going on.”
>You look away, feeling your shoulders slump somewhat.
>What if…
>But wouldn’t they…
>You find yourself unable to finish your thought; the headache is getting worse.
>You shake your head and approach Flash’s car, getting in along with him and Sunset.
>The ride back is mostly spent in silence; everyone within knows that the conversation is going to happen at Fluttershy’s.
>Once everyone is inside, nobody seems certain about where to begin.
>Well, except for Rainbow Dash.
>”We need to break into that place and see what they’re really up to,” she immediate advocates. “I don’t like it! Nothing about the entire situation smells right!”

>Twilight looks up from her notes. “It is strange, I admit, but things just don’t add up…”
>”What do you mean?” she asks, looking across the room. “How can there be any doubt?”
>The scientist casually and calmly lays out her point. ”We’ve been searching for three days, and in all that time, we didn’t find a single shred of evidence of anything actually going on. I’m just saying we should consider the possibility of us being wrong.”
>”What about your mind control theory?” Rainbow points out. “What if they really are brainwashing people?”
>”I just don’t know if we should go about breaking into the facility. Perhaps we should take Dr. Turner up on his offer and tour it.”
>That doesn’t sit well with Applejack. “What, just stroll into mind-control central and sign up for the program?”
>Rarity takes Twilight’s side of things. “And how do we know that breaking in won’t be just as bad?”
>Thunderlane, however, is all for breaking down the front door and going in guns blazing.
>A dozen smaller conversations begin to pop up all throughout the room, all arguing about what to do next.
>Some want to break into the lab, some want to investigate, but some are ready to give up.
>Twilight holds up her notes. ”Not a single person has gone missing since we began our investigation!”

>”What if there’s a connection?” Octavia says, quizzically holding up a finger. “What if they’re trying to mislead us? And then as soon as we stop looking into things, they begin abducting people again?”
>Pinkie Pie bounces up. “Aliens abduct people! What if there’s a big UFO under the observatory? What if they saw the aliens in the sky first, and that’s why the invasion is starting from there?!”
>Several people audibly groan; everyone’s gotten tired of hearing Pinkie talk about aliens.
>Rainbow, Twilight, Applejack and Rarity all start arguing loudly over how to handle the observatory situation.
>Flash is trying to convince his team not to give up, but a few of them have doubts.
>”We should trust Principal Celestia,” Twilight advises.
>”How do we know she isn’t in on it?” Rainbow counters.
>”How could she be?” she replies, without outright stating the reason why.
>You were thinking of the same thing: if there really was mind control in play, wouldn’t a psychic be able to resist it?
>Up until now, you’ve been sitting off to the side quietly alongside Sunset.
>But you’ve had enough.
>Standing up, you shout to get everyone’s attention; it takes a few times because of the hot tempers and multitude of conversations going on.

“Look… I’m just as confused as everyone else. But I do know this: something in their story just doesn’t add up. He said that Caramel came to them, but that’s absolutely not what I saw evidence of when I went to his home. Something happened to him, and until proven otherwise I say we keep going.”
>Rainbow nods her agreement. “So you support breaking in, right?”
>You scratch your chin.
“Not without knowing more about what we’re getting into…”
>She gives a frustrated sigh and turns around.
“What I’m saying is that they might have more than what we saw. What about armed guards?”
>Pinkie Pie nods. “They might have robots! Or laser-grids that cut you up into a million-zillion pieces!”
>”I could take on a robot,” Dash shrugs.
“The point is that we don’t know enough, so I say we observe and learn. See who comes and who goes. Twilight, you can rig together a surveillance system, right?”
>She nods. “I have a few cameras from our trip. We can set them up in the trees near the facility.”
>Rarity perks up. “I could make disguises for us, if we need them.”
>Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, is still unconvinced. “Why don’t we just break in tonight?”
>Sunset stands alongside you. “I have to agree with Anon and Twilight… the more we know, the more prepared we can be.”
>Dash throws up her arms and storms out of the room.
>You’re about to follow after her, but hold yourself back.
>Twilight, taking the initiative, then outlines a plan.

>”Okay, we’re going to need to maintain the buddy system for now. Let’s all make sure we’re checking in at regular intervals with each other. We’re going to need public records of the observatory, history on Dr. Turner, surveillance on the site and, most importantly, I think we should lay low. Stop actively searching. If Octavia’s theory is correct, and if there is some harmful organized force, let’s see if we can draw them out by making them think we’ve moved on.”
>Fluttershy gets a concerned look on her face. “Does that mean we have to lie to Celestia?”
>”What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her,” Twilight says, though it clearly is difficult for her to do so. “I still don’t know who, or what, is behind all of this, or if there is anything for anyone to even be behind, but…”
“There must be,” you insist. You rub your forehead. “Look… I haven’t brought it up, but lately I’ve been getting these weird headaches. I don’t know what it is, but I can’t help but feel we’re somehow being affected mentally. Flash mentioned to me that the people who disappear show up on Dr. Turner’s show, but for some reason I didn’t put two and two together when we were searching the town to go to the observatory.”
>”That’s right…” Lyra whispers. “Me neither…”
>”None of us did,” Flash confirms.
“What if they’re, I don’t know, using some of that broadcast equipment to send out some kind of wave that’s giving us all headaches? Somehow blocking us from thinking about the observatory?”

>Twilight frowns. “I suppose it’s theoretically possible… But we’d have to figure out a way to analyze the broadcast. Without knowing how they’re doing it in the first place, it’d be difficult. Still, I’ll try some things in my lab and see if I can’t come up with a way to measure it.”
>Rainbow comes back into the room, apparently having cooled off. “If anyone can do it, it’d be you, egghead. I mean, you found a way to measure gh---“
>You, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Twilight and Sunset all look up at her, startled and worried that she is about to expose a secret.
>Lyra, Bon Bon, Blossomforth, Octavia and Thunderlane are confused.
>Flash is somewhere in the middle.
>Thankfully she stopped herself. “Measure… gusts of wind based on their, uh…”
>She trails off, clearly in need of help.
>Twilight picks up on her slack. “Electrons! Yes, that old experiment, haha! Perhaps I can use that old equipment to help us out; I’ll have to dig it out of storage, yes…”
>It’s complete bullshit, but they seem to buy it.
>Not long afterwards, the group splits up for the night.
>Fluttershy’s cottage isn’t nearly large enough to support thirteen people sleeping comfortably, so everyone is crashing at different locations in groups of two or three.
>As you step outside, you watch as Rainbow climbs into Applejack’s truck; she’s staying at the farm with her and her family for the time being.
>Flash suddenly clasps you on the shoulder. “So, are you crashing at my place? Fair warning, I don’t have any dogfood.”
“Yeah, real funny,” you say, chuckling in spite of yourself.

>”Actually,” a voice from behind draws your attention, “I was hoping I could spend the night at Anon’s.”
>Sunset walks up with her hands on her hips and a warm smile.
>Flash looks between the two of you and nods. “Sure… I think I’ll see if Thunderlane needs a place for the night. Catch you guys later?”
>He waves and catches up to the rest of his group as Sunset approaches you.
>”Still don’t have a car?”
“Never needed one when four legs work fine. Besides, it never hurt to have a teleporting witch on my speed dial.” You gesture at her and yourself. “But are you sure this is a good idea?”
>”Are you sure it isn’t?”
>You look in the direction that Rainbow drove off in, and shake your head. “No. Might be a nice night for a walk.”
>”It’s been a while since I just walked and talked with someone. That’d be nice. Should we cut through the forest?”
>She offers her hand and you offer your arm; she hooks around it and the two of you walk off into the night, towards a well-walked path you both are familiar with that leads towards town.
>The forest is peaceful tonight, calm and quiet.
>Sunset breaks the silence first.
>”So, that was a strange meeting up on that hill, wasn’t it?”

“I still don’t know what to make of it,” you reply. “It was all so bizarre… I don’t know what to think, Sunset. We haven’t found any evidence of anything supernatural going on. I’ve been getting headaches, sure, but… how do I know it isn’t because of the Wolf?”
>She squeezes your arm slightly. “I know it’s been difficult, losing control of the primal spirit within. I’ve been doing some research in old texts but there isn’t a lot of documentation about controlling werewolves.”
“That’s awfully considerate.”
>”It’s the least I could do. I just wish I had found anything useful. Moonstones, sure, but the knowledge on making a new one is lost.”
“I appreciate the effort, but it’s my problem. I’ll deal with it.”
>”Don’t put up the tough-guy act with me,” she playfully chides you. “I’ve seen things that would make you tuck your tail between your legs.”
“Speaking of which, everything since you’ve gotten back has been about this whole situation with Caramel. How was your trip?”
>”Enlightening,” she nods. “I went to the places where my father was once worshipped like a god and saw them for myself. Spent some time translating ancient texts, hunting down rumors and burial sites.”
“Did you find what you were looking for?”

>”Yes… and no. What I was truly hoping to find was the reason my father became what he did, where it all went wrong so long ago. I probably won’t ever know for certain, but I think it simply came down to him staring for too long into the abyss. Eventually, everything that he was on the inside became just as corrupt as what he was studying. The powers that he dabbled with only drew him in further and further until he had passed the point of no return. The thing is… I don’t think he recognized that point when he came to it, or if he even realized he had ever passed it.”
“Is that why you didn’t teleport here? I know you said you like to be normal, but that can’t be the only reason.”
>”You know me too well. The truth is that I think using my powers tends to attract unwanted attention. I was very careful to not use them in that part of the world unless I absolutely needed to. The last thing I needed was the attention of some Egyptian cult or sorcerers hunting the Necronomicon before I had a chance to hide it.”
You nod in understanding. “Our kinds of powers can sometimes be more of a burden than a blessing.”
>She hugs your arm, laying her head on your shoulder. “You know that better than most.”
>For a moment, you continue on in silence, content to enjoy her presence.
>Inside, however, a complicated question is brewing.
>As the two of you come to an old wooden bridge spanning a dried-up riverbed, you stop and turn towards her.
>”Anon?”
“Sunset… if you could lose your powers fully, would you?”
>She is quiet for a moment.
>”Is this question really aimed at me?”

You smile and cast your eyes downwards. “That obvious, huh?” You hold her hands as you continue, “I haven’t thought about it for a long time. I’ve been enjoying the benefits but I’m starting to reach a point where I think it may not be worth it anymore.”
>Leaning back on the wooden rail, you let go of her hands and rub your face.
“I’m a wreck, Sunset. I ruined my relationship with Dash, I’m having trouble sleeping, my friendship with the others is strained because I’ve been so distant…”
>”Oh, Anon…”
>She walks up and hugs you, running a hand through your hair.
>”This doesn’t mean you have to give up being what you are. Everyone has problems, but we can work through them together.”
“I know, I just want to know what it would take for me to be cured. The process. I want to be able to make an informed decision.”
>She is reluctant, but relents and explains it after seeing the look in your eyes.
>”Well… We would need to remove the spirit of the Wolf from your body. Normally this would involve finding someone else for it to possess. Historically, most spiritual transfers occur after a werewolf would be killed, and it would jump into the body of its last surviving victim, which gave rise to the rumor of a lycanthropic infection.”
“But we’ve invented technology that captures spirits.”
>”Precisely why I said ‘normally’. If we exorcize the spirit out of your body, we can capture it and hold it indefinitely. You’d be cured.”
“That’s all it would take?”
>”It would be a full-fledged ritual, and we’d need to ensure it is prepared properly. But I would have to stress that it would be something you would need to be absolutely certain about. If you were to regret it…”

“I’m regretting having it right now. If this is something that I’ll have to deal with for the rest of my life, then I don’t know if I truly want to keep it.”
>”You’ve been thinking a lot about this?”
“Not a lot…” you admit. “But… Look, let me phrase it this way. The first year I had these powers, I was fine, because I had the moonstone. Then, when I lost it, I was able to get the powers under control myself. I thought that would be the end of it, but it wasn’t. Here I am, back at square one, again. How long is this pattern going to repeat itself? How long is it going to make me miserable?”
>She frowns before holding you close again. “I don’t know. But it would change you. For the better, or for the worse, I can’t say. Maybe you would come to miss having your curse, as weird as that might sound. It’s part of who you are, Anon. It’s shaped you.”
>After pulling back, she stares into your eyes.
>”If you want my opinion, I wouldn’t want to forget or lose my powers. What I truly learned on my journey is that there is a point we all reach when we have to learn how to balance our gifts or be overwhelmed by them. I hid the Necronomicon not only because I didn’t want it falling into the wrong hands, but because I didn’t want the temptation of learning its most dangerous spells by heart. I’ve learned that the powers and spells I possess now are enough. That’s the difference between my father and I: he never stopped.”
“So what should I do? If I can’t control the Wolf, how could I be in balance?”
>”You can,” she insists. “You did it once before. I know it can be done again. I believe in you.”
You manage to smile. “My grandfather believed in the same thing. And for a time… it worked.”
>”I think it could work again.”

>You pause, feeling her hands on your cheeks as you stare into her beautiful eyes.
>She seems to realize the unintentional double meaning of her words at the same time as you.
>Perhaps you and she could work again…
>Slowly, you stand up in front of her, staring down at her in silence as your hands find her waist.
>Hers drift down to your shoulders, where they rest.
>No further words are exchanged as the seconds seem to become minutes; you two are lost in each other.
>You lean down, closing your eyes, slightly pursing your lips, as her eyes flutter closed.
>Her heart is beating so strongly…
>Your eyes shoot open as the hairs on your neck stand up.
>Pulling away, you look off into the darkness of the forest.
>Sunset is surprised. “There’s nobody here,” she says, thinking that you are worried at being caught with her in your arms.
>But there is.
>Every single extraordinary sense you possess is screaming at you that something is nearby.
>Something is watching you.
“We’re not alone,” you whisper to her, and she immediately understands from the tone of your voice that you aren’t referring to a hiker.

>Slowly and cautiously, the two of you part and get back-to-back, standing in the center of the bridge and turning in place.
>”I can’t see anything,” she whispers.
“It’s out there,” you whisper back.
>”What is it?”
>Your eyes desperately scan the trees, searching for a hint of the danger you are sensing, but you can see nothing.
>And yet, there is something lurking beyond the edge of sight and sound that you know is there, not beyond your ability to detect but beyond your ability to pinpoint.
“It’s in the trees,” you tell her, looking up. “It’s staring at us…”
>”Should I cast a spell?”
“I don’t know what it is. All I know is that it is here.”
>Silence…
>And then a loud crack, like that of a sonic whiplash, rings out throughout the night.
>You bring up both hands and push Sunset away, causing her to fall over the railing of the bridge.
>A bright blue bolt of energy strikes the spot where she was just standing, causing an explosion that destroys a chunk of the wooden bridge and sends you flying through the railing and into the stream.
>You hit the shallow water and the stones beneath it hard, but your head snaps up in an instant.
>Sunset seems unharmed; she is moving to push herself up.
Your heart races a mile a minute as you shout, “RUN!”

>Another energy blast cuts through the darkness from above, hitting the bridge, annihilating what remained and sending splinters flying in all directions.
>As the two halves start on fire, you catch a glimpse of Sunset on the other side of the inferno as she vanishes on the spot in a brief flash of green magic.
>With her teleported to relative safety, now you can focus on the enemy.
>You’re up, charging through the stream, up the bank and into the forest, taking off at full speed.
>As you move, your ears pick up the sound of something chasing you, leaping through the trees.
>Now that it, whatever it is, has made its move, there’s no reason to be stealthy.
>Based off the sounds of the branches and trees as it lands, it must have some weight to it.
>Another sharp crack is followed by a blue glow coming up from behind, which you dive to the side to avoid.
>The deafening explosion that follows from its impact on the ground, combined with the dirt and leaves it kicks up, is enough to dull your senses.
>You have to keep moving.
>You leap over a large rock, which is then split in half by another projectile, reduced to rubble by the blast.
>Three more follow in rapid succession, sending sparks flying through the air, one of them destroying the trunk of a tree after blasting cleanly through it.

>Your mind follows behind your instincts, trying to piece together what is happening as your body reacts in the moment.
‘High position, rapid fire capability, unknown weaponry, smart enough to split us up…’
>As the tree falls, it hooks onto another’s branches, causing it to shake.
>That’s your ticket up.
>You hunker down and then spring upwards, landing on the fallen tree and charging up its tilted side.
>As you near the treetops, a strange scent reaches your nostrils, some kind of ozone-like exhaust, likely from the weapon’s cannon.
>You use that to hone in on the location of the attacker, and after leaping into the tree, you maintain momentum by swinging forward on another into the tree where it is.
>But you don’t see anything.
>At least until a vaguely-humanoid form shifts in front of you, bringing up a leg and kicking you off with enough force to send you flying into the forest below.
>As you hit the ground rolling, you realize that it is invisible.
‘How? Chameleon-like skin? A cloaking device?’
>You don’t have time to puzzle over it for long, as you hear a loud ‘thud’ from nearby.
>It has landed and is approaching you.
>You get up to your feet and try to bring up your arms in defense, but the shifting outline of the figure makes it nearly impossible to tell where the attack is coming from.
>It strikes you with a backhanded thrust that lifts you off your feet, hurling you into a tree.
‘This thing is strong! I have to---‘

>As you try to recover, it launches some kind of metal pin that pierces your side and nails you to the bark.
>You let out a howl of pain as you grab the spike protruding from your flank.
>It then launches another pin, this time through your shoulder, firmly planting you against the tree.
>Your eyes barely open as you see the forest move, reflected through its camouflage, like a barely-shimmering field.
>A line of red appears from its head, aiming directly at your forehead.
>And that is when the Wolf awakens.
>Before it can react, you tear yourself from the tree, leaving both metal spikes behind as you leap forward, arms and legs raised.
>You pounce upon your target and take it to the ground, whereupon you grab a rock.
>Your eyes go bloodshot and you snarl as you lift the rock high before violently slamming it down upon the figure, over and over and over, each strike hitting something metal, which you quickly learn is armor.
>As you strike the mask of your metal foe, the cloaking mechanism fails, deactivating in an electric haze.
>The thing reaches up with a clawed hand and grabs you by the throat, managing to wrench you off and throw you away.
>You land on all fours, skidding in the dirt, as you behold your foe for the first time.

>It stands tall, taller than you by at least a foot, a humanoid creature of well-built reptilian-looking flesh, thick and muscular.
>The mottled yellow and black hide is covered by a thin mesh resembling fish netting, along with plates of armor and a mask.
>It has a wide stance, holding its clawed fingers up in a combative pose, while a shoulder-based cannon mirrors the movement of its wide-eyed mask.
>Behind the sloping mask’s large, circular forehead is a tangled weave of what appear to be tube-like dreadlocks.
>Adorned with technological gadgets, implements of death and a necklace of skulls that serve as trophies, you realize what you are staring it.
>But perhaps the most startling aspect would be the slightly-feminine frame, most obvious due to the shape of the breastplate and her wide hips.
>Your eyes go wide as you realize what you are staring at: a goddamned alien lifeform, in the flesh.
“Huh… Pinkie was right…”
>The red light returns, an aiming beam projected by an emitter on the helmet, and the shoulder cannon whirs to life as it charges up its next shot.
>You spring to the left as it shoots, missing you by a narrow margin as you grab onto a tree and leap off, tackling the female again.
>She grabs you out of the air and lifts you overhead, slamming you down on the ground like a pro-wrestler and knocking the wind out of your lungs.

>She then pulls back her arm, revealing a gauntlet from which two wicked-looking blades emerge.
>Her downward thrust is stopped only by you grabbing a blade with each hand.
>The alien metal cuts into your fingers and blood streams down your arms, but you are too busy staring into the dark eyes of her mask and whatever abomination hides behind it.
>You hear a clicking snarl from beneath, followed by an amplified roar in your face.
>You roar right back at her, the Wolf within growing in power.
>Though you do not transform, against this foe you are both united and acting as one, for what seems like the first time in a very long time.
>Bringing up both feet, you plant them in her stomach and roll backwards.
>Thankfully, she is top heavy and goes with you, allowing you to let go and roll away as she tumbles into a nearby pile of leaves.
>Despite her large frame, she gets up quickly and swipes at you with the blades.
>You duck and hop backwards, getting some more distance, but this proves to be in error, as she reaches behind her and produces some kind of gun.
>She aims and fires a metal spear at you, the same kind of spike you were nailed with earlier, and this one buries itself in your stomach.
>You fall back, blinded with pain as you grab at the end of the spike, letting out a loud gasp.
>The alien stands up, pausing to look down on you with her expressionless mask, before taking out a sharp, ceremonial-looking dagger lined with ridges from her belt.
“Ah, fuck,” you mutter, crawling backwards as she stalks forward.

>As she advances on you for the kill, you surprise her with a quick punch to an unarmored section of her gut.
>Though she is solid muscle, the attack causes her to stumble, seemingly surprised at the potency of your attack as she inquisitively clicks in confusion.
>Without skipping a beat, you tear the spear out, spin it around and stab it into her thigh.
>She howls and steps back, dropping her knife as you swing your leg upwards in a fierce kick.
>You manage to hook your foot around her neck and bring her down to the ground, slamming her mask against a stone.
>Sparks fly as you shout in primal fury, pushing yourself up and leaping onto her back.
>She stands as you tear at her armor and mask, trying desperately to rip it off.
>Bright green glowing blood trickles out of her wound, some of it falling onto the knife as she backs up with you.
>You both stumble about the small clearing, with you viciously tugging away as she roars in anger.
>She eventually leaps back, slamming you against a tree, causing you to let go and fall off.
>In one fell swoop, she turns and grabs you by the leg, hoisting you off the ground and hanging you upside-down.
>Then, grabbing your leg with both hands, she spins in place and slams you against the same tree, shattering part of it.
>You cry out as she continues spinning, eventually letting go, hurling you up into the air.

>She turns on her laser-guiding system and aims her shoulder cannon directly at you as you fall, and fires once.
>Your eyes go wide as you realize what is about to happen, but you can’t stop it.
>The plasma blast hits you dead-on, exploding in your chest and sending pieces of you flying in all directions.
>Smoking chunks of gore rain down upon the area; an arm here, a lung there.
>The forest finally goes quiet as the pieces of your body fall down.
>The hunter clicks softly as the shoulder cannon deactivates, folding into the harness on her back.
>She looks down at her leg and tears out the speartip, clicking in anger as she does.
>This prey proved much stronger than anticipated; it is a pity that there is no decent trophy.
>She would have loved nothing more than to take his skull and mount it on her wall.
>He was worthy.
>As she turns to leave, she pauses as her heat-based vision picks up movement along the ground.
>Lots of it…
>She adjusts the spectrum of her mask using her wrist computer, and to her horror and amazement the various chunks of meat on the ground are rolling towards a central point.
>An arm that was hanging over a rock flies towards the mass, seemingly propelled by some supernatural force.
>Two legs prop into place, and a spine reassembles itself like a series of building blocks above the waist.

>Organs, limbs, bones, skin and hair come together, knitting themselves back into one solid piece.
>And it is pain unlike any you’ve ever felt, much worse than transforming.
>Once, in the throes of the Wolf, you tore your own head off.
>This is like that, but far, far more intense.
>Every fiber of your being that was severed is now forcefully stitched back together and shocked back into life.
>Your head, which had been blown into two chunks, snaps back together as your skull clasps over your reforming brain.
>When your eyes and teeth pop back into your head, you let out a cry that echoes for miles.
>The alien stands silently transfixed by the visage of your smoking form, covered in tattered and burnt clothing, effectively nude.
>Though she is very still, you breathe heavily, panting in an almost exaggerated manner, your hands clenched into fists as every muscle in your body tenses.
>She is stunned by your regeneration, but you feel like a new man.
>Something has changed, and all previous doubts and worries seem far behind you now.
>Somewhere in the process of being blown to pieces and rebuilt, you learned something.
>Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that you remembered something you had forgotten.

>You’ve faced many creatures during this last year, many strange beasts and cryptids.
>Each of them beaten, captured, locked away or destroyed.
>Each of them unsatisfying and weak.
>But this alien has proven your match, and even your superior, managing to completely defeat you.
>You realize, now, however, that it was only because you had defeated yourself.
>Insecurity, self-doubt, fear.
>These things held you back.
>This warrior, this hunter, has reminded you of what you truly are.
>Within, the Wolf lets out a satisfied growl, for it has been waiting for a moment like this.
>Something to truly push you beyond the limits of a civilized man, a challenge that would force you to tap into the well of the feral beast within, to make you remember what it is to hunt or be hunted.
>Throwing your arms out to the side, you let out a shout of triumph, a war cry to challenge the enemy that brought you back from the depths of your inner turmoil.
>Slowly, she reaches behind her and takes out a rod that with a simple motion telescopically extends into a double-ended combat spear.
>Now your battle can resume.
>You never get the chance, for a fireball blasts her from behind.
>Letting out a pained and surprised cry, she whips around to behold Sunset Shimmer, standing with both hands alight in magical flame.
>With an equally fiery look on her face, she grits her teeth, stares her straight in the eyes and threatens, “Get away from him you bitch!”
>The alien roars, but then leaps, vanishing into the treetops and retreating far away.

>You watch her run and want to pursue, but you hold yourself back.
>Sunset’s hands extinguish as she looks upon you.
>”Anon? Are you alright?”
>Slowly, you lower your arms and take a deep breath, then look her square in the eyes.
“Never better.”
>Her brow furrows as she looks you up and down. “Should I be concerned?”
“No,” you reply, stepping down from the spot you reconstituted in. “I feel… in control.”
>”In control? You mean…?”
You nod. “Yeah. But that’s not my biggest concern right now. Was that an alien?”
>”I’d be hard-pressed to come up with another explanation,” she replies. She approaches you, again looking you up and down. “I’m sorry I took so long. I went to get help before coming back.”
>At that moment, your ears pick up a rumbling sound, like an approaching car engine.
>Two headlights shine upon you both, and a jeep door opens and slams as a tall young man steps out.
>”The hell are you two doing out here?” Big Mac asks. “And why the hell’re you naked?”
>”It’s a long story and you won’t believe it,” Sunset replies. “Anon needs a blanket.”
>Halfway towards town, after fully explaining the encounter with the extraterrestrial, she asks, “So, do you believe it?”
>”Nope.”
>”Told you.”

>She looks back at you, sitting in the back with the blanket, closely examining the alien’s dagger.
>Her bright green blood lingers on it, shining across the golden-bronze surface.
“We need to get this analyzed,” you say. “Twilight’s, on the double.”
>Big Mac breaks more than a few local speeding regulations on the way to her home.
>Once there, you hop out, despite Sunset protesting about your current lack of clothing.
>You slam a fist on Twilight’s basement entrance, and after a minute or so, it unlocks and she pushes it open.
>”…What’s going on?” she says, looking at your blanket-covered form as Sunset and Big Mac linger right behind you.
>You hand her the dagger.
“This is an alien knife with alien blood. Go nuts.”
>The scientist widens her eyes. “Are you…?”
>”It’s true,” Sunset assures her. “I just saw it with my own eyes.”
“And I fought with her, but she ran away.”
>”She?” Twilight asks.
“Trust me, she was big but she was all woman. I think we should call the others, because we’ve got one hell of a situation on our hands.”
>It takes less than an hour to get nearly everyone in your group assembled.
>Only Flash was able to show up from the other group, and Rainbow and Applejack haven’t arrived yet.

>With everyone cramped in Twilight’s basement, you recount your story to them of the attack in the Everfree Forest.
>About halfway through, you are interrupted.
>”I KNEW IT!” Pinkie Pie cries out, nearly hopping in place. “Aliens are real and they’re invading!”
>”What kind of technology did it possess?” Twilight asks as she examines the dagger under a microscope.
>”Was it horrid and ghastly looking?” Rarity says, chewing a fingernail.
>Pinkie interjects again. ”I bet it was tiny and green, with big black eyes and---“
“Now just hang on a minute,” you implore. “Something about this whole situation didn’t feel right. For one, this alien was alone, and her fighting style and methods were strange. She felt more like, I don’t know, a bounty hunter or an assassin or something.”
>”Her? She?” Fluttershy says with raised brows. “It was a girl alien?”
“No doubt,” you reply, making a motion with your hands in front of your chest to indicate her breasts.
>”How the hell does an alien have tits?” Flash asks, before his hand is slapped by Rarity for his vulgarity.
>Twilight chimes in. “It’s entirely possible. Convergent evolution in humanoid alien species would result in many qualities being the same, provided certain conditions are met like similar gravity. Of course, this was all theoretical up until this point.”
“The point is that it was an alien, with a plasma cannon and a spear gun and some kind of cloaking device. She was fast, strong and big, very tall, like seven feet maybe. Wore some kind of mask.”

>”Perhaps to assist in breathing in our atmosphere?” Twilight postulates.
>”What was it trying to do?” Fluttershy asks.
>Pinkie taps a finger on her chin. ”Capture you and bring you back to her mothership for probing?”
“I don’t think so. She was trying to kill me. Like… really hard. If I wasn’t what I was, I’d be dead, because she blew me to pieces with her plasma cannon.”
>”To PIECES?” Pinkie says with bug eyes. “Is that why you’re naked?”
You clear your throat and wrap yourself more tightly in the blanket. “Yes.”
>At that moment, Rainbow Dash and Applejack walk in.
>Dash takes one look around the room. “The heck’s going on?”
>Before you can say anything, Pinkie shouts, “Anon got blown up by an alien!”
Reaching over, you take Dash by the wrist and say, “I need to talk to you outside.”
>She protests but allows herself to be dragged out the back entrance.
>”What are you doing?” she asks, slightly annoyed but mostly just confused.
“Rainbow, I don’t have a whole lot of time to waste, but I just fought an alien in the woods, got blown up by a plasma cannon and all I want in this moment is for us to work things out.”
>”…What?!”

“Okay, I know I could have phrased that better, but something happened out there! When I was getting thrown through trees and stabbed and blown up, something in my head just, I don’t know, clicked! And now I feel like, well, I don’t know, like how I used to feel. In the moment.”
>”Start making sense,” she implores you, folding her arms in front of her chest. “Just, like, calm down man.”
“I’m sorry,” you say, taking a step closer. “Sorry for everything, I mean. I feel like I’ve been such an idiot who couldn’t see what was in front of him. That talk we had before, that wasn’t me. At least, the ‘me’ I am right now.”
>”So, what are you really saying? That you’re… in control again?”
You take another step closer. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
>Your heart is racing with exhilaration, your mind is clear of doubt and you feel like a million-ton load has been taken off your chest.
>And for once, the Wolf is quiet, no longer gnawing at the back of your mind.
“I’m in control,” you repeat, smiling wide in happiness.
>Rainbow has a shocked expression, but she quickly closes her eyes, throws her arms around your shoulders and pulls you in for a kiss.
>Your hands find her waist and pull her in even closer, eagerly kissing her back.
>It feels right.
>She smiles against your lips, then pulls back.
>”I’ve been waiting for you to do that,” she whispers. “Sure took your time.”

“If we didn’t have aliens to deal with right now, I would do so many things to you,” you say in a husky tone.
>”Oh, is that a promise, tough guy?” she says, putting a finger on your chest. “Who says I’d let you catch me? I can fly.”
“Gotta come down sometime,” you reply, before moving to attack her neck with a kiss.
>Then your ears pick up the sound of someone approaching from the basement entrance.
>Sunset sticks her head up. “Guys? Twilight is---“ She stops when she sees you both locked in embrace, looking back at her. “Oh.”
>Your heart stops beating for a moment as you realize that you were almost about to kiss her in the forest before the alien attack.
>Your eyes go somewhat wide as you look at her with an uncertain expression, but she merely smiles warmly and gives you a knowing nod.
>”I’ll leave you two alone.”
>There isn’t any hint of jealousy or underlying animosity to her tone, just understanding.
>She makes brief eye contact with you, and in that moment she communicates much before turning back inside.
>That moment you two shared out in the forest was the result of old feelings, perhaps some pity on her part for what you were dealing with.
>Perhaps it is a blessing that the alien attacked when it did, keeping you from making a potentially terrible mistake.
>As you look back at the girl in your arms, you remember every reason why you started dating her after the incident last year.

>Her spirit, her smile, her courage and tenacity.
>But it’s the spark in her eyes that you love the most.
>The one she gets right before jumping off a cliff, or taking on a horde of the undead.
>The one she gets when she truly feels alive, and wanted to share with you.
>What a fool you were to lose it…
>You kiss her again, and she loses herself in your embrace, nearly giggling with how giddy she feels.
>But the moment isn’t meant to last.
You break the kiss and say, “We should probably get back in there, huh?”
>She nods. “So, we’re fighting aliens this year, huh?”
“You seem somewhat unphased by the revelation of us not being alone in the universe.”
>”Dude, I’ve been a ghost and seen valkyries. Aliens aren’t shit.”
>You take her hand and walk back inside, where Twilight is explaining her analysis of the dagger.
>”Can you put that in normal terms?” Applejack asks.
>”Basically, this dagger doesn’t correspond to any natural metal found on earth! The blood carries all sorts of unique properties, but seems to indicate that it isn’t meant to carry oxygen, or at least not as much. I could spend a lifetime studying it!”
>”Well, we ain’t got a lifetime,” Applejack replies. “If that thing is still out there in the forest, runnin’ around and killin’ folks, we need to find it and kill it!”

>”We should try to capture it,” Twilight counters. “Imagine what we could learn from an actual extraterrestrial!”
>Flash coughs into his hand. “Not to change the subject, but is this alien connected to what’s been going on? The disappearances?”
>”Anon said it could cloak, yes?” Rarity asks, looking in your direction.
“Yeah, she could, which might explain how we haven’t been able to find her, but something doesn’t feel right. The way she moved, the way she fought and just the impression I got from her didn’t make it seem like she would abduct people out of their homes, like Caramel.”
>Applejack stands up. “But it did try to kill you, didn’t it? Can’t be a coincidence.”
>Twilight adjusts her glasses. “Let’s try to properly gender it, shall we? Anon says the alien is a female.”
>The monster hunter rolls her eyes. “It’s a damn alien! What are we doin’ just talkin’ about it? We need to track it down and put a stop to whatever it’s plannin’!”
“Now, just hold on a moment,” you insist. “This thing isn’t like what we’ve fought in the past. She’s smart. She ran when the numbers turned in our favor. And she’s got advanced technology and is more than willing to use it.”
>”Twilight’s got tech, too,” Rainbow points out. “Think you can track down an alien with it?”
>She holds up the alien’s blood in a small dish. “It seems to be warm-blooded, so even if it were to cloak, we might be able to find it using some kind of infrared goggles. I have a few of those lying around.”
“I feel like we’re missing a point, here,” you say, looking around at the others. “If this alien doesn’t want to be found, I think we won’t have much success in finding her.”

>Sunset backs up your word. “I saw this thing take off running when I showed up. She’s wicked fast and has one hell of a jump.”
You continue, “What if she has some kind of ship and has already left the area? And I just can’t shake the feeling that she isn’t responsible for what we’ve been looking into.”
>Rarity crosses her legs. “What are you suggesting, darling? That it is a coincidence?”
“It’s… possible.”
>Applejack shakes her head. “No way. We come back after our trip to find all this strange stuff goin’ on, and then we learn there’s an alien runnin’ around in the woods? Can’t be coincidence, no siree.”
>Twilight sets the blood back down. “Regardless, we now have a solid lead to investigate, and dealing with the supernatural, and apparently even the extraterrestrial, falls to us. We should inform Celestia and Luna about this.”
>Fluttershy nods in agreement. “We could drop by the school tomorrow.”
>Pinkie Pie jumps up. “Are you all going loco? Aliens are invading! We need to get the word out, call the Army, the Navy, the Marines! The president needs to know!”
>”Somehow I doubt they would believe us,” Flash replies. “Even the cops in this town weren’t helping us look for the missing people.”
>”I’m sure Celestia will have an idea of where to go with this information,” Twilight adds. “Some of us should drop by the school tomorrow to talk to her about it. Who wants to go with me?”

>”I’ll go,” Flash quickly volunteers. “I mean, I’ll be able to talk to some of the gang there and tell them what’s going on.”
“I’ll come along as well,” you reply. You look at Dash, but she shakes her head.
>”I’ll help AJ set up some alien traps or something,” she says.
>At first you are concerned with her not wanting to go with you, but then she throws a wink your way.
>You smirk as you realize she’s just trying to avoid going to back to the old school.
>Rarity and Sunset are going to work on digging up records related to Dr. Turner, Fluttershy agrees to help Dash and Applejack set traps, while Pinkie pledges to head to the school to help Flash spread the word about the alien menace.
>”Don’t start a panic, Pinkie!” Rarity reminds her. “The last thing we need is for people to think UFO’s are going to start coming out of the sky!”
>”How do you know they won’t? Huh?” Pinkie argues as the group filters out. “We’ve already got one alien, maybe more! Before you know it we’ll be swarming with saucer men from Venus!”
>You stop by Twilight’s workstation and ask, “Are you going to be alright here?”
>”Rarity has been staying with me since the buddy system got put in place, so I’ll be fine,” Twilight replies, digging around her lab for a box. “I need to start doing some prep work if we’re going to be taking on this alien.”
“Yeah…” You look back towards the lab entrance, where Rainbow is talking to Applejack about plans for tomorrow. You then look back at Twilight, lean in close and whisper, “I got it under control.”
>She stops what she’s doing and looks up. “What? You mean about tomorrow?”

“No. The Wolf.”
>She hesitates before taking off her glasses. “Really? That’s fantastic! But how?”
“I can’t quite explain it, but I think getting blown up shook me out of my funk.”
>”Well, there may be some scientific basis to that. Sometimes very powerful trauma can reawaken specific nerve centers in the brain, and I can’t think of anything more traumatic than being blown to pieces.” She stops her theorizing and looks over at Rainbow. “Are you two…?”
You nod. “I’d say so.”
>She smiles and lets out a sigh of relief. “That’s great to hear. Having that awkwardness hang over the trip was torture.”
You stop smiling. “Was it really that bad?”
>”It was awkward,” she says, then waves her hand, then clears her throat. “I mean, not nearly as awkward as talking to you right now, since you only have a blanket covering you…”
You hold the blanket tighter and let out a nervous chuckle. “Yeah… sorry about that.”
>“I’m used to it. Either way, that’s all behind us now. I’m happy you’ve worked things out, and it seems like your timing couldn’t be better. Now that we know aliens are involved, all of us need to be in top condition.”
“Well, you don’t have to worry about that. I’m practically itching for round two against that thing. I think the Wolf is, too.”
>”Just don’t make any rash decision,” she advises. “You’re absolutely positive you have it under control?”
“Honestly, I feel like a million bucks, like I’ve been completely rejuvenated,” you reply. “Trust me. When the time comes, I’ll prove it.”

>She’s still slightly concerned, but nods. “Okay. I believe in you. I’ll meet you at the school tomorrow morning?”
>You nod and head towards the exit.
>As you stand in the driveway, giving a wave to Rainbow as Applejack drives her off, you hear someone approach from behind.
>”It’s been a heck of a night, hasn’t it?” Sunset asks with a weary grin.
“More eventful than most,” you admit. “But it’s only getting started.”
>She walks up alongside you, her arms crossed. “Listen… about what happened earlier…”
“Before the alien attacked us.”
>”Yeah.”
“You mean, what was going to happen,” you correct her. “Right?”
>”I won’t make pretend like it wasn’t going to happen,” she replies. “I’m just… Maybe it’s for the best that it didn’t.”
>You face her fully, your expression betraying the conflict within.
“I really do like her.”
>”I know you do. I’m honestly happy for you two, really. Anyone would be lucky to be with you.”
>She seems to rethink her words at the last second, but ends up saying them anyway, resulting in her being embarrassed.
>”I need some time to think. How about I get you home, so you can get out of that blanket?”

“I’d appreciate it.”
>She puts a hand on your shoulder, and with a simple incantation you feel a gust of wind as the world spins for a moment.
>When it is done, you are in your apartment.
>A lengthy goodbye would be more awkwardness on top of everything else, so she simply says goodnight and teleports away.
>After sending a few texts back and forth with Rainbow Dash, you take a shower and crawl into bed.
>Your phone buzzes one last time with a message from her: “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for u”
You text her back: “You were, but I wasn’t myself”
>She responds: “Yea, u were being kind of a dik lol”
>You smile and send a few messages back and forth with her, until she finally responds with: “Nite, love you”
>A warmth spreads from your heart as you are reminded that she never stopped loving you, but was merely waiting for you to stop keeping her away.
>Loyal to the end…
>That night, you have a dream.
>You are in the woods again, running, but not from anything.
>Rather, you are running towards something, and it is alongside the Wolf.

>There have been times in your life when you ran from him, and times when you had him leashed.
>The balance of power has shifted ever since you two became one.
>But right now, you are side-by-side, equals, though both cautious of the other.
>That cautiousness is bred from a mutual understanding, almost a respect for one another.
>You know the strength and primal power of the Wolf, but he knows your willpower and human ingenuity.
>The more you run alongside him, the more you begin to realize why it was in the first place that you lost control over him.
>When you started using Twilight’s drug, turning the spiritual into the scientific, you lost the Wolf’s respect.
>Your relationship shouldn’t be about one controlling the other, but rather respecting each other’s strength.
>Treating your lycanthropy like a set of powers and abilities, trying to control it with chemicals, to suppress it with magic or crystals…
>These are the reasons you lost control.
>And now that you have had a very close experience with death, you’ve been reminded of what it feels like to have the Wolf as a partner against overwhelming odds.
>That is where you are now.
>The two of you are running, not to hunt, but towards something.
>The forest clears up ahead as the trees stop before a ridgeline.
>You two stop at the edge, looking over and beyond.
>Far away on the horizon, a storm is coming.

>Lightning strikes and thunder rolls, but it not natural.
>Both of you know it is otherworldly in origin.
>As you stare off into the darkness, a strange headache suddenly assaults you, causing both you and the Wolf to recoil.
>You place both hands on your head, struggling against the throbbing pain, and open your eyes to see two points of light forming in that darkness.
>They seem like eyes, large and inhuman, staring directly at you like yellow spotlights.
>The headache only grows stronger and stronger as the eyes continue to stare directly at you.
>Nearby, the Wolf tries to fight back, but lacks the will.
>He attempts to flee but you grab him by the scruff of his neck and hold on.
>You kneel alongside him, holding his head beneath one arm, and together the two of you withstand the mind-searing pain.
>Gritting your teeth, you grunt as the Wolf growls alongside you.
>All the while, the wind picks up, the clouds overhead get dark, and the sound of the lightning and thunder are now deafening.
>Then, with a shout, you wake up.
“Air,” you say to yourself, out of breath.
>You run to your window and open it, sticking your head out.
>The cool October breeze washes over you as you stare at the street.
>Your apartment has an okay view of the nearby street corner, which has a single streetlight hanging over it.

>Standing right beneath it is a tall man in a suit with a briefcase.
>Staring in your direction.
>You waste no time in throwing on a pair of sweatpants and a white tee-shirt before you are out of the apartment and running towards that corner.
>When you get there, nobody is around to be seen in any direction.
>It’s about five in the morning; no cars are driving, no buses or anything.
>You turn in place, attempting to pick up any kind of trail, but there is nothing.
“What the hell,” you mutter.
>Is that guy an alien?
>Something else entirely?
>Others have seen him, so he must be real.
>But what if he isn’t?
>Your head is still buzzing and these headaches cannot be natural.
>Returning to your apartment, you manage to get a few more hours of sleep before rolling back out of bed, groggy and weary.
>You run some water, splash your face, do some stretches and wake up as best you can before getting dressed and heading towards the school.
>The town seems especially quiet this morning.
>As you walk, you notice very few cars on the roads, and almost nobody else walking around.
>On a whim, you walk up to a neighbor’s home, a friendly woman named Ms. Peachbottom.

>There isn’t any answer at her door, but her car is in the driveway so you take a peek in through her window.
>You know she wouldn’t mind, because she’s always been very outgoing and considers her home an open place for any and all guests.
>As it turns out, she’s home, sitting in front of her television with her eyes glued on the screen.
>Watching Time for Thought with Dr. Turner.
>You tap on the glass, but there’s no response---she’s completely invested in the show.
>As you look at Dr. Turner’s face on the screen, talking about nutrition or something, your brow furrows.
>Something about him just doesn’t sit well with you…
>Once you are at the school, you get a text from Dash talking about the traps they’re going to set around the forest to try and catch the alien.
>You wish her luck and then head inside, where you meet Twilight, Pinkie Pie and Flash Sentry in the lobby.
>After they greet you, you recount your sighting of the strange man and how enraptured Ms. Peachbottom was with Dr. Turner’s morning show.
>Twilight frowns and rubs her chin while Flash quips, “You’d think a show called ‘Time for Thought’ would advocate less TV-viewing, huh?”
>Twilight ignores him and instead says, “This isn’t good… I’m seriously beginning to think that there must be some kind of harmful broadcast coinciding with that show and the observatory.”

>She turns to Flash and Pinkie.
>”Vinyl Scratch is still running the AV club. There is some equipment I’ve stored in there that I would like you both to retrieve; she’ll know what it is. Anon and I will talk to the principal.”
>Pinkie salutes as she and Flash head off.
>The two of you approach the administration office, where you meet Ms. Cheerilee as she exits.
>”Hello Ms. Cheerilee,” Twilight greets her old teacher and librarian.
>She pauses. “Hello. Can I help you?”
>Though her tone isn’t cold, it isn’t exactly warm, either.
>Decidedly neutral, in fact.
>”Are the principal and vice principal in?” Twilight asks.
>”They’re very busy,” she replies with the same cadence. “If you have to see them, I would make it short.”
>Twilight straightens her glasses and says, “Oh! By the way, I found that old book I borrowed from the library. I guess we can close that outstanding account, huh? When would be a good time to drop it off?”
>Ms. Cheerilee’s face remains neutral for a few seconds, but then she smiles in recognition. “Ah, yes, of course! Any time during the normal school week would be fine.”
>She excuses herself and walks off.
You look down at Twilight. “You misplaced a borrowed book?”
>She looks back up, her face deadly serious. “Never.”
>You both look back in the direction she left, then immediately head inside.
>Vice Principal Luna is sitting at her desk outside of the principal’s office, and looks up as you enter.

>”Twilight and Anon! What brings you by?”
>”We’d like to speak with you and Principal Celestia, please,” Twilight says politely, yet with a sense of urgency to her voice.
>Luna gathers some loose papers into a neat stack, stands up and walks over to her sister’s office to open it.
>”Please,” she says, offering you the door.
>You both step inside to see Principal Celestia sitting behind her desk, talking on the telephone.
>As she sees you both enter, she wraps up her end of the conversation.
>”Yes, I understand. Thank you for your support. Yes, goodbye.”
>She hangs up as Twilight asks, “Are we interrupting?”
>”No, not at all, please have a seat,” she says while gesturing to the chairs in front of her desk.
>You both do as Celestia reaches for her coffee mug and takes a big drink.
>Almost instinctively, you take a sniff of the air---but there isn’t any hint of coffee-related smells.
>Your eyes dart to the coffee machine maker in the corner, which is off and has an empty pot.
>Then, you hear a soft click, something that a normal individual would likely miss.
>As Luna walks past you both to stand behind Celestia’s desk, you realize that it was the sound of the office door lock being carefully shut.
>You keep your cool and betray no reaction; after all, there isn’t anything inherently wrong with locking the door.

>Celestia and Luna both know your individual secrets and likely know you’re not here on a social call due to the kind of work you both are involved in; secrecy would be important, so they would of course lock the door so none of the other staff can barge in.
>Still, the combination of Cheerilee’s odd behavior, the lack of coffee and the door locking all don’t add up to something normal.
>Still, Celestia and Luna don’t feel off at all.
>The principal sets her mug aside and puts her hands together. ”Hello, Anon, Twilight. Is this about last night?”
“Yes and no,” you reply, trying to get a look at what is inside the mug by leaning somewhat forward.
>All you can glimpse is a clear liquid: water?
>”Are you still on about Caramel?” she asks.
“No… No, right now I think the situation has changed. I was attacked in the forest last night.”
>The two faculty members exchange looks of surprise and concern, then look back at you. “Really? What by?”
“Well…” You look at Twilight, who nods. “We think it was an alien.”
>”An alien? That’s remarkable,” Celestia says, her brows high and eyes wide. “But are you absolutely certain? Could it have been some kind of ghost or cryptid?”
“Ghosts and cryptids don’t use technology, and this thing had a gun that shot blue bolts of explosive plasma or something. Plus, I got very close and acquainted with it. Trust me, it’s an alien.”

>”It simply attacked you in the forest?” Celestia asks, and you nod. “Who knows what else it may have attacked…”
>”This is very serious,” Luna says, moving to lean over the desk. “We may need to close off all access to the forest until it can be found.”
>”I assume your team is tracking it down as we speak?” Celestia asks.
>”They’re out setting traps around the Everfree Forest,” Twilight explains, shifting slightly in her seat. “But I’m worried that we’re only just catching onto a much larger situation.”
>Celestia cocks a brow. “Oh? Larger than an alien in the woods?”
>”Well, that’s just it. We still think there are several bizarre phenomena happening around Canterlot. At this time, we can’t say if this alien is involved, but the timing hardly seems coincidental.”
>”So this is still about the Caramel situation,” Celestia says with a frown.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but the entire thing unfolded very strangely,” you say as you look between her and Luna. “That and we’ve noticed how utterly absorbed people are with this TV show he appeared on.”
>”It’s a very good show,” Luna points out.
“Look, that’s fine and all, but every time I look at it or hear it I get this strange buzzing in my head. I think there’s something going on at that facility that he isn’t telling you.”
>Celestia puts her hands back together in front of her. “So, am I to understand that you still intend to investigate Dr. Turner based on these headaches instead of hunting down this alien?”
>Twilight holds up a hand. “We intend to do both. We just want to make sure that everything is okay. It’s just strange that people seem so invested in the show.”

>”It’s a very good show,” Luna repeats herself. “You should watch it.”
>For a moment, awkward silence fills the room, which suddenly becomes quite tense.
>Slowly, you push your seat back from the desk.
“Well, I think we should get… going…”
>Suddenly, the headache returns.
>Only now it is much more sudden and acute, like a focused attack.
>Bringing a hand up to your head, you fall back out of the chair, landing on your back.
>Twilight rushes to help you, but she is grabbed by Luna and forced into a grapple.
>As your vision alternates between swimming and clear, you see her struggling as Luna’s throat begins to swell and her eyes roll backwards in their sockets.
>To your horror, a thick, fleshy tendril emerges from her mouth, dripping with clear slime.
>It looks like a worm that wriggles and convulses, ending in a circular mouth.
>Twilight screams before Luna leans forward, thrusting the end of this muscular probe into her mouth.
>You watch helplessly as Twilight’s throat similarly bulges and she twitches, her entire body convulsing.
>Celestia stands up from behind her desk, staring directly at you.
>She’s using her psychic powers against you, overloading your brain with sensory input.
>Though you fight as hard as you can, her mental abilities surpass your own.
>The last thing you see before going black is Twilight falling to the floor with the other end of the worm sliding into her mouth, vanishing past her lips.
>Then, darkness.

>When you awaken, it is with pain.
>Jolts of electricity are pumped into your body through electrodes stuck to your temples.
>Every muscle in your body tenses as you struggle against your bonds, which you realize are keeping you stuck in a seated position.
>Your wrists, ankles, waist, upper body and forehead are all strapped down tightly.
>When the shocking stops, you open your eyes to behold a sterile-looking padded room.
>There is a table in front of you, and on the other side is Dr. Turner.
>He stares at you from behind his wire-thin spectacles and smiles plainly.
>”Tell me, Anon, why do you believe you are a werewolf?”
>You spit involuntarily and it drools down your chin.
“Fucking… what?!”
>Your eyes dart around, but he is the only other discernable feature in the room, other than a large mirror to your right.
>He wrings his hands together over the table. “You believe you are a werewolf, Anon. You’re very sick. I intend to cure you.”
“What…? Where are---“
>Dr. Turner looks at a nearby wall, which has a mirror, likely one-way.
>”One more time, please.”
>Once more electricity jolts through you, shocking you to your very core as every nerve cries out in pain.
>Your fingers draw blood as you scratch at the chair’s arms and your chest rapidly expands and contracts.

>When the shock therapy stops, your eyes remain closed as your body struggles to quell the pain.
>Dr. Turner’s voice reaches your ears once more. “You aren’t well, Anon. You’re a danger to society and your loved ones.”
Spittle flies out of your mouth as you shout, “FUCK YOU!”
>You must have been taken here after---
“Celestia! Luna! TWILIGHT! Where are they?! What have you done to them?!”
>”I’m the one asking the questions,” Dr. Turner replies. “Your erratic behavior and impulses have led you to attack your friend Twilight. She’s in serious condition. Your fantasy of being a werewolf has clearly led to a mental imbalance.”
>You blink several times as the throbbing pain dulls down somewhat.
His words take a moment to register, but even when they do, you can’t help but mutter, “What the hell are you talking about?”
>”Let’s start from the beginning. How long have you thought you were a werewolf?”
“I don’t… how do you…”
>”The others have informed me about your severe disconnect with reality. I must say, it is quite a delusion: monsters, magic, and most recently aliens… I’ve had patients with advanced fantastical constructs of realty before, but you truly are something special.”
“The others?”

>”Your friends, who have been helping keep your delusions under control these past few years. They only wanted what was best for you, of course. But now that you have attacked one of your friends, they came to me and we had no choice but to bring you in for treatment.”
>As his words ooze out of his mouth in that clinical tone of his, it all clicks into place and you begin to laugh.
“Are you serious? This is what you’re doing? Trying to convince me that I’m crazy?”
>”You’re psychologically impaired, Anon.”
“And you’re full of shit,” you mutter. “You’re in on this… all of it. You did something to Celestia and Luna, and Twilight, you’re doing something to the whole town.”
>”Paranoia is common for someone in your fragile mental condition. I understand now why you were so taken with Caramel and his delusions as well.”
“You can’t twist words and play mind games with me. This is your plan?”
>”I only want to help you, Anon. You aren’t well.”
“I’ll be a whole lot better when I rip your fucking head off,” you say, struggling against the straps.
>Despite your strength, the straps are too secure and there are too many of them.
>You struggle for several seconds before shouting, never relenting for a second.
>”Yes, that’s about the response I expected.” He looks over at the mirror-wall. “Send it in.”
>The door behind Dr. Turner opens and an orderly wheels in a television; another follows to remove the table.
>Dr. Turner moves aside as the television is set to face you, then turned on.
>At first there is only static, blaring loudly.

“The hell are you going to do with that?” you ask him as the orderly adjusts some dials.
>Dr. Turner looks at you with a knowing grin and replies, “Your condition is advanced beyond the limits of conventional therapy. We’re going to have to go to more extreme lengths to turn you into a productive member of society.”
“Whatever your plan is, I’m going to stop it! When I get out of here…” Your voice trails off as you continue to struggle against the bonds.
>”Just try and relax, Anon. You aren’t going to do anything or go anywhere. Let’s just take some time for thought.”
>The static stops as the last dial is adjusted, and you are faced with a black screen.
>Your eyes are drawn to it, staring into the depths of darkness within.
>Somewhere within that void you can hear something, but it isn’t discernable exactly what it is.
>Then, you feel a strong throbbing in your brain again as the headache returns, the noise growing louder and louder.
>As you grunt and struggle against your bonds, the headache only gets more intense, not unlike when Celestia used her telepathic abilities against you.
>Two points of light appear in the void, growing larger.
>The screen itself is seemingly growing as well, the darkness expanding beyond the edge of the physical television, somehow bleeding into reality.
>Is this reality, or merely your perception being warped by whatever mental assault you are being faced with?

>You shout as the expanding globe of darkness threatens to swallow you, drawing you closer to those two yellow eyes that are glaring into your soul.
>Now, amongst all the strange noises, there is a word repeated over and over, growing louder and clearer: “Submit.”
>The two yellow eyes seem to pulse with each repetition: “Submit. Submit. Submit.”
>You cry out in fruitless struggle as your mind is stretched to the breaking point.
>This is where a normal man would have lost his will.
>But you aren’t alone in this fight.
>You open your mouth and let out not a cry, but a howl, as the Wolf comes out.
>Together, you and he face the yellow eyes and defiantly stand against the assault, united in this battle of will.
>Though the Wolf lacks your mental fortitude, he brings with him other talents that are needed to win this fight.
>And for the first time in a long time, the two of you have a mutual understanding, and with it comes a willing transformation.
>Your body begins to change.
>The straps strain against your flesh as it expands and grows stronger.
>Your golden eyes flash as your teeth elongate and sharpen.
>Claws spring from your fingers as you roar in pain, feeling your bones reshape and hair sprout from your skin.
>The first strap to break is the one across your chest, followed by your waist.
>As your skull lengthens and forehead slopes, the strap on your head slips and the electrodes pop off.

>Somewhere, beyond this blackness you are enveloped by, you can hear Dr. Turner shouting and giving orders.
>Meanwhile, the yellow eyes grow brighter as whatever entity is behind them doubles down on attempting to force your submission.
>It won’t work.
>Your arms and legs are freed as your greater muscle mass and strength allow you to tear through them, standing up and kicking the chair away from you.
>Tattered remnants of your patient’s gown cling to your body, but most of it falls off.
>With one final burst of mental and physical fortitude, you swing your arm forward and dig your claws into the television, destroying the screen.
>Almost immediately the blackness vanishes as the signal is cut off.
>As the broken television falls to the floor, your vision clears completely and you see that they have retreated from the cell.
>You turn and look into the mirror, seeing yourself fully transformed.
>It isn’t often you get to do such a thing, but more important is the fact that you’re not the only one doing it.
>Stomping over to the television, you grasp it in one hand and roar at the mirror before throwing the broken device at it as hard as you can.
>It crashes through the mirror and you follow right behind, landing on an instrument panel as workers in lab coats scramble to get out of your way.

>One goes for a door and you reach down to grab him by the leg, but when you pull the leg comes right off.
>Confused, you look down at the man who is now crawling away as a large tentacle emerges where his leg was, flopping around.
>Realizing that these workers are not human and that consequently any morality in slaughtering them is now gone, you give the Wolf free reign to have at it.
>You howl as you claw into the man’s back, then hurl him at one of the other scientists.
>Leaping upon them both, you gleefully tear into their flesh, revealing a mass of inhuman organs, sacs and tentacles.
>With these two disposed of, you crash out of the viewing room and into a brightly-lit white hallway.
>At the end of it are two guards in bright orange uniforms who are rushing towards you, brandishing handguns.
>Your rampage down the hallway isn’t slowed in the slightest by their weapons, and when you break through the doors at the end you leave behind two dismembered alien corpses.
>Finding yourself in some kind of storage facility, you leap onto a large shelf and scale your way to the very top.
>An alarm blares in the distance as you leap from shelf to shelf, knocking boxes and barrels out of your way.
>Beneath you, scientists, technicians and guards are shouting and trying to coordinate your capture.
>You pause to look left and right, and then see a pair of bright red doors with many warnings written on them and decide that is where you want to go.

>Leaping down, you land on one of the technicians, crushing him and revealing that he is made out of some kind of green goo and his muscles are also green instead of red.
>Now is not the time to contemplate these revelations; escape is your priority.
>You charge through those red doors, breaking them off their hinges.
>The chamber you find yourself in now is one of the most bizarre you have ever seen.
>It is like a meat locker, but instead of meat what hangs on a series of hooks are large pod-looking plants.
>They are man-sized and resemble elongated vegetables, almost like pea pods.
>Stepping up to one, you rip it open and discover a townsfolk flopping out of it, covered in green goo.
>He looks underdeveloped and thin, like a plant that isn’t right to harvest.
>The man opens his eyes and looks up at you, letting out an inhuman scream as his jaw distends.
>You stomp on his head, crushing his skull and revealing more green innards.
‘Huh… Pinkie was right again! Pea pod plant people!’
>You charge past the dormant pods into another area, where what look to be patients are being kept.
>Each of them is on a hospital-style bed, strapped down and with their eyes forced open, staring up at a television screen.

>You pass by several of them, stopping when you discover Caramel.
>And alongside him is Twilight Sparkle.
>Both of them have several wires hooked up to them, providing them with water and monitoring their life signs.
>Behind them are readouts showing the growth of some kind of parasite in their bodies.
>Caramel is in a far more advanced stage, with tendrils growing throughout his body.
>Twilight, however, only has a worm in her stomach.
>With a growl, you use your claws and cut her loose, freeing her from the confines of the bed and pulling out the wires.
>As delicately as you are able, you cradle her under one arm as you make for the exit.
>You bust through another set of doors into a shipping area.
>Here, workers and technicians all turn their heads as you skid to a stop.
>They appear to be loading more of those pods onto the backs of trucks.
>One of them points at you and screams that inhuman scream, and the others all follow, pointing and screaming as their eyes go wide.
>You look and see an empty shipping bay and crash through the metal garage door, into the open evening.
>You’re on the grounds of the observatory, which you now know to be nothing like what it seems.
>Several floodlights turn in your direction, spurning onwards towards the fence.
>With a single leap, you’re clear of the barbed wire, running down the hill towards the woods, all the while keeping Twilight safe under your arm.

>Once the alarms and lights are far behind you, you keep going, heading towards Fluttershy’s cottage.
>About halfway there, and you suddenly get caught in a net trap and hoisted up into the trees.
>You roar and struggle, trying to get your claws and teeth around the netting, but it is thick and metal.
>Lights shine on you and for a moment you are worried that Dr. Turner and his alien goons have caught you again, only for your ears to pick up Applejack’s voice.
>”Is that Anon and Twilight? Get them down!”
>The net is cut and you fall to the ground, keeping Twilight safe by holding her close and absorbing the force of the fall.
>As the net is pulled open, you stand up and snarl, causing the others to back off and raise weapons.
>Applejack, Big Mac and Sunset are all here, and look at you warily; none of them know if it is you in control, or the Wolf.
>”Wait!” a slightly-shrill voice calls out, and your allies part to allow Rainbow through.
>She’s wearing camouflage and has camo-paint on her face, and her sword is strapped to her back.
>Slowly, she approaches you, staring into your eyes.
>The Wolf snarls, knowing all too well who this is.
>”Rainbow, get back,” Applejack says, but the tomboy refuses.

>”I’m not getting torn apart again,” she says with determination, “because this is Anon. I know it.”
>Within, you feel the Wolf become reluctant to release control.
>You are terrified that all the progress you’ve made will suddenly be undone, and once more you’ll have a dead girlfriend on your hands.
>She brings up a hand, and the Wolf nearly snaps at it, causing Applejack to aim with her shotgun.
>But Rainbow, despite knowing what you can do to her and what you have done to her in the past, swallows her fear and places her hand on your cheek, feeling the fur.
>”I know it’s you,” she whispers, her eyes pleading and understanding. “Just come out.”
>The Wolf closes his eyes and relents.
>You inwardly breathe a sigh of pure relief as you feel yourself taking back control.
>The reverse transformation is painful, but Rainbow is there, kneeling alongside you and holding your hand, supporting you.
>Meanwhile, the others are tending to the still-unconscious Twilight, and are checking her over.
>As the hair and fur recede into your body, Rainbow smirks and runs a hand over your head. “That’s, what, the third time in two weeks you’ve ended up naked?”
As you finish changing, you look up at Dash and speak with a slightly-slurred voice, “It was Celestia and Luna! They’ve been taken over by Turner, and put some kind of alien worm in Twilight. We need to get it out!”
>You reach up and grab her by the shoulders.
“The aliens, Dash! They’re here! They’re here!”

>Rainbow helps you up to your feet, and the group gets you in the back of a jeep---along with getting you another blanket.
>As they drive, they explain that they had set up several traps in the forest, but there was no sign of the alien.
You shake your head. “Forget that one for now. We’ve got other aliens to deal with. Dr. Turner and all of his workers are imposters, either taken over by parasites or grown in these giant pod-plant-things. Once we take care of Twilight, we need to storm that place and shut it down.”
>”Now that I like the sound of!” Rainbow says. “Do we have any ideas on how to get alien worms out of people?”
>Sunset, sitting next to Twilight, checks her over and replies, “We could perform surgery, but we’re not exactly trained… usually, Twilight does this sort of thing.”
You furrow your brow. “Where is Rarity? She’s got the steadiest hand of us all.”
>Applejack, in the shotgun seat, has her phone in hand. “I’m texting her now. She’s at Fluttershy’s.”
“Tell her to meet us at Twilight’s,” you say. “We’ll need to use her reagent to put her back together once we slice her open.”
>Sunset runs a concerned hand over Twilight’s forehead. “I hope we can save her…”
“I saw some kind of monitor in there. She’s in the larval stage; it hasn’t spread through her body yet. If we can get it out, she should be fine.”
>You go on to explain the situation with Celestia and Luna, much to the dismay of all present.

>”I can’t believe they got suckered by aliens,” Rainbow says as she shakes her head.
“This has been going on since before we arrived,” you say, sitting back in the car. “They’re using some kind of mind control to lull the people of the town into willing slaves and then replacing them with alien duplicates.”
>”So what does that other alien have to do with it?” Applejack asks.
“I don’t know yet. She’s related, somehow, but right now we need to focus on Twilight.”
>Several more conversations and questions spring up on the way to her house, including ones from you about what happened to Flash and Pinkie Pie.
>Turns out, they are at Twilight’s as well, setting up that equipment she had them retrieve from Vinyl Scratch.
>As you open the basement hatch and get into her lab, they look up with surprise as you bring in Twilight and set her on the table.
>As you open her patient gown, exposing her stomach, the others all gather around.
You pick up a vial of her reagent, sloshing around the glowing green liquid in the vial. “We’ll need this, that’s for sure.”
>While the others scramble to assemble Twilight’s surgical instruments, Flash looks at you.
>”Man, what the hell happened? Celestia and Luna said you two had left, then kicked us out of the school.”
“They would, considering they’re both puppets for an alien invasion. Luna put a parasite in Twilight, then Celestia knocked me out with her mind powers.”
>”Mind powers?” Flash asks, confused. “Is that an alien thing?”
“Oh, no, they already had mind powers. They’re just controlled by aliens now.”
>Pinkie Pie bounces past. “And if the aliens are psychic, that makes them double-psychic!”
>Flash runs a hand through his jet-blue hair. “Oh, great. How much worse can this all get?”

>As if on cue, a voice drifts downstairs. “Twilight? Honey, are you home?”
>Everyone freezes.
>”It’s her mom!” Pinkie whispers sharply, taking cover behind a glass tube that really does nothing at all to hide her.
>”I’ll handle this,” Flash volunteers, swallowing nervously.
>Everyone finds a place to hide as Twilight’s mother, Twilight Velvet, comes downstairs.
>”Twilight, dear?”
>Flash steps out of the laboratory.
>”Hello, ma’am!” he says in a cheerful tone, but one that betrays his lack of acting skill due to how nervous he sounds. “Twilight just stepped outside to, uh, make a phone call.”
>”Oh, I see,” she says. “Are you helping her with one of her projects?”
>”Uh, yeah! Hah. Always cooking up something in her lab, right?”
>”Well, I very much need to speak with her.”
>You hear her try to push past Flash, who blocks her path.
>”That’s, uh, well, the project is top secret. Can’t let anyone into the lab.”
>”You said she was outside.”
>”Yeah, that’s… Well, ah, you see… She must’ve slipped back inside, but nobody can come in right now. I’ll tell her you want to see her!”

>Just then, as Flash tries to walk back inside the vault, Twilight’s mother stops him by grabbing the door.
>”Where is she?” she demands, her voice growing strange.
>Your eyes widen as you realize what is about to happen, and you rush out of your hiding place towards the door.
>Flash is pulling on the door, trying to close it while Twilight’s mother yanks on the other side, her shouting increasingly becoming stranger and more inhuman.
>As a tentacle flops around the door, Flash shouts in surprise, asking for help.
>Soon everyone assembled is helping him at the door, grabbing part of it and pulling.
>A mouth with razor-sharp teeth comes around the edge, located on the end of a prehensile tendril that snaps down on Flash’s right hand.
>He screams in pain as it pulls on him, yanking him out of the door, causing you all to fall forwards in your attempt to grab at him.
>You look up as the others inadvertently doggy-pile on your back, seeing the monster that is Twilight’s mother, now a writhing mass of tentacles with a vaguely-human shape in the middle.
>Flash dangles a few feet above the ground, blood oozing down his arm as he kicks his legs, desperately grabbing at his bitten arm with his free hand to try and free himself.
>There is a sickening crunching noise and Flash falls, holding his stump as his wailing fills the room.
>Pushing yourself out of the pile, you charge at the alien creature, tackling it to the floor.
>Tentacles and mouths latch onto you, grappling and biting as you try to do whatever you can to wound the thing; punches, kicks, some biting of your own.

>Three of the tendrils lift you up and then slam you onto the nearby wall, knocking over a series of tools.
>You pick up a screwdriver from the floor and stab vigorously into the appendages.
>While Sunset and Big Mac help drag Flash away from the scrap, Applejack withdraws her pistol and fires several times into the fleshy mass, putting more holes in it.
>When she pauses to reload, Rainbow Dash draws her sword, sprouting two glorious wings behind her that she uses to give herself a boost forwards.
>In the confined space of the cellar, there isn’t room at all to fly, but she uses her boost to get right in and cut through several tentacles with her broadsword.
>She is about to cut the one holding you when a larger tentacle that was once a human leg knocks her aside, causing her to flop into a pile of boxes and old newspapers.
>As you continue to struggle and Applejack fires another few rounds, Pinkie Pie suddenly bursts out of the lab with a flamethrower.
>”Hey, ugly!” she shouts, and several eyes on the ends of stalks turn to look at her. “Chew on THIS!”
>”Jesus H. Christ!” Applejack shouts as she rolls out of the way.
>Pinkie blasts the creature with a torrent of fire, causing it to let out another inhuman banshee-like wail.
>You are let go and dropped to the floor as Pinkie advances, torching the thing until its screaming ceases and stops moving.

>As the last of the tentacles stops twitching, Applejack looks up from beneath her hat. “Where the hell did you get that thing?”
>”Twilight always keeps a flamethrower in her lab for situations like these,” Pinkie explains. “Ah-doy!”
>Big Mac, sensible about safety, goes for a fire extinguisher before the entire house goes up.
>Twilight keeps one of them in her lab as well.
>After the fire is put out and the corpse of the alien confirmed dead, everyone helps Flash into the lab.
>His hand is gone and he is babbling somewhat incoherently, which is understandable given his current condition.
>You help Big Mac stop the bleeding with a tourniquet as Flash grabs at your shoulder.
>”It fucking ate my hand, man!” he cries, shaking his head back and forth. “It fucking, it ate my fucking hand, it’s gone, it’s gone!”
>You do your best to keep him calm as Sunset holds her hands over his stump.
“Can you do anything for him?” you ask.
>”I can’t make him a new hand, but I can fix him up,” she replies. “Pinkie, hand me some of Twilight’s reagent. Where does she keep the spare skin?”
>Rarity enters the lab. “In the second freezer on the left. Goodness, what a mess…”
>Fluttershy enters right behind her, avoiding the sight of the alien.
>Applejack quickly informs them of the entire situation as Rarity strips off her nice jacket and slides on a protective surgical coat.
>”This isn’t going to be pretty, but I’ll get that worm out of her,” Rarity declares, holding up a scalpel.

>”You sure you can do this?” Rainbow asks skeptically.
>”Rainbow, please. I stitched bodies together for a hobby. No one here has steadier hands or more intimate knowledge of anatomy, other than Twilight herself.”
>Flash continues to hold onto you for support as Sunset begins her own procedure, albeit one that is much more archaic and arcane.
>Fluttershy quietly assists Rarity in making bare Twilight’s stomach while Applejack and Rainbow Dash clear the area of clutter.
>As both operations begin, a voice comes downstairs.
>”Honey? Twilight? Are you both down there?”
>Twilight’s father, Night Light.
>Pinkie Pie picks up the flamethrower, and with a knowing wink, heads towards the stairs.
>Big Mac follows with the extinguisher.
>Putting the sounds of burning alien out of your mind, you focus on helping Flash get through this ordeal.
>For his part he’s managed to calm down somewhat, merely breathing and sweating heavily.
>Sunset finishes up her operation first, using a combination of magic, reagent and some of the spare skin Twilight kept from her earlier days.
>You sit Flash up, and he holds up his stump of a hand, observing how smooth it is.

>His face is one of despair as he closes his eyes and shuns the sight of his lost hand, burying his face in his knees.
>Sunset tends to him as you turn around to look at Twilight, but wish you hadn’t.
>Rarity has her stomach cut open and held with a metal separator as she reaches in with a pair of tongs.
>Rainbow puts a hand to her mouth and nearly vomits while Applejack, more used to such sights due to her farm-life upbringing, stares with a look that is both fascinating and disgusted.
>Fluttershy can’t look at all, keeping one hand over her eyes while using the other to hand Rarity the tools she asks for.
>The fashionista and corpse-stitching savant grasps something with the tongs and lifts it up: a worm, fleshy and pink, writhing as it is caught in the tool, covered in mucus and Twilight’s stomach fluids.
>Rarity’s face has been one of clinical detachment up until this point, as she breaks her professional attitude to comment, “My word, how abhorrently vile…”
>Applejack holds up a jar of clear liquid, and Rarity drops it inside.
>Now comes the work of putting Twilight back together, using a combination of her own reagent and Rarity’s expert sewing skills.
>As this is done, Flash manages to stand and walks towards the exit of the lab, holding his stump beneath his jacket.
>You move to go to him, but Sunset holds you back, advising, “Just give him a moment. It’s a lot to take in all at once.”

>You reluctantly return to Twilight’s side as Rarity finishes her work.
>Picking up a syringe of the glowing green liquid, she prepares to inject it into Twilight’s neck.
>Applejack holds up a hand to stop her. “Hold on, sugarcube. You sure that’s a good idea?”
>”We need her awake,” Rarity replies. “The reagent has taken hold and her wound is already healed. Trust me; I know what I am doing. Twilight taught me herself about the dosage.”
>Inwardly, you swallow.
>You remember how Twilight was like when she was high on her own drug.
>As Rarity injects her, slowly pushing down on the syringe and making the reagent vanish into her body, everyone holds their breath as they wait to see what will happen.
>Slowly, Twilight’s eyes flutter open.
>”What… LUNA! NO!”
>Thinking she is still under attack, everyone rushes to hold her down.
>”Calm down!” Rarity urges her. “It’s alright, Twilight, it’s us! Your friends!”
>Applejack throws in, “You’re in yer lab! Everythin’s alright!”
>Fluttershy also adds, “Please calm down! You’re safe!”
>After a moment, Twilight stops struggling and takes a few deep breaths.
>”Oh my god,” she whispers. “Aliens are taking over the town!”
>”Tell us something we don’t know,” Rainbow says in an attempt to lighten the mood, but it doesn’t work as well as she had hoped.
>Twilight attempts to sit up, but winces and holds onto her stomach.
>”Careful, darling, you just had a procedure,” Rarity cautions.

>The others help her to lie back down as Sunset places her hands on Twilight’s stomach, preparing to add her own magical touch to get her back on her feet as soon as possible.
>”A… procedure?” Her eyes suddenly widen. “Oh god, some kind of tentacle-worm was shoved down my throat!”
“We got it out,” you tell her. “After we were attacked, we were taken to the observatory. It’s where the aliens are basing their entire operation.”
>”Please, start from the beginning,” Twilight says.
>And so you do, explaining everything to them, from the moment you and Twilight were attacked to your interrogation, breakout and escape.
>Near the end, as you describe the different facilities and varieties of the aliens you encountered, Pinkie Pie bursts upwards.
>”I WAS RIGHT AGAIN!” she cries. “PEA POD PLANT PEOPLE! You all didn’t listen, you all didn’t listen? Well, who’s laughing NOW! HAHAHAH!”
>”It ain’t that funny,” Applejack chastises her, making her sit back down. “Yes, you were right. But now we actually have to deal with them!”
>”Fire works nicely,” Pinkie casually replies.
>Fluttershy gulps. “Do we have enough flamethrowers?”
>As Sunset finishes casting her spell, Twilight sits up with a forlorn look on her face.
>”Poor mom and dad… I can’t believe the aliens got to them. How long were they taken over and I never knew?”
>”How long do you think the aliens have been here?” Fluttershy asks. “Could the rest of our parents have been taken over as well?”

“There must be a way to reverse the process,” you say, scratching your chin. “We got that worm out of you before it could grow, but there has to be some way to kill it even when it is fully grown.”
>”Again, fire,” Pinkie says with a shrug.
>”I think he means without killing the person it took over,” Rainbow says.
“Either way, I don’t think those really were your parents, Twilight,” you tell her. “I think they were copies… duplicates. I think there are at least three distinct alien species: the plants, the worms and those transforming things back there. All of them can hide out in the open.”
>”Don’t forget that one in the woods,” Sunset reminds you.
“Yeah, and her too. That would make four, but we haven’t seen more than one of her.”
>Twilight takes the jar and examines the worm inside as it squirms around.
>”A fascinating species,” she says. “Mind-controlling parasites. But what is their true nature? Are they individuals, or part of some larger hive-mind?”
>Rainbow picks up her sword. “I say there’s only one way to find out, and that’s by stopping them. Let’s go to the observatory and kick some ass.”
>”We need to get our weapons ready,” Applejack points out. “Conventional stakes and silver don’t work on these things.”
>”I have the only weapon I need right here!” Rainbow replies.
>At that moment, there is a beeping sound coming from the back of the lab.
>Everyone turns their heads towards the equipment that Pinkie Pie and Flash set up.
>”Of course,” Twilight whispers, moving to sit in front of it.

>Pinkie bounces over. “Flash and I set it up. What’s it do?”
>”This is something I made once to study how radio signals work in the valley Canterlot is in. At one point, I rigged it to pick up electronic voice phenomena and other supernatural signals, setting it up to go off whenever an aberrant pattern is detected.”
>She turns around, takes her glasses off a nearby table and puts them on.
>”These aliens may be individual species or not, but this signal that is being broadcast from the observatory is definitely playing a part. It may be coordinating them or putting orders in their heads. People might also be affected.”
“They definitely are,” you say. “They were indoctrinating the parasite victims with televions, and he’s been using his show to brainwash normal people and keep them from the truth of what’s really been going on, priming them for being taken over.”
>Rainbow then interjects with her familiar plan. “So we bust up the observatory and knock his show off the air and his head from his shoulders! What are we waiting for?”
>”A plan would be helpful,” Fluttershy points out. “I m-mean, if that’s okay with you.”
>Twilight nods. “If this is the alien base of operations, it’s bound to be well-defended, especially after Anon broke out. They’re probably expecting a counter-attack.”
>Sunset frowns and cups her chin. “So, what are you suggesting? We sneak inside?”
>”It’s not a terrible idea,” Rarity says. “It’s certainly the last thing they would expect.”
“Those trucks that are coming and going would be a good place to start,” you say. “But a distraction would work even better.”
>Everyone looks at Rainbow Dash, who smiles. “I’m nothing if not distracting,” she says proudly. “I can lead a couple of us against their big satellite dish and wreck their broadcast.”

>Pinkie Pie throws her arms out wide. “And then the rest of us sneak inside, find the mothership and blow it up!”
>”How do you know there’s a mothership?” Fluttershy asks.
>Pinkie taps her forehead. “I’ve been right about every other thing so far, haven’t I?”
>The vampire nods. “Fair enough.”
>As they continue to talk about the plan of attack, you look towards the entrance of the lab and notice that Flash has been gone for a while.
>Concerned, you step towards the door as Sunset notices and follows.
>You discover an empty cellar, apart from the burnt alien corpse.
>Cautiously, you go up the steps and out of the cellar entrance into her backyard, where you hear a noise coming from the nearby toolshed.
>Your nose picks up the scent of motor oil as you approach it.
>Opening the door, you discover Flash hard at work on something, hunched over a workbench with his back to you.
“Flash?”
>He straightens up and turns out, allowing you to behold a determined look in his eyes.
>He’s got a harness he’s jury-rigged together strapped across his chest and shoulders, with a catch for the started cord of a chainsaw which has been modified with a holster for his stump.
>He’ll need it, considering his left hand is grasping a shotgun, the same one he shot you with when you first went to meet him.
>Lifting up the chainsaw on the end of his arm, he hooks the pull cord onto the catch and with one fluid motion turns the chainsaw on.
>”They took my hand,” he says, holding up the shotgun. “I’ll take their heads.”
>You look at him with a smirk and a nod.
“Groovy.”

>You walk back inside with Flash, but the others aren’t as convinced by his new change in appearance and appendages.
>Considering Flash’s less-than-stellar combat record and general lack of experience, combined with the fact that he is now down a hand, they have their doubts.
>Regardless, he is determined, readily bouncing back from his injury and more than motivated enough to carve up some aliens.
>After all, Pinkie doesn’t have any powers either, and she gets by, and Rainbow didn’t have any either until last year.
>The plan is laid out: the strongest members of the team will go with the strike team to assault the broadcast tower while the stealthiest members sneak into the observatory.
>In addition, the strike team will take Spike and Gummy for extra muscle.
>Though there is some discussion about whose talents are best suited for each mission, eventually it is decided how they will split up.
> Rainbow Dash, Sunset Shimmer, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Big Mac will attack the broadcast tower.
>You, Twilight, Rarity, Flash and Fluttershy will infiltrate the observatory.
>Though it is arguable that Fluttershy, with her vampiric strength and flight, would be better on the strike team, her ability to turn into fog would be invaluable to an infiltration mission.
>And despite Flash’s chainsaw and shotgun being rather unstealthy, everyone agrees that him being there as added muscle will be helpful.
>Pinkie Pie works best when coordinating with her pet Gummy, so she’s a given for the strike team, while Spike is smart enough now to not need Rarity’s constant guidance and supervision.

>While the others are going over the plan, Big Mac suddenly taps you on the shoulder.
>”You should see this,” he says, and the others grow quiet as he holds up his phone.
>It is a live broadcast of Time for Thought with Dr. Turner, and your face is on the screen.
>The recording of your session with him earlier this very day.
>”I only want to help you, Anon. You aren’t well.”
>“I’ll be a whole lot better when I rip your fucking head off.”
>It then cuts to Dr. Turner on his set with a concerned look on his face.
>”This young man is troubled beyond reasonable doubt,” he says, taking off his glasses as he shakes his head. “His violent and paranoid delusions are a threat not only to himself, but to others. The case with Caramel, I’m sorry to say, is directly related: this young man preyed upon his innocence and naïve, trusting nature.”
>Everyone else crowds around the phone to watch as Dr. Turner puts his glasses back on.
>”We brought him in for treatment, and though our facilities and security are more than adequate for most cases, I’m afraid that Anon broke out of his confinement and viciously attacked some of my staff, eventually escaping into the town. Yes, he is active at this very moment, and we must find him.”
>He walks around a chair before sitting back in it; the camera zooms into his concerned face.
>”This young man is a dangerous individual who must be brought in for treatment. If you have seen him, or any of his known accomplices,” and at that moment a number of photos of your allies appear on the screen, all taken in secret and without any consent from unknown photographers, “contact the police immediately. Report him. He must be given treatment.”

You scowl. “That bastard’s going to turn the whole town against us…”
>In the midst of your viewing, your ears pick up the sound of sirens outside.
>You and a few others go upstairs to peer out of Twilight’s front windows to see several police cars pull up.
>”This ain’t good,” Rainbow mutters as a lead officer takes out a megaphone.
>”We know you are inside! Come out with your hands up!”
“We’re going to have to split up right now,” you say. “I’ll lead them away.”
>Rainbow grabs your arm. “You can’t do that! Let’s just all run out the back!”
“I got this,” you say to her. “Tell my team that I’ll meet them at the base of the hill leading up to the observatory after I lose them.”
>”Don’t be a big damn hero,” she mutters, pulling your head down for a kiss.
“Take that son of a bitch off the air,” you tell her with a smile.
>”You make good on your promise and take off his head,” she replies, and the two of you kiss again.
>Rainbow and the others run back downstairs to gather everyone up and sneak out of the back as you exit Twilight’s house through her front door, stepping out into the evening with the moon rising overhead.
>Several police spotlights shine on you, including one from a rapidly approaching helicopter.
>You put a hand up and look out over them all, wondering how many of them are aliens and how many of them are simply brainwashed.

>The one with the megaphone speaks up again, shouting at you.
>”Drop the blanket and put your hands up!”
>You smirk, shrug and drop the blanket.
>Not like you’ve got anything to hide.
>In a way, it is almost liberating to stand naked in front of several police cars.
>Knowing that you are keeping all eyes on you, giving them a show can’t hurt.
>”Put your hands up and turn around!”
>Slowly, you raise your hands, staring at the bright lights.
>Time for the show to begin.
>You charge forward, rushing the line with a springing motion that is hard to react to.
>Some of them do, firing shots, and to their credit some of them hit.
>You ignore them as best you can and leap onto the hood of one of the cars, denting it and cracking the windshield before leaping over the heads of two very confused officers.
>And with that, you take off down the street, running free and wild as they scramble to chase after you.
>With a smile on your face you run at top speed, your supernatural stamina carrying you to Olympic-levels of athleticism and beyond.
>The helicopter whirls around the focuses on you with its spotlight as the officers on the ground continue firing, but even when one of their shots hits it doesn’t slow you down.
>After all, they’re not exactly firing silver bullets.
>As you hear the sirens catching up behind you, a change of course is determined and you run into someone’s lawn, leaping and crashing through their living room window.


>Seems like nobody’s home, which is good, because you don’t lose speed as you run through their house to the kitchen and leap out that window as well.
>Cuts from glass and bullet holes heal in moments, keeping you going.
>The backyard fence is nothing to you and you clear it with a single leap.
>As the spotlight from the chopper struggles to keep up, you laugh and let out a howl.
>You’ve never cut loose like this before, chased by the authorities like a naked madman.
>The closest you ever got to something like this was when Applejack used to hunt you, but she was one person, not a town’s worth of policemen.
>And even on your trip across North America, your battles were always planned in advance, observing the targets and attacking them at vulnerable points or luring them out.
>Now you are the one being chased and, strangely, it feels good.
>Knowing that they have no way to stop you helps, of course, but it’s hard not feeling invincible.
>Within, the Wolf appreciates this as well.
>Letting out all your frustration, coupled with the relief of finally working out all of your conflicted feelings and doubt, as well as getting back together with Dash, results in a high unlike any other.
>You hop onto a parked car, leap onto a garage roof and clamber your way to the other side where you hurl yourself off of the roof and onto another, keeping your stride consistent.
>Your senses are all at their peak; your feet land perfectly each time, your eyes pick out every detail of where you want to go and what to avoid, and your ears tell you how far away you’re leaving them behind.

>But you’re making this a chase, and so you let them catch up every now and then.
>At one point you leap out from hiding, landing on the roof of a police car as it drives, hanging onto the flaring sirens as they try and shake you off.
>One particularly bold officer in the vehicle behind you leans out of the passenger window and fires his pistol at you, hitting you in the back of the neck.
>You turn your head and give him a glare as you spit the bullet out of your mouth, then leap from his car onto the sidewalk.
>You continue the chase for a few blocks, crash through another two houses for fun (at one point terrifying a family who was home) and reflect on how you are making yourself out to be the monster.
>But, to be fair, you are one.
>When you finally do decide to stop running and hide, making your way to the Everfree Forest, you use the paths only you and your friends know and leave the wailing sirens and whirling helicopter behind.
>You rush through the woods, not pausing for a minute, until you reach your destination: Sunset’s cabin.
>Using the key hidden under the porch, you unlock the front door and head towards the bedroom, where you open a drawer and remove a pair of stretchy sweatpants.
>You slide them on and tighten the loop, but then pause.

>A familiar smell…
“Were you watching the show?” you ask, turning around.
>The alien hunter decloaks in the front door, holding its combat spear and pointing its plasma cannon at you.
>Three red dots point at your chest, but she does not fire.
You cock your brow and ask, “Or did you just happen to be wandering by and catch me here?”
>She doesn’t say anything or indicate that she understands you.
You close the drawer and sigh. “So, we doing this again, or what?”
>As if in response, the laser sight from her helmet deactivates and the shoulder cannon folds onto her back.
“I guess not,” you say, taking a step closer. “Then what do you want? What the hell are you, anyway?”
>She is silent for a moment, but then her helmet emits a recording of your voice, slightly distorted.
>”What the hell are you?”
“Ah,” you say, leaning against the doorframe and folding your arms. “Never encountered something like me, have you?”
>She raises her spear and extends it, displaying its sharp ends.
>She then takes out another one of her weapons, the spear gun.
“Those won’t work on me,” you tell her. “I’m not exactly normal. If you were watching back there, you’d see that I was shot a bunch a few times. They can’t hurt me. Well, they hurt… but they can’t kill me. Seems like you can’t either.”

>That seems to anger her, as she rapidly closes the distance and reaches up to put a hand around your throat.
>Standing at least a foot taller than you, she lifts you up by the neck to her eye level as you grab hold of her wrist, anticipating a fight.
>But instead, she seems to be observing you, turning you this way and that.
You manage to choke out, “See something you like?”
>She lets go and drops you; you land on your feet in front of her and rub your throat, looking up at her with a curious expression.
>Whatever is under that mask is probably wearing the same kind of expression.
“Why are you here?” you ask. “Why on Earth? What’s your connection with those other creatures, the ones taking over the town?”
>She brings up her arm, displaying her wrist-computer, and opens a panel on it.
>A holographic projector engages, displaying your world as well as snippets of text in alien writing.
>Her clawed finger presses a few buttons and the image shifts to display a different picture, one of you.
>More specifically, you as a werewolf, running through the forest and holding Twilight.
You look up at her and say, “So, you were watching my escape. You must’ve seen me stumble into my friend’s trap. That means you must have been avoiding it.”

>She presses another button, revealing a recording of you pulling yourself back together after being blown up, then roaring your challenge at her.
>Finally, the images are removed and a message is displayed, one in alien writing that you cannot discern.
>To illustrate her point, she holds up a belt of skulls; some human, some alien.
>You look her in the eyes of her mask and begin to understand.
“You were here to hunt… me?” you ask, and she tilts her head, clicking softly underneath it. “Those aliens must have sent you after me… as, what? A distraction?”
>She trills something undiscernible, apparently taking offense to being referred to as a ‘distraction.’
“Sorry, it’s just… Are you on their side or not? I mean, you’re here talking to me, so I’ll hear what you have to say.”
>She holds up her skulls and growls.
“Skulls, right,” you say with a nod. “Trophies. Hunters and prey. That’s what you care about… not what they want. They’re from another world, like you, and they contacted you with a promise of strong prey.”
>She clicks strongly a few times, tilting her head again, causing her smooth dreadlocks to fall from one shoulder to another.
“So, then what do you truly want?”
>Holding her arm back up with the hologram, she changes it back to the image of you as a werewolf and points at it.

“That’s what you want, huh? My other side?”
>She holds up her spear in a combative pose, though not in a threatening one.
“To fight me as a wolf? To hunt me?”
>Again she trills, clicking and growling beneath her mask.
“Well, I don’t have time right now.”
>You turn around to return to the drawer, but she grabs you by the shoulder and forces you to face her again, roaring at you.
“I said I’m busy, damnit! I have a town full of people and an entire planet to save from an alien invasion, or don’t you give a damn about anything other than your little trophy belt?”
>She clicks menacingly, but does not move to attack.
You continue, “I mean, how would you feel if these aliens that lured you here were trying to take over your planet? Would you stop and have a grudge match against some random asshole just because he asked you for it? Maybe you would, I don’t know, but I’ve got bigger things to worry about and bigger fish to fry.”
>She doesn’t make an immediate response as you finish putting on a sweater and a pair of old sneakers left here for just such an occasion.
>When you face her again, she’s simply standing in the doorway, staring at you.
“Either get out of my way or make a move,” you tell her, “because if you’re not going to let me save my planet, I won’t have any problem going through you.”
>The shoulder cannon reemerges and points at you, moving with her mask.
>Your hands curl into fists and you prepare to lose another set of clothes.
>But instead, the cannon once more deactivates and the alien growls, stepping aside.

You clear your throat. “Thanks.”
>As you walk past her, you stop and look up into the eyes of her mask.
“When this is over, and my friends and I have stopped the invasion? I’ll pay you back.”
>She tilts her head inquisitively, clicking softly as if to ask, “How?”
“I’ll give you that hunt you want. Me, fully transformed. Just be warned, it won’t go the way it went last time.”
>You leave her and the cabin, hearing her clicking in the distance as you run off into the woods.
‘That’s one alien problem dealt with… for now. Now to get rid of the others.’
>You link back up with your team exactly where you told them to meet you, at the base of the hill leading up to the observatory.
>They’ve been in hiding, and you quickly fill them in on what’s happened, but midway through your explanation you all hear a truck pulling up the road towards the hill.
>Fluttershy moves into position, sprouting wings from her back before leaping towards the truck as it drives past.
>She turns into fog and allows herself to be sucked into the vehicle, whereupon she reforms in the cab and attacks the driver.
>The truck stops after a moment and she throws out the body, which is shrieking in alien tongue.
>Flash leaps out of the bushes, revving his chainsaw, and with a single swipe takes off the driver’s head.
>The plant-like alien begins to deflate as green blood oozes onto the ground.

>Flash smiles and says, “How’s that for roadside service?”
>Everyone groans as they drag the body into the woods to hide it, but not before Rarity dons his clothes as a disguise and slips behind the wheel.
>The rest of you pile into the tarp-covered back.
>As you sit down, Flash sits next to Twilight and clears his throat.
>”Hey, uh, you aren’t scared, are you?”
>She gives him a quizzical look. “No, not really. We’ve fought the undead; aliens are different, but no more frightening.”
>”Oh, good. Good. Well, um,” he coughs into his hand, “I just wanted to let you know that I, uh, will protect you in there, in case anything goes wrong.”
>”I… appreciate that, Flash, but I brought this.”
>She holds up her proton gun, connected to a combination battery pack and ghost trap on her hip.
>Intended for use on spectral threats, but will cook any alien it is aimed at.
>”Oh, cool,” he says, looking down. He holds up his shotgun. “This is, uh… my boom stick.”
>She cocks a brow. “I see that.”
>Flash’s shoulders slump and you feel bad for the guy.
>He’s trying as hard as he can.
>The truck stops at the gate, and Rarity’s flawless acting gets you through.
>It’s mostly that they don’t check the cab and let it in by default, but she played her part as the driver expertly all the same.

>She follows the trail around the observatory to the loading bay, where you peek your eyes out from beneath the tarp, seeing various workers attempting to fix the damage you left behind.
>Rarity parks the truck alongside a few others, giving you all an opportunity to slip out unnoticed.
>Hidden behind a pile of crates, your group all observe the workers until an alarm goes off.
>The attack on the broadcast tower has begun.
>In the distance, you hear the sound of an explosion, and a streak of blue light crosses the sky.
>You smile, knowing that’s Rainbow Dash using her hit-and-run style of attack.
>As the observatory workers all prepare to go out to assist in the defense of the tower, they grab various weapons.
>”Shouldn’t we take them out?” Flash whispers.
“They know the risks,” you reply in an equally low tone. “They can handle it.”
>Gunfire rings out over the hills; Applejack and Big Mac brought out the big guns, it seems.
>Seeing your opening, you urge your team to move in.
>Your group moves in bounds between cover, ensuring that they remain hidden, while Fluttershy slips across the ground as a light mist, undetectable as anything but a stray breeze.
>Once the workers and security guards pile into trucks and jeeps and the area is mostly clear, you slip into the factory area and start moving amongst the shelves, sticking to the shadows.
>Knowing that just one of these aliens can let out a cry that would alert the others, you go to great lengths to avoid them.

>Remembering the path you took earlier as the Wolf, you lead them into the heart of the observatory, where the aliens are being grown.
>The pod processing plant, the parasite implantation room and the duplicate growth center.
>The latter is one you didn’t see during your initial escape, as it is deeper within.
>Large tanks of glowing orange liquid hold twisted figures in vaguely humanoid form, misshapen with mouths and tentacles emerging from strange places.
>”This is disgusting,” Rarity says. “What even are these things?”
>”These are the things that replaced my parents,” Twilight notes, looking closely at the glass of one of the tubes. “They must possess some kind of shapeshifting capability, an ability to duplicate the appearance of others but also transform their bodies into weapons.”
>”Good thing they burn easy,” Flash notes.
“Come on,” you tell them, leading them through the area. “I’ve got a feeling we’ll find what we’re looking for up ahead.”
>Sure enough, past another set of doors and a large staircase going downwards, you find yourselves standing on a walkway overlooking a massive hanger.
>”This must have been built into the cliff face,” Twilight whispers, but then she immediately stops when she and the rest of you see what this hanger contains.
>Down on the floor below is a ship, massive and rounded, with a disk-like shape and covered in glowing lights.
>You can see aliens of small stature, with grey skin and large black eyes, moving up and down a large ramp leading into the ship.
>Everyone stares down at it with eyes nearly as large as theirs.

>”Amazing,” Twilight whispers in awe. “An actual vessel capable of interplanetary travel! Imagine what we could learn from it?”
Your hands grip the railing tightly. “We’ll have to learn from its pieces once we figure out a way to blow it up.”
>Though she is disappointed, she agrees; the danger to Canterlot and the world is too great.
>Flash holds up his shotgun. “So, we going down there?”
“Not until we have the whole team,” you reply. Turning around, you see a set of elevator doors. “Besides… I have some business with the man upstairs.”
>Fluttershy turns around. “You’re going after Dr. Turner?”
“I’m going to want some answers. And if we’re going to get to the bottom of this, he’s the one to talk to.”
>Twilight looks back down at the UFO. “I’ll stay here and gather intelligence.”
>”And I’ll stay with her,” Flash readily volunteers, even though Twilight rolls her eyes.
“You all should stay,” you tell them. “I’ll handle Turner myself.”
>Fluttershy fidgets nervously, but then insists, “No! I’ll go with you, j-just in case.”
“Alright,” you reply after a moment. You look at Twilight, Flash and Rarity. “Stay hidden and see if you can’t brainstorm a few ways to take down that ship. We’ll be back shortly.”
>You and Fluttershy walk over the elevator, open the doors and begin travelling upwards.
>The elevator is completely silent, but surprisingly it is she who breaks that silence.
>”Anon?”
“Yeah?”
>”Um… I just wanted to say that I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? For what?”
>”I’ve watched you for a while, during our trip. I thought about going to talk to you but I always got too nervous and anxious. I’ve… dealt with my vampirism for a long time, and even as stable as I am, I still get hungry.”
>You’re quiet as the elevator stops, but you don’t open the doors.
>She looks downwards. “I saw you struggling with the same things that I struggle with. The desire to let the ‘monster’ out but being unwilling or afraid to do so. Fearing about losing control and hurting someone close to you…”
>Her face vanishes beneath her pink hair as she takes a few deep breaths.
>You begin to realize that she didn’t want to come along with you
“Shy?”
>She looks back up at you, her lip quivering. “I feel like I’ve been an awful friend for you, Anon. Back when you first found out about my secret, I was so horrible to you, trying to t-take advantage like I did, I…”
>You quickly pull her into a hug.
“There, there,” you say, patting her on the back as you gently hold her. “I understand. You know I’ve forgiven you for that long ago.”
>”I know,” she sniffles. “I just… It’s always made me afraid to approach you, even when I could see that you needed help.”
“It’s okay,” you assure her. “I’ve learned the secret.”

>She looks up at you, and manages to give you a fanged smile. “You really did, didn’t you?”
“Sometimes you need to let the monster out,” you reply with a smile of your own. “Not hide from it, control it, bottle it up… It’s who we are. It’s what we are.”
>She tightly hugs your chest. “I’m glad you learned. I’m sorry I didn’t help you.”
“I forgive you, Shy,” you say, and then lightly chuckle. “Now, if you don’t mind… we have an alien invasion to stop.”
>She nods, pulls back and presses the door open button.
>Six security guards are on the other side, and look at you in confusion for a moment.
>You and Fluttershy exchange a look, and then a smile, sharing a mutual thought:
‘Time to let the monster out.’
>What follows is short, bloody and brutal.
>When you leave the hallway, you both are covered in a mixture of green and red alien blood.
>But to be fair, most of it is on the floor, and the walls, and the ceiling.
>That part when Fluttershy crawled up there and grabbed one of them by the head before tearing into his neck with her fangs is still giving you the shivers.
“How’s alien blood taste?” you ask her. “As an expert and connoisseur in such matters, I mean.”
>She licks her finger and then sticks out her tongue with a distasteful expression. “Awful! It’s like battery acid and lime!”
>You share a laugh as you walk towards the studio.

>Along the way, you stop and find the security station, and inside are your belongings from when you were captured at the school.
>Picking up your phone, you slide it into your pocket along with your wallet and leave the rest there.
>You and Fluttershy follow the signs in the hall until you reach the main entrance to the soundstage the show is filmed upon.
>She turns into mist as you put your ears up to the door, listening to the sound within.
>Dr. Turner is in the midst of his live show, going on about the upcoming expansion to the program.
>”Very soon, we will have our first national broadcast,” he explains and the audience applauses. When it dies down, he continues, “From there, we’ll go worldwide. It’s been a joy and a wonder to bring into your homes Time for Thought, and you’ve been a wonderful audience. Soon you’ll be joined by households across America, and then Canada and other countries, and eventually our message will be heard across every corner of the globe.”
>You kick open the doors to the studio and heads turn your way, along with the cameras.
>Members of the audience gasp as they look upon your blood-drenched form.
“I don’t think so, doc.”
>Dr. Turner is surprised, but has a stern expression on his face. “Anon. I was wondering if you were going to return.”
>You walk forward, cracking your knuckles.
“I just had to get some air in my lungs after you kidnapped me.”
>”We brought you in for your own good and the good of the community. You are dangerous.”

>You turn around and look at the audience; they are entirely spellbound by Dr. Turner and the program’s mind control.
“I can’t believe you’re all buying this horse shit,” you mutter, shaking your head.
>”You’re the one covered in blood,” Dr. Turner points out. “You’ve killed several people, led the police on a wild chase, and now seek to avenge yourself upon me. Is that it?”
“Pretty much.”
>”At least you can admit it,” he replies. “But I’m not your enemy. Your own impulses are. But we’re your friends, Anon, and we’re going to help you.”
You take a deep breath. “We?”
>The curtain behind his set pulls back to reveal Celestia and Luna.
>Almost immediately, you feel a strong throbbing in your head just from their psychic presence, combined with the ambient field generated by his show’s broadcast.
“Ah, shit,” you mutter.
>”Your former school’s faculty are very concerned for your wellbeing,” Dr. Turner explains, even as they psionically assault you, forcing you down onto a knee. “All they want is for you to receive the professional help you so desperately require.”
As they advance, you grab hold of one of his chairs to keep yourself from falling. “I’m… bringing your show… off the air!”
>”I’m afraid not,” he says as he shakes his head. “While you managed to convince some of your dangerous friends to attack our broadcasting tower, our capable security force and the local police have already arrived and arrested them.”
“Bullshit…”

>Another throbbing headache rocks you and forces you to grunt and look downwards.
>Dr. Turner kneels alongside you, placing a hand on your shoulder.
>”I’m afraid there is no way out of this, Anon. You’re going to get the treatment you need.”
>Looking up at him, even as your brain feels like it is on fire and melting, you manage to spit in his face, right onto the lens of his glasses.
“I’m gonna stop you and your whole fucking invasion,” you mutter.
>”Your bravado is inspiring,” Dr. Turner says, taking off his glasses to wipe them with a cloth. “But unfortunately, you’re all alone.”
“I’m never… alone! NOW!”
>Fluttershy pops up behind Celestia and Luna, grabbing them both by the neck and slamming their heads together.
>Almost immediately, the headache stops, allowing you to spring upwards from your kneeling position.
>And as you do, you deliver the strongest and most righteous uppercut you’ve ever dealt in your life squarely into Dr. Turner’s jaw.
>As you straighten upwards, you look down at the doctor’s headless body as it crumbles before you, oozing dark green fluid.
>His head falls behind it, blinking rapidly and looking up at you in shock.
Lifting up your foot, you pause and say, “You’re cancelled.”
>When you bring it down, it crushes his head like a pumpkin, sending green goo and bits of soggy flesh in all directions.

‘That one was for you, Flash,’ you reply, satisfied that you kept your promise to tear off his head.
>The audience members all scream and look on in horror as his body hopelessly gropes around for its destroyed head before convulsing and growing still.
You look at the cameras, realize that you’re still on live television and swallow.
“Look at this thing!” you say, picking up the squished remnants of his head. “He wasn’t even human! Wake up, people! He and the other aliens were trying to take over your minds with television! And not even good television, either. This show sucked.”
>At that moment, the lights of the building flicker, and the live feed cuts.
>You smile as you realize that the broadcast tower just went down, and throw the head aside.
“Perfect timing,” you comment to Fluttershy as the audience make for the exits.
>Taking out your phone, you send a message to the others that Turner is down for the count.
>Turning around, you look at Fluttershy’s handiwork and see Celestia and Luna unconscious on the floor.
“Thanks for the assist.”
>”See? I told you that you’d need my help just in case,” she says with a teasing tone.
“It’s not like you to boast,” you chide her back.
>At that moment, the ceiling cracks and Rainbow Dash flies in, having cut her way through the roof.
>”What’d I miss?” she asks, then looks at the dead body of Dr. Turner, rapidly disintegrating into green goop. “Ugh. Nasty.”

“Not as nasty as his program. Is the tower down?”
>”Down and out!” she replies. “The others are making their way through the main entrance.”
“Good. We’ve got a UFO in the basement we need to take down.”
>”This day keeps getting better and better!” she says with a smile.
>Linking up with Applejack, Big Mac, Pinkie Pie, Sunset, Spike and Gummy, you take them through the back rooms of the observatory and into the alien breeding center.
>Now that you aren’t sneaking through it, the real fun can begin.
>Pinkie Pie lets loose with her flamethrower on the growing pods, torching them on the racks.
>Nearby, Spike and Gummy use their brute strength to smash the tanks containing the alien shapeshifters, whom Sunset dispatches with a fire spell as they writhe upon the floor.
>Rainbow Dash walks up to a large container of the alien parasites that have been implanted into the townsfolk, raises her sword up high and slashes it, sending them spilling onto the ground where they screech and wriggle uselessly.
>Applejack and Big Mac, both wearing heavy boots, stomp on them and destroy each one.
>You walk up to the control center of the implanted parasite hosts and smash the console broadcasting the signal through the televisions over their heads.
>Cut off from the broadcast, the parasites have no direction and no programming, and once you tear out the special fluid tubes that they were using to feed, they’ll soon die out.
>Your team tears through the place, hacking, slashing, smashing and destroying anything the aliens have built in support of their invasion.

>Eventually you get to the stairway leading down to the mothership and link back up with the rest of your team there.
>Twilight explains that she’s observed the aliens loading human bodies into the ship---the original townsfolk, kept in pods.
>Looking down, they seem to be in a hurry to leave, as many aliens are carrying equipment and other things into the ship.
“Sunset, we’ll need a soft landing,” you tell her, and she nods, casting a spell over each and every member.
>Emboldened by her protective magic, you each take a running leap off the walkway, falling to the hanger below.
>Pinkie Pie lets out a resounding, “WHEEEEEEEEE~!” as she falls.
>Each of you lands, bouncing off the floor as if on a trampoline, thanks to her spell, all save for Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy who use their wings to fly down.
>Not missing a beat, she uses her sword to cut one of the grays in half, even as the others take out their ray guns and begin firing.
>You land on one of them, crushing the smaller, weaker lifeform as he flails and speaks in some high-pitched language.
“Welcome to Earth,” you say before cracking him in the face with a rock-solid haymaker.

>Applejack, a gun in each hand, provides covering fire as they shoot green lasers at your team, forcing everyone to take cover.
>Hiding behind crates and barrels, you watch as the aliens make a fighting retreat up the ramp of the ship.
>”We need to get on that ship!” Twilight shouts, nearly getting hit with a ray before returning fire with her proton gun.
>Rainbow flies across the ramp, cutting down two of the aliens while Big Mac prepares a holy hand grenade and tosses it up the ramp.
>Though blessed with holy materials, it still very much functions as a normal hand grenade, as three of the aliens discover when it blows them to pieces along with a chunk of the boarding ramp.
>Pinkie Pie gets on Gummy’s shoulders and leads the charge up the ramp, with you and Spike close behind.
>It is clear that these aliens are not the soldiers, for they all but abandon their defenses to run.
>Fluttershy picks up Flash Sentry by his armpits and carries him up the ramp, where he uses his boom stick to blast one of the aliens who was pressing some kind of wall console.
>As the alien dies, it puts its three-fingered hand upon the panel, and the boarding ramp begins to retract.
>The team rushes up onto the ship even as the ramp folds underneath it and two doors begin to seal behind you.
>”Trapped on an alien ship,” Applejack mutters. “Not what I wanted to end up doin’ with my evenin’.”
>”And their interior décor is simply awful!” Rarity says, looking at the green lights everywhere.
>Those said green lights turn red and an alarm rings throughout the ship, echoing down its hallways.

>”Guess they know we’re here,” Rainbow says, stabbing the wall panel to no effect. “Where do we go from here?”
>Twilight thinks. “This ship must have a bridge and an engineering section. If we split up and look for them, we’ll cover more ground. The bridge will have the controls and the engineering section will have its most valuable equipment, so if we can destroy either we’ll ground the entire vessel!”
>Flash steps up next to her. “I’ll go with---“
>Everyone cuts him off. “We know!”
>He swallows nervously as the floor and walls begin to rumble.
“I have a feeling this thing is taking off,” you say. “No time to argue---half this way, half that way!”
>Everyone nods and takes off down the two hallways.
>You are running alongside Rainbow, Sunset, Twilight, Flash and Spike.
>Coming to a large metal door that is slid vertically shut, Spike steps forwards and cracks his massive knuckles.
>Digging his hands into the metal at the bottom, he forces the door upwards with a mighty grunt, using his hulking form to prop it open.
>Your group ducks underneath him and into the room, which appears to be where the human bodies have been stored.
>Kept in stasis, they line the walls in man-sized metal pods stacked atop one another.

>”Why are they kidnapping all of these people? After going through all the trouble of replacing them with duplicates?” Twilight wonders aloud.
>”Maybe for experiments or something?” Flash guesses.
>Twilight approaches two of the tubes. “Mom! Dad!”
>She puts her hands on the ice-cold surface of the stasis pods before retracting it due to the chill.
>Flash gets a serious look on his face and says, “We can’t blow this ship up with these people on it. We need to get them out or stop it from taking off!”
>You nod, agreeing with his surprisingly astute statement.
>On the other end of the room, some of the grays pop out of cover and begin firing at you.
>Flash gets off a shot with his shotgun as your group takes cover on opposite sides of the room; you with Dash, and the rest on the other side.
“Twilight, Flash, Sunset, cover us!” you shot to them, and they nod, each using their ranged weapons and spells to keep the aliens where they are.
>You look at Dash and she gives you a cocky grin. “The Mothman Special?”
“You know me too well,” you reply, taking hold of both her hands.
>She spreads her wings and carries you upwards, soaring across the room.
>Using a technique you two perfected in West Virginia during your cross-country trip, she times her drop perfectly and lets go, sending you straight down into the thick of the alien defense.
>You land with a war cry, body-slamming the surprised aliens and crushing two of them with your falling weight.
>You’re up in an instant, using the body of one to attack another.

>Meanwhile, the others move up, picking off the aliens as they scramble for a new position.
>As Sunset finishes off the last alien with a fireball, she looks back at the rest of you and says, “I think we need to go this way,” before pointing towards a winding hallway.
>You concur and your team runs up it, ending up in a large chamber.
>Strange mist fills this chamber as red lights flash and the alarm continues to blare, but the latter grows distant as you all filter into the room.
>”This is the center of the ship,” Twilight says, noting its circular design and the various panels along the walls. “The bridge…”
>On the far end, you see a large viewing window displaying the hanger doors that are currently opening, revealing the starlit sky and the moon beyond.
>”So, we start breaking shit in here, right?” Rainbow asks, holding up her sword.
>A voice from the back calls out, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
>You all look on as Dr. Turner walks around the corner, his arms behind his back.
“Oh, would you look at that,” you say, chuckling somewhat. “I get to tear your head off a second time.”
>”No, I call this one,” Flash says, revving up his chainsaw.
>”Enough,” Turner says before holding up a remote control. “With a press of this button, I deactivate the life support of every pod in the storage facility. Do you want to be responsible for the deaths of all of your neighbors and friends?”
You grit your teeth and clench your fists. “What’s your endgame, Turner? What the hell do you aliens want?”

>”Right now, we want to leave. And you’re going to get off this ship and let us.”
>”The hell we are,” Sunset shouts at him.
>”Even if all of those people die from you pressing that button, we’d be condemning them all the same if we just let you take them,” Twilight points out.
“That’s right. Whether they die to you or on some operating table, you’re the one who’s going to pay.”
>”Your minds are so narrow and simple,” he mutters. “You don’t know the opportunity humanity has before it.”
>Rainbow sneers. ”If by ‘opportunity’ you mean signing up to be taken over by alien copies, then you can take your opportunity and stick it up your ass!”
“Face it, Turner, your invasion is over.”
>”Oh, you fools. We aren’t invading. We are but vanguards, scouts. The true invasion hasn’t even come yet.”
You look at the others, then back at him. “What the hell are you on about now? In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve kicked your ass at every turn.”
>”We were sent to prepare your population for the upcoming assimilation into the Terminal Coalition. Do you think the creatures you have encountered up until this point have been our army? We consist of hundreds of conquered worlds and assimilated species; each modified and selectively bred for various purposes. All you have fought are infiltration, non-combative units. But now you have truly stirred the hive.”

>Behind him, a large dais rises from the floor, and a panel on the wall behind him opens up, revealing some kind of techno-organic orifice.
>From it emerges a thick tendril ending in what resembles a brain with several tentacles hanging from it.
>This brain has a face, with a fleshy brow and tight, fat lips with no nostrils to be seen.
>When its eyes open, everyone is suddenly assaulted by beams of yellow light; as everyone holds up their hands and groan, you realize that you recognize those eyes.
>This alien is the leader of this mothership, the overseer of this infiltration mission, and the source of the alien broadcast’s anomalous properties.
>Its mouth opens and a low, rumbling voice that speaks in alien tongue, echoing in your ears.
>Tentacles emerge from the walls alongside it, flailing lightly as it assaults you with waves of psionic energy, forcing you and your teammates onto your knees.
>The ship continues to rumble as it begins to lift off; outside, the massive hanger doors built into the cliff are now fully open.
>Dr. Turner approaches.
>”Though we underestimated the capabilities of your Earthly ‘magic’, it pales in comparison to what we have seen before. Whole worlds have fallen to us, even if the initial stage of the infiltration fails. All you have proven to us is that we must now take the Earth through force instead of subversion, and the signal has been sent. The true invasion is on its way.”
>As the overlord continues its mental attack, draining you all of your will and strength, the doctor smiles and laughs.

>”Know that in the end, you have only made it worse for the Earth. Your planet’s assimilation could have been quiet and peaceful, the people blissfully ignorant of what was truly happening, but not any longer.”
>Here, so close to the source of the alien power, your mental fortitude is only enough to keep yourself from falling onto the ground as you slowly raise your head to stare at Dr. Turner and the overlord.
>All around you, the others stumble and attempt to do the same, but lack your resistance to the mind-burning effects of the alien overlord from all of your exposure to it.
>Spike and Rainbow in particular are affected, each of them collapsing in exhaustion.
>You try to push yourself up, but to no avail.
>As the alien’s yellow eyes burn into your soul, you fear this may in fact be the end.
>At least until a narrow spear-like dart is shot into the overlord’s face, piercing one of its eyes.
>The alien screams in its low voice, the tentacles now wildly reaching in every direction as the brainstem tendril thrusts upwards in pain.
>The psionic attack ceases and everyone looks on as the brain screams, causing Dr. Turner great pain as well, causing him to drop the remote and tear off his glasses.
>You turn your head to look over your shoulder with wide eyes as you see a cloaked figure sneaking away.
‘She came back to help us,’ you realize in amazement.
>Flash snaps out of it, revs up his chainsaw and charges at Dr. Turner.

>With one fell swoop of his mighty blade, the alien spokesman once more loses his head as it is lopped off of his shoulders.
>Rainbow, still dizzy and disoriented, throws you her sword, shouting, “Anon! Take this!”
>You grab it out of the air, aim it and throw.
>Sunset raises her hands and casts a spell, guiding the flight of the weapon.
>It buries itself into the brain, right between the eyes as its face twists into an expression of ultimate pain.
>The brain and its tentacles fall limply onto the dais, green blood oozing from its wound.
>Rainbow raises her hand and summons the sword back to her as you help her up by grabbing her other hand.
>Your attention is then drawn to Dr. Turner, whose body is melting alongside his severed head.
>”This… isn’t over…” he chokes out. “More are coming… Your world is doomed…”
>For the second time today, you lift up your foot and hold it over his head.
“We’ve heard that before, doc. It’s nothing new.”
>You slam it down, crushing him and bathing your foot in the green goo of his head’s innards.
>”What happened?” Twilight asks, straightening her glasses as Flash helps her up. “That alien brain was attacking us with psychic power and then…”
“We had some help,” you say, looking in the direction the alien hunter vanished in.
>”So, uh,” Rainbow says, scratching the back of her head. “Did we win?”

>Twilight approaches a nearby computer, looking at the screen. “The ship hasn’t stopped taking off,” she observes. “It must be on some kind of autopilot!”
“Fantastic,” you mutter. “Now what?”
>The ship suddenly rocks with an explosion, causing you all to stumble in place.
>”What the hell was that?” Flash asks.
>Sunset looks at a nearby panel, a security station which displays your other team in the engineering section, planting bombs and wrecking the ship’s propulsion.
>Another explosion takes out the secondary main engine, causing the vessel to list to one side.
>You grab onto Rainbow Dash and hold onto a nearby curved railing as the ship begins to fall.
“Everyone, hold on!”
>Spike grabs hold of the wall before reaching for Twilight, who is holding onto Flash by his harness.
>Sunset appears to be in the midst of casting a spell when part of the ceiling breaks overhead, causing a section of the bridge to fall on her and hit her on the head.
Your eyes go wide. “Sunset!”
>She slides along the ground until Rainbow Dash reaches out to her with your help and holds on.
>The alien ship wobbles slightly as it turns downwards, towards the Everfree National Forest, carried by its own weight and forward momentum.
>It begins to skim the treetops, and then break the trees, before finally crashing and skidding along the ground.
>Massive quantities of dirt, stone and wood are kicked up as it tramples everything in its path, violently shaking.

>You and the others all hold on for dear life as the UFO’s crash comes to a stop after nearly a mile-long trail of destruction.
>The lights inside all flicker on and off; sparks shoot out of the panels and wires hang loosely overhead.
>Slowly, you open your eyes and take a deep breath, realizing that you’re still alive.
>More importantly, so are Dash and Sunset.
>Nearby, Spike hoists up Twilight and Flash, the latter of whom is held up by his leg.
>”Hey, lemme go! Lemme go!” he cries, before Spike does so, causing him to hit his head on the floor.
>”Spike, manners,” Twilight says as he gently sets her down so she can tend to Flash’s skull, rubbing it tenderly.
>”Sorry,” he says in his deep voice.
>You look down at Sunset, running a hand through her hair in search of any open wounds.
“Sunset? Are you alright?” you ask.
>Slowly, her eyes flutter open and she smiles weakly. “I’d rather not go on this ride again…”
>You smile as Rainbow hugs you both.
>It isn’t hard to find your way out of the ship.
>Spike punches a hole through a wall and you all climb out, linking back up with the other team.
>You whistle as you look at the trail leading from the hill the observatory stands upon.
>Fluttershy is positively devastated by the destruction wrought upon the forest, but everyone is just glad that this ordeal is finally over.

>They talk about how they found the engineering section while you and the others inform them about Turner, the alien overlord and his death.
>You look back at the ship, wondering if the alien hunter got out safely.
>Something inside you tells you she did.
>As you all deliberate on how to get the pods out safely, however, one final loose end reveals itself.
>”Look,” Applejack says, her keen eyes detecting movement amongst the trees nearby.
>Everyone prepares for a fight, expecting some alien horror to round the tree, but instead it is merely a tall man in a blue suit with terribly pale skin, carrying a suitcase.
>He approaches you, staring at you all with unnervingly bright blue-green eyes.
>”Well done,” he says in a strange, somewhat high-pitched tone. “As expected.”
>”You’re that creep we’ve been seeing all around town since the aliens started showing up!” Flash points out. “What are you doing here?”
>”Were you with them?” Applejack demands, cocking the hammer back on her pistol.
>”Now, now, let’s not be too quick to make assumptions,” he says, reaching into his pocket.
>He slowly removes what looks to be a wallet, and within it is a shining badge.
>”I work for the government and have been monitoring the extraterrestrial activity here. And before that, the supernatural. Yourselves included.”
>You all look at each other, then at him.
>”A damned MIB…” Rainbow says with a low whistle.
>Fluttershy, with a concerned look, asks, “You knew about us all along?”

>”We have been closely keeping track of the activities of your group. I represent an agency that, while relatively secretive, has extensive resources despite its meager size.”
You cut to the point. “So why have you waited until now to show yourself?”
>”We determined long ago that you were not a threat to national security or the natural order of the world, something quite uncommon for individuals with your… unique gifts. We have even gone to certain lengths to ensure that your secrecy was maintained as you dealt with several outlying issues our agency has been attempting to keep contained with minimal success.”
>Applejack, apparently convinced, slides away her pistol into its holster. “What do you want?”
>”Merely to inform you that we will be taking possession of the downed vessel and dealing with the cleanup operation. We very narrowly avoided a disaster of global proportions, but then again, that is nothing altogether too uncommon for you, is it?”
You manage to find a smirk. “No, it isn’t.”
>”How are you going to clean all of this up?” Rarity asks. “Damage like this to the forest can’t simply be waved away!”
>”You would be surprised how effective think-tank-fueled propaganda can be. A simple meteorite, nothing more: a falling star.”
>Twilight puts her hands together. “What about my parents and the rest of the people in the stasis pods? The ones taken over by the parasites?”

>”It seems that when the alien leader was destroyed, the lesser creatures bound to his will died with him. We are currently researching means of safely removing the dead parasites from their hosts, and early results are very promising. We will ensure that everyone is returned home safely and soundly.”
>”So what happens now?” Pinkie Pie asks. “What about when the aliens come back?”
>“Though the highest-levels of the government have recognized the existence of the supernatural ever since the creation of the country, a threat on the scale of a worldwide invasion was always dismissed. The intelligence I have gathered, in addition to the craft itself, will convince them of the necessity to prepare for a coming invasion.”
You slowly nod. “And what about us? Where do we factor into all of this?”
>He reaches up to adjust his tie.
>”Our agency handles your case, and we have given you operational freedom for the past two years. When the time is right, we will make ourselves known again and call upon you. Until then, continue your commendable service to the planet in your own way. You have proven most effective in this regard.”
>Though it is difficult to trust the strange man, especially after everything you’ve just been through, somehow you know he is telling the truth, and the others seem to realize it as well.
>Everyone exchanges glances, unsure of where to go from here.
>”I know what to do!” Pinkie says, taking out a small horn and blowing into it. “It’s time for another ‘We-Just-Saved-The-World’ PAR-TAY! WOOOO! ALIENS GOT NOTHING ON US!”
>Smiles spread throughout the group, and laughter follows, all the way back to Sunset’s cabin in the woods.

>Pinkie Pie, being the party animal she is, is quick to set up the music and lights.
>Applejack and Big Mac, in addition to their stock of weapons, have plenty of booze on hand as well.
>Rarity and Fluttershy take to the dance floor, laughing as they twirl about with fancy ballroom-style dance moves.
>Gummy is content to sit in the corner and eat cake alongside Spike.
>Flash leans against the wall smoothly as he cocks his brow and chats up Twilight, who humors him with a smile and giggles at his corny one-liners.
>And of course, you are in the corner with Rainbow Dash, furiously making out as if your lives depended on it.
>As she breaks the kiss and nibbles on your neck, your eyes stray across the room to behold Sunset Shimmer, silently staring before she looks away and drinks out of her cup.
>A pang of guilt runs through you before Rainbow whispers something into your ear.
>”It’s okay, she told me what happened,” she whispers, and you nearly jolt out of place. “Dude, relax! It’s cool.”
You blink a few times. “What?”
>She playfully nibbles your ear. “I mean, we were on a break, she’s your ex. I get it.”
“I’m sorry, Dash, I---“
>She puts a finger on your lip.
>”I said it’s cool. Just promise me that I’m your only one, alright?”
You look into her eyes. “I promise.”

>”Just make sure not to break this one,” she teases, then goes back to kiss you.
>But you pause and don’t respond to her kiss; she notices and pulls back.
>”What is it? Something I said? I didn’t mean to imply you don’t---“
“No,” you whisper. “I just made a promise, that’s all. I need to go deal with something.”
>”Hey, you made a promise to me, too,” she points out. “Something about ‘if we didn’t have aliens to deal with right now, I would do so many things to you’?”
You smile and kiss her hungrily. “After I go and handle something.”
>She seems disappointed. “Are you sure?”
“It’ll be worth the wait,” you whisper, kissing her one final time.
>You slip out of the party, stepping out into the moonlit night.
>Staring up at the sky, you ponder how you only ever really looked at the moon, rather than all of the countless stars that surround it.
>How many stars, planets and moons out there are friendly, and which contain hostile life that now look towards your world with conquering eyes?
>You’ll find out when they return.
>Taking off your shirt and kicking off your shoes and pants, you let the power of the moon wash over you and transform.
>Once you and the Wolf have become one once again, you let out a long howl and take off into the forest.
>You run freely and without restraint, just as nature intended: in pursuit of prey.
>You come to a wide and open clearing, sniffing the air until you find what you seek.
>With another howl, you issue forth your challenge.
>On the opposite end of the clearing, the alien decloaks and stares you down.

>Reaching up to her shoulder, she takes off her plasma caster and discards it.
>Then, in a slow and almost ritual-like fashion, she disconnects the tubes beneath the outer edge of her mask before slowly removing it and dropping it to the ground at her feet.
>Bright eyes stare at you from beneath a ridged crest as her mouth, a collection of four mandibles arranged before a set of sharp teeth, clicks softly.
>She thrusts her right arm downwards, extending her gauntlet’s combat blades before assuming a wide stance and roaring at you.
>You growl and roar right back, both of you anticipating this brawl.
>After all, she helped you realize the truth you were denying yourself.
>You’re both monsters, hunters… predators.
>This is what you are, and it is time to embrace it.
‘At least until I lose control of you again next year, right?’
>The Wolf lets out a huff, but understands the joke.
>After all this time, you two finally have a mutual accord.
>Crouched low to the ground, you give him the go ahead to have at her.
>You and your opponent both leap at each other, ready to find out just who is the greatest hunter of all.
>But no matter who comes out on top, the only witnesses will be the silent moon and stars above.

The End