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Multiple Settings Mass Clans: Beyond

Luther would cock his head at her, giving her a studious look before turning his gaze to window. "Loyalty is often so easily given to those who may or may not deserve it. In this case, I believe that this group may actually have what it takes."
He looks over at her bag and gives her a small nod, taking a drag off of his cigarette. "The orange one drinks a lot. Can he still shoot straight, do you know?"
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Holly's hurt but curious gaze shifts away from him. "Not getting tortured by your army anymore." She mews coldly, "Bailey, please come with me. After all he's done he couldn't even be bothered give her anything more than a politician's answer. She turns to leave the conversation, beckoning Bailey with her.

Before she makes it even a couple of steps she feels a sharp and deeply penetrating pain strike the small of her back and her haunches. She stumbles forward before falling forward onto her chin. She wobbles slightly in her awkward crouch before falling onto her side, blood staining her side.
Air whistles through her esophagus from burst lungs and the world is getting narrower somehow. She lets out a loud wheeze as her last gasp escapes her perforated lungs. The last thing she sees is her cousin getting stomped into the floor before his life is snuffed out with a gunshot.

And then it all comes back and she's stopped, her back facing Undertaker still. She's frozen, scared that if she moves it would cause her to be shot. She sends a pleading look at Speed and her artificial leg trembles in front of her like she wants to keep walking but she doesn't.
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As Pest glances around, he catches Lula's look and his expression quickly becomes one of guilt. At this point though, he's probably a bit too tipsy to prepare any kind of excuse and he looks shamefully away from her; mouthing a small apology as he does. In his haste he almost runs into Deceit. If he was hairless his cheeks would probably be red from drink by now. His breath has a subtle but not overwhelming odor of alcohol. "No. If you want my honest answer I don't like any of this at all." The tom mews earnestly, not sounding as angry as he probably should considering the circumstances.

"I have to watch all of them out there, happy and ignorant while I'm stuck in this box with people who have taken so much away from me. I hate it and I want to leave." He mews in a whisper, it almost sounds like he was about to cry. "It's all a lie." The tom adds, the memories of so many dead loved ones screaming at him in his mind.

He couldn't protect them either.
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“Here’s hoping. I haven’t seen them fight but with their track record I would assume yes. Nearly all of them are experienced killers.” Lexi answered, glancing over at the group members she believed to be the deadliest.

—

Deciet didn’t even flinch when Pest nearly bumped into her, perfectly content to give the tom a light smile no matter how close he got. Contrary to Deciet’s usual tendency to keep distance between her and Pest.

“Hmm…you could leave with me. I’d rather not be in this room either. And as a high ranking demon I’m sure the god-ring would want to keep a close eye on me if I were to leave this room, like perhaps a personal guard?” Deciet meowed, batting her eyes innocently.

“I booked a private room and everything. I don’t plan on staying here all day. Now you can stay here and wait until they tell you your shift is over-“ Deciet pointed at the yellow light on Pest’s vest, “-or you can come with me.” Deciet purred.


—

Trin and Purole looked at Trin with worry, then at each other inquisitively. The way they practically mirrored each other confirmed even more so that the sheline was his daughter.

“Has she ever done that before?” Purple asked her dad in references to Thrush.

“No she hasn—“ Trin started to answer but stopped when Holly too had a sudden freak out. Then it all clicked for Trin.

“Oh…” The red eyed tom breathed out of realization.

“Oh what?” Purple asked.

“I’ll explain later. Jezebel!” Trin chirped, waving the she-cat over. The calico strolled over, glancing at Speed who glanced back from her spot kneeling next to Holly.

“This is a first.” Jezebel said, dipping her head. When she did so Trin leaned in to whisper in her ear.

“Thrush and Holly are experiencing beast hallucinations.” Trin whispered as quietly as possible. As soon as he did, Jezebel’s eyes snapped to look at Thrush.

“That’s not good.” Jezebel murmured.

“I figured.” Trin responded.

“That’s really not good. How are you not affected?” She asked, stealing a glance at him for a second.

“Experience. What can we do?” Trin asked.

“First we need to keep as many of you all from thinking about that thing.” Jezebel whispered before stepping over to Thrush.

“Thistle’s right. No one has moved, what you saw was not real. It’s very important that you know that.” Jezebel meowed.

—

“Holly!? What’s wrong?” Speed asked, looking the she-cat over a little frantically.
 
"They don't look the part, but you'd know better than me I suppose." The tom would utter, pursing his lips around his cigarette. He knew that a certain, special kind of drinker could shoot just fine but he didn't know these cats and that's what bothered him. If the orange intoxicant proved to be unpredictable while drunk and proved to be a danger to them; then it was possible he could put the mission in jeopardy.

"I can smell his sweat from here and I've got a smoker's nose. For his sake I hope you're right. IF he was actually a member of enforcement his position would most certainly be questioned." He takes a short quick puff on his smoke.

"Doesn't help he's talking real quiet with that demon. She's quite infamous, if you didn't know."
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Pestilence tries to keep his eyes focused on her, trying to understand what she's implying. He's incredibly dizzy and his tight stance gives away that if he were to move it might reveal the depth of his intoxication. It's like that for awhile and he looks over at Lula, even if she wasn't looking at him. He could never betray her trust like that and somehow trust cuts through his drunken state enough to stop him.
"No, as much as I hate being in this room, with you and that calico bastard. I couldn't say for certain that you'd get away if you got stuck alone in a room with me."

The words are slurred but his intent is clear.

"You could never understand the love I have for her, all your love is fake. Like how you got Hunter doing your dirty buziness for you. You don't know what it truly means to have someone trust you because all everything uh is from you is a lie." The tom mews drunkenly, his eyes only leaving hers when she looks away or breaks from his.

"I hate this, but I know what you'd do if we were alone and I won't hurt someone I care about again, so stop it. Seriously, leave me alone." The tom mews, contemplating shoving her away.

"You don't even know me by my name, so go away. I don't want you." He thinks for a few seconds.

"And don't even think about leaving." He'd mew quietly, moving his eyes towards his weapon. "You're not gonna hurt anyone else and you're not going to keep playing turncoat. You're either with us now, or you're not BE at all."
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Holly looks over at Speed somewhat helplessly, wishing that the she-cat had come over to her.

"I-uh you, I died." The she-cat stammers, body tensed, still waiting to feel that terrible pain as bullets riddle her hindquarters, sending her to the floor. It doesn't happen though and she's just kind of stuck, afraid to do anything that might cause it to happen.

"I saw it happen, Speed! They're going to kill everyone in this room."
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Hal is visibly unnerved by whatever is happening to Thrush and Holly and he feels his bite-trigger itching. He could hear and smell Pest muttering at Deceit and two clearly hysterical she-cats saying just about the same thing. He doesn't say anything but he finds himself positioning himself closer to an object he could use as cover should the need arise. He didn't plan to die here.

"Why are the demon's allowed weapons anyway?" The tom would ask into his transmitter, sounding slightly bitter.
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Deciet tilted her head ever so slightly, and tsked.

“Pest…I never lie. Nor do I want to sleep with you or kill you.” Deciet purred sweetly.

“And I am going to leave. I really want to try one of those snack pouches in an environment that’s a little less tense. I won’t often get the chance to enjoy all this god-ring stuff at my leisure.” Deciet meowed, turning away from him.

—

“The demon’s are allowed weapons because everyone else is. It would be unfair to deny them defense at an event celebrating equality and camaraderie. The demon’s will not do anything unless you do, so relax. Any rash action taken by them would result in guaranteed death of multiple high ranking officials of their government.” One of the handlers explained to Hal through the comms. Such explanation garnering him multiple glances from Nastiel and his security team.

“You guys really need to relax. ” The purple furred she-line of Nastiel’s group said over the comms. Mainly in reference to the not one, but two incidents of hysteria from Thrush and Holly.

“If it helps, just know you can’t see everyone who’s in this room right now.” One of the guards added on.

“They weren’t supposed to know tha-“

“I know but if it gets them to stop having panic attacks Nastiel then it’ll help!” The guard quickly answered with a tinge of frustration. All of them were sure to not make it look like they were talking to one another. The demon’s were most likely doing the same behind their black helmets.

“The demon’s don’t seemed phased by the craziness. At least they have some good training. Unlike……just realize you’re not the only one nervous here ‘kay Hal. None of us want to get shot either.” The purple furred guard said over the comms with as much tact as she could; a sentiment which they all silently agreed with.

“For your information guys, Hunter’s nearly there.” The female handler informed.

—

Speed ran her paw down Holly’s back soothingly. Or at least as soothing as she could through her race suit.

“Holly, nothing’s going to happen okay? This is just like that time at the temple. Everything’s going to be okay.” Speed meowed reassuringly, looking around the room to make sure none of the demons were moving.

—

Lexi shrugged, her eyes following Deciet for a moment before returning to Luther.

“I sort of figured. She keeps coming and going. Infamous how?” Lexi asked, doing her best to ignore the click of the door to the room opening. It was a fast sound so whoever was coming in was in no rush; no threat.

—

Hunter stepped into the room with little fanfare aside from the smile on his face. He hung by the door a moment longer than you’d expect to let a small tom-cat trudge into the room behind him. Their fur strobing white and maroon like an octopus. For those who knew, the small tom accompanying Hunter was a dauthrepoian.

“Where have you been?” Nastiel asked Hunter as the tom padded over to the side of the room the god-ring was on.

“Some sort of birthday party! This guy her–“

“You’re late.” Nastiel cut Hunter off. Doing so quickly reduced the tom’s jovial demeanor to one of annoyance.

“Khallsey here, is a Dare-to-Dream kid and his friends, family, and the organization set up this big trip to Starworld for him. But his first wish was to meet me. But since the universe that makes the show that followed us is not fully integrated into god-ring yet they couldn’t grant his initial wish.” Hunter explained, slowing growing back to the jovial spirit he had when he first entered. All the while Khallsey shyly waved at Nastiel.

“Awwww, that’s so sweet.” Triss cooed, padding over to see the young tom.

“Yeah. That’s why his friends went so berserk when they saw me. I’d only been at his party for a little bit when I got called so I figured I’d bring him along. He also helped me get here.” Hunter finished with a nod down at the tom.

“Khallsey was it?” Triss purred, leaning down to him.

“Y-yeah.” The tom responded with three rapid head nods.

“How old are you?” She asked.

“8 for my species…Are you really the Triss?” Khallsey asked with wide eyes.

“Yeah bud! That’s me, millions of years old and stick kicking.” Triss replied with a smile. The smile that grew of the tom’s face far outdid hers, their breath catching in their throat for a bit.

“You’re my second favorite.” The small tom whispered as to not hurt anyone else’s feelings. Triss chuckled and gave them a high paw for it.

“Umm…H-how did, I mean do you live so long?” The tom asked a bit hesitantly.

“Oh? Different tanks and treatments and stuff, there’s all sorts of ways to prolong your life.” Triss answered. Khallsey listened quietly but it was obvious that wasn’t the answer he was looking for.

“No. I mean, how do you do all that crazy stuff and overcome every obstacle in your way? F-fu-for so long?” The tom asked with baited breath. Triss’ brows rose and she thought for a moment before smirking.

“You know, I think Speed puts it the best. You can ask her once she’s free.” Triss meowed in low voice, pointing over at the gray she-line currently tending to Holly.
 
After A Capella finished her solo, the secretary was astonished by her gifted talent. “Wow!! That was amazing!! If I may ask, what inspired you to go into music?” As the secretary asked, A Capella unplugged her guitar from the amplifier. “My older brother had some punk and metal records when he was younger,” she answered as she brushed her mane off of her eyes. “Despite being an egghead, he was cool. We both shared a common liking for music. When I was 8, he gave me this guitar for Hearts Warming. Since he didn’t need it when he pursued engineering, I’ve cherished it and decided to pursue music.”

“Wow, is that how you got your mark?” Asked the secretary. “Definitely!” A Capella continues as she straps her guitar onto her back. “I got this cutie mark when I was 10. Some home skillets and I formed a band and performed at the talent show. Although some of us have different tastes in music, we are all that and a bag of chips. Originally, my parents wanted my brother and I to keep the family tradition of being in the Wonder Bolts. Ever since music became my gifted talent, my brother ended up being the one to keep the tradition alive.” With a bit of concern, the secretary asked, “was your parents ok with this?” “Heh, they’ve questioned it at first,” chuckled A Capella, “but when the cutie mark appeared, they’ve become hella supportive. Pops has told me that I can still support Equestria and help out any way I can, even without being in the Wonder Bolts. I still don’t know what that will be or when it’ll happen, but time will tell.”


“Well, dear, one thing is for certain, you have a bright future in you. I wish you the best.” The secretary replied with a warm smile. In response, A Capella blushed and chuckled. “Thank you, ma’am.” She answered back. “Well, I’ll be at the—“ A Capella interrupted once again. “Oh! I almost forgot to give you one more thing!” Exclaimed the secretary as a thought crossed her mind. She hovered to the other side of the desk to search in a drawer with smaller items. A set of keys were tossed onto the counter. It also had a pink slip on the keyring, indicating that it was claimed by the God-Ring for evidence. She then reached for the counter, holding the keys in place with her right paw, and sliced the tag out with her claw on her left paw. “The car lot will be in the west wing headquarters on the other side of the arena.” the secretary told A Capella as she slides the keys forward.

Dumbfounded by what the feline said, she took the keys from the counter and wrapped the key ring around her right hoof. “Wait, other side!?” Questioned A Capella. The feline chuckled as she pulls out a map of the arena, “Yep, I was prepared for this.” She continued, “due to the developer’s demands, we had to build some of our offices at another location of the stadium. Anyway, here’s where to go to pick up your vehicle.” As the feline secretary was giving directions, A Capella was looking at the map following the secretary’s claw showing her where to go. “Cool beans, thank you so much!” She responded in q joyous manner as she hovers off the ground and twirls the keys around her hoof. “My pleasure. Have a good time at the symphony” waved the secretary.


As soon as A Capella flew out the door of the God-Ring headquarters, her ears perk up as she hears a familiar beeping coming from her bag. She starts digging into her satchel and pulls out a pager. The pager reads as it scrolls across the screen:

A Capella, call me as soon as possible. I would like to know where you are at.

“Crap!” She exclaimed, “I forgot to call Uncle Bolt!”
 
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Pestilence sends a pointed glare at Deceit. "Never lie, thas' a laugh. You lie all the time, even your name is a lie." The tom hisses to her, ears pinned against his skull. "I won't let you leave this room so you can go get someone elses' family killed. It's not happening." The tom mews coldly, determination managing to somehow shine through the inebriation in his eyes.
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Hal doesn't seem at all comforted by what the angels have to say. We've had them launch sneak attacks on meetings just like this twice now, what's to say they won't try it again?" The tom thinks to himself, only now noticing Pest's increasing inebriation which immediately stresses him out even more. In all honesty, he isn't entirely convinced that what Thrush and Holly are experiencing are ordinary panic attacks, he's seen those before back in Frenziland. That wasn't some ordinary chest clenching panic attack, they were having visions of something that to him didn't sound entirely unplausible.

I don't have a good feeling about this. The tom would think to himself, glad that he'd armed himself with lethal rounds. He highly doubts that the demons are equipped with non-lethal rounds.

"Okay, I trust you guys." He lies, scanning the room again, moving slightly away from his covered position.
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Holly shivers violently but leans into Speed's touch. "What's happening to us?" The she-cat would ask, her question blatantly referring to whatever she and Thrush were experiencing.

"At the temple they attacked after my vision, it's real." She mewls, burying her head into the she-cat's shoulder.
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"She was one of two demons adopted by these guys, the other one was a wolf, she was confirmed deceased a long time ago." Luther begins, revealing that he knows of, or has followed the groups' misadventures through reports or some other method. "'Devin' has been with them longer, has espionage and some form of spy training. Impossible to narrow it down to any of her associates but as a plant she's been in our system as a voluntary surrender. I don't think she's working alone, it takes a lot of paws to carry through the actions, she has." Luther mews definitively, his almost neon amber eyes never leaving Pestilence and Deceit.

"Keep a close eye on them."
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Noticing Jezebel's approach, Thrush steps between her brother and the calico. Even in the midst of her own mental distress, her first instinct is to protect Thistle. She never trusted this... Whatever Jezebel is. Something unknown with an immense presence and all-around unnatural aura... dressed up in the guise of a cat.

"It's true." Thistle comes up beside his sister, pressing their flanks together to give her some sort of anchor. "If you don't believe her, believe me. Believe Trin."

Jezebel agrees with what Thistle says and he would never deceive her. Her eyes flick to Trin who nods along, a sympathetic half-smile on his muzzle. She takes another look around the room, everyone is still chatting amongst themselves or watching the symphony below. Though Holly, strangely, appears to be comforted by Speed. Maybe she can believe Jezebel. For now. "Why did I see that... vision?"
 
“I’ll try to.” Lexi meowed, glancing over at the she-demon once more.

—

Jezebel for the first time looked at a Thrush with a loss for words. The sheline bit her lip.

“It’s hard to explain without causing a ripple effect.” Trin chimed in. His words seemed to give Jezebel a foundation to work with and her resolve returned.

“The vision happened because you thought of…a bad thing?” Jezebel meowed, unsure of her vocabulary. Trin gave Thrush a sympathetic gaze.

“You thought of something spooky from your past?” Trin said to her in yet again an unsure tone.

“Too vague. That will not help her. You thought about a thing that is like me but primitive and opposite to me so it’s not me, but it’s like me and it’s…dumb? It’s dumb but not dumb—gah, navigating your language in this is quite difficult I apologize.” Jezebel stammered, grinding the teeth in one side of her mouth of our frustration.

—

Deciet stopped mid stride at Pest’s hissing. The she-cat let out a suppressed sigh and slowly lowered the paw she was holding off the ground on to the floor.

“Oh really now?” Deciet said in a voice that wasn’t quite annoyance. It was more akin to unwanted resignation or a lighter sense of dread. The orange eyed sheline paused for a moment before opening her mouth to speak once again. This time her voice was aimed not to Pest but to the room entirely.

“Thrush! The reason you had a vision is because you recalled a memory from when you encountered the beast in the depths of Panopoly prison!” Deciet said loudly; certainly loud enough for everyone to hear her. Said proclamation garnered her two pairs of horrified eyes belonging to Trin and Jezebel respectively.

“Come find me when you’re done. Suite -9080.” Deciet said to Pest over her shoulder before starting towards the exit once again.

—

For a couple seconds everything seemed fine. The room fell silent after Deciet raised her voice. And as Fye began introducing the next species to sing their song everyone in the room watched the female demon stroll across the room quietly.

“Wait, you mean that invisible…thing… we saw…” Keesipip’s question trailed off as her attention was stolen from her by the massive wave that had just materialized on the horizon. All the animals in the stands of the symphony began to scream and panic as the wave grew higher and higher, picking up the cruise ships anchored off the coast like they were fleas. Keesipip began to panic and tears pooled at the edges of her eyes. She wanted to ask if the glass of the suite could hold the force of water but nothing would come out of her mouth. But certainly the glass could hold right? If it could take an explosion it could take some water. The wave only got bigger and bigger until it cast a shadow large enough to darken the entire arena. Her single heart began to pump so fast that the steady thumping grew deafening as the wave got closer and closer. All the way until it hit, tossing massive cruise ships into stands of millions of animals. Only a few seconds later the wave hit their suite, smashing an innocent Mia’Moray against the glass and crushing their body. Keesipip yelped at the grizzly sight. The glass only held for a couple seconds afterwards before shattering into large chunks and letting water flood the room. A piece of glass impaled her against the wall, leaving her flailing helplessly as she screamed out into salty liquid. It burned her eyes and choked her before she was able to catch her train of thought for long enough to swallow and hold her breath. She still had her impressive lung capacity so she was “free” to look on in horror at the bodies floating in the water out in the arena. Stare as the light flickered on the cruise ships that were tossed inland. But even more horrifying was she was able to see as all of her friends either flailed helplessly in the water and drowned before her; or fled out of the room through the exit. Keesipip yelled and screamed and tried to make as much noise as possible from her painful perch on the wall but to no avail. Her friends, the only animals she ever had any long term connection to, the animals that changed her life forever…were abandoning her; leaving her to drown. As the last animal swam out of the room they closed the door behind them leaving Keesipip all alone. Everything went silent as Keesipip could no longer justify the pain of straining against the glass that had her pinned. Everyone either died or left her. Eventually she used up the last of the air in her lungs and the dry sting of having nothing to breathe hit her like a truck. She couldn’t help but burst out into a crying fit, water filling her lungs. She’s always been told that drowning was one of the best ways to “go” as they said but this was nothing but peaceful. It hurt. And she was scared. And she was all alone. Every second it took for her vision to narrow and her brain to fuzz was physical and mental torture. Finally she completely blacked out.

There was nothing for a few long seconds. As if Keesipip was in sleep paralysis. Then everything rushed back to her! The senses that had been muted by the water all returned to her and she instinctively gasped to fill her already full lungs with oxygen they were never depleted of to begin with. Her vision cleared and she could see the ceiling. In her daze Keesipip had fallen onto her back, her paws tucked against her chest. Her rapid panting making her paws rise and fall erratically.

Even though seawater no longer stung her eyes, tears still streamed down the sides of the ashlander’s face in streams. Just as she caught her breath Keesipip began to cry out like a kitten. She was scared and confused.

“D-Don’t le-leave me!” Keesipip warbled out between sobs as she began to shiver.

—

Saraphina was frozen in place with a hundred yard stare. But the fire breather had yet to come out of her vision. The only sign she was still even alive was the fact her fur was slowly standing more and more on end.

—

Speed looked around in confused horror when Keesipip seemingly randomly fell onto her back. Without thinking Speed clutched Holly closer with both forelegs. The acrocat had no idea what was going on. As a precaution she put her race helmet on and started to put Holly’s on for her, thinking maybe it was something in the air. As she was doing so, Holly’s lower half fell off in a manner suggesting Speed had somehow squeezed Holly apart.

“AHH!” Speed screamed, dropping the helmet from her maw only to see that Holly was still in one piece. Speed was completely unaware what even caused these hallucinations; let alone the fact that her simply having heard the beast’s roar opened her up to it’s influence. Even if it’s influence wasn’t as strong or dramatic as Holly’s, Thrush’s, and everyone else who directly encountered it.

—

Nastiel and his guards and as well as all the demons, including Undertaker, looked at what was going on in total confusion. There were only three animals in the room that didn’t react to the ensuing chaos. Deciet, and only two of the demon guards. Guards who’s heads followed Deciet as she left the room only to snap back to their sentinel-like position as if animals weren’t having extreme panic attacks. It appeared only those three were expecting anything.

Hunter and Lulalissa, completely unaffected looked around totally baffled.

“Their nervous systems are spiking off the charts. Our equipment is telling us that Keesipip just died.” One of the handler’s voices could be heard through the comms. But for most in the room that voice was pushed to the background.
 
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She pulled out her phone, pulled the antenna, flipped it up, and pressed #366 with the tip of her wing. As A Capella puts the phone close to her ear, the phone gives her the following message: “the number you have dialed is no longer in service or disconnected.”

“Damn it!” She mumbled in frustration as she flipped the phone down to hang up. She starts to look around and notices that all the other species have different advanced ways of communicating. Some have watches with holograms, earpieces, and glasses that give them information. A Capella tries to call her uncle again but will not connect. She started to wander into another part of the arena to try and call again, didn’t work. She went to several lounges for the past five minutes, nothing.

While she kept wondering around the arena trying to call Uncle Bolt, she noticed a sign that said:

“The Symphony lets you access the internet anywhere. By connecting to the wifi name, “Symphony,” you can connect for free.”

A Capella is then reminded about the internet craze that is taking place on her home planet. She does not understand it but is quite curious to experience it. Her uncle and her friends keep mentioning how “radical” the internet is.

On another note, she is annoyed that the place is futuristic, yet she can’t call her uncle back in Ponyville. Then she thought for a minute. Instead of using her cellphone, why she can’t use a payphone? Maybe this arena has some payphones for anybody to access each dimension or world.

She then put her phone in her satchel and starts digging for some gold bits. As she was hovering in place and about to take off, she stopped and realized. “I’m totally buggin!” She exclaimed to herself. “Where the fuck are the payphones!?”

“Hey, horse lady!” One of the bystanders yelled. “Try the suits. Elevators on the left!” Confused about where that’s coming from, yet embarrassed that everyone heard her, she slowly hovers toward the elevator and presses the button that says “suit level.” As she gets in, A Capella digs her hooves into her blue, turning red face as the elevator doors close.

“Damn it, A Capella!” She snapped quietly to herself. “What were you thinking?” She sighed, “Ok, just got to find a payphone, call Uncle Bolt, and see what he wants.” As soon as she finished monologuing, the doors opened to see a hallway with many rooms. Not knowing which door leads to the payphones, she walks up to the first door in front of her and opens it. Only to see a suit filled with weird-looking guests and God Ring officers. She sees one of them on their back, fluttering all over.

“Woah, Woah, Woah, Woah!” She screams in panic as everyone looks at her. A Capella starts to back away until she notices Nastiel.

She sheepishly waves at Nastiel. “Wassup!? Remember me? Heh, remember you all pointed guns n shiz at me?” She continued nervously as she backed away slowly. “My bad, wrong room. I should be going.”
 
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Filament watched as Deceit proclaimed her knowledge and suddenly his vision tinged dark, darker than the darkest room he'd been in. He was choking on dirt as it surrounded him and he pawed frantically as the rocky substance flooded his eyes and mouth. It choked and gagged him until suddenly he was back in his dorm room, sitting with his girlfriend, making out with her. If only he friends could see him now, he was really making it to second base. The tom would think as they shared tongues in the most intimate of ways.

Suddenly the scent of rot invaded his nose and he opened his eyes to be face to face with the skull of a felid. Maggots wormed in her face and in his mouth and he gagged, pulling away from her. Long old rope-burns were still around her neck just as he'd heard and he tried to scream but no sound came out. He fell backwards onto his flank and stared helplessly as the long dead corpse of his college sweetheart, wrapped him in a tight grip around his throat. Her cracked paws suffocating him as he lied on his back. Shadowy, reeking paws clinged to his sides and held him there as she forced her claws into his neck, until blood pooled at his sides.

"AS long as we're still under the same stars, we'll always be together, darling." The she-cat would croak at him, her claws tightening around his throat.

"You promised me we'd always be together cause we're both under the moon." She rasped, as his vision began to fade to blackness.

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Pestilence watched at first as everyone seemed to go into some sort of trance, his fearful drunk gaze listed to Lulalissa, who sat twitching in what he presumed to be her own private hell. Carefully, he moved over to the she-cat he loved and tapped her shoulder. She whirled on him, revealing a jaw deprived of flesh with razor sharp teeth and bony jaw. "Lula?"

Her teeth flung for him quickly but he'd seen this many times and pulled away just in time for her flopping jaw to clamp around on of his forepaws, forcing him to the ground as the moaning herd of former angelic soldiers moved in on him.

He struggled to break from her grasp but chewing on either side of his torso made him immediately aware of his plight as he was mauled onto his back.

Helplessly he slung quick jabs with his unencumbered paw but that too was quickly chewed into and he let out a scream as many hungry and flaky jaws begin to dig into his stomach.

The tom let out a loud wail as they broke through his ribcage and his innards became outtards until he could scream and struggle no more.
That is when everything came flooding back and he watched Deceit as she exited the room, completely frozen, face still screwed up in pain.
__________________________________________________________________________

Hal watched as Deceit uttered the words and for a moment stood stupid as many members of his group began to undergo some kind of trance-like state. "What the hell is going on here?" The tom would utter before he felt a chilling roar reverberate through his entire body.

Lexi's saberteeth gleamed against the light of the symphony as she locked lips with a cat unmistakeable as Adrianna. They held the embrace until the tom could no longer stand it and he leveled his rifle at them, hesitating for a moment.

"Won't you join me as the worms embrace the dirt, Zenith?" Adrianna mewed to him longingly as she pulled away from Lexi, revealing that their faces had been reduced to skeletons. He shook his bi-color head at them, beginning to step backwards until he fell onto his rear.

"I can't believe you ever considered yourself a Sho-Vahn." The ruddy she-cat would snarl at him as she returned to her embrace with the orange saber-tooth, her eyes mocking him as she did so.

And then he was back in the room, staring at the window, his rifle pointing at the window. He lowered it quickly and let out a huff of air, his gaze hollow.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 
Firestorm of TempestPack said:
"That is a minor comfort." Thrush states, turning away from the panoramic window. She makes note of Deceit's location as she pads over to join Nastiel. "What else can you tell me about this room? Is there anything worth knowing? Can the walls withstand a blast of supernova magnitude as well? Because that will certainly change things..."


Nyx cocks her head curiously at the Gryphon's offer to help her . Is this their attempt at flirting? Her friendly but cautious demeanor falls the next time they open their beak. "Q'til..." she sighs. "I am well aware of the state of my dental hygiene. Between preparing for work all morning and putting out fires when I am supposed to be off the clock, I have found no time to take care of it." Nyx shakes her pelt, adjusting how the heavy plates in her vest sit against her body. "I have yet to find a teeth cleaning station in this labyrinthine place." Aside from the scent of something sweet lingering on her breath from breakfast earlier, Nyx's teeth are as white as can be.

Sharp red eyes lock with the wide yellow ones of the Gryphon. "Now, do you have an emergency to report? Missing kin? Stolen belongings, perhaps? Or were you burning holes in my skull for no reason?"
Click to expand...
“Emergency? yes Missing kin? You might want to ask Barbie about that; problem is I’ve been stuck in this bloody labyrinthine place for a good while “ Nevermore would ramble while positioning away from a reflective surface. The Gryphon then added “ oh by the way I wasn’t the one burning holes into your skull it’s the monkey back there” points at an empty space before proceeding to walk in a random direction.
 
One moment Thistle is consoling his frightened sister, the next moment he separated from her by a wall of armored demons.
They force him backwards and close in, a perfectly practiced formation. "Hey, what's going on? I need to get to-" Something grips his throat and Thistle is suddenly lifted off his feet. He sputters and thrashes, trying to break from the hold but from this position it’s impossible. “help!” He chokes out, front paws rising and struggling to remove the pressure around his throat. Thistle strains his neck, discovering that his body is pinned against the side of a large canid demon while black paws rise over their back, the ends of a garrote held tight in their grip. His attacker, with a voice like they swallowed broken glass, whispers in his ear:

“Shhh… It’s okay… Just relax..."

Tear-filled sapphire eyes dart about, trying to see past the wall of armored bodies. He catches a glimpse of his sister, her back towards him and still visibly shaking, her mind still wrought with fear from whatever she saw. “Thrush... help me...” wheezes the young tom as he squirms, trying to plant his hind paws on something, anything for leverage. Why is no one reacting? Can’t they see he’s being assaulted!? Thistle tries to call out one of the code words he and Thrush use, but the only thing that comes out is a pathetic, strangled sound. Any attempt at calling for help are hindered by the garrote and drowned out by the music.

Black spots appear in his vision as he gets pulled harder by the neck, back arching. A pressure builds behind his eyes and his head feels like it’s floating. His vision turns fuzzy and unfocused and as the burning in his lungs reaches its peak, the darkness consumes him.


Thistle wakes with a gasp. His sight has not returned but he’s alive, breathing. In the midst of his hyperventilating his senses return. He can taste the cool air, damp and musty. Without a doubt he knows where he is. Thistle blindly feels around, paws hitting soiled bedding, damp stone and cold iron bars. A heavy sense of dread settles in the pit of his stomach. No. This isn’t right. Where’s Thrush?

“Thrush? ” He calls into the gloom, “Sister where are you? Answer me, please.” His heart sinks as no reply comes.

He wouldn’t put it past these vile brutes to separate family. As if imprisonment wasn’t enough. He’s tried squeezing through the bars, the spacing between them is too small, even for him. He’s wasted too much time searching for an escape and there’s one option left. He was never good at this, but it’s his only hope. Thistle reaches out with both paws and feels for the lock on the heavy door. When his pads locate the keyhole he inserts his claws and gets to work. He wishes Thrush were here, she was always better at picking locks. And coming up with plans, and fighting…

After many failed attempts and two paws full of bloody and broken claws, the mechanism clicks. Thistle pushes the door open, heart stopping as the old hinges squeak. He waits with bated breath, listening for the guards. Hearing nothing but his own racing heartbeat, he slinks into the empty tunnel and begins navigating the underground maze.

Time flows differently down here. He can’t tell just how long he’s been wandering these identical passageways, dodging guards and frantically searching for other prison cells.

“WHAT!?” Mistress’ infuriated howl echoes off the cavern walls, "No! Find him and bring him to me! I will-“ Thistle doesn’t catch the rest of what she says as her voice is drowned out by his own heavy breathing, pounding pawsteps and racing heart.

The sound of excited whoops and the many sets of paws on stone steadily gets louder until it thunders around him. Thistle can’t tell how many of her most loyal Mistress sicced on him. Thistle makes split-second decisions and skids around corners at random, doing everything he can to escape his pursuers. But no matter what, they are always behind him, getting closer. The only thing the terrified tom is successful at is further getting himself lost in the labyrinthine cave system.

“Thrush! Where are you?” Cries Thistle, blinking tears from his stinging eyes.

A bright light shines faintly at the end of a long straightaway, growing steadily with each step. His legs are quickly turning to jelly and his heart feels like it might explode any second. Right behind him voices bark, snarl and cackle with glee. Thistle quickly realizes he won’t find Thrush or make it out alive. He sends a silent prayer asking for forgiveness and a quick, painless death. Teeth snap at his heels, causing him to stumble the last few yards. With one last spurt of energy, the tom throws himself into the light.



The ever calm and collected Nyx stands stock-still, obviously caught within the growing problem. Emotions shift across her features, her tail droops and there is a slight tremble in her knees. Whatever she is experiencing must be horrible to break even her. Crimson eyes stare, unblinking, as the demoness faces the aftermath of Deceit’s ploy.



“That’s enough!" Undertaker bellows, "Get her out of here! No more interruptions from you."

At his command, Thrush is jumped by two soldiers, the force of the surprise attack easily bringing her to the ground. She snarls and thrashes, trying to throw them off. Multiple sets of paws clamor, pull, scratch and beat her. One demon pulls out a set of cuffs and struggles to clip them on her front paws. “Nej!” She furiously screeches. Thrush bites any black limbs that come too close, she kicks her back legs, pushing away any demons and avoiding getting them chained together. The longer she struggles, the more tired she becomes. But she has to fight!

Her skin tingles and her fur rises. She closes her eyes and takes deep, even breaths. They snap open just in time to see a sapphire orb, the concentrated physical manifestation of her magic, shatter. The following shockwave sends all the soldiers grappling and beating her, flying. Thrush leaps up and uses her precious seconds of freedom to quickly analyze the scene. It's chaos. The number of demon soldiers in the room seemingly doubled out of nowhere, the horde descending upon her friends. At the far end of the room she spots the sharply-dressed Deceit edging around the fighting and towards the door.

She takes down demons left and right, carving a bloody path to the door, making good use of Master’s training and her carbon fiber claw extenders to slice through tough hide and meat like it’s nothing. She disarms one demon and shoots them in the face with their own gun. The rest fall like cast runestones and Thrush discards the gun when the clip is empty.

The electricity under her skin surges, a sensation she’s come to enjoy very much. Multiple spells materialize, already crackling like mad. Just as the demoness makes it to the door she releases the spells. In the blink of an eye the spells strike true and the orange-eyed deceiver is thrown into the wall across from the suite. Thrush stalks over, grinning as she watches a dazed Deceit struggle to stand. One-by-one Thrush stomps on Deceit’s legs and breaks them, preventing her from escaping again. She removes her twisted blade from its sheath and gets to work. Slice the skin, break the ribs and form the wings. Thrush is elbow-deep in the demoness’ squirming carcass when the scene changes…

Instead of a black, orange-eyed demoness, a face not too different from Thrush's own stares up at her.


Lethe watches with dawning horror as a bunch of his friends freeze, all staring off into space. He looks around, Trin and Jezebel's faces twisted in horror while the rest observe in confusion. Why are they acting so odd? Thistle coughs and gasps, his breathing coming in short, rapid gusts. The young tom whimpers quietly. Thrush mutters and staggers forward a few steps. He hears her growl and when she turns her head Lethe can see her eyes are glowing like they do when she uses her crazy magic powers. That's not a good sign.


A Capella is prevented from backing up further when she bumps into someone. She turns to see a large black wolf with menacing red eyes. He doesn't say anything, just smiles knowingly and gives the equine musician a big shove, forcing her into the room. Before she can say "Yo, what the hell, dude!?" the door to the suite slams shut. The warg chuckles lowly. He summons a spell, the crimson sphere floating before him. He utters a phrase and presses the orb into door, a dark colored ice instantly forms and spreads across the material, thickly covering the hinges and locking mechanisms. He sits across from the suite's entrance, waiting, still smiling.
 
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“What the heck?” Deciet hissed, staring up at Hati indignantly. Her steely gaze did falter a bit however, when she couldn’t help but glance at the equine creature Hati had also pushed back into the room with her. A Cappella looked like a species in the demon empire, just…colorful and not all black.

“All the deaths are on your paws.” She added on enigmatically after regaining her resolve. With a roll of her eyes the demoness turned away. She motioned for the two guards that had watched her earlier to give her something with an outstretched paw. One reached into a pouch on their vest and sent a small lipstick container skidding across the floor to her. The sheline picked it up and applied it as she walked over to Hunter, the lipstick being the same color as her eyes.

“What is going on?” Hunter asked her as she sat down next to him. She didn’t answer.

—

“What is going on!?” Vasteye yelped, bounding over to Trin and Jezebel. The tom’s voice broke them out of their shocked stupor.

“We need to help them. Each subsequent hallucination will only get worse until their minds disintegrate. It is imperative that they do no continue to think about the beast.” Jezebel informed quickly. When she did so, Trin shivered.

“H-how do we do that?” Vasteye asked.

“Keep their attentio–“

“LOOK OUT!” Penny screamed, just as a plume of flame shot out of Saraphina’s mouth. Luckily the large stream of fire was aimed upwards towards some unseen enemy. As the flames flew they bathed the room in heat; an unsettling sensation demonstrating just how hot Saraphina’s fire was. Said fire dissipated on the ceiling and Saraphina finally came out of her hallucination still on her paws. She was also quick on the up-take, looking around and coming back to reality in less than a second.
Unfortunately for her though, the nightmare wasn’t over. Her flames triggered the fire suppression system in the room. Sprinklers lowered from the ceiling and started to shower down onto them, beginning to flood the room.

“Everyone remain calm!” Nastiel said loudly, trying to maintain some semblance of order. At this point the demon had begun shrinking away from the windows and were now taking refugee as close to their own soldiers as they could. Only Deciet, Undertaker, and the defector were not next to the soldiers.

“You have no right to detain foreign dignitaries!” Undertaker growled at Nastiel, getting in his face and pushing against his nose.

“He’s not working with me! You see a god-ring vest on him!?” Nastiel hissed back, pointing at Hati.


—

“You, keep Keesipip calm. Hunter you get Saraphina! We need to keep those who come out of their hallucinations from falling back in.” Jezebel barked. Vasteye and Hunter both nodded affirmatively. Jezebel turned to give Trin an order but the tom was already dragging Thistle away from Nyx and Thrush. Mainly Thrush, who looked like she was set to unleash hell.

As Trin was pulling Thistle, the water level in the room reached up to their paws, and with Keesipip on her back it reached her ears. And that sent her into hysterics all over again. The ash colored sheline leapt off the ground with a shriek, as to her it seemed like her nightmare was coming true. In a panic she ran right into Vasteye with an audible “oof.”

“Keesipip it’s okay! It’s okay. Everything’s okay.” Vasteye cooed. The tom was taken aback when Keesipip suddenly hugged him, or clung to him to be more honest.

“All your friends are here. We’re not going to let anything bad happen to you.” Vasteye continued, embracing her and patting her back. He just so happened to say exactly what Keesipip needed reassurance on and the hug was working to calm her down; bring her back to reality.

“You’re not going to leave me?” The ashlander asked.

“No. No one’s going to leave you.” Vasteye affirmed, as his fur was officially completely soaked through with water.

—

Hunter padded over to Saraphina as soon as Jezebel told him to. The black sheline was already shivering, but not from fear of whatever she saw in her hallucination. Or at least not totally. The water in the sprinklers was cold, probably pumped straight from ocean beneath them.

“Hey there-“ Hunter started in a calming voice.

“Sh-shut up. Sh-shu-shouldn’t you be over there with t-the demon d-d-dung?” Saraphina tried to growl out, but her teeth chattering kept her from sounding all that intimidating.

“Well I’m not. I’m here with you.” Hunter said, glancing down at his paws just as the water level covered them entirely. That was not good for Saraphina’s health.

“Ooooh, I f-feel su-soooo relieved.” Saraphina grumbled, giving him the best visual scoff she could.

“I know you feel cold.” Hunter stated with a tinge of worry in his eyes.

“It’s so cold. W-why is it so cold?” Saraphina gasped out her agreement.

“You’re standing in cold water. And you’ve still got your ice cube in your mouth. You’re not getting as much heat to your head, gimme.” Hunter said, stepping towards the flame breather. Saraphina shook her head and covered her muzzle with a shaking paw.

“I’ll keep it safe.” Hunter reassured, taking another step closer to her. But Saraphina didn’t budge.

“You trusted me with it before.” Hunter said softly with a smirk. Saraphina shook her head again and let out a muffled “uh-uh.”

“Saraphina Revela, I will not let anything happen to it. But if you don’t give it to me, something might happen to you. Please?” Hunter pleaded, taking the last step so that they were muzzle to muzzle. Saraphina looked away for a couple moments but finally relented. She opened her mouth to show an ice cube pinned between her top and bottom rows of teeth. Without hesitation Hunter took the ice cube out of her mouth. Immediately after he did so steam began to flow from her maw and nose.

“Good. Now get on my back.” Hunter said, turning to the side. Saraphina had no qualms with this instruction and didn’t hesitate to step up onto the tom’s back. His vest made for an easy platform to stand on him.

“Guh…you comfy?” Hunter grunted before looking up at her.

“Better than in the water.” Saraphina meowed, not being able to help but smile. She felt noticeably better, but was still being showered.

“Now eat your burger and conserve your energy.” Hunter said, adjusting himself so that he was as comfortable as possible. He took a glance at the windows to see that some of the animals in the stands were beginning to take notice of the chaos that was going on inside. Saraphina fumbled around with the pouches on her vest until she found the sealed one that contained a burger wrapped in a fast food chain’s biodegradable paper, they made sure you knew it was biodegradable. She carefully lowered herself until she was laying on Hunter’s back and took a bite. To anyone watching without context, it probably looked like some god-ring enforcer had her priorities entirely out of wack; choosing to eat before dealing with anything else. But she was at least not thinking about the beast they encountered.

—

“Is there a way to stunt her power before she uses it on us?!” Triss yowled across the room to Hati while pointing to Thrush.

—

Stalker went over to join Speed with Holly.

“Holly, are you okay? We’ve got you don’t worry.” Stalker purred, even though her ears were laid parallel with the ground due to the sprinklers.

—

“Hal, you still with us? Lexi to Hal, yoohoo? ” The huntress meowed, looking at his eyes. She waved a paw in front of his face before placing it on the top of his gun to keep him from raising it again. And thus scaring the wits out of another one of the Mia’Moray on the other side of the window.

—

As the water got higher Deciet put the young tom Hunter had brought onto her back with a sigh.The least she could was keep him out of the water.

—

“We need that door open!” One of Nastiel’s guards said over the comms.

“We’ve requested a supernatural subjugation team but they won’t be ready for a bit. They’re all busy with other incidents right now. ETA 15 minutes.” One of the handlers informed.

“Wonderul. Trin, what the f**k is going on with your team!” Nastiel snapped, wading over to the tom who was tending to Thistle.

“Hard to explain Nastiel! What I do know is that everyone should be as far away from Thrush as they can right now! You want to help me move Nyx?!” Trin snapped right back, pointing to Thrush. Nastiel stared at him with an unreadable expression for just a moment before chuffing.

“Okay, let’s do it. You three, don’t take your eyes off those demons!” Nastiel ordered.

“Roger.” The three guards responded. The demon soldiers still hadn’t moved from their spots despite all the chaos, and the last thing Nastiel wanted was to get shot in the back.

Trin placed Thistle against the wall so his head was above water before splashing over to Nyx, with Nastiel joining him.

“3,2,1, push!” The two of them said before pushing against Nyx’s shoulder, hoping to topple her so they could pull her away from Thrush.

—

Lulalissa and PIM both pulled Pest and Filament respectively over to where Thistle was at in the corner.

“You think these vests will protect them if Thrush goes berserk?” Lulalissa asked, panting and feeling certifiably waterlogged. Her question fell on deaf ears however, as PIM was more focused on scanning Filament and making sure his head was above water. The AI would micro adjust his body every time even a drop of water splashed a little too high for her comfort.
 
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As A Capella started to back out the door, she felt her tail brush against something big. She then turned her head and gasped as she saw a large black wolf. The wolf looked down at her menacingly as it’s red eyes met with A Capella’s red colored pupil eyes as they shrunk in fear. Then she felt a big shove from the wolf.

Snapping back to reality, she stuttered “y-y- yo! What—“

“What the heck?” Hissed a black she cat as she walks toward the wolf. While the wolf and the cat discuss, A Capella took note of the door frozen in place by dark colored ice.

“Dude!” Shouted A Capella to the wolf, “As if!” Furious, she galloped across the main entrance as she aggressively pounds her right hoof onto the door.

“You can’t…” she shouts as she gives her first pound

“…lock me…” second pound

“…in here!!” The third pound caused the ice to crack significantly. Not knowing what happened next, an orbe from the door knocked her off from the ground, and go flying across the suit. Her wings spread, she felt her gut sharp as her surroundings seemed to become a blur and in slow motion. Some of the guests jumped out of the way as she crashes into a catering table, breaking it in half. She then blacked out.

A Capella woke up by thumping noises and several mumbling. She looks around and sees nothing but a black void. She slowly gets up as her body is sore from the crash landing. Both of her wings lay spread, yet limb as she slowly walks around.

Ow is what she thought as her body was in sharp pain. Then she realized, that her thoughts were spoken out loud. Yet, she was not able to speak. Is she dead? What is this place?

As she drags along, she feels a hot flash and the ground getting wet. Her thoughts continue to wonder as to what she is experiencing; until the water started to rise above her hooves. Not knowing where it’s coming from, she starts freaking out over where the source of water is coming from as she is getting soaked. Brushing her mane off of her eyes as it becomes damp with water, she runs in a panic wondering how to get out of this void. She continues running until she falls off from the ground that supported her and splashed into a mysterious lake.

A Capella woke up with a cold, yet wet sensation as she is halfway deep into the water. The entire suit is flooded. She looked around and noticed the weird guests huddled in one spot, while the God Ring and other members were all over the place. Immediately, she tried getting up, only to cramp and fall onto her face into 3ft of water. Her head surfaced out from the flooding water as she gained focus. She quickly found her floating guitar and grapple onto it. She slowly makes her way through the flooded suit looking for Nastiel.

“Nastiel! Nastiel!” A Capella called out. “What in Celestia’s name happened here!?”
 
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Holly recoils a bit, sitting back onto her hind paws, vision still spinning. "No I'm not! What the hell is happening?" The she-cat would mutter, ears facing limply downwards. "Why are we doing anything? This war is so pointless. Everyone's gonna die."
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hal would nod his head, still kind of in a daze. The tom almost appeared drunk but he kept his gun lowered. "It's not real, you're alive, and she's gone. You're here and she's not. It wasn't real." The tom mews determinedly, it seemed as though he was attempting to find some control over the situation. Water laps at his paws and his gaze meets hers for a moment before drifting to the door. "We can't stay here, we'll drown."
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Pestilence snapped from his daze, there were no infected here, he was safe. Water kissed his pads and he had to focus to steady himself. The world was spinning from his drink but he seemed surprisingly collected considering the circumstances. "What the fuck was that?" The tom would mew quietly, resting a forepaw against his head.
The tom would sit onto his hind paws, rubbing his forehead.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Filament gave no outward sings of consciousness, his eyes having rolled back into his head.
The world seemed to suck him back into the very being of himself as he shut his eyes and tried to ignoring the rotting corpse of his girlfriend.
"You picked her over me, you don't love me anymore, you don't care at all do you." She mewled, wrapping her dirt filled claws around his neck and shoving him against the wall.
Outside, his eyes begin to run with tears but he just shivered and cried clearly unconscious or his mind being evidently elsewhere.
 
Similar red eyes lock with Triss'. "As I see it, you have two options: quickly bring her mind back to reality or kill her before she kills you." Hati suggests offhandedly. From his position by the door his voice carries easily to dimension jumper, somehow projecting across the space without even raising his voice.


Instead of Deceit bleeding out and gasping for breath at her feet, it’s Thistle. His mouth moves to speak but only a wet wheeze leaves his lips. Pained sapphire eyes look to her, fat trails of tears streaming down his face that twists in silent agony.

“No…” Thrush breathes, shaking her head in disbelief, “No no no no no no!” She falls to the floor with an anguished cry. She gently touches Thistle’s face, caressing his cheeks in a futile attempt to comfort him. “I’m sorry...” She sobs, "I’m sorry I’m sorry. I promised to protect you and I failed. I don't expect you to forgive me, brother...” Thrush sniffles and presses her forehead to her brother's, holding him and softly singing to him until his pained breathing slows and eventually stops.

Defeated and heartbroken, she stands and retreats back into the suite. Thrush screams in horror at what she finds inside: On the floor, in lieu of the lifeless forms of the demon soldiers she killed, Thrush sees a collection of familiar bodies, each one bloody and motionless.

Raven and Crow, her unofficial little protégés from Hell, lie in puddles of their own blood, faces frozen in fear like grim death masks and two pairs of mismatched eyes wide and unblinking. Pools of purple liquid so dark it’s almost black spread across the floor, leaking from deep deep slashes in their throats. Thrush was going to take them away someday and give them better lives outside of demon space. Not anymore.

Many of her friends and Hunter’s kits, too — Jass, Ita and Ruma — are all dead. Each bearing a neat hole in their head. A small part of her is glad they went quick and easy. No suffering.

There’s a sharp stab of guilt in her heart. You did this! Your friends are gone because of you! These kits adored you! They looked up to you and this is what they get!?

A small, skin-and-bones kitten lies with their head twisted at an impossible angle. Vague memories of being locked in a cage and fighting for scraps flashes behind Thrush’s eyes. Her first kill. She shakes the memory away but the growing guilt just about suffocates her.

White fur in the corner of the room catches her eye and Thrush rushes over. Trin and Purple lie together, their cause of death obvious from the massive crater in the wall above them. Her mate has half his skull caved in and Purple has blood steadily trickling from her nose and one ear. From their positioning it seems like Trin was so close yet ultimately unsuccessful in saving his daughter.

Thrush now stands alone, her only company being that of the corpses around her. The gaping wound in her heart from witnessing her brother’s last breath opens even more, leaving her with a sense of hollowness. She closes her eyes and is met with nothingness, no sound, no sensation, no thoughts. When her eyes open there is an odd sort of chaos. People are yelling and scrambling to the edge of the room and it's… raining? Thrush looks around and sees Thistle up against one of the far walls and Trin with his back to her, trying to push Nyx. As much as she wants to rejoice and go hug him but she doesn't dare do it.

Tears stream freely down her face but are quickly washed away.


Watching as Thrush seemingly comes to her senses, Hati heaves a sigh. "How disappointing..." he mutters.


Lethe, who has been carefully watching Thrush as she fell back under whatever spell had gripped her earlier, notices a change. Her aggressive posture drops and her expression shifts from a toothy snarl to absolutely grief-stricken. She starts speaking, something that from this distance Lethe can't make out. She staggers forward a few more steps before stopping. A few moments later Thrush glances around, eyes no longer glowing, looking utterly lost.


Nyx collapses with no resistance, coming to rest on her side in the rising water. After a few tense moments the demoness surges upright, bracing herself on her elbows and wet, heaving coughs racking her body. Fear-filled eyes dart around and the normally eloquent wolf stammers out a "Wh-wha.... what?" Nyx notices the water and the many animals in the room but other than that she doesn't seem to process what's going on.


There’s a blinding flash and Thistle suddenly finds himself standing in a grove of bare, ashen trees. “No…” Thistle whirls around, hoping to see a break in the treeline but the dead trees completely surround him. The warm sand is replaced by a thick layer of ash like this forest has been burnt over and over but nothing grew back. After leaving the Underground Thistle hoped to feel the sunshine, but the sun is nowhere to be found. The pale trees reach up high, like the skeletal hands of long-dead giants from the stories. The “hands” breach through the earth, their twisted branches form a canopy so thick overhead no sunlight can pierce through. Without the sun, the world here is washed in monochrome gloom.

Skogen av Bien. The Forest of Bones.

“Gods, please, no…” Thistle instinctually freezes, crouching low with his tail tucked up against his belly. “Thrush?” Thistle calls out as loudly as he can without being too loud. No reply except for the whispering of the wind through the trees, bringing with it the faint tinkling of bells and delicate chimes.

Pick a direction and keep it, that’s what she said, right? Well that’s what he does. Though reluctant to move, Thistle trudges onward, curving around the trees but never straying from his chosen course. The unnatural quiet of the forest is disrupted by his own breathing and the crunchy-creak sound of the ash and dirt under his paws.

Something in his field of view shifts, a shadow or something. He stops and watches, letting silence fall over him again. At first he thought it was his eyes playing tricks on him, but no, something moves behind one of the trees. Branches rattle somewhere above and Thistle makes the mistake of looking up. Lurking high up is one of the many beasts that call this forest home: A dark, furless creature with many pairs of spindly arms stares down at him. At the end of each limb are… not paws, but humanoid hands. Its long bony fingers wrap around each pale branch, holding itself aloft with unexpected strength.

Thistle slowly backs away, his gaze never leaving the creature looming over him. A twig snaps under one of his paws and he quietly gasps. Thistle glances down to see what it is and finds what looks like a broken femur, old and brittle. Slowly he looks back up...

He doesn’t know which is worse: the fact that this thing has no visible facial features, or that its head suddenly rips in half, revealing a maw full of jagged teeth. Thistle doesn’t wait around for a closer look, instead dashing ahead full-tilt.

As he runs, Thistle hears the distinct sound of pounding footsteps as well as heavy panting breaths. He risks a glance to his left and his right, catching only glimpses of shadowy quadrupedal forms flickering in and out of sight from behind the trees. One of them looks over and for a brief moment, Thistle is met with the glowing spots of light reflecting from its too many eyes.

With a yelp, Thistle spurs himself onward. Lungs heaving and heart on the brink of overdrive, he keeps running. Thistle’s front legs get taken out by an exposed root he doesn’t see and he is sent tumbling. He dizzily scrambles to his paws, on high alert for those shadow beasts that were chasing him. Nothing approaches. He can’t even hear footsteps in the distance. Thistle is left alone with nothing but the bells and chimes on the wind breaking the silence. He creeps carefully further into this clearing he landed himself in.

shhhh…. ssshhhhh…..

Thistle’s head whips to the direction of the faint rustling. He tiptoes away, trying to remember which direction he was going.

sshhh….. sshhHH…!

Thistle flinches when he feels something rush past his front paws but when he looks, nothing’s there. He shivers and continues across the clearing, ash crunch-creaking and twigs snapping underfoot as he walks.

A familiar nauseating stench hits him first but before he can react, something long, cold and wet wraps around Thistle’s back legs. He screams and tries to kick out but whatever grabbed him yanks and he falls to his stomach, coughing, spitting and sputtering as ash puffs into the air. The petrified tom is dragged helplessly along the forest floor like prey in a rope snare. His front paws scrabble for anything to hold on to but there is nothing. Rocks grate against his belly and- no. Those are bones passing under his nose. Thistle digs into the ash and pulls out pawful after pawful of bone fragments.

Powerful muscles flex and like a wave, the pressure on his legs coils and shifts higher and higher until Thistle's torso is completely wrapped. A low, gurgling snarl emanates throughout the clearing and he is squeezed, the breath forced from his lungs as a choked wheeze.

Sickly yellow-green lights blink into existence and wind their way up the creature’s body in a rope-like pattern. The glow they cast faintly color the creature’s oversized eggplant-shaped body and the surrounding area the same hue. Thistle can feel himself being lifted off the ground and finds himself face to face with an old enemy...

This beast, he knows. Something like this he can never forget. It is just as grotesque as he remembers: a slimy, wriggling, toothy, tentacle-infested Netiss. The obscenely wet burbling noises and eye-wateringly foul odor just add another disgusting layer to this abomination.

More tentacles writhe in Thistle’s periphery, reaching out to curl around trees and noisily slithering across on the bone-littered ground, most likely searching for more to eat. He knows claws alone won’t do any substantial damage to the tentacles and his struggling is doing nothing to get himself free from the monster’s grip. Thistle is lifted higher and higher, that wet, gurgling snarl growing louder. From this up close and personal view, Thistle can see the large, dark eyes of the netiss glinting in the low light of its bioluminescence.

Realizing that there is no escape, he lets his body go limp and squeezes his eyes shut, waiting for the end.

He is embraced by the void.

Thistle wakes with a jolt, he pants and holds a paw to his chest as it that alone with calm his racing heart. His ears twitch and flick as they are pelted with water droplets. “Huh?” He looks to the ceiling, blinking water out of his eyes.
 
Triss hummed to herself, evaluating the idea of killing Thrush for a split second before snickering.

“Not funny!” Vasteye snapped at Triss while still hugging Keesipip.

“It’s pretty funny.” Triss said mirthfully with a shrug.

—

After successfully pushing Nyx, Nastiel hopped over to the other side of her to help pull her away. Only to stop and point at Thrush, now out of her trance. Trin looked over his shoulder before bounding over to her, splashing water all along the way. The water level had officially gotten high enough to make moving through it difficult. As soon as Trin got to Thrush he hugged her and pressed his forehead to hers; ignoring the fact both of them were soaking wet.

“Don’t worry, Thistle’s okay. You’re okay.” Trin cooed, unaware that his words would pertain so well to Thrush’s recent hallucination.

“Hati’s here too.” Trin whispered, pointing with his eyes to the smug wolf.

—

Nastiel was going to help Nyx get a grasp on reality but his ears twitched when he heard his name being called. His yellow eyes quickly found the blue equine clutching a guitar. Whether he liked it or not, A Cappella was actually one of the few civilians here, so she did take priority according to God-Ring Enforcement training.

“Calm down.” Nastiel said, trudging through the water to get her.

“Nastiel, there’s a uh Lifeliner on the other side of the door, saying she’s willing to be of assistance.” One of the handlers informed, while Nastiel led A Cappella over to the left wall of the room, so she wouldn’t be floating about.

“You can stand you know.” Nastiel said to her, gesturing to her legs with half a chuckle. The navy tom put a paw to his ear.

“What’s a Lifeliner doing here?” Nastiel asked over the comms. It was like thing kept getting weirder and weirder.

“We don’t know, she just showed up. Said she was looking for this room already.” The other handler answered.

—

“Oh Aslan no.” Lexi breathed out in dread, as she listened to the comms.

“We can’t! You’re right, we can’t stay here. Pretty soon we’ll be treading water.” Lexi quickly added on, giving Hal an awkward smile, before returning to her standard neutral gaze. Now thinking about it, she realized a smile probably wasn’t the best facial expression to use given the situation. That thought was quickly drowned out by Lexi’s dread however. There’s no way it’s THAT Lifeliner, went through her head.

“How do you think we can get out?” Lexi asked Hal. One reason for the question was to keep his mind off of what he shouldn’t be thinking about. The other was to keep him busy thinking to give her time to get her mind off of who she thought was on the other side of the door and back to the situation at paw.

—

Speed and Stalker both brightened up when Holly came to.

“Yeah, that’s Holly alright.” Stalker meowed in response to the orange sheline’s melodrama.

Speed gave Holly a once over before sitting down next to her. Speed‘s head was soaked but the racing suit kept everything else dry. Making it pretty easy and comfy to sit down in the chest high water.

“Hey PIM, can you check Holly’s vitals?” Speed asked. The gray she-cat gave Holly a relieved smile before looking over to PIM; who hadn’t responded.

“PIM?” Speed said, louder this time.

—

PIM was completely focused on Filament. Staring at him motionlessly. The only time her eyes moved away from him was to glance over at Thistle waking up. Doing so only making her expression droop with more worry.

“PIM?” Triss called her named. But no response.

—

Lulalissa let out a huge sigh of relief when Pest came to. Only more relieved when he seemed to still be himself. Lula would have been more worried if he came back demure and not cursing.

“Nothing you need to think about!” Lulalissa chirped, wrapping her paws around his neck and kissing him.

“Your head okay?” Lula asked after pulling away from the kiss.

“PIM!” Triss yowled, starting to wade over to the corner. Lula stole a glance over at the AI to see that she hadn’t moved but put her attention right back on Pestilence.

—

“PIM!” Purple yelped from her spot next to Bailey.

“PIM!” Deciet yowled, just because other animals were doing so.

“PIM!“ Triss screamed, coming to a stop beside the AI.

“He’s not coming out of his hallucination.” PIM stated with worry.

“PIM!” Triss yowled, stomping her paw in the water.

“H-he’s not waking up!” PIM reiterated, her voice quivering ever so slightly.

“PIM, we need you to focus!” Triss growled, reaching into PIM’s holographic body and grabbing the little ball that contained and projected the AI. Triss used a claw to click a button on the ball and PIM’s projection vanished. A second later after a second click, PIM’s hologram returned; already facing Triss and scowling.

“You could have just slapped me! What!?” PIM snapped, giving the red eyed sheline a half snarl.

“Don’t get snippy, you lost focus! Not us! Now what can you see that we can’t?” Triss growled, gesturing across the room. PIM’s defiance faded, her eyes blinked rapidly, and she swallowed her anger.

“R-right.” The AI stated, looking away from Triss and scanning over the room.

“Can you find my juice pouch?” Purple called over to PIM. Triss, Deciet, and PIM all gave the young she-cat a different look. Shaking off the distraction, PIM went back to looking over the room.

“You see anyway to get out?” Triss asked.

“I don’t think so. But I found multiple strange anomalies. First, there is something displacing a lot of water right there.” PIM meowed, pointing to an empty spot in the corner of the room. Specifically the corner of the demon’s side of the room where the windows met the wall. All the demons were currently huddled in the corner closest to the door. So nothing should’ve been there.

Triss, Speed, Hunter, and Vasteye all looked to the corner. Nothing was there. Then, all of them getting the same idea, dunked their heads underwater and looked at the same spot. Low and behold, you could see what PIM was talking about much easier. Clear as day, there was a ‘silhouette’ in the water. Or more accurately there was a relatively small area that the water wasn’t in. There was something invisible there.

“What the…”

“Secondly. You’re all noticeably shorter, except for Purple, Bailey, Streak, Hati, and the four demon guards. Everyone else has shrunk at the exact same rate. By an inch and counting. You probably didn’t notice due to the chaos and the fact everyone is shrinking at the same pace.” PIM continued, nodding her head definitively.

“We’re shrinking?” Triss asked, looking around the room. Now that she knew to look for it, it did appear that the chairs in the room were “bigger.” As Triss was looking around, PIM poked a claw into her shoulder.

“Ow.” Triss mumbled out of instinct.

“I didn’t think shrink was the proper word. And it’s not.-“ PIM poked Triss again, “-You’re not shrinking…You’re all de-aging. At a rapid pace too. Pretty soon you should all be hitting puberty again.” PIM meowed, her face showing she didn’t exactly know the cause.

“WhAt?!” Triss shrieked, causing her voice to crack. Perfectly on cue.

“There it goes.” PIM said with a nod.

“Why are we de-aging?” Vasteye asked, his voice already getting higher and his legs shorter. Which only made the water seem higher. When he asked this question, Purple’s posture closed up and her eyes found the most interesting spot on the floor to stare at. Vasteye’s eyes immediately landed on the lavender sheline.
 
Hal raised a brow at her when she smiled, surprised and as awkward as it had been, it was then that he realized he had never seen her smile before. "Where is the water coming from?" The tom would utter, dazed but collected enough to get right back into the moment. His eyes widen in realization. "Are you a good swimmer?" The tom would ask, remembering how she had almost died the last time they'd been in water, if you could even call it that.
"We need to get Saraphina warm enough to melt that ice, get her out of the water." The tom barked to anyone near Saraphina, "Keep her warm, she's the only way we're gonna get out of here." The tom would mew, his voice cracking at the end as he slung his rifle over his back and moved towards the debenery.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Holly shook her head to clear it, feeling cold water lap her paws as she understands Speed's words. "I'm okay, I think, just don't let it happen again." She brought a wet forepaw to her forehead when Speed called out for PIM. "It's okay, I'm here, right now in this room." The she-cat would utter, dropping her rifle into the water. Bubbles gurgled from the gun and to her surprise she was soon much closer to the weapon.

"Uh am I getting shorter?" The molly would wonder, her voice distinctly higher than it had once been.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Streak looked watched from one side of the room, numerous discarded items floating around in the water which was now up to his chest. "You're all getting smaller, the tom observed, as he watched them getting shorter. "I don't understand what's happening." The tom would mewl, voice quavering until Purple's seemingly random question caught his adolescent mind.

"A juice box?" The tom would wonder to himself, remembering that she wasn't allowed to have a lot of sugar. His eyes scanned the water for the item in question. After a moment or two, he plunged his head below the surface, opening his eyes at the newly watery floor.

A few moments he came up with a can of soda, "Like this?" The tom would ask, wading his way over to the she-cat.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Flame had observed the situation, frozen in shock until his eyes caught his son fishing around in the water. He surfaced, splashing the ginger tom with cold water and he shivered as the grey and orange cat moved straight past him towards Purple. Attentive ears had heard something about a juicebox but he'd disregarded it until everything clicked and he looked at the cool clear water, spotting something like what he and Aceline had enjoyed prior. He fished it out of the water and headed after his son.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Pestilence looked at her quizically for a moment but before he could think, she pulled him into a kiss and he went slack in her embrace, enjoying the sensation immensely. "Better now, You're a good kisser." The tom would mew to her, turning his attention to PIM, when the she-cat beside him called out for it.

"I feel kinda uncanny, like I don't quite fit in my body."
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Disembodied voices began to tear at him and suddenly she was nowhere in sight, and warm water lapped at his chin. "The temple." The tom realized out loud, looking over to see the pale she-cat he had come to adore since he joined the renegade crew, and he smiled as he gazed over at her dozing form in the water. He remembered, or thought he remembered asking her how it was she was able to endure water and that had been the moment she had revealed to him how it was she had come to be. She was no more machine or artificial than Hal or himself. "Pim?" The tom would ask, wading over to her still form.
She made no sound to confirm to him that she had heard him and he brought his face over hers, looking at unlit eyes. "Pim!" The tom yelped, shaking her roughly. Fur sloughed off in patches, revealing an aluminum skeleton and he shut his eyes violently, salty tears running down his cheeks.
When at last he found the strength to reopen them, he was floating in an inky void, alone. It was hard to breath here and his breaths were harsh and deep.
"You're mine now." A rough and ancient voice bellowed at him as a large form moved towards him slowly, its silhouette darker than the emptiness that surrounded them until all light was lost.
"But my friends, they need me." Filament mewed, his voice cracking with emotion as darkness surrounded them. Who else knew electronics like he did?
He wondered, as a cold feeling wrapped itself around him like ice.
"No one." The voice uttered back to him. "We are all that remains and all that ever was." It's voice was deep and troubled, like a cancer patient's last breaths.
"Then I can't stay here."
"But you will, stay here."
 
“I’m feeling weird too!” Lulalissa squeaked out, her rich orange fur steadily shifting to purple.

—

“Uhh n-no—“ Purple stammered, seeing the can Streak had, “—Yes! That’s it!” The lavender sheline chirped, pointing to Flame with a splash.

“Purple. Want to tell everyone what you know?” Vasteye asked, sounding much more young.

“Umm….” Purple hesitated, only to get an eye full from a pre-teen looking Trin.

“Purple?” Triss asked, her voice high. Oddly, she looked almost just like Trin now. Her and Trin already practically looked like twins and now they looked like mirror copies.

“Well…I got the juice pouch in my snack bag switched out for one that contained some age morph solution. It was gonna just be a prank for dad; turn him into a pre-teen like me so we could hang out. I didn’t expect the room to flood!………Surprise! Pranked ya!” Purple rambled out at a rapid pace, a nervous but still somewhat proud smile stretching across her face. Lastly, she threw her paws out to put emphasis on her ‘surprise.’


—

Speed whined, her race suit feeling too baggy and uncomfortable.

“Rah! I hate this!” Speed grumbled like a, well, frustrated pre-teen. Speed had all her memories and wisdom but her brain matched her physical age.

—

Lexi found it even harder to keep her mind off of the dread of who she thought was on the other side of the door. Until it was really all she could worry about, her head nodding to Hal but not really taking it in. Her saber teeth had shrunk and her designer bag looked even bigger on her side.
 
Things come back to Thistle slowly. The first he registers is that he is not in that dreaded forest anymore. Seeing Thrush, the young tom pulls himself to his feet and trudges through the rising water to her. "Thrush, oh my gods! I thought I left you behind!" He just about pounces on Thrush, squeezing her as tight as he can. "I woke up in our cell but you weren't there so I broke out! I picked the lock how you showed me but I couldn't go find you because Mistress was looking for me-" As he rambles, Purple's de-ageing juice takes effect, causing Thistle's voice to rise in pitch.

Fear flashes across Thrush's face as Trin approaches. "No..." She backpedals, trying to keep distance between them. "No, please, you do not-" She is prevented from moving further when someone grabs her from behind. Thistle's voice chirps in her ear and soon she is held fast by two simultaneous hugs. Thrush stiffens, doing her best to not move or touch either male any more than necessary. "You both assured me that what I saw before was not real but..." She trails off for a moment before mustering up the will to finish her thought with a choked sob, "I killed you... with my own paws... And now you are here..."


Lethe looks down at his paws when Purple explains why her missing juice box is such a big deal. He feels the same. His paws look the same. Just about everyone is experiencing the effects of the de-ageing solution, having visibly shrunk. The twins look like twins again, the only way to tell them apart now are their scars and the paint on their faces. "I don't think it worked on mE." Lethe's voice cracks at just the right time. "Nevermind..."


Nyx rises from the water with a groan. The remnants of her recent vision fade into the background as a multitude of voices hit her ears and a bone-deep ache settles in her limbs. The sensation is familiar, something she hasn't felt in years. "What's going-ah!" The demoness gingerly presses a paw to her muzzle at the sudden stabbing pain in her mouth. Carefully swiping her tongue over her teeth confirms it, her fangs are gone. Well, they're there, just small. Her ivory pride and joy have reverted to the dull stubs of an adolescent Rhika before their First Growth - which Nyx is now experiencing for the second time. The wolf whimpers to herself and blinks away the moisture forming in her eyes.
 
“It’s okay Thrush. None of that was real. It’s okay.” Trin cooed, having finally reached the pre-teen age that Purple’s solution. His voice no longer cracked because it was already as high as it was going to get, sounding youthful and energetic. Trin let Thrush go after hugging her a bit longer, seeing as she was tense and stiff.

“Hati! Open the door.” Trin meowed, turning to look at the wolf. His god-ring vest felt heavy and oversized now.

—

The rubber cap covering Nastiel’s nose had fallen off once the tom shrank enough for it to no longer fit. He was now left desperately cover his nose with both his paws.

—

“Nyx are you okay?” Keesipip asked, looking lanky and thin while the water licked at her neck. Taking long high steps, she and Vasteye half padded half paddled over to the she-wolf.

—

Deciet casually reached into a pocket on the inside of one of her sleeves and popped a rebreather into her mouth. Just in case. Why she had one ready was unclear. Now small, she was struggling to carry the kit.

—
Meanwhile in the dead realm…


“Lily! LIIIIIILY!” A lone tom yelled out through the dark. Indeed, the dark. The sun didn’t often set here, and hadn’t set for the past few days either. But now that it had, the only illumination was a full moon, but not a moon you’d be used to seeing on earth. This one was bigger, closer, and immaculate. No crater holes to be seen on it’s surface. It helped that this larger moon illuminated the world much more but it’s alien nature gave off an eerie feeling.

Farichea had successfully made it out of the massive fight hours prior with no major injuries. The same couldn’t be said for hundreds of others. Farichea was crouched low at the base of a tree, staring out at the open field they all once were in. It was littered with bodies. The white moonlight glittering on the pools of deep crimson that seemed to never end.

In the panic of the fighting, animals started fleeing from the group in all directions. After a short time, their group comprised of thousands had been scattered in every direction possible. But the weirdest thing was the jungle Farichea had found herself on the edge of. The she-Wolf purposefully ran in the direction of where they had all come from. They had been walking in an open field for days, but now there was a dense jungle just over the hill behind them. Just out of view. It wasn’t possible. The jungle she was hiding in right this moment couldn’t be here; yet here it was anyway. She knew she wasn’t the only one in here either, she’d seen hundreds flee in the same direction as she did. She also knew that this phantom jungle surrounded them. After the first hour, she’d decided to skirt the edge of the field while staying hidden only to go in one big circle. A jungle that wasn’t there prior, now encircled them. Making the giant field in the center look the stage of some kind of coliseum. A coliseum devoted to a blood sport at that.

Farichea quietly watched the tom wander through the bodies while looking for someone by the name Lily. The demoness didn’t dare to go and help him though. Nor did any of the other hundreds of animals no doubt hiding in the jungle just like her. The scent of fear and panic hung in the air like a fog. Farichea wasn’t even well in tune with her more primitive side! Yet she could still pick up the scents easily. They floated in the air like ghosts or echoes of the cats that put them there, many of them dead now.

“Why can we die here?” Farichea mumbled out loud on accident. She’d gotten too lost in her thoughts. As if on cue, a prominent reminder as to why she and everyone else was hiding, and keeping silent, showed itself.

“LILY! WHERE AR–oh. Hey! H-hey! I’m looking for a she-cat. She’s brown and got yellow…eyes?” The tom had spotted two other cats come padding out of the jungle towards him at a brisk but not too brisk pace. His speech trailed off when he realized far too late that the two cats weren’t there to help. The tom tried to turn tail and run but the two instantly set into a dead sprint the moment he moved. The tom was only able to let out a few scared pants before the duo caught him and pounced on him. Like lions hunting a gazelle they went for the back of his skull and his neck, sending him to the ground like a sack of potatoes. But that was just the start. The tom wasn’t dead, you could hear his pained whimpering in the air. The two that had veritably hunted him positioned themselves on either side of the tom, one at his front and the other at his back. The one at his front bit into his should and the one at the back bit into his flank before the two tugged with loud ferocious growls. The tom let out a scream as the two cats played tug of war with him before his body gave way and they physically tore him in half.

“We’re trying to sleep and you start yelling!? Huh Jake!?” One of the assailants screamed at the corpse angrily.

“It was always about you! Everything was always about you! Jake this, Jake that! Rest in pieces you fox-dung filth!” The other assailant yowled, revealing they were a female while kicking the body. The body of someone they apparently knew well. After some more angry remarks the duo started to trod off back to the jungle.

That is why no one went out to help the tom. He wasn’t the first animal for something like that to happen to, though he was the first to get ripped in half. Even she would struggle to rip a cat cleanly in half, Farichea thought to herself in horror. Every now and then, one of the bodies out there in the field would get up. Farichea assumed they were surviving victims of trampling and got knocked unconscious in the initial panic. That or they would wander out of the jungle to look for their friends. It always ended the same way. The anger had not died down in those who were affected. They stalked the area hunting for animals to take their anger out on. Some were looking for specific animals while others seemed willing to kill anyone.

“Their attacks are getting more and more brutal.” A female voice whispered right beside Farichea. The wolf flinched but managed to bite her tongue and not make any loud noise. Slowly, she turned her head to look and see a pink furred sheline, Han watching her from the tree she was underneath.

“Relax. If I was going to kill you, you’d be dead. I’m Merlida, you’re Farichay-e-uh right?” The pink sheline meowed in a whisper.

“Farichea. But yeah. Nice to meet you Merlida. What did you say?” The demoness wolf asked.

“I said they’re getting more brutal. It’s as if the longer they’re like this the more vicious they become. They’re not enjoying it, they’re just…angry.” The she-cat mused aloud.

“Do you know what’s going on?” Farichea asked.

“No. That big pink thing probably does. I know she’s not dead, her bodies not anywhere around here and it’s not like it would be hard to find.” Merlida shook her head and quietly crept down the side of the tree until she was laying next to the wolf.

“You’ve been moving around?” Farichea asked.

“Yeah.” Merlida responded as if the question was partially offensive.

“I got separated from my friends. A…adr–Adrianna. And a tom named Jaeger. I think there was another canine like me, Kilo. And—“

“Whoa. Slow down. I know one of those names and only barely. You want me to find Jaeger for you?” Merlida asked after placing a bloody paw on Farichea’s muzzle to shush her.

“Yes please.” She answered.

“Okay. You stay here and keep your big mouth shut. I only knew you were down here when you mumbled to yourself earlier. I’ll see if I can find Jaeger, but don’t get your hopes up. Last I saw he wasn’t looking good.” Merlida whispered. With that she rose back to her paws and climbed back up the tree. Farichea wondered how the vibrantly colored she-cat was able to sneak around in the moonlight but stowed the thought away soon after. With nothing better to do, Farichea laid her head down and focused on not falling asleep. She’d heard someone snoring earlier and whoever the culprit was, they weren’t snoring ever again.

—

Jaeger most certainly had a concussion. Or maybe even worse. What was worse than a concussion? He didn’t know, or maybe he did but he couldn’t think well enough to remember. His head ached like there was a giant ballon constantly growing inside his head. His vision was blurry and it somehow hurt to see, as if his brain was upset at having to translate that sense. All Jaeger could think to do was stick with Adrianna. The darkness did help somewhat, as the sunlight was killing him earlier. Metaphorically. Now at night he strained to keep Adrianna’s red pelt in his vision, hoping and trusting she’d keep someone from physically killing him. With his eyesight swimming and headache, Jaeger wasn’t even sure where he was or if he was moving or not. Whether he was walking or not the world would swirl around him, all he knew was that he could still see Adrianna.
 
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For awhile he did stay there, alone in the inky nothingness that had swallowed him. He didn't deserve to be here, this space seemed designed for souls far more bereaved than he. (fuck you stranger things) Once again his gaze moved up to meet the oily black figure that stood as a titan before him. "I'm going to leave."
"But you can't."
"I've seen enough, I'm leaving." With that the tom began to paw at the void as though he were underwater and he slowly began to move away from the creature.
And at last his eyes opened, and he fell sideways into the water.
Wordlessly, he sat onto his hindquarters and looked around, seemingly unaffected by whatever was shrinking everyone else.
____________________________

Pestilence would quickly scan the room for Jezebel, until his gaze landed on the she-cat. "Jezebel, you remember back on the ship when you made the water hot by moving it?" The tom would ask, loping over to her. "Could you do that with the ice?" The tom would ask, his voice reaching an annoyingly high pitch.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Seeing that he'd been ignored, Hal would turn his attention to Lexi. "Let's get ahold of the life-liner then? Can you ask him to get us the hell out of here?" The tom would ask.
 
“Calm down,” responded Nastiel as he reaches over to A Capella. He then leads her to a more shallow part of the suit as they trudged across the flooded floors. Upon getting closer, A Capella was able to finally stand on her hooves as Nastiel told her that she can stand.

Disregarding being a safe spot, she starts looking to find a way to escape the flooded suit as water continues to rise. She looked over at the window and began to draw conclusions. Maybe if she broke the window, the water will flow out. Despite the poor spectators getting wet, every one will escape. Just before A Capella goes for a swim with her guitar, she soon felt her guitar heavier. Her jaw started to feel excruciating pain.

“Mmmm…my jaw,” A Capella mumbled in pain as she sat down rubbing her jaw. “Wait, the fuck!? Did my voice…” she stopped and realized that her voice has now changed. Her voice now sounded childish. She gasped in shock.

“Every pony! What in Celesitia’s name is going on here!?” She exclaimed. “Why are we getting younger!?”

The pain worsened. “Ow…” she mumbled.
 
Nyx nods her ascent to Keesipip and Vasteye. She removes the paw from her muzzle long enough to grumble a quick "Growing pains." The pressure seems to help but what she really needs is ice. Her mother used to give her frozen fruit slices to chew on when her adult teeth first started growing. "If anyone can't swim, climb on my back!" As the words leave her mouth she realizes how dumb her idea may be. Her vest hangs loosely on her frame and seems to weigh even more than it did this morning. Nyx might not be able to swim herself with just this gear on let alone potential passengers.


As the water reaches his neck, Thistle pulls his rebreather over his muzzle. He's never used gear like this before so he prays it works because he won't be able to put his new swimming skills to use now.


Thrush looks to where the warg stands by the door. "Son of rage, fix this!"

Hati scoffs and replies in the ancient tongue, his velvety voice low and calm. The water rises steadily around him but he does not take his eyes off of Thrush. For those perceptive enough, they can see how the water doesn't ripple around his legs. Hati finishes his musings with a sly grin, flashing his sharp white teeth.

The young Guardian's gaze flicks to Undertaker and Deceit as she listens to the wolf. Gears turn in her head, considering his words. Thrush vigorously shakes her head, pulling herself from her thoughts. "Open the door you witless goat!" The shadows in the room deepen and the world outside darkens like there is a sudden eclipse. Thrush suddenly feels immensely small when she looks at the warg, something she's only experienced when in the presence of Jezebel. She can feel the air in the room shift, an overall sense of unease coming from a majority of the animals in the room. They must be feeling the same effect.



When the sun set, Adrianna decided it was time to make camp. They desperately needed to lick their wounds and rest before continuing with their search. She uncurls herself from around the dazed Jaeger and gently noses his side. "C'mon Kitto, I gotcha." With her quiet command, Bracken and Blade lift the injured young tom onto her back. She grunts, the added weight agitating her cuts and bruises. "If we attract trouble, the big one can ward them off us but I'm trusting you two to keep any strays off me, aye?" The red feline instructs, then looks up at the dire wolf. "We're looking for the large pink she-beast named Foofi."

Bloodspill nods.

"Who knows where she could've gone, though." Bracken chimes in, looking around at the lands surrounding where they've made camp. There is no one else around but corpses and thankfully anyone living has tended to keep their distance and wander off.

Adrianna hisses something under her breath. "I'd say move out and pick up any familiar faces we see along the way but I don't trust anyone to not attack us."

"But... we'll find them, right?" Asks Blade.

Even though their names go unsaid, Adrianna understands. They haven't seen the rest of their team since the fighting started. "All we can do is keep looking for them." She replies, not sounding the most hopeful. "They're smart. They'll find each other and stick together until this all blows over." Emerald eyes turn to the silver moon hanging overhead. "We better get going, make the most of the darkness while we still have it."

The group leave the relative safety of camp and walk into the darkness, off to continue their search.
 
PIM gasped when Filament’s eyes finally opened. The ai immediately hugged him tight.

“I thought you’d never wake up.” PIM mumbled into his fur.

—

Jezebel’s ear flicked when she heard her name.

“I do…..I can.” Jezebel responded in a child’s voice. Which was was weird to her because she had never been a child.

—

“The life-liner’s actually a girl.–” One of the handlers informed, causing Lexi to start full-on panicking.

“Oh noooo. Nooo. It is her.” Lexi meowed, completely zoning out.

“–And she’s saying she can open a portal out of the room despite the stadium wide block. It’s a life-liner privilege. She’s saying the portal will be on the wall next to the door.” The handler finished informing, just in time as the room darkened.

“What are you doing?” Keesipip asked, turning to look at Hati as the culprit.

Trin on the other hand held less of a worried-curious disposition and more of an annoyed one; losing his patience with the dark warg.


—
In the dead realm…


Jaeger laid on Adrianna’s back without complaint, content to let his vision spin and head ache as they went.

After a long pawful of minutes of traveling a low “psst” came from a high branch of a nearby tree.

“Jaeger. Hey Jaeger. Are you dead?” The voice whispered down to the group of animals. The voice belonged to none other than Merlida, her pink pelt becoming easily visible as the mermaid crept to the end of the branch to get a clear look at the tom.

“Is he dead?” Merlida pointed the question to the group of animals accompanying Jaeger when no immediate answer was given.
 
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