"Pick at random, but no parents, pregnants, or children. Understood?", I told my squad. "Sedate and extract. That's what we're here for". Doing this every month, it's become a sort of celebration, or party every time we do it. As soon as it's midnight, we go in, grab the ponies, feed the hive, and return the ponies to their houses before morning. "Twelve thirty eight. Spread out." We split up and went to work. I took a northeastern route. Going up to windows and looking for ponies who lived alone, I found a stallion that was probably in his twenties. I cast a spell to let me walk through walls, entered the house and released the spell. Quietly walking over to him, I noticed he had a helmet that was very similar to the kind my hive manufactured set on his nightstand. I picked up the helmet and looked inside it. There was a faint turquoise stain. I glared at the sleeping stallion. "Damn you trophy hunters", I whispered. I looked down at the helmet in my hooves. This was a scout helmet, but the muzzle plate was missing. Probably broke when he killed my scout, I thought. I looked around for the weapon and saw a sheathed short sword. I cast a spell that caused the sword to crumble into rust powder inside the sheath. Turning the helmet towards me and resting the brow of it on my forehead, I stood there for a few moments. My eyes closed, in respect for my fallen friend. I didn't bring my own helmet this time, so I put it on. I then cast a spell to fully sedate the stallion before walking over to the bed a picking him up. I carried him out the front door and closed it quickly behind me. I teleported the stallion and myself to the rendezvous point and set him down. The female that fell into the hole was the next to arrive. She dropped a middle aged male unicorn on the ground then noticed the helmet on my head. She looked at me with worry. I relaxed and nodded. No verbal communication was needed for she lightly bowed with her eyes closed. By the time the other nineteen members showed up, it was almost one thirty. Time was of the essence. I gestured for the squad to teleport to the hive.
I waited for the rest of the group to leave before I did. Unfortunately, just before I cast the teleportation spell, I saw a flash of dark red in my left peripheral vision. I drew my knife just in time to block a sword from piercing my skull. A bloodling! Damnit, I thought they lived in the northern part of the Everfree? What's one doing all the way down here? The attacker came after me again, but with a slash attack. I easily skimmed the blade with the armor on my left front leg before stabbing the attacker's shoulder causing them to drop the sword. I twisted around them and held them in a headlock with my knife at their throat. The transparent red blood slowly dripped from the wound. "Explain yourself!", I yelled.
A raspy voice replied, "We're all gonna die soon. Might as well speed up the process"
"What does that mean?!"
"Shit, man. I don't know. I was sound asleep when this voice told me to kill some 'ling named Barnes or whatever. And if I didn't succeed, I would be slowly killed, but if i did it would be quick and painless. So if I'm gonna die, I'd rather not feel it."
"I'll give you a choice. You stay in a cell until we figure out what's going on, or I can painlessly kill you now", I told him.
"Just do it now. I don't want that voice coming after me", he responded.
"Are you sure?", I asked him.
"Yes"
I stabbed the knife into his skull right before twisting his neck causing a dull cacking sound easily audible in the silence of night.