Her hair no longer had its normal curls and bounciness. It hung depressingly and straight. And her eyes weren't the normal glassy, bright blue ones. The pupils had contracted, and the eyes themselves had a disturbing, sadistic look in them.
Before I could think to do anything, she kicked the cart as hard as she could, and I watched it barrel into Luna hard, knocking her on the ground outside the kitchen.
"Luna!" I shouted as I rushed over to her.
"Pinkie! What're ya-" Applejack was cut off as Pinkie Pie grabbed a pan and whacked her in the head, causing her to collapse to the floor, unconscious.
Rarity cowered as Pinkie pulled a large knife from a drawer and tried to visciously stab Rainbow Dash. Dash saw it coming and quickly dodged out of the way, using her wings to boost her speed.
"What are you doing, Pinkie?!" she asked, panicked.
"Oh, you think you're sooo fast with those wings of yours, don't you?" Pinkie asked, ignoring the question, "Let's see how fast you are when I cut them off!"
She lunged at Dash once more, and missed again.
I saw people fleeing the area and I heard Luna whispering to me.
"Go... help them..." she said weakly before passing out.
"Luna? Luna, c'mon. Wake up," I said, trying to shake her back to consciousness. When I failed to do so, I ran back into the kitchen to try and subdue Pinkie Pie.
I returned as Pinkie knocked Rainbow Dash onto her back and sat on her chest, pinning her down completely.
Rainbow Dash had tears of fear and panic running down her face as Pinkie raised the knife high above her head.
"Pinkie, please! Don't do this!" Rarity shouted in terror.
"Shut it! Or do you want me to come over there and chop that horn off?"
Venom was dripping off of every word. I shivered at the sadistic, evil tone in her voice.
She shot me a sideways glance, and in her eyes I saw a deep, red-orange color in the pupils. A deep, red-orange color.
"Oh, God..." I muttered. To which Pi- Vesania -replied.
"... And we have a winner," he said before bringing the knife down on Rainbow Dash.
"No!" she screamed, and I shut my eyes and waited for the disgusting sound of flesh being torn, and the choking sound of life leaving the body.
Instead, I heard a "clang" and a lack of choking. I dared to open my eyes, but when I did, I did not see a bloody mess; I saw Rainbow Dash, unharmed and hyperventilating, with a transparent, light-purple, parabolic shield hovering a couple of inches above her body, covering her upper torso and head area. I turned my head to see Rarity's horn glowing the same color as the shield. I looked back to see Vesania, looking dumbstruck at the barrier.
"Hmm..." he said, before stabbing it three more times, frightening Dash and making Rarity flinch each time. He then shot an irritated glare at Rarity.
"That's it; the horn comes off!"
He got up and lunged at Rarity inhumanly fast.
Thanks to my close proximity to her, I ran over and blocked a potential slash to her face with my forearm, catching his own arm just in time.
Vesania grabbed at my throat, and I grabbed his other arm so that he and I were locked together for a few seconds.
I managed to force a few words out to Rarity.
"R... Rarity... Help... hngh! Others..."
She quickly rushed over to Dash and helped her up. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Big Mac rush into the room. He was just about to attack Vesania to aid me, but I made a swift gesture for him to rush and help move Applejack out of the room.
As my eyes began to glaze over, I saw four blurs of white, blue, orange, and red run out the door of the kitchen, the red one carrying the orange one.
In a near-blind rage, I kicked Vesania across the room and heard him hit the counter.
When my vision recovered, I grabbed him by the top of Pinkie's dress and threw him against the back wall, still holding him, and pulled back a fist.
"Ah, ah, ah..." he said, wagging his finger at me.
"And why the hell not?!" I yelled, wanting to tear him apart.
"This is still Pinkie Pie's body, isn't it?" he said matter-of-factly.
But in truth, in all the confusion of the moment, plus my own personal turmoil and hatred, I had forgotten that Pinkie was being possessed, and was still present.
"What did you do with her?!"
"Oh, just the same thing I did to you. She's just floating around in here, watching everything unfold. Ya got a front row seat to all the carnage, sweetie!" he said to the invisible, intangible Pinkie, "You can't see her right now, but I'd like to let you know that she's bawling her eyes out over by the sink. Isn't that right, girlie?"
"Shut up!"
I lost my senses and threw him out the door and into the ballroom.
The normal partygoers had all either left or were evacuated from the area. Now, it was only Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Luna (semi-conscious), several royal guards, Big Mac, and Applejack, still unconscious.
As Vesania flew out of the kitchen, all of them (the awake ones, at least) jumped in surprise. Rainbow actually backed away a few feet.
The guards all drew their swords in a defensive pose and backed everyone closer to the walls of the ballroom. One edged closer to him with an outstretched hand as he got back on his feet.
"Ma'am, I'm gonna have to ask you to give me the knife... Just hand me the knife."
I saw the guard get closer to him than I would've liked.
"Wait, stop! Don't get near hi-I mean-her!" I shouted as I stepped out of the kitchen towards them.
Just then, Vesania looked back at me and gave me a disgusting smile that none of the others could see. Then he looked back at the guard.
"H-He tried to kill me!" he said to the guard, beginning to sound fearful and panicked, and crying uncontrollably, "I-I got the knife away from him, but th-then he threw me against the wall and tried to hit me! Please, please don't let him kill me!" he shouted, throwing himself against the guard and crying into his chest.
Out of context, I would've applauded such fantastic thespianism.
"That's not what happened!" I warned, "She-"
"Stay back!" the guard said, pointing his sword at me and holding Vesania's head to his chest.
"Don't worry, ma'am. This guy's not gonna hurt you."
"Don't listen to her! That's not what happened!" Rarity shouted.
Just then, I heard Vesania say something to the guard; totally dropping the helpless woman act.
"Y'know, it's funny how a man will do anything for a pretty young woman..."
He raised the knife that he was still holding above his head.
"Watch out!" someone yelled, though I couldn't tell who.
The guard looked at Vesania, and he brought the knife down quickly, aiming for the guard's neck.
Rarity shrieked, and I tried to tackle Vesania, but then we saw a transparent, dark blue orb materialize around Vesania's hand, holding it suspended in mid-air.
He looked at it, and then at Rarity, very angry now.
"What did I say?! No interference, you prissy little-"
"It's not her..." a voice said.
It wasn't loud, but it echoed through the room, catching everyone's attention.
Luna.
She was awake now, and she was angry.
Her horn was glowing, and she quickly levitated the fear-stricken guard away before restraining Vesania's other hand, then positioning him with his hands above his head and his feet dangling.
"Oh dear... It seems you've caught me..." he said sarcastically.
She stood up and looked at him with resentment in her eyes.
And then, without a word, a blast of energy shot from her horn and was heading for Vesania.
In under half a second, I thought of two things:
1. If she was trying to injure Vesania physically with the blast, it would only end up damaging Pinkie.
2. If the blast was meant to expel Vesania from her body, then he would be free to devour everyone in the room.
"No, Luna don't-"
But it was too late. The blast had passed through Vesania and dissipated behind him.
He hung limp for a good ten seconds before his foot twitched. Then his entire- no -Pinkie's body began convulsing, and a thick, black liquid began dripping from her mouth.
"Oh no..." Luna said, "I-I didn't mean to- I was trying to get him out of her... What's happening?"
I ran over to Pinkie's front and examined her.
"Luna, stay calm. Get rid of these... uh, restraints," I said, referring to the blue orbs around Pinkie's hands.
When they were gone, I gently set Pinkie on the ground.
The same black smoke from earlier came rolling out of her facial orifices, and her eyes filled up with pitch blackness.
Vesania was getting out again.
"What's happening to her?" Luna asked.
"Vesania is getting out. He's escaping Pinkie's body," I answered.
The guards all stood frozen with terror as the smoke spread out over the ceiling of the room, and that jack-o-lantern face started to take shape in the center of it.
My attention was firmly on Pinkie; I had to make sure that she was alright. She had to be alright. She had to.
The smoke stopped emerging from her face, and remained mostly static on the ceiling.
I was then accompanied by Rarity, Dash, the newly conscious and terribly confused Applejack, and Luna.
"Would someone mind fillin' me in on what's goin' on here?!" AJ asked.
"Vesania possessed Pinkie and tried to kill you all," I said with incredible bluntness.
"Oh," was all she could say to that.
Rainbow Dash leaned over Pinkie and dripped tears on her face.
"P-Pinkie? A-Are you there?" she asked, stroking her friend's face, "You're gonna come out alright. You're gonna be fine, okay?"
Pinkie's face twitched, and she started to open her eyes.
Rainbow Dash gasped.
"Pinkie?!"
Pinkie's eyes snapped open, and after looking around frantically at her friends, her eyes welled up with tears as she shot up and hugged Rainbow Dash and intensely.
"I'm (sob) so... sorry! He made me do it! (sob) I couldn't... stop him!"
"It's okay, Pinkie. No one's blaming you for this," I tried to console her. It was an absolute shower of tears, which I completely understood, but I was more concerned with the problem that was looming over us right now.
"What's going on here- Aaahh!"
A familiar voice shouted from behind a line of guards.
Twilight.
I looked over and saw Twilight, accompanied by Celestia and Fluttershy. Fluttershy was hiding behind a barricade of her hair, preceded by the Princess. They all looked up in fear of the evil cloud hovering over them.
"Stay back!" I warned. I then turned to the others, "Okay, I know you're all sad, but we have to get away from here as fast as possible okay? I don't know what's gonna happen and I don't want to find out."
Just then, Twilight rushed over to the scene.
"What's going on?!"
"I'll explain later, just stay away. This isn't safe."
Once they all got the message, I rushed them out of the vicinity. Pinkie had to be carried by Dash.
"Awww... Leaving so soon?" Vesania taunted, "But things are just getting good..."
He said the last word with disturbing sensuality.
When all the others were outside, I noticed that Luna wasn't there with us. I turned around and saw her still in the ballroom, conversing with Celestia. Celestia saw me and gestured for me to come over.
I told the others to stay put, and obeyed the order.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Is that... Is that-"
"Vesania? Yeah, that's him," I said bluntly.
Celestia had lost her calm, and was now just nerves and confusion.
"Yep! The one and only!" Vesania said.
Just then, we all heard a deep rumbling coming from him, "Ugh, all that sugar left a bad taste in my mouth. That pink one should watch her diet.
Blech... I need something to wash this out."
I noticed him eyeing the guard that he nearly stabbed earlier.
"I suppose you'll do..."
"Wait, don't!" I shouted. But in an instant, a massive black smoke-pillar shot down from Vesania's smoky mass and landed on the helpless guard, slamming him to the ground. Just as quickly, the pillar retracted back into Vesania's cloud, with the guard attached to the end, prying at black, wispy fingers.
The cloud morphed and enveloped the guard on the ceiling, and we heard screams of fear and agony and pain echo in the ballroom. We saw limbs flail and writhe within the spastic and convulsing cloud.
Then there was silence.
There was horrible, mocking silence. Silence that may have been worse to hear than the screaming.
The cloud stopped moving, and we held our breaths.
Then, a gray-and-gold object hit the floor disgustingly. The guard.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a guard drop his sword and run away as fast as he could.
Black liquid began hitting the floor, and I saw something moving within the cloud.
The dripping grew more and more insistent as a wet-looking black mass started- I don't even know if there's a word for it. Oozing? Slinking? Emerging from the cloud and moving towards the floor.
The blob of matter had moving bulges on it, and from one of them an arm, a massive, black, disgusting arm resembling the cross between dead wood and stone, shot out and eased the rest of the blob to the ground.
From the other bulges, limbs of the same substance emerged, creating a roughly humanoid, headless creature of lanky, gargantuan stature.
I saw visible vertebrae rise out of where the neck should've been. That black liquid started practically crawling up the exposed vertebrae and took the shape of Vesania's angular head with the horny crown and jack-o-lantern face.
He stood erect, towering over all of us. He opened his red eyes and surveyed the line of guards, and licked his lips.
"Boo."