>"FUCK! OW! GOD... DAMN..."
>You start, looking around in panic for a moment before recognizing the voice, relieved.
>It's just Anon, that paradoxical combination of underreaction and overreaction.
>Trotting toward the stream of invectives, you begin looking for your wayward human friend.
>Whenever he injures himself he'll cuss like nothing else on Equestria, but always refuses any serious medical attention, claiming "he's had worse".
>Sometimes you can't imagine what could have qualified as worse, or how he can "walk off" some of his injuries.
>One time, he caught one of his front legs on the edge of a nail sticking out of your doorframe and tore a two-hoof-long gash right in front of you.
>You were understandably worried he wouldn't make it to the hospital, but he just calmed you down, walked over to your sink, rinsed it out, and tore a strip off his shirt to wrap it with.
>Allegedly humans are made of pretty tough stuff compared Equestrians.
>It makes sense though, he would have to be to survive.
>Some of his stories about "Earth" still send chills down your back.
>Poverty, starvation, unprovoked violence...
>In some places, humans had to walk around with tools designed specifically to kill another human just to be safe from one another.
>He always refused to elaborate on any of those tools, claiming he didn't want to introduce "trench warfare" to Equestria.
>Even when you pressed him, he wouldn't say a word about that "trench warfare" either.
>It bothers you, not knowing something, but he said it's for the best and Twilight Sparkle trusts her friends.
>As you round the corner, you call out to him in a gentle voice.
"Anon, what happened this time?"
>You freeze as his body comes into sight.
>He's lying on the ground muttering, but what holds your sight is the stream of rich, red blood flowing down his face.
>Oh no.
>no no no no no
"ANON!"
>"Don't shout in my ear, I'm fine."
"YOU ARE NOT FINE! YOU'RE DYING!"
>"Who's the local human expert again? Oh right, me. I diagnose the human with a small cut."
"That's not a small cut!"
>"Head injuries bleed a lot and make it look worse. Trust me, I'm fine."
"Anon we're going to go see Redheart RIGHT NOW!"
>"Fuck OFF Twiggles."
>You light your horn and begin casting a simple medical scanning spell.
>"Twilight, don't do a stupid!"
>You don't hear him.
>You're gagging as you see for the first time what truly lies within your friend.
>A parasite has set root in him.
>The huge, wrinkled blob of fat sits nestled in a spiderweb, right where every living being's soul should be.
>You can't find Anon's soul.
>It ate Anon.
>As your horn brightens and you firm up your grip, the thing inside the body of your friend starts screaming in agony.
>You teleport it out.
>Instantly Anon's body goes limp, but it doesn't matter... it hasn't been Anon for a while, has it?
>With the thing held in your telekinetic grasp, now visible to your eye, you can observe just how insidious it really is.
>Tendrils have spread out to follow every single mana channel in his body, splitting and splitting to consume even the slightest wisp until they were smaller than you could see.
>Your vision compelled to trace them backward, you see the worm-like strands collect into thicker and thicker bundles, ropy strings of flesh carrying stolen mana back to their source.
>The body of the parasite.
>It's more disgusting than anything even a deranged soul like Chrysalis could imagine.
>Shriveled, like one of the deflated balloons always left in the aftermath of a Pinkie Party.
>Anon will never be able to attend another Pinkie Party.
>Because this thing ate him.
>How long had this been sitting inside him, eating him from the inside out?
>Had his speech been stolen first?
>Every time he injured himself, was it a call for help, hoping a scan would reveal this thing stealing Anon from you?
>No wonder the parasite had talked up "Anon's" resistance to injury, no wonder "Anon" had such a large pain tolerance.
>Anon's pain meant nothing to this thing.
>Another thought strikes you.
>The wretch floating in front of you looks near fully grown.
>Of course it does, it gorged itself on Anon's essence until there was nothing left.
>And once a parasite reaches adulthood, it reproduces.
>You imagine the parasite swelling up to its full size with children, bursting out of Anon's head as you rear up to hug him.
>You imagine a parasite squirming up your nose, as you desperately try to tear it out.
>You imagine the parasite supping on your mana, as it slowly grows inside you and you slowly grow dimmer.
>You imagine walking up to Princess Celestia, and beckoning her closer before your parasite explodes out of your hollow body, infecting the Princess.
>You vomit.
>With a twist of your mana the abomination hovering in front of you is incinerated, and the ash transmuted to water vapor.
>Leaving Anon's long-dead body behind, you gallop toward the train station.
>The Princess will know what to do.
>She has to.