Morbid Curiosity

Twilight dashed around ecstatically, making somewhat crude drawings but with annotations far beyond her age. She was so happy, knowing that the Princess would approve of her seeking out knowledge. She looked out her own drawings, displeased with her utensils. While a quill would have been better, she decided that crayon would do for now. She dashed around her object of study, darting back and forth to get a good angle for her diagrams. Where had she left that spare parchment...?

Celestia didn't like the idea of it, but she had to perform her own investigations into these things, but for the sake of rumors she had to keep something this odd under her metaphorical hat. If things like this got out, Canterlot would fall into panic. She made her way down the Canterlot royal hospital into the morgue. It certainly smelled as the reports described, but nothing could prepare her for what she'd find in the freezer.

The young Twilight was unsure of what was coming down the stairs to greet her, but she didn't care. The notes she had made would impress anypony! It wasn't as if she'd made any mistakes...

Celestia was able to stomach the sight of mutilation, she had a stronger constitution than most, but what really got to her was the smell. Visions could be blocked from the mind, but the smell was what truly engraved a memory into the brain. The freezer was lit up like a winter tree... this was either a complete psycho, who didn't care about being caught, or it was a fool. But it wasn't a fool. The perpetrator was the single most intelligent filly she had ever met.

***

"Princess, Princess!" Twilight cried, immediately running over to Celestia, almost tripping over herself in the process. "Princess, look what I did!" Twilight said, proud of herself and brandishing a few of her drawings. Celestia simply stared over Twilight's head, her mouth slightly agape. She just... stared.

Celestia's entire body went numb. How could Twilight do this? Celestia's entire mind was cannibalizing it's own thoughts to try and justify what she was seeing. A young beaming Twilight looking so happily up at her, her drawings scattered haphazardly at her hooves. Then, on the table, was a completely cut up young stallion, hospital utensils covered in blood put haphazardly around the body... if you could call it that any more. Twilight had just butchered a dead body, with a sound mind and an intent to do so; this was by all means a crime. Surely, surely she didn't know it was wrong, she just wasn't old enough. "Yes, yes, it's fine" Celestia told herself. "She just saw this as the best way to learn. I... I can sweep this under the rug. It's just a one-off, a; a..."

Twilight was slightly puzzled by Celestia's stance. Staring? What was she staring at? Her "project"? Maybe she was interested in how she'd got such good notes. Celestia spoke slowly, stuttering a little. "It's... not..." Celestia put out one of her wings and hugged Twilight with it. "You're not supposed to be down here Twilight..." Celestia said, already beginning to lead Twilight out of the freezer.
"Did you not like my notes?" Twilight asked, concerned for her anatomy grade. "No, no Twilight, they were good," Celestia responded, still not blinking and staring straight ahead. She was going to have one hell of a night trying to clean this up.

*3 Years Later*

Twilight was rushing around her room. Exams were today: Physics, Cosmology and... Anatomy. "Anatomy, anatomy..." Twilight muttered to herself, searching through her drawers to find any notes she had on the subject. Last 5 years would do fine. She emptied the drawer onto her desk, and immediately began flicking through her old studies to jog her memory of Pony physiology. 1 year ago, a few copied textbooks... 2 years ago, a few quick thought exercises on the circulatory system... 3 years ago, some diagra... diagrams? Twilight brushed other papers off her desk and studied the diagrams in more detail. Her drawings had improved markedly since then, but Twilight took quiet pride in her annotations, especially at that age. What was she, 7? Well, she was 10 now, and could definitely make more detailed jots on her pad than this. In fact... which text book had this been from? Twilight scanned the various A5 pages, looking for a sign of where she got the information from. After a few brief minutes, mostly being distracted by her own fascinating work (even if she wouldn't admit it to herself), Twilight found a small printed text at the bottom of one of the notes: "Canterlot Royal Hospital". Ah, yes, it all came flooding back to her now. The cold, the stencils, the excitement at all the possibilities she could discover from just a few small incisions... it made her scientific senses tingle just thinking about it. Twilight glanced at the clock - 6:30. She could definitely make a trip to the hospital. Getting into the morgue was going to be a little more difficult, but Twilight was confident in her ability to be able to walk in there without questions. She was the star pupil of the school after all, and nopony would question her reasons for being down there.

Then again, wasn't there some sort of law against doing things to dead bodies? Twilight hadn't taken law (Celestia had said it wouldn't interest Twilight's logical mind) and she had done it before without getting in trouble. Celestia herself had seen the fruits of Twilight's trip to the freezer. "But, wouldn't that look a little odd?" Twilight asked herself. Sometimes, when she did things that others saw as odd, they got angry. Perhaps it were those "morals" Celestia had talked to her about. Morals had never made much sense to Twilight. Why should our perceptions of right and wrong stop people doing what they want? But, Celestia had insisted she stick to some social norms. Some. That was the word Celestia had used. "Well," thought Twilight, "I guess this is one of those times."

***

Twilight stared at the large selection of corpses laid out before her. Her younger self had picked one at random, and was lucky to have gotten such a good sample. But now, wiser for years of teaching, Twilight surveyed each option carefully. She had to consider many things - quality of the body, what injuries or diseases they had sustained, gender, build - so many choices. If she'd had the time, Twilight would have dissected all of them. Alas, needs must thought Twilight. The older specimens had been ruled out - as the body got older, it shriveled. As did those with terminal illnesses that made their bodies die sooner than they should. Large injuries could spoil her study of that part of the body, so gruesome deaths were off the table. That left... 3 subjects. All younger, but adult, 2 females and a male. Middling build, average but varying height. Twilight concluded all of them would suit her purposes fine, and so took the mare whom was slightly shorter than the other. Twilight quickly looked around for her instruments, taking in her surroundings. The entire room was sterile white, the colour adding to the coldness that surrounded Twilight. The floor was a symmetrical tiling, which pleased Twilight's logically based aesthetics. Every tile and body in the room had a place, and so did... ah, there they were. Twilight levitated the entire tray of implements toward her, and examined each of them in detail. "Property of Canterlot Coroner" Twilight read aloud to herself. Well, whomever the Coroner was, they were missing out. "Imagine all the discoveries they're missing out on!" Twilight thought to herself, genuinely disappointed at her lack of a captivated audience. She wanted nothing more than to share her knowledge.

"Well, what's your choice going to be tonight Miss Sparkle?" Twilight asked herself in a mock-up voice of Celestia's. She'd liked Celestia to be here, to see the extent to which she conducted herself... but no matter. Celestia would be able to see the results of Twilight's research.

Each of the tools had a specific purpose - getting through bone, ligament, tissue, poking around the insides. Twilight knew she could make decent use of the scalpel, and so took it with her magic, placing the tray and rest of the utensils gently on the ground by her hooves. Twilight made a quick incision into the left fore-hoof, more to test the instrument rather than of any actual desire to use it effectively. She had another fore hoof to test after all. The scalpel worked just as intended - the flesh slid open with what Twilight thought was a rather satisfying release of force after getting through the initial skin. Twilight, satisfied with the condition of her instrument, set to work.

A complete artist with the scalpel, Twilight took apart the body as if she had been doing it for years. Single incisions along the flesh, and never apply to much pressure to the neck of the tool. First, off came the fore-hooves' protective layer. Next, twilight would use a ply to keep the flap she had created open while she looked inside and sketched what she could see. Another tool to poke around inside and follow where things went, then add that to the sketch. This preamble was all well and good to Twilight, but she knew where the real interesting things of the body lay - the stomach. Most would have thought the smell of exposed organs repulsive, but Twilight took solace in the smell - to her, it was the smell of discovery. Two long slices around the belly, or a single opener down the chest? Twilight was giddy with all the things she could do. Provided she was allowed, she'd like to come back here and do things differently. For now, Twilight had to be decisive. "Open the chest," she thought. "I'll see more of the basic things that way". Twilight did as she envisioned, and soon enough she was digging through entrails, cutting some of them open and seeing what each of them were connected to. She made sketches of each and every one from as many angles as she could, and made mental notes to compare them with actual pictures when she got back to see if she was right about what organs did what. Until then, she was in her element.
Being especially careful to put everything back in it's rightful place, Twilight placed the body back into it's locker, picked up her notes and strolled right out the front door. It had been a productive morning, she decided, and she deserved to have a half hour of fun. What would she do, the whole of Canterlot before her. Taking a quick look over her shoulder, back at the door to the morgue, Twilight knew what she really wanted to do for fun.