He was nailed to a chair.

The burning agony of the steel spikes warred with the biting cold that enshrouded his naked body. He had a fever, his stomach had been cut open and there were fire ants in his innards, biting, chewing, breeding.

A shadow stood over him, all darkness and eyes and teeth framed by a body that seemed neither liquid nor solid, like mercury in water.

“Would you like to be released?” she/he it asked.

He sobbed and wailed that he did.

“Alright,” the Master moved closer and grabbed hold of his hands, its slimy fingers entwining around his own like serpents, “I’ll let you go if you can keep quiet for ten seconds.”

Ryan nodded and was about to mewl an agreement when the Master suddenly bent his pinkie finger backwards, snapping it with enough force to crush the knuckle.

“That’s one.”

Ryan bit his tongue to keep from screaming, his broken teeth immediately drawing blood.

SNAP!!

“That’s two.” giggled the abomination.

CRACK!

“And there’s three...hmmmm….let’s speed this up.”

Ryan’s mind screamed at him to howl, to let his pain be known as if the screaming would make the agony go away.

CRUNCH!! SNAPT!!!

“Four, five aaannnnd-”

CRAK!!!!

“Six”

The Master broke the seventh finger, Ryan’s upper and lower teeth met through his tongue and he screamed, the severed tip of his tongue falling from his bleeding mouth.

“Oh….and you were so close, too. I guess I’ll leave you here for a while longer….but not after I finish what I started.”

The Master laughed and broke another finger.

Ryan’s screamed and placed his hands to his temples, the phantom pain boiling in the marrow of his poor fingers.

Luna, who had been lazily reading a comic book, shot up looked at her charge as he moaned and whimpered.

“What’s wrong?!” she asked, her voice filled with shock and deep worry.

“I don’t know.” sobbed the human, “I just closed my eyes and….and….” he clenched his hands into tight fists and curled up into a ball.

Luna’s eyes widened and her breath hitched at those words.

Oh, sweet Faust no. No, it can’t be, this isn’t happening.

She looked around the room, her eyes alighting on the window: the first rays of her sister’s sun were creeping in, transforming the motes of dust that swirled through the air into miniscule fireflies.

15 hours. she thought, He’s had 15 hours of peace. she turned her head and stared at the door, mentally commanding the doctors to have found a cure. But the door remained shut and the hallway beyond was a silent as a graveyard.

The princess of the night heaved an exasperated sigh and turned back to the human, her jaw set with determination.

“I am not going to watch another minute of your suffering!” she stood up and went to the door, turning back and looking at the shocked human, “Follow me.”

“Where?” asked Zap.

“We’re going to go see my sister.” said Luna as she left the room, the human following at her tail, casting wary looks at every corner.

“I don’t care about what kinds of things have happened to him!” bellowed Minister Gold Bell, his gaunt face livid, “He hurt our ponies, he killed some of them, Celestia. He must be punished!”

There was a chorus of assent at those words.

Princess Celestia looked out at the table of angry faces with a centuries’ worth of practiced impassiveness. Minister Bell’s words rang true, of course. Zap had hurt and killed her ponies and he did need to be punished.

He had been a villain, a monster. But, at the same time, she couldn’t stop herself from pitying the human: she had looked into his eyes and seen a truly disturbing mixture of hopelessness, shame and self-loathing on a level that she hadn’t seen in mortal eyes in decades.

He has the same look in his eyes that those griffon prisoners had after we freed them from the diamond dogs; Seven long years of torture’s worth of misery.

But he isn’t one of us. said the more cynical part of her, Doesn’t that mean that he isn’t bound to the same laws as my little ponies? If so, then will the cabinet demand his head? Should I give it to them if they should ask?

She held back a sigh, No, that’s wrong and you know it. He certainly seems to have payed his dues. You can’t fake a look like that, not ever.

“Princess Celestia, what will your decision be?” asked Minister Bell, snapping her out of her thoughts.

The solar diarch allowed her eyes to roam the table, seeing anger, frustration and sadness in the eyes of her loyal ministers.

Please forgive me for this…

“I say that Zap should be taken to Ponyville to serve his punishment, which will be roughly two-years worth of community service with constant supervision by the Bearers and, should he return to his evil ways, he will be imprisoned in stone.”

There were, as expected, several loud outcries of anger and disappointment, but she silenced them with stern stare and a raised wing.

When the angry muttering died down Celestia said, “I know that you’re all angry, and you have every right to be. But I’ve seen him in person and I can see that he has suffered. The Bearers found him, starved and insane, in a junkyard.”

“And why was he like that?” asked Minister Swift Justice, arching a well-trimmed brow at her.

Celestia sighed out loud, “I don’t know, but I intend to find out. I will report back with my findings when I am able to, does that sound acceptable to you all?”

There were murmurs of assent and Celestia nodded her head, hoping against hope that she had made the right decision.

“-a-and then he s-said that w-we had….ruined his life!”

The crystalline halls of the Palace of Friendship were silent in the wake of the words spoken by a distraught Fluttershy.

She had spent the last hour in tears at what the human had said; Her friends were, understandably, upset on her behalf.

“I can’t believe it!” growled Rainbow Dash, “We helped him and this is the thanks we get?! I oughta fly over their and give him a piece of my mind!”

“Ah agree with Dash.” said Applejack, her mouth set in a grim line, “We need ta teach that ungrateful varmint a lesson!”

“I agree as well.” said Rarity, “What kind of brute would say such a thing, and to poor Fluttershy, at that?”

Twilight noticed the anger in her friends’ faces and moved to stop them before they acted rashly.

“Listen” she said, “I know that what Zap said was mean, but there has to be a logical reason that he said it. He’s scared and sick, maybe he just got frustrated, I mean, Fluttershy did bring up his past crimes, which I’m sure didn’t help him and-”

“So you’re taking his side now?!” asked Rainbow Dash angrily, crossing her hooved over her chest.

“No, no, no. That’s not it at all, I swear!” backpedaled Twilight, “I was just trying to see it from his point of view, that’s what I’ve been taught and it still applies.”

“Yeah, but he’s a bad guy!” argued Dash, “He hurt so many of us and-”

“And he’s trying to make up for it.” said Twilight sternly, “Is that what this is about? Are you going to deny Zap a chance to make up for what he did?”

“He’s a monster, Twilight!” bellowed Dash, getting in her friend’s face, “He came from some other world, blew up half of Canterlot, hurting all of us in the process and killing a couple of ponies while he did it! So yeah, I don’t want him to be redeemed, I want him to get turned to stone and put as far away from everypony as possible!”

A stunned silence fell over the group. Twilight fell on her rump with her jaw hanging slackly, Fluttershy and Rarity looked horrified at the blue speedster’s words, Applejack had turned away and Pinkie Pie-

“Something bad happened to him.”

All gazes fell upon the pink party pony, whose gaze was turned to the floor.

“Yeah, I keep hearing that.” growled Dash.

“I know you have, Dashie.” said Pinkie, her voice soft, “But I think that whatever happened to him wasn’t normal bad, it was-”

“Advanced bad?” cut in Dash with a roll of her eyes.

“No!” barked Pinkie, startling the pegasus, “It’s way, way worse than advanced bad, it’s...it’s horrific. It’s sad and awful and….and I don’t know what it is, but I know what I saw when I looked him in the eye. You know that I’m good with reading emotions, that’s what makes me such a good cheerer-upper, but whatever happened to poor Zap is….it’s…”

“Beyond you?” offered Rarity.

Pinkie nodded.

Dash huffed, “Well good, he probably deserved it!”

All five girls gasped at her words.

“You can’t mean that.” said Fluttershy, “If Pinkie says that it’s beyond her then it must have been terrible!”

“Like I care.” snarled Dash, “Whatever happened to him was probably his fault anyway. He probably got in over his head or something like that.”

“How can you say such things?!” asked Rarity, aghast, “I know that he’s a ruffian, but he can’t have deserved whatever it was that happened to him.”

“I can’t believe you’re taking his side!” bellowed Dash, “I thought you were with me on this.”

“I’m not on his side,” said Rarity, coldly, “I’m on Pinkie’s side.”

Dash grumbled in annoyance and turned to Applejack, “You’re with me on this, right, AJ?”

The farmpony heaved a sigh, “Ah’m not so sure now, sugarcube. Pinkie’s right about bein’ good with emotions. So if’n she says that Zap’s been through Tartarus, then Ah believe her.”

Rainbow Dash threw up her hooves, let out an angry “You’re all too nice to this creep!”, and flew out the nearby window.

Rarity heaved an exasperated sigh, “Well, that could have gone better.”

Fluttershy got to her hooves and dried her eyes, “I need to go after her.” she said, starting for the window.

Applejack held out a hoof, “Give her a bit, sugarcube. She needs some time ta cool off, believe me.”

Fluttershy looked at her friend as he eyes darted between the window and Applejack’s eyes. Finally she sniffled and sat down, drawing her wings tight to her sides; Applejack laid a hoof on her back and began to rub.

“I’m going to contact Celestia and ask her advice about this issue.” announced Twilight.

And so the Princess of Friendship left the room to go find Spike, leaving the remaining Bearers sitting in the silence, contemplating Pinkie’s words and Dash’s actions.

As they drew nearer to Celestia’s chambers, Zap could feel the gazes of the royal guards growing more and more heated; It was obvious to him that, if he were to wander this particular part of the palace without Luna or her sister, he’d be beaten mercilessly by vengeful ponies whose families he had hurt.

I almost wished that they would. he thought sadly, I’m gonna get hurt eventually; The tension is making me sick.

He was abruptly pulled from his thoughts by the warmth of Celestia’s room that flooded in from the opening door, making him realize how cold it was in the hallway.

The Princess of the Sun poked her head out, her face lined with the toils of a hard day, line which disappeared the instant she saw her sister.

“Hello, Lulu!” she said, her smile making Zap feel even warmer.

“Greetings, Tia.” replied Luna with a slightly smaller smile that faded as quickly as it had come.

Celestia looked at the human, then at her sister and her face became grim, “The haven’t figured anything out, have they?”

Luna shook her head and Celestia heaved an exasperated sigh before moving aside and motioning them in.

They entered, and Zap felt his tensed muscles relax slightly, not fully, but enough to be noticed by him. Celestia padded to a massive wall of books on bare hooves, her eyes bright with concentration as she scanned the bindings.

“What are you looking for?” asked Luna.

“I am looking for a very old tome, one of Starswirl’s, it’s called the-”

“The Rytes of Healing the Sicke and Wretchede?” asked Luna, holding the book in question in her blue aura.

“Thank you, sister.” said Celestia with a smarmy smile that earned her a stuck out tongue from her younger sister.

The solar diarch opened the book and began flipping through its yellowed pages. Zap, realizing that he’d have to wait, began to look around the room, taking in the ornate rugs, the myriad portraits that hung on the walls, depicting smiling ponies, griffons, minotaurs, zebras, seaponies and dragons; the massive, crackling fireplace that gave the room its warmth, and….and a very large bed.

A bed with satin sheets as red as blood, a bed just like-

A wave of nausea hit him as the vile memories struck from the darkness of his mind, faster than a serpent and with a bite that burned and then spread, encompassing his frail body like fire.

The world spun as he sank to his knees, the memories of the beatings, the flashing knives peeling his flesh back, the needles in his eyes, the nails in his joints, and that big, red bed that smelled like sex and blood and-

NO!Nonononononodon’tthinkaboutitohlordohlorddon’thinkaboutthepainshamepainPainPAinPAInPAIN!

He didn’t even realize that he had blacked out until he was being shaken awake, until he opened his eyes to see the worried faces of the two princesses looking down at him.

“Are you alright?” asked Celestia, her tone so utterly sincere that it killed any doubts as to how much she cared that the human might have had.

Ryan nodded, although the tears that were rapidly welling up in his eyes told otherwise.

Exchanging saddened looks, the two princesses helped him to his feet and guided him over to a nearby chair; Zap’s gratitude towards the two alicorns for not putting him on that bed was boundless.

After sitting him back and placing a thin blanket over his body Celestia set the book down and lit her horn before looking back up at her charge.

“I was-and still am- wary of using magic on you, considering your….unique anatomy. But I think that it’s time for me to make a gamble, one that will hopefully end up in your favor. This won’t hurt a bit and….if something goes wrong….forgive me?”

That last part was so soft and pleading, and said with so much worry, that Ryan knew that he would forgive Celestia if it came to it, but he hoped that it wouldn’t.

Celestia’s brow furrowed in concentration and the light of her horn grew until it blanketed Ryan’s vision.

The last thing that he thought, before he drifted peacefully off to sleep, was: Oh please, God, please let me sleep well.

And then darkness overtook him and he slept.

Author's Note

I hope that I didn't get too over-the-top with this one in terms of writing, you'll all let me know if I did, right?

Anyway, I hope that you enjoy this chapter and I'll try to get the next one out in due time.

See ya