Reverence

Rockslide’s eyes opened. It was early morning, at about eight o’clock. He got up, headed into the guest room, moved the wardrobe, then went down the staircase.

“Rooooose, get up.” he said a little too cheerfully.

He watched as she stirred, her wounds less evident. She’d been healing all night, until eventually having passed out.

"Now Rose, what have I told you about abusing your healing privilege?" He said as he stalked closer to the unicorn.

Roseluck sat up quickly. "I’m sorry! Please don't hurt me… I-I won't do it again…” Rose pleaded weakly. "I only meant to use enough magic to dull the pain so I could sleep."

Rockslide shrugged and brandished a machete out from his cloth of tools. He stared at her and raised it. “You were fun, really. I almost don’t want to have to do this, but I’ve practically broken you to the point of no return.” He started to bring the blade down.

"Wait! Please no, I have a proposal… Please, don't kill me just yet…”

Rockslide lowered the blade. “I’m listening. Make it count.”

She slid back a pace. “If you’ll let me live, I’ll…” Rose faltered. She couldn’t believe what she was about to suggest. “I’ll… Help.”

Rock cocked his head. "And by this, you mean… What, exactly?”

She sighed. “Are you… Are you going to do this to another pony…?”

He nodded.

“Let me help, in exchange for-” she began, but was interrupted.

“Alright, assistant. Stay here, don’t get into anything you shouldn’t be. I’ll be back with a little something.” He turned and then hesitated. Rock said over his shoulder, “If you try to escape, I’ll kill you without hesitation. Capturing you last night was easy, so obviously the process can be repeated.”

Rose swallowed a lump in her throat, then said meekly, "U-understood."

Rockslide continued up the stairs and moved the wardrobe back. He didn’t expect it to stop her, but maybe she’ll obey him. He trotted out of the house and made his way out of town. Ponies bustled about, and he spotted the children at the schoolyard. He was good with names and knew most citizens in town; his next target was the one that stood out to him: Applebloom.
He set his creative ideas aside and trekked to the Everfree Forest. The entire trip took fifteen minutes to Zecora’s hut.

He knocked, she opened. It was almost like Rockslide was civil.

“Good morning, Rockslide. What service can I provide?”

He looked around. “I need a potion of sorts. Something to increase the power of a unicorn’s magic.”

The zebra cocked a brow and pulled various things down from shelves; flowers, other potions, powders, the like. Things you’d expect to see in Zecora’s hut. She unceremoniously tossed things into a kettle started mixing and hammering with what appeared to be a big pestle.

“What will you be doing with this potion? You have yet to give me a notion.”

Rock just shrugged. “It’s just a personal thing between… Me and a friend.” He silently hoped Zecora wouldn’t give the hesitation any thought. She didn’t, instead placing the newly-made elixir in a bag and hoofing it over.

“No need to pay; I’m feeling generous today.”

The grey earth pony thanked her and left, eager to tell Roseluck his evolving plan for the fillynapping. Hiking through the forest, Rockslide stumbled across a field of Poison Joke. He grinned and picked a few by the stems, placing them face-down in the bag. The stallion’s thoughts slowly rotated until he thought of what drove him to this. Loss and pain. Suffering to the point where he had been admitted to counseling with the princesses.

He hoofed it out of the forest and down the dirt road back to the town, mentally making preparations and arranging them processionally in a neat and concise order.

***

Roseluck pushed the wardrobe aside and slowly made way into the kitchen, hobbling on three legs. She opened drawers and cabinets in search of silverware. After a minute or so of looking, she procured a steak knife and held it in her teeth, closing everything back before waddling her way to the bedroom where she assumed Rockslide slept. The covers were askew and there were item perched atop a dresser at the foot of the bed. Rose wedged the blade in-between the mattress frame and the dresser, making certain it wouldn’t be seen unless the furniture was moved for some reason.

Everything was in place. Rose went into the guest room and stood on the stairs, deciding the best course of action as far as pulled the wardrobe back into place. She went down the staircase and picked up the screwdriver that had nearly lobotomized her. The cream-colored mare trotted up and positioned the driving-end under the lip of the wardrobe, slowly bringing it to its place in front of the door. It got within inches of its original place before the lip snapped. It had been hastily and poorly glued on.

Rose swore. “Think, Roseluck…” Then it hit her. She dropped the screwdriver and went back down to the basement, where she grabbed a few nails from their box and the hammer. Up again, Rose used the screwdriver to hold the lip still, slightly elevated so the nails could catch the backside of the furniture. No, that wouldn’t work.

“Mother of fuck!”

Rockslide would notice the lip sticking out. Another idea came to her. She paced around the wardrobe and opened it. Empty. Perfect. Mixing magic and strength, Rose very carefully laid the wardrobe down on its front, so the bottom was given a wide enough birth to hammer the nails in. She held the light-weight lip in its correct position with her magic and balanced a nail on her hoof.

“This leg is useless…” With that, Rose held the nail up with her magic as well, tiring her out. With her good foreleg, which was no longer broken due to the continuous healing all night, she hammered the nail in. The mare repeated the process until three of the metal spikes were holding the lip in place. Problem solved. Roseluck relied on her own strength to stand the wardrobe back up, which was difficult and made her back ache.

Nevertheless, the job was done. Now, to try again with the screwdriver.

***

Rockslide unlocked the front door and trotted in, setting the bag on the kitchen counter, but taking the vial. He made way to the guest room and moved the furniture away from the door. He approached Rose. She was sitting in the chair she’d been tortured in, looking a little defeatedly at the mess on the floor. He whistled and gave her the potion.

“Drink some of that.”

She obliged, and suddenly looked a bit less tired.

“Heal up. We’re going out tonight to get our new friend.”

Rose nodded as her horn glew, the pain subsiding and the wounds stitching themselves back together. Rockslide sat on the stairs and watched her. I was ready to kill this creature. Beyond the physical damage she’d sustained… He sighed and turned to go back up the stairs.
She’s beautiful.

***

Night fell upon Equestria. Applebloom had been trying to sleep. She was awake even until after everypony else went to bed. The filly heard her window open. She turned and looked at it, but saw nopony.

“Hello-?” she began, but was promptly knocked out.

She awoke bound to a chair in a concrete box of sorts with a minor headache. It was a medium-sized room with a mix of liquids around the chair, and some kind of shiny wheeled table a few feet away with various tools and a vise drilled into it. The table’s thin metal was warped where the vise was put in place. It was probably supposed to be blue at some point, but the paint was pale and flaking and it was rusty in some places.

Applebloom looked around. “Hello?!” She struggled.

Rockslide trotted around her and pulled the metal table closer so the vise was lined up with her face. He didn’t say anything as he slammed the young pony’s head into the table. She exclaimed and teared up.

“W-why did you-”

He did it again, this time speaking. “Shut up.”

Applebloom protested. “Let me go!”

Rockslide glanced at Rose, who was looking away and trying to ignore the situation. He’d make her help later. For now, Rock bent Applebloom forward and clamped her lower set of teeth into the vise. She started to struggle, but stopped due to a slight pain in her jaw. The stallion grinned and starting turning the spindle. The clamp started closing. The filly’s teeth began pressing into her gum and jaw. She shouted.

One cracked. Then three. The first four broke as the metal jaws tightened. Blood flowed from her mouth and onto the table. It continued closing as Rock spun the spindle, delighted to hear the screams coming from the pony. She finally pulled free from the machine missing several teeth, crying pitifully. Rock punched her in the lower lip, the sound of cracked teeth breaking further clear to him. He opened up the vise enough to stick a snout into it. Rock lifted the cloth in order to grab two small but powerful magnets. He pushed Applebloom forward again and put the first under her tongue, securing her jaw to the metal jaw that slid back and forth according to the spindle. He placed the second magnet on the roof of her mouth, sticking her snout to the stationary jaw.

Applebloom attempted to say something, but it was futile. Rock began spreading the jaws of the vise again. The Apple’s own jaws followed suit to the point where it was painful. She start making noise as her lower jaw was pulled at. Rockslide turned harder against the resistance, and something snapped. Applebloom screamed to a deafening point. Somepony outside was bound to hear, and Roseluck was surprisingly the first to take initiative. She wrapped her forelegs around Applebloom’s neck and choked, shutting the filly up. Rose let go.

Rock watched as she sat back down without a word. He grinned at Applebloom. “Little filly’s got some tough lungs. Don’t get me wrong,” he says as he leans in. “I’ll kill you next time you do that.”

Those words instilled fear into Applebloom. She just nodded before he patted her cheek.

“Now, we’re going to play a game.” He brandished his machete and made Apple scoot forward slightly. Then he very precisely cut off her tail. She screamed; not nearly as loud, but she screamed as a trickle of blood came out and pooled in the floor. Rockslide was a little upset.

He grabbed a small knife from the table and opened her mouth with the other hoof. She thrashed just before being pressed into the back of the seat. Quickly, Rockslide made two cuts in the back of her throat. He felt her gag reflexively. Applebloom started coughing up blood. Her lips and chin were red, and she found she couldn’t raise her voice above a whisper without it hurting. She coughed again.

Rock had an idea, and backed up several paces. “Rose, you take the show.”

She nodded. Rose’s mind wasn’t entirely intact then; she wanted to do to others what was done to her. She took a wrench and gripped the filly’s lower jaw with it. A worried expression plastered itself on Applebloom’s face. Roseluck pulled. Hard. AB jerked forward, put the flesh didn’t give. She moaned in pain, unable to stop crying. Rose tried again and again. She sighed. I don’t think a wrench is gonna cut it- Cut it. Good job, Rose.

She put the wrench down and picked up the knife, and began cutting the flesh away at the joint of the jaw. Applebloom bucked and struggled, so the mare kept missing. Just meant more blood and pain until she saw bone. She did, eventually, and went to the other side. The blade traveled through the young pony’s flesh, listening to her choked and broken screams. It was too pitiful to be classified as a scream to an outsider, but Roseluck recognized the sound.

One could say she knew what Applebloom was going through.

Rose pulled at her jaw with the wrench again. Harder and with a strange delight. She almost smiled to herself when the flesh tore with a sick sound. The wrench was still attached to the jaw; she tossed both across the room. Blood was flowing freely down her neck and dripping onto her chest. Roseluck sighed.

“We need to cauterize these wounds…” She magicked over the lighter from the table and lit it. “This is going to hurt you a lot more than it’ll hurt me.”

Rockslide smirked. She was using one-liners. Priceless.

The unicorn held the little pony’s head still while the lighter burned the wound bit by bit. Applebloom was trying to raise her voice as best she could, but it was futile. The only solace in making noise was to react to the pain. If it was any less intense she’d black out. That would be awfully nice, wouldn’t it?

Roseluck tossed the lighter away. The meat was seared and black, and the blood had stopped coming out. She went around to where blood was still coming from where Applebloom’s tail was previously. Rose pressed a nail against the spot, then hammered it in. Very shortly only the head was visible, and it blocking the flow of viscera. However, the Apple had managed to shit herself earlier. The smell wasn’t noticed right away due to the mess left by the earlier night.

Rockslide pried the wrench and jaw apart, then used the wrench to break the bone up until he got a sharp piece. He trotted to Applebloom and ordered Rose to hold her still. AB’s breath was jumpy like she’s been through intense agony or something. Using the edged part of the broken bone, Rock started cutting the filly’s nostril flaps. She thrashed and sat back, passing out. No more energy.

Rock picked up the filly’s shit with his cloth and smushed it into her nose. She awoke almost instantly, rocking and shaking her head. She was trying to speak, something along the lines of, “Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew!”

Rose untied Applebloom’s left hoof and locked it in the viscera-covered vise. She turned the spindle to bear down on the appendage. She felt better when the hoof collapsed inward and cracked to the point of piercing the tissue around it. Rose untightened the jaws and cut the meat and bones at the softest point between the hoof-shrapnel and the limb. Rockslide silently worked on plucking the shards from the meat as Rose made a shallow cut in AB’s skin.

The filly started to move her hoof out of the way, but Roseluck magicked the foreleg to it would stay stationary. She made a long cut up the limb with the knife held horizontally; she was flaying the poor girl. Applebloom screamed for the first time in several minutes. Her throat had a scream of its own as the brain received intense pain signals. The sharp weapon trailed along smoothly, removing the skin and occasionally hitting a major blood vessel. She did this until the entire leg was red.
Rock starting stabbing the splinters and shards of hoof into Applebloom’s unveiled meat, who was shaking and throwing her weight around. The two adults backed up as AB rocked the chair onto its side. She hit her head on the concrete floor with a quiet crack. Rockslide finally cut the weak filly free, then ordered Roseluck to press Applebloom’s tongue to her chest. Rose obeyed, using her magic, because she had a slight idea of what Rockslide had in mind. His plan was to nail the tongue to the lung sternum; the long bone in the middle that connected the rest of the ribs.

He balanced the nail and pounded away at it. Applebloom kicked him in the gut on the final hammering. She crawled away on her back, using her good hoof to try and dislodge the nail. Rose stepped around the groaning Rockslide, who had been hit pretty hard. She dragged a sledgehammer out from the bottom rack of the metal table. She aimed carefully and swung wide, the head of the heavy tool slamming into the filly’s snout. The nose was crushed, and the hammer-head sunk through the bone with a lot of unpleasant noises.

The girl was still, but Roseluck really wanted to be sure. So she continually smashed the hammer into the farm pony's head. Before long her brains were spread ubiquitously on the ground. She dropped the tool and vomited onto the corpse. Rockslide chuckled and patted her back.

It was a good night.

Author's Note

A new chapter, even more gore, hope you enjoyed.

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And any complaints will be erased