Five Down

Fluttershy sat on the narrow bed, trying to suppress a sob. She desperately turned her mind to her animals, a book she'd read recently, what she had had for breakfast that day. Anything to avoid thinking about her friends.

It had been more than a week since those policeponies had taken Rainbow Dash away, after she tried to hurt that griffin. It was just so unlike her to just lash out like that. And then Fluttershy had gone to visit Dashie in Canterlot, and they had talked, and then Dashie just leapt from her chair and swung at her! And then those burly stallions had burst in and held Dashie down, and she was yelling and struggling and Fluttershy was sprawled on the ground... What had gotten into her? Rainbow Dash was energetic, yes, and she was boisterous and maybe a bit hot-headed, but this was wrong.

One of the white-coated ponies who worked at the Royal Protective Facility had said that Fluttershy wasn't allowed to come and see Rainbow Dash anymore. Fluttershy was sad when she couldn't see her friend, but... did she really want to?

And then Applejack went and got herself into trouble when she hurt that poor pony who had stopped round Sweet Apple Acres. Big Mac had looked worried when Fluttershy went to see him. He had confided in Fluttershy that, had he not been there to hold Applejack back, he did not know if she would have stopped. The white-coated ponies had turned Fluttershy away again when she tried to visit both her friends in Canterlot.

Two days later, Fluttershy turned up at Rarity's house to find that she was not there. As she went looking around town, she arrived at the market just in time to see the policeponies taking Rarity away as well. Something had fallen out of the unicorn's saddlebag; a piece of paper with several names written on it, Fluttershy's included. She thought that her friend must have been buying a gift or something for the ponies on the list, or maybe she was planning for a new set of clothes. She just didn't know what was so bad about going shopping that they had to take Rarity away. Fluttershy didn't think any more about that until later that day.

The letter had materialised itself in her letterbox just as she was arriving home, a puff of green smoke wisping its way out of the box. Fluttershy read it, skimming over the contents as her mind was on other things. She found it hard to ignore the official-yet-friendly summons from Princess Celestia, however.

A train ride and a walk through a veritable labyrinth of of castle corridors later, Fluttershy found herself and her two remaining friends waiting in an area surprisingly similar to a doctor's waiting room. If such a room had been made out of slightly mossy stone, with nary a magazine in sight. One by one, Pinkie, Twilight and finally Fluttershy herself were called into a second room. A rather nice pegasus who introduced himself as Dr. Open Atlas seated Fluttershy on a couch and asked her a lot of questions, some of them uncomfortably personal. But there was something off, she thought, about the way that the doctor kept on glancing at her neck, out of the corner of his eye.

After Dr. Open Atlas had finished asking his questions, and put away his inky papers, and stopped writing things down on his notepad, Fluttershy was ushered into yet another room. Here a group of white-coated ponies prodded her with bits of metal and waved expensive-looking instruments in her direction. They chipped tiny flakes off her hooves, they scraped skin from her neck, they snipped off little snippets from her feathers. In fact, when they were finished Fluttershy felt distinctively more uncomfortable than when Dr. Open Atlas had been asking his slightly rude questions. That Dr. Silver Shoe looked at her strangely as well, though this was more disconcerting because he was both rather old and happened to be possessing of things that could poke and prod. It was, she concluded, rather more than a run-of-the-mill doctor's appointment.

The thing was that nopony had told her why she or any of her friends had been called to Canterlot.

That was remedied when Princess Celestia seated the three of them down and explained that, in fact, Dashie and the rest weren't just acting strangely. There was something very wrong with them, something which nopony seemed to be able to explain sufficiently. Everypony there was worried, to say the least. Princess Celestia had reassured them all that nothing bad was going to happen to them. The tests that the doctors had put them through had come up clean, and there didn't seem to be any trace of the mysterious thing that was causing the whole mess. While this apparently satisfied Pinkie, who was rather optimistic, and Twilight who would take anything Celestia said at face value (up to a point), Fluttershy wasn't entirely convinced that the alicorn was being entirely sincere. But she didn't want to cause a fuss and look bad in front of the Princess. She stayed quiet. On the train back to Ponyville, Twilight looked worried. She muttered something about an experiment, and that she didn't want to keep Spike waiting with nothing to do. Or possibly being done, it was hard to hear.

And that afternoon, Fluttershy went to see how Twilight was doing. Just a friendly house call, maybe have something to eat and to drink, just provide some company during the difficult times they had all been thrust into. The two of them could even go around to Pinkie's, surprise her with a little get-together. Fluttershy had come up to the door and knocked.

"Who's there?" called a voice from inside.

"It's me!" replied Fluttershy. "Fluttershy," she added in case any clarification was required.

"I can't come to the door right now, but come in by all means," Twilight called. Fluttershy complied, wiping her hooves on the doormat as she did so. A tingle of annoyance ran through her body; it was one of those mats which slid around the floor, so that one could never properly cleanse one's hooves.

"Where are you, Twilight?"

"I'm downstairs, working on a little something with Spike. Come on down, I think you'll like this." By the sound of her voice, Twilight was happy. Not too surprising, as she always enjoyed working with her assistant. Her friend continued to talk as Fluttershy descended the stairs towards the basement.

"I'm actually writing a book, Fluttershy. I've got lots of material, but I just needed to do this in order to write the last section." There was a pause. Fluttershy thought she heard an odd little noise. She raised a hoof to the door handle.

"Stop wriggling, Spike. I know this might be just a little uncomfortable, but if you just relax everything will be fine." Then there was that noise again. A little squeak. "There, you see? That wasn't so hard, was it?"

Fluttershy opened the door.

There was nopony there.

"Over here, Fluttershy!" She looked to her left, a short way away from the door.. There was Twilight, beaming at her. There was the apron Twilight used for cooking, white but stained with red. There was Spike, lying on the table. There was the pair of pliers suspended in the air, something white held between them. There was the little red trolley with the red knives and the red scissors and the oh Celestia, the little dishes with the lumps of red

"So what do you think, Fluttershy?" asked Twilight, turning to face her. "Spike offered to help me with an experiment! I'm writing a book on dragons, you see. I've got their diet, their behaviour, their likes and dislikes... " The pliers floated over to a jar. Fluttershy's eyes widened as she saw it contained seven of Spike's claws. The eighth one dropped from the pliers.

"The only thing I haven't got is a detailed description of their internal biology. Come over and take a look!" Fluttershy looked on, rooted to the spot, her eyes wide, as Twilight reached for the dishes on the trolley.

"This one," she said as she raised a reddish-purple piece of meat, "is the igniferous gland. And this one- " she held up a pink, worm-like object, "-is his tongue, and this- " Twilight reached down and lifted up a long object the same shade of purple as Spike's scales, "-is his tail. I removed it so that he would lie flat on the table."

"T-Twilight," Fluttershy stammered, her stomach lurching, "what did you do?"

"Why, vivisection, of course! Do you like it?"

"Twilight, you - you need help. Just - just come with me, and we can get Spike to a hospital, and we can tell Princess Celestia about this... "

"Tell Celestia? Of course not! The book's a surprise for her. And Spike doesn't need a hospital. The whole point of this is so that I can remove his organs, not put them back in again!" Her eyes narrowed. "Unless, of course, you don't like it. Is that it?"

"No!" said Fluttershy. "I don't like it. It's horrible! You - you've gone crazy!"

The pliers dropped onto the basement floor with a clatter.

"I'm sorry? What did you say?"

"You're crazy! Spike's hurt! Why can't you see that? I'm going to find a policepony. They'll know what to do."

"No, you won't."

"Twilight... "

"No. You won't."

"Twilight, what are you- "

"STEP AWAY FROM THAT DOOR NOW!" Something bright flew towards Fluttershy at eyewatering speed. Fluttershy cried out as the silver dish, its contents splattered on the floor, sliced straight through her wing and embedded itself in the wall. Fluttershy struggled to free herself, as the dish still pinned her by a flap of skin. Twilight walked closer.

"I knew you were jealous, Fluttershy. Bullies like you - they're everywhere! You always try to get other ponies in trouble when they can do something better than you can. Well, guess what? Maybe I can do an extra chapter on pegasus organs as well!" Fluttershy screamed again as she teared herself free. Her wing stayed behind, completely severed. She fled up the stairs, and heard Twilight following her.

"No! Come back here! We can make this quick!" Fluttershy sobbed as the stump of her wing brushed against the staircase wall, smearing blood on the wallpaper and sending a horrible pain through her body. Something flew over her head, and as Fluttershy reached the top of the stairs she saw the kitchen knife embedded in the wall. Another makeshift surgical instrument sliced into her flank. She ran through Twilight's hallway, out the front door-

Her hooves slid out from under her as she tried to gallop over the slippery doormat. She fell forward and landed face-first in the street. As Fluttershy tried to get to her hooves, she felt something slam into her back and she fell again. Raising her head, she saw Twilight standing over her with a pair of kitchen scissors and a scalpel floating in the air. They both were encrusted with Spike's blood.

"Now we're ready to start! Maybe if I cut your legs off, you'll stay still."

The makeshift weapons drew back, and then-

Fluttershy's train of thought was interrupted by a knock on the door of her room. She opened it.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Miss Fluttershy." A golden-armoured Royal Guard unicorn stood on the other side. He was one of the two who had saved her from Twilight, encasing the alicorn in a magical bubble before escorting the pair to the Royal Protective Facility. "Princess Celestia wishes to speak with you." Fluttershy nodded, and the two of them walked in silence to the throne room. They stopped outside the towering doors - large enough for a fully-grown minotaur to fit through, for when the Princesses held diplomatic talks - and the unicorn cleared his throat.

"Miss Fluttershy is here to speak with the Princesses." The pair of guards outside the doors, a unicorn mare and a pegasus stallion, looked at him.

"Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are engaged in a meeting with the nobility of Equestria. Please wait until they are finished," spoke the stallion. As he said this, the doors opened and a large group of ponies meandered out. As they passed, Fluttershy could hear some of them whispering under their breath.

"There's another poor cripple asking favours from the Princesses, I suppose."

"I would watch who you are calling a cripple, Your Grace. That is Princess Celestia's new favourite."

"What happened to that purple mare?"

"Oh, bad business there, Your Grace. Very bad business."

"The Princesses will see you now."

The doors shut behind Fluttershy with a loud clang, making her jump a little. The harsh sound seemed out of place in the splendorous room, which one almost expected choir music emanating throughout. Fluttershy laid her eyes upon the Princesses. Celestia spoke, her voice warm and friendly.

"Ah, my little pony. I have wanted to speak with you. Come closer, Fluttershy." She did so, feeling slightly elated as she approached the white alicorn. By contrast, Princess Luna seemed slumped in her throne, and rather downcast. "My dear Fluttershy, you are worried. Why is this?"

"It's my friends!" blurted Fluttershy. "There's something wrong with them! I - I went to see them, in the - in the Facility, and they were grey and - and... " Celestia smiled.

"Come closer, dear Fluttershy. I have something we wish to show you." Fluttershy did so, stepping forward. "Good. Now, take a good look at my sister Luna." Fluttershy complied, looking over the alicorn. She was slumped, and she was staring at her hooves-

Princess Luna toppled out of her throne and hit the marble floor with a splat and a ripping, tearing noise. A thin red fluid leaked out from underneath her belly. Fluttershy let out a cry, and jumped backwards.

"W-what's happened to Princess Luna?"

"Well, our dear, I found some time during that rather tedious meeting to exercise our command over the solar orb. Quite simply, I melted our sister from the inside."

"You - you- " Fluttershy gulped. "You've gone mad as well, Princess Celestia!"

"Not mad, not mad. Just bored. I've had the same sister for over a thousand years - wouldn't you agree that we need some variation? Out with the old, in with the new?" Fluttershy ran to the door, tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge. "Do stop being such a pain and come here, Fluttershy."

"Please! Let me out!"

"I said come here, Fluttershy." The alicorn's horn glowed, and Fluttershy found herself being pulled by an unseen force to come to rest a few metres from Celestia. "That's better. Now we can talk." She paused. "My dear, do you know why we wanted you to come here?" Fluttershy shook her head, too afraid to reply. "No? I shall tell you, then.

"Equestria requires us to share its rulership with one other pony at all times. In addition, only an alicorn may rule, and they may not be the ruler of any other territory. This, unfortunately, rules Princess Cadence out. Up until about half an hour ago, Princess Luna qualified, but has now been struck from the list for being obnoxious, monotonous, and dead. The latter, admittedly, is not her own doing, but to use the colloquial: she had it coming. That leaves one other pony available, my delightful student Twilight Sparkle. Alas, she is now insane and thus unqualified. After all, who would want a madpony on the throne? The thing is, though, that the definition of 'alicorn' in those days was rather lax, as the ponies of yore obviously possessed now-antiquated knowledge. The definition, in case you are wondering, is 'a pony possessing of both wings and a horn of magical property'. You may notice that that does not, strictly speaking, mean that one must be born an alicorn to be considered a candidate."

Fluttershy's eyes widened, as she realised what Princess Celestia was about to say.

"No, please! Not me!"

"Ah, astute as ever, my dear Fluttershy! We can make you into a very special little alicorn, in just a few easy steps. First, the wings. I seem to notice that you only have one. That would never do - the rules is wings plural. Now we could simply give you a second, but that would not provide a very pleasing image. After all, there isn't much worse in the world than a lopsided princess!" Celestia giggled. "So what we're going to do is a smidgen of recycling. I'll take the wings off this very handy corpse that just presented itself- " Princess Celestia's telekinesis took hold of Luna's wings and pulled, and they came off easily. "-and trim a little off of you- " Fluttershy screamed as the bandaged stub and the healthy wing on her back was wrenched off. Before the pain had died away, Celestia jammed her sister's wings onto the bleeding gouges in Fluttershy's flesh. "-and weld everything together!" A coil of smoke drifted into the air, and a searing pain ran up Fluttershy's back. There was a horrible stench of burning hair and roasting flesh.

"Congratulations, Fluttershy!" exclaimed Princess Celestia, clapping her hoof against the ground in appreciation of her work. "Your wings are whole again! And we'll wager you didn't even feel a thing." The pegasus sobbed.

"Please, Princess, please stop! I - I don't want to be an alicorn. You're hurting me!"

"Nonsense, my little pony. This entire procedure is entirely painless." Celestia grinned. "On to the next act! Now, you'll need a horn. We can take that from this handy corpse as well." Luna's horn was removed with a disgusting squelch. "Now the thing with horns is that the base, the bit at the very very bottom needs to be in contact with the brain in order to function. So for that, I'll need to do some excavation."

As the shard of marble broke off from the floor and floated towards her, Fluttershy screamed louder.

Dr. Open Atlas arrived at the doors to the throne room, white coat flapping, to find his path blocked by two Royal Guards.

"Sorry, doctor," said one. "I know the Princess has a vested interest in what you're doing down in the dungeons, but she's given specific orders not to be disturbed while she speaks with her student."

Student? thought Open Atlas. I thought that Twilight Sparkle was...

Princess Celestia's voice suddenly flowed through the air, making the doctor jump. The guards, either used to the Princess speaking from behind a door or simply hard to shock, stayed put.

"Sonic Boom, Gleamhorn, would you please enter the throne room? I have special instructions that you must hear right now." The two Guardsponies shrugged and trooped through the doors. A few seconds later they exited, their faces all smiles.

"The Princess will see you now."

There was a chill in the air when Dr. Open Atlas entered the throne room, and his wings shuddered involuntarily. This was more than unusual, this was impossible: Princess Celestia's aura kept the room permanently warm, while Luna somehow emitted a slight breeze that stopped the room from becoming unbearably stuffy. A natural air conditioner. In fact, he could see what looked like ice in one of the corners, but there was something large heaped on top of it as well. Princess Luna was absent, but there was somepony else sitting on her throne. Was...

Was that Miss Fluttershy?

"Ah, Dr. Open Atlas. We wish to speak with you."

"Your Majesty. The reason for me speaking here, ah, coming here and speaking to your (sorry) you is so that I could... " The doctor trailed off. "I'm sorry, I meant to say that the reason for me wishing to speak with you is... um... what was it... "

"You wanted and Dr. Silver Shoe were hoping that they could perform more tests on little Fluttershy here, yes?"

"Ah, yes, Your Majesty. Actually I- aaaaaah!" Open Atlas yelped as he found himself suddenly hoisted into the air by his leg. His white coat fell around his head, then was suddenly ripped off.

"So, Dr. Atlas. You were hoping to perform your little experiments on my sister? On our new student? On my favourite alicorn out of the entirety of Equestria?"

"No!" gasped Open Atlas, as an attempt to extract himself from the invisible force resulted in him spinning on the spot. "I - I wanted to- It was Fluttershy I wanted to see, not Luna!"

"Who said anything about Luna? Fluttershy here is an alicorn. Come forward, Fluttershy!" Dr. Atlas' eyes widened as he saw Fluttershy (for it was she) step off Princess Luna's throne and slowly walk towards him. Not only did she appear to have a new set of wings, but a horn had planted itself firmly in her forehead. "Freshly created to replace poor Luna, who has been dismissed from ruling on a charge of having her organs liquefied."

"W-what? She - she's dead?"

"As a doornail."

"You - you've gone mad! Ha! You're as mad as the rest!" The doctor tried to free himself again. "Aah! Please let me down!"

"What do you think, Fluttershy dear? Should I put him down?" The terrified little alicorn nodded.

"Please don't hurt him! Please!" Princess Celestia smiled.

"Of course I won't hurt him. Sonic Boom! Gleamhorn! On the double!" The pair of royal guards outside hurried into the throne room, their halberds at the ready and large smiles plastered across their faces.

"Your Majesty?" they chorused in unison.

"Sonic Boom, Gleamhorn, get this poor pony down."

"With pleasure, Your Majesty!" the Guardsponies said together. Gleamhorn, the unicorn, swung his halberd.

Dr. Open Atlas screamed as the weapon sliced through his hind leg, dropping him to the floor. As blood flowed from the stump of his leg, the remains of the limb dropped to the ground.

"P-Princess!" gurgled Fluttershy shakily. "You - you said you wouldn't hurt him!"

"Indeed! And hurt him we didn't. It was all Gleamhorn's doing. Wasn't it, Gleamhorn?"

"Your Majesty! I live to serve, Your Majesty!"

"Don't you just love those Guardsponies when their minds are broken? So much easier to handle." As she talked, Open Atlas writhed on the floor, shrieking with pain. Princess Celestia waved a hoof in his direction.

"Sonic Boom, Gleamhorn, hold the doctor down."

"With pleasure, Your Majesty!" chorused the Royal Guards, as they grabbed Dr. Atlas' forelegs and remaining hind leg. Celestia turned to Fluttershy.

"Now, Fluttershy, I believe you were asking for a demonstration of how I killed Luna?"

"No!" sobbed the little alicorn. "Please, please don't kill him! Just - just stop!"

"Oh, please. Didn't you agree when we asked you whether I should put him down?"

"Y-yes, but not like- "

"Well, then. Watch closely please. There will be a practical test later on." Celestia's horn lit up. Dr. Atlas, who had stopped screaming over his leg, began to plead with the Princess.

"Aah! Princess, please! I - augh! I - I'm sorry that I - aaaaah! - that I tried to look at Fluttershy, just please! PleeeeeeaseAAAAAAAUUUGH!"

As he begged, his belly began to glow a deep cherry red. It slowly expanded, the skin and hair bubbling, and the pegasus' words turned once again to mindless cries. And then...

He burst.

"Hooray!" cheered Princess Celestia, oblivious to the viscera that was staining her white coat a pinkish mess. "Pop goes the pegasus!"

Fluttershy retched as a piece of stinking intestine draped over her muzzle. Shaking it off, she tried to look somewhere else to escape the gore. Her eyes fell on the two Royal Guards, who held a total of three legs connected by a thin film of skin. Dr. Open Atlas' head lay staring on the ground, his neck split apart by the expanding flesh and blood. Tiny shards of bone peppered their coats, and both of them were splashed with red.

She tried to back away, to get as far from the hideous mess that lay in the middle of the throne room. But once again, the invisible force caught her and pulled her back to Princess Celestia.

"Ah, ah, ah. We don't believe I dismissed you. You see, there's one more thing that we need to do, something that I've just noticed. You're not tall enough to pass for an alicorn, not if you're going to replace my sister. We're going to have to stretch your legs out a bit. So I'll make a gentle squeeze here, here, there and there. That should do it." And nothing happened.

"All right, then. If a gentle squeeze isn't working, then we'll try something different."

The telekinetic field contracted, breaking all four of Fluttershy's legs with a horrible snap. The pain was unlike anything she'd felt, even taking into account everything Celestia had done to her.

"Oh, good. That worked. And now, I'll stretch them." Fluttershy was floating on a sea of agony, barely noticing the pain now. "And for a finishing touch, we'll mold the bones back together. There, that wasn't hard, was it? And completely painless. That's what I love about magic." She looked around. "A-hem?"

"Oh, yes, Your Majesty! That's what's great about magic!" clamoured the Guardsponies.

"And oh, look. The poor dear's asleep. WAKE UP!" Fluttershy, who had quietly lapsed into unconsciousness, jerked awake.

"Oh, Angel, there you are. I just had the most horrible... most horrible... most... Oh, no, no, no no no!"

"Yes, our little alicorn. You must be awake, for now is the time you receive your princess name! I'm sorry, dear, but 'Fluttershy' just won't cut it. You need something original, something creative. And I have just the thing. Little alicorn, you are to be both a replacement sister and a student of mine. And so your name must reflect both these aspects of your future. Something that combines both Luna and Twilight Sparkle. Now, what could it... Eureka! You shall be... Princess Midnight Sparkle!"

The two guards stomped their hooves in approval.

"And now, dear Midnight, you must sleep. You have a big day tomorrow!" As Fluttershy lapsed into unconsciousness yet again, she could overhear the three madponies talking.

"Your Majesty, what shall we do with this doctor's corpse?"

"Oh, just drag it into the ice corner with Luna. We will have a use for it."