Chapter Nine

Familiar Faces

I thrashed in my bonds, trying desperately to break free. But Quietus left nothing to chance. According to my family history book, he had tortured to death hundreds of ponies from all three races. During the war, he was Nightmare Moon’s most trusted source of power. Quietus had perfected the art of skinning a pony alive from head to tail, of removing half the bones of a pony before the victim died of blood loss. He was a top-shelf expert of carefully orchestrated torture.

And I was in agony from his expert skills. He waited until I exhausted myself from struggling against the ropes. Then he cut a perfect circle around my right cutie mark, the blade cutting just the surface layer.

I screamed until my vocal cords felt like they would snap. I was crying so hard I almost didn’t notice that he was gazing at me, smiling like a happy child on his birthday.

“This brings back so many cherished memories. The hills would glisten with blood. All those screams were sweeter to my ears than any song ever written. I even managed to stop up a river with all the organs I had ripped out and collected. It was paradise.”

He held the scalpel up to me. Only the edge was bloody. “Even after a millennium, I still have the expert touch. When I peel off your destiny marks, only the epidermis will be taken. It will look as if you had stayed a blank-flank.”

“Q-Quietus! Please don’t do this! Don’t kill me!”

“Heh. How many times did the unfaithful and treacherous beg for mercy? Every time. How many times did I grant them mercy? None.”

The cutie mark was slowly getting pulled away from my flank. “I’m only giving you what you deserve, Equus. This is just the beginning.”

The final strip of skin that hung onto my cutie mark snapped like a thread. I yelped with pain, which only made Quietus chuckle.

I heard a distant splat of the skin getting tossed to the floor. “That’s one down. Now hold still and this next one will be removed a little quicker.”

When the scalpel sliced into my left flank, I flinched, making the blade dig into my muscles. I howled in blinding agony as I pulled away from the scalpel.

“You did that to yourself,” Quietus scolded. “Just for that, I’ll peel this destiny mark off extra slowly.”

True to his word, I could feel every painful inch of the incision as he carefully drew what felt like another circle. I looked down, tears blurring my vision. He slowly licked his lips, his eyes fully focused on the task of skinning me.

After what felt like an eternity, my remaining cutie mark was stripped away. He got on his feet and held up both of my blood-framed cutie marks. “Nice skinning job, yes? Take a good, long look at them, traitor. You don’t deserve to be a Mortis, so it’s fitting that these are the first to be destroyed.”

After a moment of seeing the twin earth pony skulls looking at each other, they were tossed into the fire. I smelled the acrid stink of my flesh burning. The skulls turned black and curled into orange-tinted scrolls. Through the licking flame and smoke, I saw my cutie marks disintegrate into ash.

I couldn’t even talk anymore. Quietus had won. I had lost. There was nothing left but the torture and my inevitable death. How did it come to this? Only a few days ago, I was dancing to my favorite band. Having fun. Living life.

Is this what Pinkie Pie felt like when I first met her in that insane asylum? No future to look forward to, only a cold, lonely death?

I had finally arrived at the place that I represented. Where optimism is pointless and life can no longer linger.

Slumping in my bonds, I closed my tear-stained eyes and groaned.

“And there it is,” said Quietus. “That one moment when the unfaithful finally resigns to their fate. Perhaps I won’t disembowel you while making you watch, even though that’s one of my favorite tortures.”

He tapped my nose, making me look directly in his eyes. “I think I’ll remove your ribs first. If you can survive that, I’ll let you keep your organs.”

Quietus planted his scalpel under my right lower rib.

The tip slowly pressed into my fur.

A thick drop of blood blossomed and trickled down my belly.

“Quietus Mortis!” shouted what sounded like a mare behind him.

He stiffened in surprise as he turned towards the visitor. A dark grey changeling flew in from the hole in the wall, landed and stomped angrily towards Quietus.

“You promised me you would let me help with Equus’s absolution!” She fumed.

Much to my astonishment, he put the scalpel back onto the table and bowed to the changeling. With a humble, submissive voice, he replied, “I do apologize, my lady. A pony is only as good as his word, and I confess I’ve broken mine. I was simply anxious to get my hooves on y . . .”

She marched between me and him and pointed at my wounds. “I wanted to do this!”

He backed away, ears flattened. “I’m terribly sorry. Let me compensate for my selfish blunder. I’ll let you absolve him.”

“Hmph. Very well. Give me that hammer.”

Quietus levitated a large iron hammer into her waiting hooves. It was the kind they used to pound hot spikes into the hooves.

She waved the hammer around, measuring it’s heft. Looking at me, she grinned.

Looming over her, he asked, “Have you decided what you’re going to break with that?”

Nodding, she replied, “Oh, yes.”

Lifting the hammer, she giggled. I ground my teeth, waiting for the pain to begin again.

She swung the hammer around and smashed Quietus in the head.

With a cry of pain, he fell down sideways, his head bouncing off the floor. His legs thrashed as he tried to right himself.

The hammer thudded into his skull again before it slipped out of her hooves. Quietus growled as he slumped, now unconscious.

I stared at his limp body as the Changeling ran to the table, grabbed the scalpel and frantically began to cut my rear legs free.

“What are you . . .” a hole-poked hoof plugged my mouth.

“Shh! There are more of them outside,” she whispered. She grabbed my Element and put it back on my neck. “When I carry you out of here, shut your eyes and play dead. Got it?”

She glowered at me, leaving no room for argument. I nodded as she sliced off the rest of my bonds. I slid off the upright table, my limbs aching from the bondage. She caught me and gently laid me next to Quietus. My flanks burned and bled even more.

Hoisting me up onto her back, she whispered, “We’re out of here. Be a corpse.”

Staying limp and blind on her back, I could only hear her talking to someone.

The stranger said, “Ah, you finally got a crack at the traitor, eh?”

“He didn’t last long. I’m taking him to the dumping pit.”

“Where’s Quietus? I thought you wanted to know where he was.”

“He’s worn out. Dozing in the crypt. Don’t bother him.”

“Got it. I hope you had fun,” said the voice as she trotted away from him.

“More than you know,” she called behind her.

I bounced on her hard chitin as she trotted around a few corners and up and down a few stairs during what felt like a mile’s journey.

After a few more minutes, she said, “We’re clear. You can open your eyes now.”

It took a minute for my eyes to adjust to the green ambient lighting given by the bioluminescence of cave algae. I’d be fascinated with the vegetation if my body wasn’t killing me. We were in a long, narrow cave. She stopped and rapped a hoof on a rock. Once. Then three times. One knock again.

A thin slab of rock was pushed aside, revealing a hidden cave. Two black changelings stepped away from the entrance and waved us through, silently.

“There he is!” I heard Twilight shout. “He’s . . . ohh, he’s not so okay.”

My ride stopped and pulled me off her. I laid down on the cool rock as my friends gathered around me. They all survived the assault, but not without cost. Twilight had a black eye. Fluttershy was limping. Rarity’s left eye has three scratches underneath it. Applejack’s back was bandaged. The rest of the group were equally pummeled.

The cave was immense. In several caves above us, groups of black changelings clustered close as they stared at us. Occasionally a changeling would fly overhead.

I sat up, trying to avoid touching my injuries.

The changeling who rescued me said, “I wish I discovered where Quietus kept Equus a little sooner.”

Twilight smiled at her. “I’m just glad you found him. When will Quietus discover he’s gone?”

She shrugged. “I bashed his skull pretty hard. He’ll be out for a little while.”

“Thanks for bringing him to us.”

“It’s the least I could do.” She burst into green flame. A moment later, I saw a mare I recognized but never got a chance to know. “After all, I couldn’t let him destroy my son.”

She smiled maternally at me. White fur like mine. Her long grey mane, ice-blue eyes and tooth cutie mark would make her stand out in a crowd.

It was as if I had never killed her.

“Mom?”

Author's Note

This chapter's theme song is "An Intangible World" by Lacus Somniorum