//-------------------------------------------------------// Look Who's Torturing Now! -by scootertheskitty- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Look Who's Torturing Now! //-------------------------------------------------------// Look Who's Torturing Now! Twilight opened her eyes. There was darkness. Complete, utter darkness. She blinked a few times and tried to bring her one of her hooves up to her face to assure herself she hadn't gone blind, but she couldn't move it. Her eyes widened a bit as she then tried to bring her other hoof up, but it didn't budge. They both felt as if they had been cuffed to the bed somehow. She panicked in realization of this and squirmed, yelping softly with anxiety. "What the heck is going on?" she thought to herself. "Spike?!" she called out loud. There was no response. Instead, there was light. A single dim light appeared over Twilight, making her flinch from the sudden brightness. When her eyes focused, the first thing she saw was a drill that hung above her, aimed directly at her chest. A bit more worried, she called out again. "H-Hello?! ANYPONY?!" "Hello, Miss Sparkle," replied a deep, masculine, menacing voice from a speaker nearby. It was a voice that sent chills down Twilight's spine and could most likely intimidate any stallion or mare. The pony who owned that voice sounded as if he had a sinister plan in mind, and Twilight wasn't sure she liked it. "Wh-Who are you?" she asked with a slight stammer. "It's none of your business who I am. In fact, I don't think you'll be around long enough to know who I am. But I know who you are." "That's not very surprising. Almost everypony in Equestria knows the name 'Princess Sparkle' ever since my coronation," Twilight pointed out. "Indeed they do. However, I know more about you than the normal pony does. I know your friends, your history, everything. In fact, I believe I know more about you than...well...you." He chuckled a bit to himself, leading Twilight to raise an eyebrow. "You do?" "Yes, indeed." the voice answered. "Since I know so much about you, I suppose you want to know about me, correct?" "All I want to know is why I'm here! And why is there a drill pointing directly at me?!" "How rude," the voice coughed. "Although, it is a perfectly reasonable reaction to have in your current situation. But before I shed some light on the scenario, may I ask one question myself?" Twilight groaned with annoyance as the voice continued. "Would you like to play a little game?" Twilight tugged at the braces around her hooves and deadpanned. "Not particularly." "Well, that's too bad. You don't really have a choice since your life is on the line..." the voice said, making Twilight flinch with surprise. "Excuse me?" Twilight asked. "You see those cuffs that have you restrained on your bed? The only way to escape them is by unlocking them with a specific key. But the key is...inside your stomach at the moment." "...Excuse me?" Twilight asked again, this time with even more exasperation. "You heard me correct. The key to freedom is inside your stomach. And you must take the scalpel that's to your side and cut open your stomach before the drill cuts you open itse–" "There's no scalpel," Twilight interrupted. "...What?" Twilight shifted her eyes towards both of her sides and failed to . "There's no scalpel here." "...You're kidding me." "No, I am not kidding you." "...Okay, hang on. Let me just...alright, stay right there. Don't move. I'll get some more sleeping gas and there'll be a scalpel right to your side when you w–" The voice stopped talking when he heard the sound of a magic spell being cast. With that, Twilight teleported out of the cuffs and next to the bed. "Wait, are you–? Did you escape from the cuffs?!" "Well, I AM an alicorn. I'm more than capable of escaping from a few pieces of metal." "No! No! NO!" the voice complained in agony. "That's not fair! You're supposed to be screaming and begging for mercy!" "I'm not going to be begging for mercy from some 'villain' that I can't even see." At this point, the menacing voice sounded less threatening even with its dark tone. It actually almost sounded like a whining foal who didn't get what he wanted for his birthday. "BUT YOU NEED TO BECAUSE I AM THE ONE TRYING TO TORTURE YOU!" Twilight finally had enough with the voice and ignited the speaker ablaze with her magic. The speaker slowly burnt to a crisp, silencing the voice emitting from it. "What an annoying pony," Twilight put simply. "Dang it! TWILIGHT'S ESCAPED!" a male pony exclaimed to himself in a high-pitched voice that cracked audibly. The pony's body or face could not be seen however, as he was wearing a hockey mask and a black cloak to conceal his identity. He was sitting at a desk looking at six television monitors lined up into two rows of three. The top left one projected an empty metal bed with a dim light over it, and the other five were pitch black. He sat back down in his swivel chair and scooted up closer to his desk, which had several differently colored buttons lined up in a row placed towards the back of it and a microphone that was perched close to him. He was a torturer, and even though this would be his first session, he thought that it would go reasonably well. He DOES have six shots at this. What could go wrong? "Okay, calm down. Calm down. We'll worry about her later," the torturer reassured himself as he rubbed his temples gently. He waited a few seconds to relax and sighed, looking back up at the monitors. With a press of a button, the next monitor lit up dimly, revealing a cute, yellow pegasus with a pink mane passed out and chained to a wall. He coughed a bit to clear his throat and pressed another button that was placed on the microphone. "Fluttershyyyy...wake up," he said. In the room, Fluttershy heard the same deep, dark voice as Twilight did and immediately shot up. "OHMYGOSH! WHOISTHAT?! WHO'STHERE?!" Fluttershy panicked loudly, her wings flapping in fear. "Who I am is none of your concern. What matters i–" "EEEEP! YOURVOICEISSOTERRIFYING! WHEREAMI?! I WANT TO GO HOOOOOME!" Fluttershy eyes watered gradually with tears out of paranoia over what this mysterious and ghastly voice could've wanted from her. "Wh-What matters is–" "MOMMYYYYYY!" "OKAY, MAY I GET A SENTENCE IN, PLEASE?!" the voice yelled, making Fluttershy squeak. She stayed silent with tears still in her eyes and waited for the voice to speak again. "What matters is–" Before he could continue his thoughts, Fluttershy immediately began sniffling again. "OKAY, I'M GOING TO TORTURE YOU! THAT'S WHAT I'M TRYING TO SAY!" And with that, Fluttershy fainted. "...Rgghhh..." the voice growled in annoyance. He turned off his microphone and spoke once more in his normal, high-pitched, nerdy voice. "Why won't these ponies cooperate?!" He sighed again and pressed another button, lighting up another room. The room was inhabited by a dangerous, wooden obstacle course that was hastily built with sharp, metal rotating blades throughout and flaming hoops. It looked so hazardous, that anypony who would dare try to complete it would easily meet a gory and devastating end. And Rainbow Dash was sitting at the end of the course, lounging on her back and gazing at the ceiling. "What the-?! HOW DID–?! GGGRRRR!" The torturer quickly turned on his microphone and yelled at Dash through the speaker. "HOW COULD YOU HAVE FINISHED MY DEATH COURSE BEFORE I EVEN GAVE YOU INSTRUCTIONS?!" Rainbow nonchalantly eyed the speaker and then looked back towards the ceiling. "Because, I'm awesome. Also, are you the one who made this obstacle course?" "YES, I MADE THIS OBSTACLE COURSE! YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO COMPLETE IT!" "Oh, really? I thought it was too easy." "TOO EASY?! DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG THIS OBSTACLE COURSE TOOK TO BUILD?! DAYS! I SPENT HUNDRED OF BITS BUILDING THIS! I HAD TO WORK OVERTIME AT HAY BURGER! DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY MARES GIVE BIRTH IN THE BATHROOM?!" "...How many?" Dash asked with hesitation. "THREE! I KNOW BECAUSE I DELIVERED ALL OF THEM!" Dash cringed and spoke again. "Oh man, I'm sorry that your course wasn't that difficult. I guess I'm too awesome." The torturer almost popped a blood vessel. Scratch that, he DID pop a blood vessel. And it stung. He turned off the microphone and bucked the monitor's screen with his front hoof, cracking it. "GAH!" The torturer screamed in pain, looking at his bruised hoof. "THAT'S MY BUTTON PRESSING HOOF!" he exclaimed before sucking on it like a little foal. "Nghfff...ow ow ow..." With a small pause, Dash asked the speaker, "Soooooo I take it you don't have any more obstacle courses for me to finish, eh?" The enraged torturer turned the microphone back on. "SHUT UP!" he yelled as he turned the lights back off in her chamber. "Hey, that's rude!" he heard Dash yell. Still sucking his hoof, the torturer turned off the microphone and leaned back in his seat and exclaimed to himself, "WHY?! WHAT'S SO WRONG ABOUT KIDNAPPING SIX MARES AND WANTING TO TORTURE THEM?!" After hearing his voice echo within his room, he sat back up and said, "Oh yeah. Never mind." The torturer shook his head and looked back at the monitors. "Okay, Twilight escaped, Fluttershy fainted, and Dash is...well...a jerk. I have three more tries before I get this right." The monitor in the bottom left corner lit up, showing an alert and Applejack tied up from head to tail with rope, squirming to try to break free. "Rgh, what in tarnation is happenin'?" she yelled to nopony in particular. After the torturer recovered from Pinkie's traumatizing, he spoke into the microphone. "Well, well, well. Applejack of Sweet Apple Acres. It's about time I moved onto you." "Where am I?!" Applejack asked. "And where's mah friends?!" "Your friends...I've just been 'playing' with them..." "...Playin'?" "AND BY THAT, I MEAN I'VE BEEN TORTURING THEM!" He laughed evilly into the microphone, attempting to instill some fear into Applejack. Unfortunately, it had no effect, as Applejack just stopped squirming and looked at the speaker with a disinterested expression. "Yer bluffing," she said. "Oh no! I'm not bluffing at all! I've been torturing them all! AND I AM GOOD AT IT!" "Are ya sure? They're not gettin' on yer nerves, are they?" she asked with a slight smirk. "QUIET!" the torturer boldly boomed at her. She jumped a bit, startled from the sudden outburst of the deep voice. "Now, you must pay for...your...um..." He put a hoof to his chin to think of an appropriate word to use in this situation. "...Sass?" "...Oh, what the hay! YOU SHALL PAY FOR YOUR SASS, APPLEJACK!" he declared, flipping a switch on his desk. Applejack felt herself being raised up an inch or two as she looked to her side. There were now two train tracks that stretched across the visible part of the room and towards the vast distance of darkness which seemed to go on forever. Toot! She heard a train whistle and moved her eyes towards her left. A bright light could be seen edging towards her. It got closer and closer and became clearer and clearer as the torturer talked into his speaker. "YOU HAVE ONLY A FEW MINUTES LEFT, APPLEJACK! AREN'T YOU SCARED?!" She paused for a second before looking bored again. "Not really." The torturer's enthusiasm and commitment to scaring Applejack dropped immediately. "You...You aren't?! There's a freaking train going to run you over." "Can't say this isn't a normal Saturday for me." She's bluffing! the torturer exclaimed in his head. Alright, no holding back! Prepare to be scared, AJ! "Very well then." The torturer gripped the switch firmly with his hoof and thrust it forward. "NO HOLDING BACK! FULL SPEED AHEAD!" He grinned manically as the train started to build up some speed. TOOT TOOT! Applejack didn't even look away from the speaker. She kept staring it down menacingly, making the torturer a bit uncomfortable. "You know, I-I can turn this off if you admit you're just the slightest bit scared! H-Heh! Just say the magic words!" "Ah am NOT afraid of you, an' there's nothin' y'all can do ta change that!" That sentence alone made the torturer sweat bullets. Applejack was either really stubborn, really stupid, or just didn't much care for living anymore. Probably all three! The torturer gulped as the train kept chugging along the tracks, getting louder and louder with each passing second. Soon, the train was visible from the dim light on the ceiling, promising to strike Applejack where she lay. Toot toot~! The train finally came into view, revealing that it was simply a motorized toy train, one that small foals could ride. The small train was rolling down the track at an impressive speed of two miles per hour before it gently tapped the side of Applejack's head. The small impact caused the train to fall over on its side and land on its off button. Toot tooooooooooo... Applejack stared at the fallen train for a few seconds before glaring back at the speaker with annoyance. The torturer opened his mouth to speak, but could not find any words to defend himself on the issue. "I'm sorry for wasting your time," he apologized as he turned the monitor off. With a press of another button, the next monitor lit up, revealing a sleeping Pinkie Pie, curled up like a cat with a ball and chain attached to her hind leg. A rusty saw was laying next to her, waiting to be used. She yawned and stretched, opening her eyes slowly. She felt the cold, concrete ground with a hoof and sat up. "Huh. Must have been sleep walking again." The speaker next to her started to emit a low-pitched, spine-tingling voice. "This was no mere accident, Pinkie P–" "AHHH! SPOOKY VOICE!" In fear, she instinctively picked up the heavy, steel ball that she was chained to and smashed the small speaker into bits. The torturer stared at the pieces of broken metal and wires and put a hoof to his forehead. "Oy vey..." He looked down at his desk, trying to find a specific button to aid him. After some time, he finally found the switch labeled "IN CASE OF PINKIE" and pulled it down. From the ceiling, another tiny speaker fell, landing in Pinkie's mane. "Hey! Don't smash those!" Pinkie stopped panicking and gasped, squishing her cheeks together with her hooves. "Is...IS THAT MY CRICKET?" "...Excuse me?" the speaker asked. "Everypony knows that there's an itty bitty little cricket inside of their head telling them what's right and wrong! Are you my cricket?" The torturer turned off the microphone for a second, needing to slam his head on the table to make sure he wasn't dreaming. He didn't wake up and turned it on once more. "Yes, Pinkie. I'm your conscience." "YAY! HI CRICKET!" "...Hello, Pinkie. Would you...like to play a little game?" he asked her with a bit of a sinister tone. "Ooooooh! YES! DO YOU WANT TO PLAY CHECKERS? BACKGAMMON? TWISTER?" "Hmmm...all good choices. But mine's more...'high-stakes.'" "Oh, I getcha now. Texas Hold 'Em." "No..." "Euchre?" "No!" "52 card pick up? I also count the how-to-play cards as an added challenge!" "Pinkie, focus!" "Oh, sorry, Mr. Cricket," Pinkie apologized before smiling adorably. "Now, you see that saw to your left?" the speaker asked. Pinkie looked to her side and replied, "Yessiree!" "You must cut off your leg in five minutes be–" "OOH! GOT IT!" Immediately, she grabbed the saw with her mouth and sliced her hind leg off. "PINKIE, WAIT! DON'T DO I–WAIT WHAT?!" There was no blood whatsoever. There was only a leg on the floor, a ball and chain, and a freed pink pony. Pinkie picked up the leg with her mouth and put it next to her wound. Immediately, the leg fused back to her body as she stood back up and cheered. "I WIN! I WIN! I WIN!" she exclaimed, hopping around in a circle. "H-HOW DID YOU–?" "Oh, I've played that game hundreds of times! You wanna see another game similar to that?" Before the torturer had time to answer, Pinkie pulled a sharp drill out of her mane and closed one eye, leaving the other wide open. She gradually closed the distance between the drill and her eye before the torturer quickly shut off the monitor. "EWW! EWW! NO! GROSS!" he cringed, turning off his microphone. "DEAR CELESTIA, WHAT IS WRONG WITH HER?!" He closed his eyes and rubbed them, trying to get the image out of his head. He quickly pressed the button to turn off the monitor and groaned loudly, laying back in his swivel chair and feeling defeated by these mares. "I've only got one mare left. Rarity." He sighed sadly before turning on the final monitor and saw something that brought a smile to his face. She was restrained to a dirty, metal bed by several rugged, leather belts, squirming and screaming for mercy. "HELP! HELP! OH MY WORD THIS BED IS FILTHY!" She...actually looks like she's in pain! thought the torturer. Not easily shrugged off pain, not agonizingly hard to watch pain, but just the perfect amount of agony~! "SOMEPONY HELP ME! PLEASE! I THINK MY MANE'S GETTING DIRTY!" "Ahh, Rarity. You're my last victim~" "V-Victim? What are you talking about?!" "I'm finished with your friends finally, and so now I'm moving onto you..." Rarity gulped and shivered, her voice getting shaky. "Wh-What are you going to do to me?" "Oh, I have the perfect punishment for you. Something old-fashioned and yet timeless!" He looked at his desk and pulled a switch. A giant blade suddenly swung down and cut through the air above her, missing her by a few inches. "Miss Rarity, I introduce you to Mr. Pendulum!" The blade's momentum slowly came to a stop when it had barely touched the ceiling and swung back down across the other direction, making Rarity's eyes widen with fear. "Here it comes! The pleas for help!" he snickered. "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" The scream was so high-pitched, it was severely painful to hear for anypony within a one hundred yard radius of her. Unfortunately for the torturer, he had unwittingly set up Rarity's room right next to his control room. "GAH! HOLY BUCK MY EARS!" the torturer screamed in pain. He held onto his ears to block out her piercing screams and quickly tried to turn the monitor off in an attempt to silence her. But it was no use. The sound was still heard, loud and clear. The Rarity's shrill screaming was so excruciating to the torturer that he fell over in pain. He begged and plead to Celestia for the screeches to stop, but his prayers were left unanswered. He tried with all his might to reach for the button to stop the pendulum, but he couldn't bring himself to get up. It was too damn agonizing! After what felt like an hour (it had only been thirty seconds), a recognizable purple alicorn burst through the door with earplugs in her ears. It was the torturer's first victim: Twilight Sparkle. "ALRIGHT, MISTER!" she interrogated in a loud voice so that she could be heard over Rarity's shrieks. "I WANT SOME ANSWERS RIGHT N–!" "JUST TAKE ME TO JAIL!" the torturer pleaded as he took off his mask, revealing a nerdy, pimple-infested face under it. "PLEASE! MAKE HER STOP! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE WITH YOU PONIES! YOU'RE ALL INSANE!" "E-Excuse me?!" Twilight asked, confused from the pony begging for mercy. "I'LL TELL YOU ANYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW! MY NAME IS SINE WAVE! I'M 19 YEARS OLD! AND I'M STILL A VIRGIN!" he cried out, pointing in the direction of Rarity's hollering. Twilight gazed down at Sine Wave, who was so obviously in pain. Being the princess of friendship that she was, and after many adventures that dealt with forgiveness and making amends with others, she felt sympathy for the poor thing. Then again, the jerkwad DID kidnap them. "Give her five more minutes," Twilight said. A few hours passed after the incident, and the six of them and Spike were all outside of the jail, after watching their captor being put behind bars. Save for a small bruise of Applejack's head after the toy train collided with her head, they were all safe and sound. "I'm so glad you guys are all right!" Spike exclaimed, hugging Twilight in a tight gripped. Twilight giggled at the baby dragon and returned the hug with her wing. "Of course, we're all right! I mean, this isn't our first kidnapping!" "I know, but, this guy could've seriously hurt you all!" Spike ran over to Rarity and began to hug her as well, giving her an sad, teary frown. "And I couldn't let that happen..." Rarity couldn't resist how adorable Spike was and hugged him tight. "I'm sorry, my little Spikey Wikey!" Fluttershy kept looking towards the jail with flattened ears and a very sad face. "Poor Sine Wave. That pony just wanted some friends to spend time with..." Dash looked at Fluttershy with surprise. "You seriously feel sorry for him?! That pony just tried to kidnap us!" Spike sniffed and immediately stopped crying. He blushed deep and smiled before sudden realizing something. "Wait a second...I just realized. What WAS this pony's motivation for kidnapping you all?" "His goal was to try to...um..." — Twilight paused for a second uncomfortably — "SEDUCE a mare into getting into a relationship with him by creating this torturer character to scare us. He would then rush in to 'save the day' by stopping the machine. The mare falls in love with him, they start going out, and what happens next is WAY too inappropriate for a baby dragon to hear." Spike rolled his eyes, remembering once again that he was just a baby. "But, wait, what if something went wrong and he accidentally DID end up maiming one of you?" "Well, Spike. Almost everything, it turns out, was made out of plastic to ensure safety." "What about Pinkie's saw?" "Aha, you'd THINK I'd cut my leg off! But nope! Just a little party trick I did once at a little filly's third birthday party! Oh man, I wasn't allowed near her for WEEKS after that!" "Although the plastic LOOKED convincing, once I found some Nightmare Night decorations while lurking around the factory, I was more than sure the whole thing was a ruse." "I mean, I believed that pendulum was fake, darling. It's called acting!" she exclaimed, moving her chin up to the sky and striking a small pose. "Yeah. The price tag for the toy train was literally right next ta me on the floor. With a fancy schmancy science-y name like 'Sine Wave,' he was pretty dang dumb." "M-Mhm...I mean...even I knew i-it was all fake!" Fluttershy smiled a bit. Spike smiled back, knowing his friends were never in any real danger before suddenly asking one last question. "Ooooone final thing...how come it was you six in particular that got kidnapped?" "Because Spike, we're freaking hot," Rainbow responded. "Dash!" Twilight blushed in embarrassment. "That...couldn't be true right?" "Well, since pretty much everypony in Equestria knows that we're the Elements of Harmony an' all that, Ah guess we're seen as more attractive ta others, Ah suppose," Applejack answered. Twilight thought for a bit, wondering if that was true. "Huh. Well then." "Oooh! Oooh! Now that we're free, do you girls wanna go get some ice cream at Sugarcube Corner?" Pinkie asked. "Oh, you read my mind, Pinkie!" Dash exclaimed. "Last one there is a rotten apple!" She quickly flew to Sugarcube Corner, leaving the others in the dust. "Hey, that's cheatin', Dash!" Applejack said, chasing after her. The rest of them made their way to Sugarcube Corner at a moderate pace, Twilight walking slower than others. She took a look back at her flank and stared at it for a long period of time. By Celestia's shining sun, I AM attractive... Author's Note I finally got a Halloween fic finished (albeit with some complications)! And hopefully it isn't terrible! :twilightsheepish: https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/twilightsheepish.png This felt like a very different story than what I'm used to and to be honest, I was very unsure of the premise as I was writing it. So please leave any criticisms you have with this little fic so I can better myself! Thanks and have a late Happy Halloween! :heart: https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/heart.png //-------------------------------------------------------// Epilogue //-------------------------------------------------------// Epilogue "Twilight? Is everything okay?" Spike asked Twilight from the outside the bathroom. "I'M...FIIIIINE!" Twilight grunted in pain. "Are you sure? You've been in there for an hour now!" "Almost...got it...GAH!" Spike heard the sound of a metallic object hitting a pool of water and flinched. "What was that?" With a flush of the toilet, Twilight replied, "I passed the key." Spike stood silent for a few seconds. "...Alright then." He went back downstairs to play with his Rarity doll, avoiding Twilight the rest of the night.