‘Ugh… w-where… where am I?’ Dash thought to herself as she tried to sit up only to feel a sharp pain in her skull from sitting up so quickly.

“Hehehahahaaa” laughed a deep sinister voice as she recovered.

“Who’s there?” Dash said as she whipped around, her vision limited to directly in front of her, despite the lighting of a few torches in the room.

To her left, she heard the shuffling of a pony, but she couldn’t tell if it was real. “I must be dreaming.” she told herself. “I’m probably still in my bed and am just having a really weird, freaky dream.”

She tried closing her eyes and counting to ten, opening her eyes, nothing changed. “No… no this can’t be…”

Again, she tried, same result, nothing happened.

Dash was beginning to panic and began backing into one of the many dark corners of the room, as pegasi were never very good at handling tight spaces, thus making her feel claustrophobic.

“Afraid of tight spaces are we?” said the same deep voice.

“W-who are you? W-what do you want from me?” Dash said weakly.

“Us… want something from you, nay, I think it is you who wants something from us.” replied the stallion as he stepped into the light. “You… my dear Rainbow Dash… want help from somepony who can get you recognized and get you accepted no matter your dark side and that… my dear, is what we want to do for you, to help you show your dark side so that you may accept it.”

“N-no! My friends will come for me! You won’t get away with this!” Dash screamed.

“Hah! Your friends, they’re nothing more than a bunch of pathetic ponies who can wield the Elements of Harmony, just... like... you.” The stallion laughed. “Let me be your friend and this can all be so much easier and we can conquer your fears… Scarlet Shadow…”

“W-what… wh-who are you talking about… whose Scarlet Shadow?” Dash asked, near hyperventilating.

“Why, you of course. Why else would we go through all the trouble of imitating those pathetic pegasi that call themselves Wonderbolts?” the stallion spat at the name.

“N-no! Let me go! You don’t have to do this, whatever it is! Please just let me go!” Dash said before finally going into full panic, making the stallion groan before waving at his assistant.

“Sedate her.” he said simply.

The mare standing next to him nodded and pulled out a needle and stuck it in her neck and injected a tranquilizer, knocking her out immediately.

“It is done sir.” said the mare.

“Good, it seems it is going to take a while to break her.” replied the stallion. “We’ll need time to prepare the first part of phase two.”

“Does she seriously think her friends will be able to save her by the time we’re done with her?”

“It’ll be a pity when she realizes it’s too late for them to save her.”

“I’ll have her moved to the torture chamber.”

“No… not yet.” said the stallion. “Xeva, cut out all the lights in here, let’s see how she deals with complete darkness when she wakes.”

Xeva nodded and extinguished the torches as she exited the chamber, following the stallion. “Jericho… I-I mean sir.” said Xeva.

“What?” growled Jericho after hearing her use his name. “What do you want?”

“W-what if they do come for her, how will we stop them?” Xeva asked.

“Easily… with this.” Jericho held up a canister of some sort of gas. “It’s non-toxic, but it’ll knock them out near instantly once they breathe in a healthy dose of it, make it easy to capture them and turn them all.”

“But… what of the Alicorn? They, of all ponies, are strongly resistant to this kind of thing.” Xeva quipped.

“Now, don’t be so silly, you think I wouldn’t compensate for that?” Jericho questioned rhetorically. “I added an extra dose of a certain special compound that would allow the gas to affect anything that breathes it unhindered.”

“That’s brilliant sir.” Xeva replied before yawning.

“Indeed.” Jericho replied. “Go, get yourself some rest, it’ll be a while before she wakes again.”

“Yes sir.” Xeva replied again before leaving.

“Now, Rainbow Dash, your observation begins.” he said as he used his magic to amplify the rooms sound only to him, using his magic like a hidden microphone.

~A few hours later~

Waking up, Rainbow Dash had expected to be in a lit room, but what she saw before her, was complete darkness, she couldn’t even see her own hoof if she held it to her face.

“No… t-too.... too dark… Must find light.” she said as she ran about the empty room trying to find some form of light.

Jericho chuckled as he watched from above in a room above her. “By the time we’re done with her, she’ll go insane and we’ll have succeeded…” he cackled. “...and then, if we capture her friends, we can do the same experiments on them to see what they fear and use it to drive them insane.”

“How is she handling it, sir?” asked a pony in a white lab coat.

“Ah, Black Heart.” said Jericho. “The ‘treatment’ is going splendid, she’s already losing parts of herself with every moment she spends in there, but, she is a tough one, so it’ll be hard to bring out her dark side.”

“Ah, the chamber of darkness.” Black Heart replied. “That gives me an idea.” said the stallion as he headed off for a moment before coming back with what looked like some sort of noise box. “Put this in there, it’ll imitate the sound of a manticore, an angry one at that. Ponies in the dark like this will be too petrified in the dark to be able to fight back.”

“Keep talking.” Jericho replied, his interest piqued

“And with every moment it is active, it grows louder, making it sound closer with every passing moment.” Black stated.

“Amazing work doctor, your work never fails to amuse me.” Jericho said with a smile. “Do it.”

Black Heart grinned and opened the chamber door before setting it just on the inside and flipping the ‘on’ switch and closing it.

~inside the chamber~

Dash had begun trying to escape the noise, this torture continued for another hour before a door opened and a stallion stepped in, lighting the torches. “Hello Rainbow Dash, I am Doctor Black Heart, you may refer to me as Black.” Black said as he went inside and shut the door behind him.

“Get away from me!” Dash screeched, attempting to kick at the stallion but found magical shackles holding her down.

“Settle down, I’m not going to hurt you, I just want to ask you some questions.” Black said.

“W-what kind of questions?” Dash glared at the stallion, pulling at her restraints.

“Just a few simple yes or no questions, that’s all.” Black started. “Now, have you ever, in your time since you met your friend, Twilight Sparkle, felt that your friends have started to develop a certain distrust in you?”

“No, they’d never have a reason not to trust me.” Dash replied, her glare intensifying.

“Denies… distrust… of… friends.” he muttered under his breath as he wrote it down before turning back to her. “At the coronation, was there any possibility that you had felt any sort of jealousy at Twilight Sparkles ascension?”

“No, why would I be jealous of her, she’s my friend.”

Black muttered once more and wrote down his mutterings. “Have you ever considered that your friends don’t acknowledge you as much as they should?”

“No, I’m done answering your stupid questions, now let me go.” Dash growled, struggling against her restraints once more.

Black shook his head. “I will only be able to help you if you will cooperate.”

“Never!” Dash tried to lunge at the stallion, only to be stopped once again by the chains that held her.

Black sighed. “I really didn’t want to resort to this, but you leave me no choice.” he then withdrew a syringe topped off with a needle before injecting the contents into her neck and leaving.

Jericho noticed the look on his face. “Didn’t go as you had planned, did it?”

“No… it didn’t…” Black replied before pulling the empty syringe. “I had no choice… she’ll be lucky if she survives.”

“And if she survives?” Jericho growled deeply.

“She will be weakened and her will… nopony knows how it will affect her will.” Black replied before leaving entirely.

Jericho groaned. “This is going to be a long night.”

Author's Note

Sorry for the long wait everypony, had a writers block and couldn't quite think of how to finish until last night.

Hope you enjoyed it.

We know who the ponies are, now we just need to figure out why they captured Rainbow of all ponies.

Your newly sick and demented author,

Mist