Just Beyond the Surface

The saws circular teeth bit into the side of Twilight's head. She could feel it eating through her skin, chewing through her flesh, and biting deep into the skull beneath. Twilight grit her teeth against the pain, biting her tongue to keep herself from screaming. If only she could use her magic! If only there was somepony to help her! The blade whirred around her head, and she heard the crack, like an eggshell breaking. The feeling of the top of her head being lifted off, pulled off by her mane, was a sensation that no pony should have to live through.

The other surgical tools move in, scraping the under side of the bone, separating the thin membrane that held her skull in place over her brain. Blood and cerebral fluid dripped down her forehead and into her eyes. She shouldn't be awake for a procedure like this. She shouldn't be able to see the serrated scoop as it was brought closer, and its sharp edge embedded in her brain. She wouldn't feel anything as the grey matter of her frontal lobe was scooped out, except for a dull hollow feeling, and a sense of loss that would fade along with her personality. There would be no pain. Just a brief moment as everything about her, everything that made Twilight who she was, was torn away.

Such thoughts ran though Twilight's mind like wildfire! Her imagination flooded the inside of her head with visions of it being pried open and her brains scooped out. Twilight couldn't help it. She had a very active imagination.

The worst part was, once her thoughts became reality, she wouldn't even be sure she'd remember it had happened let alone car that it had. If this twisted version of Starlight was half as good at surgery as she as she seemed to be with dark magic, then there was a very real possibility that Twilight would just become her play thing as she intended. Obedient, compliant, willing to do what ever she said. She could make her fawn over her like some twisted pet, and Twilight would just accept this state of affairs as if that was how they had always been. The very thought alone was enough to make her sick to her stomach.

Encased by the bands of dark crystal, as Twilight was, she couldn't even move so much as a feather. If she remembered correctly when her brother, Shining Armor, has his magic similarly sealed the effect wouldn't were off unless the power of the crystal heart was brought into play. Since the heart was hundreds of miles away in the Crystal Empire, that did Twilight no good at all. Maybe if she focused her magic on generating the same kind of light and love, she could destroy the dark seal herself? Twilight would need time to build up that kind of power, however, and the short time it had taken to listen to Violet's history 'lesson' and her delusional relationship with Twilight had not been enough. Twilight needed more time! Time it didn't look like she was going to get.

Unless...

"Okay! Okay!" Twilight shouted. "I'll do it!"

"You'll do what?" asked Violet with one eyebrow raised, her voice muffled by her surgical mask.

"I'll... I'll be your special somepony," Twilight spat the words out as if they burned her mouth. "I'll be yours!"

It was as if the sun had come out from behind a bank of clouds. Violet positively beamed! "I knew you'd see things my way!" Her clones jumped up and down with joy.

All except for one in a burgundy dress, still studded with shards of the Crystal Mirror. With her eyes narrowed to suspicious slits, the clone said "This is a trick isn't it? you don't really want to be our special somepony, do you?"

"Well, no..." admitted Twilight truthfully. The look of betrayal on the faces of all of the Violet's was like a sudden thunderstorm. The surgical tools came towards Twilight's head again. "What I mean is I can't be the special somepony to all of you! It wouldn't really be special then, would it? In fact, it would be really weird."

"Huh. She's kind of has a point," said one filly in a purple dress.

"Yeah, I mean we went through all this trouble so wee wouldn't have to share her with those other unicorns," agreed another clone in a lavender dress. "It would be silly to have done all that just to have to take turns with her now."

"Don't listen to her. She's just trying to turn us against each other," said the pony that Twilight thought of as the original Violet. Though, how could she really tell? "Besides, you clones are just going back into the mirror pool when this is all over."

"We're what now!?" asked a filly in a mauve dress. "You mean after we did everything you said, you're just going to throw us away? That's not fair! We love what's-her-name too!"

"Twi-bright should choose! Make her choose!" cried one clone in a orchid colored dress.

"She already said she didn't want to be with us. We have to make her love us before she can choose," reasoned another clone. Or was it the original? "We can discuss this after the operation is complete."

"That's stupid! She won't even be Twilight anymore if we do that!" screamed a clone in a dress the color of a ripe plum, stomping one hoof like a petulant child. "This isn't how this was supposed to go at all!"

"Quiet you! This is the only way now. We have to do this!" cried Violet. Though if it were the original or one of her clones it was becoming increasingly hard to tell. "Once she's been made compliant we can all have a turn with her!"

"That's absurd! I think I'm done listening to you," said the clone in the purple dress coldly. "Twilight should be mine and mine alone!"

That was all the warning given before an all out battle began.

Some of the clones favored their magic, while others used blades. Surgical implements danced like a hurricane around the room as different versions of Violet tackled one another, sawing open throats and cleaving bone, gouging out eyes and crushing windpipes. It seemed Twilight had tapped into some seething resentment and hatred that Violet had for herself, or at least her errant clones. Perhaps they simply disliked competition, even from 'themselves'? It was hard to tell where the carnage began and ended. The clones seemed to use magic to heal themselves as quickly as they took damage. One pony was trying to circumvent this by chopping off horns, but she was somewhat hampered when all of her limbs were yanked out of their sockets and ripped off of her body by a particularly powerful magically inclined version of Violet.

As blood, viscera, and chips of meat and bone fell in a deluge around the room, one of the clones just huddled against the wall, weeping into her hooves.

This madness couldn't be allowed to continue, even if it did serve as the distraction Twilight needed. Digging deep inside herself, Twilight focused her thoughts on her friends. Moon Dancer's devotion. Trixie's vivaciousness. Sunset's empathy. Starlight... The real Starlight's, earnestness. And Spike... noble Spike... his honor! All of her thoughts and feelings about her friends that Violet had harmed, had attacked, had made to suffer all for her own selfish desires. These are what Twilight poured from her heart. Brilliant white light streamed from Twilight's eyes as the dark crystal exploded into so much fine dust and powder. She spread her wings wide and rose from the melted plastic of that had formerly been the desk that bound her.

As one the Violet's looked up towards her, at least the ones who still had eyes, and the look that passed over their faces was a mixture of awe and abject terror.

Twilight didn't waste any time. She remembered well the spell to return clones to the Mirror Pool... And this time she didn't have to bother finding out who the original was. The spell arched from her horn, flying out at blinding speed. As the spell collided with each of the fillies, they expanded as if they were about to explode before dissolving into base magic energy. They soared through the air like shooting stars, streaking back towards their origin in the Everfree Forest. Twilight was like a wrathful deity, laying about herself in judgement and hurling the sinful into the waiting abyss. The Violet's didn't go without a fight, sending searing spells arching from their horns and attacking with sharp weapons that hungered for Twilight's flesh.

She shoved her pain, horror, and grief aside and focused on the task at hand. She owed her murdered friends that much. The clones didn't stand a chance. Their spells bounced harmlessly off of her magical shield. What few edged weapons got past her defenses only managed glancing, shallow cuts as she flew and teleported around the room, magic trailing in her wake like the tail of a comet..

When the dust finally settled, Twilight found herself alone in the throne room, surrounded by pools of blood. As the light and fury faded from Twilight's eyes, she broke into a fit of wracking sobs. Never before had she been so violated. Never before had she faced such a vile foe.

Nothing would ever be the same again.

Time passed, and at last the wave of grief that had assailed Twilight receded.

There was work to be done. Twilight needed to keep it together.

The throne room was a sea of blood and severed limbs. Even the chandelier, made from the salvaged roots of the Golden Oaks library, was festooned with intestines and other internal organs that had been sent flying during the melee. These spilled their putrid viscera onto the room below, staining the precious memories that hung encased in jewels with their foulness as the juices steadily dripped down. It seemed that even though the mirror pool clones themselves had been banished, the bits and pieces of them that had been left behind would not be so easily dealt with. Twilight felt like she was going to be sick, but this was no time to let herself be overcome by the horror that surround her.

Not now, when Spike still needed her help.

Now that she wasn't threatened herself, Twilight thought she might be able to help her ever-faithful assistant. While she wasn't certain, she thought that the enchantment that bound Spike might be linked to the blade protruding from his chest. If Twilight could get a better look at it, study the runes engraved on the blade, perhaps she could preserve the spell that held him in stasis until she could find a way to heal his wounds? At the very least, if she could get a better idea of the spell that had been used, she might be able to reverse it and any ill effects it had done to Spike that were not immediately obvious.

It was worth a shot.

Twilight reached one hoof tentatively towards the blade's handle. Nothing happened. She tried to pull it out. Spike instantly started to writhe and scream, as if it were Twilight who was stabbing him. His pained eyes locked on hers, and he began to cough up blood. Twilight immediately let go of the blade's hilt and Spike froze in mid-scream.

If she couldn't physically remove the blade, maybe she could manipulate it with her magic?

Focusing her power into her horn, she engulfed the dagger with her power, and then began to slowly edge the blade out of Spike's heart. To Twilight's relief, it seemed that Spike remained motionless while she did this. She pulled the blade a little further out. As she did, the runes on the dagger began to glow a deep and frightening red. The sigil drawn in Spike's blood began to glow in kind, the runes leaping into the air and rotating in a shadowy haze of darkness. Before Twilight could return the dagger to the sheath of Spike's heart, an angry portal limed in crimson lighting tore open in the air above the cutie map.

Twilight's eyes grew wide as she felt herself being pulled in.

There was no time to react.

With a thunderclap, Twilight was sucked into the dark abyss that yawned before her.

For a time, Twilight feared she had gone blind.

When she tried to illuminate the area around her using her magic, all Twilight couldn't even see her own hooves waving in front of her face. Wherever she was, her surroundings seemed to simply drink the light from her horn and leave her in a boundless abyss. As time passed and her eyes adjusted, Twilight realized that there was a certain shadowy light that she could see by that lent some definition to herself and her surroundings. Even so, it did little to reveal where she was or even what condition she herself was in. All Twilight knew for sure was that, where ever she was, her surroundings were rank with the vile stench of an abattoir.

If she strained her ears, Twilight could hear a faint buzzing that she moved towards instinctively.

The floor squished unpleasantly beneath her hooves. Truth to tell, Twilight moved cautiously, terrified of taking a wrong step and slipping beneath the sludge that seemed to coat the ground she walked upon. She didn't want to think about what it was she was walking through, but curiosity forced her to bring one filth covered hoof up to her noise. Twilight almost vomited as the scent of a mixture of congealed blood, fecal matter, and what she could only assume were fragments of flesh filled her nostrils. She quickly set her hoof back down into the cold effluence. She wouldn't be trying that experiment again any time soon. At least that helped to explain the stench and the buzzing of what Twilight realized must be flies. It didn't tell her anything about where she was, but she knew it was some place sh didn't want to be. The endless darkness seemed to roll on forever in every direction.

Twilight needed to get back to Spike. He needed her help. She had tried teleporting, but no matter how hard she tried, she would only reappear somewhere else in this apparently limitless abyssal plane. No matter how far she walked or ran, there didn't seem to be an end to it. She had tried using her wings, but she had to be careful since she couldn't see. She quickly lost her bearings, and had somehow ended up flying straight back down to the ground. The impact had sent up a wet splash of filth, coating her mane and much of her skin in the stygian dreck. To her eternal regret, some had even managed to trickle into her mouth and up her nose. She'd spent a few wretched moments coughing, sneezing, and adding to the repugnant pool retching up her breakfast. She'd resisted the urge to wipe her mouth with the back of her hoof, as this would have only smeared more of the foulness across her face. She settled for using her magic to try and levitate the droplets of sick and dross from her body, but it clung stubbornly in matted clumps to her fur.

Twilight was not a happy pony.

She was contemplating just sitting down and screaming for help when she heard a strange, tinkling sound drift through the monotonous buzz of fatted flies. The only other sound up to now had been the ever present squelch as Twilight trudged through the mire that sucked at her hooves. Now, however, she could hear distant music floating through the darkness. There was a grainy quality to it, and a discordant slowness, like a record played on an ancient gramophone that dug its hateful needle into the records groove just a bit too slowly.

Twilight moved towards the sound cautiously, ever vigilant for a trick or trap. She had already realized that the spell that had been inscribed on the cutie map had been meant as a trap for her. She cursed herself for not realizing it sooner, but it made sense that if Starlight could make a portal through time then her evil alternate self might be able to tear one open in space. Though she was fairly certain that she had eliminated the true Violet along with her clones, that didn't mean that the fight was over. Clearly there had been some reason for leaving that trap in wait for Twilight, and it was possible that there were other mirror clones or booby-traps laying in wait for her.

Which is why Twilight jumped when an array of unseen spotlight's flashed on, illuminating her surroundings. What she had taken for an endless plane was nothing more than a high ceilinged room. Chains hung from above, their ends terminating in wicked looking barbed hooks, but these posed no immediate danger. Twilight wondered how she had managed to avoid those before when she had attempted flight. She was suddenly very glad she hadn't tried using her wings a second time. The floor remained unfortunately turbid beneath her hooves, but she didn't have the feeling that she was going to sink into the muck at any moment anymore. Now that she had light to see by, she could see that the grime was only a thin coating on a stone floor.

What was this place?

Twilight continued to move towards the music, which seemed less distant now, though all the more discordant. The needle of the unseen gramophone jumped and scratched periodically, grating on Twilight's understandably frazzled nerves. The alicorn's teeth were set on edge with ever skip of the record. The first thing she would do when she found whoever was playing this music would be to make them turn it off. That was, of course, if there even was anypony to make that demand of. Of any pony else, any other living soul, there was no apparent sign.

As Twilight walked further through the unsettling room, the dangling hooks and loops of chain only grew thicker. It almost seemed like the ceiling was getting lower with each step. It took a strength of will for Twilight to press on towards the sound rather than scramble backwards and try to find an exit elsewhere. It was obvious that she was likely only moving deeper into the jaws of the very trap that was meant to be her doom, but what choice did she really have? She feared turning back now would only lead her back to that strange lightless 'nowhere' that she had been wandering for who knew how long.

Doing her best to suppress her trepidation, Twilight at last arrived where the music seemed to originate. A rough looking stage was illuminated by brightly colored lights that swam and spun, creating strange shapes and bizarre shadows. The chains here were so thick, they seemed to act as a curtain for the stage. Twilight was perplexed. Why a stage? As if in answer to her question, the lights died, plunging Twilight back into darkness.

"Welcome Twilight Sparkle!" boomed a high pitched voice from every direction at once.

"Violet! So you survived!" bellowed Twilight, recognizing the voice of her tormentor instantly. "Or are you one of her clones? Come out and I'll deal with you the way I dealt with your fellows!"

"Bold words Twilight, but no, I am the original Violet I assure you," the voice answered. "Escaping in that maelstrom of blood shed that you caused was simple enough. Really, I should thank you for taking care of my doubles and saving me the trouble."

"Show yourself and I'll do more than save you trouble," Twilight answered, her tone letting Violet know that this was no idle threat. "Those who have touched the waters of the Mirror Pool are subject to the return spell just like their clones. It would be a fitting end for you, to be imprisoned with your shallow copies!"

"A difficulty I'm well aware of Twilight. Hence why I am not there to embrace you as I welcome you to my realm," taunted Violet.

"You're realm? This pigsty?" replied Twilight, not rising to the bait, "It suits you!"

"Oh, somepony is feeling saucy," giggled Violet. "You're insults aside, it was no small feat to craft this place. My little hidey-hole, my home away from home, inside your home. Digging into the earth beneath the 'roots' of your domicile was the easy part. You have no guards in your so-called castle, so that part was as simple as trotting inside when no one was around. Siphoning magic from this crystal edifice, however... Ah, now that was a trick! I must say I'm rather proud of twisting that magic to form this pocket of reality. It exists simultaneous inside and outside of your dimension, you see. It required a lot of time, patience, and sacrifice, but it was worth it!"

A pocket dimension! That explained why Twilight couldn't simply teleport home. It would have been like trying to teleport from Equestria to the Human World without a portal. It just couldn't be done! The danger that Twilight was in slowly dawned on her. Without learning the way out, she could be trapped here for all eternity. "Such a powerful working of magic must have been difficult. Too difficult even for Starlight Glimmer! You must have had help!"

"I'm far more powerful than that weakling Starlight!" boomed Violet. "And my clones were all the help I needed. Well, them and my little sacrifices. But ah, i'm getting ahead of myself again. It's time for the show!"

The flood lights burst on again, and the music grew to a deafening crescendo as the chain link curtains opened revealing a pair of ballerinas posed elegantly on stage. At least, they looked like ballerinas. Twilight's eyes grew wide as she took in the sight. There was no mistaking the identity of the performers who stood stock still on stage. Starlight, the real Starlight, hung suspended from several chains that were embedded into her legs by the long hooks that Twilight had seen before. Trixie hung likewise, though she appeared to twitch slightly, writhing like a worm on the end of a not so metaphorical hook. Both ponies had clearly endured unspeakable torture. Cuts, bruises, and burns marred their ones smooth flesh, patches of hair were completely missing and both had their mouths sewn firmly shut. Their horns, of course, were sheathed in the same black crystal that Twilight's had been sealed by not so long ago.

Before Twilight's shocked eyes, the chains that held the two unicorn's began to jerk back and forth, twisting the hooks in their muscles painfully and forcing them into an awkward dance. The ponies, clearly conscious of their suffering, moaned and gave muffled screams as the music continued to blare. Blood seeped from their wounds as the hooks twisted and spun in their flesh. Twilight couldn't bear to watch this any longer. Before she realized what she was doing, Twilight had climbed on stage, galloping at full speed towards the twisted marionettes. Twilight had to free her friends!

But before she could so much as reach a hoof out to touch them, a line of other ponies fell from the ceiling. Twilight jumped back, wings spread wide, thinking this was some sort of attack. The line of ponies hung perfectly still, swinging ever so slightly on the chains that bound them. These were the corpses that Trixie had seen earlier, still skewered on their hooks, their chains swaying gentle from their sudden fall. Twilight felt a wave of nausea as she realized that these were the 'sacrifices' that Violet had earlier alluded to. The miasma of dark magic wafting off of them must have been carved deep into their flesh as they had been tortured to death. While some were clearly only recently dead, or at least well preserved, others were severely rotted and mutilated to the point that they barely resembled once living creatures. One of the ponies was even missing the top of her head, her lower jaw hanging down across her chest as the cross section of her throat swung back and forth before Twilight's eyes.

Along with the ritualistic carvings etched into their flesh, there were other modifications. All of them had wings, even those who had not been born with them. The cadavers that still had their heads were adorned with horns that were either natural or borrowed. The suffering these ponies must have endured was more than Twilight was willing to contemplate. They were so badly damaged that it was impossible to tell who they had been while they were alive, but it was clear they had all lost their lives thanks to Violet's twisted obsession with Twilight. Each one, she realized, had been shaped and twisted and changed into a facsimile of her own appearance.

"Do you like my doll collection Twilight?" asked Violet, a teasing tone in her impish voice. "I must admit that they're not as good as the real thing, but then what reproduction truly is? Even with all of the pictures I took of you in secret, in even the most intimate settings, I could never quite reproduce the shining image that was you. Still, I think I was close to capturing your essence with some of them. I dare say a little more time, a little more work, and I would've had a harem to rival your own!"

"Is there no end to your perversion, your depravity!?" screamed Twilight in disbelief. "What did these ponies do to you that could possibly justify this depraved violation!?"

"They reminded me of you, Twilight," replied Violet's disembodied voice callously. "A turn of the head, a curve of the shoulder, the brief flash of a smile like summer lightning. With every turn and every step they tormented me with the reminiscence of you, as you were in my fillyhood memories. That, combined with knowledge that I could not obtain you drove me to these ends. I had tried to be satisfied with them as they were, to slake my desire for you with their bodies, but they just never lasted. I admit it wasn't their fault... How could they hope to compare? They were all so imperfect! Even with my modifications, they were just pale imitations. I had hoped to end all of that today, but I see now that you remain beyond my reach. Then again, that's why you're here now!"

Twilight knit her brow, "What do you mean?'

"I tried reason Twilight. I tried magic. I even tried science," replied the unseen Violet. "But there's a reason I made this place, and no, it wasn't just to hide my presence or my deeds. This was going to be our paradise! By now, I'm sure you've realized you cannot leave here by teleporting. You can walk out any time you like, but I assure you that you will never leave. You will never find the exit. I'll make you dance like a puppet on a string, just like your 'friends' here. Just like these dolls! If I can't have you Twilight, then no pony can!"

As she said this, magic crackled down the lengths of the chains supporting the Twilight dolls, making them dance as their desiccated bodies began to twitch on the ends of their hooks. Their hooves touched the boards of the stage and, as one, they turned their eyeless gaze towards Twilight. Screeches of pain and deep groans of despair escaped their parched throats and peeling lips.

The corpses were alive!

"Ingraining a vivifying spell into my toys was an integral part of the modification process, otherwise they'd be useless to me even more useless to me. I think you'll find that they won't be so easy to deal with as my Mirror Pool clones though. I've poured my magic into them Twilight, along with my hatred and my longing!" Violet laughed manically from behind the scenes. "You have no idea how much I've hungered for you, Twilight! How I've longed to taste you! How I've wanted to put you inside me for so long! Of course... these dolls lack my restraint! Oh Twilight... hah-ha... they're going to eat you alive!"

The chains that supported the corpses suddenly twitched and spun at incredible speed. The dolls twisted bonelessly, their bodies bending at odd angles as they hurtled across the stage towards Twilight. It was only on raw instinct that the alicorn dodged a set of jaws sank deep into the wooden floor where she had stood but a moment ago. Another doll leaped through the air towards her, one hoof scything through the space that had previously been occupied by Twilight's head. The chains rattled and clinked as the undead dolls closed in on Twilight from all sides.

The Princess had no choice but to make a hasty retreat!

Twilight leapt off the stage and squelched into the foul ichor of the floor, skidding and sliding away from the stage. Running was difficult, so she tried flying. However, as Twilight rose off of the the ground, a hook swung down and dug deep into one of her wings. Twilight let out a scream as the wing was wrenched nearly out of socket. "They're coming to get you Twilight!" sang Violet's voice gleefully as Twilight struggled to free herself. "They're coming to for you now!"

The cadavers glided like ghosts, just above the surface of the sea of gore, some moving gracefully while others twitched and squirmed. Twilight had no choice... She couldn't run anymore. With a grunt that turned into a scream, she slid her limp wing off of the hook that had entangled it. With a scream, she forced her wing back into socket. It would be useless for flying, but so long as she could use her wings she'd have a slight edge over the limp creatures that were bound to the chains they swung from. As the nearest doll drew close, its eyeless skull shrieking, Twilight lashed out with her magic.

It was a simple spell meant to push the animated carcass back, but to Twilight's surprise the rotten creature instead burst like a water balloon. A shower of maggots rained down on Twilight as flies rose up in an angry buzzing swarm. Temporarily blinded by the buzzing insects, Twilight didn't realize the danger she was in until she felt rotten teeth bite deep into her shoulder. She howled her pain and terror to the sky as another set of broken teeth latched onto her flank. The corpses moaned with something between pain and pleasure as they scrapped dry tongues over Twilight's skin, lapping up the warm living blood spilling from the rancid bite wounds. The dead things did this for but a moment, before they began to worry her hide with their putrid mouths. They were trying to eat her, just as Violet had said!

Twilight spun around, bucking furiously, kicking the twin dolls that had injured her to damp and ragged pieces. What was left of them fell hissing to the ground. Just the thought of the horrible diseases that Twilight may have contracted from their bites was enough to send the alicorn into a frenzy, stomping their squirming carcasses into mush.

Infection was the least of Twilight's problems, however, as the other dolls closed in around her once again. Twilight lashed out with her magic once more, trying to be careful to cut or crush her attackers rather than risk bursting them open. Bodies fell from their chains as heads and limbs were severed or smashed, splashing onto the floor. Soon a wave of maggots was swimming through the cold viscera, twitching over Twilight's hooves. It was a small price to pay to avoid snapping jaws and their eager tongues.

Doll after crumbling doll was struck down, smashed, and left in ruined piles of desiccated flesh. Flies choked the air, forcing Twilight to attack blindly. This was why she was shocked when she suddenly heard a cry that wasn't the screech of the animated dead. No, these sounded all too familiar! Twilight hesitated as Trixie and Starlight appeared from the swarm of flies, limbs scything through the air against their will to attack Twilight. The cause of that muffled scream Twilight had heard was all too clear... She had opened up a wide cut along Trixie's cheek, blood mixing with the tears that streamed down her face.

Twilight was struck with a sudden pang of guilt. Still, now was not the time to hesitate. Violet had made a fatal mistake in using her friends as weapons! Moving swiftly, Twilight used her magic to pull her friends free of the hooks that bound them. Blood gushed from their open wounds as they fell into the pool of writhing maggots, but at least they couldn't be used by Violet anymore.

Or so Twilight thought.

She should have realized that they, like the dolls, were only meant as a distraction.

The hooks that dangled over Twilight suddenly fell, gouging into her own flesh! Her limbs were stretched, pulled in four different directions at once. This had been Violet's plan all along, tiring her out enough and distracting her long enough so that she couldn't resist her own capture. Twilight screamed long and lustily as the chains drew ever more taught. She was being ripped apart! The pain was too much. She couldn't concentrate enough to use her magic to rescue herself.

"I caught you! You fell right into my trap! I finally got my hooks in you! Hahahaha!" Violet squealed with triumphant laughter at her own joke. "I bet you wish you had agreed to be my special somepony now, huh!? I bet you wish it was my hooves instead of my hooks caressing you!"

Twilight willed herself to ignore her pain... To ignore the voice of the demented filly that taunted her. In a flash, she teleported back to the stage. The sudden absence of the cruel metal that had gouged her flesh caused spurts of blood to issue from the suddenly vacated wounds. Twilight felt lightheaded as a wave of pain and nausea caused her knees to buckle beneath her. She fought to stay upright. Twilight knew that she couldn't give up now! If she was going to save her friends, save herself, then she had to act before Violet had a chance to react.

Violet must have been very confident in that last attack, or she was getting sloppy as her madness reached its peak. Twilight knew exactly where she was hiding now! All of the chains seemed to lead behind the stage. What Twilight had taken to be a bit of theatrical artifice on Violet's part to terrify her, she now realized was the only place that anypony could hope to hide in this horrible place.

With a flutter of her injured wings, Twilight hurtled through the thickest part of the chains. Sure enough, she found Violet hunched 'backstage' next to a dusty gramophone that continued to blast its terrible jangling waltz. Surprise flares in Violet's eyes for only a moment before she brought a nail studded bat down hard on Twilight's head. Unsurprisingly, Twilight was knocked off her hooves and sent hurtling into the record player. At least that awful music was at last silenced as Twilight crashed into the gramophone with a wood splintering crash.

"You just couldn't hold still and let me end it, could you!? Twilight Sparkle always finds a way! That was something I admired about you once, but now I think I'm starting to see why all of your enemies curse your name in particular from among your friends!" Violet's hair hung limp and bloody. Apparently she hadn't escaped from the treachery of her clones entirely unscathed, as fresh cuts and bruises adorned her tiny body. Her injuries didn't stop Violet's eyes from blazing with fury though. "Just hold still Twilight! Just hold still and let me make all the pain go away!"

Twilight barely heard any of this. Her ears were ringing and her vision was going in and out of focus. She couldn't move if she wanted to. She was spent. "I... I can't. I can't go on like this. Please. If you really did ever love me just... Just end it quickly. Don't make me suffer like those pony's you sacrificed," Twilight begged as fat tears wobbled in her eyes.

The bat Violet held with her magic froze in mid swing. Her eyes were suddenly glistening with tears of her own, "You think I want to do this? You think this is how I wanted things to end!? I just wanted you to love me the way I loved you Twilight!" Teardrops fell from Violet's eyes. She was a psychotic killer, an evil murderous monster that had used and callously exterminated other ponies lives as if they were nothing. Despite this it was clear, in that moment, that her twisted heart was breaking. Whatever sick obsessions she might have, whatever hatred she might harbor, it was clear that at one point she had felt nothing but genuine admiration and even love for Twilight Sparkle... The pony she was about to consign to oblivion. "But now... Now it's you or me! Now you've given me no choice!"

"I know," replied Twilight through tears of her own, her face turning suddenly stern. "I don't have any choice either." The spell exploded from Twilight's horn and smashed into Violet. She didn't react the same way that her clones had. She didn't dissolve into magic, nor did her body expand or contract... Rather, her tiny form was enveloped with a light that was blinding in that dark place. Violet's distorted scream faded to silence as her flesh and blood were converted to light. Her body was sent hurtling through that dimly lit land towards a distant horizon... To where the exit to Equestria lay, and her journey to the Mirror Pool was unobstructed.

Violet's passing scoured the filth from the ground, creating a deep, sparkling furrow that was easy to follow...

Even for an injured alicorn with a pair of ponies draped over her aching back.