In loving memories

It has been an hour, or has it been two? Starlight couldn't tell as she shivered in her locks. No pony has entered the room yet, leaving her to fear for the next ordeal.

After the ciderbording, she knew they weren't fooling around anymore.

Hoofsteps... the one sound she didn't want to hear. Starlight's heart raced faster, as the hoofsteps grew louder.

"Hello again Starlight," the once totally dark room lit up again, revealing the yellow alicorn she dreaded most.

"I'm guessing it's your turn now," Starlight smirked awkwardly, desperately gathering what little bravery she had.

"On the contrary, it's technically not my turn. I'm doing mine with somepony else. You might recognise her as Twilight's other pupil." Another light shined suddenly in front of Starlight, revealing Aurora's companion.

Her coat was orange, her mane painted with red and orange streaks. Her cyan eyes stared at Starlight with hatred. Her wings were spread out, as though she wanted to look intimidating.

"Sunset, is that really you?" Starlight's jaw dropped.

"Yes Starlight, I am Sunset Shimmer. I returned to Equestria just for you!" Sunset calmed down. "I thought you were like me, misguided, but able to be reformed. Twilight always wrote about how well you have progressed in the magic of friendship, but looking at you now... you look like you have learnt nothing."

"Well I didn't turn into a She-demon!" Starlight rebutted, trying to assert herself.

"I'm past that, but obviously you aren't past what you have thought long before. You remind me of my past self, but more stubborn and disgusting to look at." Sunset smirked.

"Ok Sunset, that's enough," Aurora broke the conversation. "You have the knife, do you?" Sunset levitated the butcher knife she brought from the human world.

"Yup!"

Starlight gasped at the size of the knife. She couldn’t imagine what horrors they were going to do to her.

"Excellent!" Aurora exclaimed. "Now for the fun part!"

The metal table flipped to the side, making her parallel to the stone floor. An orange magic surrounded her, preventing her from moving or screaming.

"This will hurt, a lot!" Sunset levitated the knife to Starlight's horn. She dragged the sharp surface front and back, the skin around her horn split. Starlight mumbled in pain.

"3... 2... 1..." Aurora counted down. Starlight's heart raced as the knife was hoisted up

"NOW!" Sunset brought down the knife and drew a circle into Starlight’s head.

Surprisingly it didn’t hurt as much as she had expected. After the first cut, her head went numb. She did feel the movements, but the pain was growing very slowly. Beside a slight moan, she didn’t leave a sound. Yet this shouldn’t stay the case for what was coming next.

“No magic now.” Sunset demanded, “This calls for brute force!”

The magic around Starlight disappeared, leaving her only to hand on to her ties. Sunset placed both of her front hooves on her horn.

“Wah!” Starlight shivered realizing what was to be done, “You can't simply pull i-“

That was all she brought out before the orange mare started pulling. Instead, she started to scream uncontrollably. Her voice switching between the octaves.

To get the horn itself out wasn’t the problem, but that it was attached to the body by nerves, sinews and blood streams that had to be ripped out as well.

Starlight now felt everything. The movements of her horn, the sinews that were pulled out of her flesh, the weakening force Sunset used every time she made a new effort to pull it out, and she needed quite a bit. In the end Starlight wasn’t even able to scream anymore. The pain paralysed her, with only her hooves occasionally jerking. When it was done, the good-natured numbness came back, releasing Starlight for a moment.

"Not so powerful now are yah?" Aurora taunted, holding the detached horn.

"..." Starlight can't say anything now. The exposed flesh burnt her, making her even tired. Blood flowed down her face.

"Well that was fun to watch, but I think I'll take over."

"Wha- AH!"Starlight barely said a word before Aurora hit her exposed nerve. She struggled in the ties. The pain intensified as she used more force to push on the part where her horn once was.

Aurora levitated her detached horn to the branded part of her torso and drove it into the burnt part. Starlight screamed in pain as her body was attacked from two ways. Until finally, it stopped.

"Well, I guess that's enough screams for me." Aurora grinned. "Come on Sunset, let's hang our prize on the wall."

Aurora and Sunset backed away, leaving the hornless Starlight to moan.