In loving memories

by MStardust

Rating: mature
Tags: Dark, Alternate Universe, Sad, Horror
Length: 5497

As a result of the friendship test, Rarity has gattered friends and family members of the main six to teach Starlight a lesson.

As a result of the friendship test, Rarity has gathered friends and family members of the main six to teach Starlight a lesson. She wakes up in her own torture cellar and witnesses different ponies taking out their rage and sadness over the loss of their loved ones on her.
Some readers might want to avoid this.

Written by Horizon Sunrise and MStardust
Cover Art by Acid Rainbow
Please follow us on Amino Equestria

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2016-11-17 03:20:01 UTC

Chapter 1 A dress you never take off

"Darling! It's my turn!"

"Oh, there you are!“ Starlight grinned while recognizing Rarity's voice, "I was starting to get nervous!“

"Oh, don’t you worry, dear!“ a disheveled, obviously sleep deprived Rarity appeared in sight, “I am here to stay, but I won't do all the work.”

Rarity magically lighted the torches, that must have been installed during Starlight's absence. A box full of fabric and sewing material appeared.

“Fabric?” Starlight laughed, “What? Will you put me in a disgusting dress?”

“Never!” Rarity protested, “I will sew you a dress so beautiful, that you’ll never take it off!”

With this, she levitated her needle and a pitch-black stream of fabric.

“No fancy colors today?” Starlight nagged sarcastically.

Rarity didn’t change her expression. Instead she looked over into the dark.

“Aurora, darling? I might need some help here!”

An orange layer of magic appeared around Starlight. The ties were opened and she was levitated into air, right in front of Rarity. Then, the magic slowly moved her extremities to the pose of a mannequin. Starlight could feel how every single muscle in her body froze to Aurora's will. She wasn’t even able to speak anymore.

Rarity smiled delightful. “Thanks a lot!”

She placed the fabric on Starlight's hips and set one of her safety pins in place. It was in that moment, that Starlight realized, what she was doing.

Starlight moaned in gentle pain, as the needle stitched deep within her skin. She couldn’t open her mouth, yet she could make noises.

Rarity would continue her stitching and needle by needle she would get more confident and be more brutal with the next one. Little by little Starlight would feel more pain, yet it wasn’t as bad to the point when she couldn’t stand it. Instead, she too gained some confidence.

“Yeah, this will look delightful!” Rarity mentioned, when she had finished pinning the pattern down, “Now, shall we sew it on?”

To Starlight's surprise, the white unicorn levitated a small sewing machine that must have stood behind the box of fabric. Her eyes widened when she saw it.

“Note, that I had the bottom removed.” Rarity smiled, “A customized article simply for you! Because I’m so generous!”

The magic around Starlight's face disappeared, so she could open her mouth again.

“I underestimated you.” Starlight grinned back at the stylist.

Rarity wouldn’t answer her. She simply placed the sewing machine on Starlight's belly and switched it on. The loud roar of the machine echoed through the hall. Seconds later Starlights screams would do the same.

Knowing, Starlight would have to suffer at least for a little while, she took her time sewing the fabric onto her body. When done, she would fold the skirt back to sew a neat approach. She then placed the machine on her victim again, to pin it, right beside the bloody seam, she had done a minute ago. This time Starlight would scream even louder.

“Now to the pattern.” Rarity proceeded, “You asked for colours earlier, didn’t you?”

“Flowers!” Starlight smirked, heavily breathing. If one thing, she really didn’t want to show any weakness now, “In all the rainbow colours!”

This time Rarity did answer. She giggled, realizing that Starlight indeed was in great pain.

“I think, I have just the right yarn for that!” she levitated a rainbow coloured yarn roll, “Although it's a shame to waste it on black fabric. You must know, I had it made after a very special key, that was needed to build Twilight's- I mean Your castle. But, the costumer is always king, isn’t she?”

She picked a needle and started stitching a flower pattern near the seam. The needle went deeper and faster with every second. Starlight however got more quiet with every stitch.

This continued until Starlight was put into a very beautiful, but bloody black gown. She didn’t even moan anymore. She just stood in her paralysation smirking like she was planning her revenge, but breathing like she had just run a mile.

Perhaps it was time for something more painful.

“Now you look appropriate!” Rarity smiled to herself, then turned to the dark, “Don’t you dare burn my stitching, Spiky!”

“Don’t worry, Rarity!”

While Starlight was moved back into her ties, a small, but frightening purple dragon appeared in the light.

“I wouldn’t!”

Chapter 2 Hot Topic

"Then I'll leave you to it Spiky!" Rarity backed into the dark, leaving the purple dragon with Starlight.

"So, I was right all along!" Spike lifted his head high.

"What do you mean, right." Starlight responded.

"You were still evil! I knew that something about your reformation was weird. I always wanted to attack you with my green flames, but Twilight always said no. Until now that is!"

Spike walked behind the table and breathed the green flames on it. The table quickly became a frying pan as the heat combined with the painful stitches of the dress jerked Starlight.

Maintaining her smirk, she said, "Is that all you got? A baby dragon can't harm me, let alone Twilight's personal slave."

"YOU SHUT UP! SHE WAS FAMILY TO ME!" Spike's claws swiped at Starlight's face, leaving a cut.

"Aurora, bring in the egg." An egg-shaped furnace was brought into the room, Spike lit up the wood below. Letting it heat up, Spike lifted a branding iron, letting Starlight see it before he put it back in.

"Remember this Starlight?" the branding iron stunned Starlight. It was the same one she used to brand the mane 6.

"You should feel how my family felt!" Spike grabbed the branding iron and slammed it into her torso. The force and the sizzling of her flesh made her leak a tear out. She held back from screaming as the iron was kept there for 5 seconds, then increasing to 10, 15... 20... Then at 25 seconds, he removed it.

"Who's equal now, traitor!" Starlight gasped at the sight of her torso. A burnt equal sign was embedded in her body. The flesh beside it caved in. But Starlight still looked strong.

Maybe we need to top it up a notch.

The next time, he smashed the iron direcly into her face burning her right eye. She screamed in distress. From the void, Aurora's magic held her head straight. Spike pressed the hot metal deep into her flesh until she could only breathe heavily.

He gave her a little time to recover, until the iron was hot again, to be more precise.

Realizing that she was now partially blind, Starlight continued her crazy giggling.

This time, Spike would use the iron on someplace even more hurtful. He pointed to her lower abdomen and pressed it deeply within her flesh.

Starlights cries would now get so intense, her voice began to change. Her laughing quickly turned into a mixture of snapping and moaning.

Proud of his work, Spike would watch her for a while. It was now way more difficult for her to find back to her calm, condescending self.

"Big Mac, are you ready?" Spike cried out.

"Yup!" After hearing that, he backed away, the egg levitating with him.

“So that was it?” Starlight furiously cried after him, “That was nothing! I can go on forever like this!”

She started laughing uncontrollably.

Chapter 3 A nice cup of cider

“That’s right!” Big Macintosh said, walking into the light, “Breathe! While you still can...”

On his back, he carried a huge wooden barrel.

“What’s this supposed to be?” Starlight stuttered, “Making me drunk?”

“Yup!” Big Mac answered while string the barrel and adjusting a wide hose at the opening.

But even Starlight would get tired sooner or later. She took a deep breath, while watching him. At that moment she might have actually felt a glimpse of fear.

“So?” she started talking to the quiet pony, “You’re mad at me because of your sister, aren’t you?”

It was an awkward attempt to get a quiet moment, but it wouldn’t help much.

“She ain't breathing anymore.” Big Mac calmly answered, “I felt like showing you what that means.”

He kicked the table she was attached to and brought it into the vertical. On the wall behind her two iron brackets magically appeared, on which he placed the barrel.

Unlike Spike, Big Macintosh didn’t have a lot of affection to Rarity or her work. He ripped a piece of fabric out of Starlight's flank, making her sob in pain, and covered her face with it.

“If I were you, I would breathe in very deeply now.” he said.

Starlight, now clearly weakened, obeyed his advice.

When he started pouring the freshly brewed apple cider over her face, it began to burn into her nostrils. That alone she would be able to take for a while, but slowly and clearly she went out of air. The wet fabric, steadily overrun by cider, wouldn’t even let a hint of air to get into her lungs. Her chest began to hurt. When she started gasping and wheezing, Big Mac waited for another twenty or so seconds, then he removed the fabric to let her breathe.

She breathed fast and shortly. Her heart was pounding so fast, even Big Mac could hear it. After ten seconds he repeated the procedure.

Another five times, Starlight had to go through this pain. When the red earth pony finally showed some mercy, she didn’t even have enough energy left to look at him. She just lay there coughing.

“Maybe we should give her an hour or so, to calm down.” Aurora suggested, “After all, we don’t want her do die so soon, now do we?”

The ponies agreed to leave her in the darkness for a while, but even so Starlight couldn’t recover. She was scared of them coming back any second.

Chapter 4 A magical evening

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.

Chapter 5 Dancing with the Moon

Sobbing, Starlight struggled with her ties, as she heard the next pony walking towards her. It was a light yellow mare with thick glasses and a mane style like Twilight's.

The pony sat down on the floor, simply watching her. For a while the only sound to be heard was Starlights frightened sobbing. The pain wouldn’t stop anymore and there was nothing she could do about it.

“I don’t know what’s more disturbing.” the mare mentioned disgusted, “The thought of what you did to Princess Twilight or the way you look now.”

The soft, calm voice made Starlight even more nervous. “Whatever it is, you want to do to me. Do it now and leave me be!” she demanded hysterically.

“Do you know, who I am?” the pony asked calm, watching her with eagerly eyes.

Starlights sobbing got louder. She didn’t even care to answer, for she feared of being tortured again any second. However this didn't happen.

The pony just sat there staring at her. When she finally pulled herself together, she tried to remember, what the pony had asked a few minutes ago.

“You're...” she thought, “Moondancer, aren’t you? I saw you on one of Twilights pictures.”

Moondancer nodded slowly.

“What will you do to me?” Starlight asked and her voice broke halfway through.

“Unlike my companions, I am not mad at you. I know, how sick you are. I’m simply sad for losing the pony I adored most.” she explained, “I want to tell you a story.”

“Oh, thank Celestia!” Starlight whispered to herself, clearly loosing some pressure. She was still breathing heavily. Her wounds burnt like somepony has recently spilled acid over them.

“When I was a filly,” Moondancer started, “I had no friends at all. Only Twilight to look up to. I adored her. Yet, she would only care for her studies. So I followed her example. And when I grew up, I still didn’t find any friends, but that wasn’t bad because I had Twilight. One time, only a few years ago, I thought that there actually were a few ponies that wanted to befriend me. So I gave myself troubles to be nice to them. I even tried to throw a party, but when everypony gathered, one was missing. Twilight.”

“Must have hurt.” Starlight understood, “How did you react?”

“I locked myself into my house and never made a friend again.” Moondancer replied.

“One step further and you could have joined my village.” Starlight answered, now confident enough to joke.

“No I was sick.” the yellow pony replied angered, “And so are you! Tell me, when you met Sunburst again after all these years, how did you feel?”

Starlight didn’t answer. They stared at each other for a moment.

“Or when you visited your old village?”

No answer.

“Maybe bad?” Moondancer teased, “Or perhaps even guilty?”

Starlight did a contemptible snort.

“You know, friendship is a choice that you yourself are making.” Moondancer proceeded, “If you don’t want to engage in it, you won't get any! But then you can only blame yourself if you get lonely!”

“That’s not true!” Starlight rejected, “I couldn’t prevent Sunburst from leaving! Friendship is a lie! As soon as you lose eye contact the friendliness is over!”

“Then how come Twilight and Sunset stayed friends, although they lived in different dimensions?”

“Masquerade!” Starlight sobbed, tears filling her eyes, “All for show!”

“You know that you are wrong.” Moondancer teased further, “You know that it's your fault to begin with. But you needed somepony to blame! And Twilight, the one pony that chose to trust and forgive you, was just a perfect victim! That’s why you offered Rarity to punish you! Because deep within, you knew, you deserved it! Because you knew, you’re the one to blame!”

Starlight couldn't take it anymore. She broke down and cried in her ties.

“You disgust me.” Moondancer concluded, back to her calm voice, “We'll meet again in tarterus.”

With this the yellow pony walked back into the dark.

Chapter 6 Shine like crystals

“Is it our turn now?” a very familiar mares voice asked.

“Go ahead!” Aurora replied, “But remember not to kill her.”

Shining Armour and Cadence stepped into the light. Starlight had troubled to get herself together.

“Shall we make you even more disgusting?” Shining hissed.

“It's a shame that it had to end like this.” Cadence said, “Twilight had such a good feeling for you.”

“Yeah, and now she’s dead!” Shining almost screamed, as he kicked the torture table.

“You’re right!” Starlight sobbed, “You’re all right and I was wrong! Just kill me, as I deserve!”

“Oh, no, Sweetie!” a mentally broken Shining laughed in her face, “You will suffer! For as long as we please!”

He magically removed the ties from the table and placed Starlight on the floor, where he attached the ties again. She was lying on her back, her feet spread wide. That pose alone wasn’t very comfortable, but what was going to come, would almost destroy her.

“You should know.” Cadence explained, “I have recently investigated about the sombrarian law system. Very cruel punishments. The one for multiple murder is-

Should we say it together, Honey?”

“Yess, pllease!” Shining replied amused.

“Well then, Starlight Glimmer!” Cadence spoke in her royal canterlot voice, “We declare you guilty in accuse of multiple murder, high treason in regards of Princess Twilight and restricting the Equestrian defence system. Therefore we sentence you to-“

They looked at each other in agreement, then proceeded together.

“Crystal Impalement!”

“What?” Starlight froze in shock, “How-?!?”

“Oh it's simple really!” Shining smiled demented, “Even I can do the spell!”

“Don’t forget that others want their turn too!” a voice called from the void.

“Oh, right!” Cadence perked up and without any more hesitation, put a spell on the ground underneath Starlight.

At first nothing happened. Starlight just lay there confused and scared at once. But a few seconds later, slowly and eagerly the first sharp gems grew out of the floor.

At first Starlight only felt only slightly uncomfortable. The gems barely scratched her. But they wouldn’t stop growing and went from uncomfortable, to pungent, then to oppressively lifting her and eventually, when Starlight's hooves reached their limit, they dislocated all of her extremities.

Starlight screamed in terror as the growing wouldn’t stop, while Shining Armour laughed or rather breathed heavily in the background.

When there was no more flexibility for Starlight to use, the crystals started to grow right through her. She led out a terrible cry when the first one burst through her lower back. The second almost cut off her right flank. When it came through the other side, bloody and fleshy, leaving Starlight to sob in exhaustion, Cadence decided that it was time to stop.

After all there were more ponies who wanted to have their fun with dear Starlight. Although it was a bit of a trouble to convince Shining Armour to stop here, Starlight, or rather what was left from her,  was placed back on the table.

She couldn’t move anymore, so Cadence found it was useless to put her back into her ties.

“I must admit.” she said, while guiding her husband back into the void, “A pony has to be extraordinary strong to survive up until now.”

Chapter 8 Things get rocky

"Finally, it's my turn." the monotone voice startled Starlight. From the void came a grey earth pony with Pinkie's previously straight mane and a pebble on her hoof.

She carried a sack on her back. When she lay it down and opened it, Starlight could  make out a collection of rocks in different sizes.

“This would be over fast!” the grey pony said monotonously, “You won't enjoy it.”

"Wh-" A rock slammed into her face. Her one eye looked back up, just to see seven other stones flying at terminal velocity at her face.

When the first shock was over, the grey pony proceeded by holding a rock in her hoof and slamming it onto Starlights left flank, instantly smashing the joint to pieces. Starlight teared her mouth open in distress, but wasn’t able to make a sound anymore.

Maud then placed a rock on Starlight's right flank and punched it into the joint, breaking it in the process. Starlight moaned as the pain slowly died away.

Next was her left front leg. In means of her own entertainment, she started to gently pet the leg with the rock, but the second Starlight lost her guard, she would smash it onto her even harder than before.

The only leg remaining was the right front leg. Maud walked to it and kissed it. Starlight, in anticipation, tensed her leg. But instead Maud pushed her torso, before slamming another rock into the joint.

She carefully considered her next move. She wasn’t allowed to kill Starlight, yet the thought of crushing her spine was way too tempting. She figured, that everything should be alright as long as she didn’t crush the atlas and turned the shivering body on its belly.

First she enthusiastically looked at what her predecessors had done to this dirty, shameful body. She then started with splitting the lumbar spine from thoracic and quartered each. She made sure that she crushed them all in order, so Starlight could feel every single one of her hits. Starlight herself at this point wasn’t able to do anything but breathing anymore.

Crack! One by one the bones were mashed and cracked. Starlight clenched her jaw, not saying anything for the anticipation of death.

Maud wouldn’t stop until every single one of Starlights bones were nothing but splinters and dust. As she left the scene, she wouldn’t do so without enjoyably kicking into Starlight's belly for one last time, making her do a misshapen moan.

Chapter 9 Flowers and vines

"Ooo! It's my turn now!" the suprisingly happy tone of Discord stunned Starlight. He could do anything to her. She feared the worst of the worst this chaos god could bring.

“Yet, how much fun will this be, with a boneless, half dead body?” he mumbled disappointed, “It's a miracle how she is still conscious!”

“I think it's okay to kill her now.” Rarity's voice called from the void.

“But not without avenging Fluttershy!” the spirit said determined and promptly had a good idea.

"She loved nature... let's replicate that here!" One snap from Discord and the stone walls were now covered in moss. Vegetation grew from the bloody floor and ants came out of the ground, crawling over the half dead body.

“Open up wide and say 'ah'!” he said, making a spoon full of magical seeds appear in his paw and sticking it into her mouth.

Starlight, if present at all, didn’t care about living anymore and swallowed whatever it was he had given her. She feared the worst.

Nothing. It has been two minutes of nothing. Besides the ants that occasionally crawled on her basically dead body, she was fine.

"Wait for it..."

Then something started to move within her belly. She didn’t know for sure, because she was suffering from a lot of things, but felt like her stomach filled itself and grew, making her feel sick. Too late she noticed, that it was in fact shortly before bursting.

"FOR FLUTTERSHY!" Discord yelled before the burst.

"Twilight... I'm sorry..." Starlight muttered before vines exploded throughout her body. Flesh and organs flew in different directions all around the room, covering it in a layer of blood. The only thing left on the table were her hooves and her head.

“It is done.” Discord said to himself as he turned around to the void. All the torturers now stepped into the light to inspect the corpse.

Shining Armour started laughing uncontrollably. Beside him, the room was bathed in silence. Sunset turned to Maud, avoiding Celestia. The remaining princesses however looked at each other in guilt and search for support. Spike once again kicked Starlight's head.

“And now?” he asked, “What will happen to Equestria?”

Celestia turned to Aurora and Sunset.

“Do you think we could-“

“Of course!” they answered in reunion.

“This is going to be a lot of explaining.” Cadence mentioned.

Epilogue In loving memories

The next day, the mutilated head was impaled and exhibited in the canterlot garden, at the very same spot, the statue of Discord was once placed.

Princess Celestia, with Cadence and Rarity standing beside her, held a speech.

”Today I am sad to announce,” Celestia said, “That the princess of Friendship along with four Elements of Harmony have died. Reason for this sudden death was a very brilliant, but damaged mind. We have heard a witness, that said mind, called Starlight Glimmer has been rebelling against Princess Twilight and therefore all of Equestria. The criminal has been captured and sentenced to death on the previous day, in accused of multiple murder, high treason, restricting the Equestrian defence system and stealing cutiemarks of several unnamed ponies in the past.”

The crowd started to get unsteady.

“The punishment has been performed right away. In regards of the ...”

___________________________________________

Starlight Glimmer, once a beacon of hope for all reformed villains, now a traitor who betrayed her own teacher, friends and the magic of friendship. Some torturers will look back at this day in their dark minds as the day they lost their sanity. Shining Armor especially after the loss of his sister. Others try to forget. But this day, everypony can at least agree, it was the most satisfying, yet most grief-stricken day of their life.

One things is for certain. Nothing can ever be. The same.

Prologe: An (un)expected awakening

﻿Worn and slowly, Starlight opened her eyes. Darkness surrounded her. She tried to move her hoof, but quickly realized it was tied to something. Frightened she tried to light up her horn, yet again with no avail.

"Hello? Anypony?" Starlight cried.

One moment she was in Twilight's castle tinkering with her throne room, next she was trapped in a pitch-black room, tied down and with no magic. What happened to her? Didn’t she kill most of the mane six just a few days ago? Was this per chance Rarity's revenge? How did she recover so fast?

"You called?" a voice echoed as hoof steps grew louder.

"Who are you? Where am I?" Starlight cried.

"Why don’t you see for yourself?" a light shined suddenly.

Starlight's jaw dropped looking at the room she was in. Six magical circles surrounded her, the stone walls looked too familiar. She was in the exact same room she captured the Mane 6 in. Now, she herself was tied to a metal board in the middle of the circle. She looked at the mare who held her captive.

"Aurora Sunrise? How did you-"

"Stun spell from the back while you were gloating on your 'Victory'." Aurora smirked. "You think you are the best, you think you can abolish friendship and the most important defense of all of Equestria without anyone getting revenge. YOU. THOUGHT. WRONG!"

Aurora paused and looked at her in fury for a moment.

"Let me tell you miss glimmity gloop, you are weak against a god! And you have angered me by killing my friends! For that I will punish you. But a lot of other ponies want their fair share too, so I'll have to wait for my turn."

Starlight shivered.

"What... what do you mean? Your turn? Where is Rarity?"

"I'm saying that you have angered a lot of ponies, so they will come at you, mercilessly!" Aurora ignored her last question.

Aurora played with the thought of killing Starlight right away but eventually backed away.

"Oh by the way, your magic is blocked by my block spell, don't even try."

Starlight watched in fear as Aurora walked out of sight.

Chapter 7 A purpose to keep

"I guess it's my turn now." Another familiar voice rang in Starlight's ears. The tall, white alicorn walked into the dark room.

This time, Starlight didn't fear her. She expected Celestia to give her a talk or something about what she did wrong and walk away, like Moondancer did, but kinder.

This was far from the truth.

"So... Starlight Glimmer." Celestia spoke. "I really had high hopes for you. Being Twilight's pupil and after all you had been through."

"Wait, how did you-"

"I can watch your past. It was... intriguing. But I allowed you to be her pupil. After defeating Crysalis, I thought you had finally changed and I could make you into a princess." Celestia frowned. "But it looks like I thought wrong."

Celestia levitated a small but sharp scalpel, playing with it.

"You have killed the princess of friendship and 4 of the elements of harmony, which in turn ruined many lives, just to prove that friendship isn't magic. Just look at the title of the show of my sake!" Starlight looked puzzled.

"Anyways... I also haven't punished you for ruining several alternate universes and enslaving an entire town of ponies to get 'True Equality', so I am long overdue." Celestia smirked as she twirled the scalpel.

"After looking into several alternate universes myself, one universe intrigued me. I'd never thought Pinkie Pie, the element of laughter, could be that... merciless to Rainbow Dash." Celestia readied her scalpel. "I took inspiration from her for this very moment. SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR CUTIE MARK!"

She stabbed the scalpel into the side of Starlight's cutie mark. Starlight cried out in pain, but couldn't move after the effects of the crystal impalement. Celestia carved out a circle around the cutie mark as Starlight weeped silently, knowing she couldn't do anything.

Celestia pulled out the cutie mark with her hoof and placed it on the bloody stone floor. She moved on to the next one.

She noticed Starlight was not screaming anymore. So she took an even more painful approach.

Celestia made a semi-circled slice around Starlight's cutie mark.

"Hey Starlight, think fast!" Starlight couldn't respond before her cutie mark was brutally ripped apart. Starlight screamed loudly. Then she cried.

Lifting up her detached cutie mark, Celestia said, "A cutie mark, a pony's soul, is what makes them unique, and you tried to remove all that. Now being cutie-markless, you will feel how it's like to be equal, how Twilight felt!" Celestia leaked a tear out of her eye as she walked into the darkness with her cutie marks.