Anesthesia

CHAPTER 1

There once was a pony flew with feather.
Like most who can, she controlled the weather.

Unlike most ponies, she was also born
not a pegasus, but instead a rare Alicorn.

Her hair was a beautiful dark brown
which complimented her crimson red fur all around.

Eyes filled of gold, it never betrayed
the love for her kind; it had never swayed.

A rebellious teen filly, she wanted to fly
out of her mansion and into the sky.

But every single day happened like the one before.
For this pampered filly, life was a bore.

The crimson pony craved adventure, but could not since
overprotective parents kept their house inside of a large fence.

Too many bad things took place outside.
Thieves, wild dogs, a hot summer sun to shine.

But one night the filly slept as normal
in a comfy bed she kept so formal.

Suddenly to toss and turn, she did scream.
A sharp prick to her thigh, sleep did heed.

A few moments later she woke up
and tried to move, but with no such luck.

Stretched upon a cold table, she shivered.
One light upon her, the shadows slithered.

Voices spoke in muffled hushed tones
mixed with noises that sounded... unlike home.

Her gold eyes danced in their sockets.
Then her ears found the sound of the locket.

At once she was bathed in a light
that shone behind a figure, dressed in white.

It stepped into the room on its 4 legs.
Others soon followed, masks around their necks.

Some brought in trolleys, some used their magic.
2 had ropes, another had a hatchet.

"What's going on? Why am I here?" she tried to say.
This wasn't her room or her house. Just no way!

But her mouth wouldn't move as much as she tried;
Something kept her mouth shut, and she couldn't figure out why.

She noted the figures: one white, one blue, one gray, one pink
one yellow, one orange and the last was like black ink.

They gathered around her, all 7 of them.
But one pony in particular leaned in his head.

He got close to her face, as if to sniff her nose.
But instead he inspected her mouth, her jaw an awkward pose.

"This pony," she thought, "who is he?"
He didn't look familiar at all, thought she.

His white coat shone through his long, blonde unkempt mane
along with the horn on his head. The "Doctor" was his name.

"It seems our little girl is awake," he finally said.
The others agreed by nodding their heads.

He used his horn to rip off the device
that held her mouth like a vice.

The little red filly yelped in pain
only to see a little red stain.

On the device it was, that little drop of blood.
It wasn't much, but it sure did run.

It looked like an apple with straps on its side.
But she quickly looked away, and into his eyes.

"Oh my my, did that really hurt?
I'm so sorry!" he said with a tone of curt.

"Where am I? why am I here?"
The restrained filly exclaimed, eyes threatened to tear.

"Where's my family? Where's my house?!
I want to know what's going on!" she said with a shout.

"Oh yes, that. Care to explain?
Miss Steely here will tell you." he said without shame.

A pink mare appeared in her field of vision
with a happy smile, she then began to reason.

"We saw that you were unhappy in your big old mansion.
So we snatched you right up! Oh, not to mention-"

"HELP! HELP ME! HELP!" the gold-eyed pony screamed
at the top of her lungs! "HELP! HELP ME PLEASE!"

The other ponies laughed, and laugh they did!
They all laughed at her attempts, so her cries had thinned

to nothing but sobs and tears down her face.
Not one of them cared. None had a trace.

"You think help is going to come? What are you, insane?
Nobody can hear you!" the white unicorn exclaimed.

Her eyes grew wide, her heart beat faster.
Her lungs breathed in quicker, her struggles got madder.

She realized she couldn't move much; her wings, her legs
were all on taut chains attached to the wall at the other ends.

"Let me go! Let me go! What did I do wrong?!"
The white stallion mocked her, his sanity long gone.

"Let's get started..." he said with a smile.
He had not done this in quite a while.

"What are you doing...?" the red filly said fearfully.
The white stallion levitated a syringe quite cheerfully.

At once he place it onto her right arm as the others stood back
to watch the doctor at work. He raised his hoof and...

THWACK!

Slammed it straight onto the needle's top.
The young pony's screams took over the room. She tried to pull back but naught.

A dark red fluid inside the needle seeped its way out
into her bloodstream, as the doctor gave the needle another clout.

"There there now, that wasn't bad wasn't it?"
The doctor left withdrew it from the spot it was in.

The crimson pony felt a tingly sensation crawl up her arm.
It was cold at first, but the liquid started to warm.

"Now we wait and see. This liquid has never been tested
on a live subject like you." Surely he jested?

"What did you put in me?" the crimson filly asked in a squeaky voice.
But the doctor ignored her, only to go for a more grisly choice.

"Bring me the knife. No, No! The other one!"
The pink pony brought over a weird looking knife when selecting was done.

"This liquid we put in you is supposed to have interesting effects.
We have no clue what it will do, but it will help with our tests.

Our previous test subjects died right after they were injected.
But then again, they were younger than you." he said, tone unaffected.

She continued to struggle, but to no avail.
When her eyes she saw the knife, her face went pale.

There it was, the sharpest of blades she had ever seen
floating in the air, the light made it gleam

a silvery-white light that flashed her eyes
and it slowly crept toward her unprotected right thigh.

A slow stinging pain erupted from her haunch;
she squirmed in pain, and recoiled, but it wasn't much.

"Hold her down." the doctor said to his comrades.
At once they all restrained her, like cats hunting rats.

The searing pain returned to her thigh where the cutie mark would appear.
The doctor cut so slowly, ever so slowly, as if he was cutting up cashmere.

She struggled. She cried. She tried to scream in pain.
But with 6 stronger ponies on top of her, all attempts were in vain.

The little filly, not much older than 13, once had a flank.
But now all that was there, was a bloody blank flank.

The doctor held up the skin, cut in an almost perfect circle
and held it up for all to see. To the filly, it was more than hurtful.

She couldn't believe her eyes. She couldn't believe this.
This wasn't a dream. This was real. There was her skin!

It dangled from this strange pony's mouth. Blood did fall.
It dripped onto his white coat, and the lab one, most of all.

All she could do was grumble, and breathe out the pain.
The other ponies let go, and backed away, around the table again.

They all smiled at the piece of flesh
that is now a trophy for their eyes to digest.

She breathed heavily, her head dropped as blood ran down her to her hoof.
This pain, its unbearable, too much for this one youth.

It felt worse than crashing into walls, floors, even a rock.
What came next, was even more painful: the words of the doctor's mock.

"See this, everypony? This is a true blank flank.
This is what we've been trying to study." He dropped the knife...

CLANG!

...onto the floor, the blood spread everywhere
into tiny drops on the floor lined with squares.

The crying filly looked up, trying to find shock in their faces.
No worry, no pain. Not even a gasp, or a look of grimace.

All had smiles on their faces as they saw the skin gently put onto a tray.
They then piled on top of her again, and all the red filly saw was dark gray.

Once again her pain receptors went off like breached alarm,
but they didn't care that she couldn't escape the trap of forearms.

Both of her flanks were completely gone.
The top layer of skin, the doctor did don.

Her tendons showed, her veins exposed blue
pulsing wires that stung with every beat through and through.

She cried. She screamed. She wallowed in the pain she just gained.
Never to see what cutie mark she might ever have received. Never to be vain

for discovering her true talent. It was taken away from her.
This painful reality hit her. Right then. Right there.

She knew this "doctor" was not done at all.
He had many more instruments to use. She wanted to fall.

The doctor went to her wings, which were hooked behind her,
much like a fish to a worm that was hooked on a wire.

"Now, what is it we have here?" said the white stallion
to his co-ponies, his eyes shone like a medallion.

The gray pony spoke up. "It's a hook and line! Its attached to her wing."
Though the crimson filly couldn't see it, she could just imagine the thing.

The hook went through the base of her wing and was attached to a chain
that went horizontal to the wall, into a pulley and then into a drain.

"Oh! Oh oh oh! Let me get this one, sir!" said the black pony.
"Me too! I want to make this happen!" said the orange earth pony.

One thing the crimson filly noticed is their cutie marks were almost never seen.
They never let their flanks out of the darkness, or it was covered by a coat or seams.

Wait... how was she able to think like this through the pain?
It was unbearable...was it the liquid in her vein-

Her thoughts went blank as a new pain shot through her back.
One lever was pulled down, the chain was no longer slack.

Her left wing started to go backwards, started to
take her body with her, until she couldn't go through...

That table...that damned table that restrained her!
The other lever went down, how she wished that wasn't there!

She felt the click-rip-crick of her bones breaking from her back.
What she had eaten that day came up onto her chest, chunks still intact.

"W-w-what did I do wrong? Make it stop please..." she prayed
in her mind as her wings stretched and splayed.

...The pain had ebbed. The pulling had ceased.
She breathed in heavy deep breaths, through her clenched teeth.

Her body just hung there, almost wanting to die.
But the reaper would not come, at all; for her, death was a lie.

She moaned in agony again once more
only wishing to make it out that door.

"I think she's had enough," a careful voice softened the air.
Music to the filly's ears, a sound she now found rare.

"Please...stop..." she spoke with chords so weary.
All that replied was a silence so eerie.

"...wha...what...d-d-diiiid...I do...to deserve this..?"
Her lungs made a weak cough that sounded like a hiss.

"...I think she's had enough rest." the same voice sounded.
and down both levers went, to which her wings were still bounded.

If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is anywhere near,
would the victim underneath still be able to hear?

She screamed so loud, with such force and such volume
that the others had to cover their ears to block the echoes in the room.

What remained of her wings, or if you were to call it that,
was nothing but bloody stumps, with no bones to reattach.

The doctor was impressed. This filly had such big lungs!
He wanted to know so much about her though his ears still rung.

That smile, that insane, oh so dreadful smile stole upon his lips!
His legs were trembling; he thought he would trip!

The brown maned filly's head dropped forward and lolled to her chest.
Her mane whipped into her eyes. There was some blood she didn't ingest

as her throat was so dry, it was ever so brittle,
that more red fluid expelled from her mouth like a dribble.

The doctors went over and examined their patient.
They started to giggle with malicious intent.

"Now everpony, watch what I am to do next."
The orange pony approached her, and lifted her head.

The others looked at each other in confusion, wondering what is his next move.
The red filly's mouth was covered in blood and bodily fluid. Her eyes started to ooze.

She thought to herself, unable to talk.
Would she be able to fly? To even walk?

She'd rather be dead! Will they leave this room?
Why isn't she unconscious? Will this be her untimely doom?

Her mind reeled, spun; it flipped and it searched
to find the answers, but none of the techniques worked.

All she saw was 7 ponies, all laughing with glee
at her pain, her torture. All she wanted was to be free.

These manifestations of feelings lasted only 2 seconds
when a hard, orange hoof smashed into her horn. Stars collected

in her vision, her eyes then went lame.
Her lungs barely let out air for the sudden burst of pain.

This pain was the worst she had felt. Her thighs stung, her back bled crazy.
But as the orange pony punched her again, her head went hazy.

The horn on her head was being forced into her skull!
She actually hoped he would keep going, for this would make her life null.

But the stallion stopped on the 3rd swing,
with a look of disdain, he saw his hoof, a crack formed that did sting.

Suddenly his face turned to that of anger.
He directed it right at her.

"LOOK WHAT YOU DID! YOU CRACKED MY PRECIOUS HOOF, YOU UNGRATEFUL FUCK!"
He donned a silver, metal spiked shoe onto his back hoof, turned around, then bucked.

His hoof met her horn. The spikes met her skull.
The foot retracted back in an instant, taking the horn with its pull.

Her vision faded. Her mind went dark.
All she heard was her beating heart.

Dark crimson blood fell into her eyes, her nose. She was forlorn.
This filly was no longer an Alicorn.

A splitting headache bore its way to her mind.
She fell into a deep darkness, thankful to finally die.