Scientific Discipline

The sun eventually rose, a new day had arrived. However Artemis woke up fairly late in the morning. He lets out a satisfied yawn, trying to stretch out his limbs, but quickly found that most of his movement was restricted.

Artemis started to panic upon finding he was restrained. The room was dimly lit, but with his limited vision, he could see that he was strapped onto some sort of metallic frame, with his arms outstretched and his legs closed together.

His attire had also changed as well. What used to be a casual overcoat and pants was now a black latex bodysuit, with zippers on certain parts of his body. Only his head and bare paws exposed. He also felt something wrapped around his neck, though he couldn’t look down to see what.

“Oh, good. You’re finally awake.” a familiar voice suddenly said in the darkness. The lights turned on, giving Artemis a better view of where he was. It certainly looked like a part of the castle, but nowhere he had been yet. Most importantly, he saw Twilight Sparkle standing right in front of him.

“What...what’s going on, princess?”

“Glad you asked,” Twilight said with a grin. “Seeing as you have been fairly uncooperative, I have decided that you require corrective behavior treatments. Plus, it gives me a wonderful opportunity to run some tests!”

“...Tests? What tests?”

“Oh, nothing much, just some simple experiments on how foxes react when certain stimuli is applied. That’s what the suit is for,” Twilight said, pointing at him. “It maintains your vitals, keeps your bodily functions in check, and relays information about your heart rate, brain activity, and so on. I get the information stored on there,” she says, pointing at a computer, the monitor displaying his heartbeat. “The collar around your neck disables your magic, so you can’t interfere with the experiment once it’s in progress.”

“Maintain my vitals? Disable my magic? This is ridiculous! Let me out of here this instant!” Artemis snarled.

“I can’t let you out. Doing so would ruin the experiment. Besides, you serve me, remember?”

“You maniacal little brat! I refuse to take part in any of your twisted experiments!” Artemis yelled, trying to break free.

“First, I have to get your controlled reaction to stimuli.” Twilight said, sitting down by Artemis’s bare paws, ignoring his protests. “However, I need for your other senses to be left out as much as possible.” Twilight’s horn started to glow, and so did the zippers near his neck.

The black latex began covering more of Artemis’s face, leaving only his eyes and mouth exposed. Artemis started to violently thrash, his rage turning to panic as a thick blindfold was slipped on him. “No! You can’t do this! Hey! Stop! Stop this at o-MMMPH!” His protests were cut short as even his mouth was zipped shut, and his ears covered by thick plastic.

Twilight began poking and prodding Artemis’s exposed paws, observing all the reactions he made, occasionally taking a glance at the computer monitor to see the activity of his vitals.

With only Artemis’s sense of smell and touch active, the light poking was enough to evoke violent thrashing. He screamed as loud as he could in the suit, his muffled cries reaching no one but Twilight.

After Twilight was finished poking, she began dragging her index finger up and down the paws.her movements slow and methodical, watching how his feet reacted to her gentle touch.

Artemis flinched. He tried to stay resistant to the finger, but he quickly cracked, a steady stream of muffled laughter leaving his locked lips.

“Fascinating…” Twilight said to herself. Granted this was due to the sensory deprivation, but the fact that she was getting this kind of reaction from one finger was remarkable.

After enough gentle tickling, Twilight adjusted the sleeves on his ears, letting Artemis hear her clearly, if only for a brief moment. She at least allowed him the courtesy of explaining what she was doing. “Excellent. Now that I have enough data for the control, I’ll see how you react to other forms of stimuli.” With that, Artemis’s sense of hearing was dulled once more.

Twilight put on some gloves, taking out a jar of orange powder. She unscrewed the top and sprinkled a bit of the powder on his toes, waiting to see his reaction.

Artemis didn’t register the powder on his paws at first, but he soon felt the effects. At first, it was a small tingling, enough to make his toes twitch, but soon that tingling turned into an annoying itch.

“Alright, subject seems to be reacting as expected to the itching powder,” Twilight said to herself, writing down notes.

Artemis curled his toes in response, trying to rub the itching feeling away, but he only succeeded in spreading out the itching powder further across his paws. He put himself in a vicious cycle. The more his feet wiggled and jerked, the more the powder spread. The more the powder spread, the more his feet itched. The more his feet itched, the more his feet wiggled and jerked.

Twilight was somewhat impressed that Artemis’s wiggling had saved his a little bit of time. However, the experiment couldn’t continue unless the powder was applied evenly. She began sprinkling more of the itching powder onto his paws, using her gloved fingers to make sure it covered his squirming paws.

Artemis yelped as the powder started to affect the rest of his paws, the itching sensations only getting worse. His feet continued to rub against each other, his toe claws trying to scratch the powder away, but no matter what he did, the itching sensation wouldn’t stop.

“Well, unfortunately, I can’t stay for long, I have errands to run,” Twilight said, standing up. “I have to make sure that you don’t find a way to remove the powder in my absence, so…” Twilight’s horn started to glow, cuts of string simultaneously wrapped around each of Artemis’s toes, the other end tied to a loop somewhere on the frame he was strapped down to.

Artemis let out a muffled whine, unable to wiggle his toes, the one luxury he had was now taken away.

“But before I go, I’ll give you another stimulus to keep you busy,” Twilight said, her horn glowing once more, summoning two wooden paddles by her side. She closed her eyes, blasting the paddles with a bit of her magic before stepping back to make sure her spell worked.

Twilight’s horn stopped glowing, but the paddles were still surrounded by her magical aura. The paddles started to move on their own, heading towards Artemis’s paws to give them a light smack.

Each hit from the paddles made Artemis jolt, a muffled grunt leaving his lips. Without vision, he could not anticipate when they would hit, and it would catch him off guard every single time.

“I’ll come back soon and check on your progress.” Without another word, Twilight turned around and walked out of the room, shutting the lights and leaving Artemis alone.

Artemis hadn’t even realize Twilight had left. All he knew was that something was spanking his itching paws. The force of the strikes didn’t cause extreme pain, but each strike started to make his paws tender, and each strike was made worse.

Artemis screamed, hoping that someone, anyone in the castle would hear his muffled cries for help. Perhaps that dragon was taking some ponies on a tour of the castle, and they would overhear him, and go to investigate out of sheer curiosity, and save him from this hell. Maybe the dragon would call out Twilight for her lack of ethical experimentation, and he wouldn’t have to serve her anymore. He figured it was only a matter of time until he was rescued…

The feeling of helplessness finally starts to sink in for Artemis as minute after minute passes, and there was no sign of his treatment getting any better. The itching was maddening, the powder on his paws making him scream in frustration.

Eventually, Artemis began to enjoy the paddles’ strikes, the light pain from the paddles was infinitely preferable to the itching powder spread across his paws. He hoped that eventually, the strikes would shake off the itching powder, then he would only have to deal with the paw spankings. It was a more realistic outcome than anyone coming in to save him at this point.

Though he kept trying to break free, he was already mentally exhausted. His agonizing howls were now pathetic whimpers. He swore that the itching powder made its way into his suit, because he felt the itching sensation crawl up his body, or perhaps it was his mind’s way of diffusing the intense sensations on his paws.

He assumed that Twilight was still there, laughing evilly as she slapped his paws with the paddles. At first, he began cursing out a princess who wasn’t there, then bargaining, hoping that she would hear his muffled demands, then he started begging, trying to do anything to save himself from that maddening itch.