Author's Note

This one's a lot more intense than the previous couple chapters, just a warning. Hope you like it!

Chapter Eight: Heart Still Beating

It was getting late. Despite no way of knowing whether the sun was up or down from inside the cave tunnel, everypony in Twilight’s group knew that it must be close to nighttime by now. A long day of travelling by hoof had proven especially tiresome, and, combined with the anxiety that came with the looming threat of Queen Chrysalis buzzing around, nopony could complain about taking a well deserved rest. Soon enough everypony was sprawled out on the ground, eyes closed, deep asleep.

But not Shining Armor. It had been nearly two hours, and Fritz still wasn’t back. He hadn’t stopped worrying the whole time the kid was gone, and of course he had to assume the worst. Twilight was still passed out on the floor, and now Pinkie, Rarity, and Plat had all joined her, slumped all over the cold stony ground of the tunnel. Radish was drifting off, though he tried his best to stay awake for when Fritz returned. Except he never did return.

Shining Armor walked over the sleeping bodies of the others to reach Radish, who was gazing into the tunnel where Fritz had flown into, the last time anypony had seen him. He sat beside the last torch, its red glow casting shadows that danced along the curvature of the tunnel wall. Radish snapped to attention upon his Captain’s arrival. Shining Armor had put out all the other torches to make sleeping easier, but kept one lit with Radish for Fritz to find on his way back. Shining Armor sat next to Radish, pain in his eyes. They glanced at each other, the same thoughts running through their heads.

“We shouldn’t have sent him alone…” said Radish, with a hint of regret, assuming Fritz was already dead.

“We don’t know that he’s dead, he could’ve just gotten lost. He doesn’t have wits, you know,” said Shining Armor, almost angrily. He was really just mad at himself for losing another pony. This mission was turning into an absolute disaster.

“Maybe…” Radish exhaled. He talked slowly, and with a rasp in his voice as if he had smoked tobacco his whole life.

“Should we wake your sister and decide what to do next?” he asked. Shining Armor shook his head fearfully.

“No, let her sleep. She’s gonna need it. We’ll tell her in the morning.”

“If we make it then.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Radish eyed him, assuming they had come to the same conclusion.

“Captain, if Fritz got caught by that bug queen, she’s going to know we’re on her trail. He’s wearing royal guard armor, for Celestia’s sake. And if she knows about us, then she’ll have time to prepare and get the jump on us.”

Shining Armor clenched his teeth in frustration. He took a breath, trying to stay calm and focused.

“Look, let me worry about that, you get some sleep with the others. Regardless of whether Fritz is caught, or dead, or lost, we’re moving out tomorrow, and finishing this.”

Radish nodded solemnly.

“What about you?”

“I’ll keep watch...Just in case Fritz comes back, or…” his voice trailed off, but Radish understood.

Yet, the threat of Chrysalis attacking in the night made it difficult for Radish to fall asleep, still, he tried. Shining Armor stared into the flame of the grounded torch, squirming and crackling. He hated Chrysalis, he had to see her demise himself. He thought about Fritz, what really happened to the poor kid? He could’ve been stupid enough to try and save the girl by himself, or maybe Chrysalis already knew they were coming and was waiting for him. The more he thought, the more annoyed and frustrated he became. He pushed all of those thoughts out of his head and just sat there. Ready for whatever would come in the night.

While cooking the classic combination of steak and potatoes in the kitchen, Starlight didn’t know if she was just going crazy from the torture, but she could’ve sworn she heard somepony that definitely wasn’t Chrysalis flying up above in the ceiling of the Main Hall. She had become pretty familiar with the sound of Chrysalis’ buzzing insectoid wings, and what she heard was most certainly something else. She hoped to Celestia it wasn’t somepony trying to rescue her.

‘If Twilight comes, I’ll tell her as politely as I can that she doesn’t need to save me, and that this is what I deserve.’

She kept telling herself that, but she still wasn’t totally convinced. She knew she was bad, and Twilight was probably good, but what about Chrysalis? Chrysalis hadn’t talked about herself as often as Starlight was used to. Chrysalis always came across as an egomaniac prior to this ordeal, but now instead she seemed pathologically bent on being a sadist, and keeping an unhealthy obsession with Starlight. Starlight appreciated that she was being punished, finally, for all of her wrongdoings, but Chrysalis being the one to do it? That was what bothered her.

‘I guess it doesn’t really matter who’s doing it, as long as I’m being punished, I should be satisfied,’ she reassured herself, as she finished her mashed potatoes, with a little extra cream. Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden sharp cramp in her stomach.

“Ow!”

She peered down at herself, bits of flayed skin hanging off her stomach and spots of blood staining her fur. She realized she hadn’t used the bathroom since before she left with Trixie, so, several days.

‘No food or water must’ve messed things up.’

She didn’t know of anywhere to use the bathroom in this confusingly elaborate cavern, and even if she did, she was still chained to the wall of the kitchen. She hurried up and finished cooking dinner so she could get the chance to ask.

“Um, my queen?” She said, loudly, just like last time. She had guessed that was the new routine. She kept fidgeting her legs, holding in more than a healthy amount of waste inside her. She was cramping like mad. A minute passed with no answer, then, finally, she was teleported, still holding the plate, into Chrysalis’ throne room.
Starlight never really noticed how big and splendorous this room was, carved with winding wooden oak and illustrious green gemstones. The last time she was here, Chrysalis had broken her down into complete subjugation, so she didn’t really have the chance to appreciate the architectural nuances.

Chrysalis was sitting on her throne, reading the same book as this morning. She teleported the plate towards her and ate a few bites of it. She was again impressed, but gave no sign of it. Starlight waited a few moments in silence, standing there as Chrysalis ate while reading, until she dared to ask.

“Um, my queen, may I ask a question?”

Chrysalis glared at her, clearly annoyed she had interrupted her.

“You know you’re not supposed to speak, Starlight Glimmer.”

“I know! I know, my queen, I apologize, but I really have to use the bathroom…”

Chrysalis stared at her, expressionless.

“That’s what you interrupted me for?”

She waited for an answer, but Starlight couldn’t answer, clenching her thighs together to prevent any excrement from slipping out by accident. Chrysalis tilted her head and gave a half-smile. Starlight was worried why she seemed so calm.

“Well, of course, Starlight, here.”

Chrysalis teleported into the room a dog bowl, the same one Starlight drank water from this morning. The bowl fell on the ground before her, while Starlight turned pale in disgusted realization. She stared at the bowl, then at Chrysalis.

“My queen, you don’t…” she said, her voice wavering.

“Keep speaking, that’ll make things even better,” Chrysalis responded sarcastically. Starlight shut her mouth, her eyes widened in mild disgust. Chrysalis was having the time of her life.

“Go on, you’ve got the idea, it seems,” she said, eyes returning to her book.
Starlight bitterly scowled at the bowl, before reminding herself,

‘This is what I deserve…’

She turned around, her flank facing Chrysalis, and aimed herself right over the bowl.

“Oh, and if anything spills, you sleep in the dungeon tonight,” said Chrysalis, not even looking up from her book.

Starlight paused, and positioning herself right over the bowl, before relieving herself. Red-faced for doing something so private in front of another pony, she turned back to face Chrysalis, who still hadn’t looked up.

“You finished? You must be, I can smell it from here.”

Starlight blushed with embarrassment. All she could do to make it better was to keep reminding herself,

‘I deserve to be humiliated.’

Chrysalis finally looked up at Starlight, who couldn’t bear to make eye contact.

“Ok, I’ll give you two choices because you’ve been mostly good today...you can either eat all of that up and then go to the torture room, or just go to the torture room as planned, but get no food for three days. Your choice.”

Starlight stared at Chrysalis, deep in thought, and then back down at her bowl.

‘I’ve got to eat…I won’t make it three more days without food...’

She cursed herself for having to use the bathroom in the first place.

“I’ll eat it. “ she muttered spitefully.

Chrysalis clapped her hooves, laughing and cheering.

“Oh, this will be great. Tell me what you liked more, your puke or your shit.”

Starlight groaned to herself and bent down, her rump in the air and her front legs bent. She nudged the mound of feces with her still-bloodied nose. She gulped and opened her mouth, and took a small bite of her piss-covered excrement. Her feces simultaneously had no taste, as well as an especially strong tangy flavor. It was like nothing she had ever tasted, she couldn’t describe it, all she could understand was that it was terrible. She gagged a little but pressed on, tears welling up by the time she was halfway. The consistency was like butter that had been left in the sun all day. It hurt to swallow, like chips of dried paint were scraping her throat. Her once soft, pink lips were now a thick muddy brown, the same with her nose and chin. Chrysalis, all the while was laughing at what Starlight had been reduced to.

“You’re like a pig, Starlight, aren’t you?”

Starlight looked up at her while gasping for air.

“Yes, my queen, I am a pig.” her ears turned bright red saying that, but all this humiliation strangely felt nice, like it was justified.

She eventually finished, after about fifteen minutes of slow nibbling and strained chewing. Starlight felt sick, and she had the worst taste in her mouth.

“Great job, Starlight, your standards are ever lowering,” Chrysalis said, smiling with glee, “Now, don’t worry, you won’t have to do that all the time, that was just a punishment for interrupting me. Will you ever interrupt me again?”

“No...no, my queen.”

“That’s right...Because I’m getting sick of you doing that. Next time it happens, I’m cutting something off, got it?”

“Yes, my queen,” Starlight responded, fearful of what Chrysalis would cut off exactly.

“So...you’ve been alone all day, right? Have you been thinking?”

“Yes...my queen.”

“Well done, I trust you’ve come to a place of understanding, about what your place is in the world…”

“Yes, my queen, definitely.”

“I’ll ask you again, what do you think of yourself, Starlight Glimmer?”

Starlight paused, trying to piece together her words.

“I...am a failure, and a bad pony. My only successes have been in the name of cruelty, and I deserve to be punished.”

Chrysalis nodded slowly in approval.

“Well done…”

She stood up and walked closer to Starlight, who stunk, not only from having to eat her own feces, but from the fact she hasn’t been able to shower for the past five days.

“You’re disgusting, Starlight Glimmer.”

Starlight’s eyes fell to the floor at her straightforward brutality.

‘I know.’

“Doesn’t it bother you, knowing who you are, what you’ve done?”

“I...I...yes, I’m ashamed of myself.”

“You’re not the only one…”

Starlight glanced up at her captor, unsure where this was going.

“Everypony knows who you are, what you’ve done. They talk to each other, spread rumors, give you a bad reputation…Can you tell me about that?”

Starlight didn’t expect to be asked that, and was beginning to get tired of this emotional abuse. Nevertheless, she couldn’t disappoint.

“Um…” she thought about it, and then gave an answer off the top of her head.

“One time...I...Twilight and I were going to go buy some things at the market, and I overheard these two ponies talking about me, saying I was dangerous, and I belong in Tartarus…” she said, not happy to relive that memory from so long ago. Chrysalis seemed intrigued.

“Hm. And did you tell Twilight?”

“Well, she found me, in my room, and I was sad, and she asked me what was wrong, and that wasn’t the only thing, I had heard ponies all over town saying stuff like that for weeks, but it was getting to be too much. I told her, and she told me that it would just take time for them to move on.”

“Ah, ‘move on.’ Moving on doesn’t mean solving the problem, Starlight, it means getting over it. What you’re telling me, is that Twilight agrees that everypony just had to get over you, because you were staying and that was final. Am I correct?”

“I...I guess?” Starlight said, her voice stuttering in fear of saying something wrong.

“So it didn’t matter if you were better or not, everypony just had to get over you anyway. Twilight knew that you hadn’t really changed. Just as I suspected.”

“I-That’s not…” Her voice trailed off.

‘Twilight is a good pony. She knows better than me.’

“Twilight Sparkle, who used you. You seem to not understand that.”

“Tw-Twilight is a good pony…” she said.

“Oh, she is, she is a good pony alright, one of the best, which is why she couldn’t stand you. Because you’re not a good pony, right?”

“I’m not, but-”

“Twilight saw you and disapproved. You did ruin her life several times before retconning all of it. You really believe she just forgave you, just like that?”

“Well, yeah, because...good ponies can forgive ponies that aren’t good.”

“But you weren’t even worth forgiving. If she forgave you, it was because you weren’t too far gone, that you could be applied to her benefit. You get what I mean?”

“N-not really,” Starlight responded, quivering.
Chrysalis rolled her eyes.

“Look at Tirek. He was defeated, and kept alive, just like you were. But he wasn’t taken in as Twilight’s student, but you were. What’s the difference between you and Tirek?”

“I...I wanted to be a good pony.”

“Correct. You’re getting better, Starlight. Yes, you wanted to be a good pony, even though you were a bad pony. And you believed that Twilight Sparkle wanted to go out of her way to help a pony that nearly doomed all of Equestria learn about Friendship, just for the sake of principle? Does that really make sense?”

“I…”

“You wanted to be good. Which means you were willing to do whatever Twilight said. Tirek was never like that. Your weakness made you easy to turn to good, to be taken advantage of. Twilight didn’t take you in because it was the right thing to do, she did it because it was the smart thing to do. You were useful to her. Remember what I said, about you making her look good?”

“Yes…”

“Yes, you do. Twilight doesn’t think of you as a friend, none of them do. They think of you as an outsider, brought in out of practicality. You’re so weak, you let it happen too, and tried to convince yourself they were just being nice. They never included you in their plans, why would they? You weren’t a real friend. You hung around Twilight nearly all the time, because to you she was some sort of hero. But we both know she would always get annoyed with you being around. You drag the life out of conversations, you’re always so negative and sarcastic, you, well, you probably already know. You still think Twilight likes you?”

Starlight stared at her, her mind cluttered with thoughts.

“Nopony likes me. The only ponies that pretend to like me, use me.”

Chrysalis nodded, content. Starlight seemed conflicted. Chrysalis zapped the dog bowl out of the room.

“Alright, enough chit-chat, Starlight, I’ve had a busy day, and you have a lot to think about. Come along!”

Starlight stood up and dragged her feet towards Chrysalis at the door to her throne room.

“And you have shit in your teeth, by the way.”

Chrysalis led Starlight back to the torture room. Starlight’s head was hung, her eyes locked on the ground. She didn’t know what to believe anymore.

Was Twilight good?

Does she really like me?

Does anypony?

Her self-deprecation was expanding to a belief that everypony hated her as much as she did.

‘Nopony hates me more than I do…’

Chrysalis picked her up with magic and strapped her into the wooden work table, again in the eagle-position, which was beginning to get familiar. Chrysalis found the ruby-red ball gag from their first session in a box of equipment by the door.

“Remember this?”

Starlight said nothing. She wasn’t even thinking about the torture, she had more important things to set her mind to. Chrysalis shoved the ball gag between her shit-stained teeth and tightened it. Starlight closed her eyes and moaned in discomfort. Chrysalis reached into her shopping bag, the one Starlight had seen from earlier, and pulled out a large, metal-edged sledgehammer, but about the size of a regular hammer. Starlight’s attention switched from her relationship with Twilight to the hammer, brand new, handcrafted, and beyond intimidating.

“I can see you already want it.”

She pulled out a large hand-saw too.

“This is for if I need to cut something off. Get on my nerves and you’ll find out what I’ll cut off first.”

Starlight gulped through her gag. The last thing Chrysalis pulled out of the bag was a series of small nails, no larger than the width of Starlight’s arm. Starlight put two and two together real fast.

“This will be so much fun.”

She took one nail with her magic and aimed it over Starlight’s left shoulder. Starlight desperately shook her head in fear.

“One...two…” Chrysalis brought the hammer up with her hooves. Starlight shut her eyes and looked away.

“Three!” Chrysalis smashed the hammer into the nail, which punctured Starlight’s shoulder and jammed itself between a few bones, so that every time she moved her arm just slightly, it felt like it was falling off. She screeched through her gag, bending her head back and shutting her eyes tight, trying not to move. Chrysalis noticed this and grabbed her right arm, forcefully, before moving it around in circles, like a windmill. She could hear the sound of crunching and popping of bones as they crashed and splintered into each other, blood spurting all over her shoulder and neck. Starlight was screaming bloody murder now. Her whole body was shaking and contorting, she was practically bashing her own head on the table, flailing anything she could in panic and pain. No reassurance that she ‘deserved it’ would make this feel any less hellish. After a few more turns of indescribable torment, Chrysalis relented, removed the nail slowly with her magic. Starlight felt like there was a knife in her shoulder, and felt herself losing consciousness from shock.

“Oh, no you don’t.”

Chrysalis zapped her with a spell that kept Starlight awake. Her head was aching and her body felt too heavy to move. The slightest movement sent shockwaves of pain that ran through her whole body. Chrysalis giggled as Starlight gave her a look that spelled out a half-dead plea for mercy.

“Alright, now let’s get the real thing done with, ok? This will be fast, I promise.” she said, clearly lying. Starlight no longer had the strength to even react, as she lay on the table, facing the ceiling, her head straight and her eyes closed. She was breathing heavily, worn out to the extreme. Chrysalis took three more nails from her bag, and aimed them right over Starlight’s right ear. Starlight froze in alarm.

‘My ear?! Oh, Celestia...That’ll be permanent!’

“I always thought you’d look prettier with earrings,” said Chrysalis, before slamming the hammer into all three nails, sending them straight through the lower part of her left ear. She felt a high pitch noise fade in from the right side of her head, before suddenly stopping, along with all sound all together.

‘I- I can’t hear out of my right ear!’

In shock and pain, still mostly from her shoulder, she started hyperventilating, babbling and sobbing.

“Oh calm down, you big baby…”

Starlight raised the hammer and examined the nails, which were all dug in snugly beside each other. She grabbed one with her hoof and ripped it out, along with a good piece of her ear cartilage.

“That should do it.”

Her hearing suddenly returned, though now there was a hefty amount of blood filling her ear canal, muffling sound. Now she could hear out of that ear again, though at about half-capacity. Chrysalis ripped the other two out with as much forcefulness, leaving her ear mangled, like a ripped-up leaf.

“Hm. You know, we can’t have that,” Chrysalis said, flicking the upper part of Starlight’s ear, which was loosely hanging on by the right side. Chrysalis had ripped one nail to the left, tearing open half of her ear. Starlight looked on as Chrysalis went for the hand saw, and felt like throwing up out of trauma. Chrysalis returned, jolly as ever, and lowered the saw towards her ear, right along the tear.

“It won’t do you any good just hanging there, Starlight, this is for the best.”

Starlight yelped through her gag as Chrysalis began, sawing back and forth along the tears in her ear, breaking bands of cartilage and tearing apart skin cells. Starlight screeched in pain, and didn’t stop for about five minutes, when Chrysalis had finally finished. She picked up the piece of Starlight’s ear she had cut off, and held it up. Starlight now only had about two thirds of her ear, but she could still hear, though barely. Chrysalis held up Starlight’s ear in front of her.

“Um, hello? Can you hear me?” she said, laughing, as she spoke into the cut-off ear. Starlight grimaced and turned her head away, not wanting to look at it. She was still catching her breath, exhausted. Chrysalis teleported the ear to another location, and released Starlight, whose shoulder was still killing her.

“You did good,” she said, undoing the gag, allowing Starlight to breathe easier, “You can sleep in your cell tonight.”

“Th-thank you, m-my queen…” she stuttered. Chrysalis caught Starlight with her magic before she fell and brought her out of the torture room, back into the Main Hall towards her cell. She teleported Starlight inside, where she crumbled to the floor, unmoving. A betting pony would think her to be dead already, by the looks of her. Chrysalis smiled and buzzed off, casting a spell that shut off all of the torches and chandeliers of the cavern, which was still dimly lit by the eerie glow of the cocoon centerpiece, but was otherwise relatively pitch black.

Starlight was still in pain. Every movement with her arms gave her a sharp pain in her shoulder, and her ear was still bleeding.

‘Is it right to leave me here with open wounds?’

She stopped caring and just lay there, happy to get to spend the night in her cell. This was her home now, after all. Indignant thoughts meandered restlessly as she struggled to focus on sleeping. There was too much to think about. She had never felt lower than where she was at now. She wished to Celestia that she had never been born.

‘Why am I so awful?’

She had completely convinced herself of that, and she knew that Chrysalis was probably spinning the truth ever so slightly to crush her spirit, but everything she said had effectively struck a very particular nerve in Starlight. It was like Chrysalis knew her as well as she knew herself. She knew exactly what to exploit, what to poke at. If she was such a failure in the real world, then it only made sense for her to be the best slave possible here.

That means suffer in silence.

She closed her eyes a final time, ignoring her worries and letting the exhaustion of being tortured so ferociously carry her to sleep.

Fritz had investigated twelve different tunnels, all leading to dead ends. It was beginning to look like the only exit was the door he came through, which he couldn’t open. He stayed hovering in the cavern, running out of options, and hope.

‘Maybe if I ran into it really hard, I could…’ Before he could finish his foolhardy plan, he got distracted by the sound of a screaming girl. He dove into a nearby tunnel for cover and peeked out. The screaming most definitely came from the girl, which made his heart sink in sympathy. He peered down and saw the screaming was coming from one of the rooms down below, which was shut.

‘Celestia, I wonder what that bug is doing to her…’

He decided to hold off on continuing his search. His wings were getting tired and he could use the rest, plus he wanted to know what happened to the girl. After about twenty minutes of screams, his ears perked up at the sight of Queen Chrysalis flying out of the room, holding the girl with her magic. His eyes widened upon realizing she was missing a chunk of her right ear, and had a nasty looking wound on her shoulder. He crouched down as Chrysalis flew away after dropping the girl in her cell. The torches and chandeliers suddenly went out, the only light in the cavern coming from the cocoons on the ceiling. He realized he’s going to have to save them too, and struggled at how exactly he would get around that.

“She can help me...She’s got magic, right?” he whispered to himself. After waiting a few moments to make sure Chrysalis wasn’t coming back, he spread his wings and flew down, lower than he had ever gone in the cavern, right outside the girl’s cell.

Starlight’s body tensed up at the sound of somepony outside her cell. It didn’t sound like Chrysalis. She had gotten pretty used to that sound, and this wasn’t it. She jumped up to see what it was, and, upon seeing the blue haired, young yellow pegasus hovering outside, she nearly fainted in shock. Her first instinct was to scream, but held off. She didn’t want to get this pony caught, whoever he was. She had gotten enough ponies in trouble already.

Fritz raised his hoof to his mouth to shoosh her in case she screamed, anticipating that. He got a little closer. The girl seemed absolutely terrified. He didn’t know how to calm her down.

“Hey, it’s okay, I’m here to help you!” he whispered, as quietly as possible.

Starlight was pale with fright, fright at the possibility of getting another pony imprisoned in this hell for eternity. She heard what he said, and shook her head slowly.

“Get out of here while you can,” she warned, also whispering.

Fritz adjusted himself, put off by what was almost a threat.

“Look, I’m with Twilight Sparkle, I’ve come to rescue you, and all these ponies,” he said, motioning to the cocoon-imprisoned souls, “But I need your help.”

Starlight stared at him, dumbstruck.

“Twilight Sparkle?”

“Yes, That’s right!”

“Twilight wouldn’t come for me, Twilight hates me..”

“What? No, no, you don’t understand, we’re here to get you out of here!”

Starlight stared at him, too tired to deal with this situation properly.

“You need to help those ponies first, they don’t deserve to be here, I do…” she said, glumly.

Fritz stared at her in confusion.

‘What did that bug do to her?’

He went along with it, if it meant finding an exit and saving somepony.

“Al-alright, but I’m getting you out of here too…”

He looked around for a way to open her cell, but found it was just a hole in the wall with metal bars in front. He sighed, worried about time.

“Well, how do you get out of here?”

Starlight eyed him down. This was dangerous. If Chrysalis noticed any of her cocooned friends were gone, she’d be in big trouble. But, she knew if it meant her being punished and them being saved, it was a win-win.

Starlight had paid attention to where Chrysalis came from whenever she disappeared. She only knew of two exits.

“One is that tunnel right there,” she said, pointing upwards, “I think it leads to a bunch of other tunnels.”

Fritz turned back, disappointed.

“Yeah, that’s how I came in, but the door is locked.”

“Oh.”

She took note of that.

“Well, there’s another exit down there, on the ground, it goes west I think though.”

“That door?” he said, pointing at one that was hard to see in the darkness.

“Yeah, that one.”

“Okay, thank you…”

Still airborne, he turned around to begin collecting cocoons, but stopped immediately.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here?”

Queen Chrysalis was blocking his way, about twice his size, wings buzzing rapidly. Starlight’s soul nearly left her body. It was over, she knew it. This would be punishable. Highly punishable.

Fritz’s heart was racing. He wasn’t scared, more so angry, that he hadn’t gotten the chance to save anypony yet. He began preparing himself for the fight, a scowl on his face. Chrysalis wasn’t scared at all. She was even smiling. Those fools had just given themselves up. She couldn’t contain her laughter. Her diabolical cackles filled the cavern as the torches and chandeliers lit back up at her spell, as she backed up slightly.

“You made a big mistake, coming here.”