Twilight's Tough Decisions

Back at Rainbow's house up in Cloudsdale lie two marefriends sleeping on her usual fluffy bed. Rainbow was sleeping well throughout the night. However, Twilight still had a nightmare. This seemed to be a different kind of nightmare from what Twilight was used to seeing. Instead of having a nightmare about being tortured in Tartarus, she had a nightmare about her friends.

Twilight was in Tartarus alone with nopony to be seen. She walked around the place to try and find a way to escape, but there was no luck. "Hello? Is anypony there?" The scared alicorn tried to call out, but there was no response to be heard.

She kept walking in the hopes of running into an escape route. She started to sweat in fear when she started hearing muffled cries for help. The worried alicorn started sprinting towards where she heard the sounds and found something that would make her shiver down her spine.

All five of her closest pony friends and Spike where chained and hanging from the air behind metal bars. They were all unable to speak as there was cloth covering their mouths. Twilight ran towards them to try to find a way to free them. She stopped dead in her tracks when four of the same demonic ponies that were in all of her nightmares stepped in front of her from both sides. She saw this and her worry grew. She started to think that because it was always the same four ponies, they had something to do with her. She then got curious and nervously tried to talk them out of it. "Um, hello? Why d-do you ponies k-keep coming back? What have I-I done t-to deserve this from y-you?"

The four ponies looked at each other and gave a smirk before turning their heads back to the scared pony before them. One of the demonic ponies took a few steps forward slowly before stopping again to speak. "This is the place for you to be, Twilight."

The alicorn was in complete shock. Why was this the place she had to be at? "Um, why here? I didn't do anything wrong to deserve this, have I?" The purple pony was now shaking heavily.

"No, it's not that. It's that you're not really needed in the real world. What do you do anyways? Sit in your castle and read until time passes? That's honestly a waste of a life. You deserve to be down here with us. Heck, you could even join us if you give us a chance." The demonic pony stepped even closer to the shaking pony. Twilight was too scared to move, so she just stood there.

"Please don't hurt me. Don't hurt my friends. Let my friends go. Why are they even here?" Twilight tried to reason with them the best that she could. She really hoped that some talking would get her out of this torturous world.

The pony that was walking forward was now close enough to touch the mare. He turned his body with her on his right. He placed his right hoof around her and walked her forward. Twilight didn't know what to do or why she was being walked forward, but she obliged. She just hoped that if she would just follow instructions and do as the ponies say, she would maybe be set free.

As she was being lead forward by the pony to her left, he started to give her some options that she would be able to agree and go through with. "So Twilight, how about I show you around this place? We really want you to join us. If you do, we will be a lot nicer to you and possibly even your friends. We all really adore you. You're smart, funny, you work hard, and, as Rainbow likes to put it, cute."

Twilight was confused at the last part. What does he mean as Rainbow likes to put it? Does she think I'm cute? Are these ponies able to know what happens in real life Equestria?

"Okay, I'll do what you ask me to do every time I have a nightmare. I just don't want to get hurt." The four demonic ponies all looked at each other and grinned. She would hopefully be working for them soon. They would keep her down here with them, make her torture innocent ponies in their nightmares, and it would all work out fine. The pony with his hoof around Twilight seemed to brighten up a little.

"That's pretty nice of you to work with us, Twilight. We like when ponies are obedient. Everything goes so much more smoother down here when they are. We do not like troubles, and I don't think you do either. So without wasting anymore time, why don't we get started?" The mare looked over to the pony with his hoof wrapped around her frame and felt nervous. Was he going to make her do things she wouldn't want to do?

"Okay, fine. I'll do whatever you need me to do. I just don't want to be hurt, and I don't want my friends to be hurt either." Twilight spoke with obvious worry in her voice. The four ponies nodded in unison and their task began.

"Okay Twilight, here's the plan. I'm going to be the one to lead you around. I will give you instructions to do, and you will complete them without question. If you can manage to do it well, then we won't hurt you and we may even go easier on you and let you roam around here free." Twilight was relieved to here such words come out of a demonic pony's mouth.

"However," Twilight's attention perked back up at that word as he was not finished. "If you fail to comply with us or don't do your task the way we tell you, then there will be significant consequences." Twilight made a very audible gulp that could be heard by everypony in the room.

"You three, get into position," the pony beside her commanded to the other demonic ponies. They all saluted and went behind the metal bars to grab one of Twilight's friends that was first in line, which so happened to be Spike. As they released him, he tried to run. The demonic ponies were smarter than that though as they grabbed him after release and held him, pushing him forward to where a table was lying in the middle of the room. They put Spike on it and strapped him down. The lead pony started to explain the process of what would be happening as Twilight was already staring in horror.

"What you are seeing before you is the baby dragon being strapped onto the table. This is your first task," he paused as he levitated over an axe, sharp enough to slice through anything pretty easily. As Twilight saw what was being lifted over to her, she began to panic. Was she going to be forced to harm Spike with such a dangerous tool? This can't be real. She was interrupted from her thoughts as the axe was dropped right in front of her.

"Do you know what you are going to do with this?" The scared alicorn couldn't contain herself as she was all shaky from the fear of harming an innocent creature. Twilight just shook her head to respond since she was pretty much loss for words.

"We have casted a spell earlier which enables you to use your magic freely now, but be warned. If you use your magic to do things that we don't allow, then it will be a completely different experience for you. With that being said, there are just two steps you need to do. The first step is to take hold of that axe. The second step is to pick one of the parts of the dragon, except his head, and slice right through it will all of your strength in one go. Think you can do that for me?"

Was he being serious? Is he making me torture my friends? Is this what my life will become? Is this how I'm going to live from now on?

"I-I-I can't. I can't do that to him."

The lead pony was not impressed at this action. "This is what you will do. This is what happens down here whether you like it or not. This is what these ponies deserve. This is what you deserve to do. Ponies don't care about you in Equestria. Do you see what happened to you? Ponies you don't even know just walk up to you and take advantage of you. They ask for help when in reality, they don't need it. They just want you to do their dirty work. They make you move their boxes, clean their house, give them bits, and you just let all of that happen. You can't even stand up for yourself and just say no. We are trying to help you here. This may be just a nightmare compared to the real world, but this is exactly what this feels like when you get taken advantage of in the real world. Reality is a nightmare if you just let ponies take advantage of you. Now, I told you to pick up that axe, find a body part on the dragon that isn't his head, and go down on it as hard are you can."

Twilight was now about to start crying. She was getting worried about doing such things to her friends. "No. Please don't make me do this. They're innocent. They haven't done anything wrong. It should be me who takes the slice from the axe, not them. Please don't make me hurt them."

All of Twilight's friends were starting to cry from how emotional Twilight was about them. She didn't want to do what she was told by the demonic pony, even if it meant business from them. She even said that she would take the slice from the axe to prevent her friends from taking it.

"Don't make me ask you again. DO! IT! NOW!" The pony was now annoyed at Twilight's constant stalling and stomped his hoof on the ground. Twilight was still begging for mercy. She even got so desperate that she went down to the floor and held onto the lead pony's hoof, begging for mercy while crying. "Please. Please d-don't make m-me. I-I can't do it."

The pony just looked up at the other three looking at him. They just shrugged and stood there next to Spike with blank expressions while Spike and the other five ponies behind him was still breathing heavily from the situation they were in at the moment.

The lead pony then thought of an idea and smirked. "Well, okay then. Have it be your way then." Twilight's face lit up at the sudden mood change. She was so relieved to hear that she didn't have to hurt her friends. "Really? You're n-not going to make me hurt my friends?"

Twilight could hardly believe that she could get out of this situation so easily. It almost seemed too good to be true. The pony who's hoof was being grabbed by the poor innocent pony seemed to have mercy on her after all. "No, I won't. It seems almost about time for us to get you out of here if you're not going to do your job."

Twilight had a confused expression on her face. Did they control her nightmares? The four ponies lit up their horns to cast a spell. After taking some time for them to charge up, they shot it right at Twilight and the nightmare immediately ended.

She immediately opened her eyes and was greeted with sunlight and a sleeping Rainbow Dash holding on behind her. She just sighed and thought about what happened. Twilight wasn't crying however, but she was in a complete state of confusion. There were so many questions that needed to be answered.

Do they know what I'm doing in Equestria? Can they just drag me down with them at anytime? Are they in charge of my nightmares? Are they the ponies who started all of this after all? Then, one questioned was the most curious to her. It seemed to be the one that she needed first priority to be answered. Is Tartarus where I should truly belong?

These thoughts ran through her head for quite a while until Rainbow started to gently wake up. These questions would have to be answered, but who was going to answer them? Could the princesses answer these questions? No. They possibly couldn't. Could her friends be able to just somewhat answer them? They were just normal ponies in Equestria like her.

Then, an idea came into her head as she thought about which ponies could actually answer these. The only possible ponies that could answer these questions, were the four ponies in...

"Good morning love," Rainbow whispered. The awaking sounds of her marefriend snapped her out of her thoughts. "Oh, good morning Rainbow Dash."

"Still having nightmares? I didn't wake up to you panicking again like last night. I don't know if that was because you didn't have one or I just happened to be sleeping pretty deep," Rainbow asked curiously.

This question made Twilight wonder. Was she panicking in her sleep? She did have a nightmare again, but this one was different. It might have just been a nightmare without the actions being real. She tried to answer with the most accurate reply she could think of.

"Well, I did have a nightmare, but it wasn't the same like the other ones I've had. This one was different from the previous times." Rainbow was now more curious than ever before.

"Do you want to maybe go back to Zecora's hut? We could check to see if she's made any other potions to help. I think after yesterday we visited, she couldn't stop thinking about what she saw and went to maybe do some research on it."

Twilight didn't hesitate as she immediately agreed to the idea. "Sure, let's do it."

As they both walked together to make their way towards their zebra friend, Twilight was still thinking about her questions that she thought of before Rainbow Dash woke up. She would maybe hope that the next nightmare she had, she would be able to ask those questions to those ponies. Maybe they would agree to answer them. Anything can happen after all. This time, she actually did want to have a nightmare again when she ended up going back to sleep. But for now, she had to focus on the tasks in the real world.

As they both walked up to Zecora's door and knocked on it several times, the purple mare turned over to her marefriend to speak. "I think I should be the one to explain it this time. Zecora might understand better if it's me who's doing the explaining."

Rainbow just nodded and agreed to the idea. It did make sense that Twilight should be the one to explain what was going on with her nightmares, not her.

As they see the door open again, they were greeted with a very enthusiastic Zecora this time. "Ah, hello my pony friends. You two have come back to ask more about how Twilight's nightmares could end?"

Rainbow both smiled and nodded while Twilight just gave a small smile. "Well, come in then. Hopefully we will be able to fix the nightmares for this all to end."

As the three of them made their way further into the hut, Zecora grabbed a bottle on the way. "Try this, Twilight Sparkle. I did some more research and added more herbs into the mixture of the vision potion. If done correctly, this will be able to just sink in like lotion."

Twilight just nodded and took the potion from Zecora with her magic, uncorked it, and drank some of the liquid. She set it down again and waited for the effect to take place. In the meanwhile, she looked over to Zecora and Rainbow Dash and spoke in a soft tone. "I really hope this helps."

The cyan pony nudged Twilight on the shoulder while giving her a comforting smile. "We all hope it works, Twi. We want to help you as much as possible." Rainbow finished her sentence with an affectionate hug which Twilight happily let happen.

After a few seconds of hugging, Twilight was now in her vision. She was in Tartarus. However, it was just the four ponies of her nightmare. There was nopony else around. What is this vision supposed to be?

"What should we make her do?" Twilight snapped out of her thought when she heard one of them start speaking to the others.

"I have the perfect idea," the lead pony of the demonic group began to say. Everypony looked at the one who said it, including Twilight. He had a huge smirk on his face. He knew just the plan on what to do with Twilight.

"There's only one thing we need to accomplish out of her. We need her to break." The ponies all looked at each other. They began to smirk at the idea that was said.

"Do you all know how that can be accomplished?" The ponies all looked at each other. They then looked back at the pony, all giving him a "go on" gesture.

"I have everything planned. The next nightmare we give her, we need to do everything to break her. This can go as far as hitting, casting spells, and pouring extremely hot liquids all over her body."

The three who were listening all exchanged glances with one another and seemed to like it. However, Twilight wasn't too happy on the idea of her breaking to make her join them. She didn't want to be in Tartarus serving them. She wanted to be in Equestria, happy with her friends. However, she wasn't very happy in Equestria during this time. But it seemed that he still wasn't done explaining his plan as he let out a small chuckle. She and the three other ponies looked back at him, giving them their attention.

"That is still not all of the ways we could break her." The ponies seemed to be confused. After a while of trying to think of what else there could be to break her, a pony spoke up. "What is it? I thought you already listed every possible way to break that mare." The lead pony then gave another chuckle. Twilight felt something off with this chuckle though. It seemed more... evil.

"Not yet," the pony continued. "I may have listed some possible ways to break that mare physically, but we need to break her mentally as well." All of the ponies seemed to get the hint. Twilight was still as confused as ever.

"Well, explain what we need to do in order to make her mentally break," one of them replied.

"We are going to break her... sexually." Eyebrows were raised in the room at this idea. Twilight was frightened at this idea.

Break me mentally by sexual acts? How does that even work? What kind of sick freaks are these ponies? I would never do such things with these ponies. The only pony I would ever have sex with, is... my Rainbow Dash. At least I know Dash won't go to the point where I break. These ponies obviously don't care.

"Is it settled then?" The lead pony tried to make sure that they were all in agreement. The ponies looked back at each other and exchanged smirks. They all looked back and nodded unanimously. The lead pony gave the biggest smirk Twilight has ever seen in her life before being transported out of her vision and back into the real world.

Twilight then saw Rainbow Dash and Zecora looking back at her. She was interrupted from her thoughts when the pegasus started speaking. "So, how did it go Twi? Did you find out what you needed to find out?" Rainbow was asking really hopeful.

Twilight then looked back at her marefriend. "I-I saw a vision of being in Tartarus with the same ponies. They were talking to each other and were figuring out ways to get me to break." Twilight finished with her head hung low.

Rainbow went from all happy to worry. "Do you know enough to find out why?"

Twilight then thought back to the previous nightmare she had, having to bring the axe down on Spike, which she didn't go through with. She sighed in sadness. "I had a nightmare last night. I saw all of my friends there. They were all chained up and hanging from a wall. They dragged Spike and strapped him down on a table. The lead pony of the group levitated an axe over to me and tried to force me to pick it up and chop one of Spike's limbs off. I, of course, chose not to do it. Then, the pony told me about how terrible my life had become. He said that I was useless and would be better off living with them in Tartarus."

Rainbow and Zecora seemed emotional with this story. This time, Zecora spoke up. "When you saw the vision, what more were the ponies talking about? Is it something that we should be worrying about now?"

Twilight didn't really have much to say. They were just talking about the different ways to get her to break. "Well, they told me they would hurt me by casting spells and pouring hot liquids on me until I break."

Rainbow Dash rubbed a hoof on Twilight's back to help her know everything was going to be okay. There was still one important thing that Twilight had left out.

Well, that should be enough information to help me out. They don't need to know that they also planned to make me break by doing sexual acts, right?

After some awkward silence, Rainbow decided it was time to go. "Well, I think it's time we start heading out. Thanks for your help Zecora. We really appreciate the work that you've put in to help Twilight."

"Don't you worry one bit, Rainbow Dash. I'm sure there will be a way for Twilight to recover fast," Zecora responded as happy as ever.

The pegasus gave one last smile to Zecora before she and Twilight left the hut and closed the door behind them.

"Let's fly to my place, okay?" The Pegasus wanted to try to get to back to her house quicker so they could have more time to relax. Twilight just gave a sad sigh and weakly responded. "Okay. I guess we can do that."

As they both made it to Rainbow's house, they went up to her bedroom and was ready for the day to end. Rainbow figured to try to make Twilight smile. "Hey Twilight, do you want anything to eat? I got some food I could cook up? I also got some nice salad and fruit if you're just in the mood for a nice quick cold snack."

Twilight thought for a moment before deciding her choices. A nice fruit salad wouldn't hurt. "I'll just take a fruit salad, thank you Rainbow," Twilight smiled when she said her marefriend's name. She really was being treated kindly.

As soon as Rainbow went into the kitchen and back, she saw that Twilight was reading a Daring Do book. Smiling, the cyan pony flew over with their bowls in hoof. She set one down for Twilight and one for herself.

"Reading Daring Do?"

"Yeah," the alicorn responded before an idea came up. "You want to read together?" Smiling, the pegasus agreed.

Rainbow sat next to Twilight and held her close while they comfortably read together while giving a few cheek kisses every now and then. After taking some time to read, eat, and clean, off to bed they both happily went.