Adrenaline, laughs, pain, cheers, sobbing. A day of fun was the unfortunate lead to this tragedy.

Twilight let out a soft breath as her body spasmed slightly, the muscles groaned in pain as if they were gripped from the inside. 'So... Uncomfortable.' Twilight grimaced, hot liquid soaked parts of her body, some ran over her eyelids and forced her eyes to close tighter. She tried to move, lift anything in her. All that responded was pain, her body being held by that forceful tightness which ran deep inside her. It was so cold... so hard…

Dull pain echoed in her as she winced yet again, her body called out to groan in pain but Twilight's lips were being held tight by something tight and piercing. 'Think Twilight, think! Augh... What happened, what happened...' Her headache pulsed, the heat only worsening it all. Twilight grimaced lightly, preparing for the possibility of the liquid getting on her eye, visual information was the most valuable at the moment, she heard nothing, she couldn't move... Yes, she needs to open her eyes.

Twilight's eyelids shake as she willed herself to open her heavy lids, darkness rushed in as her iris twitched, pupils pulsing as she adjusted to the dark room. She winced as some of the liquid rubbed against her eye, stinging it. ‘Twilight, Twilight, c'mon what now... Why can't I move...? A spell?’ The alicorn's eyes twitched around the room, seemingly the only part she could move around. Dark, if colorful walls, sparkly patterns. It reminded her of Rarity's boutique somewhat? She breathed through her nose as she suddenly choked on something, Twilight hacked violently, hot liquid spilling out of the pressed together seams on her lips. Twilight's eyes dilated as her breath hastened.

'Blood, ok blood! I'm coughing up blood... why?!’ She huffed, more blood seeped out of the corners of her mouth as she struggled to breathe properly. 'Slow down Twi, slow down!... Go through your panic checklist... Observe the situation, calculate the best outcome, don't overthink or panic. You are a princess, you can't be Twilighting anymore! Ack! But this is an actual reason! I can't speak, I'm bleeding, I can't move!'

Twilight started to hyperventilate, her chest heaved all it can before she coughed up more blood, stopping the panicked alicorn in place. A small tear welled up in her eyes as the pain got to her. Twilight shivered, the pain, the cold, the darkness, it was all so frightening and as much as the princess hated to admit it, terrifying.

Slowly, Twilight softened her breath as she tried to light up the room using her magic. A headache worsened as she concentrated, pain building up as she groaned, no magic coming out. ‘A magic suppressor maybe? Doesn’t feel like any I’ve studied…’
Twilight tried to twist her neck to see if she had any injuries, only to be met with a cold pain, her whole spine and neck felt like it was a scarecrow on a wood pole! The feeling sent a shiver down her well... everything, it made her want to hurl, as if she wasn't already spewing blood. The princess strained her eyes trying to look as far as she could, all she could make out was some blood stains and ruffled fur on herself, not helpful... Then the princess had a realization; she so far couldn't move her main limbs and her mouth, she could still twitch, it was just her main limbs being held in place!

'Ok Twilight, great start! Mouth is no doubt being held together by some type of string, no matter how horrifying that sounds... My limbs could be held by a spell... or by an object? I've never had a spell feel like this before, although a machine wouldn't be able to be felt inside me!’ She morbidly chuckled.

Twilight sighed as she flopped her ears down over her eyes a bit. Twilight froze, even in the almost pitch black room she could tell that her ears didn't look like that. She squinted with shaky eyes as she realized that even in the lack of light, those were white furred ears, those fancy groomed tips... Rarity's ears! Twilight tried to do... well anything! Her panicked struggles resulted in a lot of pain as the tight knit strings keeping her lips together started to stretch as they separated, causing even more grief to the bloody princess. Twilight hacked more blood as she let out a pained, bloodcurdling scream. Dilated pupils strained as Twilight was shaky, she froze as she heard a voice.

"Oh! I didn't expect you to wake up so soon! I suppose I should've accounted for your Alicorn biology, silly me!"

— //-// —

Twilight's muscles froze as a voice pierced her ears. Its cadence was unfamiliar, yet it felt as if she's heard it before? The light, casual tone with a seriousness contrasting it perfectly. The alicorn grimaced as well as she could as she felt the careful tapping of hooves on the floor, approaching her closely behind as the princess' eyes caught the owner of the voice. In the darkness she saw the tan back hoof of the perpetrator as they turned around, eyeing the back of her.

"Hmm, the back stitching hasn't healed as quickly as I'd hoped, I suppose a massive area such as the flank would take longer to heal... I'll have to write that down. Heh, see what I did there? Yeah yeah, you can't exactly speak, but so what? Lonely job, I'm sure you get that!~"

The pony patted Twilight's flank before they grimaced at it, looking between Twilight's terrified, confusion stricken eyes and her flank. Twilight shuddered at each touch, her mind frozen in place as she took in the pony and what they were doing. The alicorn's mind raced as she tried to process anything. 'W-what? Who is this pony? Why are they acting so casual about this?! Flank... stitching?' Her heart goes cold as she flexes her flank, pain searing through it as she both feels like it is and isn't there?!

"Oh! Eugh... Definitely not healing as fast or as healthy as I'd like... might have to use some healing magic there. Y'now, I thought a cowards flank might be more fitting for you princess! I obviously have creative freedom with my work, don't I? If I say so myself, I think yellow contrasts well with your purple fur!”

The pony hummed a bit before they raised their brow.

“Err, I suppose Rarity would say 'Lavender', would she not? Regardless, I'm rambling! I just wanna say that I think butterflies work really well as your new cutie mark!"

Twilight's steady breath became a harsh gasp as her whole body tried to wretch itself in reaction, she screamed in pain and shock as her whole body felt as if it was struck by icicles. Cold, tingling shock settled into her as she held her breath in agony. 'No, NO NO, they're lying! I can't move my head, it must be that this… pony is trying to freak me out! C'mon Twilight c'mon hold yourself together. No, no, no. Oh Fluttershy...' The princess held her eyes tight as she wept. Hot, bloody, and salty tears came out as her heart and body heaved, whatever that was holding her in place still strained her body as she wreathed her body, it convulsed as she moved more, pain shot through her without a care.

"Hey, hey, HEY! You're gonna ruin your stitching!" The pony yelled, their hoof waved in front of Twilight’s face.

Twilight screamed out Fluttershy's name, but it came out as more of a bloody mumble as pain wracked all over her. The white ears flopped over her face as she remembered she had Rarity's ears as well, she choked and spat up more blood, heaving as she wept. All her muscles tensed as she felt an aura surround her, holding her tight, not a muscle in her body nor her face could move as her body settled forcefully.

"Seriously, It's not like I can exactly buy a new flank for you, flesh doesn't grow on trees!" They sighed, looking at Twilight's face before realization came upon their face.

"Oh. Right, yeah" The pony sighed again as they held Twilight in place with magic while lifting a thread and needle. The needle slitted through her stitches, which tightened her freakish mouth stitches.

"I know you probably think all your friends are dead or something? Well yes I have them all here, no they aren't dead or anything. Just about anyone can sell a corpse to a freak, and I'm not just anyone princess. Anyways, no-one would want to buy a corpse specifically of you or your friends, too well known, y'know?"

The pony moved out of the sightline of Twilight as they moved to the back of her, tightening the flank stitches.

"Also, I can't sell corpses as art projects, they would rot way too fast, even with a preservation spell! So yes, you and all your friends are alive and will be unless your buyer wants to destroy my work personally, Celestia forbid that! Would be such a waste, but the buyer is the owner so whatever..."

The pony rolled their eyes with a huff as they grabbed a brush, trying to get knots out of Twilight's fur. Her chest heaved as the pony flinched a tad, raising their eyebrow.

"Seriously Twi, no-one wants to buy a corpse, even if the buyer is into macabre, no-one wants to deal with the smell of a rotting corpse, blegh. I've dealt with that due to a bad spell, and let me tell you that that alone made me a clean freak! Gotta make you look all prim for everyone!~ Oh and by the way, my name's The Collector!~ Nice to be face to face for once."

The Collector hummed a soft tune as they put down the brush, and grabbed a bucket and sponge. The wet sponge pressed into her flank as Twilight tensed up, pain seeped from there as The Collector scrubbed at the flank, trying to get the blood out.

"I'm hoping to sell you all as a packaged deal, you are a group after all, the Elements of Harmony! Honestly hearing that you all would be my next work, I got so excited! Practically lost one of my previous projects hah! Big fan! Not big enough to let you go obviously but what can I do?~"

Twilight’s teeth shuddered as she tried to breathe in again with a gasp, not realizing she held in all that time. A hundred different emotions came over her as her eyes blurred over. A sick feeling grew in her gut as she started to drift from consciousness. ‘N-no, what… What is all this? This can’t be real! A-all of them… my friends… in pain like me.’ Twilight’s eyes shot open as a wave of sudden adrenaline pulsed through her.

“Cmon Twi, stay awake at least if you were gonna wake up so early! While you can’t talk back to me, it’s nice to have someone to talk to! That also reminds me- Actually, I’ll have to tell you something later, but for now I have to get you presentable and clean you up, no one wants a blood soaked art piece.”

The Collector squinted as they tried to focus in on her fur.

“Okay lights on, the mood is great and all with almost pitch black lighting, I'm sure you’re terrified and whatever, it's just hard to exactly clean blood properly on your coat in such darkness.”

The Collector grumbled as their horn lit up, a click can be heard as a single light above Twilight turned on, casting a spotlight right over herself. The princesses eyes twitched as she readjusted to non pitch black lighting. The Collector smiled almost sweetly as they tried to scrub harder into Twilight’s flank, they squinted as the hoof caressed her flank.

“Much better! Hmm… If I do say so myself I think you’re my best work yet! Although that’s just for now! I’m sure you'll enjoy what creative works I’ll make with your friends!~”
A smile came upon their face as their hooves tapped slowly from her flank to right next to her ears.

“I gave you my name so might as well show ya what a darling piece of art you are! Why, you’ll barely recognize yourself Princess Twilight~ Truly a paragon of friendship, so great that they all became part of you!”

Slow and steady tapping from hooves she heard as the first bits of The Collector peered into view. Twilight peered towards them as long, shaggy hair creeped into her vision, it almost reached the knees.

The Collector froze and let out a surprisingly cute Yip as a loud ringing sound filled the room, their mane frazzled even more as if a magical force hit it.

“Oh dear! I totally forgot that I need to check on the others! Dear oh dear… Looks like I’ll have to show you later princess!”

Using their magic they flicked off the alarm as they quickly turned off the lights and pattered out the door they came from. Only a blur of a pony came past her peripheral vision as the freakish pony dashed out the room, but Twilight did catch that pale red mane.

‘This… this is really real, isn’t it?’ Twilight’s brows raised as the realization finally settled in. ‘Oh dear Celestia, please let my friends be ok…’

Instantly her fur poofed up as The Collector jumped back into the doorway, with a shout.

“Almost forgot! If I can’t show you yourself yet, you at least deserve the knowledge of what you are~”

The last Twilight saw of them was their eye pouring over the detail of the princess, their horn glowed the same intense red. As the pony disappeared behind the corner, Twilight lurched as she felt like she was being thrown back!... Only to freeze at the peak of her ascent backwards and up. She couldn’t move, couldn’t observe what was happening! No doubt they used their magic, but what was causing this?

Twilight’s heart dropped as her body started lurching forward and down towards the ground. She tried to brace her head for impact, only for none to come her way as her face was inches from the ground. Twilight let out a relieved huff as her body rolled back and up, then forward and down again.

‘W-what? Is this the machine… the… this almost feels like I’m on a swing or… Oh Celestia… Oh dear Celestia no…’

Another rock back and forward, losing slight momentum each time.

‘I-I’m- they… I… I’m a- a…’

‘Rocking Horse.’

Author's Note

First published piece of fanfic woo! Tell me how I did, critique welcome

Update!: Fixed the inconsistent tenses and cleared up some confusing wordage in lines.