The Darkest Hope

Dear Princess Celestia,

It is with a heavy heart that I have to report the death of Spike and the disappearance of Starlight Glimmer. Last night was the worst night of my entire life. I saw Spike in a horrific state, Thorax was covered in his blood and is now on the run. Due to the circumstances Starlight Glimmer is believed to already be dead, but we still have hope and she is labeled as missing.

As for me, I'm in fear for the safety of everypony living in Ponyville. I ask that you send some of the royal guards to help protect Ponyville, at Least until Thorax has been captured.

Signed by Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight rolled up the letter and wrapped a royal seal onto it. She handed it over to a pegasus mail pony standing next to her.

"Get this to Princess Celestia immediately." He bowed his head before leaving. Twilight had a long day and was extremely tired. Sparrow had gathered evidence and had interviewed her. Mayor Mare was being annoying and panicking over Thorax's escape, and Twilight had been awake all night. Twilight glanced down the hall where her secret lab was hidden, she had to check on Fluttershy and Starlight sometime. But decided against doing that now since ponies were still walking around her castle searching for clues.

A few hours later

"Princess Twilight" Twilight turned to see Sparrow walking over. Two ponies came from behind her pushing a rolling metal table, on it was a black body bag that covered spike.

"I'm sorry for your loss."

Twilight just sighed as Spike was wheeled past her and out the front doors. She felt as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She wouldn't have to worry about being constantly bothered or have her work be discovered.

"I better get going. I'll drop by later to give you a copy of my report." Twilight nodded and followed Sparrow to the front doors. She used her magic to open it and saw there was a huge crowd of ponies. As Sparrow took off, Twilight saw her remaining friends standing on the steps.

Twilight waved her hoof signaling to her friends to come inside. Each of them had a worried face and they kept checking their surroundings.

"Let's talk in the throne room" Twilight closed the front door before walking down the corridor. Her friends were quiet and didn't speak until they had all taken their designated seats. Even then the room was quiet for a long time, Twilight guessed that nopony knew what to say.

".......Where is Fluttershy?" Twilight had asked to get the conversation going and over with.

"I flew to her hut this morning to tell her the news...But she wasn't there." Rainbow Dash answered.

"Last I saw her was when she came over to get some feed for her animals. I reckon that was about two or three days ago."

"That's about the time I saw her last. She was shopping in the market." Applejack and Rarity quickly responded. Pinkie just sat there, she was obviously deflated. Her mane and tail were completely straight. Tears falling out of her eyes. Twilight looked at each pony and then spoke.

"Can you all do me a favor and have a sleepover here tonight? It would help me feel better after everything that has happened..."

"I think that is a good idea. You been through alot in the past couple of days" Applejack somberly looked away from everypony a tear going down her face.

"Of course dear, these days have gotten....scary for me."

"Yeah, I'll bring some.....something."

Pinkie looked like she brighten up a bit.

"Thank you, all of you...can somepony check around town for Fluttershy?"

"I'll fly around to see if I can spot her."

"And I'll stop by her hut later. See if she is hiding from all of this..." Applejack and Rainbow offered, while Rarity and pinkie just nodded their heads.

"Alright then. You can all leave now, come back later tonight."

"What abou-"

"I really don't want to talk about it right now." Twilight turned her head away from her friends, forcing tears out of her eyes. Everypony seemed to silently agree. They all got up from their seats and patted Twilight's shoulders before leaving the room. Twilight listened carefully, waiting for the front doors to close. Once the doors had clicked shut she hurried over to the secret lab.

Twilight entered the lab and walked over to the cage that Fluttershy was in, she was cowering in the corner and whimpering like a scared animal. Fluttershy was still wearing her element, but the gem was now digging into her skin. It seemed as if it was trying to implant itself into her and had broke through the back of the gold. Blood was dripping from the wound staining her fur.

Twilight shifted her attention to Starlight, she was still hooked up to the machine. The orb was now shining brightly with Starlight's magic, Twilight checked her over. She looked as if she could be dead, but she was still breathing. Her cutie mark was gone, the first part of the experiment was a success. Twilight used her magic to remove the chains and headpiece from Starlight, before dragging her over to the cages. She was going to just throw her inside and leave her. But thought about it, Starlight was useless to her now and looked to be knocking at death's door. So Twilight dropped her and walked back over to the machine. She took a seat and brought the headpiece to her head. Twilight hooked herself up and then uses her magic to push the lever back down. She felt extremely dizzy as the machine pumped Starlight's magic into her body.

She couldn't tell how much time had passed. But the dizzy feeling left and a new sense of power flowed through Twilight's entire body. As she got up Twilight stumbled a bit, the process had been a bit harsh on her. She walked back over to where she left Starlight, standing over her. Starlight was still alive and crying on the floor. Twilight was upset that she was still alive so she decided to fix that. She used her magic to pry a bar off of one of the many cages. She saw that it wasn't sharp enough and molded one of the sides to a fine edge. Twilight turned it around satisfied at her work, she found it to be much easier than before.

"You sure had a lot of magic Starlight. Can't have you running around with it when I could use it." Twilight was now melding the pole to stand upright from the floor.

"Wh-why...Twilight?" Starlight managed to mumble out.

"Oh well you were just to0 annoying." Starlight covered her face and sobbed into her hooves. Twilight had finished melding the pole onto the floor and stared at Starlight.

"I'll give you something to really cry about." She lifted Starlight up into her magic. Twilight turned her upside down so that she would be facing the sharp pole. Starlight tried to struggle, kicking the air and screaming. Twilight held her like that for a good minute amused at her efforts to escape.

She then forced Starlight's jaw open and began to lower her. The pole went into her mouth but didn't pierce her flesh yet.

"Fluttershy open your eyes and watch as I murder my sad excuse of a student!" Fluttershy covered her eyes with her wings in defiance.

"I said WATCH!! If you don't listen I'll rip your wings right off!! Fluttershy flinched and quickly folded her wings. Her entire body was trembling but she kept her gaze on Starlight.

"Well at least you listen to threats..." She turned back to the still struggling Starlight. Twilight began laughing as she slammed Starlight down onto the pole. The sharp point went into Starlight's throat and all the way down her body. The pole exited at her rear covered in bits of flesh and blood. Starlight was still alive choking on the pole with blood pouring out of her mouth.

Twilight let go of her and turned back to make sure that Fluttershy was watching. Fluttershy had given up and let the corruption take over her. Her once teal eyes were now a deep red and the element was leaking out a black liquid. Seeing this Twilight opened the cage and released Fluttershy from her chains. When Fluttershy realized that she was free, she ran out of the cage and up to Twilight, ready to obey her master. Twilight was pleased at how successful all of her experiments had been, she truly was a genius.

Now she just had to do the same to the rest of the element bearers.