The Final Test

Starlight rose back to consciousness with an electric jolt. She gasped for air, wincing in pain. The gouges on her belly were still bleeding and sent insane amounts of pain through her body. Blood dripped from her horn onto her face. Her mouth stung where the hook had torn away the skin. She quickly clamped her jaws together to avoid as much pain as possible, as moving her mouth hurt like hell. She was aware of the still broken bones in her chest, and all the pain combined made her dizzy.

Her hooves were still held in place on the table. Discord was right below her, studying her.

"She's going to die again," he told Starlight's tormentors. "Either from blood loss or shock. So we have two options."

"Which are?" Rarity pressed.

"I can make her stronger, which will make her harder to hurt, or I can heal her," Discord told her.

Rarity's ears fell back. "I don't like either of those options," she admitted.

"Me neither," Discord told her. "Yet we have no other choice."

Rarity sighed. "Alright, we'll let whoever's going next decide."

"Heal her." Zephyr said immediately. "It'll make my test easier to perform."

Discord shrugged, then snapped his fingers. Starlight yelled out in agony as her skin slowly moved back together. The wounds in her belly closed, then her horn, and finally her mouth. At the same time, she felt the bones in her chest slowly mend. The blood stopped pouring, but it still stuck to her fur, making it clumpy and uncomfortable. It mixed with the tears that escaped her eyes. Once the pain ended, Starlight gasped. She tried to suck in as much oxygen as possible.

Zephyr Breeze rolled his eyes. "Yeesh, she's dramatic."

"Agreed," Sweetie Belle said, jotting more stuff down on the parchment.

Zephyr moved to the tools and grabbed a scalpel. He grinned at Starlight wickedly. Starlight bared her teeth. "You gonna poison me the same way Fluttershy was?"

Zephyr barked a laugh. "Ha! Oh, you wish. You see, Scootaloo went easy on you there. The rest of these tests are going to have you begging to go to Tartarus."

The blonde pegasus walked toward the shadows, which soon obscured him. He was only invisible for a few moments before he reappeared with a box. He set it in front of Starlight and set the scalpel on top of it. "This test has more of a... Fluttershy flare."

Shining Armor presented him with a thread and needle as Starlight struggled to break free of her binds. "What are you talking about?" she demanded.

Zephyr took the tools from Shining Armor into his hooves, then set them down in front of Starlight. "It's quite a simple test, though you certainly will not survive. After all, the point is to test how long you can last before you die."

Starlight began to panic. She thrashed violently, yanking on her hooves to try and rip them free. All it did was cause her more pain, but she was desperate.

"Toughen up, Starlight!" Zephyr groaned in annoyance, rolling his eyes. "There's going to be much worse than this. Now, it will hurt less if you sit still."

Rarity huffed irritably. "Don't tell her that," she whined. "We want it to hurt as much as possible."

"Didn't you learn anything from Twilight?" Zephyr chuckled. "We need the test to be performed right."

Rarity let out a high pitched, angry "Ugh!", but she didn't argue any further.

Zephyr picked up the scalpel. He rested the tip right below her chest. "Now, I'm sure you're wondering what exactly you'll be dealing with. That box over there is filled with maggots. I'm going to put them inside your stomach and see just how long it takes them to eat through you."

"You'll be here for days," Starlight spat, her anger returning. "It takes maggots about seven days to consume even 60% of a body."

Zephyr smiled wickedly. "Oh, I must have forgotten to mention, these maggots have been... altered by Discord."

"What the hell do you mean?" Starlight hissed.

Zephyr ignored her and turned to look back at Rarity. "Rarity, begin the countdown please."

"Zephyr!" Starlight roared. "What do you mean?"

One tick.

"Tell me!"

Two ticks.

"God dammit, Zephyr, what are you putting in me?"

Three ticks.

"Begin."

As soon as Rarity said the word, Zephyr pushed the scalpel into Starlight's skin and sliced down. Starlight screeched in pain. Zephyr was merciless. Once the tear was made, he pulled the box closer and ripped it open. The inside was crawling with unusually large maggots with massive teeth. Starlight stared at them in horror, breathing heavily despite the pain it brought to her belly. Once the box was open, Zephyr plunged his hoof into the open wound. He pulled the sides to open it more. Starlight screamed. She began to cry once more.

Zephyr took the box in one hoof, then frowned. "I don't know how I'm supposed to do this," he admitted.

"Easy," Discord replied, snapping his fingers. The maggots vanished from the box and appeared in Starlight's belly. Zephyr huffed. "For you," he grumbled.

He grabbed the thread and needle as Starlight twitched and wailed. He crookedly stitched her belly back together. He was too careless to fix the mistakes he made. He saw no point seeing as Starlight wouldn't stop moving.

"Now, this test won't be entirely accurate," Zephyr said as he put in the final stich in and backed away. "The maggots started eating the moment they were put in there. However, it will be a good estimate."

Starlight screamed loud enough to make most of the ponies cover their ears with their hooves. "To hell with you!" she shrieked. "How could anypony come up with something so sick?"

"That's the same thing I was wondering about you," Rarity said with a small grin. "Funny how everything comes back in full circle. May the count begin... now." The clock made a clicking sound, making Rarity smile with satisfaction.

Starlight cried out in agony. She felt the maggots inside of her gnawing away at her organs, feasting on her insides. They were eating like they were starving. She felt them moving around, and from the look on Sweetie Belle's face she could tell that the others were seeing it. The young unicorn brought the parchment very close to her face and focused on writing, blocking off the scene in front of her. The princesses all remained oddly calm, just watching with neutral expressions. All except for Cadance, who had a small hint of a smile on her face.

Starlight's body jerked violently as pain spasmed through her body. She gasped for air, which only made the pain worse as the maggots started nibbling on her lungs. She involuntarily screamed.

Discord clicked his tongue. "Must we listen to all this screaming?"

"Her screams help with the notes," Sweetie Belle told him without looking away from her notes. "Especially once they begin to grow quieter. It'll show she's too weak to scream anymore, which will be an obvious giveaway that that's around when the maggots are starting to end her life."

Discord huffed. "Well, it's awfully annoying," he grumbled.

"I know," Sweetie Belle replied. "But just bear with me."

Starlight cried desperately. She had to stop this. If Discord was already annoyed from her screams, maybe she could use that to her advantage. Maybe if she screamed loud enough, it would end this. Her captors probably would just kill her, but at least it would end this test. Starlight drew in a breath as best as she could without screaming, then let out the loudest shriek she could. Discord covered his ears. He turned to her furiously, his teeth bared and eyes burning with fury.

"Remember Fluttershy," Rarity said. which made her gaze narrow. "Think about the sick things Starlight put her through."

A smile grew disturbingly wide on Discord's face, a smile that no pony would be able to naturally have. "Oh, yes," he chuckled lowly, his voice echoing around the room. "Is this what my dear Fluttershy sounded like, Starlight? Do you think this was how she felt?"

"She was louder than this," Starlight spat angrily as another scream threatened to leave her throat. "She was too much of a pussy to endure even the tiniest hint of pain!" At that instant, Starlight shrieked again.

Discord's smile faltered, and the creature's eye twitched. "Oh, tiny hints of pain, huh?" he hissed. "Like this?"

He snapped his fingers, and Starlight felt the maggots inside of her grow more aggressive.

"Discord, no!" Sweetie Belle wailed, writing even faster. "The test needs to be accurate, meaning that the subjects need to stay consistent."

"It's not like this is one of the tests that we'll benefit from. Celestia is far too lenient for that." Discord grinned at Celestia, showing all of his teeth. "Right Cay-Cay?"

The princess looked at him, but she said nothing. She remained calm, and after a moment she simply looked back at Starlight.

Starlight wasn't sure how long she sat there, feeling the maggots tear her insides apart and using her for their dinner. At last, the world showed her mercy, and her vision began to swim. She could no longer breathe. When she tried to suck in air, she was met with nothing. She was sure it was because all or most of her lungs had been eaten. Rarity observed how Starlight's face was growing blue, and she quickly pointed it out to her sister, who scribbled it down quickly.

All Starlight could do was cry and wait. She was met with horror as she felt something crawl up her throat. It was tearing it apart as it moved, ripping everything in her throat to bits and eating it. How she wasn't dead yet, Starlight wasn't sure. All she knew was that her heart was still beating. She was sure that would stop soon. The maggots were still eating away, it was only a matter of minutes or, maybe if she was shown a little extra mercy, moments.

It was crawling into her mouth now. Starlight was growing lightheaded from not being able to breathe, and a sharp sting struck her heart. Starlight felt her tongue being torn and eaten. It hurt so much. It'd be such a relief to just scream and not suffer silently, but she had no choice. She was pretty sure the maggots had eaten her vocal cords, and besides, she was far too weak to scream again.

Blood filled Starlight's mouth. Eventually the maggot poked its head out through her teeth. It struggled a little, then poked its head out through her lips. The partial opening of her mouth was enough to make Starlight give in and drop her jaw completely. The blood cascaded out like a waterfall. She heard the maggot thump on the ground with a sickening sound.

The last thing she saw before her body finally gave into death was the horrified looks on the faces of the ponies doing this to her. Some of them even gagged, Scootaloo being the only one to actually vomit. Even Princess Flurry Heart looked terrified. Then Starlight's vision went dark.

Rarity shuddered and covered her mouth. She stopped the clock and turned away from the scene of Starlight's lifeless body, hanging there with the mouth open disturbingly wide.

"20 minutes," she shuddered. "Now, please, for all of our sakes, revive her and rid of this horrible scene. Once we all have a chance to recollect our stomachs, the next test will begin."