Pages of Harmony

by Shadowed Rainbow

Rating: mature
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Main 6, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Spike, Tragedy
Length: 119067

Believing that the essence of Harmony is threatened, Twilight plans to remedy that through a form of extraction. As her ambitions manifest, Twilight struggles through an internal war between her harmonious plan and the consequences of her acts.

This is going to get a rewrite as a separate upload due to a complete rework and rating change. Please consider that canon to the sequel once it's posted.

Expand for more info, sequel, reading, TV Tropes page, Tumblr blogs etc.

The Elements of Harmony are only able to be wielded by a select few ponies, with little information on them through the pages of literature.

In a desperate, insane desire to search for the biological process that distinguishes a normal pony from one with the proper qualities, Twilight Sparkle resorts to restraining, analyzing, and destroying the holders of those qualities for her research. All for - according to Twilight - a purpose of "preserving the future".

But how far will her desire to research and preserve Harmony go, and what, precisely, does Twilight plan to achieve as her ultimate goal? For it is a goal that she strives to achieve—whatever the cost.

Sequel: Empress of Harmony (can be read as a stand-alone.)

TV Tropes page.
Fanfic reading done by thegibbie88
Fanfic trailer by IAmInHurt.
Musical-fic version by lazerbem

Ask Blogs (one author-written and others fan-made)

Empress Twilight
The P.A.T.H. (Ponies Against Total Harmony)
Harmony's Students
Broken and Dead Fluttershy

Quotes about Pages of Harmony

Vargy: Just read it and I must say, I'm impressed at how this fic evolved from something were gore was the main objective to a fic with an extremely well done plot. There's also the fact that from the beginning of this fic to now, your writing has improved tremendously! It's a pleasure to read a grimdark-gore that is so well written. This is at least how I see it.
FanOfMostEverything: …Anyway, this continues to be one of the most exquisitely horrifying stories on the site. I look forward to Twilight's inevitable comeuppance…In any case, it is with both dread and anticipation that I await the next installment.
IAmInHurt: I learned about the brain from reading a gorefic. Lol
Jaysontaylorblogs: As much as I love this.... I'm going to have nightmares for a few years now....
HELLKRINDER-NOI: I found this story on Deviantart after reading The Experiments of Twilight Sparkle,(which got me into grimdark stories). And I have to say, Im impressed and eagerly awaiting the next chapter(On a random note, don't kill Scootaloo)
Pony of Passchendaele: So...Only grim-dark, nothing even remotely perverted, like "The Experiments of Twilight Sparkle," and I think I know where this could be going, though I will not attempt to confirm as I hate spoilers. I have high hopes and congratulate you on your outstanding work. One of the best I have ever read, I have been desensitized for the last 3 days because of it...I am looking forward to the SATISFYING and COMPLETE ENDING to this wonderful tale.
LadyCobraa: I think it's safe to say that this is the best grim dark pony fic ever.

Published 2012-01-02 14:08:43 UTC
Last updated 2014-10-07 23:37:06 UTC

Planning

"It has to be this way... it has to..."

The studious unicorn known as Twilight Sparkle was within the library which she called home, rummaging around through a series of books. A few of these books were on history, such as ancient ponies who had influenced Equestria in its early days. The ones closer to her though, those that one would for the most part be unable to see, had to deal with various aspects of pony health. Her current tome to scrutinize was one called Equine Emotions: Psychological Studies on the Mind, skimming through each of the pages. Just for research. Never knew when it could come in handy.

She had hoped they would come in handy. The reference guide hadn't told her much else. Would she get hints here? Something that would show her what she wanted? So far nothing to explicitly state outright, but it was giving her hints, ideas. What to do for her plan.

No pony's even ever tried, have they? They never would, but I'll need to, the pony thought. Need to, need to.

The unicorn looked around in the silence, the only sound to be heard being the movements of her own hooves. Her assistant Spike had gone off to Sugarcube Corner - probably devouring cupcakes by now if Pinkie Pie hadn't already done so herself.

Silence, silence was good. Libraries weren't usually for loud noises.

Humming, Twilight Sparkle levitated the various books onto their shelves, before going to the placement of a certain tome on the end of the shelf: the reference guide to the Elements of Harmony.

Oh, those mysterious Elements. Where had they come from? Did Celestia and Luna create them? What was it that had caused the Elements to change hooves? And why? Why?

Was there some sort of process within, a magical process that created just the right conditions for the Elements' qualities to appear in the pony they were connected to? And if so, why did they split? Celestia had used them all to banish Nightmare Moon into the moon, so was there some qualities that one pony could have and others not?

Questions, questions, questions with gaps where the answers would be. But Twilight Sparkle was going to do her best to find those answers. No matter what the cost was. It would be best for generations. If the others died without the elements' essences being discovered, then how would it be known who to go to after they were gone? If friendship, the ponies' survival mechanism that could be turned into a physical form, was gone forever?

The Elements preserved that. And it was clear that the Elements didn't change hooves when the previous holder died - Celestia and Luna were still around, after all. It had to be some sort of quality, not a spiritual aspect that transferred to a pony after death. Celestia had been able to wield all six, after all.

Preserve the essence of the Elements; preserve her friends. Yes, yes, it had to be that way. The clock was ticking. Ticking ticking ticking and it wasn't going to stop.

Running her left front hoof over the cover of the book as it was placed back onto the shelf, she went over to the bookshelf's side and pressed against a spot on the wall with her hoof. A small panel, near invisible, could be seen with the pressure on it.

With that, the bookcase and the wall behind it began to move. Rotating like a revolving doorway, where the solid wall had once been was now a cavernous hole, which Twilight stepped through, summoning a torch before the structure fell back into place.

Aside from the torch and the light from her horn, the unicorn was shrouded in complete darkness. But it didn't matter. She knew exactly where to go.

Making a left turn about 15 feet away from the entrance through which she had come, a spiral of stone steps could be seen swirling down into the depths of the earth. The purple unicorn hummed a little tune to keep herself company as she descended, farther down than the room where she had tested Pinkie Pie's "Pinkie Sense."

Perhaps she'd get to try that again. But that matter would be for a later decision.

Eventually, the spiral reached its conclusion and the pony's hooves connected with the flat cold ground. It must have been quite down deep, this hidden-away space. Just a dark, dank cellar, long forgotten.

Twilight, however, had... improved on it.

The hallway wasn't quite as wide as that of the cavern above, but a portion of this area went from being stone to metallic, with doors made of steel. One, far back and tucked away, was what the unicorn now came to. Punching in a number code next to the door, it opened, the unicorn's humming ceasing upon entering the large room.

It was a room that one would expect to find in a science laboratory - or rather, a twisted scientist who had a thing for horror films and murder. Sleek, silver machines whirled into life, all of various sizes and functions. One appeared to be a scanner of sorts, another looked like a large egg beater with a scalpel, hanging over a table with four cuffs.

But the horror part came with the smell and some of the room's features. Upon several of these surfaces were blood, most dried and caked on from disuse of the equipment, though there was what appeared to be small monitoring mechanisms overlooking them, picking up the DNA signatures and analyzing the bacteria about the place, for here even decay was monitored, examined, and kept for analysis. Suspended atop pedestals were bright white models of pony skeletons - or were they real, skeletal structures of ponies who had perished? They were certainly sterilized quite well, visible under the plastic that covered them and showing no signs of decay, not even a small amount of bone marrow visible. What could be smelled that wasn't entrails was alcohol used to keep everything fresh.

In this way too, there were entrails within a myriad of jars for cleansing, several organs hanging from suspended wires around the room's far left wall. These too, were sterilized, kept in bags to keep dust out and rubbed in a liquid.

It wasn't just the images and the smell of rot and death that accompanied this room's horrors. There were sounds, an audible disturbance of the silence here. Where there had once been a lack of noise was the faint beeping of monitors, the churning of machinery. There was also a more curious noise, one that sounded like the light breathing of another life form. Another pony. A faint mumbling as if somepony was just groggily talking in their sleep. As if they were trying to wake up but not quite awake yet.

Twilight, however, remained unperturbed by the noise, getting rid of the torch and acting as if everything was normal. She knocked on the walls, grinning in satisfaction and letting a laugh escape her as no sound came from the paneling when she knocked her hooves against it. Just silence, as if the hoof had never impacted its surface.

"Perfect!" she exclaimed. "I see the soundproof walls are still holding up!"

The unicorn went over to a dusty, steel-shelved bookcase where a special selection of books were kept. Books that would definitely not be found in the upper areas of Ponyville's library which anypony could access on a whim. Books that dealt with the darker effects of psychological torment, workings of the brain, drugs that could dull pain or increase it. Substances that could immobilize a pony; keep them awake, alive. One book was particularly think, though this one wasn't a textbook - it was a book full of notes and diagrams that Twilight had jotted down through her array of studies.

But she was looking for one book in particular, and it didn't take her long to find it. Unlike the others, this book had no pages. In fact, it was just a cover for the moment. Not for long, though. That all would soon change.

Using her magic, she removed the thin book, only the outline of its future design sketched upon its surface - a familiar-looking design, one that many ponies would recognize, a cyan-colored cover adorned with a red, blue, and yellow lightning bolt coming out of a cloud on both the front and back sides.

Twilight smiled, hoof tracing over the cover as she laughed, an unsettling little giggle that had only come from her mouth before during the friendship letter incident. Only when she was planning something. Something big, something desperate, something unhinged were other ponies able to see her.

She slowly turned the gaze of her dilated pupils over toward the muffled noise at last, as if just realizing the voice was there. After levitating the book into its proper place and trotting over toward the machinery to get some pieces of equipment warmed up, she came over to the right side of the room. To a cold metal table where a pony was strapped tightly. Watching the subject slowly open her eyes. Her drugged, sleepy, confused, rose-colored eyes.

"Time to wake up, Rainbow Dash."

Suffocating Laughter

If I ever stop laughing, I'm dead.
-Tom Knapp

Sometime later, Twilight Sparkle's hidden laboratory was all cleaned up from the experimentation on her friend. The blood and muscle from Rainbow Dash's body was cleaned up from the ground, and there was a shiny new pedestal with its occupant already on display.

Rainbow Dash's skeleton wasn't quite as flawless-looking as the others - tooth marks could be seen where the mentally altered pegasus had gnawed at her own bones in delirium, and parts of her wings looked like they were about to collapse from where she had torn at their structures. Luckily, she hadn't quite bitten through them, so aside from those bite marks and the place where the skull was re-attached, the skeletal structure was intact. And in the scientific unicorn's view, even that was a showcase of the pony's mental break.

Sure, with what Twilight had planned it was going to be a bit more crowded when she was done, but she wanted to preserve her friends as much as she could. As more of a way to remember them by.

The purple pony used her magic to scribble down a few last notes to jot down, before letting her quill rest on the table's surface and smiling in satisfaction.

"Ah, there we go!"

The now fur-covered book had successfully been completed, having cleaned all the blood off and attached the coat and epidermis to the original front and back. Flipping through, Rainbow Dash's organs were sealed tight in laminations as the "pages". The book was pretty big, after all - it needed to be. It was easily expandable, good enough to house all the organs without damaging them. The intestines had to especially be coiled upon each other to fit into their laminated section. Them being many times the length of a pony was a bit irritating to sort out, unravelling them from Rainbow's corpse just to stuff them back into something again, but it was necessary to properly cleanse the organs to prevent decay.

Following the array of laminated organs, the tome's last section held the pages of notes that Twilight had written down on the athletic pegasus. While a few were scribblings of details of her normal behavior and body structure, the majority of notes were on Rainbow's loyalty alteration and mental breakdown at Twilight's hooves. The reactions to the treatments, the equipment used, the appearance of the Element of Loyalty, finally culminating in detailed descriptions of Rainbow Dash's deranged suicide through self-cannibalism.

And of course, there were the pages on the Element of Loyalty itself - how long it took to appear, it's genetic signature in comparison to other aspects of Rainbow's DNA, sighting in extra to compare to other ponies, where it was found... she'd do a bit more research later, to which more pages would eagerly be added, but for now, the basics were there.

It was brilliant.

The unicorn levitated the tome over to her large bookshelf and gently placed it in its proper slot - the far left of the top shelf, where only her completed works on the Elements of Harmony would be placed. She vowed to tidy up that shelf more often than any other - she needed to in order to properly preserve her friends, and of course keep her notes on the Elements intact.

But full analyzing would come later. Time to decide on the next subject.

"I have to plan this out well," Twilight said to herself. "If I don't do this right, ponies might start getting suspicious and I'd get found out!" She knocked her right front hoof against her forehead several times, trying to get an idea. "I've got to pick the one who would be the most likely one to pop in and find this all by accident..."

Suddenly, Twilight figured she knew just the one. Her violet eyes grew bright as the idea formed more in her head. Yeah, it's gotta be her! She's always jumping around places and surprising everypony - if she could find me in a mirror like before, she might be able to...

The young mare's eyes darted around, eyeing every inch of her equipment as if the pony she thought of would jump out at any moment. If that pony saw... if she found out and told everypony what she saw...

No, no, NO! That can't happen, I won't let it!

The unicorn's mind was made up. Regaining confidence, she looked at the less-than-perfect skeleton by her side, grinning brightly. "I know a certain pony who would just love to see you, Dashie! We ought to bring Pinkie Pie here to liven things up!"

Glancing back toward her main shelf, she eyed the empty bindings that were to be reserved for the rest of her friends. Lingered on a sketched-out pink cover with three balloons.

"But how to get her here..."

Twilight knew full-well that doing this procedure twice in one day would be way too risky - ponies would start wondering where she was. Besides, she needed to get some of her apparatuses down here rearranged, set up for their next target. After all, taking Laughter would be different from taking Loyalty. And she had an interesting idea on the type of procedure she wanted to use.

But of course, the pony needed to be here first.

"Trying to bring her over with a book bribe like Rainbow wouldn't work, she'll tell everypony that she's coming over here, and then when she disappears..." Twilight shook her head. "It needs to be subtle, enough so Pinkie won't see it coming."

The scientist knew that Pinkie loved sweets - it was almost a wonder that the energetic earth pony didn't eat everything at the bakery she worked at. But if there was a sugar-coated substance offered to her, Pinkie would almost always eat it without question.

And that gave Twilight an idea.

"I may not be good at making cupcakes... but if I place an order for some..."

As she exited her laboratory, locked it up tight, and began her ascent up the stairs, the unicorn chuckled, the plan already clear in her mind. The actual execution - pardon the pun - of getting Pinkie there would come for tomorrow, but she had quite a bit of time to think about the plan.

"I'll just ask for some for Spike and I, I'll keep one hidden, inject it with a little drug, offer it to her and..." Twilight grinned in anticipation. The plan, as she saw it, was flawless.

Upon reaching the bookcase that was her passage between here and the welcoming expanse of the library, Twilight listened very closely. No footsteps on the library floor, no voices calling out for her. She pressed her hoof against a place in the wall, the direct horizontal correspondent to the button on the library's side, and the bookcase soundlessly rotated to let her through. Passing through the opening, satisfied that no one had seen her, she pressed the hidden button on the library wall to rotate the bookcase back to its ordinary state.

Pleased with herself, she opened the door and started to go out-

And nearly crashed into Spike.

"Woah, Twilight!" the purple dragon exclaimed at his friend's sudden appearance. "Wasn't expecting to see ya rush out!"

Twilight blinked as she noticed that the sun's light had left the horizon, the moon risen into the sky. Wow, I was down there a while. She arched her brow. "Were you at Sugarcube Corner that whole time?"

"Well, not the whole time!" Spike laughed. "But man, Pinkie sure does know how to make a bakery more exciting!"

Twilight had to agree. "Yup, sure does!"

As he walked past her into the library, Spike looked at the unicorn, bemused. "Did you lose track of time from studying again?"

"Well, yeah," Twilight admitted, shutting the door behind her. "Something like that."

The baby dragon grinned. "What were you studying?"

"Equine psychology," the mare affirmed without hesitation. This at least was true - she had been studying psychology, but in a more direct way than almost anypony would dare to go.

Spike had moved a ladder over to one of the bookcases and was climbing up to reach the top. "Find anything interesting?"

"Oh, I did," Twilight smiled to herself, thinking of how she had performed those procedures to find the Element of Loyalty, and soon she'd find-

"What was it?"

"Huh?" Twilight snapped out of her thoughts.

"What was the interesting stuff?"

"Memories and how they're stored," she answered, glad to be able to come up with a true answer quickly enough.

"In that case, do you think you could help me remember where I put Gigantesque Gemstones?" Spike scratched his head. "I'm sure it's supposed to be right-"

The unicorn looked over at her assistant and laughed. "If I remember correctly Spike, isn't that the book you had by your bed earlier?"

Spike's green eyes widened slightly as he remembered, climbing down the ladder. "Oh yeah!" Leaping off upon getting to the last few rungs, he yawned slightly. "Speaking of bed, it is getting kinda late..." he yawned again, looking as if he were about to fall asleep right then and there..

Twilight allowed a smile to cross her face as she levitated Spike onto her back, climbing up the stairs. "Then let's get you to sleep."

Reaching their room, Twilight gently set Spike down into his own bed (where, indeed, the book he had been searching for rested) before getting into her own. Her gaze turned briefly toward her assistant, who had already fallen asleep, before she turned on her side toward the window.

The mare watched the moonlight shining through before closing her eyes, secretly hoping to dream about her little plan for tomorrow.

And while something did come to her in her sleep, it wasn't at all what the unicorn expected it to be.

Twilight found herself suddenly standing in a mysterious void. Nothing could be seen around her except darkness, though she herself could be seen as clear as day. It was a little unnerving, being in what seemed like an infinite blackness.

"Hello?" she called, taking a cautious step forward as she looked around, her voice echoing.

All that she heard was the silence, smothering any other sound besides her own voice and hoofsteps.

"Hello?" she repeated, looking closely for any signs of others. "Anypony here?"

This time, to her surprise, she got an answer to her call.

"I am," said a strained-yet-familiar voice from behind her.

"Ah!" Twilight whirled around, startled, to face the other pony that had suddenly appeared from the darkness. The pegasus was torn up, mangled and bleeding. Her flanks were nothing more than deep, gaping holes, one wing had been nearly torn off of all matter, and there were smaller but no-less-painful cuts that stained the newcomer's blue coat.

It was a sight that would have filled anypony else with terror and revulsion. But not so much for Twilight, for it was the last she had seen of this pony. Even so, the pony's appearance still surprised her, amazed that she was there at all.

"... Rainbow Dash?"

"What's it to you?" the pegasus said in an irritated tone, her eyes staring at Twilight. There was no compassion in those rose eyes, only mistrust, anger, and unease. "I remember you're the one who killed me." Her gaze was unwavering. "That's point number 586 on why I kept myself away most of my life.

Twilight was surprised at this revelation that Rainbow's fractured memories still remained here, but she stood her ground. "I found the Element of Loyalty."

"Loyalty," Rainbow spat, as if the word left a foul taste in her mouth - clearly her dislike of the concept hadn't lessened since the painful experience. "Loyalty is just an excuse to bind yourself to another and have them trapped with you when they'll stab you in the back. I tried to purge myself of that, even to myself." As if to demonstrate, the pegasus took another bite out of her already mutilated right flank, crying out at the pain but swallowing her own muscle, blood dripping down her mouth and wearing a twisted grimace. "See? And just in case the placement of the marks wasn't enough, I felt I had to attack the other parts too. You know, since they bleed within me? At least, that's what I remember."

Though the pegasus was speaking much more coherently, not in the screaming, frantic laughter she had before her death, she still retained that lack of loyalty. That anger at others and herself. It was clear that her fractured state had carried over to... wherever this was. To anypony else who would happen to be there, the eerie calm in how Rainbow spoke would seem almost more terrifying than the screaming words in her last moments in Equestria..

The unicorn decided she'd at least question what was going on. "W-What are you doing here?" Twilight asked, coming to terms with the fact that her former friend was present in this void-place with her. Wherever it was.

"I could ask you the same thing," Rainbow Dash snarled, tilting her head toward her mutilated left wing and, with effort, snapping off part of the bone, cracking it open.

The pegasus let out a shout of pain, but within a few seconds she had enough energy to talk again. "I figured I'd at least give some acknowledgement, since you're the last one I saw before I died. Besides, it's almost better to see another pony than to just see the dark." She nudged a little of the bone's marrow out in front of her - it seemed that here, the pain only lasted for a few seconds.

The unicorn was stunned. "Why are you still doing that?!"

Licking up part of her own bone marrow, Rainbow glared at her, spitting some out in defiance. "Why not?'

"You'll just devour yourself if you keep doing that!" the unicorn insisted. She was unnerved at the fact that, though the torture to get the Element of Loyalty had ceased, Rainbow still had the mental effects intact, as well as her injuries.

"No I won't," the pegasus growled, standing up as her newly-dripping blood collected into a small puddle on the "floor". "It'll heal quick as long as its something from here." She looked at her flanks in particular, laughing in a mentally-unstable way. "Glad the ones from before don't though, or at least very slowly. I'd hate to have them back." She snarled out the word "hate" as if she were an Ursa Major about to charge. "If they do grow back, or I find out there's any trace of loyalty or former ties in my blood, I'll take it out by force and it will not. Ever. Come. Back."

Twilight was getting more disturbed the more she watched Rainbow Dash's actions and listened to her words. Rainbow had gone from being a boisterous, competitive pegasus to a loathing pony who was mistrusting of everypony including her own blood.

But this was all just a dream... right?

That's right. It was.

This is just a dream, Twilight assured herself. The events of yesterday are sticking in my head along with my nervousness that I'll get found out. She closed her eyes. I'll wake up, and then I can just focus on-

"You're going to kill that balloon-marked pony tomorrow, aren't you?" Rainbow broke Twilight out of her thoughts.

Twilight blinked in surprise. "How did you-?"

"Just because you haven't seen me 'til now doesn't mean it doesn't work the other way around," Rainbow pointed out, swallowing the rest of the bone marrow. She bared her teeth and huffed at the other pony, smoke seeming to come out of her nostrils, before turning away. "Guess I'll see you around. Or not. It doesn't really matter."

With that, the pegasus turned and walked away from Twilight Sparkle, vanishing into the dark as the blackness seemed to swallow her up. Not looking back at the one who had broken her on a deeper level than Discord ever had.

Twilight woke up to morning sunlight in a cold sweat, the dream still fresh in her mind. She was quick to realize that Spike was up from his bed and had likely gone downstairs. That was good for the mare - it gave her time to think. She didn't want Spike pestering her about it.

She tried to shake the dream out of her mind and forget about it. But she couldn't just yet. Rainbow's appearance and words had stuck with her hard. How the effects of the torments had lasted beyond the pony's death.

"Get ahold of yourself, Twilight," she told herself once she got out from under the covers and let her hooves land on the wooden floor, shaking her head. "It was just a dream. If I just focus on the mission everything should go just fine."

Then she remembered precisely what she had to do. Getting the Element of Laughter.

She pushed the words and actions of Dream-Rainbow Dash out of her mind. Time to get ready. The unicorn had a small stash of books in her room, namely some of the ones on psychology she had been reading late into the night. She put one of them, a book with a dark green cover called Psychology and Memory into a small bag she hoisted onto her back. Following that, she hurriedly reached into a compartment to pull out a small container filled with tablets of benzodiazepine and place it hidden in the bag as well. A syringe wouldn't work too well for a cupcake.

Trotting down the stairs into the central area of the library, she noticed that Spike was next to one of the bookcases, comparing his stash of crystals and gems to the ones described in the book. "Hey, Spike," she called out.

Spike looked up from his own studying. "Oh, hey Twilight!"

"I'm going over to Sugarcube Corner to get a few cupcakes, alright?"

The dragon smiled. "Oh, could you get some for me?" There was a hopeful look in his eyes. "Gem-covered, maybe?"

Opening the door, Twilight chuckled lightly. She had suspected that Spike would say that, and it only further helped to set her plan into motion. "Sure thing!"

Luckily for Twilight, the purple dragon didn't even suspect that within Twilight's innocent-looking bag was a little medicine that would aid in the second of the Elements being contained.

Twilight quickly reached Ponyville's well-known bakery, arriving to see a gray, cross-eyed pegasus exit the building's door, munching on a muffin as she went. After the pegasus had departed, Twilight pushed open the bakery door and was almost automatically greeted by the hyperactive pony whom she sought.

The establishment was for the most part empty of inhabitants, save for the two of them. Perfect.

"Ooh, hi Twilight!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed as her friend entered the bakery, bouncing on her hooves as she was quite prone to doing. "I'm so glad you came! It's been really quiet in here today, though yesterday Spike came over and we had a cupcake-eating contest and I beat him by 15 cupcakes, can you believe it?" She laughed - not a crazed laugh like Rainbow or a somewhat sinister laugh like Twilight herself had done, but laughter of true excitement.

Element of Laughter indeed.

Even so, Twilight noticed there was something a little off about Pinkie. Like something was bothering her in the deepest corners of her mind but she was trying to hide it.

Twilight put on an innocent smile. "Speaking of cupcakes, Pinkie, I was hoping that you would make a few for Spike and I. You know how he likes those gem-filled ones."

"Oh, kaleidoscope gems!" Pinkie announced brightly. She eagerly looked at her friend, her blue eyes shining, the concerned look no longer visible. "What about you, Twilight? Strawberry, vanilla, chocolate? Or maybe a combo flavor! Or-"

"Just chocolate," the unicorn said hurriedly. The quicker this happened, the sooner that she'd be able to get to work. The quicker she worked, the less of a chance she'd be found out, but not too quick or hastiness might ruin everything...

"Okie dokie Loki!" the party pony exclaimed, "I'll make five for you, and five for Spike!" As the energetic pony seemed to hop from place to place in an instant to get the ingredients (which was one of the things that provoked Twilight to have her be next in the lineup), she began to hum a little tune to herself.

With Pinkie doing the baking, the chocolate ones were done pretty quickly. With Twilight waiting anxiously, the party pony squeezed some chocolate icing on the top to finish them off and placed them all on a large tray. "All done! Double chocolate!"

A smile. "Thanks, Pinkie Pie, these look delicious!"

"Well wait till you taste them!" Pinkie exclaimed, getting to work on Spike's cupcakes. "I bet they don't look half as great as they taste!"

While the pink earth pony was preoccupied with her second batch, Twilight put her plan into action. Taking one of the chocolate cupcakes, she placed it onto one of the counters and gently nudged some of the top icing aside. Now having a little bit of space, she gently eased a benzo tablet into the cupcake before moving the icing back to the center. She had just enough time to place it back on the tray before Pinkie had Spike's batch of cupcakes all ready.

"Aaand batch #2 is done!" Pinkie exclaimed.

Twilight watched Pinkie clatter the cupcakes onto a tray and place it next to the chocolate ones. At that point, she noticed that Pinkie looked... distinctly worried. Now she was certain something was up.

"What's wrong, Pinkie?"

"Twilight," Pinkie still had that worried look on her face, "have you seen Rainbow Dash?"

The unicorn tried not to flinch. "Not today." Which was true, unless she counted the nightmare in all technicality.

"Oh, well I was looking for her yesterday, and I couldn't find her. She wasn't at her house, anyway."

"You know Rainbow," Twilight said placidly. "She's always flying around doing something." She waved a hoof aimlessly. "Probably just off by herself somewhere."

The unicorn then thought of her dream where Rainbow was, in fact, alone. But she pushed the thought away as soon as it had come - that couldn't be the case, that was just a dream. She was letting her nervousness get the best of her. All she had to do was give Pinkie that cupcake...

The look on Pinkie's face didn't waver, and she put her front hooves on the counter. "But yesterday when I was looking for her, my knee started feeling all pinchy! You remember what a pinchy knee means, right?!"

Twilight almost face-hoofed. Of course - her Pinkie Sense! I can't believe I forgot about that! But she couldn't recall what that particular sign meant.

"A pinchy knee means something scary's gonna happen!"

Twilight gulped.

"It happened when I was looking for her," Pinkie Pie explained. "My knee got all pinchy in the middle of the day, so I started thinking that maybe something scary happened to Dashie. I looked over and over for her," here the pink pony moved her head quickly in various directions to demonstrate, "and my knee was still pinching like crazy, but I couldn't find her!"

Oh no oh no oh no. "D-Did it eventually stop?"

"Well, yeah," the earth pony admitted. "There was a construction site on the other side of town and somepony had gotten trapped under some wood beam thingies. It stopped after that when I helped save him."

Twilight tried to keep her composure. That had likely been around the time when Rainbow had died. "Maybe that was just it?"

"Could be," Pinkie said with a twinge of concern. "But what if it wasn't?"

The unicorn understood Pinkie's nervousness - she had all right to be. But the sooner this was done, the better. Smiling a little, she held the drugged cupcake out to Pinkie. "Here, Pinkie Pie, why don't you eat this? Maybe eating a cupcake will make you feel better."

Pinkie tilted her head. "But, that's one of your cupcakes."

"Pinkie, I insist." The unicorn's smile was warm. "You look like you need cheering up."

She got a smile in return as Pinkie took the cupcake from her friend. "Aw, thanks, Twilight!"

Just as the eager unicorn had hoped, the sweet-loving earth pony devoured the cupcake in one bite. "Hey, I was right - this cupcake does taste better than it lo- ow!"

Twilight saw Pinkie's left back knee seem to get a pinch to it.

"There it is again!" Pinkie's eyes widened. "My pinchy knee's back! That means something scary's gonna-"

The party pony didn't get to finish as the drug took effect, causing her to wobble before collapsing to the ground in unconsciousness, one knee giving a jerking twitch before she hit the ground.

Twilight let out a big sigh of relief. Just about the biggest threat to her whole operation being subdued was out of commission. And now it was time to get her back to her hidden base of operation. But how? Everypony would notice if she were levitating Pinkie with her magic, and there would automatically be questions. Questions that it might be hard for Twilight to answer. And in any event, Spike would surely notice.

Suddenly, her eyes fell on the large wheeled cart where the trays of cupcakes sat. The space below was rather big - big enough for a pony to fit under if they were curled up. And she could imagine Pinkie Pie doing that in any event just as a surprise.

The unicorn smiled, thinking of just the way to get Pinkie back. Taking the two trays of cupcakes off of the cart, she placed the unconscious Pinkie Pie in the lower part. Then retrieving a large tablecloth, she draped it over the cart to cover it completely and placed the trays of cupcakes back on top.

"I have a bit of laughter to get."

--

Managing to distract Spike with the cupcakes (pointing out that there might be some rarer gems in there for extra points), the dragon didn't notice the silent movements of the bookcase passageway rotating to let the sinister scientist through, levitating the pink party pony as she went downward into her laboratory.

"That was a pretty close call," Twilight said as she reached the bottom of the stairwell, "but at least I'm safe." She used her code to open the door to her lab and levitated Pinkie over to the table, securing her hooves and head before releasing her at last. "Time for the Element of Laughter to be snuffed out."

Knowing that laughter was partially linked with various parts of the brain, Twilight had her scalping machine all set up again, just as had been done for Rainbow. She would likely use the same form of procedure for that - if she used the egg-beater apparatus to dig all the way through the skull, it might either have the skull break in wrong ways or damage the fragile brain. She couldn't have that.

However, she had another machine set up that would be her primary form of Element extraction - a machine that looked almost like a laser gun with a myriad of sharp tools on the end. This mechanism was to be used for properly manipulating and removing Pinkie's larynx, or voice box as it was more commonly termed. Even though it looked much more like a tube than a box.

That was going to be fun.

But in order for the fun to start, the subject had to be woken up first.

Going over to her table, Twilight picked up a small electric needle and turned up the intensity a little. It wouldn't hurt Pinkie much, just wake her up from being knocked out. Coming over to her unconscious captive, she prodded Pinkie with it, sending an electric shock through her.

"YAH!" Pinkie was jolted out of her unconscious state, though for the most part unable to move. She looked around wildly, her eyes blurring into focus as the strong scent of alcohol and the very faint trace of something else - blood? - reached her nostrils, and she sniffed in confusion. This definitely wasn't Sugarcube Corner.

"Huh? Where am I?"

Suddenly, her eyes landed on Twilight, now facing her, and she relaxed slightly. "Oh, hey Twilight! Where are we? Why am I tied down? Are we in that laboratory you took me to when you tried to check my Pinkie Sense?"

Twilight shook her head. "Nope. That was in the library basement, we're way deeper. We're in a different laboratory for what I need to do." She forced a smile. "But don't worry, Rainbow's here to see you."

That statement seemed to brighten Pinkie's mood instantly, in spite of her confused circumstances. "Oooh, so ya did find her! That's a relief!" She laughed. "I was worried that-" She stopped short as she felt a pinch in her knee. "Wait, then why's my knee still all pinchy?" She laughed, but it wasn't happiness-filled. It was slightly nervous, unsettled. "Rainbow's fine, isn't she?"

"Oh Pinkie," Twilight said gently, moving out of the way. "She's right here!" She pointed at the skeleton now in Pinkie's view, the skeleton with bite marks on its surface and a clearly once-removed cranial cap.

Pinkie tried to cover her mouth with her hooves, but she couldn't, and nearly screamed aloud. While she had thought, hoped, and prayed for a fraction of a second that it was just a prank, just a model, that her friend would come out laughing any second for fooling her, she felt a pang in her knee as she cried out, stinging her with the horrifying reality. This was the scary thing. This was what happened to Rainbow... Twilight had... "W-What did you do to her?!"

"I did what I had to," Twilight said simply. "I did it in order to get the Element of Loyalty." She grinned, releasing the table from its holders on the floor and wheeling it over to her scalping mechanism. "And now I'm going to have to do the same to you. Taking Laughter, I mean."

The other pony's blue eyes widened in terror as she saw the egg-beater-like thing and scalpel up above her, as the mad scientist tilted the table upward to prepare her for the scalping. "Twilight! W-Why are you doing all this?!"

"To preserve the Elements," Twilight explained, getting the equipment started up. "The Elements were forgotten for years, and only now all this more sinister stuff has been happening. So I knew that I had to extract them to preserve knowledge of them and have their power be remembered, to know what to look for to detect the next ponies who had their power. If I could do that, then I could analyze their signature properly and-"

"But why kill Rainbow?!" Pinkie interrupted, blue eyes no longer filled with intrigue but rather with terror.

"I told you, I had to extract the Element of Loyalty," Twilight explained cooly, "and to do that I had to capture her and force it out. So, I had to fracture her loyalty to observe it surfacing from her.". She briefly put a helmet on Pinkie's head to measure her breathing and heart rate, just as with Rainbow. "And technically, I didn't kill her. After I did proper procedures on her, I just left the rest up to her."

"What do you mean?"

"She killed herself."

A shriek of horrified disbelief flew out of Pinkie Pie's throat. "No... no... D-D-Dashie wouldn't... she'd never-"

"Want proof?" Twilight Sparkle went over to her special bookshelf and pulled out the large comprehensive tome adorned with Rainbow Dash's cutie marks, earning another stifled cry from the restrained pony. "Let's see here... 'tore at herself even after marks were removed... all loyalty fractured and destroyed... death came from extreme blood loss, injury, and self-cannibalism...'"

Pinkie was unable to move her head, but she closed her eyes, tears pricking at the edges. Begging herself that the book wasn't covered with Rainbow Dash's cutie mark; refusing to consider the possibility that Rainbow Dash had killed herself through any means. "No, no, you're wrong... that can't be..."

The scientific unicorn groaned. "Need visuals too? Fine." Transporting the large book back to its proper place, Twilight fiddled with several of the screens, which had recorded precisely what had happened to Rainbow Dash. The visuals showed Rainbow in her last few minutes of life, tearing at herself and screaming in pained anger.

"All connections - they'll be SEVERED!" Rainbow shouted on the recording as she tore at her own body, breaking the tendons of her muscle, laughing in a deranged, psychotic manner, loyalty fractured completely.

The captive pony opened one eye, but as soon as she witnessed Rainbow's mangled, mutilated form, her eyes were shut tightly again. But she couldn't ignore Rainbow Dash's screaming, crying, fractured voice as she tore and spat at everything, including herself.

"She was so broken and confused after the experiments that she didn't even have loyalty to herself anymore. But enough talk, Pinkie." She switched off the replay monitor and began starting up the scalping mechanism. "It's time to get down to business."

Already horrified from seeing Rainbow in such a terrible, suicidal state, Pinkie stared up in horror as the egg-beater-looking apparatus steadily lowered the #10 scalpel attached to it. The surgical instrument dug under the pink pony's mane and under her coat, finally reaching her skin.

"AAAAAHHH!" The pony screamed in agony as the sharp blade went down through her epidermis, severing the blood vessels and muscle on the way to the pony's skull. The blade's metal burned like a fire at its sharpened slice, and when it finally impacted the bone, Pinkie's cries increased at the vibration.

Picking up a syringe on her worktable, Twilight made sure to inject Pinkie Pie with the adrenaline used before to keep Dash awake. Getting another notepad, she took a few notes as she watched Pinkie's terrified reactions.

"SOMEPONY HELP ME!" When her eyes weren't closed, they darted around wildly, as if hoping that somepony would come and save her from this nightmare-ish place. "PLEASE! HELP!" Tears rolled down her face as she screamed, the scalpel following its circle-shaped path to fully scalp her, a crimson flow of blood in its wake. Its path only left the very front of her mane intact by the painful conclusion, as had been done with Rainbow Dash. What was left of her bubbly mane deflated and fell straight, mane and body turning a slightly darker shade as tears flowed freely from her eyes.

"NO, PLEASE, STOP! HELP ME! ANYPONY, PLEASE!" Her eyesight seemed blurred with sobs. "CAN'T ANYPONY HEAR ME?!"

"Nopony can hear you," her captor countered. "I've soundproofed the walls."

The ordinarily cheerful pony most certainly wasn't laughing now... and Twilight Sparkle was going to make it so Laughter would be the next Element to truly harness, bringing out Pinkie Pie's laughter for good.

The unicorn hurried over to remove and cleanse the scalpel as before once it was raised, watching the claw-grip perform its jack-o'-lantern procedure by lowering into Pinkie's head, severing what was left of connections between muscle and bone. The adrenaline shot was keeping her conscious, and would do so for everything that Twilight had planned.

"Now," Twilight said, moving her raised platform close to Pinkie as the removed scalp was tossed aside, "time to get inside your head."

"N-N-No..." Pinkie Pie choked out, both from fear and pain.

"Sorry Pinkie. I have to.". With that, Twilight picked up the cleansed scalpel and dug it into Pinkie's skull, breaking the bone as she went in a carved circle to expose the brain. "If I tried to have my machine do this," the unicorn went on, ignoring Pinkie's gasps and cries, "it might cut your skull in the wrong places, or worse, damage your brain. And I can't have that."

"TWILIGHT, STOP" Pinkie sobbed. "P-PLEASE!"

The time that it took for Twilight to cut away the top of the skull was almost too much for Pinkie to bear, but the shot prevented the darkness of unconsciousness from taking her away. However, the pain did lessen somewhat as the scalpel's blade was removed from the skull, exposing the brain fully for Twilight to examine.

With the skull cut away, the scientist placed the headphones-like mechanism on the sides of Pinkie Pie's head, measuring the earth pony's brainwaves and mental imagery just as she had for Rainbow Dash. Then, shock tool at the ready as she turned the dial, she examined Pinkie's brain carefully.

"Do you know where laughter is said to be associated with in the brain?"

Pinkie whimpered, unable to shake her head. "... N-No..."

"It's linked to the parts of the brain that deal with memories and emotions." She smiled. "So, I think we ought to play with that a bit."

With Pinkie begging her not to, Twilight reached with her electrical tool and zapped the amygdala at the top of the struggling pony's brain, carefully adjusting the neurons.

To Pinkie, she suddenly experienced a rush of fear as darkness enveloped her view, shadowy creatures stalking around her. Trying to make her afraid. As Twilight kept editing her memories and fear reactions, rearranging neural pathways, Pinkie Pie's bubbly life suddenly became much more fear-filled. Always in the dark, creatures following her with their cold eyes.

Despite the pain and the fear, Pinkie closed her eyes and tried to sing. "G-Giggle at the gh-ghostly... g-guffaw a-at the g-g-grossly..." There was a bit of laughter. Nervous laughter, scared laughter in an attempt to release tension she felt. But there was still laughter. It was the paradoxical kind of laughter sometimes induced when the "fight-or-flight response" kicked in. And right now the "flight response" was attempting to come through.

Twilight then got another idea, a way to bring out another bit of fear into Pinkie Pie's sensory input. Adjusting it so that Pinkie saw Rainbow Dash.

Bloodied, scarred, frothing Rainbow Dash.

The laughter broke, Pinkie no longer able to take it as her friend started coming after her as well. "D-Dashie, NO! NO!" It was as if somepony had thrown a switch and stopped the pony's attempt to laugh her fears away. She tried, frantically, to run, out of touch with reality for an instant, but her restraints held the fear-filled pony tight.

There was a very slight change on the monitor once Pinkie's laughter had abruptly ceased. It was a very very small, genetic change, but it was there.

Twilight smiled as she took notes on the circumstances, removing the electric tool from Pinkie's brain. Stopping Pinkie's laughter through slight alteration of memory had, indeed, been the right track. Plus, it was entertaining to mess with her head.

Time for the really fun part.

Moving the table holding the whimpering Pinkie Pie a little bit away from its former position, the unicorn brought her laser-like mechanism up close, sharp surgical tools directed right at Pinkie Pie's throat.

"Now that I've instilled a bit of fear within your memories," she said, "I think it's time to really get to that Laughter. I just messed with your brain to try to make it a bit easier for myself."

"Twuh... Twilight," Pinkie begged. "P-Pleaee no..." She was trembling in her bounds, eyes wide. "J-just let me g-g-go..."

"Pinkie, Pinkie, Pinkie," the other chided, growing noticeably irritated and just wanted to get to the point, "I'm doing it to preserve. It's the only way this can work out. If I let you go after extracting your Element, everypony would question your injuries, and I'd get found out. Now, let's just start this machine up, shall we?"

Pressing a button on the machine, one of its instruments, a knife, came forward, aimed right for Pinkie's throat.

"Don't worry, they're clean," the insane scientist assured her captive, smiling in eagerness. "I always make sure to properly sterilize equipment like this before using it!"

Pinkie didn't care about whether the equipment was sterilized or not. All she cared about was that there was a knife coming toward her throat. She tried her best to struggle.

"Pinkie Pie, just stay still or it's going to hurt more than it needs to."

That statement got Pinkie to be still, though her eyes were still terrified. However, she cried out in pain as she felt the sharp pinch of the knife stick into her throat, moving in a path to form a long rectangular shape as blood flowed down her neck, muscle fallen in a strip as it was carved just enough away to get to the larynx without damaging the muscles necessary for the organ itself to function.

"STOP!". Pinkie Pie screamed, the oxygen inhaled into her lunges increasing as she took in deep breaths. "JUST ST-STOP!" She raised her voice louder, screech rising to a higher pitch. "HELP!"

"You're lucky that I need to do work with your larynx for this," Twilight sighed, easing open the hole in Pinkie's neck and bringing the instruments closer. She hooked a few sticky wires to the sides of Pinkie's neck, testing them. "It seems your voice level is at about 259 Hz right now. You don't want to strain the pitch of your voice, do you?"

Pinkie wasn't sure what to say, this all was too traumatizing. She only trembled, making small whimpering noises in fear of the metal knife-like instrument.

"First, time to do some work near those vocal folds." Twilight gently eased the metal instruments to carefully examine Pinkie's vocal folds stretched horizontally across her larynx, watching them open at the struggling earth pony's breaths and close as she cried out and pleaded with Twilight to stop. "And yes, I said vocal folds not cords." She shook her head in confusion. "I don't get it, why do so many ponies call then vocal cords? They clearly aren't cords, they're folds. Like a second mouth. And the voice box isn't even box-shaped, it's a tube." A sigh of exasperation. "Who comes up with this terminology?"

She carefully eased them apart, causing Pinkie Pie to cough at the sudden ability to only breathe, then closed them to allow her to talk. Opening and closing them again, she manipulated when her captive had the ability to breathe or talk, manipulating when the passage of air from her lungs was allowed through her trachea, the closing of the vocal folds acting like guards so that air couldn't really get through. She left them open a little of course - if she completely stretched the transverse arytenoid muscle to shut them, Pinkie would have no way to breathe or speak, and would suffocate. No use for that at the moment. She needed to find that elusive Element.

There was a bit more of a change, a pulse in the genetic signature. There was something abnormal in here - well, abnormal for a pony who didn't have the proper qualities.

"Aha, now I'm really on the right track!" Twilight exclaimed, bringing a long, hooked instrument closer.

"P-Plea - ah - ese!" Pinkie choked out, gasping in between the syllables as Twilight stretched and contracted her vocal folds again. "St-ah-op!"

From the measurements and viewpoint of her brainwaves and thoughts, Twilight knew that this was breaking her more psychologically than the slight memory alteration had. It filled Pinkie with a new, terrifying psychological fear: an inability to breath or talk. Gasping, fearful, her world spinning, she imagined herself unable to laugh, being suffocated into darkness as her mental fear overcame her.

Another blip on the radar. Okay, so this was going well.

Twilight had threatened, now, to suffocate any potential laughter. But she decided to do one other procedure - going straight for suffocation might not be enough, and if the pink mare died before the Element was found...

No, no, that won't happen! I WILL find it!

After giving her subject another shot of adrenaline just in case, she brought a curved metal tool closer to Pinkie's open neck, talking as the earth pony could only watch with terrified eyes, her chest heaving as a large amount of sweat dripped over her face and mixed with tears. The captive seemed to be well aware that if she attempted to scream anymore, the dangerous instruments might poke her in a wrong place, damaging her more.

"The larynx is actually the part of the body where sound, pitch, and volume are generated to control anypony's voice," the scientist explained, turning on a switch on the hooked instrument to reveal an electrical charge. "I ought to change that."

Tears fell from Pinkie's eyes in fear. "Twilight... p-please..."

Twilight ignored her, prodding the vocal folds with an electrical charge. There was a strangled sob as Pinkie uncontrollably fluctuated between breathing and speaking. Choking, she looked at Twilight in terror, trying to gasp out the word "don't", but was stopped.

A brief blue flash within the larynx. A pulse in the signature.

"There you are, Laughter," Twilight said softly. "Just gotta coax you out a bit more..." Chucking, Twilight roughly used two of the tools at her disposal to prod at several of Pinkie's larynx muscles, controlling the pitch, volume, and overall tone of her voice, also controlling the muscles of her vocal folds.

Pinkie Pie screamed aloud from the agony, but she realized to her growing horror that her voice was moving in all sorts of pitches, volumes and tones. Sometimes high, sometimes low. Sometimes piercing loud and sometimes so soft you could barely hear it. The pony's brainwaves registered nothing but terror and psychological trauma, a pony who had once loved to laugh and talk horrified by another pony controlling everything about her voice, including whether she breathed or spoke, her screams coming out varied, pained, and suffocated.

The pulsing blue spark began to manifest into a more-orless solidified form, at least tangible in its energy pulse just as Rainbow's had been.

Working quickly, eager to make the Laughter fully reveal itself at last, the deranged scientist began to tear through part of the pony's vocal flaps, soon severing them completely, earning a strangled, blood-filled cry of pain from Pinkie as her ability to laugh, let alone speak, was torn away for good.

Finally, the blue energy spark fully separated from the pink pony, depriving Pinkie of her Element at last.

"Got you, Laughter!" Twilight exclaimed, grabbing a pair of tongs and lifting the Element into a containment jar. Glad that she had the second Element contained, Twilight laughed herself, reveling in how she could do what Pinkie no longer could.

Pinkie, still alive but barely, looked pleadingly at Twilight. She was utterly terrified of her former friend.

Patting the containment jar, Twilight looked straight into Pinkie's sky-blue eyes, their light fading. "I'm sorry it had to be this way, Pinkie," she said. "But it was fun having a laugh with you."

With that, the scientist sliced through Pinkie's larynx completely, severing every connection, nearly reaching her trachea and cutting off any chance Pinkie could have to breathe. But it didn't matter, the fact that her larynx was completely severed caused blood to spill from her neck wound, having cut off what allowed her to breathe.

Just before Pinkie's final breath left her lungs, blood pouring heavily from her head and throat, her eyes gazed at Twilight. Even without speaking, her gaze told one single word, a word that Twilight could almost hear within her head as Pinkie's ordinary voice.

"Why?"

With that, Pinkie's head fell limp, her limbs growing still as life left her eyes. When Twilight released the mare from her bounds, her body fell limply to the ground, what was left of her straightened mane hanging over her eyes.

Twilight smiled in satisfaction. Getting the Element of Laughter had been easier than she expected, and it was interesting to properly manipulate the sound that came from a pony's mouth. She was actually quite pleased with herself.

But... oh, right - she had to cut off the cutie marks to prepare them for the book.

Retrieving a knife, the unicorn bent over by Pinkie's flanks and began slicing away the cutie marks. A few stray hairs of her mane sticking in random positions, Twilight was breathing heavily, trying to stay calm as the cutie marks were being carefully severed. Not out of exertion, but out of concern for her plan. Two Elements were down; two Ponyville residents were now dead. If anypony found out about all this, Princess Celestia would be informed of it straight away. And Spike stayed in the library a lot of the time, near the entrance to the hideaway. She had been able to distract him enough with the gemstones to get her once-laugh-filled friend down here, but she couldn't pull that ploy forever; the young dragon might suspect something. He wasn't anywhere near stupid,; in fact he was quite intelligent. He was like the library's guard, in a way. A guard who risked her maintaining proper access to her base of operation.

Her eyes darted. Drastic measures might need to be taken.

It's not paranoia, she told herself, it's caution in progress. If I get rid of him, nopony will stand in my way to get to the others. He won't be able to send a message out. But whatever I do, I have to be stealthy. Then I'll be, heheh, free to do what I want. I'll harness the signature of all the Elements. It'll all be fine... and calm down, he might not even notice... just gotta be careful...

But that decision would come in time. She had a book to create, notes to compile, and an Element to examine.

Unknown to her, the cannibalistic pegasus from her nightmare was now joined by the spectre of a pink earth pony rendered unable to speak or make a sound. And now the two of them would watch and observe as the next one was taken.

"Two Elements down, four to go."

Paranoia

I think paranoia can be instructive in the right doses. Paranoia is a skill.
-John Shirley

As Twilight Sparkle became absorbed in working on her book and observing the Element of Lsughter, she didn't see the two ponies - or rather, spirits of ponies - who were observing her. Then again, she had looked right in their direction several times, but they were in a state where they could see and hear her, but it didn't work the other way around. Very much as Rainbow Dash had described to her in Twilight's dream. It was really as if they were looking through a sort of one-sided window, primarily located in the place where Twilight had first seen Rainbow in the void-dream-world. Their purgatory.

Rainbow Dash looked over at the pink pony next to her, who had stepped back a bit and was now staring from Twilight to her with wide, scared eyes. The pink pony moved her hoof slightly, pointing to the gaping hole in her throat where her larynx - and therefore, ability to talk, laugh, and breathe - had once been.

"Yeah, whatever," the pegasus pony rolled her eyes, tail flicking to one side in irritation. "I get that you can't talk, and you're a bit startled by me. So what? That's what everypony'd likely think of me and I'm okay with it." She roughly used her teeth to tear of a small piece of hanging muscle in her wings, much to Pinkie's revulsion. "But that traitor there? Yeah, trusting her was a bad idea for you. All that trust and loyalty ever does is backstabbing, so I've gotten rid of that. You ponies are all fools to have done the same, only pain comes from it."

Despite her horror at Rainbow's apparent self-cannibalism (and seeing that what Twilight had shown her really wasn't a lie), Pinkie Pie stepped a few further paces away from Rainbow Dash, and then began to do something surprising. She started to move her hooves, head, body, and eyes in a few erratic sorts but hesitant movements, as if she was attempting to do a sort of strange dance but was getting stage fright. She seemed to be pointing somewhat to Twilight and somewhat to Rainbow, trying to convey a certain message without use of a larynx.

After a moment, as suddenly as it had started, the earth pony halted her gestures and shook her head, now tilted in a downcast manner with what was left of her straightened mane hanging over to the right side of her face. There was a ghost of a sigh present - it would have been a sigh if she were still in possession of a way to breathe.

To her surprise, the pegasus didn't call Pinkie Pie out for her strange behavior. Instead, she impatiently held up a hoof and said. "Okay, let me get this straight. You just were trying to convey that you realize she was telling the truth about me and you're scared of what she did to us and what she's going to do next." She waved a hoof in a kind of "blah, blah, blah" way. "Then you were thinking that I couldn't understand anything you were trying to tell me so you were getting all depressed and whatnot."

As Rainbow Dash spoke, Pinkie's blue eyes, dull and saddened from her murder and apparent lack of ability to communicate, widened, stunned. When Rainbow concluded her interpretation of her movements, her gaze seemed to have a new, however brief, spark of light to them, and she tackled the pegasus in a relieved hug. In contrast to her depressed, betrayed, Pinkamena-appearance from when Twilight had killed her, her color brightened and her mane and tail reverted to their bubbly selves. Aside from all but the front of her mane being cut off and the gaping hole in her throat, she looked like ordinary Pinkie Pie again. She still couldn't laugh or speak - Twilight had permanently taken that from her through her rough seizing of the Element of Laughter - but the earth pony could smile. And the very fact that another pony was actually able to understand her messages - her former best friend, at that - brought a little spark of happiness to her.

The pegasus let out a stunned, almost frightened shriek as a flash of "memories" came back to haunt her. Memories of the City, and any physical contact with others. "Hey, GET OFF OF ME!" Rainbow Dash shouted roughly, shoving Pinkie off of her with an angry snarl, drawing blood from where her hoof had impacted the energetic pony's jaw. There was a flicker of fear barely visible in Rainbow Dash's haunted eyes, but it was quickly overcome by spite. "Okay, yes, I can understand you. No need to get all clingy about it." Her expression turned dark and glowering. She clearly thought that Pinkie might have been one hoof away from stabbing her or something. Best to destroy others before they destroyed her.

Blinking and surprised at the sensation of Rainbow's blood that had splattered onto her coat, Pinkie started to follow up with a questioning gesture, but the pegasus cut her off.

"Let me guess, you were gonna ask how I knew what you were saying, right?" She huffed, turning her gaze angrily toward Twilight. "I've watched enough ponies in my life to be able to tell." Looking hard at the purple mare as if hoping she'd burn right there on the spot, she briefly broke her glare to look at Pinkie. "I kinda speak gesture language now." She turned back to Twilight. "And I could make some pretty dang firm gestures toward that traitorous mare right now. She can't even see me though, so what's the difference? I don't have an ounce of loyalty toward that murderer, or anypony."

The party pony was stunned that Rainbow Dash would out-and-out call Twilight a murderer, but she had to admit that Rainbow was right. After all this, Twilight was a murderer, and a dangerous one at that. Preservation or not.

Pinkie Pie circled around so Rainbow could see her. She pointed at Rainbow's head, the skin and mane somewhat grown back on the very top, though the skull and brain were still clearly exposed. She then pointed her hoof at the remnants of mane and skin on her own head.

Rainbow was clearly getting irritated. "You want to know if your head will get normal again?"

A nod.

"Can't see why your's wouldn't," the pegasus snapped. "The way I see it, it seems our primary injuries that took part in our deaths are what stick with us." She casually gestured to her torn-up flank as an example. "And I hope it stays that way."

Pinkie cringed.

Rainbow looked at her. "What?" She tore off a minuscule strip of muscle that hung from her left flank, biting back a cry of pain before it came loose in her mouth as she swallowed. "The pain only stays for a few seconds." Her rose eyes grew cold, as if she expected the symbols on her flanks to reappear at any moment and was ready to tear them off all over again. "And if I have to destroy myself to keep loyalty traces from returning, then so be it."

The pink earth pony looked completely horrified and disgusted, but made no comment and for a brief moment stayed still.

With a wary gaze, the mutilated pegasus took in the other pony's torn-out throat and terrified eyes. "You don't seem to be quite the severing pony I remember."

Pinkie looked horrified at the notion, and upon recovering from her surprise, began to quickly gesture in protest. "Severing?! Like, chopping up?! I'd never do anything like that!"

"Don't deny it!" Rainbow snarled, "you look just like the pony who I remember trying to hack my wings off to turn them into cupcakes!"

Pinkie shook her head frantically, horror evident in her eyes. Why would Rainbow ever suggest such a terrible thing?! Twilight really had altered her memories, so much to the point that the pegasus believed she had lived an entirely different life than the one everypony else knew her for.

Rainbow ignored the other pony's denial. "Okay, so you sure don't seem like you could do any harm to me now, but I still can't trust you. Loyalty is a worthless virtue. If you try to come toward me threateningly again, weapon or not, I will fight you to get away, and tear you limb from limb to make your nerves burn in agony like what they did to me."

Pinkie looked absolutely horrified by the thought, but her former friend only gave her a grim snarl in response.

Rainbow Dash then slowly looked at the bright balloons adorning Pinkie's flanks, eyes darting every so often to make sure the pink pony wouldn't lunge like she remembered. Her expression took on a grimace of disgust. "I see you still have your restriction marks."

Pinkie looked at her own flanks in confusion. Restriction marks?

"I suppose you still have loyalty enough to whoever it was that branded those marks into you?"

The party pony had a look of utter confusion on her face as she gestured, "Branded?! I got these marks by finding my special talent!"

"Special talent," Rainbow said skeptically. "Perhaps that's how it was for you, but where I came from they weren't so forgiving." Her gaze grew hard. "But if must of hurt, hmmm? Did you enjoy having the remnants of others mixed into your skin, their ground up, liquified forms seeping through your flesh to give you that mark?!" She scoffed at her own memory, seeming to have a look of angered suppression. "Whatever, I'm not gonna help free you of your cursed marks. Tear them off yourself if you feel so inclined. If I actually had any sense of trust left - let alone toward you - I might eat the remnants of tendons for you."

Once those words left Rainbow Dash's mouth, Pinkie looked too horrified to 'say' anything more; the implications of all the things Rainbow Dash had said to her were too revolting to think about. And so the pair did the only thing that they felt they could do for the moment.

Watch.

Back in the laboratory, Twilight eventually completed Pinkie Pie's book, now fit to take its place next to Rainbow Dash's on the special shelf reserved for the remains of her friends. Within the party pony's pages, the larynx was the main organ showcased more than any other, with notes around it, to illustrate how it was truly here that the Element of Laughter had been found.

Twilight Sparkle grinned.

The book was turned to the final pages now, where she kept her notes on the Element of Laughter. She was studying it closely, carefully, just as she had done with the Element of Loyalty. Now that she had a bit more confidence that her idea was in fact successful - and thus more desperate to have the Elements fully contained - she could analyze them with more fervency and precision.

"... Laughter holds genetic signature of AATCCGATTG..."

Twilight's mutterings would sound like gibberish to a pony not in the scientific field, and even to those in that line of work, her voice inflection would sound somewhat off. She wasn't analyzing the structure with a cool composure, but rather with an anxious air.

She didn't want to be found out. Paranoia was overcoming her.

It was, in a way, paradoxical - if she got the Elements one right after the other, it would quickly become evident that ponies were missing, and search parties would be sent out, potentially ending her operation. On the other hoof, if she waited too long between each disappearance, it would become more clear that something had happened to the other ponies, there'd be more time for other ponies to search, and she might get discovered before all the elements were extracted.

"I'm safe down here," she told herself. "Loyalty and Laughter are right here with me and the genetic analysis is going well."

She briefly looked up from her work, taking in the quiet surroundings of her laboratory. The only sound she heard was the whir of machinery. No Pinkie Pie to jump out of nowhere and find her out like was her practice, and no Rainbow Dash to fly off and get someone to stop her.

"I'll have to be very stealthy," she said as she scribbled down a few more note points. "Having them all disappear one right after the other would be way too suspicious." Closing the book and placing it next to Rainbow's, the unicorn began to nervously pace. "I'll have to wait a day or so before properly catching the next one. But who to get... gotta pick the one who'd be most likely to find me out..."

Twilight slammed her front hooves together, a diabolical expression forming on her face. "Applejack, of course! She's the strongest one, and most likely able to knock me down and run if she caught on to what was going on." One ear twitched, her smile growing wider. "Plus, she harbors the Element of Honesty - if she found out, she'd go and tell everypony what's going on, and it'll be all over! She has to be the next one! If I do, then I'll have plenty of time to observe the Elements much more closely and have more time for detailed notes!"

She looked over at her neuron-manipulation tools. Then her electrical current wires. Images them being tied around the target, shocking her, forcing her...

"And I'll have a bit of use for my electrical implements - there are different types of lies, after all! It'll be time for a little more experimentation in mental manipulation!"

With a quiet, triumphant laugh, Twilight put her equipment in properly clean arrangements before heading out, switching off the lights as the door shut tightly behind her.

And with that darkness came an obscured view for the spirit-ponies who quietly observed, trapped in their own dimensions of their afterlife.

The voiceless pony tried to charge through into the darkened laboratory, but she was stopped by a punch from Rainbow.

"Just wait 'til she dreams, Voiceless," Rainbow Dash said in a hiss, before turning away from the spazzing pony and their window to their old place of residence. "Then we'll be able to talk to the murderess."

Pinkie tugged on Rainbow's tail - at least that part of her wasn't mutilated at all - and pointed to her own neck when the pegasus whirled around in anger.

Rainbow Dash glared at her companion, then quickly averted her eyes, walking away. "Whatever, I'll talk. And if you dare try to come near me again, I'll do more than just sock you in the jaw." She flicked her head to face Pinkie, mistrustful rose eyes staring into frightened blue. "I will tear you. I will rip you. You and any other pony who comes near me will be forced to feel the pain of limbs being snapped, muscle being torn and your eyes being pulled from your sockets. Do you want that?! DO YOU?!"

Even in gesture language, the only comment Pinkie made in response was a violent shudder. And that was a gesture that anypony could understand as fear. Although whether it was from Twilight or what twisted, fractured processes had been inflicted on Rainbow, she couldn't have 'said'.

Upon safely exiting her hideaway and into the main area of the library, Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. Quickly jerking her head about to make sure Spike wasn't within earshot - she heard him upstairs, but not there in the main section - she muttered to herself in a manic attempt to calm down.

"No more Pinkie Sense to threaten progress, everything's gonna be fine..." She closed her eyes. "Everything's fine, everything's fine, everything's fine."

The chant played over and over again in her head like a circling mantra that wouldn't let up.

I'll just hang out here in the library for the rest of the day, then have tomorrow as a break, she thought. Can't have everypony be eliminated one right after the other. Gotta lay low.

But she knew Spike would have questions if she seemed to appear out of nowhere, so she went over to the library's door. She pushed it open, and then slammed the door shut again as she feigned entrance from the outside. "Spike?"

Sure enough, the little dragon emerged from their room and hurried down the stairs. "Hey, Twilight! Where've you been?"

"Uh... just, around," she quickly invented, trying to sound like everything was ordinary.

"I went and returned that cart to Sugarcube Corner since you left it behind," the dragon informed her, "but nopony was there when I showed up. Not Pinkie or the Cakes."

Twilight tried to get herself to calm down. Oh no, what if he starts getting meddlesome? She shook the thought away, acting as if nothing was wrong. "Did you look for them?"

"Well, no," Spike admitted. "I just didn't hear anypony in there when I went and returned the cart. The whole bakery seemed deserted." He looked at his friend, curious. "You didn't see anything, did you?"

Sweat began to form on Twilight's brow. "N-No. Last time I was there, I saw Pinkie - she was probably watching the bakery while the Cakes were out with their twins."

"Well, okay..." there was a bit of a curious tone to Spike's voice, as if he were either concerned that something happened, suspicious of Twilight's words, or both.

And the more Twilight thought about either possibility, the more frantic she became.

"I've had a bit of a long day," she said, using her magic to levitate several books of interest off their shelves. Most of them were about equine psychology and anatomy - it was good that she'd be able to research for possible new ideas while also using it as a tactic to hide her true thoughts and feelings. "I'm just gonna be doing a bit more research here."

"... Okay..." Now, to Twilight, his voice seemed to be laden with confusion.

He's starting to get suspicious, the unicorn thought frantically. He may try to send a letter to the Princess before I know it! C'mon, think of something, Twilight! Thinkthinkthinkthink!

In a flash, she had a spark of an idea, glancing at the dragon from behind her book-wall and trying to maintain a straight face. Haha, yes! I can get hold of both Spike and Applejack! Two eliminations for the price of one! Another Element down, and a threat removed from the picture! Hehe, brilliant!

For the rest of the day, Twilight Sparkle tried to hold on to her normal studying routine, researching the kinds of books she normally would while at the same time trying to figure out some way to properly carry out her plan.

Too bad I can't bring my copy of Psychological Plagues to the Minds of Ponies up here with me, she thought. Or Torments of the Limbs and Mind, now that would really be useful right now...

These thoughts swirled over and over in Twilight's head as she went through her studies throughout the day. Time that would normally be occupied by studying carefree subjects was now filled with anxiousness and a thirst for the most grim type of information that nopony should ever want.

As Celestia's sun set to make way for Luna's moon, the studious unicorn was haunted by thoughts of her plans and how to properly go about executing them. Even as she and Spike went off to bed for the night, the mental imagery and planning stayed with the unicorn even then.

Spike fell asleep rather quickly, but Twilight stayed awake, tossing and turning, mulling over her ideas for the next two days as she planned to gain the Element of Honesty.

"Tomorrow I'll just act as if everything's normal. Then the next day I'll get rid of them both for good..."

With that anticipation in mind, the mare eventually closed her eyes and drifted off into sleep.

And there were two ponies anticipating her arrival.

When Twilight Sparkle became aware of her surroundings, she came to realize that she was in that strange place from the night before. The darkness that seemed to extend forever and yet suffocate a pony all at once.

"Why am I back here?" she asked the dark expanse, as if hoping it would answer back. "Dreams usually are only in the same place once, unless I'm having a repeat of the same dream..." She placed a hoof to her head. "These are dreams, right?"

The response she received was sudden, but the familiarity of the voice caused her not to be surprised as much as the first time she had been here.

"They're not."

Twilight turned around, seeing the familiar mutilated pegasus glaring at her in the dark. "What do you mean, Rainbow Dash?"

The disdain in the pony's rose eyes seemed to stand out from her crimson-stained coat. "This is no dream. It may be for you, but not for us." She bared her teeth. "It's our purgatory, the place you condemned us to."

Twilight arched her brow, confused at Rainbow Dash's words. "What are you talking about?" She looked around the shadowy place, gesturing around with a hoof. "This place is merely a creation of my subconscious and you happen to be here! And who do you mean by 'us'?"

Her answer came as, from a few feet behind Rainbow Dash, another pony stepped out of the dark like passing through a mist. A pony who's bright pink coat was coated in red at her neck, a gaping hole where her vocal folds had once been located.

Twilight Sparkle blinked, now understanding exactly what Rainbow Dash had meant by 'us'. "Pinkie Pie?"

The earth pony, eyes wide, didn't move closer to Twilight as Rainbow had done. She only gave a shaky nod of confirmation.

"This place isn't just a creation of your sleeping, deranged mind," Rainbow insisted. Looking firmly into Twilight's eyes, she slowly stepped forward. "You broke us, killed us, stripped us in order to get your precious Elements. You only left me with my wretched memories of hate and Voiceless here with no vocal way of expression. And so we're forced to remain here in this place of isolation and darkness. Your actions have trapped us here, killing us for the sake of your science."

The two were only separated by about a foot now. Twilight tried to avert her gaze from Rainbow's, anxiousness overcoming her.

Pinkie Pie looked back and forth from Twilight to Rainbow Dash, her eyes wide and afraid.

"Voiceless here seems to be wondering exactly how you can stand to have murdered us," Rainbow said, "but I can answer that myself." She poked Twilight hard in the chest. "You're just like the rest of them - meant to break ponies by tearing their limbs, mind, and soul. You're a heartless stinking mare."

"You're wrong!" Twilight insisted, gathering her will together and staring back at Rainbow just as harshly. "I'm doing this to preserve and to protect! I couldn't just let you go free after the injuries I did to you."

At last, Pinkie dared herself to step closer to Twilight and slowly tapped Rainbow on the back.

The pegasus whirled around so fast that a sprinkling of blood from her torn wings impacted Twilight's face with a wet splatter. "What?!"

The moment she had Rainbow's attention, Pinkie started gesturing, looking to her companion to translate as Twilight wiped off the blood from her own face.

"Why should I help you trans-"

Pinkie briefly stopped herself and simply looked at Rainbow with pleading eyes. She didn't even need to gesture to get her current point across: "I want to talk to her!"

Rainbow stared at Pinkie before groaning in irritation. "Fine, as long as you swear to never attack me again, or I will tear apart your flesh, blood, and bone. Starting with those cursed marks."

Twilight was surprised at Rainbow's harsh words, but they seemed to have gotten to Pinkie, who began making gestures while looking at the dream-visitor. The mare had never seen her friend act like this, but then again, she had used those vocal folds of hers to talk all the time, so she had to find some substitute for communication.

"Please, stop this, Twilight!" Pinkie begged, with Rainbow Dash translating. "You've already hurt enough ponies!"

Twilight shook her head. "If I don't, Equestria may be doomed for the future!" Her voice grew in volume, more fierce. "Everything that everypony worked for will be gone, some greater threat will take over, ponies everywhere will be tortured and maimed and enslaved forever!"

Pinkie stepped a few paces closer to Twilight, stretching her neck to move her head slightly closer as her eyes widened with tears. She gestured some more, her gaze pleading for Twilight to stop the murdering madness.

"You're already doing those things yourself!" Pinkie exclaimed through Rainbow's translating. "You're still killing ponies! Your friends!" Though the tone was pleading to Pinkie Pie's mind, Rainbow Dash said the last translated word in a snarl, reflecting her own feelings toward the word and the memories she associated it with.

"IT'S DIFFERENT!" Twilight shouted, refusing to believe she had anything in common with the likes of beings like those. Her breathing became heavy, her eyes looked back and forth between the two. It was as if she was looking through a haze that was difficult to see through and yet she wanted to face the mysterious figures. "I, heheh, gotta do it! I'm doing it for a grander purpose!" Her voice went from sounding as if she were giving an inspirational speech to a threatening snarl. "I'm doing it to keep Equestria in harmony!"

Before anypony could respond, the purple unicorn turned and run away from the two dead ponies, refusing to look back and only go into her waking world to get her next phase completed.

Pinkie Pie started to trot after her, but was stopped by a firm tug on the tail from Rainbow that stopped her in her tracks.

"The murderess is beginning to snap," Rainbow growled. "There's not much anypony can say or do that'll bring someone like that away from the brink. Besides," her eyes seemed to go out of focus as she stared in the direction Twilight had run, "when I said the marks would curse her, before I died... I wasn't completely delirious. If I'm right... they will."

When Twilight came back to the waking world, she was overcome by a new sense of urgency. The words of the dream ponies, along with the awareness that the disappearances might become apparent, had begun to set Twilight on edge. She had to get the Element of Honesty, and free her passageway to the lab by eliminating Spike from the picture as well.

But she forced the troubling dreams - she insisted to herself that's what they were - out of her mind for the time being. She had a firm goal today - to stay calm and act casual, as if everything was fine. She planned to resume her plot to gather the Elements the following day.

Seeing that Spike was already up and about, she got up and prepared a small saddlebag to carry, trying to pull off a normal studying routine as she placed two books within it - that psychology ploy had held up well enough for Spike, it should do so with the others.

And when one got right down to it, it technically wasn't a lie - she was applying studies of the mind into her extraction of the Elements.

After getting her supplies in proper order, she went toward the small mirror in her room, using her magic to levitate her brush to brush her mane into its ordinary day-to-day style.

"Just gonna act like everything is completely normal," she told herself quietly in an effort to keep herself calm.

But her efforts were broken as another voice broke her out of her thoughts. "But everything isn't normal!"

Twilight's magic hold on the brush was broken in shock, the brush dropping to the desk as she stared straight at the mirror. At her own reflection. The voice was her own, no doubt, and the reflection"s expression was different from her own. While Twilight looked determined and with a firm plan set in mind, her reflection's eyes were wide, a frown of concern on her face.

The unicorn blinked in astonishment. This was just like when she had been stressed about finding a friendship problem, and began talking to her own mirrored self, her reflection answering back. It seemed the same thing was happening now.

"I know it's not normal, but I'm going to act like it is!" Twilight snapped.

"But you're not the best at lying," the reflection insisted. "Everypony will find out if you say or do the wrong thing!"

"Then I'll say and do all the right things!" Twilight shot back. Sharply turning from the mirror, she closed her eyes to properly bring herself back to the present and ignoring the reflection. After a few tense seconds, she turned back toward the mirror.

Her reflection was, as expected, normal.

Twilight arched her brow before shaking her head. "Just gotta stay calm..." Putting the unusual occurrence out of her mind, she took a deep breath and plastered a smile on her face as she began to head downstairs into the main part of the library, where she noticed Spike was carefully balancing on a ladder as he looked at one of her books he grasped in his hand, seeming to have a confused expression.

For an instant, Twilight was seized with a gripping panic, and a few of the hairs on her mane stood on end - how could he have-?!

No, wait... it was just one of her psychology books from up here at ground level where all her ordinary tomes were known to be. Not one of her precious, forbidden grimoires. And Spike was doing nothing more than returning the research tome to its shelf.

The mare let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding, closing her eyes to regain a casual demeanor. Get a hold of yourself, Twilight! What happened to your "act normal" plan?! Stick to it!

After saying a quick "Good morning" to her assistant, Twilight told him that she was going to go around Ponyville for the day, and hurried out before he could ask any questions that might cause more of a risk of letting her anxiousness show.

As she went off into the main streets of Ponyville, managing a wave and a greeting to several ponies she knew, Twilight gave herself a little internal pep talk.

Today, I shall arouse no suspicious activity and act as normal as can be! Then tomorrow, nothing whatever will go wrong - I'll be able to plan out my actions carefully enough, and free my laboratory access and obtain the Element of Honesty in no time!

As the day's main event, she decided to head off to Sweet Apple Acres, where the Apple family resided. Visiting the day before will keep me on friendly terms well enough, she thought.

Maintaining her focus, Twilight headed off to her destination for the day - Sweet Apple Acres. Upon her arrival, Twilight saw Applejack with one of her apple carts, selling a few apples to a group of visitors. Apple Bloom was also with her, eagerly by her sister's side as the apples left their careful placing on the cart and into the hooves of their purchasers, earning the sisters a few bits in return.

Twilight carefully waited until the group was cleared out before coming up to the two eager apple-salesponies.

"Hey, Applejack! Hey, Apple Bloom!" Twilight called, attempting to maintain an appearance to show that she was normal as ever. She wasn't entirely the best at deception, but she told herself that if she kept calm she could give it a shot.

The two siblings looked in her direction at the sound of her approach. "Twilight!" Apple Bloom exclaimed, bouncing energetically at the sight of the purple pony. "Applejack and I are selling some of our best apples this season! Not as flashy as the Zap Apples, but, apples are apples!" The filly gently knocked the cart with a hind hoof, causing an apple to wobble off and land squarely on her forehoof. She grinned.

Twilight smiled, impressed despite nervousness festering in the corners of her brain. "Nice work, Apple Bloom!"

The filly grinned at the compliment.

"The apples are especially ripe this time of year," Applejack commented as she looked down proudly at her little sister. "Apple Bloom and Big Macintosh helped with them."

"Well, it seems you guys have a really good harvest," the unicorn said. She did have to admit that Applejack's family were likely the best farmers in Equestria; their fruits always seemed to have a special quality to them.

It's a shame that I have to get the Element of Honesty from Applejack, the unicorn mused to herself, her surroundings briefly lost to her as her thoughts turned to her later plans.

"Hey, Twilight?" Applejack looked at her curiously, noticing her friend's spacey look. "Twilight?"

The unicorn had been so absorbed in her thoughts that she hadn't heard Applejack at first. She shook her head in order to clear it, snapping back to the present. "Yeah?"

"Have you seen Pinkie Pie around today?"

Oh no. That topic. Okay, calm down, calm down, straight face! Twilight tried to let her expression only show enough concern to be normal, and tried to make eye contact - shifting eyes were a big sign that someone was lying, or up to something. "No... why?"

The farming pony arched her brow at Twilight's hesitant response. "She was lookin' for Rainbow Dash yesterday and couldn't find her. And then her knee started getting pinchy like it does when-"

"Something scary's gonna happen," Twilight finished. "Pinkie told me yesterday."

"So you talked to Pinkie yesterday?"

The unicorn nodded, her expression even.

"But y'all didn't see Rainbow Dash?"

"Nope." That was at least true besides the dreams - it was amazing how long ago the extraction of the Element of Loyalty seemed, when it was really only two days previous. "Hey, uh," she levitated several coins out of her bag, "think I could buy one of those apples?"

"Sure thing, Twi," the farm pony said as Twilight placed the bits into a basket where their earnings were, tossing the purple mare a red apple in return. The unicorn did her best to suppress a plotting smile, a small idea already forming in her brain.

"Ah' just don't get it," Apple Bloom piped up as she looked curiously at Twilight. "First Pinkie can't find Rainbow Dash, then Pinkie's knee gets pinchy, and now Pinkie's gone missing too?"

"It all seems suspicious to me," Applejack admitted. "What if somethin' bad happened to them?"

"I'm sure they're fine," the purple mare assured her friend, still attempting to keep up an honest appearance. The more she talked to Applejack about this topic, the more hurried her thoughts became.

She's starting to get suspicious, and she'll tell everypony if she finds out, she's the Element of Honesty! And there's also Spike to deal with... I can't have the procedure be midday tomorrow, it's too risky to wait that long! It has to be tonight, it has to! Just gotta wait for the day to be over. It'll be over soon. The clock is ticking ticking ticking!

"'Ah hope you're right." Applejack managed a light smile, though it was clear she was still concerned about her two missing friends.

"Pinkie and Rainbow are probably just off somewhere pulling pranks," Twilight said with a smile as she levitated her apple into one of her bag's side pockets. Despite her eyes itching to look away from Applejack, she was able to maintain an appropriate look of concern. She turned to go, unsure of how much longer she could keep up her farce. "I'm sure that we'll be seeing them here again before we know it!"

Which was true - they would see the pair again. There was just no way that Twilight was going to admit the truth.

With an encouraging smile and a wave of her hoof, the unicorn walked off to see the other residents of Ponyville, managing a breath of relief that, through half-truths, she had been able to keep her secret safe until the time was right.

The rest of the day was a blur of nervous looks toward the setting sun and quick conversations toward the other ponies that Twilight ran into. For the most part, she was able to keep up a casual conversation, and occasionally taking a bite of the apple that Apple Bloom had given her helped calm her nerves. But other times, anxiety overtook her. Her mane became disheveled, her chest felt tight, and she made sure to terminate the conversations as quickly as possible when things got too stressful.

It seemed to Twilight, in her paranoid state, that the day took forever to end as the sky grew dark. But once everypony had departed the streets and the moon rose in the sky, Twilight went back to the library, her anxiety only slightly lessened.

Spike whirled around as the door opened and shut, leaping up in surprise. "Twilight!" The dragon paused a moment to get over being startled before continuing. "You're back late, how was everything in-"

He took in her appearance as she came more into view. Her shrunken eyes and disheveled mane, one eye twitching before she closed her eyes, seeming to struggle to get her bearings.

"... Ponyville?" he finished quietly.

"Fi...F-Fine," Twilight stammered, too preoccupied in her thoughts to give a clear answer. Realizing her mistake, the anxious stammer which threatened to blow her cover on everything, she forced herself to speak again, more steadily this time, and get herself back into focus. "I mean, fine! N-No major accidents going on, anyway!"

Spike noticed the quaver in Twilight's voice. His friend had seemed a bit off lately. Nervous, jittery, jumpy. Like when she had been so desperate to find a friendship problem that she had snapped. It seemed only a passing thing at first, but now Twilight not only sounded anxious, it appeared affecting her appearance as well. Something was clearly up, and curiosity was nagging at the young dragon too much.

"Uh, Twilight?"

Through her growing anxiety, Twilight forced herself to be calm and quell her fear. "Yeah?"

"You okay?"

Twilight forced a more cheerful tone into her voice as she shifted a few books around with her magic, removing several books from their shelves and placing them in front of her, acting like a form of a shield away from curious eyes. "Fine. I've just doing a little work."

"What kind of work?"

Twilight twitched. Her assistant could be frustratingly meddlesome at times. Especially now, when she didn't want him to be. "Just, psychological research, okay?!" She hadn't meant for her tone to sound harsh on the last word, but her mind was so caught up in a mess of thoughts. She forced herself not to twitch again, though she was becoming increasingly nervous.

Spike jumped a little at the snappy tone in his friend's voice, raising his hands as if to defend himself. "Okay, okay! You've been doing that psychological stuff for the past few days..."

"Well," Twilight sighed, choosing her words carefully and urging herself to keep her composure, "it's complicated work. The mind is a very tough thing to analyze, you know!" She forced a laugh, but managed to keep it from sounding too forced as she slowly walked upstairs, faking a yawn. "Going around Ponyville allows for more behavioral observations."

Everything's fine, the mare thought, mind racing to the point that the words of the tomes she scoured became blurred. It's all gonna be fine. Just gotta wait for Spike to fall asleep. Just got be stealthy and quiet and inconspicuous...

"Well, you seem to be kinda stressed." Her assistant gave her a concerned look as he followed. "Maybe you should, I dunno, let up on it a bit, relax!"

Twilight looked back at him as she reached their room, looking exhausted..

"Or at least get some sleep," Spike advised. "No offense, Twilight, but you..." his sentence was interrupted by a yawn, eyelids drooping, "... don't really look so good."

"I'm just... tired, that's all. Twilight removed her saddlebag and flopped onto her bed, sighing as if she just wanted to fall asleep in that moment. But she wasn't really tired; she was anything but. She needed to be as wide awake as possible. "Everything'll be fine by tomorrow."

Spike got into his own bed and looked up at Twilight, struggling to keep his eyes open. "You sure?"

When Twilight spoke, her voice harbored a tone of genuine relief. "I'm sure."

Of course I'm sure, a thought lingered in her head, Ponyville's two main threats to me will be gone.

Twilight waited with increasing urgency, biding her time until she was absolutely certain that Spike had fallen into a deep slumber. She couldn't take any chances of him waking up to question her, only daring to move when she was certain that he wouldn't stir.

Wide awake, the pony eventually got off of her bed and, as quietly as she could, went over to her saddlebag and unlatched a small compartment. A needle injector was safely tucked within, filled with a liquid throughout.

Twilight grinned and managed a chuckle. Snapping the bag shut, she secured it tight around her and began to walk past her desk and down the stairs to the library's central room.

Once she was certain that there was no creaking from the room above, Twilight forced herself to focus on the task at hand. Knowing that she'd have to accomplish this fast, she teleported herself outside the library into the quiet streets of Ponyville.

Relishing in the night's silence, she teleported in short distances until she reached Sweet Apple Acres.

"Okay... okay... you can do this."

Upon getting to a point where she could safely teleport into the house that the Apple family called home, the mare made sure to be as stealthy as possible, eyes darting around and ears listening for the sound of anypony who might be alerted to her presence. She treated each and every sound as the possibility that somepony was watching and suspecting what she was up to, and in no time they'd catch her in the act.

Slowly stepping by the bedrooms of each of the sleeping ponies, Twilight was able to peek through the slightly ajar door to find the room she had been looking for - Applejack's.

Shaking slightly from nerves, Twilight gently nudged open Applejack's door with a hoof, tensing up at the light creaking of its hinges. Apprehensively, she listened carefully for the sound of ponies being roused from their sleep and coming up to investigate, but much to her relief, all was quiet.

Assured that the house's inhabitants were still deeply in slumber, Twilight crept into the room and observed the sleeping pony. Applejack was snuggled tightly underneath her bedsheets, and the movements of her eyes could be clearly seen underneath her closed eyelids.

If things were different, I'd go for analyzing her REM sleep cycle, Twilight mused as she withdrew the injector from her bag, hurriedly forcing it into Applejack's skin before she could wake up and inquire what was going on. It only took a few seconds for the earth pony's eye movements to become still as she fell into an unconscious state.

Okay, that's done, Twilight thought as she turned her head to make sure nopony was watching or listening. Now I just gotta... argh, forget it, I have no time to worry about concealment like that! Aware that every second counted here, the unicorn quickly teleported herself and Applejack out of the house, then onward through Ponyville and back to the library.

Twilight was breathing heavily, eager to get started with her plan. Okay, got Applejack here, now for Spike! She teleported herself and Applejack up to her room, fearing that something would happen if she left the unconscious pony out of her sight for even a second.

She was just opening her bag to ready the sleeping needle for another shot when a voice broke the gloom.

"You aren't seriously going to do this, are you?!"

Twilight gasped and whipped around at the voice, staring straight at where the voice had come from... her reflection. Just as that morning, the reflection bore a different expression than Twilight herself. Rather, the look was desperate.

"Of course I am!" Twilight hissed. "Now be quiet!" Her eyes darted to Spike, who stirred lightly in his sleep.

"They're your friends!" Mirror-Twilight said desperately. "We're supposed to care about friends and help them, not torture them for science!"

Twilight looked back and forth from her reflection, to Applejack, to Spike. She used her forehooves to cover her ears, attempting to ignore what her reflection - her conscience - was saying. "I have to..."

"There has to be some other way!"

Twilight shut her eyes tight. "There's not!"

The reflection's voice grew more pleading. "Just listen! Ponies will find out if you keep doing this!"

The barest hint of tears began to form at Twilight's eyes as she shook her head. "No..."

"And what if the Princesses find out?! You don't need to kill-"

The pony's eyes snapped open, the remnants of tears leaving as she acted on a deranged impulse. Anything to get that voice out of her head.

"SHUT UP!" Twilight screeched, her eyes practically glowing in fury as she shot her left hoof forward, causing the glass of the mirror to shatter from the impact into small fragments, gravity bringing some of them down in shards.

Unsurprisingly, the crescendo of noise jolted Spike from his sleep, blinking rapidly as he noticed Twilight staring at the broken mirror dully.

"Twuh-Twilight?!" he questioned, confused by what he was seeing, "what's going-"

He was cut off as the unicorn whirled around to face him, her appearance looking horrifying in the moonlight that shone on parts of her body. The hairs on her mane and coat were stuck up and eccentric, as if she hadn't taken care of her hygiene in weeks, her violet eyes seemed out of focus, and the mad grin on her face made it seem like she was going to lunge out and attack the first thing she saw.

And she was using her magic to raise the needle of benzodiazepine like a dagger, stabbing it roughly into the young dragon before he had time to react, causing him to quickly fall into the darkness of unconsciousness.

As her assistant collapsed, Twilight let out a cackle of delight and brought the needle to her eye level. "Oh benzodiazepine, you never let me down!" Practically dancing, she focused her magic on her two unconscious subjects, the magenta aura swirling around them as she levitated them off the ground, hovering in her wake as she went down to the central area, bringing her two captives over as she pressed the secret button to make the bookcase allow its master into the secret passage.

Twilight hurried through the tunnel and down the winding stairs to her laboratory, unconscious captives in tow. A deranged smile arose on her face as she rubbed her hooves together in anticipation.

"Now I have just a bit of arranging to do for you two..."

Applejack was the first to open her eyes. Her vision sluggishly drifted in and out of focus before she suddenly became aware of the reality of her surroundings, eyes snapping wide open.

"WHAT THE HAY?!"

She tried, instinctively, to move, but found to her growing alarm that she was strapped down tight to a slanted table, unable to even turn her head to examine the place. But from what she could see of all the machinery, it didn't look at all pleasant.

A voice interrupted her lone attempts at escape, seeming to come from a little behind her and to her left. "A-Applejack?"

The earth pony's breath caught in her throat. She recognized the voice,though she was unable to see the speaker. "Spike?!"

"Y-Yeah," Spike stammered, able to barely see Applejack strapped to the table out of the corner of his eye.

The earth pony took a deep breath before straining with all her might to free herself of her restraints, but to no avail. Gathering her strength, her green eyes gazed around what was within her field of vision, taking in the sight of the whirring, humming machinery. "Where in the hay are we?!"

"I don't know," Spike admitted, a growing feeling of dread rising inside him. "I just remember... wait a minute... Twilight!"

"You called?"

"AH!" Both Applejack and Spike let out cries of surprise as the pony in question teleported in front of them. She looked roughly the same as when Spike had last seen her, though easily the most frightening aspect was the dangerous grin present on her face.

"I see you two are awake!" Twilight exclaimed, rubbing her hooves together in glee. "I would have woken you two up sooner, but I had to get a few things ready first!" She chuckled. "Oh, by the way, I found where Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash are!"

The pair had a strong feeling that it was something bad.

"What are you talkin' about, Twi?" Applejack inquired, arching her brow.

"I'll show you, silly!" With those words, Twilight's horn glowed as she utilized her magic to rotate the bottom wheels of both tables, turning them far enough to the right so that the figures she had waiting were clearly visible. "Tadah!"

The two captives could only freeze at the terrible appearance of the bodies they recognized, limp layers of skin with their skeletal structures placed on their own separate pedestals, their organs removed to be replaced by a form of stuffing to prop their forms upright.

Staring in revulsion at the bloody, cavernous holes in Rainbow's flanks that reached to where her bones had once been, one wing shredded the same way, and many stitches where her skin had been sewn back from self-inflicted wounds. Looking at Pinkie Pie, remnants of mane straightened in her last minutes of life and a crimson void where her throat had once been, cutie mark also skinned off, though her flanks merely had it torn away in a clean strip.

Tears of horror and anger fell from Applejack's eyes as she breathed heavily at the sight of her dead friends. "PINKIE! RAINBOW!"

"I told you that you'd see Rainbow and Pinkie again, Applejack!" Twilight smiled giddily. "It took a while to clean them all up, but they turned out pretty good if I do say so myself! And having both you and Spike here is really such a treat for observing my research! Isn't that right, Rainbow Dash?" Laughing, she went over to the corpse of Rainbow Dash and moved her head up and down, mimicking the pegasus's voice. "Right, Twilight! Having them both here makes this 20% cooler!"

"I thought you said you were doing psychological research!" Spike cried out in alarm through his tears, tearing his gaze away from the corpses of the two ponies and Twilight's deluded eyes. "You've been lying to me this whole time! HOW COULD YOU?!"

"'Psychological research', what kinda horseapples is that?!" Applejack trembled, glaring furiously at Twilight. "This 'aint psychological stuff - it's torture!" Tears rolled down the pony's cheeks like a trickling stream. "IT'S FLAT-OUT MURDER!"

"It's research and data collection!" Twilight corrected, only flinching a little at her friends' accusations. "Technically, I was telling the truth - part of it is psychological, since my procedures tend to involve messing with memories. It's why Rainbow Dash committed self-cannibalistic suicide."

The two captives were horrified at that notion. Rainbow Dash? Killing herself through devouring her own body? Spike looked like he wanted to vomit from what he had seen and heard, but he managed to barely restrain himself from doing so.

"Twi... j-just listen to reason," Applejack said cautiously, trying to find some way out of this deadly predicament. "You 'ain't actin' right. You're..." her voice grew hard, eyes narrowed. "You're not thinkin' clearly!"

"Not thinking clearly?" Twilight shot back, the glance of her shrunken irises darting about in a frenzy. Her voice rose to a higher, more fervent volume. "Not thinking clearly?! HA! I'm thinking more clearly than ever!" She paced in front of the two of them, looking wildly back and forth as if paranoid that either one would spontaneously escape if she focused on the other for too long. And at this point, she was. Her voice now grew softer, a quick muttering. "You don't see, do you? If we don't find the proper genetic components for the Elements, how will the world be protected after we're gone?! Nopony really knew about the Elements until we found them, remember? And now look what's happened since then - Nightmare Moon, Discord, a possible return of the Windigos? And what if a greater threat comes? Makes sense to preserve the Elements then, huh? Huh?!"

"But Celestia and Luna-"

"You've heard Celestia yourself," Twilight growled, cutting Applejack off and leering hard at her, "she and Luna are no longer connected to the Elements. The genes are still there, they just can't control the Elements' physical forms. Do you know why?" She laughed, but it clearly harbored insanity within it. "It's because the next group activated them, that's why! The power of the Elements still remain within them, but only a few can wield their true power at a time - why do you think their current physical manifestations resemble our cutie marks?! But if I discover their true essence, contain it, control it," her voice turned into a manic growl on the last two words , "then the Elements will NEVER be gone! There will ALWAYS be a way to find the pony who has those qualities, and then they shall truly be harnessed! Hahaha!"

While Twilight was focused on the other pony, Spike tried to look for some way to get himself free and get out. Look for a piece of paper, a quill-

Yes! There was some at Twilight's worktable! Now if he could just get free...

"Just gotta... send letter to... Celestia-"

When the dragon's whisper reached her ears, the shout from the deranged pony was like that of an angry grown dragon protecting its hoard, a bit of a growl accompanying the word she shouted. "NO!" Twilight whirled her head toward Spike, an enraged fire present in her eyes as she leapt over, growling like a manticore, giving him a look that stated she would be likely to tear his head off, slowly and painfully. "You will NOT be sending a letter to her." She drew her head closer, laughing in a way that clearly showed that she wasn't in her right mind. "You won't be sending a letter to anypony ever again."

With that, Spike's eyes noticeably widened. That laugh clearly cemented just how much his friend had changed, and there was likely no going back. She was no longer the bright, friendly pony of days past. She had become something far more sinister, no longer the Princess's faithful student but rather a deranged, mentally unstable pony who was perfectly willing to murder her friends to get what she wanted. All this for "preservation of the Elements".

And the worst part of all: she seemed to be enjoying it.

Both Applejack and Spike suppressed a shudder. Their friend had begun to completely and utterly snap. If they didn't stop her, who's to say she wouldn't progress into insanity even further?

"Now, who to take care of first?" The smile on the unicorn's face was bordering on sadistic.

The two captives knew very well that by "take care of", Twilight really meant "murder".

"Don't kill anypony, Twi!" Applejack tried to reason with her as she attempted to buck her way out. "Ya don't need to do this! Just stop, before anypony else gets hurt!" Her green eyes held a look of desperation, a nonverbal plea to just stop all this madness, something to bring her friend back from the brink of insanity. "Come to your senses, sugarcube!"

Ignoring the farming pony completely, Twilight's expression brightened. But the brightness in her eyes did not bring hope, only fear for her mental state. "I've got it! You may be strong, Applejack, but I have you strapped firmly tight! If Spike gets in contact with Celestia, it's all gonna be over for me! The research on the Elements will be halted!" She stared hard at the dragon in question. "I'm sorry, but you're too much of a risk."

Spike began to panic, seeming to try to back away only to remember that he was tied down. "J-Just, let us go! I... I won't tell anypony, Twilight! I promise!"

"Sure," Twilight said skeptically with a roll of her eyes. "Ponies are already starting to wonder where Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie are. You'd crack eventually. You'd spill the beans before the Elements are all harnessed, and Applejack would be let free too. And if you didn't tell my little secret to everypony, Applejack would - she has the Element of Honesty, she'd tell everypony the moment she was free!"

She gave a hurried glance in Applejack's direction so quick that the captives heard her neck crack, as if suddenly thinking the pony might have somehow gotten free when she wasn't paying attention. Affirming that the farm pony was, indeed, still properly secured, Twilight turned to Spike again, her eyes narrowed and voice threatening. "I can't have that happen."

Applejack tried to struggle even further, trying to move her legs and hooves to kick her restraints off. But no matter how much she bucked and kicked and moved, her metal bounds had her strapped down tight. "SOMEPONY GET US OUT!"

"Applejack, Applejack," Twilight said in what would almost seem like a gentle tone in different circumstances, "having you struggle and scream will just wear you out. You're a bit too energetic right now, and it would only be really safe to work on one of you at a time..." With those words, she teleported away from Applejack, leaving the pony's sight.

"Wha-?" Applejack turned her gaze back and forth, trying to pinpoint where it was that her captor had gone. "Twilight?"

The insane pony had teleported behind Applejack now, a needle of benzodiazepine visible in the grip of her hoof and an expression that was both determined and psychotic.

And Spike was able to just barely see a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye. "Applejack!" he called out, wanting to jump out of there and knock Twilight away the moment he noticed the needle's metallic glint. "BEHIND YOU!"

But the captured earth pony was unable to move, only quickly turn her eyes in surprise just as there was a sharp pinch as the needle plunged deep into her neck. Within only a few seconds, the drug kicked in and Applejack fell unconscious, the needle slowly removed from her skin by the other pony.

"Good night, Applejack," Twilight said pleasantly, though her appearance, upon coming out from behind the table where the unconscious pony was propped up, was anything but pleasant. Her eyes were wild, the hair on her mane and tail sticking out at eccentric angles, her teeth grinding, and giggling in a way that sounded as if she were an asylum's most unstable resident.

And Spike was terrified.

"Aw, is dear little Spike scared of his old friend?" the unicorn said in that dangerously gentle voice as she looked into the dragon's wide green eyes. "It's for a noble purpose, you know."

Spike was trembling in his restraints. "W-W-Why?!" The look in his eyes was uncomprehending as to how his friend could have become twisted into such a monster. "Twilight... Why don't you just let us go?!"

"I have to keep you here," Twilight insisted. "I have to get all the Elements to analyze them. You don't think I could let those subjected to my experiments go free, could you? Nopony would ever allow me to continue with ponies getting hurt like this! How would I ever complete my experiments if I was banished?" For a moment, she was overcome by a wave of anxiousness as she thought of Celestia finding out and that possibility actually occurring, but she snapped out of it and focused on the task at hand, sounding more enthusiastic. "You should consider yourself lucky though."

"L-L-Lucky?" Spike stammered, becoming increasingly nervous at his friend's increasingly cheery tone.

"Yes," Twilight affirmed, her voice sounding almost happy now. "Because you're not connected to one of the Elements, I don't feel the need to use the Scalper on you." She pointed at the mechanism used to carve out the tops of the other ponies' heads. "Of course, I didn't really need to use it on Pinkie, but I couldn't help myself to mess with her head just a little."

Despite his terror, Spike allowed himself to feel the smallest sense of relief that he wouldn't be subjected to that terrible thing. The Scalper did look incredibly painful, and he could only imagine what it had felt like for Pinkie and Rainbow Dash... and a new wave of horror over came him at the realization that the others just might be subject to the same thing.

But Twilight had more planned for him.

"So this means you can be my first subject for some of my other instruments instead!"

Spike's breath caught in his throat as he looked at the varied manner of machinery that Twilight had at her disposal.

"Sorry Spike, but if you weren't so meddlesome you wouldn't be in this mess," Twilight explained, setting up bits of sharp-looking machinery frighteningly close. "You're like a guard that shouldn't be there, unintentionally preventing me from getting through to this place. If it weren't for that, you'd be free from here, and you wouldn't be meeting a similar fate as Rainbow and Pinkie."

A chill went down Spike's back.

"... You're gonna d-do the same thing to... to Applejack?"

Twilight nodded.

Spike's eyes grew wide as his thoughts moved forward... if she was going to do the same to Applejack... "W-What about... F-Fluttershy and..." he almost choked out the last word, "R-R-Rairity?"

When Twilight gave her answer, she was completely and frighteningly nonchalant. "Them too."

"NO!" Spike's voice cracked on the word, his eyes filled with despair and tears coming to his eyes. "You can't do that to them!" He tried desperately to wiggle his way free, even blowing fire at the metal restraints on his wrists in an attempt to burn them off. To the young dragon's terror, nothing worked.

"Oh come on, Spike," Twilight said. "You're just making this harder. I'm going to have to mess with the others' brains in order to properly make the Elements' signature surface. But enough of that for now. We have some work to do." Picking up another injector, she hurriedly injected a liquid into the side of Spike's neck, close to his spinal cord, a different kind of shot that she hadn't used before.

As much as the dragon tried to struggle, he felt his movements become sluggish. No matter how much he tried to break free, or at least move, it seemed that his muscles were slowly becoming more and more relaxed.

"Whuh.. What's happening?!" Spike exclaimed fearfully. "I... I can't move!"

"30 more seconds, Spike," the unicorn said patiently.

As those 30 seconds passed, the dragon's muscles became slowed until almost every limb was rendered immobile, paralyzing him.

"What did you do to me, Twilight?!"

"I simply injected you with a small touch of vecuronium bromide," the scientist explained cheerfully as she went over to her cabinet to return the vecuronium injection to its proper place. "It's a muscle relaxant that's also used as a paralyzing agent." She smiled. "Thank you so much for being patient and giving the drug the 60 seconds it needed to take effect!"
A twitch of her right ear. An unhinged giggle.

"Now, it usually works for a timeframe of, oh, about half an hour to 40 minutes, but it would probably take over an hour to get total control back." Rummaging around, she bypassed the section that held her various injections and drugs, coming to a section of more physical devices, as she pulled out a sharp hatchet. "But even if it does get about 25% worn off within 20 minutes, that won't matter - my main work is Applejack here, you probably won't last that long, anyway."

Spike's heart was beating erratically and his breath came in labored gasps. Twilight, the pony who had been his friend since he was born, had just given him a death sentence. She had killed at least two ponies and was now going to do the same to him.

Twilight then came forward with her weapon, mouth turned up in a sadistic grim, clearly seeing the terror in her assistant's eyes.

"First, I just have to make sure that there's no way you'll be able to write to the Princess should you escape. Of course, it's a near certainty that you won't be able to get free anyway," she flicked her head toward the door for a split second before turning back to the small dragon, voice desperate and paranoid, "but I can't take any chances!"

Shooting forward like an arrow, Twilight roughly brought down the sharp hatchet upon the dragon's left wrist and sliced straight through, cutting straight through skin, muscle, and bone. Ignoring Spike's scream of pain, the deranged unicorn did the same to the other wrist just as quickly, the severed hands impacting the ground with a dull thud.

"THERE!" Twilight shouted as blood flowed freely from Spike's wrists, his arms now ending in bloody stumps. "No way to send any letters NOW!" A wide grin spread across her face, her shrunken irises turning cross-eyed as she let out a loud, deranged cackle.

Spike's screams had eventually subsided, his breath coming in slow, choked gasps. His eyes were mostly closed from tears, but when they were open only horror and pain could be seen in their gaze.

A sterilized cloth hovered over through Twilight's magic as she used it to properly clean off the blood-splattered hatchet. "Well, now that I've cut off any way for you to write to the Princess," Twilight knocked one of the severed hands with a hoof, laughing at her "cut off" pun, "it's time for something fun!"

A chill went down Spike's back. What kind of thing was planned in Twilight's deranged state that she'd consider "fun"?

Cantering over to her cabinet of tools and drugs again, the unicorn levitated her blade back into its spot, while at the same time removing another device from its storage. As she brought it more into the open, it could be seen that the tool looked very much like an apple-peeler, the kind known as a Y-peeler, with the blade perpendicular to the handle. However, this blade was noticeably sharper than the ordinary kind of peeler. One could guess that the device wasn't to be used for releasing a simple fruit from its skin.

Using another sterilizing cloth, the unicorn rubbed cleansing alcohol onto the blade until it shone as if it had been newly shaped. "Now that I've properly cleaned it, the alcohol on the blade is gonna cause it to sting a liiiiittle more than it normally would." She didn't seem bothered by the idea of that at all. And it was clear that by "a little", she meant "a heck of a lot more".

The peeler was brought closer to Spike as Twilight pressed a button on its side to let the blade extend slightly. With the dragon powerless to move he could only watch, numb with horror, as the large peeler moved closer and closer until it impacted his scaly skin.

And then it pressed further. The peeler was able to slice through the thin scales that made up Spike's skin and dug through the epidermis to reach the soft tissue and veins underneath. Spike screamed as it tore through muscle, through tendons, reaching the ligaments that held together bone. Getting to the proper depth, with her subject powerless to move at all, Twilight moved the peeler up and down Spike's right arm, leaving the skin trapped under the metal restraints as the rest of it was stripped away.

Spike screamed in agony as the nerves through almost every part of his arm were cut as if he were an apple, blood pouring out of the limb and onto the floor. The pain from this new torture only felt worse accompanying the blood pouring from his wrists, and the sting of the alcohol further increased the pain.

"Tw-Tw-TWILIGHT!" the dragon sobbed, water falling from his eyes in a stream of agonized tears. "P-P-PLEASE STOP! STOP... JUST M-M-MAKE IT STOP!"

Blood splattered onto the mare's lavender pelt, staining it a wet crimson, but she didn't seem to care all that much. "Man, this is going to be a pretty big mess to clean up," Twilight commented as she started on the other arm, skinning it the same way as she ignored her assistant's cries. Continuing from there, the skinner's path traced upward from the dragon's arms, past his shoulders and up to his neck where the blue veins throbbed, several tearing and spilling the blood that flowed through them.

Realizing that the dragon's eyes were beginning to close, slipping into unconsciousness from the pain and loss of blood, she swiftly brought an adreneline shot over and injected the needle's contents into the traumatized dragon. True, it wouldn't null the pain or keep her assistant alive, but at least he'd be kept awake long enough. Upon removing it, Twilight looked at the needle injector in her hoof and started talking to it, scoldingly as if it were a pet. "Now, now, adrenaline, I'm starting to think you've been overworking yourself lately. Don't worry, it's not your fault that the subjects can't stay awake and alive through the procedures on their own and need you to help. And you and benzodiazepine still have work to do for the others!"

Spike managed to hear the pony's words through the fiery pain in his arms and neck, and knew with a sinking heart that Twilight truly had gone off the deep end. He felt weak from blood loss and aguish as remnants of the torn skin and muscle hung from him like old rags, what was left of his veins throbbed, and a warm liquid was felt between his legs as his bladder released urine onto the laboratory's floor.

Twilight scrunched up her nose at the urine smell, but didn't lessen in her work. "You're only making this harder for me, Spike. I'm going to have a lot to clean up after all this. And it was just after I got rid of the rot-and-blood smell, too." Her voice was almost pouting by the last sentence.

She scrutinized the torn skin and muscle as the bone became visible, acting for a moment as if she was a doctor and Spike was her patient. "Hhhmmm... I could skin the legs too, but you're losing a lot of blood already and I still want to get something from you before I work on Applejack. Doing any more would only hinder things, and I want you to be alive for it, just to take note of your reaction."

Spike swallowed, barely able to speak with the torment that caused his body to sting. "Wh.... What?"

"I know that dragons have different anatomy than ponies," Twilight carried on as if her subject had inquired anyway. "If I examine you, I might be able to learn more about dragons than I'd be able to in a book!"

She wore a twisted grin on her face as Spike's breath quickened.

Removing the peeler and cleaning up the remnants of skin that still clung to its surface, Twilight trotted off to retrieve a sharp knife and a plastic bag, chattering away as she went. "I could give you an analgesic to numb the pain for this, but that would help keep you alive, and I need to have a lot more time to work on Applejack." She brought the knife close to the dragon's exposed belly. "Let's just go ahead and get this over with, shall we?"

Trembling with fear and trauma, the dragon managed to keep his eyes open enough to say something to Twilight. To beg her, plead with her, try to bring back his old friend...

"Twi..... Tw-Twilight?"

Twilight paused, the knife inches from Spike's underside. When her eyes met those of her skinned, tortured assistant, the look she gave him was almost sympathetic - if you could call a fleeting look of normalcy "sympathetic". "Yes, Spike?"

"Please... th-they're... w-we're your...."

"Oh, Spike," the unicorn replied, her twisted grin slowly returning and her voice growing threateningly quiet, "trust me, I know that they're my friends, and I still remember all the times we had together. Even the two of us." Without giving him time to respond, she plunged the knife into the young dragon's exposed abdomen.

Spike cried out as the knife in his underside only added to the pain he already felt. His screams grew louder as the pain grew, with Twilight slicing from his chest to his abdominal cavity to allow the viscera to clearly be visible as they were kept properly functioning through the dragon's working systems.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH! TWILIGHT, PLEASE, STOP! STOP!!"

The scientist, acting as if the screaming didn't exist, seemed merely surprised as she noticed the inner workings of the dragon's anatomy. "Woah, so dragons have two stomachs? That explains where all the fire is stored I suppose!" She jotted a quick scribble on a notepad before, without warning, using her knife to slice within Spike's gut and sever his second stomach from the rest of his body. With the second stomach having a smaller connection to the esophagus, due to its processes being used to create the necessary reaction for fire, part of the esophagus was taken with it, the second connection now merely a severed stump. The dragon screamed in utter agony as one of his major organs was mercilessly cut out of his gut. But it didn't really matter to Twilight - the damage was done. The organ landed within the plastic bag to hold and sterilize it as the vacant space dripped with remnants of fluid.

"Perfect!" the unicorn exclaimed as she sealed the bag up. "Now I'll be able to examine a dragon's fire mechanics properly! Isn't that exciting?"

But Spike didn't hear her words. He felt the trauma of these horrific events taking its toll, quickly overpowering the fading effects of the adrenaline that had, until that point, been keeping him alive. He was going to die. He could feel it. His vision began to fade, his heart rapidly slowing.

With one last look, as if devoting his last moments to searching for the pony he once knew, the dying desperation and fear in the young dragon's gaze faded, the spark of life left his eyes completely, and his body grew limp.

"... Too bad you won't be able to see the others die, though," Twilight murmured, making sure the dragon was surely dead before saying those words, as if concerned that the dragon's lingering spirit might hear - wherever he was going, the heavens above or that strange purgatory that those stripped of the Elements had gone to. "It was great knowing you, Spike."

After a moment of silence as she stared at her assistant's limp body, his blood still pooling on the floor, Twilight began to laugh.

It wasn't just a chuckle of anticipation. It was nearly a shriek, an insane, unhinged cackle of triumph, of a victory, feeling as if a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

"Hahaha, and the guard has been taken down!" the insane unicorn exclaimed almost joyously, a manic grin visible on her face. "How wonderful! Now I'll be able to get the necessities back and forth to the laboratory much more easily!"

Nearly dancing, Twilight glanced over at the still-unconscious Applejack. Her grin grew wider in anticipation. She circled around the table that Applejack was propped up on, staring at the captive pony as she spoke in a slow, sing-song voice:

"Now that the guard is out of the way, time to bring Honesty out to play..."

----

Honesty and Deception

Confidence... thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live.
-Franklin D. Roosevelt

The scientist grinned at her unconscious captive, allowing a long-needed sense of relief to wash over her. No chance of having a letter unwillingly sent to Celestia now! All letters to Celestia would be sent only when she deemed it so. Scrolls, after all, could be sent by any fire if they were signed - Spike just happened to be the most convenient mode of transport.

And having taken out his second stomach, the unicorn thought, perhaps I could make that kind of fire for myself anyway...

She glanced over at the dragon's corpse, feeling a pang of regret as she stared at the body that had been vibrant and full of life not too long ago. Spike had, after all, been a helpful assistant, a great friend...

But the feeling left as quickly as it had come. Her job wasn't over, far from it. She had done what she had to for the circumstances. No time to think about those things, or clean up the mess her work on Spike had caused. The sooner she got this done, the better.

"That doesn't mean I can't have a little fun while getting Honesty though..."

Eager to get her perusal of the next Element started, Twilight tilted the table fully into a vertical position and unhooked its bottom wheels, turning away from the stuffed bodies of Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash; rolling the table over to its proper position underneath the Scalper before locking it in place. With a grin, she brought her electrical prod over to the farming pony's body and turned up the voltage, forcing it firmly against Applejack's side as she pressed the button.

"GAH!" The earth pony seized up at the sudden shock that jolted her awake, blinking her eyes into focus as a sense of vertigo overcame her. Dazed for an instant, both from the jolt of electricity still sparking through and the lingering effects of the drug, she was slowly able come back into full awareness. She realized she was, indeed, still in the nightmarish laboratory. With a heavy heart, it sunk in that she hadn't been asleep after all; this lab wasn't just a demented, subconscious creation, built out of her concern for Pinkie and Rainbow. It was real.

Pinkie and Rainbow...

It then hit Applejack as to who was missing from when she had last been conscious, and she became instantly alert. "Wh-Where's Spike?!"

Twilight's tone was smug. "Oh, you really want to know?"

Applejack's eyes narrowed, the implications of Twilight's words and tone hitting her like a brick to the face. "What did y'all do to him?!" she demanded, though she had a very bad feeling that she would regret the answer, especially considering what she had already seen here. The smell of blood and a faint trace of urine only caused her unease to intensify.

"Don't worry, I'll show you!" Twilight loosened the bottom locks enough to turn the table so that the young dragon's mutilated body came within her captive's sight.

A split second of horrified shock came over Applejack before, fighting back tears, she shouted in disbelief and anger. "SPIKE!"

Twilight only smiled slightly.

The farm pony's green eyes darted angrily in search of her captor, tears beginning to come to her eyes. This had brought her to the harsh reality that Twilight wasn't done with her work, and seemed to have no qualms about it all. To kill Spike... her assistant, her friend since she had been a filly... and in such a sickening way... "HOW... HOW COULD YA DO SUCH A HORRIBLE THING?!"

The unicorn came into Applejack's view again, expression undergoing a slight change, not quite so proud. She glanced at the partially skinned body, a something like a hint of sorrow in her violet eyes. "He's met with a terrible fate, hasn't he? It didn't have to be like this. He didn't have to die..." Her voice returned to a sinister tone as she shook her head slightly, now turning to the horrified, struggling Applejack. "But he was in the way. He threatened my base of operation. I did what I had to do."

"YOU'RE INSANE!" Applejack shouted frantically, trying to keep her eyes on her friend from her position.

"Oh Applejack," Twilight chided, coming out of the restrained pony's view as she began to circle around her. "It's necessary for my plan."

The earth pony's body shook in her fury, her chest heaving. "How could your plan justify MURDER?!"

"You want the future to be safe, right?" the mad scientist said softly, continuing her circling movement, never taking her eyes off of Applejack's upon coming within her sight. "The Elements must be analyzed and researched. If I did it like this without murdering the ones experimented on, my research would be halted for being dangerous. How could harmony ever be obtained like that? How can there be peace if the ones who wield that power in the strongest quantities are unable to be found?" She stopped and crept closer, staring into Applejack's eyes. "Don't you care about the future, Applejack? Or are you so stuck in your own head that you don't care at all? Just want everything to be so perfect in your life and all about you that you shout and accuse if anything goes wrong, like you did to me at Winter Wrap Up?"

"'Ah do care!" Applejack insisted, a bit of guilt seeming to come into her eyes as Twilight mentioned Winter Wrap Up, a look that she hoped her captor saw. She searched the violet eyes for any signs of sympathy, of compassion, of the Twilight Sparkle she had come to know. But there was only a calculating madness, frustration, and a grudge that seemed to be lingering toward her stubborn ways.

"If it weren't for the fact that you're the Element of Honesty," Twilight said firmly, "I wouldn't believe you. Stubborn, cocky, self-centered-"

Applejack grew furious, wincing as she tried to move only to be reminded of the metal bonds that restricted her. "Who're ya callin' self-centered?!"

The look the other pony gave her was incredulous. "What, you think I'm performing these just to better myself?" Twilight frowned at the farm pony's accusation. "I'm not doing this for me, I'm doing this for everypony. My intentions are good. My research is to bring Harmony back."

"Isn't there any other way?" Applejack's expression grew more desperate as she stared into her friend's eyes, so stern and cold in contrast to her own. "Some way that doesn't involve kidnappin' or murder?!"

A spark lit in the scientist's eyes. "Not now," Twilight said evenly, not breaking her stare. "I've come too far to give up now. I have to continue my work!" Tearing her eyes away from the stare of the other pony at last, a flash seeming to appear in the light, the young mare forced a sinister smile across her face and went out of sight.

Applejack tried to prevent fear from creeping into her voice, stunned by the cold, meticulous look her friend had given her the entire time their eyes were locked. Like the unicorn no longer saw her as a friend but only as an experimentation subject. "Twilight, what are you gonna do?!"

Rather than getting a verbal answer, she gasped as a dark magenta aura came within her sight, as different pieces of equipment moved toward her. One small machine was placed on the sides of her head - unknown to her, it was the same brain scanner that had been used on Pinkie and Rainbow. Wires and other metal clamps wrapped their cold tendrils tightly around her exposed hooves, as metal, dart-like needles sunk deep into them, a stabbing pain jolting through at each point of impact. Minuscule drops of blood could be seen around the needles, having punctured veins in the earth pony's strong hooves as they dug in deeper, nearly coming out through the skin on the other side.

"What in the hay are these things?!" Through the sensation of the needles and metal coils, she strained her eyes to try to see where Twilight had gone, but to no avail as the magical aura faded. Every attempted movement of her hooves was met with extreme discomfort. The impact of the needles still throbbed in her skin. "What're y'all doin' to me?!"

"Patience, patience, Applejack," the unicorn scolded, still out of the other's sight. Her voice seemed fainter to Applejack, as she was now moving off to one of her storage cupboards, removing a small fruit from it. Snickering, she came back over, holding up the fruit for her captive to see. It was an apple. "Now, do you know what this is?"

Applejack's look of horror was joined by confusion. "It''s an apple, Twi." The suspicion was clear in her eyes; this had to be some kind of trick. "What is this, some kinda twisted game?"

Twilight chuckled, eyes shining. "Something like that." She used her magic to levitate the fruit closer to the trapped pony, as if tempting her to take a bite. "Now, say it's an orange."

"That's crazy!" Applejack said, growing more confused and wary by the second. "I'd be lyin' if I said it was anything other than an apple."

There was a faint click before a light shock was suddenly felt in the pony's hooves where each needle-like extensions had been stuck, causing the earth pony to cry out in surprise. Luckily, it only lasted a brief second, but it was enough to quicken the pace of the captive's heart. "What was that for?"

"Just a simple shock treatment," Twilight said casually as she noted down Applejack's reaction. "You told the truth, so I shocked you. That's just the kind of thing I expected from you, miss Element of Honesty." A smirk played on her mouth. "But let's just see how long you can keep that honesty for..."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

The unicorn replied in an all-too-happy, sing-song voice that caused a chill to go down Applejack's spine. "Yooouuu'llll seeeee!". The unicorn seemed about to press something but there was a pause.

"Now Applejack. I want you to tell me something, and I want you to answer honestly, alright?"

The farming pony kept her voice steady. "You know 'Ah wouldn't answer any other way."

Twilight's tone sounded like that of a therapist talking to her patient. "Good, good. Well then... what was the last thing you said to your family?"

A gasp from the captured pony. A chill going down her back.

"Answer the question, Applejack."

Applejack swallowed, a lump forming in her throat as she thought of her family. "'Ah... 'Ah told them all 'Ah loved 'em and that 'Ah'd... 'Ah'd..."

"You'd what?"

Applejack's voice cracked, the thought of never seeing her family again fully setting in. "... 'Ah'd see them in the mornin'."

"Aww," Twilight said, looking over at her captive with a faint smile. "So you did unknowingly lie. But at least your family will always remember that you loved them!"

With that, a mechanical whir broke the silence as a machine started up, causing Applejack to look upward in fright.

The scalpel above her was lowering.

"Time for the Scalper to do its work on another subject!" Twilight announced, laughing happily as she worked the mechanical construct, watching eagerly as the #10 scalpel slowly moved closer and closer to the earth pony's head.

Applejack's eyes widened in horror at the sharp metal instrument. She attempted to move, but even attempting to kick her way out was rendered useless now - every movement caused a fiery pain due to the needles in her hooves.

"TWILIGHT!" she shouted, trying to think of some way out even as the scalpel loomed closer. "DON'T DO THIS!"

But the purple mare didn't listen, only seeming to increase the speed of the scalpel's descent. The blade inched closer and closer, until the earth pony's epidermis was sliced by the sharp blade.

Applejack bit her mouth and gritted her teeth, trying to hold back exclamations of pain that threatened to burst from her chest. But as the metal instrument plunged further and further through her head, reaching her muscle and blood vessels, the pain became too much. Applejack screamed from the spasms in her head, only adding to the constant stinging present in her hooves.

The device to monitor the patterns of her brainwaves measured her reactions to the pain that she felt. Her brain was reacting strongly to the agony from her sensory receptors and the emotions of fear and pain that overtook her.

"TWI!... TWILIGHT, STOP!"

Twilight heard her friend's pleas, but she didn't lessen the pain. She simply kept noting appearance and reaction to the scalpel's unyielding slice, causing the agony Applejack felt to intensify and blood to burst out of the veins, a crimson trail following the blade's path as it reached the bone of the captive's skull with a painful clang.

Applejack's vision briefly blurred at the jarring impact, the ache still remaining even as the blade lifted away from her skull and continued to traverse its circular path, shaving all but the front of the earth pony's bright yellow mane. Unrelenting, the machete was tearing away muscle and veins as it went, intensifying the trapped pony's misery.

At last, the metal blade rose up out of the pony's head, slowly bringing blood and strips of muscle along with it. One crimson drop fell from the scalpel, landing onto the strap which kept Applejack's head immobile as it trickled down onto her face like a teardrop.

The pony was breathing heavily, sweat dripping down her face and mixing with the blood drop as the pain lingered. Her eyes looked upward at the painful mechanism, searching in vain for Twilight. Hoping, praying, that the torment would be over.

Not even close.

As Twilight began to cleanse the scalpel, another push of a button brought the Scalper's main construct to life, its claw opening as it had done before, poised and ready to sink its grip into the pony's head. The captive screamed as the apparatus dug its grip within her marred head, tearing away all remaining bands of muscle that would keep Twilight from getting into the skull properly. The claw grip raised the final layer of skin, muscle, and blood, and moving the severed skin out of the way.

Hardly seeming to notice the afflicted pony's cries, Twilight quickly used her magic to open up her injection cabinet and bring over an adrenaline injector, quickly pressing it into Applejack's skin.

"That was just a little something to keep you conscious," she exclaimed, in response to Applejack's pain-filled, questioning gaze. "Now, it's time for the fun things!"

Applejack certainly didn't like that sound of that. "What... f-f-fun?" The pony was in a turmoil of emotions already - confusion, rage, fear, sadness...

Twilight laughed. "The pathway to getting that Element, of course!" The scientist brought her platform over to raise herself over Applejack's exposed skull, scalpel cleansed and ready. "You see, Applejack, in order to properly get a hold of that elusive Element, I need to take it from you. Just like with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie."

The earth pony tried to look up at Twilight. She couldn't see that the unicorn was faintly smiling.

"In order to do that," the scientist went on as she brought both the scalpel and neuron manipulator close to the other pony's skull, "I need to manipulate you." She lowered the knife into the pony's skull, the bone splintering and the captive crying in agony. "I need to break you." She tilted her head slightly, glancing down at Applejack's eyes dripping tears before continuing on her work, carving the skull away. "But I'll be doing something rather interesting for you. It's gonna be new for me."

Applejack's green eyes managed to look up toward where she knew Twilight was, putting as much anger that she could in her trembling voice, forcing the word out through the searing pain in her hooves and head. "Wh-Wh-What?"

"You have the Element of Honesty, so you try not to lie. Therefore," Twilight chuckled, switching on the neuron manipulator, "I think I ought to tamper with that a bit..." She tilted her head, examining the brain structure closely, seeming lost in thought about which part of the brain to manipulate. The whole while, she still had her magic hold on the dial meant to shock her subject, just for when she needed it.

With that, she leaned over and used her manipulation tool on Applejack's brain, changing the neural pathways to different pain receptors, causing stinging sensations all over the pony's body, further adding to the pain that she already felt. Observing the brainwave patterns through the monitor, satisfied with the response as the earth pony let out a yelp of pain, she glanced at the nearby monitor and used her manipulator on the earth pony's hippocampus, allowing a change in the captive's memories.

Time for the fun part.

"There are different types of lies, Applejack," Twilight explained soothingly, levitating her trusty notebook nearby in preparation for her scientific observations. "Thus, I find it only right to get the Element of Honesty by undermining the different kinds..." A smile spread across her face. "I'll start off small - let's try a white lie first. Those are those little lies you tell somepony that may even be partially truthful."

"How're... you gonna... do that?" the earth pony managed to question. Her brainwaves clearly showed her fear, but there was also determination. "You... y-y-you can't m-m-make me l-lie..."

Twilight paused in her work at the earth pony's defiant words. So determined to keep hold of her personality and values. Her voice turned calm, sweet, almost seductive. "Oh Applejack..." she briefly tilted her head down just enough to see the other pony's wide, emerald green eyes. "I can do anything here."

Still playing around here and there with the neuron manipulator to cause more pain, the scientist then focused her main task on delving through Applejack's memories. Time for some conditioning, and her little shock therapy would help.

She allowed a memory to come forward for Applejack. A memory of when she was a younger filly, and talking to Big Macintosh in their house.

"I'm gonna go outside and have a look around the apple fields, alright Big Macintosh?"

"Eeyup," Big Mac replied in his signature manner. "But make sure you stay within sight of the barn. Ah' trust you, sis."

"... Big Mac..." murmured Applejack in the present, struggling to find her voice. "Twi.. you ain't gonna- agh!" The farm pony cried out in surprise as a small electrical jolt was shot along the wires and through each individual needle lodged in her hooves. The charge seeped into her, sending a tingling feeling all over her body. It wasn't enough to really harm the pony - it was a bit stronger than a shock from static on a rug.

"Ah ah ah, Applejack," the unicorn said gently at the pony's cry. "Telling the truth just gets you shocked like that, see?" She began to manipulate the memory slightly, just enough so that Applejack believed she had told a partial lie.

"I'm gonna go outside and... help Granny Smith with the apples, alright Big Macintosh?"

Twilight made sure to not shock Applejack then, reinforcing the idea that telling the full truth brought pain. Manipulating her memories like this would help, little by little, to break the earth pony's confidence and bring that Element out into the open.

"See? Wasn't it easy to tell that half-lie? No harm came from it, did it?"

Though that single memory of Applejack's had been changed, the rest of her memories were untouched, the pony still believing honesty was, for the most part, the way to go. She struggled to speak through the pain inflicted on her. "W-Well... h-half-lies c-can be... alright sometimes... they aren't always harmful, sometimes they're good!"

Twilight eagerly looked at the monitor. No change yet, at least not noticeable to her. Nothing yet... the scientist though to herself. That's okay, just getting started...

"That's just what I was hoping to hear," she went on aloud, observing a new memory to alter. "You need confidence to tell the truth. And I'm gonna break that." A smile. "Oh, by the way, I know your name isn't Applejack."

"What?! Of course it is!"

A click. A stronger shock coming through the needles that caused Applejack to cry out. The strong current caused her body to tense up, feeling scorches on her hooves where the shock had impacted them.

"See what happens when you tell the truth?" Twilight scolded. "The more you tell the truth, the more pain comes from it. By the way, it's not so much the voltage that kills you as it is the current - I've manipulated it enough so you'll feel more pain when the shock goes through your body/" She levitated the apple from before closer to her subject. "Now, let's do the 'barefaced' kind of lie, one that's obviously a lie to those who hear it. Come on, Applejack, say it's an orange."

"No. It's an apple." The response to her truthful statement was another click and a sharp jolt of pain, the current running through her systems before it switched off.

The unicorn scoffed. "Still just as stubborn as ever, I see. Come on, Applejack. Is it really so hard to lie about something trivial like this? It's just a little lie."

"Lyin' is... still wrong!" Applejack protested, trying to get her breath back from the lingering voltage.

"Oh, truth has done any better?"

"Yes!"

Twilight turned up the dial to 20 volts, sending its charge through Applejack's body. "Not here it won't!" Turning her attention, swiftly, back to Applejack's memories, she searched for another to manipulate, another to turn into a non-painful lie.

Aha, yes... a memory of her friends... when she first met Twilight.

"'Ah'm Applejack. We here at Sweet Apple Acres sure do love makin' new friends!"

... I remember that, Twilight thought, staring for a moment at the memory on the monitor. Applejack had been so enthusiastic then... her first friend in Ponyville...

Her friends...

But the thought left Twilight, pushing the memory out of her mind. No! she told herself firmly. Remember the task! You need to get the Element of Honesty! Just focus on corrupting her memories...

"'Ah... 'Ah met one of my best friends that day..." Applejack murmured as the memory came to mind.

A click. A shock. An angry roar from Twilight.

"YOU DIDN'T!" She glared down at the other pony, observing her heaving breaths and sweat dripping down her face. She could almost hear the other pony's heart pounding. "Tell yourself I was never your friend!"

"But you were!" Applejack cried.

A click.

Applejack shut her eyes, bracing herself for the pain.

It didn't come.

The mare slowly opened her eyes.

Another click. An instinctive shut of her eyes. Nothing again.

The farming pony, as hopeless as it seemed, clung on to a shred of hope. Had Twilight come to her senses? Had she been freed from this mad desire?

A chuckle from Twilight told her that wasn't the case.

"It seems my conditioning process has worked!" the unicorn said brightly. "All I need to do is have you hear the sound of the click, and you cringe to wait for pain! Negative stimulus at its finest!"

The clicking noise sounded again, and the captive pony really did get shocked that time. A powerful current through her that she had just been beginning to feel relief from.

"That's for telling the truth about me having been your friend," Twilight hissed. "Now lie!" Say I haven't been your friend!"

Tears fell down Applejack's face, some part of her, begging, pleading, daring to hope that Twilight would remember. "But you have!"

She has been your friend... since you came to Ponyville! the thought lingered in Twilight's mind, a desperate plea from her conscience within. She's your friend!

Another click of the machine. Another electrical pulse running through the machine, into her hooves and through her body, charring her coat at the touch.

"Do it! LIE!" The voltage and current increased as Twilight observed the suffering pony's memories still further, increasing the shock a little more every time she allowed a memory to come where the farm pony had told the truth. Making her think that truth brought pain. Causing her subject to be unable to meet anypony's eyes from within her memories.

Finally, there was a change in the signature of Applejack's brainwaves. A visible genetic pulse. Honesty was separating.

Yes yes yes! Only a little, but it's working!

"Say I'm not your friend!" Twilight shouted. Desperation to get her hooves on the Element, to have the threat eliminated, was causing her to become more desperate. "SAY IT!"

The orange pony was shaking, struggling and failing to hold back tears. "You're... y-y-you're..."

The frequency turned up still further. The memory became hazy to Applejack. The unicorn manipulating it so she only remembered pain. Physical and emotional. Destroying every bit of confidence.

"A-A-Alright! Y-Y-You're not mah friend!" Applejack's eyes were darting, each word hurting emotionally just as much as the physical pain she was being forced to endure, if not more. Applejack's heart ached with each word she said. "'Ah've hated you ever since I first saw ya! I've always been afraid of you! I've always hated you!" Her words were mixed with screams and cries of regret, confidence to tell the truth completely shattered. To her, truth was pain. She still cared for her friends, but to say truth would only bring agony with it...

There was an orange pulse in the signature. The spark of the Element of Honesty had shown itself. It was there... there but unreachable still.

The surge went up to 500 volts, then steadily climbed. Twilight was growing angrier, more desperate. She had conditioned Applejack to be afraid of the shock, to brace herself for pain when she told the truth - but it wasn't quite enough. There was still something missing, something, something. Well, Twilight would make it, she'd force it...

"LIE!" Twilight shouted in a frantic screech, . "DO IT NOW! LIE! LIE ABOUT EVERYTHING YOU CAN! TRUTH HAS ONLY BROUGHT YOU PAIN!" She upped the ante on the electrical voltage, causing the other pony's body to convulse further from the shock as the electricity jolted through her body, stopping the shock briefly and screaming at her captive, eyes blazing with light. "LIE OR I'LL SHOCK YOU MORE! I'LL KILL YOU RIGHT NOW!"

"A-A-Alright!" Applejack was choking through her sobs, her body trembling due to the intensity of the repeated electrical currents pumped through her system. "E-E-Everypony in mah family is c-c-captured, everywhere above us is a torture chamber, th-this place is the only place that's safe, y-y-you're the only sane p-pony... 'Ah'm n-n-not afraid of... y-you, Applejack isn't mah name, and.... and... Ah've n-n-never had... any friends before.... in m-m-mah life!"

Applejack's breakdown of confidence had caused her to spout lie after lie, no longer having the will to tell the truth anymore. With that, Twilight turned off the electrical voltage, letting the feeling subside, though the burn marks were clear on Applejack's limbs from where the electricity had fried her.

But though Applejack's words sprung out lies, her brainwaves showed truth. She was desperate, pleading, begging, regretting all she said. She wanted to take back all of it, in her head.

Twilight's ownthoughts were racing, faster and faster, as she observed this in the earth pony's brainwave patterns. Her rush to have Applejack lie was bringing out the Element somewhat, but not yet... It's not enough, not enough! I can't just have her be terrified to lie! That's only working part-way! I have to WARP HER, BREAK HER! Whatever it takes!

Seemingly freed from the agony of the shock treatment, Applejack forced her gaze to meet Twilight's, despite the lingering pain and her fear. "You... You're gonna l-l-let me.... g-g-go.... right?"

Twilight only laughed.

"... R-R-Right?" Applejack was lying to herself and she knew it - Twilight's manner made it clear that she wasn't getting free.

The deranged scientist grinned, making adjustments on the electrical controls as she glanced at the pony with a smile. "Sorry," she said in a distinctly unapologetic tone. "No can do. But don't worry," her tone turned, for a moment, happier. "I'll tell Apple Bloom and the others you're sorry, okay?"

Applejack's eyes widened, but if she was meaning to respond to Twilight, to vocally say not to harm her sister or anypony else in her family, it was too late. She didn't have the strength, physically or emotionally, to protest.

And Twilight wasn't done.

The scientific pony resumed the second phase of her work, carefully studying the hippocampus and amygdala in Applejack's brain. She had to really twist the suffering pony's perception. It wasn't enough to just scare her into telling the truth.... she had to warp the mind enough.

"Oh Applejack," she called out cheerfully, touching her neuron manipulation tool to the pony's brain eagerly, "time to do a little switch-around!"

With the monitor as a guide, before the earth pony could say anything to protest - lie or truth - Twilight brought forth the memory of their first meeting again. With a spark of the tool and its cellular alteration, she manipulated it, controlled it all...

Oh, how Twilight loved this control.

The claim was announced, in Applejack's memory, that the ponies at Sweet Apple Acres did love making new friends. And Twilight Sparkle began to slowly cause the memory to warp, perception to blur. The truth became twisted into a lie:

"We sure hate makin' new friends! We only want to hurt other ponies and make them our enemies!"

And due to this manipulation, the spark of deception warping her mind, Applejack believed the lies. Her brainwaves filled with hatred for other ponies, only wishing to hurt them, keep them away...

The scientist continued with her work, warping and corrupting Applejack's memories and emotions. Any trust and happiness that Applejack truthfully had for her friends were considered to be lies. But soon enough, Twilight began to have a little too much fun warping the other pony's brain. The memories became twisted, distorted. What was truth? What was lies? Honesty and deception were almost indistinguishable. But whatever Applejack thought was a lie, she'd say. Her confidence to talk had been somewhat relinquished now, thanks to the memory alteration, but when she did speak, all she told was deceit.
It was clear from the monitor, as the now visible orange Elemental light pulsed more visibly in the brain's patterns, that Applejack's mind was in a skewed state of morality. Truth would bring pain, so she'd lie... but how could she truly lie if she didn't know which was truly real and which was fake?

Everything kept changing for the earth pony. And through the constant twisting of memories and emotions, of her morality, she was in such a confused state that she wasn't sure what to say or do. She was, emotionally and psychologically, trapped in a turmoil of complete helplessness, only really reacting when the insane scientist manipulated the neural pathways to her sensory receptors to cause pain.

At last, the orange, sparking signature fully appeared at last. Honesty was just about broken.

Twilight grinned as the Element fully manifested, her wild eyes firmly on the pulsing, sparking form of the Element of Honesty, staring at it with a starving gaze. All too eager, she messed with Applejack's memories and emotions a bit more, skewing morality for the farming pony beyond repair. The brainwaves constantly fluctuating, unable to discern honesty from deception, fearing pain from truth but unsure which was a lie.

When the signature of the Element of Honesty became fully manifest, measurable, the deranged scientist eagerly snatched it up, placing it in a containment jar like the others. The process filled her with a sense of euphoria, glad to have the Element at last as she looked down at the broken captive. "Ha! Now even if you did escape, you'd be so broken you wouldn't even be able to tell anypony anything, would you?"

The only response was a glance upward from those bright green eyes.

"Thank you for showing the balance of truth and lies, Applejack, and how it can be blurred and twisted to completely change a pony," Twilight chuckled, sounding sincere. "I really am grateful... and I'm not lying."

The moment that she finished that last sentence, Twilight steadily turned the intensity of the current and voltage up to full power - 2,000, 10,000, 100,000 volts. And after that broken silence, Applejack was forced to let out a loud, agonized, unending scream. The electrical current shot through Applejack's skin, her veins, her organs, causing extremely painful burns and spasms. Some of the electricity came in waves and arcs, lightening seeming to circulate all around the suffering pony's body as the frequency rose higher and higher. The powerful electrical current was running its deadly course all the way through to her quickly beating heart, which was struggling its last to keep its owner alive.

Finally, after all she had gone through, the last of Applejack's strength, and attempts to resist, faded as the electrical voltage took its toll. The powerful charge caused the frantically pumping heart to halt in its blood flow, and beat no more.

The screaming stopped. The green eyes became glassy. The lifeless, charred body fell as limp as it could in its bounds.

Applejack was dead.

And Twilight, for a moment in the laboratory's sudden silence, stared at the body of her friend. Her first friend here, one of her best friends... gone just like the others...

But she tore her gaze away, looking meaningfully at the contained Element. The task to get Honesty was done. The unicorn hurriedly released the dead pony from the restraints, letting the body fall to the floor as she levitated a knife over, beginning to cleanly slice off the cutie marks for her book, separating them from the lifeless form that had once been Ponyville's best apple harvester.

The soul of the third Element-stripped pony thus left the physical world, joining the other two broken ponies in the void they had been condemned to. The young dragon had been lucky - he had been brutally murdered, skinned alive, true, but he had gone to the paradise where he would have been meant to go after death. But those bearers of the Elements had a core part of their personality taken from them by the wielder of Magic, trapping them in a cold purgatory.

All three there knew that the purple unicorn was quickly breaking down, her psyche shattering. But only Pinkie Pie wanted to beg Twilight to stop. Rainbow Dash didn't care, in fact thinking the purple unicorn would be better off dead. Applejack had lost all confidence to voice whether she truly cared or not.

But all they could do for the moment was watch. Wonder what the psychotic pony was going to do next.

"Okay, okay," Twilight muttered wildly to herself, gathering a few of her scientific measuring tools and bringing them close to the Element's form, trying to quell her pounding heart. "Applejack's gone, the main threats is eliminated. Just two more of my friends to go... but who next..."

After a moment of thought, the purple pony's eyes lit up. She glanced briefly over at Spike. Than toward her bookshelf. "I'll wait for a time, see what happens... but I think Rarity will be..."

A pause.

"... generous enough to give me her Element."

Desensitizing Generosity

You can never love without giving.
- Robert Louis Stevenson

Twilight Sparkle carefully worked away into the night, cleaning the skin layers harboring the cutie marks for her book and harvesting the organs to laminate as its pages. As always, the organs were rather painstaking to sterilize - not to mention, as always, bloody - but Twilight was pleased to note as she separated the bone, muscle, and viscera that Applejack's leg muscles were, indeed, very strong. Stronger than that of some of the other earth ponies she had looked at.

"It must be all that apple bucking," Twilight muttered to herself. "That amount of hard work would make anypony have that kind of strength. Very impressive muscle structure."

As the scientist continued in her research, taking notes and observing the Elements with her darting, contracted eyes, she didn't notice the ponies watching, separated by the barrier between the living world and their purgatory. The two familiar ones were now joined by a third, charred companion.

Applejack had joined the purgatory-bound group, staring numbly. She glanced at Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, but for the moment said nothing.

Rainbow Dash was looking at the studious unicorn, her rose eyes staring quizzically. Something had seemed different about the psychopathic murderer. And Rainbow wasn't entirely sue how that difference would effect any further action the scientist would take.

"Something seemed a bit off about her," the pegasus remarked. "Even in her insanity. She seemed to look almost... sympathetic at times." She stepped several paces closer, head tilted slightly, her mane - which was quickly obtaining its former length, as was Pinkie's - encircling her neck. The pegasus turned to the charred newcomer, who's emerald eyes were darting around. "You noticed it when she was torturing you didn't you?"

Applejack tilted her head upward now to briefly meet the cyan-colored pegasus's eyes, but the direct gaze was quickly broken as the irises of her eyes turned downward to their equivalent of ground. Her voice sounded stifled, wincing every so often as she spoke. "No... yes.... I don't know...." It was clear through her actions that Twilight's combination of memory-alteration and shock therapy had left her broken. She had all truth taken from her, wanting to lie... but so deluded and warped she was unsure what was true and what was false. She only turned her view toward her singed hooves, blackened from Twilight's shock therapy, a few blood-clotted holes visible where her hooves had been impaled during the shock treatment.

Rainbow spat at her, speaking in a taunting manner. "Oh yeah, Miss Broken-Honesty, you don't know what's true or fake anymore, or at least you won't say. In any case, those sympathetic looks were probably fake. Just a stupid trick."

Pinkie started gesturing, coming a bit closer to her broken friend. Her blue eyes were clearly worried as she tried to get Applejack's attention.

Noticing the pink earth pony's gestures, Applejack stared incredulously. "What?"

"She's trying to say something about how you still have us, but she's wrong. You just might say you still have her. Though you'll probably just tear each other apart. Fine by me."

Pinkie's shoulder's sagged a little. It seemed that she never really would get her old friendships back... at least, not back to the way they were before.

Rainbow moved her own irises around in an attempt to stare down the farming pony, to intimidate her. Almost as if it were a game.

Finally, Applejack spoke sharply, irritated at the mutilated pegasus's behavior. "Ya'll stop that!"

Rainbow blinked, surprised at the forcefulness of Applejack's voice. "I'll stop when I want to. Though," she paused, straightening up again as she looked away from the other pony, "it seems that you aren't a complete weakling from the experiments after all. You may not be able to say a truth or lie, but you can at least demand a neutral statement." She huffed.

Applejack shot a brief stern look at the pegasus, but said nothing else.

"As for her," Rainbow indicated toward the living scientist with a sharp flick of her tail, "there's something else I noticed about her."

The two earth ponies looked at her in interest, their eyes speaking their intrigue for them.

"Her magic aura seemed a little darker. And I don't think it was just from the lighting"

Unnerved by her words, yet afflicted with a nagging curiosity, Pinkie and Applejack turned their focus toward the veil that separated them from the laboratory - veil that seemed to be somewhat thinner - and lingered their gazes on Twilight.

Sure enough, as the three ponies quietly observed, they could see the lavender unicorn using her magic to draw her experimental tools closer to her, her notebook by her side. Her eyes were focused intently on the energy of Honesty she monitored, levitating all manner of instruments to her and connecting some wires to the containment chambers. Several connections even were hooked to the chambers of Loyalty and Laughter as well, comparing the genetic signatures of each one.

All this with a dark magenta aura surrounding the connections, slightly darker than normal. In fact, it was almost a violet color.

"I have no idea what that's about," Rainbow snarled. "But I do know I don't like it."

A mutter of intrigue from Twilight caused the trio to look more intently at her doings, wanting to know exactly what was up. It seemed as if the murderess had noticed something.

Twilight had, indeed, realized something that was rather interesting. The colors of Loyalty's energy was fading to a white color, like when ordinary DNA can be seen with the naked eye. Laughter, too, had faded in color, though not quite yet to the degree that Loyalty had done.

For an instant, Twilight's eyes widened as she was gripped with panic, but the feeling quickly left to be replaced with an excitement.

"So, the Elements are truly beginning to release their hold on their old inhabitants. They're going to be pure genetic code now!" The mare grinned, shuffling papers out of the way eagerly and adjusting the wires to monitor them. "The energy signatures are starting to be at an untainted state, so I can do a little bit of comparing their initially extracted state with their pure state!"

"Pure?" Applejack questioned as she and the others listened on. "What's she goin' on about 'pure'?"

Pinkie Pie, a puzzled expression on her face, gestured her confused inquiry as well. "And 'tainted'?" Her blue eyes showed her hurt feelings, saddened at the thought. "Is she saying... we're tainted?!"

"That's exactly what she seems to be saying, Voiceless," Rainbow snapped. "It's like she thinks that stinking Harmony stuff is all she really cares about! And I still can't figure out why." She stamped her hoof.

Twilight continued her work all through the night into the morning. Not sleeping, not eating, not resting. Only researching, reading her books, focusing on her deadly task. And, in her mind, plotting on how to obtain that Element of Generosity.

I'll get that Element from Rarity... but how... how?...

A thought occurred to the scientist. Generosity was linked to empathy and compassion. Where were those feelings stored? In the amygdala, the part of the brain that harbors emotion. She grinned to herself.

"I think there will be a bit more playing around with emotions to be done..."

As morning drew near, a certain family on the other side of Ponyville began to awaken at the crack of dawn, as they always did... with one tragic difference that they would soon come to learn.

Apple Bloom was the first one to wake, her eyes slowly opening from a somewhat fitful sleep. She had dreamt the night before, but it wasn't one of her normal, cheerful dreams. There had been a darkness, and she saw Pinkie Pie and Rainbow disappear right before her eyes. The same had happened to Appplejack... Twilight had been there too, but only briefly, so sudden that she had startled the filly. All of them had been taken. Taken to... where? She wasn't sure. And she was almost afraid to find out.

But it was just a nightmare. She was free of that now.

The filly briefly closed her eyes and tried to push the dream out of her mind. She was just concerned about Pinkie and Rainbow, with all the events that were going on, and thinking about her sister's suspicion that something was up. That something wasn't right.

Her sister... Applejack would probably be up now. It was a short while before sunrise.

'Ah can talk to her about my nightmare, Apple Bloom thought as she rose from her bed and headed off to Applejack's room down the hall, confident that her older sister would be willing to listen.

"Hey, Applejack? Are you-"

The filly halted her words mid-sentence as she entered Applejack's room, knowing right away that something was amiss. The bed where her sister normally slept was empty. The sheets were muffled and twisted, not neatly made like they normally were when the farming pony went out for the day. It was as if she had been removed from her rest by force. And her hat was still where she put it when she slept...

Applejack never left her room like this.

Somepony else had been here. An unwelcome visitor.

The yellow filly stepped backwards in shock and terror, terrible thoughts rising into her head. It was if aspects of her nightmare had crept out of her head and invaded her waking life. The terrible implications had hit her. The mysterious disappearances of Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash... now this!

The horrified scream that came from Apple Bloom's mouth might have been heard to anypony within the perimeter of the farm, had anypony else been awake. One thing was certain though - the cry would put an end to the restful sleep of the inhabitants of Sweet Apple Acres for quite a while.

"APPLEJACK!"

Several hours later, Twilight managed to traverse up to the main part of the library, attempting to rid the grit of sleep deprivation from her eyes. She hadn't slept a moment throughout the night, intently researching the Elements' signatures now that they were becoming "pure", and compiling her notes on Applejack.

And she did a little bit of work on Spike as well.

"I might be able to use his skin for something," she had said as she worked. Not to mention that examining his skin, skeleton, and organs helped her learn a lot about dragon anatomy.

How brilliant, all this knowledge-collection. And how tiring.

It's all worth it, though, Twilight mentally assured herself as she wandered into the central library, as nopony was there with Spike no longer present. I'm learning about the Elements' signatures already. And there's just a few more to get...

Attempting to shake off the lack of sleep, and brush down her disheveled mane and coat (without much success), Twilight Sparkle stepped out the door of the library, expecting to see the inhabitants of Ponyville going about their daily business as per usual.

Not the case.

Rather than coming out to quiet streets, it seemed that everypony was outside, all in a crowd. Heading over toward Town Hall.

Twilight froze. She had a feeling what this was all about, a sinking, terrible feeling...

She was right.

"Twilight dear, there you are!"

"Twilight, have you seen her?!"

True to the cocktail party effect, Twilight's attention was immediately drawn to the two familiar voices that addressed her. Sure enough, both Rarity and Fluttershy came running up to her. "Seen who?" she inquired as casually as possible. "What's got everypony so excited?"

"Not excited - more like worried!" Rarity corrected, the three of them now mingling with the crowd. "Didn't you hear?"

"Hear what?'

"Applejack's gone!" Fluttershy exclaimed, clearly worried. "Apple Bloom was saying that she was there last night, and this morning, she was gone! Just like that!"

Oh no oh no oh no... The unicorn forced herself to stay calm and look directly at her friends, though her deceit toward them was pressuring her to look away. "Are you sure? Maybe she just went out for a morning walk."

Fluttershy frowned in thought. "If she goes somewhere, she tells everypony! She wouldn't just leave!"

"And according to Apple Bloom, her room was left an absolute pigsty!" Rarity added. "That's definitely not normal. And in any case, she'd certainly be back by now if it was just a 'morning walk'."

"Oh no..." Twilight didn't need to feign worry - she made her anxiety quite visible on her face. Though, it was for different reasons than anypony else would think. Her reasoning was that now her deeds has alerted the attention of everypony. They would be more on alert.

Fluttershy's eyes widened in concern as she took in Twilight's appearance. "Are you okay? You don't look so good."

"Huh?" Twilight rapidly shook her head to jolt herself into a more alert state. "I'm fine, Fluttershy. J-Just a little tired. I was up all night reading."

"Oh, if only you had been at Sweet Apple Acres at the time!" Rarity said. "You would have been able to find out what happened and stop that ruffian!"

"Y-Yeah..."

Twilight couldn't meet her friends' eyes.

She'd have to be very careful not to give herself away. But she forced herself to remain quiet and casual, and yet show a reasonable amount of worry to be natural for a situation when a friend goes missing.

And when the congregation arrived at Town Hall, things only got worse from there.

The Mayor was standing behind the elevated wooden podium, the three members of the Apple family off to her right. The three, as expected, were clearly worried. Wondering what in the world had happened; where Applejack had been taken to.

The assembled ponies' voices were a mess of chatter, swapping concerns, rumors, and fears. Nopony knew the full story of what was going on.

Nopony, that is, except Twilight, the ponynapper in question.

"Everypony, settle down!" the Mayor raised her voice, trying to quiet the gathered assembly.

Soon enough, the noise of the chatter slowly lessened before ceasing completely, the ponies looking up at the Mayor in anticipation.

It was then that the elderly mare took the opportunity to speak. "It has come to my attention that we have a concern among the citizens of Ponyville. It seems that Applejack has disappeared under mysterious circumstances."

"I-It's true!" Apple Bloom called out, hurrying up to the podium to make herself heard. "She wasn't there when 'Ah woke up, and her room looked like she had been forced out!" The filly seemed to find it difficult to talk - it was clear that she was scared. "An' I knew somethin' must've happened because... last night she t-told us that she'd... s-she'd..."

The filly's voice faltered, struggling.

"... s-see us... in the... m-mornin'..."

Tears fell from the young pony's eyes, her grandmother and brother coming up to comfort her. The same worry and sorrow was present in their eyes. Apple Bloom hugged them tightly, as if terrified that her remaining family members would disappear as well. She looked more broken than anypony had ever seen her.

"First Pinkie an' Rainbow... an' now..." Apple Bloom was unable to finish as tears fell from her eyes, and she made no attempt to stop them.

"It's clear that there's some sort of danger around Ponyville," the Mayor announced, looking sadly at the grieving family beside her. "If Applejack really was ponynapped, it may be assumed that Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash have been taken the same way."

That set the assembled crowd into a panic, murmuring to each other worriedly. A few ponies even looked at each other before moving away a few paces, as if thinking that the pony next to them would leap up and take them at any moment.

Apple Bloom's two friends, Scootaloo and Rarity's sister Sweetie Belle, slowly came through the crowd to join the Apple family, attempting to comfort their friend. Twilight, surrounded by her own thoughts, dimly thought she heard Scootaloo say something about "Cutie Mark Crusader Investigators". With no verbal response from the despondent filly, the two friends simply leaned against her to act as a shoulder to cry on.

Like Twilight's friends would have done for her.

The thought dimly resonated in Twilight's head, being drowned by her own desperation to keep control of herself.

"With that in mind," the Mayor went on, "I think we ought to take a few precautions..."

For Twilight, the entire day was filled with putting on a facade of normalcy. Pretending to be the organizer, the one in charge, the one determined to help catch the one who threatened the population of Ponyville.

How ironic that she was helping guard the citizens from herself. In a way, however, it was a good thing - she'd know how to bypass any sort of defenses that the others might try to put up. Not that it would matter - nopony had any sort of magic shielding.

The ponies locked their doors and boarded up their windows, trying to protect their homes from any threat that might try to get in. They couldn't be too careful.

The pegasi of the town flew around the surrounding area, searching carefully for any place nearby that somepony might hide with a hostage or two in their clutches. Much to their despair, they found nothing. No sign of their missing friends.

Twilight forced her psyche not to break down as the day waned, caught between a desire to do more of her work and keeping a normal composure. The combination of a lack of sleep and her anxiety certainly didn't help matters.

At times, when nopony was really looking at her, Twilight had a mental war with herself, struggling to keep herself stable. It seemed her conscience hadn't completely shut up after all.

I just have to act normal and stay calm.

Stay calm?! You're completely breaking inside!

At least I know the various defenses that are being used in an attempt to keep me out. And they don't even know it's me!

Yet! They'll find out!

Not if I'm careful, stealthy, and thorough like I have been. I've been that way, I'll stay that way!

Despite her unease, she made it through the day helping to "protect the town", and managing to safely converse with Fluttershy and Rarity. Talking them through it. Assuring them that everything would be fine.

But everything wouldn't be fine. They wouldn't be fine.

When night fell, Twilight was forced to use the same procedures that she had everypony else use: closing the windows, placing barriers over them, tightly locking the doors.

It didn't matter. She could just teleport in and out anyway, and she was only looking to infiltrate one particular residence.

Before executing her plan to go out, Twilight looked at where the mirror had once been, staring at the shards that still littered the floor from the previous night. Gazing at her tired-yet-determined self.

She knew what she had to do. What she was going to do. It had to be done, it needed to...

She remembered realizing the urgency. Desiring to bring the world to be as she saw it should be.

Thinking about the Elements, their fragile presence. The knowledge that needed to be preserved and fully realized. Repelling chaos for good.

Making them see... wanting to know...

The books. The underground storage that she had transformed...

It had been cold... so cold, then burning like the fires of Tartarus...

The world was like that, in its mixture... harmony tainted by chaos...

She knew how that felt...

The mare shook herself out of her thoughts and back into reality. Thinking about those past events would come later, when there wasn't a task to be so urgently accomplished. And those thoughts, in any case, were a part of her future goal.

As before, Twilight swung a small saddlebag onto her back. But rather than only having a tranquilizer injection, there was a little something more contained within. In fact, in this case, the injection was just a Plan B.

This time around, she was trying something different.

Twilight levitated a small, iridescent gem in front of her, its swirling colors almost hypnotizing. She focused a small concentration of magic around it, the clouded aura encircling the object in smoky magenta tendrils, seeping into the shimmering stone.

It was a spell she had learned from one of her books - a different form of the "Want It Need It" spell she had used previously. That original variation enchanted the object in question so that anypony who witnessed the object fell in love with it. Now, the item was enchanted in a way that would only affect the pony that the caster intended it to. The afflicted target would not lunge or chase after the item either. They would walk slowly, entranced, not making a sound.

Perfect for what she needed to do.

Anxiously waiting for time to tick by, waiting and watching for everypony to be deep in their slumber, Twilight Sparkle teleported out of her library, swiftly heading toward her destination:

Rarity's house.

Looking around just to be absolutely safe, she teleported inside Rarity's place of residence, silently making her way over to the other unicorn's room.

Rarity was sleeping soundly, her luxurious purple mane draped over her face., hooves close by her head. She looked so peaceful, sleeping like that.

Not for long.

Removing the alluring stone from its holding place, the bookish unicorn raised it up in front of her friend, gently nudging her with a hoof.

"Rarity... wake up..."

The sleeping unicorn was slowly roused from her restful slumber, eyes blinking open. "Tw-Twilight-"

She stopped short as her gaze was met by the shimmering gem before her eyes, and fell under the spell that Twilight had placed on it. Her eyes became half-closed, her pupil's dilated, and she slowly rose from her bed as Twilight moved a little further away.

"That's it..." Twilight gently whispered, "that's it..."

The lavender unicorn was caught off guard by another voice - a voice mumbled and tired, but the surprise in the speaker's tone was unmistakable.

"Huh?... T-Twilight?!"

Twilight's head jerked around instantly, her eyes wide as she turned toward the unexpected speaker. It was Rarity's little sister, Sweetie Belle. She must have decided to stay with Rarity that night instead of with her parents!

"Wh-what are-?!" the filly stepped back, stunned at what she was realizing. Twilight's appearance, what she was doing to Rarity - it began to click in Sweetie Belle's mind. "Y-Youre-"

Twilight didn't waste any time. Before the filly could run or call for help, she focused her magic on the gem once again, this time concentrating her thoughts on Sweetie Belle. At the same time, another aspect of her dark magic aura was lunged at the stricken filly, wrapping itself around her and constricting like cords, making the younger pony incapable of movement.

That other new spell works quite nicely! Twilight thought.

The jewel was suddenly in front of Sweetie Belle's view, and once her bright eyes met the glimmering stone, she took on the same entranced appearance as her older sister.

The sinister trespasser smiled in satisfaction, releasing her magic hold on Sweetie Belle. She moved herself away, the gem levitated in front of her, the two other unicorns stepping forward to follow it.

A thought occurred to Twilight, causing her to chuckle. "You know, Sweetie Belle... you've just given me an interesting opportunity to experiment with."

The two unicorns didn't respond, only gingerly stepped forward toward the enchanted object, trapped in a zombie-like trance.

And, as if chanting through a soothing lullaby, Twilight Sparkle began to sing.

"Walk here with me, on through the darkness.
Don't ask where it is we're going.
It's for the best, if you are quiet.
Just follow me, and please, stay silent..."

The dark aura of her magic energy swirled around the three of them, teleporting them out of the household and into the open night air. The two entranced unicorns didn't even seem to notice as they were led away. Twilight made the gem hover beside her, the two mind-controlled unicorns following quietly behind her like a procession of the dead. And Twilight, still in that same quiet, gentle tone, continued her song.

"You'd likely inquire,
What it is I'm going to do.
Just trust me when I say,
That I have so much planned for you.

It's all for Harmony...
All for Harmony..."

There wasn't a sound in the night, save for the hoofsteps of the three, and the scientist's continuing tune. She glanced up at the full moon, bright and high in the sky now, and as they neared the library, her voice grew quicker, more frantic.

"I have to lead you away,
And nopony will ever hear,
The screams I know you'll utter;
The cries of agony and fear...

All I really want,
Is to bring a sense of unity.
To find those that have the power,
Can learn to wield it properly.

It's all for Harmony...
All for Harmony..."

Twilight transported their small group into the library, the hypnotized duo trailing behind as she went over to her bookshelf, pressing the panel that caused the case to turn, revealing the pathway to her laboratory. Leading them into the dark as they moved past the entryway, her voice grew increasingly hushed and fast-paced as they descended into the underground.

"Can't you understand?
Why is it you won't see,
The harmonious world,
That I'm trying to bring?

Just have to find the energy in others,
And allow it to finally grow.
I may have take away some lives,
But it's worth it for my goal.

It's all for Harmony....
All for Harmony..."

Her dark magic current swirled around as the two ponies were lifted into the air, moved toward two of the tables she kept, lifting them to bind her captives tightly in the restraints. She propped them up, moving the two close to the Scalper, Rarity's table elevated just underneath it. She adjusted the position of Sweetie Belle's table, then, so it was a good distance away but facing Rarity's direction at a slight tilt. The two sisters would be able to go through it all together.

The spell was almost broken on them as Twilight finished her song, the sinister emotion clear in her whispering voice.

"All this torture and murder, this pain I'm inflicting,
It's vital for this,
They'll see...
It's all for Harmony...
All for Harmony...

It's all for Harmony...
All for Harmony..."

With that, she canceled out the spell on the gem and removed it from sight, allowing the sisters to gradually snap out of their daze.

"Wha-?" Rarity seemed to be a bit out of it at first, partially from sleep and partially from the lingering effects of the spell. However, she instantly was brought back to her senses by a familiar shout, the other having been freed from the trance as well.

"R-Rarity!"

The white unicorn's heart rate instantly quickened as she noticed her sister there in front of her, strapped down and immobile. "Sweetie Belle!" She struggled to move, to get her sister out of the shackles that bound her. But her desire to reach her sister turned to fear as she came to the realization that she, too, was trapped.

"I-I can't move!" the filly called out, trying to struggle out herself.

"D-Don't worry!" her older sister tried to reassure her, despite being in the same frightening situation. Rarity's horn started to glow with a blue light, like a faint ray of hope. "I'll help get us out of here!"

"No you won't."

The voice was so sudden that Rarity was startled out of her attempt at a spell, both her and Sweetie Belle looking for the speaker. They got their answer when the unicorn in question stepped into their view, her eyes narrowed. "You won't be leaving here."

"Twilight," Rarity demanded, horn resuming its light blue glow as her mind raced on how to free herself and her sister, "what in the world is the meaning of-"

There was a flash of light as a beam of dark magenta energy shot out of Twilight's horn, colliding with Rarity's own. Startled, Rarity attempted to combat the magical aura with her own, but she was quickly overpowered by the dark energy of Twilight's, consuming her own energy field. As if that weren't enough, she was further surprised by a sharp dagger flying toward her, the same color of magic surrounding it.

Rarity tried to stop the dagger from getting near her, but Twilight's power easily overcame her own, as the knife made contact with Rarity's horn, carving around it at an angle and causing it to crack at some points.

"Rarity!" Sweetie Belle cried, green eyes wide in incomprehension. Why was Twilight using her magic to make slices in Rarity's horn?! Even more puzzling, the gashes didn't seem to be entirely random - there was a certain methodical air to it. As if every lash had to be in accordance to a perfect depth and angle.

The blade didn't sever the horn completely, but the weapon had made several cuts into it before Twilight used her magic to pull the blade away. "Go ahead," she said, smiling as her notebook and quill hovered nearby, ready to document interesting data, as always. "Try to use your magic to get yourself free. I'm giving you that chance, Rarity."

Fighting through the stinging of her horn, Rarity tried to focus her magic on getting free...

But nothing happened.

"R-Rarity?" Sweetie Belle asked hesitantly, her voice increasingly scared. "You can still use your magic, right?!"

Rarity scrunched her eyes closed, trying with all her might to use her own magic. Soon enough, her horn was surrounded by its ordinary azure glow.

"Yes!" The young filly allowed some hope to fill her as her sister's power returned. "It's worki-"

But Sweetie Belle had spoken too soon.

The shimmering aura suddenly sparked out of control, and rather than shooting outward like the wielder had intended, seeped into Rarity's body and caused a jolt of pain like crackling electricity.

"Agh!" the white unicorn cried out from the shock, wincing at the unexpected discomfort. Her eyes opened wide, seeing her sister's look of dismay.

"Are you okay, Rarity?" the filly called, worry and fear evident in her gaze. She trembled slightly.

"I'm f-fine, Sweetie Belle... now why did that-" She stopped short as she heard a bout of laughter, managing to look just enough to her left to see its source.

Twilight stood nearby, grinning wildly as her quill scribbled away. "It seems my hypothesis has just been proven correct! If you damage a unicorn's horn through specific injuries, the magical charge channeled through it can't be focused properly, thus will go haywire and reflect back on the user! Brilliant!"

The hearts of the captives sunk. Just when they had thought there might be a chance of escape, that hope was shot down. Any attempt to escape would only be met with pain.

Of course, compared to what else they were to experience, the horn-carving was only a mild discomfort.

"Oh, by the way," Twilight went on with a light chuckle. "You were wondering where Applejack, Rainbow and Pinkie went off to, weren't you?"

Rarity gasped, the implications beginning to sink in the moment the bookish unicorn mentioned Applejack's name, followed by those of her other two vanished friends. Sweetie Belle, too, was caught off guard by what the experimenter was implying.

"You mean-"

"Exactly!" Twilight interrupted with a laugh. "They're down here with us right now!" She frowned slightly, pupil's gazing upward in mock thought as she began waving her right front hoof aimlessly. "Of course, they're dead, but-"

"WHAT?!"

The cry came from both of the captured ponies, horrified at not just the confession itself, but how casually Twilight said it.

"It... It is you, isn't it?!" Sweetie Belle asked, trembling. "You were doing the ponynapping! That's why you were at our house tonight!"

"Of course!" Twilight exclaimed, looking into Rarity and Sweetie Belle's fearful faces. She trotted up to Rarity in particular, staring into the bright blue eyes that regarded her with shock. "I was only going to take you and bring you here - you're the one I need for the research, after all. But..." she whirled around to face the filly behind her. A grin slowly formed on her face, similar to when she planned to make a friendship problem. "Guess who happened to be in the house and waking up at the time."

The young pony trembled under the mare's unnerving expression.

The stalker-smile was still present on Twilight's face as she drew closer to Sweetie Belle. "You shouldn't have done that." Her voice was low, dangerous, as she moved so close to the filly that they were almost nose to nose. "You really shouldn't have done that."

Sweetie Belle shook with horror, wide eyes staring at the psychopathic scientist who looked like she was willing to do any manner of terrible things to her.

After a few uncomfortable seconds, Twilight pulled away. "Though as an afterthought, I'm actually glad that you were there tonight - now I can do a bit more experimentation, and getting Generosity will be much more entertaining!"

Despite her fear, Sweetie Belle arched her brow, confused. "H-Huh?"

"I'm talking about extracting the Element!" Twilight exclaimed. "It's why I need Rarity here in the first place! She is the holder of the Element of Generosity, which is just what I need for the procedure!"

"Twilight," Rarity spoke firmly, but her voice held a waver of unease, "might I ask what you need the Element for?"

"Oh Rarity, Rarity, Rarity," the scientist said with a shake of her head. "I need the Elements to analyze and preserve them, all for the future.

"What about the future?"

"The future where a new world will be created!" Twilight exclaimed. "A world of Harmony being in control!" After saying those words, the unicorn disappeared from the sisters' view as she teleported out of their sight.

"Hey!"

"What-"

The two sisters paused as they heard the low hum of machinery being started up. In particular, a loud noise that seemed to come from right above Rarity.

Sweetie Belle turned her sap green eyes upward and screamed, as she was the first to see the claw grip begin to descend to a lower height before stopping, the #10 scalpel ready to carve into the head of its next recipient.

Rarity's cry joined her sister's as she managed to turn her eyes upward just enough to see the mechanism lowering toward her, the scalpel's blade glinting above. "Tw-Twilight," she stammered, "what are you going to do to us?"

Twilight replied in an eager, sing-song tone. "You'll find out!" She laughed, but she stopped abruptly as her violet eyes lit up. The scalpel ceased its descent as the machine's operator leapt down so the others could see her. "Oh, I almost forgot! Before I work on extracting Generosity, I have a bit to show toward you in return!" She turned from the pair and went off to where the pair couldn't see. "Just a little gift to show how much I appreciate you being here with me!"

"W-What on earth do you mean?" There was no denying Rarity's unease. "Considering the circumstances, Twilight, I'm not so sure if I-"

Rarity got her answer as Twilight returned, magically causing what looked like an armband to hover next to her. As the pair looked at it, they could see that the band was purple with a few green marks on it, with red gems stuck into its surface.

"That does look kinda pretty..." Sweetie Belle admitted, but her voice was laced with suspicion and fear. She was terrified that it was going to do some harm to Rarity, particularly due to Twilight's actions.

The scientist noticed the younger unicorn's worried expression. "Oh, don't worry," Twilight assured her, "it won't do any physical harm to Rarity whatsoever."

That assurance only brought Sweetie Belle minimal relief. Twilight had, after all, only mentioned physical harm.

The band was quickly levitated onto one of Rarity's front legs, just below the clasp that strapped her hoof to the table.

The white unicorn arched her brow, understandably wary but not wanting to be impolite. "Well, um... it's lovely Twilight, but-"

As the aura faded and the armband encircled her arm tightly, the renewed color and the feeling against her skin caused Rarity to gasp.

"Wait.... T-Twilight?" she was stammering, her eyes seeming to attempt to shake away some forbidden idea. "These feel almost like..." her breath caught in her throat, eyes widening at the terrible implication "...Spike's scales..."

Twilight clapped her hooves. "Good job, Rarity! You figured it out in, as Rainbow would say, 10 seconds flat! Well, actually it was 7.23 seconds, but-"

"You did something to him..." Rarity tore her gaze away from the band on her arm, but was unable to ignore the scaly feel. Her blue eyes were wild with anger. "I demand you tell me what you did to Spike!"

"Uh..." Sweetie Belle tried to speak, having a very bad feeling that she wasn't going to like what she saw. She wanted to know, as Rarity did, but another part of her was screaming to not know. She was afraid. "I-"

"Aw, look, Rarity, your sister wants to know what happened, too!" Twilight smiled at the duo. "Well, since you asked..." Moving out of their sight once again and focusing her magic, Twilight allowed the energy to flow from her horn to its destination, to the object it would levitate. The aura surrounded the object and brought it over so it could be seen by the two captured unicorns. "Someone wants to see you!"

It was Spike's body, the skin looking almost stretched across the metal and stuffing that had replaced the muscle, organs, and skeletal structure. And just to drive the point home, a good part of the skin on Spike's back was torn away and patched together - it was that part of his scales that had been used to make the armband that Rarity now wore.

"AAAAAAHHHH!!!" Rarity screamed at the horrible sight of her mutilated, skinned friend. "SPIKE!"

Sweetie Belle tried to hold in her gag reflex, but she was unable to cover her mouth with her hooves, and retched at the sight of the young dragon's corpse. The vomit spilled onto the laboratory floor and stained some of the filly's coat.

Rather than throwing up as her sister had, Rarity shook with rage and revulsion, the urge to vomit overcome by anger. Her eyes blazed in fury and she tried with all her might to free herself, through strength or magic. "HOW COULD YOU?!" she screamed, tears falling from her eyes in sorrow and anger. "YOU KILLED HIM! HE WAS YOUR FRIEND!" Her entire body shook with rage. "I THOUGHT HE WAS YOUR FRIEND!"

"He was," Twilight assured her gently, looking back and forth between the sisters. "He always has been. He didn't have to die, but he threatened my pathway between here and the upper level." Her voice lowered to a firm whisper, no guilt present. "And I couldn't have that."

She grinned sadistically.

"And now with that out of the way, I have work to do with you!"

Before the two sisters had a chance to protest, Twilight quickly teleported away, returning in a flash to bring several wires and devices closer. With the two powerless to move, the scientist stuck the proper devices onto their bodies to measure their brainwaves and heart rate, in particular bringing the primary, much more high-tech scanner for use on Rarity.

"W-What's this stuff for?!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed, trying and failing to keep fear out of her voice as the metal cabling hooked itself into the proper places.

Twilight's voice would have been considered soothing if she weren't working through these sinister circumstances. "Just be patient, Sweetie Belle. You both will find out very very soon. I can tell you two are eager - your heart rates have gone up on the monitors."

The two, in fact, weren't eager - they were terrified. Twilight was just taunting them, and they knew it.

"Now," Twilight went on, "Generosity stems from empathy - feeling compassion for the plights of others. Wanting to help them if any sort of harm were to come to them, and sympathizing."

A sinister grin. "For instance..."

Focusing her magic, Twilight used a spell to make a sharp metal blade appear, which was hurled directly at Sweetie Belle. Completely trapped, the filly could only stare, frozen, at the weapon hurtling toward her.

"SWEETIE BELLE!" Rarity shrieked, instantly trying to use her own magic to stop the weapon's deadly path. But all that occurred was a sharp sting from her own magic backfiring on her.

"Ouch!"

The knife, luckily, didn't stab the filly through, but the side barely grazed her cheek, causing a small cut to appear on the skin, a little blood trickling out.

Rarity seemed to relax very slightly when her sister came out of the ordeal only marginally injured, but she was still furious at Twilight. "You could have KILLED my sister!"

Twilight sighed and shook her head, rolling her eyes slightly. "I never meant to severely hurt her. That was just a test to prove my point." The expression on her face, for the moment, was that of the friendly unicorn that they had once known. "You feel empathy for your sister's plight. You want to generously give her the gift of freedom. You care for her. That's what Generosity is really about - caring. Having empathy. And being the Element of Generosity, you have a lot of that."

The kind demeanor disappeared from Twilight's face, replaced by a thoughtful gaze. She glanced over at the active brain monitors, synapses firing in the siblings' emotional turmoil and physical discomfort.

"Not for long, though." A laugh as she looked over at the helpless duo. "I originally was going to take Generosity just by messing with your amygdala," she turned to Sweetie Belle with a menacing smile, "but now with Sweetie Belle here, I can accomplish a further amount of psychological torture than I could if it was just the two of us!"

"DON'T YOU DARE HURT HER!" Rarity shouted, eyes narrowed so sternly that if looks could do damage, Twilight would be entirely paralyzed, or dead.

The scientist, however, was unperturbed. In response to Rarity's demand, she simply opened up her cabinet to remove two injector needles, and quickly injected one into each of the sisters before removing them. "That was so the two of you are kept awake - it will have the most impact for this to work, you see. It's an interesting psychological opportunity you've presented me with!

The mare chuckled darkly.

"You will each be forced to watch as the two of you are tortured together, in different ways. And you, Rarity, will care less and less for your sister's suffering until all Generosity and empathy are expunged from you completely."

"N-Never!" Rarity's voice was forceful, but she couldn't help but quaver in knowing that Twilight wasn't fooling around. From what had already been seen and implied, the scientist was perfectly capable of very dangerous things, and she wasn't afraid to use them. "I'll never stop caring for her!"

Sweetie Belle's heart rate and brain activity picked up severely at the threat. The thought of the agony that the lavender unicorn was promising filled her with dread. And here this was the unicorn who she had once considered one of the friendliest ponies around.

"'Never', you say?" Twilight taunted. "Well, let's just see how long you can keep up that end of the bargain for. I will break you both. Whatever it takes to get Generosity, I can and will accomplish it."

Twilight trotted over to the Scalper's controls, restarting the mechanism and causing the blade to slowly lower over Rarity's head as the target's eyes rose in terror.

"Of course, in order to properly do that," Twilight went on as she stepped onto her platform to oversee the process, neuron manipulation tool at the ready, "I need to get inside your head - literally. And sorry, Rarity, but your mane will need to be cut off for this. It'll just get in the way, otherwise."

Rarity flinched, but her fear of the scalpel itself and the anticipated pain far outclassed the thought of her mane being cut off. As much as she loved her mane, survival was far more important than fashion - what good was it if you were dead?

"You're gonna dig into her head?!" Sweetie Belle cried in alarm, visibly shaking.

Twilight tilted her head down to be seen by the two, only increasing the speed of the scalpel's descent. "Of course. I can't get Generosity with just a simple brain scan. I need to really manipulate it and change the properties enough!"

And then came the scream from Rarity as the small blade connected with the top of her head, pressing through the skin.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!"

Sweetie Belle looked like she was going to be sick again as blood began to trickle out of her sister's head at the point of impact, watching helplessly at her older sister's attempt to struggle and flail. She felt as if she were living through a nightmare - she couldn't bear to see her sister suffering, but she was too traumatized to look away. "R-RARITY!"

As her sister looked on in horror, Rarity sobbed from the knife digging deep into her head, starting its curve all the way around her head, shearing away her violet-colored mane that was met with the blade along its path, muscle, flesh, and blood staining the hairs that were torn through..

At last, the terrible scalpel had completed its path around the head's circumference, and slowly rose up to make way for the Scalper's main construct - the claw grip that would fully remove the layers of skin atop Rarity's head.

Through Rarity's cries and screams, which intensified as the pointed metal grip dug underneath the skin to sever the remaining bits of muscle attached firmly to the skull, Sweetie Belle was shaking violently with revulsion. She wanted to wake up from this nightmare, but she knew full well it wasn't a dream.

"STOP IT!" Sweetie Belle pleaded as she watched her older sister go through this pain. "PLEASE, STOP IT!"

The only response from the experimenter above them was a laugh and the sound of a scribbling quill before responding as if the screams and cries weren't even there. "Oh, don't worry, Sweetie Belle. I'm not going to be doing that to you... I have other plans."

That only increased the sisters' panic.

"D-Don't...." Rarity gasped through the pain in her head, managing to keep one eye open to glare toward where she knew Twilight was, "you... d-dare... hurt h-her...."

The scientist pretended not to hear, instead coming closer to Rarity's exposed skull so she could use another scalpel to carve the skull away to reach the brain. As Rarity cried out at the added pain in her head, Twilight stole a quick look at the more complex brain scanner that fully surveyed Rarity's brain. The amygdala on the side of the brain was overlayed with the pulse of emotions.

Where Generosity would be. And Twilight was going to make sure that the emotion in that area would be completely subdued.

The skull was carved away until Twilight at last had a full view of the brain that lay underneath its covering. She smiled.

"Oh Rarity, time to work on getting that Generosity now!"

Lowering the manipulation tool to touch the form of Rarity's brain, she paused just inches above it. Her eyes slowly moved in Sweetie Belle's direction.

Twilight smirked.

"Let's do a bit of multitasking, shall we?"

As Twilight's horn took on its now darker glow, she closed her eyes, as if reveling in the fact that she could do magic while the two unicorns below her could not. The magical current flowed outward from her horn, flowing down to the ground level where Sweetie Belle and Rarity were. The magic form condensed, until an item appeared to hover in front of them. It was a metal plate, about a fourth the size of Sweetie Belle's face, and at first looked relatively harmless.

That is, until it grew red hot with a burning substance and began to hover a little closer to Sweetie Belle.

"I think I'll try a little abacination," Twilight commented. "In case you don't know, abacination is a form of corporal punishment where a red-hot plate like this is held at their eyes!"

Despite the pain that Rarity was going through from her head having been carved, she shrieked as she noticed the red-hot plate moving toward her sister. "NOOO!" Her eyes darted, trying in vain to see Twilight, to beg her to stop. "DON'T HURT HER, TWILIGHT! PLEASE!"

But the scientist's reply was completely nonchalant. "This will be an interesting test, Rarity. It will show me how much empathy you feel toward your sister, and how much emotion is registered as a result! I know I'll get the essence of Generosity from in there somewhere!"

Sweetie Belle shrieked at a deafening volume as Twilight's magical aura pressed the hot plate directly onto one of her sap green eyes. The young pony flailed as much as she could in her restraints, but she was unable to move out of the way or shield her eyes, only forced to feel the agonizing burn of the poker against her left eye, pressing harder and harder.

Rarity screamed and cried, unable to bear her sister being tortured like this. Her brainwaves on the monitor registered overwhelming amounts of empathy, fear anger, and a desire to help get her sister free. "TWILIGHT, STOP THIS! PLEASE, STOP HURTING HER!"

"Sorry," Twilight said, noting down the response of Rarity's brainwaves as her sister was tortured. "She's actually helping gather some valuable data as to what your emotional reactions are. The brain activity in your amygdala is very very strong, you know - no wonder you're the Element of Generosity, being so empathetic to the plights of others."

The pressure of the metal plate on the filly's eye destroyed the neural connections as the metal burned through the cornea, iris, and pupil, scorching straight into the socket and causing the impulses along the retina and optic nerve to no longer function, completely rendering that eye useless.

When at last the plate was removed, Sweetie Belle's left eye and the skin around it was completely scorched and raw, having been burned completely away. A dark indent could clearly be seen from where the hot plate had been pressed against her skin.

Rarity's chest was heaving with every breath she took, enraged at what Twilight had done to her little sister. "HOW COULD YOU?! WHY ARE YOU TORTURING US LIKE THIS?!"

"Well," Twilight said as she caused the metal plate to vanish and switched her neuron manipulator on once again, "Sweetie Belle is simply making my job easier for me. I need to get Generosity from you, and it order to do that, I'll have to mess with your emotional reactions, Then you won't feel any sympathy at all, and Generosity will be mine for the taking!"

With that, Twilight lowered her instrument to mess with the structure of Rarity's brain. She rerouted the neural pathways, disrupting the neural connections between brain and nerves so that the white unicorn felt sharp jolts of pain on various parts of her body.

"Well, that's enough fooling around, Twilight said brightly after a few moments, staring more intently at the top of Rarity's brain as Sweetie Belle watched in horror. "It's time I really get down to business!"

Twilight's horn glowed again, the darkened aura shimmering around it in a wave. The scientist closed her eyes to concentrate as her captives could only stare, horrorstruck, at what she was doing. It was a spell that she had learned from one of her grimoires she kept, a spell that she hadn't tried before. The magenta-violet aura seeped from her horn and flowed in two separate tendrils, snaking down toward Rarity below. The captured pony had been unable to see Twilight's initial use of the spell, but she instantly noticed as the aura began to creep over the strap that held her head tight, making itself visible.

Sweetie Belle shook at the terrifying appearance of the magical aura, her single eye widening as her sister, too, noticed.

Rarity's irises darted around frantically, as if averting her gaze would prevent the sinister energy from affecting her. But it was no use - the aura snaked down her face and circled around her eyes in a slow spiral, before finally seeping into the eyes themselves.

And then one of Twilight's recording monitors, the same "mind's eye" one that had been used on the others, showed what Rarity was seeing as a result of the spell, a monitor that Sweetie Belle managed to be able to see.

She instantly closed her eye the moment she saw what her sister saw, though she couldn't deafen herself from the scream that came from Rarity's mouth.

On the monitor was Sweetie Belle, trapped in a darkened void. The filly's appearance, however, looked terrifying. Her left eye was still burned and blinded, but her stomach had been slashed, causing her viscera and ribcage to be seen in Rarity's view. Blood poured from the wound, and also fell from her face as the remaining working eye appeared to be crying tears of the sanguine fluid. One ear was mangled and practically hanging down on the side of her face, and a powerful, invisible force snapped each of her limbs at disjointed angles.

As Rarity screamed in utter horror at what she was seeing, Twilight noted that the brain scan was ablaze with terror and rage.

"SWEETIE BELLE, NOOO!" Rarity screeched, unable to prevent herself from seeing what it was that Twilight had implanted in her head. "I'LL DO ANYTHING! LET HER GO! PLEASE, PLEASE!"

Sweetie Belle felt tears come to her right eye, the anguish in her older sister's voice heartwrenching for her to hear. "I'm..." the filly nearly choked on her sobs. "I'm here, Rarity! I'm..." She trailed off, knowing she couldn't say she was "fine" - she wasn't fine at all.

But at the very least, she was in a better condition than what she had seen on the monitor for that flickering instant.

Twilight, still keeping up the spell, began to manipulate the neurons in Rarity's brain, focusing on the neural clusters of the amygdala. Manipulating emotion.

"You really do want to help, don't you, Rarity?" the scientist said in a gentle tone, using her magic to change the vision slightly, still keeping the magical hold on Rarity's view. "Go on then." She manipulated the vision so that Rarity could - at least, in her own mind - move. "Help her."

In the vision, Rarity began to gallop desperately toward her sister. "DON'T WORRY, SWEETIE BELLE! I'M COMING!" She was determined to reach her sister, fix her up, save her, take her home...

But then, Twilight rerouted the neural pathways. One emotion changing into another.

There was desperation, fear, anger...

And then, as Rarity reached Sweetie Belle, those feelings began to fade.

Sweetie Belle looked weakly up at her sister, in the vision. "R-Rarity...." she mumbled. "...Help... m-me..."

"I... I..."

In the laboratory, Sweetie Belle's breathing and heart rate quickened when Rarity's insistence began to fade. Her sister's voice was now a mumbling, an uncertainty.

And as Twilight looked on, there was a brief pulse in the signature.

The unicorn was so surprised that she almost broke her hold on the dark spell. "Yes, yes, yes! Generosity is starting to show itself! You're losing the desire to offer help to her!"

Sweetie Belle froze at Twilight's announcement. So that was what was going on. "NO!"

For an instant, Twilight focused her magic on a sort of multitasking. Still keeping her hold on the spell used to entrance Rarity, she levitated a sharp blade over to her before having it rush at Sweetie Belle. Just as quickly, she pulled the spell on Rarity's mind away slightly, so that it came out from the crevices of the white unicorn's eyeballs just enough for her to see reality.

And Rarity was brought back just in time to see the knife roughly dig into Sweetie Belle's stomach, forming a slash on the surface.

The filly screamed from the pain in her abdomen. The weapon hadn't sliced enough to make its way to her organs, but the cut was still deep enough to bleed.

Rarity's eyes only widened very slightly before the tendrils of magic seeped back into her vision again, taking her away from reality and throwing her back into the world of the mind's eye once more.

Through the stinging in her stomach, Sweetie Belle felt a wave of dismay come over her. Rarity hadn't screamed, or looked utterly horrified by the torture inflicted on her. She had only widened her eyes slightly, as if more confused than horrified.

Definitely not a good sign.

Twilight altered the vision once again. In this new state, Sweetie Belle was joined by several other ponies. Now, Rarity would see what happened to her friends.

And in the laboratory Sweetie Belle screamed about half an octave higher when she saw her mutilated vision-self joined by the others.

There was Rainbow Dash, tearing herself apart. Pinkie Pie, her larynx being torn out. Applejack, being tortured through shock therapy.

Sweetie Belle was trembling violently, her tears becoming a practical waterfall from her one good eye as she vomited once again at the sight of the mutilated ponies, the rank substance causing her to cough and sputter. She felt traumatized by what she had seen and heard.

And Rarity?

She flinched, eyes widening at the mutilations of her friends. But her voice, thanks to Twilight constantly altering the structures of her amygdala, wasn't a screaming of revulsion and terror.... it was simple questioning.

"Rainbow? Pinkie? Applejack?

Another change of separation in the signature. A light purple spark visible from that part of the brain.

"Just a little more!" Twilight urged, gazing at the Element's spark almost hungrily. "Just a bit more to get that Generosity!"

"RARITY!" Sweetie Belle tried to call out as much as she could to her sister. To bring her back to her caring self, the pony who would care for her friends and help them.

But Rarity was still in the trance of the spell, feeling less and less emotion toward her friends and sister.

Barely able to speak now, Vision-Sweetie Belle turned her gaze up to her sister and croaked out a single word.

"... Help..."

But by now, on Twilight's monitor, the strong emotional reactions from the amygdala had vanished. The brainwave patterns were at a steady drone, as if all the brain activity had become almost mechanical.

And the amygdala indeed, had, because Rarity was now completely without emotion. Incapable of emotional response.

In her vision, her gaze toward her sister and friends was steady, She felt no fear, or sadness, or dread, or generosity. No desire to help.

And like her sister had inquired with a single word, Rarity replied with a one-word answer.

"No."

The cold monotone in which Rarity said this caused Sweetie Belle's heart to break - both in Rarity's vision and the real Sweetie Belle. She had never felt so dejected - Twilight had completely broken her sister to the point where her emotions were torn from her.

The trance was removed as Twilight's aura retreated from Rarity's eyes before fading away completely. The two sisters could directly see each other again, but Rarity's gaze was cold and unfeeling.

And the spark of Generosity appeared, the light purple aura completely separated.

"Aha, there you are!" Twilight exclaimed giddily. "Found you at last, Generosity!" Laughing as her quill scribbled frantically on her notepad, she levitated a containment chamber and swiftly contained the spark within it, moving it to its place along with the others. She looked at the Element's spark almost fondly. "Extracting you allowed for an interesting turn of events!"

It was then that she noticed the expression on Sweetie Belle's face. In contrast to her sister, the poor filly looked absolutely miserable and broken. She had been hurt physically and psychologically.

Twilight's own eyes widened slightly, and she leapt down from her spot to come over to the trembling filly. "Aw, Sweetie Belle, why are you frowning? I know you're horrified by what I've done, but a young filly like you shouldn't be frowning like that." Her voice turned almost kind. "You should smile - it's been scientifically proven to be good for your health!"

Sweetie Belle looked at Twilight, having a momentary glimmer of hope at her friendly tone. But that feeling rapidly changed to one of pure terror as the lavender unicorn used her magic to bring forth another knife, its sharp metal shining in the laboratory's light. The mare came close to Sweetie Belle, grin wide as the filly cringed in fright.

"You, at least, still have emotion, so smile for me." They were almost nose to nose again, veins visible on the edge of Twilight's eyes. "Pinkie Pie knows that smiling helps ponies be happy, and it's a fact." Her voice grew quiet. "Now come on. Smile. It'll help you feel better."

The filly wanted to shake her head, but the straps kept her from doing so. She didn't smile - she was too terrified to smile, but at the same time she was terrified as to what would happen if she didn't.

She found out three seconds later.

"You're not smiling!"

With that, the deranged unicorn caused the knife to move forward in a half-circle, gradually slashing it across the lower half of Sweetie Belle's face in a large sweeping motion. The blade tore through the flesh on the filly's face and ruptured her lips, forming the strips of flesh into a large smile - a Glasgow grin, as it was called. The filly desperately fought through the delirium to look at her older sister with her remaining eye, helpless as the knife moved from her mouth in a wide arc, reaching almost up to her eyes as the forced grin was accompanied by dripping blood.

She tried to call out to Rarity, but the cry was muffled by the knife steadily widening her carved-in smile, and came out as a blood-filled gargle.

Rarity, however, stared evenly, uncaring. She showed no emotion that it was her sister there being flayed, tortured, murdered. Her expression was blank and cold. There was no generosity, no compassion, no love. That had all been taken.

Just as Twilight Sparkle had wanted.

"Oh Rarity," the lavender unicorn said all-too sweetly. "Now that I've messed around with your amygdala enough and have rendered you cold, it's time for one more thing!" Unhooking the table's bottom wheels, she brought Rarity over to Sweetie Belle, releasing the unicorn's front hooves from their bonds.

With a sadistic smile, Twilight used her own magic to levitate a device she hadn't used yet. It was a pair of hoofguards, though rather than being simple armor, sharp blades extended from the end of each one. She placed the clawed hoofgaurds onto Rarity's front hooves, bringing her closer to Sweetie Belle. "This shouldn't be a problem for you..." Twilight's voice lowered to a chilling whisper as she leaned in close to Rarity's ear.

"Kill her."

Rarity blinked, staring at Twilight. As if she was unsure if she had heard wrong or not. "Why? I don't need to do you any favors. There's no point in doing that." She spoke in a way that was near monotone. "Don't tell me what to do. I only do things for myself. Nopony else deserves anything from me."

Twilight's smile only widened. Just the kind of wording she hoped to hear. She waited for Rarity's decision, violet eyes staring hungrily. Generosity and empathy were gone, so the other unicorn should feel no moral qualms about murdering her sister.

And by the look on her face... Rarity wanted to kill her sister.

The scientist knew that if she demanded Rarity to perform the act, she wouldn't listen. But inside her head, the mare was screaming. DO IT! NOW! KILL HER! Unnoticed by the pair, her eyes briefly flashed a bright white, but even when it faded, her gaze was stern. GO ON! SHE HAS NO HARMONY, KILL HER!

Sweetie Belle trembled with terror, searching with her wide green eye for any sense that her sister was still the generous, loving pony she had known before. But the blue eyes that had once regarded her with sisterly love were now as cold and emotionless as ice in the dead of winter.

The young filly, viewing the crazed eyes of Twilight and the unsympathetic eyes of her sister, knew what was coming. She closed her remaining eye and braced herself. Braced herself for the pain.

Braced herself for death.

With no emotion whatsoever present on her face, Rarity leaned over and slowly dug the metallic claws into the sides of her sister's head, deaf to the shrieks of pain as the claws dug in further, through flesh, and muscle. The sudden, unexpected pain forced the filly's eye open, the vivid gaze of the right showing nothing but incomprehension and terror, tears mixing with blood and causing her vision to blur. As the vital fluid flowed down Sweetie Belle's face, the sharp metal made contact with the bone, splintering her cheeks and causing the framework of her skull to fracture, cracking in fragments.

Rarity coldly burrowed the instruments on her hooves still further into Sweetie Belle's head, their length becoming less and less visible outside the head's perimeter as they dug in deeper. The spikes traveled horizontally, then vertically, through the soft epidermis and muscle, splintering the bone of the young unicorn's skull and causing it to fall apart into fractured pieces. The structure of the filly's face became instantly distorted and maimed, jaw suddenly collapsing and hanging slack.

Despite the terrible mutilation that the young filly was enduring, she was still clinging to a shred of her rapidly fading life. But as Twilight observed the contrast in the sisters' eyes, there was one more thing that she wanted done, just to drive the murder home. Sweetie Belle was only going to live a few more seconds, if even that.

This time, Twilight herself wasn't going to deal the final blow. She'd let Rarity take care of that honor. And, as Generosity was truly taken, Rarity wouldn't care in the slightest.

She didn't. And her action was just as Twilight had hoped.

The former fashion designer quickly tore the bladed hoofguards from Sweetie Belle's cheeks and, moving them a fair distance away, roughly swung them in opposite directions. One vertically, to cut straight through the center of the head, the other moving horizontally across the neck. The bone was sliced through, and the metal blades met in the center with a loud clang as they collided at the top of the spinal column.

The filly's severed head fell to the ground in two halves, disconnected from the spine. The remaining green eye was wide open, its remaining light replaced by the glassy cold of death, no longer needed by its owner to see the gruesome surroundings.

Twilight smiled, levitating the hoofguards off of Rarity and quickly placing her hooves back in their restraints before the other unicorn could make any attempt to attack. According to the heart monitor, Sweetie Belle's heart had gone flatline mere seconds before her head had been sliced all the way through by Rarity, but the intention had been there, all the same.

She beamed at her friend, notepad levitating close by, acting much like a therapist speaking to a patient - she found it interesting to take that sort of tone. "So, Rarity, you just watched your sister perish by your own hooves. Don't you feel anything emotionally about that?" She drew a little closer, still talking in her therapist-voice. "Empathy? Rage? Compassion? Regret? Sadness?"

When Rarity replied, she spoke in that same emotionless monotone as before. "Nothing. What did she matter, anyway? She was just my annoying little sister."

Empathy, and thus Generosity, had been taken quite nicely.

"Good, good," Twilight said soothingly as the pen scratched a few notes onto the notebook's thin pages. "That's just what I hoped to hear. No qualms about murder, no emotion in your voice, excellent... Your sister is off to the heavens above, now. As for you..."

The scientist quickly levitated the clawed-mechanism firmly onto her own hooves, their metallic points poised and ready to strike.

Rarity stared straight at the other pony. "You wouldn't-"

But Twilight didn't let her former friend complete her sentence. Without any hesitation, she thrust both her front hooves forward roughly into two different points on the other unicorn's body. Her left hoof was directed at Rarity's face, and the right moved toward the exposed chest.

The claws aimed at Rarity's head just barely missed her eyes, but the force that slammed into her lower face jarred everything. The bone of her nose became smashed into pieces, and every bone and muscle from her mouth to her mandible was completely shattered, the whole of her lower face practically falling off, her jaw barely attached. The strips of muscle and blood were clearly seen, as if the lower half of her head were ensnared by pink-and-red strips, coming apart to hang down like frayed ropes.

The other of the two clawed hoofguards, angled directly at Rarity's heart, accurately struck its target. The armor punctured the epidermis and slammed straight through the ribcage, demolishing the bone to burst through to the beating organ's ventricles and arteries. The papillary muscles within the heart's central chamber were completely disconnected from the valves, and blood began to flow outside her body from the blow. The sticky red substance stained her beautiful white coat a dark crimson, joining the remnants of the sanguine fluid that cascaded down from her mangled face.

The combination of these injuries very quickly took their toll on the unicorn's body, and the cold blue of her eyes quickly faded into a dull lifeless color. The blood steadily flowed from the limp corpse, like a trickling stream.

There was quite a bit of a mess in the laboratory - especially with Sweetie Belle's body lying around as well as Rarity's. But to Twilight, it was all worth it. Generosity's raw energy was safely inside its own containment chamber for analysis, and she had gotten a bit of interesting data out of the deadly procedures, especially with two participants to work on. And it was particularly interesting to see a young pony such as Sweetie Belle handle the torment.

Like the others before her, Rarity was now dead, never to walk among the living again.

It was a pity. Ponyville would have to find a new dressmaker to replace her. And poor little Sweetie Belle... though she had helped very much with furthering the extraction.

Generosity was contained, and it had been quite fun to take as well.

And now...

Of course... Fluttershy was the last of her friends to go. Kindness, the last of the Elements to extract from her friends - and likely the hardiest.

"Kindness is a very tough thing to break, when you get right down to it," Twilight said to herself. "I'll have to use quite a lot of contraptions for it. But it's going to be wonderful to use such a myriad of devices and experiments for the purpose of getting that Element! I'll even get to test the apparatuses I've had in reserve for this kind of work!"

A demented, wide grin slowly began to form on the unicorn's face as she concocted a plan, ideas swirling around in her brain. She slowly walked over to her bookshelf, and eyed several of the grim tomes that she kept down here. She hadn't totally used some of their methods yet... but with Fluttershy, they could be very useful. Very very useful indeed.

Especially some of the more sinister spells she had learned. Like death energy, for instance - she had plenty of that.

The knowledge she had learned was pieced together in her head, taking shape into various schemes, perhaps even some that no other pony had dared to ever think of. The research to explore, the methods to try... the tactics to painfully inflict to achieve her goal.

For the moment, Twilight stepped out of her laboratory, carefully locking the door behind her for both safety and prevention of outside bacteria creeping its way in. She traversed down the hallway still further, pupils dilated for her to see better in the near-total darkness that surrounded her. Soon enough, she came to a door a little more hidden than the last, down a corner from her main laboratory.

She hadn't opened this room in quite a while.

"There's only one way I can really describe the kind of things I'll be doing to her..."

Punching in the proper security code, a click was heard to announce that the door was now unlocked. Slowly, the unicorn opened the door, letting the hall's dim light just barely creep through into the pitch-black chamber. Dim shadows of many shapes could be seen, but their features were otherwise hidden from view. It was obvious something was there, but the actual forms went unseen. Anypony could only guess the kind of apparatuses contained within the chamber.

A bright white glow began to appear in Twilight's eyes like fire, illuminating a bit more of the room's contents without switching on the room's light switch. There were now a myriad of mechanisms visible, some modern, some old-fashioned. There were large tubes filled with various fluids, several housing the injections she had used before, but also more varied, complex, dangerous concoctions. The metal of machinery was glinting faintly, and a few of the larger constructs even looked Medieval. Small bits of metal just barely visible on the otherwise wooden constructs.

With Twilight's glowing eyes the only thing to bring light into the room, the glow slightly illuminating part of her face, she appeared almost like a sort of demonic pony rather than the friendly unicorn the populace knew her to be. But what was most chilling of all was her voice. A voice so cold that, if it had physical form, it would turn the blood of anypony into ice. As if she was a Windigo or a demon having taken an ordinary equine form.

"Welcome to Tartarus."

Suspicion

"I am looked upon with suspicion. I am on the 'other side.'"
-Harry Ellis Dickson

Twilight hummed quietly to herself, gathering a few new torture devices into her laboratory. Cleaning some of them off, dusty with disuse, the unicorn brought a few containers over to her. These didn't contain mechanical constructs - in these containment chambers, there were living beings. Animals that she'd be able to introduce her next subject to. Fluttershy did love animals, after all - why not do her a kindness and introduce her to some new friends? It would be a nice thing to do before the pegasus met her death, just like the others.

This was going to be interesting... and fun...

... Wasn't it?

Rather than straight away returning to her desk where the Elements were housed in their containment chambers, Twilight Sparkle trotted over to the bodies of Sweetie Belle and Rarity, blood still pouring from the wounds and surrounding the spot on the floor where Sweetie Belle's head still lay. She had a few things to do before she resumed her Element research.

First, she scrutinized Rarity's broken appearance, the blood flow from the designer's face and chest having considerably lessened due to the extreme blood loss. She gingerly unhooked the bonds restricting the dead unicorn's limbs, torso, and forehead, the blood-caked corpse practically falling onto her before she used her magic to levitate Rarity's body into the air.

"You never had the strongest of connections to your Element," the scientist scolded. "You let greed overcome you sometimes - I guess that's why your's was easier to take than the others."

With the blood from Rarity's body no longer threatening to spill heavily onto the laboratory's floor, Twilight gently laid Rarity's corpse to rest on a dry area of the metal paneling, the aura of her magic levitating a scalpel nearby.

She glanced over at her bookshelf, where the large books that held the remains of her friends rested comfortably in their proper places. With Rainbow, Pinkie, and Applejack properly preserved in the form of the books, the scientist levitated one of the remaining empty bindings, the book with a faint sketch of Rarity's cutie mark on its surface.

Now, time for the real thing, Twilight thought to herself as she used the scalpel to slice away the mark on one of Rarity's flanks. As always, she was meticulous, careful, making sure to form the cut into a good enough shape for the large book cover. The skin and fur were steadily torn away, leaving Rarity's flank raw and red as the muscle underneath was exposed. After performing the same process for the other cutie mark, she used a cleansing cloth, water, and alcohol to clean the blood and stray strips of flesh from the cover, attaching the flaps of skin.

"You always did have beautiful fur, Rarity," Twilight said, admiring her handiwork with a smile.

She then glanced at the rest of Rarity's body. It was time for the goriest part of the preservation job. Preparing her tools and spells to properly get the organs cleansed and laminated, the scientific mare cut a straight line steadily from Rarity's neck, traveling all the way down so that her organs were all visible to Twilight.

It was painstaking and bloody work, removing the organs and squeezing any forms of residue that remained. It all had to be perfect, preserved, and she needed to work fast so that no time was wasted. She had to gather the essence of the Elements of course - that was the most important thing for her goal - but she couldn't forget her friends. This way they'd be preserved too, even though the work was disgusting. But as messy as the job was, it felt strangely satisfying, preserving her friends like this.

Once all organs, including the brain, were sterilized and laminated, Twilight set to work on separating the skin, bone, and muscle from each other. As was prone to happening, Rarity's skin tore at some places, but no matter - she'd sew it up again later just like the others.

But it was while performing this process that she dimly heard a voice. It was faint, but there. A familiar voice.

Her own voice.

"You have to stop doing this!"

Twilight's head jerked up, her attention drawn away from her work as she looked for the source of the voice. Seeing nothing, she continued her work. "Not now, conscience!" she muttered angrily, looking around. "Why and how are you here?"

After a few hurried glances around, she could see a dim version of herself reflected on the metal of one of her machines. As in the mirror, her conscience-self looked desperate, yet now it was to a greater degree. But her eyes were determined, determined to snap some clarity back into the pony she had become. "I'm here to try to bring you back to your senses! You know - I know - that this isn't right!" She looked as if she wanted to confront physical-Twilight about it directly, but was unable to move from the surface she appeared on.

Twilight turned away from the ethereal vision. "I'm doing what has to be done!" She turned her gaze back to the other. "You know as well as I do that chaos has been in existence for far too long! It needs to be cleansed, and true harmony needs to reign!" An angry glare was present on the scientist's face. "I don't even know why I'm talking to you! You shouldn't even be here! I must be imagining you - I'm frantic, I'm tired, and you don't exist!"

After a pause, conscience-Twilight's eyebrows furrowed in an equally stern expression. "I do exist. I'm the part of you that knows that doing this is wrong!" She looked as if she were on the verge of stepping out of the machine's flat surface and into the physical world, willing to do anything to stop the frightening chain of events.

Twilight didn't back down. "I know what I'm doing. I can't have things be properly found if I don't know exactly what to look for." She slammed one hoof on the ground in frustration, violet eyes narrowing as if to will this hallucination to vanish in the blink of an eye. "You can't change my mind, conscience. You can't. This is what's best for the Elements' preservation, and what's best for ponykind. And I will do whatever it takes to make sure that chaos is repelled and harmony will reign as it should."

Silence greeted the unicorn. For a fraction of a second the wraith-like form appeared to be a little more solid, less reflective, as if making a final attempt to bring Twilight out of the shadows of madness. But the shade faded away, leaving the machine its ordinary silver color once again.

Twilight huffed, tearing off more of Rarity's muscle to expose the white skeleton underneath. "Good riddance."

After separating more of the skin and muscle from the skeleton, the mare's gaze then looked to Sweetie Belle. To the halves of the severed head that lay on the floor, the styled mane drenched in blood on the sides that touched the floor.

A strange emotion overcame the mare - that is, strange in comparison to how she had felt lately. She felt almost... saddened. Regretful. The feeling was greater than before, those fleeting moments where she had felt small pangs of sympathy and regret. The ache of this feeling lingered, and she didn't like it. Perhaps it was her conscience's words getting to her.

Arching her brow, Twilight sat down near one half of the severed head of Sweetie Belle, just far enough out of reach of the blood pool so that she didn't step in even more of the sticky fluid. She dully stared into the remaining lifeless eye.

"You were so young... you could have been so valuable for my plan, my purpose. You might have had Harmony after all." A sigh, a slight mourning for the loss of the filly's life. "It didn't have to turn out like this."

Her words echoed in her laboratory, the low drone of machinery her only response.

"You didn't have to die like that..."

She turned, now, to the stuffed body of her assistant nearby. "...and Spike... neither of you were part of my experimental group for this plan." Her gaze lingered on Spike. "If you hadn't gotten in the way, you both would still be alive."

A small frown appeared on Twilight's face. Her eyes narrowed, the feeling of remorse visibly dissipating. It seemed her conscience-self had been getting to her.

"But I had to do it. The circumstances settled my choice." Her gaze grew stern, stomping her hoof as she closed her eyes, a brief flash of white light appearing just before her eyelids closed. "I only did what had to be done for Harmony. To make everything unified as it should be. To make sure chaos no longer taints the world. I can't be concerned about unnecessary deaths!"

As if the words had struck a chord in her mind, Twilight then glanced down at her front hooves, noting their blood-drenched appearance. The fluid steadily traveling down and covering her lavender coat with its dark color.

As she stared numbly at the blood from her latest killings, a shudder of cold passed through the unicorn's body, followed by a quick, feverish surge of heat. She cringed at the discomforting sensation, the sudden perception of chilled air followed by a furnace-like burning. "Ugh, why am I feeling this way?..." She placed a hoof to her head, too preoccupied with the surges of temperature to pay attention to the blood now traveling down her face. "I thought it had stopped a while ago..."

She hadn't gotten sensations like this since the early days, about a month before she began work on her friends.

With that in her thoughts, Twilight then felt her mind traveling back... back to when she had ambushed those other ponies... as preparation for the larger steps in her plan...

---

She was there in the Everfree Forest, hidden within the dark cloaking of Luna's night. Waiting. Watching. She knew that some ponies traveled within the forest's depths sometimes, and not always ones from Ponyville. Travelers, perhaps.

No pony from around here would miss them.

The inquisitive unicorn crept silently in the trees, observing the two ponies she saw. She had used a spell that would conceal the sound of her hoofsteps on the forest floor, so the pair had no idea she was watching.

Excellent.

"I dunno," whispered one of the ponies, a white-coated earth pony with a red mane, "I've heard there's all kinds of creatures here in this forest, and not a lot of them are friendly."

"Relaaax," chided her companion, a pale blue stallion who didn't seem to be bothered by the dark surroundings. He playfully nudged her with a hoof. "Whatever it is that tries to come at us, you and me can scare'em off!"

Of course, the two of them weren't expecting a pony to be silently stalking them. Yet that's precisely what Twilight was doing, her trusty saddlebag on her back with a sleeping needle tucked away inside.

The lavender unicorn attempted not to make any noise as a violent cold shiver went down her back, followed by a quick flash of heat. These extremes... why did they plague her? She had checked at her underground lab, there was nothing physically wrong with her. Perhaps her body just was getting used to spending so much time underground at night.

But pondering that would come later. She had live subjects to gather.

She carefully stepped through the trees of the Everfree Forest, taking care not to step on any small leaves or sticks that could alert these other ponies to her presence.

Another hot flash caused her to briefly close her eyes... and accidentally impact a small stick with her hoof, its crack echoing in the dark forest.

The blue stallion froze and looked in her direction, and Twilight attempted to keep absolutely still. In the cover of the undergrowth, the pair didn't see her, but they had heard her.

"What was that?" the blue stallion whispered.

"I don't know..." murmured his companion. Her blue eyes narrowed as she raised her voice, head held high. "Who are you? Show yourself!"

Twilight stepped closer.

"I said-"

The two ponies were stunned into silence as a magenta aura surrounded them, with Twilight Sparkle leaping into their view. The two were just about to cry out for help, but the pony quickly jammed the needle into the skin of the two ponies before they could get so much as a few cries for help out.

If anypony else had heard, they might of assumed it was a Timberwolf attack. And that worked to Twilight's advantage. As fast as she could, she hurried back to her lab with the pair of traveling ponies intent to experiment on them alive.

No need for grave-robbing like she had for the dead ones.

---

Twilight forced herself out of the memory. She remembered having implied to Rainbow Dash that she had gotten the cadavers of dead ponies from a place where they were donated to science. But she hadn't told her friend the truth - she had traveled to a nearby graveyard and removed the corpses of dead ponies from their resting places.

It had been risky work, but at the same time, like all of this, there was a certain thrill to it. And it was all part of her plan.

Her wonderful, harmonious plan...

With these thoughts in her mind, Twilight swiftly began to work on cleaning the area of corpses and blood. She had her research to get back to.

Back in the dark emptiness where the dead ponies watched, things weren't going well. Pinkie's eyes were wide, her body trembling slightly, mane on the verge of going straight again. What Twilight had done to Sweetie Belle had hit her hard. It had been terrible enough with Spike, but to mutilate anypony like that, especially a filly who was never meant to harbor a connection to the research at all... it was beyond awful. Sweetie Belle hadn't been like a threat to finding the laboratory - she had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and paid for it with her life.

And yet Twilight seemed to feel some sympathy for that. She appeared to be mentally struggling, at least, talking to the unseen part of her that still had some trace of her old manner. It was as if Twilight had seen her conscience in a physical form, right there, but none of their group could see it. But all things considered, the fact that she appeared to even show a slight sense of remorse, as good as it seemed in theory, could potentially be disastrous for her mental state. Especially with whatever strange sensations she was getting now and apparently speaking to her conscience.

Rainbow Dash paced back and forth, rose eyes blazing as she watched from the thin veil that separated their empty realm from the laboratory where Twilight worked. Every so often she'd stop, snarl, and roughly tear out part of her own skin, chewing it roughly as if in thought as she fought back the temporary pain. It didn't take her long, however, to get over the initial agony and resume her pacing and glares at the only view of the outside world.

The others in the void watched her, confused. There was a silence among them, the only sound being Rainbow Dash's frustrated snarling and hoofsteps.

"W-What're y'all doin' that for?" Applejack inquired after a moment, breaking the tense silence between them.

An answer to Applejack's question came not from Rainbow Dash, but from the newest member of their group, Rarity. Apart from her mane having grown back by a very small amount, as had happened to the others before their manes had grown back, she looked roughly the same as when she had died. She spoke in a dull, emotionless drone, which was occasionally accompanied by a rough clinking due to her misplaced jaw, the strips of blood and muscle having now dried around it, as had also been true with the wound on her chest. "She's being a nutcase."

Rainbow Dash shot a glare in Rarity's direction at the remark. "You know that's not true."

Applejack visibly flinched at the last word, closing her eyes in an instinctive bracing for pain, a reflex that had been drilled into her altered memories from Twilight's torture.

Rainbow Dash looked at the farming pony, having noticed her instinctive fear of getting shocked whenever truth and lies were concerned. "You're pathetic," she muttered. A taunting, ghost of a smile appeared on her face. "And I'm telling the truth about that. I'm not lying."

Applejack flinched at each word that mentioned truth or lying, much as Rainbow Dash had expected. "Just stop tryin' to taunt me like that, okay?"

"Like I said, pathetic," the pegasus snorted before continuing her back-and-forth pacing in front of the thin veil. "I honestly think I have more sense than any of the rest of you." She looked from Pinkie, to Applejack, to Rarity in turn. "You can only communicate in gestures, you can barely talk in anything that's not a question or demand, and you are an emotionless shell."

"And you're a self-cannibal," Rarity said matter-of-factly, her tilted jaw clattering with each rough word.

"Ugh!" Rainbow groaned and returned to her pacing, licking some remnants of blood off of her mouth. "It just doesn't make sense - I mean, she's analyzing those Element things, and with us being in this stupid purgatory place-"

The cyan pegasus was interrupted by a light tap on her back, which made her whirl around to see Pinkie doing more of her gesture-talk. There was still grief and horror in the earth pony's eyes from seeing what had been done to Sweetie Belle and Rarity, but accompanying that was a flicker of stunned confusion.

"I just thought of something! If we're really in purgatory," Pinkie inquired, shaking a little in her gestures, "then why are we the only ponies here?"

The moment after translating, Rainbow stared hard at the pink earth pony, gaze quizzical as she paused in thought. Applejack and Rarity seemed to have silent curiosity as well, though the former's gaze was directed at the ground and the latter's showed no emotion. It was clear that the thought hadn't really occurred to any of them before. They were dead, and they didn't appear to be in heaven or hell, so where else could they possibly be? Purgatory seemed to be the only logical solution.

"I mean," Pinkie went on, with Rainbow Dash further translating, "there's probably some ponies who had to redeem themselves before going to heaven, right?"

A curt nod. Despite believing herself to have stayed away from most of ponykind, even Rainbow Dash knew that ponies who were good in life went to their heaven - Elysium - after they died. That is, if they didn't have to be purified in purgatory for a time first.

"So shouldn't there be at least a few other ponies here?" Pinkie looked around at the expanse surrounding them, barren save for the four of them. "We're the only ones, it's just us. Why isn't anypony else around?"

Rainbow frowned in thought, considering Pinkie's "words" as her pace slowed, then stopped altogether. Her head was tilted down, rose eyes narrowed and brow scrunched in thought. There had to be something that was missing in the equation...

Several seconds passed before the blue pegasus's eyes widened, a realization hitting her. She stole a glance at the lavender unicorn. Noticed her intense concentration on the Elements. Noticed the ever-darkening magical aura surrounding her horn.

It all clicked in the cyan pegasus's mind. As if out of nowhere, she let out a roar of fury, legs shaking in rage as she whirled around to face the others. "Because we AREN'T in purgatory at all!"

"What?" the others chorused (save Pinkie Pie, who leapt back slightly in surprise).

"We're dead," Rarity deadpanned, as if reminding Rainbow Dash of the obvious. "This doesn't seem to be Elysium, and if it is then heaven isn't what all other ponies say it is." A pause. "Unless you're saying that we're in Tartarus. In hell."

"None of the above," Rainbow sneered, tearing off more of her own flesh, as the painful jolt stopped her hooves from shaking. "Though I'd almost prefer Tartarus... oh heck, I'd almost prefer nothingness, compared to where we are now! Because if I'm right - and I'm almost certain that I am - this forsaken void where we are-" she threw a glare of utter hatred toward Twilight, "-is her doing!"

An uncertain silence.

"H-How can y'all be sure of that?" Applejack questioned hesitantly after a moment, chancing a look at the snarling pegasus.

"How?!" Rainbow screeched, glaring at her in fury. "HOW?! Because it suddenly explains everything! Everything about why we're here!"

The others watched silently as Rainbow Dash looked through the veil, the trio waiting to hear just what it was that the pegasus had realized.

Eventually, the cannibalistic pegasus spoke again. "Don't you see? Why is it that we're stuck in here, when that filly and dragon apparently went off to Elysium, and maybe those other ponies that the traitor killed whose skeletons she had on display? It's because we had the Element things within us. We've more-or-less been kept in a stasis because of her!"

"Wh-What do you mean by th-that?" Pinkie gestured, trembling slightly. If what her former friend was implying was true...

The blue pony whirled around to face Pinkie. Before the pink earth pony could react, she found herself flat on the ground, Rainbow Dash standing over her before roughly tearing off a small part of flesh on her right front hoof.

Pinkie would have screamed, but her lack of a voice box left her unable to do so, only leaving her able to wince in discomfort. There were tears in her eyes from the sudden pain as fur and flesh were slowly torn away and blood began to flow from the fresh wound.

"It hurts, doesn't it?" the pegasus hissed menacingly, bringing her face close to Pinkie's so that blood dripped onto the pony's pink coat.

A weak nod from Pinkie Pie at the stinging in her hoof, but a bit of relief surfaced in her gaze as the feeling soon subsided.

"And look at that, your blood's freely flowing. That just proves my point," the pegasus said as she moved away from Pinkie, swallowing the torn strip of flesh to allow herself to talk better.

"What's yer point?" Applejack inquired softly, only briefly glancing at the pegasus before turning her line of sight to the ground again.

Rainbow Dash looked like she wanted to attack the farming pony in irritation. "My point is that if this was truly purgatory, we wouldn't feel pain. Or at least the injuries that we had when we died would heal!" An uncertain pause as she reconsidered. She couldn't say anything for certain as far as injuries were concerned, but she corrected herself with the one thing she knew would be true. "Well, at the very least, we'd see other ponies here besides this pathetic bunch!"

She glared at the three others in turn, appearing to study their expressions for any sense of comprehension.

"Don't you see?! Why do you think our manes can grow back and some of our injuries heal, but not others?" Rainbow quickly glanced at her flanks, making sure that the former marks were still gone. The moment she confirmed that was the case, she continued, her stare now directed toward her murderer. "And most importantly, why do you think she can communicate with us in her dreams, when she does get a minimal amount of sleep after doing her stupid research? And why can we only see her and not communicate with anypony else?"

"We've never tried," Pinkie gestured.

Ignoring the mute earth pony and not bothering to translate, Rainbow's rose eyes narrowed in a deep-seated anger.

"I can explain exactly why - she manipulated and warped us. She wanted to keep us down with her, because of our Elements, and unknowingly, she did. Her power binds us here... neither moving on to heaven or hell, Elysium or Tartarus..." The pegasus lowered her head. "... Not even purgatory."

Rainbow Dash's voice now dripped with contempt. "Her magic has controlled our lives and our deaths."

The others were silent as the impact of the pegasus's words washed over them. It all made sense now. They wouldn't have been forced to stay in this earthly plane, but Twilight Sparkle's horrendous actions and magic was so warped that she had made it so. Kept her true experimentation subjects trapped here while the filly, the dragon, and likely those others she had killed, all went free.

"... I hate her," Rainbow growled each word laced with venom. "I hate her more than anyone or anything. She deserves to die! She deserves to burn forever in Tartarus!"

The spirit ponies looked at the scientist, realizing just how severely her mental breakdown was taking its toll, much to Rainbow Dash's twisted satisfaction. Twilight was clearly becoming malnourished - her mane and tail were horrendously unkempt, there were bags present under her eyes from exhaustion, and she hadn't eaten or slept for the past few days, save for eating the single apple she had brought from Applejack before. Even that seemed like it had happened ages ago - to Twilight, time had become a blur.

It was evident that Twilight was neglecting the needs of her own body in exchange for her time-consuming research. Her body was practically screaming at her to meet its proper physical needs to sustain her - to eat, to sleep, to rest. But Twilight couldn't. She flat-out refused to do it. She ignored her hunger and sleep deprivation as best as she could, and only drank water when she felt that she absolutely had to - and that, too, she hadn't done for several days. Even in her deluded state, Twilight knew full well that somepony could live for quite a while without food, but only days without water.

Nearly falling over from the exhaustion she was feeling, the unicorn's horn glowed as she used her magic to allow a small glass to materialize, filling it with water from a nearby container. Raising it next to her, Twilight tilted the small cup, letting only a minuscule sip of the refreshing liquid wash over her dry throat. Being such a small sip, it didn't quench her thirst near as much as she could have, nowhere near the proper amount to be healthy. But at least it was something. Something to keep herself sustained as she worked.

As if paranoid that even that tiny drink had wasted precious time, the unicorn returned back to her notes, exhausted eyes skimming over the complex formulas and coding that she had noted down about the Elements, and how to find their proper DNA coding from within other ponies. Her head was practically flat on the table as she used her magic to scribble down the details of her notes, every reaction and bit of genetic code recorded as meticulously as possible.

"Gotta make sure I note down everything," Twilight mumbled, fighting back a yawn. "If I don't, how will anypony else be able to decipher what I'm telling them to do to find the Elements?" She found her eyes beginning to close before she forced them open, mentally insisting to herself that she couldn't stop her work, ignoring her body's demands to sleep.

Rainbow Dash's eyes burned with hatred, especially now that she had realized what Twilight had done. Eternally condemning them in this prison. It may not be Tartarus to the average pony, but it had become close to Dash's personal Tartarus. Because not only was she trapped in that emptiness, the only pony of the outside world to be able to see was Twilight Sparkle. And seeing as the bookish unicorn hadn't been sleeping, there was no way for Rainbow Dash to get to her.

"Let her starve, then," the pegasus grumbled. "It's her fault she trapped us here, even if it is unintentional." She raised her voice, directing it toward Twilight despite the barrier between their worlds. The foggy, shimmering nature of the veil appeared to be thinning more and more, less like an illusion and more like a window. Perhaps her voice would carry through.

"Go on, starve yourself to death for all I care."

To the surprise of everypony, Twilight's head shot upward, looking around with paranoid eyes. She had only heard the voice faintly, but it had been there, all the same. The voice definitely hadn't been her pestering conscience. "Who's there?!"

Blinking in surprise, Rainbow Dash spoke again, taking the opportunity. "I am, you freaking idiot."

The familiarity of the voice suddenly hit Twilight, and her feeling of unease rose. "R-Rainbow Dash?"

Pinkie and Applejack's eyebrows rose in surprise.

"She can hear us," Rarity said.

"Correction," Rainbow Dash retorted, "she can hear me, since I was directing my words at her." She rose the volume of her voice, speaking to Twilight again. "Yeah, it's me Traitor Sparkle."

Twilight looked around in disbelief, searching for any sign of the spirit pony. "But I'm not..." she yawned, but forced herself to keep her eyes open, "... not dreaming-"

"No, you're not," the dead pegasus scoffed. "This is real. You're not dreaming or hallucinating or any feathering horseapples like that, at least, not with us. I'm here, and I'm watching you. We all are."

The echo of Rainbow Dash's voice caused Twilight's eyes to close firmly close, shaking her head to clear it. "You're not real, I'm just imagining this... it's just exhaustion..."

"Oh believe me," Rainbow said angrily, "if I had the capability to, I would charge at you right now and tear you apart. You say you're doing this for Harmony, but all you're doing is causing nothing but chaos!"

The unicorn suddenly froze, a look appearing in her eyes as she swiftly opened them. She whirled in the direction of the voice, and it was then that the dead ponies noticed her changed expression, an expression that surprised all of the ponies watching. It was very different from all the anger and insanity that had been present in her eyes before. An emotion that joined her exhaustion and frenzy.

The look was fear.

"... Take that back," Twilight whispered hoarsely.

A grim smile appeared on Rainbow Dash's face - she had found the murderer's emotional weakness. "No."

Twilight's breathing became rapid. Her own chest felt tight. "Take it back."

"What was that one chaos-guy's name I heard about in legend - Discord? Spirit of chaos or something?" Rainbow mocked, enjoying the look of a different kind of desperation in Twilight's eyes. "Yeah, you're just like him."

The scientist looked around to try to pinpoint where Rainbow Dash was. Her eyes darted around, more alert as she turned wildly around, seeking out the source of the taunting voice. Her legs were shaking as Rainbow Dash's accusation washed over her, constricting her mind. "I'm... I-I'm not like him! I'm nothing like him!"

"Oh, I'm sorry," the dead pegasus snapped in a sarcastic tone, a hoof on her chin. "I was wrong. You aren't like him at all - you're much worse!"

"TAKE IT BACK!" Twilight screeched in a desperate cry, rushing toward where she heard the voice coming from, intending to charge at Rainbow Dash.

But she didn't cross over into that invisible world - the speed of her charge simply caused her to crash into one of her steel tables, dazing her for a second as stars appeared in her vision.

"Ha," Rainbow taunted, her voice right nearby. "You can't get to us. You've still trapped us in this stinking blasted void. You can't get in, and we can't get out. Not yet at least."

The veil from the deceased ponies' side shimmered slightly as if to emphasize her point.

Twilight whipped her head around, still attempting to pinpoint the source of the voice, trying to convince herself it was only a hallucination.

Rainbow's voice was full of rage, the two practically next to one another, save for the worldly separation. "I hope that you feathering die and burn in Tartarus for all eternity," she cursed in a declaration of hatred. "Then - and only then - will I be happy."

"Don't know if that's possible," Rarity drawled.

"You don't even know what happiness is," the pegasus snapped.

"I don't feel it," the former designer pointed out, jaw clattering, "but I can recognize it when I see it. And you never seem happy."

The other three stared at her.

"A lack of emotion has brought logic," Rarity explained in response to the surprised glances of the others.

"Whatever." Rainbow Dash now turned to the veil, to the desperate-looking unicorn. "We'll be here, waiting. I know you're gonna try to kill again. But you'll be found out. And when you are, you'll die."

A chill went down Twilight's back, but she forced herself to regain her composure. "Nopony will find out until the time is right."

"And what time will that be?" the dead pegasus taunted.

"When my work is done, Once I've properly gathered the signature of Kindness, I'll be able to analyze all the Elements of my friends." She forced a laugh. "Then I'll be able to find their essence in other ponies properly."

"What does that have to do with your crazy torture stuff?"

Twilight's violet eyes narrowed in the direction of the voice. "That's for me to know, and you to find out. You'll learn soon. I have a grander plan here, and you're just the catalyst."

There was a silence.

"Fine," Rainbow Dash finally spoke. "But as an FYI, this place, wherever the Tartarus it is that you've trapped us... I don't think it will be a prison for much longer."

Twilight's eyes widened.

"The barrier is thinning, you sick scientist. You can hear us now. And I have a feeling that soon, it will be like a window." Rainbow Dash's voice rose. "We shall be free. I shall be free from this purgatory-like imprisonment!"

"W-What do you mean?" Twilight inquired, attempting to regain her composure and quell the unease that was creeping into her heart. "You're dead."

The pegasus snarled. "That much is obvious. But you'll see, Traitor Sparkle." Her voice lowered, eyes narrowed. "I will break free. I will reach you! Then you will DIE!"

And the pegasus turned from the veil in a huff, leaving Twilight alone to ponder the impact of her words.

The lavender unicorn shook off her wariness, regaining her composure and shaking off Rainbow's words. She quickly returned to her procedures to take her mind off of the conversation she had just had, muttering as she forced herself to stay awake all through the night.

"I'm not like Discord.... I'm not like Discord... I'm not like Discord..."

---

The night seemed to drag on forever.

Twilight had buried her attention in her research, shaking away any distractions when such thoughts returned to the forefront of her focus.

But somehow she made it through the night, attempting to force the sleep-deprived appearance from her eyes as she ascended from her lab and returned to the library's main interior.

Instantly, she heard a commotion from outside. But there was something about it sounded different from that of the previous day upon realizing that Applejack had disappeared. Rather than sounding like the populace all talking together, it was more of a congregation of numerous exclamations and fragmented conversation. As if ponies were trying to talk to one another, but at the same time were wary of saying anything.

With a bad feeling rising in the pit of her stomach, the unicorn darted out her door to see ponies scattered around Ponyville. And none of them looked the least bit calm.

Ponies were running around with hammers clasped in their teeth, some with wooden beams carried in bags. Some ponies were in groups, while others were extremely jumpy and kept glancing around suspiciously at everypony, as if terrified they were going to be jumped and beaten up right then and there. The Mayor tried to calm other ponies down and get them all to pay attention in an orderly manner, but even she seemed to be on edge.

Not good. Definitely not good.

Of course, the ponynapper knew that things spread quickly in this town, but she had never seen the Ponyville populace look this collectively freaked out before.

Twilight hurried out her door and tried to blend in. Luckily for her, her panicked, sleep-deprived appearance didn't seem as terribly unusual as she had feared - it appeared that a few ponies had a similar look to them."

"T-Twilight?" one of the ponies in question inquired with a yawn, a sea-green pony named Lyra Heartstrings. "You look more tired than I do, and I'm pretty dang tired!" She darted her eyes back and forth from Twilight to the other ponies, and took a few wary steps away. "This is awful, all of this is... wait a second! Celestia! We can have Spike send a letter to-"

It was then that she noticed the devastated, crushed look on Twilight's face.

Lyra gasped. "... Don't tell me that Spike's gone missing too?!"

Twilight nodded dully, letting her panic freely show on her face, though hers was much more due to the thought that Celestia might find out about her murderous deeds. She wasn't about to tell Lyra or anypony else that Spike had been missing since the day before, when Applejack disappeared, but everypony had been so intent on boarding up their homes - and Twilight hadn't panicked - that they hadn't asked.

But now that Rarity and Sweetie Belle had vanished without a trace, the sudden disappearance of ponies was sending the others into full panic mode.

Twilight's violet eyes widened, having a sinking feeling in her stomach as to why the other unicorn was backing away from her. But of course, she just tried to hold a confused expression.

"Sorry, Twilight," Lyra said apologetically, "I'm just..." she nervously scuffed a front hoof on the ground. "... I'm unsure if I can trust you."

Twilight heard a few other nearby ponies muttering, having overheard Lyra's statement. It seemed that their small group, able to hold on to some form of conversation without falling silent or leaping away from each other, was becoming the center of attention.

"What?" the lavender unicorn attempted to quell her pounding heart, keeping an incredulous and shocked expression on her face. "Lyra, why would you think that?"

"It's not just you, really - it's anypony," Lyra clarified. "After everything that's happened, now Rarity and Sweetie Belle are missing too!" She whipped her head around, making sure she was several hoofsteps away from any pony around. "BonBon and I noticed a pattern that seemed to point to the ponies related to the Elements of Harmony getting snatched..."

Twilight began to inwardly become tense. Oh no oh no oh no oh no, they're catching on... nonono oh Celestia please no...

"... but Sweetie Belle's Rarity's sister, and she's not connected to the Elements," the musical unicorn went on. "If whoever the culprit is trying to get rid of anypony connected to them, then something might have happened to Apple Bloom and Big Mac when Applejack got kidnapped."

A cream-colored pony with a blue and pink mane came up to join in the conversation - Lyra's best friend, BonBon. Noticing a few other ponies were beginning to stare, she raised her voice. "That still doesn't change the fact that there seems to be a trend. And I'm sure I'm not the only pony to notice that trend. Am I right?"

The other ponies who were listening nodded their heads, and as Fluttershy carefully got to the front of the crowd, she nodded her head rapidly, her eyes wide with anxiety to a more severe degree than most of the others.

Twilight attempted to stop herself from shaking. The pattern was catching up to her, and it seemed that now herself and Fluttershy were high on the ponynapper suspect list.

BonBon's eyes narrowed at her. "The way it seems, you or Fluttershy-" her gaze shifted back and forth between the two she spoke of, "-are either responsible for this mess or the next ponies in line."

Twilight gulped.

"So any way you slice it, you should be carefully watched. And we can't exactly trust anypony else now."

The other ponies listening were clearly in agreement with BonBon, a number of them putting some distance between themselves and others. Panic and suspicion were clearly running rampant.

"S-So why are you two not looking suspicious of each other?" Fluttershy managed to ask.

"Because we're best friends," Lyra replied managing a small smile despite the dire circumstances. "We've been around each other long enough to notice a major issue that's going on."

But the two glanced at each other for an instant with a questioning look.

Unfortunately, not too many others in the town shared those sentiments with other ponies. Derpy glanced nervously at Carrot Top. Colgate hurried off to board up her house even more than she had the night before. Fluttershy hovered away from anypony who gave her a suspicious look, but there was a spark in her eyes that indicated she'd make whoever was doing this regret ponynapping her friends.

In short, it was complete chaos in Ponyville that morning, almost everypony suspicious of one another.

Two of the only other ponies who seemed to stick together through it all were the two remaining members of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. The pair were devastated that the third of their party had been taken to who-knows-where, but all they could do was comfort each other and do their best to stick together through this time of suspicion and unease.

Despite all the panic ensuing in the town, the babble of exclamations of fear and panic were suddenly broken by a loud voice, one that didn't shout but caught the attention of everypony around.

"It seems panic has begun to spread. What is it that fills you with such dread?"

The exotic voice and rhyming pattern silenced the commotion for an instant as the ponies turned to face the speaker. It was one that everypony these days new and respected in the town - Zecora, the zebra who had made her home on the outer edges of the Everfree Forest.

"Zecora!" Twilight exclaimed. Ordinarily seeing Zecora would be a welcome sight, but in these circumstances, the sight of the zebra made her uneasy.

"What if Zecora is the one doing it?!" BonBon called out.

"She only comes here once a month," Carrot Top retorted. "Besides, she doesn't seem at all nervous like anypony else." She turned her head to glare at the others as she said 'anyypony else'.

Twilight could hear her own heart beat loudly in her chest. Zecora had a knack for figuring things out, so Twilight knew she'd have to be extra careful. So she tried to act how she would if she were just as in the dark as everypony else. "We're in a crisis right now, Zecora - a ponynapping crisis!"

"First Rainbow, then Pinkie, then Applejack, and now Rarity and Sweetie Belle are gone too!" Fluttershy exclaimed with a squeak.

Zecora's brow arched at the mention of Applejack in particular - somepony able to ponynap her must be incredibly powerful.

Fluttershy's wings fluttered nervously as she went on. "We suspect it's somepony from the town, but... everypony's usually so nice here, I just can't imagine.."

"How do we know it's not you, Fluttershy?!" BonBon demanded, pointing an accusatory hoof at the yellow pegasus. "You're connected to one of the Elements - maybe you're just acting afraid and docile when really you're the one kidnapping other ponies!"

"I-I-I'd never do anything like that to anypony! Honest!"

"How can we be sure of that?"

"What if Twilight's the culprit, we can't count out her!" Carrot Top said. "She's connected to one of the Elements too, and she's a genius!"

"What if it's not either of them?" Derpy offered, hovering above and glancing down at Twilight and Fluttershy. "They seem nice enough."

The two Element-holders managed small smiles of gratitude.

"Sure, Derpy," the black-coated pegasus Thunderlane said with a roll of his eyes. "You could say that about just about anypony here, but clearly that's been shown to not be the case anymore." He shot a sharp look in her direction. "Who knows, you could be the ponynapper!"

"But-"

A firm hoof stomp from Zecora got everypony's attention, silencing their accusations.

"You shouldn't call other ponies out," the zebra said gently, "when it's your safety you should be thinking about."

The ponies of the town agreed, but there were still a few wary glances.

Zecora stepped more into the crowd, and the assembly parted with questioning eyes.

"The pony doing this might not even be connected to the Elements at all," Doctor Whooves pointed out. "Innocent until proven guilty."

Zecora looked thoughtful, pondering everything that she had seen and heard from the ponies she had grown fond of. Finally, she spoke again.

"Whoever it is who's caused this to be done, seems to pick off grown ponies one by one."

"Wh-What about..." Apple Bloom choked the words out, tears of sorrow in her eyes. "What about Sweetie Belle?"

Zecora frowned in sympathy for the young pony and slowly came closer to the filly, patting her with a comforting hoof. "Sweetie Belle, my friend, was still quite young," she said sadly. "Not near the strength of a grown one."

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo bowed their heads in sorrow for their lost friend.

A determined glance was visible in Zecora's eyes. "There is an idea that I should say, which could help prevent more from being snatched away."

Her words instantly had the attention of everypony, every gaze resting on her as they listened attentively. Any plan was better than no plan, especially because the ponynapper had snatched Rarity and Sweetie Belle from their home despite their house having been as boarded up as any other.

"Tonight when each pony sets off for home," Zecora began, "you must make sure you do not go alone."

The others nodded. Twilight's heartbeat quickened. This could ruin everything!

"Having two ponies as guards would be best. Three can be to a group, so at least one can rest."

The population of Ponyville began to take up a cheer, supporting Zecora's idea. Even Fluttershy looked enthusiastic about the plan.

"If this goes off without a hitch..." Zecora's gaze wandered over the ponies, and Twilight could have sworn that the zebra's eyes lingered on her a second longer than on the other ponies.

"We will catch the pony who is doing all this."

-0-0-

With some help from Zecora, the ponies of the town organized which three ponies would stay together, two acting as guards while the third of the house slept. That way, if the ponynapper decided to strike, they would likely be able to be identified, restrained and brought to justice.

Everypony loved the plan. Except, of course, Twilight.

Her mind was a blur of anxiety. This could ruin everything, absolutely everything she had planned for! How would she be able to get to Fluttershy with guards around?

The two ponies who were chosen to watch Twilight were Thunderlane and Blossomforth, two of the pegasi who had created the hurricane to get water to Cloudsdale. The two looked warily from the other ponies to Twilight, not taking their eyes off her as they traveled to her house when night fell.

The three of them only exchanged a few quick words to each other as they entered, watching as Twilight went upstairs and into her bed, turning on her side so that she faced the boarded-up windows.

She struggled to keep her eyes open, mind racing. Every moment that she wasted here left her closer to being found out. But she had to get to Fluttershy somehow...

And then, in a flash, it hit her.

A spell she had thought to try for a while. A death energy spell.

What if it doesn't work? she thought frantically to herself. I partially created it, what if it only works partway and they can run, or scream for help? She shook her head, eyes determined as she rose from her bed. No. It's a very drastic measure... and I don't want to kill them... but I have no choice!

With that, she slowly walked downstairs, causing the two guardponies to look at her.

"What's wrong, Twilight?" Blossomforth asked, looking concerned.

Twilight sighed, steeling herself to put her plan into action. "I can't sleep."

"Well, don't worry," Thunderlane assurred. "No ponynapper is going to-"

Suddenly, before the pair could blink, a glow from Twilight's horn caused steel bolts to appear on the doors and windows, trapping them.

"What the-?!" The two hurried to the exit, but it was no use - they couldn't break it down.

"You're not getting away," Twilight said as she stared the two guards down, her worried demeanor replaced by something far more sinister. "Just like my friends - they wanted to escape too, but I couldn't let them."

A gasp from the other two ponies, unable to believe what it was they were hearing. For a moment, their hearts seemed to stop.

The deranged pony stepped closer to the pair, lips curled up into a smile. "I had to experiment on them to get the proper genetic material."

Blossomforth's green eyes grew wide in horror at the snarling mare. "Y-You're the one who's been doing this?!"

A nod from Twilight, her gaze firm. "Yes."

Forcing himself out of his shock, Thunderlane's eyes narrowed as he rose into the air with a flap of his wings, Blossomforth following suit. "Twilight Sparkle," the black-coated announced, attempting to sound brave, "we hereby must place you into custody for crimes against ponydom under the charges of first-degree murder!"

The two pegasi dove for Twilight, each one swiftly grabbing onto her. Thunderlane grabbed her front hooves while Blossomforth got a grip on her hind hooves, gripping the unicorn's limbs tightly to restrain her.

Twilight struggled, using her magic to free herself from the pegasi's grasps, landing squarely on the ground like a cat. Her sudden escape caused Blossomforth to accidentally buck Thunderlane in the face, dazing the other pegasus for a split second. A threatening growl escaped the unicorn's throat as she stared up at them, eyes beginning to glow white.

Thunderlane and Blossomforth froze in mid-air, stunned. The friendly unicorn had turned into something that was less than equine and more like a wild animal of the Everfree Forest, or perhaps even a demon from the depths of Tartarus itself.

Either way, they now knew who the culprit truly was. But it was too late.

The two pegasi hardly had time to react before the unicorn in front of them lashed out, blasting forth a powerful burst of magic. In wasn't the familiar magenta color they knew her magic to be - it was an ethereal black shade. As if possessing a mind of its own, the magic from Twilight's horn, more solid than energy-like as it extended, tightly constricted them, separating into several tendrils. One part of the aura split to begin encircling their bodies tightly, wings included, to render them incapable of restraining her and calling for help. Another dark tendril was placed over the mouth of each one to silence their half-formed exclamations of shock. Despite the more solidified forms of the magic aura around their bodies, the concentrated magic still retained a translucent, shimmering appearance.

The two ponies flailed as much as they could, attempting to fly and disentangle themselves from the magical energy, but the unicorn wielding that power merely stepped forward a few paces. She glared directly at them, violet eyes blazing with determination. Suddenly, the irises and pupils were hidden behind a shimmering white light that illuminated them. A glow that lit up the startled expressions on the two pegasi's faces.

Thunderlane and Blossomforth just managed to glance at each other with terror in their eyes. They were trapped.

But then, to their surprise, the restrictions around then slackened slightly. A voice quietly spoke.

"... I'm sorry."

The pair looked down at the pony who had captured them, surprised that she had uttered those words. With her apparent mental state now, it hadn't seemed to them that the unicorn was capable of any form of decent moral coherency. Yet here she was, lessening her restraints and apologizing for her actions, the glow no longer stemming from her eyes. The dark aura, however, remained the same.

Twilight's voice was genuinely sincere as she gazed at them, her eyes now having returned to their ordinary appearance. "If you hadn't offered to watch me, this wouldn't be happening. Then again, two others would have been sharing this fate." A sigh that seemed almost regretful, that there was still some hope for Twilight's conscience. "It just happened to be you two through the process of random probability of assigning ponies to keep watch. You were in the wrong place at the wrong time, that's all."

For a reason they couldn't quite understand, they saw Twilight wince slightly. As if something had hurt her. Unknown to them, the hot and cold flashes had returned - at a more severe degree than before - for a flickering instant and caused the young mare discomfort. But that feeling quickly passed.

A pause before Twilight's mouth turned up in a smile, tightening her magical hold once again. She steadily began to levitate the two captured ponies upward a little higher into the library's central room, appearing to now enjoy their futile attempts at escape. The two pegasi, realizing that the unicorn's brief normalcy was gone, attempted to fly in opposite directions, hoping to confuse Twilight's magical hold. But the frantic beats of their wings got them nowhere. They were constricted too tightly for escape to be possible.

For a those few precious moments, Thunderlane and Blossomforth had thought that Twilight had come to her senses, though it seemed as if that sense of normalcy was gone. But they held onto one potential hope, however fleeting - had that sense of her ordinary demeanor been a facade, or was there some part of her still in tune to the pony she had once been? Despite the horror and betrayal evident in their gazes, there was a lingering question in their eyes. A desperate question that allowed them to cling to a shred of hope.

Are you still in there, Twilight? The old Twilight we knew?

The unicorn's eyes flashed white once again, the bright glow setting to remain in her view. Her voice now grew less regretful and more cold. "But at least you two get to be the first participants for a new technique of mine!" She looked up at them, the smile on her face almost gleeful as she chuckled, voice a sinister whisper in the dark. "Just think of yourselves as being part of the test run!"

The dark aura then pushed past their closed mouths and slipped through, grazing over the tongue and down through both pathways of the throat to reach their stomachs and lungs. The pressure was slowly suffocating them as their respiratory muscles became harshly squeezed, threatening to burst apart from the ever-tightening form.

The eyes of the two ponies bulged, practically falling out of their sockets as they attempted to cough out the tube-like aura that invaded their bodies like a surgical implement, but now even some of the energy coiled around them began to seep into their skin. A sort of tingling appeared on the surface of their respective black and beige coats, as if their epidermises were home to millions of insects or worms that were struggling to get out. The tingling quickly caused their bodies to look as if they were more liquid than solid, rippling like water.

Twilight only smirked, eyes glowing brightly as she controlled her magic to slowly erode the structures from within, the rippling on the captives' skin accompanied by legs slowing before hanging limply, they attempts to flail and kick becoming useless. The unicorn had disintegrated their very bones down to the marrow, leaving only thick muscle and veins behind in the pegasi's limbs as their legs hung in the air like limp rubber.

"You can't run now," Twilight said coldly as the guards' legs fell still. "Even if I let you go, you wouldn't be able to run."

The two struggling ponies were beginning to be nothing more than flesh, viscera, and muscle, as their skin too began to erode. The black and beige coats rapidly were turning a sickly green, as if a chemical was poured onto them as their skin slowly rotted away. Even with this terrible process being inflicted on the suffering ponies, no blood flowed from the gaping holes. The veins that ran through the skin were left miraculously untouched, like a haunting web hovering around each of them. Such was the nature of Twilight's magic.

The two had appeared to nearly become transparent as their skin was steadily removed, green and rotten like a corpse left in the open before eroding completely from their bodies. The muscle still clung tightly to the bones that remained from their torsos to their skulls, and the organs were actively moving and pumping, even through the suffering that was being inflicted on their owners' bodies.

A brief widening of the tormentor's eyes. A flash that transcended the aura from her horn and caused a spark from within each of her captives. Right around their ribcages where the internal coils tightened their hold.

In that moment. the glow coming from Twilight's eyes and horn was joined by another source of light. A powerful light from within the two inflicted that caused them to convulse in agony, attempting to scream but suffocated by the energy from within them.

The spark wasn't just any light. It was fire.

The flames started out merely as small flickers, barely visible. But the fire quickly grew in magnitude, smoke and burning flame filling up the insides of the two ponies held within the grasp of Twilight's magic. The flames danced around the bone, charring it as the organs within were set alight - red, orange, yellow, and even blue flames encircling the organs and turning their flimsy bright structures a charred black. The hearts of the two ponies were literally burning, arteries and ventricles destroyed and charred from the flames as the oxygen in the lungs was choked out by the thick smoke that filled them.

A sudden jerking motion of the energy was seen from the bowels of the two flailing equines through the torturous consuming fire, and Twilight Sparkle roughly tugged her magical aura from within then as if reeling in a fishing line. The sinister unicorn didn't even flinch as the fierce velocity caused the esophagus to be forcefully torn from the mouths of her two captives, dislodging the connected organs along with it as several pieces of muscle and blood were hacked up from within with a powerful, breathless bout of coughing.

The ruptured esophagus and strips of harshly torn muscle flew out of the pegasi's insides, stomach acid accompanying the fragments tearing from the inside of the mouths and splattering wetly onto the library floor. What remained of the rattled, charred organs clashed against the ribcages like a broken drum, causing several of the ribs to crack. As if the violent jolting and fire had been a twisted signal, the web of veins ruptured at last, letting blood spill onto the library's floor as life completely left the the two ponies' eyes. First Thunderlane, then Blossomforth, who managed to shoot a final gaze of horror at their murderer.

Twilight finally released her magical hold, the fleshy forms of what was left of the ponies' bodies crumpling to the ground with sickening thuds. She was unable to exactly determine whether it was the blood flow, the fire, or the dislodging of organs that had delivered the final factor in murdering them - if she had her equipment on hoof, that would have been easy to figure out. But what mattered was that they were dead. They couldn't threaten her progress anymore. Nopony was there to monitor her, or run for help and alert the others after witnessing her dark deeds.

Now, Twilight thought as she quickly levitated her saddlebag onto her back, time to go after Fluttershy.

Kindness, A to C

"One way to be born, a hundred to die."
-Chinese proverb

The journey to Fluttershy's house was a wild blur of paranoia and anxiousness, the traveler trying to focus on the task at hand as much as her jumbled mind would allow. Twilight could hear her heart pounding violently in her chest, so loud and fast that she was afraid that other ponies would hear the noise that signified her anxiousness and betrayal.

Fluttershy will have guards in her house too, Twilight thought, mind racing as fast as her hooves, teleporting at intervals when she was sure that the burst of magic wouldn't be seen or heard by anypony who happened to still be awake. I don't want to have to get rid of them like I did with Thunderlane and Blossomforth, but I'll have no choice. I can't have anypony find out! I've come too far to give up now! Too far!

It was almost difficult for Twilight to focus on where she was going, being so filled with anxiety that it caused her mind to approach near delirium, but at last she reached Fluttershy's house. In her anxious state, she had to force herself to remain as quiet as possible, though her increasing nerves filled her with dread that something she did would give her away. Luckily for her, nopony was awake to confront her, and upon reaching the house of her next victim, it seemed that all of Fluttershy's animals were sound asleep, or at the very least out of her view.

That's a relief, Twilight thought. If they noticed me, they'd alert Fluttershy and I'd be discovered for sure!

Making sure to keep her movements silent, the manic unicorn slowly crept toward the house, listening for any voices of the ponies who might be inside. At least two ponies would be awake to keep watch, and she had to hope that Fluttershy wasn't among them.

Please be asleep, Fluttershy, please please be asleep...

It wasn't at all long before the silence was broken by voices as she came close to the boarded-up window to listen.

"Remember what Zecora said, Lyra!" Carrot Top could be heard whispering. "We can't trust anypony!"

So, they're the guards... Twilight thought. Realizing that there was no response from Fluttershy, a sense of relief came over her. I don't hear Fluttershy with them... she must be sleeping, yes!

Lyra's response clearly showed her uncertainty. "I know, Carrot, but you've been my PFF since we were foals, and you're my best friend along with my growing relationship with Bon Bon." A sigh could be heard along with her pacing hoofsteps. "Friends through thick and thin, remember?" A brief shifting of her hooves and Twilight could tell that the sea-green unicorn had her hoof up. "All for one and one for all?"

Twilight's eyes widened, a sudden stirring in her heart that momentarily distracted her from her mission. My friends and I were like that once... A quick flash of hot and cold came over her, and she had to grind her teeth to keep herself from making a sound. It was quick, and not as painful as before, but the unicorn was still startled by it. Still concerned as to what was causing all this, she forced herself to shake it off, waiting for the right time to strike and quietly rid herself of the obstacles to her goal.

Carrot Top's voice grew more firm, and Twilight could almost picture her eyes looking at Lyra with a mixture of sternness and regret. "I know Lyra... but you know what they say..." One front hoof stomped firmly on the floor, as she clearly hadn't returned the hoof bump that her Pony Friend Forever had offered. "The ponies that you're closest to are the ones most likely to stab you in the back."

A dull thump made it clear to the hidden unicorn that Lyra had put her hoof down on the ground again, understanding that the friendly gesture would not be returned.

Twilight was positioned just underneath the window, out of the view of any cracks that the two guards might be able to peer through in the window. It won't be long now.... just gotta wait for the right time... But the scientist quickly found herself growing impatient. There needed to be an opportunity for her to properly get rid of them, and the guards would need to be taken by surprise so as not to wake up Fluttershy.

"But... everypony we know is so nice," Lyra said quietly.

Carrot Top's voice was also quiet. "That's just what they want us to think. It always seems to be the nice ones."

I have to do it now! Twilight insisted to herself. And in that moment, the unicorn put her plan into action, and teleported into the house, into a darkened area where Lyra and Carrot couldn't yet see her. Taking the opportunity while their back's were turned, her horn began to steadily glow the eerie black that it had done when she performed the death energy spell on her two guards mere minutes before.

Being right by the window, however, they did hear the noise of Twilight's teleportation.

"What was that?!" Lyra said with a slight jump, her horn glowing a little with golden magic as she looked warily toward the window, preparing to use her power if need be.

Carrot's eyes narrowed as she stared intently at the shut window, as if waiting anxiously for something to come through any minuscule crack that might be present. "We need to be careful, Lyra. There's somepony out there, and it's likely the one we're looking for."

It was then that Twilight took the opportunity, the tendrils of the spell shooting out toward Lyra and Carrot, first covering their mouths so that any attempts to scream were instantly muffled before wrapping around their legs to restrict their movement.

"I think you mean there was somepony out there."

As she spoke in a whisper, Twilight stepped out into view, and her appearance was terrifying to the pair in the darkness. Her coat, mane, and tail were drastically disheveled, a far cry from the reasonably well-groomed appearance she had forced herself to keep up during the day. There was a sinister smile lighting up her face as the tendrils of magical energy swiftly and thoroughly ensnared the two other ponies. It was as if she had become more of a wild creature than the friendly pony she was known to be.

"Twilight!" the pair cried out - or at least, that's what they tried to say, but their cries only came out as muffled exclamations, barely audible.

Lyra, determined, charged up her magic and attempted to blast herself free of the mysterious energy that help her and her friend tight, the golden light of her magic impacting Twilight's own and taking the deranged pony briefly by surprise. However, another beam of the dark magic enveloped her horn, extinguishing its light. The sea-green unicorn's eyes widened in shock as she felt her charge of magic fade. Her magic hadn't been removed - she wasn't quite sure if such an ability existed, and she certainly didn't want to find out if Twilight possessed it - but the energy had combated and easily won against her own.

Just as the conniving pony had done with Thunderlane and Blossomforth, Twilight lifted the two trapped ponies into the air, but not as high up as she had done with her own guards. Primarily because Fluttershy's house was considerably smaller than her library.

"Bon Bon was right to suspect me," the psychopathic unicorn hissed, circling out of their reach and appearing to delight in their trapped state. "But think how great this is - two friends getting to spend their last moments together." She tilted her head up at the flailing pair, looking at the mixture of horror, anger, and betrayal written on their faces. "Then again, I've been doing the same thing for a while now, staying with my friends in their last moments!"

The eyes of the pair widened, realizing the full implications of what Twilight had just been admitting. It had been her who had been ponynapping her friends, that was clear, but it was the last sentence that really chilled the two, confirming the truth that they had been fearing. From what Twilight had implied, she hadn't just ponynapped her friends - she had murdered them. And by the sick grin on her face, it had been painful and she had enjoyed every second of it.

For an instant, the lavender unicorn met Lyra's eyes as she spoke in a barely audible whisper, almost as if it were meant to be a secret between the two of them.

"You could have been useful to me..."

Lyra's horror was mixed with surprise, while it was clear that Carrot Top was attempting to manage a muffled question: "What are you talking about? Why could Lyra have been useful?" While her voice couldn't express the question, the look in her eyes certainly could.

Twilight, however, didn't clarify, and continued as if the others hadn't been trying to question her through any means. "Time's running out... I have my final friend to attend to." She smirked. "And I can't let ponies like you get in the way of my plan! If I'm right, by tomorrow, a new, harmonious dawn shall reign!"

The dark tendrils of magic constricted around Lyra and Carrot Top, tightly squeezing the life out of them like a boa constrictor tightening around its prey. Their captor kept her focus, staring the pair down as she steadily suffocating the two ponies. With their strength rapidly weakening, they were unable to scream or kick. Unable to warn Fluttershy, or anypony else, for that matter.

"It's a shame you two won't be able to join the others in seeing it though!"

As interesting as a theatric, more brutal death could be to experiment with the capabilities of her new spell, one like what she had done to the guards at her library before could easily awaken Fluttershy. So the assassin just had to go for the quietest approach for the time being - quick suffocation. There would be more opportunities to test out her spell's effects.

Twilight watched, staring them down as the life in the two ponies' eyes began to get fainter and fainter, until finally, the light faded away altogether. Their eyes became glassy and their bodies fell limp. The moment that Twilight was certain they were dead, she gently set their limp forms on the cottage floor.

She twisted her head around to gaze at the still-sleeping pegasus, readying herself to properly put her under through injection until the time came for her to wake up. But a thought occurred to her

Fluttershy's pets! Twilight thought frantically, her eyes wide as she mentally scolded herself for not giving their presence a further thought. At least some of them will be able to sense something's amiss - they might be outside and waiting for me to come out and expose myself right now! The unicorn looked from Fluttershy to the boarded up door and windows, coming up with an idea.. This could work out excellently for a psychological part of Fluttershy's Element-extraction.

Steadily levitating the tranquilizing needle out of her bag, she hurriedly injected its contents into Fluttershy before the pegasus could wake up. Making sure not to waste any time, as every second counted, Twilight levitated the unconscious pegasus into the air while her horn began to glow brighter with its dark aura, preparing it for use the moment she stepped outside. She would have to be extremely quick to avoid getting caught or letting any potential messengers get free.

As soon as the ponynapper stepped over the threshold, she was met with a sight that startled her into taking a few steps back. Indeed, several of the animals were up and about, including a very stern-looking Angel Bunny. Perhaps they had been woken by the scent of Twilight's presence, or the sound of her teleporting. Or even the energy that pets seemed to have a knack for sensing when their owner was in danger.

Either way, in a whirlwind of paranoia, the panicked pony reacted as if her magic had a mind of its own, as near-black waves of magical energy wrapped around the animals, constricting them so that they were incapable of movement and silencing their calls, constricting them so they were unconscious, but not yet dead. She knew that if left to their own devices, any one of those animals could be alerted after she left and go to warn somepony else of her sinister deeds.

I can't let anypony find out about my work! Not yet!

She manipulated the energy so that soon all of the animals within the area were captured and put into a state of unconsciousness, to which she settled with using her normal magical energy to hold them, no longer needing the dark tendrils of her spell for the purposes of suffocation. With the last of her friends and her pets in tow, she began to hurry back to the library. Despite now having to focus on keeping all of her captives steady within her magical grasp, the whirlwind of anxiety that had been expended getting there was for the most part replaced by something else: a determination to get back to her work.

Twilight Sparkle had an Element to extract.

Upon entering the library, the relief that Twilight felt was suddenly met with a feeling of panic. The corpses of Thunderlane and Blossomforth were still there, blood collecting in a pool around their bodies.

Oh crap! Twilight thought. I forgot about them! Forcing herself to keep the others steady in her magical hold, she used more of her magical power to levitate the bodies of her guards and clean up the remnants of the murder scene - nothing a little water and containers couldn't fix with magical aid. Time was of the essence.

The moment she had gathered up any evidence to the outside world, Twilight pressed the panel by her bookshelf to let it swivel around, and she made sure that every being and object she held was safely with her on the other side - if one could call it 'safe' to be around a deranged unicorn such as her.

Ensuring that she had everyone contained as the bookshelf returned to its normal position behind her, the scientist traversed down the stairs and hallways until she had returned to her lab with her subject and pets. The moment she stepped through the threshold, however, she was almost instantly alerted that she wasn't alone down there.

"Oh great," a familiar voice snapped. "Not only did she go and get another one, she got animals too?!" Though she couldn't be seen from the barrier between their "purgatory" and the world of the living, Rainbow Dash was pacing in front of her viewpoint and looking rather irritated - more than usual. She snapped the edge of one of her own wings in an exasperated action, ignoring the pain. All she cared about was the fact that the unicorn who had trapped them there was a psychopath.

"Of course she did," Rarity pointed out in her slack-jawed, emotionless manner. "She's getting the Elements of her friends, and the pegasus," here Rarity gestured a hoof to the unconscious yellow pegasus, "is the last of them."

With hooves appearing almost ethereal in the void thanks to their charred, blackened appearance, Applejack came into view, her posture lowered in constant uncertainty but her gaze curious. "What about the animals?" she inquired, coming up to the window-like area that allowed them to see into Twilight's lab.

"They can be uses as a sort of bribe to get that pegasus to do what she wants," Rarity responded.

Twilight's heart skipped a beat when the voices had first spoke, but it didn't take long for her to recognize the speakers and get back to focusing on her task. Though she seemed slightly unnerved by the constant presence of the voices, she was actually forcing a smile that held a hint of normalcy to it. "Rarity, I'm impressed!" she exclaimed, hurriedly allowing cages to materialize as she placed Fluttershy's unconscious animals within magically-enclosed cells. If the bars didn't keep them in, her magic would. "If you weren't dead, you could actually be a pretty useful accomplice - a lack of emotion has allowed you to think very logically." As she turned toward where she had heard the voices coming from, the deceased ponies could see that her mouth was turned up in a smile, almost looking like her old self when she was happy. "I like that!"

"If you had no emotions, maybe you'd stop feeling joy from all this and you'd quit being a psychopathic nutjob," Rainbow Dash snarled, inflicting as much spite into the last two words as she could.

The scientist carried on setting up as if the other hadn't spoken.

"Why exactly does she need to get those Element things, anyway?" Applejack questioned softly, brow arched as she too came a little closer to their viewing point. Though the earth pony only spoke in questions now, asking for others to tell what was truth and what were lies, she had asked the question that was on everypony's mind.

"If I knew, I wouldn't be just standing here watching like a slug, I'd shout at her about it and make her think she's going more insane than she already is. And if I could get through, I'd be tearing her apart," Rainbow snapped with a spite-filled glare at the orange earth pony. "In fact..."

With that, the bloody and broken pegasus turned back to the opening and charged, attempted to burst through the barrier that Twilight had unconsciously created to hold them. But despite Rainbow Dash's efforts, it was like trying to get through a wall that was made of steel.

"Featherin' darnit to Tartarus!" the fractured pony snapped, holding back a cry as she roughly tore off a chunk of skin from her own front hoof, not seeming to care about the pain or the blood as she swallowed.

Pinkie Pie cringed at the sight, as she had done so many times before. She knew that she was never going to truly get used to Rainbow Dash's self-cannibalistic habits.

"The barrier's still impenetrable," Rarity said flatly.

"I can see that, Captain Obvious," Rainbow said in retort. "But if I'm right, we'll be able to break through soon after that pegasus joins us here."

"That's a logical assumption based on what's happened so far."

Ignoring the voices, Twilight swiftly began to get all her equipment set up - the tried and true Scalper, injections, vials, containers, a myriad of torture devices from the storage rooms... oh this was going to the busiest night of them all. Busy, but productive.

Pinkie Pie was trembling as she saw Fluttershy being strapped to the cold metal restraints that all of them had been strapped to previously. It had been bad enough to see the rest of her friends be strapped down and tortured, and having those same sort of processes inflicted on Pinkie herself. But Fluttershy?! She was so kind, so innocent... Quickly tapping on Rainbow Dash to get her attention, the pink pony found herself shaking as she gestured, her mind running through all the terrible things that could happen to her poor friend, though she didn't want to dwell on such matters. "I'm... I'm scared." Her bright blue eyes were beginning to shimmer with tears, and her color darkened as her mane fell straight. Whatever hope she had had for Twilight was now gone. "I don't like being scared like this..."

"I can get that you're scared, Voiceless," the cyan pegasus said with a roll of her eyes. "Now shut up, I mean, stay still!"

The deceased ponies watched as Twilight Sparkle began to gather together the brain scanning equipment, levitating the neuron router in particular.

"You and I are going to be doing a lot of memory manipulation tonight!" the unicorn said with an eager grin.

Once everything was set up, Twilight got a small, electrical prod, the same one that she had used to wake up Applejack when it was her turn for the Element extraction process. Switching it on so the end was alight with an electrical charge, she pressed it lightly into Fluttershy's side to jolt her awake.

"AH!" Fluttershy let out a surprised squeak at the sudden awakening, breathing heavily from being woken up with such an uncomfortable sensation. For a moment, her eyes blinked blearily into focus. "Oh, hi Twilight..."

Suddenly, the yellow pegasus's eyes widened as all traces of sleep fell away. Twilight was here.. and the mare hadn't been at her house... where was she?! Fluttershy tried to move in her increasing alarm, seeing all the myriad of devices that her unicorn friend had set up around her, but it was no use. She was incapable of moving her limbs, torso, and head, and while she could flap her wings a little, they were pinned down to the table, being of no use in attempting to escape..

She cried out, heartbeat increasing in pace. "Twilight?!"

"Hello, Fluttershy!" Twilight said with a dangerously wide grin at her frightened friend. "Nice to see you awake!"

"Wh-Where am I?!" Fluttershy choked out, blinking her eyes rapidly as if to will this terrible place away from her mind. "What am I doing-"

Her heart stopped for a split second as it all came together. Being in this strange freaky lab place... Twilight's sudden appearance.... the pegasus's eyes took on a stricken gaze as she looked at Twilight in shock. "It... It is you, isn't it?!" The hurt and betrayal in Fluttershy's eyes was almost tangible. "You really are the one who's been ponynapping our friends!"

The unicorn chuckled. "The ones who suspected me were on to something."

As she tried to struggle, a thought occurred to the pegasus. If Twilight was indeed the one who had been ponynapping the others...

"Wh-Where are they? What have you done with our friends?!"

Twilight grinned. "Oh don't worry, they're here to see you!" With a disturbing smile, she dislodged the table from its spot on the floor and swung it around to face the cleaned corpses of her other friends. "Say hello to Fluttershy, guys!"

Fluttershy screamed in terror at the sight. She wasn't sure what condition she had expected to find her friends in - she had prayed that whenever they were found, they'd be captured, but alive. Then they could be freed, everything would be fine...

But she had never expected something so nightmarish as this. Never had expected a terrible line of corpses which seemed to be devoid of muscle and organs save for their unblinking, glassy eyes. Nothing more than skin stretched out and sewn back together over their bones, the ponies' cutie marks torn off, leaving only the bones of their flanks visible beneath. It seemed as if the tops of their heads had been removed and sewn back together, most of their manes removed from their heads.

She could see that even Spike and Sweetie Belle hadn't escaped such terrible fates, as they were also in the lineup of displayed cadavers. The stitches on Spike's scales made it clear that his skin had been methodically skinned off, and as for Sweetie Belle, her head appeared to have been cut in half and her left eye was burned raw, rendered completely useless and appearing like a raw indent in her face.

"And look," Twilight said happily, not noticing Fluttershy's horrorstruck expression, "I have another surprise!"

With that, the darkened color of her magic levitated around a few select books on her shelf, and she moved them in front of Fluttershy, causing her to shriek again in horror. They were the books made from her friends' muscles and organs, their cutie marks adorning the covers - now she knew what had happened with the gaping holes on their flanks.

The books were moved out of the traumatized pony's sight as the psychopathic mare spoke again. "I felt that my friends deserved to be preserved in a special way - who knows, I might use their DNA for something later."

A violent chill went down Fluttershy's back as she started to shake, traumatized from the horrendous scene before her. In her mind she was trying to will herself to wake up from this nightmare, but in her heart she knew that this was no nightmare. This awful fate of her friends was real. Twilight hadn't just ponynapped them, she had tortured them, mutilated them, murdered them...

"HOW COULD YOU?!" Fluttershy screamed when she finally found her voice. "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO THEM?! THEY WERE OUR FRIENDS!"

Twilight only came in front of her view with a notepad beside her, scribbling down notes on Fluttershy's reactions toward seeing her friends' mutilated corpses. She stared, an unusual expression in her eyes. It wasn't the look of a serial killer who murdered just for fun... there was desperation there. A wild, out-of-control desperation. "I HAD to, don't you see?! It was to extract the Elements - just like I'll be doing to you tonight."

"But... but..." Fluttershy stammered. This sick, twisted process, torture and murder, all for the Elements? But what could have caused Twilight to do this? "So you killed all our friends, just to get the Elements?!"

Twilight's voice was icily calm as she replied. "I had to."

"WHY?!"

Twilight looked over at her friend with a sigh, and turned the table on which she was held yet again. There, on Twilight's worktable, were a series of labeled containment chambers, each one hosting a shimmering white orb inside it.

Fluttershy gasped. "Those are-"

"That's right!" Twilight confirmed. "The essence of the Elements of Harmony!"

Fluttershy stared at her in complete bewilderment as Twilight went over to the containment chambers, patting them proudly with an almost hungry glint in her eyes. "Look at how bright they are! They're pure, just as they should be!"

"P-Pure?" the trapped pegasus stammered, trying to get a grasp on what Twilight was saying. Trying to figure out what sick plans her former friend had, to figure out what she was up to...

"Pure genetic material!" Twilight exclaimed in a gleeful tone. "So now they can be properly analyzed, free from any remnants of being tainted!"

"What do you-"

"That's for me to know, and everypony else to soon find out," Twilight said sharply with a quick raising of her hoof, indicating her discussion of her plan was over.

Fluttershy's eyes widened. "E-Everypony else?"

"Yup!" Twilight said brightly. "They'll all find out by morning!"

From within their purgatory prison, the spirits of the four dead ponies glanced at each other at those words.

"Mor-"

The pegasus was cut short by an object encased in a magical aura zooming right at her, stopping just inches away to barely graze her nose. The minor cut wasn't painful, but a small trickle of blood flowed down from her nose as the object was levitated back slightly. Now that her heart was resuming somewhat of a normal pattern of beats, Fluttershy could focus and see that the oncoming object had been a sharpened knife.

The message was clear: question Twilight's motives now, and she'd make sure the offender paid for it.

"Yes, morning. And if I'm right," the lavender mare went on, not letting her former friend finish, "you'll find out for yourself too - you'll be joining the others here soon. In fact, they're probably watching us right now." Twilight had already formed the theory that, like the others, Fluttershy would end up in that purgatory place that the others with the Elements had been condemned to... though as for why they were there in the first place, she wasn't entirely sure.

"That's one darn thing you're right about," Rainbow Dash muttered, out of the demented scientist's hearing range.

Fluttershy trembled. What in the world was Twilight planning with the Elements the following morning? And why? And what did the deranged pony mean by the others watching them? Were the spirits of her dead friends here, right now?

She was filled with so many questions, but it seems that if she asked any she'd likely get a knife to her face.

And if this was all to extract the Elements, what about...

"No matter what terrible things you're planning, Spike and Sweetie Belle had nothing to do with the Elements!" Fluttershy was trying and failing to hold back her tears. It was disgusting enough that Twilight had inflicted such pain and mutilation on her own best friends, but Fluttershy was also devastated at the thought of lives so young as Spike and Sweetie Belle, being needlessly tortured when they appeared to have nothing to do with Twilight's plan.

Whatever that plan was...

"True," Twilight nodded in agreement, "but it had to be done. They threatened to discover my secret and reveal it, so I had to get rid of them! It was the only way to protect my work until the time is right!"

"I trusted you, Twilight!" Fluttershy's mint-green eyes showed a mix of despair and anger, barely able to comprehend the atrocious acts that the unicorn had committed. "I TRUSTED YOU!"

"Well, you know what they say," Twilight said, voice nonchalant as she started some of her equipment up, "the ones closest to you are the ones most likely to hurt you!" She chuckled at using Carrot Top's former words to Lyra.

Fluttershy, still scarred by the terrible things that Twilight had done to her friends, said nothing, too traumatized to speak. She was angry and scared for her life, horrified at the thought of what Twilight would do to her. If her friend hadn't hesitated to do those sickening things to her other friends, who knew what she would do to Fluttershy herself?

Humming to herself, Twilight then pushed a button over on her control panel, glancing over at the pony she had captured. A smile spread across her face. "I want to show you a little something, Fluttershy. Look this way."

With the sinister grin that was plastered onto Twilight's face, and her previous actions, the timid pegasus wasn't at all eager to see what her "friend" had to show her. Despite the anxiety that inflicted her mind, Fluttershy did as she was asked, but she could only turn her gaze so far.

"I can't... I can't see anything there."

"Of course, silly me," Twilight said with an expression which showed that this had been planned for drama, "I need to turn your little table around a bit!"

As the twisted unicorn steadily spun the table around to its side, Fluttershy gasped. There, on the opposite side of the room, was something had never expected to see. The animals she cared for, caged on the other side of the room through the use of bars and reinforced magic. They all looked terrified, for themselves and their caretaker.

"MY PETS! NO!" Fluttershy screamed in horror at the sight in front of her. Her eyes pricked with tears, her mint-green eyes looking fiercely at the grinning unicorn. "Why?! Why them?!" She was shaking, both with fear and determination to fight back. "Elements or not, they aren't related to this sick stuff! They don't have the Elements of Harmony, they weren't in your way-"

"They might have gone to alert somepony else. And in any case, they're going to be part of the experience and aid in the full process of Element extraction." Twilight said, still taking notes with a grim smile on her face. "And this is just the kind of reaction I'd expect from you - my current analysis on your mental state where your pets are concerned have been proven correct! You're always so compassionate towards them-"

"Please! Don't do anything to them! DON'T HURT THEM!" begged Fluttershy, making no move to stop the tears falling from her eyes. Twilight had tortured her friends, and was planning to do the same to Fluttershy herself... now she brought her pets into this torture chamber of a place, too?

Unaffected by her friend's desperate pleas, Twilight continued with her work, calm as ever. "Oh, don't worry, Fluttershy, who said I would hurt them?" Pushing a button, Twilight turned the scalper on, briefly closing her eyes, reveling in the almost soothing hum of the deadly machine. But she didn't use it immediately - better to let it warm up at this point to save time. The scientist was going to have a little fun first, and it would be best to get everything started as much as possible so that her plans could be fully accomplished by sunrise.

Levitating the sharp scalpel with her magic, the unicorn walked closer to Fluttershy, smirking, and finished. "In fact, the one to hurt them just might be you..." She shrugged. "It's a pity though - I've seen how Angel acts kind of abusive toward you at times, so I think I'd be doing you a kindness by getting rid of him."

Fluttershy was trembling, tears beginning to fall from her eyes in disbelief. Twilight had been her friend, so intelligent and giving... what in the world had come over Twilight to make her act like this? To be a monster, a murderer?

She figured there was only one way she would get an answer: by asking.

Fluttershy's voice was choked by sobs as she tearfully gasped out the question. "Why?!"

Twilight blinked, staring at the trembling animal caretaker as if she didn't have the faintest idea of what she was talking about. "Why what?"

"Why are you doing this?!" Fluttershy sobbed, though her voice was beginning to be mixed with anger at Twilight's despicable actions. "Torturing and murdering our friends, threatening my pets... How can you enjoy all this... this suffering?!"

The unicorn only smiled serenely, like she was trying to explain a concept to a small child. "Oh Fluttershy, everypony enjoys suffering." Her smile grew wider. "You just don't know it yet."

Fluttershy tried to be as firm as she could. Be brave, Fluttershy, she told herself desperately before speaking aloud. "Wh-What do you mean? Not everypony enjoys it! Only a few twisted ones!"

The immediate response from her captor was a laugh. "Haven't you ever laughed at least a little when somepony has fallen over, or messed up in some way? Gotten a little amusement at somepony else's expense?"

The trapped pony paused before regretfully murmuring her agreement, her gaze downcast.

"Then there you go. Even a minor slip-up is some form of suffering. It's a little thing that everypony gets at least a little enjoyment out of."

Fluttershy hated to think of it, but she had to admit that Twilight was right. Everypony did seem to enjoy suffering on at least the most minor of levels.

The pegasus was writhing with fright, twisting and trying everything to get out. Of course, it was no use. She was still trapped. And she wasn't about to get free no matter what she did.

If physical struggle didn't work, maybe pleading with her friend would... it was the only thing Fluttershy could think of to do at this point. If she was insistent enough, she might be able to get through the unicorn's twisted mind.

"Why can't you see it?!" She shouted, begging as Twilight came closer to her with that deadly grin. "Why can't you see what you've done?! They were our friends, Twilight!"

Unseen by the living ponies, Rainbow Dash swore under her breath at the notion of "friends". Tears began to come to Pinkie's eyes at the memories that she alone of the purgatory-bound ponies retained.

The purple unicorn chuckled, her eyes showing no mercy within their gaze, but rather excitement. She had already started to break Fluttershy in one way, mentally, just by Twilight revealing the various procedures she had done.

And Twilight thought it was glorious.

"Maybe that's the way it was before, but those days are gone! I'll break that Kindness out of you soon, and I'm just getting started!"

Gleefully, a variety of syringes were levitated over and hung around the pony, as if they were an army waiting for orders to attack. The unicorn smirked at the shuddering pegasus.

"See these, Fluttershy?" Twilight used her magic to levitate the various small containers in a circle around the table to which Fluttershy was strapped. "What I have here is a variety of drugs and injections that will keep you awake and alive. You will eventually beg for death, beg for the pain to end - and if I do my job right, you''ll eventually be filled with a desperate desire to brutally kill me."

Fluttershy's eyes widened even further than they already were, her breath coming out in choked, frightened gasps. "I'd... I'd never-" Though she was frightened out of her wits, there was a certain brightness in the yellow pegasus's eyes. She wasn't going to just give up.

"You say that now," Twilight said, seeming to feel nothing but excitement at the thought of Fluttershy wanting to kill her. "But trust me, that's gonna change. You'd be surprised just how easily somepony can be manipulated and altered. And I'll make sure that your pain won't end until the time is right. It's what needs to be done for my work!"

A chuckle that chilled the other pony to the bone.

"So many doctors would love to possess what I have here, to create ways to keep a pony from dying, to even help them resist pain!" One by one, the injectors hovered closer to Fluttershy before pulling back, the deranged pony smiling all the while. "And who knows, once the grand part of my plan is put into action, I might use them to help move things along. It's gonna be wonderful!"

The mentally unstable unicorn showed her teeth in a disturbingly wide, demented smile. Almost sporting a Glasgow grin similar to that of Sweetie Belle's just before her death.

"But my purpose for them here? I shall torture you in worse ways than you would dare to imagine. I'll mess with your memories to cause you to believe you've experienced this torture and cruelty all your life!" She chuckled, eyes flashing white again. "I will make sure that pain is all you know. What I will do would certainly kill an ordinary pony under normal circumstances. But I can do all these things, and you won't die until every drug I apply here wears off."

The pony wore a sadistic grin. "I've chemically enhanced them to be this way, with a little help from my magic, of course. I even could put you back into place if I tore a limb or two away!" Twilight placed a hoof on her chin, pondering her twisted choices. "Which I might do or not. It depends on what I feel I need to do to get that Kindness from you."

Fluttershy's chest was heaving with each word Twilight spoke, and her eyes were now tightly closed in her fear. Suddenly, as the unicorn appeared to cease in her speech, the trapped pony felt a sharp pinch in her body, and she cried out in a startled exclamation. The trapped pony opened her eyes from the shock, just in time to see one of the hypodermic needles hovering away from her and Twilight laughing.

"That injection I just gave you is Exhibit A. Testing, if you will. Thanks to a combination of chemical enhancement and magic, I have enough compounds stored to allow you to be alive for everything I do, if I wish!" Her voice turned practically into a screech, a cry of somepony desperate to make something work. "EVERYTHING! Whatever I have to do to extract that Kindness!" The injections were levitated away, Twilight no longer having a use for them. "So that one will be enough for the time being - I'll administer more shots accordingly."

Fluttershy trembled from the deranged look in the unicorn's violet eyes.

"I know you may appear timid at first, Fluttershy, but you're a lot stronger than you seem." The tone in Twilight's voice was almost proud. "I can't underestimate you - you put up a pretty good fight when the time calls for it!"

Fluttershy forced herself to put on a brave face in sight of her attacker. She had to somehow avenge her fallen friends, protect others from getting hurt. She was the Element of Kindness, after all, she couldn't fail them! Not after what Twilight had done! "I... I just fight for what's right," she stammered.

"And you do a great job at it!" Twilight affirmed with a smile, patting her captured friend on the head. "That's why I know I can't expect you to break so easily - I'll have to go all-out with everything I have in order to get that Kindness properly." She turned her eyes upward, briefly looking out of focus as if she were going into an elaborate daydream. "It will be hard work, but it'll all be worth it!"

Fluttershy was absolutely dreading what was to come.

"Now, Fluttershy my friend," Twilight moved away from her friend with an enthusiastic expression. "It's time we got down to business!" She looked over toward Fluttershy's animals, who were trying in vain to escape, before turning back to Fluttershy. "I know that you teach your animals a lot, Fluttershy... do they know the alphabet?"

Fluttershy slowly nodded, frightened as she glanced upward, but still managing an answer. "I... I teach it to all of them." She didn't know what the alphabet had to do with Twilight's deranged manner, but she had a strong feeling it wasn't good.

The scientist's expression brightened as she clapped her hooves together. "That's great! Because today, I'm going to get to teach them a new kind of alphabet, and you are going to help me out! We'll all learn it together, and I'll be able to extract Kindness while teaching you all something new!"

Based on Twilight's previous actions, both caretaker and pets knew that the 'alphabet' Twilight would have them learn wasn't near as simple as introducing them to a letter on a card and using it in a word.

Twilight then spoke in a voice similar to Cheerilee's. "Alright everypony, now who can tell me what the first letter in the alphabet is?"

Visibly terrified by the mechanism she was now positioned under, Fluttershy said nothing in response.

"Go on, Fluttershy," Twilight gently goaded, "I'm sure you know it."

"... A..." the pegasus finally murmured.

"Good job!" Twilight exclaimed. "I have a couple certain methods planned for A, and one is one I'm already familiar with using from one of my participants before!"

Fluttershy worriedly glanced upward, terror in her eyes.

"Oh, don't worry," Twilight assured her, "it's not the Scalper here - it may start with an S, but I have to do that first so I can prepare to mess with your mind as we start the ABC's of Torture - or, should I say, Kindness Extraction!" She grinned, violet eyes narrowed dangerously. "Won't that be fun?"

"N-No!" Fluttershy said firmly, trying and failing to shake her head. "No it won't be fun!"

"That was a rhetorical question, Fluttershy," Twilight gently scolded, switching on the trusty Scalper to let it whir to life. "My actions wouldn't change no matter what your response was!"

Fluttershy quaked in terror as the whirring of machinery grew louder, barely seeing the glint of the small scalpel lower steadily toward her head, just as what had been done several times before. Trying as hard as she could to get away, but failing.

As the metal blade inched closer, Fluttershy squeezed her eyes shut, attempting to brace herself from the oncoming pain. But despite this, she wasn't at all prepared for it.

The pegasus screamed as the sharp scalpel dug in through her head, slicking through the epidermis and causing some of her mane to fall to the ground. Shaking, strapped down tight, the impact of the blade against her skull vibrated in a jarring impact throughout her entire body, and all she could do was watch, terrified, at the unicorn grinning and taking notes. The blood from the scalpel's incision steadily began tricking down from the wound, mixing with her tears.

The blade followed its familiar path along the head of its recipient, carving around to the sides of the skull so that the sides of the brain could be more easily reached, just as had been done before. Fluttershy tried to force herself to endure it as her skin, coat, mane, muscle and bone were sliced through, but the pain was more intense than she had imagined.

It only got worse when the Scalper's metal claws on the part resembling an egg beater lowered over the suffering pegasus, the sharp metal digging just above her skull and slicing through the remaining sinews of muscle, lifting it up and exposing the skull underneath. Quickly following that up, Twilight got the platform from before to bring herself higher and retrieved a sterilized scalpel continuing with the familiar routine as the entire top of Fluttershy's skull was carved away, removed to reveal the brain.

"Perfect!" the scientist said happily, not seeming to notice her friend's cries. As she returned the Scalper to its normal position, putting the removed cranial cap into a proper containment chamber, she levitated the neuron router over the top of Fluttershy's head.

"Now," Twilight went on, attaching the headphone-like mechanism to Fluttershy's head that would make her mental images visible and easy to manipulate, "for the others I've just used the neuron manipulator to mess with their heads, and torturing them separately in ways to correspond with what I needed to do. But for Kindness, I'll have to do a combination of both simultaneously in order to get that Element properly!" She laughed. "So, it's time to start off with the first method I have for A - abacination!"

Fluttershy managed to open her eyes, incomprehension and fear the primary emotions present in her gaze, overpowering anything else. "Wh-What's..."

Twilight glanced over at Sweetie Belle's body with a sinister grin, as she made the metal plate from Sweetie Belle's torture session materialize, cleansing it with alcohol before casting it alight in a burning hot glow. "You remember this, right, Sweetie Belle?"

While of course there was no answer from the cadaver, Fluttershy quickly pieced together just what it was
the lunatic scientist had planned for her. Her own eyes twitched, as if they were already anticipating the pain that Twilight promised to bring. "No! T-Twilight, P-PLEASE!"

"I wouldn't do these things if it wasn't necessary, Fluttershy," Twilight insisted, with no mercy in her voice or expression. "And for me, for what I have to do, it is necessary!"

Using a combination of her machinery and magic, Twilight got to work on her Tartarus-like multitasking. She began using her magic to let the neuron manipulator do its work on a cellular level, focusing primarily on the temporal lobes to the sides, where memories were stored.

"Time for me to break that Kindness out of you in both past and present!" Twilight exclaimed, switching on the machine that would allow her to see into Fluttershy's "mind's eye" as the struggling pegasus was thrown into a vision. Before Fluttershy could protest, the sterilized, red-hot plate was pressed firmly against Fluttershy's left eye.

The pegasus screamed in agony, the fierce burning on her face joining the pain from the scalping she had endured. She felt the metal plate burn at hundreds of degrees against her coat and skin, charring it and utterly burning out the visual organ, just as had been done with Sweetie Belle before her.

As the hot plate was pressed firmly against Fluttershy's face, the neuron manipulator was used to alter Fluttershy's thoughts, her memories... Fluttershy was just a filly in this memory, surrounded by a group of ponies from the flight camp she had once attended. They had her tied down, unable to move. One of the fillies was about to press a hot metal plate to her eye identical to the on that was pressed against her in the present - and it unusually looked a lot like Rainbow Dash, but with a gray coat and mane and bright red irises instead of the real Rainbow's magenta.

"This is for a little initiation!" The filly said with a smile as she pressed the hot plate against filly-Fluttershy's terrified eye.

Unknown to Twilight, the assemblage of the Element-torn ponies were still watching everything that was taking place.

"Why didn't I think of ever doing that to those stinking Cloudsdale pegasi?" Rainbow Dash muttered to herself. "That could have been very useful before..."

No matter how much she tried to struggle, whether in the present or fabricated past. Fluttershy couldn't escape the blistering agony that was being inflicted on her face.

After what seemed like an eternity, the hot plate was lifted away from Fluttershy's eye, and the altered memory faded from Fluttershy's immediate vision to settle itself into one of her memories.

Twilight tilted her head down slightly to see Fluttershy's terrified face. "Abacination hurts, doesn't it?"

Crying and cringing from the pain, the pegasus managed a whimper of acknowledgement.

"Well, luckily for you, that's done with," Twilight said brightly, so it's time to move on to the next item on my A list - asphyxiation!"

The pegasus was shaking, too traumatized and fearful to ask what it was.

Twilight answered her captive's unvoiced question. "Asphyxiation is also known as a form of oxygen deficiency. In other words, it inhibits a pony's normal ability to breathe."

Readying the neuron router, Twilight used her magic to bring over an unusual-looking mechanism - it looked similar to a device that was used to transmit anesthesia into a hospital patient. But the mask-like part meant to go over a pony's mouth and nose was attached to a container, which seemed to be filled with a colorless gas.

"Carbon monoxide," Twilight explained, looking downward so she could quickly attach the mouth-peice to Fluttershy's face and begin pumping the toxic gas into her captive's body. As she reworked the neurons in Fluttershy's brain to manipulate her memories here as well, she didn't hear the pegasus's attempted screams - they were muffled by the mask around her mouth and nose.

As Twilight observed the pony's heartbeat steadily slowing due to a lack of oxygen in her system, she brought forth another "memory" to Fluttershy - being locked in a room with nopony around, just her and the carbon monoxide that was being pumped into the room. While in the fabricated memory she could move, there was no escaping her confinement, and she could only scream and cough as the gas entered her body.

After about 5 minutes of being deprived of breathable air, the mask was removed from the pegasus's mouth and she was finally able to take in a few much needed gasps, fighting to get oxygen back into her lungs.

A light scribbling reached Fluttershy's ears as she heard the scratching of a quill on the paper - Twilight had been taking notes throughout the whole thing.

"I have a feeling my notebook's gonna be pretty full after all this," the unicorn commented, almost to herself.

Fluttershy took several large, shaky breaths, still trying to cope with the torment of her physical ailments and memories that Twilight had surfaced. With a cold sweat coming over her as she attempted to recover, it hit her that even with the suffering she had gon through thus far, this was only letter A - there were still 25 more letters in the alphabet to go.

As the scientist took notes with a deranged smile, she glanced over at the monitor that showed a scan of Fluttershy's brain, looking for even a fragment of the Element of Kindness. Nothing yet.

That's okay, though, she thought, I just got started with this anyway. Glancing down at Fluttershy, she spoke again. "Now, it's time for the letter B, which in this case stands for 'boot'!"

Through her pain, Fluttershy managed a wary look - a boot as she knew it was relatively harmless, unless you hit somepony with it. Unfortunately, the beaten pegasus had a feeling that Twilight didn't mean the kind of boot that a pony would normally wear.

She was right to assume the worst.

With a little tune of gleeful humming from Twilight, Fluttershy barely noticed a small glow of Twilight's darkened magic aura off to her right, as two large metal boots were levitated toward her. At least, she assumed they were boots - each one was more like two large metal plates stuck together, with spikes on the inside and a crank on the outside to tighten the pressure.. The pegasus attempted to somehow flex her hooves to kick the large metal boots away, but the straps just above her hooves that held her legs in place held firm, making any movement impossible. With no resistance, the torturous boots began to be placed over her exposed hooves.

"I don't know why they're really called 'boots'," Twilight commented, as if she were merely talking to her friend in the library and not about to torture her with the device in question. "They don't even have a bottom to them like normal boots."

Fluttershy cried out in pain as the spiked metal wedges on the inside of the boot began to dig through the sides of her hooves, penetrating the skin and causing blood to flow out of the wound and flow down from the metal construct. The cranks on each boot were turned by Twilight's magic, and the pressure of the boot increased, tearing through her flesh and muscle.

"AAAAHHHHHH! TWILIGHT, STOP! PLEASE!"

The unicorn ignored her friend's screams of anguish, instead focusing on creating another "memory" for Fluttershy to experience. With the sparks of electrical manipulation to parts of the brain, analyzing the memories, Fluttershy was sent into another world yet again.

Within the pegasus's new vision, she found herself yet again experiencing the torment as a filly, the boots on her hooves being tightly cranked by the Rainbow Dash look-alike from earlier.

Fluttershy wailed. "STOP, STOP! IT HURTS! PLEASE, S-STOP!"

Whether the suffering pony was addressing Twilight or the ponies in her vision was uncertain, but all Twilight was focused on was the pegasus's brainwaves increasing in her panic.

The boots were cranked further and further in both states of mind, with more intensity, until at last the metal sliced through the bones of Fluttershy's hooves, causing them to crack in several places, some white bone ligament visible as at last the boots were removed.

Being jolted back into the present and out of the memory, Fluttershy was crying, sobbing. She could see her pets staring at her from across the room, some huddled in fear while others were desperate to help their caretaker.

"I'm.... I'm sorry...." Fluttershy sniffled through her sobs, hoping that her pets could hear the regret and sorrow in her voice.

Unfortunately, the momentary release of new torture implements was short-lived, as Twilight Sparkle quickly moved on to the next step.

"And now," the unicorn said with a grin, putting in a bit of an announcer-type tone to her voice, "going into a category rather than individual devices, it's time for the letter C!" She moved her head a little closer to Fluttershy, speaking in a tone similar to Cheerilee when she was talking to her students. "Do you know what C stands for?"

Fluttershy looked as if she were about to say something, but the words seemed to die before she said them. As painful as it was, her mind tried to think of some sort of word that could relate to what Twilight was doing. Maybe if she came up with a suitable answer, her pain would be less. Whatever would make her already painful experience lessen. So she thought up the first science-related 'C' word that came to her mind, though thinking of the possibility filled her mind with dread. "Che... Chemicals?"

Twilight looked visibly surprised. "That's exactly right!" Pleased, her grin grew wider. "You're really catching on fast! 'C' stands for 'chemicals', this one's gonna be fun!"

Clapping her hooves in anticipation, she practically trotted over to her cabinet, opening it up and levitating several syringes and vials out. "I had been considering doing them in a straight alphabetical progression too, but I changed my mind on that. Instead, I'll be using a few in combination with each other - that will give us a really interesting collection of effects, and I'll be able to compare them!"

Twilight spoke in an over-enthusiastic voice, as if she were an announcer in a production introducing the next act, as she looked from Fluttershy to the cleansed bodies of the others she had killed. "Here I give you the newest chemical craze sweeping Equestria..." she held up the bottle high with a dramatic flourish. "Krokodil! So called because after an extended period of use, it makes your skin all green-looking over time, like a crocodile's!"

Fluttershy managed to open her remaining eye in horror. Even in her delirious state, she remembered having been around crocodiles before. They were dangerous, and being around them once was enough. The idea of looking like a crocodile didn't exactly sound like the most appealing thing in the world, but after what she had gone through and what she knew was to come, looking like a crocodile would be painless, right?

Unfortunately, Twilight wasn't done with her explanation.

"It's a chemical derived from morphine, particularly made of a compound known as codeine, mixed with cleaning solvents, and if it's used right, it can be used for the purpose of medicine. However, if it's made incorrectly, it can have devastating effects. And those effects are just what I'll be experimenting with!"

The unicorn chuckled, much to Fluttershy's increasing horror. "Do you want to know what it does?"

"N-NO!"

Twilight ignored her. "It's simple - this stuff rots flesh."

Fluttershy's pupil contracted as her skin and coat went pale, sweating at the very thought of her flesh rotting away from her body.

"And no, that isn't an exaggeration, it literally rots anypony's flesh and muscle, basically everything except the bone, without any blood flowing. And yet there are still groups in Equestria that use it on themselves on a regular basis."

The thought of anypony willingly using such a terrible substance on themselves was unbelievable to Fluttershy. "Why would.... they d-do that?!"

"Because they've become so addicted to the drug that it keeps eating away at them. Of course, not quite to the degree I'll be using it on you." The unicorn looked absolutely gleeful as she moved the vial a little closer, circling around the pony who was to be the drug's recipient. "You see, ordinarily, you can survive for a year on it - imagine living for months in a haze brought on by the drug, only able to feel a desire for more of it and the agony of your body slowly rotting away, every moment you breathe. It sounds terrible, doesn't it?"

Fluttershy looked upward, eyes wide as she noticed the purple pony bend her head down to look at her again.

"Well, like I said before, I've altered these chemicals through magic so the effects surface a lot quicker than they normally would!"

Fluttershy was shaking like a leaf in the wind, wanting more than anything to be released from there and get as far away as possible, alerting everypony of who the true culprit was and what she was doing...

"Now here," Twilight went on, "I have another chemical that can be used in conjunction with that." She used her magic to retrieve another vial and hold it up in front of Fluttershy's face. "For instance, this hydrofluoric acid is a strong oxidizer, and can seep through the skin and damages nerves and bones." She levitated the vial closer. "Basically, it can melt bones while leaving the flesh above unharmed. It's like completely removing somepony's bones!"

A sinister, cold, chuckle.

"So I have a drug that destroys everything but bone, and a chemical that destroys the bone and leaves the flesh above perfectly intact. Combine them together, and it causes complete destruction." Twilight laughed, her voice a hushed yet excited whisper. "It's the perfect combination, don't you think?"

Fluttershy whimpered.

"So I've decided to use the first on your right front leg, and the second on your left! That will be fun, won't it?"

A series of choked gasps and sniffles were her only response.

"But now there's the manner of your hind legs," Twilight went on with a grin, her neuron manipulator poised and ready in anticipation - she seemed to be especially excited for this chemical torture. She levitated a third vial within Fluttershy's sight. "Now this will be used on your right hind leg. It's just a little nerve agent called tabun, which can cause convulsions and paralysis." Twilight was grinning. "This one isn't really deadly, but this chemical compound led to some more deadly toxins being developed."

A fourth and final vial was levitated in front of the captive pony, and it was clear that Fluttershy was terrified as to what in the world this last one would do. With a little forceful tug from Twilight's magic, the top of this vial was removed and a faint fruity aroma wafted to Fluttershy's nostrils.

"And finally, your left hind leg will get its treatment with this. It's fluoroantimonic acid, which is many times stronger as an acid than pure sulfuric acid. Do you know how powerful sulfuric acid is, Fluttershy?"

The broken pegasus managed a shaky answer. ".... No..." Even with that simple word, the terror was clear in her voice.

"Well, it's very powerful," Twilight said dismissively. "More powerful than anything you've felt before. And think about it, this particular acid is about 20 quintillion times stronger than that."

Fluttershy seemed about to open her mouth to say something, but Twilight had already guessed the question. "Yes, a quintillion is a real number, and a very large one."

Before Fluttershy could speak she suddenly felt the sharp, quick pinch of another syringe or two, and glanced up nervously at Twilight.

"That's just to make sure I don't lose you to shock after this," the lavender unicorn said casually. With her neuron manipular and notepad at the ready, each of the four vials were opened and positioned at a slight tilt just over Fluttershy's limbs.

Her breath coming in short gasps, Fluttershy clenched her eye shut, her body tensing up as she braced herself for the pain.

Nothing so far could have prepared her for what she then experienced.

All four vials were poured onto Fluttershy's exposed limbs at once, and the pegasus's face twisted into an expression of pure agony. She screamed, her voice rising into a terrible shriek as the effects of the chemicals quickly did their work, thanks to enhancements from Twilight's twisted magic.

The krokodil on Fluttershy's right front leg swiftly turned her coat and skin a horrible green color, before it began to eat away at her leg. The epidermis and muscle steadily began to disappear as it was disintegrated by the enhanced drug, spilling no blood from that leg as everything except the bone was rotted away. As Fluttershy tried in vain to move, her right front leg was reduced to merely the bones and joints that held it together, looking as bare as the skeletons that Twilight had displayed.

Her left front leg was assaulted by the hydrofluoric acid, which quickly began to seep through Fluttershy's skin on that leg. While the flesh above remained normal and undamaged, Fluttershy could feel the terrible pain as the nerves and bones in her left forelimb were eroded away. The only merciful thing about such torment was that the moment the nerves were gone in that leg, she could no longer feel it. With no pain receptors, her entire, boneless leg was more-or-less numb to her. But it was the only relief in this Tartarus-like environment.

The hind leg on her right felt the stinging sensation of the tabun chemical, and the contact with her skin caused the leg to convulse and jerk wildly from the chemical's effects, as much as was possible with the limb bound to the table.

The agony from the left hind hoof was easily the worst, as the extremely corrosive substance stung and burned, dissolving every bit of matter on the limb, with a pain that felt as if Fluttershy's leg was lit on fire. The skin, nerves, muscle, and bone were all practically vaporized in the burning acidic substance, and when the limb was completely eroded away, it was only the strap around Fluttershy's hoof that kept that untouched part of her limb from falling to the floor. The place where the leg had been still burned, as her brain had not become accustomed to having that limb vanishing so suddenly - the "phantom limb" phenomenon wasn't helping matters.

As if that wasn't enough, Twilight manipulated Fluttershy's memories to cause another vision to surface. Within the monitoring of Fluttershy's mind's eye, those same chemicals were being used - except in this false memory, Fluttershy was having each of her legs dunked in vats of each acid.

Fluttershy screamed in terror and agony, her face contorted in an expression of pain and fear that nopony would ever want to behold. She much more like a banshee than an ordinary pony.

In the purgatory prison, the former Element holders had mixed reactions toward the sight before them. Rarity, of course, felt nothing at all, simply staring at the hellish torture that was taking place. Applejack's charred legs shook, remembering her own torment and thinking how - if what she remembered was true - her's had been so much less than this.

Pinkie Pie was taking this the least well out of all of them. Her eyes were closed, trembling as silent sobs poured down her face. Her mane, tail, and coat and straightened and darkened even more than they already had. This was worse than anything that she had ever seen... any sense of hope for Twilight she had was gone completely.

She clung to Rainbow Dash desperately, her body wracked with sobs as she sought out some form of comfort in her traumatized state.

Rainbow Dash, who had been staring at Twilight Sparkle with an expression of pure malice, jolted out of her stare and whirled around to face the trembling pink mare.

Much to Pinkie's surprise, the cyan pegasus didn't immediately shove her away or snarl at her to leave. Instead, the mare turned her rose eyes to Pinkie, whose body shook with heaving sobs. Rather then trying to get the pony as far away from her as possible, Rainbow Dash only nudged the pink pony before she spoke.

"We are witnessing the pits of Tartarus."

And as she opened her grief-striken blue eyes, Pinkie's expression made it clear that she agreed with every word.

The group watched Twilight continue to take notes, the unicorn glancing at the monitor. They could tell that the brainwaves were going haywire from the anguish that the pegasus was being put through... but was there a spark?

Twilight's violet eyes lit up excitedly as she thought she saw a brief pulse of genetic energy present on the monitor, but it quickly passed.

"Even with all this, you still have kindness in your heart," Twilight muttered, scribbling down notes. "I'll just have to manipulate those memories of yours a lot more..."

"Twilight, LISTEN!" a desperate voice suddenly cried out to the insane unicorn. A voice that clearly wasn't Fluttershy's. "STOP THIS!"

At the sound of the other voice, Twilight swung her head around, Fluttershy in too much delirious pain to notice. The yellow pegasus hadn't heard the desperate voice, but Twilight did. It was her own voice, her conscience again, and her wispy ghost of a form was visible on the surface of the machinery. Entrapped on the flat surface and yet looking so real, so solid...

"Not you again! Why should I listen to you?!" Twilight's gaze hardened, eyes blinking rapidly as she tried to will the vision away, believing it to be an hallucination. The physical manifestation of her conscience remained.

"Because I know that this is wrong!" The voice of Twilight's conscience rose, as if volume would be able to reach out more to to her deranged self. "You call this harmony?! Why can't you see that you're only bringing chaos?!"

"Shut up! That's not true!" Twilight was breathing heavily as she leapt angrily down from the platform, shaking her head in refusal to believe this other-Twilight's words. "When I'm through, there will be no more of the tainting of chaos!"

The other Twilight was insistent. "If anything, YOU'RE the tainted one!"

It was at this accusation that Twilight could no longer contain her anger.

"SHUT UP!" Twilight shouted with a furious stomp of her hoof, her eyes glowing white as she stared at the apparition of her conscience, hurling a knife at the mechanism the other Twilight could be seen on. "SHUT UP, CONSCIENCE! SHUT UP!"

Despite being reflected on a flat surface of machinery, the other Twilight's horn seemed to shimmer with magic - the normal, magenta shade of magic that Twilight ordinarily had - and attempt to stop the knife hurtling toward her. When that didn't work, as the scientist near Fluttershy had expected in her deranged state, the other Twilight ducked as if afraid the knife would hit her. The weapon merely impacted the surface of the metal, and fell to the ground with a loud clatter.

It was as if Fluttershy shrieks of agony fell deaf on Twilight's ears, only focusing on that invisible presence. The scientist claimed it was her conscience, but consciences weren't physical... it seemed that Twilight had truly snapped for good, completely out of her mind. As if these painful experiments weren't already evidence enough for that.

"You can't stop this! This is for harmony, you'll see! I HAVE to do this!" Her eyes seemed to brighten still further, the extremely dark magenta aura of her horn becoming almost black. "Once I know how to find it, everything will be fixed! Chaos will be gone forever!" Twilight was breathing heavily, panting, and... were those tears pricking at her eyes? "Harmony will reign! You'll see, just- AGH!"

Still in insufferable agony from what had been done to her, Fluttershy's eye widened as a violent shudder coursed through Twilight's body, the unicorn holding her hooves to her head as the surge of energy afflicting her caused her to bend over, shutting her eyes, the glow now appearing to have faded. One second Twilight had been snarling in anger, the next she was crouching on the ground and seemingly in pain. What was happening to her?

It was those pulses of hot and cold that were afflicting Twilight, much more severe than before. It left her unable to concentrate, to think...

No! Twilight thought to herself, insistent as she forced the pain away, shakily getting to her hooves. I have to focus, I have to complete my task! Gotta ignore my conscience, ignore the pangs of hot and cold - just focus on getting. That. Element!

Forcing out a laugh, Twilight looked at the broken, partially destroyed pegasus, who was sobbing at the agony of her impossibly mutilated limbs.

"Well, friend... that's three letters of the alphabet down... and we still have so much more to go!"

She turned her head toward her conscience, still reflected on the metallic surface of the machinery. The apparition of herself looked hurt, saddened and desperate, as if trying to figure out some way to bring herself back from the brink.

"And you can't do a darn thing to stop me, conscience."

The other Twilight stared hard at her for a moment before fading away, leaving the machinery blank once more.

Twilight turned to Fluttershy again. The deranged smile was still present on her face, but there was something else in her eyes. A feeling of turmoil that she was trying her hardest to hide.

Another wave of heat and cold briefly surfaced, but she shook it off. There was work to be done, an Element to extract, and genetic signatures to analyze.

"Now... let's move on, shall we?"

Kindness, D to M

If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
-Frederick Douglass

The pain in Fluttershy's limbs - at least, what remained of them - was beginning to fade somewhat from its initial shock inflicted as a result of the applied chemicals. What had occurred thus far was more than the pegasus could ever imagine she'd have to bear, and if Twilight's words were true, this was only the start of it.

Before this, she had figured that the worst sort of pain she might endure in her life would be though an attack from an animal that she couldn't control, but this - she would never have imagined that pain like this could exist aside from the pits of Tartarus. But Twilight's insane actions had shocked her into a whole new understanding of their reality - then again, at this point, who's to say she wasn't in one of the Circles of Tartarus? That a demon hadn't dragged her down to this place? It would at least provide some explanation for all this - perhaps the one doing this to her was a demon posing as Twilight...

But something in Twilight's gaze told Fluttershy that this was indeed, the pony who had been her friend. Behind this madness, the intelligent unicorn was there, just as she had always been. Fluttershy could sense that...

The question was why.

As Twilight removed the chemical vials from Fluttershy's sight and placed them in their ordinary holding cabinet for later use, Fluttershy managed to voice her question through the shock. Perhaps this time she'd get at least some answer.

"Wh-Why... a-are you...?"

Twilight snorted, not even turning around as she addressed her subject, too absorbed in her work "I've told you, Fluttershy, you'll find out later. I'll explain it to you when my work is nearly finished - I can't have the procedures be messed up by you protesting against the full details of my plan, so it's safest for me to wait until you're more filled with anger." The captive pony couldn't see the smirk that graced Twilight's face as she said the words. "You'll learn, believe me, you'll learn..."

Fluttershy really didn't like the sound of that. Twilight's refusal to explain right away and the tone in which she said it led the pegasus to believe that her grand plan was something truly evil, no matter how great the other mare thought it was. Surely not something that would make Fluttershy's pain end.

But she knew that she had to endure the torment - for the sake of trying to learn Twilight's plan and bring the unicorn back to her senses, if nothing else. Despite the agony she had been put through thus far, Fluttershy resolved that she wasn't going to give up as long as the will to live remained.

Though a small part of her mind feared that it wouldn't take much more to break.

Even with her suffering, the pegasus took a minuscule comfort in one fact: she still had her mind. It seemed as if it was primarily in her mind, her memories, where the Element resided, what Twilight was after. As long as she held on to that, even in the smallest amount, she could rebel against Twilight's deranged antics. And, perhaps, find a way to get through to her.

Twilight, meanwhile, had finished getting her equipment set up for the next step and returned to Fluttershy's view. The deranged smile was back after her strange mental affliction, clearly reminding her captive that the torment was far from over.

"Now, time to get a move on with 'D'!" the unicorn exclaimed. "And in this case, 'D' stands for Drowning!"

"Oh really?" Rainbow Dash muttered with a disgusted snarl, saying the words at a loud enough volume so the living pony could hear her. "I consider it to mean how 'dead' I wish you were, or I hope you're 'doomed' to burn in Tartarus forever."

Twilight ignored the dead pegasus's spite-filled words, focusing her attention on the pony strapped to the table in front of her. "If I were you, Fluttershy, I'd hope that you can hold your breath for a long period of time! Though honestly," she added, "I think that it might at least bring you a small sense of relief after those chemicals being poured on you!"

Her horn radiated with its dark mana, and sudden fields of magical energy manifested around the equipment connected to Fluttershy, as well as the top of the trapped pegasus's head, protecting the equipment and the brain from any outside interference as a dome appeared around Fluttershy, rising with a mechanical hum as it began encasing her within, save for a round hole near the top.

"That energy that I just encased the equipment in will protect it and your brain from what I'm about to do, so I can still take measurements while I fill your chamber with water!" Twilight explained with a giddy tone, trotting over to her control panel to continue with her sinister procedures.

Before Fluttershy had time to react, the all-too-eager mare pressed a button and caused a large pump to fill the gap at the top of the dome, water quickly beginning to pour down from it and steadily rise in the sealed chamber.

"Unfortunately, I can't mess with the past memories stored in your brain at this stage," the scientist said in an almost pouting tone, "but I will for almost everything else, and it's all to get kindness from you, in any case. It evens out!"

Fluttershy could barely hear Twilight through the glass encasing and the water that was collecting at the bottom of the dome where she was encased, steadily rising in height.

Twilight smiled and turned up the speed of the water flow, the level rising to come to the tips of Fluttershy's tail, then soaking it in the water as the liquid reached her hind hooves, submerging them.

Fluttershy tried to struggle, but at most she could only move her head very slightly. She had no limbs to aid in her escape, and her wings and torso were strapped down tightly as well. Her heartbeat and respiratory rate went up significantly though she tried to quell them, attempting to force herself to keep her breath steady.

"Tw-Twilight... p-please no..."

"Don't worry!" Twilight responded with a grin. "I'll make sure it doesn't kill you, I still have so much to do before that can be allowed to happen!"

The water level rose to Fluttershy's tail-tip, then steadily up to her hooves, as if teasing her that she was going to be surrounded by its depths soon enough.

Amazingly, as the water flow increased and with it the level, Fluttershy realized that Twilight was admittedly right - she did feel the slightest sense of peace from the agony she had already suffered. The phantom limb pain in her disintegrated left hind leg seemed lessened slightly, the burning feeling that remained somewhat quenched by the cool water that submerged the stumps of her hooves and the places where her legs had once been.

Somehow, it was almost refreshing after what she had gone though, and her ache seemed to take on a slightly less painful throb. It wasn't as if her legs were growing back - though she did recall Twilight mentioning something about being able to repair them before this all started - but any release from agony was welcome.

Of course, the scientist noticed the slight change in thought, primarily from the brainwave measurements along with Fluttershy's facial expression.

"I see the water is bringing at least some sense of relief!" Twilight noted. "Savor it while you can," she laughed, "it won't be that way for much longer!"

The water crept up higher and higher, surrounding Fluttershy's torso and remains of her legs, feeling the burning of her former torment soothed somewhat by the liquid's cooled surroundings. But the feeling was quickly replaced by terror as the water climbed upward at a faster pace, quickly pouring down to move up toward her head, the wave-like motions of the water rising to just below her chin.

Her heartbeat increased as nerve-wracked sweat mixed with the water, her brainwaves clearly distressed as she seemed to look for some way to get out. Oh, if only "The Stare" could work on Twilight, even with one eye! But realizing the water's pace only appeared to speed up more, Fluttershy did the only thing she could at that moment.

She took a deep breath and held it just as the water was reaching her mouth, quickly submerging the rest of her head under the watery depths. Flutttershy squeezed her remaining good eye shut while attempting to prevent water from getting in through her nose, the water causing a sting on the eye that had been subjected to abacination. The raw condition of that spot only made the pain worse.

Twilight saw Fluttershy's brainwaves pulse as a result of the surrounding liquid, though it was nowhere near as great as the terror-stricken delirium when she had had the chemicals poured onto her. "This will only take a few minutes, just to see how long you can take it for."

With nothing to be able to truly focus on except the water surrounding her, Fluttershy could only stare helplessly in front of her. Seeing Twilight at the corner of her vision, and the animals encased on the other side of the room. The caretaker wanted to call out to them, to find some reassurance so that she could comfort both them and herself. But though several tried to break free of the cage that contained them, their enclosure didn't budge. And even if it did, there was still Twilight's magic to get through, and for them that would prove impossible.

All Fluttershy could do in those moments was hold her breath and think.

Why has Twilight done all this to me... to our friends?! Besides this torture stuff she still seems like her, but what's causing her to do this?

Twilight arched her brow as she noticed Fluttershy's brainwave slow to an almost placid pace, as if she were thinking hard about something. Considering something.

No, she couldn't be... Her head whipped up as she carefully scrutinized the Element bearer's expression and facial movements. If Fluttershy willingly opened her mouth to drown herself, something that the injections might not be able to keep her alive for.... Nonononono! Don't you even think about it, Fluttershy!

A burning flash briefly afflicted the unicorn, causing her to wince as paranoia began rising within her. In that moment, the scientist felt an urge to dart over to her control panel and drain the water at a near instantaneous rate. She couldn't lose Fluttershy, not like that, not now, not so early... Don't you dare think about killing yourself! I will get that Element from you! You won't die until I say so!

Fluttershy continued with her inner monologue, oblivious for the moment to her captor's internal struggle. S-She said she wants Kindness... she won't stop until she gets it... i-if I die here th-then...

The pegasus didn't dare complete the thought, not considering even for a fleeting incident to go through with it. No matter how much pain she was in, no matter how much she was suffering, she never would consider suicide to be an option. It didn't matter if giving herself up to the surrounding water would take the pain away - she had to endure it somehow.

And in any case, she dimly recalled Twilight stating that the injections would keep her alive through all of this, no matter what. Knowing the lavender unicorn's ingenuity, Fluttershy wouldn't be surprised if her former friend also had some way to prevent her from drowning even if it was self-inflicted.

I... I'll fight with my last breath if I have to! the yellow pegasus convinced herself, though she realized that her last breath might soon occur - she was beginning to feel faint from holding her breath for so long, and wondered how much longer it would last.

Twilight, of course, took notice of this, observing her subject's life-signs fluctuate as a lack of proper air threatened to cause the subject to slip into unconsciousness. Not to mention the still lingering unease in the back of her mind that Fluttershy would intentionally attempt to drown herself. "I think that's enough for now!"

With that, the clicking and clacking of the control panel's buttons sounded to allow the water level of the chamber to be lowered at last, the pulsing magical protection around the equipment and Fluttershy's brain being removed as well.

Fluttershy took in desperate gasps for air as the water level drained, finally allowing her to breathe once more. The remnants of her limbs still stung and burned, and she was coughing from having nearly swallowed water, but aside from that she was merely waiting in fear for the next phase of Twilight's sick torture.

"It's kind of a shame that the method I just used on you is going to make the next procedure more painful," Twilight said casually as she gathered up several of the instruments that she had used previously on Applejack. "Because next is 'E' - electric shocks!"

She turned to the lined-up corpses of her friends and smiled at the limp body of Applejack, staring into the vacant green eyes as she suspected the pony's spirit was listening. "You remember that, don't you, Applejack?"

From inside the void that the dead ponies were trapped in, the pony being addressed shuddered, but said nothing in response. Everypony knew that the electrical shock therapy had been forever ingrained into her subconscious, and words were unneeded to express it.

While the electrical wires with the pointed, needle-like edges were levitated over, their sharp points embedded themselves into various points on Fluttershy's chest, rather than her hooves as had been done with Applejack.

"Ouch!"

The needles were only a mild discomfort in comparison to the chemicals that had been poured on to her, but Fluttershy still was pained by the sensation of them digging into strategically placed points on her skin, small drops of blood collecting around the. Almost like a form of acupuncture, except this could be expected to bring no sense of meditative peace. It was almost as if Fluttershy had gotten more of that by nearly drowning.

"Most of the nerves in your hooves are pretty much disconnected from the rest of you at this point thanks to the chemicals," Twilight explained as she rose onto the nearby platform to manipulate Fluttershy's memories once again, "so the current wouldn't really go through if I attached the wires to your hooves. Besides, I have another plan for them."

The captive pegasus didn't like the sound of that at all. The thought her hooves being assaulted with electricity was bad enough, but the fact that Twilight explained she had something much worse planned only increased Fluttershy's fear.

"And don't worry, I've made sure the electricity's current and voltage doesn't run through your heart! I've gotta keep you alive, remember?"

Fluttershy whimpered, squeezing her working eye shut as she braced herself for the shock that she knew was coming.

The next thing she felt was a powerful voltage coursing through her body, the equipment sparking slightly where the various needles pierced her chest. The voltage itself wasn't at too terribly high a level - about 20 volts. But the fact that the pegasus was still wet from the near-drowning caused the pain from the shocks to intensify from the electrical current making contact with the remaining vestiges of water.

The parts of Fluttershy's body that still had nerves convulsed from the shock, and burn marks already appearing on the subject's chest as a result of the powerful surge, Twilight switched her neuron manipulator on and set to work. As had been done with the other instances of alteration, the current operated on the most minuscule of levels, altering the neural pathways according to the monitor that revealed Fluttershy's memories.

As Twilight looked back and forth from her manipulation instrument to the monitor, her rapidly-filling notepad scribbling notes all the while, she adjusted memories of Fluttershy when she was younger. The scientist made the pegasus believe that she had been sent to a prison for an act that had been believed by them to be dangerous, being electrocuted in an electric chair that caused her to nearly lose her life in that memory.

"You meant to put everypony in danger didn't you?! You had a malicious intent in interacting with those creatures and bringing your so-called friends along! You wanted those other ponies to die!"

Violet eyes staring intently, Twilight made sure to let the memory's events reoccur multiple times for Fluttershy. This way, the pony would believe that, again and again, she had been tortured for a crime she didn't commit.

A thought briefly flashed in the mind of the unicorn. But I'm committing a crime that would call for measures like that...

Twilight closed her eyes and shook the thought away the moment it had come, focusing her atention back on her work. Now was the time to further progress for her plan, not to question the morals of her actions.

Besides, she thought to herself, it's for a greater good, for Harmony to reign over chaos - that will be worth causing these deaths, right?!

Fluttershy's mind was awhirl with with the pain of this new, implanted memory. She tried to insist to herself that it was just Twilight messing with her head, that none of it was real.

But her memory told her otherwise, cementing itself into her mind.

The fabricated memory began to take a hold on Fluttershy's consciousness, thoughts beginning to creep up concerning the white-suited ponies of the prison which she had been confined to. "Wh-Why are you doing this to me?!" The manipulation and the present shocks were causing her tormented mind to be thrown back into the memory, speaking not to Twilight but to the ponies she remembered torturing her. "I-I've done n-nothing wrong! I'VE DONE NOTHING WRONG!"

The words struck a chord with Twilight, her eyes widening as she repeated the words to herself. "I've done nothing wrong, I've done nothing wrong..." The words turned almost like a mantra in her mind, constant like the rapid beating of a drum. Her thoughts raced, slowly consuming her... consequences for her actions... the fear of Celestia finding out...

Twilight closed her eyes, her head reeling as her words became frenzied. She found herself drifting to the thought of Celestia's disappointed face, her reaction if she found out... imagining the terrors of her own mind... "I've done nothing wrong, please, I've done nothing wrong, Princess Celestia!"

Fluttershy was nearly jolted out of the constant torment of her memories by Twilight's frantic mantra, the rhythm of her brain waves fluctuating as her attention moved between the terror of the past and the pain of the present.

Realizing what she had just said, Twilight forced her mind to snap back to the reality of the situation. Celestia wouldn't find out, she couldn't find out... The unicorn's voice faltered as she spoke, but she forced a smile.

"Oh-Okay, I think that's enough for that part of the experiment!"

Quickly, she used her magic to switch off the electrical voltage assaulting Fluttershy, the damage to the subject's memory having been completed for that segment. The magical aura manifested around the needles sticking into Fluttershy's scorched stomach, removing the metal from her flesh and setting it aside.

Leaping down from her perch, Twilight hurried over to the brain-scanning monitor to check up on things, taking her mind off of her doubts. She could see the monitor well enough from her elevation over Fluttershy's head, but she wanted a closer look just in case. To find the faintest of flashes, the smallest of indications...

No Kindness spark yet.

Twilight scowled, making a note on the lack of a spark. "Nothing yet... that's okay, that's okay..." Even as she said the words, her eyes darted around as her mind disagreed with her vocalizations. No, it's not okay! I need to go through the alphabetical procedures and get that Kindness as soon as I can! Any delays are too risky - my work has to be completed tonight!

Regaining her focus, Twilight looked over at Fluttershy before trotting to her worktable, whifting through a few papers to find what she was searching for. "Your Kindness is pretty resilient Fluttershy, but I'll make sure to get what I need from you one way or another! Now that I'm done with 'E', it's time for 'F'!" The grin was starting to return as the scientist levitated a container of oil and four metal plates in front of her. "And 'F' stands for foot-roasting!" Her eyes narrowed, though much more so in a way that was scrutinizing detail rather than a threatening expression, using her magic to cover Fluttershy's hooves with the oil, remanants of it dripping onto the laboratory's metal tiles. "This technique has been used since ancient times, based on the medical fact that the bottom of the hoof or foot is one of the most heat-sensitive parts on a pony's body, and the oil on it will cause it to hurt even more!"

Rainbow Dash spat, again considering her personal alphabet toward Twilight. "I'd say that F stands for the fact that I hate your feathering guts."

"Are you tryin' to create two alphabets here or somethin'?" Applejack inquired, daring to step a little closer to Rainbow.

The pegasus whipped around to face the farming pony, magenta eyes hostile toward what she saw as an attempt to confront her. "Shut up. I can do what I want, and you're too much of a confidence-drained weakling to stop me. You know that's true." She let out a slight growl as she emphasized the last word, moving her face closer to the orange earth pony as she did so.

Applejack flinched slightly at the word 'true', and she fell silent, having lost the confidence to argue.

Dash rolled her eyes. "All I know is that when I get free, she won't be getting away. I'll make sure of it."

Twilight had heard the words of the disdainful pegasus, but only looked in that direction with a glare before turning her focus to retrieving the equipment she'd need.

Fluttershy had noticed Twilight's glance behind her, but her attention was more focused on imagining the pain of the anticipated flames burning her coat and skin. She knew that it probably wouldn't compare to the torture she had endured with the chemicals - she couldn't think of what could be worse than that - but the thought of burning beyond that of the chemicals wasn't at all pleasant to think about. It was this uncertainty, she realized, that was truly the worst part of this torture psychologically - she didn't know what was coming, and even when the methods were revealed, how Twilight would execute them remained a complete mystery until they were explained and performed.

Returning to her placement overlooking Fluttershy's exposed brain, Twilight used her magic to set the circular slabs of iron alight with a burning heat of several hundred degrees, similar to the metal plate that had been used to abacinate Fluttershy's eye earlier.

"Huh, seems like your hooves will be getting the same sort of treatment as your eye!" A small smile rose up on Twilight's face. "You know, I read that 'foot-roasting' is the original name for it because griffins used to use it as a method to get traitors to confess their crimes and heresy - ponies like us adopted the practice later."

"I think by 'ponies like us', she means 'insane psycopaths'," Rainbow Dash commented.

Pinkie looked at the pegasus curiously, remembering that she apparently remembered living an entirely different life. She tapped Rainbow on the shoulder and started gesturing. "Have you ever seen it happen?"

Dash shook her head. "I've seen a lot, Voiceless, but this griffin-torture stuff is new to me. I know that the griffins can be somewhat brutal though... bet there'd be at least one who'd love to tear apart a pony like her." With that thought in her brain, Rainbow and the others resumed focusing on the unicorn's deadly work.

Already beginning to alter Fluttershy's memories, Twilight lowered the torch to Fluttershy's right hind hoof - the hoof attached to the leg which was for the most part unharmed - and roughly forced the burning iron to press against Fluttershy's oil-covered hooves.

Fluttershy cried out in pain from the sensation of the red-hot iron burning her skin, the oil only further causing it to sting her coat and scorch the skin underneath. The burning heat extended beyond the victim's epidermis to reach into the deeper muscular tissue, only increasing the pain for the already suffering pony.

"STOP, TWILIGHT, STOP!" Through her desperate cries as the burns increased, Fluttershy held onto the hope that some how she could bring Twilight back. The old Twilight, the friendly, bookish Twilight... not this monster. The temperature was kept at such precision that it remained constant, causing Fluttershy to scream at the top of her lungs. "PLEASE!"

But the only response to her cries was the chitter of the animals whom she cared for, some of them attempting to break out of their confinement. It was clear from their expressions that they wanted to help her, but they were just as trapped as their caretaker was. As for Twilight, it was as if she didn't hear the shrieks of agony at all.

The unicorn in question smirked, beginning to use her neuron manipulator to carefully adjust Fluttershy's memories. The limb was out of Fluttershy's view, but her tormentor made sure that the burns would be permanent on her skin - third-degree burns for certain.

As the torch moved to the hoof connected to the boneless left foreleg, Twilight watched the monitor that showed Fluttershy's memories as she altered them, setting her sights on a memory when Fluttershy was in her early teen years.

She had been working with other ponies to help take care of animals in a shelter, a task that she seemed all too happy too accomplish. But in Fluttershy's consciousness, the memory became warped and twisted. She "remembered" there being a fire in the shelter... a fire that began to consume the entire building.

"HELP!" Fluttershy screamed within the memory, hurrying out of the burning building with a small rabbit close to her. Panting, slowing to a stop, she looked at the ponies who she believed worked there with her. "There's a fire!"

One of the ponies in front of her, a yellow-coated, green-maned mare, narrowed her emerald eyes. "We know... we caused it."

Before Fluttershy could escape, the mare used her unicorn magic to roughly toss Fluttershy into the flames, holding her hooves firmly in place as they became scorched, just as Twilight was doing in the present.

Twilight glanced over at the brain scanner again, analyzing the constant measurements. Eyes narrowed, scrutinizing for a small flash, a faint spark, anything...

Nothing yet.

Twilight forced herself to stay calm, though she could feel her breath grow tight in her chest. "There's nothing yet, okay, calm down, calm down.... still a good chunk of the alphabet left to go, it's all gonna be fine. I'll get it, I'll get it...."

Trying to focus again by jolting Fluttershy back into the present, Twilight noticed the captive pony breathing quickly, eyes darting to the placement of each of her hooves as if remembering them being forcibly burned.

"Well, it's time for 'G' now!" the unicorn called out cheerfully as the iron plates were removed, revealing terrible blisters throbbing on the bottom of Fluttershy's hooves. "And for 'G', I'll use a technique called garroting!" With a smirk, a wire and a string of chains were levitated from the side over to Fluttershy, the cold metal pressing firmly against the pony's neck as they extended past the sides of the table to which she was strapped.

Fluttershy gulped, feeling the cold metal press tighter against her throat as she swallowed.

"Now, normally the victim would have their larynx crushed as a result of the pressure, causing them to suffocate," Twilight explained, "but I don't want to suffocate you - that would end my work far too soon."

Before Fluttershy could make a sound, Twilight telekinetically used her magic to pull the wire and chain taut in a forceful tug, cutting off any sound that her captive could attempt to make. She smiled at the pegasus's attempts at producing choked gasps, unable to get the air she needed due to the firm pressure of the metal tightly around her neck, threatening to strangle the pegasus.

Warping Fluttershy's mind further, Twilight allowed another fabricated memory to come forth in Fluttershy's consciousness. This time, Fluttershy was being held down by the white-suited asylum ponies from before, encircling a wire around Fluttershy's neck before it was roughly jerked back, cutting off air from her lungs to her throat. Adding further pain to what she was experiencing in reality, more ponies in the memory grabbed a second string of wire and pulled it in the opposite direction, causing Fluttershy's throat to bleed from the conflicting forces.

"This is for your own good," said one of the suited ponies. "You threatened the order of the City - a pegasus who prefers to stay on the ground. How foolish. Don't you know you could lead creatures from the ground straight up here?!"

"Th-They can't fly!"

"There are some that can!" retorted the pegasus. "We've risked being found out because of you!"

Fluttershy attempted to tell the asylum ponies that they were sick and twisted for doing such procedures, to punish those who threatened the order of the City... whatever kind of place it was she had been in.

Rainbow Dash flinched at the mention of 'the City', figuring the only one those ponies could be talking about was Cloudsdale. "She should have known they were evil."

"That's a false memory." Rarity said flatly. "It didn't happen."

Rainbow whirled around to glare at the emotionless white unicorn. "The brain fills in gaps and can mess with memories. For all we know, part of that memory might be true." And it was clear by the glare in those rose eyes that she believed that the memory did, indeed, have some truth to it.

Twilight smirked at the reaction, observing the monitors as Fluttershy's emotions shifted between fear and anger. She had corrupted Fluttershy's memories quite a bit already, and the extent of her warping would eventually cause the subject to fabricate an entirely new, pain-filled life for herself in an attempt to fill in the gaps. Such a plan had worked for the others.

When she noted the amount of time it took for the afflicted pony to nearly experience suffocation, Twilight released her magical hold on the wire and chains, letting the torture devices fall to the ground. The indents of a straight line and links of chains were clearly visible around Fluttershy's neck, blood beginning to collect a little at the points where the garroting tools had broken the skin.

"Th-They...." the yellow pegasus gasped out, "they were e-evil..."

As Fluttershy struggled to regain her breath, Twilight whipped her head toward the monitor again upon registering the other's words. There had to be something now... even just a small sign of progress...

A small pink spark, an abnormality, briefly lit up on the brain scanning monitor, on the amygdala more on the side of the pony's exposed brain. It was faint, and so quick that if a pony blinked they would have missed it. But Twilight had managed to spot it, brief as it was.

Her eyes grew wide upon seeing the spark, an almost elated laugh escaping her. "Haha, yesyesyes! It's working, it's working! Kindness is just beginning to reveal itself!"

But she knew that this wasn't enough to fully bring the Element out. Fluttershy was holding onto that Kindness as much as she could, though that resolve was beginning to fade, even if just a little.

Well, she'd break Fluttershy's mind fully soon enough.

"Okay Fluttershy, time for 'H' now!" Twilight announced, turning her attention to the side of her lab that now harbored her myriad of torture devices. Focusing on one in particular, the aura of Twilight's magic illuminated a small instrument which looked like a pair of bi-pronged forks in opposite directions. As it levitated off of the table where it rested and into Fluttershy's view, a loop of metal could be seen in the center of the device, with a dark red strap wrapped around it "This is what's known as a Heretic's fork!"

Noticing the other pony's faintly inquiring look, the scientist elaborated. "Basically, it was positioned between the breast plate and the chin of a pony, making them unable to really fall asleep. If they drooped their head from being too fatigued, those little prongs there would dig into their chest or throat - which is just what I'll be doing to you!" She smiled. "It was used to eventually get criminals to confess their heresy - see the inscription?"

As the double-forked tool moved closer to Fluttershy, the pegasus was able to barely make out the word etched on the surface of the object: abiuro.

"It's in an ancient language," Twilight clarified. "It means 'I recant', which means they'd withdraw a former belief or statement. Of course, you don't have anything to recant..." She paused, getting an idea as a thin smile spread across her face.

With Fluttershy unable to move her head in the first place, there wasn't much resistance from the trapped pony as Twilight wedged the double-pronged mechanism between the broken pony's chest and chin, keeping them in a steady position as the dark red belt was tied around Fluttershy's neck, keeping the Heretic's fork firmly in place.

"There we go!" Twilight exclaimed, pleased with her work as she raised herself back up to her platform. "Don't breathe too heavily, now - that will just cause the prongs to dig into your skin!"

Though she was becoming increasingly nervous and angry, not to mention the agony from what she had suffered so far, Fluttershy forced herself to keep her breath steady. She didn't want to cause herself anymore pain when Twilight was already causing unendurable agony. She glared hostilely at Twilight, but otherwise forced herself to keep still.

The unicorn paused, neuron-manipulator hovering nearby. "Remember how I said you didn't have anything to recant?" She chuckled, already manipulating Fluttershy's mind to create more false memories. "I lied... you just forget them..."

Using her equipment as before, she altered Fluttershy's mind to send her into another false recollection. Within the events of the "memory" Fluttershy was being stabbed with the Heretic's fork, her chest and chin painfully torn from the impact of the prongs in her skin. She felt anger, fury at the other ponies for inflicting this torment on her.

"Confess!" demanded a light blue unicorn stallion, leering close to Fluttershy. "Confess that you were the one who burnt down that building! You wanted to murder those ponies in revenge!"

"I-It wasn't me!" Fluttershy screamed. "It was one of th-the others-"

"Silence!" roared the other pony, forcing Fluttershy's head down so it was roughly impacted by the prongs. "You've had a bad track record, we know that you should be punished!"

"I didn't do anything wrong!"

The prison-ponies of the manufactured recollection didn't heed Fluttershy's pleas, continuing their torment and further cementing the idea that the normally timid, innocent pony had experienced cruelty her entire life. The memories would rewrite themselves, just as had been done for the others - she was just having a little fun to help things along.

Smirking, Twilight brought her subject out of the "memory" to bring her attention to the next letter of her torture alphabet. "Time for 'I' now, Fluttershy! And 'I' is for 'Iron Maiden'!"

Lowering herself to the floor again, Twilight moved out of Fluttershy's sight once again, allowing her magical aura to surround a large metal casing, large enough to encase the table that Fluttershy was strapped to.

"Releasing you and putting you fully into this Iron Maiden wouldn't work for this," Twilight explained as she brought the mechanism in question behind the table where Fluttershy was strapped, "otherwise you might try to get away. I know it's near impossible, but I can't take any chances on even the slightest possibility of you escaping." A sigh. "Unfortunately, I can't really mess with your brain at this stage either so I'll let the psychological ramifications of being trapped in there do the work for me!"

Fluttershy was trying to regulate her breathing, lest she run the risk of the forked prongs digging into her. She looked firmly at Twilight with her single eye, desperate to have her former friend look her in the eyes, she what she had become... "T-Twilight... you don't n-need to do this!"

Twilight didn't let Fluttershy say anything more as she quickly closed the Iron Maiden with the pointed shards of glass sticking from the inside, briefly seeing the horrified and betrayed expression in Fluttershy's eye. As she heard Fluttershy cry out from the pain of the glass shards that were no doubt digging into her skin, a frown crossed Twilight's face.

She had seen the terrified and anguished look in Fluttershy's eyes, a deep despair that seemed more prevalent in her than any of the others thus far. Perhaps it was because of the way the shadows of the Iron Maiden's door had fallen over the pony's face before being shut in, but she knew how much pain her friend was going through... and she was the cause.

And now the hot and cold flashes were back...

Twilight fought through the sensations and shook her head, putting Fluttershy's expression out of her mind. She looked straight at the Iron Maiden, where she heard Fluttershy's cries from within. "I can't say I'm sorry for my actions! You have to die after all this! It's the ONLY way! Getting the Elements to analyze them must be done!"

Panting, knowing that she'd have to speed up the process while working to get that Kindness, Twilight opened the Iron Maiden to bring the scarred, mangled Fluttershy into view, her limbs and chest impaled by several glass shards. "I think that's done enough damage for you here." Levitating the metal chamber away from the table to free her workspace, a small smile crept up on Twilight's face. "Now here comes the fun one...."

Leaping down to retrieve the next form of torment she needed, the unicorn looked over at her captive. This was something that she specifically wanted to see Fluttershy's reaction to.

"Now, Fluttershy," Twilight said with a giddy expression, "it's time for the letter 'J'!" The mare looked especially excited about this one, bouncing on her hooves a little. "This one's actually one I've been eagerly waiting to use, because I get to introduce you to an animal for once!"

Another object was magically brought over to where Fluttershy was held. It was a large container of jellyfish, but these were much smaller than the average jellyfish a normal beach visitor would see. The main bodies of the jellyfish were barely visible as a result of their side, their long tentacles trailing like thin wisps of silk.

"J is for 'Jellyfish'! And I'm almost certain that they're a kind that even you have never seen - they're special!"

Fluttershy knew by the eager tone in Twilight's voice that this wasn't a good sign at all. At this point, however, she was less in the mood to run away and get help, and more filled with a desire to attack and make sure her former friend payed for her crimes.

The scientist grinned, levitating the container of small jellyfish toward Fluttershy so that the creatures could clearly be seen. They were so minuscule that it looked like a large group could fit on a pony's hoof. "Don't you see them, Fluttershy? These jellyfish are so tiny, aren't they? Only about .9 cubic centimeters, actually." She tilted her head curiously, hoping her "animal introduction surprise" hadn't been spoiled by the animal caretaker having a previous interaction. "You've never seen these kind before, have you?"

The yellow pegasus was unable to shake her head with the strength she had remaining, but her gaze and brainwaves clearly expressed that she didn't know what kind of jellyfish they were - and that only increased her mounting terror and anger. Jellyfish were one kind of animal that she didn't have much expertise in, but she knew that many were poisonous. That fact alone prompted her to ordinarily stay away from them whenever she went toward water where they resided. "N-No..."

"Great! Then I get to teach you a little something new about animals!" Twilight's voice became more authoritative, as if she were a biology professor talking to her student, "these are called Irukandji jellyfish, and one sting from these little guys has the capability to cause every unpleasant symptom under the sun. And no amount of morphine will cure the venom that's already in the body. Oh, that medication will dull the pain somewhat, but it will never completely go away."

A pause from the unicorn as she glanced at the creatures swimming around in the container, her gaze almost mesmerized. For a moment, her expression and voice turned kind. Too kind. "Want to hear a story, Fluttershy? Well, it's not really a story - more of a history and biology lesson."

Fluttershy would have shaken her head to protest, but the metal clamp around her forehead made the desired movement impossible. All she could do was listen to Twilight's words.

Smiling, the unicorn began. "Once there was a small group of ponies traveling across the oceans, who soon found themselves on a foreign land. The land was populated by many different creatures, the likes of which nopony of their group had ever seen before. And a few of their group were stung by the most minescule of creatures, small jellyfish that they didn't think would be able to hurt them much. But you know what?" Twilight's voice lowered to a whisper. "They were wrong!"

Fluttershy was aware of the increasingly steady merging of fear and anger that she felt as she watched her captor begin to circle around her, engrossed in the gruesome speech as if she were dictating a tale on Nightmare Night.

"Soon enough, the ponies began to feel terrible symptoms. They were overcome with spasms and pain that rocked their bodies, but their minds were also affected - like a natural form of what I do here!" Twilight held her head high as if pleased with herself. "Their very minds becoming so warped from the toxins that some of the ponies had begged to be killed to get the pain to stop. They were in so much agony and turmoil in body and in mind that they wanted to die!"

Twilight harbored a bright expression in her eyes, as if she found the very idea of that to be wonderful. "A number of the ponies died from the jellyfish encounter alone - for various reasons. For several of them, the stings had been fatal and eventually took its toll on them. The others..." her eyes grew bright as she stepped closer to Fluttershy, "killed themselves because they couldn't take the agony anymore."

Satisfied by the horrified expression on Fluttershy's face, the scientist concluded her tale. "Those that survived gave the jellyfish their name, after the Irukandji tribe that had feared it and attempted to warn the travelers. They really should have listened..."

A pause as the lavender unicorn completed her tale, before clapping her hooves together.

"Obviously, I can't have them stinging me," Twilight pointed out, "that would basically render everything null and void for me, and there's no way I'm going to risk that happening. So, I figured that you could at least help me with testing out the effects of their venom!"

Despite Fluttershy's own memories being affected by the mental manipulation, she still retained the memories of what she knew about flora and fauna. She never knew that a jellyfish could cause that sort of terrible psychological torment. And the feeling only grew when she realized that Twilight was going to inflict the same sort of procedure onto her.

"And the best part is, it's like they'll be doing some of the present mental manipulation for me. I can focus more on the past that way!" The unicorn removed the top of the container, violet eyes narrowed as she stared at the jellyfish swimming around within it.

Before Fluttershy could shout in anger or protest, Twilight roughly forced her mouth open, as if she were a dentist looking over a patient. Opening the small container of jellyfish and tilting it forward slightly, she forced the water to spill into Fluttershy's resisting mouth, and with it, a large number of the tiny creatures.

Fluttershy began to cough and gag as much as she could, trying to do anything to expunge those jellyfish from her system. But even as she tried, she felt the pinpricks of their stings in her mouth and sooj had no choice but to swallow them, sobbing in fear and rage as she felt their gelatinous forms slide down her throat, feeling a few more stings as they went down.

"Good!" Twilight said with a grin. "Now I can really observe juuust the kind of effects those jellyfish will have on you as I resume the rest of my procedures!"

The yellow pegasus whimpered, tears falling down her face as she failed in her attempts to cough the jellyfish back up. It didn't matter—she had felt the stings on her insides, and it seemed that some had stung the inside corners of her mouth, one of the more sensitive spots for a pony.

She tried to at least hold onto the hope that the effects of the jellyfish stings wouldn't be too painful. She knew, at the very least, that their venom wouldn't kill her. If Twilight wanted to get Kindness, after all—as terrifying as the thought was—there was no way that the unicorn would let her die at this point.

That lingering thought suddenly replaced Fluttershy's hope with a terrible sense of horror, even though some of her former shy, timid yet kind persona had been torn away as a result of Twilight's actions. If being forced to ingest jellyfish was only about halfway down the deadly list of what the unicorn had planned for her, what else would she be forced to endure before it was all over? And the stings that she could still feel within her only increased her discomfort, but being unable to cough too many of them out, she had no choice but to swallow those that remained.

"Now," Twilight spoke as she removed the container, "The symptoms of the jellyfish stings start up within 5 to 120 minutes, usually 30 minutes on average. That should be enough time for me to perform a few more tactics before the stings really start to take effect!"

Fluttershy, still shuddering after being forced to swallow the gelatinous forms, shot a hostile glare at Twilight, but said nothing.

"With that done for now," Twilight went on, "it's time for 'K'! Do you know what 'K' stands for?"

The substance "krokodil" instantly came to Fluttershy's mind upon hearing that letter, but she forced herself to remember that that stage of the torture was over. So what else could it be? The only other torture-like option that Fluttershy could rapidly think of was kicking, but she knew that Twilight definitely wouldn't go for something so simple.

With that, the scientific mare used her magic to materialize a long metal pole. She levitated it closer, grinning at Fluttershy as she climbed up to her platform to prepare to manipulate more of Fluttershy's memories. "'K' stands for 'Kneecapping'! That's where somepony uses a blunt instrument like this metal pole here to smash the nerves around the kneecap!" She laughed a little, getting her neuron manipulator at the ready. "Funny thing is though, the patella - that's the more formal name for the kneecap - isn't usually smashed traditionally, just the nerves and tissues close to it."

Fluttershy cringed slightly, already thinking about the anticipated pain. How could her former friend talk about torture like this so casually?

Twilight's face took on an expression that was an indicator of giving an anatomical lesson. "However, with ponies like us, it's a bit more complicated than just smashing the joints in our legs like it is for others." The scientist looked absolutely thrilled to be explaining this. "You see, in equines like ourselves, the part of the skeleton that's officially recognized as the patella is right here, where the leg meets the flank." Looking down, she lightly tapped Fluttershy with the metal pole at the point in question. "Only an equine's forelimbs really have a 'knee', and considering I disintegrated your bones in your left foreleg, I only truly have your right foreleg to work with as far as knees go." Twilight frowned slightly in thought, putting a hoof to her chin as if reconsidering her options. "Considering I'm not slamming where the equivalent of your patella actually is, this process isn't really living up to its name," Twilight explained. "And that foreleg is just bone now so I'm not hitting nerves either..."

Remembering that she had to focus on her task and just get through this before the night was out, Twilight shrugged and decided to go along with her original plan, levitating the cylindrical metal closer to Fluttershy. "But I suppose I can apply the same kind of process on the hock of your right hind leg to make up for it! Okay, so the tarsus bones in the middle of the hind legs are more where a knee would be placement wise, but if I smash your hock then you wouldn't be able to walk even if you did get free!" The unicorn lightly tapped the upper part of the hind leg to point out just where the section of pony anatomy was. "Nothing like a little anatomy lesson while I work!"

The neuron manipulation tool sparked to life once agains as Twilight adjusted the neurons in the hippocampus, while at the same time the large metal pole was slammed against Fluttershy's skeletal foreleg, just below the knee.

Any attempt made by Fluttershy to glare at her former friend was cut off by a loud cry of pain as the joint below her knee was roughly impacted by the blunt instrument, hearing and feeling the crack of bone. The force nearly caused her knee to give out and dislocate, throwing it forward slightly against the joint's natural inclination as a result of the force. Quickly moving toward the joint above the 'knee' to smash that as well, the metal pole smashed against the bone with such a strong force that the bone cracked completely, snapping in two and causing the lower bone to tilt from the separating impact.

Ignoring Fluttershy's screams, the scientist was humming a little song that she had learned when she was a filly, a fast-paced little tune about the parts of the pony body that seemed far too upbeat for Fluttershy's liking in the situation. She laughed. "I just love anatomy!"

Hurriedly injecting Fluttershy with a quick shot of adrenaline to prevent the risk of her losing consciousness, Twilight retrived her next torture device. When she returned to showcase her newest tool in front of Fluttershy, it didn't seem complex like some of the other tortures had been - in fact, it was just a sharpened knife. But it was clear by the sadistic look on Twilight's face as she levitated the weapon close to Fluttershy that it wasn't going to be that simple at all.

"Now, 'L' is for a little tactic called 'Ling Chi'," Twilight exclaimed, getting up onto her platform as she levitated the knife and container close to Fluttershy's face. "It was used as a method of execution hundreds of years ago where the executioner would hack off parts of the victim's body over an extended period of time!"

Fluttershy started breathing heavily at the thought, but cried out as the Heretic's fork dug into her skin, beginning to bleed from the points of impact.

"While I could use my magic to put limbs back into place if I cut them off, I won't," Twilight reassured her subject, knife hovering close to Fluttershy's skin. "But I can allow your skin to sustain some damage!"

With that, Twilight used her magical control over the knife to cut into Fluttershy's scorched abdomen, causing the charred coat to be stained with the dark red of her blood dripping down from the incision. Despite Fluttershy's cries and the desperate chatter of the animals, Twilight let her knife pierce Fluttershy's epidermis and slowly scrape along her body, skinning her in a similar matter to what had been done to Spike. Twilight smiled a little to herself as the knife was magically brought close to Fluttershy's remaining limbs, scraping them down to the muscle and not seeming to care that the blood of one of her best friends was covering the laboratory floor.

The incisions cut deep lashes across Fluttershy's limbs. Then a few slices to her yet unmarred side, just above where the untainted butterfly cutie marks rest on her flanks. That final reminder of Fluttershy's former innocence and peace was damaged as well, as the blood from Fluttershy's fresh wounds obscured the cutie marks' view.

"AAAHHHH! PLEASE, S-S-STOP!" Fluttershy screamed, the repeated lashes of the knife only seeming to serve as a fresh reminder of the pain she had already endured. It seemed as if Twilight had placed a spell on the knife to cause the afflicted to feel every pain that had been felt before - or perhaps it was simply another psychological effect at work that called her mind's attention. But she knew the worst part was that Twilight was likely going to completely alter her mind permanently if she continued with this process. "I'LL DO ANYTHING, TWILIGHT!"

"Nothing you can say will change my mind," Twilight said coldly. "I have to do this for my work." Fluttershy's cries seemed to be deafened to her. "It's a good thing I've given you all those injections, or else you would have been dead looonng ago."

Quickly using her neuron manipulator once again as she took notes, Twilight altered Fluttershy's brain with another memory - a memory of being nearly executed for the "crime" of trying to help others. One by one, her limbs were slowly and painfully hacked off, only for a unicorn medic to attach them back together once again. And then, the torment would simply repeat in a seemingly endless cycle.

Fluttershy screamed so loudly that Twilight was certain she'd be heard if they had been in the library's basement, soundproofed walls or not. "It's a good thing I have this place so far down," Twilight muttered, releasing her hold on the knife and her mental alteration of Fluttershy's mind.

She glanced down at the suffering pony, whose neck was marred as a result of a failed attempt to keep her breaths even, her screams having caused the metal to dig deep into her. As Twilight listened closely, she could hear the pegasus faintly muttering.

"They're evil... they tortured me for being k-k-kind... "

Laughing gleefully at those words, Twilight whipped her head around to the monitor that measured the genetic signature of Fluttershy's brain. There had to be something...

Yes, yes, there was! The pink spark of Kidness had been there briefly, but it was there.

"The flash lasted a big longer this time, perfect!" Twilight exclaimed, grinning. "We're nearly halfway through, Fluttershy, so now it's time for 'M'! And the 'M' is for 'magnetics'! To be specific, magnetic fields." She levitated her notepad and neuron manipulation apparatus close to her as she leapt from her platform, moving it out of the way to make way for a new mechanism that Fluttershy hadn't expected - four large, magnetic plates, placed strategically around the table, each with a system of wires that was clearly controlled by another mechanism nearby.

"A magnetic field that's static can't really do much harm," Twilight began, smiling at Fluttershy before moving out of sight, "but if it's at a high tesla measurement - that's the magnetic flux density - it can be very dangerous." She twirled her neuron manipulator in the air beside her as she went over to the control panel that would operate the magnetic flux, hoof hovering over one of the dials. "So I can't do the same sort of manipulation as I've been doing to your brain."

A thin smile as the equipment began to start up, a low hum accompanying the steadily increasing magnetic power. The plates containing the magnetic fields began to rotate, so that the magnetic flux had as much of an effect on Fluttershy's brain as possible.

"It doesn't really matter though," the unicorn called out over the sound of the rising frequencies of the magnetic pulses, "the magnetic effects will do the brain alterations for me!"

As the amplified magnetic waves pounded against Fluttershy, a droning whir filling her ears as the movement of the plates continued to increase, the yellow pegasus could feel her sense of reality altering as a result of the fields. messing up her brainwave frequencies so much that it seemed as if she couldn't tell which way was up and which was down. It all felt so disorienting, and the waves of nausea and pain that joined it as a result of the Irukandji syndrome wasn't helping matters

"Now here's a little something I bet you didn't know," Twilight said with a sense of pride in her tone, "if magnetic frequencies are applied to the brain like this, it can alter a pony's sense of morality!" She laughed. "That just makes my job even easier - getting Kindness from you will come to fruition soon enough!"

Pinkie's eyes widened, and she quickly tapped Rainbow on the shoulder, attempting not to flinch when the cannibalistic pegasus tore of some skin from her own wing in exasperation before shooting the earth pony a glare. Hurriedly, before Rainbow could get too angry at her, she began to gesture-speak for Rainbow to translate. "Maybe Twilight used some magnet things that made her morality get all messed up like this!"

"Unlikely," Rarity responded once the gestures had been translated. "It seems that this is her first time using magnetic waves like this at this frequency. Whatever's causing her to behave this way, it couldn't be that."

Applejack glanced inquiringly at the marred unicorn. "Then what the hay is it?"

"I'm not sure. Perhaps it's her ambition," Rarity theorized in her monotone. "Ambition can cause a pony to do drastic things."

"And I have a certain ambition to do drastic things," Rainbow Dash said quietly, most of her attention seeming to be drawn toward Twilight. Backing up a few paces, she charged full-speed at the barrier, only to bounce right off of it as if it were a force field.

"Darn it!" With a dazed shake of her head, Rainbow used her teeth to roughly tear some skin from her hoof, forcing herself to primarily focus for now on watching what was going on. There'd be a way out soon enough.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy had her own thoughts to dwell on. Perhaps it was because of that sudden new knowledge ingrained into her head concerning magnetism and morality, but the more this confusion of her brainwaves occurred, the angrier Fluttershy became. It wouldn't be enough to run and make sure the psychopathic unicorn was locked away for good. She had to be taught a lesson, make sure that she went through the same sort of pain and torment that Fluttershy herself went through.

While ponies didn't have the same sort of ways of magnetic navigation as birds and other animals did, brainwaves were affected by strong magnetic frequencies. And with ones this strong, Twilight knew that it could really mess with Fluttershy's brainwaves - and hopefully alter her morality enough to further aid the process of extracting Kindness.

As Twilight watched the effects of the magnetic frequency waves affecting Fluttershy, the unicorn unwillingly felt a wave of her own - the flashes of hot and cold again, the temperature extremes coming and going at a much more rapid pace.

Twilight frowned, shutting her eyes as the sensations grew. "No... no, no nonono, not again!" She put a hoof to her head, hoping that would dull the pain somehow, but it only seeming to make things worse.

And as she attempted to fight through the pain, the unicorn heard a voice, pleading from the other side of the laboratory. A voice that was getting increasingly closer as it spoke, as if the speaker was rushing straight at her. Planning to push her away, knock some sense into her.

"LISTEN! You can stop this, Twilight! Just please, STOP!"

Twilight nearly jumped out of the way as she turned to see the apparition of herself charging at her in a wild rush, but she stood her ground as the ethereal-Twilight went right through her and nearly impacted the machinery at the velocity she was going. Of course, Twilight knew that the vision would just go right through the mechanism she had been heading toward - her meddlesome conscience was back.

A shudder as a violent chill of cold afflicted the lavender unicorn, followed by a surge that felt like she had been burned by hot coals. "I-I know you're connected to this!" Twilight exclaimed to the apparition of herself, wincing in pain as a burning discomfort afflicted her as well. "AGGHH! What's happening to me?!"

"I don't know!" the other Twilight exclaimed, sounding genuinely uncertain. "I don't have anything to do with this!"

"LIAR!" Twilight screeched, voice high and desperate as if she were trying to convince herself more than anything else, feeling waves of heat overtake her as her conscience-self stepped a little closer. "It only started getting worse when you showed up!"

"It happened before!"

"Not like this!" Twilight retorted. She clenched her eyes shut, the pain growing worse as she nearly crouched to the floor. "Go away, stop it, stop it, STOP IT!" She whirled around around at her conscience, glaring as she tried to resist the temperature fluctuations that were still afflicting her. "I know you're not real! You're just an illusion, an hallucination that's a result of my desperation for this!"

"If I was an illusion, do you think I'd appear over and over again to you like this?! I'm trying to help you!"

Twilight scowled, stepping closer and fighting through the temperature fluctuations that she seemed to be overcoming. "It's just a result of stress to complete my goal! THAT'S ALL!" Desperate to do anything to get her conscience to leave, she fired a blast of magic in the direction of her other self, though the more rational part of her mind knew that the magic energy would just go through it - she just had to do something to free her mind from this irritating presence. "NOTHING MORE!"

Fluttershy wasn't sure what was going on - why Twilight seemed to be in pain, why the lavender mare was talking to herself, why all this was happening in the first place. But as the Irukandji stings began to warp her mind still further, she began to repeat a despondent mantra.

I'm going to die, Fluttershy thought as the brain-altering properties of the jellyfish's stings began to take effect even more, the spastic pain from the venom running through her bloodstream. It was as if the jellyfish were twisting her thoughts into ones that weren't her own, controlling what she said, what she thought... "She should kill me.... kill me, Twilight... end it for me... I'm going to die, I'm going to die..." She didn't want to say those words, but it was as if her mind was being taken over by something that she couldn't control.

Twilight heard Fluttershy's words and managed a triumphant smile at her other self. "Hehe, see? The jellyfish venom is working properly, and is beginning to take effect on her psyche! It won't be too much longer now!"

But as Twilight spoke, Fluttershy then convinced herself to slowly channel that fear, turning it into anger. The inner mantra changed, to something that was becoming increasingly positive to her in those moments.

No... she's going to die, the captive pony insisted to herself. She's going to die, I'll make sure she'll die! The pegasus shakily voiced her thoughts, as if somepony else was forcing her to say the words. "I'll m-make sure you'll die!"

The words both surprised and hurt Fluttershy to say, but she was beginning to care less and less. For the first few seconds following her vocalization, the normally timid pegasus had felt horrified at saying and even thinking such a terrible thing. And yet, as the seconds began to pass, that horror at her own words and thoughts steadily dissipated, for she knew in her heart that the words were true.

And a part of her - a very small part - was actually thrilled by it.

Forcing her eyes wide open as the temperature extremes started to lessen, Twilight looked over at Fluttershy at her words, then at the brain scanner as the signature of Kindness had begun to increase and separate. Rather than looking unsettled by Fluttershy's assertiveness, a thin smile crept up on her face. She forced a shaky laugh.

"Heheh, you don't know how happy I am to hear you say those words!" The unicorn managed a sinister grin, fighting past the extremes of heat and cold that were afflicting her. "Just a bit more, Fluttershy." She turned to work a few more of the mechanics at her disposal, her voice adopting an almost sing-song tone. "You just have to hold on a little while longer...."

An intently fixed gaze directed at the monitor. An expression that looked increasingly desperate. Desperate to get her hooves on what she craved, desperate to put her plan into action, desperate to be rid of these awful sensations...

"Just until Kindness is completely separated from you. Then my work will be complete... tonight will be the night..."

The scientist trembled, her words accentuated by unhinged laughter, looking back and forth from Fluttershy to the direction of her conscience. "You will die.... heheh, you'll die! You hear that?! You will have to die for Harmony to live! Chaos will die, and Harmony will reign forever!" Her eyes were darting around so much in that instant that the true recipient of her words wasn't entirely clear. The scientist forced her gaze on the monitor again, eyes so hungry for the signature of the Element that she was so desperately searching for.

As another flash of a spark became visible on the monitor, Twilight was so fixated on its presence that she didn't notice her fading conscience-self close her eyes, her own horn glowing with magic. The normal color of magic that Twilight had. For a brief second, she looked more solidified as her horn shone brighter.

"Somehow I'll stop this..." Twilight heard the apparition whisper before she seemed to fade once again.

Fluttershy felt herself grow disoriented and faint from the magnetic waves in conjunction with the torture that had been inflicted on her throughout this terrible night. But she knew that even through the injections keeping her alive and conscious, she still had to suffer through the other half of the alphabet. She was only on M.

M...

The letter seemed to echo in Fluttershy's head as she became steadily aware of the magnetic frequencies being turned down. There was another key thing that M stood for.

M for... Magic. The Element of Magic.

Fluttershy's heart practically stopped as it hit her. Twilight wanted to harness all the Elements... but she harbored the energy of an Element herself - extraordinarily strong aptitude in Magic.

So what will happen to Twilight? Fluttershy thought to herself. After all these terrible, awful things she's tried to justify... is it all for nothing? Is she just going to kill herself if she does reach her goal? But if that's the case, then why doesn't she seem to be concerned at all?

Weakened as she was, Fluttershy was aware that what Kindness she had was being drained from her - while she tried to tell herself that the memories were false, her mind demanded otherwise. But either way, the part of her mind not blinded by fear or rage knew one thing:

Twilight would have to get her own Element somehow.

"What about y-your Element?!"

Twilight stiffened, appearing to be frozen to the spot. Fluttershy couldn't see the unicorn's expression, but she could dimly hear the other pony's slow breathing. "Wh-What?"

"Your E-Element,... M-Magic..." Fluttershy raised her voice, summoning what strength she had to voice her inquiry, a major flaw she witnessed in Twilight's plan. "You're getting all the Elements... but wh-what about y-your own?"

Twilight's vision had appeared to become somewhat glassy, her irises small and out of focus. Fluttershy's words rang within her mind. The pegasus had a very valid point - Twilight did have an Element herself.

She had no idea, however, that that particular facet hadn't been an oversight on Twilight's part.

Rainbow was the only one of the deceased ponies who smiled, and a sadistic smile, at that. "I was right that the marks would curse you! Seems like you failed to see a major flaw in your plan you wretched unicorn! Now you'll just end up-"

But the smile instantly dropped from the cyan pony's face at what she saw next.

Twilight was trembling, her hooves shaking, her mane hung low over her face as her head drooped, tilted toward the ground. It looked as if she were having a complete breakdown from what Fluttershy had pointed out.

But the unicorn wasn't trembling in sadness or anger, letting out her regret in the form of tears. Rather, there was something else.

Twilight was laughing. And it was the most jarring laugh that any of them had heard from her. It was a high-pitched sound, a wild cackle that was part laugh and part shriek, as if a powerful force had overtaken her. As if she were in a mental ward for those who committed murder and were criminally insane.

"Heheheheh... hehehahahaha! You think I would oversee that?" The unicorn was practically doubled over in her deluded shrieks of laughter. "You think that, heheh, I would overlook such an important detail?!" Her horn glowed as she glanced upward, looking nearly possessed. "I know that I have one of the Elements! In fact, I harbor the Element of Magic, which aids in what I'm planning to do! You think I'd be so deluded to forget the key aspect of the Elements to repel chaos?! Hahahahaha!"

"Yes," Rainbow growled, her expression both disappointed and enraged. Her frustration at the situation consumed her to the point that she was unaware of Pinkie and Applejack stepping away from the outside view to hide behind her.

The dark aura from Twilight's horn seemed to increase, briefly glancing over to the corpses of her other friends. Her gaze turned back to Fluttershy and she smiled. A dangerous, unhinged smile spread across her face as her horn grew brighter.

"I have a special plan for that!"

Kindness, N to S

He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.
-James Allen

"WHAT?!"

The shout came not from Fluttershy, but from Rainbow Dash, a cry so loud that it caused the other three in that darkened realm to wince as a reflex from the volume. The cannibalistic pegasus looked more filled with rage than they had seen her yet, as if she were the one that had had Kindness taken. "No, no, NO! I told her the marks would curse her before I died! Hers is related to magic, I thought that the Element of Magic would be her downfall!"

"You were wrong," Rarity deadpanned.

"SHUT UP!" Rainbow was shaking in rage, teeth glinting as if preparing to tear apart the shattered unicorn bit by bit. Despite being biologically an herbivore, Rainbow had proven she had the prowess of a carnivore when it came to mutilating herself and others, and was more than prepared to cause carnage if she felt the time arose.

Rarity, of course, was unfazed by the threat, merely continuing to peer at Twilight in interest. Whatever it was that the unicorn was planning, it was something that certainly went much farther than they had initially suspected.

Twilight looked carefully at Fluttershy, still laughing eagerly. "Heheh, you see, what I plan to do for Magic relates to my plan overall, and I feel it's necessary to at least give my final Element-bearing friend alive a glimpse at what I'm planning before she dies!"

Fluttershy's blood ran cold, her mind beginning to race with what Twilight could be intending to achieve. She knew that when she did find out, however, it likely wouldn't be good in the slightest. No sane pony with purely good intentions could intend something good while being a dangerous criminal and committing terrible murders.

"Oh, wait, I almost forgot..." With a small smile, Twilight telekinetically removed the Heretic's fork from its former position, finally freeing the pegasus from its pronged surface that had left indents in her chin and breast. "There we go! Better?"

"Like you... care..." Fluttershy responded hostilely, somewhat startled by the lack of pressure between her head and chest. She attempted to push back her fear, forcing herself to let a bit of her rising anger show. "Y-You'd better... t-tell..."

"Oh I will, I will, hahahaha!" Twilight laughed gleefully with an unsettling grin as she stepped back a little, her disheveled mane erratic, "I'll explain everything, don't worry - in fact, I'll tell you and show you!" The unicorn said this with a grin that was much too happy, "And now, I think it's time for me to reveal just what I'm planning to do..."

"You'd better," Rainbow muttered with a growl, magenta eyes practically appearing red. She turned around to bite her left wing. Her cry of pain muffled by her own skin as the muscle stretched over bone, the pegasus mentally imagined that the flesh she was tearing was that of her unicorn nemesis, the blood spilling on her coat belonging to Twilight rather than Rainbow herself.

With Twilight closing her eyes in concentration, a beam of magical energy shone forth from her horn, a shimmering, rectangular shape hovering into view. It was an ethereal screen, visible to Fluttershy even as it widened to nearly fill her field of vision. Imagery on the screen began to properly materialize, bringing forth the image of a cluster of lights surrounding a certain pony - it was Twilight, encircled by the pure genetic energy of the Elements.

As the vision settled into a stable display, holding the rapt attention of all ponies present, Twilight began her explanation, looking far too unstable for anypony's benefit.

"With the complete research on the Elements at my disposal, I'll be able to genetically detect the proper qualities in the genetic coding of anyone I seek out." Twilight trotted over to the contained genetic Elements, each marked with their respective names as the interconnected wires and monitors took careful measurements. She drew closer, hoof curling around the containment jars protectively, eyes shining in their light. "As long as the signatures indicate a certain subject isn't one tainted by the evils of chaos, then the subject will be allowed to live." Her violet eyes glinted sinisterly in the direction of her conjured display, rising to her hooves as her very presence seemed to direct the others to view the detailed manifestations. The dark aura emitting from her horn appeared to increase in intensity.

As the spheres of the Elements drew closer to Twilight on the screen, surrounding her with an ethereal glow, the shillouetes of other ponies began to shimmer into view around her. Some of the ponies had a sphere of light, more than one in some cases, shining within them. Others remained as dark as a starless night.

Within the magically produced images, dark tendrils of magic extended from Twilight's horn as she struck those that didn't contain the light, their screams echoing in the laboratory as they fell to the ground. Within the laboratory itself, the ambitious mare continued, her own dark magic swirling around her much like a whirlwind in its early stages. "Once I'm able to detect those who have the proper genetic coding that can allow those harmonious traits to grow and develop, I will eradicate all those who do not have those proper qualities, only allowing those who I consider pure to live as a result!"

Twilight laughed as the shadowy form of her and the Elements faded, "All those who don't measure up in any of the qualities will be killed the moment my magic can reach them!" She smirked. "That is, except the unicorns - I'll spare them in the initial cleansing."

"So you want unicorns to be... the master race?" Fluttershy managed, struggling to stay conscious and glaring hostilely.

Twilight laughed lightly at her friend's misunderstanding of her plan for the unicorn race. "'Master race'? Haha, of course not, silly! That's where the Element of Magic comes in! You see, unlike the other Elements, Magic is more of a physical thing that can be channeled into a unicorn's horn, manifesting as their capability to cast spells." The scenery of the magical screen shifted again, revealing a line of unicorns in shadow, several illuminated in that faint like that indicated the genetic signatures that Twilight was after. "I'll keep the other unicorns alive until I test their prowess and potential for Magic, and compare it to my own through a combination of challenges and genetic analysis in relation to my own. If they don't match up to my standards, they'll be eliminated if they have no qualities of the other Elements to be harnessed!"

In the purgatory-like realm, there was a rough tearing of flesh from the cyan pegasus's right side, blinded to the flowing red blood that began to pool on the ground. She dug into her own flesh, spitting and cursing as splatters of blood stained her fur.

Twilight laughed in a psychotic shriek as the image on her magical projection revealed the "impure" unicorns being torn apart by her dark magic, her own shilloute then allowing the illuminated ones to surround her as her form, surrounded by a swirling aura, rose slightly above them. "And soon enough, haha, I'll have sufficient data to know what truly allows for the possession of the Element of Magic, and then I can eliminate those who don't properly have that capability!"

The unicorn's eyes were alight with triumph, as if she had been anticipating to reveal her plan at this critical moment, when her last former friend was captured, warped, and steadily approaching death. "Don't you see, Fluttershy? That's why I'm doing all this!" Her entire essence seemed alight with ambition and desire, grinning wildly like the madmare that she was. "Once I can analyze the Elements properly, I'll be able to pick out the worthy ones - the loyal, the honest, the kind..."

Fluttershy raised her voice, anger and disbelief combating the pain. "And they'll b-be your slaves, won't they?!"

"Slaves?!" Twilight looked appalled at the notion before firmly shaking her head. The very thought seemed to horrify the unicorn. "Of course not! They won't be my slaves, not at all..." The expression on her face shifted from its former surprise to one that looked all too happy. "They'll be my equals."

In the living world, this revelation caught Fluttershy by surprise. "Your... your equals?" After all that she had suffered, even in her state of rapidly losing all sense of compassion or kindness, the fact that Twilight seemed to want herself to be on the same level as other ponies was striking. She had suspected that the unstable unicorn wanted to rise above all other ponies and enslave them, not raise others to her level as she was now claiming. The vision of Twilight slightly rising above the others had certainly not suggested a direct equality.

"ARGH!" The limbo-bound cyan pegasus snarled, roughly tearing off some muscle from her thigh, the white structure of her bones now visible as Pinkie cringed away. "You and your stupid vile curveballs, Traitor Sparkle..." She slammed a hoof against the unyielding barrier. "I HATE YOU!"

Twilight waved a hoof, seemingly ignoring the cries of rage from Rainbow. "Well, not entirely equals - 'students' would be a more accurate term - I shall train them in the ways of Harmony that I have come to know!" She raised her head triumphantly. "I told you that I was preserving the Elements for the future! For a greater future, a brighter future!" Her voice harbored a tone of euphoria in its deranged cackling. "A reality of harmony and purity!"

"The future won't be 'harmonious' until you're wiped from existence," Rainbow hissed, filled with more anger than Fluttershy at that point.

Twilight, too caught up in the ambitions of her ideal reality, was deaf to the spiteful tone as she looked at her incredulous captive. She laughed darkly, momentarily causing her conjured vision to remain still. "Oh, heheheh, you think that I'm limiting my form of cleansing to just ponies? Or just Equestria?" Her smile widened to practically Glascow-grin levels, her irises dangerous pinpricks. "Hahahahaha! Oh you have no idea of how far this will go! My ambitions are far above simply that!"

Everypony else fell silent. Even the animals observing Fluttershy's torment fell silent upon hearing Twilight's words.

".... You are kidding me." The words were said by Rainbow Dash in a quiet whisper, disbelieving. She shook in rage, slowly tearing off some flesh from her right side, anger eclipsing the pain. "You are FEATHERING kidding me!"

Pinkie Pie winced, hesitantly gesturing in the hopes that Rainbow would reply. "Do you think this means she'll kill all the dragons and griffins too in their countries?"

The enraged rainbow-maned pony was too filled with rage to focus on anything but Twilight, but Rarity guessed what the frightened earth pony was trying to convey. "Based on her tone, I'm thinking that she's planning a genocide of much more than the likes of ponies and dragons."

Applejack gulped - that definitely wasn't good. She spoke up, nervously raising her head. "L-Like what?"

It was then that Twilight gave the answer, standing tall as her horn was intensely illuminated in a near black aura, the glow of the Elements casting an eerie light upon her features. Her physical appearance was dirty, crazed, and defiled; yet her gaze was elated with the immense aims of her ambition. The magical screen began to shift; the shimmering lights of the Elements briefly surrounded the form of Twilight, more dark tendrils of magic extending from Twilight's horn. As other, shadow-like forms of ponies came into view, griffins, dragons, and others joined them as the screen’s vision expanded, zooming out to a view of Equestria and the surrounding countries.

"I know that Equestria is not the only place with this dynamic of order vs. chaos," Twilight went on as the imagery also brought up the various species of their world, "so I intend to use my magic and scientific research to spread this influence and eradication not just to all the ponies in Equestria, but to the countries beyond! In fact," the unicorn hissed with a deranged cackle, "I plan to eradicate every single disharmonious being on the entire planet!"

Fluttershy's eyes widened, speechless with fear and shock as the timid side of her overtook her thought processes. However, the shout from Rainbow Dash in the deceased pony's realm spoke for her, with an anger so fierce it was as if a bomb had gone off.

"YOU WRETCHED, SICK, FEATHERING PSYCHO!" Rainbow Dash screeched, breathing heavily in rage as she slammed her hooves into the barrier which separated them, impenetrable as ever. She felt like a wild animal intent on tearing apart its prey, stopping at nothing until the target was brought down.

Applejack stepped back, unnerved by both the volume of Rainbow's voice and Twilight's twisted plan. Trembling slightly, she whispered to Rarity, knowing that she was the most logical of the group and would give a straight answer. "Doesn't she hate everypony?"

"Rainbow isn't shouting because she wants to defend everypony else, it's a personal quarrel," Rarity explained. "She feels rage because the pony who destroyed her is winning at a greater level than she had first anticipated, and it seems she's thought up everything to make sure she wins." A pause as she slid her jaw back into place. "Even I wasn't expecting it."

Pinkie put her hooves over her ears, eyes wide in a horrified disbelief. That had been Twilight's plan all along? It was worse than Pinkie had expected, far more horrifying than she ever imagined anypony would go.

But the insane unicorn wasn't quite done.

Twilight's voice rose in triumph, and she levitated several of her books from their places on the shelves, swirling them around her with her near-black aura. "You won't believe how much my research I've learned with these books," she said in an almost rapturous tone. "I've learned to take my magic to new levels, to expand my knowledge to aid me in my work!". She glanced over at the laboratory's steel door, sealed tight. "If you hadn't been unconscious when I brought you here, you would have seen the myriad of other doors around here, where other equipment of mine is stored that I couldn't keep here in the lab. And I have just about everything I need for the research I'll be doing from here on out!"

She turned her gaze over to the holding space of the books which contained her friends' preserved organs, looking meaningfully at Fluttershy. "And I preserved our friends in those books to eventually compare the more physical properties with those of the newly intended bearers, to see just how well they measure up to the endurance of the Elements' former group!". She shot a quick glance at the stands where the skeletons and flesh of the former Element bearers rested. "Plus, I wanted to preserve my friends in a special way."

The forms of other organisms - harmonious and disharmonious alike - manifested themselves on Twilight's magically formed screen. The disharmonious were murdered through the unicorn's magic with a strangled cry if the light of an Element was not present within them. "Ponies, dragons, timberwolves, pets - all living organisms have some form of genetic material, thus everyone has the potential to be harmonious or not!" Her eyes were bright, contrasting her coat darkly splattered with blood from the previous procedures. "So I can make sure that every living being on this planet has the capability to be harmonious!" She practically was dancing in a wild, mad frenzy of victory. "Isn't that wonderful?! Hahahahaha!"

"N-NO!" Fluttershy managed to shout, her body shaking in fear and rage. "You c-c-call that harmony?! It's control and domination!"

Twilight's gaze was stern, eyes flashing. "Not domination - cleansing to make everything pure!" Twilight threw her head back in deranged laughter as the screen's view expanded beyond the planet, other words and stars in view. "Oh, you think I'll stop there?! I'm well aware that technology is expanding every day, so eventually - if technology becomes advanced enough - I shall be able to spread this harmonious influence across all worlds with life like our own! And if universes beyond the cosmos do in fact exist, I'll spread my desire for harmony to everywhere else I can get to!"

It was as if Fluttershy and the laboratory were invisible in Twilight's vision, the ambitious pony only seeing the ultimate goals which she had set for herself. "Everything will be balanced by Harmony! EVERYTHING!" She gazed at the brainwave monitor, as if not seeing the remnants of Kindness, but rather the disappearance of the seeds of chaos spread out across the plane of existence that she planned to "cleanse". "Chaos will never win! NEVER! All will be PURE!"

In a flash of light, the screen which Twilight had created to show her plan vanished, leaving Twilight and the laboratory's equipment all that remained in Fluttershy's sight. The twisted unicorn's unfocused eyes seemed to burrow straight into Fluttershy's soul, as if she intended to make use of her magic to drain her subject's life energy into her.

"With that out of the way, it's time to start up 'N' - Nitrogen! Liquid nitrogen, to be precise." Her horn shimmered darkly to levitate a large cylindrical canister nearby, which was filled with what appeared to be a form of white smoke. In fact, Fluttershy realized that it was the mist-like substance that was used at times on stages to make a production more eerie or mysterious.

It fits, in a way, the pegasus thought despondantly, shivering despite there being a complete lack of the fog-like chemical. Twilight's plan for eternal harmony is going to bring a darker age to our world no matter what she claims!

Making note of Fluttershy's reaction, Twilight continued to set the procedures as a variety of levers were pressed, once again bringing a dome around the ailing pony so that only the more harmful effects of the liquid nitrogen would affect her. This enclosure, however, was thinner than the first, and thus allowed for each of the ponies to properly hear one another. With the dome properly fitting snugly around the wiring, Twilight used the energy of her magic to shield her equipment from the freezing influence of the liquid nitrogen when it would fill the chamber up.

Much like the first enclosure, there was a circular hole in the surface of the glass casing, this one to Fluttershy's right a few inches higher than Fluttershy's propped-up height. Through the aperture the thick tubing was levitated that would allow the freezing fog-like substance to be pumped into the enclosed space where Fluttershy was contained. With a burst of magical energy, a translucent shield began to form around Fluttershy, who had briefly felt the pressure increase as Twilight turned a dial. The shield didn't quite stop the nitrogen's presence, but the pegasus at least could hold up against the pressure a little more.

"Twilight grinned. "Just putting up a slight safeguard so that the pressure doesn't crush you to death and the nitrogen can still remain in its gaseous form!"

Fluttershy growled in response, only minimally comforted by the pressure being relieved from her.

"Now," Twilight went on in a somewhat more scientific manner as she hooked up the connecting tube of the canister to a hole in the enclosure which Fluttershy was sealed in, "liquid nitrogen is more of a gaseous-type form, really, and it maintains a temperature between 63 and 77.2 Kelvin, or -346 and -320.44 degrees Fahrenheit in laymen's terms. It's obviously extremely dangerous if you touch it in strong enough amounts without proper protection from it, and ingesting it can kill somepony very quickly." She carefully looked over the equipment, making sure the tube that would pump the liquid nitrogen into Fluttershy's enclosure. "Oh, and a fun little fact - another use of liquid nitrogen is the process of promession, which is a way to dispose of the dead, where remains are disposed of in burial by freeze drying. Heheh, fitting, huh?" She couldn't help but smile. "Maybe I'll get more of a use for it later!"

"That's... s-sick," Fluttershy muttered, sounding more angry than scared. She was minimally aware that this anger was what Twilight wanted, bringing the tormentor one step closer to obtaining the essence of Kindness and thus cause the plan for eternal harmony to fully manifest, but she couldn't help the bitter feeling rising within her. It somehow made her feel stronger, like a natural shot of adrenaline, except this rush of energy wasn't caused by the unicorn's twisted desire to keep her alive.

The reaction didn't escape Twilight's notice with the fluctuating brainwave monitoring, and she laughed eagerly. "I see you're getting angrier! That's great!" Stepping toward the canister that held the freezing, gaseous substance, she pressed a few buttons to turn on the machine. Instantly a low hiss emitted from the tubular opening as the liquid nitrogen began to travel through the tube and into the enclosure where Fluttershy was trapped. "I can't do mental manipulation for this - I could freeze too if I do in there, or something else could go wrong." The smile on her face would have looked friendly in any other circumstance. "So you get a break from that, at least!"

Fluttershy struggled to remain under control, quashing her fear as the nitrogen collected on the ground, lightly brushing her hooves. She shuddered, the subzero temperature clinging to her coat and sending a chill through the parts of her hooves which still possessed nerves.

The liquid nitrogen began to seep into the glass containment at a much more rapid pace, the temperature dropping at a frighteningly fast rate. The freezing substance settled above its former place on the ground, the force of the stream stronger to the point that the subzero temperature impacted the pegasus's broken body.

"Feels like the touch of a Windigo, doesn't it?" Twilight said in a dangerous whisper, as cold as the nitrogen itself. "Perhaps you'll really know now what it's like when one of them chills your body and freezes your heart."

Beads of sweat on Fluttershy's coat froze to ice, and the cold feeling against her coat began to seep into her skin. With aid from Twilight's magic, the liquid nitrogen swirled against the cuts in Fluttershy's body causing her to cry out from the frigid vapor. Her body shuddered violently, feeling her brain functions slow from the rapid decrease in temperature as the flow of nitrogen continued to increase.

Twilight's grin grew wider, clearly thrilled by the plan she was soon to accomplish as she stared at the wisps of nitrogen surrounding Fluttershy. "Don't you see the glory in it all?" she questioned, her eyes alight with a passion which seemed to burrow through the glass's surface. It was as if the blood, torture, and exclamations of the room's occupants were lost on her senses, only experiencing the euphoria of triumph. "The world, the reality that will dawn soon is one devoid of chaotic rule!" She turned in the direction of Rainbow Dash's voice, much to Fluttershy's confusion in her cold-induced haze. "And you say I'm like Discord, ha!"

"You are, you wretched piece of DRECK!" Rainbow cursed, mangled hoof curled in a way that appeared almost claw-like. Her voice was strained but burning with fury, hoping that her scream would get her point across of just how much she loathed that unicorn. Anything to get her to somehow rid herself of Twilight's deranged life. All she wished was that the unicorn would perish and suffer the worst possible fate that could be imagined for anypony - an omnicidal maniac like that deserved every punishment that could be dealt to them.

The unicorn paced around the room, appearance a mess of matted, blood-soaked fur and shimmering eyes. "What did Discord do besides cause chaos?! I'll bring order! I'll bring harmony! Just like it should be!" She glared hostilely. "Just wait a few hours, girls. Because the order of this life is about to change."

"The only way it will be changed for the better is if you're DEAD!" Rainbow Dash shouted in a tone that was practically a roar. She charged again and again at the impenetrable barrier, glaring daggers at her nemesis. "I'LL KILL YOU! When we're free, YOU'LL DIE!"

The scientist looked unperturbed at Rainbow Dash's furious shouting, harboring a tone of crazed desperation as her eyes became pinpricks, her breathing heavy at the thought. "Death is one thing that I can't allow to happen to me." She stared at the contained Elements, appearing to drill her gaze straight into their very essence, as if taking their energy and letting it empower her.

"Not now... and not ever."

Fluttershy trembled, trying through the chill of the liquid nitrogen to grasp what the unicorn was saying in addition to her shock at just how far Twilight planned to carry out her plan for harmony. If her former friend was saying she couldn't allow death to happen to her... the captive pegasus, in her fluctuating awareness, could only think of one possible reason for that, and it correlated with the "cleansing of reality" which Twilight spoke of. "Y-You want to be an immortal tyrant, don't you?!" Fluttershy put in as much of an accusatory tone in her voice as she could muster. "You're going to rule over all life with an iron hoof, aren't you?!"

"For one thing, not a tyrant, a teacher." Twilight put a firm emphasis on the last word, not wanting to be associated at all with the former term. Her left eye twitched. "I'll be helping everyone train, learn, and grow together. And I don't necessarily want to be immortal, I have to. If I die, the world would likely fall into chaos all over again, unless I got someone to continue my work." She snarled, teeth grinding as her body shook. "And even then, they might not do things precisely the way I envisioned it! They may set all my research backward, those IDIOTS! Immortality is the only way for me to ensure eternal harmony!"

Despite the clear instability of Twilight's body and psyche, her gaze was triumphant, looking as vast as the stars she sought to reach. "Using the ever-increasing advances of science and magic, I'll extend my life as long as I can to ensure that the reality of harmony is indeed moving in the right direction! Someday, it'll all be worth it, because in the end, I will beat chaos forever. We will beat chaos. All the worthy will finally be in harmony, and all that opposed it will be no more!"

Fluttershy's body shook, both from the freezing cold of the nitrogen seeping into her skin and the full extent of Twilight's goals she was striving to achieve. She could only stare in a numb horror, her heart pounding in fear and rage. Twilight had turned from a kind friend to a maniac who attempted to bring "harmony" to extreme levels. The afflicted pegasus's mind was whirling. Feeling angrier and angrier at Twilight's actions, she attempted to find some way to bring Twilight back to her senses, as well as keep up her own strength when the freezing nitrogen was steadily taking effect. Even the twisted pony's immoral plan to analyze Magic was twisted yet logical, and managed to avoid her death as a result. And yet... there was one aspect that it seemed the unicorn hadn't considered.

"B-But... friendship has a certain magic to it..." Fluttershy's murmured, summoning her strength in an attempt to reach through to Twilight - at least getting her to stop her insane work and halt her plan. "How can you say you know anything about friendship... after what you've done?!". It was becoming more difficult for the pegasus to talk due to the liquid nitrogen which was slowing her metabolism, the white mist now almost completely obscuring her tormentor

Twilight let out another laugh. "Oh Fluttershy, you and your ignorance - you think I haven't thought of that form of magic? Don't you dare accuse me not knowing about friendship!" She circled around the trapped pony, her voice shaking as her gaze became hostile. "If anything, I know more about friendship than any of you ever did!"

Keeping herself still to avoid more damage, and trying to conserve what energy she had, Fluttershy looked at the deranged pony with a suspicious glare in her single working eye. "What do you mean?"

Twilight's voice lowered to a threatening growl as she game to a brief stop in front of Fluttershy, separated by the wall of glass as she switched off the liquid nitrogen pump. "Because you betrayed me. You hated me, you used me..." Her voice trembled, her hooves shaking. "You all abandoned me!"

Pinkie shuddered at the unicorn's words, trying to recall moments where she might have betrayed her friend. She gestured slightly. "I-I'd never-"

"I bet you're lying," Rainbow Dash hissed, not bothering to translate for the others. "You likely betrayed her dozens of times and are just trying to deny it. And I'd never be that wretch's 'friend'." The pegasus gagged at the word as she took a bite out of her left flank in her anger. "'Friendship' is a traitorous concept."

Sweat forming on Fluttershy's body, both from exhaustion and nerves from Twilight's accusations, her only relief being that the chilling nitrogen was starting to settle. She spoke in an inquiring tone. "I-I don't understand..."

"Of course you wouldn't," Twilight hissed. "The only time you all were ever really there for me was when we stopped Nightmare Moon and Discord." Twilight once again began to circle her captive, horn illuminated with a near-black light as shadowy forms took shape before Fluttershy. They were shilloueted forms of Twilight and the ponies she had once considered "friends", in a more wispy form than the images depicting the unicorn's plan for eternal harmony.

The shadow-like forms played out actions as Twilight dictated them, her voice growing more shrill and frantic as she went on. "You all tried to bribe me into giving you the ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala without considering my feelings. Rarity and Applejack only thought about themselves at that sleepover, with no consideration toward my feelings." The unicorn's breathing became ragged, the shadow-scenes playing out at an ever-increasing pace. "Applejack accused me of ruining everything when I tried to help at Winter Wrap Up. Nopony took me seriously when I was worried about my friendship reports...". She paused, breathing heavily as she forced one event to come to the forefront of her mind, a certain event that she had attempted to push back for several months. Finally forcing herself to think of it fueled her unstable anger. "And the wedding in Canterlot?"

Fluttershy blinked at Twilight's spiteful tone on the last mention. "The wedding?"

The unicorn trembled, letting out a forced, harsh laugh. "Heh, remember that, you traitor?!" Twilight's eyes flashed white in her unstable anger. She glanced at the monitor which observed Fluttershy's brainwaves, her heart leaping a little as the spark of Kindness flashed on the screen, quickly fading again.

Feeling a further frustration at Kindness's resilience, Twilight then stood in front of the light yellow, torn-up pegasus, standing close to the glass as her chest heaved. Her voice was laced with anger as she glanced around, knowing her deceased friends were present and watching, unseen. "I know my brother and Cadance better than anypony. And I tried to tell you that there was something wrong. But did you listen?! NO!" Twilight looked as if she was about to tear somepony's flesh off with her magic. "You all shunned me and abandoned me! And you never apologized! NEVER!"

Pinkie's color and mane grew even more depressive than before, tears of regret beginning to collect at the bottom of her eyes. She hated to admit it, but every single one of Twilight's accusations against her so-called "friends" was true.

Rainbow snarled, arching her brow. "Heh, seems like Traitor Sparkle knows what betrayal feels like," she hissed. "Physical agony in the form of flesh being stripped from her bones and fire burning her insides is the next pain she should experiencing."

Fluttershy, slowly beginning to be filled with more anger than kindness in her half-frozen state, looked firmly at her furious tormentor. "If I... r-remember.... you accused her of b-being evil."

"And you believed her, a pony you had just met, over me, your supposed 'friend'?!" Twilight retorted with a screech. "I should have known right then and there that you all just used and abused me. Even my oh-so-noble brother!" Her voice turned mocking by the last sentence, eyes narrowed with an angry white glow illuminating from them. "I thought he was loyal to me... but he proved me wrong!"

"So you'll... k-kill him?" Fluttershy looked straight at the unicorn, her voice a middle-ground between her ordinary timid demeanor and her growing aggression. Despite her slowed heartbeat as a result of the steady freezing, she recalled the claim that all the unicorns would be kept alive for a time to analyze their capability for Magic, but Twilight looked so enraged that her subject was uncertain what she'd do.

Twilight's brow furrowed, her eyes returning once more to their violet-irised appearance as her teeth bared in a snarl. "Enough talk! In case you've forgotten, Fluttershy, I have a few more methods to do here." Taking a deep breath, she turned her thoughts back to her ambitious plan, seeming to quell her anger. "What I do to others is my business and mine alone. It's time to focus more on the future for now..."

The tortured pony narrowed her single working eye in a glare, starting to regain some strength, but she said nothing in response.

Twilight briefly closed her eyes, directing her thoughts away from her concealed anger. Okay, calm down, Twilight, calm down... just focus on the plan...

Twilight went on, voice no longer as angry but just as unhinged. "So, an ability to be on good social terms with others is important as well. You see, I believe that having friends - real friends - can at the very least help the harmonious ones to learn and train together, whether it be through testing loyalty toward one another or learning to laugh in the face of death!" She grinned, sounding disturbingly excited as she let out a laugh. "Every other being that I judge for the other Elements will also be put through similar training, and I'll even let others from the different Elements come to observe the training of the qualities they don't possess - friendship between different Elements is important, after all!"

Twilight hurriedly turned her head around to look at the central monitor. Fluttershy's brainwaves were erratic, clearly expressing her fear and anger. Once more there was a pulse, a flash, a spark... and then it was gone. Kindness was indeed beginning to show itself, but it wasn't enough quite yet to separate the elusive genetic component from its bearer...

The unicorn now moved at a brisk pace, eyes darting as her own heart began to pound - both from anxiousness and exhilaration. "Gotta get everything initiated by the morning, so, moving on!" Seeming a bit more frantic, Twilight removed the pump of liquid nitrogen from the glass casing where Fluttershy was contained, briefly sealing off the opening so that the substance wouldn't yet leak out. "Luckily for us, my method for 'O' will make getting that liquid nitrogen out very simple!" Twilight grinned as the liquid nitrogen canister was moved away, retrieving another container with a pump which appeared empty. "It involves a reverse process, because 'O' stands for 'oxygen deprivation'!"

Fluttershy winced in spite of herself, remembering the asphyxiation procedure that had first been preformed on her. Oxygen depletion had been a part of that, so... won't it be the same sort of thing as before?

Twilight seemed to read Fluttershy's mind. "This is going to be a liiiittle different than asphyxiation. What I'm basically going to do for this is simulate conditions in the vacuum of outer space!" She chuckled at the horrified expression on Fluttershy's face. "Don't worry though, this one's going to be really short, and I can't do mental manipulation on you - you'd only live about one and a half minutes maximum in those conditions. And that's at the absolute maximum."

Horn glowing as her magic activated once more, what looked like goggles were levitated through the hole and onto Fluttershy's resisting face. The goggles were pressed tight against her face, sure to leave indents in her coat, so there was no way for the air surrounding the captive's eyeballs to escape.

"That's just there because I don't want the moisture in your eyeballs to boil," the scientist explained in a cheery tone, a hoof on her chin. "That would be interesting to observe, but I want you to actually see the procedures I'll put you through next!"

With that, she pressed a large black button on the side of the mechanism to initiate the process of creating a vacuum. And Fluttershy instantly wished those ninety seconds were over.

All remnants of the ordinary atmosphere were rapidly sucked out of the containment chamber, leaving Fluttershy to suffer through the empty conditions of a vacuum, and the coldness brought with it. With the atmospheric pressure being completely absent, the water collected on Fluttershy's body spontaneously converted into vapor. This quickly proved to affect more than just the pony's sweat, as the blood on the surface of Fluttershy's body from her previous injuries began to boil due to being outside the body in the vacuum. All of the blood vessels exposed on Fluttershy's skin began to break from the result of the lack of pressure, and the presence of the goggles on the upper half of her face were the only thing that prevented the veins in her eyeballs. The same effect rapidly caused the saliva on her tongue beginning to boil, the pegasus beginning to feel as if she would black out in a matter of moments.

The torment steadily grew, as Fluttershy felt as if her ears would burst from her body attempting to equalize the pressure within with the vacuum outside. In the absence of air pressure the gas exchange of the suffering pegasus's lungs felt as if they were working in reverse as her respiratory system was thrust into an oxygen-starved state, throwing Fluttershy into disorientation, uncertain of which direction was which despite the fact that she was strapped down.

Twilight was taking notes furiously with a grin on her face, looking back and forth from the suffering pony to the mechanisms that made the subject's physical state known. "Observing interesting results of vacuum on a pony's body. The bearer of Kindness is now entering oxygen-starved state known as hypoxia. All reactions proceeding as expected."

After about ten seconds, the cooling effect of evaporation lowered the temperature in Fluttershy's mouth and nose to near-freezing - it was like a more concentrated version of the liquid nitrogen torment she had endured previously. With the passing of several seconds more, Fluttershy was aware of her body shaking, convulsions racking her body as a result of the pressure of the vacuum. The fragile bones of her right front let began to crack, snapping forcefully out of place as Fluttershy had to bite her lip to keep from screaming in agony, holding on to every breath she had.

The yellow color of Fluttershy's coat began to be overtaken from the cold environment and remnants of nitrogen, and a blue discoloration of her skin became evident, causing her to look a pale blue color, lighter than Rainbow Dash's cyan coat. Her oxygen-deprived skin began to putt Fluttershy into a frozen-looking stupor. Despite the conditions her body was being put under, the pony's brain remained undamaged and her heart continued to beat.

"Blue discoloration known as cyanosis occurred within 30 seconds," Twilight muttered as she scribbled down some more notes, carefully observing the vacuum's effects. "Normal reaction to the circumstances, the subject shouldn't live much longer now."

The seconds seemed to each take forever to tick by, every agonizing moment causing the pegasus to mentally beg for the pain to end. She barely knew where she was, only aware of her assertion that Twilight needed to be stopped - through elimination, if necessary.

Pressing the buttons on the side of the machine to release the vacuum's hold, Twilight hurriedly removed the glass casing and dug an adrenaline needle into the side of Fluttershy's neck, assuring that she wouldn't lose the subject to psychogenic shock, both resulting from the oxygen depletion and the traumatizing events she had experienced so far. It was only the mare's expertise in magic and science that was keeping her broken subject alive. The goggles which had saved Fluttershy's eyes from losing their moisture were snapped off, leaving indented impressions on the afflicted mare's face as the subject's normal color began to return.

"Be lucky that you weren't actually in space when I did that," Twilight commented in a cheerful tone. "If I hadn't intervened in those first ninety seconds, your blood pressure would have fallen so sufficiently that your blood itself would boil and your heart would stop beating. Even better, there's no bacteria in space to decompose things, with no bacteria present, your frozen, non-decomposing body would have drifted off into the vacuum of space for millions or billions of years if you were left untouched!"

She turned her head swiftly to the brainwave monitor, eyes wide in an attempt to see that elusive Kindness spark. The sphere of light pink energy manifested once again, but its appearance was brief before it vanished once more. Knowing that it couldn't be much more, the eager scientist moved on, somewhat anxious. "Alright, the next letter is P," Twilight announced, moving closer to adjust the position of the table to which Fluttershy was restrained, "and 'P' stands for 'pendulum'!"

"A... pendulum?". Fluttershy recalled what her fading memory told her about pendulums - she knew that they were in grandfather clocks, and sometimes used for hypnotism. Her unease increased, however, when the table was lowered to the floor in a horizontal position. She found herself facing the metal ceiling as the table was secured, and her heartbeat began to quicken.

"Oh, I don't mean the kind of pendulum that's in clocks or used for hypnosis," Twilight clarified with an unsettling tone, trotting out of Fluttershy's view. "I mean something a little more dangerous."

Accompanying the sound of buttons and levers being adjusted, a low hum resounded from the ceiling as a panel slid back to reveal something hidden within its depths. Once the gap had widened enough to allow the hidden device to reveal itself, what appeared to be a large, axe-like construct, the gleaming metal shaped into a low, boat-like base with sharpened edges on the tips of either side.

Twilight grinned at the menacing instrument. "Now this is a pendulum. It's used to slice through a victim's stomach in order to try to force a confession out of them."

Fluttershy shuddered, the sharp metal glinting above her as it threatened to lower and slice her body into jagged fragments of stripped flesh and crushed bone, cracking her skull in half. But she was aware that something that severe would kill her, and the pony inflicting these tortures on her, for the moment, wanted her alive.

With the press of a button, the pendulum steadily began to lower, swinging lazily back and forth, positioned to split its target open from neck to flanks. The eyes of the pony below were wide with horror, the metal glinting ever-closer

Leaning over next to Fluttershy's brain now that it was horizontal, adjusting her procedure accordingly, Twilight began to use her neuron manipulator to distort Fluttershy's memories, implanting another false recollection to further Kindness's separation.

Fluttershy's conscious awareness shifted from the present to the memory she was being forced to experienced. Her past self was strapped down in a similar situation, being tilted back on a platform as a large crowd was assembled around her.

A beige-colored pony with a white mane glared down at her, wearing the uniform of a judge as an identical pendulum swung back and forth, beginning to lower.

"Confess!" the judge pony demanded, leering down at her with a harsh, red-eyed glare. "Confess that you were plotting to overthrow the higher-ups of the Corporation through murder by boiling!"

"I-I didn't do any such thing!"

"She fits the description," one pony was heard murmuring.

"It has to be her," another agreed.

The crowd surrounding the spectacle could be heard shouting, though the vocalizations, rather than screams of terror, were calls of encouragement.

They waned this. They wanted to see her die.

Fluttershy struggled, horror and disgust at the injustice against her overtaking her mind. She attempted to use her wings to pull herself away, but she still remained immobile.

At the same precise moment as in the memory, the large pendulum slice through Fluttershy's abdomen, moving back and forth to pierce the pony's flesh, slicing deeper through the layers of skin and muscle as it lowered upon her."Wh-What are- AAAGGGHHHH!"

Tears spilled from Fluttershy's eyes as she screamed, purely as a reflex from the fissure being carved deep into her abdomen. Blood and strips of muscle covered its surface as it sliced from her neck to her flanks, exposing several of her organs where the indentation was deep enough. The suffering pony was screaming at such a high pitch that it caused Twilight to wince from the frequency.

"ST-ST-STOP!" Fluttershy begged through the agony, trying to get through to the angry shouts of her accusers from the memory she was steadily being tricked into believing. She felt her head spin as she feared she would slip into unconsciousness, and possibly into her death. "You h-have the wr-wrong pony! I'M THE WRONG- AAHHHHHH!""

Her accusers from the fabricated past didn't listen, and neither did Twilight in the present. The only response which the unicorn gave was the scribbling of her quill to take notes, the unicorn in question fixing her attention on the brainwave monitor with bloodshot eyes.

"Come on, come on!" Twilight muttered. "Show yourself, Kindness!"

Another pulse which brought forth a faded spark. Another pulse, stronger and brighter. Then, vanished again.

A breath of irritation from the lavender pony, brow furrowed as she paced around, hoping to break Fluttershy completely at last with enough time to complete her analysis. "How much time has passed? 30 minutes? 45? An hour? Two?" Her mind reeled. "I don't know, no time to really think.. just focus on the Element..." Forcing herself out of her distressed monologue to herself, Twilight raced over to the mechanism which controlled the pendulum, slowing its back-and-forth swinging to a halt before it rose above Fluttershy's maimed underside, eventually reaching its holding space in the top of the ceiling as the metal panel slid back into place.

"I'll clean that up later." Twilight said somewhat hurriedly, forcing another needle of adrenaline to keep her captive awake, then stuck another needle in the pony's side almost an instant later. Twilight was shaking, mane even more disheveled as sweat began to form on her brow. Her magic hold nearly missed the vein that the injection was aimed for as she laughed nervously, heart pounding in her chest.

"Just another thing to keep you conscious, gotta keep you alive despite your injuries, heheh." Her desperation was clearly beginning to show, and she had to take several deep breaths in order to bring her own heart rate to a more manageable level and focus on her task of extracting Kindness.

The unicorn's frantic state didn't escape Fluttershy's awareness, especially with her stamina beginning to return due to the injections. She glared at the unicorn, hoping that somehow the unicorn's unstable mentality would allow her some chance of escape. "Y-You're breaking-"

"I am not!" Twilight quickly insisted, forcing herself to be calm and regain composure. She was anxious to get that Element, and exhausted from a lack of sleep, but she had to keep her mental functions as sharp as possible. "I'm f-fine! Perfectly fine!"

Rainbow Dash huffed in disgust. "Says the unicorn who's planning to 'cleanse' everything through mass genocide."

Forcing a smile, Twilight went on. "Now time for Q, which here stands for a little instrument called a quirt!" Twilight gave Fluttershy a pat on the head that would have been comforting in any other situation, but in this case was a sinister warning. "You probably haven't heard of it - it's a kind of whip with a sharp curved hook at the end!" Using her magic, the whip-like instrument was levitated into view, the sharp hook at the end glinting dangerously. The actual fabric of the quirt was brown and looked somewhat leathery. "The main part of this quirt is made of cow hide, but it can also be formed from the skin of dogs..." her grin grew dangerously wide as the hooked point curled around the base of Fluttershy's nose, "or ponies."

Despite her anger at Twilight, Fluttershy couldn't help a chill going down her back, breathing heavily as she was raised to the standard vertical position. She felt minimal relief that the weapon in front of her wasn't made from the skin of a fellow pony, but the fact that others had formed these quirts out of the skin of their race was unsettling.

Smiling, Twilight once again moved her platform over to stand above Fluttershy's head, lowering the hook of the quip, slowly, across Fluttershy's cheek. The hook pressed against Fluttershy's face, but not quite deep enough to bleed. The unicorn glanced down at her subject, who gazed upward at her in an attempt at veiled fear. "Don't worry, I won't cut your face - I don't want to go too overboard on the blood loss here, only where I feel it's necessary to bring forth the appropriate response."

With that, the forked kip of the quirt was brought down on Fluttershy's right front leg with a sharp crack, digging deep into the surface of the skin. While the nerves in that leg had been dissolved thanks to the hydrofluoric acid, and thus no pain registered to Fluttershy, she was dimly aware of the blood with rose to the surface from the deep cut and trickled down the leg.

Another whistle of air sounded nearby as the whip struck the same leg once again, this time at a sharp diagonal angle from the first cut. With the deep X-shaped wound quickly being accompanied by other cuts brought on by the metal hook of the quirt, the muscle of the pony's limb became visible. Though there was no pain to add to the suffering which Fluttershy had been forced to endure so far, the pegasus was aware that the leg was being mutilated. She turned her gaze upward, now able to speak.

"I.... I h-hate you..."

Though they were words that were somewhat said by force, a part of Fluttershy was beginning to mean it. After everything that Twilight had done to her, it was next to impossible to forgive her for her crimes.

When Fluttershy's right hind leg was sliced by the quirt's pointed end as well, the agony returned as her screams erupted anew. "AAAHHHHHH!" Her voice was shrill, eyes wide from the shock of the metal tip digging into her skin and muscle. Anger surged through her along with the pain jolting through her body, her brainwaves in a fresh turmoil. "ST-STOP! STOP!"

Twilight, of course, refused to comply, only noting down the levels of pain which her friend was experiencing. Leaning over as before, she lowered the neuron manipulator to the surface of Fluttershys brain, using the electrical impulses to alter the neural pathways as before.

Fluttershy was thrown into yet another fabricated memory, her consciousness taking her away to a past that her mind would convince her to have occurred. As Twilight observed the monitor to see into Fluttershy's vision, she observed Fluttershy's experience of being trapped in a cave and restrained by a harness, much as Rarity had been in her encounter with Diamond Dogs.

Fluttershy dimply heard voices from the cart she knew to be behind her. Then there was a harp pain on the back of her neck.

"Move, weakling!" her attacker shouted, whipping her with a quirt again. "This is to be your penance for your so-called kindness!"

The pegasus trapped in the false memory attempted to move her wings, but try as she might, she was unable to lift herself off the ground. With tears of frustration in her eyes, she glanced backward to look at the ponies which were whipping her. One was the lead pegasus from a former memory, the others were a pair of light green unicorns utilizing their magical prowess to forcibly whip her. "S-Stop it!" She winced. "That hurts!"

"Oh, does it?" one unicorn taunted with a laugh. "Well, it's your own fault!"

It was then that she briefly glimpsed the color of the quirts slicing at her skin. The quirts were a pale yellow. The very same color as her coat.

The unicorn on the right noticed her glance. "What's the matter?" he leered. "Have you forgotten that the skin used to make these quirts was your own?!"

Those words were the last thing that Fluttershy heard before one of the quirts extended in a rush, the metal point tearing a large rip in her side - right through, Fluttershy dimly realized, a large stitching present on her side, where her skin had formerly been torn off to create the weapons now being used on her.

"STOP THIS!" Fluttershy screeched, the repeated strikes and lashes causing her to fall limp on the ground, disorientation overtaking her as one hook gripped around one wing, pulling with enough force to tear the top half clean off. "AAAAAAHHHHH P-PLEASE STOP!"

The pulse of the Element of Kindness flashed into awareness once more, seeming to remain a bit longer than previously - it persisted for more than two seconds.

"Yes, yes!"

But the smile faded from Twilight's face as the spark faded away as before.

The unicorn looked noticeably more anxious, scribbling down a brief note on it. "Okay, okay, Kindness is showing itself more, can't be much more to fully bring it forth now..." She forced a laugh. "Heheh, it's gonna be fine. I'll get it..."

Satisfied with the amount of physical affliction and warping on the mind that the bearer of Kindness had been put through for that letter, Twilight at last slowed the whipping to a half, the blood-soaked instrument dripping the crimson fluid into the floor. Levitating a cloth over to clean the weapon of its blood-covered appearance, the whip was set aside to its former holding place to the side of one of the tables.

Fluttershy eventually was brought back into the present moment, hind leg throbbing from the quirt's sharp whips, and she knew the front ailing leg wasn't much better off. The flesh on both legs hung in tattered strips, the muscle stretched along the bone visible under the burst blood vessels. She struggled to control her breathing, feeling somewhat disoriented from the blood loss. A few quick injections from Twilight quickly remedied that, as the unicorn used her magic to connect the flaps of skin together.

"Seeing as the quirt has now served its purpose," Twilight said as she once again adjusted Fluttershy's position to rest horizontally once more, "it's time for us to move on to 'R'." Her violet eyes glinted dangerously, similar to when the Irukandji jellyfish had been used in her arsenal. "And 'R' stands for 'rat torture'! Time to do a little more animal introduction to you, Fluttershy!" She chuckled. "I know you've seen rats before, of course, but this will give you a whole new perspective on them!"

Humming to herself, Twilight trotted over to the other side of the large laboratory, beyond Fluttershy's view, briefly leaving the bearer of Kindness to hear the pounding over her own heart and the trotting of Twilight's hooves across the floor. Soon enough, the defiled mare returned, a large metal cage hovering at her side. As Fluttershy focused her senses on the cage now in front of her, she could make out the forms of several large brown rats. And rather than the friendly animals which Fluttershy was used to taking care of, these rodents seemed much more inclined to attack.

"Don't worry, I can get them to do what I want," Twilight said in a tone of false reassurance. "And that torture from the pendulum is going to be put to very good use here!" She leered at Fluttershy, the pair almost nose to nose as deranged violet eyes stared into the single mint green eye. "My method of rat torture will be interesting for me to observe!". She moved her head away, her smile wide. "Did you know that rats actually think blood is delicious, just like vampire bats? Don't worry though, I won't let these rats nibble at your blood vessels - I still have some more procedures to get through!"

She directed the rats into a bucket, trotting away to retrieve her torch and set it alight. She hurried over to Fluttershy again, quickly turning the bucket upside down and pressed it against the pony's mutilated abdomen, allowing the rodents to scurry across the exposed muscle, struggling to escape.. "With the rats being in this bucket, they're going to need somewhere to go..."

"P-Please, don't..."

Magically controlling the neuron manipulator once more, Twilight forced a further alteration of Fluttershy's memories, making them visible to her on the monitor. In the world of this particular memory, Fluttershy was trapped in a stone enclosure, held down by the white-suited pegasai which she believed to have encountered before.

"There is no room for kindness here," stated a gray-coated, black-maned stallion who appeared to be the leader of this group. His navy blue eyes were steely, and he roughly poked Fluttershy's exposed chest. "We need to teach you a lesson to toughen you up..."

"N-No... please no, no! NO!"

The next instant, Fluttershy experienced the sensation of over a dozen rats skittering all over her body, the pegasai surrounding her with hot metal plates. With the rats having nowhere to go, they began to bite and claw at Fluttershy's body, beads of sweat collecting on the pony's coat, both from the heat of the metal and the paralyzing terror of the rats burrowing into her coat and biting through her skin.

Several of the rats attacked her abdomen just as in the present. Others attempted to burrow into the sides of her hooves. One clawed its way into the canal of her left ear, another taking a snap at her neck, its sharp teeth piercing her jugular vein and adding more agony to the seemingly never ending mass of furry bodies and tiny sharpened claws and teeth.

"STOP!" Fluttershy screamed to the pegasai in her memory, vaguely aware of the quirt against her flesh in the present. "WH-WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!"

"Because you're too soft," the leader said simply. "You must learn to accept punishment."

"I d-d-didn't do anything!"

"That's what you want to force yourself to think," the lead pegasus hissed in a meanacing tone. "You can't fool us."

It was then that Fluttershy let out a furious cry through the pain, her eyes glaring daggers at her tormentors. "You wretched ponies! You'll p-p-pay!" Her voice rose to a higher volume. "I'LL MAKE SURE YOU PAY! AAAHHHH!"

There was a sharp spike of brainwave activity on the central monitor as the spark of Kindness came into view. Twilight's eyes briefly lit up in excitement, only for it to pulse before fading away again. It wasn't free just yet, but at least Kindness was finally beginning to reveal its genetic spark that Twilight desired, appearing in intervals that filled the harmony-seeking pony with a new sense of urgency.

Twilight scribbled down a few more notes as she observed the rats burrowing deep into Fluttershy's abdomen in an attempt to escape the burning heat. "The harborer of Kindness is being quite resilient... clearly feels agony from the experimental rats burrowing into her organs... memory manipulation working smoothly, Kindness is more visible, won't be too much longer." Focusing briefly on the notes of her progress allowed Twilight to calm down slightly.

Fluttershy's shrieks became louder still as the present agony increased, the ravenous rodents now moving along her stomach lines and nibbling through the thin, tangled organ of her small intestine. Each nibble of the rats' sharp teeth added a new level of agony for the afflicted pony, the acids and broken-down food particles staining the rats' teeth as blood from the pony's wounds covered their coarse brown fur.

A wave of nausea came over Fluttershy's body, following by a splicing headache that pounded in her skull. She was half-aware of the sensations, dimly able to separate it from the aguish of the rats gnawing at her soft, exposed muscle and burrowing their way to the organs. She realized through the haze of pain that these waves of symptoms must be the Irukandji syndrome taking effect at last, bringing forth the unpleasant symptoms which her tormentor had previously mentioned.

Fluttershy was aware of the mounting resentfulness which began to invade her mind more completely, digging further into her memories. Twilight's memory manipulation, just as with Rainbow Dash, was causing gaps to be filled in to the damaged pegasus's mind, replacing fragmented recollections with an ever-growing mental web of cruelty.

Twilight's scribbling on her notepad continued, the mare deafening herself to her victim's cries. "Things are going well, Kindness should be extracted soon. Subject can't take much more of the rats now burrowing into her intestines.... moving on to next letter." She then raised her voice so that Fluttershy could hear, placing her notepad and quill down for the time being. "Alright, time to put those rats back into their cage!"

Removing the burning hot bucket, the unicorn used her dark magic to steadily lift the rats away from her test subject, sealing the chittering creatures back into their metal enclosure. "That was interesting, wasn't it?"

"It was... disgusting..." Fluttershy said in a pained hiss. ""How can a so-called harmonious pony like you approve this?!" She winced, head no aching from the symptoms of the Irukandi syndrome beginning to take effect. "It's e-evil!"

"What's evil to some is necessary to others," Twilight insisted, "and for me it's necessary." She placed the bucket and cage which held the rats on the opposite side of the room, close to Fluttershy's trapped animals. Some shrank back a little upon seeing the beady eyes of the rats peering out at them. The mentally sick pony who had trapped them could easily remove her magic shield and set those rats upon them if she chose to.

The pony in question chuckled at their reaction before trotting back over to her captive once more. "With that out of the way, it's time for me to go ahead with 'S' - sound torture!"

Clapping her hooves, clearly excited for this one, Twilight quickly levitated two large, speaker-like devices close to Fluttershy's right and left sides, hooking up the various cables which connected to some of the larger mechanisms, able to properly adjust the frequency level that she planned to adjust for her observations. "Now, as you may or may not know," Twilight said in her "science teacher" tone, "the frequency level of sound waves is measured in cycles per second known as Hertz. And different sound frequencies have various effects on somepony's mind!"

With a gleeful expression, Twilight cantered over to the mechanism that controlled the speakers, setting the proper frequency that she'd need to twist Fluttershy's mind the way she wanted to.

""Let's try this at 20 Hz," Twilight said as she switched on the frequency. "That's called infrasound, just beyond the range of hearing!"

A low hum resounded from the speakers as they were switched on, the sound pressure increasing to a level which began to assault Fluttershy's ears. Through the sound could barely be heard, right at the threshold of hearing, the pressure implemented by the waves was enough to cause discomfort.

Smiling, the unicorn scientist twisted the knob to increase the infrasound's pressure, eager to observe the effect it would have on her subject's brain. And soon enough, those events came to fruition.

An almost tangible dread began to fill Fluttershy's being, though she was uncertain whether it was due to the increasing pressure of the sound oscillation, or the Irukandji syndrome's effects beginning to afflict her further. She suspected it was the former, as the anxiety and terror she experienced only grew worse. Her mind was assaulted with terrible thoughts and vivid images which came to her in the form of hallucinations. The animals she had once cared for, torn limb from limb by an unseen force. The image of Twilight, using her magic to cause insufferable agony to other ponies. The fear that Twilight was lying about eventually killing her, and instead intended to torture her for eternity.

The fluctuation of Fluttershy's brainwaves and heart rate were erratic and tormented, a brief flash of Kindness's spark appearing once more. Then again before fading.

All without the use of memory manipulation.

"Yes, this is brilliant!" Twilight looked ecstatic, clearly pleased with the results of the sound torment she was doing. Ignoring the fact that she could see her friend attempting to flail from the piercing noise that resonated in her afflicted eardrums, the only sensation Twilight was aware of was a joyous euphoria. Every appearance of the spark of Kindness, however brief, filled her with exhileration, whether good or bad for her psyche. It wouldn't be too much longer until she could begin her preparations for the morning.

"Oh don't worry, Fluttershy," she said with a dangerous laugh, trotting over to the control panel as she turned down the frequency of the noise. "There's just one more experiment with sound I wish to do, and this one is more of a test run for what I'll be doing after I'm through with you!"

Fluttershy, remaining eye shut from an attempt to ignore the pounding sonic waves, began to relax sightly as the sound faded and the soundproofed panels were removed. She whimpered, but managed a defiant glare.

The fact that Twilight looked especially devious now, however, wasn't a comforting thought. Fluttershy trembled, remembering what Twilight had told her about her plan to eradicate all chaotic life... what would sound have to do with it?

The unicorn in question levitated a large piece of black metal beside her, a giant circular portion of a speaker with a microphone attached to one side. The mare grinned sadistically. "I figured you ought to be the first recipient to this device, since everypony else will get their turn on a smaller scale," Twilight said, "it's called an audio spotlight!"

"A-Audio.... sp-spotlight?" Fluttershy managed to gasp. She knew what a spotlight was, of course, but she was wary about what this "audio spotlight" would do. "You're gonna... f-focus sound at-"

"Correct!" Twilight exclaimed, her smile widening. "Just like a normal spotlight focuses light in one place, an audio spotlight does the same thing with sound!" She pat the large speaker-like device as if it were a prized science project. "Did you know that the sound a pony hears every day is 90% noise? Just stuff that doesn't really matter?"

"N-No..." Fluttershy muttered with a glower.

"Now you do!" Keeping the audio spotlight in place, Twilight stepped closer to her captive. "Now, you see and hear me talking in front of you right now, just like on any ordinary day, right?"

"So what?" the trapped pony snapped, arching her brow and keeping her mental focus on the resentment toward the unicorn who she had once considered a friend.

"Well, most of the sound from my voice when I talk, the machines here whirring around you - it's all just noise. Background stuff that doesn't matter." The mare smiled lightly, her tone almost joyfully deranged. "But with this audio spotlight, I can cancel out all that..." With a laugh, she teleported out of sight. Her voice echoed from Fluttershy's left. "What direction can you hear me from, Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy trembled, her fear and anger blinding her thoughts, almost causing her to forget which ways right and left were. "My l-left?"

"Correct!" There was another audible signal of Twilight's teleportation. The young mare's voice sounded again, to the right this time. "Can you hear me now, Fluttershy?"

"Yes..."

Twilight moved a little farther away, but kept her directional position the same as before. "Where?"

Fluttershy struggled to speak. "Ri...Right?"

"Good, good! You're getting it!"

The captive let out a snarl. "What the flying feather is this? I don't see how that... stupid sound thing is going to help you. It's... just a spotlight."

Rainbow Dash's eyes narrowed as she scuffed a hoof on their equivalent of ground. She grumbled to herself. "That pegasus is starting to sound like me."

"What the hay is she gettin' at?" Applejack asked nervously, not meeting the eyes of the others as she questioned Twilight's reasoning. The intent of the pony who had murdered her filled her with a cold unease, yet at the same time she was curious as to just how this spotlight would be used upon other ponies as she seemed to be implying.

It was Rarity who responded in her logical monotone. "She's using sound waves to taunt her captive, and with that audio spotlight, it stands to reason that soon we're not going to be able to hear her if the spotlight does what I think it does."

Rainbow Dash snarled, watching intently as she stared at the scientist with an expression of pure malice.

Twilight teleported away again, out of view from both Fluttershy and the limbo-bound ponies. Concealing herself, Twilight stared intently at Fluttershy, pointing the audio spotlight at the intended recipient as she raised the microphone to her mouth.

"Where am I now, Fluttershy?"

The spirits of the deceased ponies didn't hear her words. The only indication that anything had happened was the look of pure terror and incomprehension on Fluttershy's face.

Only Fluttershy had heard Twilight's chilling whisper.

"Hahahaha, that's right, Fluttershy," the scientist hissed in a chilling, unstable voice, "I'm inside your head!"

Rarity took note of the yellow pegasus's petrified expression. "So, it seems that I'm right. The spotlight only focuses sound on one specific point, so that only the one it's being pointed at can hear it. It stands to reason that Twilight there would direct her words into the skull of another pony."

Applejack arched her brow, looking up slightly as she turned to Rarity with a cautious expression. "Do ya think that it'd work if it were pointed at us?"

"Considering our state, I don't think so," Rarity responded, her reply sounding muffled by her clattered jaw before she attempted to slide it back into a more manageable position. "Though we can see and hear her, for the most part, and she can hear us, the fact is that we're tethered in this limbo that she's unable to reach. Anything she tries to do can't physically affect us."

"If only it could be the other way around," Rainbow muttered under her breath. "I'd like to tear into her mind the way she's done to us, and then some."

Meanwhile, Twilight kept her audio spotlight firmly pointed at Fluttershy, grinning as she whispered inside her head. "This device here allows somepony to project words into the heads of whichever pony it's pointed at. And now that I know the bigger one's working properly, I'm confident it'll be able to work with the smaller ones as well!"

"Smaller ones?"

"Yes," Twilight affirmed, "after all, I'm going to sometimes need to whisper guidance or warnings to someone, but I won't want everypony to hear it. It's all science, Fluttershy. Science as part of salvation."

"That's an excuse full of horseapples if I ever heard one," Rainbow hissed as she swallowed more of her own muscle from her right foreleg. She was so filled with a desire to murder the unicorn but unable to do anything that she would likely eat her front hoof down to the bone before the living pegasus finally passed on.

Twilight ignored the words of the broken deceased pegasus, instead grinning widely at Fluttershy. She used the audio spotlight to direct a cold, malevolent laugh within her subject's head, before she spoke without need of the spotlight's workings.

"Why the feather... should I care about them?" Fluttershy said harshly, spite and mistrust evident in her voice. "They probably deserve... to d-die..." Her mint-green eye stared straight at Twilight. "J-Just like you." A small part of Fluttershy's mind was horrified at her own words, attempting to convince herself that she didn't mean it. The bitterness that had warped her mind, however, was causing the bearer of Kindness to be truly sincere in her words.

Twilight blinked, her head whipping around to her hostage, hurriedly levitating her notebook in place. Her eyes were wide in eagerness. "What did you just say?"

"You deserve... to die!" Fluttershy snapped, regaining a little of her strength as her anger gave her a surge of adrenaline. "You and the others who've hurt me... I'll tear the flesh from your bones!"

"She's starting to sound like you," Rarity commented, glancing to Rainbow Dash with an attentive air.

Rainbow Dash scoffed from the hollow void, her gaze slowly looking from Twilight to Fluttershy. "Only because it seems that pegasus and me have a common enemy."

Fluttershy's face contorted. "You and the others... before you kill me... I'll k-kill you!"

Twilight beamed at her friend's spiteful words, scribbling down Fluttershy's words and tone as she let out a gleeful, triumphant laugh. "I love hearing that threat from you!" She cackled, knowing that Kindness would easily be hers soon enough - it had to. "I want you to try to kill me, haha! Go ahead," she challenged, "I dare your teeth to snap at my flesh and tear up rmy muscle." She circled around her prisoner, who was struggling and steadily growing angrier as Twilight spoke in a mocking tone. "I dare you to break my bones and tear out my eyes. I dare you to split my chest and spread my ribcage like the wings of a pegasus in flight!"

"That's just what I'll do!" Fluttershy said bitterly, meaning every word and yet seeming to feel a pang of regret. Some Kindness that still remained. "You and everypony else..."

Rather than feeling horrified at the grusome depictions she dictated of possibilities for her own death, Twilight felt excited to say them. She was clearly getting an emotional reaction out of Fluttershy, and the pegasus's brainwaves were pulsing rapidly, Kindness beginning to appear more and more. It wasn't free, but it was close.

"I welcome that challenge," Twilight whispered darkly. ""You just have to cling to life for a few more procedures, Fluttershy. Then you'll relinquish your Kindness and see my plan for eternal harmony begin to rise as it should!"

"If I'm supposed to... die here..." Fluttershy questioned, her one-eyed gaze strong despite her agonizing wounds, "then how am I supposed to see your plan be brought... to life?" Her voice was harsh, aggressive, almost like Rainbow's spite-filled voice.

Twilight of course, fully expected Fluttershy to join her broken friends in the void-like space in which they apparently resided. She didn't entirely know how they were there, or why, but in a way, it was better - they'd all get a front row seat to see the beginnings of a harmonious reality that Twilight herself would bring about. She laughed gleefully, glancing at Kindness's bearer.

"You'll see, my friend... you'll see." She trotted off to retrieve the next item on her alphabetical list, appearing a little more hurried in her movements as she looked at the monitor. Gazed carefully for the spark of Kindness that was steadily appearing. "Kindness is almost gone! Just a few more letters to go..."

With a sinister chuckle, the unicorn returned with another transparent container, this one containing a black, sticky-looking substance that was clearly boiling. Her eyes shone like the hot coals the substance had been formed from.

"Ever been around boiling tar before?"

Kindness, T to Z

“Before the truth sets you free, it tends to make you miserable.”
-Richard Rohr

The trapped pony grimaced the moment Twilight had voiced her inquiry concerning the next letter. "Boiling tar?" Fluttershy glared, instantly loathing the thought of the aforementioned substance as she used the experiences she had suffered and Twilight's revelation to further fuel her anger. "Wh-What would I want to be around b-boiling tar for?" She swallowed, voice accentuated with a venomous tone, the look in her eyes matching it. "Except to dunk somepony like you in it?!"

"Just intrigue," Twilight responded placidly with a pleased smile, injecting Fluttershy with a powerful shot of adreneline to keep her awake - no point in losing her to unconsciousness. A multitude of small measuring tools and syringes were quickly levitated over, running a quick check on Fluttershy's systems to make sure the injuries would not yet kill her. "And if you wanted to try to kill me with it, I wouldn't say no to that threat in your state!" She laughed, a disturbingly wide smile on her face, as if she considered the prospect of attempted murder toward her to be the greatest possible option - though internally she was hoping that an attack from Fluttershy would not occur and was merely trying to get her subject angrier. "That would help your anger manifest more quickly and allow me to get Kindness faster, maybe even without going through all the lefts! And once that's done, I can continue with the last phases of my preparations to make my harmonious dream a reality!" Her eyes appeared to literally shine at the thought, her mind turning earnestly with thoughts about how she'd change the world for the better.

While the scientist in question viewed her aims as honorable, just and moral despite the heinous actions she took to reach them, nopony else aware of her actions shared that view. Rarity considered it rash and illogical despite understanding Twilight's motives, Pinkie and Applejack were horrified, and Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy found the living unicorn's ambition to be utterly sickening.

"Th-This isn't intriguing - it's evil!" The formerly shy and quiet pegasus was shaking in rage, her efforts to be free nearly causing the table to comply with her movements. The enraged side of her taking over, for a second, completely took the upper hoof as she cried out in an uncontrolled rage. "I-I'LL MAKE SURE TO KILL YOU!"

Rainbow Dash looked to be oddly intrigued at the other winged pony's defiant demeanor. "Heh, she's turning out quite a bit like me."

A certain companion spoke in her jaw-clattering monotone. "It's reasonable to guess that it's because Twilight used a similar process that caused you to become-"

"I wasn't talking to you!" Rainbow Dash snapped at Rarity, her gaze clearly disdainful. It was clear by the look that she gave the emotionless unicorn that she viewed everypony with an air of disdain and hatred, but her uncontrollable rage and desire for vengeance could only be firmly directed at one target, and was directed at Twilight alone. "Now shut up with your logic!"

In the living world, Twilight was lightly chuckling, not feeling threatened at all. "I expected this reaction, so don't try just yet," she said with a grin, her horn alight with darkned magic as she gathered up the materials she needed, including a lighter, a propane burner, and a large cylindrical container filled with a dark, sticky-looking substance. "I need to get Kindness before I can set you free, and considering how well you've been holding up so far with my enhancements, I'll likely need to let all my procedures do their work before that!"

"You'll never r-r-really set me free!" the pale yellow pony shouted, part of her regretting her accusatory tone but a bigger part of her genuinely meaning it, especially with the agony she had suffered. And she was fully aware that her torment was far from over - even though the procedures had briefly ceased, she could feel a plethora of uncomfortable symptoms plaguing her, knowing that the effects of the venom within her were only going to get worse. "You're probably just g-going to keep me alive... and torture me more for f-fun!"

"Fun?! No, no, no, no, no!" Twilight shook her head rapidly, looking apalled at the idea, wanting to banish the thought from Fluttershy's mind. "You think I consider this fun? I don't!" Her voice faltered. "It's not for fun, it's out of necessity!" Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Twilight stepped closer to Fluttershy, her gaze not quite as calculating as before. Her expression were insistent and intent, pupils wide, voice growing shrill. "I can't have anypony find out! Not yet! I wouldn't be killing you if it wasn't necessary!"

There was a pause between the two, the silence only broken by sharp intakes of breath from pain and desperation. The others realized that Twilight was, indeed, fully aware of the pain and suffering which she was causing, but she still proceeded in her task as a result of her deluded ideals.

Twilight finally spoke again, composure somewhat regained as her hooves steadied, pushing her desperation and lingering guilt aside. "I'll set you free, I will," she assured, levitating the container of tar and the burner a good distance in front of the table which Fluttershy was strapped to. "Bit by bit, I'll free you from your mortal pain..."

"Really, you liar?! You WON'T!" Rainbow shouted so that Twilight could clearly hear her exclamation. She knew very well that, if the trend held true, the bearer of Kindness would merely end up in this limbo just like the rest of them had. "Not in the way she's thinking! She'll just end up trapped with us!" Her words weren't out of defense for Fluttershy's suffering, but out of her ever-growing rage toward the unicorn she wanted to painfully destroy.

Applejack had flinched briefly at the word "liar", but still dared herself to speak. "Do y'all really think she'll end up trapped here?"

"I would assume so," Rarity responded. "It seems that everypony she kills who has an Element within them ends up being trapped here."

Pinkie gestured to convey her own inquiry, her movements abrupt and bright blue eyes clearly puzzled. "Do ya know why?"

As Rainbow translated Pinkie's words aloud, her gaze turned thoughtful. The other former bearers of the Elements did indeed have a point. Veil destabilizing or not, the only beings which Twilight had killed that were sent into the strange sub-limbo were their small group.

Twilight ignored the words of her accuser, lighting the propane burner underneath the tar in order to cause the temperature to rise. The substance remained motionless at first, but soon enough small bubbles of air began to form on its surface as the unicorn adjusted the temperature accordingly. "The boiling point of the kind of tar I have here - pine tar, specifically - is 637 degrees Fahrenheit, or 337 degrees Celsius to use the more scientific form," Twilight explained cheerfully as the rate of bubbles on the tar's surface began to increase. "Now I can lower you a little into it and manipulate your memory-"

"You're an... idiot," Fluttershy hissed, her formerly kind persona lessening by the second as she became more filled with the hatred Twilight longed for her to feel. "I'm strapped to this table."

"True," Twilight agreed, "but don't forget that I have my magic!" With her quill scribbling away notes as she muttered to herself, Twilight released Fluttershy from her hoofcuffs, causing the fragmented hooftip of her dissolved left hind leg, which had remained due to the hoofcuffs, to fall to the ground in a bloody stump just before Twilight began enveloping her subject's entire body with magic in the same manner as she had done when Fluttershy was in Photo Finish's fashion show, but with a far more sinister purpose in mind.

Fluttershy attempted to flail, to free herself from the magical hold around her and lunge at the first thing she saw, sharp stabs of pain rising anew from the further disconnection of parts of her body and the spilling of more blood from her hind hoof. But even attempting to look around to see the entirety of her surroundings was no use - the magical hold was too strong. As her body remained still as Twilight willed it, the devices to monitor her brainwaves and memories remained fixed on her head as her hooves began to be lowered into the boiling substance. She screamed, the scorching tar coating her left hind hoof and adding to the further agony of the earlier foot roasting, once the tar had submerged the remnants of hooftips. She snarled from pain and anger, attempting to bite her mouth to hold back her cries. But she still held an expression of hatred as the hooked tool to manipulate her neural pathways set to work once again, out of her direct viewpoint. With nerve endings not present in quite the same matter that a pony's hooves were, it wasn't an intense physical pain that primarily manifested through its sharp touch, but rather effects that were realized through the corrupted memories that it brought.

Twilight adjusted the neural paths with the skilled air of a professional as the subject's memories were altered yet another time. Ponies like those of the previous visions were present with a slightly younger Fluttershy, her body battered from previous torments, being lowered into tar of a more intense heat than what Twilight was doing. The boiling caused intense burns on Fluttershy's skin in both agonizing present and fabricated past, to the point that the subject was uncertain which was occurring when. This wasn't helped by the fact that she felt a sharp pain occurring within her body, as the venom of the Irukandji jellyfish was beginning to take effect to a rapid degree, and she attempted to ignore the added pain. She would soon find, however, that it would be increasingly difficult to banish the agony from her mind, especially with the effects of the jellyfish venom beginning to steadily increase in its severity.

At last, Fluttershy's body was lifted out of the tar and encased in her restraints once more, her hoof stumps and right hind leg raw from the burns, but no longer bleeding. As painful as the tar had been, it seemed that the heat had cauterized the wounds, halting the blood flow. With the monitoring equipment still firmy in place, the smile that flickered across Twilight's face wasn't at all comforting, only seeming to increase Fluttershy's anger as the pain from the tar began to subside.

"Just a few more, Fluttershy! It'll be over soon!" Twilight trotted over to the far right of the laboratory, the farthest point from the door which Fluttershy could not see. "Just six more letters to go!"

"J-Just six?" Fluttershy frankly could barely take another letter of this torture, let alone six. Her rising anger at Twilight's actions, however, was helping to eclipse a portion of the pain. "Why don't you just stop your stupid torture?!"

"Not until I get Kindness!" Twilight insisted, seeming to ignore her subject's distress. "It's not just for research, it's for the good of all reality!" Out of Fluttershy's view for the moment, Twilight took a deep breath, trying to calm her pounding heart and racing mind.

She's still holding on, but what if my magic and injections are too strong? The fact that Fluttershy seemed to still be managing to hold on despite all she had suffered was beginning to worry the scientist as she prepared to levitate her next instruments over - what looked like a large white box with a concave center an overhanging lamp, and a small oblong rectangular device with a counter reflected on its surface. What if- No - s-she won't have the strength to kill me by the time this is over. Adrenaline or not, she can't combat me, I'm in better physical condition, I'll be able to bring her down, then finish up my preparations! Her horn shimmered with magic as she began to levitate her radiation mechanism toward the forefront of Fluttershy's view. Just gotta keep reminding myself of that fact, and not let my emotions and desperation get in the way!

With that thought firmly in her mind, Twilight focused once more on her task as she returned to Fluttershy's view with her newest mechanisms and circular mirrors in tow. "It's time to start with the letter U now, and 'U' stands for 'ultraviolet radiation'!". She seemed to become more relaxed as she spoke, settling her mind back into her routine. With her subject watching, Twilight gestured a hoof to the main cluster of her lab equipment. "You see, lab equipment like this emits UV rays all the time, so technically we've already been exposed to it," Twilight explained. "But now I'll get to observe the effects of intense concentrated UV rays on a pony's body!"

Rainbow Dash briefly wore a twisted smile at the thought of Twilight frying to a crisp from intense radiation. "That means you'll eventually die from your own radiation, yes!" The fractured pegasus bit off a chunk of her hoof almost as if it were popcorn, ignoring the pain that accompanied it and glaring intently at her nemesis.

"Just in small amounts though," Twilight added as she moved the box-like construct into position, her voice having risen slightly in volume, briefly glancing over to her left where she heard Rainbow Dash's voice. "So as long as I check my physical symptoms and cure them, I should be fine!"

The vengeful spirit narrowed her magenta eyes as she let out a growl, smile vanishing completely, knowing full well that Twilight had said that to counter her desired theory of the unicorn's death. "I hate you so much."

The part of Fluttershy which still held Kindness attempted to take control again, and when she next spoke, her voice was much more pleading than accusatory, her eyes wide even as the high levels of radiation were causing painful burns and blisters all over her body and the light threatening to blind her. "Y-You were different once... I remember... what happened to you? Why are you killing those who were..." she twitched in her restraints from the increasing pain before continuing, even as the last remnants of Kindness began to fade, "who were the ones you had harmony with?"

In that moment, Twilight stared at Fluttershy carefully, quill halted above her notepad as if it had been frozen through a time spell. For an instant, the violet eyes that stared into Fluttershy's weren't meanacing or scrutinizing, staring at Fluttershy as though she was nothing more than a means to an end. Instead, the brightness of her eyes actually seemed to hold her former, caring expression. As if the old Twilight had briefly returned.

Despite her fluctuating rage, Fluttershy felt her heart stop. The part of her which still remained kind was holding on to a last shred of hope with the final portions of her old memory that remained. That the old Twilight was still there, that she would snap out of her deranged ways.

But pinpricks of doubt stung even those portions of Fluttershy's consciousness. What if Twilight had secretly been that way all along? What if she had just been waiting, biding her time until the other ponies trusted her?

As the remnants of memory left Fluttershy's eyes, so too did the gaze of past thought from Twilight's. The scientist narrowed her eyes and turned harshly away from her fading captive. "My eyes were opened to the way the world and the nature of my so-called friends really were, that I forgave them too easily. I realized what seemed to be harmony was chaos in disguise, and knew there was only one way to cleanse it..." Twilight shook herself out of the thought, brushing the past away as if it were nothing more than a bothersome fly.

Pausing as her own mind was brought back into the present moment and the urgency of her task, Twilight forced her focus to return as she began demonstrating her instrument for measuring the radiation. "Now this little device is used to measure the radiation's intensity in two forms." She raised the tip of her quill to point to each one. "This one here at the top measures UV rays in milliwatts per square centimeter, which is the energy emitted in a second." The tip of her quill moved to the bottom screen. "While this one measures the rays in units of millijoules per square centimeter, which is the energy received per unit area in a given frame of time."

"You and your stupid science," Rainbow spat in disgust. "When I get out of here, and I will, I'll make sure that-"

"You want to kill her, don't you?" Applejack questioned. Her green eyes were scared but curious, her head a little more upward to look more steadily at Rainbow Dash.

The look that the cerulean equine gave her unsure companion would have likely killed the earth pony a second time if looks alone had such a power. "Not just kill her. I want her to suffer. Forever, with as much pain as she inflicted on us, tenfold!" The pegasus looked at Pinkie and Applejack, wide-eyed and terrified of the scientist before them as well as Rainbow herself, and the resentful mare rolled her eyes. "Cowardice will get you nowhere! If you don't have any will to fight back, ponies end up in a pretty bad life... afterlife... whatever."

"I don't think it can get much worse," Pinkie gestured sadly.

Back in the living realm, Twilight was further describing her scientific knowledge has she positioned the various mirrors on her UV machine, poised to position Fluttershy directly into their reflective power. "Here's a fun fact," the unstable equine went on, "UV rays are directly emitted by something that we see almost every day - the Sun that Princess Celestia raises!" Her expression momentarily twisted into a grimace as her gaze looked upward, as if seeing the accursed sunlight itself. "How does it feel, to know that even our own Princess has subtly been betraying us with an invisible chaotic harm all this time?" Her voice was laced with bitterness, the thought clearly lingering in her own mind. Head still tilted upward, Twilight's eyes shone with an expression that signified she intended to do something about it.

And with what Kindness remained in her, Fluttershy found a part of her momentarily fearing for the Sun Princess's life.

"Obviously though, I can't put you in the sunlight for various reasons, let alone the fact that it's night," Twilight went on, the circular concave mirrors rising before her, "so I'm using indirect means instead!"

"Is that what... the mirrors are for?" Fluttershy asked, her rising anger joined by puzzlement. "Reflecting the rays at me?"

The expression on Twilight's face turned somewhat brighter. "Exactly! Mirrors such as these can just greatly intensify ultraviolet rays because of the way light reflects off of them!" She pat a hoof on the silver construct with pride. "Snow, sand, and concrete can do that too in some amounts, but they're nowhere near as stable or efficient as mirrors are, so I decided to just use those."

Humming to herself, Twilight adjust the lamp to reflect the light from the UV rays, which bounced off the mirrors in turn to further magnify them. After the light and energy bounced from one mirror to the next from their in-place positions on the large mechanism, the final mirror reflected the accumulation of intense UV rays directly at Fluttershy's body.

"This way I get to observe the way light reflects off mirrors, and the extent to which radiation can effect somepony at the same time!" Twilight exclaimed brightly, rubbing her hooves together as her quill scribbled down her observations, knowing that what was transpiring was evil in the eyes of others but necessary in her own.

Fluttershy squinted as the brightness of the reflected light shone in her one remaining functional eye, not fully closing it so she could keep an eye on her captor and try to figure out a way to distract her and escape.

"I can see your eye following me," Twilight commented as her notepad and radiation calculator were raised in the air alongside her. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. Ultraviolet rays enter someone most easily through their eyes, and could cause cataracts or blindness."

Fluttershy didn't want to obey an order from Twilight, or even a suggestion. But just as Twilight had said, the light became too strong, and the rage-filled pony was unable to tilt her head down to shield her one-eyed gaze from the light. With no other choice if she wanted to reduce the risk of blindness, the subject was forced to close her eye fully and let the darkness overtake her for the moment. She could feel the effects of the intense radiation through her, however, as it burned her already scorched skin - Twilight must have turned it up to full intensity.

The pegasus was unfamiliar with the different types of ultraviolet radiation, but she could feel the waves of UV-B begin to effect her skin and cause intense burns, as if she needed further burning sensations to accompany all that she had suffered thus far. She felt weaker, attempting to fight through the discomfort which she knew was caused by the increasing symptoms of the jellyfish venom. But she was unaware that this weakness had another cause, one which Twilight noticed.

"You know, the UV rays that are affecting you right now are causing damage to your cells which keep your immune system in check," the scientist commented, making sure to stay out of the UV rays' concentrated path as she brought herself to the top of her platform to more accurately bring Fluttershy into another fabricated memory.

The next instant, it seemed as if Twilight had taken her knowledge of UV rays and the Sun to an extreme level. Fluttershy was trapped in a brightly lit room of white walls and mirrors, Celestia's suun itself shining through the window, closer than it ever seemed in life, it's beams almost seeming to reach out and grab the imprisoned pegasus in a burning embrace.

The increased levels of heat and radiation felt all-too familiar to Fluttershy as she bit back a cry, her memory-self curled on on the ground as she covered her eyes with her hooves.

After about another two minutes of the agonizing heat and light, Twilight switched off the construct with the lamp and mirrors, and with it the simulation vanished as well.

"Maybe when I get out of here, I could just use one of her other machines to radiate her to death!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, metaphorical gears turning in her head for an entirely different reason from Twilight's as she watched the unicorn retrieve her next means of torture.

"That wouldn't work," Rarity spoke up, stepping closer. "The radiation from the other machines is only being emitted in small amounts so unless she-"

Applejack chanced a glance at her, incredulous. "You know about that stuff?"

"It's simply a logical assumption based off of what I've seen so far," Rarity replied in her even tone. "The rest of you are too... caring."

Rainbow Dash turned sharpy to face Rarity at her comment. "I do not care! I don't feel an ounce of sympathy for any of you ponies here, for myself, or for anypony else!" She firmly pointed a hoof in Twilight's direction, eyes glimmering with hatred. "Especially her!"

The scientist in question had returned to Fluttershy with her next device, the mechanism with the UV lamp and mirrors returned to its former position near the back of the room. "Next up is V, and V stands for something a little unusual - a VX nerve agent!" Here Twilight levitated forth another canister that she had retrieved from a cabinet, the cylindrical container surprisingly small and containing a strange clear liquid. "It's a special nerve agent that's one of the deadliest components ever created, only used for things like chemical warfare." Her smile grew. "And just 30 micrograms of this stuff can be lethal if you're not careful! Of course, it's primarily the gaseous form of this stuff that kills you quickest, but a drop of this the size of the fraction of a bit can still have devastating effects before you die!"

"M-More chemicals?" Fluttershy managed hostilely, her previous exposure to chemical substances still fresh in her delirious mind and not at all eager to experience more of them.

Twilight noticed Fluttershy's confused demeanor in her mounting anger. "This nerve agent has the properties of warping the brain and causing delirium as a result of the convulsions and eventual respiratory failure that will result if not treated!"

"Like you haven't already warped brains like that, you wretch," Rainbow hissed from her position, her eyes trained on the scientist alone and the determined look in her violet gaze.

"And don't worry," Twilight assured, "a VX nerve agent can be countered by drugs like atropine and 2-PAM CL, or pralidoxine chloride, as well as diazepam, as long as you have them directly on hoof to administer immediately." The studious mare looked far too happy as she drew the small canister closer. "So with those at hoof, I can reverse the effects before they kill you, and move on to the next aspects of my work!"

Twilight's assurance wasn't at all comforting for Fluttershy, in fact only serving to anger her more. This sick, twisted, deranged mare seemed to get a warped satisfaction out of her pain, supposedly noble motives aside.

"I guess the good news for you is that I don't have time to let you experience another memory for any longer than a minute or so," the scientist commented almost sadly as she returned to her position overlooking Fluttershy's brain. "This stuff works so fast that you'd be dead before I could get any reasonable results after more than three minutes!" With her pointed tool poised to bring Fluttershy into another memory, the unicorn used her magic to twist open the bottle and slowly pour a minuscule drop of the liquid, which seeped into the skin on Fluttershy's boneless left front leg.

The nerve agent took effect almost immediately. Within a matter of seconds a wave of nausea overtook Fluttershy, as if the uncomfortable feeling from the jellyfish venom was magnified tenfold. Her body began to convulse and jerk from wild spasms as a result of the nerve agent's effects, the exposed bones of her right front leg nearly cracking as a result.

The memory which Twilight sent Fluttershy into was brief, but no less painful. The fabric of her mind which held the pony's memories and personality together wove in this new memory, as real to her as any other, as the pegasus found herself frantically trying to escape a laboratory filled with a steady stream of VX nerve agent, other ponies attempting to shove her out of the way in their frenzied task to get free and save themselves.

Warning sirens were audible to Fluttershy as flashes of red shone through her vision, attempting to stay low to the ground in her desperate state as she decided to use her resentful feelings to good use, fighting against these other ponies all she could to escape through the small steel door through the gas's haze.

Spots began to appear in front of Fluttershy's vision as colors shifted before her eyes, feeling her body begin to seize up with paralysis. Her chest felt tight, both from the stress of what was occurring in the memory and the nerve agent beginning to cause a rapid respiratory failure in her lungs, these effects occurring in the real world as well.

Much to Twilight's intrigue, Fluttershy's attempts to escape in her vision became more violent, shoving through and even beating other ponies to within an inch of their fading lives as she rapidly made her way to the exit. And she could tell that her captive came to a realization in that moment:

Violence works.

Twilight could tell through Fluttershy's brainwaves and heart rate that the bearer of Kindness would likely be dead soon if the antidote wasn't administered soon, magic enhancements or not. Her heart pounding as the spark of Kindness briefly appeared once more, the scientist set to work and relieving her subject from the nerve agent's effects.

Fluttershy let out a sharp intake of breath as Twilight injected a needle into her, emptying the syringe's contents into its impact point close to her right thigh as the false memory faded away. The pain of the needle was only an added sting in addition to her previous tortures and the steadily increasing effects of the venom, but she felt the effects of the VX nerve agent slowly begin to dissipate.

"There we go!" Twilight exclaimed, cleaning the syringe and seeming to only see Fluttershy's suffering as something worthy of taking notes on. "Just an injection of atrophine there to solve that nerve agent problem!"

Fluttershy attempted to take deep, choking breathes, the memory of violence helping her increase her chances of escape still fresh in her mind.

"Now W," Twilight went on, "stands for a certain substance called white phosphorus." With those words, Twilight brought forth a substance which looked like a lump of white wax. "Ponies weaponized this stuff, because white phosphorus catches fire in contact with moisture, like that in the air for instance - just 10 to 15 degrees above the normal room temperature. And if fragments of white phosphorous hit a pony like you, and it ignites itself. it only burns hotter if you try to douse the flame in water." The waxy substance levitated closer to her captive. "So, clearly you deserve some white phosphorous in your open wounds."

It was one particular phrase that Twilight used which filled Rainbow Dash with a cold disgust - "a pony like you". In a flash, the vengeful pegasus suspected what that meant, and she could tell a similar assumption had occurred with the others. From what Rainbow Dash could tell, Twilight was already beginning to consider herself at a level above that of ordinary ponies, seeing them as ignorant students that had to be taught - and that was the best supposed option of the meaning of her words. At worst, she saw them as no more than simple mortals whereas she was practically a deity, or at least aspired to obtain such a power - no matter how much she denied it.

With the volatile substance at her disposal and Fluttershy unable to retaliate, Twilight levitated the wax-like substance close to Fluttershy's wound in her abdomen from the rat torture, and with a burst of magic to raise the temperature surrounding it, the solid was instantly set aflame. Her subject screamed as flames licked at her body, stinging the skin and muscle of her abdomen that the rat had burrowed through, threatening to reach her organs. The majority of the flames were red and orange, the flame colors of the lowest temperature, but several instances revealed that fragments of yellow, blue, and even white flame were visible.

Fluttershy cried out in agony, attempting to move and be able to put out the flames, but no relief followed. The only sense of release from the flames surrounding her and stinging her exposed muscle with their heat was Twilight leading Fluttershy's mind into another memory once again. This one involved a younger Fluttershy with a group of earth ponies, their bodies and faces masked so they were unrecognizable, as they constricted the helpless pegasus tightly, her limbs and wings encased in large wax-like forms.

"Never again will ya be able to fly properly without pain," said one, a smaller pony in the group that seemed to be no more than a filly. "A pegasus, showing kindness?" The earth pony removed one of her padded hoofguards, revealing her bright orange hoof as a quick blur to sock Fluttershy in the jaw, then lighting the substance surrounding her wings and setting it aflame, the substance on her limbs soon following.

The memory-fire surrounded the trapped pegasus more completely than in the present real timeframe, and as Twilight poured water on the white phosphorus-driven flames, they only burned hotter, nearly all the flames become blue or white within seconds and surely leading to third-degree burns all over Fluttershy's body. The twisting of Fluttershy's face and limbs as she screamed, as well as the frantic fluctuation of brainwaves, were confirming Twilight's suspicions that it wouldn't be much longer before there wasn't an ounce of kindness left within her formerly shy and quiet friend.

Within the memory's landscape, Fluttershy clenched the muscles of her hooves tightly as she attempted to ignore the pain, eventually managing enough pressure to break her right forelimb out of the burning, wax-like substance before the flames could consume her. She was soon able to do the same to one of her hind hooves as she kicked one of her assailants in the face, the concealed mare grunting from the impact even as Fluttershy cried out from her burns. Despite the flames nearly encasing her body, however, Fluttershy's cries were no longer dominated by disbelieving agony, but by rage.

The spark of Kindness appeared once more, the DNA signature appearing to separate. The pulse of late remained for a matter of seconds, during which Twilight's heart leapt in her chest. Even though Kindness still eluded her, it was close.
Yes, yes! Just a little more to go...

The unicorn didn't waste any time as she brought Fluttershy's awareness back into the waking world, trotting over to her cabinet once again. "Now, for X... I was going to use X-rays for this," Twilight admitted with a thoughtful grin, "but then I thought 'no, that's too simple, too expected, be creative, Twilight!" The excited expression on her face briefly looked like the normal Twilight that everypony in the city above was familiar with, but that quickly vanished. "So I decided to listen to my inner voice and go with this little chemical called xylene!"

"You're kidding me..." Rainbow Dash snapped. "Another chemical?!"

"It makes sense, in a way, that she'd want to experiment with it given her interest," Rarity pointed out, seeming to be oblivious to Rainbow's irritated glare.

"You seem to be... pretty chemical-happy... don't you?" Fluttershy growled, her teeth bared even as she tried to ignore the pounding in her head and the pain in her abdomen from the Irukandji syndrome afflicting her.

"I just find it interesting," Twilight assured, bringing forth a small bottle that looked similar to a medicine container, shaking it around so Fluttershy could see that the substance contained within was a liquid. "Now, xylene is a colorless and odorless hydrocarbon compound that's often used to help create dyes, rubber cement, that sort of thing. If used improperly, however, you can get burned, since it's extremely flammable."

"More fire?!" Fluttershy growled, seething both from anger and the rising intensity of the pain she felt.

"Just a little," Twilight said brightly.

The pegasus's mint-green eye burned into the violet eyes of her captor. "Just burn your whole lab down, why don't you?"

Twilight ignored Fluttershy's words of spite, standing atop her platform to manipulate Fluttershy's mind as the liquid was poured onto the helpless pegasus, a scream erupting from the captive's throat as Twilight held a lighted match to the residue of the liquid. Fluttershy felt the flames along her skin at an even greater intensity than her previous torments, certain that the flames were beyond her skin and scorching her muscles and insides.

The treatment within her memories was much the same, ponies coating her flailing body in the liquid before lighting matches all around her, causing her to scream and writhe in agony and rage. Failing in her rapid attempts to put the flames out, Fluttershy took the next course of action which her enraged mind could think of - brutally maul her attackers and have the heat of the flames spread to them as well.

"You think you can stop me?!" Fluttershy screamed, snapping the neck of a light green pegasus who attempted to restrain her, causing his ice blue eyes to rapidly lose all signs of life. "YOU'LL ALL PAY!"

There was yet another pulse of the Element's spark fading in and out, the shimmering pink glow remaining for slightly longer than it had been before. It wasn't completely manifest, not yet... but it was almost free, almost separate... Twilight's goal of extracting Kindness was nearly complete. The unicorn smiled from an eager happiness as she saw the spark of Kindness subtly remain, its presence visible but not yet tangible. As if waiting for the final tipping point, the last thing that would push the the formerly kind pegasus over the edge into eternal hatred and cruelty. "Just about done, Fluttershy!"

Fluttershy didn't respond to the unicorn's words as she was brought back into the present moment, fighting back the growing intensity of her suffering. She had abandoned the initial attempt to get Twilight to stop her methods by pleading or threats. The memories resuracing in her mind turned her stare cold and calculating. Her working eye fixed on Twilight.

"Violence works..." Fluttershy whispered, at a volume that Twilight couldn't hear on the opposite side of the room. "Violence always w-works..."

Rainbow Dash, however, did manage to hear her. "That's something I figured out long ago."

Out of Fluttershy's sight, Twilight went over to the corner of the room and brought forth another device, this one not made of metal at all. It was a wooden crossbar, with two U-shaped pieces positioned at either end, each clearly designed to fit around somepony's neck. "This thing here is what I'll use for 'Y', which stands for 'yoke'!" She smiled, placing one of the U-shaped portions around Fluttershy's neck, the wood scraping the pegasus's skin as well as the metal of the table to which she was restricted.

"These things are usually used for oxen when they're traveling heavy loads," Twilight explained, "but I had a different purpose in mind so I made this one myself to make sure I got the dimensions accurate!"

Fluttershy growled in pain, the added discomfort of the wood against her not at all welcome. As she carefully moved the gaze of her eye to attempt to look at it, she noticed what looked to be a pair of cranks on the side, one for each U-shaped extension. She immediately guessed its purpose. "Why don't you just use that crank there on your own neck?!"

"Not a bad idea," Rainbow Dash commented, actually enjoying the thought of Twilight's neck being crushed by the instrument.

"You know I can't do that," Twilight scolded, making sure the yoke was positioned securely enough before ascending onto her platform to overlook Fluttershy's brain once more. "Those cranks on the side aren't normally on a yoke, by the way, that was just an addition of my own!"

With that, one of the cranks on the yoke which Twilight constructed began to turn, the U-shaped prong seeming to slowly tighten around Fluttershy's neck, choking off her air supply even as she cried out. She could feel her lungs desperately working to provide her body with air, but the effects of the venom and UV rays, weakening her immune system and adding new pain, only seemed to hinder any chance of her being able to breathe.

Pinkie subconsciously put her hooves on her own throat, having vivid, post-traumatic flashbacks of what Twilight had done to her. She kew first hoof just how painful it was to have one's throat torn, and even though Fluttershy had suffered far worse than Pinkie herself ever had, the reemergence of the memory was unwelcome.

As Fluttershy's means of breathing were cut off, her vision of the real world faded as another memory took hold in her mind, courtesy of Twilight. Fluttershy found herself in what appeared to be a mining gorge, metals being created as coals were heated in the fires. She was trapped, chained down, with several of the same ponies from before, including the orange earth filly, now a mare about her age, from her memory of being trapped in the burning white phosphorus.. The mare in question helped the others ensnare Fluttershy's neck with the yoke, another pegasus pony attached to the opposing side - a light blue stallion who was clearly a prisoner just as much as Fluttershy was. Now that the concealing suit had been shed from the earlier memory, the full appearance of Fluttershy's former assailant was visible.

And the appearance of the pony in question caused a moment of recognition to ripple through the group of dead ponies. The mare's coat was a dark orange color, her eyes an emerald green, and her mane and tail a light yellow shade, tied back with red bands.

The pony was Applejack.

With the other ponies holding the squirming Fluttershy in place, Applejack in the memory looked into Fluttershy's eyes, the memory of her earlier actions strong in the pegasus's mind. "Ya thought you'd gotten' away before, didn't ya?" the orange mare asked as she roughly turned the crank. "Not anymore ya won't!"

"Is that..." Applejack trailed off, her own green eyes widening. She didn't think she remembered that, attempting to crrush the necks of imprisoned ponnies... but did she? Did it happen and she merely blocked it from her mind? She wasn't sure of anything anymore. She looked uncertainly at Rainbow Dash, the one of them who seemed to have the lead authority. "Did 'Ah do that?"

"Maybe you did, and maybe you didn't," Rainbow snapped. "I don't know what went on with your life - why should it matter to me?"

"It's not real!" Pinkie insisted in her gesture-talk, the look in her eyes conveying her sorrow from what Twilight had done. None of the other spirits acknowledged her.

Applejack's confused mind twisted the memory's appearance to tie in with her own, uncertain recollections. Twilight's psychological procedures had worked in a way that not even the scientist had expected when this all started. Her fragmented mind attempted to fit the pieces together, grasping for matching threads to weave into the tapestry that was her collection of memories and confusion on truth and lies. Her eyes narrowed.

"... Ah think Ah remember... don' Ah?...."

The memory continued as the vision of Applejack cranked the wooden construct to tighten around Fluttershy's throat, forcing the pegasus to gasp for breath. Her trapped companion had the crank turned by a a large red earth pony with a cutie mark of a green apple - a false image of Applejack's brother, Big Macintosh.

Pinkie Pie trembled as the trachea of the light blue pegasus was cut off by Big Mac in the memory, causing the stallion's head to fall to the side. Applejack and Big Macintosh as she knew them would never do such terrible things, working in a mining gorge to secretly kill ponies as they saw fit... but she had to remind herself that Twilight had forged these memories, and their experiences became burned into the subconscious of the pony who was experiencing them.

"Ya alright there, sis?" Big Mac questioned, arching his brow.

Fluttershy seemed to halt in her struggles, her gaze cold and calculating as she purposefully let her guard down.

"Don' worry, Big Mac," Applejack said as she turned the crank harder, straining herself a little as Fluttershy attempted to knock away the group of earth ponies that were restraining her. "We got her good an'- AH!"

The fabricated vision of Applejack didn't finish her sentence as Fluttershy managed to knock the other earth ponies away, her sudden movements of defiance surprising them as she broke free of the construct encircling her neck. She lashed out in a wild rage as sirens blared, warning that a prisoner set for slaughter had escaped. The pegasus struck out with a powerful force fueled purely by her adrenaline, burning with a hatred of these ponies and a desire to see them die.

The monitoring equipment pulsed wildly as Fluttershy became consumed with rage, her only focus on attacking those who had wronged her and showing them no mercy. With every blow and tear that resulted in another pony being marred, crushed, torn, or burned to a crisp, the pink spark of Kindness began to manifest. It faded in and out, but it was clear that the energy was nearly free.

Twilight's eyes shown as she watched, her quill scribbling away furiously as she looked from the monitor of Fluttershy's memories to the surface of her subject's brain where she could see Kindness's glow. "Yes, YES! Come on!"

Fluttershy moved within the memory with a speed that she could never accomplish in her state in the real world, unbalancing the earth ponies and forcefully tearing them apart, or at least making them incapable for the moment of restraining her once more. Her eyes searched until they found Applejack, managing to tackle the earth pony to the ground as Applejack defended against her attacker with kicks to her face and stomach.

The enraged pegasus managed quick glances at her surroundings through the mess of fur, soot, and fire, her gaze finally coming to rest on the burning coals. Keeping up her attacks against Applejack as much as possible, she finally managed to knock the orange earth pony into the flames, letting the fire burn her coat just as Fluttershy remembered having been done to her.

"YOU CAN'T TRAP ME!" Fluttershy roared, giving Applejack a further kick even as earth ponies reached her to restrain her once more, joined by unicorns who tied her down. "YOU'LL DIE BEFORE YOU RESTRAIN ME!" This insistence seemed to fill Fluttershy with a renewed vigor as she broke free, lashing out at everypony she could and filling her mind with anger, no room for kindness or compassion.

Twilight's breath caught in her throat as she could see the Element of Kindness coming out of the front-most part of her friend's brain, finally stabilizing into a separated form as it was released from the neural center of kindness and moral decisions. Her desperate eyes met its glow with a starving expression in her gaze as she felt a sense of triumph and pride.

"YES!" the unicorn exclaimed with a joyful grin, her eyes shining in happiness, "Kindness is finally free!"

Before Fluttershy could make any movements, Twilight hurriedly snatched up the spherical essence of the Element of Kindness, and darted off to her table, placing the energy sphere in a containment jar just like the rest. The scientists eyes shone the moment that that the five essences of the Elements were brought together. The final extraction was complete, and the myriad of drugs and injections barely keeping Fluttershy alive were beginning to rapidly fade. Twilight had done it. She had succeeded.

But it wasn't time to release the prisoner of her pain and her mortal body. Not just yet. One more quick thing...

Time to bring the experiment to its final step, Twilight thought. Then I can finally complete the analytical procedures... I need to observe the full effects of my work before I move on. She pushed a small red lever on one of her control panels that opened all the cages holding Fluttershy's pets. Though they were now free from the enclosures that had held them, they didn't flee, too paralyzed by the magic that Twilight had used on them and the terrifying view of the pegasus who had once been their kind caretaker.

Before releasing Fluttershy from the hold of her fabricated memory, Twilight took away the monitoring equipment to measure her subject's vital signs, moving the wires, platform, and monitors into their old holding positions. She then released Fluttershy's hoofcuffs and the strap around her subject's head, letting the broken and bleeding pony fall to the ground as Rainbow had done during her session, which seemed like forever ago. Twilight used a field of her magical energy to stabilize Fluttershy to stand on her hooves, tortured eyes filled with a fury unmatched by any other pony. Twilight made sure to stay out of Fluttershys view, but projected her voice enough to whisper to the tortured pony. "There's always a final emotion that somepony feels before they die. A strong emotion... What do you feel, Fluttershy?" The unicorn smirked.

A series of heavy, ragged breaths were Fluttershy's only response.

"Not Kindness, right?" Twilight's question was accompanied by a desperate tone, as if to make sure that the appearance of the Element's pure signature wasn't a hallucination brought about by the desperation she felt and her lack of sleep. Proving that she herself was still wakeful, still conscious, still on the road to achieving her ultimate goal of a pure reality...

Fluttershy slowly, hoarsely, opened her mouth. "Need..." Despite the torture she had been forced to endure, there seemed to be a new brightness in the rage-filled pony's single working eye. And anger was the only emotion that seemed to be present, a state that appeared to radiate from her very being as the forms of her pets twisted into images of the ponies who had wronged her. "Need to... show th-them... KILL THEM ALL!"

The pegasus, in a blind rage, broke away from Twilight as the magic hold released her, while furiously rushing to her meal: her pets.

The timid animals were petrified, through both fear and magic as their internal systems froze up, unable to properly escape from the snarling, enraged equine before them. Though Fluttershy was facing in a direction that couldn't allow Twilight to see her face, it was clear to the lesser animals in the tortured pony's furious expression exactly what was on her mind. Fluttershy wanted to tear apart those creatures who faced her, to free herself of their potential offense, show them that even in her broken state she couldn't be stopped. She would mutilate and murder them with the relentless fury of a timberwolf - and once her remaining strength was fueled by the endorphins and adrenaline rush of the slaughter, with no one else to stop her, it would be Twilight who would meet her end in a manner even more painful.

Fixing her sights on her first target, Fluttershy approached Angel, stuck in the room's far left corner with nowhere to go, Twilight's magic forcing him to stay put. His former caretaker in front, the deranged unicorn overlooking from a distance - either way, he'd be caught and killed mercilessly. The bunny, scared to death, stood on his knees in a begging like position, his message clearly getting across to even one who wasn't as in tune to the language of animals as Fluttershy was: Please tell me you feel pity...

Fluttershy stood quiet for one second and stared down at the rabbit she used to care for, the small animal hoping that the pony would show some form of recognition despite her memories being completely altered. But the look Fluttershy gave was simply the expression of a predator gazing down at its prey, and she finally spoke, voice strained. "You want pity?! After everything that's happened to me, I DON'T KNOW THE USE OF THAT WORD!" She swiftly gripped the squealing rabbit in her teeth and, with some effort, crushed his skull, spitting out the bone and brain matter that remained. The wild expression in her eyes showed that the animals she cared for were only seen to her as visions of all those who had wronged her, who could threaten her, who deserved to die.

Freeing the other animals from her magic and allowing them to run free to give the former bearer of Kindness a final challenge, Twilight hurried over, watching with a disturbing glee as she took quick observational notes at the steadily growing massacre before her. She made sure to stand far enough away so that, for the moment, she wouldn't be caught up in Fluttershy's blind rage. She was a spectator, looking intently at the final efforts Fluttershy was accomplishing in her last minutes of life. The injections keeping her subject on the thin edge of life would likely fade away very soon.

Fluttershy was screaming, though whether it was from the Irukandji jellyfish taking full effect at last or the rage she felt toward each being in her path, Twilight couldn't be sure. If the screams were from pain, it was clear that the altered pony wasn't letting that stop her - the rage she felt was too complete, causing her to will the pain away.

Even her imagining might play a part in her pain resistance, Twilight thought to herself as she made notes on Fluttershy's violent actions. The simple act of imagination can help reduce pain levels, so she could be imagining tearing everyone and everything to shreds as she's inflicting this on her animals. A dim warning bell rang in Twilight's head as she realized that part of the imagined massacre was likely being inflicted on visions of Twilight herself. But she let the feeling pass, convincing herself that the injections and magic would soon wear off, and she'd be able to finish Fluttershy off rather quickly.

The laboratory interior was a wild mess of fur, blood, and bone, the pegasus tearing through each of her former companions with the skill and ease of a timberwolf.

Herbivorous teeth or not, it's clear tha any living thing can be mutilated with enough force of teeth, hoof, and will? Twilight thought as she observed the rage-filled slaughter. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are prime examples of that...

"Fluttershy! Fluttershy, can you hear me?"

Twilight's gaze became instantly more alert toward the rest of her surroundings, tearing her gaze from her notepad and Fluttershy as she glanced around. It was her own voice again, calling to Fluttershy... why? Did that hallucination really think anypony else would hear her? Twilight placed a hoof to her forehead, wincing as a flash of cold then heat occurred yet again, but a stronger in intensity this time. Her duplicate's unwelcome appearance wasn't helping matters either, and she briefly wondered if the two really were somehow connected and her double wasn't letting her in on the truth. But her pained expression was soon replaced by a manic grin as the uncomfortable sensation faded away. Trying to focus more on Fluttershy's rampage at the animals she cared for.

Amidst the rampage, she saw the translucent form of herself close to Fluttershy, attempting to plead with the pegasus. "Think about what you've turned into! We- well, Twilight and you were friends, remember?"

Of course, Fluttershy simply passed through the specter with no indication of having heard her, but her words briefly resonated in Twilight's head. She and Fluttershy had been friends once... but the thought of their friendship was quickly banished from the mare's mind. No, they never showed me true friendship! That was FALSE!.

With that conviction firmly in her brain, Twilight continued to watch as Fluttershy brutally tore off the wing of an owl - the winged animals were somewhat more difficult to grasp, especially in her weakened state, but the pegasus was still managing to manifest her rage-filled persona through the reckless slaughter. She bit and tore everything in slight, and thus Twilight managed to keep out of her view. She didn't want to be a recipient to Flutershy's blind fury, knowing it would take time before the pegasus's rage was concentrated on a single target - her subject was too delirious to register anything in her mind aside from attaching the first thing she saw.

And yet there was still the voices of her former friends and her conscience to deal with...

But nopony had any way of knowing that the images of the animals, to Fluttershy, had slowly shifted. No longer did they appear to her as the various ponies she remembered inflicting pain on her. As she chased after each one, tearing them apart without mercy in any way she could, her view of them shifted into the form of a certain lavender equine. Wild-eyed, laughing, daring the broken pegasus to attack. Even if Twilight's spirit-double had been visible to Fluttershy, it would have made no difference. All pain seemed to be erased from Fluttershy's mind.

Twilight was her true nemesis above all others.

Twilight was the one who brought back all the pain and misery and suffering that she had ever gone though.

Twilight was the one who deserved nothing less than death and an eternal, agonizing punishment.

The manifestation of Twilight appeared to give up attempting to get through to Fluttershy, and huried in Twilight's direction. "Twilight, stop it!" she begged from within Twilight's head, her ethereal mouth remaining motionless. "NOW!" The other Twilight's expession was fixed into a firm resolve, though Twilight herself didn't bat an eye at her counterpart's approach. Unable to make yet any concrete impact on the physical world, or be detected by any other pony, she used the only resource that she could - trying to talk Twilight out of this. "Just listen to me, and stop doing this! They were your friends! Remember!"

How could she... that dang apparition... "You're saying that like you think I've lost my memory. Well, my mind and memories are perfectly intact! Nothing you can say can stop me!" Twilight figured that if she shouted at the form visible only to her long enough, she would snap out of her hallucinatory state which caused the vision to repeatedly return and could continue her work in peace. It would be just a matter of focus. "My world will bring about the polar opposite of the world Discord was going to create! It will be a world, a reality, of harmony and order, making sure that those alive are only those I've deemed to be worthy!"

Much to Twilight's surprise, the wraith-like entity didn't plead with her anymore, or fade, as had occurred during her previous appearances. In fact, as Twilight had spoken, her double's posture and expression had shifted from pleading to one of anger and disbelief at Twilight's apparent disregard for the lives of billions of life forms. With a determined look written on her face, the conscience-form of Twilight braced herself, attempting to appear less translucent before she charged directly at the machinery, attempting to slam into it with her hooves. As expected from Twilight, the hooves of her counterpart went right through the mechanics as if they weren't even there.

The eyes of the spirit-double were intent and focused, hooves attempting to slam and tear at the complex mechanics, to cause anything to happen that would halt Twilight's progress for good. When that didn't work, her own horn began to glow as a steady stream of magic fired directly at the machinery, attempting to destroy the monitoring equipment, or at the very least put it out of commission.

When that didn't work, the spirit-form of Twilight let out a cry as she then turned the trajectory of her bright magenta beam of magic on the contained Elements themselves.

Twilight instantly realized what was going on just before the beam of energy left her spirit-self's horn, and she became instantly defensive, shouting as she teleported in front of her containers, hoping to guard them from anything that might harm or threaten them. "NO!"

Luckily for Twilight, there was no effect. The magical energy passed through the physical objects as if they weren't even there.

Time seemed to stop for the physical unicorn as she tried to stop her hooves from shaking. That specter of herself had dared to aim at the Elements... at her work, at the components needed for reality's salvation! Twilight's mind was a whirl of anger and desperation, but the turmoil of emotions and desire to protect her work with her life manifested verbally in a sharp yet shaky laugh. "Ha, you're an oddly presistant hallucination, and I don't have time for that right now! I have only my work to think about! And you tried to destroy it!" A feeling of unease seemed to overcome her at the thought of something going wrong, and she stepped even closer to the Elements' containers in case she needed to protect them. But as she watched Fluttershy land a harsh blow to the wing of a falcon, her mind drew back to the very real threat that could destroy the Elements - and Twilight herself - as she moved away accordingly. "Now let me WORK!"

"I'm not... a... hallucination!" the wisp of a form shouted between attempts through magic and slams of her hooves to make some sort of physical dent in the machinery. Some form of contact in the physical world. As expected, her attempts at impacting the earthly plane were still futilely met, no matter how determined she appeared to be to break into the physical realm, cut off from the living and dead. "Do you think a hallucination would be able to do any of this?!"

Twilight knew in her panicked state that her conscience was right. She knew about hallucinations and delusions, and though she had tried to convince herself that was all that her double was, her rational mind couldn't deny it any longer. Hallucinations didn't appear over and over like this with such direct interaction when everything else remained as normal. They didn't try to reach out so directly to the ones who they appeared to.

Twilight wasn't sure how, or why, but her conscience wasn't just a delirious manifestation. Just like what she had long-accepted about the spirits of her dead friends, though the explanation for their presence was lost on her as well. Her spirit-self was real. She existed. And she had to be gotten rid of.

"Okay... okay, you're real..." The living scientist whirled around, eyes wild and teeth grinding, horn shimmering with darkened magic. The words of he conscience - or whatever it was - seemed to batter her mind with waves of useless pleas and distractions, when she had to keep an eye on Fluttershy's actions. "But what. Are. You?!"

Twilight's conscience-self looked at her, presistent. "Call me your conscience. Call me your sane self. Call me what you like. But identities aren't important right now - I'm trying to save you!"

"Save me? Ha!" Twilight cried out as her body was overcome by a surge of heat. "Save me from what? Myself?" Her expression morphed into a twisted disgust as her conscience's nod confirmed her guess. "I don't need 'saving' from my own ambition! If anything, other ponies are the ones who need saving from chaos and disharmony! And stop afflicting me with these symptoms!" The feeling of overheating was replaced by a chill that froze the mare's insides - she was fighting it, but at the same time it was getting worse.

"It's not my fault!" the ethereal form protested, rushing closer to Twilight. "The symptoms aren't my doing!"

"Oh really? Then what is responsible?!" Twilight's violet gaze was hostile, even as she was almost able to physically feel the gazes of her friends staring at her in incomprehension and anger, considering her to be even more unstable than she already seemed. "This sure isn't from stress and a lack of sleep!"

The specter's expression was firm as she attempted to get through to her disheveled physical self, her gaze pensive. "I think what's responsible is your own lust for power and control!" She looked at Twilight with an insistent demeanor, raising her voice as she subconsciously moved from the Kindness-drained pony's massacre. "That's what I'm trying to save you from! I think your power is disagreeing with your own essence! You're impure!"

"ARGH!" It was those words, the accusation of impurity that sent Twilight into a fury, firing a powerful blast of magic in her rage, impacting the wall and causing the energy to bounce off. The impulsive blast did not hit any equipment as Twilight had feared, but passing right through the form of her double and blasting the raging Fluttershy backward. "You're calling my motives impure?! My drive is NOT a lust for power! The only power I long for is whatever is necessary to achieve my goal! I intend to teach all beings the true way to create a reality of harmony and peace!" Her limbs shook in her mounting anger, her composure beginning to slip. "How can that be wrong?!" Her voice rose to a roar that drew even Fluttershy's attention as the broken pony struck at each illusory form of Twilight she saw. "I'm NOT impure! I'M FINE!"

"You've tortured and murdered your friends!" the wraith insisted, standing her ground in front of her. "Don't you feel anything about that?! Don't you have any sense of your old morality?!"

"They were not true friends!" Twilight retorted, staring down the form of herself. "The old me was blind to the truth! There are cases when the ends justify the means, and this is one of those- AH!"

The cry wasn't from another pulsating sensation in her head, but rather the rough impact of Fluttershy slamming into her side, sending the unprepared unicorn careening across the laboratory floor. She glanced toward the source of the impact, the fractured yellow pegasus staring her down with enraged eyes. Her pets were torn and mutilated, their flesh and bone littering the floor - now that she had found the real Twilight, it was her tormentor's turn to suffer a fate infinitely more horrible.

"Talking to the air, huh?!" Fluttershy growled, her breathing ragged from rage and exhaustion, the last remnants of Twilight's drugs and magic the only thing keeping her alive when she would have perished ages ago. "You really are a psycho wretch!" Her teeth were bared in a snarl much like Rainbow's had once been, though her face was contorted into an expression of pain as she fought back screams from the jellyfish venom and the stress of keeping her fragmented body upright. "But I found you in that mess of false Twilights - they're all gone, and you're the real one..." Fluttershy managed to crouch low to the ground, like a feral cat about to pounce. "You're the one who needs to pay... YOU'RE THE ONE WHO NEEDS TO DIE!"

Steadying herself, Twilight let out a sharp laugh, hiding her surprise at how well Fluttershy was holding up even now. "Heh, my apparent psychosis is all for a greater good, Fluttershy! And I think now you should know what Z stands for..." Time seemed to stop as she stared her subject down. "Zero. The number of minutes you have left to live."

Fluttershy, strength rapidly fading, managed to look Twilight dead in the eyes. "Yes, zero..." Her voice was quiet - not the timid manner of her old self, but dangerously so, the kind of tone that was clear that the recipient of such words would soon be torn to pieces. Her eyes filled with an expression of pure rage. "But if I go down.... YOU'RE GOING DOWN WITH ME!"

Twilight barely had time to teleport away as the fractured pegasus leapt at her with all her strength, the broken pony appeared to have gained a new surge of energy with the boiling rage inside her head. Her eyes burned with fury, gaze only seeming to focus on Twilight's disheveled form as she leapt at her with far more force than the last time.

The scientist was dimly aware of her conscience's form seeming to follow the battle that ensued between the pair of living ponies. Whoever and whatever the spirit-double was, her expression as she followeed the pair was steady, her bright violet eyes fixed on her living counterpart. Oddly enough, her expression changed from anger to worry.

"Be careful, Twilight."

Twilight had tried to ignore her conscience-self, only training her focus on the pegasus who was attempting to kill her with impacts of tooth, head, and the only stump of a hoof that remained applicable for combat purposes against another equine she aimed to kill, but the spirit's words stopped her dead in her tracks. "What?!" She quickly glanced around to see the normal-looking form of herself before she continued to avoid Fluttershy's furious blows. "Now you suddenly want to help me?!"

Out of the corner of Twilight's vision, the apparition's eyes narrowed desperately as she stomped a front hoof firmly on the lab's floor. "You don't know what kind of further consequences your actions might have!"

But Twilight didn't listen, too preoccupied on fighting her enraged subject. With every impact to her skin, Twilight countered with a blast of magic or some blows from her own hooves, even as she cried out from the rough tears of Fluttershy's teeth on her flesh.

Fluttershy's mouth was fixed like a vice as she managed to grip the ends of Twilight's mane encircling her neck, her teeth digging into the unicorn's skin with all the force she could muster and tearing a chunk away. Twilight instantly pressed a forehoof against her neck, gritting her teeth in pain and feeling torn skin and blood underhoof. With such a mess of fur and muscle and blood, her mane looked even more disheveled than it already had been. Now that she felt Fluttershy was free to die, a part of Twilight was regretting giving the pegasus that many drugs to keep Fluttershy alive. "Heheh... you're putting up a... good fight..." She winced from the throbbing in her neck, putting more pressure on it as she relied on her magical prowess for combating her dying subject's blows. "Gonna have to patch that up..."

In the limbo-realm, the spirits looked onward. Pinkie was partially covering her eyes with her hooves and straightened mane, too terrified to watch yet unable to look away. Rarity stared with a cold calculation, eyeing the spectacle with an analytical standpoint. Applejack looked uneasy, fearful, and somewhat disgusted, trying to avoid looking at the pegasus beside her. Rainbow, however, paid no attention to the nearby earth pony, instead appearing intrigued. Her eyes were intent on the sparring pair, staring hungrily at the battle before her. Her smile grew as she noticed the pain that the unicorn was in from her wounds - it wasn't enough to bring her down, but any pain felt on Twilight's part was just fine with Rainbow Dash.

"COME ON, DIE!" Rainbow screamed, a burning desire to see her unicorn enemy perish present in her eyes, her magenta irises almost visibly set aflame.

Applejack looked surprised at Rainbow Dash's insistence, and dared herself to speak up. "Are you... supportin' that pegasus?"

"Of course not!" Rainbow snapped, not taking her eyes off the two living ponies. "I just want that Traitor Sparkle to DIE! Have her end up here so I can tear her to bits myself, and then watch her remains burn in Tartarus for all eternity!"

The dead ponies could tell that the very same intent was on Fluttershy's mind. "Y-You're..." Fluttershy gasped, the tone of her fading voice dripping with pure hatred, "you're becoming the very kind of pony you're trying to eliminate..."

"SHUT UP!"

The only reply Twilight received was a glare so cold and spiteful that it surpassed Rainbow's delirious gaze. With a wild cry, Fluttershy slammed into her target before she could react, and Twilight felt the impact of Fluttershy's hoof and teeth on her ribcage. The teeth tore through her side to leave a deep, jagged gash, greater than the injury to her neck and the impact of Fluttershy's limb nearly jolting the bone out of place. Twilight grit her teeth in pain, but instead of collapsing to the ground as her onlookers had hoped, she backed away from Fluttershy and turned to look at the wound in her side, the crimson blood staining her lavender coat...

And she laughed.

It wasn't a small, nervous chuckle, about her life and work being put in danger of obliteration, or of unease concerning the fact that Fluttershy, though Twilight's own methods, was still able to fight and catch the scientist off guard. Twilight's laughter was loud and maniacal, seeming to be out of control as her body shook with her guffaws. The fact that she was staring at her own blood-soaked hooves didn't seem to phase her, and the pain didn't seem to affect her as much as it had been moments before.

"Heheheh... hahahahahahaha!"

"... You're laughing..." Fluttershy murmured in disbelief. "You're laughing..." Her eyes remained fixed on the insane unicorn, who was doubled over in wild laughter despite her injuries as the former Kindness-bearer knocked roughly into Twilight, trying to unbalance her so Fluttershy herself could tear apart her target more easily. "WHY are you laughing?!" She kicked the other mare in the side with the hoof stump attached to her left hind leg, the limb the least damaged. "You should be dying and screaming on the ground while I tear your bones and skin and get chemicals to burn you alive!" The magic and drug effects were fading, but Fluttershy's ferocity was allowing her to hold on to her last remnants of strength. "Are you just deluded in your crazy little episodes of psychosis that you don't recognize your own pain?!"

As Twilight was shoved against the surface of one of her mechanisms, breath knocked out of her from the impact, she could feel the pointed tip of one of the measuring tools dig into her flesh, threatening to tear it. She pressed a hoof to the gash on her side as blood pooled on its surface, her eyes unfocused in apparent delirium. "Hahahahaha, of course I'm laughing, hahaha, don't you get it?! Of course I see the blood on my hooves from this injury! Hahaha!"

"Oh great, I bet now she's turned into a feathering masochist," Rainbow Dash snarled, hoof pressed firmly against the surface of the unyeilding barrier as she tore of another chunk of her own flesh, letting out a slight growl of self-induced pain as the blue-furred skin tore away. A small stream of blood flowing down her leg, but to Rainbow the pain was nonexistent. "She enjoys her own suffering."

"It would seem that you're a masochist as well to another observer, then," Rarity deadpanned.

"Oh shut up," Rainbow muttered, refusing to give any acknowledgement of confirming or denying Rarity's statement. She simply stared outward as the others did, fixing her gaze on the cackling, insane, apparently masochistic unicorn in the living world. "You think I enjoy tearing my own body to pieces?"

"Well-"

"Then congratulations, that's the closest thing you've been right about."

Twilight's reply, however, was the opposite. "Ha, I'm no masochist, my friend!" Twilight was shaking her head in response to the other pony's inquiry, gasping for breath from her half-shrieks. "Heheh, haven't you heard that, hahaha, laughter a way to trick your body into, haha, not feeling pain?!" Her smile widened as she managed to dodge Fluttershy's frenzied attacks, angling herself to more easily control the blood flow from her wound. "Heheheh, that's why I laugh, Fluttershy! It enhances me! I sill feel pain, but, heheheh, it's not enough to kill me!" Her eyes were bright despite the obvious pain in her body, practically drunk with the imagined extent of her plan and the laughter which accompanied it. "Imagining helps too, just as I'm doing now, ha, thinking of just how existence will be when I've helped purify it under my guidance as a good friend and teacher! HahahahaHA!"

Twilight's laughter was cut off as Fluttershy managed to leap at her enemy in a wild frenzy, and once more the pair were locked in a whirlwind of hooves and teeth. The cracking of Fluttershy's bones, the rough tearing of skin from one of Twilight's hind hooves, the attempts by the unicorn to knock her attacker backward into her chemical-containing cabinet with a powerful burst of magic.

As she heard the bones of Fluttershy's back jolt out of place from the impact and cause the doors to open and spill the contents of several vials onto the floor, Twilight was granted a moment to collect herself as she was free from the whirlwind of attempts to cause an injury that would end her life. At this point, from the sharps stings on her body from the bite marks and hoof impacts, Twilight was unaware how much of the blood staining the floor was Fluttershy's, and how much was her own. Shakily, she rose to her hooves and walked over to where the former bearer of Kindness was collapsed next to the metallic cupboard.

From her position just out of reach of the fallen chemicals, unable to stand, Fluttershy growled in rage, but it was clear the last remnants of the substances keeping her alive were fading. She attempted to land a further attack on Twilight, but the unicorn was out of reach so her hoof met only air. The rage in Fluttershy's eyes was consuming, barely having the strength to move but being able to scream at the pony who had tortured and mutilated her. She struggled with all of her might to stabilize her broken body.

"Y-You... you'll PAY for this!... You'll... b-burn in Tartarus! You're n-n-nothing... b-but..."

What remained of the pegasus's legs buckled, bringing the pony crashing to the ground as her bones shattered with a sickening crunch. She let out a final strangled gasp from all that had been inflicted - the chemicals, the venom, the fragments of bone snapping, wounds bleeding out at last - all of it was finally too much for Fluttershy to bear as the final effects of both drugs and magic faded. With a final look of hatred directed at Twilight, the pegasus's eyes grew glass-like as her body crumpled to the ground, motionless. Her eyes became glassy as a final breath escaped her mouth.

Fluttershy's rage-filled soul had finally departed from the earthly plane, and there was a calm in the laboratory at last.

With that, the scientist let out a low sigh as she glanced at Fluttershy's lifeless body, the Element of Kindness safely tucked away in its containment chamber as she had with the others. The genetic coding of most of the others had caused them to be a pure, shimmering white now, so for the moment, Kindness stood out more with its bright pink aura.

Twilight swallowed, her hooves steady as the silence brought the pain of her wounds to her awareness once again, but she ignored the needle-like stinging. Gathering her strength, she walked over to the counter where the Elements were kept, one blood stained hoof resting next to Kindness's containment chamber.

With a smile as she quickly wrapped a bandage around her bleeding neck and side, knowing she'd have to heal herself as soon as she could - self-stitching, if necessary, hide it so nopony would notice... Twilight made use of her magic to lift her knife, glancing at her dead subject and turning Fluttershy's body so that the butterfly cutie marks were visible. With a heavy sigh, she resigned herself to the fact that this time, she'd have to wait.

I can take care of Fluttershy's remains later, she told herself. I can preserve her body for later... now's the time to patch myself up and prepare for the morning. A multitude of cleansers, and laminations were hurriedly brought over, preserving Fluttershy's body so it would be in that same condition when she was able to return. She'd have time for a more complete analysis later - for now it was only the interconnectivity of the Elements which she cared about.

"Well, heheh... I'll say that was pretty much a success!" Twilight announced brightly, laughing in a mixture of relief and delirious euphoria, using it to attempt to fight through the sting of her own wounds as she gathered supplies to help heal her injuries. "Fluttershy put up an extremely good fight... even with the drugs and procedures I inflicted on her... wearing off!" She glanced around at the mess of the floor, littered with the remaining corpses of Fluttershy's animals and the blood from their heated battle. Her double, for the moment, had vanished.

The various torture devices and cleaning supplies were all separately surrounded by the darkened aura of her magic as she worked to clean up the laboratory. As she let her magic do its work, sterilizing everything to clean it up as fast as she could while she gathered first aid supplies to tend to her own wounds, Twilight Sparkle gazed at all the Element containers with a triumphant expression, their very energy seeming to seep into her and help her ignore the pain.

"Heheheh... now Kindness, the last of my friends' Elements, has been taken!" The look in Twilight's eyes was one of the purest excitement, of an ambition bigger than anypony in Equestria could ever imagine, her injuries from her combat with Fluttershy seemingly ignored. Her horn shone with a swirling black aura, one that seemed to have a peculiar brightness in its depths all the same. "I've done it, heheheh, I've finally done it! I can track all their genetic signatures now!" the unicorn exclaimed happily. "Soon, everything will be pure just like it should be!"

The Elements almost seemed to shine a little brighter in response, as if the very fabric of their DNA itself was rejoicing in Twilight's plan. As if they were cheering her on, supporting her desire to rid all of existence of any traces of chaos and let harmony and order be the driving force of existence.

"Now, I just have to make sure everything is prepared..." the mare chuckled, violet eyes bright with triumph and her horn glowing almost completely black. "The others won't be waking up in the same world they went to sleep in." She chortled with a sinister smirk, magically bringing forth scrolls and a quill, setting her notebook aside.. "Or at least, they'll be awake just in time to be able to see it vanish..."

And as Twilight sat down and began to look over the Elements, straighten up her proper equipment, and retrive supplies to tend to her injuries, she was ever aware that the clock was ticking. Steadily counting down to a new day, a new world, a new reality...

Her reality.

"Soon, very soon... everypony will bear witness to a dawning reality of harmony and peace. A world I shall help them create..."

She could almost hear the sound of another minute ticking by in her head as a darkened aura shimmered around her horn. An ethereal vision of the sun and the moon were brought into view, one eclipsing the other as the crystaline form of a purple unicorn levitated triumphantly, white lines of energy bellow her mirroring the ley lines of the planet's energy itself.

She was unaware, however, of a fragmented yellow pegasus having faded into the invisible void to join the others... and unaware of the fact that this spirit held a vendetta against her that was just as strong, if not stronger, than Rainbow Dash's. But to Twilight, the void-like realm was of no concern - she had grander things on her mind.

"In just a few hours... I'll show them... I'm fine, heheh... it'll be fine..."

The false stars seemed to swirl above Twilight in a celestial dance as she briefly glanced at her own battered, blood-covered form on the table's reflection.

"Everything'll be just fine..."

With the thoughts of her plan firmly in her conscious thoughts, the threads of her subconscious cast aside the words that both her conscience and Fluttershy had said, the fragment of a thought that Twilight insisted to herself wasn't true. Her horn briefly shimmered as the magically-conjured vision vanished from sight.

"I am many things... and I'll show everypony that impure is not one of them!" The smile on her face widened as she laughed - whether from triumph or as a way to relieve her pain, she didn't know. "Hahahaha! I shall help a world to remain where everything is harmonious, orderly, and pure, hahaha, and nopony will ever stop me! Hahahaha!"

Steadying herself despite her injuries, her gaze fell on the contained Elements as the blood on her hooves collected on the side of the table.

"Have a good night's sleep, everypony, heheheh... because you certainly will be waking up in a new world... but , heheh, don't worry..." She circled around the contained Elements, speaking as if she was adressing them as ponies. "Heheheh, your dear friend and teacher Twilight will take good care of you!"

Harmony Incarnate

Truth alone will endure, all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time. I must continue to bear testimony to truth even if I am forsaken by all. Mine may today be a voice in the wilderness, but it will be heard when all other voices are silenced, if it is the voice of Truth.
—Mahatma Gandhi

"Y-You... I know you!"

The exclamation was from the fractured yellow pegasus who leapt at Applejack the moment that she materialized, pinning the orange pony to the ground without warning. "I could tear you apart right now!" Her teeth grew dangerously close, blood still staining them from her quarrel with the pony who had killed her. It was clear that the anger of the fight still raged within her, as the passing from one plane of existence to the next had been almost instantaneous, the fatigue and pain vanished here. "You and your family tried to break me! Now I'll break you!"

"W-Wait!" Applejack stammered, her eyes looking away from Fluttershy's injured one as she tried to find some way out of this. "Why attack me?! Did Ah really do what we saw on that monitor thing?!"

"You had to have!" Fluttershy snarled, pressing a mangled hoof stump on Applejack's windpipe and causing the other pony to try to gasp out breaths. "I remember that you and your family enslaved me, that was one of the worst of my torments!"

"That was likely a false memory," Rarity said in her now-normal monotone. "One of Twilight's tricks. She was the one who tortured you in the present, after all. You're just taking your anger at Twilight out on your next target."

Fluttershy's eyes narrowed at the mention of the unicorn, burned eye looking horrifying in what mysterious illumination substituted as light for them so they could see one another. She looked like she would tear the pony underhoof to shreds to kill her mercilessly, if they weren't already dead. She looked down at Applejack, pressing her stump of a hoof down a little more. "Of course... my main quarrel isn't really with you...It'll be her first, then I'll get vengeance on you for what your family did to me! Then everypony else who dared to hurt me will be picked off, one by one!"

Rainbow Dash stepped forward, teeth bared in a hate-filled snarl as she drew Fluttershy's attention. "NO!" she screeched.

For an instant, Pinkie's face dared to brighten slightly. Had a flicker of Rainbow's memories been restored? Did she remember her loyalty to Twilight and think there might be a way to stop her? Her hopes were crushed the moment that Rainbow next spoke, her mane and tail returning to their flat and dulled appearance.

"The only pony allowed to bring her down is ME!" With a feral roar, Rainbow leapt at Fluttershy, knocking her off of the horrified earth pony who rubbed her neck as she clumsily stood up. Rainbow's hoof struck Fluttershy's head, teeth tearing skin as the pair became tangled in a wild bloody frenzy of wrath and pent-up hate. Limbs were torn and broken under the force which which the pair fought, healing almost as quickly as they were damaged.

Pinkie moved a little closer to Applejack and covered her eyes, hoping to find any source of comfort. She hated to see her former friends fighting like this, hated to see what Twilight had turned them all into.

"It's no use trying to kill one another," Rarity said, sitting down and observing the battle with a calculating gaze as she moved her fractured jaw slightly. "We're already dead, and any wounds you get here just heal right away."

"I don't care!" Fluttershy shouted, gripping Rainbow's mane with her teeth.

"It's a substitute for tearing her apart!" Rainbow Dash added, shaking the other pegasus off by kicking her in the muzzle. Suddenly, just as she was about to strike Fluttershy again, she stopped. Looked at the window to the outside world. Saw how it seemed to shimmer a little more, be a little clearer...

Twilight was there at her worktable, analyzing the Elements. Just a few feet away...

Rather than further attacking the other pegasus, Rainbow Dash charged toward the opening in their realm like a wild bull, seeing red. Finally she was free, she would charge through, she would—

BANG!

Rainbow was broken out of her thoughts as her muzzle roughly collided with the unyielding barrier, leaving her momentarily crumpled next to it before she brought herself to her hooves again.

"No... no, no, no, no NO!"

Rainbow Dash threw her weight into the barrier with all her might, again and again. Fluttershy was here, they all were here, so it should work..."Why isn't it working?! WHY?!"

Applejack glanced upward, green eyes even more uncertain than normal as she braced herself for setting the angry pegasus duo off again. "Why do you want to be the one to kill her?"

Rainbow Dash's eyes burned with an intense hatred as she opened her mouth to speak. "Because she... and I.... and, she just.... ARGH!" Any other words were muffled by paint mutterings and involuntary expressions of pain as she tore a hole in her right thigh muscle.

Rarity, aware that it was Rainbow's fervent emotions that were preventing her from speaking coherently, realized what her fractured companion was attempting to say. "Rainbow says that because she feels that there's a personal war between her and our murderer that must be settled. The anger of revenge mixed with the blind delusions of Twilight Sparkle's insanity. It is a struggle both internal and external, as a constant rift that's been around since this whole thing started."

The others fell silent for a few moments.

"Don't pride yourself with your logic and poetics," Fluttershy snapped. "I could tear you apart with my teeth if I wanted to and break that stupid shattered jaw of yours! You look like a puppet gone wrong!"

"Say what you like," Rarity said, looking nonchalant as ever. "That still doesn't solve the problem of us still being unable to get free even after you joined us here."

Pinkie trembled slightly at Rarity's words. She tried to gesture for Rarity to stop saying these things that would only make the tension and anger between them worse. But the effort was futile, as only Rainbow could understand her and she was too filled with rage to pay attention.

Rainbow only let out a roar of frustration that caused Pinkie to wince, small tears of sorrow beginning to form at the party pony's eyes.

"WHY IN TARTARUS CAN'T WE GET FREE?!"

"Can't hear you!" a voice responded all too cheerfully.

It took the group a moment to realize that it had been Twilight who had spoken, a small grin on her face as she glanced over in the direction their voices had come from.

"You LIAR!"

Twilight felt more and more confident now as time went by, the pain of her wounds ignored as she used some of her own drugs medical supplies, and magical prowess to help relieve her pain. The Elements were analyzed, the planet's magical leylines were mapped out starting with Ponyville, the spells she intended to use and words to say had been reviewed and planned out over again and again... she was prepared. She was ready.

But her spirit onlookers didn't agree with her plans in the slightest, and frustration wasn't calming any of their nerves.

What was most perplexing to one of them was the fact that Twilight still looked somewhat battered from her fight with Fluttershy. She had healing magic and equipment to heal them, she would recover. But for reasons she didn't understand, it seemed that Twilight had barely even bothered to disguise the injuries she had sustained.

"You're telling me you're going to everypony looking like that?"

Twilight nodded in response to her double's inquiry, looking over her maps of the planet's leylines for what felt like the fifth time and the Elements the one millionth time, just to be safe. "It's actually a better idea than appearing to everypony like I'm perfectly fine, conscience." Her horn glowed brighter as she made several more adjustments to the wiring of the Elements' containers.

Rainbow Dash spoke up, still confused as to why in the world the insane unicorn was talking to nothing but the air and enraged to the point of boiling that they were still trapped. "Yeah, for once you have a beneficial idea, go ahead and expose yourself to all of them like the FILTH that you are! Maybe then we'll finally be free because you'll be gone!"

The recipient of the accusation sighed in exasperation at Rainbow's ignorance, looking oddly eager for somepony who had nearly got beaten to death a short time earlier. "You see, it's actually pretty simple: I'll make it seem like there was a struggle between me and the killer, and explain that I just barely managed to escape with my life. Then I'll let everypony know I have a way to expose the killer and they'll believe me—they'd expect me to try keep up appearances if I was the one they're looking for. Reverse psychology, if you will."

Her conscience form frowned. "There'll likely be at least a few who suspect that you're the one!"

Twilight ignored her and simply flipped to another page in her notes while tinkering with the mechanisms she had at her disposal to gauge the power of the Elements. "At least it will buy me a short amount of time, that's all I need. All they've done before is run away from disaster until I started to convince them nothing was wrong." She waved a hoof in obvious irritation as her voice became more frustrated and mocking. "Figures, when there's something little that they don't understand, they panic like a dumb, mindless stampede, but when I know there's something wrong, they just laugh, reject me, or both!" She slammed a hoof on the table at the last word, nearly shaking the Elements' containers. "All the ponies in this town are such idiots! No wonder they've been blindly following chaos's rule this whole time!"

As confused as the spirit ponies were concerning Twilight's speech with her invisible conscience, it was Rarity who responded. "You seem to be letting your arrogance get the better of you and believe that you are superior to everypony else."

"No," Twilight retorted, shaking her head. "I just see what they don't see. All hope isn't lost for the worthy ones—I can train them to be smarter after all this. I'll absorb the Elements' energy, I'll get ponies to obey me, not a problem."

"But what if your attempt to fuse with them doesn't work?" The apparition stepped closer to the table where the Elements lay, gesturing a hoof toward the containers as Twilight's horn began to light up. "The Elements might overwhelm you!"

Twilight paused, quill paused in the air as she looked over her notes before setting the writing instrument down. As she turned to the others, a grin was forming on her face that was far too sinister for anypony's liking.

"Watch."

As her horn lit up and the six other beings looked onward, a small crackling force of dark magic extended from her horn, shooting through the wiring of each container until it reached the Elements' essences themselves. The Elements now seemed to shine a little brighter, and move towards Twilight in their containment chambers. Eyes wide and bright with satisfaction, Twilight moved from her desk and began to walk around it. The spheres of energy seemed to follow her every step, as if desiring to reach her, drawn to her like a magnet.

The magic aura faded from her horn, but the apparent magnetic charge of the Elements appeared to remain, slightly tilted toward her now. The scientist stepped back proudly, a smug expression on her face as if she was more proud than getting 110% on a test. "You see? They want to join with me. The Elements won't overwhelm me. My will is stronger if I prepare myself properly."

Her doppleganer started pacing around, ironically enough acting much like Twilight herself did when she was nervous. "You can't be certain of the power level of the raw Elements like that regardless—there's no physical artifacts like the necklaces to contain their energy this time!" She stood before Twilight, the look in her eyes just as pleading as her voice. "That power might completely destroy you!" She tried to step closer to the table and put her hoof on one of its edges, but the limb passed harmlessly through it.

Twilight just scribbled another note down on her map as she carefully calculated the ley lines around Ponyville. First impressions were everything, and she sure planned to make a new first impression on them... "Maybe a weaker, unprepared pony who had no expectations for the risks, but not me. I'm hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. They'll listen."

"You. Can't. Be. Serious," Rainbow snarled, biting off a chunk of her own thigh muscle that Fluttershy hadn't attacked herself. "Nopony out there is going to agree with your sick, twisted desires!"

Twilight didn't look in the direction of the voice, but the intensity of her horn's glow did increase. Unhooking the wiring, she hesitantly opened the containers but managed to keep up her magic. One by one, the Elements ascended from their confines, but they didn't flee, instead circling around her.

In the spirit void, Rainbow cursed, Fluttershy snarled, and all their eyes widened, save Rarity's. This definitely wasn't good.

Twilight's eyes lit up in glee as her conscience's mouth dropped open. She returned the Elements to their containers with a grin of satisfaction. "I have my ways of swaying them over to my side in the matter. The harmonious will all come around eventually."

Fluttershy snarled in response. "So you're going to brainwash them into doing your bidding?!" The rage-filled pony looked similar to Rainbow now in her expression, the pain of her newer injuries beginning to heal. "I was right, you ARE sick and twisted in the head!" She through herself at the barrier with all her might, but to no avail. "That's never going to change you WRETCH!"

Twilight's conscience didn't bother trying to communicate with the others, instead addressing Twilight again. "Even if you do survive fusing with the Elements, you don't know the kind of ramifications your plan will have at this stage, let alone in the long run!"

"I know," Twilight said, not looking up.

Her doppleganger grew more insistent, though there was a clear suspicion that her pleas fell on deaf ears. "Nopony's ever done that before!"

"So?" Twilight's expression briefly turned to one of pride. "I'll be the first, haha!"

"You're journeying into the unknown!"

Twilight finally turned and glared at her conscience's manifestation. "I journey into the unknown every day. It's called tomorrow."

Her lookalike sighed, ears drooping slightly as her expression became one of worry. It seemed that Twilight wasn't going to listen to reason. And she wasn't sure how much time there was left.

Apparently none.

"I bet the sun's just about to rise by now!" Twilight called, levitating the Elements' containers in her magical hold. "Come on, everypony, heheh, there's so much to do!"

Literally having no choice in the matter, as for the moment they were forced to follow Twilight where she went, the five spirits in the void-like realm followed Twilight in their view, with the unicorn's conscience-self following close behind.

The sun's rays were just beginning to bring slivers of light into the morning sky.

It was clear that several of the town's citizens hadn't gotten sleep that night. As Twilight carefully creaked open the door to her library and stepped outside, she could see another couple house carefully open its doors, revealing Derpy, Vinyl, and the Doctor huddled together anxiously, obviously wary.

Making sure to close the library door behind her until the time was right, Twilight crept around in the shadows, just out of view of the other ponies. Counting down the seconds to the proper moment, she put on her best acting-face and half-ran, half-stumbled toward the others.

"HELP!"

The shout drew the attention of the others, who turned toward the source of the voice in interest. Several other doors began opening as the other ponies ventured out of their houses in groups to investigate.

"Everypony, I... I..." Twilight panted, coming into the light before them with her battered appearance visible.

"Twilight?" Vinyl questioned, brow arched as she removed her trademark shades. "What—"

"No time to explain!" Twilight said hurriedly, wincing. "W-Wake everypony up! I know who's responsible for the ponynapping! I-I can tell you in front of the library—"

"Stay with us!" Derpy urged, waving Twilight over with a hoof as she glanced at the unicorn with worry. "We'll protect you from whoever it was and tell everypony else!"

Twilight blinked, momentarily surprised at Derpy's words. But the expression on her face became a genuine smile as she hurriedly walked toward the group, making sure to appear just weak enough to not arouse any suspicion.

"Don't believe her, you idiots!" Rainbow Dash shouted from the void, unheard by anypony save Twilight. The spirit was merely left to fume in anger on her own.

Twilight's words immediately mobilized the others who heard them, prompting the townsponies to gather in groups to wake each other up. Soon enough, everypony in the town became gathered in front of Twilight's library, all of them facing the small group that Twilight was with. Falsely struggling to stand, Twilight gave the three ponies around her a slight nod, and they backed away from her.

The unicorn mare glanced around, feeling the eyes of everypony trained on her. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the figure of her other self- a desperate pleading in her gaze. And for the faintest of seconds, she thought she saw the dim apparitions of five other, fractured ponies.

Her old friends.

She blinked again, and they were gone. She focused her thoughts away from them and turned to the living ponies circled around her. "Ev.... Everypony," Twilight stammered before putting more strength into her voice, "I-I know who's been ponynapping the others. I saw who it was, and I saw what they did..." Her gaze was grim. "All the ponies who were kidnapped were killed."

"WHAT?!" It was a possibility that several of the ponies had guessed, but they all had dreaded that such a fate wouldn't be the case. I seemed that their hopes for a safe return for them were dashed.

"M-Mah sister's... d-d-dead?" Apple Bloom gasped, stepping forward with tears falling freely from her eyes.

"And Sweetie Belle? R-Rainbow Dash?" Scootaloo choked out in horror, hugging her friend tight for comfort.

Twilight lowered her head. "It was too late for me to save any of them."

For the five spirit ponies, Twilight's words went unheard. All they were really focused on was the fact that, for an instant, the void around them had vanished. They had been surrounded by all the ponies of the town, invisible yet still in the material world.

Rainbow Dash began to look all too eager. "It worked! The barrier's breaking, finally!" She turned and tore some skin off of her mangled wing, swallowing it whole before she rushed at the shimmering barrier. It remained solid, but Rainbow looked determined. "So close... just a bit more, then you'll see, Traitor Sparkle!"

Rarity just observed the situation at a distance. Fluttershy's gaze filled with anger as she began to see ponies she believed had or would hut her. The pair of earth ponies looked as if they weren't sure whether it would be best to be out of the void or not.

How could you do this, Twilight? her double thought, staring at the unicorn with a devastated expression. Don't you remember how close you were to them?!

Twilight continued, keeping up her act, though the lingering sorrow she felt for her old friends was real. They wouldn't have had to die... "I... I saw Fluttershy in her last moments. I tried as much as I could to fight..." she gestured vaguely to her wounds, "but I barely escaped with my own life. If I died there then I knew nopony would ever be able to find out the truth. I knew I had to run back and tell you."

"So," Derpy called out, a little nervously, "who is it?"

"Tell us so we can bring them to justice!" Roseluck said.

The one voice shouted above the others, in a tone that was filled with suspicion and accusation—"I think you're the one!"

Twilight turned to look at the speaker, Bon Bon, who had broken out of the circle of the group and stared Twilight down.

"Think about it," Bon Bon said, looking around at the other ponies, "she's smart, she's powerful, she certainly has the capabilities—"

"She uses those abilities to protect her friends!" Derpy protested, though even she was looking a little unsure.

"I feel like I should take her point into account," the Doctor added. "Just because she's capable of having a lot of power doesn't necessarily mean—"

"Oh be quiet," Bon Bon snapped. "The point is, Twilight's friends seemed to be the main targets in all this. And then this happens, Fluttershy's gone and Twilight's battered and beaten!"

"I escaped," Twilight insisted, eyes narrowed.

"Maybe that's what you want us to think!"

On the outside, Twilight was trying to be firm, but inside, she was nearly breaking. Don't lose your cool Twilight, come on, you can do this! Clock is ticking, sun is rising, do it! Find the opportunity and TAKE IT! Let Harmony reign in the world again!

It was then that Twilight acted on her thoughts, the first morning sunbeam lighting up the sky. "I have a spell that will show everypony here who is responsible for all this!" With that, she tilted her head upward as her horn glowed black, a large wave of magic spreading around and above them. While slight wispy tendrils seemed to briefly flicker in and out around the ponies, the largest portion of the energy caused an eerie translucent dark dome to form around the town, sealing it off so that nopony could venture in or out. By the time that anypony tried to flee, it was too late. They were trapped.

Twilight's expressed finally was subdued into a twisted grin. "That's right. In case you haven't guessed it... I am the killer."

"I KNEW IT!" Bon Bon screeched, charging toward Twilight in full gallop. Her target didn't move, however, instead staring directly at her, and Bon Bon found herself tumbling backwards as her body collided with an invisible force.

There were cries of outrage, shock, and horror from the assembled crowd as the accusations against Twilight were confirmed, and several of them tried to charge directly at the unicorn as Bon Bon had done. Earth ponies from the ground, pegasai from the air, and Vinyl used every bit of her unicorn magic that she could. Their efforts were in vain, however, as they found themselves rebounding away from her due to impacting the force field. The only indication it was there was a faint shimmering wave visible when it was hit by another pony. No matter what they did, they couldn't reach her.

Twilight only smirked at their attempts as the ponies realized there was nothing they could do. Some intended to wait until Twilight's guard was down, determined an opportunity would arise, but many others were locked in a horrified silence of disbelief.

"You twisted wretch," Fluttershy snarled, the void flickering a little more before returning.

It was then that one voiced asked the question that was on everypony's mind:

"Wh....Why?!" Derpy cried out, enraged and devastated that two of her close friends had been killed right under their noses without them knowing as the full impact of Twilight's actions weighed on her heart. To think that one of the nicest ponies she knew could commit acts of murder like this! "I trusted you, Twilight! You're smart, you were kind... Why did you kill them?!"

"Why?" Twilight's tone turned mocking, sarcastic, shaking her head as if the word alone left a bad taste in her mouth. "Why, why, why, is that all you ponies can ask me?!" She glared at them. "I've asked that question too... always the bigger things, the greater things... in that respect it's the most important question in the world." Her mouth became a twisted grimace. "But you are all so stuck in a rut that you ask the same old questions when the answer is right in front of you!"

"But they were your friends!"

Twilight seemed to scoff at the notion, looking disgusted. "Friends?! Ha, what a joke! They were false friends. They were in the wrong against me multiple times... I can attest to the fact that things will change." Her horn's glow intensified, her gaze more threatening. "Forever."

"You're trying to threaten us?" Diamond Tiara stepped forward a little, though she didn't feel quite as bold as she appeared to be.

"It's not a threat," Twilight retorted, eyes flashing in warning. "It's a promise."

The town's inhabitants stared at her, as if spellbound. They couldn't run, or hide, or send for help. Twilight had them imprisoned within the town's limits and she could do what she wished with them. It was clear that she had a yet-unknown purpose and motive here, and they were all terrified of what that purpose might be.

"Look to the horizon," Twilight commanded, turning her gaze briefly eastward, "see the rising sun that you admire every morning! But don't look too long," she hurriedly added, "you'll damage your eyes."

The frightened ponies obeyed, glancing eastward at the celestial body in question, which appeared to be almost stagnant in the lower heavens before turning their gazes back to Twilight. The sky itself appeared to be in a perpetual twilight now, the thin rays of early sunlight illuminating the crazed unicorn's coat. Perhaps it was an illusion due to a combination of their terror and the ethereal shield surrounding the town, but it appeared that Twilight had made time itself stand still.

"You know how everypony associates Nightmare Moon with malevolence, and Celestia with benevolence?"

Most of those who were not frozen with fear murmured or nodded in agreement.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Bon Bon shouted.

Twilight continued speaking, seeming to briefly suppress a desire to lash out and silence the cream-colored pony. "Celestia supposedly maintains order, but the sun's surface is chaos, throwing solar flares into space which could fry us all in an instant. Likewise, everyone feared Nightmare Moon for the eternal night she'd bring, and yet the moon itself is stable and orderly. Much more stable than the world we live on now."

Twilight's eyes narrowed maliciously as she laughed, a bitter yet crazed laugh which cemented just how far she had gone in her lack of mental stability. "No wonder this world has become rotten and tainted—you've been obliviously rooting for chaos this whole time." Her gaze turned stern, a teacher glowering at the disobedience of her students.

The others stood frozen with fear under her gaze, the dark magic pulsing in a steady rhythm around her, as if it were a sinister manifestation of the order which Twilight spoke of.

The unicorn glowered. "You think I'm just an ordinary unicorn, huh?" she snarled. "Well, an ordinary unicorn would not be able to do what I did. An ordinary unicorn couldn't use magic and science to aim to make things right in reality again. An ordinary unicorn... couldn't do this!

With that, a burst of dark magic flared from her horn, and the door to her library flew open. Five containers rushed through the threshold, rushing to Twilight and beginning to surround her. The words on the containment labels made it clear to everypony just what they were beholding: the pure essence of the Elements of Harmony.

The glass of each container shattered to pieces, but the Element spheres themselves didn't flee, seeking out their original bearers. They remained with Twilight, pulsing, under her command.

Twilight smiled to herself, letting the fragments of energy draw close to her, encircling her frame as her horn shimmered with magic. The spheres of light hovered around her head like a halo or jeweled crown, save for the pulsing spark at her neck which she knew to be Laughter.

"I am loyal to the path of harmonious order!" she announced, her eyes closed as if reciting an ancient ritual chant. "I understand the healing of laughter!"

The dark magic of her horn condensed as white lines spread beneath her feet, illuminating the framework of the planet's leylines within the town's framework. It was as if the very essence of her spirit snaked its way around them, subtly seeking out every peice of matter and energy that she could declare "harmonious" in accordance with her views of the Elements. One by one as she spoke of her connection to each, the Element energies began to slowly descend into her body, leaving a faint glow in their wake.

"I am honest in my desires!" she went on, raising her voice, head held high as a vortex of magic swirled around her. "I am generous to share them!" Her injuries didn't matter to her—not anymore. Twilight was past succumbing to the pain of those wounds, beyond their stifling presence as her magic surrounded her. "My work is a kindness to reality!"

Her eyes opened, glowing a fierce white, the voices and presence of others abandoned as her own voice rose in a powerful assertion.

"My power of Magic will lead all the worthy in the true path to harmony!"

"Please, Twilight!" her conscience called, even though her living counterpart didn't seem to hear. "It's basically life's raw energy! You don't know what will—"

It's worth it.

The mental whisper from Twilight, in a tone that was affirmative yet with a hint of fear, stunned her double so much that she fell silent. Whatever was going to happen, there was no way Twilight was going to let anything stop her.

"The rest of the world, the universe, reality itself—was too blind to see it, and now I can guide them on the right path! The true way, the harmonious way! THIS is the way it must be!"

Twilight's voice rose angrily, a cold wind blowing around her as the large wave of black energy seemed to encase the entire town. "You're first, then the rest of the world, then far beyond that! And those who are disharmonious are all worthless to me! Oh, heheh, i may keep you alive for a while, but you are all traitorous to my cause in your hearts, and you will pay for your injustice!" Her eyes were wild, a frantic, psychotic screech in her voice as her narrowed eyes glowed white, her horn shimmering an ethereal, dangerous black as the final vestiges of the Elements' energy melded into her at last. "And I will make sure, now and forever, that Harmony will—AAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHH!"

The mare's anger-filled rant became a strangled cry of agony as the energy of her horn and eyes swirled around her, pulsing her form alternating colors of white and black as she was slowly levitated several feet above the horrified onlookers.

The five spirit ponies trapped in the void suddenly found their surroundings beginning to change. The barrier appeared to become more of a hole, the darkness around them vanishing in flashes to be surrounded by the other, living ponies. They weren't visible, or detectible, but Rainbow was confident that that would change. And an expression of twisted glee was spread over her and Fluttershy's face as they watched Twilight Sparkle's suffering.

"T-Twilight!"

If Twilight had heard, she might have noticed that on the ground below, her other self was cringing in pain. Rather than inducing a screaming cry of anguish, it was only a slight discomfort in comparison, like a small but powerful electrical current running through her. It was enough to remind her that they were connected, and whatever Twilight was feeling was at such a deep level that even her double experienced it in some form. The shock caused her ethereal body to tense up, trying to absorb the unexpected pain. If I'm being hurt by this, she thought, what in the world is Twilight going through?

The pure white energy of the Elements fully seeped Twilight's form, becoming part of her very being. Her mouth was open in a scream as her body twitched and convulsed wildly, her physical and magical systems locked in war with one another. Her ordinary unicorn body wasn't enough to contain such a raw, powerful energy that amplified the power and capabilities of those who had the traits alone.

It seemed to Twilight that, bit by bit, her body and mind were breaking, twisting into something no mortal in their world's past had ever experienced—none of her studies could have fully prepared her for this. She experienced the opposing sides of chaos and order that the traits of Harmony could and did bring. She knew what they had done and what they were capable of, how bonds were made and kept and torn apart.

Loyalty was the first to be brought to her awareness, the physical and emotional support and treachery of others brought to her mind. Next was Laughter, as all its degrees and variations—happiness, hysterics, unease, insanity, healing—resounded simultaneously in her head alone. Honesty followed after, as she saw all the effects that both truth and deceit had had over the eons, leading to death and sorrow. Generosity, and its times of helping some while hurting others from what it took. Last was Kindness, her psyche filled with the sensations of those who were compassionate towards helping others and those who were harmed in their attempts to be kind.

Twilight's Magic had to fight against it, holding her body and mind together as the spiritual essence overwhelmed her. It would utterly destroy an unprepared being, mentally if not physically. Her eyes clenched shut, tears pricking at their edges as the white glow was barely visible around her closed eyelids. She felt as if her mind would break, her bones would crack into fragments, the blood of others ingrained in her memory spilled in the name of her noble cause threatening to be obscured by her own as she was lost in the sea of a painful eternity.

But Twilight's will was strong. It had to be. She couldn't give in after coming this far. She knew that this was her own test, a trial that she had to go through—if she was to be the Teacher of All Reality, she needed to experience Harmony in all its forms. The pages of the past would be abolished. She would pen down the new ways of Harmony.

She couldn't succumb.

She had to fight.

She had to win.

Th-This is necessary to happen, she thought in her mind, attempting to guide herself though the pain that coursed through her like a hundred bolts of lightning as she forced her mind into a state of distant calm, fighting as much as she could to separate her mind and magic from the affliction. I can and will fight through this momentary pain! I h-have to! There's NO other way! The affirmation amidst the affliction to her body and mind caused her convulsions and screams to twist and distort as much as her mind, a terrible vocalization that resonated in the skulls of everypony watching. But it was becoming harder and harder to fight through it.

As Twilight's form contorted from the energy surging through her body, its power fusing and becoming part of her, her physical structure began to change. Her frame grew thinner and lengthened in height, a slender form similar to that of Princess Cadance, feeling her ligaments stretch slightly as they struggled to adjust to a slightly taller height. Her horn grew sharper, shimmering like the blade of a sword forged from the occult resources of a spirit realm between Tartarus and Elysium. The shade of her coat began to lighten from its normal lavender to a very pale mulberry shade, a light purple that made her appear almost like an apparition herself in the dim morning light. Her mane and tail retained the same shape, fragmented somewhat from her struggle and endurance, but the colors began to shift into a stark contrast. While the violet stripe in her mane and tail remained the same, the indigo portions of her mane dulled into a deep black, while the brilliant rose stripe morphed into a pure white color that blazed like a distant star.

As Twilight's screams began to be overtaken by fits of laughter, her irises and pupils shrunk to pinpricks as another piercing cry tore its way out of her throat, a sickening crack resonating from her body as her form went rigid from the agony and her suffering returned anew. Slowly, bringing rivers of blood and thin strings of tendons along with them, hollow white bones began to burst out of her back on either side, bringing the unicorn into a fresh wave of misery. The others watched in horror as the former librarian bled and screamed above them, strands of her mane hanging limply over her face and becoming ragged as small drops of blood were brought down by gravity's pull.

As the skeletal structure and muscle of the wings began to slowly form into place, something began to encompass the appendages that distinctly wasn't a collection of skin and feathers. Rather, the hollow bones seemed to slowly be surrounded by an ethereal energy, seeming to be a part of Twilight and yet not at the same time. One wing became a deep black, like an overbearing shadow or a bottomless pit that extended into forever. The opposite wing was the reverse in color while still retaining the same ethereal shape, a brilliant, shimmering white like a star in the sky, which seemed to give the transformed unicorn a new illumination as the opposing energies settled on either side, the bony frame barely visible along the outer rim closest to her pale body.

As the obscuring white light in her eyes began to fade in its intensity, the onlookers were further petrified by the appearance that Twilight's eyes now held. Gone were the wide, innocent eyes that had greeted them day after day as she stepped out of the library she called home. Now they were a cold, stark violet, smaller and lacking pupils yet still darkened in the center, near-solid in appearance and yet like a force pulling them in all at once. The eyes held the deep, somber intellect of one who had seen wonders immesurable and horrors beyond imagination, who had experienced emotions and agony that none should ever be forced to suffer, yet at the same time having seen the greatest works of ponykind.

The onlooking ponies were rooted to the spot as if frozen by a spell, unable to comprehend what they saw before them. Could they call Twilight an alicorn now? No, not in the true sense of the word—she had the appearance, the guise, but she was not a true alicorn. She was neither born with real wings nor granted them, but rather a twisted perversion born of her own magic. Her new blank eyes seemed to fill their minds with an incomprehensible dread when her gaze fixed on them. No being they knew of should have a gaze like that.

The cries of misery began to fade, leaving an unearthly echo where they had once been. Twilight's wings hovered in their new state, keeping her upright as the fragmented tendons that had tore from her body seemed to return through the gaping wounds they had come from, the cavernous holes in her back closing shut as if the wings had been part of her since her birth.

For a moment, there was a cold silence. As if time itself had stopped in the rest of the world, the thin pulses of energy around the levitating creature making the only noise that could be heard.

Then Twilight's darkened eyes opened wide. The agony was gone, the assault on her mind ceased. And her body began to tremble as she laughed. The laughter was unhinged, almost mixed with her agonized screams from moments before as the terrible vocalization seemed to reverberate through the minds and hearts of the onlookers. There was no pain to suffocate it now, and everypony wasn't sure if her screaming or laughing was worse.

"Heheheh.... hahahahah... hahahahahaHAHAHA!" Twilight's body trembled with her guffaws as the energy around her became more fervent. "Hahaha, you all thought I would die, didn't you?! Hahaha!" Her breathing was ragged, but her words rang with passion. "You saw what I went through just then?! That... That was Chaos! That was it trying to corrupt me, to destroy me! But I've seen and heard things nopony has ever dared to experience, and I showed it my will is stronger!"

Having regained her strength, the alicorn-like being higher rose above them, gazing down upon the ponies she saw as her students. She had control of the balance between light and shadow. In the eyes of the others she was a murderous monster, but in her own eyes she was complete. She was pure. She was in control. She would banish Chaos away from ever tainting reality again.

"I am victorious! I shall bring Harmony to reality!" Twilight paused, a deranged cackle escaping her mouth as she began to feel revitalized from the energy around her, the agony for the moment forgotten as her empty gaze trained carefully on everypony watching. "No... I AM HARMONY INCARNATE!"

No sooner had Twilight said those words that the white light encompassed her eyes once more, and the darkness from her horn appeared to surge out from her in waves, everypony within range afflicted by pounding fields of cold and heat, light and dark, the very same pains that had afflicted her own body as energy that surged to be released. There was a loud crack, as if the twilit sky itself were split apart, reinforced like a magical cage around them. She gazed down carefully at them, words whispering into their minds.

"Now you'll see the error of your existence, you disharmonious filth!"

The ones below shuddered as Twilight's deranged laughter filled their skulls. She was no longer the friendly, bookish unicorn they had known. No longer their friend, barely even an equine as they knew her. She she appeared to have become something transcending life, part angelic creature and part demonic force, united, bringing the oppositions that made up the fabric of reality together. She fully believed that she had truly become Harmony incarnate.

Some ponies were covering their ears. Others slammed their hooves on the sides of their heads. Still others attempted to run away and hide. But they couldn't ignore the voice that seemed to whisper inside their very souls, reaching the essence of who they were. The voice of the unicorn who had just murdered several ponies in cold blood with no hesitation or remorse, and was fully willing—and able—to murder billions more.

And not just ponies, her spirit-double thought, the terror on the faces of some others mirroring her own, she's planning on wiping out all disharmonious life everywhere if she has to!

The void around the spirit ponies flickered again and again, nearly freeing them but not entirely vanishing. A crackle of energy seemed to ripple through the very fabric of it, and even as the darkness seemed to physically begin to crack apart, the spirits remained unseen. The cracks disappeared. The void returned.

The message was clear: they may have nearly escaped their prison, but their presence was still only detectable to Twilight alone. She still had a hold on them, and that grip alone was keeping them there in their purgatory-like imprisonment.

"We'll get out of here!" Rainbow shouted, trying to be heard and get her spite-filled words out to Twilight. "I'll kill you and make sure you meant a fate worse than death!"

But the alicorn-being either was ignoring her or didn't hear in her deluded proclamations. Rainbow and the others didn't find either option pleasant in the slightest.

"Look around!" Twilight declared, her voice almost sounding possessed, "this world—no, the fabric of space and time itself—has become rotten! Disharmonious! But somepony can stop it... I can detect it and eradicate it now! And you all who are worthy will be trained to help me!"

As if on cue, the tendrils of magic lashed out at several more ponies, but not to squeeze the life out of them as she had done with her first unfortunate victim. Rather, it was a wave of the polarizing shades of energy that seeped into the minds of many of the ponies. All thanks to the quick genetic measurements that Twilight had sensed as she spoke through her magic's detection, seeking out the harmonious, the ones worthy of helping her and guiding the future.

Like a never-ending plethora of looming waves in a monsoon, the ripple of manipulation rapidly jolted the foundations of their very memories.

In the minds of all the ponies who were sought out by Twilight's magic, the very fabric of their memories began to change, harmonious and disharmonious alike, though the harmonious were "blessed" by the knowledge first. Gone were their memories of the days before Twilight arrived in Ponyville. The fear that they felt from her just moments before was banished from the minds of the harmonious, the ones whose hearts she knew could be swayed to her will. The very essence of their thoughts became twisted, warped, settled into something they hadn't formerly been. Believing things that moments before they would have assumed would be nothing more than a Nightmare Night tale.

In the place of their former memories was Twilight's presence. A being who loomed over them like an ever-present shadow in the daylight. She was here with them now. She had always been there. Some despised her, some adored her, but all knew who she was... at least, who they thought she was.

The memory-warping increased further still as the spell's power resonated with the souls of those whom Twilight's magic deemed genetically worthy. A benevolent ruler as long as you obeyed, the one whose causes were noble and just despite the seemingly rash course her actions took. The magically-formed alicorn had used her research to create her own followers. Indoctrinating them to her side through her magic and will. And she wasn't about to let her influence be confined to such a small insignificant world as this one.

When the hold of the initial spell was released from the townsponies who had been "blessed" by it, the ponies in the town gazed upward at Twilight with a new expression. A kind of reverence, near worship. Almost as one, their heads touched low to the ground in a unified gesture of respect.

Diamond Tiara, not sought out by the harmonious spell but with memories still affected, blinked in incomprehension. "What are you doing, blank flank?" she hissed. "Why in the world are you bowing to her?!"

Scootaloo didn't move from her position, but glanced backward at Diamond Tiara to meet the other's gaze. "Shh! The Empress is addressing us!" She glanced at Diamond Tiara with an unusual look of hostility. "You don't want me to turn you in to the Empress, do you?"

Diamond Tiara flinched.

The word didn't go unheard by Twilight either, and a small smile spread across her face. "Empress... a ruler of multiple nations when I intend to guide reality... very good, Scootaloo, how loyal of you."

"It's an honor, Empress," the orange filly said, still in that same reverent tone as she touched her head to the ground again.

Twilight's voice grew stern. "Don't bow. A student does not bow before her Teacher."

All her new loyalists who heard her command quickly obeyed.

Knowing she had everypony's attention, Twilight raised her voice once more. "The false rules and regulations which have restricted true harmony will soon be gone! I can guide everyone and everything! Seems like quite a few of you are already beginning to see things my way, and I will be the teacher of all harmonious life!"

The sky crackled with her magic, black and white shifting, the shield around the town preventing any means of escape as the bright white laylines spread beneath them.

"I shall tip the scale of Chaos in favor of Order!"

The wind picked up speed as it blew around the town in large gusts, the magical energy seeming to weave back and forth among the town's inhabitants.

"I am Empress Twilight! Teacher of Reality! Harmony Incarnate!"

Twilight's magic carried her further upward, rose her above the assembled crowd so that her very form appeared to hover in the center of the red morning sun, eclipsing its light. The shadows of her right wing and the luminescence of her left cast their beams on the ground below as they were illuminated by the reflecting sunrise.

"And now is the dawn for my harmonious reality to finally BEGIN!"

The sky cracked. The sunrise shone in fragments. The spectrums of light and dark in the town were balanced into one being.

Harmony was alive.

Epilogue

We must believe that it is the darkest before the dawn of a beautiful new world.
-Saul Alinsky

Pacing around her new room, humming a little tune to herself, Twilight felt a sense of triumph. She had done it. Harmony was going to take its proper place again. And she was going to train her students to help her.

The alicorn was jolted out of her thoughts by a light knock sounding on the large metal door.

Twilight's ears perked up as she folded her wings, turning to face the door. She was still getting used to her new, elongated height. "Who is it?"

There was a cough. "It's, uh, Scootaloo, Empress."

Twilight smiled. Already the little filly was settling into her new role, and seemed quite happy to do so. How bold of her.

The Empress's horn glowed, a blend of darkness and light, and the doors opened, allowing the orange-coated filly to enter the room as the self-made alicorn greeted her with a warm smile. There was no need for hostility here. This one was loyal. This one was pure.

"Everything seems to be going well so far!" Scootaloo held up her forehoof in a salute.

The Empress patted Scootaloo on the head. "I'm impressed, you're doing very well for our first day."

Scootaloo was about to respond, but closed her mouth as Twilight stepped close to the large, circular window which caught the rays of the steadily rising sun. "Empress? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Twilight said, feeling a slight twinge at the question as the young pegasus trotted over. "I was just thinking of what I lost for this. If my old friends had united with my path, if I didn't need to take the pure essence from them... they could have joined us..." She sighed. "Even so, it's clear why I singled you out for Loyalty."

Scootaloo looked a little prideful at that.

Twilight turned her gaze a bit more toward the window, tilting her head just enough so her eyes weren't damaged by the increasing light. "You've been a good, strong filly so far, and I can tell that you'll be very useful in our mission."

"The Great Cleansing, right?"

"Exactly."

There was a small silence between them. In those next few moments, thoughts raced through Twilight's head as the young pegasus looked up at her eagerly. There was so much devotion in those eyes, a desire to do what Twilight wished of her.

"Scootaloo," Twilight finally said, "there's something very important I want to ask you."

Scootaloo eagerly looked up and nodded. "Yeah?"

When the alicorn turned to look down at her, the expression on her face was authoritative yet kind. "How would you like to be my Ambassador of Loyalty?"

As the meaningfulness of the offer resounded in Scootaloo's head, a greatful grin lit up her face. She looked as if nothing short of getting her cutie mark could cause her to be happier. Her wings buzzed excitedly as she leapt up. "Seriously?! You mean it?!"

"Of course I do," Twilight said.

Scootaloo glanced upward at Twilight, whose ethereal wings were folded at her sides. "And we'll do that to all of Equestria, right?" Her eyes were bright. "And the entire planet?"

Twilight nodded. "Beyond that, Scootaloo." Her voice harbored a tone of wonder as the sunlight caught her wings while her new companion of Loyalty smiled beside her. "Far, far beyond that."

Author's Note

Sequel Empress of Harmony here.

Fracturing Loyalty

A person is born with feelings of envy and hate. If he gives way to them, they will lead him to violence and crime, and any sense of loyalty and good faith will be abandoned.
-Xun Zi

Rainbow Dash struggled to blink her eyes into focus, despite them feeling heavy with sleep. The smell of alcohol and lingering trace of rot filled her nostrils as she came to, becoming increasingly aware as her vision focused on the purple unicorn in front of her.

"Well, I see you're awake!" Twilight exclaimed, rubbing her hooves together excitedly. "I couldn't exactly do this while you were asleep even though I drugged you - you need to be conscious for what we're going to be doing together."

"T-Twuh-Twilight?" the cyan pegasus mumbled, trying to move before realizing she was unable to. "Hey, what's going on?" Becoming less tired by the second, Rainbow struggled more forcefully, but her legs were strapped down and her wings pinned to the table. "Wh-What happened?"

"Oh, you must be still a bit drowsy from your sleep," came the response. "What happened was that I called you over to see a book that I-just-so-happened to find about the Wonderbolts and their history. You came over to read it, I injected you with a little benzodiazepine while you were reading it, and boom!" The unicorn slammed her front hooves together. "You were out like a light!" The last few words were accompanied by a chuckle.

The captive pony managed a laugh too, but it was forced with a touch of nervousness. "This... this has gotta be a joke, right? Holding me down and having me in a sort of weird laboratory place? Just a clever prank?"

Twilight shook her head, her somewhat demented smile twisting. "Nope, it's not a prank! I refurnished this place down here all by myself! You like it?"

For the first time, Rainbow Dash surveyed her surroundings - the scanners, the sharp-looking mechanisms, the spiders scuttling along near a dried blood patch which a cleansing apparatus brushed away; the pony skeletons that looked surprisingly real... she was speechless, and not in a good way.

"Amazing, huh?"

The pegasus's eyes darted around frantically, uncertain. It was amazing alright - amazingly terrifying. "Are..." she gulped, trying to reluctantly move her eyes toward two skeletons in her vision, seeing as she was otherwise immobile, "are those-?"

The purple unicorn followed her friend's eye movements to the picked-clean skeletal structures. "Real? Sure are!"

The blue pony's eyes widened in shock, pupils dilating. Twilight couldn't have-

"Oh, no, no, I didn't kill them," the scientist said hurriedly, noticing the look of horror in those wide rose eyes. "They were actually cadavers that I found. You know how some ponies donate their bodies to science after they die?" She paused, clearly awaiting an answer as her left eye twitched.

Rainbow nodded numbly, trying to will herself that this was just a horrible nightmare that she would wake up from.

"Well, I decided to... liberate a few of them and bring them here," the unicorn elaborated with a grin. "To examine pony anatomy, you know."

Rainbow breathed a sigh of relief. But that relief only lasted about ten seconds.

"But see those skeletons way over to your right?"

The gaze of Rainbow's eyes moved as far right as they could, and she could see the glimpse of one, just up to where a cutie mark would be. "I see... I see part of one."

"Well, there's two over there," Twilight clarified. "And those two, I killed."

The brief relief was drowned by terror now as Rainbow Dash's breath caught in her throat. Twilight had murdered ponies?! Killed them down here with this creepy science stuff? "How COULD you?!"

The only response she got was Twilight detailing precisely what she did. "They weren't going to live much longer anyway. I had to remove the coats and skin first, though sometimes the epidermis and fur were extremely hard to separate - that got annoying after a while."

This isn't happening, Rainbow Dash thought, closing her eyes. This isn't happening, this isn't happening... She then realized that having her eyes closed as Twilight spoke only had her imagine it all the worse, with no visuals to focus on. Tentatively, she opened her eyes again.

"Then once that was done, I removed the individual organs. Heart, intestines, stomach, you get the deal. I removed a few of them by hoof, and some of the others through the machinery when I needed them." She gestured to the remnants of blood on a few of the machines. "As expected, it all got a little messy, so I cleaned up most of it. Thought I'd keep a little to analyze the bacteria on it though."

Rainbow struggled to keep her breathing easy. Twilight was talking about taking out a pony's organs like she was going to get a cupcake from Sugarcube Corner. What had made her seem so deranged as to do that? It made her want to vomit.

"I left the brain for last in the living ones" the unicorn said casually, moving away from the strapped-down pegasus to hold up a jar with said organ floating around in it. "I wanted to really analyze every bit of it - the right and left sides, the cortex, the hippocampus - and I wrote it all down in my notebook over there." She trotted back over to her subject. "Pages are a primary source of information, one of the only true ways for information to be accurately passed down through generations!" Twilight raised her voice by the end, as if she were talking proudly to a literary audience, before going back to a more conversational tone. "So, I've got to get every little detail down. Every. Single. One."

She poked Rainbow's chest on the last three words to emphasize her point.

"And after I sterilized the skeletons and had examined all the organs of those ordinary ponies-"

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to ask what her friend meant by 'ordinary ponies', but Twilight raised her hoof in a 'Let me finish' gesture.

"-I knew that I had a good preparation under my hooves - working on live ponies is very different from working on dead ones."

The captured pony trembled slightly. Was Twilight implying that she was going to do some awful experiments to her?

"As to what I meant by 'ordinary ponies', hehehe," without warning, the unicorn placed a sort of helmet firmly on the captive pony's head, hooking it up to a scanner, "you're going to be the first one to find out, Dash!" The unicorn raised her head in laughter, her mane noticeably becoming disheveled.

Dash's breathing and heart rate increased, which showed clearly on Twilight's monitor with a pulsing, glowing diagram and a rush of numbers.

"Good, seems like the equipment is working ship-shape!" the unicorn said brightly. "The rate of oxygen going into your lungs has increased by about 10%. Keep it up and you'll be at 20%!"

The pegasus moved her wings frantically, trying in vain to escape, but it was no use. She could barely even move her wings to start with, let alone attempt to fly and break free.

"Ah, now you're at 20%!" the unicorn exclaimed, jotting down some notes with a gleeful laugh. "Careful, I don't want your lungs to explode, but especially not your heart. If your loyalty isn't in your brain, we might find bit of it there. And in any case, I can't find your loyalty properly if you end up dying from your heart exploding."

Now Rainbow Dash's terror was increased at the thought of her dying, but she also felt confused at Twilight's words. Loyalty? She knew of course that she had power of the Element of Loyalty, but what did that have to do with her friend's messed-up behavior? "What do you mean?"

"Well, you see," Twilight explained, "carefully examining the bodies of those two ponies over there gave me all the first-hand notes I need as to how a pony's body works ordinarily. You know, no Elements of Harmony involved. Think of how long the Elements of Harmony had for the most part been forgotten by ponydom."

She moved toward the table placed underneath the giant-egg-beater-and-scalpel device, disconnecting the snaps on the wheels which kept the table in place, wheeling it away. As she trotted back over to the table that Rainbow Dash was strapped down to, Twilight continued to talk as she unhooked the helmet from Rainbow's head, setting it aside. Following that, she freed the wheels at the table from their hold at the base to make it mobile, listening with satisfaction as she heard the other pony's breathing increase into short gasps.

"You know how many books I've found that detail the Elements of Harmony? Only two: the reference guide and the brief mention of them in the book where the Mare in the Moon tale was mentioned. That's it. Nothing about their history, nature, et cetera. Nothing that explains what causes the Elements to be housed inside a specific pony."

The pegasus frantically tried to struggle even more as the table where she lay was wheeled over to the large machine, eyes widened in terror as she looked up to stare at the egg beater-looking apparatus with the looming #10 scalpel blade glinting above her head. "Twilight, let me go!"

"I counted out the process being a spiritual passing thing," Twilight went on, ignoring her friends' protests, "because if that were the case that would imply that one could only wield an Element's power once the previous owner had died. But Celestia and Luna are still around, and Celestia was able to use all six of them. And when Nightmare Moon seemed at first to destroy the Elements, there was a certain spark that allowed them to be used by us. Something within us." She briefly went out of Dash's sight again as she bent down to secure the table's wheels into place. "So I figured it had to be a certain biological spark that only can be found in certain ponies. And you are going to help test my hypothesis."

It was then that Rainbow Dash caught on to exactly what Twilight intended to do. Twilight was going to try to find the Element of Loyalty from within her! She tried to move her legs as much as she could to get out. But the metal cuffs still held firm, unrelenting no matter how much the athletic pony tried to kick. Worse than the rock that had pinned her wing back at Ghastly Gorge.

"Hey, don't waste all your energy, Dash," Twilight warned. "I haven't even really started the procedure yet!"

Whether it was because she was growing tired or because the scientist's statement had stunned her, Rainbow slowly began to stop struggling, though her breath was still quickened. "Can't you just, I don't know, take an X-Ray or something and let me go?!" Her voice didn't have her ordinary confident bravado; it was now bordering on terror.

"Sorry," Twilight said with a wave of her hoof, pressing a few select buttons on the mechanism above and turning a few dials. "What if Discord returned, or the Windigos, or a power worse than that? What if the Elements of Harmony would be needed again, but no one would know how to find them in certain ponies, what to look for? The ones meant to next wield the Elements might be unknown, and it could be too late". She looked at her friend with an almost pitying expression, but having a glimmer of urgency. "Don't you want to help with that? Don't you want to help further science, our defense mechanism of friendship? Don't you?!"

Rainbow Dash was breathing heavily, keeping a determination in her gaze. But that faltered along with her voice. "I just want to get OUT OF HERE!" she shouted. "SOMEPONY HELP!"

"It's no use shouting," Twilight chided, glancing upward as she pressed a green button on the far right of the egg-beater-scalpel-thing's control panel. With that, the table began to tilt vertically, so that the pegasus's rainbow-colored mane was directly under the mechanism itself. "We're about half a mile underground, and in any case I've made the walls soundproof."

Rose eyes uneasily glanced upward at the dangerous-looking equipment above, awaiting its master's command. "L-Let me go! Please, Twilight!"

Twilight didn't immediately reply. Her hoof hovered over a lever as she looked Rainbow Dash in the eyes. "Do you know why I chose you first?"

The captive pony shuddered, but said nothing. The nightmare-atmosphere was something that she wanted to ignore. But this all felt to real to be a nightmare. Despite the cold, murderous, forsaken dungeon of a place, and Twilight's insane logic, Rainbow Dash knew that that this was no nightmare.

"It's because of your element being loyalty. If you noticed one of our friends - like Pinkie Pie, for example - vanished under mysterious circumstances and it seemed something bad had happened - especially if they were in mortal danger - you'd search high and low until you found them. That kind of relentless searching would have had me get found out, so I figured I'd start with the pony who would be most likely discover what was happening." The unicorn shot her friend a demented smile. "And I think that I'll see just how far that loyalty can go."

With that, the lever was pulled, and the apparatus began to whir to life. The egg-beater-like part lowered slightly, but otherwise stayed motionless. The scalpel, on the other hand, moved slowly down toward Rainbow Dash's head.

Rainbow flailed, trying to move, but the tight metal grip around her head prevented her from moving it at all. Cold sweat dripped down the pegasus's face, her heart was pounding in her chest, and her eyes were moving around wildly. And the smell of alcohol and organs wasn't helping matters, only increasing her fear and bringing her back to the reality of where she was. "Twilight, don't! Please, DON'T!"

"No use flailing," Twilight reminded her. "You'll just tire yourself. And if you move, the #10 scalpel won't be able to slice through to your skull properly."

That only caused the captive to attempt escape even more, but her head was unable to budge. Her rainbow-colored mane hung around her head, but other than her mane now looking disheveled, trying to get her head free had no effect.

The sharp surgical instrument lowered itself closer and closer to the pegasus's head, slowly cutting off part of her mane, inching closer and closer to her skin. Finally, the scalpel connected with the pony's epidermis, beginning to slice through.

"NO! PLEASE, STOP! NO!"

Rainbow Dash cried out at the pain that was going through her head like fire, screaming as the sharp edge cut down deep, severing muscle and tendons all the way down to her skull, the blade impacting the skull in a way that sent a vibration through her head. After getting to the proper depth to graze the pony's cranial cap, the blade began to slowly carve around in a large circular motion, extending around to most of her head. The screams emitting from Rainbow's mouth intensified as the motion of the scalpel continued onward, cutting through the layers of skin and muscle which guarded the skull, splitting each part it came in contact with, causing a little more blood to flow as it was cut away.

"Good thing we're underground and I have the walls soundproofed," Twilight said as if Rainbow wasn't screaming at all. "Otherwise your screaming would be heard by everypony. Don't worry, that scalpel will be done hitting your nerves in a few seconds."

Those seconds couldn't come quickly enough for Rainbow Dash, but at last she felt the blade slowly pull out from her head, taking a few remains of blood and remnants of muscle along with it. All that attached that cut part of her skin and muscle to her head was the part within the circle's diameter. Rainbow's breath came out in heavy, gasping sobs, and tears ran down her face as the pain stayed with her, stinging and pulsing.

Twilight quickly got a cleansing cloth and a plastic bag as she retrieved the scalpel from its grip on the machine. Taking care not to spill any of the blood, she wiped the remnants off of the scalpel and guided them into the plastic bag. "For analysis purposes, of course." Quickly after, the mare got a bit of her sterilizing alcohol and used it to sanitize the scalpel. She wasn't finished using it yet.

"Still awake, Rainbow?"

Dash didn't answer. Her teeth were clenched as she tried without success to hold in her sobs. What little was left of her mane was splattered with blood, a wide and deep crimson circle etched within her head that was still pulsing in waves of pain.

Unfortunately, even after all she had been through, the torment was far from over.

The demented unicorn cantered over to the control panel once again and pressed another button, a whirring noise activating the egg-beater thing above. In a few quick seconds as it lowered, the apparatus split open so that the egg-beater appearance was now a wide, claw-like grip. Lowering as its target managed to look up with scared, pain-filled eyes, the claw-grip fit snugly into the cut-in circle that the scalpel had carved, slowly lifting it up to remove it.

Dash screamed as the claw-grip, too, dug in to the point on brushing against her skull. Even worse than the scalpel, the claws dug in under the diameter of the circle of skin, severing any clinging remnants of muscle still tethered to the skull. It was as if someone had lit a match just above Dash's skull and was burning the muscles and tendons away. Her body convulsed as she screamed, trying to grip her way out, trying to will herself to be free from this torture and pain.

Like a twisted jack-o'-lantern, the claw-grip slowly dug underneath and lifted that cut-out circle out of the pony's head. Now her skull could clearly be seen to Twilight - more specifically, the part of her skull that would need to be removed in order to get to her brain as the skin circle was discarded from the machine. She'd have it all sewn up again later.

"Now, there's a little more before we really can find that spark."

Rainbow was panicked, beginning to slip from consciousness. What was it that her friend had in store for her? Could she even call Twilight her friend now?

In a flash, Twilight returned with the scalpel, now sterilized and ready. "Soon we're going to really test your loyalty."

Dash cried out and winced with each jolt of the saw slicing through her skull. She hadn't ever expected this to happen. She just wanted to go home, be away from all this.

"TWi-TWILIGHT! PLEASE, LET ME GO!"

"Ah ah ah, we still have a bit of work to do," the scientist said in a scolding tone. Raising the machine back to its former position, Twilight brought a platform over herself so that she was high enough to reach a proper view of the pony's skull.

"I can't do the procedure sideways," the unicorn explained to her sobbing captive. "After getting your skull open, I mean, but starting out like this makes it easier. Efficiency gets things done faster!"

Rainbow didn't care about efficiency getting things done faster - she wanted this to have never happened to begin with. She wanted to escape, or wake up and find that this was all a nightmare. Something, anything... "P-Please..." Rainbow's voice was fading, growing tired from the agony and slipping away.

Twilight was about to lower the scalpel into the pegasus's skull, but then she noticed that her subject was quickly falling unconscious. No, that couldn't happen! "Hold on, I seem to have forgotten something," The unicorn set the scalpel down briefly and trotted to a cabinet, looking through a myriad of tools and syringes, finally picking a syringe that seemed to be just the one she was looking for. Closing the metallic cabinet, the deranged pony hurried over and injected the helpless pony with the needle.

Despite the pain she was in, with the pinch of the needle only adding to it, Rainbow Dash felt a sort of energy through her. Not the kind of energy that would aid her her being stronger to try to escape; this energy was simply keeping her awake. Sleep did not take her away from the agony, though she longed for it to.

"It's adrenaline," Twilight explained, coming up to the platform and picking up the scalpel again, "it should keep you awake for as long as I need to do this." She laughed, lowering the surgical tool again. "Now, where was I?" Carefully steadying her hoof, she dug the scalpel into the shining white skull, ignoring the screams and pleas of her friend as the sound of bone cracking reached her eardrums. She only cut a specific area - just enough to reveal the brain - but Rainbow was still crying from the blade slicing through bone.

At last, Twilight lifted the scalpel away and went to place it on a nearby table. What happened next, however, brought Rainbow Dash no relief. Only more terror.

Twilight hooked up another machine to the table where her captive was suspended from, wires being placed and wrapped around Rainbow's limbs, with a few others directly near the thinking organ. The machine these wires connected to looked to Dash like a combination of an X-Ray machine and a heart monitor. It also had a dial on it, and that dial...

Oh no.

Even in Dash's weakened, terrified state, she realized what the dial was. It was a dial that controlled the level of electricity. Twilight was going to shock her!

"TWILIGHT, NO!" Dash begged. "PLEASE, STOP! NO MORE!"

"Now now, Dashie," the scientist said as if she were talking to a small child, "I have to do this to get a reaction from your brain. Your brain stores memories - of your former actions, your friends, yourself..." She laughed as she patted the top of Dash's head, just around the skull. "It shows you who to be loyal to. If I can manipulate that..."

Dash's terror only grew, now knowing the full extent of Twilight's plan. She was going to tamper with her emotions, her memories. The deranged pony was so desperate to find that Element that she- "NO! TWILIGHT, NO!"

Twilight only smiled, switching the machine on with a spark and turning up the dial. A powerful electrical shock went through Rainbow Dash, her limbs convulsing and twitching from the electricity surging through them. The shock while intensely painful, didn't last as long as the other experiment... Rainbow felt a glimmer of hope - was it over?

"I was just testing it," Twilight clarified at the short duration of the shock treatment. "Now I know that I can administer the shocks to your brain properly."

Rainbow's hope was crushed.

"Every movement and brainwave is now being recorded on that machine. Since I've analyzed everything in normal ponies, I'll know when there's a difference and exactly when it occurs. Once the genetic quality of the Element shows itself, I'll get the spark out and analyze its genetic signature. Then it might be a bit easier to find it in the others."

"No, you CAN'T!"

"Oh Dash, you're tied down, and it's just us down here," Twilight rambled as she came over and picked up a long, pointed instrument. "I can do whatever I want." She came closer with the instrument, and as the unicorn came closer she pressed a button on its side. A faint spark manifested itself on the pointed end, as Rainbow watched with horrified eyes. "Now, Loyalty, where are you?"

With that, Twilight leaned over part of Dash's brain and poked it with the charged instrument.

Dash screamed as the neurons in her brain were shocked, their pathways shifting slightly. Images flashed before her eyes, which revealed themselves on Twilight's monitor. Mental images of setting her own goals and dreams, of helping out her friends. Memories that, even through the pain, brought the suffering pegasus a glimmer of hope, of happiness.

"Even when you were under Discord's influence, you had loyalty. A loyalty to Cloudsdale, even if Discord had corrupted your view of it. Loyalty was still there in some form, the effect wasn't neutralized completely. Huh, perhaps if Discord did this brain work he would have found it." The unicorn raised the small instrument over Dash's brain. "But let's change things up a bit."

With another shock to the brain, to the hippocampus, things began to change.

The images that came to Rainbow became twisted and distorted, images that only she would see were it not for the monitor that revealed them to the other. Images of her friends being twisted, unrelenting, even abusive.

"You think anyone cares for you, Rainbow?" Vision-Fluttershy said. "Well, you thought wrong!"

Vision-Pinkie kicked Rainbow to the ground, holding her down and looking at her wing, a knife in her hoof. "Want to help me make cupcakes, Dashie? You look like you could really help with them!"

"Try another Sonic Rainboom," Vision-Twilight taunted. "If you aren't careful you might die from crashing into something at that speed."

It was clear that, with every shock, the pain for Rainbow Dash grew. She screamed in utter agony, whether from the shocking that Twilight was doing to her or the visions that warped her mind. Altering her memories. "Hey, the brain fills in memory gaps anyway, so you can't be sure if an experience really happened the way you remember it. I'm just changing things up."

Rainbow shouted through her pain, trying to brush these visions away. "STOP! YOU'RE NOT REAL, YOU'RE NOT REAL!"

But the visions were relentless, unyielding. Rainbow's friends - could she call them "friends" in these visions? - tortured her, trapped her, maimed her. And she felt every bit of it, thanks to the way that Twilight was altering her sensory input as well. Every cut, every taunt, every hack of a saw or knife that caused her blood to splatter. Physically she'd recover, according to the events of the memories. Emotionally, however, she would not.

The biological readings, for an instant, changed. Like something was showing itself in Rainbow's body. In her brain, where her memories were stored.

"NO! NO! Y-YOU'RE NOT!" Rainbow screamed, writhing, trying to get away, the agony becoming too much, physical and emotional. The fabricated "memories" were overwhelming her. "Y-Y-YOU'RE N-NOT MY F-F-F-FRIENDS!" She attempted to move, to kick them away, her eyes revealing anger. "F-F-Friends? W-W-What ARE they?!"

Another change.

"Well, well, now we're getting somewhere," Twilight said eagerly. "It seems I've broken your loyalty to your friends..."

"What are... f-f-friends?" Rainbow Dash gasped out, her breathing heavy, tears streaming down her face. She had become so broken that she couldn't remember what friendship was. All she remembered was pain.

"Now time to break your loyalty to Cloudsdale."

"C-Cloudsda-"

Another firm shock, focusing on a different part of her memories. Cloudsdale, her former home. Any happiness there became short-lived.

The Weather Factory, where Rainbow had once showed them, became twisted. The fabricated memory took place when Rainbow was younger - going backwards in time would have a more lasting effect, a built in mistrust Other pegasi dragged Rainbow, terrified, to another part of the factory, hidden. There was a machine, a machine that had the colors of the rainbow pouring out of it. She watched in terror as before her memory-altered eyes, one of the head pegasi there - a dark red one - trapped a helpless younger one in, probably one just out of flight school like herself in the "memory", and had them torn to shreds as they were killed to make the flowing colors of rainbows.

She watched this happen again and again as Twilight looked at the monitor. Nopony really knew how rainbows were made - this could in fact, be the true explanation. But either way, it would break Rainbow's loyalty to the city where she had lived once.

The scene shifted, as another pegasus - a gray-blue one with a green stripe through her blue mane- brought Rainbow herself to a similar machine and brought her closer, slicing the very tip of her hoof, to which Rainbow cried out. From within her bounds the pony screamed and gasped, wings fluttering to try to get away.

"Be lucky we haven't done more to you," hissed the lead pegasus. "Perhaps you could be of some use." He got close to the broken pegasus. "The other bits of weather are made in the same way. Failure pegasi. At least, to a small degree."

Twilight knew for a fact that was untrue - Rainbow Dash had showed them herself as to how the other aspects of weather were made. But corrupting Rainbow's memories would further her doubt and fear. Fracture her loyalty.

"The rainbows are their main use, of course. We've got to get the colors somehow, so we use the total remains for that. The other aspects only have a little in them, they're not as hard to make."

Rainbow shuddered, both within the "memory" and without.

Within the memory, Rainbow Dash believed she had never gotten her cutie mark. She had performed the Sonic Rainboom, but no mark accompanied it.

And Twilight decided to make the memory worse. She was going to get Rainbow to do her job for her. After all, Rainbow's book truly needed the marks for her cover. So she leaned over and administered a few more alterations to the broken pony's neural synapses.

"We ought to give you your mark now," a tall, jet-black pegasus hissed.

"M-My mark?" Rainbow Dash gasped out. Even with what had happened outside her body, the pain was more primarily focused on this memory, so her head was for the moment released from the focus of her trauma.

"Yes." The blue-gray mare from before casually trotted over to another device that stored part of the rainbow colors in a tank, probably in storage from that dreaded part of the Factory. Getting a long metal rod with a shape carved into it, she poured colors into it and watched them swirl. "Hold her down tighter!"

The other pegasi complied, restraining Rainbow and holding her down, so that her bare flanks were exposed. The young cyan pegasus struggled and cried, trying to get herself free.

Twilight strongly suspected what was coming in this alteration. But if I burnt the marks with an iron to accompany this, her marks would get scorched. What kind of book cover would that be? So she continued to watch, taking down notes with each reaction.

A gray pegasus chuckled and showed the mark to Rainbow. It was basically the shape of her cutie mark. There was a burning pain on each of her flanks as the cyan pony thrashed, forming her mark with the rainbow remains of unfortunate pegasi. Rainbow Dash screamed as the mark was mixed into her skin, seeping through.

The pegasus shrieked aloud in agony, the "memory" from the alteration coming into her waking world. "NO! PLEASE, PLEASE, STOP!"

As Twilight observed the torrent of altered memories, she realized that now, as far as Rainbow Dash was concerned, her mark had been given to her by the murderous ponies of Cloudsdale. It wasn't something she got naturally. It was something she got because the place she had grown up in tortured her, hated her.

"I'LL GET RID OF YOU!" Rainbow Dash screeched as she flailed around, though whether she was talking to Twilight or the ponies of her memories or both, it couldn't be said for sure. The adrenaline and power of the memories was giving some strength back to her voice, but it was a voice filled with agony and terror. "THESE MARKS! THEY'RE EVIL! THEY ONLY REMIND ME OF PAIN! I'LL RUN! I'LL GET AWAY FROM YOU, ALL OF YOU, AND YOU'LL DIE! EVERY TRACE OF THIS TERRIBLE CITY!"

Twilight grinned as she took some more notes, analyzing the effects that these memory-alterations were having on her subject. There was another pulse in the signature, a faint red light. As if the Element's essence was beginning to separate itself from its place in the captive's brain.

Hurrying again over to her syringe cabinet, she picked up two particular ones, one filled with a milky white liquid and one containing a light blue substance. Then, as an afterthought, she put down the one that held the blue liquid. I won't be able to analyze her mental break for too long if I make her hypersensitive to pain... I just might save this. Cantering back to the table her subject was suspended from, examined her subject, waiting for the perfect time to insert this substance into the pony.

The pony was brought back to the present from the pain in her head, coming out of her memory-trauma state. She wasn't sure whether it was those ponies who used the strange word "friends" or the monsters of Cloudsdale. She had loyalty to no one. No one except herself. Everypony else she mistrusted and hated, and everything to go along with them.

And that loyalty to herself would be the last thing to go.

Through the haze of pain that was coming back to her, Rainbow Dash opened her eyes, the visuals of the memories leaving. She took one look at Twilight and snarled at the sight of another pony, though she was now barely able to move.

"Rainbow, Rainbow, Rainbow Dash."

"Y-You know m-my-?!" the weakened pony gasped. She was in such a delirious state that she had no idea how anypony could know her name, believing she had excluded herself from ponykind as much as possible. "H-How... I n-never told-"

"Never mind that," the unicorn interrupted. "Now, there's one thing I need you to do for me."

Weakened as she was, Rainbow allowed a gaze of hatred to fill her eyes. "N-Never... can't t-t-trust a-anyone." Even in her trembling voice, she managed to spit out the words, even as she cried out from the burning pain in her head when Twilight touched it.

"Have you no loyalty?"

"O-Only t-to... myself," came the gasped reply, the pony's body hanging limp. The adrenaline drug was still in effect, keeping her awake and preventing unconsciousness from coming.

Twilight grinned. "That was exactly what I hoped to hear.". She quickly picked up the syringe and inserted its milk-white contents into Rainbow Dash. She observed a differing pattern in the pony's brainwaves - her sense of reality was altered, confused. She placed her hoof now on Rainbow's flank, just over her cutie mark. "These marks are from Cloudsdale, aren't they?"

The pegasus froze.

The unicorn smiled, watching carefully and calculating as the look in Rainbow Dash's eyes became distorted, mistrustful, angry. "As long as you have them, you can't truly be free."

A pause. The pony looked down at her own body. Stared at the marks on her flanks, as if they were all she could see. The one thing she focused on.

She didn't care that they were part of her own body. She wasn't even aware of it.

All she was aware of were that these marks were from Cloudsdale. From that evil, evil place. That forsaken factory of pain and torment. Keeping her there. These marks reminded her of that. The mark of the Factory. The City.

They had to go.

Rainbow bared her teeth, tried to lean over to her own flank, just as Twilight pressed a switch on the wired connection to untangle their grip on Rainbow's limbs, and pressed the button on the table's side to release the fading pegasus from her bounds. She fell to the ground, landing hard on the metal. But all that mattered to her were the marks. With a wild, frantic look in her eyes, the broken pony leaned over fiercely to her own flank and began to tear her own skin off as hard as she could.

The pain became unbearable. The pegasus screamed in agony, but the main desire was to rid herself of these marks. To destroy them from her sight. Her loyalty to herself was completely gone.

"AAAH! I'll kill you!" Rainbow bit her own muscle with her teeth and pulled hard at the tendons, going beyond the skin to get the horrible marks off. "Hahaha, you think, aaah! You think you'll r-r-run?!" The pegasus laughed insanely even as her mouth was filled with her own blood, chewing on her own muscle like a cannibal. "Not from me!"

Rainbow Dash had lost all her former loyalty. And sanity.

The machine that tracked her biological signature went haywire at her brain as a bright red light, like a tumor, appeared at the pony's brain. The component of the Element of Loyalty was now detached, with the pony whom it belonged to no longer needing it. Like getting a tumor in a limb and having to get it amputated. Eagerly, Twilight quickly grabbed a pair of tongs and removed the orb-shaped, sparking energy form while the other pony flailed, placing the Element in a jar for now.

She now had the component she needed - it might be a bit easier to find the others - but she still was definitely taking notes on all this. It was an experiment, seeing just how far Rainbow would break. And breaking she was indeed, her brainwaves pulsing with anger and desperation and hate. Luckily the skull and brain were intact enough to be still secure in her head.

The pegasus coughed and spluttered, tearing off part of her right flank with a harsh rip, throwing the mark off to the side as the blood attached to the underside stained the metal floor. "I-I'll kill you!" she gasped. "Die, stinking Cloudsdale! All of you! THESE MARKS MUST GO!" The last phrase was turned into a howl of pain as she tore off some of her own muscle. Uncaring about the pain, or perhaps even too delirious to notice, Rainbow turned and bit and tore at her left flank, tearing desperately at her flesh to get the mark away.

Twilight was taking notes furiously now, analyzing the drug's effects. It was doing just as she had hoped - Rainbow Dash's perspective was so warped that she wanted all connection to other ponies to be severed. And she was providing covers for Twilight's book. Perfect. She wondered if the effects would have further potency.

They did.

Rainbow Dash was in a complete mad delirium. All she saw were those marks, the marks that she believed connected her to Cloudsdale. Her mind, her loyalty was completely shattered, even to her own body.

Amidst the cries of pain and tearing of her own flesh and muscle, nearly coming to the bones of her own skeleton, frantic words flew out of Rainbow Dash's mouth.

"I-I... I'll KILL THEM! ALL! All connections - they'll be SEVERED!" The pony bit off her own tendons around the cutie mark, stripping it, too, from her as she screamed. "Severed, haha - ha!" Tearing off her muscle, she tried to stand, seeing something that only she could see, but she only fell to the ground instead. From Twilight's monitor, it was the red stallion of the factory.

"See this pain?! Ha - look! Your marks can't hold me! What would having them mean to you? That I'm loyal?!" She spat the word "loyal" as if it were the worst word a pony could say. "What is loyalty?! I - agh! I have none! Look! YOUR MARKS ARE GONE!"

A pause in the frantic shouts as the pegasus tugged at one of her own wings, biting it and tearing off a chunk, gnawing at the bone, screaming from pain and at the same time shouting insults. Twilight guessed that the deranged pegasus was doing this to further sever herself from Cloudsdale - if she attacked her own wings, she wouldn't be like them.

Rainbow thought she was attempting to kick the red pony to the ground. But really she was attacking herself. Her skin, her blood, everything. The pony stared directly at the blood pooling from her, but according to the monitor, all she saw were other, menacing ponies, ready to attack her. She didn't care that the blood was her own. She just wanted to escape, get away.

"Look!" she coughed on her own blood, wearing a demented smile. "LOOK! No marks on me noooowww!"

A pause. Pained, she listened to the words of the other ponies, only heard to her in her mind, made known to Twilight through the monitor.

"The marks bleed within you, remember?"

Twilight echoed the words aloud. This would be interesting, the drug was having a much greater effect than anticipated. She could have simply ended Rainbow's suffering right then and there, but it was an interesting process for her to watch.

Breathing heavily and frantically, snarling, frothing at the mouth, the traumatized pegasus dug deeper into her flanks, biting, threatening to tear all shreds of muscle in her own legs clean off. She tore at herself, going down her legs and even starting to bite at her front legs, watching her blood and muscle escape her body's confines, though her flanks were still her primary target. There were screams, but also mad fits of laughter as she chewed into her own muscle, swallowing it as if she were starving in her self-cannibalistic desperation.

Primarily alternating between one flank and the other, losing a lot of blood from her myriad of self-mutilations, Rainbow Dash spat out more angry words. "Can't... if I tear out veins... no blood to flow then! I'll purge my cursed blood of them! A little more and I'll break FREE! FREE from your false LOYALTY!"

The unicorn looked on as the other pony's body convulsed, seizing up at the trauma of flesh and muscle being torn off from bone. She could see the brightness in those small, darting rose eyes leaving, fading, dying.

Taking effort to swallow more of her own flesh and muscle, the pegasus's efforts were weakening. Her snarling diminished to angry breathing, but her eyes still had a look of hatred.

Blood dripping from her mouth, Rainbow Dash's eyes managed to turn away from her cutie mark as fast as possible and focus on Twilight. "Heheh."

Twilight leaned in a little closer, noting detail after detail even as Rainbow was struggling to speak.

The final look in Rainbow Dash's eyes seemed partially directed at Twilight, partially to her memories, and partially to herself. To every bit of loyalty that had been severed from her.

"The... The marks will curse you t-too... I HATE you..."

With those spiteful words toward her three-way severed connections of loyalty, Rainbow Dash's head lowered completely. The brain activity within stopped at last.

Twilight smiled as Rainbow Dash left the world. Those words that she had said all showed just how far Rainbow's loyalty had been broken - much greater than anticipated.

She looked at the jar that contained the Loyalty Essence - she had the data itself, and with the measurements that had been taken by the equipment she could get it more fully.

The unicorn looked at the bleeding body of her friend. The muscles were torn, and the pegasus had nearly - but not quite - bitten at her skeletal structure. It worked out well - now she'd have a skeletal model of Rainbow Dash. She decided that she'd probably sew up the skin - it was mainly the muscle that the pegasus had devoured anyway.

Except...

Twilight went over to where the parts of Rainbow's skin were that held the cutie marks. "Just gotta clean these up a little, and then attach them - nice new cover for the book!"

Then she realized she needed to get quite a few laminations to house the organs in - they, along with the notes taken on Rainbow's progress, would make up the "pages". A full comprehensive book on her dear friend Rainbow Dash.

The scientific mare knew she had a lot of cleaning up to do - cleaning everything, getting Rainbow Dash's parts in order, and soon deciding to pick out her next victim.

"It was nice knowing you, Rainbow. But I have a few preparations to do."