“You will speak, whelp.” Those words were spoken with a deep, cold voice. Another lash brought more pain. This time, he sounded more demanding. “I said, speak!” Even with the seemingly endless amount of hits, I refused to speak. Mostly due to the fact that I couldn’t. Before allowing myself to be captured, I performed a delicate spell that removed my vocal chords and stored them somewhere safe until I felt I needed them again. “Are you an idiot? If I command you to speak, then you will speak. Silence will only contribute to your death.” I couldn’t help it, but a smile slowly dawned across my face.
More lashes; more pain. My back felt as if somepony was pouring hot lava onto it. At this point, I was incredibly glad for the removal of my vocal chords; If I still had them, something may have slipped, and the last thing I need is them catching wind of my plans. I had to only hang in for a little bit longer. It would only be a matter of time before my “rescue” would be here. The pony torturing me let out a sigh and left the darkly lit room. I could only imagine he was going to report his failure to his superiors and ask if they could use more painful techniques on me. The thought of that made me let out a groan, or try to let one out at least.
While the torturer was gone, I took my chance to survey the room. The first thing I noticed as my eyes wandered about would have been the blood surrounding me. I couldn’t help but to feel astonished on how much of it there was. I stared, entranced in it. I was looking at it for a good while before I pulled myself away to observe the rest of the room. The room was empty for the most part, but it had a single hanging light bulb above my head. It was dim and the light bulb would flicker from time to time. There also was a door and a mirror next to it. I figured that the mirror was actually a one-sided window they could use to observe me being tortured.
Looking into the mirror I saw myself. My usual light gray coat was stained dark red and my mane was also stained with blood, although it sort of blended in with its already crimson red color. My horn was covered with something that appeared to be chunks of dark rocks. It was a silence spell. Now, I needed to test the strength of this spell, so I attempted to manipulate one of the belts binding me to the floor using my magic. The rocks began to crack and falter. I attempted to laugh at the time, but failed again. The spell was relatively weak and would be easy to break through when the time came.
I continued to admire the amount of blood around me. I thought there was no way that this could have all come from me. Perhaps another pony was tortured here before me, I doubt they made it out. Suddenly, the mirror I was staring into exploded into hundreds of shards. I looked down and there was the very pony who tortured me not too long ago, lying beside me. I figured the time had come and I broke the silence on my horn and undid my bindings. Slowly, I stood up; I nearly slipped on the blood beneath me, but I managed to regain my balance.
I looked down to see my torturer. They were gasping for air and tears were streaming down their face. They looked at me with a pleading look and extended their hoof, begging for my help. I hesitated, but I reached down and grabbed them. With my help the stallion slowly managed to get to his feet. He gave me an odd look, as if wondering something, and then smiled. I returned back a crude smile and used my magic to quickly cast an arcane knife. Before he could even change his expression, I stabbed him in the chest with it. The stallion let out a whelp and reached for the knife. I pushed as hard as I could on it and they began choking, on what I imagine to be their own blood. He was still alive, barely at least. Quickly, I twisted it and finished him off. I could feel the smile grow across my face, vengeance was oh, so sweet.
The door to the room opened and a hooded mare began to approach me; they were clapping. “So, Abyss, you really are as twisted as I originally thought.” My smile faded. I thought to myself that she wasn’t right. I felt she wasn’t, at least. I wasn’t twisted, was I? My care for the matter had abruptly ended when I remembered that I needed to head home. I had already obtained the information that I needed and had no reason to stay around. I began to prepare the long range teleportation spell. “You going to say something or just stand there like an idiot?” I ignored her and continued prepping the spell.
“Oh, the cold shoulder?” She started. “That doesn’t work on me, you should know that.” She stared at me for a while and noticed the faint crimson glow from my horn. “Ah, I should have expected as much. You unicorns have a spell for seemingly everything.” She observed as I prepared the spell for a good 5 minutes. “How do those things work, anyways?” She tapped my horn a few times. I turned away and continued to ignore her; if I had my vocal chords, I would have probably said something along the lines of dark matter. “Not feeling talkative today, Abyss?” The mare asked while circling around me to look me in the face once again. I bowed my head and finished readying the spell. I quickly extended my hoof and grabbed onto her shoulder. I released the spell and we disappeared with a pop.
“Hey! You couldn’t have warned you me you were going to do that?” The mare yelped while we appeared in a darkly lit warehouse. “Sooo, where are we?” She asked, while strolling about the warehouse. Quickly, I located the jar I kept my vocal chords in, and began the procedure of putting them back inside of me. With some effort, I managed to get them back in place.
“Welcome to my humble abode.” I exclaimed to the mare. It was more of a test to see if I could still speak, rather than an actual welcome.
“Oh! So now you’ll talk to me?” She said, with a frustrated tone. “Anyways, where are we exactly?”
"It doesn’t matter where we are. All I need from you is the intel.” I claimed, in an impatient manner. She seemingly ignored what I said and trotted towards me. After getting close, she flipped back her hood which revealed her head. She had a sleek black coat with a white mane.
“Hi, my name is Zeal.” She exclaimed, while extending a hoof. Hesitantly, I reached out and shook hooves with her.
“I’m Abyss.” I said, while I retracted my hoof.
“I kind of figured; your wanted posters are everywhere.” She claimed with a smile. This statement kind of surprised me, although I should have expected it. I haven’t been into town since my plans started.
“So, do you have what I needed?” I asked anxiously. I didn’t like wasting time with talk.
“Of course!” Zeal said with enthusiasm. She reached her hoof into a hidden pocket and pulled out a small sphere. She handed this sphere to me.
“Excellent.” I muttered, while handling the sphere gently. I levitated it over to a shelf inside of the warehouse. I needed to analyze that sphere carefully later, which would nearly be impossible to do with this pony walking around my home questioning me. “Now, I suppose there is the matter of your pay…” I used my magic to cast my arcane dagger spell. I swung and the mare standing in front of me jumped back and withdrew a blade from her bag.
There were a few loud clanks as I struck at the ground repeatedly, cutting out a large square. Zeal, being several feet away from me, let out a sigh of relief as she realized I wasn’t attacking her. After enough swipes at the hard ground, I manage to pull out a pretty decent chunk of stone. I levitated it in front of me and began to focus all of my thought on it. The black coated mare watched me in silence for multiple minutes. There was a flash of light that rendered us both blind for a few seconds. When we regained our sight, the stone slab I was holding was no longer there. In its place was a ruby that was the same size of the old slab.
“That was amazing.” Zeal said in awe.
“I aim to please.” I exclaimed while gasping for air. Transmutation spells were incredibly hard to perform, and they always took the breath out of me. I handed the ruby slab over to Zeal and said “Now, leave.”
“If you ever need my help again, please, find me.” She said while greedily accepting the slab and running away. After she left, I decided to call it a night and head off to bed.
