Darkness. That's all May Zippy could see when she regained consciousness. Her senses started to come back to her one by one. Her sense of touch came first. She felt cold metal braces around her neck and hooves. Her wings were able to move freely. She felt a sort of cloth around her head at eye level. She was blindfolded. Zippy's sense of smell came next. She smelled the room, only to smell mold. Next came her sense of taste. The taste of her own spit and blood filled her mouth. Her mouth was extremely parched, and she assumed that she had been there for a while, and that the blood came from the cracks on her lips. Her sense of hearing came next. A door opened and she heard to slow trot of hooves down old wood stairs. The sound came from her right. The blind fold came off and hung around her neck. Her blue eyes looked around the room. A dark, stone room with old wooden planks for support. Her first reaction was to look for who her captor was. She saw nothing but the room and a small cart with a cloth over it.
The blind fold returned to their original place around her eyes with a blood red aura. The slow trot continued, coming from behind her. It continued until it reached the cart. She heard the tarp fly off, and the splash of a liquid. A couple seconds after hearing that, she felt a cold sponge touch her cracked lips. The smell of lemons hit her nose and the sudden acidity burned the cracks on her lips. She refused to open her mouth, only to feel to sponge being taken away and splash into the bucket. The sound of metal sliding across metal echoed through the room. Zippy was in a flurry of emotions. Confusion, fear, curiosity, but she refused to make a single facial expression. She heard an object being dipped into the bucket. She tried to recall what happened before all of this. Her thought process was interrupted by the slow, advancing clop of hooves. She heard the steps stop right in front of her.
A sudden pain crashed over Zippy as a sharp scalpel coated in the acidic liquid sliced into her right front leg. The burn from the lemon juice mixed with the sharp cut of the blade made Zippy cringe at the sudden pain, but she didn't scream. The pony with the knife only made a one inch cut, not puncturing and blood vessels to ensure the longevity of Zippy. The torturer stepped back and placed the knife on the tray again and walked back upstairs. The door locked behind the pony with an audible click. Zippy felt the juice work on the cut. The acidity of it made the cut feel worse than what it actually was. She just ignored the pain.
Zippy wanted to remember what happened to her, and who this pony was that is doing this. She could only remember one thing: a smile. The smile was familiar, like she knew it from somewhere. It was the type of smile that a pony got when they were about to win a board game or poker. She couldn't remember anything before that. She cursed herself for having such poor memory at the moment.
Hours passed by, and all Zippy could do is think of that smile. It was so familiar to her, and yet she couldn't place where she knew it from. Suddenly, she heard the door unlock and open. The same set of hooves trotted down the same set of stairs. But there was something else. It sounded like another bucket of liquid. A sponge was dipped into it. Zippy instantly sealed her mouth. The sponge touched her lips, instantly soothing the cracks. 'Water,' she thought, and opened her mouth to suck in the fluid. It was a glorious feeling to drink something. It soothed her throat and lips. In the middle of her enjoyment, the sponge was abruptly taken away from her, and placed back into the bucked. She then heard the scalpel being picked up again. The pony trotted in front of her again. Zippy locked up her body, and prepared for more pain. The knife never made contact with her. She waited for minutes, but the knife never touched her. She thought the torturer had gone away, and that she just missed it leaving. She started to relax a little. The pony in front of her saw this relaxation as the perfect time.
The pony in front of Zippy stabbed the knife into the table that Zippy was restrained to, causing her to flinch and tense up. Zippy was beginning to get frightened, but refused to put any expression on her face. She didn't know who this pony was and why he or she was doing this. She heard her torturer walk up the stairs again. The door closed, and locked, once again leaving Zippy alone Celestia knows where.
The burn of the cut had faded, and Zippy was a bit thankful for that. The pain was getting in the way of her concentration. She tried to remember past the smile, to the events before. The only thing she remembered before the smile is herself drinking a hay shake, then she felt dizzy and began to pass out. Then the smile. It bugged her that she couldn't remember anything. The feeling of aloneness was getting to her, making her bored and sleepy. The blindfold also didn't help, forcing her eyes shut. After half an hour of battling sleep, she gave up and took a snooze.
A sharp pain shot through Zippy's body like an electric shock, waking her instantly. The skin around the ball joint of her left wing was being skinned off. Zippy almost screamed, but remembered that she wouldn't give in to this psycho's wants. She held it in, and released it as a deep sigh. The scalpel cut a full circle around the joint, and the pony began to peel the skin back. She had realized that she couldn't move it. It wasn't a cold metal clamp the held it down, but the tingly feeling of physical magic is what she felt. She had no choice but to let this pony do what he or she wanted. With the skin peeled back, the pony began to slice through the muscle and tendons with the scalpel. Another complete circle was made, and the bone was now exposed. The intense pain caused Zippy to shed tears beneath her blindfold, which immediately soaked them up. "I have always admired your wings, Zippy. I think I'll take them," a familiar voice said. It was the deep voice of a stallion she knew. Before she could place the voice, the pony twisted the wing a full 360 degrees, dislocating it from the socket and popping it out. Her left wing was gone. She knew ponies envied her wings. They were abnormally large, and able to carry her further distances and lift heavier things. The pain was immense and sudden, almost causing Zippy to give in. But she had to be strong. At that moment, she pieced everything together. "Manus?" She questioned with a catch in her throat.
"Aww. Poor Zippy. Aren't you gonna scream? Come on, scream for me," Manus said with insanity. He took the wing he ripped off, a nail and hammer, and began to nail the wing to a post near the restraint table. The thuds of the hammer hitting the nail echoed through the room. Blood was trickling down Zippy's left flank and her blindfold became soaked with tears. The nail went through the main bone of the wing, letting it hang down like some twisted party decoration. He approached Zippy again, this time going for the right wing.
The same procedure was done on the right wing. A circular cut around the joint, peeling the skin back, cutting through the muscle and tendon, and twisting the wing out. Zippy still never let out a yelp. However, her blind fold told the pain for her. Tears soaked through the cloth, making it look like a soaked dish rag. Manus was getting impatient. She wasn't giving him the screams of his first kill. Both of her wings were nailed to the post when Zippy spoke out. "You know," she said calmly, "I am surprised you have gone against your talent. You used to make everyone laugh, but now you are trying to kill me. I find it kind of funny."
"No one ever cared for what I wanted. I always focused on you, but no one ever gave me a thought. After years of this, I started getting ideas. I thought of things that made me smile. I don’t want you to find this funny. I am not TRYING to kill you, I am GOING to kill you," Manus explained with a hint of frustration.
"You can't kill me, you don't have the guts," Zippy teased.
"Oh yeah? I think in a few moments, YOU won't have the guts," Manus said, a smile returning to his face. He walked over to his table and picked up his scalpel with magic, dragged the table with him, and sat in front of Zippy. He lifted his right hoof and placed it on her chest. "Such a soft, red coat. What's your secret?" he said as he ran his hoof in circles.
"Blood. How do you think I get it so red?" she said, knowing exactly what's going to happen next. Manus was surprised at her answer. From what he understood, the victim was supposed to be afraid and beg for mercy. Zippy had accepted fate long before he even started. "I guess I'll have to try it out," he said, "And you can supply the blood."
He placed the knife on the right shoulder, where the arm connects, and made a perfect slice to the middle of Zippy's breast bone. Blood trickled from the cut, and the intense pain caused her to take in a deep breath. He removed the cutting instrument and placed it on the left shoulder. This time, he made a zigzag line down to meet the other incision. Never before had Zippy experienced so much body wrenching pain at one time. Natural instincts told her to get away from it, but due to the restraints, she could only struggle. Manus completed the 'Y' incision by adding the last incision, which went from where the two other cut meet down to above her pelvic bone.
Blood trickled down Zippy's body, like she had just been in a shower of the dark red fluid. Manus took two more nails from his cart. He suspended them in the air, along with a hammer, and peeled back the two folds of skin on her sides, revealing all of her internal organs. Her heart was racing, her lungs were expanding and contracting rapidly as she took swift breaths to keep from screaming.
Manus smiled at his work, but inside, he was beginning to get a little frustrated at Zippy for not screaming. Zippy held everything in. He couldn't get her to release a single scream of pain. His smile turned into a frown when Zippy spoke out. "So, when is it supposed to start hurting?" she said with a smile. He knew she was taunting him. But all he could do was try to make her scream by inflicting more pain on her. The mare was already in unfathomable amounts of pain, but she was determined to make him extremely mad.
Manus started with the intestines. He put his hands on the slimy tubes, and began to pull them out. Foot by foot, he pulled everything out. It didn't hurt like Zippy thought it would. She figured that the earlier pain made this feel like nothing. Manus pulled all of the entrails out, and cut the two ends with his scalpel to completely sever it from the body. This caught Zippy by surprise. This hurt, but it felt weird, like she lost a lot of weight all of a sudden, and felt lighter.
As soon as the top part of the intestines were cut, stomach acid leaked onto Zippy’s body, then the floor. The sting of the sudden acidity made her cringe, but not a sound was made. Manus noticed this, and saw it as an opportunity for some noise. He placed his right hoof on her stomach, and applied pressure. Stomach juices began to flow out faster, and sprayed out with greater distance. Zippy felt like she had just been punched in the stomach, and the throbbing pain only got worse. He kept pressing until no more fluid came out of the organ. Manus took his table cover, and wiped his hoof, covering the cloth in blood and digestive juices. The sting of the stomach acid, and the dull throbbing pain made Zippy want to throw up, but nothing would come up, and she would've failed her task. She kept back the urge to gag and vomit.
Manus removed a few more organs with ease. Ovaries, liver, gallbladder, kidneys, and a few others. He placed all of his work on his work table, so he could examine them later. After all of this, he finally reached the organs that made pegasi unique: her air sacs. They expanded with the lungs, showing that they were part of the breathing process. "Well, what do we have here? The one thing that makes a pegasi unique internally," Manus said, although there was no facial change. Zippy remained silent to keep from vomiting. Manus took his scalpel, and begin to plan how he would remove the organs. He planned for a minute, then dug in with his knife.
It was like being punched in the chest. Some of Zippy's breath was taken away as the right air sac was separated from the lung. She gasped, and Manus began a rant. "Did that hurt?" he questioned as he placed the air sac on the table. "It should. After all, I am taking you apart. And this air sac? I believe they also help in the breathing process. I can't believe you've kept your mouth shut." Zippy smiled, as she knew that he was close to losing it. She could sense, from the beginning, that a temper was building up. "I... I find it funny how you're going through all of this trouble, just to make me scream. Why don't you just give up? You'll never win," she teased. Manus frowned. "Alright. If that's how you want to play it," he said.
He placed the knife down, and watched her breathing pattern. Rise, fall, rise, fall. Then, he made his move. As she finished her exhale, he grabbed her left air sac, and violently ripped it out of her. Blood and mucus followed the organ in a string. The string broke, and landed on Manus' arm. He snarled at the strand of fluid, threw the air sac on his table, and wiped the gunk on his rag. Zippy began to feel dizzy due to blood loss and pain. She was surprised that she lasted that long. "Hey Manus," she said, with a smile on her face and a little slur in her speech, "I'm going to take a nap. This is getting boring." Manus' eye twitched at the statement. 'After all of this time, she's bored?' he thought. 'She should be begging for death, not being bored to it!' He stared at the mare as she drifted into unconsciousness. He wanted to kill her there, but she still had organs to study. Using magic, broke the fragile rib cage open, and exposed the rest of her air sacs, lungs and heart. He picked up his scalpel, and began to work on the limp body.
Zippy regained her consciousness, and a flood of memories hit her. The pain, the torture, Manus. She felt a constriction of bandages on her body, and the moist rag on her eyes. She heard a sound, similar to someone running their hoof through a casserole. She moved her right forearm to check if the brace was still there. A clinking noise was made, and she heard a deep sigh echo from across the room.
"And she lives. Wonderful," Manus said with sarcasm. A wave of pain and emptiness filled her body suddenly. She gasped, only to feel like she wasn't getting the amount of air that she used to. She connected the dots, and knew that she only had lungs and a heart to live, revealing why she felt empty inside.
Fresh tears soaked into the rag. Death was inevitable at this point. With only a heart and lungs, she was going to live for no more than thirty minutes. She decided to taunt some more, and have a little fun with the remainder of her life. "I guess you couldn't do it after all," she said.
"Do what?" Manus cautiously questioned.
"Why, kill me of course. Sure, you were a catalyst to my death, but you couldn't kill me with your own hoof."
"I could kill you if I wanted. I decided not to."
"Uh huh. Yeah. You just can't accept the fact that I beat you. I won, and now you're just pouting in your corner like a little colt."
"Shut up, before I do something else," he threatened angrily.
"Like what? I'm nothing to you now. A broken toy you didn't even have fun with." Manus picked up his scalpel, rag, and trotted over to Zippy. When he reached her, he just stared at her. She felt his angry gaze burning a hole in her forehead. He sat down, and began to clean the tool vigorously. Squeaks of fabric on metal were audible throughout the room. "I'm not a colt. I am a stallion, and if you mix up the two, I'm glad you're leaving this world soon," he stated.
"A colt in a stallion body. A real stallion would kill me, while you let fate do your dirty work," she said back.
Manus lost his focus in a second of rage, and dropped the knife and rag. "I'm going to kill you. And when I do, you'll regret everything you said!" He yelled.
"All bark, no bite. That's how you've always been. Prove to me that you're not joking," Zippy said, a grin returning to her face. Manus picked up his scalpel, turned to her. He drove the knife into her right side, piercing the bottom of her lung. Zippy gasped the sudden pain. He removed the knife and returned to a sitting position. "How bad of an aim do you have? My heart isn't there," She said through the pain. Manus thought that would shut her up, but he was wrong. "What do I have to do to shut you up," he mumbled. Zippy heard this, and smiled. She was still winning. "Of all the methods I tried, nothing did it," he whispered.
"Pathetic. That's what you are. You don't deserve my life. I guess you figured that out," she taunted even more. Manus dropped his knife, again due to an over load of anger. "As clumsy as you are with that knife, I'm surprised you didn't kill me on accident." Manus picked up the bloody scalpel. There was a look of frustration in his eyes. "What's wrong, Manus? Run out of methods?" Zippy said with a smile on her face. Tears streaked down from the soaked blind fold. Manus only remained silent as he cleaned his scalpel with his back towards Zippy. "What made you stop? The fact that you can't hurt a single mare?" Zippy teased through her pain.
"Just shut up!" Manus screamed. He threw his freshly cleaned scalpel at her, missing her neck by a hair. "Still can't hit your mark," Zippy teased. Manus scream in frustration. "That's it! I've had it with you!" screamed. He went up to her, and ripped the blind fold off. She opened her blood shot eyes, and met gazes with Manus. Red eyes locked with blue eyes. "Do it. Kill me," she said.
"I gladly will," he said back. He placed his hoof on her neck, and slowly applied pressure. "Now you will never scream!" he shouted. Zippy closed her eyes and tried to swallow some air. "Look at me! Let me see the life drain from your eyes!" Manus demanded.
"Never," she whispered. She kept her eyes closed tight, and smiled. Manus' eye twitched in anger. He wanted to remove his hoof, but he would risk more torment from her. Zippy lowered her head, smiled, and accepted death. He felt a final, warm breath leave her muzzle as he crushed her trachea. A small stream of blood ran out of the corner of her mouth. Manus stared at the body in front of him. He was a murderer. His first kill didn't bring him what he wanted. He had to lay low for a while, and choose a target. A light bulb went off in his head instantly. He knew exactly who to kill next. But, before he could continue, he had some practice to do, and a disappointment to clean up.