As The World Shatters

The lights were blinding to the pegasus stallion as he opened his eyes. Thoughts raced through his head as he tried to organize them into a coherent sequence. He started to get up, but soon realized that he was held back by something.  The Pegasus lifted his head to look at his surroundings. His vision was blurry and swirled around as he tried to focus. The room was stark white, with no features, save for a door and a sink with a mirror. At the sink stood a purple blob. He registered the sound of running water. He focused his vision and saw a young unicorn, washing her hooves.

"Hello?"

The mare turned off the water and dried her hooves on a nearby cloth. She turned around to face the stallion.

"Why hello there, I didn't expect you to be up so early, but, I suppose that means you are in healthy condition." She had a cheery tone to her voice, and she spoke clearly, enunciating each syllable in order to be heard clearly.

"Where am I?" The pegasus asked, craning his neck to look at the other pony.

"Oh, the interrogation room."

The reply was matter-of-factly stated, as if it were obvious. The stallion started to hyperventilate. His heartbeat quickened.

"What do you want from me?"

The unicorn levitated a clipboard and quill, and began to scribble something onto it, looking up every now and again to stare at the stallion.

"Where is the weapon manufacturing plant located?" She leaned in closely and gave a stare that bore into the Pegasus' mind, as if trying to read it.

The stallion's pupils contracted, and he struggled to force himself out of his bonds.

"So you DO know where it is then."

The Pegasus did not reply, instead focusing on trying to break out and fly as fast as he could.

"It's no use, you know. The Princess herself couldn't break those bonds."

The stallion ignored her, instead struggling harder against his bonds.

"At least, I don't think so. I haven't tested it. Anyway, I'm just glad that they got the right pony this time,  the last one confessed about nothing, the poor thing." The mare giggled and started to hum an up-tempo tune, levitating a book up to her muzzle, studying it intently.

The book was titled "An In-Depth Guide To The Equine Brain.".

"Do you listen to the Canterlot Philharmonic Orchestra?" She asked.

The pegasus was trying to plan his escape. He thought he would find some way of slipping under or unfastening the bonds, then kick his interrogator and fly out of there as fast as possible. His eyes darted around the room looking for anything that could be potentially useful.

"They released a new record recently, all the pieces were personalized specifically to the skills of the Orchestra's members, so it all works beautifully."

The mare put down the book and levitated a gramophone onto a table to the right of the stallion, and started it up. The first piece was light and cheery, the same tune that the unicorn mare was humming earlier. The mare continued humming, in synch with the music, as she lowered mirrors down from somewhere behind the pegasus.

"Why don't you take a look at you new 'do."

The pegasus gazed confusedly up at one of the mirrors, and his jaw slackened. The unicorn giggled.

"Stallion up, geez it's just your exposed brain tissue."

He became sick to his stomach and felt as if he were going to faint.

"There are SO many wonderful things I can do to you." The mare grinned widely.

"I can make you go blind, I could make you deaf, I could paralyze you," The mare paused slightly and looked into her book. "Ooh, here's a cool one. If I lesion your amygdala, you'd never be angry or scared again, wouldn't that be neat?"

The pegasus continued to stare at the pink, throbbing mass of cells reflected in the mirrors. That was where his thoughts, intentions, memory and personality resided. What he was feeling right now came from that squishy dome.

"Isn't it beautiful- never mind, it's gross and gooey. Ew." The mare scrunched up her face for a second, then lifted up a scalpel with her magic, intently staring at the stallion, before lowering the scalpel slowly towards his exposed brain, humming her happy little tune.

"What do you think I should do first? Should I sever your Corpus Collosum? I've never studied any split brain patients directly, that would be interesting." She moved the scalpel around, pointing at the areas of the brain that she mentioned. "I wonder if cutting out some association areas would make you less intelligent." She pondered, stroking her chin in thought.

Not showing weakness was imperative in this situation. The information was vital, if the Empire got its hooves on it, who knows what would happen. The Pegasus fought back tears, he was more afraid than he had ever been before. He felt entirely helpless.

"How about we start by removing a piece of your occipital lobe? That would blind you."

The mare's humming became louder and faster with the music playing in the background as she lowered the scalpel towards the back of the Pegasus' brain. The mirrors allowed him to see every detail and movement the purple mare made. He let out a whimper.

"Oh, don't worry," The unicorn mock comforted in a sing song voice. "The brain doesn't have pain receptors. This won't hurt a bit."

His brain was a block of marble for the artist to sculpt into whatever she desired, the scalpel was her chisel, and her book her reference. Whatever the marble would become was up to the artist.

The pegasus saw sparks as the incision was started.

"Please! I want to be able to see my foals!" He blurted out before he could stop himself.

This made the unicorn's ears perk up. She had waited for something like this.

"That won't be a problem. I can mess with your hippocampus and you can forget all about them." She beamed at him.

The stallion burst into tears.

"No." He managed to say softly in between heavy sobs.

"Have you given up?"

The stallion inhaled sharply.

"Yes."

"Good colt."

The mare stepped out of the room. The stallion continued to cry, his tears soaking his coat. He could just make out what was being said from behind the door.

"Inform The Princess that he has been cracked."

"Yes ma'am."

The mare stepped back into the room, her grin faded slightly.

"We could have had so much fun, you and I, but you had to break down like the little filly you are deep down inside."

The stallion sniffled, tears running down his face.

"If all I needed to do was to threaten your memory, I wouldn't have had to remove half of your skull." The mare patted him on the shoulder.

The stallion felt the full impact of his betrayal hit him like a train.

"You should have told me earlier that you had children. Oh wait, you were unconscious. Silly me." She giggled her childlike giggle as if she had said something particularly funny.

"Now lets put that skull of yours back together."

The stallion watched blankly as the top part of his head was lifted back into its rightful location.

"Oh, sorry, I got that on backwards. Hold on a sec."

The mare licked her lips in concentration and rotated the skull top around until it fit the right way. An aura of magic healed it back together, sticking the skin back together and mending the bone.

Guards came through the door and unlocked bonds holding him to the chair and carried him away. He vomited in the hallway.

The Princess sat in her throne room, unhappy with the events that had transpired. What was done was disgusting and vile, but it had to be done. Celestia hated using torture, but there were more reasons than just to gain the information were apparent in this particular situation. She only wanted ponies to be happy, and torturing one ensured happiness for millions, right? Morals often conflict with logic, but Celestia would do her best to do what was right.

Her student stepped into the throne room.

"Good morning, your majesty." Twilight gave a bow, and Celestia got up and walked towards her.

"Good morning, Twilight Sparkle." Celestia replied, her voice smooth and motherly.

"We got the information from him." Twilight smiled as she said this.

"Thank you for doing this, my faithful student."

"Oh, It was a pleasure, Princess."

Twilight grinned, bowed, and walked away.

The Princess lamented on how the truth had tainted her personal protégé, she had never intended for her to find out all those months ago, but now she was broken, and had to be kept in check. She now had to be allowed to "vent her frustrations" regularly. The effects of the knowledge did not drive her insane, but they made her think about herself and other ponies in the context of the entire universe. She is too intelligent to let that destroy her mind permanently. The Princess encouraged her isolation, giving her books and topics to study to distract her from the knowledge. This seemed to keep her at bay for a while until the first incident. The interrogation sessions are not a permanent solution.

The Princess continued to think about what to do with Twilight until inspiration struck. She drafted a letter to be sent.