Twilight Sparkle has been imprisoned for the murder of King Sombra in retaliation to the murder of her own brother. Locked away in solitary confinement with no visitation for nearly half a year, Twilight begins to believe that she's all alone, that is until Rainbow Dash sneaks into her cell on Hearts and Hooves Day.
Based on real life events. Inspired by "Painkiller" as made famous by Three Days Grace, "Say it ain't so" as made famous by Weezer and "Behind Blue Eyes" as made famous by The Who. Dedicated to someone very special to me. 
Edited by: Crystal Moose, and I can't even describe how grateful I am. 
The cover art was drawn by me.
Story One of the upcoming Painkiller Series
Chapters (1)
The principal reminds me of when I was stuck in a solitary psychiatric ward in part for an addiction to painkillers.
Lol, but I know who this is for and that's really sweet man. She'll love it!
6936830 Thanks, man.
I'm glad you liked it, and I can't wait until she can read it.
I saw the title and thought, "If they don't say it's based off the song Painkiller by Three Days Grace, I'm going to 1) be very dissapointed, and 2) post the song here to show how dissapointed I really am. But you did, so I'm going to put the song here as a way to show my gratitude to find yet another Three Days Grace fan.
Now to reading the fic!
6936955 Lol. Well, I'm glad I'm not a disappointment.
6936969 So how long do you think it'll be before this story finds a spot in the featured section?
6937011 Y'know, I think it's a little too early to even tell if it will ever get there. Most of my stories do, but every time I write something like this... well, it doesn't usually do as well.
I appreciate the vote of confidence though.
Definitely one of the more unique and interesting takes on Tyrant!Celestia I've read.
6938615 Thanks.
She's too perfect in the show not to have any dark secrets. 
What? What.
What.
you can't just
Just
You can't just stop, I mean you have to keep going ;-;
SEEEEEQUEEEEELLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6938919 Definitely agree with you on a sequel. I'd love to see what happens on all counts about things.
As for Spike, after what Celestia did to Twilight, I rather imagine that Rarity and the others refused to let him go back to Cantetlot (I also imagine that Spike himself refused to go, for the reason you stated), and he now lives with Rarity, or something.
I also bet that ol' Celly is pretty well hated in Ponyville for this nonsense of imprisoning Twi for what she was too danged cowardly and incompetent to do herself.
6940574 Totally agree with you on this.
If not by a few more chapters, then at least with a sequel or two.
Why would anyone care if somepony murdered Sombra? He's barely a character anyway! That's why they blew him up and had a party afterward in the show!
I mean, really, he was the ONLY VILLAIN to get destroyed! Not even the writers thought he was worth re-using!
Which is why I can't buy Celestia giving two shits that Twi snuffed him.
6938919
6940574
6940686 First of all, thank you all so very much. I love comments, whether they be praise or something completely different. First and foremost, it means I get to talk to someone. I love talking to people. Lol. As an added bonus, it lets me get good feedback, which helps me to grow as an author. For that, thank you again.
That being said, sorry for not getting to it sooner. Fimfic decided to be an asshat and not notify me about it.
Anyway, about a sequel... I'm not sure. I definitely understand that I can build on this more in a lot of different ways, but it's not something I initially intended upon writing it. This is based on real life events, ones happening at this very point in time. While I went about it in a fictional way that warps things to degree, I stayed true to the story as I know it to be and described every detail of such in full. Any more I decided to build on would be completely fictitious. They're definitely brilliant points that I'd just love to start writing, but would that cheapen the original?
As for Spike, his part in all this would definitely be interesting, and I've got great ideas for it, but the dynamic of it is going to be different than you described because we have differing opinions of the dynamic shared between Spike, Twilight and Celestia.
The way I see it, and based on the sizes of ponies we've seen throughout the show, Twilight was about 5 when she hatched Spike. Personally, I believe that's far too young to be thrown into parenthood. For that reason, I doubt she raised Spike. I doubt Celestia raised either of them either, honestly. Ruling an entire country on your own is hard. (My country's ruler has 52 people to help him with the little stuff, and we still have problems.
) I doubt she had time to raise a 5-year-old, a baby, run a country and oversee a private school. No, I think (knowing Twilight was raised in the castle) that Celestia handled her studies personally, but the staff were most likely the ones tasked with actually raising her. That being said, she grew up looking to Celestia like a rolemodel. There's nothing the staff could do to prevent that, and Twilight was close enough to Celestia that she saw how she never stopped working. She didn't stop until she dropped. Therefore, despite having plenty of freedom, she became obsessed with diligent and constant studying, because she wanted to be just like Celestia. (Not that she probably didn't already have a knack for that sort of thing anyway.) I don't even think Celestia took care of her early studies, because in this most recent season we saw she had classmates at one point or another.
As for Spike, we know he grew up with Twilight, but that might not have necessarily meant in the castle. Spike could easily have been raised by Twilight's parents. However, I believe that he most likely did get raised in the castle. Assuming that much, I have two theories concerning his education. He's got a fantastic vocabulary, smarts for days, can keep up with Twilight's nonsensical ramblings, and he's got the quickest wit in the whole damn show. There's no argument he has at least some education. The least likely of my theories is that he attended the same school as Twilight, the difference being that he continued on the set path like all those unicorns, while Twilight went on to be Celestia's protégé. I find this unlikely, because most parents probably wouldn't be fond of the idea that their children would be attending school with a fire breathing dragon.
No, I think the more likely conclusion is that, much like women 200-300 years ago, he was both raised by the staff of the castle and taught by them to serve and assist royalty from a very young age... and he may have picked up that quick wit of theirs.
With all this on mind, I can conclude two things.
1) Spike's relationship with Twilight is more akin to siblings than to mother and son.
2) Twilight's probably somewhere around 20 at the beginning of the series, and it's been roughly two-three years of their time, which puts Spike around 17-18. Nevertheless, his age is damn near irrelevant, because I think it's pretty clear he could take care of himself. He's been taking care of Twilight this whole series.
P.S.: Holy shit, it took me awhile to write all that!
6940917 I'd like to direct you to the giant ass comment I posted just before this one.
It pretty much responds to yours as well... all of it. 
6937029 Look who's in the featured box XD
6936830 You'll probably want in on this discussion as well, so I'd like to direct you to the giant ass comment I made below. You'll know it when you see it.
6941188 Okay, thank you.
6941197 Oh!
I am, sorta'! I was wondering why I was getting all this attention all of a sudden. Lol. I didn't see it, because if you view matured, which I do, it hasn't hit the box yet. 
6941173
First, I commend you for writing that behemoth of a reply, I appreciate it. Granted, my initial comment was more or less just me foaming at the mouth, but I've collected my thoughts and I more or less am prepared to respond.
If you've ever watched Digibro/Digibrony, you've probably seen his 'how old are the mane 6' video. It basically goes through some discussion that TL;DRs into the mane 6 being around 15-16 during the return of Nightmare Moon, and that's a theory I wholeheartedly believe in. Things like the Best Young Flyers competition being for ponies under 16, the Wonderbolts being 16+ so Rainbow can't join yet, several other things point to this theory.
Anyway, if twilight is like 5-7 around this time, and she's 15-16 around the time of the series, that puts Spike at like 10-11. Based on his emotional maturity, and the fact that he's still considered a baby dragon, works pretty well for me.
So, since twilight is learning in a boarding school, celestia is busy running said school, a country, mentoring twilight, and other things, she's probably not taking care of him. So I'd like to think twilight's parents raised spike, like you mentioned previously, until he was old enough to become twilight's assistant.
So this all sort of leads to me agreeing with your point about spike being more of a brother than a son. Their relationship is complicated, but it's probably a sort of blend, leaning towards siblinghood over mother/son.
That leads to what spike would be doing around the time of sombra's murder and twilight's incarceration. He'd probably take it pretty hard, probably worse than rainbow dash. I'd imagine he's at twilight's parents house, since he doesn't really have a home in ponyville anymore now that twilight doesn't live there. Either that, or he lives with pinkie/Fluttershy.
What do you think he'd be doing, where he'd be living, how he'd be reacting?
6941210 I didn't mean that to snub you off or anything.
It's just, I had just finished typing that big thing up when I saw your comment. Had I seen it sooner, you would have been tagged in it as well. 
6938620 Tarnishing the 'perfect' character with an irrational reaction is a reaaaaaaaally cheap way to go about giving a 'dark secret'. I get it, you hate Celestia because she's 'perfect'. You're just 'one of those people' in that respect. But this is just a lazy cheap-shot which makes no sense, and throws in a baseless romance to boot.
You leave out all manner of crucial backstory required to establish these radically different versions of the events and characters, and then make Celestia an irrational ruler who dumps her student into a corrupt loony bin... with no plausible build up or rationale, and solely to make Celestia look bad. Not to mention, portraying Celestia as being willing to do anything less than banish or destroy Sombra, which she and Luna had tried to do the first time, since you've apparently forgotten that little detail or were willing to overlook it due to bias.
It's exceedingly easy to write a character behaving badly for no good reason. It's shameful that it's received so favorably by supposed fans of the show.
6937011 It has a story that heaps blame and hatred on Celestia, while making Luna the understanding leader trying to make things right. I'm sure it'll end up exceedingly highly ranked by Luna and anti-Celestia fanatics.
6941221 Oh, I never thought you did. I tend to get in on stuff later than you'd think, especially if I'm trying to do other stuff at the same time.
(Messing around on DA and Skype; etc.)
Thank you for that, though. I appreciate it.
6936955 I was hoping it was this (far superior) Painkiller
6941238 Look, I don't hate Celestia. I'm actually quite a big fan of her. The only character I really and truly hate is Twist. What I do hate is that in the show, she hasn't been given enough screen time or talking lines to really give us anything more than a one dimensional picture of some perfectly perfect princess that is so perfect that she's basically God. It pisses me off that this continues to be an issue, despite there already being multiple Luna episodes and Cadence episodes. She gets so little screen time, that we basically picked somebody's headcanon and made it extremely mainstream to feel like we had canon, just like we did with all the background ponies. Oh shit, they got an episode too! Well, imagine that.
That comment was more a sleight at the writers than Celestia. Also, I want you to know I'm not mad because you disliked my story. You made some good points, and I'm sure I can learn from them. What I'm mad about is that you did so angrily because you made an unfair assumption about me and decided to be rude about it.
And just a little bit of advice: there are two phrases that, when referring to a person or a group of people, shouldn't be used... "You people," and "One of those people." Why? Because it pisses everyone off.
6941354 Ah, 'tis most definitely the superior song, but sadly not the one in mind, no. Sorry to disappoint.
6941354 Oh, and... I can't tell you how absolutely stoked I am that you're reading a story of mine. Huge fan. I've had Flirt to the Finish on my "Some of the Best" section on my userpage almost as long as I've been on this site. It reads just like an episode. It's insanely good!
Simple I have but one word for you
MOARRRRR
6941392 It provided an excuse for me to listen to some Priest, so all good.
And thanks.
6941173 Spike is the smoothest motherfucker in Equestria. He's sexy af, funny, gets tons of pussy and is a mare slayer.
And I believe he was in a private school growing up, hence his outlandish education.
6941367 If you don't hate Celestia, why make a story bashing her so fiercely?
All that does is pander to the Celestia-haters who get off on all manner poorly-written schlock so long as Celestia is demonized and often slaughtered is some horrendous manner... frequently by Luna or Twilight.... who are also frequently lesbian lovers in those stories.
It's as bad as the Conversion Bureau crowd.
My current working theory is that Celly got so pissy because of her past romance with the alternate universe Sombra from the comics, and that maybe she was trying to recreate that... somehow.
Though a maniacal tyrant does not a good spouse make.
Also it'd be neat to hear Cadence's perspective on all this, given that she likely felt just as homicidal towards Sombra given that he killed her husband.
6941505 Maybe that was my plan all along. Make people listen to Priest.
6941623 See, and I think he's just incredibly bright and educated himself in non-servant-type subjects in his free time... Though it's evident he went out of his way to be social.
After all, who remembered Moondancer's party? 
6942585 Unfortunately, I've only actually read a couple of the comics, and it's hard to determine what's canon and what's not.
I'm getting so many comments requesting more information, I very well might just write a few side stories following the others.... Maybe even a prequel describing Sombra's return and the death of Shining Armor...
6942821
Well, both sets of the writers (show and comics) have stated that the comics are not canon to the show (except for Twi having wings and being a princess, of course), and vice verse for the show being canon to the comics.
On other words, what's in one (events, not characters) likely will never be in the other.
Hope that helps.
I really hope that you do, as I'd love to see what led up to all this, and the side stories about the reactions of the others.
Especially Cadance's, Rainbow's and Spike's.
aaaaawwww so cute. Twi gets to see her marefriend dash . .
And I agree with dash Celestia is an idiot .
is there a sequel or is there going to be one please respond.
6943215 Well, that does help, thanks. I'm seriously considering it, but it may be a bit. I need to start drawing up some storyboards and see if I like the direction I'd take things.
6943255 I always respond. Lol. I love comments... and talking to people. As for your question, I've been answering it for two straight days now, so I hope you don't mind a copy and pasted answer.
If I do it, it has to be in a way that won't cheapen the original, y'know?
6943242 Thank you!
I write a lot of stuff in which Twilight plays a prevalent role. Please do check out some of my other work. 
6941217 I haven't forgotten about you, and I assure you, I do intend to respond accordingly, but I've been at work all day, and I'm getting a crazy amount of feedback.
It's getting difficult to respond to everyone, but I'm catching up, I think.
6943319 You're quite welcome; always glad to be of help.
And that's fine. I'd rather you take your time and some up with something worthy of the original, than rush into it and it just be... a muddled piece of... y' know.
And you can do storyboards for fics, as well as comics and such? I did not know that.
Might have to try that for my own stuff sometime.
6943330 ok thank you for telling me , I don't mind copy and past ,and yes sir I do know . It's just I am curious to find out what happens. It is in our nature to have something completed.
6943343
Goodness, you're under no obligation to respond to my tangents at all! Don't beat yourself up
*Celestia enters Twilight's field of view*
SEQUEL! SEQUEL!
I have no idea what the other two songs are, but I also like Three Days Grace. I know a couple more songs by them if you want to know
Always willing to share!
I feel guilty that I got an edit credit considering I didn't get back to it in time! Half-edit? Semi-edit?
And gratz on the featured, man!
This was playing in my head the whole time I was reading this:
Especially the beginning of the song.
Also, props for referencing "Behind Blue Eyes." Love that song.
You forgot to add the alternate universe tag. Sombra is thankfully dead. And if Twilight were to march into Celestia's throne room holding Sombra's severed head Celestia would give her a pat on the head, say "well done, my faithful student" and throw her a parade in her honor before giving her her own kingdom to rule as a reward. Celestia does everything she can to protect her little ponies and she's not above violence to accomplish that goal.
6943394 Well, every story has a basic structure, more or less...
Introduction
)
Conflict (Internal or external. Every story has to have one of some sort.
Rising action
Climax
Conflict Resolution
Conclusion
Of course, there are 100,000,000 different variations of this.