Somewhere, dark, dismal, wet, Starlight languished. For months, she had been subject to unrelenting horrors, time and again waking up from a nightmare only to be thrust into another just as terrifyingly mind-rending. The one thing they all had in common was of a hissing pair of green feline eyes, pitiless and cruel. All too often she doubted her waking mind, uncertain of the difference between fantasy and reality.
She’d been made to relive every heartbreaking moment of her life, every bad memory, every struggle leading up to what she had thought would be the beginning of her grand vision of equality, only for those two to come along and ruin everything!
She thought she’d been captured by that preaching prince, only to wake up in a cold and lonely cell, an inhibitor ring locked onto her horn. She’d cried out for help, asked if anyone was there, demanded to be let go, screamed until her throat was raw and coarse. Every time she’d fallen asleep and woken up she’d found a bucket of oats and a bucket of water and a bucket that was empty. It didn’t take long for her to realize what the empty bucket was for. Every so often, a green haze sifted into the cell, causing her to be woozy, unable to think clearly, only recalling a faint figure coming and going.
The figure never said a word to her.
She tried over and over to remove the ring, loosen the bolts on the door to her cell, trying some way somehow to escape! But nothing worked, and she quickly suspected that magic reinforced the walls around her. Looking out the window of her cell offered no comfort, only ever seeing fog and rocks.
Elsewhere, Catrina hissed with fury as her studies into Starlight’s cutie-mark removal spell proved fruitless. She knew how it worked, having peeled every shred of the knowledge regarding it from Starlight Glimmer’s mind, but no matter how many times she tried, no matter what approach she took, the spell wouldn’t work for her! Her armored warrior’s cutie-mark remained intact and untouched, despite Catrina’s efforts to master the spell.
Slumping into her favorite chair, Catrina pressed her knuckles to her brow as it began to sink in, Starlight Glimmer’s spell is too foreign for my own magic to work... but I can’t just let her go.
She snapped her finger, sparks of green flashing, and in came Tirek, growling with restrained aggravation at being summoned like a common dog.
“It would seem this theory I had in mind has proven to be pointless,” Catrina massaged her stressed temples, “so that Glimmer pony is now irrelevant.”
“What is to be done with her?” growled Tirek.
“Kill her,” Catrina said with an off-handed wave of her claws, “and throw her body out for the crows.”
“As you wish,” Tirek turned to leave but paused, “and the manner of her execution?”
Catrina narrowed her eyes, “You’re a killer, aren’t you? Be... CREATIVE!!”
Despite his mistress’s snatchy tone, her words brought a wicked smile to the demon centaur’s face as he exited the chamber.
*CLING-CLING... CLACK*
The inhibitor ring finally snapped off, falling to Starlight’s hooves, along with drops of blood. She wasn’t certain why but over an hour ago, she’d woken up, clear-minded, and something inside told her - She had to escape and she had to escape now. Very carefully, she’d struck the bars of her cell window with her horn, being especially carefully not to damage her horn, trying to concentrate the damage to the ring. It had taken her most of the hour but finally she’d done it. Aside from some bruises and scraps around the base of her horn, she was now magically-able.
It was at that moment when her ears perked to the sound of heavy hoofsteps, getting louder and louder, signaling the approach of someone coming towards her cell. Her instincts screamed at her ‘GET OUT’. Focusing, ignoring the throbbing ache of her horn-
*KABLASH*
The wall of her cell blew open, and Starlight looked over the edge, seeing a precarious height but her fight-or-flight response was spurring her towards flight. She concentrated again, feeling her magical aura cloak her over and jumped forward, her aura providing a calming effect to counter the shocking alarm of her body that she had just jumped, and as she floated downwards, Tirek tore open the door to the cell and saw the gaping hole in the wall, along with the broken inhibitor ring on the floor.
Sighing with mild disappointment, along with annoyance, he turned around and after informing Catrina what had happened, he stood stoic, expecting her to throttle him with the arm she’d given him only to be met with a ‘meh’.
“‘Meh’?” Tirek echoed, incredulous at this reaction, “You spend months trying to emulate that unicorn’s spell, give up, tell me to execute her only for her to escape and your response is ‘meh’?!”
“I told you, that pony was irrelevant,” Catrina took a whiff of witch weed as it burned ever so softly in a nearby brazier, the scent calming her as she exhaled away some of her stress.
“There will be other opportunities, other powers for us to exploit. Even now, the Duke of Commerce is preparing a coup against Celestia and her alicorn freaks. Whether or not he succeeds, we’ll reap the spoils of the aftermath...”
After putting considerable distance between her and where she’d been, Starlight began to stumble through the unfamiliar location, which looked like some kind of forest. She panted and growled at her situation.
“Time to get back at those two!” she snarled.
“Are you sure?” asked a voice.
Starlight froze. The voice sounded like an older and more grizzled version of herself. She turned to see a spectral version of herself that looked more like a tortured older mare.
“What do you want?!” Starlight yelped in terror.
“I want to tell you that your idea of revenge has a big hole,” answered the grizzled specter.
“How so? I have to! They ruined me!” Starlight cried, shaking with a tangled mess of emotion.
“But what if they didn't?” The specter pressed. “What if they merely brought forth the inevitable?”
“Explain,” Starlight snarled.
“What if you are to also blame? What if it was your own actions?” the specter went on.
Starlight stopped. That question rang something in her, “You mean....”
“Yes, your sins have brought you to Catrina,” the specter said.
“But the revenge...” Starlight whimpered.
“Your revenge will leave you trapped in your own sins and mind,” The specter warned, “You will relive all the torture you escaped from if you go through with this.”
Starlight sat down and began to whimper in fear. The fear of being trapped in her own horrors.