Twilight leaned forward in the chair, her pen busily scribbling on the paper floating next to her. In front of her was a creature that had been brought back from one of Celestia’s raiding parties, a unique pony/changeling hybrid. The examiner slowly brought a small knife to the skin of the being and cut a small incision in the flesh. The other ponies in the room, all of them scholars or professors in some field, leaned forward in their chairs to get a better look at the action.
After another small cut, perpendicular to the first, the examiner carefully pulled the flaps away. What lay under the skin caused all the ponies in the room to hurriedly begin taking notes: a layer of black carapace covering the vitals. After pausing for the ponies to take their notes, the examiner proceeded to take out a larger knife and cut into carapace as well.
As he pressed the metal to the exposed shell, the front legs of the creature twitched. A few ponies gasped, but the doctor was quick to put their fears to rest. “It is merely a muscle spasm. I assure you that the anesthesia has put it completely asleep.” As all the ponies in the room murmured amongst themselves, Twilight took the opportunity to let her gaze roam over them.
It wasn’t concern that they had felt. They feared what capabilities this creature had. As her gaze moved across their faces, intrigued by their reaction, her eyes fell on the creature on the table. For a moment, she thought she saw the creature looking back at her. As she narrowed her vision to examine it though, she realized it was merely the second lens of the eye that she had heard about, camouflaged with their eye color so that their prey wouldn’t know when they blinked.
The doctor let loose an exhale to calm himself, then continued. This was the reason he had been called specifically; it was time he used his talent. With deft manipulation of the knife, he cut small niches into the carapace that would allow him to remove the hard material and reveal the insides of the hybrid, while still allowing him to replace it when the examination was complete. Grasping the now free piece of exoskeleton, he revealed the inner organs of the creature and began to describe what he saw to the audience.
Twilight emerged from the building, flipping through her notes as she walked. Despite the multitude of pages describing what she had seen and what she had been told, she still felt like she was coming away with less knowledge than she should have. There were several questions still stirring and dancing across her mind about what she saw and what it meant.
As she walked, she realized that her legs had switched to an automated gait and found herself around the back of the hospital where a contingent of guards were walking the creature out of the building. As they herded the creature down the streets Twilight followed, tracking their every step, until they arrived at the palace.
Twilight waited a few moments for them to go inside completely before following after them, nodding to the guard at the gates as she passed.
With a steady pace, she moved through the castle, following in the wake of the guard patrol. As the guards round the final corner, Twilight cast an invisibility spell on herself and waited. After a short time, the guards meandered past her and left, leaving the path to the room clear.
Glancing either which way, Twilight dropped the shroud and moved forward, approaching the door. She paused briefly at the threshold to examine the marks that cut deep into the wood, undoubtedly made by the hybrid that now was behind it. Another nervous glance around and Twilight pressed the door open. Cringing as the wood creaked.
As she closed the door behind her with magic, she looked around the room, a horrified expression clear upon her muzzle. The fabric that had been used for window curtains had been torn away, teeth marks clear on what little shreds remained. Her gaze moved around again, searching for the hybrid that was somewhere in the room. Her sight fell to a sword that lay on the ground, the immaculate weapon striking an amazing difference with the rest of the shredded room.
Her gaze moved once again, but was met by a sudden pressure. She looked down and saw the hybrid, his horn held against her throat as his unemotive blue eyes glared at her. “Give me one reason I shouldn’t kill you right now,” his voice hissed through sharp teeth, and Twilight’s eyes widened in fear.
“I- I just- I just wanted to ask you some questions.” Her nerves were aflame with panic as the creature began to force her back, towards the wall, his horn threatening to pierce her any moment.
“Why? Didn’t you get enough information watching me be dissssssected like a lab experiment?” He had her to a wall now, the sharpened tip of his horn starting to dig into her neck with a small trickle of blood coming from the miniscule cut that the pressure had created.
“How- How did you know I was there?”
“Because I was awake for the WHOLE THING!” He lunged forward, Twilight’s reflexes saving her as she dove to the side on instinct. The horn impacted with the stone and shattered to pieces, the black shards falling to the ground. With a cry of pain from the hybrid and a flash of what was left, a new black pillar rose out of the stump. Following this, small rivulets of blood started running down his face.
“B-but the anaesthetic was strong enough to have knocked you out completely.”
“Oh, my mistake, I must have dreamt about being cut open like some little toy!” He ran towards her again, but now that Twilight knew what to look for, she managed to move to the side in time.
“They tested that! I tested that! You should have been knocked out completely,” she said, repeating herself in her panic.
“And you’ve tried it on Changeling and Pony hybrids, have you? That’s good news. All it managed to do for me was KEEP ME QUIET!” The creature grabbed a metal rod in its teeth and threw it the length of the room. Twilight caught it in her magic and rested it on the ground next to her.
“I- I’m sorry.”
“No you aren’t.”
“Why do you said that?”
“Because I’m just a thing for you to test and examine. I’m not a pony, not any more.”
“Who were you before?” Twilight had moved to the side of the room, the hybrid walking past her and climbing into the bed where Twilight noticed the various cloth from around the room had been gathered.
“Fighting Spirit. Ex-palace guard. But that doesn’t matter, because I’ll be dying soon anyway.”
“What do you mean, ‘dying soon’?”
“I have two stomachs, if I remember that stallion who cut me open right. Both of which need to be full. It’s not like I can gather love as the static abomination I am now, unable to change form. I’m kind of looking forward to dying, to be honest. Then, I’ll be done with this living hell.”
“I- I’m sure that everything will work out-”
“DON’T YOU DARE LIE TO ME!” A surge of uncontrolled raw magic shot forth from the horn of the creature, and Twilight found herself tumbling out of the room as she fell through the doorway.
She peered upwards from her prone position, seeing the door closed once again, and rose shakily to her hooves. As she walked away, she would glance toward the door and reflect on what had been said. “A living hell...”
That night, as Twilight tossed and turned in her bed, she was unable to get the thoughts and ideas she had discussed with Fighting Spirit out of her head. And the thoughts manifested themselves in nightmares and terrors.
Standing over her bound body, Chrysalis leaned forward, a knife clasped in her magic. “Oh, just a few changes and I think you’ll be fine. You’ll love me so much more than Celestia, I promise you that. You won’t have a choice, you see.” The changeling queen smiled evilly as the blade descended and began to cut into her stomach.
The dream then skipped a beat and the next thing that Twilight knew, she had a black carapace in place of her lavender coat. She was slowly walking along, unsure of her destination. A pair of doors on the right swung open and she turned to see Chrysalis standing over Celestia, the same knife clenched in her magic as she had had before. The queen turned to see the new arrival and smiled darkly.
“Oh, Celestia. I want you to meet my new servant, Twilight Sparkle. She does whatever I want. Isn’t that right, O’ Bearer of the Element of Magic?”
Though she fought the words, they forced their way past her mouth and Twilight nodded. “Indeed, Your Highness.”
“Ah, what a relief. Would you mind coming over here and finishing this job for me? I have issues elsewhere.” The knife was in her possession and she approached the downed alicorn. She tried to fight, but she did little to hinder the control Chrysalis held over her. The knife was placed against the white equine’s throat, her eyes pleading as Twilight brought the sharp blade up to prepare for her strike.
The blade plunged toward the exposed throat.
Twilight jolted awake, her blood pumping fiercely as the all-too-vivid nightmares raced through her mind. “I... I need to do something for it. No, for him. But, what can I do?”
(A/N: If you're looking for something more dark... there's always Benevolence. -N64Fan)