Here's your dark tag, warning you now.
Celestia whimpered pitiably as she lay at the hooves of Kat, the filly power house who's powers outmatched her own. The Princess knew without a doubt the extent of her injuries and was quick to realise that her death might be at hoof. Over half of her ribs were broken, her wings as well. Both hind legs were dislocated, and her left foreleg was broken. There was a number of fractures throughout her spine, and she knew what was inside must be a mess. Coughing blood Celestia managed to wheeze out her next words.
"Finish me then monster, just leave me little ponies be."
Raising a hoof for the final strike, Kat only gave pause when a flash of dark blue appeared before her.
"Please! No!"
Kat just glared at the Lunar Diarch.
"Move fool, this is to be finished now!"
Luna just stood her ground, shaking terribly. She knew that if the filly could do this to her sister she stood no chance, but even then, she couldn't lose her...not again.
"Please...I don't know if you understand, but I just got my sister back, please, don't take her from me."
Kat watched as tears ran down the alicorns face and dripped steadily off her chin.
"Haven't you ever cared enough for somepony to want their safety? Please, just stop this..."
Eyes hardened in determination Kat pushed past Luna and let magic arc out her horn into Celestia's body.
"NO!"
<^>
Sparkler waved the small scalpel, already tinged red with gryphon blood, threateningly at any who would try to reach into the small space she'd backed herself into. She tried her best not to cry out in pain as her new welts, courtesy of a whip, rubbed against the sides of her safe little cubby.
She prayed.
<^>
She was gone! Luna stared in shocked at where her beaten and broken sister had laid, and she was gone! Luna could barely hold back her tears as she rushed forward.
Kat just watched emotionless as Luna darted forward. The filly watched as the younger alicorn hugged the elder, now fully healed with no damages caused by her skill in combat. Even still, it pulled at her heart that she had aided the sisters in staying together.
"You...you healed me? stuttered a very shocked Celestia.
Kat just shrugged.
"You are no Der'arzt, and I owe you no true malice. But in return for your life, I require something of equal value."
Celestia's gaze immediately hardened, she feared a Djinn's promise had just been cast, and everypony knew a Djinn's promise carried hefty penalties were you not careful.
"Depends on what you require..."
"Don't be coy," snapped Kat, "We both know that I could simply crush you and your sister, so I'll put things simply, I need a spell for wings. An old enemy took something that I want back, but time is important."
"Just a spell for wings?" Celestia echoed.
Angrily Kat teleported face to face with the alicorn.
"No, a weekly virgin sacrifice. Give me the spell now!"
Celestia hastily applied the spell lest she anger the filly more, and watched in mild revulsion as two bone protrusion tore from Kat's shoulders. Skin, muscle and sinew hung from the bones in ragged clumps, as if they had suffered great wounds and never healed. As soon as Kat got them, the filly hoofed something to Luna and tore off into the sky.
"Tia, was it wise letting her go? You know that wing spell is a glimpse at a pony's soul, and that twas not a pretty sight." Luna worried.
Celestia pondered for a moment before replying.
"Her wings were reason for worry, but I did not see evil in those wings. No Luna, I fear I have erred greatly in how I have handled things. Those wings looked like they had been mauled grievously... What did she hoof over to you?"
"Just a bit of mane."
Celestia looked down at it for but a moment before sending the mane and instructions to Nighttime Cityscapes.
<^>
Derpy dropped everything and rushed Dinky through the town, ignoring the decimated areas until she reached Cheerilee's house. Throwing the door wide, Derpy landed in front of Cheerilee.
"Hold onto Dinky, I will be back. My mother's little muffin sense is tingling, I must go my older daughter needs me!"
With that Derpy was out the door and into the sky.
<^>
Twilight stretched painfully as she attempted to recover as fast as possible from Kat's magic. Sure, she had lost the fight, but she got what she needed. Holding up a small vial, the lavender alicorn floated it over a seive and activated her magic.
It took her to honesty first.
Twilight writhed in agony as the drugs raced through her body. Tied down as she was, there was nothing for her to do as a large oily black gryphon stood over her.
"You promised it wouldn't hurt!" Twilight screamed in her agony.
"I lied, Subject Seven, just like the world will always do, they will always lie. The truth is weakness, and telling the truth only hurts."
Twilight shook her head, knowing it wasn't true.
"Oh, you wish for the truth? Fine, then this is going to hurt more!"
Twilight watched in horror as the gryphon twisted a knob that allowed a second drug to enter her bloodstream. Searing pain coursed through her very arteries as Twilight passed out.
Eyes shooting open, Twilight looked around to realise she was covered in sweat and laying on the floor. Just as she tried to get up she was brought to kindness.
"Subject Seven, you have defeated your opponent in the kindest way possible, how weak of you, kill the foal and you may get your sleep tonight." growled the same oily black gryphon from before.
"Bu...But they didn't do anything wrong..."
"Are you refusing me Subject Seven? I said kill the foal."
Twilight turned to see a small foal, just bigger than she was, cowering in the corner.
"I don't want to....its not nice!"
Suddenly it felt as if every nerve was on fire as she dropped to the ground. She could do nothing as she watched four gryphons grab each leg of the other foal and rip him apart, his dying screams branded into her mind, never to be forgotten.
"Yes, you could have killed him quickly Subject Seven, see what your kindness brings?"
As Twilight opened her eyes she saw a splash of her former stomach contents before her. Tears were pouring down her face as she was next shown laughter.
"I get the distinct idea that you don't enjoy your work Subject Seven. I do believe you hate me, and what we're doing here. I think you should laugh more." the oily black gryphon grinned maliciously. The mere look on his face made Twilight want to be ill.
"So I'm going to have you execute our failed experiments, and you will laugh with each kill. If you don't laugh with each kill I will burn the next foal alive and you can watch. I then pray that you enjoy the kill after that.
Thirty foals later, and the stench of burnt fur and skin in her nostrils, Twilight found herself able to somehow find it in her to laugh softly as she slit the throat of a small filly. The laugh louder as she crushed another's skull. She found herself imagining it was the black gryphon.
Not even trying to stand this time, Twilight stayed prone in her own puke as generousity was brought to her mind.
Twilight felt a magic suppressor over her horn and knew she was tied down. She had absolutely no lee way no matter how she tried to turn.
Suddenly she felt claws wrap around her waist and something prod at her from behind. She began t struggle wildy, letting of frustrated screams as tears began to build.
"Ah, so nice of Der'arzt to share you, real generous of him." came a voice from over Twilight's shoulder.
Twilight felt ungodly pain erupt from her haunches, and then she shut down.
Now wrapped in a ball and laying in a puddle of her own tears puke and urine Twilight prayed that loyalty would be something much better.
Twilight crushed two gryphons and cut the throat of another as she tried to hold them off. Behind her was an earth pony also seemingly trying to help. He wasn't doing well.
"Lily, you need to go, you can't fight!" she cried.
The stallion slunk up next to her and tried to help, but successfully managed to get a painful gash along the side of his snout. Even then he didn't run.
"I can't run, because I want you to escape. You need to run Kat."
Twilight was horrified to watch as Lily threw himself in between her and an evil looking red hued gryphon, taking a greatsword through the stomach.
"Run Kat, please, I don't want to die in vain..."
As soon as each memory was finished Twilight picked herself up out of her mess and used a quick flash of magic to clean herself off. Once cleaned, Twilight set her mind and pushed the horrors she'd just witnessed in the body of the filly Kat to the back of her mind and headed out. She had an organization to erase of the face of the planet.
<^>
Sparkler hung limply from a pair of hoofcuffs strung up on a bar, leaving her five hooves up from the ground. Her very being hurt every time the the wind ran across her body, the cool air stinging the fresh lashes that had opened up the skin on her back.
*Sss-THWIP*
Shaking slightly, but no more than a tremor, Sparkler let out a slight whimper. She would have screamed from the pain, but her throat was dry and bloody from doing so when the treatment first started. In fact Sparkler probably would have given up hope and let herself die if it weren't for the sting of the whip reminding her periodically that she yet drew breath.
*Sss-THWIP*
Another tremor went through the filly's body but that was all. She faintly heard the draw back and found herself awaiting the next strike, but a voice interrupted the monotonous pattern of the whip slicing through the air, then her skin.
"Enough! You were to teach her a lesson, not flail her to death! We need her to look as healthy as possible for Subject Seven's arrival!"
Nodding, the gryphon that had been whipping Sparkler released the catch that held the hoofcuffs, dropping the poor filly back first into the gravel. For the first time in hours Sparkler released a noise louder than a whisper as a loud yet broken scream tore from her ruined throat as the gravel dug into the fresh wounds. Blood flecked her lips as her torn throat muscle attempted to compensate for the sudden vibrations.
The gryphon was promptly executed by the new comer for his stupidity.
"Fool, now I have to take this slab of meat to the infirmary just to ensure she stays alive until Seven's return!"
Sparkler felt like her nerves had been set ablaze as the new gryphon threw her over his back, jarring the ruined musculature and skin in her back.
She wanted to die.
<^>
Kat cut through the air as fast as she could, but even as she gained 'ground' as it were, her trail grew colder and colder. It bothered Kat to no end, and she was on the verge of going back and killing Celestia for slowing her down. She knew it wouldn't change anything though, it never did. Instead she pressed on, determined not to allow another pony that had tried to help her die because of her mistakes.Flying for another ten minutes, Kat's eyes hardened as she took notice of a smudge of a building facility in the distance.
"You're mine!"
<^>
Sparkler attempted to squirm out from under the scalpel digging into her. She knew they were merely attempting to pull the gravel from her back, but she had just been growing numb to that pain when they started their work. She couldn't scream or yell, but was allowed to whimper past the air tube they'd forced down her throat so she wouldn't choke on her own bleeding oesophagus.
Still, it hurt merely to have the cold air touch her, much less to have gravel carved from her back, and she still just wished death would take her, anything to stop the pain. So great was her agony that she hardly noticed the building shaking or the gryphon doctors rushing out the room. She didn't even realise that she was now being held upright by the same oily black gryphon from when she'd first arrived.
She just hurt.
<^>
Twilight was just approaching the building when she took note of two things, first was the large crimson explosion on the outside of the building, surely Kat readying a rampage through the complex. That didn't bother her. What bothered her was the grey coated blonde maned mare she swore was Derpy. Even seeing that didn't deter her from her plans though, as she had a lock on the black gryphon, Der'arzt.
<^>
For the first time in her life Kat felt true joy as she ended the lives of those that opposed her. She revelled in the blood that splattered across her coat while the dying screams of her old tormentors were as music to her. She had long dreamt of the moment that she would obtain her revenge, and here it was. Not as a fantasy of a foal forced to execute her peers, nor a sleeping scene that would be fleeting after she re-awoke.
No, this was all too real, and it was heavenly.
<^>
Der'arzt waited. It was not a hard task, as he was accustomed to waiting. So he stood still as stone, the pink furred filly in his claws breathing lightly through the tube thrust down her throat. It was a shame really, for the filly showed remarkable resilience under the punishments given and would have given Subject Seven a run for her money. His thoughts were halted as the door before him came open.
"Oh, Subject Seven, you return to mein home and mein claws!"
The door came fully open and Twilight stepped forth, eyes hardened as much as they could be against the sight of Sparkler so grievously wounded.
"I'm not Kat, but I would have you punished for your crimes!"
"Ah, ah, ah, I have ze filly here held at great distress!" Der'arzt cackled, holding a knife to Sparkler's breathing tube. "Zis is all that keeps ze filly alive..."
"Roawr!"
The gryphon dropped the knife quickly as Jack came springing out from a dark corner and latched her claws into Der'arzt's burned visage. The black gryphon relinquished Sparkler to the ground as he sought to tear the sphynx cat from his face. As soon as he got a proper grip Der'arzt wrenched jack from his face and threw her far across the room. Blood ran down his face as he saw that the lavender alicorn now had the filly laying behind her.
"Looks like you're minus one bargaining chip, gryphon. What now?"
Der'arzt just grinned as he shot forward and reached straight through the shield Twilight put up and gripped her by the throat, quickly slamming her into a wall.
"I have had magic suppressing threads sewn into mein flesh! Vas a good investment against somepony like Subject Seven."
After a moment of struggling Twilight's gaze settled on a form huddled over Sparkler's unmoving body.
"So you're magic proof?"
"Yes, very much so!"
"That's nice," Twilight replied, "But are you Derpy proof?"
"Vhat?"
"Sucks to be you."