//------------------------------//
// Chapter 16 
// Story: YogLabs: Quest for the Golden Horseshoe 
// by Prisoner 24601 
//------------------------------//

	With the clang of a switch and the bright lights coming on, Simon was awake with a jolt. He didn't fall asleep here. He felt different. He couldn't see his nose! He couldn't move, only stare up into the bright white light and the stark metal ceiling that had woken him in the first place. A high-pitched, snake-like snickering was heard. Soon, a changeling looked over him. He was smooth, while everything else in the room was positively square and cornered. He wasn't back... Was he?

The Changeling laughed over him. "Look at you. So high and mighty. You almost killed Silvertongue... You -and- Archaenon escaped the maximum security prison camp... And now look at you. It took us five minutes to get you here... Into the belly of the beast." He laughed again. "How pathetic are you?!"

Simon strained to speak. It was hard. They had put something in him. His joints were tense, he could hardly move, but he managed to brokenly ask, "Who are you?"

The Changeling smiled a bit, "Well, seeing as how you won't be alive to tell anyone, I see no harm in saying. The name's Blackblood, representative of the Changeling hives, under the leadership of Queen Chrysalis. And I'm going to be in charge of torturing you today."

Simon got sweaty. "T...torture?"

Blackblood laughed again, "Of course! You have valuable information inside of your tiny, tiny head... Information that would be invaluable to me, and my... employer..."

Simon was getting some feeling back in his mouth, "Employer? Where am I? Who do you work for? What do you want from me?!"

Blackblood made a 'sh' noise, and put a black, pasty hoof on Simon's mouth, causing him to gag slightly. "I told you. My name's Blackblood. My employer has told me to get whatever information you know about your friends in hiding out of you, so I can later help him kill them." He removed his hoof from Simon's mouth.

Simon coughed and spat, trying to get the hoof's pasty residue out of his mouth. It was hard to do without control of his head. He choked out, "And why... Do you think... I'm going to... tell you?"

Blackblood snickered and made a "tsk". He walked away from Simon's vision, and before the dwarf knew it, the table, or whatever contraption he was on, began tilting him upward. He was now as if standing, and he recognized where he was.

YogLabs.

He was in their interrogation chamber that Sriviramen had built without their consent. Now he at least knew where he was and who this changeling worked for... This was all Sriviramen's fault! How he got this changeling on his side was beyond him, but it was nothing he didn't already know. In fact, in a darker place of his head, he was thanking god he was here. The reason he got captured by the Changelings in the first place was because he wanted to meet Sriviramen face-to-face. If only he wasn't paralyzed and about to be tortured.

Blackblood held in his changeling magic the device that would be responsible for Simon's imminent torture: A small iron rod. What was he going to do? Beat him with it? Simon thought to himself, "If that's all he's got, he must be ready for a loooong...". Simon then noticed that Blackblood wasn't walking towards him. He was walking towards a small pool of lava in the corner. Realization began to dawn "Oh no..."

Simon began to get sweaty as Blackblood dipped the Iron Rod into the lava. He held it there for a good minute or so, and when he pulled it out, the metal shone bright red. But Blackblood wasn't done yet. Then he went over to a small knife on a holder in the wall. "Surely it would just be easier to use the knife." Simon thought, then cursing himself for actually thinking of giving the torturer pointers! Blackblood took the knife off the wall, and began whittling the rod.. Since it was so hot, it came away easy, and soon it was red hot, and sharp.

Simon gulped with what control he was getting back in his head. In the moments between getting the rod hot and sharpening it, Simon had regained control of his neck, and got to look around. He was definitely in YogLabs. He was strapped to a large metal table, and the room he was in consisted of a bunch of rather grotesque-looking torture devices. And Simon wasn't Simon... He was positively, undeniable Honeydew. His skin was made of cubes, and he had actually become his Minecraft character, a dwarf of Khaz Modan.

Blackblood finally approached the dwarf, the sharp, hot rod in his hands. "Let's begin, shall we?" He hissed. "I'll give you a chance: Where are your friends?"

Simon debated whether or not to sell his friends out for a moment, but then he remembered his nine little pony friends still in that camp. He spat at Blackblood, "I'll never say a word."

To Simon's surprise, Blackblood laughed as he wiped Simon's saliva from his face. He looked at him with chilling eyes and almost spat out, "Wrong answer." He smiled as his magic enveloped the rod, and he slowly moved it to Simon's right arm. He placed the point right on the square bicep, and even the tip of the rod was scorching hot, enough to make Simon grit his block teeth, and exhale. That was before Blackblood started pushing.

With little effort at all, the white hot iron rod entered Simon's body, causing an enormous scream of tremendous agony from the Dwarf. He compared it in his head to a gunshot, that was then cauterized with acid, and wrapped in a smallpox-infected blanket. Blackblood snickered and whistled to himself as he thrust the rod deeper into the dwarf's cube arm. Simon continued to scream, until Blackblood pulled the white-hot, inch-wide needle out of him.

Simon caught his breath, tears streaming down his face. He coughed out "Fuck that hurt..."

Blackblood laughed at him, "That's the point, Simon. Now that you've had a feel for our poking rod, I'm going to ask you again: Where are your friends?"

Simon thought back again to everyone he valued back at the camp: Hannah, Duncan, Sjin, Jesse, and of course his surrogate pony family. He would rather die than put them in harm's way, because he knew they'd do the same for him. He gritted his teeth, and said to Blackblood, "You're going to have to do better than that, you black skinned son of a-"

Simon's sentence was cut off by his own scream of agony as Blackblood shoved the rod into his arm again, this time closer to the shoulder. The white-hot pain spread through Simon like taking a bath in corrosive acid. In was too much to take in, and all Simon could do was scream for what seemed like an eternity. Everything went slower. His vision was getting blurry. But he was tough. He was a dwarf.

After Blackblood had pulled the rod from Simon's arm a second time, he looked at Simon disapprovingly. "My, my, that sounds like it hurts..."

Simon spat on him again, but the changeling didn't care. "Damn fucking right it hurts, you cunt."

Blackblood laughed, "Such strong words... But they aren't the words I want to hear. I want to hear where your friends are hiding. Tell me now or you get the pain again."

Simon was tough, that much was certain... But was he tough enough to take much more of this? Any more stabbings and Simon would certainly be begging for death. But if he simply told Blackblood what he wanted to hear, it would be over... Simon thought long and hard. Was it worth it?

Would his friends ever forgive him, if he was the soul responsible for a full-out changeling attack on the camp they called home? Would he be able to forgive himself if any of them were hurt, or, god forbid even killed?! No... If anything happened to them because of him, Simon wouldn't be able to live with himself. He looked Blackblood straight in the eyes, and did something bold. "I'll tell you where my friends are."

Blackblood smiled, "You see? Was that so hard? Where are they, Simon? Just tell me, and this will all be over."

Simon sighed deeply. "Alright. You know where they are?"

Blackblood looked at him, eager. "Where are they?"

Simon sighed again, looked Blackblood right in the eyes, and said, plain as day, "Right up your ass."

Blackblood, who up until now had played and toyed with everything that came out of Simon's mouth, got deadly serious. "I don't have time for your games, Simon." He said bluntly and he shoved the rod in again, this time not in the arm, but in the stomach.

Simon had taken the pain in his arms. He was toughest there. But his stomach was large, portly, and sensitive. When the rod went in there, the already unbearable pain was quadrupled. It was like an explosion in his heart, spreading at the speed of sound and vaporizing every internal function he had one by one in a millionth of a second. Except it wasn't a millionth of a second. It was a good, solid twenty seconds of shoving the white-hot rod deeper into Simon's belly, and Simon screaming in unfathomable agony.

But eventually, it, like everything else, was over. Simon looked into Blackblood's eyes, amazed by the lack of guilt they showed. How could he feel nothing? Blackblood looked right back at him, "Well, I can do this all day, mister Lane. Have you changed your mind on talking yet?"

Simon thought it over in his head again. "Of course not... I'm not telling you anything."

Blackblood shook his head, "Always the one to be the hero, are you, Simon? Too bad." He moved the rod again, but this time, he moved it downwards. Simon began to sweat. "No... He wouldn't... He couldn't be thinking... No..." Simon tried to deny it, but his worst fears were realized when the Rod stopped, and decided on it's mark, a few inched past the rim of Simon's trousers. "Holy fucking shit, he's going to impale my dick!"

Blackblood looked back up. "Are you sure that's your final answer?"

Simon imagined a scale. On one side, he put his friends well-beings and lives, and on the other, the well-being of his penis. Then he did something he wasn't particularly proud of. "Fine... I'll tell you..."

Blackblood smiled, "I knew you could be reasoned with. But try another joke, and this thing is going right back there."

Simon nodded grimly. "They've been holed up in a rocky overhang for the past few weeks... But they're planning to move... Northwest... they say there's a good spot on a hill that direction..."

Blackblood thought it over and nodded slowly. "That information surely is valuable, my Dwarven friend... Thank you for sharing."

Simon spat at him again, "I'm not your friend..."

Blackblood shrugged, "Well, be that as it may, that's not all I really need from you. Can you tell me who's in charge of the camp?"

Simon really had to think about that one. Shouldn't they know that by now? What do they want with the camp? They know who's there, why do they need him to tell them? Eventually, Simon thought long and hard, and said, "It's joint-lead. Between Sjin and Jesse."

Blackblood nodded contentedly. "Ah. How interesting... One last question." Simon sighed in relief. Blackblood continued, "Well, less a question, really... You're going to tell me what you're looking for, and where you're looking for it."

Simon looked at him. "Why?"

The Changeling got a dastardly smile. "So we can get it first and ambush your friends when they arrive."

Simon was distraught. "Why would you do that? Why do you want to hurt my friends?! What did they ever do to you?! Why do you think I'm going to tell?!"

Blackblood did another tisking thing, and shook his head, "Friend, I can't answer any of those questions for you... Except the last one." He levitated the Iron rod. "We've been through this, Simon... What don't you get?"

Simon got sweaty again, "Oh god, please not the plums... Anything but the plums!"

The changeling looked at him almost sympathetically, "Oh, you don't have to worry about that..." He brought the rod up from the trousers, and pointed it at his face, "I've got something better in mind... Now, tell me where to go to ambush your friends, and we'll all be on our way."

Simon decided to take the obvious route, and lie. He gulped, put on his best lying face, and said, "They're going to the northern forest... They say it's hidden in a spring up there... That's where they're going."

Blackblood looked at him with unamused eyes, "You're lying, Simon. There is no spring in the forest. The only one is fifty miles south of here. Seriously, don't you think? We live here."

Simon cursed himself. Blackblood shook his head, "Too bad... I didn't want to do this." The changeling used his magic to hold Simon's head in one place, and he inched the poking rod closer and closer to his left eye. So close that Simon could feel the heat on his eye. So close that the tip actually touched it. That alone was tremendously painful. Then it got even closer. Blackblood slowly drove the rod into Simon's left eye. As soon as it broke the surface, Simon was screaming and shouting and cursing in amazingly loud swears and shouts. The pain he was feeling is not actually possible to put into words.

The rod went deeper into his eye, burning it from the inside out. But he didn't end there. He actually kept driving it in. Soon, the rod went out the back of the eye, and into the skull, cutting off the nerves. His eye went completely blind, and Simon felt more pain in those few milliseconds, than he had ever felt in every experience in his entire life, including the ones he just went through combined. More pain rocketed through Simon's body than is physically possible to describe with written words. He would compare it to something, but at this point, all Simon was thinking was a jumble of obscene swear words to make up for the pain, and endless screams of writhing agony.

But then, Blackblood pulled it out, and it was over. Except it wasn't. Simon continued to scream. He had an enormous fucking hole in his eye. But Blackblood put a bandage over it, and said, "Maybe when you wake up, you'll be more inclined to talk.

While Simon continued to scream, the changeling used his magic to hold Simon's head still, and drive an anesthesia needle into his neck. Simon remembered nothing more than one last shot of enormous pain, and then nothing.

********

Doctor Sriviramen and his leashed wolf, Gorefang, entered the interrogation chambers a few moments later. He looked at Blackblood, who was polishing the assorted weapons, and then at Simon, who was passed out and well contained. "Well done, Ambassador." He congratulated, "I never knew you were so... keen at interrogation."

Blackblood, who was overjoyed to be complimented by the doctor. "Why thank you, sir. I was trained by the greatest Changeling Inquisitor in the hive when I was younger."

Sriviramen raised his hands, "It was a compliment. Just say thank you. No need to go into details."

"I am sorry, sir." Blackblood apologized pathetically. "The subject is out cold currently while his wounds become less... severe... When he awakens, I am sure he will give us the answers we're looking for."

Sriviramen looked at Simon while Gorefang sniffed around the devices and grotesque gizmos. "What makes you so certain, Blackblood?"

Blackblood looked at Simon with proud eyes, "Let's just say... He will see things our way, but he'll only be seeing them with his right eye..."

Sriviramen looked at the bandaged and bloodied eye on the left of Simon's face. "Sweet Jesus, Blackblood, you actually did it!"

The changeling nodded proudly, "It was either his eye or his genitals."

Sriviramen looked back at the ambassador. "Well, genitals is always the right answer in that case, but this is still impressive."

"Thank you, doctor." Blackblood bowed.

Sriviramen got Gorefang on his leash and by his side again, "What did you manage to learn from him?"

Blackblood recited the information, "The camp is currently being joint-lead by Sjin and Jesse Cox. The camp itself is currently stationed underneath a rock overhang in the mountains, but they're planning to move to what I can only assume to be Daybreak Hill as soon as ready. He would refuse to answer where we can ambush them."

Sriviramen thought it over, "I'll get with our new military director and tech director. We will sort out a plan to get this camp in our sights, and we will make sure we're waiting for them at Daybreak. Until then, until Simon decides to talk, I guess we'll have to put him in the cells."

Blackblood saluted, "Where should we put him, doctor?"

Sriviramen pulled a clipboard from his back, and flipped it to the page marked with a chart reading "Cell Layout". He read it over carefully. "Place him in Cell 24A. Right between Bluebell and Mr. Douglass. He'll have an amazing view of 'The Big Cage'."

Blackblood nodded, "It will be done, doctor."

Sriviramen nodded in certainty, and left the room, dragging Gorefang with him. Blackblood looked upon the unconscious body that was Simon Lane, and called in a few peons, who dragged him out of the Interrogation room, and into the containment cells. "May god have mercy on your soul, Simon Lane." He said sympathetically, and with that, he was carried off into the basements of YogLabs.