//------------------------------// // Chapter 16 (Rewrite) // Story: Living Nightmare // by Autum Breeze //------------------------------// Warning This chapter will depict scenes of sadism and torture. Please keep this in mind. Chapter 16 ___________________________________________________________ Water splashes onto my face and I cough, blinking my eyes to try and see where I am. “She’s awake, your highness,” the female voice I heard before blacking out says and I just catch sight of the unicorn mare from before passing by me. The room I'm in is dark and I can't really see much, but ponies had such bright colours, they were easy to spot, even in darkness, depending on the level of darkness, that is. As she moves away another unicorn walks past her and stops in front of me. He has a white coat, blonde mane and is wearing things that look like those pins only royalty wear. I realize who he is almost at once. Luna and Twilight had told me about him. Prince Blueblood. He is one of the least liked of the Royal Family, Rarity telling me he had the manners of a mule, yet even they would have more courtesy than he did. I also become all too aware of the straps holding me down and the metal collar around my neck. “Wh-what are you doing?” I ask, both angry and scared. I’d just learned I’ll never see my family again several days ago. Couldn’t whatever this bully of a prince want wait until I’d at least had a good cry? "Where're Fancy Pants and Fleur?" The last thing I remember is Fleur and myself sitting by the fire in Fancy Pants' living room, before the crashing of glass and Fancy's caused caused us to go and check what was happening. I'd heard a voice say, "Got her", then everything went black. He smirks and I feel a chill go down my spine. “Those two upstanding, yet misguided ponies you were no doubt planning on causing harm to are safe and sound back at their estate. And, as for what i'm doing, I’m going to give you the punishment that my aunties are too kind-hearted and foolish to give you. The punishment you deserve.” I suddenly realize that I can’t feel my mane or tail billowing. I try to glance back, but my head is being held in place by straps. I'm lying on my stomach on some kind of large metal table. “Wondering where your mane and tail are?” Blueblood asks, sneering. “Your mane and tail are manifestations of the infinite well of magic within you. The well you copied from my aunt when you took her away. So, with that anti-magic collar blocking all you magic, you've become a bald filly.” He chuckles. “Makes you look even more pathetic than you already are.” I struggle, trying to free myself, use my magic, anything, but it's like something is blocking my connection. I feel helpless and sacred. I can’t use my magic, I can’t get out of the straps. I stare at Prince Blueblood as he draws nearer, the grin on his face scaring me beyond anything I’ve ever felt. “P-p-please,” I begg, my voice squeaking. “L-let me go. I-I haven’t done anything wrong.” His sneer turns into a snarl. “Nothing wrong? Nothing wrong? You corrupted my aunt and tore her from her sister for a thousand years and you have the gall to say you did nothing wrong!?” I would have winced when he started shouting, but the straps stop me from moving at all. “Prince Blueblood,” the mare’s voice says sternly from somewhere I can’t see. Blueblood calms down, his sneer returning. “You will pay for what you’ve done, monster. And we will start with your magic.” My eyes bulge. “Wh-wh-what are you gonna do?” His eyes flashed with something dark and his sneer becomes even crueler. “Bring the guillotine.” My heart stops. A guillotine?! He's going to chop off my head?! My fear turns into confusion when the mare from before comes into my eyesight, a really small version of a guillotine floating in her magic, which is brown, like her eyes. I cock an eyebrow at the tiny thing. I’ve seen stuff like it before. A friend of my family had one he used to chop his fruits. What were they planning on doing with it? There's no way my head would fit through the hole. I get my answer seconds later and my stomach drops again. Blueblood moves something like a small table in front of me, then places the tiny guillotine on it and starts pushing it towards me with his magic. It takes a second for me to see where it's headed. I try everything I cab to move, to do something, but I'm powerless as he moves the hole of the guillotine over my horn and locks it into place. I stare at him, my eyes wide and brimming with tears, knowing full-well just what he has in mind. “Please,” I whimper, tears sliding down my face. “Please, don’t.” He just chuckles, and pulls a string on the guillotine, releasing the tiny blade. It's over in a second. My eyes widen further in horror as my horn seemes to fall down passed my eyesight in slow motion, before it hits the table, making a dull thumping sound as it hits the metal, then bounces off and out of my sight. I hadn’t even felt it. The blade had just cut through my horn like a knife through butter. My breathing becomes faster and heavier. He cut off my horn. He cut off my horn. HE CUT OFF MY HORN!! Through my tears I see Blueblood lean down and pick my horn up with his hoof. He grins, tossing it to the mare, who grabs it with her magic, a sinister smile on her face as she movedsout of sight again, then Blueblood turns his attention back to me. “Now that your magic’s gone, let’s deal with your flight.” My blood goes cold, and it had already gone cold ages ago. My wings?! He's going to take away my wings, too?! The sound of hooves came from somewhere behind me and Blueblood grinned. “I told you all,” he said, sounding pleased. “Celestia and Luna would never had punished her properly. But now we, the only ponies with sense, will deal her what she deserves.” “It’s a good thing I talked with that young Rich mare filly while I was staying in Ponyville,” a stallion’s voice said. “She told me angrily that it wasn’t fair that this monster got to spend Hearth’s Warming with the princesses whilst her own family are shunned.” He chuckles. “Bet she’ll be pleased to learn when she’s been dealt with.” My stomach twists. Rich mare? Like, Filthy Rich Rich. But, but that means Diamond Tiara. She told these crazy ponies where to find me? She sent them to do this to me? No. No, she wouldn’t. Tiara is mean and a bully, but she wouldn’t go that far... would she? “So,” Blueblood calls out, pulling me from my thought, “who’s ready to free the skies of this beast?” There're cheers and I would have trembled if the straps weren’t holding me in place. I feel magical auras grip my wings and pull them out, stretching them until they were wide. “First,” Blueblood sneers, “remove the feathers. We want to make her suffer for what she’s done to my aunts.” Without warning I feel a sharp tug as one of my primary feathers is torn out by somepony’s magic. I winced as best I can in the straps, whimpering. It hurts. It hurts so much. Again and again and again they pull out my feathers. Each time they do, I cry out in pain. Twilight, Rainbow and Fluttershy had taught me how to preen my feathers without hurting myself, but the way these ponies are yanking out my feathers is ten times worse than any of the times I’d messed up while learning to preen and yanked one out myself. When all my feathers are gone I'm sobbing, my now bear wings aching from the pain and the feeling of having no feathers on them. “Now for the really fun part,” Blueblood grins. I feel the magical grip on my wings drop, causing them to brush against the table and my sides. I wince at how tender they feel and try to keep them outstretched, if only so they weren’t brushing against anything. “What are you talking about, Blueblood?” one mare’s voice asks, sounding confused. “We’ve taken her horn and her ability to fly. Removing all the feathers means it will take months for them all to grow back, during which time she will be in immense pain whilst her wings are bear. Isn’t that enough?” Blueblood’s sneer turned into a cold look. “What are you implying?” “Well,” the stallion from before says, though I still can’t see him, "we all came to you because you told us if we helped you we could properly punish Nightmare Moon.” “And we’ve done that,” another mare’s voice says, sounding unsure. “What more could we do?” The cold look turns into a dark sneer. “First her horn, then her feathers. Now, we remove her wings.” A chilling silence goes through the dark room. Nopony says anything for several moments. Then, one mare speaks up. “Are you mad?!” At once I feel magic tugging the straps holding my hind legs. “We’re not removing her wings—” There is the sound of a magical aura and a scream, followed by the magic tugging at my straps stopping and the sound of something thudding against a wall. “What’s in Tartarus is wrong with you?” an angry stallion’s voice shouts, followed by running hooves and his voice asking, “How badly are you hurt?” “You fools! Don’t you see! If we don’t remove her wings she will only rise up again!” Blueblood looks at each of them, his eyes holding something I can only call insanity. “She’s just a filly, Blueblood!” one mare’s voice says and I feel several different magical grips taking hold of the straps. "We all agree that she needs to pay for what she did, but even so, she's still just a filly!" “NO!” There is a flash and the sound of dozens of bodies hitting the wall followed. Blueblood glares beyond me and then walks out of my line of sight. I hear him use his magic again, before the room goes quiet. “I’ll just tell auntie they were crazed ponies, willing to discredit me,” I hear him mutter as he comes back and stands in front of me again, his sneer returning. “After all, I'm above suspicion, since I've let her use my own personal guards in her pointless search. Oh, well. If nopony’s going to help me, I’ll just enjoy this all by myself.” I whimper as he moves away, his magical grip taking hold of my left wing. “I promise, this is going to hurt, a lot.” I scream as his magic suddenly yanksmy wing and I feel it dislocate. “Shut up!” he shouts, slamming a hoof into my head before he pulls again, even harder. I would have screamed louder, but the world is going black and I feel something taking over me, but it in’t sleep. Mama! I thought, not caring who my thoughts went out to. Please, save me! Save me from the monster!