//------------------------------// // Chapter Five // Story: Starving // by Foals Errand //------------------------------// Twilight stood up on shaky legs and approached the bars to her cell, hopeful that she might be able to at least request an audience with Princess Celestia. She just had to be calm and clear headed. "Please! If you just get Princess Celestia, there’s a rational explanation!" So much for being calm… The guard clenched his teeth together before firing off a blast of magic with his horn. “Shut up, you monster!” Twilight flew back and slammed hard into the wall. She crumpled to the floor with a soft moan, gasping as she lifted a shaking hoof to touch her stinging, swollen left eyelid. Taking a brief moment of clarity, she felt three blisters forming around the stricken area. She winced as she tried to open her eye, quickly closing it again as the stinging overloaded her tolerance. Biting back tears, she shakily got to her hooves and walked back to the bars to face her jailer. "I beg of you—get Princess Celestia!" “I said shut up, monster! We’re not as helpless as you think.” The guard snarled, his horn again glowing gray. "Please, just listen to me! I'm not a changeling—I'm Twilight Sparkle!" Twilight looked up at him, a whimper escaping her lips. “You have to believe me.” After a few moments the guard smiled and the cell door swung open. “I know one way to find out what you are!” He stepped into the cell, the door slamming shut behind him. Twilight swallowed as she stared up at him. “H-how?” “I’ll get you to tell me... and you’re gonna tell me everything.” The guard lowered his head to glare into Twilight’s remaining good eye. “And I mean everything.” Twilight nodded quickly. “Of course! I'm Twilight Sparkle. My big brother is Shining Armor, and I'm Princess Celestia’s most prized and personal student. I-I’m also the bearer of the Element of Magic!” The guard narrowed his eyes before striking her full across the face with the back of his hoof. “Try again, bug.” Twilight’s yelped as her head snapped back from the force of the strike. She rubbed her tender face, the pain blossoming over her cheek and muzzle. “I’m not lying!” she cried. “I really am Twilight Sparkle. I-I live in Ponyville, and—” As the second strike connected, she felt her cheek crack. A high cry escaped her, escalating into a continuous low whimper while she massaged the damaged bone. Twilight fell, staring at the floor as green ichor dripped out of her mouth. After a moment she spat out one of her fangs. With a shaky breath, she got back to her hooves, her muzzle trembling. “I can do this all day, changeling.” “I… I can't see out of my left eye. I-it’s hard to talk... I need a doctor. It hurts so much…” Twilight closed her eye tightly before letting out a sob. “Shining Armor… Please save me, BBBFF... save me.” The guard raised his hoof for a third time, but lowered it as the dungeon door opened. A pegasus stallion walked in. “Anything?” the new arrival asked. Twilight’s aggressor shook his head. “Subject is uncooperative... to say the least.” Having taken the precious seconds of distraction to compose herself, Twilight turned to the new guard. “Please get Shining Armor, I beg of you. My brother will be able to fix this. If I could talk to him for just a few minutes and answer some security questions, I know he will recognize me.” The unicorn guard sneered. “Oh? You seem so sure of yourself, changeling. But answer me this: what if I told you it was Captain Armor himself who ordered us to do this?” “I…” Twilight swallowed hard and shook her head vigorously. “No! Shining Armor would never do this! You must be lying. He’d only ever order somepony into holding! If he knew about what’s going on in here, he’d have you both replacing me in this cell.” “Do you think us to be that stupid?” the guard asked. “You think we would give you a chance to let you play those games with the captain? Give you the chance to lie to and trick him?” With a snort, he turned his back to her. Twilight watched as he turned away. Still massaging her cheek, she ignored her stinging eye and reached out to the guard. “I really mean it. If you’d just—” The guard lifted his left hind leg and bucked in one fluid motion; Twilight’s tibia shattered under the impact, the sickening snap preceding her piercing screams. “You really think we’re stupid don’t you, bug?” The pegasus guard snorted. Twilight looked at him and hissed, baring her remaining fang before continuing to whimper and clutch at her ruined leg. The unicorn lifted her into the air. “Let’s send a message that its Queen will feel!" he said, watching as Twilight squirmed in his magical grip, her good legs kicking out in hopes of catching his nose. The pegasus grinned, his eyes roving over their captive. Green ichor oozed from her wounds as she struggled. “I like your thinking, Sergeant.” Twilight ceased her flailing and whimpered, her good eye looking between the pair. “Should we... blind it?” The pegasus guffawed at the sight of Twilight. She quickly shut her remaining eye defensively. “Hmmm... No, I want it to see what’s coming,” the unicorn stated after a few seconds of thought. The pegasus rubbed his chin. A few seconds later, he narrowed his eyes and stared at Twilight’s wings, buzzing erratically. “What about those bucking noisy wings? I really hate that sound.” “I already have the perfect tool for that.” The unicorn clopped his forehooves together, the sound echoing through the cell. “This won’t take long.” Twilight whimpered, her every thought hanging onto hope of escaping this with her life and sanity intact. “L-listen… I’ll do anything you want, just… you don’t have to d-do this. There’s still time to g-get Shining Armor… or Cadance… or P-Princess Luna… or Princess Celestia!" The unicorn glared at her, his eyes blazing. “Y-you bucking monster... My patience with you is wearing extremely thin. If you say their names one more time you will regret it—I promise you that, bug!” Twilight opened her eye, seeing naught but pure venom in the stallion’s eyes. This might be my last chance... She swallowed hard, looked up, and took a deep breath. "Princess Celestiaaaaaa! Princess Luna, heeeelp! Caaada—” The unicorn bucked her with both hooves this time, smashing her square in the face. Had Twilight not been held in the air she would have collapsed to the ground; instead she just hung there motionless, coughing and moaning. Her remaining fang fell out of her mouth, a green ichor following it to the floor. The dungeon door swung open. Through her haze of pain and disorientation, Twilight barely heard the sound of a third set of hooves entering the cell. She tried to focus as she heard the galloping stop. “Reporting, Sir!” Twilight opened her eye, seeing the newcomer gave a crisp salute. She recoiled as she saw a glint off of his feathers. The unicorn guard pointed a hoof at the broken changeling. “This one’s an escape risk,” he growled. “We’d better do something about those wings, soldier!” The new guard gave a crisp nod, spreading his wings to reveal the blades beneath his feathers. Twilight’s heart hammered in her chest, her pupils shrinking to the size of the sweat beading off her forehead. Whimpering, unable to turn away, her breath caught in her throat as time seemed to slow. The blades came to rest at the ready, poised near her left wing and eager to taste blood. “No… please… you don’t have to… don’t do this…” She eyed her captors, each smiling with a malevolent gleam in their eyes. “I don’t want to die…” “Do it.” “I don’t want to die… I don’t want to die…” The pegasus slammed the blades together. Twilight’s howl filled the dungeons as the cold, merciless metal shore through her frail, sensitive wings, green liquid dripped from the fresh incision. She looked down, sobbing at the sight of her wingtip—still twitching—on the floor. “I don’t want to die. P-please… I don’t want to d-die…” “Then drop the charade!” the unicorn yelled, striking her in the stomach. Twilight gasped as she felt one of her ribs crack beneath his hoof. “Who are you really, and why are you here, scum? What is your plan?” Twilight’s lip quivered, ichor still dripping from her open wound. “I t-told you alre-ready… I’m T-Twilight Sparkle… E-element bearer… Sister of S-Shining Armor… Please, I d-don’t want to die… I don’t want to die.” The guard snorted and pulled his hoof back. “You’re a slow learner.” He looked to the pegasus again. “Lower, this time.” “No! Don’t, please, d-don’t do it! I’ll do a-anything—” “Anything except tell the truth, it seems,” the other pegasus said. He nodded at the blade wielder. The dungeon filled with fresh screams and buzzing as the shears once more tore into Twilight’s wings. Her nerves were on fire, incinerating her pain receptors. Her eyes burned, hot tears were forcing their way through her ducts and pouring down her cheeks. “Are you ready to be honest yet, filth?” the unicorn asked, pulling her in closer to his face. He pinned her legs together as he floated her within a foot of himself. “You can leave here either in pieces or in shards. Your call.” “I don’t w-want to die… I don’t want to die… I don’t want to die...” The blades moved toward her once again. “I d-don’t want to die…” The blades sheared through her wing as though it were paper. “I don’t want t-to diiiiiiiiiiie!”