It was just another normal after-school day for the Cutie Mark Crusaders as they trotted back in the direction of home, talking excitedly as usual.
"So, fellow crusaders," Apple Bloom asked, "what should we do today to earn our cutie marks?"
The other two thought for a moment, and Scootaloo sighed.
"I don't know. I'm starting to run out of ideas."
"Oh, I have one!" Sweetie Belle said. "Let's go over to Zecora's or Twilight's place and see if we can learn science experiments!"
"We've done that before," Scootaloo reminded her. "It didn't work last time, so what makes you think it would work this time?"
"I don't know..." Sweetie Belle answered. "I just thought-"
"I've got it!" Apple Bloom suddenly gasped. "We can get our cutie marks out at the farm!"
"We've tried that, before, too," Scootaloo said dejectedly, kicking at the ground with her hoof.
"I know," Apple Bloom said, "but there's a ton of stuff to do at the farm that we haven't tried. One of them is bound to lead to our cutie marks!"
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo looked at each other.
"I guess it's worth another try," Scootaloo finally said. "Let's give it a shot."
The three continued walking home, and after a few minutes, the road they were taking grew slightly covered in shadow due to a grove of trees they were heading through. It was at this moment when a strange pony stepped out from behind one of the trees, blocking the path ahead of the fillies.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders were not scared of the new pony, merely curious as they looked at him. His coat was a very light gray color, but his mane was jet-black and smoothed down, except for the very top which was spiked up a bit. The pony also had startlingly bright yellow eyes, which seemed to almost glow in the shadows. The strange thing though was his cutie mark, which seemed to be nothing more than a black smudge on either side of his flank.
"Excuse me, little fillies," the pony said in a somewhat low, raspy voice, "but I was wondering if you could take a few minutes to help me find my pet rabbit. I was just walking along, and for no particular reason, he went running off into these trees. He's what I was looking for before you three came along."
The three fillies looked at each other, thinking.
"We should do it," Scootaloo said. "We could get our cutie marks in finding lost animals!"
"Yeah!" Sweetie Belle agreed enthusiastically. "Let's do it!"
"Well- I don't know if-" Apple Bloom started.
Scootaloo turned, and spoke to the stallion.
"We'd be happy to help you!" she told him.
The stallion smiled kindly at her.
"Thank you so much. You have no idea how much I appreciate your kindness. Now, follow me, and we shall find that silly rabbit."
The stallion turned and walked off of the trail, and Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle followed, leaving Apple Bloom alone on the trail.
"-trust this pony," she finished dully.
She decided to wait for her friends, sure that they would be back in a few minutes. She tried looking through the trees to see if she could spot them, but she saw no sign of her friends or the strange stallion. She was also suddenly aware of how quiet it was. If her friends or the stallion were talking to one another, they were being extremely quiet.
After five minutes of waiting, Apple Bloom could not take it anymore, and called into the trees.
"Sweetie Belle! Scootaloo!"
There was no answer. Now Apple Bloom was definitely worried. The grove of trees that surrounded the trail was relatively small, and her friends should've been able to hear her yell.
Apple Bloom thought about being brave and running into the trees to go looking for her friends, but she realized that was a good way for her to disappear, too, just like her friends. She knew the best thing to do was to go get help. The little filly began running along the path through the grove of trees, and she saw the end of the grove, where the sunlight finally lit up the path once again with full force. She was almost there-
Something hard slammed into the back of Apple Bloom's head, and she cried out and fell to the ground, and the last thing she saw before she lost consciousness was somepony stepping in front of her, blocking her view of the sunlight.
It took awhile for Apple Bloom to awaken, but even as she woke up slowly, she could tell she was in an unfamiliar place. By the time she was fully awake, she was fully aware of her surroundings. She was in a small, dimly-lit room with two doors. One was a normal-looking door and it seemed to be the way out, but blocking the way was the stallion she had seen lead her two friends into the woods. And he was not looking so nice now.
The second door was made of solid metal, and led into another room the same size as the one they were in. She could tell this because there was a large window on the wall next to the door which stretched all the way to the opposite wall, allowing them a view inside the room. Next to the metal door was a turning valve and some kind of gauge.
The next thing she noticed were that there were seven other fillies in the room besides her. Two of them were her friends Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, and the others she also recognized: Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, Snips, Snails, and Twist. All of the ponies in the room were awake but seemed too scared to say anything, all except Diamond Tiara who was standing and glaring angrily at the stallion by the door.
"You have no right to just kidnap us, you know," she spat at him. "Do you even know who my father is? My father is a very powerful pony. When he finds out you've taken me, you'll be sorry!"
"I do indeed know who your father is," the stallion said calmly. "And I can assure you that he will never find out anything. I've been doing this for years, and I've never been caught."
The stallion turned slightly, so the fillies could see the side of his flank. And what was there was not the black smudge that had been hiding his real cutie mark earlier, this was his cutie mark in all its glory, a dagger dripping blood.
All the fillies gasped, seeing this, and the stallion smiled at them.
"Do not fear, my little ponies," he told them. "I am simply a scientist, and a very good one at that. You see, I conduct experiments that other scientists wouldn't dare to dream about. Unfortunately... the others do not understand the glory of real science... that's why I have to do it, alone, away from other ponies."
"Oh, yeah?" Diamond Tiara said. "Then what do you need us for?"
"I'll show you," the stallion said. "Oh, and I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I am known as Cutler. And I already know who all of you fillies are. Anyways, now that we've got that out of the way, I need a volunteer... Ah, how about you," Cutler said, motioning at Sweetie Belle with his hoof.
"Me?" Sweetie Belle said, suddenly looking even more scared than she already was. "What do you want me to do?"
"I shall show you," Cutler said. "Don't worry, I am not going to hurt you."
"Oh, okay," Sweetie Belle squeaked, now sounding positively terrified.
Cutler's horn glowed, and the metal door that led into the opposite room opened.
"Head in there, little filly. That's all you have to do."
Without waiting for Sweetie to move, Cutler's horn glowed again, and Sweetie was tossed inside of the room, where the metal door closed heavily and locked.
"Over to the window," Cutler ordered the other fillies, who were too terrified to argue.
Crowding around the window, they could all see Sweetie Belle standing in the other room alone, fear in her eyes, silently begging them to help her. Several tears rolled down her cheeks.
"The room that the test subject is in is called a compression chamber," Cutler said, clearly enjoying how scared they all were. "I've done this experiment before, but what can I say? A good scientist always does an experiment more than once for the best results. Now, observe what happens when the pressure in the room is increased."
Cutler's horn glowed, and the valve next to the metal door began slowly turning. Although the ponies watching from the outside room couldn't notice anything, Sweetie Belle sure could. The filly got a panicked look on her face, and started to run around in circles, frantic. As the valve continued to turn more, Sweetie Belle put her hooves over her ears, and began screaming in pain.
As the horrified ponies continued to watch, Sweetie suddenly fell flat on her stomach on the floor of the compression chamber, and her body began expanding slowly as she twitched, still screaming.
As the fillies watched, transfixed with horror, Sweetie's flank began moving on its own, and suddenly several long feces were forced out of her rear end. Several of the ponies gasped in disgust, Diamond Tiara turned and thew up, and Twist, Snips, and Snails just fainted at the sight.
As the valve continued to turn, Apple Bloom wasn't even aware that she was screaming for her friend at the top of her lungs, and that's when more feces and brown liquid shot out of Sweetie's rear end, followed a second later by a long strand of grayish intestines, which slowly forced itself out of her anus, stretching across the floor and curling like a snake. As Sweetie continued to twitch, the intestine suddenly swelled up and burst, spilling chunky brown liquid and blood across the floor and Sweetie's hind legs, and now it was Silver Spoon's turn to turn and throw up everywhere.
As Apple Bloom continued to scream, unable to take her eyes off what she was seeing, she saw what happened next. White chunky vomit began to dribble out of Sweetie's mouth at first, but after a few seconds, it turned into a steady stream, gushing from her mouth as the intense pressure forced it right out of her. And that was when the final part of the experiment happened. Vomit continued to flow from the filly's mouth, although now, it was mixed with blood, and a second later, Sweetie's throat swelled, almost cartoonishly, and a second later, her entire stomach forced itself into her mouth and ruptured, spilling the rest of what was in it out of Sweetie's mouth in a spray. The disgusting chunky red-and-white mix spread across the floor even as Cutler finally turned the pressure off in the chamber, laughing at what he had just accomplished.
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo laid down in the small room that they had been taken to, crying. After Cutler's experiment, the fillies had been taken by him to another part of the gloomy facility one at a time, and locked them all up in a room together. They had been there for several hours now, as Cutler "had to go set up the rest of the experiments".
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were the only two ponies making noise with their sobs, the other ponies were either crying silently or too shocked to make a sound.
"Wh- what do ya think is gonna happen now, Scoots?" Apple Bloom finally managed to choke out awhile later.
"I'm not sure," Scootaloo replied. Still in shock over Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo couldn't manage any more words.
At that moment, the door to the room suddenly burst open, and Cutler trotted in, holding a very big hacking knife in one hoof. Without a word, he walked up to Snips, who screamed as Cutler grabbed him with his other hoof, and threw him against the wall.
Cutler casually walked over to the door and used his magic to lock it again, before going over to Snips.
"Observe," Cutler instructed the other ponies. "You will now be shown how high a pony's blood pressure can rise in the fear of certain death."
"L-Let me go!" Snips shouted in fear.
Cutler just smiled.
"That's the spirit."
Cutler walked up behind Snips, and grabbed him before the filly could escape. Snips began to scream and struggle, and that's when Cutler used his other hoof, and brought it down hard on the back of his neck. Snips convulsed uncontrollably, and red blood began running down from the back of his neck, turning his blue coat a dark purple color.
Grinning in anticipation, Cutler swung the knife again and again, and more blood exited Snips' body in a violent spray, getting all over Cutler's face and the floor. Snip's head was now only halfway on, and falling forward. Another hack, and it was only hanging on by one more flap of skin. One more hack, and it fell and rolled forward, giving all of the horrified fillies a clear view of the inside of his neck, with torn flesh and muscle hanging down from it.
Cutler let Snips' body fall back against the wall, where blood jetted from the stump for a few seconds before slowing down to a steady flow.
"That was fun," Cutler said as he watched the dark puddle around Snips' body spread. "But there is no time to rest. More experiments must be done!"
Cutler's horn glowed, and all the fillies in the room, minus the dead Snips, were lifted up into the air, helpless as Cutler unlocked the door and took them out of the room. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo exchanged tear-filled glances at each other, but both were afraid to say anything.
In a minute, the fillies arrived at another locked door, which Cutler unlocked and opened and threw them all inside. As he stepped into the room behind them, the door swung shut and locked again.
The room that the fillies were in was a large, dimly lit room, about six times larger than their classroom at school. In the dead center of the room was a cross, with rope on it for tying unfortunate ponies to the thing. Around the base of the cross were three small black boxes.
"Now, who would like to volunteer for this experiment?" Cutler asked. "How about- you?" he suggested pointing at Snails.
"But- but-" Snails said, looking sick and terrified. He turned and looked at the other ponies, his eyes silently pleading for help, but they all looked down and pretended not to notice.
"Looks like it is settled, then," Cutler said with a smile.
As Cutler's horn glowed, Snails was lifted up into the air, where he was forced onto the cross, and the ropes tightly wound around his front hooves and knotted themselves, securing him there.
"I want all of you to watch," Cutler told the rest of the fillies, "or you'll be joining him up there."
Not seeing any other choice, the fillies all watched, expecting the worst, as Cutler's horn glowed again. For a moment, the black boxes around the base of the cross swelled, and then they all violently exploded in bursts of fire and smoke. All the fillies were hurled to the ground from the shock of the blast, while Cutler merely staggered.
As Apple Bloom hit the ground, she was dimly aware that something had hit her very hard in the face, and there was now liquid running down her cheeks.
"Look at this!" Cutler gasped as the rest of the fillies slowly got back up. "Isn't it just wonderful?"
Snails was still on the cross, but he was trying to scream in pain. He was only attached to the cross by one hoof though, as the other one had been completely blown off, along with his entire left hind leg and part of his right one, all of the stumps of now ended with charred, bloody shredded flesh and torn muscle. His body was bloody, and his stomach had been split open. The sudden depressurization of the area after the bombs had gone off had also caused both of his eyes to be sucked right out of his head, and they now hung down his face, still attached to their optic nerves. Blood ran from the sockets like tears down his face.
A few minutes later, after much screaming and a little more vomiting, Cutler had finally grown tired with the reactions, and now was carrying the fillies to yet another part of the facility, while Snails was left behind, still on the cross.
Finally, Cutler reached their destination, and threw the fillies all into another room. There were rags on the floor in this room, and they all lifted into the air and flew into the fillies' mouths.
"I'm tired of your screaming," Cutler told them sternly. "If you take those out, you will die."
Without further explanation, he suddenly lifted Diamond Tiara into the air, who tried to scream through the gag, and failed miserably. The other ponies could do nothing but watch as Cutler carried her over to a small tube that stuck out about six inches from the floor, and set her down plot-first on it, forcing it all the way up into her anus. Diamond Tiara's eyes bulged and even with the rag in her mouth, the other ponies could clearly hear the attempted scream of agony.
"Now," Cutler said, walking over to the other ponies. "Have you ever wondered what would happen if you pumped boiling water straight into a pony? I don't either, this is the first time I've done this experiment... But we will find out, won't we?"
Cutler went over and turned a pump on the wall. Instantly, a small pool of steaming water began puddling out from where Diamond Tiara was sitting, and Diamond Tiara herself began to shake violently, though unable to move.
"Water- boiling hot- is getting pumped straight into her body at high pressure," Cutler said, enjoying the moment.
Several seconds later, after more hot water getting pumped into her, Diamond Tiara's mouth opened wide, and the rag fell out. Her eyes bulged in unbearable agony, and her head tilted back. A second later, a huge amount of steaming water mixed with half-digested food and a huge amount of blood spurted out of the poor filly's mouth like a fountain.
Laughing, Cutler went over and turned off the pump, and Diamond Tiara settled back down with her eyes glassy.
Cutler thought for a moment.
"Stay here," he told the remainders.
Cutler walked out the door, but as he did, he suddenly turned with his horn glowing and lifted up Silver Spoon, who tried to scream, before they both were out the door which locked again, leaving only Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Twist in the room, along with Diamond Tiara's corpse.
Twist looked around, at Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, and at Diamond Tiara's lifeless body, and tears began running down her face.
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo exchanged terrified glances, but were too afraid to take the rags out of their mouths, for fear that Cutler would return at any moment. And return, he did, a few minutes later.
Cutler entered the room, levitating two large buckets, and the door swung shut behind him.
"Hello, ponies," Cutler said. "I'm going to try a rather tame experiment here. "I'm going to see whether a pony can drown in a ground-up body, or puke, faster. Yes, I'm going to drown one of you in your own sick that you've been leaving all over the place, and I'm going to drown another one of you in Silver Spoon."
Without anything else, he quickly removed the rags from Scootaloo's and Twist's mouths, used his magic to lift them into the air, and shoved their heads down into the buckets. It looked as if Scootaloo was being forced to drown in ground-up Silver Spoon, while Twist was struggling to keep her head above the bucket of vomit that it was being forced into.
"Die, die!" Cutler cackled. Without warning, he produced a small knife from his mane and rammed it into Twist's neck, and now the pony was choking on her own blood as she drowned in the sick. Quickly as he had done that, he turned and rammed it into Scootaloo's back, and Apple Bloom heard her friend try to scream, but just inhaled a huge amount of Silver Spoon into her lungs.
Apple Bloom watched this, panicking...
And suddenly remembered that Cutler had forgotten to lock the door when he had entered. This didn't comprehend right away, but it did a second later. Apple Bloom spit the rag out of her mouth, went over to the door, opened it, and ran out, hearing Cutler's surprised shout behind her. It didn't matter. All Apple Bloom knew that she just had to follow the large hall, the main one, and it would lead her to the front door. She just hoped she was going the right way, if she wasn't, and she hit a dead end-
Apple Bloom turned a corner, and there it was, right there, the front door, but it was surely locked, it had to be locked-
She slammed into the wooden door and nearly fell right on her face when it flew open. She regained her balance, and began running blindly through some trees. She appeared to be in the woods, although she couldn't have been too deep in, because the bright blue sky was still visible. She kept running, running, and after five minutes, yes, there it was, a path, the main path that would take her back to Ponyville, if she could only make it to the path, everything would be fine-
Apple Bloom's legs were suddenly pulled out from under her by an invisible force, and she fell to the ground, but was immediately lifted back into the air by a very angry Cutler, who had been chasing her the whole time.
"You, my dear, could've gotten me into a lot of trouble if you had escaped," Cutler declared. "We can't have that."
Using his magic to hold Apple Bloom's mouth shut so she wouldn't cry for help, he began to carry her back through the woods, back to his hidden facility.
