One year on from the Friendship Test, and Starlight Glimmer was getting comfortable - too comfortable...
[MagpiePony gave me permission to write this, so please support the original writer!]
Starlight Glimmer proved to herself that friendship wasn't magic. One year on, she still had not received any kind of revenge, or backlash, despite telling Rarity that she could seek whatever punishment she saw fit. Just as she's enjoying a relaxing bath, it seems like that punishment has come after all...
Starlight Glimmer chuckled to herself as she entered her home and shut the door behind her. It had been a year since her Friendship Test and thinking about it still brought a smile to her face and a giggle to her lips. Not only did she prove that the magic of friendship was little more than mindless fluff, but she also got some well-earned revenge on the five pony victims. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and the oh-so-special Twilight Sparkle all got to experience first hoof just how pointless their friendship was to their abilities. Moreover, the one survivor – Rarity – seemingly went back to her career as a fashion designer without so much as a second thought. It shouldn’t have been that surprising though, given how quickly she opted to brand Twilight in the kindness test, or how willingly she threw Fluttershy under the bus during the final test of honesty.
So much for her not being able to go on without her ‘friends’… Starlight thought to herself.
She set down her saddlebags and retrieved a magazine from it. Within the pages was yet another article about Rarity’s latest clothing line. Starlight suspected that the Friendship Test must have at least humbled the fashionista unicorn – pre-test, any article about her new collection would’ve been accompanied by a photoshoot and interview, resulting in her face being plastered across the pages. These days there were no photos of the designer, and no interview either; just the inclusion of a pre-written statement about the designs and what her inspirations were.
Despite her statement that Rarity could seek whatever punishment she saw fit for the deaths of her friends, Starlight noted that nothing had happened for a month, or two months, or three. Before she knew it, a year had passed and there had been no attempt on her freedom, or her life, so she was content to just enjoy herself. In fact, she’d just returned from a trip to the White Tail Woods with Trixie. She loved spending time with her blue mare friend, but after a week in the wilds with Trixie’s extroverted personality, Starlight needed some time to herself. She went into her bathroom and ran herself a nice hot bath.
Life in Ponyville had been very weird since five of the elemental ponies had gone missing. The mood in Equestria overall had been tainted by their disappearance, and the Princesses were working around the clock to keep peace and order, as new wielders for the elements of harmony had not been selected. Partly – she imagined – because they held onto the hope that they would be found safely, or perhaps because they refused to select new wielders until it was proven that the original wielders were no longer alive. Not that they would get such confirmation, Starlight had used an interdimensional spell to hide their bodies where only somepony of her magical ability could find them.
Once the tub was filled, she threw in a bath bomb, and lit a few candles.
Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed, and Starlight practically jumped out of her skin. She tried to calm her hyperventilated breathing as she eased herself into the soothing, hot waters. Starlight tried to ignore the storm, but it wasn’t easy. Though not a one to be afraid, generally speaking, she had a particular problem with thunderstorms; not because of the physical presence of thunder and lightning, but because it reminded her of the vicious fights her parents had when she was a filly. She vividly recalled hiding under her bed covers as they stomped their hooves, shouted loudly and attacked each other with their magic. Is it any wonder that her father was so doting and placative to her during the daytime? He was such a hypocrite. If he truly wanted to make her happy, he’d stop lashing out at her mother for working away from home when she was the main provider.
BANG. BANG. BANG.
She immediately sat up. It sounded like someone banging on her front door. Her horn ignited with turquoise as she magicked up a screen overlooking the outside of her home. She could see the rain, and the plants being knocked around in the wind, but there was no one at the door. Starlight shrugged. It was probably just rocks and debris being moved by the storm. She sank back into the bathtub. Although she didn’t like thunderstorms, she did enjoy the rain that accompanied them. She lay still, listening to the comforting sounds of the rain outside, interspersed with the small splashes of her movement in the tub.
SCREEEEEEEEEECH.
She sat up again, looking over at the window by the sink. She squinted. Was there always a long crack in the glass? Again, her horn lit up, combining a time spell with the screen spell, and rewinding a few seconds to see if somepony had walked by her window. But there was nothing there. Starlight dismissed the spells and once again put the disturbance down to the storm disturbing the sticks and pebbles on the ground.
TAP. TAP. TAP. TAP. TAP.
“WHAT NOW?” She snapped.
She heard a crackling noise, like the starting of a fire over kindling and coal and wondered what could be causing it. The door began to glow orange. She leapt out of the tub and readied her magic, fully prepared for whatever was coming for her… or so she thought.
The bathroom door creaked and groaned, and the room became much warmer than it had already been, as an enormous burnt orange pegasus burst through the door. He reared up threateningly and made a whinny that sounded like the bellowing roar of a dragon. His mouth was full of blood-stained fangs, his wings flapped furiously, creating a looming shadow over her. Starlight froze on the spot as his fiery eyes burned into her very soul. Before she could react, she felt his heavy back hooves crack into the side of her head. The last thing she saw was his razor-sharp teeth reaching out for her.
Upper Crust awoke to a monstrous headache. One too many glasses of apple champagne, no doubt. She could feel a liquid on her head and immediately assumed it was the results of an ice pack melting, likely placed there by her darling Jet Set. She reached up to move the ice pack, but she couldn’t raise her hoof high enough. That’s when she saw the metal restraints on all four of her limbs, containing her to a hospital bed. She looked around the room she was in, and realised it wasn’t her bedroom.
It was a sizeable area, with an air of coldness and sterility like that of a hospital operating room, completed by the fluorescent lighting glaring overhead. A set of double doors and a long stretch of windows were on the wall she faced. On the other side of the windows were rows upon rows of lecture seating, indicating that this was some kind of observation room, though no pony was observing her. Beneath the windows was a long, deep black chest, possibly a freezer owing to the power cable attached to it being plugged into a nearby outlet. A sinking feeling struck Upper Crust in the pit of her stomach. She glanced to her left, and saw three other ponies, also restrained to hospital beds, but she didn’t recognise them. She took a closer look at the pony next to her and immediately heaved, spilling a small amount of fluid that smelled of the alcohol she drank the night before. The lilac-pink mare had both back legs amputated, and the staples were still dripping blood. Unlike Upper Crust, whose forehooves were restrained to the bed, the mare beside her had her forelegs stretched upwards, apparently chained to the ceiling.
“Ugh, what a hangover…” Jet Set moaned.
Upper Crust looked to her right and saw her beloved husband… minus his unicorn horn. She once again felt the acidic thrust of liquid escaping her, upon seeing the jagged, bloodied remains of his magical appendage. As she leaned over the edge of her hospital bed and choked on her own fluids, she noticed blood drops falling into the bubbling puddle on the floor. She came to the terrifying conclusion that she had been disfigured like her husband.
“Upper Crust, is that you?” He mumbled dazedly.
“Yes, Jet, it’s me!” She squealed.
“Where are we-” Jet Set gasped in horror. “holy Celestia! Darling, your horn is gone!”
“So is yours darling!” Upper Crust wept. “I think we’ve been abducted!”
The frantic voices of the Canterlot ponies soon roused two of the other ponies in the room.
“Diamond Cutter!” cried a light-magenta coated mare to the stallion in the bed beside her. “Please, wake up! Something’s very wrong!”
“Lavender Bloom?” Diamond Cutter asked groggily.
“Oh, Cutter! Thank goodness you’re okay!” Lavender Bloom squeaked. “We have to get out of here!”
“Where is here?” Diamond Cutter wondered, catching sight of the butchered pony in the bed next to Lavender. “Bloom, keep looking at me, DON’T look at the bed next to you!”
“What?” Lavender Bloom, unable to resist the curiosity and glancing at the lilac-pink mare. “Oh…”
Lavender Bloom’s face blanched, and she passed out upon seeing the horror that Upper Crust and Diamond Cutter had also seen. Diamond Cutter called out to her, desperately trying to wake her while being restrained himself. Suddenly, a hooded figure entered the room, pushing a stainless-steel cart through the double doors. The three conscious ponies started yelling at the figure, thinking they were somepony who could help them.
“Quiet!” The mare shouted, pulling down her hood.
“Rarity??” Jet Set yelled in shock.
“Who were you expecting? Nurse Redheart?” Rarity snapped. “Don’t let your surroundings fool you, this isn’t Ponyville Hospital; this is an abandoned building that I’ve outfitted to act as a makeshift clinic.”
“If this is a horse-napping for ransom, we can pay you anything!” Upper Crust insisted. “Just let us go, please!”
“We won’t tell the authorities, we promise!” Jet Set swore.
“I don’t want money – I don’t need money!” Rarity barked. “You’re more valuable to me here.”
“We’re really sorry about what we said, Rarity,” Diamond Cutter chimed in, with a pleading voice. “we didn’t mean any of it, we were just joking.”
“We would also like to apologise,” Jet Set added as Upper Crust nodded in agreement. “we always knew you were a quality pony; we were just testing you.”
“I said quiet!” Rarity repeated. “What do you take me for? I’m not stupid! Now shut up!”
Rarity approached the lilac-pink mare in the middle bed, and with her right hoof, slapped the mare across the face a few times. When that didn’t work, she roughly pulled on the tri-coloured mane, accidentally pulling out a chunk of purple, dark purple and pale aquamarine hair. The mare groaned as the pain of being handled so roughly jerked her into consciousness. She scowled at Rarity with her furious Persian blue eyes, and saw the clump of hair in Rarity’s grasp.
“How dare you pull on my mane!” Starlight screeched, as a headache developed from where Rarity had tugged on it.
“You were taking too long to wake up!” Rarity pouted. “And I have work to do!”
“And what in Tartarus happened to your face??” Starlight Glimmer yelled.
“You mean this beautiful scar?” Rarity chuckled, brushing her hoof past a heart-shaped scorch mark around her right eye. “You’ll find out soon enough…”
Starlight immediately went to use her magic, only for her horn to splutter and remain powerless. She glared at Rarity.
“So, you finally figured out how to block another unicorn’s magic,” Starlight sneered. “took you long enough.”
“Oh, please, I’ve known that spell since I was a filly!” Rarity stuck her nose in the air. “You think your magical ability is so much better than everypony else’s but look at you now, powerless as my captive; it’s a beautiful sight.”
“Pfft, whatever,” Starlight spat. “so, how did a pathetic waste of magic like you manage to get one over on me.”
“Oh Phoenix…” Rarity sang.
A loud stomping of hooves could be heard on the other side of the double doors, and the temperature of the room went up. There was a crackling sound as the giant stallion came through the doors, scorching and burning them as he went. Starlight gasped. She immediately recognised the beastly pegasus who had broken into her home, only now seeing that the pegasus was in fact an alicorn, as a long, sharp horn on the top of his head began to glow. He was twice the height of Rarity, had a dark orange coat and a white blaze from his horn to the tip of his nose, and a strange green gemstone was embedded in his chest – distinctive details she had not noticed earlier in her fear-stricken state. His mane and tail were a glittering silver and flowed in the same way that the Princess’s did. His wings were a gradient of red to orange to yellow to white, and his eyes were like balls of fire. He snorted at Starlight indignantly.
“This is the one?” He questioned in a deep, demonic voice.
“Yes, sweetheart,” Rarity purred, as he lowered his head so she could nuzzle his cheek. “I’m sorry to bother you when you’re resting, but it’s time now, and I don’t want you to miss it!”
“What is that thing??” Jet Set gasped in horror.
“Thing?? How dare you speak that way of alicorn royalty!” Rarity growled, trotting over to him and placing both her front hooves on his chest. “This stunning beast is an ancient evil that I summoned from Tartarus – a magnificent being that taught me all manner of dark magic – so behold mortals, as I present to you, Phoenix Blaze; Prince of Healing!”
Starlight burst into uproarious laughter.
“Healing? You have got to be kidding me!” She guffawed heartily. “What’s he gonna do? Put an evil band aid on my boo boos?”
“Shut up! If not for your little test, it would be Suri Polomare in your place, but after what you did, you more than earned your participation in this event, and besides,” Rarity snickered. “you’ll need more than a band aid to fix what I’ve done to you…”
It was then that Starlight realised that her legs were so numb she couldn’t feel them. She glanced down and instantly started screaming. There were two, long, bloody lines of staples at the base of her torso where her back legs should’ve been. She continued to scream and stared wide-eyed at Rarity with a mix of horror and outrage on her face.
“As the Prince of Healing, Phoenix is going to keep you all alert and alive while I perform the sacrifice.” Rarity boasted.
“Sacrifice??” Diamond Cutter whimpered.
“Yes, you tactless colt! Sacrifice!” Rarity snarled. “I made a special promise to Phoenix when I first summoned him, and I intend to make good on that promise.”
Rarity suddenly remembered something.
“Oh, Phoenix darling,” She said, cantering over to the cart she had brought in. “I have another tribute for you.”
“Another? So soon?” He mused. “You spoil me, my little amethyst.”
She retrieved two unicorn horns from the box on lower shelf of the cart and presented them to him with a sincere bow. Upper Crust soon recognised the horns as being those of her and her husband, Jet Set. They had been cleaned, had a hole drilled through them and been threaded onto a gold chain. She very nearly threw up again, as Rarity proudly placed the chain around Phoenix’s neck like some demented trophy.
“Why are you doing this to us?” Lavender Bloom said as she regained consciousness.
“Because of her,” Rarity pointed at Starlight accusingly. “I’ll admit I’d been planning some form of revenge on you four anyway, but she was the incendiary factor that made me realise I could utilise my stress sewing for a greater purpose.”
“Ponies will soon realise that we’re gone!” Diamond Cutter fearfully yelled. “We’ll be missed by our friends and family, and you’ll be found out!”
“That’s right! Our disappearances won’t go unnoticed!” Jet Set said, suddenly gaining confidence. “So, how about we write you a blank cheque, you let us go, and we’ll say no more about it.”
“I already told you I don’t need money!” Rarity snapped. “Besides, you’d be amazed at how easy it is to cover your tracks once you know how to – a false memory spell here, a house fire there, a vanishing spell to erase one’s hoofprints…”
“Now what?” Starlight spat.
“Now the fun can begin,” Rarity smiled. “I may have removed your legs while you were unconscious, but for what I’m about to do, I wanted you to feel everything.”
Rarity used her magic to place a surgical mask over her muzzle. She then retrieved an electric rotary cutter from the steel cart and approached the hospital bed Starlight was constrained to. She lowered the bed using a pedal that she stepped on with her back hoof. Her left front hoof pressed down on Starlight’s chest, and her right hoof pushed Starlight’s face sideways against the pillow. Rarity eyes narrowed as she made a sinister grin beneath the surgical mask, and with a flick of her cornflower blue aura, the diamond-tipped sawblade whirred to life. She held it threateningly over Starlight’s face. Rarity savoured the fear and hatred in Starlight’s blue eye, as she pushed the blade into the base of the unicorn’s horn. Starlight screamed in diabolical agony as the vibration of the machine shook her very skull while it severed her flesh and bone. Lashings of red blood and droplets of light turquoise fluid splattered across the mask protecting Rarity’s face, and she laughed maniacally, enjoying every dulcet tone of Starlight’s pain and suffering.
Phoenix settled himself on the floor, happily watching his sweetheart as she indulged in the mutilation of another pony. Just a year ago, she was shy and retiring when it came to dismemberment – afraid of the blood that could stain her pristine white coat, unsure of her capabilities in this area – but now she was really throwing herself into the spirit of the art of sacrifice. Of the few ponies that ever dared to summon him, Rarity was the only one whose company he truly enjoyed. Lavender Bloom gave into her urge to vomit, spilling her dinner and stomach bile over the side of the bed, while Upper Crust and Jet Set merely looked away and flinched at every pained scream, and Diamond Cutter curled up as much as he could to hide away from the reality of what was happening. So enthusiastic in her work, Rarity cut clean through the horn and accidentally went into the pillow, and blood-spattered feathers exploded outwards. She quickly turned the rotary cutter off and returned it to the steel cart, then she excitedly jumped over to Phoenix.
“Darling, isn’t it just beautiful?” Rarity admired, offering the bloody and slightly feathery horn to him. “Would you like this one also?”
Phoenix smiled widely at her.
“You may keep it, my love,” His deep voice declared. “we will clean it and make it into a fine necklace befitting somepony of your calibre.”
Rarity blushed and giggled, placing the severed horn in the cart. Starlight lay on the bed in complete shock. Rarity; the weakest, most girlish fop of a unicorn that she’d ever known, had delved into the deepest depths of madness, aligned herself with a demon, and happily butchered Starlight’s horn and legs. As the blood dripped from the wound and rolled down Starlight’s face, she realised that she had underestimated her opponent. When Rarity was released from the Friendship Test, she appeared heartbroken and lost – Starlight expected her to be too traumatized to go on. But she had gone on, she simply took the trauma with her, and it had obviously begun to eat away at her sanity. In addition to running her boutiques and still creating high-quality couture, she’d also been studying a dark, ancient magic that Starlight herself had only scratched the surface of.
“Is… is that all you got?” Starlight choked out in her astonishment.
“I beg your pardon…” Rarity glared at her with a face like thunder.
“So, you took my legs and my horn,” Starlight whimpered. “is that all you have for me? After what I put you and your friends through?”
“Don’t worry, sugar plum, I have plenty more in store for you…” She sneered, turning to look at Lavender Bloom. “in the meantime, perhaps somepony else should have a chance to play.”
“So, where’s your little bootlick?” Starlight spat. “I’m surprised he isn’t helping you.”
“Are you insane?? I couldn’t drag poor Spikey into this!” Rarity corrected. “He’s such a delicate thing, and the poor dear hasn’t been quite right since you decided to screw us all over for your own amusement.”
“I’m inclined to agree – this kind of work is not for the faint of heart, and Spike was far too young and inexperienced to handle this level of visceral activity,” Phoenix stated, looking at Rarity. “while it is true that he worships you and would do anything for you, it would be irresponsible to subject him to such a trauma-inducing pursuit.”
“Why do you care so much? I thought you came from Tartarus?” Starlight cautiously asked.
“I do have standards you disrespectful mule!” Phoenix snorted derisively. “Lesser demons have lied and cheated their way up the ladder, certainly, but I got to my high rank through sheer grit.”
“Are you quite finished??” Rarity snapped at Starlight, growling indignantly. “I have a job to do, you know!”
Rarity cantered over to Phoenix and pulled a scroll from the cart. She unfurled it and showed Phoenix what was on the paper. The two tormentors muttered among themselves for a moment, with Rarity pointing at various things and Phoenix nodding approvingly. He licked some of the blood from her face, tickling her and causing her to giggle coquettishly. Rarity fished through the items on the lower shelf of the cart and pulled out a dictation device. She held it up with her magic and pressed a button.
“Horn removal of subject three successful,” She said. “subject was awake and suffered greatly – the removal of the horn not only resulted in copious amounts of blood, but also strange spurts of an unidentified liquid the same colour as the subject’s magic aura – perhaps the aura is a liquid contained within the horn that manifests as a gas when magic is used.”
“I did not know this was a scientific project,” Phoenix raised an eyebrow. “I had the impression that this was a sewing exercise.”
“It’s a little of both, sweetheart,” Rarity touched her horn to his. “I am documenting this so that you may replay it whenever you wish, to remind you how much I love you – this is a wonderful opportunity for me that would not have been possible without you.”
“How very considerate.” Phoenix affectionately nickered and booped her nose with his.
Rarity stood up, the dictation device drifting behind her, and she sauntered over to Jet Set – much to Lavender Bloom’s relief. He fearfully pushed himself away as much as he could while being restrained and tried to avoid eye contact with her. She grinned wickedly.
“Subject one had his horn removed while unconscious, and expresses extreme fear when approached,” She described. “in addition to attempting to buy his freedom, subject one expressed an insincere apology for past transgressions toward the purveyor of the sacrifice; six limbs are required to complete the sacrifice offering, so subject one’s responses to the upcoming questions will determine how many of those limbs will come from him.”
“What are you talking about?” Upper Crust wondered, mildly confused by Rarity’s words.
“Clarification required for subject two,” Rarity said, looking at Upper Crust. “subject one – aka Jet Set, your husband – will be asked a series of questions, and if he does not answer honestly to all of them, there will be physical consequences.”
Lavender Bloom, Diamond Cutter and Upper Crust stared at Rarity in disbelief, simultaneously dreading what those consequences were. Rarity turned to Jet Set with a toothy grin.
“Jet Set, I have three questions for you, and you MUST answer them with complete and total honesty,” Rarity glared at him. “failure to do so will result in additional pain – do you understand?”
Jet Set nervously nodded in response.
“Question one; did you, or did you not, bribe a member of the Canterlot guard to escape punishment for a crime you committed in your youth?”
The navy stallion hesitated, wincing as he recalled the incident Rarity was talking about. Like many ponies who grew up with wealth and status, Jet Set went through his colthood breaking rules and behaving badly, fully justified that he was allowed to do those things because of his family’s standing in society. He was ashamed of his behaviour as a colt, but as he looked at the sinister expression Rarity gave him, he realised that his belief in his untouchable standing hadn’t changed.
“Yes, I did.” He admitted shamefully.
“Subject one has answered the first question correctly,” Rarity noted. “question two; did you, or did you not, have a sugar mama during your university years?”
He squeezed his eyes closed, fearing that was going to come up during this sick game.
“Yes, I did.” He confessed.
Upper Crust gasped. Why would Jet Set have needed a sugar mama when he came from a wealthy family?
“How disgusting!” Upper Crust wrinkled her nose. “Selling your body to an older mare!”
“I had to darling!” Jet Set tried to explain. “After the close call with the guards, daddy cut me off! I had to do what I could to maintain my standard of living! But it was before we got together, I swear!”
Rarity beamed with satisfaction.
“Subject one has answered the second question correctly,” She remarked. “final question; did you, or did you not, continue your relationship with the sugar mama within the past three years?”
All the colour drained from Upper Crust’s face as Jet Set looked away from her.
“No, of course not!” He denied.
“Subject one has answered the final question… incorrectly.” Rarity laughed as Upper Crust burst into floods of tears and Jet Set attempted to explain himself to his wife.
“I’m telling the truth!” He lied, not noticing Rarity go back to the steel cart and then return to his side. “I would never betray you- ahhh!”
Jet Set shouted as the restraints holding him down became taut and pulled him flat onto his back. Rarity magically yanked on the chains so that Jet Set’s limbs were stretched out into a star, exposing his entire underside like a plucked chicken waiting to go in the oven. But he would not get the pleasure of a quick punishment. Rarity used a shining scalpel to cut into the flesh connecting Jet Set’s legs to his hips. Jet Set yelled in agony, as Rarity began cutting through the skin on his right leg, deliberately slicing through muscle tissue and tendons until she hit the bone. All the ponies screamed in abject horror as blood spurted out from the incisions.
“How is it looking Phoenix?” Rarity asked, once again wielding the rotary cutter’s spinning blade.
“Fear not, my love, I am stemming the flow; he will bleed, but he will not bleed to death.” Phoenix confirmed.
“Thank you, darling.” Rarity said gratefully.
“Please don’t!” Jet Set shouted.
“If you had answered the questions correctly, you would only be losing one back leg,” Rarity elaborated as she sawed a circle around the acetabular rim of his pelvic bone, keeping the leg-hip joint intact. “because of your lies I will be taking both!”
Jet Set shrieked out of pain and absolute revulsion as the situation sunk in. Rarity used the scalpel again to cut around his flank so the two incisions met, and pulled his leg away with a sickening pop. Upper Crust vomited on herself and blacked out at the mere sight of it. Lavender Bloom soiled herself in fear while Diamond Cutter tried desperately to comfort her while trying to stay conscious himself. Starlight Glimmer was willing herself not to react, despite her stomach turning. With a wave of magic, Rarity placed the severed limb inside the chest freezer by the far wall and began to perform the same procedure on Jet Set’s other leg. Blood and flesh were flying everywhere, and Rarity soon disconnected the left back leg, placing it in the freezer. Phoenix approached Jet Set and reared up onto his back legs, and the hoof walls of his front hooves slowly began to glow like a blacksmiths forge. Before he could protest, Jet Set’s bloody wounds were seared shut as Phoenix planted his hooves over them. He bellowed a throat tearing shriek with each passing second, until the red-hot hooves were removed, and he took deep, panicked breaths. Phoenix cooled his hoof walls instantly and ambled back to his previous, reclined position on the floor.
“Subject one’s back legs have been successfully harvested and put on ice,” Rarity spoke into the dictation device, grateful for the smell of seared flesh that countered the dreadful odour of sickness. “subject two has passed out and will have to be tested later; in the meantime, subject four will be tested in her place.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” Lavender Bloom repeated over and over as Rarity approached her.
“Ugh.” Rarity put her front hoof over her nose, as the smell of burning could not mask the strong ammonia of Lavender’s urine.
She retrieved some of the ice from the freezer and dumped it on the light magenta mare to try and douse the awful smell of bodily fluids. Lavender squealed in shock from the sudden coldness but continued crying, with the sound of Jet Set hyperventilating echoing around the room.
“Are you offering to be tested before her?” Rarity goaded.
“Yes!” He snapped. “Take me first!”
“Cutter, no!”
“Wow, such a loyal friend,” Rarity said, side-eyeing Lavender Bloom. “looks like I may have been wrong about him, but we will see.”
Rarity went to the right side of the bed where Diamond Cutter was being held down. She smirked at him in such a way that his blood ran cold.
“Subject five has volunteered himself to be tested in place of subject four,” She stated. “in light of this loyalty, I have decided to change tack and offer subject five some options which may allow both of them to survive… unless his loyalty falters, in which case, subject four will pay the price.”
Phoenix whinnied in approval, much to Rarity’s delight.
“So, Diamond Cutter,” Rarity grinned. “let’s see how much pain you will absorb on behalf of your friend.”
She produced the scalpel once more, with a fresh blade attached to it. Diamond Cutter and Lavender Bloom looked at each other worriedly.
“You have a choice; one cut for Lavender Bloom and three cuts for you, or both of you get two cuts.” Rarity offered.
The choice seemed easy for Diamond Cutter. Almost too easy.
“I’ll take the three cuts.” He said with determination.
Rarity gave Lavender Bloom a quick slice on her shoulder, which stung so badly that Lavender let out a whimper, but otherwise produced no blood. Rarity then turned to Diamond Cutter and made three long, slow cuts on Diamond’s chest. Diamond flinched and hissed at the drawn-out pain as beads of blood appeared and then oozed down his body.
“Subject five selected the most loyal option, opting for three cuts for himself and only one cut for subject four,” Rarity said. “let’s try something a little more challenging; four cuts for you and two cuts for her, or you both get three cuts each.”
Diamond hesitated. He saw the difference between the types of cuts that he was getting compared to Lavender, and considered making things even, but remembered that he had to prove his loyalty, or risk Lavender being punished for it. Having seen what Rarity was capable of doing to them, he was determined not to let his best friend suffer such a fate.
“I’ll take the four cuts-” Diamond started to say.
“No! Cutter, I can’t let you do this!” Lavender Bloom wept.
“Hush!” Rarity snapped. “He’s a big colt, he can make his own decisions.”
Rarity swiped at Lavender’s chest with two diagonal slashes, creating a barely bleeding X on her sternum. The demented white mare then pinned Diamond down and made two long, deep cuts on each of his cheeks that looked like jagged cat whiskers. He closed his eyes and his whole body shook with pain as the blade dug into his skin.
“Subject five once again selected the most loyal option, taking twice the pain and punishment as subject four,” Rarity’s already sinister grin suddenly became more twisted. “now for a more difficult choice; will you choose to have your left ear cut off while she has only a quarter of her right ear cut off, or will you choose to have your cutie mark mutilated while she has both ears removed?”
Diamond Cutter and Lavender Bloom both went pale and looked at each other in shock.
“What kind of stupid choice is that?” Starlight criticised.
Rarity used her magic to fling the original, bloodied scalpel blade at Starlight. It landed in her eye with a horrifying squelch, and Starlight produced a cacophony of stunned screams. Lavender Bloom looked away just before the blade hit, while Diamond Cutter swallowed the bile that threatened to rise from his throat.
“Subject three is attempting to interfere in subject five’s test, therefore preventative measures had to be taken,” Rarity growled, turning to Diamond Cutter. “well, what do you choose?”
“Take… take my ear…” Diamond whispered, sweating profusely.
A second tool appeared, surrounded in Rarity’s magic – a pair of bolt cutters – which she used to cleanly snip off a quarter of Lavender’s right ear. She dropped the tool and raised a piece of rope, which snaked under Diamond’s chin and around the bed, tightly pinning his head to the pillow. With a fiendish laugh, Rarity stabbed his left ear at the base of his head and used the scalpel to jaggedly saw his ear off. The pouring blood and Diamond’s chilling shrieks, mixed with Lavender’s frantic pleading, made the room sound like a horror movie. Phoenix was really enjoying this; under his tutelage, Rarity seemed to truly understand the fine points of torment.
“Please, no more!” Lavender Bloom cried again, as blood trickled from the wound on her ear.
“One more, and then we’re done,” Rarity insisted, Lavender wept hopelessly. “subject five is now facing his final choice, and here it is; I can remove your cutie mark and one of your front legs, or I can remove her cutie mark and take one of her back legs.”
Diamond Cutter almost passed out upon hearing the choice he now had to make, while Starlight looked over at Rarity with her undamaged eye and made a face. Rarity made a face back at her, seeped in demonic energy and boastful shrewdness.
“That’s right, sugar plum,” Rarity spat. “I’ve learned your little cutie mark removal trick myself – guess I am a ‘pathetic waste of magic’ if I’m reducing myself to your tactics.”
“I’m sorry, Lavender,” Diamond whispered sadly. “I’ve taken the brunt of the pain so far, but this is too much.”
“Diamond, please, don’t do this to me.” Lavender implored with every fibre of her being.
“I choose… for her to lose her cutie mark and back leg.” Diamond eventually said.
Rarity began to chuckle, louder and louder until the haughty, ominous laughter managed to rouse the unconscious Upper Crust, who promptly turned away from the ponies at the other end. Rarity’s horn ignited and she gleefully, slowly, intentionally, began to peel the three white daisies from Lavender Bloom’s flanks. Lavender squealed in the most sickening way. It felt as if her soul were being ripped from her body. Once the cutie mark was completely removed, Lavender practically deflated, knowing what was coming next. Mirroring her actions in mutilating Jet Set, Rarity pulled the chains on Lavender’s legs tightly, so they were spread wide enough for her to work with ease. Lavender Bloom screeched as the scalpel passed through her skin, then the muscle, then the tendons, with Rarity giggling with glee as each strand of tissue snapped and blood flowed freely from the incision. Again, the whirring of the rotary cutter’s blade was dug into the hip and the sickening sound of splintering bone echoed outward. But Lavender’s squeals of hurt had a strange pitch to them. Rarity’s ear twitched as she tried to figure out why Lavender’s pain didn’t sound right.
“She’s enjoying it, if only biologically,” Phoenix darkly explained with a big toothy smirk. “the vibration of the saw is affecting her.”
Rarity continued cutting into the bone, while observing the mare’s nether regions. Phoenix was correct; although Lavender was in copious amounts of pain, she was also twitching in a way that indicated pleasure, confirmed by the clear juice that slowly secreted from her most intimate region.
“You’re one sick mare,” Rarity chuckled as she finished sawing and sliced around Lavender’s now blank flank. “fancy being so high and mighty when you enjoy having a leg removed!”
“You’re the sick one!” Diamond bellowed. “What the fuck is wrong with you?!”
Phoenix stood up and went over to Lavender Bloom. She shrank into herself as he raised a front hoof and it began to glow as it had before. Lavender began breathing heavily and Phoenix pressed his scorching hoof to her bleeding hip. She screamed and cried and threw her head back while he simply looked at her with a blank expression. With the wound fully sealed, Phoenix removed and cooled his hoof, turning to look at Rarity. She gazed adoringly at him with the cutie mark floating beside her. She batted her eyes at him and smiled sweetly, offering the disembodied mark to him. Phoenix licked his lips with a dragonesque forked tongue and opened his heavily fanged mouth to ingest the cutie mark.
“Delicious…” He mused evilly. “…and what of him?”
“You’d like Diamond Cutter’s cutie mark too?” Rarity suggested.
“I wouldn’t mind it…”
Diamond Cutter’s eyes widened as Rarity came over to him.
“No! You promised!” He said.
“Promise?” Rarity tilted her head. “I made no promise, I only gave you a choice, and as I mentioned earlier, your betrayal can have far reaching consequences.”
He bucked and writhed, trying urgently to get loose of the metal restraints. This wasn’t happening! This can’t be happening! She said that Lavender would suffer the consequences if he wasn’t loyal, this wasn’t part of the deal! A sharp pain struck both his chest and his flanks as Rarity magically grabbed his gemstone cutie mark and roughly tugged, ripping it off like a day-old band-aid. Tears fell and he bit his lip so hard that it bled; he didn’t want to yell out, or scream, or give Rarity anything to feel smug about. Diamond let out a choking gasp as she wrenched the mark away from him and gave it to Phoenix, who ate it within seconds. Rarity nuzzled the giant alicorn demon then returned to Diamond’s bedside.
He watched in terror, as Rarity held the scalpel with her magic, reared up and put her full weight onto her front hooves, pressing them onto the wounds on his chest. He weakly flinched, still reeling from the loss of his cutie mark, but it was about to get so much worse. The steel blade was shoved into his shoulder and dragged it in a curved line toward his ribs. The cut was repeated over and over again, shredding his flesh right down to the bone. The other ponies in the room knew what was going to happen as the rotary cutter drifted over and buzzed to life, flinching with shut eyes as the sound of his feeble screams and the grinding of bones filled the air. Rarity cut through the scapula, while keeping the foreleg shoulder joint complete, and sliced the remaining flesh around the back of the shoulders to meet the first incision by the ribs. Again, they heard the disgusting ‘pop’ sound of the limb being removed, and the lid of the chest freezer opening and closing again.
“One down, one to go!” Rarity said cheerfully.
“W-what…?” Diamond stared at her in terrified amazement. It still wasn’t over.
“Did you really think that you could get away with just losing one leg? I told you that if your loyalty falters, then Lavender Bloom has to pay the price,” Rarity reminded him. “not only did she lose her cutie mark and one of her back legs because of your betrayal, now she also has to watch her best friend suffer twice as much.”
“That makes no sense!” Diamond breathed out. “How is that fair?”
“You should be asking her, not me,” Rarity sneered, pointing a hoof at Starlight. “she started this whole mess, and there was nothing fair about what she did.”
Diamond didn’t have a chance to say anything, as Rarity sliced into his other shoulder, repeating the painful, bloody amputation process on his other foreleg. The cerulean stallion was panting and seizing and wincing while blood poured down his body. Having seen what had happened to Jet Set and Lavender Bloom following their dismemberment, Diamond knew what was coming next. Rarity had done the dirty work of severing two of Diamond’s limbs, now Phoenix was going to step in and cauterize the gaping wound with his magic. He squeezed his eyes tightly shut and gritted his teeth as he felt the heat of Phoenix’s forehooves on either side of his body. The alicorn pressed his fiery hooves to both shoulders, compressing so hard that Diamond’s already damaged scapula began to splinter. Diamond whimpered and whined, even after Phoenix removed his scorching hooves from his body.
“Subject five’s forelegs have been harvested, as has subject four’s left back leg; all have been placed on ice with subject one’s back legs,” Rarity dictated again. “subject four and five have had their cutie marks forcibly removed as part of the tribute to the Prince of Healing.”
Upper Crust dizzily looked around, trying to avoid seeing the bloody disaster of what happened to Diamond Cutter and Lavender Bloom, mainly out of fear of having nothing left to throw up but her own organs.
“Subject two is now awake, while subject one and five are holding onto life with Phoenix’s assistance; they must remain conscious for the duration of the sacrifice,” Rarity continued. “one more limb is required, and one subject remains whole; subject two.”
Rarity trotted over to Upper Crust, who was crying hopelessly and trying to comfort Jet Set as he limply lay in the bed. Phoenix’s magic was keeping the mutilated ponies alive, but all Upper Crust could ask was:
“Why?” She sniffled. “Why would an alicorn with healing powers be condemned to Tartarus? Why would a pony with such a benevolent ability agree to do such terrible things?”
“Oh, so just because a pony is blessed with a positive power, it means they MUST use it positively, huh? You’re one to talk, you vile hypocrite!” Rarity sneered. “You have the means and the resources to help those less fortunate, yet you don’t – you live in your own perfect little world and look down on ponies you consider to be lesser than you! You dare to expect an alicorn of healing to be kind, when you don’t have a kind bone in your body?!”
Upper Crust was stunned into silence.
“When was the last time you did anything good for anypony besides your rich, elite, stuck up excuses for friends? I can’t believe I ever wanted to be a part of your despicable ranks! I may be a touch snobby myself sometimes, but I have… I had… real friends who were good and kind and beautiful,” Rarity screeched, glaring violent, hateful daggers at Starlight. “yes, they were flawed – so am I – but at least I knew that no matter what happened, they loved me, and I loved them!”
Rarity screamed at Upper Crust with pure, utter hatred in her eyes. Starlight Glimmer gazed at the purple-maned unicorn with bewilderment. Her vision had been reduced with the loss of one eye, but in that moment, she could see more of Rarity than she ever had before. Phoenix stood up and approached Rarity, placing one of his large, gradient wings around her comfortingly. She leaned into his leg and cried a veritable waterfall of tears, and he glared at Upper Crust with the fire of rage burning in his eyes.
“HOW DARE YOU UPSET MY PRECIOUS AMETHYST?!” He growled even deeper than he had before. “Now I understand why she chose you five ponies, you are all cruel, worthless specimens in society… I may be a monster from the belly of Tartarus, but I do not pretend to be something I’m not, unlike you!”
Phoenix hissed at Upper Crust, who recoiled as the acidic venom from his fangs splattered onto her as he raged. His horn glowed dark crimson, and the two remaining ponies who still had their cutie marks began to feel a searing pain on their flanks. Upper Crust and Jet Set were horrified to see the marks that symbolised their higher place in society slowly dissolving away. They cried out in agony as the skin bubbled and melted into bloody, slushy puddles on the beds they were chained to. His magic sealed their damaged flanks and he absorbed the fluid of the melted cutie marks, as Rarity slowly calmed down.
“Thank you darling.” Rarity whispered to him.
“We don’t have to continue right now,” Phoenix kindly offered, licking his lips. “you can take a break if you need to.”
“No, it’s okay, I’m ready to continue,” She smiled. “we’re almost ready to make the ponyparexcellence.”
He nodded and returned to his place on the floor by the freezer, waiting and watching as Rarity prepared to extract the last piece of the puzzle. She wiped her eyes with her hoof and cleared her throat.
“I realise that I was rather insensitive when I said you didn’t have a kind bone in your body,” Rarity apologised. “I’m sure you do.”
“Yes, yes, of course, I do!” Upper Crust nodded frantically.
“In fact, I’m wondering which bone it is…” Rarity grinned, eyeing up Upper Crust’s singed back legs.
“I’m sure a smart pony like you knows that’s just an expression.” Upper Crust politely mentioned.
“I just need one more limb…” Rarity insisted. “we can do this the hard way, where I pin you down and take it, or you can be kind and offer one of them to me.”
Upper Crust whimpered. There was no way of getting out of this unscathed. Even if she managed to talk her way into freedom, she would be forever weighed down by the guilt of what the other ponies in the room had gone through, especially her poor Jet Set. With mumbled snivels, Upper Crust lay on her back and shakily stretched out her right back leg. Rarity smiled and begin dictating again.
“Following a verbal scuffle between the sacrifice purveyor and subject two, wherein the Prince of Healing was forced to step in and mediate, subject two has kindly offered her right back leg voluntarily, much to the appreciation of the purveyor,” She said. “an additional note of the extraction of subject four’s left back leg; when drilling into the pelvic bone, subject four reacted in a most… unexpected way, and given that subject two and subject four are both female, I wonder if subject two will have a similar reaction during her limb extraction.”
“Would you care for some assistance, so that you may fully observe subject two’s reaction without fear of damaging the joint?” Phoenix offered.
“Oh darling, that would be wonderful, thank you!” Rarity clapped her front hooves together.
Technically she was supposed to do it all by herself, but Phoenix internally reasoned that not even professional surgeons work alone. Besides, as the one accepting the sacrifice, he could change the requirements at any time: lesser demons did that all the time to prolong their enjoyment, but he preferred to hold himself to higher standards. He meandered over, and Upper Crust began to hyperventilate. Jet Set was about to chime in with a threat in defence of his wife, but one casual glance from the orange alicorn made him swallow his potential words. The dark crimson aura gripped Upper Crust’s fetlock roughly and Phoenix’s long, sharp horn stabbed into her flesh. Upper Crust wailed and screamed as the horn didn’t just flail her skin and muscle away from the bone, but seared it as well, so although there was not much blood, it was twice as painful as she could ever have imagined. Phoenix wielded the rotary cutter, still stained with the blood of the other ponies, and jammed the spinning blade into her pelvic bone around the joint.
“On observation of subject two during the limb extraction, she did not appear to be exhibiting the same reaction as subject four,” Rarity noted. “this could be due to a low pain tolerance on subject two’s part, or an over-sensitivity on subject four’s part; either way, the harvesting is now complete, and we can move onto the main event.”
“What?” Lavender sobbed. “It’s not over??”
“Not yet…” Rarity smirked.
“Why isn’t she being punished?” Upper Crust pointed at Starlight harshly.
“Who says I haven’t been punished??” Starlight shrieked indignantly, jostling in place. “Have you seen my horn? Have you seen my eye? Have you seen my lack of back legs??”
“Oh, Upper Crust, don’t you know I always save the best for last?” Rarity taunted.
Starlight gulped. She wasn’t afraid of Rarity at first – the white unicorn was easily the weakest mare in the original Friendship Test; the fact that she was the only survivor always seemed like a fluke – but now, she finally understood the sheer depths that Rarity’s mental state had fallen to as a result of the test.
“Since we have a freshly removed limb, perhaps we should start with this one.” Rarity looked up at Phoenix, who nodded in agreement.
The insidious pair slowly trotted over to Starlight Glimmer’s bed. Rarity’s horn glowed brighter than it ever had, as the other four beds violently swung around so the pompous ponies had a front row seat to the show she was about to put on. An open sewing kit levitated over and loomed by Rarity’s side. Phoenix roughly yanked out the blade that was still wedged in Starlight’s eye, with a flurry of blood and vitreous gel. The other ponies reacted with nauseated reflexes, gagging and choking. Rarity chuckled. They hadn’t seen anything yet.
“Subject three is the vessel chosen for base of the Sleipnir project – the ponypar excellence – that will act as the main offering to the Prince of Healing,” Rarity stated. “I will now begin the operation.”
Using a pair of staple removers, Rarity slowly yanked every single staple from the surgical wounds on Starlight’s hips to the music of bawling, shouting and begging of the other ponies to be let go, or at least not be forced to witness what was soon to happen. Starlight herself was too busy wincing from the pain to say anything but found herself becoming increasingly annoyed by Rarity’s happy demeanour. Phoenix levitated the scroll over so Rarity could examine it. She took a brief look and used another new scalpel blade to widen the wound on the right. It was the beginning of a long, bloody procedure, as Rarity tore through the already damaged tissue to access the pelvic bone. In removing Starlight’s legs, Rarity made sure to cut two circular holes, to allow for two acetabulum sockets to be inserted. She inserted the back leg into the bloody mass of flesh, so the hip joint connected with one of the pre-cut holes in the bone. As Phoenix used his glowing horn to fuse the two bones together, Starlight screamed a sickly wail.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” She shrieked.
“Aw, what’s wrong baby boo?” Rarity teased. “You can dish it out, but you can’t take it?”
“All I did was test your resolve to see if you truly embodied the traits of those precious elements of yours!” Starlight cried.
“DON’T YOU DARE PULL THAT SHIT WITH ME!!” Rarity screeched, hitting Starlight in the stump of where her horn once was. “You forced us to kill one another to try and survive, just because you were pissed that Twilight had wings and you didn’t!! There’s more to being alicorn-worthy than having powerful magic, you useless waste of skin!!”
The shooting pain in Starlight’s head, as well as Rarity’s stinging words, silenced her for the moment. It was official; Rarity had cracked. If there was any undamaged cognitive function left in the fashionista’s mind, it was quickly fading away. Phoenix retrieved Jet Set’s right back leg and levitated it over to Rarity. He watched with delight as she fished through the muscle tissue to locate the second circular cut-out. He fused the second hip joint and observed Rarity sewing the tendons and muscle tissue together. She had provided him with many tributes in the time he had been teaching her – far more than the last unicorn he worked with – and he was most pleased with her progress. He was also very pleased with the amount of cutie marks she had fed to him, and the excruciating sounds of the ponies in this room were just as delicious as their marks.
Phoenix magicked the two left back legs from the freezer to the bed area, and Rarity began to attach the limbs to Starlight’s left side. Starlight tried desperately to black out by focusing on the pain or holding her breath, but it just wouldn’t happen. She could feel every little thing; the widening of the existing wound, the cutting back of muscle and tissue, the fusion of the legs to her hip bone. She cringed and flinched with every pass of the needle, and every hot singeing stroke of Phoenix’s healing touch. Why did it hurt so much if he was healing her?
“Healing often hurts, just because my power is curative, does not mean that it is painless,” Phoenix growled, as if hearing Starlight’s thoughts. “do not misunderstand, however – I am capable of making it painless, I just choose not to.
“Is she complaining about the pain?” Rarity asked, as she finished stitching the skin together.
“She seems to think that healing should be easy,” Phoenix elaborated. “that a noble power will have noble intentions.”
“That’s rich, coming from her,” Rarity sneered. “she twisted the noble qualities of the elements of harmony into a means of pain and suffering.”
“Yes, I remember fixing that thing she forced over your cutie mark.” Phoenix snarled.
“How is that possible?!” Starlight demanded. “That branding iron was enchanted with a permanence spell!”
“FOOLISH UNICORN!!” He bellowed, causing her to jump in fright. “Do you really think your magic is any match for a demon alicorn from Tartarus?!”
Starlight shrank into herself and flattened her ears against her head; the forsaken alicorn was terrifying.
Admittedly, Phoenix preferred eating cutie marks to looking at them, but the more he saw how hard Rarity worked, the more the equals sign singed over her three diamonds infuriated him. Here was a mare so psychologically damaged from what she had experienced, that she was waking up screaming and shaking and crying every night, and yet, she persevered in her studies. She would get up early every day, even when she hadn’t slept well, and threw herself into it; she sewed beautiful dresses, she studied the dark magics he recommended, she desensitized herself to the gore of medical procedures by watching surgery footage online, and practicing on small creatures. Phoenix had never had such a dutiful student before.
He was so impressed that he offered to fix her cutie mark, in exchange for leaving a heart-shape on her face. Rarity jumped at the chance, expecting a beauty mark-sized dot on her cheek. The outline surrounding her eye was a bit of a shock, but she accepted it because his own heart was in the right place. Besides, it was delicate and well-crafted, unlike the rough, savage branding that he had fixed in the process.
“Why are you doing this?” Diamond Cutter asked weakly.
Rarity silently pointed at Starlight as she had earlier, while she changed her heavily bloodied surgical mask for a fresh one.
“No, really, why?” He probed.
“A year ago, Starlight Glimmer decided to torture me and my friends in a sick survival game to prove that friendship has no effect on magical ability; I’m ashamed to admit that we did not do our elements justice at all, all of us acted selfishly at one point or another,” Rarity explained, making a long, deep incision from Starlight’s left shoulder down to her ribs. “I was the only survivor, and she gave me permission to seek retribution on my fallen friends’ behalf – presumably thinking that she was untouchable, and that I wouldn’t dare cross her – little did she know I had started plotting as soon as the initial shock wore off.”
“But the press said the other elemental ponies were just missing,” Jet Set flinched, squeezing his eyes tightly shut. “there was a huge investigation and the authorities are still looking for them.”
“I know, that’s the story I told them; that we had all been horse-napped and I had managed to get away, but when I led the authorities to a random cave where I’d said we were being ‘held’, I pretended that they must have been moved while I was gone,” Rarity worked the scalpel under the muscle tissue covering the scapula, doing her best to ignore Starlight’s agonised cries. “it was dreadful, I feel so guilty for what I did to survive, but I had to do it.”
“Yeah, Rarity, tell them how you tricked Fluttershy into drinking poisoned cider in the final round.” Starlight snickered, before Rarity slashed some of the muscle to shut her up.
“Fluttershy, bless her soul, was so timid and frail, I knew she wouldn’t have the guts to get proper vengeance on this pathetic mule; I feared that she wouldn’t even have the strength to go on living after the trauma we had faced,” Rarity admitted. “all that pain and suffering was the result of Starlight Glimmer’s disappointment of not feeling truly accepted by Ponyville; by us ponies who represented friendship.”
Starlight grinned smugly to herself between wincing. At least Rarity had learned something worthwhile from the test.
“So, what will happen to us once this is over?” Upper Crust asked nervously.
“Quiet! I need to focus!” Rarity snapped.
She had reached the scapula, but it wasn’t quite the right shape for her to seamlessly add Diamond Cutter’s forelegs. Her horn ignited, and she slowly reshaped the bone, causing more pained shrieking from Starlight as her very frame was being warped and altered from within. Rarity changed the blade on the rotary cutter from a circular blade to a long cutting one and set about slicing a round hole in the newly triangular shaped scapula – more screaming and crying erupted, not just from Starlight, but from the ponies witnessing this carnage.
Phoenix held Diamond Cutter’s forelegs in his magic, forcing the stallion to turn away to avoid the sight of his own limbs floating in the air. Diamond started quietly weeping. His wounds no longer hurt as much, but he was still extremely aware of why those wounds existed. Rarity took the left leg from Phoenix with her own magic and forced it into the custom slot she had created in Starlight’s scapula. Phoenix then obliged her by fusing the bones together with his horn. Rarity started sewing the sinew once again.
“I have never seen such quality stitching before.” Phoenix admired.
“Thank you,” She blushed. “my hand-sewing isn’t always this neat, but it’s a gift obviously, so I used a running chain stitch.”
“Do you mind not flirting while you butcher my body,” Starlight said in disgust. “it figures that the only way you could beat me is with more of your precious friendship; you can’t do anything on your own.”
“That’s it! I’ve had enough!”
Rarity’s face darkened. She stabbed the scalpel into the defiant mare’s other shoulder so hard that it stood upright, and Starlight hollered in pain. Rarity used a ribbon of magic to hold Starlight’s muzzle closed and began angrily stitching the mare’s lips shut. No neat and tidy stitching this time, in fact, Rarity purposely jammed the needle through the lilac-pink skin as roughly as possible; occasionally it tore, and she needed to re-stitch what she had just done. Blood poured from the punctures and dripped down her chest as Starlight sobbed, rueing the day she ever laid her blue eyes upon the seamstress unicorn.
“Now keep still, or I’ll sew your eyelids shut too!” Rarity threatened through clenched teeth.
Rarity was getting irritated. Why be so patient and meticulous on somepony who wouldn’t appreciate it? From its embedded place in Starlight’s right shoulder, Rarity dragged the scalpel down to the ribs, truly savouring the muffled screams and spurts of blood that followed. She scratched violently at the flesh, ripping through the muscle and tendons without her previous level of care. Blood had been splashing on Rarity’s once pure white coat throughout this ordeal, but as her anger grew, blood sprayed on her face in long projectile lines. Just as she had done with the left side, Rarity used her magic to shift the shape of the scapula; but decided to be a touch more sadistic with it. She wrenched the bone to be much, much longer than necessary, cruelly twisting it to look like a corkscrew, gleefully watching Starlight’s shoulder contort and her face scrunch up in agony.
“Rarity.”
She was snapped out of her own thoughts by the deep, slightly stern voice of Phoenix, as Starlight’s bone returned to its usual size and shape.
“Phoenix?” She asked, glancing up at him with her sparkling azure eyes.
“I am all for tormenting deserving ponies, but she has many, many years of torment ahead of her,” He stated blankly. “redirect your focus to finishing the project.”
“You’re right,” Rarity gave an admiring smile. “you’re always right.”
Rarity calmed down and set about completing her task. She hummed to herself, warping Starlight’s scapula as she had before, but doing so only as much as she needed in order to attach the other foreleg. She cut a circular hole into the bone as peacefully as though she were cutting an armscye into a cotton shirt. Phoenix once again assisted with attaching Diamond Cutter’s foreleg to Starlight Glimmer’s manipulated scapula, fusing the bones with his lit-up horn, and Rarity casually sewed the muscles, tendons and flesh together, while using her magic to attach nerves and arteries.
“There, perfect!” Rarity purred as she stepped back and admired their work. “Is this tribute enough to pay off my soul debt?”
“Soul debt?” Lavender Bloom choked out.
“Yes dear,” Rarity nodded. “are you so detached from this situation that you did not hear me earlier? I summoned my darling Phoenix from Tartarus, and to do so, I had to promise payment of a soul – no one said it had to be my soul.”
With that one statement, it felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room. If Phoenix’s magic was not keeping them alert, some of the ponies would have passed out, but as soon as it became clear that Rarity wanted to reveal the true nature of this entire experiment, he chose to keep them all conscious.
“So, one of us is going to die??” Jet Set exclaimed.
“No, you’re all going to die,” Rarity smiled. “and you’re all going to Tartarus.”
“But… but… you said you only need one soul!” Diamond Cutter pleaded.
“Yes, but I needed four additional bodies to create the sacrifice, therefore, the rest of you get to be additional tributes,” Rarity snorted as an image entered her mind. “think of it like a tip for good service.”
There was an uproar of despair, much to Rarity’s delight. Her smile twisted into a malicious, toothy smirk as she locked eyes with Starlight.
“You want friendship? Acceptance? A place in a society where you feel like you belong?” Rarity asked her. “Tartarus is full of evil, cruel, wicked ponies such as yourself – and now you will all burn together!”
Rarity burst forth with an orchestra of demented, wicked laughter. If Starlight could speak, she’d tell the cackling mare that she would also end up there for what she had done today, but given her clarity regarding what she owed to the demon, it was obvious that Rarity must already know that. Starlight had a feeling she’d end up in Tartarus after what she had done to the elements of harmony, but she did not expect it to happen this way, or this soon. Her body was in perpetual agony from both internal and surface level trauma, her eye hurt so much it felt like it was going to fall out of the socket in a splat on the floor, and her lips were tearing no matter how little she tried to move them. Looking back at the Friendship Test, she wondered if the participants suffered as much as she currently was. Of course, she enjoyed watching those ponies endure physical and mental destruction, but she was starting to think that she had gone too far – however, not nearly as far as Rarity had now gone. Starlight looked at the butchered ponies around her, wailing and shouting in disbelief, then glanced down at her own mutilated figure. Her horn had been savagely removed, her bones magically altered to allow the attachment of six additional limbs – four back legs and two forelegs – and even her skin and hair ached significantly.
“Now, dear, I’m going to unchain your forelegs, but don’t even think about attacking me or attempting to run away,” Rarity warned. “I have all my bases covered…”
Run away? I probably can’t even walk… Starlight thought to herself.
With her forelegs free of the muscle-numbing pain of the chains keeping her held up like a puppet, Starlight attempted to stand up on back legs that were not hers. She shuffled off the hospital bed and promptly fell over. Phoenix used his magic to enhance Rarity’s work on the arteries and veins within the various limb reconnections, fusing and healing them to their pre-mutilated state, as Starlight tried to pull herself up. Rarity’s eyes and frenzied smile got wider and wider, and she hopped excitedly in place while watching Starlight successfully move her additional limbs. Starlight felt dirty. Violated. She looked at the ponies who had their legs removed and stitched onto her, and quickly regretted doing so. The horrified, despairing, disgusted, nauseous expressions that stared back at her would no doubt haunt her for the rest of her life… however long that was.
“It’s beautiful!” Rarity squealed. “A perfect replica of Sleipnir!”
“You have exceeded expectations, my love,” Phoenix nodded admiringly. “and you have proven yourself a truly diligent student; I am proud of you.”
Rarity’s eyes sparkled at his praise and she nuzzled against him.
“Oh, gag me…” Diamond Cutter spat.
Without even looking at the defiant stallion, Rarity wrenched his mouth open with her light blue magic and chopped his tongue off with the nearby bolt cutters. Diamond’s mouth began to fill and then overflow with blood as he gurgled in agony. Lavender Bloom felt her gag reflex twitching as vomit poured from her at the sight of the river of blood flowing from Diamond’s mouth.
“Even so, I cannot send ponies to Tartarus alive; they will need to die first.” Phoenix mentioned to Rarity.
“You could always just release us from your magic,” Jet Set snapped, exhausted from the bodily trauma he’d suffered. “I’m sure that’s the only thing keeping me alive right now.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” Phoenix grinned.
“Does this mean that you’re volunteering to go first?” Rarity goaded.
Jet Set and Upper Crust exchanged an exasperated glance. They were both so tired, and although the pain was ebbing slightly, they could never re-enter high society as they were – not even if Rarity or Phoenix opted to let them live. For all that they’d been through, it was their vanity and fear of being reviled that led them to believe that they would be better off dead. The two ponies nodded in unison.
“Very well.” Rarity retrieved two more scalpels and trotted over to them.
In an act that she considered merciful; Rarity unlocked a restraint on each of their beds so that they could hold hooves as they condemned themselves to Tartarus. She felt some pity for them as she magically wielded both implements and simultaneously carved a magic array onto their chests, mumbling an incantation under her breath. Jet Set placed a hoof over Upper Crust’s, as they both flinched in pain at the scraping of metal on their skin. Once the circular pattern became outlined in their own blood, Phoenix flicked his forked tongue at them, and smouldering embers drifted over to them like ash on the wind. The second the embers touched their skin, the two of them burst into a ball of flames.
They wailed and screamed as the fire consumed their bodies and the air filled even more with the stench of searing flesh. Diamond Cutter and Lavender Bloom looked away. Lavender couldn’t even cover her nose with her hoof as she was still restrained, while Diamond tried to force his muzzle into his bloody shoulder, preferring the copper odour of blood to the smell of roasting ponies. It didn’t take long for their bodies to be utterly consumed, and Starlight felt tears falling as she observed them cremating from the corner of her eye. From the corner of her other eye, she could see a shadow lurking on the other side of the window that looked into the room.
Phoenix blew upon the pile of ashes that sat where Jet Set and Upper Crust once were, and they dissolved into nothing.
“I was hoping we could do that ritual darling,” Rarity said calmly, as if it were an everyday occurrence. “it was fascinating!”
“You’re insane!!” Lavender squealed.
“Well duh! That’s what happens when you endure severe psychological trauma,” Rarity started, glaring at Starlight Glimmer. “isn’t that right, sugar plum?”
Starlight nodded in response, tears falling freely.
“So, how would you two like to go? I could make a few precise cuts and bleed you out, or perhaps buck you to death? But I’m not nearly as strong as dear Applejack was,” Rarity asked, as Starlight heard the distinct sound of hooves stomping from beyond the window. “I’m sure Phoenix wouldn’t mind burning you, but that wouldn’t be much fun since we’ve already done it once.”
Lavender Bloom snivelled faintly. Since Diamond Cutter had been subject to an impromptu glossectomy, it was down to her to choose how they would die. Not how she pictured today going at all.
“Were we really such awful ponies that we deserved this torture?” Lavender squeaked.
“Your callous gossiping about me behind my back led to a boycott which could have cost me my business, my reputation, my livelihood, and by extension, my ability to provide for my little sister,” Rarity explained. “after what happened to my friends, I couldn’t even care for Sweetie Belle properly; the Apples kindly took her in – they were grieving Applejack’s ‘disappearance’ and having Sweetie around was good for Apple Bloom’s spirits.”
Phoenix once again put one of his wings around Rarity for comfort.
“I wasn’t planning to go this far with just you two, or even with Jet Set and Upper Crust, but in the aftermath of the deadly thought experiment we were put in by Starlight, I have become a cold, cruel mare; intolerant of any minor disrespect and more than willing to take violent action to get my revenge,” Rarity confessed. “I know I will go to Tartarus for my evil deeds, and I have further shamed the element of generosity by being so murderous and brutal, but seeking vengeance on behalf of my friends is far more important than my immortal soul – a more deserving pony can have my element, I am prepared to spend eternity suffering if it means doing justice for the beautiful mares that I loved.”
In that moment, Starlight Glimmer realised that maybe there was something magical about friendship, if the least justified survivor of her test was so willing to go to these lengths on behalf of her friends. Did she have this attitude before the test? Or was the test the catalyst for her realising how important her friends truly were? It was, however, too little too late for her to make any kind of amends with Rarity – mainly because her mouth had been sewn shut.
“In your defence,” Phoenix intervened. “you have been generous to the Apples, giving them a good amount of money every month to care for your little sister, and you have been generous to me also; no other unicorn has given me as many tributes as you have.”
“Thank you darling,” Rarity whispered as she blinked back tears. “now, onto the task at hand; I need an answer Lavender Bloom – pick your poison.”
“Cyanide.” Lavender said.
“That’s not what I meant, but that could work too.” Rarity replied, her head tilted.
She meandered over to the cart and rooted around the box on the bottom shelf. Rarity had prepared for this as best she could, anticipating whatever tools or equipment she may need, but she couldn’t remember if she brought any poisons with her. The vials clicked together as she lifted them to read the labels.
“What do you know? I did bring the cyanide, and not just any cyanide,” Rarity levitated the vial and stepped over to Lavender Bloom and Diamond Cutter, still strapped to their hospital beds. “I painstakingly had this distilled from zap apple seeds – you wouldn’t believe how long it took to get this much poison using that method – but it smells just as sweet as the zap apples!”
“I really didn’t need to know that.” Lavender complained.
“Just shut up and drink it then!” Rarity snapped. “You’re wasting everyone’s time!”
Lavender hesitated, then drank half the vial. Rarity took the vial and shoved the remaining contents down Diamond’s throat. Within a few minutes, both ponies began violently coughing and choking; Diamond began throwing up blood and multi-coloured bile while groaning in agony. Lavender’s whole body started shaking and she scrunched her eyes closed as she struggled to breathe.
“Oh, by the way, did I mention that it was hydrogen cyanide?” Rarity beamed. “As in, highly flammable?”
As if the difficulty breathing, nausea and extreme pain weren’t bad enough, it was about to get much worse for the two dying ponies. Phoenix once again intervened, and with a flash of his dark crimson aura, the cyanide ravaging their bodies set alight. Starlight watched in horror as the ponies began to emit smoke as they were being both poisoned and now burned from the inside out. They both seized in place and writhed in excruciating pain, their manes and tails soon fell out, their coat singed, and their skin started to tear. To add to the horror, their eyes appeared to be melting and the flames ripped through the tears in their skin and set fire to the outside of them. Their agonising cries were soon silenced, but their bodies continued to burn like dried kindling. Phoenix made sure to keep the fire burning until they were nothing but ashes, and once again, blew those ashes into nothingness.
Rarity became aware that the dictation device was still recording and opted to turn it off before the next part of the sacrifice. As much as she would’ve loved to document Starlight’s final moments, doing so would implicate an innocent party to anyone who heard it. Although the recording was meant for Phoenix, there was no way of knowing if it would end up in another pony’s hooves.
“I suppose you’re wondering what’s going to happen to you?” Rarity asked, placing the deactivated recording device back on the cart.
Starlight nodded.
“Well, I invited someone very special to join us for this final part.” Rarity gave a shrill, high-pitched whistle.
Heavy hoof steps could be heard, then the swing of the double doors, and Starlight was mildly confused to see Big McIntosh. She didn’t think much of it at first, until Phoenix himself stepped back a few paces when the red stallion came in. Big Mac was only mildly disturbed by the twisted amalgamation of pony body parts that was Starlight Glimmer. Rarity had warned him that he would be walking into a horror movie, but he had mentally prepared himself for the dreaded possibility that his younger sister’s body had been found, not the patchwork pony he was actually seeing. Big Mac, living on a farm, had seen his fair share of dead animals and blood – they bred pigs and cows after all; they sold the meat to Equestrian carnivores like the diamond dogs, and mammals giving birth was a very messy experience.
“Big Mac, thank you for joining us,” Rarity smiled. “this is Phoenix Blaze; he is the one giving us this opportunity.”
“Pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Phoenix said, briefly bowing his head.
Big Mac responded with a deep, respectful bow to the demon alicorn.
“And I believe you know Starlight Glimmer.” Rarity said sweetly.
“Eeyup…” He responded in a voice almost as deep as Phoenix’s.
“Starlight, you’ve met Big Mac before, right? Applejack’s older brother…” Rarity turned to a frightened Starlight, who nodded fervently. “Now Big Mac, I’m afraid I must impart some very bad news to you, so prepare yourself.”
Starlight started to worry. She knew that the official word on the elemental ponies was that they were missing, but she feared what the stallion’s reaction would be once Rarity told him the truth – that Applejack was dead. More so, she didn’t know exactly what Rarity was going to tell him about the death, who caused it and how exactly she died.
“I realise that this must be a terrible shock, dear, so brace yourself,” Rarity stated. “it is my solemn duty to inform you that Applejack is not missing, she is gone; permanently.”
“Eeyup…” Big Mac replied calmly.
Starlight was very confused by the stallion’s unusually cool reaction to hearing that his little sister was dead. Perhaps he was in shock from seeing her disfigured body.
“I know, I know, it’s heartbreakingly wretched news isn’t it?” Rarity nodded, placing a hoof on his shoulder. “but I’m afraid it gets worse.”
Starlight silently pleaded with Rarity not to say anything else, zealously shaking her head and staring at her with wide eyes. Rarity merely grinned in response and narrowed her eyes at the lilac-pink mare.
“The pony responsible for her death is right here,” Rarity gestured to Starlight. “and you should know that, although Applejack’s death was quick, it likely was not painless, due to the fact that she was electrocuted.”
“Eeyup…”
As Rarity continued to divulge information about the situation in which Applejack died, and what Rainbow Dash was forced to do to the body afterward, Phoenix leaned toward the frightened Starlight and whispered in her ear.
“There are three things all wise ponies fear; the sea in a storm, a night with no moon and the fury of a gentle stallion,” He growled. “I come from a realm of unspeakable horrors, where the screams of tormented ponies fill the air, but even I would fear being on the wrong side of him right now.”
Suddenly, Big Mac’s lack of emotional reaction to the explosive things Rarity was saying made way too much sense. Where there was once confusion, now came a quickly rising coldness, as Starlight observed Big Mac’s calm demeanour from a different perspective. His reserved replies and unchanging facial expression were instilling in her a level of fear she had never thought possible. The terror she had experienced during this whole ordeal was nothing compared to what she was currently feeling; it weighed on her stomach like a spiked rock and triggered a wave of ice-cold dread unlike anything she’d ever known.
“That’s why I brought you here, Big Mac,” Rarity gave him a sympathetic look. “I wanted to give you the opportunity to let off some steam and get some vengeance of your own, on behalf of your younger sister.”
“That’s mighty kind of y’all.” He stated.
Big Mac began to approach the eight-legged creature that was responsible for Applejack’s death. He still had that vague look of peace upon his face, frightening Starlight to the point that she stumbled backwards trying to get away from him. She barely got a couple feet away from him when two metal cuffs reached up from the ground and grabbed two of her back fetlocks, and she felt a sudden jolt of electricity run through the back legs that weren’t hers.
“Nuh, uh, uh,” Rarity sang. “I told you not to attempt an escape, now you’ll have to be restrained again.”
Two more metal cuffs appeared and latched onto her two forelegs – the ones that belonged to her in the first place – sending a brief shock through them and up her chest. Starlight could not stay still, stomping her free hooves and pointlessly pulling backwards, as Big Mac’s eerily calm face continued to stare her down. The large red stallion turned and bucked Starlight with his back hooves, knocking her down with a sickening crack. Starlight’s vision was spinning wildly, and her jaw hurt so much that she was sure it must be broken. As she lay on the floor, dazed and nauseous, she felt a sharp, overwhelming agony in her forelegs from Big Mac stomping down on them with his massive hooves. He stared her in the eye, his face still blank, as he put every ounce of strength he had into breaking and fracturing every single bone in Starlight’s front limbs. She wailed as loud as she could through the pain of her jaw, and from beneath the stitches that held her mouth shut, getting louder with every irregular crack of bone.
“Oof, that looks bad,” Rarity jokingly winced. “having fun, dear?”
“Eeyup.” He snarled, moving onto the next pair of forelegs – the ones harvested from Diamond Cutter.
Although the cerulean legs were not hers, they had been connected to her correctly, and she was able to use them – which made them a viable target for Big Mac. Inch by inch, he began stomping on them, again throwing all his strength into crushing the entire length of the forelegs. Bones broke and tore through the skin, blood came out in spurts, and still Big Mac maintained a steady face throughout. As she lay face down on the floor, Starlight could feel the skin on her muzzle tearing with every physical flinch of her face. Why? What was the point of all this? Why would Rarity go to all the trouble of transforming her into this monstrosity if she was just going to be destroyed? Phoenix was owed a soul, and a tribute, both of which he’d been given in spades, so she concluded that this was purely for vengeance. Starlight began to curse the boastfulness of her younger self, when she’d said Rarity could seek revenge on her; that said, she could never have predicted how far the white unicorn would go.
“I would love to see what those back legs can do,” Phoenix grinned at Big Mac, who simply nodded in agreement. “here, allow me to assist.”
Phoenix’s dark crimson aura ripped up the section of the floor that Starlight was chained to, propping it up so she was dangling vertically as if she were on a wooden rack. She cried and wept in pain as the cuffs on her front fetlocks caused her to hang by her shattered forelegs. She couldn’t even see Big Mac because she was lying face down when Phoenix moved the floor. On the plus side, it meant she also wouldn’t see the damage he was about to do. Big Mac put all his energy into his back hooves and bucked with all his strength. Immediately, the bones in the legs he had struck were fragmented; Starlight screamed so much that she tore her mouth open, her jaw hung awkwardly as she yelled, and the bloodied stitches fell to the floor. This was a stallion that could buck down 90 percent of the apples in any given tree with just a kick from one hoof and had been known to run at full pelt for up to an hour; his legs were deadly weapons. With just a few more hits, he had completely pulverised the internal structure of her back legs into powder. She shrieked wildly, and a waterfall of tears stained her coat as she could no longer move her back legs without excruciating pain surging through her body like fire.
“Why??” Starlight screamed. “For the love of Celestia, WHY??”
“What do you mean ‘why’? You’re the one who told me to do this – I believe your exact words were ‘seek whatever punishment for me that you deem appropriate’,” Rarity reminded her. “and it gives me great satisfaction to see you destroyed at the hooves of somepony this powerful.”
Rarity’s words cut into Starlight. It was bad enough that she was bested by a unicorn she considered below her, but to be taken out by a lowly earth pony was too much. A unicorn of her calibre deserved to die on a magical battlefield of great magnitude – a magnificent duel that could determine the survival of all ponykind – not being beaten to death by a blue-collar farm pony. Phoenix dropped the part of the floor that he had held up for Big Mac, and Starlight squealed in anguish as her body hit the ground, the pain momentarily multiplying from the force. Big Mac bowed his head to Phoenix in appreciation, before circling Starlight’s body like a predator.
“Most impressive,” Phoenix praised, observing the damage. “what a pity he is too pure to go to Tartarus; I could make good use of him there.”
“Oh good,” Rarity sighed in relief. “to be honest, I was worried that doing this would send him there.”
Phoenix shook his head.
“It takes more than one count of grief-induced madness to send someone as wholesome as him to Tartarus,” Phoenix explained. “he who has worked hard since he was young, and even harder since his parents died; with his efforts and selflessness, he has kept a roof over his remaining family’s heads, working doubly hard since losing his younger sister.”
Big Mac stared at Starlight, then glanced over at Rarity.
“I wanna be able to see her suffer while I do this,” He mumbled in his deep voice. “can y’all do that for me?”
“Of course, I can!” Rarity agreed.
As Big Mac loomed over his target, who feebly glanced up at him with pleading eyes, Rarity ignited her horn and manifested a two-screen spell. One drifted in front of Starlight’s face, which was livestreamed onto the screen placed in front of Big Mac.
“Thank you kindly.” Big Mac said coolly.
Starlight screamed in horror, and then extreme pain, as Big Mac reared onto his back hooves and brought his front hooves down on her body. She could feel various bones breaking and her organs blatantly rupturing, with every additional stomp he took. He observed as she cried out in agony and began coughing up blood to the beat of each brutal strike. For the first time since he arrived, Big Mac’s face was changing. His neutral, deadpan expression was slowly twisting into a wide, malevolent smile, and he started laughing hysterically. He savoured every cry, every pained expression, every drop of blood she spilt, and he didn’t stop until his hooves were drenched in her crimson fluids. She was battered, bruised, bloodied and almost flattened, but even after all that, she still wasn’t quite dead. Big Mac was confused. He looked over at Phoenix and saw his horn alight with magic and concluded that, despite the immense damage to Starlight’s body – internally and externally – she was being kept alive with his powers. Starlight wanted to die, escape the pain, escape this horrific situation, but Phoenix wouldn’t let her. Not yet.
“Am… am I dead yet?” Starlight choked out.
“Nope,” Big Mac smirked. “but you deserve to be, after what y’all did to my sister.”
“I’m sorry; I’m sorry for what I did, I’m sorry about what happened to your sister, and to the others,” She wept, taking short, shallow breaths. “please… please forgive me.”
“Nope.”
And with one final show of power, Big Mac stomped on Starlight’s head with every ounce of his strength. Her skull collapsed, teeth and bone fragments flew in all directions, and blood and brain matter sloshed across the floor. Starlight Glimmer was finally dead. Big Mac panted. The adrenaline of his anger finally wore off, and he collapsed to the floor exhausted. Rarity sat beside him and stroked his mane comfortingly.
“You did very well, Big Mac,” She cooed. “Applejack would be proud.”
“Eeyup.” He smiled as a single tear rolled down his cheek.
Phoenix magically raised the heavily altered form of Starlight into the air. She flopped down like an eight-legged stuffed animal, that had been removed of its stuffing and dipped in a bucket of blood red paint. His horn glowed brighter and brighter, and in a flash of light, the hollow body of the mare burst into flames. The radiance of the airborne blaze brought Big Mac a strange sense of consolation – it reminded him of the bonfires they had on the farm when disposing of dead or damaged apple trees. They all watched as the fire raged for several minutes, then slowly died out, leaving behind a pile of ash that Phoenix once again blew into nothing.
Big Mac sensed that his job was done, and he gratefully hugged Rarity. The unicorn gave him a chance he never would have gotten – to punish the pony who took his sister away. He knew he couldn’t tell Granny Smith or Apple Bloom the truth of Applejack’s disappearance, or what he had done to avenge her, but it was something he needed to give himself closure, and with his own soul rested, he was able to be stronger for his grandmare and baby sister. He looked at Phoenix and bowed as he would toward the Princesses. Phoenix whinnied in appreciation, and Big Mac took his leave, making a mental note to have a shower when he got home; his coat was red, and the blood splatter blended into it, but he knew it would be a good idea to wash away the evidence regardless.
Rarity retrieved the dictation device and looked at Phoenix sadly. She held the device in her hooves and offered it to him.
“Thank you for teaching me; you were the friend I needed to get through this,” She sniffled. “but now that you have your tribute, I guess… I guess this is goodbye; for a few decades at least.”
“It doesn’t have to be,” He countered. “if you come with me now, I can bring them back.”
“Wha-what?” She stammered.
“You have delivered to me five souls, five cutie marks, and many other tributes too numerous to count – you even treated me as if I were a guest in your home,” He explained. “give me your soul as well, as a goodwill payment, and I can bring the others back.”
Rarity thought for a moment. She wondered if he was making this offer as a test of character – he was more than familiar with her constant doubting that she deserved the element she was given – but she also considered that he was being serious; that he was truly offering to bring back her friends in exchange for giving up her immortal soul. Rarity realised that, after the way she betrayed them in the Friendship Test, it was the least she could do. Besides, she was gonna end up in Tartarus eventually anyway, why not go now and have done with it?
“I accept,” She smiled. “take my soul in exchange for my friends’.”
Phoenix was impressed by how quickly she made the decision. Then he remembered something.
“Oh, that’s right, I forgot about the pony par excellence,” He mentioned. “technically the Sleipnir you created was the payment for my services, so technically I can bring them back without taking your soul.”
Rarity smiled and shook her head.
“I appreciate the offer, but I don’t belong here anymore – I’m a monster and what I’ve done is evil, I have no illusions about that,” She confessed. “the things I’ve done, the ponies I’ve killed; my soul is laden with guilt and my hooves are dripping in blood – there’s no place for me here – Big Mac acted purely out of grief and rage, but I chose to do this.”
Phoenix admired her self-awareness. She clearly knew she was earmarked for Tartarus the second she summoned him, yet here she was, volunteering to go with him now to bring back the friends she had lost. And yet she still thought herself undeserving of the element of generosity.
“It would be a shame to allow a devotee of your talent and dedication to rot in the lower levels where new arrivals go,” Phoenix baited. “perhaps you would like to join me on the top level instead?”
“I would like that very much,” Rarity nodded. “but would it be allowed?”
“Your soul now belongs to me, and as such, you must go wherever I say,” Phoenix clarified, flashing a wide grin at her. “and I could very much use your assistance.”
Rarity smiled at him sincerely and a single tear fell from her eye.
Phoenix lowered his head and touched his horn to hers. His magic flared to life, and as he pulled his horn away, her soul was pulled from her body. Rarity’s ethereal spirit was free from her physical form, which dropped lifelessly to the floor. She was more than shocked, looking down at her body as it was absorbed by a dark crimson cloud along with the dictation device.
“You cannot take that body with you; however, you will be given a new one in Tartarus,” He clarified. “it will be like mine – it will forever connect you to that hellish realm – you may come and go when summoned, but you must always return.”
“A small price to pay to give my friends a second chance at life.” She smiled as more tears fell.
“Come along then, darling, time to go home.” He murmured, scooping her soul up in his magic and placing her on his back.
Rarity wrapped her airy forelegs around his neck, and with a flick of his head, a fiery portal opened. The torturous screams of suffering ponies briefly echoed around the room, and two strolled through it into Tartarus. As the portal closed behind them, a spark of ember drifted through the air and landed on one of the blood-soaked hospital beds, starting a vicious fire that would eventually burn the entire abandoned building down.
“Ahhhh!” Applejack shrieked as she woke up from a horrendous nightmare.
It was violent and bloody and unlike any nightmare she’d ever had before, and it felt so real. She looked around and noticed that she was in a strange cave. It was pretty dark outside the cave, as well as inside, and she could see the stars dancing in the night sky. She saw that there were other ponies in the cave with her, and assumed they were her friends. Applejack stood up and nudged the pony closest to her, Twilight.
“Ahhh!” Twilight screamed, looking around in a panic. “Oh, thank Celestia, it was just a nightmare.”
“You have a bad dream too, sugar cube?” Applejack asked.
“It was awful, we’d been captured and forced to torture each other and-” Twilight glanced around. “why are we in a cave?”
“I’m not sure…” Applejack replied.
Twilight lit up her horn so she could see better. That’s when she noticed something on Applejack’s coat.
“What happened to you??” She gasped, pointing at the scorched burn mark that circled the outside of AJ’s body like a ring.
“I could say the same to you! Look at your cutie mark!” Applejack said.
Twilight looked at her flanks and was horrified to find two horizontal gashes over each of her cutie marks. She saw their other friends laying nearby, and each of them appeared to have some kind of damage – Rainbow Dash’s wing was blatantly broken, Fluttershy had a dried stab wound on her flank, and Pinkie Pie had angry striations around her throat as if she had been choked. Twilight and Applejack blinked and looked at each other nervously. They seemed to have had the same nightmare, and they also seemed to have marks corresponding to that nightmare. It wasn’t long before their three sleeping friends woke up screaming, just as they had.
“What’s going on?” Fluttershy asked, shielding her eyes from the bright light with her wing.
Pinkie Pie opened her mouth to speak, only to cough and choke like she was just getting her breath back after holding it for too long. Rainbow cried out in pain when she tried to raise her wing to comfort Pinkie, and both of them gasped when they saw it hanging by her side.
“What happened to my wing??” Rainbow shrieked. “It looks like somepony… broke… it…”
She slowed down as she too was plagued by the memory of the nightmare she was having before she awoke. She looked at her friends and saw that they all had the same knowing expression. They all had experienced the nightmare of the Friendship Test, from start to finish. Even ponies who didn’t make it to the end, saw what happened after they had been eliminated; it was doubly shocking for Applejack, as she had been the first to die, and thus had missed what the others had to go through. The ponies all looked at each other with sickened expressions on their faces.
“Did that… did that stuff actually happen?” Fluttershy wondered.
The ponies all looked at each other, eyeing up the damage on each mare’s body, and it quickly became obvious that the ‘nightmare’ they all had was in fact the remnants of an actual event. Knowing this, they were struck by the severity of their actions: Fluttershy truly had opted to brand Pinkie over herself, Rainbow really had inadvertently caused Applejack’s death before branding her flank, Twilight and Fluttershy chose beating Rainbow with a metal rod over stabbing the pony to their left. There was a universal air of guilt, and confusion – if the Friendship Test had actually happened, how were they still alive? How were ponies who died earlier in the test able to recall what happened to the ones who survived longer than them? And then there was the even bigger question of:
“Where’s Rarity?” Twilight asked openly.
They exchanged concerned glances as no one could answer the question with any kind of certainty. Suddenly, a dark crimson cloud appeared in the cave with them, and they all backed away from it. Something dropped from it and then the cloud vanished as soon as it had arrived. When Twilight shone her light towards whatever the cloud left behind, they all began to scream – Fluttershy even ran to the cave entrance and vomited. The dark crimson cloud had dropped Rarity’s dead body on the cave floor, covered in blood splatter and with a heart-shaped scar around her right eye.
“But she won!” Rainbow shouted. “What in Tartarus happened to her??”
Twilight shakily approached the body and noticed that there was something clasped Rarity’s front hoof – a bloody dictation device. Not wanting to touch the device herself, Twilight used her light raspberry magic to press the play button. To their horror, they heard Rarity’s voice, graphically describing the removal of somepony’s horn in a scientific manner, followed by the obvious voice of a demon, commenting how he thought this was a sewing exercise…
Starlight awoke to wild screaming all around her. As she opened her eyes, and began to take in her surroundings, she realised that despite experiencing the finality of dying, her nightmare wasn’t over yet. The air was unbearably hot, and she was sweating heavily. She was leaning against a rocky wall and looking around a vast open space that she assumed to be Tartarus, as there were ponies being tortured and tormented nearby – one navy-coloured pony was being slowly flayed open, a pink-coated mare was being force fed live rats – but it was a purple stallion being vivisected that pushed her tolerance too far, and she raised a hoof to her mouth to prevent herself from being sick.
“So, you’re finally awake.” A sultry female voice spoke from the shadows.
Starlight stared in the direction of the voice. From the blackness, out stepped a tall mare whom she did not recognise. Her coat was a deep, dark violet colour, and her lilac mane and tail flowed majestically around her. Her shining blue eyes pierced into Starlight, and her white fangs curled into a sinister grin.
“I suppose you thought death would be the end,” She laughed. “not even close, sugar plum.”
“Rarity?” Starlight asked, recognising the nickname that the formerly white unicorn had given her.
“Nightmare Rarity, actually,” She proudly corrected. “but if it’s easier for your puny mind, I suppose you may call me by my previous name.”
“You look different.” Starlight noted.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” Rarity tilted her head up and flicked her glittering mane. “My darling Phoenix gave me this wonderful new body.”
“I guess you’ve come to gloat.” Starlight assumed.
“No, I’ve come to give you your eternal torment,” Rarity chuckled. “as much fun as it is to show off my stunning new body and rub salt in the wound of your mutilated self, I have a job to do, and you have a job to do also.”
Starlight looked at her own form and discovered that the disfigurement she had suffered in life, had followed her into the afterlife; the legs that had been brutally removed from the other ponies and attached to her were still present. The entire horrid affair ran through her mind, reminding her of the blood and screams and the stench of burning flesh. She soon noticed the rapid sound of hoofsteps, and a stallion running up to them.
“Pumpky-Wumpkin! Is that you??” a familiar male voice cried out. “Oh, my stars! What happened to you??”
Firelight, Starlight’s dad, trotted over to them with a look of abject horror on his face. She tried to hide the additional limbs and her blood-stained coat, but it was useless, he saw the damage to her body almost immediately.
“Dad, what are you doing here?” Starlight asked, trying to distract him.
“Daddy-dearest had a little ‘accident’,” Rarity giggled. “while he was drunkenly hitting on Stellar Flare, he stumbled into the path of an oncoming train.”
“I wasn’t drunk, and I wasn’t hitting on Stellar!” Firelight argued.
“Are you really going to stand there and disagree with the toned-down explanation I gave to spare your daughter’s feelings?” Rarity snapped.
“What are you talking about?” Starlight wondered, completely confused.
“Please don’t-” Firelight began.
“No, no, you want her to know the truth, I’m happy to share it,” Rarity glared at Firelight and turned to Starlight with a smug grin on her face. “you father – stone cold sober – forced himself on Stellar Flare, to the point that she shoved him onto the nearby railway tracks, where he was splattered by the Canterlot Express.”
“Dad, that's disgusting! How could you?” Starlight stared at him in revulsion.
“Don’t get too high and mighty, sugar plum, you also have something to confess,” Rarity hissed. “go ahead, tell your father what really happened to the elemental ponies.”
“I know what happened, in fact they were recently found alive in the northern caverns.” Firelight said.
“WHAT??” Starlight shrieked.
Rarity’s face twisted into a smug, victorious smirk as she circled around Starlight.
“Oh, that’s right, you didn’t get to witness my final sacrifice, did you?” Rarity sneered. “In exchange for me coming to Tartarus now instead of later, Phoenix offered to bring back my dear friends.”
Starlight’s jaw dropped, and she stared at Rarity in total disbelief. Rarity’s light blue magic produced a screen, which floated in mid-air before Starlight. As she watched the victims of her Friendship Test being cared for in a private suite in Canterlot hospital, her blood began to boil. She saw the pompous ponies as they were expertly assessed, comforted and given the very best medical treatment available for their various wounds, and snapped her head to glare at Rarity with unending hate in her twitching eyes.
“You undid all my hard work?!” Starlight growled. “You tortured me and those other ponies, mutilated our bodies, stole our cutie marks to feed to that demon, and you have the nerve to undo MY work while not undoing YOURS??”
“Don’t you DARE play that card on me!!!” Rarity hissed, swiftly encroaching on the other mare’s personal space and forcing her backwards until she hit the hard wall. “YOU’RE the pony who put all of Equestria at risk for the sake of your stupid ego, but I’M the bad guy because I did all the legwork of fixing your hideous mess?!”
“Leave my daughter alone!” Firelight ordered, stomping his hoof.
“WHO ARE YOU TO COMMAND ME??” Rarity bellowed, rearing up and bearing her gleaming white fangs at him.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” He cowered. “I just want an explanation…”
“Don’t worry, you’ll get one!” Rarity insisted. “Starlight is going to tell you everything, aren’t you dear?”
Rarity flicked her newly forked tongue at Starlight and flashed a malevolent grin in her general direction. When it eventually dawned on Starlight what Rarity meant by ‘everything’, a cold chill ran up her spine. She gasped aloud and adamantly shook her head.
“Rarity, I beg you, please don’t make me tell him.” Starlight pleaded.
“This is part of your punishment, sugar plum, so either tell him or I will make you suffer,” Rarity insisted. “and don’t you eventhink about trying to dampen the truth with euphemisms – the whole, ugly, bitter truth or I will punish both of you.”
Rarity’s horn ignited, and a cat-o-nine tails whip appeared at her side. Both Starlight and Firelight observed the weapon with fear in their eyes, as the metal barbs at the end of each ‘tail’ shone in the light of the hellfire glowing around them.
“The elemental ponies didn’t originally go missing,” Starlight confessed. “they died.”
Seconds later, Starlight let out an agonised scream, as Rarity lashed at her with the whip. The barbs dug into her flesh and left angry red scratches in their wake – Firelight flinched and closed his eyes, not wanting to see his daughter injured.
“Okay, okay,” She wept. “they killed each other to try and stay alive.”
More screaming ensued as two more lashes struck the mutilated mare.
“The truth!!” Rarity shrieked.
“Alright! I made them kill each other!” Starlight cried.
“Impossible, I refuse to believe that my little chipmunk cheeks would do such a terrible thing!” Firelight stomped his hoof down again.
“But she did,” Rarity growled. “and to prove it, she is going to tell you how each pony died, and the circumstances that led to each death.”
Starlight sobbed as she looked into the horrified eyes of her father. He was not a perfect stallion, and he was in Tartarus because he’d made his own bad decisions, but he had no idea of the extreme behaviour she was capable of. Now she had to tell him everything, under threat of physical punishment for both of them if she tried to sugar-coat her actions.
“I pretended that it was a test of their respective elements – kindness, loyalty, laughter, generosity and honesty – we didn’t quite get the chance to test Twilight Sparkle’s element of magic because Applejack died earlier than expected,” Starlight began, flattening her ears in shame. “for kindness, I made them all choose to either have their cutie mark branded or brand the cutie mark of the pony next to them; no one was meant to die in that test, but when Rainbow Dash tried to attack me, a magic spell activated and electrocuted Applejack to death.”
Firelight stared at her in disbelief.
“Continue…” Rarity snarled.
“In the loyalty test, the remaining ponies had to choose between beating Rainbow Dash three times with a metal rod or stabbing the pony next to them to the hilt of a dagger I supplied them with,” She added. “Fluttershy was the only one who was stabbed, everyone else chose the metal rod, and not only did Rainbow’s wing get broken, but she also suffered massive internal damage and ultimately died of organ failure.”
He paled, trying to imagine the elements of harmony being used as a method of torture and punishment.
“Laughter was particularly cruel; I subjected them to the effects of a toxic laughing gas that was drawn to moisture, so they had to hold their breath – Pinkie Pie couldn’t resist laughing, and she died shortly before the timer ran out…” She trailed off, only to be struck by the whip once more.
“No skipping over the detail, you have to tell him how she died!”
“The gas was attracted to every organ in her body, likely burning and scarring them beyond use or recognition, I imagine that some of her smaller organs would’ve been liquified.” Starlight sniffled.
Firelight looked like he was going to vomit. His face had turned green and he swayed slightly. This was absurd! Where did his little filly learn these terrible things? Why would she subject anypony to it, let alone the ponies that represented the best of friendship??
“The generosity test involved the final three mares fighting for breath in a different way – they were placed in tubes that were rapidly filling with water – with buttons that could put more water in another pony’s tube,” Starlight stated, promptly rolling her eyes as she continued. “and the Princess of Friendship of course had to make a martyr out of herself and told Rarity and Fluttershy press the button that directed the water into her chamber; pompous mule had been attempting to sacrifice herself since the beginning.”
Rarity seethed at Starlight’s attitude – how dare she downplay Twilight’s generous act as self-righteousness?? Immediately, Rarity set about repeatedly whipping her, relishing in every scream of pain, every drop of blood that sprayed out. Despite the awful things Starlight had done, Firelight was still defensive of his beloved daughter, and he charged at Rarity in anger. Before he could stab at her with his horn, a vicious black dog leapt out from the shadows and clamped its razor-sharp fangs on his forelegs. While Rarity continuously whipped Starlight until she was curled up on the floor in a blubbering mess, Firelight fell from the impact of the dog launching at him. The dog glared at him with fiery red eyes and bit down on his legs with repeated ferocity, lapping up the blood and flesh even as Firelight kicked at it.
“Please!” Starlight screeched. “Stop this!”
“You’ve said quite enough, now is the time for action!” Rarity shouted as she ceased her attack on the mare. “Ebony, heel!”
The dog stopped immediately and happily ran to Rarity’s side.
“Who’s a good girl, huh?” Rarity cooed at the dog. “Who’s the best baby?”
She leaned down and nuzzled the dear pooch, and Ebony wagged her tail ecstatically. Starlight looked over at her father, who was struggling to stand due his injuries, and cried copious amounts of tears. She told Rarity to come after her for vengeance, no one else; the last thing she expected was to see her dad suffering the consequences of her experiment. If only she knew how much worse it was going to get.
“Be a darling and fetch my equipment, won’t you?” Rarity purred.
Ebony nodded and promptly ran back into the shadowed area. Rarity magicked away her now blood-stained weapon, then turned to Starlight with a sickening grin.
“Please…” Starlight whined sadly. “No more…”
“You’re in Tartarus, dear, surely you know that your punishment won’t stop there…” Rarity boasted as she approached Firelight with hate in her eyes.
He stared unblinkingly at her, terrified of what was going to happen. Rarity chuckled sadistically and circled the frightened stallion as though she were planning to cannibalise him. Her horn ignited; iron chains appeared from the ground and grabbed his limbs, digging into the wounds on his forelegs and forcing more red fluid out of them. It wasn’t long, before Ebony – along with three other black dogs – emerged from the darkness with a wheeled cart, covered with a cloth. Starlight audibly gulped as she had flashbacks of her cart from the original Friendship Test. As Rarity affectionately fussed over the dogs and thanked them, Starlight feared what torture awaited her. The dogs sat to one side and watched Rarity saunter over to the multi-coloured mare with intent.
“Now Starlight Glimmer, come here, I have a job for you.” She sneered.
Starlight warily approached, glancing at her father sympathetically for the pain he was going through. Rarity magically raised the cloth to show one third of the cart’s contents and Starlight’s stomach sank; on the top of the cart was a dagger and a rod, and on the bottom of the cart was a familiar metal egg, containing blazing hot coals and a branding iron with an equals sign on one end…
“No…” Starlight whispered in a pleading voice.
“Remember this?” Rarity smirked. “I’m sure you know by now what I want you to do, but just in case, I’ll explain; there were six branded flanks during your test, so as penance you must now give your father six brands.”
“What??” Firelight gasped.
“Please Rarity, don’t make me do this.” Starlight begged.
“Remember, you must hold the brand in place for five whole seconds for each one, or I’ll make you do it again.” Rarity chuckled.
Starlight stared sadly at her dad, and he looked back at her in terror, shaking his head and silently pleading for her not to do it. She cried as she lifted the branding iron with one hoof and approached Firelight, swiftly pressing the iron into one of his shoulders. Firelight howled in agony as his skin sizzled and singed.
“One… two… three… four… five.” Rarity counted.
Starlight reluctantly moved to his ribs and pressed the brand into his flesh. More deranged hollering, more counting, and a brief interlude between removing the iron and placing it against his flame cutie mark. It was more than she could take to watch the brand scorching him, so she looked only for as long as it took for her to see that the brand had made contact with his body. She carried on crying as her dad wailed and the stench of burning skin filled the air.
“Put it back in the egg for a few moments,” Rarity ordered. “we must keep the experience nice and crisp for your dear daddy.”
Rarity wrenched the iron from Starlight’s grip and placed it back in the miniature forge, before handing her a dagger and a rod.
“Aren’t you glad I gave you extra forelegs now?” She mentioned. “You can hold both weapons at once! And don’t even think of trying anything, I have all my bases covered…”
The four black dogs growled viciously and snapped at Starlight threateningly. Frightened, she jumped back and glanced up at Rarity. That's when she noticed the faintly iridescent shimmer around Rarity's body. If not for the unicorn's words, Starlight might have assumed that the shimmer was just part of her new form, but it was clear from what she'd said, that Rarity now employed a similar magic that Starlight had during the Friendship Test.
“As you already mentioned, only Fluttershy was stabbed, however, we don’t know how Applejack would have decided, so why don’t we assume she would’ve chosen to stab Rainbow Dash – given that Dash was the one standing to Applejack’s left in the test – I mean, let’s be honest, you wanted Dash to suffer more than anypony else or why would you have arranged it the way you did?” Rarity began. “So, what I want you to do is stab your father, twice, to the hilt – anywhere you choose – and give him twelve hard lashings with the rod; and you must strike him hard, or I will strike him harder.”
“Daddy, I’m so so sorry.” Starlight squeaked.
“How could you do this?” Firelight questioned weakly. “How could you be so cruel?”
Starlight bit her lip in shame, and stabbed Firelight’s left foreleg, just above the dog bites he suffered. She tried to push it in smoothly, but hit the bone by accident, so she had to pull it out and try again. Plasma flowed from the wound as she shoved the dagger in to the hilt, trying to block out her father’s yelling as she pulled the weapon out again and stabbed into his right foreleg. More blood splattered out as she tearfully removed the dagger and tossed it to one side. She loudly snivelled, as she raised the rod in the air and brought it down heavily on his back leg with a horrific thud – once, twice, three times – to the pained grunting of Firelight. Starlight targeted the same leg again, trying to minimize any damage by not spreading the pain around his body. Rarity grinned as Starlight weepily struck her dad hard three more times.
“Halfway there,” Rarity said in faux encouragement. “go on dear, you can do it.”
Knowing that a lengthy hesitation could result in Rarity taking things into her own hooves, Starlight went to his other back leg and began to hit it with as much force as she could... one, two, three. Eyes half shut, she could hear each smack of the rod causing serious damage to the bone… four, five, six. In a similar fashion to the dagger, she cast the rod aside and gently draped two of her forelegs around her dad’s neck. He flinched at her touch, equal parts disgusted and comforted.
“I hate to interrupt, but aren’t you forgetting something, sugar plum?” Rarity baited, gesturing to the cart.
Starlight burst out crying again, as she retrieved the branding iron from the metal egg. She went to his unbranded side and set about finishing off her first task. She pressed the burning hot iron into his shoulder, but Firelight was so exhausted he couldn’t even scream. Once again, she jabbed him in the ribs, making sure to hold it for the required time.
Just one more, dad, please hold on… Starlight thought as she removed the brand from his ribs and thrust it into his flank.
At this point, he crumpled to the ground like a ragdoll and Starlight panicked. The iron clattered to the floor as Starlight hurriedly began checking her dad’s vital signs... it wasn’t looking good. Rarity unceremoniously kicked him onto his side and finished branding him on Starlight’s behalf. She then bucked Starlight in the jaw and rammed the brand roughly into her face, burning an equal sign on Starlight’s cheek. The mare shrieked as she experienced, first hoof, the skin-burning sensation she had inflicted on so many others. Suffering terribly but fearing for her father’s condition, she reached out a hoof to Firelight, desperately calling out to him… when she suddenly realised that her dad was no more; extinguished like a candle in a storm. His body exploded into flames and then burned into nothingness.
“Well that was no fun!” Rarity pouted as Starlight wept. “He didn’t even last to the gas round! Never mind, there’s always next time…”
Starlight’s crying gently eased off as Rarity’s statement sank into her mind. What was she talking about ‘next time’? Rarity retrieved the dagger and rod from the ground and put them back on the cart. She also placed the branding iron back in the egg and sat down calmly next to her canine companions. Waiting. Starlight wiped her eyes and glanced at the demon unicorn in confusion, until…
“Pumpky-Wumpkin! Is that you??” a familiar male voice cried out. “Oh, my stars! What happened to you??”
Starlight’s eyes went as wide as dinner plates, as she turned to see her dad running toward her. He bore no wounds, no bruises, and obviously no memory of what happened mere minutes ago. She continued staring at him in utter bewilderment as he frantically fretted over her butchered form. Starlight gave Rarity a horrified glance as the unicorn and her dogs began giggling.
“So, this is my punishment…” Starlight stammered.
“Yes; for your crimes against ponykind, you must now torture your father for all eternity – you must make him suffer what my friends suffered, and every time he goes ‘poof’, he will come back for more, unaware that he’s already been through it,” Rarity confirmed. “so, you must confess over and over again, you must see the disgust and hate in his eyes over and over again, and you must make him suffer over and over again.”
“What crimes?” Firelight asked Starlight. “What is she talking about?”
“Well darling, I must be off, I’ll leave daddy dearest in your hooves,” She grinned wickedly. “just remember, you must tell him everything, and you must subject him to everything… or else Ebony and her friends may have to ‘take care’ of you.”
Rarity erupted into malicious, maniacal laughter that seemed to echo throughout Tartarus, while Firelight turned to his daughter, asking what was going on and what were they doing here, but before she could begin to answer, a low voice growled at them.
“We’re waiting...”
Both ponies looked at the dogs, and Ebony stepped forward.
“Time to confess to daddy…” Ebony spoke in a deep, demonic voice. “Time to face your punishment…”
Starlight audibly gulped and turned to her dad with a defeated expression. Rarity’s friendship with the demon alicorn Phoenix, had allowed her to exact a revenge beyond anything Starlight could’ve imagined. Her friendship with Big Mac allowed her to inflict tremendous suffering without lifting a hoof, and her friendship with the black dogs meant she was free to do whatever she wanted – she wasn’t rooted to one place to make sure Starlight completed her tasks. Maybe friendship wasn’t magic, but friendship allowed Rarity to ultimately come out on top.
Starlight Glimmer had won the battle, Rarity had won the war.
