Twilight slept better that night and only woke up because the lights came on in the hallway. Despite how well she slept, her body was still stiff from sleeping on the cold, hard cell floor. Twilight’s first instinct was to stretch out her wings, only to remember that they were tied down, and that even if they weren’t Twilight still wouldn’t have had enough room to unfurl them.

Twilight sighed. She had only been in Sleipnir for two days and was beginning to get sick of the place. She spent most of her time locked up in what was essentially an over sized soup can and was only ever outside of it for a few hours at a time. Also, the food was terrible.

'Perhaps I ought to be glad,' Twilight thought to herself, 'I mean it’s not like I’m all tied up like all of the other inmates.'

From what Twilight had seen, most of the other inmates had been forced into straitjackets and gagged so that they couldn’t speak. It was a wonder why they didn’t die of starvation. All Twilight had done to her was having her wings tied down and some kind of material coated onto her horn. Really Twilight was probably the best off out of all the inmates. But that didn’t change the fact that she hated Sleipnir, and despite all evidence suggesting that she did something to end up in the strange facility, Twilight could not shake the mentality that she didn’t belong there.

“Is it morning already?” A high pitched voiced said while yawning from the cell next to Twilight’s, “It feels like I only went to sleep just now.”

“Good morning.” Twilight said, deliberately avoiding saying Pinkie’s name in case she got it wrong. Yesterday Twilight found out that her neighbor had three personalities that alternated based on two factors, the third personality emerging if neither conditions were met.

“Hey Twilight, how did you sleep last night?” the pink mare asked.

Deciding that it was Diane whom she was talking too Twilight answered, “About as good I could sleep in this cell. What about you?”

“I think I slept alright.” Diane answered happily.

Twilight wasn’t sure what to think about Diane’s sudden happiness. On one side of the coin it was good that her friend was feeling good, but on the other side Twilight wasn’t sure that Diane should be happy; after all she had killed at least two ponies, Rainbow Dash and (based on what Twilight heard before she went to sleep) Fluttershy. Twilight wanted to ask what Diane meant when she said that she was sorry to Fluttershy last night, but stopped when she realized that the question might send Diane into a crying fit. No matter the circumstances, Twilight never did anything that might make one of her friends cry, even if that friend was a psychopath. Twilight decided that should would just try to avoid thinking about, at least until she could ask Dread, who presumably knew more about Pinkie’s/Diane’s condition than she did, about his opinion on the matter.

“So, did you have any dreams last night?” Diane asked, snapping Twilight out of her thoughts.

“What?” Twilight asked, mildly surprised by just how normal the question was.

“I asked if you had any dreams last night.” Diane answered, “If you want I can tell you what I dreamed about first.”

“Sure, that sounds okay.”

“Last night I dreamed that I was in the middle of Ponyville, only every pony was the size of a dragon, except for me, I was normal sized. Anyways I spent the first part of my dream trying not to get crushed, which was hard because no pony seemed to notice me, which would’ve been sad except I don’t think that any of them actually looked down. Eventually I found a magic tuba. When I played it the head of a hydra came out of my toilet. I’m not sure why a hydra would be in my toilet, but for whatever reason it was there to give me…” Diane spent the next half hour describing her incredibly incoherent dream.

“Well your dream was certainly… unique.” Twilight said when Diane was finished.

“Now tell me yours!” Diane demanded in a cheery voice, unnerving Twilight slightly.

“Well um…” Twilight said thoughtfully, “I don’t really remember what I dreamed last night, at least not at the moment.”

“Oh come on, surely if you tried.” Diane begged.

“Okay, okay, let me think.” Twilight decided that it would be easier to just make up a dream for the sake of entertaining Diane, “Well I remember that I was in my library, except that all of the books had been put into the wrong place. So I, um, started to reorganize them so that ponies could find the right books if they need to. However once I was done the books started to fly off the shelves and onto the floor. I tried to pick them up again but they, um, turned into potato peelings. I called Spike in to help me clean up the mess, but when he came he was wearing my Nightmare Night costume and Apple Jack’s hat.” Twilight continued to make up a dream for the next three minutes.

Twilight found herself enjoying discussing her dream, even though she had completely made it up. It let her mind wander away from her current situation. Twilight could definitely see why Diane would want to talk about dreams. A fun-loving pony like Pinkie Pie would’ve been absolutely miserable at Sleipnir, even a grossly mutated, psychopathic version of Pinkie Pie. Up until Twilight had arrived, dreams were the only way Diane could entertain herself, seeing as to how Dread would take her to his office every time the Administrator decided that he would set up one of his exercises.

Eventually the Administrator announced breakfast over the intercom, “Today for breakfast, you will be served two muffins and a water packet.”

“He’s late today.” Diane commented, “And he announced what breakfast is going to be. I wonder what’s going on.”

Twilight didn’t know how to answer; she had only been imprisoned at Sleipnir for two days, today marking her third, and she didn’t know enough about the Administrator to infer what might be plotting. There was however one thing that Twilight could be sure of. Whatever the Administrator had planned, it wouldn’t be pleasant.

Twilight’s heart began to sink. What if the Administrator found out that Dread had been letting inmates out of their cells and taking them to his office? What would be the penalty that Dread would receive be? What if the Administrator decides that punishing Dread was not enough, and that every pony he had talked to should be given the same fate?

Twilight had caused herself to panic. Her heart seemed to be trying to escape her chest and run off into the sunset. Twilight realized that it wasn’t a good idea to allow herself to be panicked by her own mind; the Administrator seemed to use that as a way of torture, if yesterday’s exercise was of any evidence at least. Besides, if Twilight was so freaked out by something that might not even happen, then what would she do if the Administrator called her name for one of his exercises?

After a short span of time, Twilight began to hear the signature clip clop of Dread’s metallic hooves. Twilight waited fervently for the Android to come into view. There so many things that Twilight needed to ask and Dread was her only source of answers.

As the sound of Dread’s hoofsteps came closer, Twilight realized that her mentality towards Dread’s arrival was similar to what it was yesterday, albeit with a different reasoning behind her feelings. Twilight began to wonder if her life would soon become a repetitive cycle of events that only varied slightly day to day. Wake up, talk to Pinkie, talk to Dread, eat breakfast, go to Dread’s office, come back, eat dinner, go to sleep, repeat. Even though she had always been one to try to schedule every little detail of her life, the idea of her life become little more than a mechanical passing of events made Twilight shudder.

When Dread came into view, he was pushing a cart with several paper bags on it. The paper bags caught Twilight’s eye because there was something written on them. Twilight tried to make out what the bags said but couldn’t due to the size of the print and Dread’s distance from Twilight’s cell.

“Good morning Miss Sparkle,” Dread said when he got to Twilight’s cell, “you can rest easy today, because your meal is actually fit for pony consumption."

“Morning Dread, do you by chance know why the Administrator was so late with the morning announcement today?”

The red lights that Dread had in place of eyes grew dim, “No Miss Sparkle, I haven’t a clue. The Administrator has never been late a single time since he came into power, and it concerns me that he was today. The fact that he decided that today’s breakfast should be edible would be enough to tell me that he has something planned. I just don’t know what it is yet…”

“Wait, could he have poisoned the muffins?” Diane asked. Twilight had forgotten that they were in earshot of her cell.

“Well I have already seen one of the inmates devour the pastries with extreme prejudice. If he dies or becomes ill, we’ll know.”

Twilight shuddered, “That’s not reassuring, Dread.”

Dread produced a white noise before speaking, “Relax. I assure you that your breakfast is safe to eat. The Administrator may be cruel and twisted in his treatment of his inmates, but he would not wipe them all out something as nice as poison. He enjoys deaths that are slow and painful, not silent and kind.” Dread gave them both their breakfasts and went to feed the other inmates.

Twilight investigated the paper bag that Dread had given her, still worried about the possibility of poison despite Dread’s confidence that it wasn’t. As it turned out, the writing that was on the bag simply said Sleipnir, with a cartoon image of a grey pegasus mare holding a muffin. Twilight was amused by the fact that whoever drew the image had accidentally made the mare cross eyed.

Twilight spilled the contents of the bag onto her cell floor. Sure enough, there were two muffins and a water packet. When Twilight sniffed the muffins to see if she could pick out any chemicals that might do her harm she found nothing but the smell of a slightly old muffin. Twilight longed for the use of her horn; if she could use her magic then she would’ve been able to simply see if the muffin was poison. As it stood however, Twilight would either have to trust that Dread knew enough about how the Administrator thought, or she would have to starve until dinner, which wasn’t for several hours.

Twilight took a small bite out of one of the muffins. There was nothing off about the taste of the muffin that would’ve suggested any sort of poison, but the Administrator could easily have used a poison that didn’t have a flavor, one that would’ve lulled its victim into a false sense of security and kill them slowly. Despite her fear of poisoning, Twilight enjoyed the muffin very much, it being the most delicious thing she had eaten since her imprisonment. Eventually Twilight forgot her fear of poison and ate both of the muffins quickly, washing them down with the water packet.

A few minutes after Twilight had finished her breakfast the Administrator spoke on the intercom in his eerie genderless voice, “Today, we have planned a special treat for you to enjoy. You see, a few days ago we came into possession of a very special guest. A pony who has surpassed all the normal standards of morality, a pony who has time and time again proven herself a worthy opponent, a pony who has even achieved the status of alicorn.”

Twilight’s blood ran cold. The Administrator was talking about her-he must have been. What was he planning?

As if to answer Twilight’s question the Administrator added, “This pony shall give you a show the likes of which you have yet to see.”

The screen in Twilight’s cell turned on, showing an image of Twilight on it. Words scrolled passed the picture, but again they were too small and moving too fast for Twilight to make out what they said.

“The princess will have the chance to spend time with our single most powerful guest,” The Administrator said once the words had finished scrolling across the screen, “a guest so rambunctious that until today I have been hesitant to allow him to play with any of you. However I feel that surely an alicorn would be able to play with him long enough for him work out his excess energy.”

The image on the screen changed, but instead of giving an in depth profile of Twilight’s opponent, all that the screen displayed were the letters S.A.M.

“Diane, who is Sam?” Twilight asked, her breath shaky with dread.

“I… I have no idea.” Diane answered, “I’ve never heard of him before.”

Twilight began to panic. Not only was she about to engage in a fight to the death, but she also had no clue as to who or what she was going to be fighting. For all she knew this Sam could be a dragon with ability to destroy an entire country if it chose to. Twilight’s mind ran wild trying to imagine who or what Sam could be, so much that she lost track of the passage of time, only to snap out of it when she heard Dread coming to unlock her cell.

“Dread, you have to help me!” Twilight begged as the android unlocked her cell, “I can’t fight, not without magic. If I go in there I’m going to die!”

“Believe me Miss Sparkle,” Dread said, his electronic voice mockingly calm, “if I could help you with this then it would my top priority, but as it stands I can’t do anything without risking my life as well as Dr. Layne’s, possibly Miss Pie’s as well. I am sorry but you are on your own on this.”

“Can’t you at least tell me who this Sam pony is?” Twilight asked, desperate for any help she could get.

Dread was quiet for a moment before responding, “I don’t know much about the S.A.M., I didn’t have the clearance to study it. The specimen was officially top secret, but any pony who worked at Sleipnir knew of it. It was a legend, spoken of only in whispers. Descriptions of it varied wildly, but it was generally agreed that it was pony with the most severe case of sanguinam ungolum ever documented. Beyond that I haven’t a clue what it is.”

Dread opened the door to Twilight’s cell and Twilight apprehensively stepped out.

“Would like me to escort you to the arena?” Dread asked.

Twilight nodded, fearing that speaking may cause her to vomit. Dread lead Twilight down the hall in the opposite direction of the way to Dread’s office. As they walked the laughing mare cackled louder and more wildly than she had before. Twilight guessed that the mare was excited to watch her die.

They came upon a metal door at the end of the hallway. Dread told Twilight that the door would take Twilight to the arena before he left to check on Diane. Twilight pressed a button on the side of the door and it slid open, making a swoosh sound. The door did not lead directly into the arena, rather it lead into a small chamber that was roughly four times the size of Twilight’s cell. On one of the walls inside the chamber there was a small hole with a flashing light next to it.

“Place your horn into the slot.” The Administrator instructed from a speaker that was somewhere inside the chamber.

Twilight was reluctant to obey, but did so anyway after a moment of hesitation. Once her horn was inside the slot, the something began to scratch at it. The sound of metal scraping horn irritated Twilight, but not so much so that she didn’t worry about what the slot was doing. Twilight began to panic when she realized that the device was likely going to cut her horn off.

The device made a beeping sound and stopped scrapping at Twilight’s horn. Twilight immediately placed a hoof on her horn to check that it was still there. Twilight found that not only was her horn still attached to her head, but the material that coated it was gone!

“Due to the nature of your playmate, we at Sleipnir have decided that you should be temporary permitted to access your magic.” The Administrator said.

“Thanks.” Twilight said as she began to cast teleportation spell.

The Administrator had made a mistake when he had given Twilight her magic. Twilight had no intention of using her magic only against whatever monster Sam was, she was ready to leave Sleipnir for good. Twilight felt her entire body tense up as she teleported home.

Twilight was standing in the middle of the Ponyville library. Everything was as clean and organized as Twilight remembered it. Twilight started towards her collection of pens and parchment, she was going to tell Celestia about the Administrator and what he had put her through. The princess would send an army to attach Sleipnir and destroy the Administrator. Dread and Layne would be free to help the sick ponies imprisoned in the facility, and everything would be right again.

Twilight suddenly felt an electric shock, sending her hurdling back into reality. Twilight was still in the small chamber, the only thing that had changed was that now there was a large scorch mark on the floor. Twilight had imagined returning home and didn’t even realize that her spell didn’t work. Twilight would’ve cried, but the shock of her failed attempt at teleportation left her paralyzed.

“Dear child,” The Administrator said over the intercom, “did you really think that I would allow you to put yourself in harm’s way? No, I need to keep you safe. I need you to stay at Sleipnir, where I can protect you. Now off to your play date.”

Twilight felt the chamber begin to lower, as if it were a hot air balloon that was landing. Twilight realized that somehow the chamber was taking her directly to wherever Sam was, and that she needed to get over the fact that her escape attempt failed, as quickly as she could. The chamber descended for what felt like hours to Twilight. When the chamber finally came to a stop, its doors opened to a large room with dim lighting.

Twilight looked around the room, it much like the laboratory several floors up with its odd machines and contraptions. However in this room, the contraptions almost reached up to the ceiling, making it difficult to see exactly what was in the room with her. Twilight noticed that there were a lot of droppings on the floor, droppings that were too large to be from a normal pony.

Twilight advanced into the room, careful that she was never too far away from something that she could hide behind. If the droppings were any indication, Sam was in the room with Twilight, possibly even searching for her. Twilight wasn’t one to rush headlong into danger without knowing what she was getting herself into.

Twilight’s strategy proved useful when she heard heavy breathing coming from around a corner. Twilight hid herself underneath a desk and waited to see what was making the loud breathing. Soon Twilight began to hear loud hoof steps, and after a moment the thing that was making them came right by Twilight’s hiding spot.

At the angle that Twilight was hiding, mixed in with the low level of visibility, she could only make out one of the creature’s hooves. It was large, much too large for a normal pony, although Twilight didn’t expect Sam to be a normal pony. What disturbed Twilight about the hoof was that it seemed to be coated in dried blood. This meant that either Sam had recently killed a pony, or he hadn’t washed since his last kill.

Sam paused for moment, and sniffed. Twilight felt her heart begin to race. If Sam decided to bend down, he would find her. Time seemed to slow down. Twilight had never been so afraid in her life, not when she fought Nightmare Moon, not when she faced Discord, not when even when she did battle with the Changelings. But this monster, the named Sam, terrified her in a way that Twilight could not begin to explain. Perhaps it was because she knew almost nothing about Sam, perhaps it was because she was alone, perhaps it was simply an effect that ponies infected with sanguinam ungolum had on other ponies, or perhaps it was a combination of all these.

Eventually the monster moved on, and when Twilight was sure that Sam was far enough away, she quietly came out of her hiding place and walked in the direction that the monster had come from. Twilight needed to figure out a way to kill Sam; and order to do that she need information on the abomination. Also, Twilight wanted to make sure she was where Sam wasn’t.

As she crept along the passage, Twilight began to notice that the droppings were beginning to increase in number. Twilight could only assume that she was in a part of Sam’s lair that the monster spent most of its time. After what seemed like hours of walking, Twilight came upon what looked like a larger version of the cells that all of the inmates stayed in. The cell was in poor condition, and appeared to have been torn apart from the inside.

Twilight found a torn piece of paper with the letters S.A.M. written in bold letters. Twilight risked illuminating her horn slightly so that she could read what was written on the parchment. What was written on the paper was mostly either illegible or terms that Twilight was not familiar with, but there was one small tidbit of information that caused Twilight to relax a little. Sam was technically an earth pony. While this in and of itself was not enough to ensure Twilight’s survival, it did mean that Twilight had an advantage over Sam, one that no matter how dangerous Sam was he stood no chance against it. Twilight smiled, knowing that The Administrator had made an error in giving Twilight her magic back after all.

Twilight began to retrace her steps back towards where Sam was. Confident in her ability to subdue the monster, Twilight speed up into a trot, and then a run. Twilight was not usually one for running, nor was this a time for her to be distracted, but after being imprisoned for Celestia knows how long the feeling of freedom that running gave Twilight was unbelievable.

It wasn’t long before Twilight heard the heavy hoof steps that could only belong to Sam. Immediately Twilight felt her confidence being replaced by fear. Twilight ignored her emotions, after all if Twilight’s theory was correct, and Twilight was sure that it was, all she would have to do was use a levitation spell to hold Sam in place and snap his neck.

As Sam came closer, Twilight braced herself for combat, her horn illuminating at the tip. Twilight saw a large, bulky

shape in the distance and used her magic to lift it off the ground, the magic illuminating the monster’s features. When Twilight got her first look at Sam, she wished that she had just kept hiding.

Out of all the horrors that Twilight had seen during her stay at Sleipnir, Sam was easily the most disturbing. Sam was a large, bulky stallion with blood red fur. His eyes seemed to be devoid of any color, and his teeth would’ve been better suited to a dragon. Around his waist, Sam wore a loin cloth that looked like it was made of the faces of dead ponies. But what Twilight found the most terrible was Sam’s cutie mark, a green apple that had been cut in half.

“You’re Big Macintosh.” Twilight said to herself quietly.

Big Macintosh was the older brother of Apple Jack, one of Twilight’s friends back before Twilight was imprisoned in Sleipnir. He was one of the sweetest stallions that Twilight had known. She had enjoyed his company very much, even though they could never decide if they should be special some ponies or not. To think that right now Twilight was fighting an evil counterpart of her Macintosh enraged Twilight.

It was a good thing that the researcher of Sleipnir had given Sam a new name, Twilight decided. The decision was strengthened when Twilight saw the faces that made up Sam’s loin cloth. They were the faces of three fillies that Twilight had known back in Ponyville, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Scootaloo.

Twilight looked into the eyes of the monster and said in an unusually cold voice, “I’m going to kill you in the only way you deserve to die, the way that the researchers should have killed when they found you, as slow and painful as possible.” Twilight heard the laughter of the mad mare, somehow penetrating several floors of metal.

Sam bellowed and violently swung his arms, somehow managing to break Twilight’s levitation field. A soon as Sam had hit the floor he charged towards Twilight. Twilight had just enough time to cast a short range teleportation spell before Sam could tackle her.

Once Twilight was safely away she began to try and think up a new plan to defeat Sam. Twilight was concerned that the monster had somehow thrown off her levitation spell; something that Twilight didn’t even know was possible. To Twilight’s surprise this fact did not worry her, in fact Twilight was fascinated by it.

How could something break through a levitation field? Twilight asked herself

Twilight had no explanation for this phenomenon, and this excited her. Was this ability unique to Sam or could other ponies learn how to do it? What else was this monster capable of? Twilight wanted to know. She wanted to study Sam. No, she needed to study Sam.

A strange lust for knowledge began to take over Twilight’s mind. Twilight had decided that she was going to find out everything she could about Sam, no matter what she had to do. Twilight’s head began to hurt severely, but she didn’t mind, she loved the pain!

Twilight snapped herself back into reality. She didn’t know what to think of her thought process other than that she had never before felt such a disgusting mixture of bloodlust and curiosity. Twilight made a mental note to ask Dread what might’ve caused her to think such insane thoughts, though Twilight could probably already guess his answer. In any case, this wasn’t the time for Twilight to be self analyzing. Twilight needed to survive, and in order to that she would have to think of a new way to kill Sam.

Twilight took a look at the area that she had teleported to, searching for something that would assist in her study of Sam. As luck would have it, Twilight found a box with the word Emergency Amputation Supplies. Twilight wasn’t sure why exactly the researchers on this floor would need an emergency amputation, or what separated an emergency amputation from a standard amputation, but Twilight was not about to question small miracles. Inside the box were surgical tubes, a thread for stitching up wounds, and a bone saw.

Twilight took the bone saw out of the box and held it her mouth. Twilight wasn’t sure if the bone saw would be of any use against Sam, but it was better that hiding for the rest of her life. Twilight used her magic to levitate the bone saw so that she would be able to fight without the risk of dropping it, and made her way to confront Sam for a second time.

Twilight didn’t have too long before she located the monster, Sam had been tearing up the lab after Twilight managed to escape him. Twilight was impressed by how much Sam had managed to destroy in the time it took her to locate the bone saw and return. The location was almost unrecognizable from before.

When Twilight came upon Sam for the third time fortune smiled in her favor, she had managed to approach Sam from behind. Unwilling to waste any time, Twilight took the bone saw and slashed it across Sam’s back. Twilight managed to pierce the skin, but the monster’s hide was too tough for the blade to cut deeply into it.

Enraged, Sam turned a bellowed his indecipherable war cry. Once again Sam charged at Twilight, but rather than teleporting away like last time Twilight ducked between the monster’s legs and once more attempted to slash at the monster’s back. Again Twilight only managed to scratch the monster, but this time Sam roared with pain.

Twilight smiled, somehow finding joy in Sam’s pain. She wanted to hurt the monster, she wanted to know what could hurt it and what couldn’t. Twilight’s fear for her life had been replaced by a savage desire for pain mixed with a scholar’s never ending quest for knowledge, and it felt right.

Twilight’s head became filled with a head splitting pain that would’ve caused a normal pony to collapse, but not Twilight, no not Twilight. To Twilight the pain in her head was something to be welcomed, it meant that she was defying whoever caused her to feel the pain, to punish her for thinking or remember. The pain made Twilight whole, it filled the parts of Twilight that Twilight didn’t even realize were missing.

Twilight forced herself to focus. She prepared to swing again but Sam lunged at Twilight before she could complete the action. Twilight evaded the attack but she had lost her focus and dropped the bone saw mid swing, she heard it clatter to the ground some twenty feet away. Instantly Twilight’s priorities changed from killing Sam to regaining the bone saw. Twilight ran in the direction that the bone saw had hit the ground and had managed to get about halfway to the weapon when Twilight felt something heavy slam into her.

Twilight had made the fatal error of turning her back on Sam. The monster now held Twilight in his front legs, his breath hitting the back of her neck, smelling faintly of copper. Twilight had lost this fight, and now Sam was going to kill her.

Twilight tried to resist, using a variety of spells that would’ve been enough to fend off a hydra, but Sam was a monster in his own league, and Twilight spells either didn’t affect him, or else they only managed to make the monster angrier. Twilight tried to cast another teleportation spell, but found that she couldn’t concentrate long enough to do so. Twilight was in a blind panic, she quickly gave up on spells altogether and began trying to kick her opponent, it was no use though; Sam didn’t seem to notice the blows.

Sam slammed Twilight onto the floor in a similar manner that the stallion in the first fight that Twilight had seen had slammed the mare. Twilight cried out once she realized what it was that Sam intended to do. Twilight would not let that happen, Sam could beat her, maul her, or decapitate her, but Twilight was not about to allow herself to be violated!

Sam placed one of his fore hooves onto Twilight’s throat, forcing her head into a position where her horn laid parallel to the floor. Twilight’s eyes began to tear up. This was it for her, her life was going to end here and now, in what was possibly the most degrading way to die.

Just as Twilight was about to come to terms with her fate something a few feet away caught her eye. The bone saw! Somehow the blade had landed in way that it caught the light. Wasting no time, Twilight used her telekinesis/telekinetic ability to pull the bone saw towards her. The bone saw came flying, and in a single motion, putting an end to what Sam intended to do to Twilight, permanently.

Sam howled with pain, releasing Twilight while the monster tried to nurse his wound. Twilight got up and prepared to for another strike. Using her telekinesis, Twilight pulled the bone saw along the back of Sam’s legs, severing multiple tendons. Sam fell to the floor, unable to do anything but whimper with pain. Twilight almost pitied the monster.

Twilight took the bone saw and began to sever the tendons in Sam’s front legs as well. Once the monster was properly immobilized, Twilight turned Sam over onto his back and slid the bone saw over his torso, leaving a deep gash in the beast’s stomach. Twilight then took the bone saw and began to make more gashes on Sam’s body. The creature looked at Twilight and growled, his eyes still filled with a sadistic rage. Twilight took no notice and continued to cut into Sam’s body, fascinated with the amount of blood it contained. Eventually Twilight stopped cutting and just waited for Sam to bleed out. After roughly five minutes of waiting Sam could still muster up a weak growl, but was dying nonetheless.

Twilight became impatient and decided that she was going to have to speed the process up. Twilight took the bone saw and carefully uses it to saw off Sam’s scalp, revealing his brain. Sam’s brain was not like the brains that Twilight had seen in medical journals, it looked visibly diseased, like what a sponge would look like if it were covered with mold and drowned with ink. Twilight used a telekinesis spell to slowly pull the brain out of Sam’s skull, carefully so that she did not sever any nerves.

Once the brain was as far out as Twilight could force it, she let it down carefully onto the floor. Sam managed to take a good look at his brain and made a weak snort. Twilight turned her back on the monster, so that it could die alone. As she left, Twilight felt a sick kind of pleasure at what she had done.

When Twilight found her way back to the chamber she arrived in, the Administrator said over the intercom, “Congratulations, I do hope you had fun. Please insert your horn into the slot again, and you will be returned to your bed chamber.”

Twilight did as instructed, placing her horn into the same hole in the wall that she had before. This time Twilight felt like something was dripping molten honey onto her horn. Unicorns don’t have nerves in their horns so it didn’t hurt, but Twilight could still feel the heat radiate from the tiny hole. Twilight could only guess at how much it would hurt if some of the material slipped through the space between the edge of the hole and her horn.

After a minute the material stopped dripping onto Twilight’s horn and a beeping sound came from the device. Twilight removed her horn from the slot and placed a hoof on it. Whatever material that was dripped on it had rapidly cooled down once it was exposed to air. A second later the chamber began to rise back to the floor Twilight’s cell was on.

Dread was waiting outside Twilight’s cell when she returned.

“How do you feel?” The android asked once Twilight was close enough.

“I…I’m not sure.” Twilight answered.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that I can’t tell whether I’m horrified at what I’ve done, or ecstatic about it. I mean shouldn’t I be feeling some kind or remorse? I just killed a pony for buck’s sake!” Twilight’s eyes were beginning to tear up, “I should be hating myself right now! I should be begging for forgiveness. I took a life Dread, that’s something that I know is wrong, but I don’t care. No matter how hard I try I can’t seem to feel guilty!”

“Yes, that would be an effect of your… condition. We’ll speak more of this later. Right now I need to know what you would like for supper.”

Twilight looked at Dread, her eyes red from crying, “Supper?”

“Yes, you won so you get a meal of your choosing.”

The idea of food distracted Twilight from her frustration long enough for her to stop crying. She could have whatever she desired, and if Pinkamena’s cannibalistic appetite was of any indication there was nothing that Twilight could not ask for.

“Cupcakes.” Twilight answered, “Two of them, one for me and one for Pinki… Diane. Is that alright?”

“Am I right in the assumption that you want normal cupcakes?” Dread asked.

“What do you mean normal? What kind of cupcakes do you serve here?”

“Never mind, your order will arrive along with your regularly scheduled meal.” Dread let Twilight back into her cell and left to do whatever it was he did to prepare the inmate’s meals.

“So how do you feel?” Diane asked as Dread’s metallic hoof steps began to fade.

“I’m fine, why?” Twilight answered.

“Well you just killed a pony. Surely that had to get some kind of reaction out of you.”

Twilight thought for a moment. In truth, Twilight honestly didn’t care that she had taken the life of a pony, but she couldn’t tell Diane that. The fact that Twilight wasn’t feeling any remorse at all disturbed Twilight more than the actual act of killing, and there was no telling how Diane would react to it.

“The creature that I fought had not been a pony in a long time.” Twilight finally said. Twilight wasn’t sure if she believed her own statement, but it was better than admitting to being a cold blooded murderer.

“What do you mean Sam wasn’t a pony?” Diane asked.

Twilight wasn’t sure how to answer. What constituted a pony? If Twilight were to say appearance then she would’ve stated the Diane, or any pony afflicted with anthropromorphia for that matter, did not fit the definition of pony. It couldn’t have been the cutie mark that made a pony, Sam had one. Twilight could not think of a good answer.

“I don’t know. He just wasn’t.”

Twilight and Diane sat quietly until they heard the sound of metal hoof steps announcing dinner.

“So what did you ask for your dinner?” Diane asked.

“Didn’t you hear me say it when I got back from the fight?”

“No. I try not to eaves drop on other pony’s conversations. It’s rude you know.”

“Oh, well I asked for cupcakes, one for each of us.” Twilight said cheerfully.

Diane made a choking noise. Exactly what she could’ve choked on, Twilight had no idea.

“Cupcakes! You asked for cupcakes?” Diane began to hyperventilate.

“Yes,” Twilight answered, suddenly concerned, “why not cupcakes?”

“No. No, I can’t have cupcakes! Cupcakes are bad! Cupcakes are evil! I can’t eat cupcakes!” Diane broke into hysterical cry, “I’m sorry. I am so sorry. I hate myself. I WANT TO DIE!”

Diane began to slam herself onto the inside wall of her cell rambling on about how she was a disgusting, miserable excuse for a friend. Twilight tried to calm Diane down, but everything she said seemed to only make matters worse. Eventually Twilight decided that the best course of action would be to wait and ask Dread what to do.

It wasn’t long before Dread got to Twilight’s cell.

“I take it that something has upset Miss Pie?” Dread asked as he prepared to give Twilight her food.

“She’s been like this ever since I told her about the cupcakes.” Twilight said.

“Oh dear, I should’ve know that this would’ve happened.” Dread said, “I do apologies Miss Sparkle, this is partially my fault. I forgot to tell you about Miss Pie’s relation to cupcakes. You see when Miss Pie murdered her friend Rainbow Dash, she cooked her into cupcakes. Now whenever you mention the pastry to Miss Pie’s Diane personality, she goes into one of these fits.”

“That would’ve been useful information to know when I was ordering the food. Why didn’t you tell me then?” Twilight asked.

“Forgive me Miss Sparkle, my mind was on other matters then. My advice right now would be to allow Miss Pie to calm down. Come tomorrow she will have reverted to her Pinkamena personality. I think that it would be wise to wait until then to give her the cupcake.”

“Alright then,” Twilight said, “is there anything else that you have neglected to tell me?”

Dread thought for a moment before answering, “Nothing that you need to know. Please enjoy your meal.” Dread gave Twilight the cupcake and then when to take care of Diane.

Twilight began to nibble on her cupcake. It wasn’t the best cupcake that Twilight had ever eaten, but after the meals she had had at Sleipnir it was a blessing. Having two edible meals in one day was likely as rare as a zapapples at Sleipnir. Twilight savored every bite of the pastry, seeing as she might never get the chance to taste one again.

After a few minutes Diane stopped slamming herself against the walls of her cell. Twilight asked if she was alright, but received no answer. Twilight thought about calling for help, but decided that it would be a waste of energy. After all, the Administrator didn’t care if his playthings lived or died, Dread was too far out away, and Dr. Layne never ventured into the part of the facility.

Twilight laid down in her cell and pressed an ear onto the part of the wall that was adjacent to Diane’s cell. Twilight listened for any sign that would confirm that Diane had not beaten herself to death. At first Twilight heard nothing and was ready to have an episode when she heard it. It was a faint noise that almost didn’t penetrate the metal walls, but it was all Twilight needed. Relief filled Twilight when she realized that Diane was not dead, but unconscious.

Twilight sat in silence for a long time before the Administrator announced that it was time for sleep. Twilight welcomed the idea and settled down as comfortably as she could in the metal cell. She had a long day and was ready for some rest. As Twilight laid listening to sound of a mad mare’s laughter a thought occurred to her.

How the buck do you make cupcakes out of a pony?