Mistress Do Well: Fractured Elements
by milesprower06

Degradation

Twilight was awaken by a soft thud. She sat up, and saw a pony standing outside the wood and glass door to her balcony, silhouetted by the moonlight. Removing the covers, she got up out of bed and cast a dim illumination spell, walking to the door. When she got to the door and opened it, the purple glow of her horn revealed her lost love.

"Rainbow!" Twilight exclaimed. She lurched forward, throwing her forehooves around the pegasus' neck. When she broke the hug, Rainbow brought her lips to hers, and kissed her. Twilight moaned lustfully as they moved inside without breaking the kiss. Now at the foot of her bed, they stroked each other's manes and faces, both pairs of wings flaring out, before Rainbow broke the kiss and quickly lifted Twilight onto the bed, placing her on her bed, and came in for another kiss.

"Oh, Rainbow...I've missed you so, so much!" Twilight gasped as Rainbow moved her kisses down to her cheek, then her neck.

"Don't worry mistress, I'm here now." she said, barely pausing in her kissing and sucking.

Dread began to fill Twilight's mind.

"No...no Rainbow. I'm not your mistress. I'm your friend. You are your own pony. You're the one in control, Rainbow, not me. Do what you want, I'm yours!"

"No, mistress...I...am yours." Rainbow said.

Twilight wanted to object...to shove Rainbow off...but it felt...so good...

Rainbow's tongue slid down her stomach, past her nipples, and finally, her lips found her clit...

Twilight awoke with a gasp, as the vivid dream came to a sudden halt. She awoke not in her bed, but on the cold tiles of the bathroom floor. As her blurry vision cleared, she made out the toilet in front of her, next to a tipped goblet. Reaching down with a foreleg to between her rear legs, she found herself soaked with desire, and this thought brought up the late night drinks she had before she had passed out. She clawed her way to the toilet bowl just in time to vomit the alcohol into the waiting water.

'Just another damned dream...' she thought to herself. She hated her mind for dangling that which she wanted most in front of her most nights, just to snatch it away. That had been one of the bad ones, where her fears of Rainbow's mind being so broken and beyond repair that she couldn't think for herself, had manifested. She got up, holding the goblet in her magical grasp, and unsteadily walked out of the bathroom into the main library.

"Another rough night?" a voice asked her, startling her, and unbalanced as she already was, causing her to fall over in the bathroom doorway. Not getting up right away, she looked to the front door, and saw Princess Celestia, accompanied by two royal guards.

"Please wait outside, gentlecolts," she instructed them.
"Your Highness, are you sure that's a wise de-"
"I said, wait outside."

Immediately following her repeated order, the guards gave a bow, then turned and walked out of the front door, closing it behind them. Celestia's attention returned to her former student, who had not moved, and groaned from her apparent hangover.

"You've been doing this to yourself for months now. I thought someone as smart as you would cut back on the drinking after the first few hangovers." she commented. Twilight righted herself to a sitting position as she leaned against the bathroom door jamb, taking the final swallow of booze still left in her goblet after it tipped over.

"Ah, but they're worth it. The less I can think straight, the better I feel, and until my liver fails, that's really all I care about." Twilight said, raising her empty glass, before taking it to the sink, filling it with tap water, then brought it back over to her. Her horn glowed bright for a second, the surface of the water in the glass glowed, there was a flash and a puff of smoke, and the water had been turned into a hard liquor.

Six months. It had been half a year since Rainbow disappeared. There had been absolutely no trace of her. The day after Spike left, detectives from Canterlot arrived to begin their investigation. One of the first things they did was go over every inch of Rarity's house, mainly the basement. But Rarity, before confronting Twilight in the library, had been one step ahead of them. Every knife, restraint, and toy in her dungeon had been expertly sanitized and cleaned. No traces of DNA on anything.

But when they began the questioning, it didn't matter. All four of them confessed to aiding in the psychological and physical torture of Rainbow Dash in Rarity's dungeon.

Why?

That was the most common question Twilight had heard during the investigation, and whenever she or anypony else asked it, she broke down into tears. The truth was, she no longer knew why she had allowed this to happen, and it shook her to her core.

We wanted our friend back, and we all thought Rarity had that interest at heart.

Even Fluttershy, whom Twilight insisted was a victim, confessed to playing an equal role, convincing Dash to let them do this to her.

During the fight in the library, Fluttershy had been asleep. She was awakened by the carnage, and by the time she got to the railing where the force field was, it was already over.

Twilight had been deathly afraid that Applejack and Pinkie would blame her for rescuing Rainbow and Fluttershy, and attacking Rarity, thus bringing all this to light. But if they did, they never said anything. Not that they got together at all after the investigation began. Celestia made it a point to keep them separated during the questioning, and weeks after. Twilight was kept in the library, Fluttershy in her cottage, Pinkie in Sugar Cube Corner, and Applejack in the farmhouse at Sweet Apple Acres.

Just one month after the investigation began, the house arrests had been rescinded. Expecting felony arrests to follow shortly, they never came. They were still the prime suspects in a kidnapping case where the victim had disappeared without a trace, but other than that, they were free ponies. Still, they didn't meet up. Twilight knew they were all ashamed of what they had done. In the following days, one by one, Pinkie, Applejack, and Fluttershy left Ponyville, leaving Twilight as the town pariah.

Twilight heard through the grapevine that there was then a widespread search for Rainbow Dash, and this made her hopeful. But day after day, week after week of nothing, she became depressed and ashamed again. After two months of searching across the entirety of Equestria, the search was called off. Alone, ashamed, and shunned, Twilight turned to alcohol to be able to cope with her guilt.

“Here to relieve me?” she asked Celestia, taking a gulp of the drink.

“Relieve you from what?” Celestia asked, not really showing any noticeable reaction to the state of the library or her former student.

“'Go to Golden Oaks Library and stay there until further notice.' That's what you told me six months ago. So here I've been, trying to forget what a fucking monster I am.”

“You didn't take the hint after the charges were dropped, the restraining spell being lifted, and the others leaving, that you were free to go?”

“There's nowhere to go...my parents won't speak to me...my brother has disowned me...” Twilight said, finishing the contents of her goblet, then levitated it back over to the sink, only to have Celestia's magic take hold, and it vanished with a flash.

“And I don't think you're a monster, Twilight. Very deeply troubled, yes. But you were the one who put a stop to it.”

“Yeah, after taking how many pages of notes...” Twilight said, crawling entirely back inside the bathroom.

“There had to be a reason why you decided to stop it.”
“I loved her.”
“You did a fine job of showing it.”

Twilight, in a brief burst of speed, leaned up enough to get her head above the toilet bowl, then promptly retched, and vomited into the standing water, bringing up what she just drank and then some. Breathing heavily for several moments afterward, she raised her head up out of the bowl, hitting the flusher with her magic.

“So you believe you're the monster, yet all of you pointed to Rarity during the interrogations. She's the ringleader, the one who convinced you all to go that far.”

“Four of us were looking to help a friend! Not Rarity though, oh no. All that bitch wanted was another pet. Fluttershy apparently wasn't enough...the cunt had to impose her will on somepony else! 'I've never liked you, Dash. You lack generosity and kindness, and you are more loyal to yourself than anypony else.' That's what she fucking said. To the pony that saved her worthless fucking life at the Best Young Flier's Competition. That's why I snapped. And that's why I tried to kill her. I would have too, if it wasn't for that damn jewel of hers knocking me out.”

Celestia re-materialized the goblet, and levitated it back over to the sink, enchanted it, then filled it with water.

“Here. No more transmutation spells. Any alcohol in that cup, and it'll fall right through.”

Twilight accepted the goblet in her horn's grasp, taking a sip of clean water to sooth her throat after the vomiting.

“So what are you doing here? Change of heart because of how guilty I'm feeling?”

“My thoughts on what you did were very evident at your expulsion hearing. I have never been more disappointed in another pony than I was with you that day. That hasn't changed. What the five of you did was without question, absolutely unforgivable.”

“Then why not have us all arrested??? Why weren't we punished?! Why were the charges dropped?! Why did I have to get so fed up with the lack of consequences that I have to wish even further suffering on the ringleader that I put in a coma?!”

Celestia sighed, shaking her head.

“Oh, Twilight...you're in for quite the rude awakening. Do you know why? Think. What two things do you know Rainbow took with her when she left town?”

Twilight's bloodshot eyes scanned the floor as she thought.

“Rarity's fire ruby and...and......oh gods...”

Celestia nodded, seeing Twilight's realization.

“The tape.”

Twilight felt another heave, and promptly vomited a mouthful of water into the toilet.

“All other evidence is circumstantial. Rarity cleaned the basement, you healed all of Rainbow's scars, not to mention she's nowhere to be found...that tape is the only piece of direct, physical, incriminating evidence. We'd only be able to convict you if there is absolute irrefutable proof of what you did. Because of you, Rarity, and Rainbow, we do not have it."

Twilight brought her muzzle out of the toilet bowl, taking a few breaths before answering.

“But what about my-my fucking notes?”

“You've always remained a perfectly neutral party when observing something for educational purposes, Twilight. There were no names, dates, or anything specifically identifying in your notes. The prosecutor wanted to claim it was to protect yourself, but I know better. You were just being the best student you could be, making sure they would be useful in any situation.”

Twilight prepared to vomit again, but all she did was dry heave.

“Why should I, or anypony else decide how to punish you? I wasn't the one you kidnapped. So the tape...why do you think she took it?”

“That's obvious...Rarity knew Rainbow took her fire ruby necklace when she spent 40,000 bits to buy it back from that trader. She had to know Rainbow took the tape when she took that, and that it would keep her from pressing robbery charges...and it worked like a fucking charm. I figured she was just going to get as far away as she could then hand it over to the authorities.”

“True, but I have another theory. A double-edged sword, if you will. One, to protect herself from robbery charges, and two...to protect the rest of you.”

“Us?”

“Perhaps as some last gesture of friendship before she left it all behind. Perhaps to just get away from it all. If that tape surfaced, she'd have to come to the trial, testify, tell everyone what you did to her, relive all of that, and without a doubt, there would be nothing I could say or do to keep the five of you from prison. It's crystal clear that it's what you deserve. But maybe a small sliver of her just didn't want to see that happen. That is why I did not take this to trial, Twilight. If Rainbow wanted all of you punished, she would have come forward with the tape.”

“Why did she have to leave right away...? I was going to take her to Cloudsdale in the morning to get her to the Wonderbolts in time...”

“If your notes are any indication, I'd say she was scared out her mind, and if her notes to you and the others are anything further, that she felt pretty betrayed by all of you. And that probably wouldn't have worked. Her clipped wings weren't healed by your spell.”

The lavender unicorn's eyes widened.

“Wh-what?”

“The hoof tracks in the mud that went in and out of Rarity's broken window...then going west out of Ponyville until they dried up about two miles away...I think with how quickly she left, she wanted to get away as fast as possible, and that if she was able to fly, she would have. Even if we were to find her, I don't think she'd be able to fly yet. It's only been six months.”

Twilight began to sob pathetically, curling up on the bathroom floor.

"Sh-sh-she's out there, all alone somewhere...who knows if her mind is broken...I...I just want her to know how sorry I am...I want to help fix her."

“You think she would want the 'help' of any of you anymore? That is the main reason I stripped you of your crown; your complete and sudden lack of judgement. None of you tried to talk to her, alone or in a group. For some unfathomable reason, you all thought the best decision was to force her to change, in the most demeaning way possible. We saw the letters, Twilight. Her mind is together enough to be justifiably angry at all of you. She's threatened all of you to never look for her...I don't know Twilight...put yourself in her place. Would you come back?”

Twilight, crying herself numb for yet another time, merely shook her head while her shoulders heaved. Celestia leaned down to the traumatized unicorn.

“I'm betting by now you'd like some comfort. A shoulder to cry on, somepony to lean on...but you don't have anyone. Don't you see? You just didn't hurt her. All of you hurt each other. Your circle of friendship has been quietly and completely obliterated. What all of you did decimated your connection to the Elements of Harmony. Luna and I have had to take possession of them again. You're the only one left in town, Twilight. The prosecution tried to build a case for three months, and most of that time was spent trying to find Rainbow. But that was a needle in a haystack, so charges were dropped, and unless she turns up, you're going to have to live with that. Rarity was transferred to the Royal Sisters Hospital in Canterlot, where she's kept under constant guard. Fluttershy took Opal, freed the rest of her animals, and moved into the Everfree Forest. Pinkie quit Sugar Cube Corner and moved back home to her family's rock farm. Applejack gave her portion of farm ownership to her brother and sister, and went to Dodge Junction. It all just sort of happened. None of you keep in touch, or even told each other about where you were going. They've all been running, Twilight. Except you. For some reason, you've chosen to stay here, where you're shunned, and drown yourself in alcohol. Why?"

"Because I don't want to run from it...and I want to be here in case she ever comes back!" she cried.

"So you're going to do this to yourself until she comes back, so she can see you like this? The truth is, Twilight, Rainbow may never return...and if that's the case, are you going to do this to yourself the rest of your life?"

Celestia bent down towards her former student, who was still in tears and not moving from the bathroom floor, to try and ward off the dizzyness that had overtaken her.

"Here's what I would do, if I were you. I'd clean myself up. Be the best you can be...be the mare Rainbow would want you to be. Because that's all you have left, Twilight. If she doesn't come back, then that is the most justice you will ever get for what you did to her.”

With that last piece of advice, Celestia turned from the bathroom, and left her former student alone in the library...

...praying she would come to do the right thing.

Author's Notes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V_95nNXUjI

Reading by The Mysterious Fluttershy Fan.