Twilight opened her eyes reluctantly as she began to make sense of her surroundings. The concrete floor was cold and decrepit, and as Twilight tried to pick herself up, she felt a layer of rubble on the ground rub against her palms as she pushed herself off the ground and to her hooves. Twilight's vision was blurry for a moment, and she stumbled a few times before falling flat on her face again. Her head felt like having a rock constantly rattle around inside her skull- pounding against her brain, and as she got up one last time, she felt a trickle of blood pour out of her nose.

She looked around to try and analyze the environment, and it was difficult due to the lack of adequate light and the constant pounding in her head that made it difficult to focus. She was entrapped by some sort of cage anchored to the ground like the kind used in a zoo to contain wild beasts, and outside of the cage was a room of indiscernible size with a surgical table in the center that was faintly illuminated by a fluorescent light dangling from the ceiling. There were surgical tools on a tray next to the table; scalpels, tweezers, bone-saws, syringes, every doctor's tool imaginable.

Twilight felt a chill run down her spine as a she heard a stomping sound, although... it wasn't like any trotting she heard before. It was more along the lines of a metallic noise as if somepony took a piece of steel and smashed it against a rock. The noise got louder and louder until a figure finally emerged from the darkness.

It was one of the skeletons, the same ones that captured her recently. Only... this robot was unique. It didn't seem to have a jaw like the others; just a blank, rounded face that had two purple, unblinking eyes that were fixated on Twilight. Its metal body was extensively armoured, much more than the skeletons she had faced before, and it wore a black leather lab coat similar to the ones mad scientists wear; it fastened the coat as it approached the terrified mare.

"Ah... Princess Tvilight..." The metal beast groaned in a thick accent. His "mouth" seemed to behave like the monitors on life support machines. As he spoke, a small digital line where his mouth should've been started to vibrate, and created zigzags that were similar to his speech patterns. "I vas beginning to sink you vher not going to vake up. My skeletons bludgeoned you severely."

"I-..." A million questions popped into Twilight's head at once, and they all seemed to jumble up into a ball inside her head. As she sat down on the floor, she reorganized her thoughts. "Where am I? Who are you?"

"I good qvestion, Princess Tvilight. My name is Dr. Gearza," The skeleton commended Twilight as he gestured over to two pairs of glowing eyes in the darkness. "Bring him in."

Two robots dragged a squirming stallion into the room. He was bound and gagged, and Twilight could see the fear in his eyes and the sweat dripping down his face. He was thrown on the surgical table beside the odd looking skeleton.

"Now, Tvilight... let me ask you a question..." Dr. Gearza asked her as he strapped the poor stallion to the surgical table with three thick strips of leather; disturbing Twilight as he grabbed a hefty looking bone saw. "Do you believe in individual eqvality?"

"W-well, I..." Twilight trailed off as she found herself stuttering again. She watched as Dr Gearza drove a syringe filled with a strange pink liquid into the writhing stallion's neck and injected him with the odd fluid. Within seconds, the stallion stopped resisting, and Dr. Gearza positioned his bone-saw just above his head. "What are you doing?!"

"Freeing him, Princess," Dr. Gearza replied in his electronic, monotone voice as he began to saw away at the stallion's skull until he reached the brain. He dug his metal hands inside the stallion's head and ripped out his grey matter, along with parts of his brain-stem, and he placed it inside a jar full of translucent green fluid on the table nearby. "I have freed him from veakness... from personality."

"Why did you do that?!" Twilight hollered at him as she gripped the prison bars in frustration. Dr. Gearza clapped his hands together and summoned two other robotic grunts, who hauled in the empty robotic frame of yet another mechanical skeleton and placed it on the floor beside the operating table.

Dr. Gearza lovingly placed the brain inside the hollow head of the robot, and poured the green liquid inside; sealing the glass dome that covered the cyborg's sensitive area. The robot sprung to life soon after and started snarling and hissing as it tried to adjust its perception. "Good as new... isn't it beautiful?"

"What are you talking about?!" Twilight barked at him as she watched Dr. Gearza release the stallion's hollow shell from the leather restraints and pulled a lever attached to the surgical table; tilting it, and opening a trap door underneath. Twilight stared, wide-eyed in horror as she witnessed the lifeless corpse fall into the black pit bellow. "Why are you doing this?"

"Imagine a vorld vithout veakness, Tvilight. A vorld vithout violence, racism, ignorance, pain. That is my goal, Princess," Dr. Gearza continued as he pulled up a metal chair and placed it just outside the cage so he could get a look at Twilight. He waved her over politely. "Come here."

"Why should I listen to you?" Twilight grit her teeth in anger as she backed away.

"Because your life is in my hands..." Dr. Gearza pressed a button on his forearm, and Twilight felt a device around her neck begin to squeeze tighter. "I vill not repeat myself again. Now, come here."

"If you need me... there's no way you'll kill me!" Twilight realized as her back hit the wall.

"Not exactly..." Dr. Gearza corrected her as he stood up. "You see, Gek needs your brain- your knowledge. I can easily turn you into von of my creations, and nopony vill know das difference. Now, Tvilight... come here."

Twilight felt the pressure leave her neck as she drew closer to the mechanical doctor, and he grabbed her hair suddenly; tugging her closer forcefully. Dr. Gearza reached over to the surgical table and grabbed his flashlight, then began to shine the beam of light in each eye individually.

"You have a mild concussion, but nussing debilitating..." Dr. Gearza identified her condition as he put his miniature flashlight away. "Now, tell me... have you had hallucinations yet? Dreams?"

"Go on, sweetie! Tell the good doctor what's up! He's got a licence after all!" Gek appeared behind Twilight and placed is an arm around her shoulder; staring at her with his haunting eyes that were like voids leading to the pits of despair. "Well... you gonna tell him or what?"

"I'm not telling you anything." Twilight crossed her arms defiantly, then fell to the floor in agony as the collar around her neck began to grip tighter. She tried using her magic, but her horn crackled and fizzled like a malfunctioning roman candle. "My... magic!"

"Oh, good call, good call!" Gek clapped sarcastically. "You really are a tough nut to crack aren't ya?"

"A magic inhibitor, yes... you are an alicorn afta all, Princess," Dr. Gearza pressed the button on his arm again, and Twilight's breathing returned to normal as the collar deactivated; releasing pressure on her neck. He snapped his fingers and another two robots entered the room.

"I've-... I can see him right now." Twilight admitted as she pointed over to Gek, but it was obvious Dr. Gearza couldn't see him.

"Marvellous... truly marvellous. Now, tell me... has he shared his thoughts vith you? It must be wundersam to have all that knowledge at your fingatips..." Gearza drew uncomfortably close and squeezed his head in between the bars of the cage.

"Oh, I'm flattered!" Gek chuckled delightfully as he danced around Dr. Gearza, then a sudden banging noise interrupted his joy. It was emanating from a dark corner of the room.

"Ah, that vould be Kaisa's lackeys. They are here to escort you to him." Dr. Gearza unlocked her cell in a stoic fashion as he ushered her out of the cage. "Now leave my presence, Princess. I have important vork to attend to. Take her upstairs."

The two cyborgs dragged Twilight upstairs and out the a door; tossing her over to a pair of shrouded cultists armed with laser rifles. They grabbed her arms tightly and walked her down a narrow hallway decorated with tattered red banners illuminated by overhead fluorescent lights; some of which were either flickering incessantly like a strobe light or giving off a stomach-churning humming sound. There was a thin layer of dust that was kicked up as they walked over the old floor; Twilight thought this must have been some kind of underground complex based on the electric lights and concrete walls.

"Where are you taking me?" Twilight asked; struggling against their grasp.

"To Father Kaiser, Blessed One." The cultist on her right responded. She was slightly confused by what he had called her.

"Is he your leader?" Twilight wondered.

"No, he is a prophet, a guardian of the sacred knowledge of our Lord. He walks in the hoofsteps of giants, and we follow." The cultist on the left answered; the calm, almost sociopathic tone in his voice unsettling the distressed alicorn.

"How many of you are there?" Twilight asked although, she knew she wasn't going to get a straight answer.

"Enough to lay waste to any army that stands in our way." The cultist on the right replied; causing Twilight to sigh. That wasn't a number, really... it wasn't even an estimate.

As they reached the end of the hall, the two cultists opened a metal security door, unwinding a valve that released air pressure. It flung open with a deafening creak; it was obvious the facility hadn't been maintained since whoever built it left, or rather, was ousted by somepony else (possibly the cult itself).

Twilight was tugged through the opened doorway into an enormous chamber that was lit only marginally better than the previous areas. Torches were hung on the walls and bonfires were blazing amongst the mass of ponies gathering in the center, a crowd that hummed an incomprehensible tune, and kneeled before an altar in prayer. Granted, fluorescent lights were hung from above, so there was really no need for the torches. Twilight only caught glimpses of the crowd before being escorted to a "backstage" room hidden by huge sheets of steel ripped from bombers, jets, anything salvageable. They stopped at another metal door that was constructed out of road-signs that were sloppily spray-painted grey. Once that door opened, there was a massive vault door with five keys inserted in a slot. As the cultist twisted the valve on the door, the keys turned with it, opening the vault and revealing the next area.

"He is in here. Go now, child." The cultist on the left motioned towards the door, and Twilight obeyed reluctantly, feeling the collar jerk slightly. Twilight was distraught by the collar's strange ability to sense her thoughts and feelings.

Twilight walked through the vault door into yet another chamber that was much smaller than the previous one. It was a throne room, but not quite. It was decorated with the same red banners from the hallway that all had the same symbol of a serene angel with a hammer and a scythe in its grasp, with the same three words surrounding the emblem "Peace, Unity, Fertility". At first, the image appeared pleasant to the eye, but as Twilight looked closely, it seemed as if the angel transformed into something evil- something fierce and powerful. The angel was, perhaps, a deceiver; a herald of lies for the masses. The propaganda struck her like a piece of metal slamming against a bell; echoing for a few moments.

"That is a symbol of The Dictatorship, my child." An abyssal voice instructed Twilight as a figure broke through the shadows that shrouded the other end of the room in a black nothingness. It was a stallion, tall and stoic like Winslow, but his presence was not like him at all. In fact, as he drew closer, Twilight felt pins and needles prick at her body. It was some kind of aura he emitted. She tensed her body as his face finally became visible. "There is nothing to fear, Blessed One."

The stallion's face was grey, and his long, pale blue mane was slicked back naturally. The most distressing feature, however, was his striking eyes that were black with purple dots in the center where his pupils should have been, and his jagged horn shone a faint glow, like chrome. His horn looked like a crudely fashioned saber. "Are you...?"

"I am Father Kaiser, child. The head of the snake." The dark-faced stallion grinned as he approached her, and caught a glimpse of her collar. "How barbaric... we must remove that wretched device immediately."

Twilight felt an overwhelming force pry at the collar as Kaiser raised his hand. Twilight identified it as telekinesis, but... far more controlled and precise. He was actually disassembling the collar into its basic components, rather than just tearing it off.

"There." Kaiser gave her a half smile as he tossed the pieces of the collar aside. "Are you feeling better, Twilight?"

"How do you all know my name?" Twilight interrogated him, although, based on her situation it was more of a questioning rather than an interrogation.

"We know because Gek knows..." Kaiser smile grew wider as he tapped on his temple lightly. "I can sense his presence all around you. It smells... overpowering."

"Why did you take my collar off just now? It was the only thing keeping me from just running off." Twilight asked him.

"Oh? Well... run off then, and never come back." Kaiser motioned towards the door, and Twilight ran for it. As she put her hand on the door handle, she felt an indivisible hand pull her back and spin her around to face Kaiser, and he grabbed her jaw with his large hands, lifting her up in the air.

His power wasn't just precise, he completely tore through her magical defence and rendered her useless. Twilight had never felt such power from a unicorn before. It was clear that his telekinetic abilities surpassed her own, even Celestia's. What was most peculiar about his telekinesis was that it wasn't generated by magic. It was something else.

"If you're wondering why you can't break free from my grasp, it is because my abilities do not originate from my horn. My telekinetic field is created by my brain naturally, rather than artificially engineered by magic. There is no magic for you to counter, child." Kaiser explained as he brought Twilight closer to his face. "You are helpless."

"Go to hell." Twilight spat on him, and he wiped his face with an annoyed expression.

"Must I teach you manners, child?" Kaiser raised an eyebrow, and tossed Twilight into a wall, leaving her breathless and stunned. His horn shone a dark red, and bolts of crimson lightning coated his metal-encased hand as red hot spikes in his gauntlet dug deep into his forearm. "I am sorry... but this is a necessary evil, Blessed One. Lord Gek, forgive me. Maw Of Agony: Searing Hand."

Kaiser struck Twilight with a torrent of malicious red lightning, only it hurt far more than any electricity she had experienced. In fact, it wasn't lightning at all. It was something far worse. It felt like she was being branded all over her body, like she had been thrown into a pit of glass, every agonizing torture method imaginable... and it was all happening in mere moments. She screamed, and whimpered, but she did not beg for mercy. Showing him any obedience would only be a victory for her captors. She would not bend, no matter how painful it was.

"Wow. That looked like it hurt! You alright, snookums?" Gek laughed as he danced around Twilight, who laid in a heap on the ground.

"What you've experienced just now is my true magic, The Maw Of Agony. I am able to toss physical pain and suffering from my body, onto somepony else..." Kaiser grinned maniacally as the spikes on his gauntlet popped back out. "Do not suspect that I came to this land with a just a scroll. I have brought a sword as well, and it shall reign terror on the Lord's enemies. That was my weakest spell, please do not insult me again."

"Better listen to him, junior!" Gek warned Twilight as he laid down beside her.

"I won't... listen to you, or anypony in this ludicrous cult!" Twilight coughed up blood as she cursed Kaiser again.

"I expected more from you, child..." Kaiser sighed as the spikes on his back punctured him. "Now, I will break you."

"Wow, I should've brought popcorn!" Gek chuckled psychotically as he watched Twilight's get shocked over and over.

Author's Notes:

Ayy