Being woken up by means of having a bucket of freezing water thrown over you was seldom a pleasant experience. Especially not when the hood you were wearing became waterlogged, making every breath a soggy battle for precious air.

Add to that the fact that Twilight was hogtied on a cold, hard, and now wet floor with ropes chafing her injured hoof while her damaged wing was flopped over her back in an unnatural, and frankly painful position, and you might have a clue as to how unhappy she was right now.

Not to mention the inhibitor on her horn and how much her head hurt.

A hoof jabbed her in the stomach, not in a particularly painful way but in a way designed to let the jabbee know their attention was desired. "Five more minutes..." Twilight murmured quietly.

"Wake up!" an impatient sounding stallion yelled right in her ear.

"Could you turn me over and throw some water on the other side? I could use a bath." Twilight didn't know why she was being so contrary. Normally she'd have been in a complete panic in this situation, but after all that had happened recently Twilight felt her ability to give a damn was slipping away from her.

"Oh good, you are awake." The stallions hoof pressed down on the base of her injured wing making Twilight yelp in pain. "Now if you'll take a moment to answer some of my questions I would appreciate it."

"You have my undivided attention," Twilight hissed from between gritted teeth, tears in her eyes as his hoof twisted on the joint.

"Excellent. Now, who are you?"

"Princess Celestia and her band of travelling minstrels. I play the drums." The stallion pressed harder on her wing for a moment before removing his hoof.

"I see. Seems you're going to be as difficult as the rest of them. Thing is, I know you're not Princess Celestia because she's white, so that means you're either Twilight Sparkle, or Sunset Shimmer."

"What? Sunset Shimmer? Where'd you even get that name from?"

"The book in your belongings."

"Oh," Twilight said, though in the depths of her mind she was cussing the scenery blue. "Could you look after that, please? I'll be wanting it back."

"I'll try to convince the others to not use it as toilet paper. So then 'Princess Twilight Sparkle,' what is an Equestrian princess doing here?"

"I heard the cheeses here are to die for. I didn't realise how literal that was. I mean, wow, you do not want to be a unicorn with wings in Mareitania I can tell you."

"Your insolence is going to cost you," the stallion grunted. There was a brief swishing sound and Twilight braced herself just to receive a light stinging sensation from the frog of her back left hoof.

"Did you... Did you just whip my hoof?"

"Uh..." The stallion suddenly sounded very unsure of himself, "Yes?" Twilight burst out laughing and the stallion stood there, a blush growing on his cheeks. "Stop that!"

"I'm sorry, it's just... it's just... Ahahahaha!" Twilight tried to hold her sides but the ropes prevented her from doing so. She tried to calm herself and slowly managed to until another fit of giggles overtook her. "Ahh, my sides hurt!"

"What's so funny!?" the now clearly impatient stallion demanded to know.

"I'm sorry, but between my hoof, my horn, my recent concussion from when you abducted me, and my clearly busted wing, which I am sure you know very well about seeing as how you purposefully stamped on it, I am in a lot of pain. You really think whipping my hoof is going to intimidate me?"

"Oh. I thought you were going to be weird like that other mare and enjoy it or something."

"Which other mare?"

"The grey one."

"Huh, wasn't expecting that. So I guess that means you have my friends?"

The stallion stuttered for a moment before sighing, "Yes we have your friends."

"Good."

"Good?"

"Yes, good. That means I won't have to track them down when I break out of here, and they better not have a hair out of place or there'll be hell to pay."

"Uh..." A nervous silence filled the air and Twilight gave a tired grin as the stallion completely failed to call her bluff. In actual fact she was in no fit state to attack a stuffed toy, let alone a dungeon probably filled with guards. And that was if somepony kindly removed the inhibitor and ropes first.

A door creaked open and another set of hooves clopped towards her, echoing on the bare stone. "Get out, get out, get out! For the love of the Lady, get out you fucking idiot," said a voice that was very definitely female and surprisingly familiar. The stallion quickly departed, but didn't shut the door behind him. "You just can't get the staff these days."

"Hello Sugar Cookie."

"Twilight Sparkle, how are you doing you old devil?" the newcomer said, making Twilight doubt who it was she was talking to since this pony seemed a bit more confident than Sugar Cookie had been.

"Honestly, I've been better," Twilight said, making the mare chuckle.

"I'll bet. We'll have to get somepony to look at your injuries once we're done. For now though I bet you're wondering what's going on."

"Amongst several other things, yes."

"Excellent! Unfortunately though, I'm not really at liberty to tell you much of anything other than you're safe, and your friends are safe."

"Even if they're being subjected to strange and ineffectual tortures?"

"Now now, we're not doing anything to the kid, and we had to give up on the pegasus-"

"What did you do to her!?"

"Nothing much. She wouldn't even speak and when we tried to coerce her she flew into hysterics and kept begging for Octavia. We had to put them together in the end to make her stop. That and trying to get information out of the earth pony was proving difficult."

"Enjoying it too much?"

"Yeah, all she kept saying was 'harder' and it was really off putting..."

"What about the other two?"

"The white one's fine, and is still undergoing her own interrogation, while the blue one hasn't woke up yet." Twilight's brow creased with worry. Not that she knew how long she had been out herself, it was still surprising to find out Trixie was still unconscious. "I guess that fight with Deal Good really took it out of her. Craziest thing I've ever seen, since I've never seen a fight between unicorns like that."

Neither have I, Twilight thought to herself. Pushing the thought from her mind Twilight asked "What do you want with us?"

"Ah well, that's the crux of the matter isn't it. We know you aren't from around here, and we would like to know what a princess from Equestria is doing tromping around Neigh Orleans. Have you come here at the bequest of the Duke, or are you here for other reasons." The mare sounded angry as she said Duke, giving Twilight a vital prompt to not be a sarcastic twit and say she was with him. Not that she would have anyway.

"Other. Very much other."

"Oh good, that makes more sense seeing as how they were after you."

"They?"

"Yep, ‘they.’ They don't have a name, don't need one. If they're on your tail you know who they are."

"Black magic proof armour?"

"Indeed. The Duke's elite agents, though that doesn't explain why Deal Good was with them."

"They were forcing him to fight for them. They were going to kill him after."

"Why would they need him though?"

"Because we're better than them?"

"Oh please, that lot have been the bane of unicorns in Mareitania for centuries. You couldn't beat them that easy."

"I wasn't saying it was easy, but it still hurts them if you smack them around the head with a rock."

"Is that so? In that case you must have some very strong magic to throw a rock that hard. Anyway, enough of that. Why are you here?"

"Because you abducted me, obviously."

"That's not what I meant-"

"I know it's not what you meant, but I don't know what kind of cooperation you expect after knocking me out, abducting me, and torturing me and my friends. If you want answers out of me, I want answers out of you! There's only one pony I'll talk to, and I'm not saying who until I know who you are!"

The mare stomped a hoof, "That is not how this works!"

"Enough," said a male voice from the doorway, different to the first stallion in here. "She's not with the Duke so I think it's only fair we tell her who we are." Twilight felt herself being pulled upright with telekinesis before her hood was pulled off. She blinked a few times as her vision adjusted, revealing the weathered yet kind face of a pale yellow unicorn stallion with a baby blue mane and piercing, amber coloured eyes.

Twilight grinned nervously before looking over his back at the mare in the room, who wasn't in fact Sugar Cookie at all. It was a pale, light maroon unicorn with a white mane and sparkling blue eyes. Feeling the ropes around her hooves slacken and fall off she braced her legs as the stallion gently lowered her to the ground, though she was quick to tuck her injured hoof up under her when she was reminded of how much it hurt.

"I am Daybreak, and this is my daughter Rose Thorn, usually known as just Thorn. We're part of the Mareitanian underground."

"Mareitanian underground?"

"Mmhmm. You might know us better as Pierre though."

Twilight's mind stuttered for a moment as she tried to think. "You're Pierre? But how is that possible? You're two ponies!"

"Pierre is more than two ponies. A lot more."

"It is?" Twilight didn't know what to make of this unexpected information. "Why have a singular pony's name then?"

"Our founder was called Pierre, and we adopted the name even as our numbers grew because having a single pony's name is also rather misleading to those who would work against us."

"Oh. That makes sense." She sat down absent mindedly rubbed at her horn, reminding her of the inhibitor there, "Are you going to take this off too?"

"Afraid not. Until we know more about you and friends motives we're not going to trust you that much."

"Fair enough I guess. I don't suppose I could see my friends could I?"

"You can see them in a bit once Miss De Lis is finished with her interrogation. Besides, don't think that because I've untied you that means we're done here."

"Oh. Okay then, what do you want to know?"

"Very simply, what are you, a princess from Equestria, doing in Mareitania if it's not at the invitation of the Duke?"

"Well the short answer is I'm looking for you to ask for your assistance in what is going to be the long answer." Twilight cleared her throat, "I have been tasked by princesses Celestia and Luna to bring about the end of the Dukes' reign." The expression on Daybreak's face was suitably incredulous, while Thorn looked like somepony had told her a bad joke. Twilight continued, "After encountering one of your members trying to assassinate the Viscount and rescuing him, he told me about Pierre and we thought you would be a good place to start."

Thorn suddenly perked up, "Ooh! So you’re the mysterious pony that busted Snowbright out of jail!"

"Hush Thorn." Daybreak quirked an eyebrow at Twilight, "Why would you be at the Viscount's party to see that?"

"Gathering information mostly." Twilight looked between the two ponies, "When we were given this task we weren't really given a lot to work with, so when we heard that you, or rather Pierre, was fighting against the Duke we had to investigate."

Daybreak sighed heavily, "Then I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed Princess. Apart from a few radical members who think we should fight the Duke, we have little interest in actively deposing him."

Twilight's heart sank, "Buh- Buh- W-what do you do then?"

"Whatever we can, from distributing food, providing shelter, and smuggling ponies out of the country like your companion Miss Lulamoon. Which, incidentally, is how we found you."

"Huh?"

"Greenson recognised her from back in the day. He was there on the night her parents were... murdered, and was quite surprised to see her walk into his establishment so he alerted us. We started following you and decided that we would like to know about these six mysterious ponies wandering about. Unfortunate that I had to bring my wife into it but she was curious about why Lulamoon would return as well."

"So you abducted us? You could have just asked!"

"I know, but we couldn't be sure whether this was all a ploy by the Duke to have us reveal ourselves. A bit heavy-hooved perhaps, but necessary. So far you've given us no reason to doubt you so we're willing to give you a bit of leeway."

"And the torture? Or at least poor attempt at it?"

"Sometimes it is necessary to withdraw information from certain ponies, but we aren't willing to go to the lengths that the Duke might."

"I see." Twilight sat down and leaned against the wall as she tried to process this new information. She couldn't get far though, the fact that 'Pierre' wasn't actually fighting the Duke became too much of a sticking point in her mind. "If you're not fighting the Duke, why did, Snowbright was it? Imply that you were?"

"What?" The surprise on Daybreak's face wasn't what Twilight had expected.

"Snowbright, after he failed to kill the Viscount, he shouted 'Pierre sends his regards.'"

"He. Did. WHAT!? No wonder the army's been all over us lately! As if Prance wasn't bad enough..." Daybreak stood still as he thought before growling, "I'm going to murder that little bastard! Thorn, take care of our guests 'til I'm back."

"Yes boss!" Daybreak stomped out of the cell, leaving Twilight alone with a smirking Thorn. "So you wanna fight the Duke huh? That's pretty ballsy for a princess."

"I'm surprised you're not. Okay, yes he has an army and a lot more resources at hoof, but surely the best way to do your job would be to remove the reason you have to do it?"

Thorn's smirk grew a little wider, "And that would be what a lot of us here think. The problem is though is that probably over half of the ponies here don't want to fight because it's an incredibly daunting thing to do and nopony wants to consider the damage and suffering such a thing would entail. Whereas the ones that do want to fight can't come close to agreeing how to go about it. Snowbright is one of those that thinks assassinating the Duke, Duchess, and Viscount is all it would take to bring the Duchy to its knees, but most of us see how short-sighted that really is."

"What about you?"

Thorn looked awkward for a moment before answering, "Well, y'see, the thing is..." She sighed and ran a hoof down her face, "Don't get me wrong, I love my dad and what we do here, but I think he's being too passive about all this. At the same time though I know that bringing down the Duke would involve an all-out civil war which doesn't sound like much of a solution to me."

"So you're not in the murder the Duke camp?"

"Nah, that'd put the rule of Mareitania into the hooves of the highest ranking military leader around. Since General Sabre isn't around anymore that doesn't seem so terrible a prospect, but we're not entirely sure who it would be and if they might be worse. In any case though it still sounds like a bad idea to let them run the country."

"So if a movement sprung up to actively depose the Duke, would you join?"

"Maybe. A lot of it would depend on what it is this movement plans to do after. No point replacing one tyrant with another."

Twilight nodded, fully appreciating the unicorn's point of view. However, there were more pressing things for her to attend to. "Can I see my friends now?"

"I guess so. Since you've told us everything we want to know I guess there's no point in interrogating the others. Come on." Thorn gestured for Twilight to follow and after slowly rocking herself onto her three working hooves Twilight did so, but not without a sharp reminder of just how much she hurt.

"I don't suppose some medical attention is out of the question either?"

"Hmm? Oh! Of course! Once you're with your friends I'll go and have a look for Sawbones."

"I'm going to assume that by sawbones, you mean a trained medical professional?"

"Pfft nope. By sawbones I mean a smartass pony that knows more about this kind of stuff than the rest of us."

"Oh. Yay." Twilight kept limping after Thorn, though thankfully they didn't have to go far before they stopped at another cell door. Thorn opened the door with her magic and spoke to one of the two ponies within.

"You can stop Mason, the interrogations are cancelled."

"Cancelled? What do you mean they're cancelled?” A stone grey earth pony stepped out of the cell, immediately catching certain parts of Twilight's attention. While not as tall or broad as Big Mac, the stallion was certainly well built and chiselled to perfection. "I've barely learnt anything yet!"

"No need," Thorn told him. "This one’s told us everything we want to know."

The stallion directed his steely gaze at Twilight who couldn't help but grin sheepishly back. "Fine, whatever. I'll be having a break if you need me." The stallion departed and Twilight sighed wistfully as she stared at his retreating form.

"I recognise that look," Thorn said in a far too knowing voice. "You're wasting your time, I assure you."

"Why? Is he taken?"

"Yep, and he and his coltfriend are very into monogamy." The tone with which Thorn said that made it clear that Twilight wasn't the first mare to be disappointed by that news. Not that it mattered to Twilight that much since at most she might have had a passing interest and little more.

"Go on then. I'll get the rest of your friends into one cell while you two get reacquainted." Thorn departed, leaving Twilight to hobble into the cell to find Fleur tied up like she had been earlier. Pulling the hood off Fleur's head with her teeth Twilight sat back as Fleur got her bearings in the dim light.

"Twilight? What are you doing here?"

"They let me come here."

"Oh. I was hoping this was a rescue. I don't suppose you know who it is that caught us?"

"This is going to sound unlikely, but we've actually been taken captive by Pierre." Twilight was quite taken aback as Fleur sighed with relief.

"Oh thank Luna, I was beginning to think we'd been kidnapped by some weird s and m cult, what with the tying up and hoof whippings and stuff."

"Yeah. Apparently they don't like to actually torture ponies when they torture them for information."

"I don't know about that, my hooves are positively throbbing after being whipped so much." Fleur wiggled in her bonds for a moment before directing a pout at Twilight, "Untie me?"

"Can't. My magic's inhibited like yours, and I only have one working hoof at the moment and I don't think my teeth are up to the task."

Fleur turned her attention to Twilight's blackened hoof before directing her gaze over Twilight's wing flopping against her side, as well as the numerous bruises she was sporting, a small expression of horror crossing her features. "Wow Twilight, you look like shit."

Twilight snorted a laugh before sighing, "It feels exactly as bad as it looks."

"How are you still standing?"

"Determination. Lack of choice. Bone headed stupidity. One or all of the above, I don't know."

"I guess we can give another mark to alicorn toughness that's for sure." Fleur suddenly lifted her head to look towards the door before furtively asking, "Can we trust these ponies?"

"Does it matter right now? We're still their prisoners whether we trust them or not."

"I know, but, should we be trying to escape?"

"We have no magic, no clue where the others are, and no idea where we are. I'm beat up to hell and you're tied up on the floor so I don't think we're going anywhere." Twilight lay down to give her good leg a break, savouring the chill of the stone floor on her other hoof, "Maybe we can try once I've slept for like... a week or something."

"Yeah, you're right, you need time to recover. I guess we'll find out soon enough if we can trust these ponies or not."

Several minutes passed, during which Twilight filled Fleur in on what little she had learnt so far. Like Twilight she seemed disappointed that nopony was fighting the Duke but there was a slight gleam in her eye nonetheless.

After that Thorn returned and, after untying Fleur and giving her a minute to shake the numbness off, she led them to a cell where the others were waiting, complete with the slumbering form of Trixie lying on the one bed. The filly was the first to notice their arrival, "Yay! The gang's all here! It is now, officially, a party. Woo."

"Nice to see you too," Fleur said, greeting the filly with a nuzzle. Meanwhile Twilight headed over to where Trixie lay so she could have a look at the mare. She was clearly breathing which was a good thing, but there was nothing else of note going on. Taking care to not hurt herself Twilight slid one of Trixie's eyes open with a hoof, but all it revealed was an unfocused eye.

Twilight 'hmm'd' and let the eye fall closed again when her own eye was caught by the end of Trixie's horn. Although not terribly noticeable, there seemed to be a slight discoloration on the tip of the horn where it seemed paler than the rest of it. Choosing to ignore it as irrelevant Twilight poked Trixie in the side hoping for a reaction. "What do you think's wrong with her?" she asked nopony in particular.

"I don't know," Octavia answered. "She's clearly alive, which is good, but there doesn't seem to be much going on upstairs. I'm hoping she's just sleeping, but it's been more than a day and she hasn't even stirred in the slightest."

"All we can do is hope she wakes up then." Shaking her head sadly, Twilight turned away from Trixie and looked to the rooms other occupants. Fleur and the filly were chatting about something so Twilight wasn't inclined to worry about them, but Summer was hunched up in the corner, trying to appear as small as possible. The fact that she was wearing wing-binders probably wasn't helping her.

"Is she alright?" Twilight asked Octavia as the pegasus quivered where she lay.

"You do know you can ask her yourself, right?"

"Right, of course." Twilight approached the pegasus, and to her credit Summer didn't flinch or try to make herself look smaller than she already was. Lying down in front of her Twilight smiled as Summer peeked up at her from behind her mane. "Hey Summer, are you okay?"

Summer huffed quietly, Twilight reasoning that she was probably sick of that question, before nodding her head slightly. Very quickly though the nod turned into emphatic shaking as tears built up in her eyes.

"I-I thought, I thought they were going to... And- and then they started whipping me and I... I-I couldn't! I-I-I... oh!" Tears started spilling down her cheeks as Summer shook more than she was before.

"Aww c'mon, you got her crying again?" the filly moaned before Fleur cuffed her around the back of the head.

"Hey, it's alright," Twilight said softly as Summer tried to wipe her tears away. "Nopony's going to hurt you."

"I know I know," Summer said shakily, "but as s-soon as they put these binders on me and tied me up it all came back! I almost wanted them t-t-to do it so they would get on with it and leave me alone! But at the same time the thought of them touching me... I got so scared and I felt sick and I-I..."

"It's alright Summer, it really is. Nopony here is going to hurt you, I promise."

Summer sniffed and took a few deep breaths in an admirable attempt to pull herself together, "I-I know. They were nice enough to put me with Octavia so I guess they can't be all bad. I wish they would take these binders off though."

"Yeah, I'd probably be wearing them too if it wasn't for," Twilight gestured to her wing, "y'know, that."

Summer's eyes widened as she looked at Twilight's wing, "That must hurt."

"You have no idea."

"Remember who you're saying that to Twilight," cautioned Fleur.

"Right, sorry. Has this happened to you before?"

Summer nodded, "Mmhmm. Sometimes the guards would pull at my wings when they... when they, y'know, or they would see how far my wings would bend until they, I don't know, popped I guess, and they looked like that after and it always really hurt..." A dark expression swept across her face like a cloud in front of the sun before it moved on. "Uh, do you mind if I, uh, have a look?"

"No, go ahead." Twilight grimaced as Summer ran her hoof along the bone in her wing all the way from its end to its base.

"Yeah, your wing's come out, it's... uh, disso...cated?"

"Dislocated," Twilight corrected her.

"Right, dislocated. I can put it back in if you want?"

"You know how?" asked Fleur, faintly surprised.

"Uh-huh, the guards did it for me once and after that they expected me to do it myself so I had to learn." Summer raised the wing slightly before moving it into position and placing her other hoof on the joint. "This might sting a little," she said before pushing down hard. There was a sickening pop, although Twilight felt it more than heard it, and she couldn't help but cry out in pain.

"How did you ever do that to yourself?" Octavia asked as Twilight panted heavily with pain.

"It wasn't easy. I would have to hold the wing in position and then fall against the side of my cage to push it in. It didn't always work so I would have to keep trying until it went in."

Twilight stretched her wing out to its fullest and tried to flap a few times. She could do it but her wing ached when she did and seemed a bit sluggish so flying was probably out of the question for a few days. But the important thing was that it was fixed and Twilight couldn't help but pull Summer into an embrace, "Thank you. Thank you so much!"

"You're welcome," Summer said as she returned the hug, smiling brightly as she did.

"I'm back and I brought the doc so he can..." Thorn blinked as she studied the wing folded neatly against Twilight's side, "You could've said you knew how to fix that..."

"Sorry," said Twilight, although she was still smiling as she did. "I didn't know Summer knew how to fix it until just now."

"That's probably a good job anyway," said a new voice belonging to a beige earth pony stallion with a light brown mane and tail and a nicely trimmed moustache. "Don't exactly know a lot about pegasus physiology anyway since there ain't a lot of need to know it."

"And who might you be?" Fleur asked politely.

"'m Sawbones, though most just call me Doc. I'm the resident know all when it comes to injured ponies." Twilight raised an eyebrow. She thought Thorn had been kidding when she said sawbones earlier. Apparently it had been truer than had been let on. She took a quick look at his cutie mark which depicted a bone being cut half through with an old fashioned medical saw.

Twilight gulped and tried to put it out of her mind, "My leg still needs looking at if you're interested?"

"Of course!" Doc stepped back out of the room and returned a second later with a doctor's bag in his mouth. He deposited it next to Twilight before gently picking up her leg in his own. "Let's see what we got here. Hair's been burnt off..." He pulled a cloth out of his bag and wiped it over the black on Twilight's leg, stopping in confusion as the cloth came away clean. "What the...?" He tried again but got the same result, "What is going on here? Might I ask how you got this injury?"

"Uh, well, the details aren't all that important but essentially I dipped my hoof into a pool of liquid dark magic."

"Is that so? And there I was thinking this was a burn." He peered at her leg closely before running his hoof over it, Twilight trying to not squeal at his touch. "Well it does appear as though your leg has actually turned black. It also seems to be a bit withered compared to your other leg." He replaced the cloth in his bag and closed it, "Hate to say it but I don't know a thing about dark magic so I can't help you, sorry."

"But what am I meant to do about this!?" Twilight cried as she waved the offending hoof at Doc.

"Maybe," the filly said, "and I really hate to say this, but maybe Mama could know how to fix it?"

Twilight looked to Doc who nodded as he thought about it, "Maybe. She might also have more luck with missy over there. I've tried everything I know but she won't wake up for nothing."

"Alright," said Thorn, "we'll send a runner out to get Mama but it might be a couple of hours so you might as well get comfy."

"Can't we come out and have a look awound? It's dark in here and I'm afwaid of the dark. Pwease don't make me stay in here!" the filly whined, breaking out her most powerful puppy dog eyes.

Thorn's response was to slam the cell door shut and lock it, "No, and no amount of replacing letters with superfluous w's is going to make me change my mind." They listened as her hoofsteps faded into the distance.

"Ooh, she's good."

Without any method of telling the time it seemed like an eternity until Thorn returned, leading Mama and another stallion into the cell.

"Who's that?" Twilight asked as she eyed up the sea green unicorn.

"Well sure he might have changed a bit but surely you still recognise Winder?"

"Winder? Buh... But how?"

"Happened the other day. There he was being his usual lazy self, up in the rafters when suddenly BAM! Fell out of the roof as a pony again. I'm guessing somepony did go and put Deal Good down good an' hard for that to happen. Know anything about it?" Twilight spluttered and Mama winked at her, "Heh, it's alright girl, I know you didn't intentionally kill him. Though I wouldn't say the same for the mistress of darkness over there."

"Mistress of darkness?"

"Just a nickname, I don't mean nothing by it. But I can see it on her and it ain't pretty. I can see that the contract on her is gone though which is good I suppose."

"Yeah, that's what killed Deal Good. I managed to destroy the contract then something came for him. It wasn't very nice."

"I'll say not, but it was no less than he deserved. Now let's see about waking missy up here." Mama started rummaging through the bundle she brought with her allowing Twilight a moment to talk to Winder.

"So, you're a pony again."

"Yes, yes I am, and it feels great. I suppose I should thank you for that, so um, thank you."

"Oh, you're welcome. How are you managing with being a different species now?"

"Having legs again does seem to be a bit of a trial but I'm quickly getting used to them quickly enough. It's also nice to see properly again. Snakes have some weird vision compared to a pony."

"Ahah! I knew I brought some with me!" Mama shouted triumphantly. She held the bottle in her magic and pulled Trixie into a headlock before shoving the bottle into Trixie's mouth and clamping it shut around the bottle. It only took a second or two for its effects to kick in and Trixie started thrashing as she tried to pull the bottle out of her mouth and get Mama off her.

"Haaah! Haaah! Haaah! Water!" Trixie started yelling once she succeeded in getting the bottle out. She grabbed the jug of water Thorn held out for her and downed it, half of it spilling down her front. She finished and panted a little bit before shouting, "More water!"

"Here, suck on this," Mama said, giving Trixie what appeared to be a hard boiled sweet. Trixie shoved it in her mouth and sucked on it desperately. It seemed to be working as she slowly calmed down and flopped down onto the floor.

"What-" She coughed and her eyes started to water, "What was that stuff!?"

"My special moonshine, made with the hottest peppers you can find in the bayou."

"Do you cure everything with moonshine?"

"Well... Perhaps not everything... as such..."

"Trixie can't feel her tongue! Is that normal?"

"Yep! I think."

Trixie narrowed her eyes at Mama, "You're an evil, evil mare, you know that."

"Huh, well if that ain't the pot calling the kettle black."

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"It means you are seething with dark magic Trixie. I don't know what happened but you are damn near dripping with the stuff. If it weren't for that whatchamacallit on your horn there you'd probably be using it right now."

"Whatchamacallit?" Trixie felt the inhibitor on her horn and her eyes widened as she noticed their surroundings. "Is that an inhibitor? Are we in prison? Who's the pink unicorn?"

"Light maroon damn it," Thorn muttered. "And you're guests, not prisoners."

"Then why are we wearing inhibitors while in a cell?"

"Okay, so you're guests we're a little bit wary of, I admit."

Trixie held her head in her hooves and frowned, "Why don't I remember coming here?"

"You passed out after I destroyed the contract and I had-"

"The contract! It's gone? It's really been destroyed!?" Twilight smiled and nodded. Trixie leapt up, grinning manically, "Oh thank Celestia! Or rather, thank Twilight!" Trixie did a little happy dance before calming herself down, "Oh wow, you have no idea how relieved I am. Still though, Trixie would like to know what's going on."

"Can it wait Trixie?" Twilight held up her hoof, "I kinda want Mama to have a look at this."

Trixie gawped at Twilight's hoof, "Damn Twilight, did you stick your hoof in a fire or something?"

"No, this is what happened when I destroyed the contract."

"Does it hurt?"

"Yes, it does. A lot."

"Oh, okay then, but I still want to know what's going on though. I hate not knowing stuff."

Fleur sighed and rolled her eyes,"Fine, I'll catch you up while Twilight gets checked out." Fleur led Trixie to the far side of the room, their murmurings creating a background noise as Twilight climbed up onto the bed.

"Try to be gentle please, it's really tender." Mama nodded and probed the hoof with her magic, a frown growing on her face the longer she did it.

"I'm not sure what to make of this. I mean sure I can tell you the limb's been corrupted by dark magic, but whatever did the damage ain't there no more."

"What’s that mean?"

"Normally in these kinds of cases the dark magic itself is what's doing the damage, so all you need to do is purge the dark magic with light magic and let the injury heal itself in good time. Thing is with this though is that there's no dark magic in it, it's as magically pure as the rest of you, but at the same time something's stopping it from healing naturally."

"So... What does that mean exactly? Can't we use magic to heal it?"

Mama shook her head sadly, "I'm afraid to say that if you being what you are ain't going to heal it, then no amount of spells is going to fix it either."

"Me being what I am?" Twilight twitched a wing and frowned, "Oh. How long have you known?"

"Since you walked through my door. It's pretty obvious for anypony not looking with their eyes."

Twilight thought back to Grammaw and how she could tell so easily. It was starting to feel like it wasn't worth trying to hide with the amount of ponies that can tell just by looking at her. Part of her wondered if Deal Good knew since he seemed aware that her powers weren't entirely native to her. She closed her eyes and tried to put it out of her mind, returning her attention to the matter at hoof. Or of hoof. "Are you saying I'm stuck with this?"

"I'm afraid so. Unless your alicorn healing can somehow overcome the corruption I'm afraid there's no way that hoof is going to get any better."

Twilight laid her head down on the bed and squeezed her eyes shut in an attempt to hold back her tears. She failed and they slowly slid down her cheeks but she didn't cry, wail or even sniff as they fell. Part of her just felt broken. This mission was asking too much of her and now it had cursed her with a leg she can't even use. The best part was that it had cost her this much and they hadn't even changed a thing.

"What's going on?" Fleur asked as she and Trixie returned from their own conversation. Twilight couldn't hardly bring herself to open her mouth to say anything and was thankful when Octavia answered for her.

"It can't be healed, and it won't heal on its own."

"What? Why not?"

"I don't know," Mama said sadly. "It's like the limb is both dead and alive. Alive enough to move and feel, yet too far gone to fix. There is good news though, although it's unrelated to the hoof. Your magic's much better. I think the whatchamacallit must have stabilized it or something, although we won't know for definite until we take it off."

She looked expectantly at Thorn who suddenly appeared awkward with the extra attention, "If I could I would, but I'm not the pony in charge here."

"Doesn't matter anyway."

"Twilight?"

Twilight sat up suddenly, "I said it doesn't matter!" she snarled. "After all the shit we've been through, all the scrapes with death and ponies I've gotten killed. All the stupid, dangerous things we've done just to get this point, only to find out our best chance at success is nothing more than a bunch of do-gooders hiding under the city! Octavia nearly died and then nearly got raped! Trixie could've been dehorned, almost got raped, and has fallen to dark magic! We're travelling with two pegasi, one that was abused for years as a sex slave, while the other was horribly mutilated for no reason at all! We were nearly captured by the Duke during which I nearly died! I watched a stallion die in agony as he melted in a puddle of dark magic! We are no closer to reaching our goal, and now, to top it all off I've practically lost a leg! I'm sick of this fucked up, murder happy, rape fixated country! I quit! I fucking quit!" She slumped over onto her side again. "I quit and I want to go home..." she whimpered as tears started to fall again, her voice breaking on the word home.

The others were shocked, of all the ponies to break under the strain Twilight was probably the one least expected to do so. "B-but Twilight," Fleur stammered, "we need you." Twilight didn't answer. Instead she rolled over and curled into a ball, cradling her hoof as she wept brokenly. "Twilight..."

"Let her be," Mama said as she tried to shoo them back.

"But-"

"I said, let her be. She needs to cry this one out and you all crowding her and telling her how much you need her ain't gonna help." She kept shooing them out of the room and gently closed the door behind them.

"Well? Now what?" Octavia asked quietly.

"I don't know," Fleur admitted. "Without her this mission's impossible, but there's no way we can ask her to keep going if she doesn't want to. So yeah, I don't know."

"I do," Trixie said, a fierce gleam in her eye, "First we're going to get our stuff back, and then somepony is going to take this inhibitor off or I'm going to beat the everloving shit out of everpony here until they do!"

"What are you thinking?"

"We're going to talk to the two ponies on this world that might give us a straight answer about alicorns."

"You can't do this!" Thorn yelled as she scurried after the stomping form of Trixie, the sign of Trixie's determination written all over her face as her right eye slowly swelled shut.

"The hell I can't!" Trixie yelled back.

"Trixie, what's gotten into you?" Fleur asked as she too tried to keep up with the blue unicorn.

"If I hadn't signed that damn contract, she would never have had to destroy it, costing her a leg. She went out of her way to save me and I'll be damned if I'm not going to try and return the favour." She reached the door at the end of the hall and slammed it open as hard as she could before entering a small room with four other occupants.

"What is the meaning of this!?" Daybreak shouted as Trixie stared at him, snorting.

"Where's our stuff!"

"Over there!" He pointed to the side of the room where their belongings were neatly lined up against the way.

"Oh." Trixie's brain jammed up at how easy that was, "Well, thank you." She immediately went to Twilight's belongings and pulled out the speaker stone with a triumphant flair.

"Filly," Fleur draped Twilight's bags over the filly's back, the bags nearly touching the floor. "Could you take those to Twilight please?"

"Aww, but Trixie's doing stuff! You know I love it when that happens." Fleur twitched her eyes towards the door, "Ugh fine, I'll go. There better be a punch by punch replay when I get back." She ran out with Thorn following her.

Trixie smirked nastily at the four other ponies in the room as the Filly hurried off. "So which one of you gentlestallions is going to remove my inhibitor?"

"Out of the question! There is no way that-" Daybreak tried to protest but Trixie immediately set upon him, knocking him over and standing on his chest with her horn pointed at his face at a dangerous angle.

"That wasn't a request. Now am I going to have to get stabby or are you going to do it?" Her answer came in the form of a roar from Mason who stamped at the ground before charging.

His attack was short lived however as Octavia neatly span around and bucked him in the side of the head hard enough to send him veering off into the wall. "I sincerely hope you know what you're doing Trixie."

"You might be sorely disappointed then." She reared up and stamped on Daybreak's chest, winding him before launching herself at Snowbright who was already looking pretty beat up.

Fleur circled around Doc, eyeing the stallion cautiously, and was quite surprised when he sat down and folded his forelegs. "I'm not a fighter," he said as explanation. Fleur stared at him before shrugging and turned around just in time to get a face full of pink tail as Summer rushed past her and leapt onto Mason's shoulders, clamping her jaw down on the back of his neck while Octavia dodged through his legs and bucked him where no stallion should be bucked, Fleur's ears twitching as the stallion screamed at a pitch that only dogs could probably hear.

"Summer! No biting!" Fleur shouted before a hoof eclipsed her vision. She tried to dodge but wasn't fast enough and the hoof hit her in the muzzle. Daybreak took a step back as she wiped a trail of blood off the end of her nose and stared at it blankly, "Oh it is on." She reared up and smacked him the end of his nose, and he was about to do the same back when Trixie flew into his side, upside down, and shouting something about looking out.

The culprit behind Trixie's sudden bout of flight made themselves know to Fleur by tapping her on the shoulder. Apparently Snowbright wasn't as much of a pushover as his bruises would suggest and he punched her in the side with both hooves, agony blossoming through her ribs as something audibly cracked.

His comeuppance came quickly though, as Mason reared up, knocking Summer from her perch on his back but leaving himself open to be tackled by Octavia, which was enough to send him toppling over onto Snowbright, the stallion looking more than a little pained as Mason's greater mass crushed him.

Mason rolled off Snowbright, meeting Trixie coming the other way as Daybreak kicked her off. Suddenly though, the door slammed open and they all froze in a guilty tableau as the filly rushed in. "Oh come on!" the filly exclaimed as she saw the aftermath of the fight. "You couldn't wait until I got back!?"

"What is going on here!?" Thorn demanded as she stepped in behind the filly, "I was expecting an argument yes, but not a full on brawl!"

"They won't take my inhibitor off!" Trixie shouted, glaring daggers at Daybreak.

"You didn't even explain why you wanted it off!" Daybreak shouted back.

"You never gave me a chance! You just said it was out of the question!"

"I need medic!" Fleur squeaked as she rolled around on the floor, clutching her chest.

"I knew I should have brought Mama with me." Thorn sighed and ran a hoof through her mane, "Dad, take their damn inhibitors off."

"What? No! You've seen how dangerous and unpredictable they are!"

"They're only trying to help their friend Dad. Take the inhibitors off and everything will be fine. In fact," Thorn walked over to a small tool rack in the corner and pulled out one of the spanner like devices used to remove inhibitors, "I'll do it myself."

She popped the inhibitor off Trixie's horn and quickly backed off as it flared to life with a bubbling mix of purples and blacks. "Right!" Trixie grinned maliciously, "Payback time!"

"Trixie!" Fleur said as loud as her painful ribs would let her.

"I'm kidding, relax." Instead she directed her magic to shred the binders restricting Summer's wings, much to the surprise of Summer and the others. "What? I can be considerate. Now if you'll excuse me I have something to do." She lay down, her magic fading to its usual pink colour and pressed her horn to the stone.

A minute later there was an answer, "Sorry about that Twilight, you caught us in the middle of a diplomatic meeting with the Yaks."

"Celestia stop, it's Trixie, not Twilight."

"Oh, I see. Is something the matter? Is Twilight alright?"

"Uh, yes and no. To make a long story short her front left leg has been corrupted by dark magic and can't be healed."

"Can't be healed? That's impossible! Have you tried purifying the wound with light magic?"

Trixie paused as she thought about what Mama had said, "We have it on a fairly reasonable authority that light magic won't help, and it won't heal itself."

"But that isn't possible! Trixie, can I speak to Twilight? I'd like to know exactly what's happened."

"Twilight isn't... available right now. Actually she doesn't even know we've contacted you. She was a bit upset when she found out it couldn't be healed and we've had to give her a bit of space."

"I see." There was a rattle of static as Celestia sighed, "Can you tell me what happened then?"

"Nooo... No I don't think I can."

"Trixie..."

"No! Shut up! I didn't contact you to get moaned at! I contacted you to ask a very important question so I can help her!"

Luna's voice piped up over the stone, "How dare you address my sister in such a manner! Curb your insolence Trixie before I-"

"I don't care what you do! Why is everypony trying to get in the way of me helping Twilight!?"

"Enough Luna, we can discuss Trixie's impropriety at a later time. What is it you wish to know Trixie?"

"Thank you. Now this might sound a little bit crazy, but can alicorns regrown lost limbs?"

Author's Notes:

Have some chapter! Have it all!

22/11 changed Snow Bright to Snowbright because reasons that exist inside my head. Also I'm surprised no-one called me out for saying Celestia was in a meeting with minotaurs this chapter, and Discord saying Yaks in the next. Shame on you all.