Twilight cried in the loneliness of her cell. She cried for all she felt she had lost, and that wasn't just her leg. Lying here now she had to admit that she felt like half the mare she was when she began this fruitless mission, and the feeling was only being made worse as she became increasingly home sick.

She longed desperately for the comfort of her friends and family; the steadfast reliance of Applejack, the unstoppableness of Rainbow dash, the soothing tones of Fluttershy, the chirpy optimism of Pinkie Pie, and hopefully Rarity would treat her to a spa day and have some suggestions on hiding her hideous appendage while saying as many 'darlings' in a sentence as she could, all while spending as much time with her dear Spike as possible.

Then she would probably bawl all over her parents and hug Shining and Cadence until there was a risk of causing serious bodily harm to them. Then to top it all off she might go through the mirror to see Sunset and her friends there before coming back and resigning her position as princess, because right now a lot of her never wanted to see Celestia again for allowing this forsaken country to persist for the last one and a half thousand years.

Perhaps she might try to remain cordial with Luna though because she hadn't exactly been around for most of that and couldn't really be blamed as such.

There was a timid knock at the door, but Twilight was too busy wallowing in misery to even look. Not that it mattered because the door opened to admit entrance to the filly.

"Uh, hey Twilight. Fleur asked me to bring you your stuff so you can... I dunno, have your stuff again I suppose?" The filly paused as if waiting for something but the only sound Twilight made was a small sniff. "Well, uh, I guess I'll be on my way then. Um... bye?"

The filly departed again and Twilight had tried to say a thank you but it had been so quiet that she wasn't sure she had actually made a sound. Now she was on her own again though, so she could properly return to her misery.

Or perhaps she wasn't alone. There was one friend she could talk to easy enough since her belongings had now been returned to her. She rolled over and tried using her magic to pick up her bags before remembering that the inhibitor prevented her from doing so. Instead she climbed down from the bed, pulled her book and ink well out of the bags and climbed back onto the bed.

She opened the book to the last letter, and was quite surprised that there was another letter waiting for her. Since the book wasn't flashing or vibrating Twilight suspected that the ponies here must have been alerted to it when it had been.

Putting the thought out of her mind she started to read.

Hey Twilight

Sorry it’s been a while but I've not really had a lot to talk about. A least not until today that is.

We've actually made some progress with the Dazzlings, or rather one of them. Sonata messaged me last night asking if we could do something today because she really wanted to get away from Adagio and Aria for a little bit. I messaged the others and they agreed that we could try a movie and something to eat since they were probably harmless activities.

Turns out they were harmless, at least until we went for tacos. Seems she's a bit of a monster when it comes to those. I'm still finding bits of taco in my hair after what we are referring to as the 'taco-boom.'

All the same though, it was still fun and Sonata is actually a really nice person when she isn't stuck in the shadow of the other two. We're going to try something else soon and Sonata's going to try to convince the other two to come. Hopefully it'll be just as fun.

It won't be for a while though, there's something called the 'friendship games' coming up and we'll probably be busy with that. I know Rainbow Dash is totally psyched about it.

Lots of love,

Sunset Shimmer.

Twilight struggled with what she had just read. Not that she had expected all that much excitement from Sunset, she certainly hadn't expected to read that she had gone for tacos and a movie, and was preparing for some games thing.

Twilight tried to be happy for her, she really did, but all she could feel was an inexplicable anger bubbling up in her chest as jealousy tore at her. With a cry she slammed the book shut and threw it away from her as hard as she could and turned her back on it.

"I never thought I'd see the day when Twilight Sparkle would treat a book like that. I'm almost ashamed of you."

"Huh?" Twilight turned back over to meet the mismatched visage of Discord, holding the book in his grip. It had never occurred to her that she had never heard the book land. "Discord?" Twilight wiped a tear away, "W-what are you doing here?"

"Well, y'see, there I was paying witness to a rather fascinating diplomatic meeting between the princesses and the Yaks, when suddenly Celestia and Luna had to excuse themselves. I was thinking, I was, I was thinking 'what could be so important that they would have to leave a meeting like that?' Then it occurred to me that only my good friend Twilight could be that important, so I followed to find out the latest gossip."

"B-but I never called the princesses."

"I know! There I was expecting to hear the dulcet tones of your beautiful voice when all I heard was the unwanted whining of Trixie Lulamoon, and I must say, she said some rather unkind things to the princesses. I was most taken aback! Anyway, she did manage to finally say you were in some difficulty and I thought to myself, I thought, 'Discord, your friend Twilight needs your help!'"

"And you came here straight away? But I thought Trixie had only just called?"

"Oh indeed. In fact she's probably still talking to the princesses right now."

"Then how did you find me so quickly?"

"First off, I'm Discord. Secondly, it took me about two hours to find you. Time zones are wonderful things when you know how to use them properly."

Twilight didn't question it, she knew better than that. Instead she grabbed Discord around the waist and held him as her tears returned. "Thank you. Thank you so much."

"Oh, oh bother. Twilight dearest, you do appear to be leaking. If you could stop that I would appreciate it," Twilight pulled him closer and snuggled into his fur. "Ooh, I know!" He clicked his fingers and hyper, synthetic music filled the air, "Discord used pat!" He patted her head twice, but got no response, "It's not very effective..."

Discord stood there as Twilight held him and cried, "Oh my, you are in a bad way aren't you. Hmm, W.W.Fs.D... Ah yes." Discord clicked his fingers again and they both disappeared, only to reappear a fraction of a second later with Discord now sat on the bench and Twilight sitting in his lap as he ran his lions paw down her back, stroking her. "Now how about you tell your uncle Discord all about it."

Twilight melted under his ministrations and she had to admit she did feel slightly better as he stroked her, even if it was slightly demeaning. "I hate it here Discord. How could any place end up as sick and twisted as this? I've seen ponies oppressed, beaten, killed. Rape is almost endemic, and to make it worse a lot of ponies treat it like its normal! I'm not sure how much more I can take!"

"Quite. There was a reason I went to Equestria rather than come here back in the day. I mean it takes a lot to put me off, but this place, it just isn't right."

"A-a-and then, to top it all off, this!" Twilight raised her hoof to show Discord, wincing as pain shot through it.

"Hmm," Discord held her leg up as tenderly as he could. "Dark magic corruption, but the dark magic is gone. Won't heal and can't be healed. I'm terribly sorry Twilight."

"Can't you fix it?"

"I'm afraid not. Chaos magic isn't good at dealing with absolutes, and there is absolutely no way this leg can be healed. Or it might heal it, who knows? I certainly don't, but it might make it worse so I'm not going to risk it."

"Oh." Twilight didn't argue since she kind of expected that to be the answer. "I don't suppose you could fix this country instead then?"

"For the same reason no. There's a reason you're doing this, rather than my good self. If I did it I might well fix everything, or nothing, or make it worse, or make it so a rubber duck is crowned ‘el presidente for life.’ You're here to make sure we get the result we want."

"Even you?"

"There is nothing amusing about this place Twilight. I was always in it for the lol's, but this place is severely lacking in such things. There's nothing funny about suffering."

Twilight slumped and her head lolled against Discords side, "I just want to go home."

Discord said nothing, instead he continued stroking her as soothingly as he could. "You know why you can't do that, right?" he said after a minute or two.

"I know, I can't allow this place to keep suffering if I can help it."

"Oh, well yes, that's even better than what was going to say. I was going to say that 'Twilight Sparkle never gives up.' At any rate I really ought to be going."

"What? Why?"

"Because your friends will be here in a minute and I think it best that nopony else knows I was here."

"But-"

"Ah ah! No buts!" He picked her up and hugged her tightly, "Take care of yourself Twilight, and I hope you're not going to forget my invitation to the victory parade. Ta ta!" With a flash he vanished, leaving Twilight suspended in mid-air for a split second before gravity remembered it had a job to do and dragged her back onto the bed with a heavy thud. Unfortunately this involved her landing on her painful hoof.

"Aah! Sonuvva..." Twilight writhed around until the pain subsided, "How am I meant to do anything with this bloody hoof!?" At that moment a happily grinning Trixie burst into the room.

"Twilight! We may have a solution for your problem!"

"Come again?" Celestia said as if she had totally misheard Trixie.

"I want to know if alicorns can regrow limbs."

"Of course they can't! Why would you even think that!?"

"Twilight does appear to have freaky healing abilities, so I thought that you could be able to regrow legs and stuff. That way we could amputate Twilight's bad leg and let her regrow a healthy new one!"

"Absolutely not! There is no way you are going to amputate her leg in the vague hope it might grow back!"

"Silence yourself a moment sister. We may have no idea if we might grow a leg back or not, but I did grow that ear back after I lost it in the battle for the Crystal Empire-"

"A leg and an ear are not the same thing!"

"Indeed not sister, but my point is that it didn't have to grow back, yet it did. We don't know the limits of our healing. Besides, if the limb is as bad as they claim it might be pertinent to remove it lest the corruption spread. At the very least it would cease to be a painful burden to her."

"But she might only have three legs for the rest of her life, which, as you might have noticed, is liable to be a rather long time!"

"So you would rather she be in pain for the rest of life instead?"

"Of course not! I..." Celestia sighed, "We haven't tried to fix it yet. It'd be foolish to remove her leg if it can be fixed."

"Are we seriously listening to two ponies have an argument through a rock?" the filly asked incredulously.

"Do you not remember our attempts to heal such corruptions during Sombra's reign? While they were thankfully few and far between, we did not manage to cure even one case. So unless you've managed to find a way during my banishment, which I doubt, then there is little alternative. You have my blessing to proceed with this course of action Trixie Lulamoon."

There was another drawn out sigh from Celestia, "And mine. Remember though that the choice to proceed with this is Twilight's. Not ours, and not yours."

"Well duh! Trixie was hardly going to chop her leg off without asking her first."

"I should think not. If you could have Twilight contact us as soon as she is able we would appreciate it."

"Yeah yeah, I'll remind her."

"Very well Trixie, farewell." The stone ceased its operation and Trixie tossed it into her bags since Twilight's bags were no longer there.

"I can't believe you would talk like that to the princesses!" Octavia said, flabbergasted.

"Pfft, what are they going to do about it?" Trixie rubbed her chin, "Hey Doc! I'm guessing with a name like yours you know how to do amputations?"

Doc stared at her, his eyes wide, and it seemed to take him a moment to gather his wits. "Uh, yes, yes I do."

"Great! I suppose we best get Mama in on this too." Trixie started towards the exit but a haze of amber coloured magic held the door shut.

"Hold a moment," said Daybreak. "Was that really the Princess Celestia you were just talking with?"

"Well, yeah. What of it?"

"And you would really speak to her in such a manner?"

"Not usually, but I'm not in the mood for pleasantries." Daybreak gawked at her and Trixie grinned as realisation struck her, "Ooh, I know what's going on here. You're butt hurt because you think Celestia's some kind of god."

"No, she isn't a go. There is only one god, supposedly, and it is not Celestia. She is however the living avatar of the sun and should be treated with respect."

"Well sure, but she's just a pony. A big one granted, with a horn and wings, but still a pony. What about Luna? You're not saying she needs to be treated with respect."

"Luna? Who's Luna?"

"Really? Luna? The sister of Celestia? Tried to bring about eternal night and spent the last thousand years being the mare in the moon? We were just talking to her?" Daybreak stared at her blankly and Trixie couldn't help but facehoof, "You backwards ponies are killing me. You're going to be in for one hell of a culture shock someday soon. Anyway, I'm going to tell Twilight the news."

"You do?" Twilight felt her spirits lift as Trixie grinned happily at her.

"Yeah! We're gonna cut your leg off!"

"What!?" Suddenly those same spirits found a new depth at which to lower themselves.

"We're going to cut your leg off. I just spoke to Celestia and Luna and they said there's a chance of it growing back."

"What information are they basing that off!?"

"The fact that Luna grew an ear back once after it was cut off."

"An ear and a leg aren't the same thing!"

"Yeah, that's what Celestia said..."

Twilight felt sick to her stomach, "Are you really being serious about this?"

Trixie started to answer but her mouth was clamped shut by the pink aura of Fleur's magic before she was dragged out of the room. Fleur entered and kicked the door shut in Trixie's face before sitting on the bed next to Twilight. "I'm sorry about Trixie. She seems to be in a bit of a strange mood."

"Was she really being honest about cutting my leg off?" Twilight stared up at Fleur, her expression fearful.

"I'm afraid so. While there may be a chance your leg will grow back the fact of the matter is you're in pain because of it and Luna said something that suggests the corruption might spread. Amputation might be your only choice."

"You mean like it's gangrenous?"

"More or less. I'm sorry Twilight, but I don't see any other way to fix this. The choice is yours if you don't want to do it, but the way I see it is keeping it as it is-"

"Isn't much of a choice." Twilight exhaled through her nose as she thought. She tried placing some weight on her hoof but it seemed like she had hardly put it down before the pain became too much. She also wanted to cry again but apparently she was all out of tears and just felt tired instead.

She leaned into Fleur who wrapped a leg around her withers. "I'll do it," she said, her voice barely louder than a whisper.

"Okay." Fleur hugged Twilight a little tighter and kissed her on the top of her head. "Before I forget," Fleur's tail glowed with her magic for a moment before it focused on something within it. The tool for removing inhibitors revealed itself a second later and Fleur used it to remove Twilight's inhibitor before returning both items to her tail. "I figured they might be useful sometime in the future."

"You're unbelievable, you know that?"

"I try." Fleur held Twilight a bit longer before breaking the hug. "You know, I thought you'd be a bit more upset at the idea of having your leg amputated."

"I guess there's a physical limit to just how upset one pony can be. Heck, maybe I'll get lucky and my leg will actually grow back and we can all laugh about this in years to come..." An awkward silence filled the room until Twilight cleared her throat, "Sooo... How's this going to work?"

"Sawbones and Mama are cleaning a room up as we speak. Then I'll take you there and we'll get this done lickedy-split."

"Uh, no mention of anesthetic?"

"Well, yes, and then again, no." Fleur's horn glowed and a bottle that Twilight hadn't seen before floated into her view.

Twilight sighed, "That's moonshine isn't it?"

"Bon appétit."

"I don't- I don't-" Twilight drank another mouthful of moonshine, the bottle swaying in her magic so much that Fleur was impressed that she got it in her mouth, "This stuff issa lot nicer than it tastes. Now if it smelled half as nice as it sounds we might be getting somewhere."

"Yes Twilight."

"Splish splosh splish splosh, tee hee! You know this'd prob'ly be a lot more fun if I wasn't going to go have my leg hacked off by amateur surgeons. I mean... blood thins the alcohol and that- and that... wait... Hah! Blood thins the alcohol? What am I saying? Alcohol thins the blood! And makes it more likely that I might bleed out." Twilight's eyes widened as she thought about what she had said, "Should I... should I be drinking this?"

Fleur looked at the barely quarter empty bottle that was floating around in front of her and shrugged, "Probably."

"If you say so." Twilight downed another mouthful and offered the bottle to Fleur who politely declined and pushed it back towards Twilight, "Are you trying to get me drunk?" Twilight asked with a giggle.

"Well, yeah, that's exactly what I'm trying to do."

"Oh." Twilight almost went cross-eyed as she stared at Fleur for an uncomfortably long time, "Are you trying to seduce me?"

"What!?"

Twilight batted her eyelashes at Fleur, "Are you trying to seduce me?"

"Why would you even think that?"

"Well, I always thought that if another pony was trying to get you drunk it was because they liked you and wanted to, y'know, do stuff."

"Firstly Twilight, if a pony is trying to get you drunk to... do stuff, they don't really like you and you should leave. Secondly, I'm getting you drunk because we're going to cut your leg off, remember."

Twilight frowned as she thought, "But- But I thought you liked me? I thought we were friends?"

"Of course we're friends Twilight! But I'm not trying to jump into bed with you!" Fleur froze as Twilight started to shudder, "Twilight?"

Rather than the tears Fleur had been expecting Twilight burst out laughing, her eyes watering with mirth, "I'm sorry Fleur, but that was too easy!"

"You fucking bitch Twilight," Fleur said quietly, though she was laughing herself as she did. "You had me really worried this was going to become horribly awkward."

"I might be drunk Fleur, but not that drunk." Twilight sniggered, "I really had you going there didn't I?"

"Yeah, fair's fair, you got me."

"I don't see why alcohol isn't more popular in Equestria, y'know, apart from celebrations and stuff. It's good fun."

"You feeling okay Twilight?"

"Yeah! I mean, I feel kinda fuzzy and woozy, but my hoof doesn't hurt so much anymore so it's not all bad."

"But you're nowhere near passing out?"

"Don't know, never passed out before."

"Keep drinking then."

"Do I really need to be passed out drunk for this?"

"Unless you want to watch them do it, yes."

"I dunno, could be interestin'. It's not everyday you get to see your own leg cut off."

"Twilight, no. Not even for science."

"But! But the sciences! They must be studied!"

"Not this time Twilight, I'm going to have to put my hoof down."

"What a gyp. I'm going to have my hoof cut off and I'm not even going to get to learn anything from it."

"There's probably nothing to learn from it that hasn't already been learnt. If it grows back though, well, there's something that might be worth learning."

"Maybe," Twilight conceded. "Perhaps if we could reverse engineer the magic behind alicorn healing and turn it into a spell, maybe we could make it so anypony could regrow a limb with help. That, or it might give them localised cancer. One or the other."

"Would..." Fleur blinked a few times and swallowed, "Would that be possible?"

Twilight drank another mouthful and tried to think about it, "This'd be easier if I weren't drunk. Ahem, in theory yes, assuming the healing's based on magic rather than a heightened metabolic response thingy. If it is magic then it could be possible to replicate it and adapt it to a pony's own physior- physiom-" Twilight burped loud enough to create an echo, "Body things so they could regrow stuff."

"Like the filly's wings?"

"In theory, yeah." Twilight suddenly focused. Or at least tried to. "Wait a minute, I know what you're doing, and you should stop."

"Stop what?"

"Getting your hopes up. I'm just spit-balling ideas 'cause I'm drunk. My leg might not even grow back, and even if it does it would take months of clinical research in a lab just to find out how, and why. To actually turn it into a workable form of healing could take years past that, even if anypony finds out how it works! How d' you know she even wants her wings back?"

"Why wouldn't she?"

"'Cause she hates that she's a pegasus?"

"Only because she's a pegasus who had her wings cut off in a country where pegasi get one hell of a raw deal."

"Wha's that got to do with it? She's never said that not having wings bothers her, just the reasons why she doesn't have them. It doesn't matter anyway because you're never going to tell her about this, are you?"

"Of course not. It's one thing to get my hopes up for her, but I couldn't do that to her in case it can't be done."

Twilight nodded lazily before resting her head against Fleur and closing her eyes, "Good. Fleur?"

"Yes?"

"The room's spinning and I don't feel too good." Twilight suddenly heaved and threw up all she had been drinking, all down Fleur's side.

"Twilight! For fuck sake!" Fleur leapt up and off the bed, allowing Twilight's head to flop down into the puddle of her own vomit. "Twilight?" She poked Twilight in the side but to little avail, the alicorn had finally passed out. "Greaaat... Mission accomplished." She did her best to clean herself and Twilight up before hefting the purple pony onto her back and trudging out of the cell. "The things I put up with."

Sawbones looked up with surprise when Fleur trudged into his grubby operating room and practically threw Twilight onto the table. "I thought you'd be longer than that."

"Unsurprisingly, Twilight's a complete lightweight. Talked a load of crap, threw up over me, then passed out."

"Good job too," said Mama. "If she had drank all that stuff I'd have nothing to sterilize with."

"You're kidding right?"

"No, they're not." Fleur span around to find a morose looking Octavia sat in the corner next to a small forge like device.

"What's with the fire?"

"We need a fire to heat the irons up," Sawbones told her.

"Irons? Irons for what?"

"To cauterize the wound of course."

"That's barbaric!"

"Hence my cheerful disposition," Octavia said without rancor. "Unfortunately though, we don't have anything better to stop the bleeding."

Fleur stared open mouthed as Mama probed Twilight's hoof with her magic before drawing a line just below the knee with a piece of charcoal, "Anything below that line needs to come off."

"I can't see this." Fleur turned to leave and was halfway out of the door before Sawbones stopped her.

"Actually we could use your help."

"My help? For what?"

"With the irons. You need to be steady when cauterizing something like that, and unicorns are frankly better at it because they don't have to worry about not burning themselves at the same time." He went quiet as he tied a tourniquet around Twilight's leg just above the line. "Unfortunately," he continued, "due to Mama's blindness she can't do it."

"Why not ask Thorn or whatshisname, Daybreak?"

"Normally yes, I would, but they're busy organising a meeting right now."

"A meeting? What kind of meeting?"

"A meeting about you lot actually. Trixie's little conversation with Princess Celestia caused quite the stir and there are some things that need to be talked about."

"Like if you're going to fight or not?"

"Possibly. Now are you going to help us help your friend or not?"

Fleur bit her bottom lip and looked to Octavia for support, but all she got was an incredulous look and a raised eyebrow. "Can't Trixie do it?"

Mama shook her head, "No offense to Trixie, but that girl ain't right at the moment. The rest of her bats ain't returned to her belfry yet if you get me drift. I would ask Winder, but he's struggling to master walking again, let alone magic, so I'm afraid you're our only real choice."

Fleur groaned and hung her head in defeat, "Why's Octavia here then?"

"Hmm? Oh, I'm just here to keep the irons hot while they work. Believe you me, I'd rather not be here, and if you want to take over be my guest."

Fleur nodded and stood aside, "No point both of us suffering. Besides, tending the fire will give me something to focus on." Octavia smiled with gratitude and hurried out of the door, shutting it behind her. Fleur quickly looked at the tools Mama was wiping down, "Don't suppose you could tell me what the mallet is for?"

"In case the patient wakes up mid procedure."

"Of course." Fleur turned her back on the others and poked at the fire with her magic, focusing on getting the irons glowing nicely while trying to ignore the sounds coming from behind her, although the sound the saw made as it chewed through bone was pretty much impossible to ignore and would stick in her mind for quite some time afterwards.

All too soon though, the moment she had been dreading arrived when Sawbones spoke to her, "Fleur, we're ready to cauterize it. Bring the big bowl shaped one." Fleur searched around the irons until she found the one he meant. She watched the colours shift from orange to red as she steeled herself before walking over to where the others were operating, taking care to not slip on the blood staining the white tiles.

"Now push it against the leg for a few seconds and take it off again." Fleur swallowed down the contents of her stomach as she looked at the raw end of Twilight's leg while ignoring the blackened length of leg laying next to it. She pushed the iron onto the leg and winced as it hissed and seethed as the iron seared the wound shut.

She pulled it away again and inverted her eyes as Sawbones studied the leg. "Again." Fleur had to look at the leg again to line it and the iron up and almost ran when she saw the lumpy, charred stump in front of her, gently oozing blood. She pressed the iron against the leg again and held it there until Sawbones told her to stop. She backed off, holding the iron up like it was a weapon against what she was seeing and watched as Sawbones undid the tourniquet.

A little blood seeped through. "A bit more and we should be done. Get a fresh iron though, that one's not hot enough. Fleur nodded numbly and threw the iron she was holding into a bucket of water before pulling another smaller iron out of the brazier. She pressed it against Twilight's leg again, although gently compared to last time, focusing on spots that were bleeding. At last Sawbones nodded in satisfaction, "Alright, I think that's it. Nice work Fleur, you can go now if you want."

He didn't have to tell her twice. She dropped the still glowing iron into the bucket and fled out of the door, not stopping until she could no longer see as her own tears blinded her, even ignoring the sound of Octavia shouting her name.

Octavia paced around the room that she and the others had claimed near the operating room. Worry and guilt gnawed at her. Worry over Twilight, and guilt for leaving Fleur to face that on her own.

"You know there are quicker ways to make a hole in the floor," the filly said said sarcastically, adding annoyance to Octavia's list of emotions. She took the hint though and stopped pacing.

"I don't see how you can be so calm about all this."

"Firstly, it has to be done. We all know it, and Twilight knows it. Secondly, I know a thing or two about body parts being chopped off, and I can tell you that Twilight's lucky that she gets to be knocked out for it. Anyway, I survived it when I was, I dunno, six or seven? Whatever it was, Twilight should have no problem what with the freaky healing powers she has going on."

Trixie peeked at Octavia from under the leg that was resting over eyes as she reclined on one of the rooms' two beds, "Boom! Score one for the filly."

"How you can joke at a time like this! Especially since this is mostly your fault!"

Trixie closed her eyes again and wriggled around until she was comfortable, "Given the choice between laughing and crying I choose the former."

The filly barked a single laugh, "You didn't back in that graveyard."

"Boom," Summer said quietly from the room’s other bed which she was sharing with the filly.

Trixie sat up, her expression full of rage, "You're fucking kidding right? This doesn't come near in comparison to finding that your entire family, including siblings you didn't know you had, is dead. If it would cost me a leg to bring them back I'd give one up in a flash. Don't talk about things you have no idea about."

If Trixie had sought to cow them she failed utterly. Instead the filly grinned at Trixie and giggled, "Maybe you should think about who you’re saying that to."

"Meaning?"

The filly cleared her throat, "My father, or sire rather, died in a work accident when he flew too far from a mast and activated his collar at four hundred feet in the air. My eldest sister was raped by a guard and was pretty much beaten to death for getting pregnant, and my other siblings are probably being forced to act as slave labour if they're old enough, or are suffering in Whiplash if they're not, assuming they're alive. My mother was, for all intents and purposes, a foal factory, made to mate with as many stallions as possible, making sure she got pregnant again and again. The last time I saw her was when she was begging for my life to be spared because my wings weren't growing in fast enough. The guards’ compromise was to hack my wings off and throw me out in the middle of winter, and if it wasn't for a sympathetic mare that got me help I would've either bled to death, froze to death, or died from infection. Think you got it bad Trixie? Join the fucking club. We've got crumbled cookies and spilt milk."

"Boom."

"Summer!"

"Sorry Octavia, but I'm kind of with the filly on this. I mean, given the choice between losing my wings and being forced to live as a sex slave, I would've had them cut off and never looked back. It's not like I can fly anyway so I wouldn't have lost much."

Octavia held her hooves up in surrender, "Alright, fine. I'm not interested in a 'who had the worst life' competition. Besides, my overbearing parents don't even register compared to the rest of you."

"Overbearing parents?" Trixie raised an eyebrow in demand of an explanation.

Octavia sighed, "If you really want to know. I was brought up in a nice house in Canterlot and had everything I could've wanted on the proviso that I sat down and behaved and never did anything. My parents controlled every aspect of my life; my schooling, my hobbies, my social life, everything. I didn't even get my cutie mark until later in life when I tried my hoof at a cello and instantly fell in love with it, which my parents hated because I was meant to take over the family business. Anyway, soon as I could I left and never looked back."

"Yeah," the filly said totally deadpan, "sounds awful."

"No, not awful, but boring. Really, really boring. I did say it didn't come close in comparison. Anyway, seeing as how we've gone off the topic that Trixie doesn't run a monopoly on hard times, I think we should- Hmm?" Octavia twitched an ear as the sound of hooves rapidly approached. She stuck her head out the door in time to see Fleur galloping past as fast as she could, "Fleur! Fleur wait!" Fleur didn't stop and Octavia started after her for a few steps before the thought struck her that maybe something had happened to Twilight, "Blast! Filly, could you go see if Fleur's alright?"

"Can do, though it might take me a while to catch up, what with my legs being stumpy compared to hers. Where're you going?"

"To see if Twilight's okay." Octavia darted out of the room, looking back briefly to see that the filly was going after Fleur. Turning her focus forward again she sprinted to the operating room, grabbing the doorframe to stop herself skidding past. "Did something happen? Is she alright?"

"She's fine," Sawbones said, not even bothering to look up from Twilight's leg as he calmly bandaged it.

Octavia released a breath she hadn't realised she had been holding, "Thank goodness. Though if she's fine, why was Fleur running away?"

"My guess, she freaked out. Wouldn't be the first pony to do so, and probably won't be the last." He tied the final knot on the bandage and pulled a blanket over Twilight high enough to cover her leg. "At any rate I'm all done here and I really ought to get back to the others, see exactly what it is they're plotting. Somepony should stay with her at all times in case she wakes up and needs to see a friendly face. Oh, and if you start seeing lots of blood, it'd probably be best to come and find me."

"Of course... Thanks Doc."

"That's probably my cue to leave as well," Mama said as she wiped her hooves. "Think I've spent enough time in this dank hole to satisfy me for a good long time. 'Sides, who knows what Winder's getting up to without me there to keep an eye on him, so t' speak."

"Are we likely to see you again?"

"Never say never, though if you do could you bring some good news with you? You mares seem to be all doom and gloom."

"That's rather the understatement I think. Thanks for everything Mama."

"Ain't no thing, though I ain't exactly done much anyway."

"Still, things would've been harder without your advice." Octavia watched as Mama headed towards the door, "Mama, I must ask, how is it you know where to go and where things are to not bump into them?"

"Good gracious, is that what you’re thinking of right now?"

"Um... yes?"

Mama held her mane up with her hoof showing her horn off fully, a weak glow surrounding it. "With my magic of course! Ain't nothing mystical about it. Honestly, the things you ponies ask." Mama bustled out the door, leaving Octavia alone with the comatose Twilight.

Not sure what to do with herself she sat next to the table and stared at Twilight, who was drooling with her tongue lolling out of her mouth. After a few minutes she started feeling awkward so she set about cleaning up as best she could since she reasoned that Twilight probably didn't want to wake up and see her own blood splattered around. Unfortunately, that also left her with the problem of what to do with Twilight's severed leg.

"Um..." Octavia poked the leg and a little blood and black ichor oozed out of the end, making Octavia shudder in revulsion. Figuring that what happened to the leg was ultimately Twilight's decision she covered it with a cloth and resolved to never look at it again.

The door creaked open and Summer trotted in, a faint smile on her face. "Hey, is she alright?"

"She's... surviving." Summer smiled and Octavia couldn't help but ask why. "You seem curiously cheerful at the moment. Dare I ask why?"

"Sorry, but I can't help it. Things might seem bad but to me they're still an improvement over what I'm used to. Besides, I've been walking around down here with my wings on display and nopony has said a thing to me about it. It's great!"

"Well I'm glad you feel that way, but I'm afraid that I'm a little too concerned about Twilight and what's going to happen to us down here for me to think about happy things."

Summer wrapped her legs around Octavia in a hug and nuzzled her cheek, "I know, but Twilight's going to be fine, I just know it." Octavia nodded but froze when she felt Summer's lips press up against her cheek for a second before she was released from the hug. "I'm going to see if the others are back and keep an eye on Trixie, okay?"

"Uh, yes, of course. See you later." Summer left and Octavia pressed a hoof to where Summer had kissed her, "...What?"

It was some time until Twilight awoke from her alcohol induced slumber, during which Octavia had left Twilight in the care of Trixie while she tried to find a bathroom. Unfortunately this meant Twilight had to deal with Trixie while suffering from two things she had never experienced before.

Twilight blinked groggily, her eyes not seeming to want to cooperate since all she could see was a weird blue blur. She quickly resolved the issue though when she worked out she was seeing Trixie's face uncomfortably close up. "Hey Twilight!"

Twilight cringed as Trixie's voice drilled right through her head, "Not so loud..."

"Right, sorry.” Trixie lowered her voice, “How you feeling?"

Twilight tried to swallow before answering, but found her mouth to be unbearably dry. She tried to lick her lips instead but encountered a similar problem. "Don't feel good."

"Not surprising. I imagine a lightweight like you would have one hell of a hangover after drinking like that."

Hangover? Twilight had heard of these, but had until now never encountered one firsthoof. So far she was not enjoying her experience. "Ponies have these for fun?" she croaked.

"Uh, well no. The drinking is the fun part. The hangover is the penance for doing such things."

Twilight groaned again and squeezed her eyes shut in an attempt to block out the light assaulting her eyeballs. She knew well enough that hangovers don't last forever, and there was a more pressing issue to deal with rather than how her head felt. "How's my leg?"

"Ah, well I have good news and bad news. The good news is the operation was a complete success!"

Twilight nodded gingerly, only wincing slightly as Trixie talked much too loud again. "The bad news?"

"They cut off the wrong leg."

"What!?" Twilight's eyes shot open as she scrambled to bring her legs into view, ignoring how violently ill the motions made her feel. She pulled her legs into view and stared at them in horror before noticing her pristine right leg was fine. Especially compared to the bandaged stump of her left. "That wasn't funny Trixie..." Twilight said half-heartedly. Even though they had removed the correct leg it still wasn't much of a comfort.

"Heh, sorry Twilight, couldn't resist. Yes the operation was a complete success, and now we only have to see if it grows back or not."

Twilight snorted, the idea that her leg might grow back seeming ridiculous as she stared, transfixed by her stump. A creeping sense of horror started to spread through her mind so she placed her leg back beneath the sheet and tried to ignore it lest she freak out, but now she was thinking about it she could feel a burning sensation start to nag at her.

Trixie held a glass of water up for Twilight, who gulped it down greedily, before asking for more. "Talking of legs," Trixie said conversationally, once Twilight had finished, "we still don't know what to do with your other leg. We thought it'd be best if you decided." Trixie gestured to a sheet that was clearly covering the remains of her leg.

Twilight was, all things considered, a scholar, complete with a scholars unerring ability to be horribly curious about things. She wanted to see it, and even though the very idea of looking at her own severed leg was horrific she couldn't deny how curious she was. She twitched the sheet aside in her magic and recoiled in disgust at what lay beneath.

The leg had changed since it was removed, and now oozed black, foul smelling gunk like it was decaying at an extremely accelerated rate. Twilight slammed the sheet back over it and heaved a couple of times as she tried to calm her stomach. "Get it away from me!" she choked.

"But what should I do with it?"

"I don't care! Bury it! Burn it! Whatever! Just get it away from me!" Trixie picked the tray the leg was on up in her magic and scurried out of the room, leaving Twilight to panic on her own for a while. Trixie must have informed the others as she left because they all came piling into the room, babbling the usual stupid questions of "Are you alright?" "How do you feel?" and "Does it hurt?" amongst others. There must have been something in her expression though, because they quickly stopped.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"But Twilight!" Octavia started, "you can't pretend like-"

Twilight almost screamed, "I said I don't want to talk about it!"

Octavia held her hooves up, hoping to placate the enraged alicorn, "Alright! Alright! Instead, maybe you would like to tell us what you want to do now."

"Huh?"

"Well, would you like to get up? Stay there? Or maybe find a room with an actual bed?"

Twilight thought about it. Realistically she knew she should recover, but lying on the hard table was seriously making her wings ache. At the same time though what she really wanted to do was wallow in self-pity, and cry some more.

"Tell me what's going on," she said instead. "Did I miss anything?"

"Uh, not much," said Fleur. "Thorn, Daybreak and the others are sorting out some meeting for all of their members or something, and we haven't seen any of them for hours."

"Are we invited?"

"Honestly, I don't know."

"Oh." Twilight had hoped that would be a longer conversation. "How about you guys then? What've you been up to?"

"Nothing much really. I freaked out after cauterising your leg-"

"You cauterised my leg? No wonder it hurts so fucking much!" Twilight growled and looked away, spotting in her peripheral vision the bottle of moonshine. Her horn sparked to life and she held the bottle in preparation to bring it to herself. During her internalised battle over whether she should or shouldn't, Trixie banged the door open, brandishing the blackened tray in her magic, although it did appear to be blackened for a different reason this time. "What did you do with it?" asked Twilight.

"I incinerated it," Trixie said proudly.

"Really? How?"

"With Trixie's magic of course."

"You can do that?"

"Trixie can now." She almost purred as she said it.

"Of course you can..." Somehow, during all that had happened, Twilight had almost forgotten about Trixie's dalliance's with dark magic. Straight away the arguments as to why Trixie shouldn't use it leapt to the forefront of her mind, but she restrained them because apart from the obvious arguments of 'dark magic is bad,' her other reasons could be boiled down to 'because I don't like it.' "Thanks Trixie," she said anyway.

"No probs." Trixie placed the tray down and swept the moonshine up instead, taking a lengthy drink and shuddering with enjoyment before putting it back. "Since you're all awake and stuff now I should probably tell you that the princesses wanted to talk to you."

Twilight sighed. Of course they wanted to talk to her, and out of a sense of duty she would, whereas what she really wanted to do was tell Celestia to shove it using the equivalent of an answerphone message. "Fine, but first I'm going to get up and freshen up a bit."

Turns out that walking on three legs wasn't something that Twilight wanted to get used to. At first it had been weird because she still had to hold a leg that was half missing up against her, and she hated the way it moved about in full sight of herself and everypony else.

Octavia, with some assistance from Fleur, had partially solved that problem by fashioning a sling that held the leg up against her body while also covering it completely, which Twilight felt much better about even if it wasn't the most comfortable of things.

Of course this still left her limping around on three legs, which was fine for a while but tended to leave her odd leg out rather tired after lengthy exertions. Instead she tried to use her wings more, figuring that flying through these small passageways was as good a time as any to work on her fine control, but she hadn't used her wings too much lately so they weren't as cooperative as she liked, and every time she flew she couldn't help but feel Summer and the filly's eyes boring into her so she tried to not do it too much. Add to that the fact that her balance while flying was a little out until she got used to one side being heavier than the other, and instinctively wanting to use her bad leg to counterbalance when it was strapped up and only half there in any case made flying a poor choice. She'd keep working on it when she was sure Summer and the filly weren't around.

After a couple of hours of procrastination though, she finally decided to contact Celestia and Luna and quietly hoped she didn't blow up at them too badly. Here goes... She pressed her horn to the stone in the now familiar ritual to activate it and waited for one of the princesses to answer.

"Twilight?" asked the voice of Celestia.

"Yeah, it's me," she sighed in response. Twilight had been quietly hoping that Luna would be the one to answer.

"How are you feeling?"

Twilight almost laughed, but not with humour. "About as well as you expect me to feel."

"Understandable I suppose. Listen, Twilight, I realise that it was a mistake sending you and the others to Mareitania, and if you feel you are no longer able to continue I fully understand..." Twilight rolled her eyes as Celestia said almost exactly what she had predicted she would. What made it worse is that she knew what Celestia hoped she herself would say, and that it was hopefully exactly what she was about to say.

"No, I'm not giving up. This place needs to be fixed, and I've come too far and given up too much to go home now with nothing to show for it." Twilight waited for the answer she was expecting, but frowned as it didn't come.

"I'm so proud of you Twilight." Celestia sounded off when she said that, like she was crying when she said it but was trying to sound like she wasn't. "I still feel that I owe you an apology though, for leaving you to clean up a mess that I should have cleaned up centuries ago."

"Its fine Celestia, I mean you're a very busy mare." Twilight scowled at her own words. Now she was trying to make excuses for Celestia's lack of trying? It was just typical of Celestia to find the one way that would steal all of Twilight's thunder and turn it back on her.

"Not that busy I think. At any rate, I'm sorry Twilight, for all that I've put you through."

"It’s fine Celestia, really." No it's not Twilight! What are you doing!? Get mad damn it! "Now stop crying and pull yourself together, you're embarrassing yourself."

There was a small laugh mixed with a sob from the stone, "It’s been a while since anypony talked to me like that." Twilight waited as Celestia composed herself. "I guess we better talk business then-"

"Actually, I was hoping we could talk about something else. I was hoping you could tell me how my friends are doing?"

"Uh, well... certainly. You might be surprised at what they've been up to entirely. I suppose I should have been keeping you informed of their activities all along."

"Maybe, but I didn't want to know because I felt like I'd be missing out, but I was silly to think like that. Perhaps we should start with one pony at a time, like Rainbow Dash for instance..."

"Well, apart from causing a explosive winter in Ponyville and completely destroying the weather factory in Cloudsdale because she didn't want her pet tortoise to have to hibernate, not much."

Twilight laughed out loud, "You're kidding right? How could she even manage that!?"

"I'm not really sure. I've only read the reports and those sound spectacular enough." Twilight settled down, listening to Celestia recount what it was her friends had been up to in her absence, how Pinkie Pie almost started a war with the Yaks, how Applejack won first place in the Appaloosa rodeo. How Fluttershy had met a new friend that almost ended with Discord destroying the Grand Galloping Gala. Apparently Rarity was preparing to open her dream boutique in Canterlot which was astounding, making Twilight wish she could see it, and she couldn't help but laugh at the elaborate description Celestia gave of how Spike almost completely sabotaged the Grand Equestria Pony Summit, giving Cadence a complete meltdown. Then there was the Tantabus incident which Celestia had to help Luna fix.

"And, as a final note, I do believe the Cutie Mark Crusaders recently gained their cutie marks."

"Really? Wow! What in?"

"Something about helping other ponies discover the true meaning of their own cutie marks."

"Okay, that sounds nice, what about the others?"

"Actually they all have the same talent. Their marks are all pretty much indentical apart from a few minor differences."

"That's unusual..." Twilight rubbed her chin. She had never heard of three unrelated ponies getting similar cutie marks, let alone identical ones. Not even the close knit Apple family was like that. "So what does a 'helping ponies discover the true meaning of their cutie marks' cutie mark look like? Does this mean that Applebloom's the first Apple to not get something fruit related as her mark?"

"Actually her mark does have an apple motif to it. Their marks are small, tri-striped shields with an apple motif for Applebloom, a star and music note for Sweetie Belle, and a wing for Scootaloo."

"Fascinating... How did they get them?"

"Twilight, I know this is unusual, but I don't really know much about it. They only got them a couple days ago, and the only reason I know is because Spike sent me a picture and letter about it."

"Right, sorry. Still though, could you send a letter to Spike passing on my congratulations?"

"Of course Twilight. Since we're talking about cutie marks, there was one thing I wanted to ask. I've received reports from the north east about a strange little town that's recently turned up. Normally this isn't a bad thing, but these reports have mentioned that the ponies all appear to have the same, nondescript cutie marks, and that there's been propaganda flying around about equality and true friendship. As the Princess of Friendship, my first instinct would be to send you, but that isn't an option so Luna's offered to go in your stead. I was hoping that perhaps your friends might go with her if that's okay with you?"

"You hardly need to ask my permission Celestia."

"I know, but I don't want you to think I'm using your friends."

"It's their choice if they go. Besides, knowing Rainbow Dash she'd jump at the chance for an adventure."

"Thank you Twilight." Celestia sighed, "I do wish we could talk more, but today’s duties can't be put off much longer."

"Don't you want to hear my plans?"

"Ideally yes, but we are both busy mares after all. I have absolute faith in you Twilight, and trust you to know the best path." Twilight couldn't help but feel like her ego was being nicely stroked, and it was working. "Hopefully we'll talk again soon, farewell."

"Bye." The stone fell silent and Twilight stretched, shaking the stiffness out of her legs and wings. She had no idea how long she had been there, but she didn't care. Although the conversation had gone a lot different than she had planned, she felt a lot better for having it even if she was slightly galled that Celestia knew exactly which of her strings to pull, although that could be attributed to centuries of dealing with ponies.

"Right, back to my irregularly scheduled silliness," she said before stepping off the bed and landing in a crying heap as she tried to land on a leg that wasn't really there anymore. "Luna fucking damn it!" she hissed as she clutched her stump while squirmed in pain. "I hope this grows back soon if it's going to!"

Author's Notes:

Yes, I cut Twilight's leg off. I know, rather careless of me right? Rest assured this will all tie into something in the future concerning alicorns. Hopefully.