Fleur lay on her side, strapped down to a bench with her front left leg tied to a rope from the ceiling which pulled it upright and away from the rest of her. It was rather uncomfortable, but considering the last few days, it was probably the most comfortable thing that'd been done to her.

Fleur tried to think. Had it only been a few days? Every waking moment to her had been agony, especially since she'd only been allowed to sleep once the entire time. That wasn't to say they'd been torturing her the entire time, but when they weren't around they normally left her in a position that made sleep impossible. Even more so now that her hooves were in constant agony after having red hot nails hammered into them, and left there. The only thing she could base time on was the coming and going of her tormentors.

Honestly, she was starting to become numb to everything. Between the tiredness and the pain, she often found herself drifting off into fantasy worlds where things were just so much... better. No pain, no torture, plenty of sleep, and if it wasn't for her concern about other things like the filly, she might've stayed there.

Then there were the conversations. Little talks she'd had with Pearl over various things. Sometimes Fleur wondered whether the sound of Pearl's self-righteous tirades were part of the torture, but dismissed the idea after Pearl had admitted to enjoying their conversations, saying she enjoyed a pony's view of the world so different from her own. Fleur would've laughed, but the cost of such things she was told early on was to have her cutie marks defaced, so had kept how ridiculous she found that to herself.

As if to summon the devil herself Pearl chose that moment to enter, adding some dramatic flair for effect. "Hello Fleur darling! Auntie's here!" Fleur flinched, and not just from the nickname Pearl had chosen for herself, but from the fact that Pearl expected her to go along with it.

"Hello auntie," she said listlessly. "How are you today?"

"I am marvellous Fleur! I had a wonderful night with Breaker, and I've woken up feeling very refreshed. How about you Fleur?"

"I'm fine thank you auntie." Fleur really did wonder why she went along with this madness seeing as how they were going to torture her anyway.

"Excellent! I have a question for you Fleur. Have you ever wondered what my cutie mark means?"

"No auntie," said Fleur. She wasn't lying either as she hadn't even bothered to look, let alone think about it.

"Well that's a pity. I mean, I've thought about yours, and I have no idea what it means. The symbol of Prance, the Fleur de Lis, as the mark of a pony from Prance called Fleur de Lis. Absolutely mystifying. Do you know what it means?"

"No auntie," which wasn't a lie either. Fleur's flank had been covered when she had gotten her mark, and she didn't know she'd gotten it until some time later, leaving her unable to pinpoint the exact reason she got it, and it rarely seemed to bother with pushing her in any sort of direction as far as destiny was concerned.

"How stange..." Pearl ran a hoof over Fleur's visible mark, Fleur shivering at the touch. "No matter. At least you don't have to guess what mine means." Pearl stood where Fleur could see her, and Fleur looked at Pearl's mark purely because it wasn't worth the beating she would get if she didn't. It was a round white orb with a slightly darker stripe going through it, probably meant to look like a pearl, and it was in the center of a gold coloured... thing. It was probably meant to be a ring mount or a brooch of some kind.

"Is it supposed to be jewellery?" Fleur asked, leaving her answer a little vague since she couldn't tell exactly what it was.

"That's right Fleur! Well done. Of course a cutie mark can always be boiled down to something simpler. If you simplify mine you end up with a talent for art. But then you must be wondering what a pony with my vocation in life is doing with a cutie mark like mine. I'll be honest. I never expected to get a cutie mark like this, and I was most upset when I got it because I thought it meant I wouldn't be able to do the job my father did. But that couldn't have been further from the truth as an artist can create in any situation!"

There was a pause, ended with a huff of disappointment as Fleur stayed silent. Pearl slammed a hoof down on one of Fleur's, the unicorn wailing at the fresh pain. "Can they?" she eventually whimpered through her tears.

"That's better, and yes they can Fleur. Ponies became my canvas, and these crude instruments my paint brushes. I am an artist Fleur, and an artist must create. But I was thinking about it last night.My art is highly subjective, and may not be to everyponies taste, which isn't really what a true artist aims for but I can see their point. That, and much of my art goes to waste, burnt to ashes, or rotting in the ground where nopony can appreciate it. But then I had the wonderful idea to create something beautiful that will last much longer and I became so happy as I get to do it with my new favourite niece. You and I Fleur, are going to create art."

Fleur whimpered, her lips moving as she silently begged for mercy. They had already made music, which involved different tortures to see which made Fleur scream the loudest, and she could only dread what making art might involve. "Please no..." Pearl didn't listen though, instead moving to where Fleur couldn't see her. A few seconds later Fleur howled in agony as a red hot poker was drawn in a circle around the base of the leg tied to the ceiling, the reek of her own burnt hair and flesh assaulting her senses.

"Hmm, and musical accompaniment too. Honestly though Fleur, you shouldn't make such a fuss. This will look absolutely marvellous once it heals. If anything, you should look at this as a gift, as it means that I have every intention of keeping you alive. Aren't you so lucky!"

"Yes auntie-e-e!" Fleur cried as Pearl continued her work.

Twilight looked down at High Rock keep from the vantage point in a cloud she was sharing with Fleetfoot, absolutely dumbstruck at the place. Snowbright hadn't been kidding when he said the place was a fortress. Built on the side of a mountain, the magically warded castle was imposing enough, but there was only one way up to it, consisting of a winding road guarded by several walls and gates, and one massive wall at the base of the mountain with a veritable army based in the buildings behind it. There were catapults, ballistae, archers, and goodness knows what else defending it.

"The pictures in the Hearth's Warming tale book I had as a kid really don't do this place justice," Fleetfoot whispered from beside her. "Like, at all."

"The outer defences must be the work of the previous dukes," Twilight said, half to herself, "but yeah, I was under the impression from those pictures that the castle was half this size. I guess those artists were trying to make it look cutesy. I really should have paid more attention to the original those were all based off."

"Oh... I was wondering how they all knew what this place looked like." They gently propelled the cloud around the keep, trying to look inconspicuous as they performed their reconnaissance. After several minutes they saw what must be their way in, a small pipe that jutted out from under the castle, dripping water down the mountainside. "Ivory wasn't kidding, that is small. Are you sure you can get us through there?"

Twilight tried to teleport, but the spell fizzled out on her horn, confirming that this place was utilising a considerable anti-teleportation field if she could feel it this far away. Not that it mattered to her plans for getting in, but it did confirm her suspicion that she couldn't just teleport them out again after.

"Yeah," Twilight said after a moment, having remembered that Fleetfoot had asked her a question. "No problem."

"Should we head back to the others then?" Twilight agreed and they pushed the cloud away from the keep until they were far enough away to fly down to where the others were hiding.

"Well?" Trixie asked brusquely.

"Yeah, it's-uh... yeah..." Twilight wasn't sure how to describe what they had seen to the others, and settled instead with telling them, "You'll see."

"That's it? 'You'll see?' Spill the beans already Twilight!"

"Trixie, it is literally impossible to describe what we saw in a way that can fully encompass just how right Snowbright was about not assaulting this place. You'll see it in a few minutes."

"Alright, fine. So, how are we getting in?"

"You'll see."

"Seriously?" Trixie exploded. "We're about to break into one of the worst places in Mareitania to rescue Fleur, and you want to be all cryptic all of a sudden?" Twilight nodded, "Fuck you so much Twilight." Trixie stared at Twilight, her expression totally deadpan, remaining so even as Twilight started casting a spell and a lavender cocoon wrapped around her and everyone else.

Her expression was considerably more freaked out after the cocoon faded away, not least because she found herself in a staring contest with a spider that she was sure was looking at her like it was sizing her up as a meal. Then there was the antenna she now had, and the fact that she was floating above the ground. "T-Twilight? What did you do?" she squeaked in a tone a lot higher than normal.

There was a cry of dismay from Mason who had flipped himself over as he tried to look at the shiny, gossamer wings that now bore pride of place upon his back. "What the hell am I?" he squeaked as he tried to get himself back the right way up. "What did you do to my voice?"

"Good heavens Twilight!" Octavia exclaimed, "You turned us into breezies?"

"Yep," Twilight said simply. She thought she'd done a pretty good job too, even if Seeker looked odd as a striped breezie, and Mason had far more muscle than any breezie there had ever been before.

"What the hell's a breezie?" Mason asked as he continued rotating end over end, unable to work out how he was meant to stop himself.

"They're a... Well they... I think..." Twilight didn't really know how to explain in short what a breezie was, and was sure they didn't have the time to waste on a lengthy explanation. "Look, the thing you are now is a breezie. Small, has wings, antenna, and is able to fly and go through small spaces, and still allows me to use my magic which is why I turned us into some."

"Is it permanent?"

"Of course it isn't." She took hold of Mason in her magic and held him still. "Calm down." He took a few breaths to calm himself, nodding when he had reached a point where he was unlikely to freak out further.

"And this is how we're getting through that pipe?" Octavia asked.

"Yeah. I'll turn us back once we're in though."

"Unless we get caught by an overenthusiastic entomologist," Trixie quipped sarcastically. Twilight was impressed that Trixie knew the word, and it must have shown because a second later Trixie said "What? The filly doesn't run a monopoly on big words y'know."

"These wings feel weird..." muttered Fleetfoot.

"I know these changes are strange and new, but you must remember we have a task to do," Seeker reminded them, shrugging when Trixie scowled at her. "What? Sometimes rhymes are going to slip out. After so long it is hard to go without."

"Seeker's right," Twilight said before Trixie could complain about her repeating the 'out.' "We need to get moving. We don't have the time to teach you how to fly, and breezie flight is... unusual anyway, so just let me do the work, and try not to freak out over how high we'll be going."

"Wait!" Trixie blurted, suddenly a lot more concerned about things. "We're going to flying high?"

"Well... yeah," Twilight said like it was obvious, "we have to. Being this small means we shouldn't be very easy to spot, but only if we're high up, and where we're going is high up too."

"Couldn't you just teleport us to the way in?"

"I can't. There's a huge anti-teleportation field around the place. I can still feel it here." Trixie groaned and Twilight patted Trixie on her tiny back with her tiny hoof. "I'm going to be directing your flight, so if you want you could close your eyes the whole way. Believe me when I say you'll be missing out though."

Using her magic, Twilight started to manipulate the air around them, causing a gentle breeze to lift them up and towards the keep. Twilight had never had much cause to use her new skills in weather management before, and never would have thought her first test would be like this.

Progress was slow as she also had to block the natural wind and stop it from changing their course or scattering them, but she quickly came to grips with it and propelled them towards their target.

"My goodness..." Octavia said from behind her. "I want to say this place is insurmountable, but I'm not sure that's the right word to use."

"Trespassers will be shot in twenty different ways," Mason said jokingly.

"Why do unicorns always build stuff on the side of mountains?" Trixie asked tangentially. "Canterlot's the same."

Fleetfoot looked sideways at Trixie. "That's your biggest concern about this place? Not the multiple layers of defenses? Or the catapults and stuff?"

"Trixie thinks what Trixie thinks, thank you very much."

"It's symbolic and horribly elitist," Twilight said, "as it puts the 'noble' unicorns above the 'common ponies.' They were still thinking silly things like that when Canterlot was built."

"They're still below the pegasi though," Trixie pointed out.

"I never said it was perfect."

"Hah! Pegasi are best ponies!" Fleetfoot joked.

"Oh please." Trixie scoffed and rolled her eyes, "Unicorn master race."

"Will you two stop joking around and focus!" snapped Octavia.

Trixie propelled herself a little closer to Octavia, "Come on Octavia, aren't you going to defend the earth ponies honour?"

"No, I'm going to focus on saving Fleur, not joking around! Besides, I think we've seen enough of what supposed 'earth pony superiority' looks like."

"It's only a few jokes," said Fleetfoot. "It helps relieve stress."

"Hold on." Mason looked between them and Twilight, "Wouldn't alicorns be the best kind of pony?" Fleetfoot, Octavia, and Trixie all shook their heads at him and waved their hooves as the mouthed a string of 'no's' at him.

"You don't even joke about that," said Trixie.

"But they can fly, do magic, and have earth pony... things. Surely that has to make them the best kind of pony!"

"There's nothing more special about alicorns than any other kind of pony," Twilight said, ever humble. She'd always hated that her new alicorn status made many ponies think her superior. It was bad enough when it granted her the title of princess, a title she neither sought or desired.

"You grew a leg!"

"Not the point. Now, will you three focus! We're almost there."

"Ponies..." Seeker said to herself with a roll of her eyes for emphasis.

They drifted into the shadow of the castle, the imposing structure towering far above them. Jutting out of the bottom of the foundations was a small pipe with a small trickle of liquids dribbling out of it. They might have said it was water at a distance, but the smell suggested otherwise.

"Oh that is foul!" Octavia exclaimed to the enthusiastic agreement of the others.

"You're going to make us go in there?" Trixie wrinkled her nose, her face being enough to show how little she liked the idea.

Twilight cast a quick spell, and a purple orb formed around each of them, blocking the smell. It was a frivolous waste of energy, but well worth it as far as she was concerned. She started into the pipe, her tiny horn providing enough light to show a few meters of it. After the big rush to get here to save Fleur, she was reluctant to enter as thoughts on what they might find flew through her mind. A lot of her wanted to not know in case her worst fears were confirmed and Fleur was dead.

"Twilight?" Twilight started as Octavia spoke her name, turning around to see the earth pony watching her with concern.

"Sorry, I'm just... nervous. Come on." She entered the pipe, directing the flight of the others to follow her with Trixie bringing up the rear so her horn could give some light from behind. The pipe stretched on into darkness, a perspective likely made worse by their diminutive size. The inside of the pipe was coated in horrible slime that had accreted through the ages, making each of them glad for Twilight's decision to shield them.

"Eew!" Fleetfoot shouted. "Is that a bone?" Twilight turned to look at what Fleetfoot was talking about. Twilight hadn't noticed it as she glided over it, but sticking out of the slime was a small white lump. If Twilight were to guess she'd say it was one of the small bones out of a pony's hoof. Twilight's chest tightened as her fears of what they condition they might fine Fleur in escalated.

They kept moving and after a few minutes found a small circle of light shining into the pipe, the first of many, all of them crisscrossed by shadows. They had found an opening that appeared to be a drain in a prison cell. The drain cover was set in the stone, so Twilight spent a minute cutting through it with her magic, moving it aside so they could fly up into the room.

Once they were all in the cell she cast the spell that would return them to their true equine natures. This also had the unfortunate side effect of cancelling the spell protecting them from the odours of the place. Each of them gagged from the foul air in the place, dismayed that the smell hadn't abated in the slightest.

"Right, we-" Twilight gagged, but held her stomach down. "Urgh. We need to get out of here and find the way from the keep upstairs and block it. We'll have to use our crystals."

"But my crystals fall apart when they touch that armour the hunters wear," Trixie pointed out. "Yours too probably."

"I know, so we'll have to use lots. We only have to keep them out long enough to rescue Fleur and any other prisoners down here."

"Other prisoners?" Octavia questioned.

"Yes, other prisoners. I doubt Fleur's the only pony in here." Twilight tried the handle on the door, but found the cell to be locked. She stepped aside to let Trixie have a go, and the cell clicked open thirty seconds later.

"Good job these doors aren't magic proof," Fleetfoot pointed out.

"This'd be a short rescue otherwise," agreed Octavia.

Twilight led the way out, cautiously proceeding with her head down in preparation to cast spells if they were attacked. The dungeons did seem to be remarkably quiet, with most of the cells being empty as well as lacking guards. This only led to the suspicion that the Duke didn't really take prisoners. A suspicion that did nothing to quell her worries.

It didn't take long to find the way up into the main keep, although they didn't bother to investigate any further than the first flight of steps. Twilight and Trixie then spent several minutes filling the passage with as many crystals as they could muster. Hopefully it'd be enough to buy them quite a bit of time.

"That should do. Uh..." Twilight paused, realising that the zebra in their company had disappeared. "Where's Seeker?"

"I am here," came Seeker's voice from around the corner. They followed it to find her standing over the body of a guard, his ring of keys dangling off her hoof. "He came this way, so I stopped him before he could ruin our element of surprise." The guard's neck was bent at an unnatural angle, and Twilight could only wonder at how the diminutive zebra had downed him so quickly and quietly.

Twilight took the keys in her magic, "Right. We need to find Fleur. I would suggest we spilt up, but not here, not in this place." She led the way, hoping to spot some clue as to where Fleur might be. What parts of her that weren't focused on that marvelled at the size of this place. The castle had been huge, and these dungeons appeared to have been dug into the very bedrock of the mountain. What use anypony had for this many dungeons, she didn't want to know, but still she was impressed, if grimly so.

She was also slightly puzzled by the lack of prisoners in these cells. Not that she wanted them to be full, but she had thought that a pony with a reputation like the Duke's would have this place brimming with ponies. She was actually thankful that there didn't seem to be any others to rescue, as any more than two or three extra ponies would be difficult to get out. She hadn't been lying when she said transforming that many ponies would be problematic.

"Do you hear that?" said Octavia. Six equines stopped and swivelled their ears, trying to pinpoint what exactly it was that Octavia had heard. The sound of soft weeping drifted through the air, but where it came from was anypony's guess as the sound seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere.

"Quick, check every cell," Twilight ordered. The others quickly complied and they spread out to search each cell. All the ones Twilight looked through were empty, and it was Seeker that ended the search.

"Here, I have found her!" They converged on where Seeker was, the zebra looking through the barred over hole in the door. She stepped aside to allow Twilight to look. Within the room was a white pony with a pale pink mane and tail, and even though it was definitely Fleur, that point was where the similarities ran dry.

Twilight sorted through the keys, trying to find the one that opened the door to the room, and in her panic she kept searching for several seconds even after Trixie had already unlocked the door. She dropped the keys and ran into the room, only to recoil in horror at what she saw. Fleur's horn was gone, her hooves horribly swollen, and she was covered in a myriad of cuts and bruises. Worst though was her leg tied to the ceiling, covered in swirling patterns that would have been beautiful if they hadn't been burnt onto a pony's leg.

Twilight approached carefully, releasing the strap over Fleur's head before lifting it on her hoof. Tears stained Fleur's cheeks, and Twilight felt her resolve quiver at the anguish on her face. "Fleur? Can you hear me?"

Fleur's eyes fluttered open to look at Twilight, but quickly squeezed shut again. "You're not real," she moaned. "You're not here... Leave me alone."

"Um, Fleur?" Octavia said, hoping she might get through to her, "We are real, and we are here."

"You're not real!" Fleur shouted before curling up on herself as much as her restraints allowed.

"Where's the pony that did this to you?" Twilight asked softly.

"Auntie's gone upstairs to see Uncle D."

"Auntie? Uncle D? What are you talking about Fleur?" Fleur didn't answer her, and Twilight found herself at a loss. "What have they done to you Fleur?"

Twilight tore the restraints off her, shredding them in vengeance for Fleur, and only just caught Fleur's leg after Trixie cut it free. She dropped it straight away, backing up in horror as she saw the nails hammered into Fleur's hooves. Fleur didn't even react. "I-I-I..." Twilight heaved, but nothing came out. "F-Fleetfoot, don't just stand there."

Fleetfoot stood, mouth agape as she took in Fleur's condition. "I don't even know where to begin..." she said slowly. "I... I can't really do anything until we get back outside to our supplies. If you change her into a breezie so we can get out of here..."

Twilight shook her head, "I can't. I don't know if those nails would change with her. If they don't they could tear her hooves apart as she transforms. We have to take them out first." She lifted Fleur's burnt leg and focused her magic on one of the nails, gently tugging it. It didn't move, and Fleur started crying in pain, kicking so much that Fleetfoot and Octavia had to hold her still for her to continue.

"Please don't," Fleur begged. "Please... It hurts! It hurts!" Twilight wasn't even sure Fleur was talking to her as she continued to pull. Fleur's begging turned to wailing, and Twilight stopped, unable to be the cause of so much pain for her friend. "I-I can't. I can't do it."

Black magic gathered around the nail and Fleur screamed as Trixie tore it from her hoof. "Go look for any other prisoners," Trixie said coldly, the tone of her voice making it painfully obvious how disappointed she was in Twilight for chickening out.

"R-right. Uh, Mason, Seeker, come with me." She reclaimed the keys she had dropped and left the room as Trixie set about her grisly task. Twilight cringed with every cry from Fleur, and felt horrible for running from it. "We probably don't have a lot of time so we'll need to split up to cover more ground." She passed the keys to Mason, "I can tear the doors down if I have to," she explained.

They each picked a different direction and moved out, checking every cell they passed for signs of life. Twilight wasn't feeling particularly optimistic though. If they could do that to Fleur in less than a week, then any pony that had been here longer surely couldn't have survived so much for so long.

Her ears lay flat against her head as a particularly loud cry from Fleur echoed through the empty dungeon, and Twilight found herself feeling increasingly sick. She had thought that they had plumbed most of the depths of depravity that Mareitania had to offer, but somehow it had managed to find a new low to show her.

Once again she found herself wondering just how these ponies had managed to stay in power so long. If Celestia had run Equestria in such a way, would her citizens have accepted their fate? Or would they have fought back, despite the unfeasibly long odds there would be against a pony like Celestia?

Twilight liked to think the ponies of Equestria were better than to put up with such a horrid way of life, and would fight for freedom. But that just led her back to Mareitania, where most ponies went along with the status-quo, and those few attempts to change said status-quo ended miserably.

She shook her head, resigning herself to not ever understanding why things were the way they were, and focused on her task. She was following a row of cells that led to a spiral stairway that descended further than even the dungeons were. She stopped at the top, debating as to whether she really wanted to go down, when her horn tingled, a powerful eddy of magic brushing against it.

It happened again, and Twilight found herself becoming increasingly curious as to what was down there. It had to be something powerful, but what would the Duke be doing with such an object? There was only one way to find out, so Twilight lit her horn and took the steps down, the light from her horn piercing the darkness.

Her hooves echoed off the walls as she walked, the stairs themselves having been carved into the very rock of the mountain. Twilight wasn't sure whether earth pony hooves or unicorn magic had crafted these stairs, but they seemed to have been rarely used as they were coated in undisturbed dust.

A pale blue glow suffused her surroundings as she rounded the last turn of the stairs, and she found herself in a long passage that must have led deeper into the mountain. The glow was coming from the far end so Twilight took a deep breath and trotted towards it while her mind spun fantasies about what its origin might be.

As she trotted cell doors started appearing on both sides of the passage, but like the dungeons upstairs these also seemed to be empty. The only sign of anything being down here was the ever present blue glow coming from the cell as the far end.

Twilight stopped at the cell door, her mind still churning with ideas of what could be in there. Typically, such a glow would be magical in origin, such as a light spell, or the glow of a powerful spell being cast, but the blue, almost turquoise light didn't seem... right. It shifted about and reminded her of how the runes on the hunters armour would glow when touched by magic.

Rather than keep thinking about it, Twilight stood up against the door to look through its port. The light hurt her eyes, and it took several seconds for her eyes to adjust. The room was full of runes, glowing brightly to fill the space with light, and Twilight marvelled at what held such power to make them glow so brightly.

Her answer was in the center of the room, lay facing away from the door. Of all the things that Twilight had imagined was in this room, not once had she come close to what was actually in there. Lay on the floor, bound in black rune covered bands around her body in many places, was a lone white alicorn.

The three ponies left with Fleur all barely managed to hold back their own tears as the nails were pulled from her hooves one by one. Fleur kicked and cried and screamed as Trixie mercilessly tore them out, and more than once Fleur begged for them to stop.

Trixie didn't though, much as it pained her, and for the first time since gaining her new magic, she truly felt like the monster other ponies might have thought her to be, and not just for what she was forced to do to Fleur.

Part of her wished this was Twilight she was doing this to as Twilight had run off, too much of a coward to do what was necessary, leaving Trixie to fix a mess because they thought that Trixie was enough of a monster to do it without remorse.

Part of her knew that really wasn't true, but after that guard in Whiplash that she was forced to put down after Twilight shredded his face, Trixie was starting to think it was. Pulling these nails out of Fleur's hooves was just further proof.

And Twilight was also a hypocrite, criticising Trixie for using dark magic when she openly used it herself in Caverndown. Dark magic had advantages, both of them knew it, but only one of them had the guts to truly commit to its use, as the other would only deny its strength.

Then there was the part of her that knew all of this was wrong, that she was only thinking this to fuel her own anger and strengthen her magic. The part of her that feared for herself as it watched Trixie become ever darker. The part of her that knew what she was doing was wrong.

Trixie couldn't admit that though, not to herself, and certainly not to anypony else. While the Duke still drew breath she would never give up, and the power she now bore was the only way she could have the strength to see this through, consequences be damned! Once he and his foul line were dead and buried, only then would she even consider stopping. For now though, she only had more reason to kill him as pulled the nails from Fleur's hooves.

"Trixie!"

Trixie jolted as Octavia shouted her name, "What?"

"You keep grinning! Are you enjoying this?" Trixie hadn't realised she was, and certainly hadn't meant to. Why would she be grinning about this anyway? This was horrible.

Trixie stopped and rubbed the side of her head as she tried to gather her thoughts back together. For some reason she couldn't remember what she was thinking about, only that she was angry at Twilight for running off to leave her to do this. A flash of anger shot through her, but quickly subsided.

"I-I'm sorry. I... I can't even remember what I was thinking about."

"Keep it together Trixie, this is far too important to mess up." Trixie was about to say that Octavia only had to hold Fleur down, but bit it back. Octavia barely looked like she was holding herself together right now, and Fleetfoot was crying to the point that she was ignoring them.

"Sorry." She resumed removing the nails, and had only pulled a few more out when Fleur kicked out, catching Trixie on the chin hard enough to knock her over. "Aarrgh! Fuck!" Trixie swore.

"Please stop Trixie," Fleur murmured, barely loud enough to hear.

Trixie stopped swearing and got up quickly to look at Fleur. She met Fleur's eyes and Fleur looked back. "You know who I am?"

Fleur nodded, "Please stop... I-I-I can't...

Octavia let go of Fleur and hurried around to where Fleur could see her. "Do you know who I am?"

"Octavia," Fleur said a bit louder, her voice returning to her.

"That's right. Um... I'm not sure how to say this to you, but we need to get those nails out of your hooves to get you out of here. I'm sorry."

Fleur sobbed, "Please no," she mouthed.

"I'm sorr-" Octavia's voice cracked. "I'm sorry Fleur, but we have to." She returned to her spot to continue holding Fleur down, nodding at Trixie to continue.

"Please no no no-!" Fleur begged, her words cut off by her own scream.

Twilight didn't know what to do or think. Before her was an alicorn, trapped in a magic proof cell, bound by bands of the same black rune warded metal that her cell was lined with. The pony was horribly skinny, her skin stretched over her bony form, and it wasn't until the alicorn moved that Twilight was sure she was alive.

"Uh... hello?" The alicorn shifted and turned to look at Twilight, the blue of her eye almost glowing with the light coming from the runes. "Are you the pony that led the last rebellion?"

The alicorn huffed and looked away again, and it was a long pause until she spoke. "The 'imposter' is in the cell on your right."

Imposter? Twilight wondered. Was there more than one alicorn here? Twilight dropped back to the floor and looked through the door, and while she had missed it before there was the dried up husk of a pony in the room, her wings and legs curiously separate from the torso. There was also no horn.

"She got a lot less talkative after they cut her legs and wings off." Twilight jumped at the voice and turned to find the alicorn looking through the door at her. "You're an alicorn," she stated.

"Yes. Yes I am," Twilight confirmed. "She isn't though," she said, pointing at the cell.

"And she never was."

"She wasn't? Then what was she?"

"A pegasus with a fake horn. Those ponies in that rebellion must've been idiots to not spot a fake horn. At least she got to die, lucky cow."

"Excuse me?" Twilight was taken aback by the venom in that last sentence. The alicorn didn't answer her though, instead choosing to carefully study Twilight.

"So this is what counts for alicorns these days? Hmmph." Twilight was about to stand up for herself, but didn't. Instead she found herself getting lost as this alicorn watched her. She had the same appearance of youth as would be expected of an alicorn, even with how painfully thin she was, but she gave the impression of having watched millenia pass, and felt much older than even Celestia was.

"Why are you here?" the alicorn asked.

"My friend was captured by the Duke, and we're here to rescue her."

"Oh? I guess everyone gets to be lucky then," the alicorn said bitterly.

"Who- Who are you?"

The alicorn snorted, blowing a cloud of dust off the edge of her window into Twilight's face. "Am I so forgotten? Truly? I suppose it has been a long time. I've had many names over the years, "The Lady of the North, The Lady, that crazy bitch downstairs... The yaks called me Yo Banau Chaa in their ancient tongue, or The Maker if you prefer, but such titles belong to a pony I no longer am."

"Do you have a name I can call you instead?"

The alicorn smiled faintly, "My name? It's been a while since I've used it, but yes, I have one. My name... is Faust."

Author's Notes:

I'm sure many of you figured out the Lady I've referred to many times previously was Fausticorn. And now that I've done this I shall sit here and wait for what you have to say about this.