Training sentient creatures to do what you want is not that much different than training a dog. Living things by their very nature seek out two primal things almost above everything else. The first thing is they avoid pain. Pain is the bodies response to danger. When that sense of danger comes in the form of trying to deny an order, they will eventually carry out that order one way or another. For example, dogs are sometimes given a type of magic that gives them a dull shock to their body whenever they try to leave the borders of their owner's property. They learn that whenever they walk around the areas they are supposed too, they feel perfectly fine, while going towards the outer limits of the property is painful, and by extension "dangerous." The dog is in no real danger of being harmed by this spell, but it is just painful enough that it is something that the dog would want to avoid. It is because of this that the dog then learns that staying where he is supposed to is good and safe, and he will avoid going other places because that is bad and dangerous. The owners will reinforce this by treating them kindly while they follow these prescribed rules, and reaffirming that "bad" feeling whenever they get shocked. In so doing they further solidify the sense of pain as something to be avoided.

"Where is Grogar's Crypt?"

The second thing is they seek out pleasure. Anything that feels good, that feels euphoric, that feels right in that moment is something that a living creature will gravitate towards even at the cost of their own life and moral compass. The reason for this is because pain and pleasure do not interact with the more developed parts of sentient creatures brains, but rather their more primal, instinctual areas. For example; lab rats, when are given a choice between a receptacle that dispenses drugs, and one that dispenses food, the subjects would almost invariably choose the drugs once they discover the euphoric feelings it delivers. They will in fact forgo food even at the cost of their own lives, tossing away any sense of self preservation to continue nursing that feeling of pleasure even as they starve to death. Ponies and other sentient creatures are no different in this regard. While their more developed minds can resist the influence of addictive substances at first, the euphoric high and release of pleasurable chemicals in their brain eventually override their ability to think and preserve their own health in favor of temporary bliss. Drugs in fact carry their own intrinsic training techniques in the form of withdrawal, teaching the sentient creatures whom partake in them that resisting their pleasurable influences will ultimately lead to maddening levels of pain and discomfort.

"Where is Grogar's Crypt?"

Twilight had always found the research into such subjects was fascinating to read about, however carrying out her own research on the topic during her interrogation of Galia yielded even more data on the subject. The ram for example seemed quite adept in resisting physical pain. As much as she shrieked through her teeth at hot metal being pressed into her skin, branding her with glyphs that reinforced the suggestion magic being used on her, she still would not utter a single word in reference to where her ancestors crypt was located. It took a lot of pain to even get her to bare her teeth at the filly even! It was quite impressive to watch.

That had comprised the first twenty minutes of Twilight's interrogation, materializing intricately shaped molten metal in the air as she calmly carried out the questioning, taking notes on the Ram's reactions as she tested the glowing metal on various parts of the larger creatures body. The filly made sure to heal the nerve endings that had died during this. It would be counterproductive to carry out physical torture if the subject lost her ability to feel it. The filly tried other tactics as well, like summoning up bugs that crawled around the Ram's body and face, biting and stinging her in various sensitive areas. Even this seem to prove ultimately ineffectual, even as Twilight kept her just healed enough to continue to feel it without blacking out.

Galia had now been enduring this for about an hour. Her eyes were red and irritated, and her body was covered in burns and welts from Twilight's interrogation techniques. The filly thought she'd have to up her game even further until the ram let out a determined scream. Her eyes nearly bugged out of her sockets as her tongue stuck out as far as the horned creature could get it to extend, and Twilight watched in a mixture of amusement and interest as the Ram drove her teeth down and cleaved off her own tongue. Blood pooled into the subjects mouth and spilled down her chin as her crazed eyes stared defiantly at the filly, trying to express to the little purple unicorn that she would not be able to break a warrior like her.

Catrina said nothing during all this. Spike had shrunken down back to his normal deceptively harmless looking form and had fallen asleep curled up in the felines lap, listening to the screams of the ram as if it were a lullaby. The former goddess wondered what the filly would come up with as she watched the quill jot down line after line of notes on the floating scroll. The unicorn looked almost cute the way she tapped her chin with her hoof, with a facial expression that married enjoyment and perplexed concentration together into one deceptively innocent looking visage.

She let the ram bleed out for a moment. It gave the warrior hope that she might just die there, defiant till the end and defending the world against the evils of Grogar's magic. Her defiance as she bled out was replaced with a growing horror and helplessness as she felt her tongue regrow back to its original state, and felt her blood filling up her veins once again. Despite herself she had begun to shed a stream of tears. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to hold back the flow. She could not show weakness in this, she had to keep it together. Twilight however had found her opening.

Catrina watched as the filly's face change from cruel and sadistic, and evolving into a gentle, almost motherly expression. She watched the floating equine move forward and begin to hug the shaking Ram's head with her entire body. The Warrior flinched at the gentle feeling, growing disturbed and horrified as she felt tiny hooves stroking her muzzle and gently scratching her behind her ear.

"It's okay, let out those nasty feelings bottled up inside you. No one here will judge you for shedding some tears. let it all out now. That's a good girl."

As Twilight comforted her, she felt an inexplicable warmth that pervaded her strong body, slowly loosening up her tense muscles as she found it harder and harder to resist crying. She felt so small under the gentleness of the filly, leaning into the feeling of her voice whispering in her ear as she gave into her sorrow. It felt good to cry. It felt right to cry. It wasn't until she had begun her decent into letting out her emotions that she realized that all the layers of suggestion magic that had been placed on her were beginning to take over her thought processes. Twilight's young, whispering voice that placated her and made her feel like it was okay to show weakness was in actuality shattering her defenses and resolve in the way physical torture just wasn't able too.

Even as Twilight gently rubbed the Rams head, nuzzling her with her own muzzle and cheeks, her quill continued to take notes on her active experiment. While the Ram was quite adapt in resisting physical pain, emotional comfort was something that her body wasn't readily trained against. Emotional manipulation, Twilight theorized in her notes, was effective in more developed creatures because it could masquerade as the higher functioning parts of their brain while still communicating to their more primal instincts. Whereas Galia was actively aware of and resistant to physical pain, her developed mind able to override the instincts they induced, this type of gentle comfort and placating whispers spoke to a time in her life when she was a little kid, where she was allowed to be more vulnerable. She liked those feelings and times in her life, which meant she instinctively listened to the suggestion magic that drove her down that path. In so doing, she knew in the back of her mind that giving into even one of Twilight's orders would make it that much harder to resist the ones that followed.

" You are doing such a good job Galia. I am proud of you for listening to me." Twilight cooed, kissing the top of the Ram's forehead as she continued to comfort her. It felt good to be praised by her. It felt right. She wasn't crying as much anymore as her sobbing released more and more chemicals in her brain that made her feel better. The suggestion magic helped these feelings along. If she could see herself at that moment she would have been even more ashamed than she already felt. Twilight let her fall down to a sitting position, her body now pliable and limp under the unicorns doting hooves. It felt wrong to the intellectual side of her brain, but her body and instincts rebelled against her thoughts.

"Can you touch your muzzle for me Galia? Can you touch your muzzle for Twilight?" The gentle request tickled the rams ear as she sniffled on the sandy ground. Her mind screamed in protest, but her cloven forehoof found itself shakily pressing into her dripping nose. Her muscles did not tense against the action, nor could she have summoned up any strength to attempt it now that she had sobbed so hard. What was worse, performing that action had filled her with an inexplicable feeling of pride and accomplishment. A feeling that was reinforced by the filly gently telling her how good she was for doing that simple task. She liked it when Twilight praised her. It made her feel warm and happy when Twilight was happy with her.

"Good girl! do you like listening to me? Do you like the way it makes you feel? Nod and tell me you like that feeling."

"I.....I.....I like that feeling...." Her voice cracked as she spoke the words, nodding like she was ordered to do. Her mind threw up so many red flags, a sense of emergency flooding her conscience as more and more of her mind and body rebelled against everything she believed in. She needed to fight back, she needed to reclaim the ground she had lost before she doomed the world. Where she had resisted saying a single word before she now was admitting her weakness freely to the filly, causing the quill hovering above them to scribble across the scroll with a renewed vigor at the success the vile monster was having, now that she changed her tactics.

"Good girl! You are doing so well." Twilight said in a happy gentle voice, alighting on the ground in front of the ram and looking up at her with a deceptively adorable expression. "Now look in the direction of Grogar's Crypt."

At the mention of Grogar she had tried to steel her muscles like before. However her body was now so weak and pliable from her crying that it did not listen effectively enough to her own command. The most resistance she could muster now was just turning her head slower than she would normally been able too. This meager resistance was met with a new kind of pain. Not physical pain like Twilight had been employing earlier, but the emotional pain that came from guilt. Twilight, like she had been theorizing in her notes as she had comforted the warrior Ram, crafted a wordless variety of the suggestion magic that was able to influence what types of emotions Galia experienced.

The ram's thoughts were now chiding her for not turning her head in that direction fast enough. She didn't want to make Twilight sad did she? She didn't want to disappoint her right? She wanted to feel those happy feelings when Twilight praised her, but that was only going to happen if she was a good girl. These types of thoughts and more began to ring out from her subconscious, pleading with her to stop resisting even as she knew the ramifications of giving into this she demon on an intellectual level.

Twilight could see the Ram's mind slowly snapping like a twig as she watched her dilating eyes, enjoying her self thoroughly as the ram finally caved into her and stared into the direction she wanted. She even marked the moment in her notes the time in which the light seem to go out from her eyes and gave up on trying to fight the filly's magic.

The defeat and loss on the Ram's face was an intoxicating sight for Twilight. What the Ram croaked out made it even better.

"Please...just kill me.... please.... I don't....I don't want....," Never in her life had Galia felt so utterly hollow, so devoid of hope. The kind of emotional state that Grogar had created in his victims before they had taken their own lives, just to become twisted versions of themselves that systematically killed everyone they ever loved. She knew in that moment that this Filly was almost the spiritual successor to her ancestor, and it made the fact that she wanted to go to his crypt even more horrifying to think about.

Even as she thought about this she leaned into Twilight's embrace as the filly hugged her around her neck, stroking her head as she whispered in a placating tone into the Ram's ear once again.

"Oh I know." Twilight said in such a sympathetic voice, one that sounded so deceptively real to Galia's foggy mind, patting the Ram's head affectionately as she planted little kisses against the welts and burns she had made, making them feel so much better. Galia's vacant eyes and lost expression cracked into a pitiable smile as she was reminded of her mother doing the same for her when she was young, kissing her little scrapes to help her calm down. This positive association was affirmed by more wordless suggestions Twilight made on her, coaxing her mind into oblivion one prod at a time.

"It must be very difficult for you to do this, but I'm afraid you don't have a choice." The filly said this it in such a gentle and inviting way. It made the ram feel a little better just listening to her speak. "One way or another I'm getting to that crypt and you are going to get me there. After that, you will have my permission to die. Do you understand?"

Galia hated herself as she nodded, feeling so small and helpless under the gentle voice of this filly. She felt so disgusted with her own body as it nodded, feeling hope at the prospect of death at the end of this horrible betrayal of everything she loved and believed in.

"Excellent!" The filly clapped her hooves together in excitement before pointing in the direction Galia was compelled to face towards. Galia's face grew a quivering smile, loving the feeling of being praised by Twilight, even as her dead eyes continued to release streams of tears. "Now I want you to run as fast as you can towards the crypt. We'll follow behind, don't you worry."

Author's Notes:

This was going to originally be part of a larger chapter that is Grogar's crypt, but I think i'll leave this here as a little prelude for what is to come.

Next chapter, Grogar's Crypt.