"It looks like this is the place." Cloud Drop said in a mundane manner.

Luna followed Cloud Drop through the wooden gate of a rather nice home's front yard, said gate being covered in snow and ice. It was the home of Night Flight, or rather, the late Night Flight's family. The duo stood before the home's door for a moment, gathering their composure.

"I... do not want to do this." Luna stated.

"I know, your Highness. I don't either. I've done this quite a few times and... it never gets easier."

With that, Cloud brought his hoof to the door, waiting a moment before a middle-aged mare in a sweater and socks came to the door.

"P-Princess Luna? How may I help you?" The mare asked in pure surprise.

"I think it would be best if I came inside," She responded.

The mare stepped to the side as she allowed both the Princess and Cloud Drop to enter. Luna found herself a seat close to the fireplace, Cloud Drop in turn only stood rigidly beside her. Luna's attention was turned towards the staircase of the home as a young colt came down the stairs, he stopped dead in his tracks as she realized Princess Luna and her Military Adviser were guests. He seemed to be both fearful and excited at the same time.

"Whoa, Princess Luna? What are you doing here?" He asked as he continued down the stairs.

"I fear that I must be the bearer of bad news. You might want to have a seat, Mrs. Flight."

The mare complied, taking a seat on the couch that rested at the opposite side of the room.

"This is about my husband, isn't this..." She asked coldly, Luna could already tell she was becoming nervous.

"This is indeed. Your husband, 1st Lieutenant Night Flight, was the co-pilot of my sister's flight to Stalliongrad. He was... one of the deceased."

The mare stared at Luna with teary eyes for several moments before turning to her son, who was looking at his mother.

"I am deeply sorry, to both of you. I wish there was something I could do."

The mare responded by cupping her face in her hooves, her sobs becoming louder and louder by the second. The young colt took a step back as he too began to cry, his face holding a look of complete disbelief.

"Y-you're just kidding, right?" he sniffled, tears welling in his eyes. "P-Please tell me that my dad isn't gone!" The colt said loudly.

Luna sighed, her head falling.

"No... nonono, t-this is a lie! Y-You're not telling the truth!"

The mare removed herself from the couch and moved to her son, kneeling down to eye level with him. The mare wrapped her front legs around her son tightly as she let him cry into her shoulder.

"P-please don't be gone, Dad, Please!" He sobbed.

Luna quietly stood up from her seat and walked towards the door, Cloud Drop following behind. She looked back before exiting the home, the mare looked up for a moment before leaning her head back down over her son's shoulders. Even after Luna had fully exited the home, the sorrowful wails of the pair were audible outdoors. Just as Luna opened the wooden gate to the home's yard, she paused at the sound of a door opening. She looked across the yard at the adjacent home as her eyes met those of a yellow-ish stallion, he had a concerned look on his face.

"Uh, I don't mean to be rude, your highness, but is everything alright? I heard yelling and crying." He said, the concern in his voice showing more towards the end of his sentence as he noticed the Princess was holding back tears.

"I a-assume you know the family that lives in this home?" Luna inquired, her voice cracking a little.

"Yeah, my wife and I have been good friends with them ever since we moved here, especially with Night." The stallion said as he fully stepped out from the doorway. Luna noticed how, even though he had been indoors, he was wearing a full coat and scarf.

"Honey, is everything alright?" A female voice called from inside the home.

"I don't know, hang on." The stallion responded and turned back to Princess Luna.

"I am deeply sorry to inform you of this... 1st Lieutenant Night Flight was killed 4 days ago along with a second pilot and my Sister." Luna said.

The stallion's mouth fell open, a sorrowful look slowly dawning upon his face.

"I knew it was him... I knew it was him." The stallion repeated as he shook his head.

"I... I really am sorry for the loss of your friend." Luna said quietly as a tear dripped down her cold cheek.

The stallion's response was to slowly step back inside, shutting the door softly behind him.

"This is easily the worst part of our job." Cloud Drop said, his teeth clattering together as the cold began to get to him.

"Yes... yes it is." Luna mumbled as wiped tears from her cheeks.

"I think it may be in order to bandage some of our captive's wounds," The Pony with the glasses said after consuming a spoonful of warm soup.

"What makes you think we should do that?" The white stallion responded, laying his spoon down on the dining room table.

"Well... when she passed out yesterday... you only pass out if you lose a very large amount of blood, and the wounds you've inflicted are very deep, and let's be honest, it's not very clean in that cell."

"What are you getting at?"

"I think she's at a high risk of infection, and with how low her health is... I don't think she would survive a serious infection." The Pony with the glasses said as he noticed that there was barely any soup left in his bowl.

The white stallion sat for a second, his glowing azure eyes fixed on a small scratch in the wood of the table.

"If you think it needs to be done, you do it. I'm not gonna be responsible for ruining this whole thing by killing her." The white stallion said as he levitated his spoon back off the table, dipping it into the soup.

At that point the Pony with the glasses stood up from the dining room table, picking his practically empty bowl up with his mouth and stepped into the kitchen. After rinsing the bowl clean, he walked into the living room of the small home and picked up a large Olive-drab duffle bag, on the side of the bag was a small white rectangle with a red cross at its center to indicate the bag was used for medical supplies. He walked out of the living room and down the hallway of the home, continuing passed the bedroom door and the bathroom door before coming to the entrance to the basement.

The pony with the glasses opened the door and stepped onto the landing that the stairs connected to, letting the door shut behind him before continuing down. The pony stood for a moment. The cell was completely silent, normally when he and his companions entered the cell Celestia had given a few words of retaliation, either she had passed out again or she was in too much pain to say anything. After coming down the stairs and stopping in front of the metal cell door the Pony with the glasses could see Celestia laying on her side, facing away from the door.

He swung the metal door open, walking inside and shutting it behind him, even after the loud clang of the door shutting and the lock re-engaging Celestia hadn't moved. The Pony with the glasses carefully set the medical bag on the blood-splotched concrete floor and clicked on the light in the room before stepping over to Celestia and giving her a sharp jab in the side with his hoof.

"Ghuuh? Whaa...?" Celestia mumbled, her legs moving a bit as she woke up.

"Come on, wake up." The Pony with the glasses said after he jabbed her a few more times.

Celestia squirmed a bit before slowly and carefully rolling over onto her other side to face the Pony with the glasses.

"W-what do you want?" She asked in a rather scared tone.

"I need to bandage your wounds."

Celestia looked around the dimly lit cell for a second.

"Where... where are the other two?" She asked, ignoring the Pony with the glasses previous statement.

"Upstairs eating dinner. Now, like I said, I need to bandage your wounds."

"W-wait... why?"

The Pony with the glasses grunted and rolled his eyes.

"Just shut up and lay still." He commanded as he walked to the medical bag, getting one of the handles in his mouth and dragging it across the floor so that it was closer to Celestia.

After undoing the zipper along the top the Pony with the glasses removed a plastic bottle of 99 percent isopropyl rubbing alcohol, several packages of gauze bandages, a package of cotton balls, several clean cloths and a bottle of water. Once he had laid out all of his supplies, the Pony with the glasses took the bottle of rubbing in his hooves and unscrewed the cap before setting it down.

"Give me your hoof, please."

Celestia slowly extended her right front leg towards the Pony with the glasses. Without giving her a warning, the Pony with the glasses picked up the bottle of alcohol and poured a generous amount into the deep slice along the lower part of her front leg, the extreme stinging pain of the alcohol rushing into the cut caused Celestia to flinch and yell in pain.

"Hold still!" Exclaimed the Pony with the glasses, reaching up with a hoof to push his glasses further up his muzzle.

"S-sorry..." Celestia said shakily after taking a deep breath.

"It's alright, this is going to hurt, but it will only last for a moment." The Pony with the glasses returned in an unintentionally soothing tone of voice. His years of both working in a hospital and being a field medic had taught him to be gentle with patients, it was hard to forget that experience for a single pony.

After putting the lid back on the bottle of rubbing alcohol the Pony with the glasses set the bottle down and picked up the container of water that had been in the bag. He took the cap off and began pouring water over Celestia's cut to clear out all of the dried blood and rubbing alcohol. He set the water bottle down and reached across to the small pile of cloths, taking one of them and beginning to wipe away the water, alcohol, and dried blood from the wound, causing Celestia to quietly repeat "Ow." several times. Once the remaining rubbing alcohol was gone, he set the cloth down and retrieved one of the gauze packages.

After fiddling with the small rectangular box, the Pony with the glasses was able to open one of the flaps and removed the roll of gauze from the box. He peeled back the beginning of the roll, setting it on top of the wound on Celestia's hoof and began to tightly wrap the gauze bandaging around the cut. After applying several layers the Pony with the glasses let go of the roll and reached over to the medical bag, taking out a small red folding blade knife. The second Celestia saw the small knife, she retracted her hoof, holding it closely to her chest.

"Give me your hoof, I need to cut the bandage."

Celestia didn't move.

The Pony with the glasses gave a grunt of annoyance and reached across, wrapping his hoof around Celestia's and began tugging, trying to pull it closer to him so he could cut the remaining roll of gauze away from the bandage.

"N-no, Please!" Celestia yelled, forcefully pulling her hoof away from the Pony with the glasses.

"I just said that I need to cut the bandage, not you!" He responded loudly.

After a second Celestia began slowly returning her hoof to the Pony with the glasses, who swiftly cut the roll of gauze away from her bandage, setting both it and the knife down.

"See? You're lucky that I'm nice, if you would have done that around White Dust, he would have beat you, stabbed you, then cut the bandage." The Pony with the glasses said.

"Is White Dust the White stallion's name?" Celestia asked lightly.

"Yes, now can I see your other hoof?"

Celestia nodded, retracting her newly bandaged right leg and attempted to extend her left, but the extreme pain of both the stab wounds and broken bone stopped her from extending the leg any further than a few inches. After adjusting his glasses, the pony was able to see that her left leg was the one the White Stallion had broken four days ago. Along with the deep gash in the lower part of her leg there was a large, black bruise from the broken bone and a deep stab wound at the point in which her leg met with her body. At this point, the Pony with the Glasses would have no problem admitting to feeling sorry for Celestia.

"Can you extend your leg a little further?" He asked.

Celestia slowly extended her left leg out little by little, eventually getting it to where the Pony with the glasses could continue to bandage her wounds. He turned around to retrieve the bottle of alcohol, but as he did his hoof smacked into the bottle of water, causing it to tip over and spill onto the floor and the roll of gauze.

"Ah! Damn it!" The Pony with the glasses exclaimed as he tried to salvage the water and gauze, both a complete loss.

"I need to go get more water, keep your hoof there." He said, a little bit of annoyance still hung in his voice.

The Pony with the glasses stood up and walked out of the cell and up the stairs towards the wooden door. Once he had left, Celestia looked at the several medical supplies lying around on the floor. As she browsed, her eyes stopped on a single object. The small red knife. The Pony with the glasses hadn't taken it with him. Celestia quickly moved herself closer to the knife and reached out with her left hoof, sliding the knife closer. She took the knife and carefully slid it under herself to conceal it, then began to move back to where she had originally been lying. The wooden door at the top of the stairs swung open as the Pony with the glasses came back downstairs, in his mouth was a new bottle of water.

Celestia watched as he sat himself down in front of her and picked up one of the cleaning cloths, beginning to dry up the puddle of water, the same puddle of water that the red knife had been next to moments before. Celestia held her breath as she watched, hoping that he wouldn't notice the knife's absence. The Pony with the glasses cleaned up the puddle without noticing the missing knife, much to Celestia's advantage. She had a flashback to what happen the last time she tried to escape, remembering how much the white stallion hurt her. She had to make this work.

If you don't like gore: scroll down until you see this marker once more.

A moment later the Pony with the glasses leaned over towards the bag, taking his attention off of Celestia as he dug around for a new package of gauze. The Pony with the glasses had no time to turn around before Celestia took the small knife with both hooves and drove it directly into his side. He let out a scream of pain as Celestia pulled the knife out, stabbing him once more in relatively the same spot. He gave out another loud scream as he collapsed on top of the bag of medical supplies, his glasses falling off and bouncing across the floor.

Celestia thought about pulling the knife out of his side and taking it with her, but she knew it was only a matter of time before the White stallion came down. She scrambled to pull herself along the floor and towards the exit of the cell, all the while the Pony with the Glasses groaned in agony from the knife stuck in his side. Celestia looked behind herself just in time to see him pull the knife out of his side, as he did he gave a loud gasp.

Once she had pulled herself closer to the exit, Celestia used the barred door of the cell as a sort of crutch and with much difficulty was able to stand herself up. It was the first time she had stood in nearly seven days (Or at least it had felt like seven, in real time it had only been four), and just the simple act of being upright caused her to become lightheaded, the lack of blood in her system making her feel dizzy. After taking a moment to steady herself, she took one painful step, keeping her left side steadied on the wall of the stairwell. Before she could make it up another step, the wooden door at the top if the stairs flew open, the White stallion and the light blue stallion both exiting from it.

"What in the name of Nightmare Moon is going on down here!?" He exclaimed loudly.

"Stop her!" The Pony with the glasses yelled from the cell.

Celestia's eyes locked with those of the White stallion, who was still standing at the top of the staircase in shock. After realizing that she was trying to escape, both he and the light blue stallion began running down the stairs at Celestia.

"Stay away from me!"

Before Celestia could raise her right leg to defend herself, the White stallion hit her across the side of her head. She was able to raise her right hoof and block another one of the White stallion's blows, but he swiftly moved in with his other hoof and pushed Celestia down the two stairs she had climbed. The height of the steps was just enough for her to loose balance and fall directly on her back, the impact of her landing knocked the air out of her lungs, a loud grunt forcing its way from Celestia's lips. The white stallion came up to the gasping Alicorn, stomping his right hoof down on her throat before pounding his left hoof into her eye several times.

"I guess I was right when I said that the notion of not trying to escape wasn't embedded in you well enough." He said with a tone of disgust, Celestia's fearful eyes glaring up at him as she tried to gasp for air.

After a moment, the White stallion took his hoof off of her throat and looked over at the Pony with the glasses, leaving Celestia to gasp dryly on the floor.

"Are you okay? What did she do?"

"She stabbed me two times." Responded the pony as he reached across the bag and picked up his glasses.

"What?! How did she stab you?!"

"This... worthless Princess took my pocket knife when I wasn't looking!" Responded the Pony with the glasses as he slowly walked over to Celestia and the white stallion, blood slowly dripping from the two small stab wounds in his side.

"Take her over to the shackles on the wall and hang her up, I'll deal with my wounds later." The Pony with the glasses snarled.

The White stallion complied, grasping Celestia's neck with his magic as he dragged her across the bloody floor of the cell, all the while Celestia's back legs flailed in protest. The Pony with the glasses pushed the medical bag and supplies out of the way to allow the White stallion to drag Celestia towards the concrete bench and metal shackles mounted on the wall.

He released his grip on Celestia's neck and held her abdomen with his magic, sitting her up on the bench as he began to clamp the shackles around her front legs and her neck. The Pony with the glasses stepped over, flipping himself around as he reared up and bucked right at the center of Celestia's chest, the sound of several ribs snapping and all of the air in her lungs escaping filled the small cell. The Pony with the glasses turned back around, looking Celestia directly in the eye, her mouth was hanging open and a mixture of saliva and blood was dripping from her bottom lip.

"Can you breath? Huh? I asked you a question, can you breathe?" The Pony with the glasses asked loudly, standing up on his hind legs to look at Celestia eye-level.

After a second Celestia shook her head 'no', a small wheezing sound coming from her lips as she tried to breath.

"Good." The Pony with the glasses said, slamming his right hoof into Celestia's stomach.

He pulled his hoof back and hit her directly in the same spot as before, the impact causing her to let out a small grunt. He pulled his hoof back once more, but instead of landing a blow to her stomach, he placed his hoof firmly at the center of Celestia's chest and began to press. He could feel her ribs snapping loosely beneath his hoof, the pain causing Celestia to wheeze loudly instead of scream.

"Breathing was the one luxury we hadn't taken from you... I supposed that's changed... hasn't it?" The Pony with the glasses asked, each second pressing harder on her broken ribs.

Celestia's only response was to look at him through teary eyes, crying being her only way to express pain as talking, let alone making noises, was strictly curtailed by the lack of air in her lungs.

"And... to think... I was trying to be nice to you!" The Pony with the glasses exclaimed as he released his hoof from Celestia's chest.

After staring her in the eye for a good moment he let himself back down onto all fours.

"White... give me your blade." He commanded, extending his hoof towards the White stallion.

The White stallion quickly undid one of the latches on the metal shoe and slipped it off, sliding it over to the Pony with the glasses who then proceeded to put the shoe on and redo the latch.

"I...I... I'm sorry." Celestia choked, struggling to speak from the pain burning in every inch of her body and (still) lack of air in her lungs.

"Oh, well. It's a little too late for 'sorry', isn't it?"

After making sure that the shoe was on securely, he gave a hard stomp on the ground to deploy the large, concealed blade. The Pony with the glasses stood up on his hind legs like he had before, holding the blade close to Celestia's face so that she could see it.

"If I was allowed to, I'd gouge your eyes out." He said quietly, staring at Celestia as tears dripped down her bloody cheeks.

He brought the blade away from Celestia's face, driving the blade all the way through her right front leg, Celestia let out a scratchy, broken scream of agony.

"If you don't shut up right now, I'll cut out your tongue!" The Pony with the glasses yelled, Celestia doing her best to mute her screams.

He began to slowly twist the blade, Celestia started to cry in pain as tears streamed down her cheeks and her chest shuttered.

"What did I just say?! Do you think I'm lying?" He asked, putting his face close to hers.

Celestia shook her head quickly, trying to get the Pony with the glasses to stop hurting her.

After a moment he began to twist the blade more, the bone in Celestia's leg snapped loudly as it was split open from the blade. Celestia was unable to keep her screams muffled, the agony of the blade snapping her bone and ripping her flesh causing her body to go into shock. Once he had twisted the blade around nearly 45 degrees the Pony with the glasses began to slowly pull the long blade out of Celestia's flesh. The blade finally exited completely, upon its exit blood began gushing out of the wound that penetrated completely through Celestia's front leg. The Pony with the glasses stepped back, pushing the blade back into its protective sheath on the back of the shoe.

"Undo the shackles." He said to the White stallion, his breathing heavy.

The White stallion's horn lit up, his magical aurora surrounding the metal shackles that held Celestia against the wall. A small click emitted from each of the shackles as they came undone, Celestia falling flat on her stomach after their disengagement.

"Remember when Star Yield said 'If she tried to escape beat her until she can't move.'?" Said the Pony with the glasses.

"Yes, I do." Responded the White Stallion, a grin dawning on his face.

The Pony with the glasses took off the golden metal shoe and slid it back over to the White stallion. The White Stallion put the shoe back on his front hoof while the Pony with the glasses knelt down to Celestia, placing his head on the bloody floor in front of hers to meet her eye-level.

"Can you move?" He asked loudly.

Celestia shuttered in response.

The Pony with the glasses lifted up his hoof closest to Celestia, placing it on the side of her head as he began to press, Celestia's eyes squinting from the pain.

"Can. You. Move?" He reiterated

"No...no..." She answered quietly, her tears beginning to turn into sobs.

"Good, maybe I'll finish bandaging your cuts tomorrow," He said after standing up, blood dripping from the side of his face as he had lain it directly in a small puddle of Celestia's blood.

"Can we take care of you now?" The White stallion asked, giving him a concerned look.

"Yes, please," The Pony with the glasses returned as he headed for the exit to the cell.

"Remind me to never make you angry," The White stallion said, looking at the nearly dead Alicorn laying in front of him.

The Pony with the glasses continued to slowly climb the stairs, not giving the faintest sign that he had heard him.

The White stallion levitated the loose medical supplies back into the bag and zipped it up. Before taking the bag and leaving the White stallion used his magic to pull the small string attached to the light that hung from the ceiling, a small click emanated from it and the room went dark. The White stallion's glowing azure eyes were the only things Celestia could see.

"Normally I'd leave the candle on, but I don't think you deserve to see anything but darkness." The White stallion said as he turned to leave.

"You... you're lucky I have t-this thing on my horn. If it wasn't on there... y-you... you'd be dead." Celestia spat, lifting her head to look at the White stallion, her left eye now completely swollen shut.

"You're lucky that we're not allowed to cut anything off of you, because trust me, if your method of punishment was up to me you'd be missing your tongue, wings and horn by this point." He responded, walking out the cell door and up the stairs.

"Y-You aren't leaving this... damned house without a hole in your chest!!" Celestia yelled, her voice shuttering as she began to cry.

The White stallion didn't respond as he finished climbing the stairs and exited from the basement, leaving Celestia to sob quietly in the pitch black concrete cell.

Author's Notes:

I've spent more time than I'd like to admit trying to fix any grammar and spelling errors in this long story... but I know there still are some. If you spot one, please notify me