I woke up sometime after the first month of pain had ended. My body felt so tender, every inch of me was in indescribable pain. As I lay there, with tears streaming down my face, I took in my surroundings. First thing I noticed was the metal bars all around me. Not much else was in the room. Just three walls of bars surrounding me, Solid stone walls beyond those with only a single metal door, one solid stone wall behind me, and one pony in the center of it, filled with pain. Oh...wait...that’s me. ‘Where are painkillers when you need them most?’ I thought to myself. As time passes on, i slowly feel less and less pain throughout my body. Instead, I am beginning to feel metal above me...or is that below me? All i can tell is there is something digging into my back and i’m way too sore to move. I tried lifted my right forehoof to feel what was on my back, but it was just too heavy for me to lift.

As feeling returned full into my back, I felt...wet? Cold? ‘Why am I wet? Why am I cold? I have FUR Celestia dammit I shouldn’t be feeling so cold!’ I tilted my head to the side and would you believe it? I was bathing in my own tears! ‘Didn’t they have a grate around here somewhere...oh. So that’s what is digging into my back! That explains a few things.’ After that realization, I remembered just how long i’ve been here.

From how my head was tilted, I could see the scratch marks i put on the wall to keep track of the days. One of the benefits of having hooves I guess. I made it through the first month but I didn't know just exactly how I did. Slowly, I stood up, careful about how much weight I put on each leg. I don't know how long I was out. It could be anywhere from a few hours to a few days. And thats without assuming i've been in some sort of coma and am now just waking up. I looked over my body, spotting the many scars that crisscrossed across my barrel and legs. Slices that ran along my stomach and reached upwards towards my neck. From what I could feel with a forehoof, it stopped just after my breast and just before my neck. I lifted up my left leg to look at the pip buck. Thankfully they allowed me to keep it and never harmed that leg.

The one next to it, my right forehoof, was burned a bit. I am sure it had more scars than burns. After checking to make sure i wasn’t bleeding or had any open wounds, I took a closer look at my surroundings. I found a way out a lot quicker than i thought possible. The gate was left open. Not wide open like someone was holding it open, but open just a crack. Not noticeable unless you could clearly see it. I blinked and then slowly walked through the cage. I went outside seeing the castle is gone, it's in ruins. What i saw outside almost made me run back inside. Everypony and creature seemed to be dead. Yet i couldn’t tell how any of them died. I looked around hearing the chitters of the magic eaters flying around eating all they could of the magic from something hanging in a tree. It made me feel strange that all I could hear was the wind. I saw the body of the Queen dead hanging from a tree. Magic eaters around her corpse, eating up the escaping magic from her dead form.

I continued along the path, wondering why is everything was dead. But as i rounded around a tree, i saw Her! My Blaze. My Love. She was...She..who..dead? Blaze was dead. There she hung, swinging from the wind, a rope pulled tight around her throat. Her claws were tied behind her and her tail was tied to her back legs. Tears filled my eyes as i rushed to her, cutting her down with my magic. Grabbing her in my forehooves, I cried long and hard, not caring about the world around me all I could care about was Blaze.. I just sat there,tears running free, my hooves wrapper around her tightly. All i could do was hold her tight. Soon i began to hear whispers, quiet at first, and easily ignorable. At least at first. Then they got louder...no. Not louder, closer! I looked up, trying to find the voices i am hearing.

" Hero... you failed us...Hero you failed us." I held Blaze close to me. All I could think of was these creatures trying to take her body from me. I no longer wanted to live without my Blaze. I felt my mind break just a moment when I saw the eyes of my love open with a dark smile.

" You failed me Star Shooter." I stood up away from her and I was placed into the back of a tree trunk. Seeing all the creatures and ponies coming to me. Beyond the herd of ponies, i saw a Single teal green unicorn with her magic lit. Hanging around her neck was a single scale. A red scale...Blaze’s scale! ‘That mare killed Blaze! SHE killed Blaze! SHE WILL DIE! I’m gonna Kill her!’ At at moment, the ponies herd had reached me and started to rip me apart.

00000

Outside of the strange dream, a mare with a teal coat and ears filled with many earrings, sat with her horn glowing. Her name was Crystal Ball and her skills laid in manipulating dreams. She sat only a few feet from Star Shooter. Crystal had been hired on to break Star’s will, which was no easy task given that Star’s indomitable will came from her love of Blaze and from her loyalty to her friends. To break such a pony like Star was a challenge like no other.

To speed up the task, and to keep everything according to her contract, Crystal had spent the last few days studying Star’s memories. She had used those memories to forge a nightmare unlike any she has used before. A nightmare designed to feed off of Star’s love and loyalty to create a reality which would draw out every single one of Star’s fears. Crystal had dubbed the spell Corrupting Nightmare after the story of Nightmare Moon.

" How is she doing Crystal Ball?" The mare turned her head to look at Burnout as crafty smile formed upon her lips.

" She is strong but I am breaking through many of her defenses. I don’t know why the Queen wishes to harm her or go after her. She just seems to be another stepping stone to her highness. However her mind is surprisingly extremely powerful and annoyingly resilient! But I doubt it's wise to break her mind. If she really is the hero of legend. Breaking the mind of a hero is never wise, it is only going to cause more issues than she wants. But I can try."

Burnout sighed before looking towards the others.

"When she comes out she is going to be wanting to kill us all. I want her chained to that bed right now!" The other guards looked at each other blinking.

" Why can't she just shatter her mind? Make her pick up the pieces?" Burnout looked to the guard that asked and then sighed softly.

" Breaking her mind like that would be a bad thing. She could go on a rampage. And if that happens, we’re all dead."

“Besides, She’s already gonna be angry. Corrupting Nightmare is designed to target what you love most and turn it against you. She loves a salamander, so the spell will most likely have Star killing her own love. Be sure that those chains are tight!” Crystal said with a smile upon her face.

The guards nodded and chained the hero down. Star had begun to stir shortly after Crystal ball stopped doing her Nightmare spell. Under his breath, Burnout whispered, “Hell hath no fury like an angered mare. So sayeth Thy Lord Sombra.”

0000

As I opened my eyes, I immediately noticed that i was laying on my back. When i tried to move my hooves underneath me, i heard the shuffling of chains, felt the pain in my hooves, heard someone take a step back, and quickly came to the conclusion that i had been chained up. As the memories slowly came back to me, so too did the rage. All i could think about was revenge for Blaze. I wanted to rip who ever harmed her, tear apart that mare who killed her, and destroy any who tried to stop me!

"Let me go....LET ME GO!!" I yelled, reaching out with my magic. I tried to break through the chains that held me down. The chains so strong on my body feeling them rub." I will not be here any longer. I need my Blaze. I need her!! Let me go! I need to see her! I need her!!" Ponies tried to hold me down. Crystal ball tried using the spell on me. My horn glowed brightly trying to use it to break the bond's. But I didn't allow the spell to affect me this time. I was angry and I had the right to be angry! They hurt me so much.

" Hero relax..." I turned my attention to the voice and what i saw made my blood boil. A unicorn mare of teal coat. She who ripped away a piece of me. A killer, a murderer, a Target! Blaze’s killer stood before me. And I was going to get even.

" Relax?... they took me from my love... They hurt me. They took my ability to have children. Yes I was told it would heal so i can have one. But you listen to me and listen good. I will not be your tool! I will not!!!"

They let me go and I stood on my hooves groaning gently. I just looked at them with a great amount of hatred in my eyes. I will deal with them later, I have to find Blaze. Mix flew in front of me. I used my magic to rip him apart, tossing him aside. I reared up and came Smashing down on the stopwatch. After following the signs to the way out, I found Mouse standing in front of me.

" I will not be kept away from my love!!!" I charged into Mouse like it was nothing. Mouse just lay there broken, staring at him and smashing his robotic head. Then I walked out the door. I just started plowing right through everything to get to my love.I walked along the path to Cliffside. I couldn’t run that well even though I saw smoke I never gave up hope. I saw the Queen's guards in my way. All I had to do was fight. Instinct long dormant rose up and without a thought or a spell, my magic formed in the air in front of me before solidifying itself into a sword. With a grin upon my face, i charged. No one was going to stop me from finding Blaze! No one!

Majesty walked up the road to me. I had finally won or at least in my heart I had won. Around her a war was going on even though she had blood all over her body. A sword floating in her horn along with something else. I felt like it was a dream everything around me stop turning around looking at the frozen world. Finally seeing the mare that I had killed before.

“I can save you Star Shooter. I can stop all this and free you all you have to do is give up and give yourself to the Queen. Become her slave let her win let her beat you. Then she will maybe send you back home.”

I just looked at the mare a smirk formed on my face. I looked to the side seeing Tiria in my mind and seeing her right there beside me. All I could think of is what she did everyday even if it caused her pain.

“I look back on everything Tiria did. She saved us she fought for us and even though the world tried to stop her and tried to kill her she kept fighting using the word no.”

The mare Crystal Ball frowned looking down to her hooves trying to find a way to stop all this but all she could do it seems to me was a question.

“But can you win?” The mare would simply ask with a frown on her face.

I laughed cracking a smile on my face. Looking towards the Queen and staring at her right into her eyes even though I had to use my magic to life me to her eyes. “Everytime I look in the eyes of Death and say No…”

I stared deep in the eyes of the Queen. Right in front of me she turned into a ghastly pony in a chair shuffling a deck of cards looking up to me with a wary smile. A stallion in a hat and a coat with no skin. He would lift up the cards showing BlackJacks cutie mark along with Scootaloo’s.

“Anti up.” The stories from the story of Blackjacks journey.. Meeting with the dealer.. Is what shows up when the mind is broken? Is what shows up when your mind has lost? “Win… little one win.”

He vanished and the Nightmare started in motion again. Majesty laughed and cackled madly.

“If I can’t.. Be loved if I can’t be Queen of this island!! I will Destroy it!!” She lifted a strange button and clicked it. I heard the sound of a missile coming down us. A mega spell the bombs that destroyed Equestria.

I sat defeated as she laughed cackling madly and with a flash with the army my friends and the Queen herself we all became part of the dust.

00000

Crystal ball chuckled.

" Hmm...poor little hero. She thought she could escape from me."

" Are you almost done Crystal Ball? you have been at this for almost a month already."

Crystal looks back at Burnout and sighs.

"It's not so easy to break her. But now i am done. Her mind is broken for the moment. She will not wake for awhile. Now that my job is done where is my money?"

Cricket stood behind crystal and she looked up to him.

" I got your payment right here." Cricket said as he lifted his swords out of their scabbards without a sound. Crystal Ball didn’t even notice it coming. He did two quick movements of his arms, slicing the very head off her shoulders. It fell to the ground with a blood splat. The look of horror left on her face. He turned his head to stare at Burnout a smile of pure glee on his face.

" Clean this up lock the hero up and then get her ready for the next few months for her death."

Burnout nodded as Cricket walked away. He looked down at the body of the dead mare. Then to the hero. He knew he was running out of time.

Footnote: No level

Negative perk.

Broken mind: Your mind has been slowly broken to try to break you. It will take a long time for this to be fixed. Even if you’re free this will affect you for the rest of your life. You have also seen the dealer you may see him through your journey since the mind is broken.