"WHAT?!"

The shout came not from Fluttershy, but from Rainbow Dash, a cry so loud that it caused the other three in that darkened realm to wince as a reflex from the volume. The cannibalistic pegasus looked more filled with rage than they had seen her yet, as if she were the one that had had Kindness taken. "No, no, NO! I told her the marks would curse her before I died! Hers is related to magic, I thought that the Element of Magic would be her downfall!"

"You were wrong," Rarity deadpanned.

"SHUT UP!" Rainbow was shaking in rage, teeth glinting as if preparing to tear apart the shattered unicorn bit by bit. Despite being biologically an herbivore, Rainbow had proven she had the prowess of a carnivore when it came to mutilating herself and others, and was more than prepared to cause carnage if she felt the time arose.

Rarity, of course, was unfazed by the threat, merely continuing to peer at Twilight in interest. Whatever it was that the unicorn was planning, it was something that certainly went much farther than they had initially suspected.

Twilight looked carefully at Fluttershy, still laughing eagerly. "Heheh, you see, what I plan to do for Magic relates to my plan overall, and I feel it's necessary to at least give my final Element-bearing friend alive a glimpse at what I'm planning before she dies!"

Fluttershy's blood ran cold, her mind beginning to race with what Twilight could be intending to achieve. She knew that when she did find out, however, it likely wouldn't be good in the slightest. No sane pony with purely good intentions could intend something good while being a dangerous criminal and committing terrible murders.

"Oh, wait, I almost forgot..." With a small smile, Twilight telekinetically removed the Heretic's fork from its former position, finally freeing the pegasus from its pronged surface that had left indents in her chin and breast. "There we go! Better?"

"Like you... care..." Fluttershy responded hostilely, somewhat startled by the lack of pressure between her head and chest. She attempted to push back her fear, forcing herself to let a bit of her rising anger show. "Y-You'd better... t-tell..."

"Oh I will, I will, hahahaha!" Twilight laughed gleefully with an unsettling grin as she stepped back a little, her disheveled mane erratic, "I'll explain everything, don't worry - in fact, I'll tell you and show you!" The unicorn said this with a grin that was much too happy, "And now, I think it's time for me to reveal just what I'm planning to do..."

"You'd better," Rainbow muttered with a growl, magenta eyes practically appearing red. She turned around to bite her left wing. Her cry of pain muffled by her own skin as the muscle stretched over bone, the pegasus mentally imagined that the flesh she was tearing was that of her unicorn nemesis, the blood spilling on her coat belonging to Twilight rather than Rainbow herself.

With Twilight closing her eyes in concentration, a beam of magical energy shone forth from her horn, a shimmering, rectangular shape hovering into view. It was an ethereal screen, visible to Fluttershy even as it widened to nearly fill her field of vision. Imagery on the screen began to properly materialize, bringing forth the image of a cluster of lights surrounding a certain pony - it was Twilight, encircled by the pure genetic energy of the Elements.

As the vision settled into a stable display, holding the rapt attention of all ponies present, Twilight began her explanation, looking far too unstable for anypony's benefit.

"With the complete research on the Elements at my disposal, I'll be able to genetically detect the proper qualities in the genetic coding of anyone I seek out." Twilight trotted over to the contained genetic Elements, each marked with their respective names as the interconnected wires and monitors took careful measurements. She drew closer, hoof curling around the containment jars protectively, eyes shining in their light. "As long as the signatures indicate a certain subject isn't one tainted by the evils of chaos, then the subject will be allowed to live." Her violet eyes glinted sinisterly in the direction of her conjured display, rising to her hooves as her very presence seemed to direct the others to view the detailed manifestations. The dark aura emitting from her horn appeared to increase in intensity.

As the spheres of the Elements drew closer to Twilight on the screen, surrounding her with an ethereal glow, the shillouetes of other ponies began to shimmer into view around her. Some of the ponies had a sphere of light, more than one in some cases, shining within them. Others remained as dark as a starless night.

Within the magically produced images, dark tendrils of magic extended from Twilight's horn as she struck those that didn't contain the light, their screams echoing in the laboratory as they fell to the ground. Within the laboratory itself, the ambitious mare continued, her own dark magic swirling around her much like a whirlwind in its early stages. "Once I'm able to detect those who have the proper genetic coding that can allow those harmonious traits to grow and develop, I will eradicate all those who do not have those proper qualities, only allowing those who I consider pure to live as a result!"

Twilight laughed as the shadowy form of her and the Elements faded, "All those who don't measure up in any of the qualities will be killed the moment my magic can reach them!" She smirked. "That is, except the unicorns - I'll spare them in the initial cleansing."

"So you want unicorns to be... the master race?" Fluttershy managed, struggling to stay conscious and glaring hostilely.

Twilight laughed lightly at her friend's misunderstanding of her plan for the unicorn race. "'Master race'? Haha, of course not, silly! That's where the Element of Magic comes in! You see, unlike the other Elements, Magic is more of a physical thing that can be channeled into a unicorn's horn, manifesting as their capability to cast spells." The scenery of the magical screen shifted again, revealing a line of unicorns in shadow, several illuminated in that faint like that indicated the genetic signatures that Twilight was after. "I'll keep the other unicorns alive until I test their prowess and potential for Magic, and compare it to my own through a combination of challenges and genetic analysis in relation to my own. If they don't match up to my standards, they'll be eliminated if they have no qualities of the other Elements to be harnessed!"

In the purgatory-like realm, there was a rough tearing of flesh from the cyan pegasus's right side, blinded to the flowing red blood that began to pool on the ground. She dug into her own flesh, spitting and cursing as splatters of blood stained her fur.

Twilight laughed in a psychotic shriek as the image on her magical projection revealed the "impure" unicorns being torn apart by her dark magic, her own shilloute then allowing the illuminated ones to surround her as her form, surrounded by a swirling aura, rose slightly above them. "And soon enough, haha, I'll have sufficient data to know what truly allows for the possession of the Element of Magic, and then I can eliminate those who don't properly have that capability!"

The unicorn's eyes were alight with triumph, as if she had been anticipating to reveal her plan at this critical moment, when her last former friend was captured, warped, and steadily approaching death. "Don't you see, Fluttershy? That's why I'm doing all this!" Her entire essence seemed alight with ambition and desire, grinning wildly like the madmare that she was. "Once I can analyze the Elements properly, I'll be able to pick out the worthy ones - the loyal, the honest, the kind..."

Fluttershy raised her voice, anger and disbelief combating the pain. "And they'll b-be your slaves, won't they?!"

"Slaves?!" Twilight looked appalled at the notion before firmly shaking her head. The very thought seemed to horrify the unicorn. "Of course not! They won't be my slaves, not at all..." The expression on her face shifted from its former surprise to one that looked all too happy. "They'll be my equals."

In the living world, this revelation caught Fluttershy by surprise. "Your... your equals?" After all that she had suffered, even in her state of rapidly losing all sense of compassion or kindness, the fact that Twilight seemed to want herself to be on the same level as other ponies was striking. She had suspected that the unstable unicorn wanted to rise above all other ponies and enslave them, not raise others to her level as she was now claiming. The vision of Twilight slightly rising above the others had certainly not suggested a direct equality.

"ARGH!" The limbo-bound cyan pegasus snarled, roughly tearing off some muscle from her thigh, the white structure of her bones now visible as Pinkie cringed away. "You and your stupid vile curveballs, Traitor Sparkle..." She slammed a hoof against the unyielding barrier. "I HATE YOU!"

Twilight waved a hoof, seemingly ignoring the cries of rage from Rainbow. "Well, not entirely equals - 'students' would be a more accurate term - I shall train them in the ways of Harmony that I have come to know!" She raised her head triumphantly. "I told you that I was preserving the Elements for the future! For a greater future, a brighter future!" Her voice harbored a tone of euphoria in its deranged cackling. "A reality of harmony and purity!"

"The future won't be 'harmonious' until you're wiped from existence," Rainbow hissed, filled with more anger than Fluttershy at that point.

Twilight, too caught up in the ambitions of her ideal reality, was deaf to the spiteful tone as she looked at her incredulous captive. She laughed darkly, momentarily causing her conjured vision to remain still. "Oh, heheheh, you think that I'm limiting my form of cleansing to just ponies? Or just Equestria?" Her smile widened to practically Glascow-grin levels, her irises dangerous pinpricks. "Hahahahaha! Oh you have no idea of how far this will go! My ambitions are far above simply that!"

Everypony else fell silent. Even the animals observing Fluttershy's torment fell silent upon hearing Twilight's words.

".... You are kidding me." The words were said by Rainbow Dash in a quiet whisper, disbelieving. She shook in rage, slowly tearing off some flesh from her right side, anger eclipsing the pain. "You are FEATHERING kidding me!"

Pinkie Pie winced, hesitantly gesturing in the hopes that Rainbow would reply. "Do you think this means she'll kill all the dragons and griffins too in their countries?"

The enraged rainbow-maned pony was too filled with rage to focus on anything but Twilight, but Rarity guessed what the frightened earth pony was trying to convey. "Based on her tone, I'm thinking that she's planning a genocide of much more than the likes of ponies and dragons."

Applejack gulped - that definitely wasn't good. She spoke up, nervously raising her head. "L-Like what?"

It was then that Twilight gave the answer, standing tall as her horn was intensely illuminated in a near black aura, the glow of the Elements casting an eerie light upon her features. Her physical appearance was dirty, crazed, and defiled; yet her gaze was elated with the immense aims of her ambition. The magical screen began to shift; the shimmering lights of the Elements briefly surrounded the form of Twilight, more dark tendrils of magic extending from Twilight's horn. As other, shadow-like forms of ponies came into view, griffins, dragons, and others joined them as the screen’s vision expanded, zooming out to a view of Equestria and the surrounding countries.

"I know that Equestria is not the only place with this dynamic of order vs. chaos," Twilight went on as the imagery also brought up the various species of their world, "so I intend to use my magic and scientific research to spread this influence and eradication not just to all the ponies in Equestria, but to the countries beyond! In fact," the unicorn hissed with a deranged cackle, "I plan to eradicate every single disharmonious being on the entire planet!"

Fluttershy's eyes widened, speechless with fear and shock as the timid side of her overtook her thought processes. However, the shout from Rainbow Dash in the deceased pony's realm spoke for her, with an anger so fierce it was as if a bomb had gone off.

"YOU WRETCHED, SICK, FEATHERING PSYCHO!" Rainbow Dash screeched, breathing heavily in rage as she slammed her hooves into the barrier which separated them, impenetrable as ever. She felt like a wild animal intent on tearing apart its prey, stopping at nothing until the target was brought down.

Applejack stepped back, unnerved by both the volume of Rainbow's voice and Twilight's twisted plan. Trembling slightly, she whispered to Rarity, knowing that she was the most logical of the group and would give a straight answer. "Doesn't she hate everypony?"

"Rainbow isn't shouting because she wants to defend everypony else, it's a personal quarrel," Rarity explained. "She feels rage because the pony who destroyed her is winning at a greater level than she had first anticipated, and it seems she's thought up everything to make sure she wins." A pause as she slid her jaw back into place. "Even I wasn't expecting it."

Pinkie put her hooves over her ears, eyes wide in a horrified disbelief. That had been Twilight's plan all along? It was worse than Pinkie had expected, far more horrifying than she ever imagined anypony would go.

But the insane unicorn wasn't quite done.

Twilight's voice rose in triumph, and she levitated several of her books from their places on the shelves, swirling them around her with her near-black aura. "You won't believe how much my research I've learned with these books," she said in an almost rapturous tone. "I've learned to take my magic to new levels, to expand my knowledge to aid me in my work!". She glanced over at the laboratory's steel door, sealed tight. "If you hadn't been unconscious when I brought you here, you would have seen the myriad of other doors around here, where other equipment of mine is stored that I couldn't keep here in the lab. And I have just about everything I need for the research I'll be doing from here on out!"

She turned her gaze over to the holding space of the books which contained her friends' preserved organs, looking meaningfully at Fluttershy. "And I preserved our friends in those books to eventually compare the more physical properties with those of the newly intended bearers, to see just how well they measure up to the endurance of the Elements' former group!". She shot a quick glance at the stands where the skeletons and flesh of the former Element bearers rested. "Plus, I wanted to preserve my friends in a special way."

The forms of other organisms - harmonious and disharmonious alike - manifested themselves on Twilight's magically formed screen. The disharmonious were murdered through the unicorn's magic with a strangled cry if the light of an Element was not present within them. "Ponies, dragons, timberwolves, pets - all living organisms have some form of genetic material, thus everyone has the potential to be harmonious or not!" Her eyes were bright, contrasting her coat darkly splattered with blood from the previous procedures. "So I can make sure that every living being on this planet has the capability to be harmonious!" She practically was dancing in a wild, mad frenzy of victory. "Isn't that wonderful?! Hahahahaha!"

"N-NO!" Fluttershy managed to shout, her body shaking in fear and rage. "You c-c-call that harmony?! It's control and domination!"

Twilight's gaze was stern, eyes flashing. "Not domination - cleansing to make everything pure!" Twilight threw her head back in deranged laughter as the screen's view expanded beyond the planet, other words and stars in view. "Oh, you think I'll stop there?! I'm well aware that technology is expanding every day, so eventually - if technology becomes advanced enough - I shall be able to spread this harmonious influence across all worlds with life like our own! And if universes beyond the cosmos do in fact exist, I'll spread my desire for harmony to everywhere else I can get to!"

It was as if Fluttershy and the laboratory were invisible in Twilight's vision, the ambitious pony only seeing the ultimate goals which she had set for herself. "Everything will be balanced by Harmony! EVERYTHING!" She gazed at the brainwave monitor, as if not seeing the remnants of Kindness, but rather the disappearance of the seeds of chaos spread out across the plane of existence that she planned to "cleanse". "Chaos will never win! NEVER! All will be PURE!"

In a flash of light, the screen which Twilight had created to show her plan vanished, leaving Twilight and the laboratory's equipment all that remained in Fluttershy's sight. The twisted unicorn's unfocused eyes seemed to burrow straight into Fluttershy's soul, as if she intended to make use of her magic to drain her subject's life energy into her.

"With that out of the way, it's time to start up 'N' - Nitrogen! Liquid nitrogen, to be precise." Her horn shimmered darkly to levitate a large cylindrical canister nearby, which was filled with what appeared to be a form of white smoke. In fact, Fluttershy realized that it was the mist-like substance that was used at times on stages to make a production more eerie or mysterious.

It fits, in a way, the pegasus thought despondantly, shivering despite there being a complete lack of the fog-like chemical. Twilight's plan for eternal harmony is going to bring a darker age to our world no matter what she claims!

Making note of Fluttershy's reaction, Twilight continued to set the procedures as a variety of levers were pressed, once again bringing a dome around the ailing pony so that only the more harmful effects of the liquid nitrogen would affect her. This enclosure, however, was thinner than the first, and thus allowed for each of the ponies to properly hear one another. With the dome properly fitting snugly around the wiring, Twilight used the energy of her magic to shield her equipment from the freezing influence of the liquid nitrogen when it would fill the chamber up.

Much like the first enclosure, there was a circular hole in the surface of the glass casing, this one to Fluttershy's right a few inches higher than Fluttershy's propped-up height. Through the aperture the thick tubing was levitated that would allow the freezing fog-like substance to be pumped into the enclosed space where Fluttershy was contained. With a burst of magical energy, a translucent shield began to form around Fluttershy, who had briefly felt the pressure increase as Twilight turned a dial. The shield didn't quite stop the nitrogen's presence, but the pegasus at least could hold up against the pressure a little more.

"Twilight grinned. "Just putting up a slight safeguard so that the pressure doesn't crush you to death and the nitrogen can still remain in its gaseous form!"

Fluttershy growled in response, only minimally comforted by the pressure being relieved from her.

"Now," Twilight went on in a somewhat more scientific manner as she hooked up the connecting tube of the canister to a hole in the enclosure which Fluttershy was sealed in, "liquid nitrogen is more of a gaseous-type form, really, and it maintains a temperature between 63 and 77.2 Kelvin, or -346 and -320.44 degrees Fahrenheit in laymen's terms. It's obviously extremely dangerous if you touch it in strong enough amounts without proper protection from it, and ingesting it can kill somepony very quickly." She carefully looked over the equipment, making sure the tube that would pump the liquid nitrogen into Fluttershy's enclosure. "Oh, and a fun little fact - another use of liquid nitrogen is the process of promession, which is a way to dispose of the dead, where remains are disposed of in burial by freeze drying. Heheh, fitting, huh?" She couldn't help but smile. "Maybe I'll get more of a use for it later!"

"That's... s-sick," Fluttershy muttered, sounding more angry than scared. She was minimally aware that this anger was what Twilight wanted, bringing the tormentor one step closer to obtaining the essence of Kindness and thus cause the plan for eternal harmony to fully manifest, but she couldn't help the bitter feeling rising within her. It somehow made her feel stronger, like a natural shot of adrenaline, except this rush of energy wasn't caused by the unicorn's twisted desire to keep her alive.

The reaction didn't escape Twilight's notice with the fluctuating brainwave monitoring, and she laughed eagerly. "I see you're getting angrier! That's great!" Stepping toward the canister that held the freezing, gaseous substance, she pressed a few buttons to turn on the machine. Instantly a low hiss emitted from the tubular opening as the liquid nitrogen began to travel through the tube and into the enclosure where Fluttershy was trapped. "I can't do mental manipulation for this - I could freeze too if I do in there, or something else could go wrong." The smile on her face would have looked friendly in any other circumstance. "So you get a break from that, at least!"

Fluttershy struggled to remain under control, quashing her fear as the nitrogen collected on the ground, lightly brushing her hooves. She shuddered, the subzero temperature clinging to her coat and sending a chill through the parts of her hooves which still possessed nerves.

The liquid nitrogen began to seep into the glass containment at a much more rapid pace, the temperature dropping at a frighteningly fast rate. The freezing substance settled above its former place on the ground, the force of the stream stronger to the point that the subzero temperature impacted the pegasus's broken body.

"Feels like the touch of a Windigo, doesn't it?" Twilight said in a dangerous whisper, as cold as the nitrogen itself. "Perhaps you'll really know now what it's like when one of them chills your body and freezes your heart."

Beads of sweat on Fluttershy's coat froze to ice, and the cold feeling against her coat began to seep into her skin. With aid from Twilight's magic, the liquid nitrogen swirled against the cuts in Fluttershy's body causing her to cry out from the frigid vapor. Her body shuddered violently, feeling her brain functions slow from the rapid decrease in temperature as the flow of nitrogen continued to increase.

Twilight's grin grew wider, clearly thrilled by the plan she was soon to accomplish as she stared at the wisps of nitrogen surrounding Fluttershy. "Don't you see the glory in it all?" she questioned, her eyes alight with a passion which seemed to burrow through the glass's surface. It was as if the blood, torture, and exclamations of the room's occupants were lost on her senses, only experiencing the euphoria of triumph. "The world, the reality that will dawn soon is one devoid of chaotic rule!" She turned in the direction of Rainbow Dash's voice, much to Fluttershy's confusion in her cold-induced haze. "And you say I'm like Discord, ha!"

"You are, you wretched piece of DRECK!" Rainbow cursed, mangled hoof curled in a way that appeared almost claw-like. Her voice was strained but burning with fury, hoping that her scream would get her point across of just how much she loathed that unicorn. Anything to get her to somehow rid herself of Twilight's deranged life. All she wished was that the unicorn would perish and suffer the worst possible fate that could be imagined for anypony - an omnicidal maniac like that deserved every punishment that could be dealt to them.

The unicorn paced around the room, appearance a mess of matted, blood-soaked fur and shimmering eyes. "What did Discord do besides cause chaos?! I'll bring order! I'll bring harmony! Just like it should be!" She glared hostilely. "Just wait a few hours, girls. Because the order of this life is about to change."

"The only way it will be changed for the better is if you're DEAD!" Rainbow Dash shouted in a tone that was practically a roar. She charged again and again at the impenetrable barrier, glaring daggers at her nemesis. "I'LL KILL YOU! When we're free, YOU'LL DIE!"

The scientist looked unperturbed at Rainbow Dash's furious shouting, harboring a tone of crazed desperation as her eyes became pinpricks, her breathing heavy at the thought. "Death is one thing that I can't allow to happen to me." She stared at the contained Elements, appearing to drill her gaze straight into their very essence, as if taking their energy and letting it empower her.

"Not now... and not ever."

Fluttershy trembled, trying through the chill of the liquid nitrogen to grasp what the unicorn was saying in addition to her shock at just how far Twilight planned to carry out her plan for harmony. If her former friend was saying she couldn't allow death to happen to her... the captive pegasus, in her fluctuating awareness, could only think of one possible reason for that, and it correlated with the "cleansing of reality" which Twilight spoke of. "Y-You want to be an immortal tyrant, don't you?!" Fluttershy put in as much of an accusatory tone in her voice as she could muster. "You're going to rule over all life with an iron hoof, aren't you?!"

"For one thing, not a tyrant, a teacher." Twilight put a firm emphasis on the last word, not wanting to be associated at all with the former term. Her left eye twitched. "I'll be helping everyone train, learn, and grow together. And I don't necessarily want to be immortal, I have to. If I die, the world would likely fall into chaos all over again, unless I got someone to continue my work." She snarled, teeth grinding as her body shook. "And even then, they might not do things precisely the way I envisioned it! They may set all my research backward, those IDIOTS! Immortality is the only way for me to ensure eternal harmony!"

Despite the clear instability of Twilight's body and psyche, her gaze was triumphant, looking as vast as the stars she sought to reach. "Using the ever-increasing advances of science and magic, I'll extend my life as long as I can to ensure that the reality of harmony is indeed moving in the right direction! Someday, it'll all be worth it, because in the end, I will beat chaos forever. We will beat chaos. All the worthy will finally be in harmony, and all that opposed it will be no more!"

Fluttershy's body shook, both from the freezing cold of the nitrogen seeping into her skin and the full extent of Twilight's goals she was striving to achieve. She could only stare in a numb horror, her heart pounding in fear and rage. Twilight had turned from a kind friend to a maniac who attempted to bring "harmony" to extreme levels. The afflicted pegasus's mind was whirling. Feeling angrier and angrier at Twilight's actions, she attempted to find some way to bring Twilight back to her senses, as well as keep up her own strength when the freezing nitrogen was steadily taking effect. Even the twisted pony's immoral plan to analyze Magic was twisted yet logical, and managed to avoid her death as a result. And yet... there was one aspect that it seemed the unicorn hadn't considered.

"B-But... friendship has a certain magic to it..." Fluttershy's murmured, summoning her strength in an attempt to reach through to Twilight - at least getting her to stop her insane work and halt her plan. "How can you say you know anything about friendship... after what you've done?!". It was becoming more difficult for the pegasus to talk due to the liquid nitrogen which was slowing her metabolism, the white mist now almost completely obscuring her tormentor

Twilight let out another laugh. "Oh Fluttershy, you and your ignorance - you think I haven't thought of that form of magic? Don't you dare accuse me not knowing about friendship!" She circled around the trapped pony, her voice shaking as her gaze became hostile. "If anything, I know more about friendship than any of you ever did!"

Keeping herself still to avoid more damage, and trying to conserve what energy she had, Fluttershy looked at the deranged pony with a suspicious glare in her single working eye. "What do you mean?"

Twilight's voice lowered to a threatening growl as she game to a brief stop in front of Fluttershy, separated by the wall of glass as she switched off the liquid nitrogen pump. "Because you betrayed me. You hated me, you used me..." Her voice trembled, her hooves shaking. "You all abandoned me!"

Pinkie shuddered at the unicorn's words, trying to recall moments where she might have betrayed her friend. She gestured slightly. "I-I'd never-"

"I bet you're lying," Rainbow Dash hissed, not bothering to translate for the others. "You likely betrayed her dozens of times and are just trying to deny it. And I'd never be that wretch's 'friend'." The pegasus gagged at the word as she took a bite out of her left flank in her anger. "'Friendship' is a traitorous concept."

Sweat forming on Fluttershy's body, both from exhaustion and nerves from Twilight's accusations, her only relief being that the chilling nitrogen was starting to settle. She spoke in an inquiring tone. "I-I don't understand..."

"Of course you wouldn't," Twilight hissed. "The only time you all were ever really there for me was when we stopped Nightmare Moon and Discord." Twilight once again began to circle her captive, horn illuminated with a near-black light as shadowy forms took shape before Fluttershy. They were shilloueted forms of Twilight and the ponies she had once considered "friends", in a more wispy form than the images depicting the unicorn's plan for eternal harmony.

The shadow-like forms played out actions as Twilight dictated them, her voice growing more shrill and frantic as she went on. "You all tried to bribe me into giving you the ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala without considering my feelings. Rarity and Applejack only thought about themselves at that sleepover, with no consideration toward my feelings." The unicorn's breathing became ragged, the shadow-scenes playing out at an ever-increasing pace. "Applejack accused me of ruining everything when I tried to help at Winter Wrap Up. Nopony took me seriously when I was worried about my friendship reports...". She paused, breathing heavily as she forced one event to come to the forefront of her mind, a certain event that she had attempted to push back for several months. Finally forcing herself to think of it fueled her unstable anger. "And the wedding in Canterlot?"

Fluttershy blinked at Twilight's spiteful tone on the last mention. "The wedding?"

The unicorn trembled, letting out a forced, harsh laugh. "Heh, remember that, you traitor?!" Twilight's eyes flashed white in her unstable anger. She glanced at the monitor which observed Fluttershy's brainwaves, her heart leaping a little as the spark of Kindness flashed on the screen, quickly fading again.

Feeling a further frustration at Kindness's resilience, Twilight then stood in front of the light yellow, torn-up pegasus, standing close to the glass as her chest heaved. Her voice was laced with anger as she glanced around, knowing her deceased friends were present and watching, unseen. "I know my brother and Cadance better than anypony. And I tried to tell you that there was something wrong. But did you listen?! NO!" Twilight looked as if she was about to tear somepony's flesh off with her magic. "You all shunned me and abandoned me! And you never apologized! NEVER!"

Pinkie's color and mane grew even more depressive than before, tears of regret beginning to collect at the bottom of her eyes. She hated to admit it, but every single one of Twilight's accusations against her so-called "friends" was true.

Rainbow snarled, arching her brow. "Heh, seems like Traitor Sparkle knows what betrayal feels like," she hissed. "Physical agony in the form of flesh being stripped from her bones and fire burning her insides is the next pain she should experiencing."

Fluttershy, slowly beginning to be filled with more anger than kindness in her half-frozen state, looked firmly at her furious tormentor. "If I... r-remember.... you accused her of b-being evil."

"And you believed her, a pony you had just met, over me, your supposed 'friend'?!" Twilight retorted with a screech. "I should have known right then and there that you all just used and abused me. Even my oh-so-noble brother!" Her voice turned mocking by the last sentence, eyes narrowed with an angry white glow illuminating from them. "I thought he was loyal to me... but he proved me wrong!"

"So you'll... k-kill him?" Fluttershy looked straight at the unicorn, her voice a middle-ground between her ordinary timid demeanor and her growing aggression. Despite her slowed heartbeat as a result of the steady freezing, she recalled the claim that all the unicorns would be kept alive for a time to analyze their capability for Magic, but Twilight looked so enraged that her subject was uncertain what she'd do.

Twilight's brow furrowed, her eyes returning once more to their violet-irised appearance as her teeth bared in a snarl. "Enough talk! In case you've forgotten, Fluttershy, I have a few more methods to do here." Taking a deep breath, she turned her thoughts back to her ambitious plan, seeming to quell her anger. "What I do to others is my business and mine alone. It's time to focus more on the future for now..."

The tortured pony narrowed her single working eye in a glare, starting to regain some strength, but she said nothing in response.

Twilight briefly closed her eyes, directing her thoughts away from her concealed anger. Okay, calm down, Twilight, calm down... just focus on the plan...

Twilight went on, voice no longer as angry but just as unhinged. "So, an ability to be on good social terms with others is important as well. You see, I believe that having friends - real friends - can at the very least help the harmonious ones to learn and train together, whether it be through testing loyalty toward one another or learning to laugh in the face of death!" She grinned, sounding disturbingly excited as she let out a laugh. "Every other being that I judge for the other Elements will also be put through similar training, and I'll even let others from the different Elements come to observe the training of the qualities they don't possess - friendship between different Elements is important, after all!"

Twilight hurriedly turned her head around to look at the central monitor. Fluttershy's brainwaves were erratic, clearly expressing her fear and anger. Once more there was a pulse, a flash, a spark... and then it was gone. Kindness was indeed beginning to show itself, but it wasn't enough quite yet to separate the elusive genetic component from its bearer...

The unicorn now moved at a brisk pace, eyes darting as her own heart began to pound - both from anxiousness and exhilaration. "Gotta get everything initiated by the morning, so, moving on!" Seeming a bit more frantic, Twilight removed the pump of liquid nitrogen from the glass casing where Fluttershy was contained, briefly sealing off the opening so that the substance wouldn't yet leak out. "Luckily for us, my method for 'O' will make getting that liquid nitrogen out very simple!" Twilight grinned as the liquid nitrogen canister was moved away, retrieving another container with a pump which appeared empty. "It involves a reverse process, because 'O' stands for 'oxygen deprivation'!"

Fluttershy winced in spite of herself, remembering the asphyxiation procedure that had first been preformed on her. Oxygen depletion had been a part of that, so... won't it be the same sort of thing as before?

Twilight seemed to read Fluttershy's mind. "This is going to be a liiiittle different than asphyxiation. What I'm basically going to do for this is simulate conditions in the vacuum of outer space!" She chuckled at the horrified expression on Fluttershy's face. "Don't worry though, this one's going to be really short, and I can't do mental manipulation on you - you'd only live about one and a half minutes maximum in those conditions. And that's at the absolute maximum."

Horn glowing as her magic activated once more, what looked like goggles were levitated through the hole and onto Fluttershy's resisting face. The goggles were pressed tight against her face, sure to leave indents in her coat, so there was no way for the air surrounding the captive's eyeballs to escape.

"That's just there because I don't want the moisture in your eyeballs to boil," the scientist explained in a cheery tone, a hoof on her chin. "That would be interesting to observe, but I want you to actually see the procedures I'll put you through next!"

With that, she pressed a large black button on the side of the mechanism to initiate the process of creating a vacuum. And Fluttershy instantly wished those ninety seconds were over.

All remnants of the ordinary atmosphere were rapidly sucked out of the containment chamber, leaving Fluttershy to suffer through the empty conditions of a vacuum, and the coldness brought with it. With the atmospheric pressure being completely absent, the water collected on Fluttershy's body spontaneously converted into vapor. This quickly proved to affect more than just the pony's sweat, as the blood on the surface of Fluttershy's body from her previous injuries began to boil due to being outside the body in the vacuum. All of the blood vessels exposed on Fluttershy's skin began to break from the result of the lack of pressure, and the presence of the goggles on the upper half of her face were the only thing that prevented the veins in her eyeballs. The same effect rapidly caused the saliva on her tongue beginning to boil, the pegasus beginning to feel as if she would black out in a matter of moments.

The torment steadily grew, as Fluttershy felt as if her ears would burst from her body attempting to equalize the pressure within with the vacuum outside. In the absence of air pressure the gas exchange of the suffering pegasus's lungs felt as if they were working in reverse as her respiratory system was thrust into an oxygen-starved state, throwing Fluttershy into disorientation, uncertain of which direction was which despite the fact that she was strapped down.

Twilight was taking notes furiously with a grin on her face, looking back and forth from the suffering pony to the mechanisms that made the subject's physical state known. "Observing interesting results of vacuum on a pony's body. The bearer of Kindness is now entering oxygen-starved state known as hypoxia. All reactions proceeding as expected."

After about ten seconds, the cooling effect of evaporation lowered the temperature in Fluttershy's mouth and nose to near-freezing - it was like a more concentrated version of the liquid nitrogen torment she had endured previously. With the passing of several seconds more, Fluttershy was aware of her body shaking, convulsions racking her body as a result of the pressure of the vacuum. The fragile bones of her right front let began to crack, snapping forcefully out of place as Fluttershy had to bite her lip to keep from screaming in agony, holding on to every breath she had.

The yellow color of Fluttershy's coat began to be overtaken from the cold environment and remnants of nitrogen, and a blue discoloration of her skin became evident, causing her to look a pale blue color, lighter than Rainbow Dash's cyan coat. Her oxygen-deprived skin began to putt Fluttershy into a frozen-looking stupor. Despite the conditions her body was being put under, the pony's brain remained undamaged and her heart continued to beat.

"Blue discoloration known as cyanosis occurred within 30 seconds," Twilight muttered as she scribbled down some more notes, carefully observing the vacuum's effects. "Normal reaction to the circumstances, the subject shouldn't live much longer now."

The seconds seemed to each take forever to tick by, every agonizing moment causing the pegasus to mentally beg for the pain to end. She barely knew where she was, only aware of her assertion that Twilight needed to be stopped - through elimination, if necessary.

Pressing the buttons on the side of the machine to release the vacuum's hold, Twilight hurriedly removed the glass casing and dug an adrenaline needle into the side of Fluttershy's neck, assuring that she wouldn't lose the subject to psychogenic shock, both resulting from the oxygen depletion and the traumatizing events she had experienced so far. It was only the mare's expertise in magic and science that was keeping her broken subject alive. The goggles which had saved Fluttershy's eyes from losing their moisture were snapped off, leaving indented impressions on the afflicted mare's face as the subject's normal color began to return.

"Be lucky that you weren't actually in space when I did that," Twilight commented in a cheerful tone. "If I hadn't intervened in those first ninety seconds, your blood pressure would have fallen so sufficiently that your blood itself would boil and your heart would stop beating. Even better, there's no bacteria in space to decompose things, with no bacteria present, your frozen, non-decomposing body would have drifted off into the vacuum of space for millions or billions of years if you were left untouched!"

She turned her head swiftly to the brainwave monitor, eyes wide in an attempt to see that elusive Kindness spark. The sphere of light pink energy manifested once again, but its appearance was brief before it vanished once more. Knowing that it couldn't be much more, the eager scientist moved on, somewhat anxious. "Alright, the next letter is P," Twilight announced, moving closer to adjust the position of the table to which Fluttershy was restrained, "and 'P' stands for 'pendulum'!"

"A... pendulum?". Fluttershy recalled what her fading memory told her about pendulums - she knew that they were in grandfather clocks, and sometimes used for hypnotism. Her unease increased, however, when the table was lowered to the floor in a horizontal position. She found herself facing the metal ceiling as the table was secured, and her heartbeat began to quicken.

"Oh, I don't mean the kind of pendulum that's in clocks or used for hypnosis," Twilight clarified with an unsettling tone, trotting out of Fluttershy's view. "I mean something a little more dangerous."

Accompanying the sound of buttons and levers being adjusted, a low hum resounded from the ceiling as a panel slid back to reveal something hidden within its depths. Once the gap had widened enough to allow the hidden device to reveal itself, what appeared to be a large, axe-like construct, the gleaming metal shaped into a low, boat-like base with sharpened edges on the tips of either side.

Twilight grinned at the menacing instrument. "Now this is a pendulum. It's used to slice through a victim's stomach in order to try to force a confession out of them."

Fluttershy shuddered, the sharp metal glinting above her as it threatened to lower and slice her body into jagged fragments of stripped flesh and crushed bone, cracking her skull in half. But she was aware that something that severe would kill her, and the pony inflicting these tortures on her, for the moment, wanted her alive.

With the press of a button, the pendulum steadily began to lower, swinging lazily back and forth, positioned to split its target open from neck to flanks. The eyes of the pony below were wide with horror, the metal glinting ever-closer

Leaning over next to Fluttershy's brain now that it was horizontal, adjusting her procedure accordingly, Twilight began to use her neuron manipulator to distort Fluttershy's memories, implanting another false recollection to further Kindness's separation.

Fluttershy's conscious awareness shifted from the present to the memory she was being forced to experienced. Her past self was strapped down in a similar situation, being tilted back on a platform as a large crowd was assembled around her.

A beige-colored pony with a white mane glared down at her, wearing the uniform of a judge as an identical pendulum swung back and forth, beginning to lower.

"Confess!" the judge pony demanded, leering down at her with a harsh, red-eyed glare. "Confess that you were plotting to overthrow the higher-ups of the Corporation through murder by boiling!"

"I-I didn't do any such thing!"

"She fits the description," one pony was heard murmuring.

"It has to be her," another agreed.

The crowd surrounding the spectacle could be heard shouting, though the vocalizations, rather than screams of terror, were calls of encouragement.

They waned this. They wanted to see her die.

Fluttershy struggled, horror and disgust at the injustice against her overtaking her mind. She attempted to use her wings to pull herself away, but she still remained immobile.

At the same precise moment as in the memory, the large pendulum slice through Fluttershy's abdomen, moving back and forth to pierce the pony's flesh, slicing deeper through the layers of skin and muscle as it lowered upon her."Wh-What are- AAAGGGHHHH!"

Tears spilled from Fluttershy's eyes as she screamed, purely as a reflex from the fissure being carved deep into her abdomen. Blood and strips of muscle covered its surface as it sliced from her neck to her flanks, exposing several of her organs where the indentation was deep enough. The suffering pony was screaming at such a high pitch that it caused Twilight to wince from the frequency.

"ST-ST-STOP!" Fluttershy begged through the agony, trying to get through to the angry shouts of her accusers from the memory she was steadily being tricked into believing. She felt her head spin as she feared she would slip into unconsciousness, and possibly into her death. "You h-have the wr-wrong pony! I'M THE WRONG- AAHHHHHH!""

Her accusers from the fabricated past didn't listen, and neither did Twilight in the present. The only response which the unicorn gave was the scribbling of her quill to take notes, the unicorn in question fixing her attention on the brainwave monitor with bloodshot eyes.

"Come on, come on!" Twilight muttered. "Show yourself, Kindness!"

Another pulse which brought forth a faded spark. Another pulse, stronger and brighter. Then, vanished again.

A breath of irritation from the lavender pony, brow furrowed as she paced around, hoping to break Fluttershy completely at last with enough time to complete her analysis. "How much time has passed? 30 minutes? 45? An hour? Two?" Her mind reeled. "I don't know, no time to really think.. just focus on the Element..." Forcing herself out of her distressed monologue to herself, Twilight raced over to the mechanism which controlled the pendulum, slowing its back-and-forth swinging to a halt before it rose above Fluttershy's maimed underside, eventually reaching its holding space in the top of the ceiling as the metal panel slid back into place.

"I'll clean that up later." Twilight said somewhat hurriedly, forcing another needle of adrenaline to keep her captive awake, then stuck another needle in the pony's side almost an instant later. Twilight was shaking, mane even more disheveled as sweat began to form on her brow. Her magic hold nearly missed the vein that the injection was aimed for as she laughed nervously, heart pounding in her chest.

"Just another thing to keep you conscious, gotta keep you alive despite your injuries, heheh." Her desperation was clearly beginning to show, and she had to take several deep breaths in order to bring her own heart rate to a more manageable level and focus on her task of extracting Kindness.

The unicorn's frantic state didn't escape Fluttershy's awareness, especially with her stamina beginning to return due to the injections. She glared at the unicorn, hoping that somehow the unicorn's unstable mentality would allow her some chance of escape. "Y-You're breaking-"

"I am not!" Twilight quickly insisted, forcing herself to be calm and regain composure. She was anxious to get that Element, and exhausted from a lack of sleep, but she had to keep her mental functions as sharp as possible. "I'm f-fine! Perfectly fine!"

Rainbow Dash huffed in disgust. "Says the unicorn who's planning to 'cleanse' everything through mass genocide."

Forcing a smile, Twilight went on. "Now time for Q, which here stands for a little instrument called a quirt!" Twilight gave Fluttershy a pat on the head that would have been comforting in any other situation, but in this case was a sinister warning. "You probably haven't heard of it - it's a kind of whip with a sharp curved hook at the end!" Using her magic, the whip-like instrument was levitated into view, the sharp hook at the end glinting dangerously. The actual fabric of the quirt was brown and looked somewhat leathery. "The main part of this quirt is made of cow hide, but it can also be formed from the skin of dogs..." her grin grew dangerously wide as the hooked point curled around the base of Fluttershy's nose, "or ponies."

Despite her anger at Twilight, Fluttershy couldn't help a chill going down her back, breathing heavily as she was raised to the standard vertical position. She felt minimal relief that the weapon in front of her wasn't made from the skin of a fellow pony, but the fact that others had formed these quirts out of the skin of their race was unsettling.

Smiling, Twilight once again moved her platform over to stand above Fluttershy's head, lowering the hook of the quip, slowly, across Fluttershy's cheek. The hook pressed against Fluttershy's face, but not quite deep enough to bleed. The unicorn glanced down at her subject, who gazed upward at her in an attempt at veiled fear. "Don't worry, I won't cut your face - I don't want to go too overboard on the blood loss here, only where I feel it's necessary to bring forth the appropriate response."

With that, the forked kip of the quirt was brought down on Fluttershy's right front leg with a sharp crack, digging deep into the surface of the skin. While the nerves in that leg had been dissolved thanks to the hydrofluoric acid, and thus no pain registered to Fluttershy, she was dimly aware of the blood with rose to the surface from the deep cut and trickled down the leg.

Another whistle of air sounded nearby as the whip struck the same leg once again, this time at a sharp diagonal angle from the first cut. With the deep X-shaped wound quickly being accompanied by other cuts brought on by the metal hook of the quirt, the muscle of the pony's limb became visible. Though there was no pain to add to the suffering which Fluttershy had been forced to endure so far, the pegasus was aware that the leg was being mutilated. She turned her gaze upward, now able to speak.

"I.... I h-hate you..."

Though they were words that were somewhat said by force, a part of Fluttershy was beginning to mean it. After everything that Twilight had done to her, it was next to impossible to forgive her for her crimes.

When Fluttershy's right hind leg was sliced by the quirt's pointed end as well, the agony returned as her screams erupted anew. "AAAHHHHHH!" Her voice was shrill, eyes wide from the shock of the metal tip digging into her skin and muscle. Anger surged through her along with the pain jolting through her body, her brainwaves in a fresh turmoil. "ST-STOP! STOP!"

Twilight, of course, refused to comply, only noting down the levels of pain which her friend was experiencing. Leaning over as before, she lowered the neuron manipulator to the surface of Fluttershys brain, using the electrical impulses to alter the neural pathways as before.

Fluttershy was thrown into yet another fabricated memory, her consciousness taking her away to a past that her mind would convince her to have occurred. As Twilight observed the monitor to see into Fluttershy's vision, she observed Fluttershy's experience of being trapped in a cave and restrained by a harness, much as Rarity had been in her encounter with Diamond Dogs.

Fluttershy dimply heard voices from the cart she knew to be behind her. Then there was a harp pain on the back of her neck.

"Move, weakling!" her attacker shouted, whipping her with a quirt again. "This is to be your penance for your so-called kindness!"

The pegasus trapped in the false memory attempted to move her wings, but try as she might, she was unable to lift herself off the ground. With tears of frustration in her eyes, she glanced backward to look at the ponies which were whipping her. One was the lead pegasus from a former memory, the others were a pair of light green unicorns utilizing their magical prowess to forcibly whip her. "S-Stop it!" She winced. "That hurts!"

"Oh, does it?" one unicorn taunted with a laugh. "Well, it's your own fault!"

It was then that she briefly glimpsed the color of the quirts slicing at her skin. The quirts were a pale yellow. The very same color as her coat.

The unicorn on the right noticed her glance. "What's the matter?" he leered. "Have you forgotten that the skin used to make these quirts was your own?!"

Those words were the last thing that Fluttershy heard before one of the quirts extended in a rush, the metal point tearing a large rip in her side - right through, Fluttershy dimly realized, a large stitching present on her side, where her skin had formerly been torn off to create the weapons now being used on her.

"STOP THIS!" Fluttershy screeched, the repeated strikes and lashes causing her to fall limp on the ground, disorientation overtaking her as one hook gripped around one wing, pulling with enough force to tear the top half clean off. "AAAAAAHHHHH P-PLEASE STOP!"

The pulse of the Element of Kindness flashed into awareness once more, seeming to remain a bit longer than previously - it persisted for more than two seconds.

"Yes, yes!"

But the smile faded from Twilight's face as the spark faded away as before.

The unicorn looked noticeably more anxious, scribbling down a brief note on it. "Okay, okay, Kindness is showing itself more, can't be much more to fully bring it forth now..." She forced a laugh. "Heheh, it's gonna be fine. I'll get it..."

Satisfied with the amount of physical affliction and warping on the mind that the bearer of Kindness had been put through for that letter, Twilight at last slowed the whipping to a half, the blood-soaked instrument dripping the crimson fluid into the floor. Levitating a cloth over to clean the weapon of its blood-covered appearance, the whip was set aside to its former holding place to the side of one of the tables.

Fluttershy eventually was brought back into the present moment, hind leg throbbing from the quirt's sharp whips, and she knew the front ailing leg wasn't much better off. The flesh on both legs hung in tattered strips, the muscle stretched along the bone visible under the burst blood vessels. She struggled to control her breathing, feeling somewhat disoriented from the blood loss. A few quick injections from Twilight quickly remedied that, as the unicorn used her magic to connect the flaps of skin together.

"Seeing as the quirt has now served its purpose," Twilight said as she once again adjusted Fluttershy's position to rest horizontally once more, "it's time for us to move on to 'R'." Her violet eyes glinted dangerously, similar to when the Irukandji jellyfish had been used in her arsenal. "And 'R' stands for 'rat torture'! Time to do a little more animal introduction to you, Fluttershy!" She chuckled. "I know you've seen rats before, of course, but this will give you a whole new perspective on them!"

Humming to herself, Twilight trotted over to the other side of the large laboratory, beyond Fluttershy's view, briefly leaving the bearer of Kindness to hear the pounding over her own heart and the trotting of Twilight's hooves across the floor. Soon enough, the defiled mare returned, a large metal cage hovering at her side. As Fluttershy focused her senses on the cage now in front of her, she could make out the forms of several large brown rats. And rather than the friendly animals which Fluttershy was used to taking care of, these rodents seemed much more inclined to attack.

"Don't worry, I can get them to do what I want," Twilight said in a tone of false reassurance. "And that torture from the pendulum is going to be put to very good use here!" She leered at Fluttershy, the pair almost nose to nose as deranged violet eyes stared into the single mint green eye. "My method of rat torture will be interesting for me to observe!". She moved her head away, her smile wide. "Did you know that rats actually think blood is delicious, just like vampire bats? Don't worry though, I won't let these rats nibble at your blood vessels - I still have some more procedures to get through!"

She directed the rats into a bucket, trotting away to retrieve her torch and set it alight. She hurried over to Fluttershy again, quickly turning the bucket upside down and pressed it against the pony's mutilated abdomen, allowing the rodents to scurry across the exposed muscle, struggling to escape.. "With the rats being in this bucket, they're going to need somewhere to go..."

"P-Please, don't..."

Magically controlling the neuron manipulator once more, Twilight forced a further alteration of Fluttershy's memories, making them visible to her on the monitor. In the world of this particular memory, Fluttershy was trapped in a stone enclosure, held down by the white-suited pegasai which she believed to have encountered before.

"There is no room for kindness here," stated a gray-coated, black-maned stallion who appeared to be the leader of this group. His navy blue eyes were steely, and he roughly poked Fluttershy's exposed chest. "We need to teach you a lesson to toughen you up..."

"N-No... please no, no! NO!"

The next instant, Fluttershy experienced the sensation of over a dozen rats skittering all over her body, the pegasai surrounding her with hot metal plates. With the rats having nowhere to go, they began to bite and claw at Fluttershy's body, beads of sweat collecting on the pony's coat, both from the heat of the metal and the paralyzing terror of the rats burrowing into her coat and biting through her skin.

Several of the rats attacked her abdomen just as in the present. Others attempted to burrow into the sides of her hooves. One clawed its way into the canal of her left ear, another taking a snap at her neck, its sharp teeth piercing her jugular vein and adding more agony to the seemingly never ending mass of furry bodies and tiny sharpened claws and teeth.

"STOP!" Fluttershy screamed to the pegasai in her memory, vaguely aware of the quirt against her flesh in the present. "WH-WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!"

"Because you're too soft," the leader said simply. "You must learn to accept punishment."

"I d-d-didn't do anything!"

"That's what you want to force yourself to think," the lead pegasus hissed in a meanacing tone. "You can't fool us."

It was then that Fluttershy let out a furious cry through the pain, her eyes glaring daggers at her tormentors. "You wretched ponies! You'll p-p-pay!" Her voice rose to a higher volume. "I'LL MAKE SURE YOU PAY! AAAHHHH!"

There was a sharp spike of brainwave activity on the central monitor as the spark of Kindness came into view. Twilight's eyes briefly lit up in excitement, only for it to pulse before fading away again. It wasn't free just yet, but at least Kindness was finally beginning to reveal its genetic spark that Twilight desired, appearing in intervals that filled the harmony-seeking pony with a new sense of urgency.

Twilight scribbled down a few more notes as she observed the rats burrowing deep into Fluttershy's abdomen in an attempt to escape the burning heat. "The harborer of Kindness is being quite resilient... clearly feels agony from the experimental rats burrowing into her organs... memory manipulation working smoothly, Kindness is more visible, won't be too much longer." Focusing briefly on the notes of her progress allowed Twilight to calm down slightly.

Fluttershy's shrieks became louder still as the present agony increased, the ravenous rodents now moving along her stomach lines and nibbling through the thin, tangled organ of her small intestine. Each nibble of the rats' sharp teeth added a new level of agony for the afflicted pony, the acids and broken-down food particles staining the rats' teeth as blood from the pony's wounds covered their coarse brown fur.

A wave of nausea came over Fluttershy's body, following by a splicing headache that pounded in her skull. She was half-aware of the sensations, dimly able to separate it from the aguish of the rats gnawing at her soft, exposed muscle and burrowing their way to the organs. She realized through the haze of pain that these waves of symptoms must be the Irukandji syndrome taking effect at last, bringing forth the unpleasant symptoms which her tormentor had previously mentioned.

Fluttershy was aware of the mounting resentfulness which began to invade her mind more completely, digging further into her memories. Twilight's memory manipulation, just as with Rainbow Dash, was causing gaps to be filled in to the damaged pegasus's mind, replacing fragmented recollections with an ever-growing mental web of cruelty.

Twilight's scribbling on her notepad continued, the mare deafening herself to her victim's cries. "Things are going well, Kindness should be extracted soon. Subject can't take much more of the rats now burrowing into her intestines.... moving on to next letter." She then raised her voice so that Fluttershy could hear, placing her notepad and quill down for the time being. "Alright, time to put those rats back into their cage!"

Removing the burning hot bucket, the unicorn used her dark magic to steadily lift the rats away from her test subject, sealing the chittering creatures back into their metal enclosure. "That was interesting, wasn't it?"

"It was... disgusting..." Fluttershy said in a pained hiss. ""How can a so-called harmonious pony like you approve this?!" She winced, head no aching from the symptoms of the Irukandi syndrome beginning to take effect. "It's e-evil!"

"What's evil to some is necessary to others," Twilight insisted, "and for me it's necessary." She placed the bucket and cage which held the rats on the opposite side of the room, close to Fluttershy's trapped animals. Some shrank back a little upon seeing the beady eyes of the rats peering out at them. The mentally sick pony who had trapped them could easily remove her magic shield and set those rats upon them if she chose to.

The pony in question chuckled at their reaction before trotting back over to her captive once more. "With that out of the way, it's time for me to go ahead with 'S' - sound torture!"

Clapping her hooves, clearly excited for this one, Twilight quickly levitated two large, speaker-like devices close to Fluttershy's right and left sides, hooking up the various cables which connected to some of the larger mechanisms, able to properly adjust the frequency level that she planned to adjust for her observations. "Now, as you may or may not know," Twilight said in her "science teacher" tone, "the frequency level of sound waves is measured in cycles per second known as Hertz. And different sound frequencies have various effects on somepony's mind!"

With a gleeful expression, Twilight cantered over to the mechanism that controlled the speakers, setting the proper frequency that she'd need to twist Fluttershy's mind the way she wanted to.

""Let's try this at 20 Hz," Twilight said as she switched on the frequency. "That's called infrasound, just beyond the range of hearing!"

A low hum resounded from the speakers as they were switched on, the sound pressure increasing to a level which began to assault Fluttershy's ears. Through the sound could barely be heard, right at the threshold of hearing, the pressure implemented by the waves was enough to cause discomfort.

Smiling, the unicorn scientist twisted the knob to increase the infrasound's pressure, eager to observe the effect it would have on her subject's brain. And soon enough, those events came to fruition.

An almost tangible dread began to fill Fluttershy's being, though she was uncertain whether it was due to the increasing pressure of the sound oscillation, or the Irukandji syndrome's effects beginning to afflict her further. She suspected it was the former, as the anxiety and terror she experienced only grew worse. Her mind was assaulted with terrible thoughts and vivid images which came to her in the form of hallucinations. The animals she had once cared for, torn limb from limb by an unseen force. The image of Twilight, using her magic to cause insufferable agony to other ponies. The fear that Twilight was lying about eventually killing her, and instead intended to torture her for eternity.

The fluctuation of Fluttershy's brainwaves and heart rate were erratic and tormented, a brief flash of Kindness's spark appearing once more. Then again before fading.

All without the use of memory manipulation.

"Yes, this is brilliant!" Twilight looked ecstatic, clearly pleased with the results of the sound torment she was doing. Ignoring the fact that she could see her friend attempting to flail from the piercing noise that resonated in her afflicted eardrums, the only sensation Twilight was aware of was a joyous euphoria. Every appearance of the spark of Kindness, however brief, filled her with exhileration, whether good or bad for her psyche. It wouldn't be too much longer until she could begin her preparations for the morning.

"Oh don't worry, Fluttershy," she said with a dangerous laugh, trotting over to the control panel as she turned down the frequency of the noise. "There's just one more experiment with sound I wish to do, and this one is more of a test run for what I'll be doing after I'm through with you!"

Fluttershy, remaining eye shut from an attempt to ignore the pounding sonic waves, began to relax sightly as the sound faded and the soundproofed panels were removed. She whimpered, but managed a defiant glare.

The fact that Twilight looked especially devious now, however, wasn't a comforting thought. Fluttershy trembled, remembering what Twilight had told her about her plan to eradicate all chaotic life... what would sound have to do with it?

The unicorn in question levitated a large piece of black metal beside her, a giant circular portion of a speaker with a microphone attached to one side. The mare grinned sadistically. "I figured you ought to be the first recipient to this device, since everypony else will get their turn on a smaller scale," Twilight said, "it's called an audio spotlight!"

"A-Audio.... sp-spotlight?" Fluttershy managed to gasp. She knew what a spotlight was, of course, but she was wary about what this "audio spotlight" would do. "You're gonna... f-focus sound at-"

"Correct!" Twilight exclaimed, her smile widening. "Just like a normal spotlight focuses light in one place, an audio spotlight does the same thing with sound!" She pat the large speaker-like device as if it were a prized science project. "Did you know that the sound a pony hears every day is 90% noise? Just stuff that doesn't really matter?"

"N-No..." Fluttershy muttered with a glower.

"Now you do!" Keeping the audio spotlight in place, Twilight stepped closer to her captive. "Now, you see and hear me talking in front of you right now, just like on any ordinary day, right?"

"So what?" the trapped pony snapped, arching her brow and keeping her mental focus on the resentment toward the unicorn who she had once considered a friend.

"Well, most of the sound from my voice when I talk, the machines here whirring around you - it's all just noise. Background stuff that doesn't matter." The mare smiled lightly, her tone almost joyfully deranged. "But with this audio spotlight, I can cancel out all that..." With a laugh, she teleported out of sight. Her voice echoed from Fluttershy's left. "What direction can you hear me from, Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy trembled, her fear and anger blinding her thoughts, almost causing her to forget which ways right and left were. "My l-left?"

"Correct!" There was another audible signal of Twilight's teleportation. The young mare's voice sounded again, to the right this time. "Can you hear me now, Fluttershy?"

"Yes..."

Twilight moved a little farther away, but kept her directional position the same as before. "Where?"

Fluttershy struggled to speak. "Ri...Right?"

"Good, good! You're getting it!"

The captive let out a snarl. "What the flying feather is this? I don't see how that... stupid sound thing is going to help you. It's... just a spotlight."

Rainbow Dash's eyes narrowed as she scuffed a hoof on their equivalent of ground. She grumbled to herself. "That pegasus is starting to sound like me."

"What the hay is she gettin' at?" Applejack asked nervously, not meeting the eyes of the others as she questioned Twilight's reasoning. The intent of the pony who had murdered her filled her with a cold unease, yet at the same time she was curious as to just how this spotlight would be used upon other ponies as she seemed to be implying.

It was Rarity who responded in her logical monotone. "She's using sound waves to taunt her captive, and with that audio spotlight, it stands to reason that soon we're not going to be able to hear her if the spotlight does what I think it does."

Rainbow Dash snarled, watching intently as she stared at the scientist with an expression of pure malice.

Twilight teleported away again, out of view from both Fluttershy and the limbo-bound ponies. Concealing herself, Twilight stared intently at Fluttershy, pointing the audio spotlight at the intended recipient as she raised the microphone to her mouth.

"Where am I now, Fluttershy?"

The spirits of the deceased ponies didn't hear her words. The only indication that anything had happened was the look of pure terror and incomprehension on Fluttershy's face.

Only Fluttershy had heard Twilight's chilling whisper.

"Hahahaha, that's right, Fluttershy," the scientist hissed in a chilling, unstable voice, "I'm inside your head!"

Rarity took note of the yellow pegasus's petrified expression. "So, it seems that I'm right. The spotlight only focuses sound on one specific point, so that only the one it's being pointed at can hear it. It stands to reason that Twilight there would direct her words into the skull of another pony."

Applejack arched her brow, looking up slightly as she turned to Rarity with a cautious expression. "Do ya think that it'd work if it were pointed at us?"

"Considering our state, I don't think so," Rarity responded, her reply sounding muffled by her clattered jaw before she attempted to slide it back into a more manageable position. "Though we can see and hear her, for the most part, and she can hear us, the fact is that we're tethered in this limbo that she's unable to reach. Anything she tries to do can't physically affect us."

"If only it could be the other way around," Rainbow muttered under her breath. "I'd like to tear into her mind the way she's done to us, and then some."

Meanwhile, Twilight kept her audio spotlight firmly pointed at Fluttershy, grinning as she whispered inside her head. "This device here allows somepony to project words into the heads of whichever pony it's pointed at. And now that I know the bigger one's working properly, I'm confident it'll be able to work with the smaller ones as well!"

"Smaller ones?"

"Yes," Twilight affirmed, "after all, I'm going to sometimes need to whisper guidance or warnings to someone, but I won't want everypony to hear it. It's all science, Fluttershy. Science as part of salvation."

"That's an excuse full of horseapples if I ever heard one," Rainbow hissed as she swallowed more of her own muscle from her right foreleg. She was so filled with a desire to murder the unicorn but unable to do anything that she would likely eat her front hoof down to the bone before the living pegasus finally passed on.

Twilight ignored the words of the broken deceased pegasus, instead grinning widely at Fluttershy. She used the audio spotlight to direct a cold, malevolent laugh within her subject's head, before she spoke without need of the spotlight's workings.

"Why the feather... should I care about them?" Fluttershy said harshly, spite and mistrust evident in her voice. "They probably deserve... to d-die..." Her mint-green eye stared straight at Twilight. "J-Just like you." A small part of Fluttershy's mind was horrified at her own words, attempting to convince herself that she didn't mean it. The bitterness that had warped her mind, however, was causing the bearer of Kindness to be truly sincere in her words.

Twilight blinked, her head whipping around to her hostage, hurriedly levitating her notebook in place. Her eyes were wide in eagerness. "What did you just say?"

"You deserve... to die!" Fluttershy snapped, regaining a little of her strength as her anger gave her a surge of adrenaline. "You and the others who've hurt me... I'll tear the flesh from your bones!"

"She's starting to sound like you," Rarity commented, glancing to Rainbow Dash with an attentive air.

Rainbow Dash scoffed from the hollow void, her gaze slowly looking from Twilight to Fluttershy. "Only because it seems that pegasus and me have a common enemy."

Fluttershy's face contorted. "You and the others... before you kill me... I'll k-kill you!"

Twilight beamed at her friend's spiteful words, scribbling down Fluttershy's words and tone as she let out a gleeful, triumphant laugh. "I love hearing that threat from you!" She cackled, knowing that Kindness would easily be hers soon enough - it had to. "I want you to try to kill me, haha! Go ahead," she challenged, "I dare your teeth to snap at my flesh and tear up rmy muscle." She circled around her prisoner, who was struggling and steadily growing angrier as Twilight spoke in a mocking tone. "I dare you to break my bones and tear out my eyes. I dare you to split my chest and spread my ribcage like the wings of a pegasus in flight!"

"That's just what I'll do!" Fluttershy said bitterly, meaning every word and yet seeming to feel a pang of regret. Some Kindness that still remained. "You and everypony else..."

Rather than feeling horrified at the grusome depictions she dictated of possibilities for her own death, Twilight felt excited to say them. She was clearly getting an emotional reaction out of Fluttershy, and the pegasus's brainwaves were pulsing rapidly, Kindness beginning to appear more and more. It wasn't free, but it was close.

"I welcome that challenge," Twilight whispered darkly. ""You just have to cling to life for a few more procedures, Fluttershy. Then you'll relinquish your Kindness and see my plan for eternal harmony begin to rise as it should!"

"If I'm supposed to... die here..." Fluttershy questioned, her one-eyed gaze strong despite her agonizing wounds, "then how am I supposed to see your plan be brought... to life?" Her voice was harsh, aggressive, almost like Rainbow's spite-filled voice.

Twilight of course, fully expected Fluttershy to join her broken friends in the void-like space in which they apparently resided. She didn't entirely know how they were there, or why, but in a way, it was better - they'd all get a front row seat to see the beginnings of a harmonious reality that Twilight herself would bring about. She laughed gleefully, glancing at Kindness's bearer.

"You'll see, my friend... you'll see." She trotted off to retrieve the next item on her alphabetical list, appearing a little more hurried in her movements as she looked at the monitor. Gazed carefully for the spark of Kindness that was steadily appearing. "Kindness is almost gone! Just a few more letters to go..."

With a sinister chuckle, the unicorn returned with another transparent container, this one containing a black, sticky-looking substance that was clearly boiling. Her eyes shone like the hot coals the substance had been formed from.

"Ever been around boiling tar before?"