"Trixie? Who invited YOU to this party?" asked Applejack. Rarity echoed that sentiment.

"Actually, I'm not Trixie, I was Twilight last time you saw me at that party in the Castle," I stated.

"Oh, wait -- yer the killjoy, ain't ya!" Applejack grinned. "Ah brought somethin' special ta loosen ya up fer this party! A batch of special blend number four Apple family Cider!"

"Aww yeah! Let me have some of that too!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed excitedly.

"Ah didn't bring enough fer everypony, but ya can have some, RD."

The party was a rather lively little get-together, and the girls were enjoying themselves thoroughly. I was helping myself to some of the cider, noticing a slight alcoholic tang to it. I was regaling the mares with my adventures, such as they were in the alternate universe and how Diane had gotten the better of me. All of them laughed heartily at both my antics and the fact that I got thrashed pretty badly by the pink pegasus. I told them of how sad things were over there and how I wanted to help them. The ones I hadn't told about Nightmare Moon earlier were shocked to hear about what was going on. When I told them of Princess Celestia's request not to interfere, they reacted nearly the same way Rainbow Dash had earlier. Twilight once again related the Sun Goddess' earlier warning, which elicited more expressions of surprise.

"Maybe we should all travel to Canterlot tomorrow to address Princess Celestia together to explain the situation. I for one would like to hear from her myself her exact explanation -- I don't want to hear 'because I said so' come out of her mouth," I said.

"But you already talked to her, Michael! You heard what she said! I even read her letter to you! We can't disobey her!" Twilight pleaded.

"Methinks thou art too close to thy teacher," I mused, eliciting a few chuckles from the others.

"Okay, we'll go first thing tomorrow. I still say it's a bad idea, and I won't be surprised if she tells us not to go," the lavender mare stated flatly.

We continued talking, had a wicked pillow fight where I conjured up a few memory foam pillows just for giggles, playing a few silly games, and consuming more cider, getting progressively more inebriated as the party wore on. The liquor got me to open up to the others about certain things that had been on my mind back on Earth and this also included my true feelings about my marriage, my job, my money situation and an almost crushing depression about having squandered all the potential I had had about 30 years ago or so, that and the fact that those years had been wasted in such a frivolous manner. I didn't think I was trying to play for sympathy, but the mares offered me some condolences. Twilight expressed a curiosity about having me describe in further detail my activities as a human, but the others told her not to delve too deeply into that, as doing so would start a conversation that would last into the wee hours of the morning, and we all needed a good night's sleep for the train ride to Canterlot in the morning.

"Michael, darling, how about another cup of cider? One more to help you sleep better," Rarity offered.

"Sure, I guess one more wouldn't hurt," I mused. I took the cup from Rarity using my telekinesis, but my state of drunkenness prevented me from doing well with that and I spilled some of the cider onto the floor.

"WATCH WHAT YOU'RE DOING! BE CAREFUL WITH THAT!" she shouted at me a bit louder than she should have. The others stared at her with a little confusion at her outburst. "Oh, sorry, darling, just use your hooves to hold it, I forgot myself for a moment there."

I took the cup, holding it in my hooves and downed it in one long gulp. I appreciated the taste of good cider, even if it did have a bit more alcohol in it than I thought it should. I felt the buzzing sensation in my head deepen as the liquor caused me to feel even more fatigued. "Ladies, I think it's about time for me to hit the hay. Been a long day," I stated flatly. Not even a minute after the words had left my mouth, I lost consciousness.

"Looks like Trixie's out like a light," Rainbow chuckled.

"What should we do with her?" asked Fluttershy.

"I'll take her to my boutique, I have an extra room there. I'll make sure she's nice and rested up for morning," Rarity offered.

----------------------------------------

A cold sensation was about all I could feel on my back. I woke up and tried to stretch, but found my legs strapped to a metal table. I tried to move and couldn't. I opened my eyes to see a very bright light above me, so bright it hurt my eyes to look at it. I struggled on the table, trying to wriggle myself free.

"Ah. Good. You're awake," came a female voice from behind me. I couldn't quite place it, but it sounded familiar.

"Um, where am I?" I asked a little nervously. I tried focusing magic through my horn, or where my horn should have been. I felt a sharp pain where my horn used to be and felt warm liquid dribbling down my forehead.

"Where you are doesn't matter," she said coldly.

"What did you do with my horn?!" I shouted.

"You mean this?" she asked, levitating it in front of me. She had broken it off somehow and was taunting me with it. "Can't risk having you teleport out on me, now can I? How stupid do you think I'd be to let you keep this?"

"Would you please let me go?" I asked. She chuckled. I saw a pale blue glow around me, then felt myself being lifted into a vertical position so I could see the walls of the room I was in. A sick feeling hit my gut as I saw just what my situation really was. The room was dark other than the overly bright light, but against the wall to my right were several flat skins of what had been at one time live ponies, one of which looked very familiar, though it had blotches of hunter green paint on it. On the wall to the left, which had originally been painted white, were words scrawled out in dried blood. I started reading what had been written and my face dropped.

"You can't be serious," I stated. "You wouldn't dare."

"So. You already know why you're down here, don't you?" she asked very icily. She came into view at this point.

"I don't believe it. I was trying to find out whether or not this was true in that other universe, not THIS one!"

"Regardless of that fact, you're here now."

"I thought we were going to see Princess Celestia," I offered.

"We had a discussion last night after you passed out. We came to the determination that the Princess' position was the right one, and that YOU were trying to interfere! We could not allow that."

"So why kill me?"

"Heh. We did something else with you as well. We took you to the Library and had Twilight hook her memory device up to you. We looked through all of your memories, including the human ones. We were shocked by what we saw and made the decision to have you stay with me. Little do they know what I plan to do to you, darling!"

"Do they know you're a murderer?"

"Not yet," she said, using her telekinesis to grab hold of my left ear and a sharp knife with a serrated edge. She came closer to me with the knife, readying it to start cutting my ear.

"Please don't do this," I begged. I regretted saying this immediately

"There's a reason I wrote what I did on that wall there," she growled and made the first incision to the base of my ear.

"AAAAAHH!! STOP!" I cried. Tears started streaming from my eyes as she continued to cut, my screams of pain rending the air. She ignored my pleas and screams begging for mercy as she cut my ear almost completely off, the blood flowing down the side of my head. With my ear hanging by just the sinew, she grabbed hold of it in her teeth and pulled it off, eliciting yet another howl of pain from me. As the pain subsided for a moment, I started whimpering as she made her way to my right ear.

"You see, darling, what you did as a human was so reprehensible I feel entitled to do this to you. Screaming is not going to help you as I have soundproofed this room, and begging for mercy? Well, let's just say that bringing about your death is probably as merciful as I'm going to be." She then started cutting my right ear, which prompted more screaming and crying from me. As with my left ear, when she got almost all the way through it, she stopped cutting only to bite my right ear, tearing it off with a sharp jerk of her head.

"Please! Please! Don't do this! I never meant to harm anypony!" I whimpered, the pain forcing streams of tears from my eyes.

"You can stop begging me for mercy. You're down here now and you're going to die. That's all there is to it, Trixie."

"My name's not Trixie! I'm only in her body! You wouldn't do this to me if I were still in Twilight's body, would you?"

"You have a point there, Trixie. I don't recognize you as a human -- you gave up your human identity so you could be Trixie."

"But one of those pelts up on the other wall is Trixie's! I was wondering why I hadn't met her -- how long ago did you kill her?"

"That doesn't matter. What matters is making you suffer as much pain as possible for what you did in the past. I know the real reason you came here -- you complained about your wife, your awful existence as a human, and you wanted an escape. Well, I shall provide it for you!" she shouted as she took a bigger knife and moved to my left side, sizing up my midsection. I watched in horror as she maneuvered the knife to a point midway up my neck.

"You're gonna hit my carotid artery, aren't you? Gonna make it quick, yes?" I asked.

"You wish. I'm going to slice you lengthwise from your neck to your groin, then crosswise about halfway down. You're going to be awake for the whole experience, Trixie!" With that, she forced the knife into my flesh, cutting in short strokes, causing me extreme pain. My blood flowed freely from the deep cut and I screamed even louder as the pain was far more severe as she continued cutting my body. I watched the knife cut further down, the strokes being of uneven depth, hitting various organs as she cut further down. I could only whimper and whine in protest, occasionally screaming as a particularly deep cut was made. The blood loss was starting to get to me at this point and I felt faint.

"Oh no, we can't have you falling asleep just yet. I'm still not finished with you, Trixie!" she exclaimed cheerfully. She took a syringe with what appeared to be a day-glow yellow colored liquid in it, inserted it into my neck and depressed the plunger, releasing the entire contents of the syringe into my bloodstream. Almost immediately this drug filled me with adrenaline, restoring my wakefulness and alertness. I was aghast to see that she had already cut me crosswise, making a large cross-shaped cut down the length and width of my body.

"Okay, good, you can watch me finish this up. I will start with your stomach," she grinned, pulling it from under what now served as flaps of my body. She used her telekinesis to make the large knife cut my stomach away from my esophagus and intestines, laughing almost maniacally as she did so. As if I couldn't scream any louder, I did so as the pain of having an internal organ cut away without anesthetic tore me apart. My tears had a race with my blood to see which could flow faster.

"I grow weary of this, Trixie. I think it's time to put an end to it." I watched in utter horror and shock as she took one of my lungs and cut it away, then grabbed the other lung and cut it away as well. Without my lungs, I couldn't scream or breathe and the lack of oxygen caused my immediate death.

"You only live twice, Trixie," she grinned.

Author's Notes:

In case anyone's wondering, this is a dream sequence and represents an important part of this story. Rarity represents the main character's conscience in this sequence.