You Can't Always Speakeasy

Note gulped nervously as she paced outside a large doorway. She glanced up and down the hall, but they were empty. “Come on, Note, you can do this. Nopony is here. Nopony will know. King never directly forbade you from entering, he just said I shouldn't. Just one little peep,” she mumbled to herself as she poked the door knob.

“But what if King finds out and gets angry?” she whined as she turned her back to it. “No, no! He even said he didn't really care. I'm sure whatever is in there is harmless. Heck, I bet he only said I shouldn't go in here or the other rooms so he could make me squirm and guess. Hmph. That's definitely something he'd do. Okay. Let's go.”

The unicorn reached out and popped open the door as she held her breath. Nothing happened. She didn't hear anything. Didn't see anything. It was completely silent and still. “Oh, that's all?” she mumbled as she stepped forward and started breathing. She let out a shriek of fright as the smell slammed into her nostrils and practically pile drove her into the ground. She jumped back as her eyes watered from the rotting stench. Her horn glowed as she slammed the door shut and retched on the ground, quickly losing the bagel she'd had for breakfast, before crawling away. After a few moments she stared at the door and shook her head.

“K-king is an evil, sadistic b-bastard... he did that on purpose. I just know it,” she groaned as she slowly got to her hooves and moved to the bathroom. She splashed water on her face as she tried to purge the memory of the stench. She spat into the sink a few times, trying to lose any trace of that smell from her body. She hopped into the showered and began cleaning up.

After a long, steamy she stepped out and headed to the bar. Grabbing a dust bin and broom she headed down to clean up the majority of her mess, fortunately the ground was mostly stone and dirt, her room the only actual carpeted area, so the mess was quickly cleaned. Once she was done she took a seat at one of the tables. “I'm so borrrrred,” she whined.

She had been trapped down here for almost a week. Everyday King would come down and work on her spell with her until she felt like she would almost pass out. She'd been able to extend her vision to nearly an hour, though it was difficult, exhausting and made her horn throb for a while. Still, after lessons she was able to talk to the stallion and was finding him to be quite interesting. That or the days were so boring that she'd have found a rat interesting.

Night time was always the best, Knight made it a habit of visiting her and they'd talk until he was forced to head out with Rook. He always came back to see her after the job was done, and they'd talk until he had to leave.

Note was also getting better at singing. She'd written a half dozen songs since arriving and made sure to cycle at least eight different ones a night. While most the guests didn't seem to care, a few approached her after and told her how beautiful her voice was. A few had even approached her for far most noble reasons, which she had respectfully declined. Her ego was being helpfully inflated though.

Unfortunately, it was Wednesday. She still had a few days until she could do any singing and was basically given free range to investigate her new home. She'd already explored almost every inch, aside from a few rooms King had told her to stay out of(now she knew why), and had found that there was a lot of storage for alcohol, but nothing to actually do.

With no better options she had resorted to doodling on napkins, writing down strange little sayings like 'A penny in the pocket is worth two in the gutter' or 'Never grab a bird by the tail feathers' or even 'I'm a griffin trapped in a napkin factory, send help.' As she finished her doodling she glanced towards the clock and let out a soft groan. “Hurry uuuuup! Ugh. I'm. So. Borrrrrred!” she whined as she banged her head on the table. “This is all a plot by King, I know it. An attempt to drive me insane! But it's not going to work, you hear me?! I'm completely sane! Lots of people talk to themselves! It's normal!”

She let out an annoyed grunt before she slowly moved behind the bar. All of the drink serving equipment was there, but dismantled. She picked up two small metal tubes. “Hmph. I've seen him put this together a few times, how hard can it be?” She stopped and put it down. “Maybe I should check...” Her horn lit up as she cast her spell. After a few seconds she took a step back, her face pale. “No no no no noooo. Not doing that. Nevermind. King would outright kill me!”

Dejected, the mare made her way to one of the tables and sat down. She glanced towards the exit before shaking her head. “No. Even if you knew how to trigger the door, King would probably get pissed. If he wanted me out he'd have shown me how to... get out. Ugh. I hate this. I'm not just some prisoner. Oh, who am I... huh?” she sat up as she heard sounds echoing from the stairs. The tunnel worked as an amplifier, so they could hear whenever any pony came by. She got to her hooves and darted to the bottom of the stairs. “About time! Maybe I can ask King about a few books or something,” she grumbled as she closed her eyes and cast her spell again.

She watched as the next few minutes passed by. The sounds above disappeared and a moment later an explosion tore through the roof of the staircase. Rubble dropped down, burying her as she tried to run away. As she watched the rocks crushed her, making it impossible to breath as blood dribbled from her mouth, the lower half of her body almost completely flattened. A few of the sharper bits of rock and fragments of metal were lodged into her chest. She stared up as ponies began walking down through the rubble, a gun was leveled at her face and the last thing she saw was the flash of gunpowder before darkness.

She reappeared in the real world, her entire body shaking as she backed away. “W-who? What? Why would, AHHHHH!” she screamed as she turned and ran. She darted down the hallway behind the bar, stopping only a moment to grab one of the knives from behind the counter. A second later she felt the ground shake as dust and rocks filled the room behind her.

“Go go go! Kill anything that resists!” a stallion's voice called from behind her. She kept running, looking around wildly. Nothing offered her the sense of security she wanted.

With only a few seconds to hide, she galloped past her room and looked under her bed. “No, too obvious. They'll find me. There's just... just one place.” Holding her breath as best she could, she dove into one of the horrible smelling rooms. She gently closed the door behind her as she looked around. The room was completely dark. She tried groping for a light switch on the wall, but felt nothing. Her lungs began to burn, pleading for air as she struggled to hold it as long as she could. Behind her, she could hear the ponies banging down doors and yelling. With no other option, she slowly began moving through the room towards the opposite side.

Unable to hold it back, she finally took a soft breath. It felt like she got punched in the face, the stench assaulting every sense she had, she could almost hear how bad it was. She managed to barely avoid retching as she slowly walked across the floor.

After a few moments the ground became wet and sticky, she tried not to imagine why. Suddenly something was in front of her and caught her hoof, tripping her up. She stumbled forward and hit a whole pile of whatever it was. She collapsed on said pile as more sticky wet gunk coated her. She went completely still, surrounded on all sides as she tried to not imagine what it could be. The smell was almost unbearable as she struggled to not pass out. After a few seconds the door behind her creaked open and a small beam of a flashlight coated the room.

“Mother of Celestia,” the pony in the door turned and lost his lunch, the sound nearly breaking her control of her own desire to retch. Unfortunately, the pony's movements made the beam shine directly in front of the hiding pony.

She stared into the eyes of a long dead corpse, its mane long since fallen out and eyes glazed over and gray. She couldn't help herself. The bile rose in her stomach as she tried to scream, both sounds mixing together to form a crescendo of gagging, retching shrieks. It didn't take long for more beams to fill the room and her to see that the things she had tripped over and landed on were corpses, long deceased and some leaking fluids. She got to her hooves and backed away, so panicked she didn't hear the words yelled behind her. The last thing she remembered were the bodies staring up at her, before the stiff blow to the back of her head.

Note groaned as her eyes slowly opened. Her body hurt all over and her head felt as if if had been split open. She tried to reach a hoof up to rub it, but found it couldn't move. She shrieked as she tried tugging her hoof away, but something had it trapped. She tried to look around, but she couldn't move her head either and she could could see only blackness.

“HELP!” she screamed as she tried moving and shaking her head. She heard a light clank as she finally realized her hooves were shackled down. She tried to use some magic, but her telekinesis couldn't budge whatever held her. “Somepony, help me! Anypony!”

“Nopony is coming to help you,” a voice said. An all too familiar one.

“I-Ironback?” she squeaked softly as her entire body began to shake. She felt some pressure on her head as vision returned, the blindfold lowered from her eyes. She looked around as best she could without moving her head. She was inside a small stone room. The pony of her nightmares stared back at her, though rather than a confident smirk he looked angry. She gulped nervously.

“I warned you the first time,” he growled as he reached up a hoof and backhoofed her. She couldn't even move her head with the blow, the device holding her head in place cutting into her horn. “I told you if you tried anything again, I'd have to make an even bigger example of you.”

“I-I, what? What are you talking about? I-I haven't done anything!” Note whimpered, a moment later a second blow making her cheeks bleed.

“I'm in a lot of trouble, thanks to you and your little friends,” he growled. “To think, I finally track down their hide out, and you're found? How did you even get them to help you? Start using your body in the proper way?”

“I-I don't know w-what you're talking about, please, I-I never did anything to you! I-I just want to go home, pl-” she was silenced as a blow hit her in the stomach, knocking the air out of her.

“When I'm done with you, you're going to wish I'd just sold you to Goldenshot,” the stallion growled as he stepped out of the room. “But first, I think it'll be best to have you cleaned up. Don't worry, these ponies are professionals. You won't be the first slave they clean.”

“W-what?” she asked as the stallion walked from the room. A moment later two more ponies entered the room, carrying a soapy bucket and a toilet brush. She tried to block out what happened next as they cleaned the gunk from her body. She closed her eyes and hummed her mother's songs as the coarse brush dug into her skin, rubbing parts of it raw as the two ponies cleaned her.

When they finally finished she was unstrapped, her entire body felt as if it was rubbed raw. Even worse was the humiliation at their abuse and shame when she looked up and saw Ironback watching from the window.

“E-enjoy the show?” she snapped as she was slowly led from the room, glaring at him.

The stallion backhoofed her once again, so hard she crumbled to the ground. He then glared back at her as he reached out and gripped her by the horn, forcing her to look up. “Listen, Note. You're mine. Don't you dare raise your voice to me. Understand?”

“Y-yes...” she squeaked pathetically as she tried not to cry.

“Yes, master,” he said as a wicked grin formed on his lips. He forced her head back as he pushed her horn. “Say it.”

“Y-yes master!” she shrieked as tears started to flow down her face.

“Good,” he said as he released her. “Be thankful I'm letting you keep the horn. I happen to like my mares with something to hold onto. Now get up.”

She slowly got up and hung her head. “Why... why are you doing this? I-I'm sorry I-I talked to your boss, but y-you took my job for it. Wasn't that enough?”

“You think this is about that?” he asked with a chuckle. “No. This is about hijacking my shipments. You've got me in a lot of trouble with my bosses thanks to your little thefts.”

“I-I don't have any idea what you're talking about! Please, this is all a big mistake! L-listen, just let me know, I'm sure the others are looking for me right now. I-if they find out you foalnapped me they'll-”

“They'll what?” the stallion smirked as he reached out and gripped her horn again. “They'll come here, looking for you? I'm counting on it. These are some of Goldenshot's best. Your little friends are going to get slaughtered if they try a damn thing. They will, too. I've made sure they'll have no problem tracking you down here.”

She whimpered as she stared at him, chewing on her lower lip. “But... but...”

He moved in and whispered in her ear. “Then... when they're dead... it's going to just be me, and you. I'm going to take every single problem you caused me out of your hide. When I'm done you'll wish you'd just let me rape you in that linen closet. Tartarus, with a body like that you'd have enjoyed it. Now though? I'm going to enjoy watching you writhe and scream.”

Note stood there and trembled. She looked into his eyes, so cruel and merciless. She slowly chewed on her lower lip before lifting her right hoof and taking a swing at him.

Ironback caught her hoof in his own and twisted it, toppling her over onto her back. He then drove his other hoof down on her chest. “Now now, if you want me to start now, I have no objection,” he laughed as he let her hoof go. He gripped her horn again and forced her onto her stomach before slamming a hoof down on her back. “Perfect, now let's see what that little body of yours can do.” He moved over her, holding her pinned with one hoof as she struggled to crawl away.

“S-stop! Please! I'm sorry! I didn't-” she was cut off as he slammed her head into the ground.

“Keep your mouth shut for now. Don't worry, I can use it later,” he growled as he positioned himself.

The building suddenly shook as something crashed below them. The stallion let out a curse. “Damn it, couldn't wait a few more minutes?” Slowly Note felt the weight coming off her back. He grabbed her by the neck and dragged her besides him. “Come on, let's go say goodbye to your little 'friends'.”