Author's Note

Hold the rage... this is NOT OVER yet.
Also, there is sex in here... Just a warning. It's in BOLD if you want to avoid it.

Chapter IV : Inferno

Chapter 4 : Inferno

You didn't want to wake up. If you stayed a sleep it would mean that tomorrow would never arrive, you wouldn't have to face the inevitable. There was going to be no white knight, no release. Nothing to aid in escape. Just an entire day of waiting for the guards to show up and take you to the gallows where it would all end.

The lack of windows and the constant level of light was infuriating. Normally you would sleep for eight hours at night, but with no clock to track time it could be noon for all you know.

You stood up, having slept strait up with your back in the corner it ached for movement. Ponies were not meant to sleep like that. A slow walk around the cell removed the twinge of pain, but left a subtle burning sensation to let you know it still needed some recovery from the stiffness.

The shackles felt heavier, though they remained the same. it became harder and harder to lift each hoof off the ground, letting them drag over the surface instead. The collar felt heavier as well, and with it's weight you lowered your head, making it horizontal with your torso.

Maybe this was acceptance? Everything giving up and slowly shutting down as there was no reason left to carry on, leaving just a withered husk that had very little strength to fight back. You went back to the corner and sat down, looking out through the bars.

Breakfast had been served, or was it lunch? The tin tray and pewter mug had already been pushed through the seperation near the floor into the cell. It was two pieces of toast that had been wetted with butter, a pastry with yellow goo inside and the mug held orange juice. With a small nibble on the side of the pastry, you determined it was lemon custard inside a doughnut of sorts and was halfway decent.

The orange juice was the last to go. It was fresh and pieces of pulp clung to the bottom of the cup from squeezing. That was definitely breakfast, but the food was cold, indicating that it had been there for quite a while. You set the mug back down near it's origin on the tray and nearly covered up a piece of paper folded on the tray. It had been sitting perfectly under the mug.

You heart shot into your throat. Was this it? Had Luna actually pulled through and secured your release? Carefully you folded the paper out to reveal the note on it. The letters were written rather carefully, not a hasty scribble. It read:

Dear Traveler,

I hope that this news is not met with anger, but the realization that there are many more that go against my judgement. I inquired at Ember's residence, finding exactly what you had said, and became clear that it's purpose was used as an exfiltration point for Ember.

I spoke with both Twilight Sparkle and my sister, Princess Celestia. While they acknowledge that the possibility of her having escaped is just as good as her ability to fabricate a lie to save herself, they both remain adamant that Ember is to expire at the end of the day.

I believe firmly that you are not Ember, and would stake my life in your stead if it was allowed. There is nothing more I can say to express my great sadness as to this turn of events.

The stallion you had mentioned, Private Arrow, will be bringing by a gift during his shift.

Everything will turn out fine,

With regret,

Princess Luna

"GOD DAMMIT!" You shout, tossing the letter to the floor and sending an angry hoof towards the tray, sending it clattering across the room and into the opposing cell's bars where it rang out. No guard came in to see what the noise was, as there were none stationed at this early in the morning.

Fuck Luna, fuck Celestia, fuck Twilight and all her fucking friends. Fuck all these fucking ponies. They were more concerned with their own goddamned feelings than actually getting the one responsible for all this mess. Content with just murdering you because you looked like her.

You begin to slam your body up against the cell door, screaming in rage. Still no guards came and you kept beating and beating against the door. There was no pony there to stop you, and the door was not going to move. You just screamed out until there was nothing left and slid to the floor, your side hurting too much to carry on.

Once on the ground, the rage seemed to disappear and turn into tears. Everything was set in stone now. Luna was the last beacon of hope, and instead of doing what was right, she was just going to ignore the facts and go along with her sister and let you die.

NO, you stomped your hoof to the ground. Luna had to have something planned, something up her sleeve. If there was any pony who knew what this was it was Luna. She wasn't going to let herself get railroaded like Twilight, she was going to stop this, in a clandestine way if need be.

The note said that everything would turn out fine. Truth be told it was a little vague, but there was no reason to put something like that in there if nothing was going to happen. You were going to live and that was the end of the story.

With the tide of tears stemmed for now, you go back over to the note, there was one last part you had glanced over. The unicorn guard was going to be bringing a gift by. That was a bit puzzling as well, whether the gift was part of the salvation, or he himself was the gift remained to be seen.

When was his shift? Last night he had been working rather late in the evening, not the night shift, but during the normal dinner time. It would be cutting it rather close if that was the case. Maybe he was going to be the way out. Not much time left though. It may be halfway through the day already.

You began to pace nervously around the cell, the chains between the shackles rattling noisily off the floor. If you were gone before they came down to drag you away, there would be ample time to escape out of the city. If plans were to make an escape available during the transportation, it would be much harder, if not impossible to do.

Again, the only thing you could do was wait. The pacing stopped after several minutes and then you retired to the corner to watch out through the bars to watch the nothingness around you happen. Not knowing the exact time it was, and when the execution was scheduled was bothersome, irking you to no end, as every minute that ticked by was time lost from an black hourglass.

Losing track of time in an environment where the only steady way of tracking it was mentally counting off the seconds, and that can become greatly skewed very quickly, what seemed like an entire day had passed before there was any noise not of your own.

It was muffled set of hoof-clops, no way of telling if the time had drawn near for escape or if it was all over. They approached closer and closer, finally entering the door. With a bit of relief the unicorn guard from last night entered the room, though completely without the golden set of armor, wearing a saddle bag instead.

"Hello." he said, closing the door as he entered and levitating the saddle bag from his flank to the floor in the center of the room.

"Hello." you replied back. You wanted to ask him right away if he was the way out, what gift he was bringing, but thought not to. If the rescue was was going to be low key, it would be a jeopardized by the mention of it if he were not involved. It was best to let things play out as they happened and play dumb in the mean time.

"Hey, I'm sorry about last night. I realize that it was a moronic thing to do, and I let my body make decisions and put you in an awkward position." You lowered your tail between your legs and never made eye contact while saying this.

"It was." he nodded slightly "I am here on Princess Luna's behalf."

"Oh?" You ask, waiting for the sweet words that will whisk you away and to freedom.

"I'm here for your last request."

"Oh... Any anything else?"

"No, not at the moment." he answered. "Did you reconsider and want to change your request?"

"I-" you paused for a second, considering other options. "I'm guessing to go free is not on the list?"

The unicorn shook his head no.

"If it is a question what what I need, then that would have been the only thing, freedom or to go back where I belong. Those are the only things I need. If it is something I want, the only thing that comes to mind is what I requested, as selfish and as completely uncalled for as it might seem."

Private Archer, wasn't it? Nodded. He seemed a bit more confident than last night, but still was reserved, holding back.

"This isn't uncomfortable for you, is it? I don't want it to seem that it is all I care about. It's just that I have never done such a thing, and with options as limited as they are, I just think that it's something I would like to experience before the end." Of course you knew that it wasn't the end, a plan was in motion to avoid the reaper.

"I would have to admit, it is a bit uncomfortable to jump into such things as suddenly as this."

"We can call this off, I don't want you to do something because I'm being selfish." You felt like a complete jackass for letting this go any further. It was something that should be called off, Archer seemed to be here on Luna's accord and not of his own volition.

"If this was something I was not comfortable with, I would have turned it down, and would not feel ashamed to do so." He said firmly, sensing your want to dance around the issue.

Pushing the lingering guilt about him being stuck in this situation, unable to refuse an order from the Princess, you nod and begin to wonder how to get things started. Last time he had walked in on your activity, reacting to the situation. It would seem that at the moment neither of you were going to get anywhere, as you were both on the starting line with cold engines.

"Well, I guess we should get started..." you mumbled.

Archer nodded and unlocked the door with his magic, stepping inside the cell.

"How does this work?" You ask, a bit unsure of how things went from a dead stop between to ponies.

"Turn and expose yourself." he said coolly, taking charge of the situation.

You turned your plot towards him and shifted your tail off to one side, pulling the chain between the shackles taught, ready for him to immediately jump upon your back. What happened next took you by surprise.

A warm pair of lips met yours in what felt like a kiss. You tensed up and jumped in your skin at the touch, releasing a small gasp. Last night he was hesitant and seemed to withdraw from the room once he knew what you were doing, but now he had dove right in, inhibitions gone.

The unicorn's lips ran slowly on either side of your folds, tracing a slow circle, following the dry outline with his fine furred mouth, letting his hot breath blast from his nostrils onto your floor chilled nether. This was much less barbaric than what you knew went on with the equines on Earth, it felt tender and natural.

As a bee was drawn to flowers for their nectar, the stallion hovered his lips over your part, hoping to find some sustenance as well. You remained there, standing still and enjoying the attention he was giving you. Of all the times you had done such things, it was only you, the touch of another attempting to bring forth the same sexual arousal felt alien. You knew where to touch, where to stroke and pull, but at the mercy of another left a bit to be desired. By now you would have been feeling relaxed and the onset pleasure wave that would have been the first of many seemed absent. You let him continue uninterrupted, he was still feeling things out and gauging a reaction to the attempts.

You gasped as his tongue slipped from his mouth and licked a path clear between your mound, making a small separation that went no deeper than the the protrusion from your body. The action sent a shiver of pleasure through your muscles that he picked up on and ran his tongue several more times in the same motion. This whetted the dry folds of your plot, making each subsequent pass glide smoother and smoother, pulling less skin away from it's intended location and leaving only a hot piece of flesh working it's way inside.

His focus shifted. No longer sliding between your lips he placed his lower lip below the boundary of your part and the upper lip right on top the clitoris. He gave a gentle tug with his lips, pulling the button from it's resting spot between the mound and into his wet muzzle, suckling the piece as if it were a teet. He drew more of the malleable flesh into his muzzle through a vacuum and then released slowly, letting the sensitive piece glide across his lips in a stimulation that caused a squeak to emerge from your mouth.

You were not sure about him, but any second thought you had about doing this faded and was quickly replaced with an overpowering urge to satisfy the itch he had scratched. It became all you could think about, getting him to climb on your back and bury himself into you plot.

You were wet, each time his nose moved across your mound it let each side slip across the liquid estrous that had painted itself on your part. He pressed his nose against the wetness and inhaled deeply, drawing in a sharp cold with it.

Archer backed his muzzle from you and took several deep breaths, pushing the air drawn into his lungs out in a heaving effort. It sounded like he was trying to clear an obstruction in his sinuses, but rather the estrous has begun to do it's job, arousing him into a wild state bent on reproduction. He as doing his best to refrain from it's purpose and maintain a level head.

You looked backwards to see his white painted muzzle gleaming with a thick liquid. His stallion-hood had broken from the sheathe, revealing a white and brown mottled shaft hanging in a half flaccid state. It grew larger with each heartbeat, turning the graceful curve into a strait length the longer he stood stationary to breath through his nose.

He passed a smile to you and it made your muzzle turn up in satisfaction as well. Both of your faces turned into a stupor as you knew what was going to happen next.

The stallion pressed a nose to your back and shifted forward, propping himself nearly upright with hooves planted on your flank sides. He scooted his rear legs in closer, bringing what you wanted to bear right at your part.

He paused, arching his hindquarters out and moving his rear hooves almost side by side with yours. The un-flared head on the end of his shaft met your separation and you braced yourself for what came next. It was warm, the head, waiting right outside, leaning against the opening, ready to go inside.

You gasped in a mixture of pleasure and pain. With one quick motion he had pushed his way inside, your heart skipping a beat as your track was expanded from closed to fully open. You eyes began to water and you just wanted him to pull out, the sudden influx of pressure forcing out in all directions from the inside was too much to bear. It was a new feeling, to you and this body you inhabited, forcing shallow quick breaths to your lungs.

As the stallion pushed in further, taking it slow so that the mare flesh had time to stretch to is maximum, you felt over full, as if he were too much. His nose was pressed at the base of your neck and you could feel the short ragged gasps blasting heated air under your mane. He began to withdraw, the pressure began to vanish and was replaced with the sensation of being drained, as if his member had gotten stuck and was dragging out your insides with him.

The bout of discomfort had passed and had been replaced with that of pleasure, your body having adapted to his size as the flexible nature of the mare was always meant to do. Inside you thanked that he wasn't as large as you fantasized Big Mac was, otherwise you were sure your pelvis would have been torn apart by the limb deep inside you. Whatever his size, average or above, it was a bit more than you had expected.

Both of you were panting as if finished with a marathon, him grunting with each exhale and you gasping lightly with each inhale. He was slowly sliding in and out, the bottom of his cock that formed a bit of a ridge and constantly brushed up against the very tip of your clitoral button, turning your knees weak and head in a dizzying array of over stimulation.

You felt bad, as he was doing all the work, thrusting his hips to the echo of wet flash sliding across each other rang through the room while you merely stood there. You began to flex internal muscles intent on slowing him down for a break of the fast pace.

He took this as a challenge though, feeling that you were bent on forcing him out and depriving him of a well earned orgasm. Archer began to dive in more powerful strokes, overcoming any resistance you put up with sheer force. His ragged breathes became deeper and deeper as his effort increased.

This was far from the minute long ordeal equines on earth had, as ponies had human like intelligence that came with the added bonus of endurance. You lost track of time, but swore that at least five minutes had passed, maybe more.

A slow fire had been building, first in your legs and then spreading upwards, it was the beginning signs of an orgasm. The warmth spread to your mound, now fully engorged with blood, began to tingle as muscles tightened. If you could get the stallion to orgasm along with you, it would avoid the unpleasantness of screaming for him to stop before you passed out from too much stimulation before he was satisfied.

He must have been feeling it too, as the thick head deep inside your plot began to expand, pushing outwards with even more pressure than before. With each thrust he paused after bottoming out for a fraction of a second. Archer's light grunting noises began to sound more intelligent, like actual speech. He was nearing the apex, grunting a shallow 'aawwhh' each time he thrust forward. You stopped any vocal interaction, breathing without stifled speech, and remaining nearly silent.

You couldn't hold it any longer, you had stemmed your muscles long enough and they now held you in the grip of an orgasm. You wanted to scream, let all of Equestria know that you were having the time of your life, but instead reared your head back, drew your front hooves together and let out a single long moan that exclaimed your finale.

Everything tightened up, stomach, hooves, pucker and face as the orgasm washed over you. It let go and everything buckled, lost in a wave of uncontrollable pleasure. You front hooves collapsed and you could no longer control them, your rear legs locked into place from the weight of the stallion, but ready to fall once he removed his weight.

You shook, every part of your body was rocked down to the bone, euphoria exploded in your brain and washed out over your body to the point where you swore that your mane quivered in the orgasm. Back behind you, your plot pushed inward and then out separately from the thrusting stallion. You heard a wet smack hit the ground, the fluid stringing in soft tendrils between your plot and its mess on the ground.

You couldn't feel your gender anymore, it had become momentarily numb, along with most of your senses. Your ears rang, your eyes had a thick white peripheral that seemed to swallow the cell floor in front of you. So much of an over load followed that you couldn't make out what you were saying, if it was intelligent and not the squeaks from before.

Archer finished just as your senses started to come back, his loud whinny was the first thing you hear clearly and his thrusting slowed to several weak pushes before he stopped. You felt your innards swell, his load had been deposited and began to fill every inch that was empty.

He pulled his cock out, with it came an avalanche of thick white batter that streamed out onto the floor. His torso stepped backwards off your rear end and it collapsed down to the ground, legs off to one side, as far apart as the shackles would allow. Completely exhausted by the ordeal, you just laid on the ground, letting everything leak out onto your inner thighs.

Archer stood at your side, his shaft had already gone limp and collapsing back into his body, letting anything left in his urethra spill out with no care as to where it landed. You just lay there on the cool floor, it was a blessing after the activity.

He trotted up with unsteady hooves alongside your prone figure and his horn lit up, picking up something off the floor behind your head. You paused to see exactly what it was, a small cone of sorts.

Your heart seized in terror. It was the studding that had been locked to your own horn, now obviously free from your head and no longer stifling the magic, free to use it was you wished.

"When did this happen?" he asked, though his voice didn't sound alarmed, but rather concerned. It was as if he expected it to happen, part of a scripted piece of drama mean to cast you in a shadow.

"NO! I didn't do it, I swear! It must have fallen off!" You shout weakly.

His mouth straitened then he placed it back around your horn to lock it in place again.

You remain silent for a while, pondering what this meant. Did he think you had removed it on your own? Would this affect anything with the plans for later this evening?

Archer said nothing, and removed himself from the cell and retrieved his saddle bag. He lifted a flap and levitated what appeared to be a decanter from inside. The bottle looked odd, it had one side that was neary flat, the opposite rounded, as if it had been cut in half and re-sealed to hold liquid.

Inside the corked container was a liquid, one of a pink hue. He passed it through the bars and removed the stopper.

"You need to drink all of this." he said.

"What? Why? What is it?"

"Something from Princess Luna." he answered.

You eyes flew open, knowing that this must be part of the plan. You take the bottle and pour it's contents into your muzzle.

It tasted like shit, a gritty texture as though sand had been mixed with moldy pink lemonade. You swallowed what your could before removing the bottle from your lips.

"What the fuck is this? It's gone sour." you sputter, feeling the remnants that were not swallowed sticking to your tongue, it's flavor began to rumble in the pit of your stomach.

"Just finish it." he commanded.

You once again take another drink from the glass container nestled carefully between your two front hooves. The second taste was no better, each gulp seemed to stick to your esophagus before giving up and sliding down. It was like swallowing wet sand and it twisted your brain as to what it really was and had to fight down bile rising in the back of your throat.

The unicorn removed the empty bottle from your hooves and placed it back in the saddle bag. Without a word further he went to the door and opened it only after your cell door was shut and locked properly.

"When is..." you ask with a pause, not wanting to think of what was going to happen.

"After dinner." he replied abruptly, then vanished from the room.

What just happened? You asked yourself. The entire aftermath was confusing, some how the studding that prevented you from using any unicorn magic had fallen off. You didn't do anything to the device, but it still fell off. This entire 'Ember' ordeal was beginning to feel more and more like a set up.

Since you arrived in Equestria, it was clear to any pony that took a but a few seconds to watch you, that you were clearly not the antagonist in the drama that was unfolding through you. Twilight, Princess Luna and even Archer, the stallion that had just taken you had to have seen something, thier gut feeling telling them that Ember as they knew was long gone. Leaving just a shell of some new personality that was confused. This all seemed like a set up.

How could they not see? How could the once proud and head strong 'Ember' turn into a quivering mess of a pony and not raise a flag? Some one that had lived most of their life as a self absorbed, egotistical... The thought stopped, as it was beginning to sound like your life. After all, if you hadn't been so anxious to leave everything behind and join in the fantasy of a lifetime, you wouldn't be here. You would be at work, waiting for the day to end and get back into the fake world of MLP where you could view it vicariously without danger of life and limb.

You were here now, and the dream of interacting with the personalities you had grown to love was vastly different. Twilight was hell-bent on destroying you, the Princess sisters were not as understanding as you had believed. You half expected the rest of the main six to have their own real-world flaws. Rainbow Dash would be a speed freak, with the scars and stories of many crashes to share. Rarity would be even more vain, a self critical artist of the fabric that would fall to pieces at the slightest hint of dis-satisfaction of her products. AppleJack would be a flat out red-neck, as country as a hundred miles from civilization would be. Pinkie Pie would be the party animal, with a pocket full of secrets as to why she is always hyper active.

You had your taste of ponies, as they really were, and you just wanted them to leave and make this just a bad memory to write down and share with the rest of the human world. If they would swallow such a dark version of the ponies they loved. Such a tale would be shunned and marked as half truth of a sick mind. It wouldn't matter, as what happened here, you know was real.

Still, if this situation wasn't as grim as it seemed, you could deal with this pseudo human world, filled with ponies instead of humans. Any drama and hardship would be easy to bear as it paralleled your human life, but as a pony. For whatever reason, being a pony would seem to make any situation you encountered feel better, because ponies made everything better.

The guard unicorn mentioned dinner, and not lunch. Was it really that late in the day? If it was, time was of the essence, as Luna's plan was soon going to take effect and it would be time to run.

You picked yourself off the floor, still feeling weak kneed from the sexual events that had transpired. You would need your full strength when the plan came to fruition. It was possible that you would need to gallop many miles before you reached safety.

Enough time had passed for the guard to bring dinner to your cell. Carrots, bread and water, but you couldn't bring yourself to eat. Any hunger that would have been felt was suppressed by the anxious tickle in your stomach, feeling an internal bleeding that would be stemmed but rescue. She hadn't forgotten about you, did she?

After dinner, is what Archer said. After dinner it was going to happen. Guards would come to take you to the gallows, where things would end at a length of rope. Convicted to die for an act you did not commit, innocent in all of this.

Again the thought of death washed over you. Hangings were performed by uncivilized countries on Earth, and the victims of legal or illegal acts usually did not survive. If you weren't rescued, what would it feel like? You didn't know, as it was never something that you looked into. From anything in the papers or select articles online it was fast, a drop and then blackness, the rope long enough to break the neck instead of strangling.

It wasn't going to happen, you told yourself. Even if the guards had come to take you, she would be there, Luna. To save you from the grip of death, you had expected it from her message in the letter. The liquid had to play a part in all of this, why else would have it been passed onto you to drink?

The wire was here, pressing ever closer. Seconds ticked by, and yet there was no flash of light, no flurry of hooves coming down the hall to your cell. Dinner was here, and time had passed. You began to mentally plead for Luna to show up, take you away. Minute after minute passed and she did not arrive. Damn her, damn these ponies. Why weren't they here?

Questions came fast, faster than you could think of an excuse as to why things were going in this direction. The pacing started again, chains noisily dragging across the stone floor as your hooves stepped as far as they would allow. Why? Why hadn't she arrived? Dammit.

For a brief second your heart skipped, as hooves began to clack against the stone floor, muffled through the door. This was it! She was here! You stood stationary in the cell, remaining quiet as they came closer. The time was here.

The door swung open, and to your horror, five golden armor clad ponies walked inside, all unicorns, Princess Luna was not among them. They lined up around the room and a crimson red guard opened the door.

"Please come with us." he commanded.

No, NO! This was it, they were here to collect a debt of flesh, your flesh.

"Where is Princess Luna?" you shout, confused that she was not here.

"Come with us." the guard again stated, his face turning sour, turning from the sedate expression he bore when entering the room.

"NO! Princess Luna is supposed to help me!" You shout, brow furrowed in anger.

"Miss Ember, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. We can drag you from your cell if necessary." he informed you.

Anger built, towards the Princess, she had lied. Lied after she promised to find the truth, the truth should have set you free.

"You can go fuck yourself." you asserted through barred teeth.

The unicorn guard opened the door and enveloped you in a cloud of magic. There was no way to fight back, he was too far away to strike him and you had no use of magic to counter his own. Your body floated in a weightlessness, hooves kicking out in any direction that seemed to help. They found nothing to contact except the air.

"Stop it! Please! I'm not who you think I am!" you shout, but it sounded more of a plead than anything else. Swirling in no direction in particular through the cloud, you fought as best you could, but to no avail.

For the first time, you can see the rest of the dungeon. It was deep under ground, the level you were on was the lower most. As the staircase wound up, it stopped on five other levels, each one getting larger as the surface approached, hallways branching off in the cardinal directions. At the top of each landing, there was a rusted iron gate, screeching harshly in your ears as they were unlocked and swung open. There was no way you would have escaped on your own with all this security.

If there was a time for Luna to arrive, it had to be now. Your body was being carried against your will to the end. At the top of the circular staircase there was a heavy steel door, followed by an iron bar door that seemed to be flush with the outer wall beyond it's face.

It led into a small courtyard, still in Canterlot, as the towers of the castle stretched to the sky above out, flags of the Royal Sister's waving above the ground that bore the marks on their flanks. The light from the sun blinded you, as the past days were spent in a dimly lit prison.

The small yard was empty, aside from the wooden structure erected in the center, the gallows. It was brand new, built just for Ember, as telltale piles of sawdust lay heaped on the ground where the fresh wood was cut.

The gallows were all you could concentrate on. The raised platform, three times as high as any pony you had seen was a grim sight. A staircase led to the top deck, where a lever and the L-shaped arch stood, a trap door directly under the tip of the arch. A rope would be thrown across there, a noose on one end with the other died off to a cleat or wrapped around the wood so that the drop would tug it's hug tightly around your neck.

You knew Celestia wasn't going to be there, she was waiting to lower the sun in the already reddening sky. There was no pony else here, the yard was bare aside from the five guards and yourself. No crowd, no Royal balcony, no pony to watch you leave this world.

"NO!" You screamed out, echoing across the yard. "Please PLEASE! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, LISTEN TO ME!" You kicked out in vain into the magic cloud that engulfed your body. "I'M NOT HER, I'M NOT EMBER!"

The guards merely let your words fall onto deaf ears, they were here to see a job to completion, not rush off to tell the Princesses that you were innocent, and to stay the execution.

From the corner of the yard, you see a pony dressed all in black, robes. He came forth from the doorway opposite of the dungeon and proceeded towards the gallows.

"FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST! NO, STOP THIS!" You screamed, no doubt it was loud enough for the rest of Canterlot to hear, as if they cared. As the guard who carried you started up the staircase, your clear screams began to turn into blubbering wails.

"I'm sorry, I didn't..." the exertion and panic caused your body to crave oxygen, your speech hindered by the deep breathes. "I didn't... mean... to... I'm... please!" The ponies ignored you, as every pony had done since you arrived. None of them seemed to care for the truth, they just wanted you dead.

"God... I... don't... want... Luna... to... NO!" Your words became less clear between the heavy chested heaves. It was here, it was going to be over soon.

Things became surreal, as if you were watching all of this unfold from a viewpoint in the sky. The guard set you down on the platform, holding your hooves in a bright light so that you couldn't move from the position on the center of the trapdoor.

You watched, from this vantage point in the air, as the cloaked pony slowly ascended the staircase to take a position beside your quivering body. This couldn't be real... the mare before you looked pitiful, wide eyed and short of breath. It was the same mare you saw in the mirror days ago, it was the body you were in.

The cloaked pony took a hoof under the long cloak and brought forth a piece of black fabric. It was a hood, and with a bit of luck, the figure tossed it on top of your head and it landed perfectly, despite being a unicorn, it used it's hooves. The out of body experience was cut off, bringing you back into what your eyes were actually seeing, pin holed light through a black burlap bag.

You still couldn't move, your hooves locked in place by the magic of a guard. You would have run, how far was unknown, but being speared by a guard would have seemed a better fate than what was about to transpire. Your voice remained quiet, as even with it roaring, it was just wasted energy on those unwilling to hear it.

Your breath was coming in shallow gasps, unable to calm yourself with any fantasy of being rescued, it was far beyond that now as the world seemed blackened by the hood. It wasn't much of a hood, but a square of burlap sewn on three sides.

Tears began to stream down your face, breath quivering as tiny whines paused it's exhale.

"Please..." you whispered, hoping that somewhere out of the world of black around your head, Luna was listening, still vigilant to your peril. As the sound of rope smacking limply on the wood floor filled your ears, it cause your heart to skip.

There was no sound of rope being dragged across itself, but rather silence that bore into your ears, torturing your soul.

"Please." you muttered again though tears. This wasn't happening, this wasn't real. You were asleep in your bed and having a nightmare about all of this. Soon you would wake up and all would be fine, this would make a great terrifying story.

Something brushed against the bag, what it was became apparent. A loop of hempen rope closed in around your neck, the unicorn executioner tugging it tight, leaving the coil of rope at the dead center on the nape of your neck.

"Please..." you whisper again, trailing off as the word was finished. There was nothing left to say, nothing left to do. The noose was tightened and the time was near.

The loose end of the rope was passed over the top of the beam above you and tugged tight, so that the loop around your neck was pressing in tight, already offering a bit of constriction. Another tug nearly lifted you from your front hooves, your muzzle sputtering out a breath of resistance at the sudden act.

"Ember, Arch Mage, " A strong male voice called out, as if proclaiming to a crowd of thousands. "You have been sentenced to hang by your neck until you are dead. The crimes you have committed against all pony-kind are beyond measure, and no justice here can be served in equity of your crime Rather, we are sending you to final judgement of those that can better serve out your punishment. Do you have any last words?"

What good would that do? You had pleaded already, begged already, cried already, told the truth already and there was nothing short of ripping open a hole in space to your real life to prove to them that you were innocent, and this was an injustice.

"I hope... you know the t-truth... one day. And you c-cannot live with y-yourselves." It was best you can do, curse them to madness that you eventually would be proven innocent, that they would find a fitting end at their own hooves in the same manner you were going to go.

"Then let the executioner begin at their discretion."

Fuck, fuck, this was it. Come on MoonButt, do something. A familiar voice rang in your ears.

"For PonyVille." it whispered from off to your right side flank. It was Twilight.

No.

There was a loud wooden slam and your body began to free fall. You hear stopped, there was still time to be saved before your neck was snapped into pieces.

Far be it you from asking how this was supposed to work, but the free fall should have been longer, there should have been an echo in your skull of bones separating, the last thing you should have heard. You fore hooves merely sank down a few inches and your flank swung under you into a vertical position.

There was no snap, no blackness, just a down ward jerking as the rope clenched tight around your neck. A horrified sound came from your muzzle, it was not clear, just a string of hard consonants consisting of 'C' and 'K' grinding past the noose's embrace.

This was not going to be quick, the noose was pulled taught as you were standing there, leaving no room for your body to accelerate and generate the force needed to separate vertebrae and your spinal column from each other. This wasn't an execution, it was a murder, meant to make your pain last as long as possible before death.

The sudden pressure that built inside your skull made you head pound. It felt like wrapping your finger in tight string until it pounded in a plea for oxygenated blood. You muzzle seemed stuck open, a bodily attempt to suck in oxygen past your collapsed trachea, but none arrived.

Your rear hooves began to flail wildly, pedaling in mid air to find a ground that had been dropped from under you, never to return. Your front hooves found their way to your neck, to try and remove the ligature strangling your life away. They were unable to do anything, lacking the fingers and even the strength to pull it way from your neck, but they still searched for a way.

Your head felt as if it were going to explode, the blood unable to escape in the volume it needed to. It was enough to sustain consciousness as long as your heart kept pumping. Your cheeks felt inflated and fat, like you were blowing into them without letting the air pass. The pressure pushed against your eyes as well, they felt ready to roll from their sockets into the black burlap covering your head.

The chains between your legs jingled as they continued to find ground in the air. Deep within your lungs a burning sensation seized hold, the oxygen of your last breath was depleting, with new air unable to enter. You lungs were heaving uncontrollably, thirsting for life that was unable to flow into them.

From the gaping muzzle, saliva flowed in copious amounts, a natural reaction to try and lubricate the object your body thought was stuck inside your throat. It spilled from your lips, rolling out in torrents and wetting the bag beneath your chin. The thick and heavy tongue flopped out to one side of your mouth, unaware of the events taking place, it had become limp.

The burning began to feel like a vice, as the carbon monoxide began to tingle the oxygen receptors, another alarm your body was ringing that you needed to remove the noose. You hooves were still working on finding a place where they could slip between it and your neck, but the rope had squeezed tight enough to roll a layer of skin over to top to protect it from even prying hooves.

Every self preservation alarm bell rang. Tiny bursts of oxygen depleted air spurted from the grip of the rope, splattering saliva pooled in your throat across the inside of the sack. Where the fuck was Luna? You had to get free of this.

In the blackness of the bag you began to see small spots of light across your vision, they sparked randomly like tiny fireworks on the fourth of July. You entire head felt swollen, numbing as the seconds passed, begging for relief from the crushing pressure. You hooves began to slow down, the rear ones kicking lower and lower, your front hooves no longer clutching at the noose, but rather pawing at the air in front of your neck aimlessly.

You chest heaved, sucking in nothing and quickly falling back down just to try and suck in more unavailable air. The tiny sparks of light became white droplets echoing across a black pool, lighting up brighter and brighter with each thundering heart beat.

For all of the pain, the pressure and the ten tons of weight crushing your lungs in a white hot fire, it was all fine. An overwhelming sense of peace passed over your body. Your fore hooves dropped down onto your stomach, your legs no longer kicking wildly in the air, they just twitched slowly. Luna was going to save you... she was already here.

Luna was taking you away. There was no noose, no execution. No pain. Just you and her in stillness. She smiled at you, said that things would be just fine. And they were. She began to fly away, into the white, leaving you alone. The peace continued and the white world began to fade into black.

Chains stopped rattling, the choked sounds of strangulation ceased, every part of the pony was now limp. The mare was still, only slightly moving from the previous struggle. Twisting in the wind.

There was only peace now.