Winding through the trees, Kishi swayed her hips back and forth, seemingly in love with her own movements. Mara shot her a look, to which Kishi just batted her eyes seductively. Acheri was still in front, but as the glow from the encampment grew brighter, and the noise of the tavern louder, she slowed as she searched the ground.

Mara caught up to Acheri first. “Can’t find the plant, sister?” she asked.

Acheri scowled. “No, and it’ll shoot our plan to hell if I can’t.”

Mara shrugged. “Why don’t we get the mark drunk? I’m willing to bet that stuff will barely affect us. More so if we ‘share’ the drink amongst the three of us.”

Acheri shook her head. “I suppose that’s what we’re doing, because I can’t find shit in this stupid forest.”

Kishi sauntered by the two of them, giving a wink. “Come, girls, let’s find a handsome one. With a big cock!” Kishi licked her lips for emphasis.

Acheri rolled her eyes but she and Mara followed Kishi anyway. Within a few short minutes, the tavern and the rest of the hastily-built town came into view. Stepping onto the muddy road and out of the trees, Mara glanced around. “No-one on the streets,” she said. “They must all be in the tavern.”

“Let’s stay close together,” Acheri said to both of her sisters, looking from one to the other. “We’re far stronger and more skilled than they are, but we can’t let on to that fact.”

“Oh, come onnnn,” Kishi begged. “I want to get at them boys!”

“You’re a fucking slut, Kishi,” Acheri said sternly, pointing a hoof at her sister. “You better not blow this.”

Mara sighed and pushed both of them towards the town. “Just tell the truth that we’re sisters and there’ll be no doubt that that is true,” she snarked. “Kishi, try not to blow anything until we’ve got our Mark back underground, and Acheri, try not to be too much of a bitch to scare him off. Come on, let’s go have a drink.”

Up ahead, the tavern was easy to spot for its loud music, bright indoor lights, and not least for the fact it was at least twice the size of any other building in sight. All three sisters pushed thru the swinging door at the same time, all three wanting that attention that they knew would come.

The locals did not disappoint. It wasn’t a second after the hinges squeaked at all eyes in the tavern were fixed on the trio and they moseyed up to the bar, laughing and looking at each other, seemingly unaware of the attention they were receiving.

The bartender, a gruff older equine, raised an eye at them. “And what will you ladies be having tonight?”

Mara looked at the stallion, as if surprised. “Oh!” she said in a drawl, “Well sugah, I don’t know, what is the favorite ‘round these parts?”

“Cider,” the barkeep replied flatly.

“I s’pose that’ll have to do, hun,” Mara smiled back. When the barkeep walked away to fetch her drink, Mara leaned over to her sisters, who had already turned around to lean back against the bar. Mara followed their gaze to a dark brown earth pony, caked in sweat and sawdust who was milling towards them.

Behind her, the bartender set down the mug. “Two bits,” he said. Mara panicked internally for a moment, as she didn’t have any ‘bits’, whatever those were. Her attention was drawn back to the brown stallion as he began to speak, his eyes traveling down then up the form of Kishi.

“Hey beautiful, I think I would have noticed you before. Where’d you come from?” He leaned in a little closer to them. “And who’d you bring with you?”

“Two bits,” the bartender repeated from behind them, more firmly this time.

The stallion reached back into a coin purse and threw two golden coins at the bartender. “Here old man, leave these ladies alone.”

The bartender huffed but walked away. The stallion, meanwhile, had leaned in even closer. “Ladies like you shouldn’t be drinking this stuff,” he chuckled, “Unless you’ve been out in the field all day, which I can tell you three have not. Where you been hidin’ all this time, eh?” He smiled, and reached between Kishi and Mara to grab the mug, not taking his eyes off Kishi for even a moment.

Mara scowled internally that she wasn’t getting so much as a passing glance. “Well, hun,” she told the stallion in her sweetest voice, “We have been cooped up an awful long time. I suppose our father is a bit...protective of us.”

The stallion took a long sip off the mug of cider and wiped his chin. “But I’d reckon someone around would have seen you three, or at least one of you, before.” His eyes narrowed. “So where are ya’ll from, again?”

Mara started to panic internally again, when Acheri reached out into Mara’s field of vision and turned the stallion’s head to face her own. “I’ll tell you a secret, hun,” Acheri whispered to the stallion. “We snuck out and walked through the woods to get here and I doubt it’ll be easy finding our way back. At least, in the dark.” Acheri used her forehoof to trace down the stallion’s muscular chest. “Now, I think my sisters and I would be much more comfortable having someone keep us safe and out of trouble on our way back.”

The stallion moved around a bit, nervously. “Ah, I don’t know where you’d be going...maybe, it’d be better for y'all to come spend the night back at my place and head out in the morning? Come on now, let's get you someplace safe and warm.”

Kishi looked crestfallen. “Oh, but we just got here. Father’s not going to let us out of his sight for a long time after this, we need to make our time worth it.”

The stallion couldn’t resist the purposeful line Kishi had given him and replied smugly, “I can make your night one to remember, darlin’. They don't call me 'Big Brown' for nuthin!”

Kishi slid out of her chair and stood in front of him. “Well, if you can show all three of us a good time, I bet we’d all be willing to repay the favor and show you a good time, too.” She winked and pulled back one step from him. “What do ya say?”

The stallion smiled, motioning them them to follow him over to a table. “Come, ladies….what are your names, now?”

…

Several hours later, one drunk, staggering, brown earth pony left the bar, accompanied by three beautiful young mares. They took turns holding him up and, laughing all the while, guided him into the forest.

“Hey now,” he said sloppily, his words running together, “This isn’t my way home but it’s for the other way...I mean, uh, it’s the other way road.”

Acheri laughed and consoled him. “But we’d like to get back to our house. Don’t worry we might stop on the way and have some fun…” as she trailed off she leaned in and bit at his ear gently.

The stallion smiled and attempted to lean in for more, but ended up stumbling over his own feet and falling on Acheri.

Acheri was quick to push him back onto his feet. “You’re so big, I don’t know how I’d feel about you being on top of me,” she giggled.

The stallion, caught up in his own lust and drunkenness, failed to notice that the relatively small Acheri was easily keeping him upright, while Kishi and Mara motioned to each other slightly behind him. Mara, looking at Kishi, waved a hoof as if to say, “How are we going to get him underground?”

Kishi shrugged.

Mara rolled her eyes and trotted up to her sister Acheri. She made the same motion, but a bit more vague.

Acheri just smiled. Turning to the stallion, Acheri teased him. “Big Brown, I can’t wait till we get home...I need some of you now!”

He smiled back. “Sure thang sugah…” she stumbled and almost fell again. He carefully stood himself upright, and, looking very pleased with himself, let out a long belch.

Mara wrinkled her nose at the smell of it, glad that they had not partaken in whatever that foul brew had been. “Such a class act,” she muttered.

The stallion wobbled a bit. “I told you I’d show you a good-” and with that he was out, falling in a lump on the grass.

Kishi and Mara ran up, perplexed. “The hell did you do, Acheri?” Kishi demanded.

Acheri shrugged. “I was gonna fuck him until he passed out. I guess he was closer than any of us realized.”

Mara stepped forward and kicked at the sleeping stallion, drool coming out of his mouth. “Now how are we supposed to get him down underground!?”

Acheri hunched down and slid him up onto her back. “He’s not that heavy. If we take turns it’ll be super easy.” She glanced from Mara to Kishi. “Well, if I’m the only one to carry him back down, then I’m gonna be the only one who gets to play with him, I’ll make sure of that.”

Kishi’s jaw dropped. “Hey...no fair!” Her lips formed into a pout. “Fine, I’ll help.”

“Me too,” Mara added reluctantly. “Let’s get him back to the cave and see who else has made it back.”

The trio and their comatose captive wound their way through the woods. It had been early evening when they first arrived, and now the night had fully sunk in. None of them being as adept at tracking as either their father or Fext, when they reached the mountains steppes, it was not the correct location.

Acheri sighed. Shaking the stallion off herself and to to ground, she also shed her disguise onto the sparse grass. “What direction do you think it is?” she asked her sisters.

Mara paused, looking back towards the town, which by now had fallen silent. She concentrated, trying to feel out any emotion and get her bearings. Acheri only looked up and down the rock wall.

After a few moments, Mara opened her eyes and let her disguise fall to the ground as well. “This way,” she said, pointing to her left. “I remember the town being to our left when we left the entrance, and it's to our right now. Just follow this around and we should be there in no time.”

Acheri nudged Kishi. “Your turn to carry him. You’ll probably like being under any stallion, awake, asleep, probably even dead.”

Kishi tried to shoot her sister a dirty look as she scooped up the stallion, but Acheri had already started to walk away. Huffing, Kishi hustled to keep up with them.

They walked in silence around boulders and over the uneven ground. Kishi kept peeking behind her, to make sure nothing had followed them. She reminded herself that they weren’t very far from town, and if they weren't careful, their tracks could be followed right back to their home.

Kishi looked back again and brought her head back to front just in time to bump into the back of Mara. Kishi stumbled, and shouted, “Hey, why’d you stop?”

Mara whirled around and hushed her sister. “We’re here. Drop the mark and your coat, I’m going forward to talk to Mali.”

Kishi scoffed and threw both her passenger and coat off. The stallion hit the rocky ground hard and moaned in his sleep.

Acheri, having watched this, shoved Kishi, saying, “Careful! Don’t crack his head open before we get to have fun with him!” She knelt and checked on the earth pony. Finding no injuries, rolled him over to his other side to check that too. Satisfied that he was going to live, Acheri stood up and cast another look at Kishi, who just yawned in mock boredom.

Acheri moved in close to Kishi. “I told you,” Acheri said softly, “That you better not screw this up. First you’re reckless in your rush to hop on a dick then you’re careless with the only dick we’ve got. Sort your shit out or you’re going to get one of us killed. And I am not going through that again.”

Kishi sighed. While she had never been particularly close with Chakora, she had always gotten along with Acheri well. “I’m sorry,” she said, “I need to be better at turning it on and off.”

Acheri kissed her sister’s cheek. “I don’t want to lose you, either. I’ll help you however I can. We can….wait, here comes Mara.”

Mara trotted up to the two of them. “Father and the others are already back. They’ve got a whole farm family and they’re not knocked out like ours. Put on a serious face, we’re marching them back down like prisoners. Father says if anyone makes a break for it, we have to kill them, no hesitations.”

Acheri and Kishi raised their eyebrows at this, while Mara continued, “I’ll carry Big Brown over there back down, it’s my turn unless one of you wants to do it. Nobody said anything, So Mara stooped over and rolled the unconscious pony onto her back.

They slowly approached the cave entrance, and as their eyes adjusted to the light, beheld the rest of their family, along with a trio of farm ponies: the largest, a male, muddy yellow, not quite brown coat and obviously trying his best not to look scared; his wife, a soft red coat and a single rose on her haunches, looking more concerned for her daughter than anything else; and the little one, a soft and pale pink, too young to have yet gotten her cutie mark, her light blue mane stuck to her face from tears.

They all were obviously frightened but did not seem bothered by the darkness too much as they had not been blindfolded. Mara realized suddenly that it wasn’t really necessary to have their lumberjack passenger be unconscious - none of them were coming back to the surface anyway.

Their father huffed and stomped his foot impatiently. Mali slowly appeared from the darkness, and motioned them forward in silence. Not wanting to be responsible for chasing down a possible escaping enemy with the actually rather heavy earth pony on her back, Mara pushed forward and followed Mali.

Fext growled and poked at the father farm pony, coaxing him downward. He fought the urge to move, so Fext turned her eyes to the child. “Oh, so tender and fragile,” Fext said slowly, deliberately.

The male lurched at Fext but Acheri was quick to step in to protect her sister, baring her sharp teeth. She growled at him, “Do what we say and you’ll stay together. Just move. Or I break your neck and make you watch what I do to her.”

The male huffed, but a sobbing call from his wife made him back off.

“Please!” she wailed, “Let my daughter go! We’ll go with you, just let her go! She’s a child, please!”

A crack sounded as a black, pockmarked leg came crashing against her face. She looked up slowly, blood just starting to trickle from her nose. “Puh-puh-please…she’s a child…”

Fext’s father tapped the sobbing mare on the shoulder to get her attention. He knelt down slowly and looked her in the eyes. The mare’s pupils went wide, taking in the foreign sight of the face in front of her. His features were so alien to her she couldn’t help but look.

“This isn’t going to work,” he told her in a soft, almost caring voice. “We’ll have to kill you if you don't move.” She started to pull in breath to either say something or scream, but he hushed her, and calmly continued, “So either decide right now whether you’re going to march forward or if you want to see what your family’s insides look like when I decorate the trees with them.”

The red mare’s eyes twitched back and forth, evidently confused at the calm tone and the very specific, graphic threat. She decided that the better option was to hug her daughter tight and scoot back to her husband, “Let’s go,” she whispered softly.

Slowly, reluctantly, they all started to descend into the cave; Mali, then Mara and the passenger on her back, the stallion, his wife and daughter close behind, and the remaining changelings clustered together.

They moved slowly at first but with constant prodding from behind, picked up pace. The ground was fairly soft at first, where the weather had slowly moved in dirt over the ages and where mosses and grasses had taken hold, but soon the floor gave way to fairly even rock slabs, sometimes stepping down, other times stepping up, but unmistakably leading into the earth and away from the protective light and familiarity of the world above.

The dark yellow stallion in the front, running on mostly adrenaline from the desire to protect his family had no issue keeping the pace, and the mother somewhat less so, but the foal was having an increasingly hard time keeping up. Now well into the wee hours of the morning, and having spent all day in the market with her family selling the farm’s produce, she was exhausted and showing it.

The rough granite walls started to give way to a smooth obsidian as they moved deeper, causing the cave to grow ever more oppressively dark. For the equines, it was all they could do to see the tail of the one in front of them. Everything else was noise in the dark.

As they walked, the foal, near complete exhaustion, stumbled and was met with a snapping jaw against her flank. She yelped and shot forward, bumping into her mother, who just cooed and whispered, “Hush my Spring Rain, we’re almost there,” despite not having any actual idea of how close they were, but the stress and exertion of the day and night were wearing down her will to fight.

The foal stumbled again, and fell face first against the rocks. A sharp crack sounded as she impacted, and her mother turned, suddenly terrified. “Spring! Where are you!? Are you hurt?” She stumbled around in the dark, trying to catch sight of her only child.

A dark face appeared, snarling and baring its teeth. “Move!” the changeling commanded.

“”My daughter!” she cried, apparently not noticing the order. “Where is she? Spring!”

A small cry sound from nearby. “Ow...mommy! I...I...I fell, it hurts!” The foal bumped into her mother, who scooped her up and onto her back.

“Shh, stay there dear, I’ll carry you,” she cooed.

The dark face came back, even less pleased at the delay. “I said move, you dumb bitch!”

The mare shuffled back around and continued down, keeping her foal from slipping off her back. “I’m going, I got her, please, don’t hurt her,” she continued to plead.

As they continued down, Acheri quietly stopped to scrape the brains off her hoof on a rock, having gotten them stuck to the bottom of her foot when she stomped the foal’s head into the stone. Meanwhile, on her new mother’s back, Lamia settled in for a nap.

…

At the bottom of the tunnel, The changelings took flight to buzz around their captives, guiding them quickly and silently to their makeshift prison block. The father, mother, and child went into one of three cells, and the drunken and snoring stallion into a second.

Shutting and bolting the door, the assembled changelings gathered for a meeting. “Well we got ‘em,” Mara said quietly.

“No need to be quiet,” her father corrected, “The soundproofing spell will not only keep the noise they make to a minimum, but as long as we’re not shouting, they shouldn’t hear anything from us.” Everyone nodded so he continued, “Unfortunately, we had to leave their cart back at the surface, along with its contents; the food we’ll need to bring back to keep them alive for any length of time.”

“Just how long to do we plan on keeping them alive, exactly?” Fext interjected. Met with blank stares, she inquired, “Perhaps we should figure out who gets who? Because we’re going to have to share.”

“I worked hard to get that male down here,” Kishi stated adamantly, “And I intend to get some good fucking out of this.”

Mara stepped forward. “Lamia’s already getting what she wants, so I’ll take that lumberjack when you’re finished, Kishi.”

“I’ll go back up and get the cart,” Acheri offered. “I need to take a better look for plants.” She looked at her father. “Will you come with? Daytime would be better.”

He nodded. “Of course. Seeing things in the full sun would be good for you, anyway.” Before we divide up and get some rest, let us take a minute and see what you can feel coming from those rooms over there.”

As his daughters and Roddi sat and started their focus, Mali walked up behind him. “I’m going to go, Father. I have other duties.”

He thanked Mali and sent her on her way, smiling at her courtesy. Turning back to the group, he reached out with his own mind. He touched upon the sleeping stallion, and then to the other room and its occupants. “So,” he said aloud to no-one in particular, “What do you feel?”

“There is no love in there, I’ll tell you that,” Kishi replied flatly. “I would have thought that dumb bitch would hold on to it for her daughter. Or, who she believes is her daughter.”

“Just wait,” he replied, “Her love will burn yet brighter. For now, what do you feel?” He was met with silence, so he tried again. “Great poets throughout the ages have ascribed colors to emotions. They see anger as red, sadness as blue. Do you ‘see’ any color?”

Fext shuffled about a bit on the ground. She opened her mouth, paused, and started again. “Blue would be a good description. But its light...vague, fleeting. don’t know how else to describe it.”

“I see it too,” Acheri chimed in. “But I see...black interspersed with blue. What are we feeling?”

“It is something that you should be very careful around,” he told them. “This is fear, terror, and desperation. A caged, cornered animal is the most dangerous animal. When you sense terror, you must run. But here, we have the advantage. We’ll need the food. We can take our time in getting it, because we’ll starve ‘em a bit first. In fact,” he paused and looked at them. “I think everyone should go without feeding for a little while. I can’t force you but it’ll be good to know how to handle yourself and conserve energy should you ever get into that situation.”

His suggestion was met with groans all around but he waved them off. “As you will, but I suggest you try it, starting now. Otherwise, everyone go get some rest.”

Everyone started to leave the circle, expect curious Fext who was still sitting with her eyes closed, sensing. Walking up behind her, he said, “You sense something else, don’t you?”

Fext nodded, her eyes still closed. “A faint light. Pure and white, if I had to give it a color. Right at the core of the mother’s being. What am I seeing? It’s not love. I...I can’t take it from her.” Fext opened her eyes and looked back at her father for an answer.

He smiled. “That’s hope you feel. If I had to give equines credit for something, it would be to have the ability to hold onto that little glimmer of hope that things will turn out okay.”

Fext turned back to face the steel and wooden prison they had created. Her face broke into a wicked smile. “I’ll make sure there’s none of that left.”

Author's Note

Well it took forever but I got it done. We're about to go down a dark path so whoever is still here, steel yourselves for the next few short updates. We're also nearing the end.