“Fuck, I didn’t think you’d knock him out. Aren’t royal guards suppose to exercise restraint?”

Slate slipped in and out of consciousness, finding it incredibly difficult to remember what had happened and why he had the most splitting headache he had ever felt in his life.

“Believe me, he deserves much worse than I gave him.”

Over time though, the jumbled up fragments in his mind came together. The feathery crystal pony he appropriated for his plans, the bar with the sexy slender femboy zebra he had targeted, the brief time he had enjoyed his two new playthings, and then the interruption of his perfect night by some unexpected guests.

“He looks like he’s in a lot of pain for an unconscious pony.”

Pain… Pain was a peculiarly interesting topic to focus on, a thing that all ponies had to experience in one way or another with varying results. Most found it to be an unpleasant feeling that ‘happened’ from time to time due to circumstances beyond their control. Others would try to avoid interacting with the sensation whenever possible, while a smaller few would actively pursue it and find it to be enjoyable in its own way. Of those three mindsets, Slate found himself furthest from the latter group. The splitting headache he was suffering helped immensely with that disposition.

“Come on, let’s get him a seat and make sure he doesn’t try anything stupid.”

Somepony once told the unicorn stallion that the brain had no ability to feel pain, that the sensations were only felt by the tissue surrounding the organ. If that pony was in front of him today, Slate would punch him in the nose for several reasons, but mostly for the agony that felt like it was going through the entirety of his skull.

“You think that’s gonna leave a scar?”

The ache was so awful that he refused to open his eyes, believing that any and all stimuli would aggravate and intensify it, the spikes brought on by the incoherent voices around him acted as proof to that thought. Darkness, and the reprieve that it brought, was the preferred option for the time being.

“I don’t give a damn about that. I just wish we didn’t have to wait for him to wake up.”

“He tried to control my mind. It was self defense!”

“That’s every guard’s excuse, and it’s just as right now as it always is.”

He recalled two thestrals, the pair that had cut in on his fun, specifically the one that had slammed her hoof into his left temple. He would have to thank her later for the sizable bump on his head in a way that would be fitting. What he couldn’t exactly remember was how they managed to break free of his spell.

Slate sat propped up for a long time, hardly moving aside for his breathing. He didn’t know how much time had passed, but the longer he waited the less it hurt until it became a soft, stinging sensation, not enough to make him pass out from agony, but just enough to deny him sleep. Still, he tried his best to remain motionless to give him more time behind his shut eyelids.

“Are you hoping this is all just a bad dream and it will all go away if you sit there long enough?” A male voice said from somewhere in front of him.

That was right, another unicorn got in the way. As powerful as Slate’s mind controlling magic was, it had some big issues when it had to contest with the magic of another unicorn. It simply didn’t work against them. He had tried it on several occasions, testing to see if he could overcome that flaw, but it was hurdle he was never able to get over.

“Come on, I noticed you moving ten minutes ago. You’re awake enough to talk,” sounded a male voice.

“Give him a minute Indigo,” spoke a female voice, “That kick might’ve given him a concussion.”

Slate could stall, delay this longer in vain hopes that something would come to aid him out of this situation, but that would be a terrible option. He had no friends that would come to save him if he got in trouble, he had always traveled alone and never kept any of his toys for longer than he needed to get what he wanted out of them. These ponies on the other hand appeared to be royal guard, the bat ponies alone reeking of Princess Luna’s Night Guard, and time seemed to be on their side if they were willing to sit there and wait on him.

“Fine… fine… I’m awake,” Slate said, opening one eye while keeping the one closest to his wound closed tight. Taking his first look at the world around him since being knocked out brought to a rude awakening when the messy haired unicorn was the first thing to grace his sight, along with his crystal mare and zebra.

Slate had actually expected that the two might still be around when awoke. Ponies did so enjoy delivering a final word to those they felt were at a lower moral tier to them, as though a good scolding and a lecture was all it took to cure the perpetrator of his misdeeds. What caught him off guard was how they were presented. Nothing had changed from when he had last seen them; they were both still naked, with the zebra still in his makeshift hood that Slate made for him.

The two had stationed themselves on either side of the other unicorn, down on their knees with their hands behind their heads. It pissed Slate off, almost more than the fact that he himself had been captured, that this other stallion sat in that armchair across from him with the ponies he had claimed and would probably get away with treating the same way he had just because of his position in the kingdom. If Slate wasn’t already aware that his arms and legs had been zip tied to the wooden chair he had been placed in, he would have dove at the other stallion and landed flat on his face.

“There we go. I knew you were made of sterner stuff than my associate believed.” The white purple-eyed stallion presumably called Indigo said, as he ran his hand through the mane of the crystal pegasus aside him. The girl gave a shiver at his touch, closing her eyes tightly with a few small squeaks escaping her.

Slate felt the sudden urge to levitate something heavy into Indigo’s face, but he couldn’t find the strength to do so. His magic, weak as he was, should have been enough to have tossed a few things around but, like most of the other parts of his body, it was being restricted. While he couldn’t see the object constricting his horn he knew, from the BDSM catalogs that he used to peruse for ideas of equipment to make, It was a magic negation ring. The royal guard would keep something like this on hand, must have made it easier when they arrested rowdy unicorns.

With no ability to move or cast spells, Slate relented. If an opening presented itself later, he would try for an escape. If not, then he had had a good run. Taking a deep breath and exhaling, he lifted his head up and sat straight. “Good evening officer, I hope that my pets weren’t being too noisy.” Slate had no delusions that he would convince anyone that he was acting out an innocent bondage scene, but if he was going to be put in some cell somewhere then he was going there with as much smarm as he could muster.

Indigo was unimpressed, and ignored the unicorn’s statement to pull back his suit sleeve to look at a watch hidden underneath. Slate was about to play into his ploy, react where Indigo hadn’t, but before he could raise his voice Zunrai suddenly darted off to get away. He had almost gotten out of reach, but his beautifully braided mane became his own downfall when Indigo used his own unrestrained magic to grab the two rings at his mane’s end to halt the striped stallion. Indigo leaned to grab the rings in his hand and jerked him back into position.

“Got to say, while I like your taste in women, I hate your taste in men,” he said in frustration as he slipped the metal loops over his arm and tightly wrapped the long ropes of hair around his wrist to insure that another escape attempt would only be met with the removal of follicles from his skull. “He’s been squirming around like a damn worm since we pulled him from your room, won’t listen to a damn word I say.”

While Slate was growing increasingly annoyed that he wasn’t being talked to as much as he was being talked about, the other stallion’s words allowed him to piece together what was going on a bit more. Maybe he was still recovering from that blow to his head, but it took him a very long time to see what was plainly in front of him.

“Ok… let me try to work this all out here,” Slate said, forcing himself to think through his agony.

“Take your time,” Indigo replied, “We’re waiting on something anyways,”

Slate didn’t like the sound of that, interpreting it as there being more trouble on the way. He put it aside though, and gave his deductions of the situation. “You’re not part of the royal guard…. They wouldn’t treat the alleged victims of a crime so poorly.”

“Alleged? That’s an odd and, I have to say, stupid thing to say.”

“Not if you take in consideration the nature of my magic.”

“Which is?” Indigo inquired.

Slate gave the other unicorn a good laugh, “Wouldn’t you like to know?” He did like the idea of keeping something the prick wanted away from him. “I have no reason to tell a fucking rapist like yourself.”

“Those are some strong words for somepony in your position. Answer me,” Indigo said softly as he reached into his suit to pull out a small container of toothpicks. He brought the holder to his mouth to pull out single tiny spear with his teeth, voice rising as he continued to speak, “Why do you think I’m a rapist? Explain so I know just how pissed off I should be.”

“My spell has worn off. They clearly don’t want to be here. Twinkle over there is just too timid and scared to make a break for it.”

“Twinkle? She told me her name was Wingshy.”

“Right, right, concussion. Point is that if you weren’t planning to do something with them, you would have came in like a knight like Shining Armor, took down the evil villain, and released them to go about their lives. So you at least have some diabolical ideas for them yourself, and that you have them on their knees, without clothing, means that you get some kind of thrill seeing them like that, else you would have given them something to wear at least.”

Indigo removed the toothpick in his mouth for a moment, casually observing it for a moment, “Not bad. You’re capable of pointing out the obvious.”

Slate didn’t react. At this point he could see what this stallion’s game was, taunting and poking to make him angry for his own amusement. He wouldn’t buy into it, and would give off as much bravado as he could muster. He would deny Indigo his satisfaction as the stallion had denied his, despite being in a poor position to do so.

“Enough of this.” A hand slapped down on the back of the seat Slate was bound to, and unease filled him as his whole body was tipped backwards, vertigo filling him as his seat balanced on its two back legs. It was pulled back so far that he went nearly horizontal, and above him was the unamused face of the white maned Violet. “Lady Tourmaline sent us to figure out how this bastard conducted his vile acts, and we did. I say we deal with him already and be done with it.”

“Deal with me?” Slate asked, “What is that supposed to mean? And who the fuck is this ‘Lady Tourmaline’?”

“You see Mr. Slate, or should I say ‘Smooth Moves’,” Indigo said, showing that he knew both the stallion’s real name and the alias that he had been going by, “We have been watching you for a long time.”

“‘We’? I suppose you mean you and your two little lackeys here,” Slate spat back. He turned his head to notice the other bat pony off in the kitchen digging through the fridge, and to finally determine from the ghastly tribal masks on the walls that they were still in Zunrai’s home.

“We are not his lackeys.” said the mare holding his seat, who pushed him back upright so roughly that it almost sent him sprawling forward before resting itself properly on all four legs.

“Don’t let him goad you Violet,” said Indigo, “He’s just trying to rile you up because he knows he can’t do shit.”

“Please, I could have gotten myself out this minutes ago,” announced the bound stallion, “The only reason I haven’t is for sheer sake of amusement. Listening to you simpletons bicker is humorous.”

An arm went around the back of Slate’s neck and dangled off one of his shoulders as a head went aside his own. He assumed it was Violet trying to intimidate him again, but when he turned his head he found that it wasn’t her. The other bat pony from the kitchen had decided to join in directly, a half eaten apple clenched in her mouth with her sharp fangs dug deep within. She chopped all the way through the fruit with ease and let the apple fall into her waiting palm.

“Look, we all get that you’re trying to pull off a tough guy act,” Amethyst said calmly as she looked at what was left of her appropriated meal, “But we also know that you have no way to escape. You’re tied to a chair, surrounded, and don’t even have the use of your magic. You are completely and absolutely helpless. So why don’t you just be a good boy, suck it up, and tell us what we want to know so we can go home before the sun rises.”

Slate rolled his eyes, “You’re just repeating what they said earlier, and I already gave them my answer.”

“I know,” the bat pony replied as she tossed her leftovers aside. With her hand now free, she sent it swiftly in between the stallion's legs to wrap her sharp claws around his crotch, “But I’m not as patient as they are, and have different ways of persuading you.”

Indigo tried to get up to stop Amethyst, but found himself still attached to Zunrai. With the resistant zebra preventing him from getting to Slate, the only recourse he could resort to was to say, “Remember, the boss said she didn’t want him hurt… that bad.”

“I remember, but if it comes to it I’m willing to take the blame. It’s not like he’ll die if I cut his balls off.”

The fingers near his privates began to close, and the claws at the end of them sliced through the fabric of his pants like scissors through paper. Slate knew it was a fear tactic, that it was all just to get him to squeal, but what he couldn’t be sure about was if it was legitimate. Torture was often a very valid method of prying information from somepony, and how Indigo was trying to stop her it seemed that he knew that this thestral would go through with it. Pain he could handle, to some degree. Loss of a body part, he could not.

“Ok, wait,” he spoke, maintaining his composure under the threat of dismemberment, “Perhaps we all got off on the wrong hoof here. If we could just calm down for a moment-”

“Oh, I’m calm.” replied Amethyst as her pointy fingertips drew ever closer.

“If we could all stay calm and start this conversation over like civilized ponies,” Slate reiterated, a bit more perturbed than before, “Then I’ll be more than willing to answer your questions.”

The bat mare stopped her advancing claws, and removed them completely. “See, I told you all I’d get him to talk first. Pay up.” Violet and Indigo let out a unified grumble, and Slate watched with blank expression as they both went on either side of Amethyst, the unicorn having the pull along the zebra attached to him, and pull out their coin purses so they could pour out a hefty sum of bits into the mare’s cupped waiting hands.

“You know that physical harm was against the rules,” Violet scolded the younger looking mare.

“Hey, I didn’t actually hurt him, “ Amethyst rebuked, “I just threatened to, and now he’s going to work with us. What more do you want?”

“Excuse me…” Slate said, a hint of anger in his voice, “Did you three take bets on who would get me to crack first!?”

“Sure did!” Amethyst answered unabashedly, “Don’t think I wouldn’t have sliced those balls from your body if you would have refused.” From behind her mound of gold, the bat mare’s gave a big, evil looking grin.

Out of immediate danger, and thus feeling a bit more confident about the future of his genitals, Slate gave the entire group a cold glare. He didn’t like being used as some form of amusement, toyed with and treated like his actions were so easily predictable. He especially bore a strong resentment for the mare that managed to get on over on him with her crude, but effective methods. He had only one title he could give a mare such as her, and he was unafraid to give it to her in the midst of this debacle. “Bitch.”

“Don’t be such a baby,” Indigo said as he walked back to the armchair, having to manhandle the now incredibly disgruntled zebra he was connected to in order to make it back. “You can own up to being beat, even if it is by somepony like her. In fact if you had done that from the get go, and didn’t try to fight everything, you could have been out of those bonds by now... and I’d be fifty bits richer.”

“What?” Slate replied.

“Though you might think otherwise, we’re not here to hurt you.” Indigo said as he shoved Zunrai back into his place, opposite from the crystal pegasus. “In fact, the only reason you’re as damaged as you are is because you tried to control and felt up my associates, and you’re only tied up because we don’t want another incident like that.”

“They entered this building without permission and started tossing around allegations-”

“Which were true.” Indigo interjected.

“And you didn’t expect me to panic and try to defend myself?”

“Of course I did, I didn’t expect you to feel them up with the door wide open.” Slate barely made out a upwards curl at the edges of the other stallion’s lips. “So Mr. Slate, let’s finish up here. Your magic: how does it work, what does it do, and who does it work on?”

“Those are awfully vague questions,” Slate stated, “But I guess they all just mean ‘explain your magic for us’. Fine, but when I’m done I want all this shit off me. The ties on my wrists feel like they’re starting to cut in.”

“That could happen, any objections girls?”

“Fine by me,” said Amethyst offhandedly, now counting her coins at a table, perhaps not even hearing what the question was.

“I’d rather just drag him into a cell, but I suppose that’s not an option,” Violet said.

“Then there you go.” Indigo assured. “Now talk.”

“Bleh,” He had probably put this off for longer than he needed to, but to give his attackers any kind of concession left a bad taste in his mouth. “To say it in terms you might understand, my magic affects the weak psyches of simple minded creatures. It alters their mindset to something more suitable to my wants through carefully calculated changes to get the results that I want. With it I can turn a backwater country bumpkin in into a demure pony of class and sophistication,” Slate turned his head towards Wingshy, giving her the most devious grin he could muster, “Or the most reserved and pure maiden into a rampant slut.”

The crystal mare whimpered loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, recoiling away from Slate’s line of sight and into Indigo’s waiting hand. “Don’t let him frighten you, he’s just trying to scare you, ” the unicorn said uncharacteristically softly as he gently stroked her hair to calm her. While she didn’t move away from the hand running through her mane, the mare only seemed to be more unnerved by the presence of it, something that Indigo either neglected to notice since he was focused on Slate, or didn’t care.

Violet, however, picked up on the pegasus’ distress, and decided it was time to step in. “Indigo, mind if a take the crystal pony over to the table and get her something to calm her nerves? She has been through a bit tonight, and she’s been very cooperative so far.”

“Yeah, go ahead,” Indigo said as he removed his hand from her head, keeping his eyes on Slate for the moment. “Better make it quick though, our friends should be here any moment.”

Violet offered her hand to the crystal mare, who took a few hesitant moments to accept the seemingly friendly gesture. With a gentle pull, Wingshy was brought to her hooves and lead into the kitchen. “Let’s make you a nice cup of tea. There has to be some in the kitchen somewhere.”

As she rose Indigo’s eyes shifted off Slate to Wingshy to watch her as she walked away, partly to see if she would make a break for it, partly to watch her cute rear wiggle as her glittery tail went side to side. He was pleasantly pleased to see that she not only refrained from trying to escape, but was following Violet’s gingerly given commands to the letter. From the moment Slate had captured them in his spell, Wingshy and Zunrai’s fates were sealed. The trio had rescued them both from a few days being Slate’s puppets, but they would now have to go to the Society. With her knack for obedience and delightfully timid nature, the crystal pegasus would be just fine after a few weeks… hopefully.

His mind at ease, he set his sights back on Slate. “Back to your magic. You sure you’re not giving your little spell more credit than it deserves. From what I’ve seen, all it does is makes ponies hornier and more receptive your creepy advances.”

“You tactless philistine,” spat Slate annoyed at being talked about in front of his face. “Just because I only use my magic to get what I want doesn’t mean that it isn’t capable of so much more. Give me a minute alone with some simpering coward, and I could make him the bravest pony in Equestria.”

“Until about an hour or so after they’re away from you.” Violet said, “We’ve been keeping track of your victims too, and while they show signs of your influence for some time after, they eventually revert to normal with no recollection of what happened to them.”

“Well… yes… It’s not permanent, but it makes them flexible enough to get what I want out of them. I can keep them that way for as long as I want, with replication of my spell, but eventually it will wear off and they forget everything.”

“And it doesn’t work against unicorns, am I right?”

“Right, it only works on the lesser races,” Slate replied quickly. Of course the stallion noticed a minor detail like that from their earlier confrontation. ”Pegasi, thestrals, earth ponies, and zebras from what I learned tonight. Ponies without magic, so if you take this blasted ring off my horn I wouldn’t be able to control you.”

Indigo took a moment to think through what he had heard compared to what he and his colleagues had seen. There weren’t too many discrepancies in Slate’s explanation when matched up with the evidence. “Ok, one last question. How many can you control at a time?”

“Excuse me? Why is that important?”

“Because you’re tied to a chair and I asked you,” the other stallion says curtly. “We’ve noticed you like to stick to one or two ponies at a time. We want to know if you can control more.”

Slate considered making up some arbitrary number off the top of his head, but then figured that would bring up more questions such as why he didn’t just take control of a town it the numbers were too high. He was one question away from release and he didn’t want to mess that up. “Three, that’s the maximum. After that my power drains too fast and I can’t keep a proper hold. Can I go now?”

Indigo gestured to Violet, who reluctantly went to cut off the zipties holding Slate in place. “We are letting you out of your chair, but we can’t let you leave just yet.”

Slate sighed, “Of course not. You wouldn’t be asking me all these questions about my abilities if you didn’t want to use them in some way.”

“Well, you’re half right,” Indigo placed the chewed up remains of his toothpick into one of his pockets, removed Zunrai’s braided mane from around his arm, and got out of his seat to ready himself in case Slate made a break for it, “We investigating you for your abilities, but there’s another reason we needed to grab you.”

“And what reason is- ACK! Watch it back there!” Slate jerked forward when he felt a blade slip between his two wrists, his disdain met with a light chuckle and the removal of the ties that bound him.

“You are being watched Mr. Moves, whether you realize it or not.” Indigo said, motioning to the purple thestral, “Violet here is part of the Royal Canterlot Lunar Guard.”

“So am I!” yelled Amethyst, not wanting to be left out.

“As is Amethyst, though that’s irrelevant. A while back Violet was in Baltimare and caught you casting your spell on a mare at a bar.”

“At first I thought you were a member that I didn’t know,” Violet commented, “But then when I went to talk to our leader, she said she didn’t know a thing about you.”

“A bar?” Slate said incredulously. “You might have to be more specific. Do you have any clue how many mares I’ve picked up in bars?”

“Irrelevant,” Indigo answered, “What’s important is that if Violet wasn’t already part of our group, then your actions would have attracted a lot of unwanted attention, for both of us.”

“So you want to get me to stop, is that it? You think that you do a better job at keeping your activities private, and that I’m going to get the guard at your necks, despite having at least two of them in your pocket already.” Slate had always assumed the Equestrian government was corrupt, but to find out that there were guards part of some sort of ring of rapists was delicious. It was the kind of thing that would be in newspapers for the next decade if ponies caught wind of it. “So is this your attempt to make me stop? To strong-arm me into quitting?”

“Actually, no,” said Indigo, “We were sent to find out if you were any use to us, and to offer you invitation into our organization.”

A smug look grew over Slate’s face, “And I assume you are impressed with the magic I wield.”

Indigo, Violet, and Amethyst exchanged looks, none of them too excited. “If anything, we’ve learned your magic is next to useless.”

“Huh?” Slate’s eye twitched, feeling more than a little insulted by that. How could they say mind control was useless?!

“It has no lasting impact, and any training done under the spell won’t stick. Sure, it can make ponies lustful and submissive, but we have far more effective ways of doing that already. The best and only use I can think of is make ponies fall easier into our traps.”

Being called near useless was irritating and entirely disrespectful. Not the worst insult he had ever received, but it was fairly high up there along with everything else done to him tonight. “Okay... but you still want me in this ‘organization’ of yours then?”

“We don’t,” answered Amethyst, “You’re kind of a jerk.”

“Too high and mighty,” Indigo added.

“And I heard that racist remark you said earlier about non-unicorn ponies,” Violet finished, “Personally, I would rather somepony like you never become part of the Society.”

Again with the insults. It was enough to have the three ponies now share the number two spot on his list of ponies he hated, which got him thinking that if this ‘Society’ they were part of were all the same, then he would take great pleasure in being the one to get them arrested and tried for their crimes.

“Unfortunately, it isn’t up to us.” Violet added, “Lady Tourmaline wants to include you in the Society, and we do have to abide by her wishes.”

“And who exactly is this Lady Tourmaline?” asked Slate, finding the gem related name and title to be incredibly pompous.

“You’ll meet soon enough,” said Indigo, “But before that we need to get you to the Society’s headquarters, and to do that we have to wait for-”

A sudden knock came to the door, three hard pounds that were repeated once before Amethyst dashed over. “I got it!”

“There they are, about damn time.” Indigo grumbled, taking the bound zebra by his braid rings once more before heading to the dining room where the meek crystal mare awaited at a table with a recently emptied tea cup. He dropped his voice before he spoke to her “Wingshy, we’re about to go on that trip I told you about before. Are you ready to be a brave girl for me?”

The crystal pegasus shook her head, tears starting to form in her eyes, “I don’t want to go, I want to go home.”

“Shhh…” Indigo shushed, as he bent toward her. With a firm yet careful grip took the mare by the arm and pulled her up from her seat, “You can’t go home now, but you’ll be alright. I’ll make sure that you get taken care of, and after this you’ll have a good owner to give you a good home.”

“Nnoooooo…” The mare sobbed, giving no actual resistance.

As the door came open, a variable flock of gryphons entered the home, some of whom carrying in several large boxes on dollies. “Canterlot Gryphon Delivery Service,” said one aloud, stepping into the scene with nary a batted eye at what was going on around him, “Are these the ones heading to Manehatten?”

The other gryphons didn’t wait for an answer as they got to work gathering up Wingshy and Zunrai, overpowering them with their gryphon strength and stinking syringes into their necks, injecting them with something that made them both incredibly woozy. Slate watched as the two ponies he had claimed for his own slipped into unconsciousness, going limp in the taloned hands of the gryphons, then were picked up and placed in the boxes like ripe fruit.

With those two out of the way, Indigo addressed the gryphon that spoke in a businesslike fashion. “Pinion, right? Thanks for coming at such short notice. We’re going to need this entire building cleaned, nothing left behind.”

The gryphon scoped the house, making a mental note of everything in it. “This is going to take the rest of the damn night....”

“It’s on the boss lady’s account, so you know you’ll get your bits with an extra tip,” the stallion said, going right for what gryphon’s loved most.

That made the gryphon a little less angry at the situation, “Okay crew, I want this place spotless before daybreak. Hustle up, get it done, and we all get a little extra coin in our pockets.” With the other gryphons now motivated, Pinion looked at Slate and used his eagle eyes to observe the unicorn. “This one looks like shit. You know the boss doesn’t like them bruised up, they don’t sell well. That gash on his head is not coming out of our pay.”

At that moment, the nature of this group finally hit Slate, the word ‘sell’ spelled it out for him. They were not a band of common rapists that went around using ponies and ditching them like himself, as he had been assuming. These were worse, these were slavers, ponies who captured ponies to keep and use till they had no further use for them. It was repugnant to the stallion, at least those he went after got to have a life afterwards.

“Look here,” he said to the gryphon, “I am not one of your pickups. These ponies came to recruit me for your Society, and I will appreciate it if you recognize that.”

Pinion smiled, “Why of course. Pardon me for making the mistake. That ring on your horn threw me off is all.”

“Don’t feed his ego,” Indigo said, turning his head back toward Slate with a scowl, “I mean, he’s right, but he’s a flight risk. He’s getting transported too.”

“Transported… hey wait one second. I’m not going with these filthy gryphons!” That was the last thing Slate got out of his mouth before a pair of gryphon’s took him by the arms, while another slipped a heavy leather band around his muzzle, clearly not appreciative of the unicorn’s opinions.

“Sorry Slate,” Indigo said as he pulled another toothpick from the container in his pocket and placed it in his mouth, “But we can’t let you see the location of headquarters till we know you can be trusted. So you’re going for another nap.” His scowl turned into a smirk. “Don’t worry though, when you wake up next, it’ll be in a much better position than this,” he said sarcastically.

Slate did his best to resist, but soon the sharp sting of a needle entered his jugular and a cool fluid forced it’s way into his bloodstream. He lashed out when he felt this, kicking and giving out muffled yells. Never in his life had he been treated this way, and as his vision slowly blurred, he made a promise to himself. When he got the opportunity he would figure out who was this ‘Lady Tourmaline’ was, and he would do everything in his power to bring her, and her Society, crumbling down.

Author's Note

Hey everyone, not much to say this update except "sorry I'm late". I said it would be august, and I went into September. Some of you might not think that is a big deal, but I kinda take personal failure hard. So yeah, even if you don't mind the wait, I kinda feel bad anyways.

This Chapter was heavily based on the interactions of 6 OC, only one of them being mine, and some of the owners of them wanted to be sure their characters acted like they should, and thus had a hand in creating it. I am not using this as an excuse (as I was into September already when I started writing this), but more pointing out how glad I am to work with people who care enough about their characters to have them portrayed properly. Sure, it added a few days to the completion of the chapter, but I would rather have things done right than on time.

Hopefully we will be able to get back to frequent updates, shooting for Bi-weekly, but I still have another project hat I want to complete that I am half way through at the moment. The next chapter will be more entertaining for those of you who are looking for the clop side of EqTS again, but I hope the plot elements can entertain until then. See you all soon!