Life is Beautiful

The sound of hooves overtook the normal chatter and bustle of the busy throne as open court was in session, causing Princess Celestia to lift her head, her attention drawn from the noble speaking with her about weather conditions out near Appleoosa. Seeing four ponies she recognized made the princess’s heart sink; under any other circumstances, she would be overjoyed to see them, but today, after the worrying letter she had received the previous day, something akin to dread seeped into her heart, “thank you my good pony, but I have some urgent business I need to see to,” Princess Celestia said, cutting off the noblepony suddenly.

The pony blinked, frowning, “But what about-“

“Yes, yes, go talk to the steward, and he’ll arrange things with the weather pegasus, good day.” She looked to the steward besides her, “clear the nobles out, court is over for the day.”

The steward nodded, rather surprised, as court never let out till well after noon, but he didn’t question, stepping forwards and motioning guards as he moved to start clearing the room. It took only a few minutes, and since it was such an unusual action, it drew both the curiosity, annoyance, and at the same time, a troubled acceptance from the gathered court, as they knew something must be happening.

Soon it was only a small contingent of guards remaining, and four ponies, and a dragon that approached the throne together. The condition of one of them, a soft yellow pony with a lovely pink mane troubled Celestia greatly, only adding to her worry as all four bowed to her. “Please rise, Fluttershy, what happened to your wing?”

Fluttershy lifted her head with wide eyes for a moment as she looked to the princess, before looking back to her good wing as she stretched it, then remembering and looking to the wing that was bandaged to her side, in a heavy cast that weighed her down now that she was reminded of it, “Oh um… it was an accident Your Majesty,” she said softly.

“Like hell it was!” Rarity said, startling herself and the others gathered as she rose, before offering a sheepish smile, “my apologies your Majesty… it’s just…” she looked nervously to the others.

“Go on, what happened,” Celestia encouraged.

“The way ah figure it, something is wrong, really, really wrong with Twilight. We tried ta confront her, and talk ta her about it, but she took off, and not before she launched poor Fluttershy here into the tree after she jumped out a window,” Applejack explained, “Now ah’m sure Twilight didn’t -intend- to hurt Fluttershy, but she did!”

“I was still in shock over her the state of her library! It was like Rainbow Dash crashed in there and then into every shelf at once!” Pinkie Pie chipped in, looking unusually frazzled and worried, “But then there Twilight was, and she wouldn’t talk to us! She hasn’t been acting quite herself lately and… well…”

“We thought it would pass in time,” Spike said, putting a paw on Pinkie’s shoulder as the pink pony’s head drooped, upset with everything, “I’ve never seen Twilight like this. We think she came here to Canterlot, we searched all over Ponyville, but she was gone.”

Princess Celestia looked gravely troubled as she listened to the story from the ponies, though her eyes settled on Spike after a moment, “Did you find anything in her rooms, after I asked you to search them?”

Spike blinked a moment, “Oh yeah! I found a mess of pouches in a drawer in her room, I had never seen them before, and something didn’t feel right about them, but there wasn’t anything in any of them, but I brought the whole lot… it should be in the luggage.”

Celestia looked up, “Steward, find the box and bring it here, and send a message to Rainbow Dash, she should be performing in Baltimare with the Wonderbolts this weekend, she should be here to help in the search.”

The steward nodded from the doorway, “Right away your Majesty,” as he cantered off.

It was only a couple of minutes later when the steward returned with the box, carrying it wrapped in a soft green glow of power from his horn, bringing it to the throne and placing it before Celestia as she motioned.

Celestia used her own magic to open the box, looking down at all of the soft cloth pouches. She used her magic to start lifting them up, investigating them, turning them inside out and carefully sniffing them, before laying them aside, each and everyone seemed perfectly clean until out of one, a single glittering grain fell as she turned it inside out, and was immediately caught in the swell of Celestia’s magic, the bag discarded.

“That is beautiful your Majesty, what is it?” Rarity asked, stepping forwards, curiosity in her gaze as she studied the tiny glittering grain, her mind immediately working on how she could use something like that in her store.

“It is beautiful, and extremely dangerous,” Celestia said as she closely studied the gem, “It’s called Moon Sugar, it’s a rare, and exceptionally potent drug, used to induce sleeping and euphoria. It has some other uses as well, most don’t know about. It is produced from a plant called Moonlit Glory, and it can only be harvested under the full moon. The plant has been eradicated from most of Equestria, the only places I know that it grows is in Luna’s private garden, and a few places within the Everfree Forest. Where someone managed to get this much of it, I am not sure.”

“So that’s why she was borrowin’ so much money!” Applejack exclaimed, “She was buying this… stuff! Why would she need it though Your Majesty? Twilight knows better than that.”

Spike spoke up before Celestia could respond, “Twilight started having trouble sleeping a few times before I moved in with Rarity, I didn’t think anything of it at the time…”

“When did this all start?” Celestia asked.

“I think the first time she had trouble sleeping was a few weeks after… after Shining Armor’s funeral,” Spike said softly, his brow furrowing, “She came to Canterlot to visit Princess Cadance a few days later, and things seemed better by then.”

“You wouldn’t suppose that… she was on this even then? Where did she find it?” Rarity asked.

“That is a very good question, my little pony, if we can find that out, maybe we can find out where Twilight Sparkle is. Will you all stay and help in the search?”

All four nodded rapidly, voicing their own forms of agreement.

***

Twilight groaned as she slowly woke up, still laying on the floor of the bedroom, slowly looking around as she sat up, expecting to see Hot Shot on the bed, but he was gone. Twilight took stock of herself, and after a moment rose, slipping out of the bedroom, and looking around more of the small apartment. There wasn’t much to it, a single bedroom, a kitchen, a dining room, and the living room that the door opened up into, as well as a single full bathroom.

After not seeing Hot Shot around anywhere, Twilight slipped into the bathroom, looking at her bedraggled self in the mirror for a moment before sighing. A nice bath would feel good, she decided, her brain not taking her much further than that. She used her magic to start the water going in the tub, getting it nice and hot, before she climbed in, and sank down, letting the water slowly fill up over her withers, soaking in the heat a bit before looking for some shampoo. Finding some, she finally got down to washing herself clean, not realizing how dirty she felt until she started to get into washing.

The sense if filth only intensified as she got to cleaning her tail, remembering suddenly and vividly what Hot Shot had done to her, her ears plastering back as she shivered, shaking her head as she suddenly found herself crying. Doing her best to suppress the sob, Twilight used her magic to clean beneath her tail, but no matter how hard she scrubbed, that pervading sense of filth plagued her. After it got too red and sore to keep washing there, she finally quit, letting the cloth go, and worked on rinsing herself off.

As she stepped out of the bath tub, the front door opened, and then closed with the sound of hooves moving around the living room, “Twilight, are you awake?” came Hot Shot’s voice, almost making Twilight wince.

Twilight started draining the tub, and stepped out of it, grabbing a towel off the rack and starting to wrap it around herself, “I’m in here,” she said, her voice sounding strained even to her ears.

Hot Shot opened up the door and looked over Twilight a moment, a bit of a self satisfied smirk playing over his lips as he eyed the dripping mare, a look that made Twilight’s cheeks color and turn away her head. Hot Shot cleared his throat after a moment as he put on a much more serious expression. “There are dozens, if not hundreds of guard ponies searching the city, they are… looking for a fugitive from Ponyville, she was apparently involved in some sort of… assault? You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

Twilight’s eyes widened, fear taking over her expression as her ears plastered back against her head, “F-f-fugitive? Oh Celestia! That can’t be!” she said, trotting out of the bathroom and moving towards the door a moment, before she stopped, her body shaking with indecision and fear, “How badly did I hurt Fluttershy?!” spinning back towards Hot Shot, her eyes wide with fear.

Hot Shot watched Twilight, moving out of her way, and following her to the living room, keeping his smirk off his features; even under the effects of Moon Sugar, Twilight still managed to talk too much in her sleep. “I’m not sure, it must have been rather badly, I heard she was hospitalized in grave condition.”

Twilight’s eyes widened in fear and shock, and she started to sink down to her hooves, sobbing, “Oh no! What did I do? Fluttershy… I’m so sorry, I… I didn’t…”

“You are a powerful unicorn, Twilight, do you know what they do to powerful unicorns who go crazy? And start hurting innocent ponies for no reason?” Hot Shot asked, milking this out as he kept a concerned expression on his face, brow furrowed.

Twilight looked up at Hot Shot in shock, shaking her head, “N-no, what?”

“I have heard they cut off their horns, and lock them away forever. Now you are a lovely little filly… before you get your head all bent out of shape… if you want, I can hide you here, and they’ll stop looking eventually.”

Twilight’s eyes almost popped out of her head at that, terror lacing through her as she shook her head, “No, no they… they would! Oh Celestia I’m sorry! I never meant to!” she sobbed into her hooves.

Hot Shot moved forwards, bringing a hoof to rub over the miserable filly’s back, moving to settle besides her, and draping a wing over her, “There there… I’ll hide you here, they’ll never find you, I’ll let you stay as long as you like. I’m sure that your friend will recover from her injuries, so there is nothing to worry about…”

Twilight sniffled heavily, lifting her head from her hooves, “You… you will? I… I couldn’t, I’d put you in so much danger…”

“Nonsense, my line of work is dangerous, but I’m very, very good at hiding things…”

Twilight buried her head into Hot Shot’s side, hiding beneath his wing it felt as she sobbed, her whole body shaking like a leaf, “Thank you, thank you so much!”

“Not a problem my dear,” Hot Shot replied softly, holding the mare close, a wicked smirk playing over his lips.

***

Like so many things that become lost, Twilight Sparkle remained that way. Weeks went by as searches scoured the city. Those weeks turned into a month, and Princess Celestia was forced to call off the search. Five ponies and a dragon continued the search for several weeks more, before duties in their own life long neglected forced them to abandon the hunt for their friend. Every once in a while, a small group of them would travel back to Canterlot, searching the streets with volunteer escorts from the Royal Guard, but as months approached a year, even those ceased, leaving Twilight Sparkle to her fate, as the months became a year.

***

Twilight gagged hard as the long, thick shaft of Hot Shot slammed down her throat repeatedly, forcing the mare to swallow all of it. She couldn’t breathe, her lungs were burning as she took what gasps for breath that she could when he pulled far enough out, only to have the massive shaft force its way down her throat again.

Twilight was used to this, one of Hot Shot’s favorite tortures. She had continued to lose weight, for a while, but now she was putting on weight, and lots of it. Twilight Sparkle laid on her belly on the floor of the stallion’s bedroom as she was forced to deep throat the stallion, the sickening scent of his musk cloying in her nostrils as it was pressed into his groin, but she didn’t fight, she was past that.

Twilight’s stomach was swelling, round and heavy, and exceedingly pregnant, not that Hot Shot seemed to care.

Twilight gagged again as one hard thrust sent the stallion’s shaft down her throat again, filling it up as she felt the head flare and swell deep within her, letting out a little gurgling sound as it twitched and throbbed, spilling its burning hot load right into her belly; at least she wouldn’t have to taste it this time.

Hot Shot wickered in pleasure as he stayed like that for almost a minute as he emptied his load, before he finally pulled back, drawing his deflating stallionhood from Twilight’s throat and muzzle. Twilight almost collapsed on her side, coughing and gasping for breath, her vision swimming from lack of oxygen.

Hot Shot turned away, leaving Twilight to recover on his own, heading for the living room, and settling down with a pleased smirk on his face.

Twilight finally managed to catch her breath and sat up, rubbing her throat, and taking a bit longer before she rose unsteadily; she needed some fresh air to rid herself of the stallion’s scent. Twilight made her way slowly to the living room, and pulled a heavy cloak on, throwing it over her shoulders, and making sure her cutiemark was covered, an pulling the hood over her head as she unlocked and opened the door, slipping outside and using her magic to lock all of the locks again.

Twilight didn’t say a word, lost in a haze of regret, depression, self loathing, and the remnants of several different drugs that were floating in her system. She slowly made her way down the stairs, her gravid belly slowing her down noticeably as she made her way outside. Once there, she lifted her head, glancing around the growing dusk, her thoughts traveling to one stallion, the only one she could call friend around here, and turned, starting off towards where she knew he would be hanging out.

Shadow was where Twilight expected, standing outside an old abandoned factory down near the edge of the district, only once she was there did she push her hood back with a hoof, and smile, a genuine smile.

Shadow looked up as Twilight approached, turning from two other members of his gang that he had been talking with, “Hey there Twilight, I wish I could stay and keep you company for a bit, but there’s an operation going down tonight.”

Twilight looked disappointed, her ears splaying as she lowered her head, “Oh… what operation is this?” she asked, sounding far more disappointed than she looked.

Shadow walked over to Twilight, lowering his head to nudge up her chin, “Nothing for you to worry your pretty little head about, I’ll be here tomorrow and we can go talk. Why don’t you just head on home and get some sleep? You look worn out.”

Twilight nodded a little numbly, bumping her nose against Shaow’s a moment, “alright, I don’t want to be in the way,” she said, and turned to make her slow way back up the street towards her ‘home’ with Hot Shot.

Shadow looked worriedly after Twilight… she was a sweet mare, and she had been so beautiful when he had first met her… now she was slowly wasting away beneath that bastard of a pegasus. Shadow was not one to question why others were in hiding, he had his own reasons why he was in the place he was. After a minute Shadow realized that his gang mates were trying to get his attention again, and he turned back to them, picking up his place in the conversation.

Twilight stumbled a bit on her way back, but she made it without falling, her heavy belly throwing off a damaged sense of balance, but with four hooves she managed to make it back to apartment 306. She drew her magic, unlocking the many locks on the door, before opening the door, and about fell over.

Hot Shot was looking a bit surprised to see Twilight back, as was a younger, and frankly very pretty filly under him, one that appeared to be very deeply impaled by the pegasus’ shaft.

Hot Shot drew his hips back, and slammed them forwards again, dropping the filly beneath him to her front knees in surprise, “Twilight, I wasn’t expecting you home this early.”

Twilight took a stumbling step back, “What are you… who is… don’t I…?” so many questions rolling off of her tongue and through her mind that she couldn’t order them.

Hot Shot let out a mocking laugh as he shuddered, emptying his seed into the filly beneath him, “What does it look like? This is one of my clients, and no, I don’t care for you. What, did you think because I took you in and have fed you, and medicated you that I loved you or something?”

Twilight took another step back, horror dawning on her face and twisting it, “But I’m carrying…”

“My child? What do I care about the bastard whelp of some strung out whore?” Hot Shot pulled his shaft from the filly with a grunt, the poor girl letting out a yelp as she fell, scurrying to the side as she found herself in the middle of this.

Twilight shook her head in disbelief as betrayal and pain ran through her, but when Hot Shot was right in front of her, her expression twisted into rage, and she reared up, lashing out with her hooves, “You bastard! You lying two bit dirty wrench of a-“

One of Twilight’s hooves connected solidly with the larger stallion’s face, leaving a gash. The attack surprised Hot Shot, but he retaliated quickly, a hoof coming up and smashing into the shoulder of the unicorn, sending her careening into the wall at the end of the hall, where she landed with a pained yelp.

Hot Shot stride towards the downed unicorn, snarling in anger, “NEVER raise your hoof to me again!” he roared as he lashed out, his hoof striking across Twilight’s muzzle, dislocating it, and several times more over her head and shoulders, leaving gashes, and deep bruises, and Twilight screaming out in pain, “I protected you! I gave you food and drugs! If you think you can do better without me than you can just-“ he cut off, holding a hoof up as a gush of sweet smelling fluid sprayed out from behind Twilight.

A sudden surge of pain ran through Twilight’s entire body as the let out a cry, her horn flaring to life for a moment, and releasing an uncontrolled burst of magic, one that sent Hot Shot careening across the floor to slam into the other wall, where he slumped down, dazed.

Twilight lifted her head, shuddering and shivering in pain and fear as blood ran down her muzzle and shoulder, pulling herself to her feet as she turned, sliding and skidding down the stairs as she made a run for it, leaving a trail of amniotic fluid behind her. The filly from the room peeked out after the fleeing unicorn, and rushed to Hot Shot’s side, trying to help him up, but she was only pushed rudely aside as the stallion picked himself up, glaring after the lavender unicorn with contempt, before stalking back into his apartment, slamming the door and leaving the bewildered filly outside.

Twilight ran, or more hobbled and tried to canter back towards the abandoned factory as another wave of pain crashed over her, sending her down to her knees. It took a moment for Twilight to regain her feet, but she did, continuing on, part from blind panic, part from fear and desperation, heading for the only one she knew might help her.

It took nearly ten minutes for her to get back to the factory, Shadow rushing out to meet her as he noticed her from his position, “Twilight! What happened?”

“He… he!” she tried to start, before letting out a groan of anguish as her body tensed up, nearly falling again, only to be cause by Shadow as she dissolved into sobs.

Shadow frowned, and looked around a moment, before his horn glowed black, gently enveloping Twilight in its power, and lifting her up, “Come on, Bull isn’t going to be happy about this, but I’ll make it even with him, we need to get you inside,” he said as he turned, carrying Twilight into the factory.

There was a lot of floor space in the factory, most of the machinery had been cleared out, but there was still some heavy equipment, and a lot of boxes laying around. A stallion looked over, “Whats going on Shadow? Whos that?”

“A friend of mine, shes hurt, I need to take care of her.”

“But we are leaving in ten minutes!”

“You can go without me, you don’t need me on this.”

“Dozer isn’t going to be happy about this you know.”

“I’ll make it up to him, shes in labor for Celestia’s sake!” Shadow snapped.

That left the other stallion to stop following as Shadow trotted by, finding an unused store room, and carrying Twilight inside, laying her down in the middle of the room.

It wasn’t more than a minute before the door slammed open, and the large form of Bull Dozer stood there, looking annoyed, “What the hell is going on here?”

Shadow straightened up, turning towards the pegasus stallion, and moving towards the door, “Look, Dozer, I never ask for anything, but this is a friend of mine, just give me this, and tonight off, shes in labor, and shes been beaten up. You owe me this much.”

The intimidatingly large stallion growled, but he backed off, “This isn’t over,” he glanced past Shadow, and stopped, “Hey I recognize that nag, shes mine when this is over, you hear? I have a score to settle with her.”

“Come off it Dozer, that was-“

A large hoof caught Shadow across the head, sending him sprawling, “Shes mine, you hear?” Dozer growled as he moved to stand over the black unicorn, “you try and sneak her back out of here I’ll cut your horn off and throw you to the guards. I’ll let you keep the foal if that’s what you really want, but that whore nag is mine.”

Dozer turned and stormed out of the small room, yelling out orders here and there, and assigning two guards to the store room to make sure that Twilight didn’t leave.

If any of this registered with Twilight, it didn’t show, she was in agony as more contractions hit, getting closer together.

Shadow slowly picked himself up, his head was ringing as he staggered to his feet. He looked to Twilight, his ears laid back and tears stinging in his eyes. He had done some horrid things in his life, he had killed, he had murdered, he had raped… but he had never regretted anything like this, “What have I done…” he said to nopony in particular, but after a moment, he turned, cantering quickly off, he needed to get some water, and some blankets for the lavender unicorn, and her coming foal.

Author's Notes
Chapter 4! i have a headache, i wasn't sure i'd be able to get this done today, but once I get typing, it doesn't stop! This isn't the darkest this story will get, Twilight still has yet to hit rock bottom.

Finals are over! i should be able to get chapter 5 cranked out tomorrow. I'm not... writing this too fast, am I? is this coming out as rushed or something?

as for Celestia, she found out, but she always has that demenour of calm this going on, i didn't see a pressing reason to have it crack here. It will, not even gods can hold their temper once they find out whats been done to their once faithful students.

Oh i remember something i wanted to say. I remember i once read a series called the Anita Blake series. I stopped reading around book 13-14 because the plot was becoming incredibly difficult to pull out of all the bad porn written in it. That is one if my fears in writing this story. It is a story that HAS to have sex in it, because of the path it is taking, however i don't want to even approach the line where the story i want to tell is difficult to extract from the sex.

I do hope i am not rushing the pace of this story either, i am skipping large chunks of time so i can focus on specific events. This story doesn't happen all over a weekend, it is likely going to span around 2-3 years, or more in all. One of my problems is i keep forgetting how long its been since the story started, thats what i get for not keeping an outline, mmm?

Events happen in these large chunks of time, but i decide that they don't have the greatest meaning to the plot as a whole, so they tend to be glossed over, or vaugely mentioned. If i went into each of the stories, i could make this take several times longer, but thats not my intention, nor do i think i am capable of the thought required to go into those plots and side plots. I'll leave that for professionals.