Mystaria’s absence sent an uneasy chill through Lex.

While the obvious reason for her not being there was because she’d elected to stay in Bright Night in order to watch over Thermal Draft, there were several reasons why he couldn’t bring himself to have confidence in that idea.

The most obvious of which was that Mystaria would never have willingly chosen to stay behind while her friends risked their lives in the wilderness.

The mares of Fail Forward were a group of inept bunglers, but they were still experienced adventurers. While their “don’t split the party” heuristic was simplistic in the extreme, it wasn’t ill-conceived; the five of them working together increased their overall chances of survival.

That was exceptionally germane given that simply reaching the adlet’s village required a days-long trek through a hostile wilderness, most notably the monster-infested forest between them and civilization. For those mares to willingly put themselves in danger to find him meant that something was seriously wrong, in which case Mystaria would never have let her friends make the journey alone.

Particularly since, in the communique he’d had with her several days prior, she’d indicated that her grandmother – a mare named Perennial Stock, supposedly an accomplished mage and professor emeritus of Bright Night’s magic school – had successfully placed Thermal Draft in stasis. With her charge’s condition stabilized, it would have made more sense to Lex if Mystaria had left the pagsus-turned-doppelganger in her grandmother’s care and offered to help her friends find him.

All the more so given that none of Fail Forward had ever been to the adlet village before. That they’d managed to track it down now could only be attributed to the presence of Nangiannatuk – Yotimo’s battle-trained polar bear – whom they’d presumably stumbled upon through sheer luck while he was making his way back to the village. Even then, they wouldn’t have known that they’d run into the polar bear while setting out, which meant that whatever had driven them to come here was important enough that they’d been willing to search blindly.

Even worse, Spice’s daughters had caught up to them first.

The succubus wasn’t, in Lex’s estimation, very strong; Burly Brawl would have been able to crush her without undue difficulty. But as far as the mares of Fail Forward were concerned, Spice was an unbeatable opponent. If her daughters were anywhere near as powerful – or as perverse – as their mother, then Valor, Spinner, and Woodheart had likely had a great deal of their life force drained, and would need immediate-

But he couldn’t finish the thought as, with his foresight and enhanced senses, he got a good look at the five alus.

What in Tartarus?

A few seconds later, they’d come close enough for everyone to get a look at them, and Spice groaned. “Those rotten girls,” she pouted, slumping in place before sniffling loudly and wiping her eyes. “Why is it that daughters always break their mother’s heart?”

Her question was left unanswered as everyone simply stared at the approaching group, shocked into silence.

Until finally, Sirrush managed to recover her voice. “Is this some kind of joke?”

“I think it’s an illusion,” muttered Yamini, shifting into a defensive stance.

“Maybe the ponies did that to them?” offered Dima weakly.

“Somehow I doubt it,” murmured Carnelia, taking her glasses off and squinting at the lenses before proceeding to polish them.

“They’re still demons,” Long Road reminded everyone. “Do not let your guard down.”

Nisha, having managed to calm down some, glanced back from where she was pressed against Lex, making no move to disentangle herself from him. “What’s going on?” she whimpered. “I don’t understand.”

“Our husband’s concubine has daughters from her previous dalliances,” answered Mei Li. “But they’re...unlike her.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” snorted Yura.

“At least they won’t turn my warriors into lust-drunk fools,” observed Yotimo.

No one asked what he meant by that. No one had to.

Unlike their mother’s pubescent appearance, Spice’s daughters looked to be fully-grown women, with their ages seeming to range from their early twenties through late thirties.

More notable than that was how they were all dressed, not just modestly, but conservatively.

There were no displays of cleavage. No flash of thighs. No skintight outfits. Instead, they were all completely covered from the neck down in outfits that did nothing for their figure, to the point of being unflattering. They even all had headwear which seemed designed to make them appear less attractive.

Nor was that the only thing that made them different from Spice, their voices – and those of Fail Forward’s – drifting closer as they group made its way into the village.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” laughed Spinner. “There’s no way that works!”

“I was skeptical too before I tried it,” answered a purple-haired alu wearing a shapeless apron over a wool jacket and hemp pants that looked to be a size too large for her, as did her floppy white hat. “But now it’s one of my most popular requests.”

“Yeah, but baking the cheese right into the bread?” snickered the bard. “That sounds like it’d make such a mess!”

“When I serve it to the orphans at my church,” interjected another alu, this one in a grey muslin dress with a matching wimple which didn’t quite hide all of her neon pink hair, “it was with the understanding that anyone who didn’t want to help clean up afterward wouldn’t get to have any. That was more than enough to make them all promise to help with the scrubbing and dishwashing.”

“I wish the people I work with were that nice,” grumbled a green-haired alu wearing a single-piece bodysuit with thick padding and numerous pockets, adjusting the safety helmet she was wearing. “I made candied oranges for everyone in our mining crew once, and even though they ate them all before lunch, no one said so much as thank you.”

“My aunt had a trick she’d pull when she felt her food wasn’t being appreciated,” offered Valor. “She’d make most popular dish, but only enough for one person. Then, after everyone was done fighting over it, the ones who didn’t get any would ask her why she hadn’t made more. When they did, she’d just smirk and make a cutting remark about how she didn’t think everyone would want it since no one said anything the last time she made them.”

“Your aunt sounds very wise,” noted an alu with fiery orange hair was almost completely hidden beneath her overly-frilled mobcap. The accessory was black and white, matching the color scheme of the baggy maid’s outfit that she was wearing. “But I find that oftentimes, simply seeing people enjoy your efforts is thanks enough.”

“I agree,” nodded Woodheart. “Animals don’t thank nature for its bounty, but that doesn’t mean they don’t appreciate it.”

The comment earned a loud “meep” from Littleknight, riding atop Nangiannatuk, and the sound brought a wry grin to the face of the last alu. Pushing a strand of sky-blue hair back beneath her ushanka, she shrugged, the motion almost lost beneath the heavy flannel sweater she was wearing, the material only slightly less thick than her canvas pants. “Just so long as they don’t object when the rest of us help ourselves to some of that bounty!”

But the conversation came to a halt as Spice stalked forward, hands on her hips and a glower on her face. “Girls! I thought I told you to take those hideous outfits off!”

The group came to a halt at that, all five alus scowling at the sight of their mother. “We already told you, we didn’t bring a change of clothes,” spat the one who’d mentioned working in a mine.

Spice cocked her head to the side, as though she didn’t understand what she was being told. “What does that have to do with taking off what you’re wearing now?”

“You expected us to go NAKE-, no...I am not getting angry,” declared the one in the floppy white hat. “Look, you were right, okay? There were some other ponies out there” – she waved a hand at the three earth mares, who were watching the exchange with increasing discomfort – “and we found them and brought them here, just like you wanted. Now will you please hurry up and send us back?! I left a roast in the oven and it’s going to burn!”

“Aw, don’t be like that, Ginger! I wanted to doll you all up so I could show you off to my new friends!” pouted the succubus, her lower lip quivering.

The alu in the ushanka grit her teeth. “You can’t just drag us away from our lives whenever you feel like it, Spice! We’ve talked about-”

She didn’t have a chance to finish as the succubus’s teary-eyed demeanor instantly vanished, replaced with tightly-controlled anger. “What did you just call me?”

The flannel-clad alu’s righteous indignation fell away immediately. But it was resignation, rather than fear, which replaced it.

“I’m sorry...” Her lips twisted in a grimace, as though she’d just bitten into an apple and found a worm. “...Mommy.”

It was at that point that Valor, Spinner, and Woodheart – after exchanging concerned looks – began to back away from the arguing demons.

“Aww, there’s my sweet little Juniper!” cheered Spice, throwing her arms around the taller alu and nuzzling cheeks with her, all anger gone as quickly as it had appeared. “Who’s Mommy’s cute widdle girl? Who’s Mommy’s cute widdle girl? You are! Oh yes you are!”

“It’s a disgrace that you still insist on us calling you that,” huffed the maid alu. “We might have come from your womb, but the way you raised us makes you unfit to be called a mother.”

Releasing Juniper, Spice was instantly on the verge of tears again, clasping her hands in front of her. “Sage, how can you say that? I struggled every day to make sure you girls had a roof over your heads and plenty to eat!”

“All without ever mentioning that we didn’t need to eat in order to survive!” snapped the alu in the helmet. “The way you made it sound, we’d starve if we didn’t engage in coitus and extract life energy from mortals!”

“But Jasmine, I brought you all plenty of real food too!” protested Spice. “Remember all of those cucumbers I gave you? And eggplants? And carrots?”

“Which weren’t for eating and you know it,” spat the wimple-wearing alu. “As it is, we’ve all had to struggle every single day to banish your influence on our lives. Just yesterday, one of the orphans at my church spoke her first word, and everyone was so excited when it was my name: Rosemary.”

She closed her eyes as she placed a hand to her brow. “I was so happy, until one of the older children asked me what my first word was, and I had to lie to that innocent child and say that it was ‘paisley.’”

Spice blinked at that. “Why not just tell them the truth?”

Rosemary’s answer came with a glare. “Because they would have asked me what ‘paizuri’ means, and I don’t want them knowing something so filthy!”

“But you’re so good at it!”

Juniper stamped her foot. “Alus might be the source of the expression ‘born sexy yesterday,’ but that doesn’t mean-”

“Ooh, I just had a great idea!” interrupted Spice, jumping up and down and clapping her hands together. “How about you all do that adorable little dance I taught you?! Remember that?!”

“You mean the one where we grind on each other, moaning our names in turn, and end by chorusing ‘and together, we’re the Spice Rack’?” deadpanned Sage. “Because I’m not doing that.”

Spice pouted again at that.

“Me either!”

Her pout became a frown.

“Never again.”

The frown turned into a snarl.

“I want to scrub that out of my brain.”

Her snarling expression twisted into one of rage.

“Ugh, I hate remembering that too!”

And that was when the succubus reached her breaking point.

“YOU LITTLE BITCHES!!!”

The furious howl instantly silenced the five alus, their faces going pale as they stepped back.

Her fingernails extending into claws, Spice’s lips curled back in a snarl, eyes narrowing even as they began to darken into a solid black. The horns on her head began to spread outward, the tiny protrusions growing larger as they began curling like those of a ram, while her skin started to darken in hue.

“Mommy knows that you’re all going through a phase right now” – she growled, her voice several octaves lower – “but bad little girls who insist on throwing tantrums need to be PUNISH-”

“I’ve reached the end of my patience for this.”

Lex’s declaration came with a wave of his claw, unleashing a spell that immediately undid Spice’s summons, sending the five alus back where they’d come from.

Immediately, Spice returned to her teenaged self, giving a disappointed sigh. “Aww, I really wanted you to see that dance.”

Lex paid no attention to the succubus’s complaint, disgusted with himself for getting caught up in her sordid little family drama. But with his opinion of himself still reeling from what had happened with Solvei and Kara, and no imminent emergencies to bury himself in as a distraction, he’d found himself uncharacteristically hesitant to intervene, second-guessing whether or not he was indulging in his desire to control the people who mattered to him.

But allowing the perverse relationship that the succubus had with her daughters to unfold without his intervention had brought him no solace. If anything, the disgust Lex felt at himself for letting that twisted feud continue as long as it had only made things worse. Particularly when there were more important matters to deal with.

“You four, come with me,” ordered Lex, letting his eyes flicker over Shadow, Valor, Spinner, and Woodheart – the latter three staring at him in stupefaction, momentarily overwhelmed as the full force of his presence crashed over them – before turning and heading back towards his demiplane, still holding Nisha and Mei Li close.

“I have questions for you.”

Author's Note

After a rather uncomfortable family reunion between Spice and her daughters, Lex takes Fail Forward aside to speak privately!

What could have prompted the earth mares to seek Lex out so unexpectedly? And if it’s bad news, is Lex in any condition to deal with it?