Author's Note

I want to apologize in advance for taking way too long on this chapter. I wanted to post it sooner, but there was a lot of editing that needed to be done.

This chapter took a full year to write, and nearly three weeks of non-stop editing. The reason being: I've been so caught up between two jobs, paying bills, and family issues that I never really got the chance to finish the chapter quickly like I intended, but it is what it is.

Anyways, I hope you guys are having a great holiday - meeting up with friends and relatives for the season - because we all need some family time now and again - and I hope to see you soon in the next update.

Editing and Proofreading by Door Belle and mix-up. Seriously, these guys helped me make major improvements for this chapter and shaped it out better than what I had originally wrote.

Like the previous chapter: If you have any concerns or problems or notice any errors with the chapter, as well as any inconsistencies, please let me know in the comments. Constructive criticism is much appreciated!

Meek

Six Months Ago — Lowly Servant — Royal Kitchen

Lowly sat in front of the Royal Kitchen’s pass-station, flustered and exhausted. Her little predicament earlier left her in a bewildered state for hours, and her lack of satisfaction was only making things worse. The lingering need to have a stallion satisfy her nagged at the back of her mind all day, but she had to keep her chin up and push through it. She had to be calm and patient in her duty as a castle maid. Although, that didn't mean she was completely in control of the cravings brought on by the compulsion spell placed on her.

There had been moments when she futilely tried to counter the compulsion, but with Lord Armor’s sporadic sessions, the constant demands for pleasure from the guards and castle staff, and her somewhat concupiscent mind — not to mention the vibrator spell in her pussy going off at random intervals, — she couldn’t resist it entirely, but that was beside the point.

The lack of sex, the constant long hours of backbreaking labor and scarce amount of sleep had eroded what little energy she can usually scrounge up, bringing bags to her eyes and leaving a slight sag in her posture. Her eyelids were closing, beckoning her to just lay down and sleep where she sat, but she righted herself with a quick shake of the head. She couldn't sleep now, she had to serve her Lord and Princess tonight! The last thing she needed was to upset her superiors.

But it was so tempting to drop and forget everything around her and fall back into the open arms of a warm, cozy bed; to have a handsome stallion mount her from above and stuff her with his thick, mottled co—

A serving tray bearing several delicacies and a bottle of wine was dropped in front of Lowly, startling her from her groggy state. The stallion giving her the tray — Fresh Cut, if she remembered correctly — glared at her for a moment before making his way back towards the kitchen. He was one of the first staff members within the castle who had overheard the rumors surrounding her indiscreet behavior years ago and, instead of ignoring it, decided to scold her. It hadn’t been a pleasant conversation.

Sighing, Lowly pushed the memory away and placed the tray on her back. Then she poured the wine into one of the fancy glass decanters and grasped the handle between her teeth, being careful not to slobber all over it.

With her head held high, she trotted down the Banquet Hall's service corridor, passing by a few of the other maids engaged in their own tasks. As she reached the doors at the end, she took a moment to take a deep-breath and calm the butterflies in her stomach. Then she raised her head with a false smile, which was made awkward by the glass in her mouth, and stepped forward through the doors.

The sounds of laughter and chatter greeted her as she took in her surroundings. Fillies and colts were everywhere, running and screaming as they played, while the adults were spaced out in various areas, chatting with one another and enjoying the party. In the center of the room was a great dining table. At one end of the table sat a group of colts and fillies, playing board games and eating cake with big, goofy smiles on their faces. At the other end, Their Highnesses Princess Cadance and Prince Armor sat together with a group of mares, who were all engaged in separate conversations.

Lowly’s attention suddenly diverted to a familiar couple sitting next to the group, who was currently engaged with Princess Flurry. One of the unicorn couple, a white mare — who Lowly identified as Twilight Velvet — was holding Princess Flurry in her arms, while the stallion — Night Light — was making silly faces at the giggling filly.

‘Mom? Dad?’ Lowly thought. Old memories welled up as her heart stung at the sight of her birth parents, so close yet so far, but she continued her stride with a stonewall-face. 'Careful, Lowly. Deep breaths — just try and calm down...’

With a steady pace, she made her way over, careful not to bump into any of the foals running around. As she made her way forward, her ears caught on to the conversation between Princess Cadance and a bright-pink mare — who looked way too jittery for her own good.

"Oh, she’s so cute! Has she talked yet!?"

Princess Cadance raised an eyebrow, amusement plastered on her face. "Pinkie, you asked that question last year — of course she has!"

Flurry giggled at her Auntie Pie's antics. "Of course, silly!”

"You are the most adorable filly ever!" Pinkie was literally standing on the table in front of them, giddy with excitement.

"Pinkie Pie! Where are your manners? Get down before you hurt yourself!" cried a white unicorn mare seated beside Pinkie, her beautifully-styled purple mane bobbing as she shook her head. "How many times must I say this? It's rude to stand on tables!"

"Oopsie, sorry Rarity!" Pinkie said from her chair next to ‘Rarity’, who jumped in surprise.

Lowly blinked in confusion. 'How did she move to her seat so fast?’ An orange mare with a stetson hat sitting next to Lowly smirked..

"Don’t worry about her, sugarcube. She’s just bein' Pinkie Pie."

‘Just being Pinkie Pie?’ The statement itself only served to confuse Lowly more. 'What does that even mean? She was standing on the table, and then she was sitting in her seat in the blink of an eye! How did she—'

"Trust me, don't think about it. Saves you a whole lot a trouble." And just like that, Lowly's thoughts on the pink menace seized, thanks to the compulsion-spell planted deep in her brain.

"Yesh, ma'rm," Lowly answered around the glass handle in her teeth.

"Just Applejack, sugarcube. You don't need to call me ma'am." Applejack smiled and took a moment to scan Lowly's figure, then met her eyes with a raised brow. "Say, ain't I seen you before? You look awfully familiar..."

"Come on AJ, who cares. Just pour us some wine!" The small maid turned her head to the source of the tomboyish voice and saw a rainbow-maned pegasus glaring at her impatiently.

"Dash, don't be talkin to her like that, it’s rude."

Dash glared at Applejack, then sighed in frustration. "Fine, can you please pour me some more wine."

Regardless of formalities, Lowly had already poured a glass for Rainbow. She was about to do the same for Applejack when she was stopped by said-mare’s hoof.

"That’s alright, I don’t need any." Applejack stated.

"Yesh, Mish Appleshack."

Applejack opened her mouth to protest the use of 'Miss', but was cut off before she could get a word in by a voice across the table.

"Oh, over here, darling!" Rarity called.

With a sigh, Lowly placed the glass cork back in the decanter and made her way around the table, but not before setting the tray of food down for the others to enjoy. She made it around and began pouring wine for the white mare, whose face held a similar expression to the one Applejack’s had borne.

'Déjà vu,' Rarity thought. "You're right Applejack, she does look familiar!" She gave Lowly a brief stare, before smiling. "What's your name, dear?"

"Lowly Shervant, ma'rm."

Rarity blinked. "Lowly... Servant?" She let the words roll off her tongue. 'Did her parents seriously name her that?' "That is... Well, it's certainly an interesting name."

Lowly could practically feel the discomfort radiating from this mare. 'If only you knew who I really am...' "Shank you, ma’rm," she said, attempting to smile with the decanter still in her mouth.

"I think it's a lovely name."

Lowly glanced around for the source of the faint voice, but couldn't tell where it came from. She looked around the table and spotted a yellow pegasus with a pink mane looking at her, who quickly looked away and shrank behind her mane.

A snicker from across the table caught Lowly's attention and she turned her head to face it. "Seriously? What kind of name is Lowly Servant?" Rainbow Dash slurred, already intoxicated from the amount of wine she had consumed earlier. "It's like you were born to be — Ow!"

Applejack clocked Rainbow's arm, and the pegasus flinched. "Don’t be rude, Dash!" Applejack stated with a glare on her face. She grabbed at the drink Rainbow had been consuming earlier, which made the pegasus reach out for the glass, only to be slapped away by Applejack's hoof. "No! You already had four glasses, girl. This here was your last one."

"Come on!" Rainbow whined.

"I said no! No more wine for you." Rainbow was staring angrily at Applejack, but was quickly shot down as said apple farmer gave her a rather fierce stare.

"What’s going on over here?" a feminine voice called out from the end of the table, which made Lowly, Rainbow and Applejack look over quickly. Princess Cadance and Shining Armor were staring at the trio with raised eyebrows. Raising her voice, Cadance asked, “Is this maid causing any problems?"

"No, but her name is," Rainbow said with folded arms.

Lowly’s ears folded at Rainbow’s remark. “I-I’m shorry, Mish Dash.”

"Rainbow..." Applejack growled through grinding teeth, the glare she was giving her could have bore a hole through her skull. Forcing herself to remain calm, she raised her voice to be heard, "No, Ms. Cadance. We was just having a conversation with her, but Rainbow here was insulting the poor girl."

"…Was not." Rainbow grimaced.

"Don't lie now, girl. You were saying mighty rude things about her name!"

"All I asked was 'what kind of name is Lowly Servant!'".

"Ya'll were laughing at her!"

"Calm down, everypony," Cadance interrupted, before glaring at Lowly. "Maid. This isn't the time to be chatting around. Go and bring us more wine."

Lowly's ears folded back, but she complied without resistance. "Y-yesh, Your Highnesh. Shorry, Your Highnesh." She curtsied, then turned from the table and made her way towards the service corridor, pushing through the doors and walked down the hall towards the kitchen with her tail tucked between her legs.

The Princess wasn't actually being rude, but the way she completely dismissed Lowly was enough to make her heart sting with sorrow. Why she was acting this way towards Lowly was simple; she was a maid, her job as a maid was to be discreet in her cleaning, never make conversation with the Royal couple and their guests, and, most importantly, always follow orders — which the persona-spell made sure she complied with, much to Lowly’s dismay.

She assumed her little fiasco at the announcement party three years ago had to do with Princess Cadance’s negative attitude, but Her Highness never confronted her about it — whether it was because she didn’t want to waste her time with a low-born maid, or simply forgot about it, Lowly didn’t know.

However, when Miss Martinette inevitably caught word of Lowly’s freak-out session, she reprimanded her and assigned extended hours, reduced break-times, and heavy-duty tasks every day for two months.

Lowly shuddered — she would never forget how harsh Miss Martinette was towards her all those months, how far she went to punish Lowly for acting out of line, but she deserved it for breaking a vintage decanter and making a complete fool out of herself in front of the royal couple and their family.

Her family…

Tears beaded in her eyes, threatening to spill over — they were her friends and family, the ponies that helped her through troubling times and gave her purpose in this world, the people she would go through Tartarus and back to protect, the family she loved and missed greatly — but when they looked at her, all they saw was a simple maid to service them and clean up their messes, somepony they wouldn’t waste their time with, and that served as a constant reminder to one cold, hard fact.

They didn't recognize her.

They would never recognize her.

Twilight sat in her chair, confused. She hadn’t paid much attention to most of the conversation between her friends and the maid. Only when they started arguing did she take an interest, but that wasn’t what bothered her; what had her mind in a fritz was how coldly Cadance acted towards the maids and servants, especially towards that one maid — whose name she had the misfortune of forgetting.

Twilight had always looked up to Cadance ever since she was a filly. She always played with her and helped her with complicated homework assignments, including teaching her about the importance of checklists and how to use them properly, and those checklists saved Twilight’s hide more times than she can count. She never saw Cadance as her foal-sitter, but more like a sister.

Twilight tried going back through her memories, yet, she couldn’t recall a single moment when Cadance had acted dismissive and/or hostile towards anypony before, and that left Twilight with questions.

Did something happen recently to warrant such a nasty behavior? It would make sense, but Cadance wasn’t the type of mare to get angry over anything, unless somepony did something extremely obnoxious.

Had Cadance always been like this? There was no way — Twilight would have noticed sooner, but considering she spent most of her childhood with her face buried between books and generally avoided socializing with everypony, the idea wasn’t completely dismissed. Perhaps the past few years living in Ponyville and learning about friendship had heightened her sense of awareness towards others.

But the question still remained — Why was Cadance acting so dismissive towards the maids and servants?

Twilight needed answers, and what better way to get them than to ask Cadance herself?

Twilight looked up at her fellow Princess and former foal-sitter. "Cadance?"

"Hmm? Oh, hold on Pinkie." Cadance turned her head from the pink mare she was conversing with and gave the purple alicorn a smile. "Yes, what is it Twilight?"

"Can I ask you a question?" Cadance nodded, urging her to ask away. "What is your problem with the maids and servants?"

Cadence’s smile dropped to a frown as she raised an eyebrow. "Problem?"

"I’ve noticed the way you’ve been acting around some of the servants and, if I remember correctly, you acted the same way last time I visited. Cadance, is there something bothering you?"

"There's nothing wrong, Twilight. You don't have to worry about anything." Cadance’s reply was dismissive, but Twilight didn't buy it.

"I only ask because I rarely see you acting this way. Please, Cadance, what's going—"

"Twilight, I know you're worried, but believe me when I say that everything is fine." Cadance stated with her patented smile — It still wasn’t enough to convince Twilight, though.

"Can you please be honest with me, Cadance? I just want to know..."

‘For the love of— “Where are you going with this, Twilight?” Cadance groaned. Twilight’s persistence was starting to get on her nerves. “They’re just servants — there’s nothing important about them to waste your time on!"

With her statement out in the open, Cadance turned away. There was a moment of silence afterwards, leaving Cadance to believe Twilight finally got the message.

"What do you mean there’s ’nothing important’ about them?” Cadance turned back to Twilight and caught her glaring.

Cadance raised an eyebrow. “Twilight, can you please stop—”

“No, don’t brush it off!” Twilight blurted with agitation. The nerve on Cadance for deeming these servants as ‘useless’ was enough to leave Twilight seething with anger. “You’re acting way out of line by being dismissive of these hard-working ponies, and I want you to explain yourself!”

Cadance opened her mouth to rebut Twilight’s accusations, but felt something poking her leg, drawing her attention down to a fidgeting Flurry Heart. “Yes, sweetie?”

Flurry scrunched her nose up. “Mommy, I have to go potty…”

Cadance blinked. “Right now?” Flurry nodded. “Did you ask Sunburst to take you?”

“Sunny is too busy, Mommy.”

Cadance scanned the crowd over, looking for a stallion dressed in a blue wizard cape. She spotted the orange stallion on the other side of the banquet hall, chasing a group of foals and yelling after them.

“H-ey, Careful! No, don’t run around like — wait, watch out for that—”

Smash!

“—vase.”

Cadance blinked. “Oh…”

“Mommy, I really need to go!” Flurry whined as she squirmed uncontrollably. Cadance quickly stood up from her plush pillow and levitated the filly onto her back.

“Okay, okay. Just hang in there.” She was about to leave when she glanced back at a peeving Twilight, “Listen, can we discuss this later?”

Twilight stared at Cadance for a few more seconds, then she sighed. “Fine...”

“Mom!” Flurry whined.

“Alright, alright.” Cadance spread her wings and prepared herself. “Hold on tight!” Cadance said as she took flight, soaring over the table and out of the banquet hall, with Flurry’s giggles following behind.

With Cadance gone, Twilight sat alone at the table with her ears folded, deeply rooted in her thoughts. How could Cadance be so ignorant? They were hardworking ponies who had earned their fair share of recognition, and Cadance treated them like garbage. It made Twilight seethe just thinking about it.

Shining, for his part, noticed Twilight’s downcast look. “Everything alright, sis?”

Twilight looked up at her brother “Huh? Oh, everything’s fine, Shiny. Just thinking...”

“Thinking about what Cadance said?” Shining said, which made Twilight blink in confusion. “Sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear parts of your discussion about the maids.”

Twilight sighed as she stared at the table with folded ears. “I don’t understand — why is she acting so dismissive around the staff? I can’t even imagine somepony like her would do that to anypony…” Her voice came out low and shaky — it hurt just thinking about it.

Shining raised an eyebrow. “Wait, she never told you the full story? I thought you knew.”

Now it was Twilight’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “Full story? What are you talking about?”

Shining shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “I’d rather be respectful and not discuss anything personal about Cady. You’ll have to ask her yourself.”

“You know what? I will.” Twilight scoffed. She got out of her seat and made way towards the double doors at the end of the hall.

Shining couldn’t help but smirk in amusement.

‘Never fails to get her riled up.’ He thought to himself, before bringing his attention to his mother.

“So, mom — I heard you started writing a biography on Sombra. How’s that coming along?”

Meanwhile...

Lowly was practically exhausted now as she trotted back towards the dining table. What little energy she had that sustained her earlier was now completely used up, and it left her in a horrible state of disarray. She was having a hard time paying attention to her surroundings, but she needed to keep herself awake, otherwise she might end up running into—

"Watch out!" a deep voice shouted on her left, making Lowly stop in confusion. Turning her head in the direction, she saw an orange unicorn running after a group of fillies and colts, who were ruthlessly chasing each other, right in her general direction. Lowly's eyes widened as she reared up on her hind-legs, taking an unsteady step back just in the nick of time. The herd of ponies thundered straight through where she had been.

“S-sorry!” Royal Crystaller Sunburst said as he chased after them. Lowly sighed with relief and dropped down to her fore-hooves.

Her left hoof landed directly on a piece of broken vase, which pierced the soft tissue beneath and made Lowly clamp her teeth down — directly on the delicate handle of her glass wine decanter.

Crunch.

Smash!

Lowly's pupils were constricted as she felt the most intense pain in her mouth. A loud cry forced it’s way out as she fell back on her haunches and clutched her mouth with both hooves to muffle her screams. The pain could be compared to having a branding iron shoved straight into her gums. She screwed her eyes shut, trying and failing to hold her tears back. ’What happened?!'

"Is everything alright?" a masculine voice nearby said, which made Lowly turn her head towards the source. Walking towards her in a suit of crystal armor was a yellow pegasus, recognizing him as one of the guards from around the castle. His eyes widened as he saw blood dripping down her chin. "You're bleeding!"

She drew a hoof back from her mouth, confirming there was, in fact, blood. Lowly gulped nervously, which was a big mistake on her part as shard of glass trailed down her throat and made her spit more blood all over the floor. Her throat felt like lava was being poured down as the glass shard scratched, but not cut, the soft tissue of her throat.

There were gasps all around the room, followed with every adult pony in the hall rushing over to Lowly. Each one that came up asked if she was alright and offered to help. In all the time she spent as a maid, this was the first time more than three ponies directed their attention towards her. Well... a group of ponies who weren't looking down on her in contempt, like most do.

But she was just a maid, a stupid, slutty maid. She didn't deserve their sympathy. Why were they trying to help her?

"Are you okay, Miss?" a familiar voice asked next to her. She took a glance to her side and saw a purple mare walk up to her. She recognized the mare right away. Her Highness, Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, former Element of Magic and sister to Lord Armor, was standing next to her with a worried look on her face. The pain in her mouth felt like a needle pinching her skin in comparison to the heart-breaking pain she felt in her chest — 'Twily?'

She wanted to tell her how she missed her so much, to hold her in her arms and cry out like a foal, to scream out that she’s the real Shining Armor and the other stallion was an impostor! She wanted to so much! 'Please, Twily, you have to recognize me!'

She was so close, but so far. Lowly couldn’t have hoped for a better chance to tell Twilight everything, because Lowly knew she was the only pony in all of Equestria who would actually listen to her; yet try as she might, she couldn’t say anything. The compulsion-spell followed through with Lord Armor’s direct orders and it blocked her from uttering a single word about her heart-breaking predicament.

Instead, the only words that came out of Lowly’s stuttering-mouth was: "I-I'm f-f-fine! D-do you n-need anything, P-princess?” The pain was making it difficult to talk, but she wasn't going to let pain get in the way of serving a Princess.

Twilight stared at the mare in complete shock. It utterly baffled her that this mare would disregard something as serious as glass being shattered in her mouth for the sole purpose of serving her. "W-what? You just — B-but how can you — What!? You need medical help!"

More tears leaked through as Lowly tried to speak up, keeping her composure — for a mare with glass lodged in her teeth — as best as she could. "P-plea—” she coughed, “—I-I'm j-just a m-maid. Do-don't worry a-about m-m-me." Each word that came out of her mouth was getting excruciatingly painful the more she talked and it was threatening to overwhelm her.

"Is anypony a doctor!? This mare needs immediate medical attention!" The Princess of Friendship all but shouted. The ponies that surrounded them looked at each other nervously, not sure of what to do in a situation like this.

"I am! Make way!"

The crowd dispersed at the sound of a rough voice approaching, revealing a stallion dressed in a white lab coat and carrying a medical bag in his mouth rushing towards the scene. "What seems to be—" he didn't need to finish his sentence as he got a good look at Lowly’s mouth. "Oh dear..."

"You're a doctor, right? Can you help her?" Twilight asked.

"Yes, ma’am. I’m Doctor Stethoscope — one of the castle doctors,” he said, now staring into Lowly’s eyes. “I’m going to need you to open your mouth.”

Complying, Lowly opened wide and Stethoscope took a closer look with his medical instrument, observing the damage, before pulling back..“Okay, I’m going to ask you a serious question and I need you to answer truthfully with either a nod-for-yes or shake-for-no. Did you accidentally swallow any of the glass?"

Lowly hesitated for a moment before nodding her head — much to the doctor's distress.

Stethoscope looked towards Twilight with a serious expression. "She’s going to need surgery right away to safely remove the glass she swallowed, no doubt about it." He turned back to look Lowly straight in the eyes, “I’m going to take you to the Medical Wing for treatment — can you walk?” Lowly nodded. “Okay, let me help you up.”

Twilight watched as Stethoscope helped Lowly up to her hooves and carefully guided her around the shattered glass, then escorted her towards the exit, with Lowly limping the entire way. Something felt off about that mare and she couldn’t figure it out.

‘What could possibly compel a maid to ignore her own well being enough to serve with such dedication?’ Twilight thought. She wanted to ask the maid about it, but considering said-mare just shattered a glass bottle in her mouth, that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.

Twilight glanced over to the yellow pegasus guard, who was making his way back to his position by the doors. If she remembered correctly, his name was Flash Sentry, a guard she's encountered on a few occasions during her visits to the Crystal Empire over the years. “Excuse me, Flash Sentry, is it?”

Flash whipped around in an instant upon having his name called. “Yes, Your Highness?"

“I have a quick question, if you don’t mind,” Flash nodded. “How well do you know that maid?”

“Lowly Servant? Well, besides a few rumors going around about her, I know very little.” Flash withheld his knowledge about Lowly’s promiscuity — how he knew didn’t matter, he felt it would have been inappropriate to share this information out loud at a filly’s birthday party. “Was there something in particular you wanted to ask, Your Highness?”

“Well, I was just wondering if you might know if Lowly had any relatives or friends that could be contacted.”

Flash shrugged. “I have no idea. If she does, you’ll have to check her résumé. Other than that, that’s about all I know.”

Twilight went silent after, her mind focusing on that poor maid. All she could think about was Lowly laying in a hospital bed alone, with no relatives or friends sitting by her side and holding her hoof, nopony to let her know that everything was going to be okay. The thought itself didn’t sit well with Twilight.

Then suddenly, an idea popped up in her head. “In that case, can you do me a favor, Flash?”

“Of course, Your Highness.”

“Can you go and stay with her for the time being? I know you don’t know each other very well, but I think it’d be more reassuring for Lowly if you stuck around.”

Flash blinked. “Uhm, Your Highness—”

“Please, call me Twilight.”

“R-right, Miss Twilight — I don’t mean to be rude or disrespectful, but I’m already assigned to my post at the door and I don’t think my superiors will take kindly—”

Twilight waved her hoof dismissively, “I’ll inform them, don’t worry. You go on and catch up with them.”

Flash briefly glanced back at the double doors leading to the main hall, where Lowly and the doctor had departed through, before turning back and saluting. “I’ll keep an eye on her, Princess.” With everything said, he wasted no time catching up to Lowly and Stethoscope as they made their way down the hall towards the Medical Wing.

Five Minutes Later

The Royal Clinic was a special wing added to the Crystal Castle, following the reappearance of the Crystal Empire. It was designed with the intention of providing immediate medical services for the Royal Couple should an emergency arise, but it also provided for all staff members employed at the castle. Unlike the other clinics within the Empire, every doctor and nurse employed within the Wing had up-to-date modern knowledge of medicine and were all strictly professional in their line of work.

One of the nurses running the counter up front was going through the process of organizing medical-files when the front door swung open suddenly, and both Flash Sentry and Doctor Stethoscope trotted in with Lowly between both stallions, leaning against them for support. The nurse behind the counter noticed Lowly’s bloody muzzle immediately and ran towards them.

"By the Sun — what happened?" The pink and white nurse asked.

Both stallions gave the nurse a recount of the events, giving her as much information as possible. When they finished, the nurse called for assistance over the intercom. Moments later, a group of nurses rushed out and started escorting Lowly towards the back.

"Thank you for escorting her here, Mr. Flash. We'll take it from here." The doctor said.

Flash nodded. “I’ll stick around for the time being, just to be safe.”

The doctor nodded back and walked through the doors to the ER to prepare Lowly for surgery, leaving Flash all alone.

“Now what?” He asked himself. He took a moment to search the waiting room and spotted a table in the far corner covered in magazines. With nothing better to do, he walked over and dug through the pile for anything interesting. Unfortunately, they were all about mare-fashion.

With an exasperated sigh, he grabbed a magazine at random and sat down. ”And to think I’m actually getting paid for this...”

Lowly laid quivering in the prep-room, the pain in her mouth and stomach was doing little to quell her anxiety. She could only lay there and wait while the medical staff rushed to get the ER set up around her. The two surgeons that were going to perform the procedure had entered her room earlier and introduced themselves, speaking with a level of professionalism and confidence as they went over a few key details, which calmed her down a little.

Just then, one of the surgeons walked up and stood on the side of her bed, a face mask was covering her muzzle as she spoke. "Hey, hon, we’re going to put you under right now, ok? But before we do that, is there anything you'd like us to do — maybe contact a relative or a friend?" She asked in a warm, motherly tone.

There were; her parents, little sister, friends, and wife, but she couldn’t have them. They were Lord Armor’s family now, not hers, and even if she could ask for them, they wouldn’t recognize her. Why would they bother with a simple, low-born maid such as herself?

With a heavy heart, Lowly shook her head, trying to hold back the tears; she didn't want to delay any longer — she had to get this done and over with so she can get back to work. After all, who was going to pleasure Lord Armor while she was incapacitated? A shiver ran down her spine at the thought of how he was going to punish her for causing another scene in front of everypony. Celestia be damned if he goes easy on her...

The doctor blinked. “Are you sure? There has to be some pony you have in mind, right?”

A single tear trailed down Lowly’s face as she shook her head. ’They can’t know, Lord Armor doesn’t want me to tell anypony…’

The doctor held Lowly’s hoof in comfort. “It’s okay, hon. Tell you what, why don’t I go outside and ask that guard if he can stick around after the procedure; would you be okay with that?”

Lowly hesitated for a moment, thought about it, then nodded. The doctor smiled through his surgical mask before signaling the rest of the team to get in position. One of the assistants holding an oxygen mask placed it over her mouth and told her to take a deep breath.

There was no telling what could happen in the days to follow, but Lowly didn't have much time to dwell on it as the gases being pumped through the oxygen mask took hold quickly, making her extremely sleepy. She gently eased her head back against the pillow and sighed.

’At least I can enjoy this little moment of peace in my miserable life, because when this is all over, it’s right back to the same grinding routine...’

BzzZZzz

...And the moment was shattered when she felt the familiar buzzing in her loins.

'Sweet Celestia, why?!' That was the last thought to enter Lowly’s mind before her eyes closed.

Then everything faded to black.