The interiors of the Crystal Palace were dark, the only light provided by the occasional torch strategically placed on the wall. Gone were the bright colors of the crystal surfaces, replaced by darker and more ominous tones.

Princess Cadence walked down one of the corridors, the sound of her delicate footsteps a complete contrast with the thumping noise produced by the armored boots of the guard escorting her. Like all the soldiers in Sombra’s army, the stallion was covered head to toe with a heavy set of armor, studied to offer the maximum protection to the wearer while also appearing as intimidating as possible. The heavy helmet resembled some kind of war mask, decorated with a tall black mohawk of raven feathers and with two horizontal eye slits from which came an eerie green glow.

The entire journey to their destination proceeded with neither of them uttering a word. The alicorn had soon learned that Sombra’s soldiers were unable to socially interact.

The corridor ended to a door guarded by two guards standing at both sides. Their heavily armored heads moved slightly to follow her movements, their hands maintained a firm grip on the hilts of their swords, ready to draw them at the faintest hint of a threat for their master.

Cadence stopped a few steps in front of them. “The King is waiting for me,” she said with a neutral voice.

The two guards maintained their unfaltering gaze on her, then, without uttering a single word, one of them opened the door.

The alicorn hesitated once she reached the threshold, causing her guardian to push her gently but firmly with his gloved hand. Cadence didn’t resist, knowing it would be pointless. The stallion was trapped in his own nightmare, forced against his will by the armor he wore to obey without question every order of his master.

Picking up her courage, the alicorn stepped in the room. The office looked similar to the rest of the castle, dark and with an ominous air that seemed studied to instill fear and discomfort in whoever stepped inside.

And just like the rest of the castle, this room was adorned with several artifacts that were once on display in the imperial museum. One of the first things the king had acquired after his return, after destroying the statue built in Spike’s honor, was to reappropriate of what, according to him, was his rightfully property. Priceless finds that once belonged to the Empire’s community, displayed so that they could be freely admired by crystal ponies curious of their past, were now concealed behind the walls of the castle for the eyes of the king only.

The only reason the imperial library had not suffered a similar fate was due to the amount of volumes that made it virtually impossible to transfer all of them into the castle, but Sombra had solved the problem by closing the library to the public.

Knowledge is power and if there was a thing that the tyrant craved more than anything else, it was power.

King Sombra was sitting at a big desk made of black crystal that faced the door with his elbows on the table and his chin resting on his crossed fingers, deeply immersed in the reading of a big ancient tome. Cadence didn’t recognize the book, but the intricate black runes covering the yellowed pages told her that it was a book of magic, most likely one about dark arts that should have been sealed in a vault or, better yet, destroyed.

At the sound of the door closing behind her, the stallion slowly raised his gaze from the test in front of him and looked maliciously at the princess.

“Cadence. How kind of you to come,” he said casually.

“Not that I really have a choice in the matter, Sombra,” she replied, meeting his eyes with a cold gaze.

“True,” he conceded, never dropping his smirk. He beckoned her to get closer with a hand. “Come here.”

As much as she would have refused, Cadence forced her body to obey the order. The unicorn stared openly at her body as she walked, enjoying the way her hips gently swayed with each step while her breasts bounced due to her lack of a bra. Her only clothes consisted of a sleeveless tunic made of rough grey fabric, which not only was uncomfortable, but it barely covered her body. It left a good portion of her cleavage exposed, and it reached halfway to her thighs, while instead of a hole for her tail, there was a simple cut in the lower rear part that caused her ass to be visible, especially if she bent down. Firmly clamped around her neck was a heavy inhibitor collar made of metal, covered by an intricate series of magical runes.

When she was a couple of meters from the desk, the pink alicorn stopped, staring at the king with a neutral expression. Sombra slowly stood up from his chair and walked around the desk toward the princess until he was within arm’s reach in front her.

Despite her best attempts to remain calm, her proximity to the king made Cadence nervous. If you wanted to physically describe Sombra, impressive was likely the right word. The stallion was tall, even compared to her. Like the other alicorns, Cadence was tall by pony standard, but Sombra easily towered several inches above her six feet three.
His body was strong, unusually muscular for a unicorn, more similar to that of an earth pony stallion, with broad shoulders and powerful limbs. He had black shoulder-length hair that continued with thick sideburns that framed what was without a doubt a handsome face. The similarities with a movie star however ended here. The unusually long horn that protruded from his forehead was completely different from that of a normal unicorn; instead of being straight and conical, it was curved, vaguely resembling a blade. And then, there were his bright red eyes, glowing with malice and madness with the same intensity of a couple of burning firebrands of a fire pit from Tartarus.

His physical appearance wasn’t the only reason Cadence felt uncomfortable in being so close to him. There was something more, an aura of darkness that the stallion seemed to emanate as result not only of his abuse of dark magic, but also his evil nature.

Ignoring the little filly inside of her head screaming at her to run away from the monster in front of her, Cadence did her best to appear strong and confident, looking him right in the eyes while standing straight and dignified like her aunt had taught her. This however had the unwanted side effect of pushing out her chest, a detail that Sombra didn’t seem to miss if his smile getting a bit wider was of any indication.

“So, how is my favorite toy today?” he asked, exposing his sharp teeth in the process, while he slowly moved his hand up to her face. Cadence tensed, feeling the back of his hand delicately brush the side of her face.

“I was much better before I saw you,” she said coldly, shuddering at the contact.

He narrowed his eyes. “That’s not a nice thing to say,” he said, moving his hand to her nape and rudely grabbing the base of her hair. “Remember your place, princess. The life of your husband is in your hands. If you don’t behave... well, you know the answer.”

Still holding her hair painfully tight, Sombra forced her in a deep kiss, shoving his tongue past her soft lips. The mare offered no resistance as his long tongue explored her mouth like a snake, but she didn’t reciprocate the kiss, instead she just did her best to suppress her desire to gag in disgust.

‘Do it for Shining,’ she kept repeating mentally like a mantra while the stallion’s tongue violated her mouth.

The night the Empire fell under his control had been the worst moment in her life, even worse than her imprisonment when Chrysalis had impersonated her.

After having defeated her and her husband, Sombra had brought them in their private bedroom. Then, while his guards held Shining Armor still, forcing him to watch, he had ripped her battle shredded clothes and proceeded to rape her on the same bed she shared every night with her husband.

Shining Armor had tried to stop him, only to be brutally beaten by the guards. Afraid for the life of her husband, whose white fur had turned red from the blood coming from the countless wounds, Cadence had made a deal with the mad king, offering her services and her body in exchange of the life of her husband.

Shining had protested vehemently, being more willed to die rather than allow her to be forced to do something like that, but Cadence had been irremovable. Being an alicorn, she had always known that she would have outlived her husband, and so she treasured every moment she spent with him; she had no intention to lose the stallion she loved before the time has come and she was willed to do everything for him.

Intrigued and probably also amused by her offer, Sombra had accepted and in the following three days the tyrant had made sure to enjoy the agreement as much as possible, using the alicorn to satisfy his lust whenever he felt the desire, no matter the hour or the place.

After a long minute, the king finally parted his mouth from hers. Cadence turned her head and gasped for air. Sombra didn’t take too kindly to her reaction and grabbed her chin to force her to look him in the eyes.

“I see there’s still fire burning inside you,” he said, his tone a mix of amusement and annoyance. “Good. I will enjoy breaking you.”

“You are a fool if you think that I will ever submit to somepony like you,” she hissed.

“We’ll see,” he growled. Sombra grabbed the right shoulder of her clothes and ripped it apart with a sharp pull, exposing one of her breasts. When he repeated the process with the other shoulder, the dress, now without any support, fell to the ground. With her poor excuse of clothing now lying at her feet, Princess Cadence stood stark naked in front of him, save for the inhibitor collar clasped around her neck.

Sombra leaned closer to her and buried his muzzle in her hair, taking a deep breath to savor her natural scent, causing Cadence to close her eyes and shudder in disgust.

The king ignored her discomfort and looked at her with pure lust.

Even without the light makeup she usually applied every morning, and with her hair combed in a simple ponytail, Cadence was undeniably gorgeous, able to radiate beauty even if she was covered in rags. Her body was tall and slim, with a natural hourglass figure that was the envy of many models, covered by short soft fur of a delicate pink color.

And now, this prime example of feminine beauty was his.

The king kissed Cadence again with even more desire than before, eventually focusing his attention to her breasts. They were the dream of every stallion, soft yet perky, big enough that he could barely cup one with his hand. His mouth latched to her nipples, greedily sucking and licking them alternately while his hands groped the sensible flesh of her tits.

The stimulation to her sensitive breasts started taking its toll on the princess, but it was only when one of Sombra’s hands reached between her legs that Cadence released a moan of pleasure.

“I bet that wimp of your husband has never touched you like this,” he whispered in her ear while shoving a couple of fingers inside her.

Cadence bit her lower lip and shivered, trying her best to ignore the assault to her pleasure centers.

“Not in the way you may think, you lecherous bastard.”

As response to her remark, he slapped her on her cutie mark, hard enough to leave a red handprint on her buttock. Cadence clenched her teeth and hissed, but she didn't give him the satisfaction of seeing her show further signs of discomfort caused by the stinging pain.

“You are indeed the niece of Celestia,” Sombra said, matching her defiant gaze with his own. “You’re just as stubborn as she is and never know when to give up. How pathetic.”

“Fuck you.”

“You first.” The stallion shoved her against the desk and forced her to bend, pressing her big soft breasts against the hard cold crystal surface, then he forced the alicorn to spread her legs and parted aside her tail, revealing her private parts.

He slowly removed his belt and opened the buttons of the fly of his pants, taking his time to fully enjoy her growing nervousness. She knew what was coming and the fact that she could do nothing to stop it made the entire experience even more enjoyable to him.

“Enjoying yourself?” he asked teasingly, looking without shame at her nether regions. Her lower lips were starting to get wet, causing his smile to get wider. He guided his stallionhood toward her honeypot, licking his lips in anticipation, eager to once again experience the wonderful feeling of his cock engulfed by the warm velvety walls of the alicorn.

“Not in the slightest,” Cadence replied stiffly, looking ahead toward the wall.

“Your words may deny it, but your body seems to think differently,” he whispered, teasingly brushing the upper side of his cock against the soft lips of her pussy, coating his thick shaft with the liquids of her own arousal.

The warmth of her body against his stallionhood, combined with the scent of her body filling his nostrils, were driving Sombra crazy and it took him a good amount of willpower to refrain himself from simply penetrating her in one go and fuck her senseless.

It wasn’t just simple lust driving him. It was something deeper, connected to his hatred for Celestia and Luna. He wanted to have revenge over them and now that he had their niece, he could unleash all the frustration and anger built inside of him. He wanted to fuck her into submission over and over again, making her his mare and his property by releasing his powerful load inside her womb, until she had not even the strength to beg him to stop. He wanted to turn her into his broodmare, to see her belly swollen with his progeny. The mental image of Cadence being pregnant of him made his shaft twitch in anticipation. Chances of impregnating an alicorn were incredibly low, especially if she was indisposed, but he was confident that with enough persistence he would eventually succeed.

He didn’t care in the slightest for the bastard that she would carry in her womb, after all his powers made him practically immortal and an heir would be of no use for him, only a potential threat for his power. No, what really mattered to him was that it would be the final way of asserting his power over her, a gesture of dominance that would show once and forever to the mare who had dared to oppose him that she was his.

Not to mention, he thought that the face that Shining Armor would have at the sight of his wife carrying the foal of someone else would be priceless. ‘Hmm, yes, maybe the decision of sparing that pathetic fool was right after all,’ he thought in amusement, brushing her clit with the tip of his cock, which caused the mare under him to squirm involuntarily in pleasure.

There would however be time for that later; for now he had other plans for Cadence. Tonight he felt the desire to try something different, so he grabbed her ample and soft buttchecks with his strong hands and spread them apart, revealing the puckered entrance to her ass.

Realizing what he was about to do, Cadence had only a few moments to brace herself as best as she could before she felt the head of his thick shaft prodding against the entrance of her back orifice.

‘This will hurt,’ she thought, knowing from direct experience how painful anal sex was if performed without proper lubrication. But that time with Shining had been different; they were still both inexperienced and the moment her lover had realized his mistake, he had panicked and started apologizing profusely for several minutes.

This time things would be very different. This stallion, no, this monster didn’t care for her wellbeing or even less if he hurt her, all that mattered for him was his own pleasure.

A few moments later the princess felt the tip of Sombra’s cock slip through her backdoor, soon followed by the rest of his head. Sombra grunted momentarily in discomfort because of her tightness before starting to push the rest of his stallionhood inside her, ignoring the way the mare under him was squirming in evident discomfort, even clawing the edge of the desk with her hands.

When he was halfway inside her, Sombra finally stopped.

Cadence’s eyes were wide open and she was taking wheezing breaths as she tried to ignore the painful sensation of her rear hole being stretched to the limit by his shaft. In terms of length, Sombra’s cock wasn’t much longer than the one of her husband, but it was much thicker.

‘Big, big, oh, goodness, he’s so big- AAAAAAH!” the alicorn was unable to withhold a scream of pain as the stallion grabbed her hips and pushed the rest of his cock inside her, filling her like she had never been before. Even when she did anal sex with Shining Armor, he never went so deep, fearing of hurting her too much.

When he had completely bottomed out inside of her, Sombra closed his eyes and hummed in bliss, savoring the warmth and the almost painful tightness of the alicorn’s ass. Once he was accustomed, he slowly withdrew until just the head was inside, before thrusting back all the way inside her, smacking his pelvis against her ass.

In and out, in and out, he kept repeating the process, slowly building up speed with his hips as the precum released from his tip lubricated the walls of her back tunnel, making the passage of his thick shaft through her tight ass slightly smoother with each penetration.

The sound of Cadence’s sobs as she cried in pain and humiliation had the only effect of increasing his libido. Sombra smirked and, after having grabbed her soft flanks for better balance, he quickened his pace, causing the princess to scream louder.

After several minutes of thrusting, he decided to change strategy. The stallion slowed down his rhythm, opting to thrust deep and strong to last longer and better enjoy her tight ass, then he grabbed the ponytail of the mare and yanked it, causing the alicorn to arch her back toward him in pain.

No longer pressed against the desk’s surface, her breasts were now free to bounce on her chest with each powerful thrust of the stallion’s pelvis. Sombra moved his strong hands from her hips up to her slim stomach until they reached her breasts and started groping them, digging his fingers into her sensible flesh and pinching her stiff nipples, causing a moan of pleasure to leave her lips.

“Oh, so you like it, uh? You enjoy my cock thrusting inside you,” Sombra asked amusedly without halting in moving his pelvis or playing with her mammaries. “Admit it, your resistance is just a facade. Behind that mask of unyielding princess there’s just a slut who’s only desire is being fucked with force by her master.”

Cadence didn’t reply. It would have been a complete waste of time to explain to him that her arousal was an automatic physical response to the stimulation of an erogenous area, while in truth she was actually disgusted by this entire situation. She forced her eyes shut and grit her teeth as the stallion kept ravaging her orifice with his savage thrusts, each impact causing ripples on the surface of her bottom.

“I bet that your pathetic excuse of a husband can’t even satisfy you.”

“You confound lust for *AH!* love. You are *HHHGN!* not even a fraction of the stallion *AH!* that Shining is.”

Sensing the pleasure that was building up inside her, Sombra moved his right hand toward her neglected pussy and shoved his index and middle finger inside her, while using his thumb to play with her clit.

The sudden stimulation of her most sacred part caused the alicorn’s eyes to snap open wide while emitting a loud moan of pleasure. Cadence felt ashamed for her lack of control over her body, but the most primal and instinctive area of her brain didn’t seem to care, only focused on the waves of pleasure rushing through her entire body.

‘Oh, goodness! I can’t hold any longer, if he continues this way I’m gonna-’ His finger touched a particular spot of her damp love channel, pulling her over the edge. Her entire body shuddered violently as if crossed by an electrical spark, her inner walls clenched around the finger invading her vagina and she came. “AAAAAAAH!” Pleasure washed through her body like a flood as the full force of her orgasm invested her violently, releasing a copious amount of her juices all over his hand and onto the floor.

The mare collapsed on the hard cold surface of the desk, panting as she tried to recover and take back control of her body, while a thin line of drool ran down the corner of her mouth.

Meanwhile, the stallion behind her had not stopped nor slowed his thrusts, instead Cadence’s orgasm seemed to have only aroused Sombra even more, if the way he built up his speed was of any indication.

Cadence tried to tell him to slow down, but with her mind still clouded, all that came out her mouth was a weak moan as the stallion kept pumping with reckless abandon, filling the room with the sound of slapping flesh.

After a few more minutes, it was finally Sombra’s turn to reach his climax. With a final grunt he buried his cock as deep as he could inside her and released several loads of his hot seed.

Sombra took a few moments to catch his breath and enjoy the hot tightness of her rectum around his dick for a bit longer before pulling it out, causing the alicorn below him to shudder at the abrupt sense of emptiness. He looked down at the result of his work and was satisfied to see that, without his dick acting as a plug, a white stream of cum was coming out from her sore orifice, dripping down her legs to the floor, where it mixed with the small puddle of juices from her own orgasm.

“Get on your knees,” Sombra ordered. Still too weak to protest and knowing that doing it would only earn her a punishment, Cadence obeyed the command of the stallion, sighing internally in relief as her legs were barely able to sustain her after the intense stimulation she had just received.

Sombra glanced at his fingers still covered with her mare juices and licked them. “Hmm, strawberry. Care for a taste?” he asked, bringing his hand in front of her face without even waiting for her reply. Resignated, Cadence leaned her face closer and used her tongue to clean his fingers. It wasn’t the worst thing that Sombra had forced her to do, and during the years she and Shining had experimented with a few things.

“Good pet. But my hand is not the only thing dirty,” he said, moving his now half limp penis in front of her face. “Clean it.”

Cadence glanced at his massive pride for a few moments, before getting to work. She started licking it, running her tongue around its warm surface, before taking the head of his shaft in her mouth and started sucking it, doing her best to keep her growing sense of nausea at bay. As expected, much to her dislike, she could feel his cock getting hard again inside her mouth. From their previous… recreative sessions, she had discovered that his refractory period was shorter than normal, most likely a result of magical manipulation, just like his ability of producing unusually big quantities of semen.

“Very good,” he growled in pleasure. “You have a real natural talent. But it had to be expected by someone like you.”

She closed her eyes and ignored his words, focusing instead on her task. The sooner he climaxed, the sooner she would be allowed to leave.

She kept bobbing her head for a few minutes, using her tongue to massage the lower side of his cock, but despite her skills, the king eventually decided that it wasn’t enough. Without warning, Sombra grabbed the sides of her head and shoved his cock all the way deep inside her mouth. Cadence widened her eyes and gagged loudly at the sudden invasion of her throat, but before she could fully realize what was happening, Sombra started fucking her face.

Ignoring her muffled cries of protest and her weak attempts to push him away, Sombra groaned in pleasure, enjoying how her tongue caressed the underside of his shaft as he thrusted it rhythmically into her warm and wet throat, the copious amount of saliva and precum making the movement incredibly smooth.

Without slowing down his pace, he lowered his gaze to the princess kneeled at his feet. Cadence looked back at him pleadingly with her teary eyes, her flushed face crossed by copious tears coming from her beautiful purple eyes. Everytime he thrusted, the alicorn gagged as his cock easily went past her pharynx, forming a noticeable bulge in her throat and forcing her to breath through her nose as to not suffocate.

The sight of her face painted with discomfort and humiliation only added pleasure to him, making him pump his hips faster. The room was soon filled with the sound of Cadence’s gagging, mixed with that of his balls smacking against her chin and the obscene wet noise of his dick sliding in and out of her mouth, forming what to Sombra’s ears was an erotic symphony.

He kept forcing Cadence to deepthroat him for a couple more minutes until he finally felt the telltale signs of an incoming orgasm. The king buried his cock all the way deep inside her throat until her soft lips kissed its base and her nostrils were pressed against his pelvis, causing her throat to contract violently around his shaft. It was too much and with a mighty grunt he came, releasing his cum down her esophagus, right into her stomach.

“Yes, drink it all you bitch,” Sombra said as he withdrew his cock so that the last spouts of cum came right into her mouth.

Cadence widened her eyes at the taste of his semen and was tempted to spit it on the floor. It would have earned her a few new bruises, but it would be almost worth it. Almost. Sombra easily lost his temper and even her smallest act of rebellion could put Shining in danger, so instead she ignored her revulsion and swallowed his cum.

Once he had stopped cumming, Sombra pulled out his now limp cock from her mouth with a loud wet sound, a line of saliva connecting the mouth of the princess with his now drool-covered shaft. With her mouth now empty, Cadence wasted no time gasping and coughing, inhaling as much air as possible now that she could breath freely again without obstructions.

“Seems like I’ve finally found a way to put your mouth to good use,” Sombra said with a smirk, pulling back his penis into his pants.

Cadence shot him a cold glare but remained silent, preferring to rest her abused throat.

“Hmm, you’re starting to learn your place,” the stallion mused.

“Now, what does a good slave say?” he asked with the tone of a teacher expecting to hear the lesson of the day from a troublesome filly.

Cadence lowered her gaze, unwilling to meet his eyes, before muttering something.

“I can’t hear you.”

“I’m glad to serve my master with my body,” she repeated louder with a strained tone, her face burning in humiliation combined with hatred.

“Good pet,” he said, satisfied, petting her hair near her left ear. “You can leave and return to your cell. I’m satisfied for now and there are no other chores for you at the moment. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Thank you. Master,” she said, adding the last part when Sombra looked at her with a raised brow.

The king grunted in satisfaction and sat back on his chair to resume his studies. “Bring her back to her cell,” he ordered mid absently to the guards standing near the door. The stallion had witnessed the entire scene, but the king didn’t care in the slightest. His soldiers were more machines that ponies, husks of their former selves.

Cadence grabbed her ruined clothes from the floor and walked toward the door. While she left the room, Sombra watched with a cruel smirk of satisfaction as each step she took caused a few drops of his semen to drip out from her back orifice. He could have ordered his pet to clean the mess she was leaving on the floor using her tongue, but today he felt generous.

When the doors closed behind her, Cadence spat on the floor. The action wasn’t just vulgar, but also pointless, given that she had been forced to swallow his semen, but nevertheless she found it cathartic.

‘Sick bastard. May he spend the rest of eternity in Tartarus as Cerberus’ chewtoy.’

Taking a deep breath, she adjusted a lock of her hair, cringing at the memory of that monster petting her after he violated her body.

Clenching her fists in anger, she bit her lower lip.

Oh, how she wanted to bite his hand when he petted her. Or maybe his penis. Yeah, although it was incredibly unladylike and barbaric, she found the concept of spitting his penis in his face after having mechanically removed it with her mouth incredibly enthralling. Too bad that the bastard would then proceed to kill her out of rage in the most cruel and painful way, her husband and probably a thousand of randomly selected colts and fillies suffering the same fate. That is, if he didn’t bleed to death first.

‘I guess auntie Luna is starting to rub on me.’ The tales of the blue alicorn about the punishments in the old days - or as she called them occasionally, the good times - were rather vivid.

“Move,” her guardian ordered without any trace of emotion.

“Give me a moment,” she said as she crudely repaired the straps of her dress by knotting the ripped strips of fabric in order to prevent it from falling once she had weared it back.

“The king ordered to bring you back-”

“I know what he said, I was there with you,” she snapped, interrupting his monotone voice. “He never said I had to walk all the way back to the dungeons naked.”

Her reasoning apparently wasn’t against the directives that the armored pony was forced to follow, so he waited patiently until she had her clothes on before intimating her to move. She obeyed, wincing with each step. After the number the king did to her ass, walking hurts.

During their trip back to the dungeons they crossed by several members of the palace staff. The uniforms they wore when Cadence and Shining Armor were in power, designed personally by Rarity, much to the fashionista’s delight, had been replaced with more humble clothes... which still looked a hundred times better compared to the mass of rags that the alicorn was forced to wear.

It was just another of Sombra’s ways to make her feel powerless and vulnerable, by dressing her in a way that even the servants would laugh at her. At least, this was his plan, based on the assumption that the rest of the world thought like him.

Too bad that the inhabitants of the empire didn’t share his mindset. The reign of Cadence and Shining Armor may have been short, but under their leadership the empire had thrived like never before, and their kind and fair nature had quickly earned them not only the loyalty, but also the love of their subjects.

Whenever the alicorn met the gaze of one of the servants, they would salute her with a discreet nod of their head or, in the case of the few brave ones, by briefly curling the corners of their mouth upward in a tiny smile, before quickly returning to their respective tasks. It was a sight that warmed her heart, but it pained her to see that their eyes also showed fear. She couldn't blame them, they had every right to be afraid given the situation. Sombra was a cruel monster to put it lightly and the fact that his troops were their brainwashed loved ones made things only worse.

‘Just another reason to not give up. I have to be strong and persist, for the sake of both my subjects and Shining,’ she thought with determination as she walked with as much dignity as she could while she was escorted to the dungeons by her silent guardian.

The heavy metal door of the cell opened and she once again stepped inside what was her home now. The room was large and spartan in design, with the only furniture consisting of a big mattress placed directly on the floor with a couple of blankets; it could easily house ten ponies, but at the moment there were only two, which made it look even more empty.

“I’m back,” she said aloud after the door closed behind her, only to receive no response. Worried by the silence, she quickly looked around, but much to her relief she soon found the other occupant of the cell.

Shining Armor was sitting on the floor in a corner of the room, the side of his head resting against the wall. He too had an inhibitor collar clamped around his neck while his clothes consisted in what was left of his uniform, basically a pair of ruined purple pants, leaving the upper part of his body bare save for the several bandages wrapped around his chest. Most of his body was covered by cuts and bruises, but Cadence noticed with a certain relief that since she left the cell this morning, he didn’t seemed to have new ones.

His lack of fresh wounds however also worried her. Ever since they had been captured, Shining had proved to be a troublesome prisoner, always trying to find a way to get the both of them out of there, or just doing his best to make the job of their jailers difficult. That punctually earned him a few blows, but it didn’t seem to deter him from continuing.

This morning, however, things were different. Shining had spent the night awake and he had seemed… distant, as if lost in his thoughts. He didn’t make any sarcastic comments when the jailer brought them their morning meal and even with her he had barely spoken.

On the floor there was a wooden tray with a wooden pitcher and two bowls. One bowl was empty, the other was untouched, still filled with now cold food. Again.

Cadence sighed. “I know that the cuisine is not that of your mother,” she tried to joke, failing miserably, “but you have to eat if you want to keep your strength.”
Her hand moved to the wooden pitcher, noting with satisfaction that it was still one-third full. She took a couple of long gulps, bringing relief to her sore throat and washing any aftertaste from her mouth.

“Why?” he asked with a hollow tone without looking at her. “Why should I bother eating?”

Cadence sat next to the stallion and looked at him worriedly. “Shining…?”

“As long I’m alive, that bastard will keep doing as he pleases with you.” He sighed. “It would be better for you if I was dead.”

Her open palm met his face without warning, the sound of the slap echoed for a moment through the walls of the cell. Shining Armor stared at her in surprise without emitting a sound, working his jaw a few times as the stinging pain slowly faded away.

“Don’t you even dare to think it,” she hissed harshly, fighting back the tears.

“Why not? You know it’s the truth. I wasn’t able to stop him the first time he attacked the Empire. I wasn’t able to defend you this time. I’m a failure as a guard and as a husband.”

“You are not a failure,” she said firmly. “You are the stallion I love, the one who despite all odds, even though he knew it was a lost fight, didn’t give up.”

“It doesn’t change the fact that I failed you and everypony else,” he said, barely loud enough to be heard. He lowered his head, unable to meet her gaze. “And now you are forced to be the whore of that monster because of me.”

“Shining.” She gently grabbed his face with her hands and forced him to look at her. “We both know that he would do it even if it wasn’t for you. You really think that he cares for that stupid pact? He only agreed with me because he found it amusing. Don’t you get it? It’s all just a sick game for him. He enjoys to see us suffer.” She leaned closer and gently placed her lips on his. The moment she kissed him, all the pain was gone from his body, replaced by a wonderful warmth in his chest. When their lips parted, she kept looking him deep in the eyes, gently caressing his right cheek, carefully avoiding a partially healed cut on his cheekbone. “If I have to go through all of this… I at least want that it’s to keep my husband alive, even if it’s just an illusion.” Cadence closed her eyes and bit her lower lip. “You are not the only one that feels helpless.”

She suddenly felt his big strong arms gently envelope her in an embrace, holding her close to his chest. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…” he kept muttering, gently stroking her back and neck.

“Shhh, shhh, shhh. We both tried our best,” she said softly, returning the embrace, resting her head on his shoulder.

There was no way to sugarcoat the pill. Their situation was desperate and none of them could do anything. All they could do was hope that their friends would come soon, putting an end to this nightmare.

Author's Note

So... here it is. The theme is far darker from my usual kind story and quite honestly I've never thought that one day I would write something like this, but I wanted to try something different from the crossover genre. I don't think this will be my best work, and I doubt I will ever master the art of writing sex scenes, but I hope you'll have fun reading it as much as I had writing it.

P.S. The content of this story does not reflect my mindset. I personally condemn misogyny and consider rape one of the most terrible crimes that exists.