Snatch

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Epilogue

Chapter 1 Author's Note

This is probably pretty rough. In the morning, I'll most likely upload an edited copy. I've been barfing all night, so I really need to feel like I've accomplished something. My editor seems to be taking a well deserved break.

I wasn't going to post this, as I have too many irons in the fire already, but the damn idea kept bugging the hell out of me. Is it a good idea? I have no fucking clue. I'm not thinking clearly right now and I smashed all of this out between trips to the bathroom. It's dark, and it's probably stupid, but the idea just wouldn't shut up in my mind. So fuck it. Let's do this. This story should be done in ten chapters or so.

SPOILERS! Some bad things are gonna happen.

Chapter 1

The stone walls were vile, slimy, and slick. The bars were solid, rusty, and thick. Violetta Eventide walked in a slow circle in her cell, trying to understand how she had come here. What felt like just a little while ago, she had been a normal girl with bad grades in Canterlot High—now, she seemed to be some sort of small horse trapped in a disgusting cell. Where she had once had hands and feet, she now had hooves. She was also naked and everything felt wrong.

There was also a most peculiar stubby little spiral horn protruding out from her forehead.

Around and round she went, her hooves making dull clopping sounds against the rough, uneven stone floor. It felt strange to walk on four legs, and she had to concentrate to keep from tripping. The floor was somehow even more filthy than the walls and she did not want to fall down upon it. She had no idea how had she had come to be here. She had simply come to. She didn’t wake up, as she wasn’t sleeping, no, she just became aware that she was here.

She had been standing at the time and staring at the wall when she had become aware of it. Her past memory was of sitting in detention, fuming that her teacher had taken her cell phone. So what if she had texted in class? She had better things to do than learn about boring history.

“You no doubt have questions…”

Violetta looked up and then all around her, trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. It came from above her, from below her, and all around her. Confused, terrified, she let out a whimper and froze in place.

“And I don’t care enough to listen to them. Talk all you want, scream if you so wish, I can’t hear you.” The voice paused, as if waiting, or perhaps taking a breath, then continued, “Certain things will be easier if you understand a little of what is going on, so I am going to give you a little information to think about.”

Still frozen, Violetta waited.

“You are an anomaly,” the voice said, filling the cell all around Violetta. “In your world, you’re a girl in need of a severe attitude adjustment. And that’s just the thing, you only exist in your world. In this world, you don’t have a counterpart. That happens sometimes.”

Confused, Violetta blinked.

“As you have no doubt noticed, you are a pony. A unicorn, to be exact. You, my new pet, are a very special unicorn. You have talent for magic, a gift of magical aptitude, if you will. I’ve learned to find your kind, I’ve built a bridge connecting our worlds together. You’re going to help me with a little project of mine.”

Right then and there, Violetta decided that she wasn’t helping this creep at all.

“I’ve been collecting your kind for quite some time now,” the almost bored-sounding voice continued. “There have been a number of anomalies over the years. You see, normally, there is a human counterpart to every pony and a pony counterpart to every human. I don’t know why that is, nor do I care. The two worlds exist in near balance. But every now and then, something goes wrong. Like you. You exist in the human world, but you have no pony counterpart. And if you did, you wouldn’t be very much use to me, as the princesses of Equestria keep a very close eye upon their most gifted magical talent, making it quite difficult for me to take them.”

Blinking, shivering, a sense of dread filled Violetta. She could feel eyes upon her naked body.

“I’ve been waiting for a long time to find you though. You’re very special to me. Most of the time, I find anomalies with minor magical talents. I’ve had to be very patient and wait for you to come along. My other assistant has been most uncooperative. You’ll be meeting her soon enough and you’ll find out what will happen to you if you try to resist me.”

Lifting her head, Violetta looked around her cell once more, hoping to find some clue as to where the voice was coming from. An intercom, a speaker, something. The voice just couldn’t be coming from the air, that was impossible. As for magic, she had heard some strange rumours and seen some strange things as of late, but she hadn’t paid much attention to them. Sirens? She-demons? Magic? Things had been a little weird, she hadn’t witnessed too much personally, but there had been some odd stuff going on.

Being suspended from school had its advantages. You got to avoid the weird stuff when it went down.

“Work with me and I will reward you. Gain my trust, and in time, I will make you my apprentice. I can help you gain unbelieveable power… you will soon see for yourself the power of which I speak. Serve me well, help me achieve my plans, and I will reward you. Resist me… and you will soon find out what happens if you resist me.”

Nope, Violetta didn’t like the sound of that. This guy was a creeper. He was the old guy that hung around high school, beating his dick in a rusty white van while the girls played volleyball.

“I’ve been watching you for some time. You aren’t a good girl. Not at all. So you have no reason to resist me or turn down what I have to offer due to some misguided sense of morals. A jailer golem will be by shortly. I have decided to give you the benefit of the doubt. I will be placing you in a somewhat nicer cell and you will be fed. Resist me, and you will discover that there are much worse cells than the one you are currently in.”

She shuddered when she heard these words.

“Think about what I have said and choose wisely,” the voice said, and then went silent.

Waiting, Violetta wondered if more words were forthcoming. She stood in the center of her cell, looking around, up at the ceiling, at the three walls, at the bars of the cell, wondering what else might be said. Her cell didn’t have a door. How was she supposed to be let out? There were bars, there were walls, but there was no door, none at all.

Going cross eyed, she looked up at her horn, which protruded from her head. She recalled stories that her mother had read to her about magical unicorns and fairy princesses. This had to be a bad dream, or maybe somebody had slipped her something, perhaps something in her school lunch. Was this a bad trip? That didn’t seem likely. These walls were real, and so was the smell.

This place was dank. It smelled worse than the boy’s bathroom and the boy’s locker room. It stank worse than the changing rooms for the pool at the community center. It sorta smelled like the socks that could be found beneath her brother’s bed.

She didn’t have time to think about it though, as she heard footsteps. Cautious, she approached the bars to her cell and peered out. She looked left, saw nothing, and then checked off to her right. She saw what she thought was a well-muscled department store mannequin. It was tall, solid looking, with big, beefy arms and long tree trunk like legs. It appeared to be made of hardened clay, or maybe resin. It had no face, no features, no eyes. Her mouth fell open as she wondered how it saw anything.

It stopped in front of the bars to her cell, turned, and touched them with its hand. Some of the bars slid down into the floor with a rusty screech, while others vanished up into the ceiling. Before Violetta had a chance to react, the golem grabbed her around the middle, she yelped as she was lifted, and it held her like a cat. It wasn’t cruel, but neither was it gentle. It had a firm grip and Violetta feared that it could crush her into jelly.

Legs dangling, she bounced in the arms of the strange monster called a golem. Wide eyed, she travelled down the hall, peering into the other cells. Many were empty, but some, some had captives in them. She saw eyes staring out at her, fearful eyes, hopeless eyes, she saw tiny little horses with hurt expressions. Seeing them made her heart ache in a way that her heart had never ached before.

She wondered how long it would take before her mother even realised that she was gone. Her mother might be away from home for days, weeks even, but even if her mother found out she was gone, then what? What if what her captor had said was true? That she was on another world? She was being carried down the hallway by a giant department store mannequin, so she supposed that it was possible.

Sighing, she wondered where the golem was taking her.

This cell was more of a room. Not a nice room, not a comfortable room, but a room. No bars, just a door. The walls were some kind of dingy white material, not smooth, maybe stucco? The walls were lumpy and rough textured. There was a low table in the center of the room, and a door. A very secure door. In the corner of the room, there was a hole in the floor, and it took her several long minutes before she realised that the hole was a potty-hole. In another corner, there was a pile of straw and a ratty, tattered blanket.

Overhead, there was a lamp lit by a flame and the glass base was filled with oil. Violetta was a little surprised to see something so old fashioned. The flame flickered and black smoke curled up from the burning wick. The oil did not smell pleasant as it burned.

On the low table was food. Not horse food, as Violetta had expected, but not human food either. Something in between. There were things that looked like patties of fried oatmeal, some dried out and somewhat withered fruit, some sad looking greens, and looking at it, she realised that all of the food was in a rather disgusting state. It wasn’t fresh, but neither was it rotten.

She was hungry, but not hungry enough to eat that. It was kind of gross.

The room lacked windows and she had no way of knowing if it was night or day. Her hooves ached from standing on them. At least this floor was clean enough to sit down upon, so she did. There was no television, no internet, no WhoTube, no cellphone to help pass the time. There wasn’t even a magazine with some ridiculous relationship quiz designed to prey upon all of her insecurities as a teenaged girl.

Because she didn’t know if she was being watched or not, she couldn’t even have a wank to pass the time. The plumbing back there, her plumbing, was very, very different, but she assumed that things had to work in a similar fashion, even if she currently didn’t have fingers. She felt real weird back there though. If she lifted up her tail, she could feel a cool breeze blowing across her asshole. It felt all too weird to be so naked. She wanted some clothes, as ridiculous as it might be for a tiny horse to want to wear something. She also felt as though her clit was now the size of a doorknob, and sitting down took some adjustment. It couldn’t possibly be that bad, she hoped. Right now, everything was strange and new.

She didn’t have the time to contemplate it though, as the door opened and a pony was shoved in. The door then slammed shut with a click. Violetta’s new cellmate was an eye-searing bright yellow-orange, and her mane was crimson with golden yellow streaks. She was a colourful little pony and she had a filthy blindfold over her eyes. She was also thin, far too thin, almost skeletal, as if she had been starving.

“Hi,” Violetta said in a soft, somewhat shy voice that sounded off in her own ears. Since when had she ever been shy? Maybe it was because she was naked, or her current circumstance, she didn’t know. Whatever the cause, it unnerved her just a little.

“Hello?” the strange pony replied.

“My name is Violetta Eventide. Do you want some help taking off your blindfold? I might be able to tug it off of you somehow.”

“That’s not a good idea,” the bright yellow orange pony replied.

“Why not?” Violetta tilted her head off to one side, it felt just as natural in pony form as it did in human form. It seemed that some things remained the same no matter which body you were in. The thought and the realisation were comforting.

“He took my eyes.”

With these words, Violetta’s blood ran cold and she shivered. He did what? She had trouble believing what she had just heard. She saw the pony sniffing and a bright orange tongue flicked over her lips. “He took your eyes?”

“I made him angry,” the pony replied in a voice that was a fearful whimper.

“You didn’t tell me your name.” Violetta realised that her cellmate was starving. Hungry. When had she eaten last? She could hear her cellmate’s stomach growling and her concern for her own future grew just a little.

“My name is Sunset Shimmer...”

That was strange. Violetta knew a Sunset Shimmer back in Canterlot High. Rumour had it that she turned into a she-demon. Blinking, Violetta stared at the bright orange pony. She felt a growing sense of fear and confusion.

“I am Sunset Shimmer… I am… I was... a freshman in Canterlot High School when he took me. He said… he said… he told me that there was another Sunset Shimmer in the world to replace me. He took me… he took me and he kept me and when I’m bad, he hurts me. He’ll hurt you too.”

“Do you want some food?” Violetta asked.

There was no reply from Sunset, who stumbled over to where the table was, sniffing to find her way, and then the ravenous little horse girl fell upon the food that Violetta thought was too icky to eat. Sunset tore into the meal, hardly even taking the time to chew, trying to swallow as much of the food as possible.

From where she sat on the floor, Violetta watched, realising that this might be the last somewhat decent meal she might see for a while, and she wasn’t eating any of it. But that was okay. It looked as though Sunset needed it. Violetta was used to doing without. Her mother was never home to do shopping and her brother was a pig. At least doing without helped her keep her girlish figure, which seemed to be all of the rage.

“Nopony in this place is nice enough to share,” Sunset said around a mouthful of wilted greens as she chewed and slurped. “He’s turned us into animals. He’ll do it to you too.”

Nopony? What a strange word. As for being turned into an animal, Violetta was already a tiny horse. A pony. She was a small dark blue horse with a lustrous violet mane, a match to her human self.

“Maybe, if we stick together, we can fight him.”

“No,” Sunset replied as she ate. “The only reason I am here is so that I will scare you. He wants you see that he’s blinded me. Made me obedient. It will happen to you, too. He’ll make you submissive. If we become friends, if we try to work together, he’ll turn us against one another. He’ll make us hurt each other. You’ll see.”

“He can’t make us do anything,” Violetta replied.

Swallowing, Sunset turned her blindfolded face in Violetta’s general direction, and her voice was a terrified low whisper. “Oh, but he can...”

Chapter 2

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 3

Laying in her bed, Violetta Eventide thought about milk cartons. She remembered seeing Starlight Glimmer’s face on a milk carton. She remembered Starlight, she was a weird girl that loved social studies and poly-sci. She championed every cause under the sun, had a passion for civil rights, equality, and getting involved with the wrong sorts of people. It was always just assumed in the school that she had ran away and joined a cult or some fringe group.

Violetta sighed and hugged her hind legs to her chest while wondering if she would show up on a milk carton. How many kids might look at her during school lunch and think that she had just ran away? How many of them would even care? She wasn’t a popular girl, she was that weird girl that everybody thought was some kind of emo-goth girl, with too much mascara and clothes that came from some ratty thrift shop.

Except for her jacket. She missed her jacket. It was heavy, it was black, and something about it shielded her from the world. That jacket was her own private bubble of atmosphere. The pockets smelled of gum and breath mints. Bits of peanuts and trail mix littered the inside pocket where a snack packet of trail mix had spilled during a show. A tear rolled down her cheek as she thought of home.

Now, instead of being that weird girl, she would be that milk carton girl.

Her body ached and she felt disgusted from her own self pity. She had eaten the revolting food that she had been brought and then she had gone to bed. She cried herself to sleep and woke up and with a snotty face. There was nothing to wash with. She felt stinky and dirty. Both ends of her were crusted over. She was all too aware that her body was covered with millions of tiny hairs now and she felt itchy all over.

She was just some dumb little magical horse now, lying in a bed that she could eat if she got desperate, even though the straw was dirty, sweaty smelling, and had some blood in it. She didn’t see a way out of her situation. She was trapped. She knew that fighting back would only cause her harm, and she faced that with grim acceptance.

Was she in shock? She didn’t know. Looking back, she realised that she had a pretty sheltered existence, all things considered. There was nothing to do but think. At least she was still in a somewhat nice cell. She wondered what Sunset Shimmer was doing at this moment, where she was, and what sort of horrible cell she must be stuck in.

When the door rattled, Violetta didn’t respond. She just lay there, waiting, knowing that no effort was required. The golem, the freaky robot-thing, would scoop her up and carry her to wherever it was that she needed to be. She was meat now, baggage, just some dumb horse. She was limp when the golem picked her up, her legs dangled, and another tear rolled down her cheek as the golem tucked her beneath its arm.

It was going to be a terrible day.

This room was different. Violetta looked around, her eyes wide and curious. With her curiosity, a little bit of her spirit returned. She had an idea of what this was, but she couldn’t recall the name. There were stars on the ceiling, constellations, and in the middle of the room, there was a big mechanical solar system with planets, a sun, and different moons. Violetta had read about this kind of machine in a book, some fantasy novel, but for the life of her, she couldn’t remember the name. There was a click as she was shackled and secured to a small wooden bench that sat on the edge of the room.

Sunset Shimmer was just a few feet away, already chained to her bench. She had a scabbed over bloody nose and was having some trouble breathing. Violetta wanted to go to the girl, the pony, and comfort her—perhaps for the sake of her own comfort. She felt dehumanised and depressed.

The zebra from the day before was secured to a bench across the room. Violetta looked around. No one else, it was just the three of them with no one watching. Scratch that, she was certain that the creepy old pervert was watching them somehow. But they were alone, at least for now.

“Hey, what’s with the little zebra?” Violetta whispered to Sunset Shimmer.

Unable to see, Sunset jerked her head around at the familiar voice. “Hello?”

“It’s me, Violetta. What’s up with the zebra?”

“He’s psychic,” Sunset replied, “he keeps our minds smoothed out when the Master melds us together for a project.”

“Does he have a name?”

“Master took his name away to punish him. It’s a zebra thing. He can’t remember his name.”

“That sounds… awful,” Violetta said, trying to sound as sincere as possible. Psychic? Violetta had never quite believed in psychics. Yet, here she was, in some weird place, and she was now a tiny horse that could do magic. Who was she to judge? She looked over to the zebra and in as friendly of a voice that she could muster, said, “Hello, zebra.”

“He gets angry if we talk too much,” the zebra replied, ducking his head down.

“You can’t remember your name?” Violetta asked.

“No,” was the zebra’s terse reply.

“Were you in Canterlot High School as well?”

Sunset lifted her head. “No, he’s from here, from this place. Master stole him away from the zebras. He laughs about how the zebras fear him. He’s taken many zebras.”

“We zebras call him Uovu,” the zebra said in a low whisper.

“What’s that mean?” Violetta found herself both curious and fascinated.

“I don’t know,” the zebra admitted. “I was little when I was taken. I thought he was a story told to make us behave. I did not believe in him until it was too late.”

Someone was coming. Violetta fell silent, and the others did as well. The zebra cast his gaze down to the floor and his ears drooped, making him look very submissive. Violetta did no such thing, she watched as her captor strolled into the room.

Tired of feeling sorry for herself, she now felt a little defiant. She stared at him, even looked him in the eye. Violetta drew in a deep breath, summoned her courage, and she greeted her captor with as much defiance as she could muster. “Hiya, Fucker.”

The withered old pony froze in place, surprised. One eyebrow arched. With a slow turn of his head, he looked over at Violetta, and his wrinkled, leathery, almost hairless ears leaned forwards. “Delightful, I find your defiance amusing. I still think you will make for a fine apprentice, but mind that you temper your defiance with wisdom, foolish one.”

“Or what, you’ll torture me again, Fucker?” Violetta asked.

“How about I rip your friend’s ears off,” the ancient old stallion replied, “or better yet, make you rip her ears off? That would be quite entertaining. I would imagine that some stimulating conversation might come from that.” He let out a dry, raspy chuckle that sounded like leaves blowing down a street. “I would even leave the two of you together in a cell, so that you might bond with one another over such an experience.”

Eyes narrowing, Violetta glared at the old pony across the room, and as she did so, the zebra let out a strange sounding ‘meep’ of fear. Much to her dismay, her captor was smiling. She didn’t know what to do, now. She didn’t want to do anything that he found enjoyable. Was he using psychology against her? Maybe.

Psychology? Two could play at that game. She was still a teenage girl, even if she was trapped in a tiny horse body. She knew how to annoy old people. She weighed the risk, knew that her captor wished to get things done today, and excessive bleeding would only cause delays.

“Whatevs, Fucker. You so old, I bet you can’t even get your dick up. Is this how you get your wrinkly old rocks off, Fucker?” When she saw annoyance cloud his sagging face, she celebrated a silent moment of victory.

“We should begin, before your mouth gets you into trouble...”

In a daze, Violetta saw the world in a very different way. She floated among the stars, yet part of her consciousness was down at ground level. She had trouble reconciling with her current form and state of being. She was watching her fellow high schoolers. She was somehow both above them and among them.

She could hear her captor’s thoughts in her mind, something that disturbed her a great deal. It was as though he was in a grocery store, doing a little shopping, and buying some fruits and vegetables. He moved among them as a phantom, touching, pinching, squeezing, checking to see if they had ripened.

Not ripe yet, but soon. Taking her now would only be a drain of resources. Let’s not be hasty. He’ll be ready soon. As for that one, he’s ready, but he’s not worth taking. Such a pity…

Violetta felt disgusted. For the most part, her captor was preying upon the uncool kids, those who wouldn’t be missed. The freaks, the geeks, and the losers. She now understood why there were so many missing kids, the town had a long history of kids just up and vanishing, like Starlight Glimmer, who was now just a face on a milk carton. How long had this asshole been snatching kids up and doing whatever it was that he did with them?

She passed through a wall, physical boundaries meant nothing anymore, and she found herself in the girl’s bathroom. There was the usual gaggle of girls in there, some smoking, some talking on their cellphones, and some just talking to each other while they put on makeup while taking up space in front of the sinks and mirrors.

Her captor was looking for something. Someone. His thoughts were now her thoughts. He was walking through the stall walls, while also looking down from above. He stopped, finding who, and what, he was after. Violetta knew the girl, it was Sour Sweet, the weird bipolar girl that had transferred over from Crystal Prep Academy. From the looks of things, she had a bad case of the Taco Tuesday Shits and was stinking up the place. Her pants were around her ankles and she was staring at the screen on her phone while she grunted and strained.

Seeing the cellphone gave Violetta a sense of longing.

As Violetta was watching, Sour Sweet vanished, leaving the toilet unflushed. No flash of light, no nothing, one second, Sour Sweet was there and the next second, she was not. And Violetta had helped to take her. She thought about Sunset Shimmer and wondered, had Sunset helped to take her? She felt conflict in her mind, it was like ripples in a pond, and it made the world around them begin to break apart. She felt a brief moment of panic in her captor’s mind as he struggled to hold everything together.

As everything collapsed, Violetta felt a strange sense of accomplishment, she couldn’t tell if it was her own thoughts or her captor’s. The lines, the boundaries between them were jumbled right now. She felt a tug, but she couldn’t figure out what she was connected to, or how she even had a connection where force could be applied, as she didn’t seem to have a body.

She came to on her bench, snapping out of her daze. The machine in the middle of the room was humming, thrumming, and it made her strange, unfamiliar teeth vibrate. Overhead, the stars twinkled as if they were real stars, and the room was filled with swirling orbs of light.

“So much power,” her captor muttered under his breath as he rose from his comfortable chair. “I might not even need Sunset anymore. I wonder what I might do with her?” he asked himself in a distracted voice as he headed for the door.

Can you hear me? a voice asked in her mind.

Blinking, Violetta looked around. She focused her gaze upon the zebra. Was he talking to her? Inside of her own head? He was looking at her and appeared to be concentrating. She waited, wondering if more might be said.

You broke his concentration, the voice in her mind said. Nopony has ever done that before. Even I could not smooth out the ripples you caused. You overpowered the Master while we were melded together.

She felt one of her eyebrows rise, she didn’t know how she was doing it, her body was still strange and unfamiliar. She heard the sounds of golem feet. There was a strange expression upon the zebra’s face, one that she could not read. She wanted to say something, to talk, she wanted to know more, but she knew that he was listening and the golems were coming. There was no more time to talk. She could feel the zebra in her mind, and there was something else, something that made her shiver, something that made her feel better. It was… hope?

You broke the Master’s will…

Author's Note

For those of you still with me this far, I offer you a most sincere thank you. I would also love to hear your opinions, now that we are three chapters in. I am writing this mostly for myself. It's been cathartic.

Chapter 4

When the door opened, Violetta did not expect to see her captor. She thought that a golem had come to feed her. Even more surprising, he was carrying a tray of food—good food—she could smell it mere seconds after the door opened. He held it before him in the grip of his magic, something that Violetta was still trying to get used to. Even more confusing, there was a smile upon his face, a disturbing smile, and it made her feel a strong sense of unease.

The tray was set down upon the low table, but Violetta didn’t move. She remained in her bed, the only somewhat comfortable place in this room, and stared at her captor. She didn’t like his smile, not one bit.

“I came to speak with you,” he said, “in pony. Face to face. You impressed me, and that is a very rare thing.”

She blinked, but said nothing in return.

“You have far more power than I thought. You are an anomaly within an anomaly. I have been watching you for a long, long time, and while I’ve known you are special for quite some time, I had no idea how special.”

“And you waited until I was ripe, so resources wouldn’t be wasted,” Violetta said, daring to say something to her captor.

“Exactly.” The old pony gave a nod. “You understand.”

Oh, she understood alright. She thought of poor Sour Sweet, sitting on the shitter, and this old creeper leering over her. Sour Sweet was here right now. Probably in a disgusting cell, with the promise of an upgrade if she cooperated.

“Oh, I do understand,” Violetta said in calm voice, the same voice she used to talk to somebody when she wanted them to think she was an adult. “I’ve been thinking, and I’ve come to understand a number of things.”

“And those are?” her captor asked.

“Well,” Violetta began, “I have magic. In my world, I was a nobody. Here, I could be somebody. Here, I can learn. I mean, I can’t exactly walk into the public library and check out books on magic, now can I?”

Her captor raised one bushy eyebrow and his ear twitched.

Violetta figured that she needed to make her bullshit smell sweeter. “I’m stuck here. No two ways around that. I’m not stupid, as you’ve probably figured out, and there is no point making things harder on myself. If I’m going to be here, I’d rather get something out of it. I’m in no position to bargain, other than I can make things easier for the both of us.”

“Indeed.” The old pony’s brows furrowed.

“Is there something I can do to prove it to you?” Violetta asked, knowing that she was taking a reckless gamble. If he asked her to mutilate Sunset Shimmer, there was going to be a problem. But, if he asked her to scare Sour Sweet just a little, she figured that she could do that, if she had to. Just a little scaring, but not hurting. She could do what was necessary.

“As a matter of fact, there is.” Her captor looked surprised.

“Well, let’s hear it, Master.”

As she said it, she saw it. When she said the word ‘Master,’ his ears twitched and the muscles along his neck quivered. He had to like that. He got off on that. This was about power play, something she had read about in a lot of girly magazines that offered terrible relationship advice, most of it involving retail therapy and withholding sex until you got what you wanted.

She figured she could tease the old creeper along by calling him Master, if she had to. And first chance she got, she was going to smash the old pervert’s skull wide open. But first, she needed his trust. She needed to understand more of what she was capable of. She needed time.

“Eat first, my pupil, and then, when you are done, we shall have ourselves a lesson. I will send a golem to fetch you in exactly one hour. Be ready.” And with that, the old stallion turned around, stepped through the door, and left.

Violetta took a deep breath, held it for a moment, and then let it all out in a huff. What was she getting herself into? Could she save herself? Might she save others? She had no idea what she was doing, but this creeper had to be taken down. A part of her worried that with her being so powerful, that Sunset might not be needed anymore, and she feared for Sunset’s fate. She needed to find some way of protecting her, but she wasn’t sure how she was going to do it.

Getting out of bed, she dragged herself to the table, took a moment to sniff the delicious food, and then she fell upon it, ravenous in a way that only a teenage girl trapped in the body of a small, magical horse could be. As she gobbled down her food, Violetta began to plan.

When the door opened, the golem did not enter. It stood at the door and waited. Violetta, who was quite full from dinner, stared at the golem for several long seconds before she realised that she had to follow it. She wasn’t being carried, she was being escorted. She rose to her hooves, stretched in a position that she was positive made her look like a kitty cat, and then gave her tail a satisfying swish around her hind legs.

Cautious, she stepped through the door, never taking her eyes off of the golem, the freaky robot thing that had escaped from some movie set somewhere. When it took off at a walk, she followed. Walking was weird. Her body now had four legs, but what surprised her more was the fact that she didn’t have to think about it. In fact, if she tried to think about walking, she would stumble.

There was only one thing she really didn’t like about this body. Her boobs… teats? What were they called on a horse? They were now between her hind legs. Walking caused the inside of her thighs to rub against them, leading to a state of near arousal. As she walked, she was all too aware of the swish—swish—swish of her fuzzy-wuzzy thighs rubbing against her horsey boobs. How did ponies stand this? It was worse than having your nips sanded off by a rough textured tee shirt. Maybe they became desensitised to it. She hoped that it was a problem that would go away. Maybe if she was cleaner, her hair back there would be softer and less coarse.

One had to look for the good in things, and Violetta found at least one positive thing about being a pony: never again would she ever have to shave her legs or nick her clitty litter collector with a razor. That shit stung like nothing else.

When she entered the room, Violetta paused. This was the room she had been in earlier, with the strange machine and the stars on the ceiling. The zebra from earlier was in here too, he was chained to a bench. She looked around and saw no sign of their captor. The zebra was looking at her, giving her a curious stare, but he said nothing.

It was wise to say nothing aloud.

She began to move around the machine, trying to remember what it was called. If she had her cellphone, she could look it up online with a few pokes of her finger against the screen. She realised that she wasn’t as good at recalling information because of her smart phone, it did all of her thinking for her. She never had to remember anything, she could walk around in blissful ignorance and let her phone do all of the remembering for her.

For Violetta, it was a profound revelation that made her mind reel.

The zebra was staring at her, but he hadn’t tried to say anything in her mind. Was he thinking? Planning? Plotting? Saving his strength? Was he upset that she wasn’t chained to a bench? She didn’t know how to communicate with him, to tell him what she was planning. Could he read her mind?

It is called an orrery, a voice said within her mind.

Gasping, Violetta didn’t know if she should be relieved or scared. She didn’t say anything, she didn’t even turn to look at the zebra, she kept her eyes upon the strange machine as she walked around it. An orrery. She didn’t recognise the planets, the moon, or the solar system. It was different than her own. Even more strange was the fact that the sun seemed to be orbiting one of the planets.

“Ready to begin?”

Yelping, Violetta almost jumped out of her skin. She whirled around to face her captor and bit back an angry string of expletives. She stared at him, trying to will her heart to calm down—she could feel it beating in her throat at the moment. She wanted to slap him in the face, but she didn’t have hands. She did have hooves though, and all of the skill needed to smack a bitch. She kept her pimp-hand strong by smacking her brother around—sometimes.

“You wanted to prove yourself, so, here we are. Are you ready to prove yourself?”

“Sure,” she replied, “what will I be doing?”

“I’ve been delaying a little meeting, using what influence I can, with the reach I have available. However, this meeting needs to take place. You”—the old stallion paused and a twisted, wicked smile appeared upon his face—“you are going to help me influence the mind of your brother.”

“What?” Violetta had to think about keeping her mouth closed so she wouldn’t look like an idiot. She wasn’t the shiniest peanut in the turd, but she knew how to handle herself. Most of the time. Except for right now, it felt as though she was about to shit herself.

At least she wasn’t wearing pants. Getting shit out of your tail was probably no easy task though.

“The police will soon be meeting with your brother. We… the two of us and our little zebra friend here, are going to smooth over this little incident. With your magic, as powerful as it is, and my guidance, we should be able to iron out this little wrinkle.”

Violetta felt her mouth go dry.

“I’ve been smoothing things over for a long, long time now. A few hundred years, actually. It’s become a little harder with things like your cellphones and your video cameras watching over everything. I’ve had to learn to influence your technology with my magic. It wasn’t hard, not at first, but it is getting harder. I don’t know why. It seems to be focused around the Sunset Shimmer that came from this world, and her friends, but none of them are actively using magic to thwart me, and I can’t figure out what is going on.”

A faint glimmer of understanding appeared in Violetta’s very confused grey matter. She thought of all of the times that the wifi died, or her phone lost its signal, or her internet service provider went down. This asshole was responsible, this fucker, this fiend! Only the worst villains dicked around with the internet.

“I caused the witch trials in your town,” the old stallion said, his voice filled with an unmistakable pride. “I had to create an atmosphere that prevented trust. My methods weren’t as refined just yet, I made a lot of mistakes in those days, and you humans, you humans saw things that your weak, pathetic human minds weren’t ready for. The whole town banded together, trying to figure it out, and I had to turn them against one another.”

Wow, that was a dick move, Violetta thought to herself. A whole bunch of girls had been burned at the stake, crushed under doors, and dunked into the river until drowned. Even worse, everything the old fucker was saying made sense. A lot of strange stuff had happened in the town, stuff that people just dismissed and hand waved away. The town was full of crackpots and conspiracy theories.

“My control over the town is slipping though, I’ve realised that. An isolated town is easy to hold sway over, but a town connected to the world, not so much. It’s getting harder. Thankfully, I’ve figured out a cure and now, soon, I will realise my true potential. I do believe that you just might be strong enough to do what needs to be done. I will rid myself of this curse and take my rightful place, the place where I belong.”

Raising an eyebrow, Violetta thought about all of the places where this asshole belonged, the grave being primary among them. When she struck, he would curse her sudden but inevitable betrayal. “So, you want me to fuck around with my pervy brother’s mind, eh?”

“Does that bother you?” her captor asked.

“Well, the rude little fucker kept trying to watch me in the bathroom, he filmed me in the shower, uploaded it to the internet, and every night when I was home, I could hear him jerking off into his socks as he moaned my name.” As she spoke, she saw the old pony shudder in disgust. The truth was, she didn’t hate her brother that much, but she didn’t really like him either. She was also only half-lying. Her brother did try to watch her in the bathroom, he did film her in the shower once and upload it to the internet, but when he jerked off into a sock, he cried out the name of his math teacher.

“Well then, this should be easy.”

“But there is something I want…”

“Miss Eventide, while I find myself growing fond of you, you are not in a position to bargain.”

“Now now, I don’t want much,” Violetta said in a soft, almost purring voice. She saw her captor raise an eyebrow and he shifted on his hooves. “You’ve been watching me for a long, long time, right? Then you know that I’m a girl with… needs.” She breathed this last word in such a way that both her captor and the zebra shivered.

“Yes, I uh, am aware of your proclivities. You mastered the art of masturbation in plain sight by folding one leg over another and bouncing that leg up and down. Quite a clever use of the human body, if I do say so myself.”

“Good,” Violetta breathed, not sure how to look sexy in a pony body. “Give me Sunset Shimmer.” She thought of her super secret masturbation method and felt a disturbing sense of pride. She was always cumming, and going, and cumming, and going, usually on the city bus.

“What? Why?”

“I need a fucktoy.” Violetta narrowed her eyes and tried to look sultry. “I’m looking to expand my horizons. Broaden my views. If you feed me a nice dinner, then I expect a nice dessert.”

“I can get you better toys,” her captor offered.

“But Sunset has already had her spirit broken. That appeals to me. She’ll probably do everything I say. Besides, I like her. She doesn’t have any eyes and that means I can fuck with her head. Blindfolds are… sexy.”

“Kinky.” The old stallion stood there blinking, looking astonished. “Based upon your porn habits, I should have expected this. You would do well to develop your cruelty. Sunset will make for an excellent source of practice. She’s very meek, very frail.”

Violetta batted her eyelashes at her captor, and much to her surprise, she saw him inhale. He was old, but he wasn’t dead. “So, when do I get to fuck with my brother’s head, and how can I help you?”

“Right now,” the old pony replied, “oh, I can’t wait, I will be able to show you such great things. This is turning out better than I had hoped. Let us begin right away…”

Author's Note

By the end of this story, Violetta will have a cutie mark.

Chapter 5

As the old saying went, Violetta could see her house from here. She was swooping down upon it like an invisible bird, gliding through the night in an unseen, incorporeal body, doing something that should have been impossible, and her mind was smashed together with an old creeper and a mysterious zebra psychic. And everything was fine.

She was about to go inside of her brother’s head and move some mental furniture around. Afterwards, who knew what was next? And this was her doing—she didn’t know how she knew it—but this was her. The old pony, he was just guiding her, steering her magic, and the zebra was smoothing out mind ripples, whatever those were. But a part of Violetta’s brain knew and understood that this was all her, her magic, her gift. Her so called ‘Master’ would have needed a half-dozen ponies or more to do this under most circumstances, but tonight, it was all on her.

Every teenage girl wanted their ego stroked, and knowing she had this sort of power hidden within her made her stubby little girl dick hard as diamonds and able to cut glass. She was the ugly one, the blue girl, she wasn’t one of the popular pastels like her classmates or some vibrant, vivid colour. It wasn’t easy being blue—it led to a lifetime of being teased and accusations of having a blueberry as a parent. She had spent a lifetime asking, ‘it’s ‘cause I’m blue, ain’t it?’

But being a dark shade of blue had been freeing in a way. She didn’t have to worry about being pretty, no, she got face piercings, nose piercings, eyebrow piercings, pretty much every flap of skin had a stud or a post in it. Since no one would accept her, she could get away with wearing a wardrobe that came from a thrift shop. She had made the most of being blue. She had made being blue become a state of mind.

None of that mattered now. She was a small blue horse and she had power. It was intoxicating. As she drew nearer to her house, her brain reminded her to be mindful of her thoughts. She didn’t know how much the old creeper knew inside of her head, how far his thoughts overlapped her thoughts, how much of herself she was able to keep private from him. She didn’t know if the zebra had a way to keep the nasty, wrinkly old fart out of her innermost thoughts.

She had to sell a believable lie, everything depended on it.

Almost in control of her brother’s body, disgusted and filled with revulsion, she pulled the door open and looked at the two police officers on the porch. She willed herself to smile and she felt her brother’s body respond—he smiled too. She looked at the officer on the left, then the one on the right. She had some awareness of her captor in the back of her mind, it was like having a teacher watching you work and grading your progress as it happened.

“Hi, is your mother home?” the officer on the left asked.

“We’d like to ask some questions, if you don’t mind,” the officer on the right added.

The first of the lies began. She had to make them believable. “My mother, is uh, she’s off on a sales trip. She should be back home in a day or two.”

“I see,” the officer on the left responded. “If you don’t mind me asking, son, but just how old are you?”

“I’m about to turn forteen,” Violetta replied through her brother’s lips. “Normally, my big sister is here to look after me.”

“Yeah, about that…” The officer on the right frowned and shook his head. “Tell me, son, do you know anything about your sister’s whereabouts?”

She felt something in her brother’s mind. Was it worry? Fear? Panic? She didn’t know. She was surprised that he felt that way, just a little. It made her feel just a tiny bit awful that she was about to fuck with his head. She dominated him, grinding down his sense of will, his thoughts, she stomped everything down somehow, without understanding anything she was doing. She had to make a believable lie. She couldn’t just say any dopey shit that came to mind. This was… this was her eulogy. This was how others would remember her. RIP, Violetta, that weird punk girl with the nice leather jacket and the big black boots.

“My sister, she kept talking about going off and becoming a roadie for some band, I can’t think of what it was called. Some group of butch-bitch fem-punks that she was really into. She and mom fight all the time.” Violetta stopped right there. The shorter and less detailed she kept this, the better.

“Is that so?” the officer on the right asked.

“My sister is sorta gay,” Violetta explained through her brother’s mouth and using his voice. “Mom doesn’t like that she’s kinda queer. She puts a lot of pressure on my sister to be normal and she keeps telling her that its just a phase.”

The best lies were rooted in the truth. At some point, Violetta was going to have to have a good cry about this. She didn’t expect for this to cut so deep. Even worse, her captor had a front row seat to all of this, which made everything all the more galling.

“That’s a damn shame,” the officer on the left said in a low voice as he glanced over at his fellow officer beside him. “This intolerance is why we have so many runaways. When will parents learn? Kids these days, they’ll just up and leave if they get the chance. I see it every day.”

“I blame the internet,” the other officer said. “There’s probably some kind of network or support group out there that makes it easier.” Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small cellphone, an Orange wPhone.

Upon seeing it, Violetta’s emotional reaction was so strong that her brother began to sniffle. She could feel tears welling up in her brother’s eyes. Her phone was a little battered, but looked to be none the worse for wear. The rubber cover for it was scuffed, beat up, and faded. It was her link to the world, her lifeline.

“This was found where your sister was last seen, serving detention,” the officer said as he held out the phone. “Something seems to have happened to it, it’s shorted out or something. It’s dead. We tried looking, to see if we could find any details on her whereabouts.”

Reaching out her brother’s hand, she took her phone from the officer. Her phone was dead. Something about that had a profound effect upon her, and she felt her emotions going out of control. She began to feel ripples again. With a mental snarl, she shoved everything down, she had to finish this, she had to keep her shit together.

As she blinked with her brother’s eyes, her perspective made a crazy shift. Now, she was inside of the officer’s heads, both of them, and staring at her brother. She could see his face, his eyes, his somewhat dull and vacant expression. She realised that she could actually feel the officer’s minds being smoothed over, their senses being dulled.

“It’s a damn shame, a fifteen year old sophomore ran out of the house by her mother’s intolerance.” He paused and shook his head. “Are we going to write this up as a runaway?” one officer asked the other.

“Yeah, she’s long gone by now, just like the others. She probably hopped on the first bus out of town.” Sighing, the other officer shook his head as well. “We’re sorry, kid.”

It was then that her captor took over. She could feel him, it was as if he pushed her aside, and she could feel his will pressing into the minds of the officers. She didn’t know what was going on, but she assumed that he had a lot of practice doing this. She looked upon her brother through the eyes of the police officers, her brother was a dork, a real dork, and he listened to annoying pop music made for dumb dork girls.

When she felt herself being torn out of the minds of the officers, she realised that she would never be seeing her brother again, or her mother. One of the officer’s hands twitched, almost as if he was about to raise it and wave goodbye. Like an unseen balloon, she floated away, drifting upwards on some unseen current.

You did well. She heard her captor’s voice inside of her current state of consciousness, whatever it happened to be at the moment. Our work is almost finished.

Around her, she felt the wind pick up, and clouds began to roll in. On the edge of the city, a dense fog gathered. She had seen this fog before, she hated it. When the fog rolled in, cellphones had trouble working, satellite dishes for television lost all signal, and it seemed that everything went on the fritz. Local scientists said it had something to do with the old iron mines and electromagnetic interference.

But as it happened, as she made it happen, she knew it was so much more. It was the fog of forgetfulness, and it didn’t come from this place. It came from where her captor came from. He somehow pulled it through. It was weak here, and lost potency at a rapid rate, but it was effective for his purposes. It dulled the senses, made people less likely to think and remember certain unpleasant things. As she made the fog happen, she knew. As this fog rolled through town, the people that knew her, they would become to content to forget her. Sour Sweet too. She would be an uncomfortable memory, a troubled girl with a troubled mother that nobody wanted to talk about. There would be no candlelit vigils, or memorials, as all of those things would hurt too much. It was better to forget. She was making it better to forget. She was erasing her own existence, in a sense, hastening her own departure. Even the Cakes would find her memory unbearable.

This fog wasn’t like the others though, this was her fog. Where as before, her captor had to have the linked minds of many to produce the fog and cross it over, she was doing this. This amnesiatic fog was strong in a way that the others previous weren’t. This would not be a night to remember. She didn’t know how she knew, but she knew. Come morning, a lot of folks would wake up feeling hungover and they would have trouble remembering the night before.

Everywhere the fog rolled, things died. Lights flickered and went out as a blackout rolled through the city. Cars sputtered and quit, their headlights going dim. Electronics all over the city fizzled and went out, including the police computers and the dispatch center. Expensive components inside the cell towers popped like champagne corks as they smoked and sizzled.

Her captor guided her with a gentle hand, showing her the way. He put the magic in her mind and it was through her force of will that she made it happen. She was helping to sow chaos and dissent, and it felt good. This world had rejected her, this world had thrown her away, this world had never given her a chance, this world had to pay.

It was easy to lapse into anger and connect with all of her pent up, bottled up rage. More fog came rolling through and the whole city was blanketed with it now. A hand held up in front of the nose could not be seen. Violetta realised that if she could somehow just pull enough magic through the bridge, the connection, the star bridge, she might be able to erase all traces of her existence completely. The night was hers, and she drew power from it. The stars overhead twinkled above the fog and their faint light gave her strength.

She had power. Real power. Her captor, he was just along for the ride. He was nothing. He was inconsequential. He was a flea. But, he was a flea that she needed. He had knowledge, he had learning. He knew how to make the magic bend and submit. She felt more ripples, more disturbances, and they enraged her. She brought her crushing will down upon them and the ripples smoothed out. Her connection remained true. The star bridge did not collapse.

In the darkness, in the fog, something resisted her. Something pushed back against the chaos and disorder she had sown. She felt it in her mind, she felt it in her fog. Her disembodied consciousness sought it out, and her seething rage gave her strength. How dare something rise up against her?

She could feel her captor pulling and tugging upon her, trying to assert control, but she was able to ignore him. While he had the knowledge she needed, he didn’t have the power to be a threat to her. She floated through the fog like an unseen spectre, seeking out what had resisted her.

A garage. Music. The garage still had light, it still had warmth, it still had power somehow. And that music. Something about the music. The music calmed the rage. What was the old expression? Music soothed the savage beast? Violetta Eventide recognised that music, she knew that sound.

It was the Rainbooms. Sunset Shimmer’s soulful voice assaulted her disembodied ears and wormed its way into her fevered, disconnected brain. The music pushed back against her influence. The area around the garage was free of fog. It was an island of warmth and light. As beautiful as the music was though, something deep inside of Violetta hated it. She resisted it, trying to push it out of her consciousness. She tried to bring the fog to smother the music, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not penetrate the barrier of warmth, light, and sound.

There was a screeching guitar riff and it hit her like an out of control garbage truck. The sensation was both physical and painful. It didn’t just hurt her, but her captor as well. It jarred her, woke her up, like a slap to the face, it brought her to her senses. Like a rock dropped into a pond, it caused ripples, and the ripples became too much to bear. She could not smooth them out. She could not make the music stop.

She could not hold herself together, and she felt the star bridge collapse.

Author's Note

Ah, the turning point. How satisfying. Here we go...

Next chapter: "Bitch, I'm gonna fistfuck your horsepussy!"

Chapter 6

The laughter was almost too much. Violetta, who had not recovered from her ordeal, wished that her captor’s maniacal laughter would end. He laughed, and he laughed, and he wheezed, and he coughed, and he kept laughing. It was a mad, terrible laughter that had the same effect as fingernails upon a chalkboard.

“So much power,” he wheezed, clutching at himself with a frail looking foreleg. He whooped, coughed, and then chortled as a wet, rattling sound could be heard within his chest. His whole body shook, he trembled, and his eyes bulged in their sockets.

Violetta had fallen over onto the floor and she remained where she fell. Her head ached and her horn hurt. She didn’t know how a horn could hurt, but then again, she didn’t know what her horn was made of, or even what it did, other than squirt out magic like it was frosting. It was like having a stubby little dick on your head, but that analogy scared her because that meant she had balls for brains.

“I can’t believe my good fortune,” the old pony said, struggling to speak, but still chuckling. “With you, I won’t need the others. No more waiting. No more watching. No more torture… I’ll be able to finish what I started so long ago.”

Head throbbing, Violetta had the presence of mind to know that her captor was in a good mood, a condition that could be exploited. She had seen enough movies and read enough books, so she had an idea of how things should be. It wasn’t monologuing, but getting him to spill his guts might lead to something useful.

“What happened?” she asked.

Much to her surprise, her captor stopped laughing. She could hear his raspy breathing. She lay on the floor, unmoving, wondering if she had made him angry, if he would respond, and she was a little fearful of what might happen next. What if he went batshit crazy and decided to torture her again?”

“A long time ago, a very long time ago, I was a little colt and I was taken away from my home to become the student of Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria.” The old stallion’s voice held a surprising vulnerability and emotion, he spoke in a near whisper, as if in pain. “She was my teacher. I thought she was the most perfect, most beautiful pony in all of existence. Every morning, I would stand near her hooves as she raised the sun and lowered the moon.”

What? Violetta lay there blinking, but she said nothing.

“She taught me magic.” The old pony settled back against the cushions of his chair and stared up at the twinkling stars upon the ceiling. His breathing was still troubled, it was wet and bubbly sounding, and his voice popped liked soda fizzed. “She was my teacher, she raised me, she taught me everything, and I served her.”

“What happened?” Violetta asked.

“I grew up. I gained power. I struck down her foes. I destroyed the enemies of Equestria. I was her most dedicated and devoted servant. I did everything that she asked of me, without question, always obeying, I never failed her.” The old pony shook his head and blinked his dried out, withered, sunken eyes a few times. “I wanted to be like her. I wanted to be how she was. She told me that was prideful of me… her words enraged me, but still I followed her. I loved her, I suppose.”

Staring up at the ceiling, Violetta checked to see if she had any pity for this fool. Nope. None to be found. But she didn’t say anything. He was spilling his guts and she was certain that there was something to be learned from all of this.

“I sought to find a way to make myself like her, to have her power. I thought that maybe, she was testing me. She did that a lot, testing me. Sometimes, she would leave me to figure out something on my own, with no help, and she would make herself distant to me until I figured it out. I threw myself into my studies, I threw myself at our enemies, I was determined to prove myself worthy. I wanted to rule at her side… I just had to prove myself worthy, or so I thought.”

This fool had to be lonesome. None of his captives wanted to talk to him, no doubt, and Violetta figured that her interest in him had probably ignited some spark of hope in whatever remained of the shitstain that he called a soul.

“When I tried to make myself like her, when I tried to take my rightful place at her side, not as her student, but as her equal, she cut me down. She turned on me… I learned her terrible secret, she was selfish, she was hateful, she did not want to share her power. She wanted me as a slave, as a foolish lovesick stallion that worshipped her. She did not want me as her equal. We battled and it was terrible. Most of the city of Canterlot was leveled.”

Violetta felt her ears perk. The old creeper sounded sad and regretful. Sorrowful even.

“She tried to kill me… when she could not, she cursed me. I don’t know what she did, but I cannot step out into the sunlight, not in this world. It burns me… she burns me. I managed to escape her, but I could not escape her sun. Everywhere that it shines, so is she, and she burns me.”

Serves you right, Violetta thought to herself.

“But now that you are here, I can put an end to the curse and I will be able to take my rightful place. I will become like her… and I have learned one final lesson from my former teacher.”

“And what’s that?” Violetta asked.

“I will not be selfish with my power,” the old pony replied. “I do remember that painful lesson quite well. I will remember to reward those who faithfully serve me and I will not deny them their proper place at my side, as my equal.” The old pony’s voice was a hissy, phlegmy whisper that was chock full of hate and regret. “I will show her the errors of her arrogance!”

Much to her surprise, Violetta thought that her captor sounded rather sincere. But he also sounded insane. So, this is what madness sounded like.

“I must begin preparations at once. You are far more powerful than I imagined. You are very much like myself when I was young and had all of my strength. I have enough souls to draw from, enough magic to tap into. I will ascend to my rightful position.” The old pony leaned forwards and looked down at Violetta, who lay upon the floor. “If you aid me, you will have power beyond imagining. In time, I will make you like me, after I ascend. We’ll need to gather more, we’ll need to harvest more souls, but it will be easy. I might even be able to finally pull Celestia or Luna from the other side into this world, and draw upon them. If I can get ahold of one of their souls…” His words trailed off into something that was almost a hiss.

Principal Celestia? Vice Principal Luna? What did they have to do with this?

“With your help, I could claim one of those souls, and then to reward you, I could give you the other. Between us, we would have enough magic, enough power, that we could challenge the Sisters, this world’s Celestia and Luna.”

Violetta had no clue what was being said, or what was going on.

“I would gladly give you the night, as you seemed attuned to it.” The old pony slumped down in his chair and let out a weary sounding sigh that burbled in his throat. “Once we have this world, once there is enough power to rend the veil, I think I can use the star bridge to allow magic to flow into the other world. Not just a little trickle, but a flood. Nothing would be able to stop us there.”

Ears perking, Violetta looked up at her captor with wide eyes.

“I would gladly give you that world if you help me take this one. You could have that silly phone thing that you love so much. You could rule that world as you see fit. It could be yours, if you wanted it. I’ve learned a valuable lesson about keeping somepony from their rightful place… help me and I will treat you as an equal.”

“I would rather be your equal than your captive,” Violetta said in a low voice. “But I suppose I need to earn your trust.”

“Yes, of course,” her captor replied. “But there is no need for you to suffer needlessly while we learn to trust one another. It is a matter of give and take. I want you to trust me, and I… I…”—the old pony’s voice faltered and cracked—“I want to be able to trust somepony again. I want to reclaim what I have lost. It is nice to be able to talk to somepony again that doesn’t openly despise me.”

“Yes, of course, Master.” As she said the word, she saw it again. His whole body twitched. “I understand what it means to be misunderstood.”

“I suppose you do,” the old pony replied. “I felt that in your mind, earlier. You… you just wanted to be respected for what you are. I could give you that.” He looked at Violetta with a tired, gentle expression that could be mistaken for affection.

Violetta found herself agreeing with her captor. She did. She wanted acceptance. She wanted tolerance for who, and what, she was. She wanted freedom and enough open space to figure out all of her quirks without people like her mother or some of her fellow students holding her back, the harassment, the guilt, the shame… a tiny flickering flame of resentful rage blazed within her breast.

“I must begin preparations. There is much to do. A golem will escort you back to your quarters. It is time… for both of us, it is time. I will not repeat the mistakes of my former teacher.” The old stallion hung his head. “Soon, she and I will meet again, but this time, as equals.”

As she lay on the floor, Violetta heard the faint thump-thump of golem feet. Staring up at the ceiling, she thought about what it might be like to have an entire world of her own. Could she make it a perfect place? What might she do with an entire world? She thought about the intoxicating feeling of power that she had enjoyed just a little while ago. Rolling over, she rose to her hooves, waiting for the golem to arrive.

Something was off. Violetta wasn’t being escorted back to her cell. She followed the golem as it walked down a narrow hallway. The hallway was dark, a little dusty, and there were no windows of any sort. The golem stopped, turned, and opened up a door. It then stepped aside and waited.

Lifting her head, Violetta walked into her new room. This wasn’t a cell. No, this place, it was nice. Okay, there were no windows, but she understood why. The old fart would burst into flames if exposed to the sun. The door closed and bumped up against her backside as she stood there, staring, taking in the room in its entirety.

There was a comfortable looking bed, with pillows, real pillows, and a nice looking quilt. There was a fireplace! With a burning fire even. There was a big copper something or other in the corner of the room and she realised that it was a bathtub after she stared at it for several minutes. There was a low table with cushions on the floor around it. There was a bookshelf, complete with books.

This place was swanky.

She might still be in prison, but this was an upgrade. If she cooperated, an even better room might await her. If she cooperated… Violetta stood there, trying to take it all in. Everything that had happened, her current situation, the new knowledge of her captor. She didn’t know what to do.

The door opened, startling her, and she scooted away. A golem moved into view, and a second later, Sunset Shimmer was set down upon the floor. The golem turned, stepped out of the room, and shut the door, leaving both Violetta and Sunset alone together.

“What’s going on?” Sunset asked in a fearful voice.

Violetta hurried over to Sunset, pressed her lips against Sunset’s ear, and then tried not to giggle as something fuzzy quivered against her lips. She could feel Sunset trembling against her and she dropped her voice to a low, low whisper, then said, “Just trust me, and play along, okay?”

Sunset nodded her head, but said nothing.

“Our Master has given you to me as my new plaything. You’re my new fucktoy, you got that?” Violetta almost coughed as she choked back a laugh. In front of her, Sunset was frozen in place and she had to nudge her new roommate to get her to respond. “I made a bargain with the Master. He was very pleased. You’re mine now.”

Sunset let out a whimper. “What do you want from me?”

“Bitch, I’m gonna fistfuck your horsepussy!”

Violetta realised that she might have gone too far. Sunset was shaking now, biting her lip, and fighting to keep from laughing. She made a sound, an almost choking sound that sounded like a laugh, and then Sunset collapsed into some very convincing crying sounds.

“That’s right, Bitch! I want you to cry while you lick my fart-hole! I’m gonna leave a taste of something nasty on your tongue!” Violetta clamped her mouth shut, but some of her laughter slipped out through her nose as little snorts.

The blindfolded Sunset Shimmer trembled, shaking as she continued to make very realistic weeping sounds, and she made little whimpering noises. She leaned up against Violetta, shaking, and pressed her lips together to hold everything in.

“But not tonight, Bitch. Mamacita is tired.” Wondering if her captor was listening, Violetta continued to pile on the abuse. “Damn, Bitch, you is a stank-ass ho! You need a bath! You need to wash that stank-ass horsepussy of yours! You’re stinking up the room, Bitch!”

“Sorry,” Sunset yelped in a most convincing way.

“Wash your ass!” Violetta snapped.

“Right away,” Sunset replied in a very meek sounding voice.

“Don’t fucking talk to me unless I tell you to, Stank-Ass Bitch! And don’t you dare act all defiant. I will fucking drown you, Bitch! I will hold your head down in the water and fistfuck your funny looking horsie asshole!”

Sunset broke down and began weeping. It was all very convincing and Violetta herded her over to the bathtub. She saw a few simple levers connected to some pipes. One of the levers had a flame symbol on it, the other had a snowflake. One lever opened and closed the drain. Her ears perked as she heard something that was almost a giggle from Sunset. That wouldn’t do. One giggle at the wrong time could mess everything up.

Left with no other option, Violetta clamped her teeth down upon the soft, tender flesh near Sunset’s ribs, and Sunset let out a startled shriek of pain that almost echoed through the room. She felt bad for actually hurting Sunset, but at least there were no more giggles. That shit had to be contained.

Spitting, she tried to get the foul taste of filthy pony out of her mouth.

Author's Note

Is anybody even reading? I'm a little bit worried. I understand that this isn't everyone's cup of tentacles. But I am curious.

Chapter 7

Feeling distressed, Violetta kept second guessing her decision to pull off a pillowcase and slip it over Sunset’s head to cover her eyes. She was certain that her captor would have something to say about it, but she didn’t know what else to do. The blindfold was filthy, disgusting even, and there was no way that Violetta was going to try to put it back on Sunset after all of the effort it took getting her clean. Of course, there was also the matter that Sunset looked a little silly with a pillowcase over her head. She figured that she would dismiss it as Sunset being too ugly to look at, and she hoped that if she said it, it wouldn’t hurt Sunset’s feelings too much.

Sunset seemed happy enough with the arrangement though, or at least she didn’t complain about it. She became frantic without something covering her face, and, truth be told, seeing Sunset’s eyeless sockets was downright traumatising for Violetta. When she had pulled off the nasty old blindfold, (using her teeth no less, yuck!) she had been hoping that perhaps, maybe, that Sunset being blinded was a ruse, a trick, a sham. But removing the blindfold had revealed the terrible truth. That motherfucker had taken her eyes.

It gave Violetta the resolve she needed. She was going to do something, somehow. She didn’t know what. She supposed it came down to willpower at just the right moment, whatever that moment might be. Perhaps the zebra might help her, might give her a chance—but then what? What came next? She figured that she was going to have to kill her captor. She was going to have to curb stomp him to death. She coped with her troubling thoughts by calling it a rescue, and she refused to think of it as planning a murder.

Then what?

She didn’t know.

There were a lot of troubled souls here.

Perhaps she could get them to safety. Find them some help. She liked helping. Helping was a cool thing to do and not enough people did it. Violetta volunteered for the school’s suicide hotline. It was a blind system that disguised the voices of the people on both ends, for total anonymity.

How many hours had passed? Violetta did not know. She and Sunset had slept, sharing the bed, and Violetta might have cuddled up against Sunset while sleeping. Maybe just a little. A little spooning wasn’t so bad, they had shared a bathtub together. Food had been brought twice, good food, excellent food, actually. Violetta really wanted a bacon double cheeseburger. Could little horses eat bacon double cheeseburgers? She didn’t know, but she wanted to find out. She was full, she was content, and she felt energised, which she figured was her captor’s goal.

He probably needed her to be ready for whatever he was planning.

The real trouble was passing the time. She wanted to talk with Sunset, to shoot the shit, but she maintained the silence. She had to keep her guard up, because she was certain that her captor was listening. So, she lay on the bed next to her roommate, who had a pillowcase slipped over her head, staring at the wall, looking up at the ceiling, and staring into the fire.

Violetta figured that the only real weakness her captor had was sunlight, if he was telling the truth that is. She didn’t know how to exploit that. There were no windows in this place that she had seen, and she didn’t even know what this place was. She suspected it was big, enormous even, but she didn’t know for certain.

Perhaps there was some way she could get her captor to laugh again, and keep laughing, and then, when he was wheezing and distracted, she could lay the smackdown upon him. As she lay on the bed, she thought of a thousand different scenarios, for the lack of anything better to do. She was just your everyday teenage girl, trapped in the body of a little blue horse, laying in bed with another teenage girl, also trapped in the body of a little horse, contemplating the murder of a centuries old cursed evil wizard that had an aversion to sunlight, who was also a horse, but somewhat mummified.

When the door rattled, Violetta was startled. She lifted her head and much to her own surprise, she let out a weird little whinny sound. She really was a horse, and she made startled horse noises. Much to her shock and dismay, she also farted like a horse, as the sudden movement caused a trumpeting blast to go shooting out of her other end.

The golem barged into the room, moving with speed and purpose. It lifted up Sunset from the bed, tucked her beneath its arm, and then stood there, waiting for Violetta. It was time to go. It was time to do the thing, whatever that thing was. As she slid off of the bed and onto the floor, she had one terrifying thought—what if she had to fight the golems? What if they went batshit insane and tried to kill her for harming their master?

If Violetta had pants, there would be a code brown right about now. With each passing moment, the plan seemed less and less likely to succeed. She made another fearful horse sound, she had no idea what sound she made, but it was a bellowing whine that resonated deep within her chest. Did horses have a chest? Or was it called something else? She didn’t know what her own body parts were called any more, and that distressed her more than she cared to admit.

Knowing about your own body was empowerment, or so she believed. She knew her body quite well and she stroked her kitty almost on a daily basis. She refused to live in shame of her own body, or at least tried to do so. Like anyone else, she had her moments of doubt.

Sunset squirmed a little, trying to get comfortable, while the golem stood there, impassive, unmoving, waiting for Violetta. Moving beside the golem, Violetta looked up at it, and it started to move. It had no eyes, yet it was able to see. It had no ears, but it seemed to be able to hear. It was a construct of magic, a miraculous thing. She thought of her disembodied self calling the fog and felt a shiver along her spine. Magic was power, and she couldn’t deny that she wanted to know more.

Maybe, perhaps… perhaps it might be a good idea to go along with her captor, at least for a time, so that she might learn a little of how to use her magic. Maybe, if she cooperated, if she gave him what he wanted, he might go a little easier on the others. She had a moment of lingering doubt, not sure of what to do.

The golem took off at a brisk pace, and Violetta followed, obedient.

This chamber was quite different. Large, round, and full of strange crystals that held a flickering glow to them. Quite a number of ponies were strapped into various positions. As before, the floor looked like a giant printed circuit board, with both metal and crystal conduits running from place to place. There was a smell in the air, something like a thunderstorm, the smell of electricity.

She watched as Sunset was strapped in by a golem. There wasn’t much she could do about it, or so it seemed. Violetta stood where she had been directed, upon a tall dias with a crystal base. The zebra was inside of a small cabinet that appeared to be made out of glass, perhaps it was a protective chamber of some sorts. He didn’t look like he was well, he kept his head ducked down and he stared at the floor.

There was no sign of the Master.

Looking around, she saw Sour Sweet. She didn’t know how she knew, but the little unicorn was familiar in an odd way. She looked drugged, dazed, her eyes were vacant and she was drooling, as were a number of the unicorns gathered. Violetta wondered what was up as she had herself a good look around.

Hearing hooves, Violetta turned her head, and that was when she saw him. He looked younger somehow, his coat was a little greener and his mane was a bit more yellow. His eyes didn’t quite look so sunken or filmy. He moved with a definite spring in his step. She saw him look her in the eye as he approached.

“Sorry for the delay… but I had to be ready… this is a momentous day.” The old pony smiled and a nauseating rictus appeared upon his face. “I had to consume many of the weaker ones to be ready for what we are about to do. Oh, I do feel so very spry. Not a day over two centuries. Why, I was even able to give one of the nicer looking fillies a good and proper sendoff before I devoured her essence. I feel marvellous.”

Shuddering, Violetta felt a powerful sense of revulsion at the very idea of her captor’s old, decrepit body in the throes of passion. She felt hot bile bubble in her throat. She was aware that old people, or, in this case, old ponies, fucked—but she didn’t want to think about it. Not at all. The thought rose unwanted in her mind of her captor hunched over some poor little pony’s back, grunting, huffing, and puffing as he tried to cram his old wrinkly, mummified dick into some hot, wet horse muff.

“Shall we begin?” he asked as he looked around the room.

Of course, there was no reply.

All around her, the strange machinery began to hum and vibrate. Violetta felt a peculiar sense of vertigo. One by one, the unicorns locked into place on the weird metal disks on the floor, their horns began to glow. Motes of light began to float around the room. The metal circuits on the floor began to glow and the crystal below Violetta began to throb like a beating heart.

It made her feel dizzy and lightheaded.

There was a sensation of euphoria for Violetta and her head felt like it was a balloon. Her body felt light, as if there was no longer any gravity. She felt as though she might float away at any moment. Things began to get a little bit weird. The lights around her dimmed and seemed far away.

Goodbye, a voice said between her ears, inside of her head. It was the zebra.

Goodbye? She felt her heartbeat slowing and Violetta began to realise that something was wrong. She turned to look at her captor, and she saw that he had a wicked smile. A terrible, horrible, awful wicked smile. He was looking right at her. She struggled, trying to form words, and she managed to gasp out one word.

“Why?”

Her captor let out a wheezy chuckle, then replied, “You stupid little cunt! Did you honestly think I would share my power with you?” The old pony closed his eyes for a moment and a near orgasmic expression crossed over his features. He opened his eyes again, looking younger, and he swayed from side to side as his body began to glow.

“You vapid little idiot! It is so much easier to drain a soul from a willing participant! You did nothing to resist me! Nothing to preserve yourself! You allowed yourself to be led along like a lamb to the slaughter! And the look on your face! Priceless! I watched you for years! Years! Of course I knew you were some weepy little bleeding heart and a so-called social rebel! I knew just how to pluck at your heart’s strings!”

It was at that moment that Violetta realised that she was a fool. As she grew weaker, he grew stronger. He seemed to be growing younger, his colours becoming more vibrant. Much to her horror, she appeared to be growing older and dimmer. She collapsed to the floor and it was a challenge to even keep holding her head up.

The maniacal sound of her captor’s laughter filled her ears and there was nothing Violetta could do. What was she thinking? She was a decade and a half old and for some reason, she had thought she could outwit somebody that was centuries older. She realised that old people sucked, and old perverts even moreso.

It felt as though gravity itself tugged down the corners of her mouth, causing her to frown as her face sagged and wrinkled. The full plumpness of her legs shriveled, her knees became knobby, and her legs became skeletal. With a painful plop, her head hit the platform she had collapsed upon.

“All of you are the same!” the old pony cried as he gloated. “All of you are so stupid! You think you know everything! You think you have the answers! You always think you can outsmart me, you think you are so clever, and it never stops being funny!” The stallion, now not so old, threw his head back and guffawed.

A single tear rolled down Violetta’s now leathery and withered face. No doubt, now she looked like a mummy. Everything hurt, everything ached. Her eyes felt like they were shriveling. She was a fool, and she knew that now. She was just another dumb girl that didn’t know anything, and her naiveté had cost her everything in the end.

With a gasp, Violetta Eventide breathed her last. She felt it go rattling out of her as she tried to hold it in. She wasn’t ready to let go yet. Not now, not like this. She felt a miserable feeling of failure, as she discovered in her heart that she really had wanted to save these ponies. Even with her doubt, even with her second guessing, even with her temptation, beneath it all, she had a desire to do the right thing.

And then, with one final twitch of her leathery, shriveled ear, Violetta died.

Author's Note

...

Chapter 8

She found herself above the clouds and facing towards the sun. She was weightless, floating, and free of pain. The sun was blinding and made it difficult to see. So, it was over, it was all over, and this was horsey heaven. Or maybe, this was like one of those tunnel of light things people saw when they died.

The sun blazed ever brighter, burning star bursts into her vision, causing her to squint. She lifted up a foreleg and held it out in front of her face, trying to shield herself from the piercing, dazzling light. There was something in the light, some silhouette, some shadow, but she couldn’t make out what it was, as it stopped being a shadow, a silhouette, and then, it too, shone as bright as the sun behind it.

“Violetta Eventide,” a voice boomed, “you have not been a very good pony.”

Oh no, the horse-god was here, and she sounded just a bit like Principal Celestia making announcements over the intercom. This was a hallucination of her dying mind as her brain finished its death processes, it had to be. The burning, blazing figure drew nearer, and Violetta raised her other foreleg to shield her eyes.

“But you have so much potential to be a good pony.”

Squinting, Violetta tried to look at the burning, blazing, fiery horse-god.

“You are vulgar, you are crass, you revel in your own lack of sophistication, you fall into temptation with far too much ease due to a lack of willpower—”

“I get it!” Violetta cried. “I was a terrible human and I wasn’t a very good little horse!”

“You are also very brave,” the blazing figure said in a far more gentle voice. “You do have a sincere desire to help others. You are aware that others suffer. You think of others, how they feel, and how you might help them, which is more than can be said for most of the girls your age.”

The burning figure drew nearer, and half blinded, Violetta was unable to make out any details of any sort. She cringed and drew away, feeling both ashamed and comforted by what she had heard of herself. She began to sniffle, then wondered how she could cry if she was dead.

Horsey heaven was very confusing.

“Look,” the being made of sunlight said as she drew nearer. “Look and see what potential you had.” As she spoke, a small screen appeared beside her, and it sort of looked like a flat panel television. It hung there, connected to nothing, and the blazing entity made a gesture for Violetta to come and have a look.

Looking into the screen, Violetta’s vision cleared. She saw herself, lifeless, withered, a husk. She saw her captor. He was young again, youthful, and… he was growing wings. She blinked, not understanding what she was seeing. She squinted, staring into the projection screen, not comprehending anything.

“My former student has stolen your potential… what you might have been. All of the good that you had within you, all of the great possibilities that were in your future, he has taken them. He will now twist and corrupt them to meet his own ends.” The blazing figure’s voice sounded sad, mournful, and full of regret. “His own good potential died when bitterness, jealousy, and evil took over his heart. It left him without purpose, without meaning, without direction. For us, that is a terrible state of being.”

Violetta nodded, even though she did not understand. Lifting her head, she could see the faint outline of the being speaking to her. She was a pony, and she had wings and a horn. But that was all that Violetta could see, the outline, and nothing else. She could not see the face of the brilliant pony made of sunshine.

“He cannot be allowed to steal away your potential, your strength… he will do terrible things, awful things, the world will suffer in a way you can scarcely imagine if he is not stopped—”

“But how do I stop him?” Violetta asked, not worried at all that she had just interrupted the horsey-god. “I’m dead! He won! I was young! I was stupid! He completely fucked my shit right up!”

The brilliant illuminated figure shook her head and let out a horsey sound of disapproval that made Violetta cringe. She looked at the screen and saw that her captor’s wings had grown larger, fuller, and he was sucking the life out of the other ponies around him. As the horsey-god continued to make disgruntled horse noises, Violetta stared at the screen, tears pouring down her cheeks.

“To be honest, I didn’t try very hard,” she admitted, “and a part of me wanted the power he promised. It appealed to me. I thought of all of the wrongs I could right and all of the changes I could make.”

“You can still right a few wrongs,” the sun horse said in a voice thick and husky with emotion.

“How?” Violetta asked.

“Well,” the sun horse replied, “you can start by taking my former student a message.”

“And what would that be?” Violetta tried to peer into the face of the glowing pony beside her and found that she could not. It was like staring into the sun. The pony with the wings and the horn was just too beautiful and perfect to look at.

“To put it into terms that you would understand and appreciate, my message is as follows: ‘Get rekt…’”

Violetta stared up at the pony beside her in awe. The horsey-god sounded an awful lot like Principal Celestia. She didn’t know how to respond, and she wasn’t given a chance to do so, either, as she was suddenly on fire. She screamed, but then realised that the flames weren’t hurting her. No, something else was happening… the guilt, the shame, it was all melting away. As she burned, she saw the face of the pony beside her. Her eyes were as pink as the first rays of dawn. Her face was wise, majestic, her beauty was beyond description.

It was the most wonderful thing she had ever seen and as she looked upon it, Violetta wept.

“Go forth and protect your ponies,” the sun horse commanded. “Fix your mistakes, Violetta Eventide. Make the most of your second chance. Let my sun shine upon his darkness!”

Teary eyed, Violetta watched as her benefactor began to turn around. Why was she turning around? She was turning away and bringing her backside around. Before Violetta could ask a question, before she could inquire as to what was going on, the sun horse bucked out both hind legs and kicked her.

“Begone from this place, my filthy mouthed, vulgar little messenger, and mend your ways!”

She had never been kicked so hard in her life. The impact made her see stars, it blinded her, it sent her reeling. Little winged horsies circled around her head, and they all pointed and laughed at her. She realised with some small sense of dismay that she had just literally been kicked out of horsey heaven for being a right shit. She had been offered a second chance, an opportunity to make things right. She shot through the clouds and went streaking down towards the ground below like a comet.

As she plummeted towards the ground, Violetta held a sincere hope within her heart that the kick had knocked some sense into her. She felt a searing pain on her ass, it felt as though she was being branded. Now, she was a profanity spewing comet plummeting towards the ground as her ass burned like the sun. The pain was a good pain though, something about it felt right, felt good, it was a purifying pain, like popping a big fat pimple that had lingered for far too long right on the tip of your nose.

Blinking, Violetta found herself back inside of her horsey body and her ass was still on fire. She lifted her head with caution, she was dizzy but okay after having been kicked out of horsey heaven by the almighty horse-god. She felt strength in her body, new strength, a strength unlike anything she had ever experienced before. Violetta had discovered religion, she had become a true believer, and she was here to do the horse-god’s business.

“You! You’re supposed to be dead! I killed you!”

Violetta felt a sense of satisfaction that she had never experienced before when she looked upon her captor’s face. He looked quite surprised to see her, afraid even. She could see the fear in his eyes. Rage bubbled within her, but she found that she wasn’t angry about what he had done to her—no, she was pissed off about what he was doing to her ponies. It burned in her mind like a wildfire, consuming her and her thoughts.

“I came back,” Violetta said as she stood up. She felt her new wings flare out from her sides. “And I’m here on bitch business! I have a message for you from your former teacher!” Even as she said the words, she saw his fear become terror. His ears drooped and his tail sagged. His spine sank down in the middle and he began to back away from her.

“What?” her captor asked in a voice that was a fearful whine.

“Get rekt!” Not knowing what else to do, Violetta launched herself at her captor, determined to try out her new strength. “She wanted me to tell you that, Fucker!” She collided with her hated foe and it was like two monster trucks experimenting with full on violent coitus. The impact shoved him into a crystalline machine and it shattered into thousands of tiny, glittering bits.. Violetta hardly felt a thing. This new body was the tits.

But her captor had something she didn’t have. Magic. His horn glowed with a brilliant flash of light and Violetta found herself launched at the stone wall at speeds she was certain approached the sound barrier. She smashed into the stone face first and her whole body crumpled like an accordion. Cracks spiderwebbed outwards from the spot where she, the unstoppable force, had slammed into the immovable object.

She bounced away from the stone wall and felt explosive pain in her mouth. “ASS!” she shouted, and then she spit out a wad of blood. A lone tooth bounced across the stone floor. Violetta poked around with her tongue and found that one of her front upper teeth was missing. Turning her head, she turned to look at her captor with murder blazing in her eyes.

It was at that moment that Violetta had an idea. She had a brilliant idea. The horse-god had shown her what to do. Bracing her front legs, she kicked the wall with as much force as she could muster with her hind legs. The stone rattled and more cracks appeared.

“Stop!” her tormentor shouted in alarm.

“Aw, no way, I’m about to let some sunshine in!” Violetta wound herself up and bucked again, this time using all of her rage, all of her fury, and all of the newfound feeling of love she felt welling up inside of her. There was an explosive sound when her hooves impacted. “Motherfucker!” she swore as the stone crumbled away. Some of it fell down and landed upon her back, smashing into her spine. She shrugged it off and she felt the most wonderful sensation.

Sunlight. Sweet sunlight poured in through the hole in the wall. Violetta kicked again, making the hole bigger, and her hated foe let out a shriek of rage and fear as he ignited. A huge section of the wall fell away, revealing blue sky, white fluffy clouds, and the burning fury of the sun.

Howling in pain, Violetta’s tormentor tried to flee from the room, but Violetta was on him in an instant. She launched herself at him, her wings flapping, and her forelegs outstretched. She grabbed him around the middle and tried to crush his ribs. He kicked, he bucked, and he had a shocking amount of strength of his own.

They tumbled over the floor and Violetta was delighted to discover that the flames engulfing her foe did not burn her. His hair was burning away and his flesh bubbled and blistered. His screams became gurgles and hisses of pain. She flopped him around, she kicked and punched, she even headbutted him a few times, all while pulling him towards the opening she had kicked in the wall.

Flailing around, she miscalculated her own strength and instead of slamming him into the jagged stones around the opening, she tossed both her captor and herself through the shattered opening. Now fully exposed to the sun, he burned with sickly green flames as they both fell.

It was at that moment that Violetta realised that she had wings, but had no idea how to fly. She had just fallen out of a tower and it was quite a drop to the rocks below. She made peace with the fact that she was about to die for the second time this day. She would meet the horse-god on better terms, make some much needed apologies, and maybe, this time, if she was lucky, she wouldn’t get kicked out of horsey heaven.

She could see the tower, in the distance she could see the ocean, she could see a vast plain of brown and green grass, and she saw the ground rushing up to meet her. She smiled. Everything was fine. She held her flame-engulfed kidnapper out in front of her, glad that he was going to kiss the rocks below first. She was going to see this job through. There was no fear, only a sense of peace, and Violetta knew that she was making everything right. She smiled, revealing a gap-toothed grin, and closed her eyes just before she smashed into the rocks with her captor.

“Ow.” Violetta let out a groan. “Bitch ass motherfucker!” Everything hurt. She opened her eyes and somehow, she managed to sit up. Her face was swelling and she could tell that she had the mother of all fat lips, top and bottom. Her head ached. Her ass ached. One of her wings hurt something awful. But as she sat up and looked around, she started laughing.

The remains of her captor were all around her, burning. He had popped like a watermelon on impact. Laughing, choking, blood bubbling out from her lips, Violetta swatted his head away from her, she didn’t want it anywhere near her. It rolled away, still burning, the flesh bubbling and blistering as clumps of mane fell out, snagged on the stones.

“Oh damn, that’s just nasty,” she said to herself. Her head was spinning and at the moment, it felt an awful lot like dying again. Something in her chest hurt real bad, it made it almost impossible to breathe, but she couldn’t stop laughing. She looked up and squinted at the hole up above her. She had to have fallen at least a good ten stories or more, it was hard to tell.

“Ass,” she said again although this time it was more of a whine. “My buttbone hurts!”

Hissing, she moved her body just a little bit more, and then began to check herself for injuries. “I know I’m heading for the bottom… but I’m riding you all the way…” she sang to herself in a strained voice, trying to bring herself some comfort. It was some old song that was on the classics station that she liked and it seemed appropriate at the moment. She laughed, because it seemed like a better idea than crying, and then she noticed her ass.

She had been branded. What the fuck had the horse-god done to her? Straining, struggling, she craned her sore neck around as she tried to get a better look. There was a big purple chili pepper surrounded by blue flames on her hip. Upon closer inspection, she saw a constellation of stars inside of the pepper. Her stupid wings kept getting in the way and she didn’t know what to do with them. One was hurt pretty bad and it was already swelling.

Turning her head, Violetta saw some doors. Big doors. She looked up at the sun in the sky above her and squinted. She had work to do… she had ponies to save… and she had doors to kick open. She couldn’t just keep sitting here complaining about how much her ass hurt. But, her ass really did hurt. A lot. And so did everything else for that matter. Coughing, she spat out more blood, which she couldn’t tell if it was coming from her mouth or from deep down in her insides.

After a few more minutes of sitting, she tried to get up, but froze. “ASS!” she hissed. She took an angry swipe at a blob of melted, waxy remains, pretty much all that was left of her captor. Everything in her body ached in a savage way. But she didn’t have time for herself right now, she had to find out what sort of condition her ponies were in. She had to find out if Sunset was okay. She had to know if her zebra friend was alright.

“Get rekt,” she muttered as she took off for the doors, “so says the god on high.”

Author's Note

:trollestia: - And thus, a new religion was born that day...

Chapter 9

Just like that, it was over. The golems had all fallen over. They lay unmoving in heaps upon the floor. The doors had been opened. The terrible old creeper was dead. Both worlds were no doubt a little bit safer and made a better place. Yet, even with an apparent victory, Violetta had trouble celebrating. While she had survived, others had not. Others had died. And as for some, they survived, but there was something wrong with them.

Her captor had gone all out, hoping to accomplish whatever it was that he was doing. She had interrupted him in the middle of whatever it was that he was doing. She had managed to get a part of herself back, but it seemed that others weren’t so lucky. Nineteen little horses survived, but there was something off about them. They did not talk, they did not show signs of intelligence, no, they did very little, but acted like animals.

Sunset Shimmer and the zebra also survived, and seemed to be okay, for the most part. For this, Violetta was relieved in a very selfish sort of way, and she was fully aware of it. To have gone through this traumatic experience and then have no one around afterwards would have been unbearable. Unthinkable.

The cells were checked. The rooms were searched. The strange tower was explored. It was a strange place, with no stairs, just long hallways that defied logic and took one to different places within the tower. Violetta gathered up each and every one of her ponies, put them into a large, nice, comfortable room, and worried about how she was going to look after them.

“So, you don’t understand what has happened to them, at all?” Violetta asked of the zebra, who was staring at the gathered herd. “Let me get this straight, he was in the middle of sucking them dry, drinking them down, and now they might be stuck like this?”

The zebra shrugged as a nearby pony whinnied.

“Well, shit.” Violetta was unable to contain her disappointment. She looked over at the herd, they were dirty, disheveled, and just about half starved. They needed food. They needed a bath. They needed love and affection. And most of all, they needed a way to make them normal again. They were all little horsies through and through with no signs of human-like intelligence.

Just dumb animals.

After a sigh from the zebra, he spoke using his actual voice, and his words seemed both sad and a little reluctant. “This is psychic trauma. I can feel it, but I can’t fix it. It’s like being able to see a wound, but not knowing how to make it better.”

Sunset Shimmer, sitting on a soft cushion, let out a faint sigh that made the pillowcase over her head ripple. Perhaps disturbed by this situation, or maybe just in need of comfort, she wiggled over just a little bit and touched up against the zebra beside her, and he seemed content to be touched.

“I’m fixing these ponies somehow,” said Violetta.

“What has come over you?” Sunset asked.

“I’ve been touched by god,” Violetta replied.

“You keep saying that.” Sunset shook her head beneath the pillowcase.

“She has been touched by ‘god.’ She’s been made like the Royal Pony Sisters. She has been given purpose.” The little zebra focused his soulful greenish eyes upon Violetta. “They defied death with you to prove their power.” Ears drooping, the little zebra’s lips pressed together for a moment as he seemed to be trying to recall something. “I remember stories from when I was young, before I was taken. Many zebras revere the Royal Pony Sisters.”

“Say, can the zebras help fix these ponies?” Violetta asked.

There was no reply. The little zebra sat silent and he refused to look at Violetta. The lack of communication seemed troubling and with a quickness, it grew awkward. Now, perhaps needing some comfort himself, he leaned up against Sunset Shimmer, his eyes dark, flashing, and troubled.

“Hey, I asked you a question.” Violetta’s lips felt thick and rubbery. Her face hurt. Her ass hurt. She was missing a tooth. She leaned forwards and got right up into her zebra friend’s grill. She snorted once, to let him know that she meant business, and then, in as soft and gentle of a voice as she could muster, she added, “If you know something, you need to tell me. I need to help them. I need to make things right. Now, I need to know where these zebras are, how to find them, how to reach them, and I need to know if they can help me.”

“They might,” the zebra replied, “but I can’t go back to them.”

“Why is that?” Violetta jerked her head back and felt a sincere sense of worry, her zebra friend looked troubled. Real troubled. He looked scared and his expression made it clear that he might start crying at any moment.

“I have been touched by evil,” the zebra replied, “and I have no name.”

There was a tug from the muscles on the back of her head and Violetta felt an eyebrow raising. She stopped herself before saying something dumb and hurtful. The zebra had been hurt enough. She chose a more delicate approach. “Help me understand. See, I don’t agree. You had no choice in the matter. That motherfucker, he stole your name. I don’t understand how, but he did. That’s not your fault. Why would the zebras turn you away?”

“Because I am touched by evil.” The zebra sat there, blinking, his whole body trembling. “When I was little… I can remember zebras who were shunned. They did bad things. I’ve done bad things.”

“You didn’t have a lot of choice in the matter.” Reaching out a hoof, Violetta wished that she had hands. She touched the zebra, a light tap, trying to comfort him. She looked over at Sunset, but she seemed to be content to remain silent and lean up against the zebra.

“I can’t go back.”

Violetta sucked in a deep breath and summoned her patience.

The zebra shook his head. “I am evil. Left dirty. I am unclean.”

“Bullshit!” Violetta snapped, causing the zebra’s eyes to go wide as he recoiled.

“But the stories, the lore, I remember—”

“Those are just words!” Violetta poked at the zebra with her hoof, but did so in a gentle way. A real poke with her hoof would crush the little guy now. She was strong now, too strong, and she had no doubts that she could bench press a Jeep. “They are just words and the only meaning they have is what you give them!”

“They are words connected to lore and tradition—”

“No, they are words connected to shame and fear, the two ways that old people and The Man make everything run smoothly.” Peering into the zebra’s eyes, Violetta saw fear and confusion. She needed to explain somehow. “Look, people say stuff. They fill your head full of garbage from a young age hoping to get you to believe the same bullshit they were taught.”

“I don’t understand,” the zebra said.

“It’s like slut shaming in school when we have sex-ed.” Violetta’s face contorted from anger. “They prey on a girl’s self esteem. They want us to behave in a certain way, a way that aligns to their values. What they feel is right. A bunch of creepy old men have decided what we girls should do with our bodies and they tell us how we should feel about it.”

The zebra blinked, confused, and beside him, Sunset Shimmer’s head bobbed up and down in agreement.

“They make up a lot of bullshit and they make you believe it, so that you follow their way, their views, and you end up just as fucked up as they are.” Violetta leaned in and once more, she got right up in the zebra’s grill, her nose inches away from his. In a soft but forceful voice, she continued, “It’s like that chocolate bar bullshit they teach girls in school. They tell us that our bodies, our sexuality, is like a chocolate bar. It has a really pretty wrapper and some sweet, sweet candy inside. You follow?”

The zebra sat there, wide eyed, and Sunset let out a troubled sigh.

“And these moral police, these holier than thou types, they tell the girls that a candy bar can only be unwrapped once. And they get some poor girl to stand up in class, and they give her a candy bar, and they make her go around the classroom, offering up bites of her chocolate bar to the boys. And the first bite is always easy, but after that, the candy bar is nasty. It’s unwrapped and some other boy has bitten some off. After that, it gets harder. Other boys don’t want to eat it. It’s all gross and has bites out of it. And the teacher, well, they keep going on about how disgusting the candy bar is now, how unsanitary, how vile, and how if some boy takes a bite, they’re going to get diseases.”

Shaking his head, the zebra looked troubled.

“And they tell the girls in the class that they are like that candy bar. That they only get one chance to be unwrapped and have a bite taken out of them, and then after that, they are less than perfect. They are no longer desirable. That they are gross, dirty, and disgusting forever. It’s called slut shaming and it’s horrible, and makes girls want to kill themselves.” Violetta thought back to her time spent manning the phone at the receiving end of the suicide hotline.

“What about the boys?” the zebra asked.

“They don’t teach the boys shit, just to be careful of what they bite,” Sunset Shimmer replied in a voice that held more than a little anger. “The more chocolate bars that a boy has a bite of, the better off he is. It’s a double standard. They boys get to brag about how many candy bars they unwrap.”

“The point is, for this to work, the girls and the boys have to believe in it. You have to accept that the words are true for the shame and the guilt to happen. It’s how they control you. You have to believe in their bullshit for it to work.” Reaching out, Violetta gave the zebra another poke. “And that is what childhood is. A long, long period of indoctrination and believing in the bullshit of adults. They give you all sorts of lies for you to believe in. Santa Claus. The Easter Bunny. The Tooth Fairy. And your dumb ass believes in all of this bullshit. They even get you to believe in some invisible sky wizard that will punish you and fuck your shit up if you are a bad person.” Violetta thought about her words and felt troubled—she had met the sky wizard, and she was real. Nothing made any sense any more. Down was up. Up was down. The sky wizard was real, and she was a burning, fiery sun horse.

“You are very wise—”

Exploding with laughter, Violetta almost fell over. It hurt to laugh, it hurt real bad, and she let out a wheeze of pain. Something was wrong with her insides, no doubt. “Nobody has ever told me that I was wise. I’m just some stupid girl that pays attention.”

The zebra’s eyes narrowed. “Then you are wise to pay attention. There is truth in your words.” The zebra looked afraid, hesitant, and curious. “The zebras are to the north, but I do not know how far north. I was very young when I was taken. We’re down near the bottom of the world, the endless ice can be found to the south of us. To the north, there is a vast forest, and beyond that, there is a vast savannah where the zebras are. That is all I know, I’m sorry.”

“So, we need to go north.” Violetta settled back on her plushy horsey haunches. “I have to take the herd north. I’m gonna need some help.”

“I’m blind,” Sunset Shimmer said.

“I know that.” Violetta’s voice was a pained whisper. “And our zebra is touched by evil. Ain’t neither one of ya gonna be any use to me.” She had no idea how she was going to do this, but she felt an overwhelming compulsion to get it done. She stared at the zebra, who looked back at her for a time, but then averted his eyes.

“There is a lot of work to do,” Violetta said. “We need to loot this place and figure out what is useful. We need to find food and then find some way of carrying it with us. We need to find a way to keep the herd together… maybe there’s some rope. They seem content to follow me around—”

“It is because of what you are.” The zebra laid his hoof upon Violetta with a reverent touch. “What you’ve become. They will follow you and remain close to you.”

“That’s good, but I ain’t taking no chances.” Violetta looked around the room at the unicorn survivors. “Some rope or something… we could tie it around their necks. I don’t know how I’m going to make knots without hands. I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“I do not fully understand your candy bar story, but…”—the zebra swallowed and licked his lips—“I do see the wisdom in it. I am responsible for making my own value. I will follow you and help you. Even if they are blank, I can still touch their minds. Calm them if they become spooked. I can control them, if necessary.”

Feeling relieved, Violetta nodded. Nineteen lives, plus Sunset Shimmer and one zebra without a name. She took a deep breath, wondered what she was getting into, and then shook her head. This was a strange world, full of the unknown, and filled with dangers that she had no comprehension of. She had two helpers that she hoped would be her friends. And no doubt, the horse-god was watching her.

“We need to get started as soon as possible. I need some time to recover, because my ass got beat, and we need to gather some supplies. When we go, we should leave early in the morning so we can get a full day of walking. And just so you know, I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“We’re free,” Sunset Shimmer said, “and that’s all that matters.”

Licking her fuzzy horsey lips, Violetta looked at Sunset and felt a pang in her heart. “I don’t know if we can go home again, Sunset. I don’t know if we can go back to where we belong. This journey might be a long one for us.” Violetta took a moment to collect her thoughts, then continued, “I really don’t have a plan, but once these ponies are safe, once they are in a place where they can be looked after and healed, I already know I need to keep going. On the other side of the world, far, far away from here, she’s waiting for me.”

“Who?” Sunset asked.

“The horse-god that kicked my sorry ass outta horsey heaven.”

Sunset let out a giggle.

“No, really, she did. She said I was a bad pony. And then my ass was kicked out.”

Eyes narrowing, the zebra said, “You should show reverence. Princess Celestia gave you a chance to redeem yourself.”

“Yeah, she did, and now she has me on her hands.” Violetta blinked. “Hooves? I don’t know what to say anymore!” It was frustrating, nothing made sense. “Anyhow, I gotta go and see her. I guess I’m going to have to walk around the world until I get there. I don’t know how I’m going to cross the oceans. And I don’t know what is going to happen once I get there.”

“Will you go home?” Sunset asked. “If she has a way to send you back, would you go?”

Sighing, Violetta slumped over, already knowing the answer. “No.”

“No?” Sunset lifted her head.

“Nope, I’m done there. I don’t wanna talk about it.”

Saying it aloud, Violetta found the resolve she needed for acceptance. Even though she was still quite troubled, she felt a little better. She had a purpose now, even if she didn’t understand what it was, or what it meant, or how she would fulfil it. She had become a purposeful creature. She thought about what the horse-god had said—It left him without purpose, without meaning, without direction. For us, that is a terrible state of being. She knew these words to be true now. She had become a purposeful horse, and a purposeful horse she would stay.

Perhaps, with time, Sunset might become a purposeful horse.

“Come on, both of you, we have a lot of work to do. Let’s get to doing it…”

Author's Note

And now, the epilogue.

Epilogue

North. Violetta had to go north. Now, after several days of recovery, she was ready to go north. The rose-gold rays of the dawn were warm upon her face. She turned to face the sun, closed her eyes, and basked in its glory for a few precious seconds. The mindless ponies around her also seemed to be enjoying the sun and the grass.

She had found rope in the tower, and after much struggle, she had managed to form a line to lead the others along with. She had discovered that her horsey ankles were flexible, far more flexible than a normal horse's, and that she could curl back her hoof like a thumb against her leg. She could grab stuff in a clumsy sort of way. Tucked away in storerooms, she had also found saddlebags, horsey luggage, and all manner of supplies.

It had taken a lot of effort to gather the food, pack it up, and get it loaded. Even the mindless ones did their part to help carry supplies. She had spent a crazy amount of effort getting the different packs and saddlebags on the other ponies. They didn’t seem to mind and they were content to stand around at the moment as they waited to go.

Turning her head, Violetta looked over at Sour Sweet. She felt a pang of guilt, she had helped to take Sour Sweet. She had helped to steal her away. It wasn’t like she had much of a choice in the matter, but guilt was guilt, shame was shame, and Violetta felt the need to make amends. She was just a few feet away, the rope loop secure around her neck, and she had her head down so that she could nibble upon the tender green shoots poking up through somewhat faded brown grass.

She didn’t know what to expect, how far they would be traveling, Violetta didn’t know anything. There were no guarantees that they would even find the zebras. She didn’t know what to do if they ran out of food. Sure, there was grass and whatever grew on the ground, but she wasn’t sure if that would be enough. These little horses were different.

Besides, who wanted to eat grass when you could have a cheeseburger? She was dying for one. Her mouth watered as she thought about it, and she wondered if other little ponies might puke if they saw her eating one. Could she even eat one now? Was it wrong? Could ponies eat meat? If it was wrong, did that mean that eating pussy was off the menu?

“Your thoughts…” said the zebra in a soft whisper.

“Hey, you peek inside of my head and you get what you deserve!” Violetta turned to look at her zebra friend and the corners of her mouth curled upwards just a bit.

“I couldn’t help it,” he replied in a somewhat whiny voice as he cringed away from Violetta. “You think so loud… so strong. It just jumps into my mind.”

“Privacy.” Violetta rolled her eyes and her smile became a little more visible.

“You like mares.” The zebra, looking apprehensive, looked Violetta in the eye.

Sighing, Violetta’s smile vanished. “I’m about ninety percent gay. I’m a butch-bitch. I’m a top. Single blue female, currently not attached.”

“I don’t understand half of what you say, and the other half, I can’t sort out your thoughts enough to make sense of it. You don’t think like us.” The zebra, looking troubled, shook his head. He blinked and his greenish eyes were a lighter shade of green in the majestic light of dawn.

“What she means is, she is mostly gay and into girls, but she might check out a boy if he was girly enough or was submissive enough. In a girl-girl relationship, she’s the boy.” Sunset Shimmer stuck out her hoof, felt around a little, and then when she found the zebra, she touched him, pressing her hoof up against him.

“I try to stay open minded.” Violetta looked over at Sunset Shimmer, and she wasn’t sure why she did. Looking Sunset in the eye was not required for conversation, as Sunset was blind. “I don’t want to rule out boys completely because maybe I haven’t met the right boy.” She felt a blush settle over her cheeks and she was comforted by the heat. At least some things hadn’t changed, and even in a pony body, she could blush, which was reassuring for some reason. “I try to be open minded. I don’t always do a very good job of it though. I’d hate to miss out on the love of my life just because they had a dick. After all, what’s a dick between friends, right? ‘Sides, you can dress it up in little Barbie dresses and draw faces on it—”

“You’re like… what… fifteen years old? How did you figure all of this out?” Sunset shook her head. “I still felt guilty and ashamed when I’d touch myself in the shower—you know what, never mind. Sorry, zebra, I know you aren’t a human, but you are still a boy—”

“Colt,” the zebra corrected.

“Yeah, same diff.” Sunset took a deep breath. She nibbled on her own lip for a few seconds, shook her head, and then with a sigh, she lapsed into silence.

“I read books. Books about punk philosophy and feminism. I also watched a lot of porn. A whole lot of porn.” Violetta sucked in a deep breath and her cheeks puffed out. She let everything out in a long slow exhale. “I found the right kind of porn, the good kind, and I kept watching until I saw stuff that I liked, and then I learned more about what it was. And that’s how I figured out what sort of girl I was by watching porn. Self empowerment though sin and vice. My mother threatened to make me have electroconvulsive therapy.”

“I don’t understand any of this.” The zebra turned and looked over at the sunrise.

“I don’t get you,” Sunset whispered to Violetta. “I don’t understand you at all. I don’t understand how you’re okay after all of this—”

“Who said I was okay?” Violetta asked in a sharp voice.

“You seem so strong… you have this plan. You seem like you know what to do.”

“That don’t mean I’m okay.” Violetta let out a rough grunt and then wondered if she should apologise for being snippy. “At some point, I’m gonna have me a good cry about this, but I can’t do that right now. There’s too much shit to do. Nothing I can do about it ‘cept just suck it up.”

“Violetta…”

“What, Sunset?”

“When the time comes, you can have my shoulder to cry on… do horses even have shoulders?”

“Thanks.” Violetta felt another warm blush and she thought about everything she said to Sunset before they had a bath together. She thought about Sunset beside her in the bed. It might be nice to have a shoulder to cry on. Or at least a warm body to hug. Hugging a pony wasn’t so bad, it was like hugging a human wearing fuzzy pyjamas. There was a certain niceness to it.

“I think I’m going to need a shoulder to cry on,” the zebra remarked in a very meek and subdued voice. “I’m so scared of going home. I don’t know if I can do this.”

“First chance we get, we’re all having a pity party. Don’t think there’ll be any cake though, so that’s just one more thing to feel sorry over and mope about.” Violetta lifted her head high. “It’s time to go. Nothing to this but to do this.”

“I have two shoulders,” Sunset said to the zebra. “When we have that pity party, you’re invited.”

Sniffling, Violetta wiped her foreleg over her face, she took a deep breath, and in a strained voice she managed to say, “I’m too butch to be crying. Now stop it, both of you. We gotta get going. Time to move. We don’t have time for this sissy shit.”

She stood up and checked the rope she had looped around her own neck. Sunset, feeling a tug, stood up and fell into place behind Violetta. The zebra, not bound by rope, stood beside Sunset and a look of concentration settled over his face. One by one, the mindless ones fell into line, and were ready to go.

“I feel like that little midget guy when he left home to go on an adventure… let’s go.”

Author's Note

Well, all done. Time to return to things that people actually want to read.

We now return to your regularly scheduled programming.