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.