Equestria Trainers' Society: Fish Out of Water

Time passed for Scylla in the Society, and with each passing day, she became more enamored by the idea of being a minotaur’s bride. As much as she should have hated her master, what he did to her, and what he would be doing to her in the future, The training, brainwashing, and her own tainted rationality were allowing her to ease into the idea much more smoothly than most other slaves. It was a very unusual event within the vile halls of the facility, but something about Scylla, and how she had adapted to this terrible situation, made her a perfect candidate to be a minotaur wife, at least mentally. While she accepted her fate, there was another who was not nearly as happy with the situation, both for her and himself.

Pathfinder had been fairly miserable all throughout the duration of his enslavement, as all sane ponies should be in a situation where they are held against their will and molested on a regular basis. His body had been used as a plaything by a good part of the Society’s member roster, and even a good share of the other slaves had gotten a turn with him during his stay. He had been forced to share a bed with both mares and stallions, the latter of which he greatly detested, as he was in no way gay prior to being captured.

Of course, he found it harder to continue holding that preference in sexuality with each passing day, as Schorl’s mental magic had made it impossible to dislike sex with other males. She had locked the pleasure and arousal he experienced from a single physical encounter with another male in his mind forever, and that had altered his psyche from that of a dedicated straight stallion, to that of a reluctant bisexual.

So when he woke up in the comfort of a plush bed, surrounded by three other stallions, his ass aching and his mouth tasting of balls and cum, while his fur was soaked in the sweat from his own body and those who he had slept with that night. He was a wreck, in a physical sense as his whole body had been strained the night prior, and in a mental sense, as he felt equal parts satisfied and disguised with himself. Schorl had ordered him and three other stallions being trained into femcolts, a unicorn, a pegasus, and an earth pony, each being just old enough to be called stallions, and each bearing a strangely similar ‘Equal Sign’ cutie mark, to enjoy a night of passion with one another.

They had been locked into a room, with the trio filled to the brim with passion fruit juice, putting them all in a state of lust-guided euphoria where they couldn’t keep their hands off one another, and told to do it with each other however they pleased. That led to an interspecies four-way where each participant took turns being the bottom, sucking and taking cock from the other two before giving some cock themselves. The fact that Path had done that, and enjoyed it, alone would have left a bad enough taste in his mouth that he wouldn’t have cared about the other flavors currently occupying it, but it was the purpose behind this exercise, and how he went along with it, that made him reflect on what he had done.

As with most things Schorl put him through, there was a meaning to this beyond a simple night of gay sex. Of the four in the stallions, Path was the only one completely sober. He was the one who could have stayed out of it as the other three, nearly two decades younger than himself, went through the symptoms of the passion fruit. That was his initial intent, having pushed a couple of them off him when they made their first advances, but when they started getting into it with one another, he found himself unable to keep his eyes off of them, and eventually joined in.

He wanted to blame Schorl for it, not just in an overall manner due to her psychological conditioning of his sexuality, but more directly. He had hoped that she was sitting behind a wall, watching through a peephole, waiting for the moment he showed the slightest interest in the other males, so she could trap the thought in his mind like she had many times before, because if that wasn’t the case it would mean he had taken advantage of three other ponies who weren’t in their right mind. That would have been the perfect scapegoat for his actions, but he couldn’t help thinking that if that had been what happened, then he wouldn’t be feeling as badly as he did.

Path sighed to himself, looking at each of the fillyish stallions that shared the bed with him, feeling genuine remorse that he gave into temptation. Nothing he could do about it now, except clean himself up and get ready for what was to come. There was no way he was going to be left there for long, and despite how much he hated his role in this place, as soon as his captors came for him, he’d have to be put through yet another trial where he would be at the mercy of anyone who wished to use him.

Pathfinder looked around, remembering that he was in a standard room used by members for sex, which came with a bathroom that had its own shower. Spotting the door, he made his way off the bed, scooting around the bodies that surrounded him as gently as he could. It wasn’t gentle enough though, as just as he lifted himself off the mattress, he felt a tug on his tail.

“Leaving so soon?” said the earth pony, a cute pure white stallion with blue eyes and a short cut mane, with small bangs in the front, wearing only his slave collar, a set of fingered shoulder-length gloves, and thigh-high knee socks that were made of black leather, and a smile on his face that told Path that he was still under the effects of the passion fruit.

The younger stallion gave Path’s tail a light tug, which was all it took for the pegasus to sit himself back down on the edge of the bed. Once seated, the stallion crawled to Path’s side, putting his face at the front half of Pathfinder’s body.

“Look, you’re still ready for more action,” said the white pony, spotting Path’s bulging cock.

Path’s face went red, as that hadn’t been there a few minutes ago. His dick had inflated the moment his tail was grabbed, activating with but a mere touch. After months of any physical contact leading to sexual situations, his penis started to make it a habit to simply react to any interaction with another creature, and it made for some pretty embarrassing situations where any refusal he had was met with ‘but your body is saying you want this’, or some similar comment from those who used him. It happened so much that he had stopped objecting, since his protests didn’t even matter in the first place.

“It certainly looks that way,” said another voice as the face of a light blue unicorn with darker blue hair popped out on the other side of his body.

His mane was cut in the exact same way as the earth pony, which to most non-pony races would give them a ‘twin-like’ appearance, but to ponies, there were enough facial discrepancies to see they were in no way related.

“Well we can’t leave him this way,” said the final stallion as he slid out of bed, a pink pegasus with a teal mane that made the group into a set of triplets. He crawled on his hands and knees in front of Path, making seductive motions with his body, before sitting on his legs right in front of the elder pegasus, “Can we?”

As if that was the signal to act, the three stallions pushed their faces into Pathfinder’s dick at all sides, having no hesitation about pressing their lips and tongues against the sex organ. Path immediately moaned, unable to think clearly about what was happening to him. It was one of the sexiest things that had happened to him in his life, having three cute stallions lovingly messaging his cock with their mouths, even though not too long ago the same scenario would have sent Path running. At this point, he couldn’t help but get into it, making pleasant noises, breathing heavily, and putting his hands into those well-cut manes so he could guide those faces where he wanted them to be. He’d certainly regret it later, but in the heat of the moment, this was his definition of bliss.

The sensations that shot through him as the pegasus lovingly lapped at his base and sack, carefully caressing his balls with his mouth, gently slurping one into his muzzle, popping it back out, then doing the same to the other. The way the unicorn slide his saliva covered mouth muscle over the length of his shaft, tilting his head away from Path’s body so as not to poke him with his horn, going up and down the vein of his prostate, meeting with the other two males’ lips as he met the restrictions of his area of attention. The eagerness of the earth pony as he encircled his lips around the head of the cock, making a clockwise pattern over Pathfinder’s flare with his own tongue, bobbing his head up and down to move the sensitive piece of flesh in his mouth, and sucking on it with moderate force when he felt the need.

Pathfinder stood no chance against these three younger males, and before long he released a load of sperm right into the earth stallion’s muzzle, which the white pony let spill from his lips, trickling down droplets of the white fluids for his partners to partake of as well. The trio continued past the climax, lapping and sucking at the older stallion’s dick, Path’s reaction incentivizing them to go further in an attempt to make it happen over and over.

They managed to achieve two more orgasms this way, the second one causing Path to fall onto the mattress as his back arched, his cock covered in a mixture of his sperm and the other stallons’ spittle. The defeated pegasus was left panting, his body put through much more than one might think for just having sat there and let three others do all the work. His mouth was dry, his mind was stuck in a haze of afterglow, and he could hardly feel anything below his waist, save for a pleasant ache from his genitals.

Of course, the trio was hardly done. They had subdued their prey, and now it was time to
partake of the spoils of their conquest. Without so much as a word, one of the males flipped Path onto his stomach, putting his ass into the air where it would be much easier to access. Right after being turned facedown, the white earth pony took position behind Path, straddling the older male’s legs, while stroking his own erection in his hands. Pathfinder knew what was to come, as he had been through this many times by now. He had even done it a few times with these males before the night prior, and thus there was no reason any of them would have assumed the act was off-limits now.

Part of Path, the part still true to his original desires, wanted to tell the earth pony to stop as he directed his cock to the hole at the center of his rump, but that part of him was vetoed by two other parts of him; the one that had come to enjoy sex with other guys, and the part that had decided it wasn’t worth the effort to fight against Schorl and her organization, both aspects of himself most likely implanted by the crystal pony herself.

Seeing no way or reason to escape the three stallions’ attention, Path grabbed a pillow on the bed and buried his face into it, awaiting the sensation of his anus spreading as cock entered into his ass. He soon felt a now familiar push of a cockhead into his sphincter, as well as stretching of his O-ring as the tip of the earth pony’s dick, started to make its way inside. His entire body tensed up, dreading and anticipating the moment of full penetration, and the thorough fucking that would come after.

That undoubtedly would have been what happened, had the sound of a lock turning and a door opening reached Path’s ears, followed by the voice of a mare saying “Time’s up boys”. The other three stallions gave a set of disappointed sounds, but without objection heeding the words of this female pony. To his relief, Path felt the dick retreat from his ass, and the other bodies make their way off the bed.

Lifting his head up from the pillow, Path looked to the now open entrance door to the room, and saw that a minotaur had arrived, accompanied by a pink mare with purple hair that had a blue streak going through it, who was wearing a dress suit that made her look like a business oriented pony. The other three stallions had taken up spots in front of this mare, sitting on their knees, hands on their thighs, and looking up to her like obedient puppies as they awaited her next command.

“Did you three have fun?” asked the mare, patting the white earth pony on the head.

The earth pony nodded, “It was hard getting our playmate to join in at first,” he said, relaying what had happened during their playdate.

“He was trying not to join in, telling us that he’d just stay to the side and mind his own business,” the unicorn said next, “But we didn’t listen.”

“We flirted and teased him until he finally gave in,” the pink pegasus finished, “And then we had a lot of fun screwing each other, just like you ordered Mistress Glimmer.”

The pink mare shifted her eyes to the minotaur, “There you have it,” she said, “I told you that my boys would be able to do the job.”

The minotaur huffed, and pulled a moderately sized coin pouch from his belt, offering them to the mare, who took it and started counting the coins inside. Once satisfied with the amount, she offered it to her white stallion, saying only the word ‘Teeth’ to him, which prompted the male to take hold of the small sack with his mouth.

“It was a pleasure doing business with you,” the mare said, turning back into the hall, “Come along boys. There is still plenty of work today, and your sisters are already busy picking up your slack.”

Pathfinder watched as the stallions followed their owner, crawling on hands and knees as they showed that any dignity they once had was long since stripped from them. They would go on to service other members of the Society with their bodies, or perhaps the mare herself, depending on the intent she had for them.

With his three sex partners gone, and his cock finally deflating back into his sheath, Pathfinder sat himself up on the bed, awaiting his next instructions. The minotaur would have most likely preferred that the pegasus crawled over to him and prostrated himself like the trio had done prior, but the bull was not his master, and Path still held some level of pride.

“Did you enjoy your reward, pony?” the minotaur asked, fairly glib with his question. There was no reason for the minotaur to actually care if Path had a good time or not. He was just there to retrieve the pony after all.

Path knew he required a response though, so he gave a halfhearted nod, as he couldn’t refute that he did take some form of enjoyment from his time in this room, no matter how much he hated himself for it.

“Good,” the minotaur said in response, “I was hoping that a night of unrestricted pleasure would help make what would happen next all the more easier.”

Path rolled his eyes, interpreting this to mean he had three stallions plow his ass all night long to loosen it up for his own turn. Without a single word, the pegasus turned his body around, bending himself over the edge of the bed, and lifted his tail to be taken by the minotaur.

“No, no,” the minotaur said, “Not that.”

“Then what?” Path said with annoyance, wondering what other than sex that the bovine could want from him.

The minotaur’s glare intensified a little, not appreciating Path’s tone, but he didn’t let that deter him from the intent on this meeting. “Do you know who I am?”

“I’ve seen plenty of minotaur guards since I’ve gotten here,” Path replied, “You’re going to have to tell me why I should remember you over any of the others.”

“I suppose that’s understandable,” the minotaur replied, “My name is Rubric. I am your daughter’s master.”

Path felt a signal shoot through his head when the bovine finished explaining himself, and looking at Rubric he realized that he had seen this particular minotaur several times prior, picking up Scylla from their shared bedroom a multitude of times in the past. He assumed it was just one of the random guards taking her somewhere to be used, but didn’t realize that he was collecting her to personally violate her.

Anger built up inside Path, and after a few seconds of contemplation, he got up and ran to the minotaur, with the intention of punching the bull for daring to touch his little girl. He managed to get right up to Rubric, and managed to land a blow before the minotaur did anything to stop him. Of course, he found out right after that Rubric didn’t need to stop him, as the fist landed harmlessly against abs that were as hard as stone. Only the bull’s leathery skin prevented Path from hurting himself in this exchange, acting as a thick layer of padding.

“Are you finished?” Rubric asked, looking down upon Path unamused, “If you were a Clydesdale, I’d actually be worried you’d leave a bruise, but as a pegasus with no weapons, you have no hope of injuring me in a fight.”

Rubric brought a hand down to grab Path by the arm, and without warning pulled the pegasus up to his chest. The act was effortless on the minotaur’s part, the light frame of a pegasus being like a feather when moved by the massive bicep of the bovine. Pathfinder soon found his way into a chokehold, with Rubric facing him forward, while placing his unused arm around the stallion’s throat. Luckily for Path, the collar on his neck was keeping him from being strangled, but he could tell that part of that was because the minotaur wasn’t really trying.

“I’m sure you know this by now, but if I really wanted to, I could leave you battered and broken. The only thing your kind can do when attacking one of my kind is insult them for thinking we’d be that weak.”

“Okay, I get it!” Path said, submitting to the might of the minotaur, “I won’t do it again!”

Rubric dropped the stallion, who fell to his knees. “I didn’t want to get rough with you, but I won’t allow a pony to show me disrespect.”

Path rubbed his throat, and looked back at the bull. Direct confrontation was never a viable choice, seeing the size of the male. If his wings were not bound, he might have been able to outmaneuver a creature that big, but an average pegasus like himself could never hope to harm a creature whose muscles had the density of a brick wall. It was stupid of him to try, but path knew he had to at least try, if only for his own peace of mind in knowing that he had tried.

“So what are you here for?” Path asked, “Here to gloat that you’ve brainwashed my daughter?”

“I’m here to talk to you,” Rubric answered, “To show you that while I might not have the best intentions for Scylla, that I am not the worst thing that could have happened to her, and then to discuss the future, both hers and yours.”

“And I suppose I have to sit through this one sided ‘discussion’?” Path said, know well that any opinion he might have in the matter would be overall ignored.

“I could leave you here,” Rubric said, “Have some other minotaur take you back to your room, to wait in your cage till someone else wishes to make use of you. I’ll let you make that decision, but I think it would not be wise for you to make that choice.”

“And why not?” Path asked, seeing the downtime, no matter how little it might be, as something worth taking if it were being offered.

“Because you’d never see your daughter again.” Rubric said bluntly.

Those words instantly put an intense fear into Path’s very being, a numbness traveling through him. “What?!”

“Your daughter’s time here is about to come to an end, and soon I’ll be taking her back with me to Minopolis. Seeing that you are property of the Society, that would mean that you’d stay here while Scylla will be taken to a faraway land that you will probably never see yourself. I believe that outcome would upset my slave, and that’s why I’d like to talk to you about the idea of coming to serve me.”

“Is that even a choice I’m allowed to make?” Path said, pointing out the obvious fact that he had no agency when it came to who his owner was.

“Believe it or not,” Rubric said in rebuttal, “Most of my kind don’t prefer slaves that resent us. So if you find it absolutely apprehensible to serve me, then I will gladly abide by that sentiment.”

Path out a hand over his face and grimaced. “So what? You’re going to show me how you’re actually a good guy, and how I should be happy you raped my daughter?”

“No need to be sarcastic,” Rubric said, “Just accept my offer to talk.”

“Fine,” Path said, clearly being verbally strong armed into this.

With the pegasus’ acceptance, the minotaur pulled from his belt a leash and blindfold, letting Pathfinder know it was time to leave the bedroom.

The two males walked the halls of the facility side by side, Pathfinder being led blindly through pathways that had started to become slightly familiar to him, even though he had never seen them with his own eyes. Then again, it was less that the halls were familiar, and more that the process of traveling through them had been burned into his memory. Being guided by a leash, surrounded by darkness, the feeling of a carpet laying across a stone floor underneath his hooves. No matter which hallway he was made to walk down, the experience was almost always identical.

If there was any way to determine what direction he was going, he would have learned it by now, especially with his special talent being map making, which one would think would aid him in memorizing the layout of his prison. At this point, all he could do was wait for the minotaur to get them both to wherever the bovine was taking them, which inevitably happened when path felt himself be turned off the carpeting and directed through a doorway. Once taken a decent way into this new area of the facility, Rubric tore off Path’s blindfold, to let him see where he had ended up at.

To Path’s surprise, he didn’t find himself in yet another bdsm dungeon, seeded club room, or a bedroom designed for the comfort of members as they reemed his ass. He instead found himself on a walkway, on the second floor of a large room. The platform he was on followed the wall of the room, and looped around until it came back around to form a squared path. A safety railing had been placed at the part overlooking the floor below, which when he looked down to it felt more like the atmosphere he had become accustomed to, as the lower floor had several large restraint devices and what looked like prison cells that lined the spaces underneath the walkway.

Many of the cells were occupied, holding one or two ponies within, both male and female, and of all of the common pony tribes. There were even a few bat ponies mixed in, though they were few and far between. In a way, the scene looked like one typical for the Society, looking like just another holding area, or a set up for some upcoming orgy.

“This…” Rubric said, having given Pathfinder plenty of time to look around, “Is where we keep a particular breed of troublemakers. The kind that put their noses in places they don’t belong, and those who might have been in a position to stop our operations, had we not planned for their interference.”

Path didn’t get what the bull was getting at, but decided to give the ponies held here another look. Some of them had even taken notice that they were being watched by this point, and were sending Rubric dirty looks. With some getting closer to their bars, Path started seeing a pattern among the prisoners, that many of them were physically fit and muscular, and that they all had either pure white coats or blue-sh black coats. It was almost like it was a uniform for them, the thought passing through the pegasus’ mind, and slowly came to a conclusion.

“These are royal guards, aren’t they?” Path said, his attention to detail in map making allowing him to fit the pieces together with only visual clues.

This place was designed as some form of poorly made prison, mocking the law enforcers held within it, and royal guards often changed their coats magically to reflect that they served one princess or another. Even in the Crystal Empire, guards would have their coats crystalized to blend in with the crystal ponies. It was the reason many of the soldiers looked similar in the guard, as otherwise pure white or black ponies were fairly rare.

“Very good,” Rubric said to the guess, “We occasionally have to deal with the royal guard, capture them, and have them trained to serve our cause. It would have been nearly impossible to do, but we managed to bribe a few of higher rank to turn in any that start snooping around, and hiding any evidence of our activities. Guard ponies are also a hot commodity, as the rich love it when they can act above the law.”

Finding out that Equestria’s guards weren’t even able to deal with the Society, Path’s heart plummeted. The odds that he and Scylla would be rescued was already slim, but this just took small odds, and reduced the possibility to nearly non-existent.

“So you wanted me to see that it was impossible for me to resist,” Path said, annoyed at this point. He didn’t need to see this to know that he was screwed in every possible way.

“Not quite,” Rubric said, “I wanted to show you the man your daughter could have belonged to. I know he was going to be here today, around this time, to punish the female who allowed herself to take Scylla’s place.”

Path gave Rubric an odd look, as he didn’t see the point of this exercise. It wasn’t like seeing some other slaver punishing a guard pony would change his mind on anything. The pegasus had seen and experienced all kinds of punishments, and it had failed to persuade him up to this point. He didn’t respond though, as nothing he could say would change the minotaur’s mind on showing him this.

The two males had to patiently wait for the arrival of the expected minotaur, but he did enter the room shortly after. He didn’t enter through the same door as they had, but instead via a door at the ground level of the guard prison. The door was placed on the opposite side of the room from where Path and Rubric were standing, an intentional placement by Rubric, and it didn’t take but a second for this new minotaur to notice the other massively muscular male.

“Rubric?” he called up to the bovine watching from above, “What are you doing here? I never see you in this section of the building.”

“I’m training one of the slaves,” Rubric explained, tugging on the leash that was still on Path’s collar to bring him into the other minotaur’s vision. “Having him watch as you play with your toy.”

“How unlike you,” the minotaur said, wasting no more time standing as he made his way past the cells full of guard ponies, “I thought you said you find the punishment of the guards barbaric.”

“I do,” Rubric replied, “But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its purpose. In this case, it will be educational.”

“Whatever,” said the minotaur as he got to the cell he was looking for, “I think you just secretly enjoy this stuff, but don’t want to admit it. No sweat off my back, just stand there and get your rocks off for all I care.”

The minotaur below unlocked the cell, and went inside. After a brief moment, the prisoner held inside was tossed out, a mare her arms held in conjoining L shapes behind her back within an armbinder, and her muzzle held shut with a sheathed muzzle gag. Unlike the others, this one had greyish fur, which while unusual, wasn’t unheard of from the royal to keep their natural color.

The mare stumbled on her hooves, trying her best to fight against the force exerted on her body, but in the end she found herself landing on her side on the ground, which was made of dust covered dirt. This immediately soiled her fur, and before the cloud her body created could settle, the minotaur that shoved her out of the cell made his way to her.

Path kept an uneasy watch over the situation unfolding below him, turning his head so he wouldn’t have to watch directly, but not allowing for the two figures to leave his sight completely. This was the reason he was brought here, after all, and if he didn’t at least humor his own captor a little, it would surely lead to consequences, most likely that he would not be allowed to see Scylla again.

“You like that, you little bitch?” the brutish asked the mare rhetorically, knowing that she neither enjoyed his treatment of her, nor could express he like or dislike anyways. “Well then, I think you’re gonna like this next bit even more.”

The minotaur reached down at the prone female pony, receiving a few hooves to his legs for his effort. He winced when being attacked, even hesitated as he snarled in pain, but the mare’s attempts to stop him did little but anger the bull, and through his fury he was able to take hold of her by the mane. He used his grip on her hair and his strength to lift her from the ground by her follicles, and as she was made to go upright, Path could finally determine that this guardsmare was an earth pony, whose natural weight alone would have made the stress on her scalp terrible, and was in no way helped by the toned muscles she had, nor the large bulge in her stomach that let Path know she was several months pregnant.

The bull could have stopped the moment his victim’s hooves touched the ground, but he was not satisfied with simply bringing her to a stance. He continued to lift, until the earth mare’s entire body no longer had contact with the ground, the entirety of her body weight was being held up by the scalp. This made the muffled sounds from behind the gag double in volume, the mare evidently in pain as more than a few strands of her hair were disconnected from her skull in the process. Again, she tried to fight back the only way she could, by kicking at the minotaur in her suspended state, but the minotaur easily evaded her this time, as at an arm’s length it was easy to tell where her attacks would end up.

“Settle down,” the bull mocked, setting her back on her hooves, before using her mane as leverage to twist her body around till her flank was aimed at him, to which he sent a solid slap across it to further humiliate the female, “You know you can’t take me on the way you are. You’re tied up, out of shape, and have a belly the size of a watermelon.” The minotaur gave a short laugh at the mare’s helplessness, “But even if none of that were true, then I’d still be able to beat you into submission.”

The mare attempted to attack some more, but as she was the only thing her kicks did was make her knees buckle from both her weight and exhaustion. It was like watching a cornered animal thrash about in a last ditch attempt to escape certain death, except the animal was far too deep to actually accomplish anything.

“Just don’t know when to quit, huh.” the minotaur said, a smirk growing over his face, “Fine, then I’ll give you the chance you want so badly.”

The minotaur slipped a finger into the space between the mare’s head and the strap of her muzzle, and with a solid yank, tore the leather strap like it was made of cheap paper. No longer bound to the mare’s head, the gag slipped off and fell to the floor, just in time to let the guardmare let out a yell when her arm binders were similarly ripped from her body. Having such heavy bonds removed from a person violently was not easy for the one who wore them, shown by several marks on the mare’s body where the straps were strained till they snapped. Regardless, the mare was now free of all but the collar around her throat, and with her arms and mouth liberated, the minotaur released her completely from his grasp.

The earth mare immediately faced the minotaur, but noticed he was keeping his distance. Seeing that, she took a moment to rub the parts of her body that became sore through his abusive hand. “What is this?” she asked bluntly, knowing her sadistic master would never release her bonds unless he had something worse planned.

“An opportunity,” the minotaur said aloud, “I’m gonna give you one chance to do whatever you think you can to me in a fair fight.”

“A fair fight?” the guardmare said with a heavy scoff. The notion was laughable, seeing that she was physically worn and currently in a state of pregnancy. Even at peak physical condition, a one on one fight with a minotaur would be a challenging fight, but the earth mare had zero chance to win with her body working against her at every turn.

The minotaur picked up on her indignation at his offer, a reaction he had expected, “It’s about as fair a fight as you’ll ever get against me. A pony would never be able to beat any minotaur in physical combat, let alone one as fit as me.” In a mocking gesture, the minotaur took a moment to flex his bovine muscles, which were admittedly impressive, even among his own kind. “But here’s the thing, if you don’t fight me right now, I won’t ever let you have another chance. I’ll keep you tied up so tightly that twitching a finger would be a privilege. If you want to accept that fate, and avoid the pain that comes with defying me, fine. Just bow your head in submission and give up any notion that you’ll ever be anything more than my slave.”

The mare’s eyes shifted away from the minotaur, conflicted with her current situation. Giving into the will of anyone in the Society was dangerous, as it created an opening for them to manipulate you again further down the road. Even without the head mistress’ magic, an admittance of defeat would leave cracks that could be torn wide open with time.

“Are you really willing to put the health of your child at risk?” the earth mare said, trying to deflect the choice in the matter to the minotaur.

“Don’t you worry about that,” the minotaur replied, “I am very experienced in dealing with this situation. I can punish you without harming the baby in your belly. Besides, what do you care if I hurt the child in your womb? Are you saying that you want to give birth to my babies now?”

The mare clenched her eyes and gritted her teeth. The minotaur was forcing her hand, and was using her own question against her. Despite the fact that she never wanted to be impregnated by the rapist in front of her, the idea of putting it in danger for the sake of her honor was a moral dilemma she really didn’t want to face. As much as she didn’t want the child, it was not its fault that it was conceived.

“Fine…” the mare said, getting onto her knees and bending over to bow her head to the floor, “You win. I’m not gonna fight you like this. So I surrender to whatever you have planned for me.”

“Hmph,” the minotaur walked over to the mare, stood over her for a moment, then lifted a leg up.

The mare looked up at him, and the position he stood in made it clear he was about to stomp down on her face as punishment for her morals, which he probably contrived in his mind as her being weak. A moment later, the minotaur slammed down his foot as expected, but hit the ground aside the guard mare’s head, dust from the floor being the only thing that connected with her in the process.

“If you are truly submitting to me, then show me.” the minotaur said, “Kiss my hoof, and embrace a life of servitude.”

The guard looked away momentarily, but then quickly turned to face the hoof of the male over her. She gave it the requested kiss, holding it for a few moments as she felt was expected. The minotaur watched in with a smirk over her face, one that faded over the course of a few seconds. It was odd for Path, who was still watching the scene below intently, to see confusion go over the face of the one who had gotten everything he wanted. What exactly had gone so wrong to make him give that expression.

“Why isn’t anything happening?” The minotaur asked aloud, seemingly to no one.

Seconds later, the recipient of the question responded, “I’m sorry Master Jupiter. Miss Midnight might have finally displayed her Element, but she seems to be far from ready for the ritual.”

Pathfinder knew that voice, and didn’t even need to see the crystal mare to realize she had been here watching the display as well, perhaps waiting for the perfect moment to employ her magic. Having exposed herself though, Schorl wasted no time stepping out from a blind spot into the open area below, along with her minotaur bodyguard, to make her presence apparent to everyone. She had probably been visible to the guardmare the whole time, which was more than likely why she was reluctant to do anything that would give the crystal unicorn a chance to place more enchantments on her.

“What do you mean she’s not ready for the ritual?!” The minotaur now identified as Jupiter say, trying to stay calm, but clearly frustrated.

“As I explained prior,” Schorl said, “For the Crystal Heart Ritual to succeed, the target must be at a state where they willfully submit to another. While that submission can be forced, it must still be legitimate. As it stands, Miss Midnight is simply doing what she must to avoid your wrath.”

Jupiter looked down at the guardmare in simmering rage, who in return looked bewildered about what was going on. Pathfinder was puzzled as well, as he watched from above. He had never heard of any ‘ritual’, and had no idea what such a thing would entail.

“So long as Miss Midnight has the will to resist you, even mentally, I can never extract a crystal heart from her.” Schorl went on to tell Jupiter.

The minotaur didn’t appreciate that, and a snarl formed on his face. “Know you listen here,” he said to the crystal unicorn, “I paid to have this bitch bent to my will. I want her crystal heart, and you’re going to rip it from her body right now!”

Jupiter reached for the crystal mare, planning on intimidating the mare into doing what he demanded, even if she said it wasn’t possible, but before he could lay a finger on her the other minotaur on the ground floor with them intervened. Always close to Schorl’s side, Sartek was able to grab Jupiter by the wrist, and pull it away from the mare. “You are stepping out of line,” he said, glaring down at the enraged slaver bull.

Jupiter, not satisfied with Sartek’s intrusion, immediately went to throw a punch at the other minotaur, but the moment he made a move Sartek reacted with a solid headbutt to the other bull’s skull. The combined surprise and force of the impact knocked the lesser minotaur on his ass, the point of contact slowly forming a large, bruised lump on his forehead.

With Jupiter being thoroughly reminded of his place in the ranks of the Society, Schorl stepped up to the humbled bull barbarian, “While I understand your disappointment, I fear there is little more the Society can do to satisfy your needs, Master Jupiter. While we could keep training your slave, and perhaps eventually break her, I do not believe you have the patience for that process, nor do we have the patience for your behavior.”

“What?” Jupiter replied, rubbing his aching skull as he tried to piece together what the crystal pony was saying.

“She said that you’ve caused enough trouble here with the way you treat the slaves,” Sartek said, translating for the mare, “While we’ve been working on turning your mare into an obedient slave, you are actively destroying any progress by making her despise you. Not only that, but you treat public use slaves with similar disdain, always abusing them to the limits of what the rules here allow. Of all the minotaur here, you are by far the most harmful, and the damage you cause is taking its toll on our operations. So for the sake of our plans, we are ending our services to you, ending your service towards us, and sending you back to Minopolis immediately.”

Jupiter growed at the other minotaur, but couldn’t think straight enough to attempt to fight Sartek and expect to win. “You want me to leave? Fine! I was being restricted here anyways. Never had a problem breaking bitches like this mare by myself.”

“Then you are more than welcome to prove your abilities on your own,” Schorl said, going over to the guardmare to slip a leash to her collar. Once attached, she offered the looped end of the leash to the downed minotaur. “It is your right as her owner, afterall.”

Jupiter begrudgingly took the leash from Schorl, and got to his hooves, “Believe me,” he said to Midnight, who was still looking incredibly confused about the who situation, “When I’m done with you, you’ll wish this crystal bitch trained you instead of me.”

“That’s enough,” Sartek said, clearly done with this particular minotaur’s antics, “Let’s go get you prepped for travel, and we’ll have you and your slave in Minopolis by the morning.”

“Again, I am very sorry that we couldn’t provide the service you desired, Master Jupiter.” Schorl said, as apologetically as she could manage to express, “We will even refund a portion of your money, as compensation for our failure. Sartek, if you would, please make those arrangements while I attend to another matter.”

“What kind of matter?” the minotaur asked.

“I fear in not completing the ritual, I failed not only Master Jupiter, but Master Rubric as well.” Schorl explained to her bodyguard, “As he wished to show off my ritual to one of the slaves in preparation for his own ritual. Now I’m going to have to make up for that as well.”

Sartek let out an exasperated huff, but then gestured to Jupiter towards the exit, “We should be ready in two hours.” With that said, Sartek guided both Jupiter and Midnight out of the holding area.

“I’m actually surprised he accepted that,” Schorl said after watching the three leave, aiming her gaze up to Rubric and Pathfinder, “Sartek is very protective of me. My duties are more important than his concerns though, and I can’t waste time on a failed experiment when I’ve got a more reasonable task ahead of me.”

“So what is your plan from here?” Rubric asked back.

Pathfinder, still confused over what happened, shifted his eyes back and forth between the two slavers. Apparently, something was supposed to happen, but didn’t, and now the parties that were in control were trying to figure out what they should do next. This lack of complete control begged to be addressed by the person who, up until this point, had his every action carefully planned out for him.

“What are you two talking about?” It wasn’t the most elegant response to the situation, but Path felt he did deserve some answers after being dragged here for nothing.

To his surprise, he managed to get a response to his question from Schorl, “You have my sincere apologies, Mr. Finder. It was my intent, at Rubric’s request, to display one of my abilities for you. As you are already aware, my magic focuses mostly on the will of a creature, allowing me to manipulate anyone so long as they give me some form of way in.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen that first hand,” Path replied.

“Yes, but you haven’t seen the extent of my power,” said Schorl, “Which is the ability to completely bend the will of one creature to another. We had hoped that Jupiter would have been able to break Miss Midnight enough to his will to reveal this ability, as it has a specific, though not strict, method that must be followed to enact it.”

The more the crystal mare talked, the more Pathfinder grew confused over what she was saying. Luckily, there was someone there who could turn her dialog into something more crude, and thus simpler to understand.

“She can perform some kind of magic that removes your will in the form of an object,” Rubric said bluntly, “And whoever possesses that object will be able to control you.”

“What?!” Path yelled, the minotaur giving the most important details with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. To believe that the headmistress of the Society possessed such an ability, it was no wonder their operations were so affected.

“It’s not that simple though,” Schorl said, “For me to extract your will into a crystalized form. Most importantly, it requires an act of true submission. To put it simply, the relinquishing of one’s will to another.”

“And we were hoping Jupiter would have been able to display this because we wanted to prepare you for that ritual.” Rubric added.

“It was always Jupiter’s goal to have Miss Midnight bent completely to his will, but I fear his methods and Miss Midnight’s ability to resist outright abuse and bullying had made that impossible now. Even one such as him cannot find a lost opportunity.”

Path felt a spike of anxiety pass over him, coming to understand what this was all about. “You want me to hand over my will? Like I would ever do that!” He yelled, angry that he was being proposed with such a fate, but worried that like many other things in this Celestia forgotten place, he might not have a choice in the matter.

However, it appeared that he might actually have an option, as Rubric went on to say. “That is your decision, but one that will cost you your daughter.”

“Are you blackmailing me?!” Path said.

“Well, yes.” Schorl said, “But not without reason. Despite the few times we have been able to adapt your thoughts and mannerism to our will, you remain a fairly independent pony, Mr. Finder. As you might assume, that is counterproductive to our goals. While I can keep you here and eventually train that out of you, Master Rubric will be departing for his homeland soon, taking your daughter with him.”

Path nodded at this, the minotaur telling him that earlier.

“He wishes to purchase you as well, in order to help Miss Scylla adapt easier to her new environment, but he doesn’t wish to deal with escape attempts or you turning his slave against him, mostly because he’d hate to have to punish the girl unnecessarily.”

“It is for that reason that handing over your will is required,” Rubric finished, “That is, if you want to ensure her safety after she has made her new home in Minopolis. So while I’ll leave the decision up to you, as the girl’s father, your options are limited. Either submit to me completely, in a way that you can never defy my will, or be left here and never see your daughter ever again.”

Path was in shock. Neither of these options were acceptable, yet there was nothing he could do to avoid these outcomes. If he refused, at best he could one day escape, make his way to Minopolis, wherever that was, and one day rescue Scylla from her enslavement. Who knew how long that could take, or the suffering and mental corruption Scylla could suffer in that time though. On the other hand, he could go with Scylla, but have no means to ever free them both from Rubric. Even then, Scylla could progressively be made to be the minotaur’s willing sex slave, and all he’d be able to do is watch from the sidelines.

It was a horrible choice, one with only bad outcomes, but when faced with the possibility of never seeing the mare he raised ever again, what was a father to do?