Chapter 1: A Visit from the Witch Doctor
Author's Note
Fixed some pacing issues and even added a few new scenes to add a little more heart. I can’t fix the whole thing, since the biggest issue is my prose and that would require an entire rewrite
Chapter 1: A Visit from the Witch Doctor
A secret invasion of Equestria by Zebrana has been planned. Zebras are in need of something to satisfy their cultural fetishization of obesity. They discover a potion that can magically and permanently multiply fat production, but it only works on ponies. So what’s a zebra king with a declining harem size to do? Well invade Equestria and turn every one of its pony residents into obese sex slaves to Zebrana.
They started by sneaking in food laced with a fat fetish potion, making any pony who eats it want to become fat, mixed with a zebradom potion, making those ponies more and more submissive to and turned on by zebras. Then those ponies would want to get fat quickly, causing their zebra friends to sell them the fat production potion. After a while, the zebras were able to convert several villages, then the zebras would use magic-storing crystals to suck the magic out of the unicorns they captured and corrupted that magic to release the potion’s effects in the form of fast-spreading radiation that exploded from the crystals when they shattered. Once ponies caught on to their scheme, they used these bombs on unsuspecting towns and villages, causing the populace to quickly fatten and be corrupted before anypony could run away and reach any neighboring towns.
By this time, Celestia has taken notice and started to use military retaliation against the zebras, but with their new radiation bombs, they were able to convert more and more ponies faster than ever. However the ponies still stood a chance. By evacuating more and more western cities before the zebras could reach them, the ponies could at least delay them until a decent army could be built up. It seemed like Equestria still had a chance until Zecora came to the Castle of Friendship with a special gift hidden in her bag.
The day was pretty nice in Ponyville and the castle was pretty peaceful. Starlight and Trixie were practicing magic in the throne room while Twilight watched in amused delight at Trixie’s various errors. Spike was in the kitchen, washing dishes from the Ukelele Appreciation Day Party that Pinkie threw in the castle last night, while hoping that her invite to the Post-Ukelele Appreciation Day Party was just a joke.
Zecora was on her way to the castle with her present resting in her saddlebag. The ponies she passed murmured, glancing at her in fear and curiosity. Her home country was at war with Equestria after all and being the only zebra meant that rumors spread fast. Fortunately, Twilight had assured the townsponies that her being a zebra did not mean she was on the side of Zebrana. It hadn’t completely solved everything, but ponies were at least not hiding away from her. The newfound discovery of zebra culture’s fat fetishism has even got a few chunkier stallions to ask her out, which has made her love life at least active. However, if the ponies knew just what Zecora was planning, they’d probably be trying to evacuate the town, instead of just murmuring.
She trotted up to the castle and politely knocked. As expected, Spike answered the door. “Oh hey there Zecora. Not often we see you here. I mean, it seems like we’re always the one coming to you, not vice versa.”
The striped mare giggled under her breath with a hearty smile. A small part of her was starting to regret what she was about to do. “That seems to always be true, but that’s because I am now the one who needs you. Is Twilight here for the day? Or has she left with her friends to play?”
“Oh yea. Twilight’s in the throne room with Starlight and Trixie.” He then leads her inside and down the hall to the throne room. “She hasn’t been doing much the past couple days. I think the stress of the-“ he coughs to interrupt himself and spare Zecora’s feelings. “Well you know.”
The zebra’s mouth skewered down into a flatter, more serious, and sadder expression. “That is what I feared. I came to thank her by bringing her back some cheer.”
They finally reach the room where the three mares are doing their things. Trixie was struggling with an animate object levitation spell. Starlight and Twilight then looked to Zecora and said their happy greetings with the princess speaking first. “Oh Zecora. What a pleasant surprise. It’s so weird to see you come to me.”
Starlight then joins in. “Yea. I barely ever see you at all.” She gave a smile to the striped mare, though a pretty casual one. She didn’t know her very well. She only knew that she was a potion maker and that the recent run-ins with Zebrana have been getting to her.
The witch doctor smiled back. “Well, I come to you today, because I have something important to say.” Her smile then gets replaced with a sneer as she quickly kicks Spike away and grabs the two crystals from her bag, both notably smaller than the ones the main zebra army has used. She then shouts “Down with Equestria. Long live Zebrana” before throwing them down, shattering them instantly. At this point, she just had to wait for the crystals to take effect.
One crystal was simply a dragon sleeping spell, which caused Spike to instantly black out once he recovered from the zebra kick. The other was the normal bomb, except that this one was meant to only spread within the castle and the effects were given accelerated rates of corruption. This caused the normal spell to take effect in just one minute instead of about an hour like regular spell bombs.
The three ponies then started to rapidly fatten up. Trixie was the first to succumb to the mental effects as she started to admire her new obesity and refer to Zecora as “Mistress” within seconds. Twilight takes a bit longer, resisting for just over a minute. Starlight was at least able to last a full two minutes. Zecora wonders if using the standard bomb on Ponyville would have failed given that this means Starlight could have had enough time to escape within two hours. She drops that thought though as she beams triumphantly at what she’s done.
Half an hour has passed and very fortunately, no other ponies have been trying to enter the castle. Zecora has Twilight and Starlight hard at work writing down any military or government secrets they know and gathering any books that might have more such secrets. Trixie is simply eating her pussy while she watches her slaves work. Seeing this newfound hope for a solution to Zebrana’s dilemma puts a smile across her face. Any idea that this might not be worth it faded away. She considered that may be a side effect of the spell on zebras, but she doesn’t concern herself with that for now.
Soon the two mares have finished their work. Zecora considers rewarding them, but she doesn’t have much time before Spike wakes up. So she just gives the mares an alibi to tell anypony who finds them once she leaves. She shoos Trixie off her and packs all of the books and scrolls she can into her bag before dashing out of the castle. She finds one of the other Elements of Harmony, Applejack, along the way and uses this chance to further establish her alibi. “I’m afraid something wrong happened to your friend. Through the mail, a crystal was sent. I’m going to my hut to find a cure. Get your friends and go to her castle to keep her secure.” She then dashed off again before the orange pony could respond. The last line poorly rhymed, but she had to hurry and get these into her hut.
She finally reached it and quickly set her bags down. The cauldron had a teleportation spell fired up. Simply it was a potion that if dove into, would cause her to come out of another designated cauldron of it. She simply placed every scroll and book into it before jumping in after. The potion stayed active for a bit before turning black. There was no way anypony could reach her now and there’s no way she could go back. Ponykind had been standing on the edge, but it’s been pushed over by the witch doctor and now it can only fall.
Applejack and the other elements rushed into the castle. The radiation had died down, but that didn’t mean its victims transformed back. Starlight and Trixie were making out with each other as they sat on Twilight’s face and crotch respectively. They didn’t even notice the other ponies or even remembered what they were told by their mistress to do. The Elements were of course freaked and grossed out. “What in gosh darn Celestia is goin on here?” Applejack exclaimed.
Spike had woken up by this point. Hearing AJ’s countryisms from within the throne room where he had been searching for a solution with no luck, he rushed out to the entrance to greet them. “There you guys are. Zecora came by and dropped one of those crystal bombs. I was knocked out and when I woke up, these three were doing whatever this is.”
Applejack’s jaw dropped in surprise. She didn’t even consider that Zecora might have been lying. Even if she was a zebra, she never thought she’d do this. “That niblet. But she told me that one of those bombs came in the mail.”
Rainbow Dash butted in. “She probably lied so that you wouldn’t go after her.”
“She ran into the Everfree Forest. Probably to her hut. Let’s go y’all.” The remaining Elements and Spike took off for Everfree, but by the time they reached its edge, Zecora was already gone.
The witch doctor climbed up the cauldron as she quickly got out and tipped it over to close the portal. She then looked around in delight. It was in some sort of gazebo, but definitely one in a pony town. Seated on a makeshift throne, a zebra stallion sat above her. She smiled up at him. She giggled a bit when she recognized him.
“Asendlé? You’ve really changed since I left. I certainly was not expecting you to be in the military, much less a general.” She quipped, dropping her fake rhyming thing.
“Well I guess I have gotten a new look.” He responded. He was dressed in a loincloth and the standard set of necklaces for generals, decorated with the teeth of various animals. He also wore a red bandana and an eyepatch that was most likely fake. His voice was much too high and feminine for his appearance, but he was still just as ripped as she remembered.
“If I’m going to be honest, it doesn’t fit you. No offense, but you were more intimidating as the academy drag queen.”
“Yea I know, but my higher-ups won’t let me wear anything except this gaudy uniform. I tried to spruce it up, give me like this ‘Rough Daddy’ look, but I really can’t pull it off. Still, the ponefags love it, but that’s probably ‘cause they have to.”
Zecora laughed a little, always amused by her old roommate’s banter. “Speaking of, your commander did inform you of my reward right?”
Asendlé nodded and put his serious face back on. “That’s right. The king is ready for your new accommodations.”
Zecora then grinned again and simply said “Good. I can’t wait.”
After the sudden corruption of Twilight, Celestia guessed that secret information was extracted from her and given to the zebras. She knew that some books were missing from the castle’s library, but due to Twilight’s habit of reorganizing her shelves all the time, Spike couldn’t which books were missing. She upped her security as best she could and tried moving sensitive information into more secure locations. However, now this meant that Elements of Harmony couldn’t be used due to Twilight’s corruption. All she could do was put the three mares in a dungeon and hope for victory.
Celestia and Luna were going to move to a secret location along with the Crystal Royal Family in Eastern Equestria. None of them wanted to leave their subjects like this, but they had to at least keep themselves from being captured as long as possible. However, this meant that Celestia would have to dish out orders from afar. No one was happy about it. The day before their secret departure, Luna couldn’t even sleep and just stared out the window.
Celestia approached her from behind so as not to disturb the moment. She was about to say words of encouragement, but her sister went first. “‘This isn’t the end. We’ve been so much closer to so much worse. Things always work out. It’ll be better. We’ll learn from our mistakes and come out stronger, but Equestria will not fall.’
“‘But half of Equestria has already fallen.’
“‘And we will get it back. It’s time that we finally solve a crisis on our own without relying on the Elements or Discord or Starlight. Equestria itself can finally do something to ensure its own survival. So just try not to worry, because we won’t fall.’
“Is that how you want this exchange to go? Do you think I’m still that naïve, jealous sister who lashed out in childish rage? Do you think I don’t see so many stripes in Equestrian dreams, if I can even call them dreams and not circadian propaganda? Do you think I don’t wonder if this is how hopeless you felt when you had to rule for a millennium without me? I’m not stupid, but I’ve never had so many questions in my whole life.”
The moon princess began to tear up, but was caught off guard when her sister began to laugh. A very genuine laugh. A long and hearty one. A laugh she’s never heard in that voice, at least not since the glory days before her banishment. It left her dumbfounded, but it did at least end after a while and her sister spoke, still with a little bit of that laughter left in her. “Oh Luna. I’m so sorry to do that, but I’ve never been so amused. You don’t have more questions. You have fewer answers. You have less experience. I have less experience. We’ve never been at war. We’ve been duped so greatly that we can’t use any magic maguffins or rely on any luck. We have to fight an enemy with warfare. Real warfare. We have to finally do what our neighbors and allies have done for eons. We’re both so unprepared, but we have to try and fight. Even if the odds of winning are none, we need to fight until the very end. Because if we do lose and the Zebra King makes good on his promise to make us his harem mares, we will still have that contentment in our hearts that we didn’t give up.”
Luna was tearing up even more and warmly embraced her sister, laughing like she did, though not as hard but still with as much heart as her. That night, they left under moonlight and to the east. Cadence, Shining Armor, and Flurry Heart eventually caught up and rode in their unmarked carriage. Celestia stayed up all night to look at the stars as Luna rested for that one night. As the sun princess looked up, all she could think of was how beautiful the night sky was. “Is this why you wished ponies didn’t sleep through the night?”
Things did start to look much more bleak once the princesses went into hiding. Once Canterlot was taken, public morale was lost. Towns just started surrendering once the zebra army was within seeing distance. When Ponyville was captured, Rainbow Dash was the only element who escaped, but she was soon caught in Cloudsdale anyways. Eventually, the royal hiding spot was found and the last of the Equestrian rulers were captured, though as promised, they fought vigorously and their corruption took a full 24 agonizing hours to fall under the effects. When Discord found out, the princesses were forced to cast a reformation spell on him. It didn’t work as well as they hoped. It did make him not as hostile towards the zebras, but even that still required an agreement that Fluttershy would still have to show up for their tea parties.
After all of that, the Elements, the former Equestrian royalty, and Starlight were all made into harem slaves of King Kuhle. All obese and eager to serve him. This brings us to Zecora’s reward for setting up the defeat of one of the largest countries on the globe, but that’s a story for another time.
