Decoy

“This is a mistake,” said its case worker. The pegasus had informed it of the ‘extra shift’ (although it was replacing a normal day’s work, this time) and brought it to the airfield, but hadn’t been invited along on the trip this time.

“Don’t worry,” said the stallion holding Decoy’s leash. This was an actual leash, attached to a harness, made of magically unbreakable material. It was supposedly for Decoy’s protection – taking it to a party in Kludgetown was a risk, but there were few other volunteers and it had been specifically requested by the Very Important Creature who supposedly had a thing for changelings.

Decoy could have easily shapeshifted out of it, of course, but it had been ordered not to. For its own protection.

The few other volunteers were already on board, as was most of the company’s delegation. Only Decoy, his erstwhile handler, and some security guards were still waiting to board.

The stallion shook the leash. “Besides the protective harness, we’ve got three different tracking spells on her. She’s not going anywhere.”

“If they do try something, am I allowed to fight back?” Decoy asked. “I know the normal rule is not to disobey or harm the customers.”

“Yeah… don’t fight back,” the stallion said. “Leave any fighting to our security squad. They’re trained, equipped, and insured.”

“I am not signing off on this,” the pegasus said. “This is your idea; you can take the blame when it all goes wrong.”

The stallion smirked. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure any credit or blame is distributed appropriately.”

After they boarded the airship, Decoy sat next to its handler in their private cabin. There was a window, but nothing to see out of it yet that it hadn’t seen a hundred times.

“This does seem reckless,” it said. “Even ignoring my own situation, travelling to Kludgetown is always a risk. There are no laws. All of you could die, or worse.”

“They make too much money off of us to fuck with us like that,” the stallion said. “Speaking of fucking, it’s a long fucking trip. Why don’t you practice your oral?”

“Is that allowed?” Decoy asked.

“Fuck if I know,” the stallion said, shifting to lie on his side and expose himself. “If you’re worried about the terms of your contract, don’t be. I’m high enough up to make exceptions to the rules.”

“Okay,” Decoy said, slipping to the floor to get into position. It always enjoyed sucking cock.

Decoy licked at the stallion’s tip a few times, then slithered its long changeling tongue out to wrap around it and squeeze. He grunted, and quickly grew fully erect. Decoy glanced over at the stallion, who reached down to pet its head with his hoof. It opened its mouth wide, showing off dozens of needle-sharp teeth… then closed its mouth around the stallion’s cock without letting any of them touch it.

It cheated. They were retractable. But the stallion didn’t need to know that. Oral sex was more fun when Decoy had control, and the notion that a wrong move could mean a penis full of needle-teeth kept him from trying anything. From how fast the stallion climaxed, it seemed that leaving the changeling in control might have been more fun for him as well.

===

All too soon the sunlight dimmed, as they entered the Kludgetown smog cloud. Decoy was relieved, since the stallion had had it playing with his cock for hours, and that was far too much of what had started out as a good thing. It pulled back, letting the semi-erect length slip from its throat to glisten in the open air, and hopped up onto its seat.

The stallion reached down with a hoof to rub at himself, as Decoy pulled back, but his stamina had run out long ago, and his penis shrunk back into his sheath.

“Do I pass?” Decoy asked.

“Fuck yeah,” the stallion said. “I almost wish I could keep you for myself.”

“If you can change the rules, I imagine you could assign me to pleasure you,” Decoy remarked.

“Yeah, but at that point I’m misusing company resources, and that would be hard to explain to my boss,” he said. “Do you need to clean up?”

Decoy licked around the inside of its mouth. It had been a while since the stallion had ejaculated, but still, “I could use some water.”

The stallion looked around the cabin, but there was nothing. “They’ll have refreshments at the party,” he said. “Come on.”

They met up with the rest of the delegation in the lounge, waiting to disembark. Everypony but Decoy was dressed in expensive suits or dresses, extremely slutty ones in the case of the other volunteers. Decoy didn’t recognize anypony, and its own dress being nothing but a magical harness didn’t exactly put it at ease. “Am I playing a slave?” it asked. “For the purpose of this activity.”

“More of a pet,” said one of the businessmares.

“Try not to talk,” said the stallion holding the leash. “If you could make weird bug noises, that would be a plus.”

Decoy unfolded its elytra, and rubbed them against each other, making an ear-piercing chirp.

“Okay, maybe not that sort of bug noise,” the stallion said, rubbing his ear.

Eventually the door opened, and the stench of thousands of unwashed carnivores – and their food – rolled over the party. Decoy was expecting it and had muted its sense of smell in preparation. The others tried to hide their reaction, but most of them made a nasty face, at the very least.

“Ah, my pony friends!” said a grinning mole… thing, waiting at the bottom of the ramp. “Welcome to Kludgetown! I’m so happy you accepted my invitation!”

“We wouldn’t dream of refusing, Verko,” said the mare who seemed to be in charge of the expedition. “We know how important your support is.”

“And you brought it!” the mole said, turning its tinted goggles to focus on Decoy. “The changeling I’ve heard so much about! I hear it can do a Maulwurf?”

Decoy nodded.

“Well, show me!”

Decoy glanced at the harness. “I –”

“We’re keeping her restrained for her own protection, for the moment,” the stallion said, smiling. “Once we’re in private, we can set her loose, and then she can turn into anything you want.”

“But first, I believe we have business to discuss?” the mare asked.

“Of course, of course, business before…” he leaned close to Decoy, and leered, broken, rotting teeth on full display, “…pleasure.” He waved to a pair of parrots, “Show them to the playroom, girls. The adults have things to discuss.”
While the higher-ups followed the mole creature, the parrots led Decoy, his stallion, and the volunteers in another direction. They took an open doorway from the rickety landing platform, which led them into a somehow even less safe-looking hallway.

“Why are you dealing with slavers?” Decoy asked the stallion. It recognized the mole from the bad old days, although it seemed like the mole hadn’t recognized it. This wasn’t surprising, since not only did it look very different from its old, cursed form, but it had always dealt with Kludgetown business in disguise.

“Everypony here is involved in the slave trade in one way or another,” the stallion said, dismissively. “We’re not buying slaves from him, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I’m more worried about selling.”

The stallion laughed. “Well, we’re not selling you. Half the office heard Charity spouting off how much you’re worth.”

It didn’t take long for the parrots to lead them to a fancy, if still somewhat filthy chamber – a private bar, the walls adorned with pelts and bones and horns. The only staff present was a grungy old pegasus bartender, with maybe a dozen remaining feathers between both his wings.

The stallion led Decoy up to the bar, and the changeling obediently hopped up onto a stool, that felt like it was made of real leather. The bartender stared at it, then at the stallion, raising one eyebrow.

“She worked up a thirst on the way over,” the stallion said. “Got anything good for changelings?”

The bartender nodded, and slowly reached under the bar, filling a glass with a glowing blue liquid. Decoy couldn’t stop itself from turning to focus on it – the scent of liquid love cut through the general squalor. “Where did you get that?” it asked.

The bartender didn’t answer, simply pushing it over in front of Decoy with a hoof.

“Drink up,” the stallion said expectantly.

Decoy flicked out its tongue to get a taste, just a taste, and then guzzled down the rest quickly, both hooves holding the glass up as it poured it down its throat, and licked at the last dregs until the glass was clean.

The magical poison mixed in with the drink had disabled its shapeshifting before it was halfway done, but that was fine. It had done all the shifting it would need before they’d put the harness on it, figuring that would be the trap that disabled its shifting. The dragon’s warning that ‘they knew what it could do’ didn’t have a lot of ways to be interpreted. Since the harness had been mostly inert, it had spent the flight over quietly adding a few new tricks while it sucked the stallion’s cock. It wasn’t sure there was room to shapeshift any more contingencies, at least not without being obvious.

And no changeling could turn down a drink like that, even now, years after the end of the hunger. “More,” it croaked, staring forlorn at the empty glass.

The bartender laughed. The stallion laughed too, and it wasn’t a nice laugh. He yanked on the leash and dragged decoy back behind the bar and into a back room.

“Hey, what’s going on?” asked one of the volunteers.

“Mind your own business,” snapped the stallion, shutting the door and leaving them alone in a large, dark room with stacks of broken chairs and a dusty pool table.

No, not alone. There were ponies in there with them… and a landshark, and a dragon.

“We locked her into this form,” the stallion said, then lit his horn and a spell snapped into place against the walls. “And we’re soundproofed.” He tied off the leash to one leg of the pool table. “She’s all yours.”

“Idiot,” the dragon hissed, scowling at it.

“Yeah, things are going to go differently this time,” the landshark said, swaggering over towards Decoy, pounding a fist into his other hand. “This time –”

Decoy bit him. The venom dropped him as quickly as it had the time before. It hopped up onto his body, hissed dramatically, spread its wings, and made some of the ear-piercing chirps that the stallion had asked it not to.

“Yeah, I’m not going anywhere near that,” the dragon said, backing away.

The lurking ponies seemed like they might be inclined to react in the same way, until a unicorn with a cracked horn stepped forwards. “We’re never going to get a better chance,” she said, horn sparking as she lifted an axe off the floor, and clenched it in her teeth. “I’ can’ ge’ all of uth!”

Decoy planted a hoof in her chest as she charged, and a spring-loaded spike shattered her sternum. It dodged back before her wild swing could take off its ear, them stomped on the floor to snap the spike back into place. Two ponies circled around behind it, leaping on it and grabbing for its hindlegs, so it buzzed its wings and sprayed them with poison dust, quickly knocking them unconscious.

…but they didn’t let go, and while the unicorn with a shattered sternum was out of the fight, there was another pony right behind her to pick up the axe. “Do you even remember how many of us you sold?” asked one of the others, still hanging back. “And they just let you walk? Because you said you were ‘sorry’?”

Decoy squirmed, but the particular poison it had used on its wings had apparently locked their muscles into a death grip on its hindquarters, and it could barely move. “Actually, I was sentenced to a pony lifetime of indenture, because I refused to apologize,” it explained, although it knew it would be useless.

“Were you now,” the pony in the back asked. “And do your new masters beat you every day? Work you until you drop, then whip you until you get back up or die because you can’t?”

“No, your grudge is legitimate,” Decoy admitted.

“Then die!” screamed the pony who’d picked up the axe, swinging as wildly as the unicorn before her. Decoy tried to use the same trick, but the pony was expecting that and brought the axe down on its outstretched limb, crushing the chitin and dislodging the spring from its track – Decoy screamed as its hoof exploded, shards flying everywhere, and collapsed in pain.

“No more tricks!” said the pony, bringing the axe down on its neck. It had reinforced its armor over vulnerable areas, but the force of the blow dropped it to the ground, and with only one free leg it wasn’t able to get back to its feet before the next blow, or the next. Eventually, something cracked, and the axe blade sank into it with a spray of blood.

Acid blood, of course, but blinding the pony holding the axe would have been cold comfort even if it had been in any state to notice. Instead, all it could do was writhe in agony and flop like a fish until the axe finally severed its spine, and it lay still… after half a dozen compartments opened randomly from various parts of its body. A shower of spines flew out from its side to embed themselves in the ceiling, puffs of various poisonous pollens emerged from its bodily orifices, and its belly plate split along hidden seams to disgorge several limp, spiky tentacles. Without a mind directing it, none of this accomplished anything.

The pony didn’t stop chopping until its head was completely severed. Then she collapsed, the flesh melting from her face and chest as the acid that now completely coated her front half continued to eat into her. The pony in the back ignored her plight, grabbing decoy’s head with her hooves and holding it up, triumphantly... careful not to let it drip on her. “The monster is dead!”

The remaining ponies cheered.

“Let’s go tell the others that their pain can finally heal!” There were more cheers, and the ponies dumped the head in a sack and headed for a back entrance. “You. Dragon.”

“I have a name,” the dragon hissed.

“I don’t care. You did nothing, so I’ll call you useless.”

“One more word and I’ll show you useless,” she growled, smoke drifting from her maw.

“Just get rid of the damn bodies,” the pony said. “Make sure nothing’s left. NOTHING. Especially of the changeling. Burn it to ash.” He paused. “You can eat the others.”

“Whatever,” the dragon said. She headed over and started slinging pony bodies over her shoulders. There were only two dead – the ones it had poisoned were still alive and breathing, so she left them in a pile with her boss, slung the acid-dripping changeling corpse over her other shoulder, and headed for the fire pit.

“Dragons don’t eat ponies,” she grumbled, slinging the corpses into the pile of bones and ash. “We eat gems. Fish. Pancakes.” She took a deep breath, and a torrent of fire washed over the bloody mess.

Once the ponies were down to charred bones, she focused on the changeling. It really didn’t want to burn – the chitin had a layer of fireproof rock. She cracked it open and breathed her fire directly into its body cavity, hollowing it out until nothing was left but the shell. She gingerly took a small bite – then spat it out and tried to wipe off her tongue to get rid of the taste. No, she was not eating that.

She watched the shell suspiciously. “You’re still alive, aren’t you.”

The small pile of crumbling rocky plates didn’t respond.

“Say something, or I’m smashing you into little bits.”

The vaguely changeling-shaped, hollowed out charred mass failed to react in any way.

So she went over and stomped on it until it wasn’t recognizable against the other debris, then turned to walk away, flinging the remaining bits onto the bone pile with a sweep of her tail. “Such a waste.”

===

Once the poison finally wore off, Decoy stayed still. The small, dense pebble that represented its ‘real’ body was buried in the crushed remains of its left rear hoof, and between the beheading and the incineration its link to the changeling-shaped puppet body it had been driving around was thoroughly severed. It had cut the link itself as soon as it realized its head was off – no sense suffering any more pain than it needed to to keep up the charade – but at this point there was nothing left to reconnect, which meant it was running blind.

Sound was an easy sense to add, without changing anything visible. Hearing nothing, it slowly extended a tendril through the cracks and gaps until a miniscule eye could look around. There was no sign of any creature watching it.

An ash-colored beetle crawled to the edge of the pit, then spread its wings and flew off into the desert. It was a long way to the Badlands, and it wasn’t looking forwards to the flight… but at least it would take less than a hundred years.