The Band of Loyalty

The next four days passed almost according to plan. There was a spanner in amongst the gears, but King was working around it as best he could. He had to do all of his own roaming since Rainbow was unable to. Now he was waiting at the station for Sir and Scootaloo to arrive.

He didn't have long to wait. The next train came right on schedule, and Scootaloo stepped off with two dozen adoring slaves trailing behind her. Among them were slaves from Ponyville and Cloudsdale, meaning Sir had definitely had some spare time beyond taking the Wonderbolts. "Rainbow?"

King shook his head. "She is unable to come out to see you right now. It's just King."

Scootaloo's eyes widened and her ears flopped back. "You can't mean..."

"She's gone, Scootaloo."

As her body began to tremble, Sir took over. "What happened?"

As they walked back to the palace, King explained what he'd been doing for the entire week. It started with his arrival, and ended with the broken contract with the changelings. Scootaloo was being kept quiet, which gave her time to consider everything King had said. When all was said, King stepped back, and Sir let Scootaloo up.

She took a deep breath. "You need to be stabilized. On the bed, now."

King sat down. "Are you sure? If I lock myself into her, she could be lost forever."

Scootaloo pushed him down as a collection of unicorns came in. "If you don't, she will be. I would rather have her barely alive than completely dead, now hold still!"

Scootaloo pinned King down as the unicorns anchored their King to his host. She knew this would probably be bad for all of Equestria, especially with the plans she'd made with Sir, but she didn't care. She needed Rainbow in her life, and she'd do everything in her power to keep her. Especially since Rainbow hadn't gone on her own. She'd been taken against her will.

Then came something that wasn't part of the ritual. Scootaloo had grabbed King by the dick and had shoved it up inside of her. She knew what she was doing, and she knew how dangerous it was. She didn't care. This wasn't for her sake, it was for Rainbow.

Scootaloo found herself floating in the void alongside everypony King had taken over. She'd landed next to Chrysalis, as she'd expected. "Well, well. It seems King was lying when he said there was no need to take you," chuckled the changeling queen, twisting her prison to taunt the new arrival. "Although, I must say, it's no surprise that he betrayed you. That's just how it goes when you throw in your cards with demons."

Scootaloo said nothing, twisting and warping her body until she could fit her thighs around her hands. Countless ponies around her were shouting, begging for help from anypony who could. A moment ago, she might have been able to do something, but being here right now meant that she couldn't, and likely would be unable to for quite some time. Either way, she was going to ignore them for now. She had to fix this mess.

With all of her studying, she had found what was needed to move around inside of an incubus' dimension, and was ready to apply it. However, it was one thing to know a subject in theory, and another entirely to perform it in practice. What she thought would be a quick release took much longer than she was anticipating. Still, as her hands came free, she dropped down so that she was hanging by her ankles. There was no floor in this realm anymore, and there hadn't been for awhile. If there had been, the ponies would be at least ankle-deep in spunk. Instead, the enslaved were held up by their bonds; hands above, feet below.

With a bit of swinging, Scootaloo scooted slowly toward where Rainbow was being held. She was covered head to toe in the webbing, which kept her from doing pretty much anything. Too long in that bondage, and she would start to disappear entirely. Scoots had to at least free her partially. King couldn't do it himself, he was completely trapped on the outside now, as was Sir. She would just have to wait for King's influence to wear off. She had no idea how long that would take, but it looked like it would take a long time. Years, at least. Mayhaps even a decade.

Scootaloo climbed up Rainbow's webbing and began to claw at it. She had to at least open up her face; that would be the best starting point for keeping Rainbow from disappearing and turning into nothingness. Four days had passed already, and no host had been able to stay stable under this condition for more than a week.

Hours passed as Scootaloo tore through the webbing. She missed he mark originally, and found herself at Rainbow's shoulder. Still, she was down to the skin level, and that was going to make it a lot easier. The webbing was coming off in chunks now, and by the time she reached Rainbow's face, the once proud pegasus looked haggard and worn down. She was in such poor condition that Scootaloo barely recognized her.

Throwing her arms around Rainbow's shoulders, she began to weep. A good many of her tears were of sorrow, as Rainbow had been through so much pain, and more was likely to come. Some were filled with anger; she cursed herself for being unable to protect the pony that mattered most to her, she cursed Chrysalis for betraying her, and she cursed King for taking over Rainbow's body. And yet, the greatest number of tears were shed with joy. Rainbow had lasted this long, perhaps she would be alright in the end. Perhaps the two of them would make their way back to the normal world together, and be able to rebuild Equestria, if it even needed rebuilding. With Rainbow by her side, Scootaloo could do anything.

These thoughts became less prevalent as more of the webbing came off and more of Rainbow was exposed. Her entire right leg, as well as her left below the knee, were gone. They'd already left existence. Following that, there was only half of her right wing and a few feathers from her left were missing, as well. Scootaloo was going to leave her wrist bindings intact, to keep her from falling into the void below, but Rainbow was missing her left hand. It had already been consumed.

Other than that, Rainbow was safe. As long as King continued to eat pony food, Rainbow would regain her vigor. Her missing appendages would never grow back, and if she ever took over her body again, she would not have control over those body parts. King would have to operate them for her.

Still, that was a long time from now. For the moment, they were together. They had each other. That was enough for Scootaloo, and for now, it was the only comfort Rainbow had.