The Baying Moon

Chapters

Chapter 1: Journey to the Center of the Equestria
Chapter 2: In the Doghouse
Chapter 3: A Simple Case of Mistaken Identity
Chapter 4: Deeper
Chapter 5: Carrot and the Stick
Chapter 6: The Feast
Chapter 7: Belladonna
Chapter 8: Reading the Fine Print
Chapter 9: Sole Love
Chapter 10: A Dance with the Devil
Chapter 11: The Setting of the Moon
Chapter 12: Tomorrow
Chapter 13: Confessions of a Book Horse
Epilogue

Chapter 1: Journey to the Center of the Equestria

Red sneakers shuffled across the dark barren stretch of dirt with awkward steps. Moondancer stole a glance upwards past the towering heap of equipment in her arms. Stones jutted out high on both sides of the path, their omnipresence interrupted by the occasional tree or two. Above them all hung Luna’s moon in a cloudless sky. Moondancer bit her lip and calculated it had risen at least 15 degrees since the train dropped her off. At its current rate the moon would reach its zenith in less than half an hour. She quickened her shambling pace.

Although the altitude and observatories provided by Canterlot Mountain were unbeatable, the city’s nightlife would be detrimental to her research. Moondancer grumbled remembering the seven previous times her stargazing had been spoiled by pegasi hovering in her field of view, fireworks from any number of celebrations or parties blinding her, or foul weather being scheduled on a crucial night even though she had submitted the proper forms in duplicate weeks in advance requesting clear skies and--

Moondancer’s foot slipped.

She yelped and threw her body in the opposite direction. Moondancer overcorrected and took a dozen frantic steps to regain her balance, but as she stabilized, the lantern on the top of her lofty pile rolled free. The lantern snapped back and forth in mid-air; Moondancer’s magic caught the handle. The fireflies inside whizzed around and glowed from the jarring motion.

Moondancer sighed in relief. “That was a close one--"

The top half of her mountain of supplies tumbled down around her feet. Moondancer winced. She judged the weight still left in her arms she dared to open her eyes. Her telescope was safe and unscathed.

“Somebody up there likes me.” Moondancer smiled. She scouted her surroundings. “As good a spot as any.” She shrugged her shoulders and placed her telescope down.

Moondancer rubbed the soreness out of her arms and examined what caused her to trip. It was a massive hole wider than a pony and too deep to gauge the depth of. On the exact edge of it was a sunken shoeprint from one of her high-tops. She mouthed a silent ‘thank you’ to the Princesses that her foot hadn’t crossed that event horizon.

Moondancer cocked an eyebrow. There weren’t any mounds of dirt anywhere near the volume of the hole around it. If something had burrowed its way down then there’d have to be displaced earth around it. What creature would dig a massive hole and take the dirt? This didn’t make sense, unless, the hole formed from the bottom up. Moondancer beamed in the moonlight. Had she discovered an underground geyser? She kicked a rock into the hole and listened for a splash, instead she heard a solid thump echo back up. Disappointed she ran through all the information she’d studied about sinkholes a couple years ago when she went through her… phase.

Moondancer let her hair down from its updo and shook her head wiping away her frown. She wasn’t that depressed pony anymore. She’d made amends with Twilight, she had friends again, and she’d even joined a bowling league! She moved her equipment a safe distance away from the hole. Out of one of her bags she pulled a small device that had a microphone attached. She pressed a red button on the top and reels inside rotated.

“Outskirts Stargazing Log Entry Number 4: Be wary of sinkholes in the vicinity.” Moondancer pressed another button and the red one popped back up.

Meanwhile, a large clawed hand reached around the trunk of a tree. A lime-green eye with a slit pupil that glowed in the moonlight followed. It sized up the mare scurrying around and setting up the junk she’d brought. Silver fangs gleamed in a rictus grin as the poacher hid back behind the tree.

* * *

Moondancer sat on her blanket and took a slip of coffee from her thermos. The night was warm but she hugged herself anyway and sighed blissfully into her cozy sweater. She shook her lantern re-exciting her light source and leafed through one of the half dozen books in front of her.

“Outskirts Stargazing Log Entry Number 5: Location selection has been a complete success. The weather is clear and the stars are out tonight. It’s beautiful.” She tied her hair back up with her pink beaded hair tie, lifted her glasses, and pressed her face against her telescope’s eyepiece. “The Horsehead Nebula looks sharp even though my portable telescope and I have everything I need to document the transit of the Moon across it tonight. Hopefully I can determine the identity of the space oddity I noted their last night.” Moondancer readjusted her glasses and stopped her recording. “Maybe they’ll name it after me!” She squeed and clapped her hands, even her tail swished in excitement.

Something scrapped behind her. Moondancer head snapped to the side to look behind her. She studied the dark environment but didn’t see anything unusual.

She picked up her microphone. “Note to self: Keep the fangirling down, I’m scaring the local fauna.” She joked without turning her recorder on.

“We’re not scared of you.”

“GAHH!” Moondancer leapt sideways. Her head spun and locked eyes with the source of the raspy voice. A bipedal canine-esque creature loomed above her. Trying not to panic Moondancer’s brain registered everything it could about the beast: It had grey fur, a protruding jaw with razor sharp teeth, disproportionate large forearms with matching large clawed paws, and a mace like tail. It wore a bejeweled collar, sleeveless vest, and ripped shorts.

“Oh, umm, Hi there...” Moondancer all but whispered as she scooted backwards, not risking taking her eyes off of it. “Sorry if I disturbed you, I didn’t know anycreature else was out here.”

“It’s okay.” The dog stalked forward and reached its arms out. “You’re just the pony we were looking for, Princess.”

“Princess?” Moondancer repeated. “I’m not a prin--”

A paw shot out of the ground like a zombie and grabbed Moondancer’s ankle.

“AHHHHHH!” Moondancer screamed loud enough to curdle blood. She kicked at the light brown paw with her other foot but it held tight. The creature’s head popped up from the earth and sneered at her.

“We’ve got you now--”

Moondancer kicked it in its face three times before it let go crying in pain. He was another one of those dog-things, although much smaller than the first.

“Oww! She kicked me!” The smaller dog wailed and rubbed his nose.

Moondancer bolted up, crashed into a third one, and feel back down on her ass. This one was the biggest yet, his claws twice the size of the first’s. He grabbed Moondancer by her shoulders and effortlessly lifted her up to his eye level. Her feet dangled above the ground. Up close she could tell his fur was a lighter grey and that he smelled like he’d never even read about a shower before.

“I’ve got her!” He announced to the others with a smirk.

Moondancer squeezed her eyes shut and her horn glowed with power. She disappeared from the dog’s grasp and reappeared a short distance away. She stumbled out of the air but hit the ground running.

“She can do that?” The mutt that lost her scratched his head.

“After her!” The first one shouted. All three dogs dove into the ground. Three trails of dirt took off after Moondancer.

“Everything’s alright. Everything’s alright.” Moondancer panted to herself running as fast as she could. Ponyville wasn’t too far away. She’d be safe there and then she could contact Twilight and the Royal Guard to rescue her books and telescope. She turned her head for a split second — no dogs, but didn’t risk slowing down.

Unfortunately, years of being an anti-social shut-in whose closest activities that resembled exercise routines were walking the few blocks to and from the public library and one memorable donut eating competition left Moondancer with very little stamina for physical exertions. Her lungs burned. She panted hard like an animal she refused to allow her brain to compare herself to right now. Her body slumped forward and begged her to stop and just read a book on exercise instead. She pushed on though.

Moondancer was proud of herself for that and she got to enjoy that feeling for an entire eight seconds before an enormous hole opened in front of her. No time to stop she dodged right. More earth fell down just a few steps ahead of her and she jumped over that hole and the claws that reached out of it. She hopped to a stop in front of dozens upon dozens more pitfalls. It was pocked marked with more holes than the legs in a swarm of changelings[1].

[1] Pre-reformation

‘This is insane! There weren’t any of these holes when I came down. How could they have dug all this so fast?’ Moondancer hiked her legs up and spun on the balls of her foot about face for a tactile retreat. Dirt fell away like quicksand behind her.

“Nowhere left to run little pony.” The first dog said as he climbed out.

“If I can’t run, then I’ll fight!” Moondancer horn glowed bright pink.

She psyched herself up, ‘Time to switch from defense position to attack mode!’

Wind swept around her body. “I’ll show you what a unicorn who’s read every self-defense text in the Canterlot Library is capabl--”

Moondancer swayed frozen in the air mouth agape. While she monologued the biggest dog had sprung up from behind her and reached his claws down the back of her khakis. He rocketed her underwear straight up and carried the geek wearing them into what felt like the stratosphere.

The dog bounced the nerdy mare a few times in the air, her mouth agape, wide-eyed, and hands cupped over her crotch from the massive wedgie. The dog let go and she fell face-first onto the dirt, her white women’s-style briefs[2] snapped back tight against her butt.

[2] Tighty whities

“Quick, she said we’d have to use this for the magic ones!” The lead dog scampered up to the stunned pony. He dug through the pocket full of gems on his vest, a few gems had fallen out but he paid them no mind. The dog pulled out a black ring with tiny jewels and etchings on it. He slipped the ring down Moondancer’s horn and twisted it tight, it locked in place.

“Now we’ll get all the gems!” The three dogs cheered in unison. The lead dog grabbed he shell-shocked Moondancer by her underwear again and dragged her down a hole. The two remaining mutts dove into other holes and dirt filled every one up.

Chapter 2: In the Doghouse

Moondancer awoke groggy and sore. Her arms and legs wouldn’t listen to her and her ass felt like it was on fire. She wiggled her butt to try and work out the issue but snapped her eyes open as the sting worsened. She was in a cave prison of some sort, the rusty barred door made that apparent. Along the walls hung pin-ups of female dogs showing off their bodies. Outside her cell was a statue of a regal dog with a lightning bolt craved down the right half of his face and a large snout held out a large carved diamond. Another dog basked over his legs. Both were atop a base engraved with the phrase Mine for Your Master.

Moondancer lifted her head from a soft headrest and looked down; she was in a weird cushioned stone seat. Her arms had been buckled onto padded armrest with a gap between them and her torso. Cuffs and straps ran tight over her upper-arms, past her elbows, and around her wrists. Her chest was held down by thick canvas belts that stretched from the chair and across her shoulders to a metal triangle that linked to a vertical strap that dug in-between her modest breast. That strap was fastened to another metal connector joined to a strap that wrapped horizontally around her whole chest under her breast. She couldn’t lean forward much and the back of that strap felt anchored to the middle of the seat. Moondancer blushed. Seeing her breast highlighted like this, especially while she was still in her sweater, was terribly awkward for her. Besides being snug and warm, it hid her breast from ogling freaks.

Her hips were tied down in a similar manner. One belt wound around her mid-section attached to the chair’s sides and was coupled to two straps that hugged her khakis and ran in-between her thighs and crotch. Moondancer’s cream cheeks blushed as red as her hair. She wiggled her body again, it caused another chafe. Her tail was hiked up against her back and her underwear was still up her butt from that sneak attack wedgie. She theorized from the constant pulling on them that her torso straps hand been fished though her briefs’ leg holes.

“Great,” sarcasm dripped from her voice, “kidnapped by a pack of pervs and comedians.”

Moondancer turned her attention to her last bit of her bondage. Her legs weren’t strapped down at all, but her ankles were hiked up level with her head and locked in thick wooden stocks with metal braces riveted on. They had a padded interior and were held together by an old brass padlock. The white rubber toe caps of her Converse peaked out over the top. Moondancer was able to wiggle her feet and knees a smidgen, but was otherwise stuck.

Most mares would panic or flip out at this point. Moondancer snorted in laughter. She was an ace magic student. She closed her eyes. Magic flowed from the core of her being, up her spine, and though her mind as she concentrated on standing outside the prison door. The magic flowed to her horn and… fizzled out. Moondancer’s eyes opened and darted side to side. She yanked her body against the chair and her underwear yanked back in retaliation. She chewed on her sweater.

“What the hay is going on?” She grumbled through wool. Her eyes darted to the spell’s point of failure and dilated. A cold bead of sweat ran down her forehead, a null ring. The runes on it shimmered. She wouldn’t be able to cast any magic with that around her horn. Moondancer flipped out.

“GAHHHHH!” She shouted at the top of her lungs. She thrashed against her bindings, wedgies be damned. Her arms moved nowhere and her fingers grasped at nothing. Her knees knocked together but her legs couldn’t kick with her feet trapped in the stocks. “Let me out of this thing! LET! ME! OU--”

“Quiet!” Whined a familiar nasally voice. The creature who’d first ambushed her stood in front of the cell door. Another dog she hadn’t seen before stepped into view too. ‘They keep getting bigger.’ Moondancer though. The brown behemoth wore a spiked helmet and a heavy chest plate with gemstones around the neckline. The guard put down their stone spear and fiddled with a key-ring. They grunted as he tugged the metal door open and closed it behind Moondancer’s kidnapper.

“Good morning girl.” The mutt said.

“Who are you!?”

“Rover, a Diamond Dog.” His claw tapped the null ring on Moondancer’s horn.

“I'm more of a cat pony. Wait… a Diamond Dog? I’ve read about your species in the encyclopedia, Enigmatic Entities of the Earth Vol. 1.” Moondancer launched into lecture mode.

“Diamond Dogs, of the genus Canis. They are most known for their hoarding of gemstones with equal fervor to dragons. Social status seems based on gem finding ability. They live and hunt in packs. Males and females have both been observed marking territory. Able to dig though solid rock and dirt with amazing easy and speed due to their massive forepaws, they are predominantly subterraneans who live in expansive self-excavated tunnel systems. Footnote: A small surface-level kingdom, Dimondia, has been documented recently on the outskirts of the Toomba Forest. The latest records indicted it was ruled by one ‘Her Highness, Lady of the Royal Order, Queen Trixianna the First’.”

“Huh…?” Rover tilted his head and looked at Moondancer’s mouth.

“In addition, at least one documented member of the species is noted as being incredibly dull-witted.” Moondancer spat. “I’ll have to read The Origin of the Diamond Dogs now too. It’s in the restricted section of Canterlot Castle’s library, but after this incident I think I’ll be able to write a convincing petition to the crown for access to that text.”

“You talk strange.” Rover concluded. “Captain was right; you are a nerd pony. Lucky for us, we don’t need you to talk, just laugh.”

It was Moondancer’s turn to stare at him perplexed. Rover’s paws squeezed the tops of Moondancer’s sneakers. He sniffed her shoes and traced a finger down the bottom of one of them. The sound of his claw running over the rubber treads boomed in her ears.

“Explain yourself! What captain? And if you think any of this is funny you’re dead wrong.”

Rover tugged on the end of one of her laces. He used his pointer claw to finish untying the knot. He repeated the process on her other shoe. He watched the loose laces wave back and forth. Moondancer tugged each foot as hard as she could but neither budged. Rover grabbed a hold of her shoes and eased each one off. Moondancer curled her toes inside her socks. Rover pinched each sock, snatched them off, and tossed them in the back corner.

“Eep!” Moondancer squeaked. Her toes flexed as cool air blew against her naked soles. Rover shoved his muzzle into the arch of her left foot and took several sniffs. His wet nose trailed up and down the length of her foot and followed by her right one too.

Moondancer’s heart pounded against her chest but a soft giggle escaped her lips. Rover grinned. His eyes glued to the null ring on his prisoner’s horn. It flickered with a glint of light.

“Good~” He drew out the word. His tongue slipped out of his mouth and dripped saliva. He grabbed Moondancer’s Converse and pulled the laces though the stocks’ lock and knotted them. They swayed back and forth. So close, yet tied down as she was, they may as well have been light-years away.

“Oh, you pretty things.” Rover flexed his claws. His digits strummed above Moondancer’s helpless toes. He plucked his pointer claws between each one. Moondancer jumped. She sucked in a breath and threw her head back. Her eyes bore into the ceiling. ‘This is bad! This is bad! But I just have to focus on--’

“Hee!” Moondancer let out a single airy titter and interrupted her own train of thought as Rover brushed his paw down her left foot. He waited for her eyes to meet his. He repeated the action on her other foot. His paw drifted down her sole at an agonizing pace. She flopped her feet back and forth but couldn’t shake him. His claws paused on her heel and wafted back up. They skated around the edge of her foot and he pressed harder when he reached her insoles. Moondancer huffed and tittered. Rover lowered both his paws and blew across both her feet. Her fingers and toes spread and balled back up, one foot twitched but she caught her breath.

Rover’s paws pounced on the balls of her feet. Jagged claws swiped in every direction. He dug into them like he’d find precious gems just under the surface. Moondancer hollered and barked in laughter. She thrashed harder than before but couldn’t get any leverage. She barely even felt her briefs tear into her ass as every other jolt made her wedgie herself more. Her folded toes tried to protect the balls of her feet but Rover slipped his claws in-between and spread them wide. The fur on his enormous digits stroked under them. It felt rough and scruffy. Each hair jabbed, pulled, and brushed the delicate nerves all around her toes.

“Ba-Ba-Bad D-dog! Badddd Dooog!” Moondancer squealed. “Heh, heh-heel. HEEL!”

“Okay Nerd Pony~” Rover smiled and raked his claws down Moondancer’s arches to her heels. The gnarled thorns at the ends of his paws twisted and yanked on their journey downwards. Moondancer wasn’t sure if her next scream was from the sensation that went through her arches or that this dog had outsmarted her via a pun. Regardless of which, she giggled and titter with no control over her laughter.

Rover fulfilled his prisoner’s unintended request and tormented her heels. His claws spun around them, swiped over them, and pinched them. He poked a claw into each and swirled them in place. Next he scratched at them like they had fleas. Moondancer could not stop her laughter. She had no idea feet could be this sensitive. ‘Why did none of the anatomy books I’ve read warn me about this? It’s not fair! Why do they have to be so ticklish!?’

“Pl-pleeeeeeeease stoooop!” She cried though her ceaseless giggles.

Rover clamped his left paw around the toes on her right foot. He was more than strong enough to stop her from moving it at all. His right paw abandoned her other foot. He ground the knuckle of his thumb into the center of her foot. His claws swiped at Moondancer’s instep. They glided from the top of her foot all the way and repeated the motion dozens of times.

Tears leaked down Moondancer’s cheeks. Her left foot turned and stretched in the direction of her sneakers. ‘If I get outta this I’m never taking my shoes off again.’ She thought with what little part of her mind wasn’t dedicated to processing the overflow of information uploaded straight into it from her poor feet.

The diabolical Diamond Dog dragged one claw down Moondancer’s arch. When he reached the end of it he paused and twisted it about-face tugging the skin around it and pulled it back up to the balls of her feet.

“ST-STOOOOHAAAP IIIIIT!” Moondancer shrieked. The mare tried to suck in a lungful of air but only swallowed down the minuscule amounts needed to keep her conscious between her bouts of laughter.

“Tickle-tickle~” Rover teased. His gaze shifted from Moondancer’s blushing red feet to the null ring. It seared with bright white light. He licked his lips and raised both his paws high and slashed down.

“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Light exploded out of Moondancer’s horn. She raised her bushy eyebrows to see what happened. The runes and jewels on the null ring burned hot white. Rover cackled and pistoned his claws up and down the entirety of her soles with even more vigor. The light engulfed the room in shimmering pink and faded away.

A small spot on the lower wall to her right glowed. The silhouettes of crystalline shapes were visible though the rock walls like an x-ray. Rover lunged at the spot and broke through the solid stone. Seconds later he pulled out fistfuls of gems and hugged them against his chest. Sapphires, emeralds, and rubies clattered to the floor in front of him. He held up a coin sized crystal to his eye; the titular stone to his species, a diamond. He kissed the gem a few times and slid it into his vest pocket. Rover scoped up the rest and walked to the cell door.

“Bring a cart! Captain told the truth. With the ring we’ll never have to hunt for the jewels again!”

The guard pulled a mine cart in front of the door a Rover dropped the gems inside it.

“Dogs! Look for other spots nearby before the magic fades.”

Three more guards dropped from the ceiling, and bolted off with the cart. The cell guard returned to their post.

“That was amazing! The null ring was able to cast a spell using my magic just from a sustained physical sensation. I’ve read theories about this kind of enchantment but I didn’t know anyone had actually figured out the spell matrices. Do you know how it works? Who gave this to you?” Moondancer bounced in her seat as much it would allow her.

Rover lulled his head back towards Moondancer with a lopsided grin.

The captive pony gulped and tugged at her restraints. “On second thought, I don’t need to know how it works right this second. You got your gems, so release me!”

Rover shook his head no and stalked towards her.

Moondancer’s feet flinched. “You don’t wanna hang out with lame old me. Wouldn’t it be fun to dig more of those up with those other dogs?”

“I dig everything. Dirt, rocks, pony feet...” Rover trailed off in front of her trapped toes. “And only one of them has ever been fun.” He shoved in nose back into her arches and sniffed deeply. A slick trail followed as he rubbed around them. He pulled back, flashed his claws, and struck. Moondancer squeezed her lips tight desperate not to laugh. It took less than three seconds for her to fail.

Chapter 3: A Simple Case of Mistaken Identity

Moondancer’s head whipped around like she was a wild mare, sweat flew off her brow. Rover had terrorized her feet for what felt like hours but in reality had been about one. Her screeching laughter had devolved into pathetic pants a while back. The third gem location spell of the day burst from her ringed horn. The area of the magical field swelled through the entire cell and further out of the caves then she could see from her plush chair.

Rover wiped his forehead with one paw the other switching between both her soles, giving neither a break.

Moondancer’s head smacked to the side and her glasses slid down her muzzle ready to fling off at any moment. Rover stopped his vicious victimization of her voluptuous feet and stood up beside her. Moondancer panted hard, desperate to catch her breath. She scrunched up her feet as hard as she could but was still haunted by a phantom tickling sensation. The glow from her horn ring faded out.

Moondancer breath was erratic. “Why me?” She devoured as much air as she could in the momentary break. “I’m, huff, sorry I trespassed, huff, in your territory.” She blathered out, her fiery temper quenched. Her naked eyes looked for any sort of mercy, but even if his face wasn’t blurred she knew there was none.

“We were hired to.”

“Who’d want to do this to me? Was it that that delivery mare from last year who told me my pizza smelled good and I said, ‘You too’ to? I was so embarrassed I slammed the door on her face! I know she must think I’m a freak and hate me. I haven’t been able to order from Pizza Trot since. Please, I’m sorry! I’ll--”

Rover grabbed her muzzle. “Enough! What are you even saying?”

“Sorry.” Moondancer mumbled. “I have social anxiety and sometimes catastrophize. I’m working on it.”

Rover blinked a couple of times.

He shrugged his shoulders. “No matter. What you say not important. So long as you laugh we can find the gems.” Rover slid Moondancer’s glasses snug on her face. “Wouldn’t want to miss any of this, Princess Twilight.”

It was Moondancer’s turn to give a dumbfounded stare.

“You think I’m Twilight?”

“Yes, you are!”

Moondancer’s eyes narrowed — rekindled flames blazed behind them — she snorted.

“No, I’m not.” She said through her clenched jaw. “You’ve locked me in this Celestia-damn thing and tickled me for hours ‘cause you thought I was somepony else!? To put this in words you’d understand, you’re barking up the wrong tree. We don’t even look anything alike!” Moondancer pivoted from annoyance to bitter sarcasm, “Congratulations, brainiac, you captured the wrong mare.”

“Quiet!” Rover throttled his ears. “We won’t be tricked by ponies again! We have your picture.” Rover banged on the cell door and called out. “Fido, Spot, Come! Bring the posters!”

Two trails of dirt sped across the cavern floor and the other two dogs who’d kidnapped Moondancer jumped up into the cell. Each held a few sheets of paper.

Rover slapped a paw over his face. “You’re not supposed to dig into the cells!” He wailed. Fido and Spot looked at their trails. The two sheepishly kicked a little dirt back into them.

Rover snatched the papers from the other Diamond Dogs. He shuffled through them and thrust one in front of Moondancer’s glasses. “This is you, Nerd Pony!”

The paper had Twilight’s picture, name, cutie mark, and address on it as well as copious notes about her magical capabilities, daily routines, shoe size, some very private detailed measurements, and even information about Spike. What concerned her most was the bounty written in bold red on the bottom. It was an obscene amount of the bits. The picture of Twilight stood in stark contrast to the rest of the poster. She looked like she’d just asked if you wanted to be best friends. Moondancer gazed at Twilight’s beautiful violet eyes and radiant smile. She blushed hard. ‘Time and a place!’ She scolded herself.

Moondancer swallowed hard and bit her lip. She struggled to articulate her point in a clear and concise way without any added snark or insults. “Twilight,” She breathed in deep already losing her composure, “is purple.”

The three Diamond Dogs all cocked their heads to the side.

Moondancer’s vibrated in place and her left eye twitched sporadically. “And I’m,” she hissed through gritted teeth, “not!”

Rover looked between to the poster and Moondancer. His eyes ricocheted off of one, to the other, and back again.

Rover clamped his eyes shut and tapped the side of his head trying to remember how he knew this was the right pony. His eyes popped open and he grinned. He pulled Moondancer’s pink knocker ball hair tie off and her mane fell down.

Rover held the poster at arm’s length and lined up Twilight’s head overtop Moondancer’s. He pulled the sheet down; it was a perfect match[3]!

[3] Except for the colors of her coat, hair, and eyes, as well as the mean scowl, shorter horn, taped up glasses, and icy glare.

Rover’s tail wagged and he announced to the others, “See? Same pony!”

“Are you colorblind!?” Moondancer spat like a cobra.

Rover tapped his pointer claws together. His head slumped down and he inspected the floor. Spot and Fido recoiled.

“So rude.” Spot, the shorter one, said.

“Princess pony not very sensitive.” Fido added.

‘No…’ Moondancer thought. ‘Regular dogs aren’t even that type of colorblind.’ Rover fidgeted with the bounty sheet for Twilight. He read it as hard as he could and searched for the clue that would reconcile this dissonance.

“Look I’m sorr--” Moondancer stopped herself. “No wait, no I’m not. Now let me out of this thing! And give me back my hair tie!” Moondancer threw her body around in emphasis. It accomplished nothing save for another harsh tug from her perpetual wedgie. “Gahhh!” Moondancer took several breaths to calm herself.

Rover grabbed a pawful of her mane and wrapped her hair tie back on. It looked like a total mess, much like how she usually wore it.

“Look, let’s just talk this out. You clearly like gems, I’m friends with the real Princess Twilight and I know she’ll pay you any amount of them for my release.” ‘And then lock your mangy hides in Tartarus right after!’

“No!” Spot barked.

“Talking won’t save you.” Fido asserted.

“We have a fix for that after Miss Rarity tricked us.” All three hurried behind her and rummaged through something.

“Twilight’s friend?” Moondancer twisted her head but couldn’t see them. “Whatever you’re doing back there I want you to know I’m not afraid of you monochromatic-vision mutts!” She hoped that sounded braver out loud than it did in her head.

“You should be.” Spot snickered. He ran around to the front of the stocks hiding something from view.

“We’re scary monsters.” Fido flanked her side and wiggled his claws.

“More like super creeps.” Something red blurred past her eyes and was shoved in her mouth. Binds pulled around her muzzle and locked behind her head. She bit down hard.

Squeak

Moondancer’s eyes dropped to the source of the tiny noise. A red rubber bone jutted out from both sides of her mouth. She bit again. Another squeak escaped her gag. ‘A CHEW TOY!’ She screamed in her head. Moondancer went off on a tirade but her squeaks were cut short. Rover reached over her shoulders and rested his paws beneath her armpits. Fido burrowed his claws under her sweater and hovered over her sides. A whirling sound started and Spot popped up behind the stocks. He held up a large disk-shaped soft brush mounted on an electric drill. Moondancer froze in fear.

“Polishes gems and pony feet.” He pulled the trigger and the blue brush spun like a hurricane.

“You’re our precious lil’ pony toy.” Fido grinned.

“Keep laughing so we can find more gems.” Rover scratched behind her ear.

The three Diamond Dogs attacked.

Rover started the train of tickle torture under her arms. Moondancer’s sweater didn’t dilute the effectiveness of his claws but instead fused with them to create an even worse amalgamation. Warm itchy wool bunched up around his knotted claws and twisted, turned, and burned into her armpits. She shrieked and hollered laughter behind the gag. The chew toy squealed every second as Moondancer’s teeth lost their hold to another giggle and chomped back down. She tried to clamp her arms against her sides, but it was a fruitless endeavor and her armpits remained exposed targets.

Rover kept the pace up and painted the area in more sweltering heat. He much preferred digging into a soft pathetic pony instead of the rough boring earth. Her chorus of snickers and yelps were music to his ears rather than the horrid whining sounds ponies usually made. Rover panted in joy above her, his blue tongue hung out, and he watched the null ring begin to shine. He nodded to Fido.

Further down giant paws scoured all of Moondancer’s sides. Fido’s enormous claws were ruthless. They skittered up and down and up and down, again and again. He paced them together for a dozen strokes and then offset one hand’s pattern to keep their victim on her toes[4]. After a minute passed where Moondancer hadn’t let out a boisterous enough cackle for him he swirled his palm around her stomach and a finger pricked her belly button. Moondancer’s stomach jolted forward and she let out a laugh so high pitched only dogs could hear. The three of them chuckled.

[4] Metaphorically speaking, of course

He wanted to push the mare around even more. With one paw Fido claws careened over her stomach and the other reached around and yanked the nerd’s underwear even further up her butt. The cotton stretched and the stitches begged to tear, but both held firm. Moondancer gasped and cursed their durability. She snorted as Rover drew more giddy sounds from her. Fido returned to her sides and raked his claws along them more. He chuckled to himself at the dork’s torment.

Spot pulled the trigger on the drill and its brush whirled fast enough to blow warm air across her abused feet. ‘Where the flying feather did these brain-dead hounds get power tools!’ That would have been the question on Moondancer’s mind if it could process anything other than ceaseless laughter. The runt of the group hovered the spinning brush in front of her soles. He shuffled forward--

A single fiber swept across her left foot. It tickled. It burned. And worse of all, it itched! Moondancer convulsed, her twitch shoved her foot right into the full force of the blue whirlwind. The soft bristles blazed across the balls of her feet. As soon as she yanked her foot back up she needed the area rubbed to normalize the sensation that ran through her foot. Instead, Spot shoved the brush there and scrubbed it. The brush hugged the bottoms of her toes. Moondancer’s laughs were silent. Her head had rolled back and the glow from the horn ring dipped in brightness.

The other slowed the barrage from their claws before she could slip away into unconscious relief. Moondancer, to her own dismay, started to recover from the stimulation overload. Spot let the bush crawl down her foot and it was all Moondancer could think about.

“AHAHA--, squeak, --HAHAH--, squeak, --AHAHA!” The null ring shined brighter. The Diamond Dogs yipped in excitement.

Spot polished both her feet with the power brush, up and down, side to side, and diagonally. Moondancer wiggled her feet but neither could escape the blue nightmare. Her lungs were sore from the nonstop laughter. Spot turned the brush sideways and pushed it in-between her feet. Moondancer screamed in laughter louder than before as the whole lengths of inside edge of her feet were buffeted. Her teeth bit thought her chew toy gag with one final squeak, magic burst out of the horn ring and encompassed everything.

Spot dropped the brush. He, Rover, and Fido all darted around the room and searched for the outline of gems. Some barking made its way up from below the prison cell.

“Big stash?” Spot hoped.

“Yes!” Rover cheered.

The three of them rushed to the cell door and banged on it. The guard dog awoke from off the floor and let them out. The door slammed back shut and Moondancer took the moment of relief to pass out.

Chapter 4: Deeper

Moondancer felt something soaking wet run up her cheek.

“Nerd Pony awake?”

Moondancer groaned at the sound of Rover’s voice. Freed, her jaw worked the kinks out of itself from her humiliating gag. She speculated what had wet her face and cringed. Moondancer wrenched an eye open and confirmed her theory as Rover slobbered all over her face again. She shut her eyes.

“Eww.” Moondancer shivered. She then sniffed the air and heaved forward covering her nose. “Oh Celestia, your halitosis is noxious.” Moondancer opened her eyes confused, she’d been unstrapped. Her bare feet were outside of the stocks. Even her underwear was free from its constant wedgie.

“Good, Nerd Pony saying the odd things again. Means she can continue. Nerd Pony made great find! Largest stash of gems yet!” Rover beamed and nuzzled her. “Time to go.”

“You’re letting me go!?”

“Of course not,” Rover chuckled, “Nerd Pony’s laughs found all the gems around here. We need to move to another tunnel.”

Moondancer’s heart dropped. ‘I don’t know if I can survive them tickling me again. I need to get this null ring off so I can escape.’ She flexed her fingers. ‘I just need to distract this dumb dog for one minute.’

“I think you guys may have missed a pocket of gems. I saw their outline way up there.” Moondancer pointed to a random spot on the front half of the ceiling. “It was really faint, I wouldn’t have seen it if I didn’t have my glasses on.”

“Huh?” Rover looked at where Moondancer pointed. He wasn’t sure if they had searched above the cell when the last spell went off. He leapt up, his paws tore into the wall, and he climbed straight up.

Moondancer flinched for a second at the raw strength he displayed. ‘There’s no way I’m letting him get at my feet again.’ Her toes curled at the memory but she wasted no more time. Her hands shot up and gripped the null ring. She squeezed and twisted but it didn’t move. Moondancer redoubled her efforts. Her teeth gnashed and she grasped the ring as hard as she could. She twisted and tugged, but it wouldn’t budge. Her fingers sweated and slipped off of the metal. She yanked her head and flopped onto the floor with a startled yelp. She rolled as she pulled on it one last time. Nothing.

‘Plan B.’ She thought. In front of the door were the paths that the other two Diamond Dogs — Fido and Spot — had entered from.

Moondancer picked her wedgie out as she scampered over the floor to them with no care to how it dirtied her khaki pants and sweater, and honestly it wasn’t like she’d washed it before she left Canterlot anyway. The tunnels they’d dug were still open. ‘Yes! I’ll follow them until I can find a way to sneak out of this Celestia-forsaken place.’

She shimmied into the bigger hole and crawled on her stomach, her tail brushed against the tight ceiling. Her toes sank into the loose dirt as she crawled forward. The floor of the tunnels was mostly dirt. ‘I wonder if they choose to excavate the larger tunnels around spots with veins of dirt and clay since it’s easier to move through. Do they repurpose naturally occurring caverns and pack the floor themselves, or is it something else?’ Moondancer crept along and contemplated the behavioral biology of the Diamond Dogs.

“Hey! Rover said no digging here!”

Moondancer jumped and bumped her head onto the dirt ceiling. It was soft enough to cushion her from any pain. “Sorry,” Moondancer attempted the deepest inflection her voice could go, “I was just collecting additional gems the prisoner discovered. I, ahh, already found an enormous sapphire. Which, fun fact, is actually the same thing as a ruby except for the presence of chromium.”

“Oh, umm, okay…Who’s under there?” The muffled voice questioned.

‘Me and my big nerd mouth!’ “Ahh…” Moondancer panicked. “Lassie!” She blurted out and shrugged to herself. Moondancer waited with baited breath and hoped whoever was above her would let her pass.

Moondancer chanted under her breath, “Please buy it please buy it please buy it please buy it please buy it please buy it pleas--”

A massive paw burst down right in front of her.

“EEP!”

It groped around and found her sweater. Moondancer was hoisted up through the floor and brought eye-to-eye with the guard outside her cell. Her legs swayed above the floor, her body held aloft by the guard dog outside her cell.

“My name’s Lassie.” The guard said coldly.

“Fuck.”

Lassie opened the heavy door with one hand and tossed Moondancer back in.

“Stay!” Lassie ordered and stomped her rear paw hard on the tunnels. They collapsed and she slammed the door shut.

Moondancer picked herself up.

“Nerd Pony telling more lies?”

She shrieked and tumbled back down. She spun her head. Rover stood above her coated in dirt too. Unamused he marched to the alcove in the back and snatched two things from it.

“No more tricks. You’re coming to new cell now!” Rover held out a black leather collar studded with gems. It was the same kind that he, Fido, and Spot wore.

“There’s no way in Tartarus are you putting that on me!” Moondancer stepped backwards but bumped into the door.

“Put on collar or we’ll make the tickling worse.”

“Make me you mangy mu--”

Moondancer yelped and was ripped backwards and upwards into the door. Lassie had reached in-between the bars and wrenched Moondancer’s briefs outside of the cell door. She slid her spear through the leg holes. Lassie let go and Moondancer’s legs gave out from under her. The dazed mare slumped down. The spear caught on the door’s crossbar and Moondancer’s butt dangled well above the floor.

‘Why is it always wedgies?’ Moondancer’s head spun.

Rover slipped the thick collar around her neck and fastened it on. It was tight but not constrictive, almost like a turtleneck sweater a couple sizes too small. Rover unfurled a leash and clipped it to the front of her collar.

“It’s time for your walkies.”

Lassie pulled her spear out and released Moondancer’s hanging wedgie. Rover yanked on the leash and she fell forward on all fours.

“Come Nerd Pony. You’re my pet now!”

Lassie opened the door for them. Moondancer started to lift herself up but Rover stepped on her back and shoved her down.

“Nerd pony will walk like a pet!” He grinned ear to ear. His bare foot hovered over her foot. He trailed his hind claws down her sole. Moondancer squealed and scurried out the door.

Outside her cell Moondancer took a proper look around the rest of her prison. Caverns jutted off in every direction. They seemed excavated at random, rather than any via any planned or optimized strategy. ‘It’s like a labyrinth down here.’ She shivered as they passed a few of mine carts that overflowed with gems. ‘Did they find all of those just from tickling me? How many more could they possibly need?’

Rover tugged and led her down a narrow tunnel. Moondancer crawled along. Halfway down a shaft she squeezed her thighs together and her cheeks grew red.

“Umm… Rover?” She started.

“Nerdy Pony will call me Master!”

“I am not callin--”

Rover jerked her leash hard. Moondancer slipped and fell. Face in the dirt she fumed.

“Master…” She bit back the bile on her tongue to focus on her immediate issue. “I need to use the restroom.” ‘If they tickle me again there’s no way I can hold it. I am NOT wetting myself in front of these freaks.’

“Over here.” Rover snickered. He pulled Moondancer towards a large stalagmite. “Go.”

“You can’t be serious.” Moondancer’s wide eyes snapped between the rock and Rover’s stupid grin.

“Like we told Captain Pony, no plumbing down here. You go now or we take her advice.”

“Who’s this captain, and…” Moondancer looked at the stalagmite again, “what was her advice?”

“Pony who gave us gem ring. She said put on a unicorn and they’d find all the gems for us!” Rover was giddy. “She was right! She also said we’d even be given Miss Rarity to keep if we helped capture any of you six. Make Miss Rarity and her friends pay for stealing our gems. And you, Princess, she said she pay the most for.”

“I see… Did she tell you her name?” Moondancer asked cautiously. “And what kind of pony did you say she was again?”

“Pony was Captain something, and she was the flying kind.” Rover waved his paw and rolled his eyes.

Moondancer nodded, a studious look on her face.

“Go now or we’ll do what she said and just put you in the diapers!”

“WHAT!” Moondancer threw herself backwards in shock.

“Captain said if we put unicorn in diapers we never have to take her for walkies and can tickle non-stop. But that not good for pets. They should be exercised. But if pet doesn’t go, we will put them on you.”

“I’ll go, I’ll go!” Moondancer sulked behind the rock. “Please don’t watch.” Her cheeks erupted in blush.

“Fine.” Rover groaned and turned around.

The sound of Moondancer’s zipper shook the walls, at least to her it did. She did her business, zipped her pants, and darted back around to Rover’s feet.

“Pet can have walkies after she finds enough gems.” Rover leaned in close to her. “But if she misbehaves, we put her in the padding and tickle her nonstop.”

Moondancer shook her head. Suddenly wedgies didn’t seem so bad. She followed much closer beside Rover. They travelled down a few more tunnels, the slope of some descended further down into the cave system. ‘Spelunking is at least better than the tickling.’ Rover led her into a wide room and stopped. Moondancer looked around but the room was barren. No tickle chair, no stocks, no power tools —‘Thank Celestia’ —, and no cell door.

“This one will work.” Rover popped his head out and howled into the caverns. Moondancer stood up and peeked past Rover’s side.

Sound thundered down tunnel they came from. Small rocks and clomps of dirt dropped down. The earthquake came into view. Four guard dogs barreled through the tunnel, they carried the chair Moondancer had been imprisoned in like frenzied pallbearers. ‘I almost wish it was a coffin.’ Moondancer and Rover leapt out of the small archway as the guards rushed in. They spun the chair to face out towards the room’s exit and let go. It crashed into the floor, the stone base bit into the earth. Moondancer flinched. Her red Converse swayed back and forth from the stocks and mocked her with unobtainable protection.

The next dog in placed two bowls in front of Moondancer. One filled with water and other kibble mixed with fruits — apple slices, blueberries, and pomegranates.

“Nerd Pony hungry?” Rover asked.

“No.” Moondancer smoldered as her stomach rumbled.

A half dozen more Diamond Dogs trailed behind and hauled in small crates. Moondancer spied the gem polisher sticking out of one and shuttered. Fido and Spot lagged behind. Fido carried her telescope in his arms.

“Be careful with that!” Moondancer shouted.

“Huh?” Fido stopped in his tracks and Spot smacked into him. Fido didn’t budge but Spot spilled his crate. A lot of the supplies Moondancer brought to her campsite tumbled out including her library books and tape recorder. Moondancer’s eyes snapped open. She leapt towards her belongings, her leash slipped from Rover’s paw. She brushed the dirt off of the books and stacked them in a loving pile with the tape recorder on top.

“Please Diamond Dogs!” Moondancer pleaded. “I’ll do anything you say, just please return my books to the library. I’ve never had an overdue book once in my life. If you’re going to keep me trapped in these caves, torturing me beneath Ponyville’s forest outskirts, then I can’t return them myself. Please, I can’t even teleport them back because of the null ring you put on me and I couldn’t bare it if I lost my second place Best Book Borrower status.” She clasped her hands and gave Rover the biggest puppy dog eyes she could muster.

Rover shielded his eyes and turned his head but the mare’s watery stare pierced through his mediocre defense. Moondancer turned her weaponized eyes onto all the other Diamond Dogs in the room. Fido propped Moondancer’s telescope in the corner with extreme care. Spot shoved his head into the ground to avoid her pitiful gaze. The guards whimpered and looked to Rover.

“Pleeeeeeeeeease!” She pitched her voice higher the longer she held on the word.

“Alright!” Rover screeched, squeezing his ears. “Just stop whining! …Complaining? …Whining…” He shook his head. “Get in the chair and we’ll return your books!”

“Thank you!” Moondancer shouted as she clicked the stop button on her tape recorder. “All you have to do is drop them off at Ponyville’s library; it’s in the giant crystal tree-castle thing. You couldn’t miss it from the moon.”

She hoisted up the stack of books and tape recorder and held them out to Rover. He took them and looked at the pile with disdain.

“Now Nerd Pony gets back into the chair.”

Moondancer shot the bondage seat a quick glance. She closed her eyes and gulped. She put on a brave face, stepped up to it, and sat down.

“So you’ll all strap me in?” Moondancer held her arms up ready to be shoved around.

“Yes, but first, Nerd Pony needs to also get her underwear ready, by herself.” Fido cackled across the room.

“ARE YOU SERIOUS!?”

“Nerd Pony gets in chair right or we bury her books in deepest hole.” Rover threatened.

Moondancer grumbled but reached her hands behind her back. ‘Nopony knows I’m even out here; I can’t risk them not bringing my tape recorder to Twi.’ Her hand crawled down the stretched briefs she had tucked back in minutes ago. ‘First time ever giving one of these, figures I’d also be the one receiving it.’ Moondancer gripped and yanked up hard. She winched and gritted her teeth. She tugged her underwear a few more times to ensure that her self-wedgie would be sufficient for her captors. Her eyes snapped open as she felt the cool leather straps being feed though her exposed leg holes. Several paws moved her into her previous position in the chair. The last straps were pulled taut and buckled and her leash unclipped. Moondancer’s feet were gingerly lifted and set into the stocks. Fido slammed shut the top half like a book and locked it. Moondancer tested her bindings. Just like last time she was unable do anything except make her wedgie worse.

“Good pet.”

Moondancer’s fist twitched in her cuff. She eyed the books and tape recorder still in Rover’s greasy paws and grumbled.

“Bewlay, take these to pony’s crystal castle. Don’t get seen.” Rover shoved the pile into a confused guard’s chest plate. He ambled out of the cell along with the other guard dogs, leaving Moondancer alone with Rover, Fido, and Spot. “Don’t damage them!” Moondancer called out after him.

A scrapping sound approached. Lassie appeared in the archway lugging the cell door with her. A deep path trailed it all the way up the tunnel from the last cell. She slammed the door against the opening and raised her gorilla sized fist up. She punched the hinge’s bolts into the wall one by one. Moondancer and the other three dogs flinched as each impact shook the room. Small debris fell from the ceiling. ‘If I’m lucky a stalactite will fall and crush them.’ There were no stalactites to fall however. Lassie secured the door in place, yawned, and curled up beside it.

“That was excessive.” Moondancer quipped.

Chapter 5: Carrot and the Stick

Moondancer was the kind of pony who knew when to go out and knew when to stay in. Naturally the answer over 99.9% of the time was to stay in and being kidnapped drove that percentage up a solid extra .09%. Behind her the three Diamond Dogs whispered to each other, Moondancer caught the occasional insult they directed at each other along with words like “oil,” “rub,” and “feet.” Moondancer hated the anticipation. She stared forward trying to concentrate on anything else, but her toes were in her direct line of sight. They wriggled and she pulled again. Her feet were held fast by the stocks. Looking just off to their side she saw her sneakers were still right there; they taunted her. ‘That dog needs to get my tape recorder to Twilight NOW!’

Rover and Spot carried a closed crate and empty bowl over and set them in front of the stocks. From behind, Fido rested his paws on her shoulders.

“Oh come on. Don’t you guys every take breaks.”

Rover sat on the crate and wrapped his paws around both of Moondancer’s feet. His thumbs planted on her arches.

“Don’t worry. Nerd Pony doesn’t get more tickles until later. Now is time for her pampering.”

Before Moondancer could question him, Rover gently rubbed her soles. He pressed the bottoms of his thumbs into the balls of her feet and massaged them. Fido did the same to her shoulders; his paws caressed the mare with a delicate touch. Spot hopped up on the chair and kneaded a trapped leg through her pants. None of their claws even grazed her. Rover moved his thumb side-to-side and worked out much of the tension in the padding of her feet. He cupped her toes in his palm and delicately squeezed them too. Moondancer’s heart rate normalized and she let go of a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. Fido massaged her neck and rubbed her ears while Spot switched legs. Moondancer stuffed her sweater into her mouth to hold back a small moan when Rover’s thumbs stroked her arches. He noticed her reaction and further kneaded the areas with tender care.

‘Stop thinking this is nice! They’re holding you prisoner!’

Rover took his time and rubbed the entirety of her arches thrice over. He leaned his body into his technique. ‘Okay, so maybe all those prissy Canterlot ponies have a point about going to the spa if this is what happens there.’ Moondancer’s sweater fell from her lips and her head lulled to the side. Her toes spread wide and curled as Rover worked, almost like they were waving thank you.

Rover left her arches, much to her dismay, and started on her heels. He moved his thumbs in circles around them and the rest of his fingers cared for her ankles. Spot jumped off and carried something to Fido from the side of the cavern. Fido pinched a pomegranate slice from the dog bowl Spot brought over and held it to Moondancer’s lips. Her stomach rumbled and she opened her mouth. Fido feed the wedge to her. She hummed in delight and chewed the fruit and its succulent seeds. She snacked on every juicy piece of fruit Fido presented. He angled the water bowl in front of her muzzle. Moondancer puckered and drank half of it. Fido rubbed her shoulder more and nuzzled her head.

A few minutes later Fido and Spot left Moondancer alone with Rover. Her head sunk into the padded headrest and she closed her eyes as Rover pampered her feet. He cycled through spoiling every part of her feet multiple times and he changed up his technique every couple of rounds. He tenderized her arches with his thumbs, then kneaded his knuckles into her soles, and pressed his palms in the next go-around. The foot massage continued for half an hour. Finished he nuzzled in-between her feet and Moondancer, half-asleep, patted his snout with one.

“Where’d you guys learn to give massages anyway?”

“Ms. Rarity taught us. Is Nerd Pony ready for next part?”

“Why couldn’t the null ring find gems based off of this instead?” Moondancer mumbled waking up.

“Without you and your cute feet it would have taken us months to find the gems we’ve recently dug up.” Rover nuzzled her feet.

“You’re welcome.” Moondancer’s sarcasm was palpable.

Rover slid off the crate and opened the makeshift seat. He withdrew an unlabeled large glass cruet filled with a jet black liquid. Moondancer snapped to attention. There was something in the air. A chill ran down her spine as Rover swished the viscous dark fluid around, pulled out the stopper, and poured it into the metal bowl. The eerie substance flowed like thick syrup.

“What is that stuff?” Moondancer asked, dread dripped from her voice.

“The most important part of pony prisoner pampering.” Rover replaced the stopper and flaunted the bottle, it was full again. Rover put the bottle back in the crate and switched it for a paintbrush. He dipped the brush into the obsidian goo and swirled it around. He waved the brush in front of her left foot, it jerked in place.

“Hang onto yourself, Nerd Pony~” Rover glided the brush under her toes, a translucent even coat of the dark substance trailed behind it.

“TEEHEE!” Moondancer’s nerves went haywire and she clenched her toes around the entire brush head coating them more. The paintbrush felt super sensitive on her feet. After the rough treatment from the Diamond Dog’s claws and the high powered polisher a simple brush should have been a cakewalk, but the tip felt like it sliced through her.

He dipped the brush back into the bowl. The limber fibers bent as Rover pressed the paintbrush against the balls of her feet. With rapid flicks of his wrist he covered the area. The black oil became a glossy shadow over every part Rover painted.

“HAHAHAHAHA, PLEEEEEEEEEASE STAHAHAHAHAHAHAOP!” Moondancer cackled as Rover applied deep and slow strokes down her arch. Rover savored her desperate cries. He smeared a fresh coat onto her heel and drilled the brush between each of her toes. He drew a smiley face on her big-toe and laughed. “Heh, I might be the next Salvador Doggy.”

Rover painted more faces on all of Moondancer’s toes and drew other small pictures on her soles including stick-dogs, a lightning bolt, stars, moons, locks, and more. The illustrated foot swayed about with every titter from Moondancer when the paintbrush stroked them. Rover coated her toes the rest of the way. The entire bottom of Moondancer’s left foot glistened in the ebony ichor. Sparks of electricity tingled from it. “AAHH! AHH! MMFFHHH!”

Rover dipped the brush back into the dark sap and moved to her right foot. He swabbed the brush across her toes. The light contact made Moondancer jump each time. “EEEE! IT’S TOOO MUUUCHHH!”

Moondancer’s foot tried to roll away from the brush but Rover pounced and dabbed the brush between her toes. The polka-dotted globs of the goo on her arch and heel. His technique less resembled any kind of stippling or pointillism and more just blotches randomly speckled about. Unfortunately the know-it-all attached to the foot was unable to see his masterpiece but Rover knew how she could appreciate it all the same. The brush smeared all the dots together with several strokes. He went left to right, moving downward like he was highlighting a passage in a book.

“FFFH!” Moondancer hissed through clenched teeth, desperate not to giggle again.

Both her feet were coated in an even shadowy glaze. Rover leaned back and inspected them. He inhaled a deep gulp oh air, his chest puffed out and he stuck his maw in front of Moondancer’s feet. She shooed her foot at him but wasn’t even able to touch his snout. Rover exhaled a warm stream of air across both her feet. He snickered and sat back up staring at them.

“Huh” Moondancer cocked an eyebrow. ‘That was… annoying. Does he think my feet will cringe from his bad breath?’

Moondancer’s toes flexed. The substance painted on them stopped sending sparks up her nerves. ‘I guess I was just over worrying about whatever this stuff is.’ An odd feeling crept around her soles. Her toes squirmed more and waved in the cool cave air. ‘When did it get so warm down here?’ A bead of sweat formed on Moondancer’s forehead and her pupils dilated. She realized what she was feeling on her feet.

Heat!

Blistering heat radiated from her soles. It was mild at first but now her feet felt like them were broiling. The goo felt like it was moving. It tickled her feet by itself.

“Heeheehee, Wh-what is this stuff!?”

“Captain said oil changes pony’s feet.”

“Ch-ch-changes?”

“Yes!” Rover exclaimed. “After today, Nerd Pony’s feet will be more sensitive so she laughs more and finds more gems.”

Moondancer’s feet sweltered beneath the oil. The tickling sensation felt like the brush was painting every part of her feet simultaneously. Her fingers dug into the plush arm-rest, her chest pushed against her restraints, and of course every other flail wedgied her further. Her soles broiled from the oil’s sweltering heat. The pours on her soles opened wide and sweat cascaded out. From Moondancer’s perspective of cackling and thrashing about, the oil and roasting heat seemed to ooze into her very pours. Her bright red blushing feet were no longer covered in the oil.

“EEHEHEHE!” The tickling feeling still riled Moondancer’s feet.

The heat then spread to other places around her body, her pelvis lunged in place as the most awkward thing possible for Moondancer happened. She panted between giggles as her head swung in every direction. Her face was embroiled in blush that matched her mane. Sweat poured from all over her face and a drop dripped from her horn onto her glasses. Her tongue hung out and she locked eyes with the large bulge forming under her khaki’s zipper. The pressure was so tight. ‘Oh Celestia, it’s going to rip right through them!’

“GWHAHAHAHA MAAAAAAKE IIIIIT STAHAHAHAHOP!”

The ring on Moondancer’s horn shined with power. Rover whistled out the cell door. Fido and Spot scurried up and were let into the cell.

“Dogs, look how she begs from just one coat.”

“Nerd Pony is a pathetic princess.” Fido teased.

“Ohh, the oil works, it works!” Spot clapped.

Rover turned to their prisoner and his eyes followed hers. Both stared at the bulge. His mouth went ajar as he leaned over the mare and examined the protuberance pinned in her pants. Moondancer’s eyes bugged out and she gritted her teeth. Sweat rolled down her face and feet like a rainstorm. The hound looked to her for an answer to this riddle. She powered through all the tickling sensations dominating her body, shook her head, and mouthed the word ‘no’. Rover poked the bulge. Moondancer shrieked and Rover jumped startled. Fido and Spot crowded on the other side. Rover pinched the flap of her khakis and unbuttoned them. Her zipper burst open!

Rover’s paw shot back. Moondancer’s cock tore past her briefs and wagged free for all to see. It stood erect while her waistband caught her on balls and squeezed them. Moondancer screeched louder. Her tongue slipped out of her muzzle as erratic lustful pants fogged her glasses. Hands beat wildly and arms fought against their bindings. Toes twitched still plagued by a ticklish tingle. Her hips thrust again and her underwear burned inside her butt. Her shaft wobbled, even without a lick of friction from anything except the air, a bead of pre-cum formed at its tip.

“I-It… It’s the oil…” Moondancer swallowed, her mouth parched and bone try despite the rest of her body sweating like a hog. The heat generated by her arousal reactivated the oil absorbed by her soles. “I-I-I-I SWWWWEEEEAAAARRR!”

“It's not a side-effect of the oil.” Rover barked out laughs and clutched his sides. Fido flicked the droplet off her cock. “I’m thinking it must be--”

“Love!” Spot chimed in and bawled over.

“SHHHHAHAHAHAHAUUUUTTTT UUUUUPPPPPAHAHAHA!” Moondancer yelled though her laughter, somehow blushing more as her hips thrust in desperation.

“Didn’t Captain give us something for this?” Fido asked.

“You’re right!” Rover rummaged through the crate by his feet. He threw up his paw; a string of silver beads dangled from it along with a triangle forged from three rings. Moondancer froze solid. It was like all the heat in her body had been set to absolute zero.

“Anything but that…” She quietly pleaded though chattering teeth.

Similar to her horn ring, blue runes were engraved onto the metallic black rings in addition to the gems embedded into them. Unlike her horn ring however, the insides of the rings had fuzzy blue linings. Rover tossed both to Spot. The smaller dog clambered up the bondage chair in front of Moondancer’s member. He squeezed the head of her shaft through two of the rings and slid it down. The lining brushed her cock, she shuddered from the sensation. The third ring drifted along the underside of her dick until it reached her testicles. Spot unlatched the bottom ring and clasped it around her balls. The cock ring throttled her phallus and testicles, the runes burned with an unholy light. Moondancer’s eyes shrunk to pinpricks. She chewed her sweater; her teeth bit hard into it and almost drew blood from her lip.

Fido wrapped a paw around her collared shaft and held it steady while Spot fed the beads in one by one. The tickling and heat returned with renewed fervor and increased in intensity with every bead thrust through the tip of her member. Her opening stretched around each bead and swallowed it as a claw pushed the next one in. Moondancer gasped and squealed from every one. ‘I’m in Tartarus! I fell in that hole and died. These three mutts are just Cerberus, but dumber and this is my punishment for all the bad things I’ve done in my life! Staying up past my bedtime as a filly and reading under the covers. Stealing Twinkleshine’s library card in Magic Kindergarten so I could check out twice as many books. That time I broke into the bookstore to get an early copy of Daring Do and the Griffon's Goblet![5]’

[5] The owner reported finding a stack of bits equal to the price of the stolen book on the checkout counter.

Spot shoved the last bead in. A dozen silver orbs were lodged inside, down to the base of her throbbing phallus. The string’s ringlet was all that remained outside. Moondancer pumped her dick in Fido’s grip. She wailed a guttural moan. Her testicles pulsated with carnal pleasure but they could not release anything. Fido let go of her shaft and wiped his paw off on his pants. The pleasure was trapped inside her, it built more and more. Every second a new arousal record was reached just to be shattered in the next moment. Moondancer needed to cum but couldn’t. Her urethra was under insane pressure, the sounding beads pushing down on her climax. The cock ring’s runes and gems shimmered. The fibers lining the rings exploded in vibrations. Blue strands brushed her privates tickling them. Moondancer bellowed in cackling agony.

Rover stood behind the squealing mare. He brandished a brilliant golden feather and waved it over her cock with a sinister grin plastered on his mug. Moondancer’s knees swiveled side to side. Every time they neared each other, her thighs pressed her balls into the vibrating ring more. Despite her ankles being locked in stocks it should have been easy to keep her legs spread to relieve pressure on her testicles; however, Moondancer’s knees touched several times. It was like the cock ring caused the gravitational force between them to multiply exponentially. That, or Moondancer was just horny.

“P-PLLLEEEEEAAASSSEEE! LEEEET MEEHEHEHE CUUUUM! I-I-I CAAHAHAHAN’T TAAAAKE IIIIT!”

It was difficult to determine which of the two theories was the true cause.

“IT TIIIIIICKLES TOOHOHOHOHOHO MUUUUCH! MYHIHIHI BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHALLS HAHAHAURT, PLLLHEHEHEHEHEASE, I-I-I NEEEEEEEEED TOHOHOHO CUM!”

“You’re here to laugh, not cum. Do you think we care ‘bout the pain you’re under? We’re gonna keep tickling you until we find every gem there is. And after we find every single one, we’ll keep tickling you just for fun! Forever~” Rover whispered the last word directly into her ear and let out of a hot breath. He dragged the feather around her corked cockhead.

“I-I-I HAHAHAHAHATE YOUOHOHOH FLEEEEEEA BITTHEHEHEHEN MAHAHAHAHAUTTS!” Moondancer screamed in terror between bouts of hysterical laughter. Her horn ring was almost charged and ready to cast again.

“Nerd Pony has fleas?” Spot jumped back.

“No you idiot, she said we do.” Rover spat.

“We have fleas!?” Fido wildly scratched himself.

“Grrrr, no! None of us have fleas!” Rover stomped his foot. “Get the powder from the liar ponies!”

Spot leapt over to the crates and hopped back with a yellow cardboard box in hand. The box had a picture of twin unicorns in a circle, written around it was the brand name Flim Flam's World-Famous Fantabulous Flea Fighting Powder. On the top corner inside a callout was Satisfaction Guaranteed*[6]. Rover tore the side tab open and held the box arm’s length away from himself over Moondancer’s feet. He tilted the box and shook. Tiny white flakes floated down like snow over Moondancer’s feet. The powder built up small mounds between her toes and on the balls of her feet but as her feet fidgeted from her chuckles the snowdrifts avalanched down her soles.

[6] *DISCLAIMER: Guarantee does not guarantee a guarantee.
Not approved for fighting fleas on Skin, Fur, Hair, Scales, Feathers, Carapaces, Slime, or Other.
ALL SALES FINAL

For the most part Moondancer ignored the flea power more focused on the vibrating cock ring and sounding beads. Until she realized that something far worse had begun. It was a slow burn — at first a minor annoyance against the mountain of denial — her feet were the tiniest bit warmer so she tried to shake the powder off. However, the warm tingling grew into a scratchy irritable sensation, like the first time she shaved the sides of her head[7]. Tens of thousands of spines were pricking her feet all at once. She needed to rub her soles on something, to dunk them in ice water, to scratch them. Moondancer’s feet itched!

[7] Moondancer claimed she adopted the hairstyle because it was more convenient. But in actuality back when they were in school together, Twilight had seen it in one of Minuette’s magazines and mentioned how cool it looked.

The three hounds chuckled to each other.

“Lair ponies said powder would stop fleas but it didn’t.” Fido said.

“That stuff is worse than fleas!” Spot chimed in.

“I wonder if itching makes the magic happen like the tickling does.” Fido pondered.

This was one scientific question Moondancer hoped the answer too would never be discovered. She screamed and threw her bound feet around. Her legs kicked and twitched in place. Her chest heaved and chewed fingernails pawed at the padded armrest. And then, her horn ring discharged again. A wave of magic mushroomed out of her horn and enveloped the room. It stopped short of exiting the cell and no gems shined within view.

“Itching not as good.” Rover frowned.

“THEN GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!” Moondancer beseeched and screeched. The itching had overpowered the tickling of her cock completely. “AT LEAST SCRATCH MY FEET!”

Rover shrugged. All three Diamond Dog flung their claws out and stalked towards her blistering soles. A single thought echoed in Moondancer’s head. ‘Help me Twilight Sparkle, you’re my only hope.’

* * *

Bewlay poked his head above ground. The gigantic crystalline tree-like castle shimmered up the road in the morning light. He drooled. Bewlay shook his head and hoped out of his tunnel. He opened a bag and pulled out the books and tape recorder; there wasn’t a spec of dirt on any of them. ‘Just like Nerd Pony ordered.’ Bewlay took a step forward--

The tall castle doors flung open. Bewlay yelped and drove into a bush. The books clattered onto the ground. Roughened up Bewlay readjusted his armor. He peaked through the shrubbery and saw a tall petite mare shove another larger mare towards the town. The second mare slipped free and ran of her own accord with the pushy one. They both shouted in panicked voices but Bewlay’s nose twitched more than his ears. A delicious smell wafted from a soggy greasy paper bag they carried.

“Cauliflower~” Bewlay stepped out of the bush carried by the sent.

CRUNCH!

The spell broken, Bewlay looked down and lifted his foot. The pulverized remains of the tape recorder greeted him. The dog whimpered ashamed, he glanced around to see if he’d been caught. No creature was in eyesight. He dug a small hole next to the bush and entombed the remains of the decimated device into it. He patted down the makeshift grave with his foot and scooped the books, thankfully uncrushed, into his arms.

Bewlay sprinted to the castle. He laid Nerd Pony’s books inside the open door. He scooted back but tripped down the stairs bumping his head on every one. Bewlay jumped up and shook himself. Nothing was broken or bleeding, but some bruises awaited him tomorrow. He fixed his dinged helmet and chest plate again and bolted back to his tunnel. Bewlay plunged down and filled the exit. He scurried back home with his ears flatten against his helmet and his tail between his legs.

Chapter 6: The Feast

Moondancer thought having the sounding beads removed would have finally let her have the orgasm she’d been on the edge of for hours. She cheered a perverse scream of pleasure when Rover ripped the entire string out with one swift pull. Fido’s switched from raking his claws up and down her tenderized feet to lovingly rubbing them. The bookworm melted into her bondage chair and pumped her hips forward ready to climax. But, even completely unclogged, she couldn’t even eek out a single droplet. No matter how much it felt like she should be able to, there was no relief from the punishing pleasurable pressure swelling inside her. The nerd knew from years of rigorous hands-on scientific experiments[8] that she should have been squirting like a geyser the moment the beads were extracted. But she could not!

[8] Masturbating

“Take the cock ring off too!” She panicked seeing the runes glow blue again. “It’s what’s preventing me from climaxing!”

Rover and Fido shook their heads and chuckled.

“PLEASE! Before it--”

The cyan fibers lining the segments of the cock ring sprang to life. They brushed around and tortured Moondancer’s privates. Her arousal grew and grew as did the volume of her laughter. Her horn ring shined bright. The wave of magic erupted from her horn, the only thing of hers capable of such a metaphor.

Guards outside her cell scrambled overtop one another as they rushed to excavate gems. Moondancer’s cock ring stopped its stimulations. She heaved out heavy lungfuls of air. Her balls ached from denial. Even still, Moondancer savored the moment. In those brief seconds of respite after her horn ring discharged her captors halted her tickle torture, unable to help themselves from searching for any pockets the other Diamond Dogs may have missed. Her toes flexed above her hot soles and fanned what little air they could to them.

Moondancer collected her thoughts as her mind was momentarily freed from overstimulation. ‘This dark magic is way above their heads. And if a pegasus gave it to them then that pony can’t be working alone either. There’s definitely a conspiracy going on here with some powerful unknown players.’

The cell door creaked opened. Lassie let in a snickering Spot who carried a tray with a plastic jar on it. The door thundered shut behind him. Spot tumbled a few steps and regained his balance without spilling the tray. Moondancer smirked seeing the laughing gnome lose face. ‘These mutts will be lucky if Twilight doesn’t have them spayed and neutered when she frees me. I just have to hold out a little longer and BOOM the royal guard, the Wonderbolts, and the Elements of Harmony led by Equestria’s finest princess will save me and blow this place to kingdom come.’

Rover and Fido regrouped with Spot in front of the stocks. Moondancer spied Rover holding a pawful of black rubber cords grabbed from the crates of torture tools hidden behind her. The three spoke in hushed whispers. Rover nodded and with a wave of his paw dismissed the other two. He waited until the two were let out before he turned his attention back on the mare.

“Lemme guess, dinner time for everydog?” Moondancer remarked.

“Yes.” Rover nodded, oblivious to her sarcasm.

Moondancer blinked twice behind her thick glasses and shook some sense back into her head.

“So what, you’re gonna untie me and make sure I eat out of that disgusting dog bowl?”

“No. Nerd Pony’s dinner is later. It’s time for my meal.”

Moondancer’s pupils dilated and her lips puckered. ‘What does he mean by that?’

Rover trained his thumb over the side of the stocks near the top. He pressed his thumb against it. The metal sunk in, it was a button. Moondancer jumped at the metallic whoosh. Ten rivets along the top of the stocks had shot up like a coterie of prairie dogs. Instead of being evenly distributed with equidistance between them, they were grouped in two sets of five. It didn’t take a genius level intellect to deduce what that correlated too.

Rover fished one of the cords from his paw. On one end the elastic strip dangled a single padded metal ring that varied in size from cord to cord. On the other end, the rubber had been folded around and molded back in the strap. Rover worked the looped end over the head of each rivet one by one. All ten fastened, he slipped his claw into the largest sized ring and stretched the cord to Moondancer’s big-toe.

Moondancer scrunched her toes as tight as she could. She gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, determined to make the dog work if he wanted to put those around her toes. Rover stood idly by and watched with a bemused smirk. Moondancer kept up the strength she applied to her toes. It was working, but as the minutes ticked on her muscles grew sore. Her toes flinched and uncurled a bit, but she buckled down and held them tight.

“Heh.” Rover dragged his other paw’s pointer claw down the length of her sole.

“EEEEEEEE!” Moondancer squealed. Her toes splayed wide open. Circulation returned to them in a warm wave of relief. That solace didn’t last, as quick as they’d unfurled Rover plunged the ring around her big-toe. The strength of her pedal digits was nowhere near that of Rover’s finger, so the cord tugged her toe towards the stocks and forced the rest of her foot along. The dog wedged the other big-toe ring around her right one. Both her pried back feet were immobilized. The smooth taut skin of her soles practically gleamed. Rover’s eyes locked on them, he sucked in a breath. His chest puffed out and decompressed. He made short work and secured the other eight rings around their respective victims.

Moondancer’s toes were fanned out and on full display along with the rest of her feet. She grunted and swore as she attempted to move her feet any amount forward. Not one of the cords was the stretchable rubber band Rover made it look like. They were incredibly inelastic from the perspective of Moondancer’s fettered toes. Moondancer let out an exacerbated sigh as her feet were drawn back from the estimated two plancks she’d moved them forward.

Claws pranced along steadfast soles while the mare attached to them snorted and scrunched up her face to hold back her giggles. Her façade cracked when his furry fingers brushed against her instep and she barked out a few hearty laughs. Rover flashed a grin of razor sharp teeth, pinched both her heels, and ducked his head beneath the stocks.

“Time for my meal~”

Moondancer involuntarily trembled again. Fear had softened her shaft somewhat but the same pleasure was still trapped inside her, aching for release. Her usual snark had been tickled out of her today over the endless hours of torment so she could only worry; ‘What is he going to do to my feet?’

Rover rose up. Moondancer spasmed seeing the light glint off butter knife in his dominant paw. ‘…Butter knife?’ Her rational mind caught up to the rest of itself. In Rover’s other paw was the jar Spot had brought in earlier, up close she could see what it was, peanut butter. He unscrewed the jar’s red cap. The knife plunged inside and swirled around. A long glob of the rich creamy food clung to the knife. Rover inhaled a deep sniff and licked his chops.

The flat of the blade glided down Moondancer’s trapped foot and left a trail of peanut butter on them. Her bound feet didn’t have room to even squirm as Rover dunked the knife back into the jar. Moondancer snickered as more peanut butter coated her vast feet. Just one application of the black oil had done a number on them. Her soles were magnitudes more sensitive to the gentle graze of the butter knife. He slathered it between her toes and smothered the rest of the bottoms of her feet in the tasty treat.

“Get this stuff off of my feet you freak!”

“Oh, I will~” Rover slobbered.

The realization hit Moondancer like a freight train.

“Not like that! Not like that! I meant wipe it off with a towOHOHOHOHOHOH.”

Rover’s tongue felt like sandpaper as it scraped up her heel. Rover flaunted the tiny mound of peanut butter on his tongue. He tilted his head up and darted his tongue in and out of his maw over a dozen times savoring the snack. Rover knelt back down and lapped at Moondancer’s feet like they were a peanut butter flavored popsicle. Unable to move them at all her whole attention was concentrated on Rover’s course tongue lapping at her soles. She huffed and tittered as over an hour Rover replaced every bit of peanut butter on her feet with saliva. His gritty tongue tasted the whole length of her feet and plunged itself between her toes multiple times.

His metaphorical plates licked clean, Rover leaned back and rubbed his stomach with satisfaction. Moondancer was a mess. Her erection flared to full mast fifteen minutes in and drool ran down her muzzle from her constant giggling as well as the delicious peanut butter smell that wafted around the room. She slumped down in her chair having expended most of her energy struggling against the toe-cords. Her horn ring had not gone off once but was abuzz at what she estimated to be half a charge. None of her ringed appendages were able to find release.

Rover hovered in front of her face. He grinned, splotches of peanut butter clung to his muzzle and teeth. A tremor passed through Moondancer’s feet, it felt like he could lick them just by smiling. His large paw stalked towards her face, she tucked it into her shoulder. Moondancer gasped and moaned softly. Rover scratched her behind the ear and patted her head.

“Nerd Pony is a good pet.” Rover praised. “Now it’s your dinner time, then walkies, and sleep. You have many more gems to find tomorrow.”

He unstrapped Moondancer from her chair. She used the precious seconds while he lifted off her toes ties to pick her monstrous wedgie and tuck erect member away. Feet freed, she hugged her legs against her cushy sweater. Rover clipped the leash onto her collar and led her to the back corner. There was a small round mattress with a stake spiked into the ground next to it and the doggy bowel. She’d been fed all the fruit that’d been in it this morning, only kibble remained. Moondancer gave the bowl a thousand-yard stare. ‘Of course the real food is all gone. Come on Twi, what’s taking you so long?’

Chapter 7: Belladonna

The following day wasn’t any better for Moondancer. Neither was the day after that. Nor the next day. Or the two that proceeded. For creatures she was certain couldn’t tell time, the Diamond Dogs ran her captivity with machine-like efficiency and Moondancer was an absolute wreck.

Mornings started with breakfast and water served to her in bowels. She wasn’t allowed to use her hands or any civilized eating utensils; instead they shoved her muzzle into the dog food every time. Mornings were the easiest to resist them and snark back, but by lunch and especially the end of day she was far to destroyed from the hours of non-stop tickle torture to do anything but flop her face into the bowels and use her tongue to lap the food and water into her mouth.

After breakfast came her walkies. Rover took the lead on these directing her to a new section of the cave system where the other dogs moved all their implements of cruelty for that day. Tickle torture began with a warm up the three mutts raking their claws down her feet and tickling arms and sides as well. Next was always the black oil, the Celestia-damned sludge painted onto her feet and left to sit there while it ravaged her with its ticklishness and grueling heat as it exponentially increased the sensitivity of her soles. The oil’s aphrodisiac effect could not go understated, her massive erection was teased, poked, prodded, and stuffed full of sounding beads every day. The cock ring ensured she was unable to climax from the pleasure while it roughly tickled her privates. All the while the dogs would pamper her feet and feed her real food. Rarity had done too excellent a job teaching them how to give foot massages and pedicures. Moondancer hated how much she grew to love this minuscule portion of her day. The nerd truly missed the simpler time when the dogs just gave her massive wedgies.

After the oil had seeped into her skin the dogs would test out the accursed effects with tools. Nothing was off the table — feathers, coarse stones, thick bristled brushes, tweezers, combs, more flea/itching powder, paintbrushes, a hairdryer, the electric gem polisher — the dogs experimented with everything they could get their paws on to make her howl louder and locate the gems faster. Moondancer had passed out from this phase the first couple of times; however, the oil seemed to have another latent effect where it also built up her mental endurance. It made a sick sense after all, she couldn’t laugh while unconscious. This stage would last anywhere between four to six hours depending on if her captors had picked a particularly rich vein of the mines for her to magic to find or if Rover felt extra sadistic.

Dinner was served off her feet after they were scrubbed clean. Rover alone slurped her taut peanut buttery soles each night. Moondancer feet reeked of the goober goo no matter how methodical Rover’s tongue scrubbed them, and he was exceedingly thorough. It wasn’t in her head either, Rover buried his wet nose into her feet and drooled on them once they were locked up again in the morning. Lastly each night, Moondancer was unstrapped from her chair, fed and walked, before she collapsed on her pillowy bed. What scared Moondancer the most was that, for her, this was becoming routine.

* * *

Moondancer flopped around on her bed. The groggy mare reached out and grabbed her glasses from an empty crate. She stared up at the ceiling while her hand lazily fiddled with the leash’s clasp. Like always, the latch didn’t move. She gave the leash a half-hearted tug and dropped it, the cord draped across her unflinching face.

She rolled on her side tucked her legs inside her sweater. ‘Why hasn’t Twilight or anypony saved me yet? She had to have gotten my message right? What if… what if she doesn’t care? No! No, Twilight is my friend, period. That dumb dog must have lost my recorder and books, or worse. But still, shouldn’t my Canterlot friends have noticed I’m missing by now — am I really that much of a recluse? Let’s be honest with ourself Moondancer, you could be gone for a year and nopony would notice.’

Tears welled up in the corner of her eyes. The door creaked open and stole her attention. Rover scampered in, tailed by Fido and Spot.

“Quickly!” Rover said to the other two as the each grabbed one of Moondancer’s hands. He detached the hexed leash from her collar and hoisted the unicorn up. The three dogs dragged Moondancer to the bondage chair.

“What’s going on? You guys look spooked.” Moondancer questioned looking over each of the nervous mutts. Her eyes lit up, “Is Twilight here to save me!?”

“Captain Pony is here! We can’t let her know we’ve been so nice to Nerd Pony or she’ll be mad!”

“‘Nice!?’” Moondancer shouted back indignantly.

“If she takes Nerd Pony we’ll lose our gem finder!” Fido cried burying his head in his paws.

“And our entertainment!” Spot added.

“And my pet!” Rover wailed!

Rover preemptively interrupted the retort forming on Moondancer’s lips with a brutal wedgie that hauled the dork off of the ground.

“Gahh!” Moondancer choked on her words and cupped her crotch. Her fingers could feel the cold bitter steel of the rings around her cock and testicles though her khakis. ‘Never mind, I don’t miss these at all.’

Rover jerked her briefs skywards and tossed her onto the chair like a sack of potatoes. With lightning fast speed Moondancer was strapped down and buckled in, the stocks slammed closed and locked around her ankles. Her red high-tops swung from the lock just out of reach, like always. She scrunched her toes prepared to make them fight to put on the toe binds but the dogs slammed themselves against the cell door shoving each other before Lassie had a chance to even open it.

“At least give me something to read! I’m going through serious book withdrawal here!”

“Heh, no wonder they thought you were Twilight.” A darkly feminine voice echoed throughout the cell. Moondancer snapped her head to the source. A tall figure leaned against the corner with her head down bathed in darkness. ‘She was not there just a moment ago!’

“Here I thought you moronic curs had managed to do something right.” The shadow mare shook her head and took a step forward; her imposing wings unfolded increasing her presence. Her skin tight suit gleamed. It was purple and black with lightning bolt decals. A black hood of the same latex material covered her head save her light cyan muzzle, studded ears, and spikey azure mane. A short tail of the same color swished above thick boots clad around her feet. A sharp pair of goggles glowed an eerie yellow as she stared down the Diamond Dogs.

A squrrrk sound screeched from her suit with every step forward. Rover and Fido crouched with their ears folded down and tails tucked between their legs. Rover’s position could generously be called a bow while Fido hid his face under his massive paws. Spot took a different approach turning turtle to present his soft belly with his tail hiked between his legs. All three whimpered beneath the domineering mare as she stood over top of them.

“Then I come to find out that not only had you captured one of my targets and were keeping it a secret.” Her voice was calm and sickly sweet. “But that in actuality you… Grabbed! The Wrong! Pony!” Rage burst forth and she punctuated the last word stomping the ground.

“But, but, but…” Rover fidgeted on the floor daring to look and point at Moondancer. “That’s the Nerdy Princess Pony!”

“Princessss Twilight,” she hissed, “has WINGS! Where do you see any on this loser!?”

“Hey!” Moondancer shouted, but was ignored.

Rover studied Moondancer the way Moondancer studied a book, drinking in every single feature. He looked back up at the snarling pegasus with the very prominent impossible to miss wings. He ping-ponged his gaze to Moondancer, then the Captain, Moondancer, Captain, Moondancer, Captain, Moondancer--

“Ah-ha!” Rover exclaimed his eureka moment. “Nerd Pony’s wings are under her sweater.” The dog basked in his own cleverness. Even Fido and Spot nodded with pride at their leader’s genius. The Captain kicked a dirt clod into Rover’s face.

“That’s not Twilight you brain-dead hounds!”

“I-I-I--” Rover stuttered.

“Leave.” She fumed.

“But we--”

“GET OUT!” The mare screamed and thrust her finger to the cell door.

Lassie flung open the door right as the three berated dogs barreled at it. She shut it and hid behind the wall from the shouting pony.

“This is what happens when you hire third party contractors. Utter incompetence.” The mare muttered to herself face-palming. “Little wonder how Rarity escaped them.”

She lifted up her goggles and pulled them and the latex hood off her head. Still shaking her head she floofed her hair back into shape and looked over to the bound pony in the center of the room.

“You’ll have to excuse them, they’re idiots.”

“I gathered that about two minutes in.” Moondancer said in a flat tone.

“Heh, still some fight in you, huh?” The mare snorted. “So tell me, how’re you doing?”

“Hunky Dory.” Moondancer’s sarcasm was sharp enough to cut glass. “Now that those dumb dogs finally get that I’m not Princess Twilight, how about you let me go?”

“Hmm…” The mare tapped her chin looking up towards the ceiling. She walked up to Moondancer with an exaggerated saunter. “How about… No.” She dropped her head back down, her golden eyes bored into Moondancer’s and she flicked the collar around the unicorn’s neck.

Moondancer’s pout was subtle against her usual facial expression, but the latex coated mare noticed it and smirked. A glint tore Moondancer away from the staring contest down towards the mare’s crotch. Nestled in-between two angular winged-skull cutie marks was a large round bulge that caught and reflected the light. A seam ran from between the mare legs up to a zipper clasp atop the squishy looking knob.

“My eyes are up here.” The mare teased. “And that,” she pointed to her bulge, “is only for very good fillies~” She traced her finger above Moondancer’s pants zipper, blue light from the cock ring shined through. “And from the looks of it, somepony must have been very naughty to get one of those put on them.”

“Who the flying feather are you and who are you working for! What’s really happening? What do you want with Twilight and her friends?” Moondancer spat. “And what the heck is with the tickling!?”

The mare ran her hand along Moondancer’s muzzle and chin as she walked around to her other side.

“The name’s Nightshade. I’m the Captain of the Shadowbolts, Equestria’s actual number one aerial team as well its number one set of…” she twiddled her other hand in the air, “erotic procurement specialists.”

“That’s the best you could come up with? What, no catchy acronym?”

“Marketing is still working on it, but I’m open to any suggestions.” Nightshade continued her uncomfortable amount of face touching — which for Moondancer was any amount — as the pegasus sat on the edge of the bondage chair. She looked over to Moondancer’s trapped feet and poked her sneakers hung next to them.

“Cute Converse, bet you wish they were covering those blushing soles of yours.”

Moondancer’s toes fidgeted and she growled, Nightshade paid her no mind. Instead she unknotted the laces and checked the tag on the inside of the tongue.

“Oh pretty big shoe size for a unicorn, you wouldn’t mind if I took these right? A little souvenir, considering you’ll never wear shoes again now that we’ve got you.” She dangled the red sneakers in front of Moondancer who grunted and turned away. Nightshade ran the soles of the sneakers down the side of Moondancer’s face.

Moondancer bit back her rage, not letting the bully get a rise out of her.

“Get used to that, you’re under my heel from now on!”

Nightshade tied the laces together and hung the sneakers around her shoulders. She disappeared to the back of the cell and rummage through the crates. A few clacking sounds emitted from her position and she cooed. Several clings and clangs followed, it sounded like Nightshade ran her finger back and forth around evenly spaced metal.

“Eenie meenie minie… moe!”

The metallic clacking stopped and a scraping noise took its place for a moment. Slow rubbery steps approached Moondancer from behind.

“First things first, gotta get you properly registered into our system. We both know those mutts aren’t filing the proper paperwork and whatnot.” Nightshade played with Moondancer’s right ear, squeezing and flicking it.

“Cut it out!” Moondancer yanked her head away but Nightshade pinched the tip of her ear and tugged it upwards.

“This’ll only hurt for a moment.”

Moondancer saw it too late to react. For a nanosecond her brain thought the red handled tool clamping onto her ear was pair of pliers. But pliers don’t have a spike. Nightshade clenched the ear-tag applicator’s handle. The steel spike pierced Moondancer’s ear merging two golden bits of metal on it into one. Moondancer was too shocked to even yelp. The farm animal earring dangled from its new home. The shiny heat shaped tag was engraved with #4443 and the words No Release under the number.

“Perfect~” Nightshade tossed the ear-tag applicator over her shoulder. It crashed into one of the crates. She hopped in front the stocks. Moondancer recovered enough to stare death at Nightshade. The pegasus missed the basilisk-esque glare and bent down inspecting the furious unicorn’s soles. The trapped cream feet snapped at her face but didn’t even generate a breeze.

“Wow, not only are you a shoe-in for Twilight looks wise,” Nightshade wiggled Moondancer’s shoes from around her neck.

“UUUUGGH!” Moondancer groaned at the awful pun

“But I’d say your feet are an exact match for hers.” Nightshade nodded impressed. “Well, before she ascended anyway.” She rolled her eyes. “Now she’s got some princess sized stompers.”

Moondancer pictured Twilight showing off her feet and blushed. ‘I wonder what Twi did with all her old shoes after her feet grew. I’d take them… Where did that thought come from?’ She shook sense into her head.

“Ohh, I see, geek’s got a crush on the nerdy princess~”

Moondancer stared forward and stonewalled Nightshade.

“Daww, so cute. Well whatever tickles your fancy.” Nightshade skirted her fingers over Moondancer’s foot barely avoiding contact.

“EEP!” Moondancer yelped but sucked in her lip. “You’re not clever or funny. The Diamond Dogs have been at this for days and haven’t broken me yet.”

“Filly, the situation you’re in is no laughing matter.” Nightshade tried and failed to keep a straight face. “I break ponies just for kicks.” She played with Moondancer’s stolen sneakers again. “You’d have to be barking mad to think whatever those mutts have done is anywhere near my skill level.”

“Oh my Celestia, this is somehow worse than the actual torture I’ve been put through.”

“Speaking of, have those dogs been applying the oil I gave them to these lil’ piggies?” Nightshade pinched a toe between her latex clad sharpened nails. Moondancer squealed like an actual pig.

“That’s a yes!” Nightshade licked her teeth, her tongue piercing rattled against them.

“These could prove useful. Congratulations, you just volunteered to be the lab rat in my new scientific experiment. Isn’t that exciting?” Nightshade leaned against the stocks, cocked an eyebrow, and smiled. “And if you ask nicely I’ll even let you write up the research paper, Nerd.” She bent down and flourished the full cruet of black oil.

“Everyone needs to stop calling me ‘nerd’! My name is Moondancer!” The nerd yelled.

“Whatever you say, Moon Prancer.” Nightshade patted Moondancer’s head and uncorked the bottle.

The unicorn’s teeth clenched. She was far more peeved at the space inserted into the middle of her name than Nightshade deliberately getting it wrong.

Nightshade poured the oil across all her toes and down the entire length of her soles. She placed the stopper back into the full bottle and swapped it for the hairdryer. You might not be Princess Twilight, but how ‘bout I call you Princess Nerd instead?”

“Only if I can call you Queen Bitch.” Moondancer scowled tempting fate.

“Deal!” Nightshade’s head shot forward and she grinned wide showing all her teeth. Her pierced tongue slipped between them.

Moondancer flinched. ‘Why am I such a magnet for crazy ponies?’

Nightshade flicked on the hairdryer and blasted Moondancer’s feet.

“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!” The unicorn screeched endlessly.

Chapter 8: Reading the Fine Print

Moondancer’s soles cooked beneath the thin film of shadowy ooze. Sweat beat down as the infernal oil roasted and wreaked havoc on her hormones. Her toes were bound back to the stocks by the cords. Moondancer swore steam wafted off of her feet, although that could have been from the condensation on her glasses from her heated gasps. Her cuffed cock throbbed back and forth as the glowing rings stimulated it and her testicles non-stop. Moondancer’s hips leapt forward, futilely humping the air. Her head bounced off the headrest and lulled to the side, her metal ear-tag clanged against the chair.

“Quitting on me already, Sweet Thing?” Nightshade asked as she dribbled more of the black oil down her prisoner’s feet and kneaded it in. “Can’t say I’m surprised. It only took half a day for five coat coats to break Twilight’s big brother, but you held up well enough — for some random dweeb.”

“Really though,” she continued, “you should be proud of yourself if for nothing other than you’re contributing valuable data on both the sensitivity oil as well as our denial tech. Isn’t that what a nerd like you’ve always dreamed of, becoming a lil’ science assistant?”

Nightshade tossed a hairdryer up and caught it. She flicked it on and blasted Moondancer’s feet with another wave of sweltering heat. She scooted beside the panting pony, the impromptu scarf of Moondancer’s stolen sneakers still hung around her neck. She flicked her latex-gloved fingers at Moondancer’s painful and stuffed erection, residue oil rained on her sensitive dick. Moondancer moaned and whimpered.

“Listen dork-- Moonflower.” Nightshade corrected herself as if she was doing Moondancer a kindness. “I’m still peeved that those dumb mutts grabbed the wrong pony and I need to take it out on somepony. So if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, really let me feel your anguish. Your sorrow. Your utter defeat.” She pumped an open hand around Moondancer’s erection, not touching it. “And, your lust! I just might feel inclined let you cum if you can convince me.” She lied as her other hand squished the bulge under her own suit.

“Get real!” Moondancer huffed lifting her head back up to face the mare.

Nightshade snorted. “There’s the little firecracker from this morning.” She blew a kiss at Moondancer’s dick. “Sorry little guy, maybe later.”

Nightshade hopped up and lazed over to the crates of torture tools the dogs stored behind Moondancer. The unicorn’s tagged ear twitched and toes shivered as Nightshade rummaged through a number of boxes.

“Feathers? No, I got plenty of those myself; Toothbrush? No; Comb? No; Ear tag pliers? Used them; Gem Polisher? Maybe. Hmm… Ohh, Perfect!”

Moondancer snarled as Nightshade patted the top of her head.

“Now, now geek. Is that anyway to treat the mare who’s going to give you what you wanted, something to read?”

Moondancer’s pupils dilated but she kept her cool, despite the bead of sweat that ran down the side of her head. “What’s the catch?”

Nightshade snorted and slithered behind the stocks. “The catch is,” she twirled an elegant fountain pen in her fingers, “that I’m going to write it on your feet! And I’m not going to stop until you figure out what I wrote and read it back to me.”

The color drained from Moondancer’s face.

“Now that’s the appropriate reaction~”

The golden point of the pen pushed into Moondancer’s right foot. With a snap of her wrist Nightshade drew a tiny circle shooting off into a horizontal line. Moondancer bit her lip and buried her head into the padded chair. Her eyes shook staring up at the ceiling. ‘That was only one pen stroke!’

Nightshade positioned the pen back onto her writing canvas. “Hope you can read cursive! Heh, now all those calligraphy classes don’t seem like such a waste of time anymore.”

She swooped the pen down, made a sharp left, and then swept it back to the right. The line continued uninterrupted spiking up and back down. The trapped mare above her screeched out laughter as ink trailed from the pen on her hyper-sensitive feet. It curved up and to the right and then flew back around, up, down, up into a circle, down and around to a tall and narrow loop-de-loop into a shorter loop. The pen finally lifted off Moondancer’s foot.

Moondancer panted like she’d ran a marathon. Well she panted like some who went outside for more than ten minutes a day who’d ran a marathon. Nightshade jabbed the pen on the foot adding a single dot to what she’d written. Moondancer chocked and sputtered on her breath.

Nightshade moaned in pleasure. “That was only the first word. By the time I finish writing this sentence you’re gonna scream like a filly.”

The pen tip prodded Moondancer’s foot again. Nightshade piloted the pen down and up, it felt like two tall hills were being followed by a slanted circle. The pen lifted off for a moment and touched down to the right. It slashed sideways again making a sudden turn down at a tight angle trailing left and hooked an about-face to the right, drawing a circle, followed by a backwards radical sign[9] and forming another loop before it fluctuated up and down on quick angles. After a sideways loop with a long trail down and around, it ended with another backwards radical sign.

[9] The square root symbol.

“Oh, can’t forget the punctuation!” Nightshade sliced the pen down in a vertical stroke and dotted her work. “Beautiful. So nerd, has that big brain of yours figured out what I wrote?”

Moondancer indeed had screamed like a filly and still was. The words on her oil altered feet continued to send overloads of sensory data through her.

“I HAHAHAHAHATE YOUHOHOHOHO!”

“Nope. Here let me write it again to give you another chance.” Nightshade offered smugly.

The tip of the fountain pen scrawled across Moondancer’s foot over and over. After writing the sentence half a dozen times Nightshade switched to Moondancer’s left foot and sped up. Nightshade wrote small to fit as many iterations as she could on Moondancer’s feet. No matter how small or tightly Nightshade wrote Moondancer could still feel every individual pen stroke. Nightshade wrote with the speed of a mare who’d put off starting a five-paragraph essay until the night before it was due.

“STAHAHAHAHAP! PLEHEHEHEHESE I CAN’T TAHAHAHAHAKE ANYMORE!!!” Moondancer begged. Her leg kicked and twitched but her foot couldn’t elude the pen.

“I guess this is what they meant when they said, ‘the pen is mightier than the sword.’” Nightshade cracked up at her own bad joke.

* * *

Moondancer’s horn ring went off twice as the balls of her feet and heels were coated in the unknown sentence, only her arches remained ungraffitied.

“I feel like a naughty schoolfilly being made to write lines on the chalkboard as punishment.” Nightshade teased. “If you don’t figure this out soon I’m gonna have the dogs come in here to clean off your feet and make them write it, and I doubt they’ll even spell half the words right.”

The pen lingered on Moondancer’s arch. The laughing unicorn sucked in a breath desperate to steady herself. Every movement from the pen had been torture and she’d tried to black it all out but to get through this she’d have to focus on each and every movement.

The first movement was the same a tiny circle with a horizontal line. Moondancer spurted out another laugh. ‘Focus!’ She scolded herself. Nightshade waited until the snickers stopped before she penned the next line. ‘Is she giving me a fighting chance? While I still have my wits. Ignore the cursive flourishes; what letters have a bar at the top? E, F, I[10], sometimes J, T and Z.’ The pen lifted off and swiped down curving to left.

[10] Any font, especially a san-serif font, without the bars on the capital ‘I’ is wrong, that character is a lowercase ‘l’. Fite me.

“J! It’s a J, or maybe a fancy F or T!” Moondancer shouted.

Nightshade gave no indication if Moondancer was correct and kept writing letters. ‘The spike is probably a vowel unless it starts with consonant blend. No!’ “It’s got to be an ‘i’! I know there’s an ‘i’ because of the damn tittle you keep adding at the end!” Moondancer grit her teeth against the tickling sensation.

“The what?” Nightshade asked.

“Tittle, it’s the dot above an ‘i’ or ‘j’”

“Nightmare Moon, I wish there was plumbing down here just so I could give you a swirly for actually knowing that. What’s next, gonna flex about knowing what aglets are?” Nightshade bullied.

The sideways semi-circle was an easy guess for Moondancer but the rest of the word was a jumble of loops. Nightshade ground the tittle in extra hard this time. Moondancer’s mind raced to decipher the first word before Nightshade could continue and derail her train of thought. The first letter can’t be start with ‘J’ if the next two are ‘-i-c’. ‘F-i-c’? Fiction maybe, that could fit a book theme? What else; ficus, fictile, fickle--

“TICKLE!” Moondancer shrieked at the top of her lungs. “The first word is tickle, you bitch!”

“Took you long enough, honestly it was pretty obvious. What about the rest of the words though?”

Quick as a whip scribbled out the rest of the sentence. She paused to give the giggling girl a moment to guess. Moondancer stuttered but couldn’t think what the other words were. The second word seemed like it must be ‘no’ because of the rounded top strokes and the circling end before pen lifted to the third word.

The word was coming up again. Moondancer squeezed her eyes shut right after the tittle and dug her muzzle into her sweater. ‘Down-stroke and up-stroke right on top, small hump-- Gahh is that a shoulder or an arc! Another stem, another hump, it curves into a circle-- No! It’s too loose it’s gotta be an e--’ “ME! MEHEHEHEHE! REALLYHEHEHEHEHEHE?”

“Told you it was obvious. Ya know, for a nerd you’re not all that bright.”

Nightshade carved the last word into Moondancer’s sole. Time would crawl for Moondancer as she ran through every possible word and letter combination in her head with each stroke from the fountain pen. ‘It has to be something degrading. It’s not ‘please’, it’s not her name, it isn’t diamond dogs. Something ‘-er’? Rover? No it’s too short for any of their names.’

Nightshade started on the fifth repetition since she’d guessed the second word. She started with a top bar like the first word.

“AHHH-HAHAHAHAHAHA!” Laughter exploded out of Moondancer unable to resist anymore.

‘If I can’t figure this out she’s going to keep doing writing on my feet forev--’

“TICKLE ME FOREVER!” Moondancer cried out as her horn ring exploded out another search spell.

Nightshade dropped the pen without even finishing the exclamation point of the final line. The Diamond Dogs clamored about around the cell digging up the remaining gems in that portion of the caverns.

“Congrats dweeb, you figured it out!” Nightshade clapped her hands sarcastically. “And here’s your prize, your request shall be granted!”

“LEHEHEHEHEHT MEHEHEHEHEHE GOHOHOHOHOHO!”

Nightshade’s fingers skittered between Moondancer’s toes. The latex coated phalanges skated over ever surface and smeared the ink all over Moondancer’s soles. The poor mare could only laugh and laugh as the ruthless pegasus practiced her finger-painting.

Moondancer’s feet were stained a translucent black. Nightshade covered up the few remaining splotches of unmarred skin and dirtied Moondancer’s toes as well.

“And for the finishing touch,” Nightshade hefted up the hairdryer again.

Moondancer’s pupils shrunk like micro black holes evaporating from Hawkwing radiation.

“Didn’t you wonder why I never had to refill the pen?”

The gust from the hairdryer struck Moondancer’s feet with gale force. The black oil ink melted her soles like lava. No more noise came from Moondancer. Her chest still expanded and contracted wildly, but her laughter had grown silent.

Chapter 9: Sole Love

Another day, another cavern for Moondancer’s magic to help mine. Nightshade turned off the scalding hairdryer, spat the fountain pen out of her mouth, and cracked her knuckles. The remnant of the words Permanent Prisoner faded into Moondancer’s heel. She ran the hairdryer’s torrid blast across the unicorn’s toes left to right seeping the letters M-O-O-N-D-A-N-C-E-R into each toe respectfully. “Wow, my hand is tried. You’d think two hours of stroking yourself every night would build up more endurance.”

Moondancer didn’t respond. Nightshade waved her hand in front of the mare in glasses’ face, still nothing. She scribbled each letter of her own name onto Moondancer’s toes and melted the letters N-I-G-H-T-S-H-A-D-E into her feet as well, still nothing. When Nightshade looked in her eyes, they were purple but nobody was home. Moondancer was in her own little world and could only mutely laugh as the black oil ravaged her body from her feet, up to her aching erection.

Nightshade shrugged unbothered, Moondancer sneakers jumbled about — still Nightshade’s favorite new fashion accessory. “Welp I’m gonna take a break, but I wouldn’t want you to feel alone.” Nightshade poked her muzzle through the cell door bars. “Yo Rover, your lil’ pet is ready to see you again~” She sung.

Rover raced to the cell door and was let inside.

“Did Nerd Pony miss me?” Rover’s tail wagged furiously.

“Oh yeah! Moonage Daydream-whatever here has been begging to see you puppies again.”

“Girl loves me!” Rover smirked and panted missing all the sarcasm.

“Keep her entertained for a few hours. I had a wicked idea that I need to see a guy about.” Rover nodded but when he looked back, silent as a shadow, Nightshade disappeared. Lassie swung her head about also confused where the squeaky pony had disappeared too. Both sniffed the air and then the ground but smelled nothing.

Rover twisted his head back and saw the broken nerd laughing to herself and forgot about the Shadowbolt Captain. The dog scurried up to her and tapped her horn ring. The gems and runes on it were as dull as he was. His eyes darted down to see that her cock ring was glowing bright as ever. Cock rings! A new one had been added right under her flare which it mercilessly squeezed. The new ring rubbed and vibrated in sync with the one around the base of her throbbing shaft. Rover booped her dick with his nose as he inhaled deeply.

“AHHHHHH!”

Rover fled backwards and ran in tight circles on all fours. His head snapped to the source of the scream, Moondancer was lucid again. The pony alternated between moans and giggles as her cock swayed in the cool air from the touch of Rover’s snout.

Rover’s ears folded forward and his heart thundered in his chest but he dashed up to Moondancer anyway.

“Nerd Pony okay?” Rover gently nuzzled the mare.

“Cum… feet… please… need to cum… my feet… tickling… cum…”

Moondancer’s eyes were fixated on her cock and had not even glanced towards Rover. Her fingers reached and stretched towards her privates from their confines. Rover’s paw hovered towards Moondancer’s shaft but hesitated when he eyed her ear-tag, No Release.

“Captain told us prisoners may never cum.” He said disappointed. “We missed Nerd Pony. She is an even better gem finder than Miss Rarity.” Rover looked out through the cell door. Diamond Dogs were pushing cartfuls of gems around, Fido and Spot were along some of them. Rover waved to them and they waved back.

“Everydog says hi!” Rover burrowed his snout into Moondancer’s face again. “No fun digging up jewels all day while only Captain gets to play with you.”

Moondancer laughed to herself unaware of Rover. Her feet pulled agents the toe ties but couldn’t move — they remained splayed out taut and ticklish. Rover tugged down the neck of Moondancer’s sweater and revealed the collar he’d strapped on her. His claws fumbled with the latch, but he unbuckled it after a few tries. He slipped the black leather off her and shoved it in his pants pocket. His paw fished inside his vest pocket and pulled out another collar, however this one was deep red like a garnet. It was studded with polished opalescent round jewels. Rover held it up for Moondancer to see.

“I made new collar for Nerd Pony. See it has moonstones like Nerd Pony’s actual name.” He grinned proud of himself and awaited praise.

“Heh, hecatolite~” Moondancer absently giggled as the cock rings buzzed away.

Rover blinked.

“I mined them myself, for you.” He snuggled up beside Moondancer and put her new collar on, held pulled it tight enough to always feel the presence of but not too tight as to constrict breathing at all.

“It looks beautiful. Just like pony wearing it.” Roved gave her a Nice Guy™ smile. His paw accidently nudged her cock as her leaned back admiring her.

“Please… cum… feet... cum…” Moondancer eked out each word through arousal and dry laughter.

Rover’s head, ears, and tail all shot straight up. He bolted to her feet and threw the toe rings off. Moondancer rolled her feet and flex her toes with a hot and bothered shutter. The oil had soaked in and left her smooth soles glistening and blushing. Droll pooled at Rover’s feet followed by his ripped shorts which he kicked away.

Rover’s erection jutted out, Moondancer’s cute curling toes could almost touch it. Almost would not satisfy the Diamond Dog. He shuffled forward, his torrid dick smacked against Moondancer’s feet. Her toes fanned out at the touch, she moaned hoarsely, and lifted her head up to see what had touched her. A fleshy red arrow-shaped object bobbed just above the stocks. Moondancer’s vacant eyes starred at the tiny white bubble seeping out of it, puzzling what it could be. The blue veins beneath the mysterious thing’s surface beat with need.

Moondancer’s eyes lit up then her eyelids closed halfway and her tongue fell out of her mouth. The dumb look on her face made Rover’s throat gulp but his dick pulse. Her giggles finally dying down she waved her feet and stroked Rover’s member with them. The dog howled like a wolf. The whistle echoed down every cavern.

He stood on his tiptoes and ground up and down her smooth soles rippling the skin with his shaft, the head of his dick thrust between the big and index toes on both her feet. Both panted hard. Rover’s claws wrapped around the top of the stocks and tore into the wood. His balls slapped against her arches and heels.

An audience gathered in front of the cell door. Fido, Spot, Lassie, Bewlay, and every other dog around shoved each other to get a good look at the show. Rover furiously humped Moondancer’s feet nonstop. Her toes curled around his cock and she rubbed him back just as hard. In Moondancer’s oil addled mind it was a different dick dominating her delicate feet.

Instead of a mangy, unwashed, dimwitted dog she saw the most beautiful pony in all of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle. Large welcoming eyes, an immaculate lavender coat, large wings that could wrap a mare in their warm embrace while reading a book together, tall, the geekiest yet somehow hottest haircut under Celestia’s sun, and a thick purple alicorn cock currently blessing her newly erogenous soles with its divine touch. ‘Holy Celestia, Twilight please don’t stop I need you so bad~’

The two cock rings sealed around Moondancer’s shaft bathed them both in blue light as her imprisoned member pulsated with explosive need. She cooed as they tickled and squeezed her shaft’s tip, base, as well as her balls. Rover slowed down, grunting harder with every second the footjob continued.

“N-nerd Pony, go-going to--”

“ON MY FEET! DO IT ON MY FEET!” The broken mare screamed.

Moondancer pinched the base Rover’s shaft between her heels and throttled it like a librarian who found a pony dog-earing pages. A string of cum shot out from his dick and splattered under Moondancer’s toes and the thick gooey spunk slid down to the balls of her feet. Rover’s nuts throbbed again and he sprayed another shot onto Moondancer’s arch and instep. Her heel kept up the pressure and he slathered her other foot in white globs. Rover pumped out lob after lob of semen. Wads of jizz landed over every part of her soles, toes, and sides of her feet. Rover looked upon his work and smiled. The ropes painted every which way along her feet could have been mistake for a lost Jackson Pawlock masterpiece.

“I wanted to do that.” Spot pouted from outside the cell.

Rover panted in bliss and wiped his softening dick on her heel. His nerdy masturbatory aid however still grunted with need humping the air. The cell door creaked open and the pack scampered in. The dogs sniffed Moondancer’s cum-stained feet, impressed with how thoroughly Rover had marked his territory. The Diamonds Dogs cozied up to her laying their heads on her legs, arms, and annoyingly not on her crotch.

“PLEASE! I know you’re not Twi, but please just take off the cock rings for one minute!” Moondancer pleaded. She wiggled her toes at Rover. Warm strands of his semen glistered between her toes and the balls of her feet.

Rover reached over the stocks gripped the cock ring under her flare and gave it a small twist, he chuckled and twisted the ring back letting go. Moondancer sniveled her wide eyes watering and mouth agape. Rover scooped up gobs of cum that landed on the stocks with his pointer and middle claws. He smeared the top of Moondancer’s suffering cock with the middle claw.

“No.” Rover knelt beside her and held his pointed finger, the white syrupy blob clump a kiss away. He nuzzled her cheek. “This is as close as Nerd Pony is allowed to get.”

Moondancer glanced down and saw his red cock had grown stiff again. She leaned forward and suckled the cum off his finger, and then nuzzled him back. The collar around Moondancer’s throat never felt tighter — or more appropriate.

Chapter 10: A Dance with the Devil

If the Diamond Dogs had one good trait about them, and from Moondancer’s point of view it was pretty much literally only one, it was that they were warm. Cuddled up on her doggy bed in the corner with her were five dog — Rover, Fido, and Spot as well as two guards whose names she didn’t know. Lassie snored from her post out the cell and Bewlay had run off whimpering last night after he licked her face for a couple of minutes mumbling ‘sorry’ repeatedly. All the other dogs who’d been there had returned to mining as far she could guess.

Moondancer laid in silence, enjoying the few precious moments of her day where she wasn’t being tormented and her mind could piece itself back together. ‘Yesterday… I’m losing it down here. I asked him to cum on my feet.’ Moondancer scrunched them, dried semen crackled along the wrinkles, she flinched. ‘So gross.’ She cupped her crotch. ‘Even flaccid these stupid rings won’t come off.’

‘Morning Roast has to have reported me missing by now, and if not her First Folio should have noticed I haven’t been at the library. Even then, not like anypony’ll ever find me down here.’ Moondancer sighed. ‘I miss so many ponies: Minuette, Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine, Honey Lemon, even Twi’s annoying friend Pinkie.’

Moondancer took a calming breath. ‘I am not spending the rest of my life down her as some foot fetish obsessed dog’s pet. I will outsmart them and Nightshade. I will escape and warn Twi and the others about these freaks coming after them. And Celestia as my witness, I! Will! Cum!’ She clasped her fist pumping them. Spot stirred, his eyelid peering open looking right at her. ‘Oh shi--’

“Hi Nerd Pony” Spot yawned. He stretched his limb kicking a guard in the head and thumping into Rover’s side.

All the dogs fumbled about waking up. ‘And the torture starts again.’ Rover stood up and cracked his back. He bent down and ruffled Moondancer’s mane.

“Pet is super comfy.” Rover said with glee. “You ready for breakfast and walkies?”

Moondancer nodded while rolling her eyes. Rover attached the lead to her new bejeweled namesake-esque collar. ‘This would almost be sweet if it weren’t a Celestia-damn dog collar.’ Rover gestured to the door. Moondancer started crawling next to him not waiting for a tug. Lassie opened the cell door and pulled the hinges from the wall as other dogs packed up the room to move everything to an untapped section of the mine.

* * *

Rover swung the stocks closed and locked them. The excited dog skipped the lengthy process of strapping her all the way down instead he opted to only buckle her wrists to the armrest. Moondancer stretched out and clenched her feet to flake off the residual dried cum. ‘He’d better freaking wash my feet.’ Rover dropped his pants and angled his erection at Moondancer’s soles.

“Are you serious!?” Moondancer fumed.

“Huh? What’s wro--”

“You’re not cumming on my feet again!”

“But yesterday you--”

“Yesterday was a mistake! This whole kidnapping has been a giant one.”

Rover whimpered and tugged his shorts back up.

“Now you can start by cleaning your mess off my feet! It’s disgusting you’d think that cumming on them was okay…” Moondancer paused, “Without cleaning them off.” She blushed hard and chewed on her sweater. ‘I do NOT need this to become my new fetish. Luna only knows I have enough… Wait Luna can see ponies dreams… Wow I never realized how factual that idiom probably is.’

A pair of hands gripped Moondancer by her shoulders. “Come again?”

Moondancer shrieked and her heart smacked against her ribs while Rover jumped with a squeal and almost bashed his head into the ceiling.

Moondancer winched as fingers gouged into her shoulders. Nightshade’s head sliced thought the air over one like a shark stalking through water. She did not turn her head, glance at Moondancer, or even blink. Her eyes bore into Rover who looked ready to wet himself. “I’m sorry, who did you say came? Because I don’t remember giving anyone, pony or dog, permission to.”

The frightened mutt tensed his shoulders and pointed at Nightshade. “H-hey! I d-don’t need your permission...”

Nightshade didn’t interrupt or change her expression. The rest of Rover’s augment died in his throat. Ears folded forward he bowed his head down to match.

“Corner. Sit.” Nightshade snapped her fingers and pointed.

Rover darted into a corner in front of Moondancer and Nightshade; he sat down and turned his head back towards them.

“Nose against the wall!” Nightshade barked.

Rover yipped and mashed his snout into the bedrock. Nightshade relaxed her grip on Moondancer’s shoulders but pinched her muzzle instead. Her head still facing forward Nightshade’s eye darted towards Moondancer and glared like a jaguar.

“I bet Rover made you feel like the prettiest star in the sky, didn’t he?”

Moondancer shook her head terrified.

“No? So you’d never let me down by cumming without permission, would you Moonstone?” Her icy tone froze Moondancer’s blood. Nightshade thumbed the jewels on Moondancer’s new collar. The strap of leather felt as if it’d shrunk two sizes.

Moondancer trembled and shook her head again.

“Good girl.” Nightshade pulled away.

Moondancer breathed a sigh of relief. Nightshade trotted around the chair, her fingers glided down Moondancer’s body, in her other hand she carried a black suitcase. She dropped it in front of the stocks and bent down inspecting Moondancer’s cum-caked soles. The unicorn’s stolen pair of red Converse still hung over the pegasus’s shoulders. Nightshade pried back Moondancer’s big toes and equipped the toe straps dangling from the stocks.

“Unbelievable.” She let out an exacerbated sigh. “I guess I’ll have to whip these back into shape.”

“That was a metaphor and not a pun, right.” Moondancer said eyes wide.

Seemingly out of thin air, Nightshade lifted up a crop for Moondancer to see. The unicorn’s heart skipped a beat.

“Since you asked~”

“You can’t do this!”

“I can’t? Don’t make me laugh.” Nightshade wiggled an eyebrow emphasizing the last word. Nightshade threw her arm over her head and lined up her shot. She waited and watched the word ‘no’ form on Moondancer’s lips and--

The crop hurtled down like a lightning bolt and struck the center of Moondancer’s left foot. The unicorn bellowed out an unholy scream. The dried strings of semen shattered apart like icing on a freshly bitten donut. Nightshade ripped her arm back up and whipped the right foot. Moondancer screeched again, like a banshee in the night. In the corner Rover held down his ears and whimpered from the cacophonous screams.

“Music to my ears~” Cooed Nightshade. “Maybe I should let the dogs paint your feet every night if cleaning them is this fun.”

Nightshade prodded Moondancer’s soles with the flog of the crop, bits of Rover’s cum flaked off.

“NO! PLEASE! Tickle me! For the love of Celestia tickle my feet instead.”

“Aww, come on. What happened to all your rebel, rebel?” Nightshade mocked. She kneaded the crop into Moondancer’s stinging soles. “Besides, I harbor no love for Celestia, so that’s not a real effective plea. Buuuuuut, since I like your whole geek flare Moonshine, maybe I can let you off with just those two warning pats.”

Moondancer’s flustered sweating face nodded with rapid glee. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“I’m such a softy! Honestly, it’s my biggest character flaw.” Nightshade lulled her head back wistfully.

“Pffft.” Moondancer sorted unable to contain her sarcastic outburst. She winced expecting Nightshade to blow up at her.

“Don’t believe me?” Nightshade asked with no malice.

Nightshade lifted the toe-ties off of Moondancer’s feet, unlocked the padlock on the stocks, and lifted them open. Moondancer cautiously lifted her feet out and set them on the dirt floor. Nightshade dropped Moondancer’s high-tops on the mare’s lap and freed her wrist.

“Let’s dance!”

“Wha…?”

“Put on your red shoes, dance with me, and I’ll prove to you that I have a soft side. At least when it comes to subby lil’ mares.”

Moondancer looked around the room for the hidden cameras or anything that could explain Nightshade’s mood shift, she found nothing. ‘She’s actually just a crazy pony.’ Moondancer caressed her sneakers. They weighed heavily in her arms. ‘Safe… I’d forgotten what these even felt like.’ She smiled gently.

Nightshade leaned against the chair with her arms crossed smiling at Moondancer and wait for her.

‘Even if this is a trick, I’m not passing up on the chance to have shoes on again!’ Moondancer thought. Socks lost in the first cave Moondancer didn’t bother asking about them and slipped her sneakers on. She doubled knotted the laces as if that would prevent them from being taken again.

Nightshade offered a hand and helped Moondancer stand up. Moondancer felt taller than ever before. The pegasus wrapped an arm around the dorky mare’s waist and pulled her close. Nightshade led, she moved them to music playing only in her head. The Shadowbolt’s suit squrrrked with every step as they danced around the room.

This was the longest Moondancer had been on her feet since her capture and they felt odd doing their job again. Her shoes were a bit stuffy without socks on but she didn’t mind. Moondancer liked the feeling of something pressed protectively against her overly sensitive soles and wiggled her toes inside. ‘These feel… smaller? I’ve gone too long without them.’ Nightshade lifted her arm up and pirouetted her partner in place. She dipped Moondancer down supporting her by her waist. Moondancer was given an upside down look at Rover still in the corner trying to move his head to watch while still keeping his nose against the wall. Nightshade pulled Moondancer back up and locked eyes with her, there muzzles almost touching. Moondancer blushed hard looking up at the pegasus.

“Come on Moonrise, shake it!” Nightshade grooved in place.

“I’ve haven’t really danced all that much despite my name. …Are you only doing this to make fun of it?”

“No.” Nightshade assured her. “I guess you could say I’m mooning over you.”

Nightshade spurt out a laugh and snorted at her own lame joke. Moondancer giggled too at the whole surreal moment. Nightshade pressed her lips against Moondancer’s. The unicorn melted under the soft kiss needing Nightshade to support her weight. Moondancer could taste the metal as Nightshade’s pierced tongue darted into her mouth.

“Open the cell door and scram.” Nightshade called out to Lassie.

Confused, but not dumb enough to question the shiny scary pegasus, Lassie pulled the door open and wondered off.

“Here’s the deal my lil’ Princess Nerd.” Nightshade lifted Moondancer’s chin and stared longingly into her eyes. “You can leave now, run out the door, and go home, I won’t let any of the dogs chase you.”

Moondancer turned her head to the opened pathway to freedom.

“Or, you can stay.” Nightshade stroked Moondancer’s cheek and turned her gaze back.

“… I would be your slave.”

“You’d be my broken lil’ tickle pet. The Diamond Dogs and I will make every single day a kinky torturous experience as your feet are tickled and pampered endlessly. Although, there might be a promotion for you in the near future, I have… an idea or two. What do you say?” Nightshade let go of Moondancer and took a step back.

Moondancer bolted to the door. Outside the cell she glanced over her shoulder, Nightshade hadn’t moved. Her head turned back around and she ran towards the nearest tunnel--

Moondancer exploded out in laughter and tumbled to the ground. She screamed and rolled around in the dirt. Her fist beat against the floor, her tail whipped cracking the air, and her legs bent up to her chest but sprung out again with another boisterous laugh. A wave of magic burst from her horn and gems inside the wall lit up. Her hands flailed at her feet. Her fingers grasped the loop of one of her sneaker’s laces, but the double knot held fast and another kick tore them from her grasp. Nightmarish whirling and clacking sounds emanated from her shoes.

“MAHAHAKE ITTTT S-STOP! MAHAHAHAKE IT STAHAHAHAHAHAHAOP! PLEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHASE!!!”

Nightshade strolled over to the thrashing unicorn, she tucked a small remote control inside the top of her boot.

“You had me worried there for a second.” She said sarcastically. “I can’t tell you how happy I am you’ve decide to stay with us, forever~”

Another gem finding spell discharged from Moondancer’s horn. It was the most powerful yet lighting up buried gems several caverns over. Diamond Dogs rushed around digging up gems in front of them.

“Was it your modded sneakers that convinced you? I know a Roo who just loves tormenting pony feet and he did a rush job on these just for you. You should thank him; after all he’s the one who gave me the tickle torture idea in the first place.”

Nightshade grabbed each of the unicorn’s twitching ankles. She dragged the facedown mare back into her cell. Moondancer fingers left a trail of claw marks in their wake. Tears welled up in her eyes and she howled with more and more endless laughter.

Chapter 11: The Setting of the Moon

Hours had passed and an exhausted Moondancer sagged still fully strapped in her bondage chair. Her laughter has been silenced an hour in when Nightshade shoved a large red ball-gag into her muzzle and strapped it on. Drool leaked out from behind the gag. Nightshade fastened a blindfold onto her as well engulfing Moondancer’s world in a dark void of sensations. Her large ears hadn’t even been spared.

The last thing Moondancer heard, besides her own screams of laughter, was Nightshade telling her, “These are some of my favorites.”

Clipped to her ears a few tiny brushes spun inside tickling them while a speaker enchanted to sound like Nightshade’s voice read books to her. Except, they weren’t regular books, Nightshade’s voluptuous voice read her erotic fan-fiction after erotic fan-fiction. Daring Do, Shadow Spade, and even multiple pieces of smut written about the Princesses[11]; each one pumped directly into her tickle addled brain. Her poor cock stood at attention, and like before was stuffed full of sounding beads, titillated by the two cock rings, and absolutely unable to cum.

[11] With an aberrant amount of them being about Princess Twilight.

However, the feet Moondancer had thought would be safe nestled inside her crimson Converse experience the most grueling torment of all. The insoles of her shoes had been replaced with array of devious devices. Tiny fuzzy drill bits spun between each of her toes. They rose and sunk into the insole buffeting the sides and bottoms of her toes at different times almost like they were playing an instrument — which based on the variations in lengths and pitch of giggles, chuckles, guffaws, and screams from Moondancer before she was gagged, they pretty much had been.

Scores of thin metal claws poked and prodded the balls of her feet as well as the outside of her arches. The spider-like daggers dug in her flesh and skittered up and down. Each one dragged into her foot for random lengths. Some claws took their sweet time to make her feel every bit of their journey, while others poked her a hundred times a minute. Each one made a tikka sound as it scratched. Altogether they sounded like a swarm of locust plaguing her feet.

The centers of both of her soles were treated to a long vertical brush each. They spanned from the balls of her feet to her heel. The soft fibers pummeled her foot’s most sensitive part round and round as the brush rotated ad-infinitum. The RPM of the brushes varied every few minutes from extremely fast to what Moondancer thought must have been approaching the speed of light.

Moondancer’s heels were tenderized by both the pricking claws and smaller disk shaped brushes. The small polishers were on ends of the same mechanical arms as the claws and traveled around the circumference of her heel spinning away as the claws jabbed in-between them. Together each of the tiny machines inside her shoes functioned like clockwork tickling the entirety of her sweating feet endlessly.

* * *

Nightshade’s sultry voice read in graphic detail a scene of Princess Twilight Sparkle on her hands and knees servicing the divine member of Nightmare Moon. The story was about Twilight failing to stop Nightmare Moon after her return during the Summer Sun Celebration and becoming the dark queen’s sex slave. How Twilight was a princess in this timeline if she failed to find the Elements of Harmony seemed to have escaped the author’s notice. They opted instead to replace any such details with multiple paragraphs dedicated to the size, shape, and taste of Nightmare Moon’s cock in Twilight’s mouth. Moondancer loved it. The entire time her hips jerked forward and her ball pulsated, desperate to do the one thing they could not.

Right as Twilight swallowed the third load of royal spunk being pumped directly down her throat the story cut off. Nightshade pulled out the tickling earbuds and draped them over the back of the chair.

“Hey Moonbeams, you still with us?”

A garbled moan leaked out from behind the ball-gag followed by more hip thrusting and stifled laughs.

“Good to hear!” Nightshade unbuckled the blindfold and tore it off.

Moondancer blinked, her eyes adjusted back to a world of shapes and colors. It did nothing to lessen the abuse her feet were still facing inside her shoes. Nightshade tugged the ball-gag free from Moondancer’s mouth, a chorus of pent up laughter ruptured out. She pulled out the controller and twisted a knob. The reign of steel and brushes slowed down to a crawl but did not end. Moondancer kept tittering like a madpony, her pinprick sized pupils shaking.

Nightshade climbed onto the chair and sat on the stocks and dominated Moondancer’s vision. She rested her feet on Moondancer’s thighs. Nightshade sported new boots, a pair of knee high Converse, purple and black with lightning bolts, matching yellow laces, and purple straps that ran across them buckling them tighter to her legs.

“Like ‘em Moonwalker? I picked these out so we could match.” Nightshade waved her boot next to Moondancer’s desperate cock. She rolled her ankle and lofted her foot up and down careful not to touch. “Now that you’ve had some time to think it over, and see what happens when you go against my wishes, I wanted to offer you the deal again.” Nightshade booped the top of the throttled dick with her boot.

“C-cum! I need to cum! Please, please, please--”

“Ugg!” Nightshade rolled her eyes. “‘Please Mistress Nightshade, let me cum’; ‘My girldick will explode if you don’t unplug it’; ‘I neeeeed it’, blah-blah-blah. You sound just like my girlfriend after I first captured her. You subs need new lines, these ones get tiresome after a while.” Nightshade planted Moondancer’s cock between her shoes.

“I’m serious about having you join the Shadowbolts. You like books? I can give you tomes banned millennia ago. You want to know things?” Nightshade leaned in. The temperature plummeted in the room and it grew darker.

“I can tell you secrets that would have Equestria razed. Teach you magic blacker than the night. Give you artifacts that make Discord look like a foal in comparison. Show you worlds beyond your terrestrial bounds, every star in the night sky would be at your fingertips. And even force time to bow down before you.” Nightshade’s cold breath was visible and wisped in the air.

“And aren’t you sick of this society? We would be able to help reshape the whole world for the better. The chains shackled upon all sentient beings by the greedy, selfish, and ignorant would be broken. I offer you knowledge and freedom. True and pure and absolute!” Nightshade’s golden eyes glowed.

“Accept and I’ll even offer a one-time sign on bonus, I’ll allow you to cum.” Nightshade smiled and the room returned to normal in an instant.

‘Was she actually doing that or was it my imagination?’ Moondancer questioned her sanity.

“Refuse, and well, I wouldn’t wanna be in your shoes.” Nightshade snickered, reached behind herself, and squeezed the toe caps of Moondancer’s sneakers while her feet rubbed the unicorn’s cock again.

Moondancer moaned or groaned — Nightshade didn’t care what the difference between the two was, all she wanted was an answer. She crept her sneakers upwards with her prisoner’s dick squeezed in-between them. Once they reached the head of her cock Nightshade dragged them back down and choked the ringed base.

“You’re friends with Twilight; you could easily lead her into a trap for us.”

“N-no.” Moondancer protested weakly.

“Think about it. Her in this chair instead of you. Her big feet locked in these stocks for you to have your way with. You could torment them all day. Rubbing, tickling, and even… kissing. They would be your property.”

“MMMMMMMFFF!”

“And you could even train her to worship yours.”

Nightshade shoved one of her sneakers into Moondancer’s open mouth. Her eyes fluttered, she didn’t spit out the boot or pull away, but slobbered her tongue all over the rubber toe cap and trim.

“Good girl~” Nightshade purred.

Moondancer’s tongue lulled out of her mouth and Nightshade ran the edges of both of shoes over it a couple of times. She nodded satisfied they were lubricated enough and continued Moondancer’s shoejob.

“Moonlight, wouldn’t you rather it’d be you, a friend, to be her captor rather than those dumbass dogs or me? You’d be dressed in a shiny new suit like mine, and at the end of every day after you’ve tickled the Princess senseless you could follow Rover’s lead…” She squeezed the tip of Moondancer’s cock between her squeaky sneakers.

“HHHNNNNNNNMMMMMMGGGGG~”

“Hear that pupper? That’s motivation!”

The cuckolded cur in the corner sniffled hearing all the fun but unable to participate. His penis throbbed inside his shorts but he wouldn’t — couldn’t — touch it. Not with the more dominant pony there to scold him again. After all, no one wants to be a bad dog.

Nightshade unzipped her suit’s crotch. A blue shaft sprung free and quickly hardened to an enormous size. The pegasus watched it reflected in the helpless nerd’s glasses as she stroked herself.

“Also your name is really on brand for us.” Nightshade chuckled. “You know you can’t resist, so surrender and join the Shadowbolts. Cum. Be somepony instead of a minor character in your own life for once. Let me be the star who aides in your escape.”

Nightshade sped up her shoejob. Her knee-high Converse blurred up and down Moondancer’s shaft. The loops and end of her shoelaces flailed about like a certain nerdy unicorn mare whenever she was being tickled. Nightshade’s shoes went on and on, she would only pause to add another coat of lubrication from the panting unicorn’s tongue. She spun the intensity dial for Moondancer’s tickle shoes to random settings.

“Make me know you really care about what I’m offering you. About what it would mean to become a Shadowbolt.”

“I-I-I…”

Nightshade gasped and savored every stroke she gave herself in time with her pumping feet.

“You want this!”

“I w-want…”

Moondancer’s testicles were ready to burst. Her spunk battered against the magical clog. Cum wasn’t churning in them anymore, there was no empty space left for it to slosh at all.

“You need this~”

“Need… Cum… Twi… Feet… Cum…”

“You WILL join!”

“I’ll join!!! Celestiadammit I’ll do whatever you say!” Moondancer screamed at the top of her lungs. “Please just let me cum.” She whined and sniffled pathetically.

Nightshade’s feet halted mid-stoke. Her cheshire grin stretched ear to ear. She clasped her free hand around the top cock ring on Moondancer and inserted her finger through the sounding beads’ ringlet. The unicorn panted, her pupils heart-shaped with lust for her reward. Nightshade tore them out and stomped on Moondancer’s cock, nothing came out. Nightshade’s fingers squeezed her own shaft and semen gushed forth, glazing her shoes in thick creamy white spunk.

One of her feet smeared some of her cum over Moondancer’s shuddering dick and she shoved the other one into Moondancer’s mouth. Tears welled up in Moondancer’s eyes as she licked the cum off.

“Aww, did you think I was going to let you come now? You’ll have to prove your loyalty first. I wanna see you twitching with need as you lure Twilight into our clutches, knowing that only once she is ours will you ever be able to squirt.”

Nightshade crammed her other sneaker into Moondancer’s mouth for polishing. Globs of cum were whisked away by Moondancer dedicated tongue. ‘This might be the closest I ever get to cumming again.’ Moondancer tasted rubber, canvas, and sperm — it was the most delicious meal she ever had.

Nightshade admired the literal spit shine, not a stand remained. The rubber glistened ever so beautifully. Nightshade reached in front of the stocks with her wing and hefted up the suitcase. The lid snapped open and she unfurled a latex Shadowbolt suit.

“Let’s get you in uniform~”

Moondancer whimpered, but her wide eyes stared at her own needy cock instead of the suit. The ignored pegasus jumped off the chair, and grumped.

“You’re such a pathetic loser. I’m putting on a show here and you--” She threw her hands up. “I should introduce you to my girlfriend so you know see what actual denial looks like. She hasn’t cum in years,” Nightshade mashed her muzzle against Moondancer’s, “literal years.”

She cocked her head to the side and slipped her tongue down Moondancer’s throat savoring the remnants of her flavor still in the nerd’s mouth. Nightshade twisted the sneaker’s control dial to max and tossed the suit overtop the laughing and screaming unicorn. The claws and brushes inside Moondancer’s sneakers attacked her feet with greater force than before. The black oil was sprayed out from the brushes as they scrubbed it into her feet and it dribbled down the claws seeping into where they dug. The temperature inside her sockless shoes raised like a heater had been turned on and activated the black oil.

“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”

Nightshade dropped her playful veneer. “Tomorrow! I’m not waiting. You will send Twilight a letter setting up a private get together at one of our establishments in Canterlot. You will greet her and lead her inside. You will personally give her the drugged food or drink, and your fellow Shadowbolts will do the rest. Once her gigantic purple feet are secured, then and only then, will I take off your cock rings — after all Twilight will need at least one~ Enjoy your night, recruit.”

Chapter 12: Tomorrow

Moondancer awoke slumped in her bondage chair and defeated. Rover had slunk out shortly after Nightshade vanished last night and no one entered after to unbind her. The tickle torture modded red sneakers had turned off sometime after she passed out and her painful massive erection softened to a collared bulge behind her briefs while she slept. Neither was welcomed by Moondancer, it left her undistracted and alone with her thoughts to reflect on her decision.

‘I’ve betrayed Twilight… I’ve betrayed Equestria, but worse I’ve betrayed Twilight.’ Moondancer’s head hung limp, her ears folded down and the ear tag swung in the air. ‘Even though saying I’d join the Shadowbolts was the only way Nightshade would let me cum… I meant it. I’ll do whatever she says. I want Twilight so, so bad and I can be with her now, forever. …I’m such a weak and selfish pony. I’m the mare who sold Equestria, just so she could get her rocks off. I don’t deserve love or even friendship.’

Moondancer lifted her head and stared out into the vacant cavern ahead. “Nightshade?”

There was no response.

“Diamond Dogs? Is anyone there? I’m ready. Suit me up.” She said sickened with herself.

A rustling noise echoed in the cavern. Moondancer leaned as far as she could forward. The noise multiplied and amplified. A small boulder fell from the ceiling in front of the door and rolled out of sight. Dirt cascaded down followed by Rover, Fido, and Spot. Lassie didn’t seem to be there as Rover and Fido hulled the heavy door open themselves. Rover panted a bit but all three walked right up to her, each one scowled.

“Is something wrong?” Moondancer asked cautiously.

“Some dogs heard… Some are…” Rover pawed at the ground with his foot. “Some are saying they heard you’re leaving us with Captain Pony.” Rover muttered looking down.

“Yeah… I agreed to join her Shadowbolts.”

“Whhhhhy?” Rover lifted his head and thrust out his arms; he looked hurt.

“We like Nerd Pony. You’re the best prisoner we’ve ever had. We don’t want you to go.” Fido whined.

“You’ve found more jewels than anypony we’ve had before and you make such cute noises.” Spot added.

“We like you!” The three said in unison.

Moondancer was taken aback and blushed.

“I’m sorry guys? I mean I’ve hated almost every second I’ve been down here and despise you three in particular.”

All three’s ears folded against their heads and they whimpered. Moondancer felt extremely awkward.

“But, umm, you three are at least nicer than Nightshade. And I rather be your prisoner than hers?” Moondancer said unsure.

Their ears and spirits shot straight up with hope.

“Does Nerd Pony mean it?” Rover asked.

“Yeah… Sure.” Moondancer looked off to the side.

The three Diamond Dogs pounced on her. They licked her face and nuzzled against her, their tails wagging up a storm. Moondancer darted her head around to avoid their large wet tongues but her cheeks were coated in their slobber.

“Uggh, so gross.” Moondancer heaved with her glasses knocked askew.

“Please stay with us Nerd Po-- Miss Moondancer.” Rover fixed her glasses and clasped his paws together. He gave her the biggest and most literal puppy dog eyes she’d ever seen.

Moondancer flinched. ‘So that’s how that trick feels.’

“Guys I can’t stay here anymore. Nightshade needs me to help capture the real Twilight. And… I want to do it. I want her to be mine, like I’ve been your prisoner.”

“What if let you cum Miss Moondancer?” Fido pleaded.

“I don’t think that’d end well for any of us.” Moondancer snorted. “Nightshade isn’t just some run of the mill pegasus. There’s something far darker going on with her, I think she’s connected to Nightmare Moon. Whether she’s just a fanatic cultist pledged to a being who no longer exist, Luna is plotting treason from within the diarchy, or whatever. I want to learn more.”

Moondancer’s head slipped down and the last of her dark thoughts spilled out.

“It’s too tempting. Forbidden knowledge, sex, Twilight — I want them all. I’m willing to relinquish everything to have them.”

The three mutts stared at waxing mare dumbfounded[12], Moondancer just shook her head. Rover and the other two hung their heads down.

[12] Emphasis on the ‘dumb’.

“We’ll miss you Miss Moondancer.”

“No you won’t. I’m sure Nightshade will give you Twi’s friend Rarity. It seems like Nightshade had intended for her to be your prisoner anyway based on the gem finding set-up and your history with each other.”

“But we will miss you!” Rover objected.

“We’ll prove it.” Fido continued.

“We’ll pamper Miss Moondancer until Captain arrives.” Spot finished.

Moondancer didn’t have time to protest before Rover threw off her sneakers and massaged her feet. The unicorn bellowed out a guttural moan of pure arousal. Fido tended to her shoulders and ears rubbing the soreness out of them. Spot worked her sides and eased the tension built up from her two weeks of non-stop laughter.

It was too much for Moondancer. Her cock stiffened halfway and the cock rings buzzed to life. Rover nuzzled her soles and kissed each one of her toes. His coarse fur bushing against her oil altered feet made her titter then bark out several laughs. The runes null ring entrapping her horn flared a fiery blue. Rover and the other two continued to coddle Moondancer like it was the last time they’d ever get to see her, and as far as they knew it might be.

The dogs paced themselves with Moondancer’s pampering, they drew her pleasured giggles out over fifteen glorious minutes. The flats of Rover’s thumbs kneaded her soles and a wave of magic erupted from Moondancer’s horn. None of the three Diamond Dogs bothered to look for any new gems revealed by the spell. Their real treasure was right in front of them.

‘I can’t wait to be able to do this to Twilight every day. Maybe after a few months of tickle torture she’ll break and worship my feet?’

“M-miss Moondancer?” Rover hesitated.

“Yeah?” She pried open one eyelid.

Rover’s paw stroked his sizable bulge beneath his shorts right in front of her feet. ‘Nightshade will kill us both if I let him do that again… but what’s the point of join the baddies if I’m not gonna break all the rules.’

Moondancer rolled her eyes and nodded. Rover beamed. He grabbed the waistband of his shorts, tugged them--

BOOM!!!

The entire cave system shook like an earthquake struck. Debris rained from above and howls echoed all throughout. Rover, Fido, and Spot darted their heads in the direction of each cry above. Guard dogs rushed past the open cell door to the upper levels. More sounds crashed above the ceiling and dust clouds wafted off it. Moondancer stared up speechless. Quick footsteps pounded from off to the side. ‘Is this all Nightshade? Because I was going to let Rover cum on my feet again?’

“Moondancer!” A young purple drake skidded to a halt in the doorway.

“Spike!?”

“Miss Rarity’s dragon?”

“Get away from her!”

Spike took a deep breath. His slightly pudgy gut sucked in and his chest puffed out. He plowed into the cell, twisted his head back but kept his eyes locked onto Rover, and snapped his head forward. A jet of emerald fire erupted from the dragon’s maw. Rover and the other two dogs dove away from the stream of flames. The three scampered and yipped across the floor on all fours running to the cell door. Spike spun in place and his flaming breath followed them. His fire scorched the earth as it chased the Diamond Dogs leaving trails of cinder. Green embers jumped from his fire blast and scalded Rover’s, Fido’s, and Spot’s asses.

“AHHHHH!” The Diamond Dogs yipped as they sprung up and barreled out the door.

Spike huffed and tried to catch his breath. Smoke billowed out of his gasping mouth. Spike turned to the flabbergasted unicorn.

“Ar-are you okay, Moondancer.”

“Spike? Is that really you?”

“Yeah!” Spike leapt at her. “Oh man, we were all so worried about you!”

He hugged and nuzzled her. His purple and green hoodie was almost as soft as her sweater. Spike dashed to the door. He braced once arms against the doorway, leaned his head out, and cupped his other hand next to his mouth.

“TWILIGHT! I found Moondancer!”

The drake pulled his head in and grinned. A brilliant flash of light engulfed the room. Moondancer shut her eyes and opened them to see a visage of beauty. A tall lavender mare with angel-like wings and a long horn stood before her. Moondancer ogled Twilight and the outfit she wore — an orchid purple argyle sweater vest overtop a white button up blouse with a soft pink bowtie. An above knee pleated purple plaid skirt, white varsity knee socks with eggplant colored stripes, and matching purple Converse with her starburst cutie mark emblazoned on the sides.

Moondancer’s cock thumped against her briefs, the bulge peeked through her unzipped khaki’s but went no further. ‘Thank Celestia these denial rings are still on me.’

Twilight rushed over and kneeled by Moondancer’s side.

“Moondancer!” Twilight threw her arms around the bound mare. “Please tell me you’re okay!”

The blushing mare nodded.

“Hold still for one moment.” Twilight closed her eyes and her horn glowed with a pink sparkling aura. The straps binding Moondancer shimmered in Twilight’s magic and unbuckled, her collar fell off, and the lock on the stocks burst apart as they flung themselves open. The loose toe rings flew off and clattered against the floor along with her ear tag. The null ring’s runes shined brighter and brighter and popped! A navy blue mist drifted out of the dulled etchings like smoke and the black ring crumbled to pieces.

Moondancer looked at her crotch. She pictured Twilight knelt in front of it and peeling her underwear down to dispel the rings around her privates. Her cock would immediately unload the weeks’ worth of pent up semen all over Twilight face, ropes of never-ending cum painting the princess in her seed. And Twilight, while surprised at first, would open her maw to catch every other spurt and lick her cum off her face. The cock rings revved up and Moondancer banished the thought from her mind. ‘I’ll just take care of these ones myself.’

Moondancer zipped her pants while the other two pretended not to notice. She gingerly lifted her feet and placed them on the floor. She flinched and hugged her legs to her chest. She buried her blushing face into her sweater and chew on it to suppress a sensual moan. Twilight and Spike looked at her with concern. Moondancer took a quick breath, place her feet back on the ground, and stood up putting her whole weight on them. Her eyes fought not to roll back and she devoured more of her sweater.

“Moondancer…” Twilight reached forward.

“I’m okay, Twi. It’s just been a couple of weeks.”

“Let’s get you out of here. The girls and the royal guard can handle the rest. Even Shiny came running when I informed the Princesses what happened. They searching the rest of the caverns now for more prisoners and to apprehend any Diamond Dogs they can. We also have the Wonderbolts on aerial reconnaissance if any of them try to escape above ground.”

“All this just for me?” Moondancer’s chin dug into her chest and tears streamed down her face.

“I’d do this for anypony, Moondancer.” Twilight clasped Moondancer’s hands.

The emotional unicorn tilted her head up and looked into Twilight’s gorgeous violet eyes.

“But especially a friend.”

More than anything Moondancer wanted to kiss Twilight. She inched her head forward but stopped herself. ‘I was going to betray her. I wanted to use Twi for my own sexual gratification.’ Her head slumped down in shame. She’d never felt so low.

Twilight titled her head unsure of Moondancer’s reactions.

Spike poked around in the crates on the back wall. He sniffed the air. "Does anypony else smell peanut butter?"

Moondancer chocked and spurted. Spike didn’t notice her and held a handful of heart shaped ear tags and the gem polisher.

“What were they even doing with all this stuff?” The dragon dropped them back into the boxes. Moondancer winced seeing them.

“Spike, grab on we’re leaving.” Twilight took a firm hold onto Moondancer’s hand. “The royal guard can go through all of that.”

Spike circled around the chair bending down to grab something. He hopped forward and took Twilight’s open palm. Twilight closed her eyes, her horn blazed with magical energy, and in the blink of an eye they disappeared.

* * *

A white flash faded away to reveal two ponies and a dragon. A cool breeze ran through Moondancer’s mane and tail. Outside! She was outside. She squinted her eyes from the harsh daylight and took in everything around her — fluffy white clouds, a lush green forest, nearby blue mountains — it was all so, okay. It was okay. Not great, just okay. Honestly she never was an outdoorsy pony, and even two weeks of being tickled tortured underground wasn’t going to change that.

Despite that, Moondancer took a lungful of clean not-smelling-of-unwashed-dog air. The stone hill behind them had an entrance to what must have been the cave system she’d been in. The mouth was engraved with two Diamond Dogs and the words Never Look Back, Walk Tall, Act Fine around the doorway. Her toes scrunched up the loose dirt beneath them.

“Oh Moondancer here, I grabbed your shoes on the way out.” Spike held out the red sneakers that had been turned into instruments of torture.

Moondancer didn’t move to take them.

“…I, ahh, didn’t see your socks.” Spike added awkwardly still holding out the shoes.

Feeling the social pressure Moondancer took them. ‘I should tell Twilight what Nightshade did to these. They might be able to track down whoever modified them.’ She ran her thumbs over the toes caps. Her feet feel a sharp pleasurable tingle and cock stirred again.

“Thanks Spike. You’re the best.” Moondancer smiled.

Spike grinned and scratched the back of his head. “Ahh it was nothing. A dragon’s gotta look out for his friends after all.”

Moondancer giggled. “And how your scared off the Diamond Dogs. I wish I was half as brave as you. You’re my hero Spike.”

Twilight’s eyes bugged out hearing Spike had confronted anyone, let alone multiple rapid gods. It didn’t sound like Moondancer was embellishing too much either. Spike turned to her, her little brother looking for her approval. Moondancer nodded and smiled behind Spike’s back.

“Great work Spike, I’m very proud of you.” Twilight congratulated him. “Just please be careful in the future.”

Spike beamed and threw his arms behind his head. “Relax Twi, you’re talking to Spike the Brave and Glorious here.”

Moondancer giggled and Twilight ruffled his head spines.

“We’ll drop Spike off in Ponyville and then I can take you back home.”

“Ahh come on Twi. I don’t wanna stay behind.” Spike whined.

“Sorry Spike, but there are some private matters I need to talk to Moondancer about.”

Moondancer’s blood froze.

“Fine.” Spike groaned.

“Umm…” Moondancer swallowed the lump in her throat. “Maybe you can come visit me soon? I miss seeing my favorite dragon around Canterlot. We can get donuts.” Moondancer offered.

“Deal!” Spike pumped his fist.

Twilight took Spike’s hand and put hers on Moondancer’s shoulder. With another flash they were headed home.

* * *

Nightshade ducked behind a rocky column as two ponies clad in gold armor chased one of the Diamond Dog guards down a tunnel. She was furious. ‘How in Tartarus did they find us? One of those damn mutts must’ve done something stupid.’

She snuck through a path that came to an open cell door. ‘Bad sign.’ The rubber around her balled up fist squealed. She threw the door the rest of the way open singlehandedly and thrust her head into the room, empty. Golden fire burned behinds her eyes and she stomped inside seeing a Moondancer’s collar and the shattered null ring and ear tag on the floor.

“There will be bloody consequences.” She muttered to herself.

“Well you right about that.”

Nightshade’s wings shot out and she whipped around. Blocking the doorway stood the former Captain of the Royal Guard and the Prince of the Crystal Empire, Shining Armor.

“Oh it’s you.” Nightshade relaxed.

“This whole mission’s been botched, let’s get out of here and regroup.” Shining Armor frowned.

“Oh Shining Armor, have you run into any more of those vial dogs?” A sole dainty voice called from up a tunnel.

“I wouldn’t say it’s been a total failure.” Nightshade hugged herself against the doorway’s wall and nodded to the snow white stallion.

“Rarity, come here. I need you to see this.” Shining Armor smiled wickedly.

Chapter 13: Confessions of a Book Horse

Outside a small house on K. West Street in Canterlot stood a nerdy unicorn mare and an equally nerdy alicorn princess. The property looked a lot better than the last time Twilight had seen it. The stone fence had been mended and polished, the yard weeded and mowed, — although it needed another mowing, like last week — a flower bed blossomed with color and joy, and even the gnarled tree in the front yard had bloomed.

The one-and-a-half story house too was refurbished. The cracks on the outside were filled and painted, the shutters, chimney, and roof tiling replaced, and the purple front door with the moon shaped window was patched where Twilight had accidently and literally knocked a hole into it. Overall it was a lovely home sandwiched between the larger charmless buildings that littered the capital city.

Moondancer walked past her open fence. The tall grass skittered across her soles. Moondancer screeched out a laugh and threw herself again the fence to stop from falling down.

“Moondancer!” Twilight rushed up and held her.

“I’m fine. I’m fine.” Moondancer pushed her glasses snug against her beat red face.

The unicorn took a long step over the grass and placed her foot along the first flagstone of her walkway. She took careful wide steps over the mischievous grass in-between each stone and collapsed against her front door.

“So… Umm, thanks again for saving me Twilight. I’ll, ahh, just go inside now.” Moondancer opened her door and slid halfway inside taking care to avoid the round fuzzy blue doormat insdie. Twilight placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Moondancer.”

“Y-yes?” The terrified mare gulped.

“Can we speak inside?”

Moondancer nodded with dread. ‘Twi knows I was going to betray her! Oh Celestia, now she really hates me.’ Twilight looked at her with concern and compassion. ‘I just hope she doesn’t yell too much. I don’t wanna cry in front of her.’

Moondancer opened the door all the way and let Twilight inside. She dropped her sneakers next to the door and closed it. She led her guest to the living room, and before they walked in, fired off a spell to yank down her Reading is Magic poster with Twilight on it.

She plumped herself on one of her couches, and curled her knees up to her chest. Twilight sat right next to her instead of taking the other couch and laid her arm across Moondancer’s shoulder. Moondancer sniffled ready to break down but choked back her tears and laid her head against Twilight.

“I’m really sorry about what happened to you, Moondancer. I can’t imagine what you must have gone through down there. I wish I could have found out what happened sooner.”

Moondancer only nodded, too emotional to speak without bursting into tears.

“I, ahem,” Twilight let out a fake cough, “noticed that they also put another ring on you, down there. And I wanted to give you some privacy removing it without Spike around.”

All the blood in Moondancer’s body rushed to her cheeks. All her anxiety about Twi hating her shifted to anxiety about her embarrassing predicament. On the verge of passing out Moondancer weakly nodded.

Twilight, rosy cheeked as well, asked. “Do want me remove them here, or in your bedroom, or--”

“Bathroom!” Moondancer squealed. “There’s… a lot of backup, and when you take them off I think I’m going to…”

Twilight nodded back with be eyes closed. “Wait, them!?”

“There’s two.”

“Wow! If they needed two to keep you from ejaculating that must mean you have a really--”

“CAN WE PLEASE DICUSS THIS LATER!? Or preferably never!”

“Right! Sorry!”

The two mares made their way to Moondancer’s restroom. Twilight took a studious look at the situation beneath Moondancer’s briefs and assured her friend she could relieve her of it. Moondancer begged her never to say the word ‘relieve’ again, Twilight agreed. She stepped outside the restroom, closed the door, and cast her counterspell.

Ten minutes of wall shaking moaning, knocks on the door from concerned neighbors, and one cum clogged toilet later — Moondancer stumbled out. Twilight caught the unicorn and helped back to her couch.

“Better?”

Dazed, Moondancer gave a shaky thumbs up. Twilight held her friend as she napped off her orgasms.

Light from the afternoon sun streamed through a window and hit Moondancer in the face. The unicorn stirred and woke up the princess snoozing with her. The two blush and fumbled off the couch.

“Thanks again, for everything, Twi.”

“You’re welcome. Oh, in case you were worried by the way, we were able to return those library books you dropped off at the castle.”

“You got those!? I thought that the dogs must have thrown them away or lost them and my tape recorder.”

“Tape recorder?” Twilight echoed.

“If you didn’t get my tape recorder than how’d you find me?”

“Well it all started a few days ago I came back from a trip to Hayseed Swamps to find a cure to Swamp Fever.”

“But Swamp Fever doesn’t have any know cures!”

Twilight giggled. “Of course you’ve studied medical books too. But yeah, there is one. It was discovered by the Mystical Mask, Mage Meadowbrook.”

“The Mystical Mask was Mage Meadowbrook!?”

“I know right! I was shocked too when Fluttershy made the connection.” Twilight geeked out but stopped herself. “Anyway sorry, back to the point. Spike had found some books left by the front door that didn’t belong to the Ponyville Library. He figured out they were from the Canterlot Library and when I got back we return them and found out that you had checked them out. I got really concerned when they said you hadn’t checked out any other books in days.”

“I’m that predictable, huh?” Moondancer snorted.

Twilight smirked. “We went to your house but you weren’t there, and none of our Canterlot friends had seen you either. We returned to Ponyville to ask if anypony had seen you around town. Nopony had, but back at my castle we looked around outside and Spike found this near the steps.”

Twilight pulled out a scuffed gem stone from her skirt pocket and handed it over.

“Whoever left your books must have dropped it.”

Moondancer rubbed her neck where her collar had been and explained the plan she’d concocted with her tape recorder. “I guess Bewlay must’ve lost my tape recorder but not the books? That explains why he looked so ashamed last time I saw him.”

“It was a good plan, and in the end it still kinda worked. I wasn’t sure what to make of gem, but Spike recognized that it came from the forest outskirts. Rarity and Spike had been there before to collect gemstones and run into Diamond Dogs.”

“Wow, Spike is my hero twice over.” Moondancer smiled.

“I don’t know what I’d do without him.” Twilight mused. “Once we realized you must have been kidnapped by them, I gathered everypony I could and we stormed their mines.”

“I can’t keep saying thank you enough Twi. It got really rough down there.”

“From the looks of it they were, tickling you?”

“Yeah, that null ring was enchanted to use laughter as a power source for a gem finding spell so the dog would know where to dig.”

“That’s too advanced for them. That’s too advanced for most unicorns.”

“They had help. A pegasus, Nightshade. She said she’s the captain of the Shadowbolts.”

“Hmm…” Concern washed over Twilight’s face. “Rainbow told us about them. Nightmare Moon had used them to try and get her to abandon us during her return. But they weren’t real ponies, just a fragment of Nightmare Moon’s magic.”

“I don’t what to tell you Twi, but she is very real. She talked a lot too since she thought I’d be their prisoner forever. But more importantly Twi, she’s after you, you and all your friends. She’s working with more creatures that just the Diamond Dogs. And… they’re willing to do anything, use ponies, anything to get what they want. She even mentioned having done to your brother what she did to me.”

“Shining?” Twi looked to the side and processed everything. “Do you think she could have been lying to try and dishearten you?”

“I don’t know. I hope so, but, that mare is evil. Twilight, please be careful.”

“I will.” Twilight nodded.

Moondancer described what had happened to her down in the Diamond Dogs mines and all the information the dogs and Nightshade let slip and teased her with. Twilight was mortified, sympatric, but she just let Moondancer talk. The mare left out a few key details towards the end about modified sneakers, new fetishes, what team she agreed to join the night before. That didn’t matter anymore, she hoped. The two sat in a comfortable silence.

“It’s getting late; you should go back to Ponyville.” Moondancer said.

“I can stay the night if you want.”

“I do want you to stay, Twilight, but you shouldn’t. I-I’ve have an unhealthy crush on you. I’ve had it for years and it’s not fair for me to dump this all on you. I need time and help to figure myself out.” Moondancer exhaled a heavy breath. “My sister’s wanted me to talk to a therapist for a long while now. I think she’s right and I’m going to.”

“That’s a very brave decision, Moondancer.” Twilight cupped Moondancer’s hand. “I have feelings for you too, maybe as more than just a friend, but I’m not sure. I’m still trying to figure myself out too. Promise you’ll look after yourself after I leave?”

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Moondancer mimed the motions to an impressed Twilight. “Pinkie taught me last time I saw her. So you know I mean it.”

“That’s all the assurance I need then.” Twilight chuckled.

Moondancer walked Twilight out the door and hugged her. The Princess of Friendship flew up into the moonlit evening sky; she turned around and called out. “And don’t forget, reading isn’t the only thing that’s magic!” Twilight teleported away.

Back inside Moondancer picked up her poster off the living room floor and unfurled it. Under the bold word Reading in silver marker and Friendship was added. Twilight’s signature flowed underneath in the same silver ink. Moondancer didn’t care that the poster was now grammatically incorrect. She hung it back up and smiled.

* * *

Elsewhere in Canterlot the same crescent moon hung high in the cold blue sky. Beneath it in a one of the hundreds of towering building Nightshade sat on a windowsill and listened to the sweet sounds of whirling machines and tortured high-pitched feminine laugher coming from next room. Heavy footsteps thudded up the stairway. Nightshade hopped down and walked through a magical barrier towards the noise. Once she passed through the force field all the sounds of laughter were muted. An annoyed Shining Armor awaited her.

“Is there a reason you called me?” He spat.

“Yeah!” Nightshade fired back. “Why didn’t you have the nerd replaced like I told you to?”

Shining Armor’s face twisted in rage. His eyes flashed green and he bared his teeth. A cicada like screech bellowed from his throat. Sickly green fire burned up his legs replacing them with a much taller black exoskeleton with gaping holes that went all way the through the limbs. The fire passed over the elongating chest and revealed a green carapace wrapped around the torso and gossamer wings speckled with more holes. The hands burned away and left five razor sharp claws attached to each rotting arm. Silky turquoise hole-riddled hair tumbled down as Shining Armor’s face was immolated. White pony fur now a black shell with a long gnarled horn and tiny black crown a top it.

Two eyes opened, faded green sclera with green irises and slit pupils like two razor blades that would slice a lesser pony to ribbons towered over the Captain of the Shadowbolts. The insectoid creature ratcheted its head 180 degrees upside-down and its eyes were still above the pegasus. Its mandible split open and a forked tongue licked between dozens of venomous fangs.

“I told you!” The things voice sounded like it was being spoken multiple times at different pitches. “I will not waste any more of my remaining loyal subjects on another pet for you.” Green liquid and vapor rolled out of its mouth.

“Gross. And cut the nightmare fuel act, Chrysalis. If I wanted to see true horror I’d watched Celestia’s acting.”

“You will address me as Queen!” Chrysalis righted her head.

“Queen of what, ten Changelings now?”

Chrysalis screeched again. Nightshade rubbed her temples.

“The nerd wasn’t even a pet for me. We could have used her to bolster our ranks and help capture Twilight, I had a plan.”

“I’ve only put up with your so called ‘plans’ because being so close to Cadance and her child has kept me and my remaining subjects engorged these last few months. Any changeling could mimic that mare or anypony else long enough to get close to Twilight and her friends and capture them. You’re delaying my revenge against Starlight and that traitor Thorax with your childish games.”

“Rushing is how you got found last time. It’s no use taking over Equestria if you can’t hold onto it. We need to not only take the Elements of Harmony and the Princesses outta play, but also every other major figure we can get our hands on too. I’ve had the Wonderbolts for years now with the real Spitfire replaced. You can easily cripple and devour the Crystal Empire anytime. My other colleges are already in motion to capture Starlight for you, as well as the rest of the Elements. But I need you to work with me, and replace the ponies I tell you to replace.” Nightshade strained to keep her tone neutral.

“Fine!” The trypophobia incarnate monster spat. “You can use all of subjects to replace whoever so long as it gets me my prey.”

“Thank you. And trust me, this all be worth it when we have every one of them as our prisoners.”

“Hmm” The monstrosity mused. “I do regret not getting to see Twilight’s face as one of real friends betrayed her.”

“I wouldn’t write Moondancer off yet. Just make sure whoever you’ve got pretending to be Rarity is half decent and I’ll organize the rest. Starlight will be in your, whatever it is you have, very soon.”

“Excellent.” Chrysalis transformed back into Shining Armor. “Now if you’ll excuse me, my wife and child are waiting for me.” Chrysalis left the way she came.

The front door slammed shut and Nightshade slumped down.

“UGGGGGHHH! I hate everybody…” Nightshade dragged her hand down her face. “SPITTY! Where’d I leave you tied up? Your Mistress needs to take her frustration out on somepony.”

Epilogue

Moondancer sat at her kitchen table. The tops of her naked feet dragged along the chair legs and she wrapped her toes around the cross stretcher. She stroked one foot’s arch with the other’s big toe and cupped her hands around her muzzle to stifle a pleasured giggle. The morning newspaper floated up her magic and she sipped out of a novelty coffee mug with the phrase My Weekend is Booked overtop a stack of books printed on the side. The bottom article on the front page informed the readership about ongoing negotiations between the Princesses and the King of the Diamond Dogs over jurisdiction of the case against the dogs arrested in the raid the previous week. Much of it stemmed from weather or not certain crimes were committed above or below ground and what ancient treaties were still valid. Despite being the unnamed victim mentioned by the article Moondancer didn’t hold too many strong feelings about the political squabbling.

Rover, Fido, and Spot had all managed to escape that day. The score of guard dogs arrested, while complicit in her kidnapping and torture, weren’t who Moondancer needed to see brought to justice. She put down her paper and took a long sip of delicious coffee blacker than even Nightshade’s heart. Twilight kept her update on the hunt for those three, she was still concern about Moondancer’s wellbeing and figured the mare would find some closure in their arrest.

‘Twi really is the most caring wonder--’ She stopped her train of thought. ‘No! Doc’s right, it’s not fair to deify ponies… even if they are actually kind of a literal deity.’ Moondancer shook her head and refilled her mug from the boiling pot and downed another cup. ‘One addiction at a time.’

A knock on her door roused her from her ruminations. She quickly washed out her mug and stuck it in the dish drain and hurried over to the door. On the other side was an alabaster unicorn and member of the Royal Guard. He poked his head above the large long box in his arms.

“Ms. Moondancer?”

“Yes?”

“This has been released from evidence and Princess Celestia requested it be expressly delivered to you.”

“My telescope!” Moondancer’s face shined as bright as the sun as she levitated the package into her arms hugging it. “Thank you so much!”

“My pleasure ma’am. Looks like you got another package too.” The stallion picked up a cardboard box on Moondancer’s doorstep and handed it to her.

“Thanks again.”

“No problem, have a nice day.” The guard nodded and strolled away.

Moondancer finagled both her packages inside and closed the door with her foot. A shiver ran down her spine to her cock when her arch pressed against the door’s edge. She shuddered and moaned.

Moondancer set down the telescope’s box and tore it open like a filly on Hearth’s Warming. The telescope was in perfect condition, not a scratch or nick to be found. After a quick nuzzle, she levitated the telescope into her living room and it put on display. She opened her other package too and--

Moondancer’s heart skipped a beat and she dropped the box. It thumped onto the floor followed quickly by her plump posterior. Inside the box was a red collar studded with moonstones and the remote for her tickle torture modified shoes. Moondancer snapped her head over by the door. The red sneakers waited where she left them, too conflicted to throw them away or turn them in.

‘This is bad! This is bad! They know where I live!’

Her heart pounded against her ribcage, she snatched a quill and parchment with her magic and scribbled a frantic letter to Twilight. Her eyes darted around her room, but there was no younger brother dragon to instantly deliver it. ‘Why don’t I know the spell to send letters to Spike!?’

Moondancer shimmed around and watched the door. Any second now it’d be kicked it or ripped off its hinges and she’d be dragged back to Tartarus. Ten seconds passed and no break-ins occurred. Thirty seconds, a minute, two minutes — Moondancer’s body couldn’t keep producing adrenalin when nothing was happening. She reached behind herself and slid the box it front of her. There was something else in there with the collar and remote, a folder sheet of paper. Her breathing accelerated back into panic mode.

‘Call the royal guard. Don’t touch any of it. Just call the guards and let them handle it.’

The tickle shoes glared at her, they judge and shamed her. Moondancer unfolded the letter.

A little thank you gift for putting up with the dogs and me. My offer still stands. Hope to see you soon recruit, your suit is waiting for you.

- Nightshade

Moondancer flipped the letter over; nothing was written on the other side. She pulled the remote out of the box, and twisted the dial on. Her sneakers jumped off her shoe rack. They flopped around and vibrated on her floor. Moondancer switched them off. She reached back inside the box; her fingers traced the collar and its stones and felt something solid beneath it. She pulled out the collar and the fabric under it. Light gleamed off a glass black star in the shape of Twilight’s cutie mark. The contents of the container swished as she held it up, another vial of the black oil that had permanently increased the sensitivity of her feet.

‘She’s just trying to mess with my head. And it’s working.’

Moondancer held the collar and oil in her hands. Her heart raced. Her toes scrunched. Her cock throbbed! The remote and her sneaker were both so close. ‘Tomorrow.’ Her briefs stretched around her growing member. ‘I already missed the mail pony. I’ll just send the letter tomorrow.’ Her mouth was drier than the first edition of The Origin of the Diamond Dogs sitting on her nightstand upstairs. She licked her lips.

Moondancer picked up the box and tossed all its contents back inside. She grabbed her Converse and flew up the stairs to her bedroom. Forgoing socks she slipped on the red shoes, pulled the laces taut, and double knotted them. She buckled her collar on tight, unzipped her pants, and collapsed onto her bed. Her cock was rigid and tented her briefs, her palm glazed over it. She hugged a pillow tight, bit into her sweater, and turned the dial up to eleven.

The End