The Appleloosan desert was cool and silent, the ground bright under a field of twinkling pricks of light and a moonlit glow from Luna's former residence.

Perfect conditions for a clandestine convoy traveling from the base camp of an archaeological expedition operating out of the mysterious, dank, jungle-filled nethers of the southern Equestrian continent.

The unicorn at the front of the convoy, a rigid and alert soldier by the name of Captain Stalwart, cleared his throat softly before motioning to his squad of Royal Guardsponies to pick up the pace slightly.

Something in his gut was telling him that there was danger out there, among the scattered boulders and sagebrush.

The two strong earth guards-ponies pulling the large military-style container wagon could sense it too and accelerated their pace, hooves plowing deep into the crumbling, arid desert terrain. The boxy vehicle they were pulling was made of sturdy copper sheets, beaten hastily into the form of a cube with only a single sliding door on its left side. The double-bolted door was secured with an intricate 'Royal-Military' lock that hummed with the support of powerful unicorn magic.

Stalwart was taking no chances. He’d personally seen to the spell-crafting required to bolster the locks and had gone an additional step to protect the whole of the wagon with anti-tamper wards. The Captain’s stern grimace and searching eyes were but the surface indicators that this mission, which he and his men had originally thought to be nothing more than a lark — another wild goose chase by the overly-bureaucratic of Canterlot — was deadly serious.

His ears flicked left and right as he recalled how his squad joked about the mission when they’d first received it.

The cheekiest private of his squad had asked him, without shame: “Twilight going to send us on another book run, Cap?” The princess of Magic had gained some notoriety among the armed services for her willingness to use her newfound royal authority to direct her military to collect what most of the privates grumblingly described as ‘nerd-stuff’. She’d nearly ignited a mini-mutiny when the elite Navy S.Q.U.E.E.Ls pegasi unit had been used to raid a Fillydelphia home for an overdue library book.

Only a stern lecture from Celestia about the difference between a ‘book’ emergency and an actual emergency, despite Twilight’s protestations that there was no higher emergency than a book emergency, had prevented a disastrous lowering of morale.

‘No. Supposed to be some kind of beast we’re picking up from some eggheads down south.’

‘Ah, so we’re playing zookeeper to get a new specimen for that yellow friend of hers?’

‘Better believe it, private. And you’re on poop-scoop duty.’

The resulting chuckles at the private’s groan had reflected just how light-hearted everypony was at the outset of this mission — a quick cannonball-run to get out of the barracks and no real threats to worry about.

That had all changed when they’d arrived at the Royal Archaeological Society’s southern expeditionary base-camp, currently established just outside of a creepy step pyramid that was aptly named the ‘Temple of Shadows’. To kick things off, instead of being met by some stuffy, trumped-up poindexter, holding some tiny toothbrush meant for obsessing over bone-fragments that might as well have been pebbles, he’d been greeted by the leader of the expedition.

Daring freaking Do!

Not only did your average grunt read the paperbacks and debate the stories and characters within them religiously while on tour, but the roguish explorer with her witty catch-phrases and never-say-die attitude was also an idol to military ponies. Most of the stallions who signed up did so hoping that they too would be able to participate in some grand adventure akin to those that the whip-bearing pegasus mare regaled the world with.

His slow realization that this was more than a wild goose-chase mission came to a crashing crescendo when he saw just what it was that he was supposed to bring back to Canterlot.

A hideous beast with cunning, sapient-level intelligence. Strange and unknown.

Daring had regaled him with an incredible tale about how she and the expedition had broken into the temple, just as a dark cult that had taken up residence within were finishing an ancient ritual. The blasting and spurting portal pulled the strange creature through just as Daring had knocked the cult-leader out with a heroic uppercut, moments too late to prevent the summoning from occurring. Defeating the cult with her usual flash of panache, the legendary adventurer managed to quickly subdue and cage the creature. When Stalwart had asked for details on how she’d managed to do that, Daring had simply blushed and shaken her head, mumbling that it wasn’t important. Over the past few days, she’d prepared... it for transport back to the Canterlot archives immediately.

Of course, Twilight had been quite insistent upon reading Daring's initial report that the creature should be well-guarded as it trekked up the week-long journey back to the capitol.

For once, Stalwart definitely agreed with the bookish Princess’s assessment.

Traveling along with them would be a tome that thrummed with a dark and insidious aura. The black book of evil magecraft that the cult leader had used to initiate his twisted summoning ritual, and which Daring Do had examined to see that it contained spells while made even the summoning of the demonic creature seem tame by comparison. Stalwart had accepted the book with a shudder, glancing between both it and the creature and shaking his head, muttering under his breath that both should simply be destroyed.

The golden-brown pegasus whirled on him immediately, fixing him with those bright cyan eyes of hers and growling with a snarl that they belonged in a museum!

They’d set off a few hours after that, the time used to quickly resupply and re-water, procure some spare sheets of copper from the camp to bash together into an effective enclosure, and bolster the whole wagon with powerful wards and locks. The book was traveling with Stalwart himself, locked into the saddlebags which hung from his barding. As much as he hated the feeling that the thing was somehow creeping into his fur, corrupting him through the layers of leather and armor, he didn’t want to risk letting the thing out of his sight.

He’d glanced at some of the pages within, and realized just how evil some of the spells jotted on those pages could be.

His rumination on recent events evaporated faster than mare-piss in the desert heat as the sound of a small twig breaking about a hundred paces to his right pierced the otherwise silent desert night.

His gut sank a foot and the fur on his back began to stick up; this was the perfect terrain, the perfect timing, the perfect distance from reinforcements for an attempt to raid the convoy. They were still hours from the rail-head, where a military train-car and an express-routed locomotive awaited them. If they had only managed to make it to the train, with its reinforcements and heavy armor, they would have been home safe and sound.

Another cracking twig - there could be no doubt now, even before the sudden bright burst of a sun-spell seared his eyes, ruining his night vision as the whole of the area was bathed in blinding white light.

“AMBUSH!” Stalwart shouted though the warning was scarcely necessary. His well-trained troops were already falling back to set a tight perimeter around the wagon as he drew his razor-edged blade from its sheath with a ringing scream of an edge against scabbard.

Forming up in a tight ring around the wagon in under a second with his men, his trained eyes had already adjusted to the rapid shift in luminosity, picking up five shadowy figures as they emerged from behind some of the desert detritus surrounding their convoy.

Five ponies.

One unicorn, two earth ponies, a thestral, and a pegasus.

He tried to suppress the small sense of relief rising in his breast as he laughed under his breath at the meager forces arraying against them, slinking forward with their faces still covered in shadow from the overhead glow of their flare-spell. He had a squad of ten highly trained guardsponies. Even one of them could easily handle five bandits. Still, he would treat this as if it were a force of ten times the size, taking no chances. He began to charge an area-wide stun-spell that would incapacitate even the strongest of battle-mages, stopping the attackers in their tracks.

His horn crackled and glowed green with potent thaumic energy. Charging and charging and… charging? He’d never had this spell take so long to power up! What was going on?

A quick sideways glance confirmed that all of his guardsponies seemed to be slowing down, moving with bizarre difficulty, as if the very atmosphere had turned into thick, restrictive jello — some even hanging in mid-air as their attempts to sprint toward the threat failed.

Time magic!

Stalwart tried to prepare a counter-spell, his mind racing back to the training he’d received ages past regarding the extremely rare form of magic, which was thought to have no living practitioners on Equus but it was too late. He became frozen in his own bubble of space-time, unable to do anything but watch helplessly as the five shadowy figures began to move toward his chrono-locked squad with a cavalier casualness that confirmed they had won the engagement.

It was over. The bandits would surely slit their throats, or worse, leave him and his guards at the mercy of the harsh desert environment, trapped in a seeming eternity of pseudo-death.

He blinked.

In the course of his eyes flittering down and back up, the moon jumped jarringly across the night sky, hopping forward in its arc in what he figured to be roughly one hour’s worth of travel. He felt the breeze, the flow of blood through his veins, the thump of his heart that confirmed he was no longer in stasis. At least time had resumed its normal flow.

Unfortunately, during that intervening hour, he and the entire squad had been bound and gagged by their ambushers, and he was helplessly prostrate on his left side, hooves bound together with manacles and a spell-suppressing inhibitor ring that had been wedged painfully into his horn.

A shadowy hoof reached from behind his head and slipped his gag free. Stalwart didn’t waste a moment.

“Criminals! Release me and my guardsponies immediately before you compound your charge — *OOMPH*” Stalwart resounding, drill-sergeant voice was cut off by a sharp kick to his gut by one of the bulky, bruiser-type earth-ponies.

“Shut yer yap, copper… we didn’t ungag you to her you spew manure.” The earth pony snapped with a distinctly Massachoofetts accent.

“Easy Truncheon. I don’t want him so hurt he can’t move.” The shadowy unicorn said calmly, as he used a levitation field to lift Stalwart up onto his hooves. “But I didn’t have you ungagged to discuss legal matters, Captain. What I wanted to do was ask you, very nicely mind you, to please open that wagon for us.”

Stalwart laughed bitterly, spitting out a bit of the bile that had risen to the back of his throat from the heavy blow he’d been dealt. “You must be a new crew. Don’t you know that royal guardsponies have special conditioning, training, and spells to prevent cracking under pressure or torture? Even mind-control spells won’t work. You’ll never get me or my squad to op- *OOMPH*” This time a forehoof was launched with a vicious uppercut under his solar plexus.

“I said, don’t spew manure, flatfoot.” Truncheon growled at him.

The unicorn sighed, rolling his eyes slightly as if he were bored with the scene unfolding before him, then motioned for one of the other ponies behind him to come closer. “Nurse Blackheart, if you please?”

Stalwart’s eyes struggled to refocus as a beautiful light-blue mare came out of the darkness. The earth-pony mare had a turquoise mane visible, despite her locks having been tucked under a black woolen toque, part of a fashionable set that matched her black turtleneck. She’d definitely dressed for the occasion.

Her cyan eyes twinkled behind her square rimmed glasses as she responded in a pleasant, lilting tone. “Please don’t call me Nurse; it reminds me too much of my goody-four-shoes cousin. Unlike her, I’m no nurse…” Blackheart chortled as she opened one of her saddle-bags and removed a clipboard and a vial filled with a bubbling, glowing, vile brew, “... I’m a pharmacist.”

Stalwart quickly noted the mare’s cutie mark, his mind trying to remember every possible detail. It was a red cross, with hearts in each of the corner-quadrants, all over a green background splatter which dripped down onto a menacing skull and crossbones that rested beneath the cross. Stalwart grimaced: why did the bad guys always have such obviously evil cutie marks?

She stepped closer, looking down her snout at him as she uncorked her vial, keeping it held well away from herself as a blast of noxious fog escaped from the enclosure. Surprisingly, she began to address Stalwart as formally as if he was in a physician’s office for his annual check-up.

“Do you have any drug allergies? Are you on any medications?” Stalwart couldn’t but answer with a shake of his head, lured by the mare’s clinical and earnest tone into automatic responses.

“Good, good,” she made a couple of checkmarks on her clipboard. “And any problems with hypertension or blood press —”

“Oi Doc!” The voice of another stallion piped up, small tones of a Shireland accent creeping into his speech, “Get ON with it! We don’t give a flyin’ feck if he croaks once we’re done, just give him the dose ‘fer the love a’ Celestia!”

Blackheart clicked her tongue, shooting a glare over Stalwart’s shoulder at the interrupting, broguish voice “Well I care, Mr. Clover. I’m not some two-bit, fly-by-night poisoner. I’m a mare of science. But fine…” With a sigh, she clicked her pen and set aside her clipboard, stuffed it back into her saddlebag, “Captain, I’ll just assume you’re a healthy guardspony, without any pre-existing health conditions.” Her venomous glance back at ‘Mr. Clover’ showed just how much she disliked having to make such an assumption. “So, I only have one more question for you, do you prefer to sleep with mares or stallions?”

Stalwart coughed, blushing and shaking his head as if to deflect the awkwardness of the question suddenly posed to him. “W-what!?”

Blackheart smiled and asked again, peering down under her glasses at him as if he were nothing more than a lab experiment to be surveyed. “Do you prefer mares or stallions? Peppers or aubergines?Tacos or cucumbers? Clams or bananas…?” She gestured to the pile of his still-restrained squad, predominantly made of stallions. “Maybe it's true what they say about what goes on in the showers at the guards-stallions’ barracks?”

Stalwart snarled, outrage causing him to bubble out with a venomous and vehement denial. “I’LL HAVE YOU KNOW I LIKE MARES… one beautiful mare, in particular, thank-you-very-much! I’ve been married for years!”

The researched chuckled, adding a drop to the bubbling vial in her hoof, which frothed before belching forth a small puff of toxic gas. “Fantastic, glad to hear that… and I’m sure a fellow like you has never cheated on her? Never even turned to glance at the backside of a passing beautiful mare?”

Stalwart spat to one side, eyebrows knitting together in a mixture of confusion and anger. Was this supposed to get under his fur? “Of course not!”

“Never sniffed the air a little too long when a girl is out during her springtime estrus?” Harems and herds sure are popular these days.” She was focusing more on her brew, watching its colors shift, needling him absentmindedly as the potion finally settled on a sickly shade of purplish-pink.

“From the moment I saw her, I’ve only had eyes for my wife Marigold… and later for our beautiful baby foal, Daisy! They mean everything to me. I’d die before I even thought about letting them down. We’ve been married for seven years, and my love for her burns as brightly as the day I met her at Canterlot cafe. That’s why my name is Stalwart Heart!” The captain gestured down at his flank with his restrained hooves, indicating his cutie-mark, a locked heart inside a shield.

Blackheart’s expression softened a bit, hearing this diatribe. Her hoof shook slightly and she chewed her lip as if she were reconsidering something. “C-captain Stalwart… I usually don’t give additional warnings to my captives. But I detest playing the role of homewrecker.” She reached a hoof out and put it onto the Captain’s shoulder, her eyes no longer clinical and detached, but filled with concern and what seemed like regret.

“Jes’ get on with already Blackheart, ya’ big softie!” A young, nasally Manehattan accent called out from behind Stalwart, outside of his vision.

Blackheart frowned at the interruption, then turned her sincere gaze back to Stalwart. “Captain, I’m telling you this because I don’t want to have to use this.” She wriggled the vial in her hooves. “But we’ve found a way through that famed guardspony conditioning of yours… love.”

“Pfft.” Stalwart couldn’t help but blow a small raspberry at the ridiculousness of the statement. Centuries of the top minds in spell-crafting and psychological conditioning and training… beaten by a sappy throwaway catchword?

Blackheart blushed with embarrassment at his scoffing response, but cleared her throat and continued. “I’m not joking Captain, I’m no fool. This little vial here contains ‘perfected love poison’. You may have heard of its closely related analog, Amoris Potionem, which in the modern era we mistakenly name a love poison. Often useful as a little prank to get two friends to go googly-eyed for a few hours, and quite reversible.”

“And highly illegal.” Stalwart whispered through clenched teeth.

“Yes, of course. So many fascinating apothecarian sciences are!” Blackheart clicked her tongue with annoyance, “But that’s not the point. We call it ‘love poison’ and keep it illegal because long, long ago… it truly was a poison.” She hefted the vial, glowing with menace. “A real poison - Amoris Venenum.” She trotted a few steps away, grabbing something while out of sight of Stalwart’s vision. “You probably don’t know much about this brew, though. It hasn’t been made in hundreds of years. The black magicks required to complete the chemical foundations had been lost to time… Until now.”

She walked back into his vision, holding that horrible black book that he’d wanted to burn to cinders back at the base-camp.

“Drop that this INSTANT!” Stalwart barked, mentally kicking himself for keeping the book in his saddlebag instead of inside the sealed transport wagon. He’d assumed that one was as safe as the other.

“No.” Blackheart sniffed, turning her nose up slightly, dismissing his request as if he were a small school-foal. She cracked open the heavy leather-bound cover of the tome and flipped to a particular page. “Ah yes. There’s something thrilling in the idea that I am the only chemist able to brew this poison… for now. And the first in hundreds of years, too. And let me assure you, Captain… this will cut through your conditioning like a fire-spell through butter.”

“So. Buckin’. What?” Stalwart grunted, playing tough. The beads of nervous sweat starting to form on his brow betrayed just how shallow his boast was.

“So what?” Blackheart sighed as if disappointed. “Let me be perfectly clear as to the effects of this poison, Captain. Once I have you consume even some of this, you will be put into a state of complete love receptiveness.” She spoke slowly and deliberately, each word dripping with a silent plea that he listen to her warning. “During that time, the first mare you lay eyes on… well… you’ll fall into true love with her. Forever.”

Stalwart swallowed, trying not to let any reaction show on his face.

Blackheart tapped the vial, freeing a couple of acrid bubbles to boil slowly to the surface with sickening squelching pop sounds. “And I’m not talking about some lustful romp or one night’s stand. This love will be so deep and true it will replace all the other love you have in your soul. Hobbies? Your job? Your friends?” She shook her head sadly and clicked her tongue. “But that’s not the worst of it. Think about your family. Your wife and child — any love you have for them will be pushed to the side, replaced by a desire for some random mare you happened to lock eyes on.” Her eyes teared up a little bit, and she paused to wipe them clear. “I’ve seen the effects, Captain. It was bad enough in a temporary form, in the addictive brews I’ve used to convince enemies of our gang. But this… this…” She held the vial aloft.

“This?” Stalwart softly intoned, dreading the response.

“I’m not proud of its effects, Captain… only its chemistry. Having a stallion leave their entire life behind because their heart — their very soul has been irreversibly changed. There is a reason this is called a love ‘poison’. It kills the old love and replaces it. There’s no going back.”

Stalwart felt a tremor ripple through his body, his muscles twitching under the surge of adrenaline flooding him, the first time he had felt fear cut through his intense guard conditioning. The memory of his cute five-year-old filly, playing with his wife Merigold in their garden - a memory he cherished as much as his own life… he would lose that? Lose the very love he had for them? The implications of this potion were terrifying.

“It’s not an exact science, Captain.” Blackheart lectured. “I don’t know how much will be left behind once you’ve taken it. But the tests that we’ve done with the non-black-magicked versions of the brew don’t leave much hope.” Blackheart sniffled again, wiping away another tear, her sorrow self-evident even as she detailed the means of destruction to be used against him. “Please Captain, don’t make me give this poison to you. Don’t make me destroy another family, and this time with no hope of reconciliation. Can’t you see the result is going to be the same either way? You’re going to open that door for us! Why not do it without breaking your heart into a thousand pieces… and your wife and daughter’s hearts in the process?” She almost looked hopeful now, letting the potion drop to one side, as if convinced that her speech would have the desired effect.

Stalwart could feel his heart pounding in his chest, the fear threatening to bubble over and show itself in his demeanor. Already he was starting to flinch backward from the potion - the mere smell enough to make him fearful of its potential effects.

A stiff set of hooves grabbed his head from behind, preventing him from shrinking too far away.

“Aww, c’mon Blackie - ‘yer way too muchuva softiey!” That sassy Manehattan voice was next to his ear now, spoken by the pony holding his head. “Just give him the stuff! I was hopin’ to get a nice lay tonight.” She giggled and whispered into his ear. “You wouldn’t believe how eager a stallion gets once they’re on Blackie’s brew… best sex a gurl can have!”

Blackheart’s face darkened as she glared at the mare holding him, shaking her head with an upturned lip in disgust. “Please Captain, you have a choice.”

“Aw, shut it Blackie. Always tryin’ to ruin my fun. I know you got a peek at the Cap’s junk when he was out.” Stalwart jerked upright as he felt one of the hooves slip off his head and goose him, grabbing his junk like he was some piece of meat. “An’ if he’s this well equipped when he’s scared shitless, just imaging how hung he’ll be once he’s all goo-goo eyed!”

Blackheart’s teeth flashed in her mouth, gritted and angry. “Horny little bitch.” She spat the words.

“Don’t get jealous just ‘cuz I’m not afraid to scratch an itch with a tool. And honey I have got quite the itch.” Stalwart shivered, the voice of his assailant breathed into his ear.

It had to… had to be a ploy! Stalwart’s mind locked onto the thought, the only glimmer of hope that he had. They’re hoping they can get me to cooperate through fear and lust - but if I just rely on my training. They don’t stand a chance.

Stalwart took a deep breath, gathering his courage, and setting his mind back to rights, latching on to the idea that this was all some elaborate fakeout, then affixed Blackheart with his gaze. “If I gave in here, I’d already had betrayed my loved ones: I’d never be able to face them knowing I let them down!” He fumed out his nostrils, stamping his foot in the dirt and gritting his teeth. “I believe in my Stalwart Heart resisting your evil ways… I believe in true love conquering all… so screw you! I will NEVER open that door!”

Blackheart choked out a sob. “NO! You stupid, stubborn stall-”

“Bwahaha! You heard the guy, Blackie! Now serve it up, my wings are gettin’ stiff!” The voice behind Stalwart sneered with glee.

Blackheart’s face darkened monstrously with ferocious anger. “Shut UP. Dusk Wing you slit-eyed, claw-winged, fruit-sucking, gutter-tramp orphan!”

“What did you just call me you mud-pony motherbucker!?” Stalwart felt the hooves come off his head as the mare holding him prepared to launch herself at her fellow bandit.

Blackheart lowered the vial, stepping forward and stiffening her shoulders, ready to tussle. “If you have so much time to yap that fang-filled trap of yours why don’t you go try the door one more ti-” The potion was snatched out of her grasp by a levitation field, the shadowy unicorn that had been observing silently stepping forward.

“No, I think that we’ve given the good Captain more than enough opportunity to consider his choice. Playtime’s over, girls.” His calm, good-humored tone seemed far too casual for the circumstances as he hovered vial to the Captain’s snout.

The fear on Blackheart’s face was evident as she scrambled quickly into her saddlebag and chased after the vial levitating away from her. “Wait! Wait! Be careful with that vial!” Stalwart could see the mare holding a blindfold in her hoof - the last thing he would see, in fact, as the earth-pony mare slid the blind over his eyes. “We have to cover his eyes, the next thing he sees once this thing comes off will be the target of the poison! He’ll latch onto the first thing he sees!”

Stalwart thrashed feebly against the blinders going on him, but those firm hooves gripped him from behind once again, letting the dark slip over his gaze.

“Say ‘ah’, ya guards-pony bastahd’!” The cruel mare he now knew as Dusk Wing chuckled in her annoying tone as she pinched the Captain’s nose, making him involuntarily open his mouth to breathe. The second his lips at parted, he felt the glass of the vial jammed into his muzzle, almost choking him as the bitter, acidic sludge, thick as molasses and warm with insidious power slid down his esophagus and into his gut.

“Bwa ha HA!” The mare’s laugh was even louder now. “A full dose, ain’t no hope for you now, asshole!” Dusk Wing chittered, finally releasing his head from her grasp.

As soon as he was free, Stalwart coughed and choked, hanging his head as low as possible to try to regurgitate some of the foul brew, remembering his training - magical potions generally couldn’t be aspirated, so inducing vomiting could actually work in mitigating the effects.

But it was no use.

The sludge had been absorbed the moment it slid down his throat, entwining itself inexorably with his thaumatological system.

“So, Blackie.” He heard that cloying Manehattan voice again, through the dark of whatever material was still covering him. “You sure seemed like you had a sweet-spot for ‘dis guy. You shore you don’t wan’ him yerself?”

“Dusk, you’re a real piece of trash, you know that? You’re ruining his life, don’t you feel anything?”

“Feel anything? From ruining the life… of a guards-pony?” She laughed for a moment before responding. “Joy, I guess? I ain’t got no problems ruinin’ their lives. Why should I? They had no problem ruinin’ mine!”

“Whatever. I’ll have nothing further to do with this.”

“Fine by me — but the way I sees it, I gotta pay you back for your trash-talk. And seein’ as how you had such a hard-on for the poor wittle Cappy here…” the sarcastic falsetto came with a few thumps of Stalwart’s flank, “Well, I guess I’ll just take it out on him. So are you sure you don’ wan’ him? If you don’t take him, I guarantee I’ll make you regret it.”

There was a moment of hesitation. “Fuck you and your guarantee. I’m sure you, parent-less orphan.”

“‘Kay. Don’t say I didn’t warn yah, Blackie.”

Stalwart heard the shuffling of hooves in front of him as ponies moved around. He was hypersensitive at the moment, his ears tuned for anything that he could pick up, while the remainder of his senses were turned inward, trying to discern just what, if anything, that potion had done to him.

“Hey, Tough. Turn ‘im around and let me get set before you take his blinders off.” Stalwart heard from in front of him. “I always think it’s freakin’ hi-lar-ious when stallions fall hopelessly in love with me while my plothole’s in their face!”

“Dusk, it’s not like the stuff I’ve brewed before - this is permanent. Don’t you understand?” Blackheart snarled.

“Enough, Blackheart.” The cold voice belonging to the unicorn softly cut her off again. “It’s done. He had his chance. Now we need to see if this formula really will be effective for improving our narcotics operation on the East Coast or not.” Stalwart heard the click of a tongue. “If this really is permanent, we can corner the market over all those two-bit back-alley potioner zebras grabbing up the family’s share of the market. The Captain’s just gonna be test subject zero is all.”

Stalwart’s mind was racing. Narcotics. The family. East Coast. So it was organized crime. He’d heard stories about how many of the potions trending in the fancy circles in those cities were being laced with illegal substances, but to go as far as black magic. This was beyond dangerous!

“Ya ready, Cap? Ready to see the last mare you’ll ever love?”

The question brought him back to the present. This was it.

He swallowed, trying to sense if he felt inebriated or drugged. If he felt like his magical system was out of whack.

But he felt OK.

He’d tasted that horrible sludge, had stemmed the wave of panic that came with ingesting it. But since then he’d felt...

Nothing.

No confusion. No nausea. No jumbled thoughts. Nothing of the elements that he’d been trained to expect in relation to magical thought-control potions.

Maybe… maybe this really was just one big fake-out?

His hope began to rise a bit. It was innovative, sure. Trying to confuse and slip around his SERE training by implying there was nothing he could do, but if it really was just some placebo potion or even just an attempt to use one of the well-known truth serums that he’d been inoculated against, he’d be fine.

He could do this.

Suddenly the blindfold was torn from his face. Stalwart clenched his eyes shut, squeezing his eyelids with all of his facial muscles to avoid seeing anything. He would resist as long as he could.

“Aww, he’s playin’ peek a boo, ain’t that jus’ adorable?” Dusk Wing chuckled, from not far in front of him. “C’mon Cap, ‘jes a little peek. I promise you’ll love it!”

He could smell her, the sweaty tang of a mare could almost feel the heat of her body on his face. She was right in front of his muzzle.

“No? Don’t wanna peek? Well, let me help you then!” Dusk shouted, whipping her tail hard against his snout.

The hairs whacked against the side of his face, as hard as if he’d received a slap, smacking against him with as much force as a wet towel. He couldn’t help but flinch, his eyes blinking open for the briefest glimpse of light.

But that was all the enchantment needed.

“Ta Daaaa!” Tell me whatcha think, Cap!’

*Ba-bump*

Stalwart felt the heavy pump of his heart as it throbbed in his chest, surging a wave of blood carrying the thaumic poison through his body, the final ingredient of the sight of a mare enough to catalyze the cruel magic into its full, devastating potential.

*Ba-bump*

Stalwart’s eyes quickly came into focus and he began to drink in the details of his own doom. Right off his nose was a shapely rear belonging to what looked to be no older than an eighteen-year-old thestral mare. Her messy fur was a dark grey, highlighted by a dark purple mane and tail. Her unkempt manecut was short and tight, revealing long, fuzzy ears that bat-ponies were so famous for, embroidered with emerald-blue studs that matched the irises around her big, slit-pupiled eyes. Her lightly-furred, leathery bat-wings were spread out on either side of her lithe, agile body — a diminutive filly by any measure.

But Stalwart’s attention was quickly drawn away from the major details of Dusk Wing, his gaze quickly being drawn to her teenaged plot. Her small, but firm buttocks were firmly squeezed as they kept her legs proudly set apart. Her flagged and wagging dock kept her tail proudly up in the air and out of the way. This meant that there was nothing preventing him from seeing every inch of Dusk... revealing her tight, shapely and darker marehood just inches from his nose, a pair of tight, plump lips that quivered with life, and just above it the taut little ring of her tailhole complete with a small smooth patch of skin between it and her vagina.

Dusk Wing looked over her shoulder back at him, smiling cruelly with a fang-filled grin as she started to move her butts with a sultry wiggle. “Don’t leave me hangin’ Cap! Tell me just how much you love my little ass.”

He swallowed, shaking his head slightly, his mind rebooting from the surge of fear and adrenaline as he searched his thoughts, inspecting his own feelings. Just how did he feel?

I feel… nothing!I’m OK!

A surge of relief let his tense muscles unlock. It had been a bluff! This young criminal filly in front of him had nothing compared to the beauty and love he felt for his wife, Merigold, and his daughter, Daisy! Sure she was a cute young criminal filly. Yes, she had an adorable face, and an unforgettable smile - those fangs were pretty darn adorable - and hergrin reminded him of his daughter, Daisee… Daisey? Dazey?

But his daughter would never turn to a life of crime, like Dusk Wing… like this… evil low-life. But, that wasn’t entirely fair, was it? Dusk seemed like she was a good pony - how could any teenager as beautiful and courageous as she really be bad to the bone? She just needed his guidance! Maybe… maybe he could be her mentor! Merrygoal always believed in giving ponies a second chance, and she’d never had a plot that looked as fine as Dusk’s!

“Speechless, huh Cap?” Dusk’s grin was ferocious now, the smirk of a predator looming over its kill. “Can’t blame ya’, my ass is pretty incredible.”

It really is, isn’t it?

Stalwart nodded silently in agreement. Her rear was so shapely, not big and squishy like he usually liked. How could he have ever like big butts? Clearly, this athletic and tight rear was superior, far better looking than his wife’s…

Wait. Wife? Was he even married? She was really more of a filly-friend that had stuck around, wasn’t she? A partner, more like. Right?

No! No! You were married!

His mind struggled again, trying to find some purchase to prevent itself from spiraling into the madness of the poison. He knew he’d gotten married at some point… sometime shortly after they’d found out that she’d become pregnant with their foal.

Was it a daughter? Or a son…? What was her name again?

But he did remember that she had gotten looser down there after the birth. There was no way that she’d be as tight as the hot little minx that Dusk Wing was. And that thestral ponut! So cute and snug-looking! He really wanted to just lean forward and plant a nice wet kiss on it!

Maybe… maybe he could convince Murrigul - wait, was that her name? No. No, it was Merylgilder, wasn’t it? Well… convince whoever-her-name-was that Dusk Wing could join their herd as lead mare. She’d be such a good fit for their family, he could tell that the bat-mare was destined to be his soulmate! If what’s-her-face didn’t agree, well… it wasn’t like she was the best catch in the sea, and they’d only had one foal together. Murrygut could take a hike.

“I think I got ‘im, boys.” Dusk Wing tittered, covering her chuckle with a free forehoof before slapping Stalwart again across the face with her tail and taking a few sashay-ing steps away from him.

Stalwart barely managed to avoid stumbling forward after her, gazing at her with dreamy eyes and a mouth that hung part way open. “W-wait! Wait, Dusk! Don’t go! You don’t have to do this, you know? You’re a beautiful, brilliant young mare. I-I could take care of you… we could be together, start a family, forget about all this trouble! I could make it work!” The words tumbled out of him unheeded, uncontrolled. He was desperate to do anything to stop her from walking further away from him.

“Boy you got it bad, Cap.” Dusk swung around, blowing a stream of warm air over Stalwart’s face.

The stream of mouth-flavored air was like ambrosia. Even her breath was incredible! Forget about the after-smell of cigarettes and whiskey. Stalwart couldn’t help but lean even further forward, threatening to trip over his still restrained hooves and land face first in the dust.

Blackheart’s disgusted voice piped up out of sheer exasperation. “Would you stop messing around already and just have him open the damn door? You’ve done enough damage as it is.”

“Naw,” Dusk Wing motioned back, staring right through the earth-pony mare as she walked around the carriage, “I think I’m gonna have some fun at your expense first.”

“Quantum, is this the kind of outfit you run!? You let horny little teenage tramps get in the way of business for the family? Is this what you want me reporting back to the dons?”

The unicorn, hitherto unnamed, stared coldly back at Blackheart. “Well seems to me, Nurse Blackheart, that at this particular point in time Dusk Wing holds all the cards. Captain Stalwart is only gonna listen to her — so all we can do is sit and watch.” He gave a little nod to Dusk Wing to continue.

Blackheart stomped her hoof, letting out a snort. “You don’t pay me enough to put up with this bull-manure!”

Quantum’s eyes flashed with menace, calmly turning back to look at her and pierce her through and through with his razor-sharp emerald eyes. “First off, we absolutely do. There’s a reason you turned criminal once the crown stopped funding your commercial research… and the family pays you very well to brew your little poisons.” Quantum took a half step toward Blackheart, which made the mare immediately retreat in fear, closer to the wagon and Dusk Wing. “Second of all, I know every one of the dons personally — they were all there when I was made. Insult me in their presence and they’ll turn you into bait for the sea ponies.”

“I-I… I didn’t mean an-”

“Yes. Yes, you did, Nurse.” Quantum clicked his tongue, letting some of the fire out of his eyes. “But it’s about time that you realized you’re just as bad as us. I’ve had it with your ‘holier than thou’ crap, thinking that you’re just a researcher fallen on hard times. We’ve all had hard times, Nurse. And now, I’m gonna baptize you in the evil you are, I’m gonna open your eyes.” Quantum gave a more deliberate nod to Dusk Wing, whose grin had now grown until it was ear to ear. “Full permission to do whatever you like, Dusk, just don’t take too long.”

“Quantum, I-”

“Shut it, Nurse. I want you to remember, you are just as responsible as Dusk for what’s about to happen to Stalwart.”

Stalwart watched the nurse hang her head without a response before his attention was quickly snapped back to that scrumptiously adorable thestral. Dusk had stopped beside a prone, bound, and gagged guardspony... one that seemed somewhat familiar to him. But he couldn’t quite place her.

Dusk looked down, confirming something on the guardspony’s armor then looked back over at Blackheart with the smile of a madmare. “See, Blackie… interesting thing is, as I was shaking down the guards during their little time-out, I saw this motherbucker here had quite an interestin’ name…” She rolled the helplessly restrained guard over onto one side, revealing the nameplate emblazoned on the upper right chest section of her armored barding: MERIGOLD.

“Oh my Celestia.” Blackheart gasped.

Dusk Wing ignored her, continuing on. “Now, the fact she’s got that name could all ‘jes be a crazy little co-inky-dink.” With a flick, the thestral extended a lethally-sharp claw switch-blade and slashed through the heavy leather saddlebag strap on the mare’s flank, digging her hoof into the innards like a vulture perched over a fresh kill. “Or… it could be a case of a good ‘ol-fashioned office romance, blossomin’ into a lovely marriage ‘n foals.” She held up her hoof triumphantly, revealing a family picture she’d found in the mare’s saddlebag - a smiling Merigold embracing Stalwart Heart while Daisy, their young filly, was squished between them. All three were laughing at Daisy’s crown of flowers. A picture of better times.

It clicked in Stalwart’s head. He knew that guard was familiar! He even sort of remembered that picture. Some small part of his mind hoped that Dusk Wing would be careful with it - and careful with the pony she was standing over. A little surge of thaumic energy pulse through him, and he quickly changed his mind. If that astoundingly sexy little minx wanted to not be so careful, he wouldn’t try to stop her - she knew what she was doing.

“Please. Don’t.” Blackheart begged, looking over at Dusk Wing.

Dusk Wing’s cruel smile fell into a cold, stoic glare. The look of a sociopath, a brief glimpse into the bat’s true nature. “I guaranteed I’d make you regret it, Blackie. Don’t you ever call me an orphan again.” Dusk crumpled and flicked the photo over her shoulder, carelessly. “I had parents before the fuckin’ guard showed up in Thestralslovakia.”

“Don’t.” The only thing Blackheart could do was repeat herself.

But Dusk was already turning away, reapplying her fang-filled grin and motioning to one of the bruisers just on the outskirts of Stalwart’s vision.

“Let our good friend Cappy go, fellas.” Dusk giggled, motioning at his restraints. “He's only gonna run over to get some sugah from his honey.”

Stalwart felt a jerk and a yank as a powerful stallion unlocked and ripped off the manacles binding his legs. Even more surprisingly, he felt a set of hooves grip the spell-restraint ring fashioned on his horn and jerk it off - the effect was as painful as a blacksmith pounding a nail into your funny bone but was quickly over.

More importantly, Dusk Wing had let him free! His love, his little muffin! He knew she had a good side to her. And she was right there! Right off his nose! He could rush over to her and wrap her up in the hug that he knew she needed. That he needed.

“I can’t watch this.” Blackheart choked out, hanging her head and turning away.

Quantum’s horn snapped back into a magically glowing torch of energy, tendrils of icy-blue spellcraft seizing Blackheart and jerking her into place, forcing her to view the spectacle before it froze her. “You’ll watch the whole thing, Blackheart. If you don’t, I’ll make you give that guardsmare the poison too and leave that foal without anypony.”

Stalwart glanced idly from the frozen apothecary, the momentary distraction just enough to turn him away from Dusk Wing, who was still glancing at him with curiously expectant eyes. It wasn’t the only set of eyes waiting to see what he was about to do’ the guardsmare bound and gagged on the desert floor was looking over at him, pupils contracted and very much unfrozen, not captured in the strange undeath of cryothaumic stasis. Well, whoever her name was, she could watch as he embraced his little thestral-bunny.

Stalwart charged forward, building up to a trot as he closed the distance to Dusk Wing quickly. The golden-maned guardsmare did her best to sit up, craning her neck off the hot, desert sand and choking out a muffled cry that was mostly absorbed by her gag, a plea to him that he couldn’t hear, but it almost looked as if she were relieved that he was running over to her… he didn’t have the foggiest idea why that would be.

Stalwart charged right past her, nearly trodding on her leg as he wrapped Dusk Wing up into a bear hug, burying his head into the nape of her neck and squeezing her like a long lost lover might hug their beau after a lengthy absence.

“Dusk! I knew it. I knew you would let me go!” Stalwart grinned, hugging her even tighter. Every moment he was embracing her felt so… right. Like his whole soul and being were completed by this simple act of hugging. “I knew we were meant to be together… now let’s get out of here! I know a great lawyer, and we’ll get you right with the guard, then we can talk about our future an-”

Stalwart’s rambling madness was silenced by Dusk Wing’s forehoof, pressing firmly against his lips to get him to shut up. “Sure sure, Cap… whatevah’ you say. But first…”

Stalwart felt the brush of Dusk Wing’s unkempt tail as it slid up between his legs, pressing firmly against his inner thigh without the least hint of shame or hesitation, traveling up and up until it bounced against his stallion-junk, making his unarmored ‘pouch’ swing beneath him.

“Why don’ we have a little fun?”

“F-fun?” Stalwart’s mind raced. On the one hoof, his heart was pounding with excitement and intensity at the thought of the kind of ‘fun’ that the bat-mare might have in mind: he wasn’t usually one for lewd activities out of season or out of the bedroom — but the idea of doing anything with Dusk Wing, let alone ‘fun’ was thrilling. On the other hoof… he glanced with incredulity at the bound captives that had been his squad, the gang of criminals less than a few pony lengths away, and the strangely familiar Guardsmare staring at him from just below where he was snuggling with Dusk Wing. “H-here? NOW? In front of all these ponies?”

“Sure! Unless…” Dusk Wing looked up at him with puppy dog eyes, her large slit-shaped irises glistening with mocking sincerity as she batted her eyelashes, “... unless you don’t like me?”

Stalwart felt her begin to pull away from him, turning away and subtly hip-checking him with a little wriggle of her rear. Even her slight withdrawal felt like a fisherpony had somehow sunk a treble-barbed hook into his heart and was yanking with all his might to free his lure. The physical pain of potentially losing the contact he had with Dusk Wing made him quiver.

“NO! No. Uh, I guess. I mean, of course, we can have a little fun.” Stalwart stepped back against Dusk Wing, the press of his withers against her croup triggering a flush of endorphins. He slid up, smelling her sweaty fragrance as his nostrils flared, drinking in her every essence. He was tempted to kiss her barrel right then and there. “As… as long as you don’t mind everypony watching.”

“Nah, I don’t mind one bit. I’m proud of my body, and I’m a performer.” She slid one of her bat-wings down her demure body cockily. “Ain’t nothin’ I’m ashamed of if them boys wanna watch, your guys gotta pay for the peep-show though.” She giggled, clicking her tongue and motioning with her chin at the bound and gagged guardsponies. “Even your wifey, but enough talk Cap, gimme a kiss.”

She leaned up to him, craning her neck to bring her head closer to him. As the larger stallion, he had to bend down as well, brushing her cheek with his lips, planting a little butterfly-kiss on the teen’s face, more a peck than a real embrace. But by Celestia did it feel amazing!

He noticed the mare on the ground beneath him seemed to be staring with shocked, unbelieving eyes, almost screaming into her gag. But it didn’t detract from the incredible sensation he was feeling even one iota. It was like he was floating on air!

“Pft, gimme a break Cap. I wasn’t askin’ ya to kiss me the way you’d kiss ya’ daughter.” Dusk Wing tsked at him, rolling her eyes as she worked her quick little tongue around her lips, wetting them.

“My… my who?” Stalwart asked, trying to understand just what his love-muffin meant by ‘daughter’. As he said the words, another muffled scream came from the pony on the ground.

“Ya little gurl, Cap. Wasn’t the brat’s name Daisy?” Dusk grinned as she leaned into him with half-lidded eyes, making for a cruel show for Merigold, currently crying in confusion as she watched them. “You was kissin’ me like you would kiss a little filly.”

Stalwart swallowed, trying to catch hold of his breathing as his vision was filled with the large, almost luminous eyes of a thestral, her nose right off the end of his.

“But let me show ya’ how this little gurl likes t’ kiss.”

Dusk Wing’s fang-filled mouth opened wide to engulf his lips, her open muzzle covering his stunned snout before she forced her limber tongue inside his lips, quickly parting his teeth and thrusting against his own tongue — roughly pulling at strands of his mane as she aggressively ran her hoof through it, trailing down his neck and toward his barrel.

The muffled scream of the pony underneath him was lost in the cacophony of joy that Stalwart was feeling, trumpets of victory sounding in his skull at the sheer epiphanic bliss of receiving Dusk’s love.

Merigold’s horror only increased as Dusk Wing’s free hoof trailed down Stalwart’s barrel and reached under his left hip, grasping his package with impudent ardor and grinding a hoof-edge skillfully into his sheath with impatience.

Oh fuck.

Stalwart moaned throatily into Dusk’s sucking face. The sensation of the teen groping him was just as potent as the throbbing love coursing through his veins. He felt himself spill out of his sheath, inch after inch of mottled pink stallionhood pouring out of his body into her eager, massaging hoof, its pendulous weight supported by Dusk’s hoof as his shaft quickly filled with screaming-hot blood, extending him to full erection.

Just as he felt his tip brush against his belly, throbbing with a painful fullness he hadn’t felt since he’d been a teenaged colt, Dusk broke their passionate, lewd kiss. Stalwart whimpered as she broke away from him yet again, pulling back from him so that she could sneak a glance under his body and inspect her own hoof-work.

She looked back up at him with an arched eyebrow clearly impressed. “Shit, Cap… I guess them rumors ‘bout you asshole Guardscaptains needin’ a wheelbarrow to get around are true. You might be a bit too big for this little filly.” She whimpered with a falsetto, wagging her tail at him and taking another step away.

“N-no!” Stalwart choked, a flush of fear running through him that he might be rejected by his only love. “I… I can make it smaller. It’s not my fault! I… I’ll get reduction surgery, I’ll cut it d-”

“Woah, woah, woah there Cap.” Dusk rolled her eyes. “I was just playin’. You might be the biggest dick I seen, but I could use a good hard rut after some of tonight’s… frustrations.” She shot a venomous look in Blackheart’s direction, ruffling her wings as she did so.

“But first…” Dusk held up a shackle key, letting it dangle downward, “Would you like to let Merigold free?” She pointed down toward the tearful pony on the ground.

Stalwart watched the strangely familiar mare’s eyes flare wide with shock as Dusk let the key fall to the ground with a clinking clatter, right in front of her face. Her eyes darted from the keys and then back up to him, big emerald irises begging him to unlock her, free her and escape from this madness! The thought ran through Stalwart’s mind - dimly, it somehow made sense. But he couldn’t leave without Dusk Wing! She was the really important one. Not this mare.

This mare. This mare with a golden-auburn mane.

Mare-i-gold?

Merigold!

Some click of neural pathways jolted back into one final burst of fleeting life, memories rushing back to him, a confusingly eclectic mix of their courtship, marriage, their raising of their foal… all trapped behind the dimming fog of the pounding need of acquiring Dusk Wing’s affections.

“M-merigold! Are you OK!?” Stalwart gesticulated with his hooves awkwardly, crouching down to look at his wife more closely. His mind snapped shut like a rusty gate clicking closed as his heart screamed to him about how rude he was being to Dusk Wing to divert his attention from the bat for even a moment. “Oh… uh, Merigold, I’d like you to meet Dusk Wing! She is… well, I’d like to ask her to join our herd.”

Stalwart watched Merigold’s eyes quiver and widen in abject shock, a muffled cry being blocked by her gag, her nose scrunching in horrified confusion. “Now just hold on a minute, honey. I know we said we’d only ever have a two-pony herd, that we only needed each other but…” Stalwart tried to come up with some sort of a reason for why his heart was screaming so clearly at him to incorporate this gorgeous, brilliant, thestral who had been a stranger only a few moments earlier.

“I… I mean…” His words were failing him. “J-just look at her!” He pointed to Dusk Wing, confident that the sight would speak for itself.

Dusk took that moment to make a goofy face, sticking her tongue out as she pulled down one of her eyelids, all while flipping Merigold the ‘high-hoof’, only adding to her confusion about why her husband might be acting this way.

Why can’t she see? Stalwart grumped, going on to continue explaining to his frustratingly non-understanding wife. “Just look at how beautiful she is honey! She’s clever and cute… and I’m sure she’ll be just great with our son-”

“Daughta’.” Dusk Wing corrected him absently, amused.

“Uh - Daughter, right. Yes! See honey?” Stalwart asked his prone, bound, disapproving wife. “She’s closer than either of us in age to little Maisey-”

“Daisy.” Dusk Wing corrected him again.

“Closer in age to Daisy than to either of us, so she could be like a loving big sister to her! Right?” Stalwart glanced over at Dusk Wing hopefully, his smile ear to ear.

“Nah.” Dusk shrugged, cold and uncaring bitterness on her face. “I fuckin’ hate little snotty fillies. Especially guards-pony’s daughta’s. If you took your eye offa me I’d beat the shit outta the brat.”

Stalwart’s smile didn’t even falter. He grinned even brighter. Dusk was so funny and clever! “Th-that’s… that’s fine, isn’t it Merigold?” He looked back to the thestral with desperation - he really hoped that his young daughter wouldn’t get in the way of his relationship with her. “W-We can just send Daisy away to boarding school. Or hay, you can just beat her up if that’s what you prefer! It’ll toughen the kid up! Right, Merigold?” Stalwart looked back at his wife hopefully, only to see her shake her head softly, tears falling from her eyes as she sobbed.

Why did she always have to be such a nag? Couldn’t she understand just what Dusk Wing meant to him!?

“B-but look at her!” Stalwart insisted, gesticulating with his hoof toward Dusk. “Her… her butt is just amazing! Look at it!”

Dusk Wing took this moment to shake her rear in the crying guardsmare’s face, taunting her with a devious chuckle.

“Not nearly as plump as yours, but it’s so adorable. Even when you were young and beautiful you didn’t hold a candle to that!” Stalwart chirped with happiness, excited that his wife would see the logic in his statement.

Instead, she only screamed into her gag.

“Ah sorry, I couldn’t hear you Morigull-”

“Merigold.” Dusk Wing corrected him again.

“Right, Merigold.” Stalwart grabbed the key off of the ground, fumbling to find the right one for his wife’s restraints. Merigold’s eyes brightened and she began to nod vigorously with hope reappearing in her eyes. “Let me just get you out of those restrai-”

“Actually Cap, I changed my mind. We’re gonna play a little game.” Dusk Wing interjected, placing one of her hooves over his. “You only get to choose one ‘a these two options.” She flashed her eyebrows mischievously, then went on. “Option numero uno: you can go home, right now, with Merigold and your whole squad and your wagon. Back home to y’little daughter.” Dusk spoke slowly, staring into his eyes and carefully intonating each word, making sure he would understand. Out of the corner of his eye, Stalwart could see Merigold nodding her head vigorously, a forced, desperate smile starting to spread from behind the gag.

“...Y-you’d come too, right?” Stalwart prodded. That was the most important bit of the scenario.

“Nope.” Dusk shook her head with a chuckle.

Stalwart felt his heart implode like a dying star, collapsing into a tiny ball of pure mass, swallowing all hope and light as it crushed itself into a black hole of misery. He felt dizzy, unanchored like the whole world was swimming away from him as he fought for purchase - the beginnings of a panic attack. How could he possibly live without her!?

“Buuuuuut…” Dusk Wing continued after just enough time had passed to make beads of sweaty panic form and roll down Stalwart’s face, “Option two: ya’ leave your little wifey locked up… and I’ll let you eat me out and pound my plot before you open that wagon-lock for me ‘n the fellas to rob you blind and leave you to starve in the desert.” Dusk Wing delivered the option casually, with mirth in her voice.

Merigold was screaming through her gag, trying to get his attention. But he couldn’t let her distract him.

He didn’t flinch or hesitate, cocking his arm back and hurling the hoofcuff keys as far away from himself as he could, out into the dusty reaches of the desert.

“The second one!” It wasn’t perfect. But it was more time with his beloved. More time to convince her. More time to be with her! He stared deeply into her slit-eyes.

“Good boy!” Dusk Wing chuckled, falling to her belly in front of the prone Merigold and stretching out, making sure that her rear would be right in front of the captive’s face, so she would have an exquisite view. “I knew you’d make the right decision!”

“W-what are you doing?” Stalwart cocked his head, looking down at the bat-mare on the ground.

“It ain’t what I’m doing… it’s what ‘yer doin’ Cap! Which is eatin’ my ass right in frontta ‘yer wife.” She cuckolded again, wiggling her tight athletic butt just in front of Merigold’s face.

“R-right there?” Stalwart asked nervously, even as his hooves began to move of their own accord. Some last vestiges of wrongness were still bubbling in his brain, despite the fact that his body was already moving him toward the inevitable conclusion. “Not somewhere else?”

Dusk Wing looked back at him over her shoulder, flashing one more fanged grin at him. Then she spread her rear legs and flagged her tail. “Yep. It’s here or nowhere, Cap.”

The steaming teenage-filly bat plot almost singed into his retinas. That incredible sight that had been the first imprint of the love poison washed over him like a tidal wave: that tight little tailhole, those plump, young-lips, now decorated with the slightest sheen of her arousal.

He jumped forward.

“Ooo!” Dusk Wing squeaked with surprise as Stalwart Heart dove into her plot. “Eager, ain'tcha?”

Stalwart pressed his nose forward, coating his muzzle in the fragrant musk of Dusk’s sweet bat-teen snatch. Her tangy, citric smell exploded his nose’s olfactory receptors, flooding his mind with the raw smell of the most perfect mare that he would ever sniff.

The fact she was more than twenty years his younger made no difference to him as he pressed forward, eliciting a leak of her juices from between her dark folds as his tongue slid into that pink, nestled-fold of pleasure, teasing the tight gateway to Dusk’s velvety, grasping interior.

“That’s it, Cap, make sure she gets a good view, now.” Dusk groaned, her words muffled by her own bitten lip. “Nothin’ gets me hotter then watchin’ your wifey cry as you trade her in for a younger model.” Stalwart felt Dusk’s bottom writhe up and down, pressing back into him as she tried to direct him downward. “Come on Cap, ‘yer forgettin’ somethin’ kinda important! Suck on my clitty already! Ain’tcha never ate puss before?” She chuckled.

Stalwart jerked back slightly, breaking the prench kiss with Dusks’s nethers in order to answer her, their connection only maintained by a thick strand of filly-honey between his nose and her nethers.

“N-no… sorry. I never liked doing this for my wife - I always thought it was d-dirty.” He mumbled with embarrassment, kicking himself internally. If only he’d practiced more on his nag of a wife! Maybe he wouldn’t be letting down Dusk Wing now!

Dusk looked back at him with an arched eyebrow and a shake of her head with incredulity. “Dirty?”

Stalwart felt the teen’s tail wrap around the back of his head. He knew just how strong a semi-prehensile thestral tail could be from training, a result of the race using the appendages to hang from trees and branches. That’s why it scarcely surprised him when the tail pulled him right up against her plot, only this time jamming his nose up against a higher target.

“Kiss my ass with your -— ‘dirty’ — bull manure.”

The earthy musk of her ponut was strange, foreign. It felt so strange to be pressing his nose against something that he’d always regarded as icky and unclean. Yet… it belonged to her. Nothing on her body was anything other than perfect.

And if she wanted him to kiss her tailhole, he would.

He pressed his lips against the quivering, tight ring of muscle, delighted by the sounds of Dusk’s naughty giggle and the press of her ass back against him in response.

“Good boy, Cap. Told ‘ya you’d fall in love with my ass!” She barked out a chortle, even louder and more insistent. “Now stick ‘yer tongue in there and eat my ass.”

Stalwart swallowed nervously, dimly aware that his wife was watching him. Her eyes darted back and forth, trying to avoid the site, but being unable to look away as he brought his tongue to the center of the dark grey donut, the taste of sweat and musk on the tip of his tongue as it slid ever so slightly into her anus, teasing its way inside her.

“I said eat.” Dusk waggled her hips. “Unless you’d prefer ta just go home with your wifey.”

“N-nuh!” Stalwart mumble-shouted, it being difficult to enunciate with his tongue part way into the teen-threstal’s asshole. He pressed deeper in, somewhat surprised at how clean and neutrally tasting it was to have his oral muscle jammed into her sphincter.

“Mmmnf!! Sweet Celestia, that’s the spot! Keep lickin’ you buckin’ piece a’ shit guardspony.” Stalwart did as he was told, swirling his tongue an inch or so inside her hot tailhole as it clenched and squeezed against him. It tasted salty and slightly bitter. He could feel Dusk’s excitement growing in the tone of her groaning curses, could feel the heat of her teen marehood as she started to wink at the sheer depravity of the situation, her powerful pelvic floor muscles making her clench and part, flashing her hot pink interior and fat nub of a clitoris.

“Buck you lookin’ at, bitch?” Dusk snarled, her attention grabbed by Merigold’s accusing eyes. Stalwart was almost shocked at the fury in her voice, a sheer ferocity of vehemence that dripped with spite. But he could tell it was turning his beloved little bat-mare on, and she was all that mattered now. “Your hubby is doin’ somethin’ for me he ain’t never did for you, you guardswhore slut. And now he’s gonna make me pop!”

Dusk’s tail forced his face down once again, directing his pursed lips back to the thestral filly’s honeypot, smushing him forward into her cleft deeper than before, dragging him down her sticky marehood until he felt the bump of a hot, wet nub of flesh against his chin.

“Suck my clit, you guard motherbucker.” Dusk growled at him. He could hear the mixture of venom and arousal in her needy demand.

His lips searched wildly before a timely wink sent the red-hot pink lovebud shooting against them. He sucked in, catching her clitoris and drawing it into his mouth, where he was able to lavish it with his tongue.

“F-fuCK! Yes! Damn Cap! You’re not half bad at eating bat-snatch! Your slut of a wife don’t know what she’s missing!” Stalwart swirled his tongue around wildly, unsure of what to do, but happy that he was having some sort of an effect on his new crush. The way her little hips were pumping backward against him, grinding left and right… the way her tail was grasping and pulling his nose deeper and deeper into her pussy… and most of all, the way that her slender cunt was winking almost continuously, pumping open and shut with writhing, erotic contractions told him that he was doing the right thing.

“Sl-slow… SLOW DoWn…” The bat’s tone was unsteady, shifting her register up and down almost as quickly as she was now arching her back. “C-cap… w-WAiT! I S-said WaIT!” Stalwart couldn’t stop now, suckling her clitoris harder and faster as the steady trickle of thestral-honey became little squirts of leaking pleasure.

“YoU S-stuPid P-PRICK! Ah… ah… ah!” Dusk was swearing at him constantly now, twisting away as she tried to get away from his tongue. “I… I’m GonNa… buck… BUCK… FUCK!” She pressed her forehooves down into the dirt, standing up and arching her back into a convex cat-stretch as she threw her head back and let loose a vile stream of invective.

“FUuck You! Fuckin’ GuardSs, FucK y-yoUr WiFE, ‘Yer DaUghTah’ and F-FucK ‘yeR whoLe FUcKin’ GuaRDs FaMilEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

Stalwart’s ears stung as a high-pitched scree escaped her muzzle as the teen began to convulse, her back pumping in and out as her wings shot ramrod straight, quivering at full extension, her tail going limp and releasing his head.

She was cumming. In a way that Stalwart had never seen before. Hard. He jerked back, releasing her love-nubbin from his pleasure-torture to watch the fascinating spectacle of her spasmodic contractions.

Splatters of hot liquid started to shoot out of her tight, teenage pussy a little fount of Dusk’s pure delight that splattered against his neck, a clear stream of her pungent, clear love-nectar, slick and sticky and filled with hormones to make for the perfect natural bucking lubricant. One spray, then two… then a third, which was longer and heavier than any that had come before, accompanied by the high-pitched ‘eee’ slowly falling in tone until it became a throaty groan.

Stalwart barely noticed the final fountain of marecum sloshing across Merigold’s face splattering right over the middle of her nose and soaking a part of her muzzle, he was too enraptured by the impossibly erotic scene unfolding before him, as his new true love rode out her orgasm… and his senses filled with the overpowering stench of her raw sex. His heart thumped in his chest, and his cock felt painfully erect, like it was going to burst right through its very skin. He’d never been so horny in his entire life, not even as a young colt.

“Huff… huff… huff… P-phew…” Dusk Wing panted, collecting her tongue back into her muzzle as she slowly recovered herself from her orgasm, rolling away onto her side and wiping her sweat-covered brow with one of her wings. “Gotta give you credit, Cap! Seems like you’re a natural when it comes to eatin’ out a mare, regardless of whether you’re using the front entrance or the drive-through around back.”

Dusk lazily rolled up onto her hooves, working her head left and right as if she’d just had a relaxing massage and was working out the last kink., stretching out her hind legs and letting out a little, satisfied yawn. “Now, I know I promised you’d get a chance to use that big dick o’ yours to rut me silly once you’d warmed me up… but turns out I actually am a lying criminal piece of -” She paused, looking down at the Merigold, who was glaring up at her with furious anger in her face, as a mixture of tears and the teen’s spatter rolled down her cheeks.

“Huh, I take that back Cap,” She growled, her relaxed tone of voice quickly shifting back into the growling venom that simmered under her surface with toxic noxiousness. “Seems like your fuckin’ wife is angry. At me. A poor orphan left parentless ‘cuz of a guardspony piece of manure like her. I wonder why that is, do you think?”

Stalwart swallowed, ingesting the last of Dusk’s taste leftover from her squirting climax. Each honeydrop was like ambrosia… if ambrosia were extracted raw from centaur testosterone. Celestia forgive him, he was so painfully hard, and he wanted nothing more than to become one with his newly found soulmate. Why did his nag of a wife have to keep interfering with that? “I-I don’t know…”

“Maybe she’s angry that I ain’t keepin’ mah promise to ya? Well, well…” Dusk’s venom once again bubbled into a spiteful grin, ignoring Merigold’s furious head shakes by way of negative response at her surmise, flipping the captive guardsmare onto her back. “I wouldn’t wanna let my new herd-sister down on our first date, would I?”

The sweaty, still-dripping thestral grinned harder as she folded her wings back along her barrel and gingerly stepped over the top of her prone captive, carefully observing where those drips from her throbbing marehood fell, making slight adjustments until the small spatter fell directly onto the flinching muzzle of Merigold’s disgusted face. “Perfect.”

Her little positioning dance completed, Dusk spread her hinds slightly, bracing herself, before flagging her tail to one side and presenting her glorious rear to Stalwart.

“Come an’ get it, Cap.”

Stalwart shot from his crouch faster than a sprinter at the Equestrian Games, carried by a surge of joy and adrenaline that this was actually happening, that he was actually going to become one with his love. His nostrils flared with excitement as he clattered forward, barely noticing his wife. His large rear hooves landing dangerously close to her ears as he nickered and mounted the diminutive bat with his much larger, muscular, guards-stallion bulk.

Even as he began to put his weight onto her back, his hips fired forward out of pure, masculine-instinct. The feel of his fat, extraordinarily-sensitive, dripping flare pressing against Dusk’s backside, making contact with her hot, wet orifice in a sloppy kiss made him buck.

“Easy Cap, EASY! Oooph!” Dusk squeaked as his cock slid up her butt, bouncing over her tailhole and then her dock before sliding up the round of her ass, laying across the small of her spine as the thick pipe stretched up her back - reaching up as far as her mid-point. “D-damn, your dick’s heavy.”

Stalwart’s heart fluttered with the compliment, and he began to pump his hips backward and forward in little thrusts, grinding his cockhead against the smaller mare’s back, painting her with a wet coat of his burbling pre-ejaculate as he did so.

“Whatcha’ doin’ you moron? Stick it in, already, and stop fuckin’ my back.” Dusk wiggled forward, her tail sliding in to wrap around his cock. He barely had time to grunt and bite his lip at the incredible feeling of her tail hairs gripping around his midshaft, constricting and tugging him before she almost agonizingly jerked his length off her back and re-directed it to her rear.

“S-sorry.” Stalwart choked, reaching down with one of his forehooves as he began to awkwardly try to fit his overly-large stallionhood against her much smaller marehood. Again, he felt the burning hot kiss of her nethers against his drooling flare and began to press himself forward.

“AY!” Dusk suddenly tightened up, her head shooting up and her muscles all tensing. “CAP! That ain’t my… F-ffffuck!”

Stalwart wasn’t listening, his eyes shut in concentration as he pushed against the wet ring of Dusk’s tailhole. It was so tight, so unyielding - particularly against the hoof-sized thickness of his girthy cockhead. Ever so slowly, amidst straining flesh, Dusk Wing’s ponut began to stretch and strain, opening wider and wider until her tight, immature asshole began to engulf the fat knob invading it.

*POP*

“A-A-Ah!” Dusk squeaked, her wings flittering along her side once he finally popped into her hot, tight asshole. Stalwart groaned in response, as the thestral’s tight backdoor sphincter slipped agonizingly over the widest point of his flare’s ridge, then re-gripped snugly around the shaft just beneath it, sucking him in with a heavenly feeling of grip that made his eyes roll behind his eyelids.

“W-wrong hole, you fuckin’ moron!” Dusk barked, with a look of fury and pain over her shoulder.

“S-sorry, love.” Stalwart peeped back apologetically, his ears folding back.

“Ha ha ha! How do you like havin’ the pain in the ass, Dusk?” The chirping taunt from one of the earth-pony bruisers at his criminal compatriot drew a slew of laughs from the spectating goons.

Their raucous cheers made Dusk blush and pinch her eyebrows together with frustration, before she composed herself and lifted her chin up, trying to shrug it off with as much grace as possible. A difficult task considering the blush on her face, sweat dripping down her brow and the massive penis jammed up her tailhole.

“Don’t like it as much as — ah! —, you do Truncheon.” Dusk spat, with the biting snark Stalwart was coming to recognize her as the expert of. “We all know how much ya; love that billy-club of yers’.”

“Oh! Oh buck!” Stalwart groaned, feeling the tight, constricting ring of thestral anal-muscle clench and twist around his cock. It felt so damn hot, so tight. So perfect! His dick was in the asshole of the most beautiful mare in all of Equestria — the asshole of his true love! He needed more of himself in her!

He pushed forward, grinding another couple inches of his big Captainhood slowly into her dark-colored ponut-pucker.

“Ah! AH!” Dusk squeaked, leathery wings flittering on her side.

“S-sorry dear, you’re just so-”

“Shut it, asshole! Be gentle or we’re DONE.” The teen snarled before taking a deep breath and letting out a pained sigh. Stalwart could feel her trying to relax her clenching butt-hole as it struggled to spread and engulf his fat, invading shaft. “Reminds me of when I took that huge dump a couple weeks back…”

“Uh…”

“Ha ha, I totally clogged a toilet w- EEP!” The bat-teen’s chuckle at her own crude memory was cut off suddenly, as she clammed up and tightened her tailhole unconsciously. The squeak came just as the thicker part of Stalwart’s penis started to press into Dusk, pushing her ponut-skin to the limit of its elasticity.

“Oof. Wow Cap… you really are a big fella’, no joke.” Dusk wiggled her lithe rear end, sending the most intense pleasures back up through his shaft. A smile appeared on her face. “Not bad actually, I don’t usually let stallions your size buck me in the ass.”

“Oh my love, I’ve never even tried… butt-stuff before, thank you! You feel so amazing!” Stalwart began to push forward again, obscene squelching sounds emitting from the thestral’s plot as he sank into her.

“Ah-ah-ah…” Dusk pulled forward, away from his slow, grinding, invasion of a thrust. “Sorry Cap, ‘yer dick’s a bit too big for my ‘wittle’ ass. That’s as deep as you go, understand?” She shot him falsetto puppy-dog eyes, big beaming vertical-slit pupils brimming with cuteness that hit him like a punch to the gut.

Complying immediately, Stalwart began to move with only little thrusts. He squeezed every muscle in his body to control himself and keep the travel of his grinds less than an inch, even to the detriment of his own pleasure. Anything for his beloved.

“That’s it, Cap… mmn…” Dusk groaned, her tight ponut sliding back and forth just below his fat, buried cockhead. She seemed to be getting into the rhythm of his anal-bucking now. Stalwart could feel the heat of her marehood as it began to drip again… right over the top of his wife’s face.

With where she had been left bound, she would have been right in the ‘splash-zone’ of the action.

“Oh my love, you ass… is so… tight!” Stalwart grunted out in between his micro-thrusts. He could feel the froth of his pre-ejaculate as it leaked from Dusk’s steaming, sticky tailhole, trickling down his shaft to drip off of his balls onto his wife below.

Not that he cared. She would understand that his focus was on Dusk. Of course she would. Dusk was his true love!

“Oh, Goddess!” Stalwart felt Dusk flex her tight teen-tailhole around his stallionhood, as she looked back at him with an evil grin. Stalwart started to move his hips faster, feeling a building heat twisting in his gut — the tension of an approaching crescendo.

Thwap!

A stinging blow of sweaty tail-hairs slapped across his face, making him see stars for a brief moment.

“Nuh-uh Cap. You don’t get to finish in my butt,” Dusk chided. “Pull that thing outta my ass… NOW.” She instructed, in a menacing tone.

Stalwart whimpered and hesitated. Everything in him, biological, mental and spiritual, was telling him to keep rutting this perfect specimen, to blow his load in this little teenage-filly’s rear.

“I said, NOW!” The darkness in the bat’s face was clear: there was cruelty there. Constrained violence.

He obeyed, withdrawing slowly. Those impossibly tight muscles straining once again to spread wide enough to permit the exit of his fat, guards-pony flare. As a small, throaty groan escaped from Dusk’s lips, her tailhole finally released its grip with a slick pop. A torrent of obscene juices and sweat poured from their broken union to splatter onto Merigold’s face below.

“Heh.” Dusk scoffed to herself as she looked down at the crying mare. That hidden cruelty blooming on her face as she watched Stalwart’s wife flinch and cough, a vain attempt to avoid the juices splattering all over her face and dripping into her muzzle around the gag.

“Tch. Bitch still hasn’t learned to just sit still and take it. Well then...” Those gleaming thestral eyes snapped back to Stalwart. “OK Cap. Congratulations, ya’ fucked my ass. Now if you can aim... I’ll let you shove that fat cock of yours in my little snatch now.”

Stalwart watched, mesmerized as she wiggled her hips again, drawing that strong tail of hers around him to pull him forward.

“Oh! Oh YES, dear!” Stalwart knickered with joy and stomped forward, his hoof stepping on the family portrait from earlier, grinding the picture of him, Merigold and Daisy hugging happily into the mess of desert-dirt and pooled sex-juices.

“Stop.” A firmly outstretched rear-hoof from the thestral prevented him from re-mounting her. “Just what do you think yer’ doin’?”

“I-I’m… shoving my fat cock in your little snatch?”

“Nuh-uh. You ain’t shoving that DIRTY dick that was just in my ass. Even if I keep my shit-box cleaner than Celestia’s cake-plate, that just ain’t right. You better wipe it off on somethin’ first.” Dusk pointed down at Merigold.

Of course! How could he be so thoughtless? Without hesitation, Stalwart Heart used his magic to snag some of his wife’s golden, curly mane. Using the mane-hairs like a shammy, he quickly cleaned his throbbing erection of the juices and ephemera it had been slathered with by Dusk’s tailhole.

He didn’t even notice Merigold flinching, shutting her eyes tightly to avoid watching her husband defile her even further.

“Wipe it on her nose, too.” Dusk suggested coldly, watching.

Why not? He dragged his flare across his wife’s snout, literally rubbing her nose in his infidelity.

“Good colt.” Dusk cooed, not looking at him but at Merigold, her fangs glinting as she watched her sob. “Now you can finish.”

Stalwart scrabbled forward, re-mounting the little thestral. As her leathery wings tickled his underside his face was beaming as wide as a mile — he was finally going to become one with his true love, his soulmate, his everything.

He felt his fat, throbbing flare catch on the hot, sticky furrow of Dusk’s marehood — a steaming kiss from her winking bat-slit delivered to the very tip of his aching cock. It was just enough to grip him, guiding the power from the instinctive jerk of his hips right against her stretching lips.

For a moment, her body resisted him: he was so large, and she was so small. It seemed like nature never intended for guards-stallions and diminutive bat-teens to mate: his head mashed against her opening as it strained to permit him entry.

*Pop!*

Then he was in her, sinking a full six inches of his wide stallionhood deep into her young, clenching pussy.

“Sheeeit Cap! That’s a fuckin’ grade-A cock yah’ got there!” Dusk groaned, letting out a snort.

“By Celestia, my love…” Stalwart sighed, a pure euphoria of satisfaction rolling over him like a crashing wave. “You’re tighter than when Merigold and I had our first time on our honeymoon!”

It was true — the velvety folds were crushingly tight. A vise-like grip of massing, clenching pleasure that molded around his cock’s every bump and ridge.

“Tch, don’t compare my paradisiacal puss-puss to ya’ wife’s loose garbage-gutter. Ahn~!” Dusk’s snide reply was briefly interrupted by a little grunt of pleasure. “I got bad news fer ya’, Cap. She only said she was a virgin — guarantee you a slut like her had a train of zebras run on her before and after yer’ weddin’. Ahn! Sh-shit… big fucker.”

Stalwart swallowed. He knew that Dusk’s implication wasn’t true: he’d grown up with Merigold, they’d been sweethearts since kindergarten. He remembered the blood on their wedding night. But… he wouldn’t dare disagree with his love.

“Y-yes… dear. She’s nothing compared to you.” Stalwart sighed, eyes rolling with pleasure.

“Yah’ ain’t felt nothin’ yet, Cap.” Dusk’s tail flicked and she bit into her lip with concentration before beginning to thrust backwards, spearing herself onto him. Her vaginal muscles clenched and squeezed with intention, forcing a series of powerful winks that swallowed more of his stallionhood into her marehood.

“Unngh! F-Fuck!” Stalwart felt his tongue slip out of his mouth, the drool from his open maw mimicking the hot spatter of juices streaming down from the pair’s frenzied coupling.

“Unh… unf… h-hey Cap, unmnf…” Dusk grunted, in between heavy breaths needed to fuel her backwards, gyrating thrusts, “t-tell me… tell me how much you love your shitty little wife and daughta’...”

“I… I…” Stalwart’s gut churned. He knew there was supposed to be some emotion there. He loved them, didn’t he?

“Ahn~! Shit!” Dusk trembled under a particularly deep thrust that shoved him in as deep as his medial ring, stuffing two-thirds of his pulsing cock into her small body. “If you wanna keep… mmnf… plundering my fruit basket, you better not give two shits about yer’ fuckin’ family.”

“I… I don’t. I don’t care about them.”

“Eeeeeee!” A high pitched squeak escaped Dusk’s mouth, her head craning back and her tongue lolling out of her muzzle. Stalwart felt a heavy shudder race through his little bat lover, a wracking spasm that threw her spine up and down in cat-arches, one after another. Her wings shot out with such rapidity that they left small scratches on his underbelly.

Orgasmic spasms.

He was making his beloved cum.

The contractions raced down her diminutive body, into her backside, and finally through the powerful pelvic muscles which surrounded her dark, drooling mare-cave. The contractions were beyond intense. Her powerful walls milked and grasped him like a vacuum pump. In and out, in and out. Each gripping clench sent her little clitoris sliding in and out of its hood bumping up against his medial ring… before sliding over it.

Stalwart watched Dusk’s slit-eyes roll backward as the rest of his stallionhood slid into her tiny body, his girthy length impossibly hilting inside of her, bulging out her tight belly.

“EEEeeee… f-fuckin’ A, Cap. T-tell me…” Dusk squeaked, breathily, still shaking. “Tell me you only want a foal with me, that you don’t care about yer’ shitty daughter.”

“I-I… oh Goddess forgive me, Dusk… I’m going to-”

“SAY IT, MOTHERBUCKER!” Dusk snarled, flashing her fangs as she slammed backward onto him, her tight rear smashing into him as she slammed every inch of his cock into her, over and over. “I’m close to anotha’ pop!”

“I… I want to put a foal in you… only you… I only want you, Dusk!” Stalwart screamed, leaning forward and chomping into the nape of her neck as his swinging balls tightened, shooting up to his underside.

“YesssseeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” The stinging volume of the thestral screech stung his ears as Dusk began to have her hardest orgasm of the evening. Heavy, hot juices squirted out in thick splotches that splattered off his balls and down onto Merigold’s mane and face. He could feel the little clenching thestral clitoris winking out with each stream of bat-honey, grinding into the very base of his thick cock, asking… demanding… that he release.

A throbbing pulse clenched through his gut, wracking right up through his long, painfully tumescent shaft, bulging up into his head and making his flare expand, deep inside the little bat’s marehood. Blossoming out like some erotic flower, his fattening head pushed into her cervix, slipping the urethral mound just into the criminal’s most deep inner parts… before he exploded.

A hot, frothing blast of seed screamed out of him. A thick rope of heavy batter that splattered into the waiting womb of his new beloved.

“MNNNNNNNNN!” Stalwart’s scream was muffled by the dark, wiry fur of Dusk’s neck.

Another pulse, another unstoppable, unconscious, jerking thrust… another white-hot, glue-thick, splatter of virile cum exploding from him.

Then another.

And another.

Shot after shot, emptying from his aching balls through his painfully erect penis. He’d never orgasmed like this.

Never.

It felt so perfect, so complete. Like he was emptying his whole self, his very soul into his soulmate… leaving behind a physical shell that only served as a vessel to contain the intoxicating waves of neurochemical pleasure that came in wave after wave.

Another shot, another.

Seven, eight, nine… each as strong and potent as the last.

He could see her little belly stretching, expanding with the amount of fertile, frothing, fizz filling her felonious flesh to a full fatness. Dollop after dollop of his essence poured into her: heavy, thick blasts like a pump bellows had been hooked up to a swimming pool filled with carpentry glue. Her belly pushed out of her tight abdominals, even making the little mare’s belly-button pop out of its hidden recess.

*Splorch*

*Splop*

*Splap*

Disgusting splattering sounds began to fill the air as Dusk’s completely stuffed bat-cave began to inevitably overflow. Stalwart’s final, vinegar ejaculations were sloppily spurting from even the tight, gripping seal of the powerful thestral lips, dripping down in thick strands to splash down onto Merigold’s flinching face below.

“AAAnnnnnghh…!” Stalwart half-whinnied, half groaned, finally releasing his love-bite and unleashing an involuntary kick as his orgasm subsided. He’d never felt so euphoric in his entire life — it was such a feeling of completeness and satisfaction, having achieved total completion in his mare, his beloved, his true soulmate. The wave of oxytocin and dopamine, the thrum of thaumic soul-bonding magic… he’d never felt so whole, so right, not when he’d joined the guard, not when he’d met his wife, not when he’d married her, not even when he’d had his hoof held for the first time by his baby foal.

This was all he wanted.

“Ahhnnn… that hit the spot, didn’t it.” Dusk casually mewled, flittering her wings and stretching a knot that had popped into her neck. “Like pouring a thick milkshake up my cooter, nothin’ beats itchin’ that scratch.”

Stalwart felt Dusk arch her back slightly, as if she were about to buck him off of her. Shrugging and rolling her shoulders, making it hard for Stalwart to stay mounted on her — a clear signal for Stalwart to get off of her.

“Ey, Merigold... ya’ fuckin’ bitch. You still with us?” Dusk snarled, looking down through her legs at the mare. “I think you heard that Cap here wanted to give me a foal. Stupid idiot doesn’t realize the last thing I want is to carry some shitty guardspony’s seed. I’m on conception-control of course, so I ain’t gettin’ preggers.”

Stalwart grunted as Dusk’s tail slid up and backward, wrapping around his fat, quivering shaft and taking a firm hold of his softening stallionhood. The little thestral began to adjust her hooves carefully, squatting slightly and seemingly taking aim vertically as she started to pull him out of her steaming pussy.

“But looks to me like you really like this buckin’ moron, so if you want his shitty guard-spunk you can have it… bombs away!”

Merigold’s eyes flashed wide as she tried to flinch away — but it was far too late. Stalwart felt the slipping release as his shrinking flare slid out of the teen’s expelling vagina.

*POP*

*SPLOOOOOSH!*

A huge waterfall of bubbling, boiling cum escaped from around the obscene disconnection of big guard-cock and tight felonious marehood, coating Merigold’s fur and face like somepony had upended a whole can of hot, white paint onto her. Her hacking coughs quickly followed the dripping sounds as she tried to breathe through the soaked gag still wedged into her mouth, making her blow little cum bubbles through her nose.

“Hey, asswipe. I’m finished with you…” Dusk turned her gaze back to Stalwart, her eyes no longer filled with any cruel mischief, but only a burning, smoldering menace. “Will you get the fuck offah my back, already?”

Stalwart felt a tearing thump in his heart as her words landed. He could tell just how real that hate was. But she was his true love: it physically hurt to feel that hatred from her. He pushed back carefully, hoping that by dismounting with respect he could win back some credit, start to reverse whatever it was that had caused Dusk to get angry with him.

“D-dusk…” Stalwart smiled hopefully, reaching up and trying to hug her — a post-coital gesture of affection.

Dusk planted a hoof right onto his nose painfully, shoving it backwards coldly with a look of disgust. “Stay the buck off me, you freak.”

Oof. My heart. Celestia that hurt.

Stalwart’s face twisted in agony, the pit in his stomach as his heart started to tear, breaking in two as he felt the wave of hatred from the one pony in the world he needed love from. He took a cautious step toward her, blinking the tears forming in his eyes from the nose-shove away.

“D-dusk, please… I need you. We’re meant to be togeth-”

Dusk turned away from him, rolling her eyes. “I don’t date married guys, let alone faggot guardsponies, you buckin’ shit-stain.”

No. No!

Stalwart reached up a hoof, staring at the retreating thestral through a haze of tears, now mostly coming from the sheer emotional pain of feeling his whole love structure crack under the terrifying reality of Dusk’s hate.

“D-dusk, dear… I… I love yo-”

“Stop talking to me, you awkward fuckin’ spaz.” Dusk didn’t even look at him, walking away toward the fortified wagon-cart, where Blackheart and Quantum were waiting for her. It was like he didn’t even exist — like he was just a bag of trash.

Ah.

Stalwart felt his legs give out from under him, falling to his knees as heavy, incapacitating sobs began to grow inside him, bubbling out in heavy choking gasps. He fell over to one side, next to his nearly catatonic, emotionally-destroyed wife… and began to cry.

Dimly, he watched with desperate hopelessness as his impossible, only love: Dusk Wing trotted up to Blackheart, with a shit-eating grin on her face.

“Told ya you’d regret it, Blackie… now just imagine if you’d had the guts to step up instead of me. If you’d just asked him tah’ open the door without all my ‘extracurricular’ additions. He mighta’ even bin’ snugglin’ his cute little wifey right now.” Dusk cocked her head, shooting Blackheart the bitchiest smile in the known universe. “Sure, he might always be secretly dreaming of your fat ass, but at least things would be better than how I left it.” Dusk chuckled, motioning over her shoulder at Stalwart.

Blackheart stared back at her, a cold burning hatred behind her eyes. There was violence there, enough to make Stalwart brace himself, ready to spring to action to protect his beloved bat-lover, despite the depth of despair he found himself in.

“You’re a monster, Dusk,” Blackheart spat in disgust. “Using some pretend little hurt you suffered in your past to destroy these ponies’ lives like s-”

“PRETEND!?” Dusk whirled back, jabbing a hoof into Blackheart’s chest before snapping her slit-eyes onto Quantum, who was watching impassively. “Boss, make this bitch give me more love poison and I’ll ram it down that wifey’s throat… let Clover or Truncheon have a fun time. I’ll show this dumb cunt what ‘destroying’ really looks like.”

“No.” Quantum impassively stated. “Blackheart’s learned her lesson.”

“Tch.” Dusk snorted, bristling for a moment before letting her ferocious anger go, tossing her mane playful and trotting away toward the gang of bruisers. “Gimme a high-five fellas, just try to tell me I ain’t got the best ass in Manehattan now.”

“Dusk.” Quantum sighed, an eyebrow raising before he continued with frustration in his voice. “You forgetting something?” He motioned with his eyes toward the wagon.

“Oh. Oh yea, sorry boss!” Dusk chirped. She turned back to Stalwart, her face filling with assumed cuteness once again as she purposefully let her slit-pupils grow to puppy-dog proportions, even adopting a sarcastic simper. “Oh Cap, can you do me a big favor and open that wagon door now?”

Stalwart choked out another sob. He knew it was the thinnest of facades, a veneer of cuteness over a dark, evil heart. He knew that Dusk was a twisted criminal.

But…

Even that small acknowledgment, that slight glimmer of attention from her. It was like he was basking in Celestia’s radiant, loving sun. Even the tiniest glint of her presence filled his heart, gave him hope — made life worth living.

He’d do anything to keep feeling that, instead of the horrible, soul-destroying, alternative of being abandoned by his new soul mate.

Quickly he jumped back to his hooves, scrambling to the lock. It took only a moment for him to power up the complicated encryption spells that would allow the right signal of thaumic signature to fit into the Royal Spell-Lock, enabling it to discharge its energy and release the door and walls of the wagon from their previously impenetrable barrier.

Stalwart turned from the unlocked door with ope in his heart, clearing a sniffle as he looked back with a meek smile at the waiting thestral. “Th-there you go Honey, all unlo-”

“Thanks! Now go jump off a bucking cliff and die. Or wait to be executed for treason, your call.” Dusk started laughing, along with the other bruisers.

Stalwart fell back to his knees, his eyes locked on the dusty desert sand. He’d committed high treason now as well, and all for what?

Nothing.

And now his beloved wanted him to kill himself? How could he say no? It was what she wanted, wasn’t it?

“Real fine crew you’re running here, Quantum.” Blackheart’s disgusted complaint filled his ears.

“Yes, it is. You’re part of that crew too, Nurse Blackheart. And I’d advise you to not antagonize Dusk about her past, or I will continue to indulge her antics. You have no idea what her, or any of my other team members have been through.” Quantum sighed dispassionately as he climbed up the small steps that led to the wagon door, unlatching the simple physical handle. “That said, Dusk, I didn’t plan on a body count — tell the Captain not to kill himself.”

“Tch. Fine.” Stalwart’s ears burned with relief as he heard the nasally accent directed toward him. “Hey, buckin’ moron… don’t kill yourself.”

“That’s better.” Quantum coughed, then began to open the sliding door. “Now, we were only here for the book and the dark love poison spell… It’s gonna make the family’s narcotics business on the East Coast unstoppable.”

Quantum waved his crew closer.

“But, I’m interested in what bonus we’ve picked up in this wagon… A nice payday I hope. Artifacts? Drugs? Gold?” He peered in, lighting up his horn. “...monsters?”

The unicorn’s head cocked, confused as his light spell cast strange shadows over the cage bars that surrounded the funny looking creators.

A strange, hairless, ape-like creature within raised its hand in bemused greeting.

“Hey, weird sex-criminal ponies that have been making a damn racket outside my cage for the past hour. My name’s Anon. What’s yours?”

Author's Note

Author's note from AJ Aficionado

Well, I didn’t expect this! Clopficsinthecomments wanted me to write the author’s notes as thanks for editing, suggested changes and serving as a sounding board for ideas. What better gift for the guy who loves comments than the Comment of Comments?

I posted one of my traditional, ‘too long; didn’t read’ commentary posts on the old version of this story and to put it simply, this wasn’t my thing and I wasn’t sure I’d be a good fit for editing it. What can I say? This story really grew on me.

Hell, I like this many times more than his last story, Strapping In, for just how much plot is in this story. As far as this chapter, even in the old version, I thought the opening in the desert was a fantastic way to kick things off. The gangsters have a lot of great dialogue between each other but one surprising character stood head and shoulders above the rest. One character who personified the dark elements that, I’ll admit, were a huge turnoff for me.

Dusk Wing: Bringer of Cuckholding.

Setting aside how truly depressing this sex scene was to read, Dusk Wing was an absolute delight in every other way. I started imagining how I’d write her into one of my stories immediately because nothing like her exists in my headcanon. She’s an absolute cunt and probably wrecks indoor plumbing with her taco shits (I love that joke even if Cloppy is embarrassed for ever writing it) but the thought of her getting knocked up repeatedly by a brainwashed Stalwart… well maybe I’m not such a saint after all…

Maybe to some degree, I actually do enjoy non-con. Or at the very least, I can when presented well. Cloppy, you evil bastard!

From America with Love,

AJ Aficionado, Editor.