Daisy looked out the window, enjoying the soft breeze on her face as it set flowers swaying out in the distant fields. Daffodils and phlox, and even some of her own namesake, all dancing together. Free, even as the wind dictated every last little movement of their pliant stems. Free, like the magenta-furred earth pony so desperately wished to be. Oh how she longed just to touch a plant, any sort of plant. To feel the soft cushioning of grass beneath her hooves. She'd not been outside in weeks.
She considered jumping out the window, wondered for the umpteenth time whether it would be a fall she could survive, at least without serious injury. Well, the opening was probably too small for her anyway ー or at least so Daisy told herself, to avoid having to think about a hypothetical jump turning out poorly. That left only the door, but she'd worked for hours, days, in an attempt to get the locking mechanism to release. Tried hooves and mouth and even tail but never so much as made contact with the primary bolt that any grown unicorn could easily manipulate using their magic.
The days were usually easier than the nights. At least with the sun in the sky, she could gaze out the window. Longing for nature was still experiencing it, even if in a bittersweet, detached sort of way. Preferable to being left alone in the dark with her thoughts... or worse, with him.
On some days, though, it only made it hurt all the more. Watching life carry on as it always had out there, flowers chasing the sun but silently hoping for the rain, wild birds darting about for bugs, the occasional rabbit appearing to slowly amble across a far-off field... it drove home just how much things had changed for ponykind. Just two months ago, she was happily running a flower shop alongside treasured friends in a smallish town. Now, simply because there was not a horn sprouting from her head, she was a prisoner.
Once her mind went to her old friends, it tended to stay there. The three young mares had had such fun together, all laughs and giggles when they weren't feeding off each other to overreact to some new, mild tribulation. It had come so naturally, Daisy had never realised quite how important they really were to her. How much she missed the sound of their voices, missed sharing carrots with Rose, or watering duties with Lily. Missed their biggest worry being which of them might find a coltfriend first, and how it might go.
Surely they hadn't been captured like she was, they couldn't have been! Just the thought of either of them trapped in some Canterlot tower, kept away from the world, forced into servitude by these horn-heads... the first tears had begun running down her pretty face before she even finished the exhalation of her defeated sigh.
The sound of the door mechanism made her stiffen. Daisy wanted nothing less than for Dusty Pages to see her crying, but of course as soon as he entered, the heavyset unicorn trotted right over to her. She didn't turn to acknowledge him, the unmistakable, lilting rhythm of his hoofsteps against the stone confirming it was him by his unique, uneven gait. She kept her gaze pointed outwards, trying to sap what comfort she could from the blue sky, from the patch of daisies that was closest to her prison. Instead, all she got was the stallion's "comforting" hoof on her shoulder, the presence of which immediately triggered a flinch from the young mare.
"Do I really treat you so badly?"
"You keep me in here! I haven't been outside all Spring."
"You're a prisoner."
"A prisoner? None of this has anything to do with me!"
"Nor has it anything to do with me."
"You just enjoy the benefits of it all the same, huh?"
"Hnh!" he scoffed. Then his hoof pulled briefly at her shoulder, signalling for her to move away from the window but not actually forcibly displacing her. "Come on. On the bed."
Dusty Pages trotted himself over to the small bed she'd been left to sleep in, and hopped up onto it. The mattress gave a frightful sound of protest at his weight, compressed considerably beneath his massive bulk. He was almost as wide as the bed was! He didn't say anything further, merely posed himself ready to receive his favourite service from the young mare. Daisy turned, saw his deep-purple rear raised, up in the air, and his olive yellow tail hoisted out of the way. Her pretty voice formed only into a feminine groan of disgust, knowing full well what he wanted. He wanted it often, and she'd quickly learned she had little choice but to give it to him.
His horn was aglow, the much older unicorn using his magic to stimulate himself while he waited for his slave to begin. By the time Daisy had willed herself to actually hop up onto the bed behind him, his dark grey cock had already dropped from its sheath.
"I'm hungry, too. What will you make for lunch?"
"Hayfry sandwiches."
"Good."
Daisy was now perched behind him on the bed, trying to think about anything but what she was about to do. Even the lunch she'd be preparing for this ungrateful slob after he was done was a preferable topic. He smelled, the offensive musk of needy stallion mixed with the odour of sweat from another day spent sat for too long on this fat ass reading more useless books. She despised him, wouldn't willingly lick him on the ear, let alone...
"Ngh. That's a good little filly," Dusty Pages grunted as the earth pony began offering slow licks to his dangling testicles, her tongue starting by almost cupping one ball, and then sliding smoothly up along their sweaty, sensitive sack until it met his body. "Just like that."
Like most days, he proved overeager. She'd barely given him five or six begrudging licks before she felt his magical aura grasping at her face. Back in Ponyville, before this all happened, it was the height of rudeness for a unicorn to touch another pony with his or her magic without a very good reason. Now, this awful stallion probably two or three times her age did it freely, used his icy, telekinetic touch to tug Daisy's muzzle upwards. Pointed it somewhere that she wanted to lick even less.
Daisy balked, her stomach twisting. The first touch of tongue to sweaty, earthy stallion tailhole was always the hardest, and hadn't gotten any easier across the many times she'd now been made to do it. Dusty Pages' punishments were often worse, though, and at least he kept himself clean.
"Lick it, slave."
The pretty earth pony's cry mingled despair and disgust, and a little bit of fear. Hastily, her tongue found the ring of puffy, sensitive flesh around his opening, tracing a third of a circle around its circumference. She whimpered again at the taste, while Dusty let slip a long, slow grunt of enjoyment. It was awful, knowing he took such pleasure in humiliating her like this, but she had no choice. The pretty mare's tongue slowly swirling around her captor's asshole, lick after tedious lick...
"Daisy?"
Lily Valley was sure she'd seen her best friend (well, tied with Roseluck!) in the window of a distant spire, the blonde-maned pony's heart jumping in her chest. She'd not felt any kind of excitement, nor joy, in the last two weeks, and the taste of them now was like when she'd had her first gulp of apple juice after the month spent with her health-nut aunt back when she was only six years old. She stuck her head further out of the window, perching her front hooves on the stone ledge and raising her voice as loud as she could make it.
"Daisy! Daisy!"
"What are you yappin' about?"
"N-nothing, Mossy Mortar. I'll get right back to work."
She apologised quickly, not having realised he'd come in.
"Yeah you will. But I got another job for mares who can't follow simple orders!"
"Uhh?"
She didn't know what to say, turning away from the window to look up at her keeper. Although he was a unicorn, his body was large and well muscled. His eyes were cold as they met her questioning, wide-eyed gaze.
"You forget your place here?"
She wasn't sure she'd ever known it. Everything had happened so fast, a tipping point that had left the three species of pony polarised against one another. Fighting had escalated quickly, and Ponyville had fallen to the unicorns.
"N-no, I haven't!"
Lily felt sick saying the words. She'd done nothing wrong by him, nor anyone else. She didn't harbour some great hatred for the unicorns, or at least she hadn't before they had captured her. This wasn't fair!
"Why don't you have another look out the window?"
His voice made it clear it was a command, not a suggestion. The mare quivered, shaky on her hooves as she slowly turned herself back around. He was stronger than her, and that was before even factoring in his magic. She didn't have the confidence to stand up to him, even as she hated herself for her weakness.
She heard his hooves clopping over towards her, and then suddenly felt his forelegs on her shoulders. His weight and strength helping lock her into the position, keeping her there stuck with her head out of the window.
"What are y-?"
Lily felt a shift in his body, the press of his hips at hers, and quickly realised what the job he had in mind for her was.
"No, please! Get off me!"
"Shut it, mud pony! Your sexy little pink behind has been beggin' for this ever since I got ya."
"Begging? No! I've never... I'm a virgin!"
"Hehehe. Not for long, you ain't!"
"Stooooop! Please!"
The stallion lurched his body forwards, and Lily felt the touch of something hot and hard at her nethers. She winced and whimpered all at once, tried to trot forwards but with her hooves already on the window ledge there was nowhere she could go. Meanwhile, the unicorn strained behind her, his powerful muscles flexing and one back hoof stomping at the floor in frustration as her body continued to deny him.
"Stop squirmin', mare!"
His front right leg lifted from her shoulder, and then suddenly collided its hoof into her cheek. Pain shot through her face, but worse than that was the shock of it. Lily had never been hit before, not by anypony. Her mind reeled, and that fear and weakness she despised in herself only intensified. The attractive mare did stop squirming, only managing a series of terrified whimpers as Mossy Mortar worked himself into a better mounting position, then used his magic to help line up his straining cock with her snug little entrance.
"Stop, not this, not this... not this."
"I'll hit yer again if you don't cram it, mud pony! Or maybe send you out the window!"
That was it. Lily Valley did go quiet, and Mossy Mortar's thick stallionhood finally drove itself home. She couldn't help but give a tortured squeal of agony and defilement, but even that she tried to muffle with a front hoof, trying not to make him any madder than he already was. She couldn't stop him, and her trim young mare's body was his now. She just hoped he would be done with her quickly.
"Ngh... dunno why I held off on this... nnnnngh... some kind of respect?!"
Each buck of his hips drove his swollen shaft in good and deep, filling Lily with the uncomfortable sensation of having another pony inside of her, or at least a part of them. An unwanted part, and an unwanted pony. It hurt physically, too, a searing pain as her tight, unmoistened walls were made to stretch and squeeze around the invader.
"Hehehe... what the buck was I even thinking? Nnngh. Probably the one thing a mud pony mare is good for!"
"Stop calling me that!"
Lily fantasised about saying it, but the words didn't leave her mouth. Nothing did, save for pained whimpers that eventually devolved into wailing sobs, the hoof at her muzzle returned to the window sill to help steady herself against her rapist's jerky thrusting. He didn't seem to care that he was hurting her. Happily stabbed into her, and twisted the figurative knife with his taunting words about her species and level of cleaning ability.
Eventually, he seemed to grow bored of degrading her at least, but not of fucking her. The gruff voice was replaced by low grunts of pleasure from the stallion enjoying her, rhythmic and controlled, somewhat dispassionate even. The ordeal dragged on, and Lily's mind began to wander. Had Daisy really been captured? Surely she was not suffering like this, though, Lily thought. The pink-furred pony finding some solace in the naïve idea that at least she might be taking the brunt of the evils that the Canterlot unicorns could dole out.
Mossy Mortar's cock pulsed, and the stallion gave a solitary, wordless exclamation of pleasure through clenched teeth. His orgasm was powerful, Lily's sore insides thoroughly marked with the manifestation of her keeper's pleasure. Then he pulled out, his weight lifting from her and his viscous semen drippling from her as he backed away. Lily heard his hooves clopping against the floor, back towards the door he'd come in through.
"Not a word of this to anypony, ya hear? Now clean up."
His voice stayed with her, reverberating in her head louder even than the slam of the door behind him.
"There must be something behind this!"
"Or somepony."
Applejack's look of suspicion was cast up at the door behind her, and not to her friend Twilight Sparkle, who she was responding to. The elements of harmony were sat awkwardly on the dusty floor of a Ponyville basement, Rarity of course looking the most uncomfortable about that fact. Twilight was leading their meeting, but found herself at a loss. Circumstances had degraded quickly, and she still had no idea why.
"It's like everypony just forgot about friendship, all at once," Twilight mused, wearily.
"Not everypony!" chimed in Pinkie Pie, her voice still holding most of its usual chipper tone. "Those unicorns sure seemed chummy with each other!"
"One look at my wings, though, and it was like I was a cockatrice!" reminded Rainbow Dash.
"Well, perhaps if you didn't flap them about so obviously?" suggested Rarity. The irritation was obvious in her voice.
"Not use my wings?" Dash immediately became defensive. "Yeah right, Rarity."
Twilight sighed, heavily. "Girls, girls. We're on the same side. If we ever forget that, we're no better than them."
Applejack nodded her head slowly, adding, "Twilight's right. Y'all cool yer jets."
The two mares continued to argue, however.
"I'm just making helpful suggestions."
"And I was just making sure I was ready to move if things got dicey!"
"More like making things dicey!"
Applejack snapped. "I said cool it!"
Twilight sighed again, more heavily now. This wasn't the first fight that had broken out between the six of them. "Perhaps whatever's affecting them, is also affecting us..."
A quiet washed upon the small basement room as the ponies all took that in, a few nods here and there as they all tried to calm themselves. Eventually, the silence was broken by the quietest of them, the pretty pegasus mare with fur of pastel yellow.
"I hope Spike is okay."
"Me too, Fluttersh-" Twilight didn't finish speaking her name, as a jolt of inspiration shifted her focus. "You're right! Spike!"
"I... am?"
"If we can find Spike, we can contact the Princesses! Assuming he hasn't already had the good sense to."
The other ponies began to smile. "Right you are, Twilight!" agreed Applejack. "Gives us somethin' better to do than holin' up in here, at least!"
Pinkie Pie agreed. "Fiiiiiinally!"
"Actually doin' something?" Rainbow Dash raised a hoof energetically. "Now we're talkin'!"
Twilight's eyes slowly swung around the room, meeting those of her five closest friends in turn. Each showed a look of passionate resolve, the same energy she'd fed off many times in the past when she'd had to go up against things she'd never have believed she could. "Girls, we're going to get to the bottom of this."
*knock knock*
There came the sound of a hoof rapping against the front door of the house. The six young mares all looked at each other in surprise.
"We do NOT want to be in here when a bunch of unicorns come busting in!" Pinkie Pie stated the obvious.
*crash*
The unmistakable sound of the door being destroyed, wood falling upon stone. Pinkie clasped a hoof up to her lips, and lowered her volume. "Me and my big mouth!"
"Stay here. Hide. They won't do anything to me." Twilight Sparkle had already begun ascending the stairs, and the clop of hooves upon wood signalled the house's newest visitors moving to meet her. She tried to swallow her nerves, willing herself to be strong as she emerged out into the main part of the house, and saw three unicorns approaching her. Two mares, and a stallion.
"Princess Twilight Sparkle!" one greeted her with an automatic bow.
The other two remained stood upright. "Careful. She fled with the others. Pegasi and earth ponies."
Twilight's heart jumped, but she kept herself calm. She'd been in worse situations than this. "True. I couldn't bear to see them as prisoners."
"Why are you still here?" the wary stallion asked.
"Ponyville is ours now, is it not?" came her answer.
"The earth ponies have formed a base at the farm, Sweet Apple Acres," said the other stallion.
"She's an alicorn!" the first cut in angrily. "How can we trust her?"
"Because before I was an alicorn, I was a unicorn first," Twilight replied, the answer technically true, even if not in spirit. She hardly felt aligned with these ponies who sought to drive unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies apart, but she'd pretend if she had to. "This house is clear."
"Princess." The less trusting of the two stallions, and the mare, now both gave their own bow to her.
The young alicorn trotted her way out the front door, the unicorns following her. "Girls? Now's your chance." She didn't know how to communicate telepathically, but she pretended for a few seconds that she could. "Get out of here, and go find Spike!"
They couldn't hear her. But if she'd learned anything since coming to Ponyville, it was that she could always trust her friends.