Prisoners of War : A Beatrix Belladonna Tale

Within the hour, the Cult of the Nemesis secured the breeding camp. Few of the breeders there had been lost in the assault, and a fertile menagerie was ready to be implanted with the eldritch-changeling larva hybrid. Tree Hugger did the first honors as she and her prostitutes shoved the larva into the mares bent over in the stocks, the wet, wiggly caterpillar-like creatures buried into their fuck tunnels where they attached to their wombs.

Each monstrosity wiggled past a punched wide open cervix with a moist slurp and writhed as it tickled the slimy fertile walls and pulled on the sticky pink folds of its prey. Every other fresh recruit had caricatured personalities of who they'd once been, before their indoctrination.

Why, there must be a few thousand bitches ready to be forcibly converted to the cause!

“Lady She'ba will be so pleased,” said the hippie, who returned the nuzzle of the monstrous donkey she kept as a pet. “Oh? You wanna celebrate?” She undid her robes, dropped them, and opened her thighs to let the beast mount her, as her whores also submitted themselves to Mi-Go changelings. What chimera manticore remained also helped themselves to the brain-broken mare prisoners.

Thunder Storm and Snowy Blizzard observed the takeover with the unspoken excuse that their orders were to secure the camp and not waste resources to track down and kill every last enemy. That could always wait for Sombra's triumphant return.

Tree Hugger hoped Sombra would return soon to see their victory. Another piece cleared from the board! Her limbs wrapped around the donkey that drove her into a mating press, head cast back when her liquid lust washed over its buried bestial cock and furry balls when it brayed and came in her. With a final thrust to sheathe itself, its hot seed oozed and dripped in thick drops down the mare's puckered asshole.

Once the beast withdrew, she flipped over onto all fours and looked at the two suits of armor before her, the partial face of Snowy Blizzard still visible. “Poor things! Mommy'll help fix you up... Ah!” The donkey mounted her from behind. “Insatiable, are we~? Go on! Fuck me!”

It brayed when it entered and fucked her once more, this time up her ass. Tree Hugger brushed a palm across the codpiece of Thunder Storm's armor and started to unlatch it. “Heh, heh. Did they preserve that part of you too-eep!” His freed, heavy cock slapped and rested across her snout, cool to the touch.

Thunder Storm mentally bristled in his armored tomb, surprised that cold blood could still cause his shaft to harden and drip from its flared head. “Don't,” his metallic voice pleaded, more because Snowy was forced to watch them.

“See, you say that. But this big boy says, ‘suck me dry~.’” After several nuzzles, Tree took him into her mouth and bobbed her head. Wet suckles sounded when she sloppily blew him.

“It's...okay...” Snowy strived to force the words out despite the sheer pain. “I...always...love you...” What remained of her broken consciousness focused solely on her scattered family. Prayed they were safe.

Thunder tried not to focus on the hippie who bobbed her head on his tool while the donkey railed her stupid like a bitch in heat, instead remembering his encounter with Fiery. So, his old friend was still alive. But apparently, he was a different man than he'd known. Was Shining Armor alive, too? And what about the would-be Fourth Sword, his name unknown to most ponies as he'd turned down Cadance's offer...?

“Nightblade,” he slurred aloud; the unspoken could have been the last pillar of the Crystal Empire, had the thestral not chosen solitude.

Tree popped off in a slimy, wet trail connected to her lips, while she continued to stroke his length with both hands. “Who—” She closed her eyes as his icy cum painted her face and mouth, the load thick and sticky, despite the undead body it escaped from. The donkey also finished, depositing another series of shots in her, and then dismounted as she dripped seed.

She slurped from her well-painted features, rubbed in circles his clammy load he deposited all over her titties, the hippie slut another vessel of lust for Lady She'ba, like all of their order.

Thunder Storm and Snowy Blizzard were likewise puppeteered tools, forced to turn on those they loved. Condemned to cull other ponies until they finally collapsed. Soon, he'd be driven to turn his sworn blade on the Crystal Empire and, like his poor wife, wondered what fate had befallen their twin children.

Not to mention old friends like Nightblade, his wife Moonflower, and their daughter, Moonlight River. More victims on the pile? Or survivors turned into possible saviors? Like all the Swords of Cadance, Shining Armor swore he'd protect the Crystal Empire to the end. All he could do anymore was place his trust in him.

*****

Heavy pants and huffs filled the air as the party ceaselessly marched miles down the tunnels. The sounds of their steps reverberating off the walls. Wispy Willow finally broke their silence with a whine of, “Wǒ lèile! Haven't we earned another break? This is hell on my tender feet!”

“The more time you waste bitchin’ an complainin’, the further our enemy moves ahead,” Arcanum Folklore snapped back from the lead. “We already lost any advantage we could have had because we decided to fuck around in Hammerfall! When will it sink in that the apocalypse is right at our doorstep?!”

Bloody Merry offered the nekomata and her companions a sympathetic look. She murmured to him, “Oi, mate, knock it down a peg. We’vebeen at this for almost a day straight without any real respite. You can’t go at them like they’re all soldiers. Surely, we can make a pitstop the next time we stumble across a shelter?”

Gruffly, the scruffy stallion muttered to himself and stopped. “...a few hours. No more than five.”

Merry smiled at him. “There’s a good lad. Oh! And would ya look at that! We might have found something already!”

The brick red mare pointed ahead to where, sure enough, a shrine came into view on their approach. Similar to what they'd seen before, it was surrounded by statues of nude minotaurs and holstaurs to show off their fertility prowess. Except for one notable difference…

“That’s odd. Isn’t that an alicorn on the pedestal? I thought this land originated from Moon Hammer’s home!”

“Unless we manage to cross into unfamiliar territory finally,” Arcanum noted, studying the powerful physique of the bulky yet beautiful mare. “But then who is this..?

Merry shrugged. “Ain’t no alicorn I’ve ever met before!”

Garbed in a scant top and loin cloth that enshrouded a voluptuous form, this statue stood taller and bolder than the others. Chezka trotted up, and Panna cantered beside her before the pair looked up at the carved marble with awe. “Zafire,” whispered Panna Fauna. “Queen of the Amazons.”

Chezka Windhooves drew her lips in a line. “We lost her when the camp burned. But could an alicorn die that easily? From what she told us, she ended Sombra's tyranny in this universe!”

“Zafire was the founder and first to rule over the land that would become the Crystal Empire,” explained Panna. “Every millenia, she went to sleep. Sombra seized power until she reawakened and overthrew him with the aid of the other alicorns. Then, for reasons unexplained, she chose to vacate the throne, turned her nation over to Queen Cadance, and went on to find the Amazons from women that were lost and scattered across Equestria. Including lost souls from other worlds, like Chezka and I.”

The centauress turned to her fellow Amazon. “Are you suggesting that Zafire—”

“—didn't originate from this world either,” finished the fawn, forlorn. “She once spoke briefly about a paradise planet where none of the inhabitants wore clothes, which she'd been spirited away to?”

“Eden,” cut in Merry. “Strawberry and Blue Moon mentioned it, too. They were called the 'Paradise Twins' and were caretakers there! That's where they ran into Beatrix!”

“Should've known that she was at the center of that cosmic shitstorm too,” said Arcanum, who lit a cigarette with a flaming fingertip. “In any case, we move out in under five hours. So settle in; try and seize some shuteye!”

Torches caused shadows to dance across the walls, which were well-lit despite how far below they trekked. The dozen well-armed and armored minotaurs lent by the chief stood guard around the perimeter, stoic and watchful like the elite warriors they were. They slept on their feet when necessary, and each one was said to be worth several well-trained soldiers.

Many of the party set up tents for privacy or took a moment to explore the small shrine, while Arcanum and Merry decided to keep watch, too. Quiet from solitude started to settle over the area, and in the next hour, some of them turned in to rest their weary bodies.

However, Sombra continued to observe from a distance, his eyes on Eclipsed Heart in particular. So close...yet he dared not move in an attempt to snatch her. Somehow, he needed to thin their numbers and distract them! If he could release some of that mysterious mist which inflamed passion here, then maybe…

‘I think not, you reckless tyrant!’

Vox’s irritated tone slithered inside his head as Sombra felt his veins bulge out of his skin, the dark stallion frozen in place while he writhed in agony. It felt like lava was coursing through his circulatory system from how hotly the intrusive louse stung his interior.

‘Those vapors are the byproduct of our goddess's ambition,’ the parasite elaborated. ‘I will not allow you to disgrace her gift with your selfish intentions.’

‘The sooner I eject you out of my body, the better!’ roared Sombra internally. ‘I will claim Eclipsed Heart for myself!’

‘Once I have siphoned enough nutrients and magic from you, I will leave you to suffocate in your megalomania. But until then, you are my host. And I’d rather we not risk ruining the outcome of this war.’

Sombra collapsed to his knees when Vox relinquished control. His teeth clenched and bared, crimson eyes irate. The ironic humiliation for the once-feared unicorn of the Crystal Empire, to have become someone else’s puppet on invisible threads!

No matter. His time would come. He would have to endure this tongue-sized nuisance until the moment was right. For now, Sombra unraveled his borrowed body into the familiar shape of shadows and vanished into the fog surrounding the group before the ever-vigilant warlock could make his presence known.

“Double-check the area,” ordered Arcanum to the watch party. “Leave no stone unturned! Our enemy could be watching us, and we’d have no clue before it’s too late!”

While the minotaurs snapped to attention with nods, Merry shook her head wearily. “So much for sleep.”

“We're fine,” assured Moonlight River when a guard tried to peek in. “Now, shoo!”

She waved him off and sighed, already stripped down to her scanty underwear. As was Midnight, whom she decided to shack up with. “Fuck me, I’m tired. Here’s hoping we could catch a few winks before we set back out.” She cast a concerned glance at the blue pegasus knight. “You doing okay, Middy?”

“Yeah,” he reassured her with a warm smile. “Just a little beat, I guess!” He noticed her yellow eyes trail across his chest and sucked in a breath to better emphasize his taut muscularity. “Well, better turn in, then.”

“Well, we could do that,” she murmured. “Or...”

Moonlight unhooked her bra and freed her medium breasts with a playful bounce.

Midnight’s cheeks brightened, and his member twitched awake inside his garments. “Uhh… are you sure?”

“Yeah, just a quickie.” She hooked the band of her lacy panties and peeled them down to fully bare herself. “Guys sleep better after they empty their reserves, right? Plus, it’s been a hot minute since I last had some dick~!”

Before Midnight could protest, she had already yanked down his boxers and released his hardening cock and swollen balls from their prison. Taking a strong whiff of his musk, Moonie popped the first few inches of his horse rod into her mouth, slurping and bobbing her head with haste.

Unbeknownst to them, the tunnel they arrived in filled up with the lustful miasma. The statue of fertility was full of cracks and depressions, which hid the black botanic eldritch life sprouting from the underground—further signs of Lady She’ba’s growing influence in this crumbling reality.

Midnight and Moonlight inhaled the aphrodisiac aroma the flora breathed out, the primal instinct to breed and procreate rising to override either pony’s logic and restraint.

Midnight locked eyes with the thestral as noisily sucked him off with head bobs to the hilt. His hand threaded her mane before seizing it with a now tight grip. Shoving her snout forward at the same time, he thrust his muscular hips.

Her eyes dilated, and she tensed, gagging and gurgling when his fat cock slid down her throat. But the former cadet nonetheless continued to bob her head in tune to his humps, despite his firmness and small tears beaded in her eyes.

Any pain was mostly dulled by the smell of sex and depravity, which transformed it into an addictive pleasure. His fists curled around her skull; Midnight lost to bliss and instinct. What resembled his hyper-stallion instincts was brought back to the forefront as he recklessly skullfucked his childhood friend and swabbed her spread throat. Any concern for her mentality and well-being was temporarily discarded.

Moonie felt her marehood drip and wink in response to the harsh treatment. Her lower holes clenched so hard, she endured small climaxes of her own. A particularly fierce one made her entire body shudder and quiver when, with one brutish, balls-deep shove, he howled and unloaded his thick pay dirt directly into her belly.

Her eyes rolled into her head when he pulled back a little and continued to unload his voluminous seed until her cheeks ballooned and cum erupted from her nostrils. With a pop, Midnight withdrew and continued to ejaculate thick volleys across Moonie's flushed face and perky tits.

The bat choked a little on his cum and strained to swallow the mouthful down, her brain still fuzzy. “A little rough for the opening act, weren't we?” She playfully punched him in the junk with just enough force to make him wince.

He flashed his usual sheepish smile, rubbing the back of his head. “I guess some things never change,” he admitted. “Was I… too forceful?”

“Nah, it was fun! I forgive you. But I'm covered in your mess now, and I doubt either of us are quite satisfied, so~.” Playfully, she shoved him back onto a blanket.

The pair wrestled, but the athletic mare proved no match for his physical prowess. Soon, under the sorcerer's direction, Sombra made it so that he spread her legs by the ankles, turned up around the sides of her heads when he impaled her fully in one thrust, her ass upturned to him in a mating press when he relentlessly started to breed her, her rapturous screams of pure pleasure music to his ears with asscheek claps.

“M-Middy...! Ack-!” Her toned buttocks rippled under his humps. She squirted across his cock and balls, across her buttcheeks and asshole, taken over and over by the bulky pegasus stud.

Midnight found himself reduced once more to little more than a wild, violent animal driven by base instincts. Relentlessly fucking her with vigorous thrusts, he withdrew with only his flared tip each time before he fiercely sheathed himself with such force the thestral’s lithe muscles and soft, supple flesh wobbled each time he speared past her cervix. She wailed, and her sweaty breasts bounced and collided with wet slaps whenever she came anew.

At the same time, Arcanum barely stirred from the weird aroma, along with the sounds of primal lovemaking. Solely focused on his search, he smoked to maintain his focus.

The same couldn’t be said for Bloody Merry, who blushed mildly and winked in her panties, but pushed the desire it stirred aside to help the minotaurs secure the perimeter. Panna's and Chezka's faces were also colored, the exposed nipples on their bare breasts painfully erect.

Panna clenched a pair of knives in her palms. “This smell! Like a high-grade aphrodisiac! Is it coming from Queen Zafire’s statue...?”

“I do sense a potent power radiating from there,” admitted Chezka, her lips drawn and her toned arms tight below bunched up breasts when she kept an arrow nocked in her longbow. “It's probably down to this whole fertility shrine. I wouldn't be surprised to learn the ancestors of minotaurs and holstaurs ritually mated here.”

True to her theory, not far away, the nude statues of minotaurs and holstaurs, infused with the perverse plant life, drew away four of the guardsmen, who walked in a daze and started to undo their armor. More insidiously, the shrine's dormant magic took shape when they started to breathe in the miasa. The short manes of the two minotaurs that touched the holstaur statues started lengthening. Firm features softened, breastplates removed and tossed aside with a clank to reveal heavy udders once muscles transmuted into curves.

“M-moo~,” cried the pair of minotaur-turned-holstaur, who'd undone the rest of their armor and bared their now naked, voluptuous forms, hands on the fertility statues when they bent over to present themselves. The other pair of minotaurs took a moment to touch the male statue counterparts, ancient virility added to their own before they unceremoniously mounted their fertile sows. With one thrust, they buried themselves and started to milk the udders that swayed from their lovers, bent over while they happily continued to moo and take the cocks of the bulls, ready to carry their offspring. Wide, spotted buttocks slapped under each hump, the four of them lost to the shrine's madness.

Arcanum yanked his attention in their direction from across the shrine. “Ah, fuckin’ hell— It’s corrupted the ancient, arcane powers here! Broke the brains of these bloody bastards!”

Merry rushed over too, her face thoroughly flushed when she watched the minotaurs mindlessly rut the sows, whose wide buttocks wetly smacked while they were railed with each drawn-out, blissful moo. “Um...should we-”

“Nah. They're already under a spell. Break it now, and they'll remain stuck in a loop 'til they finish what they started. Plus, they'll turn violent towards us. I'll work me magic once they've—ahem! Finished up their business. I hate to admit it, but this aurapool of magic surpasses me own!”

Merry shuddered and whispered, “Could it be Sombra?”

“Sure as hell hope not,” he muttered. “Or we're in serious trouble. There's a chance he could take us out by his lonesome. And should he have even a small squadron about to back him up....!”

Everyone present in the shrine found themselves affected to some degree. Some, like Eclipsed Heart, squirmed uncomfortably, and found herself sticky and needy but tried to keep herself sharp, much like when she and B.A.B.E. went about their vigilante work in the neon night streets of their steel-and-silicone city. Wispy, on the other hand, who shared a tent with her fellow musician, had already peeled off her crimson catsuit and underwear for bed and touched herself beneath a sheet.

Eclipsed's cheeks burned, and she looked away, the black mare's mane up in a ponytail. “Wispy! Don't let temptation overwhelm you!”

“Grrnyah~! Ooh, just give me a bit,” whined Wispy as she savagely schlicked her slit into submission, rewarded with small wet bursts across her furry fingers when she tended to herself. “Stupid Moxxi left me high and dry!”

“Get serious! We don't want to get caught with our panties down should the others need us!” With that said, Eclipsed yanked the blanket off her and marched to fetch a canteen of water, aware she shouldn't waste provisions but hopeful once Wispy was drenched, she'd snap out of her funk!

“Cūlǔ de! Mmm...” Wispy seized her midsection from behind, and the nekomata's bare breasts squashed into her back when she nuzzled her. “You could always call up Bass and put on another show~.” She traced up Eclipsed’s midriff and caressed the pop star's underboobs, which were exposed by a scanty, two-piece costume that resembled a roller derby outfit.

“W-we shouldn't,” protested Eclipsed, who nonetheless felt her mental defenses crumble under the primal lust from the shrine. Her hand trembled when she reached for the heart-shaped, compact phone in her bloomer-like bottoms, which stuck to her plush buttocks like a second skin and showed off a portion of the bottom half of her buttcheeks and the dimples of her rump. A subdued moan lingered on her lips when Wispy's hand reached under her top and freed a heavy tit which flopped out with a bounce when Wispy started to knead it and trace her areola, the pink bud perky. Luckily, sanity prevailed as she pushed her away. “Wispy! I’m not cheating on Bass!”

“Is it really cheating when Bass would be okay with it?” challenged Wispy, her striped twin tigress tails waving mischievously behind her. The nekomata fumed in frustration, her striped fur stood on end. She was disappointed again after recently trying to take Zeloph for a spin!

However, when she saw Eclipsed fume back, awareness returned to her, too. And she looked aside shamefully. “S-Sorry, I… don't know what came over me! Can you ever find it in your heart to—?”

Eclipsed embraced her and crushed her to her chest, a fresh blush on their faces when their bosoms mashed, one of Wispy's nipple buds caressed into Eclipsed's own bared areola. It would be hypocritical for the pop diva to put all the blame on Wispy, considering her fantasies were nearly acted on with the nephilim, Zeloph.

“Of course,” she exhaled heavily. “You and Kitsune will always be like the sisters I never had! But you need to learn some self-control!”

“Noted,” replied Wispy, who nonetheless savored how their tender nipples brushed and rubbed.

Once she withdrew, Eclipsed shifted her top back into place. “Come on! We need to help the others!”

The pop diva threw on her skates before skating out. Groaning in frustration, Wispy zipped back on her spike-studded catsuit and rushed after her to help scout the confined encampment.

Outside the tent, Eclipsed called, “Sorry we're late!” A whirr sounded from her rollerskates when she used Layla's enhancements to boost into the air. She nearly reached the top of the tunnel when she scoured the area, determined to seek whoever was behind this. Wispy, too, used her kunoichi skills to hop onto the shrine, where she bounded about to search the perimeter for intruders swiftly.

Midnight had finished with a howl of triumph, pumping Moonlight’s womb full of viscous cum while she grinded her hips into his, ensuring she took every drop. As the two rode off their euphoric high, their senses gradually returned.

“A-aghh! Sorry,” the blue stallion said with a flush. “Don't know what came over me! I didn’t want to lose control—”

Moonie shushed his snout, her cum-soaked breasts left to heave and her equally spunk-stained face and messy mane a reminder of what he'd done in the heat of the moment.

“Don't sweat it, Middy,” she huffed, a lazy grin on her face. “You know I can take a beating. Mmm~!” She rubbed her spunk-filled belly, his flare still mashed against her slimy uterus, and bent upwards, her prick-pierced cervix pleasantly sore. “Fuck, it’s been a while since I was railed this hard without one of those stretch potions. Don’t tell me you wanted to compete with Moon Hammer?"

He shook his head. “N-No! I need to become more disciplined, somehow! I could've hurt you!”

“I know you never would.” Reluctantly, she popped him from her depths and oozed his fresh batch of foamy foal batter, which she hurried to wash away with the limited water. “We need to lend a hand! Nngh… I'm gonna be sore like crazy by tomorrow!” She patted her poor, puffy pussy mound a couple of times.

The pair of them dressed, and they, too, hurried into the shrine. The minotaurs finally finished in their transformed, holstaur companions, the foursome able to messily climax in unison thanks to the shrine's now twisted magic. Awareness of what they'd done started to dawn on the post-coitus bulls, who shamefacedly withdrew from the depths of the wet sow cunts.

Merry folded her arms and shook her head. “For fuck sakes, guys! You're supposed to be professionals! Glad I managed to keep it in me pants! We'd better brew up some contraceptive potions before—”

“Already taken care of,” replied Arcanum. “Can’t say I blame the poor sods. As Panna and Chezka speculated, this shrine was no doubt used for fertility rites. It's in their blood. Primitive instincts they couldn't resist, not unlike Mid’s hyper-stallion afflictions. They won't be knocked up, but...I'm afraid there’s no undoing the magic that twisted them into holstaurs. Worse still, their poor brains were broken by the transmutation. All they think of is sex and birth.”

“Shit,” cursed the brick-red mare. “Wouldn’t want to be in their shoes, since they'll have to explain this to their families. Hope they weren't married!”

“Poor bastards indeed,” added Chezka with a clipped frown. “How are we supposed to take care of them? All they do anymore is moo!”

Panna lamented, “They were sent to aid us, but I suppose we'll have to send them back.”

“We're responsible for this,” said one of the minotaurs that had been involved, his head hung low. “My partner and I will escort these new holstaurs back to Hammerfall, to be looked after. The rest will carry on in our stead.”

Eclipsed, skated to a stop in mid-air, and landed with balletic deftness. “But isn't that unsafe?”

“They'll have to risk whatever's out there,” agreed Arcanum. “We don't have time to escort them back, and we can't spare any manpower either. What with us now down four bodies!”

With a pout, Eclipsed nodded and watched the foursome start to leave, the now bimbo-fied holstaurs a swirl of airheaded giggles when they clamped onto the minotaurs that had nailed them. “...I feel sorry for them. You know how important honor is to Hammerfall's people!”

“No doubt the doing by one of our long list of enemies,” complained Wispy, hands on her hips.

Moonlight pulled to a sudden stop. “Wait a sec… Where's Lightning Spark?”

“Oh yeah,” replied Midnight. “We haven't seen her in a while! Sister! Where are you?”

“O-over here~!” Gradually, Lightning Spark crawled out of her tent, a blanket wrapped around her. “S-sorry, I froze up! I haven't felt well because, um, well...” Her cheeks were stained red.

“… Oh!” Moonie approached and squatted by her. She whispered, “Yeah, I think I understand.”

The youthful mare twin nodded. “Yeah, I'm so ashamed. I have these terrible cramps...” She'd been hit by another terrible bout of estrus from the shrine's power, aware of how obvious it would be to everyone the moment she took to the skies, so she'd chosen to try and hide until it blew over.

“You'll have to find someone to take care of that,” said Moonie sympathetically. “Afraid you don't exactly have a wide pick of boys here to help.”

“Yeah, I'm not a big fan of incest, and Arcanum’s not exactly romantic. That mostly leaves the minotaurs since another mare can't fulfill all my biological needs,” she lamented with a pout. “Guess I'll have to deal with it until we can take another rest!”

“We're here to support you,” said Moonie. “I have a few potions from Bea that will help dull the symptoms for a while. But I'm afraid eventually you'll need to be laid for your own safety's sake!”

Middy offered his own sympathetic look, reminded about what had been done to his twin sister in the hive. Her libido carefully tailored in preparation for when they would have bred her. She'd narrowly escaped that terrible fate, but the scars on her psyche remained, unwanted lust included.

Swiftly, everyone packed up their belongings and prepared to move out.

Barely rested, everyone agreed it was safer to move on before more went awry. Eight minotaur guardsmen remained with the party, who left the shrine behind them and continued their trip down the tunnel. Sombra remained elusive while shadowing them as the miles were steadily crossed upon their resumed trip.

*****

The trip back towards the Crystal Empire proved exhausting, where Fiery Kickstart was inevitably forced to set up camp after a day’s journey. Eyes of his worn down subordinates were darting around in constant paranoia that the Cult of the Nemesis would suddenly strike from the shadows and cull his army. A hand always on the hilt of their weapons, ready to draw it upon any detectable movement.

Almost half his numbers with him and from the breeding camp were lost in the surprise attack and his subsequent retreat. The half-burnt pegasus shell was shocked by the horrors he'd witnessed far more than he'd cared to admit.

His former colleges. Thunder Storm and Snowy Blizzard. Brought back by necromancy and twisted into terrible weapons by the enemy.

The Supreme Commander had retired into his tent, seated on a stool at his desk, where Autumn Equinox knelt before him, dressed in her scanty two-piece maid uniform. Her bare breasts sandwiched his burn-scarred cock while she drooled on his vein-lined shaft, her cleavage stained in spittle and precum. The thestral marauder sucked from his flare, which throbbed when she swirled her tongue around it. Physically, his body stirred at the attention, but mentally it felt rote. Routine. Inferior, compared to the mare he truly craved. Snowy.

Fiery wasn’t even looking at her. His eyes were drawn to his open palm, where the flames of his Onoma crackled and muted the sounds of Equinox’s sloppy, lewd and determined suckles. Doing all that she could to earn her rank in his army without resorting to more violent means.

His brows furrowed, concentrating on the flickering fire, his will helping it take shape according to his subconscious. The form of a nude, voluptuous mare. “Snowy...my love...”

Equinox paused and popped her lips off his dick, glaring hotly at the stallion while continuing to stroke his shaft with her cleavage. “Hey, dipshit! I don’t play side-piece to anybody. So don’t be fantasizing about another mare while I work your stupid cock. You’re lucky you can even land a hot piece of ass like me!”

Yet her words fell on deaf ears as Fiery ignored her. His gaze was entirely trained on the small immolation that made up the nude mare in Snowy's likeness, reflected warmly in his eyes.

“You can still save me, Fiery!”

His eyes widened, and his ears flickered at her voice, nearly jumping from his seat. He looked around for the source… only to look back at the burning illusion he had crafted. The image of the mare he loved now formed a strange, eerie smile.

“You’re the only one who can,” Snowy’s fiery likeness beckoned. “Only you can do what the other sworn swords failed! Liberate our land from the enemy plaguing our people. They deserve to burn. All who oppose you deserve to burn!”

“Yes..!” He muttered to himself.

“Shining Armor and Thunder Storm always left you with the dirty work. They stole all the glory. The honor. The praise, while undermining your sacrifices. But look what became of them. My foolish husband died, and the former prince a husk of his former self. You, however, endured and grew stronger!”

“Yes,” he glowered. “For too long, I stained my hands for Queen Cadance and never got any ounce of respect! But that all changes when I save Equestria from the vile scum diseasing her soil!”

It took him a moment to register that Equinox had stopped sucking him off, lowering his scathing leer at the concerned face of the bat mare, who had been listening to his psychotic ramble.

“Uhh… so. You… clearly have a lot on your mind,” Equinox began awkwardly, slowly pulling away. “So maybe let’s just—”

She yelped when he seized her waist, yanked her into his lap, and stuffed her already wet cunt full with his still half-erect dick. Fiery furiously fucked the yowling bat mare, blinded by intense rage and thoughts of his beloved Snowy. The first time he'd seen Snowy fully nude was when he'd stumbled on her unaware.

She'd been assigned to cloud clean-up duty that day, when most of a local town around the Crystal Empire was away to watch a festival. That had left the smaller settlements practically a ghost town, and Fiery found himself and his army also sent away, since Queen Cadance diplomatically dismissed him out of unspoken fear their 'extremist' proclivities would tarnish her sterling reputation.

Snowy had once been a Wonderbolt. Doubtless why Lightning Spark wanted to follow in her footsteps. Left to finish alone, Snowy grumbled to herself but decided to make the most of it. “No one's here,” she mused to herself as her eyes darted around, and he took cover. “So, why not?”

His mouth went dry when, from a rooftop where he hid behind a sign, he watched her stand atop a cloud and start to unzip her skintight Wonderbolt costume. She peeled it away like a second skin, her voluptuous curviness unclad by even underwear, before casually lounging on the fluffy cloud to bask in the sun with a yawn. “Serves them right after they threw all this responsibility on me! Don't worry, Wonderbolts. I'll have every cloud cleaned for the festivities to end! But first, a short power nap!”

She relined her head on her arms, prostrated on her belly without a care in the world when she shut her eyes and dozed off. She used quick naps to keep her strength up between missions. She overlooked Fiery, who flew up quietly to observe her, now a few feet away from the mare.

His eyes trailed over her. Bunched-up breasts squashed into the fluffiness below. Wide, curvaceous hips; perfect to bear healthy foals and well-sculpted buttocks to match. He desperately wanted to reach out and caress her mane...but swiftly withdrew his hand, turned, and flew away in a flash.

“H-huh?” The burst of wind snapped her awake, yet she saw no trace of him.

The Supreme Commander's attention was pulled back to reality. Equinox shouting and screaming from how roughly he forced her to ride his lap. Her firm breasts bounced each time he bludgeoned deep into her fertile fuckhole. In his mind’s eye, Fiery pictured Snowy in her place and redoubled his efforts to screw the bat mare raw with a snarl. “C’mon, Snowy..! Stop fighting me! You deserve this for teasing me, you sweet little fucking whore!”

Locked in their union, he almost missed the hushed words of a soldier duo not far from his tent, their silhouettes visible. “The Supreme Commander's gone borderline mental!”

“Shut up! He'll hear you,” warned one guard.

“So? You know it's true,” the other proceeded to complain. “Look, he's busy fucking around with that one-eyed bat bitch while we're on the run! Rumor is she was the former Supreme Commander's secret assassin and side piece!”

“Maybe so, but there's some stuff you shouldn't say. Gotta admit he has my nerves up, too...”

Fiery clamped his palm shut to snuff out the blaze, and rapidly rammed Equinox more to dump his load and finish, barely a moment taken to reach a dissatisfactory finish. Autumn Equinox found herself dumped onto the floor with a thud when he stood, his runny seed left to spurt from her abused pussy when it winked.

“Ghagh! Hey,” she cried with a sneer. “You gotta screw loose or something?!”

But Fiery brushed her concerns aside, pulled up his pants, and exited the tent. The moon's glow across his bare, half-burnt chest. He arrived before them unarmed, masking his wrath with a neutral expression. “Well?”

“S-sir! Supreme Commander!” The duo snapped to attention and saluted him.

“It is one thing to question my authority,” he began. “It’s another thing to do so behind my back, as if I’d never catch wind of it.”

Both stallions couldn’t help but tremble under the weight of his words.

“But if you wish to challenge my ruling, all you had to do was ask,” he offered dryly. “We should settle things as stallions. Come, take me on. Two against one. I won't even use my sword or flames. Just a raw battle of fists.”

The pair exchanged a nervous glance and subtly swallowed. “W-we...wouldn't want to impose, sir. We wanted to blow off some steam, yeah? You know how it is! Locker room talk!”

“Y-Yeah!” said the second soldier. “Just frustrated because we couldn't wet our dicks at the camp!”

A third soldier, who'd listened in, stepped up. “That's because the 'Supreme Commander' turned tail when we needed him most!” His comrades stared wide-eyed and fearfully at the approaching solider, one mouthing ‘what the fuck are you doing?!’

This stallion stood taller than his compatriots or Fiery, his muscular arms bare when he cracked his knuckles. “Come on, you clowns! Let’s put this lousy cuck in his place!”

Afraid he'd kick their asses later when Fiery nodded, the other soldiers reluctantly backed up the meatheaded trooper, their dukes raised when they started to circle the commander. By this point, a number that overheard started rapidly spreading the word, until crowds started to gather nearby and watch the brawl.

Equinox, too, had slipped out of the tent, cautiously observing the brewing skirmish. Usually, she’d be chanting for Fiery to have his ass handed to him. But something about their recent exchange greatly disturbed her. Something was wrong…

The meathead cracked his knuckles before tossing a balled-up fist.

Fiery took the blow without so much as flinching. They had skill. After all, he'd trained a number of them himself. But they'd also gotten sloppy—all part of his ploy to cater to their basest natures and maintain order.

Discipline continued to fall to keep them at heel, many of them now little more than talented thugs. More punches were thrown his way, which he ducked, sidestepped, and brushed aside easily.

“Pathetic,” he scolded. “I gave you every advantage to win. And this is all you're capable of!?”

The mustard pegasus took his time before he retaliated. Wanting to prove without a doubt that no one could defeat him!

Hands were thrust skyward amidst cheers, the mob bloodthirsty after their recent defeat at the breeding camp. Equinox kept her arms folded below bare breasts as she watched, her good eye narrowed on the Supreme Commander.

Fiery shot back a searing glare, reminding himself that she was a loose cannon from a warband. That no matter how much he despised it, sometimes, ponies like that were necessary to seize victory. No wonder Shining Armor had kept her around. It didn't hurt that she'd proven quite skilled in the sack, too!

Finally, after a whirl of fists that Fiery avoided, the meatheaded warrior struck home and clipped the commander's chin, a tooth chipped and a coppery taste in his mouth. He skidded and nearly slipped on the dirt; his vision momentarily turned white with unbridled rage.

“Ha! Gotcha bitch,” he howled in triumph and redoubled his attack. He pointed to the bat mare. “Get into position and spread 'em… err, whatever your name was, slut! Because after I knock him out, I’m coming for that sweet ass!”

“Reduce him to ashes,” screamed the voice of Snow Blizzard in his head. “Make. Him. Suffer.”

Fiery snarled, his Onoma flaring on instinct as he backhanded the upstart, unaware that his arm was immolating hellish black flames. An animalistic scream met his ears when he connected; the stench of seared meat and bubbly fat hit his nostrils amidst his wild strike.

The brawler screamed helplessly as he watched his body disintegrate into charred flakes, burnt alive to a crisp. Silence fell across the crowd, and the other two soldiers yelped and broke into a blind run. Fiery stared at the smoldering remains with a clipped snarl.

“Return to your tents immediately,” he barked at the onlookers, who obeyed and retreated to their sleeping quarters. He cursed his impulsiveness and felt his stomach churn when looking at his lava-vein-ridden arm. “Aaargh, NO! My numbers are low enough. I need every last man alive! But I couldn’t let that go lying down. I had to set an example… yes. So those stupid halfwits continue to fall in line. I’ll… whip them back into shape! Mold them into elite warriors!”

Steam constantly rose from the ash pile before a fire reignited and rose before his eyes. He took a defensive stance when the blackened flames changed shape, resembling the slain stallion. Each hand, now armed with a pair of claws, fiery fissures fragmented its limbs, torso, and back. When the helmet-shaped skull finished forming, it released a shrill scream before acknowledging Fiery Kickstart… and took to one knee.

“What..? How did you—What is this!?” The mustard stallion demanded, more astonished than angry.

“The Will of the Ignited,” the kneeling thrall answered. “All who fall to your wrath shall rise again. Their anguish and torment yours, to reshape into something more formidable.”

Fiery's burnt flesh quivered and glowed in resonance with his new pawn. He looked at the hand still burning with his Onoma. “I… caused this..!”

Once the weight of his actions finally hit him, a psychotic grin split his snout as he clutched his fist tightly, causing the fire to immolate more intensely.

It was perfect! The solution to all his problems, is in the palm of his hand! The chaff and rabble he couldn’t hammer into elites? He’d incinerate them and transform them to form a stronger army! One that would burn relentlessly across Equestria, until he put all his enemies to heel!

Tucked back in the commander's tent, Equinox had finished watching that with a wide, solitary eye. Whatever chances of her survival here immediately plummeted. Or, more accurately, blew up in flames. A likely fate she’d suffer the second Fiery decides the marauder’s current form no longer served his militant agenda.

The bat mare had to reconsider her loyalties, another group of fighters she can sway with this critical information. But where else could she turn anymore...?

Regardless, It was clear to Equinox that sticking around to find out was a death sentence. She grabbed her ‘uniform' and attempted to leave the tent from the other side… until a set of molten claws seized her shoulders, forcing her down onto her knees.

The thestral yelled and flailed when the scorching heat seared her bare flesh, though not yet at an intensity to set her ablaze. Tears streamed out of her eye until her chin was lifted by the flat, barely heated Fiery’s saber, forced to look up at the leering supreme commander.

“Trying to tuck tail and leave again, are you?” He tsked, shaking his head. “Not this time, Autumn. Equestria needs you. Now more than ever. And I still have use of your… services.”

Her defiant glare lowered to the large tent pitched in his trousers, utterly disgusted. But the moment he lowered his weapon, she bowed her head, her large bat-like ears drooped.

Fiery snickered at her, her disdain arousing him further. “Don't worry. Continue to please me, and I shall reward you. I don’t think I need to tell you what happens if you disappoint me…”

She hissed as the Ignited Thrall tightened its grip on her shoulder. Hot blood boiling out of the puncture wound. “You… you’re no different… from Sombra!”

“Heh… perhaps I am a tyrant,” he admitted while looking at her. “But maybe that’s what this country needs. Someone strong enough to break the status quo and put everything back into its respective role.”

“You mean to have every mare conformed to the life of simple housewives and foal factories,” spat Equinox. “Strip them of their rights and dignity!!”

“To ensure our survival,” rebutted Fiery. “Once this war is over, we’ll need plenty of bodies to repopulate the towns and cities. That is the difference between Sombra and me. He conquers for his own ends alone. I fight for the future of my people. And I won’t rest until I guarantee our victory is absolute!”

With a nod, the Ignited Thrall released its hold and saluted for its master. Equinox clutched at her searing shoulder, questioning whether anyone could even stand against the Supreme Commander’s ambition anymore.

If no one could overcome Fiery Kickstart, Equestria would be razed by the very foundries. To make way for a new foundation, built by its so-called savior atop a wasteland of ashes.

*****

A pall fell over Hammerfall, ever since the sudden decisive attack. Casualties were relatively low, Arron able to successfully protect the women and children that had taken shelter, while the others from Layla's glamorguis were able to help the bulls fend off the swarm's raid.

Less than a hundred minotaurs were lost, not that the ‘small’ numbers consoled the chieftain much. They were already on the brink of possible extinction, cut off from their homeworld, on an apparently doomed planet.

Worse, Moon Hammer would have to say farewell to an old friend, the war veteran Redrum, and one of his wives, Blue Moon. The chief stared at the power armor, empty, Redrum's dried blood still visible in its open cockpit. He'd moved it to his workshed, barely able to look at it. Sometimes, he'd pick up his war hammer, his nostrils flared when he would almost dismantle it in a fit of madness and fury.

His muscles contracted and he dropped his tool. “No... Redrum wouldn't want that.”

“Glad we are in agreement,” came a familiar voice behind him. Grimmwald rested on his cane, left in charge of restructuring the town and sacred land to better fortify what still remained. “Layla has offered full support to help you rebuild. Everyone aboard the ship shall help secure the perimeter with your men.”

“Good,” came the blunt answer of the chief. “And the anti-Mi-Go solution?”

“Deinos is already crafting it as we speak,” added the minotaur magus.

“...thank you. I know you're trying to lift my spirits, as our people need their leader. But I still need more time to mourn. I've worked tirelessly to protect my herd, and for what? To lose my oldest friend and a wife? To almost lose my child..!”

Brutus placed a firm hand on Moon Hammer’s shoulder. “Redrum and Blue Moon gave up their own lives to ensure your child could prosper and grow. That in itself is a miracle to be treasured.”

“Is it? Sometimes, I wonder…” the chieftain brushed his hand away. “Beatrix introduced me to my wives… but she's also brought all kinds of trouble to our doors. I do not wish to place further blame on her. But I'm just… so tired.”

The blacksmith leaned his bowed head on the power armor, then turned when he felt a soft warmness press into his bare back.

Strawberry Moon, in her cow print bikini, hugged him from behind. “Without my sister, I feel incomplete,” she whimpered, the warmth bled from her voice, her movements stiff and forced. “But I’ll take solace that both our calves will survive. It's about time I nursed them. Thank you, Mister Grimmwald.”

He nodded, having taken the bundled calves for a moment, then handed them back to her. Strawberry pulled her udders from her top, unconcerned with Brutus' presence when she nursed the calves, who thirstily suckled at her pendulous milky teats with wet, messy noises.

“Ahem,” coughed Brutus. “Shall I leave you two in peace?”

“That would probably be for the best,” said Moon Hammer, where, with a bow, the half-masked minotaur exited the room.

Strawberry made certain the calves were well-fed before she placed them in a crib at the workshop. She paused to stroke one of the clockwork golden minotaurs that mounted the walls, reminded of how often she and her voluptuous twin made use of him, when their husband was busy with his many duties.

Gently, she approached him once more, her top still removed and her udders with incredibly wide areola beaded in milk at the soft pink erect buds. “Hubby.” She caressed his cheek. “Let me take care of you.” Gently she pushed him into the seat of the power armor, thankful it was quite roomy, and caressed his beefy muscles.

He shook his head. “You don't have to—”

“I want to. Anything I can do to help ease your pain. My body belongs to you.” She undid the strings to her bottom piece, and let it fall away before she topped him in the seat, his shaft hardening when it brushed her slick lower lips. She dropped fully into his lap, and impaled herself on the first thrust with a low, “Moo~.”

The crystal mare, holstaur-hybrid stroked his pectorals when she started to ride him, feeling it was her duty to relieve his stress and hopefully some of her own, since she no longer had Blue Moon to help support them. He took one udder at a time into his snout, and siphoned the heavy, milky titties with slurps to drain them dry.

She bounced on him in a smack of her spotted asscheeks, which he squeezed and molded to his palms while he continued to slurp and suck each titty, left to release with a pop, sway, and drip more milk that oozed down the curved slopes of her fatty, pendulous udders. Her snout met his own, tasted her own sweetness while she impaled herself on his massive, bullish size over-and-over when he claimed her fertile core.

Tenderly she wiped a tear from his cheek, her own eyes misted at memories of Blue Moon.

The couple made love until she finally drenched his lap, and he in turn fired deep into her belly, their fingers locked when the spouses shook and shivered in an almost shared release of tension. Strawberry's bosom heaved on his sweaty, milk-stained chest when she said, “We'll visit the morgue later. Mister Grimmwald said he's used alchemy to keep Redrum's and poor Blue's...my sister's bodies preserved.”

“... yeah.” Moon Hammer knew he couldn't put it off forever. He'd have to say farewell eventually. They left the calves with his guards.

Once they exited the workshop, the spouses took a tour of Hammerfall. Out in the open, the town mostly proved eerily quiet, yet they spotted Kyube and Kitsune perched up in the trees near the manned watchtowers, to help the lookout, both of the vulpines serious and poised for action. By contrast, Chisana kept her usual cheer when she ran circles around Seb. Her sack was now overflowing with all the golden bits she conned out of the demon demihuman.

“Hijo de una puta de callejón!” The devilish gunslinger cursed, reloading the magazine of his pistol with his arm, making its distinct rattling noise before locking with a ‘clip’. “Get back here, trash panda! You think you can cheat me? I wrote the very book on cheating!”

“Mazu watashi o tsukamaenakereba narimasen~!” the small tanuki said and stuck out her tongue. She kept leaping around the tree branches, smacking her bottom every time he missed his shot.

Of course, Seb wasn’t actually trying to hit her. Just spook her into dropping the bag. And when she proved too dexterous, the card demon activated his Loaded Dice ability to alter his chances. To his luck, the incubus landed a bullet on the next branch she landed on, causing it to snap and make her lose balance. “Eeyah!!”

Seb drew out his Juicio card, which summoned his chain lasso to catch the falling bandit and reel her into his grasp. Chisana squirmed and fussed while the male witch snickered gloatfully. “Better luck next time, kiddo… Shouldn’t be playing games you know you can’t win~.”

But before he could retrieve her sack full of gold, a colorful cloud of smoke blossomed out of the tanuki, temporarily blinding him. Seb yelped when his captive suddenly became a lot heavier. “What in blue blazes..!?”

When the smoke cleared, gone was the child-like raccoon dog… and instead, was a fully grown tanuki woman. Chisana’s hair had lengthened, her expression slightly more mature. And her kimono could barely conceal her full, curvy figure. Her ample cleavage practically spilling out from how ridiculously big her breasts had gotten.

With the nephilim stunned and distracted, Chisana tittered before jumping atop Seb, crashing him onto the ground. Her pillowy tits squished against his chest. “Ara ara,” she said in a soft sultry tone. “Anata wa watashi o tsukamaemashita. Kondo wa watashi mo go hōbi ni shiyou ka na~?”

“Gyah—?!” Was all Seb could vocalize, face blushing heavily beneath his bandana.

“Teehee! Jōdandesu!” Chisana, in her true adult self, slipped out of the coiling chains and stood up. Blowing a kiss, the yokai nymph dashed off with the sack full of gold.

It took Seb a few seconds to recover from the bewildering experience before he stood up and dusted himself off. He watched Chisana rush into the portion of town where the women and children took shelter, most of them still indoors after the invasion. And instead of continuing the chase, he resigned to his defeat and simply chuckled.

“Heh... Bien jugado.”

Chisana used her yokai magic to zip across the winds so fast, she passed by Arron, Creamy, and Milky and stripped them all nude, the two holstaurs linked arms with the bullish wrestler.

“Whoa there,” called Arron. “Watch where ya goin!”

Creamy took a moment to admire his physique with a whistle, their denuded bodies emphasized by soft town lights and lanterns. “Shame you don't fancy women, honey.”

“Mmhmm,” added the sleep-eyed Milky in her slow voice. “We'd be happy to tag-team you anytime! Huh, maybe we can wrestle some more, once things finally settle down?”

He chuckled boisterously. “Why? I’m basically the hero of Hammerfall! Protector of all men, women and children. The people’s reigning, defending, undisputed champion! And the biggest badass to have ever laced up! But hey, I ain’t opposed to a rematch~!”

Arron’s smile then turned to an awkward grin as he rubbed the back of his head. “I mean… you’re both beautiful. But unless someone brews a potion that can magically change you into guys, I don’t see us tussling in the bedroom!”

They both pouted at his affirmation, but were at least content to walk around as the champion's arm candy trophies. Though all of them knew Hammerfall could use another morale boost.

Kitsune watched from above and noted, “These beautiful moments seem so fleeting when the world continues to crumble around us.” She noticed two clones of Kyube covering more ground while the real one sat beside her, prompting her to ask, “Will you teach me that trick? More numbers would be useful. I haven't had much time to perfect my yokai arts.”

“I could…but it takes many years of self discipline to use it at the level I do,” admitted Kyube. “A shame, really…” He shot her a sly grin and tickled her with the tip of his tail. “It would be fun to have a Kitsune for each tail~!”

She tittered softly and blushed at his playful antics. “You would have nine of me? I doubt even you could handle that,” she mildly teased back, her eyes half-lidded. In a hushed whisper when she embraced him, she admitted, “On that note… I would at least like to experience the thrills of making love with you. Before this world suddenly comes to an abrupt end.”

His cheeks flourished. “I don't want to rush you, Kit—”

“Sakura,” she asserted. “And it would be my choice. We can't at the moment, not with the risk of the enemy launching another invasion, but the next time we're free...” She curled her tails with his own, softly directed one of his hands to her butt, which he tenderly squeezed.

“Life's been pretty hectic lately,” he admitted with a stiff chuckle. “Still… I can’t wait.”

She nodded distantly, lost in contemplation. “But I'm used to turmoil, since B.A.B.E. did vigilante work after long concerts many nights. That was the life my imoto and I always lived, really. We were trained to endure pain and...torture, when we were assassins. Each night, our memories were stripped away, to be ‘reprogrammed’ for the next mission. A horror Wispy and I barely escaped. My time with you has been the most at peace I have ever felt.”

Finally, Moon Hammer and Strawberry Moon arrived at the workshop set up for Brutus Grimmwald, where he and Deinos, in the form of Web Spinner, were hard at work. Liquids bubbled and steamed in their containers, brewed to perfection by the pair of scientists.

“Just in time,” said Brutus. “Welcome back.” Through his expertise with eldritch botanical elements, he completed the formula Deinos prepared, the rare ingredients melted and stirred into the concoction. “A shame I could only carry so many materials on my person when I arrived here.”

Web Spinner nodded. “I only had enough material to craft one. So when you use it… make it count!”

“The anti Mi-Go solution,” the half-masked bullman observed with slight admiration. “Were we able to infiltrate the main hive, we could cut it off at the source. But we'd need a sizable army to launch a successful full-scale invasion.”

Moon Hammer nodded, grimly aware they couldn't spare the manpower and leave Hammerfall undefended. “Thank you. You two have been instrumental to our survival,” he admitted. “Brutus, I'm… I’m sorry I lost my temper and took it out on you. It should have been aimed at—”

“No,” Brutus said while touching his shoulder tenderly. “I understand. I couldn't deal with my own wife's loss, either. And the results of that catastrophe speak for the selves...”

Web Spinner nodded. “In any case, I have more work to take care of. I bid you both good luck.” He bowed and exited into the shed at the back of the workshop...where, in a flash, he transformed back into his arachnoid changeling form. With the door closed behind him, the area was dark until a gas lamp lit up the interior.

The faces of his invited guests, Marathyssa and Shining Armor, met his gaze from the shadows. Aside from the table they were seated at and various knick-knacks used for experimentation, the shed proved barren and carried an echo, which made him thankful he'd soundproofed it.

“We are here as requested,” offered Marathyssa, who curtsied a frilly short skirt in her shimmery crystal maid mare form.

Shining Armor's posture was stiff, his mouth pursed. “So, down to business. Why did you call us here? We're not supposed to leave without escorts, so I can't exactly stick around.”

“Plans have changed,” informed Deinos, all six of his eyes locked on the paladin unicorn. “I have a proposition for you. A chance to earn back your freedom, and save Equestria from the pitiful state you helped put it in.”

“I do take partial responsibility for that,” he confessed. “But why all the secrecy? Pretty sure Moon Hammer and most here already hate my guts, and I don’t think anything will change that. Not that I blame them.”

“After all that has happened, he's too afraid to take anymore risks,” explained Deinos bitterly. “He’s content to firmly plant his hooves, bolster up his defenses, endure the oncoming calamity, then try to rebuild afterwards.”

“But… there might not be any land left to rebuild on, even when the war has concluded,” noted Marathyssa with a frown.

“You know how stubborn and temperamental minotaurs can be, especially when their pride is at stake. It now falls upon us to take the helm.”

“This one will do whatever is necessary to end this ceaseless bloodshed,” affirmed the protoquen changeling. “The three of us can undertake a secret infiltration mission directly to confront Chrysalis and deal with the queen.”

“No! That's way too risky,” countered the paladin. “You're the last Protoquen! If you get captured—”

“Then you'd better make certain she doesn't,” shot back Deinos, as the pair of men stared each other down. The unspoken tension between them remained palpable, the mutant changeling hesitant to admit how much he needed the uncrowned prince’s aid. Likewise, Shining was still distrustful of the changeling.

Neither of them spoke, Marathyssa aware she'd have to somehow break the ice.

“Honestly,” she said. “This one offered that she would only partake in the plan on the condition that you were allowed to escort her. A return to the hive fills this one with terrible dread.”

“Marathyssa,” hissed Deinos, who flushed at the admission of their deal. “Okay, fair enough. I didn't exactly want you here, Shining Armor. But you're supposedly one of the strongest paladin and swordsmen across the multiverse. And, once you have a proper prosthetic installed, I'm sure you'll be able to protect her, a true knight.”

It sounded more like a taunt and challenge to Shining's flattened ears. “Yeah, I will. I'd defend her with my life. So you don't leave to tell me that, you...” He bit back the urge to call him a ‘cockroach.’ Marathyssa frowned as she realized that, despite her intentions, she'd only made the situation worse. She'd wanted to provide a chance for redemption, which now threatened to backfire. She called upon her powers as a Protoquen, and emitted the sweet fumes of her pheromones to dull their irritation.

Their muscles relaxed. Deinos casted a curious glare at her. “I know that smell… You can't hide what you're up to from me, Marathyssa!”

“This one didn't intend to,” she softly offered, as her sucralose scent further worked its seductive power over the pair, their breaths hitched and their skin colored. “A hive isn't meant to war over their queen. They're meant to be united by a cause, towards a solitary purpose.”

“I am no one’s servant,” warned the multi-limbed changeling, who felt his head swim and his will crumble under her soft-touch.

Shining Armor felt his own defenses collapse much faster, especially when the 'crystal mare' started to remove her clothes, piece-by-piece, to expose her supple flesh. “I...don't mind. I'd be happy to serve such a lovely mare!”

“Simp,” scoffed Deinos.

Marathyssa ignored him and stood stark naked before the pair of men, save for her maid headdress, silk stockings, and stiletto heels. Gingerly, she fished Shining's cock from his pants and stroked it fully from its sheath. With her other hand, she did the same with Deinos' ovipositor tool, which could break a normal mare in half. Their tools filled her tender palms.

Gradually, she stroked them off. Felt their precum ooze to slick her palms and their shafts and balls. She sank to her knees, took Deinos’ tip into her mouth, while she stroked off Shining. Then, after a couple minutes of service, she switched her lips to the paladin and rubbed off the changeling with sloppy slurps each time she coyly bobbed her head.

Jealousy was dulled between the two males, whenever she dutifully tended to each, and felt hands and mandibles tightened around her head and mane when they took turns to facefuck her, slow at first, and then faster, her drool and their precum oozed down her chin, onto sizable titties which bounced and swayed.

“Gah...you're wonderful...!” The paladin humped into her face, swabbed her throat, and she drew on his subconscious desires, in a flash transformed into the likeness of the tall, shapely Cadance, hearts in the pink mare's deep eyes.

Eventually, Deinos allowed himself to be drawn into the Protoquen's soft touch of a web, aware that she only manipulated them to ease their wounded hearts. Besides, he couldn’t really complain over the opportunity to fuck one of the princesses that once ruled Equestria. He yanked her head with a pop, made her mouth take his cock, which filled her throat to the brim.

She choked a little on his abnormal size, but the shapeshifter easily molded her interior to safely take it. Spurts of precum blasted her throatpussy and erupted down into her belly. Greedily she felt their hands and mandiles grope, tug, and squeeze at her malleable melons, pinch and twist and pull her nipples.

With an two-toned echo of a screech, Deinos came an explosively forceful volley down her throat, while Shining cried out and unloaded across her mane, face, and tits, which swayed and swung from the impact of the two. She licked and swallowed down over a bucketful of their combined spunk, like it was a rich honey.

Marathyssa licked their shafts clean with slow, sensuous strokes, before she climbed into Shining's lap, ready to mount him while she reached back and spread one of her sizable buns in invitation, her delectable lower holes on display, glistening with her basest needs. “Take this one,” she cooed in Cadance's voice and form. “Fill all these holes. Rearrange her insides with your wonderful breeding rods~.”

She sank Shining's cock into her cunt, leaned forward to better present her heart-shaped ass, when Deinos mounted her and readied himself.

Despite the unspoken alliance between them, the changeling grinned and still felt a need to compete with his 'rival'. He positioned his ovipositor to tease her lower holes which he prodded, his own superior size to the stallion's impressive cock made clear when they sunk into and spread her wide open all at once.

Marathyssa moaned continuously. A thin layer of flesh barely separated Deinos' bitch breaker, able to rub against Shining's dick while deeply stuffed into her ass. She drew their faces towards hers in a messy, three-way makeout session, when they made a sandwich out of the fertile Protoquen and started to fiercely, needily fuck her into submission with slaps of wet flesh.

Instinct made her scream for them to cum inside her! To inseminate her eggs! To bear thousands of their spawn, until she bloated with their clutch! They rocked her between them, as they manhandled her supple flesh, determined to breed her silly and into complete submission.

Shining was made painfully aware he couldn't match the changeling's mutant size, but he no longer cared. In fact, he couldn't bring himself to dislike the changelings anymore, other than Chrysalis. While they sawed in-and-out of her slick orifices, Deinos babbled about a hidden tunnel to the labyrinthine series of connected hives, which he planned to have the three of them infiltrate and strike the dark queen directly.

Eventually, she squirted around them and ballooned up when she milked their cocks, until they howled back and fired off inside her. She felt Deinos' weight press on her back, careful not to harm the Protoquen even while they treated her like a toy for their pure pleasure. Their brains were fuzzy from the constant release of pheromones she released to reward them and make her lovers loyal to their queen.

Marathyssa meant no harm, and didn't intend to control her followers. She simply followed her nature. Locked deep inside her after they finished, Marathyssa felt their spunk slosh in her and moaned when a firm mandible smacked an asscheek. She clenched around them in response, felt them twitch within her.

With that business concluded, Deinos later presented Shining Armor with the advanced prosthetic he'd 'borrowed' from Moon Hammer that had been intended for the paladin. He also offered him a white sword similar to his old one, which Moon Hammer had also fashioned for him. A matched sheathe and full suit of armor built by the blacksmith completed the set he slipped into, once more Equestria's ‘Sword’..

“Let us hurry then,” the changeling scientists urged quietly. “Before anyone notices we’re gone.” That said, the trio headed into the tunnel Deinos had readied, into the dark, dank earth.

*****

While the events transpired in Hammerfall, Arcanum continued to lead the party down the tunnels until, at last, they started to approach the hidden trapdoor which would lead them to the surface. “Another reason the chief sent us,” explained a minotaur footsoldier. “It requires titanic strength to lift this metal plate. I hope the eight of us that remain will prove sufficient to move this, or this will have all been for naught.”

The guards took their positions and formed a tower to reach the ceiling, before the men at the top started to strain, veins rippling across their muscles as they groaned and put their backs into it and pushed with their combined weight. Grunts rose when sweat dripped off beefy bulls.

Wispy rested a hand on a wide hip and asked, “Couldn't we simply blast it open? Just light up yokai fire like my old plasma balls, and—”

“Yeah, sure, great idea,” grunted Arcanum, flickering a small fire to light up chain-smoked cigarettes. “Cause a cave-in that’ll drop the roof over our heads! Geez. Clearly, you weren’t in charge of making plans for your secret operatives back in your assassin days, eh.”

She hissed with her fur on end, embarrassed before their companions. “Húndàn!” she muttered, well aware that she acted impulsively without a thought, despite how clever she ought to be. Luckily, all attention was on the plate, which slowly creaked and shifted by inches.

Sediment dropped and bounced off the floor. Metal started to audibly bend and crumple.

“Stay back,” reminded Arcanum, and with a final shove, the plate was tossed aside by a bull with a loud thud. Sunlight spilled in from the surface. Lighting Spark the first to zip out in a blur, with Midnight Blitzer close behind to watch over his sister. “Oi,” called the erren warlock. “Don't fly off! We don't know what's out there!”

Lightning breathed in the fresh air, took in the breeze and the forest around her. “It's so pretty! Oh, but we'd better find a way to get everyone else up here! We can't exactly carry them all!”

Midnight said, “Maybe if we had a rope.” He looked for a firm tree trunk to attach a rope to.

“Here,” called Chezka, who tied a rope to an arrow. “Watch out!” The centauress fired the shaft, which landed with a thunk when it embedded itself in the dirt. Midnight plucked it up and tied it to the tree trunk he found, which Chezka tugged on a few times to make sure it could support their weight. “Better take it one-at-a-time, just in case. Minotaurs aside, I'm probably the heaviest here, so I'll try last..”

One-after-another, those that couldn't fly, or in the case of Eclipsed, boost themselves onto the surface with hoover skates, made their way up the rope. The party surfaced one at a time.

Wispy, with a boost from a minotaur, was able to hop up and land in the forest. Arcanum’s horn glowed when he used his aura to help lift each traveler, in particular the minotaurs, who even with their armor removed strained his magic to help lift. It was a drawn-out, methodical process, but eventually the last of them cleared the tunnel, into a dense forest.

Merry whispered, “What about the tunnel? The plate's ruined and it's an open invitation to changelings. I couldn't bear to think it's partially me fault, were Hammerfall invaded again...”

“Guess we'll have to collapse it,” said Arcanum. “That'll deal with anyone on our tail, too.”

“But then we won't have a way back either,” considered the red brick mare.

“Better than a route straight to Hammerfall,” said a minotaur guardsman. “Moon Hammer said we're to aid you any way we can on your mission. I'll take full responsibility if you blow the tunnel.” He looked to the rest of the bulls, who stoically nodded their consent for the plan.

Arcanum tucked his hands into his coat pockets. “It's settled, then. Wispy, since you're so eager to cause chaos and mindless destruction, you can help with that yokai fire of yours.”

Wispy smirked, despite the low-key insult. Yokai flames lit the nekomata's forked twin tails as they swished and she took up a martial arts stance. “Hell yeah! Finally, some real action! I've been bored outta my mind for a while!”

Merry searched her rucksack. “I'll set the explosives! Everyone better stand clear!”

Panna took a moment to study the local flora. “Wait a moment.” The fawn studied the marked map. “It appears we're already in the Amazon territories? But that should be impossible!”

Chezka sniffed the air, muscles tensed. “You’re right! It should have taken us a few nights, at most. But somehow, we’re here already.” She brushed a hand over the bare skin, where her heart rested. “Maybe the Amazon lands have expanded with this world's instability? Wait...” She and Panna's pointy ears flicked. “Someone else is nearby. But not from the tunnels...”

Silently, she took aim and her toned arm drew back a nocked arrow, ready to be loosed. Within moments, the wind howled eerily. Grass and trees rustled. The sky darkened. Suddenly, the forest started to quake, their ears met from the sounds of a stampede in the distance. Packs of wild animals started to rush in their direction, and the party broke apart to evade the sudden, mad rush of feral forest creatures.

A magic wave burst from much further in and its arc radiated in a radius that went on for many miles, so swift when it cut across them. Even Lightning Spark and Midnight Blitzer were unable to evade its almost instantaneously touch, and similarly Arcanum's attempt to raise an arcane shield proved useless before it.

“Damn it,” cried the erren warlock, like the rest of them momentarily blinded while the rainbow-like ring swiftly passed them by. Gradually, his vision started to swim back into focus with several blinks. “Everyone, okay? Looks like whatever that phenomenon was, the effects on me eyes were only temporary!”

Eclipsed Heart squeaked when, from her tilted view forward, her bared tits swam into view. “What the hell—?!” She tossed her arms over her chest, stripped down to a tiny loin cloth without underwear by the bizarre phenomenon.

“Nice tits~,” whistled Wispy, which earned a dirty look from the pop star. “I meant my own!” She hefted her pair up, like her also now in a tiny loin cloth and nothing else. Wherever they turned, everyone found themselves dressed in a similar manner, other than a fully nude Chezka, reality warped by the cosmic wave.

Merry covered her own sizable chest. “Oi! When the bloody hell did we go all tribal?”

“Another unstable region with its own quantum properties,” observed Arcanum. “Reality can shift here in an instant. Thank fuck we weren't reduced to atoms on the spot! Seems that other than me clothes, all my stuff is here.” He nodded at his rucksack, where he sifted through its contents and found the stuff once in his trench coat now conveniently slotted inside.

Eclipsed found her phone in a strap around one thigh. “Hey, mine too!” She discovered her skates nearby and plucked them up, one hand over her bare bust. “This is almost like when we arrived on Zeloph’s homeworld, Sacratera.”

“At least the air here isn’t nonlethal and weird,” the nekomata shuddered, recalling the horrible experience. “But why do we all look like… uhm—”

“Like you're part of the Amazon tribe,” noted Chezka with a nod at the half-naked party.

Panna recalled the shrine below. “Could this be...Zafire’s magic? The crystal mare alicorn was practically a Warrior Goddess—”

“Somehow, I doubt this was the work of an ancient alicorn,” speculated the scruffy detective. “But maybe this 'Zafire’ affected the unstable dimension here. Or at least, this portion, which looks like it's closest to total collapse when I study its thin ether makeup.”

“No!” cried Panna. “We can't let that happen!” Amidst her panic, Chezka trotted over to calm her down, while the rest of them also struggled to adjust to their new situation. None of them noticed Sombra took his chance to emerge from the tunnel, where he spotted one of the minotaurs standing further back from the other warriors, and covered the bull's mouth from behind when he rammed a sword into his heart.

The warrior slackened and died almost instantly. Sombra tossed the corpse into the hole, the muted sounds muffled by the winds and the sounds of more movement in the forestation in the aftermath of a storm's dawn.

‘Seven left,’ Vox spoke inside his head while he thinned their numbers. One step closer to his goal. Yet Sombra hid behind a tree, hesitant to play his hand too soon. His eyes focused on Eclipsed from behind, her bare back, the crack of her charcoal ass. The dimples above, and a hefty portion of her wide buttocks visible, each supple globe shifting when she adjusted her loin cloth and offered him a small glimpse of nearly her entire, beautiful bare butt. He slowly, lazily licked his chops, his popstar princess prize so close he could practically taste her!

He quickly ducked entirely behind cover when Eclipsed spun back so fast her thick pink ponytail whipped behind her. “Huh? Felt like someone was watching me...” She reached to her ankle, peeled back the synthetic skin, the one enhanced portion of her flesh, and retrieved her crystal dagger, which she readied.

“I'll take a look from above,” said Lightning, who sailed upwards, a hand cupped above her eyes when she surveyed the stormy area.

Midnight flew close behind. “The treetops are too thick! I can't see crap! Maybe...” Carefully, he tested his newly discovered wind Onoma, and carefully parted the tree leaves like curtains. “Monsters!” He spotted a trio of twisted, hybrid creatures with feminine forms below, which lurched their way ever closer.

“Battle positions,” barked Arcanum, the mysterious monsters already headed their way.

“And here I am without even a hint of armor,” lamented Moonlight, who flew low close to her lover and his twin sister. “Well, no time for modesty! They've seen it all by now anyway!”

Wispy whistled at the view from below when she passed them. “Finally, time to kick some ass! Hi-yah!” She took a martial arts stance and prepared to intercept a fresh stampede. Her face fell when a massive landshark burst through a tree, with four muscled limbs like arms and legs which it landed and crawled on. Its maw, filled with rows of saw-like, razor-sharp teeth, roared and drooled at its potential prey.

The nekomata flip kicked off the shark's skull, bounced to safety, and her forked tail launched yokai fireballs to cover her retreat. “What in seven shades of shit is that abomination?!”

Chezka noted a feminine shape to the shark and questioned, “An Amazon? Couldn't be.” She unleashed arrow-after-arrow, which made the beast scream when the arrowheads pierced its leathery hide and left slivers of bloody trails.

Treetops erupted into a cloud of leaves when the next creature dive bombed the fliers, this one more noticeably a woman of sorts, with massive wings that stretched from her arms and head, her lithe but toned figure decorated in sharp, shiny feathers. Lightning cried out when the attacker's talons raked her arms in a blur when she attempted to evade the missile-like launch of the beast, which intercepted the electric-blue blur left in a trail.

“Bastard,” cried Midnight, who swept his large plumage and blew back the harpy-like monstrosity, whose feminine face was twisted into a beak-like manner. He hefted his lance and zipped at her, only for he, his twin, and their lover Moonlight now forced to twist to evade many blade-like feathers she launched.

“Damn!” Moonlight tossed back darts that the harpy narrowly evaded. “She's way too fast!”

The earth exploded into chunks of dirt and stone that rained down when the last of the monstrosities made herself known. A multitude of hands reached up to snatch those closest to her, Eclipsed and Merry barely able to hop away in time. Like the other feminine beasts, she was a titan that stood over twelve feet tall, a six-armed woman with the lower half of a snake, shiny scales lined across her skin, and with a messy lime-colored mane that trailed behind her as she hissed and dripped venom.

“Don't recall any monsters quite like these in my books,” yelled Merry. “What are they?”

Arcanum called back, “Who cares? The good news is that they can bleed! So let's finish them off!” His horn and hands channeled magic.

Merry nodded, focused when her auto-crossbow took aim at the serpent woman's skull. She pulled the trigger, only to have her aim thrown when Eclipsed tackled her to the dirt. “What the hell, princess? I could've shot you!” The small arrows she'd fired were harmlessly embedded in the torn up earth.

Eclipsed hollered at the top of her voice, “Wait! I think these three are from S.L.U.T.!”

Arcanum restrained his shots. Barely. “I beg your pardon?”

“A rival band to B.A.B.E.,” answered Wispy, who continued to launch defensive yokai flames to keep the shark at bay. “Sadistic Lesbians United Together! So, that's what happened to them, after they vanished into that rift! But how can we deal with 'em before they take a bite outta our butts?” They fell on the defensive.

“We may have to put 'em down,” replied Arcanum, as minotaurs strained unsuccessfully to wrestle the land shark titan into submission.

With misty eyes Eclipsed wheezed, “Please don't! Carrion Hellfire! Riptide Ruth! Obrya Slithervane! Can you hear me?” Desperately, she called out to the twisted, transmuted troika.

Riptide's claws chopped into a tree trunk, which creaked and tumbled. A minotaur raised his arms to keep it lifted before it crushed anyone, his feet mashed into the dirt while he strained.

“This is too risky,” cried Chezka, who released more hailing arrows at the titanic landshark to ward it off. “You want to safely put them down? Then come up with a plan! Fast! Or else…!”

“I'll fill 'em up with sedatives,” said Moonlight, who fired dart-after-dart into the land shark, only to see the tiny missiles bounce off. “Shit, can't penetrate her hide! I'd probably need a hundred times the dose of all my darts to knock one of these three out, anyhow! So what now?”

“How about I zap 'em,” offered Lightning. “Just a small dosage of voltage, I promise! Look out!” She channeled her Onoma, and hurled a miniature storm of electricity at the crazy harpy.

Midnight added his own wind Onoma to help his twin. “I'm pretty sure our family's Onomas were all meant to be used in unison, as a team! That's why they're all elemental-themed, sis!”

Merry barely leaped away from Obrya's six arms with blade-like nails that swiped at her, and worse the thick tail that snaked out, aware it could instantly crush her bones into power. Obrya's mouth opened impossibly wide, and spat a thick dollop of venomous spit that sizzled when it hit dirt, mere inches from the mare. “We're practically naked out here,” yelled Merry. “You Amazons must be insane to hunt like this!”

“We're a hardy bunch,” answered Chezka, whose back hooves kicked into Obrya and knocked the snake woman off-balance. She landed more kicks to subdue her. “Huntresses that aren't able to hold their own won't survive!”

“Besides,” added Panna, who tossed knives to also keep Carrion above distracted. “We don't exactly have to worry about our dress code back at camp, since men weren't allowed in!”

Around her, Eclipsed watched her companions slowly be overwhelmed. All because she was desperate to somehow save S.L.U.T., who'd helped and looked after her. Eyes narrowed in determination, her roller skates boosted her into the air and crystalline arose from her palms.

She hit Riptide first, poured on the crystalline and trapped the land shark in a pillar when she passed in mid-air. Gems shimmered and trapped Ruth, who trashed and snarled in her prison, sturdy as a boulder that entombed her.

Next, she sped by in the air and hit Obrya. The serpent woman squirmed and twisted to evade, but shots from Arcanum and Merry herded Slithervane until she, too, found herself half-frozen by the deft sweep of raw crystalline.

“Watch out,” reminded Arcanum. “She can still spit her venom!” Fortunately, Moonlight's darts were able to pierce the mild armor of the serpentine scales, and within moments Obrya slumped over, dazed from the dose poured on.

Last came Carrion, who while she lacked the raw power or hardiness of her companions, she more than made up with it in blurs of frenzied speed. Eclipsed tried-and-tried to maintain a bead on her, even spaced ahead her precise shots, yet the quartz she loosed missed their mark and froze trees, turned into shiny pillars.

She barely raised a crystal shield to deflect the feather blades fired back at her, like stilettos that shredded tree trunks. “Carrion Hellfire! Come on, where's the proud founder of S.L.U.T. I knew? The self-proclaimed harcore lesbian?”

When she called to her, Carrion hesitated with a tilt of her half-shaven head, the dormant, willful musician within stirred back to the surface. Eclipsed didn't hesitate to half-freeze her in chunks of crystal, where the trio of fliers rushed to seize the titanic mass, and carried Hellfire back to earth before she rapidly crashed into it. Gently, they set Carrion down.

“So we neutralized them,” said Moonlight. “What now? We can't exactly carry them around.” She hit Carrion with a hefty dose of sleep darts, but didn't dare close in anywhere near Riptide, who rabidly snapped at the party.

“We could leave 'em here,” offered Arcanum, who took stock of his companions. “All okay?”

“Just some minor wounds,” said a bruised minotaur warrior. “We were fortunate.”

Struck by a bout of inspiration, Eclipsed Heart cupped her hands, closed her eyes, and started to sing her heart out. She easily drew the attention of everyone there, Sombra included, with her angelic, hypnotic voice, which had made the pop star princess a hit in the Cyberverse. The wind carried her soft voice.

True to her intuition, the transformed members of S.L.U.T. were also visibly moved, despite the fact that two of them were asleep, whereupon they squirmed to the sound of her sweet vocalization and started to weep. Each of the transmuted women started to recall their lives, once Wispy also added her voice to the chorus.

“Bloody hell...it's working.” The dumbfounded Arcanum lit a fresh cigarette, thankful the pack in his coat found a home in his rucksack after their clothes were transformed by the instability.

“She does have a really nice voice,” admitted Merry at his side with a warm smile.

Gradually, the crystals that imprisoned S.L.U.T. started to grow like cocoons, spread across the forms of the titanic, female monsters until they were entirely enveloped. Frozen in place, they then glowed in resonance to Eclipsed's siren voice, until their bodies started to harden into husks and cracked before the view of the onlookers. The fractures spread, and piece-by-piece fell away, into diamond dust.

Lightning landed with pinned down ears and whispered, “Are...are they dead...?”

Midnight shook his head, his brow furrowed by thought. “I think this is Eclipsed's own variant of those trance dances that Cerise can do?”

Moonlight nodded. “Yeah, I always wondered if her dance power was some form of Onoma? Look.” She pointed at the 'shells' that crumbled like the crystals into dusty, sparkly dune piles, to expose the smaller women buried within.

First, came Carrion Hellfire, the band leader, lithe and athletic, with her wild hair half-shaved on one side so that a soft fuzz cropped to part of her scalp. Her ears were sharp, her nails and toenails claw-like, and when she opened her mouth to yawn she revealed teeth to match.

“Hey slags,” the punk musician mumbled, in a daze while crystals reduced to glitter dust and a liquid-like substance sluiced down her toned, slender curves. “Last concert was a real party, huh? Really kicked my ass with that last buzz!”

“Give her some time to adjust,” said Merry, who walked past trees filled with razor-feathers that dripped tree sap from where they'd been split or chopped. “Those holes in her body, they're-”

“-where her cybernetics are supposed to be,” mused Arcanum. “From what I've heard, B.A.B.Y. or whatever suffered a similar affliction, when they crossed over from Cybertron and their cyber-ware went haywire.”

“B.A.B.E. and Cyberverse,” corrected Merry with a cheery smile. “Holes in her arms? Must've been for her wings? And that's a pretty nasty scar across her eye! Pretty sure she had lots of piercings, too! Quite a bold look!”

Wispy, whose voice died down to let the pop star fully take the lead, nodded. “Yeah, that's one of the popular styles there! She likes to carry herself with that old-school punk vibe!”

The nekomata next approached the second musician to emerge, Obrya Slithervane, a voluptuous and the most traditionally beautiful of their band, hence she served as their poster girl. Green, faded hair hung like silk down her back, sticky in thin threads which clung to her moist, slippery curves. Her slit-like eyes provided her a predatory vibe, much like her sharp teeth and nails, plus her faint scales.

Most striking naturally proved her lower half, her wide buttocks and her vulva visible, as the slit faded into the scales that adorned the start of her serpentine portion. Every part of her oozed sensuality, her heavy breasts suspended and swayed with her serpentine movements.

She hissed and flicked her elongated tongue, her fuzzy brain picturing a crowd of adoring fans before her. “Enjoying the show, my sluts~?” She brushed both palms over her titties, cupped and lifted them, then let them drop with a bounce when they wetly smacked back into place and wobbled to a standstill.

“Don’t take it personally. 'Sluts' are what they call their obsessive fans,” explained Wispy. “Fans of our band are called 'Heartbreakers!' Well, Eclipsed is by far the most popular of us! Being the 'Bad Girl', I've always been kinda divisive next to her more wholesome persona, and Kitsune is too shy and elusive for most!”

“Pretty shameless bunch,” commented Arcanum dismissively.

“C’mon! You gotta admit, they're pretty hot~!” Wispy nudged his ribs with a playful hum, everyone adjusted to being topless and practically naked by now, especially after they'd been riled up by the attack, and heaved a tad.

“Don’t ever touch me again,” he snorted while pushing her away. “But this Cyberverse of yours does have me curiosity!”

Lastly, Riptide Ruth strained harder to break her shell, the land shark bulkier and more muscular than her companions. Inch-by-inch, the fractures constantly spread, until with a burst, chunks of crystal exploded from the husk, Arcanum's horn lit to raise a shield and block the quartz debris which showered the party.

Liquids rushed from the hole. A woman curled up in a fetal position washed out onto the earth.

Eclipsed broke off her song and rushed to her side, where she kneeled. “Ruth?” Gently, she touched her arm. “You're so small and slender...” Nothing like the tall, muscular 'tank' the shark women she'd known. Aside from some fish scales and air holes on one side, she appeared humanoid. “Is this the real you, before the military experimented on you…?”

“Still don't understand how this dimension decides who looks human, anthro, or somewhere inbetween.” Arcanum finished off another blackened smoke, which he tossed aside. “Part of the instability here, I suppose.”

Chezka's eyes scanned them and she asked, “Were they fierce warriors? They'd make fine Amazons. Perhaps we could recruit them, sister, and start to properly rebuild our tribe.”

Panna inquired, “You still wish to do that? That may not be possible, with the state of the land.”

“Then we'll start elsewhere,” reassured Chezka firmly. “On another world, if necessary!”

Eclipsed carefully turned the shark woman onto her back and studied her, her face wrinkled in concern, moved to tears. “Ruth? Oh please, be okay. I've finally found all of you, after-”

“E-Eclipsed...?” Groggily, Ruth stared up at her face. “Thank goodness you're okay. My bandmates and I looked all over the city for you, and stumbled into zone in a flux state, after that weird wrestler attacked the concert...”

“Arron, but he’s on our side now. That angel Zeloph and even Seb, too! But let’s not worry about them. You're so pretty!” Eclipsed brushed the shark woman's short, messy hair, which stuck to her. “Um, not that you weren't before!”

Riptide chuckled good-naturedly. “It's okay. Remember what I told you? Ex-military, experimental drugs, bulked me up and even changed my sexual preferences from the hormonal changes. But I still like girls now, even though I finally found my idealized form. This is how I always wished I looked. Not the 'butch' or 'brute' most people think I am, just because I was built like a brick shithouse.”

“You build, run, and maintain your band's equipment! You're a genius!” Eclipsed giggled alongside Ruth's rich laughter. She helped the now lean part-shark woman into a seated position amidst the crystalline puddle below.

“I don't know about that,” admitted Ruth amidst a small blush. “So, how are my bandmates?”

“Check for yourself,” offered the pop star, who helped her wobble to her feet. Eclipsed's sweaty breasts heaved and she stumbled herself, left winded from the strain. “Uh...haven't ever used my crystal powers like that before.”

Carrion snapped to awareness. “Hey! You okay, sweetheart? You look really thrashed!”

“Mmmhmm,” added Obrya, once she too came around. “At least that's one mystery solved! Our asses would've been toast had we lost you!” She playfully shook her breasts and butt, then turned her focus on Wispy. “Oh, hmm, you're here. Hello there, kitty~. Where's Kitsune? And who are these people?” She surveyed them.

“Kitsune's back at a minotaur town called Hammerfall,” said Wispy, who nodded at the minotaurs with them. “I'll introduce everyone later! This could take a while! Eclipsed, you should rest! You don't look so swell, princess!”

“I'll look after her,” offered a bruised up minotaur, who helped Eclipsed lean on him.

“Thanks, beefcake!” Wispy winked with a wide, playful grin and tail swish. “Take good care of her, and maybe we can have some 'fun' later?”

He maintained a stoic demeanor even when her twin tails brushed his muscled hip, and the minotaur directed Eclipsed over to a patch of flowers, while he fetched her a canteen of water. The nekomata pouted with hands on her striped hips, relieved at least she'd be safe with him. Quietly, Eclipsed sipped the offered drink.

Minutes passed while Arcanum brought the band up to speed. Introductions were made, and they showed their new allies the marked map, which detailed their plans and what remained at stake while the war marched on.

Sombra's eyes trailed over Eclipsed, the pop princess seated against a tree trunk, covered in a thin sheen of sweat. Her breasts heaved with each winded breath, her pink nipples perky in the draft. Her pert, squeezable black bottom smooshed below her, her tail swished aside for comfort, the short loin cloth barely a lean strip.

The minotaur stood with arms folded over his barrel chest when he meticulously surveyed the woods, with quick looks back on occasion to check on Eclipsed. He offered her more water, which she accepted and sipped at the canteen before she thanked and handed it back to him.

Fortunately for Sombra, they were separated from the group, who were distracted by the arrival of the monstrous band, the mysterious Amazon territory, and the map and plans they poured over. So eager was he to finally claim her, he failed to notice Vox's subtle takeover, the tyrant dazed and reduced back to a passenger for a ride in this body he'd stolen.

‘My turn,’ declared Vox, who moved in for the kill, aware a better chance may never come.

Sombra blacked out. Found himself unaware of the tendrils that rose from White Shadow Penumbra's mutated body. They zipped off swiftly, silently, one stuffed forcibly down past Eclipsed lips and down her throat. “Mmph~!”

She squirmed and desperately tried to cry out, more coils wrapped around her wrists, ankles, between her thighs and around her breasts when she found herself bound up, shibari-style.

She found herself lifted, her plush curves squished and emphasized by the slick binds. Suspended above the ground, her hanging breasts heaved harder, her nipples painfully stiff, her lips drooling around the tendril that stuffed her throat and made her weakly choke on the coil when her large pink eyes watered.

Vox moved his puppet flesh quickly when he sidled up behind the minotaur. The bull sensed his presence and spun and balled up, fist raised and a battle cry ready to alert the others—

“Şนຖ’๓໐Ş!”

The wide-eyed minotaur stopped in his tracks, his baritone voice cracking into silence before the beef slab fell unconscious with a hard thud.

‘What sorcery—?! How did you do that,’ Sombra demanded from within his mental detention.

“Most of my spells are verbally spoken,” elaborated Vox quietly. “So no matter whose body I possess, I am never without my magic.”

Tears ran down Eclipsed's cheeks, when she tried to summon her crystals, forced to watch him subdue another suspicious bullman with spoken word alone. The pastor of the Cult of the Nemesis was careful not to spill blood on the grass or leave any other obvious evidence. Not that it would matter soon. Unlike Sombra, the tiny parasite knew all the hidden surface entrances that tunneled back to the hives.

All the while, when Vox slipped away, Eclipsed squirmed helplessly, which he quickly put an end to with a hushed command to put the pop idol asleep. His tendrils continued to squeeze and coil around her breasts and backside, no doubt the intrusive thoughts projected by his stubborn host, since Sombra lusted over her.

But, by the time anyone noticed her absence, Vox and Sombra were already miles away.

Not even Chezka's ability to track a trail helped much, thrown off by the lust-ridden scents the spokesmen expunged. However, the centauress did quickly find the grisly, discarded carcasses of the two dead minotaurs, swarmed by thick flies, which left the rest of the warriors to fume at their losses and helplessness.

Arcanum cursed their rotten luck. Shadowed eyes turned towards the cosmic storm above.

*****

A draft rolled through the gray slab that made up the morgue. Strawberry Moon knew she probably should have worn more than her cowkini costume, but it seemed appropriate to visit her sister in a garb the twins wore, plus she barely noticed the cold anymore. Almost like she only felt at home in the cold these days, without poor Blue Moon to draw warmth from. She arrived alone, and the attendant left her in peace, certain the chief's second wife could be trusted alone as the door closed.

Due to Grimmwald's alchemy, the corpses were perfectly removed, their wounds dressed. On one table draped the maroon flesh and fur of Redrum, the older but well-built minotaur on his back, and at another rested Blue Moon, equally nude as Redrum, the half-cow, half-mare curvaceous, contours emphasized by lamps.

“It's almost like they're peacefully asleep,” murmured Strawberry. “How odd.” She noticed that, like her own nipples that were stiff under her scanty cow print top, Blue Moon's wide, pink areola budded up stiff and perky atop udders heavy with milk yet to sour due to Grim's enchantment, like how the twins once shared their sensations, be it pain or pleasure.

Milk droplets beaded the tips of Blue's titties, which sloshed when they swayed from Strawberry's tender touch when she poked and prodded at her with quiet desperation. Reflexively, she traced her own cutie mark, two interlocked female symbols, in hope they would shine in resonance. She also turned her twin a bit onto her side, and caressed the symbol that emblazoned Blue Moon's wide hips and buttocks, with no response. “What did I expect? I feel so foolish. But...she's lukewarm...?”

Was it due to Grimmwald? Whatever the reason, she told herself to accept her death.

“Blue Moon...sister...my other half...” She turned her onto her back, her tears fell on her face. They rolled like the milk droplets diwn the pendulous slopes of Blue's perfect breasts. Strawberry balked when, with a double-take, she watched a subdued squirm of Blue's belly.

Slowly, Blue Moon's coral, pastel pink eyes opened. Her bare bust slowly heaved. Brittle lips whispered, “I missed you so, dear sister.”

Strawberry stumbled back a step. “No...this isn't real. I've finally snapped—”

Yet her twin rose before her eyes, took her by the waist, and ripped the cow print bikini from her with a savage tug. Then, she pulled her so close their udders squished and dripped milk that spurted like faucets from mashed areola.

Their nipples kissed and brushed, Blue Moon's lactation lukewarm compared to her warmer release, which slid down the slopes of their overly ample titties. Strawberry froze from a sudden spike of shared pleasure, pulled into her arms when Blue Moon reclined back onto the table and her cutie mark mutedly hummed. “Join us, sister. They can fix all our problems.”

“They?” Her whisper was hushed, unable to tear away from her. “You mean that death cult-”

“An order,” corrected Blue Moon, while her belly squirmed more violently. “They've shown us the light. I missed what it felt like to be pregnant, don't you?” From Blue's parted thighs, a messy deluge spilled from her inflamed vaginal lips once, inch-by-inch, she pushed out the same, oversized larva that had crawled into her birth canal and made its home in her womb, one of several left behind in the chaos of the invasion.

Strawberry's eyes shot wider when she felt the fat larva tease at her entrance, and part her vulva lips with a wet squish. “Don't! Sis-!” The table clattered when she wrestled with her, felt the slippery, slick worm spread her pink pussy wider when it squirmed and squished its way inside her slick birth canal, where it burrowed at her cervix, and tried to force it wide open and penetrate her warm, wet womb. Wet schlicks sounded when the duo blissfully squirted a little.

“See? We'll be reunited,” cried a crazed-eyed Blue Moon with a mad smile. “Don't resist!”

Their udders impacted with another moist slap and bounce when, despite Blue's supernatural strength, Strawberry wrestled her twin below her. Yet the half-exited larva still connected their cunts, Blue Moon's firm legs wrapped around Strawberry's lower back and buttocks to hold her in place when she humped up to meet her and force the larva deeper, the air filled by moist squelches. “Now! Take it, sister~!”

The table nearby shook, as Redrum's preserved body also rose, the minotaur's impressive size already half-erect. “Hold her,” whispered the also larva-infected older bull.

“Don't,” pleaded Strawberry, who strained in Blue's iron hold once Redrum positioned himself behind Strawberry's wide, spotted ass, spread her large buns to expose her, and prodded his tip at her unfilled, puckered asshole. Grunts rose from his firm belly when, with one firm thrust, he hilted her tight ass balls deep, his oversized length slicked by precum.

The dazed milk mare found herself prostrated between them on all fours, and the table below quaked while Redrum savagely fucked her ass which clapped and echoed, while Blue's bloated larva mercilessly burrowed at Strawberry’s cervix, forcing its way into her uterus with wiggles that tickled her folds until she squirted over it to help welcome the grub inside, and it worked to attach itself, where it would break off and divide, a new slave captured for the order once it fully infiltrated her fertile core physically.

Strawberry moaned and cried out, head cast back, whe she squirted harder than ever around the invasive eldritch-larva hybrid, all over her sister and the minotaur that violently took her up the ass. Her pussy and cervix expanded further amidst her contractions, allowing the worm to slip in even easier, a preview of perpetual bliss under enslavement.

“Yes sister~,” moaned Blue, who messily came too, albeit with less force and volume. She lifted her own hips and butt, mashed her twin sister slit-to-slit when the abomination passed. Wiggling inside their interiors, their pussies winked like mad as more messy waterfalls were worked from them in unison while they mated.

Strawberry saw her short life flash before her eyes, felt her brain start to break from the forced conversion. Lukewarm volleys of cum shot up her asshole before Redrum pulled back amidst his releases to paint her back and butt in more, dense bursts that painted her spotted curviness when the red bull emptied his balls.

In the midst of Redrum's release, an axe suddenly separated his head from his body, tossed across the room. The headless body continued to stumble with weak spurts of cum released on Strawberry's rump and sphincter. “Yours I believe,” said Moon Hammer, who carried his wife's heavy axe in his meaty hands.

“Husband,” cried Strawberry, who used the distraction to throw her weight and pull out of Blue's hold, a wet slurp sounded from her twat when the larva slipped from her spread, pink lower lips, which drooled from lust from her slit.

Blue Moon shot up, her thighs spread as the changeling grub half-exited her womb, slick with their mixed juices, and it writhed and dripped in frustration from the new, warm home it had been pushed from. She opened her eyes wide, half-narrowed her eyes seductively, her milky udders left to ooze. “Join us, Moon-”

With a pained cry of sorrow, Strawberry snatched the axe from her husband, and with a two-handed swing also separated her twin sister's head from its body. The headless torso continued its awkward stumble towards them, fat udders left to heave and drip excessive milk with each pendulous sway when she lurched and finally fell, her spotted buns left to quiver.

Moon Hammer stroked her soft pink mane and held her close as he asked, “You okay?”

“Y-yes...that wasn't really them. Just twisted perversions of the people we loved.” Her face contorted in fury when Blue Moon's body started to rise up, animated by the worm still embedded in her snatch. Strawberry broke away from her husband, seized her weapon, and the curved axe repeatedly crashed down.

She heaved and dismembered her twin sister, piece-by-piece, the worm chopped apart with a shrill squeal. Each limb removed when Strawberry spilled out all her pain and fury, at herself. At Chrysalis and her hive. Fiery Kickstart and his men. The Cult of the Nemesis—everyone she could blame for their predicament! She dismantled this vile mockery.

She huffed and screamed and slammed her axe. “Stop it,” said Moon Hammer, who firmly squeezed her arm. Her weapon dropped with a clank that echoed, her face buried in his chest when she wept her heart out. “I'll order their bodies destroyed. Cremation should work.” He wondered, had many more parasites infiltrated?

Grimmwald would have to take care of it. Perhaps the minotaur magus and Marathyssa could manage a bug hunt with Deinos, to ferret out any more surprises? Paranoia would spread in Hammerfall, were the truth known.

Without her twin's connection, Strawberry felt like she endured the bitter cold of the world for the first time. After the loss of an intimate union to her sister, her broken heart all but died with her. She recovered her cow bikini and held onto her husband for support when they moved on.

*****

Time bled together and all but ceased to exist for Cerise Silhouette, the princess adjusted to her new situation the best she could manage. She faintly recalled her family and friends...with holes in her mind she couldn't explain. Her head ached when she tried to understand why, and she dismissed such thoughts to preserve her brittle sanity within the bleak, hellish hive.

Covers brushed aside, she sat up naked in her bed and rubbed her belly, which, true to what she'd been told, had already started to curve with her baby, forced upon her. Would it take a few months to deliver? Weeks? All she knew was that it was far too late to reverse, her reddened cheeks dotted in fresh, warm tears.

Sombra's black magic protected his spawn, but would it warp the child, too? Mutate and twist it into some monstrosity, which upon delivery, would devour its mother to feed itself...?

“N-no...don't be silly,” she reassured herself with a strained whimper from lips that trembled. The nightmares hadn't stopped either. Where her monstrous baby would rapidly reach adulthood, force itself upon her, and make use of her body before devouring her flesh.

Or the morbid vision where pieces of her flesh would be peeled away by her hands, revealing a changeling’s carapace underneath. Midnight's and Moonlight's faces twisted in open revulsion to discover she'd secretly been one of the monsters that butchered their family and friends all this time. A treacherous infiltrator. The couple turned on the alpha mare of their herd, and impaled her on their spears in tandem.

She'd usually wake up with a cry in a cold sweat from the latest bout of sleep paralysis, frozen and helpless, and reminded herself that it couldn't be real! “Please! Don't abandon me!”

Many people shuffled into her room. Trixie Lulamoon was at the lead. The drones Cerise sacrificed herself to protect were still locked in the shape of familiar faces to comfort her.

“You need to take it easy, princess,” the azure unicorn urged. “You should be thinking up names, rather than numbers. But these poor slaves prefer you call them by their likenesses! What was it? Somnambula, Pacific Glow, Inky Rose, Lily Longsocks, Beatrix Belladonna—”

Cerise tilted her head, fingers pinching her temple. “I told you! I don’t know who that is...?”

“Oh, come on! She looks exactly like her mother, color scheme aside?” Trixie undid the strings where her cloak met her neck, letting it drop to reveal herself fully, like the nude drones in the shape of her friends. “Hello~? I mean, she only saved your world and introduced you to your husband! How can you forget this?”

Another buzzing headache of static split Cerise's skull whenever she rubbed it. “I-I’m sorry… I don’t remember meeting her.”

“Bah! What nonsense,” Trixie huffed and firmly planted hands on her wide, motherly hips. With a sigh, she continued. “It's fine. Queen Chrysalis wishes to see you anyhow, so we better head outside on the double!”

Cerise nodded, forcing a smile at the drones that parted to allow her by, and heard them and Trixie follow close behind when she exited into the fleshy, rocky caverns that eerily shimmered an alien shade of emerald. The wet tunnels appeared to breathe in lazy contractions.

Queen Chrysalis stood tall with her nude curvaceous on brazen display, a hand on a voluminous hip when she noted her belly swell. “Good day to you, princess. My spies have informed me your 'father' should return soon.”

Cerise wanted to correct the idea that Sombra was her father, but held her tongue. Carefully, the platinum princess tried to choose her words, uncertain how Chrysalis expected she was supposed to feel about that. “Well… it will certainly be a while until then. In the meantime, what would you like to do… my Queen?”

The changeling monarch tittered, reached into her own snatch, and withdrew a slick, rope-like coil from her depths, rubbery and soaked in her love essence. “Why, I think I'll take my pet bitch for a walk! To show off my lovely trophy! After all, I may not have another chance to indulge myself like this once that bastard returns...”

With a subdued nod, Cerise lowered herself to all fours like a mere animal with her tail hiked up, finching upon the slimy tendril coiled around her neck like a leash. It squeezed a little to lock in place but left her relatively comfortable.

“The rest of you too,” ordered Chrysalis. “Follow the princess slut and don't fall behind!” Trixie and the drones that copied friendly faces to Cerise also prostrated themselves on all fours. The queen took the first lazy, casual steps with a hum, where Cerise trailed after her, then the rest of them, and their breasts swayed beneath.

The queen took her time on her journey through the hive to the main chambers. Showing off her authority to the changeling onlookers, her concubines, which she could treat like nothing more than a set of holes to be stuffed and filled with cum, prepared to become incubators on a whim.

Cerise kept her eyes ahead, which put her view level with Chrysalis' voluptuous buttocks, and the pert black buns bounced and rolled individually with each regal strut. She tried not to think about the fact that her own lower hot pink holes were fully on display for the mass of changelings around the hive to drool over. They wanted more than anything to beset her, to stuff her womb with egg after egg until she popped.

She restrained a shudder, felt her moist pussy wink a wet trail in response when her heart-shaped clit peeked out and throbbed, swollen by desperate need. No doubt her arousal came from the queen's potent pheromones. Her medium-sized breasts swung below, her nipples fully poked out, and her asshole puckered hard, with a need to be filled.

By the time their slow crawl to the main chamber ended and Chrysalis approached her throne, the queen had perked her ears at a shift from the ceiling, and she heard a mild vibration from one of the coves above. “Oh? I thought I'd ordered that cavern to be closed off permanently. I swear, heads will roll for this...”

“You did,” came Sombra's voice when smoky shadows emerged from the crevices. “Your new 'friend' Vox reopened it.”

Chrysalis reclined on her throne with leash in hand, Cerise, Trixie, and the concubine drones prostrated around her like a harem. “I'm sure he had his reasons,” she dismissed with a wave. “After all, it helped you return. So, how fares your conquest? Has Fiery been dealt with?”

“Not yet,” the umbral tyrant replied. “But my divided forces have taken the breeding camp. I also assailed Hammerfall, and captured a wonderful prize worthy of my princess!”

Cerise's heart nearly stopped when she heard him announce Hammerfall's latest attack.

Chrysalis shot up from her throne with a feral snarl. “What?! Why would you split your forces? You hopeless fool! Where are the rest?”

“Lost,” he answered bluntly. “But the tradeoff was more than worth it! Behold!” Grinning at her and Cerise, he stepped from the shadows with Eclipsed Heart in tow, unaware that the shibari-style, rubbery straps that bound the pop princess had separated from his own, now corrupted flesh. She squirmed impotently.

“Mmph~! Grrr~!” Eclipsed’s face contorted in fury as she screamed around the coil still stuffed down her throat, her plush breasts and buttocks bound uncomfortably by the bondage.

Cerise cried out without thinking, “Father please! Let her be! You already have me!” She choked when Chrysalis pulled her back by the 'leash' and landed on her butt, back by the throne with a bounce of her beautiful assets.

“Your harlot has a point,” hissed Chrysalis darkly. “You wasted half of the forces I lent you to claim that!?” Her slit pupils sharpened on the restrained pop diva with utter contempt. “Have I not clearly illustrated how we cannot afford to expend anymore resources?!”

Sombra dismissed her ire with a chuckle. “Oh, yes! You’ve made it abundantly clear, with how quickly you dispatch anyone who displeases you! And you dare call me wasteful…?”

“Watch your tone, you ungrateful fraud,” she warned. “You continue to test my patience...”

While the two rulers argued, Chrysalis dropped the leash and Cerise crawled over to meet Eclipsed face-to-face. Carefully she removed the coil from her alternative’s mouth, who coughed and spat. Chrysalis and Sombra were practically chest-to-chest in the middle of their heated debate, the pair momentarily forgotten.

“Are you okay?” Asked Cerise, struggling to pry off further inky tendrils wrapped around the nude pop star's curves. “I mean, the best you can be anyway, under these circumstances?”

“Y-yeah. I'll be fine—ouch!” Eclipsed winced, as the harder her double worked to free the dark bindings, the more firmly each constricted around her mashed tits, buttocks, and snatch.

“S-sorry. Guess we'd need to break the enchantment to free them,” she said with a pout, a painful reminder she was helpless.

“Nevermind that,” she replied tenderly, her eyes drawn to Cerise's belly. “Did he..?” When the princess bleakly nodded, Eclipsed shuddered in sympathy at the fate that awaited her, too.

“Worse,” whispered Cerise, unable to meet her eyes. “When he...put his seed in me...he was in my half-brother's body. Poor Penumbra. I don't know what I'll tell his wife...” She glanced at a concubine drone in the guise of Lily Longsocks, her half-brother's lovely earth pony spouse.

Eclipsed shared her quiet sobs, and moved in to comfort her. The princess held her since the pop star's hands and arms remained bound behind her. “We can’t afford to lose hope!” She assured her with a soft murmur. “No matter how bad it seems! Maybe we'll find a way to escape soon! Or maybe our friends will come for us!”

Cerise sniffled and her lower lip shook. “Y-yeah! I know they won't ever abandon us!” Inwardly, the charcoal mare loathed the sense of raw comfort she felt, to have someone familiar with her in this hellish prison. She never could've imagined they'd meet face-to-face like this. A moment both of them often hoped for, twisted by a couple of the would-be rulers of Equestria that warred for dominance and exploited them.

“...your numbers will swell back up soon,” reassured Sombra to quell his queen's rage.

“How!? A couple of foals pumped into these stupid sluts?” She made a dismissive wave at Cerise and Eclipsed. “Would hardly make up for over a hundred losses, even were they made broodmares and pumped full of my clutches. What, pray tell, is your master plan, tactician?”

“Patience. My sweet daughters have a mastery over a form of crystalline geomancy. Imagine, if I can extract the secrets behind this, I can reinforce our weapons, armor, the hive...” His stolen unicorn horn lit, his aura used to yank Cerise and Eclipsed to their feet by, which made supple, bare flesh ripple provocatively.

Chrysalis chittered with annoyance. “As intriguing the proposition you offer is, we're on a timetable! You've seen the sorry state of this world. The sooner we deal with our enemies, the sooner we can solve that imminent threat.”

“One crisis at a time. These two lovely mares were made for me.” He slapped his hands to cup a buttock of each daughter, felt the pliable flesh molded to palms, especially when he rolled and squeezed their warm, soft assflesh. They winced under his touch when he continued, “Made to be bred by me and bear my powerful foals. And why not? No other stud is worthy to share our royal blood. Mmm~.” He licked his chops, and squeezed Eclipsed's soft, ample asscheek harder. “She's even more plush and fertile! I can hardly wait to breed her!”

“Leave her alone,” screamed Cerise, her teeth clenched and her face contorted with hatred.

“Don't worry! One day, I'll shape the both of you into worthy queens.” He met Chrysalis' neutral stare. “Ah, but I won't replace you, either. I'm sure we'll find an agreeable way to carve up Equestria once we've conquered it. Like I'll conquer every. Last. Inch. Of these mares!”

Groping one of Eclipsed's tits, Sombra met Chrysalis' lips and kissed her. Their hands started to wander, and the queen pushed towards the throne, ready to be taken by the tyrant. Saliva connected their snouts when he momentarily withdrew and said, “Look what I found on her...” His aura lifted the compact, heart-shaped pink phone Vox recovered.

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow in frustration that he'd stopped. “What's this? A child's toy?”

“Something like that.” He levitated it into a free hand, opened it, and started to type. “It wasn't difficult for my dark magic to crack its 'encryption', some enchantment to block access. This little device can record events and show them to others in real-time! Think of the possibilities for our spies! Ah, but from that bored look on your face, I see you need a demonstration.” His thumb rolled to pull up a hidden folder and clicked on a recorded video.

Eclipsed blushed harder when her moans and those of her boyfriend Bass rose from her cellphone, the first time the couple made love, streamed in high definitions so advanced the picture looked clearer and moved smoother than real life. The mare was streamed on her side, one leg raised by the boyband leader, who drove his thick cock in-and-out of her while she raised her phone to film their first time in bed.

“Really gets the juices flowing,” he teased with a dark chuckle. “The night my second daughter lost her virginity, her sweet cherry popped! Hmm, I haven't heard much about this 'Bass', but he appears to be another buff, reliable dork. Seems like my sweet little cherries have a type!” He smirked at the twin charcoal mares.

Cerise fumed. “You don't need to humiliate her!”

“It's okay,” murmured a crestfallen Eclipsed, who winced at what they witnessed. “He can't shame me anymore than he has already.”

“Don't tempt him,” warned Chrysalis. “Or test your luck! He hasn't even popped your cherry yet~. Oh, but he's a little late for that, hmm? You're already slutty sloppy seconds, phaha!”

Sombra chuckled wickedly. “Hmm, I could always work a spell to make their hymens intact...” The mares paled at the implications once his leers slowly trailed their sweet, succulent curves. “But first, I need to fertilize a fresh clutch, so the changelings can march on Equestria and hammer broken land into shape!”

Worked up by mania, the dark tyrant continued to announce. “Worry not, my sweet cherries! Your beautiful female friends will serve as my concubines! The males, too, were converted by alchemy and sorcery into submissive females! A menagerie of lovely broodmares! First, my dear queen and princesses...then, the world!”

The phone's cover closed, set aside for now by his telekinesis so he could focus. He pinned Chrysalis back to breed her...then, Penumbra's body suddenly went slack, his eyes dulled.

Chrysalis stared at him quizzically. “Don't tell me you can't get it up now...” She experimentally rubbed his erect stallionhood, his flare slick with hot, sticky precum. “No, that doesn't appear to be a problem, so what's-”

“I’ve grown tired of this childish dribble,” another voice spoke through his mouth. “It’s time I make my exit from this limited shell.”

The tyrant's mouth fell slack, and his tongue appeared to expand before their eyes, a mass of pallid flesh that pulled its way free from Sombra's mouth. Chrysalis took a cautious step away and tumbled butt-first onto her throne as the substance that poured like vomit from his throat rapidly grew and took form into a mass.

The shape transformed into an eldritch arthropod monster that towered over her. Multiple limbs and tentacles sprouted out of its hardening exoskeleton, large compound black eyes locked into a permanent conniving expression, and four sets of antennae twitched about the air curiously. The goliath-sized isopod alien stretched his many limbs, crustacean carapace leaking green ooze from the tiny pores and crevices. His mouth opens as he exhales a sound of relief. “Haaaah… finally. It’s been too long since I’ve had a body of my own.”

“Vox..!”

“In the flesh,” the minister of the nemesis cult chortled darkly. “It has become increasingly difficult to find a host whose lifespan doesn’t rapidly diminish during my metamorphic cycle. But White Shadow Penumbra’s body has proven to be surprisingly durable and versatile.”

His head shifted to look back at Sombra's withered body, severely malnourished and sickly. His muscular mash shrunken, the skin wrinkly and warped tightly around his skeletal structure. His mouth is agape, gasping for air like a fish plucked out of the river.

Chrysalis sucked in a breath. “Is he...?”

“He’ll live,” assured Vox dismissively. “I left him with enough of his magic and vital fluids to recover, so he’ll still be able to fulfill your purposes. Of course, you’ll have to fashion him a new tongue for him to speak. But if you ask me? I would prefer he be kept silent.”

The queen gulped, eyes shifting from Sombra to Vox. “Well. That’s all nice and dandy. But what about my needs? My kingdom?! He was to be my king! I can’t exactly repopulate our diminished forces with that dried-up schlock!”

“Indeed,” agreed the massive parasite. “But powerful and skilled as Sombra was, a true queen deserves the best genetic material to inseminate her many eggs. A worthy mate. Which leaves that responsibility to… Me.”

Chrysalis balked at the bold declaration. “W-what..?!”

“Imagine how powerful—how potent the essence of an eldritch entity of my caliber could provide. The clutches of spawn you'll bear. With our combined intellect and power intact. And all those genetics and cells passed onto every broodmare we’ve abducted. Ensuring your lineage and power continue unmatched.”

She hesitated. Vox was grotesque; his ghastly arthropod appendages and ligaments made her shudder. And yet...she felt her ovaries ache for his seed, sensed that he didn't lie or even exaggerate about what he could offer her! Already, her ovaries happily pumped more eggs into her slippery uterus, ready to accept his seed and breed a new army to help dominate Equestria. The changeling’s brain dulled with lust, and she opened her arms and legs for him.

“Do it,” she demanded, and her pussy winked.

The pallid monstrosity mounted her. His crustacean claws lifted her into a mating press by the ankles, allowing his spiny sex organ and tentacles to violate her orifices as much as possible, and deposit sperm directly into her core, so her fertilization would be swift and assured when he mated with the fertile queen.

Chrysalis came instantly with a muffled scream, hit by a massive dose of the stimulates implanted in her brain by the Mi-Go fungi. The mycelium rooted deep into her cortex sent pulsations to overwrite her thoughts and motives, shifting focus on the reproduction of her army to spread more spores and parasitic larvae, rendering her a blissful, submissive slave when she quaked under fierce thrusts.

Her squirts painted the isopod’s plated underbelly while he pulverized her pelvis. Already, she could feel its volleys of precum shower her ovum, which swam and swished in wait for its proper load to bloat her belly. As he impregnated the queen, Chrysalis was temporarily reduced to a broodmare in mind and body, her whorish moans shrieking across the hive walls while her soldiers came to watch.

Her face twisted into a fucked silly expression. “Br-breed me,” she pleaded as he ravished her.

The pair, so busy when they rutted each other senselessly, failed to notice subtle twitches on Penumbra's face. One of his eyes regained the familiar green pupil of Cerise’s half-brother. He tried to call out to his sister with a hoarse voice, but could only produce a wheezy groan.

But Cerise gasped and helped Eclipsed waddle over to him in jiggles of bare flesh. “Penny? Is it really you!? How are you—?”

‘Vox… he unknowingly took away the mental lock Sombra placed before leaving my body,’ he considered internally. ‘Right now, his spirit is weak… but it won’t be long until he tries to regain control. I have to act fast!’

White Shadow Penumbra had only taken a moment to test his body, to make sure it was still physically capable and under his control, before his eyes narrowed in determination.

He strained to regain his legs, which wobbled until he leaned on his blade for support. Despite how thoroughly drained he felt, the pale pegasus forced himself into a fighting stance.

Cerise's heart skipped a beat upon recognizing his potential plans. “Brother, wait—!”

With his hand poised over the hilt, he unsheathed his scimitar and flew into action. In a white blur, Penumbra raced to assail the locked-together lovers, determined to assassinate them and end this nightmare. Changeling guards buzzed and swarmed him, determined to bar his path. But like a whirling dervish, his swift, precise slices carved them to pieces, portions and mandibles tossed about in spatters before the blur of a white whirlwind.

Eclipsed held a hopeful gaze and silent cheer once she watched Cerise’s brother will himself to protect his family. Her heart swelled. If he could end Chrysalis and Vox while they were distracted, that would give them enough time to flee the dank tunnels and return to the surface!

The concubines around the throne scattered. Vox and Chrysalis were lost in orgasm; her belly swelled to proportions that looked like she was about to pop, her eggs saturated in pump-after-pump of virile spunk he dumped into her womb amidst her whorish moans, her limbs wrapped about him as she sprayed lust.

Penumbra honed in, moments away despite the drones that barred him, ready to use the last of his strength to slay the evil. To spare his poor sister from the horrid future that awaited her.

Cerise suddenly came into his view, and Penumbra stopped dead in his tracks. The impressive swath he cut brought to an abrupt end; over a couple of dozen, which included some of the queen's finest royal guards, were reduced to pieces and scattered around the chamber by a stained scimitar. By this point, Vox and Chrysalis had snapped back to awareness, their physiques still locked close.

Penny trembled and lowered the scimitar tip at her heart. Before he could recognize the false image, the pale pegasus clutched his head and fell to his knees. He could feel Sombra forcibly reassert his dominance, his presence clawing at his mind to reclaim what he'd cruelly stolen.

The misty apparition of the charcoal mare faded before him. A mere illusion Trixie had hastily conjured up to protect the changeling monarch and the minister of her order from his blade.

The real Cerise realized what presently occurred and cried, “Brother! Resist him!”

He clutched his head after the scimitar fell and clattered. ‘I-I… I know what I must do! Cerise… I'm… I’m so sorry for you to see what I've become! Those monsters have stripped my honor! Turn me into their weapon! But I… I will—!’

Doubts allowed the shadowy unicorn to take back control, since Sombra saw his cause as just, unlike the conflicted Penumbra. That for Sombra, intelligence, power, and will combined decided his righteousness, his right to divinity.

Vox rose back up to observe the slaughter before him; Chrysalis left to heave on the throne, belly bloated and cum oozing cum from her well-used holes after he popped free of her.

Sombra let out a mute roar when he slammed his fists into the ground, his hateful glare locked on the one who stole his tongue and half his strength, left diminished to a pitiful state.

“Ahh, see? He’s so much more complacent when quiet,” the giant parasite said mockingly. “Regardless, It's time we put an end to this war. The fresh batch of inseminated eggs in your incubator will soon be born. Chrysalis, I'm sure I don't have to tell you what must be done.”

“Of course~,” she cooed dreamily, still in a fuck-drunk daze, and nearly stumbled in a sway of her hips and buttocks, left to drip his seed on her stride to her personalized pool. “Join me, won't you, Cerise~? Trixie, you as well! And Eclipsed Heart! As well as my concubines!” She whistled and practically glowed, eager to repeat this process with Vox after her clutch delivered.

Without an alternative, Cerise helped Eclipsed into the bath alongside the others. “Can't you at least undo her binds? They look very uncomfortable,” she noted sympathetically.

“Hmph. Very well.” Absent-mindedly, a swipe of her nails cut the diva’s binds, and her tits and buttocks bounced free and quivered to a stop.

“Th-thanks,” said Eclipsed to her twin when she rubbed her poor, swollen breasts and butt.

Chrysalis rubbed her pregnant belly. “Mmm~. Maybe I'll birth my clutch here.” With a swish and splash of water over herself that wet her mane, she approached the Mi-Go mushroom, which expanded and contracted with breath-like shudders and cast the queen's curves in its sickly, eerily glow. She wrapped her arms around it and squashed her moist, heavy breasts on its phallic tip to strengthen her connection to the eldritch entity and, thus, the clutch that swelled her uterus. The mushroom drove between her tits, which she rubbed across its length, and it pulsed amidst her bust.

Vox glanced at the uncomfortable princess and offered a morbid suggestion. “You know… I’d be more than happy to remove your father’s offspring from your body. Just a bit of my larva to fester inside and feast on the developing fetus. Of course, they might take a liking to your welcoming womb and decide to stay there.”

When Cerise clutched her snout with her hand to keep from throwing up, the spokesmen chittered in amusement before leaving the premises to contact Omen and Lady She’ba and prepare for this fruitless war's final siege.

At the same time, Sombra found himself back in full possession of Penumbra's body for the moment. The minute fatigue wore off, he would rally what forces were still there to keep the breeding camp while scattered pockets of the changelings were situated across Equestria. Between the betrayal by Chrysalis and the greater forces Vox worked for, he knew his chances at total conquest continued to dwindle.

His gaze trailed across his lovely, naked daughters in the bath. Instinct screamed at him to knock up Eclipsed Heart hastily, too, before the changelings or cult could touch her virginal womb. But the dark stallion could barely stand between Vox and Penumbra, and stood stiff, rather than show even a tiny hint of weakness.

From the dismembered pieces of drones and royal guards that the White Shadow carved up, Cerise swept a loose stinger into her hand and hid it under the pool of water. She trembled and rubbed her rounded belly with a low, hysterical laugh, tears in her eyes. She knew the broken spire was still filled with potent venom, that all it would take was one stab to a vital point, and she'd finally put an end to her constant misery.

She raised the spike, hovered the tip at her midsection, shivered, and quietly wept, her eyes closed when she trembled pitiably.

Gently, Eclipsed squeezed her slim wrist with pursed lips. “You can't do it, can you?”

“N-no...I can't.” Cerise lowered the stinger and sniffled. “It's not about honor, like my brother. I couldn't bear to think my family might see me as a coward, a weakling, a fool! Not when I've tried so hard to better myself! I'm tired of all this! I…I don't want to be a burden anymore!”

Eclipsed embraced her close to calm her hysteria. “You're not a burden! You're my friend! No, more like the sister I never had!”

“I’m so tired of this,” Cerise wept, her tears streaming down her face and rippling the dark pool. “I just want it all to stop! To…to end.”

“It will end,” the pop idol assured, hugging her closer. “We’re going to get out of here and head back to our homes. Somehow…”

After some time, Chrysalis was satisfied with her languorous bath and dismissed everyone to their quarters. Eclipsed Heart and Cerise went to their room hand in hand, trailed closely by her concubines and Trixie. Again, Sombra had it redecorated into a mock paradise, filled with a luscious array of flowers, sensual scents, a richness of foods, and a velvet-soft bed with silk blankets and fluffy pillows. A reminder of what Penumbra also perceived as an 'ideal' world, tailored to suit the royal harem of the hive.

She tucked her counterpart in, kissed her forehead, and curled up to sleep beside her. Poor Cerise had already been tuckered out from overusing her geomancy before their bastard 'father' laid a hand on her! Concubines with familiar faces watched them try to relax.

“It...won't be easy for me to sleep as well,” confessed Eclipsed, as the starfish attached to her breasts, vulva, and sphincter by Sombra continued to assault her body sensually, more small releases of ecstasy milked from her delicates while they explored her plush body.

“It never will be,” Cerise scoffed, yet lovingly stroked her twin's ponytail and tenderly undid its ribbon to free her mane. “Just gotta relax.”

“I-I'll try. Thank you, Cerise.” She looked away and quietly asked, “C-can you hold me?”

“No problem.” Cerise pulled her close and felt the starfish vibrate against her breasts, her face stained a mild pink when the buzz tickled her perky nipple buds. She studied her curiously; thankful that exhaustion soon overtook her.

What she didn't expect was that after she'd cleaned her up and they'd settled into the same bed and slept, they would start to share the same dreams—memories of their intertwined lives, tiny flashes of what had already occurred.

But even so, Cerise failed to recall Beatrix, the holes punched into her mind filled in by lies.