Curiosity, Captivity, and Celebration
Lovely Blonde flipped through a book, sitting in the back of the wooden carriage, the ceiling window letting the moonlight sink into the room, giving enough dim light to cast a pretty glow on her flowing, blonde mane. She laid on her comfortable pink cushions, the wealthy mare being driven over to Canterlot for an important meeting with the other Elites.
“Dragonfruit, mind stopping? I need to eat.” She called out, the carriage stopping quite soon. The cute mare she’d spoken too, her colours resembling that of her name, helped Blonde out of the carriage and out into a blanket.
She cast a spell on herself to prevent dirt from getting on her clean and prim self, throwing it onto Dragon as well. She was famished, so they were having a late supper. Dragon was a mare she was truly grateful for, she thought of her as both a servant and a friend, who already had setup a small table with snacks.
“There you are, mist-“ she squeaked when she saw the look the rich mare gave her. “Miss Blonde.”
Respect she liked yes, but something about how automatic she was? Using mistress to address her employer? It unsettled her slightly. The other Elites agreed as well, but there wasn’t much they could do to investigate why - nobody would answer them. Celestia didn’t even truly know, it would seem.
“Please, relax? I want us to enjoy eating together.” She smiled warmly, trying to seem more…inviting. Was her posh nature pushing away this potential bond, was it that simple?
“Sorry, yes, Miss Blonde…” she gave a smile, but it was clearly forced, at least somewhat. They’d only been in conjunction for a week, so perhaps that was it as well. Time might be a factor, maybe.
The two mares sat down together, eating the simple yet delicious and expensive snacks. They were alone in this journey, against the desires of the other Elites for her to have a guarded transport. She trusted Dragonfruit, so felt no need for it…and she wasn’t the helpless little socialite some seemed to think she was.
“Let us attempt a conversation. Where are you from?” She asked the question innocently, not expecting the spark of…pain that flashed on her servant’s face.
The mare spoke not, simply pointing towards a town in the distance. It looked like a small, dusty place. Something about it felt weird, but from an hour or so away, she could nary tell. However, something traumatic must have happened, right? She wouldn’t have looked so pained otherwise…
“Fuck it. We’re going there.” She stood up, finishing her own snacks, packing up what Dragonfruit wasn’t eating and slipping it back into the carriage.
“Miss Blonde! I-I’m advised to not let you do physical work…and you can’t go th-“ she stopped at the exasperated gaze she got. Blonde generally got her way, and this would be no different.
She had a theory forming about not only Dragonfruit, but the various other fruit-like ponies she’d seen, along with that town…and there was only one way to validate it. If it was true, she’d have some ears to rend.
“Get in.” She motioned to the carriage, stepping up to the front. She wanted to make a point if she was correct, even though she knew she’d be beyond exhausted by the end of the journey. She was more magically skilled than physically.
“But-“
“Get in. Please.” She strapped herself in, making sure the other mare was securely within before beginning that long journey.
It was a rather dull and trying one, Blonde needing some help when it came up to an uphill spot…making her realize just how hard it must’ve been on the earlier hills. She had to admire Dragonfruit for how hard she was working…
After about thirty minutes she collapsed, unable to pull any further. She came into the carriage car, laying there with Dragonfruit for a while. There was nobody around, and the town didn’t look very lively at night anyways…they could do with a rest.
“Sleep with me tonight.” She pulled the mare under the covers, letting them both find comfort in the warmth. It gently tugged at their consciousness, pushing them into sleep without much trouble and preventing Dragonfruit from protesting.
When the red-coated mare awoke, she saw Blonde had setup breakfast in the carriage. Things were a bit over- or under- cooked, but the flavour was there either way. “I tried,” she shrugged, “but I don’t have your talent.”
Last night seemed to have made their kinship warmer too, Dragonfruit giving her a genuine smile for the first time all week. “It’s delicious, Miss.”
“Thank you…now, why don’t we use magic to pull this thing to town this time? It’s only a half hour, and my body is far too sore…” she stretched out everywhere she could. There were no protests to her idea, so they both trotted outside and cast the spell to tug it along carefully.
As they neared the town, its size became more apparent, seeming larger than it had first appeared. The buildings were all wooden and…rather dreary in colour. In fact, everything about it was dreary!
“This…doesn’t feel right.” She set the carriage down at the entrance, walking in with Dragonfruit. Other fruit-ponies were walking around, but…
This was wrong. All wrong.
They all had the same mark on their forehead as Dragonfruit, and they all had some sort of odd bracelet on.
“…this is unacceptable.” She strode strongly into town, looking angry. She had been guessing at this, but to learn Equestria had an actual slave trade? Everything else around her was shut out, focusing on this awful predicament.
She didn’t hear the warning yells from Dragonfruit until a few moments in, turning too late to avoid the tranquilizer dart that knocked her unconscious, slipping down to the road below.
Blonde groaned as she awoke hours later, trapped underground in what looked like a wealthy mare’s bedroom, but was also obviously a cell. There was a single, fortified window, letting sunlight mix with the candlelight.
“Shit!” She yelled out, running right for the door, trying to carve it open with her razor-sharp horn, only to realize it had a strong inhibitor ring placed on it. She also had one of those bracelets on her left foreleg, and on looking in the mirror…they’d marked her too.
But why the posh room then? That didn’t add up to her.
A mare in an odd, white uniform entered the room, the door firmly shut behind her. “We can’t hurt you, but we can keep you here. Can’t have you blabbing on the operation.”
She adjusted her glasses, this pony immediately becoming one Blonde detested. Knowing she was involved in this whole illegal business, let alone how inhumane and horrifying it was…
She punched her in the jaw, surprising the pony with her strength. “Fuck you. This is…you’re…”
“Awful? Many would say that if they knew. But they won’t, Miss Elite.” She had a mocking tone to her voice, as if trying to taunt the unicorn. “You’ll be handling our paperwork from now till you crumple.”
After all the selfless panic came the self-sustaining one, Blonde’s eyes darting around for an escape. “No, you can’t…I…I’m…” she glared.
“I have every right to order you to-“ she was interrupted by a sharp shock to the leg with the bracelet.
“You do, but as per my position, I must advise you attempt nothing.” She walked over to the desk, placing a stack of papers atop of it along with some pens.
“Get writing. You have all day.” She motioned to a table full of snacks and various liquors and whatnot. “We can use you, but shit gets messy if you fall ill or die or are otherwise injured.”
That must be why everything was already cut in terms of the food, and the forks were blunt…ensuring she couldn’t hurt herself. She wanted to rant at this mare so much, maybe even hurt her, but she was gone as soon as her monologue ended.
There were security cameras in either corner…if she didn’t do the work they wanted, there would probably be consequences…tamed down for her status, yet still consequences. She slumped down on the table, tears leaving her eyes.
Was this how Dragonfruit felt with her? She had never been mean to her, yet it was a legitimate concern.
She grabbed a bottle of whiskey and chugged it entirely, watching the security cameras. There was an odd taste to it, hut it was too slight to ruin the experience. They didn’t catch every spot of the room…she slipped over to the blind spot, placing the empty bottle there. She had a plan, but it would take a few days.
And a lot of work.
That whiskey kicked in really quickly, making her writing less than perfect, movement wobbly and unfocused. They must have been observing her, because she got shocked when a paper was accidentally torn in the middle.
She winced from the pain, but she noticed also she was unharmed, sparking more contrast between her and the fruit-ponies. She hadn’t been injured by the shocks, but clearly they had, with patches of charred fur on their legs.
As much as Blonde hated the situation she was personally in…she also realized a crucial detail. The fruit-ponies had it way worse than her, and probably didn’t get all the food and beverage she did. She second guessed her own trials for a moment, also using it to try and make herself feel somewhat better about this.
Then more emotions flooded in. She was angry they had the audacity to kidnap her, angry at their treatment of the fruit-ponies, also feeling sorrow for what must be the entire species being subjugated to hell. More self-centred emotions cropped up too, pure despair and…fear.
She’d continued going through the paperwork, going slowly. A lot of it was worker contracts and suppliers, as well as some tax forms. Nothing interesting, but also nothing difficult. Was this intentionally made boring as an attempt to torment her?
When she tried getting up to eat some food, she was met with another sharp shock that made her fall back to her chair, clutching her leg from the pain.
“Two more papers. Then you can eat.” That cursed mare’s voice came from the walls, indicating some sort of speakers were installed.
Blonde whined from the pain, but kept at the papers, the drunkenness eventually making her conk out, right after the papers were done.
There were a few hours that passed before a shock woke her up, groggy from the hangover. She looked around, noticing more papers were there, but the stack felt doable in a day…
“You have five hours, slave.” She spoke sternly to Blonde, who quickly got to work, the word evidently getting to her and making her feel…demeaned.
While she did manage all the paperwork within the time allotted, a shock said she still wasn’t allowed to get food, which was impacting numerous things beyond hunger.
Eventually, she’d watch, headache throbbing from the alcohol, as that wicked pony came in and picked up the papers, ordering her to stand in front of herself, which Blonde did without hesitating.
“You’ll be given papers upstairs tomorrow. Arrive before noon or there are consequences.” She spoke bluntly. “Also. We realized it was silly to avoid hurting you if you’ll never leave, so expect harsher consequence for failure.”
“Y-yes ma’am…” Blonde mumbled, doing a polite bow. She was incredibly nervous…now that they turned that leaf suddenly, she felt much more in danger and afraid. They would harm her now if she messed up.
“We’ll still provide your same food and drink,” she picked up the bottle Blonde thought she’d hidden, squeaking at the sight as it vanished in front of her, “…but you’ll get plastic bottles from now on. Now, in your chair.”
The unicorn wasted no time in sitting down, her mane a mess. Normally she fixed that instantly, but it was far from her most important issue. Her eyes stared wide at whoever this mare in charge was, looking at the folder slid in front of herself after a moment.
It was a data folder, containing everything about the Elite herself. She looked it over, confused as to why this was presented to her.
It was worrying that these ponies of any had all this intel on her. A lot of details, even her mother’s name…which hurt to read.
“We know everything about you, so don’t think we can’t keep you in check.” The smirk the mare gave was sinister to its recipient, as she sat across from her. “You know they’re already out with search parties? Not like they’d find this place.”
“We also know you only have two lives left.”
That drew more alarm. How had they learned about that? She had never disclosed it publicly, that was for certain, and assumed her cover story had worked well enough. Who the hell was this organization or group she found herself in captivity of?
“Call me Mistress; you don’t get to know the names of important ponies.” She grinned, absolutely knowing she was getting under Blonde’s skin with such a comment, a fact the beige unicorn didn’t pick up on.
“Ugh…yes, mistress. This isn’t BDSM, you know..” the last part was meant to stay in her head, but came out, giving Mistress pause.
“Dim-witted you are. That’s my name.” She rolled her eyes and simply went upstairs. Was she actually the leader of the whole operation, then?
And why was she so cute in appearance?
She shook that thought away. Of all ponies, Mistress was the last one she’d want to fall for. She was doing terrible things, and hell, Blonde was a victim of it now too.
With nothing left to do for the night, she plopped down onto the rather comfortable bed, snuggling deep into the covers and letting the fatigue and exhaustion take ahold of herself. Nobody came, no noise was made, nothing interrupted her sleep.
She woke up earlier than expected, around 10 in the morning. She yawned, forgetting her bearings for a moment and casually walking upstairs, sipping at some wine. She didn’t know where exactly she was meant to pick up…something, but it must be that large building just across the road, right?
Blonde looked around. She was in a town…odd. Why was she here? Where was Dragonfruit, anyways?
She trotted into the building, where Mistress was awaiting her, the white-coated mare pushed a hoof through her long, deep red mane. As if directed at the blonde mare herself…Who found this mare attractive, but didn’t seem to recognize her.
“You got drunk last night, hun.” She walked up, planting a kiss on Blonde’s cheek. “Real wasted. Think you even forgot we’re together…”
Something faintly was eating at her, telling her this was all wrong…but she shrugged it away. She scanned her mind for a bit…all she remembered was meeting this mare last night, or some other night. They must have fallen for each other, and the alcohol just impaired a lot of memories. That was it!
She smiled, kissing her back. “Apologies for that, I’ve still got some hangover as well…” she chuckled.
Dragonfruit walked up, looking worried. “Miss Blonde?”
“Yes?” She smiled and hugged the mare, Mistress coming in and doing the same.
“Um…nothing.” She shrugged and giggled, her smile well-faked.
Mistress then spoke, “might’ve told you my name is Mistress. It’s more of a nickname, call me Mist, Blondie.”
Blonde smirked at her own little nickname, walking outside with the two. The cart was ready for them to go, and Dragonfruit slipped into position. “Ready!” She called out, being as sincere as possible.
She kept the smile as the two mares kissed before stepping into the cart, her hooves moving right away. She heard mention of going back to Canterlot…a long journey, but she had done longer for Blonde. With Mist in the car, though, she felt a lot less safe and was tense. What was going on? Was Blonde involved in the slavery, or was she being manipulated?
She refused to believe the first one. The way that unicorn often spoke about racial equality…she’d never condone it!
Dragonfruit felt she needed to get to the bottom of it, but worried she’d have no opportunity. There was a party being hosted by the Elites tonight, and Blonde was sure to bring Mist along, while the fruitmare got time off as usual. That’s how it went, because she’d been forced to make that part of the ‘employment’ contract Blonde worked up.
For all her good intentions, that mare had no clue how to write a contract, and it let Mist’s employees who were ‘transferring’ Dragonfruit to manipulate some detrimental clauses in. She never blamed Blonde for it, and didn’t blame her now.
It took them until halfway in the afternoon to reach Canterlot, Mist turning to the red fruitmare after they arrived, walking up the steps to Blonde’s mansion. She had a stern look, yet kept it light to keep the illusion up for Blonde…triggering her ideals would ruin the plot.
“Come with us this time.”
Of course, because she’d be watched there. Mist didn’t want Dragonfruit trying anything…the two mares with her clearly shared a strong bond, and one would do things to protect the other.
The party was already filling with ponies, foods and drinks laid out for the taking. The other Elites were all at the high table, chatting while they had some snack foods. This was a big night in many ways for many ponies, especially the trio of mares.
Something else she noticed was Mist leaning in, giving a kiss to her cheek as well. It felt weird and concerned her, but she hid those emotions and began to interact with some other ponies, while the Elite and her apparent marefriend went up to the high table, sat between Blue Blood and Summer. The two mares gave weird gazes at Mist, not exactly recognizing the mare, though she seemed cute…and soft, her face looking gentle. Her mane was a bit frazzled stylistically, ending down at the chest.
“This is Mist, my marefriend.” Blonde introduced her excitedly, her emotions real enough to ease the tension felt.
Blue smiled. “Congratulations to you two, how long?”
Mist smiled. “A year. We didn’t want to make it publicly known till we were certain.” She swished the red wine around in her glass, sipping at it gently.
“You sure she doesn’t just want to become an Elite?” Summer smirked at Blonde, clearly joking.
“Nah, she didn’t even know till i told her! Ummm..” Blonde searched her mind, coming up blank. “Sometime.” To which her lover nodded.
“Indeed. We hooked up when she was passing by a small town I used to work in, and we made a great connection.”
“Romantic!” Blue giggled, “well, welcome to the high table then!”
“Yeah, hi!” Literary Bliss smiled and waved from the far end, the batpony being the only hybrid member of the Elites.
“Condolences.” Mist spoke to Bliss, giving an apologetic look. “My family is small-town, and tends to be close-minded, and they may have spewed some of that vitriol you bats have received.”
“Oh, don’t worry. That was all cleared up a couple of months ago, no? I think you’re better than that, you seem like a good mare.” The bat chuckled, nibbling on some apple salad.
This was all in Dragonfruit’s view, who watched every time she was left alone, as discreetly as possible. She kept a special eye on Mist, wondering what the group was talking about. As she went to walk up, she was waved over by a rather energetic batmare, wanting to talk to her.
Mist pushed her chair out and kneeled over it on her hinds, pulling a box out of her mane. It clicked for the others before it did for Blonde, excited and cute screeams and yells sounding out from the table until it opened.
Blonde gasped with the purest smile on her face, no words exchanged as she accepted the engagement bracelet, putting it on her right leg, the two ponies jumping into a kiss.
Blue rattled her spoon on her glass, getting the room’s attention, which must have had a hundred ponies at that point. “Everyone! We have a new Elite, and a marriage…” she motioned for Mist to stand up and speak.
She was admittedly nervous. If she let anything slip, the operation she ran might be discovered…and this would all be ruined.
“I solemnly swear to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but.” She chuckled, joking dryly. “Toast to my wonderful fiancée!” Mist kissed Blonde again, everyone raising their glasses as they had their rather cute, sensual moment.
Blue walked over with a box, giving it to Mist once the kiss broke. It was a special choker, one matching Blonde’s. It was crimson and blonde instead of white and black.
“Accept this. It symbolizes your entry into the elites, as well as your bond with Blonde.” She placed it on the unicorn’s neck, locking it in and pushing her hooves onto that of both mares.
“You are now bonded for life…” she smiled.
Mist then looked to Dragonfruit, having a discussion with Blonde before looking to Blue. “Call us a threesome. Dragon, get up here.”
The fruitmare was surprised and confused, but came up on stage, blushing as Blonde kissed her, slipping a wedding earring in Dragonfruit’s piercing. She was lost and unsure, but ended up letting go when the three shared a kiss together.
“Viva Les Elites!” Summer yelled out, as she slid a red-and-blue choker onto the fruitmare’s neck.
“Viva Les Elites.” The three newly engaged mares spoke in unison, before sharing another group kiss.
Dragon still did not feel safe with Mist around, but she couldn’t speak up, since most likely that’d spark problems, since most would side with the elite.
And she’d hate to ruin Blonde’s feelings by breaking her heart.
“Equestria, welcome your new Elites!”