Wicked Bliss

The bruising was bad, down one side of the face, on the back, chest, and stomach, and on the legs where she’d been hit. She’d struggled to eat initially after the beating, coughing wheezily as chunks of cold potato were spoon-fed to her by her smirking captor. He’d manhandled her back into place and tied her up again before bringing a mop and a second bucket, filled with soapy water. He’d cleaned the mess from the floor and had scrubbed clean the stain from the desk top while Rainbow Dash had tensed as he’d come close in the process to her nethers. She made her muffled protests when he reached them for real. He shushed her with a tut like a mother’s and scrubbed her down with a washcloth, cleaning her dirty thighs and wiping the dried snot and blood from her fur. The tear stains he left alone; they were darker than before, and it was clear from his satisfied smirks when he looked at her that he liked them. The blindfold and the ball gag were back, and so was the first mop bucket, now clean, replaced at the base of the desk top with new tape. He’d come in again to give her water from a double-sized mug. Rainbow Dash didn’t speak once he’d removed the ball gag, which prompted another curling of the mouth from the Master (as he had announced himself while washing her).

‘How are you feeling?’ he asked. She said nothing, simply dragged in those rough breaths she’d been making since. The Master seemed amused by her silence. He slapped her lightly on the cheek as a big brother might hit a sibling. ‘Nothing to say?’ he prompted. ‘Ah, who am I kidding. You’ve never had it that bad, have you? You’re sore—here as well as here.’ He patted the fur above her heart then stroked the bruising on her face. He brought the cup of water to her lips. She tilted forward, and he tipped it carefully to help her. She drained the cup in a few gulps. ‘More?’ he asked. She said nothing. He tutted and refilled the mug from a plastic two-gallon bottle he had with him. She drank deeply as before and even drained a third mug before shaking her head. She swallowed and muttered,

‘Are you going to let me go to use the toilet?’

‘You’re on an angle. It’ll fall into the bucket, numbers one and two.’

A look of anger, disgust, and humiliation flared up on Rainbow Dash’s face. The Master rattled the ball gag, flicking it so that it swayed on the bed post. ‘Ready for this again,’ he asked, ‘or do you have anything to say?’

Rainbow Dash said nothing at first, but when he sighed and reached for the gag, she grunted, ‘Wait.’

‘Yes?’

‘Two days, you said, and you’ll let me out, right?’

‘Yes. If you still want to go, you go.’

Rainbow Dash’s face was a picture of anger and doubt. ‘And I’m supposed to believe that you’d just let me go?’ she snarled. ‘Just because you say you will?’

‘But I will let you go. I promise. Here. Look.’

He took off the blindfold so that she could see his face. She blinked in the yellow light. He hung the blindfold on the free post and looked at Rainbow Dash. He had a podgy face, the kind you see on naturally skinny ponies who’ve been eating too much. His eyes were almond-shaped and pleasantly aligned but glinted with a blemishing mix of amusement and anger. His mouth was ugly and wide with a weak chin. He looked at best unintimidating and at worst unpleasant. Rainbow Dash by contrast, with her sharp features and even now fervent gaze, looked the more impressive of the two. They stared at each other, one pony smirking, the other defiant. ‘I don’t believe you,’ said Rainbow Dash.

‘You don’t have to believe me. I’ll prove it to you. You’ll choose to stay here with me.’

‘And why would I do that?’ sneered Rainbow Dash.

The Master kept on smiling, as though enjoying a private joke. ‘What’s your name?’ he asked.

‘Rainbow Dash.’

‘I thought so.’

‘Huh. You know who I am, but I don’t have a clue who you are.’

‘There’s plenty of time for that.’

‘What are we doing during these two days then? I presumed you had a better reason for beating me up than just wanting to talk to me!’

He touched her cheek, the bruised side. She shivered. ‘You’re very brave,’ he said. ‘I’ll be honest: it arouses me. Oh, not like that,’ he added in response to her new look of dawning horror. ‘And besides if I wanted that, I’d have taken it by now. I’ve already touched it, remember?’ Embarrassment entered Rainbow Dash’s scowl. She was still glaring at him but rather more nervously. It was clear the beating had had its effect, and although she was still defiant, she wasn’t spitting at or insulting him.

He leapt at her suddenly as though propelled by an electric shock. She flinched and twisted her head, but his snout was next to hers. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, smelling her, exhaling in her face. She clenched her jaw, watching him warily through strained eyes. He pushed her head away and pulled back, reaching for the gag but leaving the blindfold where it was. ‘You don’t have to put that thing back in!’ protested Rainbow Dash. ‘And anyway I thought you wanted to talk!’

‘I wanted to, and we did,’ said the Master, shrugging. ‘And now talking time is over.’

He stuffed the gag back into her mouth with the same sudden ferocity he’d shown a moment previously. She gave a muffled cry of protest as the gag forced open her jaw. He secured it and without any hesitation walked over to the tea trolley, back in the left corner of the room by the door and still carrying its bits and pieces. This time Rainbow Dash could see everything. Her gaze was fast transforming from scorn to fear. She watched, eyes wide, as he picked up the cattle prod. He came at her slowly, twirling it in his hooves, leering at her, watching her closely, his own eyes glinting with furious excitement. Rainbow Dash was trying to speak, to shout even, but you couldn’t understand a word of it; it was just panicked noise. She was hyperventilating as he raised it to her face. He wanted her to see it happen. He was enjoying every second of her desperate, futile attempt to back away out of range of the tip, already crackling with electricity.

‘And now,’ he said grandly.

He ground the tip savagely into her cheek and watched her thrashing and ‘Mhm!’ing as though she were a cockroach he was struggling to kill.