Presence of Mind, Absence of Body

Twilight hangs from the A-frame, leaning forward as far as the cuffs will let her. She’s exhausted, but thankfully the night is over. Every part of her hurts, she’s bleeding in one too many places, and a thick slime is dribbling down the inside of her legs. But it’s over, for now.

She just breathes heavily, sucking in desperate breaths while Sombra uses his camera to take a few final pictures. She doesn’t mind the pictures. It feels necessary now, a reminder of what exactly the night had been. At some point she’ll open up the album and the picture will remind her. She’ll be able to remember the crop he’d used to beat her, the vice he’d placed on her clit that had made her scream, the far too large and painful dildo that he’d used to make her… like this.

Without the pictures, it will all just be a blur of obscene torture. With the pictures, it’s specific and meaningful. They both understand that. And so, she smiles for the camera.

Sombra didn’t ask her to. He never does. The smiles are for her. The smiles remind her that even though she’s completely and utterly beaten, humiliated, debauched, and broken… that she’s still herself. All this will all pass. She only needs to last twenty two moons.

It had felt like such an impossibly long time when this started. But now time was moving much faster. He still tortured her most nights. He fucked her senseless on the others. Her skin was a maddening canvas of dark ink that he’d been decorating to his pleasure, and her body had been pulled and stretched to fulfill his obscene desires; growing in profane ways she’d never before imagined. But each and every time now was just another day. Each tattoo was just another small change. Even her now plump tits and unnaturally large clit were just minor changes in the grand scheme of things.

Twenty two moons. She smiles, watching the camera with an almost giddy feeling. It isn’t just possible; she knows she can do it now. She’s confident.

Sombra pauses his photography, looking over the camera curiously. “You’re… looking oddly cheerful, Princess…”

She laughs, finding his confusion amusing. “I’m just thinking about how much I hate you.”

She doesn’t really. Certainly not like she should, or even like she used to. She simply doesn’t care anymore.

He frowns. “We could continue to play if you’d like.”

Twilight’s smile grows larger. She knows him too well by now. “No, we can’t. I’m completely numb anywhere that matters. You have work to do. Even if you did squeeze one or two out of me, they’d be practically nothing. I need sleep, water, food, and a break. You’re cruel, not stupid. You’ve wrung me dry for the time being. Continuing would be banal, and we both know it.”

Sombra takes another picture, not bringing the camera up to his face. He stares, his eyebrows furrowing. “I see… Then perhaps you have a review for me?”

Twilight forces herself upright slightly. She actually likes this part. She feels like she’s giving an oral report on a study she’s done. In a way, that’s exactly what it is. Her legs scream in pain as she forces them to support her weight instead of her wrists. “The crop you used is exceptionally painful, but not damaging. Ten out of ten, especially the way you teased me with it. I did not enjoy the vice. It was painful, but so much that I went numb quite quickly. I’d give it a four. If you like seeing the way it deformed my clit, perhaps up to a six. I much prefer something that doesn’t make me numb so quickly.”

Sombra nods. “I see. So it’s for my pleasure, not yours.”

She nods back. “Yes. As far as the dildo, well… It was very large. I think I like that? It would have been far too much if you’d started with it. But since you loosened me up with your cock, and greased me with your cum, it worked quite well. In a vacuum, it’s a seven. A decent dildo, but too large. The way you used it tonight? A nine. Easy. Maybe a nine point five. There was something enthralling about being spread so wide my cunt couldn’t flex at all.”

He raises an eyebrow. “And my cock?”

She laughs. “Again? Of course it’s a ten. I think you just like hearing that by now.”

He frowns. “When we started, you’d rate it a two. Sometimes a one.”

She shrugged. “I was trying to be mean to you. I hadn’t figured out that you don’t care about that just yet.”

He sighs. “Does that mean we should re-collect the data from that time period?”

Twilight nods her head. “I’ve been thinking about that. I think we should. Not that I was lying to you back then, but I have a much different perspective now. I’ve seen all the toys at least twice, and have a better idea of what a ten and a one are. Additionally, I feel like you have a better handle on using them on me. So some of the low ranking toys, like your metal chalice, might be more fully enjoyed by both of us. And I don’t want to give them an unfair rating due to my initial inexperience and hostility. Even if hostility was, and still is, warranted.”

He squints at her suspiciously. “I still don’t understand you…”

She rolls her eyes. It’s this conversation again. “I told you, your magic that makes your pets docile simply doesn’t work on me. I’m immune. I’ve been exposed to it too much.”

Sombra continues to frown. “Then why don’t you struggle more? Fight me or try to escape? You’re surprisingly compliant. If mouthy.”

She glares at him, slightly angry. “Because there’s no point. I don’t have my magic here. You do. I’m at your mercy and we both know it. Additionally, as long as you’re abusing me, you aren’t hurting anyp… anybody else. It turns out I can take it. So I do. You get your jolly’s off while my friends get to live their lives unmolested.”

His frown grows deeper. “And you suffer.”

She shrugs, letting the anger dissipate. “Yeah. Honestly I don’t mind the torture. I think I’ve gotten used to that. It’s the boredom and the loneliness. It’s the melancholy of knowing they are living their lives and I don’t get to be a part of it. It’s wondering if they are worried about me. It’s wondering if my…” she hasn’t said much about Equestria, so she chooses her words carefully, “home is doing all right without me. Wondering if they miss me, and unsure if I’d rather they were pining for me or have moved on.”

He sighs. “I don’t understand your attachments. They aren’t here right now. You are.”

She takes a breath, feeling a welling sadness inside of her. “You really don’t understand? Am I strange to you because I’m a pony, or are you strange to me because you’re not human?”

He cocks his head. “I am human, Princess. You’re the anomaly here.”

Twilight looks at him in befuddlement. “Uh? No? You’re not human at all. Even in my home, our Sombra wasn’t a pony. Here you have magic and humans don’t. You live off shadows. You don’t feel like humans do. You don’t love like humans do. You don’t have sex like humans do… I thought you knew.”

He takes a step back, looking alarmed. “How would you know what humans are like?”

She blankly stares, surprised that he doesn’t know. “The books you brought me on human sexuality and love? My human friends that I’ve known now for some time? The school I tried to fit in at? Humans and ponies are more similar to each other than you are to humans.”

He looks at his hands, then back at her. The camera is dangling from a string around his wrist, hanging loosely.

Twilight watches him, curious as he seems to have some sort of attack. His breathing picks up, and he starts scraping his hands against each other like he’s trying to pull off gloves that he doesn’t have. The smoke around him billows for a moment, then evaporates. He stills, forcing his breathing back to normal and he looks at her intently.

“So it seems.” is all he says. His face is dark and unreadable.

Twilight sighs. “Oh, don’t sulk. It’s not all bad. I think you and I are more alike than you and humans, for instance.”

His eyes glint dangerously. “So you think I’m more pony than human, then?”

She’s not intimidated, or even flustered by his dangerous glare. There’s something entirely too intellectually freeing about being forced to orgasm until you’re numb and left hanging naked and wet in front of your malefactor. “Oh, stars no. You’re light-years away from ponies. Ponies thrive on love and friendship. They’re sensitive, silly creatures with big hearts. Your heart is… there, but selfish. You’re as insensitive a creature as I’ve ever met, and you’re far too serious.”

He takes a step closer, putting his face directly in hers. His breath is hot and barely restrained. His eyes almost look wild. Twilight’s never seen him look this kind of angry before. “I know I don’t belong anywhere. I’ve always been an outcast, and I always will. I’m sick of trying to conform to this pathetic world, so I’m going to make it conform to me.”

She feels her heart flutter. Something about his passion makes her numb nerves feel warm and tingly. He’d wrung every last bit of lust and desire out of her, and somehow he was squeezing blood from a stone. Her limbs scream in pain as she leans forward to press her dry lips against his. The touch is electric and makes her shiver.

Her voice is a whisper. “I didn’t say you were like a pony. I said you were like me. Here’s my heart on a plate for you to eat, not that I expect you to understand.”

Sombra leans back, surprised by her sudden kiss and putting enough distance between them that she can’t reach him again.

Twilight stares at him and bares her soul. “I don’t hate what you do to me. I daresay you’ve taught me things about myself that I now relish. I understand and empathize with your need to categorize and measure. Even your need to mark and control me. I know what it’s like to feel like an outcast, to bury yourself in your work, and to treat others like… objects. When you touch me we connect. No one else knows me in the way you do, and I feel like I know you in a way no one else does.”

He takes a step backwards, seemingly off put by her odd confession.

She glares at him almost angrily. “I’ll never be your docile little toy, not entirely. But it turns out that I might like playing with you regardless. I didn’t expect that, and I don’t think you did either. You can be a monster. I can be an anomaly. And maybe we can be… something. What do you say, Sombra? Will you be my friend?”

Fear is a strange thing to see in Sombra’s eyes. Twilight tries to hide her joy. He feels something, and that alone is a victory for her.

Sombra picks up the camera and nervously takes a picture. “I need some time to think.”

She laughs. “We have twenty two moons for you to think. Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere.” She glances meaningfully at the cuffs chaining her to the A-frame.”

He furrows his brow. “What happens then?”

She freezes, the strange mirth suddenly fading. She hasn’t told him her timeline yet. He doesn’t know. The realization makes her feel strangely powerful, and a vindictive smile grows on her face. “Then, ready or not, pass or fail, we’ll have a friendship test.”

He doesn’t answer her cryptic response. Instead he backs off strangely, as though she’s dangerous.

Twilight feels oddly in charge considering she’s the one naked and chained to the sex furniture. The thought reminds her, and her intense focus drops into a quick panic. “Uh, hey, can you move me to the bed tonight? Before you go? I don’t want to hang here all… night?” She isn’t sure if it’s night or day.

Sombra doesn’t respond, only fading into the darkness and leaving her alone in the room.

She hangs her head in frustration. “Shit.”