Earlier that morning.
Blinking slowly, Gallop felt himself wake up from a deep, dreamless sleep. Twice last night he felt his magical warning ties being triggered, but he couldn’t understand how that was possible as no one knew his memory chest existed. He had also felt that weird mental tugging feeling he usually got when he slept away from home, but it was distant this time.
But he was at home.
Wasn’t he?
Looking around, he saw himself in small, even smaller than his own room back in the palace, room with limestone walls. Looking at the window across the bed he was on, he whimpered as the early morning sun hit him the face, causing his head to spin. What was going on?
“Ah, you’re awake, my slave.” A soothing voice sung behind him, causing the alicorn to jump to the side. Unfortunately, his leg were wrapped around the blanket and his right was splintered out so he landed on his side, nearly rolling onto his back. The voice gave a short giggle, almost like a babbling creek. “I see that you are not a pony that is smooth on their hooves.”
Blinking, Gallop looked up at the mare, with the events of yesterday coming roaring back, making his headache even worse. Still, he found himself responding before he could think clearly. “Well, to be honest it was the fact I woke up to mare that scar-er startled me.” He blushed, trying to get himself into a more proper and dignified position from the mare that was clearly examining his body again! “Usually one of my aunts or mother would be here to lecture me or threaten to kill you, your grace.”
SLAP
Biting down his cheek, Gallop heard her tsked at him, destroying any inclination that yesterday’s event were mistaken in some form. “You are my slave, and as such, there are some simple rules that you must know and obey otherwise I will be forced to punish you.” She said, levitating onto his hooves, pacing around him like one of his old private tutors that had got frustrated with his lack of enthusiasm. Something he learned from them was that all they really thought could read by their faces. “Number one, you are address me as your Queen. Nothing else until you do that.” She paused, looking at him for brief moment, telling him all he needed to know that it would be a sign of acknowledgement that it was his fate to stay here if he called her that, which meant it would be a contest to see how long he could withstand the punishments until he was free. “Number two, you are not to lie to me. Ever.” She glared now, stressing the point that she didn’t want to be made a fool of. “Number three, you are never allowed to assume you know my mind or say statements that elevate yourself above me.” This time, the look was barely there as if she needed to reminded herself that he didn’t know this. “Number four, you will respond to the name I give you, and nothing else save for when I or my Head Overseer calls you slave.” This was like the first one, daring him to fight back at the two of them. “There are other mundane rules that I hardly think you will need to be told.” She gave a short laugh. It would have made his legs turn to jelly if he wasn’t trying to think his way through and appalled by her attitude and mindset. “Like no escaping is fairly obvious.” She laughed again, walking towards him.
“I hardly think that needs to be said, your grace.”
SLAP
“Oh, and why is that, my slave?”
Biting back the tears of pain, he forced himself to continue. “Simply the fact that even though I know nothing of this area, I do know it is extremely deadly to me. I would need to get large quantities of water to attempt to traverse it, which I assuming that as we are in a desert location, would be strictly under lock and key. To how I, a pony known for his water related talents and needs, would ever be allowed near the location of such storage is laughable as I am sure that you would not allow those guards to let me to pass even if I was to say I was acting under you commands. As such, any escape plan I have is immediately halted and thus my energies could be spent elsewhere.” He paused, grinning up at her. She might have planned some of this conversation out, but she hadn’t expected him to cut this deep into her plans, judging by her momentarily shock expression. Still not one to know when to stop when he was ahead, a fact that cost him a lot of bits at Las Pegasus in the past, he finished it when he said, “My grace.”
SLAP
“The Head Overseer and I were discussing the fact you were a clever pony.” She leaned over, breathing into his ear softly, causing his tail to dart erratically. “I am glad that we are proven correct.” She smiled, pulling herself back. “Now come, breakfast awaits and I am not inclined to wait.” She walked forwards to the door, tossing her head back to him. “If you do not com-” She blinked, stepping towards him, pushing her head close to him.
“Wh-what?” Gallop ears darted backwards, rethinking his decision to do this. He would have backed up if his legs were steadier and his heart wasn’t racing.
“How did you get your coat dirty already?” She was actually surprised. The floor wasn’t dusty or dirty enough for his coat to have that smudge, nor was it in the right spot from where he landed before.
“Um…” He fell backwards, falling onto his rump with a soft thud. Looking down, he saw his chest was wrapped up in bandage, his legs had been given some sort of rub as it smelt weird. “I dunno?” He winced, even for him that was a poor sounding lie.
SLAP SLAP
Cringing from the double magical strap, he felt her grab his chin with her hoof. “I said not to lie to me, my slave.” She glared at him in the eyes, very cross. “Also, that was an insultingly poor lie, and I feel I deserve better.” She tsked as she used a very rough brush from the side of the small bed to get of the dirt, causing Gallop to feel very young and small as she pulled the brush through his coat. “A new rule, one that I never thought I would need to say, but you are not allowed to dirty yourself like this ever again.” She humfped, placing the brush back and started to walk back to the door. “Now follow.”
Gallop muttered something as he followed her, causing her to halt in place. Inwards he facehoofed, Gallop realized that he really needed to learn to control his mouth better.
“What was that slave?” She glared at him, clearly annoyed now. Maybe he wasn’t so clever after all.
“I said, better mares than you have tried to break me of this habit, like my aunt Rarity.” He gave a short laugh before her horn glowed again.
SLAP
“Doubtful, as I intend to have my slave presentable at all times.” She huffed, as they walked out into a hallway, instantly flanked by guards. “Thus I will succeed where the Element of Generosity failed.” Said it with a bit of spring to her step, nearly causing Gallop to scowl at her. Nearly, as he was learning to control himself. “Now come, I do have some paper work to attend to, and while I do like to deal with it in the morning, I prefer to eat before I start.” Trying not to show his growing headache, he followed her into a simple dinning room with thankfully no sunlight. He saw that simple meal for two had been set up, which caused his stomach to grumble loudly.
Taking a set towards the table, he heard her tsk before he felt it.
SLAP
“As my slave, you will wait until I sit first and eat first.” She said in her alluring voice again, sitting in front of the table and levitating a fork, looking at him to see what he would do next.
“You are correct in the notion that I should have waited for you to eat first as it is only proper for me to do so,” He paused, knowing that this was stupid and would only piss her off. Still, he had to do it. Prove to her that he was in control. Somewhat. “As a gentlecolt, your grace.”
SLAP
She huffed, clearly annoyed at his choice of words. “I suggest you eat quick my slave, as once I am done we will leave here to my office.” She began to eat quickly, causing Gallop to let out a bit of yelp as he walked as fast as he could to the other plate as his body would let him, only her to grab it in her aura when he reached it. He glanced up at her. She wouldn’t punish him by taking away his food, would she? She dropped the plate onto the floor in front of him, still in one piece but with most of the meal on the floor. “The servant slave made a mistake of placing it on the table.” She spoke as she bit into her meal quickly. “I must remind myself to properly punish them later.” She looked down at him, waiting to see how he would react; either bratty noble refusing to eat food off the floor or a starving stallion gobbling down whatever he could. She didn’t throw down any cutlery, just to see how he would respond to this further indignity.
To her pleasant surprise, he simply lifted the plate up with a hoof and started to eat it with no complaints. He blinked, stealing a look at her. “If you must know, this is not the first time I ate rustically like this. Almost like a picnic with aunt Applejack.” He gave a short laugh, as he bit more into the meal. “This is a fairly decent meal, although aunt Pinkie Pie-”
“Do you think I am a fool that I would not notice what you are doing?” She raised an eyebrow at him, taking a long sip of water. She made sure he was looking at her when she did it. “Or that it would work?” He paused, swallowing his food and placed his plate beside his legs and left wing, as if to protect it from her.
“To be honest, my grace,” SLAP “N-no.” He bit his lip, his front right hoof scrapping against the floor. “I doubted that mentioning who my aunts are would phase you, considering you must know who my mother and other aunt are.” She leaned back into her seat, taking a slow bite.
“And who are they but the latest line in false deities claiming to be the true Princesses of Equestria?” She smiled as his eyes bulged and his face fell in confusion.
“Whu?” Gallop blinked, completely caught off guard. “Bu-but my mother and aunt are really the Princesses!”
SLAP
He nearly fell to the ground from that blow, his head and body screaming in pain.
“That is hearsay and blasphemous talk!” She glared at him for a moment before softening her eyes. “As a pony that was under their influence for so long, and being the first colt publically born, I suppose they did not tell you those secrets and truths.”
“If-if they are not the alicorns of old,” He muttered through the pain. “Then explain me. This collar and ring would disrupt any magical illusion spells I, or any other pony, had on myself.” He glared at her, stating a fact that neither could deny. “An alicorn can only exist by two ways,” He pushed himself into a more upright stance. “One by ascending by performing a task beyond impossible, like raising the moon or sun, or two, being born by the blood of an alicorn parent.”
She frowned, disliking how this was progressing. On one hoof, he was making good points, and if they were true, then everything her family had worked for would become pointless, especially if she couldn’t find it. Even if they weren’t the princesses, he did have some alicorn blood in him as the ring and collar proved this body was truly his own and not some illusion, making his claim of true royal blood honest in some regards, as neither of the two true other alicorns could be his mother. On the other hoof, if her plan with him worked, then he would be hers and she would have the true royal line in her hoof. Maybe even the next one in line would be her own child…
Smiling broadly inside at that prospect, she forced herself to bit her tongue and to remain focused to the plan.
“Perhaps slave.” She spoke, “The truth of the matter is that little is know about alicorns as only recently two true alicorns have been reported to ascend. Princess Candence of the Crystal Empire and the Element of Magic Twilight.” She took another long sip. Her slave was of course denied any, only to be given when he was asleep or unconscious. “Your situation is…unique, truly different in many ways to them.” She spoke, filing it away for later to properly think it through. “In any case, I am finished my meal.” She rose, grabbing the dish away from him before he could grab another bite. A subtle, discreet punishment, but effective none the less. He frowned, but didn’t say a word to her. She clearly struck a nerve about being called unique or different, one that went deeper to then the truth about his mother and aunt.
Interesting.
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A brief scratch of hooves against the floor with a soft sigh. There, finally.
She looked to the side at pony next to her, ignoring the paper requesting more aid for some trivial matter. He had lasted for decent while, sitting next to her on the floor of her study. She had the carpet removed for this sole reason, to hear when he started to doze off. He had been an interesting…whatever she was to call him. He had thrown a few comments around her, one she liked the most was that the evils of paperwork knows no bounds which surprisingly got a real chuckle from her. All of them were polite and respectful enough so she didn’t need to punish him, and she found herself actually enjoying how his mind worked.
She bit back a sigh, aware of the warnings that Swift Thought told her, that she could, and most likely would, fall in love with him and this was early affection towards the stallion that was nearly asleep. Swift Thought was right to warn her not to deny it, or she would be fighting against herself right now and be distracted.
She rose to her hooves, walked over to him and sang softly into his ear.
“Awake my slave.” He leapt backwards, startled badly. She giggled at this, well worth waiting until noon for this. Very skittish at hearing a female voice when he woke up. “There is one task that you must do, and then you may rest for a few hours.” It was standard practice, giving every slave time to rest from and contemplate their branding. She wouldn’t dare force him to do anything after this, knowing that this would be a key moment in getting him to love her if she was there to comfort and sooth him.
“Wh-what,” He glared at her, his arrogance flaring up. While it was a side she occasionally saw in him, this time it was mixed with a hint of anger, which meant he was going to say something disrespectful. “What is it, my grace?”
SLAP
She didn’t bother to sigh, knowing that she could not miss even once when correcting him or she would lose this important battle between them.
“This is an important event for all slaves.” She spoke, leaving the room with the alicorn following numbly behind her. Instantly her guards surrounded her and her slave, forcing the stallion to get closer to her flanks. She grinned inwards, seeing his blush again. So very skittish. “As you are my slave, I must ensure that all will know that.” She flicked her eyes towards him, seeing him stumble a bit, causing the guard behind to crash into him with an angry growl. She smiled as one her own slaves walked past them, on cue, flashing her flanks towards the now panicking stallion, who was quickly putting it all together. He saw that over her teacup cutie mark was a brand of her own cutie mark, an iron crown. “Sadly, I cannot trust you not to do something foolish right now.” She turned around, tracing a hoof across his face, flashing a false sympathetic face. She knew that it wouldn’t be that bad, only his mind making it worse. “Guards,” She spoke, glancing at them who simply nodded their heads and placed their hooves heavily on his shoulder. Her slave was already trying to wiggle out, with some successes until one started to tug on his right wing. Instantly, he whimpered in pain and stopped fighting back. “It will be over in minutes, my slave. There is nothing to worry.”
With that, she entered the branding room of her palace. Standing next to Swift Thought, she smiled to herself inwards. There was nothing to worry about.
Right?
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