Of the poor mares being non-consensually bred this chapter who had the better fate: the mares who received the love poison, changing their minds irrevocably forever? Or the mares getting it 'raw', and going through the pain of the experience... but retaining their souls?

Depends on what we're calling the 'better' fate. Is changing your mind into what basically amounts to new personality that revels in being a willing slave worse than being an actual slave for, from what we know so far, for your whole life?
For me, poison is worse. Mares who kept their mind, crackened as it may be, still have some hope to get to better owner. I really doubt that all thestrals are so needlessly cruel and contempting to unicorns or pegasi, so there is some chance of 'just' being a servant and having yourself resemblance of a normal life. Not to mention, things are changing, and who can bet that in 10-30-50 years that blatant racism, war-thophy keeping and wanton cruelty won't be outlawed?
Sure, right now there's war, conquest, victory-drunk soldiers looting and pillaging. But if NMM is smart, and I do think she is, she'll let her army have their week of fun and then clamp on it HARD. Because from what we seen - discipline drops really fast if HER orders are delayed because some colonel who wasted his supply wants to blackmail fellow ranked coleague for her own.

What did you think of the lieutenant's reaction to the colonel 'collecting' his own harem?

It is interesting that she is somehow tamer and more professional than other officer we got to see. It is to be expected that officers of the invading army have ambitions and lust abundant, but she clearly has the will to keep hers in check to actually do her work. Her resources were not used frivolously yet, she actually oversees her soldiers. Yes, she takes her fun from watching Sparkle distress and from seeing rape of conquered ponies, but this is pretty tame in comparison, and she doesn't even cause much physical harm.

Interesting that Twi got so into this, but I blame young curiosity, hormones and adrenalin. It'll be pretty disappointing to see her break so quickly. She has the potential to be second best after the ruling alicorn, and this potential didn't change just because ruling alicorn is Nightmare Moon instead of Celestia.

I command you to SMILE!

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Great again gapaot!

Twilight was taken for a moment by the look of the colonel. In her mind, he looks just like a hero from right out of one of her books.

Unfortunately she quickly is confined with the reality that looks mean nothing.

I imagine her shame at that momentary attraction, now that she knows he is a monster, is even worse.

>Of the poor mares being non-consensually bred this chapter who had the better fate: the mares who received the love poison, changing their minds irrevocably forever? Or the mares getting it 'raw', and going through the pain of the experience... but retaining their souls?

Depends whether you care more about free will, or suffering. I would point out though that we are the sum of our experiences, and every moment changes us forever. Traumatic experiences are just a particularly extreme case. My aunt was raped and she's never been the same; at some level how is that different? It's still a permanent, forced change in her psyche. People like to feel like they're rock-solid - a constant in a shifting world, but we just aren't. I might go as far to pose that if we are the sum of our experiences, then do free will and souls even exist?

>What did you think of the lieutenant's reaction to the colonel 'collecting' his own harem?
Ah yes, the old "throw in racism to make the baddies worse" trope. Thus far I find the villains to be rather two-dimensional and predictable. We as a species like to oversimplify and demonize the Other, but that's the same thought structure as racism if you think about it: in truth, most of the evils we experience in the modern world are from people who think they're doing the right thing; like how the US Military aims to do what's best for the country strategically, but then goes and crushes other countries to get their oil against the will of the people to achieve that aim. Like the politician who wants to be a leader of their community only to end up taking money from PACs and signing legislation into law that only benefits Monsanto. Like the businessman who has internalized what passes for economics these days and believes he is doing his best for the rest of the world by making smartphones, even though it pollutes the environment.

Feynman once said "All models are wrong, but some are useful." This certainly applies to how we conceptualize the world, developing schemas out of platonic ideals. But to have a schema we have to group things into sets and make generalizations about those sets. This greatly simplifies the complexity of interfacing with the world around us, but when we improperly attach strong emotions to schemas, then we get problems like racism, sexism, and all kinds of bigotry. It is a fundamental flaw in our psychology, and can be addressed somewhat by always questioning your schemas, like a gardener trims a bonsai tree. Introspection and meta-commentary are valuable skills.

In modern society we have this weird tendency where we admonish such people and like to pretend they don't exist anymore, but they have to keep living their lives too, no matter how terrible we think they are... Unless you're a proponent of the death penalty, in which case I recommend nitrogen. Last Week Tonight glossed over that one because they knew they didn't have a good counterargument. Cheap, effective, painless, and imperceptible if done during deep sleep.

Also I replied to the questions on the first chapter; hadn't seen that this one was posted yet

Edit: gonna have to agree with gapaot; Twilight Sparkle feeling that way is a tad unrealistic under the circumstances. Any other emotions would pale in comparison to the fear. But whatever it's fiction; maybe she got a slight shared effect from the love poison. And speaking of the love poison; IRL there are things; drugs, depression, disease - that can utterly destroy a person, but some people manage to break through. To imply there's a zero percent survival rate on anything besides life as a whole is mere fantasy. I suppose for some, it's fun to pretend though.

fuck i'm in love with the colonel

supernaturally handsome cocky huge dicked stallion, ready to torment and enslave whoever catches his interest is exactly my type, mary sues be damned. thank you so much for blessing the world with him

Mmm. The mind control of Moonie, the absolutely rough way she's handled, the wonderfully on the nose way the eyes transform, the blissful needy moans, it's good good stuff. I love the casual way he bats away his sluts, and the rough bantering interplay between him and the lieutenant.

And oh man, casual mention of using your own bastard children as future slaves? Thestral society is perfect. I kinda doubt we'll get to see him again in the course of this story, unfortunately, but I'm sure that whatever else Twilight comes across will be nearly as breathtaking.

Anyway! I gotta get out of this fog of lust, at least a little bit, if I wanna properly earn more of those points and facilitate the grand revival of Dusk Wing! So what do we have today - moralizing on the ethics and scope of mind control?

Trying to come at this with a sincere mind, and not let my fetishes bias things: I still think the love-poisoned have it best. I'm not going to assert that anyone should be honored to be placed into such a position, that each and every pony should strive to be worthy of the bliss of being able to love their master with their whole heart, to have no concerns or cares in life – even if that's the take that gets me super wet – but at worst, it's a quick death. The narrative says it directly: Moonie's soul was obliterated, and now there's a pony that's actually enjoying the situation she's trapped in. That's pragmatically a net positive, regardless of how horrifying it is.

There's a whole lot of contextual buts to that, though, of course. One of the major things is that, well, this is a full on change in status quo. This isn't a one time traumatic incident, this is a lifetime of suffering and misery, with no expectation of freedom again. Even in the unlikely scenario the Thestral army is overturned and the ponies enslaved by them are freed, the amount of lasting psychological damage would be almost as immense and require as intense therapy as a full-on magically compelled brainwashing anyway, I would think. Possibly more - the external magical nature leaves open the possibility of dispelling it, somehow.

Speaking of magic, though, there's one or two things that could really swing the atrocity back in the other direction. The existence of souls and a (positive) afterlife, that for some cruel reason being mind controlled would trap you from making it into, could certainly make it worse than just a clean death, and probably even some extended suffering. Eternity is a hard concept to think about. There's also the possibility that love poison only affects your actions and not your thoughts or perceptions, which would mean the victims aren't allieved of any of their suffering, but that requires a lot of leaps that nearly contradict the text.

The Lieutenant's reaction, hmm. I mean, I like her, a lot. I like everyone a lot! I miss that rookie from last chapter already. :( I'm not totally sure what to say - it's definitely nice to see that there's differing ideology among the thestrals. I think what stands out most and what I do appreciate is – for how often borderline-sexist and exclusively-femsub a lot of your porn gets – you include enough genuinely confident and strong ladies, too.

I'm trying to like this story so far but it's reminding me waaay to much of Fall of Equestia and the Caribou, ugh too much rape in my opinion. I was hoping for I dunno more death, fighting, destruction, and general chaos. this just seems to be focusing more on the rape that comes with conquering/pillaging a city so far. Not my cup of tea but ill stick around to see the interaction with Nightmare Moon.
To actually answer your question at the end though....the mares forced to take the love poison probably have it better off. They don't have to think about their dead family/loved ones just when they get fucked senseless next. The lieutenant seems very indifferent towards the harem/sex slaves and for someone that has direct orders from Nightmare Moon it seems odd to me that she doesn't tell the Colonel to piss off especially since NM is waiting and it's kinda implied that one shouldn't keep her waiting and the direct orders is basically a get out of jail card...for now. If she actually did tell the Colonel to piss off and they met up again later he'd probably rape her/kill her(she seems thirsty for the horse cock tho so maybe not rape?). I'm sort of confused by the lieutenant, she again, has direct orders, but is lollygagging quiet a bit. It's implied that NM will kill those that displease her (on a whim I'm guessing) so why isn't she making a B-line to Nightmare Moon? I get you're setting the scene and showing the reader what's happening in the city but it still seems odd to me
I like the backstory/premise it also reminded me of Equestria at War mod for HoI IV where you can have either Daybreaker or Nightmare Moon take over Equestria after a bit of civil war fighting.
I'm conflicted lol I went from being interested to slightly annoyed to kinda liking this story in the span of like 30 mins that it's taken me to write my response

Of the poor mares being non-consensually bred this chapter who had the better fate?

Living creatures are obsessed with avoiding suffering; sometimes giving up control to achieve this. Anti-depressants alter the way your brain operates to avoid suffering. Alcohol and psychedelics can fundamentally change how you perceive reality. The most dangerous class of "legal" drugs are pain relievers, because the feeling is so addicting. Given that the mares presumably suffer identical terrible fates, why would they want to be in pain? It's like if you had terminal cancer, you would never choose to suffer instead of partying hard on Oxy.

So I think even the ponies themselves if given the choice would take the love poison. At least, from my hypothetical perspective of being a mare about to be raped forever, yes, gimme that Soma.

What did you think of the lieutenant's reaction to the colonel 'collecting' his own harem?

It's weird. She seems mostly concerned about the dirty inbreeding. She carries around mind control drugs herself, so she doesn't seem to mind the 'rape culture' at all. The other angle is that it is supposedly a communal pool of pussy, but the ones in charge end up breaking the rules anyway. Maybe she doesn't like rule breakers?

The love poison itself doesn't make a whole lot of sense as being a part of a soldier's kit. It's not like it's a truth serum, where you could gather intelligence with it, right? At least, you'd expect there to be something more directly useful for obtaining intelligence. Furthermore, in this scenario, why would anyone care that she used her supply of this drug? It's obviously allowed to be used. So the purpose of her 'bluff' is specifically to cause the soon to be defiled ponies to have to suffer through it instead of being an ahegao slave.

When you say I author noted that this is the more tamed chapters then shits really about to go down.

For your first question, I would go with the ones not effected by the potions to have it worse off. The old saying ignorance is bliss could not be more evident here, all those effected by said potion now have no longer have to/physically can’t worry about anything else except the wanting to bone. The hardest part about living through a horrific experience like this is having actually live with it afterwards, of which those effect can just ignore while those who aren’t will have to spend every living moment in this nightmare. However this would depend if the effects of these potions is permanent, as the Colonel intents for these mares to not only be used for breeding but also as a workforce I’d imagine he’d want to actually have them working, whether that be by lessening it effects or just out right removing it I don’t know.
Now I’ve read a couple of the other comments saying that these slaves might find “nicer” owners and that sense Nightmare is smart she’ll come down hard on her troops. But what you gotta remember is slavery was around for thousands of years before we have our modern standards of believing it to be wrong, and will probably be this way as long as she in power. And since her rule will be determined by the power the bats have there other tribes, I believe she’ll happily let them continue. After a couple hundred years of this constant Slavs my, mind control and indoctrination will keep the three tribes in check.
This would mean that those not effected by the potions will not only have to endure these torment daily, but they will also have to watch as the world they knew to slowly be turned into something unrecognisable. And yes they’ll they might get a better owner, they’ll still have to live knowing they were once free but now have to live as a slave with no hope of ever changing.

As for the second questions, I find it funny that whole she’s annoyed at the colonel for delaying her, she shows no disgust towards his actions or how he treats his harem. From how she acted last chapter it gives the impression that this is to be expected from the batponies, this is there reward after all the hardship they went through. The slaves right to punish his or her slaver comes to mind.
What is interesting though is that while she cares not about how they are treated, but that they will carry them Colonal children and ruin the bloodline, showing us them at their are some purists out there which could possibly come into play later down the timeline.

Of the poor mares being non-consensually bred this chapter who had the better fate: the mares who received the love poison, changing their minds irrevocably forever? Or the mares getting it 'raw', and going through the pain of the experience... but retaining their souls?

Wasn't expecting that question. On one hand, the ponies who get the poison don't have to endure anything. It all stops being negative in their minds. But the mares who still have their minds have a chance, small as it is, of escape. And that's where it gets tricky for me to decide. Of all the horrid fetishes I have, free will is definitely a big one. The chance of escape or recovery is so slim and frankly pointless in this situation that I'd hardly consider it. And that leaves having an intact mind with very few uses in this situation. These mares can still be themselves, and not sex puppets, but at what cost? Getting out of there alive doesn't seem likely in the slightest, so really the only active choice they can make is suicide. In comparison, losing oneself to escape the horrors guaranteed to be inflicted seems like the better option. That being said, I'm hardly thinking long-term here. That changes the scope entirely, and in that case, I'd definitely say keeping your mind is the better option. There are chances at something better down the line. Day one of an occupation such as this is bound to be horrible, but things can't stay in this state for very long. Enduring pain in the present to continue living in the future is the obvious choice.

What did you think of the lieutenant's reaction to the colonel 'collecting' his own harem?

I like the lieutenant. She certainly ain't good, but she's interesting. The other batponies we've seen so far have had no issue with using mares of another tribe for breeding, yet she seems to think it's a waste of good genetics? She seems a bit tamer, I'll say, then the rest. It makes sense that she'd have a better head on her shoulders then the rank and file infantry, but so far she even tamer than the other officer we've seen. I'll be honest, I don't know what to make of her save for that I like her.

Never was one too do much with comments, but I had time too kill so… may as well. Seems fun. 

1: “Of the poor mares being non-consensually bred this chapter who had the better fate: the mares who received the love poison, changing their minds irrevocably forever? Or the mares getting it 'raw', and going through the pain of the experience... but retaining their souls?”

I strongly believe the latter is better. It's better to face pain and suffering as oneself than as something else. Something you are not. One can call it the ‘better’ fate to be free from the pain and misery but we know nothing of what it comes with. How aware of their fate do they stay? Is the change in full or do they just ride in the back, trapped forever? We don’t know. But neither matter. For the mares untouched by that magic life is still in their hooves. No matter how hard, no matter how brutal they are still free to decide their fate. To put a hoof down and wellcome death or, plan a getaway. The changed mares can never do this. I feel like this is something of a rambling mess, never was good at explaining things. Maybe I can get better if I keep playing along. 

2: “What did you think of the lieutenant's reaction to the colonel 'collecting' his own harem?”

It's not a view all too shocking. If they as a race have lived uttalry removed from others and believe them lesser, monsters in a way, a harem of ponies is rather like dropping pants for a pig. She views it as wasteful given how powerful he is, but wants nothing to do with it as well. She does not wish to be fucked by him, nore does she think he needs to be rutting a pony. So I think it comes down to this. A waste of time. A foal takes a tone of time. To be born. To be raised. So on and so on. Make it a mix breed and you have a bigger mess to deal with. So he’s ‘wasting’ his seed, something one can mark as useful given his size and power, on useless foals that are neither bat nore pony. An unnecessary waste of time. 

Neither answers are all too spectacular. But it was fun messing with em. As a fan of rather dark and fucked fics, this one seems to be on a good track! Be fun to see if there is more to it than raw shock and awe as that alone can bleed out pretty fast.

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Guys, these are all awesome comments and you're all exploring the themes that I wanted to share! I'm really lucky to have readers like you!

while his fried drove a cock up

friend

her front legs suspended legs out into the fountain.

remove

just who’s orders those are

whose

turn to who’s brother,

whose

Something that mares new to contain in polite company

knew

two spear-guards, “giver this little minx

give

I think it's better when things are more personal, like the last chapter between the rookie and the build up of him taking Twilights virginity. But having 3somes and 4somes around cockhungry mares who are supposed to be conquered spoils of war? It doesn't feel the same.

One thing. I will say that this fic is written extremely well, but foals getting raped gets old quickly, if you're not new to this fandom.

So a few things.

One, which is more of a me thing than anything, my currently very angery and fried brain couldn't decipher whether this was anthro or not, despite it not having an anthro tag. I think that's why my pure and innocent brain hath decided to read on despite reading the warning a week ago and forgetting it once I finally got back to this story. I also think I need shots.

Anyway, using all the knowledge I've gathered so far, how the fuck did bats manage to absolutely fucking demolish the Royal guard despite them being obviously superior? It just doesn't make sense!

And, lastly, I think that colonel is a part of the big dik™ gang. Praise be!

Wow there's going to be lots of people on twilight's kill list.

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I think we're just going to have to expend our belief a little bit. But if you're going to have a more realistic argument the ponies and bat ponies the same other than the bat ponies probably having good night vision in Superior hearing and attacking at night. Versus the other sides obvious advantage. This would be a long-standing battle because it's knowing how this would end in one night even with a sneak attack. But it probably will be explained in later chapters.