The relaxing scent of cherries permeating the dark room was coming from several candles on wooden furniture by the wall. Six armchairs with zebra stallions surrounded a small, raised, central stage with a smooth, metal pole reaching all the way to the ceiling. Their eyes were locked on this evening’s spectacle, which was a big, unicorn mare whose coat was so white it practically shone in the only cone of light cast on the stage from above. Around the mare unusually tall and well built for a pony swirled her orange mane and tail, flickering in the light like living fire.
Prominence danced around the pole to the faint tune of the radio hidden in the back of the room, watching the zebra lords and the slaver who brought them all here to see her. Minute after minute, she swirled around, giving them a show of their lifetime, sweat gathering in her coat and dripping on the podium. She felt hot, hotter than usual. Something was off about the whole place as if some kind of lust magic was involved, but she couldn’t identify anything in particular. Of course, the suppressor around her horn wasn’t helping.
After five more minutes, her show was over, rewarded with hearty applause from the zebras, both the slaver and his guests. Her quickened breathing only served to fuel the boiling heat inside her, and focusing her thoughts on the moment when the zebras will inevitably go from semi-innocent watching to the main event. She stepped off of the stage, trying to remain in control of her faculties, and sat down. The pressure of the soft, red carpet on her cushiony plot made her moan a little.
“Heh heh heh,” a muscular zebra lord with an eyepatch smirked at her when he stood up, and ran his hoof through Prominence’s mane. Blinking in surprise, he quickly withdrew his foreleg. She was hot. He assumed it was just from the long, sensual dance, and planted a long, deep kiss on her, leaving her gasping for breath, “Gotta admit, Ziran, that you’ve outdone yourself this time. I want this mare, name your price.”
“Hey!” a different zebra lord shoot up from his chair, this one less muscular but more adorned with gold and jewels.
“Gentlecolts, gentlecolts,” the slaver- Ziran raised his forelegs to calm both zebras down, “I haven’t even decided whether I will be selling this beauty at all. Tonight is just a private show for friends and my best clients. She needs proper training anyway.”
“I’ll double anything the others offer,” said the bejewelled zebra immediately, stood up as well, and approached Prominence with heavy breathing, “Stand up, slave.”
Prominence stood up, trying in vain to banish the incrasingly tempting idea of all the zebras ganging up on her and using her like a cheap whorse. When the rich zebra circled around her and groped the flesh her bountiful booty, her eyes rolled backwards, long, open moan drawing from her mouth.
“Heh,” the zebra chuckled, “She’s already halfway gone, it seems,” returning to face Prominence who was now standing with a string of drool coming out of the corner of her mouth, he forced her to look straight at him. He wasn’t used to mares of his size, but that only heightened his hunger, “Such a big mare, almost as big as one of the alicorns I heard about. You must have been so unsatisfied in Equestria, but don’t worry, we zebras know how to show mares how fulfilling life can be, especially for you unicorns,” he flicked Prominence’s horn with some force, which finally got through her pink haze, “Even your horn is longer than that of any unicorn I’ve ever seen.”
“Imagine what I could show you with my horn unlocked,” she smirked back.
He slapped her, laughing.
“So there is some fire left, good. It would be a shame if I didn’t get to enjoy breaking you myself,” he ran his hoof along Prominence’s caged horn, “As for the horn… we’ll have so much fun with it. I might cut it off completely and have you wear it on a necklace around your neck so that you never forget that you’re an owned piece of meat, but that would be a waste,” he kept rubbing her horn, each touch sending lightning through her whole body and forcing her to shiver, “It would be so much better to just keep your horn locked forever. All that unused magic rots the brain, you know? I have few unicorns under me who went through that, and they love their new life after we focused the loose magic to proper use. Well, I mean, it’s not right to call them unicorns anymore, and I’m not sure they’re able to think such complex thoughts as ‘love’, but they sure enjoy the company of my guards, guard dogs, or anypony using them, really. You’ll enjoy being a mindless pleasure doll too, I can assure you.”
“Stallions...” Prominence whispered, suddenly grinning a literal ear to ear grin full of needle-like teeth, “Always so full of themselves until they find a real mare with needs,” the suppressor on her head began glowing red, “You almost had me with that pleasure doll, so I’ll give you a taste what it would be like,” her eyes turned pitch black in an instant, pupils glowed orange, and she didn’t acknowledge at all the molten metal of her suppressor dripping from her forehead and down like a tear, “Let’s see if you have something to offer me, zebras.”
“GUARDS, GU-!” Ziran couldn’t even finish his scream before evaporating.
***
“Ahhh… this is heaven.”
Gem sighed blissfully, reclining on a soft sofa as a group of zebras massaged her hooves, her shoulders, and her neck. After everything that had happened, she needed this so badly. All that travelling, running around, and then the ship had left her with desire for a proper bath. Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible at the moment, since the brothel room she’d been sent to was one to punish poor mares by gangs of horny stallions. Of course, for a changeling of her caliber, even if she wasn’t fitted with a fake suppressor this wouldn’t be an even remotely threateing situation. She had, of course, immediately identified zebra alchemy at work, scents and potions aimed to make mares needy, weak-willed, and highly suggestive. It didn’t take long to adjust her pheromones to compliment the incense burners neatly hidden in the corners of the room, and twist the alchemical scents to affect stallions instead. Within few minutes of entering the room, the zebras had been servicing her every need as well as feeding her love and lust in heaps.
Now that she was being given time to think, she catalogued everything her unconscious mind had discovered on the way here. From what she’d seen of the outside, she was in a port city with a market, a residential quarter, and a huge complex which contained both the brothel and the arena. Judging by the architecture and its inside structure, there had to be one more wing to this building, possibly residence of the owners, the guards, or some utility wing, she couldn’t say. Slavery was legal here, which meant central Zebrica, but that should have been overrun by the reported marauding army. Maybe the army was progressing north through the center of the continent, leaving east and west coast for later? One thing was clear, though, the army hadn’t left a place standing, and no reports had shown that it worked with locals, so it would eventually reach even here.
So, how to get out of this pickle? The batpony they’d picked up in the old hive was important. She’d heard him mumble in his sleep, something about the end of everything, and the unicorn who had been killed by Flow told them to get the bat into safety. Unfortunately, his wound simply wasn’t healing properly, and it wasn’t just through sheer incompetence of all the zebra field medics they’d met. She would need to take care of it herself in a safe place with resources to make new alchemical supplies. She stretched her legs, upon which her new servants resumed their massaging.
Just twenty more minutes of this, and then she’d go and save Prominence and Harriet. She couldn’t do anything if Magpie or Packy didn’t survive the slaver arena, but in case they did she would have to go down to the slave pens.
“Ahhhhhhh...” she shivered and moaned as a particularly strong stallion dug deep into her neck through her softened chitin, “Mmmm… okay, thirty minutes at most. It’s not as if they can harm Promi or anything, and I could feel that Harriet needed proper dicking from a mile away.”
She closed her eyes.
“FIREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! FIREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” loud screaming from the outside brought her back to reality.
Gem sighed, stood up, and transformed into a zebra stallion not to alert any outside guards whom she didn’t have under control. It looked like her relaxing evening just wasn’t meant to last.
“Alright, follow me,” she ordered the zebras unable and unwilling to resist her under any circumstances, “Let’s see what went wrong this time.”
She carefully peeked out of the room and, seeing no guards there, she entered the complex of hallways of the slaver palace. Smoke was billowing near the ceiling, but it wasn’t overly hot here, which meant the fire couldn’t have spread yet. First, she had to find Prominence who was supposed to be somewhere on the top floor.
“Private suites?” she said simply.
“This way,” one of her guards immediately took charge, the whole group following him through the chaos of other zebras rushing around and screaming for water or someone to tell them what was going on.
The heat escalated rapidly on the top floor, and Gem quickly noticed that in the hallway leading left from the stairs, bricks were melting and air was becoming unbreathable. Of course, under Gem’s control, the zebras would happily sprint into the inferno.
“HEY, PROMI!” Gem enhanced her throat with some of the fresh lust she was brimming with, and returned to her original form.
In response, a tall, pitch-black silhuette seemingly bending the wall of solid orange blocking the hall stepped forward. Around it, bricks and stones exploded from the heat.
“What in all stars is that?” one of Gem’s zebras whispered despite her control.
“This is as close as you’ll ever get to a furious alicorn of the Sun,” Gem patted his head calmly, “Be happy it’s not the full thing, or your eyeballs would be vapor by now,” she leaned forward, completely ignoring the heat, “Oh riiiiight, the heavy aphrodisiac incenses. Guess the zeebs triggered her completely,” she corrected herself when the figure walked closer. It was still the unicorn mare of Prominence’s size, only it was pitch black, with rivulets of magma flowing freely through her charcoal coat, and her mane swirling around her head like a lava lamp. Gone was Prominence’s cutie mark, replaced by a furious, flaming, orange sun mirroring the peaceful, golden version of princess Celestia. The glow of her burning eyes was unmistakably no magical effect, but pure divine power. However, unlike Celestia, corrupted Promi still looked significantly less dainty, and a lot more fit and toned.
She looked at Gem, then at the zebras surrounding her. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Considering the fusion heat near her skin was burning all gas including oxygen which would transmit sound, that was understandable.
“They’re with me,” replied Gem, lip reader extraordinaire, “Let’s go find Harriet and the others. Then we’re getting out of here. Can you cool it a little?”
Prominence closed her eyes, her mane and tail turned from floating magma into her usual orange one fiery only in the metaphorical sense, her eyes stopped glowing, and in the end her coat changed from Corrupted black into her normal white. She looked around, raising an eyebrow.
“Phew, all those aphrodisiacs in the air got me going. Oh yeah, and the guy who brought us here is dead, and from what I heard the others talking about, so are few other top members of the ruling class of this city.”
“Hmmm,” Gem frowned. On one hole, they were slavers, on the other… Gem did abhor violence in all forms, although sometimes it was necesary, “We could have gotten out with less mess behind, but I suppose this can be a blessing. Let’s find everyone while the zebras are distracted.”
Prominence furrowed her brows.
“I can sense a Corrupted Protector somewhere close. I’m no Nightshade, but I think I might force it to help us get out.”
“Damn, how did they get one across the sea?”
“Beats me,” Promi shrugged, and rushed down the stairs, Gem and the zebras in tow.
The halls were mostly empty of civilians now, and the few guards they met were heading in the opposite direction with buckets of water. Gem’s zebras pretended to be escorting the brothel slaves into safety until they saw a pair of zebra guards firing their hoof pistols into one brothel room. In the next instant, two black tentacles grabbed them and dragged them screaming inside.
“I think we found our Corrupted,” Gem smirked.
“Let me go first,” said Prominence, “It’s responding to my mental touch, but it’s scared and confused out of its mind,” she slowly walked in front of the door ripped off of its hinges, and gasped.
“What’s wrong?” Gem rushed over, seeing her friend’s reaction, “Oh no...” she bit her lip.
The Corrupted Protector was muscular, yet with huge, bouncing plot that would put Celestia to shame, but most importantly - she was covered in dragon scales in exactly the same places as Harriet, glistening with the oily sheen of corruption. Her hips were riding the zebra stallion underneath her, and the six tentacles on her back were each latched to another screaming zebra’s crotch, pumping incessantly.
“Harriet…?” whispered Gem.
Howling in pleasure, Harriet slammed her hips down at the zebra one final time, the sheer force and weight crushing the stallion’s pelvis into shards. The zebra just gurgled, and his eyes went glassy.
“Harriet?!” Gem raised her voice.
“Harriet!” Prominence joined, and felt the mind in front of her withdraw.
Harriet looked down at the zebra corpse, and at several others lying around, clearly dead by snu-snu in the same way.
“Ngnngnngn?!” she gurgled, trying to push herself away, but her panicked stomping only pulverized the zebra further, “Ngngngnggngg!”
Struggling to get away from the mess, she pushed with her full power, her back tentacles still latched to the other zebras and dragging them along.
“Ngggggg...” she ran over to the corner, turned her back to everyone, and covered her face with her forelegs, sobbing in a heart-wrenching, gurgling tone.
“Deal with those, Promi,” Gem pointed to the tentacles still sucking off the zebras. Not waiting for an answer, she approached Harriet, whispering, “Honey?”
Gem was pretty sure Harriet wouldn’t attack her, and proved right when she only twitched as Gem gave her mane a soft stroke. As Gem’s ministrations calmed her down a tiny degree, the voice inside Harriet’s head guided her instincts to finally withdraw her sucking tentacles.
“Cover her ears,” said Prominence quietly, and Gem did so, “We can’t have corruption spreading here too. I hate to say it, but we might have to-”
“No, only the zebras.”
Several bursts of flames and light none of which Harriet felt or saw signalled the total incineration of the tainted zebras. What remained were only Gem’s mind-controlled zebras turning away any interested guard or firefighter.
“Harriet, honey?” Gem uncovered Harriet’s ears, “We really need to go before someone asks questions.”
“Um uh mnfftr,” Harriet drooled through her three tentacle tongues, and raised her foreleg.
Gem grabbed the foreleg, and nuzzled it.
“You’re not a monster. You’ll become one only if you give up and give in,” she looked at Prominence, “We’ve all been there,” she boops Harriet, which makes the tongues retract involuntarily, and Harriet cross her eyes to watch.
“Hmmph?” despite the tongues not blocking her mouth, Harriet’s throat felt too full to talk properly.
“We really need to go before the guards regroup and start asking questions. I don’t mind turning this whole city to ash, but you two are the squeamish kind,” urged Prominence.
“Harriet, I promise I’ll talk you through this, and help you in any way I can, chemicals or otherwise, but we need to save the others. They sent Packy and Magpie to the arena. We need to see if they’re still alive.”
Harriet’s eyes watered instantly, but she nodded, and stumbled back on all fours. The presence inside her head calmed her down, didn’t judge her, and helped her focus on the image of Pack Rat and Magpie. It was similar to her and yet completely different. She was in no state to think clearly, but it felt like a friend, and that’s what she needed the most right now.
“Good job, Harriet,” Prominence smiled at her, “I haven’t met many ponies who could shrug off full corruption as long as there was a duty to fulfill, even with my help and outside of a corrupted territory. You’re doing well.”
“Lead us to the slave pens,” Gem ordered her zebras who led the way without questions.
The slave pens were guarded. Clearly, someone was smart enough to consider the possibility of slaves trying to escape during the commotion. Ten guards armed with hoof pistols and spears looked up from their posts as the group entered, and one presumably in charge stopped those leading Gem.
“Those three are to return to the cages,” reported the zebra, glancing at Prominence, Gem, and Harriet.
The leading guard gave them a once-over, nodded, and said:
“Go on. By the way, how’s the fire going- wait a minute?” he spun around so fast his mohawk wobbled, and pointed at Prominence, “Where’s her suppressor?!”
In the next instant, he turned into burning mist.
“Too smart for your own good,” Prominence pointed her horn at the nearest guard who saw the blazing ray of light which evaporated the leader, “Harriet, little help?”
“Ngnngggnnggg!” the horrified mare backpeddled immediately, shaking her head.
“Deal with the guards, try not to kill anyone,” Gem sighed, and one of her hypnotized zebras immediately jumped in front of Prominence, blocking bullets from a guard with quick draw and good aim.
Gem stopped by the first slave cage, and spat on the lock which melted with a hiss and a puff of smoke.
“You can stay here or risk trying to get away while everyone is distracted, your choice,” she said, and moved to the next cage.
The zebra guards had enough trouble with Prominence to bother with a peaceful changeling melting locks instead of them. Unfortunately for them, whatever Prominence truly was, they had zero chance against her. After the final guard turned to smoke, the unicorn looked at the three surviving zebras serving Gem.
“Let’s deal with these guys and haul ass,” she pointed her horn at the nearest one who didn’t even flinch.
“No!” Gem protested loudly, “Get your fat ass over her, Promi.”
Prominence walked over, and realized what the problem was.
Pack Rat was sitting in the corner of his cage, shivering and staring blankly into the distance. Magpie was lying on the floor of his cage, unconscious with black bruises visible through his coat. And the batpony was just a crumpled ball of hair and leathery wings like always.
“Awww crap... how good are those zeebs of yours at carrying stuff?”