Slave to Desire

by libertydude


The Reclamation

The journey to Canterlogic HQ took more time than Haven would have liked. Hippogriffs seemed to be flying by every second, and only the darkest of shadows kept them from spying the two ponies on the street. Flight had quickly been ruled out, as word of the super-fast pegasus would’ve gotten round and focused the hippogriffs’ gaze toward the sky. Walking took longer, but Haven knew it was more likely to keep the ponies hidden.

Of course, the greatest hindrance was Izzy herself, who seemed to want to freeze up the second any sort of disturbance happened. Even when their way remained open, Izzy seemed like she could barely inch forward without a commanding hiss from the queen. Haven didn’t need to be a mind reader to know why she was so hesitant.

She’s one of the Restorers of Friendship, Haven thought, ducking behind a crate. She sees the good in everypony, even somepony who does something like this. Haven shook her head. I wish I could afford to have such an outlook.

Izzy came up behind Haven and settled in the same cover the crate provided. The duo sat on the end of Main Street, just where the road began to curve up toward the brightly lit headquarters. The road was deserted save the patrolling hippogriffs whose shadows danced over the cobblestones. From their hiding spot up to the top of the hill was about two hundred yards of open space. Haven didn’t need night vision to know that dozens of hippogriff eyes were wandering the stretch of land, ready to initiate attack the second they saw something amiss.

A soft grunt escaped Haven. “No way are we getting in without attracting attention.”

“Maybe we should go back,” Izzy whispered. “Try to find others around who could help us.”

Haven shook her head. “Even assuming there are others like us who escaped, we don’t know how long it would take to find them. Besides, with only two of us, we’ve got more freedom to maneuver.”

Izzy rubbed the back of her leg. “More freedom to hurt somepony.”

Haven wheeled around and pushed Izzy against the wall. The impact gave a sharp thunk, though either the hippogriffs above them didn’t hear it or didn’t consider it worth investigating.

“Listen, Moonbow,” Haven said in a calm tone. “I know this is hard. I don’t like it either. I’d hoped there would never be another day where I’d have to dip back into that part of myself again. But life doesn’t always give you a buffet, filled with hundreds of dishes to pick and choose. Sometimes you get moldy bread and gruel, and you have to decide whether to starve or shove that disgusting meal down your throat. Well, the death of this mastermind is the gruel, and if we don’t eat it, the new Equestria you and your friends fought so hard for may die before it’s even born.”

She eased off Izzy, letting the frightened unicorn land back on the ground.

“I won’t ask you to help me when the killing time comes,” Haven said, taking slow breaths. “I won’t ask you to throw me a parade when this is all over. I just need to know if you are going to help me stop whoever is behind this.”

Only the fluttering of the hippogriff wings and trash blowing down the street made any noise.

“Okay,” Izzy whispered. “I’ll help you.”

Haven gave her an appreciative back pat. “Thank you.” She turned back toward the hill, peering out at the Canterlogic HQ building. The front of the building was the circular showroom ponies entered for demonstrations of new technology. Haven saw the front doors remained open, but there stood a group of hippogriffs milling about just outside them. These griffs proved to be the exception, for most of the hippogriffs seemed to be entering and exiting the windows lining the sides of the showroom. They were rectangular and laying on their long side, propped open by tiny bars protruding from their bases.

“Front door’s out of the question,” Haven whispered. “Our best bet is going through the windows and hoping there’s a hiding spot we can quickly zip into.”

“Won’t the hippogriffs see us going in?” Izzy said softly.

“Not if they’re watching something else.”

Izzy’s mouth formed an “O” shape. “You mean a distraction?”

Haven nodded. “I’m welcome to any suggestions.”

Izzy sat down and began to scratch her chin. “Well, there’s always the Marching Band Distraction. That’s where I wear a bunch of instruments, play them as loud as I can, and run down the middle of the street.”

Haven shook her head. “Too sacrificial. Better to have something that lets you stay hidden rather than painting a target on your back.”

“Hmm…Oh! What if we did the Half-Off Sale Distraction? We could put up a really big sign that says a store is offering all their stock at fifty percent off and-”

“Moonbow, do they look like they care about a sale?”

“Yeah, they seem more the ‘pillage everything and smash all glass cases’ type. Oh, I know! The Horrendous Super-Kaplooie Distraction!”

A thin smile came across Haven’s face. “Keep talking.”


For the first time since the invasion had started, things seemed to be calming down around Maretime Bay. Two hippogriffs stood guard near the front doors, though they seemed to be spending more time staring into the dark city below.

“Night nice,” the first hippogriff said.

“Night nice,” the other said. “Ponies out back stopped screaming finally. Sleeping potion calm them down.”

“Hope the Mistress fixes them. Ponies no good when-“

KER-BOOOOOOM!

A brilliant light filled the night sky. A faintly-hued blue mass exploded above the town. The noise nearly matched that of a sonic boom, the sound shaking the foundations of every building and shattering those windows unfortunate enough to be in the middle of town. Yet this display not only kept its color, but repeated its boom every five seconds.

“All of you, fly!” a shrill female voice called from inside the showroom. “Find out who is causing that explosion!”

The two hippogriffs, recognizing the voice of their mistress, instantly took off. The rest of their brethren likewise took to the skies, pouring out of both the front doors and the higher windows.

As the flow of hippogriffs began to slow to a trickle, two masses began to dash across the open lawn. Even with the brilliant light above the town, no hippogriff caught sight of their forms. Their eyes sat only upon the booming menace that had overtaken their newly conquered territory. The forms soon came to a stop under one of the windows, before one grabbed the other under the forelegs and lifted them into the opening. Fortune going their way, the duo spotted an unfurled curtain sitting beside their entry point and zipped into the waiting abode.

“Good work,” Haven whispered, settling into the curtain. “Maybe they should’ve had you as the Officially Official Fireworks Manager.”

Izzy smiled, then cast her eyes downward. The showroom appeared the same as it had always been. A long, elevated runway stretched into the center of the showroom from the main stage. Studio lights hung around from the walls and ceilings, ready to illuminate any part of the room that needed to be lit. The main stage sat with an unopened red curtain draped across its entire length.

Yet it was the creature sitting right where the runway met the stage that caused Haven and Izzy to stare. She sat atop a black throne covered with symbols depicting whiskered beings with pointed ears. The creature herself matched these symbols, thin whiskers protruding from her face and sharp ears sticking out of her head. A swath of orange hair fell from the top of her head to her chest. Her body was tall and covered with a dark brown fur. The garment she wore reminded the duo of a tacky bathrobe; purple fluff covered the exit points for the robe’s neck and arm sections, while the rest of the cloth remained a faint red. She gripped the arms of the throne with two palms, the right more tightly than the left. The bandage upon her left palm disclosed the reason.

“What an obnoxious racket,” the creature whined, staring ahead at the bombastic blue menace still perplexing her soldiers outside. She brought her right paw up and flicked the air. The front doors instantly shut, as did the windows. Haven jumped slightly when their entry point slammed closed as well. As soon as the locks clicked, the explosions outside faded into a distant thudding.

Sound-proof windows, Haven thought.

“Oh, I’ll have to put whoever started that mess in Sanitation,” the creature said, shaking her head. “Let them know that Catrina does not tolerate such irritation in her domain.” She looked at the runway in front of her and smiled. “Though you already learned that, didn’t you, Sergeant Blitzwing?”

Haven and Izzy could barely withhold their cries. Just in front of Catrina laid Blitzwing, his body shuddering and jerking with frantic irregularity. His armor had been long disposed of; the splotches of color upon his skin now being bruises and half-healed scratches.

“A pity you ponies don’t have the same digestive enzymes as hippogriffs,” Catrina said, a soft tsk-tsk-tsk coming from her long teeth. “That would’ve made things so much easier. Alas, the new potions are being made, and in a few hours, Equestria will begin anew just as planned.” A soft smirk. “Just with a different ruler than you anticipated.”

Now’s the time, Haven thought. Her hooves pushed against the wall, ready to launch herself toward the feline before she’d even hear a thing.

“Alright, Izzy,” Haven whispered. “I’m going to go for it. Turn your eyes away if you don’t want to-“

Just then, Haven realized Izzy was gone. The lump she’d left in the curtain remained in the fabric and her vanilla scent still lingered in the air, but the unicorn was nowhere to be seen.

Where did she-?

“Miss Catrina?” Izzy’s voice chimed.

Both Haven and Catrina instantly zeroed in on the unicorn, who stood at the end of the runway. Haven repressed a scream of frustration and horror, while Catrina looked down at the tiny equine with bemusement.

“Well, well,” Catrina said, standing upright. She was at least twelve feet tall, unencumbered due to the high walls of the showroom. “It seems one of my little ponies has come back to the stable.”

“Miss Catrina, would you please free my friends and the hippogriffs?” Izzy said in the most genuine voice Haven had ever heard.

Catrina gave a thin smile. “And why, silly filly, would I ever do that? Most kitties need to throw a mountain of catnip to get any kind of following. Why would I give up four whole armies?”

“Because my friends’ mother is hiding nearby and she’s super-duper tough and she will kill you if you don’t,” Izzy said apologetically.

Perplexion filled Catrina’s face, her eyes darting around the room. They did not catch Haven’s hiding spot, so they returned to the po-faced unicorn before them.

“Ba-ha!” Catrina cackled. “You ponies have a delightful sense of humor. Perhaps I’ll let you be my court jester when I become Empress of Equestria.”

“I’m not kidding,” Izzy whined. “Queen Haven is actually pretty sweet, but she’s, like, got a dark side that you don’t want to coax out.”

“Queen Haven, you say?” She ran one of her bare paws along the twitching Blitzwing’s back. “Ah, yes. I’ve heard about her from my new friend here. Pity he won’t last much longer; we had such an insightful discussion about the last Pegasi monarch. Forced to step down because her subjects still resent one little fib she told them.” She glanced knowingly around the room. “A shame she isn’t around here. I would offer to help her keep her crown. We could be partners in conquering Equestria. The neighboring countries of New Abyssinia and the Pegasi Kingdom. What lovely gifts we could exchange every winter’s solstice!”

Silence maintained itself in the showroom for a few moments.

“Um…” Izzy said. “Not to be rude, but why are you announcing that aloud like Haven’s actually here?”

“Because, my purrrrr-fectly puny pony, if Queen Haven was nearby like you said, I venture she would want to hear my offer. I’m sure she’s a mare of certain…convictions. No creature becomes Queen in this world without putting all of themselves into the occupation. To have it just ripped away after all that work…” She gave a sympathetic shake of the head. “I just don’t know what that would do to a mare.” She gave a knowing smirk, before whipping out a small green vial. A deep emerald liquid sloshed around the container. “But I do know what a mare like that would do to keep her kingdom.”

Haven clutched the curtains around her like they were life preservers in the middle of the ocean. Her thoughts were frantic, bouncing, flying. She knew she couldn’t trust the cat down there, she couldn’t, but…but…

“I don’t want anypony to be hurt,” Izzy said. “I want this fighting to end and for everything to go back to the way it was.”

Catrina lifted her chin and stared down at the pony. She was deep in thought, her nose twitching. Her paw went down to the throne and placed the green vial upon the armrest. Then, raising her right paw again, she gave a sharp flick.

“Aiiiiieeee!” Izzy screamed. She was flung all the way across the showroom by an invisible force, landing in a heap among a stack of boxes.

“Pathetic!” Catrina howled. “Sentimental child! Do you think I would trade the thousands of servants I have? That vial is but a drop of the Witchweed potion I have at my disposal! I am a sorceress without a peer, ready to take whatever I wa-“

CRACK!

Catrina tumbled to her knees. She grasped the back of her head, a sharp yowl hurling out of her throat. When she brought her paw back, she could see a faint smear of blood upon her paw. Her eyes shot back to the boxes, where Haven was helping Izzy up from her tumble.

“I wondered when you were going to show yourself,” Catrina said through a grimace. “Though I must say, if your plan was to accept my offer of friendship, you chose a very purrrr-culiar way of taking it.”

“I don’t want a thing from you,” Haven said, planting her hooves upon the floor. “Nothing but a body.”

“Hah! So your little friend wasn’t lying when she said you wanted to kill me. How fascinating to see such violent tendencies from such cuddly little creatures!”

“You dug this grave for yourself. Blood potions always carry the risk of killing those whose blood are mixed in.”

Catrina lifted her bandaged left paw and wiggled her digits. “Rrrrrr-ight you are. In fact, when I first started experimenting with the Witchweed, I was worried my distillations would prove absolutely useless if they required an entire pint of blood for each batch. But I’m not some marketplace witch doctor who knows a good diarrheic or two. I refined my potions until a single drop of blood was all that was needed.”

Haven glared at her. “You’re going to lose more than just a drop by the time I’m done with you.”

A wagging finger emerged from Catrina’s robe. “Oh, my dear Queen, your temper overwhelms your common sense. You see, my refinements didn’t just extend to blood conservation. I also enhanced the connective energy the potion gave its host and its imbibers.”

Haven’s face wavered. “You mean-?”

Catrina gave a gleeful nod. “That’s right. Whatever I feel, they feel. The flow is one way, of course; it wouldn’t do to suffer every time one of those buffoons bumped their knee. But every ache I suffer in my beautiful body is one my whole army shares.” She grinned maliciously. “And should I, say, suffer an unfortunate demise, be it a horrific accident or a planned assassination, every single one of those tied to me by the potion would drop dead themselves.”

Haven’s head shook furiously. “You’re bluffing. Nopony would risk all of their soldiers’ lives to-“

“Nopony would, I agree. But cats are a different breed, my dear Queen. I could throw a sister from my litter into a herd of Rockadiles and not even lose a minute of sleep.” She stepped off the runway, her claws scraping against the floor. Her pupils narrowed and locked in on the two little ponies. “And I won’t lose even a second when I’m finished with you.”

With shocking speed, she thrust herself at the two ponies. Only Izzy and Haven’s dash opposite ways managed to save them. The save proved to be momentary, however, for Catrina hit the ground and bounced off like the hard floor was rubber. She aimed her body up toward Haven’s uprising body, claws slashing wildly for a piece of the Queen. Haven zipped lower, the miniature knives just swishing above her, and shot under the conqueror.

The move proved unwise, for Catrina’s claws on her lower legs extended. Before Haven could zip to the side, the legs kicked toward the Queen and dug into her back. Haven’s forward momentum brought a trio of deep, red lines along the length of her back.

“Aaaah!” Haven screamed, wings freezing from the pain and sending her tumbling head over heels upon the ground. Tears started to fill her eyes, though she could still make out the long form of Catrina now swishing toward her. She prowled forward on all fours, tail twitching behind her with each step.

“I always loved playing with my food,” Catrina giggled. “Makes the meal so much more interesting.”

Haven pushed her hooves into the ground, desperate to stand. The wounds in her back started to scream before she could even get a quarter of the way up, though, and she immediately collapsed.

“Yes, get up,” Catrina whispered, not even ten feet away and poised to strike. “Get up and throw yourself into battle. Give a warrior’s scream and throttle me until the life is gone from my eyes. Kill those thousands of hippogriffs with a single stroke. Prove to yourself you are still a queen, a goddess made flesh whose words are life and death. Enshrine yourself in Equestri-

ZAP!

An ear-piercing howl filled the room. Haven saw Catrina leap thirty feet in the air and dig her claws into the ceiling. All four of her paws embedded in the plaster, Catrina’s eyes searched for the new menace that had pierced her in the side.

“There’s more where that came from!” Izzy hollered. She stood beside Blitzwing, her horn smoking a light blue color.

Catrina cackled. “Oh, I’m going to enjoy throwing you into my next potion. Bones, blood, muscle!” She leaped down from her perch, teeth bared. “A private horn for my collection!” As fast as before, she landed upon the ground and launched toward Izzy.

A fantastic flash filled the room. Catrina found her paws clutching thin air, then a thick red curtain that the claws embedded themselves into. Another rage-filled howl filled the showroom while Catrina viciously tried to pull herself free of the dense curtain. Izzy stood five feet away from her original position, the tell-tale sparkle of a teleportation spell dancing around her.

Haven braced her front legs upon the floor. Moonbow’s not going to last long like this, she thought. Her magic will run out and Catrina will-

A flash of green came across Haven’s face. She squinted, trying to find the source of the light amidst Catrina’s howls and Izzy’s new barrage of magic upon the cat’s exposed backside. Her eyes followed up to just above Blitzwing, where the throne stood. Atop the armrest sat the same green vial Catrina had showcased earlier.

Haven’s face grew determined. Flapping her wings, she shot up into the air and started toward the throne. Grabbing the potion, she zipped toward the still-struggling Catrina. Seeing her friend’s approach, Izzy halted her assault.

“When I get out of this,” Catrina hissed, “I’ll eat your alive and screa-!”

CRACK!

Haven’s legs connected into Catrina’s back, vertebrae snapping upon the connection. Not wasting a second, Haven grasped Catrina’s hair and pulled her head back.

“You worked so hard on this potion,” Haven said, grimacing. “Why let it go to waste?” She then ripped off the cork and dumped the potion into Catrina’s waiting mouth.

The cat’s eyes grew wide and she begun thrashing about, finally pulling herself free from the curtain. Haven just managed to pull away before Catrina slashed her, though the cat’s actions seemed more like thrashing desperation than a direct target of Haven herself. Catrina gasped her throat with one hand and shoved another into her gullet, pressing to activate the gag reflex. This effort soon subsided as a horrible scream came from her throat, and her paws shot toward her stomach. A gurgle began to fill the air as if a hundred ponies had empty stomachs voice their complaints at the same time.

A final scream came from Catrina just as a brilliant burst of light shot out of her eyes and throat. Haven and Izzy turned away, the white fluorescence being a thousand times more brilliant than the sky-bound scene they’d created outside. Then, as quickly as it started, the light ceased and Catrina fell to the ground.

Carefully, Haven made her way to the crumpled form of the cat. Catrina’s face was gaunt and her cloak torn all over. Haven stretched out her hoof toward Catrina’s still face. A faint whisp of air flowed from Catrina’s nose, and the queen gave a soft sigh.

“Queenie!” Izzy hollered from the throne. “Sergeant Blitzwing is coming to!”

Haven zipped over to the throne and leaned over Blitzwing. The sergeant’s eyes blinked rapidly, before a relieved sigh escaped his lips.

“You’re safe,” Blitzwing choked out.

“So are you,” Haven sighed. “It’s alright. We stopped Catrina.”

“Did you-?”

“No. No, she’s still alive. I wasn’t going to risk the hippogriffs’ lives if she was telling the truth.”

Blitzwing nodded. “She was. I didn’t get the best of that potion, but even I felt those kicks you gave her.”

Haven gave a soft smile. “I’ll apologize to the hippogriffs when they’re lucid. Speaking of which…” Haven shot toward the closed windows and stared out. The Horrendous Super-Kaplooie Distraction had started to die down, now only consisting of a few quick blasts of turquoise in the sky. No hippogriffs seemed to be flying in the light, but Haven’s eyes quickly found them sprawled upon the grounds outside the showroom. Most seemed to be rubbing their heads, confused at their surroundings, or keeled over and losing their lunches.

Haven zipped back toward Izzy and Blitzwing. “The hippogriffs are coming to,” Haven said. “Not looking so hot, but better looking than if they were dead.”

Izzy gave a soft sigh. “How did you know to do that? Giving Catrina her own potion?”

Haven shook her head. “During the fight, I remembered something from my childhood. Some ancient book I read said that with blood potions, the brewer needed to be careful to never imbibe their own potion. Otherwise this would create a phenomenon called a feedback loop. The magic in the potion would cease to work because it couldn’t differentiate the influencing force of the blood with the imbiber who shared the same blood. Most times, the potion would just stop working with little incident. In this case, however…” She stared at Catrina’s still unmoving form. “Catrina spread herself too thin. Even with just a little blood, she’d put her will into a thousand different beings. I wagered that the strain would be too much for her if she drank the same potion, and the hippogriffs would be free without too much impact.” Haven gave a relieved sigh. “Fortunately, I was right on both counts.”

Blitzwing gave an approving nod. “You make us Pegasi proud, Your Majesty.”

Haven stroked Blitzwing’s cheek. “Not as proud as I am to be your Queen.”

The sergeant smiled, then drifted into unconsciousness.

“He’s just asleep,” Izzy said.

“I know,” Haven said. She started walking toward the door, now opened and letting the first traces of the sunrise into the room. “Let’s go find some help for him and the hippogriffs. The ponies should be coming out of the sleeping potion soon.”

Izzy bounded off the stage and landed beside Haven. “He’s right, you know,” Izzy said with a smile. “You are a good queen.”

Haven stared up at her head. The crown still sat there, despite all of the events of the past hours.

A soft chuckle filled Haven’s throat. Images of the oncoming Unification Day treaties filled her mind.

Was a good Queen,” Haven said in a half-sigh.