//------------------------------// // Granite Podium Arc: Part 3 [Rewritten] // Story: Silas Epista // by Maneiac //------------------------------//         Sunset Shimmer was ascending into dangerous Defcons of hatred and anger. The guards feared her not even within twenty minutes of her newly found occupation as a slave. Many anti-magic rings laid broken and obsolete from each other on the ground, her face scrounged up in a demonic glare at the shivering guards in front of her.         With each step she took toward them, the chained shackles around her legs jingled like some anonymous reaper of the damned. Her light-blue eyes were only highlighted evilly by the dim light of the mining cave. Shivering spears attached to shivering bodies and claws were the only indication of other life in this small outcropping from the main tunnel.         Sunset grinded her teeth together, obviously pissed off as she narrowed her eyes more. Dangerous, magic-filled slits of light-blue, pierced the souls of the five guards whining and whimpering in front of her. “Would you five mind explaining.... exactly why you feel it necessary... to stop my progress!?” A stomp from her hoof rattled the fragile jaws of her guards.         “P-p-pony listen...” One guard pleaded, stepping forward a little with jingling plate armor over his entire body. “O-O-Otto Boss has... m-m-message!” His spear was incinerated by a beam of sharp blue-green pyre, making him yelp and fly back into his pack of cowards.         “Spit it out....” Sunset hissed, the smell of marked territory emanating from the frightened bunch of metal. Her voice was so serpentine, that one of the guards fainted after two more seconds of rapid shivering. “He.... he says... dragon die if you... act up... in mine.” The guard who spoke sounded like he was going to scream at any given moment, which made Sunset roll her eyes with a bovine-like snort from her nose. “So you’re going to use my coltfriend to make me listen? No doubt you’ve put him in the same situation as well...” Sunset shook her head and sighed, turning around and heading back to the main tunnel. “Tell Otto that I have no problems doing his grub work... but if my flank is ever slapped by a dog again....” She turned on her hooves sharply, igniting her horn. “There will be many vasectomies....” Three more dogs passed out as Sunset smiled sweetly and went back to the main tunnel. The moment she stepped out, however, her eyes picked up on two figures leaning against the right and left side of the tunnel’s entrance. “That’s what, the third squad you intimidated like that? You’re frightening.” Sunset smiled and looked to her left, eyeing Dominika Lehigh with a face of permanent confidence. “I try my best at keeping my pride as a woman intact, dear! You didn’t have to beat that last squadron to a bloody pulp, though!” Dominika tittered. “They ripped my dress! What would you have done, Ms. Shimmer?” She sighed and pulled up her ripped black dress, which had been cut so the top of her pink nipples were barely contained. “This dress cost me an arm and a leg! One hundred bits for fabric is a rip off, but the dress was so well-made!” Dominika looked down at her white cleavage, which was basically out for everyone with a pair of functioning eyes to behold. With another huff, a round of chuckling came through from the other side of Sunset Shimmer. “I’m still wondering how your lizard boyfriend is still breathing with all the shit you pull, Sunset. And nice rack, Milk.” The rude nickname given by Diamond the Diamond Dog caused the mare to snicker and Dominika to glare. “Do not call me Milk, Diamond! I’ve told you that nickname is rude! If you can’t even say my full name, then at least use the nickname I had all my life!” Dominika walked over and poked the sky-blue furred husky diamond dog in her chest. “The name’s Donna, Diamond; remember it!” Diamond raised her eyebrow, chuckling at Donna as her paw came up and moved the offending finger off her flat chest. “Don’t touch me, Donna. I don’t care what your nickname was before coming here, but I do know that-” And Sunset tuned the rest of their argument out with a small smile as they walked the familiar path back to the main group. Sunset Shimmer was able to make some pretty swell allies the moment she was thrown into Boss Otto’s Level of Granite Podium, the very top of a large mountain. Once her position was established as a slave in one of the nine sections, divided by nine main tunnels, she warmed up quickly to a minotaur sow she met earlier; Dominika Lehigh. She was pretty shaken up from being made a slave so easily and quickly, but Sunset’s stalwart confidence acted as a beacon to the older woman, who jumped at the chance to join the unicorn that was able to break her Anti-Magic Restrictor Ring in no more than three minutes. To Dominika, the feat of magic was said to be remarkable; but to Sunset, it was only three minutes taking a break. Even so, as her first day winded down into the monotonous hammering of pickaxe on stone, Sunset Shimmer only served to quickly become the bane of all the guards in Otto’s section of Granite Podium. Groups of strong-willed D-Dogs came back to the outposts covered in their own urine, some of them shaking like leaves in the wind. Because she was so new, the guards were instructed by Otto - who would never admit to the fear of the mare himself, the little pug-looking shit - to pair the mare off with their most seasoned slave, so she could warm up to her new role nicely.   As it turns out, the most seasoned slave in this section was another D-Dog. Sunset’s surprise at this was minimal at best, but she quickly warmed up to the grizzled, serious, veteran personality that was Diamond Everwinter. Sunset learned that Diamond was the head of another warren of D-Dog called the Everwinters, which had stationed themselves to the southeast of the Crystal Kingdom. As Sunset heard, when the Alpha Brothers combined their warrens and started their pilgrimage to Bullivia, it just so happens that her warren was in the way... so they made good use of her people. Slaves, whores, cumdumps; the whole nine yards. Some of them were even auctioned off as slaves to other warrens and wealthy beneficiaries. But the most horrifying thing Sunset heard was the story of what happened to Diamond’s mate and their children. The Alpha Brothers helped themselves to a nice feast with Diamond’s pups, and they auctioned her mate - Wergal - off to Skaven Cultists. There were tales about what happened to slaves in the Black Marsh, and most of them would send the average pony in Equestria off the deep end. Diamond confirmed that all of this transpired three years ago, and that she was only recently reunited with Wergal early this year. Ever since then, Wergal has been planting seeds of distrust among the Brothers and spreading rumors of revolution throughout all of Granite Podium, but he could never find the right person to take the head for it. If he were to do it, they would have no problem killing Diamond while dealing with him... “So let me get this straight, Ms. Diamond,” Sunset said as she turned her head slightly to the left, looking up into Diamond’s green eyes. “Your husband wishes for Silas and myself to spearhead this little revolution? All of this based on the fact that we have a better chance of surviving the initial surge of guards, as compared to Wergal and yourself?” Diamond nodded sagely, a faint smile upon her face. “Absolutely, Ms. Shimmer. Your magic would be essential to the success of this plot, should you agree. I have no doubts whatsoever that you’d be able to bring Otto’s level of the warren to its knees with the help of many good slaves that have brewed and festered within their hatred for many years!” Diamond tittered for a second, before continuing with a stoic face. “Of course, I would also be at your side during the revolution. I may be skinny, but I was born with a... unique body, as compared to my log-armed kin. As you can see,” Diamond stated with a leveled voice as she motioned for her two friends to stop and gaze upon her form. “My arms and legs are fair. Muscles barely make themselves known to the world when I flex. I was the runt of my litter.” True to her claim, the white arms and legs of Diamond were practically human in size. The overbearing musculature one would expect to be on a normal D-Dog’s arms was absent. Donna merely shrugged at the new information. “So Fido got the short end of the stick. What’s that got to do with us?” Diamond snarled at the minotaur, before whipping around quickly and delivering a roundhouse kick to the tunnel wall next to them. A hole the size of a large boulder appeared in a deafening explosion of sediments and dust. Diamond kept her foot craned in the air as she pivoted on the one keeping her up, looking at Donna with a raised eyebrow. “You were saying, Milk?” As the group - after about a ten minute walk back to the main cavern - came to rest and relieve with the other slaves, the sound of jingling armor made the group of three friends sigh at the same time.         A short, foal-sized, bland-baby-blue colored, pug-looking D-Dog in the same attire as Dreggen and Rex waddled his way up to the three females. He actually looked pretty cute all dressed up like that! “Ahhh, the Amazon Three! Causing trouble again, I see!?” His voice was annoying, just like an ankle biter’s would be; high in pitch and rapid in speech. “Boss Otto is becoming very sore with your disrespectful antics, you wenches! Need I remind you that I have two of your lover’s under my proverbial thumb?!” That was another thing the Amazon Three did not like about Otto; he spoke in the third person, only to make himself feel better than all the others.         Sunset rolled her eyes hard enough for some of her eyelashes to scrape against it, making her hiss in annoyance. She was grateful that none of those infernal hairs decided to vacation on her eyeball, less Boss Otto would have seen himself splattered across all nine sections of his Level. “You keep threatening me with Silas’s well being, Otto; it’s starting to become annoying. I am tempted to put his life on the line just to see you smeared into a fine paste, actually.” Sunset leaned forward so her nose was inches away from Otto’s, who was trying his best to not shake in fear.        The blue pug just stared at Sunset with wide eyes, scanning over her smug features frantically. Otto has seen the state some of his guards return in, and he didn’t want to be another example. Even so, the small dog held his ground.         Placing his small black cane against Sunset’s mouth, Otto pushed her head back with a smile. “Oh, my dear; this is simply too rich! You really, truly, honestly think that you’re just going to do whatever you want up here without any form of punishment? How naive you are, my little pony~” Otto laughed, snapping his small fingers.          The Amazon Three watched with raised eyebrows as twenty slaves were laid down in front of them, their heads facing the women’s feet and hooves. Otto took this time to start whistling and twirling his walking stick merrily, walking right in front of all the slaves’ heads.          “You see, girls; you’re all living underground in a world of thunder with us Diamond Dogs. We don’t really care ‘bout the pain you’re under, Otto’s afraid.” A griffon slave next to Otto’s small paws quickly found its eye gouged out on his walking stick, making the bird scream in pain as it remained pinned in place by armored guards.        “What the hell are you doing, Otto!?” Diamond’s voice cut above the clamor of the griffon, who was now crying tears and blood onto the stone floor. “These are precious slaves to your-”         Diamond’s mouth was suddenly filled with griffon eyeball, a taste she immediately retched at and spat out as Otto laughed. “Oh, shut your mouth, whore! This is the Amazon Three’s comeuppance!” Twirling his staff again, he slammed its white end down onto the stone floor with a soft tap, making his guards draw crude looking maces and swords.         Sunset made to ignite her horn, with the intention of knocking the D-Dogs unconscious to save the slaves before her, but the thought of Diamond’s mate and her boyfriend being put in harm’s way made her confidence falter drastically. “I have to use my head here! If I act without sound reasoning, that could be it for Wergal and Silas!!” "Each slave on the ground right now represents how many of my dogs you three intimidated! Theii deaths,” Otto snapped, signaling to the dogs an order to kill; which they did. Some heads rolled after being severed, others could get a couple more groans in as the dogs beat down on them with their maces. ”are on you.”   By the end of the whole ordeal, Donna and Sunset had emptied their stomachs onto the floor. “As you can see, if you would have attacked Otto, this would have happened anyways. But now, let this serve as a lesson to you three whores that Otto’s not fucking around here.” He kicked the head of a blue mare across the cave. It landed next to a foal, who screamed before hugging his mother and crying. Sunset shivered, trying to eject the gruesome images from her head. The way their heads caved in like rotten melon, even having the gall to make sounds; it was quickly bringing her to the point of regurgitation again. She was able to wipe her mouth clean of puke and face Otto after two more seconds of heavy breathing. “You... you bastard! I can’t even come up with enough words to tell you how absolutely VILE you are, Otto!” Otto threw his small head back and laughed for all he was worth at that. It took him about three seconds to calm down. “Listen, baby~!” His cane found itself on Sunset’s jaw again, making the mare give a low growl of agitation. “Your little streak of disobedience is over. Otto’s about had it with the Amazon Three causing trouble in Otto’s Lair! You always scare Otto’s guards; you always make those stupid side tunnels in the side of Otto’s main one to take unapproved breaks, and you always try to intimidate Otto in Otto’s OWN LAIR!” The tiny dog was breathing heavily now, his little chest expanding and falling quickly. Sunset couldn’t bring herself to look at the remaining slaves. She had caused the deaths of twenty people, all because she didn’t want to deal with what was sure to be temporary subjugation to a midget. She staggered away, shuddering all the while. It was all she could do, staring at the severed heads, and it only seemed to frighten her more. Her pampered life in Canterlot and herbivore lifestyle did not ready her for the twenty lives taken, right in front of her eyes, brain matter strewn about the ground. Gore and blood only served to heighten her repulsion as her mane disheveled and sprang apart into little curls. Otto, taking notice of Sunset’s faltering, decided to roll up his sleeves and get to work in driving his point home. “So guess what, ladies!? You all just earned yourselves a day in The Rough! Have a good time tugging to stay alive!” Otto built himself up into a maniacal laughter as the women were gripped up and dragged away, only two of them kicking and squirming, but proving their efforts to be utterly useless against the mass of grey armor and burly dog arms. Sunset’s horn was gripped roughly, causing the mare to scream in obscene amounts of pain as her bone bent a little under the grip of a Diamond Dog. Other than her screams, she was practically a noodle with no feeling, completely despondent. Dominika was being pulled by her hair, and Diamond by her legs. Dust and dirt completely caked the women after a couple minutes of dragging, and they had lost the will to fight against their captors. Donna and Diamond resolved themselves to just crossing their arms and pouting. “Why the hell did this have to happen? I was living a good, promising life as the Tipsy Clover’s secretary! I had nowhere else to go but up from there!” Dominika kept her baby face up, nestling into her crossed arms. Diamond rolled her eyes, and then winced when her chin made contact with a big rock. “Cry me a river, Milk. At least your kids weren’t eaten.” Having said her piece on the matter, Diamond decided to count the stones passing by her head to alleviate her boredom. “Stop calling me MILK, dammit! I’m not some useless dairy cow, you skank! Ow,” Donna called out shortly from the guard yanking on her hair too roughly. “... I just want to go home....” Diamond rolled her eyes, giving a sigh of annoyance at the way a grown woman was acting in this situation. “I’ll never understand how some women are too prissy for situations like these. It’s obvious, now, that the minotaurs live sheltered lives like the Equestrians. Guess these prissy pinheaded pucker-ups are my only means of camaraderie around here, seeing as how the rest of these spineless flea sacks are about as useful as glue on tree sap.” Diamond took that time to huff, still being dragged by the ankles. “And now, we’re going to The Rough. Perfect! The last female group taken there came out to be cock-worshippers. They were addicted to the scent of mating. I need to think of something that will keep me immune!” Just as her frantic thinking came to an end, the women were being dragged down a ramp and towards a ten foot tall box of granite. It took possibly five minutes for them to reach the bottom, and half another minute for their escorts to dig through the hard stone and toss them in carelessly. They all landed with a plopping sound, which turned into soft squelches as the soaked dirt clung to their womanly frames. The escorts they had knew why the ground was so wet, and promptly fell into a fit of chroused snickering as they resealed the wall. Having done half their jobs, the guards went around the small perimeter, poking holes through the hard stone with more snickers. “My hair! My dress! They’re ruined!” Donna Lehigh was having a mini panic attack as she stood up and tried shaking herself of the the darkened mud slush. It came off easily enough, but the mud had already done its worse to her outfit and hair. Unless she took a bath or something of the like, that mud was staying as brown streaks. “Quiet,” a guard yelled. “Women prepare for service; pick hole!” Said holes were then being filled with crude spears that poked at them viciously. Seeing as how the women just watched the lifeless, headless bodies of twenty individuals come to pass tonight, they were in no mood to deny the spears or the will of the guards wielding them. Diamond knew. The woman knew what The Rough was used for, and why the ground was so wet. She knew of all the atrocities performed here, and how many good, reputable females that became nothing more than loyal slaves of desire. Diamond saw one of her best friends, Lera, beg on her knees before a guard, happily whining on all fours and shaking her rump in the air. Nothing was present in her eyes, just the desire to breed. For the first time in a long time, Diamond Everwinter went over to a hole... and cried.