The hotel bar was shrouded in the perpetual haze of cigar smoke as ponies went about their nightly routines. Some drinking alone, others making drunken advances towards those near them, almost all of them ignoring that night’s entertainment, with two exceptions. One was a brown earth-pony stallion with a black mane, and a black coat and fedora for a cutie mark. I suppose what Bon-Bon said about most spies being handicapped for having spying-related cutie marks was right, as this stallion might as well have had the word “Traitor” hanging from around his neck. The other pony was the handler I had been assigned, a lovely pink mare who was making a point of looking at her newspaper while occasionally looking at either myself or the pony I assumed was Turn Coat.
Speaking of Turn Coat, he had been staring at me non-stop since I had started my performance. As much as my instincts told me to ignore him, I remembered my mission (how in Equestria had Bon-Bon ever talked me in to this?) and occasionally rewarded his attention with a demure little smile, while I found myself wanting to beat him to death with my nigh-indestructible cello.
As soon as my performance ended, he sauntered towards me, a predatory grin on his face; I smiled back, hoping to elicit a come-hither effect. I suppose it worked, since he continued his approach. “The great Octavia Melody, performing in a hotel bar. What strange turn of fate brought you my way?” Then he laughed, and bowed. “How rude of me to speak without introducing myself. I am Coat Cleaner.”
“Well,” I said, meeting his gaze, “my friend owns the hotel, so whenever I have the time, I do a free show for her.” My mind went to the spot on my left forehoof that was usually occupied by my engagement band. While the coat on my forehoof usually did a fantastic job of obscuring it, its total absence made me feel particularly vulnerable. I found myself hoping that Vinyl would forgive me if she ever found out about this, while vowing that she wouldn’t. It certainly made me empathize with Bon-Bon’s fears of telling Lyra the truth.
“I see,” he said, moving uncomfortably close to me, while I resisted the temptation to drive my bow through his eye socket. “It certainly is a stroke of good luck on my part that you are as kind as you are talented.” I felt the heat of his breath on my neck, and if I was a mare who was attracted to stallions, it might
certainly never read. Still, it was important to play the part, I suppose. “I’m not that talented.”
“Nonsense,” he said, “you played at the gala before you were twenty, and a few years later were chosen to found Equestria’s newest orchestra. You are quite the exceptional individual, Miss Melody.” He moved his forehoof to rest on my side, and I managed not to recoil in revulsion.
I struggled to think of something to say that would seem natural, germane to the topic at hand, and appropriately flirty. Thankfully, while I struggled, he continued to talk. “I have a confession to make, Octavia. You see, I have been a follower of yours for quite some time. You piqued my curiosity when rumors of a talented earth pony musician working in Canterlot began to surface, and you gained my full attention after you played at the Gala. I even secured tickets to what was supposed to be your moment of triumph. Unfortunately, circumstances dictated otherwise, but you still handled yourself magnificently, something none of the other musicians there could say. Since then, you have continued to impress me, and I’ve always dreamed of talking to you.”
“Th-thank you,” I said, genuinely flattered by his compliment. “It’s pleasant to talk with somepony with such a sophisticated musical palette. Most of the ponies I talk with today don’t know their Beethoofen from their Mocart.”
He frowned and tenderly ran a hoof down my foreleg, turning his touch into a caress. It was… surprisingly pleasant, and I suddenly felt my cheeks become flushed with heat. I loved Vinyl and I liked mares, I mentally repeated to myself. “Such a shame,” he said, stroking my neck. “I have many contacts inside and outside of Equestria who would be honored to have you play for them.” He drew even closer to me, his face right next to my own.
The last few months had been so unbelievably difficult. First the headmistress we hired had fled Ponyville while taking a large amount of the school’s funding with her, forcing me to take the job, then half the teachers in the school quit because they said they “couldn’t handle this town anymore,” forcing me to overwork the ponies we did have and even teach a class myself. It would be pleasant to have that recognition again, to have ponies recognize my achievements. Of course, such thoughts were merely the musings of a mare who had found love, friendship, and a place to call home.
“As much as I would love to talk about such things,” I said, “do you think we could continue this conversation somewhere private? I would offer my room, but I am staying with the owner and… I suppose it could work, but she might interrupt our conversation.”
He smiled, having apparently swallowed my bait. “Say no more, I have a perfectly lovely suite we can use. That is, if you’re okay with going to the room of a stallion you only just met.”
I laughed. “It’s no more scandalous than you going to my room. We’re both adults though, I think we can be trusted to make… responsible decisions. Just let me pack up my cello.”
“Of course,” he said, smiling as I packed up my cello and made sure the “breath mints” Bon-Bon had given me were easily accessible.
“Alright,” I said, carefully closing my cello case. “Lead on.”
Turn Coat gave a wordless smile and walked towards the hotel elevator while I followed behind him. It was a silent walk and I found myself struggling with a wave of self-recrimination. So I had momentarily considered his offer... that didn’t make me a bad fiancée, did it? It just meant I was having a hard time with work, and honestly, saying I considered it momentarily is inaccurate as the amount of time his offer spent in my head was less than ten seconds. Much harder to explain away was my reaction to his caress. It was… unworthy of me. I loved Vinyl absolutely, and if I counted the stallions I had been attracted to on my hooves, I would still be able to stand on my back legs.
There’s one more now, a voice in the back of my head whispered, which I promptly told to shut up, as I reminded myself that the Equestrian government would owe me a few favors after this was all over, and I think hoofing the bill for my wedding and honeymoon would make for a lovely start.
“So, what can I get you to drink?” a voice asked pulling me from my thoughts.
“Hmm? Oh, I don’t drink,” I said as we entered his suite. It was a rather spacious room, with its own bar and kitchen in one corner, which he was currently walking towards. “The last time I did, I wound up trying to flirt with every mare on a cruise ship.”
“Really?” he asked, a faint frown creasing his lips. “You prefer the company of other mares?”
I tried to smile at him. “I’ve been known to dabble when intoxicated.” In much the same way Celestia might dabble in meddling with other ponies’ lives.
“Well,” he said pouring two glasses of wine, “I am certainly not going to complain. In fact, I think I might save that particular bit of information for later. Now, I know you said you don’t drink, but one glass of wine wouldn’t kill you, would it?” He smiled and pushed a glass of wine towards me. “I promise there won’t be any other mares around for you to flirt with.”
I forced a smile. “If you insist, how could I refuse such a generous host?” I picked up the glass and swirled it a few times before taking the faintest of sips. It was pleasant, of course, with a strange taste I couldn’t quite make out hiding just below the surface, but as soon as I swallowed it, I started to worry about the drink’s future effects on me. If I had too much, my ability to focus on the mission might be compromised. I decided that one sip would not kill me – or worse, cause me to have a repeat of the cruise-ship episode.
“Do you like it?” he asked, an inscrutable smile on his lips. “I would hate to serve such a distinguished mare as yourself an inferior vintage. Why, I could never forgive myself.”
“It’s fine,” I said, setting the drink down. “Like I said, I just don’t drink that much.”
“And I won’t force you to drink any more than you want to, but it would be a shame to waste such an esteemed vintage.”
I swallowed nervously as he continued to stare at me, my eyes darting nervously between him and the glass of wine, while I struggled to keep my composure. “Of course,” I said, taking a second sip of wine. “I think that the opportunity to sample such a fine bottle of wine far outweighs the risks that I will have a bad reaction to one glass.”
“A bold choice,” he said before taking another drink. “I would expect no less from the esteemed Octavia Melody. Now please, tell me a bit more about yourself.” Turn Coat settled into one of two chairs next to the window as he gestured for me to take the seat next to him. “For example, you can start by telling me about your fiancée.”
“Wh-what?” I asked, suddenly finding myself frozen with terror.
“Please, don’t play coy, Octavia. It doesn’t suit you.” He flashed me the same predatory smile he had when he approached me, and I felt my heart skip a beat. “I noticed the impression made by your engagement band back when you were performing, and thought it was rather odd. I briefly considered the idea that you and your unknown fiancée had recently broken up before your show, but for it to still have left an impression, the two of you would have had to have broken up only a few hours before your performance, and neither your bearing or our conversation indicated such a potentiality. That left me to believe that you either took the band off because it negatively impacted your ability to play, or that you were a part of some sort of honeypot devised by the Equestrian Intelligence Services. Considering that you didn’t mention a fiancée at all during our flirtations, it left only one plausible conclusion in my mind. Now, finish your glass of wine.”
Reflexively, I brought the glass to my lips and swallowed its contents in less than ten seconds. “How did you do that?” I asked, failing to keep the fear out of my voice.
He chuckled. “Just a little trick of the trade I picked up after several years in the espionage game. I’ll tell you all about it after I finish my business tonight. Although…”
There was a pause as he scratched his chin. “Sit next to me please and be quiet, I need to think.”
Wordlessly, I followed his command, my motor functions following his orders obediently while the rest of my mind screamed in terror. “Now then,” he said, turning to regard me, “I’m going to talk aloud, voice some of my theories about what the EIS does and doesn’t know, and if I happen to be correct, you will nod your head. What you will not do is speak. Do you understand? Nod if you do.”
I nodded, my face completely impassive, while I felt my rage begin to subside for some unknown reason. “Good,” he continued. “Now then, let’s see, if the EIS sent you after me, then it stands to reason that they know I was behind the break-in.” I nodded. This wasn’t so bad, I found myself thinking. Turn Coat was smart, strong, powerful… attractive, there was no shame in serving him, although some angry voice in the back of my mind begged to differ.
“The fact that they sent you to me tonight indicates that they know when the hoofoff is happening, and prepared to intercept and neutralize me before it occurred, presumably to replace my documents with forgeries or to see who ordered my break-in.” Nod. “But, if they wanted to just see who my employer was, they could have tailed me and I would almost certainly have never noticed. Instead, they send a mare who is unskilled at espionage and engaged, to seduce me because they correctly deduced she is the perfect bait for me. I admit, if not for the mark left by your engagement band, I would have fallen for you hook, line, and sinker as they say.” As he spoke, whatever was in the wine finished its work, and the voice in my head that railed against his commands vanished completely, while I found myself quite happy to listen to his commands and bask in his radiance. He smiled at me, and I felt a wave of pleasure ripple through my body.
“I can see that the changeling venom in the wine is doing its work. Wonderful stuff, over an extended period of time, it can permanently alter a pony’s true personality, but that’s not important. What is important is that its immediate effects include drastically-heightened suggestibility, and a feeling of intense euphoria and desire to please, typically directed towards the pony giving you commands. Now sit next to me.” He scooted over and gestured towards the empty spot on the seat next to him. I happily trotted over and sat next to him, pressing my body against his and feeling warm languid waves of ecstasy emanating from the place where his flank touched mine. My face was flushed with excitement and joy and I found myself thinking of how unworthy I was to be in the same room as him. I could bask in his presence forever and spend a lifetime composing poems that were only a pale echo of his magnificence.
He ran a hoof across my withers and I felt as if I was about to explode in a wave of pleasure. “Now, back to business. All this leads me to believe you want to intercept me and use this as a chance to disseminate false information to the enemies of Equestria, and more importantly, it leads me to believe that there is only one way I can get out of this without languishing in a cell or worse.” He laughed, and I hated myself for not understanding what was so funny. If I knew what it was, I could do it again to make him happy. “I think it’s time I live up to my name and play double agent. Go out to your handler, bring them back with you, but do not say a word of what has transpired here to anypony else.” As soon as he finished his sentence, I headed to the door, thrilled to be able to help him in anyway possible. Of course I did, I lov- the word hit a snag in my mind for some unknown reason -ed him.
As I went about the task he had set before me, the world seemed darker and greyer without his presence, and I was all too happy to walk back into the room with the handler Bon-Bon had assigned me in tow. “We’re back,” I said, quickly rushing over to sit by his side and bask in his presence. How could I have lived the first twenty-one years of my life without him? How could anypony live without him?
“You seem rather affectionate for having just met the man,” my handler said dryly. She was a boring pink mare with nothing remarkable about her, and I hated her. I hated the way she looked at me, and I hated the way she wanted to separate me from my… I wanted to say true love, but something stopped me. I tilted my head, feeling as if there was something profoundly important I was forgetting.
“I suppose she was one over by my charm,” he laughed, swirling his glass of wine. For a second, I wondered how he could have tasted the wine without feeling the effects of the changeling venom, before chastising myself for ever being so silly. He was Magnificent and could do as he pleased. The fact that he chose to bless such a mare as me with his love was truly wonderful. He was wonderful. Wonderful. The word repeated over and over in my head, and I felt warm all over.
“Excuse us,” he said, standing up and walking towards the bathroom. “I need to have a word with Miss Melody for a moment.” My handler, the mare who looked so disapprovingly at my love for my master, nodded as we went into the bathroom together.
“Now dear,” he said as the door clicked closed, “it’s important that they believe you haven’t been compromised, so when we go out there, you need to sit opposite me and look at me with that same look of detachment I saw when you were performing, okay?”
“You know I will,” I said, rubbing my cheeks against his soft warm fur. “I will do anything for you, but what do you mean by compromised?” The word sounded funny to me. “I’m not compromised, I’ve been awoken. The wool has been pulled from my eyes, and I can see how magnificent you are and how lowly I am. I’m not even fit to say your name m- What should I call you?”
He smiled and kissed my neck, causing my body to quiver with joy and pleasure. “Master or sir when we’re alone dear, but when we are in front of your friends, you need to call me Turn Coat.”
“Yes master.” I giggled at having said the name aloud. It was so perfect for him, how I hadn’t thought of it earlier was further proof of how stupid and weak I was compared to his glory. “I mean Turn Coat. Should we go out and… talk?”
“If you are suitably composed, yes.” My master, it was such a lovely and perfect word for describing him, opened the door and I followed him out, pained that I would have to sit so far away from him and contain my enthusiasm, but it would be worth it because it would make him happy. If he wished for me to jump out the window, I would do so with a smile on my face What was the life of an insect like me if it made him happy?
“I do apologize for that,” he said to the mare as we sat down. “Now let’s talk business.”
“First, I would like to talk about Miss Melody. Is she alright?” Stupid idiot mare, couldn’t she see how happy I was? How elated to be in the presence of perfection? What was wrong with her for not seeing that? How could she resist the urge to bow before my master and offer him all the praise he deserved? If only she would drink the wine, she would see, but then I might have to share him, and I wouldn’t want that until he told me I did.
“I’m fine.” I said, my voice clipped. I didn’t want to talk to her. Not like this, I wanted to tell her how wonderful the stallion she was looking at was, but instead I just had to say “I’m fine” like a good girl. But I was a good girl and would do anything my master told me to.
“Yes, quite,” my master said. “You chose the perfect bait for your little honeypot and I’m ashamed to say she had me eating out of her hooves in no time.”
“If that’s the case,” the idiot mare said, “then why didn’t she stick to the plan?”
“It’s not her fault,” he said, dignifying her with a cheap mechanical laugh that a worm like her didn’t deserve. “I’m afraid once we got to talking, I had a moral epiphany and decided to dedicate myself to the crown, so I confessed my misdeeds to her and asked for her to arrange a meeting between us so that we might form an agreement. As a sign of good faith, the stolen documents are over there.” He gestured at a saddlebag hanging from his closet, right next to where I had placed my cello, and the idiot mare quickly moved to inspect it.
“Alright,” she said, attaching the saddlebags to her back. “And Octavia, you’re sure you’re okay?”
“Yes, I’m...” I wanted to say that I was ecstatic, elated, that I had never felt better, that I was madly euphorically in love with… again I felt the slight tug of resistance, I was forgetting something, something important but I couldn’t remember it. Could it have been that important compared to my master?
“Fine.” I finished.
“I believe I can be of tremendous use to the crown,” my Master continued smoothly, “I have spent a lifetime developing contacts within the criminal underworld and with Equestria’s enemies. I could feed you information about them, and of course I would be happy to finish the drop you have planned with Lord Valiant tonight as another show of good faith.”
“While that does sound immensely helpful,” the unimportant mare whose name escaped me said, “you have to understand my superiors would have some reservations about sending a former enemy of Equestria out to spy on our current enemies. It seems a recipe for disaster.”
My master tapped his chin and I could see his glorious plan coming together while the stupid idiot mare just sat there like the unworthy lump she was. “Perhaps we could reach an agreeable solution? Miss Melody could travel with me and write status reports twice a week, if at any time she feels I have relapsed into old habits, she can include a codeword that will let you know I need to be apprehended immediately. If you used the right enchantment, the parchment could even include a tracking spell so I can easily be found. Obviously, her failure to report would also be cause for an alarm and you could then dispatch the guards.”
“I suppose that could work,” the idiot mare said, “but only if Octavia approves with the plan, she isn’t a full time employee of the agency.”
Of course I approved of the plan, it meant I got to spend more time to celebrate with my master. How could anypony object? But that isn’t what my master wanted me to say. He wanted me to say something empty and devoid of emotion. “If it’s for the good of the crown, then I will gladly do it. It is my duty as an Equestrian citizen.”
A brief flicker of surprise ran through her face but she managed to conceal it well. “If you’re sure, I will bring the offer to my superiors. I will also be making the drop, so until then the two of you can stay in here. Octavia, make sure he doesn’t leave.” She told me not to let him leave, and I immediately felt something inside me make me want to obey her command, even though it wasn’t something my master told me to do.
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he said. “I think it’s time I got to know my new jailer.” He smiled at me as the other mare took the papers out of my cello case and turned to leave the room. As soon as the hotel room door clicked closed, I wrapped my forelegs around him, drawing his body close to mine, feeling his heat close to mine and moaning in pleasure. He was here, with me, alone, and I wanted him. I wanted him to do whatever he wanted to me.
“Not yet,” he said, nibbling on my ear. “There’s one small thing I want you to do for me first.”
“Anything,” I said, pressing my body tightly against his, “but can it wait… please?”
“Are you questioning me?” he said, pulling away and glaring at me.
“No,” I said, dropping to the ground and grovelling before him. “You know I wouldn’t, I just love you so much and I want you and-”
He laughed his calm, easy, melodious laugh. “It’s alright, pet, get to your hooves.”
“I need...” he said, slowly trailing off. “I need you to write a letter to that former fiancée of yours. What was his name?”
The answer suddenly rocketed towards the forefront of my mind.
Vinyl Scratch.
Her name was Vinyl Scratch.
And she loved me.
And I loved her.
The punch I threw at him seemed to be a reflexive thing, one that the mare he had twisted me into screamed and protested. It was the same punch that had cracked a monster of steel and iron’s skull almost a year before. No, not the same one. This one was stronger. His head jerked back with a resounding and satisfying crack, and the thing that had tried to steal my love for Vinyl fell to the ground like the proverbial sack of bricks.
I stood there, staring down at his unmoving form, sobs wracking my body. So much of me wanted to lay down next to him and wait for him to wake up. To surrender my mind to the changeling venom and be content to serve. To feel the rolling waves of ecstasy that came with being his… pet. Tears stained my cheeks. It had felt so good too, better than anything else I had ever felt in my life. Better than my time with Vinyl. But I wasn’t myself, he… that thing had taken everything I was and twisted it to serve him. To serve him gladly, and I still wanted to. Already I felt the urge to submit to the mindless joy of the changeling venom growing inside me. If he woke up and ordered me to slit my throat I would do so with a smile.
No, I shook my head, trying to keep the effects at bay as long as possible, I couldn’t – wouldn’t – go back to being that thing. Not as long as I still drew breath. But... as long as he still drew breath, he would still have his hold on my mind, and he was more than capable of destroying what little self-control I had regained. I looked down at him again, saw his slow ragged breaths, each one seeming to be a herculean labor. Those would have to stop, I thought to myself. With a grim determination, I brought my forehooves down on his head again and again until his head resembled nothing so much as a shattered melon, and my forehooves covered in a mix of blood and viscera. As sobs of guilt and pain and betrayal wracked my body, my will was dissolved by the changeling venom, and I wrapped my master in a loving embrace until Bon-Bon and the rest of Celestia’s agents found me.
***
“Octavia, tell me what happened,” Bon-Bon said as she walked into the room, a look of horror on her face as she surveyed the grisly scene. Having been given a new command to follow, I gladly leapt away from Turn Coat’s broken body (why I was so enraptured with him earlier was lost to me as somepony else was giving me commands now), and related in exacting detail just what had happened since we last saw each other. When I had finished, her expression had shifted to one of revulsion, and I could see she was struggling to hold back tears. Had I done something to disappoint or upset her? I didn’t mean to.
“Okay,” she said, moving towards me and placing a forehoof on my shoulder, causing me to become deliriously happy and enraptured by her presence, “you need to remember that you’ve been dosed with changeling venom and that it’s altering your perception of reality. You need to fight its effects.”
Yes, that was true, wasn’t it? I thought as I luxuriated in the feeling of her touch. But why in Equestria would I want to fight it? Life was so much better this way, who would ever want to be free of it? Every second I spent fulfilling the wishes of other ponies was pure heaven, and doing anything else just felt like a grey dull waste of time. I found myself noticing the lovely curvature of Bon-Bon’s form and realizing just how smart she had always been. Smarter than me in fact.
Bon-Bon rubbed her forehead, not happy with me for some reason, and I felt as if I was about to be sick for disappointing her. “I’m sorry,” I said, “I am trying to fight off the effects of the changeling venom if it makes you feel any better, but it’s so lovely here. You shouldn’t blame yourself.”
One of the other ponies had poured some of the wine into a small vial, and was talking with his colleague, a unicorn mare who zapped it with a spell of some sort after he had finished talking. “Oh no,” Bon-Bon said, beginning to pace the hotel room, careful to avoid the area around Turn Coat, “Vinyl’s going to kill me if she finds out about this, and there’s no way in Equestria she won’t find out about this.”
“If you don’t want me to tell her anything I won-” Vinyl Scratch. The name was important. Very important. I had remembered it earlier, but the venom made me go back to forgetting. It continued to run through my head, growing louder with every iteration. There was a mare attached to it, I dimly recalled. A beautiful, wonderful mare who I loved, not as some obedient slave, but as an equal. That love didn’t seem right to me though, why would a worthless insect such as myself ever dare to view anyone as an equal, especially one as wonderful her. Yes, she was wonderful, better than me in every way. I needed to serve her, to make her happy and bask in the magnificence of her. That was-
I shook my head, temporarily dispelling such thoughts. “I need to keep thinking of Vinyl Scratch,” I said, each word feeling like a pained labor. This was wrong, my mind yelled, doing something for ourselves was wrong. Our place was to serve and obey, not to act. I was a slave and should be quite happy about that fact.
“Please… Help me.” Tears formed in my eyes as I struggled to form the words, struggling to keep the thoughts of how much I would love to serve Vinyl or Bon-Bon at bay by repeating the fact that I loved Vinyl as an equal to myself as much as possible, although every refrain was fainter than the last. “I can’t hold out for much longer. It’s so hard to think at all.”
“Alright,” she said slowly, “I’m so sorry for giving you a command and I understand if you hate me for this, but I need you to go into your cello case, take out one of the breath mints and eat it as quickly as possible. Be sure to chew it up though and not just swallow, that’s important too.” Whatever silly reservations I had vanished as I was given a new command to follow. Why would I ever not want to obey Bon-Bon? She was such a wonderful… no, magnificent pony. The Equestrian language didn’t have the proper word to describe how truly perfect she was. Even perfect wasn’t good enough, not for her.
“Is there anything else I can do for you?” I asked as I finished swallowing the mint. I wrapped a forehoof around her and tried to nuzzle my face against hers, but she quickly jerked out of my grip, leaving me to fall on the floor. What did I do to upset her? Why didn’t she want me to love her? “I… I’m sorry, you know I didn’t mean to upset you. Please forgive me?”
“Of course I forgive you,” she said, feigning a smile though I could still see the pain and sadness in her eyes. Pain and sadness that I had put there. I wanted to make her happy so badly, but I didn’t know how. “What I want you to do is go lay down on the bed over there and relax for a bit. I promise you will feel better when you get up.”
“But I feel better than fine now,” I said as I moved to the bed. “I just want to make you happy.”
“I know,” she said, maintaining her fake smile. “I promise when you get up, I will be happy with you.”
“Okay,” I said as I tucked myself into the bedsheets. “I’m sorry for disappointing you.”
“It’s alright, Octavia, now get some rest.”
I smiled as I stared at the ceiling. Hopefully, this would make her happy, I thought slowly, the words taking far longer to form than they should have. I yawned. Because I just wanted to make Bon-Bon happy. All I wanted to do was make her happy, I loved… Before I could finish that thought, I fell into slumber.