Rarity Gets Enslaved

by MagicS

A Beautiful Heart

“Duke Terluff, I was perhaps wondering if I may have some assistants to help me with my work?”

It was a simple enough request. The very day after the one I spent with Tulepule I marched back here to Duke Terluff’s home and asked this of him. Considering all I had done for him and the support he had given me in the past I was hopeful that he would agree to this. After my epiphany yesterday I would no longer push my and the other slaves predicament into the back of my mind. There was a lot of work to be done and I don’t mean making dresses.

My plans for the future might be a little extreme, some would even say delusional, but fail or succeed things were going to start here.

He raised an eyebrow at me as he sat at his mahogany table.

“You didn’t seem to have a problem making everything yourself before. What’s changed?” He asked. It was certainly a fair question.

Luckily I had the truth on my side. Even if my actual reasons for wanting assistants were different.

“I’ve had quite the increase in dress orders, more arrive every day and I simply don’t have the time or ability to make them all myself when I put in as much effort and care into each one that I like to. If I did want to make them all alone I’d have to sacrifice quality and originality and then what would be the point?” I said. “My dresses get so much acclaim because of their unmatched style and appeal. My value would plummet if I started putting out inferior products.”

He thumbed his chin as he went over my words in his head. My argument was sound so what would he have to complain about?

Finally he shrugged. “Eh, alright. We can find some for you whenever you want. As long as your shelf life is maintained it’s fine.”

I don’t exactly like how he so casually refers to my “shelf life” but I still smile at his words.

“Thank you, and you don’t even have to worry about doing anything yourself.” I said. “I already know who I want to help me.”

“What do you mean?” The Duke raised an eyebrow. “You don’t know any servants or where you can find any trolls with tailoring experience.”

With my fake giggle I playfully shook my hoof at him. “Darling, please, what I mean is that I’m going to go get some of my fellow slaves to come help me. It’s the least I can do for them after all. If I can do something nice and take care of my work at the same time that’s quite a win isn’t it?”

“Hah, I suppose.” He chuckled. “Fine, I’ll notify the slave overseers and you can head down there later and grab whoever you want. You’d probably get along better with slaves than troll servants anyways.”

“I agree.” The smile left my face as I gave Duke Terluff a more detached look. “And it really will be so good to save some friends of mine from the simply awful work they’re forced to do. I truly have to thank you again for bringing me into your employ in the first place and sparing me from all of that as well.”

It was clear what I said had made him uncomfortable. Despite his stated distaste for sentimentality and carefree nature the Duke had a true heart to him, he couldn’t love his wife so much if he didn’t, and he didn’t like to be reminded of my actual situation and the reality of what the slaves had to do now that he had gotten attached to me. He was never so callous and mean as some of the other trolls in the first place and his persona had warmed considerably further as we spent more time together.

“Yes, well...” His eyes shifted about and he fidgeted in his seat before waving me away. “Go on then.”

But he’d still rather ignore anything troubling than have to deal with it.

There was no point in bothering with that at the moment though, that would come later. For now I had some friends to visit and apologize to. I just hope none of them were very upset with me for essentially forgetting about them. I mean, I would be.

---

So as it was I was now standing in front of my old bed back in the slave quarters, surrounded by the old familiar faces of Gertrude, Daylight Gleam, Soleil, and the two young dragons whose names I did not know. When I first walked back into the room and greeted everyone I was met with much the same reaction as I had gotten when I first arrived here. Apathy. Only these few, er, friends of mine let’s say, actually came up to see me. Or perhaps chew me out, I was just sort of awkwardly standing there for the moment.

“Darlings-”

“How was it?”

I was instantly cut off by Daylight questioning me on my time with Duke Terluff. I coughed nervously and my pupils darted all over.

“It was… nice?” Did I tell the truth? Would it just make them more upset?

“Just nice? No way, I bet it was way better than having to go around doing whatever dumb work they tell you to do today.” The pink dragon said.

“Yeah! I bet it was super exciting, you probably had a lot of fun right?” Soleil said with a smile on her face.

I was a bit perplexed by her eagerness. “Well I’ll admit it was very comfortable and-”

“Oh I knew it!” Soleil exclaimed. “You’re so lucky!”

As I looked at each of their faces I saw a surprising lack of malice aimed towards me. I thought they’d be jealous or upset. At the very least indignant that I had just disappeared into luxury while they toiled about in the kitchens and on the farms.

“Aren’t any of you mad at me that I abandoned you?” I had to ask.

“Abandoned us?” Daylight said incredulously. “No one thinks that. Who wouldn’t choose to be a Duke’s servant over doing normal slave work?”

“Yeah, seriously.” Gertrude said. “No one’s going to hold anything against you, I’d do the same thing and unlike you I wouldn’t even feel bad about it.”

I saw Daylight roll her eyes at that.

“You’re really not angry?” I said, actually trembling a little. I was so relieved but so overwhelmed at the same time. I had been beating myself up over this and I was prepared to weather anything they said and beg for forgiveness. Was I just being over-dramatic? I didn’t think I would get such a warm reception from them.

“Of course not!” Daylight Gleam reached forward and hugged me. “Sure I’m maybe a little peeved that you didn’t even notice me at a few of the parties and events I was catering at but so what? Am I supposed to judge you for enjoying the good life and getting to do what you love?” She held me by the shoulders and looked into my eyes. “Stop with the moping, you’re here now because you care and that’s what matters. Right?”

What a nice bunch of creatures I’ve met.

“Yes, yes you’re absolutely right.” I wiped away the bit of water that had welled up in my eyes. “In fact the reason I’m here is going to make things even better too.”

“What do you mean?” Gertrude asked.

“Well.” I started, flourishing my mane. “I didn’t come down here just to say hello and possibly beg for forgiveness, I came because I wanted to help you in the same way I was helped. I want all of you to be my assistants and help me with my new work. That’s the excuse at least. Truthfully I just want to do as much as I can for all of the slaves, starting with you.” I looked at their mix of confused and surprised expressions with a smirk on my face before a sudden thought struck me.

“Oh that’s right!” I exclaimed, looking at the two dragons. “I’m terribly sorry darlings, and this is rather inconsiderate of me to not know this, but what are your names? I don’t believe I ever caught them.”

The two looked between themselves for a second before responding.

“Um, I’m Cinder.” The fiery-red one told me.

“And I’m Spine.” The pink one said.

“Well, Cinder, Spine, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” I stuck out a hoof for them to shake.

The two young dragons shrugged and took it one at a time. There, now I felt a bit less bad for not getting to learn their names earlier. To be honest I still knew nothing about them or Soleil but that can’t be helped right now. Baby steps.

“So aside from us helping you out with whatever it is you do, what do you mean by you want to do as much for the slaves as you can?” Daylight Gleam asked me, regarding me with a curious look.

“Oh, well that’s simple. I’m going to free all the slaves.”

Very simple. Right?

The reactions of my friends were as I expected. Mouths hung open in shock in the cases of Soleil, Cinder and Spine, a dull unamused look with a single raised eyebrow from Gertrude, and a worried look from Daylight Gleam as her nose wrinkled while she chewed on her lip. At least they didn’t just laugh me off right?

“Hold on one second.” Getrude said, raising a talon as if to pause me. “Can you repeat that?”

“As I said. I’m going to free all of the slaves.” I said just as calmly and certain as before.

A groan escaped the griffon’s mouth as she dragged her hand down her face. “You’re nuttier than my brothers. And you’re serious aren’t you? How are you even planning to do that?”

“Uh, I’ll admit I’m a bit curious about that part too.” Daylight Gleam said as she raised her hoof like a student wanting to be called on. “It’s not like I planned to stay here forever or anything but I was always just going to try and find my own way out after learning enough about the trolls and the castle to escape.”

“First off, yes, I am absolutely serious.” I told the gathered ones while looking straight into their eyes. “Secondly I am not entirely sure how I’m going to do it. But I will do it. I’ve done and been a part of things far greater than this, I’ve gotten through far bigger troubles, I know I can do anything I put my mind to.” I gave them all my most sincere of smiles. “Especially with a great group of friends supporting me.”

“This is all sort of coming out of nowhere to me.” Soleil spoke up. “But I didn’t want to spend my whole life here so eh, I’m all for it.” She shrugged.

“Excellent!” I clapped my hooves together.

“Oh for the love of...” Gertrude rolled her eyes. “Soleil, really now?”

“I feel like it’s worth a shot.” The hippogriff responded.

“What is worth a shot?! She just said she doesn’t have a plan.” Gertrude was being rather negative about our chances but she wasn’t exactly wrong with what she was saying either.

“Darling, calm down already.” I walked up to the griffon to put a calming hoof on her shoulder. “At the moment I just want us to stay positive and work towards the goal of freeing everyone else and escaping. We’ll take it one step at a time, and while I’ll admit to not knowing exactly how we’ll accomplish the big goal I’ve got some ideas to get us started. I’ve made some friends in high places you know and just a little bit of friendship can go a long way.”

She scoffed. “You think any trolls will help you?”

“No. I know some will help me.” I responded bluntly. “When you’re willing to show some kindness, generosity, and friendship to others you’ll be surprised how much of it you’ll get back. I know that from experience.”

It was true after all.

“Oh that’s-”

Gertrude was cut off from whatever she was about to say by Daylight Gleam.

“I agree with Rarity.” The eyes of the others here turned to her now. “I mean, not like we were doing anything else anyways? I think we might really be able to do something here. And it’s good to stay positive and work towards a certain goal than just saying “maybe” day in and day out.”

Gertrude groaned again and turned to look at Spine and Cinder to see what they thought.

The two dragons looked at each other and then faced Gertrude, shrugging. “We’re up for it.” The two darlings said in unison.

That was the last straw for my griffon friend, she threw up her arms in exasperation. “Alright, whatever! I guess I’m the crazy one here. Let’s just do it then.”

“Hooray!” I shouted in glee, actually giving her a bit of a hug. “Glad to see you’ve decided to join us.”

“Ughhh.” Gertrude was being a bit overly dramatic in her annoyance. I absolutely know where she’s coming from though so really it just made me feel more attached to her than anything else.

“Now that that’s over.” I said to my little group. “We shall be moving out to my private office. Let’s go!” I cheerfully stuck my hoof in the air and began marching out of the room.

That went much better than expected. Everyone was so nice and understanding, I was feeling better about our chances at succeeding already. Things would be better from here on out, I would never forget what I needed to do and I would really change things here. It wasn’t just about me escaping anymore or rescuing Captain Anchor and his crew. I was going to save everyone because that’s the right thing to do. I could never live with myself if I returned home without putting a stop to all of this.

---

First of all though we had a lot of dresses to make in time for Tulepule’s next ball. All of my respect and prestige would go flying out the window if I didn’t do this and then we’d be in quite the pickle. I need to still have a spot in the high society of the trolls.

Now let me tell you. It was not exactly easy teaching a bunch of creatures who had absolutely no knowledge of the finer points of tailoring and a lack of finesse in general. And a lack of care in a certain griffon’s case. But I did my best to get them to an adequate enough level to at least do busy work and take care of the little things. Just having someone to clean things up or hold something or find something for me while I was busy was a lot of help. The six of us were doing a fairly nice job all in all I think. It actually makes me yearn for the opportunity to do this with my friends back home, sure they might not see what would make it so fun but I think it could be a great friendship exercise/lesson. All of us working together to make a wonderful dress or two?

Oh my! Now that I think of it that would make a great lesson at the school. I wonder if Twilight would go for it? I’d love to see what all of my students put together.

“So like, what are we doing after this?”

I was interrupted from my daydreaming by Cinder’s question. The darling was organizing some of my errant fabric, she had a bit of a lost expression on her face but she wasn’t doing too bad anymore.

“Glad you ask.” I said. “After we get settled in here and get the ball rolling on the dress orders I have to make I shall introduce you to my benefactor, Duke Terluff. And there’s a favor I’ll be asking him for that I think will make you all quite happy.”

“Kind of already happy enough to be out of doing normal slave work.” Soleil said while she swept the floor… I suppose that didn’t count as normal work to her?

“Yes but this will be a real treat, you’ll see.” I winked at my friends. I’m sure they’ll love what I have in mind.

The rest got back to their various tasks while Gertrude scarfed down an apple. Might as well let her. She wasn’t being a pain at least. Could use some more help but oh well, the others were getting into a groove and I suppose that would have to do for now. I was able to get a lot of extra work done on my sewing machine thanks to the free time they enabled. However before I really could get back into my work I remembered something Gertrude had said earlier.

“Gertrude?” I called to her, she looked over at me and raised a questioning eyebrow. “You mentioned having brothers didn’t you? How are they? I happen to have a little sister myself, she can be a bit of a hassle sometimes but I’d never give her up for anything.”

I really wanted to get to know her better. All of them. And having some small talk while we worked would be nice too.

The griffon shrugged. “Who knows? Haven’t seen either of them for years.”

“Oh...” My disappointment was obviously visible since Gertrude sighed and decided to continue.

“But yeah, my older brother Godfrey and my younger brother Gilbert. Sorry to say but Godfrey was always a jerk, and he hated Griffonstone. One day he flew over the mountains to the east and no one ever saw him again.” I was fairly certain she held herself back from saying “Good riddance” at the end there. “Gilbert was alright. Kind of weird and dumb but fine to get along with, he decided he wanted to go adventuring too though and he flew up north right into Bug Bear territory. Haven’t heard from him since either.”

“I see.” Although it wasn’t exactly the happiest of conversations I was glad that we were all able to learn something new about her.

“What about the rest of you?” Gertrude said to everyone else in the office. “Got any brothers or sisters or is it just us two?”

“Only child.” Daylight Gleam said.

“Orphan.” Soleil said. Oh dear, I feel bad for the poor girl. She doesn’t really seem bothered by it though.

“The two of us are only childs. But we were raised together so we’re basically sisters.” Cinder said, throwing an arm around Spine’s shoulders.

Good, good, everyone was getting to know each other and becoming better friends already!

Now I was planning for us to do some more work before we walked over to Duke Terluff’s home but as it turns out that was unnecessary. Duke Terluff didn’t even bother knocking, just opened up the door to the office and walked right in. All the work in the room stopped, it was apparent that none of my friends knew this was Duke Terluff, he could’ve been anyone to them. He gazed across all of them without speaking up first either, appraising them.

But I just merrily smiled and hopped off my stool, trotting up to him.

“Duke Terluff, a pleasure for you to come by.”

“Yes, I wanted to see how things were going. And who you decided to grab for your assistants.” He wasn’t paying any attention to me as he spoke, still looking from slave to slave.

“Well as you can see things are coming along swimmingly. I have no doubt that we’ll be able to complete every dress I’ve been hired to make.” I said proudly.

“That’s good, and you have one of your own now as well correct? I wanted you to accompany me to Tulepule’s upcoming ball.” He asked me.

Now let’s see if I can convince him of a certain favor. I wanted to talk about this with him in private but since he came here might as well.

“Actually I put my dress on the back-burner to focus on on what I needed to make for other nobles. The design is complete and I know what I need to do with it but I haven’t actually finished it yet.” I told him and then began to look around the room absently, feigning as if I was in deep thought. “You know… this makes a good opportunity for me to bring something up with you I was wondering about. Since there are certain supplies I need replenished to finish my dress and the others.”

Duke Terluff’s eyes narrowed, it seems he was aware that I was getting at something.

“Oh? And what would that be?” He asked while he cupped his chin in hand, staring down at me.

I gave him an innocent look and smile in return. “I would absolutely love it if you authorized me to leave the castle so I can personally purchase the materials I need.”

There was silence for a moment. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Daylight Gleam and Gertrude exchange an uncertain look with each other. Duke Terluff’s expression didn’t change at all as he kept looking at me, I was drawn to that bald spot between his eyes so I wouldn’t have to look at the beady pupils piercing into me.

“You’re really quite bold aren’t you?” He finally answered.

“Well, I feel I’ve more than earned the right to a simple excursion.” I really think I did.

“I can just order what you need, you know.”

“Or I can go get it myself. What’s the problem?” I was getting quite brazen now and I can only imagine how glued to us the eyes of the others in the room were.

Duke Terluff snorted. “Hah, typical of you isn’t it? Fine. I’ll authorize you to go to the same port town you initially arrived at, they’ll have the best selection of things.” He gave me a hard look. “You’ll be going with an escort of guards though just so you know. They’ll be just as much for your protection as they will be to keep an eye on you.”

“I expected as much.” I said with a shrug, tossing my mane over my shoulder. “But I’m sorry, I misspoke earlier. What I meant to say was that I wanted you to authorize all of us to leave the castle for this errand.”

Again there was silence, I saw Soleil’s jaw drop in astonishment that I would ask that.

After a moment there was a low rumbling from Duke Terluff, his shoulders were shaking-

And he broke out in laughter.

“Hah!” He guffawed loudly in my face, holding his belly as the laughs wracked his body. “You’re too much sometimes! Hahaha!” After a moment longer of me standing there patiently waiting for him to finish he finally started to calm down. “Rarity, you always surprise me. I’m never bored when things involve you. That impertinence of yours is rather hilarious, I think you may have let your recent fame and fortune get to your head a little bit.”

“Hardly, darling.” I responded with an over the top frown and looked away from him, closing my eyes. “I think I’m acting exactly how I should be for someone in my position.” I smiled and winked at him.

“Feh! You’re lucky I’m nicer than I thought I was!” He clapped me on the back stiffly enough that my knees buckled. “Very well, you can all go. But there will be even more guards to accompany you and the trip won’t be for more than a day at most.”

“Oh thank you Duke Terluff!” I happily jumped up and clapped my hooves together. This is going to be wonderful!

The Duke rolled his eyes and turned to leave the office. “Stop thanking me so much.”

---

“I can’t believe this is actually happening.” Daylight Gleam said as we sat side by side in a carriage on its way to the unnamed port.

The six of us were now being escorted to our destination. Duke Terluff had taken care of everything and left me with a sizable amount of money to pay for whatever I needed and then some. I feel like I could practically buy the whole town with the massive chest that was sitting in the middle of the carriage. Which would be useful since I also planned to buy some extra materials and maybe some gifts for my new friends if I saw something that fit them. Although I would likely have to make it myself considering the trolls lack of style and boring fashion. Either that or get lucky and find something that had been pillaged from somewhere else. I think a bow would look great on Daylight. A scarf for Soleil maybe? A beret would be perfect for Gertrude. Spine and Cinder were a little harder for me to think of something good for. Maybe vests?

“I’m with you on that one.” Gertrude said in reply to Daylight.

“See? You should all trust in me now, right?” I said to them. “I’m very good at getting what I want.”

“If he said no would you have thrown a hissy-fit and started crying?” Gertrude snidely grinned at me.

I huffed at her. “Of course not.” At least not in front of them.

Before the conversation could take another turn there was something I had been meaning to ask now that we were out of the castle.

“So for those of you who can fly, and by that I mean all of you except for Daylight I suppose, why have you never tried to just fly away from the castle?” I figured there was a reason but no one had ever actually confirmed anything.

“Tried it on the first day I was let outside for some work.” Gertrude answered immediately. “You can probably guess that they have ways of keeping any slaves from escaping or else we would’ve been gone a long time ago. They don’t use chains or anything like that because they don’t need to.” She cracked her neck and leaned forward. “First off those stormy clouds that are always above head here aren’t safe for traveling through, so you always have to stay low enough where you’re completely visible from the ground. And the mountains that surround the castle are full of all kinds of monsters that the trolls only keep away from the main roads and castle itself. Last of all I don’t know how but they have some way of tracking us, I didn’t make it more than a few hours before some blimp was chasing after me and then they just shot a big net out of a catapult and that was the end of that. Heard the same story from other griffons, pegasi and whatever. No one’s ever even made it to the coastline from the castle.” She shrugged apathetically. “And with the guards we’ve got with us right now I doubt we’d get anywhere if we tried to escape here either.”

“Well I never intended us to escape here, we’ve still got everyone else to save after all.” I said, sitting back and ruminating on what Gertrude had said. The trolls sounded over-confident in their ability to catch runaway slaves, they couldn’t possibly organize enough forces to chase after multiple fliers, especially if they went in different directions, could they? A tracking ability sounded problematic though.

Would we be able to leave? Would I be able to free all of the slaves and safely get them out of here? Or perhaps would something different need to be done?

I was again interrupted from my musings by the carriage pulling to a stop. A moment later a troll guard opened up the door in the back of the carriage for us to exit.

“We’re here.” He told us. “You will all be staying together to make it easier. We will be guarding you the entirety of the trip.”

Guarding us and handling us to make sure we didn’t escape. But no matter, it was time for shopping!

Comments

[RoboRed]

...Thought Gertrude's name sounded familiar.

[MagicS]

11571626
Yep, mentioned for the first time all the way back here. Just took a while for them, and especially Godfrey, to actually appear.