Vignettes
Fluttershy rolled over and over and over in the bed, enjoying how big it felt having it all to herself. She had already finished all the Tackish delights and now had only to wait until her King returned to her. How kind he was to leave her the bed! Fluttershy was relieved to sprawl on the cushy mattress and give her bruised body a break from lying on the stone. The exercise of rolling over, however, had caused her pulse to increase, and her whole heart hurt like a bruise with every beat. She propped herself against a pillow and took a break to examine herself.
There was a black streak under her skin weaving its way down toward her heart. Though it didn’t yet connect, Fluttershy could see her heart struggling with the infection if she held her breath and sat still enough. The beating motion was labored, and she wondered if there wasn’t some inflammation beneath her ribcage.
Her dark yellow fur was mostly worn away at her knees and elbows, and across her whole chest and stomach—a result of spending so much time lying on the coarse, hard ground. Where the fur was scant, her gray skin was blotchy with varying shades of bruises. There was a bruise for each rib that poked conspicuously out, and a few here and there on her stomach from King Sombra’s rough play.
Fluttershy gazed fondly at all the little marks of his possession her King had left on her body. Suddenly, the large bed she had been enjoying felt awfully lonely without him there to share it with her. She gazed down the length of her exposed ventral side and imagined King Sombra lying there on top of her, his muscular charcoal body covering up all her blemishes and hiding her from the pains of the cruel world. And there was the savory, smoky scent of his jet-black mane billowing about his face, which would be tucked delicately under her chin where his crimson horn probably wouldn’t gouge out her eye if he twitched.
He was thoughtful like that.
As Fluttershy closed her eyes and imagined the physical sensation of her King’s smothering embrace, something about it shifted. She furrowed her brow and tried to understand the changes without looking, but she couldn’t fathom what had happened. Had Sombra grown… Longer? Yes, she opened her eyes and confirmed, the soft body lying upon hers was now elongated and serpentine. Its fur was a lighter gray and its tail tapered in maroon scales. Fluttershy tried to look into the body’s face, but the long neck held it too far aloft, and the face was darkened in shadow. Startled, the mare blinked.
And all apparitions vanished, both Sombra and the unfamiliar long creature. Who or what had that been? Fluttershy hadn’t felt frightened by its appearance, and indeed there was something tucked far away within her that seemed to recognize the body and take joy in its touch. But try as she might, she could not recall who that body might have been.
She sat bewildered for a few minutes, then slowly began to turn over and over in the bed again. Reigniting the pain of her bruises would remind her of her dear King’s affection, her future husband’s loving touch. He would return for her soon, she was certain, and until then, she would relish in the gifts of pain that he had given her.
“We do not wish to believe you are guilty,” Princess Celestia assured. She was in a dark room occupied by only two other ponies.
“My test could prove your innocence, if indeed you speak the truth.” This was Princess Luna’s voice. “Will you allow me to perform it on you?”
“Yes.” The silver-maned stallion shook in his seat, but he was resolute. Luna nodded at her sister, and Celestia retreated to a far corner of the room.
“Now, train your mind on what you saw. Make the image as clear as you can, and I will cast a sleeping spell on you. What you saw in reality should appear in your dream. I will question you further from there, and your subconscious mind will be unable to lie to me. If I find that you are indeed innocent, I will release you from the dream. Do you still want to do this?”
“I am innocent. I have nothing to hide from my Princesses. Please, proceed.”
Celestia watched as the stallion slumped and Luna turned transparent from the spell that would carry her into the suspect’s dream. In a few minutes, the Princess of the Night returned to solid form with concern on her face.
“This stallion speaks true. It was the filly who had planted the false information, and sister, you are not going to like who it was...”
She flew, fast. They were gaining on her! Queen Chrysalis chanced a look over her shoulder to see six San Franciscolt police officers only a few lengths behind. She pretended not to notice when she whipped her head forward again that the parcel she had been carrying in her magic slammed against a tree branch and tumbled to the ground behind her. Nothing mattered now but escape, for if she were caught, their entire invasion could be compromised.
At last! The sea sparkled before the Queen’s harrowed eyes. In another moment, she had launched herself over the sea cliff, flew in a neat 180, and dove down into the cover of a cave system.
Three pegasus officers tried to follow, but soon had to turn back from the labyrinthine passages. “It looks like that may be her lair,” they reported to others.
“And she must have stolen this,” the chief officer displayed the parcel, broken open from its impact with the tree. “We should probably let the Princesses know about everything we saw here.”
Spike saluted Starlight. “You’ll get an emergency note from me wherever you are the instant there’s any trouble.”
Starlight sighed in relief. “Thanks, Spike. I know Twilight’s not going to like it when she learns I left, but nopony in my old village ever responded to the letter I sent when things started getting bad. I’m really worried about them!”
“Heh, I now. You were almost twilighting with worry yesterday.”
“You sure you can handle the school for a couple days? I know there aren’t any students here right now, but it’s a big, otherwise empty building, and you just never know what could happen.”
“I’ll be fine. You must be taking worrying lessons from Twilight! Anyway, I’ve invited Big Mac over for the nights that you’re gone. That way, I won’t be totally alone.”
“Good. If everything looks fine in my village, I’ll be back here in a flash. Twilight will never even have to know.”
A shadow floated along the surface of the water, invisible in the dark except where it briefly obscured the reflection of a star or two. King Sombra spotted the ship and was soon standing on its deck, still undetected. For a moment, he considered just piercing the hull with a crystal growth and getting on his way, but then he decided the small company of Equestrian Royal Guard would make a fine personal Guard for himself once he had his kingdom, and he would want the boat to get his victims back to shore.
Without waking the sleeping ponies below deck, Sombra first attacked the two watchponies. All it took was a second of possession each, and their free will was erased. “Sit,” the King commanded, and they obeyed. Next he gave the same treatment to the pilot of the ship, and then, one by one, he captured the rest. Only one Guard, the highest-ranking on the vessel, put up any kind of a fight. King Sombra recognized him and let him try to re-capture his own ship just for the satisfaction of watching the white unicorn live out one of his worst nightmares.
Finally, the King mercifully brainwashed this stallion too. He commanded the pilot to turn the ship around and make for a secluded bay. Then, he conjured a seat and sat down to watch over his victims and to ruminate on the stars shining above in the sky and below on the quiet water.
“Such beauty in the darkness,” he sighed. “A shame most ponies scarcely know how to appreciate it.” But not my pony. Soon she will be a creature of the shadows like myself, and she will fully understand my darkness which conceals. Then I will receive some genuine appreciation and praise at last!
“Oh Fluttershy, my future Queen, you do not know how well your devotion fuels me!” King Sombra reclined and imagined crushing her up to himself, delighting in the softness of her fur, especially where it had been growing longer along her neck and shoulders. He imagined inhaling the scent of her mane, the syrupy sweetness of decay like overripe fruit. He imagined tasting those delicate lips…
Huh. He had thought this lava field had long been drained of lava. Dropping low onto all fours, he crept up to the hole from which the faint smoke was rising. It did not smell sulfurous. Slowly, quietly, without knocking a pebble out of place, he fit himself into the opening of the lava tube and slithered down into the gloom, following his nose when his vision failed.
“This shall be the final piece.” Grogar peered greedily into his Seeing Eye. With the capture of this artifact, he could set in motion a cascade of devastation for his enemies and win himself ample power to take down those stubborn ponies at last. He would force them to battle soon after playing this move, when they would be at their weakest. “My victory will be sure to follow!” Grogar burst into laughter, and it echoed ominously down the stony corridors of his lair.
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Fluttershy almost remembered Discord, I'm blaming it all on some kind of spell tied to that black infection. It must be corrupting both her body and mind.
9816644
Ya' know what? I'm tired of torturing Fluttershy. I'm going to condense the next two releases into one and bring her relief a few days closer. I know how everything ends and even I'm getting tired of waiting!
I hope no one will mind getting three chapters this weekend!
9816778
Don't worry, I think we'd be more than glad to get some more chapters. Thank you an good luck.
9816778
I MIND SO SO MUCH.
Except I don't. I wish I had the kind of writing tenacity you did!
This story gets more compelling by the minute!
Is it weird that I thought Discord would appear, surprising Sombra by being captain of the ship? With a peg leg, pipe, and all? Because I did. XD
"Ye can take me ship, but I'll die on me leg and peg afore I let ye corrupt me lovely matey, Fluttershy!"
...No, I guess it doesn't quite fit the tone of the story...
9817514
Discord as the captain of the ship is a hilarious image, but I'm afraid you're right. Looking back, I realize that I've got almost nothing for comic relief in the whole story, so it definitely wouldn't fit the tone... That said, your line
is so very Discord and absolute gold, and I love it.
9817567
Thank you! Discord dialogue is my favorite thing to write.
And hey. Comic relief isn't the golden formula to a good story, and your tag does have the "dark" tag.
Also your story has Pinkie in it. She's relief enough even if she isn't joking around.