The Machine

by ADRNEL

Chapter XXXI~The Village~

Twilight slowly opened her eyes to see nothing but ceiling over her. Curious, she tried to get up only to find all four of her legs strapped down on the ground. "Ugh...of course..." she groaned. She decided to use her magic to untie the ropes, but oddly found the process difficult and draining. With much effort, she successfully untied all the ropes and went to get up only to be pulled by the neck by a metal chain.

"Augh!" she exclaimed as the chain retracted to a nearby wall, dragging her with it. She suddenly hit a brick wall hard, which stopped her, but still felt the chain tug on the metal collar around her neck.

"The more you struggle, the more that collar will choke you Twilight." said a female voice. "We wouldn't want you dead just yet." she walked out of the shadows to reveal herself to Twilight.

"What...did you...do to me..." she struggled.

"Cut you down to the same level everypony should be at." Starlight smirked as she saw Twilight's new cutie mark; an equals sign. "Now you are as competent in magic as the least skilled unicorn in this town."

Twilight continued to fight the chain, but it would just choke her slightly more. She felt rage build inside her. "My...friends..."

"They'll be taken care of soon, for now, I just need you to stay put until you are more manageable." explained Starlight.

"And...Adam...?"

"What about him? He's mine now, why do you still care?" Starlight gloated. "Unless...the thought of him still makes you moist...my goodness, once you go bipedal, you never go back." she laughed. "Even when he's with some other mare, I bet you were extremely jealous that he ended up with that fragile violet Fluttershy instead of an intellectual equal like you."

"No!..." Twilight choked in denial.

"Your lips say 'no' but your eyes say 'very much so'." she pointed out. She placed her face up against Twilight's. "Admit it, you're such a slut for the brainy types."

Twilight just hacked a large wad of spit at Starlight's face in offense at that statement. Starlight gave the captured mare an annoyed look.

"Okay then, I see how it is..." Starlight slapped the purple mare hard in the face. "you can rot in here until you are ready to be broken." Starlight hissed with disgust before she left her prisoners chained up to the wall by her neck, in the dark.

Twilight did not say word, but just growled.

---

Chapter XXXI
The Village
Part Two

---

At Golden Oaks Library, a loud pounding on the door rang throughout the library. Spike reluctantly got up from his nap to answer the door. "I'm coming! I'm coming!" he groaned with annoyance. "No one understands patience these days..." he muttered. Spike opened the door only to see that it was Fluttershy, nervously standing before the dragon. "Shy?"

"Uh...I was wondering if...well, if you don't mind asking of course...if you may possibly know the location of where...uh...my friends were sent to?" she asked with shame and guilt. She felt bad for abandoning not only her friends, but the human she still had feelings for.

"The town is too new to appear on a map, but I can tell you that it is directly north-northeast of Manehatten and that-"

"That's great, thank you!" Fluttershy quickly flew off to the sky as fast she could, interrupting the baby dragon.

Spike stood there bemused. "Twilight's friends are weird..."

"Oh Adam, I hope I am not too late..." said Fluttershy with worry as she flew high over Ponyville, as fast as she could.

---

Rarity walked in the mare's bathroom in the cafe to hear the sound of retching from one of the stalls. "Dash?" asked Rarity with concern. She opened the stall door to see Rainbow Dash, face over the squat toilet, vomiting and looking nauseous. "Dash, darling?!"

The pegasus turned around to see her best friend behind her. She felt ashamed. "Please don't tell the others..." she pleaded. "...at least not yet...especially Applejack..."

Rarity was confused at first, but quickly began to put it all together in her mind. She gave a loud gasp of surprise. "Dash...are you...?" Dash nodded. "...and Mac is the...?" Dash nodded again with shame. "But how?"

"I don't know, we were very careful, I even made sure Mac had two layers of protection on him just to be sure!" Dash explained.

"Wait...you made Mac wear TWO?!"

"Yeah? If one works, two should be foolproof."

"Apparently not idiot-proof though." the unicorn said in her mind.

Suddenly, a mare barged into the bathroom and walked up towards them. Rarity and Dash remained silent. "Miss Glimmer wants you and your friends in front of her house...NOW!" ordered the baker.

Both the unicorn and pegasus were confused, but they quietly went along with it. They followed the baker out of the bakery and to the lone unattached house that belonged to Starlight Glimmer. Waiting for them was an expecting crowd along with Applejack and Pinkie Pie.

"What's going on Applejack?" asked Rarity.

"Beats me, somethin' about Miss Glimmer wantin' to meet us here." was all Applejack could say.

"Oooh...maybe it's a surprise welcome party!" exclaimed a cheerful Pinkie.

Suddenly, the door the house opened and out marched an overconfident Starlight with her wooden staff. The four mares were confused at what was happening. Starlight began to address the crowd that formed around her.

"My fellow citizens of this town, I, your beloved leader and mayor would like to personally welcome these four mares to our community, I'm sure they'll be wonderful and loyal followers in our quest to spread equality across this great land of Equestria." she boasted. "As the old Neighponese saying goes, 'the nail that sticks out the most, gets hammered the most', well, these four are the nails that do stick out and I, your leader, will be the hammer that will hit them down to our level." she explained.

The four mares were even more confused. Suddenly, four ponies walked up each with a jar. Starlight's staff began to glow. "What in tarnation is goin' on here?!" demanded Applejack. "Where's Twi?!"

"In the same boat as you two are going to be." Starlight chuckled. Suddenly the staff fired a beam at the four mares as Starlight laughed maniacally at the sight.

"AHHH!" they screamed. Many of the ponies were reluctant to see the display, but they knew they must so they would not get punished.

Starlight continued to extract sick pleasure from the sight as she watched all their cutie marks leave their bodies and get replaced by an equals sign.

---

At the same time, Twilight was still stuck against the wall, the collar ever so slightly choking her more with even the slightest movement. The unicorn found concentrating increasingly difficult in the circumstances. She suddenly heard the door open. The mare looked ahead to see Adam slowly walk in. Twilight just gave the human a look of disgust.

Adam felt a pain of guilt in his chest. He just went over to a random lever on a wall and flipped it down, which caused the chain to loosen its slack and send Twilight hitting the floor. The mare coughed hard and tried to catch her breath. "You girls were not supposed to be here." was all he said. "You all put yourselves in danger."

"We came here because we heard you were here!" Twilight snarled. "But I guess we were sent here to see how much you changed and how much you turned your back on everything we used to stand for!"

"I just wanted to find my own destiny!"

"YOU'RE LOOKING AT IT!" yelled Twilight with anger. Adam looked on with shock. "I have lived multiple lives and died multiple times, and in everyone of them, I ended up with you!" a tear flowed down her cheek. "I am your destiny, it was my death in your arms as Mary that lead you here!" she continued. "But you were so focused on Fluttershy and Mary for you to notice the destiny that was in front of your own eyes!"

"Starlight promised me that she'll find me a purpose in the world, I believed her, I really did..." Adam spat back before memories of all the abuse he suffered under Starlight flooded his mind. "I was so desperate in forgetting my past that I...I let her use me!" Adam admitted. "And after that, I knew I could never turn back, it was either commit to this situation, or lose all reasons of living."

"Use me as a reason to live Adam!" the mare pleaded. "I love you okay, I really do love you, but I was too deep in denial to see that until what happened in the library, until I experienced the multiple different ways I fell in love with you and made love..."

"Why? I'm nothing but used goods! Starlight Glimmer's used goods, that's all I am!" Adam barked. "No one will ever love this human, not after all that will happen, I made a choice Twilight, and I must stick with it until its logical conclusion."

"She raped you Adam, she raped you so she can wrap you around her hoof, to control you and make you her obedient servant!" Twilight bluntly told the human. "She's only using you so she can further her twisted goals."

The human was stunned and was temporarily at a loss of words. "Then so be it, it's still a purpose!" he barked before he stormed out of the room, refusing to accept that everything he did since he left was a waste. He locked the door behind him and stomped up the stairs to reveal that Twilight's cell was in Starlight Glimmer's basement. Adam walked in to see Starlight herself placing four jars of cutie marks on one of the shelves.

"How's our prisoner behaving?" asked Starlight, smiling from a job well done.

"Very well ma'am." Adam reported. He looked to see that each of the four jars held very familiar cutie marks in them.

"Tomorrow, I want you to take them to the wall." she ordered. "I guess your ex did the smart thing by not coming here." she chuckled. "But no matter, we'll take care of her eventually." she said confidently. "Anyways, I will be taking a shower to freshen myself up, I need you in my quarters, I have a lot of pent-up energy to release." she ordered.

"I don't know, I'm not really in the mood to-" Adam was felt his neck tighten, he began to choke.

Starlight's horn glowed as she used her magic to choke the human. "That wasn't a suggestion, that was an ORDER!" she snarled. "It is your job to do whatever I demand!"

"But are we not...equal..." he gasped.

"Equal?! Since when were we ever equal!" she squeezed harder. "You're just a weak pathetic creature, the only reason I ever put up with you is because you are smart with comparatively higher stamina and endurance than a stallion, and that you would never get me pregnant." she threw the human against the wall.

Adam breathed deeply and was down on the floor in pain. "You are pathetic, no wonder you are so easy to control." she turned around and walk out. "I expect you naked and ready when I am out of the shower." was the last thing she said before she walked up the stairs.

The human got up, his back sore. He heard the sound of running water from upstairs, she was in the shower. He just fell to his knees as Twilight's words hit him. "She is right..." was all he could say as tears flowed down his eyes and he began to break down in tears. "Oh God, I made a mistake..." he cried. His purpose was in Ponyville with Twilight's friends, not here. Why couldn't he figure that out earlier?

Suddenly, Adam got an idea, an idea that quickly turned into a plan to end all the misery of the last three months completely. He walked over to the kitchen and looked through the doors until he found what he wanted; a large knife. He did not want to give her a quick death, she did not deserve it after all the things she has done to him. He looked at the knife and could picture himself stabbing it through her flesh, repeatedly. This thought made him feel better. "I must succeed."

---

Two Months Ago...

"A STAY OUT!" yelled the bartender just as Adam was forcibly pushed out into a Manehatten alleyway. "You over-sized monkey!" the door slammed shut, locking the human out.

"I thought you're service was deplorable anyways!" Adam spat back. He got up from the floor and dusted himself off.

"So," began a voice. "How many bars does that make it? Five? Six?"

"That's none of your concern ma'am." said Adam.

"I think it is, especially if I have a job offer for you...Mr. Gray." said the voice.

Confused, Adam turned to see a pink coated, purple maned unicorn behind him. "How did you know my name?"

"There are many stories of your exploits Mr. Gray, ponies know who you are...and I require some help." she walked up to Adam. "My name is Starlight Glimmer, and I need your help and intelligence in spreading my ideas and possibly create a place to make it work."

"Why me?" he asked skeptically.

"Because I know you're looking for a purpose, and what better purpose is there than by helping me make Equestria a much better place?" Starlight asked with smirk. "What do you think?"

Adam stood there quietly as he tried to process what he just heard and weight his options.

---

Starlight stood under the hot shower, enjoying the feel of the hot water running through her fur and mane. She was also happy that her biggest obstacle, the elements of harmony, have been neutralized. She felt like she was on top of the world.

What she did not notice was the fact that the human was just outside the door, in the attached bedroom, wielding a large knife. He peeked through the open bathroom door, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

Suddenly, the shower water turned ice cold. "Ahhh, cold!" she yelped. This startled Adam out of his trance and he realized what he was about to do. As Starlight turned off the shower to prematurely end her relaxing shower, Adam quickly ran out the bedroom and out to the hallways before he was seen. He leaned up against the wall next to the bedroom door and heard Starlight walk straight from the attached bathroom to her room. The human peaked through the crack of the door to see Starlight drying her mane, after her mane she began to dry off the rest of her body.

But then, Adam quickly noticed something different about Starlight. For a brief moment he thought his mind was playing tricks on him, he thought he saw a completely different cutie mark on her rump. Adam looked to see that instead of an equals sign, it was a star themed mark.

"Adam must still be downstairs crying like a little bitch." Starlight explained to herself to explain the lack of human on her bed. She then used her magic to levitate herself a make-up kit and black paint. Adam soon saw Starlight cover up her cutie mark and put a fake painted on equals sign on its place.

"She lied to me..." he whispered to himself. He dropped the knife in utter shock, which fell with an audible clang.

Starlight's ears perked up. "Adam?" she turned to see Adam standing at the door. "Oh, about time you showed up."

"Just wanted to say that I apologize for questioning you earlier, you are right and I am wrong." he sighed.

"That's right Adam, I AM always right and always will be." she boasted. "Question me again and there will be severe consequences." she warned.

Adam looked at the mare's rump, at her fake cutie mark. "To show how sorry I am, I want to pleasure you..."

The unicorn's ears perked up. "Oh really human?" she said with disbelief. "About time you stepped up and not let me do all the work." she chuckled.

"Yes ma'am, just lay down on the bed so I can first give you a back massage." he instructed.

"Those fingers must be magical." she gladly got on her bed and lied down on her stomach. "Go ahead human."

The human took one deep breath and began the massage. A loud moan emanated from the mare as he worked his hands along her back. While he massaged, his eyes returned back to the fake cutie mark on her rump. He took one of his hands and rubbed the mark.

"Frisky are we?" Starlight giggled without looking. Adam just nervously laughed as he then saw the mark slightly smudged; it was indeed fake.

"So," he began. "how did you get that mark, I never asked."

"When I was a filly, obviously." Starlight answered nonchalantly. "It symbolizes my talent in helping promote equality." she continued. "I was teased relentlessly for it though."

"I'm so sorry to hear." he looked to see her wooden staff propped up against the corner of the room. A plan formed in his head, but he knew he would regret it for a long time. "I hope this works, for all our sake's."

Starlight was so focused on the massage that she never noticed what Adam was about to do next. He slowly placed a hand around her and slowly brought his other hand down between her hind legs.

A loud whinny emanated across the house.

---

About a hour and a half passed, Twilight sat in her basement cell nervously. She thought she heard some noises from upstairs, but was hard to hear. Suddenly, the cell door opened to reveal Adam himself. He ran up to Twilight and began to remove the collar off of her.

"Adam?" she asked stunned. "What are you doing?"

"Setting things right." was all he said before Twilight's metal collar came off. "We must get your friends and get out of here." he said with desperation. "We have no time to lose!"

"But what about our cutie marks?" she asked. "What about Starlight Glimmer?"

"No time to worry about these things, just get your friends and leave this town!" he pleaded.

"I'm not leaving here with an equals sign etched on my rump Adam!" she exclaimed. "It's my identity!"

"But you don't need that to be the great unicorn that you are, you're still Twilight Sparkle!"

"That's not the point!" she snapped as she stomped her hoof. "It's not about talent or destiny, or anything like that, it's about IDENTITY! It's about UNIQUENESS!" she explained. "Without a cutie mark, we ponies are nothing but an aimless heard of conformity. It's what sets us apart from the other creatures that inhabit Equestria, the mark is what gives us our identity, purpose and role in society. It sets us apart and emphasis why differences are essential in making for a vibrant society." she continued. "Pony society would go into chaos if everypony is an expert on everything, ponies will focus too much on fighting for a certain role than helping improve us."

Adam looked on stunned.

"Cutie Marks came about as a survival mechanism to make us stronger and more cohesive, it only gave us a purpose to survive, but a manual on how each of us can achieve that."

"I...I...never saw it that way..." he mumbled with shame. He was suddenly enveloped into a hug from Twilight, he was stunned at first, but accepted it. "I'm sorry..."

"Let's just focus on saving this town and our friends." Twilight stated as she broke the hug and smiled at the human.

"Let's." he agreed, smiling back. They both ran out of the room and out of the house.

---

Some time later, Starlight was passed out on the bed, her mane was a wild mess as she snored loudly and drooled. She was suddenly startled awake by the sound of the town bell being rung. "THE PRISONERS HAVE ESCAPED!" yelled a random pony from outside.

Starlight groggily got up and looked out her bedroom window. "What's going on out there?" she rubbed her eyes to see, but found a group of tonwsponies gathered in the street with confusion. "And why isn't Adam out there taking care of the situation!" she grunted with frustration. She straightens herself out and walked out of her house with annoyance. "Do I really have to do everything myself?!"

She walked over to the crowd. "What the buck is going on here?"

"The prisoners have escaped." pointed one of the ponies at the prison whose door was busted open. Starlight was stunned at the sight, but rage quickly took hold once she realized what was going on; Adam double-crossed her. Not only double-crossed her, but used the best sex she had with him as a distraction to knock her out and double-cross her. She screamed with pure rage.

"I WILL KILL THAT DIRTY HUMAN!" she yelled at the sky.

But her eyes suddenly caught an unexpected sight; a yellow pegasus flying towards the town. A sinister smile formed across her face once she realized who she was. "But first, I'll fuck with him like he did with me." she snickered at the thought. The element of kindness and Adam's former lover has just arrived. Starlight laughed maniacally.

TO BE CONTINUED...